Quantum shift, p.38
Quantum Shift, page 38
part #1 of Phase Shift Series
It might have been minutes or hours when Troias finally released the pattern and staggered to his feet, shutting off the water and stretching muscles that had grown a bit stiff from disuse. He toweled himself off and flung himself onto the bed, fully undressed and totally uncaring.
Okay, let’s go over this ‘Secure Zone’, if you don’t mind, he thought silently to his waiting totem. What exactly is it? How does it work? Why didn’t I get the chance to do it before?
Okay, but why haven’t you told me about it before? I mean, I’m assuming you’ve got a reason, I just want to know what it is.
Troias lay quietly and thought about the kirin’s words. There was a Force Vortex near Munising; were the people there ready to face an attack from something empowered by that Vortex? Or would they rely on firepower that might not be very effective against a creature that could shrug off kinetic force? The Death Vortex north of Menominee wasn’t that close, but it was close enough that a display of power might draw a swarm of those panthers, or even an Omega or two. Would they be ready for that?
He didn’t know, but it sounded like a topic to bring up with the leaders of those communities, rather than a decision he should be making by himself. They’d have a better idea of what their people could do, but they might not have a great idea of what those people might be up against. He’d have to make sure they understood somehow…
He rolled off the bed and got dressed, tossing on a thin shirt and workout pants. The hotel had to have an exercise room, and he had a lot swirling in his head. Physical activity was just what he needed to let it sort itself out. He stepped out into the hallway and walked to the nonfunctional elevators, peering inside at the directory listed there. The workout center was on the first floor, and it was a simple matter to follow the signs at the bottom of the stairs.
It was a simple enough facility, with machines and free weights both. The machines weren’t functioning, of course, nor were they updateable; he had figured out by now that anything that was mainly electronic by function couldn’t just be updated. If the functionality couldn’t be easily replicated through the Facets, then it simply didn’t work anymore. Not that anyone needed an elliptical or treadmill anymore; when food was scarce and you spent your days fighting for survival, you didn’t need a lot of extra cardio.
The weights, though, were still important. Keeping muscles in top condition was vitally important for combat, and weights were still a great way to do that. At least, so Troias believed…until after his third set of fifty squats with the hundred-pound barbell, he realized his muscles weren’t remotely tired. He upped the weight to one-fifty, with the same results. He went to two-hundred, and as he effortlessly hefted the bar onto his shoulders, he realized that this wasn’t going to work.
Ren laughed silently in his mind.
But I’m not using my Facets, he protested silently. I’m just using my ordinary muscles…
Troias sighed and put down the barbell, noticing that it wasn’t even an effort to do so. How much do you think I should be lifting, then?
That’s half a freaking ton! Troias almost shouted out loud. What?
Troias sighed; there simply wasn’t enough weight here for him do what the kirin suggested, and even if there were, he doubted the bar could hold it. He searched through his upgrades, but a Shift-appropriate weight set simply wasn’t among them. It had been for the Guard Station; he didn’t know why it wasn’t, here, unless it had to do with the fact that the station was built with the idea of combat in mind, and this place was designed for comfort. There was still so much he just didn’t know, and while he could pester Ren about it, he didn’t see the point. If the workout center wasn’t offered here, he’d find somewhere else that it was, hopefully in his Secure Zone.
Sighing, he moved away from the weights and began to run through a series of judo and jiu-jitsu forms, pretending that he was being attacked by multiple or armed opponents. He started slowly and gradually picked up the pace as he fell into the rhythm. As he moved faster and faster, his body moving through the movements without thought, he felt power flowing from his center, that spot just below his solar plexus. Energy trickled into his muscles, charging them and making each movement surer and smoother. The power felt cool and comforting to him, easing his anxiety and seeming to wash away his worries and fears.
Water Facet, he thought consideringly. That was one Facet he hadn’t really consciously used, yet, and this was a chance to correct that oversight. He concentrated on that slow trickle of power, not pulling on it but urging it to flow faster. His movements grew swifter still, but he didn’t feel tired, wasn’t panting for breath as he should have been. Somehow, that energy was sustaining his muscles without placing demands on his heart and lungs. He pondered that concept as he continued his kata but found no great insights. How the power worked was a mystery; all he knew was that, somehow, Water ki could speed up his muscles and sustain that speed without draining his stamina.
