Chapter 6
Bad Advice
Armegator walked up to the front of the throne room and sat down on the throne where the queen would normally sit. Any ordinary king would be angry and feel disrespected by this, but King Benu was not any ordinary king.
“So, what was it you wanted to talk about?” the king asked as if he were asking his best friend what he thought they should do today.
“We need to talk about your ruling policy,” Armegator replied, leaning back in the chair, “If you were to describe your policy, in a nutshell, what would you say it was like?”
“Well, it’s very democratic,” the king replied, “There is no military, and no police force. However, everyone knows the rules, and everybody follows them. If someone sees someone else breaking the law, they are obligated to stop them. There is no punishment; the citiznes just simply are obligated to stop them.”
“So, then what’s stopping them from doing it again?” Armegator questioned.
“We believe that if we are nice to everyone, that they’ll be nice back,” the king answered, “remember to follow the golden rule!” Armegator simply shook his head.
“People aren’t like that,” he replied, “If they do something wrong, you do something to make sure they don’t do it again, it’s just desserts.”
“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” replied the King cheerfully, “If we’re mean to them, how can we say that they’re wrong to be mean to us back?”
“Because you’re the King!” Armegator answered, standing up, “And I think it’s time you started acting like one!”
“Sir?” Armegator and the King turned towards the doorway. Two cooks, a Phoenix and a Hawk, came in covered in flour. They were holding a cardinal by the wings.
“We caught this bird here trying to steal bread from the kitchen,” said the Phoenix, “so we came up here to ask what you wanted us to do with him.”
“Handle this like you would any other situation,” Armegator whispered in King Benu’s ear, “we can talk about what you do right and wrong later.”
The King walked up to the threesome in the doorway, the cardinal was cowering in fear. He looked at each one of them, and then back down at the cardinal.
“Why did you take our bread?” the King asked nicely.
“I-I-I was hungry,” the cardinal whined, “My family is very poor, and if I don’t do anything, they’ll starve.”
“So, you have absolutely nothing to eat at home?” asked the King, “Not even a crumb of food?”
“No, we don’t even have a place to live,” said the cardinal sadly, looking at the floor.
“Now, tell me,” the King asked the two cooks, “how much bread do we have in our pantry right now?”
“Exactly 296 loaves at this very moment,” reported the Hawk dutifully, “Enough to keep the entire castle fed for an entire week.”
“Well, I think I see where the real crime is!” the king exclaimed chuckling. He took the bread from the reluctant cook and gave it back to the cardinal.
“But…he stole that!” exclaimed the cook.
“And you should know by know that as long as I’m on the throne, we don’t punish criminals,” replied King Benu.
“So, I’m not in trouble?” asked the Cardinal. The King leaned down so that he was at eye level with him.
“If you were willing to do that much for it, you obviously need that bread more than we do,” the King replied, “You said there were about 300 loaves of bread in the pantry?” he asked the cook.
“Yes sir!” the hawk replied proudly.
“Well then give him 150 and we’ll call it even,” the King answered. Everyone else’s jaws dropped, including Armegator’s.
“But we have an entire castle to feed!” exclaimed the phoenix, “he’s one bird!”
“And if we really do have enough to feed us for a week, we should still be able to survive for at least three days. We also have farmers and cooks that can make more,” the King replied happily.
The one cook started to protest, but then turned around and walked back down the hallway.
“Thank you,” was all the cardinal could get out as he turned to leave.
The King turned back around towards the back of the room and saw Armegator standing in the middle of the aisle, looking up at the statue of the previous king. King Benu walked over and joined him.
The statue was the newest in the room, so it hadn’t been worn down or eroded much yet. The detail in the statue was enough to make any artist jealous; everything from the straight, pointed beak to the individual segments of the legs was perfect. To the people of Cere, it was the statue of their fearless ruler, scanning the horizon, protecting his citizens from any danger he might find. However, to him, it was still the same familiar face that he had seen every day of his life.
“Your father would have thrown that bird in the dungeon, where he would have been lucky to get a slice of bread for the rest of his life,” Armegator answered, “but instead you reward him. All you’ve done is convince him to come back and do it again.”
“But, if he’s happy now, and he’s not poor anymore, why would he have any reason to come back?” asked the King, “If we threw him in the dungeon, he would just try to escape and steal even more.” Armegator looked down at the floor and shook his head.
“You will never understand true politics,” he said forcefully.
“What am I doing wrong?” King Benu asked sadly.
“If you let me take over and make the calls from here, I’ll show you” replied Armegator, “but you’ll have to trust me.” That was when Crimson flew back into the room.
“Your majesty…” he said uneasily.
“Oh, Crimson!” the exclaimed, turning to the door, “Weren’t you going to go talk to some people about the burial of the old advisor?”
“Well yes,” Crimson replied, “but I have some bad news.”
“Bad news?” asked the King, “Like what?”
“Well, it’s not really bad news, it’s more like…disturbing news,” he said uneasily.
“As we know, one morning, the advisor was found dead in his bed. He died peacefully in his sleep; everyone thought it was of old age,” started Crimson, “However, I went to get the body from the people who were doing the autopsy…and they said that this wasn’t natural.”
“You mean to tell me,” replied the King uneasily, “That he was murdered!?”
“Not only that,” replied Crimson, “I asked about the poison…and they said the symptoms…were the same as the illness your mate has now.” King Benu drooped to the floor, and his heart seemed to sink even lower.
“I’m afraid that there’s a murderer in the castle,” Crimson finished, “And he’s got it out for the royal family.”
Chapter 7
A Function of Functions
Ore rushed down into the central tree of his house and turned on the TV. Landing on the perch on the other side of the room, he watched intently as the picture of an old lecture hall appeared on the screen. The TV was old and wooden, as were most things in Cantar. The picture was a little fuzzy and it didn’t always get a signal, but he didn’t mind. Besides, with the shows he liked to watch, the only thing you really needed was the sound.
Today was a special day, not just for Ore. The King of Avian was coming to the Paloma City Capital Lecture Hall to give a very important speech. However, this speech wasn’t about politics, it was about science. The King loved to dabble in the world of physics in his free time, and had actually made quite a few important discoveries. All that everybody knew was that last night, the governor of Paloma got an urgent message from the King, telling him he needed to use Paloma City’s the lecture hall ASAP. He also called up all the major television stations in Avian and told them to broadcast the speech. No one knew what it was about, but everyone knew the King wouldn’t simply do this for personal pride; this was something that affected everyone.
