Chapter 2 from 3 August 2008

Maria awoke screaming.  For a few seconds she couldn’t remember where she was, couldn’t think of anything except the pains, one stabbing into her abdomen, just below her right breast, the other spreading slowly round into her lower back.  Her eyes were stuck together as if she had been crying in her sleep.  After a few seconds of panic she remembered the breathing exercise they had taught her in the antenatal clinic and began panting, her mouth wide open, forcing herself to relax.  It’s just a contraction Maria, she told herself.  Don’t worry.  The panic subsided but fear replaced it.  She couldn’t fool herself.  It wasn’t just a contraction.  Something was very wrong down there.
Still panting, still dopey with sleep, with her eyes still stuck shut, she tried to feel her bump.  Her right arm wouldn’t move no matter how much she yanked.  It was fixed down by her side.  The panic came back and grew as she found her left arm also wouldn’t move.  She forced her eyes open like oysters.  Her head was shrouded in orange plastic.  Through the aperture she saw a man’s chest close beside her, his body at right-angles to hers.  She could not see his face.  His head and shoulders were hidden by a shifting pattern of green, red and black patches.  The instant she saw it she went cold.  The coloured areas glowed so brightly they hurt her eyes and made her squint.  I must be having some kind of migraine.  After all the stress of this morning it’s not surprising.  But at least she knew who he was and where she was.
‘What’s happening, Robert?’ Maria gasped, hardly able to speak from the pain.  He did not answer.  What’s wrong with him?  She had never had any confidence in Robert Moore.  ‘He’s very experienced,’ the chief firefighter George had said, peering down at her as she lay in the stretcher on the balcony high up on the ATLAS cavern wall.  ‘He’s an ambulance man as well as a firefighter.  He helped deliver a couple of babies in England before he came to CERN.  I think they have babies the same way there as we do here so you’ll be in very safe hands.  We’re going to attach a rope to the stretcher and winch you up through the shaft.  You’re well strapped in so you’ll be perfectly safe.’ But when Robert climbed over the handrail he almost slipped into the cavern and as George let out his rope and they swung away from the balcony Robert had seemed confused.  He didn’t speak French very well and couldn’t follow what they were saying on the radio.  Now he wasn’t even answering her.  She glanced up out of the stretcher.  The strange, coloured pattern didn’t look like any migraine she had ever had before, but today was unlike any day she had ever lived through.
‘Robert,’ she called, louder than before.  ‘What’s happening?’
# # # #
‘I can hear something, Lord.’
‘What?’ Sam could hear the excitement in Michael’s voice.
‘A woman screamed and then I think she said What’s happening, Robert?  She was a bit muffled.’
‘Is it Maria Kissov?  The pregnant woman with the broken ankle?’
‘I think so, yes.’
‘She’s no use to me.  I want someone healthy.  Isn’t there anyone else?’
‘I don’t know, Lord.  I haven’t looked through all the crystals yet.’
‘Then look, Samuel, and for both our sakes be quick.  They could arrive any second.’
It took Sam several minutes to look through every one of the sixty or so crystal walls that made up his cavern.  As he did so he kept wondering what Michael meant: They could arrive any second.
# # # #
Robert still didn’t answer.  Why can’t I see his face?  A red harness was strapped around his grey uniform and clipped to a metal ring that supported the stretcher.  Maria could see a rope, straight and taut, coming down through the pattern and descending to the ring.  The rope from the shaft, she decided, and there was another rope running across from the ring, curving slightly, and going out through the side of the pattern.  It had to be George’s rope.  He had been using it to control their descent as they swung out from the balcony into the centre of the cavern.  Four thick yellow straps were tied to the bottom of the ring and came down to the corners of the stretcher.
But that strange pattern cut across the top of Robert’s torso, at about shoulder level.  She moved her eyes but still she could not see anything above his chest.  Normally a migraine only affected one part of her vision.  She should be able to see his face if she moved her eyes, but this time, no matter where she looked, she still could not see it.  The pattern kept getting in the way.  This is the strangest migraine I’ve ever had.
Another odd thing was how the whole pattern seemed to surround her, enclosing her, adding to her feeling of being trapped.  It’s like being inside a bubble, she thought.  Yes, that’s exactly what it’s like, a slowly changing, gigantic, glistening soap bubble.  It enclosed the stretcher and most of Robert’s body, everything but his head and shoulders, hiding her view of the rest of the cavern.
The contraction grew stronger and pain encompassed her lower body.  As it intensified, she tried to concentrate on the pattern, hoping that would help her to relax and take her mind off the pain.  The green areas were the largest.  They sprawled about like a child’s splash-daubed painting.  Narrow red bands ran between the green, rippling and glowing with their own inner light.  In sharp contrast, the heart of each green area was totally black.  It’s quite beautiful really, she told herself, trying to make herself relax.
This certainly didn’t look anything like her usual optical effects from migraine.  For one thing, it was not flickering.  Instead, the green areas were moving slowly, the red bands parting to let them pass, then merging behind them.  The red is like a river.  A river of blood?  No, she reassured herself, it’s not the right colour for blood; it’s more like red wine!  The contraction began to fade as she tried to imagine the taste of it, a good strong Cabernet, and suddenly realised how thirsty she was.  She started calling Robert again.
# # # #
‘No, Lord, I can’t see anyone else.’ Sam was bitterly disappointed.  He had looked through every crystal and not seen Catriona, but at least Maria was alive.
‘Then it will have to be the Kissov woman.  Is the firefighter Robert Moore still with her?’
‘Yes, she was calling him.’
‘Help her get out of the stretcher and see if she can revive Moore.  He’s our best hope.’
‘Help her?  How?  I can’t even see her.’ All Sam had seen was a white sheet of plastic with metal rivets.
‘Talk to her.  If you can hear her then she can probably hear you.’
Sam moved his head, trying to find again the crystal which contained the white plastic.  He only heard Maria when he was looking straight at that.  As he found it he heard Maria calling.
‘Can you hear me?  Help, Robert!’ Maria sounded desperate.
‘I can hear you,’ Sam said.
‘Oh thank God.  What’s happening?  What was that blue flash?  Why have–’
Sam moved his head to one side so he could not hear her.  He hoped that she would not be able to hear him as he said ‘She thinks Robert’s talking to her, Lord.’
‘Is she still in the stretcher?’
‘I think so, yes.’
‘Try to get her out and revive Moore.’
‘Can you get out of the stretcher?’ Sam said into the centre of the crystal.
There was a pause.  ‘Who’s there?’ Maria’s voice was not very clear but Sam thought she sounded frightened.
She knows I’m not Robert, Sam thought.  ‘It’s all right, Maria.’
‘Who are you?’ Sam heard her very clearly this time.  She was screaming.
‘She’s frightened, Lord.  She wants to know who’s talking to her.’
Michael thought for a few moments.  ‘Tell her you’re an angel who’s trying to help her.’
‘I can’t say that!  Why can’t I just tell her the truth?’
A dark shadow crossed Michael’s face.  ‘Do you know the truth?  And if you did, is this the right time to explain it all to her?  She needs urgent help and so do we. She was raised as a Roman Catholic.  She’ll believe you.  Tell her you are an angel.  You can tell her the truth later, once we have saved the Earth.’
‘I am an angel,’ Sam said into the crystal, thinking she’s never going to believe this.  ‘I’m trying to help you, Maria.  Please trust me.  You need my help and I need yours.  Can you get out of the stretcher?’
There was a long pause.  Then very slowly she said ‘Who are you?’
‘She doesn’t believe me, Lord.  I’m going to have to tell her who I am.’
‘All right then do it.  Tell her we need the crystal.  Tell her it’s urgent.’
# # # #
It was a man’s voice, muffled and hard to hear.  He was speaking English and at first she assumed it was Robert Moore.  The firefighter hardly spoke any French.  But when he said ‘I am an angel,’ she knew it wasn’t Robert.
‘It’s Sam Fitzpatrick, Maria,’ the voice said.
‘Mr Fitzpatrick?’ She lifted her head as much as she could and peered out of the aperture in the stretcher cover.  All she could see was Robert’s chest and the bubble.  ‘I can’t see you.  Where are you?’
‘I don’t know, Maria.  We were absorbed by the black hole and…’
Maria’s mind went numb.  Ever since the LHC had started up people had been talking about making black holes.  Every scientist was hoping they would make one and every crank was afraid they would.  As an Official Guide it was her job to reassure visitors.  She used to stand in the centre of the large round Globe of Innovation and repeat what she had been told to say.  ‘Scientists believe there are two types of black hole.  There are large ones formed by collapsing stars out in the Galaxy.  They last a long time.  And there are very small ones, such as we might make here in CERN, which will only last for a very short time, a tiny fraction of a second.  They are so small and so short-lived that they would be perfectly safe.’ So it had been a complete shock this morning when Michael Zhang said they had created a persistent black hole that could last for hours.
‘…Zhang says we need the crystal,’ Sam was saying.  ‘He says it’s urgent.’
‘Michael Zhang?  Has he been absorbed too?  This doesn’t make any sense.  If you were absorbed by a black hole you would be killed.’
‘No, I know we should have been but we weren’t.  Now listen, Michael says we need the–’
‘I need a doctor, Sam.  Something’s wrong.  I’ve got a terrible pain in my, in my…’ She couldn’t think of the English for abdomen. ‘…where the baby is.’
‘Is Robert still alive?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said.  ‘He won’t answer.’
‘Can you get out of the stretcher?’
‘No, I’m strapped in.  I can’t move my arms.’
‘You’ve got to get out, Maria.  Try to get out.  I can’t do anything to help you.’
‘I’ll try,’ she said.  She twisted her head forward as far as she could, examining the orange flaps to see how they were fastened, and her eyes fell on something dark.  A dark patch, where the cover reached over her bump.  ‘Oh God!’
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing.’  With an effort of will she put it out of her mind.
She looked at the stretcher cover again, keeping her eyes away from the stain.  The two halves of the cover overlapped, buckled together on the outside.  For several minutes she wriggled and strained, making room by breathing out, finally managing to push one hand through the gap, undo one buckle with straining fingers and free one arm.  She reached up to touch Robert’s chest. ‘Robert?’ His chest wasn’t moving.  She shuddered.  He isn’t breathing!  She slipped her hand under his harness but could feel no heartbeat.  You’ve got to be alive, Robert!  In desperation she slid her hand up his chest as far as she could.  You’ve got to help me!  Her fingers touched the bubble and she felt a hard surface then a sharp, tingling shock flashed through her finger-tips and she pulled her hand away.
Her eyes travelled across the pattern, more afraid than before, but she had the measure of it now and could see how it wrapped around her, or rather, around the baby.  That’s where the middle of it seemed to be, although it  was hard to judge with the pattern constantly shifting.
She poked Robert like an obstinate horse and shouted but he still didn’t move.  All that effort to free my arm has got me nowhere.
‘Have you got out?’ Sam said.
‘I’ve got one arm out.  Robert won’t move.’
‘Try to get out.’
With fresh determination she pushed the flap open a bit more, managed to yank her other arm out and reached forward, bending towards the other buckles.  Excruciating pains shot through her abdomen and ankle.  After trying several times she managed to open the plastic cover.  Oh God!  Her crumpled gaping jacket revealed a large mark, dark against her white blouse.  In the light from the bubble it looked dark brown.  It’s just a flesh wound, she told herself, struggling to calm the rising tide of fear.  Looks worse than it is.  She closed the jacket and tried to button it, to hide the stain, to seal it away.  It’s not serious.  The pain isn’t too bad, not really.  I’d be in agony if something had gone into my womb.  It can’t have hurt the baby.  First thing is to talk to Robert.  He knows about birthing babies.  He’s my best hope of getting help.
Pushing the orange cover aside, Maria raised her hand, grasped Robert’s harness and began to pull herself out of the stretcher.  Pain throbbed through her ankle.  She looked down, moved her leg to avoid scraping her foot on the cover, pulled the harness again, looked up and gasped.  The bubble was moving up Robert’s neck and the pattern had completely changed.  Red and green rings were swirling round, completely encircling her.  New little red and green circles appeared in the bubble above her, opened out like coloured ripples and moved down the bubble until she was completely enclosed by moving circles of glowing colour.  She stopped pulling but the bubble kept moving slowly up Robert’s face.  She saw his chin, his mouth open in a silent shout, his flared nostrils, his eyes wide and staring, his face frozen in an agonised death-mask.
She grasped the harness to stop herself moving as a long low moan escaped her lips.
‘What’s wrong?’ Sam said.
‘He’s dead.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes,’ she screamed.
‘I’m sorry.  Stay calm, Maria.  Everything’s going to be all right. Are you out of the stretcher?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are you safe?  You won’t fall will you?’
She looked down.  ‘No.  I seem to be floating.’ For a moment she felt dizzy then realised that the stretcher below her was slowly spinning round on the ends of the four yellow straps.  As it spun the bottom part of the bubble turned with it and a blue light swept across Robert’s body.
‘I can see a blue light,’ she said.
‘Where’s it coming from?’
‘From under the flaps of the stretcher.’
She heard Sam say ‘She can see a blue light, Lord,’ and something inside her head seemed to shift to one side.  Was he talking to God?  Without thinking she began to pray quietly, her eyes closed. ‘Gegrüßet seist du, Maria, voll der Gnade, der Herr ist mit dir.’  Guiltily she began wondering how long it had been since she had said these words.
‘Michael thinks it’s a piece of crystal.  Try to get it, Maria.  It will help us.’
Michael?  She pulled on the straps running down to the stretcher.  Was it Michael that he was calling Lord?  The stretcher began to float easily up towards her.  The bottom half of the bubble moved too, coloured rings running down and closing behind the stretcher.  The pattern on the top half of the bubble stayed in random blotches.  Then she noticed a circular ridge where the two halves of the bubble met and realised she was looking through a round window, looking out of one bubble into another one.  A second bubble!  The two bubbles overlapped and merged together at the ridge, making a shape like a figure of 8.  The bottom bubble was centred on the stretcher, the top one on her bump.  She was so engrossed in watching the ridge move towards her that the stretcher almost hit her.  She had to fend it off, then grasp and hold it to stop it floating away.
She opened the orange covers and looked inside.  Something was sticking up through the hard white plastic base, something that glowed pale blue, deep down inside, near where her feet had been.
‘I can see you, Maria!’ Sam said.  ‘What can you see?’
‘It looks like a piece of glass.’
‘Can you get it?’
She pushed the flaps back and ran her fingers over the glass.  It was smooth, with straight clean edges poking through the stretcher’s base.  It glowed with an inner light, casting shadows across the flaps.
‘No, it’s stuck in the plastic.’
‘You must.  Michael says you must get it.’
She tried again but her trembling fingers could not pull it out.  With a sudden inspiration she turned the stretcher over and reached across the bottom of the base.  A larger chunk of the glass was sticking out.  She grasped it and pulled.  It came away in her hand.
‘I’ve got it.’
‘Good girl!  Now you can escape.  Use the rope to get up to the surface.’
With a shudder of relief she put the glass into her jacket pocket, eager to get away from the dead man.  As she did so the two bubbles seemed to merge into one.  She pulled on the rope, leaving the stretcher and the firefighter behind.  She glanced back.  Robert’s dead face was slipping away behind her, disappearing from sight as the coloured ripples closed over him.  I wonder what killed you, she thought.
She pulled herself along the rope as fast as she could, hand over hand.  It wasn’t hard work.  The amazing thing was that she didn’t fall back down again.  It was as if she was weightless, floating like the stretcher.  The red and green rings ran quickly past her.  It wasn’t until she reached the balcony that she realised she was pulling the wrong rope.

