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    Quantum Troopers Episode 21: Paryang Monastery
    Quantum Troopers Episode 21: Paryang Monastery
    Quantum Troopers Episode 21: Paryang Monastery
    Ebook130 pages1 hour

    Quantum Troopers Episode 21: Paryang Monastery

    By Philip Bosshardt

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    About this ebook

    Episode 21, Quantum Troopers. Johnny Winger has been reconstructed from original atoms, after encountering Config Zero at the Paryang monastery, but now there is a new mission called Himalaya Strike. The Red Hammer cartel is nothing but a shell and Config Zero is an advance scout for an alien race called the Old Ones. The only way to defeat this threat is to insert a virus into Config Zero and sever its link with its offworld benefactors. For good measure, the mission also involves geoplanes and underground ANAD swarms setting off tactical quakes to destroy the cartel base. If it works, Red Hammer and Config Zero will be neutralized but Johnny Winger may not survive the mission. And even if he does, will Winger ever be the same again?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPhilip Bosshardt
    Release dateMar 10, 2017
    ISBN9781370928491
    Quantum Troopers Episode 21: Paryang Monastery
    Author

    Philip Bosshardt

    Philip Bosshardt is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. He works for a large company that makes products everyone uses...just check out the drinks aisle at your grocery store. He’s been happily married for over 20 years. He’s also a Georgia Tech graduate in Industrial Engineering. He loves water sports in any form and swims 3-4 miles a week in anything resembling water. He and his wife have no children. They do, however, have one terribly spoiled Keeshond dog named Kelsey.For details on his series Tales of the Quantum Corps, visit his blog at qcorpstimes.blogspot.com or his website at http://philbosshardt.wix.com/philip-bosshardt.

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      Book preview

      Quantum Troopers Episode 21 - Philip Bosshardt

      Quantum Troopers

      Episode 21: Paryang Monastery

      Published by Philip Bosshardt at Smashwords

      Copyright 2017 Philip Bosshardt

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      A few words about this series….

      *** Quantum Troopers is a series of 15,000- 20,000 word episodes detailing the adventures of Johnny Winger and his experiences with the United Nations Quantum Corps.

      *** Each episode will be about 40-50 pages, approximately 20,000 words in length.

      *** A new episode will be available and uploaded every 3 weeks.

      *** There will be 22 episodes. The story will be completely serialized in about 14 months.

      *** Each episode is a stand-alone story but will advance the greater theme and plot of the story arc.

      *** The main plotline: U.N. Quantum Corps must defeat the criminal cartel Red Hammer’s efforts to steal or disable their new nanorobotic ANAD systems.

      *** Uploads will be made to www.smashwords.com on approximately the schedule below:

      Episode # Title Approximate Upload Date

      1 ‘Atomgrabbers’ 1-14-16

      2 ‘Nog School’ 2-8-16

      3 ‘Deeno and Mighty Mite’ 2-29-16

      4 ‘ANAD’ 3-21-16

      5 ‘Table Top Mountain’ 4-11-16

      6 ‘I, Lieutenant John Winger…’ 5-2-16

      7 ‘Hong Chui’ 5-23-16

      8 ‘Doc Barnes’ 6-13-16

      9 ‘Demonios of Via Verde’ 7-5-16

      10 ‘The Big Bang’ 7-25-16

      11 ‘Engebbe’ 8-15-16

      12 ‘The Symbiosis Project’ 9-5-16

      13 ‘Small is All!’ 9-26-16

      14 ‘’The HNRIV Factor’ 10-17-16

      15 ‘A Black Hole’ 11-7-16

      16 ‘ANAD on Ice’ 11-29-16

      17 ‘Lions Rock’ 12-19-16

      18 ‘Geoplanes’ 1-9-17

      19 ‘Mount Kipwezi’ 1-30-17

      20 ‘Doc II’ 2-20-17

      21 ‘Paryang Monastery’ 3-13-17

      22 ‘Epilogue’ 4-3-17

      Chapter 1

      State of Being

      "It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell."

      Buddha

      Place: Unknown

      Time: Unknown

      As a young child, Johnny Winger had always loved taking a bath. Lots of words could describe the feeling: security, serenity, safety, warmth, cocoon. Not words a three-year old would use, but you get the idea.

      Thoughts like these and others came to Johnny Winger. He was a little disoriented.

      Where am I? What is this?

      He remembered being disassembled by Doc II…Config Zero was there…the cave…the brilliant light….

      He decided to open a coupler link to Doc II.

      ***We were inside Config Zero, Johnny…you have been de-constructed…I stored your identity and memory patterns in a small file called ‘Configuration Buffer Status Check.’ Just a few extra bytes***

      Doc, is that really you? Is this really me?

      ***It is…the capture process was successful, although there may have been data dropouts…too early to tell. Johnny…we must keep this link closed…I don’t know if Config Zero can detect us, but it is best to be cautious***

      Okay, Doc…just trying to make some sense of all this. Flashes of memory came trickling back…Mighty Mite Barnes…the cave…the flames….

      Now the coupler link was dead and Doc II was probably right. Somebody else might be listening.