The lecture hall pictured on the TV was the biggest room Ore had ever laid eyes on. Just to be allowed through the front door was an honor any scientist would kill to have. The architecture was in the style that the King himself had invented, which was much different from the architecture found in Cantar. In areas like Paloma, birds would use wood from trees they had cut down and metal from the mines of Montagne to build square walls opposed to the walls the trees provided in Cantar. These rectangles of wood along with the beams of metal all be put together to make tall, block-like structures that could hold many more birds than any tree could. This style was very popular for the much bigger cities where a lot of large birds such as Eagles and Owls would live.
The lecture hall was painted white on all sides, and was filled with chairs stuffed with leaves to make them more comfortable to sit on. A total of around 10,000 chairs made a semi circle consisting of dozens of rows surrounding the stage where the lecturer stood. Normally, there were more than enough seats for the scientists to sit in, but today the place was packed. Every seat was full, and Ore could even see a few people standing over to the side. He was surprised that the management had let that many people in. In reality, the extra people probably just snuck in, that’s how big of an event this was. Everyone wanted to hear the urgent news.
Finally, after what seemed like at least 10 minutes of waiting, the King appeared on the stage. He was an archaeopteryx, the first species of bird ever. He was so old that the entire rest of his species had already died out. People liked to tell rumors that he was the first bird ever to appear in Avian. Ore knew this probably wasn’t true, despite the fact that he was at least twice as old as anyone he knew.
However, despite his age, the King looked just like any other middle aged bird. Most other birds would start to get dull feathers and wouldn’t be able to walk all that well at his age, but he didn’t seem to have these problems. He still had a bright, even coat of feathers, and he could not only walk, he could fly! He was also one of the only archaeopteryxes said to have ever flown. There were some accounts of a time in ancient history when all archaeopteryxes could fly, but that must have been at least a few hundred years ago. Not only had anyone alive ever seen an archaeopteryx fly, most of them hadn’t ever seen an archaeopteryx.
The King’s name was Albert. He was very large for a bird, but that’s because he was an archaeopteryx. Just like all other archaeopteryxes, he was brown all over with large wings like a bird of prey. He was the only bird in all of Avian to have teeth, and had red eyes. Even though he looked very menacing, the Kin was actually very gentle. Maybe that was why he was the one changing history.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said, walking to the center of the stage, “I just had to settle a few issues back stage.” Albert walked up to the giant white board in the middle of the stage and picked up one of the markers.
“As you probably all know, I’m here to give you a very important message,” he said.
“Some of you may be wondering why I came here to Paloma instead of the capital in Audobon. Well, I came here because this is the largest scientific institute in Avian. This discovery could, and probably will affect everyone, but it will be especially important to the scientists that work here. So, I wanted to come here so that I could deliver my message first hand.” Ore was hoping that he would get on with it soon. The entire nation was watching, waiting to hear what their King had to say.
“I made an important discovery yesterday,” the King continued, pacing slowly on the stage, “It’s really more of a theory than a discovery, but I feel that it’s still just as important. However, before I go into the details of my idea, I think I should share some of the physics behind it for those viewers who don’t have a college degree in science.”
He chuckled to himself, and then turned to face the white board.
“As you know, there are only four dimensions of time and space: length, width, height, and time itself,” he said, writing each of the four dimensions on the board.
“Now, even the children out there watching on TV probably know this principle. It is taught in schools everywhere and is one of the fundamental concepts learned in primary school.”
“However, what if this wasn’t true? What if we were to take this idea and just simply…throw it out the window?” the King continued, scratching out the four words with his marker.
“But that’s not possible!” interrupted one of the scientists in the audience. The scientist was a rather chubby pidgin. He wore silver glasses that seemed to glint in the light coming from the stage. He also wore a lab coat, despite the fact that he wasn’t actually working with any chemicals at the time. The lab coat seemed to be rather small in the waist, and you could see the buttons strain when he stood up.
“I’m sorry, may I ask who this is?” asked the King.
“Professor Howard E. Quark,” the scientist replied, adjusting his glasses, “and I can tell you for a fact that there are indeed four distinct dimensions. No offense your majesty, but I would normally find it preposterous to say otherwise.”
“So then, Professor Quark,” the King responded, “who was it that told you this was an undeniable fact?”
“Well, every teacher I’ve had since I was a little boy!” the professor exclaimed, “and I think everyone in this room would agree with me.” There was a murmur of agreement in the crowd. Albert walked calmly back to the center of the stage, holding the marker in his talon as he walked.
“Now, do you know who told your teachers that there were four dimensions?” questioned the King.
“Probably all of their teachers,” the professor responded, “who were then, in turn, told by their teachers.”
“So do you mean to tell me that there is just simply a never ending chair of teachers, each one teaching things to children that they believe simply because they heard it from someone else?” asked the King.
“Well no,” said the professor, starting to get a little flustered now, “Obviously somebody discovered it along the way, and told it to everyone else.”
“So this person,” the King said scratching the small cluster of feathers on his chin, “proved that there are four dimensions, and now we all just accept it. I’m all for accepting scientific facts as set in stone, but a few millennia ago, people believed that thunder was created because the god Zeus made it!” Remember, this story takes place a few centuries after the year 3000.
“The world of humans is a myth and you know it!” scolded the professor, “besides, it’s easy to see that there are four dimensions just by opening up your eyes! You can go up and down, left and right, or forwards and backwards. And, as far as I know, there’s nobody out there who can move around in time, so it must just be one dimension. It’s fact!”
“You’re absolutely right, there are only four dimensions that we can perceive,” replied the King, nodding his head, “There are only four dimensions that we can perceive.” There was a murmur in the crowd. Ore didn’t quite understand why the King had repeated the sentence, let alone why he decided to put the emphasis on the word can.
“However,” he continued, “If you want to imagine the impossible, you’re going to have to learn that there is no such thing as a proven fact. Yes, we can perceive four dimensions, but it is also true that we can only perceive what we see. So, my question is, what if there is something that we can’t see. I’m not saying that there is no such thing as length, width, height, and time, I’m just saying that that might not be all.”
The King walked back to the white board and erased the scribbles he had drawn on it in the beginning of the lecture. He took the marker and drew a line going from the left of the board to the right of the board. The line kept going to the right at a constant rate, it never circled back and went back to the left, but it swerved up and down several times. It seemed to be one giant squiggly line. There was no pattern when the line went up and down, and there were times when the line veered from its course so much that it touched to top or bottom of the board.
“Now tell me,” the King asked Professor Quark, “how many dimensions does this cover?”
“That’s easy,” the professor replied, “two.”
“You know that,” said the King, “and I know that. However, what would it look like to someone who didn’t know that?” Another murmur spread through the room. The King had apparently stumped all the scientists in the hall, which really was quite the accomplishment.
The King walked down the center aisle of the lecture hall. About a quarter of the way down, there was a laptop that was connected to a projector. The projector was pointed at the big whiteboard where the King had drawn his big squiggly line.
