written by Trevor Judd

© 2011 used with author’s permission

After sending his satchel through an x-ray machine and stepping through a metal detector himself, Professor Henry Kelvin was issued a visitor’s pass at the security desk where a guard briefed him on where he could and could not go within the building. An armed military escort led him away from the security checkpoint and into an elevator. Kelvin was no stranger at the Pentagon. He had given the Joint Chiefs their first briefing on The Phenomenon two years ago followed by the Secretary of Defense and the Vice-President eight months later. They all agreed it was a serious problem if it turned out to be true. So neutrons were behaving like they had no mass: big deal! A few atoms had spontaneously dissolved into quark-gluon plasma: so what? It was hardly cause for alarm much less quick, decisive action.

Now there had been an event, a singularity, and suddenly everyone was asking where Kelvin was. They found him at the Super-K neutrino observatory in Japan where he had been watching protons decay for the last year. While his colleagues were writing their Nobel acceptance speeches, Kelvin was quietly panicking. His worst suspicions had been confirmed. The Phenomenon was endemic, and it was changing the heart of particle physics. Then the men from Washington came to summon him back to the Pentagon and that’s when Kelvin knew the singularity wasn’t just near, it was already here.

His escort guided him out of the elevator and into an amphitheater where two-dozen men were seated. The room was a mix of civilian and military personnel. Kelvin noticed there was no one lower than a full colonel present among the uniformed officers. A door guard called the room to attention and the chiefs of staff entered the amphitheater, taking the row of seats nearest the pit. When the room was secured, a man with thinning white hair took the podium. He didn’t have a cane but walked with a noticeable limp, and his brown, leathery skin was dotted with liver spots. Kelvin had never seen him before.

Good afternoon, he said in a clear, mellifluous voice, I’m Calvin Bryce. Today’s briefing is classified top secret, eyes only. The lights dimmed to a dull glow and the white screen on Bryce’s left came alive with the image of an island. It was a triangular spit of land with a heavily forested interior outlined by rocky beaches. The angle of the picture was directly overhead, probably a satellite photo. At 1245 local time yesterday one of MILSTAR satellites detected a burst of ultra-high frequency radio waves from a source somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. At the same time a U.S. Navy submarine on patrol in the southern Atlantic detected a seismic event that briefly registered 5.5 on the Richter scale. The epicenter was pinpointed a thousand miles southeast of Bermuda. It was assumed that an underwater nuclear test had taken place, however, reconnaissance of the area found no evidence of such a test. Instead, our sub discovered the local topography of the seafloor had changed dramatically.

The next slide was an oceanographic chart showing the position of the island in relation to other undersea landmarks and their depths. This island is not on any current nautical chart, and it has never before been seen in satellite images of the same area. What’s more interesting is the oceanic plateau on which the island sits. It, too, is unknown. In short, this island and the land under it just suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Kelvin noticed several members of the audience uttering quick, hushed whispers between each other, but the Joint Chiefs remained stoically impassive. Such an occurrence was predicted two years ago by Dr. Henry Kelvin, Bryce continued, who will now brief you all on The Phenomenon. Kelvin rose and took Bryce’s place behind the podium. He was an imposing figure who stood six feet, seven inches tall with a large barrel chest and broad, square shoulders. Plump, rosy cheeks gave his face a youthful appearance, and his ash blonde hair was slowly whittling away into a distinguished widow’s peak.

I’m Dr. Henry Kelvin, and I am a professor of theoretical physics at Dixie Polytechnic Institute, he began. Two years ago, I briefed the Joint Chiefs of Staff on a series of events I’ve collectively termed The Phenomenon. While seemingly insignificant and unrelated, these events point to a serious change in physical laws that, until recently, were thought to be immutable. The least common but most dangerous of these events are entropic zones. Inside an entropic zone, the laws of physics are subject to change. Universal constants like the speed of light may have radically different values, and any person or thing caught inside a zone will be subject to altered physics. Whether life as we know it can exist within an entropic zone is impossible to say without direct observation.

The majority obviously didn’t believe it. How could they? The universe had behaved itself for billions of years. Why should it start throwing tantrums now? Someone asked the question: Where do entropic zones come from? The short answer is that they emerge out of quantum foam, Kelvin said. At dimensions smaller than subatomic particles, what physicists like myself call the Plank scale, fluctuations in quantum energy fields cause space to deform. The energy of these fields increases at smaller distances until space itself is so warped it looks like foam. An entropic zone is a pocket universe that starts as a tiny bubble in the quantum foam but then explodes and inflates until it enters our macrocosmic realm.

Are you saying an entropic zone formed this island? asked a colonel in the back row. Not directly, Kelvin explained. The entropic zone formed a singularity, and it was through this singularity that the island entered our world. What could possibly move a whole island and the land underneath it? asked Admiral Lawrence, one of the chiefs. Most likely a wormhole, Kelvin explained. A wormhole is a space-time bridge which acts like a tunnel that matter can pass through. If that’s the case then this island could be from anywhere: another time, another planet or a different universe altogether.

The first dissenter finally spoke up. Are you being serious? I’m totally serious, Kelvin said plainly. What kind of defense do we have? one asked. There is none, replied Kelvin. We don’t have the technology. The only thing we can do is study these events and collect data.

Now the whole room was buzzing like a hornets’ nest with every person trying to talk over the other. Bryce assumed the podium again and managed to get the room quiet again before continuing. It’s Dr. Kelvin’s recommendation that a new civilian agency be created for the sole purpose of studying The Phenomenon and developing methods of prediction and containment. This was the point in the briefing where the Secretary of Defense and Vice-President stopped listening, but the audience today seemed a little more receptive. The urgency of the situation means we can’t put the issue forward to Congress, Bryce continued, so the President has authorized a small response team be sent to investigate the island and determine if it’s safe for long term research and observation. What would be the point? a member of the audience asked. It’s clear we’re not prepared to deal with a crisis like this.

Bryce was very solemn in his reply. The point is to learn as much as we can. Like Dr. Kelvin said, it’s all we can do.







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