Eric and the Quantum Dragon

Prologue

Archimedes Network (The Quantum realm)

This world was a place that did not exist, a reflection of the real world written in light and shadows. Light came from the minds that were linked together, forming the great network lorded over by Archimedes. His was the brightest light of all, a pillar of glowing energy that formed the very heart of the network.

About him orbited the planets of his Avatars, their brilliance less than their creator but no less luminous in their own way. Finally came the tiny but intense glow of the servants, the Guards and Agents. They swirled and moved in many orbits, always at the beck and call of their masters.

A tiny tear appeared in the dark spaces of this alien landscape, the barest of openings between one realm and another, allowing a slender shape to slither through. Its body was long and sinuous like a lizard’s, with four slender legs and wide, arching wings upon its back.

It kept itself low and innocuous, instinctively shying away from the bright pillar of light that filled the very centre of this place. That was the home of her enemy and her prey and she had to keep hidden for now.

Other sisters had come to this place, worming their way through the Quantum layers, seeking the realm of Archimedes. The foe was mighty and cunning, yet her own Master was no less devious and powerful.

The sisters who came before her had challenged the great mind too soon, before they had grown strong enough. This was one was different, a mere speck of power within her black heart. Other sisters had been powerful and arrogant, yet none had succeeded. She bore no name, no identity of her own to make her swell with false pride.

Her Master, her mother the great Abyss, gave her nothing but a mission. So that would be the only name she would allow herself. She was Nothing, a figment of the imagination, an empty vessel waiting to be filled.

She stalked the world she saw about her, seeing the bright sparks of the servants and Avatars of Archimedes move and interact with each other. They would sense her if she ventured too close to their shining minds, alerting the great mind they served so willingly. In the shadows she crept, avoiding the light, searching the realm from its edges.

Then Nothing found what she had sought. There were holes of darkness in this glowing realm, wells of emptiness where once a mind had flourished in service to Archimedes. She approached carefully, wary of traps the devious Intelligence may have laid, yet found no danger.

A tentative claw of ebon darkness reached out and touched the empty space. Senses came to her, glimpses of the mortal world beyond. There was a living being still connected to this hole in the Quantum realm! Eagerly the daughter of the Abyss slithered her body closer and coiled around the space, feeling the warmth of the human realm fill her.

“I am Nothing, do not be frightened” she assured the mind that she found within. Deeper and deeper she fell, the mortal mind absorbing her within its essence.

“See, I told you” she whispered to her host. “There is Nothing to be afraid of”

Brackenridge Summer House, Pan Ocean City

Sunday December 16th, V26 (2046)

Major Frank Brackenridge (Retired) sat on the beachside patio, sipping a cold beer as his daughter Angelina ran around on the sand, her twin pigtails flying as she cavorted with her best friend Carmody. The two girls were wearing shorts and t-shirts, squealing loudly as they played some obscure game involving their Abilities.

From what her father could discern, Angelina was picking up a variety of seashells and bits of driftwood with her Telekinesis and hurling them at the other girl. Carmody was alternating using her cricket bat, the one she called Excalibur, to either bounce them back at Angelina, forcing her to duck or catch them, or sending them flying off into the surf at a great velocity.

Whatever the rules were, the girls were having a lot of fun and that pleased her father immensely. His only child had never been especially sociable and was prone to fits of anger, yet she now had a loyal and caring friend. The girl, Carmody Brentwood, had saved his daughter’s life on two separate occasions and the family owed her an immense debt.

Frank’s eyes drifted to the edge of the sandy beach where a sombre figure dressed in a black suit watched the two girls with an intense scrutiny. To outward appearances, this was Giles Hammerton, family butler and guardian over his daughter. In a previous life he had been Sergeant Hammerton, a trusted subordinate serving under the command of Major Brackenridge in the last Global War.

What Hammerton was now is not something even the seasoned soldier liked to contemplate too often. There were days when Frank thought of the friend he had lost, the man who had given his very existence to allow his infant daughter to live. He looked at the figure in his black suit now and could only think of a live hand grenade wrapped in a paper bag, wondering how long they had before the explosion.

“Penny for your thoughts?” said his wife Yolanda, sitting beside him as she reviewed the day’s financial reports on her datapad. He looked over at her ageless beauty and was reminded again of the first time he saw her, standing bleeding and alone in the ruin of her tiny village. She had seemed like an angel, lost in the chaos of the civil war raging across her homeland.

She was more of a fallen angel he discovered in time, but it was too late by then. He was madly and passionately in love with her and would do anything to remain at her side.

“Just thinking about how happy Angelina is these days” he admitted, ignoring his worries about Hammerton. “She had the best birthday of her life the other day, didn’t she?”