“Now here, I have a normal computer,” he said, “However, I’ve written a program on it that allows it to take coordinates and plot them on a chart. Now, this isn’t really anything special, especially in this day and age. However, I’ve put my own little twist on it. This program only accepts x coordinates. You can put in a y coordinate, but it won’t mean anything to the computer.
“So, if you look up at the function I’ve drawn on the board, it continues to go to the right, meaning that there will only be one y value for every x value. This means that as you progress along the line, the x value will constantly go up at consistent intervals. So, if we enter the coordinates into the computer…” he explained, letting his voice trail off as he typed in all the respective coordinates of the squiggle he had drawn.
When he was done, the King pressed a button on the keyboard and the program started to run. There apparently had to be a rhymer reason to the squiggle that he had drawn, because not only did he know the exact coordinated, the grid that appeared on the projected screen lined up with it exactly. However, despite the sweeping curves the king’s drawing had, the computer simply drew a straight line.
“You see,” the King said slowly, “We are like the computer. We can only perceive the three dimensions that we can see, so we assumed that those were the only ones that existed. However, this computer can only ‘see’ one dimension; even though we know that the line covers two.” He walked back over to the whiteboard, picking up the marker and eraser.
“So, my question is, what would happen if we were to try and alter the ‘flow’ of this line?” he asked. As he said that, the King walked over to one part of the board and erased the middle part of a rather skinny “crest” in the graph. He then took drew the lines back in, such that the part on the left connected back to the line just as it had before. However, he drew the right part of the gap back in so that it looped back to touch the left part.
“Now, what I’ve done here is I’ve shifted a little part of the graph. That part right there,” he said, pointing to the part that went back to touch the other part, “Has been moved a tiny bit to the left, causing it to merge with another part of the graph. If we were traveling along this graph,” he said, tracing the line with his wingtips, “and we were to alter the graph like I just did right here,” he said, pointing to the top of the crest that he had altered on the graph, “when we started moving back down, it’s very possible that we could jump from one side to the other, causing us to come back to a spot where we had already been. We would go back to the top of this crest and back down it, despite the fact that we had already done it once.” There was another murmur in the crowd as the scientist started to figure out what he was talking about.
“We’ve already seen how there can be more dimensions than we know about in space, and we’ve seen how we can alter them to jump back to spots we’ve already been,” the King explained with growing excitement, “but what if we were to apply this to another dimension? What if we were to apply this to time? If we were to do this exact same thing to the flow of time, we could jump back to a spot we had already been.” The crowd seemed to get more and more excited with every word he said.
“That’s right,” the King said, “I’m talking about bending the space time continuum to our will. I’m talking about time travel.” The room exploded with excitement. This had been something that only existed in science fiction books, but now it was theirs. With this, they would be able to go through time. There was only one scientist who was still skeptical.
“Hold on a second!” exclaimed Professor Quark in a loud, booming voice. The entire room got dead silent, “how the heck are we actually supposed to do this!?” The excitement in the room died instantly. No one had thought of the fact that they actually had to bend time first.
“Well you’re smart,” the King replied, “I’m sure someone here can figure it out.”
“Someone will just figure it out!?” exclaimed the Professor, “That’s your plan!? You’re just going to let someone figure it out!?”
“Sure,” the king replied casually, “I find it hard to believe that out of everyone watching, there isn’t someone out there who can figure out the answer. I have important business to take care of back in the capital. I trust that you’ll have it all figured out soon.”
“Do you actually expect us to build this thing!?” yelled one of the scientists from the back of the room.
“If you’re so smart why don’t you build it!?” exclaimed another scientist.
“You do know we have lives outside of this right!?” yelled another one.
“Yes, I know you’re all upset, but honestly, I’m one person, and you’re over 10,000,” the King replied flatly, “Now, I’m afraid I’m out of time here, so with that, I’ll bid you adieu.” With that, the King, calmly strolled off back stage. The crowd seemed to explode in a torrent of exclamations and questions.
“This is ludicrous!” someone shouted. People had started getting out of their seats and yelling at one another. It seemed as if a giant argument over this machine that couldn’t be built had started between all the spectators in the lecture hall. Guards at the doors came in and tried to settle things down, but it was no use. The crowd of 10,000+ people was too much for them to handle.
That’s when the TV lost its signal. Ore tried banging on the top of it and adjusting the metal poles that stuck out it, but he couldn’t get it to run again. Either his TV had officially given out, or the station had stopped airing. Either way, he wasn’t going to be watching any more of it. He turned and went back up to his tree, contemplating everything that he had just heard.
Chapter 6
Bad Advice
Armegator walked up to the front of the throne room and sat down on the throne where the queen would normally sit. Any ordinary king would be angry and feel disrespected by this, but King Benu was not any ordinary king.
“So, what was it you wanted to talk about?” the king asked as if he were asking his best friend what he thought they should do today.
“We need to talk about your ruling policy,” Armegator replied, leaning back in the chair, “If you were to describe your policy, in a nutshell, what would you say it was like?”
“Well, it’s very democratic,” the king replied, “There is no military, and no police force. However, everyone knows the rules, and everybody follows them. If someone sees someone else breaking the law, they are obligated to stop them. There is no punishment; the citiznes just simply are obligated to stop them.”
“So, then what’s stopping them from doing it again?” Armegator questioned.
“We believe that if we are nice to everyone, that they’ll be nice back,” the king answered, “remember to follow the golden rule!” Armegator simply shook his head.
“People aren’t like that,” he replied, “If they do something wrong, you do something to make sure they don’t do it again, it’s just desserts.”
“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” replied the King cheerfully, “If we’re mean to them, how can we say that they’re wrong to be mean to us back?”
“Because you’re the King!” Armegator answered, standing up, “And I think it’s time you started acting like one!”
“Sir?” Armegator and the King turned towards the doorway. Two cooks, a Phoenix and a Hawk, came in covered in flour. They were holding a cardinal by the wings.
“We caught this bird here trying to steal bread from the kitchen,” said the Phoenix, “so we came up here to ask what you wanted us to do with him.”
“Handle this like you would any other situation,” Armegator whispered in King Benu’s ear, “we can talk about what you do right and wrong later.”
The King walked up to the threesome in the doorway, the cardinal was cowering in fear. He looked at each one of them, and then back down at the cardinal.
“Why did you take our bread?” the King asked nicely.
“I-I-I was hungry,” the cardinal whined, “My family is very poor, and if I don’t do anything, they’ll starve.”
“So, you have absolutely nothing to eat at home?” asked the King, “Not even a crumb of food?”
“No, we don’t even have a place to live,” said the cardinal sadly, looking at the floor.
“Now, tell me,” the King asked the two cooks, “how much bread do we have in our pantry right now?”
