by James McEwan
Hammer’s War
Dimension Shift
James S. McEwan
Copyright © 2014 James McEwan
All rights reserved.
ISBN:1505400341
ISBN-13: 9781505400342
DEDICATION
This one is for my best friend Greg. Thanks for sticking by me the last sixteen years. I hope that you enjoy your character.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have to acknowledge my dad John McEwan, not only did he contribute background information to the story, but your love and support have really helped me carry on and finish despite the setbacks and problems.
To Ed Kivi who helped reedit my books,
Thanks for all of your help.
Chapter 1
For a brief moment, Thad had thought it was all over and he could let his guard down. He should have known better. Thad was sitting in the hospital room of one of his twin wives who had been badly wounded while bringing down George Thorne and his black organization that had been, and still was, creating engineered killers. Now that she was stable and recovering, Thad finally had time to think. He was lost in his thoughts, gazing at the vid screen, though not entirely paying attention to the broadcast, when the door to the room opened and a doctor entered.
As a perky newsreader began her broadcast, Thad focused more on the news, not particularly paying attention to the doctor. The newsreader continued. “In other news today, The Terrain Emperor has disappeared in the wake of a coup attempt. Earth officials are not commenting on his whereabouts, only saying that for his safety he has gone into hiding.”
Thad cursed his tired brain for being so slow, but there was little he could do about it without some solid rest. He shifted his weight intending to stand when an arm slipped around his neck from behind. He felt the prick of a needle as it pierced his neck, and a burning sensation expanded outward from the strike, moving down his neck and into his chest. Thad still had strength enough to pull the arm off him and stand, but only managed two steps before he collapsed on the floor.
Thorne stepped over the top of him, smirking down at Thad as his body went into convulsions. “Oh I’m sorry. Did I just poison the hero of the day?” Thorne crooned. “Like I told you before son, you will never beat me. I have all the cards.”
Thad tried to speak, but couldn’t, and foam poured from his lips as he shook. “Don’t bother trying to speak, you can’t”, Thorne said as he squatted down next to him. “I’ve given you a combination of a paralytic and poison. You will be dead in few seconds. It will be quick, although by the looks of it, rather painful.”
Thorne noticed the foam coming from Thad’s mouth and stared. “Hm, never seen it do that before. Oh well, goodbye Thad.” Thorne gave Thad’s leg a pat as he stood back up.
Thad stopped moving, but the foam continued to spill from his mouth. Thorne paid no further attention to him as he returned to the tray to refill the needle. He softly spoke to Fiona who was still asleep. “Sorry my dear, I’m going to kill you and your bitch sister as well. I have to kill anyone who knows about me. It’s the only way for me to survive. But I must say that killing the two of you will be more pleasure than you can imagine.” He then inserted the filled syringe into her IV line.
What Thorne didn’t know was that the foam coming out of Thad’s mouth was his body’s nanobots working hard to expel the poison. His cells were healing as fast as they were being damaged. While Thorne was preparing to poison Fiona, Thad had regained control of his body.
“Goodbye, Fiona.” he said as he started to put pressure on the plunger.
Thorne was taken by surprise when Thad suddenly grabbed hold of his thumb and broke it. Thad spun Thorne around so they came face to face. Believing Thad to have been dead. “How?” all Thorne was could say.
“There are things you don’t know about me,Thorne. One of them is the fact that I’m getting really tired of people trying to kill me and my family.” He struck again, this time, Thorne was ready for him and blocked the blow. They exchanged strikes and blocks for a few seconds. The sounds of the fighting woke Fiona, who could only watch.
Thorne reached under his shirt and grabbed a force blade. He switched it on and came at Thad. He was moving fast and Thad, being exhausted, was moving slower than normal. As luck would have it, Freya opened the door and in so doing blocked Thorne’s attack. The force blade slashed through the door leaving the smell of burnt wood in the air.
Freya had two cups of hot coffee in her hands and seeing Thorne with the knife, she threw them both at him. Thorne screamed as the hot coffee splashed across his chest, scalding him. He dropped the knife out of reflex and tore at his shirt trying to get it off as fast as he could. Freya was not going to stand there and watch. She landed a kick right into Thorne’s midsection, which sent him backward into the wall. He hit hard, and his hands, which had been at the collar of his shirt, were forced apart with such force that his collar button gave way and flew off.
The button hit Freya right in the eye. She yelped in the pain and covered her eye. Thorne quickly recovered, standing against the wall, his bare chest blistering. Thad made a move for him, and Thorne dove for the knife on the floor. He slid across the tile floor and scooped up the weapon. He spun onto his back just as Thad landed on top of him trying to get the knife. Thorne slashed at him, hitting the control pad for his phase device. Thorne was able to get a leg under Thad’s chest. He pushed with all his might, which sent Thad backward into a view screen. It shattered, and showered him in sparks. Thad’s body armor lit up as electricity jumped around him in a cloak of blue.
Everyone froze and watched Thad fade away right in front of their eyes. It only took a few seconds and then Thad was gone, not even a ghost image was left of him.
