A/N: I'm glad they did not use the science fiction element too often on the show; but when they did, it was mostly believable and highly entertaining. Those were great opportunities to stimulate Castle's overactive imagination even further. I applaud those brave individuals who have tried their collective hands at dealing with a parallel universe setting. The theme just won't leave me alone so I'm going to give it a try also. Here's my AU version of the Season 7, Episode 6, Castle in his parallel universe. (Somehow an AU in the PU just doesn't come out right . . .)
Disclaimer: I do not own Castle – all credit goes to Andrew Marlow and the writing team for ABC's Castle; my thanks to them for providing a foundation for this little exercise. Special thanks to Marlow's wife, Terri Miller on this theme, since she's the one who wrote most of the sci-fi based episodes, with Adam Frost helping to round things out.
Chapter 1
Richard Castle awoke a little later than usual, only to find that his beloved police detective and fiancé Kate Beckett had slipped out of bed early. He sat up, rubbed his eyes, and contemplated his next move. I didn't think I had slept that soundly. She probably caught a case or possibly went to the precinct early to finish some paperwork and therefore didn't want to trouble me with the boring details, he reasoned as he began getting dressed.
He eventually found his way to the kitchen and began preparing himself some breakfast while catching sound-bytes from the newscast going on in the background. '. . . DOW is down 450 points only a couple of hours after the opening bell . . . weather today will be sunny and breezy in the New York Metro area . . . World Health Organization is monitoring developments in China regarding what appears to be a new kind of virus this season. . .'
Well, sounds like another regular day in the neighborhood, he told himself as put the finishing touches on his cappuccino. He wished Kate was still in bed rather than out somewhere so he could sculpt one of those hearts on the surface of the foam and take it to her with his usual flourish. Lacking that opportunity, he decided to see what was going on outside the loft before he began to wrangle with his next chapter in his latest book. Again, he was starting to fall behind, and he knew Gina would be on his case come next week if he didn't get something posted on their document exchange folder to satisfy the editors.
Alexis' 9-O'clock class should be getting out just about now he figured as he finished checking her schedule on his phone's notepad. He decided to give her a call, now that breakfast was pretty much finished from the looks of his plate, and since it had been about 24 hours between check-in's.
"Hi dad, what's up?", Alexis answered after the second ring.
"Oh not that much daughter of mine. Just checking in. Did you survive your morning dose of Ocean Dynamics today?", he asked, knowing that the course was her nemesis that semester.
"Yes dad. I survived. Actually, got a good grade on the last homework assignment. One thing about this professor . . . at least you get good feedback on how you're doing. He actually looks at your homework – or maybe one of his grad students does", she replied cheerfully. Castle was always glad to hear her sounding like that. "So, dad, how are things going with you?", she continued.
"Same as always . . . Beckett is out at the precinct, I'm working, kind'a, to get my next chapter submitted; your grams is still busy with setting up another off-Broadway production . . . umm, I forget where", he replied. "Well, pumpkin I just wanted to hear your voice. I'll let you go. Love you", he summed it up, knowing she probably had to catch up on things before her next class.
"Ok, bye dad. Love you too", she concluded and then cut the call.
After the call, she hurried in the direction of a small, just off-campus café to meet Steve Tommelson, her new Ocean Dynamics soulmate, and grab a quick brunch together before the onslaught of afternoon classes began.
"Hi Alexis, what kept you?", Steve questioned good naturedly.
"Nothing special, just talking with my dad. You should know by now that he tends to check in rather frequently", she shot back, also good naturedly.
Steve just winked at her while pausing momentarily, with a pensive look on his face. He had already ordered her favorite brunch item and a coffee as well as his own choices. I think her dad's getting to me, he said silently to himself, while recalling Alexis' recounting of how Castle always brought a coffee to Kate Beckett fixed just the way she liked it. Just about that time, he heard his name called; indicating that their order was ready.
"Hey Alexis, I've been thinking . . .", Steve began as they sat down to eat.
"I thought I had warned you about that", Alexis interjected, clearly teasing him about that often-used expression, which also reminded her of her father in that department.
"Well yes you have", he replied with mock annoyance, "but here's the deal. You know how this Ocean Dynamics class overlaps with the physics department and all. My good friend Harold Thorpe and his geeky physics girlfriend Sylvia are attending a departmental astrophysics lecture this evening . . . and I'm wondering if you'd like to come with me and join them" he concluded.
"Sooo, are you implying that you need a geeky marine biologist girlfriend to help balance things out?", she questioned with a smirk.
"No. I just thought it would be fun to have the not-so-geeky Alexis along with me. And besides, even if we don't really care for the lecture topic, there's still beer and pizza waiting for us thereafter", he added, hoping to sweeten the deal.
"You know, I think I'll take you up on that offer. We've spent weeks concentrating on what's under the surface of the Ocean. Maybe it's time to hear about something in the heavens above this planet for a change", she replied, the answer being somewhat surprising to Steve, although he kept that hidden as best he could.
"Well Ok, you're on. Great. Let's meet over at the corner by the student union auditorium a little after seven PM. The lecture starts at seven-thirty. Then we can all find seats together", Steve concluded on an upbeat note. Afterwards, they finished their meals and departed.
Later that evening, as they were seated in the back third of the auditorium, Alexis was having trouble concentrating on the string of technical and theoretical topics associated with quantum physics, possible existence of sub-space particles, and all that coupled with probabilistic causalities, and on and on it went. But her mind snapped to attention when the speaker began expressing his theory as a variation on the 'Big Bang', which was pretty much accepted among most astrophysicists as the beginning of the Universe. What was not accepted was his variation, which she was pretty sure she had never heard before. Apparently, Sylvia hadn't either because she had leaned forward in her seat with rapt attention.
