Eric and the Quantum Dragon

Archimedes Tower, Pan City

Saturday December 22nd, V26 (2046)

“Do they turn off all the rockets and lasers when you are flying around it?” Sarah asked Miss Abrams. The teacher and pupil were standing with all of their friends on a platform that jutted out near the broad base of the Archimedes Tower. It rose above them in a soaring spire a full kilometre into the cloudy sky, various ledges, landing platforms and balconies marring the graceful curves of the main tower.

“I guess so” the teacher replied, shading her eyes as she looked up the length of the massive structure. The early afternoon sun that shone through the clouds made the Tower gleam like a giant metal spike aimed at the sky. “The races are all held around the lower perimeter so we never go more than three hundred meters above ground level. Maybe they don’t track flying objects that close to the ground?”

“They track all flying objects around the Tower” Eric advised them solemnly. ”Even something as small as a bird could be a disguised drone, so Archimedes monitors everything around his home”

“Wow, that must take some processing power!” Achmed enthused. “How many of his primary processors are used to keep an eye on air traffic?”

“That is restricted information, Mr Leroi” a new voice answered and the students and teacher all glanced down from the sky to see Jericho-Two had arrived. As always he was wearing a smartly tailored dark grey suit with dark glasses covering his eyes. “The Archimedes Network uses a number of subsidiary processors of conventional design to augment the Quantum processors. It operates more like an overseer on the slower units so the main network is used for processes needing instantaneous transaction speeds”

Miss Abrams walked over to the Avatar, forestalling any further conversations about air traffic control or Quantum Processors in general by giving him a chaste peck on the cheek.

“Thanks for coming, Jericho” she said happily. “I was beginning to think you weren’t going to make it in time”

“I promised I would be here” Jericho responded evenly. “Besides, I can handle most of my business via the Quantum Network while I am accompanying you. It does not tax my capabilities to conduct small talk in the real world while I monitor my current projects around the City”

“You are such a smooth operator, Mr Jericho” Sarah laughed. “I can see where Eric gets his charm from!”

Eric turned and looked at the wicked grin on Sarah’s face.

“I think one of us was just insulted, Brother” the boy told his older sibling. Everyone was laughing, even Miss Abrams as she sidled up to the blonde headed girl.

“Very funny, Sarah. That is another day of Detention when school starts”

“Aw, Miss!” Sarah wailed.

=====

The group watched the early races by the lower Grade Levitators, enjoying the spectacle of the tightly suited men and women as they flew past at speeds close to one hundred kilometres per hour. Far below they could see the lower levels of the Tower were packed with spectators, all eagerly watching the races over their heads.

“The sport is one of the few where men and women race against each other” Miss Abrams explained. “Our Ability is not affected by size or body strength and the best speed racers are females. The lighter bodies and smaller size makes us more aerodynamic so that gives us the edge against males of the same Grade”

Another group of racers rocketed past, a green and gold suited woman in the lead as she headed to the finish line.

“That’s Cath Fremantle, top Grade Two Levitator from the Australian team” Miss Abrams told them, raising her voice over the noise of the cheering crowds below. “I raced against her once in an exhibition match in Brisbane. I only beat her because I was still rated as a Grade Two when I was probably meant to be classed as a Three”

“Why is she still racing in the Grade Two’s?” Carmody asked, leaning perilously far out over the railing to get a good view. Angelina had her hand locked into her friend’s waistband just to make sure she did not go over the edge, with Hammerton the butler holding on to Angelina’s other hand as a precaution.

“Sometimes our Abilities reach a maximum, no matter how much we train” the teacher said sadly. “I have been a Grade Three for four years now and I don’t think I am going to get any higher”

“I think you are still pretty cool, Teach” Sarah declared. “We’ll have to organise a race one day between you and Stanley, see who’s fastest!”

“How will that work?” piped up Fiona, a silent observer until now. “We won’t be able to see if Stanley is ahead or behind of So-So. How will we even know if he is in the race?”

Achmed spoke up, eyes bright with excitement.

“Actually, I have been thinking about this for a while” he enthused. “Stanley messes up devices that try to observe him, like cameras and other sensors. But Sarah’s headset still works when she is riding him!”

“Yeah, so how does that help?” Sarah asked in puzzlement.

“It’s obvious! We put a GPS tracker on his harness. The signals should be unaffected by his distortion field or whatever it is, so we can track his location using a standard app on our phones”

Eric and Jericho-Two both looked at Achmed with something approaching awe.

“That’s brilliant, Achmed!” Eric nearly shouted. “With something like that we will be able to tell where he is even if Sarah or Carmody aren’t available”

Sarah looked at them all and frowned.

“Great!” she muttered aloud. “You guys keep trying to make me useless!” With that she stormed off into the crowd, pushing her way sulkily between the cheering people.

“Um, Eric, why don’t you go make sure she is Okay” suggested Lilly. The boy nodded in agreement and followed his friend, calling out for her to slow down and wait for him.

In the awkward silence that followed, Fiona addressed her friend Sofia.

