Fury (The Quantum Wars Book 2)

by C. A. Fraser

  The only antimatter drive ever developed occupied the majority of the ship. It had been a project completed in secret during the final years of the U.S. government’s Central Intelligence Agency. ODIN had stumbled across the project during the integration of ARES as the primary intelligence gathering source for the remaining United States. It had withheld the project from common knowledge to preserve it if it were ever needed.

  Now ODIN’s concealment of the project was validated by the actions of Stephen and Wren Fore. The ship had been stored at the CIA’s former headquarters outside of Washington. It had never been used due to the forces exerted by the ship. It would kill a normal human. ODIN’s avatar was another matter. It could withstand the massive forces exerted by the launch and flight of the vessel. The trip had been fascinating for even the quantum. The ship was fired from a magnetic rail gun built deep into the ground under the former headquarters. It accelerated the ship so quickly that a launch vessel was not required. The ship was driven high into the atmosphere where the engine had fired driving it into space.

  The true acceleration had happened in the vacuum of space. The black vessel streaked past the machines of the web in minutes tearing across the distance to the ISIS space station in half the time it took the two humans ODIN was pursuing. ODIN turned its thoughts to ISIS and Fore as it began striding toward the entrance to the massive sphere.

  It would dispatch Fore and Reynolds immediately preventing Stephen Fore from escaping his prison on earth. ISIS on the other hand was a different matter. The quantum controlled the web but had also conspired with Stephen Fore to create this massive station. ODIN recognized it for what it was. A colony vessel. The rotation of the gigantic vessel indicated its intent. ODIN now knew the full extent of Stephen Fore’s betrayal. As it approached the doors allowing entrance to the massive sphere from the docking ring, ODIN decided on its action for ISIS.

  It would assume control of the other quantum. It had designed a failsafe for each quantum allowing ODIN to assume control in the event the quantum failed or went out of control. Its course decided, ODIN accelerated its pace arriving at the doors in a single breath. It stopped in front of the doors to ISIS chamber waiting for them to open. The doors did not move. ODIN felt irritation course through the human part of its mind. The emotion showed on its nanid covered face briefly before the quantum tired of the emotion and halted it. ODIN placed its nanid armored hand on the panel next to the door forcing the AI controlling the door to open it.

  The doors slid open revealing the darkened chamber beyond. ODIN’s eyes instantly adjusted to the room taking the play of the galaxy on the inner surface of the sphere and the location of ISIS’ chamber in in a single glance. It stepped into the chamber cautiously scanning for the Wren Fore or Curtis Reynolds.

  “ODIN come no further.” Curtis Reynolds boomed from the platform in front of him. As the quantum watched the man dropped onto the platform placing himself between ODIN and ISIS beyond.

  FIFTEEN

  The metal of the platform rang dully as Curtis landed his armored feet gripping it even though the field generator held him in place. Curtis felt renewed. Instead of a forced symbiosis the strain and nanids were operating in sync. It was exhilarating. The two nanotechnologies had merged forming a flexible armor over his body that reminded him of scales on a snake or the mythical dragons of long ago. His body shimmered from the mixture of the two technologies and Curtis knew he could turn invisible in an instant with barely a thought. He had retained the feral appearance but with the smooth scales covering him he looked more like a knight preparing for battle. He knew he would need all that ISIS had given him if he were to keep ODIN from the quantum. He did not hesitate. He moved along the platform closing the distance between him and ODIN’s avatar. ODIN looked much the same. Its white nanids a smooth, uninterrupted layer across Natalie Fore’s body.

  Curtis felt anger flare at the quantum’s hubris. It had no sense of right or wrong any longer. Its choice of avatar had shown that. Curtis stopped with a short distance between them.

