From now on, the chapter includes endnotes that will discuss any theorems and researches discussed in this fiction.
Thank you to my lovely beta, Lily, still for you. Any mistakes that remain are my own.
Also, I have nothing against NASA. I think they do brilliant work.
The definition of "free will" used in the proof of this theorem is simply that an outcome is "not determined" by prior conditions. - Free Will Theorem (Wikipedia)
Mycroft Holmes was familiar with libraries. He knew about libraries and could tell you which ones were good and which weren't. He could tell you and support his opinions with arguments, counterarguments and the dismissal of them.
His family had had a library in the country house he'd spent his summers in as a boy. That library had had a collection of significant first editions and signed copies. It had contained heavy hand-bound books from the 18th century and a secret Victorian age 'explicit' collection that he had found with the help of a 20-something year old butler at age 17, a few weeks before he moved away to university, where he spent a few months pretending to read them for a literary thesis.
He wasn't, of course, and was more regularly found in the scientific section of his family's library when he came back for the next summer. The family owned some early texts on the developments of spectral analysis and a first edition of Joseph Lockyer's Chemistry of the Sun, published in 1887. A text that Mycroft had devoured several times before he'd decided that the general makeup of solar bodies would not be his focus.
Mycroft traveled with a signed copy of Einstein's Relativity: the Special and General Theory, a text that had become his bible.
Mycroft liked the library at St. Bartholomew's from the moment he set foot in it. And it had nothing to do with an astrobiologist sitting at a table filled with stacks of books right in his view.
"Doctor Lestrade," he said pleasantly.
"I told you not to call me doctor," was Lestrade's instant reaction and then he looked up. A smile broke out on his face and he just took a moment to take in the researcher in front of him.
The two men had seen each other perhaps a dozen times over the last few weeks, with Lestrade's new discoveries and Mycroft's attempts to get settled into his new job and flat.
"Doctor Holmes, how are you?" Lestrade stood quickly, offering Mycroft a chair.
"Please, call me Mycroft," Mycroft offered courteously, a grand gesture in his books, and took the seat. He deposited several books of his own between two stacks of Lestrade's.
"Greg's fine, then," Lestrade smiled.
"How are you doing, Gregory?" Mycroft asked.
"Fine, fine. Just, research, you know," the astrobiologist gestured vaguely at the books.
"I see," Mycroft nodded, "and what are you 'looking up'"
Lestrade added some air quotation marks in his head and nodded, "I'm teaching about H2O on extrasolar bodies. I got a bit side-tracked; NASA is doing this great study on habitability in binary systems and well..." he gestured at his books again.
"So they have finally developed a theory in which the planet's surface can cool down, despite the extreme gravitational pull of two stars?"
"They don't mention it in the article," Greg smiled.
Mycroft waved a hand and sounded exasperated, "NASA often invests money in the advanced stages of research without considering the base of their theories."
"You really do have a thing against NASA?" the biologist sounded surprised and actually closed the book in front of him to focus on Mycroft.
"Excuse me?" the man sounded unnerved, perhaps by the very focused attention on his person.
"NASA. I heard you turned their money down."
Mycroft stood a little straighter, "The Americans seem convinced they know everything just because they publish it. I have far more faith in the Eurasian effort, Gregory, we have knowledge that does not require boasting to make it significant."
"We should have coffee," Greg blurted.
"Excuse me?" Mycroft repeated in the exact same tone as he did earlier. His hand twitched by his side and it required all his focus to not let his shoulder slump.
"Coffee. We should have coffee. We can discuss your eternal hate for NASA and my unending academic jealousy towards them."
"However much I find that an agreeable idea, Gregory, I have a meeting with a man with an equation," Mycroft smiled, smiled!, softly and got up, "Best of luck with your class."
Greg wanted to say something else, dismiss the idea or perhaps push it. Had it sounded like a desperate invite to a date? He just wanted to suggest a sharing of minds. Maybe the elusive researcher didn't share ideas, forever terrified of academic plagiarism? He watched Mycroft's back as the man rushed towards the exit of the library, completely forgetting the books he left on Greg's table.
"Over here," John waved the good man to a seat by the window of their favourite sandwich place. None of that Subway, which is more salad than sandwich, or McDonalds, where half the food has been on the floor at least once, but a baguette, with real butter, several slices of cheese and ham and a little salad just to be on the healthy side. And a serving of chips. John didn't trust franchises ('Once you've seen a McDonalds in the middle of a warzone, you're out') and Greg preferred to stay away from them ('I'm forced to go there often enough').
Greg sat down in the booth, opposite John, and almost immediately curled around a mug of coffee that stood there waiting for him.
"Real coffee," Greg sighed and he looked like he would be perfectly happy just drowning in it.
"You look dead tired," John laughed. Greg hummed in confirmation.
