All prologues have been rewritten and merged.

Please comment with any thoughts you have on the rewrite.

Enjoy!

Prologue 1:

Since humanity gained the capacity for reason there had been one overreaching question that has haunted the greatest minds of every age.

How did everything come to exist?

This question, above all others, has always been a source of debate and disagreement between minds great and ordinary alike.

For the majority of the history of mankind this question was answered through belief in a greater power or guiding force. These beliefs came to be known as religion. There existed many of these religions and all of them had their own explanations as to how the world came into existence. Depending on which group of people you asked, the world had been created by a certain deity or group of deities.

However as time passed humanity began to discover that through observation of the world around them they could think of explanations for every day phenomenon such as fire and water. After conducting an experiment they could then confirm whether their idea was correct. This process of solving the mysteries of the universe became known as science and the ones who practiced it, scientists.

An important characteristic of science is that when something is learned about the universe any future research can build off of the existing knowledge and probe deeper into the mysteries of natural laws. This allowed mankind’s knowledge of the natural world to increase unceasingly which gave rise to benefits in all aspects of human achievement. As science progressed countless new technologies were born but science didn’t stop, it continued chasing the secrets of the universe.

By the twenty first century, using the culmination of all existing knowledge on the physical world, science had found a theory on how the universe began. They named it the big bang theory.

According to the big bang theory, the universe began with a massive explosion of space and matter.

Time started and space began expanding outward, increasing the size of the newly born universe.

As space expanded the matter that had been created in the big bang began to spread outward.

While the universe got larger and larger matter began to attract other matter with the force of gravity, forming stars, planets, asteroids, moons, comets, nebula, and other heavenly bodies.

Four point five billion years ago the majority of one of those clumps of matter came together to form a yellow star.

The remaining matter condensed over a period of time to create a host of planets and smaller objects that orbited around that star.

This star would later become known as the sun and the planet in the third orbit from it would be named the earth.

Because of the very specific conditions under which this star and planet were formed, the planet, earth, gained the capacity to support life.

In its early days, however, the earth was a barren wasteland covered in molten rock. It took many years before the earth had cooled enough to begin the process toward life.

Once the earth had cooled and formed its surface, the crust, large bodies of water formed in the parts of the crust that were lower in elevation.

It was in these bodies of water where the first traces of life developed.

Over an immense period of time the chemical elements contained in the oceans interacted and formed the first form of life, microorganisms.

Once life began a process, called evolution, began adapting life into different forms to survive in different environments.

Over time many new forms of life evolved, mammals, reptiles, birds, insects, arachnids, marsupials, amphibians, and many other groups of organisms.

Somewhere along the way a type of organism evolved that was unlike any other so far.

This organism wasn’t the fastest, it wasn’t the strongest, it couldn’t breathe underwater, it couldn’t fly in the sky, it wasn’t a master of stealth, it couldn’t scare other species away.

But this organism had something going for it that other species did not. Something that would eventually remove them from the natural order of predator and prey, strong and weak.

This species, humans, had a brain that gave them great mental capabilities and reasoning. They also had specialized appendages that allowed them to shape the world to their convenience.

Creating languages that allowed them to pass knowledge from one individual to another, humans began amassing knowledge on how to overcome the natural world.

Soon humanity had created communities and cultures, surpassing nature with their collective efforts.

The more humanity learned the more they hungered for knowledge, inventing new tools, refining old ones, collecting knowledge, and seeking answers.

The human hunger for knowledge eventually gave rise to the sciences, humanity’s search for the truth behind the world.

With science’s discovery of the big bang theory many believed that the mystery of the universe was solved.

But there were those that were not satisfied.

This group of people believed that no matter what something cannot come from nothing.

To them when they hear that the universe, the bubble of space they live in, began at the big bang they wonder, “If the big bang was the beginning of the universe then what was before it? If we live in an expanding pocket of space called the universe, what is outside it?”

