Emory Erickson

Emory Erickson was a Human inventor, famous for his version of the molecular transporter. He was also the first person to be transported by his invention.
Erickson is often referred to as the "Father of the Transporter", and the first full-operable version of his transporter was developed in or around 2124.

Erickson had an unnamed wife and two children, Quinn and Danica.

In recalling his experience as the first person to go through a transporter, he admitted he was was terrified to attempt.
According to Erickson, "that original transporter took a full minute and a half to cycle through. Felt like a year. You could actually feel yourself being taken apart and put back together.
When I materialized, first thing I did was lose my lunch. Second thing I did was get stone drunk." He also lamented that "during the initial tests for the transporter, some brave men and
women were lost," and "not a day goes by that I don't think about them."

Unfortunately, follow-up efforts with sub-quantum teleportation were never successful, and led to the loss of his son, who was working alongside him.

Timeline

• 2103 - Erickson started work on the transporter in or around this year.

• 2118 - Erickson successfully transports a banana, the first known use on a living organism.
  Zefram Cochrane jokingly told the United Earth Information Service that he thought Erickson was trying to put him "out of business."

• 2139 - Erickson attempts to create a sub-quantum teleportation device. After its invention, several people volunteer to test it, but they were never seen again.

• One of these volunteers was Erickson's son, and Erickson blamed himself as he knew the experiment was flawed.
  In trying to get his son back, Erickson was partially paralyzed, leaving him in a wheelchair.
• After becoming obsessed with recovering his son, Erickson realized that Quinn had not been killed, but instead was trapped inside subspace, and could theoretically be rematerialized.

• 2149 - Erickson attempts to bring Quinn back. The process was not successful, and Quinn only came back as a deadly energy form, existing for only a few seconds.

• 2154 - The Enterprise, NX-01 welcomes Erickson aboard, with promises of testing a new transporter method, with supposedly unlimited range.

• He and his daughter Danica had dinner with the ship's staff officers, discussing the upcoming test.
  However, the two were on the ship to actually attempt an experiment to get Quinn back from trapped in subspace.
• Emory and Danica's attempt at retrieving Quinn were successful. However, years of being trapped caused severe degradation, and Quinn died moments later after being rematerialized.
  Though his son was now officially declared dead, Emory and his family were able to get their closure. He felt that this fate was better for Quinn, rather than be "somewhere in between" life and death.

• After the disastrous event on the Enterprise that saved his son and killed one Enterprise crewmember, Emory was sent to prison.
  His daughter Danica escaped imprisonment, and her involvement destroyed any possibility of a career for her in Starfleet.

Fun Facts

• Erickson was a good friend of Henry Archer, Jonathan Archer's father.

• In 2124, when Henry died of Clarke's Disease, the relationship between Jonathan and Emory Erickson strengthened.
  Erickson became a surrogate father to young Henry Archer.

• At one point, he was made honorary president of the Association of Transporter Technicians and was considered a VIP.

• A book was written about Erickson titled, "Emory Erickson: Father of the Transporter."