Quantum Scrambled Eggs
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Chapter 11
"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh…" was the scream that came from the Cadillac driver. It was understandable, really, considering that he'd just entered an Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky bridge, otherwise called a wormhole.
The Cadillac and driver exited the wormhole just as suddenly as they had entered, unfortunately that didn't leave too much time to stop before crashing into a snow-drift or, with the sudden and bone-jarring stop, perhaps it was an ice-drift… he couldn't be sure in this frozen waste, especially not with the snowfall.
"What in the…?" Rembrandt looked around, this was quite different than he was expecting. After all, people don't just start walking one instant and then just be driving; they don't just suddenly go from a temperate climate to frozen wasteland either. It defied the whole concept of causality, everything that one could assume… that's when he got a look in the mirror.
The reflection wasn't that of a big blonde-haired, blue-eyed swordsman… instead the face that looked back was quite different. Dark brown instead of the pale flesh-color, and the brown eyes were quite different but he liked them.
"This is weird." He muttered to himself as he exited the vehicle to examine it and a gust of icy wind seemed to suck all the warmth from him. Teeth chattering he completed a circuit and found nothing looking to be too badly damaged.
"What do I do now?" Rembrandt asked himself as he jammed his hands into his trouser pockets for a little warmth. Pockets? He hadn't known he'd had any, he knew what they were, but had never used them himself… well, that he could remember anyway.
A quick search of his pockets turned up several nick-knacks, but the most useful thing was a wallet which bore a driver's license for one Rembrandt Brown, and the same face that had looked back from the mirror just minutes ago was the same one pictured.
"I… I guess I'm Rembrandt Brown instead of Gourry Gabriev, but that was too real to have been some dream, right?" Rembrandt asked himself with a sardonic chuckle, "Maybe that swirly whoosh thing fried my brain and I imagined it all…" he continued talking to himself, about the wormhole of course. It was the most exciting thing that had happened to him all day.
Several minutes later, he'd put the top up on the car and was about to start it and get the heater going when he saw a flicker of orange light outside which turned out to be candles that some people were holding.
"H-hey guys! Who're you?" Rembrandt called out to them, taking a chance. "Where am I?"
The small group of people conversed among themselves for a moment before descending from the porch of the house and making their way over to Rembrandt's car.
As the introductions were about to get started Rembrandt interrupted, holding out his hand in the stop gesture.
"Wait, wait… first things first." Rembrandt gestured to the car, and after a brief exchange of bewildered looks he added, "Get in the car. Come on, come on… it's cold out here."
A colder than normal gust of wind accelerated the group's compliance and the piled into the car, the solid object itself would be warmer because of the effect as a windbreak. The four huddled in their seats, relit one of the candles, and restarted the introductions.
"I am Professor Maximilian Arturo," The tall, portly, older man with the beard said. "Regent's Professor of Cosmology and Ontology at California State University." Professor Arturo held out a hand and indicated the younger man.
"Quinn Mallory." The younger one said holding out his hand, only to realize that he was holding on to something that looked like a bulky mobile phone; embarrassed he transferred it to his other hand and offered to shake.
"I'm Wade Wells." Piped in the thin young woman next to him.
"Alright then," Rembrandt said rubbing his hands together for warmth. "Do you guys know what that big thing was?"
"Thing?" Quinn asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, it was big, swirly and made a whoosh noise…" Rembrandt began, then trailed off, there was no way they were going to think he was sane.
As if to prove his line of thought Quinn laughed at him, only to be interrupted by Wade agreeing with him, "You mean the vortex!"
Rembrandt nodded solemnly. Vortex was certainly a good word to describe what he'd seen, but that didn't explain why it'd appeared out of nowhere and swallowed his car. He had to ask the obvious question, "What is it though?"
"The vortex is an inter-dimensional singularity known as an Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky bridge…" The professor began, fighting the urge to go into more detail… but it was just too much, as the head of Cosmology and a respected leader in more theoretical branches of physics it was simply amazing and exciting to see that it was being applied.
"What he means," Quinn interrupted, "is that it's a doorway to an alternate Earth."
"Alternate?" Rembrandt asked, unsure of what they were talking about, and yet it had a vaguely familiar feel to it, something that seemed on the verge of tickling some old memory.
"Yes, there are certain theories that state that if there is infinite mass then there exists a set of finite mass, a 'universe', that satisfies not only any given state, but all given states!" The professor excitedly explained.
"Huh?" Was Rembrandt's less than intelligent-sounding reply. Infinite mass? That didn't make any sense… everything was finite, so there couldn't be infinite mass.
"What he means is that there's some people that think a universe exists for every possibility…" Quinn tried explaining, "Kind of like those 'What If' comics, only there's one for every possibility, instead of just a few of the interesting ones."
"I think I see…" Rembrandt said, and soon Quinn and the Professor were spouting strange physics jargon to each other. Just when Rembrandt was about to try to give up the professor nodded and continued with the explanation.
"You can think of the vortex as a sort of gateway to another world," the professor paused to make sure that Rembrandt was following, "and every time the vortex opens it's like taking a roulette wheel to determine which universe you'll end up in… except in the return case, where the timer pulls you back to our original world."
"Alright, I think I see…" Rembrandt replied, completely swamped in information overload, but thinking he had a bit of a grasp on the basics.
