situation and watching for developments. Russ was snoring in the tent when Parnell watched the big monitor screen nearest them split into quarters beneath a “BBC Special Edition” logo. In each quarter appeared the face of a panelist, waiting to be introduced.

Upper left was Dr. Stephen Nelson, chair of MIT’s physics department; upper right was Dr. Dana Garson, of Fermilab an author of the dark energy theory; lower left was Dr. Alan Lamont of CERN; and lower right was Dr. Reyes Hernandez of Caltech. Parnell almost woke Russell up, then decided against it. The moderator, unseen, was Colin Woodbury of the BBC, well-known in European broadcast and online media.

“Our over-arching question is, what exactly happened at 9:27 p.m., May 29, 2015?” said Dr. Lamont.

“And there are multiple layers to that one question,” said Dr. Nelson, bushy eyebrows in constant agitation. “Macro questions — what has happened to our planet, did we experience a singularity, the arrow of time, what happens next — and micro questions — quantum-world questions.”

“Like the eighteen-point-five-nanosecond gap,” said Esty Hernandez, with his irresistible impulse to humanize. “Did God’s secretary have her foot on the eraser pedal? Does God have a secretary?”

“If she does, he would probably be titled an executive assistant,” said Dana Garson. All four scientists — even the dour Dr. Nelson — laughed. In the most serious of times, in the 21st-century media culture, there was just some social attribute about the camera’s eye that was impossible not to play to. Parnell let his eyes stay on Dr. Garson, whose facial mathematics, spare makeup and shoulder-length pageboy contributed to his impression that she was the most unashamedly beautiful scientist he had ever seen.

“Dr. Lamont,” asked Colin Woodbury, whose pitch and resonance approximated a cello, “are you at CERN coordinating the investigation?”

“The LHC project has always been a hub-and-spoke operation,” said Lamont. “Many labs around the world were in active participation when the 9:27 event occurred. But there is already consensus that whatever happened, even though it might affect the entire planet — the entire universe — whatever happened, happened here first. Or started here. So I would say yes, CERN remains the hub.”

“Just the word ‘first,’ or ‘start,’ implies the immensity of the question,” said Dana Garson. “In particle physics, what happens in one corner of the universe can happen in other corners of the universe at the exact same instant. None of them can be said to be ‘first.’ We know this happens, but we don’t know why, or how.”

Dr. Lamont saw an opportunity and instantly seized it for the record. “Even the word ‘originator’ falls under the same cloud,” he said.

“At the risk of making a play on words,” said Woodbury, “have you agreed on a place to ‘start,’ in trying to answer these questions?”

Again, chuckles. Parnell had little occasion to watch BBC. He had never seen Colin Woodbury and tried to visualize him. It was a game he played, and he was usually wrong. In his history, he had found only one person — well, maybe two — whose voice and face were equally compelling. Winston Churchill. Willie Nelson. Woodbury sounded like he should look like Churchill, but he probably looked like Elmer Fudd.

“I think there are three things uppermost,” said Lamont. “One. Is the planet secure? Two. What is in that eighteen-point-five-nanosecond gap?”

“And that is a very tiny gap, is it not?” interjected Woodbury. “What, again, is a nanosecond?”

“A nanosecond is one billionth of a second,” said Lamont. “A teeny fraction over one nanosecond is the time it takes light to travel one foot. Most people know the speed of light as 186,000 miles per second. In the news people hear today, and as we go forward in this new world, it may be helpful to know that a nanosecond is to one second, as one second is to 31.7 years. Approximately.”

“So the gap is impossibly small,” Woodbury suggested. All four faces on the screen acquired a look: who should speak first?

Esty Hernandez leaped in. “Everything is relative,” he said. “One universe’s nanosecond can be another universe’s eternity. One second of Earth time may be a thousand years in some other place. Even confined to our own time scale, duration is totally relative to each person. Most people know what that feels like. Though they are exactly the same, the last five seconds of a basketball game pass far more slowly for the person whose team is ahead.”

