Message from Friends

     They heard a squeaking sound coming from one of the large blue consoles. 

It started to "speak" in English. "Now that we've got your attention, the first thing we 

want to tell you is that you are in a very real danger. The two young fellows who 

kidnapped you are not very nice people. You have to escape. The good news is that

you've got friends on this world who can and will help you. After you climb back up to 

the surface, you'll notice a grove of very tall trees about half a mile in the same 

direction that you were headed when you fell into the pit. Walk down to the right of 

that grove and you'll see a large red house about another half mile along. Go there 

and we'll contact you there. Make as little noise as possible along your way."

     Rinny was very tired and very hungry from all this, and as they approached the 

"large red house" he began to wonder if they were really here, crossing this soggy 

field or if he was hallucinating somehow. "No way a dream could be this wet and 

uncomfortable", he thought. "Where are we, Shep?" Shep responded to the feat in 

his little brother's voice and answered. "We're on our way home Rinny", and he 

remembered getting lost with him when they were very young, in an amusement  

park, both of them crying, just before their mom found them.  "Remember 'New 

Atlantis' Rinny?", and they both started to laugh, 

 

                                                              The Pit

     Their first escape attempt started late at night when they figured their captors 

were fast asleep. They had noticed a window up toward the front of their apartment 

and hoped they would be able to open it without making any noise. When Rinny 

questioned the logic of making a break for it, Shep had answered, "got any better 

ideas?", and so he just followed along. After all, he was the younger brother. 

     It opened easily and in less than a minute they were standing in the middle of 

what could have been a courtyard. It was still too dark to tell and they were simply 

feeling their way around. 

     There was a gate, and out they went, "free" in some other world sense. "Keep 

going", Shep kept whispering to him. The idea was to put more and more distance 

between themselves and wherever it was that  they were being held "prisoners."

     About an hour out and Rinny said, "it's getting lighter, there must be some kind of 

sun here." He felt more comfortable. It's funny how a sunrise on a different world can 

make you feel more at home.

 

                                                             Active Duty and 

                    Intro to the Escape from the Tuna Fish

    

    Both Rinny and Shep had added reserve officer training to their study rosters in 

college. It saved them time and allowed them to enter their active duty at a higher 

rank. Military service had become compulsory in the US since the 50's because of 

the widespread terrorism from the East. Both young men and women who reached 

the age of 18 had to serve in the military, the men for four years and the women for 

two.

     Six months of concentrated training, and they were posted with a working unit

in their chosen specialty. Often, because of the need for personnel, they were 

appointed more or less arbitrarily to units well outside of their experience. This was 

often the subject of much humor. Taking care of guard dogs for example became 

known as "Zoo Duty". The dogs were notorious for their nonstop hyperactive 

"playing" with their caretakers. They had been trained to immobilize terrorists and 

they would play at this with their caretakers. If you started to move, they'd growl 

and bring you to the ground. Unless you blew the whistle. This you had to learn. 

     Another "all hands" activity was "shield and baton" combat which had been 

developed to a fine art and which no terrorist could stand up to for more than a few 

seconds. The problem with this was that it often turned into serious brawls with  

broken necks and limbs following clashes. They called this "The Rodeo". 

     

     Both Shep and Rinny had a shared interest in something else they learned in 

their advanced training. "Real Space Sliding". They added "life saving techniques" 

to their list of personal interests in their early surveys and found themselves on 

similar courses jumping from a helicopter-type craft into water, as well as high 

altitude gliding in body suits that featured extendable "wings" and navigable "sails", 

again allowing maneuverability into otherwise physically forbidding terrain for 

similar type rescue efforts. This would develop into personal techniques which 

were great fun for the both of them and which they called "real space sliding" This 

would prove extremely important to them in their escape from "Tuna Fish" which is 

what they called the prison-like lock up they found themselves in later. 

