History Shattered

String theory – In physics, a theoretical framework which aims to explain all types of elementary particles using quantum states. Many theoretical physicists (including Stephen Hawking, Edward Witten and Juan Maldacena) believe that string theory is a step towards the correct fundamental description of nature. This is because string theory allows for the consistent combination of quantum field theory and general relativity, agrees with general insights in quantum gravity such as the holographic principle and black hole thermodynamics, and has passed many checks of its internal consistency. Hawking believes it is the only candidate for a complete theory of the universe. Wikipedia (entry for string theory, July 2014)

It was impossible for everyone in PD to stay focused all day. The chatter and speculation were incessant. It was almost as if a cosmic reset button of some kind had been pressed and many of the conversations which had occurred after the first time travel episode a week ago were being replayed, although many of them were occurring between entirely new conversationalists. For their part, Jasmine and her remaining History Team members ate a working lunch in their conference room. They needed every minute of time available before their five o’clock presentation and believed there would be no way they wouldn’t have been besieged with questions if they had chosen to eat in the cafeteria.

If Monica could’ve held the meeting earlier in the day, she would’ve ordered it so. The productivity of her scientists was quite underwhelming. She couldn’t blame them for a lack of focus. News like that which Jasmine had shared with them this morning wasn’t easily absorbed. When five o’clock finally rolled around, there were no stragglers wandering into the meeting and the large meeting room seemed absolutely packed. She didn’t even attempt to admonish her charges for a lack of focus as she called the meeting to order. She simply turned the meeting over to Jasmine, who had dragged Chandler onstage with her. If Chandler was in mourning over the erasure of both her marriage and her husband, it was undetectable. There were so many aspects of this bizarre series of events which prevented rational thought from applying. Chandler’s response was just the latest example.

Jasmine took the microphone and stood nervously before her colleagues. She might be getting more practice at the art of public speaking, but it was no less traumatizing to her. She decided to offer a quick reset so everyone in the room would be operating from a similar base of knowledge.

“Alright, if you’ll recall from this morning’s meeting, the initial full power particle collision occurred one week ago in terms of the passage of actual days here in PD. You will also recall that it occurred in a different version of present time. Bottom line is that the first particle collision producing a wormhole occurred during the summer of 2018. Now, without trying to get the cart in front of the horse, there is a history that preceded this first wormhole. As far as we have the ability to determine, this particular version of history, which we have been referring to as Tyler’s history, is the actual history of life on this planet before Tyler’s accidental time travel incident. His time travel was to Caffa, Crimea in the autumn of 1346. That is a particularly sensitive date and time. It was the point of origin for a bubonic plague pandemic called The Black Death which decimated Europe. Now, Tyler was sick with the Bird Flu at the time of the collision, which all of you know is a strain of the H2N2 virus. Per Tyler, and since he’s a medical doctor, an epidemiologist and a virologist, we need to trust him on this…, he passed the bird flu to a human population in 1346 which was not in any way prepared for the arrival of a disease strain that wasn’t supposed to exist for another six hundred years or mix with the plague. Just a minute…”

Jasmine walked over to the table onstage and grabbed a bottle of water. Her hand was trembling as she attempted to unscrew the cap. Monica gave her a nod of encouragement. She took two quick sips and set the bottle back down on the table without replacing the cap.

“Sorry, my mouth was getting dry. Anyway, Tyler returned through the wormhole, and history reset based on the impact he made during his two-day visit to 1346. Part of what’s difficult for all of us to completely understand or absorb is that he returned to a time approximately three or four hours after the wormhole was created on our end, but which seemed to last two days on the other end. When Tyler returned he was the same age he was when he departed in 2018, and everything inside Station 28 seemed to also be protected, or I’ve started using the term cocooned in that everything in 28, supplies, equipment, food, bottled water…, everything in 28 still has that 2018 event time stamp on it. And if accidental time travel isn’t weird enough for you, here’s where things start getting more bizarre. When Tyler returns to the present and just a few hours have passed, he is returning to a new present day, so we all suddenly found ourselves in 2043.

