..... The First Speaker frowned and brushed lightly at her silver hair. "In summary then, Dr. Elsynn, you have no real idea why this phenomenon, as you call it, is happening." She shifted her document case from one hand to the other. "Six deaths . . . and no explanation."
..... "We have some working hypotheses." I tried to put a good face on our failure -- at the moment my position, as Technical Director of the teleportation project, was feeling very uncomfortable. Six volunteers -- I won't speculate on why they volunteered. Six losses and each dead of old age. Within the few hours that they were away -- somewhere -- each had lived out his full life span.
..... "There's nothing significant in experimentation yet," I continued. "The time relationship seems to be out of specification. It's a complex situation which requires further study."
..... A technician walked past, trying to be very quiet as she went about her duties. The device was full on and operating.
..... In the silence, a partly suppressed chuckle could be heard. Over by the master control console, the Commander looked at us, glanced at the ceiling for a moment, then returned to studying the instruments. He was out-of-place in that group -- dark clothes, brown hair cut to a convenient and unfashionable length, and gray-blue eyes with an impermeable and icy anger in them. A very hard man, but fortunately for me, one who took little part in the discussions. He only half-listened to the explanations of how my invention operated.
..... The First Speaker seemed to have lost her patience with him also. "Then perhaps you could offer something useful, Commander? I'd hoped that, with your novel background, you could contribute something valuable here."
..... He strolled to the wide red warning line which marked off the Entrance Gate. "There's nothing wrong with the equipment," he stated, peering into the swirling gray mists of hyperspace which filled the gateway. "Only with the inventor."
..... "Then perhaps you'd explain to us why this thing doesn't work properly," the First Speaker challenged. She used her document case to gesture toward the Exit Gate.
..... "But it does work properly." He shrugged and turned to face us, hands loosely clasped behind his back. "The problem merely is something inanely and entirely wrong with the race of alleged thinking beings who developed it."
..... The First Speaker let out a long breath. "If you please, would you inform us just what to do about the situation here? Something has to be done by tomorrow."
..... He gestured with one hand, palm upward. "Nothing at all about this situation pleases me, madam." He hesitated a moment for emphasis. "What should you do? Certainly something less mundane than merely abandoning the project. I would suggest classifying the entire program at the highest secrecy level attainable. Bury this nightmare in the lowest depths of bureaucratic record-losing. Pretend that it never happened. Bury it all: Theory, designs, drawing, and hardware, including the total idiot who assembled this disaster!"
..... "I need something more definitive than your personal opinion, Commander." She pointed at him, using the document case. "This is an expensive program, aimed at a very important objective. We can hardly afford to risk the Opposition coming up with the answer before we do."
..... "The Opposition? They deserve to be working on this boobytrap. They'll solve this problem about the time my ship's drive funnels start spitting icicles! If they haven't built a working model, we should send them this one. Add the inventor as a gratuity."
..... "Do you intend to contribute something useful, Commander?" she asked tartly. "Or does this drivel continue?"
..... "It continues," he snapped back. "It certainly does continue. You simply don't appreciate that this marvelous invention is only one more dreary variation on the same tawdry theme. The interceptors of which my own vessel is a derivation, that control system debacle of last year, the instantaneous data-link sequence which ran wild . . . and now this innocent-seeming monster. You keep trying the same principle over and over again. You meet the same catastrophe over and again over, never learning! The hardware invariably works, and the idiots who built it invariably don't."
..... "Your learned opinion is appreciated, Commander." She unsuccessfully hid the anger in her voice. "Unfortunately for us all, I must base my decision on facts."
..... "There is that! Permit me to present you with a fact." He turned and strode across the warning line. In two steps, he was through the gateway and gone behind the swirling gray mist.
..... "Oh my God!" the First Speaker murmured, clutching her document case against her. "I didn't mean . . . ."
..... I had paused to address a few words to the aforementioned myself. Another death to explain.
..... And stopped in mid-mumble as the Commander casually ambled out of the Exit Gate and halted two meters beyond it. He smoothed his hair with one hand, as he watched us staring at him.
..... "A fact, I believe," he announced into the total silence. "Now that's a fact. The hardware does work as advertised." He shrugged, then gestured. "A couple twists which proved amusing. Nothing noteworthy."
..... He ambled to the hallway door. "Now will you follow my suggestions? Or perhaps you'd like to sample the situation intrinsically yourselves."
..... No one moved in the silence.
..... "No takers?" Pausing at the doorway, he added: "What one needs is a designer person, HUMAN BEING, THINKING, TELEPORTATION DEVICE, FOR THE USE OF. A race of people specifically fabricated to match this invention. Now, if you'll excuse me? I've been away longer than you'd imagine." He stepped through the doorway and allowed the panel to close behind him.
..... Voices began to recover -- a few more phrases, a promise or two, nods and handshakes. Within moments, the Committee was gone. Also, most of the workpersons and technicians had drifted off to lunchtime break, leaving me alone on the test bay floor.
..... I cannot say that I enjoyed being called an idiot - especially, when the man who did so, proceeded to prove it a few minutes later!
