CHAPTER 1

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

William Shakespeare, Hamlet - Act 1, scene 5

September 1984AD Kansas, USA

Colonel John Stone had risen through the ranks and had learned that nothing can be taken at face value.  As an enlisted man he had seen too many broken plans and too many broken hearts to trust anyone or anything as it appeared.  Since he became an officer he had seen other sides of the broken plans and broken hearts but still didn’t take anything at face value.  He was a good soldier and knew how to take orders and see that missions were completed.  He always did his job and tried to put any personal feelings about it aside.  His superiors knew that they could count on him to do what was needed and to give them an honest assessment with information that didn’t carry exaggerations or excess baggage.

John prided himself on being a practical and pragmatic man. He was not given to beliefs in anything that he couldn’t see, touch, hear, smell or taste. That was what was real, only what his own senses told him. Things like the paranormal, supernatural, ghosts, magic and UFOs were non-sense, or just touchy-feely gobbled-gook and hocus-pocus presented by religious nuts and new age mystics. So he didn’t really understand his presence in the basement of a run-down old building on some Podunk college campus in the heart of “Nowhere” Kansas. His superiors had sent him here to evaluate the claims of some nut-job professor. This professor claimed that he had solved the mystery of ghosts and could reach into different dimensions or some such thing. If the professor hadn’t sent a video tape with a split-screen showing a rat crawling through a frame on a table and disappearing from one angle while completely visible from another, John knew that none of the professor’s claims would have been given a second thought.

        However, on the other hand, if the professor’s claims were true, then the world might be on the cusp of a whole new age of opportunity. New energy sources could be tapped, new technologies could be acquired and new worlds could be available for exploration. Judging by his current surroundings though, John thought that the professor would turn out to be just another kook who had used some kind of smoke and mirrors to trick the camera. He was almost certain of it when he turned a corner and the faint music he had been hearing became clear. The theme from the recent Ghostbusters movie was coming from the door directly ahead of him. He looked over at his Executive Officer, Major Kyle Decker, and gave him a sardonic half-twisted smile and got one in return. They both were thinking the same thing, “Another waste of time running down bogus claims made by some nut-job of a new technology.” They both were assigned to the Office of Scientific Investigation, OSI, which looked into claims of new discoveries or technologies that may be useful to the United States or that could possibly be used against them.

        After a short pause outside the door listening to the voices inside the room join in shouting “Ghostbusters!” with the music, Stone and Decker entered and saw a mind-boggling array of computer equipment, hanging wires and other electronics all of which were connected to and seemed to be focused on a table in the middle of the room. The table held a square metal frame about six-inches deep and about twelve inches square, whose bottom edge seemed to be inlaid in the table. On one side of the frame the table held a plastic tube just large enough for a rat to crawl down and ended in a wire mesh tunnel that would have been flush with the glass if the frame had held any glass. An enormous spider web of different sized wiring seemed to connect all of the electronics in the room to either the mesh tunnel or the metal frame. The frame itself looked like it was packed with coils and all kinds of other circuitry. On the other side of the frame from the mesh tunnel the table was empty.

The people in the room were almost as odd as the room itself. Two men and two women seemed to be supervising about a half-dozen others who were working on the various pieces of equipment and shouting the catch phrase with the music.  None of them had noticed Stone and Decker standing just inside the door. One of the supervisors was the man on the tape that Stone and Decker had seen and he was busily attaching a cage to the end of the tube on the table. Stone was about to say something to get the man’s attention when he said to the others in the room, “Attachment complete, ready for attempt number four-twenty-three.” The other people started to call out things that sounded like statuses as well. “Power stable, net online,” “Frequency modulation ready,” “Quantum field generator ready,” “Brane frequency selected,” “All tolerances are marginal and show green, we’re ready when you are, Doctor Hardy.” The last comment was made by one of the female supervisors to the man who attached the cage.

“Thank you, Sarah. Alright then, let’s flip the switches and see if we can make this one stick around,” said Hardy.

A low hum of electric power started to build until a constant volume was reached that could be felt as much as heard. Each operator began to call out again as they completed their tasks. “Power to net activated, net active,” “Frequency modulation on,” “Quantum field generator engaged,” “Brane frequency matched,” “Vibration wormhole opened and stable.” As they spoke the frame filled with a sort of mist and then slowly, beginning at the center and spreading to the edges, shapes took form and clarified within it. After what seemed like hours the mist faded and what was left looked like an empty frame with a hazy view of the other side of the room.

