A Prison of Worlds (The Chained Worlds Chronicles Book 1)

by Daniel Ruth

  Mei looked at my back with an expressionless stare. “Evil Empire. Right.”

  “Jin isn't going to go away on his own. The vampires say he's been around for hundreds of years. You can't just ask him to leave and expect it to work.” Besides, if he left he might take his books with him. If we could kill him quickly enough, we might get to an unguarded stash. The books would probably be magically sealed, but I had to keep hoping.

  “I know that,” the tiny Asian exclaimed as she stomped over in her robe and pink slippers. “I have been after him for more years than you can imagine. It would just be nice to have a little support.”

  “Well, you got me and probably Conrad and maybe the shifter packs,” she snorted at this. Apparently she had some doubt about how cohesive the packs were. I ignored her and continued, “And depending on how fast the mayor can get his butt in gear, you just may have Conrad's special crimes force behind you.”

  “Is that actually happening? It makes sense, but it would be a first in the country,” she mused, distracted from her gloom. “Wait a minute. Conrad's going to be in charge?”

  “He is the mayor's golden boy and you say he's the packs abattoir,” I teased her with a smile. I was rewarded with a snort of laughter. She had really loosened up. I think the silk robe must have relaxed her. Or maybe kicking some werewolf's ass had acted as stress relief.

  “That’s pack arbitrator.” I think she muttered something about a nitwit but I was burying my own amusement in a ham sandwich. The larger foodstuffs had been eaten earlier by my guests and I would have to settle for a smaller fare than I would have preferred. Since I arrived in the city, hunger had been a constant companion to me.

  “Anyway, chances are that the real danger won't be until the solstice or equinox so we have a little bit of time. Worst case, it's a few weeks. If luck is with us, we could have a veritable army by then. Which is good because our bad little wizard seems to have some shifters of his own under his thumb.” She grunted in agreement, and pushed me out of her way as she dug into the fridge for her own late night snack. “Have you asked the pack about any new or strange shifters in town? I thought you guys were loony over territory.”

  She froze in her preparations. Guess she hadn't. “Good idea,” she grudgingly admitted. “I suppose I'm not used to having support. I didn't think of that. Usually, I have to mince around the packs in order to get permission to move around a city without being challenged at every corner. I'll ask Conrad to look into it.” She seemed to sense my raised eyebrow. “He's the arbitrator. It's his job. Inter-pack politics makes me want to gut them all.”

  “By the way, where's Jeremy?” I asked her, getting a fourth sandwich ready.

  “He had to go home to sleep,” I turned to look at her. Usually, if there was an emergency he stayed the night in one of the spare rooms. Well, not the last time he got shot but... “He couldn't sleep. Humans get nervous around vampires and shifters.”

  I stopped mid-bite. I had forgotten that no other supernatural bothered to hide their aura. Or maybe they just didn't have the awareness and control. Of course Jeremy couldn't sleep here. I was getting pretty good at basic wards and minor circles. Maybe I would go and ward one of the bedrooms to keep out the excess energies my new guests were putting out. Just carve it into the wall and use a patch kit to cover it.

  “I guess it's just as well, he needs his sleep so I shouldn't disturb him until tomorrow.” It’s not like I could anyway, since I didn't have a working vid terminal in the house. Maybe he had fixed it along with the holo player function, but it would likely break down again within a day. “I'll go to the market tomorrow and call him from there, when I go shopping for food. Again.” Shaking my head as I looked at the empty fridge. Geez, wasn't it full this morning?

  I could almost hear Mei do a double take. “You really don't have a vid terminal?”

  I snorted in disgust. “Come on, you know I have been researching magic? My research blows out almost all the new quantum circuit crap they are sticking in the new stuff.”

  “Oh, I didn't notice,” she muttered, somewhat subdued.

  “You'll feel it when I test out my stuff. Vampires and shifters are sensitive to it. I hear it tickles. It's the same thing that happens whenever magical artifacts are active. Didn't you ever notice the lights flicker when you draw your sword?”

