Ripped Apart: Quantum Twins – Adventures On Two Worlds

by Geoffrey Arnold

  ‘And there’s nothing on the internet to say that the LHC has restarted,’ Tyler added.

  Romain sat down. Quantum entanglement across dimensions. A difference in time – why not!

  Miki hesitantly offered: ‘There are reports on the internet of meteor showers over north Finland at Lakes Lappajärvi and Karikkoselkä, not expected at this time of year. It seems more than a coincidence that they were over those lakes where gravity is different to normal as a result of major meteor strikes so long ago.’

  ‘A combination of meteor showers and the difference in gravity disrupting our experiment so that the transmission failed,’ Tyler suggested.

  ‘Or the coincidence that CERN restarted the LHC at four pm their time,’ Romain dropped his bombshell to open-mouthed silence. ‘I did not tell you at first as I wanted to hear what you had discovered. And for all of us to keep open minds.’

  Mouths now closed, Miki and Tyler nodded their appreciation. At times, being in ignorance was the best way to work.

  ‘We know our experiment worked to the extent that some of the psien returned from another dimension and that was registered. If our theories are correct, that is because they had been successfully attached to a stream of protons. Presumably those protons also returned,’ Miki said, starting with the basics.

  Romain narrowed his eyes, the cool scientist in control. ‘Not all the psien carried data as we used the first few without data as a hook onto the proton stream. If they returned first as expected then, as you say Miki, it is those which were registered. But why should those carrying the data have ruptured the Python?’

  ‘Because a lot more data was returning than we had loaded,’ Tyler said.

  ‘An inference being that the psien without data were travelling faster than the others,’ Romain said slowly. ‘In fact, several orders of magnitude faster as they had travelled several thousand kilometres to here in the same time as the sandwiched psien travelled only a few hundred to Finland.’ He turned to the computer monitor where the map had been changed to display the immediate area around Kotomäki, and pointed to the bright green light. ‘To here, on the edge of this little town?’

  ‘Because what was returning was not merely the chain of sandwiched psien we sent, but something more. A coherent package. Which dropped off when the carrier wave ceased,’ Miki suggested.

  ‘But if that data-package arrived here, why is the event not showing here but at that village?’ Romain knew he was floundering. However extraordinary they might be, one logical hypothesis was contradicting another.

  ‘A dimension rift,’ Tyler said thoughtfully ‘The protons returned from that other dimension. The first few psien they were carrying passed through the filter. But there were not enough. Insufficient energy to trigger the alert. What was following was additional data, outside the sandwich psien. That overloaded the Python at almost the same moment. That severed the link to the other dimension and the rift closed. Whatever that data represents… it coalesced around something like an energetic centre of gravity, causing the disturbance by that village.’

  For a moment Romain had a crazy picture of olden days when mail was dropped off from trains into nets at the side of the railway tracks. His mind reasserted itself. ‘Or a version of the double slit experiment where one electron goes through both apertures. Here, the psien travelled across dimensions emerging at different times? And carrying vastly more data than we’ve ever tried?’ He shook his head. ‘Too many theories.’ But if one of them was true? With great effort of mind, he stopped himself from clenching his hands and teeth and almost groaning in anger at the thought that someone might get there before him.

  ‘I must think,’ he said in a harsh voice. ‘Take a break.’ He left the room, his whole body was quivering with inner turmoil as he went to his study. It was with sweating hands he picked up the telephone and called the agency he used for all his travel arrangements.

  He had been so surprised at what his equipment had revealed that he had set the system to run a set of self-diagnostics. He returned to his secret room and ran off a print-out. He checked carefully. Everything with his system was correct. That was not surprising. He had designed, built and programmed it himself. He had no false modesty about his skills.

  He turned to the print-outs from his equipment at CERN. Again everything checked out. Had someone interfered with it? He ran a check looking for that. No, again all was satisfactory. That was not surprising. Any engineer checking the systems would find what appeared to be, what in fact was, a third back-up.

