Mathematicians in Love by Rudy Rucker

Author:Rudy Rucker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Epingsoft
Published: 2012-03-27T04:00:00+00:00

5

Mathematicians from Galaxy Z

We made a pit stop just south of SF in the gritty beach town called Corona. I visited a cash machine by a Mono­grub burger place. I really did have a million dollars in my bank account now. I withdrew my daily maximum, three hundred bucks. And then I tanked up my car while Paul got some sup­plies. “I’m taking Alma surfing in Big Sur today,” I told him as the squinty whale lumbered back onto the highway. “I’ll drop you off in Palo Alto.”

“No way,” said Paul. “I want to see Alma too. I want to go to Big Sur. We can run Haut’s Paradox again. Make a new hyper­tunnel.”

"What about your big meeting with the chairman this after­noon? Can’t miss that, Paul.”

He gave me a haughty look. “I’m beyond this Earth’s aca­demic games. The hypertunnel changes everything. I’ll come to Sur with you and we’ll make a tunnel we can travel through.”

"But I’d like to see Alma on my own. It’s been a few days. I want to work on—on our relationship.” With any luck, I’d slip into her bed in the garage before daybreak and we’d make love.

“Oh, I won’t interfere,” said Paul, still taking that lofty tone. “We need to stick together for now.” He turned his head and stared out the rear window. "Is something following us? In the air?”

I half-suspected he was trying to spook me. “You think the cone shell came through the tunnel and stayed?” I said, firmly keeping my eyes on the foggy road. Steep cliffs dropped to the Pacific on my right.

“I think she ate Owen and maybe Haut and then she flew out through that hole in the ceiling,” said Paul. “With the tun­nel closed, she’s trapped here. She’s probably hoping we’ll open up another tunnel so she can fly back.”

“She?”

“I picked up a vibe that this particular alien is female,” said Paul. “From the little bit of her that I saw. Owen opened the door at just the wrong time.”

“I bet he thought so, too,” I said.

“The tunnel didn’t stay open for very long,” mused Paul, off on his own train of thought. “A hyperdimensional tunnel like that needs a lot of mass at our end to stabilize it. When we make the next one, we should set up the paracomputer in, like, a cave. Or under a heavy bridge. So we’ll have plenty of time to go through and look around. You know any places like that?”

“Miller Beach,” I said. “There’s an amazing natural bridge in the water. A massive craggy stone haystack with a little square passage through it. I’ve always thought it’s like a door to an­other world. You see postcards of it. We could set our paracom­puter to running Haut’s Paradox on a ledge inside that natural bridge, paddle out past it, turn around, and when the tunnel opens up we surf through! Crunkabunka, dude.” I paused, thinking of Alma again. “Hypothetically speaking, that is. But are you really sure about

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