"Watch out for your Shadow."(Kevin Hughes) Authors Note:
There are three families of Quarks. Up and Down are the lightest. Charm and Strange are a bit heavier. And the Top and Bottom are the heaviest, and need really high energies to come into existence, but they quickly decay. And what do they decay into? Us. Yep. Everything in our Universe is made of Up and Down Quarks. The other two families are just copies…but heavier. Why? Scientists don’t know. This is a very simple pared down explanation of the six flavors of Quarks. But it is enough (I think) for you to get the Story you are about to read. Remember, we are all made from Quark Soup. Up and Down. But you need the Bottom just to make it interesting…just like in Jazz.

*****

“I did it! I did it.”

With that, several of the other beings lifted their heavy bottoms and went over to his counter. Their whole bodies trembled. He had indeed done it. It couldn’t be. But there it was in colors no human could see…or even imagine. It took just a moment to clear the noise from the Signal.

Everyone gasped.

It was impossible. Nothing could live that long. That was the first shock. For that same view was seen by a descendant of the first to say: “I did it!” And he had lived almost a trillion generations earlier. But the research didn’t lie. Neither did the Data.

These creatures may as well have been immortal compared to the length of time we live. They measure their lives in YEARS, we measure our lives in increments so small (5x10-25th seconds). When we “die” we make Bottom Quarks, and those give rise to everything, and everyone in that strange long lived Universe.

The second surprise was this. They were us. Or shadows of us. We would pass right through them, but they can’t even reach us. They are mere shadows of us. But shadows that seem to live for a long time.

Maybe we can contact them?

And so, Research went on. And on. And on.

*****

Michell was worried. Something was going on. The upgrades to CERN had allowed for much more massive collisions, throwing lead and silver nuclei at each other at a percentage of the speed of light had shown the formation of several quarks. And the High Boson too.

They didn’t have enough energy to emulate the quark soup that must have existed when the Universe was so hot and so incredibly dense. But the collisions could create, for a small length of time, A top Quark that would quickly decay to a Bottom Quark, which would then quick decay…into the next lighter quarks, and finally into the two that ruled our world: Up and Down Quarks. The ones that make up everything in our Universe…including us.

Michelle had worked with her Team for over four years. Basil, Neena, Polux and Alexander had struggled to try and find out why there were two other copies (but heavier) of the quark family that made us and all the stuff around us. Why have two extra copies?

Nobody knew.

Michelle thought they were just shadow of us. She was close.

*****

There was so much excitement. Everyone was moving fast, flickering in and out of existence, which was normal, at least for the being they were. And now they knew something about the Shadows they had found that lived so incredibly long.

It was mind boggling, and shattered the beliefs of many. Those creatures - who looked like flimsy wisps of ourselves- lived in four dimension. Four! We live in 11 Dimensions (10 plus Time) but we know that there are 26 Dimensions in little packets of the Universe. But we never knew anything could “live” in only Four Dimensions.

No wonder they look like shadows of reality. They are hardly physical beings at all. Life in Four dimensions…and they don’t decay for seventy to 100 years? More study is needed.


*****
It was Basil and Michelle that finally showed the graphs from the “Bubble Chamber.” Everyone thought it was a prank…at first. Then they wished it had been one. But there it was. A picture. Like a crayon outline of a Human Being. But not just any Human Being.

It was an outline of Basil and Michelle, standing as they were just now in realtime. Staring at the output of the bubble chamber, jaws askew, mouths hanging open, as more than a thousand Scientists in the Hall went silent. Basil whispered, but everyone heard it.

“It’s us!”

*****
His form filled all eleven dimensions. He could curl himself - albeit briefly- into just Four. And he did. He wanted to see how his Shadow Granddaughter perceived the Universe. As he scaled down and his senses grew fainter and less in number- he finally reached where she was in both Time and Space.

He waved to get her attention.


*****

Michell jumped when Basil, mouth agape tapped her shoulder.

“LOOK…Look…..look.”

His voice deserted him, as did all reason when he pointed to the floor.

Michelle turned and looked around. She saw Basils wide open eyes, and watched as all the blood drained from his face. She looked back quizzically at his obvious consternation.

“What?!”

He pointed to the floor.

“Your Shadow! Look!”

She did. Her hand flew to her mouth. Her brain ran to hide in some primal space reserved for only the most impossible to understand things. She screamed out loud what the Shadow was doing.

“It’s waving at us!”

Basil waved back.

Contact.

It became a cliche over the next decade.

“Watch out for your Shadow.”

We all had one. And it wanted to talk.

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