The Evolution of Genius: Every Night, I Get Smarter!-Chapter 81: The Lab

Therion looked worried; after a moment, he moved his hand slowly over to his mouth and seemed to sink into deep thought.

The Lord looked at him, "Therion... do you think they’ve succeeded? Do you think they can do it already?"

A moment of silence followed, and then Therion said, "If they had really found a way, we would have had a war on our hands long ago. They wouldn’t back down. I think they’re just testing the possibility, but if they’ve succeeded once..."

The Lord nodded, then turned towards me. "Max. Let me show you something," he said and walked towards the corridor.

I followed him.

The Lord skipped through several rooms and stopped in front of the room where I had previously seen the girl with blonde hair.

She still laid on the floor, as if lifeless, or perhaps asleep?

Therion approached us after a while, and The Lord said, "Do you see that little girl, Max?"

"Of course I see her. She is lying right before my eyes," I replied.

"Umm... yes. This girl sacrificed herself for the greater good. What you must know is that each person can Jump to one and only one body in another cluster. She made the jump to the Ulthars cluster. However, after the Jump, the brain in the initial cluster dies. The body perishes," The Lord explained.

I pondered for a moment, "Couldn’t you make a Replica of this girl? Couldn’t she try to Jump back to her own body?"

Therion joined the conversation. "That was indeed the main theory we were testing, but for the Jump to be possible, the waves emitted by the brain, through the so-called Quasars, must resonate with the waves in another cluster during Separation. The Replica does not resonate with the original consciousness."

I stood in silence for a moment, trying to understand everything, then asked, "Alright. I need to learn the fifth layer as quickly as possible. But before that, I have one more question." I turned to The Lord, "What about the fourth cluster? They haven’t contacted me even once."

I gave a simple reason for my interest in the fourth cluster. Mentioning that Therion told me about it could have been suicidal.

Without a change in expression, The Lord quickly explained, "The fourth cluster has never initiated contact with anyone... That’s why, in conjunction with the Ulthars, we’ve designated it as our Plan B in case the Quantum Pathogen gets out of hand. If needed, we want to make the fourth cluster our escape root."

After The Lord briefly explained about the fourth cluster being a contingency plan, he then added, "Actually, there’s one more room that I should show you."

The Lord led me to a room where a barrier split the space in half.

"This is where we’ve been experimenting on breaking the barrier between clusters," The Lord explained. "Even when moving at speeds beyond the speed of light, the barrier prevents us from transitioning to another cluster the conventional way," The Lord explained.

He added, "It exists at a level lower than time, akin to the Quantum Pathogen the Zytherians attacked us with."

As The Lord led me through the room with the experimental barrier, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was amiss.

I couldn’t deny that The Lord was a master of deception. His demeanor didn’t waver.

His explanation about the fourth cluster being a Plan B seemed plausible.

How could he lie so convincingly?

Therion’s earlier explanation was still in my mind. According to him, the Zytherians were also attempting to reach the fourth cluster. If that was the truth, it raised a crucial question:

Who was truly escaping from whom?

The supposed Plan B was definitely a smokescreen.

The Zytherians attacked you with a Quantum Pathogen, hmm? Is that the case, The Lord?

As we walked through the room, Therion explained that the barrier is only the same on the Quantum level and that they have no understanding of how it works.

After some time, we returned to the room where we always held our discussions, and Therion decided to give me a crash course on the third layer of quantum physics.

First, he said, "As you know from the theory... what was his name... Einstein?"

"Einstein. Theory of relativity?"

"Yes. Exactly. Imagine that you’re standing still and measuring the speed of light coming from a lantern standing right next to you...", after a brief pause, he continued, "Now, imagine someone riding a bike is measuring the same incoming light... Each of you will get a different result."

"The only difference is that he’s moving and you’re not... Motion, as you should already know, is not a change of position in time. Motion is a certain hyperbolic rotation. The axes of time and space tilt. And this hyperbolic rotation is called spacetime rotation."

"Of course. Basics of the theory of relativity," I said.

"Yes. Now let me show you something," Therion said and approached a cabinet from which he pulled out a rather long metal rod.

Therion stood in front of me and raised the rod, so I could only see one end of it.

"Max. Are both ends of this metal rod equally distant from my right eye?"

I nodded, "Yes"

Therion continued, "I would like to point out that in contrary... these two ends are not equally distant from your right eye. We differ in our assessment of this fact."

"The question is, who is right?", he asked.

I replied, "Of course, we’re both right. The concept of equidistance is relative, depending on who the observer is."

"Right," Therion said, "If I were to set off two bombs here, for us, the explosions would be simultaneous. But for someone moving in a rocket, they won’t be simultaneous because they’re looking at spacetime at a certain angle."

Therion continued, "What’s more...", he pointed at the rod, "for a moving observer, the length of this rod will be different."

He looked at me, "This fact applies not only to measuring distances in space but also to intervals in time. Why? Are space and time all the same?"

After a brief pause, he continued, "Alright, Max. Tell me the difference between time and space."

I quickly replied, "One might think it’s significant. The only one I know is a minus instead of a plus in the equation."

Therion looked at me and nodded. "Exactly. And that is the only actual difference. The third layer of quantum physics explains what happens when we blend time with space."

He then asked me, "Do you have any thoughts of your own when it comes to this? It’s one of the biggest breakthroughs in the history of humanity..."

I thought for a while, "Hmm... I think that space and time are one and the same. Without time, there would be no space, and without space, there would be no time."

Therion shook his head left and right as if I were close to the right answer. "Close. What you call space and time in reality are two properties of time. We call them space and continuum. The closer to the speed of light, the more they become the same."

It took me a while to grasp this and then I asked, "And if we move faster than light continuum will switch places with space?"

"Yes. When you move faster than light, the continuum becomes stable like space and you can easily change your quantum state in space, effectively you can reappear anywhere you want. The trick is to skip the acceleration part. Otherwise, you could disappear and appear millennia later."

"Okay. Is this all of the third layer?", I asked.

As if answering my question, Therion took off his shoes and said, "Close your eyes, Max."

I closed my eyes and smiled, "What’s this all about?"

Therion said, "I’ll throw one shoe to the left and the other to the right,’ and he threw one shoe to the left and the other to the right, "Max. Which shoe did I throw to the left, and which one to the right?"

I pondered for a moment, "I don’t know. I closed my eyes."

Therion smiled, "You can’t tell, but their state is clear. The left shoe is on the left, and the right one is on the right. You can open your eyes."

I opened my eyes, and Therion said, "In the quantum world, it works completely differently. Until a pair of quarks is observed, their state is unknown. What’s more, they exist in every state at the same time."

I was confused, "How is this related to moving freely through space?"

He finally summarized, "The body of a human. It is made of quarks. Move faster than light. Stop observing yourself. At this point, you are in all places at the same time until observed. Pick any state, as long as it’s available. Observe yourself."

Therion then pointed at a wardrobe in the room, "That’s how the wardrobes work... Although, you could make it anything, the wardrobe part is just visual. The name of the third layer is ’space-time inversion’ by the way. And the Quantum World is always in that state. That’s it. I will give you the USB."

"You’re telling me that I should just go?", I asked, surprised.

"What are you surprised about? You can’t help us with the Jumping problem, anyway. Go!"

I listened to Therion and returned to Boston.

...

Over the next three weeks, I focused on completing the study of the theory and designing a mini fusion engine that could be used to build a rocket.

I also made calls to several places regarding my new company, NeuralDream.

Oliv’s Father, James, provided me with contacts to people experienced in the field and in possession of the necessary permits.