Molecular Diffusion Theory
When his eyes adjusted to the bright light, Jeremiah recognized the spot where he sat in the alley. He was on the other planet again. Not only that, as he stood, he realized that he was in the exact spot he had arrived in the day before. Jeremiah imagined the faces of the six adults, who were probably shocked and horrified by his sudden disappearance. He relaxed a little, and then thought of Ambassador. Is he still standing on the front steps of that building, Jeremiah wondered.
If he wasn’t, Jeremiah didn’t think he would be able to find him. In the mean-time, he decided to try to find the building again. It was difficult to find the building, but by taking the time to retrace his steps to where Jeremiah had met Ambassador, he was able to make it. Despite two wrong turns, Jeremiah managed to find the building in less than an hour.
Jeremiah half suspected that he would find Ambassador still standing in the exact place where he had left him the day before. Instead, the robot was sitting on the front steps of the building with his head resting in his hands. As Jeremiah approached, the robot clumsily stood, teetering dangerously backwards then forwards before finding its sense of balance.
“Do you always have so much trouble standing?”
“Always. Where did you go Jeremiah? Why did you leave so suddenly?”
Jeremiah hesitated, then finding himself again, he said, “I got scared about going into the building and when I got to the door I just disappeared. I don’t know how or why it works that way, but I am not able to control the shifts.”
“You must meet the Creator now.”
He hesitated a moment, before climbing up the stairs to the building ahead of Ambassador. When he reached the door of the building and it opened for him again, he felt his previous fear rising in his chest. But when the idea of returning home and having to try to explain to adults why and how he had disappeared, his fear subsided somewhat and he was able to cross the threshold into the building. The air inside the building was not quite as cold as the initial blast led him to believe, but he still got goose bumps on his arm.
Ambassador walked past Jeremiah and indicated that Jeremiah should follow him. They walked through the lobby of the building, which Jeremiah felt was similar to an office building where business would take place, though it lacked the ordered cubicles and desks one would expect to find. They rounded a corner and a large cylindrical tube stood twenty feet in front of them. The tube was clear and had a bluish hue to the glass. They passed through an opening into the large tube. Once inside, Jeremiah noticed that the ground was covered with rings of white light about two feet in diameter. Ambassador stood in the middle of one of the rings and the color of the light changed to orange. Jeremiah then looked down to find a ring to stand in and as he did, he noticed that there was no floor beneath him. He nearly lost his balance then, disconcerted by the apparent nothingness.
As Jeremiah regained his balance, he saw that there were rings of light below him that appeared further away than the ones at his level. He turned his gaze upward and noticed the rings were on the ceiling of the room as well. They also extended further up to what Jeremiah assumed were other levels of the building. He then noticed that the rings of light lined up with each other and that the column of lights that Ambassador had chosen to stand within had all been changed to orange. “To let people on different levels know which columns are currently occupied.” Jeremiah spoke aloud when the revelation struck him.
“Very good,” Ambassador said, realizing that Jeremiah had made the connection. “I doubt I could explain the technology that transports us from floor to floor in a way that you could understand it though.”
At that remark Jeremiah stepped in to one of the empty white circles and stood in the center. The light turned orange and Jeremiah and Ambassador began to rise. To Jeremiah it felt as if a giant fan was blowing on the soles of his shoes and causing him to rise through the air. That didn’t quite explain the sensation though because he did not feel any pressure over the rest of his body, nor did his clothes or hair flap as they would have if he was in a strong gust of wind. Jeremiah tried to count the lights as he passed through each level, but he was accelerating and he soon lost count as the brief flashes soon increased to a startling blur. He had expected to experience a deceleration similar to the acceleration before they came to a stop. However, it seemed that whatever technology was being used to send them quickly upward did not require them to decelerate.
Jeremiah’s vision abruptly focused on the new level of the building where they had stopped. He did not experience a lurch in his stomach like the one he might have experienced in an elevator. His head did go dizzy for a moment before clearing again because it expected to continue in an upward direction. Ambassador stepped out ahead of Jeremiah, leading the way again. They walked down a short hallway that was lined with several rooms. The rooms were not closed off with doors, but a blurred sheet of glass tinged the view of the interior of the rooms.
