The Nick of Time

by Mike Parker

  “Look here,” Carl motioned toward a monitor near the machine. “It is a live feed from inside.” The apple could be clearly seen sitting on the platform at the base of the machine. Suddenly there was a bright light and the screen when momentarily to static.

  “It’s gone!” Ainsley gasped when the picture returned. Less than a minute later there was another bright flash and a few more seconds of static.

  “It’s back,” Nick whispered. “It’s back!” he said again this time much more exuberantly.

  Carl switched off the machine and waited a moment for the sounds to dissipate. He cautiously entered the room opened the pod door. His assistant scurried over and handed him a sharp steak knife. Everyone leaned in close and Ainsley took a few more photos as Carl slowly cut the apple, dividing it perfectly in two. Both halves of the apple toppled over revealing the perfectly reconstructed interior of the fruit.

  “We did it,” Carl said with restrained glee initially and then burst out, “WE DID IT!!”

  – 3 –

  Bigger and Smaller

  The trio celebrated the successful test late into the night. Of course, they did not all celebrate in the same way. Nick and Ainsley went out for a late dinner and then a stroll down by the river. It was not an official date by any means, and their relationship was completely plutonic – they both agreed on as much regularly. However, Nick would be lying to say that other thoughts and feelings hadn’t crept in occasionally.

  Carl on the other hand celebrated by staying in the lab and running more tests. “Sure,” he had explained to the others before they had left the lab, “It looks like an apple and it appears to be in perfect shape, but not until we examine it fully and compare it with the pre-teleport scans can we be certain that everything is all as it should be.” And so, the scientist spent the weekend analyzing and dissecting the apple to its very core. By the time Monday morning came, he was convinced that the fruit had come through the experiment without a scratch or blemish.

  “What’s next?” Nick asked as he entered the lab.

  “Well, we don’t have time booked on the synchrotron for two weeks, but there’s plenty of other things we need to do.”

  Nick knew he would regret it, but he couldn’t help but ask, “Like what?”

  “Plenty!” his friend eagerly answered. “First we have to run diagnostics on the machine, then we have to plan out our future test. The machine’s pod,”

  “You mean the B.I.R.D.’s nest? Yeah, that’s right, I’m calling it the B.I.R.D.’s nest now.”

  “The machine’s pod will need to be enlarged to hold larger specimens, including full-grown humans,” the scientist paused briefly to ponder that thought and then returned to rational reality. “Of course, that’s a long way off, but we need to be working towards it nonetheless.”

  “Alright, build a bigger B.I.R.D.’s nest. What else?”

  “The box needs to get smaller.”

  “Why is that?” Nick asked as he began sorting the notes from the weekend’s tests that had been tossed on his desk.

  “To function properly, the box has to remain connected to the object being transported. If the connection is broken, the link to the machine will be broken also. Which means…” Carl said prompting his friend.

  “Which means,” the assistant thought for a moment and then a look of realization swept over his face. “Which means you’re taking the long way home.”

  “That’s correct. Your round-trip quickly becomes a one-way ticket.”

  “But why do you need to make it smaller? Wouldn’t a bigger box be easier to stay connected to? More surface area and all that?”

  “That’s one way to look at it I suppose, but what happens when we start using things that move around? Can you imagine a little white mouse hauling this around?” Carl asked placing the Little Bird box on the desk.

  “No, I suppose not.”

  The pair spent the next several days planning out the best way to proceed. In the end, they agreed on a series of tests to further their work from teleporting a simple apple to a person. The first several steps involved fruit and other inanimate objects. Stage two advanced to more complex organisms, starting with deceased animals and eventually moving up to live specimens. In the third stage, they would attempt their first human teleportation. If all went well, it would take six months for them to be ready to enter phase three. If all went well.

