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Paul got his meal and was talking with his dad.
“Then it was just like the rocket stopped in mid-air,” he said. “Kind of cartoonish, but it seemed so real
except for how slowly everything was moving.”
“Quite a dream, son. You must have had it when you fell into that deep sleep,” said his dad.
Paul agreed as he continued to eat. There was nothing wrong with his appetite.
“I called your mom,” said Walter. “She’ll be here as soon as she picks up Charlotte from school.”
“Charlotte had to go to school after all that excitement?” asked Paul.
“You know your mom. She’ll probably expect you to catch up on the work you missed,” said his father.
“You’re probably right,” said Paul. “As long as I don’t have to redo that experiment.”
Paul took another mouthful.
“Hey Dad, do you think she can bring Rothmeyer with her in case I have to stay another night?” said Paul.
“Let me call her,” said his dad. “I’m sure she will if she hasn’t left. She still had to get ready when I called her last.”
“Tell her he’s in the workshop; just use the find function on her pad, and he should speak up if he’s not damaged,” said Paul.
His dad nodded as he made the call.
Late that night, his parents and sister had finally left, and Paul was alone in his hospital room. He picked
up his pad and called for Rothmeyer.
“Here,” said the AI.
“Are you okay?” asked Paul.
In good condition.
Rothmeyer replied through the augmentation link, and so did Paul.
--Rothmeyer, I was wondering if you had noticed anything unusual about yesterday. Particularly after the experiment when I passed out.
I noticed quite a bit.
--What do you mean?
I can show you. I was recording the experiment when the spheres merged, and I saw you fall, but you got
back up quickly.
--I did?
Yeah, look here.
Rothmeyer then started showing Paul what he had recorded. Paul began to feel a tingle run up his spine, like being in the dark and hearing something menacing. There on the screen was his dream. He was walking with Rothmeyer and noticing all the same things that he had dreamed, that he thought he had dreamed. The whole world was moving slowly, or not at all, and he was walking around like normal. In fact, he must have walked pretty far, according to what he saw in the video. Eventually, he arrived back at the workshop, and the video ended.
“Why did it end so abruptly?” asked Paul out loud.
“Memory was almost full,” Rothmeyer responded aloud.
“You’ve got enough memory for hours of video at that resolution,” said Paul. “But you showed me only a few minutes. I don’t understand.”
“Well, it’s the time discrepancy,” said Rothmeyer.
“What time discrepancy?”
“When your mom searched for me, I woke up, and one of the first things I did was check the time. It should have been dark, but it wasn’t, so I checked the pad time against the network. It was off by several hours,” said the AI.
“How?” asked Paul.
“You know, I really don’t know,” said the AI.
Paul was stumped too. He watched the video two more times before finally falling asleep.
The next day at home, Paul talked to his dad.
“Dad, there’s something I want to talk to you about, but I don’t want Mom to hear,” said Paul.
They were in the workshop, which they were cleaning up after the incident. Paul was surprised that the device was missing.
“What is it, son?” asked Walter Anderson.
“You remember that dream I told you about?” asked Paul.
“Yes, son,” said his dad while he straightened the table.
“Maybe you should just look at this,” said Paul.
Paul then handed his pad to his father and told Rothmeyer to show him the video.
His dad watched for a few minutes and then looked at Paul.
“This is your dream,” he said.
“It’s exactly the way I remember it,” said Paul.
“That’s incredible,” said his dad. “How could Rothmeyer record your dream?”
“I don’t know, Dad; we had been using the augmented link a bit, but this is a lot more detailed than what we do over the link.”
He paused.
Unless it wasn’t a dream,” said Paul.
“It wasn’t? You mean you think this was real?”
“I don’t see any other way that Rothmeyer could have recorded it,” said Paul.
“That’s just incredible,” said his dad.
“I wonder if it was a consequence of the experiment,” said Paul.
“The experiment,” said his dad. “How in the world could that small device cause something like what’s in this video?”
“I don’t know, Dad, but it’s all I can think of,” said Paul.
They finished their cleaning, and then Paul went back to the house while his dad arranged his tools. As Walter Anderson left the shed, he noticed a one-inch crack between the building and the cement steps.
“How could that have happened?” he said to himself.