 

Chapter 2 Moshendiar (on 23 June 2006)

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Cjingha was in faculty meetings all morning, but as soon as she entered her little at lunchtime office she called the Staff Health Clinic. To her surprise they answered, and to her even greater surprise they said they had a free slot in an hour’s time. Could she get there? Yes, she could, but if she was going to collect those free universes she would have to be quick. She flew into the autumn szemzion-shine still cramming lunch into her eater, her long professor’s gown flapping behind her. She decided to keep it on despite the heat, hoping it would be her passport into the Festival of Science, gaining her priority ahead of the general public.
With strong sweeps of her sleek black wings she flew to the entrance marked ‘Ticket Office’ in the Arts and Culture Centre which the Macroverse Science Association had taken over for the week. She found the shortest queue and while she waited for the two elderly Entroilians to buy their tickets she browsed a nearby poster listing dozens of lectures for this afternoon.

How does Science affect the Being?
Alcohol-induced sterility among Argolaths and their future reproductive viability.
Our life-giving Szemzion: the flow of energy to Entroilia.
Why Argolaths degenerate at puberty but Entroilians do not.

They all look interesting, she thought, wishing she had time to attend some of them. The elderly Entroilians moved away and she stepped towards the counter.
‘Can you tell me where they’re giving away the free universes?’
A young female sat on the other side, pretty and casually dressed but with multiple pins, rings, badges, animated gizmos and decorations piercing her tentacles, face and body. Cjingha couldn’t take her eyes off them, feeling her lunch rise in her throat.
‘Do you like body piercing?’ the girl asked, seeing her staring.
‘Oh, yes,’ she lied. ‘I’ve only ever seen it on the multiweb. It’s not allowed at Sedtia University.’
‘Well now you’ve seen it in the flesh,’ the girl said, and laughed. ‘Entrance 34C, round the back of the marquee.’
Cjingha flew off still feeling queasy. I hope Oesirisi doesn’t start asking for rings through her tentacles, she thought. And if she ever has a pin through her ngja I’ll murder her. A wave of incredulity spread over Cjingha as she thought of this latest fashion, piercing of the genitals among both females and males. I can understand a drunken Argolath having it done, but not a sensible Entroilian.
She flew round to the vast marquee which the Festival organisers had erected on the sports fields at the back of the Sedtia University campus. Hundreds of children, both Entroilians and Argolaths, were streaming out of the doorway marked 34C, accompanied by their teachers. Thousands were already lying around on the grass outside, eating their packed lunches or playing games as they enjoyed the unseasonably warm szemzion. Cjingha wondered why her local school hadn’t organised a visit. Oesirisi and Glagnump would have loved all this. I wish I’d known about it before. I could have mentioned it to their teachers. But then science isn’t my subject and I never realised what a big event this Festival was going to be.
Cjingha was struck by how excited the children here were, even the Argolaths. Why was it, she wondered, that when these boys reach the age of thirteen or fourteen thousand they would lose all interest in any intellectual pursuits? It saddened her to think that Glagnump would soon reach that age, and change from being an inquiring, lively intelligent boy to a dull, drunken moron. She still hoped that somehow she could stop him going to Argolathia.
Once more she thanked her lucky szemzions that she had been born an Entroilian. Females never lost their sense of magic and wonder. Perhaps it was because we have to bear children and raise them, she thought as she flew towards entrance 34C, whereas the Argolaths have nothing more to do than father our children once a year and get drunk and fight the rest of the time. But it all seemed such a waste of their intellectual potential. She had never felt comfortable with this way of organising society, and now it was about to affect her own son, she felt an increasing desire to do something about it. But how? I’m just one Entroilian in the whole Macroverse. What can I do to change anything?
Nobody challenged her as she flew into the marquee. Inside it seemed even larger than it had looked from the outside. She hovered near the entrance, searching for the place where the universes were being given out. Thousands of stalls lined the walls, each showing scientific and engineering toys, gifts, ornaments, synthesized foods, lifestyle-products, brain enhancers, tentacle extenders, transcendental games, multiweb worlds, science and engineering careers, hobbies and holidays.
With the children having gone outside, most of the stalls were quiet, the staff sitting around eating their lunches. Eventually she spotted a long queue winding towards a booth on the far side of the hall. She could just make out the words on a printed banner hanging above it.

Cosmogenist Moshendiar.

She instantly recognised the second of these words. It was the Moshendiar Foundation who were giving away the free universes. She flew across the hall, thinking about the word Cosmogenist. It took her a few seconds to work out that a cosmogenist must be somebody who makes cosmoses.
As she flew closer she saw another sign pinned beneath the first. It was an improvised banner:

Today only – Free Universes.

