Taming the Singularity
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“So what do you think this might be about, Reggie?” asked Barney, pressing. “You must have heard something – maybe just scuttlebutt or rumors...” “I’m sure the Dean and the Feds will fill you in with the details, Barney. The rumor mill says it has something to do with CERN and the LHC, because that is where the original request for assistance supposedly came from. With all the weird science and crazy experiments they have going on over there, who knows? This could be almost anything. Listen to what they have to say, figure out what you need to do to make them happy, and then come back to see me, and we’ll figure up the costs.” “Who are the federal representatives? Anyone we know?” “Again, I don’t have a clue. However, the Dean’s assistant asked me if you needed a reserved parking space. I told her you would just walk over. Whoever they are, it sounded like they were bringing an entourage.” Dr. Barnard Freeman arrived in the Dean’s office at precisely 1:30 in the afternoon, and was ushered into the executive conference room. He shook hands with the Dean, and turned to the other four people seated at the conference table. To his astonishment, they appeared to be the President of the United States, the Secretary of Energy, the National Science Advisor, and a Navy officer. A Secret Service agent in sunglasses and earpiece stood quietly in one corner. Barney’s jaw dropped. “Good afternoon, Dr. Freeman,” the President said. “Thank you for coming.” “Wow,” said Barney, gathering his wits. “It must be one hell of a problem.” “It is,” replied the President with a nod. “It is indeed.”
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About the Book
Lost any black holes lately? Dr. Geoffrey Finch used the Large Hadron Collider to illegally but successfully create a miniature singularity, but it fell out of the magnetic containment cage and into the Earth when the French power grid suffered a small hiccup. Oops! Now the black hole is orbiting the Earth's center of mass, slowly growing larger. It is predicted to consume the entire planet in approximately two years. Dr. Barney Freeman and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Nicole Shelton are selected to lead a team of the world's top scientists to stop it. They are not even sure how to reach it, let alone stop it, until coming up with an audacious plan to extract the singularity from deep within the Earth. In case they don't succeed, governments around the world frantically embark on a space race to build lifeboats to evacuate at least some of humanity off the doomed planet. Nikki Shelton eventually finds herself face to face with the singularity, and discovers that taming it may take everything she has, and just a bit more.
About the Author
Daniel J. Soeder is a research scientist with a life-long appreciation for science-related fiction. His background in geology, astronomy and physics led to the development of this story, his first published novel. It turned out to be so much fun to write that he is working on several others. He lives on a mountain farm in West Virginia.