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1NEED A TITLE / CUTTER SERIES PART 1 / MOTHER OF THE MODERN WORLD / A LOVELY DAY SOMEWHERE
2
3Hey Islanders, this is a work in progress and isn't even the entirety of what I have in this text file, never mind what I have in my head.  Probably novel-length in the end.  LMK by Distraction what you think.
4
5
6
7Zelda Robertson PhD, age 41, leaned over the PCB and pushed her glasses back up her nose.  Balancing on the thin line between inspired and tired, she chased The Idea until exactly 3:12am on the 16th of July, when she stood up, leaned around to the back of the machine, adjusted a trim pot, and connected her elbow with her cup of tea.
8
9Zelda's eyes widened, and she immediately yanked back her hand as though it were burned.  This sudden motion turned an inconsequential wobble into a full-on tip, exacerbated further when Zelda changed her mind, reached hastily for the cup, batted it away with an open-handed failure-to-grasp, and sent its contents tumbling towards the most delicate parts of her invention.
10
11Even in her exhausted state, Zelda had enough presence of mind, watching the tea lurch towards the machine in horrified slow motion, to consider just _how much_ a mess it would make of things - the immediate answer was "A hell of a lot, to both the invention and anyone daft enough to be part of the path to ground," and Zelda yanked her indecisive hand away once more, this time with the sort of terror-induced enthusiasm appropriate around kilovolt potentials.
12
13She hit herself in the nose and immediately fell backwards into her chair, which wasn't there.
14
15Zelda bounced once, her palms slapping down against an inexplicably soft floor, as a semicircular section of her workbench fell backwards and rolled, her tea-drenched invention sliding off and hitting the floor.  It sparked, decoupling capacitors discharging across sugary Earl Grey, its line cord severed.
16
17Zelda blinked, lay very still, and slowly exhaled.
18
19"What," she whispered.
20
21She was in a small padded room.
22
23Tired as she might be, she did not remember her laboratory being padded.
24
25Zelda closed her eyes, tight, opened them again - still a padded room.  No window, no vending machine, no workbench with mains outlets, no laptop, no isolation transformer.
26
27She shuffled forwards onto her knees, and leaned over her invention.
28
29The device sat smoking on the padded floor.  With her right hand, Zelda cautiously picked up the tea-soaked line cord - it had been severed so neatly that its cross-section looked like a technical illustration.  No tool marks, no signs of compression.
30
31The tiny semicircular portion of her workbench that remained looked like it was designed that way; the wood fibres along the circular edge were barely disturbed.
32
33Zelda sat on her haunches and breathed slowly, tea dampening her knees.
34
35_Don't freak out, Zelda.  Breathe first, slow, in, out, and think._
36
37She looked around herself.  White padded walls to all sides, each one about five metres away.  She looked down.  A few shattered remnants of her laboratory's floor tiling.  She looked up.
38
39There wasn't anything, up.
40
41_Well, there's a ceiling.  Also padded, which is weird in itself._
42
43_But there aren't any lightbulbs or LED's or fluorescent tubes._
44
45_So how the bloody hell can I see anything?!_
46
47As she looked towards the ceiling, a white envelope appeared, and gently fluttered down to land in her lap.  A red LED blinked inside it.
48
49_To get my attention._
50
51_In case I didn't see an envelope appear silently mid-air and drop into my lap._
52
53Zelda picked up the envelope.  Written on it was "Lady Zelda Robertson PhD D.Sc FRS."
54
55"This isn't me," Zelda said, waving the envelope around, looking in the corners of the room for cameras.  "I'm not a fellow."
56
57No response.
58
59"Or a lady," she said, more quietly this time, looking back down towards the envelope.  "Or a Doctor of Sciences," she muttered, watching the little light blink.
60
61_But I do have a PhD.  And I _am_ Zelda Robertson._
62
63Her fingers tightened around the envelope.
64
65_And it was clearly delivered to me._
66
67Zelda took a deep breath, and opened the envelope.  Inside was a single folded sheet of A4 paper.
68
69_Dear Lady Zelda,
70
71My name is Minerva Winnifred Hartley, but my friends call me Nerv.  I am sending you this letter because after much discussion, my team and I decided that this would be the least frightening and disorienting way to introduce you to this whole situation.
72
73I would first like to assure you that you have not fallen asleep at your workbench, and are not dreaming._
74
75Zelda frowned.  _Yes, of course.  People say you can't read in dreams...  Well.  Except for that one time I realised I was both dreaming and reading at the same time, and got so excited I woke up._  She continued reading.
76
77_I would also like to reassure you that we absolutely mean you no harm, and in fact are taking as many precautions as we can think of to avoid placing you under unnecessary stress.  Please forgive the padded room - it's actually part of our acoustics lab.  We thought you would appreciate a soft landing._
78
79_When you've finished this letter and taken as much time as you need to process it, place the letter on the floor and I will walk through the door in front of you.  I understand that you must be rather disoriented and have many questions, which I will endeavour to answer as well as I'm able - but please allow me the chance to explain things in order, so that we don't miss anything out._
80
81_I dearly look forward to speaking with you.
82
83_~Nerv_
84
85Zelda re-read the letter.  Then, once again.
86
87Then, she held it carefully above the floor, and thought.
88
89_Going to great lengths to keep me calm._
90
91_Padded room so I didn't hurt my arse.  Knew I was going to fall._
92
93_Extra letters after my name._
94
95_All adds up to... what?_
96
97She frowned.
98
99_Tea shorted something in the machine, and here I am..._
100
101Shakily, Zelda pushed herself up to her feet.
102
103_And where the hell did that little red blinky LED go?_
104
105She stood in the centre of the room, with the remains of her machine at her feet, faced straight ahead, and dropped the letter.
106
107A section of wall opened in a basic door shape, and a woman - Nerv, presumably - stepped through.  Nerv was fiftyish, short, roundish, curly brown hair to her shoulders - _probably the least threatening-looking person they could find,_ thought Zelda - and she wore something like a set of overalls, except quite tight-fitting and lacking pockets.
108
109_So I can see a lack of weapons._
110
111When Nerv closed the door, she didn't merely reach behind herself - she turned clockwise, exposing her back to Zelda.  She didn't turn back; she continued in the same direction for a complete rotation, until she faced Zelda again.
112
113_So I can _definitely_ see a lack of weapons._
114
115Nerv took four slow steps into the room, placing her between the door and Zelda, and sat down cross-legged on the floor.
116
117Zelda felt a panicked giggle force its way up her throat - she bit it back.  "You're _really_ making sure about the whole non-threatening thing, aren't you?"
118
119Nerv showed Zelda a nervous smile.  "If I'd just spilled my tea in a familiar environment," she said, her voice soft and tentative, "and suddenly found myself in an unfamiliar one, I'd be frightened out of my wits."  She shrugged, looking for a moment at all the stuff around Zelda's feet before bringing her eyes back up.  "We didn't want to make it any worse."
120
121"Who is _we?_" asked Zelda, looking down at Nerv.
122
123"A team of six, assembled from senior staff at the Outregion Tracking department of Manchester University."  Nerv blushed, and for a moment wouldn't meet Zelda's eyes.  "Now referred to as the Robertson Recovery department," she said quietly.
124
125"Manchester?" said Zelda.  "I was in Cambridge a second ago.  Am I at Manchester University now?"
126
127"Yes," said Nerv.
128
129Zelda inhaled noisily.  "The envelope.  How was it delivered?"
130
131Nerv pointed to the ruined machine that laid at Zelda's feet.  "Using a refined version of the machine you invented."
132
133Zelda frowned.  She looked down.  "Using the _cutter?_"
134
135Nerv perked up.  "You called it a cutter too?"
136
137"Yes, it's for cutting things.  Let's go back a second - the Robertson Recovery department?"
138
139"That's what people call it, now.  It used to be the Outregion Tracking department, but when it became apparent that you _hadn't_ been disintegrated or vapourised, well..." she smiled.  "We wanted to bring you back, and our benefactors agreed."
