"Exactly. No future actions, but it also means we have to keep to ourselves as much as we can."
Philip taps his head. "I have nearly the entirety of human history uploaded in here. There were smaller things along the way but the big mission we had been working on was an asteroid impact. It would trigger the events that led to the global collapse. We managed to avert it but we were waiting to hear from the Director what new changes it brought."
He shifts on the sand. "Historians... sometimes we get updated. It's dangerous. Really dangerous. Sometimes it kills us. But we get updated with the new timeline, new information, changes since we landed in the twenty first. It causes some pretty serious side effects. It's a last resort sort of thing. If we enact another major two or two, I'll probably be contacted about it. If I'm willing to do it."
Kyle nods at that. "I mean it makes sense." At least in as much as he's keeping up with things and this life that Philip has lived. "You can't risk changing things with a life that shouldn't be there," he says with a nod.
"I was going to say," he whispers. "They can really do that? We have that technology?" He shakes his head, a doctor just trying to imagine what that's like and all it means. "If they can do all that, do you think it's possible they could find you here? Even if they haven't yet?"
He can't help but wonder, not that he would mention that to Alex or Tim who might want to know of a possible way to get out of here.
Philip goes quiet for that. "I don't know. I don't understand enough about the way this place interacts with time and space and normal quantum physics to begin to guess. I... someone suggested that we go back, to the exact same moment, never missed. There might be no one looking because they haven't moved past the moment we vanished."
Kyle frowns at that, shifting on the sand and trying to make sense of that. "Wait, really? Huh. No one has said anything like that to me," he admits, not liking how that sounds. "How? How is that even possible?"
Because if anyone might know, he suspects it would be Philip. Maybe?
Philip can explain... with a bit of effort. "Okay... So time/space is a continuum. Imagine that..." He draws a little circle on the sand. "That is 'space', the physical occupation of mass inside the universe. And these..."
He draws some lines radiating off it. "These are time lines. This is very, very simplistic, but run with it." He draws a square in between some lines, not touching any. "This is Duplicity, if we're right and it's a pocket dimension. It has nothing to do with any timeline, time runs at its own place. So you can be taken from here." He points at a place on the line. "Into the square. And back again. Make sense?"
Kyle listening, watching the diagram. He nods though because he can understand that, nodding. "Okay. I get that. It's creepier than I thought it was, but now it really..." He sighs, biting at his lips before nodding again.
"Yeah, it makes sense. So eventually you'll just go back to your program, and I'll go back to Roswell and..." He cranes his head, looking back at the house. "You seem to be my resident expert on this. "What would happen if you took someone from a different timeline from your own and took them back to your own timeline? Would it be like you going back and so long as you didn't do anything major it wouldn't screw things up?"
"This is all under the assumption that this is a pocket reality. I can't prove that. I don't know if this theory is right." Without some kind of quantum engine or frame, he couldn't really find out.
And then that.
And that... is a horrifying thought. "That- I don't even know. It could wipe out both realities entirely. Maybe it would do nothing. I can't even begin to wrap my mind on that."
Kyle hates how it makes him hopeful, to think that maybe there is a way for them to stay together, to be happy together. And then there's Philip's reaction to it.
"Oh. Uhmmm, well then," he says, nodding as his expression goes hollow, looking back to the ocean again. "I hadn't even thought about that and... well."
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no subject
Philip taps his head. "I have nearly the entirety of human history uploaded in here. There were smaller things along the way but the big mission we had been working on was an asteroid impact. It would trigger the events that led to the global collapse. We managed to avert it but we were waiting to hear from the Director what new changes it brought."
He shifts on the sand. "Historians... sometimes we get updated. It's dangerous. Really dangerous. Sometimes it kills us. But we get updated with the new timeline, new information, changes since we landed in the twenty first. It causes some pretty serious side effects. It's a last resort sort of thing. If we enact another major two or two, I'll probably be contacted about it. If I'm willing to do it."
no subject
"I was going to say," he whispers. "They can really do that? We have that technology?" He shakes his head, a doctor just trying to imagine what that's like and all it means. "If they can do all that, do you think it's possible they could find you here? Even if they haven't yet?"
He can't help but wonder, not that he would mention that to Alex or Tim who might want to know of a possible way to get out of here.
no subject
Philip goes quiet for that. "I don't know. I don't understand enough about the way this place interacts with time and space and normal quantum physics to begin to guess. I... someone suggested that we go back, to the exact same moment, never missed. There might be no one looking because they haven't moved past the moment we vanished."
no subject
Because if anyone might know, he suspects it would be Philip. Maybe?
no subject
He draws some lines radiating off it. "These are time lines. This is very, very simplistic, but run with it." He draws a square in between some lines, not touching any. "This is Duplicity, if we're right and it's a pocket dimension. It has nothing to do with any timeline, time runs at its own place. So you can be taken from here." He points at a place on the line. "Into the square. And back again. Make sense?"
no subject
"Yeah, it makes sense. So eventually you'll just go back to your program, and I'll go back to Roswell and..." He cranes his head, looking back at the house. "You seem to be my resident expert on this. "What would happen if you took someone from a different timeline from your own and took them back to your own timeline? Would it be like you going back and so long as you didn't do anything major it wouldn't screw things up?"
no subject
And then that.
And that... is a horrifying thought. "That- I don't even know. It could wipe out both realities entirely. Maybe it would do nothing. I can't even begin to wrap my mind on that."
no subject
"Oh. Uhmmm, well then," he says, nodding as his expression goes hollow, looking back to the ocean again. "I hadn't even thought about that and... well."