Chapter 17: Effect
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“I can’t be sure if it’s a trap or not, but I have known Chan long enough for me to have a hard time believing that he would send anyone knowingly into harm’s way. He tries to be tough, but he’s not a bad person.” Cole couldn’t tell by Val’s face whether or not she was entirely comfortable with this answer, but what else could he say. He had thought the same thing when Chan refused to discuss any other option aside from Val finding aliens.
“I can’t see what Chan could possibly have to gain from sending me into a trap far in the past. If he’s got some top secret history archive that proves I‘ll get ambushed there, he’d still have to send me anyway, wouldn’t he? Not going would change history, and you said that can’t happen.” Val could at least see the logic in the situation, and Cole thought that was helpful.
“That’s the number one thing that you need to keep in mind while you are there: that you can’t change anything. We don’t fully understand the scope of Novikov’s Effect. For the most part however, even if you try to change something on purpose, you will either be physically unable to, or what you thought was a change was actually supposed to happen in the first place.”
Val looked skeptical. “Supposed to happen? You mean like fate?”
“Sort of, I think. I have always believed that people make their own choices, and that there could be no such thing as a plan that we are all following. Recently, I have decided that if there is some sort of destiny that we all have, we make that destiny happen by using our free will.” Cole didn’t think he was making very much sense. He knew what he was trying to say, but he wasn’t sure if Val was gleaning his meaning.
“But you said that if I try to change something, I won’t be able to. That I will somehow be stopped from using my choices to exert my free will. That sounds a whole lot like I don’t have any choice at all.”
“I am not explaining this very well I think.” Cole tried to come it from a different angle instead. “When we boarded this shuttle, we were making the choice to do so. If we hadn’t boarded, we wouldn’t be here on the shuttle in the vicinity of Venus, having this discussion. We made those decisions in the past, so that cannot be changed. As we move forward into the future in our daily lives, we continue to make choices and exert our free will. What if we skipped over that part though, and arrived in the future using our ship? The choices in our lives, and everyone else’s, would have already been made when we arrive there.”
Val looked at him with one eyebrow raised. “So then the choices we are making today are already in the past?”
“It’s in the past of our future-selves, who we will be someday. Currently, we are in the future when compared to who we were last year, last week, or even a few moments ago. As long as we keep moving forward in our lives, making the choices we make every day, no matter how insignificant they seem at the time, we continue shaping our future. Our futures appear to keep changing from the perspective of now, but that is only because we lack the knowledge of what will happen.” Cole paused a moment trying to summarize his assumptions so that Val would get what he was trying to say. “Free will is a concept based solely on our lack of knowledge about the future. If we had knowledge of the future, then maybe our free will would seem compromised, but we would still make the same choices regardless of our knowledge. Maybe even because of our knowledge.”
Val wrinkled her forehead and frowned. She was clearly not getting any of this. “It sounds like you are saying that even if we learned what our fate will be, then we would still make choices that cause that fate to happen, even if we don’t like it.”
Cole was glad she was at least understanding the concept, even if she couldn’t fathom how it could play out in action. “It happened to me, you know. When we went backward in time, I knew that my fate was to get fired from my project. I knew what the future held because I was in the past. It’s exactly like what I am trying to help you figure out. In the past, I knew what the future held, and then I made choices to cause it to become a reality. I wasn’t trying to, but I made my life into a self-fulfilling prophecy. By knowing that I would get fired, I actually caused it to happen.”
“So where does Novikov’s Effect tie into this?” Val asked. “If I am unable to change anything in the past, then how will I be forced down the path that is supposed to happen?”
“I felt that as well, in the lab in the past. Several times I felt a growing uneasiness.” Cole recalled how nervous he felt, like he had to escape no matter what the cost. “My palms got sweaty, and I felt nervous. It was like my subconscious was telling me that I was going in the wrong direction, making a bad choice that I would regret later, or like I’d already made a bad choice and the consequences were imminent. It was that weird sort of feeling you get in the split second between the time you trip over something and the time when you actually land on the ground; an uncontrollable fear that you can’t stop the events unfolding.”
“Reflex.” Val stated the word as if all of it suddenly became clear. “Like your body stiffening before a crash, when you realize it’s about to happen. I get that. Advanced spaceflight training focuses on feeling your way through a situation using your reflexes to guide you. It’s useful when navigating an asteroid field or fighting gravity. Reflexes are like sledgehammers, not small mallets, often pulling you out of one danger and into another due to overcorrection. If you can feel them, and expect them, you can make minor changes to your course instead of the major ones that you feel you should be making.”
Cole was astonished. “That’s exactly what you’ll need to do in the past. That’s how you’ll be successful in your mission. That kind of control can keep you on the right path when you start feeling the Effect telling you that you are moving in the wrong direction.” Val smiled at him, and he knew she would be alright. “Listen, the ship is programmed with the coordinates of the crash, so you should be able to find it once you are in the right time period. But use your reflexes, your instinct, to guide you to where you need to be to stay safe when everything is happening. You know that after the crash, the military went to the site to look for survivors, and you know that they had pictures and materials that never received adequate explanations. You need to not get caught up in any of it.”
“I will stay safe, and even if it is a trap, which is highly unlikely, I’ll keep my eyes open and stay aware of what Novikov is telling me.”
The two of them discussed the mission for the rest of the flight. Specifics about what she needed to look for when she approaches the craft, what kind of things she needs to gather from the ship, and whether or not she should try to take an alien alive. Before long, Luna and Earth came into view and they wrapped up their discussion. As they approached LunaBase and descended into the public port, Cole remembered something he’d been meaning to ask her. Seeing large shuttles unloading their passengers brought to mind when Val had dropped Cole here in the past.
“After you dropped me off here, when you went to wait for time to catch up with you, where did you go?”
Val smiled at him. “I saw you and Audrey in my new apartment. I waved at you when you lowered the tapestry down, but I don’t think you saw me. I was just outside, watching for my clue that time was catching up.”
“What clue?”
“I remembered that I had raised the tapestry back up before I went to meet you at the café, to make plans. I knew if I waited long enough outside my own window, I could see myself leave, and it would be getting close to the time I’d need to start watching the hangar bay, which was not far from where I already was. It was weird sitting there spying on myself. It did teach me something though.” Val turned her back on Cole and descended the steps onto the port’s floor.
“What did you learn?” Cole asked as he caught up to her outside the shuttle.
“That I should close the blind when I shower, because anyone can see right in if they happen to be out for a stroll on the lunar surface.”
When they arrived back in the lab, Cole looked down into the hangar at the ship that was difficult to see from any angle. Daniel going into the ship just as Arthur walked up behind Cole and Val.
“How was Mars?” Arthur asked.
“It was small, red, and boring. Like always,” Cole joked. “Did you miss us?”
“Not hardly.” Arthur returned the joking smile.
“What’s Daniel working on?” Val asked what Cole was thinking.
“Chan sent a message over ahead of you. He decided that it might not be safe after all for you to make a trip like this all on your own, something that I have thought since the beginning.” Val looked shocked and a little hurt, but Arthur continued. “So Dan is making a minor change in the ship to accommodate a passenger.”
