Chapter No. 22.

He didn't meet up with Felicity until the next day. He was sitting in the pool chamber and very carefully going over her math concerning a theory about the cosmic ray devices that were being used for terraforming.

She smiled at him when he looked up from his laptop. "How's it coming?"

"This is a Cat State analysis but it's in four dimensions with the fourth dimension being time. Essentially it quantifies the fact that one can exist in more than one state at the same time.

"I always thought that Schrodinger didn't go far enough," she said with a subtle smile. "There's no reason we can't employ a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state superposition concept to this problem even though it would involve billions of atoms and involve multiple states."

He smiled. "I had a hunch this involved some quantum concept, but I didn't think any of the current theories would apply."

She sat down next to him. "We still can't explain how cosmic rays can to this amazing trick, but I believe that all we have to do is come up with a mechanism for how exotic cosmic rays can create entanglement."

"I really appreciate this. I was close to losing my mind over this problem."

She offered a more serious smile. "We can work it out together."

"Hopefully," he replied.

The sound of splashing and screeches caught their attention. The sound was coming from the other women enjoying the slide chute.

"How can you concentrate with that display of female exhibition so near?"

He offered her a subtle grin. "I've adjusted to it."

She turned to watch them. "I probably should join them." She turned back to him. "Do you mind?"

Carl gestured. "You're free to do as you please."

She stood up and gave him a smile before she ran off.

He assumed that she was just teasing him, but that wasn't the case. She knew that he was more interested in finding the holy grail of the Chandra prophecy, but she didn't want to appear to be ignoring her sisters.

He concluded that for the many trillions of atoms that make up a human and his or her clothing to be simultaneously transferred to a different timeline would require the supposition of multiple entangled bosonic states. The problem was that there was no known method to accomplish that. It would require understanding how a cosmic ray blast could cause something that's impossible. He hoped that Felicity's expertise would lead to a solution.

He didn't run into her for a few days. He didn't want it to appear that he was more interested in her, which would cause a diplomatic problem. That last thing he wanted was for it to appear that he was ignoring the rest of them, but he was anxious to determine the truth even if it was nearly impossible.

She walked up to him wearing an elegant print midi dress and high heels, something that he would assume she would wear in a more formal scenario. "Hi," she greeted him in a soft voice.

"Morning," he replied. "You're up early."

"I knew that you would be here working on the problem," she said, sitting down next to him. "I think that Janet can help us in this study."

He stared at her with a look that signaled disbelief, but he softened to a subtle smile. "I'm open to any help."

Just then Janet walked up wearing a crew neck summer sleeveless tank bodycon shirt short mini dress and sat down next to him. He stared at her for a moment before turning back to Felicity. "I'm all ears."

"Time is an entanglement phenomenon which causes all clock readings to be into the same history," Janet said. "However, this non-locality allows for teleportation into different time entanglements."

"Ok," he said. "How do cosmic rays cause this teleportation?"

"Obviously, entanglement is very costly to produce. It requires an exotic particle, one that no one knows about."

"And I assume that the terraforming devices are capable of producing this exotic particle."

"Yes. They blast matter with exotic gamma rays that produce the particle, which we will call The Chandra particle."

"Unfortunately, I doubt that NASA will believe this, but I do, and I will work to convince them that it's dangerous."

"We'll continue working on the theory to bring it into compliance," Felicity said. "In the meantime, I've given you the math we worked out to go with this theory."

"I appreciate that. Thanks."

They both smiled and walked away. Carl knew that he had geniuses living with him. They liked to tease him and fool around like high schoolers, but they were the most brilliant minds in the world. He concluded that this was not an accident, that he was destined to be in this situation because of the Chandra prophecy.

When he had gathered Felicity and Janet's math and incorporated it into a complete theoretical manifest concerning the timeline problem, he decided to take it to George Latimore and see if he would do something about the terraforming operations.

George looked it over and smiled. "This is very good work. Are you a theoretical physicist?"

"This is the work of two brilliant women. I am showing you it because it proves that the cosmic ray producing devices that are being used to terraform Titan and the moon of Planet Nine are causing timeline changes to anyone who ventures into their cosmic ray beams."

George looked at Carl as if he were amused. "We know that. That's why there will be no further missions to go near them until their work is finished."

"If you knew that, why did you send us there?"

"We only found out about this problem recently. I apologize for any harm we have done to you and your crew members." He paused for a moment before he said something that changed everything. "You and your crew members will be afforded any necessary medical attention for as long as you live. You will also receive your salaries and will train astronauts for as long as you wish. All we ask is that you don't reveal any of this to the media."

Carl was momentarily overwhelmed, but he replied in the only way that he could because he had to consider his crew. It wouldn't be fair to jeopardies their futures.

"I agree."

And that was it, at least for the moment. He would have to talk it out with his crew.

Author's Notes
A Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state (GHZ state) is a certain type of entangled quantum state that involves at least three subsystems (particle states, qubits, or qudits). I realize that doesn't help, but it is a quantum theory.

A Cat State is involved with Schrödinger's cat concept. It's a mathematical process. In quantum mechanics, the cat state, named after Schrödinger's cat, is a quantum state composed of two diametrically opposed conditions at the same time, such as the possibilities that a cat is alive and dead at the same time.

Cat states can also be used to encode quantum information in the framework of bosonic codes. The idea of using cat qubits as a bosonic code for quantum information processing traces back to Cochrane et al. Quantum teleportation using cat states was suggested by Enk and Hirota and Jeong et al.