CHAPTER 8 – CONUNDRUMS
But she understands more than you give her credit for John...
"John, we have the conundrum here... it's 1962 - time travel is not only theoretically impossible, it is simply the stuff of science fiction. Yes, we can look here to see if there is an obvious portal - but think about it. If it was so obvious, would it not have been discovered already, in this time. Is time travel an actual event in your time? Or is it accidental and no actual physics can place constraints and probabilities on it?"
"Wow - you and Rodney... a match made in heaven. Wish that you could get the chance to meet him. Gina - you have a degree in phsyics - time travel obviously, is not possible... but what do you know - scientifically at least, about it. Are there weather conditions perhaps, that could possible make the rift in time, the space time continuium shift... or whatever the hell it does. You're the scientist here? What can you tell me!"
"Hell John - to go back in a moment in time... define a moment in time...Looking at time travel with just these details is not detailed enough. A moment in time has many other factors including:Where the Earth was in relation to the sun, where the sun was in relation to the solar system, and where the solar system was in relation to the moment in time is defined by the location of every atom in the universe and their precise distance from each other. Consider traveling back in time to a nighttime situation. If time travel only affected the Earth, then the Sun, stars, planets, etc would be in the wrong location, and a "hiccup" would be felt by all. So traveling back in time can't be accomplished by simply recreating the exact situation, since we must also recreate the position of the very stars. our device would have to affect the entire universe. This is entirely impossible. Under no circumstances could we ever affect the entire universe to replay a past event."
She saw him try to understand, and knew that a part of him did because even without the same physics degree that she had spent years obtaining, he had spent years living, breathing and training pure physics in way that she could never begin to comprehend. So it was not a case of the blind leading the blind, rather the informed leading the knowledgeable. Perhaps they could come to some sort of logical conclusion, could help him get back. She had contacts from her masters days, professors, other scientists who would die happy today, if they could interact, speak with someone from the future, acknowledge the fact that what they had only dreamed about, did exist and could in fact happen. But knew also, that the risk of involving others, was too great.
John thought now, not just about Rodney who she would have thoroughly enjoyed discussing theoretical physics with, but a certain famous cosmologist who would have opened her mind still further and challenged her assumptions and findings. He chose to share this small bit of information with her, knowing that what he told her would not affect the future in any way.
"There will be a great physicist soon, who will have some wonderful theories about time travel among other things and he suggested that the absence of tourists from the future is an argument against the existence of time travel and he also noted that time travel might only be possible in a region of spacetime that is warped in the correct way, and that if we cannot create such a region until the future, then time travelers would not be able to travel back before that date, and so would explain why you haven't been over run by tourists from the future." He was speaking of course of Stephen Hawking, who at this current point of time was only just beginning has studies in his chosen field.
John collapsed a little despondently on the sand. "I can spout time travel theories with you till I'm blue in the face. Your knowledge versus mine. Your degree versus my actually living it – but where does that leave us? Gina... I don't know what to say, what to feel. I need to get back - I know that, but I have the sinking feeling that whatever I activated on the other side can only be activated from there. I think you are right... if it was obvious here, then it would have been done... but therein lies another conundrum - how exactly do you know it hasn't already been done...there you go, my head is officially about to explode once again. Aaah Rodney, I need you my friend... and if you ever get me out of this mess, I'm guessing you'll make me pay for the rest of my life..."
"John, if it's any consolotation, and I doubt very much that it is. Your portal I think, is two way - but conditions must be met precisely in order for it to open, and I am doubtful whether those conditions can be mirrored from here. It may be weather, but I think it must be something more than that. It could be the alignment of the stars a certain way that allows space time to change. The variables are endless, the configurations mindboggling and it is a theoretical nightmare that scientists have been pondering for as long as physics has been a formal science. Time travel has been the light at the end of the tunnel. Theoretical wormholes..."
John laughed at this. "Well... Gina - not theoretical anymore... the stargate - remember? Wormhole - and very much working and proven. But it does not support time travel, at least not the ones used by the stargates. They fold space, effectively allowing you to step from one point to another a huge distance away, simultaneously - more or less. I'm sure you have a more than adequate understanding of theoretical wormhole physics so I don't need to go into detail - but to use a wormhole for proposed time travel, it needs to be a traversable wormhole - here it gets a little too technical for me - I strictly have my degree in wormhole 101..."
She had come up behind him and rested her hands lightly on his shoulders, then feeling the warmth of the sun settle there also, she massaged lightly, then tightened her fingers as he groaned slightly.
"Aaah Gina,that feels magic sweetheart... makes me forget all about wormholes and damn time travel and makes me start thinking about... other stuff." And she laughed at the gleam in his eye and she had to avoid his hands which snaked out to run up her bare legs.
"Damn!" The word exploded out of her softly.
His hand still on her leg and he peered up at her. "What's up Gina?"
"Visitors John... we're about to have company. In the form of a US airforce general. Looks like he saw right through me yesterday. Damn! I can't hide anything from that man. He knew something was up - his radar is beyond anything you can imagine."
His hand abruptly left her leg at this news and he rose quickly, his eyes scanning the ocean to see the boat coming toward them.
"How's that cover story Colonel John Sheppard? Oh, this is so not going to be fun...crap and double crap!"
He looked at her sharply, a quick laugh rumbling out of him. "Language sweetheart! Daddy's about to arrive, so clean it up! And as to that cover story.. been thinking about that one. He'll see through anything I try and come up with. Let's go with the truth. We just lucked out with our own search and while I know that Rodney and the rest of my team will not sleep until they have a solution, we need to do something from this end. And I think it starts with your father. He'll know I'm on the up and up. I know just how to convince him..."
"Well you had better keep your fingers crossed John and hope that he does believe you... because if he doesn't, you'll end up in military prison and that's going to make your job of getting home just a little harder..."