Prologue to Book 2, Quantum Entity Trilogy

Quantum Entity | American
Spring

“Dr.?”
“Yes.”
“Sorry to disturb you but there’s a young woman here to see you.”
“Does she have an appointment?”
“Umm, no.”
“Is she a student?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Well tell her to make an appointment and have security check her out,” the
physicist says to his EA. His EA is a young man, Alex, 21, who is going places,
he thinks.

Their
lab at the Department has grown fantastically using the resources of the
Commonwealth. It’s grown not only in terms of personnel (from 2 to more than
700) but spills over into a network of trailers that are parked everywhere.
Farrar wants them to work at Livermore (Lawrence Livermore National Lab near
SFA, San Francisco Aerodrome) but they decline, politely but firmly.

The
General says security and confidentiality will work better there but the
scientists don’t care SFA (sweet fuckall) about the General’s concerns. Still
they agree to a joint CSIS (plainclothes group of agents) and Commonwealth
Military presence here. The Cartesian Powers are no joke and they understand
this. They detest 24/7 security but put up with it.

The
physicist is still living in the President of UBC’s basement but now they have
a full time RCMP hut at the gate (one of those horrible nanosite extruded/grown
brownish nest-looking structures) pretending to provide security for Dr. Woo. But
it’s the physicist they’re actually looking out for. When he’s over at Euph’s
place, they sit in a couple of squad cars that look ridiculously out of place
on Granville Island. Euphony brings them coffee and
hot chocolate.

She’s
offered them some of her illegal Wrecked Brew too which they regretfully
decline. He reminds her that the ‘P’ in RCMP stands for police but she just
shrugs. “I’ll cast an evil spell on them if they try anything.” The RCMPs (all
men) have no interest in busting a small time bootlegger especially one who
looks as yummy as Euphony does. As his economic prospects have recently
improved so have hers so she can afford nicer things now—she’s been shopping at
Bolts in downtown Vancity and it shows. What she likes especially is the effect
it has on him—it’s really, really good.

…

“Dr.,
my name is Arcadia Valenzuela.”
“Hello, Ms. Valenzuela.”

She’s
been waiting in their ante room for two days. She refuses to leave the premises
while security checks her out. They think she can’t afford a hotel or
something—she’s a waitress from Texas
after all. They’ve scanned her and made sure she has no weapons or viruses or
other surprises for them but she won’t tell them what it’s about. She seems
very determined. Maybe she’s some kind of groupie who likes physicists but she
doesn’t look like that. She’s attractive enough but not showy in the way you
would expect a groupie to dress or act. She sure is set on seeing the Dr.
though.

The
only thing she has with her is an old Thermalite Quadcore SYS505HS Tower which
must be a bitch to lug around. She lets them boot it up but it has zero/zip on
it. She has a data cube too (just under a centimetre per side) which they find
of course but she won’t let them touch it. It’s for the Dr., she tells them.
This makes them uncomfortable and leads to a standoff until Alex tells the
physicist that he has a hunch that she is legit.

Alex
has gotten to know her a bit in the 48 hours she’s been sitting two metres from
his workstation.

…

“He
said to tell you everything,” she continues, “but is it OK if I boot up my PC?”
“Please.”
She inserts her data cube and a video of Jag Durai and G4nesha starts playing.
“Freeze frame,” the physicist says right away to her computer but the video
dumbly keeps playing. He realizes instantly the thing is an antique so he
reaches for the screen but it doesn’t respond to touch either.
“Here,” she says showing him how to move a mouse awkwardly on a teensy touchpad
on a keyboard that just as awkwardly folds out from the base of the tower. He
freezes the video and then enlarges it. He can plainly see that G4nesha has the
same freckled complexion as Ash3r does. What the fuck?
“Do you know why this Quantum Entity looks the way she does?”
“Yeah. I think it’s because Nesha and Jag are bonded and linked. She’s evolved
or something.”
“Nesha?”
“G4nesha, she’s Jag’s QE—they can read each other’s minds—they’re, they’re
linked.”
“Ah, Miss Valenzuela, do you mind telling me where, umm, Jag and G4nesha are?”
“Sure. They’re in a prison camp in Shenyang,
that’s near the—”
“I know where it is,” the physicist interrupts.
“They were taken there by a guy named Yao Allitt when I was 15 and—”
“Can you hold up a minute, Ms. Valenzuela please?” the physicist says. Then via
intercom he says, “Alex, can you ask Dr. Wong to join us immediately? And
please cancel my appointments for the next two hours.”

