The solution might have been simple, but the application proved to be far more challenging. The analogy was like swimming in the sea and being caught up in a current. The natural reflex was to fight it.
Had she been in her flesh-and-blood body, she’d have gone down to delta-normal, but in the absence of a brain there were no neurophysiologic levels. However, she reasoned she must have access to some form of mentalics, or she wouldn’t have been able to form her photonic body, and she soon discovered that the mentalic levels corresponding to the neurophysiologic levels were still available to her. With relief, she descended to what she thought of as her virtual delta-normal, and within a few minutes had achieved a virtual nirvana state.
Almost immediately, she was caught-up in the photon current and borne away. Now, she had to hope that her logic had been correct, and she was heading towards the surface, because the other possibility, the one she’d instinctively discounted, was that the photon current was heading straight down into the depths of sub-quantal space.
If that was the case, she would never get out of here.
Chapter 4
Following the recent resolution of the asteroid crisis, the existence of a small group of agents with mentalic abilities had become common knowledge all over Earth. That had its disadvantages, of course, and the agents instinctively recoiled from their new-found celebrity. However, it also meant there was no longer a need to maintain secrecy, and Deira was able to fold directly to Juliette’s workstation in Chayka’s lab in full view of the other lab workers. Juliette was waiting for her, eager to see her again after the trauma of Adam’s sudden emergence into Tao Chen’s body six weeks ago had almost pushed her over the edge.
Deira would never forget that. She’d felt like the shock had burned into her brain like a branding iron, and even her resilient personality had temporarily faltered. It had taken a few days, but eventually she’d recovered sufficiently to spend some time with Adam, or at least the entity that said it was Adam, trying to convince herself it was really him.
All the signs were positive, but she’d found such contact tremendously draining, especially when superimposed on her pre-existent emotional lability following the deaths of Josh and Sol. It had been one revelation too many and she simply hadn’t been able to deal with it. She’d felt an urgent need to get away, and the CFR ship that was heading to Mars had seemed like the perfect opportunity to retreat into herself for a while and lick her wounds. As a bonus, it would also give her a glimpse of the site of Sol’s last mission.
Deira gave Juliette a quick hug and kiss. It was less than Juliette had expected, but she could see her mother was tightly focused. She was staring intently at Chayka’s office and trying to see through the clear plastic window.
‘Your boss in?’ Deira clearly meant business.
‘Yeah. Don’t know what he’s doing, though.’
‘Doesn’t matter. I need to talk to him.’
Deira headed off at a fast march towards the office, her mouth set in that particular way that Sol would have recognised – the look that said she wasn’t prepared to brook any nonsense. Juliette had to run to keep up. When Deira reached Chayka’s door she gave a perfunctory knock and walked straight in, pulling up a chair and sitting down before the Professor even registered she was there. He looked up, clearly startled, and was beginning to get to his feet when he saw who his visitor was. For the briefest of moments, Deira noticed a flicker of concern, then he was sitting back down again, his face returning to its usual passive mask.
‘Agent MacMahon! What a … nice surprise.’
Deira tried not to smile. Chayka’s body language suggested this was anything but a nice surprise. She glanced sideways at Juliette, who was looking mortified and trying her best to make herself as inconspicuous as possible. She was well aware she was embarrassing her in front of her boss, something she profoundly regretted, but in this case, it was an unavoidable necessity if she was to get what she wanted. She fixed Chayka with a stony glare.
‘Afternoon Professor. We need to discuss Tao Chen.’
Again, Chayka showed a brief glimmer of surprise before he settled once more into impassivity. He didn’t quite seem to have his emotions under control like he’d had twenty years ago, and to Deira, that could only be a positive thing.
‘Ah, yes. Fascinating case. We believe the entity occupying the Tao Chen body is truly Adam Clarke. He’s been providing us with some very interesting insights into sub-quantal space.’
‘I’m sure he has. However, I’d like to discuss Tao Chen, not Adam Clarke. Specifically, how do you plan to recover her?’
This time, Chayka really did look flustered, and stroked his goatee in a mannerism that Deira had learned was due to mild anxiety. He clearly hadn’t been expecting this and she hoped she wasn’t in for a prolonged silent episode. Some of those could go on for several minutes. Thankfully, this wasn’t one of them.
‘You think she’s still alive?’
‘I certainly do, and I intend to continue looking for her until I find evidence to the contrary.’
Chayka allowed himself a small smile. ‘Then I may be able to help you. It would seem Adam knows what happened to Tao Chen.’
Deira felt newly energised. Her hunch hadn’t failed her. ‘So?’
‘He says that Tao Chen entered sub-quantal space at around the time your son destroyed the last remaining asteroid. As you say, she is probably still alive.’
‘I knew it.’ Deira felt vindicated. ‘What are you doing to extract her?’
‘Well, the chances of finding her are extremely remote unless she contacts us.’
‘You haven’t done anything, have you?’
Deira was furious, and it showed. Juliette coloured and shrank further into herself, dreading where this might be leading. Chayka, on the other hand, didn’t appear to have noticed, or if he had, was unperturbed.
