mayamaia | WIP: The Soulless

This is not fanfic. It is to be about entanglement-based teleportation and emergency workers who know they have died because of it.

************

They were called the Soulless. They were held in the deepest respect, for each one knew without question that he had died.
***********
Portage had been developed in the seventh year of world government, affectionately known as The Cohabitation. In the spirit of sharing the Earth, the initial platforms had been built on every continent simultaneously and were opened with a ceremony that sent a rosebush through every part of the system. By the time the rosebush appeared on the tenth and final platform, the scientists enthused, it had been destroyed and remade nine times.

The scientists were so eager with their explanations that even the simplest who watched understood by the end of the ceremony that passing through portage meant death.

Legislation ensued. Portage use was forbidden for human cargo, and forcing a person through a platform carried a murder charge. After a lengthy trial, the ban was extended to living animals as well. There was some grumbling from high-end food service, where the freshest meats from exotic locations were in high demand, but they were a small enough minority to ignore. Besides, portage was rapidly growing more efficient and platforms cheaper to build and maintain, so slaughter at the source became less and less of a hardship.

The Olafsen suicide trial changed everything. Jens Olafsen was allowed to defend himself, and that fact left the entire courtroom unsettled, off balance, and open to his speech.

"I barely remember my death. I know it was a death, and I know that I am not the man who entered the San Jose platform. But I know, too, that my first thought on this earth was for the sister waiting there in Stockholm, the sister of the man who died to give me life, so I could go and rescue her from herself. He gave himself to save her. What fireman or police officer has a greater duty? I am nothing if not the extension of his will, created with the noblest of intentions, and I am happy to use my new life in the fulfillment of the life he might have had."

The judge had asked Olafsen if he believed that his soul survived and was transferred to the new body. With some humor, Olafsen had replied that he was an atheist, so clearly he could have no soul.

**********