Just Another Convention

Mitch's first thought as he stepped out of the hotel and into a waiting cab was that the weather in Philadelphia was surprisingly pleasant for July. Back in College Station, it would be in the high 90's by now.

In his third year as a physics professor at Texas A&M University, he really wasn't looking forward to the drudgery of another International Congress of Mathematicians. Scientists like himself weren't known for their people skills, and socialization among the attendees was generally as lively as a bowl of oatmeal. What's more, the lectures they delivered were almost always delivered like the burnt, dry toast that came with it.

Every year, the best and brightest gathered at the Pennsylvania Convention Center to announce their latest breakthroughs, the majority of which amounted to a new result obtained by modifying a few numbers in a complex equation scrawled out on a chalkboard. Ironically, he and the other attendees both understood and appreciated the impact of the changes and knew that they might unlock something that could change the world. In fact, that's why he and so many like him studied physics and the math behind it.

Still, one boring lecture was much like any other, but Mitch owed it to his students to stay awake and give them a full report on his return.

There was an interesting twist this year: the youngest, and first, speaker would be one of his former students, discussing a new upgrade to CERN'S* LHC** later this month, during its shutdown. His math was largely responsible for the unit that would be added to the the current accelerator.

When it came online again in June of 2030, it would be as the HL-LHC***. The High Luminosity unit would increase the number of particle collisions by up to tenfold. Controlling the incredible number of processes that had to be adjusted to accomplish that was dependent on the algorithms of his student, Edgar. That increase meant they'd be producing as much new atomic data in the year that followed as they'd managed to generate during the 18 years it had been online.

It was real, world-changing stuff, and Mitch had to admit, it was a real mental hard-on for a nerd like himself to think one of “his” nerds had helped develop the technology.

He rushed through the obligatory greetings and introductions in the lobby, then ducked through the first opening he saw to the main conference hall and found his assigned seat. The announcement came over the PA system that the first conference was about to begin just as he settled in. He allowed himself a little chuckle as chaos ensued. The first-time attendees had tarried to long in the lobby and were now tripping over each other as they tried to claim the seats they, or their schools, had paid good money for.

Finally, the din lessened in intensity, and the MC for the day stepped up to the mic. After a short welcome speech, he introduced Mr. Edgar Reynolds. Mitch's student entered from stage right, accompanied by an impressive round of applause. The MC shook his hand warmly and surrendered the podium.

Edgar was visibly shaking as he approached the podium. His eyes found his professor in the audience and Mitch immediately saw the fear and panic in his eyes. Edgar stammered out, “I'm s-so s-sorry, professor.”

As Mitch stood and started to respond to his distraught student, Edgar's gaze shifted back and forth across the crowd, and he "blinked" rapidly in an out of existence for several seconds, then seemed to stabilize.

“It turns out, all those conspiracy theorists were right! I'm speaking to you now from the year 2030. It's taking a tremendous amount of energy to maintain this connection, but thanks to the upgrade we installed, there's more than enough. Unfortunately, it almost immediately overpowered the containment field, and the reaction is cascading and it has fractured both time and dimensional space.

“We can't stop it.'”

His voice broke and his speech was now racked with sobs.

“The effects are expanding in both directions temporally. F-future and past. We don't know if it affects everything universally. All we know is, in our current here and now, the power source we devised for the accelerators are no longer driving the reactions. The HL-LHC has effectively burnt itself out, but the effects have not slowed. It appears to be drawing energy directly from the cosmos.

“Please understand; we don't know exactly how much damage has been done. If you believe in a higher power, now would be a good time to pray. We pray you'll be able to forgive us.”

He was gone, as if someone had flipped a switch. Mitch thought he felt a slight tremor in the floor. As it increased, there were confused screams - then silence - and darkness.

...

*CERN: Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (fr) Originally The European Council for Nuclear Research. Now known as The European Organization for Nuclear Research. The organization that operates the LHC

**LHC: Large Hadron Collider: A 16.6 mile long, circular particle accelerator designed to cause atoms to collide, so the resulting particles can be sampled and studied. It's housed and controlled underground, spanning the border between France and Switzerland.

***HL-LHC: High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider: The name given the LHC following the installation of a new section with tightly compressed beams that will increase particle the number of collisions tenfold. This will result in tens of millions of particles per second. This upgrade is currently scheduled to go online in June of 2030, after a 4-year shutdown of the LHC to prepare. That shutdown is scheduled for June 29, 2016, aka today!

Fun fact #1: The LHC experiments led to the discovery of the Higgs Boson Particle, aka "God Particle" that gives mass to matter as it interacts with other particles.

Fun fact #2 The Internet was invented at the LHC facility, as a means of communication between CERN team members in 1969.

Thanks for reading!