‘There’s nothing we can do unless our work with Adam provides us with some additional insights.’ He looked suddenly animated and leaned forward over his desk. ‘Have you heard of the double slit experiment?’
‘Er … I remember something from school …’ Deira had been determined to put pressure on Chayka to begin active attempts to free Tao, but this sudden curveball of a question had left her distracted and confused. Chayka took over effortlessly.
‘It was a simple experiment, first carried out in 1927. It demonstrated the dual nature of light – both wave and particle. The experiment was further refined over the years and the most interesting version of it took place when it became possible to generate individual photons. A single photon is fired at two slits. If a detector is placed behind one or other slit, the photon always appears to pass through that slit. However, if no detector is present, an interference pattern appears on the screen behind the slits, suggesting that the photon passes through both slits simultaneously and interferes with itself.’
‘I don’t understand the relevance of this,’ Deira said. ‘I think …’
‘Bear with me please.’ Chayka was clearly on a roll. ‘Now, although the early interpretation of this single photon experiment was, as I have indicated, that the photon was acting like a wave in this instance, a later interpretation suggested that this was the first proof of the many-worlds theory.’
Deira was on firmer ground with this and found herself becoming interested despite her determination to keep Chayka focused.
‘The multiverse? That’s the currently-accepted orthodoxy, isn’t it?’
‘Indeed. The concept is imaginative and has far-reaching consequences. At the very moment when the photon must go through either one slit or the other, it instead goes through both simultaneously. However, for that to happen a whole new universe must be created. The single photon then splits, going through one slit in this universe and the other slit in the newly created universe. The two universes then converge into one once more, and the two versions of the original photon interfere with each other to produce the pattern on the screen.
>
‘But …’
Chayka raised a hand to silence her. ‘Please. We’re almost there. Then you’ll see the relevance.’ Deira shut up and allowed him to carry on. ‘We believe we have a new interpretation of this old experiment, based on the data we obtained from Dr Markus. We have compelling data to suggest that the photon in this experiment does not pass through two different universes. Instead, one version of the photon continues through normal space, while the second version passes through sub-quantal space. When the second version emerges again, it interferes with its clone that remained in normal space, to form the traditional interference pattern.’
Deira began at last to see where Chayka was going with this. It came back to the photons in sub-quantal space.
‘Tao said sub-quantal space was alight, and Juliette said she’d detected photons everywhere in the data she recovered. So, you’re saying that all these photons come from our space, and are just passing through sub-quantal space?’
‘That’s how it looks. There are complicated consequences which we’ll come onto in a moment, but first, let’s look at Photonic Transmission.’
Of course! Deira finally got it. Chayka had been attempting to find out why Adam – or at least Adam’s consciousness – had ended up in sub-quantal space, and it was clear it must have something to do with PHASEing. Chayka was getting into his stride now.
‘When an individual is transmitted photonically, the nature of the process compels the photons involved to create clones that pass through sub-quantal space. In other words, when an agent is transmitted by this means he temporarily exists both in normal space and sub-quantal space simultaneously. It is this dual-existence that poses a threat to the individual, and it is this that the necessary genetic mutation protects against – although we have yet to determine the mechanism of the protection.’
Deira was impressed, despite herself, her original anger at the lack of progress on freeing Tao vanishing like a snowflake on a hot tub.
‘But that’s a massive step forward.’
‘Indeed, and it’s not even part of our current research. If I may continue?’ Deira nodded and he went on. ‘Because photonic transmission occurs at the speed of light, the time spent by a transferee in sub-quantal space is extremely small when the transmission occurs over terrestrial distances. That changes considerably with interplanetary transmission.’
‘Minutes,’ Deira breathed, thinking back to the forty minutes each way Sol had endured on his return transmission from Titan.
‘Yes, and this is where we believe another factor comes into play. It appears that the longer the clone photons spend in sub-quantal space, the greater the chance they will become stuck there. It’s almost as if there’s a sub-quantal drag effect. I apologise for the unscientific language, but it requires complex mathematics to explain this properly.’
Deira didn’t care – she’d got it. ‘You’re talking about Adam. You’re saying that, on our PHASE to Mars, his cloned photons didn’t make it out of sub-quantal space.’
‘Correct. We believe his genetics were responsible for maintaining the integrity of his consciousness. A small difference in his genome would have likely resulted in the complete dissolution of his personality. He was lucky in a way. You were luckier still – you have complete genetic protection against sub-quantal effects’ He glanced over at where Juliette was trying hard to be invisible. ‘Dr MacMahon, why don’t you come and sit over here and explain the more … exotic aspects of our discovery?’
Juliette was having a very difficult time, stuck between her mother and Chayka like this. She coloured all over again and moved from her place in the corner to a seat next to Deira. She started hesitantly, as if reluctant to take Deira down this road.
‘Going back to the double-slit experiment, the reason the photon splits is because it reaches a decision-point. It must either go through one slit or the other – and it wants to go through both. It can’t do that in our universe alone, so an alternative universe is created to allow that to happen. This is what the many-world’s theory states, that every time there’s a choice to be made, every choice is made. The only way our interpretation differs is that the alternative universes are produced within sub-quantal space.’
