Read Online Phase Shift by elise abram - Free Book Online Page A

does that work?"
    "Why the sudden interest in Physics?" he
asks. "Thinking of switching departments now, are we? Sorry, guys,
but there are no vacancies."
    "No, no,” Palmer says, shaking his head,
"it's not that." He takes a quick sip of his latte and jumps as if
he’s just singed the taste buds off the surface of his tongue.
"It’s for this course Molly’s teaching. On Pseudo-archaeology? She
has a few questions for you."
    Dr. Morales smiles plainly.
"Pseudo-archaeology?" he asks, doe-brown eyes narrowing in
suspicion. I'm pretty sure he thinks we’re having one over on
him.
    "That’s right," Palmer answers. "It's
searching for plausible-sounding explanations for weird stuff using
selective archaeological evidence. You know, like attempting to
prove aliens had something to do with the alignment of the
pyramids?” I fight back a cringe at Palmer’s definition of the
discipline. I suppose, however, that to an outsider, someone who
has not developed an interest in the field, it is a fair
assessment.
    Dr. Morales’s eyes narrow even further.
    “Anyway,” I say, “I have a few questions, if
you don’t mind my asking.”
    Dr. Morales contemplates this for a few
seconds, but before he can say anything, I thank him for his time
and ask, "Is it possible to use solar radiation to create a kind
of...warp bubble...around a person which would allow them
to...slip...into another world?"
    "Seriously?" Dr. Morales asks with a
smile.
    "Seriously, Xander,” Palmer says. “We
wouldn't take up your time if these questions weren't for
real."
    "Okay then." He takes a long sip of his
latte and then says, "Scientists theorize there are—in theory—many
different worlds out there. Could a person create a sort
of...personal wormhole, a warp bubble, so to speak, and use it to
travel from one world to another? In theory? Yes."
    "In theory," I repeat. I can hardly believe
my ears. Could the papers be for real?
    "Yes. In theory. In theory dinosaurs roamed
the Earth and were wiped out by a catastrophic meteor shower. In
theory we are descended from apes. In theory—"
    "From a common ancestor between apes and
humans," Palmer corrects. Dr. Morales looks at him like he’s from
outer space or something. "Not the same thing."
    "Look,” says Dr. Morales, “you might just as
well have asked me if time travel were a reality."
    "Do you know a Spencer Prescott?" I ask
him.
    "I know of him, yes."
    "Then he's a real person? Taught here? At
the university?"
    "I chose to do my graduate work here because
of Dr. Prescott. Greatest mind in the world of Physics—barring
Hawking, of course. Son of a bitch retired the year before I got
here. By then it was too late to enroll elsewhere. Been here ever
since."
    "Prescott theorized this sort of travel
would be possible, didn't he?"
    Dr. Morales grins. I've surprised him, I can
tell. "You have been doing your homework, haven't you? Yes, that
was the gist of Prescott's theories."
    "In fact, Prescott claimed to have had a
device he called a modulator which allowed him to visit such a
world using the warp bubble technology, didn't he?"
    Dr. Morales shrugs and slouches into his
seat. "Spencer Prescott was an old man when he retired."
    "But you said he had a great mind.
Comparable to Hawking. Isn't that true?"
    Dr. Morales squirms and considers me with
distrust, but then he takes another sip of his latte and smiles.
"Age tends to do things to the mind. Yes, Dr. Prescott was a great
mind—a Nobel Prize winner twice over, no less—but he was close to
eighty when he retired. Abandoned real Physics for Pseudo-science
in the end. The two of you would have had a lot to talk about."
    "What would the people look like on one of
these worlds?"
    "Come again?" Dr. Morales chuckles, as
though he cannot believe the topic of our conversation. Honestly?
Neither can I. Frankly, I'm surprised he's tolerated us for so
long.
    "Would they exhibit parallel evolution, or
would it be divergent, taking on a totally different path?" I