"All they want to do is skeeze;" Rinny pleaded. "That's what they say. Let them

skeeze wherever and whenever they want. We're getting out of here!" Shep

answered sharply. "The next time they move us up the ski slope, we go. There's

three feet of fresh snow. We slide down. You know real space slide down,"

That was it, they were going to jump right out the side doors! And that's exactly

what they did, on Shep's count. "Three, two, one - jump"

There's never been so much commotion on Stowe's slopes - ever!

"We were abducted by aliens who wanted skeezing lessons - I swear," said

Shep.

You can imagine the laughter. "Sure, what have you been drinking, and who was

flying that helicopter?" The rescue team asked. "Never mind" - Rinny joined in,

nudged Shep, and said "we were just playing around" 'Yeah, you're lucky you're still

alive. That must have been twenty to thirty meters. The snow saved you!"

     

 

                                                                The Abduction

     It was early April and great weather for skeezing. Bret Halloway had been 

credited with designing the first pair of practical skeezos. "You can skeeze all day

or for a hundred yards", he'd say, "whichever comes first". Then he'd laugh. The 

entire skeeze population would laugh too. Skeezing had a rough but intensely 

enthusiastic start. Built somewhat like ordinary skis, they had rotating wheels with

plates that bit into the snow, built-in under and behind the boot area, that propelled 

the skeezos forward. They were powered by a mixture of liquified hydrocarbon 

gases they called "go-juice" which drove a generator that powered the skeeze 

rotors. The entire generator fit neatly onto a backpack and would, in fact, power the 

skeezos all day if needed. "The days of ski lifts were over. The world is your 

mountain." The ads would say, 

     Maybe these ads had made their way to a far off galaxy and tickled  the curiosity

of two teenage aliens who found it a simple matter to cruise their little sport 

spaceship to the ski mountain area of Stowe Vermont. 

     More interesting, perhaps, was how the two had managed to dress in the 

appropriate skeeze custom and position themselves at the top of the new skeeze 

slope, SKEEZOO, bodily and hurriedly painted out in six foot red lettered signs, 

and pointed to the slope entrance which required a modest payment before 

entering.

     It was here that two galactic cultures held their first historic meeting of minds.

"Excuse me sir, how do we get through the entrance here?" Rinny, immediately 

realized that these guys were new here and were also probably from another state 

altogether judging from their accents. "Don't worry about it, follow me. Be my 

guests." This is what happens to even the best trackers when they simply don't 

follow up on their hunches. An hour later, both Rinny and Shep found themselves 

in a large salon, of very unusual proportions and furnishings. One very large 

"window" and an incredibly beautiful "sunset" if you can imagine a deep violet-blue 

sun setting against a blue sky and another pale yellow "sun", not so far from it, 

setting as well. 

     "Is this a dream?", Rinny asked. "No", came the reply. "It's just the way we 

transport you." Both Rinny and Shep threw up and were given towells and 

something like tea to clean up and settle their stomachs. 

 

                                                   Dancing with Veronica 

     Sometimes things just seem to happen all by themselves. Rinny didn't dance. He 

never learned how to dance or even played at dancing when he was young. He was 

not shy and he was very sociable. It was just that every time the subject of dancing 

came around, he would disappear into the background, withdraw into places he felt 

more comfortable.

     "Would you like to dance?", just came out as she smiled up at him. It was as if

it was just the right thing to do at the time. She said "sure", and after a short walk 

across the dance floor and trying to step around with the music they smiled at some 

of the other couples and Veronica said "I'm thirsty". "We'll dance over to the bar and 

then we can go outside and dance in the snow", offered Rinny. The two of them burst 

out laughing and it would be their moment for years to come. 

                            

 

                                                           Interview

     It had been a bit warm for January and Rinny had run up the stairs rather than 

wait for the elevator to keep his appointment. So here he was, usually the coolest 

guy you'd ever meet, nearly sweating. He sure didn't want to look desperate for 

this job. As luck would have it, his interviewer liked people who took their work  

seriously.