Deira thought she’d followed this quite well up to now, but she was following the logic and coming to some startling conclusions. Surely, they couldn’t be right?
‘You’re saying that the photons you’ve found in sub-quantal space represent the totality of all the choices made in normal space?’
‘Yes. That’s what we think. If it’s true, it would mean that we’d have our multiverse after all – it would just be compressed into sub-quantal space. And here’s the crunch, Mum, it would mean that everything that’s possible would exist within sub-quantal space.’
Deira could feel her heart beating faster. ‘Everything?’
‘Everything. Mum, in theory both Dad and Josh would still be alive in there.’
Chayka saw Deira’s reaction to that and appeared to know what she was thinking. He took over again.
‘What Dr MacMahon says is mathematically correct. It may even be physically correct. However, you should understand that we are forever prevented from actualising these alternative realities.’
Deira couldn’t believe it. Hope had been offered, only to be snatched away again. Her face must have betrayed her, because Juliette suddenly realised what Chayka had already seen – the interpretation her mother would have put on her recent revelation. Her hand flew to her mouth in horror.
‘Oh Mum, I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t mean we could somehow get Dad and Josh back. I was just saying that they almost certainly exist somewhere, even if they can’t be with us here.’
‘That’s not much help really,’ Deira mumbled. She pulled herself together. ‘Sorry. It’s my fault for misunderstanding.’
She gulped and forced herself to move on. Moving on was something she was getting good at since the loss of Josh and Sol. There was no point in harbouring false hopes. She’d been through this once and had hardened herself to it. She wasn’t going to be dragged through it all over again. Better to focus on what they could do – get Tao Chen back.
‘Mum …’ Juliette began.
‘No, it’s alright.’ Deira fixed her gaze on Chayka, determined she was going to get him to act despite his apparent obsession with Adam and sub-quantal space. ‘I’m still looking for a way to get Tao Chen home again, Professor. As far as I’m concerned, we owe it to her.’
Chayka did something with his terminal and flicked it into conference mode so that Deira could see the screen. It seemed to be something to do with bio-engineering. She stared at it for a moment then looked questioningly at him.
‘What’s this?’
‘It’s something I’ve been considering ever since Adam told us that Tao Chen was in sub-quantal space.’ He paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts. ‘I did give some thought to the possibility of recovering Tao Chen.’
‘You said you hadn’t,’ Deira said accusingly.
‘I said I hadn’t done anything to retrieve her because there’s nothing we can do at present. However, I did wonder what would happen if that changed. I’m sure you realise that there’ll be a problem for Adam if we’re successful in retrieving Tao Chen?’
Deira hadn’t given any thought to that at all. Adam occupied Tao’s body. When Adam and Tao had both occupied her body, Tao had experienced worsening headaches because dual “ownership” wasn’t feasible over the longer term. Therefore, either Tao or Adam could have access to the body, but not both. In other words, if Tao returned, Adam would have to be ejected.
‘I hadn’t thought it through, but you’re right.’ she said, softly. ‘Have you a solution?’
‘I have some early ideas. There has recently been some ground-breaking work carried out into cloning. Not only has a clone been successfully created – that was achieved many years ago – but the bio-engineered clone was brought to maturity in a frac
tion of the usual time by a combination of genetic tweaks and hormonal mixes. This was done in a pig, but the physiology is very similar to a human.’
‘We create Adam a new body!’ Deira was almost on her feet, she was so excited. Then a thought brought her back down with a thump. ‘But his original body was cremated many years ago, so we don’t have DNA to work from. Does it have to be his own body?’
‘Though we don’t know for certain, we suspect that the individual conscious waveform that is Adam is strongly linked to a particular DNA structure.’
‘That would fit with what Josh told us about using Tao’s DNA signature as an anchor during his mission to the Cthon planet.’
‘In that case, I think we would require a body with the appropriate DNA signature, as you put it. Failure to match DNA signature and bodily DNA would almost certainly result in a dissonance that would ultimately render the body uninhabitable. Luckily, we have a stored sample of Adam’s DNA from when he was recruited to the Bureau. This brings us to the issue of how long it would take to grow a new body. Projecting from the pig model, I would estimate six months.’
‘Six months! We can’t leave Tao for that long.’
‘It was twenty years for Adam and he appears to have emerged unscathed. It may, in fact, take us at least that time to develop a way to track Tao Chen and recover her.’
Deira sighed, reaching automatically for Juliette’s hand. Six months seemed a heck of a long time to her, even if the Professor was apparently relaxed about it. She wanted Tao back sooner rather than later.
‘You mentioned dissonance if the DNA signature is different to the physical DNA. That suggests that Adam will start to experience dissonance before long – assuming he hasn’t already. How do you think it’ll manifest? Something like the rejection of an organ transplant?’
‘I presume the first symptom will be headaches because Adam is already experiencing them on a regular basis. Further than that I can’t speculate, but there is clearly a need for haste. I will contact the cloning team in Glasgow and see if they can help us.’
Gods of Titan- The Cosmic Constants Page 3