Chapter Eleven
The Dematerialization Chamber was set up in a corner of the lab, to the left of the largest screen and one by one, the prisoners were called forward to stand within a triangulated set of pillars.
There were a series of sensors that circumvented the outside of the triangular prism, forming a sphere.
A glowing orb formed slowly at first, and then as the sensors increased speed, the sphere appeared to become more and more stable.
The light emitted by the pyramidal center appeared vast at first, then climaxed and concentrated in to a single pillar, as the sphere approached its maximal velocity. When the sensors which composed the sphere finally slowed once more, the light diffused back into the room.
As the eyes of those within the room adjusted to the change in luminosity, they each faced the realization that there was one less person in the room
The first success was vocally celebrated by Theo, only to receive disconcerted glances from the remaining four prisoners. Three more went off without a hitch, and when it was Harry's turn, he called out to Dr. Meredith as he entered the space marked out at the base of the triangular prism.
“I'm going to find the limits of your system, Dr. Meredith,” Harry promised.
“I look forward to your results, Mr. Pinchin,” Tonya responded.
Harry considered calling out an apology to Henkleman. Initially Harry had thought that Jim Henkleman was a greedy bastard who made his living off of the misery of others, instead of providing an actual service to the world. Prior to his acceptance into the beta testing, he had seen the press announcement where Jim had endorsed publicizing the technological developments of his company, as opposed to the standard path of competitive capitalistic intellectual privatization. He ate his words, and took a deep breath instead. “Who knows,” he thought, “Maybe this experiment actually is our execution.”
Harry grinned, at the thought that all of this was an elaborate ruse, but there was something about the gravity of Dr. Meredith words that dispelled that idea from his mind. Realizing that it didn't much matter either way for him, Harry walked into the area marked for the scanner field.
From the inside of the scanner Harry felt a prickling sensation rise up from the base of his spine. Every hair on his body stood to attention, and he began to feel a wave of nausea and vertigo at the same time. He collapsed to the floor, as every detail about his own body was brought into his field of awareness. For the first time in memory, he felt the adhesion pressure between his toenails, and his toes. He felt the inner workings of his digestive tract, and he felt the brilliant, painful firing of every nerve in his body. His vision began to fade, and he felt the approach of death. The darkness was resolved by a moment of intense contrast, and Harry Pinchin's entire body transmuted into light.