“Here goes the rat,” said Hardy and with that he opened the cage so the rat could go down the tube and wire tunnel to walk through the frame. As the rat approached the tunnel it hesitated as though it could tell something was different inside. Then it tentatively started to move again towards the frame and freedom from the confining tunnel. Stone’s eyes widened and Decker made a small gasp as the rat seemingly became more transparent the closer to the frame that it got. Stone glanced through the frame and saw that the table also looked less than solid, but only the part that he could see through the frame.

As the rat went through the frame Hardy said, “Start the timer and let’s see how long it lasts this time.” Someone clicked a stopwatch and everyone focused on the rat. It milled around in front of the frame for a while and then started meandering towards the far edge of the table. Stone could see the table both through the frame and over the frame but could only see the rat when looking through the frame. By the time the rat was about halfway to the far edge of the table Stone noticed that it looked more transparent than the table, something he hadn’t noticed until then because the rat and the table had looked to be the same density. “Dissolution commenced,” said one of the techs. The rat was now showing signs of distress and staggering towards the table edge and as it reached the end of the table it faded completely from view.

The tech clicked his stopwatch again and said, “Complete dissolution in one minute fifteen seconds.”

“Well,” Hardy said, “that‘s almost double the amount of time before complete dissolution. I believe that we’re on the right track; we’re just not quite there yet. We need to review the data and watch the tapes to see what happened. While we still have time on the power grid we should attempt a Phase-Two transference and see what we can do with one of those. Sarah would you… Sarah?” Hardy looked at his assistant and saw she was staring at the entrance to the lab.

“I’m sorry Doctor Hardy, but I believe we have visitors,” Sarah replied while pointing at Stone and Decker. “I’ll see to the Phase-Two preparations.”

Hardy turned and saw Stone and Decker standing just inside the door and a smile spread across his face as he took in their uniforms. “Gentlemen,” he said as he reached to shake Stone’s hand, “welcome to our humble research accommodations. Come in, come in. How can we help you?”

As Hardy took his hand in a firm handshake Stone said, “I’m Colonel John Stone and this is Major Kyle Decker. We’re here from the Office of Scientific Investigation, and we would like to know more about your project. What is it you’re trying to accomplish here?”

“Of course, of course, I’m Doctor Scott Hardy and this is my team, Doctor Sarah Winter, Doctor Kevin Sparks, Doctor Wendy Sparks and some of our graduate students. Our project is called the Global Heuristic for Open Spectral Transmigration or the G.H.O.S.T. project. I would love to go into more detail but we do have a time limit on when we can get the power we need to perform our tests, so if you will excuse us for a few more minutes I will be happy to explain everything to you after this test,” and with that Hardy turned back to his team.

Before Hardy said another word the woman he had called Sarah said, “Calculations and particle identification have been completed and we are ready for your ‘go,’ Doctor Hardy.”

“All right,” Hardy said to his team, “report the status for a Phase-Two transference.” Once again the lab came alive with ready calls, “Power online,” “Field generator ready,” “Particle lock achieved,” “Emergency shield ready,” “Sensors tested and ready,” “All systems marginal, transfer ready.”

“OK everyone,” Hardy said, “here we go. Turn on the sensors, close the shield, fire up the generator and let’s get ready to take some pictures.” Hardy pulled the tunnel back and moved it to one side of the table while a six-inch thick plate slid up into place from the table covering the front of the frame and apparently sealing magnetically to it. Again the hum of electric power started up and the calls of each station being ready were heard. Finally Sarah said, “Connection positive, entanglement wormhole opened and stable.”

All eyes turned to the man Hardy introduced as Kevin Sparks and after a couple of minutes checking readouts he said, “Sensors showing 25 degrees Celsius, breathable oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere, radiation readings within tolerances, and a partridge in a pear tree.” A low chuckle ran through the room at his light humor and then the attention turned again to the table and the frame it held.

“Let’s lower the shield but stand ready on the emergency shut-down. Jenny, I want some good pictures of what’s over there, is the camera ready?”