“Exactly 296 loaves at this very moment,” reported the Hawk dutifully, “Enough to keep the entire castle fed for an entire week.”
“Well, I think I see where the real crime is!” the king exclaimed chuckling. He took the bread from the reluctant cook and gave it back to the cardinal.
“But…he stole that!” exclaimed the cook.
“And you should know by know that as long as I’m on the throne, we don’t punish criminals,” replied King Benu.
“So, I’m not in trouble?” asked the Cardinal. The King leaned down so that he was at eye level with him.
“If you were willing to do that much for it, you obviously need that bread more than we do,” the King replied, “You said there were about 300 loaves of bread in the pantry?” he asked the cook.
“Yes sir!” the hawk replied proudly.
“Well then give him 150 and we’ll call it even,” the King answered. Everyone else’s jaws dropped, including Armegator’s.
“But we have an entire castle to feed!” exclaimed the phoenix, “he’s one bird!”
“And if we really do have enough to feed us for a week, we should still be able to survive for at least three days. We also have farmers and cooks that can make more,” the King replied happily.
The one cook started to protest, but then turned around and walked back down the hallway.
“Thank you,” was all the cardinal could get out as he turned to leave.
The King turned back around towards the back of the room and saw Armegator standing in the middle of the aisle, looking up at the statue of the previous king. King Benu walked over and joined him.
The statue was the newest in the room, so it hadn’t been worn down or eroded much yet. The detail in the statue was enough to make any artist jealous; everything from the straight, pointed beak to the individual segments of the legs was perfect. To the people of Cere, it was the statue of their fearless ruler, scanning the horizon, protecting his citizens from any danger he might find. However, to him, it was still the same familiar face that he had seen every day of his life.
“Your father would have thrown that bird in the dungeon, where he would have been lucky to get a slice of bread for the rest of his life,” Armegator answered, “but instead you reward him. All you’ve done is convince him to come back and do it again.”
“But, if he’s happy now, and he’s not poor anymore, why would he have any reason to come back?” asked the King, “If we threw him in the dungeon, he would just try to escape and steal even more.” Armegator looked down at the floor and shook his head.
“You will never understand true politics,” he said forcefully.
“What am I doing wrong?” King Benu asked sadly.
“If you let me take over and make the calls from here, I’ll show you” replied Armegator, “but you’ll have to trust me.” That was when Crimson flew back into the room.
“Your majesty…” he said uneasily.
“Oh, Crimson!” the exclaimed, turning to the door, “Weren’t you going to go talk to some people about the burial of the old advisor?”
“Well yes,” Crimson replied, “but I have some bad news.”
“Bad news?” asked the King, “Like what?”
“Well, it’s not really bad news, it’s more like…disturbing news,” he said uneasily.
“As we know, one morning, the advisor was found dead in his bed. He died peacefully in his sleep; everyone thought it was of old age,” started Crimson, “However, I went to get the body from the people who were doing the autopsy…and they said that this wasn’t natural.”
“You mean to tell me,” replied the King uneasily, “That he was murdered!?”
“Not only that,” replied Crimson, “I asked about the poison…and they said the symptoms…were the same as the illness your mate has now.” King Benu drooped to the floor, and his heart seemed to sink even lower.
“I’m afraid that there’s a murderer in the castle,” Crimson finished, “And he’s got it out for the royal family.”
Chapter 7
A Function of Functions
Ore rushed down into the central tree of his house and turned on the TV. Landing on the perch on the other side of the room, he watched intently as the picture of an old lecture hall appeared on the screen. The TV was old and wooden, as were most things in Cantar. The picture was a little fuzzy and it didn’t always get a signal, but he didn’t mind. Besides, with the shows he liked to watch, the only thing you really needed was the sound.
Today was a special day, not just for Ore. The King of Avian was coming to the Paloma City Capital Lecture Hall to give a very important speech. However, this speech wasn’t about politics, it was about science. The King loved to dabble in the world of physics in his free time, and had actually made quite a few important discoveries. All that everybody knew was that last night, the governor of Paloma got an urgent message from the King, telling him he needed to use Paloma City’s the lecture hall ASAP. He also called up all the major television stations in Avian and told them to broadcast the speech. No one knew what it was about, but everyone knew the King wouldn’t simply do this for personal pride; this was something that affected everyone.
The lecture hall pictured on the TV was the biggest room Ore had ever laid eyes on. Just to be allowed through the front door was an honor any scientist would kill to have. The architecture was in the style that the King himself had invented, which was much different from the architecture found in Cantar. In areas like Paloma, birds would use wood from trees they had cut down and metal from the mines of Montagne to build square walls opposed to the walls the trees provided in Cantar. These rectangles of wood along with the beams of metal all be put together to make tall, block-like structures that could hold many more birds than any tree could. This style was very popular for the much bigger cities where a lot of large birds such as Eagles and Owls would live.
The lecture hall was painted white on all sides, and was filled with chairs stuffed with leaves to make them more comfortable to sit on. A total of around 10,000 chairs made a semi circle consisting of dozens of rows surrounding the stage where the lecturer stood. Normally, there were more than enough seats for the scientists to sit in, but today the place was packed. Every seat was full, and Ore could even see a few people standing over to the side. He was surprised that the management had let that many people in. In reality, the extra people probably just snuck in, that’s how big of an event this was. Everyone wanted to hear the urgent news.
Finally, after what seemed like at least 10 minutes of waiting, the King appeared on the stage. He was an archaeopteryx, the first species of bird ever. He was so old that the entire rest of his species had already died out. People liked to tell rumors that he was the first bird ever to appear in Avian. Ore knew this probably wasn’t true, despite the fact that he was at least twice as old as anyone he knew.
However, despite his age, the King looked just like any other middle aged bird. Most other birds would start to get dull feathers and wouldn’t be able to walk all that well at his age, but he didn’t seem to have these problems. He still had a bright, even coat of feathers, and he could not only walk, he could fly! He was also one of the only archaeopteryxes said to have ever flown. There were some accounts of a time in ancient history when all archaeopteryxes could fly, but that must have been at least a few hundred years ago. Not only had anyone alive ever seen an archaeopteryx fly, most of them hadn’t ever seen an archaeopteryx.
The King’s name was Albert. He was very large for a bird, but that’s because he was an archaeopteryx. Just like all other archaeopteryxes, he was brown all over with large wings like a bird of prey. He was the only bird in all of Avian to have teeth, and had red eyes. Even though he looked very menacing, the Kin was actually very gentle. Maybe that was why he was the one changing history.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said, walking to the center of the stage, “I just had to settle a few issues back stage.” Albert walked up to the giant white board in the middle of the stage and picked up one of the markers.
“As you probably all know, I’m here to give you a very important message,” he said.