   "It has you here as a tracking specialist. Is this correct?" The interviewer looked 

right at him and waited. Rinny loved to act. That's all he ever really did. So he slid 

right back easily into his former role where he would amuse himself at being a 

victim in a world where nothing ever went right for him, and yet he just kept going 

anyway.

     The room was warm too. it was going to be a warm day. "Do you guys have the 

heat up too high or is it me?" He asked. The interviewer didn't even smile. "Never 

mind, it seems I came to the wrong place", and he got up to leave. "We need a 

tracker badly", came a concerned reply. "Please, just make yourself comfortable. 

Would you like a cup of coffee or tea?", followed by the slightest of smiles.

     A "tracker" is what they called a person familiar with the process of locating 

potential clients for different kinds of sales or promotions, a screener who would 

narrow down large markets of individuals or agencies to smaller numbers of 

persons or groups who would be more liable to purchase or use their product in 

some way. Perhaps a subscriber or just someone who would offer an opinion about 

one product or another. A professional tracking specialist could locate clients or 

customers extremely quickly and simply knew their way around people and 

businesses. They simply didn't waste any time or effort they knew would not be 

productive. They were worth their weight in gold. They knew it and they demanded 

it.  All 24 carats of it. Rinny was a pro. He was also a reformed Jew and came from

a family of highly successful businesspeople including his older brother Shep.

  

                                                      Veronica 

          Her name was Veronica and she was in the kitchen early mixing up something

and sliding it off a plate into a sizzling fry pan. Rinny stirred in the bed as the smell of 

a fresh breakfast reached his nose. Veronica was from Florida and the sight of newly 

fallen snow was still new to her. Rinny came up to her and kissed the back of her 

neck. "Mmmm, she smiled, how'd you sleep?" "Great, thanks, what smells so good?' 

"We call it alligator stew, she laughed."Green peppers and tomatoes mostly, lots of 

onions and potatoes from last night too." 

     The sun was bright in the back yard. His heart was light too. It was going to be one

very warm day in January in southern Vermont.

 

                                                Stars Over Vermont

     Rinny went outside and lit up a Bennington Long. It always made him smile 

to think about growing tobacco up here in Vermont. It just didn't happen. He looked 

long and hard at the stars above, trying to see if anything moved, if he could tell the  

earth below was moving by changes in their positions. You could tell, but it took a few 

minutes.      

     He began to look at himself, question his existence. What should he be doing? 

What was life really about? Survival? Survival alone? Dogs did that! Was it 

something  he forgot along the way? Something he had yet to learn? It hit him. it  

wasn't just about him. That one girl, that beautiful girl dancing threw light on it all. 

     He hurried back into the club and walked up to the girl. She turned and smiled at 

him. "Wanna dance?" 

ns

                                          

                                                         Vermont Seasons 

          Northeastern Vermont experiences very cold weather in the winter. Sometimes the 

winter lasts nearly five months, starting early in November and ending late in March. There is 

still plenty of snow left on the mountains for good skiing even in April. 

     Seattle and Tacoma Washington might actually be situated further north than Northeastern 

Vermont, but their winters are nowhere nearly as cold and generally very wet. The reason 

being the warm humid pacific ocean winds that flow continually from west to east over the 

whole state. The Cascade mountain range rise high in the east of Washington and the cold 

peaks cause the warm moist air to condense and, as a result, it rains continually through 

most of the year in Seattle and Tacoma.

     Frigid Arctic air spills down over Northern Vermont in the winter instead, the jet stream 

carrying it down as well as influencing most of the continental United States the same way 

but not as severe the further south you go.

    Lengthening and, of course, warmer days make for striking growth in the Spring and, 

likewise. abrupt cooling in the Fall has the opposite effect and the well known, brilliantly 

colored, landscapes of Vermont appear with their reds and yellows and browns.  