“Yes, sir,” answered one of the grad students.

“How about that remote car Stevie, are we ready to roll?”

“Yes, Doctor Hardy,” answered another student.

“Open it up then,” said Hardy and the plate in front of the frame slid back down into the table. Looking through the frame Stone and Decker were even more shocked to see a sun-dappled section of woodland and smell the distinct odor of pine trees, dirt, and decaying leaves. It looked like virgin forest without any sign of human influence but there was something odd about it that Stone couldn’t put his finger on.

“It looks like there may be a drop so let’s take a measurement. Andy, break out the fishing gear in case we need to use it,” said Hardy.

One of the students slid onto the table and dropped what looked like a plum line through the frame and fed out line until it went slack. “It looks like we are above the ground about twenty feet, Doctor Hardy,” the student said as she pulled the line back and moved off of the table.

“Thank you, Amber;” Hardy said to the student and continued, “Well nothing is ever easy. Hook up the fishing gear and get the car down there so we can take some pictures. We’re on a short time limit so let’s get moving.”

Andy and Stevie hooked the car and camera up to the two lines on the fishing pole, moved the car over to the table and gently put it through the frame. Andy started to slowly lower the car while Stevie retrieved the remote control for it. The car was soon on the ground and Andy took off the drag on the fishing reel so the car could move around more freely. Jenny stood ready with the shutter trigger and took a couple of pictures at Doctor Hardy’s nod. Stevie started the car and, Stone assumed, moved it in a slow circle so that every couple of seconds Jenny could snap some more pictures. After two minutes of this Stevie put down the remote as Andy closed the drag and started to reel the car back up to the frame. Just as the top of the car reached the bottom of the frame a warning buzzer started to sound.

“We took too long! Get it back! Quick! Quick!” shouted Hardy. Stevie jumped onto the table and reached through the frame to grab the car and pulled it through just as the view in the frame snapped closed with a pop that was felt more than heard and then only thing visible through the frame was the other end of the table. Stevie put the car on the table and disconnected the lines from the fishing pole. There was dirt and dead leaves stuck to the tires of the car as well as some fresh leaves caught under the camera that must have been snagged as the car made its circle. A cheer went up as the research team saw these and people started to hug Stevie and pat him on the back for his daring rescue of the car.

“Sarah, make sure we get samples for analysis of the leaves and soil. Jenny, get the pictures developed as soon as possible. Everyone else please shut it down and clean it up, then call it a day. Colonel, Major, why don’t we go and have a chat while they work on those things?” said Hardy.

Hardy led Stone and Decker from the lab and down the hall to a cramped office with books, papers, and academic journals piled everywhere. Hardy emptied two chairs for his visitors to sit on and then shifted some of the stacks around on his desk so that he could see them while they talked. As he sat in his chair behind the desk he said, “So you’re here to get information on my project, does that mean you received the videotape I sent?”

“Yes we did. We’re here so you can tell us more about what you’re doing and why,” said Stone. “I must admit that after what I saw in there that I am very intrigued and I really want to know what happened.”

“What do either of you know about ghosts?” Hardy asked.

“Ghosts?” said Stone as he shared a puzzled look with Decker, “What do you mean, ghosts? Are you talking about things that are like mist and go ‘Boo’?”

“Yes, yes,” chuckled Hardy, “something like that. Tell me what you know or might have heard.”

“Well, like I said, they are insubstantial and they scare people. They’re supposed to be spirits of dead people that can’t get to heaven, right?” said Stone.

“I’ve heard that some people believe that ghosts are demons, or maybe something like a recording of an emotional experience imprinted on the surroundings, or just creations of someone’s mind, or most probably an illusion created by misinterpreting what your senses are telling you about your surroundings,” said Decker.

“Yes, those are the most popular ideas about what ghosts are,” said Hardy. “In order to understand why my project exists you need to understand my interest in ghosts. You see, I had a close encounter with one when I was about eight. That experience shaped my life. It affected how I came to view ghosts and was the catalyst for the concepts that shaped my work.

“My grandmother and I didn’t live near each other but she was very fond of me and loved it when I came to visit. When I was about eight years old she died from a sudden illness. My parents and I travelled to her home for the funeral and were staying with my grandfather the night before the service. I was young and couldn’t sleep because of the strange bed and surroundings and I was very saddened by the passing of my grandmother.

