Quantum Mind: Quantum Genesis, #2

Prologue

In the Cygnus constellation, there is an orange dwarf type star called Tol. Tol has 5 planets orbiting around it. The fifth planet is called Ghia. Ghia is the home of a very advanced civilization. This race of people are very similar in physiology to humans, and they have evolved to gain complete mastery and control of everything that surrounds them. They have learned how to stop aging and can live for an eternity. They have mastered terraforming and have made their planet into a perpetual paradise of warmth and comfort. They want for almost nothing. Their only desire and their only vice is they always want to learn more. Knowledge is their power and their obsession.

Over the millennia, the population of Ghia has waxed and waned. Later in their evolution, this greed for knowledge caused them to argue and fight against each other. Whoever was more knowledgeable was always the victor. Knowledge of the sciences was critical during one phase of their evolution, but this changed to become knowledge of how to fight and kill. This now became the target to attain at any cost. Many of the most knowledgeable scientists of all different modalities became the threat to those who knew how to war.

Their society became fractured and almost to the point of extinction. One of the War scientists in the higher echelons of their regime found out that an asteroid was on its way to collide with Ghia in two years. This event would surely wipe out the entire population of Ghia unless plans were made now to survive this or try to alter its course.

Little groups of people started to learn about this. As news of this catastrophic event became more known, an underground movement started to form whatever scientists were left from the old days before the era of wars and fighting. They sought a way to save Ghia and the people living on it.

At this time in the history of Ghia, the planet started to become something more than just rocks, water and minerals. It started to become self-aware. It was in pain because the warring caused great damage to it over the years. It wanted to heal and help the people to learn to take care of it.

As Ghia became more self-aware and sentient, it found and sought out the people who wanted to help Ghia avoid the imminent destruction coming toward it. The people learned how to talk to Ghia and Ghia found out how to work with the people to prepare for the asteroid coming toward it.

It was at this time when the Quantum Guild was established. Ghia and the people depended on each other to get through this calamity. It wasn't going to be easy, but a plan was formed.

In the days leading up to the point when the asteroid was about to hit Ghia, the majority of the population in favor of war science left Ghia and never returned. The small fragment of civilization who remained went underground to survive the imminent disaster.

Many centuries later, after Ghia had revived and the population which remained were again living around the planet. The people helped Ghia to heal by using science and applying this to the areas which were very damaged. The planet and the people started to work together for many centuries.

Ghia knew the relationship it had with the population must not be unique. Ghia reached out to other planets which might be starting to undergo this process of self-awareness and sentience. It showed these planets and the people living on these planets how they could live together in a beneficial symbiosis where each helps the other to survive. Colonists were sent out to potential planets to assist in the awakening of these planets into sentience.

This is all recounted in the first book of this series called Quantum Genesis. This second book, Quantum Mind, describes the story of when the Quantum Guild reached out to the Earth and sent colonists 5000 years ago. It starts in modern day, and tells how a small group of people help them try to connect to the Earth and complete their vital mission.

Enjoy!

MD Hanley

Chapter 1 - Patrick Themis

1

Weight, Just a Moment

Construction Site - Winthrop Center

Boston, Massachusetts

Tuesday 6:15 AM

Balance is a jealous mistress. Always on the lookout to upset your ordered life and throw you into chaos. Give it one inch in the wrong direction, or too little attention, it will upend your life ten times greater than you could ever imagine. Operating a large mobile building crane was like this. Be always on guard for a miscalculated balance of weight and counterweight. It’s always at the ready to throw you from the sweet delicate point of balance where everything just clicked, and a beautiful harmony is attained. Patrick Themis knew this, and he has always kept his mistress’ pleased and happy. At least, he thought this was true in his short history as a large building crane operator. Today, unfortunately for Patrick, wouldn’t be a good day for balance.

Pat arrived at the construction site at 6:15 AM. It was Tuesday and a beautiful clear September day. Yesterday, was a scorcher and the heat and cooling down over night was very comfortable. He didn’t stress out over the outside temperature since most of his day would be sitting inside a 6 foot by 4-foot enclosed cab operating a large crane with the A/C cranked up to high. He carried a large thermos full of scalding hot black coffee, a bag of two Boston crème donuts he bought in South Station MBTA train station’s Dunkin Donuts, and a clipboard of notes and numbers for the schedule of materials he would be lifting with the crane today.

