Experiment on the 'X-Stone'

This is a baby fist-sized, oval-shaped blue-colored gem with a black tint to it. If you watch closely you will find trillions of characters or words in golden color simmering at its core and they look like a mixed group from Sanskrit and mandarin. But these characters are only visible to the human eye and till now no device or sensor was able to pick up these characters.

Daniel always believed that the way to extend his life is written in these characters and that is why he spent more than two decades decoding them.

The Gem is so mesmerizing that people find it difficult to move their gaze away from it. But Daniel took away his gaze just after a glance. Because he knows if you watch this Gem for more than 10 seconds you will lose consciousness and if time exceeds 20 seconds you will be brain dead.

After closing the safe Daniel took the 'X-Stone' which is tightly enclosed in a glass case to the experiment room by following the same previous way.

"Did you get it?" Phantom asked his best friend when he saw him coming into the room.

Daniel just gave a nod and moved closer to the 'ϒ-Apparatus' which is tuned by his friend. The equipment is 6*6*8 meters in size and costs tens of billions of dollars. This type of equipment is not purchasable without the support of the government or a very powerful person. If it weren't for this, Daniel will not be here in the first place. After examining all the connections first, he put the 'X-Stone' at the center of the billion-dollar device by following every given instruction sequentially.

With Power System, Central Computer, Apparatus, and algorithms all being in place both friends took a break. They decided to have a late-night dinner at the dining place present at the core area itself. The dinner is done in a heavy atmosphere as both have many thoughts going through their minds.

Daniel is thinking about his escape irrespective of the experiment result and ways to conduct his future experiments while avoiding the government. With thoughts churning Daniel looked at his once good friend who betrayed him and gave a big sigh after a few moments.

After finalizing his remaining plans and putting away the distracting thoughts, Daniel urged his past friend to complete his dinner quickly. He knows there is no turning back now and thinking too much will yield no good result.

With dinner done, both old fellows wore anti-radiation suits and started deciding on their respective roles. Daniel wanted to get experiment data first hand so decided to take control of 'ϒ-Apparatus' and Algorithms. So the job of overviewing central computer and Nuclear Power systems fell on to the Phantom.

These systems are very complex and are hundreds of meters apart, so one person can't operate all of them together. If it weren't for this Daniel would have dealt with Phantom long ago when he got his first suspicion on him.

Once both took over their respective positions, with a serious expression on his face, Daniel ordered the A.I of the 'ϒ-Apparatus', "A.I start bombarding the 'X-Stone' with 20% capacity"

Beep: "Bombardment at 20% capacity", A.I replied dutifully

The energy beam which has started falling onto the Stone is absorbed by it immediately without any leakage. This energy which could power 100,000 homes did not bring any change to the Stone except for the dim blue glow around it. But this did not discourage Daniel.

"Increase the rate of fire to 30% capacity", Daniel ordered the A.I after a couple of minutes.

Beep: "Bombardment at 30% capacity", A.I again replied dutifully

After a few minutes when he saw readings on a computer screen the same as before and no change in appearance through the camera feed, Daniel again ordered the increase of radiation intensity.

Beep: "Bombardment at 40% capacity", A.I replied

Beep: "Bombardment at 50% capacity", A.I replied

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Beep: "Bombardment at 80% capacity", A.I again replied

When the intensity reached 80% Phantom worried voice came from the video call, "Daniel let's stop, the energy being injected into the Stone has exceeded the amount of energy generated by a civilian nuclear reactor. If things go south we will be the first to face the consequences".

"Don't worry, the 'ϒ-Apparatus' is designed with appropriate security measures for all kinds of situations and equipment also shielded thoroughly for blocking the radiation. So we will be fine even if things go awry" Daniel replied to Phantom casually through a communication device

Although Daniel ignored Phantom's advice, a little anxiety is visible on his face. This expression is not of fear of death but fear of failing to get positive results.

He is pushing it forward even though it is dangerous because he has no other options. He is already 65 years old and his touch with the materialistic world is waning. Although he has billions of dollars he is unable to buy off his life. Not only he, many rich people collaborated with world governments and spent trillions of dollars on ways to extend human life but all failed miserably.

For Daniel, this is the best time and if he misses it, he did not know when we will get his hand on this sophisticated equipment. So he would go to any lengths at this time to crack the mysteries of the Treasured Stone.

Beep: "Bombardment at 120% capacity", A.I replied

Beep: "Bombardment at 140% capacity", A.I replied

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Beep: "Bombardment at 200% capacity", A.I started cautioning continuously at some point in time.

