The tour guide walked us into the little old building covered in vines from years of neglect.
"And so this is Dr.Dolsten's lair, as we like to call it. It isn't especially cared for so please let me know if you are allergic to dust! For those who don't know, Dr.Dolsten is said to have mysteriously disappeared on August 7th of 2011. He was last seen entering the building in the morning and a few weeks later his neighbors notified the authorities about his absence from his residence. Many people thought that he had passed away in his office, but the officers found no sign of his body anywhere. He kept to himself so nobody has any inkling as to what happened!" The guide spoke with a practiced excitement. It was charming, though obviously rehearsed.
"Have you ever met Dr.Dolsten?" A nerdy looking girl from the tour group asked.
"Yes, in fact I have. I was raised here, and we would often see Dr.Dolsten on his way to the office. He was quite the mystery and all the kids always assumed this building was haunted. It was only after his disappearance that we were allowed inside!" The guide had clearly been asked this question before.
"Can we see the room where they found the Hyponolgic Press?" I asked.
"Of course!" The tour guide smiled.
"Does everyone know about the Hyponolgic Press?" She addressed the group.
The facial expressions ranged from confused to slightly sure.
"All right, well as you all have probably heard, the Hyponolgic Press was found in Dr. Dolsten's experimental room. It was one of the few dozen strange items that he had in there. It may seem a far away sciency term to most of you, but the Hyponologic Press is now widely used to create micro-fiber elements for producing synthetic drugs. The rest of the items in the room were deemed of no use and returned here. It is the discovery of the Hyponologic Press that has made this little town a hot touring spot to visit. Ever since Dr. Dolsten's disappearance, the town of Ganor has opened up this building as a museum to pay homage to his discovery!" She summarized.
"Now lets go see Dr. Dolsten's experimental room!" She led the way.
We were ushered into a medium sized room. It was somewhat cluttered, but there was a sanity to the madness. There were about 10 stands that had different things on them fashioned all around the room. Each stand had a caution tape, and a sign on the door reminded visitors to keep their hands off the displays.
Everyone scattered around the room, some in pairs and some alone, admiring the various objects in front of them. The first object to draw my attention was what appeared to be a cylindrical fridge. It was a white structure, about 4 feet in height and 2 feet in diameter. The design was captivating in its simplicity. There was no disconnect or any sign of assembled parts. It is as though the whole thing was manufactured as one piece. Without touching the surface I could see that it was probably some sort of plastic. It was hard to really tell exactly what the material was due to the dust that had built up. Clearly the town of Ganor did not appreciate how important the other pieces could prove to be.
The tour guide went around and spoke to people individually about the items they were discussing. She eventually made her way to me.
"Oh, the big white tube. An interesting item no?" She probed.
"Yeah. The build is flawless. Any idea what it does?"
"Nobody knows. The other items at least have knobs or switches, but this one is just that. That's why we call it the big white tube." She answered while seeming apologetic at the lack of information on the subject.
Her phone rang, she checked the called ID and started hurrying out of the room.
"I will be right back everyone, we will continue into the next room in five minutes!" She said on her way out.
I turned back to stare at the big white tube. As a micro fiber engineer I knew a lot about the Hyponolgic Press. I knew enough to know that no one really understood its inner mechanics. Six years after its discovery, even as we use it, we cannot replicate it. Knowing this I can only imagine what any single given item in this room is capable of.
I looked around the room, and seeing that no one is paying attention to me, I decided to take this chance to touch the big white tube with my own hands. I ran my finger along the edge at the top as I took in the smoothness of the corner. It was definitely manufactured as one piece. Looking back to make sure no one was looking, I rubbed the smooth service of the outer wall with my other hand. If anyone did look at me I would have appeared to be some sort of maniac. Admiring surfaces of a white tube like it was my first day on earth. As my left hand was finishing the rotation along the edge, and my right hand was approaching the bottom of the outer wall surface, everything turned white.
Nothing. I was standing in the middle of nothing. Nothing to my right, nothing to my left. Nothing up, nothing down. Everything was just white. It felt as though I was standing, but I could not see a surface on which I could be doing so.
"Umm. Hello?" I said to the white space.
Nothing.
"Hello!?" I yelled at the white space.
Nothing.
Dimensional Excursion: Chapter 1 - The White | Ecency
