A man opened his eyes. They burned. Above him, the ceiling
and the walls were all cushioned. The bed on which he sat on
was warm. I must have been here for a while, he thought. An
attempt to scratch his eyes failed. His arms and legs were
tied to the bed. How did I get here?, he thought.
"You must be asking yourself how you got here.", said a
feminine voice, "Your kind always does.". Above him emerged
a round face of a woman in her fourties. She untied his arms
and legs. "Doctor Lumer will be glad to hear you're awake,",
she said, "I'll go and get him". The man sat on the bed and
saw her. She was wearing blue hospital clothes and white
gloves. She smiled at him and left the room. He jumped out
of bed and immediately regreted it. His body hurt all over
and his back twitched. He fell on the bed. For a while, he
just lied there, waiting for the pain to go away. Time
crawled.
When the pain eased, he stood up slowly. He scouted the room
for any indication to where he was. On the bed sheets was
printed "R.S.I. - Ritter Scientific Institute". Scientific
institue?, he thought, What the hell am I doing here? On the
edge of his bed was a medic board. He picked it up and read.
Red letters gleared at him from the board since a big
CLASSIFIED stamp was printed on it. Below the stamp there
were only two lines of text:

Name of patient: Norman Gordon
Treated by: Dr. Isaac Lumer

Who the hell is Norman Gordon?, he thought just when the
door opened. A short man dressed in a long white robe
entered the room. He was holding a briefcase and seemed very
pleasent. "Good morning, Norman", he said, "I'm glad you
woke up. We were afraid you went into a coma. I'm Doctor
Lumer, but you can call me Isaac".
The man stared at the Dr. for a moment, and then said, "I'm
afraid you've got the wrong guy, Doctor, my name isn't
Norman". "Oh yes?", said the Doctor, "What is your name,
then?". The man opened his mouth to speak, but no words came
out. "That's what I thought.", said Doctor Lumer and sat
down on the bed next to Norman. He took out a file from his
briefcase. It had a passport photo stapled to it. The man in
it had a straight-lined face and short brown hair. Below the
photo was written 'Norman Gordon'. "That's me?" asked
Norman. "No. Well, I mean, yes. You'll understand everything
in a minute. See,", he said, "You suffer from amnesia. It's
a natural respond to the proccess we did on you, but don't
worry, your memories are useless here anyway."
Lumer opened the file and drew a photo from it. It described
a huge monitor, as big as two elephants on top of each
other. Next to the monitor was a sort of transparent cell,
about the size of a refrigerator. "This," said Lumer, "Is a
device which can allow us to view a world parellal to our
own. We can send objects through, too, though we have been
experiencing a few problems with this. You see, both of our
worlds need to maintain an equal amount of particles -
electrons, neutrons and protons. When we send an object
through our transporter, the same amount of particles appear
here in return, though they are not in the same structure -
so when we send a chair, for instance, we could recieve
anything back - from a tennis ball to beta radiation. We
could even get a new element which we haven't seen before,
everything is possible". Norman thought of this. "So what
does it got to do with me?", he asked. "Well,", said Doctor
Lumer, "There is an issue with sending people through the
transporter. You see, there is something that holds your
body together when you pass through. Call it a soul if you
will. So this soul is not letting your body break down. On
the trip to the other side, it's ok, since we want you to
stay together. The problem is, when we send this soul, we
must get one back as well. So when we send a person over
there...". "A person must be recieved here", completed
Norman. "So, what you're saying is... that I'm that person?
I was recieved here so that someone could go there?".
"That's not entirely accurate", said Doctor Lumer, "Just any
person isn't enough. When we send someone over there, we get
his equivalent here. That is, the person who we sent there
was Doctor Norman Gordon, my associate.".
Norman had a hard time grasping the idea. "Are you trying to
tell me", he said, "that this man in the photograph isn't
me? That I'm like a clone or something?". "Oh no," rushed
Lumer, "No clones or anything. You are both exactly the same
person. Genetically, anyway. Like identical twins. You only
lived in different worlds, made different decisions in life.
Now, to the matter at hand. You are, of course, don't
possess Doctor Gordon's life experience or knowledge, but
you both have the same sharp, fast thinking mind. You
capabilities are quite the same. So, we have a suggestion to
you. You could either recieve a fine payment from us which
will allow you to go out into our world and establish there,
or... you could work for us. I'll teach you everything you
need to know and you could get a high rank in the R.S.I. in
no time. So, what do you say?"

A tall man dressed in a long white robe entered the room. He
was holding a briefcase and seemed very pleasent. "Good
morning, Isaac", he said, "I'm glad you woke up. We were
afraid you went into a coma. I'm Doctor Gordon, but you can
call me Norman".