Col and Kegan stood hands clasped in front of Marriage Inspector Keller. The Inspector scrolled through their application materials on his phone.
“I understand that you two believe that you are well matched and should be given the opportunity to start a home here on Agdaris-7 in the outpost Dunnock. How can we be sure this is a true match or if you are avoiding the Call to Explore?”
“Inspector, sir. Before I met Kegan I was eagerly awaiting being sent out to further explore the galaxy. Five years is no time at all to be away from Agdaris-7 and I dreamt of finding new worlds capable of supporting our people. But sir, I met Kegan and now my heart is here and I cannot go.” Col answered authoritatively.
“It is the same with me, Inspector.” Kegan followed. Kegan squeezed Col’s hand.
The Inspector grimaced. He hated this part of the job. “Col and Kegan. I believe you. I truly do. And I believe that you believe each other, but none of us truly know the hearts of others. That is why the Director asked our software engineers to construct a sophisticated artificial intelligence capable of determining whether or not two people were truly a love match. That initial artificial intelligence created its successor, which will determine if you are indeed a love match.”
“How can a computer do it, if people cannot?” Kegan queried.
“That is a good question. All we know is that the computer can determine it by asking each of you three simple questions and then comparing the agreement on just one question.” The inspector pressed a button on his phone and two doors opened. “Col. Please enter the room on the right. Kegan. Please enter the other room. If the computer finds that you are a match, the same doors will open and I will serve as your legal officiant. You will of course return to your home outpost to have a traditional wedding there following your outposts customs. I believe that your outpost has a nice tradition involving sawing a log together. I look forward to seeing both of you here.”
The Inspector smiled widely and spread his arms to point to the doors. His smile hid two terrible truths: only half of the candidates were found to be a love match and only one out of ten explorers returned. The computer was cruel but not as cruel as the dangers of outer space: the radiation, the errant asteroids, and the space marauders.
Kegan dropped Col’s hand and went in first. The door silently closed behind her. She took out her phone to send a message to Col. No signal. It was just like the Witch had told her. She wouldn’t be able to compare answers. On one wall was engraved two horizontal lines and two vertical lines: a tic-tac-toe board.
She remembered the words to the song – Oh-Win-Win, Win-Oh-Win, Oh-Oh-Oh, Oh-Win-Oh, Win-Oh-Oh, Win-Win-Win. Kegan knew that she and Col would win the test.
An electronic voice filled the room. “Love makes the impossible possible. Consider a square split into 9 boxes. Humans want to fill the square with 0’s and 1’s such that when we add the rows the number is even and when we add the columns the numbers are odd. We call this square Mermin’s Magic Square. It is not possible to satisfy. The sum of all the columns would be odd and the sum of all the rows would be even, but these numbers must be the same number. You must fill the second row with 0’s and 1’s so the sum is even. If you know that the person in the other room is not your true love, simply make the sum odd and you both will be sent to explore. The person in the other room will be asked to fill a column with 0’s and 1’s so the sum is odd. If you put the same number in the intersection and your row sums to an even number, your love will be proven and you can return to your outpost to start a new home.”
The middle row of the tic-tac-toe board shows ghostly 0’s and 1’s in each space. Kegan smiled and chanted “Win-Oh-Win” silently in her mind. She touches the wall and marks 1, 0, 1 across the row. She sang the rest of the song in her head and realized there is no wrong combination. All three columns in the song: Oh-Win-Oh, Win-Oh-Oh, and Win-Win-Win all work. She will get married and stay at Dunnock unless Col has been lying to her. Then he could simply put in an even column: Oh-Win-Win.
After a moment the doors opened back to the hallway. Col and Kegan embraced and the Marriage Inspector began the formal wedding ceremony where the Inspector takes their electronic thumbprints and erases from their minds all memories of the test.
A few weeks later Marriage Inspector Keller found himself at the Outpost Dunnock with the Director at Col and Kegan’s wedding celebration. Director Aclima rarely ventured out of Port Rohen, the capital of Agdaris-7, and the Outpost Mayor Katrina Sibley was doing her best to welcome her. The bride and groom has successfully sawed through the log and the feast was set to begin at dusk. Inspector Keller was delighted to see the tradition in person. He also smiled seeing a few partners from past marriages he performed in the crowd.
The Mayor has arranged for a short helicopter trip before the feast, so the Director can get a birds-eye-view of the growth of Dunnock. Inspector Keller was invited to join and the helicopter was flown by the Director’s own pilot.
