Chapter Three

The Experiment

After the weeks of waiting for what seemed to pass in the span of hours at most, the experiment was finally upon us. After trying for so long to get this approved, we finally got it. The experiment involving dark matter and nuclear energy.

I was standing outside our lab with Thomas. We talked about how insane it was that we were here right now. After all, we might be the first-ever people to create a sustainable fusion reactor. We would be able to provide the world with essentially free energy for almost no cost.

In the experiment, we intend to use dark matter to force the matter to fuze together, which makes massive amounts of energy. With this type of fusion using dark matter, we don't have to heat the matter to extreme temperatures like conventional fusion reactors. Without having to use extreme heat, it is possible to make extremely small fusion reactors. With them being smaller, it would be possible to mass-produce them and use them as a type of battery that would almost never die.

Thomas and I walked through the door into the sterilization room only to see Maddy prepping to enter the lab, the same as we were about to be doing. Hering what Thomas and I were talking about she decided to hop into the conversation. "Are you guys excited?"

"No shit we're excited. This might go down in the history books," Thomas proposed excitedly.

"Imagine the headline in the news, Josh Willtek, Maddy Brown, and Thoman Wattson make history… Well, we can hope that it goes well, considering the headline last time we attempted this," I spoke, reminiscing about the last time we tried this. It shouldn't really be called reminiscing considering that it was almost a near-death experience, but never the less I still gave it some thought.

Maddy thought for a while before saying, "It will go well I can just feel it. It's like I can see the future. I bet after this little chat we are going to spend the rest of our lives together talking about this with each other. The progress that we three made for the world." I think that her little 'fortune telling' was just enough to give Thomas and me the confidence to believe that this would succeed.

We all continued to prepare by washing our hands and putting on our lab coats. While I was washing my hands, I was lost in thought thinking about how I forgot to see my parents' graves during the few weeks that we were preparing to set up this lab. It was weirdly easy to convince the higher-ups to let us use the amount of dark matter that we were using. It's not difficult to get in small quantities, but the big trouble comes from storing a lot of it in one place. That's the misconception that many have about dark matter, that it's expensive. While that's true in part, what makes it expensive is having a lot of it. When you only need a small amount, it is easily storable, but it becomes chaotic and thereby harder to store when there is more of it.

When we all heard that the university was offering up more dark matter than we asked for initially we were ecstatic. With as much dark matter as they were offering, we would be able to use a little extra for a stronger reaction. While that was dangerous, if it went well, it would be so much more helpful for testing the limits of what dark matter can do.

Snapping me out of my thoughts, Thomas asked me, "Josh? How long are you gonna sit there and scrub your hands?" Turning around and noticing that both Maddy and Thomas were ready to enter the lab, I realized that I had been mindlessly scrubbing my hands for quite a while now. There was even a mountain of bubbles left behind in the sink from scrubbing for so long.

Finally replying to Thomas, I said, "Yeah, sorry I kinda got lost there."

"You got lost? At the sink?" Maddy asked, poking fun at me. I will admit that it didn't make much sense, like really saying I got lost at the sink. God, I'm dumb.

"You know what I meant by that. I got lost in my thoughts."

"Are you ok? We can't have you absent-minded during this. It's a risky thing to be doing even while being cautious, so if you are not in your right mind we can do this later." While Thomas was saying this for my concern, I could tell that he meant it, but also really wanted to do the experiment today.

After apologizing for being unfocused, I finished getting ready. Putting on my coat and gloves felt reassuring. It was finally like I knew what I was doing again. The fogginess that I was experiencing felt like it was melting away, like frost melting away in the morning sun.

Finally finished with the pre-lab work I made my way into the lab just a few steps behind the other two. When I entered it was my second time seeing it, but it still felt just as magical as when I saw it the first time. The pure concentration of dark matter. It swirled in a vortex of blacks and purples. It was almost as if I was looking into a neverending abyss, but it wasn't scary. It was more divine, seeming like that was the true manifestation of God. All of the power in the universe seemed to be congregated into that abyss, it felt as if it could explode at any moment, but when it exploded you didn't know if it would cause destruction or bring about new meanings to the world.

It indeed was one of the marvels of the human race. Being able to harness the energy of the universe. After admiring the dark matter for a moment, I asked the other two, "so, yall wanna get to work now?" they were both startled by my asking to start. I'm assuming that they were both looking at the dark matter as well. It was incredible on its own, but with that much, it was so interesting and mystical that words couldn't properly describe it.

"Yeah, let's get to it," Maddy said back, finally making her way past the tank of dark matter to the metal ring in the center of the room, the actual place where the fusion reaction would take place.

It was a metal tube in a ring-like shape, a bit closer to an ellipse but not quite there, around three feet, or one meter, in diameter. It had hundreds if not thousands of wires and smaller tubes jutting out the sides of it that all led to different things, one of which led to the tank of dark matter, another to the main controls of the device. Other wires were directly connected to the wall through specialized outlets that had to be custom-made specifically for this experiment.