Pat has a tall athletic build which he earned from always staying active and not afraid of stretching himself physically in sports or working out. His trade of being on a construction site also helps him to maintain good physical condition with enumerable tasks which require a fair amount of strength and conditioning. His face was unremarkable but at a closer look you can see he has a kind face with piercing grey eyes and black hair. A former girlfriend had talked him into getting his hair bleached blond. It was a bet they made one night while watching the Patriots and she won. He cursed Tom Brady for letting him down in one of the only years he was not winning the Super Bowl. He made good on the bet. She was long gone but the hair stayed. He actually kind of liked having his hair with thick black roots which were almost always showing up soon after the full bleach was done. He kept his hair at a medium sized length. He had a sharp widow’s peak he didn’t want to advertise so he never went too short. He was dressed today the way he was always dressed, comfortable jeans, steel toed boots, and a large t-shirt.

The construction site was a large flat dirt lot with materials scattered all around a central area which housed the focus of all this activity. In this central area, a large new building was starting to take shape and would become just one more addition to Boston’s skyline. From an outsider’s perspective, the activity going on this morning would look like chaos. Everyone was walking around the site in every direction. Each person was singularly focused on an important task which they needed to get done. Pat liked all the movement. It was a carefully orchestrated dance and when you were on the ground, you only saw a small intersection of this orchestrated chaos. When he was in the crane and looking down at all the people below, he could get a broader view of this complicated activity. It helped to be able to see how each person was a bigger part of the whole operation. In one area, men were unloading the latest flatbed truck of pallets and materials to be used later in the day. The people in another section were preparing an area to receive a load of concrete tomorrow. Forklifts scurrying around moving piles of materials from one area to another area.

His path to the large crane which he was operating today took him on a direct line to walk past his boss, Jim Stickner. Jim was engaged in a conversation with two other foremen who were working on the lower levels of the building. He silently wished he had taken a different path, but he was committed, and it would look odd if he took any other way than to walk past Jim.

As usual, he got the disapproving side glance from his boss, as he arrived on the site. If anything, Jim’s behavior was predictable. Jim would give a nonchalant glance at his watch and then the razor-blade side glance at Pat as he walked toward the area where the large building crane was left last night. Who wears a watch nowadays? He was certain he would hear about his tardiness at some point later today. Jim was the type of boss who expected you to clock in on a job 15 minutes early; and if it was any less than that, then you were late. Pat just gave him a nod and pointed at the crane with a brief smile. He knew it was laced with sarcasm, but he felt confident Jim wouldn’t recognize the intention. Jim likened Pat’s smile as an acknowledgment of his loyalty to working as hard as possible to get the job done. The smile took many years to perfect. His current boss, like many other bosses, was buying every ounce of it.

Pat didn’t go directly to the crane. He walked over to an area in front of the crane where a group of people were huddled around a large square frame holding several slabs of granite. The steel rack was built to hold 10 monstrous sheets of granite. The frame of the rack was designed to hold each sheet vertically placed and evenly spaced by a steel pole between each sheet. Each sheet of granite was a reddish grey kaleidoscope of colored stone about 12 feet high and 15 feet long. With the sheets of granite placed in this steel rack it looked like a set of dishes sitting in a large dishwasher. Although, these dishes were quite heavy at about 2200 lbs. apiece. Today, Pat would have to take each one of these sheets of granite up to the 10th floor and place them around the center column of the building.

The outside framework of the building is way behind schedule so the more strength they can build around the central column core the better. The latest report he got was that the third floor was completely enclosed and was starting to support the weight of the upper floors. Still, seven floors of equipment and material is an awful lot of weight to carry. He should be pissed off with his boss wanting him to keep adding weight to the top floor. He let it slide. If he really looked at why he didn’t make a ruckus about the schedule, he would surmise it is just easier than fighting people over it. I’m just following orders. Technically, it was an easy rationalization, but it was easier than the alternative which would get messy.

In the back of his mind, he knew he should be really raising hell about the schedule. The people around this large frame rack of granite sheets were his friends and people he has known for many years working on different jobsites. They trusted him and he had worked hard to earn their respect. They depend on you to keep them safe, and you depend on them to make sure they are keeping the way clear for you.

When he first started doing construction, he had a knack for being able to maneuver forklifts into places where others couldn’t. He just had a natural talent for balancing a load and safely moving items around a site. He was always interested in the big cranes and how they worked. A big part of the job of operating a large crane was inspecting all the parts of the crane. Cranes come in all shapes and sizes, and it is important to inspect the hydraulics, or the lines doing a large part of the lifting and moving. He was always ready to help out doing some of those jobs.

