INT. CHURCH-DANCE-HALL – EVENING
Distant salsa music. Dance Floor. Weak fluorescent light.
church lady
I heard you stopped being an observer.
spock
Correct.
church lady
That sounds dangerous already.
spock
In lessons one through three, I analyzed.
Counted beats. Calculated vectors.
Maintained distance.
church lady
Good. Distance is wholesome.
spock
In lesson four, I became a witness.
church lady
Oh no.
spock
I remained present within the event.
church lady
Present? As in… feeling it?
spock
Affirmative.
church lady
That’s how it starts.
spock
There was a moment of non-local rhythmic agreement.
church lady
I don’t like any of those words.
spock
We separated. No contact. Two beats.
Yet the turn resolved precisely on time.
church lady
No touching… but still synchronized?
spock
Yes.
church lady
That sounds like broadband for the devil.
spock
Negative. No coercion. No deception.
Only calibrated attention.
church lady
Symmetry is exactly what he uses.
spock
I did not lose control.
church lady
You surrendered something.
spock
I expanded relational bandwidth.
church lady
Bandwidth. That’s what they’re calling it now?
church lady
So you became Bob and she became Alice like in… quantum something?
spock
Quantum entanglement.
church lady
That’s the one. Bob and Alice. Passing secrets.
spock
In cryptographic demonstrations, Bob and Alice exchange correlated information.
church lady
Mmhmm. Correlated. That’s a word people use when they’re hiding something.
spock
We were not hiding information.
church lady
You just said there was no contact.
spock
Correct.
church lady
And yet you both turned at the same time.
spock
Yes.
church lady
Sounds like secure channel behavior to me.
spock
There was no encryption.
church lady
Oh there was something encrypted.
spock
The signal was visible: posture, timing, breath.
church lady
Breath?!
spock
Respiratory synchronization improves phase alignment.
church lady
Phase alignment. I knew it.
spock
Bob and Alice share correlated states due to prior interaction.
church lady
Exactly. Prior interaction.
spock
In this case, four lessons.
church lady
Four lessons is how it begins.
spock
When separated, we maintained coherence via eye contact.
church lady
Eye contact is how Bob signals Alice.
spock
Incorrect. In quantum protocols, no classical signal travels faster than light.
church lady
Don’t you start with faster-than-light hips in this building.
spock
The agreement was local. Rhythmic. Measurable.
church lady
And you’re sure no serpent was involved?
spock
Only percussion.
church lady
Did you at least keep your eyebrows disciplined?
spock
Fully symmetrical.
church lady
You’re not going back, are you?
spock
Lesson five is scheduled.
church lady
Lord, give me latency.
