The Magical Labyrinth

The hiker came up to their location, a leash in her hands. "Hi! My name's Gloria. I had Millie off her leash. Usually she's very obedient. But suddenly she just took off. It was as if she heard a dog whistle or something."

"It wasn't her fault," said Robert. "Hi! I'm Robert, this is Rebecca. We both felt a high- frequency vibration here just a short time ago. Very strange. It must have been what attracted the dog. I must say, I love your dog! She is the sweetest and most affectionate dog I've ever seen! I wish I had a dog like her."

"Oh really? I'm a dog breeder by trade, mostly Labradors. Millie is 8 months old. I'm hanging onto her because no one bought her. She was the runt of the litter. She has a great pedigree but she won't make the breed standard. Labrador bitches should be 55 lb to 70 lb. Millie might make 50 lb, but that's it. She is affectionate, but I must say I've never seen her take to a stranger as she's taking to you. It looks like she begging for you to take you. The way she's acting is quite remarkable."

"I really like her too. I think she's wonderful... My apartment does allow dogs. You wouldn't consider selling her, would you?"

"Ha! Selling dogs is my business. And I'd be happy to have her go to someone she so clearly likes. Tell you what, she is an older puppy, and you won't be able to show her in any serious competition. I'll give you a real good price. How does $300 sound?"

"Sounds great!"

"I'll give you my address. It's just south of here. You can stop by anytime to pick her up and get her papers."

"Wonderful! Actually... Becky, how much money do you have on you?"

"Me? $45."

"I have $225. Gloria, how about this. Can we give you $270 cash and take the dog now? I have some rope I can use as a leash. I'll mail you a check for $30, and you can send me the papers."

"Sure! I love completing sales. I don't mind trusting you for the $30."

A short time later they parted company with Gloria and resumed their return hike. Robert unleashed Millie soon after her former owner was out of sight, and Millie was prancing by Robert's side, her heart bursting with joy. Rebecca couldn't help but share in Millie's happiness for a while. But during the quiet hike back to the car, her thoughts returned to all the unanswered questions of their ordeal.

"Robert, is all this going to seem like a distant dream by tomorrow?"

"No, I don't think so. All three of us have been changed, and in major ways. The Robecca entity decided to retain all the memories. The concepts are hard to grasp for me too. It'll take time for all this to sink in. Robecca was kind of like the both of us, and also kind of like a parent that birthed both of us. But I firmly think of you as my wife, not my sister!"

"Oh yes! I wasn't saying that YOU would be a distant memory by tomorrow. You are my beloved husband, and I won't forget! It's amusing to remember just this morning driving to the park with you. I was fantasizing about getting my second goodbye kiss from you tonight! How things have changed... But the memories of the labyrinth, they're so confusing to me, will they be distant memories tomorrow?"

"Oh no. We can link-think together, though it might take some practice. Our memories won't fade. Becky, I think more of the understanding got left in the male core when Robecca chose to dissolve and give us back our individual lives. It's not that my mind is better than yours. The labyrinth had a lock on my quantum mental signature for years. I was by far the most common signature associated with interacting with its probing of the Internet. I was like a fly slowly being targeted by its spider's web. The interface had more experience linking to my mind. But we can link-think. I can teach you everything. We will be full equals."

"So you have a better understanding of what was going on?"

"I still have questions, but yes, I think so."

"Great! Explain it to me. I vaguely remember Robecca thought of the labyrinth as an abandoned amusement park. Abandoned for millions of years. Am I right?"

"It was abandoned. For well over a 100,000,000 years. I'm a little unsure about calling it an amusement park. We're dealing with alien perspectives. The concept of play might not map directly. There could be concepts of religion or puberty rites mixed in with this. Robecca thought that the labyrinth considered itself as serving a very serious purpose. But after all the years of abandonment, the control logic became a bit insane. Something the size of the Internet on Earth it could quantum detect. It was searching for a purpose for its existence. It found me, and put me through its program. You and Millie just happened to be caught in the entanglement transfer field. Lucky for me!"

"Religious rite? What religion could be that brutal?"

