The Seeds of Time (66 page)

The Time Diver cannot select his or her favorite future vector, visiting over and over again. Such selection is theoretically and practically impossible. Vandarthanan’s equations conclusively demonstrate that for any Dive to the future, the future vector upon which one “lands” is a virtually random occurrence.

An extremely rare and nonrandom phenomenon of future Time Diving, however, was first suggested by Vandarthanan’s
work. This phenomenon is the potential for the existence of an ultimately temporary but no less potentially catastrophic
Cousin Reality
. The Cousin Reality is a high-probability time vector that could exist, under certain circumstances, parallel to our own.

A Cousin Reality is quite different from the “future vector” concept discussed earlier. A Cousin Reality occurs when time branches in two, carrying forward two parallel versions of reality in current time. It is a reality in which each individual has a
“doppelgänger”
in a parallel time vector. Cousin Realities are implacable competitors for existence since only one such reality can endure in the long run. Cousin Realities result in a state of
reality-time dissonance
that the mechanics of the universe strive to resolve. In this profound state of disharmony, one reality will gather strength at the expense of the other. Even though Cousin Realities may exist simultaneously for thousands of years, ultimately one reality diminishes in power, finally to the point of extinction. Thus, one reality is called the
Dominant Cousin
, and the other the
Servient Cousin
.

Vandarthanan and his students speculated that this hypothesis could not be tested by visiting a Cousin Reality in current time, which he maintained was theoretically impossible. Rather, a Cousin Reality would be discovered by future Time Diving and finding that over repeated visits, the random nature of that travel was suspended. His equations predicted that a Cousin Reality would serve as a
temporal attractor
—future Time Dives from either Cousin would be attracted to the other.

Although a highly improbable occurrence, the Cousin Reality concept fascinated—some would say obsessed—Vandarthanan as he grew old. As the father and chief proponent of
spatiotemporal mechanics
, Vandarthanan became increasingly isolated from mainstream mathematics and physics, and during his lifetime his Cousin Reality ideas were widely disputed. (Although, of course, the existence of a current Cousin Reality was borne out by subsequent events.) In the final years of his life, Vandarthanan was
widely quoted in the popular press, becoming politically active in human-rights and ecological issues, which contributed to his isolation from institutional scientists and his harassment by conservative government factions. Ironically, when Vandarthanan died, at the age of seventy-eight, his scientific reputation was at its lowest ebb but his popularity as a folk hero was soaring. Sri Sarvepalli Vandarthanan is considered by some to be the greatest visionary of the twenty-first century, and yet he would have—as he said many times—preferred to remain an anonymous mathematician.

The Non-Paradox Laws
describe three principal constraints on maneuverability in Time Diving. Vandarthanan enunciated these laws as a series of speculations in his last published work, “Probabilistic Dimensions of Reality Intervention.” Although most of his fellow scientists believed that Vandarthanan had failed to prove his major point—the potential existence of Cousin Realities—the Non-Paradox Laws first described in that paper gradually made their way into mainstream science. Vandarthanan’s Uncertainty Principle was confirmed experimentally in the years after his death. The Past Intervention Law was widely accepted on a theoretical basis. The Law of Probabilistic Resolution—although tested once in human history—remains Vandarthanan’s most famous, and infamous, unproved theory. While formulated in the esoteric symbolic language of spatiotemporal mechanics, the function and effect of each of the laws is relatively clear.

Vandarthanan’s
Uncertainty Principle
states that it is not possible to Dive both to another identifiable place in the universe and to another time with accuracy. If the exact depth of the Dive is specified, then the resulting location cannot be predicted with accuracy.
³
Conversely, if the
placeis defined with precision, the time of arrival is uncertain. The uncertainties of Time Dive have been confirmed by experiment and actual Dive experience. In the early twenty-first century, because of Space Recon’s broad tolerances in defining both place and time of arrival, the limitations imposed by Vandarthanan’s Uncertainty Principle were not an insurmountable deterrent to space and time travel.

The
Past Intervention Law
holds that in travel to the historical past everything in local space prior to the traveler’s arrival time becomes temporally fixed—from the standpoint of intervention. Travel into the past beyond the point of an earlier
temporal fixation
is possible, but is subject to the same limits of nonintervention as are encountered in travel to the future—the traveler cannot intervene in or interact with the past to affect events, people, or things.
⁴
In Vandarthanan’s terms, the traveler’s opportunity for intervention in the time stream is limited. The active past, as it were, closes up behind the traveler.

The
Law of Probabilistic Resolution
states that to alter the course of history by interfering in the flow of the time stream during a certain period of unstable temporal probability will both destroy and re-create the time stream in a new form. This law applies to actions and interventions during what Vandarthanan referred to as a time of monumental
probabilistic uncertainty;
in other words, an era when the time stream is highly unstable and conditions are present that could lead to creation of a Cousin Reality.

