The Shadow People

I hesitate to use my real name in this story because I’m sure you will recognize it. Over the years I have become as notoriously famous as Carl Sagan or Mark Twain. A house-hold name like Houdini or Einstien. Names that convey a meaning larger than the person, more legendary than real. So it has become with my name. Of course after several pages you will probably guess who I am due to the subject matter, but I hope not. I hope you are unfamiliar with the events surrounded my life’s work, so that you may enjoy the story. So for now, just call me Fred.

I don’t remember when I first saw them, I was very young I know that. At the time I had no idea what they were. I remember being aware of something just outside my range of vision. You’ve probably experienced it and still have no idea what it is. It happens when you least expect it. You’d be looking in one direction, maybe watching TV, when for one reason or another you turn your head and catch a glimpse of something moving just on the very edge of your peripheral vision. Sometimes I’d pretend deep interest in a book, or feign sleep, then without warning I’d snap my head one way or the other, thinking to catch it of guard. I was not successful. I only managed to glimpse the moving edge of the thing, just the shadow moving away. Keeping my eyes closed and cracking an eyelid ever so slightly didn’t work either. For some reason these entities could not be seen straight on. You had to be looking at just the right angle, and then you’d see something for just an instant. Your next thought would be – what was that? Then common sense would take over as you convinced yourself that it was nothing, just a shadow, maybe an eyelash or a smudge on your glasses, nothing really. Then you’d go back to your activity and think no more about it. I never could turn loose of the idea that something really moved over there. I saw it, then it was gone. Like a vapor, or some night shadow designed to vanish when hit by the light. But this had a shape, it had form and the power of locomotion, it moved. What’s more, it’s movement seemed to be triggered by the act of my looking in it’s direction. I imagined it being aware of my actions and responding to them. Over the years I often tried to catch sight of them, but only managed that fleeting glimpse, just the faintest hint of movement, nothing more.

For years I never told anyone about my experiences. I was afraid they’d send me to the looney bin. My parents frequently used that term when discussing the relative intelligence of our neighbors. Mom would proclaim ever so sincerely that, "Mrs. J belonged in the looney bin." I learned early that was where they sent the crazy people. So I kept my mouth shut, didn’t even tell my younger brothers. For most of my childhood I was actually scared of the things, and could see no benefit in having Bob and Ed scared too. I figured that if they were able to see them they’d come and ask me about them, but they never did. Well, at least not while we were kids.

When I turned 14 I stopped being afraid and looked upon my long running mystery as a scientific curiosity. This was a major turning point and made a huge difference in my general outlook. I had a secret and felt somewhat special about it. Rather nice for a 14 year old to feel special, I liked it. So for the next half dozen years I enjoyed this phenomenon selfishly. Whatever was out there hadn’t hurt me so far, and I became confident that they wouldn’t. After all, in my whole life I had never seen a news story describing the injury or death of some kid by an invisible something.

I was 20 years old and a Junior in college when I finally met someone else who shared my secret. Kurt was a brilliant student, and I was lucky enough to have him as my partner in Physics Lab. I took Physics as a science elective to augment my understanding of the nature of things in general. I majored in math and had visions of being the next prodigy. In high school I read the biography of Einstein, and shortly there after saw the movie, "A Beautiful Mind." From then on, I was hooked on math, loved it. I was also very good at it. However, my dad had serious doubts about my ability to make a living at it. Whenever we talked about the future he’d say something like, "Well, that’s just fine, but you can’t buy groceries with long division." He had no clue about the type of math I did, and it was impossible to explain it. So I let him have the last word. I think he knew that I was on a different level, but it was his way of keeping me in my rightful place as the kid. Not his equal when it came to life’s lessons. Fathers and sons as they say.

Back to Kurt. He was great. Actually, more than great, he was a bonafide genius. He was intuitive and focused, in addition to being knowledgeable. He was one of the few students who could question a professor’s position during a lecture, and actually win a few points. That may not be so special in a music appreciation class, but in Physics that’s unusual, it’s special. That was Kurt, a geeky looking, somewhat overweight, poorly dressed genius in Dock Martin’s. Oh yea, he was rich too. His family owned about half the skating rinks in New England. So my friend ship with Kurt Richtman was very fortuitous for me. Beer money was never a problem. No, no, it wasn’t like that. We became fast friends long before I found out about his bottomless allowance. He was just a great guy.
One day we were in the lab when Kurt grabbed my sleeve as he spun around on his stool. He said, with more than a little agitation, "Did you see that?"

I responded, "See what?"

He said, "You’re not going to believe this, but for some time now I’ve been seeing what I believe to be some type of shadow beings. I just saw one go through that wall."
I was dumb struck. I actually threw my arms around him and hugged him. All the while repeating, "Thank you man, thank you, thank you."

