The Dark Arrow of Time

by Massimo Villata

  “Correct. You’re bright, I knew that. No, nothing yet, but we’re at the limit of detection. That doesn’t mean it isn’t there, maybe it’s just too weak, but we’re still looking.”

  “Or the experiment failed….”

  “That’s the other possibility. But I’d swear that this time everything is according to plan…. But come on, why so glum? In any case it will be a unique experience, absolutely extraordinary, don’t you think? Something unforgettable…. And of unprecedented scientific reach…. If all goes well….”

  Helias looked at Borodine, and Borodine looked at Helias. Each was asking himself, and seemed to be asking the other, if there was any way out. But tied hands and pointed pistols left little play for the imagination. Any headstrong act on their part and they would end up unconscious at best, and thus unable to act or react later. Better to wait for a more promising opening, if one ever came. And come what may, better not to react impulsively.

  “And now we come to that little treasure of mine that piqued your interest. As I was telling you earlier, all of this is frightfully expensive, to say nothing of my friend here, you have no idea how greedy he is and how rich he wants to be. In there is a special antimatter fiber, which cost me an arm and a leg, but it was an excellent investment…. As you know, any electromagnetic signal, of any frequency or kind, travels at a finite speed, the speed of light, and thus takes a certain time to cover a certain distance. For example communications between here and Alkenia, whether they’re backwards or forwards in time, travel for more than a year and a half to cover the distance between the two planets, even if, thanks to the little gimmick with retarded radiation in one direction and advanced radiation in the other, we practically don’t even notice. When I send a signal, a piece of information, to Alkenia, it gets there a year and a half later. Conversely, from Alkenia to here, the year and a half flows backwards, and so we can communicate ‘instantaneously’. But these are all things you know perfectly well. If, however, instead of a signal receiver, I put a reflector on Alkenia that sends my retarded radiation back to me, I’ll receive that signal around three years later, and I’ll be able to hear, or read, what I wanted to ‘tell myself’ after a lapse of time. Obviously, I can do the same thing with advanced radiation, it’s enough that the devices involved be made of antimatter, thus sending me information back in time, and letting me know what will happen in the future. Well, nobody in their right mind would want to get caught up in a dizzyingly vicious circle like that, with all the risk of getting unpalatable foretastes of your own fate, death included. And in any case, all this is strictly forbidden, and any communication of the kind would be intercepted and punished. But the temptation is great. As you know, for example, lotteries are regularly held on Earth. In other words, you bet on numbers that, if drawn, can win you a fortune. To say nothing of investments in what they call the financial markets: if you know how certain stocks will be trending in the future, wealth is guaranteed. Sometimes it’s enough to ‘see’ a few days ahead. Which means a travel time for advanced radiation that lasts for the same amount. For example, a reflector located in space at a distance of a couple of light-days. But it would be found and destroyed forthwith. And here’s where this little contraption comes in: with it, everything takes place in the space of a few meters, in an isolated room, or even by cable as far as my home. The antimatter fiber contained in here is able to reflect any advanced radiation signal ten to fourteen times, which, since it’s almost a meter and thirty centimeters long, means a travel time of nearly five days. Enough to do the trick….”

  Professor Nudeliev had been punctuating his words with occasional glances at the time. Helias, who had been following the explanation closely, took advantage of a pause.

  “Professor, allow me one question. Since you’re so interested in bifurcations of reality, why don’t you use this little expedient of yours to introduce changes in the history of a few days ago? All you would have to do is send a message to yourself that differs from what you received five days before and, according to your theory, you would have produced a fork in history, without needing to go—or send us, in other words—so far back in time….”

  “Dr. Kadler, your question is either naïve or self-serving. I have no intention of gambling with my existence, at least until I’m sure of what I’m doing and have the whole problem under control…. But now let me give you a demonstration of how my ‘little expedient’, as you call it, works. It’s time, Petersen. Send us the information we received five days ago, which netted us such handsome earnings on the earthling markets. And shortly, we will be receiving news of our near future.”

  Petersen unpocketed his handheld and did as he was told.

  “In a few seconds, which are needed for synchronization, the information will depart, and will travel back in time inside there until it reaches the time when we received it five days ago. Actually, we’ve been indulging in a little theatrics today. It’s obviously not necessary to send the message at exactly the right moment. Usually we store it in some moment before or after the transmission, which takes place automatically at the exact time.”

  Helias found himself wondering whether that information originated in that future moment, or was the information that was already known and received in the past. But he knew that none of this was relevant now, and put on a smugly challenging expression.

  “Professor, would you be able to tell me why you don’t inform your past self now about what happened today, so that he can take precautions against our presence here and the risks that it entailed and, if I may say so, might still entail?”

  But Nudeliev took the challenge in his stride.

  “That’s obvious. Because it didn’t happen. Doing so would introduce a fork, and as I told you, we do not want to do that now…. And anyway, I’d say there’s no need, seeing how things are going….”

  “No, Professor, you haven’t really answered my question. Don’t you notice something that doesn’t ring quite true?” asked Helias again, eyeing the shuttle.

  But Nudeliev had gone back to checking the time.

