Chapter 6 out of time

The first time I heard the truth about time gyrations was at a sledding party.It was five years after the events of October, a bitterly cold winter night.As usual, it was Jason who broke the news again. That night, we first had dinner at Roden's.Jason's college has Christmas holidays and he's home for the holidays.So, dinner still had a little bit of a celebratory feel to it, even though it was just a family gathering.Because Jason was very persistent, he invited me too.I guess Edward is against it. When Diane came to answer the door, she whispered to me: Your mother should come too. I asked Edward to invite her, but she shrugged.

I told her: It's okay, Jason has already been to my house and said hello to my mother.Anyway, she wasn't feeling well either.She was lying on the bed with a headache, a little abnormal.Also, I'm really not qualified to criticize Edward's behavior.Just last month, Edward offered to help me pay for medical school if I passed the American Medical School Admissions Test.He said: "Because your dad would want me to do that.It was a very generous gesture, but it gave people a feeling of hypocrisy.However, having said that, I have no ability to refuse such a gesture. When I was still in Sacramento, my father Marcus.Dupree had been Edward's best friend (some say his only friend).Together, they promoted aerostat monitoring equipment and sold it to the Weather Bureau and the Border Patrol.My memory of my father is very vague, and, coupled with the stories my mother told, the impression is even more confusing.What I remember very clearly, though, is that the police came knocking on the door on the night he died.He was the only son of a poor French-Canadian family in Maine.His family was proud of him for his engineering degree.He is very talented, but he has no concept of money.A series of stock market speculations wiped out all savings.My mom was left with a huge mortgage that she couldn't afford.

When Carol and Edward moved east, my mother was a housekeeper.Perhaps Edward wanted to keep a living souvenir of his friend.So, even if Edward keeps reminding my mom that he's doing her a favor, do we care?From then on, he treated my mother like a vassal of the family, should we care?He maintains a class system in which the Duprees are second class, should we care?Maybe you care, maybe you don't.My mother said that generous people, real or not, are a rare animal.Jason and I have an intellectual gap that seems to make him happy.He decided that I was born to be a foil to Jason.I'm like a standard measuring stick, the standard of traditional ordinary people, and I can compare Jason's difference.Maybe this is just my imagination, maybe I'm just too sensitive.

Fortunately, Jay and I both know this is bullshit. Diane and Carol were already seated when I sat down.Carol was sober this evening, which was unusual.At least, she wasn't drunk enough for others to see.She hadn't seen a doctor in years, and for a while now she was staying home so as not to risk getting caught by the police while driving drunk.She smiled at me, a little perfunctory.She said: Taylor, you are welcome. On the big day of the Lawton family, the atmosphere of the dinner is mostly warm and artificial, and tonight is no exception.Everyone passed the beans back and forth, gossip about the family.Carol looked a little aloof, Edward was uncharacteristically quiet.Diane and Jason exchanged sarcasm.However, it was obvious that Jason and his father were flirting with each other, as if they were hiding something, but they refused to speak out.I was surprised by Jason's appearance. When dessert was served after dinner, I even wondered if he was sick.He barely took his eyes off the plate, and the dishes on the plate barely moved.When the scheduled time for the sledding party arrived and it was time to go outside, he stood up, obviously hesitant.He seemed to want to say that he was not going, but Edward.Lawton said: Go ahead and rest for a night.Helpful for you.I was very puzzled, what is a rest for one night?Is there anything to do?

We took Diane's car to the party.It was an unassuming little Honda.Diane likes to describe her car as a first car.I sit behind the driver's seat.Xiaojie sat on the right of his sister in the front seat, his legs were so long that his knees were against the glove box.He still looked gloomy. Diane asked him: what did he do?Did you slap me? No such thing. You look like you've been slapped. Really?Excuse me. Of course, the sky was pitch black.As the car turned north, the headlights swept across a snow-covered meadow and a row of bare tree walls.It snowed three days ago in a record-breaking amount.Then came the cold snap, and the unshoveled snowdrifts were covered with a layer of ice.Several cars passed us, all driving slowly and cautiously.