     These changes in seasons are remarkable and had a specially powerful effect on Rinny 

who had just been smitten by as beautiful a creature you could imagine actually dancing with 

a motion perhaps imitating the currents snowflake laden air coming in 

from the northwest. 

Girls Dancing

 

                                                   

                                                                  Girls Dancing

     There's something about girls dancing. There's a special electricity about them when they 

dance. It's connected to the music somehow, It's a total mystery for a guy. In fact, girls are

total mysteries anyway. That's how they are, but girls dancing to good music in a Vermont 

mountain resort under a blue electric December sky is really asking for trouble. it's way too 

close to the edge. It's skating on very thin ice indeed. 

     Every guy knows that. Even little boys know that. Girls feed off of music. They breathe 

musical frequencies through girl gills somehow. It's uncanny. It's like hunting for men, perhaps. 

Intuition, tracking scents, signs, motions, sounds of cracking twigs. Something deep in the racial 

memory of men.

     "Did you see that?", Rinny asked, quietly, breathing hard. Shep was stuck himself in the 

same moment. The starlit night at their back and the warmth of the resort dance floor inside. 

The music and the invitation to join the excitement of the evening, like your first party, your first 

day at school, or your first date. There was something special here, something Shep thought 

would finally break through his thick-skinned otherwise emotionless brother. 

     It was undoubtedly the girl Rinny had been staring at, 

 

                                                  Mt. Snow for Lunch

        It wasn't long before the two brothers were off to lunch. It was Shep's idea. He 

wanted to go down to the Dog Barn, where they knew the owners and tell them 

about the Moose. He wanted Rinny to come off like some kind of big game hunter 

hero of the Green Mountains and just get into being part of it somehow. He'd been 

doing it his whole life and Rinny was well aware of his older brother's intentions and 

simply tolerated it. Anyway, he was hungry and he liked the crowd down there. 

     They got there just before sunset. It was early December and the sky was a 

special Vermont blue, electric in its intensity and exciting in the way it tickled your 

outlook, your interest in life. Not too many days have these qualities in a lifetime. It 

was an invitation to be, and be thankful for life and the joys it brings. The sky became 

darker and darker blue and blue-gray and set like the end of a fine song - quietly, 

     "I'm glad we came down here tonight Shep". You could feel the enthusiasm inside 

and the mood of the mountain resort. "There's girls in there Rinny". 

A Cool Day in Bennington

                                        

                                       

                                     A Cool Day in Bennington

          Rinny was doing about 35 on the old Interstate because of the slick ice that 

had formed overnight. He smiled when the warning signal came on. "What're you

 trying to do, you **##ing idiot, kill us both?" Shep had recorded the warning for 

slick ice. Their Pontiac Road Warrior had a surface reflector sensor (SRS) installed

 and  could analyze the average available road surface friction and keep it posted

 on the dash. Anything really dangerous had appropriate beeps and voice warnings

 as well. "What's the recommended safe speed." he queried. "20 mph maximum",

 came the reply. 

     Rinny was tired from the long drive down from Canada and could have put it 

on automatic and been safe and able to rest, but he liked to drive and check out 

any changes along the way. It was a good ride. 20 mph was really monotonous,

 but he didn't really feel like getting towed back the rest of the way home. 

     "Hey Shep". he called out. "Whaddya do? Rinny?" "Gimme an hour and I'm 

home." "Holy Mud", Shep heard on his transcomm. "Wait, damn Moose - right in the

 middle of the road,"  "Careful!"  "Car's got it - no problem - took the picture too and 

sent it to the state troopers." "Maybe she knows you Rinny - watch out she might

 catch up to you." They both laughed. 

 

                                                            Brand New  4

     Rinny had an older brother, Shep, who was always trying to interest him in a "more 

constructive life", as he put it at times. Today he was reading about glass bottles that were 

used as containers for all kinds of things way back in the early part of the century, even as 

recently as the 2040s. "Here's one for you Rinny," he said as he handed him a blip of a light 

green-colored soda bottle from around 2020. "Liquid refreshment. Lime flavored carbonated 

water" -  Rinny started to smile - "Jackson's Key Lime Soda". "You got any, looks good?" He 

asked."You probably would drink it too," Shep answered.  They both laughed.

