A quantum physicist friend gave you a tiny vial of a substance termed "scriff".  It's golden colored, and the material has peculiar properties.  For one, it seems to violate Einsteinian speed limits as electrons shot at it, emerge instantaneously from the other side.

They are not sure what to make of it, so they've been offering tiny bits of it to various researchers for a week at a time to see if some fresh brains/ alternate disciplines can produce useful light.

You shoot it with electrons as described, and since you don't have equipment sophisticated enough to detect electron speeds nothing happens of note.  Frustrated, you decide to bring it more into your macro-scale world, and amp up the charge.  100 watts disappears and reappears with no effect that you can see.  Intrigued you ramp it up some more.

As it passes 1KW, it sparks, and you're reaching for the off switch when lightning arcs from the scriff, and it explodes in a flash of white light mixed with yellow globules.

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You wake, lying face down with a metal grate imprinted into your cheek bone by your somewhat lighter than usual feeling weight.  You feel fine, and not injured in the slightest.  A faint whirr of artificial air is heard which system is much better than the clanky ventilation system in your laboratory.  The air smells like 'clean room' air.

Your eyes are closed.

What do you do?

Playtester

Okay, passed out facedown on the floor, weird ass dream, no recollection how you got here. Seen that movie, gotten the T.

No bile in the back of your throat so after party clean up should be minimal, which always a plus.

Hmmm... grating, metal grating by the bitter/tangy taste. Somebody elses floor then. Done that one before too.

Alright, no sense in drawing things out. Step one plant hands palm down parallel to both side of chest.

So far so good. Now for the hard part, pushing self slowly upward into kneeling position.

Okay, no nausea so probably stayed away from the cheap stuff. Time to open your eyes and face the glaring (stabbing, grating) light of truth aka the morning sun. One, two, thr-...

Three...okaaaaaay.

You feel surprisingly strong in your arms this morning as you push yourself up. Like you've been working out or something.

You see a long metal catwalk stretch out in front of you in the dim lighting. The walls to your left and right are curved to your right with just enough room for a tall man to walk anywhere on the catwalk.

Below the catwalk, the walls also curve to your right.  It looks like the walls are about 15% of a circle or more precisely a cone.

They look to be made of a ceramic substance, perhaps.  Painted or baked in off-white.  Smooth, glossy.

PT

Alright, ladies and gents. Lets take stock.

Plus: no hangover; no mess to clean up.

Minus: no idea how i got here; in fact no idea where here is period.

Hmm... weird design. I thing we can safely rule out somebody's home.

Unless of course Howard Hughes has just faked his death and this is his secret lair. Ah well, we'll know soon enough.

And now for the million dollar question: Which way out? Forward or back thataway?

Might as well take the scenic route and go forward. Man, i hope this isn't somewhere out in the boonies. I do so not need a three figure taxi bill. Now where did i put that bleepin' cellphone?
This message was last edited by the player at 23:29, Mon 25 Apr 2005.

Your cell phone bangs in your front pocket of your lab coat as you step forward.  Checking it yields an 'out of area' reply.

You walk forward, and occasionally see piping along the walls. One such pipe in particular draws your attention with its bright yellow and red striping, and the warning octagon sign attached to it.

"Warning:
-H Liquid Flow Pipe
Supercold/Annihilative"

PT

Seems like someone is doing some serious cooling around here, and not just on a lab scale given they they (whoever 'they' are) needed enough liquid hydrogen to warrant laying a big, fat pipe for it.

Damn, that has to be one f%&#ing huge super conductor magnet they are running. Would explain the cellphone not getting a signal. Of course a magnetic field that strong should have fried the cell completely.

This isn't DESY. I've been to DESY and it looks different. CERN? Nah. Haven't been there, but i'm reasonably certain it's not CERN either.

Good thing too. Getting home from Zurich after a bender would be prohibtively expensive. But who does that leave, some government facility?

"Curiouser and Curiouser, Alice. Just what kind of rabbit hole have we fallen into here?"

You continue on forward, and hear human voices.  Getting closer, you hear around a corner, and through a hatch...

"Okay Jeff, I'll raise you ten, and if I win this pot that means you owe me five million marks back in civilization."

"Hey, I'm bad, but not that bad. I think you're cheating on the count." Jeff says, and there's a bit of feminine laughter.  "I'm at most, at most 4.5 in the hole."

"Well gentlemen, and I use that term loosely, as much fun as it is watching the two of you duel, I think I need to go strap on a pistol, and go check out the anomaly we detected."

"Cass, its nothing. Just a dust mite smacking us. Look I'll advance you a half million of Jeff's chips, and sit down, ok?"  The first voice says.

PT