One of the plus sides of this being the second attempt at this is there was a large majority of the tech that we needed already here that we didn't have to either make or order. Last time we conducted this we had to set out the plans years in advance to have things like the outlets and cables capable of conducting the dark matter and such a high amount of power being created from the reaction. There were plenty of things about this that took more than a fair share of planning, but most of that prep work had been taken care of for us by the university.

Both Thomas and I concluded that they were helping out so much this time around because we had Maddy with us as a full partner, not just an extra lab aid. After all, it was made apparent that they favored her many times over us.

We finally initiated the start-up process for the reactor, and when we did, there was the same mechanical drone as last time, but it wasn't unpleasant like you would think from a mechanical whirr. It was more peaceful, it could almost be considered calming.

It was a relatively simple experiment to conduct once everything had been set up. All there was to do was turn on all of the machines. After that, we had to check the levels of the elements being injected into the fusion ring.

"Are we ready to start with the hydrogen?" I asked the other two that were spaced around the room at other control panels.

Standing by her control panel, which monitored the amount of energy production, as well as a secondary control for the dark matter Maddy, said, "I am ready whenever the two of you are."

Thomas replied, "I'm ready. Josh count is on you." After saying that, Thomas looked directly at me and gave a firm nod that seemed to say that he was absolutely ready for this.

Seeing as both Maddy and Thomas were ready, I gave a count starting from ten. As I hit one, Maddy and I turned our respective dials for the hydrogen. After hitting a sufficient amount of hydrogen in the fusion ring we let the hydrogen stall for a while. While stalling, we checked that there was nothing amiss with any of our equipment. After all, the next part was the most dangerous. It was the dark matter.

We checked multiple times that there were no unforeseen errors with our machines. There was no loss from the hydrogen, and the machine didn't even get louder, indicating that it was putting in more work. The only thing that could pose a problem was that the hydrogen increased in temperature. It wasn't a significant increase, we figured that the increase in temperature was due to the increase of pressure from the tank that it was held into the fusion ring. After all, we had to tightly pack the hydrogen in to ensure that the dark matter collides with the hydrogen, not the ring itself.

After conferment that all of the other aspects were correct, we were ready to start the piece that would truly be the start of our experiment, the dark matter injection. Taking a look around our lab Thomas and Maddy were both looking up at me, both agreeing that they were ready to start, but just to make sure, I asked, "You both absolutely sure that you are ready?"

In almost perfect unison, they replied, "I'm ready." As quick as he could, Thomas pointed at Maddy and said, "Jinx, you owe me a koke!" As simple as that little joke was, it helped out a lot. The atmosphere in the room was tense, to say the least, but with that, it felt like all the tension in the air just fell away.

After the laughs settled, I nodded to Thomas and said, "The dark matter is on your cue."

"Ok, ten, nine."

Once he hit one, both Maddy and I turned our release keys, and Thomas slowly started turning his dial the opened the valve to the dark matter tank. It was a stunning sight to see. The dark matter slowly made its way through the clear tubing into the fusion ring. It looked like space itself turned into liquid and was flowing through the tubing.

Once the dark matter made it into the tube, we heard slight pops a few times every second until it eventually became a constant hum. It sounded like somebody was humming into a stage microphone at a concert, the same sound of humming, but it was much louder.

"It's working. Holy crap… IT'S WORKING!" Maddy sputtered. I left my panel and made my way over to Maddy to look at the readings. When I got there, I was surprised at how much power was being generated.

With a gasp, I let out, "This is more than we thought. It's double. No triple what we thought would be produced from such a small reaction." After I said that, Thomas made his way over to the panel as well to see what it looked like and lat out a similar reaction to me.

Although, it was him that noticed something odd. "Hey, don't you think that it should be leveling out by now?" Thomas asked concerned after seeing that the power generation was constantly going up at an exponential rate.

Realizing that he was most likely correct, I said, "Thomas turn down the levels of dark matter and Maddy we are going to turn up the hydrogen to try to balance out the reaction." I made my way back to my panel and immediately got to work turning dials and flipping switches. I barely heard the click of the tank opening but when I did hear it, I knew that it was too late. I whipped my head over to the dark matter tank only to see the valve on the bottom completely open.

Seeing this, I immediately looked at Thomas to see what was going on only to see him struggling to turn the dial. I screamed at the top of my lungs, "Thomas turn it off! What happened?!"

After that, I saw him turn and sprint to the wall hoping to make it to the emergency shut-off in time. As he was turning to take off he said, "I don't know. The dial just wouldn't stop."

Just as the dark matter was about a foot away from the fusion ring he hit the shut-off button. He made it. In my eyes, he just did the impossible. He made it to the button that would save us from the inevitable, except the button didn't work. The shut-off button that is supposed to stop all power from coming to the room didn't work. Nothing turned off, and the dark matter didn't stop moving. We watched as the dark matter slowly seeped into the fusion ring, almost as if it was mocking us that we couldn't stop it. As it slowly entered, the humming sound got exponentially louder.

