For Every Action - The Quantum Mechanic Series Book I

Tammy kept her hands in the air along with everyone else - except Jacob. This could have looked like an act of defiance for anyone else, and possibly a precursor to doing something very, very stupid. But in his case it somehow only conveyed a sense of mild bemusement. This alarmed Tammy at first, but then she realized that it made strange kind of sense. This man had literally just saved the lives of everyone on the base from one of the most powerful weapons of the modern age, and did it in a way more impossible than could be imagined. From his perspective the assault rifles they had leveled at him might as well be squirt guns.

In spite this they continued to shout at him with authoritarian commands to kneel and put his hands over his head, but he remained completely unconcerned. In the meantime, Eddie had unleashed a confidently outraged, epithet laden tirade on the soldiers that Tammy had frankly not thought him capable of. With an unquestionable tone of authority he had demanded that they stand down, drop their weapons, and identify themselves immediately. Several of the soldiers had hesitated and looked questioningly at each other when confronted by the angry young scientist. Tammy also noticed that for all their intimidating behavior; they were all keeping a very respectful distance from Jacob. She didn’t blame them. After just having witnessed the magnitude of his power, they were probably just hoping that he didn’t call their bluff.

At the sight of all of this she couldn’t help herself and grinned. Seeing a man leap hundreds of feet, fold space, and create giant flying magnets through the power of his mind had a way of lowering that sense of superiority that some people with guns could get.

Eddie and the soldiers continued to shout at each other; and she noticed that a tall, grey haired man with a moustache was making his way across the lawn towards them. He had the air of someone who was accustomed to getting his way and wore a heavily decorated Air Force uniform like it was a suit of armor.

As soon as he was close enough he barked out a coded order and the soldiers backed away into a staggered arrangement. She had seen this maneuver before and knew what the pattern meant. It allowed them to create an optimal level of crossfire against an enemy while also minimizing the risk of accidentally hitting each other. So she and her coworkers were now standing at the apex of an assault squad kill zone. At any other point in her life this situation would have rooted her to the ground in terror, but a single sideways glace at Jacob dispelled any fear. His expression was so calm, so cool, and so unconcerned that it went beyond confidence. It was the look of a man with a sense of certainty so powerful that reality itself would bend to his will. She was in no danger because he was merely allowing these men to indulge in their need for pointless theatrics.

In the meantime, the tall man had never broken stride as the soldiers spread out and only came to a stopped when he was about eight feet from Eddie. It was a position that Tammy knew had been carefully chosen to put him just outside where the squad would concentrate their fire.

Then he somehow managed to draw himself up even taller before he spoke, “My name is Air Force Chief of Staff, General Andrew Tate. But you can call me ‘Sir’ like everybody else who doesn’t want my boot up their ass far enough to floss with the laces...” He gestured back towards the helicopters before he continued. “Now, King Kong, Jessica Rabbit, and Doctor Doolittle over there tell me that one of you is in charge of this colossal fuck fest.”

Eddie straightened himself as well before he replied with as much steel in his voice as he could muster, “Yes Sir. This is a highly classified medical facility and in the absence of the Director, or an appropriate Army liaison, command falls to the senior medical officer. Under normal circumstances that would be Dr Bernard Sallinger, but he is currently trapped in the structure below. That leaves me in charge... Dr Edward Mathers.”

The General’s left eyebrow twitched at the mention of Eddie’s full name, “Huh… The boy genius eh? Saw your work in Campobasso and I gotta say, that was some seriously clever shit.”

“Thank you sir.”

“Heard you made that EMP out of a bunch of microwave ovens and some junk you yanked out of Colonel McCallister’s vibrating office chair. Is that true?”

“Not exactly sir.“, Eddie replied with a boyish grin, “They were military grade microwave emitters and I used something else that vibrated from the purse of McCallister’s secretary.”

For along moment there was silence and then the corner of the General’s moustache rose slightly before he made a small gesture and the soldiers lowered their weapons. “Ok son. I need you to tell me what the hell happened here and then I need to talk to that man”, he demanded as he pointed to Jacob. So for the next five minutes Eddie did his best to summarize the events of the evening and even managed to detail Jacob’s actions without sounding crazy. The General never moved while he did this and listened without interrupting. Then he took a deep breath, nodded to Eddie and turned to Jacob.

“I assume you’re the person they’ve been calling ‘The Quantum Man?’”

But Jacob simply continued to look distant and only after several moments of uncomfortable silence replied in a measured tone, “It is you who says it.”

Upon hearing this the General’s body language changed and every lowered weapon came up towards Jacob. Then he growled back, “Don’t play Bible footsie with me son. I need answers, not assholes. And in case you haven’t noticed, there are sixteen forty-five caliber automatic weapons pointed at your head right now. You’re not in a position to be cute.”

