Ripped Apart: Quantum Twins – Adventures On Two Worlds

by Geoffrey Arnold

  Ilta and Oona had immediately noticed the difference. Hannu had happily put up with the ribbing from his mates, and Anita had found herself no longer just ‘one of the group’, but ‘one of the girls’.

  Now, Hannu was uncomfortable. With Qwelby sitting in the middle, it was as though he was coming in between them. Yet at the same time he sensed more energy flowing between himself and Anita. That was nice. But he would rather they found that for and by themselves. Yet, some of those feelings were for the alien. And that was exciting – in a mental way.

  Anita felt giddy and uncertain with a whole new rush of feelings for this alien. Was this what it was like to have a brother? Or be his… alien twin?

  Seija checked her watch and broke the silence. ‘This has been an incredible day, well, two days actually, and very tiring for everyone. I think it’s time the young folk went to bed.’ She turned to the Keskinens. ‘If it’s alright with you, it would be nice if Anita could stay for another night. Who knows how being here may help her dreams?’

  Viljo felt his wife squeeze his hand as Anita asked pleadingly. He grunted, and his wife thanked Seija.

  *

  ‘He’s very clever,’ Viljo said once the youngsters had gone. ‘That gets around the problem of Einstein’s E equals MC squared, where an object cannot travel at light-speed because it would attain infinite mass. Hah!’ He laughed. ‘Anita’s right. He’s got that from The Hitchhiker’s Guide.’ Satisfied that he had demolished the boy’s story, Viljo sank back in his chair and silence settled over the room as the two sets of parents sipped their drinks, watching the flames crackling around the logs. It had been a very strange time and they all felt the need to relax and gather their thoughts.

  Viljo was troubled. He was aware of the work of Drs Kozyrev, Ginzburg, Larson and Tift, all in different areas of quantum mechanics which, if accepted, overturned Einstein’s famous equation and meant the boy’s explanation could be right – and a lot more. No. He would not go down that route.

  ‘It’s a fantastic story,’ Viljo said. ‘Part of me would like it to be true. And I found I was actually believing it as he was speaking. But, really, with quantum theory as it stands, it’s just not possible. What concerns me is that he is so convincing. There’s something there I can’t put my finger on. We need to find out who he really is and where he comes from.’

  ‘I’m not so sure,’ Taimi said. ‘I’ve always envied those people who can see auras. When he was telling his story I saw an energy field around him. It’s like a strong heat haze. And it extends a lot further away than you see in those Kirlian photos.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I can’t explain it, but when he was telling us about how he came here, more than just believing him, I felt he was telling the truth.’

  Viljo accepted that all life exhibited electro-magnetic fields, but the chakras and auras his wife believed in, that was going too far. Not wanting to start yet another of their inconclusive arguments, he said nothing.

  ‘I agree we need to find the truth,’ Paavo said, nodding. There was something about the way the boy had trusted him that made him want to do what was right for him, and take the time to discover what that was. ‘While we do, we need to explain why he’s here.’

  ‘Taimi, will you come round tomorrow and see if we can work out some sort of explanation?’ Seija asked.

  ‘Yes. I’d like to get to know Qwelby better,’ Taimi replied. She was beginning to understand what her friend had been trying to explain to her earlier that afternoon about the feelings the boy engendered.

  Their husbands remained silent. Unaware of how much he had been influenced by Qwelby’s sincerity, Viljo was intrigued and content to let the matter be taken out of his hands. Paavo had no preconceptions as to what the truth might be. He had gone to the ski slope and seen how the boy’s arrival could not be explained. Nor could he explain the feelings he had experienced when he had picked up the unconscious boy and put him into bed. A feeling of being trusted with a precious life had made him want to care for the stranger.

