Twin Earth

“So, do you think it might be from Rachel?” I asked curiously as I scanned through Yuki’s notes whilst following her to a quieter room at the back of the lab.

Closing the door behind us, Yuki pulled down the blinds and switched off the light, then proceeded to turn on a projector from a nearby computer.

“No, I do not think it is from Miss Jenkins, or the planet beyond the barrier…”

“Mochuvia.”

“Yes, Mochuvia,” Yuki paused with a hint of annoyance at being interrupted. “I believe, and Hayden has also concluded similar findings, that it is in fact a message from whoever created the barrier.”

”The creators?” I asked curiously. “But why? What does it say? Have you decoded it?”

”Well, at first we thought it was simply a random set of mathematical fluctuations. A pattern only emerged when we were sent a larger piece of the meteorite from Morocco and placed it down next to the fragments we already had whilst we were working on some dark matter experiments. At first the pattern looked to be incomplete, but we put that down to the fact that we didn’t have the whole meteorite to work on. Repeated attempts at gaining access to the much larger piece in Morocco have proven fruitless, especially now it has been removed to an unknown location.”

“I see, so what am I seeing here?” I asked, looking up at the wall in front of me to what Yuki was now projecting.

“This table shows the fluctuations from our initial experiments on the fragments you collected, and then this graph shows how those fluctuations changed when we added in the larger piece.”

“I see the difference, yes, but how is this a message. From what I can tell it simply looks like a recurring pattern. Could it not just be a natural phenomenon?”

“At first I came to the same conclusion, but Hayden’s team looked at scaling up this data by using a computer model to calculate what the fluctuations would look like if we had the whole meteorite fragments that landed in Morocco.”

I watched as Yuki flicked to another set of graphs and was astonished to see a pattern laid out in much more detail, which to me almost looked like an image of some kind.

“But we went further. We used Hayden’s computer model to scale up the same specifications as if we had the asteroid in its complete form, before it hit the anomaly, and we got this.”

”What is that?” I asked, leaning forward and staring in awe at a grainy black and white image of varying grids, dots and dashes. Is that… a star map?” I asked, turning to look at Yuki.

“Yes.”

“That’s incredible,” I breathed loudly.

“That’s only a part of it. These next three images were also embedded within the pattern.”

I watched as Yuki slowly clicked through to three more images that looked similar in nature, except for the last one.

“This one is different,” I announced. “The scale is smaller, why is that?”

”We were hoping you could help us with that. We’ve discovered that the first three images seem to map out various constellations. The first one here actually features the Andromeda galaxy at the centre between Cassiopeia and Pegasus,” Yuki replied, flicking back to the first image.

”The link between us and the creators,” I exclaimed excitedly.

“Possibly. It does seem to be central to this set of data. The second map we’ve linked to a galaxy in the constellation of Ursa Major, a star burst galaxy called Messier 82.”

”That’s a very active galaxy with bright pulsars and supernovae. Didn’t that galaxy collide with a neighbouring galaxy if I’m not mistaken? Could it be possible that’s the original home-world of the creators,” I pondered intrigued.

“An interesting concept. The stars there are born ten times faster than those in our own Milky Way so it could certainly be fertile ground for planetary development, if that was indeed the creators’ intention as well. Either way, it clearly means something relevant. The third map however is unrecognisable. We’ve tried numerous different star systems and we even logged extra time on the deep space satellite in Hawaii, thanks to your father’s assistance, but we’ve found nothing that matches these formations. For a while we even debated if it was a star map, but it has the same features as the other two images. We can only conclude that it is in a region of space that we cannot detect.”

”That’s incredible,” I whispered.

”I was hoping you might recognise the third or fourth image from your travels?”

”Not the third no, I don’t, but go back to the fourth image, the one in a smaller scale. I believe it matches the planetary formation of Mochuvia and Earth. Look here,” I replied, standing up and walking over to the projection. “Mochuvia has two main land masses, at least it did before I left, but it hasn’t always. Before the barrier went up to save our two worlds, we developed in close proximity to each other, spinning around each other violently, a little like Pluto does with its largest moon Charon, but on a much larger and more turbulent scale. If that was to happen then we would see friction caused by that union here and here,” I added, pointing to darker markings on two circular rings on the last image.

”Of course,” Yuki whispered, walking closer and looking at where my finger was now pointing. “So this part of the map must represent the separation of our two worlds in some way.”

”I believe so. Also, if it’s based on the black box technology I saw envelop the smaller black hole, this hexagonal grid here symbolises the barrier,” I replied excitedly.

“So what do these mean?” Yuki asked, passing her hand over the map towards a section of random lines coming from each planet.”

Curious, I looked closer. I couldn’t be sure, but an idea flashed in my mind.

“Could these represent the connections between our two worlds and beyond? In fact, scroll back to the other images.”

Hurrying back, Yuki quickly switched back through the images and stopped on the first map.

“There, look. The same lines are here and I bet they’re on the other ones too,” I exclaimed.

As Yuki flicked through the images we both looked at each other. I was amused to see Yuki smile for the first time since I had been back.

“They all have lines,” Yuki replied excitedly. “Could it be possible that these are indeed the ellipses you talk of? I must run these past James. Wait here.”

Yuki ran out of the door and for a while I stared curiously at the last, smaller scaled map. Then it hit me. One of the lines came from the area of Peru I had returned to. There were others as well coming from other parts of South America as well as the Middle East and Asia, but what really surprised me was one that looked to be in Scotland. It was hard to make out exactly where it was, but it looked to be coming from an area North West of Glasgow, possibly as far as the Isle of Harris.

I jumped at the sudden sound of Yuki and James entering the room, quickly followed by Hayden who was carrying way too many folders.

“Tom believes these lines are links between our two planets as well as other planets in our universe. The ellipses he talked of.”

”Amazing,” James whispered, leaning in close and studying the map in great detail.

“That’s not all. I think this one is in Scotland, near the Highlands,” I added.

”So, not Stonehenge then?” James grinned excitedly.

“No, not Stonehenge,” I replied, slightly irritated at not being taken seriously. “Historical monuments are not really my forte, but is it possible that there’s something in that area that could be considered a portal to another world?”

“I’ve been to that area,” Hayden interjected. “I went on an expedition there in my youth. It was part of my degree many years ago. There’s a set of standing stones in that area that pre-dates Stonehenge.”

“It does?” James asked curiously.

“Yes. Oh what are they called? Dah, I can’t remember.”

“The Calanais Stones?” Yuki replied.

“Yes, yes! That’s it. There’s another set of stones nearby, but I distinctly remember the Calanais stones because of how old they were. We went there because it’s thought they were once used as an astronomical observatory. They’re actually on the West coast of Lewis. There’s even a legend that early on a midsummer morning an entity known as the Shining One is said to walk amongst the stones. Interestingly however, it was actually abandoned only a thousand years after it was built. No-one knows why, but it was hidden for centuries underground until it was dug up in recent years.”

“Well that’s our place then. Let’s head there,” James replied excitedly.

“And do what exactly?” Yuki replied, looking over her rimmed glasses and scowling at James.

“Dig around?” James shrugged. “It’s the first development we’ve had in years, if you don’t count Tom turning up like a bad penny.”

Frowning at James, I suggested something a little more scientific. “I have a better idea. Why not run those same experiments you ran on the fragments, on the stones instead? See if we can pick up any vibrations, patterns, fluctuations. Maybe look at the geology of the stones.”

”I think that sounds sensible,” Yuki replied nodding, turning off the projector and switching the lights back on.

“Finally, she agrees,” James smiled as we followed her out the door.