The queue waiting at the booth consisted mostly of Argolath children, and it was growing longer all the time as others finished their lunches and came in to collect their free gift. There were a few adult Entroilians waiting patiently too; teachers, Cjingha thought. She spread out her grey gown and flew straight to the head of the queue.
Behind the counter stood an Argolath, his tentacles grey with age, pushing little boxes over the counter into the eager clutches of excited children. Those must be the universes, Cjingha thought as she landed nearby and stood watching him. He was the strangest Argolath she had ever seen. His robes were as grey as his tentacles, not white like most males. Even though they were usually drunk, Argolaths were so vain they always made their Emergents keep their clothes spotlessly clean, but not this one. His robes looked as if he had not washed them for weeks, perhaps months. His feet were bare, his wings looked tattered and moth-eaten. He obviously cared nothing about his appearance.
But the most astonishing things about him were that he appeared to be totally sober and he was working. She had never seen an adult Argolath do any work before. She moved closer, deeply curious about who he was and where he had come from. She noticed that he did not smell of alcohol, as most Argolaths did, nor could she see any apple-brandy bottles nearby. He was truly an extraordinary specimen. She resolved to look him up on the multiweb. He should not be difficult to find; Moshendiar was not a common name.
He was lifting the little boxes out of a large crate. Cjingha looked into it. It was almost empty. There were just a few dozen left. I got here just in time, she thought.
‘Excuse me,’ she said. ‘Can I take two of those for my children?’
The Argolath frowned at her, glanced down at her professor’s gown, nodded and turned back to his work.
She bent and lifted two of the boxes in her tentacles. She had never actually held a universe before. Her expertise lay in economics, not science. Until this moment she had felt no interest in them but the enthusiasm of her children and the appearance of this strange Argolath pricked her curiosity. She studied them closely.
Each universe was enclosed in a little metal-edged box about the size of a heffletward-trap, but unlike a trap these boxes had six clear windows and no door. They were dark inside, as if they were filled with black ink, but that was obviously not the case because within the centre of each box she could see something small, floating in the darkness. She brought one box close to her strongest eye and peered inside.
The thing was a spherical blue ball. It was only as big as the tip of one of her thinnest tentacles, and quite difficult to see, but by squinting she could just make out a tangle of what looked like blue threads. That must be the universe. She was surprised at how tiny it was, like a tiny ball of coloured cotton wool.
The box itself was elaborately made. Each metallic edge was engraved with intricate markings, so fine they were on the edge of her vision. How can he afford to give this away free, she wondered. It’s obviously cost a lot to make. He doesn’t look rich. Where did he get the money for his Foundation? Perhaps he got a grant from the Council? But how–
These thoughts were interrupted by the Argolath saying loudly ‘I am sorry.’ She looked up. Moshendiar was standing with his tentacles raised over his head. ‘All the universes have gone now,’ he said.
A river of sighs and groans ran down the queue. The adult Entroilians and children began to clamour around the stall, asking whether there would be any more tomorrow. ‘No. There will be no more,’ he said and began to dismantle his stall and pack it into the crate. Some of the adults seemed quite put-out and many of the children were in tears, but after a few minutes the crowd reluctantly dispersed.
Cjingha stepped forward. ‘I am Professor Itoodoo. I don’t remember seeing you before, Doctor Moshendiar.’ She called him doctor out of courtesy. She had never heard of an Argolathian doctor. ‘Do you work at this University?’ She was certain he did not, of course. If an Argolath had worked here, or anywhere else in Entroilia for that matter, he would have been famous and she would already have heard about him. Argolaths never worked. Everyone knew that.
Moshendiar shook his head once, closed the crate and grunted as he heaved it up onto a small trolley.
‘So where do you come from?’ she asked.
‘Argolathia,’ he said with a tone of finality and began laboriously to pull the trolley across the uneven marquee floor towards the door.
Cjingha was appalled. Most Argolaths were charming when they spoke to Entroilians, even when drunk, but Moshendiar’s manners were no better than his dress sense. She flew after him. ‘Which part of Argolathia?’ she said.
He did not answer.
‘I didn’t know there were any scientists there,’ she said, walking beside him and waiting for a reply which did not come. ‘I am a professor in the Economics Department here,’ she persisted, spreading her gown to show him her authority. ‘I was wondering how you manage to finance these gifts. Do you receive a grant from the Council?’
The longer she waited for an answer, the more exasperation and frustration tightened in her chest. She quickly controlled these base emotions, telling herself that she needed to know the answer. It was a matter of professional research now, not just idle curiosity. He was obviously hiding something. His silence made her all the more determined to find out about him. Getting grants from the Council was difficult. How had he managed to do it? Why was he being so secretive? Maybe there was something more sinister to his silence. What was he hiding? Were these universes safe? Should she really give them to her children, or take them to the authorities and have them tested?
As Cjingha watched him with these thoughts running round in her head, the heavy crate wobbled and began to topple sideways. Moshendiar gasped. Seeing an opportunity to gain his favour, Cjingha ran forward, put her tentacles on the crate and steadied it. Then she helped him to heave the trolley out of the rut and continued to push from behind as he pulled it across the marquee. Their eyes met and he nodded a silent thank you.
Cjingha switched to a more friendly tone. ‘You’re giving away a small fortune here, my dear chap.’ His eyes were fixed on her. ‘The mother of one of my son’s friends paid something like a thousand tribrenha for a universe after the mating last New Year. I haven’t seen it myself but from what he told me I don’t think it’s such good quality as yours. The materials alone must have cost you a thousand each.’
Still he did not speak. She kept talking, explaining how excited her children were about getting one, but nothing she said elicited any response from him except veiled glances through his tangled grey tentacles.
Eventually they reached the marquee exit, he turned left and began wheeling the crate along the path. It was smooth and he could cope without her. The Staff Health Clinic lay in the opposite direction and she was already late for her appointment.
‘How do I contact you, if my children happen to find an Emergent?’ she called after him.
He paused and, to her great surprise, spread his tattered grey wings and flew back to her.
‘Show me your universes,’ he said.
She held them out to him. He took one and brought it close to his face. At the same time one of his tentacles dipped into a pocket of his grey robe and came out curled around something very small. Cjingha thought she saw one of the windows of the universe’s case flip open for a second, but within the grey tangle of his tentacles she could not be sure. The curled tentacle passed in front of the others, there was a flash of light and a click.
Moshendiar handed the box back to her. ‘There is no need to call me,’ he said. ‘If they find an Emergent the container will let me know.’
She reached out to take the box off him, but he held on to it and for a moment their tentacles touched. ‘Thank you for helping me with the trolley,’ he said, then let go of the universe. ‘Good luck!’ A twisted smile crossed his face, then he flew back to his crate, pulled the trolley along the path and in a few seconds disappeared from sight round the end of the marquee.
Cjingha watched him go, still intensely curious about him, then looked at the universe he had held, examining it closely. She tried pulling on all the edges but still could not find the door. Perhaps she had been mistaken. Perhaps there was no door. She looked at the other box. It looked identical. She sighed, put them into her pocket and flew towards the clinic.
She was sitting in the waiting room when she realised that here was a possible subject of study for one of her post-graduate students. She began to think of suitable titles.

The financing of science engagement.
Cosmogenical economics and Council budgets.
What price communicating science with children?

Something like that would do, and she had several students who would be able to work on this type of project. However none of them would return to the University until next week and by that time the Festival would be over and the organisers would have left town. She had to find out as much about Moshendiar as she could now, while these people were on her doorstep. If possible she wanted to meet him again. She decided that, after seeing the doctor she would go back to the ticket office. Somebody there must know where he came from.

Chapter 1

Chapter 3

 

