Home > Work > The Wells Bequest (The Grimm Legacy, #2)
1 " Would you really want to live in world where only the possible is possible? "
― Polly Shulman , The Wells Bequest (The Grimm Legacy, #2)
2 " What about the dissolution transporter?” suggested Ms. Minnian. “Is it still checked out?” “Let’s see.” Doc went over to a card file and flipped through it. “No, it’s back downstairs in the Chresto. Excellent idea.” “What’s a dissolution transporter?” I asked. “Sort of like a fax machine for objects,” said Dr. Rust. “What’s a fax machine, then?” “Oh, you young people!” said Ms. Minnian. “Never mind about the fax,” said Doc. “A dissolution transporter deconstructs an object—in this case, you—taking note of its exact structure and composition. Then it transfers that information to another location, where the object is reassembled from material there.” “Kind of like the transporter on Star Trek except it only works one way,” said Jaya. That sounded alarming. “But if we’re deconstructed here and reassembled someplace else, won’t we turn into other people?” “Technically, yes. But you’ll be other people with the exact same memories. And exact duplicates of your bodies, down to the last quark,” said Ms. Minnian. “Yes, but I’ll be dead! Just because someone else has my memories, that doesn’t mean it’s me!” I objected. “It’s okay, Leo,” said Jaya. “I’ve used the diss tran a zillion times and I still feel like myself.” “Of course you do. You have all of the original Jaya’s memories, so of course you think you’re her. That doesn’t mean you are.” “What makes you so sure you’re the same Leo who went to bed last night?” said Ms. Minnian. “Dissolution transportation is no more discontinuous than falling asleep and waking up again. But you don’t have to go if you’re afraid. "
3 " Schist! How did it get so late?”Jaya laughed. “Schist?” she said. “Is that another of your family expressions?”I nodded. “It was on our science vocabulary list last year. It’s a kind of rock. It’s what happens to hot sandstone when it gets squished really hard for a few million years.”“I know,” said Jaya. “But I’ve never heard anybody use it as a curse before. It sounds really bad—in a good way.”“Yeah, it’s one of my favorites. Even strict teachers can’t object to a word from a vocabulary list, right? "
4 " You're sweet, Leo," said Jaya. "But how do you know the you in the world where I'm not me isn't saying the exact same thing to the not-me me right now?""I don't. But I don't care what he's saying because he's not me. He's just some other guy saying something to some other girl who isn't you. Or maybe he's the girl and you're a guy in which case he's some other girl saying something to some other guy who isn't you," I said. "It has nothing to do with us. "