The Strange Physics of the Heidelberg Laboratory Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Series

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Introduction/Explanation

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

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  About the Authors

  Bookmark

  Notes

  Notes

  Ultimate Ending

  Book 6

  The

  Strange Physics

  Of The

  Heidelberg Laboratory

  Check out the full

  ULTIMATE ENDING BOOKS

  Series:

  Treasures of the Forgotten City

  The House on Hollow Hill

  The Ship at the Edge of Time

  Enigma at the Greensboro Zoo

  The Secret of the Aurora Hotel

  The Strange Physics of the Heidelberg Laboratory

  The Tower of Never There

  Copyright © 2016 Ultimate Ending

  www.UltimateEndingBooks.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form without prior consent of the authors.

  Cover design by Milan Jaram www.MilanJaram.com

  Internal artwork by Jaime Buckley www.jaimebuckley.com

  Reactor Core artwork by Radeartos

  Enjoyed this book? Please take the time to leave a review on Amazon.

  Dedicated to Lucas.

  May you have many adventures to choose!

  Welcome to Ultimate Ending,

  where YOU choose the story!

  That's right -- everything that happens in this book is a result of decisions YOU make. So choose wisely!

  But also be careful. Throughout this book you'll find tricks and traps, trials and tribulations! Most you can avoid with common sense and a logical approach to problem solving. Others will require a little bit of luck. Having a coin handy, or a pair of dice, will make your adventure even more fun. So grab em' if you got em'!

  Along the way you'll also find tips, clues, and even items that can help you in your quest. You'll meet people. Pick stuff up. Taking note of these things is often important, so while you're gathering your courage, you might also want to grab yourself a pencil and a sheet of paper.

  Keep in mind, there are many ways to end the story. Some conclusions are good... some not so good.

  Some of them are even great!

  But remember:

  There is only ONE

  ULTIMATE

  ENDING!

  7

  Welcome to the Heidelberg Physics Laboratory!

  You are JEREMY HELLER, a recent graduate from the prestigious University of Zurich, where you received a Masters Degree in particle physics. You've got your first real job working at the Heidelberg Physics Laboratory, high in the Swiss Alps. Everyone from your university applied for the position, but you were the only one to be accepted. You can't believe how lucky you are!

  You've only been working there a week, but already the laboratory is full of excitement. Built deep within the mountain is a particle accelerator, a long oval-shaped track that shoots atoms around and around really fast. The atoms are smashed into other atoms close to the speed of light, and the laboratory measures the pieces that come out. Cool!

  Today is an especially important day. After months of testing, the physicists at the laboratory are smashing atoms together in a way that they hope will reveal a new sub-atomic particle: the Causality Neutrino. It would be the greatest physics discovery in the past century. And you might be a part of it!

  You're all ready to get to work. You're wearing your white lab coat over dress clothes, and are riding the gondola all the way to the top of the mountain. From there you will need to take an elevator deep underground. Building the laboratory deep within the mountain ensures that the equipment is shielded by thousands of meters of rock, in case anything goes wrong. Although that seems highly unlikely--the physicists there are the best in the world!

  You step off the gondola onto the mountain peak. The wind whips your lab coat all around, and the air feels like a thousand tiny needles on your face. The elevator is directly in front of you. Better get inside!

  8

  You hear the distant sound of machinery slowly grinding to life. The elevator is beginning to make its journey all the way to the surface. The wind is especially chilling this day, and already you can feel your black hair freezing to your head. Instead of wearing your nicest clothes for the demonstration, maybe you should have dressed warmer!

  There's a muted ding as the elevator car arrives. The doors open slowly, and you jump through before they've barely opened. You press your shoulder against the wall of the car, tr
ying to stay as far from the door as possible.

  There are only two buttons: 'S' for Surface, and 'L' for Laboratory. You punch the 'L' with frozen fingers and the button glows yellow.

  "Hey, wait!" drifts a voice from outside.

  Did you imagine it? You lean your head sideways to take a look. The gondola station is a hundred feet away, and a new car has just come to a stop, rocking slightly on its cable. The door opens and a stream of people come pouring out, huddled in dark clothes.