Rembrandt leaned back, hoping to take a nap or get a little rest, but when he closed his eyes he noticed the wind change pitch and seem to get louder. Curious, he rolled the window down a bit, enough to take a good look outside and enough to get complaints form the other passengers. The complaints were really of little value compared to what he saw, a funnel-shaped tornado-like ice-storm moving toward them quickly.
"Guys! Guys! We've got to get out of here now!" Rembrandt yelled to the others, pointing out the window at the storm.
• • • • • • • • • • •
"I don't think we should activate the timer prematurely!" Quinn shouted over the roar of the wind.
"I don't think we have much of a choice!" Rembrandt yelled at the young scientist, pointing at the rapidly advancing ice-storm. "We've got to get out of here, and now!"
There was a consensus from the other people in the group and so somewhat reluctantly Quinn activated the timer and opened a wormhole to another dimension through which everyone went, first Miss Wells, then the Professor, and lastly Quinn…
• • • • • • • • • • •
Rembrandt screamed as he entered the wormhole, the sensation of flying through impossible twists at truly insane speeds was enough to put any roller-coaster to shame, including the landing… especially the landing.
It was like trying to jump over a gorge blindfolded in such a way that halfway through your jump the blindfold comes off and you only having a split an instant to try to land in a manner that wouldn't result in injury. And so it was that Rembrandt flew out of the wormhole vortex and nearly into a tree.
Rembrandt looked back at the spot where the wormhole opening was, the last member of their group, Quinn Mallory, still had yet to emerge.
Wade spared a moment to look at Rembrandt and yell over the wind from the wormhole's mouth, "Where's Quinn?"
"I don't know!" Rembrandt yelled back.
"I thought he was right behind you! Didn't you see him?" Wade asked.
"Well, I flew with my eyes shut most of the time." Rembrandt said in reply feeling a bit sheepish.
Wade looked at Rembrandt with what was either an expression of disbelief or disgust, possibly both, and was about to say something else when Quinn flew out of the wormhole, flying into Rembrandt.
"Ouch." Rembrandt said before he untangled and picked himself up. "So… are we back?"
Quinn looked around the park they had landed in, it was one that he was familiar with and passed nearly every day on his way to the university. "It looks like it… but why didn't the timer take us back to my basement like last time?"
"Last time?" Rembrandt asked.
Quinn nodded, "When I was testing it the first time I was outside my house on an alternate world when the timer activated and the wormhole pulled me back to my basement."
"Oh…" Rembrandt nodded as if he understood, but things were changing just a bit too quickly for him to get a handle on. Rembrandt was quickly beginning to feel what was probably the epitome of the ancient Chinese curse "interesting times", like there was nothing stabile in the world. "I think I'll sit down for a minute."
"Mr. Mallory, has that always been there?" The Professor asked, unable to keep a note of disdain from his voice, which was evidently lost on his young protege.
Quinn didn't even look up, he'd been in the park often before and knew that the only thing of note was the statue of Abraham Lincoln. "Yeah, Abe's always been there."
"No, not Lincoln, Stalin!" The professor exclaimed, pulling Quinn's attention from the timer to the statue.
"Oh…" Was all that Quinn could say for a moment.
EternallyLost– I hope you're happy at successfully losing half your readership by switching to such a series…
If that's true and I've lost half my readership, then (by my calculations) I should have anywhere from 12½ to 15¾ readers left.
… I suppose with calculations like that I could get a job at the Census Department.
TannimMurphy – Sliding from Slayers into Sliders? What are you thinking, man? Please don't tell me Rembrandt is going to be acting like Gourry. At least have your character start to remember some stuff! Or is this series simply an excuse to tell different stories that you like from different perspectives? I really would have liked to see something other than what strictly had happened in Slayers. The twist at the end was kind of interesting, except that it was devoid of any sort of revelation as to what that could have lead to. The only, ONLY reason I keep reading is because it's better than the vast majority of SI work, in that at least you're A) not overpowered, and B) not overshadowing the main characters of the series so far.
I'm damnably curious as to where the heck you're taking me with this story. Despite it's inherent flaws, I want to know what happens next. I suppose that's the sign of a good writer. :D
Ok, wow, that's a pretty long review, but it brings up a few good points. First off that last bit makes your review a "+4 Review of Encouragement", thank you! Secondly, about this being an excuse to tell stories I like from a different perspective, kinda, but that's not really the main intention; QSE has (or will have) a cross-arc and overall general story that I wanted to tell. Third, is the end of the last Arc really devoid of meaning? Maybe we'll come back and do a second Slayers Arc… Sore wa himetsu desu. Fourthly, this is not a fusion, not at all. The only reason you might think that it could be a fusion is because of similar-ish ideas (e.g. Sliders and Quantum Leap, alternate histories and time-travel, that are implemented in somewhat complementary fashions); I chose Gourry for my first 'insertion' because it would explain his behavior and lack of knowledge about his world and, as a friend observed, allow me to show character development. A side-effect is that it eases people into the character and it goes along with the Quantum Leap back story, since Sam couldn't remember much of anything when he started leaping. Lastly, no; Rembrandt will not act like Gourry… overmuch.
Wow, that's a lot of Author's Notes… I'll try to keep it fairly brief from here on out, but I felt that those really needed to be addressed.
As always, comment & criticisms are welcome.