Quantum Mechanics

"So where are we headed?" you ask as you enter the old car Jessica had parked outside your Jessica's house. You brush a loose strand of black hair out of your face as you turn to face her, or more accurately, her now male face. Before you had both left the house, alternate Jessica had donned the skin of a muscular Caucasian male named Tom and given you a young Asian woman's skin by the name of Liz to wear.

"Well after we restore Trish, we need to investigate the unusually high deviant factor in this reality and see if this can be used to disrupt the anchor which is holding the aberration in place."

At your confused look she apologies.

"Sorry, forgot that you're still new to this. Okay, remember how I told you about the many worlds theory? There's a little bit more to alternate realities than just new realities being created because of different choices. If I go back to my die example, whilst there will be 6 different worlds created because of the 6 possible outcomes, most of those worlds will not be truly different from one another unless that decision actually made a difference. Say that I was rolling dice for roulette and I only win if I get a 6. There's fundamentally no difference between a reality where I rolled a 1 and a 3 because I would still lose. Are you following me so far?"

"Kind of. Are you saying that the 5 realities where you rolled a 1 to 5 would kind of be like driving 5 cars in parallel down a highway whereas the one where you roll a 6 is like where your car takes an exit?"

Tom beams at your response. "Exactly, you're picking this up quickly. Since the 6 is the only outcome that makes a real difference, this means there are actually many realities out there that are functionally the same until a decision of consequence actually occurs. When actual differences in realities occur, the magnitude of what happens is what we call a deviant factor and when the deviant factor in a reality becomes large enough, it can be enough to shift the focal points of the universe."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that whilst there are some focal points which appear to be fixed, such as the creation of the C-set, there are other focal points which can change as realities branch out. Now it's been far too long since the creation of the universe to know what would've or should've happened in the original reality, but there's still a range in which things usually happen. For example, in most versions of Earth, there are two world wars and in both, the Germans are defeated. In realities with large enough deviant factors, the Nazis might have won World War 2 and that in turn, puts significant pressure on the universe's focal points. Once enough pressure happens, then those focal points can change."

"Which means Jessica always being worn might no longer be a focal point if enough pressure is applied?"

"In theory yes. The example I gave you of the Nazi's winning hopefully tells you how hard it usually is to apply enough pressure to change the universe's focal points. But after the C-set was created, the organisation that made them realised that the C-set itself and the actions that they enabled, applied a disproportionate amount of pressure on the focal points. Basically, the creation of the C-set resulted in higher deviant factors across every reality and has resulted in the focal points constantly shifting from the pressure. And yet with the constantly shifting, both the creation of the C-set and Jessica being a skin...." Tom pauses with a grim look on his face "...has always been a constant. There's some sort of anchor which is keeping these focal points in place."

"The organisation that I work for call these particular focal points, aberrations. Events or things that we believe shouldn't be focal points but actually are. There should be no universal reason why C-sets and Jessicas are focal points but for some reason they are. My job is to investigate these aberrations and see if I can bring an end to them. The problem is I've been at this for years now but with little luck."

Tom stops the car outside Trish's place and looks at you, sadness in his eyes. There's no one home as the two of you enter using their hidden house key and restore Trish in her own bed. He zaps her with a white pen and directs you out the door before she can wake up.

As you set off again he starts speaking, "If you're going to help, you need to do everything I ask of you, even if it seems odd. Is that something you can do for me Liz?"

"Of course Je... I mean Tom."

"Good because we're going to be investigating..."