Wanting to forestall any use of the invention until he could think of something, Jon asked Leonard, "So, uh, how does it work?"
Leonard pushed his glasses up on his nose and said, "Ah. Now, mind you, I am keeping some aspects of the operation of the RAM device proprietary. But I can tell you this. How much do you know about string theory?" Jon was about to answer, but Leonard plowed ahead. "It doesn't really matter, since there's no way you could know as much as I, so I'll try to bring it down to your level. You see..."
Jon zoned out for the next seven or eight minutes, completely failing to think of any sort of plan, as Leonard droned on, until he finally got to, "In conclusion, the RAM essentially overwrites the current universe with the contents of a parallel universe, aside from a minimal negative field around the device, the hole in a doughnut, as it were." Leonard chuckled at that. "Although in this case, the doughnut is spherical, extending approximately 5 kilometers from the RAM. 3 miles, for you non-scientific Americans."
"'Non-scientific Americans'?" Jon mildly protested, but then he shook his head and tried to stay on topic. Steeling himself for another long answer, he asked Leonard, "What happens at the boundary? Is it, like, a Stephen King Under the Dome thing, or what?"
"Ah, turning Lake Point into a domed city," said Leonard, putting his hand to his chin. "I shall have to consider that. I can tell you the boundary of effectiveness will most likely be permeable, although at this time I am not certain of the exact effects -- whether the outside world will know this as a place where things are different, or if crossing the boundary causes an alteration to a person's individual realities. Obviously, I can't tell that from inside the effectiveness radius, as all forms of communication are altered with the new reality."
"Obviously," echoed Jon. "Wait, you're talking like you've tried it already."
"Of course I have!" exclaimed Leonard. "I told you on the phone, my invention works."
Jon couldn't help glancing around the basement to see if anything looked different, even though he knew he wouldn't actually be able to detect changes. "Um, what have you already done?"
Leonard grinned.
