And finally, mostly recovered but still seeming a bit weak, was Jack Levinson, one of the two teachers who had been witness to the explosion that had first dragged Roy back to the SSC. Levinson kept darting his head around, as if he expected to see another explosion any moment.
Or, perhaps, he expected to see his deceased friend Daniel Strock bicycling over, revealing his death to be a practical joke. Roy shook his head at the depressing thought, and looked away. He didn’t mean for today to make up for what Levinson had gone through, but he felt that the man had just as much right to be present as Roy himself did.
Just then, Harold tapped Roy on the shoulder. “Look,” he said, pointing in the direction of the afternoon Sun, and away from the scientists gathered around the SQUID. Two figures could be seen emerging from a car, a good distance away. They began to approach the small group of scientists.
“I was afraid this might happen,” Roy said. “Let’s see what they want.”
In less than a minute, the two men stopped in front of Roy and Harold. Roy recognized Sheriff Kingsley, who nodded his head by way of greeting. He looked distinctly uncomfortable, odd for a man who always made himself fit in anywhere.
“Hello, Sheriff,” Roy said. “I don’t think I remember your friend’s name.” It was the FBI agent who had tried to coordinate everything at the beginning; Roy had ignored him in favor of Kingsley, which he was now just beginning to think might have been a politically bad move.
“Sam Stratton,” the agent said by way of reintroduction. “The sheriff told me you would be here.” Stratton pointed at Kingsley, who looked at Roy as if pleading for forgiveness.
“What can I do for you, Mr. Stratton?”
Stratton pulled a paper out of the pocket of his blazer and handed it to Roy. “You can pick up and leave. I’m ordering all of you out of this area immediately.”
Roy took the paper, smiled, and thrust it back at Stratton without reading it. “Sorry, no can do.”
Kingsley cleared his throat and spoke up. “Doc Schwitters, be reasonable. I told this fellow that you would.”
Roy shook his head. “Sheriff, we’re about to witness something very important here. We can’t go just yet.”
“Listen to me,” Stratton said. “Is it true what Sheriff Kingsley told me? Have you predicted another explosion for this piece of the ring, in just a few minutes?”
“Not an explosion. A beam.”
“Same difference, if I understand what’s been going on. You’re endangering yourself and everyone else here! I’m ordering all of you to move to a safe distance.” He waved the paper in Roy’s face.
Roy frowned. “Mr. Stratton, I—”
“Roy!” Harold interrupted.
“What is it?”
“I think my calculations were a little off.” He pointed behind Stratton and Kingsley. “Look at the SQUID.”
Roy turned towards the metal cryonic canister, which held the SQUID inside. “My God.”
“It’s a trick,” Stratton said.
Kingsley turned around, and whistled. “No, it’s not.”
Slowly, Stratton turned his head around. The air ten feet away from them radiated with thousands of tiny sparks, as if a thousand tiny thunderstorms filled the area with lightning. The scenery behind the area wobbled, as if it was no longer the real three-dimensional world, but a painting done upon a canvas of rubber, stretching in all directions, back and forth. A soft warbling noise slowly increased in volume.
But what made it most frightening was that the other scientists were part of the scenery. Their bodies appeared to stretch, as if they were made of water, with waves passing through them, causing distortions in their shape.
Waves that were heading towards Roy and the others.
Stratton’s jaw dropped, and he let the paper fall to his feet. “What in God’s name is that?” Stratton exclaimed.
Harold looked at Stratton and smiled impishly. “Wave-function collapse.”
11. Spin Down
“They told me you would be here,” Reichen said, the sweat moistening his mustache. “I demand to know what’s going on.”
“Whatever do you mean?” asked Ray.
“I mean, here I have been told that you’re running one more beam, against orders, and you’re waiting for it to pass underneath your feet.”
“That’s right, Mr. Reichen,” Kristin interjected.
Reichen swiveled around to face her. “You realize what kind of trouble you’re in, doctor? You’ll never get another penny from the DOE. Your career in high energy physics is over.”
Kristin shrugged. “How melodramatic of you. It was going to be over, anyway, once you killed the SSC.
“But it’s not over, Mr. Reichen. And you’re right where we wanted you.”
Reichen looked around nervously. There were a few other scientists, but they were gathered at a spot a few yards away, chatting among themselves.
“Now what’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means,” Kristin said, “since you showed us that Mohammed wouldn’t come to the mountain—”
A loud rumble began to shake the earth under their feet, and a sudden wind gusted up. Reichen looked frightened. Kristin smiled.
“We figured we’d bring the mountain to Mohammed,” she finished.
The din got louder. “What the hell’s going on?” Reichen roared.
“You didn’t believe that the other universe existed,” Ray said, as the air around them filled up with sparks of light and the scenery began to wobble. “I thought you might want to tell them that yourself.”
12. Spin Sideways
The two universes only coexisted in a small volume, with a radius of about ten meters from where the SQUID sat. The rippling, hazy effect continued, making everyone in the area appear to be submerged in lazily moving water. Roy Schwitters, Harold Volin, Sam Stratton, and Bob Kingsley found themselves almost overlapping with Ray Shwartz, Kristin Anderson, and Louis Reichen. Everyone in the two groups backed off slowly from each other, and regarded each other for a moment. To the people in one group, the people in the other group looked like phantoms, fading in and out of insubstantiality. When the first person spoke, from Spin Up, her voice sounded distorted to the people from Spin Down. But they barely noticed, as someone from Spin Down spoke at exactly the same time, and said exactly the same words.
“It’s you!” Kristin said to Ray, pointing at Roy.
“It’s you!” Harold said to Roy, pointing at Ray.
The two directors approached each other, cautiously. Through hand gestures, the one from Spin Up deferred to the one from Spin Down.
“I’m Roy Schwitters, director of the SSC.”
“That’s funny. I’m Ray Shwartz, director of the SSC. In my universe, I mean.”
They smiled, and attempted to shake hands. Their hands passed right through each other.
Ray looked over his shoulder, back at Reichen, who stood goggle-eyed in shock. “I think we may have proven our point.”
Harold and Kristin approached each other with similar caution, and introduced themselves. Harold laughed, and Roy turned to him. “What’s so funny?” he asked.
“Talk about your Grand Unification Theories,” Harold said, and then the universes separated.
Epilogue: Spin Down
Jack Levinson dismounted from his bicycle and removed his helmet. He wiped the sweat from his brow, reached for his thermos, and took a long drink of cool water. It was still the dry grassland, and it was still the SSC ring buried underneath, but it was no longer the same.