Esther Caldell scrutinized the five other members of the Science Committee on her widescreen, connected by quantum-secure channels as they waited in their locked rooms around the world.
It was vital they were at the top of their game. The committee had the power to review every scientific experiment on Earth, a full-time job. Each member suffered their own type of existential dread.
  The applicant appeared on their screens, a bald Asian man in his forties. He twitched inwardly as he reviewed his notes for the last time.

  Esther tapped her gavel and said: "I call the meeting to order. Vincent Kingos will apply for permission to perform his dark matter experiment. Please proceed, applicant Kingos."

  An eccentric engineer, Vincent had had little time to prepare. Last month his assistant had been hospitalized with a nervous breakdown. Normally she would have spoken in his place.
  Suddenly alert, Vincent looked up and began to speak. "Thank you for not rejecting our proposal summarily. It is of the greatest importance."
  "Let me give you the background. We now have an opportunity to explain the universe by studying so called dark matter. Also known as 'weakly interacting massive particles', these particles are completely invisible, and pass through normal matter without interference. They're almost impossible to detect, but they are everywhere, orbiting every galaxy. Swarms are passing through our bodies as we speak."
  "We know they exist because they do interact with ordinary matter through gravity. The combined weight of the dark matter is at least ten times that of all normal matter. It affects the orbit of every star. So we know it's out there."
  "Studying dark matter has been difficult because our particle accelerators weren't powerful enough to create it. Recently, that has changed."

  As he spoke, Vincent displayed graphics in rapid succession. Their screens showed amazing mazes of machinery in giant manmade caves, thousands of coolant pipes converging toward a gleaming sphere surrounded by strangely elongated rods and spokes spiraling away in all directions.
  The committee members chose to focus on him instead. The engineer represented a major constituency. Thousands worldwide awaited the outcome of this meeting.

  "If you look closely," Vincent continued, "you can just make out myself standing at the bottom of the sphere. The Tibesti Virtual Particle Accelerator is bigger than it looks."

  "We authorized it three years ago," Esther said.

  "As you also know," Vincent went on, "some very interesting things happen at subatomic scales. According to quantum theory, particles are constantly pair-forming and annihilating each other throughout empty space. This spontaneous process happens so fast, and in such tiny areas, that we can't study so-called virtual particles directly - but they embody tremendous temporary energy imbalances. The energy created and (fortunately) uncreated every second inside a speck of dust could melt a planet."
  "Our accelerator can 'focus' these virtual particles for a brief instant, by altering the geometry of space using 'Bose-Einstein lenses'. In this implosion, some 'virtual' dark matter becomes real dark matter. Technically they're called 'L1-kleptons', because they 'steal' a small amount of energy from other particles. We can't see them, but we can study the path of normal particles also formed in the reaction. That way, we can see where the invisible matter went."
  "And this process is reversible! The dark matter we create can sometimes be absorbed by superconducting heavy isotopes - unlike the natural dark matter in our universe. Our preliminary detector cost only three billion dollars, much less than the accelerator. We have already seen some strange things."

  Vincent Kingos had fond memories of those early days, when a new world had opened up. He had felt the thrill of nature exposed, of encountering something fundamentally smarter than him, and an even deeper feeling: pride, the trait most physicists shared. He had been the first to view this new realm.

  He continued after a second's pause. "All our dark particles are of the uninteresting low-energy kind, about the rest mass of a muon, but they do interact with the high-energy dark matter found in nature. In fact, they interact so strongly a new force must be involved. Unfortunately, there are not enough natural 'kleptons' passing through our laboratory to study these interactions, and we can't make enough either."

  "Excuse me." Esther coughed. "This goes beyond what your assistant explained to us last year."
  Esther had liked her more than this fellow. Vincent didn't have the patience to understand the public concerns about his schemes.
That would make what they had to do a lot easier.

  "You're right," Vincent replied. "You allowed us to perform our first experiment then. Since dark matter is affected by gravity, our sun must have absorbed quite a lot of it. In fact, it would attract the heaviest, most interesting kind. Jupiter also has some, mostly orbiting around the planet, not inside it. A lot of WIMPs end up at its two main Trojan points."
  "We beamed some of our synthetic dark matter at the sun, and a minuscule percentage bounced back to us - the same principle as radar. In this way we detected several million tons of extremely interesting dark matter near the center of the sun. Studying it will reveal how our universe started."

  "How exactly?" Esther asked to humor him.

  "Well, over thirteen billion years ago, when the universe was concentrated in a dimensionless point, an infinite number of events happened at once. Reality was undeterminable. All the laws and constants of physics we see today are the result of a random compromise made in a fraction of a second. We can never measure the exact ratio between any two forces, but will always need to make more precise measurements to determine them."
"Natural dark matter gives us a 'window' into energy levels we could never duplicate, a way to precisely measure the strengths of the forces. We should try to gather a sample. A trillionth of a gram should be sufficient."
  Vincent paused for emphasis. "Next week, we propose to shoot a very narrow klepton beam through the sun to our new detector in the Witten satellite orbiting on the other side. Shaped like a flattened cone, the pulse will pass through the detector in a quintillionth of a second. It should carry enough solar dark matter with it for useful analysis."
  Vincent stopped expectantly. The committee members stared back.

****

  "Some questions:" Esther said. "Let me get this straight: you want to fire a beam of ultra-high-energy particles directly through the heart of our sun? The particles might decay in unknown ways. What if there's a fusion chain along the beam path?"

  Vincent seemed more annoyed than nervous. "There is no danger whatsoever. The pressure and temperature of the solar plasma along the beam path are much too low to sustain fusion reactions. A few Deuterium transitions, but no noticeable effects on Earth."