With all that had happened during my life, I was weirdly accepting of the fact that I was most likely going to die, but at the same time, I was angry. I was angry that I didn't get my revenge and that I didn't live life the way I had wanted. That's when my thoughts flipped. I didn't want to accept death. I didn't want to die, but that's when I saw the flash. The brightest flash of light that I had ever seen. Just as I saw the flash I said the only word I could think of, "SHIT."

λ λ λ

After that blinding flash, I found myself floating through complete emptiness. It felt freeing at first like I was the only being that existed. It felt like I might be able to control something for the first time in my life. I tried to move my arms attempting to swim around in this pitch-black space, but I couldn't move my arms. It's not like they felt sore, and I just couldn't move them. It felt as if I didn't have arms. It was the same thing with my legs and head. I realized that I couldn't feel anything I could think but not feel. After it hit me that I couldn't move, I got scared, not in the usual way. I truly felt fear that felt as if it could rip apart my consciousness, but that's when I saw it.

It looked like a person, but not an ordinary person. It looked as if they were made out of the space itself. It seemed to be getting closer to me. I didn't know if I was moving to it, or it to me—either way, the fact that it was getting closer terrified me even more. I was a sitting duck right now, nothing I could do to protect myself that looked like a figment of space itself. That's when it hit me; Yes it looked like a part of space itself, but there was also another thing that looked like a piece of space had come alive. Dark matter. It looked like a human made from dark matter.

The closer it got the more I was sure that it was a person made out of dark matter. By now, the figure was around five yards away from me, and that's when I was able to see it. The person made from dark matter. It looked like me.

That's when it spoke. The weird dark matter figment that looked like me spoke. It said, "Hi josh."

I was terrified. The thing speaks, and it looks like me. What the hell. I tried to talk back to it, and the sound came out, but it didn't come out of my mouth like it usually did. The sound seemed to come from all around us as I asked, "How do you know my name… W-what are you?" I wasn't even sure how it was possible but I managed to stutter even when my voice wasn't coming from my mouth, I tought ashamed at myself for being so scared that I stuttered in an almost impossible situation.

After my little self-reflection, the thing responded, "I know your name because I am you… Well, sort of, in essence, I am your soul."

The thing claiming to be my soul bent down and touched right where my forehead would be, and I felt it. I felt the touch on my forehead. That's new, I thought, surprised.

The thing claiming to be my soul spoke again, saying, "This is the only thing that I can do for you right now. That little touch may not have seemed like much to you, but that was enough to give you a restart."

Confused, I asked, "restart at what?"

"Well, I assumed that it would be obvious. A restart at the life of course."

"A restart at life. How is that possi- Wait, if I need a restart at life, does that mean I'm dead?" I asked terrified at that premonition

"Correct, you died in the explosion after trying to harness dark matter. Luckily for you, because you were messing with dark matter when it exploded, it gave me enough dark matter to make a physical form. That's the way that I am able to talk to you right now."

"No no no, I can't be dead. I still had things that I needed to do. I never got vengeance for my parents."

"Josh… It's ok, please just accept your new life there is nothing left for you to do. It's impossible… I'm sorry. Truly," the thing that I accepted as my soul said consolingly.

"It's just… I don't want to leave everyone that I had," I said, my voice still coming from all around us.

"I know, it's going to be hard to move forward, but it's almost time for your life to begin."

"Ok," I said, with my voice finally starting to congregate more towards my mouth. It felt extremely odd and terrifying talking to a being that looked like it was made out of space itself, but when I saw him start to dissipate that scarred me even more.

After all, he said that he was my soul. I tried to scream out to him, but all that came out were high-pitched shrieks and cries. I could faintly hear him muttering something about how it would all be ok, just as streaks of light started coming into the black abyss that we were in.

Still trying to scream out to my own soul, the rays of light became brighter and more abundant, reminding me of the explosion that just occurred. My screams still came out as cries infuriating me and causing me to scream more. That was until the rays of light covered my vision like a blanket.

I tried to close my eyes to save myself from the bright lights and when I opened my eyes it was something I would never have expected. It was a room, to be more specific it looked like a small wooden shack.

That's when I saw them a large man that looked as if he could wrestle a bear and win, a plump old man with glasses that looked so thick you could start a fire with them, and lastly a woman so beautiful that she looked like a goddess in human form.

The man that looked as if he could wrestle a bear had dark blue eyes, the color of the twilight sky. I swear that I could see sparkles in them, but that might just have been me, after all my eyes were still adjusting to the lights in the room. He had a full head of light blond hair that was messily spiked up. His hair slowly turned to a dirty blond as it turned into a beard which wasn't long but not quite short either.

The woman on was almost the complete opposite of the man. She was small, but not too small. She had beautiful brown eyes and deep mahogany red hair. Her hair ran past he shoulders in flowing waves that seemed like they were being blown by the wind in the perfect way at every slight movement of her head.

The beautiful woman said, "Honey look how adorable our baby boy is." After that was said it completely solidified the fact that I was reborn and had lost my life as Josh Willtek. I had been reborn. Apart from my memories I now had no connection to my old life as Josh Willtek.