About five years ago, he became friends with one of the large tower crane operators named Al Friedman. He was working on a job in a 40-story building. Pat was very low on the totem pole of workers on a construction site, so if someone wanted you to run around and be a gopher then that is what you did. It was more fun than working at a burger joint, so he didn’t mind so much. This one day, Al was coming out of an elevator and bumped into someone coming around a corner too quickly. The coffee he was holding ended up falling out of his hand and splashed on the floor. After a couple of obscenities and apologies from the person who bumped into him, he looked up and saw Pat standing there watching the whole episode.

Pat went over to try and help clean up the coffee with some rags and Al asked Pat to run out to the roach coach to get him another coffee. This is how Pat started to learn how to operate the big cranes. At first it started to be, hey kid, would you go out and grab me a large coffee?

Sure, no problem, he would say at the first couple of times he was asked. Then he added, It will cost you 3 questions.

Pat would walk away and get Al his coffee and try to think of the best questions he could ask him when he got back. After a couple of weeks doing this, Pat brought a jelly donut one time and told him the donut would be worth an extra 2 questions.

Al started to show Pat how to operate the crane. Pat absorbed everything like a sponge. He understood the mechanics better than most people usually understood it even after several years of operating a crane. He gave him many different places he could go to learn more about it and what types of testing he would need to become certified. He even spoke to the site coordinator to see if they would pay for the cost of the testing. Sometimes, Al gave him a bunch of books and materials on the function and theory behind becoming a certified crane operator. He also allowed Pat to go up in the cab with him when he had any type of break or sometimes during his lunch breaks. He would just ask him dozens of questions like rapid fire. Al loved talking about the mechanics of operating a crane and he never got tired of the questions.

One time, Pat was in the cab booth with Al, and they were lifting a large pallet of sheetrock from an open area of the building which was 3 stories below them and lifting it to 14 floors above them. The crane they were using was a building tower crane. The crane itself is affixed to the side of the building. In order to accomplish this lift, the crane had to take hold of the pallet and lift it up about 5 feet and swing it out about 20 feet past the radius of the outside of the building; and then lift it straight up about 170 feet and then swing it back into the top floor. The only dangerous part of this was when the crane was swinging the load outside the radius of the building structure and when it was swinging inside the structure.

The mast of the crane went straight up vertically where it was met with a horizontal jib. The horizontal jib has two parts. A long horizontal structure which uses cables and pulleys to lift the load. The shorter horizontal jib is responsible for the opposing counterweight force of the weight lifted. The point where these horizontal structures met contained the motors and mechanisms to rotate these horizontal jib structures around the mast of the crane.

They had just lifted the pallet about 5 feet off the ground and were in the process of swinging out past the radius of the building. While the cab was rotating, Al jerked his hand abruptly to cause the rotation to stop suddenly. Pat saw a wild look on Al’s face, and he knew something was wrong. He yanked Al’s hand off the joystick and continued the rotation to keep the load rotating and slowly brought it to a stop. If he hadn’t countered the abrupt stop of the rotation and slowly slowed the rotation to a stop, then the load would start to swing. If he hadn’t done this, the pallet would surely have hit the side of the building, or worse.

Pat looked at Al and his face was like he was watching melting chocolate. The left side of his face was sagging slightly. His eyes were fluttering and started to roll up toward the ceiling of the cab.

The walkie talkie next to Al came to life and barked, Ok, Al. You’re all clear and ready to lift straight up.

Pat grabbed it and said, Ok guys. Give us just a minute here. We will let you know when we’re ready to start the lift up.

It was only about 15 or 20 seconds, but Al started to come around. He looked confused.

Al, what happened? Are you ok?

Yeah kid. I am fine, now. I feel sick to my stomach though.

You stopped the rotation really abruptly and the load started to swing. I got it to keep rotating and slowed it down to stop the swing. The load is clear and ready to go up. Do you want to abort this load and come back later to try it?

No way, kid. Let’s switch seats and I will have you do it. You have asked me enough questions already to be an expert at this job so let’s have a little solo flight time.

You sure? The guys watching us might not appreciate it if they see me behind the wheel here.

Fuck ‘em! I’m running this crane, not them.

They switched positions and Al took the walkie talkie and said, Ok guys we are ready to lift to the 14th floor. Everyone clear of the load?

The radio squawked back, All clear here Al.

Al said, Ok, Pat let’s do this like I showed you. Easy on the joystick and start off slow and easy and take it straight up the pole.

It was the last time Pat worked with Al. He was in his mid-forties, and he really did enjoy talking and teaching people about cranes. He had hidden the fact he had a very mild form of epilepsy for years and the medication he had been taking to avoid seizures stopped working as well. Sometimes this happens. It might take a while to get the correct dosage or try a different medication to stop the seizures. Al decided to stop running the cranes and decided to get behind teaching and testing young guys or girls how to operate big cranes and become certified. It didn’t have the same sense of excitement when he was teaching about it rather than doing it, but it still paid the bills.

