"Feel-U-Feel-Me" Novel by Stewart and Rebecka Dickson

The Robert Rathbun Wilson building is a ten-story concrete-and-glass Pyramid-like tower standing in the endless flat landscape of Northern Illinois. It commands the view of the Enrico Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, operated by the United States Department of Energy near the town of Batavia.

The two-mile-wide proton-antiproton accelerator rings are delineated in birmed earth punctuated by access buildings for the cryogenic, superconducting electromagnet system and high-energy physics experimental stations.

One of the outbuildings is a dodecahedral dome, made of a fiberglass-and-resin-reinforced honeycomb of empty soda cans. Another is a large Quonset hut with exaggerated, bright orange flanges curling from its ribs. The power lines leading to the central sub-station are carried by other-worldly-looking, exotic aluminum towers.

The visual introduction establishes this place as a cosmic observatory -- a place for discovery of the most basic forces of the universe within the smallest particles of matter. In the billion-electron-volt proton-anti-proton collision which occurs inside the accelerator, scientists speak of simulating conditions of matter seconds after the "big bang" at the time-origin of the universe.

Flags of sixty nations at the entrance bespeaks a spirit of multi-national cooperation.

On the seventh floor, Larry is sitting at his desk in front of his computer. He's listening to his computer reading his e-mail to him. The office is very small, about all you can fit in it is a desk and a chair, but it is very neat and organized.

The COMPUTER's fast talking-metallic voice is keeping up its relentless cadence:

"Mail: Message 43, Date: 25 July, 11:23:39 1999 From: majordomo@phy.ucla.edu To: FLUID_L Subject: Quantum Superfluid research group update summary.

"We have made some progress in extrapolating the angular momentum tensor measurements from superfluid samples in rotation relative to the cosmological quantum frame of reference.

"Given our continuation of measurements we began recording in May, over the remainder of the year , we should be able to establish the cosmological geometric origin. To date this location has been estimated to lie in the Orion constellation end".

There is a pause while Larry navigates the cursor down one line on the screen and presses the mouse button. 'Click.' And the boxed voice holds forth again:

                  "Mail:  Message 44, Date: 25 July, 09:54:55 1999 From:
                  majordomo@cern.ch  To: PARTICLE-L  Subject:
                  Salt Mine Watch -- Day 2,356

                  Fwd:  Yamamoto@lanl.gov

                  Day 2,356 of observation in Kamioka
		  prefecture, Okinawa -- detectors for spontaneous
                  proton decay have been listening now for
                  six years, 164 days ... no detection yet. ... end".

Larry pulls the mouse down again. And again ... 'Click':

		"Mail:  Message 45, Date: 25 July,  09:32:02 1999 From:
		h-adams@fnal.gov  To: proton_grp Subject: Experiment 
		FNAL9805-004
		1 attachment, MIME-type video/mpeg... Here's        
		my  latest animated simulation of last Wednesday's
		proton bombardment. Any comments from the group?..."

Larry waits for an "end" which never comes.

Larry mutters to himself, "Animation, yeah right." He feels his way to the upper-right-hand corner of his e-mail window with the mouse. The buttons under his fingers are equipped with tactile transmitters. As the cursor passes over the computer screen windows, the graphical features are translated into tactile features. The text is translated into Braille.

He finds the icon for the e-mail attachment and double-clicks the mouse.

A brightly colored animation plays on the screen -- sensuous abstract forms undulating -- showing symmetry of interaction in the primary forces of the atom... But, Larry can't see this.

Larry reaches his left hand over to the Braille computer interface on his desk, double-clicks the mouse again with his right hand, to play back the animation again.

Rough outlines of the forms -- in bright colors and full-3D on his screen -- are traced in the metallic surface as the animation plays.

Larry is totally non-plussed -- he plays it back again, trying with his hand to understand the form in the outlines -- it's no good...

Larry mutters again, "My comment," and begins touch-typing on the keyboard. The computer is following along, now paced by the space-bar on the keyboard:

		"Mail h-adams@fnal.gov return Subject: Re: 
		Experiment FNAL9805-004                                                      
		return Please write some better 
		explanatory text on your animation 
  		-- we need some 'descriptive audio' to go with our       
		pictures here."

Larry shakes his head and begins typing again. "--Larry", the computer says.

The door is opened and Jake pops his head around the corner. "Hello," he says.

"Oh, just a second," Larry clicks 'send'. "Whatcha need Jake?"

Jake is Larry's East-Indian supervisor on the boson spin-symmetry experiments. "I'm on my way to the lunch room." He says in a clipped English accent, "Do you want to join me?"

Larry replies, "Sure, I'm ready, just let me grab my bag." Very adroitly he grabs his cane and picks up a lunch bag. They join each other in the hall. They turn right to the elevator and down to the lunch room.