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Morrison was still studying the interior of the ship. It seemed bare. Detail was surprisingly difficult to make out in the situation of transparency-on-transparency and miniaturization of the old-type - ordinary, but microscopic - components.
He said, "There will be five on the ship: you and I, Boranova, Konev, and Dezhnev."
"That's right."
"And what will each of us be doing?"
"Arkady will control the ship. Obviously, he knows how to do that. It's the child of his hands and mind. He'll be in the left front seat. To his right will be the other male, who has a complete map of the neurocirculatory pattern of Shapirov's brain. He will be the pilot. I will sit behind Arkady and I will control the electromagnetic pattern of the ship's surface."
"An electromagnetic pattern? What's that for?"
"My dear Albert. You recognize objects by reflected light, a dog recognizes objects by emitted odor, a molecule recognizes objects by surface electromagnetic pattern. If we're going to make our way as a miniaturized object among molecules, we must have the proper patterns in order to be treated as friends rather than foes."
"That sounds complicated."
"It is - but it happens to be my life study. Natalya will sit behind me. She will be the captain of the expedition. She will make the decisions."
"What kind of decisions?"
"Whatever kind are necessary. Obviously, those can't be predicted in advance. As for you, you will sit to my right."
Morrison rose and managed to shift his position along the narrow aisle on the door side of the seats and move one seat back. He had been in Konev's seat and now he was in what would be his own. He could feel his heart pounding as he imagined himself in that same seat on the following day, with the miniaturization process in progress.
He said in a muffled voice, "There is only one man, then - Yuri Konev - who was miniaturized and deminiaturized and was unharmed by the process."
"Yes."
"And he mentioned no discomfort in the process, no sickness, no mental disturbance?"
"Nothing of the sort was reported."
"Would that be because he is a stoic? Would he feel it would be beneath the dignity of a hero of Soviet science to complain?"
"Don't be foolish. We are not heroes of Soviet science and the one you speak of certainly isn't. We are human beings and scientists and, in fact, if there were any discomfort that we felt, we would be compelled to describe it in full detail, since it might be that with modifications of the process we could remove that discomfort and make future miniaturizations less difficult. Hiding any part of the truth would be unscientific, unethical, and dangerous. Don't you see that - since you are a scientist yourself?"
"Yet there may be individual differences. Yuri Konev survived untouched. Pyotr Shapirov did not - quite."
"That had nothing to do with individual differences," said Kaliinin impatiently.
"We can't really tell, can we?"
"Then judge for yourself, Albert. Do you think we would take the ship into miniaturization without a final testing - with and without human beings aboard? This ship was miniaturized, empty, during the course of this past night - not to a very great extent, but enough to know that all is well."
At once Morrison struggled upward to get out of his seat. "In that case, if you don't mind, Sophia, I want to get out before it is tested with human beings aboard."
"But, Albert, it's too late."
"What!"
"Look out the ship at the room. You haven't once looked outside since you got in, which, I suppose, was a good thing. But look out now. Go ahead. The walls are transparent and the process is complete for now. Please! Look!"
Morrison, startled, did so and then, very slowly, his knees bent and he seated himself again. He asked (and even as he did so, he knew how foolish he must sound), "Do the ship's walls have a magnifying effect?"
"No, of course not. Everything outside is as it always is. The ship and I and you have been miniaturized to about half our linear dimensions."
Morrison felt dizziness overcome him and he bent his head between his knees and breathed slowly and deeply. When he lifted his head again, he saw Kaliinin watching him thoughtfully. She was standing in the narrow aisle, leaning slightly against a seat's armrest to allow the ceiling to clear her head.
"You might have fainted this time," she said. "It would not have disturbed me. We are being deminiaturized now and that will be more time-consuming than the miniaturization, which took no more than three or four minutes. It will take an hour or so for us to get back, so you will have ample time to recover."
"It was not a decent act to do this without telling me, Sophia."
"On the contrary," said Kaliinin. "It was an act of kindness. Would you have entered the ship as freely and as easily as you did if you had suspected that we would be miniaturized? Would you have inspected the ship as coolly if you had known? And if you had been anticipating miniaturization, would you not have developed psychogenic symptoms of all sorts?"
Morrison was silent.
Kaliinin said, "Did you feel anything? Were you even aware that you were being miniaturized?"
Morrison shook his head. "No."
Then, driven by a certain shame, he said, "You've never been miniaturized before any more than I have, have you?"
"No. Before this day, Konev and Shapirov have been the only human beings to have undergone miniaturization."
"And you weren't at all apprehensive?"
She said, "I wouldn't say that. I was uneasy. We know from our experience with space travel that, as you said earlier, there are individual differences in reaction to unusual environments. Some astronauts suffer episodes of nausea under zero gravity and some do not, for instance. I couldn't be sure how I would react. - Did you feel nausea?"
"I didn't until I found out we had been miniaturized, but I suppose feeling queasy now doesn't count. - Who pla
"Natalya."
"Of course. I needn't have asked," he said drily.
"There were reasons. She felt we couldn't have you break down once the voyage began. We couldn't be expected to deal with hysteria on your part once we began miniaturizing."
"I suppose I deserve that lack of confidence," said Morrison, his eyes looking away in embarrassment from those of Kaliinin. "And I imagine she assigned you to come with me for the precise purpose of distracting my attention while all this was going on."
"No. That was my idea. She wanted to come with you herself, but with her, by now, I thought you might be anticipating trickery."
"Whereas with you, I might be at my ease."
"At least, as you say, distracted. I am still young enough to distract men." Then, with a touch of bitterness, "Most men."
Morrison looked up, eyes narrowing. "You said I might be anticipating trickery."
"I mean, with Natalya."
"Why not with you? All I see now is that everything outside seems enlarged. How can I be sure that that is not an illusion, something designed to make me think I have been miniaturized and that it is harmless - merely so that I step quietly into the ship tomorrow?"
"That's ridiculous, Albert, but let's consider something. You and I have lost half our linear dimension in every direction. The strength of our muscles varies inversely with their cross-sections. They are now half their normal width and half their normal thickness, so that they have half times half or one fourth the cross-section and, therefore, the strength they would normally have. Do you see what I mean? Do you understand?"
"Yes, of course," said Morrison, a
"But our bodies as a whole are half as tall, half as wide, and half as thick, so that the total volume - and mass and weight as well - is half times half times half or one eighth what it was originally. - If we are miniaturized, that is."