Thirty minutes later, he left the fitness center, feeling both refreshed and strangely drained. A glance at his stats explained that last part: his Water Facet was down to nearly 1 from the workout he’d given it. He wiped his face with a towel as he made his way back to the main lobby, wondering where Paul was. He was certain it had been more than an hour, and he had told the man to meet him back in the lobby. Although now that he thought about it, he hadn’t really said, ‘Lobby’, he’d just said, ‘This area’. That could have been pretty broadly interpreted by the Mage; Paul could really be anywhere nearby.
Troias sighed and peered into the restaurant. The remains of a half-eaten meal showed him that the Mage had followed his order to get something to eat, at least. He checked the room the man had chosen, but except for a sodden towel on the floor, it was empty. Feeling a bit nervous, Troias walked back to the lobby and peered into the conference areas. When he reached the one where he’d placed the giant map, he finally found the errant Mage.
Paul had grabbed a folding table and chair and placed it in front of the map, facing the wall that the huge feature occupied. The blonde man ignored the chair and stood in front of the map, his hand moving it around slowly, zooming in and out at what seemed like random places to Troias. The Mage stopped, frowning, and made a note on a pad he’d placed on the table with what looked like a felt-tipped pen. As he turned to face the table, he noticed Troias standing quietly in the doorway and jumped guiltily.
“What are you doing?” Troias demanded, his eyes narrowed as a flash of suspicion crossed his mind.
Paul sighed and put the pen down. “I’m…I’m sorry,” he said softly, his chin lowered and his eyes not meeting Troias’ gaze. “I’m not apologizing for what I tried to do – I don’t think I need to, really. I tried to betray you and got punished for it. I regret that, but I think the punishment negates the need for an apology.”
Troias’ lips twisted as he considered those words, but he supposed it made sense. Paul had been punished, severely, and Troias didn’t need to keep punishing him for that one act. “So, what are you sorry for?”
“I’m sorry for being weak,” Paul admitted. “For being a coward.” He reached up and wiped one of his eyes, his face clouded in shame. “I told you I was in IT, right? Yeah, well, that makes me a computer nerd, and you know what computer nerds love more than anything? Playing computer games.”
The blonde Mage turned back to the map. “I played a ton of them. MMORPG, FPS, 4X…I don’t know if you know what those are, but I was into them all.” He took a deep breath before continuing.
“In most of those games, I played the hero. I rescued peasants and stopped terrorist attacks and built cities that people loved living in. I was a good guy. Always.” He glanced at Troias. “Do you see what I’m saying? In real life, I was just a guy at a computer console. I didn’t do anything that anyone would be proud of, not really. So, in the games, I got to be the hero that I wished I could be in real life.”
“And then when the Shift happened, and you got the chance to be that hero...” Troias’ voice fell off as understanding dawned in his mind.
“I tried,” Paul shook his head. “I did, I swear. But it was so hard! People were dying, and I wanted to help, but…there wasn’t much I could do. I wasn’t really that powerful of a Mage, and air magic is all about speed or moving things. It’s not great as an attack, as you saw.
“So, when the men from the Triad came to visit, basically telling me to join their group or to join the prisoners…I was scared. They were stronger than me, and I was weak. So, I joined them.”
He stared at the map again. “But you were right. Even in joining them, I could have worked against them. I could have helped the Brigade, or at least passed messages from them to their families. I could have snuck them into the school. I was just too scared.”
“And now?” Troias asked calmly, wondering where the Mage was going with all this. While he appreciated that Paul had finally come out of his near-depression, he didn’t know what point the man was working toward.
“I’m still scared. And now, I’m even weaker than I was. My totem tells me that I might recover, eventually, but it will take years before the damage is healed…if it ever is. I don’t want to fight, but I want to be the good guy again.”
He gestured up at the map. “And with this, I think I can. This is just another game, really, a 4X one: Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate. I loved those games, and I was good at them.” He looked over his shoulder at Troias. “If you let me, I can help you build this base and take on whatever it is that I saw run in and out of the hotel.” The Mage shuddered as he spoke. “Just…please don’t ask me to fight it. That thing…”
“First, this isn’t a game,” Troias broke into the man’s words, walking over to the map. “In those 4X games, most units are expendable. Lose a defender? Build a new one. Your worker gets captured? You can get it back eventually, and you can turn a population point into a new one until you do.” He saw the Mage’s startled expression and shrugged. “Yeah, I played, too.
“In this world, though, you can’t just replace losses. People are probably our rarest and most valuable resource right now. You have to keep that thought in the very front of your mind in this world: people are vital.” Paul frowned but nodded his head.
