Quantum Memories

Quantum Memories
by Damon Nomad

Eliza shuffled into the study, her slippers not making a sound; she has seen the flustered expression on Andrew's face many times. "On your head dear, they are on your head." She said as she sat on the small sofa.

He plucked the reading glasses from atop his head, he had been searching for them for ten minutes. "Thank you, and no I am not going to get any of those ridiculous eyeglass straps. They all look like something for an ole schoolmarm. You sure you don't want to come? It's been years since we've been to Prague."

She winced, she did love Prague. "I know what it's like when the agenda is built around one of your papers, you are too busy for us to enjoy any time together. Besides my publisher is still waiting for my sign-off on the final copy. After three decades of marriage; I still do not understand this strange world you inhabit." She slouched back with a smirk, "This fantasy world of branes, multiverse, quantum fluctuation, and holographic reality."

His head snapped up, taking his attention away from the drawer he was digging through looking for his favorite writing pens, "Fantasy world!" He saw her mocking mischievous grin, "You know how to push my buttons."

She tugged at her sweater sleeves, pulling them down to cover her hands. "The little I know about this holographic principle is disturbing. Like we are marionettes, my love for you is not real. The motions of our lives play out like some movie projected onto a sheet floating out there in the cosmos."

Andy stood up waving his hands, "No, no my dear Eliza, that is not how I see it." He sat next to her on the sofa, "It's just a way to try and conceptualize multidimensional parallel universes, a mental image. Each brane stretched out like a sheet, never contacting other branes except in the most exceptional circumstances. Everything in our reality is projected onto the brane of our universe, including my undying love for you."

The corners of Eliza's mouth hinted at a grin; he had such beautiful intelligent eyes. "If those sheets touch?" She knew this was at the heart of this conference and why there was a buzz of excitement about Andrew's most recently completed paper, after years of work.

Andy waved a finger in the air, "Yes things get interesting, especially the cases where the contact is only slight and fleeting, creating a small evaporating black hole. In some cases, just a quantum kiss, the branes separated by a Planck distance."

Eliza raised an eyebrow, they had talked about this Planck distance many times, Andy insisted it could not be subdivided any further. She had given up arguing about this, it was simple just shave a little bit off the edge. Andy's eyes danced as he continued, "The possibilities are exciting depending on the duration and the extent of contact, just keep your distance when it happens." He chuckled shaking his head.

Eliza sat up straight, "Why, what would happen?"

He saw Eliza's worried look, "Shield your eyes from the flash of light, it could be nearly instantaneous or go on for some moments, like I say it depends." There was no need to go further, the effects of intense local gravity and the consequences on reality as predicted by the holographic principle.

Eliza heard the whispers at the last faculty social, Andy's recently finished work was the stuff of Nobel prizes if it could be proven. Andy was too humble to even entertain such a notion. "If they can find some evidence, I might need to practice my curtsy for Stockholm."

Andy put a finger to his lips, blowing a shush. Speaking in a hushed voice, "Eliza. Don't say that, it's bad luck." He shrugged, "Besides even if it were to merit such consideration, there will never be any evidence, the universe is far too big a place to find one of these fleeting events."

Andy stood up, "I need to finish packing, the university has me traveling with some experimentalist, he has written a paper for the conference. Can you imagine an experimentalist with a doctorate in electrical engineering of all things. Young whipper snapper not much over forty. Not going to be a pleasant traveling companion, I suspect. Will not know the first thing about my theory."

Eliza crinkled her nose, "Don't play the cranky old codger with me, give the man a chance. Everyone who knows you Andrew, knows you are a softie. Maybe he will teach you something new. Forty is not exactly whipper snapper territory."

         ******

Andy slumped in the chair in the business class lounge hiding in a corner, sipping a cup of coffee, hoping to avoid professor Randolph Horne.

"Professor Clifford, may I join you?"

Andy turned to see the younger man standing there with his rolling bag and laptop case over his shoulder. He didn't look too horrible, and there were a few gray hairs just above his ears. "Of course, professor Horne. I do not think we have been formally introduced. Just call me Andrew."

Horne smiled, "Just Randy." He saw the book of poetry Andy had been reading, "Eliza Miller, my wife has every one of her books. He plopped into the seat on the other side of the coffee table rifling through his laptop bag. "Here it is, do you mind signing my copy?"