“Some of you may be wondering why I came here to Paloma instead of the capital in Audobon. Well, I came here because this is the largest scientific institute in Avian. This discovery could, and probably will affect everyone, but it will be especially important to the scientists that work here. So, I wanted to come here so that I could deliver my message first hand.” Ore was hoping that he would get on with it soon. The entire nation was watching, waiting to hear what their King had to say.
“I made an important discovery yesterday,” the King continued, pacing slowly on the stage, “It’s really more of a theory than a discovery, but I feel that it’s still just as important. However, before I go into the details of my idea, I think I should share some of the physics behind it for those viewers who don’t have a college degree in science.”
He chuckled to himself, and then turned to face the white board.
“As you know, there are only four dimensions of time and space: length, width, height, and time itself,” he said, writing each of the four dimensions on the board.
“Now, even the children out there watching on TV probably know this principle. It is taught in schools everywhere and is one of the fundamental concepts learned in primary school.”
“However, what if this wasn’t true? What if we were to take this idea and just simply…throw it out the window?” the King continued, scratching out the four words with his marker.
“But that’s not possible!” interrupted one of the scientists in the audience. The scientist was a rather chubby pidgin. He wore silver glasses that seemed to glint in the light coming from the stage. He also wore a lab coat, despite the fact that he wasn’t actually working with any chemicals at the time. The lab coat seemed to be rather small in the waist, and you could see the buttons strain when he stood up.
“I’m sorry, may I ask who this is?” asked the King.
“Professor Howard E. Quark,” the scientist replied, adjusting his glasses, “and I can tell you for a fact that there are indeed four distinct dimensions. No offense your majesty, but I would normally find it preposterous to say otherwise.”
“So then, Professor Quark,” the King responded, “who was it that told you this was an undeniable fact?”
“Well, every teacher I’ve had since I was a little boy!” the professor exclaimed, “and I think everyone in this room would agree with me.” There was a murmur of agreement in the crowd. Albert walked calmly back to the center of the stage, holding the marker in his talon as he walked.
“Now, do you know who told your teachers that there were four dimensions?” questioned the King.
“Probably all of their teachers,” the professor responded, “who were then, in turn, told by their teachers.”
“So do you mean to tell me that there is just simply a never ending chair of teachers, each one teaching things to children that they believe simply because they heard it from someone else?” asked the King.
“Well no,” said the professor, starting to get a little flustered now, “Obviously somebody discovered it along the way, and told it to everyone else.”
“So this person,” the King said scratching the small cluster of feathers on his chin, “proved that there are four dimensions, and now we all just accept it. I’m all for accepting scientific facts as set in stone, but a few millennia ago, people believed that thunder was created because the god Zeus made it!” Remember, this story takes place a few centuries after the year 3000.
“The world of humans is a myth and you know it!” scolded the professor, “besides, it’s easy to see that there are four dimensions just by opening up your eyes! You can go up and down, left and right, or forwards and backwards. And, as far as I know, there’s nobody out there who can move around in time, so it must just be one dimension. It’s fact!”
“You’re absolutely right, there are only four dimensions that we can perceive,” replied the King, nodding his head, “There are only four dimensions that we can perceive.” There was a murmur in the crowd. Ore didn’t quite understand why the King had repeated the sentence, let alone why he decided to put the emphasis on the word can.
“However,” he continued, “If you want to imagine the impossible, you’re going to have to learn that there is no such thing as a proven fact. Yes, we can perceive four dimensions, but it is also true that we can only perceive what we see. So, my question is, what if there is something that we can’t see. I’m not saying that there is no such thing as length, width, height, and time, I’m just saying that that might not be all.”
The King walked back to the white board and erased the scribbles he had drawn on it in the beginning of the lecture. He took the marker and drew a line going from the left of the board to the right of the board. The line kept going to the right at a constant rate, it never circled back and went back to the left, but it swerved up and down several times. It seemed to be one giant squiggly line. There was no pattern when the line went up and down, and there were times when the line veered from its course so much that it touched to top or bottom of the board.
“Now tell me,” the King asked Professor Quark, “how many dimensions does this cover?”
“That’s easy,” the professor replied, “two.”
“You know that,” said the King, “and I know that. However, what would it look like to someone who didn’t know that?” Another murmur spread through the room. The King had apparently stumped all the scientists in the hall, which really was quite the accomplishment.
The King walked down the center aisle of the lecture hall. About a quarter of the way down, there was a laptop that was connected to a projector. The projector was pointed at the big whiteboard where the King had drawn his big squiggly line.
“Now here, I have a normal computer,” he said, “However, I’ve written a program on it that allows it to take coordinates and plot them on a chart. Now, this isn’t really anything special, especially in this day and age. However, I’ve put my own little twist on it. This program only accepts x coordinates. You can put in a y coordinate, but it won’t mean anything to the computer.
“So, if you look up at the function I’ve drawn on the board, it continues to go to the right, meaning that there will only be one y value for every x value. This means that as you progress along the line, the x value will constantly go up at consistent intervals. So, if we enter the coordinates into the computer…” he explained, letting his voice trail off as he typed in all the respective coordinates of the squiggle he had drawn.
When he was done, the King pressed a button on the keyboard and the program started to run. There apparently had to be a rhymer reason to the squiggle that he had drawn, because not only did he know the exact coordinated, the grid that appeared on the projected screen lined up with it exactly. However, despite the sweeping curves the king’s drawing had, the computer simply drew a straight line.
“You see,” the King said slowly, “We are like the computer. We can only perceive the three dimensions that we can see, so we assumed that those were the only ones that existed. However, this computer can only ‘see’ one dimension; even though we know that the line covers two.” He walked back over to the whiteboard, picking up the marker and eraser.
“So, my question is, what would happen if we were to try and alter the ‘flow’ of this line?” he asked. As he said that, the King walked over to one part of the board and erased the middle part of a rather skinny “crest” in the graph. He then took drew the lines back in, such that the part on the left connected back to the line just as it had before. However, he drew the right part of the gap back in so that it looped back to touch the left part.
“Now, what I’ve done here is I’ve shifted a little part of the graph. That part right there,” he said, pointing to the part that went back to touch the other part, “Has been moved a tiny bit to the left, causing it to merge with another part of the graph. If we were traveling along this graph,” he said, tracing the line with his wingtips, “and we were to alter the graph like I just did right here,” he said, pointing to the top of the crest that he had altered on the graph, “when we started moving back down, it’s very possible that we could jump from one side to the other, causing us to come back to a spot where we had already been. We would go back to the top of this crest and back down it, despite the fact that we had already done it once.” There was another murmur in the crowd as the scientist started to figure out what he was talking about.
