The screens on the machine and on the pad showed a simple outline of the Silent Child. She transferred the image to one of the big displays. Below the outline, data began populating into columns, going exponentially faster as it went. At the same time, the ship icon started to fill in. After a few cycliseconds it had gone from empty black to glowing orange. “Hmm,” she said. “That was fast.”

“That’s it?” asked Izairis.

“What did it just do?” asked Oush.

“It scanned and catalogued all of the matter on the ship.”

Aptat pointed to the columns on the display. “Why are those numbers changing?”

“Well, because matter is always changing,” answered Naecia. “We are breathing in the air, converting and exhaling it. The cells inside our body are dividing, dying, growing cyclisec over cyclisec. The ship’s battery levels oscillate. Dust drifts from one place to the next. The machine is reflecting the current state of matter at every moment. Whatever that state is when we trigger the drive is the state that will be reproduced.”

“How do you know we’ll be reproduced in one piece and not jumbled all together into some gruesome mixture of people and spaceship?” said Izairis.

“Ah, yes,” said Aptat, stiffly slapping a leg. “The classic teleportation mix-up.”

Naecia tapped the pad and gestured the data up onto the large holographic display. “Look, matter is all about location and number. Change the location and number of electrons, protons, and neutrons, change the matter–”

“This isn’t helping,” said the ex-nun.

“Somewhere in here,” said Naecia, approaching the display, “are the numbers that represent the locations of the particles that make you. Not just within your body, but within the ship.” She pinched the screen on the pad, expanding the display to show hundreds of columns. “Let’s try to find Izairis. Everybody, hold still. Izairis, walk in a circle around the machine.” Izairis gave an easy shrug and began a slow lap around the Switch.

Naecia scrolled through a menu. “I’m looking for large, wholesale changes. With everything else being static, I should be able to find Izai – ah.” She zoomed back in and focused on a column that looked no different from any of the others, except that the raw data was changing as Izairis made her way around the Switch. “There you are,” said Naecia. “Now stop.”

Izairis did and the numbers settled back down.

“See?” said Naecia.

No one looked terribly reassured.

“Look,” she said. “If it doesn’t work, we have a fortune in salvage and can run away as quickly as you like. We’ll sell it and get rich and then one day, we will all simply cease to exist when the Scythin recover the Chime.”

“Isn’t that how all life ends?” said Aptat. “You just cease to exist?”

“Aren’t you immortal?” Naecia responded.