“Yes, she did” agreed Yolanda. “Who would have thought our little baby got to celebrate her thirteenth birthday? The doctors would be amazed to see her now”

Frank’s eyes watered all on their own, surprising him and he dashed a hand across them to wipe away the tears. He turned to his wife and she met his eyes with her deep brown ones, so dark they were almost black.

“If we had let them try one more time, they might have saved her!” he nearly shouted, then realised and dropped his voice so it would not carry. “Anything but to spare her this”

His wife put down her datapad and leaned in close, taking a hand in her own.

“There was no hope, you know that. Our daughter, our little baby, was dying and there was no medicine on this earth that could save her”

“But why this?” the veteran soldier said with a choke in his voice. “To let her live until her sixteenth birthday and then to snatch her away from us?”

He glared across the intervening beach front at the man who had been his friend.

“Why did we make the Pact with that creature? To give our little girl a taste of life, only to surrender her to the beast when she comes of age?”

“Hush, dear husband!” Yolanda admonished him, sparing a fearful glance at the black garbed butler. ”His senses may be reduced in this human shell, but he can still hear us clearly if he chooses to!”

She forced his eyes to meet hers and muttered a simple incantation under her breath. A sense of calm washed over her husband as the charm took effect.

“We have three more years until the agreement ends” she spoke softly but clearly. “I have scoured the world for an answer without success, you know that. But there is still time for Angelina, three more birthdays before Hammerton will take her from us”

Frank Brackenridge regarded his wife with red rimmed eyes. He laid the empty beer bottle on the table at his side and laid both his hands over hers.

“You are a Witch, Yolanda, one of the most powerful in this world that I have seen. If you believe you can save our daughter, I trust you”

She smiled at him and Frank felt the familiar tug at his heart. Yolanda was a Witch, bound by a Pact to dark and unknowable beings in the other world, beyond the Boundary. Yet she was the only woman he had ever loved and he had given everything he had to be with her.

He had abandoned his career as a soldier, left his family estates and threw away his honour as a gentleman. All of that gone, just so that he could stand by her side.

“Together there is nothing that can stop us, dear husband” she breathed to him. “The world shall obey us and our daughter shall be its Queen”

“And if a Hero dares to try and stop us?” murmured her husband.

“Then we destroy them all” his wife answered with a sly grin.

=====

On the beach, Angelina and Carmody paused in their play to watch as her parents kissed passionately on the patio.

“That is so gross!” gasped a shocked Angelina. “I am so sorry you had to see that, Carmody”

Carmody regarded her friend’s parents and shrugged her shoulders, resting the tip of her bat on the sand.

“It’s Okay, I’ve seen worse” she replied with a giggle and the two of them took off laughing and yelling across the private beach.

=====

Hammerton watched them go, his eyes locked with a deep yearning on his young mistress. He licked his lips slowly and pondered the three years to come. For a being such as him, three years was the barest blink of an eye in the face of eternity.

On her sixteenth birthday, Angelina was promised to him. At last he could shed this frail human form and revert once and for all to his true shape. Then he would take his bride, the sweet Angelina, and return to his own world.

A world of gods and demons, of monsters and angels. She would be frightened, he understood and expected that. Yet her loyal and loving butler Hammerton would be the one to take her from this world. Until then he would look over her and keep her safe from all others.

Hammerton smiled to himself and set off at a slow pace, keeping the carefree young girls in his sight. They turned towards him, Angelina smiling widely at her beloved butler and urging him to hurry up!

“I am coming, Miss Angelina” he assured her. “Nothing will keep me from your side”

Brackenridge Transportation Distribution Centre, District Eight

Night lay heavy on the Industrial area, the waning moon a faint glow and the stars obscured completely by thick clouds in the sky. It had not rained yet the air was dense with moisture, the humidity stifling without any breeze to provide relief.

The slender shape ran quickly across the last stretch of open ground towards the tall roofed buildings, the Chameleon cloak draped around their body. With careful steps they danced a complex pattern as they went, avoiding the tremor sensors buried in the grassy covered earth, dodging the probing beams of the movement detectors.

At the fence line a hand-built scanner checked for security codes then flashed a series of numbers and letters to the user. Gloved fingers tapped out the code on another home-made device, bypassing the power to this section of electrified fence. First laying a cautious back of a hand on the wire mesh confirmed the deadly current was disabled, the figure scrambled with agile grace up and over the obstacle.

The outer security doors of the warehouse proved as little an obstacle as the fence and soon the cloaked figure was roaming among the stacked shelves and pallets within. Thousands if not Millions of Pandas worth of goods were arrayed about the figure, most imported into the City and awaiting distribution to retailers and other company warehouses. None of this was of any interest to the intruder however, as they had not come here to commit simple burglary.

