Complete Atopia Chronicles

“Willy, you may want to sit down, there is a downside to what I’m about to tell you.”

I was already lying down. What was wrong with him?

“Your living space is contained within a giant quantum trap. You are the first sentient being to be wholly placed in a superposition state, and right now, you are both alive and dead at the same time. In a moment, when you understand what I’m saying, you will also be the first observer to observe themselves in superposition and so fix your own life or death. Before you fully understand what I’m saying Willy, hurry, and tell us what you are feeling.”

So I was in a quantum trap. I was the cat in the box.

I looked down at my hands and looked inward on myself, looking at myself, looking at myself… and I meowed.

§

I woke up in bed, alone, soaked in sweat with my heart pounding. As the dream faded, I remembered what had happened. Brigitte and I had split up, and Wally was gone now too, but I was still here, which meant that somebody, somewhere out there, was taking care of me.

I was still alive.

Greed had brought me to this place, and they were probably going to put me in jail for it, but I had to do something.

12

Identity: Nancy Killiam

I COULDN’T BELIEVE the big day had actually arrived, the release of Infinixx to the world.

Although our product worked in the cloud, so to speak, it still needed physical infrastructure on the ground in the form of three dedicated consciousness processing centers. These massive computing installations, all tied together on dedicated communication links, were designed to handle local processing to reduce sensory latencies.

Each hub, for lack of a better description, was like a huge blank mind, and had to be booted up in sequence to maintain a coherent lock between them. Each required a large local power source to drive it, and we’d decided to make an event out of throwing the switches to power them up.

At the same time as launching the Infinixx product, we were simultaneously floating the newly minted Infinixx stock onto the world markets as the Indian, Chinese and Atopian processing centers came online.

The Solomon House Ballroom was packed to the rafters. I’d asked each of our Board and senior executives to be there in person for the launch, and I walked up and down in front of the head table, set up above the floor, shaking each person’s hand in turn and thanking them for their hard work and support.

“Excited, Brian?” I asked my CTO.

I wrung my hands together nervously. In the ceremonial opening, I was going to throw the switch to get everything started. Its power system was routed up here, the junction box set against a wall behind the elevated stage we were sitting at, just above and behind my chair.  I’d decided I would bestow the honor of throwing the switch onto either Jimmy or Aunt Patricia. They were sitting up on the stage with me, and I would spring this last minute decision to inject a little surprise and emotion into the event.

“Okay everyone!” announced Kesselring, gracing us with his primary, shouting out at the packed crowd from the podium. Kesselring had gotten on board with the launch in a big way once we’d made the decision. He had a way of stealing the show, but I didn’t mind.

“Okay everyone, quiet down!” he thundered out with a smile.

The huge ballroom was filled to capacity, with people milling about, glasses and table wear clinking amid a beehive of buzzing background conversation.  Everyone began settling down and looked towards us.

“Very good!” continued Kesselring as the noise subsided. “We are now bringing in the Indian and Chinese contingents. I would like a hearty Atopian round of applause to welcome them!”

The crowded room erupted in applause as the Chinese and Indian delegations materialized to the left and right of us. It was an incredible photo opportunity with the Chinese and Indian banners appearing on each side of the Atopian flag.

Protocol for the event dictated that the Chinese and Indian head officials would come to the center table to shake my hand at exactly the same time, and this came off perfectly without a hitch, despite my nervousness. In a splinter I was watching the pre–market analysis of the Infinixx stock as the broadcast of the event caught the world, and I could see the anticipated stock price climbing fast on Phuture News.

My heart was in my throat. I was in the dead center of attention and I could feel the gravity and historical importance of the moment pressing down upon me as we got up from our chairs at the banquet table to approach the switch. I had Jimmy to one side of me and Patricia to the other, with the rest of the Board and executive surrounding us. As we stepped to the back wall, I stared at the big green switch.

“It looks like something borrowed from a Russian hydroelectric dam,” I joked with Patricia under my breath.  She smiled, and I beamed out at to the assembled crowd.