"Commencing test-run 0348!" An operator uttered.
Proceeding the operator's utterance was a series of keyboard-typing sounds that drowned every other sound in the testing room;
An attribute of their sheer number.
Then afterwards, a lone Male engineer walked up towards the Quasiparticle Transporter and pulled down on an isolated lever behind the device, which responsively sprung the latter to life, adorning its body with several teal-coloured lights, whose flickering only seemed to intensify the anticipation in its watchers' eyes.
"Syncing Spatial condenser..." The lone engineer said yet again, but this time, pulling down on a different lever.
In response to this simple action was the emergence of a portal that occupied the circular cavity of the Quasiparticle Transporter.
A typical reaction one would have expected from the people after the emergence of the portal would either be: A loud cherry vociferation of happiness, irregular screams of glee, or a few vigorous clapping from those who still had a bit of control over their minds and body.
But rather oddly, that wasn't truly the case because, in response to the portal's emergence was a deathly silence that shrouded the entire room, striking every single person with speechlessness. Every one of them just stood there, frozen in stasis, as they stared at the revolving portal with utter stupefaction—they just couldn't believe what their eyes were beholding.
'I-it's... Magnificent...
...I might cry.' Ron thought.
Initially, right before they had conducted this last test run on the Quasiparticle Transporter, the people displayed eagerness and anticipation at the finality of their grand project. But their beaming exhibition was crafted for the sole purpose of belying the tinge of doubt they all harboured in their respective hearts.
It was some sort of a defensive mechanism adopted by their minds after the series of failed Test runs in an effort to keep them from falling apart due to desperation and frustration.
This final test run, Test-run 0348, marked the 348th time they had run tests on the Quasiparticle Transporter.
Anyone who had to constantly invest their strength, time, energy and mental health into a particular project, only to have it fail every now and again would surely bear a bit of doubt about it, irrespective of whatever modifications had been made to it.
But with the constant reminder of the degree of potential in their project, they would be able to keep themselves from falling apart in hopelessness.
Fortunately for the group present in the testing room, today officially marks the end of their toiling days, and it most probably marks the beginning of the moment where they would have to reap what they had sown.
The feeling accompanied by this very thought made a great fraction of them tear up in joy, weeping silently in their own various pitches.
"Incredible," Jack remarked. Despite the conflicting feelings that previously gnawed on his heart, he, too, wasn't spared of the bizarre feeling that accompanied their accomplishment. But he definitely didn't tear up like most people.
"Who would have believed?" Steve muttered, a hint of amazement creeping into his usual calm tone. "Who would have believed? A group of insignificant folks like us, came together to create something that would change the world forever."
Just then, a whirring sound drew the pair's attention as they looked forward, only to see a humanoid automaton flaring to life and standing barely a few meters away from the periphery of the portal.
The humanoid robot was built by one of Ron's devoted engineers to serve as the first test-rabbit.
Now they may have triggered the emergence of a portal, but they didn't exactly know what it was like to actually go through one. So they can't really volunteer one of their own, as the prospect of potential risk—met in the process was simply too high.
So the robot would act like their vanguard — a forerunner that would not only pave their way but ascertain if human travel was truly safe. Only then would be able to consider their next course of action.
Of course, Ron explained this much to the people after noticing the scepticism etched on their faces.
"Oh, so that's what it was made for," Steve said, awestricken. "Wow."
One peculiar thing about the Quasiparticle Transporter was that Not only does it allow the transportation of humans and objects, but it was also built to support manual triangulation. This means that: The operators steering the program of the device have a definite avenue of choosing the location of the object during each transport.
"Repositioning S-S A213 Into DeX Orbit...." an operator said as he sent and processed lightning-fast programs on his computer.
"Triangulation into the Amazon in sync." A female operator uttered as she mercilessly stabbed the keys on her keyboard with relentless determination.
A few other commands and processes were sent and made, respectively. And after which, The S-S A213 — the survey-satellite A213, glided and paused at the DeX orbit in space, before pinpointing the location of the Amazon.
"We're already for Transport, Sir." Another operator said to Ron.
"Yeah?
Then let's begin." He replied.
Having received the cue, the operator in charge of the humanoid automaton sent a series of commands to the robot, prompting it to move its seemingly heavy body into the portal, which still remained open afterwards.
However, this operator was equipped with futuristic vision-syncing goggles, which had a bit of semblance to a virtual reality headset.
Now, the purpose of this VS Google was, as its name implies, to provide its wearer with the same visual information assimilated by the robot.
In other words, the operator would be able to see whatever the robot sees in the Amazon.
"How are we looking, Sam?" Ron asked the operator who wore the VS goggles.
"So far? We're looking good. All systems are stable, No damage to any part, whatsoever.
The portal is pretty safe."
At his last statement, the entire room erupted in cheers, applause and a few loud and irregular screams.
"Yay...!!!!!"
"Whuu–huu...!!!"
"Great, great, great, good." Ron nodded in response. "Don't move yet till we give you the signal, okay?"
"You've got it, boss." Sam, who steered the robot answered with a thumbs-up.
Ron then proceeded to one of their programmers.