Vandarthanan and those who followed in his footsteps were especially interested in the development and dynamics of this law, because it implied that past intervention could be used to modify the future in some predictable way. The speculation was that Time Dive could be used to manipulate a key
historico-temporal element
(an “independent variable”) that was crucial to the strength of a Dominant Cousin
Reality. Changing any such element, much less a major one, would inevitably result in paradox, which Vandarthanan theorized would have profound but predictable consequences—both the existing Dominant and Servient Realities would “blink out” of existence, succumbing to the “collapse of probability.”

In their places would be generated two new Cousin Realities, presumptively identical in form, but reflecting the new probabilities created by the manipulation of the time stream. One reality would be the once-Dominant Cousin divested of its probabilistic supremacy and ultimately destined to wither. The other would be the former Servient Cousin—now Dominant—which would have acquired the main thrust and probabilistic strength of temporal evolution. The time vector of the “present” to which the traveler would return from the Dive to the “past” would be slightly or profoundly different depending on the nature of change to the historico-temporal element.

In summary, if one determined that humanity had a Cousin Reality, it would be known that only one such reality could survive into the future. In addition, if it was determined that the other reality is a Dominant Cousin, it might be reasonably argued that one should intervene to prevent the development of the Cousin Reality’s supremacy. To embark on this course of action, it would be necessary to find the critical historico-temporal element that determined this supremacy and manipulate or eliminate it through a past intervention.

Just prior to the time of this seminal event, the time stream theoretically would be on the verge of splitting, drastically limiting the time available to take action. The traveler cannot repeat the Time Dive several times until the mission succeeds, because of the Past Intervention Law. Furthermore, the Time Dive will have no guarantee of arrival at the right time to take effective action, because of the Uncertainty Principle. The traveler will be aiming for a narrow window of time and place prior to the branching of reality. Last, and most troublesome, the future—the time
vector from which the traveler came, and presumably would strive to return to—will be forever changed by operation of the Law of Probabilistic Resolution.

—D. K. Wheaten, rev. 3560

Kay Kenyon began her writing career as a copywriter at WDSM-TV in Duluth, Minnesota. She kept up her interest in writing through careers in marketing and transportation planning, and published her first novel,
The Seeds of Time
, in 1997.
The Braided World
is her sixth novel. She lives in Wenatchee, Washington, with her husband.

Visit her website at
www.kaykenyon.com
Or email her at
[email protected]

Its name is Nir, and it’s the latest craze in VR technology: the ultimate retina game that promises a payoff of total ecstasy. But what it actually delivers may be far more final—and far more frightening.

The year is 2014. And in the small town of Medicine Falls, no one is expecting anything unusual to happen. Certainly they are not expecting to become the proving ground for a very sinister invasion indeed. But linked in with Nir and a strange cult figure named Zachariah Smith is a deadly truth. And an antiques dealer named Abbey McCrae is about to discover what the rest of the galaxy collects.…

They chose Medicine Falls for the Leap Point because it was average and unremarkable in every way—except for being just a little desperate. At the same time, the town was isolated, twenty-five kilometers from the closest node of civilization.

Gazing up at the starry night sky, a typical citizen might remark how the stars were like diamonds sprinkled on velvet, or how bright the Milky Way was, far from city lights, or a few odd ones might wonder if the sun was atwinkle in someone else’s night sky at that moment. As of course it was. A signal fire. What some might call a lighthouse beacon.

But Medicine Falls didn’t look up very often. Folks were preoccupied with alfalfa to be baled and shopping to be done. And at night most people gave themselves up to vids and the Net, never looking up.

Except for Rachel.

At the moment, she was gazing up into the recesses of the station’s ceiling far above, where a flaw in the roof metered out a slow plunk, plunk of melting snow.

Zachariah Smith followed her gaze upward, seeing more, immeasurably more, than the cracked and abandoned roof of the Lowell Street Train Station. In his mind’s eye he saw a bustling tide of shoppers and travelers under the brilliant station lights. The glory days of Medicine Falls revisited. The glory days of Zachariah Smith—lightning rod to the city’s new life.

It wasn’t the kind of new life that most folks probably had in mind, but they were about to get it anyway.

“Can’t you tell me what it is?” Rachel asked for the
dozenth time. Her voice reverberated in the empty mall hall, with its row of dead view-screen store fronts.

“It’s a secret. Like I said.” He kept his voice low, but the echo swooped out like a long, velvety tongue to snap up the remains of Rachel’s question. The only other sound was the slap of their boots through the oily, tie-dyed water.

A spray of light bulged into human shape in front of them. “Say, neighbor,” the promo holo said, nearly causing Rachel to climb up Zachariah’s arm. “Make your mo a real show.” The female image was wearing a short gel-fit, with tiny fish swimming through its transparent depths. She turned her forearm to display the glittering band of light nodes from her high-fashion cuff computer.