  “No, I am usually preoccupied when I do that,” she replied with a hint of annoyance.

  “Hmmm. It is usually harmless, but these days they seem to put the fancy stuff in almost everything. I wouldn't draw your weapon in a floater.” Prolonged exposure of even a minor supernatural’s aura degraded even non-quantum circuits. I can't believe no one paid attention to the increased breakdown statistics in certain regions or populations.

  “Are you serious?” she snapped out.

  “Yep, it could be bad.” No doubt a shifter wouldn't be scratched by a mundane crash, even from a few hundred feet, but she might land on some poor mortal smuck.

  “Anyway, I'll call him tomorrow. I'll need his help with something.”

  “Are you sure you want to get a human involved in this?” I shot a look at her. Apparently my disguise as a human psychic sucked. I would imagine she thought I was some species that hadn't been outed yet. She was right, but I had hoped my cover would hold up better. Based on earlier tonight, it seemed the vampires weren't fooled either. Damn.

  “You can use my terminal,” Mei offered. I just sighed and shook my head. Her terminal wouldn't work past tonight, once I did the wards on the spare room. I reminded myself to make sure the new functions on the living room vid player were shut down before I started. I didn't want to blow up the telly. It got to be a pain to try to find the older models for replacements.

  I used Mei's wrist terminal to leave Jeremy a message, and since I was up, I went into the spare room Jeremy used on occasion and used an elongated fingernail to scrape a ward on each surface of the room. Then I went and got the spray and matching fixit patch to coat it. I watched as it bubbled before settling into to the wall, indiscernible from the area around it. It was old stuff from before the nanite ban, but it still worked better than the newer mixes. Apparently, even though they may dangerous in some way, you couldn't beat them for fixing walls. I had stocked up on it as much as I could through the black market. You could buy lots of things in the Blight.

  After my domestic duties were done, I used Mei's wrist terminal again to order some more food. It hissed and popped but still mostly worked. It was pretty big for a modern phone so it might have been old enough technology to not self-destruct in the face of a ward or two. I figured I may as well use it before it decided it had enough.

  I was still dragging a bit, so I went back to my room and meditated until midmorning. Meditation is better than sleep for restoring your mental or magic reserves, but just lacks the satisfaction you can get after sleeping for a week. After this was all over I would have to block out some time for a quality snooze. By the time I was ready for breakfast, I was feeling like myself. My tooth had fully grown in and I was anxious to begin the day. Apparently Mei was too, because she was gone already. I snorted in disgust. She had way too much energy.

  The boxes of groceries were out front. I hadn't noticed the delivery, which had been good for my rest, but probably boded ill for how on guard I likely should be. Shaking my head in disgust, I took the supplies in and loaded up the fridge. I had ordered a goodly assortment of precooked foods since I had doubts about how much time I would be able to spend on food preparation. It came in handy for breakfast, since I just pulled a drumstick of the turkey and crunched on it while I cleaned up around the house. By the time Jeremy arrived and let himself in, I was ready to go out about town.

  Our trip was almost quiet except for the moaning and crackling of the subsystems of the aircar. Jeremy had an older model. He calls it vintage. I call it a suicide box waiting to kamikaze onto the pavement if you sneeze wrong. If it was any older it would have been ground bound. It had character
, but I never figured out why he kept it. I paid him well for his time and he likes to keep up with the times when it comes to his other gadgets. He may always remain a puzzle to me.

  At that moment, he was frowning and tapping his finger on a gauge. I swear it was a glass and spring analog face readout. It must have been a re-fit, since even with the most militant round of nostalgia binges the world has been through, I never heard of them going that far. When he started cursing under his breath, I knew something was up.

  “How do you feel about making a quick stop at my parents’ house for a quick charge?” he asked in between muttered curses.

  “You’re out of power?” I asked glancing once more at the dial. The more I looked at it the more it looked like a gas gauge. Except for the fact that nothing has run on gas for over seventy-five years. Oil is considered an endangered resource and illegal as hell to use. “Why not pull into a parking hangar? I've seen people charge up in less than five minutes.”