“I was walking around the house as quietly as I could, you might even say I was sneaking around, and I went into the kitchen to get a drink of water. As I walked into the room I saw my grandmother sitting at the table sipping a cup of coffee. She looked just as solid as the table and chairs and I was so happy and surprised that I said, ‘Grandma, is it really you?’ At first she didn’t seem to hear me so I took a couple of steps closer to her and said, ‘Grandma, is it really you?’ again.

“This time she heard me and turned to look at me and looked very surprised to see me. Then a look of frustration and anger came over her face, she stood up, took a step toward me and said, ‘Young man, I don’t know who you are but it isn’t polite to just walk into someone’s house and wander around. You need to leave right now! Get out of my…’ and then she vanished completely and the room was empty again. It was like I hadn’t just heard her or seen her standing there. The chair she was sitting on was back under the table and the table itself was clear of dishes. I was so shocked that she didn’t know who I was and had vanished so suddenly that for several years I had to fight a deep depression every time I thought about it.

“When I got older I became interested in quantum-physics and started to learn about what is called ‘string theory’ and I began to wonder if it was really my grandmother I had seen that night or if it could have been someone else who looked like my grandmother. As I have studied and worked with the string theory equations I developed two theories of my own that might explain what we call ghosts better those other ideas you mentioned. Once I had my first doctorate I started to talk to others who were interested in string theory until I identified my current team. We then went shopping our ideas for research out to different colleges and universities until we found ourselves here where we have not only support but access to vital resources to conduct experiments.

“My theories follow two different tracks. The first theory, what we call ‘Phase-One,’ posits that everything in our universe is made up of sub-atomic particles which in turn are made up of tiny components called ‘strings’ that exist in only one dimension. Some strings are open while others are closed loops. All strings vibrate and the variation of the type and number of strings in a particle determines if you get an electron, proton, neutron, photon, graviton, etc.

“Some strings can be supercharged and stretch from one dimension into a membrane of two dimensions. These membranes or ‘branes’ can stretch to enormous size, even large enough to contain an entire universe. If a universe exists on a brane then everything on that brane would of necessity resonate to the vibration of that brane, which is after all just a string. If our universe exists on one of these branes then other universes could exist on other branes that have a different vibrational frequency and might be parallel to, overlap, or even overlay our own.”

Hardy could see by the questioning look on their faces that his guests didn’t understand his explanation, so he said, “Imagine – if you will– a harp with a near infinite number of strings. You know that each string on a harp has its own tone because of the frequency at which it vibrates. Each string on this harp represents a different universe which vibrates at its own frequency. We are on one of these strings and as we change the tension on a part of our string we match the tone, or frequency, of a different string. When this happens the strings become similar enough that a bridge, or window, or overlap is created between the two.

 

“So I believe that what we perceive to be ghosts could in fact be manifestations of cross-over or overlap between universes. These overlaps happen when a natural ‘vibration wormhole,’ wormholes created by vibration frequencies that are matching or near matching, is created between universes. These natural vibration wormholes are rare and of short duration, anywhere from one minute to about one hour. We think they may be related to or caused by certain types of solar activity. Natural vibration wormholes are unstable to the point of not allowing actual transfer of matter between universes.

“There is very little or no actual physical interaction between a ‘ghost’ from a vibration wormhole and our physical surroundings because of the different frequencies of the two universes causing matter from one to appear insubstantial in the other, however, the nearer the native frequencies of the overlapping universes the more substantial the matter will appear. If a stable vibration wormhole could be achieved then matter might be able to transfer from one universe to another. The transferred matter would be unable to maintain cohesion, however, because the frequencies of the transferred matter and the new universe do not match and the new universe would break the matter down to its smallest constituents, the strings, and then match those strings’ frequency with its own and finally absorb the strings into itself.

“These other universes may be just like our own or they may be completely alien in every way. The laws of physics that we are familiar with may be the exact same there, completely irrelevant, or even a mix of the two. Those universes may contain people who are duplicates of ourselves who are exactly the same, somewhat the same, totally different, or no duplicate may exist at all. I believe that the closer the other universe’s vibration frequency is to our own, the more similar it will be to our own. A universe that has a frequency completely different from ours would be totally foreign to anything we know. I also believe that if we could find a way to stabilize matter transferred from our universe to another, and vice-versa, then we might be able to obtain new knowledge, materials, technology, and resources.”

