H Trope: Halloween!
Current Event: http://physicsbuzz.physicscentral.com/2013/01/ghost-images-in-3d.html
(Interesting sidebar: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/10/27/marines-police-prep-for-mock-zombie-invasion/)
Snow-dusted, dark
alpine slopes reminded Nazar Ionescu of a tidal wave frozen solid an instant
before capsizing a crowded luxury liner on the North Atlantic. The TITANIC,
perhaps. He said, “This is not going to end well.”
Giorgia Lukić shook
her head and said, “Sad sack.”
Nazar looked over at her, frowning. “What does that mean?”
“Nineteen
forty-three, World War Two, an old comic book character whose name was a
euphemism for a much more vulgar term. But you’re someone whose very presence
lowers the tone in the room – a sort of the human equivalent of Eeyore from
Winnie the Pooh.”
“I am not!”
She swept an arm
to include then entire four hundred kilometer long range of mountains. “They’re
moody this morning. Yesterday morning, they were divine. How can a conference
in the Alps...”
“These are not
THE Alps. They are Alps – and do you know it’s a Latin word that means a place
in the mountains where cows eat?”
“It does not!”
she exclaimed pushing him away from her. “It can’t. It’s got to be more
romantic than that!”
He shrugged. “I
was born not far from here and shipped out about ten hours after when the
Soviet Union shattered. This is not a romantic place.”
Giorgia took a
deep breath, exhaled then said, “All right. It’s November and miserable. But we’re
not here for romance, are we?” She fixed him with a long look. He blushed and
turned away. “We’re here for an experiment that has the potential to change the
face of physics…”
“Or open a
gateway to another realm,” he said. She shot him a quelling look. They’d had the
conversation before. Many times. With many people. He was well-known for his
beliefs. Some had even named him ‘Marburger’ – as well as a having a fast food
named after him at a nearby restaurant – after the early 21st
Century report1 that nudged a
controversy just before the first activation of the Large Hadron Collider.
“You cannot be
really serious, Nazar. Really?”
He stared up
into the mountains for a long time before saying, “Science is full of
unexpected developments, Giorgia. No one working at Bell Labs in 1958 could
have predicted that their device would be used to play movies in people’s home.
Certainly no one watching Enewetak would have predicted the Bussard probe on
its way to Alpha Centauri. No one...”
“I get it. We
test a new application of a scientific law and don’t necessarily know exactly
what will happen.”
“I’m not talking
about the purely physical results. There is another dimension, something beyond
what we...”
She held her
palm out to him and turning around, headed back to the lab where a team of
nearly a hundred scientists from all over the world had gathered at the foot of
the iron-rich mountain range to create a microscopic wormhole that would take power
generation to the next level.
“Giorgia! Wait
for me!” She stopped but didn’t turn around. When he caught up with her, he
said breathlessly, “If nothing happens with the first power up, you’ll never
hear another word from me.”
The sunlight
faded as clouds drifted over the Transylvanian Alps. Giorgia shivered as she
nodded. “Make sure of it.” Still without turning around, she headed for the
lab.
Padding
footsteps made by his rubber-soled, signature blaze orange Converse All-Star high
top tennis shoes followed after her. She said, “They should be powering up
right around now.”
Under their
feet, the ground trembled. Giorgia squeaked in surprise and Nazar grabbed her
elbow to steady her. She was looking directly at the lab, slightly upward so
that she could see the archaic crenellations of the roof. Something appeared
over the building. Immense, winged, it appeared to be hovering over the lab and
for the briefest instant seemed to coalesce into an apparition that she could
only call a ghost dragon...
Names: ♀
Italian, Serbian; ♂ Ukraine, Romania
Reference: 1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_of_high_energy_particle_collision_experimentsImage: http://www.freewebs.com/trinityeternity/dragons01t.jpg
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