As the Light Dies (5 page)

The group were still silent; they all stared at the monitor, concentrating.

After both ends had completed five loops they came together joining at the bottom and as they met three small white rectangles appeared on screen encasing the coil on the top middle and bottom loops of the coil. After the bottom rectangle appeared multiple red dots started appearing up and down the coil and grew in size until they looked like little red doughnuts encircling the cylindrical blue coil. Before the red doughnuts finished growing another form began to take shape starting from inside the base of the coil. A light grey square popped in to view near the white rectangle on the bottom loop and started growing upwards forming a tower that ran up through the centre of the middle and top rectangles.

Each new extension to appear had a new colour adding to the three dimensional perception of depth. As the grey tower reached the top it levelled out and morphed in to what looked like a large grey box that in turn sprouted three branches that ran away from it in different directions. One chunky thick one ran straight up again before turning at a right angle and heading off again looking like an upside down capitol L. The other two were smaller and twig like; they ran off sloping upwards at a steady incline in opposite directions. All three ended abruptly in mid air.

When all the extensions stopped growing the whole image turned around completing a full rotation. As the image came back around the husky female voice came back
.“
This is a three dimensional image of Project Tree Cycle in its entirety. These sections are entry and exit ways
.
”

At that moment lime green arrows appeared on the screen pointing at the last three sections to be formed, the two small sloping grey lines and the thick capital L! After blinking a few times two of the green arrows disappeared leaving one pointing at the capital L
.“
This is the loading and dispatch tunnel
,”
said the voice setting off a few murmurs amongst the group. More green arrows appeared and started running along the inside of the loading tunnel downwards in to the large grey box above the coil
.“
This is the upper level loading and dispatch dock where all goods are inspected and catalogued weather entering or leaving Project Tree Cycle. The conference room is also located here
.”
A small blue dot appeared on screen in the corner of the large rectangle to indicate the conference room. More murmurs rose from the group.

“
It is from here that access is made downwards in to the heart of the facility
.
”

The little green arrows started to continuously run down through the grey tower towards the base
.“
There are two personnel aces lifts and one large goods platform providing aces to the deeper parts of the facility six hundred and nine metres below sea level
.”
More murmurs!

“
Directly at the base of the shaft we have the lower level dock
.”
The area was pointed at on screen by the eager lime green arrows
.“
Within the dock are housed are maintenance, engineering and storage rooms and our number three detector
.
”

The numbers one, two and three appeared in black inside the white rectangles that encased the blue cylindrical coil on the top, middle and bottom loops.

“Detectors,”
said someone.

“
And detectin
g
WHAT?”
barked the Defence Minister looking at Lars.

Lars smiled keeping his composure and simply gestured towards the screen.

The image on the screen started to grow, zooming in. As the design grew more little details became visible, divisions between rooms, the two personnel lift shafts and walkways all came in to view until suddenly most of the image disappeared leaving just the blue coil encased by the little red doughnuts and the three white rectangles the
y’
d just been told were detectors.

“
The blue cylindrical coil
,”
continued the husky narrator
,“
is a super conducting super collider of subatomic particles similar to the LHC, Cer
n’
s Large Hadron Collider that runs beneath Switzerland and France. Project Tree Cycle works in much the same way by using very powerful magnets that switch on and off in a fraction of a second pushing the particles around and down the accelerator until they reach the desired speed aided by the additional help of gravity and the mini super boosters that encircle the collider detailed in red and then they are directed on to a collision course within the confines of the number three detector at the base of the system
.”
The red doughnuts flashed on and off on screen along with the bottom rectangle.

“
Both groups of particles run in opposite directions down the coil and being in separate tubes we can concentrate solely on either group of particles bringing them towards their collision.

The coil formation allows for a longer path that in turn lets us accelerate the subatomic particles to incredible speeds. Along with this, the size of the coil allows us to move more particles at any one time, than anyone else has ever been able to do. And so far w
e’
ve recorded a record breaking impact speed of four hundred and seventy thousand miles per minute
.
”

Eyebrows raised and a wave of gasps moved through the group followed by more murmurs and a few shocked comments
.
“Impossible!”
cried someone.

Lars said nothing. He let the narrator give them the facts.

The narrator continued
,“
Tha
t’
s an astonishing impact speed, ninety seven thousand four hundred and thirty six miles per minute faster than if the particles were travelling at the speed of light, and sixty thousand miles per minute faster than the recently revised LHC!

Each circumference of the coil is three times the size of the LHC, being eighty one kilometres or fifty miles around
!
”

More gasps sounded from the group.

“
Both sides of the coil complete five loops bringing the total distance of the coil to eight hundred and ten kilometres or five hundred miles
.
”

“Holy shit!”
said someone
.
“My God!”
said another and someone else whistled as astonished murmurs passed through the group.

