Endless Love
By Edward M. Grant
Published by Banchixi Media at Smashwords
Copyright 2012 Edward M. Grant
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* * *
Cara looked at the mess on Geoff's kitchen table. "What's this supposed to be?"
He had soldered piles of wire coat-hangers into strange shapes on top of two boxes of electronics. A piece of cheese lay on top of one box, more cables than she could count connected the the boxes together and a thick cable ran from one box to the microwave.
"It's a teleporter," Geoff said. "Anything I put on the first box will be dismantled into atoms, then transported to the other box and reassembled."
She looked at him. "And it will actually work this time?"
He frowned and scratched his ear. Then he picked up a notepad and flipped through it. He crossed out a line, scribbled something with a pen, then gently adjusted one of the coat-hangers.
"The maths works."
Cara stepped away from the table in case it didn't. Two pairs of dark goggles lay on top of the dishwasher. Geoff picked them up and handed a pair to her. She put them over her eyes and adjusted the elastic to hold them in place while he slid his onto his forehead.
A mouse squeaked in a cage by the sink. Geoff opened the wire door, reached in and lifted it out by its tail. It twisted in his grip and and squeaked as he carried it to the teleporter.
He lowered the mouse into the mass of coat-hangers, then slid the goggles down over his eyes. The mouse sniffed the coat-hangers and peered out through a gap between them, its whiskers twitching. Then it turned and picked up the cheese.
Geoff stepped to the microwave. It beeped as he pressed buttons on the front.
"Ready?" he said.
Cara nodded, then took another step back. The mouse looked at her. She was glad she wasn't where it was.
Geoff pressed another button on the microwave. It hummed and began to whine.
"Perhaps I should watch from outside," Cara said.
"It's perfectly safe," Geoff said.
He reached out and pressed the 'Start' button.
Sparks flew from the teleporter and smoke billowed into the air above it. Geoff pressed 'Stop' and the microwave's door clicked open. Cara coughed as the smoke filled the kitchen. It smelled like burnt rubber and...
She raised a hand to waft the smoke away from her face. The rear half of the mouse was still on the box where Geoff had put it. The front half was a blackened mass of skin, cheese, bone and... other things... on the other box.
"Poor thing," she said.
Geoff stuck a pen into the open end of the burned half-mouse and lifted it up to his face.
"It half-worked."
"The half that didn't catch fire."
"It needs a bit of fine tuning."
Cara stepped closer and put her hand on his shoulder. "Maybe I can help."
Geoff turned and dropped the half-mouse into the bin.
"I don't think your brain is powerful enough to comprehend the science involved."
He picked up the other half of the mouse. The rear legs kicked a few times, then stopped. He dropped it in the bin.
A loud, high-pitched car horn beeped outside.
"I have to go," Cara said. "I'll see you next weekend. Try not to set any more mice on fire."
* * *
A very red Ferrari rolled along a country road with the roof off and windows down. Cara sat in the passenger seat, her hair blowing in the wind. Bob smiled in the driver's seat and seemed to be taking great pleasure in changing gear and revving the engine loudly at each corner. When he picked her up at Geoff's place she thought he had gone mad and was having a mid-life crisis in his twenties, but then she saw the car hire stickers on the number plate.
"Why do you hang around with that loser?" he said.
"Geoff has big dreams. He's going to be famous one day."
"For setting mice on fire?"
Cara ignored him. He turned the corner and roared into a field, then slammed on the brakes and slid the car sideways. It came to a halt by the river.
Bob opened the bonnet and lifted out a wicker picnic hamper. Cara climbed out and watched the swans swim past with a gaggle of baby swans behind them. She was sure there was a name for baby swans but couldn't remember what it was. Either way, they were cute.
She turned to find Bob laying out plates on a tartan blanket on the grass. He pulled out a bottle of champagne, popped the cork and filled two glasses.
He handed one to her and she sipped from it. She hoped he wasn't planning to be drinking more than one because the way he was driving while sober she didn't think she'd want to get in the car with him if he did.
He knelt on the blanket. She was about to kneel across from him and get started on the food, but he raised a hand. "Not yet," he said.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box, then flipped it open.
"Will you marry me?"
Cara looked down at him. In the box was a large diamond ring which would look very good -- and very shiny -- on her finger.
He had done a good job. The car, the picnic, the ring. The kneeling. The ring. She leaned forward for a closer look. It was very, very shiny, and large enough that she could see her reflection in it. And all that gold must have cost a packet.
His eyes stared into hers, but the smile on his face wavered and the corners of his lips twitched. She could tell he was struggling harder to continue smiling the longer she failed to respond. She kept her own poker face and wondered what to do.
I'll have to think about it.
That was her first thought, but she couldn't imagine it would make him happy. But saying yes would be so complicated.
"I said," he said, "will you marry me?"
