Apprentice Lost in Parallel. Kevin Colbran
nearly 30 odd years ago when my senior had done much the same as me and then returned to a normal life, forgetting the adventure.
The trust was set up independently by his assigned mentor visiting and buying shares using a list of companies, following a record of how they went over the years.
At this time his repair business was barely paying the rent so having 30 million dropped on him out of the blue was a shock.
This together with detailed instructions on how to set up a transfer station and then a factory complete with the marketing of the sleep gun and kinetic field turned his world on its’ end.
An essential part of the program was to arrange for someone to 'discover' the principles and patent the devices. Sometime in the twists and turns of the parallel worlds, an alternate Steve and his son Thomas acting in partnership achieved this.
Rather than drop this on the poor sod he mentored, Senior now organised a training program so that said poor sod would be better prepared.
The anomaly of time slip is explained, that when the choice creates another world, it then hives off like the Jewish candelabra.
So drawing a horizontal line, the timeline seems to be different in that the original or close to the centre and the inner lines lag behind in elapsed time. Well as it works; parallel worlds can be an entirely different date.
Phenomena such as ghosts, déjà vu and premonitions could be explained by that there are thin places through which sensitive people can experience events in trances or dreams. We can, in fact, use these ‘thin’ areas to set up gateways, not essential but uses less power to maintain.
Another useful way of understanding the separation is as soap bubbles that can interact at boundaries; individually discreet and perhaps allowing for the existence of the missing dark matter that time and space theories can’t account for so far.
Have you heard of Schrodinger’s cat? It is a thought experiment of placing a live cat in a box, contained in the box is a lethal gas capsule with a random timer. The theory is that you cannot determine if the cat is alive or dead without opening the box. Therefore the result is that (a) the cat is alive but asleep, (b) The cat is dead.
A person cannot determine the live/dead status without opening the box and looking. One theory indicates that when you look to check; you then become part of the ‘bath’ which contains the cat. As you cross the boundary of the bubbles, this places you in a similar situation, and the previous world that you had been experiencing now becomes a physical barrier to observation.
The speculation also suggests that if they converge by time synchronisation, coincidental development or unequal exchange of material they eventually merge into one. Each blissfully unaware, that anything had happened, except that old friends and relatives that had disappeared in one now returned to the survivors of the other.
As the collapse of the barrier between the worlds would put a crimp in the cross gate enterprises, a careful accounting of matter transfer between is required.
The original transfer station mentioned was a shed on a rented block near Jondaryan, where Senior arranged an initial 40 tonne per week delivery of coal. This product is then loaded into containers and then being passed through the shed door/gate to arrive at an ‘up-time’ world so that its’ factories can use the coal as stock for plastics and minerals. This transfer was necessary as digging their own is forbidden because of environmental concerns.
After a time the container would return with computer integrated circuits, colloquially called 'chips', special plastic to build the gadgets with and the balance made up with gravel and water, to keep the weight in balance. The gravel built up the road through the block and the water into the dam for dust suppression. A couple of times a week the 'chips ' would be taken into Toowoomba, to assemble circuit boards and plastic parts.
Back at the workshop, workers would transport the boxes of plastic to the moulding shop and the finished parts collected. Onto the workbench and assembling the sets began.
"That's the easy part, as the product still has to be sold; this entailed convincing everyone they work and that the potential customer needs them.
We have to show that competing products such as 'Tasers' and body armour are inferior. This assembly also had to be done under high security as the original workshop was hardly Fort Knox."
"Fortunately, the family turned out to be highly talented in sales and production organising. Arranging the 'discovery of theory' was more difficult as Tom was absent, having returned to his mother several years before. He has since returned to the fold, and is now doing Uni to get the proper bits of paper to have credibility."
"Going to make an incredible breakthrough when he does his doctorate thesis. According to the rules, I can't give more than a few vague hints. While there are several competing theories, combining and turning these into practical items will be the tricky part. Despite having an engineering background, I have had to enter Uni myself to gain credibility by earning a degree, mind you, doing homework at my age is a shock to the system. This education is necessary, despite assembling the things for some time and being well versed in the background theory. One of the hardest jobs is explaining why the patents had to remain pending until we could show why they work. Technically the equipment we are now selling is second-generation, and once the team publishes the theories, a third-generation chip can then be patented and produced to keep ahead of the competition. The actual difference will be the removal of the anti-analysis feature, which makes them cheaper to manufacture.”
Noting that both of us had finished eating, he then put the dishes into a shiny cupboard. "Dishwasher, best invention since sliced bread."
I thought this was a strange comment as Mum usually did the slicing with a bread knife, and the kids did the washing up.
Guiding me through the door back to his office, Senior said, "I will have to knock over some paperwork. Despite some bright spark predicting that paper would be obsolete with the advent of computers, that hasn't happened yet, as everyone still writes notes as a backup." The 'IN' box cleared, we moved out into the foyer as Anne arrived.
"Pity if those door gadgets broke down you would have to walk somewhere,” Anne quipped.
Senior responded by poking his tongue out and informed her, "It hasn't happened yet. Off on the grand tour. We shouldn't be too long."
Keeping up a running commentary as we walked Senior continued, "This floor contains the management offices and a couple of sleepover bedsitters for visitors."
Entering the lift and using the conventional down set of buttons we debarked onto the second floor. "This floor has sales staff, production organisers and buying department." Using the steps this time, Senior commented, "Just for variety."
Down the next flight of stairs, we entered a parking garage, "The bosses park here, also the specials for when I need to visit the protégés. That one over there does it look familiar?"
Senior indicated a row of cars; there was one identical to my morrie. Pointing at this one, Senior asked. "Will we take that one?"
I nodded, so we climbed in, Senior having ushered me into the driver's seat with a smile, I was slightly suspicious, some differences were evident as I sat behind the wheel; the gear stick was in the 1000 model position, the steering wheel smaller, lower and leather covered.
“Before we move put the seat belt on,” Senior said as he demonstrated. To me these belts were a novelty, only racing and luxury cars had them in the early sixties, and I had to fit attachments on my car to allow the fitting.
I turned the ignition 'ON' and looked for the starter button (usually on the floor). "Just turn the key a bit more,” was the advice. Doing this the motor sprang quietly to life (instead of a shudder). I pushed the clutch in, the stick snicked into gear, and as I let the clutch out, the car zipped back causing me to hit the brakes to keep control.
Thump, wow they work well. I must have had a startled look on my face, Senior said, "I am used to modern cars with a bit more get up and go, this car was not standard."
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