You can't, nobody ever does Dale. Nobody." New Amanda began to cry; Dale walked outside, he couldn't deal with it.
~~~
"Sorry," said the new Amanda. "It's been so long since I spoke to you; I miss you so much Dale."
"It's okay, come here." Dale hugged Amanda tight, but it felt wrong, strange, bringing back the terrible feeling of betrayal after his Amanda came back and the woman he'd woken up with only the day before, if he forgot about timelines and how long it had really been, had disappeared, and now the poor thing was here somewhere.
Amanda came out of the house and nodded at Dale as he slowly let new Amanda go.
"Do you know how this all works?" asked Dale. "How the whole timeline thing and the different versions of you, me, everyone, really works?"
Host Amanda brightened, clearly pleased to talk rather than dwell on the life she was living. "Sort of. You want me to tell you?"
"God yes!" said Amanda.
Dale nodded his head.
~~~
"So it just goes on and on? Timeline after timeline, for ever and ever?" Dale's head was spinning out of control, and he was just now realizing that he felt somehow lighter, as if he'd suddenly lost weight or he'd become that much stronger. He hadn't noticed it before in his state of confusion, but moving was easier, things felt imperceptibly lighter, like... That was it, gravity was slightly different, a little less than he was used to. Dale returned to the conversation, trying to digest what they'd been told.
"Not infinite, well, I suppose not, but as close to it as it not mattering. Look, for time travel to be possible it means that the past and the future have already happened, right? We know the past has, as we lived it, but the future? That's hard to come to terms with. But if we can jump into the future then it's also already happened. So every time you jump you create an alternate reality, and the more jumps that happen the more alternate realities, or parallel universes there have to be. There's no other way it could be possible otherwise."
"And in each new universe there are then almost parallel timelines where different futures happen, right?" Dale thought he was finally getting somewhere with understanding it.
"Exactly. And the chances of you ever, and I mean ever, jumping back to your right timeline are just about impossible. Things will always be slightly different, as the minute you've done one jump you create countless universes, timelines and on and on it goes. Most will be so similar you would never notice the difference, but they are not the same one, and in some cases they are incredibly divergent."
Amanda interjected. "So that's why when I jumped trying to find Dale I saw him looking so different? Me and another him had set everything back to being right, without Hexads, but they were still alternate realities that then existed. Just without time travel?"
"I don't know about all of that, about them all being set right forever, but yes, they were each just distinct futures spreading out in countless ways from when each of the timelines was created." Amanda paused to think. "It's complicated, but as far as we, all the Amandas, can tell, then the possibility of you jumping creates some kind of series of possible futures where pretty much anything can happen. It sort of has to, to allow it to be possible."
"I don't get it," stated Dale.
"Okay. So, I have a Hexad, I'm sat at home and I decide that my first jump will be a week away, so I jump forward a week to the same place in my living room. So that's one future that had to happen, one where I didn't jump and just carried on with the rest of my week. But there is the new future now, where I did jump, so it's different. But what about everything in-between? What if I'd decided to jump a day later, an hour, a minute, a second? That would see the need for other futures to have happened too. And it just gets worse, spreading out forever. That's why the timelines were in such a mess for you Amanda. I guess
~~~
"Sorry," said the new Amanda. "It's been so long since I spoke to you; I miss you so much Dale."
"It's okay, come here." Dale hugged Amanda tight, but it felt wrong, strange, bringing back the terrible feeling of betrayal after his Amanda came back and the woman he'd woken up with only the day before, if he forgot about timelines and how long it had really been, had disappeared, and now the poor thing was here somewhere.
Amanda came out of the house and nodded at Dale as he slowly let new Amanda go.
"Do you know how this all works?" asked Dale. "How the whole timeline thing and the different versions of you, me, everyone, really works?"
Host Amanda brightened, clearly pleased to talk rather than dwell on the life she was living. "Sort of. You want me to tell you?"
"God yes!" said Amanda.
Dale nodded his head.
~~~
"So it just goes on and on? Timeline after timeline, for ever and ever?" Dale's head was spinning out of control, and he was just now realizing that he felt somehow lighter, as if he'd suddenly lost weight or he'd become that much stronger. He hadn't noticed it before in his state of confusion, but moving was easier, things felt imperceptibly lighter, like... That was it, gravity was slightly different, a little less than he was used to. Dale returned to the conversation, trying to digest what they'd been told.
"Not infinite, well, I suppose not, but as close to it as it not mattering. Look, for time travel to be possible it means that the past and the future have already happened, right? We know the past has, as we lived it, but the future? That's hard to come to terms with. But if we can jump into the future then it's also already happened. So every time you jump you create an alternate reality, and the more jumps that happen the more alternate realities, or parallel universes there have to be. There's no other way it could be possible otherwise."
"And in each new universe there are then almost parallel timelines where different futures happen, right?" Dale thought he was finally getting somewhere with understanding it.
"Exactly. And the chances of you ever, and I mean ever, jumping back to your right timeline are just about impossible. Things will always be slightly different, as the minute you've done one jump you create countless universes, timelines and on and on it goes. Most will be so similar you would never notice the difference, but they are not the same one, and in some cases they are incredibly divergent."
Amanda interjected. "So that's why when I jumped trying to find Dale I saw him looking so different? Me and another him had set everything back to being right, without Hexads, but they were still alternate realities that then existed. Just without time travel?"
"I don't know about all of that, about them all being set right forever, but yes, they were each just distinct futures spreading out in countless ways from when each of the timelines was created." Amanda paused to think. "It's complicated, but as far as we, all the Amandas, can tell, then the possibility of you jumping creates some kind of series of possible futures where pretty much anything can happen. It sort of has to, to allow it to be possible."
"I don't get it," stated Dale.
"Okay. So, I have a Hexad, I'm sat at home and I decide that my first jump will be a week away, so I jump forward a week to the same place in my living room. So that's one future that had to happen, one where I didn't jump and just carried on with the rest of my week. But there is the new future now, where I did jump, so it's different. But what about everything in-between? What if I'd decided to jump a day later, an hour, a minute, a second? That would see the need for other futures to have happened too. And it just gets worse, spreading out forever. That's why the timelines were in such a mess for you Amanda. I guess
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