“Look Director Aclima. As far as you can see there are new homesteads sprouting. Over near that small butte is where Col and Kegan’s homestead will start.” Mayor Sibley shouted in delight at her fellow passengers.
“That is the reason why Inspector Keller and I are here Mayor.” Director Aclima stared at the Mayor steadily. “It seems that someone or some group of citizens at Dunnock has hacked the love match algorithm.”
“Why would you say such a thing?” Mayor Sibley responded. Director Aclima pointed to Inspector Keller.
“Over time the computer has found that 50% of the proposed love matches are false. When an outpost’s marriage rate deviates significantly from 50% it is a cause for concern. At present 89% of proposed love matches from Dunnock succeed. This suggests that there is widespread collusion. Who is running this conspiracy, Mayor Sibley?” asked Inspector Keller.
Mayor Sibley squinted. She never had a strong poker face but there was nothing else to do now. “Love is the conspiracy. Dunnock is a community where love grows as wildly as weeds.”
Director Aclima leaned over to the Mayor. “Are you sure Mayor Sibley? Are you sure it is love and not perhaps countermeasures to the mindwipe?”
Mayor Sibley smiled widely. “Of course it is love!”
Director Aclima pointed again to Inspector Keller.
“Mayor Sibley. Given that the love in Dunnock is so strong, we are going to request that all partners in Green Table be checked again for a match. If a single couple of Dunnock are found not to be a match, we will send all of Dunnock on the Call to Explore. We do not expect this to happen given the power of love here in Dunnock.” Inspector Keller tapped his phone and sent the electronic messages to Mayor Sibley. “For your convenience, we will bring a testing facility here in two months.”
Mayor Sllbey waited for the visitors to leave and went to see the Witch.
“You were only supposed to tell the secret to my children,” Sibley started the argument. “That was our condition for allowing a rogue Marriage Inspector to hide in our town.”
“Your children told their friends to come to me for love songs. Teaching songs is not a crime.” the Witch continued soldering electronics together. “I gave all of the couples different songs. How did the inspectors find out?”
“It is a crime now. They said something about 89%.” Sibley looked around the heaps of electronic gadgets from a bygone age.
“Caught by statistics. The test has always been rigged. A way to send reluctant children into the stars.” The Witch pushed away her devices. “What is the punishment?”
“Everyone has to pass a second examination or the whole Outpost will be sent to the stars. There must be a better song that gets closer to 100%.” Sibley pleaded with the Witch. The Witch shook her head and went over to a dusty pile of books.
“It is impossible Mayor, but I will scour these books.”
A few days later the Witch visits the Mayor at Town Hall.
“Good news Mayor, in this book by Asher Peres there is a solution involving entangled particles. He calls it Mermin’s Square. ” the Witch beamed with pride.
“Entangled particles? Don’t we use them all the time for our secure communication network?” The Mayor was confused why such a common item could help.
“Given the choice of column or row, each person asks a different question of their part of the entangled particles.” The Witch pointed to some arcane mathematics.
“How often will it work?” the Mayor asked.
“100 % of the time.” the Witch laughed when the Mayor hugged her.
Two months later Marriage Inspector Keller completed setting up the isolation rooms necessary for the test. They were contained in a makeshift tent placed prominently in the town-square of Dunnock. The tent was surrounded by a security team sent by the Director. The test was set to begin.
“Dunnock citizens, our love is strong as our town is strong. I, your Mayor Katrina Sibley, will go first to show the Director and all of Agdaris-7 that Dunnock is the Outpost of True Love. I am joined by my partner Jonathan Prado.” Mayor Silbey saluted the town before entering the tent with Jonathan.
Inspector Keller greeted them with a slight modification of the standard test greeting.
“I understand that you two believe that you are well matched and should be given the opportunity to continue your home here on Agdaris-7 in the outpost Dunnock. How can we be sure this is a true match or if your whole town is avoiding the Call to Explore?”
“Inspector. You will see that love will win.” The Mayor patted the Inspector on the shoulder and walked into her room.
Around the Mayor’s neck was a necklace with her two halves of the entangled particles. The necklace doesn’t allow communication, but based on a series of twists enables the different measurements. The Witch has explained the correct positions and how they depend on which row or column the Computer will query.
The door shut. An electronic voice sounded. “Which color best describes Jonathan Prado’s character and why?”
Longer version of the story that became the flash fiction entry for the 2024 Quantum Shorts Contest https://shorts.quantumlah.org/entry/will-you-entangle-me