TWENTY

 

 

October 18th, 2018

Boise, Idaho

 

WADE FELT CALMER suddenly when Sophie took his hand. The two of them really were stronger together than apart, and even after just two months of being together, that didn’t worry him at all. He just wanted to do everything in his power to make it last.

“Feel free to ask questions,” Dawn said. “But I must warn you, what we are about to tell you will sound totally crazy.”

“This isn’t crazy enough?” Wade asked, indicating the cavern around them.”

The rest laughed.

“No,” Dawn said, “this will be the tame part when this story is done.”

“But what we ask,” Duster said, “is that you keep an open mind and then allow us to prove to you what we are saying. Can you do that?”

“And after we have shown you our case,” Bonnie said, “you are both free to just be part of this, stay and research, or leave if you want. We just ask that you honor the do-not-disclose contract you signed.”

Wade nodded and beside him Sophie did as well.

“All right then,” Dawn said. “Here we go. First off, I have to tell you that only twenty-two people in the world know about this place and what we are about to tell you. With you two, the number is now twenty-four.”

Wade was shocked at that low number. But he said nothing.

Dawn pointed to Duster.

“In the 1870s,” Duster said, “a distant relative of mine opened a gold mine that quickly worked out. But in the process over the years of looking for another vein of gold by digging deeper into a hill, he broke into a fantastic cavern of what looked like glowing rose-quartz crystals.”

Duster took a sip of water, then went on.

“My ancestor closed up the mine and passed it down through the family,” Duster said. “A year after Bonnie and I were married and were both working on our first doctorates in mathematics, my father took us to the mine and showed us the vast crystal room.”

“We had a hunch what it was,” Bonnie said, “but it took us three more years and two more doctorate degrees in theoretical physics and mathematics to figure it out for sure.”

Wade nodded. He had seen in his quick search that both of them had many higher degrees, none honorary.

“In physics,” Duster said, “the accepted knowledge now is that energy and matter and time are all linked together in some fashion.”

“And also a major theory is that with every decision,” Bonnie said, “or every turning point, no matter how large or small, two different timelines split off.”

Wade was following fine so far. And from what he could tell, Sophie was as well.

“What my ancestors found,” Duster said, “was what we call the nexus, where energy and time and matter take a physical form in their connection.”

“Each crystal in those massive caverns is a timeline,” Bonnie said.

“That would be impossible to contain in one cavern,” Sophie said. “The numbers of timelines would be infinite.”

Wade was impressed. He had been sort of thinking the same thing, but wasn’t anywhere near with the idea of such a place as Sophie clearly was.

“That’s correct,” Sophie,” Duster said, smiling and nodding. “The caverns are infinite and go off into other dimensions. What my ancestors broke into was simply a small area of timelines very close to this timeline.”

“What happened next is that Duster and I invented a very simple device that allows us to step into the past of another timeline,” Bonnie said.

“We are limited to the time of the mine opening,” Duster said. “And we can’t be in another timeline when we are alive in that timeline, so we are limited to not being too close to the present by our age.”

Wade just stared at them. “You were right. This now has gotten completely crazy.”

“Are you saying you can travel back in time?” Sophie asked.

“Not really, no,” Duster said, shaking his head. “But we can travel back in time in another timeline. But we can’t go back in this timeline to change this past.”

“But the other timelines are basically identical to this one,” Madison said.

“Research,” Sophie said and Wade instantly understood where she was going.

Dawn nodded. “It’s how we can get such incredible and accurate detail in our books.”

“It’s why we founded this institute in the first place,” Director Parks said.

Wade was just shaking his head. This was the wildest fairytale he could have ever imagined being told by seemingly smart people. The problem he had was that it all sounded logical and this cavern was most certainly real.

So why the tall tale?

For what purpose?

Duster laughed and glanced at Bonnie and then Dawn. “Seems like it’s time for the show part.”

“We asked you to trust us and that you would not believe us, but give us a chance to show you,” Bonnie said, her voice and look very serious. “Are you willing to do that?”

Wade glanced at the worried look in Sophie’s dark eyes, then he turned back to Bonnie and Duster and nodded. “I’ll give you the rope because I want to know why you would tell us this story.”

“I have a hunch you aren’t making up a thing,” Sophie said. “And that flat scares me even more. But I’m willing if Wade is.”

“Great,” Duster said. “Let’s go.”

“Madison and I will wait right here,” Dawn said. “We’ll get sandwiches and hot soup going.”

Duster laughed. “Good idea.”

Wade had no idea why that was a good idea, but with Sophie’s hand in his, they followed Bonnie and Duster and Director Parks toward a door beyond the kitchen area.

He was sure he would never be doing this without Sophie at his side.

He wasn’t sure if they should be doing it now.