Sorry about the delay. Real life sometimes interferes. Let me know what you think!

Okay - so the French guy who is losing credibility has something to do with this. That's why the rifts start in France. And Clark now knows where the rift that leads to his Metropolis is. Can he round up everyone back onto a plane [including Lois of course] and fly them through it?

Great as always Shayne.

More soon.
Carol

This brought a smile to my face.
Another tie-in to current events!

When France first came up, I had the thought, "I wonder if this has something to do with the LHC?" And then I see you were thinking the same thing, or something similar!

For those who don't know, the LHC is the Large Hadron Collider, which is located at CERN, a particle accelerator laboratory straddling the Swiss/French border. The LHC is starting to come up right now, and should start preliminary operations late this year or early next. Someone is suing the US government to stop it, because they're afraid that the LHC will produce mini-black holes that will eat the Earth (something no one in particle physics thinks has any chance of happening).

Anyway, the big picture is starting to come together. I'm looking forward to seeing how Lois and Clark get this all straightened out. Perhaps in tune with the "reality" theme of the story, things won't be tied up so neatly at the end as they usually are. But I hope they are.

Thanks, Shayne, for another excellent part, and thanks, Debbie, for an excellent review!

So this could all have to do with the Large Hadron Collider? This new super-large particle collider, which will be used to accelerate protons and neutrons to speeds very very near the speed of light, and then have them collide with something at those incredible speeds?

I don't need to tell you that I'm such a huge astronomy fan. I think space is beautiful and awesome, and I love to learn about the beauty and majesty of it. But particle physics, which is what they will be doing with the Large Hadron Collider, just doesn't fascinate me. The particle physicists are literally trying to smash up protons and neutrons to see what is locked up inside. And they are trying to create enormous energies on a subatomic level to see if new, so far unknown particles will suddenly appear. I just can't get interested. Oh, so now particle physicists found the long sought-after W particle? Imagine. Oh, and they found its negative twin, W-minus, too? Wow.

The idea behind particle physics is that we are all ultimately made up of these subatomic particles, and it is only through learning about these tiniest building blocks of nature that we can learn about the macro-universe that we interact with through our senses. Well, maybe that is true. Then again, what have we really learnt about the macro-universe if we find out that the subatomic W particle exists?

Well, there is a new kid on the block of particle physics these days, string theory. String theory claims that all these myriad subatomic particles are all manifestations of the same thing - strings. String theory says that everything is made up of strings.













Sorry, couldn't resist!

No, these images don't show "strings" in the string theory sense. Strings, the way I understand them, would be the smallest building blocks of matter, incredibly much smaller than an atom and incredibly much smaller than an electron, which is in itself pretty tiny, I can assure you. Strings would be truly one-dimensional objects, as they would have a specific length, but no width or thickness. These strings can take on various shapes and interconnect in various ways:



Because of the way they interact, strings would build up everything in nature. They would build up protons and neutrons and electrons, and therefore they would build up all atoms, and therefore they would build up everything in the macroscopic world, including ourselves.

Of course, no one knows if strings exist in the first place, because they would have to be so tiny that scientists don't know how to see them if they looked for them.

This is an in-joke - I couldn't resist:



Those who don't believe in strings, but think that all subatomic particles are entities of their own, have chosen fanciful words to describe certain properties of these particles. One such property is "charm". Those who believe in strings don't want to talk about these specific subatomic particles at all. They want to describe what the strings can do. One thing strings are believed to do is form membranes, or "branes". The lady physicist prefers the brainy new string theorist over the old particle physicist dinosaur, despite his old-fashioned charm.

Anyway, let's return to the Large Hadron Collider. I believe that those who want to use the LHC to smash up protons and neutrons are people who generally don't believe in strings. Instead, these people want to recreate, as much as possible, conditions in the very early universe, where the entire universe is believed to have been incredibly condensed and dense and also incredibly hot, much hotter than the interior of the Sun. During these conditions, many subatomic particles are believed to have existed "on their own", instead of being locked up inside atoms, for example. By recreating conditions of the early universe, particle physicists hope to see the weird denizens of the universe's fiery start.

Ah, but there are those who object and say that we shouldn't try to imitiate the horrible conditions of the early universe here on Earth, because who knows what that may unleash?

Is that what has happened here, Shayne? The Large Hadron Collider has created structural stress in the universe itself and opened portals between this universe and others?

Wow again, Shayne! Fantastic!

Ann

Um... I have to say that all this scientific talk pretty much soars right over my head. Physics baffled me when it was just f=ma, to say nothing about "string theory".