140
141Zelda looked down at the letter, back towards Nerv.  "Now I'm just asking fractal questions," she murmured.
142
143"I'm sorry I'm giving you fractal answers," said Nerv, sheepishly.  "This is why I wanted to explain things in order.  So every answer I gave didn't bring up two more questions."
144
145_Okay._  "Right."  Zelda pushed her glasses up her nose, and looked down at Nerv.  "You've gone so far out of your way that for now, let's assume I _believe_ you don't mean me any harm.  I also assume that explaining what's happened is going to take a while."
146
147Nerv nodded.  "Quite a while, yes."
148
149"Then can we go somewhere with chairs and tea?"
150
151Nerv grinned.  "Absolutely.  Right this way."  She stood up, and turned towards the door.  "Chairs and tea, please, Jeremy.  Lady Zelda, Earl Grey?"
152
153"That's right," said Zelda, following, stepping around the tea-soaked wreckage of half her desk.
154
155_Stepping around the only hard and pointy things in this very soft and non-threatening room, which little Minerva was careful to put out of her own reach._
156
157"Jeremy is someone who's watching us now?" asked Zelda.
158
159"There's a team watching, popping champagne corks and cheering and crying and basically going silly," said Nerv, opening the door and stepping through into another small room.  "Or at least they were, when you appeared.  Now they're probably glued to the monitors.  We're not recording; we wanted to get your consent first."
160
161Zelda passed through the doorway.  The room was thickly carpeted, and held two comfortable-looking chairs and a small table, atop which was a steaming mug of what Zelda assumed was tea, and a polystyrene cup of what Zelda assumed was water.
162
163_Hard ceramic mug of boiling-hot liquid for me, tepid water in a foam cup for her.  Whoever I'm dealing with, they're consistent._
164
165The far side of the room was one big window - rain fell outside, pattering on the glass.  It seemed the building they occupied was laid out in a square, with an open-air area in the middle.  Concrete paths weaved from door to door around benches, grass, some little flowerbeds - all of which looked suspiciously healthy, for an area which couldn't possibly get much sun.
166
167_But no view of the outside world.  Just the tiny square of it in the middle of a big building, where people would go to smoke or whatever._
168
169_Maybe there's a reason for that, maybe not._
170
171"Go ahead and record," said Zelda, sitting down, "as long as I can edit it before it goes... wherever it's going."
172
173"Forty billion screens and subtitled in every language, I'd guess."
174
175"Then yeah," said Zelda, picking up her mug, "I'm gonna want to see it first."
176
177_Forty billion._
178
179Nerv sat across from Zelda, took a sip of water, and hesitated for a moment.  "Okay.  June says we're recording, it's encrypted, and you have full edit rights."
180
181"Show me your ears," said Zelda.
182
183Nerv obligingly turned first left, then right.
184
185"How are you hearing Jeremy and June?" asked Zelda.
186
187Nerv winced, and looked upwards, as if mulling over a difficult question.
188
189"Okay," said Zelda, "Never mind that.  We're getting fractal again.  I'm still reeling over the forty billion screens thing, and the Lady Zelda thing, and the instant hot tea thing, and the magically-appearing envelope, and the fact that we're in two interconnected rooms with only one door between them."
190
191Nerv winced again.  "Damn, we forgot about the bloody doors..."
192
193"And now you're doing it again," said Zelda, that same hysterical laughter threatening to creep into her voice - "what kind of people forget about the bloody _doors?_  What does that even _mean?!_"
194
195"I'm sorry," said Nerv, "I'll explain everything to you.  I mean, I know you want answers, and I've got them, and I'll give them to you, it's just..." she looked around.  "If I can start at the beginning, then..."
196
197"Are you human?"
198
199Nerv nodded.  "Absolutely."
200
201"Okay.  So I haven't been abducted by aliens."  Zelda took a deep breath, and sipped her tea.  _Calm, Zelda.  Calm._  "This is why you wanted to explain things in order."
202
203Nerv nodded, again.
204
205"Alright then, go on."
206
207Nerv took a sip of her water.  "Okay."
208
209"But start with the doors," said Zelda, quietly.  "Because honestly, that's _really_ freaking me out."
210
211"Sorry."  Nerv cleared her throat.  "It's a new building, and we don't really use doors much anymore.  We put that one in so you wouldn't be so freaked out.  I'm sorry about that, by the way."
212
213"You were really careful about everything else," said Zelda.  "_That_ at least is reassuring.  Why don't you use doors anymore?  _How_ don't you use doors anymore?"
214
215Nerv pointed upwards.
216
217Zelda followed her finger.
218
219"It's a cutter," said Nerv.  "I was going to get to that later."
220
221Zelda stared.  In the centre of the ceiling, where Zelda would expect some sort of light source, there were a tiny pair of copper prongs.
222
223"Your invention," said Nerv, quietly.
224
225Zelda could hear her heartbeat.
226
227She swallowed.
228
229"Forget the doors for now," said Zelda, her voice a little shaky.  She looked back down, towards Nerv.  "What happened when I spilled my tea?"
230
231Nerv smiled.  "A lot."  She leaned back, and thought for a second.  "Okay, so the beginning.  You were building a machine that could phase things partially into what we now refer to as the 'outregion.'"
232
233"Was I?"  Zelda frowned.  "I thought I was working on fifth-dimensional quantum entanglement theory."
234
235"Yes," said Nerv.  "When you shorted out that line, you - and everything that just appeared in our acoustic research cupboard, the machine, those parts of your bench, and so on - were cut out of what we perceive as reality, and placed into what we call the Outregion, which is a place and _state_ where time, for all practical considerations, effectively doesn't exist.  Your assistant, Herman Walker, found the missing area of the lab in the morning, the authorities were alerted, the lab was shut down for a little while, and re-opened dedicated to your memory."
236
237"People thought I was _dead?!_"
238
239"That's right," said Nerv.  "At first, you were assumed to be... well, basically disintegrated.  It wasn't until much later that we figured you weren't dead, just _lost_ somewhere, and me and the others were given funds to find you..."
240
241"How long?" asked Zelda, blood rushing through her ears, watching Nerv's expression change.  "Jesus - _how long?_"
242
243"I'm sorry," said Nerv, hands clutching at her polystyrene cup.  "It's a long time."
244
245"HOW L-" Zelda stopped mid-word.  She realised that she was standing, she realised that Nerv had dodged that question while answering every other one she'd asked, she realised that there would be a reason for that, and she realised that the reason was probably for her own good, according to the judgment of person or persons far more up to date with what was going on than she was.
246
247Zelda sat back down, closed her eyes briefly, laid her hands flat on the table, opened her eyes again, looked sheepishly downwards and said "Sorry.  Get to that when you get to that."
248
249Nerv hesitated.  "You're sure?"
250
251Zelda nodded.  "You've got reasons for presenting things in the order you're presenting them, which I assume are for my own good.  I'm going to acknowledge and embrace my ignorance, and let you get on with removing it."
252
253Nerv sat silently for a second or two.  She seemed oddly impressed.  "Okay.  This is compressing a long, long story into a very short timeframe so I can get to answering all the questions you'll have, but the brief version is that Walker recreated your experiment, made it marketable, stole the glory and only confessed on his deathbed."
254
255"That sodding _weasel!_" cried Zelda.  "I was _literally_ drafting an email asking for a replacement assistant earlier this evening!"
256
257"_Really?_" asked Nerv, wide-eyed.
258
259"Yes!  Or, y'know, _whenever_ the hell that was.  The slimy little neckbeard sent me a three-AM drunken rambling email confessing his damn _feelings_ for me, like that's not the umpteenth time _any_ woman in the sciences gets an email like that - I'm sure you're horribly used to it by now too - and he was a shite assistant as well!"  She took a breath.  "Damn.  We'll be editing _that_ part out."
260
261"Public sentiment towards him _has_ soured a little, since he confessed that it wasn't his invention."
262
263"I assume he died of old age, surrounded by adoring fans and stacks of money?"
