Searching Far and Wide

[intricate_engineer]

Glen was creating a prototype for a new gate design. It was meant to be affordable and provide quick transport between individual homes. She tests several objects and a rat and everything seems to be working.

She steps through. Instead of finding herself in the room next door, she finds herself standing on a sidewalk in an empty city. The buildings are tall and perfect, colorless with doorways far too tall for any human. The roads have no straight lines and twist in on themselves. There is no life or sound.
Glen tries to stay calm. She begins to walk along the road, randomly opening doors and exploring buildings that are as silent as the rest of the world.

She opens a door that she hopes will lead onto a roof and is instead met with warmth, and soft noise, and color.

Comments

[the_very_best]

"Fair enough."

[intricate_engineer]

"I can still try though? If you want. I can't promise it will start making sense."

[the_very_best]

"It's probably wasted on me, I don't have a lot of math."

[intricate_engineer]

"There are people way better at explaining this stuff than me. Without using the actual formulas, the metaphors are always pretty sketchy, but it might be interesting at least. I can ask bar for a copy of one of their books?"

[the_very_best]

"Couldn't hurt."

[intricate_engineer]

"I'm just whining though, it really isn't that bad. It's probably actually good for me to go through the whole process once in a while."

[the_very_best]

"If you say so."

[intricate_engineer]

Glen finishes assembling the first portal.
"I'm going to turn it on. This is when you really don't want to stumble through."

[the_very_best]

Bella sits on the ground.

[intricate_engineer]

Glen sits down next to her, and pulls out her computer.
The portal turns various shades of dark.
"I'm not having much luck," Glen says.

[the_very_best]

"Oh well."

[intricate_engineer]

Glen fiddles with it for a few more minutes.
"Yea, this isn't going to work. I haven't even found any universes with life yet."
She shuts the portal off.

[the_very_best]

"It can tell if they have life?"

[intricate_engineer]

"Yea. Universes with life are really really different. You can tell right away and intelligence feels different too. It doesn't always help you find the life inside the universe, but there's no doubt that it exists."

[the_very_best]

"'Feels' different?"

[intricate_engineer]

"Believe it or not yea. We started noticing it when we were still visiting universes randomly. We always knew if there was life before we actually found it. It happened too many times to be a coincidence It turns out life gives off a distinct signature. Universes with life sort of, have a different shape."

[the_very_best]

"How is the feeling transmitted while you're poking around?"

[intricate_engineer]

"Universes without out life feel hollow, like any sound you make will last forever, like every movement is an intrusion. It's subtle and you don't notice it when there is life."

[the_very_best]

"No, I mean - it is not obvious why you would get any directly perceptible feedback at all from the process. How does that happen."

[intricate_engineer]

"It may conflict with your religious beliefs."

[the_very_best]

"I don't have any religious beliefs."

[intricate_engineer]

"Religions have been born from what I'm about to tell you, but this is not itself religious. We've found strong evidence."

[the_very_best]

"Lay it on me."

[intricate_engineer]

"Every living being is formed with something we call a spark. This spark exists outside the physical realm, and we believe exists before the life begins. When a new life is formed, a spark connects to that life and grows with it."

[the_very_best]

"What's your evidence?"