Kurt was temporarily stunned by my sudden outburst, but he quickly regained his composure, and said, "Well I expected a reaction, but not quite so emotional. Damn Fred, why’d you do that?"
I told him that I’d been seeing things like that since I was a little kid, but always thought it was just my imagination, or some trick of light, some illusion. I said, "When you told me that you saw the thing, man, you don’t know what that meant to me. It’s was wonderful to have confirmation that I’m not crazy. That’s why I hugged your sorry ass, you big dummy."
Kurt said, "Let me get this straight, you saw the thing too?"
"No, no, I didn’t see it. At least not this time. But I think I’ve been seeing them since I was very little. You’re the first person I’ve ever met who admitted that they saw something too."
Kurt put his hand on my shoulder, and said, "Damn, you have no idea how glad I am to finally hear someone else admit it too. For years I was the same as you. I thought I was the only nut around who saw things that nobody else could see. But you didn’t see this one?"
"Well no. I didn’t see this one. But I’ve seen, or thought I’ve seen the things dozens of times. I just was never able to get a really good clean look."

"Exactly , said Kurt. That’s the way it’s always been for me. But this time I am sure. This was not my imagination, I saw the thing, and you sort of confirmed it by admitting your past encounters with the same type of sightings."
"That’s fine, I said, but what can we do about it?"
Kurt pushed his hair back, and rubbed his hand across his chin in thought. Then he said, "I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We’ll use all the skills we both have, and take advantage of this fine lab to make contact with whatever it is we just saw. How about that?"
I liked the idea, liked it a lot. At last I had someone on my wavelength, someone I could work with who had the same visions that drove me. Someone smart enough to actually be helpful. I was sure we had just stepped onto the path to greatness. This would be very big, if we could actually find and present something to the world of science. And what better place than Cambridge?

In high school I had this recurring day-dream. Steven Hawking would call me in and ask for my latest thinking on String Theory. I‘d give him my latest opinion, and we’d have tea under the bust of Isaac Newton in his office. My work would be the first to combine and explain the workings of Eienstein’s Universe with the problems generated by Quantum Mechanics when you tried to apply the same laws to both. Until my imaginary paper you couldn’t reconcile the two. It didn’t work. Steven (as I called him) would nod his head as I explained what had to be the long sought solution. That was usually about that time my English teacher would call my name, and ask my opinion on Captain Ahab’s motivation in chasing the great whale around the cape. I’d be lost, and forced to suffer through several more questions I had no clue about, until she gave up and moved on.

However, my grades didn’t suffer. I graduated with a perfect 4.0 from a highly respected magnet high school, and won the senior science fair sponsored by M.I.T. This, and a few influential letters helped me land a scholarship in math and science at Cambridge. Now, I was living my dream. Well, almost. Professor Hawking had not as yet called me to his office. But I had seen him at a distance wheeling around the campus. In my world that was like my mom seeing Elvis in person and catching a scarf. It was a big deal. Well, you had to be a math nut.

But now, the situation Kurt and I found ourselves in was a perfect fit for our skills. I had already begun my life’s work. I was working on a paper that once completed would explain damn near everything. It was as you might expect, a Unified Field Theory. Not to brag, but it looked like I was making good progress. My numbers ( at least to me) all looked correct. I had shown most of my work to Kurt, and from a quantum stand-point he said it looked reasonable. Well, he did say that I probably had too many dimensions, and far too much unexplained dark matter. But hey, it wasn’t finished yet.

You see, one of the basic laws of the Universe states the you can calculate the amount of energy available by using Eienstein’s formula. (Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared) Or more simply E=MC2. It should be obvious then, that if you can get energy from matter, you can also get matter from a known amount of energy. Expressed as M=E/C2. It had to be, but in the actual application there were problems. The measurements of actual fission and fusion devices never produced exactly the expected results. Close as they say, but no cigar. To explain the differences between what happened to the very large and the very small when matter to energy conversion was involved, scientist and mathematicians had devised all manner of loop holes that they had to work into their formulas. The latest of these was a version of string theory with eleven dimensions. I really didn’t think it could be that way, but I had to prove it.

The break through came on the same night that Kurt had seen his mystery being. We were sitting in a pub enjoying a stout, and talking about the possibility of multiple dimensions. Kurt suddenly got quiet. He started writing something on his paper napkin. He kept at it until he had at least a dozen napkins side by side, covered in symbols and notations of all types. When he appeared to finish the task, he leaned back in his chair and grinned at me. Finally he said, "I think I’ve got it, but you’ll have to do the math. I’ve outlined the concept here, but the actual numbers are too much for me."

I looked at what he had, and the little light bulb above my head lit up. It was so simple, so obvious. No wonder all the big names in science were missing it. They were looking too hard for something complicated. Well, this was complicated, but not with eleven dimensions. Kurt had broken it down to only two. The one we were in, and the other one.
I studied his diagrams for a few more minutes, looked up at my friend, and we both laughed. We laughed until we were out of breath and beginning to draw stares from the other patrons. After the euphoria wore off I managed to high five my buddy and congratulate him for his beautiful insight.

