"Now we can finally build our moon base!" Nik announced with a raised glass. The rest of the pub roared to life as cheers rebounded off the wood-paneled walls, clinking glasses rising in salute. Typically, the venue was a quiet establishment, but tonight, it was ready to burst with festivity. The unexpected invasion was the handiwork of Nik, Ari, and the unsuspecting taxpayers of Ohio.

  "And no moon base is complete without…?" Ari trailed off playfully.

  "A giant frickin laser!" The rest of the pub roared. Behind the heavy oak counter, the besieged bartender bit her lip. The peculiar crossfire of disheveled clothes, meme humor, and uproarious laughter forced a pinch in her brow.

  As the night deepened, raucous mirth echoed around the pub. The glass-waving stupor of scientists, engineers, and programmers perforated the atmosphere with celebration and booze-flushed faces. Nik and Ari, on the other hand, found refuge in the corner of the tavern, substituting the clinking of glasses with the soft click-clack of billiard balls.

  Ari's fingers nimbly spun the cue stick while blue chalk dust floated down. Nik leaned over the table, his eyes locked onto the tight triangle of billiards, his grip arm drew back like a viper ready to strike.

  “Do you think they'll give the green light for an STM network nationwide now?” Ari pondered aloud, his mind a constant flurry of ideas since stepping outside the lab.

  Nik's arm shot out with precision, the cue's contact sending the billiards scattering with a satisfying clatter. "No idea." He said, surveying the table. "Government works slow. Looks like I'm highs."

  Ari could feel the corners of his mouth crease downward. Nik could have at least been a little optimistic.

  "What I do know is now that we've proven the concept, it's time to make it more practical. There are some crazy places where STMs could be pretty useful."

  "Practical?" Ari's eyebrows shot to his hairline in disbelief. As Nik drilled the ten into the side pocket, Ari couldn't help pressing further. "How is teleportation not practical?"

  "Not what I meant, assface." Nik missed his next shot, making him frown. "You're up." Ari circled the table, biding his time for Nik to elaborate, his eyes searching for the perfect angle.

  Nik's mouth curled around the rim of his glass. He watched as Ari sniped the six from the table's farthest reach. "Nice. Anyway, I didn't mean the STM wasn't a big deal. After all, you're literally zapping a person across the world." As Nik spoke, Ari claimed another ball. While he searched for his next shot, Nik continued.

  "I meant we can finally use the STM to expand civilization. Just imagine never needing a rocket to travel to the moon when all you need to do is step into an STM. We could put colonies in space, and I'm not ruling out other planets or their moons either."

  Ari sank another ball with a smirk. "We could start our own intergalactic empire," he quipped. "After we build our moon base, of course. Once that's done, we should look into terraforming Mars."

  "I guess we should." Nik chuckled. Hey, are you going to let me have another turn?" Nik had become aware of his widening predicament on the pool table.

  "Nope," Ari retorted as he sunk another shot. He began to sketch out a mental blueprint of a Martian colony. It would have lots of domes. Mars colonies needed domes, right? It would obviously need a reactor of some sort that needed powering too.

  A grin spread across Ari's face as his imagination ran wild, but his fantasy suffered a total recall when his ambitious shot went awry. The stubborn ball refused to sink into the pocket.

  "Ha! My turn." Nik celebrated and drew a deep gulp from his frothy beer. Ari forced down a laugh when he saw a thick beer-stache above Nik's lips.

  Oblivious, Nik's expression intensified as his eyes ricocheted between the scatter of balls. While the beer baron worked, Ari attempted to stifle his amusement with his own bottle, nearly choking in the process.

  As he calmed down, Ari reminisced some of their past conversations about the possibilities behind STMs. Before, they had only been passing thoughts, but it dawned on him that they could soon become a reality. Even as Nik sent two balls cascading into pockets with a single, masterful shot, Ari's excitement remained undulled, a spark of anticipation in his eyes.

  "Well played," Ari nodded in approval. "I was just remembering a couple things we talked about before the project took off." Nik looked up, momentarily curious, before refocusing his attention on the possible angles he could take. Ari decided to gauge Nik’s thoughts. "When do you think we should start editing save-states?"

  "Woah, slow down there, cowboy." Nik banked a shot and stood back up. "We just started the party, and you already want to break out the good stuff?"

  "What's wrong with the good stuff?" Ari asked. Personally, he couldn't wait for the ability to edit himself. There were some freckles on his shoulders he could do without.

  "Too complicated." Nik shrugged. He took a moment to finish his drink. "

  Stolen story; please report.

  "For now, yeah." Ari agreed, "But just imagine how the world would look."

  A woman’s voice suddenly chimed in. "You guys planning a movie or something?"

  Ari's attention tore away from the green-lit table, focusing instead on the curvaceous waitress wending her way through the crowded pub. Her tray was full of bottles and frosted glasses.

  "Yeah, something like that." Nik nodded. Ari rolled his eyes. He saw Nik give the waitress a quick up-down before returning to his shot.

  "What's it about?" She asked curiously.

  "He's just being shy," Ari whispered loudly, holding his empty drink beside his lips. "Anyway, we're talking about being able to change the world or people with the push of a button."

  "I know what I would change," said the waitress.

  "Oh? Pray-tell?" Ari asked.

  "I'd start by fixing my car." She smiled. "Drinks?"

  "Please." Ari scrounged in his pockets before fishing out a wad of cash. "And what if you could get a brand new car?" The waitress smiled and accepted the wrinkled bills.