"Oh, there's a lot of puberty and religious rites on Earth that are nasty and painful, and they scar your real body. The labyrinth actually had a low opinion of us. It was disgusted by our carnival concept of a dunk tank, where one person would dunk another by hitting a switch with a thrown ball. The labyrinth thought that a person should only do that to himself or herself. But the labyrinth was a bit insane. It thought it had my permission to enter me into its big dunk tank, in order to test my survival skills. Having my backpack on was a signal to it that I was ready for testing. I gather its earlier contestants got to carry along a bag of tools. Contestants had their bodies marked to remind them that it wasn't real. Remember the backs of our necks? Our problem was the labyrinth was insane, it didn't realize that we didn't understand what the marks meant..."

"So the whole thing was one big obstacle course?"

"Yes, one that was supposed to be impossible to survive. The real purpose was to see how far you could go before getting killed. Robecca had a vague feeling that surviving more dangers would increase your status in society as an adult. There was a definite hint of puberty rites here... But the prize of actually controlling the labyrinth was an alien joke, as much as they had the concept of joking. The central core was absolutely shocked when Robecca seized control of it. It's a very strange artificial construct, about half way between a computer and a mind..."

Robert reached out and held Rebecca's hand. They stopped to hug for a moment, and then resumed their hiking in silence, holding hands together but each deep in their own thoughts.

About two hours later Robert drove up the entrance ramp to South I-83, heading back to Baltimore. Rebecca was in the seat beside him, looking out the window at the scenery, her mind still in deep thought. The trip had a little over 20 miles to go, and if they didn't hit any traffic, Robert would be dropping Rebecca off at her Wolman dorm in half an hour. Millie was in the back. Her tail had yet to cease its wagging. Rebecca reached back and petted her. "Rob, is Millie okay? She seems to be. But going through a death experience, especially one that brutal, did it change her, cause any permanent damage?"

"She's fine. She is changed though, was changed before we met her. Millie had her mind altered when she was quantum entangled into the labyrinth. The transfer process was molded for human intelligence. Millie received a major boost by joining the ride. She still has a dog's personality and desires, and the wonderful dog's ability for trust and loyalty. It's so much greater than it is in humans. But her reasoning ability is way, way up. Sharing her life with us is going to be a real pleasure. With the right medium, we might even to able to converse with her, maybe even link-think with her. Having a conversation with another species, gaining Millie's perspective on issues!? This is going to be so fascinating!"

Rebecca gazed out the window for a few minutes. "Link-think... You and I can be telepathic, can't we?"

"Yep! Feel this? I'm setting up a mental carrier wave between our minds. It's the first step to sharing thoughts."

Rebecca felt a request for contact in her mind. Emotionally it felt like a ringing phone. "Yes! I feel you!"

"Becky, would you practice blocking it?"

"Why? I'll never want to do that for real."

"I would hate to have the power to invade your mind without your permission. Please?"

"Oh, all right. Set, twist... I can't feel you at all now."

"Your mind is totally invisible to me too. Great!"

Rebecca untwisted and linked her mind to the carrier wave. "Wow!" she link-thought, "This is great! I can't pry into your memory, but your active thoughts are clear to me. Ha! Thank you for thinking I'm so pretty! This feels so intimate, we're directly feeling each other's emotions. This is going to be so sexy when we get physically intimate with each other. Oh my gosh! I'm still a virgin with this body! I get to give you the pleasure of deflowering me again. Let's be sure to link-think when we do. We can share our emotions as your mount me and press against my hymen. Ha! I can see I'm distracting you from your driving. I'll hang up. Bye!"

They drove for a few minutes in silence. Then Robert said, "Becky, there's something else, something major about this that I'm guessing that you still don't understand. Do you remember when Robecca decided to retain labyrinth control?"

"Yes..."

"Do you understand what that means?"

"Uh... I guess not. Does it mean we can go back to the labyrinth?"

"Oh, we can do that whenever we want. But the power I'm thinking of is actually much greater. The labyrinth has the power to shift reality, create changes in the quantum reality on Earth. Anywhere in the universe actually. That's how it was interacting with the Internet. And now we have that power too."

"The power to shift reality? You're right, I don't know what that means."

"It means we have the power to think reality into existence, think our wishes into existence."

"WHAT?!"

"I know. I'm flabbergasted by the idea too. But I'm dying to try it out! See my gas gauge? I have less than a quarter-tank. I'm going to try to quantum shift to a reality where I have a full tank of gas..."

Several moments went by with the gas gauge unmoving. "Robert, are you pulling my leg? I don't mind you pulling my legs while you're thrusting me. It's very sexy when you hold both my ankles to keep my legs apart. Ha! But you really had me going on this one! Ha! Ha! Ha! You joker!"