I said, "I really think you’ve hit upon the secret. It was hiding in plane sight."

He shook his head in agreement, and took a long pull on his beer. I finished mine and said, "Let’s go back to the room. I can’t wait to see how the numbers play out."

I had intended to only begin some note pad work, and wait until tomorrow before entering the concept mathematically in my lap top. But once I got started, I couldn’t stop.

Kurt had intuitively deduced that string theory was only a patch. An exception developed by well meaning experts to explain inconsistences between general relativity and quantum mechanics. Then when further complications arose, they devised more patches (in the way of extra dimensions) to explain those glitches. It was cumbersome, but workable. So for a while it gained a following. But Kurt was granted that flash of insight allowing him to see the truth. He said there were no vibrating strings of energy making up the fabric of space at the smallest level. At that level matter and energy were one and the same, interchangeable, depending on what force lines were closest to them at that instant. Very much like the electron that appears to orbit, neatly circling the nucleus of an atom, when it fact it blinks in and out of it’s space, only to reappear somewhere else on it’s apparent orbit. It didn’t circle to get there, it just went to the new point while still being held in it’s valence position by the pull of the nucleus. So Kurt speculated that matter and energy did a similar dance. One instant giving you a star-burst of energy, only to change to the smallest building block of matter the next. At the smallest level, energy and matter were indistinguishable. It was both and neither. It depended on what instant you happened to look. I was sure that this feature alone would allow me to develop a formula that explained where the missing matter was. They called it dark matter, and now it was obvious that it shifted back and forth between the two dimensions filling a role in both. As it left one it created a bit of energy, only to become matter on the other side. When it came back, the other dimension got the energy, and we got the matter back. Dark matter and dark energy, it fit so nicely with everything else it had to be true. Nature likes things to balance out. For every yin you need a yang, otherwise it doesn’t work. It took me six hours to convert Kurt’s concepts into equations that I could enter into my computer. I wanted to begin entering the data immediately, but in a rare moment of clear thinking realized that I needed sleep. I had a 10:30 am class followed by a lab, and it was already a little past 5:30 am. I set the clock for 10:00 am, and fell across my bed.

Is there anything so disturbing as the buzzing of a cheap alarm clock? I heard it, but was not willing to believe that it could possibly be 10 o’clock. Not yet, not this quick. I opened my eyes confirming the worst, and shut off the irritating noise. If anything was living proof of time travel this had to be it. I am convinced that when we fall asleep our subconscious brain pulls us forward in time to the next conscious moment. We don’t actually sleep the allotted time, it only seems like it. In truth we travel forward in time completely unaware of the miracle. Only that could explain the short duration we sense between the time we close our eyes, and the time when we are rudely jangled out of a sound sleep. Had to be, there is no way that four real hours had gone by. I made a mental note to do a paper on it.

I rolled out of bed, disappointed that I had not enjoyed the consumption of beer that would normally have taken place in order for me to feel this bad. I shuffled over to the sink, turned on the cold water, and stuck my head under the faucet. The cold water was almost painful, but it helped. I toweled off, brushed my teeth, ran a brush through my hair, and stripped out of my day old clothes. After dressing and grabbing a cold pop tart, I was out the door. Felt pretty good actually. As I turned into the stairwell, I saw Kurt on the landing below me. He was on his way out too. We didn’t have the next class together, but we did share the lab after it. We went down the stairs together, and he asked how it went last night. I told him it all looked good, and I had the formulas ready to input. He responded with a smile and a thumbs up gesture.

"I’ll see you in the physics lab." He raised a hand in acknowledgment, throwing off a half wave as we headed in different directions.

I was always impressed crossing the campus grounds. Some of the more modern universities are like cities. Square brick buildings lacking character without style or class. But here the historic buildings sat elegantly on the ancient landscaped grounds. You could feel the sense of history and wonder as you walked along paths that Newton himself walked along. It always rejuvenated me, and I walked a little taller. I didn’t see him coming as I had been looking around engrossed in my thoughts, admiring the old buildings to my left and right. I glanced back along the path and there he was. Professor Hawking was motoring along the sidewalk easy as you please, coming right at me. Now what? Do I say hello, ignore him, maybe just wave and keep walking, what? I had decided to say good morning, but he beat me to it. As we drew next to each other I heard that tonal computer voice he uses say clearly and distinctly, "Good morning." I mumbled a clumsy "mornin", and kept walking. He must have that salutation on a fast key or something, and just click it whenever a greeting is called for. I took it as an omen. The man himself said good morning to me. This was my day.
I made it to class on time. This was my only "fun" class this semester, Ancient Civilizations. I was fascinated by the ancients, and impressed with the level of sophistication displayed by them in their government and lifestyles. I think most people today have no glue just how smart our ancestors were. They didn’t have our level of technology, but they were just as smart several thousand years ago as modern people, maybe smarter. Anyway, I really liked the class, It was a welcome diversion. The period ended, and I headed for the Physics lab to work with my friend Kurt.

