"So tell me," Chase said, dropping three slices of hot pizza onto a plate and turning toward Gavin. "How have you guys not been discovered yet? You've somehow been able to avoid detection for all of this time—how?"
"Psy," Nathan answered for Gavin.
"You said McClouth was the first of his kind though," Chase said, returning to his seat and taking a bite along the way.
Gavin neatly wiped his mouth with a napkin and said, "He was, in terms of quality of picture and speed at which it went viral. But he is not the first indigena to photograph us. We've been spotted many times. Sometimes our carinas are caught before the dark horizon out of our own carelessness. But even after darkness falls, these newer cameras can capture a pretty good image in low light. But people won't believe a lot of the images because they think it's impossible, even with the picture in front of them. You'd be amazed at how little work we have to do in order to cover ourselves."
Chase believed him. The pictures and videos on the internet were dismissed by the vast majority of people, despite the lack of mental influence.
"Was it our atomic explosions that got your attention?" Chase asked. "The invention of the atom bomb or something?"
"No," Gavin said. "It would take more than five hundred years for evidence of an atomic explosion to reach our planet, which means that it hasn't even reached us yet." He chuckled, and added, "And even then we would have to be looking for it at that exact minute."
Chase shook his head, trying to wrap his brain around the idea that these people have gone back and forth from Earth to Caelus, multiple times, in the last fifty years.
"How do you travel faster than light speed?" he asked. "I thought that was impossible."
Gavin smiled and said, "The T-Field."
"Okay, what the hell is the T-Field?" Chase asked, mid-chew. "You've been talking about that all day long."
Cadence rolled her eyes at her husband, although there was a slight twinkle in them. "Don't encourage him, Chase."
"Non satis est!" Gavin said with a short laugh. "We don't have enough time for me to explain the T-Field properly, and honestly you wouldn't understand it—but don't be offended, many Caelans still do not! I can tell you—the T-Field is everywhere. Think of it as a dimension of awareness we cannot see or touch. It exists parallel to ours. Even though we cannot see it or touch it, it's there. Somewhat like a broadcasted signal which you have never tuned into because you do not know its frequency. But it's there. It is responsible for influencing subatomic particles, gravity, and many other forms of energy."
"How do you know it's there?" Chase asked.
"An excellent question," Gavin said. "Our knowledge of it began—as most things do—as a theory. The idea started as the five degrees of freedom, wherein reality as we know it constantly has five different unseen forces which influence particle relationship. You see, the equations used by Caelan physicists required these additional dimensions in order to prove and understand physical relationships between the various particle families. Despite being theoretical, these dimensions allowed our understanding of physics—at the quantum level—to increase dramatically."
"Okay, you're losing me," Chase admitted.
Gavin held up a hand in understanding, "As I said, to truly understand this concept requires years of study. But you did ask the question, so I will answer as best I can." He hefted his plate, which had a half-eaten slice of pizza, "We exist in a four dimensional universe—as far as we know. This plate of food has three dimensions, height, width, and depth. The fourth, of course, is time. The passing of time produces change, motion, and various other actions directly affecting the other three. Thus, the term time and space."
