The Glitched Dispatch

Mission 2: The Art of Quantum Messages. Part of the Quantum Courier Service, a free course from the Oxford University Quantum Information Society.

We have intercepted a high-priority transmission from an Echo Network operative. It was sent as a stream of single photons routed through a dark fiber line passing directly under Port Meadow.

Naturally, our intercept team pounced on it. But when they ran the qubits through our standard measurement device, the data scrambled itself into total garbage. We tried again with a different setup, and it scrambled in a different way.

Here is the horrifying truth: The Echo Network isn't just sending raw 0s and 1s. They have discovered that a qubit can hold different kinds of secrets depending on how you ask it questions.

If we measure these qubits in the wrong way, we destroy the message forever. To crack this dispatch, you must master the fundamental grammar of quantum communication: Bases.