264
265"Indeed, although the stacks of money didn't mean much after the first couple of years."
266
267"Well," said Zelda, standing up, "_that,_ combined with the realisation that everyone I know is likely dead, is actually making me kind of -" Zelda vomited.  Earl Grey splashed onto the table.
268
269"Jeremy, egress room, _quick,_" said Nerv, the back of her chair hitting the floor.  "Lady Zelda, here," she said, pointing to an upright ceramic _thing_ that Zelda had never seen before - like a fancy bathroom sink.
270
271_Better that than the floor._  Zelda rushed the two steps towards it, her shoes tapping on tile - _tile?  It was carpet a second ago_ - gripped the rim, and threw up what seemed like everything she'd ever eaten.
272
273_What the hell is this?!_  The _thing_ had water running constantly around its edges and down a wide-mouthed drain into the floor.
274
275"Is this a sink _designed_ for whurrgl -" Zelda was proven spectacularly wrong about the whole "everything she'd ever eaten" thing.  She spat, and wiped her mouth on her sleeve.  "_Designed_ for throwing up in?"
276
277"Yes," said Nerv, holding Zelda's hair.  "If you get weak-kneed, just fall forward, the whole thing'll move downwards and the floor around it is padded."
278
279Zelda did so.  The _thing_ slid quickly into the floor and then came to a very gentle stop, taking her weight as she collapsed around it, her knees confirming that the floor was indeed soft and pleasant.  Tears came to her eyes, mucous to her nose, and she salivated wildly into the drain.  "Where the bloody hell did _this_ come from?"
280
281"We're not in the same room we were in a second ago," said Nerv gently, patting her on the back with one hand, holding her hair with the other.  "We're in the egress room, a room designed for... well, this."
282
283Zelda looked up, eyes streaming.
284
285"I see," she muttered, and vomited again.
286
287"I'm sorry," said Nerv.  "I'm sure this must be a huge shock to you."
288
289Zelda spat.  "That's what the cutter does, is it?"  She sniffled.  "It cuts things, _people,_ out of reality and cuts them back in somewhere else?  _That's_ why you forgot how to do _doors?_"
290
291"Yes," said Nerv.  "I was hoping to work my way up to that, but... well, you think faster than I speak.  I'm sorry, I should've expected that, from _you_ of all people."
292
293Zelda's head rested pleasantly on cool porcelain, her forearms and knees on soft padded surfaces.  "Whoever made this sink," she said, quietly, "I hope they won a Nobel."
294
295"Nobody would have had room for one," said Nerv, "without your invention.  That's why _you_ got the Nobel.  Posthumously.  Well, not so posthumously now."
296
297Zelda laughed weakly.  "Right."
298
299The two were silent for a moment, Zelda clinging to the sink, Nerv gently stroking her shoulders, her movements slowing down and becoming lighter.
300
301_As she realises she's a stranger to me, and gets all sheepish._
302
303_But she still did what she needed - what _I_ needed - in that moment, awkwardness be damned._
304
305"Do you want me to leave you alone for a few minutes?" asked Nerv.  "Because that's fine."
306
307Zelda nodded.
308
309"All right," said Nerv, her hands leaving Zelda's shoulders.  "Lady Zelda?"
310
311Zelda looked up.
312
313"Use this panel if you need anything," she said, pointing to an LCD on the wall.  "There's a menu item to summon a toilet, shower, glass of water, change of clothes, towels, anything you need.  If what you need is to collapse immediately onto that fainting couch there," she said, pointing behind Zelda, "then don't worry about getting sick on it - the whole room sterilizes itself and resets after every use.  I'm going to put another button on the panel now -" she tapped a few things - "it's labelled 'Nerv,' and that summons _me,_ so I can carry on with the story.  There aren't any cameras in here, and Jeremy and June and the others can't hear anything in here either, apart from your heartbeat and other vitals.  Take as much time as you need.  Sincerely, I mean that, I'll have a cup of tea or something."
314
315Zelda nodded, and wiped her mouth.  "You're a good 'un."
316
317"I try," said Nerv, and disappeared.
318
319Zelda sighed, looked behind herself - big plush fainting couch, just like the woman said - crawled over to it, and flopped.
320
321She stared up at the ceiling, at the two copper prongs, at the lack of lightbulbs.
322
323_Okay.  Let's extrapolate._
324
325
326
327
328"All things considered," said Nerv, resting her controller atop her ear, "she's taking it pretty well."
329
330"I saw," said Jeremy.  "You're doing an amazing job, Nerv."
331
332"Thanks," said Nerv, distractedly, and sat down in the grass.  "June, how's she doing?  She seem stressed-out to you?"
333
334June's eyes flicked from right to left, over a display that only she could see.  "She seems like she's... thinking, I reckon."  Left to right.  "Yep, very deep concentration, if I'm any judge."
335
336"Nerv," said Raj, passing her a glass.  "Remember you've got to look after _yourself_ too, if you're to take care of her.  You might not _get_ another break for a while, I'd say take advantage of this one."
337
338Nerv accepted the water.  "Ta Raj."
339
340"Although not _too_ long of a break," said Raj, smiling, "'cause I really wanna meet her too."
341
342A chorus of enthusiastic grunts and murmurs from Jeremy, June, Raj, Eleanor and Leena.  Nerv smiled back.  "Elle, let us know if she uses the cutter."
343
344Eleanor nodded, her eyes defocused, watching the readouts from the room; at least, Nerv assumed she was.
345
346"Sorry 'bout the doors," Eleanor murmured.
347
348"Yeah, I forgot too," said Jeremy.
349
350"Likewise," said June.
351
352Nods and murmurs from Leena and Raj.
353
354"We were bound to make mistakes," said Nerv, reclining back onto an elbow.  "Everything was _so_ different back then."
355
356"Should've gone full-time with that historian," said Leena.
357
358"Mmm," said Nerv, idly watching the sheep, thinking.
359
360The six of them sat quietly, watching readouts, each lost in thought.
361
362"We should..." began Nerv, then hesitated.  "Hmm.  Yeah.  I think we should move."
363
364Eyes looked towards her.
365
366"To Manchester?" said Leena.
367
368"Yeah," replied Nerv.
369
370"But it's raining there," said Leena.
371
372"I know," said Nerv.  "But Lady Zelda thinks in _distances._  She might be more comfortable knowing that we're _physically_ close," she said, looking at each of them in turn.  "I think we need to start thinking about these sorts of things.  _Living_ like we have to, like, walk or drive to places, or whatever.  Or we're gonna do something daft like the doors, again."
373
374There was silence for a moment, punctuated by the occasional baa.
375
376"Conference room A?" proposed Jeremy.
377
378Muttered agreement.
379
380The sheep noticed their disappearance, but were used to it.
381
382
383
384
385_Okay.  Got to get a number, to figure out how deep this rabbithole goes.  I've seen Star Trek; I know how this should work._  "Computer," said Zelda.
386
387There was a beep.
388
389_I can't believe that worked._
390
391"How much energy is required to cut a ten-kilogram mass into the outregion?" asked Zelda, lying on the fainting couch, the back of her right hand resting on her forehead.
392
393"Zero point zero two three five kilowatt-hours," replied a calm male voice.
394
395"And how long does it take?"
396
397No response.
398
399"Computer, how long does it take to cut a ten-kilogram mass into the outregion?"
400
401"One point one microseconds."
402
403_I know transistors that don't switch that fast.  That's a hell of a lot of energy to shift in a very short time._  "Computer," said Zelda carefully, "How much energy is required to cut a ten-kilogram mass into the outregion, store the same ten-kilogram mass in the outregion for one year, and then return the same ten-kilogram mass to the same place from which it was initially cut into the outregion?"
404
405"Zero point zero four seven five kilowatt-hours," replied the computer.
