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“Do you believe in fate, Stan?”
A warm breeze brushed Stanley’s hair. They were resting on a gentle hill, a place where they used to hang around as kids. It’s been a long time since they’d seen each other, probably five months or so due to Stanley’s deployment. Xeno didn’t even bother to change, he was still in his lab uniform, with a tie loosened around his neck. He must’ve come here in a rush. Not that he seemed to mind - he looked very content gazing up at the cloudless, starry sky, far from any light pollution - perfect for observation of celestial bodies as he would say. Stanley glanced at him from the side and then looked up above the horizon, trying to trace the route of Xeno’s sight.
“Nah, not really”
Xeno smirked. “As I thought. You assume that nothing is decided from above. That fate can be changed.”
“Yeah.”
“So you are a presentist.”
“Xeno, you are perfectly aware that I have no idea what that means.”
Stanley heard a little chuckle.
“Presentism assumes that only the present moment is real. The past no longer exists and the future has not yet come to being. Intuitively, we’re all presentists. However, according to the special and general theory of relativity…”
Ah, here we go again. Stanley lit up a cigarette and laid down on the soft grass.
“Go on.” He decided to be merciful today.
Xeno perked up, his hands began to gesticulate as if he was drawing patterns in the air.
“Imagine a movie on an old film reel, each frame representing a different moment in history.” He peeked at Stanley. “When you watch the movie you see frames moving through the projector, equivalent to the time passing. But all frames exist on the film simultaneously, even those that haven’t been played yet. That’s how time works. At least according to Einstein’s theory of relativity..” Xeno crossed his arms with a sense of pride.”Philosophically, this view is called eternalism, which states that all moments in time are equally real. The past doesn’t disappear, the future is already somewhere. Just like all geographical places exist at the same time, but you can’t be present in them at once.
There is no single, shared present for the entire universe. If the theory is true, then our sense of time’s passage may be an illusion, something like playing a pre-recorded tape.”
Xeno’s dark eyes were filled with enthusiasm. He probably
didn’t have such an opportunity to ramble about science like that in a long time. Stanley didn’t realise how much he had missed those monologues during his absence. He usually let all of that information slip out of his mind as fast as it reached his ears. Listening to Xeno’s voice was enough to keep him relaxed. Not that he could understand any of this rattling anyway.
Today however, something was different. Xeno was different.
“So…” Stanley paused for a moment. “If both the future and the past exist at the same time, then why do we only remember the latter? Why can’t we know what awaits us ahead?”
Xeno looked as satisfied as ever. “Such an elegant question, Stan. The answer lies in a phenomenon known as the arrow of time, inextricably linked to the concept of entropy. Entropy is a measure of a system's disorder - high entropy means total chaos, while low entropy means everything is neatly arranged. In a closed system, entropy rises; in other words, the natural course of events leads from order to disorder.”
Xeno took something out of the pocket on his chest. A small, white object. “See this piece of chalk?” Stanley barely had time to take a closer look, when the other man suddenly dropped it on the ground. The chalk’s shards scattered across the dry soil. “The system's entropy had just risen drastically. Now, can you imagine the reverse? The chalk spontaneously reassembling itself. It would be like playing a film in reverse, something that does not happen in the real world. Why? Because it would imply a miraculous decrease in entropy. It is precisely the universe's tendency toward chaos that defines the direction of time from the past into the future. Entropy was lower in the past and will be higher in the future; this is why we remember the past - its traces in the form of organized records in our brains - but do not remember the future, as its events have not yet increased entropy, and didn't leave their mark.”
“Hmm”, murmured Stanley as the burnt end of the cigarette fell to the ground. “I understand. I think…” Small sparks still glinted on the ground. Suddenly he felt so aware of the world's order. Everything has to collapse someday.
“Stan.” Xeno’s hand reached towards him. He felt soft fingertips on his cheek. Dark eyes were staring into his very soul. “I’m certain we will significantly increase this world’s entropy. Leave the mark.” The scientist's palm retreated, leaving a little bit of white dust on Stanley’s face. A laugh rumbled in Stanley's chest.
“You can’t really know that tough. You just told me that.”
Xeno seemed amused by this statement. “So you really were listening! Have you missed me that much, Stan?”
“Maybe.” Stanley didn’t know, really. He’d usually tuned out by the third sentence.
“Don’t you find it elegant that no matter where or when in the universe, we are always meant to find each other? There are places where we haven’t met yet or where we are long gone, but at some point we are, together, here in our present.”
That sure was a romantic thought. On the surface, Xeno might appear unsentimental, but Stanley knew that deep down, he was an admirer of beauty. Xeno finds elegance where others see only pure facts or formulas. To him they are more than simply true statements - every atom, every law, every force, gracefully unite the secrets of the whole universe.
“What if someone travelled in time and prevented us from ever meeting each other?”
