ENTANGLEMENT - Version 0 © 2016 Neal williams
Started 2/4/2015 Finished 7/26/2016 (3,967 words)
Disappointment weighed on Ella’s shoulders. Frustration coated her gut as she sat alone in her room wondering what she missed. She stared at the committee’s rejection letter on her screen through a lens of tears. Her advisor back at Euler Station tried to console her but failure dominated Ella’s thoughts. After having spent the last two years of her life on this orbiting pile of junk, a doctorate eluded her. She thought she proposed a unique vision but the committee wanted more contemporary research and her findings were not significant enough to warrant acceptance.
Ella closed the committee’s assessment and her parents smiled back at her on the screen. The background photo showed her parents at Armstrong Station. Her mom was pregnant with her. Twenty years had since passed. They sacrificed so much for her. Migrating to the moon during the Great Escape, with nothing more than hard work, they created a life for her. When accepted to the Sagan Science Academy, she thought a doctorate would honor their sacrifices. Without the degree, she was set adrift by her committee.
Her sulking continued until a knock at the door.
“Yes?”
“It’s Commander Wilcox, do you have a moment?” A fit, good-looking man greeted her from behind the door. Not old, but graying at the temples gave him the gravitas to command respect even with the bars on his shoulders. A lively presence, he commented frequently about being stuck on board with a bunch of early to bed, studious scientists.
“Come on in.” Ella wrinkled her brow staring at her cabin. The room size not much larger than a contemporary Earth sized closet. With a fold down bed on one wall and a small desk in the corner, the room revealed a scarce existence. Finishing her thesis interfered with any cleaning. She noted a disheveled bed, dirty jumpsuits, and stranded food containers. Her face reddened as she grabbed undergarments and threw them in the closet. She found a chair and brought it over to the commander.
“You doing okay? I heard what happened this afternoon.”
She tried to hold back tears. Word of her failure traveled quickly. She nodded.
The commander reached out and patted her on the shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“Thanks, I have six months left until we return to Euler. Maybe I can make it work.”
“That’s the spirit. Anyway, you know Professor Wang’s ongoing research?”
“Yes.” He sat on her committee and had written the book on astrodynamics. She thought he was an ally in her thesis defense. He sponsored her on the Zephyr two years ago. Although in time, she heard the rumors and innuendos about his research in gravity nodes and entanglement theory. The laughs were plentiful behind closed doors.
“Wang’s equipment is undergoing final check out. He’s pilot-certified but safety regulations require a copilot. You’re the only one free at the moment, so you’re it.”
Ella looked at her commander incredulously, “Surely, you can’t be serious? He dismissed my thesis a few hours ago. You expect me to spend a few hours in close quarters with him?”
“I understand the conflict, but my hands are tied. I have no one to spare.”
“If safety is your main concern, how are you even letting him have a shuttle at all, especially if the rumors are true.” Ella pushed back a little.
“I’m no scientist. He came with his proposal. I asked the other scientists and while people raised their eyebrows they couldn’t discount anything he proposed.”
“Can’t this be delayed until another pilot becomes available?” She studied the stern expression in the commander’s eyes and realized the losing battle.
“I already considered the possibility but his research is dependent on our current position. He can’t be delayed; you’d understand it more than me.”
“It’s been a really long day. If he needs a co-pilot isn’t one of your officers more capable?”
“He requested a scientist.”
“I doubt he wants me. I still believe in science. His beliefs are problematic.”
She watched the commander’s eyes. He studied his hands as if the lines were an ancient pathway with answers to these sort of questions. He spoke, then sighed. “I know the rumors. My ship is too small not to. You are disappointed, but I need someone I can trust.” His eyes searched out and bore into her. His voice became a whisper, “Go on this expedition, watch over Wang, and make sure he doesn’t mess up any of the real science.” Then under his breath he pleaded to Ella, “make sure he brings back my shuttle in one piece.” He stood, straightened his jump suit and grabbed the door knob.
“What do you say?”
“You owe me.”
