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Chapter 2 - Lacking

"Come on, little fella," David muttered, face pressed against the testing chamber wall to stare at Subject 1383, species rat, age 7 months. "You've got this, buddy."

Inside of its clear plastic container, the rodent was violently trembling, its bright red eyes half-closed. They had sent it through the teleportation arch eight seconds ago, and already things weren't looking good. Before it had been beamed across the room, the lab rat had been happily skittering around inside of its cage. Now, it just lay there, staring dully into space as its body quivered.

Please don't blow up. Please don't blow up. Miana chanted in her mind. It shouldn't have been a concern. She had checked the buffer matrix three times before Test #48, verifying that the variance was well below the threshold.

Still, like the old saying went: once you've seen one chimp explode...

But no catastrophic integrity loss this time around. No, this experiment simply followed the same pattern of their last dozen or so. First, the rat vomited up its lunch. Then, it fell on its side, little whiskered face landing right into the puddle of sick. One last shuddering breath, and it was dead.

Sandra shook her head. "David, log it. Test #48 is-"

"Yep, yep, 'massive failure,' got it," David cut her off. "Rest in peace, Subject 1383." He gave Terry a smirk. "Hey, buddy, you're in good with the man upstairs? Think He's gonna send us to Hell for snuffing out so many of His beloved creations?"

Terry sighed. "Are you actually asking, David? Or just screwing with me as usual? Because it is written that, so long as one acts without malice, man has been granted dominion over-"

"Hey, knock it off," Sandra said, arms tightly crossed over her chest. "You know the rule, Terry. None of that religious talk in here. We put our faith in science, not some bearded man in the sky."

"Fine," Terry said, in a tone that made it clear that it was not, in fact, fine. "I wouldn't want to make anyone uncomfortable. But just ask yourselves: why are living creatures the stumbling block?" He gestured into the test chamber at the rat's clear cage, sitting on top of a rolling cart that Jack had pushed through the portal. "Metal, plastic... all of it comes through just fine. But whenever we try to transport a living animal, it dies within a matter of seconds."

"Organic systems are just more complicated, that's all," Sandra said. "Too much stress is being put on the subjects in the reassembly process. But if we keep testing-"

"Or maybe it just isn't possible?" Terry cut in. "We're taking these rats and chimps apart, atom by atom, and putting them back together as if it was as simple as a child's building blocks. But what if there's something that can't be teleported? Something that's more than just the pieces of matter that make up our bodies? What if we're losing their..."

"Careful, buddy," David said, walking over to lay a hand on Terry's shoulder. "You know how she gets when you use that dirty little 'S' word."

"Fine, not 'soul.' But their... essence, their psyche, whatever you want to call it. The thing that makes something alive, it's-"

Sandra shook her head. "Stop. You're being ridiculous, Terry. Life isn't magic. It's just electric signals in our brain. The beating of our heart, the pumping of our lungs. Biological processes, nothing more. It can be teleported just like-"

As the rest of the team continued their heated discussion, Miana moved over to Jack's terminal. "This again," she said with a weary groan. "Never gets old, does it?"

Jack gave her a smile. "Heard this exact same argument so many times getting my philosophy minor," he said. "Almost makes me wish Jessup was here this morning. He'd shut this all down in a second with one of those mean stares."