  As it turned out, stage one went quite smoothly. In fact, the most difficult part was getting time on the synchrotron. Many students and professors at the university were using the multimillion-dollar device, not to mention researchers from across the country. Access to the beam was hard to come by at the best of times, but it was even more difficult during the summer months as all the professors put their full time into their projects since they no longer had courses to teach and papers to grade.

  Following the success of the apple test, they decided to test another fruit just to make sure they had the procedure down pat. Nick selected a pineapple for this attempt, partly because it was a larger specimen, but also because it had the word apple in its name. The pineapple made its journey as seamlessly as the Golden Delicious and the young men spent the next three weeks waiting anxiously for their next chance to access the beam.

  Test three was a branch of grapes. Technically this was test six, but they had agreed to start the numbering with the first successful test, ignoring the previous failed attempts in the count. Nick made sure to taste a few of the grapes before putting them in the B.I.R.D.’s nest. When Carl scolded him for it Nick replied, “Hey, this is for academic posterity, man. I’m gathering empirical data here. How are you supposed to know if teleported grapes taste the same as fresh grapes unless you sample a few?” As much as it irked the scientist to admit, he couldn’t refute his assistant’s logic, and as it turned out, the grapes were just as tasty after their brief molecular journey.

  The two researchers focussed their attention on increasing the capacity of the machine’s chamber following the grape test. This seemed a good time to shift gears since the data from the previous three tests had been relatively consistent with only minor adjustments needing to be made to the machine and the process. It was also one of their longest scheduling gaps as time on the synchrotron seemed almost impossible to secure. Carl had a hunch that Professor Lynch was hogging the high-tech device, but he could neither prove it or do anything about it. Of course, he could almost certainly have gotten bumped up to the top of the user list if he had revealed what exactly they were doing, but he was not ready for the word to get out on that just quite yet.

  By the time test four came around, the pod had been enlarged to three feet in diameter by three feet tall. For the final test of Stage One, the duo put a variety of fruit inside a large wooden bowl. They also threw in a rock, a full water bottle and a set of house keys. All of these items were contained inside a polymer box with the new and improved Little Bird box (which was now only one third its original size) set on top to ensure connection to all the items. This was the first test which teleported multiple items of various substances at the same time. When the pod door opened and the polymer lid was lifted, everything was exactly where it was supposed to be and in perfect condition.

  It was just after the July long weekend that the project was ready to move into Stage Two. Nick arrived late that morning, gingerly carrying a small, brown paper bag. “I got one,” he informed his lab partner.

  “Excellent!” Carl cheered. “How’d you manage that?”

  “Well, I had to sweet talk Donna over in the medical research lab, but she we defenseless against my charms.”

  “Oh you charmed her, did you?” Ainsley inquired giving him a humorously stern look before breaking into soft giggles. Carl’s sister had been at all the previous tests as well, documenting each one with her camera.

  “Yes, Ms. Ryan, I have wily charms,” Nick smirked. He then reached into the paper bag and pulled out a small white rat, holding it in the air by its tail.
“Unlike this poor fellow. All his wily days are over I’m afraid.”

  “Fascinating,” Carl whispered taking the rat from Nick and laying it in the machine’s chamber on top of the Little Bird box. “Guess we don’t have to worry about him jumping off of here.” Excitement ran high as the first member of the animal kingdom prepared to be teleported.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you,” the reporter began. “Where have you been sending all these things? I mean I know they don’t stay there for long, but they’d still cause a commotion if they just materialized in the middle of the campus quad.”

  “I suppose they would,” Carl conceded. “We’ve been sending them to dad’s old hunting cabin on Lake Chaubunagungamaug. All set Nick?” His partner nodded, and Carl flipped the switch, engaging the teleporter.

  “Did it work? Is it back?” Ainsley asked nervously.

  “Not yet,” her brother replied.

  “Yeah, we decided we should increase the length of time we leave the objects in their new locations to ensure there’s no degradation on that end of things. Did I get that right, boss?”

