Dr. Lee was startled by Dr. Kim’s voice. He wondered how he could communicate with him since he was at a different time.
“Dr. Kim? Is that you?” he asked.
“Yes, it’s me. I’m in the control room, at your original time. I’m using a quantum communicator to contact you. It can send and receive signals across different timelines,” Dr. Kim explained.
“A quantum communicator? How does that work?” Dr. Lee asked.
“It’s a device that uses entangled particles to create a quantum channel between two points in space and time. It’s very complicated, but basically, it allows us to talk to each other, even if we’re at different times,” Dr. Kim said.
“I see. That’s amazing. But why are you contacting me now? What happened?” Dr. Lee asked.
“Dr. Lee, I have some bad news and some good news for you,” Dr. Kim said.
“What’s the bad news?” Dr. Lee asked.
“The bad news is that the experiment failed. The device did not send you five minutes into the future, but five minutes into a parallel timeline. A timeline where you never entered the capsule, and where no one knows about the experiment,” Dr. Kim said.
“What? How is that possible?” Dr. Lee asked.
“It’s possible because of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. According to this theory, every time a quantum event occurs, such as a particle decaying or a measurement is made, the universe splits into multiple branches, each with a different outcome. These branches are parallel timelines, where everything is the same except for that one event,” Dr. Kim said.
“So you’re saying that when I pressed the button to activate the device, the universe split into two branches: one where I traveled five minutes into the future, and one where I didn’t?” Dr. Lee asked.
“Exactly. And you ended up in the branch where you didn’t,” Dr. Kim said.
“But why? How did that happen?” Dr. Lee asked.
“We don’t know for sure, but we have a hypothesis. We think that the device created a quantum fluctuation in the fabric of space-time, which caused a slight divergence between the two branches. This divergence was enough to make you switch timelines, without you noticing it,” Dr. Kim said.
“That’s incredible. But how do you know all this? How did you find out?” Dr. Lee asked.
“That’s the good news,” Dr. Kim said.
“What’s the good news?” Dr. Lee asked.
“The good news is that we have a way to bring you back,” Dr. Kim said.