Secrets of the Antiwave

PART 1 | Chapter 4: Uncovering the Secrets

People often mistook the stadium-sized doughnut for the entire SMO facility. That was just the AC unit.

Beneath several floors of subterranean living space, under two kilometres of cryogenic equipment and fifteen layers of EM heat-shields, was a tiny chamber -- roughly the size of a lightbulb. Within this diminutive chamber were three unsuspecting hydrogen atoms, destined to venture beyond the Planck Temperature, if such a thing was even possible. 

The original plan had accounted for four atoms, but there'd been a mistake in the injection process. Calculations later discovered that such an extra atom would've vaporised Mars, and perhaps the entire System. Stephenson suggested I not publish this factoid. 

After two hours of preparation, the scientists López and DeVille announced that the ultra-heat matrix was prepared for activation. I then realised that I was the only person in the bunker without a lab coat. Something told me it was too late to ask.

Risking the fate of 23 billion lives in the Solar System, Elisa Rutherford, the head of the team, lifted the translucent safety-lid from a cherry-red dial marked 'ACTIVATE'.

She offered her riposte to a long-dead Oppenheimer, 'I am become Knowledge, destroyer of Gods.''

Now it'd be phenomenal if I could finally put my journalism degree to good use and describe the strained exhalations of a universe set alight, the second encore of a dawning reality's warcry, the Big Bang with a subwoofer -- but no. After Rutherford had turned the dial, all we heard was a short, crisp, and anticlimactic click that sounded just like another notch on the dial. (It was later found out that the entire population of Mars had heard the same sound.)

The preliminary readings came in. None of it made sense. We simply assumed our costly equipment had been fried.

Winthrop stroked all three of his chins, 'You know Rutherford, that's the fastest I've ever seen a two million dollars disappear.' 

Elisa Rutherford said nothing and kept staring at the cascading columns of data streaming across the holoscreen. A moment later, gasped. Winthrop, who had been cooly smoking a cigarette, almost swallowed the damn thing. 

The readings shouldn't have made sense, but they did. We all shouted, embracing each other with tears in our eyes. Somebody cried out 'we have changed the world!', to which Rutherford calmly replied, 'forget the world, we've become immortal.'

---

Several days after the experiment, I was given the green-light to announce our findings to the world (omitting the parts where we had risked destroying the Solar System). López assisted in compiling the scientific data, DeVille edited my speech for factual errors, and Stephenson edited my final draft (though I had to remove the paragraphs about the appealing dangers of socialism.)

Rutherford joined me on-stage without saying a word. She turned to me and nodded. A passing comet twinkled in her intensely blue eyes. 

 Blinding barrages of phosphor flashes snowstormed into my eyes. I cleared my throat, shuffled my notes, and tapped the mic, once, twice. The hornet's nest went eerie silent; I spoke.

'Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to thank you all for coming out here--'

What is this, a wedding?, I thought, what a cruddy opening.

'--I know that many of you have been closely following our work,'

My hands are shaking, oh God, I bet they can see. Why'd the podium have to be see-through?

'--and Dr. Rutherford, myself, and the team are happy to announce our latest findings.'

My face was burning; my throat was red Martian sand. What was wrong? Even after several back-to-back interviews, I had never lost my calm demeanour. But today was special, today would be a monumental reveal.

Realising this, my stage-fright vanished. By the five-minute mark -- my words, electrified the air. I threw flash-bangs and dynamite into the audience, I funnelled thunderstorms and avalanches into raven-eyed cameras, I spoke. 

Now that I'm compiling all of these events, unwinding and mapping the hurricane that once caught me, I've unearthed so much history, so many details, through the recordings that were made at the time. And whenever I see that youthful boy -- the boy that called himself a man -- whenever I hear him deliver the final part of this speech on camera with not just with his voice, but with his soul -- whenever I hear him, I cry.

'To reinstate, we have not discovered another wavelength. What we have found is a completely new wave; a wave which challenges our understanding of the fundamental forces, and how they interact.

'There is still much to be done. A great journey lies ahead of us, and these are merely our first steps. But in our forthcoming efforts to understand -- to uncover -- the secrets of this anti wave, I believe that modern physics will undergo many revelations.

'Thank you.'

A silent heartbeat, just to make sure I was done. Then fourteen kitchens clattered into a jackhammer factory, bathing me in clapperboard applause.

Amongst all the excitement that followed, I tried my hardest to fulfil Rutherford's desire of naming the wave in honour of her scientific ancestor, but it only took one sensational article for 'antiwave' to wildfire into our nomenclature. As a small concession, we named the planet-wide click 'The Ernest Transmission'.

We made the headlines for a week or two, before being unexpectedly forgotten. At the beginning of July, tensions between the Jupiter Alliance and their Saturnian Colonies reached an all-time high, and I suppose you know what followed in the years to come. War, a long-forgotten term, reappeared in almost everybody's mind, along with anger, anxiety, and fear. For everyone outside the SMO, the antiwave settled onto the backburner. Inside the facility, things remained largely the same, although the emails and invitations dwindled. Seeing 'No New Messages' appear across my inbox was like reaching the edge of the Universe.

Three months later, a phoenix emerged from the gasoline sea -- the SMO reappeared in the spotlight. This was where we changed the world forever, this was the beginning of the end.

A/N: I think it's fitting that such a peculiar wave should derive its name via unexpected circumstances. 'Ernest-wave' would've sounded a little clunky.

In fact, many scientific terms have peculiar origins! Can you think of any?

What are your thoughts so far in general? Vote and comment if you enjoyed :)