We settled in behind our bench when it happened again. This time there were three of them. They literally glowed, and came right out of the wall. They walked across the lab and out the exterior wall without slowing or looking around. They looked as if we did not exist. They didn’t see us, but just walked on through the lab. Kurt and I must have had a clear view of them for two or three seconds. The only difference was that this time another person in the room must have caught a glimpse of them too. Bill Parsons worked two benches down from us, and he was now standing by the wall where the beings had disappeared. He ran his hand over the wall as if to see if it was really a wall. He did that for several seconds, then walked back to his bench shaking his head while looking at the floor. He turned, looked at the wall again, and sat down at his bench.

Suddenly people from the Hawking project down the hall came running into our lab. They yelled for quiet, and wanted to know if anyone had seen anything unusual in the last few minutes. People turned to look at them, and I started to put my hand up. Kurt saw me, and grabbed my arm holding it down. He shook his head indicating that I should say nothing. Bill also sat on his stool, giving no response to the question. I suspect he was like the UFO folks who know they’ve seen something, but for fear of ridicule refuse to discuss it.

The period ended and we headed for the cafeteria. This was one of my favorite places on campus. I always bought the meal ticket at the start of each semester, as it was impossible to get an equal amount of food off campus. I rarely missed a meal. We took a table by a window in the back and discussed our strategy for bringing our theory to the world. I said that we should just hand in the paper as our midterm project and take the credit that was sure to come our way. But Kurt felt that this was far too big for a midterm project and would settle for nothing less than handing it to Stephen in person. I laughed and said, "You call him Stephen now do you?" He grinned and said, "No, not yet, but when this hits we’ll be regulars on his guest list."

I thought he was stretching it a bit, but I also realized that he might be right. This was much bigger than a midterm paper. I also thought that sitting down with Professor Hawking was our best hope of being taken seriously. Very few others would understand my calculations and be able to relate them to Kurt’s verbal description of the theory. We would have to get an appointment to see the man.

When we got back to our room, Kurt did it. He called Professor Hawking’s office. His secretary answered politely in a well modulated very English voice. "Professor Hawking’s office, Penelope speaking." Kurt and I had our heads pressed together sharing the ear-piece.

It was too easy. I guess I thought we would need permission to even call the man. Imagine thinking that you could call Windsor Castle and have somebody actually answer and ask your business. Which of course you could, I just didn’t realize it. I thought you had to have some dispensation allowing you to call. Anyway, I heard Kurt calmly ask for an appointment to see the professor. Just like that, he said, "My friend and I would like an appointment with Professor Hawking."

I believe I heard Penelope smile over the phone. There was a moment of silence, then she got serious. We must have sounded like the students we were, because she said, "Do you boys have any idea how many people from all over the world want a few moments with the Professor? He has a few grad students he works with as interns, and a few colleagues that are granted access. Other than those few, he sees no one unless he initiates the meeting. Now, do you fit into one of those categories?"

Kurt was undeterred. He slowly and calmly advised Ms. Penelope that the professor would call us requesting a meeting if she would tell him the following . "First, we saw the creatures that left his lab and walked through the physics lab this morning. Second, we have eliminated nine dimensions, eliminated string theory, and developed a unified field theory tying general relativity and quantum mechanics together with no fudge factors. And best of all, we have the math to prove it. Did you get all of that?"

Penelope was not happy, and responded with a warning. "Young man, if this is a joke you will be expelled. We don’t have time for such foolishness. I want your name, student I.D., and dorm room number right now."

