The Impossible Triangle Portal

The Impossible Happens...Like Every Other Time
A crackle echoed through the air as blue lightning played around metal prisms. In the midst of a structure made of three rectangular prisms, a shifting multicolored sheet lay there. El'endia Starman looked up, wondering what had made the sound. At first, he thought the cracking sound had been his knee banging against the stone floor, but bone breakages don't keep cracking for seconds.

El'endia was putting the final touches on his masterpiece, a structure that had three rectangular blocks put together in the apparent shape of an impossible triangle. There was only one problem: the impossible triangle as it appears is impossible to construct in only three dimensions. Therefore, the metal blocks were not joined at the apparent apex of the sculpture. That would change. El'endia put his hands on the ends to be melded by the power of his mind. As part of his routine preparation, he let his mind drift back to that first manifestation of his genius.

A Genius's Manifestation
Many years ago, he had discovered his unique gift while pondering the intricacies of the higher spatial dimensions. In the midst of a busy classroom, El'endia had before him a 3D cross consisting of eight cubes, one in the center, six adjoining the first at the faces, and one at the bottom. The side-on view was exactly the same as the flat net every young child used to make a paper cube. El'endia found himself wishing fondly that he could somehow meld all of the edges together and make a tesseract. All of the sudden, the metal fabrication before him changed. Changed how, though, he wasn't sure. The assembly somehow seemed looser, as if it was easily bendable like aluminum despite the fact that the metal was steel. I wonder if I can bend the metal... As a test, he started bending one of the side cubes and the top cube towards each other. Much to his surprise, he was able to get complete contact along their faces. Even more surprising was the fact that the faces were square still, no sign of any distortion existed. Moreover, the cubes were still cubes, a fact that completely boggled his mind. I must be sleeping, there is no rational and sensible explanation for this...anomaly. Still, out of curiosity, El'endia continued melding the other cubes the same way. As a final step, he melded the two free faces on the top and bottommost cubes and completed his model of a tesseract. He heard a gasp as someone looked over and saw what he made.

"What have you done?" asked Atkenella, his girlfriend. She better known as Atken or Sli'ca, a reference to her expert coding skills.

"I'm not exactly sure either," El'endia responded. He decided to experiment with his design. He turned it this way and that, gaining new perspectives. Then, he realized that there are three additional rotations possible in 4D. El'endia pushed on one side of the cube as if to push it into the center. By now most of the other students had gathered around to watch, including his friends Amtar with his arm around a pretty young girl named Haswana and Lytor. A collective sound of awe permeated the air as El'endia's creation seemed to morph into a shape exactly like the starting configuration.

"That's crazy! How in the world is that even possible?!" rang out a voice from the back of the crowd. The teacher, having reached his limit of toleration, shouldered his way through the students to come face to face with El'endia.

"So, El'endia, perhaps you can explain to me what is going on here," the teacher said in a low, gravelly voice.

Nervously, El'endia replied, "Well, sir, I was just melding these cubes together, I not sure how I did it, but I seem to have created a tesseract." At the look of incomprehension on his instructor's face, El'endia added quickly, "A four-dimensional cube sir."

"Hmmmm..." the educator mused, "I'm still at a loss for what exactly it is, but never mind that. Show me what you can do with it."

First El'endia rolled his wrist around to present his sculpture from all possible angles so that Mr. Etachet could see there was no trickery involved. The entire class was now watching the scene unfold before them. Now came the moment of action. El'endia slowly rotated his invention through the fourth dimension. The fabrication went through a bewildering array of transformations as it was being rotated without any apparent revolution in the normal 3D world. At random points, El'endia paused to showcase the structure, using 3D rotations of course. Eventually, it was back to its original state. The entire class was in such shock by what they had seen that not a sound was to be heard except for the soft hum of the air conditioner and the faint babble of faraway voices. The professor pondered on this while El'endia stood uneasily. At length he said, "Well, this has never been seen before, of that I'm sure. Since I am at a loss for what this means, I will simply log this incident in my mind and deliberate on it further. I might even get other, more math-literate colleagues to help me." Then he turned in a slow circle, looking each student in the eye. "It is vital that no one, absolutely nobody says anything about this, not even to people you are certain you trust. If I hear one of you has let the cat out of the bag, well, that could mean the end of a lucrative career for you." He paused, letting the message sink in. Finally, he released them. "Very well, class dismissed."

For a few seconds, no one dared move, for fear of somehow tainting this incredible discovery. Gradually, one by one, the students moved away to pick up their backpacks and head to lunch. Some of them were even walking as though dazed. El'endia and Etachet just stood there while everyone bustled about getting ready to leave. When they were alone in the classroom, Etachet motioned for El'endia to take a seat. As he spoke, Etachet took a seat directly opposite El'endia. Without preamble, he spoke. "Well, I'm sure we both realize that this...tesseract, whatever you want to call it, and the technology it showcases has monumental significance and could even be dangerous in the wrong hands. That is why I'm counting on you and you classmates to keep quiet about this. Naturally though, even with my precaution, news is bound to get around. That is why I'm depending on you to make no effect to substantiate these rumors, no matter how much attention you like getting because some of that attention will be the unfriendly kind, I'm sure of it. Even better, debunk them if possible." Staring at El'endia over the top of his spectacles, Etachet finally allowed El'endia to secrete away his creation and, picking up his backpack on the way out, exit the room. Just outside the door was his girlfriend, Atken. [to be continued]