Quantum Times (11 page)

     The Professor smiled. “David has a wonderful ability to simplify very complicated matters. But essentially, yes, what he said is what we think happens.”

     “And Dr. Kasinsky what do you think of this? Is it possible?” The General asked.

     Dr. Kasinsky looked left and right and then left and right, obviously considering how to respond. Finally he said, “Before The Object came and then asked for Planck, before I heard that he moved hurricanes around, I would have laughed and said it was nonsense. But The Object is here and it did ask for Dr. Planck and my colleague Dr. Wheeling assures me that the hurricanes did change their path, so with all that, the explanation that what we see is quantum mechanical applications subsuming Einstein’s universe. Well, I guess so.”

     The General nodded, “I’m taking that as a yes.” He turned to his fellow officers at the table. “Do you guys have anything you want to ask?” No one spoke up.

     “All right then,” General Greene continued. “I’m going to put the physics of all this aside. That’s not my day job. My day job is keeping this country safe. And what I have been learning today scares me very badly. So my next question is, is it possible that anyone else here on Earth, not counting The Object, may have figured out the same things that our now missing Dr. Planck figured out?”

     Dr. Kasinsky responded, “In science it is rare that just one scientist figures out the breakthrough thinking. Usually more than one researcher is on a concurrent path, even though neither one knows anything of the other.”

     “I agree,” said Dr. Wheeling.

     General Greene just shook his head. “Then let me imagine something really horrible and then you tell me whether it is possible. If someone in say China figured out how to do what Planck figured out – only he was working for the Chinese government – and they asked him to move a hurricane, or a typhoon in this example, so as it would not move away from a city but rather move to hit a city or say the nuclear plants in northern Japan, would that be possible?”

     At this point one of the General’s officers sitting at the table spoke up, “In other words, could the typhoon that devastated the Japanese economy and re-invigorated their anti-nuclear policy a couple of years ago been the result of ‘weaponizing’ the weather?”

     Dr. Wheeling said what everyone had already concluded, “A hurricane or typhoon, same thing, would go where directed.”

     “And no one could ever prove anything,” the General added. “What a strange new world we are about to live in.” He looked back at his fellow officers. Their expressions told the same story; the implications were mind-numbing.

     “But one thing is very clear – we have to find Dr. Planck and get him back!” He stood up from his chair. “One more thing, Dr. Wheeling, David, I think we had better go meet with the President. I think he will want to hear this directly from you.”

Chapter Five

“Before an observation is made, an object exists in all possible states simultaneously. To determine which state the object is in, we have to make an observation, which ‘collapses’ the wave function, and the object goes into a definite state. The act of observation destroys the wave function, and the object now assumes a definite reality.”

Michio Kaku, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York

     The number two in command of the alien expedition stood at the edge of the giant square in the heart of the old city in Beijing. He marveled at its ancient beauty, its feeling of timeless and indefatigable power. He had now spent weeks learning all he could about China’s culture and history and he was stunned how this huge country could have had its billion people dominated by so few for so long. And the power of those few was staggering. Whether it was the Emperor and his senior advisors during earlier centuries or the Head of the Party and the small number of senior Party leaders, who were running the country now, control over the hundreds of millions of people was almost absolute.

     And to the Alien’s mind, the history of this wonderful land and its hard working people did not do much to recommend that leadership. Life seemed to come very cheap here. Millions of people could be lost and no one might notice. This was a country where secrets stayed secret. The men in power faced no internal challenges. And their global intentions were obscure and undisclosed.

     It was ironic that like Benjamin Planck in the United States that they too were keeping secret that they had discovered the ability to manipulate matter through meditation. They too kept secret that they had invented an amplifier to better accomplish their purposes. But unlike Benjamin Planck their reason for keeping it secret was not out of fear of its use. They had every intention of using it. Their early trials they viewed as astoundingly effective. The Aliens had traced these attempts and well understood what had occurred.

     It was not in the Alien’s mind to judge how the Chinese had used this new capability against their old enemy Japan. Japan’s treatment of the Chinese during and preceding what here was called World War II was horrific. And memories of devastation and butchery could be generations long. The Alien’s culture included such memories. And revenge, even long later, could be noble. War was a natural event, and not just for humans. But war had consequences that could last forever. The Alien knew that his opinion about what to do about China was still unformed. As everything about China, on its surface it seemed simple to understand; but complexity always hid underneath.

