by D. S. Smith
Static
Oceanic Supplier, this is the United States Coast Guard communications station, repeat your position, I say again, repeat your position, over.
The professor ended the recording and continued.
“Even though the coast guard were not given an accurate position for the vessel they managed to locate it within twenty minutes of receiving the mayday call. On arrival at the location they discovered the vessel had capsized. Within two hundred meters of the overturned ship was a small life boat with one passenger onboard who it turned out was the captain. He was unconscious and was wearing a life vest. How the vessel had turned over was a mystery. The sea state was low and the weather was as good as it gets with clear blue skies and very little wind. Divers were quickly deployed to search the overturned vessel but no other survivors or bodies were found. According to the transcript we’ve just heard there were seventeen crew members onboard. The sole survivor was taken by helicopter to a shore side hospital for medical attention. While onboard the helicopter he regained consciousness, but was confused. When asked what had happened he claimed that out of nowhere the sea around them started to churn and twist causing the ship to take on water. He said he had been inspecting the lifeboat when the ship literally flipped over throwing him and the lifeboat clear. He didn’t remember anything further until he woke up on the helicopter. An intense search for survivors was carried out but no further bodies were found. Helicopters, coast guard vessels and volunteer vessels circled the wreck for several miles in all directions but to no avail. Exactly six hours after the original discovery of the overturned ship it was decided to scale down the search. Just as the last helicopter was making its final flight over the wreck, several bodies were spotted around it. All search craft were called back in and all sixteen of the missing crew were pulled out of the water. Eleven living and five dead. “It was as if they had appeared out of nowhere,” one of the rescuers reported. All sixteen of them were naked. When the captain was reunited with the survivors he identified them as his crew members. He also identified the bodies of those that had died. None of the survivors recognised him. Stranger still, all sixteen of them were experiencing memory loss and confusion, claiming…” the professor paused to look at Stuart. Holding his gaze he continued.
“… to be leading completely different lives to the ones they knew prior to the incident.” It was now Stuart’s turn to shift uncomfortably on his seat. He looked to Catherine in confusion. She in turn rolled her eyes and shrugged. The professor clicked the remote control and continued.
“There are a number of other reported incidents similar to this. For instance, this picture was taken by an American satellite tracking over the Middle East. If you look at this point here just south of Kuwait City you’ll notice one of the black spots. Shortly after this shot was taken a private jet with seven people onboard flying from Dublin to Abu Dhabi crashed at exactly the point where this black spot appeared. The jet disintegrated on impact leaving a trail of debris several hundred metres long. Six hours later, seven naked people − five men and two women − approached an incident unit set up near the point of impact. They were distressed and confused, having no idea how they had gotten there. Further inquiries identified them as the four passengers and three crew from the crashed jet. None of them were injured and none of them recalled being on a flight that day. Five of them claimed they had never met each other before. The remaining two were brothers. They obviously knew each other but not the other five.” He clicked the remote again and a recording from a radio station played through the speakers. “I particularly enjoy this one.” The professor said smiling.
DJ − Welcome to BCRS on 103FM, Boston’s number one talk radio station. On today’s edition of ‘You Could Not Make This Up’ we are once again privileged to have with us one of our very own BPD traffic enforcement officers, Officer Jim Sergeant. Good Morning Officer Sergeant and thank you for joining us.
Guest − It’s great to be here Vince, thank you for inviting me.
DJ − You are more than welcome sir. Now, before we reveal to the listeners why you are on the show today, you have to tell me, is your name really Sergeant?
Guest − Yes it is Vince. My name is Steven Sergeant.
DJ − Wow. And tell us Steven what rank are you?
Guest − Well, I am a Sergeant, Vince. Sergeant Steven Sergeant.
DJ − Sergeant Steven Sergeant folks. You could not make that up. Why, I bet getting suspect DUIs to just say your name is a good measure to see how drunk they are?
Guest − I guess it would but I’ve never actually tried it. Perhaps I will next time.
DJ − Perhaps you will, that’s great officer. But your know folks, Sergeant Sergeant’s name isn’t the most bizarre thing you are going to hear on the show today. Officer Sergeant, why don’t you share with us what you encountered on Highway 10 earlier this year.
Guest − Well Vince, it was about 18:30 in the evening, a Friday evening. I had just finished my shift. I was driving home in the blue and white as I had an early start the next day.
DJ − A blue and white of course, refers to Boston’s police cars.
Guest − That is correct Vince. I was driving home along the 10 when I spotted a car pulled over about one hundred yards ahead. So I slowed down and pulled over in front of it to see if anyone was in need of assistance.
DJ − As you would have done thousands of times before?
Guest − That is correct. Before I got outta the car and approached the vehicle I waited a moment to see if I could spot any movement. Problem was, all of the windows were steamed up Vince.
DJ − Careful now officer, this is a family show.
Guest − Yes sir. So I cautiously approached the vehicle and peered in through the windshield. I could just about see inside and the front seats was empty. I went around to the back and looked though the rear window. The back was also empty. So I tried the driver’s door and it was open.