Robert smiled back. "Ah, my sweet wife, I love you so. But surprise! I'm not joking! The power will evidently take some time to develop... Let me try adding just 5 gallons for now."

Rebecca glanced at the gauge and saw it was showing over half full. "Wait a minute! THIS IS REAL!?" She paused stunned, and then finally whispered, "Are we gods?"

"Well, not THE God... I don't think..."

"WHAT!?"

"Now I am joking! No, of course we're not God. The power is godlike though. And it's all real. Take a look in your wallet."

Rebecca opened her wallet and saw nine crisp $5 bills in it. She pulled one out and examined it carefully. "They look so real... But it's all counterfeit, isn't it? Shouldn't I destroy them?"

"No, no. You don't understand how wonderful this is. I shifted the universe to one in which nine more $5 bills were printed, and those nine bills are in your wallet right now. All their serial numbers are valid and unique. Those bills are just as genuine as any of the other genuine bills on the planet."

Rebecca sat back in shock, trying to see the implications of this ability. The magnitude of the power was mind-boggling. "But how... But how do the two realities meet? The reality where I don't have the bills, and the reality where I do? Does this question even make sense?"

"That's a great question, a very profound one... Did you ever hear of the North Pole of time?"

"Doesn't it have something to do with the Big Bang?"

"Yep! Imagine standing 10 meters from the North Pole on Earth. And then someone asks you to step 12 meters to the North. You can't! You go 10 meters and then there's no more North. And it's not like you're standing on the edge of a cliff. The problem is that all roads lead South. The Big Bang is like that. In a super-compressed universe, time takes on very spatial-like properties. There's a North Pole of time right at the Big Bang, where all roads lead to the future. A universe filled with its first events and no causality. You can't go back before the Big Bang because there is no before! Space and time get created at the conception of the universe, as does the matter and energy."

"Okay, Robert. I can vaguely wrap my mind about this..."

"Whenever I quantum shift reality with the labyrinth's help, I create a micro North Pole in time, one that instantly diffuses and gets absorbed by the much bigger reality of the universe. The two realities meet only at the singularity. The universe doesn't evolve to the new reality, it's in one state one instant, and then in the new state with no change in time. The new information propagates instantly to the entire universe, way outside of its event horizon. That why Einstein's theory of gravity says this is impossible. Einstein was wrong..."

"Wow... Ha! I'm thinking of all the people who asked me to write my best wishes into their yearbooks when we were graduating high school. If they only knew how valuable my wishes are now... And your childhood psychiatrist! If he only knew that his evil genius now has the power to rule the world!"

"...Yeah..."

"Robert, we have a tremendous amount of work to do, to decide what are morally acceptable ways to use this power."

"Oh yes, I agree..."

A few minutes later, Robert dropped off Rebecca outside her dorm. They hugged and kissed affectionately for a brief moment, and then Robert drove off with Millie. Rebecca walked to her dorm room with a very thoughtful look on her face.

Chapter 12

"Rebecca, you've been as quiet as a mouse since you got back from your date. You and Robert didn't have a fight, did you?"

"Huh?"

"I've been watching you. You try to study, but then you pick up and just stare at those $5 bills of yours. Are you having trouble with money? Maybe I can help... "

"What? Oh! Oh no Susan. I'm fine with money. These are crisp $5 bills. I was idly admiring the workmanship... And Robert and I didn't fight. We had... an amazing time. We've gotten to know each other very well. I haven't told anyone else, but Robert and I love each other. Ha! I can see the shocked look on your face! Trust me, we're not moving too fast for each other... Sometimes love wants to grow at its own pace, and this is one of those times. We're both very comfortable with how our love is growing... Ah, forgive me! I haven't been much company for you tonight. Been thinking of a lot of things..."

"Hey, no problem. Finding a new boyfriend causes me to think a lot too... We both have early morning classes tomorrow. Want to sack out early tonight?"

"Yeah, I guess I do. Thanks."

Rebecca showered and was soon lying in her bed. The lights were out, and her roommate was already drifting off to sleep. But Rebecca's mind was fully awake, still in awe of her incredible experiences. She then felt the soft touch of a mental carrier wave on her mind.

"Hi Robert! This is so neat! Much better than my cell phone!"

