Happy New ?

The Event Horizon

Man’s quest for knowledge leads to twists and turns which lead to puzzles in themselves. Many times when an idea is proven, other questions arise. These questions lead us to The Event Horizon.

“Professor, we are now 250,000 from Earth.”

“Thank you, Captain. If you can, please rotate the ship to allow maximum viewing from the observation port.”

“No problem, Professor.”

Professor Higgins released the safety harness and stood facing the other passengers. Some were family; many were graduate students that the professor invited to take notes.

“As you all know, we obtained a grant to take this tourist vessel to observe a very unique phenomena. Most of you will be needed to record this, others are here to observe and make notes as to this momentous occasion. Let us all adjourn to the observation platform.”

The family and professor filed up the spiral staircase. By the time everyone around, the deck faced the Earth in all it’s glory.

“Professor, I don’t understand,” one of the female students said. “If what you say is true, shouldn’t we have done this two days ago, on January first?”

“Eileen, I guess you missed class when we discussed this. January First is really an artificial date assigned by Pope Gregory way back when. Other cultures had their own dates for the beginning of the year. Some thought the year started the first of spring, others the first of winter. Celtic and Jewish cultures measured time by lunar dates as opposed to solar dates. What we were trying to ascertain the actual new year as defined by the Earth herself.”

“What can you do, Professor, ask the Earth itself?” Jeremy, another of the students asked.

“There are always signs and clues, Jeremy. We merely had to sort through tons of data before we came up with our conclusions. It seemed over time that this was the correct date.”

“What clues, Professor?”

“The most significant were signs such as solar flares, an increase in magnetic and particle energy waves. We managed to track a relative starting point and have fine-tuned it to a very narrow window.”

“How would these signs indicate the start of a new year?”

“This is what we will prove with this trip. I will call this the ‘Divergent Effect’ when I publish our finding when we return.”

“What do you mean by the ‘Divergent Effect’ Professor?”

“All this increase in energy serves a purpose. For many years there have been theories of a parallel Earth or a parallel universe. That is what we are hoping to see with this expedition. We have plenty of memory cards plenty of batteries to record this as it happen.”

“How will we know when it happens?” Eileen asked.

“We will know. Believe me, we will know,” Professor Higgins answered. “I would suggest leaving one camera trained on the Earth. Perhaps you should have some snacks now. I figure in three to five hours we will see the process start.”

Six and a half hours later, Higgins noticed something. He rubbed his eyes; he knew he had little sleep. The students and family were resting on the floor of the observation deck. He wanted to be sure before raising an alarm.

Yes! It was happening. He knew it, all his work finally paid off.

“Hello everyone! It is starting. He gently shook his grad students and handed them their cameras.

The students stared out the port. They looked puzzled.

“What should we be looking for?” Jeremy asked.

“Does anything look different to you?”

There were several moments of silence. Eileen finally spoke.

“Well, I assume that the atmosphere looks a little larger, either from the sun or that we are closer. Is that what you mean?”

Higgins smiled, “Assume nothing, young lady. Observe. What you think is a larger, thicker atmosphere is actually a larger thicker energy field. It has been growing in intensity for the last half an hour.”

“How does that happen?” Eileen asked.

“The closest process I can think of is like mitosis, when a cell divides. Think of the Earth as a giant amoeba.”

After a few moments of silent contemplation, Higgins added, “Once the process starts, I think it will go quickly. Get your cameras rolling.”

The students set up the tripods and started the filming process.

“Let’s make this zero hour and we’ll start timing from here,” Higgins said.

“Pardon me, Professor, the observation deck comes with a timer, so we can track asteroids, comets or whatever,” Captain Akers pointed to a small keypad in the wall.

“Thank you Captain, this will be off great use.”

The captain hit a few buttons and the timer started. He adjusted the readout to be legible, but not too distracting.

At the 00:47:13 mark, Jeremy called out, “I think it’s looking a little out of round, Professor.”

“I believe you’re right, Jeremy.”

“What happens when they divide, Professor?” Eileen asked.

“My theory is that the newer Earth will fade into a new dimension, yet on a parallel track with the original Earth. It will happen quite fast I imagine.”

The timer read 01:18:46 when Emily said, “Look they’re starting to pull away!”

“Professor,” Captain Akers said, “should they both be fading like that?”

Higgins had an alarmed look on his face. “No, Captain. Only one should fade. Unless both Earths head to separate dimensions.”

Higgins sat down on one of the benches. “Captain how fast can we get back?”

“We could hustle and get close in about two hours. We couldn’t re-enter the atmosphere at that speed, though.”

Higgins nodded, “As long as we are close enough we should be all right. We’d best head back then, Captain.”

“No problem, professor. Just need to know which Earth we are heading for.”

The professor’s face turned ghostly white. “I…I don’t know.”

Curiosity oft times kills the cat, we are told. But man’s thirst for adventure sometimes leads to dark roads. These dark roads only have one destination…The Event Horizon.

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