Open Writing

A little more than 24 hours later, Cal and his three ground team companions were in the underground ruins again. This time, they bypassed the room with the holographic message, and went straight to the place where the device had been located. They entered the large chamber cautiously, and stared.
The room was about 30 meters square, with stone walls and floor, and held little except the device, which stood near the far wall. It was rectangular, very like a doorway, and didn’t seem to be supported by any other machinery.

Jonathan walked over to it and around it, then turned to the others. “This is fascinating. It doesn’t seem to have a power plant; obviously it’s connected to the energy of the planet itself.” He continued to walk slowly around it, pausing occasionally to look closely at some part. It glowed around the edges, and had an impenetrable blackness at its center.

“Looks like a black hole,” Crafter joked, then recoiled as Jonathan turned so suddenly, that Crafter thought he had offended him.

“Exactly what I was thinking, Dennis!” Jonathan said excitedly. “You know, I believe that may be what this builder has done; somehow captured a singularity and trapped it in here.” He thought for a moment. “Or somehow managed to create one under laboratory conditions. I don’t know which would be more difficult.” Then he said pensively, “Is this what happens when one goes through a black hole? Are they doorways to other universes, as some of us have always thought?”

The others began to search the large room, and it was apparent that they were alone. After a few minutes, Cal returned to where Jonathan was still examining the device, walking round it, speaking softly to himself. “What’s the verdict, Jonathan? Can we use this? Is it still operational?”

After a moment, Jonathan seemed to become aware that Cal had spoken to him. “Mmmm? Oh, yes, yes, it’s quite workable. All primed and ready to go, so to speak.”

Cal looked at it. “What do you think would happen if someone stepped through it?”

Jonathan considered that and turned to Cal. “I believe this is a means of transportation to other universes, Cal. I am so certain, I am prepared to be the guinea pig and test it.”

Cal shook his head. “Oh, no, Jonathan, we didn’t go to all this trouble to get you back just to lose you like this.”

“Cal, I really don’t think there’s any danger.” Jonathan looked aggrieved.

Cal stared. “What? A black hole isn’t dangerous? Are you out of your ever-lovin’ mind?”

Jonathan chuckled. “Cal, this isn’t just a black hole in a doorway. It’s been considerably modified, and…. “

Cal didn’t let him finish. “Jonathan, you’ve looked at it for maybe five minutes. How can even you possibly know what it is?”

Jonathan blinked. “Well, it’s perfectly clear. I mean, look at it logically. This is a transportation device. It would hardly be designed to kill someone who uses it.”

Cal considered that. “Okay, but what about getting back? If you do manage to get transported to another universe, how will you return to this one?”

Jonathan nodded. “Now, that’s the important question. There must be something built into the device that will enable that. All we have to do is find it.”

“That’s all.” Cal smiled.

“Exactly.” Jonathan beamed back.

They both smiled, then Jonathan said, “Leave it with me, Cal. I’ll examine it carefully and see if I can make sense of the writing on it. It looks like a form of hieroglyphics, so I may be able to translate enough of it to make its use a little safer.

Cal nodded. “Okay. Meanwhile, the rest of us will explore the other rooms in this complex. We might find something interesting.”

* * * *

Before he began on the device, Jonathan first sent Dennis back to the ship in the shuttle for a few supplies he decided they would need. The English soldier returned an hour or so later with folding tables and chairs, cooking utensils and dried ingredients for a meal. A few hours later, when the others returned from searching the rooms, Jonathan was seated at one of the folding tables they had set up, and he beckoned them over to where a cooking pot stood on a small heating pad. “Come on, lunch is on,” he called cheerfully.

Bemused, Cal said, “What have you got there, Jonathan? I thought you’d be far too engrossed in the device to be doing anything else, especially cooking.”

“What do you mean?” Jonathan replied in mock outrage. “Look, I’ve got reconstituted shrimp, scallops, oysters, lobster, some kind of fish, all mixed in a nice stock with onions and garlic, freeze dried carrot and corn, with some fresh crusty bread. Now, do you want some of my bouillabaisse or not?”

Cal laughed. “Okay, okay, I apologize.” He leaned over and looked into the pot. “Looks good.” He inhaled. “Smells even better. Let’s eat.”

Jonathan smiled, and began distributing bowls around the table to the others, along with bread plates, knives and spoons. He ladled out generous portions to each person, and they began to eat single-mindedly.

Finally, Cal sat back. “Wow! Marvelous, Jonathan. I’m impressed. You can be chef any time you want.” The others smiled and applauded, and Jonathan gave a little mock bow. Then Cal became serious. “Now, what of the device? Have you figured it out?”

Jonathan smiled. “Oh, yes, that didn’t take too long, really. It’s quite straight forward when you understand what it is.”

Arnold said, “And what is that?”

Jonathan glanced across the table. “Just as we suspected, a device for transport to alternate universes.”

Cal smiled. “That simple, huh?”

Jonathan smiled. “Well, I suppose as a physicist, I do have some advantage. Perhaps I had better explain what I understand of quantum theory.”

Arnold nudged Cal, seated beside him. “See, I told you he’d know what this was all about.”

Jonathan poured a paper cup of water and began. “Well, it was Max Planck who first came up with the idea….” he gave them a simplified introduction, more or less along the lines of that which Arnold had given them when he first recruited them for the mission. Then Jonathan got to the meat of the subject.