This is the story of a man who found the answers to these profound questions.

This is the story of a man with a second chance at life.

This is World Advancement.

Prologue 2:

Scott’s eyes slowly opened and he groaned dejectedly as the alarm clock situated on the small table near his bed continued to play him the song of its people.

Scott was tempted to take a play out of old fashioned cartoons and break the damned thing, but he realized that it wouldn’t do him any good.

“Man… I know this is my dream and all but for some reason I just can’t get any enthusiasm for this job. Oh well, I guess it’s almost complete anyway.”

Currently Scott was working on building the world’s largest and most advanced particle accelerator, which he had designed himself.

This technological marvel had taken years of his life to design and build, it encompassed a large section of the continent of Australia.

“The big day is almost here, when my creation will be activated for the first time. I just hope it is worth it.”

In a way you could say that the accelerator was the meaning of Scott’s life. After all, there hadn’t been much else that meant anything to him.

When he was young Scott was just an ordinary kid like anyone else.

As a young child, he laughed, cried, made messes, and played just like any of the other babies.

He grew up normally, with no indication that anything was wrong, he attended preschool and got along well with the other children.

However, when Scott began attending primary school, he began to display a characteristic of great curiosity always asking questions and searching for answers.

This curiosity of his led him to ask his mother a particular question one day. A question that would eventually cause many problems in his life.

It was one day after he had come home from first grade.

He came home and put away his lunchbox, then he walked up to his mother and asked, “Hey mom, I had a question, how come the teacher never talks about those dots you see everywhere?”

At first his mother wasn’t concerned, she absent-mindedly replied with, “Dots? Oh, you mean polka dots, like on people’s shirts?”

“No mom, not those, I’m talking about the really small dots that are moving around. See they’re all over the table, the chair, and everything else. You can see them right?”

This time his mother became a little concerned. “Is he in the phase where he makes up stories or is it something else?” she wondered to herself.

“Scott, are you making this up?” his mom asked.

“Of course not mom! Can’t you see them they’re right there!?!” Scott yelled back getting a little scared.

His mother gave him a hug and whispered, “It’s okay, it’s okay, we’ll go see the doctor, he’s smart, he can tell you what the dots are.”

“Really?!?” Scott exclaimed.

“Yes.” His mother replied.

His worried dispelled, Scott happily ran to his room.

Once he had left his mother’s expression crumbled and she collapsed to the floor.

“Please, no! Not him!” she whispered as she lay on the floor crying.

Scott’s question had brought out her greatest fear that Scott would be born with a mental disability.

Normally a parent wouldn’t be plunged into despair due to suspicions of mental disability in their child however, she had had a close and traumatizing experience with mental disability.

Her family had always believed that her brother was an ordinary child.

He performed about average in his classes in his earlier years, however, as the years went by and the school material got harder his grades began to slip.

His family gave him encouragement and helped him to study and for a while it seemed to work.

But when he entered high school things took a turn for the worse, the work was much more difficult and no matter how hard he tried his grades continued to drop.

Then in his second year he ended up last in his class and was told he would have to repeat the grade. He felt hopeless like nothing he tried helped him succeed.

Then the other students found out about his grades.

They sneered at him and called him names like the stupidest in the school.

Once he found out about what they were saying it was his point of no return. He no longer had any hope for his life.

He went to the top of the tallest building in his school and threw himself from it.

After the fact his family learned that it had been an un-diagnosed learning disability that had caused his grades to drop.

This was the reason Scott’s mother feared mental disabilities and the reason for the actions she took next.

“I won’t let him end up like my brother, I’ll definitely get him checked out and if I need to I will get him help so he can learn properly.”

A month later Scott’s mother took him to the doctor to get a brain scan because she believed that would be the easiest way to find any abnormalities in his brain.

The doctor had Scott lie on a white table that slid into a white tube.

The doctor explained, “This is an MRI machine, while you are lying in the tube it uses magnets to take a picture of your brain. We just need you to stay still, okay Scott?”