"Hey, how about that video, huh?" Ron said.
"Just a second, Sir." The young computer programmer said as he typed a few keys on his keyboard.
A few moments later, an image of the Amazon was suddenly being displayed on the screen of his monitor. It looked a bit grainy, although not enough to impede information retrieval.
"Nice." Ron grinned.
He then said to Sam: "Sam, proceed a few meters westward."
As Sam guided the robot towards the western part of the Amazon, the image in the monitor shifted in response to that.
"Good. Good. Very good." While maintaining eye contact with the monitor, Ron ordered Sam yet again:
"Okay, now proceed a few meters northwards."
And like before, the image being displayed on the monitor moved in translation to the robot's manoeuvring.
Ron then followed up with another set of simple orders, just to make sure that they had what they thought they had, which was full control over the robot, despite the relative distance between themselves and the robot.
After ascertaining that, Ron ordered Sam to take the robot for a few kilometres-run around the forest, just to get used to their charting procedures.
This charting procedure was a unique way of mapping out a particular terrain using signals obtained from the robot. And they were specifically handled by another group of professional geological engineers.
**
As they were handling the charting process, the image being displayed on the monitor suddenly flickered off, startling everyone in the room.
"Huh?"
"What the—What the hell happened, Sam?" Ron asked.
"Uh... I-I uh... I think stumbled into a quicksand.
Sorry, boss." Sam answered sheepishly.
They may have lost one test robot to an unfortunate quicksand encounter, but they were quite fortunate for having built many more of those robots, which they stored for the purpose of certain contingencies such as this.
With more test-robot in their arsenal, they had more time and more avenue to test the Quasiparticle Transporter.
Well, of course, they couldn't also labour under the illusion of the constant replacement of lost robots because they had a limited supply of them.
If anything, they had to be very careful when handling them to reduce their damage rate.
*
Several hours later, after conducting many more tests on the Quasiparticle Transporter, Ron finally declared that Test-run 0348 was over, and they would reconvene the next day to top off the entire testing with the first human transport.
"Very exciting, right?! I can't wait either." Ron had said.
Only after the success of human transport would they finally be ready to bring their creation to light, only allying with the various organisations who had helped him throughout his endeavours in accomplishing his goals.
With that being said, everyone started exiting the testing room, and a few others proceeded onwards to completely exit the bunker.
They weren't exactly prohibited from ever leaving the bunker entirely; they were only cautioned not to go as far away from it as possible so as not to give their locale away to the government — before they could even have the chance to finish their project.
But now that they were finally done, Ron had bade them to go out, see the world outside the bunker, and then return a few hours later to complete what they had started.
***
A few moments after Ron's final announcement, the entire bunker was now mostly empty, excluding the few security personnel roaming around the bunker's vicinity, and then of course, Ron himself.
Inside the testing room, Ron stood before the Quasiparticle Transporter, staring at it with an uneven mind.
He couldn't help but think of everything thing that had happened which had seen to the fruition of his plans. He also couldn't help but think of the misdeeds that had to be done to prevent the annulment of his research.
However, all those thoughts were quickly expunged with a few resolute remarks:
"The end would, and would always justify the means.
Everything I have done, I have done for the betterment of my people, my culture, and my family. I can't sulk like a teenager just because I happened to eliminate the few roadblocks I met along the way.
When this invention finally comes out into the world, the world will finally take us seriously: No more licking the boots of those at the top — to get a mere insignificant scrap for a promotion.
Our names would echo throughout world history as the first people to perfect the teleportation theory.
And when that happens, and I have gotten more powerful than I already am right now, I can finally pay a visit to my brother's killer.
A visit that would only end with either of us coming out alive as the victor.
And I'm sure as hell that it isn't going to be that bastard CEO of Static Medicals and Technology."
**
A few more minutes wore by, and Ron finally decided to leave the testing room — he had to get enough sleep for the night if he wished for his body's maximum performance rate during the final testing tomorrow.
After packing up his things and exiting the room, he made sure to enable the locking encryption on the doors, serving as the entrance to the testing room.
This room was officially the most restricted area of entire bunker rooms. Unless someone happened to have a flawless copy of the full set of his biometrics, they wouldn't be able to gain access to the room without Ron's consent.
So, as of now, with Ron finally out of his bunker, the only people left were the security guards, who would continuously stay on guard throughout the entirety of the night.
Although they had been granted access to certain places in the bunker, there wasn't any authorisation to be or go anywhere near the room that housed the Quasiparticle Transporter.
And owing to this restriction, these security guards weren't able to witness the oddest thing that was about to occur in that very room a few moments after Ron's departure.
Inside the testing room — where the Quasiparticle Transporter stood firm and erect, a strange phenomenon occurred:
The device, currently and perfectly untethered to any power source, abruptly sprung to life with a small light nova, encapsulating the entire room with a dense, ethereal white light
But as soon as the light slowly began to attain a dimmer luminescence, a certain round, spinning object could be discerned from the blast's origin.
This mysterious round, spinning object was canonically known as a Singularity — a wormhole-like feature whose diameter and density were vastly higher than that of the initial portal summoned by the Quasiparticle Transporter.