Orion Crest, Series_1

Chapter 71: Unexpected discoveries

　　After the meeting, the Hadron Collider experiment entered the final stage of preparation.

　　Not only the physicists of CERN, but also the French and Swiss special forces, who had been stationed in the nearby town since an unknown time, were intensely involved in the preparation of the experiment.

　　Soldiers temporarily stationed at the entrance of the town would check almost every car entering the town.

　　As for the several entry and exit points of the Hadron Collider Tunnel, they had been temporarily blocked off by the checkpoints set up, and no unrelated people were allowed to enter, and those who tried to approach would be immediately persuaded to leave.

　　About a week passed in this way, and soon it was the day of the experiment's restart.

　　Joannes borrowed a car and took Orion to the site located in the Gex region of Ain, France, which is also known as the "North Zone" in the words of CERN staff.

　　It is worth mentioning that in fact, the whole experiment does not need to go in and out of the Hadron Collider, a few professional staff to do a lift down to check the pit, to confirm that there is no abnormality and then report the situation. The experiment was initiated at the CERN headquarters dozens of kilometres away, and the researchers stationed at the site collected the data, which could be seen by people sitting dozens of kilometres away.

　　However, according to Joannes, it would be a pity not to go to the site to see what kind of work they were doing. Having borrowed a car as well, Orion agreed to his proposal to go for a walk.

　　As they approached the North Sector, they were confronted by soldiers who were questioning them, but after showing their IDs, they were quickly let through.

　　Sitting in the car, Orion looked back at the checkpoint behind him and casually asked, "Are they here to protect the Hadron Collider?"

　　As Joannes drove, he said, "The collider needs protection? Well, it might seem that way to an outsider, but it's not really the collider they're protecting, but the citizens of both countries."

　　"...... What?"

　　Holding on to the steering wheel, Joannes shrugged, "Every year there are people who say that the black holes created by the Hadron Collider could destroy all of Europe, and every year there are protests when the Hadron Collider experiment is restarted. This year it was probably over in Paris and then France sent a troop over to say that they could control the situation while everything went wrong ...... As much as it sounds like French humour, that seems to be the case."

　　Orion couldn't help but ask, "How can anyone believe that crap?"

　　"Because CERN is always asking for trouble with the unreliable press spokesmen they hire, always saying unreliable things at press conferences. Which year I forget, I think it was '08 or '07 when their press spokesman smugly joked at a press conference that the upgraded LHC could even create a miniature black hole with lead-ion collisions, except that it would automatically disintegrate before it could interact with particles from the outside world. ...... I'm guessing that he probably just wanted to show off how advanced the LHC is, but the media only reported the first half of his sentence."

　　"What happened after that?"

　　Joannes laughed and said, "Then they managed to make a big news story, and now almost every year when they do an experiment, people come here to protest, and even some kind of environmental protection organisation even puts it into action, trying to sneak into the orbit and destroy it to stop the experiment, so much so that CERN had to hire a whole lot of firefighters to work tirelessly to get the idiots out of the orbit ...... It's only recently that it's gotten a little better."