Gate of Time

IV

Tuesday, 30th of August, 2146. 8:37 a.m.

It was the day of Dr. Brecker's lecture, and Adrien was already up and getting into his new, dress clothes. Grace had to take him clothes shopping a couple days ago because all he ever wore and had in his closet were lab coats. Take isn't the best word, forced is a more accurate description.
When Grace is with John and Adrien, she's normally very introverted, but if she's alone with Adrien, it's no holds barred, and she goes all out. It's the difference between knowing John a couple years and knowing Adrien her whole life.
So when it came to take Adrien clothes shopping for something other than a lab coat, she didn't let up until he conceded and went with her. She was forced to drag him out the front door and threw him into her car and drove him there. It was then that he gave up and conceded to her wishes for him looking good for this lecture by Dr. Brecker.
Even though he never wears suits or any nice clothes, looking into the mirror in his bathroom, he thought to himself, I could actually become used to this. He was already growing to like this. Grace, just how do you do this? He smiled to that thought. She really knew how to make him look nice and still have him like what she picked out.
"Looking good." Adrien turned around and saw his sister in her new dress clothes. Everyone was required to wear something nice and formal, as said by Dr. Brecker himself, so Grace put hers on since she would be going with Adrien.
"You always seem to find the perfect outfits that I end up liking," Adrien replied.
"I just know you very well, of course. Why wouldn't I be able to do that by this point?"
"True, very true." Adrien turned to the door and headed towards the kitchen on the opposite side of the living room from where he was. From the smell emanating from the kitchen, Adrien deduced that Grace had already made breakfast: a simple and plain eggs with bacon. It was very enticing to Adrien. "Smells great," he said, turning to where Grace was.
Grace was still preparing in the bathroom, probably brushing her hair, eliminating stubborn tangles from her long hair. "You should definitely be thanking me. I woke up pretty early to do it."
"Don't I always thank you for cooking sometimes?"
"Less often than you think," she retorted, jokingly.
"Well then, I'll make up for it right now. Thank you so much, Grace. I'll try cooking more frequently to make up for everything you do."
"I'd really appreciate that," Grace said. She put down her hairbrush and walked out of the bathroom. "Man, how do girls keep putting things like makeup on to look better every day. It takes me too long just to use a hairbrush."
Grabbing some food and putting it on his and Grace's plates, Adrien walked back over to her saying, "How would I know? I'm a male and a scientist who wonders why people think they need makeup."
"I'm in that same boat as you. Why do people think they need such menial objects when they really just want it?"
"Those kinds of things have grown to be more obsolete in recent decades, so people have grown to realize that those commodities are quite menial and useless," Adrien said. He and Grace both sat down at the table right next to the kitchen and started to eat.
Grace looked behind her to check the time. "We have plenty of time. Why did we wake up so early?"
"Says the one who preaches promptness to everyone around her," Adrien said with a smug look.
"I tell people to be ten to fifteen minutes early. In our case, we'll be there with over an hour to spare. Why did you want to be up so early?" She folded her arms and looked him in the eyes for her answer.
"I wanted to look more into Dr. Brecker's topic for the lecture today," Adrien said after taking a bite of his bacon.
Grace seemed to relax a bit. "Multiverses, correct? On whose theory do you think he'd base his lecture?"
"Probably the most well known and widely accepted. Tegmark's explanation of there being four different types of universes2." Adrien stood up and walked to the bookshelf where he put the books he checked out a few days ago.
"It is the one that has a good amount of backing to it. It also seems fairly reasonable, but infinite universe theory and time? I can stretch it a bit, but it seems unreasonable that if we change time, one can literally hop universes," Grace said.
Adrien opens a book and flips the chapter where it explains Tegmark's Universes. "Tegmark's Level III universe: for every decision one makes, there are alternate universes where an alternate route was taken. The most popular example being rolling a die. If you roll a die and it lands on one, there are five other universes where the other five numbers were chosen.
"Another example is if you are offered to go out of country for a job and decide to stay here, one other path is that you take the opportunity instead. It's also plausible that the plane could crash into the ocean, or crash in another country before you reach it. Hence the name Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics." He closes the book. "That's where time comes in. If someone goes back in time, they are basically in a Level I universe."
"Isn't that the one that explains döpelgangers being in a far off universe from us?" Grace asked.
Adrien nodded. "Correct. Some people theorize that the Level I, II, and III universes are the same3. If you go into the past, it's possible that you become your döpelganger and change what you want to change, making it a new Level III universe.
"In other words, you go back in time before the universe splits off into two new universes, picking a different route. For example, if I go back in time to decide to sleep in instead of wake up early, I go back to the point before I made the decision to wake up early or sleep in. In this case, the point when I told you my decision for us. I tell you that we'll sleep in instead of what I actually told you: to wake up early."
"It's still hard to understand how we can hop universes just by going in time." She put her hand on her chin, thinking about it.
"We can assume Dr. Brecker will answer all of our questions and explain more theories we haven't explored yet. I'll also ask for his explanation on Tegmark's universes. It's better to get a professional's live explanation than just one from a few books."
Grace nodded in understanding. Adrien gestured her outside. It was now 9:15. It'll take them thirty minutes to get there.
