The Quantum Prophecy, Ryan Matthew Harker [books under 200 pages txt] 📗

reason, bad reason or no reason at all. He didn’t care about nothing except his parallel dimensions and although there was some amount of legitimate business going on in those days, money made, regardless of a person’s methods, was money earned. And so, despite his extremely ruthless ability for acquiring nearly incomprehensible mountains of cash, we were all very lucky when the only thing his son (an only child named Emelio Emery Empliozio) inherited, besides his ludicrous fortune, was his passion and obsession for the possibility of dimensions outside of our own.”
“So, directing the vast fortune that he had inherited upon his father’s demise, Emelio set into motion the wheels that carried the construction to its end. A more magnificent structure there never was, I'll give you the tour later, and built in record time to boot. It was then stocked and furnished with every piece of scientific equipment deemed necessary to explore and bring to reality this awesome vision. Also the Complex was fully self sufficient, with the capability to comfortably support up to seventy-two people. Then the time came to staff the great building. Only the best men and women from all around the world were hired. If it took four years to build and make the Complex habitable, then it took twice that long to staff it.”
“People were hired and fired and then rehired. Some quit, some were up and coming and so took the positions of some that were not. All in all it was a hectic time but eventually we were gathered, thirty-two scientists and thirty-nine other men and women of various trades.”
“Can we just get on with the last week, please?”
“Hush lad. You'll want to know about this, most people don't. I was one of the first considered and the last hired. Heaven knows that there were others more deserving than I. I was never quite sure what it was that Empliozio saw in me. I only met him on a few occasions, during social functions organized around various important breakthroughs. He never even spoke more than a dozen words to me in those times combined. But I was here all the same and working on a most extraordinary project, the likes of which the world had never seen. And with the almost inexhaustible funding of Triple E Enterprises it seemed as if for the first time people like ourselves may have had the chance to realize our dreams. Anyway, without the boring details, the day came when we finally achieved our goal; we succeeded in opening a wormhole into an alternate universe.”
“You've got to be kidding me?”
“It was supposed to be a wondrous, momentous and grand occasion. Everyone was there, from the very lowest dishwasher or gardener all the way to Emelio Emery Empliozio himself. We were kings and queens of the world. From here on out there would be nowhere to go but up. Unfortunately we were all of the combined knowledge and resources of some of the Earth’s greatest minds and nobody ever stopped to consider what opening this wormhole meant. Not a one of us, man, woman, rich or poor, even once thought to ask ‘Hey! I wonder, what type of world is this that we’re about to peek in on? What kind of culture have they produced? Are they civilized, friendly, will they welcome this uninvited intrusion into their lives or will they fear and hate us?’ No, none of us stopped to consider these implications. We were all way too caught up in the moment. Much too absorbed in what we had accomplished, what we were about to accomplish, to even stop for just one moment and think on the possible consequence of our genius. An all too common mistake of mankind, it seems. It’s a wonder that we haven’t learned our lesson yet.”
“Get on with it man. You're leaving me in suspense here!”
“So the time came. The wormhole was opened and there is no way to describe the intense wonder we all felt at the sight of it. (I’ll show you the thing in person during your tour.) Then at the very end of its expansion the very worse that we should have expected happened. An army of immense proportions began to march out of it. No sooner had the damned thing stopped dilating than swarms of troops began to emerge, almost as if the bastards had been waiting for that precise moment. Waiting, for Christ’s sake! How could they have been? And this was no ordinary army; this was an army straight from the deepest depths of Hell itself. No soldiers of human flesh and blood marched in its ranks. No, these were monsters, demons of the foulest sort. I have it all on video if you don’t believe me. We were overwhelmed almost immediately. Not a soul here was a fighter and even if we had been not a man on Earth would have been mentally prepared to face the horror we had unleashed.”
“It was a slaughter and I’ve no idea why I was chosen to live but chosen I was. In the middle of the carnage and death I cowered while a giant, bat-like creature I can only describe as a vampire prepared for my end. And then while my companions and friends died all around me, just as I was preparing to join them myself, a dark figure suddenly appeared in front of me. It was a man, finally, a man in the middle of all of this hellish madness, and while the carnage was unleashed around me this man just stood there. I could feel his eyes boring into my own and then he pointed at me. Pointed straight at my heart and grinned the demented grin of the damned. That was when my resolve shattered and I fainted.”