  They would realise that it was overkill. Administrative errors, not unknown in any large organisation. Perhaps authorised by a scientist with a background of rocketry, where three back-ups were standard procedure. Those were just two of several reasons why that might have happened. Only if it was completely dismantled and someone decided to explore further might it be discovered that the system relayed its data outside CERN. But even then not the destination.

  The phone extension from his study rang. The travel agent had good news, he could get Romain to Helsinki by late on thirty December, then a flight to Jyväskylä. It would be a circuitous route with several changes and taking longer than usual. And it would cost. Romain was delighted. He’d feared a much longer delay and was happy to pay what he guessed included the agent’s extra commission for working during his holiday.

  Heaving a sigh of relief he returned to his suite of rooms where he stood for some time under the shower, letting it wash away all his tensions. Calmer, he slipped into fresh clothes, this time settling for a pale green, short-sleeved shirt, tan slacks and brown loafers. He called his assistants to find that they had returned to the West Room, where he joined them.

  ‘I’m leaving for Finland tomorrow morning. We need to discuss what needs to be done whilst I’m away, and talk through all our thoughts about what we’ve just discovered. And what I might be looking for in Finland.’ He looked at his watch.

  ‘Miki. It’s too hot and humid outside for serious discussions. We’ll dine in my suite. I’ll speak with Angelique. Let’s make that six thirty.’

  The two doctors grinned, caught up in the excitement.

  *

  Seated on board the Air France flight to Los Angeles the following morning Romain reflected on all the ideas they had discussed: logical, practical, possible, some fantastic and even pure flights of fantasy. Intending to jot down some thoughts, he powered up his RonaldSon tablet. He had endeavoured to persuade his father to use the name Reginsen as a reference to the very old, Norse family name for all of what were in effect their joint products. Eventually he had had to settle for a hard-won compromise for those products that he had devised. The “s” in “Ronaldson” being capitalised to emphasise “Son.”

  An image appeared on the screen of what he thought of as the traditional alien face: a silvery white, domed head with heavily slanted, dark, oval eyes lacking any pupils, small nostrils and a wide mouth. He had developed enhanced facial recognition and replication software that did not need the complexities of multiple cameras or lights. It was becoming widely used in video surveillance and in his father’s words: “A nice little earner.”

  He stared at the excellent 4D image standing out of the tablet as he realised that he had never thought of his search for proof of the existence of other dimensions as meaning a search for an actual alien. Embarrassed at what he had done, and before the passenger alongside noticed and tried to engage him in conversation, he erased the image with a quick gesture and a soft laugh at himself.

  Far below, he saw islands drifting by as if sailing the ocean and wondered if that was symbolic of a wild goose chase. There were rare occasions when islands were created by sudden and unexpected volcanic eruptions. His equipment was unique. There were no precedents. Could it be that occasionally there were exceptionally large fluctuations in the Earth’s quantum field and this was the first since he had started his experiments? Was that all he had detected, and the faint image in South Africa merely a
n echo? Or was it indeed the first step on the path to discovering the answer to his dreams?

  He would search for evidence of quantum entanglement across dimensions. In his own mind he was sure that would explain the time difference. But the lack of publicity even now more than twenty-four hours later? His equipment indicated a very major event: an unbelievable mass of data. The echo? The lack of publicity understandable. A small event in the middle of an uninhabited desert.

  Poor old Purple Python. I shall enjoy repairing you when I return. And I’ll make you stronger. Next time we’ll capture all the data.

  Looking over the deep blue sea he let the scientist within him speak: Facts first, last and always. No selective hypothesis. ‘But I can still dream,’ he muttered to the creamy wake of a cruise liner far below.

  He had no idea of just how astonishing a discovery he was to make. Nor what a surprise awaited him regarding his assistants, and how that revelation would become a key to realising his dreams as he submitted to the thrall of his Viking heritage.

