Interversal

4

When the camera was off, Alex sighed a breath of relief. Lori and Amy silently cheered her on from beside Jake, who never stopped filming. He did, however, give a quick thumbs up.

A long row of TV reporters all finished what they were saying and stepped out of camera shot so their operators could focus on the sharp featured woman with olive skin and curly brown hair now standing at the podium. She wore a dress of deep red fabric that looked both professional and powerful. She stepped in front of the big screens as the room fell quiet.

Alex recognized Dr. Fabiola Gianotti as soon as she saw her. The physicist was in her early sixties, by now a legend in the field, who exuded intelligence and focus and was heralded as one of the most adept experimentalists in the world. Though she'd never admit so aloud, Alex was nothing short of inspired by the dedicated expert.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," said Dr. Gianotti, the din de-crescendoing to total silence. "Allow me to welcome you to building 874, also known as the CERN Control Center, home of the ATLAS project. Very shortly we will undertake the highest energy particle collision in human history, advancing our knowledge of the universe to yet unknown new depths."

The room, which had been full of nervous excitement to begin with, offered a cautiously optimistic applause the was peppered with a few overzealous whistles. When it subsided 30 seconds later, a smiling Dr. Gianotti continued with a few more remarks, thanking the countless individuals, educational and commercial partners and the cooperating governments that had contributed to the experiment in one way or another.

"And now, back to the matter at hand," she said as another round of applause subsided. "The ATLAS team has been working for more than a few years preparing for today. Our systems are prepared, and we have run our final checks. Once the sequence begins it will only be a few minutes before data comes back to us here in the control room. You'll see the results as we get them on these monitors behind me."

Dr. Gianotti paused momentarily, like she was bracing for something.

"Now," she went on, "I cannot stress this enough..."

Light-hearted taunts and jeers came from the ATLAS crew before her. They all knew what she was about to say, and were ready for it.

Smiling, Dr. Gianotti continued, raising her voice to speak over her jubilant colleagues.

"Even though we can thank the talented systems integration team for writing software that will treat us to an early assessment of the results, it will take at least two weeks to confirm..."

The crowd drowned her out before she could finish, cheering and yelling. To the unfamiliar observer, it seemed like they were overconfident, expecting that their experiment would succeed before it even began.

But that wasn't the reason for their happiness. It was the mere fact that it was taking place at all that got the group of scientists riled up. A fusion reactor powered supercollider was something from a dream, enough power to probe the unimaginable small theoretical distance for today's test, ten to negative thirty-third centimeters.

.0000000000000000000000000000001cm

Dr. Gianotti walked from the podium to the right of the big screens where a small group of people awaited her. Alex watched as a lanky, blonde haired man stepped away from them and said something into his headset.

Presently a calm focus beset the throngs of technicians, each sitting or standing at his or her workstation. At at once a few of the scientists started working, fingers clacking away, while their peers anxiously waited. As Amy watched them begin the process of starting up the LHC, she heard a voice from behind her say her name.