Chapter 1
PROLOGUE
This story began in 1999. I was born a normal, healthy, chubby boy in the former post-communist Europe, into a family of modest means. One could even say I had an ordinary childhood and that I was a happy kid. I had no reason to complain; I had everything a child could ever need: parents, a beautiful upbringing, and carefree early years. On top of that, I wasn't alone—I had a brother who was eight years older than me. My life seemed beautiful and stress-free. I was proud and deeply content. Those were the days when everyone in our family felt loved and secure. I was certain that nothing bad could ever happen...
How terribly wrong I was.
My carefree childhood was abruptly shattered. When I was eight years old, my older brother fell seriously ill with cancer. That was the exact moment everything in my life turned one hundred and eighty degrees—it is safe to say, once and for all. His illness triggered an internal pain and suffering that would accompany me for the rest of my days. I didn't understand what was happening to my brother; I only guessed that he was sick, but as a child, I couldn't foresee what was about to happen. My parents tried to treat him, driving him back and forth to chemotherapy. They did everything within their power, and at one point, they even believed they had won the battle against the disease.
Unfortunately, that faith proved premature.
My brother never recovered. A few weeks later, he passed away.
From that moment on, my childhood changed drastically. I forced myself to grow up mentally. Ten years later, tragedy struck our family again when my father passed away—also, unfortunately, from cancer. Many years went by before I truly understood what had happened. These events from my youth completely reshaped my personality. To some extent, I became a different man. These were the defining moments that molded who I am, forcing me to view the world through a cold, detached lens. After some time, I tried to plan my future and take control of my destiny, but taught by experience, I knew I had absolutely no control over it. After all, the force known as life is not given to us forever, and worse, it can be snatched away at any moment without any apparent reason.
Despite everything, I didn't give up. I even tried to navigate adult life, whose mysteries I was only beginning to unravel. I threw myself into work. In 2025, after years of hard work, I opened my own company. It was nothing extraordinary. I mainly sold electronic components—specifically, capacitors for machinery used in highly specialized laboratories across Europe, including the research center near Geneva, Switzerland. In that city lay the Large Hadron Collider, a massive machine constructed, among other things, to conduct experiments in creating black holes and to understand the fundamental laws governing the universe.
One day, the facility urgently needed parts that my company—uniquely in Europe—happened to have in stock. To be completely honest, I never expected that these tiny Chinese capacitors would alter my life so profoundly.
It happened in the winter of 2025. The day the order from the Geneva facility came in, I was short-staffed, and a courier wouldn't be able to deliver the parts to Switzerland for several days. Meanwhile, the center needed them yesterday. They were paying well, so I decided to drive them down personally in my private car. I had to reach Geneva from a small town in Poland, which was a hell of a distance, but business is business. The capacitors I was transporting were crucial for a new project involving the hadron collider, as the facility had suffered a rather severe mechanical failure. Without these components, their project timeline could face massive delays. The opportunity to make an excellent chunk of extra money was too good to pass up. The payout was phenomenal.
Without thinking twice, I grabbed the components, got into my car, and drove toward Switzerland to deliver them as fast as possible. It was freezing, and the roads were thick with snow. The journey dragged on endlessly, and the driving conditions were brutal. When I finally arrived after a dozen or so hours at the wheel, I was warmly greeted by the woman who had been coordinating the order with me.
The institute was in absolute chaos. Every few moments, someone would rush into the building, hurriedly delivering equipment arriving from all corners of the globe. The place was practically buzzing; I felt like I had stepped into a beehive.
I walked into the building with Jane—that was the name of the woman responsible for handling contracts with my company. Upon entering her office, Jane asked me if I could deliver the capacitors directly to the physicists in the laboratory department. They were located deeper inside, in a highly restricted, heavily guarded sector. Jane handed me a security pass and said:
"I have a favor to ask. This pass will get you into Section Minus Three C, in the north wing. A Dr. Mahony will collect the shipment from you there. I'm sorry to put this on you, but you can see the madness out there. I don't have anyone else to send down, and I need to get these capacitors to the scientists immediately. Unfortunately, we just had an unexpected power surge in the collider, likely caused by a solar flare. It was the most powerful magnetic discharge we've ever recorded, and to make matters worse, the machine was active. They were right in the middle of an experiment when everything went dead in an instant."
"It turns out," Jane continued, "that the equipment is quite sensitive, and as you can see, we have a major problem on our hands. Could you please bring it down yourself, Paul? Thank you so much," she added, emphasizing the gravity of her words with a look from her beautiful, captivating eyes.
I couldn't say no. I nodded, agreeing to her request, and said with a smile:
"For you, Jane, anytime. No problem at all."
