‘In an infinite universe, infinitely anything is possible.’
The words hung in the air just above John’s lap. His hands went to the hardlight keyboard to summon up his email program. The email program and icons replaced the text on his Tri-D holographic display.
He drew in a deep breath, and exhaled slowly readying himself. His fingers tapped out commands on the virtual keyboard. The communiqué from the enigmatic Mr Ten Percent was the reason why John was taking this inter-continental stratospheric flight from London to Sydney. With a flight time of just over four hours John figured he would have enough time to ready himself for the meeting scheduled for when he arrived.
Mr Ten Percent was so named because he was only ten percent man. Which was the minimum legal requirement that a person can be and still be legally classed as human. John wondered if the law ever changed would his employer ever go over to fully robotic? Not a question he wanted to dwell on, but one that crossed his mind every time he saw the ‘brain in a jar’ that the disparagers called the person who was more machine than man.
Distracted, an odd thought struck John. What was his real name? What did he call himself before he opted to have nearly all of his body replaced by robotics?
The contents of the email and attachments were simply staggering.
After reading, John minimised the email and his quote was displayed once again. He sank back into the polymorphic first class chair to cogitate on the emails contents. Whilst the chair remoulded itself to Johns’ new position to maximise his comfort the stewardess approached him with the drinks cart.
‘Would you like a drink sir?’ she asked in a pleasant Pan-Asian accent.
‘Erm, yes please, have you got a diet cola?’ he asked still deep in thought.
‘Certainly sir, ice and a slice?’
‘No thank you.’
Whilst the stewardess poured the first class flier his drink she read the words hovering above his lap. ‘A bit deep’ she thought. In an effort to “involve the clients in their first class experience” as the sales brochure blurb said she asked the passenger, ‘What does that mean?’ as she pointed to the quote.
Drawn from his thinking John didn’t even have to think of an answer, as it was explaining this exact thing in his thesis that had got him a degree in theology.
‘It means quite literally, if it can be imagined then it is entirely possible that it can exist somewhere in the infinite universe.’
The stewardess didn’t respond straight away while she poured John’s drink.
‘That’s very deep’ She said finally.
Distracted from his thoughts John took a better look at the woman serving him his refreshment. Her blue/green occidental eyes caught his attention.
‘Let me explain a bit more’ John said.
John went on to explain that in the past science fiction writers had described fantastical spaceships and impossible technological marvels, which had now become science fact and everyday gadgets.
‘Take my personal computing device.’ He elaborated, ‘this little black box, which is approximately one by three by nine centimetres in size. It has three hundred and sixty exabytes of memory, a three dimensional holographic display and a hardlight keyboard, both of which physically do not exist, but are just projections.’ He paused for breath and carried on, ‘and it has more reference data stored in it that the entire Oxford and Cambridge libraries combined.’
John put his hands forwards and typed in the commands to shut the mobile device down, he then picked it up as if to add emphasis, and holding it in front of him, he continued speaking.
‘This is my personal computing device, or PCD, which is also my mobile communications unit, and GPS and much more. The device that I have in my hand has more computing power than ninety of the super computers that the Terran space commission sent the first manned mission to Alpha Centauri with just thirty six years ago.’
The stewardess looked at him a little puzzled, and said, ‘But surely that is just technological development, not something straight out of someone’s imagination?’
John looked at the stewardess in a more appreciative way. ‘You are right, and well noted’.
‘Have you seen the GBBC news recently regarding the discovery on Sigma Draconis six?’ John enquired.
‘Sorry, I don’t watch the news channels, too busy with other things. That and they only ever report off world things. It’s a bit like saying nothing important ever happens back here on Terra any more.’ She replied, giving John her full attention.
‘On Sigma Draconis six, or rather the sixth planet from the star of Sigma Draconis which is eighteen point eight light years from Earth is a moon. On that moon are some ancient alien ruins. Part of this relic consists of five doorways, or portals, which have a wormhole connection with another portal on different planet.’
The stewardess’s eyes widened, ‘Now that is something to be imagined isn’t it. Has anyone actually travelled through any of these, to one of these other worlds?’ she asked.
‘Yes, and come back to tell the tale. But my point is, this amazing find, or something very similar can be found in a book written centuries ago.’
‘Who could ever imagine such a marvel?’
The stewardess was now enthralled by what she was being told. Fortunately there was only one other passenger in the first class compartment, and they were now asleep and snoring. John very much doubted that the other passenger, a well rounded lady of advancing years, would be complaining about the lack of service in the first class cabin.
In just a few seconds the security access screen was displayed, and John had to perform a retinal scan before the PCD allowed him to access the device.