406
407_An extra .0005 of a kWh.  Not much.  So... maybe that's energy used in storing its... co-ordinates?  Where to find it, so it can be retrieved?_
408
409"Computer," said Zelda.  "How much energy is required to cut a _hundred_-kilogram mass into the outregion, store the same hundred-kilogram mass in the outregion for one _century,_ and then return the same hundred-kilogram mass to the same place from which it was initially cut into the outregion?"
410
411"Approximately zero point zero five kilowatt-hours," replied the computer, "assuming current trends in storage system power consumption remain constant.  This answer is a prediction from incomplete data and should not be relied upon for any precision calculations."
412
413A chill went down Zelda's spine.
414
415"Computer," she said, quietly, shivering, her throat dry, "How much energy is required to cut a one tonne mass into the outregion, and immediately return it ten metres _higher_ than the point at which it entered the outregion?"
416
417"Zero point zero four seven kilowatt hours," replied the computer.
418
419Zelda was quiet for a moment.
420
421"My God," she whispered.
422
423
424
425
426"She's using the voice interface," said Jeremy.  "Asking it how much power it takes to cut things."
427
428"Oh," said Nerv, quietly.  "Should we let her?"
429
430"I have, so far," said Jeremy.  "Wait, she's stopped."
431
432"Her heart rate is increasing," said June.
433
434"Oh, hell," said Nerv.  "She's gonna find out about the new laws.  To a physicist that's gonna be even more of a shock than the toilet thing.  I'd better call her."
435
436
437
438
439Zelda shivered on the couch.
440
441_Let the water out of Dinorwig power station, spinning the turbines as it goes out.  Cut water from the ocean, refill the reservoir.  Cutting the water takes less energy than boiling a kettle; the turbines generate sixteen hundred megawatts.  Free energy._
442
443_Get a solar panel and a battery.  Cut it to Australia when it's dark here.  Cut the battery back, run your things on it.  Free energy._
444
445_Cutters on satellites, big thermal fins soaking up heat from the sun.  Cut a fin to a big tank of water somewhere, water boils, steam drives a turbine, the fin cools off and gets cut back onto the satellite.  Free energy._
446
447_It doesn't matter that the cutter takes up a bunch of power.  It doesn't matter that it's inefficient.  Free energy.  Before we even _start_ with the massive social changes, we've got free energy, instant teleportation to anywhere there's another cutter, and probably people time travelling to the future, like I did - but deliberately.  Just to see._
448
449_Are _any_ circuits designed for power efficiency anymore?  What about heat dissipation?  Heatsink gets too hot, cut it away and dump it into some snow somewhere, while cutting in a fresh cold one._
450
451_No need for refrigerators anymore.  Make up a bunch of plates of food on Sunday night, knives and forks included, cut them away and bring them back steaming-hot for your lunch all week._
452
453_Hah.  All week.  Like people still go to work anymore, when we've such abundant resources._
454
455_How many rooms is a house built with, these days?  Do you really need a kitchen, bedroom and living room, when you can cut furniture and appliances in and out of reality whenever you please?_
456
457_Do societal trends flow along geographic lines, still?_
458
459_Are there even countries anymore?  Do borders mean anything?_
460
461_All those families of immigrants, reunited whenever they like._
462
463_All those long-distance relationships that don't have to be long-distance anymore._
464
465There was a noise.  Zelda looked towards its source - the panel on the wall said "Nerv is calling, audio only."
466
467Zelda got up and tottered weakly over to the panel.  _At least this is recognisable.  Green button means accept the call._
468
469"Lady Zelda?  Lady Zelda, are you receiving me okay?"
470
471"I hear you, Nerv," she said, resting her forearm on the wall and her head on her forearm.  "I hear you very well.  The signal and speakers are excellent," she sighed.  _Except, of course, I bet there aren't any speakers in here.  Why vibrate the air with a fabric cone, when you can corrugate it with a cutter?_  "So I hear that several fundamental laws of the universe that I'd grown up with as rock-hard reality..." she took a breath.  "I hear those laws have great big asterisks after them, now.  'Does not apply with a cutter anywhere near,' sort of thing, am I right?"
472
473Nerv hesitated.  "You're right, Lady Zelda."
474
475"I wish I'd saved something to throw up, Nerv."
476
477"Lady Zelda, I _really_ wanted to explain this to you slowly.  I have a script and everything."
478
479"Okay.  Go on then, appear silently behind me with a cup of Earl Grey, hot."
480
481Zelda reached behind herself, her forehead resting on the wall.  The handle of a mug was gently pressed into her hand.
482
483"Thanks," she muttered.
484
485"So the bad news," said Nerv quietly behind her, "is that you've woken up in the future."  Nerv stood by Zelda's side as Zelda slowly withdrew her forehead from the wall, and sipped her tea.  "The good news is that it's a really _good_ future, Lady Zelda.  And I'd like to tell you about it."
486
487"Let me use that amazing future shower first," said Zelda.  "And if you have a toothbrush, that'd be nice too.  And a change of clothes, I'm kinda covered in tea and puke, here.  Then... sure."
488
489"Okay," said Nerv.  "You know how to find me."  She hesitated.  "Lady Zelda?"
490
491"Yes, Nerv?"
492
493"Can I ask you to _please_ not try to find things out out-of-order?"
494
495Zelda smiled weakly.  "For my own good?"
496
497"June's watching your heartbeat, and her own is jumping up every time you find out more about... well, how much things have changed."
498
499Zelda chuckled, turning to face Nerv.  "Okay.  For June's sake, and yours.  But... will I be able to _use_ the shower?  Does it still have, like, a knob or something, or is it some amazing future interface that I won't understand?"
500
501"Well, I could jump in with you and - " Nerv stopped talking and adopted a mortified expression, blush rising quickly.
502
503"No nudity taboo in the future, gotcha," said Zelda, smiling.
504
505"Oh God," said Nerv, looking away.  "What you must think of me."
506
507"No, that's okay.  Hell, what you must think of _me._  I always thought that Star Trek had _way_ too much clothing in it.  I _do_ have a nudity taboo, though, at least until living here hammers it out of me, so if you wouldn't mind..."
508
509"Of course," said Nerv.  "Just press the Nerv button and I'll cut right back when you're ready."
510
511She disappeared.
512
513_No popping noise.  Not even a draft.  You'd expect air to move quickly into the space she occupied; the cutter must cut some air into the room to take up the space she leaves behind._
514
515_Clever cutter._
516
517Zelda pressed the menu item marked "Shower."  When she turned away from the screen, a large glass box had appeared.
518
519_Looks fairly normal._
520
521Zelda undressed and stepped inside.  When she dropped her shirt, it landed with a splat.
522
523The shower had electronic controls - a knob for pressure, a knob for temperature, a knob to select various spray patterns and two big "Go" and "Stop" buttons - but no showerhead; nothing for the water to come out of.
524
525Zelda grinned.  _Of course._  She hit the button.
526
527She stood for several moments, spinning the spray pattern knob.  With each click, a new jet of water appeared - spraying from thin air, an absence of nozzles or pipes - in places that defied all notion of conventional plumbing or gravity.  Some were a pleasant surprise, some made wonderful sense, some were the sort of thing that would be difficult to get used to but could probably be nice one day, and some, as Zelda discovered with a surprised yelp, would have to wait until she was in a very particular mood.  She tried them all before settling on one she liked.
528
529_Right._
530
531She smiled, standing in warm, still water up to her neck, which miraculously didn't leak out of the shower door.
532
533_An upright bath.  Lovely.  Dad would've liked this, with the way his back..._
534
535Zelda's smile melted slowly from her face.
536
537
538
539
540June winced.  "Stress levels elevated, and the cutter smells tears."
541
542"We all knew this would happen at some point," said Nerv, quietly.  "She's grieving everyone she ever knew.  Her society.  She's in mourning for an entire _reality._"
543
544"Are you gonna go back in?" asked Raj.
545
546"Nudity taboo," said Nerv.  She looked around.  "Yes, I _know._  But we've got to respect it.  If we violate a deeply-held taboo now, it's just piling more horror and unfamiliarity on her."
547
548The six of them watched the readouts.