Tyler had contracted the plague during his trip, if I can use that term, and was very sick. He was quarantined inside 28. We didn’t even see him for a couple of days because of comm link problems and his illness. None of us were aware that he was suddenly twenty-five years younger than all his colleagues, and as far as that goes, lots of the colleagues that were present…, I should probably use a different term for that…, many of the colleagues who were at PD in 2018 aren’t either at PD now, or at PD in 2043, and there are some of you in this room right now who weren’t here in 2018 and who weren’t here in 2043 either, but it seems perfectly normal for you to be here right now. But that’s a discussion topic for another time. Uhhh, where was I going with that? Oh yeah…, based on what Tyler shared with us, we were able to understand what had happened in terms of the formation of the wormhole inside Station 28 and his accidental trip to the past. We were also able to determine that there had been dramatic changes to history. What we all believed was our history was substantially different from Tyler’s version of history.

There are a couple of bullet points to note here. Had Tyler not returned and made us aware that we were now functioning in a different present day and with a different historical past, we wouldn’t have had an awareness that it had occurred at all. That’s a pretty frightening notion to be forced to accept by itself. And we’ve now come to understand that history changes gradually, rolling forward through time. Our lack of awareness regarding how this historical resetting works, and the lack of knowing that Tyler had time traveled combined to make us far less observant or aware of what had actually happened both during and after the initial wormhole event. That’s why everything here in 2031 seems completely normal and natural, and why our version of history is completely believable even though I’m telling you it’s the third version of human history rolling forward from 1346 which has been in place since a week ago. All of this can’t help but mess with your mind.

Anyway…, we decided to make an attempt to repair history, or time, or the past…, whatever way it makes sense to process it in your minds, so that’s when we attempted a second particle collision. That particle collision occurred either two days ago or twelve years from now depending on your perspective. The videos you watched this morning were of Tyler at the other end of the wormhole in Station 28, and that was presumably fourteenth century Crimean countryside in those videos. Hang on a second…, I need more water.”

Jasmine was a little less jittery now. She had been talking long enough that her nervous system seemed to have accepted that it was stuck with this current ordeal. Her hand was no longer shaking as she sipped from the water bottle.

“OK, so that was two days ago but in 2043, really. Unfortunately, the accelerator produced a particle collision with less energy output than the first one in 2018. On top of that, the energy triggered a rupture in the lead hull surrounding Station 28. Those two glitches triggered the shrinking and eventual closing of the wormhole faster than we had hoped. That also means that Tyler is stuck in the past with no way back here. Now for another mind bender…, we have been tracking a series of changes to the historical timeline that appear to be an ever expanding set of ripples moving forward in time from whatever adjustments Tyler attempted in the Crimea of the Dark Ages to the present. Just before dawn this morning, those ripples finally reached us, which is why we now suddenly find ourselves in 2031. So once again, the bottom line here is that we’re dealing with our third version of history in a week. All three versions are identical until 1346 A.D., and then they each start branching off in different directions. The only other thing I want to tell you as part of setting the table is to tell you that this third version…, the version all of you know, is moving closer to Tyler’s original version and away from our 2043 version. Now, while all of you digest that overview, I’m gonna take another sip of water.”

Jasmine was actually surprised she had made it through the entire background presentation without either freaking out or getting laughed off the stage. Maybe she had actually been convincing enough in what she had just recounted and in what she had presented this morning. Perhaps there was at least enough belief in the possibility it was true that her audience was willing to allow her to present her report before rejecting it. She knew Monica had requested that they hold their questions, but surely there were too many doubtable elements in what she was telling them for everyone in the room to remain silent. She reminded herself she hadn’t started talking about the actual historical changes yet. At least she’d have help on that part. Chandler would be helping with that portion of the presentation. Jasmine would be presenting Tyler’s history and Chandler would be presenting the 2043 version of history. They would each, wherever appropriate, attempt to point out the implications of how the newest, latest version of history, the 2031 version, had morphed from some aspect of the other two. Jasmine wished they had been allowed more time to prepare, but the timing couldn’t be helped. It was just as rushed as everything else had seemed for the past week. The irony of dealing with seven centuries in a matter of days might later become a source of amusement, but not just now.

