In the distant future, humans have developed a form of instantaneous
teleportation technology called "the Jaunt", enabling colonization of the Solar System. Mark Oates and his family are preparing to travel to
Mars for a two-year business trip. As the Jaunting service prepares the other passengers, Mark entertains his two children by recounting a semi-apocryphal tale of the discovery and history of the Jaunt. He explains how in 1987 a scientist named Victor Carune inadvertently discovered the ability to Jaunt after years of research when he accidentally teleported two of his own fingers. Although the procedure functioned perfectly when he tested inorganic objects, Carune discovered a side-effect on the mice sent through his two portals. The mice would either die instantly or behave erratically before dying moments later. He eventually discovered that beings of higher neural activity, such as animals and humans, could only survive the Jaunt while unconscious. Mark explains that this is why all people must undergo
general anaesthesia before Jaunting. Mark spares his children a gruesome account of the first conscious human to experience the Jaunt, a condemned death-row murderer named Rudy Foggia who had been promised a full pardon upon taking part in the experiment. After six other inmates were Jaunted under the effects of anesthesia, Foggia emerged insane, saying that the Jaunt was an "eternity" before dying of a
heart attack. Mark also omits mention of the 30 people who have Jaunted while conscious, voluntarily or otherwise. Each time, they either died instantly or emerged insane. Scientists had come to conclude that while Jaunting is physically carried out almost instantly, to a conscious mind it lasts an indeterminately long amount of time, perhaps millions of years, leading to a conscious person simply being left alone with their thoughts in an endless field of white. However, Mark attempts to present this fact in a gentle way as to not frighten his children or his wife as, unlike him, they are Jaunting for the first time. After Mark finishes his story, the family is anaesthetised and Jaunted to Mars. Upon awakening, Mark is horrified to find that his son Ricky deliberately held his breath while being given the anaesthetic to experience the Jaunt while conscious and has been rendered completely insane. Ricky says that Mark has no comprehension of how long he had been there, cackling "Longer than you think, Dad!" and gouges his own eyes out before he is wheeled away from his horrified family by several attendants. == Television adaptation ==