"PREPARE SYSTEMS AND TRAVERSAL GEAR FOR TRIAL 97A.  SWITCH THE ACTIVE CONFIGURATION - OVERRIDE CODE: A-L-T.  BEGIN PRE-CHARGE."

Deft keystrokes, click-confirmation on-screen.  OCULUS control indicators flash - red, red, green.  Operators move about Auxiliary Room 3, running through checklists before trial launch.  Same as always: confirm indicator status, validate field researcher gear integrity, run baselines, monitor hyperlight energy readings from the charging OCULUS.  As tests conclude and checklists are completed, the muffled hum of the OCULUS grows louder.  Pens rattle on desks.  Coffee ripples in mugs.  The hum's frequency starts inaudibly low, building slowly as the charging cycle progresses.

10%.   The air feels charged.  The smell of ozone.
30%.   Barely audible; more felt than heard.  Vibrating skulls, shivering bones.
50%.   Intensely loud, even through earplugs.  Frequency heightened now.
70%.   Ultra-high frequency.  Nearing the edge of human perception.
90%.   Inaudible.  Sharp pains streak through the head, eyes, ears.
100%.  Complete silence, and unbroken, sublime physical numbness.  Beyond pins and needles, like the frequency has dug under the skin.  Like being replaced, somehow, from inside.

A notification on each computer screen.

"INDICATORS: GREEN.  GEAR INTEGRITY: GREEN.  BASELINES: GREEN.  HYPERLIGHT ENERGY READINGS INCREASED BY THREE TENTHS SINCE BASELINE 96F.  OCULUS CHARGE AT 100.  ALL SYSTEMS: GO."

A popup with secondary authorization.

"CLICK TO CONFIRM OCULUS IGNITION.  REQUIRED [0/10]"

A chorus of clicks.  The frequency ceases suddenly, sensation returning to the room.  Operators, shaking off the feeling, watch the OCULUS spin to life in the adjacent room.  A few of them grab tissues, wiping blood from their noses.  The field researcher double checks his gear and instruments - the charge on his communicator and body cam - opens the door, steps inside, and lets it close behind him.

No time can be wasted.  He walks quickly, and passes through the threshold of the swirling OCULUS eye.