He smiled. “I’ll see what I can do for your thesis. Maybe I can push your research needs. The shuttle leaves at 0600 tomorrow morning.”
Ella stood and watched him leave. She closed her door, returned to her desk, put her head in her hands, and wept one last time.
#
Suited up in her standard white spacesuit, she found Wang already in the shuttle bay going over checklists. Engrossed in his work, he did not notice her approach. Cavernous came to mind when she surveyed the bay. She counted six other shuttles.
“Professor!" Ella yelled out to state her presence. “Professor!” She yelled out a second time to get his attention.
Wang turned away from his list and smiled at her approached. "Ella, glad you volunteered. We leave in fifteen."
He was an older man but still in decent shape, hair slightly awry and graying. When he smiled, she saw slight dimples in his pudgy cheeks. His smile no longer made her trust him. She hoped a night’s sleep would dull her disgust towards her committee members but the knot in her stomach proved otherwise. Wang, was a respected professor at the Euler Institute. He was known for esoteric research on astrodynamics, but in his later years, protected by tenure, he became fascinated by obscure oddities many regarded as pseudo-science.
“I’ll do my walk around and join you shortly.” Ella said.
The inspection revealed a slew of equipment not customary for most flights. The shuttle was neither sleek nor sophisticated, designed to fly in the vacuum of space, it had none of the romanticism of flying machines of the past. Ella ran her fingers over the battered hull. Beneath she felt a dull metal tube with flaking paint. Seeing the thrust pods sticking out over the craft she thought of sprouts on a potato.
As she entered the shuttle, Wang was already seated in the command chair as he stared intently at the myriad screens.
"Take the co-pilot chair," ordered Wang.
It was too early in the morning. “Sir, I didn’t volunteer for this. Commander Wilcox asked me to come along for safety purposes. I expect to be treated with respect otherwise I’m going back to bed.”
Wang turned towards her, and she momentarily saw a frown which disappeared with her confrontation. “Little too much coffee this morning Miss Hood? Please understand, this is my project. We are both scientist, I expect you to listen and obey my commands.”
She reluctantly nodded. Inside the shuttle behind the cockpit, a space normally filled with extra fuel cells or miscellaneous equipment, contained overflowing sensor gear. With barely enough room for her to slide into the copilot chair, she ducked beneath cables strung haphazardly to various points on their control boards.
“Who approved this layout? Do we hope to find entanglement out there,” Ella motioned out the front window, “or in here?”
“I don’t necessarily like your tone this morning. As for approval, safety protocols were followed and approved by Commander Wilcox himself.” Wang stayed on task. His lips hardly moved.
Ella didn’t respond. She considered her passive aggressiveness and realized being stuck in a tin can for a few hours might go faster, if she at least pretended she wanted to be here.
With the shuttle door closed, Ella performed her co-pilot checklist. The cabin remained quiet except for the hum of equipment. She twisted the neckline of her suit feeling the heat from the equipment behind her and the sweat running down her back. When finished she tapped Wang on his shoulder and gave the thumbs up signal.
“Zephyr Control? This is Shuttle Karpos ready for release.”
“Understood Shuttle Karpos, please follow submitted flight plan. Good luck, Professor, don’t get lost.”
Wang’s command rang out inside the cabin directed to Ella. “Take us out.”
Ella grunted. She wanted to wipe off the smugness in his voice. Her fingers glided over the controls like a virtuoso. When she got back to Euler Station, she sarcastically thought she’d enlist, give up her dreams of being a scientist, and fly stupid missions to nowhere. She kept quiet because she did not want to give Wang the satisfaction that he had expertly balanced the shuttle’s mass even with the extra equipment.
“We have exited the Zephyr, what course should I set?”
“Please follow the computer trace I already plotted.”
She glanced at Wang for elaboration but his head buried in the equipment told her the conversation was finished. Watching him calibrate and make last minute adjustments, she stared out the window. The Zephyr, outside their window, dwarfed their tiny craft. Their home looked less a ship and more an orbiting laboratory. Designed as a research platform to study the inner solar system, its orbits kept it busy for twenty years. Equipment added and removed made the platform an evolving animal. A rotating section around the central axis allowed for gravity for the scientists while the ends contained sensitive equipment some with, some without, gravity. Stacked seemingly haphazardly, it reminded her of a three-year old’s Lego contraption with blocks randomly placed. Ella reminded herself the platform was her home.