But I'm still really enjoying this story. Although I'm pretty much lost in the A-plot, the B-plot is very enjoyable and I'm anxious to see how this develops if the whole alternate universe thing becomes public.

Nice installment, and nicely gratuitous Buffy reference*. I assume that Clark caught an episode in our dimension, since that gag was first used in 2000-ish.

Glad to see that there's a possibility that the dimension swap thing is a man-made event that can possibly be stopped, not some vast impersonal natural force.

One thought - given that there appear to be many parallel worlds, won't Clark have to do this again and again whenever someone builds the equipment in another universe?

* The "World without shrimp" is a running gag in the series and in Angel, whenever they talk about travelling to other dimensions. One of the Angel characters also claimed to have visited a world where there was "nothing but shrimp;" it wasn't very interesting.

All right! Now we have a culprit, if not necessarily a villain, behind these holes in reality. A scientific experiment - which is being funded by a number of governments whose decision makers apparently don't know a proton from a pronoun - is wreaking havoc over multiple dimensions. And it's going to be a race to see if the whole thing gets shut down before Lois has a chance to go back home with Clark, or even if Clark can get the plane and its passengers back home.

And surely Lois has - or soon will - realize that Clark isn't going to abandon her, even for shrimp. He went home and he came back to her! Won't Lois want desperately to go home with Lucy and see her parents? We already know that she longs for a place where she can feel at home, and there's no place like that for her in this world.

We're coming up to a photo finish, Shayne, as usual. Keep up the great work! And let Clark get the people and the plane back home in time.

Of course, he might not be able to round up all the technology left behind (computers, radios, CD players) which would prove the multiple-dimension theory - assuming that the evidence is allowed to be made public. Which it surely won't, given the mass panic it might generate.

I've been thinking a lot about the storms. I wonder if they are a side effect of the rifts or of the process that is causing the rifts. The difference is significant, because if it is caused by the process the storm may start before the rift opens or continue after it has closed. It's very possible that it is a side effect of the rift itself, a product of the normal rules of weather. Violent weather comes about when vastly divergent air temperatures collide.

I imagine that Clark must have been so tempted when he peered into his own world. Certainly it would be tempting to resume his own life, even if there weren't any significant others waiting for him on the other side. On the other hand, he does feel something for Lois, so it wouldn't have been a happy goodbye.

BTW, if the half of a pigeon proves to be useful to bringing an end to this catostrophe then I suppose you can be forgiven for the yuckiness of earlier parts.


Elisabeth

Sorry for taking so long to comment-- Shayne, this ROCKS!!

No shrimp? Truly, a hellish dystopia indeed.

Keep this up, Shayne! I'm so excited that they've found what's causing it, and now I've *got* too see what happens next! My Dad's been reading this one too, and we're both on the edge of our seats.

Kinda reminds me of Phillip Pullman and The Amber Spyglass. I won't spoil it in case anyone has it on their book list, but I think of the end of the book when they find out why exactly the dust is flowing.

Anyway, great part. I've been a feedback slacker lately, but I have been keeping up with this fic and enjoying it.

JD

A new chapter, and so quick! I didn´t expect it, and I was gone since Saturday for a family celebration, so I´m a little late this time!

I never thought about his special vision abilities that way. How often has he made little mistakes about colors because he sees things differently? And again, Lana!

So he is able to see the rift! That´s what he needs for bringing the people through it.

Honestly, Lois! You really should know him better by now! :rolleyes:



Great!

That´s a lot of people, even for Youtube, and especially for a video about some birds. It doesn´t seem to have alerted the ornithologists by now, if Malcolm didn´t know about it.

I heard about this LHC thingy. I don´t know much about physics, but I heard about some people claiming it would destroy the world, and I also heard the scientists dismissing this completely. If that´s the trigger for the dimensional rifts, Clark has to talk to some governments, and quickly. And now he has proof that he comes from another universe, and that there is a big problem causing dimensional rifts. I think the chances are much better now that someone will listen - of course not Agent Randal! And for the first time it will be Superman saving the world - OUR world!

Please, next chapter, same speed!

haha loved the Buffy reference!

Great story Shayne, I hope L&C get more time to bond and get closer together before Clark packs up plane and goes home.

I'm enjoying the tale and like where it is going but I still want to see him put on the suit and go Public.

I don't think that the Buffy/Angel ref will be enough to rate an actual crossover, but it it works, go for it!

The LHC causing mini-black holes comes from a SCI-FI book from the 80's, wish I could remember the author or title.

Found it. Thrice Upon a Time by James P. Hogan

Excellent story and very worth the read.

James

Shayne, I have to go out of town in a few days. Could you please post the rest of the parts so I can read them all at once before I go?