..... A technician, left on watch up on the engineering balcony, called out a warning, as I stepped past the painted line and into the Entrance Gate.

..... My device did work, but not as I had designed it -- or should I say, better than I'd designed it? It could have delivered me to the Exit Gate. Also, it could have delivered me to anywhere I chose, anywhere I instructed the computer system to take me -- even to worlds which didn't exist except in the wisps of my imagination.
..... Worlds bounded only by my thoughts. I could have any world I wanted, any dream I wanted. It could all come true. My device could and would manufacture all I requested, any hope or desire or fantasy. This is what happened to those other six men. They went off to live in a world of their own making for the rest of their natural lives.
..... My own world, which I have created, is a peaceful place -- beautiful, gentle, the garden I've always wanted. No machines! The people, who live here, are gentle and beautiful also. They look upon me as their benefactor. Here is peace, my own paradise, free of anything which taints and tarnishes my pleasures. Has it really been two years?
..... The doorbeads tinkled, and I looked up -- I had bid no one enter.
..... He stood in the doorway, leaning against the carved wood of the doorjamb -- the Commander himself.
..... "Nice place you have here." He ostentatiously looked around the room which served as my study. "Very conservative, considering the potentialities."
..... "Just who are you? And what do you want?"
..... "I'm merely the official representative of the other world." He sauntered forward across the stone flags of the floor, his footsteps making no sound. "Simply a messenger boy from the Powers That Be across the line."
..... I hesitated -- no good answer came to mind immediately. He stopped beside the nearest chair, inspected it, and dropped into it, putting his feet comfortably up on the edge of my desk.
..... "Why are you here? How did you find me? Leave me be! I don't need or want you here. Get out. Go away!"
..... "I'm here, to answer your question, because I've been sent to talk to you." He settled deeper into his chair. "It was easy to find you. After all, everything here is you." He paused to adjust the position of his feet on my desk, then continued: "It does appear that your escape and escapade was noted and revealed. The politicos were summoned and informed, which resulted in me being summoned and instructed. For all the good that does! It used up an hour, however."
..... He paused for comments, received none, and went on: "You certainly don't need me, and I most assuredly don't want you. But the Legislators, bless their minuscule hearts and minds, feel that you should return to complete the work on this awesome invention of yours." He paused to laugh and gesture around the room. "They even offer moderate rewards, having no idea at all yet of what happens here."
..... "Get out before I have you thrown out!" I banged a fist on my desk for emphasis.
..... He raised his eyebrows. "I am not one of your craven constructs."
..... Leaning forward with lightning speed, he snatched up the letter knife and brought it down, point first, a centimeter from my hand. It stood quivering, buried deeply in the hard wood. I hadn't had time to move.
..... "You will listen to me!" he ordered, command ringing in his voice. In a moment, he leaned back and again relaxed in his seat. "You don't have to do anything, but you do have to listen. I have instructions, and I'm obeying them. I do that occasionally to confuse the bureaucrats." He placed his boots back on the edge of the desk and clasped his hands behind his head, slouching down in the chair.
..... "Then say what you have to say. Then get out!" I yanked the knife loose and returned it to its accustomed place among the desk accessories. "You do realize that I'm in total control here. Total control."
..... "It might prove interesting to see what the computer would do, if faced with equal but contradictory demands." He paused long enough to yawn. "However, I'm not particularly interested. Please note that your kingdom does vary with degree of concentration." He waved toward the open window, beyond which swirled the gray fog of hyperspace.
..... I closed my eyes for a moment and focused my thoughts on my specifications. When I opened them, the view was back -- a long grass lawn, stretching down to the irregular edge of a deep lake. Glaring at him, I demanded: "Say your speech then, and leave immediately thereafter."
..... "Just think of me as a visitor from the Inspector General's Office," he suggested in a soothing tone, followed by a hard laugh. "As I mentioned before, the extremely naive members of the Legislative Review Committee have ordered you to return to complete your work. They offer several inducements, none of which can match what you have here, so I shan't bother to recite them. They instructed me to present their offer as just described and to convey back to them your answer."
..... He stopped to peer at the mathematics which covered my chalkboards. Moving again surprisingly fast, he stood and stepped to the flat-black surfaces.
..... "Although I must say, I'm astonished to see you've been working on the problem still," he continued, as he bent to rub out a symbol with one finger and chalk in a correction. "Already losing your touch," he chided, ambling back to his chair.
..... "I'm having another prototype device built here," I reluctantly admitted. "The operational scope of the computing system can be cut down to usable size, eliminating this aspect of the device. At least, I now think so. I have to build another working model to demonstrate that."
..... "It'll work perfectly!" He added another half-smile. "An imaginary machine in an imaginary world simply cannot fail. Another breakthrough for high technology." He shrugged and gestured to brush it away. "So what is your answer to the Legislators' proposal . . . for the record?"
..... He studied me, as if I were a specimen under his microscope.
..... There was one question, which had haunted me these past two years, one I'd never expected to have answered. Now was the only opportunity there'd ever be.
