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folk with their vegetable of choice tended to be a last resort. For those who had died in a universewithout any afterlife, that was it. But there were none such cases this time.The cell got crowded, cramped, and slightly noisy. Hamlet was spouting sad soliloquies again. Otherswere busy freaking out at the sheer number of people, or perhaps it was just at Ortiz. Not-Tim wastrying to stem the flow from a bloody nose, and Ludlow wasn’t helping, though the number of glaresseemed to have gone down slightly, replaced by a simmering anger and what might have been grudgingrespect.Julian thought about saying something, but John looked far too content smoking.Dem unlocked the gate. "Join your friends," he told Bill. "Cell R16. Go find it.""But-""Go."Ted looked sadly on as Bill left the cell and went off to try not to get lost.Dem took out more gadgety stuff from his pockets. They were special pockets. Everything could fit inthem, except kitchen sinks because of their weird plumbing. He extracted and unfolded a metal tube,forming it into a door-way over the portal.Dem held up a small thingy in his palm. "This is known as an Interdimensional Travel Device Thingy,"he explained. "ITDT for short. I’ll stick it here-" he slotted it onto the other side of the doorway – "andwhen you go through, it’ll be programmed specially for you. If you don’t plan on spending the rest ofyour life in your universe, take it. It’ll let you visit each other. Please do that. Do that a lot.Interdimensional travel is good and desirable.""What time will it be when we get back?" Derek asked."The time you left plus the time you’ve spent out of your world, so you’ll have to explain yourself to a lotof people... oh, zark it. It’s Opposite Day." Dem looked sad. He sighed. "...all right, I’ll send you backthe time you left and block all travel until you’ve caught up and are back in sync. But you’ll still have toexplain why you suddenly vanished and reappeared, so deal with that."They looked doubtfully at the portal.Dem pulled out a small digital readout and tapped on it, adjusting settings until he was satisfied. "Allright. Anderson, Thomas, get in there.""My name is Neo," Neo didn’t say. He hesitated and looked at not-Tim."Why should we trust you?" not-Tim asked Dem on his behalf.Dem shrugged. "Because you normally can’t, and it’s Opposite Day today, which means you can."Not-Tim looked at Neo. Unspoken words passed between them, and then he pulled Neo into a hug."See you," not-Tim said softly.He let go, and Neo stepped forward to the portal, not looking back."OI!" yelled Adwin as he came running up from outside the cell to see what was happening. Dem casthim a dispassionate look. "Take him away," he told Adwin’s accompanying guard, and the guard did so,because Dem promised spinach.Dem pulled out a cutter thing from his pocket and snipped the wrist tag off Neo’s wrist. He tapped abutton on his readout. The portal shimmered and changed, and through it they saw the vague outline ofthe Nebuchadnezzar. Neo’s jack-in seat was empty; people had just noticed and were starting to panic.Neo took a breath and walked through."Take that," Dem told him, pointing at the Interdimensional Travel Device Thingy. Neo pulled it off thedoorway as the Neb crew noticed his sudden arrival and were wondering about the portal- and then itvanished, and those in the cell saw the portal change.