Then Ben noticed that the Chronivac still knew where Matt was. The signal was faint because Matt was so far away. It was a miracle that there was a signal at all.
Ben left and found the local dump where Matt had wound up. It still took some searching because the Chronivac wasn't able to pinpoint the exact location but fortunately, Ben found Matt and brought him back to the Chronivac.
The Chronivac still said, "SUBJECT IN USE. RESETTING TIMER." So Ben untied Matt and rinsed him out thoroughly. The Chronivac still said, "SUBJECT IN USE." Ben kept washing to get the last bit out of Matt the condom but the Chronivac still said, "SUBJECT IN USE."
Ben didn't know what to do so he tried rebooting the computer. Perhaps the computer froze because Matt had been so far out of range. When the Chronivac booted up, it said, "TRANSFORMING SUBJECT." Ben watched as his friend Matt became a human again. Ben sighed his relief and Matt said, "Thank you. I thought I was a goner."
The two gave each other a celebratory hug before looking at the Chronivac again. That's when they noticed the Chronivac displayed fifty-eight minutes left.
Matt said, "That can't be right. It's already changed me back. What's the fifty-eight minutes about."
They studied the Chronivac trying to figure out what the Chronivac was doing. Finally Ben said, "I have to go but I'll check on you in an hour in case something happens."
So Ben left and Matt waited for the Chronivac timer to count down. When it reached zero, Matt transformed into a condom again, a brand new, clean condom. He could see that there was no timer on the Chronivac now.
It was like the Chronivac thought condom was Matt's natural form, that Matt could be made human by the Chronivac but as soon as the timer ran out, he'd be a condom again.