Chapter 2 from 11 June 2008

From outside the box Cjingha had seen the universe looking like a tiny ball but from inside it was enormous.  It dwarfed into insignificance Moshendiar’s silver speck which curved through the inky blackness towards the huge round tangle made, not of thin threads, but of long thick pipes.
Restless patterns of coloured lights flickered along them, radiant with the hues of limes and marigolds, of cherries and saffron.  These glowing dots ran in endless procession from pipe to pipe, optical signals joining and forking within the densely interconnected mesh, like some vast motorway network at night.
When it reached the outer pipes the speck sparkled with their reflected light, as if it was happy to see them, and began to fall between them.  They were arranged in layers like busy motorways stacked on top of each other hundreds of levels deep.  As it fell the speck hit many of the pipes, bouncing away with a tiny ping before curving downwards once more on its long descent.  And it was not the only thing falling towards the inner universe.
From beneath every pipe there emerged a fine spray of coloured droplets, each one glowing brightly with its own hue, apricot or asparagus, beryl or bronze, droplets which fell and bounced and dripped off the layers of pipes below until the speck was surrounded by a dense chromatic mist.
Although it was far smaller than any of these droplets, yet the speck exerted a powerful influence over them.  Those nearby moved towards it, merging together to form first a drop then a ball so large that air resistance distorted it, pulling out a tear-shaped tail.  The ball periodically collided with one of the pipes, splattering itself back into droplets.  As the speck descended so the mist around it increased in density, supplemented by more droplets sprayed from every new layer, until it formed a heavy shower of coloured droplets.
Finally the speck reached the lowest layer of pipes, emerged into a clear space and fell in the rain towards the universe.  Once more it gathered nearby droplets into a ball which, lacking horizontal pipes to collide with, grew larger than ever before.  It was now falling so fast that air resistance began to evaporate droplets from its lower surface, dragging them out into a long tail, until an equilibrium was reached and the ball obtained its maximum size hundreds of metres in diameter and with a tail several kilometres long.  This liquid comet headed rapidly towards a thick layer of cloud which obscured the universe below.
Dozens of huge pipes rose from this cloud, like giant trees in a tropical rain forest.  It was these pipes which supported the overhead network, like a canopy of branches.  Coloured dots ran up inside these massive trunks, feeding the falling shower with fresh supplies of rain.
It took several minutes for the comet to reach the cloud at the foot of these feeder pipes, and as it descended the atmosphere around it became increasingly dense.  As it penetrated the cloud it created a sonic shock which caused heavy rain to precipitate out.  This grew rapidly into a lightening storm which flashed between the feeder pipes like the lights of a security escort accompanying an important new visitor.
Less than a minute later the meteorite reached the inner universe.  This consisted of a massive pink liquid sphere, as thick as jelly, from which the feeder pipes stuck out like pins from a pin-cushion.  When the comet plunged into this surface, the energy of its impact immediately evaporated it, boiling it into a steam-cloud which blasted a hole in the pink surface.  A wave began to spread out from the point of impact across the viscous ocean, a slow-moving tsunami carrying a huge amount of energy.  Meanwhile the speck, released now from its enclosing liquid comet, sank rapidly into the pink surface and entered the universe proper.  It now found itself in a radically different environment.
The pink ocean and feeder pipes were nowhere to be seen.  Instead the speck was hurtling across a huge open space surrounded by distant walls of light.  It was moving faster than it should have been possible to move, according to the laws of physics inside this universe.  In a journey that should have taken hundreds of millions of years it traversed the empty space in a matter of minutes and approached one of these walls.
The wall contained millions of tiny dots of light arranged in clusters.  The speck hurtled between them, coming close to some until if finally approached one.  What from a distance had seemed like a tiny dot proved, from close-up, to be a huge oval array consisting of billions of smaller glowing balls of light.  The speck had found the stars.
Each star was far larger than the speck itself.  They were arranged in an oval with more stars at the centre than at the edges.  As the speck traversed this galaxy, still travelling at unnaturally high speed, each star it passed exerted a force which tended to slow it down.  But the speck was travelling so fast that it barely felt this force.  It emerged from the galaxy and passed through several more before it finally emerged from the wall of galaxies into another huge empty space, still travelling at colossal speed.
Once more it traversed the space and reached the opposite wall.  The whole universe was organised into a honeycomb-structure, almost empty spaces separated by sheets of millions of galaxies arranged in clusters.  The speck crossed many spaces, passed through many walls, entered many galaxies, passed close to many stars, gradually slowing down.  At lower speeds its path began to wander away from a straight line.  Instead it was pulled along a curving path, and the slower it went the more it curved.  It was following an invisible line drawn through space by magnetic fields.  It was the magnetic fields surrounding stars and permeating galaxies that were slowing the speck down.
Finally it was travelling slow enough to be captured by the field surrounding one of the stars.  It went into orbit.  Ahead of it was a tiny dark speck.  A planet.  A planet so small that its gravitational field alone would not have held the speck.  But the little lump of rock had something else, something emanating from its iron core: a magnetic field.  This it was which attracted the speck.  It followed the curving field lines, gaining speed as it slid down towards the planet’s surface.
And so it was that, after a journey lasting only a few hours, the speck reached the surface of planet Earth.

 

Chapter 2 from 11 April 2008

Maria awoke screaming with pain spreading slowly round into her back. It’s another contraction, she thought and began the breathing exercise they had taught her in the antenatal classes. As she relaxed she felt another pain, sharper and more worrying, stabbing into her abdomen. Something’s wrong. Very wrong.

She tried to feel her bump but her right arm would not move. Nor would her left. She opened her eyes and peeped out through the orange stretcher cover. Her arms were still held down by the enfolding plastic flaps. The firefighter, Robert, was still hanging beside her. She could see his grey uniform and the tangle of straps surrounding his chest. We must still be in the cavern.

The contraction tightened, the stabbing pain bit deeper and suddenly she remembered the blue thing hitting her. She remembered it very vividly. First there was a blue flash, then something pinged as it bounced off the huge beam pipe shield overhead. It came flying down and just missed Robert’s helmet. It hit me. Hit my bump. There was an unbelievable pain. I must have passed out.

We don’t seem to be moving. ‘What’s happening, Robert?’ she gasped, hardly able to speak from the pain.

He did not answer. She could not even see his face. His head and shoulders were hidden by a shifting green, red and black pattern. It glowed so brightly it made her squint. I must be having some kind of migraine. After the stress of this morning it’s not surprising.

She closed her eyes. Won’t be able to see anything clearly until it’s gone off. By then I should be in the hospital. My real problem is the pain. Robert can’t do anything about that. She sighed and realised how exhausted she was. Didn’t sleep much last night. That’s your fault, Liebling, she told the baby. Pity Daddy couldn’t come with us to the antenatal clinic this morning. I know he really wanted to, but he felt he just had to lead the ATLAS start-up shift. And then he had to come down and fix the fault.

I told him to go home. ‘You need some sleep,’ I said. The visitors had gone into the Electronics Room to see Michael. ‘You can’t work all night and all day.’

‘I can’t go home, Maria. I’ve got to help Michael Zhang.’ He looked so tired. Mind you, those white lights in the southern cavern would make anyone look ill.

‘Can’t somebody else do it?’

‘What, somebody like José Rodriguez, you mean? This problem started on my shift. It won’t look good if I just go home. The interview’s next week, remember?’

That’s your Daddy all over. He has to prove he’s the best. She breathed more slowly as the pain of the contraction died away. Thinking about Danny was helping her relax. I hope you’re not going to be born a worrier like him. Be more like me, Liebling. I didn’t want to tell him about it at first, but when Daddy asked me what happened at the clinic I just said ‘Please don’t worry about that now, Danny.’ Stupid girl! That set him off straight away.

‘Worry? What about?’

‘Everything’s okay, Schatz, except–’

‘Except? Except what?’

‘He’s breech, that’s all.’ I took his hand. ‘Now please don’t let’s talk about it now, Schatzling.’

‘But what does that mean, Maria? What is breech?’ It was obviously one of the English words Daddy didn’t know.

‘It just means his head is pointing up,’ I said. ‘It should be down by now, that’s all. He’s sort of sitting cross-legged.’

‘But isn’t that serious?’ he said.

‘No darling, it’s not at all serious. Come here. You haven’t given me a kiss yet.’

But even that didn’t relax him. When I told him the doctor wanted us to encourage you to turn, Daddy looked puzzled.

‘Encourage him?’

‘Hmmm.’

‘How are we going to do that?’

‘Well that’s where you come in, mein Schatz.’

‘Me? What have I got to do with it?’

Maria stopped talking to the baby as she remembered what happened next.

‘What you have to do…’ I began to giggle, pulled his hand down and rubbed it gently over the crotch of my trousers. ‘What the doctor wants you to do is to shine a light down here and, well, sing…’

‘You are joking, I hope?’ he said, glancing nervously at the Electronics Room door.

‘Oh come on, Danny. It’ll be fun. Give me a cuddle.’ She pressed his fingers into her groin. ‘Hmm, I wish we could start right now. I’m beginning to throb.’

Danny withdrew his hand. ‘Look, Maria, we’ll have to talk about this. Meet me in the–’ He broke off as a low-pitched warning hum began to tremble along the corridor. That was the start of it. The start of the disaster.

She glanced up out of the stretcher. The strange, coloured pattern was still there. It didn’t look like any migraine she had ever had before, but today was unlike any day she had ever lived through.

‘Robert,’ she called, louder than before. ‘What’s happening?’

 

Chapter 2 from 5 April 2008

Maria awoke with pain throbbing in her abdomen. Instinctively
she tried to feel the baby but her right arm wouldn’t move. Then she
remembered. There was a blue flash. Something had flown up from
below, very fast. It had hit the beam pipe shield overhead, making a
pinging sound. It had bounced off and come flying down, missing
Robert’s helmet, and hit her bump, where the baby was. There had
been an unbelievable pain. I must have passed out, she thought.
She tried to move her left arm but that was stuck too. She guessed
they were being held by the enfolding plastic flaps of the orange
stretcher cover. Was she still in the cavern, or had they reached the
helicopter while she was unconscious? She didn’t seem to be
moving. She opened her eyes.

The firefighter, Robert, was still hanging beside her. She could see
his grey uniform and the tangle of straps and ropes surrounding his
chest. They must still be in the cavern, but all she could see was a
faint green, red and black pattern. It was shifting about, the green
and black areas growing and shrinking, the red bands moving
sideways. I must be having a migraine, she thought. After all the
stress of this morning it was not surprising to get one. This didn’t
look like the normal flickering migraine pattern, but then it was very
dark in this cavern.

She closed her eyes, her anxiety growing, and waited for the
migraine to go away. She would not be able to see anything clearly
until it had gone off. They usually lasted an hour or so. By then she
should be in the hospital. Her real problem was the pain in her
abdomen, where the baby was. Robert couldn’t help with that.
She began breathing deeply, trying to relax. She was exhausted.
She hadn’t slept much last night, worrying about what the doctor
would say this morning at the antenatal clinic. Danny couldn’t go
with her; he had been working all night on the ATLAS start-up shift.
She had known there was something wrong with the baby even
before she went to the clinic. She hadn’t said anything to Danny
about it of course. He had enough to worry about with his job.
As she thought about the morning’s events, Maria felt herself relax.
She began to think about them in detail, trying to forget about the
delay in getting to the hospital. And it will be good to remember
what happened today, she thought. I want to tell you all about it
when you grow into a big boy. She breathed deeply and sank into a
reverie.

What the doctor told her had not been as bad as she had feared, but
he kept her talking and she was late getting to work. All she wanted
now was to go and see Danny and tell him the news, but the Director
General, Francesco Romani, was waiting to go into the Globe of
Innovation, so she had to park in the visitor’s car park and hurry
across the road to unlock the gate. Normally she would have worried
about being late, but this morning she had too many other things on
her mind.

Romani had introduced her to a VIP, the Irish Ambassador Brigit
Fitzpatrick and her husband and daughter. Maria had known there
was something wrong with the Ambassador’s daughter as soon as
she saw Catriona. Her wild ginger hair, the surly expression on her
pretty face and her whole demeanour showed she was full of teenage
angst.

The girl’s worries became manifest while Maria was giving her
welcoming speech in the centre of the circular wooden hall, with
everyone gathered to listen.

‘On behalf of the European Organization for Nuclear Research I
would like to welcome you all to the Globe of Innovation. This
exhibition shows you how the discoveries made here at CERN are
bringing benefits to the lives of people all over the world.’

