"Martin, Michael A - AtTheCavern" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin Michael A)

experience. And given the fact that the man across the table from me was me.

"Your Alternitech," he said, "must have an Emergency Procedures Manual just like
mine does."

"It does," I said.

He quoted: "'In the event of an encounter with another agent from a parallel
reality or at temporal cross-purposes with your mission, that agent is to be
considered a shoot-on-sight enemy.'"

"I'm supposed to kill you, too," I confessed levelly, studying him, noting that
he carefully kept his hands visible atop the table.

He chuckled. "If the Everettists up in Theoretical are right, then that order I
quoted is pretty paranoid. I mean, I'm supposed to kill you to keep your reality
from wiping out mine. I have to snuff you so the wave-function will collapse in
my favor."

I shook my head. "That's pure Schrodinger. Your Everett-followers should
believe," I said, keeping my hands on top of the table, "that both our realities
lie side-by-side, neither one a threat to the other."

"We're both here from the future, aren't we?"

"Different futures," I said.

"Same present," he said, smiling.

"If Everett was right, there isn't a problem," I said. "If Schrodinger was
right, one of us is going to lose the coin-flip. It's one hell of a gamble to
stake an entire reality on."

"I didn't say I accepted the bet," he said, his smile falling. "I don't need to
know the answer that badly."

"The Everettists didn't write the Emergency Procedures Manual," I said. "The
Schrodingerites did. The wave-function is going to have to collapse one way or
the other."

He was suddenly all business. "Maybe you can shoot some faceless agent from
another timeline. But can you shoot yourself.?"

I stared into my beer and said nothing. I noticed that his hands were still on
top of the table.

"I didn't think so," he said. "But put that issue to one side for a few hours.
Why not explore this timeline a bit more before doing anything irrevocable?

I shook my head slowly. We were at an impasse. So for the fourth time that