Even though Grace was the smartest of the two of them, she had many questions because, with their equipment, it was impossible to do experiments relating to other universes. It was still impossible to reach other universes because of how far away they are theorized to be. Over a hundred years ago, they were theorized to be 4 x 1023 kilometers away, but with our expanding view of our universe, that number keeps becoming gradually larger.
Grace got into the car, and they headed towards NCUT for Dr. Brecker's lecture.
———
They arrived at Dr. Brecker's lecture hall well before it was time to start, but to keep their minds active before they had to sit through a possibly dull lecture that may pass right over their heads (not likely), they kept theorizing themselves. Adrien wanted to believe that other universes actually existed, but Grace insisted that it was impossible to prove at this moment.
After twenty minutes of talking, the stocky Dr. Brecker came in. "Good morning, fellow colleagues in time. I like to welcome you all to my lecture on theories of time and multiverses."
Some people groaned because they knew of multiverses, but never could find a way to actually work it into time itself.
"Yes, I know most of you have considered it in the sense that they actually existed, but thought that we can't actually go to the universes themselves, much less go to a universe with the exact same properties as ours.
"The most famous explanation comes from a scientist by the name of Max Tegmark, who explained that there were four different types of Universes, named the Four Levels. A Level I universe is one that has the exact same properties as ours, but is one a different timeline from us. Level II universes have our same fundamental physics, but they have different constants and particles. One of the more complicated to understand with our perception of our universe.
"The Level III universe is the one that appeals to us physicists the most, so I'll come back to that. The Level IV universe is a universe that has morphed physics, completely different ways of seeing how physics, different equations from us.
"The Level III universe is the well known Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. This interests us because it shows that for every outcome of a decision there's another universe where another outcome transpired. In other words, if we go back in time and change the decision, we're in that universe where the other outcome happened."
Everyone just stared at him, wanting him to reach his point. "This brings up a question that I'm sure some of you have thought: do we go into that other universe, or does our universe become that universe? An exact equivalent to the other universe who had that same outcome?" He looked to those in the room. "What do you all think?" He walked out from behind his desk and to the front.
Adrien raised his hand. Dr. Brecker acknowledged him. "I think that if you go back to the point before the timeline branches with each possible outcome, the universes split up depending on what path you take. For example, a kid decides to go back to decide to do homework when he forget the previous night, he goes back to the point when he originally decided to procrastinate and instead do his homework. That alternate universe from before then becomes the original universe, and his universe, the formerly alternate universe."
"That's a good point, but therein lies a paradox. The universes exist already, and his universe, already on its path. His going back in time makes more universes, a universe where he forgets to remind himself, or a universe where he doesn't go back at all. Or, if you're right and I'm wrong, does the whole universe go back in time with the kid? The new universes unsplit and at the point of splitting with each the child's decision?
"I propose this: that these universes are just an idea that supports the concept of alternate paths that our universe can take. Adrien's idea is a form of that, but not exactly. No, one doesn't go to another universe, but instead changes their universe into another form that lies on a new chronological path." The people were now gripped by Dr. Brecker's hypothesis. They were finally hooked on his idea. The short, stocky man was now the largest presence in the room, dominating everybody.
"We all know of the butterfly effect, correct? That all of our accumulated decisions affect the total outcome? Well, that's why everyone thinks that changing time is dangerous. If one of us changes something for a selfish reason, who knows what could happen in the end? But how much does it really take to change Time's ultimate course?"
Some people looked confused at his proclamation. One person called out, "Can you please explain what you mean by 'how much does it take to change Time's ultimate course?'"
"I mean exactly what I said. Does it really take one, simple decision to alter Time, or is Time a stubborn thing and not easily changing? Let's say that you boyfriend, husband, girlfriend, or wife or just someone you loved died and you wanted to prevent their death. Does just simply saving them from their initial cause of death save them or will time find some other way to kill them within a few minutes after their original death?"
Everyone was pondering that question. It was a metaphysical question; impossible to answer. Dr. Brecker then admitted that he couldn't answer it, but with these new notions in their heads, he wanted them to answer it themselves.
"Now, onto actually going through time. I'll leave you all with this. Yes, I know this was a very quick, thirty minute lecture, but I wanted to give you all time to memorize what I've said and use it today while you all work. Einstein, that's what I'll leave you all with." With that, he walked out of the room, leaving everyone to think for themselves, alone.
Adrien started to think of what Einstein had done. He had been almost all but forgotten by most, but not by scientists, but what he had said was mainly out of practice and updated.
Then, he remembered a theory by Einstein that would change everything. Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

—

I've decided to keep posting chapters but post them infrequently. I know some people are starting to lose interest, so that's why I want to keep doing this. They will be very far in between so not the entire book will be posted on here.