     What most intrigued the Alien about China was its difference in historical perspective compared to the industrialized western countries. This led to a vast difference in the perception of time. Particularly compared to the ever impatient and immediate United States, China’s thoughts were long term; its strategies would be unhurried. Also importantly, it had no moral or political construct that limited its dreams of empire. Empire was its natural destiny, China believed. Whether it would take twenty years or a hundred years, no matter; the desired result was unchanging and the means would be adapted to the times. Any relationship with China that did not address that understanding would fail.

     The Alien had seen other nations on other worlds with the worldview of China. Their drive for empire was always inexorable and indefatigable. And it was always a challenge for their neighboring countries. Wars were inevitable.

     Gabriela knew she had to get off the island. As beautiful as it was, the ocean at its edges was a prospective prison wall.  As she watched the executive jet bearing David and Dr. Wheeling take off, she knew she shouldn’t be far behind. She didn’t trust the situation to stay stable. The forces that were coming into play were much too big and the collateral damage to those who were just casual observers could be substantial – even fatal she feared. And that wasn’t just her eastern European ancestors talking to her, as David would have claimed.

     Just then she spotted Catherine Ozawa walking across the grounds. She called and walked over to her. As usual, she went right to her concern. “I have a problem.”

     Catherine smiled, “You want to get off the island. Very wise.”

     Gabriela nodded, not surprised at all that this wise woman knew immediately what her problem was. “Yes exactly! And quickly!”

     “I think that if you do not leave quickly you will soon not be able to go at all.”

      “You think that too?”

     “I’m surprised they haven’t already locked down the island. I think that is only because they have not figured it out yet. But they will.”

     “By ‘they’ we mean our government, right?” Gabriela did not find Ozawa’s agreement comforting.

     Ozawa nodded, “Yes of course. They will do what government’s do. When they don’t know what to do, they increase their control over everything. The people on this island know too much.”

     “So are you going to leave now?” Gabriela hoped she would say yes and that she could go with her.

     “No I’m going to stay.” When Gabriela showed her surprise at her answer, she continued. “This is my island. Actually it belongs to Planck and me, but he is not here so I should watch over it. But even if that were not the case, I would stay. The work will go on here. Most of my students and fellow physicists have all decided to stay. This is a good place to ride out the coming storm.”

     “If no one is leaving, how can I leave?” Gabriela asked.

     “Actually, one of our number is about to leave. Apparently he is not eager for a close examination of his past. So two of our team are going to take him to Nassau on one of our faster fishing boats – there on the dock you can see they are about to leave.” She pointed down the beach about a hundred yards away to the small jetty where a fishing boat was rocking and several men were tending to it.

     Gabriela looked over at them. They looked about to cast off. ‘Can I go with them?”

     “I think you should. But go right now. They will not wait.” She waved at the men at the boat and one of them saw her. She held up her hand for them to see and pointed at Gabriela. They nodded.

     Gabriela realized there was no time to go back to her room to pick up her things, she turned back to Catherine Ozawa.

     “Good luck, Gabriela, I look forward to seeing you again!”

     “You too!” said Gabriela as she turned to hurry to the boat.

     Their meeting with The President of the United States was set for 10AM the next morning. Dr. Wheeling made dinner plans with a friend from Georgetown University and David went off to stay the night with his uncle Mark. He assumed that once at Mark’s house they would talk about The Object, about Physics and all the rest of it. But he was proved wrong. His uncle informed him that General Greene had ordered him to not talk to David about any of it. They had to keep it to family matters.

     In the morning Mark Randall drove David to pick up Dr. Wheeling from his hotel and took them both to The White House. He helped usher them through the process but then handed the two of them over to General Greene who led them into a meeting room. Neither David nor Dr. Wheeling had ever been in the White House before so they both walked through it somewhat star-struck. Neither of them knew one room from the next. David decided to act cool and didn’t ask and Dr. Wheeling seemed preoccupied with other thoughts – not unusual for him.

      When they entered the meeting room in the West Wing adjacent to the Oval Office, it was clear that the meeting had been going on for a while already. David had prepared for the meeting by convincing himself that he would not be overwhelmed. But as the President came over to shake his hand, he felt that resolve slip away. It wasn’t just the presence of the President but there in the room as well was his Chief of Staff Hank Scarpetti, the President’s chief political advisor, Barbara Wilcox, the Secretary of Defense, Joe Anderson and someone who he thought was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs – whose name he couldn’t remember. No introductions were made and Dr. Wheeling and David took the two empty seats they were directed to.

