answer: the story postulates a transportation device (supervised by a dinosaur-like race of aliens) which can transmit an exact copy of a person's body to distant planets. the original body is disintegrated once reception at the destination is confirmed. in the story a woman is teleported to an alien planet, but the original is not disintegrated because reception cannot be confirmed at the time. reception is later confirmed, and the original, not surprisingly, declines to "balance the equation" by re-entering the scanning and disintegrating device. this creates an ethical quandary which is viewed quite differently by the cold-blooded aliens who provided the teleportation technology, and their warm-blooded human associates.
explanation:
the story postulates a transportation device (supervised by a dinosaur-like race of aliens) which can transmit an exact copy of a person's body to distant planets. the original body is disintegrated once reception at the destination is confirmed. in the story a woman is teleported to an alien planet, but the original is not disintegrated because reception cannot be confirmed at the time. reception is later confirmed, and the original, not surprisingly, declines to "balance the equation" by re-entering the scanning and disintegrating device. this creates an ethical quandary which is viewed quite differently by the cold-blooded aliens who provided the teleportation technology, and their warm-blooded human associates.