"You're different, Paul." Green leaned forwards, his expression a crumpled mixture of compassion and fascination. "You've this extraordinary talent. You're not unique; I don't want you to think that." He smiled. "None of us has any doubts about your humanity... and all of us share your faculty, your quantum-mechanical way of seeing things, to some extent. Did you know that the dark-adapted eye, even without augmentation, can pick up a single photon? So straightforward human senses can perceive events at the quantum level. And there's speculation that consciousness itself is a quantum process... What's different about you is the strength of this -- talent. The rest of us live here in the macro world, this smoothed-over mock-up of the truth. But sometimes you can see beyond the approximations and shams; you seem to be able to see right down to the fundamental level of quantum wave functions." Green's voice grew intense. "You see, Paul, in Taft's Universe the surface of the Lump is certain to keep out a meteorite. But in your Universe nothing is certain."

Paul twisted away. "I don't want to be uncertain, Commander. I'm frightened. I don't even know my real name."

Green grasped his shoulders. "Look, Paul, you are a puzzle to us. There's no point pretending otherwise. But the parts of the puzzle have to be connected. Where you came from must be connected with the way you are. And by doing this thing, by extending your talent to its limits, I believe you're going to discover more than what the Xeelee are up to inside the Sugar Lump. I believe you'll discover yourself."

Paul found himself shuddering. He tried to concentrate on the straps around his waist, the reassuring hands on his shoulders.

"Yeah," Taft said slyly. "Or maybe you'll discover you're nothing more than a vacuum diagram. What about that, eh, Paul?"

"A what?"

"Shut up, Taft."

"Come on, Commander. If this is a revision class, then let's revise it all." Taft stepped up to stand before Paul, grinning, brittle with bitterness. "You told me how you took Paul up to the Spline fleet, put him through a crash course on how to be a human. Well, what about your quantum physics, Paul? Remember Feynman diagrams? Those cute pictures which show particles interacting, living, dying?"

"Taft..." Green growled.

"Well, now, here's a remarkable little interaction. From out of nowhere pop three particles -- a pion, a proton, and an antineutron. Of course conservation is violated all over the place -- but thanks to the Uncertainty Principle nothing is absolute in this Universe. I presume that's the concept our naval friend was groping for just now. And then the diagram closes up. The three particles recombine -- they disappear back into the vacuum again, and conservation is reasserted. What a relief!