“It really began pre-1900, with the study of blackbody radiation—that’s a body or surface that absorbs all radiation without reflection. That led to the development of Planck’s Constant in the early years of the 20th twentieth century, which says that all energy is emitted in small units called quanta, and not necessarily waves, as was previously thought.

“The new work proceeded through people like Einstein, Rutherford, who discovered the atomic nucleus, Maxwell, who predicted that an electron would eventually lose all of its energy and fall into the nucleus. Then, applying classical theory, Rutherford ventured that it meant all atoms were inherently unstable.

“But how could that be?” said Jonathan, warming to his subject, on which there was no greater authority, alive or dead. “That would mean that the entire world, the entire universe, was unstable, likely to fall apart momentarily. There had to be something else, and it was the Danish physicist, Niels Bohr, who suggested that the classical theory does not apply to atoms, that electrons were stable and moved in fixed orbits around the nucleus.

“There followed experiments in wave theory, electrons producing patterns like waves, culminating in Erwin Schrodinger’s theory, which I won’t go into too much. It’s a little complicated.” He glanced around at his audience’s enthralled faces and cleared his throat.

“Basically, he developed a theory to explain the wave behavior of an electron in a hydrogen atom, the simplest of all atoms, with only one electron. Those studies led to the development of the science of Quantum Mechanics. Think of an atom as being surrounded by a series of stationary waves. Because they are constantly moving through crests, the electrons cannot be described as being at any given point at any given time. That’s called the Uncertainty Principle.

“It says that you can’t be certain of where a particle will be at any particular time, or anything about its movements. It’s related to Chaos Theory, which is basically about the random movement of systems, something called the butterfly effect, which puts forward the rather elegant idea that all matter and movement in the universe is connected. In other words, if a butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the world, it will cause a ripple that will expand around the world and affect everything else.

“This is the point at which we come to the idea of multiple universes. With the development of String Theory, dark matter and the like, we realized that there were a lot more than just your basic three dimensions; in fact, 11 dimensions were theorized, with our universe being just one bubble, if you like, among an infinity of bubbles.

“Imagine an infinitely large room filled with these bubbles. What happens if two of them touch? One theory says that this has already happened; that it was what caused the Big Bang that created our universe in the first place. Could it happen again? Well, if it happened once, then it might be inevitable. What might happen if our universe is involved in one of these quantum collisions is a matter for some rather nervous speculation in certain scientific circles.

“So, what happens if two such universes touch? Many think they already have. Some say this is what mediums sense, and mistake for the so-called spirit world. And here, we come back to Quantum Theory.

“If particles such as electrons cannot be pinpointed to be in any particular place, at any given time, then it follows that it is possible that they can be in more than one place at a time.” Jonathan paused to let that sink in.

“So, the obvious explanation is that these particles exist not only in our universe, but also in other, alternate universes. This led to Einstein’s attempt to develop a Theory of Everything to explain the universe, what it is and why it is; in short, everything.

“Sadly, he never managed it. But later physicists said it’s like the universe is made up of tiny strings, and that if they were plucked, like the strings of a violin or guitar, they would produce different notes. This idea didn’t last, for reasons I won’t go into.”

“Probably because it sounds like a bloody stupid idea,” drawled Dennis, in his John Lennon voice, causing the others, Jonathan included, to burst into laughter. Jonathan waited until they were quiet, then continued.

“Another theory was developed, which had to do with the eleven dimensions I mentioned earlier, the idea being that the strings were joined together to create a membrane. This was Membrane Theory, or M Theory, which hypothesized that universes are incredibly close together, separated by perhaps only a trillionth of a millimeter. The question arose inevitably, could one universe somehow bleed into another? These universes may contain life, or not. It may be that most of them do not, but that only means that some do. When you’re dealing with infinity, all things, by definition, are not only possible, they’re inevitable.”

There was a silence of a few seconds around the table, then Arnold asked, “So, how is the theory of parallel universes tied up with black holes?”

Jonathan smiled. “Ah, the question of the hour, Arnold, and it goes right back to the giant singularity that was present at the Big Bang. You see, it is thought that in the beginning our universe was one gigantic black hole. Then it exploded outwards, sending out all of its trapped matter in a huge eruption. Many think we are still expanding outwards at that original rate, while others think we may be collapsing in upon ourselves…”

“Soon to disappear up our own fundamental orifices,” finished Dennis Crafter. Everyone laughed again.

Jonathan said, “Quite, Dennis. But we still don’t know what happened before the Big Bang. If we could get past that, through the original singularity, we’d be well on the way to discovering, finally, just what the universe is.” He paused and looked around. “I think that may be what this is. A mini Big Bang.”

“How so?” Arnold asked.

“Well, if the Big Bang was in fact caused by the collision of two universes, then such an event would cause ripples across the 11 dimensions.”

“The butterfly effect!” Karen said.

“Yes. But just how it happened, or what the result was, are matters for speculation, I’m afraid.” He looked meaningfully at the shimmering doorway. “Perhaps the inventor of this device discovered the connection, solved the problem, as it were. Whatever,” he said with finality, “there is only one way to find out for sure: someone has to test it.”