Jacob regarded him evenly for the space of several heartbeats and Tammy felt some of her fear return before he spoke, “I am quite aware of the excessive weaponry that you brought to confront us General and I would ordinarily have serious reservations about anyone who felt the need to bring such an arsenal for a conversation with a group of unarmed American citizens. But tensions are understandably high today for obvious reasons. So as a gesture of good faith I’m going to help you de-escalate this situation…”

As he said this every one of the rifles held by the soldiers began to crumble into powder and in a matter of seconds the soldiers stood staring at their empty hands. In the distance, Tammy could hear similar shouts and disarray near the helicopters. In a panic, several of the soldiers pulled their side arms, only to have them turn to dust as well. Seconds later their powered exoskeletons dissolved, followed by their armor, helmets, and uniforms. In a matter of moments they were left standing on the grass in nothing but their underwear.

Tammy grinned a little harder, and watched as the General blanched, “Jesus Fucking Chri...”

Jacob immediately cut him off, “Please don’t take the Lord’s name in vain around me General. I really find that offensive.”

With an audible clack the General’s mouth snapped shut and the two men stood regarding each other for several moments before he made a gesture and the assault squad beat a hasty retreat.

Then the General took a deep breath and tried again carefully, with his moustache barely moving, “OK... OK… you’ve made your point, and I’m not here to pick a fight.”

Jacob nodded knowingly, “Perhaps next time you should start by not pointing guns at innocent people.”

The General glared at Jacob, and Tammy did her best to not laugh as the man’s hat dissolved and the dust ran down around his face and ears. But she had to give the man credit because he didn’t flinch and simply replied, “I’ll take that under advisement.”

“Good”, Jacob replied pleasantly, “Now, what can I do for you?”

The General swallowed and Tammy could see that he was choosing his words carefully when he finally asked, “The government nee... uh... would like to understand your intentions and your origins.”

Jacob looked thoughtful about this question before responding, “Well, the last time I checked, I originated in my mother’s womb.”

The General’s ears and cheeks reddened when he heard this, but he remained in control of his temper before continuing, “and... your intentions?”

“Concerning?“, Jacob asked with one eyebrow arched slightly.

“Where your loyalties lay.”

“My house serves the Lord.”

The General sputtered, “What the fu...“, but then shut himself down as his tie dissolved. He was obviously accustomed to being obeyed without question. But for the first time in a very long time - someone else held power over him, and they were using it to make him look like an ass. The most interesting part to Tammy was that Jacob’s only demand seemed to be that he treat them with respect. But for some unknown reason this seemed to infuriate the General beyond reason and made the rephrasing his question look almost physically painful, “More specifically then, in regards to your patriotism.”

Jacob looked thoughtful again before responding, “Well, I’m paraphrasing here because ancient Greek doesn’t translate well into modern English, but the Apostle Peter said that we should live as people who are free. That we shouldn’t use that freedom as a cloak the way the evil people do in order to justify their actions. As servants of God we are called to stand forth as an example to the world.’”

The General nodded carefully, “So you’d be willing to exercise your abilities in the service of your country?”

Jacob paused again before responding and when he did Tammy could hear a note of acceptance in his voice, “Yes, we are also commanded to let our light shine for all to see, and I must atone for keeping this light under a basket. But God also judges those who take up the sword in vain harshly. So I will only act if I can see that the cause is just, and the actions we take are moral.”

The General was quiet for a moment as he considered this, “How would you know?”

Jacob had been standing stock still until this point, but the General’s question caused him to turn and lock eyes with the man. Tammy watched the color drain from the General’s face and although he didn’t move an inch, he somehow seemed to collapse in on himself. It was an almost perfect replay of what Jacob did to Barnes after Jessica yelled at him.

Several uncomfortable moments passed before Jacob finally responded in a fatalistic tone, “I have a Bible.”

Then he broke eye contact and the General took a small step backwards with a confused and fearful look on his face. But he recovered quickly and in seconds returned to his proudly stoic demeanor.

“Very well then. Would you be willing to come with me and be debriefed? You are of course under no… uh... obligation.”

Jacob nodded in agreement, “General, to the best of my knowledge there no power on earth that holds me in obligation. But there is something we need to do immediately before we go anywhere.”

The General raised his eyebrows at this, “Is there a problem?”

Jacob glanced upwards, “You saw the column of fire?”

“Yes”, the General responded, “I assumed it was caused by your actions.”

Jacob shook his head slightly, “I wish it was, but I believe it was my niece Jessica.”

