Plot
Three years ago, Dr. Caitlin Snow arrived in the Arctic to run a project at S.T.A.R. Labs Outpost #72. She was greeted there by Dr. Joseph Nolan, who was her second-in-command. He had heard already that she was the youngest and brightest scientist that S.T.A.R. had ever recruited. She'd be in good company up there, though, because despite being underfunded, the outpost was home to several of the most intelligent scientists in the world. After being introduced to her team as the replacement for their last lead-researcher, Dr. Lincoln, Caitlin was eager to see the chamber, and failed to notice the scowls that her colleagues wore when her back was turned. Dr. Louise Lincoln had wandered out into the snow at night, and frozen to death, and how someone as intelligent as she could have done something like that was a matter of suspicion.
The chamber contained the Self-Sustaining Thermodynamic Ultraconductor Engine; or STU for short. The engine was designed to subvert the second law of thermodynamics in order to create perpetual motion. Despite being Lincoln's greatest achievement, it was also her death, and though her colleagues warned Caitlin against looking over the dead doctor's notes, she had been curious to see what had been accomplished.