549
550"It's hard," said June, "to know that someone's crying, and _not_ hug them."
551
552"Yes," said Nerv.  She watched the readouts.  "Yes, it is."
553
554
555
556
557Zelda sniffled, the shower beating down on her in spray pattern 63 - it was the closest pattern Zelda could find to familiarity, and it was buried halfway around the wheel.
558
559_Empty._  Water fell on her back.  _Empty, for now.  Nothing left to explode out of me._
560
561She shut off the water.  There was no drain for it to leave by; each droplet fizzled away a moment after it hit the floor.
562
563On the control panel, a button marked "Dry" was blinking.
564
565_Okay, sure._
566
567
568
569
570"Oh shit," said Nerv, "I forgot to tell her to -"
571
572
573
574
575There was a crackle, and Zelda felt scratching pain sear across her, centred on her eyes, her nose and sinuses, and her crotch.
576
577"Agh, _fuck!_"
578
579
580
581
582"Heartbeat racing," said June.  "Pain, confusion."
583
584"Taking the PA," said Nerv.  "Lady Zelda, do you hear me?  There aren't any microphones in there, so I can't hear you.  Please don't panic.  The pain will only last a few seconds.  I forgot to tell you how to use the dryer safely, I'm sorry.  You've got to close your eyes, pinch your nose, and cover up downstairs.  But, um... you're dry now?"
585
586"That whole 'living like pre-cutter people' thing," said Leena, crossing her legs uncomfortably - "we'd better get on with that, huh."
587
588"Is it time to break the nudity taboo yet?" asked Raj.
589
590"Please don't panic, Lady Zelda," said Nerv.  "I assure you no lasting damage has been done.  If you still hurt, it'll only be for a few seconds.  Oh, you're calling me."
591
592"_HOW THE FUCK WAS I SUPPOSED TO PRESS THE BUTTON?!_" shouted Zelda, into the room.
593
594"There's a voice interface too," said Nerv.  "But you couldn't have known that.  I'm sorry."
595
596"_Do blokes have to pinch their foreskins or whatever in this thing?_"
597
598"No, Lady Zelda."
599
600"_So it's only women that have to try to press a button with their elbow with their eyes closed._"
601
602"Yes, Lady Zelda."
603
604"_So consumer appliances are still designed by men._"
605
606"Not as commonly as in your time, Lady Zelda, but yes, still moreso than women."
607
608"_Would it have been that hard to put in a foot pedal?_"
609
610"Do you need help, Lady Zelda?  June saw your heartbeat jump up and I wanted to help, but I also wanted to not walk in on you in the shower."
611
612"_Nerv, I assume you'd violate a taboo you didn't hold yourself if it was life or death.  The fact that you're not here right now is reassuring.  The pain's fading.  I'll manifest a toothbrush and press the Nerv button shortly._"
613
614"Okay, Lady Zelda.  I'm sorry, once again."
615
616"_Right now I'm _very_ glad we don't have to walk much in the future.  See you in a few minutes._"  The connection severed.
617
618Nerv exhaled.  "You know that feeling," she said quietly, "when you'd figured everything out, made flow-charts and scripts and everything..." she sat down.  "And then you get smacked in the face with just _how much_ you _didn't_ prepare?"
619
620Nods.
621
622"Yeah.  That."
623
624
625
626
627Zelda wrapped her freshly-manifested bathrobe close, spat out her toothpaste, and looked into the mirror.
628
629Her eyes were still a little red; her cheeks still flushed.
630
631_That's fine.  They'll expect it._
632
633Even having cried out her soul, even having been assaulted by unexpected water jets and a doubly-unexpected instant-drying, she still grinned into the mirror and said "Computer.  Show me the _back_ of my head."
634
635The mirror did so.
636
637"_Brilliant!_" cried Zelda.
638
639_Humanity finally figured out bathrooms._
640
641She tapped the console by the mirror; twenty thumbnails appeared, all different outfits arranged on wireframe mannequins.
642
643There was a page counter at the bottom.  It said "Page 1/3942."
644
645Zelda rested her forehead against the panel.  "Computer," she sighed, "Call Nerv."
646
647Nerv picked up immediately.  "Lady Zelda?"
648
649"Nerv, all my clothes are either lost in the past or covered in puke, and the computer's throwing eighty thousand clothing options at me and asking me to choose.  And I have no idea what people even wear in the future.  When they bother."
650
651"Shall I come in and help you choose, or manifest something close to what you were wearing before?"
652
653"You can do that?"
654
655"Eleanor already found something close, figuring that this might happen."
656
657"Okay, let's see it."
658
659"On the rack behind you, Lady Zelda."
660
661Zelda turned around.  Sure enough, there was a rack, and sure enough, hanging on the rack was an outfit eerily similar to the one she'd been wearing when she spilled her tea.
662
663_Of course,_ thought Zelda, _had I known I'd be transported to the future, I probably would've tried to look the part._
664
665_But I didn't._
666
667_I went home from work, changed into the joggy bottoms and manky old T-shirt, then got The Idea at about ten o'clock and went back to the lab._
668
669"Thanks, Nerv," she said, shrugging into the T-shirt.  "I'll press the Nerv button when I'm ready."
670
671"See you shortly, Lady Zelda."
672
673
674
675
676"Okay," said Zelda, "shall we try the whole tea-and-table thing again?"
677
678Nerv looked towards the teacup lying on its side in a puddle, next to the fainting couch.
679
680"Yeah," said Zelda sheepishly, "I knocked it over with my foot when I was stumbling around blind, trying to find the panel."
681
682Nerv winced.  "Sorry about that, again."
683
684Zelda shrugged.  "It's okay.  Just be sure to warn me before I do anything life-threatening."
685
686"I will," said Nerv.  "It's... not a very dangerous future, Lady Zelda."
687
688"Your shower tried to dessicate me," said Zelda, with a grin.
689
690"Not successfully," said Nerv, returning it.
691
692"A good thing, too.  That would've been embarrassing."  Zelda yawned.  "Are we going via cutter?"
693
694Nerv nodded.
695
696"Can you promise I won't get stuck in time again?"
697
698"I promise.  Are you ready?"
699
700"This'll be my first cut," said Zelda.  "At least, my first in which I'm in any fit state to observe it."  She smiled.  "Let's do it."
701
702"Okay," said Nerv.  "Here it comes."
703
704Zelda and Nerv were suddenly in a room very similar to the one in which Zelda had briefly been a host to two mouthfuls of Earl Grey.
705
706"That's..." Zelda blinked.  "That's _amazing._  It was so _smooth!_"
707
708Nerv smiled up at her.
709
710"I mean," continued Zelda, "I don't know what I was _expecting,_ exactly... but, y'know, some kind of sound, or flash of light, or sensation of motion, or... I don't know, _something!_  We're at a similar elevation to the egress room, I take it?  My ears didn't pop."
711
712"Actually," said Nerv, sitting down, "since they don't need windows, most egress rooms are built underground.  When you send the signal to the receiving cutter, it handshakes with the origin cutter, determines origin air pressure, and cuts more or less air into the egress room just before you arrive.  Then it slowly increases the oxygen levels to help you recover faster."
713
714"Remarkable," said Zelda, softly.  She sat down opposite Nerv.  "Oh, wait - I've always wanted to do this.  Computer!  Tea, Earl Grey, hot!"
715
716Nerv cocked her head to the side quizzically.
717
718"Oh," said Zelda.  "It didn't recognise that?"
719
720"You want some tea?" said Nerv.  "Because I can get us some tea."
721
722"Yes please," said Zelda sheepishly.  "Will you show me how to make tea appear, later?"
723
724Nerv nodded.  "Of course.  Jeremy?"
725
726Two identical cups appeared in front of them.  Zelda took one, very carefully.
727
728"So," said Zelda, after her first sip, "I extrapolated some things, in the shower.  I think I've got an idea of how things work around here, so how about this."
729
730"I'm listening."
731
732"I tell you what I _think_ this world is like, and you tell me how far off the mark I am."
