Multiverse Terminal

Neil Armstrong was the first person to step on the moon but I am going to be the first person to do something more remarkable: step into another universe and verify the Many Worlds theory.. I enter the Multiverse Terminal Machine. I am pressing the button.

I feel a strange sensation which I can't place. When I open the machine's door I see what is unusual. I am completely naked. Am I in a universe where people go around naked?

I'm greeted by a woman who looks like my assistant Mel. “Welcome to the multiverse, sir. Are you Doctor James Chaloner?”.

How did she know my name? I ask the standard question. “That is my name. Who is prime minister and who is president of the United States?”

“The prime minister is Boris Johnson and the president of the United States is Joe Biden.”

Perhaps the machine hasn't worked at all, other than removing my clothes, and I'm still in my own laboratory.

She continues, “The man who came through before you came from a universe where Jeremy Corbyn was prime minister and Donald Trump was President of the United States. I can provide you with clothes but you cannot leave this laboratory. I know you won't commit a crime but Immigration Control insist on valid ID.”

I didn't think to bring my passport but it would make no difference anyway because it would have gone wherever my clothes are.

“I'll switch the television on. The news is about to start on EBC One. It will help you to learn about this universe and how it differs from yours.”

“Buckingham Palace has announced that the President is ill. It is not serious and he tests negative for Covid-19. On medical advice however he will not be attending the Climate Change Summit in the Kingdom of Scotland. Therefore the English delegation will be headed by Prime Minister Johnson.”

I hope that a leap will find me back home but my colleagues will be working to improve the machine so that multiversonauts retain their clothes. When I pressed the button the machine recognised me as a single entity but my clothes as extraneous. Macro-Quantum Entanglement can function only when the machines are almost identical. Therefore if my colleagues succeed in improving the machine it will be impossible for me to return.

I go back into the machine. I am pressing the button.





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