3-15-13
Watching his death in silence, each scientist reacted differently;
some teary-eyed, or complacent, some angry, but most of them were stunned. They
had grown to know Ord as an individual. He wasn't an experiment anymore: a
non-entity. He was real to them, a person like themselves, no matter the sex.
Watching Snake, KrutChan, growing younger throughout the Stela record did not
feel strange to the scientists. His life was felt by all of them but in
different ways. Ord's singular life and unique journey; in its immediacy
understood, was suffered differently by each of them.
Static snapping within the field abruptly gave them an altruistic moment, each
in their private way, for unanimous realization of what they had witnessed. Awe
overcomes then precipitates theories.
"As scientists we are compelled, no, we, MUST postulate Quantum Mechanics
has nothing to do with this." Petrovich said. "This presents as
reality; this is a charade, as was the Tikalbalahm Site, the Yucatan Man, and
especially this amulet or Stel, if you believe this childishness."
"Professor, calm down, relax! You've just saw Quantum energy field theory.
Use your insight."
"I am. Is this Quantum Electrodynamics? Or is it Quantum Chromodynamics?
Or is it ... what is it? ” he shrugged,” can YOU define it? Hell."
A voice interjected with an opinion, “Something else entirely?" Worried,
her words were careful, and hushed. “Quantum Fluctuations as energy, tunneling
through time and space has been theorized for years…”
Crackling and snapping, the field was maintaining three dimensions, then
showing two dimensions, then back to three. The field was acting like a person
blinking his eyes to get different perspectives to the same reality. A glowing
text was demonstrating in the field, written in that cryptic Arna/Kril
language, floating and stable, the first line changing constantly as it moved
down off the field, they watched in curiosity.
"Good question. Look at that immense field. What is it? Hypothetically, we
have just observed a phenomenon we have all studied and dismissed. A parallel
universe was one of many, according to these Ovals. The electron doesn't
revolve around the nucleus like the earth around the sun, we know. We discarded
that theory years ago. No one believes that anymore, quantum states and energy
levels are reality." Kinnerman said.
"For decades, since Quantum Theory was first postulated in 1900, the
electron had been been known to be a wave, after 1900 and 1905, a particle, a
discrete quanta, was visualized; a gray-white fog of quantum energy states
surrounding the proton. Moving in and out of parallel dimensions, tunneling
energy states ...” Kinnerman then conceded ... “or wherever."
Petrovich snapped his head towards Steven Grabowski. "Quantum jumps, Mr.
Grabowski. Virtual particles when observed, waves when unobserved, but only as
probabilities. This is the Wave-Particle duality."
Grabowski rubbed his forehead and grimaced. "That clears it up for me; you
guys are speaking in tongues, way over my head." He blew out a burst of
air.
"Let me try to clarify," Katherine Kinnerman said. "In Quantum
Mechanics the mathematics does not rely on specific 1 + 1 = 2 answers. The
duality problem interferes with your answers. You cannot measure the position
AND the momentum of a quanta. Which when observed and measured is a particle,
like a photon of light; but when not observed is a wave of light, visualized as
a wave hitting a seashore. The quanta or energy states can only be stated as
probabilities, not realities, in a moment in time because their position is not
known in that moment and changes in less than a nanosecond. That’s a minus nine
zeros and a one in time, assuming time exists at that level."
"Shit... the little man who wasn't there." Grabowski snarled and
giggled.
Professor Petrovich interrupted, "This is elementary and demeaning. By
trying to put mathematics into words you are inaccurately describing the universe.
Comprehension can only come with the mathematical sets, and the matrix. Time,
Space, and the dimensions beyond cannot be imagined graphically. I cannot
describe what I mean. Language is imprecise."
"Elementary? That implies understanding.” Another professor added. “To
paraphrase Neils Bohr, who helped us to think of the theory of Quantum
Mechanics; if you can understand it you are wrong. No one understands it, Mr.
Grabowski, and many of our colleagues disagree vociferously what we are
postulating in this conversation."
Another chimed in, "Where is Schrodinger’s cat when you need it.” They all
chuckled.
"Precisely…Where is it?” Petrovich answered, then continued, “However, Ms
Kinnerman, YOU are the one trying to understand a micro world in macro terms.
The GUT theory, the Grand Unified Theory is part of what we are discussing, Mr.
Grabowski, the Holy Grail of physics. She means the probabilities, you see ...
not reality."
"Universe ... Probabilities ... they are the same. We cannot explain why
electricity is in a wire. It resides instantly for our use; and we use it every
day, without thinking about its reality … until the blackout comes. Then we
whine its loss and want it fixed instantly. "
Grabowski said. "Go on Kate. Even I have thoughts of creativity, insight
sometimes. Maybe I can't do the math, but I can grasp the concepts. Not
understand them or evaluate them."