At this the General looked slightly confused and asked, “I’m not following. Did she fire some sort of weapon?”

Jacob took a deep breath, “You could say that, but in this case she was the weapon. Based on the energy signature she left behind I believe she improvised a rail gun from the facility’s main support beams and used it to launch herself towards the satellite.”

For the span of several seconds the General regarded Jacob with obvious incredulity, “Mister...”

“You may call me Jacob.”

“Jacob... if anyone else had said that to me on any other day I would have the MP’s haul them in for drug testing. But with everything else I’ve seen today I’m going to assume that you’re serious, and that you’re justified in that statement.”

Tammy detected a hint of Jacob’s rakish smile when he responded, “General, I would feel the same if I were you. Strange does not even begin to describe my world these days. I’m sure if you contact NORAD they will confirm what I have said.”

The General nodded, “OK, assuming what you said is true; I’m guessing that your niece is the infamous ‘Jessica Saylor’, and that she has emerged from her chrysalis?”

Jacob’s eyebrow went up again, “You know about that?”

“Yes, I’m the Air Force Chief of Staff”, the General responded with a small laugh.

“Point taken...”, Jacob acknowledged, “So you know what she is now?”

“Barnes uploaded that molecular rendering of her to a secured DARPA server weeks ago. My boys say it’s going to take them a hundred years to figure out half of how she works. But I’m still skeptical that anyone could survive being accelerated to those speeds. It would crush them to jelly.”

Jacob nodded again, “There’s only one way to find out. Is it possible for us to track her?”

But before the General could reply Eddie suddenly stepped forward to interject, “I think I can do you one better”, and Tammy startled at the sound of his voice. The interaction between Jacob and the General had been so riveting that she had forgotten that he and Elena were even there. Now the gangly scientist was gesturing skyward as he explained without being asked, “I believe Apex2, Apex3 and the new Hubble are all in geosync positions with lines of sight on the satellite. NORAD has control override on all of them and if we can turn them to point at the satellite I can merge the three feeds into a holo view. I’ll need something better than my workslate to do it and it won’t be perfect, but it should get us a pretty decent look at what’s happening.”

The General grunted, “Son… It’s too bad cloning is illegal because I could use about fifty of you... My tent should be up by now and I think I’ll have the equipment you’ll need. I’ll call NORAD as soon as we get there.”

“We need to hurry”, Jacob said, “If I’m right, she’ll be getting to that satellite soon.”

Tammy glanced at Jacob, “How could she get there so...”

But there was a brilliant flash before she could finish and they suddenly found themselves back where the helicopters had landed. Soldiers and staff scattered away from them, yelling, and then looked back in awe.

“... fast?“, she finished.

“What... what the hell was that?“, the General stammered, and Tammy looked over to see him bug-eyed, ashen faced, and shaken.

“Tesseract”, Eddie quipped, “You get used to it. Where’s your tent?”

The General swallowed again and tried to recompose himself, “It… it’s that way, and... and your friends are over in Med. It should be over there.” He pointed out the different locations, and Tammy and Jacob headed towards medical while Eddie and Elena followed the General towards his tent.

Fifty three miles above Valley Falls and travelling at just over thirty one hundred kilometers per hour, Jessica took a moment to check in with her internal copilot.

How are we doing Sheng?

Our speed will be insufficient for atmospheric cavitation momentarily Miss Jessica. The vacuum bubble around us will collapse, causing significant turbulence. However, the atmosphere is cold enough at this altitude that venting it through your torso microturbines should significantly retard generator activity. Once we exit the atmosphere the temperatures of orbital space should render them dormant.

Awesome, how long til we reach the satellite?

Approximately eleven minutes, thirty-two seconds.

What? The launch trajectory should have gotten us there in seventeen minutes’ tops. We should almost be there!

Yes, but I believe we have been detected. Whoever is controlling the satellite is attempting to escape through a combination of evasive maneuvers and climbing to a higher orbit.

Shit… Can they get up enough speed to escape before we catch them?

No Miss Jessica. We shall overtake them without issue.

Good... Silk and sword?

All weapons systems are fully operational, armed, and ready.

Sweet.

Miss Jessica… I have also been monitoring the military’s encrypted communications systems and significant events have occurred on the ground. The satellite’s projectiles were somehow neutralized in transit. There has been no further damage to the facility or additional casualties.

What? What happened? How is that possible?

I’m sorry Miss Jessica, but I do not have that information. There are indications that your uncle was somehow involved, but there are no further details.

Huh... I guess Uncle Jacob went and got help in time or something. That’s awesome.

Yes, it is... awesome. Please prepare for turbulence Miss Jessica, our cavitation bubble is collapsing.