Scott confirmed that he understood and got onto the machine bed.

As Scott was getting the MRI his mother was talking to the doctor.

“After talking to Scott earlier from what I can tell he seems to be a normal kid other than those dots he talks about.” (Doctor)

“Yes, I hope that the scan comes back clear, how long until it's ready?” (Scott’s mom)

“It’ll be ready in about three days, you can come get the results while Scott is at school.” (Doctor)

Three days later Scott’s mother came back to get the results.

She walked into the doctor’s office and sat down to wait for him.

Soon he walked in carrying a stack of images.

Impatient, she frantically asked, “Doctor, is my son’s brain normal?!?”

The doctor motioned for her to sit back down and he sat at his desk.

He began to speak, “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but there is an abnormal structure in your son’s brain.”

Scott’s mother was speechless, in fact, she actually stopped breathing momentarily from the shock of it.

The doctor set down the scans and elaborated, “However, I am unable to tell you what effect this abnormal structure will have on your son. I have never seen anything like it before. Just from its placement I would guess that it will affect his senses and his learning capabilities.”

To Scott’s mother those final words were like a nail in the coffin.

Here expression turned lifeless and she picked up the scans, halfheartedly thanked the doctor, and headed out the door.

She got in her car and for a while just sat there crying and repeating over and over, “What am I going to do? What am I going to do?”

After a while the shock began to wear off and she became able to think of an answer to the question she had asked herself.

“I’ll put my son in the group for special needs children so that if any learning problems arise, he can have help to overcome them.”

From that day forward Scott would become part of the special needs group at school.

Unfortunately, his mother’s intention to help him succeed in school backfired on Scott.

Being in the special needs group distanced him from all the other students at the school and he slowly became more and more isolated as the other students became more wary of him.

Being young and immature, the other students saw being part of the special needs group as different and they thought of him as weird and scary.

Eventually the teachers realized that he was learning just fine, if not better than the other children and moved him back to the regular group but it was too late.

Even after he returned to the regular class, he was seen by the others as someone strange, someone different. They all kept their distance from him and eventually Scott lost his trust in other people.

He decided that he would focus solely on his studies, especially science as it was his favorite subject.

Then one day in third grade, he learned something that would set the course of his life.

Scott was sitting in science class listening to the lecture.

(Teacher) “…everyone knows that the sidewalk is made concrete, the ground is made of dirt, and this table is made of wood. But what are concrete, dirt, and wood made of?”

(Random Student 1) “Rocks?”

(Random Student 2) “Trees?”

(Random Student 3) “Isn’t dirt made from poo? Hehe”

(Teacher) *Sighs “Technically, you are all correct. However, everything in the world is made up of something much smaller…”

This phrase catches Scott’s attention “This sounds really familiar…” he mumbled to himself.

(Teacher) “Everything in this world is made up of very small particles that are invisible to human eyes. These are called atoms.”

Shock runs through Scott. “That sounds exactly like the dots that I can see everywhere I look. I was always told that it was nothing but a hallucination and to never speak of it to others. But maybe what I am seeing are the atoms that make up the world! If that’s true, then it means that I actually possess a sense that others don’t. I shouldn’t say anything about this until I know for sure.”

(Teacher) “One example of this is oxygen molecules enter your lungs when you breathe in and carbon dioxide exits your lungs when you exhale.”

Scott looked around and noticed that he could observe the process happening. Small pairs of dots, which must be the oxygen atoms, were being inhaled and larger groups of dots, CO2, were being exhaled. “It’s true, I can observe these things called atoms.”

Scott decided in that moment that he would use this unusual sense of his to the best of his ability and he would work hard and study chemistry, physics, and biology.

With Scott’s dedication to his studies and his strong aptitude for science, he quickly completed elementary and middle school often skipping grades.

He focused solely on learning as much as he could as quickly as he could, never slowing down to make friends or even for leisure.