“So-So, your race is in half an hour. We’ll need plenty of time to squeeze you into that flight suit”

Miss Abrams gave her room-mate and friend a withering glare.

“One more crack like that and you’ll be sleeping on the streets, Fi-Fi” she warned her then stormed off towards the changing rooms.

“You’d better go with her, Fiona” Carmody told the ex-Guard. “She’ll need help with those zippers!”

From the distance they heard Miss Abrams shout aloud.

“I heard that Brentwood! Detention for you as well!”

=====

Sofia was feeling nervous as she took her place on the starting grid, perched five meters in the air on a long platform built especially for this event. Arrayed to either side of her were a dozen of the top Grade Three Levitators from around the world, all here to compete for the prestigious Pan City Sky Masters Cup.

In the past she had only ever placed third at best and was only eligible to race today as a number of competitors were stuck in the Euro-Bloc conflict. She felt confident though, as despite the good natured jibes of Fiona she had actually been working out a lot more than she had in the old days.

Fiona set a demanding pace on their morning runs and was teaching her all sorts of advanced training techniques that kept the Guard clones in top shape. Even Jericho-Two had admitted to being impressed by how good she looked in her blue and red racing suit. Sofia smiled a little to herself as she remembered how stunned Achmed had been at the sight of his English teacher in her skin tight body suit. Which had earned him an angry thump from Lilly when she noticed what he was looking at.

“Still got it, Sofia” she grinned to herself and finished her warm up routine on the platform. Her fellow competitors did the same and she looked them over. To her left was the top contender, Samantha Holden from the Northern Bloc. She was easily six feet tall, tanned and toned like a Port August surfer with bleached blonde hair cropped close to her skull like a Jill in the Guard. Rumour had it she was an Agent for the Bureau of Foreign Affairs, which could be true. Sofia had to admit she had ended up in a similar situation with the AURA Project.

Another hot favourite was Louise Parks from the Re-United Kingdom, her suit boldly proclaiming her nationality with a big RUK flag emblazoned across her chest. She was a dark skinned beauty, only just over five and a half feet tall with hair bound into tight corn-rows and finished with beads. Sofia wondered how she coped with them banging off the side of her head as she raced but guessed she had to be used to it.

That made her think about her own long hair. In most races they wore streamlined helmets and hers was designed to keep the long braided locks out of the way. This race was “au naturel” as they said, meaning the racers were allowed their body-hugging flight suits and Smart Goggles only. So Fiona had bound hers into a pair of tight buns on either side of her head. It was not very aerodynamic but should stop her hair whipping about as she raced!

The Race Controller called the racers to attention and the holographic starting barrier was projected in front of them all. Sofia knelt into the classic sprinters starting pose, used by most Levitators to hurl themselves into the air when the starting pistol fired. She spared a sidelong glance to the “Pits” where each contestant had an assistant watching. Fiona saw her look and gave her a small smile with a big thumbs up.

“Show them what Pan City girls can do!” she heard her shout and felt a rush of affection for her room-mate.

“Thanks, Fi-Fi” she whispered to herself then looked forwards as the automated countdown ran down to zero.

With a sharp crack and puff of smoke the starter pistol signalled the race was underway! Sofia pushed a surge of power into her Ability and launched herself using her well toned legs into the air. She passed the holo-barrier a fraction of a second behind Parks and ahead of Holden, getting a green signal on her Smart Goggles to indicate she had not broken early.

Tucking her arms to her sides and straightening her legs she shot like an arrow into the course. The whole route followed the outer circumference of the Archimedes Tower, a circuit just over six kilometres long. Her Smart Goggles projected the allowed course over the view ahead, showing her the rectangular box shape all the racers had to keep within. The trick was to get as close to the inner edge of the big donut shaped course without flying outside of it. Sofia banked into the centre, the other Levitators following as they all aimed to race the shortest distance possible around the Tower.

Holden was already pulling ahead of her, arcing around the bend like a human sized bullet. Her suit was blazoned in white stars over a blue background, making her easy to spot. Sofia was accelerating smoothly up to her top speed, the goggles already marking her velocity at ninety klicks an hour. It was a long race in terms of distance, but the speeds of the racers meant it would be finished in minutes.

Sofia saw Parks slowly overtaking her from below, skimming close to the invisible boundaries of the allowed course. A racer could “brush” the unseen borders but each infraction gave a two second penalty on the final time. Sofia had seen more than one overly keen Levitator win the race only to have it lost when the time penalties were included.

She risked a quick glance backwards, the airstream catching at her coiled hair as she did so. Parks, Holden and herself had a clear twenty meter lead on the following racers yet she knew that could vanish in seconds. Focussing intently she drew more power into herself, channelling it into her forward speed yet also pushing some ahead of her as an air barrier.

Most people didn’t know it but not all of the power used by Levitators was to move themselves up, down or sideways. When trying to fly at high speed, they had to use some of their power and mental focus to streamline themselves, forming a bullet shaped barrier of air ahead of them like the nose cone of a fighter jet.

If they only pushed themselves forward, the air could be as hard and unyielding as a brick wall. You had to be flying pretty fast to encounter that but making yourself as sleek in the air as possible meant you needed less propelling force to reach the same speed.

