The story of Elise continued…

Eighteen Years Ago

A picture in a photo album showed the wedding of Elise Brillant to Leandre Renard. Only the bride and groom stood together holding hands in this photo. The happy couple, dressed in their finest wedding attire, looked as good as ever. Elise, in particular, was wearing makeup which for her was something out of the ordinary. She looked very different from her usual self, but in her white wedding dress, it was an appropriate look. Everyone knew she was smart and talented, but in this picture, everyone could also see a subtle feminine beauty about her, too.

The wedding happened shortly after commencement and Elise and Leandre settled down to life together as husband and wife. They were both relieved that they would not have to suffer through the dating scene trying to find someone who would be a good match. As it turned out, they were each other’s best match all along.

Seventeen Years Ago

Because Leandre and Elise had already started their research into teleportation as undergraduates, the faculty of the Department of Physics decided to award them with Bachelor’s degrees and Master’s degrees simultaneously at commencement. They were then allowed to embark on Ph.D. research immediately after graduating, which they did, but interrupted only for a week due to their wedding and subsequent honeymoon.

In a physics laboratory, a very heavy table with lasers, lenses and vacuum chambers mounted to the top surface hummed with activity. Using this table top configuration of instruments, Leandre conducted his famous experiment in which one microgram of pure, single-isotope Gold teleported from one vacuum chamber at one end of the table to another vacuum chamber at the other end of the table. The teleportation accuracy was 99.99%. It was the definitive demonstration of practical teleportation that Leandre had dreamed of and now achieved. Years later, this table with its apparatus still mounted to the surface became a permanent exhibit enshrined in a museum-like display case inside a non-descript room somewhere near the entrance to the National Laboratory. The museum was off to the side and down a short hall from the National Laboratory’s lobby. It was almost never visited by the employees and scientists who went to work in the building. However, Viviane took Kylian Bouche to the forgotten museum on his first day on the job where he marveled to see a piece of scientific history. It all started here, seventeen years ago.

After Leandre’s successful demonstration, even at only 99.99% accuracy, the government of the UEN became very interested in Leandre’s work. They got involved, whether anyone asked for their help or not, and they committed an incredible amount of funding to further develop Leandre’s teleportation technology. The government gave Leandre a large scholarship to continue working at the University and they broke ground on the construction of the National Laboratory which was built right next to the University campus. It seemed like a new “space race” was on to see how fast the country could develop teleportation technology. Leandre and Elise for all practical purposes lived in the lab performing experiments non-stop. They were so overwhelmed with work to do.

Present Day

Dr. Renard told Viviane the story of himself and Elise who were at the very birth of practical teleportation. Viviane sat in Dr. Renard’s office hanging onto every word of Dr. Renard’s recollection of the events that happened years before she ever even thought about college and doing research in the field of teleportation herself. The story captivated Viviane so much that she forgot she was a celebrity model and left the lab behind to pursue a career in modeling and entertainment.

“Then what happened?” Viviane was impatient.

“A year after the successful teleportation of one microgram of Gold, Anaelle and Marielle were born and shortly after that, Elise and I were awarded our Ph.D. degrees in quantum Physics. By then, the government had been pouring so much money into my research that the entire Department of Physics was on board helping me with my experiments to accelerate the development of teleportation technology as quickly as possible.”

Dr. Renard reached over to his desk where he kept the old-fashioned framed picture of his wife, Elise and his two girls Anaelle and Marielle before the twins’ third birthday. In the picture, Elise knelt behind the two little girls trying to get them to pose nice for the picture, but only one of the twins behaved, while the other tried to distract her sister into playing with her. Because Anaelle and Marielle were not mirror images of each other in this photo, it must have been taken before the mysterious death of Marielle. It might have been one of the last times the Renard family could consider themselves “normal.” Dr. Renard picked up the framed picture and studied it for a moment. He let out a loud sigh.

“It pains me to recollect my memories of the past, but at this point, I have to tell you about what happened to Elise.”