A genuine laughter rang in his ears. “I don’t think you can get rid of me that easily.”
“I don’t find it anywhere near easy, Xeno.”
“There is a perfectly elegant solution - Novikov's self-consistency principle. According to it, the laws of physics are structured in such a way that the probability of any event that would lead to a paradox occurring is zero. You cannot change history, because you are already part of the single timeline that already exists.”
“I’m glad that this is our timeline, then.”
“Yeah. Isn’t it funny that in an attempt to resolve the problem of paradoxes, physics touches upon one of humanity's oldest debates?” Xeno stood up as if the words called for greater solemnity. “The debate over free will and destiny. As early as ancient times, there was a belief in a fate hanging over humanity. That there was a god somewhere, pulling the strings of fortune. A god so powerful that a mere mortal could only attempt to win a long-lost battle against fate. I find it amusing that people so long ago weren't that far off from the truth.”
Stanley also felt the urge to stand up and face those words with all of his being. “So you’re telling me that you don’t actually believe in free will? Or that history has already been written for us?”
Xeno shook his head. "I do believe in free will, Stan. Time is something relative, it depends on the speed of movement and the presence of gravitational fields. Our present is something that we do have control of - what we choose, things we do, will forever be imprinted into our universe's timeline." He took a step closer. "That's why..."
Stanley's face got cupped by cold palms, sending an electric jolt down his spine. Xeno's lips smashed into his own with an incredible force, almost making him lose his balance. Xeno's hands pulled his face closer and closer, as if he were the center of the gravity itself. Inescapable. Two celestial bodies collided, catalyzing a supernova. An explosion so powerful, Stanley thought it could have created a whole new galaxy. He leaned against Xeno's shoulders, closed his eyes to become weightless and experience all of the cosmos' mysteries with that sole sensation.
And then it was over. The world started to materialise itself, his feet felt the ground again, all of his bodily functions were back. He could see Xeno's face so clearly, so far from his own.
"No time traveller could ever erase this."
Stanley snorted with laughter. That damn man. How could he ever resist Xeno? He was the only person capable of turning science into poetry, making the world around him even more beautiful than it already was. He was the only person that could say the most romantic shit with a completely deadpan look, unaware of its impact on Stanley's heart. He was under the impression that he could still feel the electric tension between them. Tiny discharges flickered in their breaths, which became one a few moments ago. Xeno's eyes glimmered with resolve and a little cunning smile crept onto his face.
Stanley was glad that his friend acted so carefree today. The last time they saw each other Xeno either wouldn't say a word or was throwing tantrums and cursing the whole humanity for its intellectual incompetence. He couldn't blame him though. The life project that he had been yapping about for months has been rejected out of sheer cowardice of his senior scientists. Xeno was torn between being furious and totally depressed for quite some time now. He was not someone who took their defeats well, even since childhood. At one point Stanley even suggested that he could snipe an ignorant director or two if that would make Xeno happy, but his offer got quickly turned down. Not because Xeno doubted his aim, but because he would have to take down the majority of NASA which was something they couldn't really afford.
Either way nothing that Stanley would propose seemed to cheer him up. When he saw Xeno's calm demeanor today he thought that perhaps he had already come to terms with the defeat, or was working on a new project, but it turned out that it wasn't the case. Xeno's determination was directed towards something greater, maybe his sniping skills would come in handy after all?
When he snapped out of his reverie, Xeno was still standing in front of him, his gaze fixed on the stars above. Stanley decided to touch his shoulder, not exactly sure who he was trying to reassure now.
“Xeno, whatever you’re thinking about, whatever you plan on… I’ll stick with you. You know I will.”
Xeno’s eyes came back to him with little wrinkles showing around them. “I always include you in my plans. I don’t think you have a choice at this point”
“I could always disobey you… or something”
“Could you?”
The truth was he probably wouldn’t be able to even if he tried. Being ordered around by Xeno brought him the primal feeling of satisfaction. When he completed a task, he felt a predator’s rush of adrenaline while also feeling incredibly human, fulfilled with a sense of inner peace. Most of his self worth really came from Xeno’s approval and he did not hate it at all. Xeno was never hesitant about acknowledging Stanley’s skills and efforts, never doubted him, almost making him feel like a perfect human being. A little word, a little suggestion from him could keep him determined for months. He felt tied to this bond with a rope he could never cut. Xeno was his anchor, it was only logical he would try everything to make him happy.
“I don’t know. Try me?”
Xeno snorted, visibly entertained. “Let’s go home, then.”
“I don’t like where this is going.”
“Oh, really? Not feeling so rebellious anymore?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Actually, after some thought I’m not really in a mood for sleeping on the pavement right now.”
Xeno shook his head with resignation and started silently heading towards their car. He didn’t have to look back, because he knew that Stanley would follow after him.