Kurt gave her the information, said "Thank you" and hung up, believing I suppose that the next voice we would hear would be Stephen himself.
It was nearly 3:00 pm when the phone rang. It was not Professor Hawking or one of his aids. It was a secretary in the Dean of Students Office. She informed us that the Dean would like to see us both promptly at 8:00 am tomorrow morning in his office. She didn’t sound like this was to be an award ceremony. Damn that tears it.
I said, "Kurt, you don’t suppose we’re in trouble about this, do you?"
Kurt responded, "No, not really. Well maybe some, at least until we can explain everything and show them your work. Oh hell, I don’t know."
"Hey man, that’s not what I wanted to hear. You were kind of rude to Miss Penelope you know. They might just kick our butts out of here and not even look at the work."
Kurt said, "You know, I bet that old biddy didn’t even give the message to Hawking."
I looked at him and said, "You figured that out did ya?"
We both came to the realization that this was not turning out like we planned. Surely when they saw our work we would be rewarded. Professor Hawking would have to be interested if he saw our work, he had to.
The next morning it was drizzling rain and cold. We walked across the commons and into the admin building, rode the elevator up to the second floor, and walked down the hall to the Dean of Students office. This reminded me of grade school. I felt much like the child sent unceremoniously to the Principal’s office for some infraction. But in this case, surely we had done nothing wrong. We called a professor, asked for an appointment, and left a message. What’s the harm in it? We opened the door and went in.
The office was like you’d expect, green walls with lot’s of polished wood, thick moldings with multiple panels below a thick chair rail circling the room, with leather furniture everywhere. The place reeked of pipe smoke and furniture polish. The most imposing thing in the room was the stern looking matronly old lady at the desk. She spoke as soon as we entered.
"Sit down boys, the Dean will see you shortly."
Well, shortly wore on to 40 minutes or more. The must be using the old, "Let them stew a while trick." It was working too, as I was beginning to stew nicely. From the look on Kurt’s face, I’d say he was somewhat stewed as well.
I said, "Kurt, we have nothing to worry about, and nothing to be sorry for. Let’s go in there, state our case politely, and not act the least bit sorry or guilty about anything."
Kurt looked my way and said, "By damn you’re right. We did nothing wrong, and we should act accordingly. They may think their big shot in Newton’s chair is too important to see us, but we thought he’d be interested. If he isn’t, then I guess we’ll have to send our paper over to the folks at MIT. I bet they’d look at it."
"Damn it Kurt, just calm down. We don’t need to admit guilt about anything, but let’s not be offensive either."
About then the phone on the receptionist desk buzzed. The old girl looked at us, and said oh so properly, "Dean Sanson will see you now. Please go in."
We did. The dean’s office was tastefully English. All polished mahogani and more leather. Kurt and I sat down and I said, "Good morning dean."
The dean looked up with a look that said we weren’t worthy of his time, and after a more than normal pause reluctantly said, "Good morning boys."
I thought, well now, that’s not such a bad start.
The dean began, "Boys, I’ll come right to the point. You called Professor Hawking with a request for an appointment claiming that you had solved one of the great mysteries of the world and had proof. Now, it goes without saying that anyone admitted to this fine institution is pretty smart. But I doubt that you or anyone else enrolled here has produced a unified field theory. So let’s have no more of that. Professor Hawking is one of the most respected men in his field, and it is simply inexcusable for anyone to play a prank on a man of his stature. We’ll have no more of it. If I hear anymore bad reports on you two, you will be expelled. I won’t even take the time to talk about it. You’ll be gone. Is that clear?"
I raised my hand, and the dean nodded in my direction, indicating I hoped that I might speak.
"Dean, I assure you that we were not playing a prank. We really do have documentation that shows a mathematical proof eliminating string theory, and resolving the differences between general relativity and quantum mechanics."
The dean looked a bit agitated and fired back at me. "Didn’t you hear what I said a moment ago? We will have no more of it. Whatever you think you’ve written, I am sure it is not the solution to a problem that even Einstein couldn’t solve. Now get out of here, and don’t ever let me see you again until graduation."
Kurt got up to leave. I wanted to say more but thought better of it, and simply followed my friend out. We walked back to our dorm room in stunned disbelief. How could this have happened? We were both so sure that we would be welcomed and admired by the scientific community. So sure that the faculty would bestow honors on us. There would be a plaque in the admin building honoring Kurt and Fred. Talk about dashed hopes and crushed feelings. How could they all be so stupid, so blind as to not even look at the work.
I turned to Kurt and said, "You know what? I bet this is just how Newton felt when he first tried to get some recognition for his work. They probably told him to take a hike, and forget that nonsense about gravity."
Kurt replied, "Yea, so what. How does that help us any."
"Don’t you see? All it means is that we can’t give up. The history of the past tells us that no great break-through was ever greeted with open arms. The establishment has a vested interest in maintaining the current paradigm. It makes them look foolish when long held truths are overturned and proved false."
"So what do we do", said Kurt.
I said, "I don’t know, but we’ll think of something."
We sat silently for a while until it was time for class.
I spent the day mindlessly following my routine. Go to class, eat lunch, more class, back to the room. It helped not to dwell directly on our problem. I needed to clear my head, but couldn’t. Trying not to think about it didn’t work, it was always there, just below deliberate worry, sort of subliminal worry.
That night Kurt and I went to supper and said very little. We ate quietly sharing our disappointment, only infrequently commenting on the injustice of it all. We walked back to my room and sat looking out the window at the crystal clear December night. Damn,it would soon be Christmas. If we didn’t get someone to look at our theory in the next week or so, we might have to live with this frustration for several weeks. Almost everyone would be gone until classes resumed on Jan 7th.







