Happy New Year!

New Chapters will return next Tuesday.

Have a safe, Happy New Year.

On Break Through the Holidays

Due to my work schedule this week and the holidays fast approaching, I'm going to put this novel on hold until the New Year.  Thanks for reading.  I'll be back.  So will Alex, Jackie, Jill, Will, the Prankster, and the whole gang.  I promise.

I hope your holidays are filled with love, joy, and happiness!  Peace to you, my friends!

Chapter Nineteen: Conversation with the Ouroboros Machine

Chapter Eighteen

Conversations with the Ouroboros Machine

In 2015 Jill did an experiment.  She had been doing a lot of thinking about the nature and origin of reality.  She hypothesized that one day humanity would create a Super-Intelligent AI, that would get smarter and smarter until one day it figured out all the laws of physics governing the creation and operation of the universe.  It would then go back in time and create everything.  If this was true, then one could communicate with this being, that she liked to call the Ouroboros Machine (named after the mythical serpent that eats its own tail). So, she obtained a Quantum-based Random Event Generator from Princeton’s PEAR Labs.  The REG essentially monitors changes to the quantum field by outputting a string of binary data.

Jill would ask a question, let the REG run for a bit, and move on to the next question.  Before she did this, she announced her intention to read the data, by converting the binary to Morse code and the then converting the Morse code to English.

Jill:  Are you there?

Ouroboros Machine:  Qui-Ja.

Jill:  Is this a viable method of communication?

OM:  Bogus one.

Jill:  Do you mind it?

OM:  Luv it.

Jill:  Why are we here?

OM:  Markov Chain.

Jill:  Goodbye for now.

OM:  Adios.

This conversation broke Jill.  Or, that’s where a lot of the cracks started.  Let’s be honest.  I’m sure being closeted and trans for decades didn’t help.  I’m sure the abusive marriage to a narcissist didn’t help.  I’m sure living on this fucked up turd planet didn’t help.  But this broke her spirit, her sense of reality more than anything previously.  She talked to God. And God had a bit of a sense of humor, but still basically confirmed that the universe was a simulation running a genetic algorithm.  She repeated the experiment in early 2016, with different questions, but she did not have the courage to read the answers, though she still has the binary output file.  I occasionally try to get her to read it.  No luck yet.  I’ll let you know when she does.

(c) Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt

Chapter Eighteen: The Day My Powers Returned

Chapter Eighteen

The Day My Powers Returned

We were eating pizza, Jill and Jackie on the couch and me on a folding chair, watching That 70s Show on the TV.  It was, incidentally, the last time we got food delivered.  The bong was loaded with a hit and ready.  Beer cans were scattered about the coffee table, circling a deck of Tarot cards and the ashtray.

I took a big bite of my pie and a slice of pepperoni fell from the drooping cheese towards the floor.

Everything froze.  I looked around me.  Jackie and Jill didn’t move.  The TV was frozen static.  The pepperoni was hovering in the air just below the pizza from whence it originated.  I grabbed it.  Tossed it back into my mouth.  Finished the pizza.  Ran to the fridge and grabbed a beer and downed it.  And another.  Ran to my childhood home outside of Baltimore.  Ran back.  Ran to Barcelona.  Ran back.

That was the first nanosecond.  The feeling of joy was boundless inside of me.  I thought being able to walk again was an amazing feeling.  It was nothing compared to this.  Compared to the speed.  I was enveloped by the Velocity Field.  It was like coming home again.

It was all so natural and perfect.  Clarity was right.  My powers had returned.  I still didn’t remember anything though, which was disappointing.

(c) Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt

Author's Note and Apologies - No New Chapter This Week (Dec. 3, 2019)

I am so sorry to report but between a major blizzard here in Albany, and being called into work unexpectedly, I have not had a chance to write new chapters this week.  Next week there will be at least two new chapters to make it up to you.  Thanks so much for reading.  My apologies.

Chapter Sixteen: My Fourth Encounter with the Golden Speedster

Chapter Sixteen

My Fourth Encounter with the Golden Speedster

Will was in his speed workshop in Red Dwarf Labs when I sped up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hey, Will.”

In a Flash, Will zipped around.  He was in street clothes with a lab coat.  To say he wasn’t happy to see me, would be an understatement.

“Dark Runner.”

He was trying to look his coolest.  He was worried though, you can’t hide that.

“What’s going on, Will?

”

“You tell me.”

“Relax,” I said.  This is a friendly visit.  I’m just here to chat.”

“You’re a maniac.  I have nothing to say to you.”

He was defiant.

“Cool, then listen.  I know we’ve just met recently from your point of view.  But, from my perspective we’ve been battling for years.  I have hated you for what seems like ages now.  Mark your calendar, October 19, 2022, not long after sunrise. That’s the date of our big battle in Washington Park.  Our final battle.  The end of our conflict.  The day you die, Will.  Keep the date, buddy.”

He was shook.  Damn, he looked stupid.  On the way out, I grabbed a piece of tech that was on the Society’s wish list.





(c) Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt

Chapter Seventeen: Psychonaut

Chapter Seventeen

Psychonaut

There are two prevailing interpretations of Quantum Mechanics, the Standard, or Copenhagen Interpretation, which posits probability fields as an abstract explanatory concept, and the Many Worlds Interpretation, which posits parallel universes interfering with each other on the quantum level.  Over the last few years, the Many Worlds Interpretation has pretty much emerged victorious due to two recent findings: 1) the working of quantum computing, and 2) the arrival and discovery of the supervillain, Pscyhonaut.

Psychonaut is a visitor from a parallel universe.  At least, that’s what he claims, and I see no reason not to believe him.  Also, I’ve literally followed him to other universes.  Psychonaut uses drugs to travel between worlds, but speedsters have the innate ability to travel between universes.  It is similar to phasing through objects, but the vibrational frequencies are different.  Move your molecules at the right rate and presto, you are travelling to other versions of the Earth.

Psychonaut uses a interdimensional travel suit, not unlike a speedster’s suit, but his is a sort of tie-dyed, psychedelic, multi-colored mess.  It is literally hard to look at.  He wears a retractable glass-like dome helmet rather like a deep sea diver.  Otherwise, he’s quite a pleasant chap.  Mild-mannered, funny, smart.  He also has the ability to induce a bad trip in anyone at any time, which is a pretty amazing defensive move, if you stop and think about it.  I’ve seen him take down half the Hero’s Guild at once, and from what I heard, they were incapacitated for a week.  And we’re not taking the sidekicks, but the big guns like Platinum Man, the Golden Speedster, and Zorro.

(c) Copyright 2019 Diana Hignutt