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leaned in closer. "Hmmmm... so hard to tell what's going-"

"It's black," said Duncan. "At the far end... three scientists are looking at a black window. The progression of images stops there. There's nothing more to see."

"It wasn't black before; they must have turned it off."

"Turn it off and the image just disappears;" Sanderson explained. "It doesn't turn black."

"What would cause that?"

"I don't-"

"Look! Look there!"

The tiny image of three scientists looking at a black window... went black... leaving the three scientists that had been directly observing them watching a-

-black window.

"Interesting." McNealy stroked his beard. "Are the bridges malfunctioning?"

"Perhaps," said Duncan. "But-"

Another window went dark. Scientists in multiple universes noticed and discussed the development with the same animated confusion.

"The differences between us are quantum," said Sanderson. "If there was a malfunction in one universe, the overwhelming probability is that it would happen to all of us at exactly the same time. We wouldn't see each window go dark successively, they would all go dark at once."

"Another one!" Duncan pointed.

"But what else could it be?"

The three scientists... and all of their alternate-reality counterparts... regarded each other in thoughtful silence.

Another window went dark.

"Maybe if we could see closer."

Sanderson started to adjust the magnifying lens, but Duncan stopped him.

"Wait," he said. "I'm not sure this is a good idea."

"Why wouldn't it be; this is quite curious-"

"And unexpected. Perhaps we should shut it off and go back to our theories to figure out-"

"Bah! Why take time to calculate what's going on when we can just watch!"

"Another one." McNealy announced. "One more just went dark."

"Because whatever is happening, is happening TO the people who are watching it. Doesn't that make you the slightest bit uneasy?"

"You read too much fiction," Sanderson chided.

"And another!"

"What?" Sanderson returned his attention to the magnifying lens. "So soon?"

"It's speeding up, I think. Look there... another! And another! Almost one per second now!"

"But now I can see... that's odd."

"I can see it, too."

"What?" Duncan asked. Unlike the other doctors he... all of him... was inching away from the window and not toward it.

"They're different." Sanderson said. "The instant before each window goes dark, the three of us... those three doctors in that window... react to something. Something that only they see... something that's happening only in their plane."

"Something unique

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