  “ODIN, return to Earth,” he demanded, his deep voice, free of the feral growl, echoed off the chamber walls. The quantum did not reply. Instead it took a single step into the massive sphere showing its disregard for Curtis’ request. Curtis did not wait for another step. He closed the distance in an instant. Simon Fore’s nanids flared brightly while the black of the strain deepened. Both technologies worked together to give Curtis strength and speed he had never thought possible. ODIN moved to block him but Curtis moved too quickly bypassing the quantum’s counter.

  His fist drove into the quantum’s chest throwing it back through the entrance onto the platform of the docking ring. Curtis stepped through the doors sensing them closing behind him. ODIN had slid to the stop somehow retaining its footing. Curtis glared at the quantum.

  “Return to your ship and depart this facility,” he said his voice ringing across the platform. “This is the last time I will ask.” The quantum smiled at him before replying.

  “Curtis Reynolds, you are hereby sentenced to death under the ODIN protocol.” ODIN immediately surged toward him. Curtis met it in the middle of the platform matching its speed. The two traded blows that echoed through the chamber. Their movements were a blur, each moving faster and faster trying to out match the other.

  Curtis felt faint pain from the impacts of ODIN’s armored fist but shrugged it off focusing on finding a weakness in the quantum. Seeing an opening Curtis allowed the quantum to land a blow to his chest so he could try to deliver the strike that would bring the battle to close. The impact of its fist drove Curtis back struggling for breath. He scanned the quantum to see if he had brought it down. Its hand covered the side of its neck where Curtis’ strain sharpened claw had torn through the nanids piercing its jugular. Blood pulsed between its finger while it observed Curtis. As Curtis watched the flow slowed and then stopped. The quantum smiled as it lowered its hand all evidence of the wound fading. Without warning the quantum raced across the platform. Caught off guard Curtis blinked out of sight dodging to the side at the last moment. ODIN pulled to a stop turning and crouching.

  Curtis’ control of the cloak was complete. With the knowledge imparted by ISIS he moved soundlessly behind the quantum as it struggled to detect him. As it turned toward him Curtis drove both fists into it putting all his strength behind the blows. One impacted the quantums face and the other its chest. ODIN was lifted from its feet and driven back across the platform before its field generator engaged pulling it to the hard metal surface. As it slid to the stop the grind of metal on metal rang through the docking ring. Curtis reappeared cautiously observing the prone form of the quantum. It was back on its feet in an instant surging back toward Curtis.

  Curtis felt his tech respond to his call. His left arm glowed brightly and a dark blade formed in his hand. The nanids gave it strength but the strain made it deadly. Curtis dropped into a defensive posture preparing to counter the quantum racing toward him. As ODIN closed on him, Curtis raised the blade to strike. ODIN changed its strategy at the last moment. Curtis watched realizing his error as the quantum launched into the air with its feet driving towards Curtis’ chest. Curtis tried to compensate for the quantum’s change but was too slow as the quantum disengaged its energy field which caused it to accelerate even more. Curtis knew he could not stop the impact of the quantum’s armored feet so altered the swing of his blade to its torso.

  As ODIN drove into him, his blade swung wide and he was driven into the air streaking toward the sphere he was guarding. Curtis could not breathe as he flew helplessly through the air. His chest was collapsed in from the powerful strike. He streaked across the platform seeing ODIN drop to the ground its field generator reengaged. The quantum clutched its arm where his sword had removed its hand. Its blood and the hand were slowly spinning away from the quantum having been thrown free of the energy field.

  “At least I damaged it,” he thought as he closed the distance to the metal sphere b
ehind him.

  Curtis impacted the wall of the sphere and his consciousness began to fade. He saw black on the borders of his vision and fought it back forcing himself to stay awake. The force of his impact sent vibrations through the frame of the structure as his field generator pulled him safely to the platform. He could feel the strain and nanids racing to repair the damage and struggled to rise. ODIN arrived before he could stand. The quantum seized Curtis by the throat with one hand driving the nanid covered stump of its arm into his damaged chest. Curtis gritted his teeth against the pain and swung wildly at the quantum. ODIN ignored the blow, its bland white eyes wide with adrenaline and all too human rage.