What made it clear for Alexis was his description in layman's terms. Her trips as a young girl with her family, after they had obtained the place in the Hamptons, to celebrate the 4th of July – those memories stood out. She remembered hearing . . .
". . . of course most of you are familiar with the 'Big Bang Theory' by now. But suppose that one, single, gigantic big bang was not the definitive beginning and end of the matter. Let's visualize this as an observer of a professional fireworks show. Doesn't matter the occasion, but let's talk about the large aerial shells they use for the event. You've all seen it. The one big shell goes up way high and bursts open with a very loud bang, and the first tier of colored sparks; but then moments later, a dozen or more smaller shells, which have been ejected from the first, also explode and release multiple tiers of colored sparks, etc. Maybe there's even a third tier. You get the point. Suppose the 'Big Bang' was actually that first big bang followed by multiple big bangs; and with the succession of such events not one but multiple Universes were created. Each of those Universes would be slightly out of phase with one another in the space-time continuum; and each of those Universes would have slightly different properties from the other; and each of those Universes would have a slightly different total energy content than the others. They would not be vastly different, but somewhat different. Furthermore, they would allow for the same lines of physical evolution in space-time just as we see here in our Universe. And just like the showers of sparks from the fireworks, the fallout of material from each Universe is dispersed to some degree among the others; however, it is out of phase in time and possibly dimension so as not to be seen; that is, with our value for the speed of light. . . it is also another way to account for the so-called dark matter in our Universe. . ."
In about another ten minutes, the lecture concluded. Originally, Alexis and Steve had not planned on staying for the question and answer session afterward, but somehow they decided to hear more. Again, lots of the questions went over Alexis' head, but then again, a couple of them made sense to her. The foursome made their way over to the pizzeria after the session was over. Maybe it was the beer that fueled their imaginations but the after party became animated. Good thing the place was mainly frequently by college types or the other patrons might have thought the four of them were just plain crazy.
"Well, I didn't think I was going to understand any of what he was talking about until he got to the fireworks part with the multiple star bursts . . . now that I could visualize", remarked Alexis after enjoying her first slice of pizza.
"What did you think of his presentation Sylvia?, Harold began, "after all you're in the position to understand more of it than the rest of us."
Sylvia looked at them quizzically. "Well, I agree with Alexis. The part that made the most sense to me was that there may be multiple Universes, but not an infinite number of them. I've always had a really hard time accepting one of the other theories linking infinite parallel Universes with probabilistic outcomes – you know, the 'roads not taken' idea where, like if you made a decision to do/or not do something in this Universe, there's a copy of you in all the other Universes who will make the other decision and live with its consequences; and it would be like that for everybody who ever lived. I'm sorry, but that's like multiplying infinity times infinity, an infinite amount of times – too mind boggling to visualize."
"You know, I liked his answer to the question about the speed of light being a universal constant; and gravity for that matter", Harold added. "I mean, he was open to both ways of looking at it. First, you could look at it from a decoupled model where neither light nor gravity were universal constants between each of the parallel Universes, which may be possible, but runs into trouble with the interspersed matter he mentioned in the fireworks illustration. I don't know, maybe such matter just gets annihilated somehow. But second, you could look at it from a coupled point of view where both light and gravity were set by the first Big Bang and the others are forced to function in response to what's already been established, even if their existence began only fractions of a second later. That way each universe is governed by universal gravitation and Einstein's famous relationship where E equals M times the speed of light squared.
"Harold, I think you've had too much beer", Steve interjected.
"No he hasn't", gushed Sylvia, "I think he's on to something."
"Like what?", questioned Alexis.
"Suppose speed of light, C, and gravity, G are true universal constants. That means the total matter and the total energy in each parallel Universe can be known and compared. As long as the matter-energy balance in each parallel Universe remains fixed, it could be possible to travel between parallel Universes. Whatever leaves one Universe to reside in another must be have an exchange of equal mass-energy to replace it. That means an instantaneous exchange, which appears not be governed by speed-of-light propagation."
"Ow . . . you're making my head hurt", Steve interrupted. "And just what kind of impulse would be needed to cause that?"
"Umm, you've got me there" Harold responded, "but it would have to be something extraordinary", he concluded as Sylvia nodded in agreement.
"So, Harold, you're saying that if that mass-energy balance was maintained, theoretically a jump between parallel Universes could be made, and not just for particles – but whole objects", Alexis effused, "but if something wasforced to leave one Universe and the mass-energy balance of the replacement was not equal to the original, I imagine bad things would happen."
"Yeah probably would. Sounds like one of the objects in the transfer would be forced shed matter to make the transition", Sylvia concluded, "but then again, matter could become complex, the major portion recognizable, and the difference portion might become the so-called dark matter", she added a moment later.
After the beer had been consumed and the bill split between each of the budget limited students, Steve and Alexis headed back toward their respective dormitories.
"You know, if my dad wrote science fiction, he'd be all over that theory in one of his books", Alexis remarked as they were walking together.
"Oh, let's just hope nobody invents some kind of transporter machine to cause that to happen any time soon. The world's already crazy enough as it is. I mean, just listen to the news these days or look at what pops up on the internet", Steve replied as he kissed her goodnight, then turned and left for his dorm.
A/N: As far as I know, that paraticular version for a parallel universe theory came out of my head. I haven't heard it as the basis for other science fiction stuff. Correct me if I'm wrong because I certainly don't have the time these days to read sci-fi that extensively. This narrative is going to parallel current events. It is my aim to keep the lives of these characters fresh by putting them squarely in the times we're living. See my other work 'It's What Partners Do' to see how Alexis arrived at her college major and how she found Steve. As always, your comments, and critique are welcomed. I'd like the feedback. To be continued.