DJ − So, the car was open, all the windows were steamed up but there was no sign of anyone inside. Tell us what you did see inside that car.
Guest − Well Vince, when I opened the driver’s door I saw clothes strewn all over. Some in the front on the seat and on the floor, same in the back.
DJ − Not so unusual in itself officer, but wasn’t there something else.
Guest − There sure was Vince. On the passenger side seat there were two pairs of jeans, one on top of the other. They looked like they had been deliberately laid out that way.
DJ − How do you mean?
Guest − Well, the pair on the bottom were rolled down to about knee length. The button and the zip still fastened. The pair on top were laid out fully but the button and zip were open wide.
DJ − Strange, but easily explainable.
Guest − Yeh, sure. But even stranger Vince, was the fact that the bottom of the left leg, of the jeans on top, was full.
DJ − Full? How do you mean full?
Guest − It still had the lower half of a leg in it Vince.
DJ − What the Dickens? You’re telling me there was half a leg still in the jeans?
Guest − That’s right Vince. Half a prosthetic leg. A real nice one too. Must have been expensive.
DJ − Oh, ok. It was a false leg. You had us going there Officer Sergeant. Again everything so far a little odd but totally explainable. But that isn’t were it ends is it?
Guest − No sir. Things got even stranger after that.
DJ − Even stranger, wow. Please proceed.
Guest − Well, I decided to call it in so that my colleagues could deal with it and I could get home. I went to the rear of the vehicle to get the license plate. I took a note of it and headed back to my car to call it in. I was about half way through the call when I nearly jumped out of my skin.
DJ − And what was it that made you jump.
Guest − There was a mighty loud scream came from the car I had just searched and then all hell broke loose.
DJ − So w
hat was going on? What was the commotion?
Guest − Well Vince, from the car I had just searched, an empty car mind, a young lady burst out of the passenger side door. She was screaming hysterically and apart from a bundle of clothes she was clutching to her body she was naked.
DJ − What did you do next Officer?
Guest − I ran over to try and comfort the lady but as I did so the driver’s door burst open and out shot a young man. He was trying to pull on a pair of jeans but he fell over because he could not get is left leg past the prosthetic that was already in there.
DJ − So the prosthetic was not his?
Guest − No Sir, he had a perfectly good leg of his own.
DJ − He had a perfectly good leg of his own. Like I said folks, you could not make this up. So tell us, how can this all be explained?
Guest − That’s just it Vince. To this day we have not been able to explain what happened to these kids.
DJ − Why is that?
Guest − Well, to start with they claimed they had never set eyes on each other before. That they just suddenly woke up in that vehicle having never been there before. At first we thought maybe the boy had drugged the girl and took her in the car to get up to no good. But none of the tests indicated any drugs in either of them. The boy said he had been camping with friends. He claimed he wandered off on his own when he tripped and passed out. When woke up he was in that car. The girl said she had been trying on clothes at home. When she opened her wardrobe she was sucked in to it before waking up in that car.
DJ − Sucked into her wardrobe. So what do you think of that Officer Sergeant?
Guest − Well subsequent investigations have shown that the car did belong to that young lady, even though she denies ever laying eyes on it. But I’ll tell you something for sure Vince. There is no way on this God given earth that those kids could of gotten into that car without me seeing them.
DJ − What happened to that false leg?
Guest − It was returned to the boy.
DJ − The boy who appeared in the car?
Guest − The very same. It had a registration number on it. The clinic it came from confirmed it was issued to that same boy who had two perfectly good legs.
DJ − Well there you have it folks. That has got to be one of the strangest stories we have ever had on this show. You could not make this up. Sergeant Steven Sergeant, thank you so much for sharing that with us.
Catherine shrugged to Stuart with a wry look on her face. Stuart sniggered and shrugged also.
“Ok,” the professor confessed through a half laugh, “that is somewhat wacky. But we believe it represents one of the many unexplained incidents relevant to our hypothesis. As is this one.” He clicked on the remote revealing the satellite image again. Using the laser pointer he indicated an area on the map showing another black spot. “This was taken by a Saudi Arabian tracking station. At the point where this spot occurred, a small boy claims that his father disappeared in front of his eyes while they were playing soccer. The man was discovered six hours later stealing clothing hanging from the first-floor balcony of a hotel. When he was reunited with his son he didn’t recognise the boy.
Finally, there’s this one recorded by a BBC weather station just over three weeks ago. This spot appeared at three-thirty in the morning, directly over a housing estate in West Norwood, South East London. Like all the other incidents I’ve mentioned there is evidence with this one that a subject disappeared around the time the spot first showed and reappeared several hours later having no recollection of what happened.” The professor paused for affect, brushed his hair back and revealed, “Fortunately for us we have that subject here with us today.” Stuart cleared his throat and asked the obvious question. “Wow, ok. So, you’re suggesting whatever causes these black spots also caused me to lose my memory and somehow imagine a new life for myself?”