Diane asked: What the hell was going on?Is it serious? Jason shrugged. war?plague?famine? He shrugged again and turned up the collar of his coat. ☆ At the party, he was still the same.Then again, the party wasn't all that great. It was a class reunion, and the people who came were Jason and Diane's former classmates, and people they knew from Rice High School.The owner was also an alumnus of Rice High School, who went to an Ivy League school, and came home for Christmas.The party was hosted by his family.His parents racked their brains to arrange a tastefully themed event.What a taste, bite the sandwich, hot chocolate, and go sledding down the gentle slope behind the house.Most of the guests were sullen private school students who had already skied in Zermatt and Gaustadt in Switzerland before their braces came out.So, to them, the party was just another good excuse to sneak out and drink.Outside the house, there are colorful Christmas lights hanging from the ropes.Under the light, I could only see the silver jug ​​passing around.In the basement, a guy named Brant was selling happy pills, priced by the gram.

Jason found a chair in the corner and sat there frowning, watching every friendly face coming and going.Diane introduced me to a girl with big eyes named Holly.After the introduction, she left me and ran away.Holly starts a monologue and talks about every movie she's seen in the past year.She walked slowly around the room with me for nearly an hour.She stops occasionally to grab a California roll from her plate.Later, she greeted me and ran to the dressing room.I took this opportunity to run over to Jason.He was still there moping.I begged him to go outside with me. I'm not in the mood for sledding.

I'm not in the mood either.Just do me a favor, okay? So we put on our boots and coats and went outside.The night was bitterly cold, with no wind at all.Several Rice Middle School students stood on the porch smoking, huddled together, and the smoke filled the air.They stare at us.We walked along a path in the snow to the top of a small hill.It was almost just the two of us left there.We stood there looking down at a circus of Christmas lights below, and a few people were absent-mindedly sledding under the lights.I told Jason about Holly.I said she was like a leech wearing a GAP brand, sticking to me.He shrugged: Everyone has their own problems.

What medicine did you take wrongly tonight? Before he could answer, my phone rang.It was Diane, who was in the house.Where did you two go?Holly was a little upset.Tyler, it's really rude to dump someone like that. She must find someone to listen to her. She's just a little nervous.She hardly knew anyone here. Sorry, that's none of my business. I just thought you boys might be able to have a good relationship with her. I blinked a few times.Build a good relationship?I have no way to interpret this sentence positively.What are you talking about, you design me to match her? She paused, as if feeling a little guilty.Come on, Tyler, don't say that.

For five years, Diane's image was like a home movie made by a beginner, with focus alternately sharp and blurry.At least, that's how I feel.Some days, especially after Jason left for college, I felt like her best friend.She would call and chat with me.We would go shopping and watch movies together.We are friends, like partners.If there is any sexual frivolity, it's clearly my own wishful thinking.I'm careful to hide my feelings because even this half-toned intimacy is fragile.I know this without anyone telling me.Whatever Diane wanted from me was definitely not enthusiasm, any kind of enthusiasm.