They reached the end of the hall and the blurred sheet of glass slid aside, revealing a wide open room that had floor to ceiling red tinted glass on the far wall. The room was sparsely decorated and the shapes of the furniture seemed odd to Jeremiah, though the pieces did not appear uncomfortable. Beyond the view of the building lay the entire expanse of the city. Jeremiah could see the top of nearly every building that lie before him and further still to the rolling agricultural land beyond. After a moment Ambassador began to move again. From the doorway they had entered through, Ambassador walked left. Jeremiah turned to follow and they soon stood at the far end of the room in front of another blurred sheet of glass. Unlike the other panes of glass, this one was not set into a doorway of any sort. It did not react to the approach of Ambassador or Jeremiah either.
“Creator, I have brought Jeremiah to meet you as you instructed.”
“Well done,” came a sharp reply from the other side of the glass. It surprised Jeremiah that the Creator had known English, he then reasoned that the creature may be using some sort of technology to translate from its own language. The idea did not seem unlikely since the voice had not been muted through the glass. “I hope you don’t mind if I stay here behind the privacy of the glass. My appearance might shock you and I don’t want to mar this meeting with unnecessary distress.”
“I don’t mind,” Jeremiah said. “What is your name?”
“I have not used my proper name in many years. In any case, I would prefer if you would just call me Creator. Ambassador has called me by that name for a long time. It seems that name suits my function far better than my old one does anymore. In any case our conversation will not require us to use names.”
“I don’t know where to start,” Jeremiah said with a hint of questioning in his voice.
“In that case, I will begin. Perhaps I can give you some insight into how it came to pass that we are meeting as we are today. I suppose the story begins nearly thirty years ago.”
The scientists of this world were testing an invention that would cause molecules to split apart at a sub atomic level and then reassemble somewhere else. This technology was constructed based upon the research of a young child of our planet that was very much like you. Though he did not know it at the time, this young child was making leaps through space without any time seeming to pass. When it was discovered what this child had been doing, the best researchers on our planet were set to work on discovering the secret of this child’s apparent disappearances. They met with a level of some success.
However, when it came time to test their final device, the scientists inadvertently destroyed a moon of this planet that was in constant eclipse of one of the stars that now feeds this planet with light. For some reason, the properties of the bonds that the molecules of the child that allowed them to break apart and assemble elsewhere were not replicated into the molecules of the targeted person. As a result, when the person shifted to the lunar station, the moon’s molecules were blown apart and never reassembled.
T
he effects on this planet were catastrophic. Scientist hurried to reverse engineer the device that wrought the destruction of their moon in hopes of reassembling the molecules. But the device they created was not successful. Whatever happened to the molecules of the moon, they never returned. The device did seem to have another unexpected effect. When the device was activated strange appearances began. Some of them were of inanimate objects, such as rocks, but some of the appearances were of plants and animals. The objects would appear and then disappear at irregular intervals and none would last for more than a few seconds. Some of the creatures seemed to have bad reactions to our atmosphere and died, disappearing as soon as they died.
Then a creature appeared one day, a creature that resembled our own race in many ways. It was clear to the scientists that the creature possessed a measure of intelligence and self-awareness. When it first appeared, the scientists expected it to disappear again soon after its arrival. However, when it did not, the scientists spent hours observing the creature. They ran as many tests as they could think of, gathering samples from the being, not knowing how long it would remain or if it would ever return. After it disappeared, the scientists ran tests on the samples, hoping to learn whatever they could about the creature.
When the creature appeared again, the scientists were confused at first. What the scientists had assumed was the skin of the creature seemed to have changed. They investigated and found that the creature had been covered in a separate material. Every other appearance up to that point had been of a single object only. There never seemed to be anything that indicated that they were able to bring anything not of themselves with them. The scientists suspicions were confirmed when the creature reappeared on another occasion holding an inanimate object that was not with it during previous appearances. Our scientists collected the item and kept it separate from the creature to see if it would disappear again with the creature. It did not. Baffled by the discovery, the scientists began studying their samples with renewed vigor.
Though appearances became more frequent, and though other objects would sometimes appear, little attention was paid to the creature after that. What they eventually discovered astounded them even further. It appeared that a molecular anomaly caused the molecules in the samples to break apart at a subatomic level. When they again examined the object that the creature had brought with it, the scientist discovered that it possessed the same anomaly. Though they could not figure out a way to duplicate the anomaly, the creature seemed to be able to affect other objects in a way that made the change permanent. Then one day the creature stopped coming. It wasn’t clear why this had happened, but as our race was dying, the scientists began preparations for the possibility that the creature might return. That creature was you.