Andy recognized the bound version of his paper that the university had printed up, "My paper, you want me to sign it personally?"

"Well, you might be too busy after you get the Nobel, I figure this is my chance."

Andy nearly laughed at the boldness of the younger man, "Professor, that is quite remote, whether it would even be considered and even so, the experimental confirmation will never be found. It's also bad luck to talk about such a prestigious award."

Randy's face broke into a friendly smile, "Nonsense, I don't believe in such superstition. I am sure we will find evidence, that is what my paper is all about."

Andrew leaned forward, "Really, your paper is about proving my theory with an experiment? Please tell me how it would work." Andrew was skeptical, no laboratory in the world would be able to find evidence of the predictions coming from his theory.

"If you sign my paper and call me Randy. Let me get a cup of coffee first."

Randy sat back down after retrieving a cup of coffee and started his explanation. Andrew listened as he went through the experimental method, it was impressive this man was much more than a simple experimentalist. "This is quite brilliant, looking for fluctuations that generate periodic events, through resonances in brane oscillations. You understand the physics quite well, I do not fully understand the complex engineering of the sensor design. But for it to work you would need to cover a vast amount of space for quite a long time, it is not remotely feasible."

Randy smiled as he took a sip of coffee. "I designed the instrumentation packages for the black hole monitoring probes. Similar in principle to the large-scale prototype detector that my colleague has in Prague, but ten thousand times more sensitive to fit into the probe's scientific package. They have completed their mission, they have another five years of power orbiting Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. I proposed the concept to NASA and JPL, they have agreed to reprogram the sensors to collect data starting next year, looking for evaporative small black holes predicted by your theory. Narrowing in on periodic events to get sufficient data."

Andrew's mouth fell open, "That's hundreds of billions of cubic kilometers of space with the ability to triangulate, for five years. You could find them; you really could find them." Andy felt a lump in his throat, "Why would you do this? We don't know each other; we have never collaborated."

Randy cocked his head, "I believe in the physics, everyone at the university who knows you well speaks so highly of you. I guess I believe in you Andrew."

Andy stared for a moment at this astonishing younger man, "How about you call me Andy. By the way, where did you get that wonderful leather retaining strap for your reading glasses?"

Randy reached into his laptop bag, "Here are some extras, my wife bought these for me. You keep these, I have more with me."

Andy smiled as he accepted the small gift, "My wife is Eliza Miller, I can get autographed copies of her books for your wife when we return, just remind me when we get back."

         ******

Days later Eliza watched and listened to Andy on the video chat, she had not seen him with this much energy in years, "Well it certainly sounds like you two have become quite the team there in Prague. I have not heard you this enthusiastic in a long time."

"It's Randy, he is quite exceptional. His experimental design is generating a lot of excitement. The consensus is that it will confirm my predictions in the first year if the theory is sound. That curtsy in Stockholm could possibly happen, either way at least I will know if my theory is correct."

Eliza chuckled, "I thought it was bad luck to talk about it."

"I'm learning some new ways from this younger man."

"What do you have planned for your last night and tomorrow morning?"

"Randy heard about a pub down by the Charles Bridge that stays open late, right near the Vltava River. After the closing sessions, we will get a late dinner at the pub and have a few drinks. He has a colleague who designed a large-scale detector prototype, the same concept as what is on the probes. We will head over to see the prototype in the morning."

         ******

Andy and Randy were just about ready to leave the pub. A rugged old man came to their booth, "Pour me three fingers of that fine whiskey, I will tell you two a tale to remember. What do you say, mates?"

Randy slid over on the bench, making room for the old man, "You got it mate! What is this amazing tale?" Randy poured him a drink.

The old man sat down next to Randy and quickly finished the whiskey and looked at his watch, "We have thirty minutes before midnight, then it will be March third. Yes, three. Three-three will be the date." He took a napkin and drew a map, marking a spot right across the Charles Bridge up a cobblestone street at a dead-end alley to the right. "Just at this point, you can see the sidewalks on this side of the river when you look back this way. That is where you will find the alley. Stand near the entrance to the alley at three a.m. don't go inside the alley, or the monster will take you with it. It will be gone quickly, appearing three minutes after three on March 3. I seen it once, no idea of what it is, there is no way to describe it. It's been appearing in the same place, the same time for centuries, you will never be the same after you lay eyes on it." The old man got up and slipped away.

