Zero-Point

by T J Trapp

  “Greetings, Clutchman” she said, in the way a mother would.

  The man looked at her and then quickly bowed his head. “Mother, I was not expecting a mother to visit.”

  Erin’s rod buzzed against her chest as she sought the proper response. “Expecting or not – I expect better than that. I am here. Now. Show me to my quarters. I am tired. Send the pleasure drones to amuse me also.”

  “I am sorry Mother,” the man stammered, “but we do not have any quarters, nor do we have any drones that you require. No service drones – or pleasure drones.”

  “What do you mean?” Erin demanded, angrily.

  “Mother, this facility is still under construction. It will be operational, in time to be put in service, but right now only our portal is operational.”

  “Then you can port me to a decent place?” Erin asked haughtily.

  “No, Mother. I am sorry, we cannot. We can only port when a portal drone is here, and we do not expect another portal drone for two more days. I am here with a worker drone to tend some newly harvested animals until the portal drone comes to take them away.’

  “Filthy orbs! Here? With me?”

  “They are going to be used for feeders,” the man said reassuringly, “so we don’t need any domesticating facilities and they won’t be here long enough to offend your senses.”

  The clutchman looked at Daniel closely. “Mother, you have orbs with you – and they are not bonded. That is not right.” He started to draw a weapon from his side.

  Alec focused and the clutchman grabbed for his throat. He collapsed onto the ground in front of them, bleeding from a gaping hole in his chest. Erin stepped over him and into the building, followed by Alec. Daniel gingerly walked around the man; Veranzo prodded the body with his foot – the fallen man made no motion. Veranzo followed Erin into the building.

  A man wearing loose-fitting white clothing and a metal band around his neck came up to them and bowed his head. Erin spoke to him in Elvish.

  “Mother, we were not expecting you. How can we help you?”

  “I have just arrived. Tell me – what is here?”

  “Mother, we are still under construction. The construction team will come next week to complete the main receiving hall. The Mother’s Quarters will be finished then. I am sorry to inform you that they are not yet ready for your arrival.” He cringed, waiting for chastisement. When it did not come, he continued, “The holding pens are complete, and we have been collecting the harvested feeders in it for a week.”

  “How many of the new harvest do you have here?”

  “Mother, we have almost twenty newly-harvested. Because they will be used as feeders for the herd animals, they do not require training or food.”

  “Show them to me.”

  “Yes, Mother.”

  The drone led them to a large room with a central open area, and a pen running along one side. The pen reeked with the nostril-numbing smell of unwashed human bodies and human waste. Many people were packed into the pen: naked, dirty, wearing only a metal band around their necks. They were kneeling quietly in rows.

  “Becky,” Daniel said, his voice breaking; a woman turned her head to look at him, and then writhed in extreme agony.

  Daniel started to say something more, when Erin interrupted. “Daniel, let me handle this – unless you want to continue to torment her.”

  Erin turned to the drone. “Drone – open the pen and let the orbs come out. Then bring me a key to the neckbands.” The drone scurried to comply with the mother.

  The captive people lined up in front of her. One by one, Alec removed their neckbands. They stood there, uncertain as to what to do, reluctant to do anything that might cause more pain.

  Erin clapped her hands and the naked captives looked at her. “You are now free of the dreaded band that causes pain. We will help you leave here, but after that you are on your own.”

  Daniel gave his sister a big hug. “Becky, I will take you home to Mom." She didn’t answer, but hung her head, ashamed of being naked, ashamed of being a street person, ashamed of being afraid of pain.

  “Drone – where are these peoples’ clothing? Do you have it?” Erin said.

  “No Mother, I do not. We burn all of the extra foliage that the new harvest brings. We have no use for any of it.”

  The crowd of naked people began to mill about. One man in particular seemed to be getting angrier and angrier, yelling and pointing at the drone.

  “This man – this gook and his friend – they battered us. The other guy – he abused some of us people when we were caged up! I call that ‘rape’! We live here, and they are foreigners – they have no right to be here!” He closed his fists and started to step towards the drone.

  Erin stepped in the way. “This man is only doing what he has been trained to do. He has no choice.”

  The angry man looked at the drone. “Nobody should treat people like you did! You and your buddy!” His voice raised to a high-pitched scream. “You are not fit to live here! Or live anywhere! I’m gonna kill you! Right now!” A man standing near him grabbed him as he lunged at the drone. “I can’t reach you,” the angry man said, as a few others worked to restrain him. “Just … just ... just go kill yourself! Die!”

  The drone looked wide-eyed at Erin, who was still looking at the red-faced screaming man. The drone mistook Erin’s silence as agreement.

  “As you direct,” the drone said obediently, and dropped to the floor with a loud thud.

  ✽✽✽

  “I suggest that you get these people out of here,” Erin said to Veranzo. “Daniel can take his sister home and you can take the rest of them wherever your protective services command center is. Alec and I are going to stay here for a little while and make sure this place is not used again.”