The words from his quote glowed in pale yellow once again above his lap, and the hardlight keyboard appeared within easy reach. Once again John’s hands went to the keyboard, his metal fingers typing out commands, very quickly an image was displayed.
‘This is a book cover from the late twentieth century.’ The image showed a procession of horse riders carry lights above them, and in white writing “A Darkness at Sethanon” across the top third of the picture.
‘This is the third book in a series that the writer Raymond Feist, a fantasy author wrote about a magician, Pug, and his best friend Tomas. In this book they travel in the City Forever to a place called the Hall of Worlds. In this hall, which has no walls, are doors, and each door opens to a new world. This is very much like the discovery at Sigma Draconis six.’
The stewardess looked completely dumbstruck. ‘Wow’ was all she could say.
John looked for a name badge on the stewardess, finding none, he asked her name.
‘Ruth’ she replied.
The name appeared at odds with her Pan-Asian looks, but John didn’t enquire.
‘So Ruth, do you now understand what I mean by if it can be imagined, in an infinite universe it could quite possibly exist, somewhere?’
‘I find that utterly amazing’ Ruth replied, ‘Are there other such things being discovered that have been written about hundreds of years ago?
‘Many things actually, although mainly these have been technological developments rather than outright discoveries.’ John expanded.
Ruth looked around the cabin and seeing that the only other first class passenger was still fast asleep, she enquired if John would like to talk more about this as she found it fascinating. He replied saying that he would love to, but unfortunately he had work to do on this flight before he landed in Australia. Ruth made her apologies and moved off to do other things.
John watched Ruth check on the other passenger. He observed her take a travel blanket from the overhead locker to cover the sleeper. He then returned to the email from Mr Ten Percent. Even after his discussion that he had just had with Ruth regarding infinite possibilities he still found the contents of the email amazing.
John read, and digested the email that he had already read several times before. The document with pictures, analysis reports and scientific examination backed up the preliminary observations from his initial report. Either John had got lucky with his guesses, which was possible, or the impossible really had become possible.
When faced with an enigma or puzzle which would require significant thought John knew that the best way he could mentally connect the dots was to distract himself with something else lighter and leave his subconscious to work through and resolve the information and it would let him know when a conclusion or bit of research required further conscious effort.
So with that he opened up a data browser to the intraweb and pulled up his favourite search engine. He typed in “Mr Ten Percent + name” and hit enter. At first glance the results showed that ten percent was his actual name, not a nickname. A deeper search was needed. More news articles, press releases and general gossip pages revealed that he was born of a natural birth and the date. That brought a mental gasp from John. Mr Ten Percent was over four hundred years old. John now understood why he was just a brain in an androids body, the rest of his flesh body had been replaced because it was simply worn out with age!
Further research showed that he was a philanthropist, an entrepreneur, as well as the owner of a huge conglomerate spanning a number of different worlds. But for some strange reason, no real name could be found. This curious missing piece of information piqued John’s curiosity. ‘Birth certificate’ thought John. So he searched for the relevant sites where historical information was kept, such as birth certificates from centuries old.
Playing detective with such a trivial piece of information distracted John enough for his subconscious to work through the initial reports.
Quantum entanglement, the words popped into John’s conscious mind whilst delving through historical documents online.
John cancelled his current search and took a sip on his diet cola. ‘Hmmm’ thought John, ‘that could go part way to explaining why….’ His thoughts trailed off whilst he worked through various possibilities and how quantum entanglement could possibly explain the link between two remote systems and the reports in the email. Possibilities presented themselves, and were discarded, alternative arguments offered and counter argued. John’s analytical thought processes worked through the dots and tried to skip a number of steps. His old physics teacher had said that any bright spark could go from A to D through B and C, but it took a genuine genius to skip from A to D. In John’s first thesis he had managed to go from A to F! As a result he had completed the degree course in just seven months, a record even for Oxford.
Idly tapping away at his keyboard whilst thinking on the problem at hand, he had another brainwave regarding his search for the elusive name of Mr Ten Percent. A quick search resulted in success, Digory Kirke. The search also showed that he had a sister, Polly, who had died of a ripe old age of one hundred and forty three, unaided by advances in medical science. A news article from that period had reported on “The Magicians Nephew” vowing to continue her humanitarian work. That would explain the philanthropic activities that he was now credited for thought John
Then an announcement was made over the intercom informing all passengers that the stratospheric plane would be landing in fifteen minutes, and asked for the passengers to ready themselves. John closed down his PCD, slipped it into his jacket pocket and mused, quantum entanglement, now there’s an answer to an impossible problem.