The image zoomed in again concentrating on the cylindrical coil and started showing an animated view with a group of bubbles posing as subatomic particles racing off in opposite directions down the coil. Everyone watched as the bubble particles whizzed round and round as if they were riding a giant helter-skelter until at the bottom they came together and erupted in a ball of white light!

The sequence replayed with everyone watching carefully until it finished again, and then it played over again on repeat.

Lars muted the sound but left the animation playing behind him as the little bubbles screamed down towards their unavoidable collision over and over again.

“
And yo
u’
ve done this, I mea
n
actuall
y
done this, seen it happen, really carried out the collision with this set up
?”
asked John Golding, Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, speaking for the first time.

“
I
t’
s a
n
amazin
g
feat if they have
,”
added Ryan Phillips.

“
Sure have
,”
said Lars smiling
,“
You heard the video correctly
.
”

“Amazin
g
,”
said the Norwegian Prime Minister.

Sven joined in and said
,“
Yes, w
e’
ve recorded a maximum impact speed of four hundred and seventy thousand miles per hour
,”
he said beaming.

“Certainly beats digging a big hole to fill with waste!”
said David Smith the particle physics, with a look of childhood wonder on his face.

“
Hold on, hold on
!
W
e
do
n’
t even know what i
t’
s all for yet
!”
quipped the Swedish Prime Minister
.“
I
t’
s all very well, but we already have a particle accelerator as already stated and we all know just how expensive they are to run, and tha
t’
s at far lesser speeds, and far less distance. What can this one do that th
e
origina
l
ca
n’
t, even with this new coil design
?
”

“
Let me show you
,”
said Lars
,“
please follow me
.
”

Lars turned and led everyone through the baffle board maze to the glass door between the large viewing windows that lead in to another room. He keyed in another pin while his finger print and retina were verified again then they entered the next room.

They had to descend more stairs and found themselves surrounded by humming machinery with banks of dials and switches. Cables and pipes ran along the ceiling overhead. There were people hunched over a control panel over to one side typing on a keyboard.

Everyone followed Lars along a designated footpath as it weaved through the machinery until Lars brought them all to a stop beside a tall steel cabinet. Lars entered yet another pin number on a little key pad and opened it and brought out what looked like an oversized electrical fuse roughly twelve inches long and the thickness of a Pepsi can with black end caps.

The middle was roughly six inches from end to end and was clear like glass and it seemed to almost glow white in the middle.

Murmurs spread across the group again as Lars handed it to Jade Anderson telling her to take a look and pass it on. Jade studied the canister for a moment noting how heavy it was and noticing how there seemed to be a tiny black sphere floating in the middle, nestled in the centre of the glowing light! Jade pointed out the little sphere to those immediately around her and gave it a little shake....nothing happened, she passed it along
.“
So what is it then
?’
she asked.

“
Yo
u’
ll find out in a minut
e”
, said Lars grinning and eventually the canister came full circle back to him skipping the Defence Minister as he refused to handle it and when Lars took hold of it again he said
,“
That had better not be a dangerous substance that the
y’
ve all just handled
!
”

Lars did
n’
t engage with him, instead he spoke to the group ignoring him
.“
All of you have just held the future of our planet in your hands, the saviour of planet earth!

Pursed lips and frowned eyebrows faced him.

Lars held the canister above his head for all to see
.“
This ladies and gentlemen is anti matter and it will cater for all and every one of our energy needs however great and demanding they may be, from powering your mobile phone chargers to powerin
g
entir
e
continents if you want it to, and it will do so with ease and with absolutely no by-products at all, no useless or potentially harmful substance left over! That tiny little globule you just held in your hands, that little spec would emit enough power to run Oslo at its maximum power usage through an extreme winter for more than six months, and with the amount that we can safely and easily produce here i
t’
s more or less an inexhaustible energy source that w
e’
ve managed to harness
.
”

“How?”
blurted particle physicist David Smith before anyone else even opened there mouths.

“
We simply smash particles together like you yourself have done at Cern
,”
said Lars
.“
We know that Cern have created antimatter whilst trying to recreate the big bang on a tiny scale with their LHC, so we knew that we needed to build a particle accelerator on at least the same scale if no
t
bigge
r
if we wanted to create our own antimatter, and after hundreds of thousands of computer simulations and readily available information from Cern we knew it needed to be bigger. It had to be, to enable us to run at greater speeds allowing us to create workable quantities of antimatter every single cycle, plus w
e’
ve found that the faster the collision speed the purer the quality of the antimatter so i
t’
s a win, win situation! After many, many, many more computer simulations and mini models constructed and put through their paces we came to the conclusion that the coil design was the most economical design
.
”