733
734Nerv chuckled.  "Sure."
735
736"Okay.  No lightbulbs in the egress room, so am I right in assuming a cutter can cut photons?"
737
738Nerv nodded.  "Can and, in fact, usually does, because automatic cutters always leave an error margin around living things.  If someone from a sunny outside cuts into a dark room, they'll appear with a quick little flash.  You're seeing the photons that bounced off them inside the error margin."
739
740Zelda nodded.  "Okay.  So, the cutter represents several huge things - first, the ability to make a perfectly straight cut in any material, with zero wastage - the thing I designed it for."
741
742Nerv nodded.  "Indeed."
743
744"Second, instant teleportation of machinery, materials, food, fuel, even _people,_ from anywhere with a cutter present, to anywhere else with a cutter present."
745
746"That's right," said Nerv.
747
748"Third, free, unlimited energy, with zero emissions."
749
750Nerv nodded.  "Must've been an eye-opener when you figured that out, huh."
751
752"Well, it stands to reason," said Zelda.  "I imagine we've the ability, now, to control the weather?"
753
754"Actually," said Nerv, "we tend to only control our reactions to the weather.  I mean, we'll disrupt storms and tornadoes big enough that they could do any real damage - but for the most part we let the climate do what it wants to, and if we don't want to get wet, we don't get wet."  She smiled.  "When I was a teenager there was a brief umbrella fad.  People thought they were romantic."
755
756"What about agriculture?"
757
758"Again, taking the path of least resistance," said Nerv.  "Transportation and logistics are much more straightforward now, so crops can grow where they're inclined to grow.  Consistently controlling the climate is hugely complex and prone to serious consequences if we mess something up, but our ability to work around it has improved a thousandfold."  She shrugged.  "So, we work around it."
759
760Zelda nodded.  "Okay, brief diversion over.  So.  Those three things, taken individually, would have had _enormous_ societal repercussions.  Put all three together, and..." she hesitated.  "And the world today bears _absolutely_ no resemblance to the world in which I spilled my tea.  Like, none _at all._"
761
762Nerv looked thoughtfully at Zelda.  She sipped her tea.
763
764"Basically," she said, quietly.
765
766"Yeah," said Zelda.  "I thought so."
767
768She sipped her tea, and they were quiet for a moment.
769
770_So, extrapolated out: world hunger is history, pandemics are no longer a thing, and if poverty still exists, then it's not a form I would recognise._
771
772_But I do need one more data point.  I can't extrapolate it all the way, just yet._
773
774"So," said Zelda, "we can cut a photon out of existence and cut it back in arbitrarily."  She grinned at Nerv.  "Have we figured out faster-than-light travel yet?"
775
776Nerv grinned back.  "Yes and no."
777
778Zelda leaned back in her chair and laughed.  "Oh, come _on._"
779
780"Well," said Nerv, chuckling herself, "on the one hand, nothing travels faster than light."
781
782"Of course," said Zelda.
783
784"On the other, nobody really _travels_ anymore.  We just _arrive._  Let me, uh..." she set down her cup of tea.  "Let me give you an example."
785
786"I'm all ears."
787
788"Say you wanted to go and have a picnic on Mars," said Nerv, leaning forward.  "And people _do_ do that, by the way - I can't see the appeal myself, but some people apparently enjoy it there.  Now, Mars is anywhere between three and twenty-two light-minutes away, with an average of about twelve minutes, so for the sake of simplifying this example, let's say we want to go when it's ten light-minutes away, and the satellites handling cutter transfers are in place and oriented just right, that we can do that."
789
790"Okay," said Zelda.  "I think I get where this is going.  You cut out and then cease to exist for ten minutes while your Outregion location is sent to the Mars cutter using a big laser or something, right?"
791
792"That's one way of doing it - but people don't really like not existing."
793
794"Well, I did it for God-knows how many years, I dunno why people are so bothered about a few minutes.  So what's the _better_ way of going to Mars?" asked Zelda.
795
796"When you cut something, you get a unique ID for the particular area of the Outregion in which the thing you cut resides.  A big long alphanumeric code that says "This is where the thing is."  Say this cup of tea is Earth," said Nerv.  "And your cup is Mars.  My computer here on Earth," she said, pointing to her cup, "establishes an ID for an arbitrary Outregion location, and reserves it so that it can't be used by anyone else.  Then, my computer sends a command to a computer on Mars," her finger slowly started trailing across the table towards Zelda's cup, "to instruct a cutter on Mars to cut from the ID we established back on Earth.  And then, _just_ before the command reaches Mars," her finger hesitated just shy of Zelda's cup, "my computer tells my cutter to cut me and my picnic basket away to the ID it reserved.  Half a second later, the command I sent ten minutes ago finally reaches Mars, and the cutter there cuts me back in."
797
798"So," said Zelda, pointing to Nerv's cup, "you say "Hey Earth cutter, cut me out in ten minutes' time, and hey Mars cutter, cut me in right now," and you make a cup of tea while you're waiting for the command to reach Mars."
799
800"That's a _much_ more straightforward way of putting it, yes," said Nerv, smiling.
801
802Zelda frowned.  "What if something goes wrong with the signal, while you're sitting around for ten minutes?"
803
804"The command sent to Mars is actually more like "Keep trying to cut from this location once per second until something comes out or I tell you to stop."  And I can cancel it if I have to."
805
806"I guess that'd be the way to do it," murmured Zelda.  "Have we made it further, yet?"
807
808"There's a drone ship on the way to the Alpha Centauri system.  It's due to get there in July."
809
810Zelda grinned.  "I take it it only has a cutter on it?"
811
812"Basically," said Nerv.
813
814"You don't even _have_ picnic baskets anymore, do you?"
815
816Nerv grinned.  "They're props.  Rituals need items of focus.  It's not a picnic if you don't have your picnic basket."
817
818Zelda smiled.  "Okay.  So on a completely unrelated note... you've studied 20th-century history, right?"
819
820Nerv nodded.  "Yes."
821
822"So you remember how the assembly line was going to make it so that we didn't have to work as much?  And factory automation, after that?  And the internet, after that?  All these inventions that promised a ten-hour work week?"
823
824"And the only people who ended up working less were the factory owners and their descendants, yes," said Nerv.
825
826"So...?"  Zelda spread her hands.  "Are people working less, or... actually, you know what, skip that question.  It's not as important as this one.  Tell me this."  She leaned forward.  "When I spilled my tea, the suicide rate in England and Wales was twenty per hundred thousand.  _That's_ the number we need to look at to see how well we're doing, forget GDP or hours worked or economic output or whatever.  What's the most recent year's rate?"
827
828"Jeremy?"  Nerv hesitated a moment, nodded.  "Four per hundred thousand."
829
830Zelda sat back in her chair.  "Fucking _hell,_" she breathed.
831
832"Which I assume answers the question you were going to ask," said Nerv.
833
834Zelda swallowed.  "I'm guessing you've eliminated most causes of situational depression."
835
836"Well," said Nerv, smiling, "more like _you_ have.  With your cutter."
837
838"I don't buy it," said Zelda, sighing, her hands on the table.  "I don't buy it," she said again, shaking her head.  "It can't be.  People want _more._  People _always_ look for the next thing.  They get used to a certain standard of living, and what was once aspirational becomes the norm, and they fall back into wanting.  But from what you've told me and what I've figured out for myself, this could be the last machine we'll need, so now what?"
839
840Nerv nodded, slowly.  "It may well be, and you raise a good point, but we're still figuring out what the cutter can do for us.  It seems like even now, every few months someone figures out a way to make it do a new thing.  Are you okay?"
841
842Zelda nodded, sleepily.  "The shower woke me up for, like, a few minutes."  She yawned.  "It was like three AM when I spilled my tea."
843
844"And since then you've had your whole world turned upside down, been sick, and had to fend off an attempted dessication.  You must be exhausted."
845
846"Mmm-hmm," said Zelda.  "What time _is_ it, here?"