  One of them waves. "Hold the elevator!" It sounds like a girl.

  Suffering the cold, you obediently stick your hand out to keep the doors from closing.

  The people come jogging up the path and into the elevator. The person who waved is a girl, about your age, bundled head to toe in thick clothes. Straight black hair sticks out from underneath a woven cap and runs down her back.

  "Thank you!" she says, out of breath. Her cheeks are flushed from the cold. "It would have been miserable waiting for the elevator car to go down and up again. I wish they'd build a waiting area shielded from the cold!"

  You frown. She doesn't look like she works at the laboratory. "What are you doing here?" you blurt out.

  The girl laughs. "That's not very polite." You begin to apologize, but she holds up a hand and says, "I'm teasing, I'm teasing. I'm here today for the demonstration. My father is Doctor Kessler."

  9

  You stare at the girl, awestruck. "Your father is Doctor Kessler?"

  She gives a big nod. "Uh huh. So you'd better be nice to me, or I can get you in trouble."

  You lick your lips out of nervousness. Kessler is the head physicist at the laboratory, in charge of the entire particle accelerator! If he finds out you were rude to his daughter...

  The girl lets out a stream of giggles. "I'm just teasing you again. I wouldn't get you in trouble. You lab guys are easy to fluster." She sticks out a gloved hand. "Nice to meet you, Heller. I'm Penny. Penny Kessler."

  Her glove is cold as you shake it. "How'd you know my name?"

  Her face grows serious. "Dad was complaining last night about one of the interns. I assumed it was you. Looks like I was right, huh?"

  Your mouth hangs open, horrified.

  Penny's face is suddenly split by a wicked grin. "Okay, you've got me again. My dad's never mentioned you. I knew your name because it's on your name tag, silly." She points.

  You look down at your coat breast, where a plastic clip-on tag says: J. HELLER. "Are you always this cruel to people you've just met?"

  She flashes a white smile. "Just being friendly! So what's the 'J' stand for?"

  You tell her.

  "Nice to meet ya, Jeremy. Hey--no more joking around." She points to the path, where the other four men from the gondola are approaching the elevator. "Those are investors from the city. They're here to see the demo. If it doesn't go well, dad says they're going to pull their funding."

  Uh oh. You had heard rumors that the investors weren't happy, but had assumed they weren't true.

  The four men pile into the elevator. They're each wearing dark coats which drape to their ankles, with full suits underneath. One of them frowns at you. "Vat are ve vaiting for" he asks in a German accent.

  You realize your hand is still holding the car. "Oh, sorry," you say, removing it. The man nods to himself.

  The doors close.

  10

  The elevator makes its slow descent into the mountain. As you do every time, you wonder how a single elevator could travel so far. The laboratory must be at least a kilometer underground. Your ears pop, so you move your jaw around to unclog your ears, like you're on an airplane. About a minute later you have to do it again.

  Finally the hum of the elevator reaches a lower pitch as you slow down, and then stop completely.

  The doors open.

  The entrance room to the Heidelberg Physics Laboratory feels like the lair of a James Bond villain: the side walls are carved rock, making it obvious you are deep inside a mountain, and the air has a cool, drafty feel. The wall directly opposite you has a single, massive door in the center. It's five meters tall and three wide, and covered with blinking lights and electronics. It's made of dull metal, and you know it can withstand a nuclear explosion, if need be.

  The room is empty except for a man standing next to the big door with his hands folded in front of him. He's wearing a lab coat just like yours. "Welcome to the Heidelberg Laboratory!" he says to the investors. "I'm Doctor Kessler."

  The men walk forward and shake his hand formally. Kessler doesn't even seem to notice his daughter.

  "In order to access the laboratory," Kessler tells the investors, "you must pass through our Decontamination Chamber. It is perfectly harmless, I assure you: just a little bit of steam and a computer scan, and you will be through to the other side."

  He turns and punches a code into a keypad on the wall. You hear the sound of three massive bolts retracting, and the blast door slowly swings open. "There's room for all of you, come on now." He ushers the four men inside with a nervous laugh, then enters himself, closing the door behind him.

