An Insubstantial Man

I knew immediately what had happened. Rick had fallen on the buttons, activating the flash-freezing process, and sealing me in the chamber. I had about ten seconds to get out. I ran to the back doors and hit the saucer button, but nothing happened. I hit it five more times, as hard as I could. No response. By this time, the liquid nitrogen was streaming through the coils and the temperature was already falling. I ran to the center of the chamber, picked up the aluminum table, and hurled it at the doors. The table bounced right back at me, knocking me down. My head slammed into the grating and as I lost consciousness I heard screaming. It might have been the nitrogen in the tubes, but it might have been me.

When I woke up, I noticed first that my bed felt like a concrete slab. I reached for Melanie, but found a wall where she should've been sleeping. Above me, instead of the brown stain where the damn roof leaked, was a grating, dimly outlined by pale green light. Where the hell was I?

In a rush, I remembered: I had gone through Rick's big freeze experiment - but somehow I was still alive! But how in hell did I get down here, twenty feet below the grating I'd been standing on when the table decked me?

Flexing things uncovered some sore muscles and bruises, mostly along my left side, and there was a lump on the back of my head, but nothing was broken. I had no idea how long I'd lain there.

I sat up, waited until my lightheadedness got a mite heavier, and then stood. I felt tingly allover, the way an arm or leg feels when you lie on it the wrong way. The air smelled sharply of lemons and seemed thinner than before.

The chamber grating above me looked unbroken, with no trap doors or hinges. Had someone carried me here? Who? Oh my God! Rick had been shot! Was he dead?

I had to find out, but first I had to find a way out. Passageways like the ones above led to aluminum doors on each side, and the doors were closed. Now that the machine was silent, maybe I could open them

The thought wasn't even completed when I heard a whoosh above me. The doors on the control-room side were sliding open. I crept along the passage until I was directly under them, and from there I watched the patterned undersides of running shoes advance step by cautious step across the grating. I could see enough to recognize the intruder.

As I was backing along the passageway, feeling for the door, I tripped and toppled over backward, falling through what felt like cotton candy. I landed flat on my back and my head bounced on the ground, but it felt more like rubber than concrete. The blow made my head spin, so I closed my eyes and lay still, hoping the intruder hadn't heard me fall.

When I opened my eyes, the light seemed different. Above me, where I expected to see the grating, was a solid ceiling. I sat up and was astonished to see the aluminum door in front of me! Behind me I saw nothing but a long, narrow tunnel, and yes, there was light at the end. I scrambled to my feet and went to the metal door. Its threshold was a concrete step. I must have fallen over it and pushed the door open, and it had closed behind me. Then I noticed that the door had no hinges; it opened by sliding into recesses on either side. I reached out to push it open, but I couldn't because my hand sank right through it.

Horrified, I snatched my hand back, massaged it, and wiggled my fingers. Everything seemed normal. I reached out again, more cautiously this time, using the tip of my little finger. If I lost anything, I wanted to minimize the damage. I pushed it right into the door almost to the knuckle. I felt an odd, crackly sensation, but no pain, and my finger looked normal when I pulled it out.

Maybe this was one of those sci-fi energy barriers - but I went right through it! Some barrier.

What the hell was going on here? I put my hand against the wall of the passage. The concrete felt spongy, but my hand didn't penetrate the surface, just as my feet weren't sinking into the concrete floor.

Then it dawned on me. If I could pass through this solid door, then I must have passed through the aluminum grating. That's why I'd found myself lying on the concrete floor below the chamber. Rick's experiment had transformed me, just like those vanishing rats of his.

I poked at the concrete wall again. I couldn't pass through it, but it was springy to my touch, not stony hard as it would have been to a normal person.

"My God!" I said out loud, "A normal person!"

Yet my hands and feet looked and felt the same, and in the fun- house mirror of the aluminum door I looked like the same old Clay, five feet ten inches of clean-shaven, muddy blond and blue-eyed American male.

Except that I could pass right through solid aluminum. I tried to incorporate that idea into my image of myself, but I couldn't comprehend it. From this point forward I had to live by different rules, but what were the rules? How long would this last? A day? Forever?