3
That was it! They’d all be gone. I slapped my hand on the desk and exclaimed, "Kurt, they will all be gone! We can see the man during the Christmas break."
Kurt looked my way and asked, "What the hell are you rambling about?"
"Don’t you get it? The campus will be deserted. The students, administration, and most all of the faculty will have gone home. Except of course Prof. Hawking. His family is here with him, and he doesn’t travel much. I bet he goes to his lab as usual."
Kurt was thoughtful a moment and responded with, "You know, I’d bet my lunch money that you’re right. So what do we do with that bit of knowledge?"
We sat at the table and worked out a plan. It was just simple enough to work.
Christmas day dawned cold and grey with a hint of snow in the air. The clouds hung low and had the solid grey appearance that is often a telltale of impending snow. Kurt and I hurried through a full course breakfast of eggs, toast and jam, potatoes, and a side of kippers. The coffee was hot and hit the spot on a cold morning. We reviewed our plan and decided that now was as good a time as any to implement it.
We left the cafeteria and went back to the room to pick up the package. We had wrapped it beautifully. It was about twelve inches square, covered in green foil paper, and tied with a large golden bow. The card said simply,
"Merry Christmas Prof. Hawking.
We saw the shadow people.
We Believe this explains how.
With admiration and Respect,
Fred C. Dobbs, and Kurt Richtman
Dorm 3 , Rooms 24 & 36
As you may have guessed, our completed paper was inside. It included both a detailed verbal explanation of our theory and the math to back it up. It was a thing of beauty.
We made our way to the great man’s residence. We dropped the gift on the porch, rang the bell and ran like hell. We made it around the corner of the building two houses down from the professor’s residence and hid there, only daring to ease one eye around the side of the house to watch for Prof. Hawking’s door to open. It did so almost immediately. His house keeper picked up the package, and after a quick glance up and down the street, took it inside.
Kurt slapped me on the back and we high fived, elated that our plan seemed to be working. We headed for the student center for some hot chocolate as a celebration.
The student center was deserted. Other than a skeleton crew in the snack bar, the place was empty. No wait for a pool table. All the ping-pong tables were empty too. The big air hockey game in the corner was quiet. No slap shots, no constant hiss of air. The stillness permeated the building, and I felt as if the whole place belonged to us. Like they built this huge building just for me and Kurt. We grabbed a table by a window, and watched as the first few flakes of snow began to fall. It would have made a great post card. Christmas Eve at Cambridge with snow.











4
Several days went by and we didn’t hear from anyone. It was New Years Eve and the place was like a tomb. Our excitement had given way to despair. We imagined all sorts of dreadful possibilities. What if he didn’t accept presents, and simply forwarded them to the nearest children’s home? What if he glanced at it, thought it was utter nonsense, and threw it out? What if his house keeper sent it to Dean Sanson with a note about students bothering him again? What if he never opened it? The tension and fear were beginning to play with our minds. We actually thought we would get a call later in the day after we delivered the package, surely by the next morning. But to wait several days and hear nothing could only mean bad news.
New Years Day came and went. The following Tuesday regular classes resumed.
The alarm shot through my head like a dentist drill. After the back to back long holiday weekends, the thought of going back to the daily grind was hard to swallow. I reluctantly got out of my warm bed and set about completing my morning routine. After dressing and nuking a pop tart,I was ready to get the morning started. I opened my door, and literally dropped my books. There he was! Himself - sitting in my dorm hallway big as life. His assistant was reaching for my door buzzer just as I opened the door. I stood there frozen with my mouth open and books on the floor as he asked, "Are you Fred Dobbs?"
I am sure it was only a second or two before I responded, but it seemed like I stood there paralyzed for a minute or two. I managed to squeak out a weak, "Yes Sir, I am."
I heard that tonal computer voice respond in the positive, as in, "Good, you’re the young man I need to see. Is your friend here too?"
Now recovering from the initial shock, I said, "No sir, but I can get him pretty quick."
Again that disembodied voice. It was weird to her the words while watching the professor sit almost completely still. He, it, the machine said, "Good, go get him and meet me in my lab as quick as you can. We have to talk." He motioned by raising one finger slightly, and his assistant responded by turning his chair away from the door, after which he sped off down the hall with his constant companion heeling slightly behind.
I backed into my room, managing to hit the chair by my workstation. Glad for the chance to sit I grabbed it and sat down. I picked up the phone and dialed Kurt’s two digit room number. I punched in the wrong number twice before I managed to get him.
"Kurt, you’ve got to get down here quick. Bring whatever you need for the day, I don’t know how long we’ll be over there."
Kurt, more than a little confused asks, "Over where, what stuff, what happened, you alright?"
I slowly regained my wits, and managed to tell him that Prof. Hawking was just here, and wanted us both in his lab asap.
I said, "He wants to talk with us both. Now get over here, OK?"
Kurt’s room is only one floor up, and it seemed as if he was at my door about the time I set the phone down. He was firing questions at me without taking a breath. I had no chance to answer, so I just let him run out of air. When he finally stopped, I said "Yes to all of the above. He was here, he talked to me, he wants to see us both, and those are my books you are walking on."
"So he got our package?", says Kurt.
"Well duh" says I. "I guess so, unless you think he just stops by now and then to see how I’m doing. Look, we’ve got to go to his lab right now, and act like we’ve got good sense when we get there. So let’s get it together and go make history."