"So, Sherlock Holmes's project has been assigned to me," John said after a good minute of silence. Greg looked up from where he was making love-eyes at his coffee.
"Wha-? But, wait. What does he research?"
"Gravity in stars, especially related to pulsars," John said, "I know general theory, but I'll catch up. He's brilliant, his mind just jumps from one place to the next. He out-thinks all of us."
"But?"
John laughed softly, "It's disorganised, he can't prove a thing and he is disrespectful to practically every established theory there is."
"Who was meant to be supervising him?"
"Mycroft Holmes."
Greg spluttered into his coffee.
"How's that going?" John asked, munching on a chip.
"Don't start," Greg groaned, "Us scientists are too socially awkward for these things. And too busy to care."
"Ouch," the lecturer didn't give further comment.
"I asked him out," Greg said, "and he said: 'However much I find that an agreeable idea, Gregory, I have a meeting with a man with an equation.' And then he turned away and stalked off."
John chuckled, "That must've been flirting, Greg."
He looked at him, "What?"
"'A meeting with a man with an equation'," John made air quotations, "Please, that's meant jokingly. Tell me you laughed pleasantly and waved him goodbye when he looked over his shoulder."
Greg just gaped at the lecturer and muttered, "No, no, I turned back to my paper on theoretical habitability in ..- It doesn't matter. Mycroft doesn't interact like that, he's more in-control. He's," he looked for the word, "he's dignified."
John raised his eyebrows and took a bite of his baguette. Greg groaned.
"I give up. I'm going to buy a new computer, some computer games and an unlimited internet connection. No-one will ever see me again. I'll become that stereotype. They'll find me in a year, dead in front of my screen, still running a program that calculates the probability of life on Europa or Io..-"
"You don't even work with probab-"
"Phil was right," Greg finished, blindly reaching to pick a chip off his plate.
"Get a grip, you sound like something out of an 80s teen-angst film. Harry used to drive me nuts with those. Secondly, Phil was a dick. He cheated and left."
The biologist sighed, "Can we talk about the younger Holmes's brilliance, please?"
"Ask him again."
"I need sleep. Did you just tell me to humiliate myself again? I should be happy we study in different fields and different buildings! I'll never have to deal with awkward small talk at conferences."
"Ask him here, I'm sure he likes baguette, a real long hard one, not one of those limp Subway ones," John broke down in uncontrollable giggles and Greg couldn't help but join him.
"I don't have a library card, but do you mind if I check you out?"
Mycroft sat up slowly, as though not to startle whoever it was who approached him. "Excuse me?" he said, deliberately slowly and he turned around. Upon seeing it was Gregory, who was now sporting an enormous and especially cheesy grin, Mycroft smiled and greeted him with a little tilt of his head: "Gregory."
"I was just in to hand in some books and I saw the back of the world's most mysterious space researcher," Greg continued as Mycroft's eyes were becoming larger and larger out of sheer disbelief, "and I thought I would distract him from..," Greg picked up a collection of essays and read the cover, "Quantum Theory of Gravity, Essays in Honour of the 60th Birthday of Bryce S. DeWitt. Wow. Do you know him?"
"Gregory, you are extraordinarily cheerful today," Mycroft said, carefully taking the book back and marking the page he was on. "I do, as a matter of fact. His wife is a close friend of my mother's and I contributed to their Quantum field theory: perspective and prospective."
"Isn't he American?"
"He is indeed, but genius, I assure you. And his wife, Cécile, is quite French," Mycroft said and he gestured at Greg's empty hands, "No books?"
"No new books, because it's Friday. It's lovely weather and Anderson - he's on my team - just found out our bacteria are reproducing. You'd almost say it was destined," Greg mused.
"Indeed," the physicist said, slightly at loss of what to say.
"We should have coffee," Greg said, "sit down by a window, look out at the city."
Mycroft smiled softly at his enthusiasm, "Might I suggest my office? It's on a top floor."
"Yes," Greg surprised himself because he was surprised by Mycroft. The man had just invited him to his office, the most sacred thinking place a researcher could have. He sounded more assured of himself and this enthusiastic idea that he had had. It must've been the sun he had had in his face on the walk over from the Yard.
Mycroft stood up and started collecting his things, "It's not far, I have a car waiting outside."
"A car?" Greg gasped, "You are a researcher, right? Got big secrets? Not MI5 and all that?"
Mycroft chuckled softly, "Please, I am really merely a researcher."
"And yet you know the DeWitts personally. Next you'll tell me you know Kochen," he picked random name.
"Kochen is just an old romantic."
"I-.. What? You know Simon Kochen."
"Not personally, no," Mycroft said and he gestured towards the door with his stack of books, "Shall we?"
Greg just nodded, a dazed expression on his face. Maybe the physicist wasn't more than just a researcher, but he sure had the connections. Greg had connections within his field, he knew some published researchers and respected men and women, but certainly no-one who had laid the foundations for entire schools of thought.
