I am a network engineer for a small credit union in Ohio. We have a small network "
closet" where most of the servers, rack mounted backups, patch panels and a myriad of other routers, hubs, switches and anything else you can imagine.
The room is about 3ft by 6ft, and there isn't much space to move around with all the network cables and phone lines and power running every witch way. If you close your eyes, you can hear the energy moving around. Power supplies humming with electricity hard drives revving up and slowing down, static in the air makes your hair stand up if you are in there too long. And the fans, the loud buzzing fans are a constant. It's the heart and the brain of the network providing service to about 250 computers and users. Banking transactions and e-mail, phone calls and internet. Everything is routed through this single point.
Well, I was in there a little while back, (Tuesday, today is Thursday) working on a mail server that refused to serve, when I stood up too quickly and got a bit dizzy. Everyone has done it before, and I know how it feels. It made me a bit off balance and I stepped back for a second and the back of my head hit a large split cable. I wasn't really sure the purpose of the cable, I knew it wasn't live, because I have touched it before. It looked like a cable TV (coaxial) cable, but thicker. It had been there for as long as my co-worker had known, and he has been here for 12 years. He seems to think it was part of the original system that was installed in the mid 80s for bank transaction routing. Regardless of what it was for, I hit it with the back of my head. I reached out and grabbed at what ever I could to stop myself from falling over and hitting the mouse trap that I had noticed earlier on the ground next to me. I got a hold of something it felt like cat 5 cable, but it could have been phone lines, I didn't see, my eyes closed tight as soon as my head hit the thick cable.
In an instant I felt extremely sleepy, like I had been knocked out at the dentist's office with the gas or something to that effect. I was still holding on to the cables in front of me, and my back was up against a wiring rack and my head might have still been touching the thick cable, I don't know.
The strangest thing then happened. I was dreaming. I know I wasn't sleeping, but I was dreaming. I saw thousands of bright white lights, all with an aura around them, like if you have water in your eyes and look at a light at night time. It reminded me of stars. There were thousands of them, moving very fast. Some went maybe a few feet and poof, then went out, only to be replaced by another going some other direction. I watched for a moment, it felt like a moment anyways. I could see a pattern in the movement. All the lights followed the same paths, some to different places, some a bit faster than the others, but they were all in the same paths. When they would "poof" out they seemed to flare up a bit a split second before they did.
Then it all went white.
I opened my eyes like waking up from a sleep. I wasn't dizzy any more, and I felt the back of my head, there was no bump, it didn't hurt at all.
The only think I can think happened was I got up too fast and saw stars. But it wasn't like that. I know what that feels and looks like. It seemed for a moment that I had saw the traffic. The flow of data on the network, packets and bytes running down wires and routed to other places. It made sense to me at the time, but I'm not sure anymore. I tried to do it again, but I was unable. Something is off, something just isn't working when I try it again.
I have not told anyone else, and I don't think I will. It's bad enough I am writing it on here, because if you guys didn't think I was crazy before, I am sure you do now.
Ideas?