Read the Prologue

Walls

The Nexus Chronicles: Book One

Beverly L. Anderson
J. Foster

Prologue

Finley MacMillan

Finley MacMillan stood in front of his fellow scientists. His heart beat a steady drumbeat in his ears because his greatest fears were coming true. In his arms, he held a stack of file folders with all the research and proof. Years of study and discovery lay in the paper files. They were also on a drive secreted back at his home in Phoenix. But all the proof and they believed none of it.

“You cannot be serious, Dr. MacMillan. There is no choice but to bring the QEBS online and you know it. The energy crisis is critical. We need sustainable energy production.” Dr. Farnsworth led the team on the Quantum Energy Bridge Stabilizer project.

Looking around the conference room, Finley found not one ally among them. No one, including his close friend Dr. James Tulle, had supported what he told them. He sighed, shaking his head.

“Scale back the large corporations and artificial intelligence grids. They are the largest consumers of our power worldwide. They are the reason that solar, wind, and water energy cannot keep up. Put renewed effort into nuclear power. It is feasible, it just needs more time to develop.”

The men and women at the table murmured and shook their heads.

“We cannot go backward,” Dr. Anastasia Johnson said, giving him a disgusted look. “Our technology has surpassed all expectations. We simply need to bring the QEBS online to tap into quantum energy. It will be a reliable and continual power source.”

“You’re not seeing the big picture! If you pierce the quantum barrier, you’re going to open this Nexus!”

“Nexus,” Eric Samson snorted. “You and your paranoia. Are you sure you don’t need your mental health checked, Dr. MacMillan? This delusion of yours is bordering on insanity. Those records are mere myth and legend. None of those cultures could have known about quantum space. They did not know about science as we do today. You’re talking about people who still sacrificed animals to invisible deities. How could they have possibly known anything about the advancements we have today?”

“They knew more then than we do now!” he exclaimed loudly. “They knew what the Nexus was: an intersection of four different planes or realms of existence with Earth in the middle. There is an artifact to open the Nexus, a key spread over the world in pieces, and without it you’re going to—”

“Enough.” Dr. Farnsworth said, slamming both hands on the table and standing up. “This is enough, Finley! I understand that you are very knowledgeable in archeology and ancient studies. You are a no doubt genius. And yes, you have a double doctorate in ancient civilizations and physics. But this?” He shook his head. “This is ridiculous. You’re off the team. Leave on your own, or you will be escorted out by security.”

Finley blinked in confusion at Farnsworth. “You can’t be serious, Thomas. We’ve known each other since graduate school. You know I wouldn’t suggest this unless I truly believed what I’m saying.”

Farnsworth sighed. “I fully believe that you do believe it, and that’s the issue. You feel like this will fail and you will find any excuse to stop bringing it online.” He paused, shaking his head. “I hate to say it, Finley, but you’re incorrect. And I know that’s a first for you. You’re not used to being wrong. We are going to bring the QEBS online tomorrow morning. You will go home to your family, and go on with your life, perhaps finding a job in a museum or some other place. Where? I don’t care. You will not be involved. Now, leave peacefully.”

Finley could not do that, and less than thirty minutes later, security shoved him out the gate that led into the facility. They locked it back behind him. He turned and scanned his badge that normally opened it, and he found they had already disabled it.

He saw his files had scattered, so he set about picking them up. Luckily, scattering them had not damaged them. The wind was not blowing hard today, and he picked each one up, carefully replacing it in the place it belonged. He slowly walked to his car, trying to think of anything that he could do to stop the QEBS from coming online. He had no idea what it would do exactly, but he knew it was dangerous. The information he had gathered from several civilizations, which he had pieced together over the last five years, proved that this was dangerous.

He made his way home, sitting in the car for a while. Then he went inside, ignoring his wife, Paisley, and his two children, Alastair and Archie. Alastair followed anyway, as usual. At ten, he wanted to be like his father, and though it was flattering, that was a dangerous thing.

Finley sat down at his desk, putting the files down.

“What did they say?” Alastair asked, his black hair in waves around his face constantly a mess.

Finley shook his head. “They won’t stop.”

“What now?” his son asked.

“I do what I have to do tomorrow. Son, I want to tell you a few things, before what I’m going to do may get me killed.”

Deep into the night, Finley talked to his son, explaining everything in more detail than he ever had before. He showed him the research, told him how the pieces connected, everything he’d never said to him before. By the time the sun peeked over the horizon, Alastair lay passed out in the big armchair that sat in front of his desk.

Finley stood up, nodding to himself in an attempt to assure himself of what he would do. He straightened up the files, put away the parchments, and locked everything away. Grabbing the key, an extremely old-fashioned thing since most locks were electronic now, he put it on a wax cord. He went over to Alastair and carefully wrapped the cord around his neck, tucking the key under his shirt. He knew that Alastair wouldn’t understand what the key was for yet, but he could only hope that one day he would find out. Leaning over, he kissed the boy on the forehead.

“I love you and your brother more than the whole world,” he whispered, knowing no one would hear him.

His wife still slept, and so did Archie. He would not bother them, mostly because both of them considered his plight to be a fool’s errand based on nonsense. Archie, at fifteen, already showed incredible aptitude toward physics, and studied on his own when he had a chance. Finley swallowed a lump in his throat as he went out into the garage. Here, another cabinet sat. This one, with an electronic lock.