Jeremiah did not know how to react to the story. He stood in silence for a long while, contemplating what he had learned. After a considerable amount of time passed, the voice spoke again. “I was the leader of the MBS-ADR1 program. I am also the last surviving member of our race. It is not by chance that I am still alive today, however. I am the child that the researchers based the original device on. After the catastrophe of destroying the moon, I was lost and forgotten in the minds of those who knew me. I have been able to outlive the rest of my race because I possess the same molecular anomaly as all the other creatures and objects that appeared here. When I joined the MBS-ADR1 team, I kept the secret of my identity hidden from my fellow scientists. I went to great lengths to hide it, though, once the new device was activated, I found I was unable to make any more shifts. When our atmosphere changed; it was the unique properties of my body that allowed me to adapt to the new climate so well. However, it was you alone that had the ability to affect other objects without the anomaly and cause them to retain the anomaly.”
“What does it all mean?” Jeremiah rubbed his head with the palm of his hand. Despite his brilliance, all the information he was being given was too much for him to process.
“It means that we believe that you are the key Jeremiah. Our scientists studied you and your samples for years. Eventually, one of the other lead scientists came up with a theory of where you came from and where you were going. The theory is called Molecular Diffusion Theory, or MDT for short. The molecules of an object are constructed of millions of subatomic particles that are bonded together. Usually when the bonds are broken at that level, even in a single atom, so much energy is released that a supernova is created. For some reason unknown to our scientists, a random anomaly occurs in the universe that causes the molecules within an entity to remain unbounded to each other, but a molecular memory is maintained. When you shift from one place to another, you can pass through any matter, any object without bursting apart and without affecting the object itself. When you are in this state, you are unaffected by the laws that normally govern the universe. Our scientists were on the brink of replicating the anomaly with technology.”
“Do you mean like walking through walls?” Jeremiah felt childish asking the question, but it was the best relation he could think of at the moment.
“Imagine that you were in a spaceship headed to another part of your solar system. That ship would have to follow a course that avoided the star at the center of the solar system and all of the other planets. Now, when you travel through space, you infinitely accelerate without concern for your surroundings. You could pass through a wall, sure. But more intriguing is the fact that you could pass through the direct center of the hottest star without the risk of being instantly burned away to nothing. You could pass through the center of a black hole without being caught in its gravitational pull. You are the key to nearly instantaneous space travel without the concerns of what course should be taken to avoid certain death.”
He paused to let the statement’s meaning sink in. Then he continued with enthusiasm, “Think about the implications Jeremiah. Our race has become all but extinct because we were all gathered together on one planet when disaster struck. Now, despite the differences that used to exist in our planets, this is now a suitable planet for your race to inhabit. After it became clear that it was impossible to save this planet, we looked outward and searched the known galaxies in hopes of finding a home for our race before its extinction, but fate it seems did not favor us. We found seventeen planets that suited your race, however. We do not wish to see your planet’s fate go the same way as ours. Even now, our fastest spaceships are making the trek to the seventeen planets carrying the device that we named the Hook. The best defense against our fate is to spread out to other worlds. Jeremiah, your planets technology is not as advanced as ours was. On their own, your scientists wouldn’t even be able to detect the molecular anomaly within your body, let alone replicate it.”
“Then how are they supposed to build a spaceship that you cannot.”
“It is not that we could not, but that by the time we realized the implications of your specific anomaly, we had too little time to put the plans in motion. That is why we built MBS-ADR1. This robot will provide your scientists with the information they need for Earth’s scientists to gain technology that is hundreds of years away from their current understanding. With that information, I am confident that they will succeed where we have failed. That is your task now Jeremiah, to take MBS-ADR1 back to Earth with you. Just promise that when space travel is achieved, you will return here to speak with me again.”
“But I don’t know how to go back. I can’t control my shifts.”
“Look deep within yourself Jeremiah. You have always had the control over your shifts, you just need to recognize where within you the ability lies.”
“How will I know where I am going? What if I end up in space? What if I go to the wrong planet and die?”
“You will not, think of your mother, Jeremiah. She will be the anchor that guides you home.”
Jeremiah’s head was swimming with fear and confusion. Then Ambassador stepped forward and took Jeremiah’s left hand. The hurricane of emotions within him ceased their swirlin
g and seemed to melt away. He stuck his foot out in front of himself and closed his eyes as he stepped toward the blurred glass.
He opened his eyes and screamed in terror. People wearing radiation suits seized Jeremiah the moment he arrived in his room. “No, Ambassador! Help! MOM!”