Pat never told anyone about the seizure Al had. The next day, Al came to Pat and told him he was getting out of the business of operating the cranes. Pat told him he wasn’t going to tell anyone about what happened the day before. Al surprised him by giving him a big hug and thanked him for helping him to find a new challenge. He was gonna start teaching smart ass kids like him on the correct way to operate a crane. Pat was surprised but really happy for him.

After Pat finished working on that building, he got his certification and was able to be low bid for the next opportunity to operate a small crane to offload ships and their cargo. Slowly he started to become more experienced and work on a variety of different projects.

Since then, Pat has worked extremely hard to get the jobs he did. Always trying to learn wherever he could, he imagined someday there would be a time when he would be in a similar position to teach someone just starting out in this field of work. He always kept himself open to the opportunity if he saw it.

For today’s job, the three people standing by the steel frame had been waiting on him to arrive. Roger, Kristen, and Brad have been working with him for the last couple of weeks doing similar lifts like the one they were about to accomplish today. He got along well with them and they knew exactly what he needed them to do to get the job done safely.

Did Jim give you the evil eye when you walked by him? Brad asked.

Pat replied, What do you think? I’m getting used to it. As long as I smile and give him the thumbs up, he’s happy. Hey Kristen, how is your sister doing?

Kristen let out a big sigh and said, 9 pounds 6 ounces! I got the call last night at midnight she gave birth to a whopping 9-pound baby boy. Takes after her father but OMG she’s gonna be sore for weeks!

Congratulations! Why don’t you and Brad stay down here rigging the load and if we get done a little early you can probably split and go see your new nephew. Pat turned to Roger and Brad and said, You guys OK with that?

They both nodded. Roger said he would go up top and clear the area out for the first load Pat would drop up there.

The three of them checked their walkie talkies and the channel they were going to use. Pat turned around and headed towards the side of the big crane. He climbed up the 20 rungs of the ladder built into the side of the crane to gain access to the interior of the cab. Once he got seated in the operator chair and harnessed up, he turned the power on for the crane and the different hydraulic systems.

The console in front of him was a myriad of dials and gauges which showed different hydraulic pressures, or power status of the different parts of the crane. The crane was made up of several parts. Behind the cab was the main boom which could be extended outward with a number of tubes fitted one inside the other. This particular crane would be able to extend out to 160 feet. One joystick controlled the left and right movement of the boom of the crane. The other joystick controlled the forward and aft movement. On the floor were two pedals responsible for retracting and extending the telescoping sections of the boom. They also control the amount of pressure being generated by the hydraulic pump. When the joysticks or pedals are used, it causes different hydraulics hoses to open or close which causes the load to be lifted or lowered. There is also a different hydraulic system at the rear of the crane which operates in the same way, but it controls the stabilizing and the counterweight and balance of the crane itself.

Pat got the boom into position and extended it out to 110 feet. Once the boom was extended, he lowered the hook and tackle block to the area above the steel rack holding all the granite slabs. Kristen and Brad used three different straps on the first sheet of granite to be lifted up. Each of these straps could be winched super tight around the piece of granite. They then hooked these straps onto the hook Pat dropped from the extended boom.

Once Kristen gave the OK signal, Roger came on the walkie-talkie and said he made a temporary holding area for the granite sheets. He told Pat he was all clear to load the lift up. Pat picked up the sheet of granite and lifted it above the steel rack and once it was clear, he rotated the crane to move the granite away from the steel rack. Once it was clear, he added more power to the hydraulic pumps to retract the cable attached to the block and tackle at the top of the boom. He wasn’t in any hurry, so he just lifted it up to slowly. The wind started to pick up a little bit.

Pat watched the load of granite slowly climb up to the 10th floor. At the top of the boom was a camera allowing him to see the area below the top of the boom which gave him a view of the area where he would be depositing this slab of granite. This was very tricky because he couldn’t see the area directly and needed to visualize it with the camera and commands from Roger. The landing spot was just like the place it was taken from. Roger had a similar steel frame like the one on the ground and had it all ready for Pat to position the granite and lower it into the frame.

Once Pat lowered the first piece of granite into the frame, Roger untied the winches and Pat raised the boom and swung it around to go down and pick up the second piece of granite. After a couple of minutes of going back down and grabbing a second piece of granite, Pat was once again rotating the base of the crane to move the piece of granite closer to the steel frame Roger was waiting at.

Pat was just about to lower the piece of granite down onto the frame and he noticed the floor in front of the steel frame looked strange. At first, he thought it was just the lens of the camera, but the floor looked like it was tilted down slightly and got worse as the floor extended out to the edge of the building.

Pat picked up the walkie-talkie and said, Roger, what’s happening up there? The floor looks like it is tilting down towards the edge of the building. I think the floor is gonna give way any second.

Roger squawked back, Yeah it is tilting down some. Hold off on dropping it right now and let me check it out.

As if it was happening in slow motion, Pat started to see the whole section of the floor create a large crack going under the middle of the steel frame. Oh shit! The floor was going to give way.

Pat yelled into the walkie-talked, Roger, get everyone to the stairs now!

As he said this, he saw 4 people running to the stairs which would be the strongest part of the building. Pat also saw the outer section of the floor was tilting way down now and was going to separate from the building and cartwheel outward from the edge of the building. The only thing Pat could think of was the top floor would fall outside of the building edge and most likely crash into the building next to the dirt lot. With horror in his eyes, he looked at a possible crash site which would be directly on top of a school building next to the construction lot.

The only thing Pat could think of to counter the floor breaking off and cartwheeling outward was to drop the load of granite down hard. In the back of the crane was where the hydraulics were controlling the counterweights for the load on the boom right now. If he released some of the counterweight it would increase the load on the boom and force it to come down hard. It would also unbalance the crane and tilt it forward. He stomped on the pedal to release the counterweight and from the camera in the boom he watched the granite hit the floor really hard. The top floor broke free at this point and now was going to cartwheel inward to the stairs.

Pat knew this would be fatal if the floor flew into the stairs. In his mind, he imagined the floor breaking in half and then those pieces being broken in half. Surprisingly, yet not understanding how it was happening, he saw all the large sections of the floor being broken apart exactly as he was imagining them to break apart. All those small pieces were now dropping down onto the floor below. Pat knew the same exact thing was going to happen to the next floor below. It would break and then it would cartwheel outward into the school. The only thing Pat could think of was to do exactly the same thing he did before. He released the counterweight and let the boom drop the load of granite down hard. And surprisingly, the pieces he saw from the camera once again broke in half the way he imagined them breaking in his head.

He also did the same thing for the floor below and one more time for the floor below that one. When the slab of granite hit this last floor, it broke apart into three different pieces and was no longer being held by the crane. Now the weight on the boom decreased by one ton. This violently upset the delicate balance of the crane itself. Now the entire crane rose up and for almost one full second it felt like it was about to right itself and come back into balance. But it didn’t. The entire crane was now removed of the weight on the boom and the counterweights were too great to keep the crane right side up. It flipped upside down onto its back. Luckily, the cab wasn’t directly below the giant boom, or it would have crushed the cab. Pat hit his head severely on the side of the cab door and was momentarily knocked unconscious.

Luckily, it was still early in the day and most of the people were on the ground or working on the first 3 floors. The long boom landed on a fence around the dirt lot and landed on top of two cars. Thankfully, no one was injured.

Vaguely, Pat could hear people coming up to the cab of the crane. He was bleeding from his forehead where his head struck the side of the cab door. People were yelling and screaming, and one very boisterous woman was yelling at everyone to get out of her way. Slowly, Pat opened his eyes, and he could see Kristen yanking open the door to the cab.

Careful, Pat, there’s a lot of broken glass here. How are you doing buddy? You, OK?

Pat looked around and a lot of people were coming over to the crane, albeit they were all upside down. Obviously, Pat was still in the harness of the seat in the cab, and he was the one upside down.

Pat said, Yeah I think I am Ok. Can someone clear the glass out of roof of this before I release the harness.

Kristen and others got rid of the glass and helped Pat get out of the cab. When he got out of the cab, he immediately felt weak in the knees. He told the others to let him just sit down for a minute.

Is Roger Ok?

Yeah, he and 3 of the other guys are coming down the stairs now. Nobody was up above floor 3 so we were lucky. Jim just about shit himself when he saw the big crane doing the complete flip.

"He’s friggin lucky no one else was up higher than floor 3. Jeez what an asshole. You can’t put so much weight on those floors without anything to support them. We should have never started putting those sheets up there."

As Pat said this, he looked over at the steel frame holding the remaining sheets of granite. They were pulverized right now underneath the bulk of the main boom of the crane. If the steel frame hadn’t been there, it most likely would have kept falling more and come down heavily on the cab. The steel frame had most likely saved his life today.

Kristen handed him a moist towel and some paper napkins to put on his head. She said, Take it easy. An ambulance is on the way here to get you sorted out.

"I don’t