847
848"Two thirty-two."
849
850"Okay, how do you _do_ that?" said Zelda.  "You didn't even _look_ somewhere else.  Oh, wait-" she grinned.  "Lemme try and figure it out on my own."
851
852Nerv leaned forwards, grinning, her elbows on the table, while Zelda thought it over.
853
854"The cutter must be cutting photons straight onto your eye," said Zelda thoughtfully.
855
856Nerv nodded.  "If you look _very_ closely right here," she said, pointing to her right pupil, "you _might_ see the time, very faintly, very small, backwards."
857
858"But how did you instruct it to do that?" mused Zelda.  "I didn't see you move, you didn't say anything."  She sat back and looked hard at Nerv.
859
860Nerv sat and grinned, her chin in her palms.
861
862"Toes," said Zelda, quietly.
863
864"Bingo," said Nerv.
865
866"Little pressure switches in the sole of your shoe, and a wireless transmitter."
867
868"Not _quite,_" said Nerv.  "Switches bend, or have their contacts tarnish, or wear out.  Batteries need charged.  Solder joints crack."
869
870"Of course, _everything's a cutter_ now," grinned Zelda.  "Okay.  You'll be using the simplest mechanism possible, backed up with a cutter somehow.  How about... tiny little air sac under each toe, opening to somewhere, a cutter feels the air being expelled and cuts it away, and tells another cutter to throw photons at your eyes."
871
872"_Damn_ you're clever," grinned Nerv.  "Even when you're tired."
873
874"I'd go to bed," said Zelda, yawning, "but then I'd be up at bloody midnight."
875
876"Aha," said Nerv, index finger in the air, "the amazing future world has you covered there too!"
877
878Zelda smiled wearily.  "Are we going to Australia or the Outregion?"
879
880"Well, that's up to you," said Nerv.  "I could cut you out now, cut you back in at nine or ten o'clock tonight, and you could sleep as long as you'd like."  She grinned.  "Hell, if you wanted I could cut you while you sleep."
881
882Zelda winced.
883
884Nerv cocked an eyebrow.  "Not appealing?"
885
886"The idea, yes, the phrasing not so much.  You use the word 'cut' to mean transport or store or whatever, I wonder how much language has changed since I was..." she stopped mid-sentence to yawn, and stopped mid-yawn to speak again.  "Are you talking to me in a deliberately old-fashioned way so I'll understand you?"
887
888"Not especially," said Nerv.  "I mean, I'm conscious of using as little slang as I can, but that's all.  You know, we actually recreated your home."
889
890"Really?" asked Zelda, wiping her eyes.  "You went to such lengths to keep me from having culture shock?"
891
892"Well," said Nerv, "when I say "We" I actually mean, like, "Humanity."  It was already there, it's kind of a museum now."
893
894Zelda smiled weakly.  "I assume you arranged for it to be closed today?"
895
896Nerv nodded.  "Shall we go, and get you some sleep?"
897
898Zelda stood up.  "Yes.  Before I pass out."  She closed her eyes to yawn.  When she opened them again, she was in her living room.
899
900_Except... not quite._
901
902She was in an _almost_ perfect reproduction of her living room.
903
904"The carpet's new," she said, pointing to the floor.  She looked around, realised she was talking to herself.
905
906The doorbell rang.
907
908Zelda grinned, stepped into the hall, and opened the door.  "Yes, you can come in, Nerv.  Is _everyone_ this polite in the future?"
909
910"Everyone _I_ hang around with," said Nerv, stepping over Zelda's threshold.  "Is it like home?"
911
912"It's cleaner," said Zelda.  "And... kinda eerie, if I'm honest."
913
914"Is it better than, say, a hotel?  Because we can arrange that too."
915
916"No, that's okay," said Zelda, looking around, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up.  "I appreciate the trouble you've gone to."
917
918"The plumbing and electricity are functional," said Nerv.  "They're not the same, but they're functional.  Plumbing is cutter-based, but you wouldn't know it.  As for the electricity, we use DC now."
919
920"Poor Tesla," mumbled Zelda.
921
922"Oh, come on," teased Nerv.  "Tesla would _love_ your cutter."
923
924Zelda grinned.  "Aye, he probably would."
925
926"Are you retiring to bed now, Lady Zelda?  Would you like me to cut you out for a few hours?"
927
928Zelda nodded.  "Sure."
929
930"I can cut the whole bed once you're in it, or I can cut you out until dark now."
931
932Zelda chuckled.  "Which of these is weirder: asking you to press a button that'll make it look like you spun the world around until it was dark on this side, in the blink of an eye - or going to bed while it's still light?"
933
934Nerv smiled.  "Good point, Lady Zelda.  Would you mind if we continued monitoring your biorhythms, so that I can cut you away once we see that you've fallen asleep naturally?"
935
936"I'm okay with that," said Zelda.  "And thank you for being here.  I mean it.  You've gone to a great deal of trouble to make this easier for me, and I appreciate it."
937
938Nerv grinned.  "You're very welcome, Lady Zelda.  I put a Nerv button on your bedside table, feel free to press it at any time."
939
940"Well.  G'night, Nerv."  She turned to mount the stairs, hand on the banister, moving slow, weary.
941
942"Lady Zelda?"
943
944Zelda looked back over her shoulder.  "Hmm?"
945
946"Would you... like me to stay here, tonight?"
947
948Zelda breathed.  Seconds ticked by.
949
950"Yes," said Zelda, quietly.  "Please."
951
952"I'll cut a bed into the living room," said Nerv.  "And cut it away before you wake.  Sleep well, Lady Zelda."
953
954Zelda nodded.  "Sleep well, Nerv."
955
956
957
958
959
960Pyjamified, Zelda settled under the duvet - the sort of long, slow, deep settling that happens after a long day.  She exhaled, noisily, for a long time, her lungs emptying as birds twittered outside.  Muscles pinged in protest as she consciously untensed them, her head sinking deeper into the pillow.
961
962_This is not my bed._
963
964_It looks just like it - but it doesn't smell of me._
965
966She stretched, lazily, spine cracking.
967
968_Comfy, though.  Comfier than the real one._
969
970Already drifting into sleep, her thought processes slowed down, became less coherent, more random - images flashed through her brain as she began to almost-dream while not-yet-quite asleep, her mind deviating from its usual straight lines, playing in the wild places where ideas come from.
971
972Some swishy corner of dreaming revealed something that warranted consciousness, something she had overlooked - she felt the hard waves in the back of her head, wakefulness returning, imposing order, warming her spine.
973
974She reached for the button.
975
976(and it _was_, literally, just a button.  Sat on the bedside table, not connected to anything, its contacts bare.  Zelda suspected a cutter somewhere had line of sight and was just watching to see if she pressed it)
977
978Nerv appeared in front of Zelda.  She was standing, holding a cup of tea.
979
980"Lady Zelda?"
981
982"Nerv, why can't we just set a cutter on Mars to cut from a pre-determined address once per second, and then just _keep cutting new things_ to that address?  Then we wouldn't have that ten-minute delay."
983
984"Because Mars has an atmosphere," said Nerv.  "The cutter needs to cut everything away to create a vacuum to cut new things into, and if it doesn't _know_ what's coming, then it can't create a suitable space for it.  If you just cut straight to Mars without the receiving cutter creating a space for you, then you'd get a whole bunch of carbon dioxide in your bloodstream, bits of dust stuck in your muscle tissues and bone marrow and such..." she shook her head - "all sorts of problems.  Fewer problems than you'd get in Earth's atmosphere, which is under much more pressure, but still not worth saving ten minutes.  But a system like the one you describe _has_ been built and used in the past, and we'll probably use a similar system when we get to Alpha Centauri.  If you're cutting into a vacuum, you can just instruct the receiving cutter to make a space big enough for the biggest thing you're ever going to cut into it."
985
986"So..."  Zelda blinked.  "Are you telling me that faster-than-light travel _is_ possible, in a vacuum?  We can cut a spaceship to Mars orbit _instantaneously?_"
987
988"Or any planet's orbit where a cutter is present, yes," said Nerv.