  After everyone else left, Erin looked down at the dead drone. “I feel sorry for him,” she said softly. “He was just doing what he was told to do. But maybe death was the best thing for him – he would never have been free here, or able to make his own decisions to live his own life.” Alec nodded.

  “Great Wizard, I do not want a place like this close to our undertakings. Can you do something to make it unusable?”

  Alec focused. The concrete in a small area started to change to a bubbling, frothing mass of glowing rock. As more of the concrete transformed to hot glowing lava, the walls of the building ignited, and the place turned into an inferno. The two of them walked out the bay door and watched from the shadows as distant sirens pierced the night, the light of the flames flickering across their faces.

  Erin took Alec’s hand. “Take me home, Great Wizard. Take me back to our world. This den of the vipers will never be used again, and for that I am glad. But I do not have a good feeling about what the vipers intend to do here on your planet.” She sighed. “The sooner we can go home to our children, the happier I will be.”

  35 – Portal Manufacture

  When they arrived at the shop on Monday morning, a large box had been delivered and was blocking the doorway to the receiving dock.

  “The new toy you talked about?” Erin asked Alec.

  “Yes,” he said, grinning. “This should let us have more options. Our shop here has access to people and markets, but it is also too close to the community protection police and the elf servitude place. We need more flexibility – and what’s in the box will help us to get our ranch.”

  “A ranch is stuffed in the box.” Erin sniffed. “You are talking in your wizard riddles.”

  Alec looked at her. “No, the ranch is not in the box,” he said patiently. “But what’s in the box will let us make portals, with the help of our cells. Then we can use both this location and our ranch.”

  Erin gave him a puzzled look. “How will our cells help us?”

  “Remember back home, how I went through page after page of parchment, putting runes on them to make calculations about portals. Even with that, I had to estimate most of the parameters. When I was working at the Institute
, before I met you, I used to have a machine called a ‘computer’ to make those kinds of calculations. After we got here, I thought I needed a computer to help me do calculations. But I learned that no one does it that way anymore. They just use their cells.

  “With my cell, I can access supercomputers and quantum computers around the world. I know the theory of how to make portals and I can use those computers to perform the calculations to design the portal.”

  Erin gave him another puzzled look.

  “Think of it this way,” Alec said, launching into ‘professor’ mode. “I know the right questions to ask. You know how our cells can mentally communicate with other things? Well, my cell can communicate with distant things – big computers – that can answer my questions. Then I can use the answers to do two things: first, build us portals, and then, build us a transporter that will take us home.”

  Erin nodded. “I always thought that the cell had more capabilities than you have been using. Good for it. But – what about that big box? What’s in it that will help us?”

  “The box contains a three-dimensional printer,” Alec said gleefully. “I will use it to make some of the complex parts for the portals that are difficult for me to visualize. I don’t even have to make them out of the right material, as long as I get the density correct. Then I will use dark energy – and your ability to sense rightness – to change the materials so that each part does exactly what I want.

  “The portals were difficult to make at home, because it was hard for me to visualize the right materials and to shape them in the proper configuration. Here, all the materials are available. Sylvia and her chemists can make any material I want, and I can sense its dark energy signature. Daniel can get his crew to form or cut any metal components to shape. I should be able to make a portal without too many problems.

  “I need to get with our staff here and make some reassignments – we need to spread out the workload so that I don’t have to help with our client deliverables. That will free up my time so I can focus on the portals.”

  “Don’t forget, Great Wizard,” Erin said. “You must also make rings for my Queen’s Wood guard force.”

  “Yes,” said Alec, trying to sound like he had not forgotten. “That, too. I need to make rings for your defenders before I get to deeply involved in the transporter.”

  “Don’t put it off for too long,” Erin said. “I fear we may need them sooner rather than later.”

  Erin’s rod vibrated slightly as she thought about the elves. Memories of living a life of luxury with drones to take care of her every need flowed into her mind. Those memories were punctuated by a recollection of her dragon feeding on newly-captured orbs after a battle. She felt no remorse in the memory regarding feeding orbs to the dragon, only pleasure in the victory. Then her mind came back to the present, and she shuddered; the memories of her recent torment and torture by the elves filled her mind.

  “Erin?” Alec asked, aware that she was shaking. Alec stopped what he was doing and put his arms around her.

  Erin let her body feel him, and filled her mind with their closeness. An image of the little red stone filled her mind and she felt safe. Alec held her tightly until he felt her body stopped shaking.

  “I would hope that once we get to our ranch, we would not be involved with elves,” he murmured into her hair.

  Erin rubbed her temples with her fingertips. “You dream of things that will not be. I am all right, now, but the memories of my elf ancestors and the reality of our life here are impossible to reconcile.”

  She sat down and watched him as he went back to work with his box. She tried to slow her breathing and sense the world through her ring. Calm. She imagined the little red stone as she sensed. She sensed Alec as he worked to unpack his new device and she felt a peace within her. Somewhere she imagined that she could almost sense her daughter. Little Ari. My little one.

  After a long time, Alec looked up from his work. “Is there anything that I can do to help?” he asked gently.

