The Quantum Connection

I took the pain from the continued machine-gun bullets hitting me in the chest. One of the bullets caught me in the head and I saw stars and was nearly knocked unconscious for a second. Mike pulled me through it and kept pushing my stamina, strength, and adrenaline levels through the roof into uncharted territories. I summoned all my speed and forced through the force field at the instant one of the bullets hit the edge of the field region. The field was off for a millisecond—that was more than I needed—and then I was inside it holding the soldier by the throat.

Mike, take control of his mind for me. 

The soldier fought back for a split second and then he went catatonic. I forced him around in front of me and his personal warp field adjusted itself to protect both of us. I had Mike read the fellow's mind and figure out how to drive the warp bubble armor thing.

'Let her up or he dies!' I said.

Lieutenant Ames stopped right in front of me and didn't move a muscle. 'Everybody freeze!' she said.

'Good. Just hold on a minute, please!' I had the nanomachines remove the bodystocking from my face. 'Let her up please. You are going to kill her.'

'No way. You let him go first,' the dark-haired girl yelled back to us.

''Becca, shut up!' Ames said. 'Mr. Montana, is it really you?'

'It's me, Lieutenant Ames. It's me!' I wasn't sure if she was trying to buy time with me or if she was serious so I started scanning the room for ideas. Any idea would be better than what I had at present.

Steven, what's happening? Tatiana pleaded in my head for help.

Try to stay calm, gorgeous. Are you hurt? 

My left femur has been broken twice, but Mikhail has fixed it. I had to have my pain centers shut off. The pain was more than I could take. My chest is flat as a pancake, there is no telling how much hemorrhaging has been caused. Mikhail is working on me. 

Stay alive, honey. I'll get us out of this. Mike, open the bay door! 

Steven, I think I know what you want but that will no longer have the effect you desire. We are not in space any longer. 

Where are we? 

We are inside some sort of Moon base deep under the lunar surface. 

Is there air? 

Yes. 

Okay. Open the doors anyway. It might distract them. Do it fast. Then cut the ship's gravity and make everything fall with the outside gravity. Do it on my signal. First, transfer the warp bubble controls from this guy to me. A belt with warp drive controls on it materialized around my waist. Mike downloaded the instructions into my brain. Suddenly I understood the technology completely for the warp bubble armor. The belt contained a tiny quantum vacuum fluctuation power system that used the Casimir effect to pull energy from the vacuum of spacetime to power a small Clemons-type warp field coil. The warp field generator responded to the energy changes inside the bubble to change its shape. The soldier was also wearing a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) headband that enabled him to command the warp bubble to propel him in whatever direction he wanted to go and at whatever velocity the little warp generator could attain. Of course, Mike could do that so I didn't need the headband. I made certain that Tatiana was given the same information so that there would be no 'learning curve' time for her if and when she needed to drive one of the warp armor belts.

Tatiana, did you get all that? 

Yes, Steven. Do it quickly. Mikhail, is worried that he can't keep up with the damage to me. 

Okay, Tatiana, I'm sorry I let them get you. Be ready, here I come. Do it, Mike! 

The bay doors dissolved instantly and the remains of the Air Force ship fell outward and down, carrying everybody else with it. It was enough of a distraction that I had enough time to throw the soldier out of the warp field and fly at warp velocity to Tatiana. I clanged into the four warp fields that were falling with Tatiana and pushed them out of the way. Grabbing Tatiana and wrapping the field around her I zoomed away at warp so we would be invisible to people outside the bubble. The Phoenix and the Starbuck were inside what appeared to be a huge cylindrical hangar that led upward to the lunar surface. The wall immediately to our right had a giant twenty-meter archway opening into a small town. It opened into a small town—on the Moon!

With Tatiana in hand I fled for the cover of the town, still at warp speed. I stopped on top of a water tower microseconds later.

We sat down on top of the tower and I kept the warp field on and had Mike replicate a warp bubble armor generator for Tatiana. The view from the tower was interesting. There were trees, a lake, and various streets and buildings. There was one gee gravity in the town and the dome overhead looked like hardened lava rock. There were large windows in the dome here and there and it was obvious from the view that we were underground and in a modified gravity field.

'How are you?' I rubbed her cheeks as the bodystocking dissolved. Her face was red and blue and bloody. Her nose was broken and her lips were busted. But that changed rapidly.

'There is a lot of internal damage.'

'Yeah, I tuned into Mikhail. He says he needs about thirty more seconds with you.' Her chest heaved and her abdomen filled out to normal proportions. Her, uh, features took their more rosy, vivacious, and perky appearance. The sparkle in her hazel eyes grew brighter.

'Unh!' She winced as Mikhail turned her pain centers back over to her. 'Oww.' She stretched her limbs and digits and then arched her back. 'I owe that bitch an ass whuppin'!' She said as she stood up.

'That's a lot better.' I laughed.