© M. Keaton, 2000

Allow me to take a crack at this “current” thing (in typical Keaton fashion). Note—all scientific theorems referred to (other than Ian’s Blue Monkey) are actual and may be found, in detail, in any good graduate level P. Chem. book. Theoretically, this is possible.

Chiun Sarte, Master of the Sixth Dynasty, indicated an ornately brocaded pillow with a flowing sweep of his hand then settle gracefully onto his own hassock. “Revered Reverend Father Dimitri, we are honored to receive you.”

His guest smoothed his ecumenical robes and sat, replying, “It is I who am honored, your Imperial Excellence. I do hope that your donation to our order did not overly tax your resources.”

“Quite the opposite. We found your fee remarkably low. A freighter of blankets, it seems so little.”

The priest nodded. “The knowledge you seek is almost common knowledge to those who would seek it. It would not be fair to truly charge but, then, what is value? To you, simple clothe is a common thing but to the needy few whom we will send them, they may mean life or death. Have you given merely cloth or have you given life?”

“You flatter us. Would you take tea with us?”

“Indeed. While we wait shall I begin?” At a nod from the Master, the priest began.

“The Imperial Excellence has requested an explanation of space travel, of the currents and the tides, phrased such that his Excellence can achieve a more complete understanding. To this end, I shall attempt to be not overly technical but there are a few scientific premises we must begin with.

“The first is the L’Engle Premise. It is best illustrated through the folding of a string, essentially bowing a length of travel upon itself to shorten the actual distance traveled. Another is Aesop’s Quandary: if one travels one-half of the distance to a thing with every step, the steps will become infinitely shorter but the thing will never be reached.

“It is a combination of these two facets which I can best use to explain Nexus points. Each use of these sets of currents makes the journey faster to travel and more stable as each usage reinforces the folding effect of the L’Engle Premise while Aesop’s Quandary insures that, no matter how well traveled, a given path will never be truly instantaneous. It is, I know, a poor explanation but once we have the true nature of currents, it will become clearer.”

Tea was served and the two men observed the solemn rituals in silence. Finished, the priest continued as if he had not paused.

“Without an exhausting study into quantum theory, I fear a complete understanding of currents may be unattainable but I believe the concepts may be summarized in the form of what science now refers to as Ian’s Blue Monkey.”

“An odd name for a scientific theory,” observed the Master causally.

The priest nodded. “Legend has it that the scientific philosopher who first compiled the theorems and came to an understanding of the quantum theories which would eventually allow man to travel outside of space was so overwhelmed by the demands of concentrating on so many different aspects of nuclear and physical chemistry at one time that he was eventually found sitting in his bathtub, painted blue, yelling ‘I like monkeys!’ at the top of his lungs. I doubt the true of the matter but the name has remained.

“Calculation of the translational motion and free motion may be derived from a Schrodinger equation. This calculation proves theoretically that the energy of a free particle is not quantitized. The most common example of the results of these equations is that the second derivative of the wavelength derived from a Schrodinger equation demonstrates the curvature of the space it occupies. Knowing this curvature, one may calculate the energies and then the wavefunctions of the potential location of a packet of matter so long as the energies are above the zero-point energy. If a sub-quantum particle’s energies fall below the zero-point energies, the particle ceases to exist and this may explain a portion of the missing energies typically associated with black holes. Hermite’s Equation tells us that energies will actually fall into a predictable series of energy levels and this allows us to determine the gaussian function which corresponds to the probability density of a particles actual location. There is some confusion on this point, I will admit, because more than one wavefunction may correspond to the same energy, creating a condition of degeneracy but I believe we need not discuss that at this time.

“Directly relating to this is the tunneling effect of quantum leaks with a smaller particle more likely to tunnel through the standard matter continuum than larger ones. A higher level of vibration and harmonic motion can affect the size restraints of tunneling. Combining all of this, we can calculate the probability that the particle occurs in a classically forbidden region. According to classical mechanics, the turning point of an oscillating particle occurs when its kinetic energy is at zero but, in quantum mechanics the wavefunction does not stop abruptly at these values, but glides towards zero as the displacement increases towards infinity. It follows that there is a non-zero probability of finding the particle where it is classically forbidden.”

The Master held up a hand and the priest stopped. The Master smiled and said, “Your words are as lovely as the flying of birds. . .”

“And just as inscrutable,” concluded the priest. “Let me summarize. We do not actually and empirically know the location of any particle of matter, we know only the bell-curve of the probability of its location. That is, we know where it is most likely to be most of the time. Even if a molecule of your cushion were to suddenly be displaced to a different portion of the universe, it would return so quickly that it essentially was never gone. The probability of its wavefunction draws it back just as it casts it forth. There are a few exceptions to this. Matter within a black hole may actually leak away as it eventually displaces itself beyond the event horizon. The Nexus points are another example of this quantum leakage.

“Classically, quantum leaks occur tangibly only on photon-like particles or smaller. Quantum tunneling through the continuum of space is significantly more unlikely and was, prior to Ian’s Blue Monkey, considered irrelevant outside of theorem. However, and this was the great breakthrough, with enough energy, a level of vibrational and harmonic motion can be induced which can surpass the classical restraints of tunneling. With enough power, an object can be tunneled through the continuum. Eventually, technology increased to the point that objects of significant size could be tunneled.

“Early tunneling experiments revealed significant problems in maintaining an objects coherence during the event but eventually the application of internal harmonic fields was found to provide internal cohesion and man entered the currents.

“The currents are a meta-physical representation of the probability wavefunctions of an object. Since they exist outside of the space continuum, although still within the continuum of time, what our navigators perceive as currents cannot actually be physically present. It is a form of sensorial displacement, like seeing a smell or hearing a color; the human mind does not have the sensory apparatus to discern trans-spatial reality so it compensates with a form of Gestalt, letting a navigator ‘see’ the currents even though there is nothing to see.

“As I said, the currents like a topological representation of the probability wavefunctions of the space continuum. While an object is tunneled outside of the continuum, a skilled navigator may alter the probability of an objects wavefunction, altering its position in the actual world. By this, the ancient restraints of the speed of light are no longer relevant. We still cannot exceed the speed of light but we can move in ways irrelevant to it.”

The Master cleared his throat then spoke respectfully. “You could liken this to diving into a river, swimming underwater some distance, then resurfacing save that travel beneath the surface of the river is much faster.”

“It would be better to say swimming beneath a sea which has rivers within it and, remember, with no knowledge of what is above the surface.”

“Is there no reason to the flow of the currents, then?”

“No one is certain but it seems that the probabilities flow toward areas of mass since these have a stronger influence on the wavefunctions. It was by following these principles, effectively flowing downriver, that early explorers found stellar objects with a higher degree of reliability than just random guessing. It also seems that some navigators can ‘see’ the currents better and are more likely to make a more productive journey and are less likely to emerge into empty space. In many ways, the analogy of sailing is very accurate.”

The Master nodded. “This is enough for us. We thank you for your visit and would like this audience to be at an end.”

The priest stood and bowed deeply. “As you will. The order remains at your disgression.”