"Please, we do not wish to patronize you.” Another Professor chimed in,
“We have forgotten Einstein could explain his theory to a child, though the
child could not understand, and do it without being condescending. That was
Einstein's greatness. What has been so tactlessly stated is true. If we could
show you the mathematical sets, the matrices, the dimensions, and the symmetry
of the spins, the colors, and the charms; maybe it would be so much clearer to
you, Steven. We”, he gestured to the room, ‘speak in the language of physics …
mathematically, we understand the code, the symbols of the Physics and their
interconnectivity and relationships. I cannot begin to decipher hieroglyphics,
yet others can read them as easy as a train schedule, assembly code, is
graphically understood by the geek disciples of computers; yet I do not have a
clue. Basically, whether I use 'real numbers' or 'imaginary numbers', the math
results are the same... "
"In some theories ..." Petrovich added as a cautionary aside.
"Yes, not everyone agrees. Those in support of the Copenhagen theory and
Bell's Theorem always disagreed. Einstein verses Bohr. Classical Physics in
dispute with Quantum Theory in other words. Wheeler and others, in a minority,
always contended multiple universes existed; moving into reality only when we
'observe them'. In this case, what happened to Ord purports to confirm Parallel
Universes exist; though not everyone agrees. We have not released in a paper,
nor to the scientific community; that is the proof of the pudding, I’m afraid.
Scientific scrutiny … can it be duplicated …? Its ambiguity does not solve the
problem. It does not make everyone in the majority incorrect, either. No one,
it seems, is right. Again the Universe keeps its secrets. It is just
there."
Petrovich exclaimed."This virtual hologram we observed proves nothing; it
looks manufactured, like a science Fiction episode. WE have to ANALYZE the data
and we can’t because there is NO DATA to analyze! “
"Enough!" Grabowski said. "I don't care.” He rolled his
wheelchair away from them. "You asked me to observe this charade, as you
call it, I did. I gave you my truth, my reality, my demons. … and my ghosts. I
just know in my heart ... I was THERE! ...it proves to me my friend, my
Corporal, didn’t die." He ran his hand through his hair. "And I
didn't cause his death. It wasn't my fault. None of it was my fault … None of
it. Don't you understand? The hell with all of you, the theories of science,
the meaning of life, the particle tunneling, or the movement of the Universe,
means NOTHING to me!." He spoke to Kinnerman. "I want to leave. He
addressed the scientists, “You’re tearing it apart, I lived it. You are telling
me I am, and Ord is full of shit … fine … but to me personally, it means … in
some Universe I am dead … or I am walking …” He gestured to his wheelchair. “He
wagged his head, “That’s my reality, folks. I prefer to believe I am a complete
human being somewhere in time, in space, or universe.”
Outside, Katherine and Steven walked slowly among the oak trees; Steven was out
of his wheelchair, using his prosthesis, supported by canes. The sunny, warm
afternoon made them perspire.
Some time passed before he spoke to her. "I wanted so many times to thank
you for all of this. Conversely, I also thought you were so full of crap ...”
He snorted. "And many ghosts ... who aren't alive anymore, needed my
coming here." He watched gliding pigeons sliding into personal perches on
the building they had exited minutes ago. "Now we're out there, Ord’s
life, Snake’s life, all feels like an afternoon movie. Was that reality? Was it
real? Did it happen? Jesus, I feel good!"
Her expression softened and she smiled tenderly at him. "I wanted to help
out a professor, my uncle, who had been ostracized, and driven into the grave
by contemporaries who did not understand his vision. I wanted to smash their
complacency and arrogance."
"That's what you were striving for...revenge?"
"At first I did, of course. But after what we witnessed ... who can say? I
believe my uncle was right."
He rubbed his aching, missing limb. "And what drives you now?"
"Now, I want to be at peace, like Snake is. I want the love she HAD, what
both of them experienced. Now I realize that existence is what you live. Not
what you read or hear about. The joy of grabbing the NOW, that’s how the Ovals
said it ...?" She groped for the words, her brow knitted in thought.
"Let the THEN and the WHEN collides with my NOW because it is good. How
can I change that?" She briefly touched his whisker-stubbled cheek, then
his shoulder, a little embarrassed. "Can you be with me NOW...?”
A moment passed. He struggled inside himself, and then smiled in tolerance.
You’re just a little smug, you bastard, he thought. "Jesus thanks for the
offer, Katherine … Kathy, but, I'm too old, older then my years, like they say.
Or maybe I'm misreading your intentions ... how do the kid's use to say it?
Totally. You don't have my mileage, or my pain, or memories."
