"Thanks for doing my Algebra homework dude, I owe you a round of beer," said Daniel, giving Lucas a friendly pat on the back. He approving looked over the two thick folders of math in his hands. Lucas just shook his head. Daniel was just your typical frat bro, but at least he was helpful. More importantly he knew how to ‘borrow’ university property when Lucas had the need.
"As long as you keep getting the equipment I need for my experiments... But I may take you up on the beer. Some physics grads from out of state are coming in for a conference, and I need to socialize.”
“Hell yeah dude. About time you started partying. Maybe pick up some chicks?” Daniel said with a grin.
“Not partying, networking.” He said matter of factly. “I’m trying to get more data on the relationship between quark mechanics and fractured gray matter.” Lucas was one of the top Physics graduate students in the country. He was normally tight lipped about his experiments, but he had the opportunity to talk with Daniel, who had a snowflake’s chance in hell in understanding any of it.
“Huh...” Daniel scratched his head, looking at the spark throwing device on a pedestal in the center of Lucas’ lab. It was surrounded by numerous computers and expensive equipment – some of which Daniel had stolen over the past semester. “So this uses the gray matter I heard about on the TV.”
“Partially. It’s fundamental to manipulating time-space in a trans-dimensional manner – in short transformation.”
Daniel looked at all the books, and diagrams strewn around the room. Sketches of the structure of strange crystals, a lot of books on obscure Chemistry, handwritten calculations absolutely everywhere. Then he noticed some drawings of were-wolves, and anthropomorphic animals with smatterings of scientific jargon all over them.
Daniel smirked, “This doesn’t have to do with that lame furry shit you’re into does it?”
Lucas rolled his eyes. “Maybe.” Then he crossed his arms. “And it’s a lot cooler than you could ever handle, buddy.”
Daniel laughed, “Hey, not judging dude. There was a gay nerd in my high school who was into that stuff. Had a lion fursuit and everything. I’m just sayin’ I wouldn’t tell everyone that if I were you.”
“Don’t you worry about me. Now, don’t you have a History class to be present for?”
“Shit, oh yeah. That’s one of the ones that grade your attendance. I’ll see you later dude.” He gave Lucas another pat on the back and hurried off. Setting off some alert on the door, Daniel just turned to shrug, then left in a hurry.
Lucas just shook his head again. He really doubted Daniel was going to pass this semester. “Oh well, hopefully he won’t drop out,” Lucas said to himself. Daniel was at least open minded, even if he made bigoted remarks all the time.
Lucas went to shut off the beeping alert on the door to the lab. He would have to teach Daniel to respect basic protocols if he was to continue being a valuable asset. Lucas didn’t need another accident like the centrifuge fire he caused last month...
… Later that Day ...
Daniel entered the lab, ignoring the door alert he set off again. “Hey Lucas, you here? I think I left part of my Algebra homework in here.” Daniel started rummaging around, eventually spotting the packet on a table on the other side of the room- where he had received it in the first place.
“Found it!” He announced happily to no one. He looked at all the “sciency” looking machines. The control panel with all the electrical/quantum sketches and books around it really caught his attention. It was hooked up to the device on the pedestal that appeared to be covered in tesla coils inside a glass box. “Looks like this button machine controls the sparky machine. I wonder if it makes other kinds of sparks?”
Daniel adjusted the lever labeled “Power”. Satisfyingly the sparks became twice as big. “Haha. That’s pretty cool, but what about different kinds of sparks? He turned the nob labeled “Program” to on, then got an alert “Error: No program selected. Please reset with viable program.” Then Daniel noticed the computer had a list of options. He chose the one listed “Trial #34564”. “I bet this has to do with the Gray Matter. I bet it looks really cool!” He double clicked on it.
The computer announced, “Initializing. Quantum transmission successful.” Suddenly the sparks turned red. And started forming a beautiful swirl inside the glass. “Woah, hell yeah!” Daniel watched transfixed. Then it started growing. The glass cracked, as the computer announced. “Warning energy level exceeding parameters.”
“Uh-oh,” Daniel said, as he turned the power lever all the way down and turned the program knob to off. Then he took a step back. The electric swirl stopped growing, but suddenly the pressure from within shattered the glass outward and a loud sound vibration filled the room.
“Goddamit!” Lucas screamed running in, and pushing Daniel out of the way. He scrambled up to the computer, then frantically began adjusting knobs on the control panel. Slowly the red swirl grew smaller, turning into a sphere, then shrinking more into the size of a ping pong ball. It was soon just a glowing sphere of white light drawing thin sparks from the Tesla coils.
Lucas breathed a sigh of relief. “It- it’s stable!? I can’t believe it…,” then started typing, reading the results on his computer.
Daniel started apologizing, “Lucas I’m so sorry. I bumped into the controls looking for my homework and then-”
“Don’t even try to make excuses! I don’t know whether to kill you or not Daniel. We have actually opened a backdoor to the outside of reality.”
“Uh, what does that mean.” Daniel asked.
“It means, best case, I’ve achieved decades of scientific advancement with no consequences. Worst case, YOU’VE destroyed the whole world, and maybe even the universe!” Lucas went from calm, to angry in seconds.
“Oh. That’s not good.”
“That’s not good!?” Lucas just stared, amazed at his incompetence. “Daniel, get the hell out of my lab.”
“Yup, I’m out.” Daniel hurried out, setting off the door alert again.
Lucas sighed, “At least he’s out of my hair. I’ll have to revoke his access later so he can’t fuck up anything else.” He looked around at the possibly damaged equipment. “Hopefully he didn’t change reality in any major way. Now which program did he run?”