What We Talk About When We Talk About Electromagnetic Field Fluctuation

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Part 1A: King College Paranormal Club

Keith was telling me about his physics courses. They were dull as hell, but every once in a while he would go all quantum theory on me and I couldnt help but be impressed. But wait, how can electromagnetism hold this shit together? I mean- the world...this table. Electricity comes from the word of electrons, right? Electrons are what dictates what an atom is, the difference between helium and gold. In fact there's quantum research that argues there may not be individual electrons at all, but the potential of electrons in a field, existing everywhere and nowhere at the same time. He began to draw diagram. Nucleuses ordered regimentally, each surrounded by an electron cloud. They kind of look like cells. Creepy isn't it? See? It's just the ordering of the atoms -and therefore of the electrons- that makes up the physical world. And electrons have an electromagnetic field? They are the electromagnetic field. You're saying that this is the universe? Electromagnetism? I looked him skeptically. Now you're reaching. Electromagnetism is a fundamental law of modern physics. But we still dont have a Unified Field Theory to explain how the system works. Our model has improved, but its still imperfect. I looked at him, thinking hard. But ...if electricity can be used to create magnetism, and magnetism can be used to create electricity I mean, it's the Janus of the physical world. It has many faces, we don't know them all, and we don't know what the hell it really is. Cool, huh?

Part 1B: Philadelphia

It was lunchtime and I was drawing on my napkins. The pizza place down the street from KOPS was a favorite haunt of mine. The pizza was cold and the whole place reeked of purple Fabuloso. But it was close by, it was usually empty, and it had these great big, white disposable napkins that were perfect for writing on. Keith walked in and sat across from me. He looked over the table at my drawing. Squiggles? Wavelengths, I said. He leaned in to look. What about them? The Philadelphia Experiment. Christ, not that again. The science is real. And legitimate experiments have been performed. If you can mirror a wavelength -I mean perfectly- you can create a phase shift. I'm talking near-invisibility. We are supposed to be skeptics here, remember Chris? The Eldridge is a waste of time. I pulled the napkin away from him. You already know you're right. Why even ask me? But look, he pressed on. The USS Eldridge didn't become invisible. That was the Navy experiment, right? Invisibility against U-boats? A decided advantage against the Nazi war machine? They had no idea what they were doing. And they were irresponsible. Typical military hubris. The Eldridge didn't become invisible for those 12 minutes. It went. 12 minutes into the future. I don't know what I was expecting, But I was hurt when he laughed. Chris, the only sources we have about Philadelphia are from twice-discredited, schizophrenic, armchair Historians. Theres no reliable data that those experiments were even conducted. I'm not talking about narrative accounts. I'm talking about Hard science. Or...hard theoretical quantum physics.

If there were such a thing. I made a point of going back to my drawings, and studiously ignoring him. He had the generosity to look contrite. But narrative accounts are fascinating. Men embedded halfway into hulls. Turned inside out. Not to mention what it did to their minds. How?. Degaussing. What? Degaussing. They wrap electrical cables around the entire circumference of a ships hull. Bow to stern. Ok? Well, then they run a current through. Create an electromagnetic field. It made the ships invisible to German U-boats. We still degauss our ships to this day. Invisible to a U-boat isn't the same thing as invisible. Right, but you get a large enough power source...you cause a large enough fluctuation in the electromagnetic field by canceling out wavelengths... standing within that field you could theoretically punch a hole in the fabric of space-time.

Part 2:
I looked up, dropped my cup, and tried to stifle a scream. The stars. I'd never seen so many stars. And the size of them. Huge, luminous orbs hanging in the sky. The Milky Way was unfurled across the night sky, brighter than I or anyone else had seen in generations. The thought sat in my mind for a few ugly, pregnant moments. No one had seen the sky like this for generations. I'd found the timeslip. Or wandered into it. I could be anywhere. Anywhen. My legs trembled and then gave out. The stars darkened mercifully for a moment, before going out completely. I remember thinking: I was right about everything, Rick. And I am going to rub it in your face the next time I see you. If I ever see you.

Everything hurt when I woke up. I checked my phone. Still no service, and no idea why I was lying on the ground. Then I remembered the fall. There had been a storm, I remembered that clearly. One of those really powerful hot summer storms the south is so famous for. I could hardly see, and then I fell. It seemed like a dream, because I remembered this fog I had walked into. A green fog. Impossible, but I remembered it clearly. Must have been a one of those vivid dreams, like when you dream you've worked the whole day and then you wake up at 7am and realize you have to do it over. But it had been daylight then, and it was night now. I looked up at the sky and nearly passed out again. I choked down a sob as I remembered: waking up on the rock after I fell. Making camp, fixing coffee. No cellphone service. I'd checked my phone a dozen times. I'd needed to call Rick, keep him updated on my progress, argue with him some more. Tell him again why he was wrong. Well, he was wrong. Or would be. I had a sudden, mad urge to laugh.