Lexi Magill and the Teleportation Tournament

by Kim Long

  Ron lightly slapped a pedestal next to the memorial. “This must be the clue. There’s a video screen embedded in the top.”

  Lexi retrieved her notebook and Mal readied her tablet. Ron pressed Play.

  Dr. Kent flashed into the frame. Lexi hopped in anticipation, knowing there was a good chance the next puzzle was physics-related. Born in Nigeria and educated at various universities around the world, Dr. Kent served as the teleport team’s critical thinker and great quantum theorist. If it hadn’t been for him, quantum computers capable of storing the data needed to teleport living matter never would have been invented.

  Dressed in beige khakis and a colorful Hawaiian shirt, Dr. Kent waved. “Welcome! Congratulations for finding our friend Alan Turing, the father of computer science, and a very important person in the development of teleport travel!”

  He spread his arms out wide. “All of the developments in physics and chemistry utilized in teleport science would be useless without quantum computers. But it’s not as though we snapped our fingers and a quantum computer appeared. No sirreee! Before quantum computers, we had digital computers.” He held up a finger. “And before digital computers, there were machines like our Mr. Turing invented, which were programmed to follow a specific set of instructions in order to find an answer or a solution to a problem.”

  Dr. Kent leaned forward. “But how do you give a machine instructions? What language does it understand? English, French, Chinese?” He clapped his hands together. “That’s where you come in. We need you to find a computer scientist who invented a way to talk to computers—the person credited for developing the first high-level computer programming language.”

  Dr. Kent straightened. “Ready for a couple of hints?” He held up a finger. “First, she was quite the officer in her day. And second…” He paused and raised a second finger. “She has a bridge named after her.” He clapped again. “Okay, that’s it. Hop to it!” Dr. Kent winked and then the screen went dark.

  “Well,” Ron said. “That was… interesting.”

  Lexi pounded the pedestal. “Ugh. I was really hoping for another worksheet.” Shaking her head, she added, “Either of you know anything about computer programming?”

  “I’m looking,” Mal said. She walked to the bench and slid next to the statue of Turing as Ron and Lexi took positions behind her. Within seconds, Mal was scrolling, swiping, and tapping away. She needed only a second on a website before deciding to move on or zoom in. She switched so fast between pages, Lexi’s eyes blurred, and she had to look away.

  “Woo-hoo, here it is!” voices called. Lexi and Ron swiveled. The Mighty Sanbornes and Physics Phenoms advanced to the pedestal.

  “Awesome,” David Sanborne said. “I knew our telepod line was shorter. We beat the Comets and Techies!”

  “First place!” Daniel Sanborne added, skidding across the path.

  Ron elbowed Lexi. “First place?” he mouthed, his face twisted into an expression of bewildered excitement.

  Lexi opened her mouth, but no words came. First place? She adjusted her glasses and tried to think whether it was possible they had overtaken all the other teams.

  “Hey!” David Sanborne yelled.

  Lexi glanced up. David was pointing at her. “Hey,” she said as David stumbled into the pedestal, so focused on Lexi he wasn’t paying attention to where he was going.

  The Phenoms reeled with laughter as David centered himself. “How?” David questioned, looking at Team RAM and then his brother. “I don’t get it. They hadn’t even gotten to the rest area when we left.”

  Phenom Tomoka giggled. “They probably skipped the rest area,” he said, pressing the button to start the video. He tipped his head toward Lexi. “Let me guess, you didn’t have to go to all thirty-nine statues to solve the clue?”

  Before Lexi could answer, Haley’s Comets streaked into the garden. Although a part of Lexi wanted to see Haley’s reaction at the moment she discovered her sabotage had failed, Lexi knew her heart couldn’t take seeing her former friend. Blinking back tears, Lexi quickly averted her eyes and nudged her teammates to an empty bench farther down the path.

  “Find anything?” Lexi asked Mal.

  Mal flipped the tablet to face Ron and Lexi. “Yep. Meet Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper. She did exactly what Dr. Kent said. She helped create the first high-level computer programming language. There’s a bridge named after her in South Carolina.”

  Ron and Lexi stared at the screen.

  Mal sighed. “This is it, you guys. Grace Hopper. Like Dr. Kent told us to hop to it, remember?”

