Portal Lab
Your heart flutters and you feel as though you are having a hard time keeping your feet on the ground. Today is the most important day of your life. You have been chosen, amongst your peers, as a volunteer test subject to test out the first teleportation portal. You've been jumping at the chance to take the spotlight of this momentous occasion while those around you shrunk at the thought. You are admittedly having small, tickling second thoughts.
It is a massive, clunky thing. Millions of taxpayer dollars have been sunk into closing the gap between maybe ten feet of oxygen and atmosphere. The scientific and ethical implications of this tiny experiment are gigantic and just thinking about the possibility of a successful test boggles the mind.
So here you stand, in a starchy jumpsuit completely free of pockets or contraband. The teleportation room is large and gunmetal gray. The steel walls and floors are matte and do not reflect light well. The lights are fluorescent and cast an ugly shadow on everything they touch. While a few of your peers stand behind you, ready to escort you to the entrance portal, which stands 20 feet tall and emits a soft blue light, most of the people here witness you from a room attached to the high ceiling, looking down through glass windows with notepads and clipboards in hand. "T minus 30 seconds to activation..." speaks an electronically amplified voice at your back. You recognize it to be the voice of Dr. Callen, a man whom you've shared drinks and good times with. You understand his cold professionalism to be necessary to the experiment.
"It is time." A female scientist beside you says, bringing her hands out of her pockets. You watch her walk to the exit portal, also emitting a soft blue light. A male scientist to your left escorts you gently to the end of the entrance portal, a safe distance from any electrical discharge the portal may create upon activation.
Thirty seconds has passed and the portal begins to stir, and the soft blue gives out to a whirling vortex of blue, white and stands of gray. You've been told to expect some disorientation upon exiting the portal, as something that was once far away will appear very closely. You are expecting, as best as you can, to imagine the woman at the exit portal to appear at your side sooner than you would usually imagine.
"Teleportation Test Subject #1, please step through the portal."
Dr. Callen would otherwise call you by your name. You know he would.
Written by Martin Prance on 31 January 2016