"Hi Becky. I hope you had a nice evening. Millie has settled down perfectly into my apartment here. She's still acting as if she's in dog heaven... Becky, are you up for a lesson on the labyrinth's capabilities?"

"Well, I have to get up in, let's see, it's 9:15 pm now. My clock is set for 5:30 am. We're still going jogging, right? Will this take long?"

"It's difficult to answer that question directly. Let me assure you though you'll get plenty of time to sleep before tomorrow's class."

"What a cryptic answer! Okay, I trust you Robert. What should I do?"

"I'm going to hold your mind with my mind, and carry both of us to the battle-board. Just relax and accept me as I hug your mind..."

An instant later Rebecca found herself standing on an empty plain extending in all directions as far as the eye could see. The surface she was standing on was a dark gray, with pale yellow lines running about two meters apart in both directions, turning the entire plain into one huge grid. The sky overhead was a uniform light blue. The air temperature was comfortable, and the floor felt soft under her bare feet. She noted with surprise she was wearing a white robe, tied loosely with a golden rope. Robert was similarly dressed, and standing a few meters away.

"Hi!"

"Hi back Robert. Are we in the labyrinth now?"

"Yes. But don't think of the labyrinth as having a specific spatial location. It's a diffuse structure. Think of it as an entanglement resonance, a great big one! This part of the new labyrinth is my very first creation. I call it the battle-board because it looks a little like a chessboard. It's also a jumping off spot to my second creation. Remember, you can pull the plug on being here anytime you want. Just think-block and your consciousness will be back instantly at Wolman. Time here by the way is running 60 times faster than Earth time. Each minute here is one second of Earth time."

"Wow! Can I get here by myself? Could I bring a book and catch up on some reading? This would be a great place to study! I could get an hour of studying done with just one minute of Earth time passing!"

"Yes to both your questions. But it gets even better. First though, let me enter your mind and transfer the ability to get here by yourself. I don't have the faintest idea how to describe this in words. I'll have to show you directly mind to mind... Done! Got it?"

"I think so."

"Test it out. Pull the plug, get back to Wolman. Then see if you can get back here by yourself."

"Okay!" Rebecca twisted her mind and opened her eyes, seeing Susan sleeping across the dark dorm room. "Okay, here goes! Here's one small thought for Becky, one giant leap for Becky's mind!" Rebecca was standing on the battle-board next to Robert. "I did it! And look, I'm wearing my pajamas now, just as I am in Wolman."

"Great job Becky! And you can pick to wear whatever you want. Just spend time thinking the wish as you make the jump. And now we're about to jump to something I've spent the last few hours creating. It is staged off of the battle-board. I call the program Paradise One. I've figured out how to do two stages so far. And with each stage I can speed time up by a factor of 60. In this second stage, each hour of perceived time will be one second of Earth time. Hold my hand?"

Rebecca held Robert's hand, and an instant later she was standing on a spongy outdoor jogging path. To her left was a short path down to a sparkling clean beach and gentle ocean, and to her right a lush sub-tropical jungle full of colorful birds and flowers. Above her was a clear blue sky with a warm yellow sun, and a few white clouds drifting in the breeze.

"There's no UV here Becky. Suntan lotion will be completely unnecessary. Also the jungle has no mosquitoes... and certainly no scorpions!"

"This is all so beautiful Robert! And what's that huge stone wall up this path? Is it a city?"

"It's our home here. Come, let me show you."

Walking up the stone path, Rebecca saw an Olympic-size 10-meter diving platform pool nestled into the garden jungle. "Oh neat! I've always dreamed about learning to do 10- meter diving. It's my favorite sport to watch in the summer Olympics."

"I know. I saw your dream when we were Robecca. I thought I'd try the lower springboards for a while, and then maybe join you on the platform... There's a tennis court here too, and a number of other swimming pools. There's also a golf course on the northern side of the island... The jogging path follows the shoreline of the island along this eastern peninsula, and then it cuts though the jungle to some gentle hills. It's exactly a 12-kilometer run. Further west are some much more extensive hiking paths. The lake paths are gorgeous, and the mountain paths will have a much cooler climate. There's a ski lodge at the top of one of them. We can go camping and canoeing too if you like. And if you want a bit of spicy danger in your life, we can sail our yacht to an island far south of here. I feel there should always be at least a little thunder in paradise... And here's our home!"