fandomhigh | The Mathematics of Quantum Neutrino Fields; Tuesday, Period 4 [ 07/27 ].

"I see you've all survived our little adventure from last week," said Farnsworth at the beginning of class, not even bothering to mask his disappointment. If giant caves and monsters couldn't kill them, he'd just have to revert back to good old fashioned boring them to death.

He went to the blackboard and wrote: Today's Lesson: Superduper Symmetrical String Theory and, below it, a great mass of goobledy gock formulas, and a diagram of what looked like dog, but a dog covered in a giant dog-sized sock tied with string.

He went on to explain a whole mess of information regarding how the superduper symettrical string theory, or SD SdT from here on in, is all about a quantum theory of gravity, which is different than a quantum theory of, say, electromagneticism, nuclear forces, or your mom. Essentially, it is focused on the idea that the universe could never be smaller than the size of a string, at which point it would actually begin expanding, and that no measurable differences can be detected between strings that wrap around dimensions smaller than themselves and those that move along larger dimensions.

Which all made enough sense a baby could figure it out and was surely helped along by Farnsworth's drawings, which appeared like they belonged more on a Rorchacht test than a science classroom.

"Now," Farnsworth continued without pause, "our physical space is observed by complete idiots to have only three large dimensions and, taken together with duration as the fourth dimension, a physical theory must take this into account. However, nothing prevents a theory from including more than 4 dimensions, you know. String theory here consistency requires spacetime to have 10 dimensions. We have four here." He drew something on the board. "Where are the other six?"

"So your assignment today," he turned back to the class with such a deceptively kind smile, "is to create one of those missing six dimensions. Won't that be fun?"

"And when you're finished with that, I have this very informative video for you to watch and, next week, I'd like you to write a report about its main points and how it showcases the theories on the mathematics of quantum neutrino fields discussed thus far."

[[ ~~wait for~~ the OCD is all strung out man! ]]

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"That's comforting." Scully sounded even more disillusioned and wondering.

"Hey, I'm thinking of it as 'maybe they don't do extradition'."

Scully snorted in amusement, expression lightening. And underneath it, relieved that nothing had changed between them since Dead People Weekend.

"Should I have bail money ready?"

"Nah, we were totally slick."

Scully's eyebrow quirked up as she realized Claudia was talking about something more specific than the usual banter. "Who's we? And which jurisdiction is out of luck tracking you?"

Claudia's mouth dropped open slightly. "Uh. I mean." She winced. "Jacob and I kind of broke into my brother's old lab, this weekend."

Scully's jaw dropped, and she kind of hated that her voice almost squeaked. "Claudia!" Then she put up her hands and said, "Wait. Stop. Rewind. Was this about Joshua's experiment?" The one he died doing?

Claudia ducked her head and nodded. "I did it. I found him, Scully."

Scully's next planned words melted away in the face of that statement, and she frowned, confused, and leaned forward. "Found him-- found his body?" she said, her voice lowering, gentler, but still confused.

Claudia rolled her eyes. "No, no, him. He showed up. He tried to talk to us."

Scully paused, mouth opening, closing. It pretty much all boiled down to: "How?"

"I'm not sure yet. I think maybe . . . the experiment kinda worked? The first time. He might be . . . trapped, like . . . between places."

Scully paused, trying to figure out how that worked. "Between where and where? And if you're right-- Claudia, you need help with this. You can't be trying to fix this alone. ... Are you?"

Well, yeah. She kind of was. "It's no problem. I mean, I got, like, most of the way this weekend. I just need to do a little more research."

Scully gave her a look of dismayed worry. "How far did you get? And tell me nothing happened like what happened to Joshua."

"Please, I was totally careful." She only hyperventilated a little, right? The glowy stuff had been totally normal. "I'm here, aren't I?"

"You are," Scully said slowly, only partially reassured. "I still think the idea needs-- peer review." Yes. That!

"Oh, so you're saying you're my peer, now?" There's a note of teasing in there. "Good to know."

Scully restrained the urge to whap Claudia. Because that would totally prove the other girl's point. "Well I'm not your teacher, and you're not mine, and come on, do you have someone else double-checking your work?"

"Jake was there to keep an eye on things." Jake, whose eyes kind of glazed over when she got super technical.

"I'm sure he was great at keeping the security guards away." Scully gave Claudia a stubborn look. "But did he actually check your methodology?"

Like a terrier with a bone.