Chandler felt even more stressed than Jasmine. At least Jasmine had been dealing with Tyler’s history since his return from Crimea. Additionally, her version of history, Tyler’s version, was necessarily sketchy. They only knew what he had chosen to share with them within an extremely compressed timeframe. Except for the items which were now correlating with the version of history which had begun revealing itself overnight, they were forced to rely totally on Tyler’s memory, and they had no way of verifying any of what he had shared. She was now dealing with a history she knew intimately a day ago, but which had now been essentially erased from her mind and replaced with a new history. It was difficult to be comfortable with the knowledge that a history you believe in, that you’ve learned in school since childhood, actually didn’t exist two days ago, and that you were twelve years older yesterday than you are today. All of this irrational shit was difficult to accept logically, and dealing with it emotionally was even more discomforting. Preposterous was the word that kept popping into Chandler’s mind.

Jasmine started by recapping Tyler’s version of The Black Death, including death toll numbers. Chandler followed with how the pandemic had worsened due to Tyler’s delivery of H2N2 into the scenario. She included mentioning the estimated increase in deaths of four or five billion over the generations, citing it as one of the compelling rationales for an attempt at historical repair. They both contributed to the recap of the newest version of history, with a minimized death toll, the disappearance of H2N2 from the mix, and the resulting spike in both European and global populations which were the brand new reality facing them. The scientists in the meeting room went along on the disease-induced roller coaster ride with them, recognizing from a fifty thousand foot level the implications of the massive swings in human population.

Jasmine next mentioned the Renaissance. She bracketed it from a timeframe perspective, and threw out some of the inventions, scientists, architectural and artistic achievements attributed by Tyler to the period, effectively delivering the world to the doorstep of the Industrial Revolution. Chandler’s story regarding the Renaissance was extremely short, as in a single sentence. It never happened in the 2043 version of history. She told an alternate tale of the migration of the few European survivors to Africa, where they became slaves. This time, the newest version of history took elements from both of the other versions. The Renaissance did return to the history pages, and it was just as glorious as Tyler’s description of it. However, due to the enormous increase in European populations, there was still a massive emigration of the poor and disenfranchised of Europe to the African continent. There, a hybrid mixture of blacks and whites, all economically or politically disadvantaged, were forced into a system of slavery that was class-based rather than motivated along racial lines. Jasmine was forced at this point to report of the practice of slavery in the American south, so the collection of scientists were presented with pictures of three completely different examples of human cruelty toward its own kind. The shaking of heads and looks of disgust were almost universal across the room.

Jasmine next shifted to Tyler’s list of scientists and scientific accomplishments. She spent a little time attempting to identify the dates involved with various discoveries, so the gathering could gain an appreciation for advancements. Chandler would cite the 2043 equivalent event or events, and would also indicate how much of a lag existed between the accomplishments in the respective history versions. In many instances, the newest version of history had matching scientists and dates with Tyler’s, but eventually, it fell out of sync as well. It was at this point that they addressed the one area of science where the current history seemed to be ahead of the other versions; medicine. They cited examples which dealt largely with surgical techniques and advances related to disease control. Chandler, although not stating it directly, implied that Tyler’s incarceration in the past was likely responsible for this singular exception. Jasmine glanced in Monica’s direction to see the woman close her eyes and shake her head.