     The President retook his seat at the head of the table on a chair that had a higher back than everyone else’s. David had heard of the man’s charismatic warmth but had doubted he would succumb to it, yet as he saw the man from just a few feet away and as that man smiled at him, he wasn’t so sure he could resist. President Roger Morningstar was about six feet tall and rugged looking – like he really had worked on the ranch his family had owned in Colorado. He had dark wavy hair streaked with serious looking grey, a strong chin and well-spaced brown eyes. His family had settled in Colorado just after the Civil War and raised cattle, took trail drives, fought Indians, outlaws, rustlers, droughts and blizzards – at least they had if you believed the President’s oft told tales. And his stories were probably mostly true. He claimed his black hair was a genetic trait inherited from his great great grandmother who was some relation to the famous Sioux Indian chief Sitting Bull. 

     He was in his sixth year as President and his tenure as the head of the country was remarkable, as most pundits had often observed, for its lack of remarkableness. He had so far passed no significant legislation, formulated no meaningful foreign policy doctrine and marshalled no productive economic programs. The country was wallowing and just going about its business while losing its sense of purpose. The President’s poll numbers held remarkably steady right around the 50% range. Mostly people thought he was ‘good enough’. And it had to be admitted, the country’s expectations of its political leaders weren’t very high.

     President Morningstar had come into office with great fanfare and promises. He promised all the right things. Somehow regardless of the group he was talking to on his campaign, he always managed to say or at least imply what they most wanted to hear. He was for bi-partisanship and open government, he would rebuild schools and take care of the elderly; he would guarantee the return of manufacturing jobs and strengthen the capital markets. Life would be good again. The fact that there was nothing in his prior life’s experience to suggest that he had ever done any of these things was dismissed as being small minded. After all, he had an undergraduate degree from Harvard and a law degree from Stanford – so he must be brilliant. In fact some pundits gushed that he might be the smartest US President ever! So much for Jefferson and Lincoln.

     As his staffers discovered, he did have a wonderful, broadly curious mind. And in discussions he was always respectful of others’ opinions. He wanted everyone to end up agreeing. As he argued with people he would shift his position closer to theirs until everyone walked away thinking that everything had been agreed upon. Then an opposing group would meet with him and they would have the same sort of meeting – but walk away with a different agreement. The result with this President was that there seemed to be lots of agreement but things never got done.

     The truth as the President saw it was that he was elected to run things – and he liked the position of power. He had been treated all his life as the center of everyone’s attention – and in his mind he deserved that. In return he had learned, it worked even better if everyone agreed with him. He had found that was the best way to win elections. And he was very good at winning elections. Going all the way back to running for Class President in the sixth grade, he had never lost one.

     “Well gentlemen,” the President started while looking at David and Dr. Wheeling, “My advisors here have been bringing me up to date on what you two and the missing Dr. Planck have been up to and though my understanding of the Physics might be a little light, I think I get the gist of it all. All quite brilliant actually. I look forward to getting deeper into it. But I wanted to talk to you two because I need to hear about this as directly and unfiltered as possible. Now for the moment let’s put the theoretical physics aside, tell me why I should believe this whole mind over matter thing. Frankly it sounds pretty far-fetched.”

     Dr. Wheeling, as was his want, took the lead. “Mr. President…without getting too deep into the theory, you should believe it because it is the natural extension of what we have discovered to occur at the quantum level of existence. We knew of the importance of the Observer in quantum mechanics. And we knew of the mysterious properties of consciousness. Yet we were hesitant as physicists to link the two. Dr. Planck was bold enough to do so…”

     The President held up his hand, “Please one moment Dr. Wheeling. When you start putting words like quantum mechanics into your sentences my friends here in the room start staring blankly at me.”

     “Perhaps I should try to explain,” David said. “What troubles everyone here is the idea of mind over matter…the idea that one can change the physical world we are used to living in just by the application of mental processes. I have a new word for you – let’s call it ‘mentalization.’ But in fact, this is not a new idea. The central idea has been around for centuries and many people believe in it. Prayer is one of the examples. Many people believe that their prayers are answered – that physical realities occur because of their prayers. They attribute that to God. Now whether you believe in God or not, many doctors will tell you that prayer helps some people get well – that is ‘thoughts’ effect physical changes in the body.”