  ‘Idiot!’ Viljo exclaimed, slapping his forehead. ‘There’s the hole in his story. CERN’s first run after the shutdown was late yesterday afternoon. But that wasn’t announced until late this morning. Hours after he’d told that story to our children. He must have prepared it, what… over a week ago before the shutdown, and then missed the news that CERN had closed.’ He hesitated; the full situation regarding the stoppage was still not to be revealed. ‘It scarcely made the news. A minor glitch with some recording equipment, and the opportunity taken to advance a minor, scheduled maintenance programme.’

  ‘When was that run?’ Taimi asked.

  ‘About four…’ her husband’s voice trailed off as he realised that was when Qwelby had arrived.

  ‘So, not actually disproving his story,’ Taimi said, with a teasing tone in her voice, knowing that her daughter would see that as definite proof that Qwelby was telling the truth.

  ‘You’re enjoying this, aren’t you!’ Viljo said, uncomfortable with his wife’s teasing.

  ‘What I am enjoying is that Anita is at last starting to have the fun that a teenager should. You know I’ve always thought her too mental, and spending too much time exploring our work and theories. For the first time in her life she has a group of friends. Good friends,’ she added as the two mothers exchanged smiles. ‘It’s Christmas, let the children have their adventure.’

  At first, Viljo had played along with the boy’s story, waiting for him to make a mistake. What he had just realised about the coincidence of timing had rekindled within him what he had felt whilst the boy was talking. No matter how far fetched his story, there was the possibility that he had been telling the truth. A very faint possibility. As a scientist, he owed it to his friends to establish the truth: one way or the other. He would give serious thought as to how he might achieve that. ‘Innocently’ playing along with the boy?

  Viljo raised his glass in a gesture of acceptance. As he received an acknowledging gesture from Paavo, the two flicked their eyes sideways to their wives and smiled in silent agreement to leave well alone. The women were happy with their scheming!

  Viljo’s smile concealed a disturbing thought. An inevitable consequence of the theory developed by Roger Penrose of twistors, ‘particles’ that were so small they did not possess any spatial dimensions, was that at that minimalistic point in space, matter and information became indistinguishable.

  And what was matter anyway? Merely a vast amount of information: data about mass, spin, axis of rotation, location relevant to other data, rate of decay, and much more. And that held good all the way up to the incalculable amount of data that comprised any complex living organism. He left aside the question of what his wife called ‘Soul’, where their discussions often become heated. However unlikely it was, he preferred the Penrose-Hameroff superpositioning theory of consciousness to Aristotle and the discredited vitalism of a past era.

  If what Qwelby called kuznii was in fact the ultimate ‘particle’, then it had to be pure information: data. And using photons, Earth scientists had successfully transported substantial amounts of data to the Moon and back.

  *

  Whilst Hannu and Anita were taking their time to say their goodnights, the object of Dr Keskinen’s confused thoughts was trying to contact his twin.

  Having adjusted the mirror in the wardrobe door, Qwelby stripped and sat on the bed in the lotus position facing it. He knew it was not Mirror, and was hoping that by blurring his vision and pretending the dark body and black hair of his reflection was his twin, it might help him to reach her.

  His eyes opened and he looked around the room, slowly recollecting where he was and feeling as if all the energy had been drained from his body and he was made of heavy metal. He never fell asleep like that at home. This third dimension was so very different. He slowly got under the duvet.

  But he had not been asleep. He had been… deepstate working? With a red and green Lulwanulay? What would that be in Finnish?
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  Sleep took him.

  CHAPTER 37

  ANGRY PARENTS

  VERTAZIA

  When the initial healing had been completed and the four friends had fallen asleep after their terrifying journey to connect with Tullia, Lellia had sent short messages to their parents assuring them their children were safe and asking them to come to Lungunu at five.

  With only twelve ouers in a Tazian day, ‘five’ meant that everyone had arrived and was comfortably settled down by mid-morning of the following day in Lellia’s Spherical Room, the optimum shape for complete thoughtshielding. The floor was a normal flat surface, this time of lush green grass, the rest of the globe presenting an image of distant hills and soft clouds drifting across a blue sky.

  ‘The youngsters made contact with both twins’ energies,’ Lellia said by way of introduction, and went on to explain the full detail of that contact and the images that had been seen.