  “Surprisingly, yes,” Carl jested. “Mr. Rat should be back in about five minutes if all goes as planned.”

  – 4 –

  Of Mice and Men

  The first test of Stage Two had been a roaring success. The rat did not make it back alive, but then again, it wasn’t alive when it left either. Other than being still dead, Frank Sinatra, as Nick had dubbed the rat, was in perfect condition. Not a whisker bent. Not a hair out of place. It seemed as though the machine would be completely capable of processing the volume of data required by the increased complexity of a rat’s biology.

  “What’s next?” Ainsley asked after the cheering and high fiving had subsided.

  “Well,” Carl began. “Our next beam time isn’t for three weeks, so, tonight we celebrate! Who’s up for hot wings? On me.” The cheering and high fiving resumed as the trio headed for the door. “First thing tomorrow we’ll start prepping for the next test.”

  “You couldn’t just let us have one carefree night, could you?” Nick joked. “That’s alright. I’ll need some time to persuade Donna to give me a live rat this time!”

  Three weeks passed quickly, especially for Carl who spent most of that time working on an addition to the chamber that would raise its height up to just over five feet. The pod itself was pretty straightforward to build; the trick was making sure the high energy beam was dispersed properly to scan every millimeter of the chamber without frying whatever specimen was inside. Progress was slow but steady, and the addition would most likely be ready by the time test three came along.

  “Here you go!” Nick greeted as he entered the lab carrying a small cage with two rats inside. “Meet Jimmy Dean and Sammy Davis, Jr.”

  “Oh brother,” Ainsley groaned.

  “What?” Nick protested with a grin. “They’ve gotta have names. Alright Sammy, you go into the maze, and Jimmy Dean, you go and see Uncle Carl.”

  “So, you were able to sweet talk Donna again, were you?” Carl laughed.

  “Yeah, but I had to offer a date in exchange.”

  “She traded two rats for one?” the reporter asked, grinning ear to ear. “Why two rats today, anyway?”

  “One is for this test,” Carl explained taking the cage from his assistant. “The other will be for test three. But he has a few things to learn first.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Today is a big test,” the scientist elucidated. “Today Jimmy here will be the first living creature to teleport. Thanks to Sinatra, we know that the machine can molecularly dissolve and correctly reconstruct a rat’s anatomy. What we don’t know is whether or not the rat will still be alive when it does.”

  “Right,” Ainsley nodded her understanding.

  “But even if Jimmy Dean comes back alive,” Nick picked up the explanation as Carl prepared the machine. “We won’t know if he has retained any kind of consciousness or memory.”

  “You’re saying he could be alive, but basically a vegetable?”

  “Possibly. He could have basic brain function but no real sentience or personality. That’s what Sammy here is for,” he said placing the second rat in a large wooden maze he had constructed on one of the lab’s tables. “Over the next few weeks, Sammy will run the maze every day and learn where the cheese chunks are usually placed. That way, once he returns from his teleport, we can put him back in the maze…”

  “And if he knows where the cheese is, it means he has retained his memory,” Ainsley finished the thought.

  “And,” Carl rejoined the discussion. “Since our personality, who we are, is largely a function of our collective memories, it is likely that if Sammy’s memory is intact, his personality may be as well.”

  “That’s the hope anyways,” Nick added.

  “However, that is all a debate for another day,” the physicist announced. “Today is Jimmy Dean’s turn to make history!”

  “How long will he be gone?” the reporter asked taking a few snapshots before the chamber door was sealed.

  “Ten minutes,” Nick answered as he closed the iron door. “All ready here Carl.”

  Carl flipped the switch and the machine kicked into gear. After a few seconds, it powered down again. The camera looking into the chamber revealed the rat, the cage, and the Little Bird box were all gone. The big question was would they come back and what shape would Jimmy be in when they did. Ten minutes seemed like an eternity to the waiting trio, but eventually, the time did pass and the machine started powering up again.

