At least this press conference was going to be attended mainly by the major scientific journals, so journalists from the Sundays and the rest of the tabloids would be thin on the ground.

Like throwing on a cape, he donned his well practised public persona and pushed open the doors leading to the waiting press. Within minutes he was in to his stride, all reservations forgotten as the energy engendered by the passion for his chosen field of science shone through.

At times, he almost enjoyed it.

“The tunnel at CERN contains two pipes,” He explained. “which have enclosed within them, large superconducting magnets. These magnets are cooled by liquid helium. Inside each of these pipes a proton beam is fired. The two beams travel in opposite directions around the ring of pipes. Additional magnets are used to direct the beams to four intersection points where interactions between them will take place. We have installed over sixteen hundred superconducting magnets at the site, most weighing over twenty seven tonnes each.” He lifted his eyes from his notes and scanned the room.

“Next, Jack, from Sciam please”

“Morning Roger. The obvious question, which I’m sure you’re itching to answer. What is the total output that the LHC will attain?”

“Thanks Jack, let me just take you through it from the beginning, hopefully the background information will help your readers get the full picture of just what we hope to achieve and how we intend to go about it here at CERN”

“Please do” The reporter from Scientific American asked.

“We intend to fire protons into the rings. It will take around ninety microseconds for an individual proton to travel once around the collider. Rather than continuous beams, the protons will be bunched together, into approximately two thousand eight hundred  bunches, so that interactions between the two beams will take place at intervals never shorter than twenty five nanoseconds apart. At maximum velocity we will achieve energies of seven trillion electron volts.  We usually shorten this to 7 TeV.

Just as we combine the speeds of two vehicles involved in a head on collision, we can do the same with the LHC. This means that we will achieve a total collision energy of 14 TeV.”  He relaxed visibly, sensing the end of the conference.

“Any more questions?” He asked, scanning the room for the last time.

“Thanks, yes…Rose, at the back there, can we get a microphone over to Rose?”

“Thanks Roger, Rose Trimble, Science Daily. Is the project still on schedule, with the first experiments beginning next month?”

“We have no reason to expect any further delays Rose. The LHC will be open for business in three weeks time. Thank you all ladies and gentlemen. I’ve arranged for some  handouts to be produced for you, you may take them away with you. Please pick then up at the door on your way out.”

Ignoring the few beleaguered calls from the usual compliment of low profile publication journalists who hadn’t been selected for special attention, he hurried over to the exit where Alain Benoit, his French born lab assistant and sometimes personal secretary was desperately trying to get his attention.

“What is it Alain?” he asked.

“You’re needed at the site Roger, something about one of the detectors.”

“Damn!. Technicians.”  He exclaimed. “What now, somebody didn’t get a tea break. If I had my way I’d fire the lot of them and get a new crew.”

“Not exactly, the listing parameters have not passed the latest diagnostics, I think they want your clearance to move this detector to the front of the virtual model.”

“And they need me at the site to do that, it’s a programming issue for heavens sake!”

Alain coughed diplomatically. “In accordance with your memo about unauthorised changes to the order sir, you have to sign it off.”

“But that was about the physical order, not the bloody VR program, it doesn’t matter one iota where the virtual detectors are.”

“Nevertheless they won’t move, they’re taking your instruction literally Roger, what do you want me to do?”

“Never mind, take me to the Control Centre. I’ll sign the bloody thing.”

Roger Pendragon let his gaze traverse the banks of wide screen monitors that filled one side of the large room from which every experiment carried out at the LHC would be monitored, and more importantly, where the initial results of those experiments could be glimpsed.

The room still smelled new, the paint had not had long to dry and the new electronics gave off  a special odour, it was the smell of discovery, of the power to achieve anything. He believed in science, and every advance in computing power had brought new discoveries in science.

Roger Pendragon believed in the power of computers, he equated computing power with scientific progress. Given enough computing power he could solve all the mysteries of the Universe.

He turned to Alain, pointing at a huge flat screen monitor in the centre of  a bank of screens.

“This is where we will observe the experiment Alain, we will watch history unfold before us right here.”

“So this is the new terminal, virtual one?” asked Alain

“Yes, the technicians said it would be much simpler if we just moved to the new terminal rather than change the whole network to accommodate the new order. I rather like it, it’s much brighter, more pleasant here. Don’t you think?”

Alain looked through the large glass window over the top of the monitor. Standing on his toes, he could just make out the red physical detector housing in the distance along the tunnel.

“Yes, much brighter.” He whispered.

They took their respective seats at the terminal.

“Your surname, Benoit.” Mused Pendragon. “It means blessed doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” Replied Alain. “It’s quite a common name in France.”

“Very appropriate Alain, you are blessed. You will soon see the secrets of the universe revealed, right here, at this terminal. Think about it Alain, we will be the first.” Said Pendragon.

“I sincerely hope so.” Alain said.

Pendragon turned to face him. “Do you doubt it still?”

He locked his gaze into Alain’s, waiting for his answer.

“I’m not sure that we have the power, that we will ever have the power to reach that deep into the nature of the universe in its entirety. Every time we go deeper, use more powerful colliders, we find another level of complexity, another family of particles. What if it just keeps going?” He asked.

Pendragon laughed. “That’s the beauty of it all Alain.” He leaned over and grasped Alain’s shoulder in a rare display of sincere concern. “We will just build a bigger collider. Science must progress. Science will go on.” He leaned back into the comfortable chair, silently contemplating his assured success.

“Excuse me then Roger, if you don’t mind I’ll get going. We have a big day tomorrow, I want to be alert.” Alain stood to leave.

“ Yes, yes. You go, get some rest. I doubt that I shall sleep at all tonight. It’s an exciting time for us Alain. A very exciting time.” He turned back to his workspace as Alain walked quietly across the floor and out of the control room.

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