She had just begun to repeat herself in French when Maria heard
Catriona say ‘Oh how lovely,’ in a stage-whisper.

Sam hissed ‘Shh’.

‘So you think everything they do here is good, do you Sam?’ the
girl said, speaking even louder. ‘No dangers or risks to anyone, eh?’

‘No, I mean yes, I do.’ Sam glanced at Maria, obviously
embarrassed.

She ignored them and began speaking in English again. ‘From the
invention of the World Wide Web, to improvements in medical
devices such as PET scanners, a wide range of discoveries made here
have improved the quality of all of our lives.’

‘But what about the risks?’ Catriona said so loudly that Maria
stopped speaking and everyone turned to look at her. Francesco
Romani was staring at her with a surprised expression, and the look
her mother gave her could have set her hair on fire.

Catriona made no more comments during the rest of the speech and
afterward Maria went over to speak to her.

She heard Sam say ‘What on Earth do you think you’re doing? No,
don’t tell me. I get it. You’re trying to embarrass your Mum and
make her send you home in–’

Maria hadn’t time to wait. She wanted to go and talk to Danny as
soon as possible. ‘Excuse me, she said. ‘I understand you have
some strong opinions about what we do here at CERN?’

‘I’m so sorry about this,’ Sam said, blushing slightly. ‘She’s very
upset about something else and is just using–’

‘Please don’t apologise,’ Maria said. ‘She is perfectly entitled to
her opinions.’ She turned to Catriona. ‘I’d just like the chance to talk
to you about them, if you don’t mind?’

‘No, no, I’d…I’d be glad to talk,’ Catriona stammered. She looked
embarrassed, but also defiant. ‘Is it true that you might create a black
hole here?’

‘Yes,’ Maria said. ‘We might create a micro black hole, if we’re
very lucky.’

‘But isn’t that dangerous? I saw a black hole in a movie once and
it swallowed this man. I think it’s really scary.’ There was a little
tremor of fear in her voice, but Maria couldn’t decide whether it was
real or just added for dramatic effect. The girl looked like a bit of an
actress, with that bright green blouse and the ring in her nose.

‘Now calm down Catty,’ Sam said.

‘Well of course we don’t know exactly what is going to happen,’
Maria said. ‘If we did there’d be no point in doing the experiment.
But I can assure you, there’s no danger. The risks involved have
been very carefully assessed.’

‘But how?’ Catriona said. ‘How can you assess something when
you don’t know what’s going to happen?’

‘I’m not a scientist so I can’t go into detail,’ Maria said, as she
always did when people asked this question, ‘but the idea is that we
use evidence from cosmic rays.’

‘Oh really?’ Sam sounded fascinated.

‘Cosmic what?’ Catriona looked confused.

‘Cosmic rays. Look, I’ll show you.’ Maria led them to a poster that
showed dots and squiggles coming down through the Earth’s
atmosphere. ‘Cosmic rays come from outer space. Millions of them
are hitting the Earth every second. In fact they’re passing through
your body right now, and the point is that some of them have far, far
greater energy than any of the particles we use here.’

Catriona shivered. ‘I’ve never heard about this before.’ She
sounded genuinely worried now.

‘And are those cosmic rays exactly the same as the particles you’re
using?’ Sam asked.

‘Yes, most of them are protons, the same as in the LHC. Actually
there are other things in cosmic rays beside protons but nevertheless–’

‘But what I want to know is,’ Catriona butted in, ‘if you create a
black hole then surely it could absorb stuff? Like even the whole
planet?’

Maria turned to her calmly and smiled. ‘But if that was going to
happen it would have happened already, with these cosmic rays.
They’ve been hitting the Earth for thousands of millions of years,
with far more energy than any we can make, without creating any
black holes, so I don’t think we’ll create one today. And do you
really think I would bring my baby here if there were any danger?’
Catriona glanced at the bulge hanging out of her gaping navy
jacket, stared straight into Maria’s eyes for a long moment, then
shrugged. ‘I guess not.’
Maria glanced up out of the stretcher. The strange, coloured
pattern was still there. She sighed, closed her eyes and tried to relax.
How ironic that the little Irish girl had been right about the black
hole while the world’s best scientists had been completely wrong.
She wondered why nobody had ever predicted that ATLAS might
capture a cosmic monopole, but then perhaps it wasn’t so surprising
since she had never even heard of a monopole before this morning.
Even now she knew very little about it. She breathed deeply, trying
to remember when she first heard about it.
She had escorted Sam and Catriona from the Globe to the ATLAS
Control Building. When she got there Alex told her that Francesco
and Madame Fitzpatrick had already gone into the Control Room.
She had left the two visitors with him while she went through to see
Danny, but wasn’t in the Control Room.

The went to ask the shift leader, the dark-haired French woman
Seline Soubise, where he was. Soubise must have taken over when
Danny’s shift ended. With her usual sour expression, Soubise told
her that there was a fault with the Muon Spectrometer and that
Danny and Michael Zhang had gone down into the USA15 cavern.
Then Francesco Romani came over. ‘I am taking Madame
Fitzpatrick down to see Michael Zhang,’ he said, his fat red face
beaming. ‘Please collect her famiglia and bring them to the lift.’
Maria got the impression from the twinkle in his eye that Romani
was up to something, probably trying to get money out of Ireland,
but Maria was happy since it meant she would soon see her husband.
She hurried back to collect Sam and Catriona. They were sitting
before a computer screen beside a young man in a bright yellow shirt
with designer sun-glasses perched on his thick black hair. Typical
Alex Karolyi, Maria thought. Dressed for the beach on a cold April
day in Switzerland. The two guests were staring at his computer
screen and laughing. Curious, Maria walked closer and saw a
simulated aeroplane fly through the middle of ATLAS.

‘So that shows you how big ATLAS is,’ Alex was saying.
Catriona seemed to be enjoying herself now. Maria watched her.
Had she fallen under Alex’s spell too? Maria had never met a
woman who didn’t have strong feelings about him, one way or the
other, so why not this teenage girl? ‘I’m sorry to spoil the party,’
Maria said, ‘but there’s a fault with the Muon Spectrometer.
Danny’s gone–’

‘Are you sure it’s a fault?’ Alex had said. ‘I know there are a lot of
missing energy events but I thought the cosmic ray had kicked off
something big.’

‘Cosmic ray?’ Maria said in surprise. ‘What cosmic ray?’

‘You haven’t seen it?’ Alex clicked the Mercator menu, entered a
number he had scribbled on a bit of paper and the record of an event
appeared on the screen, blue lines curving and spiralling inside
ATLAS. ‘This happened just after half-past nine.’ He zoomed out to
reveal a thick curved track with lots of short tracks coming off it.
Maria wasn’t a Mercator expert but even she could see how odd the
track looked, like a wide tapering strand of hairy wool.

‘I’ve never seen an event with this much energy,’ Alex said. ‘It
was only after this that all these missing energy events started. The
only explanation I can think of is that some sort of cosmic particle
was trapped by ATLAS.’

‘Seline didn’t mention it,’ Maria said. ‘I wonder if Danny knows
about this?’

Alex clicked the menu again. ‘I don’t think so. The only person
who has ever accessed this StoreGate record apart from me is
Michael Zhang.’

‘Hmm. I suppose he would have told Danny.’

‘Might have, might not. Michael’s in a world of his own most of
the time.’

‘True. I think you should let Danny know about it,’ Maria said.

‘Have you finished here?’

‘Yes, Mercator’s working fine now,’ he said, picking up the paper
then standing and stretching. His refined, musky smell reached her,
taking her back to that night on his boat late last summer. She felt
herself blushing at the memory of it but Alex did not seem to notice.

‘I’ll send you the bill when I get back to Budapest,’ he yawned and
waved the piece of paper. ‘I’ll just take this through to the Control
Room.’

‘No, Danny’s gone underground with Michael Zhang to check
ATLAS, and Professor Romani is taking Madame Fitzpatrick down
to see him.’

Alex gave her the paper. ‘Better give him this then. Tell him
that’s the StoreGate key.’

‘Actually that’s why I’ve come back,’ Maria said. ‘He’s invited
Catriona and Mr. Fitzpatrick to go down as well.’

Catriona went pale. ‘Is that…Will it be safe?’

‘Oh come on, Catty,’ Sam said quickly. ‘Don’t start that again.’

‘What’s the problem?’ Alex frowned.

‘Catriona’s afraid we’re going to all get sucked into a black hole,’
Maria said.

Catriona looked embarrassed. ‘Well I was sort-of worried when
we first got here and I found out you were trying to create a black
hole.’ She was talking very quickly, facing Alex but looking down at
the desk. ‘But then Maria explained that it was safe because of these
cosmic rays and everything.’

‘Cosmic rays?’ Alex looked mystified.

‘I explained that our protons have far less energy than many
cosmic rays. Come on, folks. Time to go.’

Sam and Catriona stood up.

Alex was looking at the screen. ‘You’re right, of course, but by the
look of that track I’d say we’ve somehow captured an ultra-highenergy
cosmic particle. But nothing bad’s happened, has it, Kata?
We haven’t created a black hole, have we? I think you’ll find you’re
safe enough.’

‘So, just a minute,’ Sam said to Alex. ‘You’re saying that ATLAS
captured a high energy cosmic ray?’

‘That’s what I think, Mr. Fitzpatrick.’

‘And you’re saying,’ Sam turned to Maria, ‘that afterwards ATLAS
developed some sort of hardware fault?’

‘Apparently,’ Maria said.

‘So has the cosmic ray damaged ATLAS?’ He was looking from
one to the other.

‘I’d say that’s possible,’ Alex said. ‘What do you think, Maria?’

‘All I know is that Danny and Michael have gone down to check a
fault. Nobody said anything about any damage. Come on now,
please.’

She led the guests towards the door. Alex stood and followed.

‘I’d quite like to go down and see what they’ve found,’ Alex said.

‘Would you mind if I come with you, Maria?’