Ella continued to track their route. Monitors showed nothing of interest along the way. She asked, “So what are we doing out here? Nothing is on the monitors.”
“Do you remember your studies on the solar system’s barycenter?”
She bristled at his tone. “Of course, you were my professor back in undergrad.”
“And?”
“The barycenter is the solar system’s center of gravity. An imaginary point in space in which our solar system’s masses balance.” She recited the definition in a textbook manner to annoy Wang. In her head, she tried to recall any significance to this point. Due to the size of the Sun, this point usually located within the Sun’s heliosphere, moved due to planet movement. Occasionally, the point fell outside the Sun’s boundary much nearer to Mercury’s orbit.
“Ah yes, I see you listened, so if you bring up the shuttle’s track you will find us passing through the barycenter or our solar system’s gravity node.”
“It’s an imaginary point in space. There is no physical manifestation of gravity at its inflection point other than mathematically, so why bother?”
"Science matters, Miss Hood, curiosity. For the past few years, I’ve been trying to find meaning in our presence in the universe, looking for answers, connections, possibly a result greater than the sum of its parts."
Wang became animated. His hands waved and his beady eyes looked possessed with craziness. She thought back to Commander Wilcox’s wishes that she protect his shuttle. Ella pressed Wang.
“What meaning are you suggesting? What are you planning to do?”
"Simple. The meaning of 1.068."
Ella raised an eyebrow at the mention of a mere number. "Sir, it's a mathematical construct, like pi. Why do you think it has meaning out here in the vastness of space?”
The blackness outside the window stared back at her unwilling to reveal any secrets. No signpost pointed to where the answer might lay. Instrument diagnostics picked up energy from the sun's solar wind, but essentially, they were in a vacuum.
"The number keeps appearing. There has to be meaning. For starters, Jupiter and the Sun's barycenter. Essentially where we are traveling today is 1.068 solar radii. The pyramids of ancient Egypt? Well, it has a 1.068 diagonal baseline measurement. A creature called the Nautilus which built its own shell and the ratio of volume of its consecutive chambers as it grew..."
"1.068," interrupted Ella. "But, sir, it's just mathematics with an underlying physicality to how things are built.”
"I don’t want to believe it’s only a number. It’s a signpost with meaning beyond just a calculated point. A gravity node is a perfect location to place a beacon, a message, for us to find."
The silence in the shuttle dragged on uncomfortably. Ella didn't know what to say. She knew crazy pseudoscientific theories still existed, but she wondered why Wang, with his accomplishments, had fallen victim to such bizarre numerology.
“A message from who?” she finally asked.
He smiled slyly, “The multiverse.”
#
The computer announced their arrival at the barycenter with a soft metallic ding.
"Ella? Please instruct the autopilot to put us into a station-keeping position for now. We need to minimize any outside influences, such as our control thrusters. I want us to run silent for a while."
“Multiverse? Gravity nodes? And to think you denied my dissertation. This is ridiculous...”
A finger stopped her in mid-sentence. Wang deep in his data, followed the incomprehensible data displays and graphs, motioned her for silence. Her face reddened. How often was she going to be dismissed?
They complained her thesis was too contemporary and not significant but what were they doing out here? This was crazy. What did she have to lose now by helping Wang? She inventoried the cockpit. The holoset hung next to the front portal; a helmet contraption used to navigate the shuttle in tight confines of a docking station. With the multiple sensor feeds on their shuttle, modifying the inputs to visualize their surroundings and integrating the data into a visual representation of her surroundings might just work. The universe might right itself if she could debunk his theory.
She launched the holoset program, made the adjustments, placed the helmet over her head and before initiating, enjoyed the non-color, the eigengrau surrounding her vision. With a nod of her head and a click of the button, the data engulfed her.