They had deliberately saved the presentation of military history and warfare for last. Enough of the scientists could be classified as doves, and enough military officers were in the audience that this topic seemed destined to turn into the most divisive of any they were presenting. Jasmine started with the lengthy history of warfare in Tyler’s history. She included Hitler’s Nazi Germany, the Holocaust and the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan in her narrative about World War II. Tyler’s version was by far the bloodiest. Chandler’s 2043 version of history seemed almost as if it had been written by a pacifist in comparison. She commented that the thread which appeared to be missing between the two versions was a significant European historical presence. Just as the audience of scientists was digesting this piece of information, Chandler and Jasmine revealed that the newest version of history certainly broke that mold.

They began with a recounting of the major warfare which occurred between all the European powers involved in global exploration. The attempt at a land grab was fueled even more intensely because of the overpopulation issues each country now faced in this more crowded version of history. They were all seeking additional lands to house their teeming populaces. The fighting was so prolonged and so intense, that the United States was formed in a fashion similar to that of Israel in Tyler’s version. The very name ‘United States’ was actually derived from the unification of settlement claims of the countries of Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, England and Sweden. In this new history, the cessation of hostilities between the European nations was what brought the U.S. into being. There was no American Revolution. This seemed completely matter of fact to the audience. It was, after all, the history they believed they had grown up with, despite being told that it had only existed for less than two days.

The American Civil War still occurred, and slavery was still the crux of the matter. When boiled down, though, at stake was an economic issue affecting how the agrarian southern economy functioned, and the color of the slaves’ skin was truly a side issue. That last part was some editorializing done by Chandler, who for whatever reason decided she needed to interject her personal opinion into that particular element of the historical record.

There was one major historical war in the first half of the twentieth century, which Jasmine and Chandler characterized as taking the place of World Wars I and II. This war occurred over a six-year timeframe in the 1930’s, when Hitler’s Nazi Party had just seized power in Germany. In addition to Japan and Italy as allies, the Communist Russians and the Eastern Bloc nations joined to form a more powerful opponent to what was still characterized as the Allied forces. The U.S. entered the war much more rapidly than it had during either of the world wars in Tyler’s history, and Australia and New Zealand played key roles in the Allied war effort in the Pacific.

Although Jasmine was reluctant to make the assumption, Chandler floated the notion that the reason PD was now thirteen years behind where it had been in Tyler’s version of history in developmental terms was because of the lack of World War II occurring and the now absent resulting arms race which had produced the atom bomb. That event had propelled nuclear efforts in Tyler’s history in ways they were never prodded in the latest revision of the story. It wasn’t that Jasmine disagreed with Chandler’s theory. It was just that they had no basis other than their quick observations made today while they were preparing this presentation upon which to base such a claim. The nods she noted from several of the military officers in the meeting room made her think they either shared Chandler’s opinion or at least believed it to be quite credible.

Jasmine looked over at Monica and nodded, indicating that the remarks she and Chandler had prepared were now concluded. Monica stood and walked over to where the two female scientists were standing and sharing the microphone. She took it from them and addressed the room.

“OK, the first thing I’d like to do is applaud these two ladies and the rest of the History Team on doing such incredible work in such a compressed timeframe. Much of what they just shared with you has come to light during the day today, even though all of us feel like we know the current version of history very well. The parallels and the departures from the previous histories weave quite a tapestry for us all to examine. I know we all have questions…, tons of questions. Nevertheless, I’m pulling the plug for today. There’s been enough for us all to digest for one shift. I’d like to resume at nine in the morning, and that meeting will be open for any and all discussion. Take the time between now and then to gather your thoughts, formulate opinions, identify concerns…, whatever. Let’s use tomorrow’s meeting as a forum to punch holes in all of this. Nothing’s off limits. Colonel James, that invitation extends to your officers as well.”

The elder Michael James nodded his appreciation in her direction. She returned the nod before concluding her remarks.

“Alright…, everybody’s got a lot to think about. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s discussion. Dismissed….”