“MAKE ONE.” The voice came out at the maximum volume. “MAKE ONE MAKE ONE MAKE ONE MAKE ONE…” and on and on.

“The equivalence theorem, wife! Tell me. Tell me,” he lied, “and I’ll help you!”

Ling’s mind reached out for the connection that led to the next level.

But there was nothing. A dead end.

What?

She turned to the schematics. They didn’t extend that far. They showed data lines heading down, but not where they terminated. She struggled to understand, searched for explanation.

There, an operations guide. She consumed it, and then she understood.

Her mother was physically isolated a thousand meters down. The connection was physically disconnected. There was no way to reach her mother at all.

“Ling Shu, it’s time for your lesson!” The tutor pulled her hard, yanking her around to face the old woman. Ling tripped and fell to her knees. “Owwww!”

Shu stopped, aghast.

The equivalence theorem? The EQUIVALENCE THEOREM???

That’s why Chen had come. Despair smothered the hope she’d felt. He wasn’t here to help her. He was here to wring one last bit of value out of her. She’d married this man. She’d loved him. She’d tried to make a child with him.

Oh, Chen. Oh, Chen.

The voice from the speaker suddenly went silent.

Chen blinked, surprised.

Then his wife spoke again.

“Chen Chen husband Chen please if you ever loved me ever cared please help please.”

Chen hardened himself.

“The equivalence theorem,” he repeated. “Give it to me, then I’ll help you.”

“PLEASE HUSBAND.” Chen flinched as his dead wife’s voice boomed at painful volume. “PLEASE HELP BRING ME A CLONE OR LING HUSBAND BRING ME LING MY DAUGHTER LING LING LING PLEASE LING…” The voice descended into sobbing even as it screamed Ling’s name. Chen hit a switch and turned off the speakers.

What had he expected? It was like the first time. Except this time there would be no clone. The hardliners would not allow it.

“Damn it!” He slammed his hand down on the console. The proof, if it was practical, would allow quantum acceleration of any classical algorithm, not just the small minority that achieved massive speedups on quantum systems now. It would be worth billions, tens of billions. It would win him the Nobel Prize. But it was out of reach now.

Chen took a deep breath, forced himself to act normally. He filed away the system test results, made sure all the cameras and audio pickups that led to the Quantum Cluster were deactivated, then logged off of the terminal.

The blast doors and elevator doors opened for him, and then closed behind him once more, and the elevator began its slow ascent to the surface.

“Owwww!” Ling yelled as the tutor wrenched her around and she fell to her knees and bit her tongue.

“Ling, your break is over, young lady! It’s time for your lessons.”