Parallel Universes

Dreams drift and machines whirr. Imagination and creativity go hand in hand like brilliance and ingenuity. Five scientists had both, then they had each other, then they had a grant, then they had an idea, then they had a machine, and then? Then they had a world, and then another, and another! They never knew that these worlds their minds created leaked into worlds of their own, or that more than a few had no human beings, but animals! Animals that had the mannerisms of humans, animals that walked, talked, sang, loved, and imagined worlds of their own. No, the five scientists never knew of the true wonders they created. All they knew? Their theories, their grants, and their machines.

[Hey there, you have beautiful eyes, anyway this is an introduction and kind of diving board I have created to tie together perhaps all the stories I will be writing, an explanation of where these worlds are and why they are so unrelated. I dunno, but I really hope this catches your (beautiful) eye. A lot of good stuff is on the way]

It all started with the five considering how they were going to build something that would earn them more grants, put more bread on their table, and, in a more romantic light, carve their names onto history itself. They had one thing, one fascination, that had drawn them all together, and that was the Parallel Universe Theory. The theory states that the universe is like a bubble, and that when any choice, any decision is made, a new bubble is formed. A nearly identical universe save for one choice. Infinite worlds, infinite bubbles. Infinitely difficult to prove, but no matter, the scientists worked away.

What they envisioned was a machine that would take huge amounts of data and compile it into some sort of simulation. Amounts of data so huge that only immense mobile and non-mobile buildings called supercomputers could store and output what was required. In essence a supercomputer is a high end computer injected with steroids, taking energy pills and washing them down with energy drinks, and given so much power that a separate power grid is needed for one. Now these could not simply “plug into” the machine, so the scientists’ machine was built with hyper-advanced reading software that could detect, scan, and absorb all the data into itself and create the simulations. With tweaking the machine would be able to possibly prove the Parallel Universe Theory.

Months passed, and years, before the machine prototype was finally complete. Now, after much celebrations and arrangements for supercomputers to be brought, they simply had to get algorithms, though perhaps simply isn’t a good word for it. Two of the scientists had the knowhow for a job such as this, and both worked late every night to try and code their amazing device. It was a night such as this that the most amazing event unbeknownst to man ever occurred (or at least as far as any man can know).

One lone scientist was working into the early hours before the dawn, nearby the machine whirred quietly to itself, active but without anything to act on. He was looking over his notes when he realized that he has mistaken an “I” for an “l” and that he must now redo all the work he has stayed so long from home to do. He put his head down and groaned, but he was so tired that before he could utter one single curse he was asleep. In that sleep he dreamed, and his stimulated genius mind created plots, both plausible and ridiculous, for his brain to task itself with until he awoke, not to remember one.

To him the dreams were irrelevant and forgotten, but the machine whirred and crackled with energy. It read every signal, every stimulus, across his mind, and from the dreams it created simulations. Those simulations became worlds, the data became people, and their actions became their personalities. Their algorithms became their souls. From this man’s sleep came universes and people with lives inside them, and while the dreams where gone in moments and replaced in the man’s brain, the machine remembered and stored them all away.

Some of the worlds were barren, some thriving with modern culture, and some, those “more than a few” some, were populated by what are known commonly, as furries.

The memory of each was kept and the histories of each unfolded at an astronomically faster pace than the “real world”. When the scientists finally pieced apart the machine they simply disregarded the little missing memory as an anomaly. Now the dreams unfold in their own worlds. Linked but apart, perhaps never to make any form of contact, perhaps parallel. Millions and thousands of stories waiting to progress through themselves. Millions and thousands of lives waiting to start. Millions and thousands of souls waiting to burst into existence. Dreams.