by Jason Ayres
After a pause to order more drinks, Lauren was content to let the conversation continue as she sipped on her vodka.
“So where are you going with all this?” asked Hannah. “Do you believe these infinite universes exist?”
“I’m not sure that they do, in the sense that I have just described,” said Josh. “I don’t know, for example, whether deciding to drink or not to drink my wine really does mean both possibilities exist.”
“What, you mean there might not be one universe where you are a pisshead and one where you aren’t?” suggested Charlie.
This created laughter from the others, including Alice. She had got over her emotional moment a few minutes earlier.
“The truth is, we just don’t know,” said Josh. “It’s all just theory. It’s just as possible that there was only one universe, initially, but then something happened within the structure of that universe to begin creating duplicates. And the most likely cause I can think of is time travel.”
He cast his eye around the room for something to help support his argument. These things were always best explained with analogies and props, such as that of the Russian dolls. Over on some shelves next to the wine racks were various bits and pieces of bric-a-brac that had accumulated there during the past sixty years. Then he spotted the perfect thing to demonstrate his point.
“Back in a minute,” he said.
Josh got up, walked across the room to the shelves, and picked up a small cube, adorned with faded coloured stickers in a 3x3 pattern.
“It may not be as complex as my Russian doll suggestion,” he said, returning to the table. “Let’s try something a little simpler.”
“What is that?” asked Jess, looking at the object in his hand.
“It’s a Rubik’s Cube,” said Josh. “They were very popular in the 1980s but I haven’t seen one for years. It’s a puzzle, see?”
He rotated one of the sides and handed it to Jess. “You have to make all the colours the same on each side. Here, have a try.”
Jess began to fiddle around with the cube as Josh carried on talking.
“Now, how many individual cubes are there within the whole thing?” asked Josh.
“That’s easy,” said Jess. “It’s 3x3x3, so that’s 27.”
“Spot on,” said Josh. “So, let’s imagine our universe is the cube right in the centre – the only one that you can’t see. Then imagine someone travelled back in time, twice, and created two alternate universes and placed them either side. You would now have three universes.”
“OK, got that,” replied Jess.
“Now imagine each of those three universes spawned two more each. You’ve now got nine, one whole layer of the cube. Repeat that again and there you are, you’ve now got 27 universes, all sitting neatly alongside each other just like in this cube.”
“But how did the extra universes get created?” asked Jess, still fiddling around with the cube, trying to make one side all yellow. “Dammit, I thought I had it then.”
“Like I said, by time travel,” said Josh. “It would certainly explain Lauren and Alice’s dreams.”
“I get it,” said Charlie. “Each time someone travels back in time, they create a new universe. So in the case Alice was talking about, in the original universe you died in the cave, and in the new one, you came back from the future to ensure that you didn’t.”
“But that doesn’t work, does it?” said Jess. “If he died in the original universe, how did he manage to grow older and come back in time in the first place? He couldn’t have done that, because he was dead in the original.”
“Yes, that does sort of shoot the theory down in flames,” admitted Josh. “You’re getting into the whole realm of paradoxes. These things are usually and conveniently glossed over in movies and TV, but there are always nit-pickers around who spot them. But there are ways of explaining it.”
Looking at the sea of blank faces, he could see he was one step ahead of the others, which gave him a sense of satisfaction.
“You’ve made the assumption that the universe I died in was the original. But it’s more than possible that it was just one of any number of universes I had already created through my previous time travel. Then, for some reason, in that particular universe I was unable to come back from the future that day to save myself.”
“So there are 27 universes, then?” asked Jess, still playing with the cube and clearly getting frustrated with it.
“Oh, there could be way more than that,” replied Josh. “I used the Rubik’s Cube just as a demonstration. There could be millions, for all we know. We don’t know how many versions of me there are time-travelling in the different universes or even if I am the only time traveller. The vast majority of this is pure guesswork.”
“You probably weren’t the first person to travel in time,” said Charlie. “Don’t forget the time bubbles. Someone must have created them.”
“Yes, but the two we know about only go forward in time,” said Josh. “So you can’t actually change anything in the past with them.”
“But how did they get there in the first place?” asked Jess.
“That’s yet another thing we don’t know. Alice and I have been analysing them to try and find out why, but we seem to be creating more questions than we are finding answers at the moment.”
“Here’s another one to add to the list, then,” said Kaylee. “If we accept these multiple realities exist, how come not all of us are having nightmares or dreams about our other selves in the other universes?”
“Perhaps it’s something to do with proximity to and the significance of the event that caused the split,” said Josh. “If we accept that the other universe where Alice wasn’t rescued by future me does exist, then she was right at the epicentre of the place and time where the new universe was created. Her direct involvement in the event changed her life irrevocably, which seems to have left some sort of imprint on her mind.”
“It could be more than that,” said Alice. “Perhaps I have a direct subconscious link to my mind in the other universe that only manifests itself in my dreams. Is that possible?”