…

They
get the story out of her in about 90 minutes—the quantum scanning that Mr.
Durai has perfected, the link that can be formed between human and quantum
counterpart that has been hinted at in their equations but never
(scientifically) demonstrated let alone verified, the evolutionary step that
QEs take after mindlink is established, their subsequent release from the three
laws, the quantum tunnel that Mr. Durai initially uses to drop his data cube on
Arcadia’s floor, even their visits using hacked Sinofighter consoles are
disclosed. But still he feels he is missing something, something important.

“Ms.
Valenzuela, is there anything more about these visits that you can tell me?” he
asks.
“Not really.” But she doesn’t make eye contact with him when she says this so
he goes over to where she is sitting. She is hunched over in her chair,
shoulders rounded, like she’s been beaten down, maybe by life. He kneels down
so his eyes are on the same level as hers, he takes both of her hands in his
and says, “Arcadia,
I don’t mean to pry. Neither Dr. Wong nor I will ever tell a soul what you have
said here unless you give us permission. But we have to know everything,
everything. We can’t help you otherwise. Are you sure there isn’t anything
else?”
“Well maybe one more thing.”
“Uh, huh?”
“Well, you see, like, those consoles, Jag used them, I mean we used them to be
with each other, I mean like intimate sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“Well, ah, really all the way.”
“I assume they worked?”
“Yeah. Really, really well.”
“Is there something else?”
“Yeah, we are going to try like maybe next week to have a baby.”
“A baby?”
“Yeah, it was my idea. You see,” she says in a rush to get it over with, “I
thought he could use that little quantum tunnel of his to send something else
through.”
“Would that be sperm, Ms. Valenzuela?” Dr. Wong asks as clinically as possible
to save the young woman any further embarrassment.
“Yeah. But Jag wasn’t sure he could transport something live so we were going
to try something else first.”
The physicist reaches down to pick up Popeye who is back for some more
attention. Cady just looks at the enormous cat.
He says, “Well we won’t be sending you through, Pops. You’re way too big. Maybe
we should try a lab rat first.” As soon as he gets this out of his mouth
another thought occurs to him. He looks at Chuck who immediately sees it too.
“Ms. Valenzuela, is there anything else? I think I might have something that
can help you and Jag but I want to make sure I have all the facts.”
“That’s pretty much it except Jag said, well he isn’t too sure, but he thinks
maybe Imperial China is working on some kind of super weapon based on his work,
some new way to attack the Commonwealth.”
“No surprise there. OK, Arcadia,
how big is Jag?”
“About 6’3”.”
“No, how wide is he—how broad in the shoulders?” the physicist asks.
She holds out her hands indicating a big man about 55 centimetres.
“What are you thinking, Dr.?”
“I think Arcadia we can do better than bring a vial
of sperm out of Shenyang.
Let’s see if we can widen that quantum tunnel, stabilize it and test it.
Afterwards, let’s go get Jag out of that shithole they have him in. Let’s bust
him out, Ms. Valenzuela.”

When
he says this, Cady jumps up like she is 15 again and gives him the biggest hug.
Her face only comes up to his chest. “Oh, oh, oh, Dr. that would be the best
thing evverr. Can you do it?”
“I don’t know for sure, Arcadia,
but I think the answer is yes.” When he says this she bursts into tears. He puts
his arm around her and strokes her hair. She’s had a rough go, no doubt about
it.

…

@ProfBruce