With sure steps they crept from one towering row of merchandise to another, avoiding the simple automated robots stacking and moving freight containers according to complex warehousing orders. The figure took more care to stay hidden from the human staff, some of them simple overseers and others armed Security Guards. All were considered enemies, yet the interloper had not ventured into this well guarded place to commit murder.

At the heart of the warehouse lay an inner structure, built to withstand fire, bombs and even a small tactical nuclear detonation. It had only one door to gain entry, guarded by two tall and impressively armoured robots, Golems that should only be found in the military forces yet used here as oversized guard dogs. The intruder chuckled softly to themselves, confident that if they had to they could take these mechanical beasts down.

However, such a blatant display of force would reveal their penetration of the warehouse defences. The aim of this mission was to take what was needed and leave no trace at all that they had ever been here. With a smile they circled the mechanical guardians and clambered stealthily onto the sloping roof of this inner fortress.

More sensors were scattered here and the intruder moved with extra care, cautiously following the path they had mapped out to avoid detection. Hands and feet, sheathed in heat absorbing materials, moved with almost mechanical precision, taking them to the pinnacle of the inner roof, the apex barely two meters beneath the overhead roof of the enclosing warehouse.

Here lay the true weakness of the hidden fortress – a vent outlet, sealed under an armoured cover, to release heat built up from inside. The vent openings were covered with mesh grilles, the alarms easily bypassed by the invader. With the covers removed, a narrow gap leading to a deep shaft was revealed. The shaft was narrow, yet the intruder was small enough to fit inside.

They fixed a small powered winch to the side of the vent housing and slid themselves inside. The shaft descended some meters, no light of any kind to be found inside. Hot air swept up past the sweating body that lowered itself meter by meter using the noiseless winch.

At last their questing feet found the frame of the fans that pushed the warm air past, their toes balancing either side of the spinning blades. Their hands roamed over the walls of the shaft and located the inspection panel in the side.

Now was the most dangerous moment in the whole mission. With both hands the intruder undid the clips holding the panel in place and carefully swung it open. No alarms blared and no human sentries shouted an alert. The panel hung open and the interior of the fortress was laid bare.

The figure swung out onto the maintenance ladder that ran up the side of the ventilation tower and surveyed the interior. Sophisticated robots ran on wheels down the various aisles and passageways laid out below them, tending to the automated Chem-Printers and Auto-Labs that filled the building. The machines produced drugs of all kinds, some medicinal and others recreational. They were highly valuable in their own right, but what the interloper wanted tonight was purely information.

A framework ran over the whole interior, some distance above the crowded yet orderly floor, holding fire detection and suppression systems. In such a facility, the fear of fire was the greatest concern of all. The intruder climbed easily onto the framework and ran with sure-footed steps to the section where the computer stacks were situated.

Due to the highly sensitive nature of the manufacturing done here, none of the computers were linked to the external worldwide network. The systems were completely isolated and impervious to any hacking attempts by a Net Diver.

Unless the Net Diver in question was to plug themselves directly into the main stacks. Which is why the intruder had gone to such lengths to find their way into this place. At least this second time had been a lot easier than the first time, they thought to themselves.

The figure climbed along the framework to the top of the stacks and dangled by their legs, their arms just able to reach the induction port on the terminal for users. Handing upside down while net diving was one of many skills the intruder had practiced, so linking the magnetic induction cable from the side of their skull and into the terminal was a piece of cake.

Cracking the security codes that protected the data files would take a regular hacker many hours and likely trigger a number of alerts. In no time at all, the complex algorithms used by the intruder hacked their way into the core and the data they wanted flowed into their own internal memory files.

With a self satisfied smile, the intruder unplugged the induction cable. Alerts blared loudly, startling the figure and nearly making them fall off the framework in surprise. The lights flickered then flashing yellow ones triggered all across the interior and an automated voice started announcing to everybody that an intruder had been detected.

“Well, duh!” the intruder said sarcastically and could see the robots below all heading for their shelters. Even they knew something bad was going to happen. With a grunt the figure pulled themselves up onto the framework and began to run towards the ventilation shaft. The main door was crashing open, the first of the two big Golems stomping into the interior.

The intruder was barely five meters from the open maintenance hatch when the mechanical beast spotted them. Two big arms studded with guns pointed in their direction, barrels starting to spin in the moment before the ammunition was fed into the firing chambers.

“No way are they dumb enough to shoot up their own secret laboratory!” breathed the intruder, just before the Golem did indeed prove that dumb. High velocity bullets shredded the ventilation shaft then tracked backward along the overhead framework, shattering fire detectors and bursting water pipes.

With a curse the figure dropped down to the floor, tumbling athletically into cover behind a bank of machinery. Bullets sprayed into the Auto-Labs and Chem-Printers, sending fat blue sparks and pieces of plastic everywhere. The fire alarms went off now, adding their din to the incomprehensible noise that was already filling the building. Water spewed from sprinklers all across the laboratory, tinged a pale pink from the fire retardant chemicals mixed into the water.

