Prime Defence.
'Prime Defence' takes place a couple of months after the events of 'Solaris', and should be quite a bit longer. For the record, I am playing fast and loose with Bayverse and G1 – the two Transformers universes I am most familiar with, in an effort to delve deeper into things like the Cybertronian religion and experience of the Universe. There will be romance, resurrections, reunitings and, I hope, much enjoyment for everyone that reads this story.
And of course the obligatory disclaimer: I own nothing more than Solaris, any other OC's and the mind bending version of reality I am inflicting on those poor 'Bots.
"Do you think it's going to do anything this time?"
The question came from Dr. Karsen's assistant and was asked in a tone that was a combination of wistful hope and boredom. Dr. Karsen did not bother looking at his assistant, merely continued to check readings and connections as he replied; "We can hope so."
"And hope that exploding the world is not one of the 'anythings' that could happen."
Giving vent to an exasperated sigh Dr. Karsen straightened and glared with mild irritation at his assistant. "Brinna, we have been over this before. There is no possibility of exploding the world using the Collider. Now please, refrain from mentioning it again!"
"Yes doctor."
The mousy woman's meek comment soothed the scientist's irritation and he reminded himself she was still very young. Young enough to be excited about any result, no matter how catastrophic it may have been. For himself Dr. Karsen would have been happy with nothing happening on this particular experiment, as he was not at all convinced it was a good idea to be messing with such forces so soon after the events in Chicago and the appearance of the mysterious glittering metal world in the skies. Cosmic forces were such a fickle thing and he was old enough to want to be cautious. Unfortunately those who funded their research were not so inclined and wanted something to show for their dollar, thus they were firing up the Treaty Collider for the first time to see what would happen. Larger again than the Large Hadron Collider and theoretically far more powerful Dr. Karsen was not the only one a little wary of what would happen once they flicked the switch for the first time. As a consequence he was taking more care with the set up than he normally would.
Half an hour later and they were ready to turn the machine on. Power feeds had been checked and rechecked, computer programs were running smoothly and there were no foreseen issues to worry about. Brinna had regained her enthusiasm and Dr. Karsen along with other staff were feeling confident that they were looking at an uneventful activation.
This just goes to prove that the Universe has more than enough practical jokes to play on scientists.
Almost from the first rising hum everyone knew that something was slightly off, not right. There was no indication that they should worry, just an unusual building whine that spoke of something not put together properly. When it rose in pitch to beyond human hearing range and several glass fixtures started cracking there was some concern, but no outright panic. The sub harmonic hum that started up behind the higher sound and vibrated the whole installation was the only warning they got before a sudden inexplicable surge in power that blew fuses, computers, and all the lighting in the building. The sound from the collider rose to an unholy shriek, and then abruptly died. Literally. There was a rattling crash that told everyone there that quite a few things had fallen off.
"Oh. My. God."
Brinna's quiet exclamation brought Dr. Karsen to her side and he found she was staring at a piece of equipment that was designed to measure energy output. It was designed to measure such forces like large atomic weapons and volcanic eruptions and it was one of the more robust items they had in the installation, yet it had maxed out and broken. Dr. Karsen looked around the large room, noting the perplexed faces in the dim emergency lighting, some already looking like they were planning on fixing what went wrong and trying again. None appeared aware that there had been enough power generated in those brief moments to erase a small island nation from existence. Energy that had escaped containment, yet somehow done so without turning all of those there into primordial ooze in the process. Brinna had followed the man's thoughts closely and she quietly voiced the very question he was thinking.
"Where did it all go?"
Elsewhere in the world the air rippled and lit with cold light, and out of the strange flickering of the air came other lights, some bright and some barely visible. They clustered together, moving almost like a swarm with a single mind, darting to and fro as though seeking something, then moving away as the rippling light faded and went out. These smaller lights moved on then, slowly at first and then picking up speed. In the distance a campfire glowed faintly between the trees and this seemed to be the focus of these strange lights. In that place it was high and remote, the air thin and cold. Very few people went this way other than die-hard hikers and hunters and then there were precious few of them. The camp fire was the only source of light aside from the moon sailing high overhead.
Days later a National Park Ranger called in to the local police while standing beside a cold and dead campfire. The campfire was not the only thing cold and dead there; the charred remains of a human male lay beside the carefully constructed fireplace. The Ranger quit days later. The indigenous people of the region had a lot of legends and some dealt with figures of shadow that sucked the life and soul right out of lone travellers out in the bush at night. The Ranger decided he was not going to mock those legends any more, and he was moving to the city for a safer life. At least in the city you only had to deal with smog, muggings, assaults and the like. It was far safer than the supernatural threats that stalked the high country.
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