At his command, the whole mood around the room changed as series of commands were typed on the computers.
"Particle accelerator launched sir." One of the operators announced.
"Okay, shoot beams now!"
"Neutron beams fired sir." Another said. "Moving at fifty miles per hour... Moving at a hundred miles per hour... Moving over ten thousand miles per hour."
"Neutron beams now reacting with wall atoms... Wall atoms successfully excited... Mirror neutrons detected."
"Alright, it's all going well." Dr. Bates replied smiling. "Launch the reactor."
"Reactor launched! Preparing mirror neutrons for reaction with antimatter,"
Everyone immediately began celebrating the success with ecstatic sighs and lit-up faces. Henry turned to Karen who beamed a smile at him before returning her eyes to her tablet.
Its working Dr. Bates. Tony shrieked in a high tone, emancipating a grin from Henry.
But it was all soon short-lived with bad news.
"Something's wrong sir,"
"What?" He bellowed, his smile fading quickly and lines of worry creasing his forehead.
"The reactor, it's shutting down."
"What? How come? Everything was checked and nothing came up during diagnostics." Dr. Henry asked worriedly.
"I don't know sir."
All Henry could see on his team's faces were confused and despaired looks. And it wasnt just them. He realized he couldnt say a word to stir up his team into looking for what went wrong.
Why now? Theyd come so far already.
Before his brain could think of next, what they beheld next was the reactor shutting down beneath them. Henry knew it wasn't only them who saw it, the whole world was watching too.
"Quick, Tony disconnect the camera audio now" Dr, Bates said in a low tone and Tony did as he was told. The phone rang almost immediately. The worried look Tony gave Henry before handing him the phone already told him who it was.
"Dr. Bates." The voice said just after Henry had the receiver against his ear.
"Dr. Cortez, good evening--"
"What is going on over there? What's wrong with the live feed? What's wrong with reactor?"
Dr. Bates looked at Karen before letting out a sigh.
"The reactor, it is down."
"I said it! I knew this was too good to be true. I warned you, Henry, I told you to stop chasing this fantasy of yours and keep it in the planning phase but you wouldn't listen. Do you know how much has been spent on this project already? Do you know how many of our investors have lined up for this project? And now you are coming up with nothing, nothing at all!"
"Dr. Cortez, all I'm asking you and the members of the board is a little time. We can find out what's wrong and make it work--"
"No, I'm not going to take all that crap. Shut it down now! All of it."
"Dr. Cortez--"
"Do it now, Henry!" The voice said finally then hung up.
"Fuck!" Henry cursed as he kicked the desk in front of him, his whole body filled with rage.
"What do we do now?" Karen, already knowing what the call meant, asked.
Henry was lost in his thoughts for a moment. This wasn't fair. The whole world was watching. Had he come all this way for him to lose? No way!
"Should we shut it down sir?" an operator asked.
"No, don't turn it off yet."
"But the reactor--"
"Start it up again."
"It's not responding sir," One of the men replied.
"What?"
"It's the sensor," Karen replied as she checked the machine schematics on her screens, "It's not picking up any signal from our end."
"Then I'll go start it up manually."
All eyes were shifted to the doctor immediately.
"Henry, what are you saying?" Karen asked in shock.
"We can't activate it remotely from here... But that doesn't mean we can't activate the device directly from the bridge."
Everyone gaped at him now like he was speaking a foreign language.
"The reactor is at the other end of the testing chamber. We can get close to the reactor and activate it there." Henry butressed.
"But that's just suicidal!" Karen countered. "The level of radiation in the chamber is through the roof, plus we're dealing with antimatter here, the slightest mistake could be fatal."
"I know that, that's why I'm doing this myself."
"Henry, don't be stupid, we have field engineers here. Let one of them go do it instead."
"No," Henry objected. "It's my call. I should do it... Somebody get me a hazmat suit!" He yelled.
In no time, a suit was in arms reach. Dr. Bates took off his jacket and gave it to Tony before taking the suit and putting it on.
"Henry, are you sure about this?" Karen asked just as he pulled the zipper up. He responded with a nod.
"Radio the people down there and tell them I'm coming." He said before putting on the headgear.
"Good luck sir," Tony said as Henry headed for the door. He raised his thumb at him then turned for the door. He stared at the handle with a little hesitation.
Once you open it, there is no going back. He reminded himself.
He took a deep breath as he opened the door, walked out, and shut it behind him immediately. He proceeded by jogging down in sharp circles on what was a stair-like tunnel, The guards were already expecting him by the time he got to the base.
"Good evening sir, shall one of us be accompanying you inside?"
"No, just me," Henry replied.
Soon, the hatch was open and Henry was right through.
"I'm in." He announced through the radio.
"Okay," Karen replied. "Now there's no time to waste, God knows how much radiation that suit can handle. Go straight to the reactor, there's a panel at the base, override the automatic configuration, and switch it to manual. You'll see a red lever by your right, pull it."
Henry didn't bother to answer as he felt he knew what to do already.
"I'm done." He said after a while.
From his radio, he could hear positive feedback from the people in the control room. Everyone started cheering once again.
"Yes! Reactor launched, you can get the hell outta there now."
"Preparing mirror neutrons for reaction with antimatter... Mirror neutrons reacting successfully with antimatter..." He heard on of the operators say from his radio.
In a flash, a blue-black hole started to conceive from thin air right in front of Henry. Henry stood awestruck, staring at the hole which only seemed to get bigger with each passing second.
"Oh my God, it's working!" Someone screamed from the radio.
"Karen, are you seeing this?" Henry asked in amazement.
"Yes! You were absolutely right!"
Her words seemed to widen the smile across his face as he continued to admire the hole.
Still, I cant see anything on the other side. Can you? Karen asked.
"Not yet, He said as he stared into the blackness on the other side. Send in the drones, quickly."
Before he could finish his statement, he noticed a hand started emerging from the hole.
"Hold on, there's something on the other side." He said.
The whole ground started shaking in a quake, jerking Henry towards the hole. Staggering forward, his body came in contact with the hand and the ground shook more vigorously, causing the vile of antimatter to crack open.
HENRY, GET OUT OF THERE
What followed next was an explosion that rippled through the chamber and up to the rest of the facility, bringing the entire building to rubble and crumbles of debris.