Hi!
Thank you for reading my story. A couple of points to know:
I don't like writing wank porn. I want to write full-fleshed stories with plot, character, drama and tension. This is chapter 1 of what I hope will be a long ongoing story, but I will only write additional parts if people want to read them. I include a little naughty stuff at the end, but you've been warned about what this is.
Thank you for taking the time, and I would love to talk to anyone who reads my work, and has advice. This is my first submission for literotica, but it's not my first story, as I've written many over the years. Please be sure to vote and offer any feedback you can.
Note on edit: When I first published this chapter, I didn't know what I was doing. I have fixed spelling, grammar, and usage. Dialogue has been formatted to Literotica best practices. Added a few lines of clarifying dialogue. Plot remains exactly the same.
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Chapter 1
Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and not all of them wear capes. Over the course of his life, Scott Laird Cooper was a hero to many young men whom he taught and mentored. This is the tale of who he is, and how he came to be. It is a tale of a closely guarded secret, known only to a few, that allowed those with knowledge of it to live out the life of their dreams.
Scott's first 22 years of life were thoroughly unremarkable. He did what all young boys and young men of his age did, he finished High School, went to college, worked summer jobs, and eventually finished his degree. However, at the age of 22, he had never been with a woman in his life, and he regretted very much that the best years for that sort of thing were probably behind him. Upon graduation, with a degree in computer science secure, and looking for some occupation to ensure enough money to eat, drink, and keep a roof over his head, he decided to take a position as a research assistant at the University of Frostbite Falls, that preeminent bastion of higher education in the town of Frostbite Falls, Minnesota.
When he had been an undergraduate at the University of Iowa, his faculty advisor, friend, and mentor had been Dr. James Bartholomew Fink-Nottle. After his graduation from the University (which was in May), Scott stayed on for the next four months as a senior research assistant to Dr. Fink-Nottle. This position was temporary, with only enough budget to cover the summer months, so, his employment about to end with his friend and mentor, Scott sought out other opportunities. It turned out that Dr. Fink-Nottle was good friends with Dr. Boris Karlov, in the department of theoretical physics, at the University of Frostbite Falls. Scott, therefore, had secured his first real job via a letter of recommendation sent from his mentor to Dr. Karlov, with the result that a job offer readily came in. Scott packed his bags and moved to Frostbite Falls, Minnesota to take up his new duties. It was there that this little adventure begins.
Scott drove into Frostbite Falls, in his old, beat up, Gray Camry, with nothing more than a suitcase carrying all the possessions he had in life. It was a little past 5:30 AM, on a chilly early October morning. As he approached the University, he saw a fairly large campus, as Universities went, with the ivy covered buildings of old brick and mortar. The newer buildings were made in the Greek style, with marble walkways featuring large pillars and high, imposing archways. Frostbite falls was on the quarter system, the same system as his undergraduate university, so he knew the students were about two weeks into the fall quarter, but, obviously, none were around so early in the morning. He smiled as he headed for Water Buffalo Hall, the department of theoretical physics, and his new occupation.
Scott was on guard for his first meeting with Professor Karlov, for his mentor had warned him that the professor had his own way of doing things, but was highly regarded in his field. One of those ways involved scheduling this first meeting for 6 o'clock in the morning.
"Ah, you must be Scott Cooper, my old friend James' student," Professor Karlov said, as he shook Scott's hand. "Come on then, let me show you where you will work, and what your duties will be."
Straight to the point, Scott thought to himself, I like this man already. Dr. Karlov led Scott to a large mainframe computer, with a chair and monitor at the ready. Beside the computer was a large glass window that looked into another room with a large machine that Scott had never seen before.
"What is that?" Scott asked, pointing at the large machine in the other room.
"The reason why you're here," Professor Karlov said. "That, my young friend, is the LAVCM, pronounced 'lav come'. The acronym stands for Large And Very Complicated Machine."
This must be Dr. Karlov's own way of doing things, of which Scott had been warned.
"That acronym just stands for something generic?" Scott asked.