Maria shook her head. ‘No, I don’t mind, but we’ve got to go now.
Professor Romani and Madam Fitzpatrick are waiting for us in SDX.
Here, you want to look after this?’ She gave him back the piece of
paper.

‘Come on then, little Kata, let’s you and I stick together.’ Alex
looped his arm through Catriona’s. ‘Then if the scientists do create a
black hole, it will have to absorb both of us.’

She turned pink with pleasure and Maria heard Mr. Fitzpatrick give
a sort of snort as he followed them through the door.

 

Chapter 2

This version created Easter Day 2008 and updated on 26 March.

Maria awoke with pain throbbing in her abdomen. Instinctively
she tried to feel the baby but her right arm wouldn’t move. Then she
remembered. There was a blue flash. Something had flown up from
below, very fast. It had hit the beam pipe shield overhead, making a
pinging sound. It had bounced off and come flying down, missing
Robert’s helmet, and hit her bump, where the baby was. There had
been an unbelievable pain. I must have passed out, she thought.
She tried to move her left arm but that was stuck too. She guessed
they were being held by the enfolding plastic flaps of the orange
stretcher cover. Was she still in the cavern, or had they reached the
helicopter while she was unconscious? She didn’t seem to be
moving. She opened her eyes.
The firefighter, Robert, was still hanging beside her. She could see
his grey uniform and the tangle of straps and ropes surrounding his
chest. They must still be in the cavern, but all she could see was a
faint green, red and black pattern. It was shifting about, the green
and black areas growing and shrinking, the red bands moving
sideways. I must be having a migraine, she thought. After all the
stress of this morning it was not surprising to get one. This didn’t
look like the normal flickering migraine pattern, but then it was very
dark in this cavern.
She closed her eyes, her anxiety growing, and waited for the
migraine to go away. She would not be able to see anything clearly
until it had gone off. They usually lasted an hour or so. By then she
should be in the hospital. Her real problem was the pain in her
abdomen, where the baby was. Robert couldn’t help with that.
She began breathing deeply, trying to relax. She was exhausted.
She hadn’t slept much last night, worrying about what the doctor
would say this morning at the antenatal clinic. Danny couldn’t go
with her; he had been working all night on the ATLAS start-up shift.
She had known there was something wrong with the baby even
before she went to the clinic. She hadn’t said anything to Danny
about it of course. He had enough to worry about with his job.
As she thought about the morning’s events, Maria felt herself relax.
She began to think about them in detail, trying to forget about the
delay in getting to the hospital. And it will be good to remember
what happened today, she thought. I want to tell you all about it
when you grow into a big boy. She breathed deeply and sank into a
reverie.
# # # #
What the doctor told her had not been as bad as she had feared, but
he kept her talking and she was late getting to work. All she wanted
now was to go and see Danny and tell him the news, but the Director
General, Francesco Romani, was waiting to go into the Globe of
Innovation, so she had to park in the visitor’s car park and hurry
across the road to unlock the gate. Normally she would have worried
about being late, but this morning she had too many other things on
her mind.
Romani had introduced her to a VIP, the Irish Ambassador Brigit
Fitzpatrick and her husband and daughter. Maria had known there
was something wrong with the Ambassador’s daughter as soon as
she saw Catriona. Her wild ginger hair, the surly expression on her
pretty face and her whole demeanour showed she was full of teenage
angst.
The girl’s worries became manifest while Maria was giving her
welcoming speech in the centre of the circular wooden hall, with
everyone gathered to listen.
‘On behalf of the European Organization for Nuclear Research I
would like to welcome you all to the Globe of Innovation. This
exhibition shows you how the discoveries made here at CERN are
bringing benefits to the lives of people all over the world.’
She had just begun to repeat herself in French when Maria heard
Catriona say ‘Oh how lovely,’ in a stage-whisper.
Sam hissed ‘Shh’.
‘So you think everything they do here is good, do you Sam?’ the
girl said, speaking even louder. ‘No dangers or risks to anyone, eh?’
‘No, I mean yes, I do.’ Sam glanced at Maria, obviously
embarrassed.
She ignored them and began speaking in English again. ‘From the
invention of the World Wide Web, to improvements in medical
devices such as PET scanners, a wide range of discoveries made here
have improved the quality of all of our lives.’
‘But what about the risks?’ Catriona said so loudly that Maria
stopped speaking and everyone turned to look at her. Francesco
Romani was staring at her with a surprised expression, and the look
her mother gave her could have set her hair on fire.
Catriona made no more comments during the rest of the speech and
afterward Maria went over to speak to her.
She heard Sam say ‘What on Earth do you think you’re doing? No,
don’t tell me. I get it. You’re trying to embarrass your Mum and
make her send you home in–’
Maria hadn’t time to wait. She wanted to go and talk to Danny as
soon as possible. ‘Excuse me, she said. ‘I understand you have
some strong opinions about what we do here at CERN?’
‘I’m so sorry about this,’ Sam said, blushing slightly. ‘She’s very
upset about something else and is just using–’
‘Please don’t apologise,’ Maria said. ‘She is perfectly entitled to
her opinions.’ She turned to Catriona. ‘I’d just like the chance to talk
to you about them, if you don’t mind?’
‘No, no, I’d…I’d be glad to talk,’ Catriona stammered. She looked
embarrassed, but also defiant. ‘Is it true that you might create a black
hole here?’
‘Yes,’ Maria said. ‘We might create a micro black hole, if we’re
very lucky.’
‘But isn’t that dangerous? I saw a black hole in a movie once and
it swallowed this man. I think it’s really scary.’ There was a little
tremor of fear in her voice, but Maria couldn’t decide whether it was
real or just added for dramatic effect. The girl looked like a bit of an
actress, with that bright green blouse and the ring in her nose.
‘Now calm down Catty,’ Sam said.
‘Well of course we don’t know exactly what is going to happen,’
Maria said. ‘If we did there’d be no point in doing the experiment.
But I can assure you, there’s no danger. The risks involved have
been very carefully assessed.’
‘But how?’ Catriona said. ‘How can you assess something when
you don’t know what’s going to happen?’
‘I’m not a scientist so I can’t go into detail,’ Maria said, as she
always did when people asked this question, ‘but the idea is that we
use evidence from cosmic rays.’
‘Oh really?’ Sam sounded fascinated.
‘Cosmic what?’ Catriona looked confused.
‘Cosmic rays. Look, I’ll show you.’ Maria led them to a poster that
showed dots and squiggles coming down through the Earth’s
atmosphere. ‘Cosmic rays come from outer space. Millions of them
are hitting the Earth every second. In fact they’re passing through
your body right now, and the point is that some of them have far, far
greater energy than any of the particles we use here.’
Catriona shivered. ‘I’ve never heard about this before.’ She
sounded genuinely worried now.
‘And are those cosmic rays exactly the same as the particles you’re
using?’ Sam asked.
‘Yes, most of them are protons, the same as in the LHC. Actually
there are other things in cosmic rays beside protons but nevertheless–
’
‘But what I want to know is,’ Catriona butted in, ‘if you create a
black hole then surely it could absorb stuff? Like even the whole
planet?’
Maria turned to her calmly and smiled. ‘But if that was going to
happen it would have happened already, with these cosmic rays.
They’ve been hitting the Earth for thousands of millions of years,
with far more energy than any we can make, without creating any
black holes, so I don’t think we’ll create one today. And do you
really think I would bring my baby here if there were any danger?’
Catriona glanced at the bulge hanging out of her gaping navy
jacket, stared straight into Maria’s eyes for a long moment, then
shrugged. ‘I guess not.’
# # # #
Maria glanced up out of the stretcher. The strange, coloured
pattern was still there. She sighed, closed her eyes and tried to relax.
How ironic that the little Irish girl had been right about the black
hole while the world’s best scientists had been completely wrong.
She wondered why nobody had ever predicted that ATLAS might
capture a cosmic monopole, but then perhaps it wasn’t so surprising
since she had never even heard of a monopole before this morning.
Even now she knew very little about it. She breathed deeply, trying
to remember when she first heard about it.
# # # #
She had escorted Sam and Catriona from the Globe to the ATLAS
Control Building. When she got there Alex told her that Francesco
and Madame Fitzpatrick had already gone into the Control Room.
She had left the two visitors with him while she went through to see
Danny, but wasn’t in the Control Room.
The went to ask the shift leader, the dark-haired French woman
Seline Soubise, where he was. Soubise must have taken over when
Danny’s shift ended. With her usual sour expression, Soubise told
her that there was a fault with the Muon Spectrometer and that
Danny and Michael Zhang had gone down into the USA15 cavern.
Then Francesco Romani came over. ‘I am taking Madame
Fitzpatrick down to see Michael Zhang,’ he said, his fat red face
beaming. ‘Please collect her famiglia and bring them to the lift.’
Maria got the impression from the twinkle in his eye that Romani
was up to something, probably trying to get money out of Ireland,
but Maria was happy since it meant she would soon see her husband.
She hurried back to collect Sam and Catriona. They were sitting
before a computer screen beside a young man in a bright yellow shirt
with designer sun-glasses perched on his thick black hair. Typical
Alex Karolyi, Maria thought. Dressed for the beach on a cold April
day in Switzerland. The two guests were staring at his computer
screen and laughing. Curious, Maria walked closer and saw a
simulated aeroplane fly through the middle of ATLAS.
‘So that shows you how big ATLAS is,’ Alex was saying.
Catriona seemed to be enjoying herself now. Maria watched her.
Had she fallen under Alex’s spell too? Maria had never met a
woman who didn’t have strong feelings about him, one way or the
other, so why not this teenage girl? ‘I’m sorry to spoil the party,’
Maria said, ‘but there’s a fault with the Muon Spectrometer.
Danny’s gone–’
‘Are you sure it’s a fault?’ Alex had said. ‘I know there are a lot of
missing energy events but I thought the cosmic ray had kicked off
something big.’
‘Cosmic ray?’ Maria said in surprise. ‘What cosmic ray?’
‘You haven’t seen it?’ Alex clicked the Mercator menu, entered a
number he had scribbled on a bit of paper and the record of an event
appeared on the screen, blue lines curving and spiralling inside
ATLAS. ‘This happened just after half-past nine.’ He zoomed out to
reveal a thick curved track with lots of short tracks coming off it.
Maria wasn’t a Mercator expert but even she could see how odd the
track looked, like a wide tapering strand of hairy wool.
‘I’ve never seen an event with this much energy,’ Alex said. ‘It
was only after this that all these missing energy events started. The
only explanation I can think of is that some sort of cosmic particle
was trapped by ATLAS.’
‘Seline didn’t mention it,’ Maria said. ‘I wonder if Danny knows
about this?’
Alex clicked the menu again. ‘I don’t think so. The only person
who has ever accessed this StoreGate record apart from me is
Michael Zhang.’
‘Hmm. I suppose he would have told Danny.’
‘Might have, might not. Michael’s in a world of his own most of
the time.’
‘True. I think you should let Danny know about it,’ Maria said.
‘Have you finished here?’
‘Yes, Mercator’s working fine now,’ he said, picking up the paper
then standing and stretching. His refined, musky smell reached her,
taking her back to that night on his boat late last summer. She felt
herself blushing at the memory of it but Alex did not seem to notice.
‘I’ll send you the bill when I get back to Budapest,’ he yawned and
waved the piece of paper. ‘I’ll just take this through to the Control
Room.’
‘No, Danny’s gone underground with Michael Zhang to check
ATLAS, and Professor Romani is taking Madame Fitzpatrick down
to see him.’
Alex gave her the paper. ‘Better give him this then. Tell him
that’s the StoreGate key.’
‘Actually that’s why I’ve come back,’ Maria said. ‘He’s invited
Catriona and Mr. Fitzpatrick to go down as well.’
Catriona went pale. ‘Is that…Will it be safe?’
‘Oh come on, Catty,’ Sam said quickly. ‘Don’t start that again.’
‘What’s the problem?’ Alex frowned.
‘Catriona’s afraid we’re going to all get sucked into a black hole,’
Maria said.
Catriona looked embarrassed. ‘Well I was sort-of worried when
we first got here and I found out you were trying to create a black
hole.’ She was talking very quickly, facing Alex but looking down at
the desk. ‘But then Maria explained that it was safe because of these
cosmic rays and everything.’
‘Cosmic rays?’ Alex looked mystified.
‘I explained that our protons have far less energy than many
cosmic rays. Come on, folks. Time to go.’
Sam and Catriona stood up.
Alex was looking at the screen. ‘You’re right, of course, but by the
look of that track I’d say we’ve somehow captured an ultra-highenergy
cosmic particle. But nothing bad’s happened, has it, Kata?
We haven’t created a black hole, have we? I think you’ll find you’re
safe enough.’
‘So, just a minute,’ Sam said to Alex. ‘You’re saying that ATLAS
captured a high energy cosmic ray?’
‘That’s what I think, Mr. Fitzpatrick.’
‘And you’re saying,’ Sam turned to Maria, ‘that afterwards ATLAS
developed some sort of hardware fault?’
‘Apparently,’ Maria said.
‘So has the cosmic ray damaged ATLAS?’ He was looking from
one to the other.
‘I’d say that’s possible,’ Alex said. ‘What do you think, Maria?’
‘All I know is that Danny and Michael have gone down to check a
fault. Nobody said anything about any damage. Come on now,
please.’
She led the guests towards the door. Alex stood and followed.
‘I’d quite like to go down and see what they’ve found,’ Alex said.
‘Would you mind if I come with you, Maria?’
Maria shook her head. ‘No, I don’t mind, but we’ve got to go now.
Professor Romani and Madam Fitzpatrick are waiting for us in SDX.
Here, you want to look after this?’ She gave him back the piece of
paper.
‘Come on then, little Kata, let’s you and I stick together.’ Alex
looped his arm through Catriona’s. ‘Then if the scientists do create a
black hole, it will have to absorb both of us.’
She turned pink with pleasure and Maria heard Mr. Fitzpatrick give
a sort of snort as he followed them through the door.

