Self-discovery

“People from Earth, your excellency.”

“From Earth? Earth, Earth… hmm…”

“That's the planet where Fledermaus was composed, Excellency.”

“Ah! Tum — tiri — tiri, tum — tiri — tiri, tum — pam — pam — pam! Mar — velous piece. Well, give them a third — level reception.”

— A conversation in the Universe

Graduate student Krivoshein went up to the fifth floor and entered the apartment. Victor Kravets and Adam were smoking out on the balcony; when they saw him, they came inside. Krivoshein gave them a glum look.

“Three from one pea pod. And there used to be four….” He looked at the clock. There was still time. He sat down. “Tell me, Victor Kravets, what happened there?”

Kravets lit up another cigarette and began the story in a hollow voice.

The plan of the experiment was for Krivoshein the Original to immerse himself up to the neck in the liquid — control the sensations — put on Monomakh's Crown — control the sensations once more — give the command of dissatisfaction (“Not it!”) — come into mutual contact with the liquid circuit — reach the stage of controllable transparency — fix his broken ribs — use the “impulse of satisfaction” for the command “That's it” — return to nontransparency — break contact with the liquid circuit — and leave the tank.

They had gone over the methodology of the experiment dozens of times by immersing their extremities. The mutual permeation of the liquid and the body could be controlled and regulated easily.

“You see, friends, it turns out that inside our bodies there are always less healthy spots, tiny flaws, well, like your skin, no matter how healthy, always had a pimple or a scratch or chafing or a local irritation. I don't know what kind of inner 'scratches' there are, but after working in the liquid your arm or leg always feels better than it did before. The liquid circuit corrects these minor flaws. And you can recognize these corrections as they are going on: there is a tingling sensation that increases and then decreases. And if after the decrease you give the command 'That's it' the computer breaks contact and the arm or leg stops being transparent. I'm only telling you this to show you that we had no questions on the methodology of entering and breaking contact with the liquid circuit.”

“While you were immersing no more than ten or fifteen percent of the body,” Krivoshein added.

“Yes. We were also sure that the human body maintains muscle tone in the transparent stage in liquid. We used to 'struggle' in the liquid: his hand [transparent] and mine [not], or right against left when both were transparent. In other words, the liquid circuit fully supports the viability of the body.”

“Of parts of the body,” Krivoshein interrupted again. “Yes. Perhaps that was the whole problem,” Kravets sighed. Of course, it was frightening. It was one thing to dip your hand or foot into the liquid — you can pull it out if you sense danger. At worst, you'll lose an arm. But it's completely different to immerse yourself in the tank, giving yourself up to the whim of a complex and mysterious medium that you can't fight off or run away from.

They hid the fear from each other. Krivoshein, because he feared for himself. Kravets, because he didn't want to scare him unnecessarily.

But everything had been prepared assiduously, conscientiously. They regulated the level of liquid in the tank so that it would come up to Krivoshein's neck when he got in and stood in it. They placed a large mirror opposite the tank. (They had to shell out for it; there wasn't one at the warehouse.) Krivoshein could observe and control the changes he saw in the mirror.

In order to lessen the possibility of any fluctuations in current and electromagnetic field, they decided to run the experiment at night, after 2:00 A.M., when all the other labs were turned off and the buses and trolleys were in the depot.

Krivoshein stripped, climbed up the steps, and holding on to the edge with his left hand (his right was weak after the motorcycle accident), sank into the tank. The liquid gurgled. He stood up to his neck in it — his head looked separate from his body. Kravets was ready with Monomakh's Crown.

Krivoshein licked his lips.

“Salty.” His voice was hoarse.

“What?”

“The liquid. Like sea water.”

They waited a minute.

“It seems in order. No sensations, as to be expected. Give me the crown.”

Kravets put Monomakh's Crown firmly on his head, clicked the dials, and climbed back down. Now his job was to observe Krivoshein, give advice, if needed, and help him out of the tank in case of some unexpected emergency.

Krivoshein spent another minute getting used to his new position.