“With that being said,” Troias said with a smile. “Tell me what you’ve got.”
Chapter 23
Base-building
“Okay,” Paul said, his voice becoming animated for the first time since he’d tried to betray Troias. “First, I don’t think you’re going to be able to proceed the way you did up in Menominee, by taking a bunch of houses and slowly expanding your perimeter. That was a great strategy, but look at how many places there are nearby.” He zoomed out from the hotel and scrolled sideways to show the nearest neighborhood.
“You’re right on the edge of the city, here, but you’re also off a major highway and near two large intersections. There’s a big neighborhood a block to the east and a ton of businesses along these two roads. Going house-to-house could take weeks.”
“And would attract attention from the Omega,” Annalise spoke from the doorway as she walked into the room. “I was looking for you guys. Good thing Paul almost shouts when he’s excited.”
The Mage ignored her gentle jab and kept his focus on the map. “I hadn’t considered that, but that’s important information. If that thing is out there, waiting to jump on you when you leave your shelter, then you need to adopt an island-hopping strategy.”
Troias nodded, but Annalise’s face looked confused. “We take one nearby building and fort up in it,” the big man explained. “Then, once we’re sure it’s secure, we move to another nearby building, always heading toward the city.”
“Not directly, though,” Paul countered, although he glanced at Troias with a look of respect. “That’s too aggressive; we’d only do that if we wanted to draw an attack and knew we could kill a bunch of the bad guys by doing so. We want to zig-zag our way in, maybe even double-back sometimes.”
The man touched a handful of buildings, highlighting them. “I’ve been looking at the map and trying to pick buildings with some kind of strategic resource, or ones that are easily defensible…or both, preferably. I’ve come up with a few.”
Annalise looked at the nearest one. “An elementary school,” she nodded. “Those are usually easy to secure and give you a lot of build points.”
“Build points?” Paul asked quizzically.
“Yeah, we get them by claiming a building,” Troias explained, also leaning forward to look at the map. “You get more from larger structures, more important ones, and ones with a higher value.”
“Also, anything that has a lot of valuable items,” Annalise added. “Things like jewelry, art…or cars. Cars give a lot of build points.”
Paul frowned. “That might change things a bit,” he noted. “In that case, I’d say the school is a secondary target. It’s just outside your boundary, which is good, but…” He zoomed a bit to the southeast on the map. “I think this hospital would be more worthwhile, if you can take it. I’m sure the equipment inside of it is ridiculously expensive. Plus, if you can make some of it work, having it might encourage other people to come join you.” When Troias glanced down at him, he shrugged. “You said it: people are a valuable resource. You need to attract them, and having a hospital might do that.”
Troias nodded. “We don’t want to ignore the school, though,” he pointed out. “It’s right on our border, like you said, and I’m sure the Omega’s got the place packed with shadowkin. That’s an army right on our border.”
“Agreed,” Paul said, zooming more to the east. “But look at this.”
“National Guard Station,” Annalise said approvingly. “They make good strongholds.”
“This one makes far too tempting of a target,” Paul smiled. “If you take that, you will absolutely get attacked, both from the school and from the city. It’s too important for the bad guys to let you control it. And we can use that to our advantage…”
The next morning, Troias and Annalise packed into the Expedition and drove out to the wall surrounding the Secure Zone, where Troias shamefacedly added a gate. He’d assumed the wall was gated, but apparently that was something he had to spend build points on. Once the solid-steel doors appeared in front of them, Troias willed them to open and drove the truck through, closing the doors behind him as he turned east and headed toward the Guard Station.
“You think this will work?” Annalise asked quietly from the passenger seat.
“It’s strategically sound,” Troias shrugged. “If it works, it’ll make the next steps easier. If it doesn’t, we’ll still hold the Guard Station. It’s kind of win-win, really.”
“That’s what makes me nervous,” she replied. “Win-win might just mean we haven’t thought of how we could lose.”
“That’s a good point. I guess we’d better start thinking, then.”
“I’ve been thinking about it all morning,” she muttered. “My worst-case scenario is that while we’re taking the station, the Omega busts into the Secure Zone and wipes out our base.”
“I thought about that, too,” Troias nodded. “Ren says that if that happens, the smart thing is to abandon the city and go around it. With the wall and guard towers I set up, if the Omega’s strong enough to force its way inside, it’s too strong for us to face, period. We run.”