“We’ve already seen how there can be more dimensions than we know about in space, and we’ve seen how we can alter them to jump back to spots we’ve already been,” the King explained with growing excitement, “but what if we were to apply this to another dimension? What if we were to apply this to time? If we were to do this exact same thing to the flow of time, we could jump back to a spot we had already been.” The crowd seemed to get more and more excited with every word he said.
“That’s right,” the King said, “I’m talking about bending the space time continuum to our will. I’m talking about time travel.” The room exploded with excitement. This had been something that only existed in science fiction books, but now it was theirs. With this, they would be able to go through time. There was only one scientist who was still skeptical.
“Hold on a second!” exclaimed Professor Quark in a loud, booming voice. The entire room got dead silent, “how the heck are we actually supposed to do this!?” The excitement in the room died instantly. No one had thought of the fact that they actually had to bend time first.
“Well you’re smart,” the King replied, “I’m sure someone here can figure it out.”
“Someone will just figure it out!?” exclaimed the Professor, “That’s your plan!? You’re just going to let someone figure it out!?”
“Sure,” the king replied casually, “I find it hard to believe that out of everyone watching, there isn’t someone out there who can figure out the answer. I have important business to take care of back in the capital. I trust that you’ll have it all figured out soon.”
“Do you actually expect us to build this thing!?” yelled one of the scientists from the back of the room.
“If you’re so smart why don’t you build it!?” exclaimed another scientist.
“You do know we have lives outside of this right!?” yelled another one.
“Yes, I know you’re all upset, but honestly, I’m one person, and you’re over 10,000,” the King replied flatly, “Now, I’m afraid I’m out of time here, so with that, I’ll bid you adieu.” With that, the King, calmly strolled off back stage. The crowd seemed to explode in a torrent of exclamations and questions.
“This is ludicrous!” someone shouted. People had started getting out of their seats and yelling at one another. It seemed as if a giant argument over this machine that couldn’t be built had started between all the spectators in the lecture hall. Guards at the doors came in and tried to settle things down, but it was no use. The crowd of 10,000+ people was too much for them to handle.
That’s when the TV lost its signal. Ore tried banging on the top of it and adjusting the metal poles that stuck out it, but he couldn’t get it to run again. Either his TV had officially given out, or the station had stopped airing. Either way, he wasn’t going to be watching any more of it. He turned and went back up to his tree, contemplating everything that he had just heard.
Chapter 6
Bad Advice
Armegator walked up to the front of the throne room and sat down on the throne where the queen would normally sit. Any ordinary king would be angry and feel disrespected by this, but King Benu was not any ordinary king.
“So, what was it you wanted to talk about?” the king asked as if he were asking his best friend what he thought they should do today.
“We need to talk about your ruling policy,” Armegator replied, leaning back in the chair, “If you were to describe your policy, in a nutshell, what would you say it was like?”
“Well, it’s very democratic,” the king replied, “There is no military, and no police force. However, everyone knows the rules, and everybody follows them. If someone sees someone else breaking the law, they are obligated to stop them. There is no punishment; the citiznes just simply are obligated to stop them.”
“So, then what’s stopping them from doing it again?” Armegator questioned.
“We believe that if we are nice to everyone, that they’ll be nice back,” the king answered, “remember to follow the golden rule!” Armegator simply shook his head.
“People aren’t like that,” he replied, “If they do something wrong, you do something to make sure they don’t do it again, it’s just desserts.”
“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” replied the King cheerfully, “If we’re mean to them, how can we say that they’re wrong to be mean to us back?”
“Because you’re the King!” Armegator answered, standing up, “And I think it’s time you started acting like one!”
“Sir?” Armegator and the King turned towards the doorway. Two cooks, a Phoenix and a Hawk, came in covered in flour. They were holding a cardinal by the wings.
“We caught this bird here trying to steal bread from the kitchen,” said the Phoenix, “so we came up here to ask what you wanted us to do with him.”
“Handle this like you would any other situation,” Armegator whispered in King Benu’s ear, “we can talk about what you do right and wrong later.”
The King walked up to the threesome in the doorway, the cardinal was cowering in fear. He looked at each one of them, and then back down at the cardinal.
“Why did you take our bread?” the King asked nicely.
“I-I-I was hungry,” the cardinal whined, “My family is very poor, and if I don’t do anything, they’ll starve.”
“So, you have absolutely nothing to eat at home?” asked the King, “Not even a crumb of food?”
“No, we don’t even have a place to live,” said the cardinal sadly, looking at the floor.
“Now, tell me,” the King asked the two cooks, “how much bread do we have in our pantry right now?”
“Exactly 296 loaves at this very moment,” reported the Hawk dutifully, “Enough to keep the entire castle fed for an entire week.”
“Well, I think I see where the real crime is!” the king exclaimed chuckling. He took the bread from the reluctant cook and gave it back to the cardinal.
“But…he stole that!” exclaimed the cook.
“And you should know by know that as long as I’m on the throne, we don’t punish criminals,” replied King Benu.
“So, I’m not in trouble?” asked the Cardinal. The King leaned down so that he was at eye level with him.
“If you were willing to do that much for it, you obviously need that bread more than we do,” the King replied, “You said there were about 300 loaves of bread in the pantry?” he asked the cook.
“Yes sir!” the hawk replied proudly.
“Well then give him 150 and we’ll call it even,” the King answered. Everyone else’s jaws dropped, including Armegator’s.
“But we have an entire castle to feed!” exclaimed the phoenix, “he’s one bird!”
“And if we really do have enough to feed us for a week, we should still be able to survive for at least three days. We also have farmers and cooks that can make more,” the King replied happily.
The one cook started to protest, but then turned around and walked back down the hallway.
“Thank you,” was all the cardinal could get out as he turned to leave.
The King turned back around towards the back of the room and saw Armegator standing in the middle of the aisle, looking up at the statue of the previous king. King Benu walked over and joined him.
The statue was the newest in the room, so it hadn’t been worn down or eroded much yet. The detail in the statue was enough to make any artist jealous; everything from the straight, pointed beak to the individual segments of the legs was perfect. To the people of Cere, it was the statue of their fearless ruler, scanning the horizon, protecting his citizens from any danger he might find. However, to him, it was still the same familiar face that he had seen every day of his life.
“Your father would have thrown that bird in the dungeon, where he would have been lucky to get a slice of bread for the rest of his life,” Armegator answered, “but instead you reward him. All you’ve done is convince him to come back and do it again.”
“But, if he’s happy now, and he’s not poor anymore, why would he have any reason to come back?” asked the King, “If we threw him in the dungeon, he would just try to escape and steal even more.” Armegator looked down at the floor and shook his head.
“You will never understand true politics,” he said forcefully.
“What am I doing wrong?” King Benu asked sadly.
“If you let me take over and make the calls from here, I’ll show you” replied Armegator, “but you’ll have to trust me.” That was when Crimson flew back into the room.