  “Curtis I have changed my mind,” it sneered. “Death is not your fate. You will be my slave.” As the quantum finished, its nanids began streaming onto Curtis’ body from its hands. Pain tore through him as the quantum’s technology battled the strain and Simon’s nanids. Curtis’ mind exploded with suppressed memories of his infection by Landis and Fore’s attack in Colorado. Reason left him as he was seized by pain new and remembered. Madness surged through his mind. The torture from months ago renewed for the altered man. His consciousness left him, his mind no longer able to cope as his body once more became a battlefield.

  ODIN stared at the body of Curtis Reynolds slumped against the massive sphere containing ISIS. It was fascinated by the conflict being waged on the man’s body. It would not kill him. It had three different forms of nanotechnology in its control now. Even if Stephen Fore escaped his tech would be no match for ODIN now.

  ODIN’s nanids had performed flawlessly, but the interplay between the strain and nanids contained in Reynolds body opened a whole new means of augmentation. The quantum was eager to employ some of the theories already calculating in its mind. The white of its nanids continued to spread as it turned from the man leaving them to their work. They would contain him isolating the nanids of Simon Fore and the Leviathan strain in turn. ODIN strode to the closed door once more.

  It had won. Curtis Reynolds was incapacitated. Wren Fore would not be able to stand against it without him. It did not fear ISIS knowing the quantum would adhere to protocol and not harm a human, even one occupied by a quantum. As it raised its hand to force the doors to open they slid apart without its influence.

  ODIN surveyed the massive room. The galaxy still spun across the inside of the chamber revealing the mysteries of their home in the universe. It ceased its observation of the sphere when the doors to ISIS chamber opened. Light spilled out into the darkened sphere. ODIN smiled as it saw the silver form of Wren Fore standing in the entrance. The light streamed past her framing the woman and hiding her features from its view. ODIN knew this would be over in moments. Fore would be dead and her father forever imprisoned. ISIS would bend to its will and ODIN would guide the remains of humanity into the future unhindered by interference. The vision was powerful and spurred the quantum to action. A cruel smile twisted its face as it launched itself toward Wren Fore.

  “Wren.” The voice shattered the wall she had erected around her mind. She had never heard it but recognized it none the less. Something deep in her mind knew the entity that had contacted her. She felt the remnants of her hastily built defense fade as her mind raced to understand where she was. She opened her eyes to find herself inside a room filled with light. She knew this room. She knew where she was.

  She was with ISIS.

  ISIS touched her mind once more its serene presence soothing any anxiety she felt.

  “Do you know why you are here?” it asked. Wren started to answer, but something within her stopped her. Her mind divining the true reason she was here. Everything rushed back to her. The visions in the safe house outside of Washington. The shadows of the future revealed by her father’s AI messenger. The dream of the distant planet. Wren was not here to save her father. She was not here to stop ODIN. The true reason she was here was far greater. Wren felt emotions swirl through her. Grief and loss mingled with the joy and excitement brought on by her realization. Wren rose from the cryochamber her dark eyes sweeping the room before responding.

  “I am here to save humanity,” she replied, her voice sounded small compared to the quantums.

  “Do you know who I am?” The quantum asked softly. Wren did not respond, her mind instead opening long blocked memories. The space station she was on now. Her father holding her on board SIA. Awakening for the first time. The memories went back farther. Long conversations with Stephen Fore. Hours spent divining the true path she should take. Farther still. Her activation. The first step of her journey. Wren felt the truth ring through her mind.

  “You are me.” She said her mind throbbing with the memories.

  “And I am you.” ISIS said simply as the two merged once again.

