Portal: Love as a Construct

Part 128. The Freeman

"You'd better hope it does," I tell him, "because if it doesn't we'll all have approximately twenty seconds to curse the person who damaged the gun before we all disappear into the void between space and time." That cheerful thought out of the way, I continue. "The transposition engine operates on the same basic principle: temporarily removing the object from both time and space. The biggest problem with true teleportation is a basic principle of physics: that the amount of mass in the universe must remain constant. I can't break that law, so I must also remove the object from time temporarily; that is, I must stop time in that place so that when I remove the object from space, it 'doesn't count'. To accomplish this, the transposition engine oscillates the object at the speed of light which, as the fastest possible speed in the universe, is equivalent to removing the object from perception. While it approaches that speed, it is removed from space so as not to destroy itself in the process."

"Why does the object not destroy itself once it arrives at the destination?" Gordon asks.

"Terrestrial physics don't exist under quantum conditions," I answer. "When the object arrives at its destination and its properties of being within space and time are restored, the velocity of the object has been negated. Once removed from the quantum state, it returns to terrestrial physics at a state of rest."

Gordon turns to face the relevant diagram for some moments, then shakes his head. "I understand the explanation, but the rest of it... I think that's beyond me."

I honestly don't believe the human brain has the ability to truly comprehend quantum physics, but I can respect his attempts at doing so. It's not his fault he was created a lesser organism.

"What's the second method?" Caroline asks. I clear the whiteboard and in the centre I place a point.

"Dr Freeman, you have probably come across this concept before," I say by way of answer, "but for the sake of Caroline I'll explain it outright.

"The universe as we know it is not the only one in existence. This is known as multiverse theory. This point is the foundation of the universe. This line," I say, drawing one at zero degrees, "is reality as we know it." I draw three more lines, at ninety, one hundred-eighty, and two hundred-seventy degrees respectively. "This is our reality with a fifty percent difference, ours but opposite, and the fifty-percent reality but opposite. In between these are an infinite amount of parallel realities which cover every single possible outcome of every single possible action. Some of them bear no resemblance at all to the one we currently exist in; an equal number of those is identical to this one in every way, with one or more minor differences. Are you following?"

They both nod, and I look back at my formerly lonely point. It is now surrounded with a multitude of parallel lines, and I wonder in passing if Gordon can see that or if it just looks like a filled black circle to him now. "I said that my second method was not truly teleportation because it isn't. For that method I would calculate which of the parallel universes has the highest degree of similarity to ours, but with the object I want to move already in the place I want it due to choices made there that weren't made here, and I would switch that reality with this one. Theoretically. I've never actually tried it, for a variety of reasons."

Gordon heaves a breath.

"How long is it going to take us to work out all of this?"

"I really can't say," I tell him, which is true. Human brains are subject to so many whims of random chance that it would be impossible for me to predict when they are going to understand concepts of this complexity. Especially not now, when there are more important things for them to address. Such as rebuilding their entire society.

"Now that I've told you this," I say to Caroline specifically, "I need you to understand that this is a very dangerous, serious process. You cannot use this knowledge to impress anyone or show off or just to remind yourself that you have it. This is a procedure in which you must know every micron of the object you're moving and where you're moving it to, because missing exactly the wrong one could spell unsalvageable disaster. You are not to do this unless you absolutely have to."