Randy grabbed the napkin, "Might be fun what do you think, want to see the Prague monster?" Randy laughed shoving the napkin into his jacket pocket.

Andy shook his head, "Some gag to play on tourists, get people standing in the middle of the street late at night, or worse someone waiting to rob you. Either way, we have a plane to catch tomorrow, we need to see the prototype detector in the morning and I want to get a good night's sleep."

Randy shrugged, "We could hide in the alley and see if the old guy showed up with some henchman, get a picture. You're right that is pretty late, let's head back to the hotel."

         ******

The next morning the phone woke Andy up, he recognized the voice of the conference organizer. "Professor Clifford, sorry to disturb you there is some exciting news from overnight. The large-scale prototype quantum detector right across the river captured an event last night, shortly after three in the morning. They would like for you to come over and look at the data, it seems to have signature characteristics predicted by your theory. It's just a single event and not very good resolution, not enough to prove your theory but it is exciting."

Andy nearly rolled off the edge of the bed, "Has anyone contacted Randolph Horne? He needs to see this as well."

"I'm sorry professor, I don't think I know Horne, is he at the conference?"

"Is he at the conference! He is the one who wrote the paper on the experimental scheme using the black hole probes to test my theory. Professor Horne!" Everyone at the conference knew Randy now, was this guy drunk?

"I'm sorry professor, there is no paper like that at the conference and I know the names of all of the presenters, is this some sort of bizarre joke? You know as well as me, the black hole probe project was canceled years ago before it ever got off the ground, the engineering innovations to shrink down the detector are far beyond current technical capabilities."

"Sorry. Just waking up I guess." There was no point talking to this guy, Andy felt unsettled. What does he mean the black hole probes never launched? They have been in orbit for ten years.

Andy picked up his mobile phone, where is Randy's number? Andy figured he must have deleted him as a contact, a little too much whiskey last night.

He called reception, asking for Randy's room. "What do you mean there is no one in the hotel with the surname Horne, maybe someone spelled it wrong. He is in 510, room 510."

"No sir, room 510 is Mr. and Mrs. Petrov. I am not disturbing them."

Andy went to the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face, making sure he was fully awake. He walked over to the small table and picked up his copy of the conference program, no Randolph Horne on the attendees list. He noticed his reading glasses no longer had the leather retaining strap that Randy had given to him. He muttered out loud, "Am I going mad?"

He picked his mobile back up, trembling with fear, waiting to hear Eliza's voice.

"Hello. Andy, why are you calling now darling? It's the middle of the night here, is something wrong?"

"It's Randy. I think something has happened to him."

There was a long pause, "Randy? I'm sorry darling who is Randy?"

Andy felt his heart start to race, "The young professor I am traveling with, who designed the experimental equipment to confirm my theory. Professor Randolph Horne, Randy." Maybe Eliza just needed a moment to wake up.

He heard Eliza sigh, "Sorry darling, I don't remember you mentioning anyone in particular this week, I didn't know you had a colleague with you. Do you think he is hurt or something?"

Andy stared at the floor, "No darling, I lost track of what time it was there. Sorry, go back to sleep."

Was it possible? The prototype detector recorded an event just after three in the morning. Had Randy gone over to that alley last night, hiding to see if he could get a picture of that old man? Was the monster that came back every year a repetitive small evaporating black hole? Flashing into existence surrounded by a halo of bright light, the intense local gravity pulling Randy's atoms apart and sucking him into the small dark void. And when the black hole disappeared, Randy's entire existence and the timeline of his life disappeared with it according to the holographic principle. Those were the parts he could not bear to tell Eliza, about an encounter with one of his predictions. Andy began to sob, Randy had told him about his wife and children, had his children just evaporated away as well? His wife's memories of their life together? What about his parents, brothers, and sisters?

Andy looked up and saw his reflection in the mirror. Why would he be the only one who remembered Randy? Maybe their brief intense friendship left behind some quantum fragment of his existence. Andy stared at his reflection thinking of the alternative, something inside of him. Some sort of breakdown. Could it be that Randy never existed? Just the main character in some elaborate twisted psychotic delusion driven by Andy's suppressed desire to win the Nobel. How could Andy prove the disappearance of someone that never existed? He sat down on the bed terrified, horrified by the thought of either reality.