Dr. Renard finished telling Viviane the strange and fantastic story of Anaelle and Marielle. Viviane was not quite sure what to believe since some of the revelations revealed have been nothing less than earth shattering. Still not comprehending why he was telling her all these tall tales, she asked Dr. Renard outright.

“Why are you telling me all of this?”

Dr. Renard was already uneasy sharing these secrets of teleportation technology with Viviane. He gathered up his courage. He would need it.

“To answer that question, I’ll have to start at the very beginning, even before I invented the technology of teleportation.”

Twenty-two Years Ago

On the campus of the University of the UEN Capital City as it was known back then, the leaves on the trees started to change color already to red, orange, yellow and brown. The sun shined warm rays, but the breeze blew cool air. It was the beginning of another academic year like so many others that came before.

A young, eighteen-year-old Leandre Renard sat in a large lecture hall in the Physics building of the University. He was attending his first, undergraduate Physics class as a new freshman student. He sat up tall and straight in his seat in the front row while his classmates hid in the back trying to look inconspicuous. Leandre did not understand why they did that. Competition for acceptance to the UEN’s most exclusive and most prestigious public University in Capital City had been fierce. The whole campus was filled with the smartest, most promising scholars from all over the country. They all were the best of the best and they were the UEN’s best hope for a better future. Why hide in the back? Leandre mused.

Sitting next to him in the front row, but with one empty seat between them, was a simple but fair looking girl who did not wear makeup but was also very young and probably eighteen as well. She had long, beautiful sienna-brown hair. Leandre did not know it at that time, but the young woman who sat next to him in the first Physics class would become his academic rival for the next four years.

The Professor of the class wrote a cryptic, difficult math equation on the whiteboard. It was more Greek than English! He looked out to his audience of freshman Physics majors and posed a question.

“Can anyone tell me what this equation is telling us?”

The young woman who sat next to Leandre spoke up without hesitation and without being acknowledged by the Professor.

“This is the trajectory of the object in polar coordinates with respect to time.”

The Professor was surprised. “Correct, Miss?”

“Elise. Elise Brillant.”

“Correct, Miss Brillant. Although you answered correctly, please raise your hand next time so that your peers might have an opportunity to respond, too, even the ones hiding in the back, since I may call on them to make sure they aren’t sleeping in class.”

Leandre took notice of the competitive Elise Brillant. He sensed from the beginning that Elise had a gift for mathematics and that her mind was quick with abstract concepts.

Twenty-one Years Ago

Leandre and Elise were sophomores now standing outside of the lecture hall of the Physics building with their classmates. Class was over for the day and the students received their graded mid-term exams back from their Professor. They milled around outside in the hallway comparing test scores. Elise made the first move on Leandre.

“Hey, Leandre! What score did you get on the mid-term exam?”

“Why do you care what I got?”

“Because you’re the only one who might have beaten me.”

“I got 100%.”

Elise’s face lit up with a triumphant smile. “Aha! I beat you! I got 101%.”

Leandre thought about that for a moment because something did not make sense. “There were two extra credit questions. Did you get only one of them correct?”

“No, I got them both correct.”

“Then you missed one point from the regular exam questions.”

“Yes, I did. But what about you? Why did you only get a straight 100%? Didn’t you attempt the extra credit question for the last two points?”

“No, I didn’t answer the extra credit questions.”

“Why not?”

“Because I was certain that I answered all the regular questions correctly. I didn’t need the extra credit. Those questions were optional.”

Elise was taken aback. “Aren’t you being a bit overconfident? What if you had missed one of the regular exam questions and didn’t do the extra credit ones?”

“When I’m sure of the answer, I’m sure of it.” Leandre was being a bit overconfident.

“That’s a dangerous way to live! You know what they say about extra credit?”

“No, what?”

“Only the students who don’t need extra credit are the ones who do it.”

“So, does that mean I should start doing the extra credit?”

“No, you just keep thinking the way you always have and I’ll keep beating your test scores!”

Leandre was impressed with Elise’s spunkiness. As their schooling went on, the ever-competitive Elise was always happy whenever she got better scores than Leandre on tests and that happened more often than not. She had proven that she was in every way Leandre’s equal in math and physics.

Twenty Years Ago

Leandre and Elise, now Juniors in college, partnered together to work on a lab experiment where they investigated the phenomenon of quantum entanglement. The physics lab they worked in looked industrial. Among the canisters of noble gases and the carts of monitoring equipment with their oscilloscope screens and electronic probes, a heavy metal table stood right in the middle of the lab. The table top was made of Titanium and was drilled with holes in a grid pattern. Various pieces of high-tech equipment mounted to the table using the holes. Lasers, crystalline lenses in succession, mirrors to bend the light around corners and vacuum chambers to capture subatomic particles and an uncountable number of wires connecting these devices crowded together on the heavy Titanium table. Their purpose? To create a source of entangled photons.

Leandre and Elise started up their apparatus to create what they hoped would be a pair of entangled photons. Leandre switched on a violet colored laser. The violet beam of light shined into a crystal of beta Barium borate.

“Alright,” said Leandre, “this setup should take single high-energy photons and create two new photons with half the initial energy which will be entangled.”

Elise was monitoring the experiment and watching for the detection of entangled pairs of photons. Elise’s eyes widened in surprise.

“I’m detecting pairs of near-infrared photons!” Elise sounded excited.

“Excellent! We have a source for our experiments.” Leandre sounded just as excited.

Leandre rushed over to Elise’s side of the table to look at the readings coming from the particle detectors. The detectors showed that, indeed, near-infrared entangled photons were being created.

“Now you can begin your experiments on teleportation,” said Elise.

“Yes, teleportation, that’s what I want to accomplish.” Leandre fell silent for a reverent moment. “Technology is the miracle of the mind of mankind. The greater the technology, the more it can help shape and better the lives of all people on this earth. I want that to be my gift to the world.”

Leandre beckoned Elise to join him by waving her over to have a look inside a vacuum chamber.

“Look at this, Elise. At this quantum level, science is almost the same as magic. What we once thought impossible is now ordinary. By using these entangled particles along with the computer power of quantum super computers, I think I can conjure a way to teleport everyday objects.”

“How can you be sure?” asked Elise. Developing the technology to teleport everyday objects would be a tall order.

“Well, I’m not sure right now. I only have some theories. I plan to make this teleportation project the topic of my research for my Ph.D. thesis. That will allow me to stay here at the University to continue my experiments into teleportation science.”

“But that’s such a monumental task!” Elise was in disbelief of Leandre’s grand ambition. “The mathematical theory needed to create your experiments will take time. And then the data you’ll need to analyze from those experiments will be overwhelming! Will you be able to do it alone?”

Leandre sighed. “You’re right Elise, I won’t be able to do it all by myself.”

“Then what about your dream of teleportation? Your ‘gift to the world’?”

“I’m going to need help. I’m going to need the help of the smartest mind with the mathematical theory. I’m going to need the help of someone who can interpret the haystack of data that will be collected. I’m going to need someone equal to me in talent and ability. I’m going to need you, Elise, to help me. Will you come along on this crazy journey with me?”

Elise was taken aback by the sudden request of Leandre to join him in his quest for practical teleportation. She turned her head away and hid her face behind a curtain of her brunette hair not wanting to make eye contact and she hesitated not knowing what to say.

Leandre tried to convince her. “If we succeed, it will change the world forever. Join me, will you?”

Elise made up her mind. “All right, I will!”