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[skillz]

[Q looks completely wrecked. The lack of sleep that the Tranquility has so kindly blessed him with has left him looking almost on death's door, bags under his eyes and his clothes and hair dishevelled. Apparently, however, insomnia prompts either genius or madness and around him are a plethora of papers and diagrams, repeatedly scribbled out and redrawn with blue and red pen. Q rubs his bloodshot eyes and smiles slightly up at his audience.]

Hello, there. So these past few months have been rather hectic and it got me thinking. [That and more cups of tea than he would care to count.]

So the universe is endless, yes? A giant mass of endless stars. As our telescopes get stronger and stronger and we look out into the void of space, we keep finding more to look at. We cannot find its horizon.

[He rocks on the balls of his feet and begins to rifle through his papers.]

Yet a recent theory suggested that while it's endless, it isn't some vast, infinite mass. Instead, it loops back on itself. Time and space is...a doughnut.

[He holds up a complex diagram filled with numbers and various intersecting circles up to the camera.]

If we look far enough into the distance, we can see ourselves and it is my belief that the people, the things which we are witnessing on The Tranquility are either ourselves or the ship's past or future catching up on us. The jumps, in my opinion, are literal, as we dot from place to place, picking up fragments of time.

[He lets out a sigh and scratches his head.]

Fuck me if I know who Smiley is though.

Comments

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[thebreakingwave]

I don't think it is endless. There's a beginning, so there's got to be an end or an edge, right?

I mean, I might be wrong, and I've only got a beginners book, but I'm pretty sure that's right. At least on a basic level? Isn't it?

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[skillz]

Not quite. A circle is endless, for example. A number can be infinite. Something's existence doesn't guarantee a beginning or an end.

Besides, I'm suggesting a doughnut shape.

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[thebreakingwave]

Are you saying that the universe didn't have a beginning?

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[skillz]

I'm saying that we don't know if or where it begins physically. This isn't philosophy class.

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[thebreakingwave]

If you'd like, I've got this book here, it's sort of a general knowledge thing about the physical universe. A bit on chemistry, biology, and all that, and there's a good section on current theories about physics that talks about the formation of the universe. It's really wild stuff, but really neat.

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[skillz]

Thank you but I think you should keep it. I doubt it would be of much use to me.

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[thebreakingwave]

[He shrugs.]

All right, but they do talk about the physical edge of the universe and the "Big Bang" and all that. It's pretty great.

[andblockbuster]

Smiley is all of us. [In the grumpy tone of someone who has had too little sleep and not enough caffeine.] And now I want doughnuts.

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[backwardscompatible]

A little simplistic, perhaps, but if it helps you sleep at night to think of it like that then be my guest.

[The Doctor's gone, so someone has to do it.]

[leaps]

[ oh. oh. ]

You think the past or the future to be more likely?

text.

[look]

You think the signs that there were people on this ship before we got here were left by us?

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[skillz]

I know what the Big Bang is.

[skillz]

Apologies. If it helps, I've been graving them for weeks.

[Q blinks for a second while the Smiley comment registers.]

A toxic amalgamation of people and personalities? Intriguing.

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[skillz]

You think I'm wrong?

[skillz]

In truth, both at once. After all, we ourselves are all gathered from different points in time. I'd assume that other aspects of the ship would be the same.

I would be intrigued to know our average date of entry, so to speak, see if we can discover an average.

[He starts rustling his papers again.]

I should make a chart...

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[skillz]

Potentially. I'm definitely not crossing off the possibility.

[thebreakingwave]

Oh, I'm sorry.

[He ducks his head, running a hand through the messy fringe of his hair, and looks sheepish.]

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[backwardscompatible]

When you put it like that... yes.

[skillz]

It's fine. The doughnut design is a more recent theory.

[klutziness]

It was complicated until you described time and space as a doughnut.

[culver]

When did you eat last?

[thebreakingwave]

So how does it work then? If the universe never actually started, how ...I just, I can't really wrap my head around there not being a beginning.

audio.

[helpmeguideit]

I've not yet heard the 'doughnut' theory. Or the theory that we're picking up pieces of time through jumps.

Although both seem very likely from experience.

[andblockbuster]

A composite event. [He's never thought of this before. And apparently it took two weeks of insomnia to come up with what seems like an obvious answer.] It explains how it knows things about us it shouldn't. It's a bunch of people's brains crammed into one.... being.

But how. Something in the stasis fluid collecting our brain data...?

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[gilding]

[There's a mild edge of amusement to Gold's expression, but that could just be for the description of the doughnut. Not because he finds science in general really hilarious.]

And how would the matter of other universes interact with this theory, do you think?