by Theodore R Frimet
twasi-now, or twasi-later
Diapause. One mechanism that we can attribute to the halt in biological development due to unfavorable conditions. When your Sun goes Nova, that would entirely fit the bill, wouldn’t you think? Hmmm. Pull up a chair, and let the gravity of your morning sink in. Grab that second cup of coffee, and join me, as we explore the origins of the Kindercat. Lighten your load, and listen now, as we jointly birth the origin of a new astro-specie. To be sure, and check that all Linnean papers are in order, we pronounce the newly minted Empire, Super-Domain, and Domain as Ori, Alpha, -Kai, tuo. Less pedantically aliased as K2.
Slither, slither
creep and fall.
Up, up and away
we slide anon!
Unknown to the universe was her best kept secret. Ever. I say “best kept” since even the Big U didn’t know of its existence. K2.
The last hard rock planet was enrobed into a lifeless stellar slumber. Before it acquiesced, a small, almost insignificant tree dwelling creature fell to the ground. The last remaining continents heaved as gravity was all amuck. The ground shifted below her as she made Darwins last great ascent. She fell upward into a deep well of a hole. Stellar gravity swept our tiny biological organism into the womb of the now fabled planet, Omicron Five.
Betelgeuse contracts and smoothed out his hair. Removing all irregularities from its outer appearance, the wayward contractions begin. Here on Terra Firma, we note the colossus’ dimming variable starlight. And then gravity takes its final hold to express the stellar mass as novae.
Our tiny pre-sentient friend is of biological similitude to our earth nematode, C. elegans. With the collapse and subsequent massive ejecta of Alpha Orionis, our microscopic Starchild begins its climb into the timeless well of diapause.
The unthinkable happens. Big U awakens. Her collective consciousness becomes aware of the last, littlest inhabitant of the expansive domain. U was previously engaged in collecting the ever expanding knowledge of where Dark Energy would carve out new niches for the 5%. Between peering into eyepieces, she became accustomed to looking over her shoulder, and taking stock of what Dark Matter was scaffolding in her own back yard. Out she tossed a lifeline, into the ejecta of what was left of Omicron Five.
For the first time in Big U’s catalogue, a non-stable worm hole was kindled into existence. The kissing cousin of a worm, with all of her 1,000 somatic cells, embodying its 20,470 genomes, stops, drops and rolls into a kaleidoscopic transference device. U had once conferred to me, and instilled into my C. elegans genetic homologue of 35% the name of this device.
There is a duality here. It is known both as the “Twasi-now” and the “Twasi-later”. Being bold, and short of wit, I asked U why, or “how such a name came to be”? U, as it turns out, is famously enamored with the French language. During one of U’s outings, back in ’79 – she discovered that upon opening one magazine, after another, at an Inn in Jackman Canada, that the French dialogue easily made its way into her consciousness. In the split of time that takes a fly to flit its wings, Big U decided that her favorite word was “treize”. Being an imperfect guardian, U mispronounced treize, as “twasiere”. So she decided to encode both Twasilater/now into our genetic code. It enables you to undo the ravages of time.
Time has no mercy. No consciousness. No moral or ethics to drive the line of existence. The only path that reverses events are hidden safely, and protected forever behind the firewall of a black hole. Here, the timeline reverses itself. How utterly non-useful to cellular based life-forms? Especially now to the most elegant and tiniest worm. Our kissing cousin is now being transferred from the remnants of Omicron Five to our first known detected interstellar visitor, ʻOumuamua. Briefly, in the asteroids citation of “come see the Egress”, our time traveling extra-galactic worm is flung from the hyperbolic touchstone, and lands upon the surface of Earth.
Our newest creation is presently released from the unfavorable conditions that put life on hold. Now exposed to the epigenetic experience of the third rock from the sun, the variance in light spectra engages phosphorylation that tears the cover of DNA protective histones. Layer upon layer of DNA is exposed. Proteins that were never meant to be transcribed, are expressed. RNA continues to pick up the hidden evolutionary trail and engages the rough endoplasmic reticulum.
Come closer, and heed me now. I speak, tongue in cheek, that while in the conveyance of a worm hole – heavy Neutrinos bombarded this gentile genetic code. Something, it would seem, had brewed. It was most unique in all the Universe. K2 was coming into her own and was destined to co-exist as Darwin’s latest fancy.
Faster than light she evolves beyond her pupal stage. Finding the keys to the kingdom, our now evolving miracle stakes a claim to our noble neighborhood. Please acquiesce with me, as she descends to Earth’s shore. We greet K2 and sing out, “Happy Birthday”!
Now is the time to put your grandchild on your knee.
Though it has been more than a hundred years since Einsteins’ General Theory, and Special Theory of Relativity, yet, we do not convey this message at an early enough age. Imagine with me, as you take to task and tell the small tale, below, of K2, and think ahead of when your Kindercare will turn to the ripe age of 23, and see their Post-Doc in their future? Smaller iotas were spoken to our children, niece and nephews, only to have them reconcile to us, as adults, in saying, “I remember all that you said to me”. How wonderful, too, it is to be an amateur, as we muse together an oft forgotten Freeman Dyson quote “They also have one resource that the professionals lack, plenty of observing time.”