“So your videotape and the rat we saw today were this type of transfer?” Decker asked.

“Yes,” Hardy replied. “But we are still having problems with any transferred matter maintaining its integrity. It all vanishes within a minute or so of crossing over.”

“Do you know what happens to it?” Stone asked.

“Not really, but as I said before, I believe that the foreign universe is fighting the vibration frequency of the transferred matter, breaking it down to the string level, re-tuning the frequency and then absorbing the matter into itself,” Hardy said.

“What was the thing in the woods, then?” Decker asked.

“That was what we call a ‘Phase-Two’ transfer and is based on a separate theory. My second theory is based on the idea of quantum entanglement,” Hardy continued. “Quantum entanglement posits that two particles in our own universe may become entangled on a quantum level. This entanglement can occur with any two like particles and is not limited by distance or even time. In other words a particle here on earth may be entangled with a particle on the far side of the universe or even with another particle on earth at any point in earth’s history. So you can see why we might be interested in this type of transfer for research and exploration.

“According to this theory what we perceive to be ghosts are in fact manifestations of natural ‘quantum entanglement wormholes.’ These ‘entanglement wormholes’ cause echoes from the past, or even the future, to appear in our present, or they could cause echoes of things on other planets to appear on our planet and vice-versa. A natural wormhole of this type usually connects to the same time or place each time they occur. Although we believe this takes place only in our own universe it may also be possible to cross over to other universes, but we think this is more about traveling in space and/or time than between universes.

 “Naturally occurring entanglement wormholes are also unstable and may or may not allow objects to cross from one place or time to another and may also affect what can be perceived on either side of the wormhole. This means that objects may completely physically cross through the wormhole, only cross in an insubstantial way, meaning that they are unable to fully physically interact with matter on the foreign side of the wormhole, or that sound or smell would be faint and touch would be more of a cold or clammy feeling. It may also be that we can only see, hear, or smell something through the wormhole.

“A wormhole may be so faint that we may simply experience a cold sensation as we pass through an area where a wormhole has opened.  Because any natural entanglement wormholes are unstable they will force any overlap of the two places or times to end and will draw any objects that crossed-over from one place or time back to its native place or time as the wormhole closes. Because we believe that these wormholes occur only in our own universe the laws of physics that we know will apply in all places or times when one opens, whether it is a stable or unstable wormhole.

“A quantum entanglement may occur anywhere, underwater, in solid rock, inside an active volcano, in space, etc., and a stable entanglement wormhole will allow matter to transfer in either direction. Because of this our team has learned that we must be prepared to deal with any likelihood if the entanglement is between here and an environment that is not compatible with human life. That’s why we have the shield.

 “We believe that any travels through time would be highly problematic due to the issue of paradox. We believe that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to change the past and that a person is more likely to add to a past event rather than change it completely. Altering a past event may be possible but would probably be catastrophic for our present. We just don’t know what is possible. Even adding to historical events may cause issues that affect a timeline without altering it completely, and the farther back on a timeline an event is added to or altered, the greater the impact it will have on the present.

“While travelling back in time through a wormhole may provide great opportunities to observe history the dangers of a well intentioned traveler making a change to the past may be disastrous and we would highly discourage any such travels. We believe that travels through space are more likely to yield technology or material resource dividends.”

“So you’re telling us that what we saw was possibly an alien planet?” asked Decker, his voice rising with excitement.

“What I am telling you is that it may have been and alien planet, but was just as likely to have been a location here on earth, possibly during another time in history,” Hardy responded patiently while using a calming gesture with both hands.

“So, what does that frame in the table do?” asked Decker.

“Ah,” Hardy said, “That frame is our quantum field generator. That is what really does all of the work for either type of transfer. It’s the brain-child of Kevin and Wendy Sparks, a work of true genius really. We built the circuitry for both transfers into that frame. We thought it would be more economical. While it’s functional that way, we now believe that separate generators would have actually been more practical. For a Phase-One transfer the generator must first create a frequency field that matches the target universe.