“Who’s to say it isn’t?” said Josh. “There’s nothing to disprove it. The universes may not sit side-by-side like the squares in the Rubik’s Cube. They may all exist in the same space, in a way we can’t even imagine, but through which subconscious thought can travel.”
“So if that explains Alice’s dream, how does it relate to mine?” asked Lauren.
“You must have been involved in some sort of time travel event, too,” said Josh. “Think back to the night of your dream. Did anything unusual happen?”
“Yes,” she replied excitedly. “Oh my God, it all makes sense now. When Dan attacked me, I thought for a moment there were two of him in the room, an older one and a younger one. When I shot the younger one, the older one disappeared.”
She paused, and looked directly at Josh. “And not only that. During the melee I looked up and I thought I saw an older version of you looking through the window.”
“How come you’ve never mentioned any of this before?” asked Alice.
“Well, it was all very stressful at the time and I doubted afterwards whether I had really seen what I thought I had seen at all. I had just killed a man, after all. I didn’t know anything about your time-travelling from the future at the time, so didn’t make that connection. I knew about the time bubble, of course, but that was in a fixed place, miles away from the Army camp. In the end I put it all down to hallucinations caused by post-traumatic stress disorder. Now, suddenly, it’s all starting to slot into place.”
“It certainly is,” said Josh. “Whatever happened that night, if there were two versions of Dan there and you saw me as well, we can be pretty sure it can be put down to another time-travelling event. I don’t remember being there, though, so either it hasn’t happened yet in my personal timeline, or it was the Josh from that universe.”
“How did an older version of Dan get there?” ask
ed Charlie. “How did he learn to time travel?”
“I was wondering that myself,” said Josh. “I can’t believe he could ever have figured out how to do it himself, but somehow he got there. Then there is also the question of where did he go? Why did he disappear when the younger one died? That contradicts what we said earlier.”
“Not necessarily,” said Charlie. “Like you said before, it depends whether he was from that universe or not. If it was the same one, then it does make sense, sort of.”
“Possibly,” said Josh. “Time travel enthusiasts have been trying to work out the nature of these paradoxes for centuries. I don’t think we are going to find all the answers tonight over this meal.”
“So does that mean that you and I are both dead in that other universe?” asked Lauren.
“I would say they were probably two different universes, both created by two separate time travel events,” said Josh. “We’ve no idea how an older version of Dan got there, but since he’s dead in our universe we can hardly ask him, now or in the future. I guess we can only conclude that in your other version of reality he didn’t die – you did.”
“We don’t really know what happened, this is all supposition,” said Charlie. “We are theorising all this from Lauren and Alice’s dreams – and they could be just that, regardless of how real they feel to them.”
“They are real,” insisted Alice. “I really feel like I am there when I sleep.”
“Well, let’s say for the sake of argument they are real,” replied Josh. “There are all manner of other unanswered questions that raises.”
“Such as?” asked Charlie.
“OK, how about this? If I go back in time, when I return to the future, do I go back to the new universe I’ve just created or the one I came from? And can I control that? Alice and I are trying to create our own time bubbles, ones that we can control in the hope of answering these questions. Progress is slow, but I’m confident we’ll get there in the end. I’m certain we will. How else did I show up in that helicopter to rescue Alice?”
“That could still have been a Josh from another universe,” replied Charlie.
“Well, if that Josh figured it out, I’m damned sure I can, too,” said Josh.
The conversation could have gone on forever, but was interrupted as Mario returned with their main courses.
“So, I have one Filletto Mario, medium to well done,” he announced.
“That’s mine,” said Charlie, his eyes lighting up at the massive steak and chips as it was placed in front of him.
“And one Filletto Mario, rare, with chips and no salad.”
“That’ll be mine,” said Josh. “This is how you should have it, Charlie…oozing with blood.”
“Still not eating your greens, then, Josh?” commented Kaylee, who was a bit of a health freak when it came to food.
“Nope,” said Josh. “I’ve managed to survive this long without them. And I didn’t get this clever eating rabbit food.”
Once again, Josh’s teenage show-off persona had resurfaced. Recoiling at the sight of the oozing steak, vegetarian Kaylee turned her attention back to Mario to claim the pasta salad he had just brought out.
As they tucked in, Hannah decided it was time to bring up the main subject they had come here to discuss.
“Much as I’ve enjoyed all this time travel theory,” she began, “there’s something important we need to discuss. As you all know, today is Peter’s 70th birthday, at least chronologically, so I’d like to propose a toast to him and wish him happy birthday.”
“To Peter,” they chorused, as they raised their glasses, clinking them together. Lauren, who had already had three double vodkas during the lengthy conversation, had become rather tipsy and spilt some of hers.
“Oops,” she said, giggling, as Hannah continued.
“It’s a very special birthday, not just because it is his 70th, but also because it is the last one he will be spending away from us. As you all know, on March 30th next year, he will finally be emerging from the time bubble. The good news is, his leukaemia can now be easily cured. The bad news is, we’ve now got the worry of what to do about the time bubble again.”
“You mean, who’s going to take his place?” asked Charlie.