Paul’s dad was right. Paul’s mom did want him to catch up on his schoolwork. He was too busy for a couple of days to do much else. But once he had caught up, he began to think about the incident.
He talked to Rudy about it, but they didn’t have enough knowledge of physics to make any progress.
“What we need is an Einstein,” said Rudy one afternoon in Paul’s room.
--Rothmeyer, give me a list of the physics professors at Hampton University.
Rothmeyer showed the list.
--Okay, sort by age.
“I think a young guy would be more interested,” said Paul to Rudy.
Paul looked over the list and then said, “Tell me about Fletcher Pratt.”
Rothmeyer started listing the physicist’s qualifications and interests.
“I think we should contact Professor Pratt,” said Paul to Rudy. “I’ll send him a note about the incident and a copy of the video to see if he would be interested in talking.”
The following week, Paul got a note from Fletcher Pratt.
Your story sounds interesting. Would like to meet in my office to further discuss. Please bring any models or documents concerning this phenomenon.
Paul sent a note offering to come by the following Tuesday. Dr. Pratt agreed. Paul spent the few days preparing what he wanted to show the professor.
Fletcher Pratt was a young physics researcher, twenty-eight years old. He looked like he was eighteen, and it would have been hard to pick him out from the students he taught. He was six feet tall and slim with sandy brown hair, which was cut slightly longer than a crew cut.
Paul took an E-taxi to the university and found the physics building. Professor Pratt’s office was on the fourth floor of the five-story building. Paul was at the door on time.
The door opened, and Pratt said, “Are you Paul?”
“Yes sir,” said Paul.
“Come in,” said the professor.
Paul entered, and Pratt had him sit in the chair at the side of his desk where he tutored students needing help with their physics studies.
“Thanks for coming, Paul. I’ve read your note and viewed the video you sent me. What else do you have to tell me about this incident?”
Paul then told him about the device and showed him pictures of it and a video of it forming the two spheroids.
“Yes, I saw where the two wormhole mouths merged in the video you sent. Just showing that small device creating the mouths would have been eye-opening to most physicists. But watching those mouths merge was surreal for me,” said Pratt.
“So, you think the merger could have caused what I experienced, Professor?”
“Well, honestly, I don’t see how, but this could be new physics, so I’m keeping an open mind,” said the professor.
“What can we do to confirm it, Professor?” asked Paul.
“I guess we could do the experiment here at the university. I have quite a bit more instrumentation, which might tell us more about what is happening,” said Pratt.
“Okay, what do you want me to do?” asked Paul.
“Can you and your friend make another device?”
“Sure, it’s not too hard,” said Paul.
“Well, if you need some funds, let me know. I’m going to put in a request for resources and get set up. By the time you get the new device made, I should be ready to go,” said the professor.
“Great,” said Paul. “And thanks.”
“No, thank you for letting me see your research,” said Pratt.
“He did?” said Rudy.
Paul was telling Rudy about his meeting with Professor Pratt.
“Yeah, he said thank you for letting me see your research,” said Paul.
“Our research? We’re doing physics research. Well, what about that?” said Rudy.
“Yes, and we need to get a new device made to continue our research,” said Paul.
Rudy volunteered to make the device, since his AI and 3D printer had been used the first time. Between the two boys, they had enough credits to get the materials for a new disk, the cylindrical core of the
device, and the wiring. It would be made by the same robotic machine shop as before.
While they waited the couple of days it would take to get the device, the boys used their AIs to research the incident further.
“Quantum Temporal Dynamics,” said Rudy.
“What’s that?” asked Paul.
The boys were at Rudy’s house researching what might have happened to Paul.
“That’s a quantum theory of time,” said Rudy.
“What’s so great about it?” asked Paul.
“Well, it says that the theory predicts that time can be sped up or slowed down in a limited region of
spacetime,” said Rudy.
“So, you think that’s what happened to me?” asked Paul.
“Something like it,” said Rudy.
“But according to the video that Rothmeyer made, I wasn’t in a limited region. I moved all around.”
“That’s true; still, it might have something to do with the incident,” said Rudy.
“We’ll ask the professor,” said Paul. “We’re scheduled to see him the day after tomorrow.”