  Jeremy was silent for a few seconds and then explained. “Remember how I mentioned the car was an antique?” he tentatively started. “Well, the power tap isn't compatible with any of the current hangars.” A mixture of sheepishness and pride colored his voice. I just shrugged. I wasn't in a hurry, and if I mentioned that he should get a new car, he would just bring up my own distrust of technology. He would be right too. Even I would hate to be that much of a hypocrite.

  “Fine with me,” I sighed, as I looked out with my usual envy at the scenery. The buildings in this area were somewhat new. Which meant that they looked like mirrored walls as the facades reflected the scenery around them in all their glasslike glory. I think I preferred the brick and mortar look, but that never came back in style. Perhaps it was too expensive to recreate.

  The car swooped down an alley, around the corner and smoothly joined another stream of vehicles. A tiny light illuminated on the dash board, which I assumed was the autopilot synching us with the traffic before it went out to give the driver back the illusion of control. If the sensors detected a possible hazard, it would go back on and Jeremy would be left metaphorically spinning his wheels as the floating traffic buoys took over.

  “Aren't we close to their apartment?” I asked, taking note of our location. I didn't come over often, but I was familiar enough to recognize the area.

  “Yeah, right here,” he said as he turned into an alley and then set down next to an old-style garage opening. Since we were going to be a few minutes, I stepped out to stretch my legs and admire the small strip of sky I could make out hundreds of feet above us. I heard the whisper of a door sliding open inside the garage. I peeked inside and was rewarded by a small child-sized missile latching onto my leg.

  “Hey, Mister Derek,” the tiny girl squeaked shrilly. She was a small blond, not more than three feet tall, and all arms and legs. I awkwardly patted her on the head. I never spent much time around human children and didn't really know how to treat them.

  “Hello Elisabeth,” I smiled at her. She was cuter than a puppy, but I have been told that children are a lot of effort to keep. My race is hatched knowing how to talk, change shape, and toss a car on things trying to eat you. I really had no point of reference.

  “Hi Derek! Jeremy, I need help with my physics homework and Mom and Dad aren't home from work.”

  “Beth, I really need to get the car ready to go,” Jeremy looked between the car and the child in exasperation. “What's wrong with the Nanny bot?”

  “It's too stupid to help without a special program. My teacher says the robots have to be dumb or the Tinman Wars will start again.”

  Since he was looking indecisive, I decided to help. “Jeremy, why don't I help her a little bit, and you make sure we don't go down in a ball of flaming debris.”

  “Derek, it’s only a recharge. It'll only take 30 minutes at most,” he sighed. He was used to me mocking his vehicle, so he let the issue drop after that. “Besides, even though the computer is old, it will doubtless blow up once you touch it.”

  “For thirty minutes, I think I can keep the old mojo reigned in,” I said thoughtfully. “If I use the holo interface and avoid contact, I think I can keep it together.” Jeremy just shrugged absently. Once thoughts of his baby filled his mind there wasn’t much room for anything else.

  I followed the child inside and once she stopped running around in circles in the living room, she brought up the lesson projected it on the living room wall. I suppose she wasn't old enough for an implant yet. I realized with some chagrin that this was all going to be on the house system and no books were available. Reigning in my magical energies, I hesitantly took control of the system after having her activate the holo controls, and had it review the lesson. The interface was very streamlined. Hmm, Quantum physics. The main school of thought had been disproved, yet quite a lot of the principles had been reused when they finally got the Grand Unified Theory to work. It was also a little beyond my studies. Getting familiar with the tutorial system layout, I directed it back ten lessons to basic Newtonian physics and paged through the lessons as quickly as I could with just a slight psionic push to keep my reading speed up. In ten minutes, I had caught myself up to Elisabeth's lesson and had a decent idea of how to help her. The display was also starting to go a little fuzzy from my presence, so I tried touching it as little as possible. It was a holo interface, so I doubt it made a difference.

