OOO
The first hour went by quickly when Michael related how he came into the employment of United Systems Verse in Cricolithis. Dr. Weber offered an ooh or ah every two minutes while staring at Michael over his bifocals.
"I always wondered if traveling through a time-space continuum could be done, but now I know. Ah, the possibilities. If only I were twenty again."
Michael gave a little snort. He remembered when he was twenty. His life had plateaued, and it never picked up from there.
"Time for a mid-process assessment." Michael declared with a soft sigh. He reopened the new Antimatter System window on his tablet to monitor the progress and his brows instantly furrowed.
[Antimatter System
System source: Antimatter, CERN, Geneva, Earth, 2021
System location: Anti universe
System energy consumption: 25 hundred billion kilowatt-hour
System access:
Antiproton Decelarator, CERN, Geneva, Earth 2021
United Systems Verse
OOO
System Engineer – in charge: Mikael De Besches/Michael Best, Level II Systems Engineer]
"I believe you want to show me something." Dr. Weber noticed Michael's wrinkled forehead.
Michael nodded. "There is a third entity that I do not think should be there."
Michael handed over the tablet to Dr. Weber, who read aloud the entire screen.
"The energy consumption follows the prediction of the model. It must be a moderately sized antimatter black hole already, if not a massive one yet. It may even finish well before the two hours are up. Once we have the final object, we will need to create a channel to teleport the antimatter black hole from its system to the present day universe. Do you think your United Systems Verse can do that?" Dr. Weber looked at Michael with curiosity, to which Michael remained silent, only raising his brows. Dr. Weber gave a start of realization. "Ah, the third entity you mentioned. Let me check." His eyes scanned the details on the tablet screen once more and paused near the bottom.
"O-O-O," Dr. Weber read the letters aloud as he mulled over them.
"Nothing I know of is called O-O-O." Michael stated definitively.
Suddenly, there was a rattle on the door on the upper level causing the two to look up.
"Is everything okay, down there?" Sergeant Hover shouted from the outside.
"Everything is okay, Hover." Dr. Weber hollered back.
"You two have been down there for quite some time, you know."
The young man and the older man exchanged a glance. Michael answered this time, "We are all good, seargeant. The test demonstration is taking some time, that is all."
"Friends, can you open the door?" The sergeant was not satisfied with the answer. "I will need to come in and see if everything is all right."
Dr. Weber threw his hands in the air and started to walk to the industrial elevator, but Michael stopped him with a warning look.
"Sergeant Hover, please give us fifteen more minutes," Michael spoke up.
There was a pregnant silence for several moments. Then all of a sudden, something banged against the door loudly that made both men jump.
Dr. Weber cursed under his breath. Michael immediately grabbed the tablet from him and then tapped on the screen, while the banging on the door got more urgent.
"BACK UP," Michael screamed at his tablet, "I NEED BACK UP!"
Dr. Weber was mumbling desperate prayers as multiple loud footsteps rushed into the room.
"GET TO THE LOWER LEVEL! IT IS IN THE LOWER LEVEL!" They heard Sergent Hover shout orders to the intruders.
Michael's heart was pounding. He remembered the touch of the steel against his forehead.
"They must be here for the decelerator! How on earth…." Dr. Weber exclaimed in a hushed breath.
A group of men in tactical suit descended upon the two, some dashing down the stairs, others directly leaping from the upper level. The sight of twenty odd men in full gear of military clothes, body armor, helmet, eye wear, and assault webbing caused the doctor to put both his hands up in the air.
"Oh god," the good doctor cried out, "please pardon me. I did not know this man before tonight, I swear upon my god."
"You did not know him?" Sergeant Hover's voice drifted in before the man himself appeared before them. Unlike the others who were wearing dull green, his suit was in all black, something that he must have put on after Michael last saw him.
"What is all this?" Michael tried to divert attention as he frantically waited for some help, any help from the USV. "This is just a benign experiment. Why are you all here?"
Sergeant Hover scoffed loudly. "I would not call the creation of an Antimatter Supermassive Black Hole a benign experiment. You think I would not know what a sneaky little American is up to in the middle of the night in Geneva?" Sergeant Hover waved his fingers, and all the M4 carbines pointed at the two men. The physicist instinctively moved behind Michael.
"How long have you know about this?" Michael's eyes swiftly stole a look at the muted tablet.
The sergeant ignored his question but followed his eyes. He marched forward and snatched the tablet from Michael's hand.
"Ah, so THIS is USV that I have heard so much about." The sergeant's dark eyes became darker as he studied the tablet. Michael bristled at those words. That was when he saw it clearly, branded on the left arm of the sergeant's uniform, three circles in bright orange, inside a larger circle.
"What is O-O-O?"
The sergeant jerked his head up, giving Michael a chilling look. Michael secretly wished now that the sergeant had a helmet on just like his minions there.
"That is a question you should ask your superior, the one who sent you here." Sgt. Hover tossed away the tablet that fortunately landed on the control panel desk without any damage.