Of course, Edward will never tolerate any relationship between Diane and me.When we are together, we must be supervised by elders, and we can only run a house like a child, and there must be no danger of any dramatic turning point.However, Diane also seemed to take the distance between us for granted.At one point, I rarely saw her for months.Sometimes I would wave to her when I saw her waiting for the school bus (she was at Rice at the time).During those long hours, she didn't call.Once or twice, I had the audacity to call her, but she wasn't in the mood to talk to me. In those days, I occasionally dated girls from school.They are usually shy.Although they prefer to date guys who are obviously more popular, they are all resigned to mixing with the alternate second army.These relationships don't last long.When I was seventeen, I had sex with a frighteningly tall and beautiful girl named Elaine.Bolan.I tried to convince myself that I was in love with her.However, after eight or nine weeks, we broke up.At that time, I felt a little regretful, but I felt relieved. After each love episode like this, Diane would call me out of the blue.When chatting, I never mention Elaine.Berlane (or Toni Hickok, or Sarah Burstein).And Diane never intended to tell me how she passed the time when we didn't see each other.But it doesn't matter, because we'll soon be back in the bubble, suspended between romance and pretense, between childhood and adulthood. I told myself not to expect too much, but I couldn't give up hope that she would be by my side.I think she also wants me to be by her side.After all, she keeps coming back to me.When I was with her, I saw how reassuring she was.When I walked into a room, I could see her laughing involuntarily, almost as if announcing to the world: Oh, great, here comes Taylor.Once Tyler arrived, there were no problems. Taylor? I wonder what she's going to say to Holly: Taylor is such a nice guy, he's staring at me just to get to know you and you two are a match made in heaven. Tyler, her voice sounds a little sad, Taylor, if you don't want to talk Actually, I don't want to talk about it. Then let Jason listen, okay? I hand him the phone.Jason listened for a moment, then said: We're on the hill.No, why don't you come outside?It's not that cold outside.don't want. I don't want to see her.I was about to walk away when Jason threw the phone at me.He said: Taylor, don't be like a child, I have something to talk to you and Diane. What's up? related to the future. His answer seemed to have another meaning, which sounded uncomfortable.Maybe you won't be cold, but I will.Bitter cold. What I'm going to say is more important than what's going on between you and my sister.Although I don't know what happened to you two.His expression was almost serious, but for some reason it felt a little funny.I know she means a lot to you. She means nothing to me. Even if you are just friends, I don't believe that she is not important to you. We are indeed just friends, you ask her yourself.I never really talked to him about Diane.This is not what we should talk about. You're angry because she introduced you to that girl named Holly. I don't want to talk about it. That's just because Diane is becoming a bit of a saint now.She is obsessed with new gadgets.She has been reading those books. what book? <The Bible.Book of Revelation > Theology.Usually the bestsellers on the charts, you know, like A Prayer in the Dark by Reiter, giving up your earthly self.Tyler, you should watch more daytime TV.She's not trying to embarrass you.That's just an attitude of hers. Is that all right?I walked away a few more steps and walked towards the house.I began to figure out how to get back without taking their car. Taylor.His voice seemed to reveal something, pulling me back again.Tyler, listen to me.Didn't you ask me what's bothering me?He sighed and said, Edward told me something about the events of October.The matter has not been made public.I promised him not to tell, but I'm not going to keep my word.I want to break my promise because I feel that in this world, there are only three people who are like my relatives.One is my dad and the other two are you and Diane.So, can you just bear with me for a few minutes? I saw Diane struggling up the slope, struggling to put on the snow-white hooded coat with one hand in and the other out. I look at Jason's face.His face, reflected in the faint Christmas lights below, looked sad and unhappy.I was suddenly a little scared, although I wanted to hear what he had to say. ☆ As soon as Diane was in the arbor, he whispered a few words to her.She stared at him with wide eyes, standing in front of us, a few steps away from us.Jason began to speak, his voice soft, methodical, and soothing.He told us a nightmare, but it was as if he was telling a story to a child at the bedside. Of course, these are what Edward told him. After the October incident, Edward's career took off.The world's satellites are dead, and Roden Industries has taken a big step forward.They have come up with many projects, proposing a practical alternative technology that can be used immediately.That's high-altitude aerostats, precision-engineered balloons that can stay in the stratosphere indefinitely.Five years later, Edward's aerostats carried telecommunications data payloads and repeaters, performing multipoint audio and data broadcasts.It can do almost everything traditional artificial satellites do (except for global satellite positioning and astronomical observation).Edward's power and influence skyrocketed.Most recently, he organized a lobby group for members of Congress in the aerospace field called the Perihelion Foundation.He also serves as a consultant to the federal government on less publicized projects such as NASA's Automatically Controlled Re-entry Vehicle program, or Self-Returning Vehicle Program. Over the years, NASA has been improving their ROV.Initially, the detection ship was used to detect the shield surrounding the earth.Can the shield penetrate?Can useful information be obtained from outside the shield? The first time I tried, it was like shooting into a black cloud.They refurbished a Lockheed Martin Atlas 2AS rocket and loaded a simple self-returning vehicle probe ship on top.They fired the rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base into the darkness of the sky.They immediately saw that the mission seemed to have failed.The probe was supposed to stay in orbit for a week. As a result, not long after launch, the probe crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda.Jason said the probe seemed to have hit the skyline and bounced back. The probe ship was not bounced back immediately.After they repaired the probe ship, they downloaded a week's worth of data from it. How can this be? The question is not of possibility, but of actual process.The real process is that the probe stayed in orbit for seven days, but fell back to Earth on the night of launch.We will know the real process because every launch has the same result.They have been experimenting repeatedly. real process?Xiaojie, what are you talking about?time travel? No not exactly. incomplete? Let him talk.Diane whispered. Jason said that there are various clues about the real process of the incident.What the observers on the ground observed was that the rocket actually shot into that isolation layer, and then disappeared, as if being dragged in.However, no such phenomenon can be seen in the data found on board the probe.The observation results of the two groups could not be consistent.From the ground point of view, after the probe ship shot into the isolation layer, it immediately fell back to the earth.However, the data on the exploration ship showed that the ship entered the calculated orbit smoothly, stayed in the orbit for a predetermined time, and then returned to the earth with its own power after a few weeks or months. (Like those three Russian cosmonauts, I thought. The government didn’t officially confirm their claims, but they didn’t deny them either. Their story has become something of an urban legend.) Assuming both sets of data are plausible, then, There is only one explanation left: Outside the isolation layer, time progresses at a different speed than inside. Or, to put it the other way around, time passes more slowly on Earth than in the entire universe outside. Do you understand what this means?Before, Jason asked, it looked a lot like we were in an electromagnetic cage that modulates the energy sent to the Earth's surface.This is true.But this phenomenon is really just a side effect, a small part of a larger phenomenon. side effects of what? They say it's a time gradient.Do you understand what that means?For every second that passes on Earth, a very, very long time has passed outside the barrier. It doesn't make sense.I immediately retorted, what kind of physics can explain this? A whole bunch of people more experienced than me have been struggling with this problem for a long time.However, the concept of time gradients is a very powerful explanation.If there is a time difference between us and the universe, at any point in time, the speed of radiation from all directions reaching the surface of the earth will be proportionally accelerated, whether it is sunlight, X-rays, or cosmic radiation.The whole year's sunlight condenses, and if it shines for ten seconds, it will be fatal in an instant.So, instead of hiding us, the electromagnetic barrier surrounding the Earth is protecting us.The isolation layer filters out that condensed radiation, and also, the blue-shifted radiation.It should be called Blue Shift. fake sunshine.Diane said.She gets it. Yes, they give us fake sunlight, because real sunlight can kill.The sunlight is just enough and evenly distributed to simulate the four seasons, so that the crops can grow and the weather can change.Tides, orbit around the sun, mass, kinetic energy, gravity, it's all under control.They do this not to slow down time, but to keep us alive. I said: This is control.This is not the work of nature, but engineering. I guess we have to admit, that's it.Jason said. Are they coming after us? There are many rumors outside that it is a hypothetical intelligent creature that controls the earth. But what is the purpose?What are they trying to accomplish? I have no idea.Nobody knows. Diane stared at her brother.The cold winter air stagnated, as if forming a gulf between the two of them.She hugged her coat tightly, her body trembling.Not because she was cold, but because she thought of a fundamental question: Jason, how long has it been?How long has it been outside? Above the dark sky, the boundless universe. Jason hesitated for a moment, and it was obvious that he was a little hesitant, not knowing how to answer. For a long time.He finally said it. Just make it clear.Her voice was weak. Well, there are many kinds of data measured.However, during the last launch, they sent a measurement signal to the surface of the moon and bounced it back.do you know?Every year, the Moon moves further and further away from Earth.That difference is subtle, but measurable.We can use the measured distance to calculate a rough timetable, the longer the time passes, the more accurate it will be.Add this timeline together with other symbols of meaning, such as the dynamics of nearby stars Jason, how long has it been? Five years and many months have passed since the events of October.Converted to the time outside the isolation layer, it is a little over 500 million years. That's a staggering number. I don't know what to say, I can't say a word.I was speechless and my mind went blank.At that moment, there was no sound, except for a void that was dry and cracked in the night. Then Diane sees to the most horrifying core of the whole affair.She asked: How much time do we have left? I don't know either, it depends.From a certain point of view, the isolation layer protects us.But how long does protection last?We have to face some bloody facts.The sun, like any other star, has a certain lifespan.Burning hydrogen, the Sun expands outward and gets hotter and hotter over time.The location of the earth is the area where people can live in the solar system.This area will gradually move outward.As I said, we're protected, and in any case, we're all right for the moment.But in the end, the earth will enter the range of the heliosphere and be swallowed up by the heliosphere.After a certain point, it's too late. How long is it, Xiaojie? He looked at her with a kind of pity.Forty years, or fifty years, which one do you choose?