  CHAPTER 32

  A LAST CHANCE

  VERTAZIA

  For eight days Lellia and Mizena had repeatedly searched through Siahranah until Lellia called a halt as they were exhausted. All the crystal had revealed was an impenetrable, black, fog that slowly sapped the women’s energies the more they tried to see through it. When Wrenden had recovered, the four friends repeatedly tried to link through Óweppâ. Although there was no hint of any energy connection, each of the Twins’ sections retained their individual colours.

  ‘Good news and bad news,’ Mandara explained on one of the evenings when all had gathered together. ‘The strong colours in their segments on the Talisman confirm they twins are alive. The barrier shows that the opposition knows that. As there have been no more attacks over eight days, it appears that the opposition is content with a barrier. Barriers can by circumvented. I am certain that the lack of contact through Óweppâ tells us that the twins do not have the power to link. Which has to mean they are not mentally connected. And.’ Mandara’s shoulders sagged as he looked grim. ‘As their friends encountered neither opposition nor any barrier, that reinforces the fact that they must be fully involved in any plans to rescue the twins.’

  Lellia and Shandur nodded, grim smiles on their faces.

  ‘I will look after them,’ Mizena said.

  Lellia had also spent time with the Stroems, her overriding duty as Orchestrator being to restore calm and balance and maintain the essential smooth linkage with the other five Caverns: and Azura. Several days had passed before she had considered it safe for Mandara and Shandur to be able to work in the Cavern. Even then the Stroems had been unhappy.

  ‘It is as though they feel that by increasing safety precautions as all the parents demanded, we are blaming them for what happened when they were actually striving to rescue Qwelby from the NoWhenWhere,’ Lellia explained ‘The music of the Xzyling is difficult to decipher. The best interpretation I can provide is that at the end they Xzyled the equivalent of a drum roll, pitched well below the level of human hearing. That countered the whirlpool effect to hold Wrenden and Tamina up for long enough to allow the tachyon field to reach back in time and project the strengthened safety shield.’

  ‘But they didn’t support Qwelby,’ Wrenden complained.

  ‘He wasn’t there in the same space-time-consciousness as you and your sister,’ Lellia said. ‘As The Stroems’ purpose is to bridge the divide between Vertazia and Azura they feel bad that… in effect they let Qwelby slip from their grasp. That’s why they have been so unsettled and it’s been so long before the men could work in the Cavern.’

  *

  When all else had failed, the youngsters’ parents had honoured their agreement and the four were permitted to make one more visit to the StroemCavern. They were sitting with Lellia in the cosy room alongside the StroemLock as she was finishing her run-through of the procedure they had to follow.

  ‘Wrenden. You are so close to your fourteenth rebirthday and receiving your crystal, you must know your personal shade of colour, and probably what crystal will be yours?’

  ‘Lazabatanzii, I expect.’

  Lellia nodded. It was what she saw in his aura. The green crystal vibrating to the elements of Air and Earth were the perfect compliment to Qwelby’s red Fire and Earth related Drakobata. She sighed. Tamina’s multicoloured Fire and Water related Bula’kabilii, Tullia’s purple Air and Water related Kanyisaya. Each with a rare twin power Crystal, firmly binding all four together through the elemental associations. Her fears for the safety and stability of Tamina and Wrenden increased.

  ‘Each of you is to imagine a thread of your principal shade of colour going forth from your centre. Weave all four into a strong cord. Hold in your minds the thought of each twin in turn, and that strong cord will search for them.’

  ‘Search for Qwelby first?’ Wrenden asked with a catch in his throat.

  The others nodded their agreement. Through Lellia’s crystal, she and Mizena had found that Tullia was well. Everyone hoped to discover that Qwelby had survived his fall though the StroemWell.

  She looked into each of their energy fields and saw their concern, caring and determination.

