Transdimensional Physics 101 - Ian - 47

My brain hurt. A lot. Having what must be four or five years of Quantum physics crammed in to your brain in less than six hours can do that to you. Marcus wasn't helping - he seemed to vacilate between thinking I knew nothing and thinking I knew everything, while all the while expecting me to come up with a brilliant solution to a problem I never understood in the first place.
After an exhausting conversation with Marcus, I managed to figure out, in a very basic way, what had just happened. This involved basically learning a new type of physics, but maybe that's why I was chosen - I'm a very quick study. As Greg explained to me much later, scientists are hardly ever recruited because they're to close-minded; learning transdimensional physics involves an unlearning of tradional physics which most of them can't deal with. So don't think to much about this, and I'm gonna try and explain it to you without bogging down the story too much (God knows it's been bogged down enough already.)
First, let's go over the basics of dimensional travel. Imagine, if you will, a grid. No, scratch that, imagine a waffle. Only, more like a stack of waffles, that is to say, a three dimensional grid, made of intersecting planes. All the parrallel planes are parralell universes, and all planes facing other directions are whats called perpendicular universes. Easy, right? Except now imagine the perpendicular planes are actually irregularly shaped, flat objects, like puzzle pieces, and which parrallels they connect are almost random, and they intersect at random angles, and they frequently have large wholes in them. What you have is nothing at all like the shape of the multiverse, but it will do for now.
So imagine we are on one of the planes, and we want to get to one of the puzzle pieces. We have to travel to a specific point on the plane to get to a specific puzzles piece. So how does a gate in a fixed location access so many different perps?
It uses a buffer dimensions. Buffer dimensions are kind of like shadows of reality, dimensional echoes that exist around every dimension. The gate actually takes you to the buffer, from which it takes a fraction of a second to jump to any connected perp. I don't know how this works either, and what I do know would take a week to explain, so just take it and run with it.
So during that split second we were in the buffer, Virgil somehow diverted us to another perp. Because of this, the ship remained in the buffer for a few seconds too long. This caused the ship, and everyone in it, to destabilize.
Again, I need to digress. All matter contains a three-part subatomic signature so dep within each subatomic particle it it is almost impossible to detect. These signatures can immediately be used to identify the native dimension, time, and basic geographical location of an object. These are called planar, temporal, and spacial frequencies, respectively. There is also a fourth signature which only appears in living things. Many scientists specualte it changes with a persons feelings, but all they know for sure is that it's in a constant state of flux. This is called the psycholinear frequency.
Confused yet? Imagine how I felt. Hold on, though, we're almost done. So we're in the buffer dimension, Virgil somehow changes course, and suddenly we destabilize. Normally when a creature or object becomes destabilized, it's four frequencies ensure that it restabilizes as soon as it exits the buffer, as each particle seeks out those with similar frequencies. Since everyone on board (As far as I knew at the time) had the same temporal and planar signatures and incredibly similar geographical signatures (one planet is nothing, from a universal prospective,) It is the psycholinear frequency which we relied on to restabilize us. Gillian and Gregs psychloinear frequencies had, for one reason or another, at that moment been very, very similar. Atoms didn't know where to go. So they formed into Grillian.
If your mind is analytical like mine, you're probably asking - where did all the extra matter go? How do two normal sized people become one normal sized person? Where, in short, was "Geg"?

Time for Intrigue

I never wanted children. I would never deal with having to worry about someone because they couldn't worry about themselves. Recruits are not meant to be depend on the recruiter, they are chosen specifically for their potential for working both independently and as a team. I found Ellen's concern for her team admirable, but a bit out of place for the current situation. She needed to straighten out her priorities, and we all needed a way into a normal plane of existance.
"Ellen, you're over reacting, this has happened before, and it can be fixed. I think you can handle a little time without Greg."
Absent mindedly, I skimmed my fingers across the nav-screen. The flight deck was actually split into three different sections, a main console controlling real-time/space movement, one for perpendicular navigation, and one for, oh, lets call it temperal navigation. Temporal navigation is always a touchy field. After all, or maybe before all, that's why this whole organization exists. Generally, the third console is only used for getting home at normal time; so that everyone we remember is still alive, rather than returning to find that thousands of years have passed when the mission only took a few weeks. It did, however, have many other theoretical, parodoxical, and incredibly dangerous uses.
"Yes, a little time would really hit the spot about now," I said, staring at the temporal navigation terminal. Slowly, Ellens eyes followed mine.
"No."
"It's perfect, Ellen. Exactly what we need to take stock. I'll have time to figure out what we need to do, and you'll have time to separate your kid from your boyfriend."
Ellen froze for maybe a quarter of a second.
"What? she, he, Never mind. You need to figure out what we need to do? Do I need to remind you who is commanding this mission and who is at best 'under probation'?"
Probation. Could that be what they were doing? Why send me along this mission, how much did they know about the other agencies? Were they just stringing me along after all? How much didy they really know? Bah, can't worry about this nonsense. Need to get out of this spot.
"Look, do you want me to fix this, or not? We've jumped early, into an unmarked parallel, and a time slip will be perfect for some... careful planning." Though what I'm going to do about Marcus, I'm not sure...
Ellen's eyes narrowed. "You've jumped us early into an unmarked parallel. I will not let you compromise my mission further through unauthorized use of the time machine." Ellen almost winced at her use of such a rudimentary term for the most complex instrument on board. I smiled again.
"Certain uses of this 'time machine' are restricted for more reasons than safety. What the Agency doesn't want you to know is that they can't track this craft at all in certain phases of time travel."
"And why would I want to avoid survielance by the Agency while you are on board."
This is the gamble. I could be playing right into the Agency's hand, or I could be saving us all and stepping ahead of them once again.
"Because, Ellen, your boss has sent you and your crew on a suicide mission, and not just to get rid of me. Even if you had managed to navigate that perp, the parallel they had you going to was a glimp. It would be like running into a brick wall, and if that didn't kill you, you'd be hurtled across the perp uncontrollably until something else did."