The Secret of the Aurora Hotel

by Danny McAleese

  "You did good bro!" Jenna cries. She hugs him, and for one brief scary moment he almost drops the ball. Gingerly you take it away from him.

  "So that's everything?" you ask. "All four artifacts and we're ready to go?"

  The elevator is suddenly ripped by a blast of arctic cold. The skin on your arms prickles. The hairs stand up on the back of your neck.

  "Not exactly..." rasps a voice that doesn't belong to any of you.

  Whoa, what's going on? Better find out fast by HEADING TO PAGE 146

  158

  Your arms are shaking. Or maybe it's Jenna. Or the ladder. Or all three.

  "I think it's that far one," you tell your cousin. "The one with the really weird symbol."

  Jenna shifts. Reaches out for it. But she leans too far to one side, and a spark of terror shoots through you as you realize you're going to fall. Your cousin screams.

  "Scotty!"

  You feel your center of gravity move past the point of no return. The ladder tips out from beneath you, and you both go tumbling to the ground. The fall seems endless. You throw your arms out, but your body twists and one elbow gets caught behind your back... just as the full weight of your cousin lands directly on top of you.

  Snap.

  Jenna gets away with a few scrapes and bruises, but the agony of your broken arm is nothing compared to the shame of your Uncle's grave disappointment. You lower your head all the way to the hospital, wondering how you'll ever explain this to your parents.

  For now, at least, your adventure has come to

  THE END

  159

  "Be right back!" you tell Evan. Then, before your cousin can protest, you hang from the ledge and drop into the warm, dry air.

  The sand is a lot softer than it first looked. You sink in up to your knees, then tumble backward down the slope of the dune itself. Finally you reach solid ground and approach the white object you saw earlier. Long and cylindrical, you pull it free from the sands... and recognize it in an instant.

  A bone!

  Panic grips you as you toss the bone away. You can't see anything else from here. Sand is getting everywhere now. It's in your shoes, under your shirt -- everywhere it touches it clings to your skin. You scratch the back of your neck uncomfortably, deciding you've definitely had enough of this place.

  "Evan, I'm coming up!" you shout. "See if you can throw down a bed sheet or--"

  Your stomach drops out from under you as you turn around. Evan's gone! In fact, everything is gone -- even the Aurora!

  Slowly you spin around. As impossible as it seems, there's nothing in any direction but sand, dirt, and dunes. The sun beats down on you from above, seeming a lot hotter than before.

  You don't have a map, or a direction, or even a clue as to where you are. You don't even have a water bottle.

  All you have left is the taste of fear in your mouth, as you realize this is certainly

  THE END

  160

  "You do the bathroom," you tell Evan. "I got this."

  A minute later you've searched the drawers, the walls, even the egg chair that dominates one corner of the room. You sit down in it to get a sense of the room... or maybe because you've never sat in an egg chair before and always wanted to.

  "Anything yet?" your cousin calls from the bathroom.

  "Nope."

  The last thing you do is check under the bed. It's blocked by a mass of gears and gadgets. You follow a series of wires to the coin-operated machine on one side, then fish into your pocket and pull out a quarter.

  When Evan emerges from the bathroom you're flat on your back, lying on the bed while it spins in dizzying circles. The disco ball glimmers above you.

  "Quit foolin' around," Evan tells you. "We've got other rooms to check."

  Room 119 is next on the list. Check it out OVER ON PAGE 69

  161

  Sneak Peek

  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 subatomic 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. Better get inside!

  162

  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 curly 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, trying 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 blonde 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."

  163

  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."
r />   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?" you ask.

  She flashes a white smile. "Just being friendly! 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.

  164

  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."

  You realize Penny is looking at the map on the wall. You walk over to her. "Wow, this place is big," she says.

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

  165

  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. Jets 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.

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

  166

  The main Control Room of the laboratory is busier than usual. A dozen of the Senior Physicists scurry from one computer station to another, checking instrument readings and making notes on their clipboards. The entire far wall is covered in glass, giving a view into a tube-like room beyond. The rest of the walls are filled with computer screens showing various graphs of data and video feeds of the facility.

  "What's that?" Penny points to the glass wall.

  "That's a section of the particle accelerator," you explain. "It's like a giant oval track, over five kilometers long. See those ridges inside? With the coils? Those are powerful electromagnets, which are used to speed up the particles faster and faster."

  "Ohh, cool," Penny says.

  You lead her over to a corner of the room, where a single computer screen sits at a lonely computer desk. "This is where I work."

  She blinks. "This is all you do?"

  "Hey, I'm just an intern. I'm new. It may not look like much, but I still have an important job."

  "Which is?"

  "I'm in charge of monitoring the power levels for the facility," you say. "The particle accelerator has its own nuclear reactor. It was on the map, if you saw it. When we're performing our tests, the accelerator draws a lot of power. My job is to monitor this power level, make sure it's not drawing too much, and to notify anyone if the drain gets too high."

  Penny raises an eyebrow. "That's it?"

  "Hey, it's important," you say weakly.

  "Heller!" someone yells across the room. It's your boss, Doctor Almer. He comes storming over. "Heller, what are you doing?"

  "I'm just showing Penny around."

  He swings his eyes toward her. "Who?"

  "This is Doctor Kessler's daughter."

  167

  "Ohh." His entire demeanor changes. "Miss Kessler! Your father is wonderful to work with. Simply wonderful. You should be in the observation lounge with the other visitors."

  He glances at you, as if it's your fault.

  Penny makes a face. "Can't I stay here with Jeremy? I don't want to be stuck with all those investors..."

  Almer is dragging her away. Penny looks back at you pleadingly.

  What will you do, when you're forced to deal with

  The Strange Physics

  of the

  Heidelberg Laboratory

  About the
Authors

  Danny McAleese started writing fantasy fiction during the golden age of Dungeons & Dragons, way back in the heady, adventure-filled days of the 1980's. His short stories, The Exit, and Momentum, made him the Grand Prize winner of Blizzard Entertainment's 2011 Global Fiction Writing contest.

  He currently lives in NY, along with his wife, four children, three dogs, and a whole lot of chaos. www.dannymcaleese.com

  David Kristoph lives in Virginia with his wonderful wife and two not-quite German Shepherds. He's a fantastic reader, great videogamer, good chess player, average cyclist, and mediocre runner. He's also a member of the Planetary Society, patron of StarTalk Radio, amateur astronomer and general space enthusiast. He writes mostly Science Fiction and Fantasy. www.DavidKristoph.com

  Notes

  Notes