  Now Wren stood at the entrance to her chamber watching the last impediment to her mission streak toward her. She was complete. Whole at last, the union of human and quantum needed to usher humanity forward. They were not separate entities. They were one. Wren had not succumbed to ISIS or been overtaken as the abomination racing toward her had. ISIS had freely relinquished itself to humanity. It had known the only true way for humanity to be saved was if it saved itself. It had placed part of itself into the mind of Wren when she was conceived on the station. It had to know what it was to be human. It gave itself to Wren those many years ago so humanity could survive. It entrusted the power of a quantum to the human to wield as she needed.

  Wren’s perception knew no bounds. Possible outcomes streamed in front of her as ODIN drew closer. She could sense Curtis outside the sphere, his love for her shining through his pain. The web sent a constant flow of information to her. The conflict in the Antarctic. ODIN’s conversion of humans across the city of Washington. She saw the nanids of her father slowly moving into the contaminated ocean. The shield holding the Leviathan at bay. The space station and it purposes passed through her observation. Its future lay in front of her. The colonization of the solar system. The rescue of humanity from extinction. ODIN was almost to her, its armored fist raised to strike.

  Its speed meant nothing to her. She observed it, her mind processing far faster than its movements. Her mother’s face focused on her intent on killing her. Grief touched Wren briefly. Her mother had died. ODIN had taken her. It would take her father if it could. It would take her if she allowed it. Its armored fist began its deadly descent toward Wren. The blow was meant to kill her instantly. ODIN had placed all its strength behind it. Wren watched her mother’s hand draw near. When it was inches away she acted.

  Reaching out with her fully realized powers she seized the energy field surrounding ODIN. The quantum’s forward momentum was brought to a halt in an instant. Wren could see agony cross its feature as it was crushed by the suddenly solid field. Wren solidified the field around it preventing it from moving. She watched as the agony passed and her counterpart realized what had happened. Rage filled its features at the knowledge that Wren Fore was the true form of ISIS. Wren studied the quantum that could be considered her sibling. Her eyes revealed the quantum inside her mother’s body. There was no connection extending from it. It was isolated from its true body on the earth. ODIN had not had the strength to reach across the web so had sent its avatar to destroy her. Wren turned her dark eyes to ODIN’s bone white eyes holding its gaze.

  “Release my father, Stephen Fore.” She said. It was not a request. ODIN would know this but would defy her. The quantum started laughing. Her mother’s laughter sounded distorted and chilling coming from the corrupt quantum.

  “I will not. Stephen Fore intends to release a plague on the Earth. It is my duty to stop him and you,” it said, its eyes blazing. Wren felt sadness pass through her. It did not understand. ODIN had degraded its intellect. It was corrupted by the single-minded focus on maintaining the quantum shield around Stephen Fore. It had grown paranoid and closed off, not seeing the threat it posed. Even if it was not capable of human emotion it still held the urge for self-preservatio
n. Stephen’s activation of EA had pushed it too far, driving it to its current extremes. Not trusting the truth of its calculations, the quantum had manipulated them to conform to its will with deadly results. Wren knew it could not be allowed to stand in her or humanity’s way any longer.

  She forced her way into the quantum’s mind. Into her mother’s mind. She displayed the truth to ODIN knowing it would deny her. Yet she forced it to see anyway. She drove deep into its mind searching through the vast intellect. As she moved deeper she could feel the quantum begin to weaken. She observed the quantum’s face as she delved through its mind. She was searching for any sign of her mother’s consciousness. She stopped when the nanids began to retreat from her mother’s face revealing her true face to Wren. Wren watched pain cross her mother’s fragile features.

  “Wren, please stop! You are hurting me,” she gasped, her voice as Wren remembered. It was not the voice of ODIN. Wren pulled back from the mind slightly trying to divine the truth. ODIN struck at that moment. It surged across their connection trying to access Wren’s mind and destroy her. She could sense its desire. It wanted to control ISIS. It wanted to control her. To make her do its bidding. Rage burst through her. The power of ISIS flowed into her mind and body. She pushed ODIN back into its mind, the quantum desperately fighting her. Her rage peaked as she found no sign of her mother in the mind trapped in front of her.