“Exactly,” said Hannah. “And we’re talking a serious time away for whoever goes in this time. How long is it exactly, Josh? I’m sure you know down to the exact second.”
“22 years, five months and five days,” replied Josh. “Whoever goes in won’t emerge until September 2063. You’re right, it’s a big problem. Someone’s got to replace Peter.”
“You’re not suggesting one of us volunteer, surely?” asked Kaylee.
“Yeah, it’s not like it’s our responsibility, is it?” added Lauren. “We didn’t create the time bubble.”
“Are you are sure about that?” asked Josh. “How do you know I didn’t end up creating it myself sometime in the past during one of my time travel experiments.”
“Yes, but we don’t know that,” said Jess, deciding it was time she had her say. “Look at it from my point of view. I’ve had to grow up without my father for almost my entire life because of that time bubble. You can’t seriously be asking anyone here to make a similar sacrifice. It’s not fair.”
“Jess, if it wasn’t for the time bubble, your father would have died over twenty years ago and in all likelihood, you would never have been born,” said Hannah. “I know more than anyone how hard it has been living without him, but I’ve done it because I know he’s coming home and most importantly that he can be cured. The time bubble has been a blessing for us, not a curse, and that leaves us with a certain degree of responsibility.”
“I understand all that,” said Jess. “But you still can’t expect anyone else here to go through what we have. We’re done with the time bubble now: let’s get on with our lives and let someone else worry about it.”
“So you’re suggesting we just collect Peter and leave the time bubble open for whoever is unlucky enough to wander that way next?” said Charlie. “We can’t do that. What if some kid falls in and disappears for 22 years? What’s that going to do to his or her family? We’ve been through all this before when Kaylee disappeared and that was only for two days.”
“And look how much grief that caused,” added Hannah.
“Tell me about it,” said Charlie. “Your old boss, Kent, hauled me in and gave me a right grilling.”
“Yes, well, he had a habit of barking up the wrong tree when it came to things like that,” said Hannah. “That debacle was pretty much the last straw as far as his policing career went.”
Mention of Kent reminded Lauren of her surprise encounter earlier that day.
“Speaking of which, he’s back,” she said. “He turned up this morning at the pub, completely out of the blue. I thought I’d seen a ghost at first. He’s coming back to help me run the place again. We’ve agreed to a partnership, though I’m going to be in charge.”
“Great,” said Charlie sarcastically. “Remind me not to come down for a drink anytime soon. I’ve had enough of that clown to last me a lifetime.”
“Much as I’d love to reminisce about the shortcomings of my old boss,” said Hannah impatiently, “we still haven’t worked out what we are going to do about the time bubble.”
“Well, we can’t just leave it to randomly swallow somebody up,” said Kaylee. “Surely we are all agreed on that.”
“Yes, but what other options do we have?” asked Charlie. “Brick it up again like we did before? That was fine for keeping people out for a week, but twenty-two years?”
“Maybe we should inform the authorities?” suggested Jess.
“Like who, exactly?” replied Charlie sarcastically. “The police? What do you think, Hannah.”
“I can tell you now, I wouldn’t bother,” replied Hannah. “You’d just be laughed at.”
“What about the Government or secret service?” asked Jess. “They must have a department set up
for this sort of thing?”
“I think you’ve been watching too many movies,” said Charlie.
“Whether they do or not, the last thing we want to do is draw attention to ourselves,” replied Josh. “What if someone else out there does know about the time bubbles and doesn’t want anyone else knowing? Before we know it we could find ourselves being silenced – permanently.”
“Who’s been watching too many movies now?” asked Jess. “You’re all being so negative. How about we put an advert online offering a free trip to the future for anyone who’s interested? There must be plenty of people around who wouldn’t mind disappearing for twenty-two years.”
“Who in their right minds is going to take an advert like that seriously?” replied Josh.
“You’d be surprised,” she replied. “I was at college with plenty of geeky sci-fi types who believe in this sort of thing.”
“Nutters probably,” said Josh. “And that could attract unwanted attention, too.”
“Well, whatever, then,” replied Jess huffily. “I’m out of ideas.”
Charlie was getting impatient with all of this and decided to come to the point. “Come on, Josh, stop beating around the bush, you’re bound to have an answer, you always do. What’s your solution to all of this?”
“I do have a suggestion, as a matter of fact,” said Josh.
“Which is?” asked Hannah. Everyone was leaning forward, intently, ready for Josh’s latest words of wisdom.
“I suggest we do nothing at all,” he pronounced.
“Brilliant,” said Charlie. “So we do just leave fate to take its course, then?”
“Let me clarify,” said Josh. “I mean we do nothing yet. We allow things to play out and allow a random person to fall into the bubble. Then, when they emerge in 2063, I will be waiting to send them back to 2041. Problem solved and the bubble is safe for another twenty-two years.”
“How exactly are you going to send them back?” asked Charlie.
“Well, that’s the beauty of it,” said Josh. “I haven’t a clue right now. But we know I’m going to find out how to time travel in the future and well before 2063. I’ll be over sixty by then and I wasn’t that old when I rescued Alice in the helicopter.”