//------------------------------// // A Word on Interdimensional Travel // Story: Paradise Found- The Eighteenth Earth by Dr. Silas Hunter, Ph.D. // by Captain Hurricane //------------------------------// Foreword I'm a scientist. I write in scientific terms. You'll have to forgive the drudgery that is the first chapter of my work. It is a necessary evil, so that you can glean some insight into how I came to become an explorer, a scientist, a xeno-anthropologist. Please, don't let my jargon scare or dissuade you from this story. It's hard for a physicist to relate to most humans. I've never been very close to people; no girlfriends, no dates, no friends or confidantes. With that in mind, I hope you can feel as I felt in those days. With all of Earth's billions upon billions of people, it is an awful thing to find that there is no one in this world that you can trust. That you can relate to. That you can love. Maybe that's why I do such a good job as an ambassador for Equestria, I suppose. If you ever get a chance to come over to this side, bring a copy of this book. The ladies and I will be sure to sign it for you. * I was 23 when I accidentally discovered the key to interdimensional travel. I had just finished with my masters in applied physics, and was hoping I could get a job with NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, or any other reputable scientific institute. Back in those days, I was still in Florida, and my scholarship provided only a meager stipend so that I afford some of the necessities of life. Ramen noodles were a default staple, which I supplemented with bits of frozen chicken when I could afford it. Which was maybe once or twice a month. I wasn’t quite as idealistic or secular then. I tinkered with a few physics based theories, most of them aimed at inventing profitable machines. I had been studying the way metal detectors work, their frequencies interlocking and scattering at various points in order to sense gold, silver, and other precious metals. If I could make a smaller, more portable detector, mining companies would buy the patent from me, and I would have all the disposable income I ever needed. Fortunately for me, the metal detector never worked. Instead, I ended up creating a device that formed a stable gateway between this Earth and a parallel world, a world I named E-2, obviously short for Earth 2. E-2 was slightly more advanced than Earth Prime, or E-1. I learned a lot about interdimensional travel, mostly about the dos and don’ts, in the months and years to follow. Do 1: DO send a probe before you jump into an interdimensional rift. Do 2: When you send a probe, DO make sure it has a Geiger counter, UV detector, and O2 sensor. Do 3: DO seal the entrance behind you so that you aren’t followed by pets like my damn cat that I spent two weeks searching for in a parallel Earth. Don’t 1: DON’T be surprised when you experience time dilation effects. Don’t 2: DON’T forget to install a chronometer on every probe. The hardest thing I found out about new inventions, like this interdimensional space-time breaching not metal detector I made, was that they need a name. A device as important as the one I just invented had to have a cool, yet descriptive name. So what exactly did this crazy device I just cooked up in my apartment do? It proved superstring theory correct. Check: superstring. It manipulated the space-time continuum. Check: manipulation. And it transmitted overlapping equalized frequencies that vibrated quantum particles in alternating dimensions. I came up with a blank for this one. At first I came up with Superstring Manipulation Harmonizer, but then I googled “SMH” and it came back with “shaking my head”. So that was out. So was Superstring Manipulation Transmitter, as SMT was an acronym for statistical machine translation or surface mount technology, two widely used terms in the applied physics world. I finally settled on Superstring Manipulation Equalizer. I decided to stick with that name because SME also stands for “Subject Matter Expert,” a term I found fitting to describe myself. Its operation is simple, really- at least from a quantum physicist's perspective. Each dimension has its own resonant quantum frequency. If you can lock on to that frequency, and match its vibration, you can form a stable wormhole from one dimension to the other. That’s exactly what I did on April 12, 2011. I’m sure you didn’t buy Paradise Found to hear about E-2. If you’re truly interested in reading about it, check out my other book, Many Worlds, from your local library. * Three years passed since I first traveled to E-2, the first parallel world ever discovered. In spring of 2014, I moved to the Northeast, where Dartmouth had accepted me for post graduate work. I still kept my superstring manipulation equalizer secret. There was no way of telling, in my mind at least, what shady quasi-governmental agencies or international terror syndicates could do with a device that could essentially punch a hole in space-time. My grandfather would always tell me, "It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you." I assure you. "They" really were out to get me. Now I consult for them. The devices I brought to Earth from E-2 earned me a little bit of money. After reverse engineering some of their entertainment devices, I patented each one and sold the patent for a tidy profit. I’m not terribly proud of that act, but it was necessary for me to be able to purchase things I needed to safely, and secretly, explore. Geiger counters are not cheap, by any means. Now try buying a Geiger counter through a third party, and you can see why I had to resort to immoral acts to keep my operating budget afloat. I continued searching for more parallel worlds, finding 16 parallel worlds total, including E-2. More than half of them were uninhabitable due to radiation or severe lack of oxygen. In one case, the world I found didn't even have an atmosphere. But I never gave up hope, and continued looking for habitable worlds, teeming with