Untethered: Science Fiction | Singles

By Nick Stephenson

When a scientist discovers the secret to teleportation, he struggles to figure out what to do with it.

 

This short story is part of the Science Fiction | Singles collection from USA Today Bestselling author Nick Stephenson.

 

From the Author

 

This short story is a love letter, of sorts, to what is commonly referred to as "The Golden Age" of science fiction - the heady days of the 1930s - 1960s where spaceflight had only just become more than a dream and the possibilities seemed endless. I hope you enjoy my take on it.

 

- Nick Stephenson

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Stephenson
• Release date: Feb 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393829706

Book preview

Untethered

Untethered

Science Fiction | Singles

Nick Stephenson

© 2021 Nick Stephenson

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All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by law.

Untethered.

You’re far too young to remember life before science finally figured out the quantum entanglement problem. Back in those days, you couldn’t take it for granted that your data would turn up where it was supposed to at the time it was supposed to arrive there, which caused all sorts of problems (as you can imagine). 

The fundamental issue lay in the packet sequences, which is an obsolete term nowadays, but back then it was the only way to split up the vast quantities of data being shuttled around the place into manageable chunks.

Putting these packets back together again in the right order wasn’t exactly a simple affair, and even the most minor hiccup could have major consequences (including, but not limited to, at least fourteen minor wars, six coup d’etats, and three rather severe floods).

With the first quantum relay nodes, of course, this was all put behind us. We’d known for years about the relationship between entangled quantum particles; if you made a change to one, alter its spin for example, its partner reflected that change