Sailing the Noosphere

The title pretty much says it all. I'm dressed in all black, stalking into my old high school with a flute in my hand to play for their Christmas concert. The place is well lit and pretty busy, so I sneak into a stairwell and slide underneath to hide in the darkness. I feel the approach of something evil, so I sprint up the stairs to the top floor. When I look out, I see that the whole floor has been cut away, replaced by a huge hole and some unknown machine surrounded by catwalks. Scientists in white lab coats surround the machine and enlist my help in turning it on. This I do, and an energy beam shoots out from its center and starts to cut through everything in its path. I realize that it's supposed to drill to the center of the earth.