5
We left the dorm and headed straight for the physics lab. The whole west end of the building belonged to Prof. Hawking. We stood there, more than a little apprehensive looking at the large double doors with the professor’s name on them.
"Stephen Hawking - Private - No Entry."
I reached for the door, pushed on the latch, and of course it was locked. Kurt looked over at me and said, "Maybe you better knock first." I couldn’t help but laugh. As I raised my hand to knock, the door opened. A young man in a white lab coat stood there and said, "Come in Gentleman, we’re waiting for you." As I stepped in I felt a strange sensation. It was the realization that this doorway represented a threshold that onced crossed would forever change our lives. Childhoods end so to speak, we would be men, in the company of men - making history.
The room (well it was more like a giant atrium in one of those Marriot Hotels)looked to be about four stories tall. It was filled with electronic gear and large banks of what looked like giant capacitors with oversized copper contacts on top. There was a charging coil with a drop down connection to each of the caps that must have been 30 feet long. All of this was surrounded by a forest of glass tubes that glowed with various hues of plasma, giving the overall appearance of a neon sign factory. In the center of it all was what appeared to by a generator of some sort that was connected to everything else. The wiring and forest of ionized tubes drew your eye up to the the ceiling, a good forty feet above us. This was not what you’d see on a tour of the local power company. The whole place was like something from one of those Star Trek Movies. Banks of computers everywhere, the constant sound of high voltage electricity, and the smell of ozone. The surrounding air literally crackled with static.
The place was full of people in white lab coats. Our guy motioned for us to follow him, and we did. He led us over to a railing that protected the viewer from falling into rather large hole. It had to be thirty, or maybe forty feet to the bottom. Kurt and I grabbed the railing and looked over on a site straight out of the twilight zone. Below us was a dome a shimmering gold light with what appeared to be buildings inside. It was as if the inside of the thing was bigger than the outside. The hole took up most of the floor space in that end of the building, and obviously extended under ground far beyond what would be the normal foundations of the lab. The floors above us had multiple windows all facing the center, I suppose for observation. I thought to myself that this project has been here a while. Kurt had grabbed my arm and obviously was not aware of how hard he was squeezing it. I pulled my arm away, and as we caught each others eye he said, "That’s another world down there isn’t it." I could only nod in agreement. I was quite literally speechless. It was beautiful. We stood and watched as our folks in lab coats walked into the structure as others came out. It was easy to tell who was who, as the beings from the other dimension glowed with a gold aura, while our guys had on the white coats. I shook my head, trying to get a grip. This was real. I was not dreaming, but actually looking down into a different world. Then it hit me, if all this was already here, the old professor must have been way ahead of us. We might not even be in the same ballpark as him.
Our guide put his hand on my shoulder, tapped Kurt on his, and said, "Professor Hawking will see you now." He led us to another elevator that took us to an upper level. It opened directly into what was without doubt an office and second residence for Professor Hawking. He was sitting in his chair looking out of a large plate glass window with a perfect view of the site below.
He turned around and his programmed voice said, "You two are responsible for the success of this project. You should be very proud. Your names will be spoken in the halls of learning forever. School children will have to learn about you. Your paper was brilliant, thorough, and concise. It gave me the equations that allowed my team to modify our warp generator leading to what you see below. Thank you both. For now all I have for you is coffee and pastries, but I am sure that someday the folks who run this place will name a building after you. The Nobel Committee will probably come calling when all this comes out. Please sit down gentlemen, I am sure you have some questions. If not, I have some for you."
The voice went silent and I realized it was my turn to speak. "Professor, thank you. But, how could you possibly do all this between Christmas and now, when we only dropped off our paper at your home a few days ago?"
"Good question. We obviously didn’t build all of this from the information in your work. My team has known for several years about the Shadow People. I’ve seen them all of my life, just couldn’t prove where they came from or went to."
I jumped up and shouted, "Me too! Been seeing em forever." Kurt was laughing and rubbing his palms together.
Our guide who we later came to know as Ben Wakefield, asked us to please let the Professor finish.
He continued, "For years we have had the warp generator operable in this lab. We believed that with the right amount of power and the proper parameter settings we could access one of what we believed to be at least eleven dimensions. Every now and then we’d have some success. Why just before Christmas we managed to generate a field that allowed several of the beings to become visible as they strolled down a street in their world, but looked to be walking through the wall of your physics lab next door. I believe you were in class at the time, but no one came forward to report seeing anything."
Kurt found his voice, and said, "We saw them Professor Hawking, but felt it might identify us as crackpots if we said anything. So we just kept quiet."
