“So what happened?” He leaned in closer, eyes wide with some demented eagerness that revealed just how new he was.

“I bolted for the bathroom and barfed like I’ve never barfed before.” Even talking about it 2 days later brought back the queasiness in his stomach.

“That’s sick!” he said with a half-smile, half-disgusted look on his face.

The kid didn’t get it. A transporter module wasn’t supposed to reassemble a human being with the skin on the inside. He’d make sure this kid never laid a finger on the transpots. He’d be turning people inside-out left and right.

“So what happens now?” he asked, looking around at the other techs.

“We need to test that module to make sure it’s working properly. To do that, we need to transport living material. Specifically, we need a human being. Now, the rule is lowest man on the totem pole takes a ride.”

His eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. “You’re kidding, right?”

Sam and Roger had maneuvered behind him, anticipating his reaction.

“Nope.”