intelligent life forms. And of course, there was also E-11, with an 18:1 time dilation ratio. I spent about three days there, only to come back and find that two months had passed on Earth Prime. Try explaining to your parents why you haven't called or emailed in two months. Not fun. * July 18, 2014, was the day I discovered E-18, or Equus, as the natives refer to their planet. I had been running a subharmonic scan from my basement laboratory, looking for new extradimensional worlds. After the scan finished, I calibrated my probe to my remote controller, tested all fourteen buttons rigorously, and performed check after check after check of the probe's electrical systems. The most important part of my explorations, next to my equalizer, is the probe. I retrofitted an electric golf cart and installed various sensors, cameras, and electronics to it, so that I wouldn’t blindly stumble into a radioactive wasteland or a world where there is no more ozone layer. I directed the probe’s activities remotely using a video game controller that I enhanced with powerful radio transmitters and receivers. I turned on one system after another, preparing the probe for its journey into this new dimension I found. It would be the seventeenth parallel Earth I’ve found in the last 3 years. I jotted down the frequency and coordinates in a notebook, where I kept an account of technical details too myriad to remember. The probe whirred to life, lights flashing as various sensors began their startup sequence. I checked each sensor’s output on my laptop, each gauge on the computer’s screen providing a different value for over thirty variables. Temperature, UV radiation, gamma radiation, relative humidity, chronological displacement, air quality, biomass…you name it. The probe was calibrated for terrestrial environments- those that can support human life. Deviations from what I programmed to be the norm would be detected and relayed back to my workstation. Based on those readings, I had two options. If the parallel world had a suitable environment, I would explore further. If not, I would index that world’s frequency into my database as a “DNA,” or Do Not Access. With more than a little anxiety, I initialized the portal activation process. The equalizer hummed noisily in my hands as the forces of time and space rippled before me. The room flared with bright light as the wormhole began to coalesce from thin air. Ten feet in diameter, the portal was large enough to accommodate a medium sized car…or a golf cart loaded with sensors. Exchanging my equalizer for the probe controller, I watched on my computer screen as the cart crossed the event horizon of the portal. The journey always played havoc with the sensitive electronics on board, so it was usually a three to five minute wait until the probe stabilized and could begin transmitting data. After a tortuous handful of minutes, I could finally see through the eyes of my probe. Trees, grass, and blue sky were a familiar sight. I cross checked the sensor data: comparable humidity, air quality, and gravitational constant. I ran a program on my computer that would evaluate each input and determine how close it was to Earth’s environment. It returned a 98.4% match. I was more than satisfied with the similarities to Earth. The probe continued gathering data, streaming millions of bytes of information on the new world surrounding it. I continued moving the probe forward, just over a gently rising hill. Jackpot! Some kind of barn stood straight ahead, not more than a half a mile away. Trees formed straight lines in an unnatural manner; I could only guess it was a farm or other agricultural endeavor. I zoomed in with my camera lens, hoping to see human, or humanoid, inhabitants. All I could make out from this distance was a blurry figure moving near the barn and what appeared to be a house. The probe slowly inched closer, the images of whatever it was I saw moving becoming sharper with every new minute. It was a horse. It didn’t seem like the colors were right though. Most horses I had seen had brown, black, or white coats. This one’s coat was a deep red color, like a fire engine or my Swingline stapler. I chalked it up to the contrast of the camera, and made a mental note to install better ones when the probe returned. I noticed the horse was now looking in the direction of the camera. It stood motionless for several minutes. While I was checking my solar array voltages, it must have trotted in to the barn structure, and a different colored horse came out acting exactly the same as the other reddish horse did. Its hair seemed out of place; it almost looked as if this four legged animal was wearing a hat. Against my better judgment, I moved the probe forward, trying to get a better look at these two creatures, hoping that I could find whatever farmer was responsible for them. Sure enough, it did appear that this horse was wearing a hat. I laughed for a few seconds, figuring that at the very least, there’s someone in this alternate dimension with a sense of humor. I've seen pictures online of dogs and cats wearing various costumes: hats, moustaches, fur coats, the works. But there was something downright hilarious to seeing a horse wearing a cowboy hat. I stopped laughing when I saw the yellowish brown horse trotting towards the probe. Curiosity isn’t exactly a trait that horses are known to possess. I, however, possess curiosity by the bucketful. I watched my monitor closely as the creature approached. Its mane was tied back in a ponytail, and I could see a brand that looked like apples on the horse’s haunch. It approached the probe cautiously, circling it once before stopping. My initial assessment of the creatures was inaccurate. They were similar in some ways to horses. This one’s eyes, though, seemed much too big to belong to a regular horse. I reasoned that it must be an evolutionary adaptation to low light conditions. The not-horse creature stood there for several moments, before taking off its hat, holding it with its hooves.