  ‘The red sand, the appearance of the men and women, the way they were morphing, we think that they must be descendents of the Auriganii who remained on Haven when the rest of our forebears came here. As you all know, the planet that the Azurii call Mars is not like that in this dimension, yet the effects all four experienced as they returned, the waterfall sensation, bodies not fitting, all indicate time travel.’

  Aware of the looks of incredulity, horror, then sympathy on the parents’ faces, she took a deep breath before continuing. ‘They are all certain that the healing, red and green energies were coming from Qwelby. Wrenden felt a clear connection telling him that Qwelby was all right, although he was prevented from reaching him. So we think we know both are well, but not when, and only where Tullia is.’

  Otrodan, Pelnak’s father leant forward. ‘I know what the six XzylStroems do. But I don’t pretend to understand how they work. What we do know is that you can reach him that way. Why haven’t you brought him back? And without involving our children.’

  ‘Yes. Why aren’t our children here?’ queried Yarannah, mother of Tamina and Wrenden.

  Lellia was relieved to get away from her fear that the way the four friends had experienced Qwelby meant that he was in the NoWhenWhere and beyond any help. She explained why the children were absent.

  ‘He’s in a what!’ Yarannah exclaimed in dismay, when told that his injuries were so severe that her baby son, as she thought of him, was resting in a bath of Tenderest Loving Care. And that the other three had all spent the night sleeping in the kitchen.

  Aware they were in a completely Privacy Shielded room and were free to vent all their emotions without any spreading into the MentaNet, they did so, vigorously. Yarannah was in a ferocious mood.

  ‘Why did you not give him all the energy healing he needed? Lying in a bath all night, children sleeping on a kitchen floor! This is absolutely outrageous. What are you? Monsters!’ Her face had gone bright red, she was shaking all over and could not continue speaking.

  ‘We gave them all the energy healing they needed,’ Lellia replied with a touch of asperity in her voice. ‘Their biggest pain is in their very Selves. Allowing their bodies to take time to heal helps their Selves to recover. The others are sleeping comfortably, NOT on the floor, because all three wanted to be with Wrenden. They refused to be parted.’

  Again, it was the not-twins mothers who calmed everyone down. They did not have the genetic heritage that made Quantum Twins so special. Nevertheless, as identical twins themselves, they completely understood the strong need that Tullia and Qwelby had to be mentally reunited, and the youngsters’ desire to help them.

  Neither the twins’ parents nor Pelnak’s had been happy when the relationship had formed. Yet they had to accept that their opinions were irrelevant. “Esting” as the elderest/youngerest relationships were described, happened through the activation of genes in the third segment. No-one had ever been able to figure out why. It was accepted as one of the Aurigan legacies.

  The bond was usually formed as the younger of the pair was approaching the end of their ninth year. It remained strong throughout the second era and invariably continued to be a life-long bond of friendship.

  The elderest acted as a sort of caring older brother or sister, helping and guiding the youngerest through each phase. The ideal age gap was considered to be between ten and eighteen months. At almost sixteen months each, the estings between Tamina and Tullia, Qwelby and Wrenden were perfect. No-one understood why Pelnak had been chosen when he was only four months older, and Qwelby tended to overpower his elderest.

  It was unusual to be both a youngerest and an elderst. It was the one beef between the twins. With Qwelby and Wrenden regularly getting into trouble, Tullia’s oft expressed opinion was that Qwelby was far too irresponsible to be an elderest, whereas she would have been perfect.

  Shimara had no such responsibilities, yet it was inevitable that with her twin-like relationship with Pelnak, she saw herself as a bit of an elderest to Qwelby, which he playfully teased her about.

  Education on Vertazia principally consisted in children exploring as they wanted from an early age, guided by their families, and with regular meetings at colleges. The choice of the latter varied as they wished. The apparently lax system worked well as through to the end of their second era youngsters were guided by their annual hormonal release cycles, most especially during their second era from the age of twelve.