Parnell grinned. He had learned of this relativity as a sophomore in high school, when his first real girlfriend left on vacation. Time slowed to a crawl. Hours were unbearable in their magnitude. He measured time in how many more days he had to go to work, before she returned.

“I don’t think any of us, or any of our colleagues,” said Stephen Nelson, “would be surprised to learn that the gap opened at infinite locations, or even one location, but our universe passed through it and spent several billion years somewhere else on a different time scale before popping back through to us eighteen-point-five nanoseconds later, but going in the opposite direction.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me at all,” said Esty. Garson and Lamont grinned and offered subtle agreeing nods.

“What you are describing, Dr. Nelson,” said Woodbury, “sounds like the cosmic time-travel phenomenon called a ‘wormhole.’ “

“If it was,” said Nelson, “if that’s what happened, then our scientific community, and the rest of the world, now knows that a wormhole can be created on this planet, and the planet will not be destroyed. I find that reassuring.”

“Before the bloggers get too excited,” said Alan Lamont, “we should make it clear that we don’t know at this point what happened. We’re only discussing the kinds of events that can occur in the space of eighteen-point-five nanoseconds.”

“I’m afraid it’s too late to worry about excited bloggers,” Woodbury said. “Half of them are claiming to have predicted this. A few are claiming to have caused it.” The screen switched to a studio shot, with the four scientists on a wall-sized screen to the right, and to the left, Colin Woodbury at an anchor desk in a navy three-piece suit and charcoal bow tie. So much for Elmer Fudd. Colin Woodbury was bespectacled, pale, thinning black hair slicked straight back, small moustache, nondescript in a classic, dignified, English way.

“I have two items of business,” he said. “First, I would contend as a journalist there must be a limit to the number of times the phrase, ‘eighteen-point-five nanoseconds’ should be repeated in any two-minute period of time. I propose we assign it a name. I propose we call it ‘the Gap.’ Would that be agreeable? If so, then, Dr. Lamont, you mentioned the security of the planet. Given your scenario of our universe going somewhere else for several billion years while it was in this Gap in our time, then arriving back here, but going in the opposite direction — how can you speculate on the security of our planet?”

“We can’t,” said Alan Lamont. He made a shrugging motion. “All we can do is observe. After several hours, we are observing stable conditions on Earth, with the one great exception being her spin, which has reversed. Otherwise, atmosphere, temperature, geologic structure, gravity, winds, magnetic fields, all are reported unchanged up to this time. But much about our new situation remains to unfold.”

“If all of our old knowledge about our physical world is correct, and we thus far have not experienced anything that would raise doubts,” said Dr. Nelson, “then at the level of physics, the level of the quantum and atomic world, we should expect no change at all. All processes at that level run the same, in either direction.”

“As Dr. Einstein once famously observed,” said Esty Hernandez, “the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion.”

“Colin . . . Colin,” announced a voice from offscreen. Simultaneously, a red and white banner — “Breaking News” — appeared across the top of the screen. Looking at it, Parnell decided these urgent television news banners didn’t feel as important as they used to.

“Colin, David Gray here,” said the voice, and then the 40ish face of the voice appeared, at an anchor desk on the BBC London set. “We have breaking news being reported from Los Angeles. Let’s go there, to BBC bureau chief Lawson Smith. Lawson, what do you have?”

“David, I am standing on the campus of Caltech, in Pasadena. Some eighty years ago, at the Mt. Wilson Observatory in the mountains close by, legendary physicist Edwin Hubble made the famous ‘red shift’ discovery, proving that other galaxies in the universe are moving away from us. A few minutes ago, scientists reported making observations that indicate the shift is no longer red, but blue. Here, speaking just moments ago, is Dr. James Lloyd of Caltech.”

Dr. Lloyd, standing behind a lectern in what appeared to be a large lecture hall, was not happy. His face, which was longish anyway, suggested a man who would rather be a cop, but whose duty as coroner was to announce the shocking murder of everybody’s favorite celebrity. His voice worked like the prow of an icebreaker against the task.

