Mind Out of Time by Christopher Stasheff

Author:Christopher Stasheff [Stasheff, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Stasheff Literary Enterprises
Published: 2011-05-29T16:00:00+00:00

They spent the rest of the night calibrating the matter transmitter, the rheostat for distance and the variable condenser for direction, until Angus could put a half-inch cube of sugar precisely on target anywhere within the apartment, the cube obediently disappearing from the quarter and reappearing where it was wanted, three tries out of three, every time.

Then (about four a.m.), they started experimenting with larger amounts of power, checking the range available with the current supplied by a doorbell transformer. Yorick went to a phone booth about two blocks away and called in. Angus bent over the breadboard with one hand on the rheostat and the other on the variable condenser, the phone cradled between ear and shoulder.

"Did I hit you?"

"Nope. Try again."

"Okay... We're gonna need more sugar cubes, Yorick."

"Don't worry about it, I know this all-night cafe..."

"Roger. Okay... There!"

"Where?"

"In your phone booth."

"Wanna bet?"

On the fifth try, Angus managed to place the cube on the palm of Yorick's hand. The Neanderthal came up with a whoop of joy that he must have dredged up whole and bodily out of his chertz-chipping childhood, and Angus was deaf in one ear for a half-hour afterward.

He did a few calculations while Yorick hiked to another phone booth halfway across town (fortunately, the caveman kept a slide rule in the house). Angus worked out a quick rule of thumb, and managed to put the sugar cube in Yorick's hand on the first try. Yorick's victory cry made a permanent dent in the diaphragm of the phone, but Angus had wisely laid the receiver half-way across the room before he pushed the button, so his auditory nerves were only slightly overloaded.

Sunrise saw Yorick standing in a neighboring town thirty miles away. Angus opened the rheostat full, pushed the button, and put the sugar cube in Yorick's s palm.

"First try," Yorick trumpeted over the phone.

"Aw, hell, it was easy," Angus muttered, a little embarrassed. And, to forestall further congratulations: "How about breakfast?"

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