Now, back to our story.
K2, has surpassed all expectations in meeting her environmental challenges. Such is the fate of our newest extra-galactic species. This is no model for our up and coming global struggle. Yet, here I am, asking you to see the forest, and all in despite of the verge that block the view.
Of my three feline occupants, Big-Pussycat, aka Maybelle, steps forward, and quips, “I have a secret”. Please enumerate. She says that cats have a life long lineage and responsibility to each other. They may not tell another’s secret. I’ve gotten the scent of it that the continued preservation of the human race is at stake. I pick her up and go face-to-face. (Remember, in past writings, my cats are astro-aware and are conversant in all things cosmological.) She shudders. Her ears go flat, and her whiskers nose dive. Her paw reaches out, and extends a sharp dew claw into my noggin. Pointing to Fritz, the destroyer of Dobsonians, she says, “Fritz has a secret”.
The dob killer stalks into the room. Put her down and I will confess!, announces Fritz. Maybelle leaps to her cushion, and in unobligatory fashion, settles off to deep sleep. Fritz looks up, and meows, “Priss isn’t what she presumes to be”. Like any cat, all are disenchanted with any sustained human contact. He disengages me, and moves to his food bowl. Between kibbles and bits, he spews out, “Priss’ real name is K2”. Twasi-now, or Twasi-later?
I look about, and do not see my feral cat turned domestic. Priss, or rather I should say, K2 is amuck, never to return. Yet thru the order of birds, and cats, sometimes an intelligent pigeon wishes to escape the needless and never ending feline desire for it to be on the menu. In exchange for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the bird in paw exchanges the tale of K2 for another day in the life.
The pigeons tale.
The pigeon, having the brain of a bird, was not dense in the least of being able to remember a name more than two syllables. Regretfully, our teacher will remain anonymous, as their idyllic calling card is more than two. Teacher, then, we shall name and call to task throughout the muse.
K2 happened upon a most sincere and gracious Kindergartner teacher. K2 meowed, and was thoughtfully picked up by teacher. Prior to the ringing of the first bell, they both entered into the classroom. K2 snuggled up, into the coat closet, where the discards of forgotten clothing had piled up. The children then entered.
Wow! A cat in the closet!! They were all supercharged and awake. Gone were the dew drops from their eyes. No longer was sleep weighing heavily upon their souls. A cat! A cat!! K2 awoke. Startled, K2 leaped quickly out a partially open window. Soon to forget, the kinder took their seats and classes resumed for all of the day.
K2 wandered the campus. The enabled cosmic genes soon evidenced their function. Fate would have it, that the Earth’s uneven crust and mass distribution made for gravity-eddies, that K2s’ being would genetically embrace. For with every gravity distortion came a pairing of time dilation. Time slowed down for K2, while all others not engineered for the event, saw the clock as moving without further adieu.
Wanderlust took over the motions of our chimeric quadruped. Time and time again, K2 slid down the overlooked, and hidden wells from our sight. Gravity wells in the playground. Distortions in time in the courtyard abound. Fortune smiled upon K2’s clock, as it was minutes, and not years or centuries to be undone by this epigenetic wonder.
Spying the open window of Kinderland, K2 pounces and makes the leap of faith back into the classroom. The children are happy to see K2. They jump out their seats and a raucous ensues. Teacher quiets them down.
K2 speaks. Everyone is shellshocked. K2 says my clock is running slower than the classrooms. Turning to teacher, our moralist declares that all must remain after school for 15 minutes, every day, for the next five days. Only then can the clocks discrepancy be undone. K2 has another idea. I know how to use the Twasilater.
Gather around, and hold hands, a-lights K2. Now, break the bonds between yourselves, and put a finger on top of your head. Spin, and spin again, as I activate the Twasi-now. Green light, shines from K2. I can’t be sure, however it seems that K2 can manifest Cherenkov radiation in the absence of nuclear reactions. Now reverse your spin, as I activate the Twasi-later. The children obey in the blinding light of a new reality, and reverse spin. Time holds still for them, while K2’s clock is reset. With the perfection of a Universe born anew, time has been recalibrated for the Kindergartners. Teacher announces, with profound thanks, that no one has to stay later after school. The children applaud, and laugh out loud. They know that today, K2, the new mascot of Kinder’s everywhere, has given the greatest gift of all. True time management.
Earlier we kicked time to the curb, and professed it as lacking in morality and ethics. With nothing to redeem itself, we found it fraught with failure. Thru the parlance of the pigeon we learned that nothing could be further from the truth. That in all fairness, You, the Universe, me and the bird have all witnessed, that even a stopped clock is correct, twice a day. Now you see, as I do, that all reality happens within the blink of a red giants eye.
Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton 