A Year Earlier
Swoosh! An arrow zipped through the air and struck the target set fifty meters away from the archer, who had just gracefully lowered his bow. He slowly walked toward the target to check his shot. Unsurprisingly, he saw that he had hit the bullseye.
With resignation, he set aside his beautiful bow—crafted in the style of a medieval English target—and placed it on a stand beneath the gray wall of the university's training hall.
The break between classes was almost over, and in just a few minutes the lecture halls would fill with throngs of students eager for knowledge.
Tre reluctantly changed out of his sports clothes, which he had put on barely thirty minutes earlier, and switched into comfortable corduroy trousers and a gray sweater. He knew it was time to return to his duties. He had promised his mentor that he would do his best.
His mentor had vanished without a word two years earlier—a great loss for Harvard. They had made tremendous efforts to attract that brilliant mind specializing in quantum physics. The day before he disappeared, with great enthusiasm, he had explained his latest, very advanced theory on how to use quantum energy for aviation; then, the next day, he failed to show up at the university, and all trace of him was lost.
Since he was ten years old, that mentor had been an inseparable part of Tre's life. Thanks to him, Tre learned how to function in society without making people around him feel uncomfortable. A stack of psychology books, which his mentor recommended he read whenever he had free time, helped him a lot. Before meeting Professor Hoffman, the way Tre communicated was very different from the accepted norms.
Under his mentor's guidance, he learned to understand the subtleties behind the unsaid, which used to leave him feeling confused. This allowed him to predict people's behavior simply by observing them. Everything had its own algorithm—even people.
When he began to understand the adult world and the endless, even if small, intrigues hidden in everything people said, he was just a ten-year-old boy. But he was no ordinary child. Before he had learned the secrets of psychology and other equally fascinating subjects under Professor Hoffman's care, he had already managed to finish all the school material for elementary and high school on his own—and he was now finishing the material that should have been mastered by a master's student in Quantum Physics. His curiosity had no limits; his mind absorbed everything like a sponge, while at the same time drawing conclusions and forming new theories. And it wasn't just about studying. If he wanted, he could have been an excellent pianist, violinist, drummer… a football player, a volleyball player, a soccer player…
Yes… he was an amazing little boy.
The clock on his left wrist showed 1:13. He had only two minutes left until class. He quickened his pace and confidently strode into a lecture hall that could seat two hundred people.
It turned out that every seat was taken, which filled him with a quiet sense of pride. He smiled at the sight. It was amazing to see his success reflected in the eager faces of the students.
Even though he was five years younger than them, he had earned their respect, gained their trust, and turned the initial spark of curiosity they had when they started coming to his lectures into a burning flame.
As soon as he was noticed by his students, the voices in the hall began to die down. Everyone looked at him expectantly.
"Welcome to this beautiful September day. I'm glad to see so many of you here. Am I right in thinking that we have a few new faces among us?"
A few people he did not recognize shyly nodded.
"We have a little tradition here. To help us work together and so that you won't be afraid to speak up if something is unclear, we all introduce ourselves. I'll start so that you have an idea of what to expect. My name is Tre Anderson, and I teach physics here at our university—one of the subjects you are here for today. I hope this is just the beginning of your adventure with this wonderful science, which has given me a new perspective on many seemingly inexplicable phenomena. Now, I'd like each of you to say your name, as I mentioned earlier, and then tell us what encouraged you to attend this course and what sparked your interest in physical phenomena."
One by one, seven new students shared who they were and what had drawn them to the class. It turned out that everyone had heard good things about Tre's way of teaching and his approach to students. That was pleasing, though nothing extraordinary had happened lately. Ever since he had decided to take teaching seriously, his lectures had become very popular.
"Now that we've finished the formal part, let me share with you the topics we will discuss today. Last week, we talked about critical phase transitions, so now we should cover the subject of quantum phase transitions. And that's exactly what we'll do."
After this speech, he focused on conducting the lesson.The subject was challenging, so many questions arose during the lecture, and the students exchanged lively comments about the topic.With only ten minutes left, it looked like they wouldn't finish the subject they had started.
Suddenly, the lights in the hall began to flicker, and it seemed that the temperature had dropped as well. A few surprised, slightly nervous murmurs arose from the crowd.Tre furrowed his brows as he looked at the gathering. At first, he thought the flickering lights and strange cooling were due to a short circuit or equipment failure. Yet, deep down, he felt that it was something more than just a technical glitch.
To his astonishment, despite everything he believed in, he suddenly felt as if thousands of tiny larvae were crawling all over his body—an utterly disgusting sensation that seemed to try to burrow into his skin. At the same time, the air around him began to spark, emitting an increasingly bright light.
In that moment, people in the hall leaped from their seats in terror. Some ran away in panic, while others stood unsure of what to do.
Tre was in no better shape. Quite the opposite, panic began to overtake him as he faced a phenomenon he couldn't understand. Especially since he was right in the center of it and still felt as if insects were crawling on him.
Suddenly, the ground disappeared from under his feet, and everything was swallowed by darkness. That terrifying feeling, which had overwhelmed him moments before, unexpectedly subsided, and his mind cleared. At last, he could see the situation more clearly.
He didn't think he had lost consciousness, even though that explanation seemed the most likely given the all-encompassing darkness around him. He had the impression he was moving, although nothing around him indicated it—it was more like a hunch.
Somewhere in that dark emptiness, a strange squeak began to spread. The longer he listened, the more it seemed that it wasn't just a random sound. Were those words?
—Thiiiiiiiiii! thiiii! sssss! iiiiii! ssss! yiiik! ouuuukr! baaauua! ptiiii! st... Rheee! Joiceeee!
Tre couldn't understand these sounds, but by the fourth repetition he began to catch a rhythm. Deep in the darkness he heard a message: "This is your baptism. Rejoice."
Even though he didn't know who or what was sending it, he felt that the message carried positive energy—even in this incredibly strange situation. He wasn't sure who or what it was, but he had to admit that it was delivered in good humor. After all, the situation was perfectly suited for joy and celebration.
He had the impression that he had been in that strange place for several hours. He couldn't be sure, because the watch on his wrist—despite being a traditional one—had stopped working.
He didn't have his phone with him—it had been left on the desk in the lecture hall. And since even his watch wasn't working, he doubted that having it would have changed anything. He was completely cut off from the world.
The sound that had been echoing in the emptiness suddenly fell silent. Instead, something appeared in the darkness—a bright point that seemed to grow larger with every passing moment.
"So I am really moving," Tre thought.
Within a few minutes, the light, which at first looked like a tiny dot, grew into a huge glow. With every moment, it became bigger. Notably, the color of this light closely resembled the brightness that had enveloped his body just before he vanished from the lecture hall.
Finally, he found himself in front of the source of the light. The mysterious force that had been dragging him through the void disappeared, and he stood before whatever was emitting the light. It turned out to be a kind of gate, its doors woven from light. On the steel frame, words were engraved. He didn't know what language the message was written in. He tried to look at it from different angles, and each time it seemed as if it were a different language—sometimes like Chinese, sometimes like English…
If Tre spoke only one language, he would never have been so puzzled. The language in which the message was written was an ancient, higher language. Everyone saw it in a way that allowed them to understand the message.
On the gate, four sentences were inscribed: "You have been chosen. Your gift is precious—make it shine forth in this world. You may choose not to pass through this gate. In that case, you will fall asleep."
The word "fall asleep" carved into the gate sent shivers down Tre's spine. He had a bad feeling about it, and in that sentence sleep was a metaphor for something else—something he was not ready to experience at his age.
He hesitated for a moment, but slowly mustered his courage. He took one step forward. Then another. Then two more. Soon, he found himself standing right before the gate.
"You only live once"—he pushed the gate open and stepped into the unknown.