"Levi, Levi, wake up." A voice calls to him and he wakes up from his desk realizing that he must have passed out after staying up all night doing research.
Levi lifts his head up and quickly glances at the computer screen trying to remember how far he had gotten. He then looks over at the person who called his name.
"Lisa?" Levi says as he stares at the young woman in a white lab coat. Her long blond hair covering part of her face.
"How many times have I told you to take a break once in a while? At this rate, you'll work yourself to death." Lisa walks into the room holding a few plastic bags and setting them down on Levi's desk. "I brought you some food. Pay be back when you get the chance."
"What time is it?" Levi asks as he stands up checking what she brought him.
"It's almost time to start your shift. But you should probably head home for the day. Carl won't like it if you can't focus on your work being half asleep and all." She sighs. "What were you working on anyway? I hope you punched out before working on your side projects."
"Yeah. Carl gave me a talking to last time I worked overtime on my projects. I don't expect him to understand how revolutionary this research js."
"That's because it's ridiculous." Lisa points out while making a cup of coffee from the coffee machine. "You're talking about parallel worlds. Sure, the math checks out, but it's all theoretical."
"Exacly." Levi states while bloodshot eyes. "The math is correct. We've known about this for decades, we just need to complete the formula and then create the technology to access it."
Lisa rolls her eyes and walks out of the room frustrated that her words are falling on dead ears. Levi on the other hand decides to head home for the day, but not before saving his work on a flash drive and brining it home with him.
As Levi walks down the busy streets of New York City, and idea pops into his head. A sort of eureka moment. He thinks about heading back to work to ask Lisa about this idea, but he knows she would just brush it off.
Instead, he waves down a random stranger. "I just need to follow my logic for a second even if you don't understand anything I'm saying."
The man nods but is a bit confused.
"Okay. So quantum particles all have a wave of probability called the wave function. Meaning, they can effectively exists in multiple places at once." Levi stops for a second to see the man's reaction. It's apparent he doesn't understand but he keeps going anyway just to bounce the idea off him.
"So, everytime you measure the particle the wave function collapses and the particles position is set to a specific point in space. Now we know that quantum effects have multiple outcomes as I said before. When you measure one outcome, it branches reality, specifically into this one. However, if we were to somehow collapse the wave function but do at a specific time, and I'm talking about within nano seconds of precision here. It could essentially dissappear from this universe into a different one?"
"Virtual particles do this all the time. Popping into and out of existence. What if that's the same phenomenon? What if they are traveling between dimensions.?"
Levi let's the man go since he clearly feels uncomfortable letting a stranger talk about nonsense to him, but Levi keeps thinking to himself trying to figure out how to create the device that would allow travel between dimensions.
'It's almost impossible to test. If you collaspe the wave function, it can't be reversed. Even if I could entagle all the particles in my body to make them the same, I'd only have once chance to test it. The problem is I that I need to get the timing right.'
'Maby I don't have to use my body to teleport though. What if I can create a bridge between worlds using the same principles? A permanent portal. Instead of collapsing the wave, I could partially collapse all but two of the infinite possibilities. Thus, it would exist in two places physically, not at either or. No, it would be both.'
Levi runs down the street towards his apartment. He zigzags between pedestrians on the crowded street brushing against some people's shoulders.
He opens the door to his apartment and slams it shut. Even though he's out of breath, he doesn't take and break. He rushes into his office and pushes the clutter off his desk. He turns and heads to a nearby closet and starts pulling out a bunch of used computer parts and sets them on the desk.
Grabbing a piece of paper, he starts working on algorithms and designs for his grand invention.
Days turn into weeks. Carl, his boss keeps trying to call him, but Levi ignores his phone. In fact, his phone's battery died a couple days ago. He stopped worrying about anything that could be happening in the outside world. He only focused on eating shitting and sleeping. Not so much the sleeping part, there's barely enough time in the day for that.
After ordering several more parts online for what he needs, he finds his work is almost complete.
"Just a few more finishing touches and it'll be done." Levi says, his eyes bloodshot and his hygiene poorly kept.
When he finishes, he lifts up his invention and takes a close look at it, marveling at his master piece.
A crude machine lined with copper pipes and wires. A large two handed rifle shaped contraption capable of fulfilling Levi's wildest dreams.
He decides to test the device on a small house hold object. It could be anything, in the end, he picks a small vase he had been meaning to throw out for some time now.
He points the machine at the object an presses the trigger to fire a beam of light at the vase. Nothing happens.
Levi knew it couldn't have worked on the first try, nothing does. He starts to think what he could have gotten wrong. It could takes weeks to figure it out.
He sighs and sets the machine down and moves the vase. But then he realizes the vase isn't in his hands. He looks back at the vase which is still sitting in the same place it was.
Levi's heart skips a beat thinking that it's possible he could have gotten it right on the first try. He takes a few deeps breaths to calm himself. Being overly excited will only disappoint him more if the expirement didn't work.
He reaches out to pick it up again. This time he watches as his hands pass right through it. Before he starts jumping for joy, he decides to test out one more thing.
He sticks his right hand into it and watches as his entire arm dissappears even though it's stretched straight forward.
As he pulls it out, he wonders why his hands went from one side of the vase to the other without vanishing. He sticks his arm into it again to test it.
Once his arm is inside, he moves it to the left. But his movements get stopped by the side of the vase. Levi concludes that after breaking the initial plane into the other world, it creates a parallel entry and exit point. Lucky for him too. He can imagine that his fingers would have been severed off the moment he tried to pick it up.
'It's time to be cautious with this. No need to get excited. Irrational thinking can cause mistakes.'
Levi shoots the vase again and it returns to normal. He needs a bigger object for his whole body to go through, and he can't have an open portal to another world just lying around his apartment. There's no telling what could come through there.
First things first. Since Levi has to close the portal everytime he goes through it to prevent anything from coming through, there's one thing he needs to test first.
He uses the machine on his bathroom door and places the vase into it and sets it down. He uses the machine to close the portal and then opens it again. Reaching inside, he manages to find the vase and pulls it out.
"At least I know it sends me to the same place everytime. That's a must. Otherwise I could end up god knows where anytime I return."
Next, Levi decides to open the portal again and sticks his phone in there while it's recording. He pulls his phone back in and closes the portal before looking at the video.
The video is pitch black. Levi pinches the bridge of his nose out of frustration as he uses the other hand to turn on his phone's flashlight.
"Let's try this again." Levi says as he sticks the phone back through the portal.
He checks the recording after pulling it out again and sees that the other side is nothing but a cave. He was a little disappointed, but then he realized it's probably better the portal isn't opened where anyone could easily stumble across it.
Levi grabs a few items before heading inside. Some food, water, and a knife just in case he needs to defend himself. He also rigs a strap on his new portal device and slings it over his shoulder right before stepping through into another world.