Daniel who didn't see any changes throughout the process ordered the 'ϒ-Apparatus' to work over the device limitations in expectation of positive results.

Gradually increasing the intensity Daniel drove the Apparatus to work over its rated limit. After seeing that there is no change in 'X-Stone' even now, a hint of disappointment and helplessness finally appeared on his face. But he did not stop the Apparatus even now and continued with the bombardment.

After a few minutes, all the computer screens are covered with red flags and machine churning finally stopped at this point. Clearly overloaded sensitive devices got destroyed in this experiment.

With a long sigh, Daniel finally moved his gaze away from computer screens and started meditating. He took a few minutes to adjust his mood and get his act together. After getting back his focus he started reviewing all the data received from the sensors no matter how small and moved it to his personal hard drive.

When he finally had time to look at his communicator he found his friend disappeared from the screen at some point. But Daniel is still calm because he knows his 'good friend' is very probably died during the final moments of the experiment.

Without any more delay, Daniel prepared to rob the 'X-Stone' and escape from the laboratory as planned before. But during this entire time, he did not notice the bizarre reaction going at the center of the 'X-Stone' because of failed sensors and instruments.

After picking up the essential things and confirming the death of his friend, Daniel finally moved towards 'ϒ-Apparatus' to retrieve the most precious thing for him other than his life.

Right after picking up the Stone, Daniel immediately noticed the bizarre phenomenon going on at its center.

"Did I succeed in activating this finally!?" Daniel showed a full smile after many years after seeing this change

However, this pleasure did not last because the next moment the black dot invisible to the naked eye preset at the very center of the 'X-Stone' increased in size exponentially covering the entire Stone and finally becoming a fist-size 'Black Hole'.

Daniel tried to move but his hand got disintegrated first followed by his legs and torso. Before he could process the concept of pain for losing his body, the head got destroyed. All this happened within a few seconds so he is completely surrounded by darkness and is unable even let out a shriek.

Nevertheless, Daniel could still perceive himself falling into endless darkness in a very bizarre way. An adult fist-size Golden-Yellow ball in pitch-black darkness is very striking indeed.

At this point, he concluded that he is in soul form and his body is destroyed.

After coming to terms with his situation, he started perceiving his surrounding with his Divine Sense for a few moments to find something. Once he failed to pick anything but darkness his Perception finally turned inwards and the result gave him a shock.

Inside his soul, there is a beautiful, complex, and mysterious golden structure that he had never seen before. Although it is only a few centimeters in diameter, it is so complex to be comprehended by any Quantum Computer present in this world now. It is like a circle but not, it is like a sphere but not and it is like a star but not. With millions of changes going every fraction of a second even the structure seemed illusory.

Daniel filtered through his memory and found some clues for this structure. From his finding, he concluded the structure in his soul is his own 'Karma Chakra' or 'Karma Cycle'. He is confident of this because he studied the concept of reincarnation in Buddhist and Hindu religions thoroughly for research purposes. And in their literature, it is often mentioned the functions of the 'Karma Chakra'.

Once he remembered the functions of this structure immense greed that never existed before started rising from deep within him. The desire is telling him to own this structure and control it thoroughly. This is because he studied previously that this 'Karma Chakra' holds the key to the cycle of birth and death.

But this is just a thought for now because Daniel is unable to perceive the complete structure of the 'Karma Chakra' let alone control it. Even by focusing all his concentration, he can only perceive less than 30% of the structure. Certain chain-like links are connecting his 'Chakra' to a higher dimension which makes this thing even more mysterious.

Studying the structure more than this is no longer an option, as Daniel lost even his perception at this point. Finally, his soul plunged into eternal darkness and sleep.

Although the description is long, the actual time passed is less than thirty seconds from the emergence of the Black Hole. With the passing of half a minute, the Black Hole which originated from the 'X-Stone' sucked away Daniel's soul and disappeared from this world completely.

After a couple of hours, all that is left here are broken devices, a dead body, and a countdown timer going on the central computer screen. This was set up by Daniel to erase all evidence when he was planning to escape the laboratory.

Beep: Time left for self-destruction…9sec

Beep: Time left for self-destruction…8sec

Beep: Time left for self-destruction…7sec

...

Beep: Time left for self-destruction…1sec

Beep: Time left for self-destruction…0sec

That early sunrise people from the outside world saw a big fire mushroom covering a few kilometers at the place where the laboratory was present. This disaster led to a series of investigations and many high-level arrests. But to the very end, they could not find any traces of Daniel or the 'X-Stone' whatsoever even after thorough searching.