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WORMHOLES
PART ONE
If D'Argo wants to get from one end of Moya
to the other, he has to walk the whole distance. But if I could fold
Moya in half — so that her front and back ends are close enough to be
connected with a short tunnel — then I could slip through that tunnel
and have my feet up and a drink in my hand by the time D'Argo arrives.
That's a crude example (and Pilot would be pretty steamed if I made Moya origami), but that's how wormholes
work. You don't go faster than light; you bend space-time itself and
take a serious shortcut while light slogs through space the long way.
I think it's more than a coincidence that wormholes have appeared both times my Farscape Module flew a planetary slingshot maneuver during a solar flare. Before I came to the Uncharted Territories, Earth's physicists had not yet made a connection between solar flares and gravitational singularities. But here's what I think now.
When I was revving up the Farscape
experiment, one of the mystery variables was that uncrewed spacecraft
completing the same maneuver tended to pick up more velocity than the
math should've allowed. In other words: Spacecraft using the slingshot
method were zooming off faster than we expected. Some scientists
speculated that intense electromagnetic charges picked up by the craft
caused the anomaly. At any rate, extreme magnetic charge is only one of
many possible forces strong enough to affect space-time. Couple one or
more with the energy released by solar flares, and maybe that's enough
to rip the universe a new one.
Some wormholes are very
unstable. Fly into one of those without the right kind of shielding and
you might suffer a complete cellular collapse — meaning no more body,
just chunky salsa. It's as if unstable wormholes create their own destructive distortion. The good news is that, so far, only Peacekeeper
ships have proved vulnerable to this problem. Don't know why; might be
something in their hull composites, maybe it's their energy signatures.
I need to work on this a little more.
The right equipment can identify and cancel out those wavelengths, harmonics, rantath-flux variances and photonic distortion bursts. Linfer was at first-and-goal with her phase-negative shielding, and I understand that Furlow's Phase Stabilizer
even scored touchdowns before it became an unspeakable apocalyptic
weapon. So far, my module's been the Volvo of wormhole transports: She
ain't pretty, but she's got a five-star safety rating on the
intergalactic Autobahn.
But learning how to traverse a wormhole safely still doesn't mean we're
ready to pass "GO" and collect $200. What I've seen so far suggests
that wormholes are one-way streets. As Pathfinder Neeyala
showed me, however, groups of wormholes sometimes form themselves into
massive loops with various possible exits. In this case, you could
enter the circuit at any point and, while never reversing direction,
eventually return to that same point.
They can also contain giant snakes with really, really big teeth. Just so you know.
PART TWO
Okay, everything I wrote before? That was the beginner's class, Wormholes 101. Ready for the next step?
As Albert Einstein said, it's all relative. Specifically, space and time are fused, which is why it's called space-time. A set of
coordinates for each is required to locate a particular event. Motion at speed through space becomes motion through time. Wormholes bridge space-time, providing a unique ability to navigate across vast distances — and through time.
With me so far?
Wormholes also traverse other universes and dimensions than our own,
and — thanks to a feature of quantum theory that states that all
possible outcomes of every variable event occur simultaneously, each
one branching off into its own quantum reality — they lead to a
potentially infinite number of "unrealized" parallel realities within
our own universe. In other words, there are an infinite number of
potential realities that don't officially exist until you step into
them.
"What would be so bad about visiting another universe?" you ask?
According to informed sources, this apparently would result in a
"cataclysmic unraveling of the precise mathematical harmony." Sorry I
can't be more specific, but I think you'll agree that sounds bad enough
that we shouldn't risk it.
Every wormhole system has an uncountable number of exits, each to a
distinct time and place. Travel from point A to point B; now, attempt
to travel back. You could arrive at point A immediately after you left.
Or a cycle later. Or a cycle earlier. Or ten. Or ten thousand. There
are millions of permutations — millions of chances to unravel the past
and completely erase everything you ever cared about.
In other words, going forward in time is no great shakes; it's going backward
that screws the pooch. A traveler who appears earlier in the timeline
of his own existence is like a rock dropped on still waters; the
ripples radiate from the point of disruption and cause bigger and
bigger circles of change as they move outward. But if you fix the first
thing that goes ape before the other temporal dominoes fall, time is
elastic enough to recover its initial shape. If events are matched
closely enough to their original course, they have a way of
restructuring themselves to familiar outcomes.
Now, navigating a wormhole is a whole different ball of wax. Put away your machines and fancy toys; they won't help you.
From any point of entry, a wormhole system branches into multiple
paths, like a maze that loops back upon itself. The subdivision
continues until you finally tumble back into space-time. The trick is
to know where you want to go. Every portal has a unique space-time
signature. The only destinations you can go to by design are those you
already know. The more you travel to new destinations, the more
signatures you learn to recognize.
Now here's the really fun part: Navigation sensations inside a wormhole are counterintuitive. The farther you are from a destination, the easier
it is to track differences in its signature. But since every
destination is closely surrounded by similar, unrealized realities, the
closer you get to where you're going, the more you have to maintain
perfect focus. Get distracted and you'll wind up pulling a Marty McFly.
And never, ever, return to a familiar place prior to the last time you left.
Study hard, kids, because I'm certain there'll be a pop quiz when we least expect it....
JOURNEY LOG REFERENCES
Premiere
'Til the Blood Runs Clear
A Human Reaction
The Hidden Memory
Won't Get Fooled Again
Self-Inflicted Wounds, Part 1: Would'a, Could'a, Should'a
Self-Inflicted Wounds, Part 2: Wait for the Wheel
Incubator
Infinite Possibilities, Part 1: Daedalus Demands
Infinite Possibilities, Part 2: Icarus Abides
Dog With Two Bones
Unrealized Reality
STARBURST TO ANY NOTE
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