Incident Epsilon

[Caiaphas]

This is the first installment of what I hope shall be a long and continuing chronicle of events from and up to the incident.

[1605] +6 days from Incident Epsilon
Incident Location: CERN
Incident classified 10642 Omega-Tetra
Interviewee: Dr. Horace Jordan Blackburn
Individuals Involved: Dr. Horace Jordan Blackburn, Dr. Sophie Hawthorne, Dr. Christopher John Chen, Dr. Nathaniel Blake Goodman

transcript follows

Q: Please give your name, first and last.
A: I-I’m Horace Blackburn. Who are you people?
Q: That is none of your concern. What was your position at CERN?
A: I-I was heading research there. W-Why?
Q: That is none of your concern. Please state what you were doing shortly before the Incident.
A: Well—we had just fixed the LHC again, so we were running a few tests on it. We wanted to restart operations by that afternoon, so we were all rushing a little bit trying to finish diagnostics. Th-then Dr. Hawthorne’s computer began feeding her junk data before it shut down. Then mine went out, then Dr. Chen’s, and everyone’s just went blank. [subject begins to shudder uncontrollably]
Q: Please continue, doctor.
A: Whe-when our computers went down, Dr. Goodman decided to go down to check if something had gone wrong with the power again, when all of the computers booted up again. The diagnostics weren’t up, though—we were getting something odd. [subject becomes visibly agitated]
Q: Odd as in what?
A: Odd as-as in impossible.
Q: Impossible how?
A: Impossible. It was impossible. It-it shouldn’t have existed. [subject becomes hysterical]
Q: Impossible how, doctor?
A: The data was scrolling across our screens and it was impossible, all of it was impossible all of it!
Q: How?
A: We hadn’t gotten finished with the diagnostics the LHC shouldn’t have been running it should have been shut down oh dear god what have I oh done dear god.
Q: Calm down, doctor, and elaborate.
A: [subject calms slowly] It—the, the data—it was wrong. We were getting reports of superheating from all around the facility, but other sensors were reporting temperatures of nearly zero Kelvin. That wasn’t the worst of it.
Q: What was the worst?
A: [subject becomes angry] You people took everything! You tell me! I don’t know what the hell we were getting! I don’t! All I know is, it was impossible for all of that! [subject suddenly calms and shudders]
Q: What was impossible, doctor? Please tell me.
A: The sensors were reading periodic pulses of energy, one every second, that were reaching one point one seven billion terajoules each and every time. And every time after a pulse was done, there was a chill in the air, like the heat was being sucked out of the air.
Q: Very good, doctor. What happened next?
A: After we began to get the readings, Dr. Chen went to go check on Dr. Goodman, just to make sure that he was alright. Before he had halfway turned the doorknob, that interval between the pulses hit again and froze his hand to the metal. We had to rip the skin from it to get him free.
Q: And next?
A: [subject begins to tremble, but continues to speak calmly] Five minutes or so after the anomaly began, everything cut out again. Heating, lighting, everything. We managed to get out before the helium reserves burst, but there was it on the surface.
Q: There was what, doctor?
A: You know. You know damn well! [subject becomes agitated] You know what the hell it is, damn you! What is it? What is it? What is it, damn you? [subject abruptly stands]
Q: Sit down, doctor, or I will be forced to pacify you. I said sit. Down.
A: [subject sits and calms] What was it?
Q: I don’t know. You’ll have to tell me what you saw, doctor.
A: It was the brightest thing I had ever seen, and thought I saw earth scorched into black glass underneath it. But at the same time it looked so dark that all light that fell upon the world was drawn into it. And it hurt the eye to look at it—not from the brightness. I could have looked at the sun through near that thing and it wouldn’t have so much as tickled my retinas. No—it just felt wrong.
Q: Felt wrong how?
A: It-it just felt wrong. [subject begins to sob] Please, please don’t ask me any more about it! Please!
Q: Alright. Thank you.

recording terminated. subject placed into care.

[Simon_Jester]

LHC mishap... this could be a good story, if it's treated the way superhero origin stories are (no particular obligation to be scientifically correct).

Q: What was impossible, doctor? Please tell me.
A: The sensors were reading periodic pulses of energy, one every second, that were reaching one point one seven billion terajoules each and every time. And every time after a pulse was done, there was a chill in the air, like the heat was being sucked out of the air.

You do realize that that would be a nuclear fireball big enough to wipe Switzerland off the map with each pulse, right?

[Kuroji]

Perhaps that's part of why it was impossible. He realizes the implications of the sensors registering that reading but they weren't erased from existence in a giant fireball.

[Caiaphas]

Perhaps that's part of why it was impossible. He realizes the implications of the sensors registering that reading but they weren't erased from existence in a giant fireball.

