Zero (31 page)

It's easy—just follow these four simple steps.

 

Step 1: Build a small wormhole. Both ends will be in the same point in time:

Step 2: Attach one end of the wormhole to something very heavy and the other end to a spaceship that's going at 90 percent of the speed of light. Every spaceship year is equivalent to 2.3 years on Earth; clocks at either end of the wormhole will go at different speeds.

Step 3: Wait for a while. After 46 years of Earth time, bring the wormhole to a friendly planet. Traveling through the wormhole can take you from the year 2046 on Earth to the year 2020 on Zeelox or vice versa.

Step 4: If you were really smart, you could have started planning the mission far in advance. You could have sent a message to Zeelox long before you started, arranging for a spaceship from Zeelox to do the reverse process, beginning in 1974 (Zeelox time). Then in the year 2020 (Zeelox time), the other wormhole could transport you to Earth in the year 1994 (Earth time). If you use both wormholes, you can jump from 2046 (Earth time) to 2020 (Zeelox time) to 1994 (Earth time): you've traveled back in time more than half a century!

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