..... "Just why, when all this was available, did you go back there?" I motioned toward the doorway.
..... "All what? A daydream? An illusion? Everything in its appointed place? A walking catatonia? The homage of human-like robots? I'll admit I sometimes talk to myself . . . only intelligent conversation I can find . . . but I'm trying to break the habit, not perpetuate it. I avoid watching the video, much less this."
..... "But can't you see?" My voice was rising. "Don't you understand what this can do?"
..... He looked at me in silence for a minute before answering.
..... "Actually, I know far more than you what this device can do. I experimented with it. A brilliant carnival of my own, all on someone else's electric bill. I myself wasn't satisfied to loll around in whipped cream constructs."
..... "You did?" That surprised me. "Then what . . . ?"
..... "However, I explored the psychological as well as the physical." He stood to pace the floor. "I tried to create a worthy adversary to liven up this hall of mirrors. Ever try to fence with a reflection? After that, I tried to conjure truly alien life." He sighed dramatically and shrugged. "All I accomplished was a rubber lizard with a university accent, who seemed to have been a life-long subscriber to Readers Digest. I dislike this world, because it's a self-centered reflection of oneself." He paused, motioning about him. "This isn't paradise. It's a prison. But let's skip the digressions. What is your official answer to the proposal?"
..... "I cannot understand you!" I touched the bell on the corner of my desk. "With this, I can summon the greatest minds to converse with me. I can call the most talented to entertain me. I have everything possible in a serene and pretty world. How were you able to refuse all this? How can you? How can you just walk away from all these riches?"
..... "With great relief and a very fast step!" He coolly laughed, as he sat down. "Echoes of my own mind? Adolescent dreams in animation? Everything and nothing all combined in jello." He paused for a cutting-edge gesture. "I didn't travel here to argue with an addict, drug or electronic. I arrived, because a messenger had to be sent, and no one else had the courage."
..... "Nonsense!" I shouted, no longer able to contain myself. "Why did you come here? Why do you persist in going back there? To that . . . ."
..... "One, I was requested, and it was easier to comply than to argue." He ticked the points off on his fingers. "Two, I was interested in determining if two people could occupy this same space at the same time. Three, I was curious to see a world as created by a lesser god. Very conventional, I'm afraid. All the power in the world, and you settle for a cross between a child's folk tale and Better Homes And Gardens. So very middle-class of you. Quite suburban!"
..... "I can do without your petty criticism!" Realizing that I was standing, I sat back in my chair.
..... "Then give me your answer, and I'll be on my way. My own lady is waiting for me, and I'm intrigued as to what reality will offer today."
..... "This is my reality." I thumped the desk again. "It's back there that's an illusion!"
..... "If it's an illusion, it certainly isn't my illusion," he replied, adding a fast wave of his hand. "If it's someone else's illusion, he must be having a severe problem with me in it. For example, what are you doing tonight?"
..... "Anything I choose!" I retorted. "Because I control it all."
..... "And that's where we differ. I haven't the vaguest idea what I'll be doing tonight. I'll do whatever my lady has planned. For me it'll be a surprise. Probably a pleasant surprise, because my lady does try to please me. But absolutely a surprise! She loves me, because she chooses to, not because she's forced to. Her love is freely given." He paused long enough to shrug. "Her often times sharp voice is given quite freely also, my in-house critic of my numerous shortcomings. But that's what makes my life spice and not pablum, growth and not stagnation! Likewise, that is neither here nor there, if you'll pardon the humor. Shall I convey to the Committee your emphatic negative?"
..... "Yes! Do so! I will never go back." My teeth were starting to clench. "Now get out! And don't ever come back here."
..... He was on his feet in a swift fluid motion. "Certainly, milord. I shall be delighted to convey your most reluctant refusal of their generous-appearing offer. And, I have no intention of returning here. I still have work to do, promises to keep, a reputation to build. My reality will live on after me, and I hope, remember me well. Yours ends at your last breath." Walking quickly, he brushed through the beads at the doorway and was gone, presumably on his way to the Exit Gate.
..... Six weeks since that uncomfortable interview.

..... My world has grown weary and dull -- boredom each day. No matter how much I change my surroundings, no matter how often, it holds no surprises any longer. Beyond each hill is a vista I already know -- because I created it.
..... In many ways, he was the Devil, bringing misery and unhappiness to my life here. Whatever I do, wherever I go -- that cool, sneering, overbearing, disdainful, condescending voice continues to laugh in the back of my memory.
..... I knew the way to the Exit Gate and marched there and on through.
..... He still was in the Test Bay, as I stepped out of the Exit Gate. Holding a plastic cup of coffee in one hand, gesturing with the other, he was arguing with the First Speaker.
..... "I was assigned and did my duty to the best of my ability," he was saying. "If you think you can do better, Madam, please step right over there. Walking in is easy. After that . . . well?"
..... The First Speaker was startled to see me.
..... Not truly forewarned, he turned and looked. A momentary expression of astonishment was evident in his widened eyes. Recovering in an instant, he grinned at me and saluted with the coffee cup. "Salutations, sir. Welcome back to Hell!"