“Your majesty…” he said uneasily.
“Oh, Crimson!” the exclaimed, turning to the door, “Weren’t you going to go talk to some people about the burial of the old advisor?”
“Well yes,” Crimson replied, “but I have some bad news.”
“Bad news?” asked the King, “Like what?”
“Well, it’s not really bad news, it’s more like…disturbing news,” he said uneasily.
“As we know, one morning, the advisor was found dead in his bed. He died peacefully in his sleep; everyone thought it was of old age,” started Crimson, “However, I went to get the body from the people who were doing the autopsy…and they said that this wasn’t natural.”
“You mean to tell me,” replied the King uneasily, “That he was murdered!?”
“Not only that,” replied Crimson, “I asked about the poison…and they said the symptoms…were the same as the illness your mate has now.” King Benu drooped to the floor, and his heart seemed to sink even lower.
“I’m afraid that there’s a murderer in the castle,” Crimson finished, “And he’s got it out for the royal family.”
Chapter 7
A Function of Functions
Ore rushed down into the central tree of his house and turned on the TV. Landing on the perch on the other side of the room, he watched intently as the picture of an old lecture hall appeared on the screen. The TV was old and wooden, as were most things in Cantar. The picture was a little fuzzy and it didn’t always get a signal, but he didn’t mind. Besides, with the shows he liked to watch, the only thing you really needed was the sound.
Today was a special day, not just for Ore. The King of Avian was coming to the Paloma City Capital Lecture Hall to give a very important speech. However, this speech wasn’t about politics, it was about science. The King loved to dabble in the world of physics in his free time, and had actually made quite a few important discoveries. All that everybody knew was that last night, the governor of Paloma got an urgent message from the King, telling him he needed to use Paloma City’s the lecture hall ASAP. He also called up all the major television stations in Avian and told them to broadcast the speech. No one knew what it was about, but everyone knew the King wouldn’t simply do this for personal pride; this was something that affected everyone.
The lecture hall pictured on the TV was the biggest room Ore had ever laid eyes on. Just to be allowed through the front door was an honor any scientist would kill to have. The architecture was in the style that the King himself had invented, which was much different from the architecture found in Cantar. In areas like Paloma, birds would use wood from trees they had cut down and metal from the mines of Montagne to build square walls opposed to the walls the trees provided in Cantar. These rectangles of wood along with the beams of metal all be put together to make tall, block-like structures that could hold many more birds than any tree could. This style was very popular for the much bigger cities where a lot of large birds such as Eagles and Owls would live.
The lecture hall was painted white on all sides, and was filled with chairs stuffed with leaves to make them more comfortable to sit on. A total of around 10,000 chairs made a semi circle consisting of dozens of rows surrounding the stage where the lecturer stood. Normally, there were more than enough seats for the scientists to sit in, but today the place was packed. Every seat was full, and Ore could even see a few people standing over to the side. He was surprised that the management had let that many people in. In reality, the extra people probably just snuck in, that’s how big of an event this was. Everyone wanted to hear the urgent news.
Finally, after what seemed like at least 10 minutes of waiting, the King appeared on the stage. He was an archaeopteryx, the first species of bird ever. He was so old that the entire rest of his species had already died out. People liked to tell rumors that he was the first bird ever to appear in Avian. Ore knew this probably wasn’t true, despite the fact that he was at least twice as old as anyone he knew.
However, despite his age, the King looked just like any other middle aged bird. Most other birds would start to get dull feathers and wouldn’t be able to walk all that well at his age, but he didn’t seem to have these problems. He still had a bright, even coat of feathers, and he could not only walk, he could fly! He was also one of the only archaeopteryxes said to have ever flown. There were some accounts of a time in ancient history when all archaeopteryxes could fly, but that must have been at least a few hundred years ago. Not only had anyone alive ever seen an archaeopteryx fly, most of them hadn’t ever seen an archaeopteryx.
The King’s name was Albert. He was very large for a bird, but that’s because he was an archaeopteryx. Just like all other archaeopteryxes, he was brown all over with large wings like a bird of prey. He was the only bird in all of Avian to have teeth, and had red eyes. Even though he looked very menacing, the Kin was actually very gentle. Maybe that was why he was the one changing history.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said, walking to the center of the stage, “I just had to settle a few issues back stage.” Albert walked up to the giant white board in the middle of the stage and picked up one of the markers.
“As you probably all know, I’m here to give you a very important message,” he said.
“Some of you may be wondering why I came here to Paloma instead of the capital in Audobon. Well, I came here because this is the largest scientific institute in Avian. This discovery could, and probably will affect everyone, but it will be especially important to the scientists that work here. So, I wanted to come here so that I could deliver my message first hand.” Ore was hoping that he would get on with it soon. The entire nation was watching, waiting to hear what their King had to say.
“I made an important discovery yesterday,” the King continued, pacing slowly on the stage, “It’s really more of a theory than a discovery, but I feel that it’s still just as important. However, before I go into the details of my idea, I think I should share some of the physics behind it for those viewers who don’t have a college degree in science.”
He chuckled to himself, and then turned to face the white board.
“As you know, there are only four dimensions of time and space: length, width, height, and time itself,” he said, writing each of the four dimensions on the board.
“Now, even the children out there watching on TV probably know this principle. It is taught in schools everywhere and is one of the fundamental concepts learned in primary school.”
“However, what if this wasn’t true? What if we were to take this idea and just simply…throw it out the window?” the King continued, scratching out the four words with his marker.
“But that’s not possible!” interrupted one of the scientists in the audience. The scientist was a rather chubby pidgin. He wore silver glasses that seemed to glint in the light coming from the stage. He also wore a lab coat, despite the fact that he wasn’t actually working with any chemicals at the time. The lab coat seemed to be rather small in the waist, and you could see the buttons strain when he stood up.
“I’m sorry, may I ask who this is?” asked the King.
“Professor Howard E. Quark,” the scientist replied, adjusting his glasses, “and I can tell you for a fact that there are indeed four distinct dimensions. No offense your majesty, but I would normally find it preposterous to say otherwise.”
“So then, Professor Quark,” the King responded, “who was it that told you this was an undeniable fact?”
“Well, every teacher I’ve had since I was a little boy!” the professor exclaimed, “and I think everyone in this room would agree with me.” There was a murmur of agreement in the crowd. Albert walked calmly back to the center of the stage, holding the marker in his talon as he walked.
“Now, do you know who told your teachers that there were four dimensions?” questioned the King.
“Probably all of their teachers,” the professor responded, “who were then, in turn, told by their teachers.”
“So do you mean to tell me that there is just simply a never ending chair of teachers, each one teaching things to children that they believe simply because they heard it from someone else?” asked the King.