  As per Ainsley’s request, Nick had covered up the monitor displaying the camera feed, just in case the rat returned in a less than healthy condition. This was the moment of truth. Teleporting inanimate objects was one thing, a really cool thing, but this was something completely different. A whole new ball game. Was it really possible for life to survive the process of being broken down to its most microscopic building blocks and then be reconstructed?

  Everyone held their breath as Carl carefully opened the chamber door. As the cool lab air seeped into the pod a faint squeak drifted out. “Jimmy’s alive!” Carl shouted, flinging the door open wide and pulling the cage out of the chamber. “I can’t believe it! He’s really alive!”

  After that, things progressed quite smoothly. A few weeks later Sammy Davis Jr. made his trek. He was gone for twenty minutes and returned in tip-top shape. As soon as he was released into the maze, he found all the cheese bits in record time.

  Test number four involved a stray cat. The short-haired tuxedo cat had been hanging around Nick’s apartment all summer, so he started leaving out a saucer of milk. Having completed their tests with the rat pack, it was time for Mr. Mistoffelees to take his turn. After half an hour, presumably sunning himself by the cabin at the lake, the cat returned to the lab in purrr-fect condition, as Nick reported it. As soon as he was released from the chamber, Mistoffelees walked straight to Nick, rubbed against his leg and mewed softly.

  “Verdict seems to be in,” Nick declared. “Looks like this old rust bucket works!”

  “It would appear that this high tech and finely tuned device does indeed work,” Carl corrected. “Normal biological function, memory, personality all seem to be maintained throughout the process.”

  “Little Jimmy Dean has been back for over a month and he still shows no sign of ill effects?” Ainsley asked continuing to flash pictures of the teleported cat.

  “Not unless this guy gets to him,” Nick replied, stroking Mr. Mistofelees’ coat affectionately.

  “I guess that leaves only one thing left to do,” Carl announced reflectively.

  “Stage Three,” Nick responded cautiously.

  “Stage Three?” Ainsley asked sounding nervous.

  “Stage Three,” Carl replied matter-of-factly. “On to Stage Three.”

  – 5 –

  The Doctor is In

  A long and heavy silenced filled the lab as everyone pond
er the gravity of the implications moving into Stage Three brought. Teleporting fruit was fun. Teleporting cats and rats was fascinating. But teleporting a real live human being that – was frightening.

  “Perhaps you should start with a cadaver first, just to make sure,” Ainsley suggested looking worriedly at Nick.

  “Donna’s going to want more than a date before she smuggles a corpse out of the med-lab,” Nick chuckled nervously.

  “Nonetheless,” Carl spoke thoughtfully, “it might be wise to make sure the computer can handle the increased data load of an entire human body.”

  “Hey, I’m all for it, but exactly how do you suggest we pull it off?” the assistant asked.

  “It was always just a matter of time before we needed to bring a doctor on board,” Carl explained. “Perhaps now is that time.”

  “Who did you have in mind?” his sister inquired.

  “Professor Stevens. He is not only a licensed physician, he’s also the dean of the medical college on campus. If anyone can pull the strings we need, it will be him.”

  “Yeah,” the reporter asked, “But what makes you think he’ll be willing to risk doing it?”

  “He gets to put ‘Doctor of Teleportation Invention Team’ on his resume.”

  “That might do,” Nick agreed.

  Ten days later the team reassembled in the lab, only this time it was one, or two, people larger. Dr. Steven’s was an African-American man in his early fifties, of average height and not overly slender build. This was his second visit to the lab. His first came the night before, around 2 AM. The professor had agreed to supply a cadaver from the medical studies lab, largely on the promise it would be fit to return after the test. However, he couldn’t very well just wheel the corpse out in broad daylight. Nick had helped push the gurney through the dark and deserted hallways and deliver the body to Carl’s lab. Bags of ice in a makeshift tub had kept John Doe cool overnight, but now he was ready to be transferred into the machine.