      Maybe taking a warm bath as a three-year old wasn’t the best way to describe being a few atoms in a larger swarm. Try this: buried under the covers on a cold winter morning. No? How about stumbling about in a darkened bedroom trying to find your slippers? Or: getting separated from your Mom and Dad on the boardwalk at Daytona Beach for three hours, with all the panic and frantic worry. Or: locked in a closet by your big sister, fumbling around with jackets and coat hangers.

      Johnny Winger decided to try a more logical approach to figuring this out.

      I think, therefore I am. At least, he thought he was thinking. I have a mind. I have thoughts. But there was more. Something more than his thoughts. Was somebody else in here? That was ridiculous.

      I have sensations. Hot, cold, hard, soft. Try to analyze this.

      A snatch of memory came to him: Personal identity is the unique identity of a person existing through time. That is to say, the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a person at one time and a person at another time can be said to be the same person, persisting through time. In the modern philosophy of mind, this concept of personal identity is referred to as the diachronic problem of personal identity. The synchronic problem is grounded in the question of what features or traits characterize a given person at one time.

      Where the hell did that come from? I must have read that.

      Now, he was sure of it. There was someone else in here. Just a snatch of voice, a snippet—

      ***Do you recognize me?***

      Recognize you? I can barely hear you. Yet, there was something—

      An image came to mind. It was fuzzy at first, but with effort, it sharpened. It was a man, an elderly man with a fritz of white hair on the back of his head, rumpled and patched corduroy jacket, hardly-ever-washed jeans.

      Doc Frost.

      ***Hello, Johnny…it’s nice to see you again…pardon me for saying so, but you seem a little confused***

      Hey, Doc…am I? Am I…you know…?

      Doc Frost smiled, that same avuncular smile. ***You’re wondering if this is what it feels like…to be an angel…to be part of something greater***

      Actually, I was…well, yeah…I guess I was sort of wondering that. I thought it would be like being inside a cloud. Or maybe a tornado.

      Again the smile, this time even wider.

      ***It’s a transition phase, that’s all. Meant to make the change easier. There are many reports about what it’s like to be an angel…we’ve archived all of them. And we use them for others, those who are new to the experience***

      So, I’m actually an angel…wow…what do others say about all this?

      ***Some reports describe feelings of a kind of warmth, or a closeness, affection, even a form of love, a family or sense of belonging, in a way or at a level they never experienced before, as humans, as Normals***

      Yeah, Doc, I do feel some of that. Are these normal feelings?

      Doc Frost scrunched up his face, thinking. ***Well, to be honest, Johnny, feelings and emotions are different here. Feelings are programmed in and allotted processor capacity. You know the Central Entity runs all these routines, just as a way of keeping the mother swarm together. Social cohesion, just like a tribe or a clan, is just as important for an angel swarm of bots as for any family of Normals. Just like your family***

      So, Doc, will I…always be like this? Can I go places, do things, be other people or things? I’ve heard—

      Doc Frost held up a hand. ***You’ve got lots of questions, Johnny…I think I can answer most of them, but first I have some instructions for you***

      Instructions? What kind of instructions?

      Doc Frost seemed to fade slightly, as if a faint mist had drifted between them. The outline of the Doc was still there, just less distinct.

      ***You’re taking a little trip, Johnny. Back home. That’s why your patterns have been maintained. You’re going into the Net, you can do that now. You’ve got a special mission…a very important mission***

      A mission…what kind of mission? Am I a trooper again?

      ***In a way…you’re going to help defend the Net…Johnny, bad things are happening there. The Central Entity needs the Net…think of it as a nursery, a breeding ground for your brothers and sisters…all angels. They’ve come from a long way and they need the Net to do their job***

      But the Net is just a network of computers…links…software….

      Now, the Doc Frost image turned stern, its eyes narrowing and the corners of its mouth turning down. ***Johnny, there are grave threats to the Prime Key, coming from the Net, coming from the node where you will be sent…you’re needed to defend this node…many of your brothers and sisters are themselves on a special mission…***

      Johnny Winger listened carefully to what Doc Frost was saying. He knew the Prime Key was the master algorithm. It drove everything. He readily agreed to what Doc Frost…or what he imagined was Doc Frost…was saying. How could he not? That’s what it meant to be an angel…the greater good drove everything.

      But this seemed different. Though he was compelled to follow Doc Frost’s directives…no angel could say no…he knew there was another mission, unspoken of by Doc Frost. He wanted to link up with Doc II but he was afraid the link would be discovered.

      He was here to serve the mother swarm but a small part of him understood that the other mission was just as vital…to learn what he could about the Old Ones, gather intelligence and somehow get that intelligence to the Normals…so the blasted thing could be defeated.

      It was a struggle between the two missions…serving the mother swarm and gathering intelligence needed to defeat that very same mother swarm. Espionage was like that. Mata Hari and all that. Serving two masters. Slicing yourself ever more finely to feed the appetites of two worlds, hoping and praying that the two worlds would never meet and annihilate each other, like particle and anti-particle.

      Somehow, Doc II had been able to deconstruct him and allow him to be

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