By the time he was twelve he was starting his first year in high school.

Two years after that he had completed all of the necessary high school courses and some basic college classes on the side.

People would often say to Scott, “Wow, you really are amazing, but you should slow down and take some time to be a kid.”

However to Scott, because of his mistrust of people, saw those words of concern as words of jealousy and he began to think that he was better than everyone else and that they just wanted to bring him down.

He began avoiding people more and more until he entered college and realized that he could take online classes for the majority of his education.

With online classes he could complete them faster than normal classes with the added bonus of not having to be around people.

It only took Scott four years to get a triple major in chemistry, physics, and biology. He graduated college with doctorates in chemistry and physics and a bachelors in biology.

Scott’s ability allowed him to directly observe atomic processes and often applied to physics and chemistry. This helped him to understand these subjects easier and thus earn doctorates.

In the case of biology the atomic processes were often too complex for his ability due to sensory overload and so he only made it as far as a bachelor’s degree.

During Scott’s time at college he was practically a full time shut in, only leaving his apartment when necessary.

When he began to look for his job, however, Scott realized that he would have to interact with people at least on a professional level.

So Scott created a front, he would only talk business and nothing more while keeping his true thoughts locked away.

Upon his graduation Scott soon became a topic of discussion as he had completed three difficult major and at such a young age.

He was featured in science magazines as a young genius that would surely change whatever field he decided to enter into.

Because of this there were many companies that sought to hire him. Biotech companies, government contractors, and even universities attempted to bring him on board with all the tools at their disposal.

He was offered high paying jobs, jobs in top positions, excellent benefits, and luxury items such as fancy cars.

However, Scott turned them all down, and often in a curt and condescending matter.

This arrogant attitude gained him a collection of enemies who saw him as nothing more than a spoiled, arrogant, child.

To those who thought poorly of him he was known as the terminator in reference to his single-minded determination, his sense of superiority, and the fact that he seemed to shun human relationships.

To Scott, he simply didn’t care which companies wanted to hire him.

This was because he already knew where he wanted to work.

Because of his ability Scott could sense atomic interactions and because of this he decided to work in the area of particle physics.

There he could truly use his ability to its fullest extent as it allowed him to perform better than the traditional sensors used in particle experiments.

Wanting to work at the forefront of particle physics Scott chose CERN as his place of work.

Soon after starting his job at CERN Scott quickly rose through the ranks.

Utilizing his ability to its fullest he made many scientific discoveries which quickly propelled him into the spotlight of the scientific community.

For many scientists the disdain they had for Scott’s arrogance curdled into jealousy of his accomplishments.

As usual Scott simply ignored everyone else in pursuit of science.

Soon enough though, Scott began to become dissatisfied with the work environment at CERN.

There was too much red tape, strange rumors flying around for example something about a “Jellyman”, but most of all CERN simply wasn’t pushing the envelope enough.

Sure, they made many discoveries but they were all incremental in nature.

Scott yearned to make a monumental discovery, to attempt something no one had attempted before.

So he decided to leave CERN, packed up and moved to Australia.

With the help of the Australian government and various private backers Scott began work on the largest scientific project the world had ever seen.

A massive circular particle accelerator encompassing a large swath of Australia.

Its purpose?

To create space-time fluctuations in order to test Einstein’s theory of space-time.

The accelerator works by accelerating gravitons through a space devoid of dark matter.

The absence of dark matter allows the removal of the universal speed limit, the speed of light.

The gravitons accelerate infinitely until they collide producing space time fluctuations.

The accelerator was at the bleeding edge of technology, taking ten years for a team of Scott and the world’s best engineers to construct.

Millions of dollars and many sleepless nights later it was finally complete.

At present, it was just before the initial activation of the accelerator.

Scott was making the final adjustments in the flux chamber, the site of the space-time fluctuation experiment.

However his nostalgic trip into the past was interrupted by the blaring of a loud klaxon.