“Not to mention causing people to vanish into thin air before reappearing several hours later, naked,” Catherine added. “I understand your scepticism Stuart, Catherine, but just hear me out. As I said previously the black spots were believed to be from solar radiation. We have now discovered, as we suspected all along, the spots are generated by the absorption of light resulting from the formation of quantum wormholes.”
“Oh please,” Catherine scorned, “if this is heading where I think it is I’m not willing to listen any further.”
She stood up ready to leave. “Stuart, I strongly recommend you leave with me now.” Stuart looked at her and then at the professor who he gave him a nonchalant look as if to say, your choice! He looked to Dr Cooper for a reaction who in return nodded toward the professor indicating his support. Even Dr Marks responded with a nod. “Let’s hear him out Catherine.” His words came out more coldly than he had intended, but he was genuinely intrigued as to where this was headed. “It’s false hope Stuart. This could set us back weeks,” she pleaded. Stuart picked up on the fact she used the word ‘us’. Was this a professional ‘us’ or an ‘us’ born out of the recent intimacy they had shared? He had been through so much of late and was just coming to terms with the explanation he had been so reluctant to accept. He didn’t want to upset Catherine but at the same time he wanted to hear more of what the professor was suggesting. She knew he wasn’t going to leave with her so she sat back down.
The professor continued. “Let me explain a little more about the background to our discovery. Bear with me and keep an open mind.” He began to pace again. “When a star has used up all of its nuclear fuel it begins to shrink and becomes very dense. The denser it becomes the greater its gravitational field becomes, to the point where nothing, not even light, can escape. Eventually the star becomes so dense it rips through the fabric of space-time creating a tunnel, or wormhole, between two different points in space. My colleagues and I have recently discovered that wormholes like this are forming and decaying all the time at a quantum level. Most of them are so minute they go unnoticed but occasionally several occur at the same time within close proximity of each other. We believe, when this happens, it not only opens up a link between two points in space but between two parallel universes.” He looked to his guests for a reaction. Stuart sat listening intently, Catherine had her arms folded, disinterest written all over her face. The professor continued. “It has long been theorised there are an infinite number of parallel universes similar to ours existing in different dimensions. It is believed these universes exist along vast undulating membranes. An infinite number of membranes stacked in varying distances from our own. Those nearest to us will be very similar to ours but the further they are from us the more greatly they will differ.” Catherine turned to Stuart. He was watching the professor intently, buying in to every word he spoke. She turned her attention back to the professor. “There is probably a universe existing for every single possible outcome to any single event. You decide to go left at a junction but your universal doppelganger goes right, or straight on, maybe even up or down. With so many universes every outcome is possible. Anyway, I digress.” He said getting carried away. “As I’ve already mentioned these universes are undulating in unison with each other something like this.” He took out a pen and drew on one of the whiteboards. First he drew a wavy line with many peaks and troughs. He took a different coloured pen and drew an identical wave beneath it showing all the peaks and troughs fitting with the first wave like a jigsaw piece. “As I said, my colleagues and I have discovered that quantum wormholes are forming and decaying all the time without detection. Occasionally a number of these form together causing a chain reaction that produces a larger wormhole. We can say with confidence this phenomenon is also occurring in all the other universes as the laws of physics are universal. Now, as two parallel universes undulate together the chances are at some stage a wormhole will form on both universes at the same time and in the same place. This will result in a chain reaction continuing across the universes creating a temporary link between the two. We now have proof this is the case and St
uart here and the other unfortunate people we have mentioned are the first known trans-universal passengers.”
“Stuart, tell me you aren’t subscribing to this,” Catherine pleaded in a whisper, placing a hand on his knee in a show of affection.
Stuart considered this for a moment. As fantastic as the explanation was, it made more sense to him than a theory suggesting he had imagined a whole life for himself. He had felt like a stranger since waking up in a strange bed everyone claimed was his. People he thought he knew either did not exist or were different to how he remembered them. For the past three weeks his own life seemed alien to him and this was the first theory that actually explained why. He placed his hand on hers. His whispered reply was resolute. “I’m sorry, but in all honesty Catherine this seems no more fantastic than what I’ve already accepted. I’d like to learn more before making a decision as to whether or not I believe it.”
Before she could respond the professor approached them.
“Tell me something Stuart, have you ever received any dental treatment?”
“Yeh sure. As far as I can remember I’ve had couple of fillings and a cap in one of my front teeth,” he said, thinking the question somewhat random.
“Dr Carson, would you do me the honour of looking into your patient’s mouth to confirm this.” Dr Carson shrugged and turned to face Stuart. “Open wide please,” she said in an exasperated tone. She had a good look around his mouth before reporting she could not see any fillings or any evidence of dental work. “I’ve definitely got two fillings, two big silver, grey things at the back. I hate them because you can see them when I laugh. And this tooth here is capped.” He tapped the tooth with his fingernail and a look of confusion spread across his face. He probed the back of it with is tongue where there had always been a gap but the tooth was firmly nestled into the gum “I don’t understand professor.”
“I’ll explain in a moment. What about scars or tattoos, do you have any that you have received since birth?”
“I have a scar on my right knee from an old football injury.”