PRESENT DAY

In a secret physics laboratory hidden somewhere in the world, rogue scientists of the Order of One Justice worked on re-creating the impossible phenomenon of teleportation without the help of the UEN scientists who created it. A panel of dignitaries representing a handful of CoC members each dressed in their respective country’s colors came to witness a demonstration of the fledgling technology. Their host was the enigmatic leader and founder of the Order of One Justice, Case Carswell.

Case Carswell was a strange character. He looked to be somewhere between sixty to seventy years old. He wore a black judicial robe and styled himself like a Supreme Court judge and an armed bodyguard shadowed him everywhere he went.

The dignitaries watched a laboratory sized Transportal with two chambers similar to the one at Renard University. It was large and bulky. A portable nuclear power generator sat on one side of laboratory emitting a faint alien hum. Computers stacked up from floor to ceiling buzzed with activity and flashed with tiny lights. An Order of One Justice scientist directed the panel’s attention to the source chamber. Inside and floating in a force field bottle was a small cylinder of Cobalt exactly 1 Kg in mass. As the demonstration began, the cylinder in the bottle became wavy in appearance. It faded in and out of sight. Before long, the cylinder faded away entirely leaving behind a sparkle of dust which itself faded away to nothingness. The source chamber became dark.

Attention was now focused on the target chamber. After a few seconds of the cylinder of Cobalt disappearing, the target chamber became energized and gave off a yellow glow. First, a cloud of luminous dust appeared within the center of the target chamber, then a shower of light sprung from the cloud of dust. The cylinder from before was being reconstituted right in front of everyone’s eyes. At first, the cylinder was wavy and transparent. But finally, the waviness settled down and the Cobalt cylinder was recreated in the target chamber. The demonstration appeared to be a success! However, upon closer examination, the Cobalt cylinder showed obvious signs of deformation and pits on the surface. Chips of metal were missing. The perfect cylindrical shape of the original specimen was warped. It was clear that teleportation of objects was FAR from accurate. In fact, the teleportation errors looked downright frightening considering how deformed the resulting cylinder of Cobalt looked. Although far from perfect and far from even satisfactory, Case Carswell was encouraged by the results. He addressed the panel of visiting dignitaries.

“As you can see, my scientists are making rapid progress. With your continued support and funding of our research combined with the Order’s spy operations, teleportation technology will soon be perfected and in your hands.”

The panel of dignitaries was not made up of scientists. They were bureaucrats and as such, they were accustomed to little or no progress. The fact that the Order of One Justice was able to teleport anything at all excited them.

“Excellent!” One of the dignitaries was over enthused. “With the power of this technology in our hands, we can level the balance of power in the world and force the UEN to the negotiating table.”

Another dignitary’s imagination had been fired up, too. “Yes, we will no longer be under the UEN’s thumb. They will have to meet some of our terms if they wish to continue with their version of the world order.”

Case, eager to please his financial backers, stoked their power-hungry ambitions. “Soon, my colleagues, the UEN will lose their superpower status in the world once the technology they’ve denied us answers to us as its master.”

Back in the UEN, a world away from espionage, back in the world of glamor and entertainment, Viviane finished her rehearsals for the day. She was exhausted from her new career as supermodel and looked forward to some much-needed rest. She was so busy with work that she had not even stopped to read the news or keep up with what was going on with world outside of her reality bubble. She glanced at her personal communicator for messages but instead she saw a breaking news story which grabbed her attention. The headline was very relevant to her: “Accidental Death at Transportal Voltaire Being Investigated”

What was this all about? Viviane, although tired, became quite serious and furrowed her eyebrows with concern as she scanned the news article about the accidental death of a CoC worker who was mistakenly allowed to teleport over with a payload of cargo to his death.

Dear God, this is awful! was Viviane’s first thought. How could a mistake like this have happened? I have to get back to the research offices and see if anyone knows what really happened and if there’s any data to be analyzed.

Viviane caught herself in mid-thought. She realized she was no longer welcome at the National Laboratory anymore.

What am I saying? I can’t go back! I’ve already quit my job as a graduate student researcher and turned in all my access keys.

After having worked in fashion and entertainment as a model for over a month, Viviane had not realized just how fast time flew by, but in fact, it had. Her life moved on. She had done so much and even though only a month passed, it felt like her old life of math, physics and research was so far behind her. News of the accidental death by teleportation of a living person tugged her back to when she felt like she worked on something important, something historic, something with purpose. Now, she questioned her decision to turn her back on that opportunity for a future in the land of make-believe and she felt the initial pangs of regret.

There was important work to do. I could’ve been working to improve teleportation accuracy to achieve 100%. If we could have done that, death due to teleportation would be a thing of the past. I was helping to change the world for the better and now I just help create amusement, fantasy and escapism.

Just then, Viviane’s manager passed by.

“Hey Viviane, how’d it go today? Why the serious face?”

“Oh, hi!” Viviane recognized her manager. He was the one who kept her busy booking her appearances non-stop. “Didn’t see you at first. Did you hear about the accident at Transportal Voltaire?”

Viviane’s manager looked upward and lifted his finger to his chin. “I think I heard about it, but I haven’t really paid much attention.”

“I feel like I could have done more to help.” Viviane felt guilty for leaving behind her old career.

“What? How could that be?” He was a bit confused. Viviane’s manager was either unaware of her earlier life as a physics researcher or he never cared. “Listen, your career is about to take off! Don’t think about any of that stuff and leave it to the nerds to figure it out. There’s nothing you can do. Just focus on yourself and look pretty, OK? That’s all you gotta do.”

Although Viviane knew she was leveraging her looks to propel her burgeoning celebrity, she still felt she had more to offer than just a pretty face and a well-proportioned body. In her mind, she stepped back to get a better view of the bigger picture.

But this is serious! she thought. Her mind was still on the news article. How could anyone not take this seriously?

The news made Viviane think very hard about her choice to become a super model. It had been a long while, but now her thoughts returned to the people and to the friends she had left behind in her pursuit of fame and fortune. She also thought about the important work she was doing at the National Laboratory and what happened to it. She wondered if, in fact, she had made the correct choice after all.

With no one around she could talk to or understand how she felt, most of all, Viviane felt alone.