The helmet immersed her eye sight in a visual representation of the commingled data the sensors received. Tracking her eye movements, the holoset refocused her view. She felt her stomach gurgle as she transitioned her senses. The eyes and ears did not always agree with the change.
As her senses adjusted, charged particles raced by, leaving high-energy traces visible in its spectral colors. With the solar wind so prominent, she scrubbed its signature. Her world became less busy. The Zephyr stood out, as it blazed in a rainbow of colors, with its sensors and frequency outputs. The computer filtered Zephyr’s transmissions. With her surroundings scrubbed, she visually understood the vacuum of space. Nothing. She occasionally viewed energy fluctuations caused by errant particles or waves. Anger welled up within her as she wondered how this quack professor got to satisfy his urges when her research died in committee.
She went to shut down the holoset when she noted a small incongruence.
She spoke, her echoing voice reverberating inside the helmet, "Professor? Do your sensors show any data in Sector 71-13-01?"
"I've noted it, but its signature is too small. It’s noise in the data."
"If it's okay with you, I'm going to check it out."
"Hmmmm, okay, fine by me." Disinterested, he returned to his screens.
Ella checked her filters, set up an algorithm, and returned to the outlier. The computer showed a series of photons. Not unusual but they seemed stationary as if placed. She rechecked the frame rate, dialed up the photodetector, and zoomed in. At the magnification she reached, the photons were generating a phosphenetic view.
"Professor? These photons are blinking in a way that indicates a pattern. I think the pattern might be a signal."
"Please, you don’t know anything. I’m not interested in the errant photons."
Dismissed again, she fumed. More than just a copilot, as a scientist she brought along a tangible benefit. Wang, she realized, was a scientist she'd gotten to know all too well. They took no interest in any ideas not fitting into their tidy, tightly constructed theories. Finding theories, proving them wrong, she imagined a whole new framework.
She returned to the photons. Was it her imagination? She swore she saw a pattern. The computer analyzed the pattern, she grasped for results. She recalled laughing with associates on Wang’s theories on gravity being used to bend space to send messages.
The blurriness of the light confounded her. Shifting the frequencies only caused the photons to move in and out of focus. But what frequency to tune them? What was she missing, she wondered? "Computer, dial in the frequency to 1.068 MHz."
At once she realized she’d found an answer. She became mesmerized by a shifting kaleidoscope of colors. Shapes formed. The view, like the first look into a telescope, suggested someone turning the lens to bring the image into focus. The blinking photons created a hypnotic induction providing a message. Who or what was signaling though? The scientist in her took control.
"Professor?" she shouted, but no sound reverberated. She reached for the holoset, the computer, but her hands felt disconnected. These items were no longer in reach. A cold chill settled on her skin. Her brain scattered with emotional overload. Primal response took hold as fear turned to flight, but where to go. A vein in her forehead throbbed, her breathing became rushed.
She closed her eyes. Concentrated on her breaths and relaxed. Science would provide a reasonable explanation. She opened her eyes, the blur came into focus. No longer in the transport, she appeared to be in a control room. She saw view screens refreshing, multicolored buttons flashing, and two coffee cups steaming. The room’s equipment appeared similar but different enough to make her uncomfortable as if she had returned to her cabin only to find items moved ever so slightly.
The image panned as if behind a video recording device. Holding her breath, her chest tightened with fear. Was she dead?
A shadow moved. She wanted to close her eyes. A person came into view. Wang stood there smiling. What was he doing here? As her mind processed the sight before her, she realized the more she looked at him, the more she noticed slight differences. His hair grayer, silver rimmed glasses, and his face more approachable, highlighted by his welcoming smile. He mouthed, "Hello."
"Do not be afraid," he continued to mouth. She decided this was not the Wang beside her in the shuttle. But if this was not her Wang then whose Wang was it? She became frustrated by the lack of control. She tried to note every detail in her current frame of view, trying to latch onto this new found reality.
Wang held up a screen. Words scrawled across provided a message. I don’t have much time. Whoever you are, please remember.
