of such meetings in dreams. But first I have to do a little more tinkering and adjust the field of recoherence.â It moved across the concrete floor, picked up a few metal pieces of washing machine, and swallowed them.
âStill hungry?â Gabe asked. âI can probably find you more baking soda.â
The Envoy shook its mouth. âIâm sustained, thank you,â it said. âIâm partially digesting these metals in order to shift their molecules into more useful combinations, and not because Iâm hungry.â
âOh,â said Gabe. He sat on the basement steps andwatched, fascinated, while the metal pieces changed color inside the Envoy. It pushed them out, added them to the device of entanglement, and absorbed other pieces to work strange changes on. Then it took a breath and shifted to keep the pocket of air separate from the floating pieces of metal.
âThis is we how we will entangle you,â it said. âFirst weâll embed tiny particles inside youâmost especially in the skin of your eyelids, the surface of your eardrums, and all along your spine. Then we will entangle those particles and propel their identical twins through the tiny black hole I will make in your clothes dryer.â
âYou can make a black hole in the dryer?â
âYes,â said the Envoy. âPlease do not stand too close to it.â
âCan I throw something at it and watch what happens?â Gabe asked.
âNo,â said the Envoy. âIt will be very precisely calibrated.â
âNot even little scraps of paper or balls of dryer lint or something like that?â
The Envoy cleared its long, purple throat. âPlease do not throw anything at the black hole! Accounting for the air and dust motes is hard enough. It will remember everything it absorbs. We have to sneak the particles ofyour entanglement through that attention, avoiding its notice. Once the entangled particles pass through the black hole, theyâll travel between the ninth and tenth dimensions of our universe, skim across the surface of an adjacent universe, shift in and out of places where neither space nor distance currently exist, and finally arrive at the Embassy. You might have some very strange dreams before they arrive. Try not to be alarmed by your dreams.â
âOkay,â said Gabe. âIâll try. I never really remember my dreams anyway.â
âYouâll remember these,â the Envoy said. âOnce the particles reach the Embassy, theyâll form a precisely entangled duplicate of your perception and awareness. Youâll see, hear, and move as though actually there, even though the Embassy is twenty-five thousand light-years away in the very center of the galaxy.â
âI thought there was a really big black hole at the center of the galaxy,â said Gabe. He was the sort of kid who knew such things.
âThere is,â said the Envoy. âThe Embassy is perched on the very edge.â It added molecularly modified pieces of dryer to the rest of the device. âWeâre ready to begin. The device is ready, at least. Are you ready?â
âWill it hurt?â Gabe asked, though he didnât feel worried.
âNot very much,â the Envoy said.
Gabe felt a bit worried now. âIs it safe?â he pressed.
âNo,â said the Envoy. âDefinitely not. Nothing is safe. Neither food nor playgrounds nor standing where meteors might land on youâwhich is anywhere and everywhereâis ever safe. Thereâs no such quality as safe. Instead there is trust. Weâve only just met, you and I, so I understand if we donât yet have enough trust between us. We can delay your entanglement. But if you wish to accept this post to help protect your world and every form of life residing on it, then you must become entangled. And given that we have strange ships in the asteroid belt, I really do encourage you to