  “Now the information from the future should arrive. A few seconds more….”

  Nudeliev was starting to get edgy. Helias’s words, after all, had got under his skin. As if a grain of sand had unexpectedly fallen into the delicate mechanism.

  Petersen was busy with his handheld, shaking his head. And watching the seconds tick away as he anxiously checked for mail. The time had come and passed.

  “Nothing. Nothing’s coming.” he said, looking at Nudeliev.

  Panic flitted across the scientist’s face. And Helias was looking very, very pleased with himself.

  Then Professor Nudeliev seemed to rally.

  “It’s probably just a little mixup. A banal delay. Some minor setback. Maybe a glitch with the equipment…. In a bit, maybe….”

  “No, Valeri. No glitch, no delay. That message will not arrive. Not in a bit, not ever. Because you will not be here to send it.”

  It was Professor Borodine’s voice. They all heard him.

  But Professor Borodine had not spoken.

  Something had moved inside the shuttle, whence the voice had come.

  It was that white head that Helias had caught sight of a few moments before, half hidden by the seats, and which had raised a finger to its lips, enjoining silence.

  Now that head, and the body attached to it, were clearly visible inside the shuttle.

  Petersen and Nudeliev had swung around, instinctively pointing their weapons in that direction.

  Helias had seized the moment, throwing his full weight onto Nudeliev who, in falling, knocked Petersen off balance. Reacting to the perceived attack, Petersen turned and, before falling himself, fired off several wild shots, hitting Nudeliev in a foot. When the figurative dust settled, all three of them were on the ground. Nudeliev was groaning, whether because of his foot or because of Helias’s weight pinning him down was far from clear. Petersen was groaning too, nursing the gun h
and that a well-placed shot had put out of action.

  The shot had been fired by Professor Borodine the Elder, who had come out of the shuttle and was now standing over them. Seen from below, he seemed taller as well as older, and decidedly thinner.

  Professor Borodine the Younger had followed the whole scene with astonishment. And now he was looking at himself, wild-eyed and mouth agape.

  “Hi, George!” he heard his other self say. “Buck up, it’s all over. For now….”

  Then, holding the other two at gunpoint, Borodine the Elder freed Helias’s hands so that he could rise and untie the professor. After that, Helias picked up Nudeliev’s pistol and kicked Petersen’s out of reach.

  For lack of a chair, Borodine the Younger had sought out a wall to lean against. A position from which he continued to gape half-wittedly at his older, slimmer and fitter self, a dynamic and confident self.

  As if he had read his thoughts, the older self turned towards him.

  “It’s about time you stopped stuffing your face every chance you get, George. And got a little exercise, don’t you think?”

  And he winked at him as he patted his now-unprominent paunch.

  He then turned to the two accomplices, who had got to their feet under Helias’s orders.

  “And so you wanted to send us off for a little outing in the past, who knows where. And who knows whether we would have got there in one piece…. Right…. You know all the sayings earthlings have for situations like this? Things like ‘giving tit for tat’, or ‘as ye sow, so shall ye reap’, or the even pithier ‘live by the sword, die by the sword’…. It seems to me you found it highly amusing. Exciting, even. We were supposed to think ourselves honored to participate in such an experiment. Isn’t that right? Well, now the honor is all yours, as is the unforgettable experience…. You don’t like the idea, Valeri? Come on, don’t be such a big baby. What do you think you’re up to in that pocket? Trying to send yourself an SOS in the past? Turned on the mic in your handheld in order to send yourself the whole soundtrack of what’s going on? Or even turned on some kind of videocamera for the same reason? And so you’d abandon your admirable resolve not to bifurcate your own past? Hmm, then it’s true, as they say, that ‘fear is a fine spur’…. Though to tell the truth, I’d hardly say you need to be spurred to do something you have no choice in…. It’s all useless, Valeri. I’ve deactivated your time thingamajig from the shuttle’s computer. And while I was at it, I made a few little changes to your travel program, putting in a nice new destination. So you’ll have a surprise…. And why so glum now? You’re thinking I’m taking my revenge too far? But it’s not revenge, not at all. You know, even we up there, in the future, are interested in the seventh dimension, though for entirely different reasons. And this is an excellent opportunity for us. Too bad if it comes at the cost of a few little sacrifices…, of insignificant human beings…, isn’t that right, Valeri? But never fear, there won’t be an explosion, I’ve seen to that too. What will be emitted is a much more innocuous signal, but one that’s no less effective. And indeed, we’ve already detected it, though admittedly with a few unexpected anomalies….”

  The professor had broken off, his attention drawn by the sound of the shutters rolling up behind him.

  In that split second of distraction, Petersen saw his last best hope and threw himself against the professor. Nudeliev, an instant later, went for Helias.

  But Helias had remained vigilant and, after immobilizing Petersen with a scatter beam, had stuck his pistol to within an inch of Nudeliev’s nose, a nose that, along with its owner, backed off immediately.

  The professor, unfazed by the commotion, had turned back to them calmly.

  “Useless attempt, gentlemen. Which I obviously knew about already. Don’t forget that I’ve already seen all this….”

  And he stole a glance at his ‘young’ alter ego who, sitting on the floor now, seemed to be asking himself what else could possibly befall him.