  In the semi hive-like interconnection of the race there was an in-built incentive. In a world of energy there was no need for money. From a very early age children learnt that failure to study and explore, or provide energy to others in some way, meant they would not acquire energy for their own needs.

  It was through meeting at college that the six had become good friends, years before Tamina had become Tullia’s elderst. That had been three and half years ago and the relationship between all six had been irrevocably cemented when Wrenden had become Qwelby’s youngerest two years ago. The boys shared the complaint that having two, bossy, big sisters was too much for any male.

  The parents of Pelnak, Shimara, Tamina and Wrenden eventually accepted that it was that deep connection, not any failing of care, that had resulted in their children moving between dimensions.

  Everything that needed to be said had been said, and then repeated two or three times. There was a lull in the discussion.

  Jailandur, father of Wrenden and Tamina, leant forward, twisting his hands together.

  ‘My son, our son, is lying in your kitchen the most injured of all.’ He took a deep breath. ‘At home we cannot fail to see how upset he is. And how Tamina has changed and is really caring for him. We know that all six call themselves XOÑOX.’ He looked at his wife.

  ‘I am ashamed at the feelings I have expressed. The anger that I hurled at you,’ he gestured to the twins’ family, ‘when our children have shown how much they love the twins.’ He carefully made eye contact with the parents of Shimara and Pelnak, his wife refusing to meet his gaze.

  ‘How can we throw anger or blame at others, when we ourselves have brought up our children to be so loving that they go and demonstrate that love by putting themselves in incredible danger to help their friends?’

  He got up from his chair and walked to the server where drinks were set out. He gestured to a decanter containing a dark green liquid, which poured a generous measure into a tumbler. He took a large swig.

  There was general movement, pouring of drinks and quiet talking whilst everyone took time for reflection. Except for Yarannah who marched up to her husband and started a heated discussion. Eventually, it was she who virtually commanded everyone to sit down, then set out her demands.

  ‘My two children are involved in this. Both times Wrenden has nearly died. I do NOT want them to continue searching for your children. But it seems I have no choice!’ She was shaking with fury. ‘There WILL be strict rules. They will NEVER go into the XzylCavern again. They will ONLY search in ways that brook no danger. They will only do that when all four are together, and they will
be properly supervised.

  ‘I am not happy to say this, but the searching must be done from here. With all the science and esoteric stuff you have, Lungunu must be, should be, far more protected than any of our ordinary houses.’ She spat out those words with angry jealousy. ‘Neither of MY children is to do anything without MY approval.’

  There was a stunned silence, and the not-twins parents slowly nodded their heads.

  ‘Good. Now, I’m going to see my children,’ Yarannah declared as she turned and headed towards the door.

  *

  Back home, having seen the state of her children, Yarannah was fuming. She felt cornered, trapped into an agreement she did not want to make. For a time she even considered going back on her word, but knew that the reverberations throughout the MentaNet would have serious consequences. Not just reneging on a promise, but one made to youngsters during the crucial second era of their development! She imagined the arrival of a Readjuster and being “Requested to participate in an in-depth discussion.”

  Why do we use euphemisms for the darker side of life? To be taken away from my children when they need me the most? ‘Never!’ she declared aloud.

  Breaking into her thoughts, the sound of her husband’s irritated voice as he argued with one of the GardenCarls about its programming reminded her of the last time that Lerinda and her husband had visited. Lerinda was a Junior Readjuster who did not agree with the more extreme views of the Kumelanii. But no. This was family.

  A little while later, Yarannah was surprised when Lerinda contacted her. She was mortified to discover that after leaving Lungunu her anger and dismay had been so strong she had not been able to contain her feelings within her Privacy Shield. Yet there was the consolation that as she had thought of her friend at the time, her disturbed feelings had been directed towards Lerinda rather than being spread all across the MentaNet. When Lerinda offered to hear her concerns, as a friend, Yarannah felt a burden was being lifted from her shoulders.