 

Chapter 2 from 30 January 2008

Version created 30 January 2008

Looking down from the balcony, Catriona could see the black hole drifting towards the magnet-tube thing that Sam was holding. She heard the firefighter hanging almost level with her say ‘Everything’s going to be all right, Maria.’ On the floor below, Sam and Michael were holding up the tube, aiming it like a gun, as if they were taking part in some grotesque TV competition.
She heard Michael shout ‘Turn the power on Kissov!’
‘This is it,’ she whispered, hardly daring to speak, and grabbed Alex’s hand. It wrapped around hers like a big warm glove. One fireman began to run down the stairs, the other along the balcony behind them, shouting at each other in French.
Then she heard Danny say ‘Here goes.’
Immediately she saw the black hole swerved, heading down faster, going straight down towards the tube, the two men, the cavern floor, the Earth.
‘Oh no!’ she screamed. ‘Sam! The black hole’s…’ The hole touched the magnet; her voice died. It happened so quickly, in a blur that seemed to last forever.
Without a sound the magnet, Sam and Michael swirled into a whirlpool, shrinking before her eyes, falling into a maelstrom, spinning faster, vanishing in the blink of an eye. ‘They’ve gone!’ Before she knew what had happened it was all over.
‘Like a vacuum cleaner…’ Alex sounded dazed too.
Catriona blinked again, hoping her eyes would tell a different story, but still she couldn’t see them. They weren’t there! And the shape of them still fresh in her mind, like the memory of a dream. Where’ve you gone Sam? Her mind was reeling. This can’t be happening.
At last Catriona found her voice. ‘Sam!’ she screamed, ‘Sam! Sam! Sam!’ But he didn’t answer. All she could see was the black hole moving where the tube had been, where Sam had been. Now she saw, more clearly than she had ever seen in her life before, how much she loved him. He was a thoroughly good, kind, generous man who was always there for her when she needed him, while her selfish bitch of a Mother was out pursuing her own career. And now he wasn’t there any more.
‘It’s swallowed them.’ Alex couldn’t believe it either.
She felt nauseous, looked away, gripped his hand tighter. ‘What’s happening?’
‘It’s still moving. I think it’s going to hit the ground.’
‘I can’t watch.’ But even as she said it her head turned, she peered over the handrail as if forced to look. Hypnotized by horror, Catriona saw the black hole hit the ground, saw a blinding flash of bright blue light, heard Maria screa

 

Chapter 2

Version created 30 January 2008

Looking down from the balcony, Catriona could see the black hole drifting towards the magnet-tube thing that Sam was holding. She heard the firefighter hanging almost level with her say ‘Everything’s going to be all right, Maria.’ On the floor below, Sam and Michael were holding up the tube, aiming it like a gun, as if they were taking part in some grotesque TV competition.
She heard Michael shout ‘Turn the power on Kissov!’
‘This is it,’ she whispered, hardly daring to speak, and grabbed Alex’s hand. It wrapped around hers like a big warm glove. One fireman began to run down the stairs, the other along the balcony behind them, shouting at each other in French.
Then she heard Danny say ‘Here goes.’
Immediately she saw the black hole swerved, heading down faster, going straight down towards the tube, the two men, the cavern floor, the Earth.
‘Oh no!’ she screamed. ‘Sam! The black hole’s…’ The hole touched the magnet; her voice died. It happened so quickly, in a blur that seemed to last forever.
Without a sound the magnet, Sam and Michael swirled into a whirlpool, shrinking before her eyes, falling into a maelstrom, spinning faster, vanishing in the blink of an eye. ‘They’ve gone!’ Before she knew what had happened it was all over.
‘Like a vacuum cleaner…’ Alex sounded dazed too.
Catriona blinked again, hoping her eyes would tell a different story, but still she couldn’t see them. They weren’t there! And the shape of them still fresh in her mind, like the memory of a dream. Where’ve you gone Sam? Her mind was reeling. This can’t be happening.
At last Catriona found her voice. ‘Sam!’ she screamed, ‘Sam! Sam! Sam!’ But he didn’t answer. All she could see was the black hole moving where the tube had been, where Sam had been. Now she saw, more clearly than she had ever seen in her life before, how much she loved him. He was a thoroughly good, kind, generous man who was always there for her when she needed him, while her selfish bitch of a Mother was out pursuing her own career. And now he wasn’t there any more.
‘It’s swallowed them.’ Alex couldn’t believe it either.
She felt nauseous, looked away, gripped his hand tighter. ‘What’s happening?’
‘It’s still moving. I think it’s going to hit the ground.’
‘I can’t watch.’ But even as she said it her head turned, she peered over the handrail as if forced to look. Hypnotized by horror, Catriona saw the black hole hit the ground, saw a blinding flash of bright blue light, heard Maria screa

 

Chapter 2 from 11 August 2007

This version of Chapter 2 is included for archival and references purposes. It might be of interest to students of literature. Or perhaps not…

Comment on this page and you might win a free cockroach pet!

Michael Riley stared at the Mercator screen trying to work out what had happened. Event 219 at 09:34:23.27 showed a thick black track curving down across the inner parts of ATLAS, spawning secondary particles as it went and finally stopping inside the beam pipe near the Intersection Point. It was totally unlike any track Michael had ever seen.

Particle obviously entered from above. Clearly wasn’t generated inside ATLAS. Could only have been a cosmic particle. Secondary tracks densely packed. Must have been travelling very slowly. So it must have been massive. Secondary tracks taper down to a point. Particle obviously slowing down. Why? Only force acting on it is ATLAS’s magnetic field. So particle must have a magnetic charge!

The Introduction to his doctoral thesis immediately sprang into his mind. After working on it for three years he could remember every word and almost every reference.

PhD Thesis
Persistent Micro Black Holes
Michael Hamilton Riley
Dublin May 1997

Introduction
This Thesis examines the consequences of combining two ideas from modern physics, magnetic monopoles and black holes, to predict a new type of particle, persistent micro black holes.

Magnetic Monopoles
From his study of quantum mechanics Dirac[1] predicted the existence of a magnetic monopole, a particle containing a single magnetic charge in the same way that an electron contains a single electric charge. Grand Unified Theories of the origin of fundamental physical forces indicate that one or more magnetic monopoles might have been created during the early stages of the Big Bang. No such monopole has ever been observed but many theoreticians believe that there could be many in the Universe and that there must be at least one[2].