     He said, "play song" and the blip started to play the jingle about Jackson's Key Lime Soda  

and all these funny-looking kids from the 20s are singing and dancing around, having a great 

time drinking their soda. "So what? That's how they were. You want me to be like that I 

guess?      

     "I was just showing you the bottle Rinny." "Glass bottles and carbonated water, Bad 

enough drinking carbonated water, what a waste to manufacture all that glass though huh?" 

     'It took a while to develop organic materials, so what? Carbonated water fizzed and tickled 

their noses or something. Who cares?" "You think you're so smart, I bet I could sell you glass-

bottled soda today if I felt like it. You'd be telling all your friends to try it too. He 

started to sing the Jackson jingle and they both had a really good laugh. 

     It was May 2073 and it was raining lightly outside their window In eastern Connecticut. 

 

                                             Brand New 3 

      Rinny was out of a job and sorting through the agency lists. They did 

everything but examine your glands and sign you for job training at, "New 

Introductory Free Start to a New Career", which you had to try unless you knew how 

to bypass their programs. What you had to do was query "lost my job data" to get a 

list of job locations and contact numbers and then play it by ear. He found two 

convenient locations and it was easy to guess what their line of work was by their 

titles. "New Rama Personality Specialists" was perfect. He could just about 

smell their hot vulture breath and see the blood trickling down their chins. He was 

one of them. He was home, like a wolf echoing a blood-curdling howl, he 

answered. 

"Rinny Bader, tracking specialist, Lost my job data" They'd find him fast enough. 

"Takes one to know one", he thought quietly and lit a smik. 

     At the same time that Rinny was click clacking away, looking for a job, a parallel 

search engine, launched over 90 years ago, refired its generators and broadcast a

a message which anyone with half a mind could understand as "is there anyone 

else out there that can read this message?" This came from the RCA camera that 

NASA left on the Moon to record the Apollo 17 Lunar Module with Cernan and 

Schmidt aboard as it took off to return to earth.

Brand New 2

 

                                                           Brand New 2

       It hadn't been that long, and Bill reached out again for something that simply seemed missing in his life. He wasn't quite sure, but something definitely seemed to be responding to that very emptiness. He tried his mobile phone again, just to have something respond to his curiosity about the seeming immense changes in his life. 
Was it his age, his relatively remote location, his unorthodox training in philosophy, the changing world? Something else entirely?

     Are we being invaded, is humanity under attack currently by people on this earth, are we reacting to the heavy shock of world wars I and II? I'll tell you this: "I'm not the only one venturing into these depths to find answers to the radical changes that have occurred in just my own lifetime. It's all of the above, and probably more as well. 

     We have been reaching, most of my life "out there" into near space and more distant space as well,  not only with our imaginations and words, but really, and this is new. We've bumped into something in our actual travels, and it's not just our own science fiction, It's real other cultures, real other thought, real other people. We've reached with our probes the targets we were interested in. It's time we recognized this. You know, you throw a bottle overboard, at sea, with a note in it. Someone just might find it, and, with enough skill, might even reply.  

 

                                                       

                                                          Day Dreams

           

     ...and there they were. As quickly as they could think of it, they were whisked 

  away to a world not so unlike the one they were born into, but one more closely

  resembling the hours and days they would sit outside together laughing and 

  dreaming of a future filled with what they would like it to be. It was an imaginary

 place, yet it was real and Harry had actually located  it. Certainly a place that fit

 their childhood fantasies, warm, like vacations from school in Florida. There was

 plenty of water around too, to sail in. 

     They were there and   it was totally magical and both of them could see why

 Harry would choose to be there instead of a world that hunted him down like a

 criminal. 

