Divine Artifact in a Scientific World

"Nora, Samantha, Naoko, do any of you have immediate access to two containers, where one will fit inside the other? And an object that will fit inside the smaller container?"

Naoko and Samantha shook their heads, but Nora said, "I'm in my apartment at the moment. I have some plastic containers that should work."

Seeing his expectant look, she added, "Just a moment. Let me get set up."

A few moments later, she said, "Okay. I'm sitting at my kitchen table with two containers and an almond."

He made a snapshot, located Nora's kitchen, then templatized and linked the two containers and their lids. Both containers and their lids appeared on Madison's desk.

"Okay, put the almond inside the smaller container, then seal it," he said.

When she nodded and said, "Done," he opened the larger container, put the smaller container inside, then closed the lid.

After exporting the changes, he asked, "What happened?"

Nora replied, "The larger container moved and appeared around the smaller container."

"Maybe the larger container needs to be anchored?" asked Naoko.

He was thinking the same thing.

He opened the larger container, pulled out the smaller container, closed the larger container, then exported the changes.

"Did the larger container return to its original position?" he asked.

"No, they are now right next to each other."

"Okay, move the larger container farther away, then hold it down with your hand. Or if that makes you uncomfortable, put something heavy on top of it."

"Just a second," she said. Then, a moment later, "Okay. I put a pot on top of it."

He repeated his earlier maneuver: small inside large, then export.

"It worked!" exclaimed Nora. "The small container teleported into the large container, and the almond went with it!"

This was huge. They still needed to do a test with an animal, but if it worked, then they could do so many things. A secret bunker with no entrance. Instantaneous travel to anywhere in the solar system, provided they sent a large container first.

"Jack?" said Madison. He could sense a hint of desperation over their connection.

"Do you really want to be a fugitive for the rest of your life because you couldn't wait a few days?"

She sighed. "No. Fuck!"

"Besides, we don't even know if it works on people yet. First, we need to test it on an animal. Then we'll test it on Gerald."

Madison chuckled.

"Gerald?" asked Naoko.

"An FIS agent that did some very naughty things and is now facing a long jail sentence. I had to soul bond the little bastard so I could force him to go confess his crimes and keep him from making any more attempts on Isabella's life."

"But if he's in jail, how will you test teleportation on him?"

"I'll just tell him to wrap himself up inside his bed sheet. If it works, I'll just put him back right away. Even if someone notices, they'll think they were seeing things."

"Jack?" said Nora.

"Yes?"

"I have a one-kilogram tungsten cube I bought as a novelty item. It fits inside the smaller container. Let's try again with that instead of the almond. Maybe the item has to weigh less than the container."

"Good idea."

He reverted the containers, then waited for Nora's signal.

When she nodded, he repeated the maneuver.

"It didn't work," she said. "The small container moved, but left the tungsten cube behind."

"Damn!" muttered Madison.

"Interesting," said Samantha.

Rina was still typing on her keyboard, oblivious to everything they had said.

"It's still possible. We will just need to find containers that are heavier than people," said Nora. "I'll look online and see what I can find."

This relative-weight constraint was disappointing. Without it, he envisioned all of his girls carrying around folded mylar bags. In an emergency, they could unfold the bag, climb inside, then his parallel self could teleport them to safety.

But now it looked like that wasn't possible. Still, if it did work with a heavier container, like a large safe, then he could install escape capsules in his home that could be used to teleport them to a secure bunker.

He wasn't expecting an attack. He just liked the idea of being prepared, just in case.

"Um, Jack?" said Madison. She was worried about something.

"What?"

"There are some inmates whispering to each other in the common room and they keep looking at me. Can you use your remote-presence technique and see what they are talking about?"

"Sure."

He enabled the technique, located Madison, then the huddled inmates, and moved his viewpoint to hover over them. He couldn't 'play' what was happening for others to watch and listen, because he had to enter the simulation in observer mode before he could hear anything.

After listening for a few minutes, he exited the simulation.

"They're just wondering why Isabell told them to leave you alone. Most of them think you might be part of her org; the rest think she's planning to hire you. Regardless, they didn't say anything that would make me think they were doing anything but gossip."

Madison hugged him. "Thanks. I really hate it there."

"What did you just do?" asked Naoko.

"I wanted a way to do surveillance on someone. If I create a simulation from an Atomic level snapshot, I can learn what the person will most likely do in the near future. But the cost is high, and I can only run the simulation for a few hours."

"An Approximation level simulation is super cheap, but will deviate from reality within seconds. But then I learned that I can update a running simulation from a new snapshot as long as the simulation and reality haven't deviated too much."

Naoko nodded, like she was following along.

"So, I run an Approximation detail level simulation, and update it from new snapshots thirty times a second. Then, using observer mode, I can be an invisible fly on the wall anywhere in the world. I named it my remote-presence technique."

"So you use new snapshots to keep the simulation on track so it reflects reality?" she asked.