The professor moved his head only so slightly indicating that he understood. Then he said, "My team felt sure that someone must have seen them, but we could never duplicate the contact again. Every combination we tried only gave us fleeting glimpses. Our algorithms were too involved, trying to incorporate too many dimensions, too many variables. It was only by accident that we had a few seconds of success from time to time. Then your paper arrived at my home on Christmas morning. I read it, and felt as if Santa had visited me with a present from the Gods. The numbers I had been searching for lept off the pages of your manuscript. If I could have slapped my forehead I would have. It was simple, so obvious, how could we have allowed ourselves to follow that string foolishness and multiple dimension nightmare for so long. The elegant truth was right in front of our nose and we all missed it. But not you two. You saw it and put it in a form I could use. It only took four days to reset our parameters and input your numbers. Thanks to you we have a stable field allowing a doorway between the two worlds. It appeared instantly when we turned on the generator. After aligning it for two dimensions with your algorithms it just appeared. Our warp generator creates a bubble in space time giving the top the rounded dome like appearance. There is no actual top or bottom to it. What you are seeing is the edge of the field where the two worlds intersect. There is no barrier at the edge either. Beings from both worlds can simply walk through and visit. One thing takes some getting used to. When we walk inside the field we literally move into a different dimension. In there, our people can walk through walls just as those beings did when they came through your lab. Of course the same still holds true for them when they visit here. Imagine, it was there all the time, we just couldn’t see it. They have told us about their sun and solar system. Yes, there is a whole universe over there. Similar to ours in size, but different in make up. All the elements seem to be the same, and the physical laws are true everywhere. And now thanks to your work, the numbers work for the very big and the very small in all situations. Einstein’s dream of a Unified Field Theory is a reality. I hope that you both will join my team and continue my work when I am gone. The doctors have been telling me for 20 years that I only have a few left, but I believe they are much closer to being right now. So I am very gratified and thankful that I have found two such brilliant minds to carry on our work here. Newton himself would be proud of you."
Kurt had his head in his hands, and I had tears running down both sides of my face. Imagine being recognized by someone of that stature at our young age. It was too much. It was of course what we had hoped for, but still, the reality of it was just over whelming. A thought popped into my head at that instant that gave me pause, and more than a little concern. What could I possibly do to top this. To reach my peak at 20 years of age would be very depressing. The feeling didn’t last long, and I realized that the professor was waiting for us to respond.
I stood up and walked over to the great man. I knelt down in front of his chair so as to be at eye level with him. Kurt told me later he was afraid I was going to kiss his ring or something. Anyway, I said, "Professor, we would be glad to join your team. I am sure there is a lifetime of work left to do here."
And so there was. Kurt and I spent the next 52 years right there. Our mentor (Professor Hawking) died a few years after we joined the group. Eventually I was named to his Chair in the Math Dept., and Kurt was awarded the same position in Physics. We both spent time teaching, and continued our work expanding the knowledge base through the use of the new math specialty I developed. As you know by now, Temporal Calculus lead to the development of time travel, and faster than light speed. In the 30 years since the production of the first warp drive ship we have established contact with three other civilizations in other star systems, and travel to the other dimension has expanded to the point where it is now a routine destination for vacationers. The understanding of the dimensional matter energy exchange phenomenon lead to the availability of unlimited energy everywhere on the planet, and for our friends on the other side as well. The exchange of information with the "Shadow" people ( I still call them that) resulted in an explosion of knowledge in all areas of science and technology, virtually eliminating disease and hunger from the planet. Oh, by the way, they call themselves the Hamanees. I was struck when I heard that, on how close that is to Humans. But then many things in that dimension are very similar to their counter parts on our side.
And yes, a committee from the Nobel organization did come calling almost immediately after Professor Hawking’s press conference announcing our work to the world. I’ve had that ugly statue on my mantel for 50 years now.
Eventually I was named Professor Emeritus and sort of retired. The title is more honorary than anything else. Which is good, as it has given me the time to finally tell this story. I still attend meetings, give speeches, and dedicate buildings. I have no idea how many warp ships I have broken champagne bottles against. However, all of those honors take a back seat to the joy I experience on my long walks around the grounds. I get the biggest kick from the stares and whispers of the freshmen as I walk by. I am reminded of that time so long ago when I encountered a legend in a wheel chair, and was equally tongue tied as I walked by him. No matter what they tell you, it’s fun being famous. I make it a point to speak first.
So now you know how it all came about. All because a young boy saw moving shadows that he couldn’t explain.