989
990"Why on Earth didn't you tell me that before?!"
991
992"You wanted to ask about picnic baskets," said Nerv.  "The conversation kinda veered off."
993
994Zelda stared.  "Oh."
995
996"Is that all, Lady Zelda?"
997
998"For now, Nerv, yes.  Thank you."
999
1000"Sleep well, Lady Zelda."
1001
1002"Thank you, Nerv, have a nice day."
1003
1004Nerv disappeared, and Zelda's head sank gently back into the pillow.
1005
1006_Tomorrow,_ thought Zelda, thoughts descending once more into beautiful incoherence, _I really should let her follow her script._
1007
1008
1009
1010
1011
1012Beauty didn't last.
1013
1014Feverishly tying new information to existing memories, Zelda's brain established new neural pathways.
1015
1016Faster-than-light travel -> Warp ten, mister Data -> all those actors and writers -> dead.
1017
1018Picnic on Mars -> Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson -> lent to Amanda -> dead.
1019
1020Free energy -> silly internet videos on perpetual motion machines -> Jason posted another one yesterday -> dead.
1021
1022Pandemics are a solved problem -> playing that board game about disease control with Alex, Sue and John -> dead, dead, and dead.
1023
1024Suffering enough distress to bring back consciousness, Zelda woke as if from a bad dream - she'd only been semi-asleep a few seconds, and already she was breathing hard, heart pounding, tears, mucous.
1025
1026_This is a nightmare._
1027
1028She screwed her eyes shut and sobbed.
1029
1030"Lady Zelda?" said a soft voice.
1031
1032Something inside Zelda cracked, the sound of its breakage creaking out of her mouth - not quite a scream, quiet, strangled, eyes squeezed shut against the reality of her total and irrevocable loneliness.
1033
1034She felt an arm around her - she allowed herself to be rearranged.  She cried into Nerv's shoulder, great painful sobs like something huge was trying to force its way out through her lungs - something that was too big for her to pass, something that would never get out, would tear her in half first.
1035
1036"Lady Zelda," said Nerv, quietly, a gentle hand on the back of Zelda's head.  "Oh, Lady Zelda."
1037
1038_What could she even say?_ thought Zelda, moaning, shuddering.  _Something as small as "I'm sorry?"  What would that even mean?_
1039
1040So Nerv didn't say anything.
1041
1042She just let Zelda cling to her, hard enough to bruise.
1043
1044
1045
1046
1047
1048Some time passed.
1049
1050Then, some more, marked by Nerv summoning glasses of water, with which Zelda could replace the fluids she'd cried out.
1051
1052After a long, long time, Zelda was able to force out words, through the sobs - "I-is this f-forever?"
1053
1054"No," said Nerv, quietly.  "It's not forever."
1055
1056"B-but _everything_ reminds me of..." Zelda swallowed.  "I lost _everyone,_ don't you underst-stand?  You lose _one_ person, you s-see something that reminds you of them, and..." she trailed off into more sobs.
1057
1058"I know," said Nerv, gently massaging the base of Zelda's skull, where it met her neck.  "_Nobody_ is going to think worse of you, for feeling these things.  Everyone but the very young has lost someone, everyone knows what that's like - multiply that by a few hundred, nobody can blame you for being overcome."
1059
1060"I c-can't be a Lady, like this.  Or a fellow, or a Doctor of Sciences, I can't be some bloody _public figure_ if _this_ is what I'm going to be like!" wailed Zelda.
1061
1062"I know it's not going to get better for a long time," said Nerv.  "And that's okay."
1063
1064_It should have killed me,_ thought Zelda.  _It should have blown up.  I wouldn't have even felt it; a click of the fingers and I'm gone, just like that._
1065
1066_Maybe the cutter did explode._
1067
1068_Maybe this is Hell._
1069
1070She sobbed harder, clinging to someone a hair's breadth away from being a total stranger, because it was all she had.
1071
1072_All these wonderful things.  Nobody I love to show them to._
1073
1074_Hell._
1075
1076"What the fuck am I gonna _do,_" she moaned.  "Th-this society probably doesn't even _grieve_ the same way I do!"
1077
1078"Would you like me to tell you?" asked Nerv, quietly.
1079
1080Zelda nodded.
1081
1082"We cut our dead," said Nerv.  "And we mourn them, just like you do.  But we know it's not forever."
1083
1084Zelda pulled back, opened her eyes - a Nerv-shaped blur was handing her a glass-shaped blur.  She wiped her eyes, took it, sipped.
1085
1086"Death is very different now," continued Nerv.  "My grandmother died last year, by appointment.  Most people do, these days.  Accidents are rare.  Murder is _very_ rare.  Suicide is... not the same thing, anymore.  It was... what most people would call "old age," I suppose."  Nerv shrugged.  "Just... everything started to break down, one organ at a time.  It doesn't really matter what finally killed her; you can only replace so much."
1087
1088"I'm sorry," said Zelda, her voice a croak.
1089
1090"She had enough advance notice that she decided she wanted to be still alive, when the time came, so..."  Nerv swallowed.  "She made the date, put her affairs in order, we all came to visit, and... off she went."
1091
1092She was silent, for a moment.
1093
1094"She packed a suitcase," said Nerv, looking at her hands.  "After we all came over to say goodbye, it was later that day.  She said she was going to head out into the garden and sit on the bench, and think, and be alone.  I don't know whether she went at sunset, or at midnight, or at dawn the next day," Nerv took a breath - "or whether she just said "fuck it" and slapped her hand down on the cutter at some random moment.  But when my dad went to the bungalow the next day, she was gone."
1095
1096Nerv looked at her hands for a moment longer, then looked towards Zelda.
1097
1098Zelda stared back.
1099
1100Amazing herself, she thought _That's the first time I've heard Nerv swear._
1101
1102_And that's what I'm thinking about, now, instead of how people are cutting themselves out of existence rather than dying._
1103
1104"So..." Zelda said, her voice a hoarse whisper.  "What _happens?_"
1105
1106Nerv shrugged.  "Dunno, yet.  I suppose we'll find out in the future.  New body, robot body, consciousness uploaded to a server somewhere - I mean, we could theorize all day.  But it still _hurts._  I _know_ I'll see her again one day, it's mathematically _likely_ over a long enough timespan that we'd get the technology to sort her out one way or another, and the will to use it - but until then, I live my life without her."
1107
1108"You've conquered death," whispered Zelda.
1109
1110"Not yet," said Nerv.  "But your cutter has pretty effectively deferred it until we figure out a better alternative."
1111
1112Zelda sat and thought for a moment.
1113
1114"Wow," she whispered.  "Now I d-don't feel like crying anym-more."
1115
1116Nerv smiled.  "But you're still crying, is the thing."
1117
1118Zelda laughed - the sort of laugh that turns into a sob, then back into a laugh again, back to weeping, unable to make up its mind.  The kind that's necessary, that tends to turn up in any good cry just to keep you from dying of it.
1119
1120Nerv held her hand until she could talk again.
1121
1122"Thanks," said Zelda, weakly.  "My body'll catch up with my brain any minute now."
1123
1124"It's okay," said Nerv.  "Any time."
1125
1126"So," said Zelda, wiping her eyes - "what happened to me, this morning, all of this, today - sooner or later this'll happen to everyone?"
1127
1128"I suppose," said Nerv.  "Most people will expect it, though."
1129
1130"Well," said Zelda, "I'll be sure to keep notes.  Maybe write a guide to time-travel."
1131
1132"You know," said Nerv, "I haven't mentioned this yet, but... you're handling all of this _way_ better than we feared you might."
1133
1134Zelda grinned weakly.  "In one day, you've introduced me to faster-than-light transportation, free energy, and we've replaced death with time-travel.  All those things are pretty fucking brilliant, Nerv."
1135
1136Nerv smiled back.  "Wait 'til you see what we show you tomorrow."