Thad felt every cell in his body buzz with electricity as he watched everything in front of him fade away to blackness. His body was racked with tingling as he felt like he was being pulled apart.
Then as quickly as the blackness and pain came, it went. He found himself standing in the hospital room, but this time, there was no one in the room but him. He looked around, nothing was out of place, and no one was there. “Whoa, what a trip!”
The door to the room swung open and an electronic voice said. “Housekeeping.” A small female robot entered the room and was startled by the sight of Thad. “I’m sorry Sir; I didn’t expect anyone to be in here.”
“It’s okay I wasn’t expecting to be here either” Thad said.
“Sir?” The robot replied.
“Nothing, never mind.” he said as he left the room. He went to the nurses’ station. “Excuse me, but can you tell me what room Fiona Hammer is in?”
The nurse looked at the screen in front of her. “I’m sorry Sir, but we have no patient by that name.”
“Are you sure? I was just in her room ... she has to be here.”
“Sir I am sorry, but we have no one here under that name.” Not content with her answer Thad grabbed the tablet she was reading from and scanned it for Fiona’s name, but it wasn’t there. “Hey, you can’t do that! Now give it back before I call for security!”
Thad handed it back to the red-faced nurse. “Sorry” he said, confused. He left the desk and walked towards the waiting area where a newsreader was on the large screen in the corner of the room. She was talking about a news conference that was about to go live. He stopped to watch it, his head was swimming, and anything could be a clue to what had just happened to him. His jaw just about hit the floor when he saw who was standing behind all the microphones.
“Thank you all for coming here today. For those who don’t know me, I am Doctor Julius Hammer.”
While Thad stood there st
unned, a small child who had noticed his shocked look reached out and tugged on his pant leg. “Mister, are you okay?”
He looked down into the big brown eyes of the child. “I get the feeling I am not in Kansas any more kid.”
“What?” the kid said, looking up at him.
“Never mind kid. Do you know where that press conference is taking place?” Thad asked.
The boy shrugged his shoulders. “How should I know, I’m just a kid.”
“Right. Thanks anyway” Thad said, then gave the kid a pat on the head.
Seeking information, Thad went to the hospital lobby where he found a help desk. A lovely young woman who looked like she was still in her teens sat at the desk. She had a nail changing stick in her right hand and was in the process of changing the nail color of her left hand. She would try a color then hold out her hand and look at it before she changed the color again and repeated the process. When Thad approached her, he noticed she was chewing on a piece of gum a bit loudly. “Excuse me miss, but do you happen to know where that press conference is taking place?” Thad asked pointing to the screen on the wall.
She stopped coloring her nails long enough to look at the screen, and then blew a day-glow orange bubble. She popped the bubble and sucked in the gum. “Oh that’s the medical conference. I think it’s at the convention center.” she said as she chomped her gum.
“How far is the convention center from here?”
“A few miles down the street. Just go out the front doors, hang a left, and go till you see the big building that says convention center on it. Can’t miss it.” She blew another bright orange bubble, then popped it.
“Thanks” Thad said as he walked away, then he stopped as a thought came to him. He wheeled around and returned to the desk. “If I may say, you are extremely attractive.” She smiled at the compliment. “However I would lose the gum, it’s a bit unprofessional and it kind of makes you sound like a cow.”
“Oh.” the smile was gone, replaced by a look of shock and disappointment. Once he was out of earshot she flippantly said “Jerk!” Then she pulled the gum out of her mouth, gave it a second thought, then tossed it into the trash. She returned to her nail coloring and never gave Thad another thought.
The street was busy with cars, trucks and all manner of personal and professional vehicles going about their daily tasks. Thad hailed a cab. A slightly weathered and battered hover cab promptly pulled up in front of him. The door opened and he slid in. He noticed that the cab had been heavily modified and was not at all an ordinary cab. First, it was fitted with larger anti-gravity pads, and if he was not mistaken, it was fitted with Volker thrusters. Thad wondered why a hover cab would need thrusters made for an aircraft. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to find out. “Convention center please.”
The driver, a thin black man with dreads and a multicolored hat pointed to the credit slot embedded between the seats on the metal wall that separated them. “Yo mon, you must pay before you play” he said with an accent that Thad recognized as being from Earth, Jamaican if he wasn’t mistaken.
“Oh, one second.” Thad pulled out his credit wallet to discover that during the fight with Thorne and his men it had taken a hit and most of the cards were just a chunk of melted plastic. Luckily, one had survived. He pulled it out and swiped it through the card reader; nothing happened. He did it, again and again, nothing. He swiped it a third time and waited. This time, a message flashed up, ‘error no record of account’.
“Oh, bummer, my mon, no credits no ride. Now please be a good mon and bugger off.” the cabby said pointing to the door.
“Look you don’t understand. I need to get to that convention center right now. If you would just do me a flavor and trust me, once I get there I can clear up the problem and I will pay triple what you would make normally. You can do it off the books if you want.” Thad pleaded with the driver.
