Tetren Inoor existed most of his life in experiencable programs.  In the dimension where he came from, EPUs allowed a world of 55 billion to exist with the inhabitants being quite comfortable stockpiled in EPU chambers that had life support systems and connections to the 135 EPU computer networks that serviced the world.

When Tetren left the seminary in 1950 he shifted to such a dimension he was used to with a synthetic being that had a lifeline retrieval system that could pull him out of a program if there were any problems.  Such a thing was rare.  But it did happen from time to time. 

The dimension where Tetren and Laa shifted to had over 178 billion people that were held in EPU chambers that were warehoused around the planet.  About 400 years before, the planet was extremely advanced but being poisoned.   That was when the scientists and engineers built an EPU system that allowed the people to survive in 72 networks.  In each network there were over 5000 programs that could be experienced.  And with the ability to go from network to network, almost anyone could go to any program and experience it. 

The couple experienced a program that had over a million people experiencing it at the time they entered it.  It was like the Roaring 20’s in Chicago.  There were speakeasies, drive-by shootouts, crooked cops, and bigger-then-life gangsters running the city.  The couple decided to run a mission on the edge of the territory where three gangs were battling for control.  The program might have been meant to provide excitement.  But since it was also realistic, there were victims. 

There was a nice mix of real and programmed entities in the cafeteria where Tetren and Laa were providing a meal, a mug, and a message.  Laa played the piano while Tetren led the singing before the meal.  While they were eating, Tetren deliverd the message while Laa refilled their mugs with coffee.  he knew the programmed entities would respond because that is how the program works.  But he hoped some of the real entities would come forward to be saved.  They may have entered the program for the time of their life.  But what they needed was salvation.

Tetren was dealing with a man at a table about salvation when the doors at the back of the cafeteria opened and in barged four guys with machine guns and there boss wearing a white silk suit, tie, shift, and patent leather shoes.  The man Tetren was dealing with looked deathly afraid.