     Something like what people do when they withdraw within themselves when

 things don't seem to be going the way they wanted? Perhaps more like an escape 

from reality you might get from watching a movie or even reading a book.

     "So here we are, everything we dreamt of when we were kids. You should be 

  really happy about that," Bill sort of asked. "Not really Bill. Sure I missed you and

  Evelyn, but that's not all. I missed everything else too! The whole darned world.

 Most everything!" 

       It took a moment or two, but the full impact of what he said sunk in. Our world

  wasn't perfect, but even this dream world originated there.

       Harry would not have to answer all the millions of "We All Still Love You Harry"

  with his own, "I still love all of you too!." 

 

                                                     

                                                    Two Months Later

     Bill and Evelyn had both returned to Miami. They met for lunch in a southbeach 

restaurant where  they and their friends often used to just hang out and have meals

 occasionally. They knew the owner for decades. "Hear anything Bill?" "Nada, I was sure he'd

 get back to us before now." Bill looked out at the ocean. Some young children were playing with

 frisbees just across from the beach.There was a light breeze. It was early spring. Suddenly, Bill

turned like he'd just remembered where something was he'd lost. "I know where he is. I can just

 about see  him. He has our boat." "Mind telling me where that is?", Evelyn asked almost

 sarcastically. "Yes, it looks like he's found another model", and laughed. "Only kidding", and

 laughed again, . 

Brand New

 

                                                    Brand New

     Remember learning to read? Well, we're going to start all over again, only this

 time it's going to be a level up. What's that mean? It's learn as you go - that's the

 fastest and best and, actually the only way to do it. If you have any questions, just

 ask google assistant or Siri if you have iPhone.

     In a rush in the morning, I laid my Tracfone on the table and forgot to turn off

 the  Google Assistant. Spoke out loud, "Darn I totally forgot what I was doing. What

 in the  world was I trying to do?" "You were writing a story about new technologies

 signaling  basic changes in our society Billy!" "What," I jumped and turned. "That's

 what you  were saying before Billy!" 

     'It couldn't be. It just couldn't be. Too much TV. Too much Internet. I needed to

 get back in touch with some of my old friends. My retirement was comfortable, 

 sure. But, it lacked social dynamics. I was talking to my cell phone!" 

     So what if? What if the new future held an entire electronic being reality? Why

 not? Were flesh and blood really that important for the development of

 sentient beings? Check your batteries next time you go in for a new SIM

 card? "Ouch, my foot just got a cramp!" 

     What if all this has already happened and we're just now catching on? Imagine

 an electronic girl, all gorgeous lights and sounds going "beep beep" in a way you

 just couldn't ignore - had to know better - a total mystery of what was to come -

 pleasures as yet unimagined - innocence of the mind. Sharing data. "I hardly 

know  you and here we are already sharing data."

     The infinite reaches of creation beckon us forward. Others are waiting for us to 

start their days. Let there be light. Let's separate the good from the bad, what helps 

from what doesn't. A clear purpose. Enough challenge, but not too much. Striking 

hard at the heart of the enemy. Making a better world. Attacking lies, exposing evil. 

Allowing the fresh air of understanding into our world. We're here doing just that...

     In America, if you're unhappy with a president or his administration, you simply 

don't vote for him the next term. If it gets really bad and he's guilty of 

unconstitutional actions, you can impeach him. Here in our brand new world, we 

can mourn his passing along with so many of his confederates, and begin to 

replace them all as, soon as possible, with others, more helpful and of higher 

purpose toward our fine nation of course. The rest fills in very quickly and 

as efficiently as we would send in a substitute teacher for someone who has fallen 

ill. The faster and more smoothly, the better. 

     Several new cast have been substituted in many of our key roles today. 

Hopefully, these are to your liking and, again hopefully, they also enjoy their new 

occupations. It is so very important to have backups in today's stressful and 

technically demanding world. We thank you for your patience.  