“We believe it does this by exciting the strings on a sub-quantum level. As it does this a quantum frequency match is made and the mist you see is how our brains interpret the manifestation of what we call ‘quantum foam.’ Then, we think, that as the field is created it kind of superimposes itself onto the target universe and we get a wormhole to that universe that opens in a similar location to our universe. I really don’t know how the generator connects to the target universe, that’s Kevin’s area; all I know for sure is that it does connect. It takes enormous amounts of power to create the field but once the connection is made the generator can maintain it with just a trickle of energy.

“For a Phase-Two transfer the generator identifies a sub-atomic particle, like a lepton, gluon, photon, or graviton that is entangled. We’ve found that most particles are entangled so it isn’t that difficult to identify one. The generator then locks onto the identified particle and it opens a wormhole to the location of the second particle wherever that may be either in time or space. Again, I don’t know exactly how it does this, I just know that once we lock onto a particle with the generator and turn on main power the field opens and we have a wormhole to somewhere else.

“We learned that an entangled particle can be anywhere, and since there are more places that are dangerous than safe, we took precautions with a shield. Additionally, we haven’t yet found a way to be able to identify the same particle twice which means that each of these wormholes goes somewhere new and if we don’t retrieve what we send through before the wormhole closes it becomes a one-way trip and the object is lost permanently. In this type of transfer the particle identification and lock take very little power but opening and maintaining the wormhole takes huge amounts of energy.

“That’s one reason we chose this college, it has its own nuclear generator that provides power for the whole campus plus about ninety percent of the town. We have an agreement with the college to be able to use up to ninety percent of the output for one hour each week. That’s why we needed to finish our experiments before I could speak to you. The warning klaxon you heard was for an imminent shut down of the power because we were drawing in excess of our agreement trying to maintain the wormhole.”

“Can you tell us how big the generator is, just so we can get an idea of your power consumption?” Stone asked.

“If I remember correctly,” replied Hardy, “it is a one thousand kilowatt generator, so we can draw up to nine hundred kilowatts for one hour per week.”

Before Stone could get his next question out, Stevie walked into the office with a huge grin on his face and said, “I took a couple of leaves over to Doctor Asperian in biology to see if he could identify the species and he said that, while they are similar to some species, he has never seen anything like them.” At those words Hardy started to smile as well and then both he and Stevie started to laugh loudly. The sound brought others to the office door to find out what was happening. When Hardy had Stevie repeat his news the group at the door burst into cheers with a lot of laughing and back slapping included.

Decker looked at Stone the question plain on his face, but he got the same look back from Stone. Stone cleared his throat and asked Hardy, “What’s the party for?”

“Well Colonel, Major, Stevie’s news tells us that we have opened a real and stable entanglement wormhole that went somewhere other than the here and now on earth,” Hardy said and his smile grew broader with each word. As he looked back and forth between the two officers he could see that they still didn’t understand so he said, “What it means is that we have brought back leaves from either a time on earth where there are plants unlike any now living on earth or we have brought them from a different planet!”

Both Stone and Decker fell back in their chairs with their mouths hanging open and looks of dumbfounded disbelief on their faces. This made Hardy, Stevie and the others laugh even harder. The party was still going on and getting bigger twenty minutes later as people brought food and drinks to celebrate the good news when Jenny came back with a stack of eight by ten photographs in her hands and smile on her face. She went directly to Doctor Hardy and handed him the pictures. The party quieted down as he shuffled through the photos until he found one that seemed to please him more than any of the others. He stood and held it up for everyone to see and shouted, “Confirmation!” and the party exploded with cheering.

Stone and Decker asked to see the photo and after a good long look they excused themselves and walked back toward the building’s entrance. Once outside they both let out an explosive breath and Stone said to Decker, “This is something that Central Command will absolutely want to hear about. I want us to take separate transportation back to Washington so our report will definitely make it there.”

“Yes, sir,” replied Decker. Then he said, “Sir, that picture, there were two suns in it!”

“I know, Major. That’s why we need to get a handle on this now so that it doesn’t leak out and be used against us,” was Stone’s reply.

Next Chapter: CHAPTER 2  "...I had sent my spies out… that I might discover their preparations…"