He wasn't very smart, but he did play rugby and he did have big muscles and... other things. And a house. And a decent job. And a very nice ring.
He coughed.
"Of course I will," she said.
He held out his hand, took her fingers in his, then slipped the ring onto her finger. She raised her hand toward her face and looked at it. It did look nice there, almost as though it was meant to be.
The only problem was that she really didn't think she wanted to marry him.
* * *
Cara stood in the front doorway of Geoff's house. Several old cars littered the drive in varying states of disrepair and more were parked on the road. Geoff leaned over the wing of a rusty Ford Escort, his head and shoulders hidden inside the engine bay. Half of the engine already stood on the concrete beside it, dismantled and black with oil. He swore and a wrench clicked.
Cara fiddled with the ring. She had removed it and put it in her pocket because she didn't want Geoff to see it. It would raise too many questions that she didn't need to answer there and then.
Her phone played a boppy tune in her other pocket. She pulled it out and looked at the screen. Bob was calling, as she'd expected. She sighed and took the call.
"I've been trying to get in touch all day," Bob said.
"I'm sorry, something came up."
Geoff put the wrench on the wing and grunted as he pulled on something in the engine bay.
"We were supposed to go out this afternoon," Bob said.
Geoff pulled and twisted and grunted. Cara watched the sweat roll down his forehead.
"You know I wouldn't stand you up. We'll have dinner on Thursday, OK? It'll be great."
"You're not seeing Geoff, are you?"
Geoff pulled a piece of electronics from the engine bay. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, leaving an oily trail across the skin. Cara's gaze followed him as he walked past her and into the house.
"I haven't seen Geoff in ages."
* * *
Cara looked around the dark, dingy cellar. It smelled of mould and worse, and she resisted the urge to hold her nose.
A large machine filled most of the floor, an old wheelie bin beside a slatted wooden pyramid covered with tin foil with a metal door at the front. A shiny metal tube ran from the bin to the pyramid and electronic boxes were scattered across the sides, attached to wires which lead to a rack of computers in the corner.
Cara pointed at the door. "Did you take that from your garage?"
"I just borrowed it. When I prove this works I'll be able to buy as many doors as I want."
Geoff pulled a board from the car's electronics box and duct-taped it to the machine, then soldered some wires into place to connect it to the rest.
A laptop sat on a folding table in one corner, a stuffed bunny toy alongside it. As Geoff put the final touches to the soldering she walked to the table.
"Is this what you brought me here to see?"
Cara picked up the toy and stroked it.
"Are you having a second childhood?"
Geoff put down the soldering iron and walked to the laptop. He sat on a garden chair in front of it.
"We're making history here. The teleporter was a step too far. I had the scanning process working and the reproduction, but the transfer didn't work."
Cara nodded. "I think I figured that out. So did the mouse."
"So I separated the two processes. I scanned that bunny into the computer before the controller blew out, and now it's going to be the first object ever duplicated."
Cara leaned closer to look at the screen. Close enough that she could feel the heat of his body. The screen showed a window with a few buttons, 'Scan', 'Save' and 'Print'.
"How does it work?"
Geoff turned to answer. His shoulder pressed against her breast, and his face was only inches from hers. She leaned closer, bringing her lips almost to his.
He leaned away from her, moved the pointer with the touchpad and pressed the 'Print' button on the screen. Cara turned to look at the laptop display.
Replicating Source...
The machine whirred and clicked, and lights flickered inside. She covered her eyes as a dazzling white light moved up and down behind the slats.
"It's like a photocopier," Geoff said. "You scan the object into the computer, then you make copies by printing them out of raw atoms."
"Where do you get raw atoms?"
"I collect the neighbours' garbage and throw it in the hopper. The machine does the rest."
Cara shook her head slowly. No wonder the place smelled so bad. She leaned closer to Geoff, the smell of oil and sweat was better than old garbage.
"Is it going to catch fire this time? Do you have an extinguisher?"
"Just watch."
The machine whirred and shook and rattled. There was a loud bang and Cara turned to look at it. Geoff slid away from her and walked to the far side of the machine.
The noise stopped and the lights went out. The laptop beeped.
Cara walked to the machine, and peered through the frosted glass of the door. The interior was dark and she could see nothing inside.
Geoff reached for the door handle and Cara stepped back, still stroking the bunny. She held it tight to her chest and held her breath in case smoke and flames billowed out.
Geoff opened the door, leaned into the machine, then stood again. He held up his hands, with another toy bunny cupped between them. He looked at it, stroked it, then handed it to Cara.
She held the new bunny in one hand and the original in the other. It looked similar, but something wasn't quite right.
"The ears are wrong."
She held them up so Geoff could see. The new bunny's ears were at a different angle to the original.
Geoff shook his head. "There's not enough memory to perfectly scan inanimate objects. It has to approximate in places."