This is a post for Fiction Friday. The topic this week was to “write about a misunderstanding between 3 people.” I think I failed at hitting the mark…this story was fun, but became too long and I had to resort to a quick wrap-it-up and spell-it-out paragraph at the end.
Erin’s eyes met Sergy’s across the table. “I don’t see how that is even possible.”, she said, lifting her chin as if to dare him to disagree. “You cannot move faster than light. And even if you are talking about those experiments at the IBM facilities, they were not teleporting matter, just transferring attributes.” She shook her head in disgust.
“I am not talking about moving faster than the speed of light and no, I am not talking about teleportation, though I do see where you might get that impression.” Sergy paused, it was important to get Erin on board as she was to serve as the face of their new company. “Imagine a bubble containing an object.” Sergy grabbed a pen. “Like this. Now, inside this bubble, space/time is constant. Take that bubble however, and break it free of the surrounding space/time and you can send it anywhere. As long, and this is very important, as long as you replace it with a bubble of the exact same dimensions.” He paused again, checking Erin’s reactions and looking for the telltale blank look that said he had lost her. “Ok, so if you do that, you have effectively moved an object instantaneously from one place to another.”
“Teleportation.” Erin said, causing Sergy to wince. “Well, it is. It might not be what the IBM fellows had in mind when they performed their experiments with light, but to the layman, that is what you are talking about.” She stopped. “What I do not understand is why we are having this conversation. The development of the supporting technology alone would take years and I am a product marketing specialist.” She stopped again. “Oh.”
Sergy smiled. “Oh yes, we have it. Want to see a demonstration?” He laughed at the question and turned to walk away, knowing she would follow.
Michael saved the document containing the test protocols to his ring. That was the last one. He now had everything necessary to recreate the project should Sergy waffle on him at some point. As the engineer, he couldn’t follow all of the theory behind the devices, but he had built them and could do so again. The other documents were just to make sure he could recreate a product once he had the devices.
A key rattled in the door and Michael looked around to see if anything was out of place. Nothing. Good.
“Oh, Michael. I didn’t expect to see you here.” Sergey said. “This is Erin. She is our new marketing partner…” He paused and looked at Erin. “Right?”
“Uh…” Erin faltered for a response. She hadn’t seen a demonstration, but if the demo matched the claims, she was in. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Recovering her composure she continued, “I would like to see the demo and talk some numbers first, but I do like what I’ve heard so far.”
“Excellent!” Sergy turned to Michael. “Are we ready?”
Michael looked at him for a moment, wordless. “What would you like to show her?” He finally said, choosing his words with care.
“The Alpha 12 protocol, I think. That will demonstrate the utility.” Sergy replied, ignoring the look from the engineer. He turned to Erin, “We will need something personal of yours, something you choose and that you will know that we could not duplicate.”
Erin thought for a moment and produced a pocket knife from her purse. It had been a gift from her father and was the unique creation of a then unknown Sammy Kershaw. “This should do it.”
Michael retrieved the knife without a word and walked to the rear of the lab. There, upon a small pedestal and surrounded by a bird’s nest of cables, was a box that was about the size of a household oven. He placed the knife inside and shut the door, motioning for everyone to go behind the wall where the control center was arrayed.
Once everyone was seated, Michael brought up a screen that showed a similar lab. The young face of a college interne peered back at them. “Greg. We need to run Alpha 12. The object is enclosed on our end, are you ready?”
“Sure thing, doc.” The too eager face on the other end was replaced by a waving hand filled with what looked to be paperwork.
“Ok, sending now.” Michael said and with that he hit a key, then stood, walked over to the oven door and opened it. Nothing was inside.
On the other screen the young intern vanished from sight. There were some odd noises. Michael and Sergy looked at each other, confused. Within a moment the young man’s hand appeared in front of the screen. “Wow, a vintage Kershaw. Nice!” He displayed it for the camera allowing Erin to see it was indeed her knife.
“Let’s reverse now.” Sergy said, trying not to glance at the clock.
The intern again disappeared from view and was quickly back. “On your call, doc.”
Michael rolled his eyes. “Go.”, he said, then walked to the device. From it he pulled not only Erin’s knife, but also today’s edition of the Durham Herald-Sun, a paper local to Durham, North Carolina and not distributed nationally. Since they were 2800 miles away in Portland, Oregon, the significance was not lost on Erin.
She looked at the newspaper, front and back. Then she looked up at Sergy, “Where do I sign?”
Unseen to her Michael shook his head and closed his eyes.
Having played their parts well, none of them realized the other 2 were working a confidence game. They were all too blinded by the possibility and greed to see what was right before them. Michael sold the plans to a Japanese company, not realizing that 500 million Yen was worth little in the current market. Sergy was dead within two weeks after failing to deliver on a promised payment for gambling debts. Erin released the plans on the Internet around the same time Michael was arguing with his banker about the exchange rate. Of the 3, she was the only one who accomplished her goal.
The world would never be the same.