  "That'd be sick. Could it also help me finish my degree?" Out of clean angles, Nik tried maneuvering the cue defensively. Unfortunately, the unruly ball ended dead center on the table.

  "You might be onto something dangerous there," Nik said, ignoring his mistake. Ari took Nik's place at the table. "I like the whole car idea, though. What if you could search for whatever you needed on an internet archive? Only a single click and poof, instant win. I'm Nik, by the way, and this is Ari."

  "Claire." She held her tray out. Nik took a fresh pair of drinks.

  "Come around again when you're not busy. We can play a round,” said Nik.

  "Maybe I will." Claire grinned. A lingering look passed between her and Nik before she fluttered back to the thrumming heart of the pub.

  "You silver-tongued dog." Ari grinned while sinking another ball.

  "You shut your damn mouth." Nik pointed at Ari, trying not to smile.

  "She did get me wondering, though," Ari said, "What would be so dangerous about helping someone finish their degree with an STM? What if I stepped into the STM one moment, had some of my code edited, and the next moment..." Ari stood up and gave Nik an intense look. "I knew kung-fu." Nik snorted. Ari began looking for his next move.

  Nik took a long swig from his mug before responding. "That sounds good, but too much can go wrong in practice," he said. "I think it's best to stick with editing inanimate objects for now."

  Ari sniped his sixth ball while Nik talked. "Two in the side pocket." Ari cleanly sank the two but scratched the cue in the process. "Damn."

  "Oooh, bad luck, chum." Nik looked like he was holding back a chuckle. Ari reluctantly stepped back to his drink while Nik assumed control of the table.

  While he did, Ari considered an example that might sway Nik's opinion. "Humor me for a sec," he proposed. "Consider two individuals with distinct data sets. Imagine we isolated the data segment corresponding to their central nervous system."

  "I'm following so far," Nik replied after skillfully walking a ball.

  "Now let's say you could compare the datasets of the two people side by side, only there's a twist. While one is an ordinary individual, the other is a serial killer." Ari waited for a reply, but Nik paused, looking at the last ball he needed before the eight. Ari couldn't tell if he was thinking about his shot or Ari's analogy.

  "Go on," Nik said before finally taking aim.

  "The normal person is the experiment control, and the serial killer is the subject. What if you could isolate the part of the killer's brain that differs from an ordinary person's? Furthermore, what if you could correct it?"

  Nik had tied up the game. All that was left was the eight. "I think I understand what you're getting at now. Frankly, I'm not sure I would agree with it." Nik clumsily missed his winning shot before he stood up from the table. It looked like he was hooked on the conversation more than winning now.

  "What's not to agree with?" Ari blinked, a pang of surprise shooting through him. Maybe Nik just didn't understand. Ari's thoughts wandered back to a familiar place where his daughter dwelled.

  The word 'Autism,' once spoken by the doctor, had forever changed his world as a father. He was thankful they recognized it early, but her struggles persisted. With enough time and work, he could see a day when she could enjoy playing with other children. The father in him would stop at nothing to make that a reality. What if he could speed up the process with an STM? Ari snapped back to the present with a spark of hope.

  "Imagine untwisting a psycho's mind or enhancing an ordinary intellect," Ari persisted, excited. "In theory, this technology could help us improve or even cure the human condition."

  "But at what cost?" Nik's question shed the usual lightness in his voice. "Sure, the psycho could have his mind changed literally. And I'm not saying I would side with a serial killer, but wouldn't this be the same as taking away a person's ability to choose for themselves?" Nik leaned against the table with his drink.

  "I don't see it that way." Ari frowned. "After you recalibrate their mind, you let them go about their life as a functional person. It improves society." Warmth surged up his neck, painting his cheeks with the blush of an intense debate. Or was it the alcohol?

  "But what's to stop this kind of mind alteration from being abused? Imagine what might happen if it falls into the wrong hands," Nik retorted, an edge to his voice. "It's playing with people's free will. Weren't you the one who gave me our little reminder of consequences today?"

  Frustration creased Ari's forehead. He couldn't avoid the bitterness of his words being thrown back at him. "Fair enough, it could be bad in the wrong hands," Ari admitted. "But the same argument could be made for many things."

  "There aren't really a lot of things out there that have the potential to go wrong like an STM edit. Imagine the mayhem if you mis-edited a mind with a simple typo. It's a serious risk no matter which way you slice it," Nik shrugged.

  "Yeah." Ari thought back to his words to Nik before their first jump. They didn't have much of a choice at the time. Ari pondered. "I suppose in my scenario, the serial killer would have to choose between capital punishment, life imprisonment, or undergoing a quote-unquote mind edit." Ari made air quotes with his fingers while holding his bottle.

  Nik shifted his attention back to his beer. It was as if he had forgotten about the pool game entirely. He looked like he was working out Ari's argument. After a few more swigs, he began to grin.

  "We would need a million laws to safeguard that," he concluded.

  "You're not wrong," Ari said, strolling around the table.

  "And neither are you," Nik replied, "But I still think that's an avenue best left unexplored.”

  "Maybe we could agree to disagree then," Ari said, lining up his last shot.

  "I think that's something we could both drink to," Nik said as he finished beer.

  "Such a shame, really," Ari replied, smirking slightly. "You could've benefited from a mind edit to level up your pool skills." With a swift crack, Ari rocketed the eight ball into the corner pocket.

  "You sly bastard," Nik growled happily. "You were just distracting me, weren't you?"

  "One of my many talents," Ari chuckled innocently.