“When I finally came to, it was all over. Everyone was dead around me but I was still alive. The hellish army was nowhere to be found and yet the evidence of their existence was everywhere. I couldn’t help it, I fainted again.”
“To make this long story a bit shorter I buried all of my companions by myself. It took me nearly a full week and when the task was done I turned my full attention to the wormhole. Its constant presence had been a reminder to me the previous week but then its vigilance became unbearable. I shut down the entire project and fast. The wormhole persisted in its watch. Suffice to say it’s still here and nothing can be done to deactivate it, nothing. I’ve been here ever since, keeping watch and waiting.”
“So,” Candlelite chose his words carefully. “In a way, you’re partially responsible for the state of the world today.”
The boy’s words had not been intended to hurt. They had been no more than a statement of a fact and yet Max still looked glum.
“Aye boy, you could say that.” His words came out soft and bitter. “And as for you, the wormhole emits some kind of stasis field. This field, from what my instruments tell me, is in the shape of a dome. This dome is approximately sixty miles high and three hundred seventy-seven miles in circumference.”
Candlelite interrupted at this remark, “Yeah? I walked all of the way around it before I decided to enter.”
Max raised his eyebrows at that but he chose not to say anything. “Well, this stasis field causes anything that strays into its confines to stay the same age forever. How old would you say I am?”
“I don't know,” Candlelite mused, studying Max’s face. “About forty, maybe late thirty-ish.”
“Well not bad son, not bad,” Max shifted a little in his seat and crossed one leg over the other. “It was about sixty years ago that we opened the wormhole. It took us twelve years to accomplish our goal and I was twenty six when I was hired to work on the WurmControl project.”
Candlelite was not the least bit surprised at this revelation of age by the wizened little scientist. His grandfather had at one time told him tales of the world before the Arch-Sorcerer and his horrendous minions, this did nothing but confirm the time frame that was in his own mind.
Max was speaking again with the oratory grace of the born storyteller, “And this stasis field is the only reason that you survived long enough for me to find you and bring you here for treatment.” Max narrowed his eyes and peered at him the way he had before. “You should have seen yourself. That bear had left you in a bad way. You’re very fortunate I had the foresight to construct and install multiple strings of sensors. You were also fortunate you had just past by a set as the bear attacked or I would never have thought to look for you until curiosity sent me looking.”
Candlelite looked somewhat abashed at the next words spoken but was still able to return the scientists gaze.
“This stasis field still does not explain the accelerated rate of your health these past six days though.”
Candlelite shook his head in wonderment. Throughout the final part of Max’s tale he had kept waiting for the accusation to come. More so he expected it to come after these final words but Max just sat there, waiting for Candlelite to shed some light on the mystery.
Instead the young man heard what his body had been telling him for some time now. “I’m starving Max. What have you got to eat around here?”
A look of disappointment flashed across Max’s features for a split second and then he shook his head and smiled.
“Of course you are. At the rate your body must have been burning energy to heal that fast it’s no wonder you’re famished. Well boy, what say you, can you walk?”
“I think so,” Candlelite grinned.
Max stood up and walked around to the other side of the bed. He removed the IV from Candlelite’s arm and hung the line on the same hook as the saline bag.
Candlelite threw back the covers and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. His feet touched the floor and he stood up slowly, testing his weight. When he was fully erect he turned and looked at Max. Max frowned slightly and led the way first to some clothes and then to the food.

*****

The room was dark, only illuminated by a small lamp set on a small table next to a small chair. The room was small also with a large mahogany door inlaid with fine strands of silver and gold, very ‘old- school’ styling. These precious metals were twirled, entwined and twisted into strange Celtic-like symbols of power. These symbols though quite new to Earth were themselves beyond age. They were a sealing spell of great power. A spell brought into the world by the Warlock Harmony, Dark Lord, Arch Sorcerer of AnEerth and now Supreme and Undisputed Ruler of all of the great green Earth, at least what was left of it.
Harmony sat in the small chair in the middle of the small room. He was cloaked in a plain black robe made of soft wool. Besides a gold chain he had around his neck, he wore no other ornaments. He was from a very different world than this and had yet to gain any understanding into the strange clothing worn by the inhabitants of this one. His eyes were closed and his face shadowed by the deep cowl of his robe, which was almost never seen from over his head. He sat in a meditative trance, in deep contemplation of the events he had set into motion for himself.
He had worked long and hard to gain the power and control he possessed now. Almost a thousand years had passed since he had split his mother