His eyes narrowed. "Listen, Snake is an inspiration to you, virtual
reality role model. But, he was a real human being to me. I lived with him, I
cussed him ... I loved him, hated him. You could never experience the living
with him that I go through day after day, every day of my life, I replay that
death scene you saw … every day”, he hissed." He stroked her cheek.
"Go on with your future ... “He groped for the words. "...let your
Stela record, kid. Live your life, your NOW, your WHEN, your THEN. You don't
need my excess baggage."
She kissed him slowly, tears welling in her eyes with the loss of her passion,
her crusade, and her love. Katherine Kinnerman started to speak to rebut his
reasoning, but the horrified expression on his face, his manifested fear caused
her to brace herself. He threw her to the soft lawn behind a tree, masking them
from the Hammond Engineering building.
A brilliant laser-like pulse silently put their immediate surrounding world into
a blinding bluish, white cone of light. A timeline and space cone tunnel to
connected branes. Their world came to an abrupt stop. They both trembled in
fear, recognizing the effect, seeing the field Ord experienced; their memories
screaming reality.
Inside the building, the snapping twist and spins of the field reached a
critical stage. Leakage from the field instantaneously filled the room at the
precise instant of ignition, the explosion, followed immediately by the
implosion, then tearing detonation and undetonation with the Seech field
activating: In that room of scientific thought; the theorists, the pragmatists,
the generalists, the victims, the corrupted, and innocents alike abruptly met
TLET: time-line event termination. They were observed and the wave
collapsed..... The intense SEECH FIELD ACTIVATED...
Dark, scudding clouds accented the night while the pair of horsemen circled the
smoke and heat from the scene in front of them ...
They were outriders, a reconnaissance patrol, from the Mongolian Army which was
destined to write world history as the Golden Horde. The pair was dressed as
all Mongols, in kulets, the brown tunics identifying them as light cavalry.
They wore gray trousers lined with fur as were their quilted tunics because it
was winter. Laced up, thick leather boots completed their basic clothing. A
mandatory silk shirt was underneath their uniform, an ingenious remedy against
an arrow strike. Twisting as it bore into their bodies; an arrow normally had
to be pushed with excruciating pain out through the other side of the victim’s
body. Silk was unable to be penetrated by an arrow, rather it twisted with the
arrow wrapping around it. A Mongol surgeon simply pulled the edges of the silk
shirt rerouting the arrow out the same hole with the same twist. The silk was
ingenious armor protection. One of the riders wore a dog skin cap; the
other man's was made of goat skin: neither were officers. Each carried a
leather covered wicker shield and two bows; one long and another short. A full quiver
of fifty to seventy arrows hung on their sides with a dagger strapped to their
opposite forearm. The saddle held a lasso, a small sword, two javelins, and
hide saddlebags with their personal provisions. They were the eyes of their
Irbin, which scouted for their Toomen, a division size force.
... What they witnessed had stopped them in the cold, biting wind. Old ghosts
and fears drifted into their minds.
They were puzzled and frightened, but also curious, about the event; trying to
assess what had happened so they could report to their Khan. Next to the tree
where he had been signaling the day's information with a burning torch back to
their unit, their fellow rider, Nogaikan, had been blasted by a fireball of
screeching lightning twisting like a whirlpool in the river. Portends they saw
of the gods were ominous. Lightning in winter; a spinning current in the air?
In a instant their friend had disappeared in a
blue-white-crackling-devil-world; they feared Nogaikan had been swallowed into
the earth.
When their spotty vision cleared after minutes, they felt relief for they saw
the body. Death was something they could understand as were corpses.
Disappearances made them uneasy. They rode slowly and silently up to it;
dismounting and illuminating it with a torch.
The body was charred and smoldering, wisps of smoke traveling to the gods. The
creature on the ground, twisted in agony, was unrecognizable as their friend,
Nogaikan. The entire episode was outside their experience. Preparing a report
to their commander was not taken lightly by a Mongol and each man soaked up the
scene, silently observing, in their professional way, the entire episode,
missing nothing. Outriders had been executed for incorrect or exaggerated
claims. Neither of them talked to the other, by training, so as not to pollute
the impressions of the other.
If they observed the alien patch of clear plastic badge, burned on the edges,
on the corpse’s chest, they would not have known what they were looking at, nor
care. Even the small blue dots and lines on the right cheek, visible through
the burnt flesh never drew their attention ... they ignored them.
They had stared at the smoking body of Petrovich for only a moment longer,
before remounting their short, stocky horses, and galloped furiously back to
their commander to report on the day’s events. They would record their
observations of the velocities and positions of moments ... and instants in
time ... which they had observed that day. The Time-line, Arrow of Reality . .
. was observed.