Like the best racers, Sofia knew how to balance her need for an air barrier against the need for pure speed. Her air barrier was projecting two meters in front of her, giving the Levitator a distinct advantage as she sliced like a knife through the sky.

Her Smart Goggles pinged a proximity alert just before one of the other racers, an Indonesian guy named Bhartok, came too close to her with his air barrier. It pushed into her left side and before she could compensate she skimmed the course edge. Her goggles flashed red as she registered a two second penalty.

Sofia swore in a manner most unbecoming of a lady and a school teacher and angled herself upwards to avoid the man. It was hard to tell if the sideswipe had been accidental or deliberate but there was no denying he had taken her best position at the edge of the course.

More racers were catching up now, their speeds peaking at just over one hundred and ten klicks an hour. They had been in the air for about two minutes so everyone had accelerated to their top racing speeds. Now it was a matter of jockeying for the best positions and refining their air barriers to minimise wind resistance.

She had expected to feel fatigued by now, the strain of focussing her Ability to such a high level had always hit her hard in the second half of a race. However today she was flying, both literally and figuratively. Even with the bump from Bhartok, her lead was increasing again. Ahead was Holden with Parks right on her tail and a scant ten meters back was Sofia!

It felt like something fundamental had changed inside of her she realised. Maybe the encounter with the Electric Dragon had unlocked some new potential. Sofia didn’t know for sure, but she drew in more power and saw her speed climb past one hundred and twenty. It was as easy as breathing and she moved into the centre of the track to give her space to overtake the leaders.

Her goggles registered a new personal best speed of one hundred and forty as she passed her surprised fellow racers, leaving Parks and Holden dumbfounded as she left them behind. She had come almost completely around the Tower circuit and the finish line was in her sights when she saw it.

A young child, little more than an infant, falling from its mother’s arms from one of the high viewing platforms. Her Smart Goggles detected the descending object as a potential hazard to her flight path but she knew what it was. Without a moment’s hesitation she accelerated smoothly to one hundred and fifty and breached the course barrier. Her goggles flashed a warning then alerted her to an automatic disqualification. She ignored the message and focussed her attention on the falling child.

She was barely fifty meters away when she dispersed her air barrier, the sudden wall of air dropping her speed as she slammed into it painfully. Through tear filled eyes she saw the wailing child just ahead of her and she reached out her arms.

With a jarring impact the child hit her arms and she folded herself protectively around the precious form. Her speed dropped away and she was left hovering in the air, lifting her eyes to see the rest of the racers pass through the holo-screen gates. Parks had managed to beat Holden by a bare half second margin.

The child was crying as she held it close, her heart beating wildly in her chest. Sofia noticed then something quite odd, unlike any other race she had ever competed in. None of the remote camera drones were aiming at the race winners. They were all pointed at her and the struggling little boy she had saved.

Thousands of faces were turned towards her and the big holo-screens set up around the track displayed only live images of her or repeats of her incredible catch. A race official, a Grade Two Levitator she knew from her club racing days, flew over and was speaking to her but she could not hear a word over the deafening roars and cheers coming from all directions.

In the end he just pointed upwards and she followed his arm to see the pale face of the boy’s mother, looking down from the viewing balcony. With a nod to the official she lifted herself to the distraught woman and landed beside her. The crowd parted to give her room and once she gently touched down she passed the child to his parent.

“You are an Angel!” the woman sobbed and engulfed her child in her arms while friends and family mobbed them both. It took an Emergency Services team five minutes to push their way through and begin checking the boy and Sofia over.

Eventually a degree of calm was restored and Sofia was able to levitate away, after promising to meet the child’s parents later in private. She drifted down to the Pits area, followed at a discrete distance by the ever present camera drones. Fiona was waiting there, as patient as ever, with some race officials close by.

“That was amazing, So-So” Fiona greeted her and swept the suddenly exhausted Levitator into a bone crushing hug. “I can’t believe you caught that small child mid-air!”

Once she was released, Sofia looked at the two officials, a man and woman from the Levitation Racing Society she did not recognise. They were probably from outside the Zone and when they spoke their accents confirmed her suspicion.

“It was indeed an incredible race and an unexpected finish” said the man, his words tinged with a Northern Bloc drawl. “However, I must ask you to accompany us to a private testing room”

“What for?” demanded Fiona, her face creasing into a terrifying scowl.

“They think I cheated somehow” Sofia answered. “My speed was far too high for a Grade Three”

“I am afraid there has been an allegation of foul play by one of the racers” the woman said in the cultured tones of an Oxford racer. “As much as it pains us to ask this of you after such a heroic act, we need to take some blood samples”

“I understand” Sofia responded and let them lead her away through the crowd to the interior offices of the Tower. Fiona collected their gear bags and followed, pushing her way past the Race Security guards as if they were not there.

Behind them, the screens were still showing the rescue of the child, with only one smaller screen displaying the medal presentations to the race winners. A banner under one image of Sofia was already calling her the Angel of Pan City and other news feeds were taking up the same name.