The Portal
All characters are eighteen+. Dr. Mann breaks through to the other side. All science is this story is complete nonsense.
Dr. E. Mann, PhD checked his calculations for what seemed the hundredth time. He was impatient for the first test of his compact particle accelerator. They had laughed him out of several elite universities when he had presented his proposal to their physics departments. Of course, his proposal was "unproven," he had never been allowed to test it. As far as "far-fetched and "dangerous," that only showed that his critics were cowards and were without imagination. He might be pissed off, but he was not "mad."
This success would bring him the wealth and respect that he had been maliciously denied. And that wealth and fame would give him access to the beautiful and desirable women that he also had been unfairly denied. Laurette Franco would find out what she missed out on when she had turned him down. She could have been on his arm as he received his Nobel Prize. But instead she would be replaced with women who would make her pale in comparison. All those who had laughed at him would burn with envy at his triumph. His time teaching remedial science at the local Junior College would soon come to an end. Those bumpkins and dropouts would be bragging that they were in his classes. He could already see the dull-witted surprise on their cow-like faces.
Mann checked over the machine carefully. All the connections had to be secure. He hoped that the collection of second hand, pilfered and questionably sourced parts would hold up under the power load they would be subjected to.
He stepped out of his back door and walked to the fence surrounding the transformer installation that backed up to his property. He had had some difficulty obtaining a location near enough to a source with enough power to operate his machines. If the previous owners found out that he was behind the problems that led them to sell at such a low price, he would be in big trouble. But he certainly would not tell them.
The connections and cable were as they should be. He was finally ready for the first live test. He hurried back to his lab and gave everything a final check. Now he was ready. Soon the world would recognize his genius. He took a deep breath and closed the main power switch. The lights in the room and all over the neighborhood dimmed. The magnetic fields were perfectly aligned. The vacuum in the particle tubes was holding with no leaks. He pushed the button that started the particle generators. His revolutionary
accelerator design made his machine the most powerful particle collider in the world, even though it took up less than half the space of the spare bedroom that he had converted into his lab. The target was a six-foot square fluorescent screen of his own design.
Mann could smell hot insulation, but so far everything was holding. The target began to light up at the point of impact. The glow began to spread, but was too weak. He took another deep breath and pushed to button on his secondary transformer. This would double the power to the accelerator. The whole screen began to glow. The room began to shake. The air in front of the screen began to shimmer as the particles impinged on the screen. Suddenly there was a flash that nearly blinded him. All he could see were spots in front of his eyes. When his vision cleared, The screen was now an opaque swirling gray circle. It seemed like it was now three dimensional rather than two.
Remarkably, the whole system seemed to have stabilized. The power consumption was in safe limits. All the monitors showed in the green. The smell of burning insulation seemed to be gone. Whatever the particle beam had done was now in maintenance mode.
Mann picked up a broom from the closet and started pushing the handle into the gray vortex. It slid in with no resistance. He pushed it in as far as he could without touching anything. When he pulled it back out, it was the same as before.
He went out to his storage building and found an eight foot, one by six board.
He shut off the video camera that he had been using to record the experiment and replaced the video card with a blank one. He pushed his work table in front of the gray circle. He attached to camera to the board and put the board on the table aligned with the circle. He set it to record and slowly pushed the board through the circle.
He let it record for ten minutes before pulling it back. He quickly plugged in a cable and hooked it up to a 27-inch monitor. He hit play and carefully watched the recording. The camera was looking out onto what appeared to be a vacant lot. A paved street ran in front of the lot. Off to the right was what looked like an upscale suburb with large multi-story houses. There were what appeared to be normal humans walking along the street. There were what looked like street signs at the end of the streets, but they were too far away for him to read.
Mann's mind reeled. Had he opened a portal to another place? Or, had he opened a portal into time. Could it be on another planet even? It definitely was not the neighborhood around his house.
He needed to gather more data before he tried to go through it himself. He wondered if he could get a volunteer from one of his classes, but they would want to get paid. Plus, he didn't think any of them were bright enough to be helpful.
This would require a trip to the scientific supply store. They probably would not have what he needed, but he would have to make do. After an hour, he was back. He had a digital weather station with thermometer, barometer and a wind gauge. He had a gas detector. He taped them to the board and pushed it back through his portal. After half an hour he pulled it back through and checked the
results. The air was the normal mix of gases, except there seemed to be no pollutants. The temperature was 80 degrees F. and the wind was about 5 mph. So, it seemed to be earth, but he still had no idea where or when.
Mann knew this was do or die. He would have to go through the portal himself and determine where it led. He got a small backpack, put a notebook and pen in it.
He added a bottle of water and his video camera. He also had his phone.
Mann clambered up onto the table, closed his eyes and launched himself into the swirling gray vortex. He felt a momentary disorientation and a feeling of being stretched to infinity. Then a brief falling sensation which ended with him slamming into the grass of the vacant lot. The four-foot fall knocked the breath out of him and left him gasping, trying to pull air into his lungs. After a few minutes, he felt better and got to his feet. He wiped the grass from his arms and knees. His slacks were a little grass-stained at the knee and there was a scrape on his right arm.
He looked down to his left at what appeared to be an urban street with signs for night clubs, restaurants and even strip joints. Directly in front of him was the street he had seen on the video camera. To the right was a farmhouse and barn. He had never seen anything like this with rural, suburban and urban within a block of each other. Since he had seen people walking on the suburban street on the video, he decided to head that way.
He sniffed the air, it seemed clean and fresh, but with a slight musky undertone he couldn't identify.
The first person he met was a remarkably curvy fortyish blonde. She was wearing a skin-tight blue minidress that barely covered her shapely behind. The neckline was cut so low that her breasts threatened pop out at every step. Mann was staring at the soft flesh jiggling as she walked toward him. As she approached, she gave him a seductive smile.
"Like what you see?" she called out in a throaty voice. Mann flushed at being
caught staring.