Ultraviolet Catastrophe

“I know you’re upset, and I’m sorry. How about we get out of here for a while? Do something different? Start over?”

Of course, he was trying to distract me again. Well I wasn’t going to fall for that. I shook my head. “You promised to tell me who you’re keeping me safe from. I want the truth.”

“I’ll tell you everything after we go to Quantum Technologies and get your security clearance taken care of before you start on Monday.”

Oh my god. He was serious. He actually expected me to go to school here. I shook my head. “No way. I told you. I’m not staying. And I’m not going to let you lie to me any more.” I ignored the fact that I didn’t exactly have any place else to go.

“How about you give it a chance? Just one visit? I know you’ll love it.” He gave me one of those cajoling smiles, and I frowned at him. “Remember going to COSI — the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus — when you were younger? Quantum Technologies is like that. Only better than you can ever imagine.”

Despite my anger, my heart gave a little thump. COSI had been my happy place, the place Dad always took me when he came to visit. I loved the hands-on experiments. I loved feeling like anything was possible.

“Fine. Whatever. Let’s just get it over with.” I hated that I’d let him slide out of giving me real answers, but I was just so tired of fighting.

He opened the door to his shiny new hybrid, and I slid into the passenger seat. The air conditioning came on with a gust of cold air, and my skin burst into goosebumps. Dad glanced over at me and switched it off. “I forget you’re not used to the Tennessee weather yet. If you thought Ohio was bad, just wait. Though I think you’ve missed the worst of it with the summer being almost over.”

“Glad I brought some tank tops with me.” I grimaced out the window. Great. The only thing we had to talk about was the weather.

The car sped smoothly through Dad’s neighborhood and out onto the highway. The mountains pressed down on us, making me feel like I’d never be able to escape.

Slowly, the traffic disappeared, the forest thickened, and Dad nodded to the scrabble of trees outside the window. “Quantum Technologies owns almost a thousand acres. They’ve left most of it wild. It helps with privacy, and of course, it’s good for the environment. They could have used some of the old Manhattan Project buildings the government abandoned — there’s still a large tech park on the other side of town — but they wanted to start fresh to make sure their work wasn’t tainted by association. There are a lot of people still out there upset by how it was all handled.”

“The Manhattan Project was like fifty years ago, right? I mean, yeah, they created the atomic bomb, but really? People are still upset?”

“It’s not so long ago if you lived through it, Lex.”

The road curved through the trees, and I caught a glimpse of a tall, chain-link fence. We had to be getting close. Dad slowed the car in front of a small gatehouse, and a man in uniform stepped out to stop us even though there was no way we were getting through the story-tall, steel gate blocking our way.

“Afternoon, Dr. Kepler.”

“Stevens.” Dad nodded at the man, then stared into a black box Stevens held up at eye level. There was a flash of light and a sharp beep.

The man peered into the car. “And who’s your passenger?”

“My daughter, Alexa.” Dad nodded at me. “She’s got general clearance, but we’re going to take care of the rest this afternoon. She’ll be attending Quantum High.”

“Welcome to QT, Alexa. Can you roll down your window please?” He walked around to my side of the car and fiddled with some buttons on the back of the black box. “The bright light may sting a bit. Just hold still and keep your eyes open during the scan.”

The size of the box, the flash of light — everything connected at once. “An iris scanner? Are you using a Shark-Hartmann wavefront sensor array to record the images?”

I stared at him in dismay. Not again.

But Stevens nodded and smiled. “Just routine security. Everyone has one on file at QT.”

He pressed the box to my eye, and I tried not to flinch at the searing green light that flashed into my eyeball for a split-second. When he pulled the box away, my whole face tingled.

The machine gave a low, warning tone, and Stevens frowned at it, tapping at a few buttons. “That’s strange. It looks like Alexa already has a scan on record.”

Dad tugged at his collar. “Right. Well, I guess we’re all set then.”

Stevens nodded and stepped aside to press a button inside the little house. The steel gate rolled back, and Dad drove through with a wave to Stevens.

I stared at him. “What just happened?”

“I forgot you’d already have a scan on file. Nothing to worry about.”

“And why do I have a scan on file at QT?” As far as I knew, I’d never been here before.

“Just a routine scan when you were young.” Dad kept his eyes on the road and didn’t look at me.

My gut clenched. More lies. What else wasn’t he telling me?

Before I could ask, we rounded a curve in the road. A large, brick manor house sprawled before us, and I quirked an eyebrow. That definitely wasn’t what I’d been expecting. It was three stories with tall, white pillars, the warm red brick glowing in the sun. It looked like something that belonged on a plantation in the south, not a high-tech campus. Not exactly what I’d consider cutting-edge.

“That’s QT?”

But Dad just smiled. “Wait and see.”

He pulled around to a large parking lot, and I spotted a dozen tall, thin antennas poking up into the sky from behind the building. In the distance, there was some sort of bunker, its roof half-retracted to let a massive telescope view the sky. Now that was a little more like it.

Dad parked the car, and I studied the house as we approached. It all looked so…homey, with the warm brick and glinting white trim. Even the shrubs that framed the front were neat and tidy. And perfectly normal. Not like a place where some of the most brilliant scientists in the world created the fantastical and life-changing tech QT was reportedly known for. Dad pushed open the thick oak door and gestured for me to step inside.

I froze on the doorstep.

The lobby looked like something out of a sci-fi movie, all glass and metal and granite. The chrome-beamed ceiling soared over a space that felt like the size of a gymnasium. Was the size of a gymnasium.