  Ron groaned, and Lexi stashed away her notebook. “Yeah,” she said. “I forgot about that part, but you’re right. It makes sense.”

  Team RAM ran to the tournament booth, passing Tesla’s Techies and the Powerful Protons along the way. Another tournament official had joined the initial worker, and both worked frantically checking in teams. It seemed everyone was arriving from Paris.

  The new official signaled Team RAM to the side. Leaning over the counter so the other teams wouldn’t hear, Lexi whispered, “We know where we’re supposed to go.”

  He slid a pen and piece of paper to her. Lexi wrote it down.

  Grace Hopper Memorial Bridge—South Carolina

  The official exchanged the piece of paper for a manila envelope. “Your special Travel Request Form is inside. Come back when you’re done, and I’ll issue your tickets.” He pointed to the lounge. “You can work in there.”

  “Got it,” Lexi said. She snatched the envelope and led Ron and Mal to a pair of plush couches. Once they were seated, Lexi tore open the envelope and pulled out the clue.

  PUZZLE TIME!

  TEAM NAME:

  To get to South Carolina, you need to provide the longitude and latitude coordinates (in decimal form) of the teleport station where you wish to travel. The coordinates in degrees of our temporary telepod station near the Grace Hopper Memorial Bridge, are:

  32°55′6″N, 79°57′26″W

  To continue, you must convert these coordinates into decimal form. YOU MUST SHOW YOUR WORK. We are fully aware there are websites that do this conversion for you. That will not count. You must show the math you used to change degrees into decimals to continue your trek.

  WORKSPACE:

  ANSWER: Your coordinates in decimal form:

  Turn in your completed worksheet to the tournament booth, and you will receive tickets to your destination. (Check your work! Your next destination WILL BE based on the coordinates you provide!)

  “Well?” Ron prodded.

  Lexi considered faking out her teammates and pretending it was hard, but she couldn’t contain her excitement. She lowered the page. “Easy-peasy—another science problem.” She set the worksheet on the coffee table.

  “You know how to do this?” Mal asked.

  “Yep. It’ll take me ten minutes. Tops.”

  Lexi paused, thinking about Dr. Harrison’s comment that she was leading a team of nonscience students. What better way to show her leadership skills than to teach her teammates how to perform the calculation? “I can show you,” she said. “Then you’ll know, too.”

  She took out her notebook.

  “Wait,” Ron said, referring to the worksheet. “It says to show all your work.”

  “I know,” Lexi replied. “I will. But it’s good to do things on scratch paper first in case I make a mistake. I’ll copy it over when I’m done.” She slid next to Mal. “Okay, let’s start with longitude. The degrees stay the same.”

  Lexi wrote down 32.

  “Really?” Mal asked.

  Lexi nodded. “And then the second number stands for minutes. You’re supposed to read it as 32 degrees, 55 minutes, and 6 seconds. To convert the 55 minutes into a decimal, we divide 55 by 60.”

  “I’ll do it on the tablet,” Mal said, opening up the calculator. “55 divided by 60 is zero point nine one six six six six six six—”

  “Okay,” Lexi said, laughing. “You don’t
have to go that far. Six places is fine.” Lexi wrote 0.916667 in her notebook. “Next is the 6 seconds. To get that into decimals, we have to divide 6 by 3,600.”

  Mal punched the keys on the tablet. “6 divided by 3,600 is zero point zero zero one six six six six six six—”

  “Again, you can stop, Mal,” Lexi said, giggling as she wrote 0.001667. “Perfect. Now all we have to do is add the new numbers together.

  “0.916667 plus 0.001667 is…”

  Mal didn’t respond, and Lexi lifted her eyes. Mal was staring at her. “I-i-i-i-i-i-is?” Lexi repeated.

  Mal jumped. “Oh!” she cried. “I’m supposed to be doing that! Sorry.” Mal picked up the tablet. “Say those again.”

  Lexi repeated the numbers. A second later, Mal answered, “0.918334.”

  “All right, so then the answer should be 32.918334.”

  “Wow, that was quick,” Ron said.

  “It is,” Lexi replied. “All you do is divide and then add the numbers together.” She confirmed the math was correct. “Okay, let’s do the latitude.”

  The girls followed the same procedure to solve the latitude portion, with Lexi recording the calculations. When she finished, she circled her answer. “The correct location of the temporary telepod station in decimal form is 32.918334 by 79.957222.”