  Penny crosses her arms over her chest. "Nice to see you too, father."

  "I'm sure he's just nervous because of the investors," you say.

  "Yeah, I'm sure that's it," Penny says. She doesn't sound like she believes you.

  You go to the door to the Decontamination Chamber, where there's a computer screen on the wall. You can see the five men inside being blasted with jets of air. "It will only take a minute," you call over your shoulder. "Then we can go."

  11

  Penny is looking at the map on the wall. "Wow, this place is big."

  "It sure is," you say. You hear a computerized beep across the room. "Come on, it's our turn."

  12

  The door opens into a long, cylindrical room, with walls that curve upward toward the ceiling. It reminds you of a coke can on its side. There's a metallic echo as you step inside.

  "Stand away from the door," you instruct. Penny obeys, and watches as the door closes behind you with a loud KONG.

  "Hold your hands out to the side," you say while typing your credentials into the computer on the wall. "It won't hurt, I promise."

  "Yessir, mister physicist, sir."

  You frown. "Are you making fun of me?"

  She bats her eyelashes. "Of course not."

  You finish entering the protocol into the computer, and there's a loud whine like a jet engine spinning up. Nozzles in the floor and walls blast you with scalding air, fluttering your lab coat around like you're in a tornado. While that's occurring, a door opens in the ceiling and a device like a laser pointer sticks out. A single green laser beam shoots out of the end in your direction, then spreads out into a long fan-shaped beam. The beam moves up and down, scanning first your body, then Penny's.

  The laser disappears back into the ceiling, and then the jets cease as quickly as they had begun.

  You glance over at Penny and see that she's still gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut. "All done, Miss Kessler," you say with exaggerated politeness. "There's no need to be afraid, now."

  She opens one eye, looks around the room, then opens the other. She puts her arms down. "Do you enjoy scaring all the visitors, Jeremy?"

  "Just the ones who tease me first."

  She gives you a big grin. "I think I'm going to like you, Jeremy."

  You turn away to conceal your own embarrassed smile, and press the button at the other end of the decontamination room. The far door opens with a hiss of air and pressure release.

  13

  You gesture to the room. "Penny, welcome to the Heidelberg Laboratory."

  Show her around ON PAGE 25

  14

  You lead Penny out of the Control Room and into the Physics Lab. You pause inside the door to look around. It doesn't look like there's anything in there, though.

  "You sure there's not another CS Rifle in here for me?" Penny asks.

  "Jay sa
id this is the only one. Sorry!"

  You make your way across the Physics lab and into the hall. There's a bend ahead, so you quietly stick your head around before continuing. The door ahead opens easily, no code required.

  It looks like a movie room without the seats: there's a big projector screen on each wall, with the projectors hanging from the ceiling. There's also a stack of computer servers in another corner.

  "This is the Test Simulator," you explain to Penny. "The computer runs simulations of what it thinks will happen, which are reviewed here."

  "Okay..."

  "You don't sound impressed," you say.

  "Oh no. I'm totally impressed. All of this is super interesting, really." Her face is completely blank, until a corner of her mouth twitches in a smile.

  Her sarcasm annoys you, so you walk to the other end of the room.

  "Hey, I'm only teasing! Wait up!"

  You open the door and stop in your tracks.

  At the end of the hall stands a shining Phase Being, giving off the only light in the corridor. It's standing very still in front of the door, as if it's waiting for it to open.

  You aim the rifle. It's a long way. Can you hit it?

  FLIP TWO COINS!

  If both land heads, HEAD TO PAGE 37

  Otherwise, FLIP TO PAGE 23

  15

  "The shortest way is probably best," you say. "Let's head toward the Main Reactor hall."

  Jay taps a keycode into the door. It takes him four tries, but he finally gets it. "Memory's still bad," he apologizes.

  On the other side of the door are ten steps, leading down underneath the large loop accelerator. There's a lot of rock and rubble on the ground, like a stick of dynamite went off somewhere.

  Straight ahead is the long hallway. At the end is a thick blast door leading into the Main Reactor. Jay stops and takes a long look in that direction. "See those cracks?"

  You squint. "What cracks?"