Indeed, he seemed to argue for the sake of it, out of sheer contrariness. He thought and argued about God; also about good and evil, about science, pseudoscience and sorcery, their similarities, discrepancies and ambiguities. Space, time and space-time fascinated him, and especially mathematics with its inalienable laws and pure logic. The very changelessness of maths was a constant joy and relief to the Necroscope’s changeling mind in its changeling body.
Within a day or two of returning from the Greek islands he had used the instantaneous medium of the Möbius Continuum to go to Leipzig and see (speak to) August Ferdinand Möbius where he lay in his grave. Möbius had been and still was a great mathematician and astronomer; indeed he was the man whose genius had saved Harry’s life on several occasions, again through the medium of his Möbius Continuum. But while Harry’s primary purpose in visiting Möbius was to thank him for the return of his numeracy, instead he ended up arguing with him.
The great man had happened to mention that his next project would be to measure space, and as soon as the Necroscope heard this he threw himself headlong into an argument. This time the argument was ‘Space, Time, Light and the Multiverses’.
Won’t ‘Universe’ suffice? Möbius had wanted to know.
‘Not at all,’ Harry had answered, ‘because we know there are parallels. I’ve visited one, remember?’ (And East German students with their notebooks had wondered at this peculiar man who stood by a dead scientist’s tomb muttering to himself.)
Very well then, let’s concentrate on the one we know best, Möbius had been logical about it. This one.
‘You’ll measure it?’
I propose to.
‘But since it’s constantly expanding, how will you go about it?’
I shall stand at its outermost rim, beyond which there is nothing, transfer myself instantaneously through the universe to the far rim, beyond which there is likewise nothing, and in so doing measure the distance between. Then I shall transfer myself instantaneously back here and perform the same experiment exactly one hour later, and again an hour after that.
‘Good!’ Harry had answered. ‘But … to what purpose?’
(A sigh.) Why, from that time forward – and whenever I require to know it – a correct calculation of the size of the universe will be instantly available!
Harry had stayed grudgingly silent for a moment, until: ‘I too have given the matter a little thought,’ he said. ‘Though purely on the theoretical level, because the physical measurement of a constantly changing quantity seems rather fruitless to me. Whereas to understand what is happening, how and to what degree the age of the universe is tied to its rate of expansion – a constant, incidentally – and so forth, seems so much more satisfying.’
(An astonished pause.) Oh, indeed! And Harry had almost been able to see Möbius’s eyebrows joining in a frown across the bridge of his nose. ‘You’ have thought about it, have you? Theoretically, you say? And might I inquire as to ‘your’ conclusions?
‘You want to know all about space, time, light and the multiverses?’
If you’ve the time for it! Möbius had been scathing in his sarcasm.
To which the Necroscope had answered: ‘Your initial measurement will suffice; no other is necessary. Knowing the size of the universe – and not only this one, incidentally, but all the parallels, too – at any given moment of time, we will automatically know their exact age and rate of expansion, which will be uniform for all of them.’
Explain.
‘Now the theory,’ said Harry. ‘In the beginning there was nothing. Came the Primal Light! Possibly it shone out of the Möbius Continuum, or perhaps it came with the colossal fireball of the Big Bang. But it was the beginning of the universe of light. Before the light there was nothing, and after it there was a universe expanding at the speed of lightr
Eh?
‘Do you disagree?’
The universe was expanding at the speed of light?
‘Actually, at twice the speed of light,’ said Harry. ‘That was the essence of your problem, remember, which sparked the return of my numeracy? Switch on a light in space and a pair of observers 186,000 miles away from it on opposite sides would both see its light one second later, because the light expands in both directions. Now, do you disagree?’