  “Cool,” Ron said, handing Lexi the worksheet. Lexi copied everything over, being extra careful all her numbers were legible. She handed the worksheet to Mal.

  “Let’s be sure I copied it correctly,” Lexi said. She read aloud, “32.918334, 79.957222.”

  “Right!”

  “Great! Let’s go so we can get out of here still in first place.”

  Ron tugged Lexi’s shirt. “Hang on—the clue said there are websites on the Internet that will do the conversion for us. Should we check to be sure we got it right?”

  Mal retrieved her tablet. “Right.”

  Lexi stood silent, searching for a nice way to tell her teammates this was the easiest math problem she had done all semester and that there was no doubt in her mind she had the correct answer. They had even used Mal’s computer for a calculator! But as she opened her mouth to explain, the Sanbornes advanced to the counter.

  “We’re ready!” Daniel said.

  Papers rustled from the other end of the room, and a chair squeaked. Haley’s team was packing their things. Lexi’s chest tingled. She could beat Haley to South Carolina if she hurried. They’d be mere minutes behind the leaders, despite Haley’s sabotage.

  “There’s no time, you guys. We fell to second, and Haley’s nearly finished.” She made a move toward the counter. “Come on, let’s snag our place in line. You can check from there.”

  “Good idea,” Ron said.

  Lexi sidled next to Daniel. The official handed tickets to the Mighty Sanbornes, and Lexi slid Team RAM’s worksheet to him.

  “Wait!” Mal said. “I’m not done checking.”

  The official paused. “If you’re not ready, you’ll have to get out of line.”

  Haley bounded to the counter, the Phenoms right behind her. Lexi swallowed hard. Given Haley’s alliance, Tesla’s Techies would be joining them soon. If Team RAM stalled now, they’d lose the lead they’d gained.

  Lexi turned to Mal. “There’s no time,” she whispered. “Not if we want to keep our lead. I’m sure this is the right answer.” Not waiting for her teammate’s response, Lexi turned back to the official. “Go ahead. We’re ready.”

  The official typed in the information and slid three tickets across the counter. “Here you go.” He handed Lexi a sticker. “This goes on circle 5 of your Trek Tracker.”

  Lexi stuck the sticker of the Turing computer to the Tracker, and Team RAM ran to the telepods. As the telepod operator scanned the tickets into the quantum computer, Ron jumped atop the platform. Mal went next, and Lexi hopped up last. She gave the thumbs-up sign, and a light flashed.

  Seconds later, Lexi reopened her eyes to a scowling Mal and an arms-crossed Ron. Confused, she grabbed the Tel-Med and picked up her backpack.

  “What’s the prob—”

  Lexi slammed her mouth shut. The sign on the wall told her exactly what the problem was:

  WELCOME TO TIBET

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Lexi dropped her backpack. “Tibet? That’s impossible.”

  A tournament worker swooped in from the side. “Ah, so unfortunate!” he said, setting his hands on Mal’s and Ron’s shoulders. “But don’t worry. I’m sure many others will make the same mistake. I’m Liu Yang. I’ll be your chaperone. Come along.”

  “Wait,” Lexi said. “What happened? We’re supposed to be in South Carolina.”

  Mr. Yang indicated for Lexi to step off the telepod. “I’m sorry, but you must have entered the wrong coordinates.”

  No way. No freaking way.

  Lexi shook her head, refusing to move.

  “In here, in here,” he said, shuffling Ron and Mal out of the room. In a huff, Lexi stormed off the telepod and followed. Mr. Yang led them into a larger room containing rows of cots.

  No, no, no! We are so not spending the night.

  “Mr. Yang,” Lexi said, trying to speak as calmly as possible. “There’s been a mistake. I know I gave the correct coordinates. We’re supposed to be in South Carolina.”

  Mr. Yang took a seat behind a small desk. “I need your badges and passports, please.”

  Team RAM handed everything over.

  “What’s going on?” Mal demanded. Lexi shooed Mal away. She needed to focus on Mr. Yang, who couldn’t be checking them in any slower if he tried.

  “Mr. Yang,” Lexi repeated. “I’m telling you there’s been a mistake. I know my math was right.”

  “Show him your scratch work,” Ron said to Lexi. He faced Mr. Yang. “She did all the work in her notebook first and then copied the answer to the worksheet.”