  The child had been patiently waiting off to the side. She had brought up another holographic display and was dressing up dolls using some sort of fashion designer simulator. She seemed fairly smart for a human, and we were mostly through her lessons by the time her brother walked in.

  “How go's it?” he cheerfully asked.

  “Mister Derek's fun,” the girl solemnly stated, “He makes the house computer do silly things.” I hadn't realized she had noticed the glitches. Maybe she was smarter than I thought.

  “I think we got a lot done,” I added my own two cents worth. “Beth is smart as a whip.” That got a smile out of her brother and frown from Beth.

  “Whips aren't that smart,” she pouted.

  “That’s just a saying Beth, it means you’re a smart cookie,” her brother clarified. She shyly smiled at that. “Time to go, if you're still wanting to do your thing.” Jeremy directed at me, adding under his breath, “Whatever that thing is...”

  “Sure do.” I started to walk towards the garage and just paused a moment to look behind. “It was fun Beth, next time I'm over we can do it again.” That seemed to perk her up a bit, and she was vigorously waving goodbye as we left.

  “Nice kid,” I offered as the car moved out of the alley to merge with the traffic. “She seems happier than the last time I saw her. I think she took one look at me and ran out of the room.”

  “She's pretty shy around strangers. She also is a certified genius and that tends to do terrible things to your socialization skills.”

  I grunted at that. I hadn't noticed anything wrong with her social skills, but I would leave it to the humans to judge.

  “I hadn't realized you knew advanced physics,” Jeremy said, after a moment of silence.

  “It's easy to pick up the theory. Though my experimentation with magic kind of eliminates practical applications. It's just a subset of the laws that govern the multiverse.” It also helps when you have a brain the size of a fridge. It's not all there just to cushion my skull from impact.

  “Isn't she kind of young to be your sister?” I asked, casually changing the subject. I didn't want this to slide into an awkward silence. “Your parents must be kind of old to have kids.”

  Jeremy looked at me for a moment. I knew he was distracted when the autopilot light flickered a few times. “I forget sometimes that you’re not from around here,” he started slowly. “My parents are in their seventies.” I was a bit startled. I was pretty confident that was too old for breeding. Were the geriatric drugs that good? “They grew up when nanites were just coming on the scene. For years, almost all the technology
was nanite based. It really was the superior technology. Better than almost anything we use today, especially in medicine.” He paused in thought before he continued. “Immortality was one of the first things they designed nanites to do. It was an easy brute force method, just program them to maintain the status quo. If a cell is damaged just rebuild it exactly the way it was. Youth, health and regeneration all in one simple design.”

  “Um, hold on. I thought nanites were outlawed.”

  “Yes, things were very comfortable until the Australian Meltdown.” I mouthed the term to myself. I had heard about some riots during it, but had never bothered to look it up. It had ominous written all over it. “An Australian nanite lab had a batch of nanites go bad. Within a day, the entire continent had been reduced to its constituent parts. It was more a miracle than anything else that the thing wasn't programmed to bind to water. It stopped at the coast and the UN bathed the land in plasma hot enough to break the nanites down into their own molecular parts.”

  I was staring at this point. I had known this planet had some history, but that was pretty bad, almost as bad as what had devastated my own world. “So it was banned after that?”

  “Mostly,” he paused again before continuing. “Keep in mind that nanites did everything for us from factories to medicine to robots. Everyone alive at that point had medical nanites in them. It took a decade to convert from a nanite based society, and it might have stalled if there hadn't been additional nanite plagues. Smaller, but by that point everything was high profile.”

  “So no nanites anymore.” Now I felt bad about buying my black market patch kits. Just not enough to throw them out.

  “Mostly. The medical nanites were really tough to extract without killing the host and the research needed to remove them safely was banned on Earth. So everyone with medical nanites have to report to their doctor weekly, and there are some really ugly fail-safes in their homes in case something mutates.”