He pressed his thumb to the reader, and it beeped and turned green, the heavy-duty lock clicking as it pulled back. He opened it and began taking out things he had hoped never to use. Finley had prepared for this day for a long time. All the items in the cabinet were things to help him get into the QEBS facility. He would get in and deactivate the thing for himself if no one would listen.

***

Finley knew the place extremely well, and he knew when the cameras swept and in what direction they faced. He made his way to the back entrance and used the jack box he’d acquired to get the lock to think authorized personnel were entering. A jack box was a hacker invention, one most people only knew about when they had been in the hacker world. He hadn’t been a hacker, but his childhood best friend had, and before he died, he’d sent Finley a box of his things. The jack box was one of the things in there.

A jack box didn’t look like much at first. A square of five inches on each side with a cable attached to one corner. It had two methods of connection: direct with the cable or through wireless technology that drilled a hole through the network’s protections to connect. The device did everything automatically, and Finley’s friend Jason had sent him the instructions along with the item.

After the gate opened, he tucked the jack box in his pocket. Carrying one was dangerous, since getting caught with one came with a stiff prison sentence. However, Finley didn’t think he’d get out of the situation without going to jail. What he was about to do would put him there easily because the QEBS was a government funded project.

Using the jack box, he quickly and easily made his way through multiple back entrances. Not everyone knew they had fired him, so he just wore his usual attire and walked as if he were supposed to be there. Thus far, no one had said anything to him; they had just waved and smiled at him with the occasional hi.

The last step was the hardest. He had to get into the lab. Not only was it locked, but two AI-powered guardians sat beside the entrance. They were small, barely two feet tall, and looked like old-style traffic cones in a nostalgic way. However, they had three-sixty vision and could detect something as small as a flea. They were the problem he had to deal with now.

With great care, he reached into the bag and pulled out something very special. He unfolded it and placed it over his head, allowing it to drape over him onto the floor. Completely covered, the Passing Blanket would make him invisible to AI detection. Another gift from his friend, Jason. Of course, none of this would matter if he touched either robot in any way. Then, the alarms would sound, and everything would be over.

The human guard wouldn’t come by for four more minutes, and it was six thirty, so none of the scientists would be there yet. Just as he took a step forward, someone yanked the passing blanket off from behind. He spun around, staring at Farnsworth, who stood there looking smug with two security officers behind him.

“I knew you’d try it,” Farnsworth said.

“You have to stop this,” Finley said. “You don’t understand the forces you’re dealing with!”

“You are a scientist. You should already know that the only forces we are dealing with are the ones proven to exist.”

Finley growled under his breath. “It wasn’t that long ago that quantum physics was thought to be laughable,” he said, narrowing his eyes at Farnsworth. “Until something is understood, it appears false or magical. When examined, the truth is revealed.”

Farnsworth waved his hand in dismissal. He turned to the security men. “Bring him.”

Moments later, Finley sat handcuffed in a chair near where Farnsworth would activate the QEBS.

“You will watch my success,” Farnsworth said as he began warming up the QEBS before activation.

Finley knew he would not convince this man of the truth. He knew the truth, and no one listened to him. The research existed. He had gathered it all, working tirelessly to find all the threads that wove the intricate tapestry of the Nexus. He’d found clues in five different cultures, five peoples who knew more than Farnsworth did.

“You need to listen to me.” Finley didn’t beg. He didn’t ask. It was a simple statement.

The clock turned over to eight. The other scientists had filtered in and taken positions around the room at their stations.

“Coming online!”

“Quantum states initialized.”

“Energy buffers activated.”

“Safeguards one through six in place.”

“We are go!”

“Wait, something’s wrong…”

“Dr. Farnsworth, it’s destabilizing!”

“Shut it down!”

“We can’t! We’ve tried! The safeguards are malfunctioning!”

“All of them? There are six layers!”

“All of them.”

Finley closed his eyes, exhaling all his breath as the frantic scientists worked to shut it down. He knew they couldn’t do it. This was it. He opened his eyes. He knew everything about why this shouldn’t be done. What he didn’t know was what would happen after the QEBS came online. He had no idea what malfunctioning would look like. It could be all for nothing, and it would simply not work. Or it could be catastrophic and bring about the end of the world. There was no proof about what this would do, as no one had ever speculated that someone would try something like this.

All around the room, the scientists tried everything. Nothing worked. The machine emitted a high-pitched hum that grew louder and louder. Finley watched intently as above the QEBS, it looked like the very air had solidified and a rip began to form in it. Through it, Finley saw unbelievable things. He saw lightning, living shadows, misty dream-like figures, walking flowers, and more. The hum grew to the point everyone crouched and put their hands over their ears. Finley, handcuffed, could not, and he could feel what he assumed was blood beginning to drip from his ears. He was fixated, though on the images he saw as they rapidly intensified and replayed.

Soon, the world went entirely quiet. For a second, Finley thought his eardrums must have ruptured, but he saw the scientists standing slowly, staring at the tear in the area above the machine. It writhed and moved, never stopping. As if it were alive, Finley thought.

“Is it over?” Farnsworth’s shaky voice asked.

Finley shook his head. “No, it’s just beginning.”

In his head, he heard something, and he thought it had to be his overactive imagination about the situation.

You will help fix this, Finley.

Then, everything blew out from the QEBS and the rift over it. For just a moment, Finley saw his son’s face, but older. He wore a brown wide-brimmed hat, and his eyes shown with something akin to purpose. Beside him stood an unbelievable creature, their hands entwined and looking toward five massive towers.

And Finley knew, somehow, it was Alastair who would save the world.

Then it went black.