  For the first time, another committee member spoke. "Our reviewers disagree," said the Chinese member, opening a slideshow. "We've seen numerous worrisome scenarios. A 'plume' from the sun's core could cause a solar flare. Even small ones cause a lot of damage. Last year half a billion ID tags short-circuited in Asia. A large flare could wipe out plankton farms and cause local extinctions."
  He looked at the other members. "I recommend we reject the application, unless the applicant can prove with 100% certainty there will be no side effects."

  "That's totally unreasonable!" the scientist exclaimed. "We could never convince everyone. Most of your 'experts' are crackpots! This matter should be left to the physicists. There's too much democracy here."
  Vincent stopped when he felt the weight of the committee's stares. An older member slowly shook his head.
  "What I meant to say . . . "

  Esther interrupted. "We'll give you 24 hours to come up with new evidence. If you fail to convince us your Level-One risk profile won't exceed one quadrillionth, I'm afraid we'll have to reject your experiment." The other members nodded in unison.

  Vincent recoiled. "You have no idea what you're doing," he stammered. "We could determine the exact laws of physics. We might even be able to control gravity. Think of the possibilities!"

  "Our deepest apologies," Esther said. "You may reapply in one year's time." She pounded her gavel.
  "Session adjourned."

  Vincent couldn't speak as the committee members flickered out in order of seniority.

****

  The members regarded each other silently. "Do you think he can prove his experiment is safe beyond any doubt?" the representative from India asked.

  "Not to us," Esther replied. "We're hard to please."

  "Eventually he will construct an airtight case. Then what?"

  "That could take years," Esther answered. "And we could always lie. Maybe dark matter beams attract hostile aliens."

  "That might happen."

  "And as a last resort we could even tell the truth."

  Everyone laughed. For a moment, Esther considered the notion.
  Everyone knew why the Committee existed: certain types of knowledge were too dangerous and had to be restricted. No one could say what piece of data would lead to a new poison, a bomb, a plague. Knowledge was unstable, and had to be tightly controlled. Regrettably, even free speech was regulated, a temporary measure until mankind reached a higher maturity level. Every new byte of Net content was automatically scanned and when necessary deleted, and its author suspended.
  In the case of Vincent Kingos, several careers would have to be utterly ruined.
  He was a brilliant experimentalist, but couldn't see past his own data. He couldn't really be blamed; his experiments generated hundreds of terabytes each. Other people had spent their lives analyzing them.
  But how shortsighted of him, to think every question would be answered once dark matter was fully understood. Just because he'd reached the current limits, didn't mean there weren't even greater mysteries beyond.
  Unknown to him, Vincent's experiments had already exposed the truth: the dark matter interactions were themselves disturbed by yet another unknown factor: a sixth force.
And there were even higher energy levels.

  The greatest minds on Earth had secretly pondered the problem. The World Wide Hypercomputer had needed a month to figure it all out. Infinities canceled out in strange ways.

  "I'm glad we know the truth, no matter how frightening," Esther said. "I don't like mysteries."

  She remembered the shock. The high-energy levels existed in higher dimensions - which could also be described as a universe just like this one. The dark matter was a bridge between the two realms.
  The other universe was a place of austere beauty. The laws of physics were almost the same, but it had evolved quite differently.
  Amazingly, it turned out to be easier to reach this new universe than to reach Earth orbit! It had taken just three months to build the first probe, a flea-sized robot accelerated through a temporary gateway at hypersonic speed. Bigger probes soon followed - and then the first hypernauts.
  Initial results were unpromising. The gateways emerged into a region of intergalactic space. There was nothing on the other side but hard vacuum, one atom per cubic kilometer. The only thing to see was a handful of distant galaxies, like faint headlights in the fog. These were very large, with unusual crystalline structures - but there was no hope of ever reaching them.

  Still, the gateway was good for one thing: hazardous waste could now be discarded with ease. Millions of tons of noxious chemicals and dangerous radioactives, which had filled countless waste dumps for centuries, would no longer bother mankind. The first loads had already been dumped on the other side. The debris tumbled away into the endless dark, never to return.
  There was an even better use for this new universe. With an effective temperature only slightly above absolute zero, it could be the ultimate heat sink. Unlimited amounts of waste heat could be beamed away. This process could literally power the world, though it wouldn't be very efficient for that purpose. The transmission devices looked like bizarre origami sculptures, but their power throughput was amazing.
The real application was obvious. In a few decades, it might be possible to freeze entire desserts overnight. Vincent's results could reverse global warming. Even the sea level might be lowered again! Florida could be reclaimed from the waves.

  This led to their main dilemma. Since 2030, environmental services had become the biggest sector of the global economy. Every company had to follow a long list of ecological regulations.
  If these suddenly became obsolete, there would be agony: mass unemployment, crashing stock markets. The world was too overpopulated for such pandemonium. Mankind had to be carefully prepared for the coming changes, which would take ten years, or so the most powerful politicians had told them.
  If Vincent were allowed to beam his dark matter through the sun, he would learn the truth immediately. So his career had to be sacrificed. Regrettable but necessary.

  "Friends, today we take the first step toward a brighter future," the African member said. "One day humanity will be grateful."

  "I don't think Kingos will ever forgive us," Esther said wistfully.

  "In my country we have a saying. He is fulfilling his purpose, even if he doesn't know it."

****

  Esther turned off her screen, secure in their rightness. She leaned back and sighed. The office seemed very quiet. Her next meeting wasn't for two hours.

Esther wished she could share her thoughts with her trusted secretary, but she'd quit without notice two weeks ago. Her last thought entered her mind: Vincent's stressed-out assistant had also been nowhere to be found.
In fact, quite a lot of people seemed to have been disappearing.