  “You’ve got no way out, believe me. I know quite well what will happen in the next, by now very few, minutes….”

  He had said it with a note of sadness. Almost as if he had wanted to say ‘we’ve got no way out…’. As if the unknown was about to unfold before his eyes.

  Helias watched him in amazement, as a shuttle moved backwards from the open shutters at the far end of the room.

  A little voice was heard from the corner where Borodine the Younger had slumped to the floor.

  “You’re going away?”

  “We’re going away now, as you can see….” said Borodine the Elder, gesturing toward the shuttle that had just come in. “I didn’t tell you before, but I have to leave too…. I’m the only one who can activate that signal and, from there, understand the anomaly…. But there’s no time for explanations now. Come on, let’s go!”

  Then, turning to the huddled figure, Borodine added “Be seeing you.”.

  As they shepherded the two prisoners at gunpoint, the professor handed Helias a card.

  “Here are all the changes I made to the travel program, including our destination, as well as the password for getting out of here. You’ll find a copy of the original program and all the operating software in the computer back there in the lab.”

  The professor’s voice had grown solemn and Helias, not knowing what else to say, replied with a stupid “Thanks.”.

  “Oh, Helias says to say hello….” added Borodine.

  Which prompted Helias’s second idiotic answer.

  “I know….” he said, more or less to himself, thinking of the encounter of the evening before.

  Suddenly, Nudeliev fetched to a halt ahead of them.

  “B…but there’s nobody in there….” he stammered, looking at the incoming shuttle.

  “Who’s to say?” commented Borodine. “Maybe we’re just transparent. As we obviously would be, if we’ve turned off the interior lights. You ought to know that, Valeri….”

  “Why would we have turned them off? There’s nobody there, I tell you! The same thing is happening as with the guinea pigs, who disappeared….”

  “There’s no time to quibble about it.” the professor cut him short. And he aimed his pistol at Nudeliev’s head, firing a beam that left him docile as a little lamb.

  Then it was Petersen’s turn to dig in his heels.

  “I’m not coming. You can kill me if you like, but I’m not moving from here….”

  “Ah, for what little good you are to me, you might as well stay here….”

  Borodine shot again, and Petersen crashed senseless to the floor.

  The other shuttle was slowly approaching the other mouth of the tunnel.

  The professor shoved Nudeliev into the waiting shuttle and strapped him to a seat.

  Helias had followed them as far as the door.

  “Professor, why are you doing this?”

  “I’ve already done it. The signal has already been received.”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  “That signal is important….”

  “So important as to risk your life? You’ve already saved ours, isn’t that enough for you?”

  “I’m glad you see it like that and that you’re trying to keep me here, but as you can see….”

  And Borodine glanced over at the shuttle that was now entering the tunnel.

  “As far as we know, it could be empty.”

  “No, it isn’t.”

  “You haven’t answered me yet….”

  “I have to understand that anomaly…, but there’s more to it than that, you’re right.”

  “Professor, you haven’t already seen these things, have you?”

  Borodine gave Helias a long, hard look.

  “How do you know?”

  “Never mind, just answer….”

  “The last time I was here, I was trussed up like a chicken on this shuttle, with you…. This is a bifurcation, Helias. No, I’m not he, I’m not the one caught up in these events. I’m the other one, on the
other branch of the fork, sent with you in the past, to that explosion triggered by this madman, with all the damage to the dimensional fabric that ensued. But as you can see, we did all right, thanks to you, though you don’t know it yet. Now I’m going back there, to try and sort out that enormous mess, and I’m taking him with me, since he’ll be able to give me a hand. But this time I don’t know if I’ll ever be coming back…. He made a real mess…. Too much of a mess….”

  The elder Borodine had pronounced the last words almost inaudibly as he strapped himself to the seat. Then he had drawn his pistol and fired straight at Helias’s forehead.

  “Sorry, but you must not remember these confidences of mine.”

  Helias had a moment of confusion, and then repeated “You haven’t answered me yet….”.

  But the shuttle had already left.

  © Springer International Publishing AG 2017

  Massimo VillataThe Dark Arrow of TimeScience and Fictionhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67486-5_17

  17. Helias Had Sat Down on the Step

  Massimo Villata1

  (1)Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, INAF, Pino Torinese (TO), Italy

  Massimo Villata

  Email: villata@oato.inaf.it

  Helias had sat down on the step that marked the edge of the shuttle’s route, head in hands, and with the sensation of having forgotten something important. Then he had raised his head and looked over there, to his right, toward the center of the transparent tunnel. Just in time to see the two shuttles meet and melt into nothingness. As if both had passed beyond the surface of the mirror that divided them, and that now had nothing left to reflect. There was only a fleeting flash of light, then nothing. Nothing remained to testify to the recent tumult.

  Then Helias heard a voice behind him, rousing him from his torpor.

  “He’s gone…. Why did he go away?…”

  Helias opened his mouth to answer. But then he realized that he had no answer. It was as if he knew, but wasn’t able to remember. He had the sensation that the professor, before leaving, had told him something. Something that, somehow, who knows how, had been erased.