“So you want me to drive before getting paid? Look mon, you no pay, I no drive, get it? I mean do you really think I fell off the turnip truck yesterday?”
Although Thad was frustrated, he had to get there. He tapped away on the arm interface of his Digital Dimensional Storage Device (DDSD) and a green light flashed. The cabby yelled. “Hey mon, what the hell?” Thad did not answer and just held his hand out as a .45 cal pistol materialized in it. The cabby saw the gun. “Oh, so you think you can force me to drive you? Mon, you is dumber than the cabbage in cabbage soup.” He rapped his knuckles on the wall between them. “You will never get through this, and besides.” he paused as he reached under the seat and pulled out a rather large and nasty looking disrupter pistol. “You see, cabbage head.” he said.
Thad’s frustration was getting the better of him. “No, you idiot! I am not trying to rob you, I am trying to pay you.” he flipped around so the handle was towards the Cabby. “Keep it, sell it, I don’t care, but it’s an antique and it’s worth thousands more that the cab fare.”
“Look mon, I don’t know what you are trying to do, but I don’t think that I want any part of it. Just do me a favor and put your gun away and get out of my cab.”
“Please, you don’t understand. Something terrible has just happened and I need to get to the convention center right away.” Thad was trying to explain without explaining what had just happened to him, partly because he didn’t think he would believe him and partly because he was not entirely sure what had just happened himself.
“By the look of your threads, I believe you, but I’m no charity! Quincy has bills to pay.”
“Look, Quincy, do you know who Doctor Hammer is?”
“Nope, should I mon?”
Getting desperate Thad’s mind was racing, he could run the few miles, but he was spent and he would run the risk of missing Doctor Hammer. “You have net access up there?”
“Of course mon, but you are wasting my time and I need to pick up a paying fare. So please for the last time get out of me cab before I have to call New Dallas’s finest.”
“Just look up Doctor Julius Michael Hammer. Please? It is a matter of grave importance that I get to him as soon as possible.”
Quincy had his finger on the button to contact police dispatch, but something in Thad’s steel gray eyes convinced him to check into the Doctor. He tapped out his name on the touch screen and in less than a second data started streaming in, and Quincy saw that Doctor Hammer was listed as one of the richest men in the known universe. He changed his mind about the fare.
“Okay mon, if you say this Doctor Hammer will pay three times the normal fare, then who am I to argue.”
Relieved, Thad said “Great, now step on it! I need to get that convention center now!”
“Okay mon, hold tight! Quincy’s rocket ride is at your service.” He said as he grabbed the controls. Quincy was true to his word and the cab took off like a rocket. The acceleration was such that Thad found himself pressed into the seat. Quincy drove like a man possessed as he drove around the traffic with a practiced grace of a mad man. His skills were that of a veteran pilot, but his style of driving bordered on the insane.
Thad endured the cab ride that seemed less like a ride in a hover-cab and more like an amusement park ride. At one point there were two large trucks blocking the road ahead and the only way around them was on the left side between them and a building, but there was not enough room for the cab to fit ... well at least, not horizontally. Quincy yelled over his shoulder “Hold onto something mon!”
“Onto what, there is nothing to hold onto back here.” Thad yelled back.
Quincy didn’t reply as he was too busy doing the math in his head. At the last second, he turned the controls hard while his thumb smashed a red button on the control. The cab shuddered as the two large Volker thrusters fired underneath the cab. Thad felt the vibrations throughout his whole body. In an instant, Thad knew what the thrusters were for as the thrusters sent the cab into the air for a few seconds.
Quincy’s wild maneuver with the controls put the cab sideways on the w
all until he passed the trucks. Once clear of them, he reversed the operation and put the cab back on the ground.
Meanwhile, Thad, who had failed to fasten the safety belt, found himself smashed face first on the window looking at the ground whipping by, and then just as fast, found himself back in the seat scrambling for the seat belt.
“Hey, do you always drive like that?” Thad said as he clicked the seat belt.
“No mon, that is special service for a special client.”
“Thanks, I guess.”
“No problem.”
The cab ride from Hell felt like forever, but in reality, it was only a few seconds before it finally ended. The door opened. “There you go mon, convention center as you asked.”
Thad stumbled out of the cab. “Thanks.” he said.
“So I will wait here for you here then?”
“It could be a while.”
“Look mon, I go nowhere till I get paid.” Thad nodded and headed for the buildings doors.
Chapter 2
The convention center was a huge building, and its glass facade seemed to go on forever. The foyer area had plush deep blue carpets with a diamond pattern that shifted every few minutes, which many people found to be somewhat mesmerizing. The architect wanted to put people at ease while doing business, however, the effect seemed to cause people to stop and stare at the carpet, which led to a lot of people standing around looking down and it, which led to a large number of people walking into walls as well as other guests. The carpets were to be reprogramed with something of a less neck bending design as soon as this conference was over. Of course, all of this had no bearing on Thad’s current objective.
Once inside, Thad made his way through the crowd to the registration desk. Above the desk was a 3D holo banner that rotated and read “Welcome to the 250th Annual Medical Devices Developers Conference.”