“Well no,” said the professor, starting to get a little flustered now, “Obviously somebody discovered it along the way, and told it to everyone else.”
“So this person,” the King said scratching the small cluster of feathers on his chin, “proved that there are four dimensions, and now we all just accept it. I’m all for accepting scientific facts as set in stone, but a few millennia ago, people believed that thunder was created because the god Zeus made it!” Remember, this story takes place a few centuries after the year 3000.
“The world of humans is a myth and you know it!” scolded the professor, “besides, it’s easy to see that there are four dimensions just by opening up your eyes! You can go up and down, left and right, or forwards and backwards. And, as far as I know, there’s nobody out there who can move around in time, so it must just be one dimension. It’s fact!”
“You’re absolutely right, there are only four dimensions that we can perceive,” replied the King, nodding his head, “There are only four dimensions that we can perceive.” There was a murmur in the crowd. Ore didn’t quite understand why the King had repeated the sentence, let alone why he decided to put the emphasis on the word can.
“However,” he continued, “If you want to imagine the impossible, you’re going to have to learn that there is no such thing as a proven fact. Yes, we can perceive four dimensions, but it is also true that we can only perceive what we see. So, my question is, what if there is something that we can’t see. I’m not saying that there is no such thing as length, width, height, and time, I’m just saying that that might not be all.”
The King walked back to the white board and erased the scribbles he had drawn on it in the beginning of the lecture. He took the marker and drew a line going from the left of the board to the right of the board. The line kept going to the right at a constant rate, it never circled back and went back to the left, but it swerved up and down several times. It seemed to be one giant squiggly line. There was no pattern when the line went up and down, and there were times when the line veered from its course so much that it touched to top or bottom of the board.
“Now tell me,” the King asked Professor Quark, “how many dimensions does this cover?”
“That’s easy,” the professor replied, “two.”
“You know that,” said the King, “and I know that. However, what would it look like to someone who didn’t know that?” Another murmur spread through the room. The King had apparently stumped all the scientists in the hall, which really was quite the accomplishment.
The King walked down the center aisle of the lecture hall. About a quarter of the way down, there was a laptop that was connected to a projector. The projector was pointed at the big whiteboard where the King had drawn his big squiggly line.
“Now here, I have a normal computer,” he said, “However, I’ve written a program on it that allows it to take coordinates and plot them on a chart. Now, this isn’t really anything special, especially in this day and age. However, I’ve put my own little twist on it. This program only accepts x coordinates. You can put in a y coordinate, but it won’t mean anything to the computer.
“So, if you look up at the function I’ve drawn on the board, it continues to go to the right, meaning that there will only be one y value for every x value. This means that as you progress along the line, the x value will constantly go up at consistent intervals. So, if we enter the coordinates into the computer…” he explained, letting his voice trail off as he typed in all the respective coordinates of the squiggle he had drawn.
When he was done, the King pressed a button on the keyboard and the program started to run. There apparently had to be a rhymer reason to the squiggle that he had drawn, because not only did he know the exact coordinated, the grid that appeared on the projected screen lined up with it exactly. However, despite the sweeping curves the king’s drawing had, the computer simply drew a straight line.
“You see,” the King said slowly, “We are like the computer. We can only perceive the three dimensions that we can see, so we assumed that those were the only ones that existed. However, this computer can only ‘see’ one dimension; even though we know that the line covers two.” He walked back over to the whiteboard, picking up the marker and eraser.
“So, my question is, what would happen if we were to try and alter the ‘flow’ of this line?” he asked. As he said that, the King walked over to one part of the board and erased the middle part of a rather skinny “crest” in the graph. He then took drew the lines back in, such that the part on the left connected back to the line just as it had before. However, he drew the right part of the gap back in so that it looped back to touch the left part.
“Now, what I’ve done here is I’ve shifted a little part of the graph. That part right there,” he said, pointing to the part that went back to touch the other part, “Has been moved a tiny bit to the left, causing it to merge with another part of the graph. If we were traveling along this graph,” he said, tracing the line with his wingtips, “and we were to alter the graph like I just did right here,” he said, pointing to the top of the crest that he had altered on the graph, “when we started moving back down, it’s very possible that we could jump from one side to the other, causing us to come back to a spot where we had already been. We would go back to the top of this crest and back down it, despite the fact that we had already done it once.” There was another murmur in the crowd as the scientist started to figure out what he was talking about.
“We’ve already seen how there can be more dimensions than we know about in space, and we’ve seen how we can alter them to jump back to spots we’ve already been,” the King explained with growing excitement, “but what if we were to apply this to another dimension? What if we were to apply this to time? If we were to do this exact same thing to the flow of time, we could jump back to a spot we had already been.” The crowd seemed to get more and more excited with every word he said.
“That’s right,” the King said, “I’m talking about bending the space time continuum to our will. I’m talking about time travel.” The room exploded with excitement. This had been something that only existed in science fiction books, but now it was theirs. With this, they would be able to go through time. There was only one scientist who was still skeptical.
“Hold on a second!” exclaimed Professor Quark in a loud, booming voice. The entire room got dead silent, “how the heck are we actually supposed to do this!?” The excitement in the room died instantly. No one had thought of the fact that they actually had to bend time first.
“Well you’re smart,” the King replied, “I’m sure someone here can figure it out.”
“Someone will just figure it out!?” exclaimed the Professor, “That’s your plan!? You’re just going to let someone figure it out!?”
“Sure,” the king replied casually, “I find it hard to believe that out of everyone watching, there isn’t someone out there who can figure out the answer. I have important business to take care of back in the capital. I trust that you’ll have it all figured out soon.”
“Do you actually expect us to build this thing!?” yelled one of the scientists from the back of the room.
“If you’re so smart why don’t you build it!?” exclaimed another scientist.
“You do know we have lives outside of this right!?” yelled another one.
“Yes, I know you’re all upset, but honestly, I’m one person, and you’re over 10,000,” the King replied flatly, “Now, I’m afraid I’m out of time here, so with that, I’ll bid you adieu.” With that, the King, calmly strolled off back stage. The crowd seemed to explode in a torrent of exclamations and questions.
“This is ludicrous!” someone shouted. People had started getting out of their seats and yelling at one another. It seemed as if a giant argument over this machine that couldn’t be built had started between all the spectators in the lecture hall. Guards at the doors came in and tried to settle things down, but it was no use. The crowd of 10,000+ people was too much for them to handle.
That’s when the TV lost its signal. Ore tried banging on the top of it and adjusting the metal poles that stuck out it, but he couldn’t get it to run again. Either his TV had officially given out, or the station had stopped airing. Either way, he wasn’t going to be watching any more of it. He turned and went back up to his tree, contemplating everything that he had just heard.