  ‘I have to warn you. You must keep your awareness on where you will be. On a gallery above the XzylStroem. From there you just watch the cord on its journey. Do NOT go into your threads and search yourselves. If you do that, the whole of your Kore energy will be pulled out of you into a place between dimensions. You will be in a realm of energy forms of the same level of vibration as your energy bodies. Meeting them would be as if you were in your normal bodies. It would be very real. So real you could be hurt, physically.’ She looked into each of their eyes. ‘Or worse. Do you understand?’

  She saw fear flickering through their energy fields as they absorbed her message. Shimara & Pelnak were subdued. They held hands and nodded. Their energy fields combined and a thought reached her. ‘Pelnmara,’ it said.

  Strong energy flowed between brother and sister with reassurance going both ways. Tamina tried to hold back from smiling with surprise at her usually exasperating younger brother. Unsuccessfully, as she saw a corner of his mouth twitch.

  As tears started at the corners of his eyes, Tamina took his hand in hers. He was still blaming himself for failing to rescue his BestFriend.

  ‘We’ll find him, Eeky,’ she tried to reassure him.

  Getting up from her chair, Lellia led them to the preparation booth and then onto the gallery around the top of the XzylCavern. She turned to Control Panel at the side of the door and spoke nicely to it. A smaller, circular gallery appeared, jiggling about as it hovered right over the centre of the XzylStroem. As they watched, a series of walkways shimmered into view, leading from the gallery on which they were standing to join the central one. Everything was shifting, buckling, clicking, groaning and looking less substantial than on their previous visit.

  ‘We are standing on what we call the viewing gallery,’ Lellia explained. ‘The circular walkway you can see in the centre we call the interaction gallery. It always keeps itself directly above the energy centre of the XzylStroem. Since your last visit Mandara and Shandur have added emergency energy fields to all the barriers. Now there is no way you can slip through them.’

  Once again the Stroems were very different. As the friends watched what had been one gently swirling whirlpool slowly reformed into five. A central one surrounded by four others, equally spaced and which not merely rotated but whirled around the side of the Well. All four seemingly going in both directions at once in a mad blur of colour that was nevertheless distinguishable: as long as the youngsters let the images bypass their surface thinking and slip into their deepminds.

  ‘Do you really want to try to MentaSynch with the twins?’ One last chance to back out. This is so dangerous, and they are so young.

  Four nervous, bug-eyed, hedgehog heads nodded.

  ‘To do that you will have to walk out to the in
teraction gallery.’

  Their helmets swivelled as they looked at each other, the absence of mental connection increasing their nervousness.

  ‘To maintain an energy balance, each one of you will need to walk along a separate path. When you get to the central gallery you will all hold hands.’

  ‘But that central gallery is much too large for four of us to be able to hold hands,’ objected Tamina.

  ‘Not when you are there,’ Lellia replied.

  ‘Ready?’ she asked. Four heads nodded slowly. ‘Shimara and Pelnak, go left and right, Tamina to the far side.’ She turned to Wrenden. ‘This one for you. As you don’t yet have a crystal, this way balances up the energies the best we can.’ She looked around all four. ‘When you walk along, do not try to hold on. Walk as though they were not moving. Remember: Imagination!’

  She moved back to the control panel. ‘Take up your positions and wait for my signal.’

  When the four had moved to the ends of the walkways, they heard her voice through the speakers in their helmets telling them to start walking.

  Careful not to hold on and let their imaginations make them even more frightened, they slipped and staggered over the jiggling pathways and reached the interaction gallery safely. Surprise, surprise, it was small enough for them to reach out and hold hands.

  Spending more time acting like twins than real twins did, Shimara and Pelnak could find it difficult to reach out and connect with other people. Tamina gentled their energies out of their loop. As she linked all four of them together she reminded them that this first search was for Qwelby.

  Swaying to keep their balance, all the weaving movements added a hypnotic effect as they focussed their energies on manifesting their own coloured threads. With a sudden shweeesh! that threw them off balance and made them grip hands tightly, Tamina’s orange thread looped around and shot off down into the spiralling centre of the XzylStroem.