  Lexi gasped. “Good idea.” She dug into her pack and lifted out the notebook. She flipped to the right page. “Here,” she said, thrusting it in front of Mr. Yang’s eyes. “See?”

  With a small smile across his lips, Mr. Yang rose, walked to a small side table, poured a cup of tea, and then returned to his seat. He put on his glasses. “Let’s see,” he said, adjusting the notebook so he could see through his bifocals.

  Lexi gripped the edge of the desk to keep upright. Mr. Yang clearly did not understand the need to move with any urgency whatsoever. Come on! The Physics Phenoms, Mighty Sanbornes, Haley’s Comets, Techies, Protons—there could be five teams in front of them by now.

  A minute later, Mr. Yang set the notebook on the table. “You’re positive you copied this work over to the worksheet?”

  “Yes,” Lexi answered. “100 percent.”

  Mr. Yang fingered the corner of the page and tapped the circled answer. “And these coordinates, 32.918334, 79.957222. You’re positive these are the same coordinates you entered on the worksheet?”

  “Yes,” Lexi said, joined by Mal, who shifted her weight.

  Mr. Yang pushed the notebook toward them. “Then that’s why you’re in Tibet. These are the coordinates to the exact spot where you’re standing.”

  Flipping off her baseball cap, Lexi tugged at her hair. This man is impossible!

  Dr. Yang held up his palm. “You have a tablet, yes?”

  “Yes,” Mal said, quickly retrieving it from her backpack.

  “Good. I’m going to check on a few things. Why don’t you enter these coordinates into a longitude/latitude website and see what happens?” Mr. Yang rose and pushed in his chair. “I’ll be back in a bit—once you’ve had a chance to sort it all out.”

  “This is ridiculous,” Lexi said as soon as Mr. Yang left. “There’s no way this is wrong.” She edged next to Mal, and Ron did the same. “Go ahead, type it in.”

  Mal loaded a longitude/latitude site and keyed in the coordinates. A red dot flashed on the screen.

  In Tibet.

  “What?” Lexi grabbed the tablet out of Mal’s
hands. “That’s impossible!”

  “Great,” Ron whispered, plopping into a chair. “So much for super easy.”

  “Lexi?” Mal whispered, voice shaking.

  Lexi gulped. “No,” she squeaked. “This isn’t right. You guys, something’s wro—” Lexi glimpsed the screen, which displayed the coordinates in degree and decimal form. Her breath caught in her throat, and she closed her eyes and sank to the floor. Pulling her knees to her chest, she clutched her head as her stomach churned. “Oh no.”

  Mal scooted beside her. “Lexi?”

  Lexi put her head in her hands. “I can’t believe I was so stupid.”

  “Whaddya do?” Ron called as he tossed a pen into the air and caught it. “Mix up the order of the numbers or something?”

  Sniffling, Lexi wiped her eyes. “No. I forgot the negative sign.”

  “The what?” Mal replied.

  “The coordinates for the bridge were 32 degrees north and 79 degrees west. When you convert degrees to decimals, all south and west coordinates get a negative sign in front of them.” Lexi pointed to the tablet. “Look. It says Tibet is 32.918334, 79.957222. Go on and type a negative sign in front of the 79 coordinate.”

  Mal picked up the tablet and typed -79.957222. A new red dot flashed on the map, with “Charleston, South Carolina” appearing alongside. Mal slumped. “Yeah, I see what you mean. Oops.” She handed the tablet to Ron, who gave it a quick scan. Mal patted Lexi on the back. “Well, at least we know what happened.”

  “Yeah,” Ron agreed. “It’s okay. We’ll wait for Dr. Yang and give him the right coordinates. Like Dr. Harrison said, if we end up off course, we get a chance to fix our mistake.”

  Mal walked to the desk. “I wonder if there’s another worksheet to fill out.” She sifted through papers on the desk. “I don’t see anything.”

  “I’ll check by the telepods,” Ron said, leaving the room.

  Still on the floor, Lexi watched, mouth open and eyes wide, as her teammates pretended nothing horrible had happened—as if she, their teleport science expert—had not made a humungous blunder that had sent them wildly off course. Talk about striking out with the bases loaded. She tried forcing herself up, knowing she should be helping, but the boulders in her stomach weighed her down.