    Halloween starts tomorrow night. Cool late October evening. Hard for kids with 

the cold and damp. Still, the magic of the holiday comes through and makes it a 

night to remember. Sweet chocolate and flavored candies echo the fine Vermont country. There's music and of course new hope in the air. We're on stage 

tomorrow night - opening night for our new year 11,041. Wow!!

     

     

                                              Harry Leaves

 

       It was one thing to finally figure out how the actual transport mechanism 

worked, but it was quite another to find Harry and talk about it. "Where was he?"

      'I thought Harry was in here with you Bill." Evelyn seemed confused. "He was 

in an awful mood. I hope he doesn't run away again." Bill remembered the times 

Harry had suddenly disappeared, turned to Evelyn and half whispered, "uh oh, I 

have that feeling exactly. 

     He remembered the first time Harry had run away from home. He'd run up the  

steps and into the house. Harry's mom was there on the phone. "I don't know, I 

said, that's why I called you. He's never disappeared like this before and I looked 

all over for him, called his name, went to the neighbors. He's nowhere around 

here." she was very impatient and upset. "Did he take his bike?" Bill asked. "Go 

see," his mom answered. Sure enough, his bike was gone and Harry had a pretty 

good idea where he'd gone. "I'll find him Mrs. Adelman."  and he hurried back to his 

house at a run. It was only a block away across the South Miami neighborhood. 

     It was late summer and hot in Miami. Bill remembered the man that sold ice 

cold coconut milk on the corner by his house, his mustache and smile. "¿Por qué 

corres tan rápido en un día tan caluroso, chico?" He wanted to know why he was 

running so fast on a hot day like this. "I have to find Harry, did you see him?" "Si, 

hace como media hora en su bicicleta, como si fuera a la panadería." He said he 

was headed down toward the bakery only about half an hour ago. 

                                              

                                      

                                          Rolling and Dreaming 

          "What's real?' Bill was half awake and half dreaming, thinking about the

 rolling of the boat on the waves. Way out in the middle of the ocean, days from 

any port. 'Had they, in fact, been transported to another world? Was anything like 

that really possible?" It seemed that just last night they were talking about 

something like this in Boston. "Did this really happen?" He got up and looked 

around the galley for the cup of coffee to put into the microwave. He recognized 

the boat, It was the same boat that Harry and he kept in Costa Rica. He always 

had the same mug, usually half full of coffee ready to heat up or he'd just pour out 

another cup from the carafe. This was where he was. He was getting his coffee 

heated up. Nothing else was real to him, not yet, 

     Evelyn and Harry were in the aft cabin, getting a good healthy rest. Bill thought 

of vacations they'd taken and his ex-girlfriend Miri - all the fun they had. The coffee 

was hot and he started to smile. "We're here in the envelope Bill, we can't get back 

help!' The night before - they had been talking about getting lost, using their new 

system that copied living tissue layer by layer incredibly quickly and what would 

happen if they messed up somewhere and got lost. They had experimented with 

mice and lost one or two and they would talk about what happened to them and 

the world's record for laughter had been set and broken many times over those 

conversations. 

     Harry was the genius here. He'd explain it to them. "We make exact copies of  

the organisms - see? Then, we transmit the structures to the receiver. The actual 

occupant of the organism, if there is one, cannot be in two places at the same  

time." This was where he lost Bill. It was the higher math. He'd just have to check it 

out. "What did probability have to do with transport of a consciousness?" He was 

never going to travel anywhere hit or miss. Yet, here he was! And, "why was Harry 

so comfortable about it all? This bothered him a lot. "Was he really out to make 

them all disappear into the unknown or wherever 'nowhere' was?" He was getting 

fed up with the whole thing. He wished Harry would just disappear and just leave 

him alone. Just go away. Then he had it - he had the "higher math" exactly. The 

driving force behind where we go is where our interest is. This is what Harry meant 

when he said "solidification of the target area". This is how the beams where 

focused and where they had to intersect and why they needed three points and 

two lines to make this happen.