  Erin smiled back at him. “Yes. Be here and continue to care for me. My Dragon Mother heritage and my elf memories are something that I must learn to reconcile with my present life. I will not be able to hide from them.

  “I sense there are many elves here on your world. They seem to be everywhere. My memories, from my rod, do not show elves aggressively managing wild orb herds, unless they are preparing to do something major. My memories of this much activity occur right before the start of a large cull. What they call a ‘Grand Cull.’” She looked into his eyes. “I fear that we will become involved with the elves, here on your ‘Earth,’ whether we want to or not.”

  ✽✽✽

  Erin had decided that a walk to the donut shop would be good for her and left Alec to his work. He was well into unpacking and setting up the new machine when Frederick and Daniel arrived at work. They stuck their heads into the workshop, curious about the big box and what Alec was up to.

  “Go have a donut,” Alec told them, “but after that I want to talk to you both.”

  The two returned after having a donut. Erin was with them.

  “You scared them both,” she said. “They said that the last time someone said what you said, they were fired.”

  Alec laughed. “I had the opposite in mind. Come in and sit down.”

  The two employees sat down.

  “A&E Enterprises has done well so far,” Alec said. “Now I want to take it to the next level. I want A&E Enterprises to continue selling rare earth components to our clients. We have increased our client base and we are making money. We have enough of a revenue stream to finance the new development work I want to do. To do that, I want to re-organize.”

  Daniel and Frederick exchanges glances, not sure what was coming next.

  “I want to focus my effort on development. Frederick, I want you to become our General Manager. Along with the promotion and new title would be an increase in your salary, of course.”

  Frederick stammered for a few seconds, and then Erin answered for him. “He would love to do it, but is afraid that his good fortune is all a dream.”

  “Frederick, you are going to need a bigger crew. Are there more good people looking for work?”

  “I know several more people who are willing to work hard and are talented.”

  “Well, then, let’s get them on board. Erin is still Chief Executive Officer, so they must meet her approval before they are hired. Then you need to get the equipment to set up more workstations.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Thelander. Thank you both for the opportunity. I know what needs to be done. You turned this business around – from the edge of failure to a commercial success. And I think I know how to make it even bigger and better.”

  “Daniel,” Alec said.

  “What about me?” Daniel asked with uncertainty in his voice. “I would be glad to help Frederick out, if that’s what you want me to do.”

  “No, I’ve got something different in mind for you,” Alec said. “You have shown a rare ability to understand and work with dark energy. I want you to spend most of your time working with me on some new development projects. In order to do that, you need to learn more about dark energy. I am willing to teach you the more involved uses of dark energy, if you want to learn. The use of dark energy is easy to learn, impossible to master, and absolutely deadly if you lose your concentration for an instant. Even a momentary lapse of concentration can result in your death.”

  Daniel nodded, not sure what Alec was asking of him.

  “Do you still want to continue learning more about dark energy?” Alec asked.

  “Absolutely.”

  “Then I will teach you.”

  Alec shook hands with Frederick and Daniel.

  “Congratulations,” Erin said to Frederick as he left the office, all smiles.

  Daniel lingered a moment.

  “One more thing, boss…”

  “What is it?”

  “About my sister …”

&nb
sp; “How is your sister doing?” Erin asked.

  “Not well. She is having a terrible time with withdrawal symptoms.”

  “Drug withdrawal can be very difficult,” Alec said. “Can you get her to a rehab place?”

  “Yes, she is at a rehab clinic, the one she went to last time, but besides the drugs, she seems to be recovering from some kind of torture,” Daniel said, rubbing his jaw. “She keeps mumbling about her neckband, looking for it, and ‘having to obey the master.’” The young man looked at Erin. “Mrs. Thelander, what was that neckband Becky was wearing when we found her? And why was she naked? You talked to the guy there in some foreign language – sort of like the same sing-song language you and the boss talk in sometimes – do you know what is going on?”

  “Yes, I could speak his language,” Erin said, and then looked at Alec for help. What should we tell him?

  “We are not sure what is going on,” Alec answered truthfully. “You know that Erin is from a foreign land that is very far away. In her land we have encountered some people like the two we saw at the ‘House of Servitude’ – in fact, we were fleeing from some people like that when we came to the Institute. Those people capture people to work for them – to be slaves, actually – and they use the neckbands to control the people they capture. They feel that they are superior to others, like you and me, and that anyone who is not one of them is useful only to be their slave. They enslave people, or kill them if they don’t want them.”

  “Wow,” said Daniel. “I didn’t think that anybody had slaves anymore. That sounds kind of like what I read about the Nazis doing in Old Germany in the last century. Why are they in this country?”

  “We don’t know why they are here, but it is not good. We are trying to avoid drawing attention to ourselves.”

  “Not too many people around here know that these people are here, and we would like to keep it that way,” Erin said, choosing her words carefully. “It seems that the people we met the other night are not around anymore – their place burned to the ground after we left it, and I understand that no bodies were found there after the fire.”