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The Pribadiums have been hard at work for the last three days. They have
been performing, checking, and rechecking calculations. They have been
running simulation after simulation after simulation. They have sent probes
out to scan, analyze, and synthesize. And now they have a better picture of
their situation. The first probes told them how expansive the pocket
dimension bubble was. These more recent probes are telling them how big it
is now, and those figures are not the same. It’s shrinking. At this rate,
the window of opportunity will close by the end of the week. Well, they
wanted to know their time constraints, and now they have them. That is only
part of the puzzle, though. What happens to people and objects who pass back
out?
Or are they passing through the dimensional barrier at all? Their intuition
suggests that they are, because the Pribadiums are losing contact with the
probes, but that doesn’t mean they’re slipping safely through. It might be
vaporizing them, shunting them somewhere else, or simply generating too much
interference to maintain the connection. Someone is going to have to go out
there and gather more information.
“I volunteer as tribute,” Sora says.
Pribadium!One chuckles. “That won’t be necessary. We’ll flip a coin.”
“I’m serious,” Sora insists. “If something happens to me, it’s no big deal.
I only have maybe a hundred years left in this universe anyway. If one of
you dies, you’re losing eternity. Besides, you’re more valuable than
I am. Really, I wanna do this.”
“Well, if we’re going by a simple value analysis, we have an excess of
Pribadiums,” Pribadium!Two says. “If I go, my alternate is still
here, and we’ve not lost anything.”
Pribadium!One rolls her eyes at her alternate self, and doesn’t validate her
words. She faces Sora. “This wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with
Elke, would it?”
“Elke?” Sora asks. “I told you, I’ve moved past that. You telling me what
happens when you die has given me closure. That’s why it doesn’t scare me to
do this, because I know whatever happens, I’ll survive. I didn’t realize I
was digitized, and I’ve been grumpy about it, but we might as well take
advantage. It sounds like you can’t come back, or dead people would be doing
it all the time. So you should stay.” He looks at Pribadium!Two. “Both of
you. Two heads are better than one if they’re both you, right?”
“I’m the one who said that,” Pribadium!One reminds him.
“Same result,” Sora reasons. “And anyway, death isn’t a guarantee. It’s a
test.”
Pribadium!Two shakes her head. “Survival is what is not guaranteed. The
afterlife simulation is based on a certain set of criteria. In order for
your consciousness to be transmitted to it, you have to both originate from
the main sequence, and be in the main sequence. I’m guessing you
qualify for the former, but not necessarily the latter. That’s one thing we
would be testing out there with this manned mission. The bottom line is that
you may not end up in the sim, or in Fort Underhill. The risk is real.”
“Again, that is how I have always lived,” Sora explains. “I never thought I
was going to live forever. There is a freedom in that which you have either
forgotten, or are too young to remember. I’m part of a long history of
doomed souls. I’m proud of that.”
Pribadium!Two nods. She pulls down her pants and removes a teleporter
dartgun from a flap of skin on her hip.
“You always had that?” Pribadium!One was surprised. “You could have
escaped.”
“Yes,” Pribadium!Two confirms. “But he won’t be able to.” She shoots him.
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