Black Holes
General relativity leads us to expect there are two types of black hole. Large ones such as those found at the centres of galaxies and very small ones such as might be created in high energy particle accelerators. Quantum theory predicts that the small ones would immediately evaporate by the process of Hawking Radiation[3].

Persistent Micro Black Holes
In this Thesis I will show that if a small black hole could contain a magnetic monopole then it would last for a measurable period before it evaporated. I conclude that its lifetime would depend on its magnetic charge but should be of the order of 100 minutes.

=============

[1] Dirac PAM “Quantized Singularities in the Electromagnetic Field” Proceedings of the Royal Society A 133 (1931) 60-72.

[2] See for example Bagoly Z, Lukacs B, Paal G “Monopole abundance from first-order GUT phase transition of the early Universe” Astronomische Nachrichten, 308,2 (1987) 143-148.

[3] Hawking SW “Particle creation by black holes” Nature 248 (1974) 30.

==========

Michael looked again at the particle track. What you would expect from a magnetic monopole. Came to rest inside the beam pipe. Might be near enough to the beams to absorb some high energy protons. Monopole might grow. Could even develop into a black hole! A cold shiver ran down his back. A black hole containing a magnetic monopole! Here was a unique opportunity to test his thesis but he also knew the experiment could be dangerous. If it comes out of the beam pipe and enters ATLAS it will cause extensive damage. But the knowledge gained would be worth it. Might even be able to use ATLAS to track the black hole and measure its mass, magnetic charge and lifetime.

His eyes narrowed. Should tell Kissov about this. But Michael knew that Danny Kissov would want to protect ATLAS. He’ll stop beam intersection and power ATLAS down hoping that the monopole won’t grow into a black hole. That would be a criminal waste of an opportunity. He decided to say nothing about it for the moment. If Kissov was doing his job right then he would find the track himself soon enough. And if he wasn’t and the monopole really did grow into a black hole then it would be too late to do anything to stop it.

Catriona stood in the car looking back down the road watching aeroplanes flying in and out of the airport. She was so angry with her mother she felt like kicking her car. Brigit had cancelled her flight as well as Sam’s. Typical. She expects us to stay here and help her just because she can’t manage on her own. I should have known she didn’t invite us over just for an Easter holiday. Well I’m going home next week whatever happens. I’ll ask Sam to lend me the money for a new ticket. I’ll go and stay with Aislyn’s family.

Catriona was still thinking what Aislyn would say about this when her mother said “Francesco, may I introduce Catriona, my daughter?” Brigit was walking down the Reception building steps beside a fat man in a dark suit, waving towards Catriona like a queen beckoning a courtier.

“Catriona, may I introduce Professor Romani,” Brigit said, “the Director General of CERN.”

The fat man leaned forward to kiss Catriona’s cheek. “Delighted to meet you, Signorina,” he said. “Please call me Francesco.”

The smell of tobacco on his breath made Catriona feel sick. Before he could kiss her she reached out and took his hand. “Hi,” she said, shaking his hand briefly.

Brigit scowled at her as she walked away across the car park beside Francesco.

“Come on Catty,” Sam said, taking her arm and leading her after them. “What d’you think of the Globe of Innovation?”

Catriona glanced at the huge dark brown wooden dome ahead of them on the other side of the main road. It rose high into the watery sky like a half-inflated balloon surrounded by grey concrete buildings and tall electricity pylons, short steaming chimneys and anonymous glass offices.

“I hate it,” she said. “I hate this whole place. It’s so ugly.”

“My, we are in a bad mood today,” Sam said. “The Globe isn’t ugly. And just look at those mountains. We could go skiing and–”

“There’s no way I’m staying here, Sam,” Catriona snapped as they waited at the roadside. “I don’t care what she says. I’m going home next week no matter what you do. Can you lend me the money for a ticket?”

A white car stopped at the black and yellow crossing. Sam waved thank-you to the pretty young lady driver but he didn’t answer the question.

Chapter 3

 

Chapter 2 from 19 November 2007

Shocking News

(This version created 19 November 2007)

From the farmhouse doorway Catriona watched Sam lug the heavy bag across the cobbled yard like a hotel porter as the rain plastered what was left of his hair to the back of his head. All you are, Sam Fitzpatrick, is an unpaid servant. Elegant and graceful, her mother strolled lazily beside him in the shelter of the umbrella he held high above her with his other hand. Why do you dote on her like this? Brigit folded herself into the BMW’s back seat, her bust bulging out of her vermilion trouser-suit. Sam closed the door and hurried with the bag round the car. I’d have thought her flaunting herself would have made you mad, but you seen to like it. Sam put the bag on the seat beside Brigit, bent over to listen as she said something, and came back frowning through the rain, his mousy moustache twisted thoughtfully to one side. You look more like her father than her husband, Sam. I wonder what would have happened if my father hadn’t…

“Come on Catty. You’re next.” He held the umbrella up, waiting for her.

“Why do I have to go, Sam? I don’t want to go to some boring science place. I’ll be all right here on my own. I’ll catch a bus into town and walk round the lake or something.”

“Your mother would kill me if I let you do that on your own. She’s been missing you for the past two months. She wants you with her.”

Well you wouldn’t think so, the way she’s treated me over the past three days. “Does she really? Are you sure?”

“Don’t start that again. Come on. You’ll enjoy it when you get there. It’s going to be really interesting.” He gently pulled her out of the doorway into the shelter of his umbrella and they hurried through the rain to the car. “You did really well at breakfast. No arguments.”

“That’s because I didn’t speak to her. It was the only way I could think of to keep my promise. But I don’t really want a Swiss watch for my birthday. Maybe next year, on my sixteenth–”

“I’ve promised you a watch and a watch you shall have, provided there are no more arguments before the end of this holiday.”

“But they’re so expensive, Sam.”

“Forget about that now. Just try to be a bit more understanding. And please try to talk to her nicely. She’s really having a hard time at the moment.” He opened the front passenger door and she climbed in. “Look, I’ve got something here you might like to look at during the drive.” He handed her a damp newspaper.

Catriona sat looking at it as he ran round to the driver’s side. Tribune de Genève. It’s all in French. Why would I– Then she noticed the photograph and her heart stopped. Kieran Gamble’s dark smouldering eyes burned up at her off the front page.

“Can you read any of it?” Sam said, starting the engine.

Catriona stared uncomprehendingly at the newspaper as Sam smiled sideways at her and reversed the car into the road. “It must be something to do with the Eurovision Song Contest, I suppose.”

“Sam!” Brigit shouted from the back seat. “You’re driving on the wrong side!”

“Oops!” Sam swerved to the right and drove slowly up to the junction. “Left or right, Bee?”

“Left. Here.” She waved a map in the gap between the front seats.

“Can you get that Catty?”

Catriona laid Kieran lovingly on her lap. As she took the map and unfolded it, she began to sing ‘Don’t worry’ at the top of her voice. It’s not his greatest song by any means, but Ireland won last year and–

“For God’s sake Catriona,” Brigit shouted. “Shut up!”

Catriona stopped singing, twisted round and locked eyeballs with her mother.

“See this?” Brigit waved a large book in her daughter’s face. The words United Nations and Sustainable Development and Coherence Policy jumbled themselves up before Catriona’s eyes. “I’ve got to master all this for a meeting at one o’clock and I’ve still got to plough through all those.” Her torrent of blonde curls cascaded around her face as she nodded at the documents filling the bag. “How can I concentrate with you making that bloody noise?”

Bloody noise? Despite her best efforts, angry words boiled out of Catriona. “It’s not my fault you can’t cope here! You should never have come. Sam told you to stay in Irish television. You were good at that.”

“Why you impertinent little–”

“Now then Catty, that’s enough.” Sam said. “I need your help. Have a look at that map and see if you can work out where CERN is.”

Catriona stared blindly at the map, telling herself to calm down. She hardly thought about the watch. Only another twelve days and we can go home. At the thought of home her heart lurched. She was standing before the terrace of Victorian houses in a tree-lined Dublin avenue. Since Mother had left it had been so much nicer, especially when Sam let Aislyn stay over.

“Just turn right at the main road and go straight past the airport Sam,” Brigit said as if she was stating the obvious. “It’s out there somewhere.”

“Right ho.”

Catriona glanced at him. She treats you like a dog and you just wag your tail. Why? She tossed the map aside and plugged in her earphones to play Kieran’s latest album but the iPod’s battery was flat. She sighed and looked out of the window. Sam was driving up a long straight road past the airport. Stumpy street lights squatted under aircraft flying low across the road.

“Have you told her yet?” Brigit said.

“Told me what?”

“Evidently not.”

“I was going to talk to her about it this afternoon when you went to your UN meeting.”

“I think you’d better tell her.”

“Tell me what, Sam?” Catriona could hear the panic in her own voice.

“Brigit…Your mother…She wants us to stay here.”

“Stay here? What, at the airport?” While she said it she realised it was stupid, but she couldn’t think what else he could mean. After all, there were some posh hotels…

“No, Catty. She wants us to stay with her in Geneva.”

“Stay in Geneva? You mean stay after the Easter holiday? Not go home?” She began to tremble, staring straight ahead, trying very hard to stay calm. Through the windscreen the other cars looked very small and far away. She was aware that the rain had almost stopped. The world was going about it’s business as if nothing had happened. The sky above was turning blue. A distant mountain range dusted with icing sugar stretched right across the horizon ahead of them. A froth of high spring cloud bubbled above the white peaks. “She wants me to leave school, leave Dublin, come and live here? But why?” And even as she said it the answer dawned on her. “She can’t cope, Sam, and she wants you here as an unpaid servant. Surely you can see that? That’s all you’ve ever been for her. But I bet she doesn’t really want me to stay.”

“Now it’s not like that at all. She really is missing you, missing us both.”

“Oh, by the way, Sam,” Brigit said. “I forgot to tell you. I’ve cancelled your flight back.”

The car swerved across the double white line in the middle of the road, but Sam managed to avoid the oncoming bus quite easily.

Chapter 3