"Look at it this way," Dr. Karlov said. "Everyone in science loves acronyms, and the fancier the better, but no one actually knows much about naming their experiments or theories. Think of LAVCM as the best of both worlds, on that front. How much do you know about Quantum Entanglement?"
"Enough," Scott said. "It's when you take two particles, with the same properties, like spin rate, and separate them by a great distance. Change the spin on one and the other particle changes its spin too, instantaneously."
"Top man," Dr. Karlov said. "You'd be surprised how many people come and work for me whom I have to explain that to. Followup question: do you think quantum entanglement violates Einstein's theory of relativity?"
"it would seem to," Scott replied. "For it implies information can travel faster than the speed of light, which is why, I suppose, Einstein himself called it 'spooky action at a distance'."
"Well, well, you paid attention in your college classes," Dr. Karlov said, as he slapped Scott on the back. "I suppose that means you never had a girlfriend or went to parties, huh?"
"Unfortunately," Scott replied. "I wasn't popular enough to get invited anywhere."
"Still a sexless, kissless virgin with no experience with the ladies?" Dr. Karlov asked.
"Yes," Scott replied, not that his personal life was any of his new employer's business, but Scott believed in being open about his inadequacies in life.
"You probably think you're going to die alone and unloved, with no wife, no children, and no family," Dr. Karlov said. "A life spent in misery and loneliness, rejected by every woman you approach, and buried in a shallow grave."
That was incredibly oddly specific, as Scott had those very thoughts pass through his mind on many occasions of his young life. Scott nodded yes to Dr. Karlov.
"The tables may yet turn," Professor Karlov assured Scott. "Anyway, this machine, the LAVCM is designed to test certain predictions of the holographic universe theory. You understand that one possible explanation for quantum entanglement is that the universe is itself a simulation, and that is why there are inconsistencies in nature. This computer mainframe monitors the LAVCM, and displays data about the experiments inside it. I need you to analyze the data, and create a computer program to separate out the important data from the background noise. Think you can do it?"
"That sounds like a big job," Scott said. "I don't know if I'm qualified for it."
"The truth is no one is qualified to do it, but your letter of recommendation indicated you have a keen and inquisitive mind that learns quickly, and you and I will work together to get the job done," Professor Karlov said. "You are already farther ahead than anyone else I have ever hired to work in this lab, since you already have a basic understanding of quantum entanglement and general relativity. I have yet to see a man as young as you walk through my door with so much already in his brain."
The next six hours passed, as Dr. Karlov taught Scott what he needed to know about the experiment. Briefly, then, the LAVCM held a small quantum imbalance at its center that Dr. Karlov called "the core". Surrounding this core were several layers of protective material, which had access terminals embedded within it to allow scientific instruments to interact with the core. These scientific instruments were all contained within the LAVCM, and included a wide variety of laser, temperature alteration instruments, video and photographic equipment, radio transmitters, and many other scientific devices, whose purpose was to both change the properties of the core and to measure the reactions.
"So what exactly is the core?" Scott asked.
"It's about the size of a quarter," Dr. Karlov replied.
"You know what I mean," Scott responded.
"I don't want to tell you exactly what the core is," Dr. Karlov said. "With your keen scientific mind, I am sure you will eventually figure it out for yourself, however, for now, I want you to remain ignorant on that point. Your task is to program the mainframe to automate the experiments done with the core and to organize the results. I don't want to bias your programming by giving you too much information up front. I want you to learn it by doing, so that you don't give priority to a certain result because you think it's what I want to see."
"Okay, that's fine," Scott replied.
"Let's see how much you've already learned," Dr. Karlov said, as he punched in a complex series of operations into the mainframe. A few minutes passed, and Scott saw some startling results on the computer screen. He quickly punched a series of commands into the mainframe, and, soon enough, things returned to normal.
"Your intuition is really excellent," Dr. Karlov said. "In only a few hours you've already learned the most basic operations of how the core gets unbalanced, and what to do to rebalance it. I think this relationship is going to be very profitable, for both of us."
Scott thanked his new employer, and he and Dr. Karlov spent the rest of the day working on the mainframe. By the end of that first day, Scott's head was a whirl, filled with new, and exciting, possibilities.