"So how is the famous mathematician actually a romantic? I thought science-type people don't do romance?" Greg asked as he slid into the, frankly impressive, black Mercedes sitting by the front entrance. He immediately reached out to crank open a shaded window, but a subtle cough from Mycroft stopped him. He looked over to see him hand over his books to a driver, a driver!, before he sat down in the seat next to Greg. He didn't notice the separator between the back and front seats until it slid down and a woman appeared.
"Coffee, sir?" she carefully handed two ceramic mugs to the researcher next to him, once of which was handed to Greg.
"Gregory Lestrade, this is my assistant, Anthea," Mycroft pronounced her name as though it was foreign to him, "Anthea, this is the head of the Astrobiology research team at the Yard, Gregory Lestrade."
"Pleasure to meet you, sir," Anthea nodded cautiously, "Making new connections already, Mr. Holmes? Very well. The club or the office?"
"The office is fine, thank you," Mycroft said calmly, but his face was flushed red from her connections comment.
"Certainly."
The separator slid back up and now all the windows surrounding the two doctors were shaded, leaving them in an atmosphere that Greg wasn't sure was intimidating or intimate.
"Doctor Kochen is a romantic because he conjured up the predecessor to the "Free Will Theorem" in which there are always uncontrollable variables. He attributes human characteristics to research, allowing for an undetermined outcome, even when all the prior conditions are seemingly determined," Mycroft said, without missing a beat about the luxury they had found themselves in.
"...," Greg was unsure how to respond and waited hopefully for his brain to come back online.
Mycroft took this as a sign to continue: "Now, I must concur with him that experiments have unexpected and frankly startling outcomes at times, but to suggest that if human being have free will, so must particles, that sounds rather absurd to me."
"But in math, all of his theories have been proven. In an algorithm, there is no way to determine the working of all the sub-algorithms."
"So then what, outside the world of mathematics and in more applied sciences, would be the difference between this 'free will'," Mycroft actually made air quotes this time, "and a random event that happens to have the right timing?"
"Are you saying Kochen is a romantic for believing in the randomness of life?"
"Personally, my opinion is that he is a romantic for thinking randomness can be applied to all aspects of life. He puts more significance in the existence of randomness than it, as a concept, deserves."
Greg laughed, outright laughed, and it startled Mycroft.
"So you're a control freak? No surprise you don't do lab work," Greg's laugh had subsided into a faint giggle.
"I do lab work," Mycroft said, unable to keep the dismay out of his voice, "just of a more theoretical nature."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to -.. It's just the car, and the mugs, and the driver and you, talking about the randomness of life as though it has personally attacked you in some way."
"Gregory," Mycroft started, but he stopped right away.
"Mycroft, would you go out to dinner with me?" Greg asked, having regained his seriousness.
"Excuse me?"
"I would like to discover what you do like, so we won't discuss NASA or American Kochen with his French wife or the Free Will Theorem. Just something nice, like... the weather."
"The weather?"
"The weather, and the food, and the possibility of things. Possibility, not probability. We'll keep it light and non-work related."
"I know a lovely place," Mycroft sounded slightly breathless.
"Yea?" Greg grinned. Handsomely, Mycroft's brain provided.
"Certainly. I shall have the car pick you up at 6, tomorrow evening?"
"Great," Greg said, settling back into his seat, fingers curled around the coffee mug.
The science
Joseph Lockyer's Chemistry of the Sun, published in 1887, can be found on google books and was last published by Cornell University Library (2009), ISBN: 978-1112562280.
Einstein's Relativity: the Special and General Theory had been re-published many times, by many different publishers and is a must-have for modern scientists (I don't own it)
The research Lestrade mentions is titled 'Habitability and Water Delivery in Binary-Planetary Systems', the project investigator is Nader Haghighipour and can be found in the NASA Astrobiology Database in the 2005 Annual Report (on their website, under the NAI tab)
Quantum Theory of Gravity, Essays in Honour of the 60th Birthday of Bryce S. DeWitt is assembled by Steven. M Christensen and published by the Institute of Physics Publishing (1 Jan 1984), ISBN: 978-0852747551
Quantum Field Theory: Perspective and Prospective was assembled by Cécile DeWitt-Morette and Jean-Bernard Zuber and published by Springer (13 June 2008), ISBN: 978-0792356738
Simon Kochen is a Belgian-born American mathematician and is best known for his Kochen-Specker Theorem (together with Ernst Specker in 1967) and proved the Free Will Theorem together with John Horton Conway in 2004.
All the academic personae, involvement in their projects and their relationships are factual, their characters fictional.
If I forget any accreditation of the theorems and researches discussed, please let me know. If this is actually your subject area and you find mistakes (or you find mistakes anyway), message me!