What was she supposed to remember? She sought an explanation. The mysterious Wang returned with the viewer. I'm Professor An Wang of the deGrasse Tyson Center for Quantum Communication. You are viewing an image I cast out into our barycenter. Entangled photons providing this image of our universe. The multiverse is real.
The image deteriorated, Wang waved, smiled, and gave a bow. Wait, she screamed inside her head. Her eyes scrambled for anything more to grasp onto as the room slipped away. There, up on the wall, a plaque caught her eye. The image deteriorated, but before it disappeared her vision locked on a name, Dr. Ella Hood.
Astrophysicist contemplated multiverses. Theories suggested we were a knitted square existing in a tapestry of similar universes. Scientists dismissed these theories as unprovable and certainly scoffed at multiverse communication. Ella realized that with infinite possibilities, one scientist had discovered a way.
Ella once again gained control of her body. She thrashed about slamming her hand into the side of the shuttle. The pain, a welcome relief, caused her to shout out. She whipped off the holoset.
"Professor!"
In her excitement she un-clicked her harness and wildly waved her hands as she floated out of her seat and became entangled in the surrounding cords. Wang sat where she remembered him. This version still made her mad. His scowl etched on his face. Why was this version not like the other one?
Visibly upset, his hands flailed and his hair disheveled. "What is this commotion? Silence please, I’m trying to think. Nothing is out here. I've been wasting my time." He slumped in his chair, disappointment sketched on his face, turned off the screens, and programmed the shuttle to return to the Zephyr.
Ella scrambled back to her seat and grabbed the holoset.
“No wait, Professor, your crazy theory, hold on…” She grabbed the holoset, gave it to Wang. “Those photons, they were a message. You or him or somebody said not to give up. Quantum communications in the multiverse!” Ella babbled with excitement.
“There is nothing but empty space.” His voice quivered and shoulders slumped against the seat straps.
"Professor, don't give up on your theory. I think you have good points in your research but I have suggestions."
"Ella, I appreciate your support but this was my last chance. I’m too old. The barycenter won’t be outside the sun’s boundary for another twenty years. There won’t be another time for me."
"Sir, have you ever thought trying to communicate via quantum entanglement?" Her Professor gave her an eyebrow raise. "The barycenter with the possibility of gravity node, might be used to split entangled photons."
"An intriguing concept. The photons on our side could theoretically be manipulated and its partner, when viewed, would know, irrespective of where its partner photon is." Wang seemed taller more electric with the news.
Wang glued to his computer for the rest of the trip, ignored Ella and left her to piloting. She imagined if not for the background hum she would hear his brain clicking through the calculations.
Her thoughts returned to what she saw in that laboratory. A certificate claiming her to be a doctor. Was her doppelgänger in the room with the other Wang?
Their shuttle reached the Zephyr. Wang thanked her for her services and disappeared into the ship. His eyes sparkled, and he practically skipped out of the shuttle. Left alone, Ella checked the time and returned to her room.
As she stood in the soothing shower, she kept thinking of her parallel self. Endless thoughts played out in her mind, especially the doctor part. She threw on her most comfortable pajamas and settled into her little corner of the Zephyr but the multiverse reached out and touched her from another world.
She slipped into a light sleep. Dreaming (or was it), she saw herself talking with Wang. "Professor, you did it, what wonderful news! Your entangled photons collapsed! Someone, somewhere received them. You must tell the physics community. Quantum entanglement communication between universes is no longer a theory. It’s real. It worked."
Wang hugged her. "I couldn't have done it without you. Your recommendation for the frequency helped them find the key. You made this work."
Yes, the ability to collapse the eigenfunction, and connect photons through time and space. Entanglements in the multiverse would revolutionize physics. How many other Ella’s, she thought, overcame rejection to rise to the top?
She awoke with a start. Goosebumps formed on her exposed arms and she snuggled back into the warmth of her blankets. Confidence seeped into her thoughts. Doubts began to float away. No longer a failure, upon her return to Euler Station, she would scrap her thesis, and focus on multiverse communications. Now entangled, the possibilities were endless.