“I should provide some . . . background,” he said. “Practically all of us have had the experience of hearing an automobile approach. As it does, its sound grows louder. That is because of a phenomenon called the . . . ‘Doppler effect,’ created by sound waves being compressed as the vehicle comes nearer. When it passes you and moves away, the sound trails away, because sound waves from the moving car are becoming . . . farther apart as they reach your ear. You may have seen this illustrated on the television science shows.”

Lord, yes, sighed Parnell.

“Light waves work the same way,” said Dr. Lloyd. “They compress when the source of the light is moving toward you. We can discern this, because the object’s spectral lines move toward the blue end of the light spectrum. When the object moves away, the waves spread out, and the spectral lines move toward the red end. That is the red shift that Dr. Hubble used in 1929, showing that the light sources — other galaxies — were moving away from us, at speeds proportional to their distance from us. It was a . . . phenomenal discovery and revolutionized the way we thought about the universe. It helped explain the ‘Big Bang’ theory, which became the most likely . . . model of what we believe the universe to be.”

Dr. Lloyd took in a long breath and leaned against the lectern. “Observations made since the LHC event several hours ago show most sources still red-shifted, but by a decreased degree, indicating a shift toward the blue. Exactly what is happening, we do not yet know. But if the old laws still apply, and indications of this shift continue, it appears the expansion of the universe has slowed in the last several hours. We are not prepared at this time to discuss the significance for us here on Earth. I will take a few questions . . . “

“Chilling,” said Lawson Smith, whose voice over the Caltech hubbub sounded genuinely chilled. “We will remain on station here and come to you immediately with any further information, Colin.”

“Well, doctors,” said Woodbury to a screen of grim faces, “what do we make of that?”

After a moment, Alan Lamont spoke. “That was the third-most item on our question list: will there be a blue shift. Now, apparently, there is. I don’t quite know what to say. Or to think.”

“If our information at Caltech proves correct,” said Dr. Hernandez, “it moves the event beyond the confines of our planet. Which for us on Earth is probably a good thing.”

Dr. Garson agreed. “It would be difficult to imagine the result if our planet tried to spin all by itself against the known laws and forces that govern the motion of the cosmos. I do not believe we would be here to talk about it. Better we are all in this thing together.”

“But what do we talk about now?” blurted Dr. Nelson.

After a couple of long moments of dead air, Colin Woodbury asked, “What do you mean, Dr. Nelson?”

“Apparently,” Nelson said, “as Dr. Garson describes, Earth has not defied known laws and forces of the cosmos, but has reversed its spin in accordance with some change in the known laws. What change is that? How do we think about it?”

“You start with the blue shift,” said Dr. Lamont, gravely, without pause, implying there was no other option.

Parnell felt a chill on his neck. Just the words. “Blue shift.” He was staring at the four faces of the physicists on the screen. Each of them looked as if they had been punched in the stomach and were trying to conceal it. The same way Parnell flinched when the doctor called for a biopsy of the lump in Susan’s right breast. Parnell and Susan acted their way through several upbeat days before the biopsy results came back. “Malignant,” they had been told. “Blue shift,” the physicists had been told. He recognized their expressions. No more freedom. Just new reality.

On that day, Parnell and Susan had been shown into a room through a door that closed behind them and that didn’t open from the inside. There was a big picture window, through which they could see the everyday world from which they had been excluded. And that was all. There they remained, until the Sunday nineteen months later when Susan died.

Now Parnell’s face burned with the fear that once again, with these four universe doctors, and everyone else in the bleeding cosmos, he had been ushered into a room whose door didn’t open from the inside. “Blue shift.” He reached inside the tent, poked Russell awake.

“Anything happen?” Russell said, poking his head out. “We’re going home,” Parnell said.

Unhooking his mic in Pasadena, Esty Hernandez stood up from his desk and said, “So that’s what a singularity feels like.”

“What?” said a TV technician.

“Nothing,” Esty said. His Phone rang, and he answered. It was Russell.