Right in one.

You do realize that that would be a nuclear fireball big enough to wipe Switzerland off the map with each pulse, right?

Really? Awesome.

[Simon_Jester]

One kiloton = 4.2 terajoules. You do the rest of the math.

[Caiaphas]

On a side note, the story has been moved here.

Null and void as of 4.29.2010.

[Caiaphas]

One kiloton = 4.2 terajoules. You do the rest of the math.

So... 1.17e9 TJ would be roughly equal to 4.05e8 kilotons, otherwise known as around 405 gigatons. Um... wow. I get the feeling that an explosion of that magnitude wouldn't just wipe the Swiss off the map: it'd melt the Alps.

On a side note, the story has been moved here.

[Caiaphas]

Second chapter's up. Click on the link above to check it out.

On another note, who wants me to bring it back to this site, and who wants me to keep this story over on fictionpress.com?

[Caiaphas]

[0451] +8 days from Incident Epsilon
Incident Location: St. Peter’s Square, Vatican
Incident classified 10572 Omega-Tetra
Interviewee: Father Francis Ortega
Individuals Involved: see Document 10572-A

transcript follows

Q: Hello. Could you please state your name for the record?
A: I am Francis Ortega. May I ask what this is all about, my son?
Q: I’m afraid that I am not at liberty to say, Father. What were you doing at the Vatican?
A: Why, I was there to hear the Holy Father speak, of course. Everyone was there to hear him speak.
Q: Alright. Could you please tell me about what happened?
A: Of course, my son. I had journeyed to Rome with the intention of listening to the Pope speak on the recent surge in stem cell research. Do you condone or condemn such acts, my son?
Q: I really don’t hold an opinion on that particular controversy, Father. Please continue.
A: Very well. We were all gathered in the Square, when the Holy Father came outside. Of course we all cheered, so it took quite a while to calm the crowd. His Holiness began prayer when I first witnessed something—there was a, a halo of light about his head. I wasn’t the only one: I heard another man cry out, “Lo, the Holy Father! He has the Lord’s blessing!” Others around the man took up the cry. Soon, everyone in the square who was not staring with awe or weeping with joy was shouting, “The Holy Father!” or “The Lord! The Lord has shown his hand!” [subject pauses and looks pensive]
Q: And then, Father?
A: [subject remains silent for several seconds]
Q: Father?
A: When his Holiness looked up, his eyes were glistening with tears. I could see them even from where I stood. He was not looking at us below him; he was staring off into the distance.
Q: At what?
A: [subject appears amused] Patience is a virtue, my son. You wished to hear the story; you shall hear it in its entirety.
Q: I suppose. Please continue, Father.
A: I could make out his lips moving, very faintly. He was saying something, over and over again.
Q: We managed to, ah, obtain some film that a tourist shot of the Holy Father at about the time you speak of. Apparently he was saying, “Lord, it is beautiful,” repeatedly.
A: That seems to make sense. Especially with what we all saw when we turned in the direction his Holiness was staring.
Q: What did you see?
A: Are you afraid, my son?
Q: What? Afraid of what?
A: Are you afraid?
Q: That’s beside the point. What did you see, Father? Please tell me.
A: [subject begins to chuckle] My son, my question is very certainly not beside the point, as you put it. It is the entire point. The entire point.
Q: I don’t quite see how, Father.
A: Please, just answer me. Just humor an old man, my son.
Q: Fine. Afraid of what?
A: Oh, you need not be afraid, my son.
Q: [agent grows visibly irritated] Afraid of what, Father?
A: Of the Lord’s majesty, my son. Of His beauty and His power. Tell me, my son, are you a practicing Catholic?
Q: No I am not. But what does that have to do with anything?
A: My son, it is not too late to join your brothers and sisters. For though the Lord has come, the End has not. Please. For your sake, join me.
Q: Look, I’m not afraid of anything you can throw at me. Please, just tell me, what did you see?
A: My son, you need not be afraid. Please don’t try and fool me. I may be just an old man, but I can see your heart as clearly as I saw the Lord that day. You are afraid. You still don’t know what it was that appeared in the Square that day, and that is why you fear. Don’t be afraid of the love of the Lord.
Q: [agent is visibly restraining self] What. Happened?
A: [subject chuckles] Oh, we all felt that blast of heat, and then that chill that froze the bones. We all felt it again and again, for the power of the Lord has that effect on us small, imperfect beings. We all turned, and we all were afraid until we laid eyes upon it.
Q: Upon what?
A: Oh, my son. The eye of God, of course.

recording terminated. subject placed into care.

addendum: subject expired 7.21.2011