There were no more flashes.
Nothing.
The cage had vanished. The floor was dark rubber, empty.
Kate said, "We're supposed to do that?"
"It's not an unpleasant experience," Gordon said. "You're entirely conscious all the way down, which is something we can't explain. By the final data compressions, you are in very small domains - subatomic regions - and consciousness should not be possible. Yet it occurs. We think it may be an artifact, a hallucination that bridges the transition. If so, it's analogous to the phantom limb that amputees feel, even though the limb isn't there. This may be a kind of phantom brain. Of course, we are talking about very brief time periods, nanoseconds. But nobody understands consciousness anyway."
Kate was frowning. For some time now, she had been looking at what she saw as architecture, a kind of "form follows function" approach: wasn't it remarkable how these huge underground structures had concentric symmetry - slightly reminiscent of medieval castles - even though these modern structures had been built without any aesthetic plan at all. They had simply been built to solve a scientific problem. She found the resulting appearance fascinating.
But now that she was confronted by what these machines were actually used for, she struggled to make sense of what her eyes had just seen. And her architectural training was absolutely no help to her. "But this, uh, method of shrinking a person, it requires you to break her down - "
"No. We destroy her," Gordon said bluntly. "You have to destroy the original, so that it can be reconstructed at the other end. You can't have one without the other."
"So she actually died?"
"I wouldn't say that, no. You see - "
"But if you destroy the person at one end," Kate said, "don't they die?"
Gordon sighed. "It's difficult to think of this in traditional terms," he said. "Since you're instantaneously reconstructed at the very moment you are destroyed, how can you be said to have died? You haven't died. You've just moved somewhere else."
Stern felt certain - it was a visceral sense - that Gordon wasn't being entirely honest about this technology. Just looking at the curved water shields, at all the different machines standing on the floor, gave him the sense that there was quite a bit more that was being left unexplained. He tried to find it.
"So she is in the other universe now?" he asked.
"That's right."
"You transmitted her, and she arrived in the other universe? Just like a fax?"
"Exactly."
"But to rebuild her, you need a fax machine at the other end."
Gordon shook his head. "No, you don't," he said.
"Why not?"
"Because she's already there."
Stern frowned. "She's already there? How could that be?"
"At the moment of transmission, the person is already in the other universe. And therefore the person doesn't need to be rebuilt by us."
"Why?" Stern said.
"For now, just call it a characteristic of the multiverse. We can discuss it later if you like. I'm not sure everybody needs to be bothered with these details," he said, nodding to the others.
Stern thought, There is something more. Something he doesn't want to say to us. Stern looked back at the transmission area. Trying to find the odd detail, the thing that was out of place. Because he was sure that something here was out of place.
"Didn't you tell us that you've only sent a few people back?"
"That's right, yes."
"More than one at a time?"
"Almost never. Very rarely two."
"Then why do you have so many machines?" Stern said. "I count eight in there. Wouldn't two be enough?"
"You're just seeing the results of our research program," Gordon said. "We are constantly working to refine our design."
Gordon had answered smoothly enough, but Stern was certain he had seen something - some buried glint of uneasiness - in Gordon's eyes.
There is definitely something more.
"I would have thought," Stern said, "that you'd make refinements to the same machines."
Gordon shrugged again, but did not answer.
Definitely.
"What are those repairmen doing in there?" Stern said, still probing. He pointed to the men on their hands and knees, working on the base of one machine. "I mean by the machine in the corner. What exactly are they repairing?"
"David," Gordon began. "I really think - "
"Is this technology really safe?" Stern said.
Gordon sighed. "See for yourself."
On the big screen, a sequence of rapid flashes appeared on the floor of the transit room.
"Here she comes," Gordon said.
The flashes grew brighter. They heard the chattering sound again, first faintly, then louder. And then the cage was full-size; the humming died away; the ground mist swirled, and the woman climbed out, waving to the spectators.
Stern squinted at her. She appeared absolutely fine. Her appearance was identical to what it had been before.
Gordon looked at him. "Believe me," he said. "It's perfectly safe." He turned to the screen. "How'd it look back there, Sue?"
"Excellent," she said. "Transit site is on the north side of the river. Secluded spot, in the woods. And the weather's pretty good, for April." She glanced at her watch. "Get your team together, Dr. Gordon. I'm going to go burn the spare nav marker. Then let's go back there and pull that old guy out before somebody hurts him."