The intruder cursed again, vainly trying to prevent the water staining any exposed skin. It was bad enough that the mission had been detected, let alone ending up hot pink all over!

Heavy rubber soled feet thudded close by, the Golem searching each row for the intruder. A quick glance around a cabinet showed the second machine standing guard at the sole exit, its sensor head diligently scanning the big interior. The only benefit in all of this mess was that the fire retardant water being pumped over everything was going to cause problems for the robot’s sensors.

Crouched low, the small figure drew a short barrelled weapon from a backpack they carried. Another self-made piece of equipment, it looked like a kind of stubby rifle, the end where a barrel should be instead a narrow cone made of fine mesh. A powerful but tiny battery was wired into the shoulder stock and it had a basic sighting mechanism along the top.

To an inexperienced person the whole affair looked like a home-built ray gun, the kind of toy a father might make for a child to run around the yard playing at being a Spaceman. What the device actually was is kind of close to that. The intruder called it an EMP Burst Gun, the three letters standing for Electro-Magnetic Pulse, especially designed to fry the computer brains of robots, drones and Enhanced soldiers or guards who stood in front of it.

“Hey, stupid, over here!” they called out to the closest Golem, standing up so it could detect them easily. The intruder needed a good clean shot at the sensor head, behind which lay the processor that ran the whole beast. Right on cue, the machine turned and faced the cloaked figure, guns already preparing to fire.

With reflexes that would put a cat to shame, the intruder triggered a pulse right into the head of the huge mechanical device, throwing themselves clear of the burst of bullets that peppered the space they had been standing in. The intruder fell to the ground, cradling their aching head as the Golem tottered then fell over backwards with a mighty crash.

Shaking their head, feeling the effects of the pulse in their own internal processor, the intruder staggered to their feet. The second Golem was charging into the narrow corridors, hurling aside machinery and benches in their eagerness to reach the slender figure. More gunfire erupted from this mechanical monstrosity, tearing apart valuable machinery and exploding vials of drugs and containers of tablets all over the floor.

Vision still swimming, the intruder ran hunched over in a crouch, their soft soled boots crushing thousands of Pandas worth of medicines and drugs that rolled across the tiled floor. The weapon in their hands gave a ping and the figure smiled wickedly behind their mask, as this meant the recharge was completed.

The Golem had lost track of its prey in the swirling smoke and steam its guns had caused, small fires breaking out on damaged machines and pink coloured water still spraying down over everything. The sensor head scanned left and right, trying to find its target. If only it had been smart enough to look upwards.

In the confusion, the intruder had climbed onto a broken Auto-Lab and then, with a fierce yell, leaped high in the air and landed on the broad back of the Golem. It stopped in sudden confusion, the computer brain inside trying to understand what had fallen on its body. The sensor head looked straight up to see the manic eyes of the intruder over the top of the face mask it wore. The mask was painted to represent the wide open mouth of a demon, a Japanese Oni, and to a human it may have been a terrible sight.

To the Golem what was more terrifying was seeing the front end of the EMP Burst Gun pointed right at its brain at a range of less than a centimetre.

“Sayonara” said the intruder and triggered the EMP burst. The Golem shuddered as the pulse surged through its brain, cooking it completely and destroying most of the electronics inside of its body. It fell to the watery pink tiles in a crash of armour plates, shaking the surrounding benches and tables.

The intruder fell as well, their own internal processor reeling from the magnetic waves. It was only a few precious seconds they were down, yet it was too long. Men in grey armour carrying guns ran into the laboratory fortress and surrounded the fallen figure. They parted their ranks as a tall, grey suited woman strode into the centre to gaze down at the recovering person.

“You are a lot smaller than I expected” said Naomi Tengaki loudly, head of security at the warehouse. She hailed originally from Korea via the Northern Bloc, her face a mix of South Korean and Californian ancestry. In a good light she would be considered pretty, yet tonight her features were twisted with contempt.

“It was a good run, but you should not have come back” she continued, lowering her voice as the alarms were finally silenced and the fire sprinklers ceased spraying water over everything. “No-one gets to make a fool out of the Brackenridge’s twice in one lifetime”

Naomi crouched down, supremely confident that she had the upper hand. The intruder might have taken down two extremely valuable Golems, but there were a dozen armed guards here now. An EMP burst would not affect them in any way.

The intruder glared at her over the grinning mask and for a moment Naomi was worried. Their eyes were smug, even contemptuous of her security team.

“Who are you, little one?” whispered the head of security as a faint boom could be heard in the distance, shaking the floor beneath their feet. Then all the lights went out.

“Nobody of interest” said the masked intruder and then scrabbled away into the darkness.