Hearing my positive response, the girl immediately dove back into the mountain of paperwork on her desk, extended her hand to offer me the security clearance, and continued without looking up:
"Awesome. Please, head down there as fast as you can, we're entirely out of time. Here is your pass and a small map in case you get lost." With a quick smile, she handed over the badge and buried herself back in her paperwork.
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CHAPTER 1: THE UNDERGROUND ARCHITECTURE
The news that the laboratory was in deep trouble gave me a sudden surge of adrenaline. Finally, I could be of some real use. Without wasting another second, I headed toward the security entrance where the guards were already waiting. After showing my pass, they immediately waved me through. I had to pass through several similar checkpoints and navigate numerous automated doors before I could reach the doctor.
Alongside the pass, Jane had given me a map that proved incredibly helpful in pinpointing the location. Thanks to it, I didn't have to ask anyone for directions and knew exactly where to go.
Upon entering Section -3C, I caught my first glimpse of the Large Hadron Collider—or rather, a tiny fraction of it. This was a machine I had only ever seen on television. It was gargantuan, a colossal circular ring stretching across dozens of kilometers. From the inside, the architecture was staggering. The hadron collider was buried deep underground. To reach it, I had to take an elevator down several levels.
I arrived at the laboratory level, where—just like up in Jane's office—pure chaos reigned. The space was crawling with technicians, professors, and researchers working at a feverish pace to replace fried components. I noticed a few of them huddled in a tight group, visibly debating various strategies to fix the catastrophic failure. A moment later, I spotted several other independent groups doing the exact same thing.
*How the hell am I supposed to find this doctor?*
Feeling completely out of my depth, I yelled out:
"Professor Mahony?!"
Suddenly, several older gentlemen snapped their heads up, and one of them shouted back in my direction:
"Doctor, my dear sir, *Doctor* Mahony. Yes, that's me," replied a slightly graying, elderly man.
"I have a shipment for you, Doc. Did you order some components? Jane from procurement asked me to bring them straight down here," I said, trying to play the part of an official courier.
"Ah, yes, Jane mentioned something," Mahony replied, waving me over. "Come in, please. Just set it down over there... right inside that collider chamber. We're a bit preoccupied here, as you can probably tell, so forgive me, but I'm going to exploit your kindness even more than Jane did. Step inside the collider housing and place the parts right on that blue metal shelf inside, alright? You'll have to excuse me, I have some critical system failures to resolve here. Jane already settled the payment with you, correct? I can't accompany you right now; it's a madhouse today."
"Yes, yes, everything is taken care of. Sure, don't worry about it, Doctor, absolutely no problem," I called back to Mahony.
"You're a good man," the doctor replied.
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THE VOID OF THE COLLIDER
Before me loomed the massive structure of the Large Hadron Collider. I knew very little about its actual mechanics; my knowledge was patched together from news reports, science articles, and random internet deep-dives. Standing next to it was an overwhelming experience. I certainly never expected to see this machine in person, let alone step inside it, even though I had always maintained a casual interest in physics. I was thrilled, but to be fair, spending my weekend inside a particle accelerator wasn't exactly on my bucket list. Well, a job is a job. I took a confident step forward into the depths of the collider tunnel, just as the doctor had requested.
When I entered the specific chamber Mahony had pointed to, it turned out the blue metal shelf wasn't there. At least, I couldn't see it. I scanned the area again, more thoroughly this time, determined not to look like an idiot in front of a dozen world-class scientists. To my left and right stretched a massive, seemingly endless, dimly lit corridor. Faced with a blind choice between left and right, I took a gamble on the right side and walked forward, hoping I would stumble upon what I was looking for. After a few meters, I finally spotted the long, blue metal plating.
"Got it!" I muttered to myself.
The section of the hadron collider I was standing in was less of a room and more of a circular tunnel, heavily weaponized with electronics, an intricate web of wiring, and a maze of pipes. The environment was stark, raw, and aggressively industrial. To add to the tension, bursts of pressurized steam hissed out of the valves every few meters. Reaching the blue shelf, satisfied with my success, I carefully set the heavy box of components down on the designated spot.
Unexpectedly, right beside me, I noticed an open access hatch to another chamber.
An incredible, luminous blue light was bleeding out of it. It looked entirely alien, as if it were a fragment of an otherworldly reality, shimmering like the reflection of a dead sun off a cyan sea. It looked like a localized control room or an experimental bay. Having delivered the package exactly as the doctor requested, an overwhelming urge to investigate the source of this bizarre phenomenon took hold of me. A profound curiosity, far stronger than my common sense, clawed at my mind.
Even though I knew perfectly well that I shouldn't be wandering around, the light was so ethereal, so hypnotic, that I found myself entirely incapable of resisting it. I just wanted to steal a quick glance to see where it was emanating from. I didn't mean any harm.
"Damn it, I have to see this. What could that possibly be?" I whispered to myself.
