Quantum Level Zero

Quantum Level Zero Blog Tour

About the Author

Ted Grosch is an American science fiction the author of the novel Quantum Level Zero and other published short stories. Ted has a Ph.D. and teaches electrical engineering. He has published over 25 works of fiction and non-fiction. He lives in Georgia where he works with wood and trains dogs.

For More Information

• Visit Ted Grosch’s website.
• Connect with Ted on Facebook and Twitter.
• Find out more about Ted at Goodreads.
• Visit Ted’s blog.

About the Book:

 

Title: Quantum Level Zero
Author: Ted Grosch
Publisher: Double Dragon eBooks
Pages: 287
Genre: SciFi
Format: Kindle/Nook

Winston Churchill stated that history is written by the victors. Germany terrorized Britain's civilian population with V1 and V2 rockets. The Nazi historians would have a legitimate rational for that had they won the war. Quantum Level Zero takes place in a dystopian society of the near future Earth, where fanatics are about to win the war on terror for the good for the people and the good of society.

Their leader, Matteen Al-Rama has outgrown his fanatical roots. Once an ambassador and secretary General of the United Nations, he now leads a fundamentalist revolution that uses cloud computing, holographic CGI recruitment rallies, computer worms, rootkits and Trojans, advanced communications, and cybernetic enhancements to spread apocalyptic chaos across the globe. If that weren't enough, rumor of an alien race wanting to begin diplomatic relations with Earth threatens to solidify Al-Rama's global stranglehold.

Quantum Level Zero follows three people at the pivot point in the war on terror, one who has knowledge, one who has great need, and one who has the courage to make a difference. Elijah Baraki is a scientist and former official of Al-Rama's revolution. Eight years ago he lost his wife and three children in a suicide bombing meant to show the world that nobody leaves Al-Rama's organization. Since that bombing, Eli has concentrated on research and radial technology with the intention to wage war on the revolutionaries. In a world where reasonable people become dissidents, Eli is joined by two-hundred other scientists, engineers and soldiers, all of whom have their own reasons to leave their former lives and battle the growing chaos.

Trevor Hadley sabotaged his own laboratory to prevent the authorities from confiscating his zero-point energy research. Now wanted as a terrorist, Trevor has been working on Eli's secret project for the past few years as a lab assistant. Eli sends him to reconnoiter an Al-Rama outpost and is almost killed. He teams up with his brother, Eli's former boss, and Sharon Murphy, a former army helicopter pilot also on the run, in a race to report back to Eli and join the fight to free Earth.

Forces of reason have the edge in the war, but will that remain the case if First Contact goes to the revolutionaries? Quantum Level Zero opens as the world awaits the arrival of Al-Rama's latest ally, an advanced alien race offering anti-gravity, zero-point energy, and faster-than-light travel. Al-Rama won't be satisfied with anything less than world domination. Eli won't be satisfied with anything less than total destruction of Al-Rama's empire.

For More Information

• Quantum Level Zero is available at Amazon.
• Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.
• Read prologue here.

Book Excerpt:

An empty finality settled in Trevor Hadley's gut. What had started as an urgent knock at the laboratory door had become a pounding of metal on metal. The authorities had finally come for him and his equipment. With verdicts rendered, funding canceled, staff let go, and data communications cut off, he remained as the lone captain of a sinking ship. Under the World Powers Act, the UN could lock him out, but they would not take his research.

Trevor bent over the main terminal and typed his final command before he locked down the computer. Angry voices joined the pounding on the door. He picked up a remote control. Two lights on the remote glowed green, triggering a hollow queasiness in his gut. He pocketed the remote and strode to the main entrance. At the door, he glanced back at his revolutionary power generator that sat like a malignant monolith among the instruments, computers, and cables that fed the device.

He slid the dead bolt aside and opened the door a crack, pressing his body against the opening. Five soldiers in US Army uniforms and blue barrettes on the front stoop parted. Their leader, a scrawny officer, stepped to the front of the group.

"Dr. Hadley," he demanded, his tone arrogant.

"Yes." Trevor suppressed a sneer.

The captain put the palm of one hand on the door and shoved it open another few centimeters. "I am Captain Patterson." He held a document out to Trevor. "I have a warrant to confiscate your laboratory."

It had happened—the final insult. The only reason the UN issued a warrant was to send US troops. They could have sent multinationals in the dead of night without documentation and no other witnesses. Trevor had scared some high-ranking officials. He stepped back from the court order as if it reeked, allowing the door to swing open.

Patterson flipped the writ on the floor at Trevor's feet. "Fine. Consider yourself served." He shouldered Trevor aside and then faced him as six armed soldiers strode into the lab, fanning out around the ten-by-ten-meter facility.

One skinny, caustic-looking man with a shotgun stepped over the yellow caution line painted on the floor and headed straight toward the core of Trevor's power generator.

Trevor stepped forward to shout a warning.

Patterson stiff-armed him. "Stand clear, Hadley."

The skinny man ducked under a bundle of high-voltage cables and approached the kettledrum-shaped generator core towering above him.

Trevor reached over Patterson's shoulder to point at Skinny. "Stay away from that."

Skinny's head swiveled in Trevor's direction. He pointed the barrel of his gun at the generator's shiny plasmon metamaterial underbelly above his head. "You mean this?"

Trevor braced for the inevitable disruption of the quantum vacuum between any dense mass, like gunmetal, and the plasmon material. A bolt of electricity spun off the generator's superconducting surface and stabbed the barrel of Skinny's gun with a crack and a shower of sparks. Skinny staggered back. The discharge stuck to the end of the gun for a moment, then spun off in a fierce tornado that circled the generator twice before dissipating against the nearest of eight spark arrestors positioned around the generator's flat top.

Patterson poked Trevor's chest with a finger. "Turn that thing off."

Trevor allowed himself a sneer. "You came for it, you turn it off."

Patterson glared for a moment and then spun to face Skinny. "Morgan, go get the technicians."

Morgan shot Trevor a rueful grin and headed to the front door, baring his teeth and chomping on chewing gum as he passed.

Patterson glared at Trevor. "You, stay put." He strode around the parameter, commanding his men to stand clear of the equipment.

Patterson had said confiscate, not disconnect, dismantle, or demolish. The UN wanted the generator intact. After prosecuting Trevor with unfounded claims of imminent danger, they were stealing his research for themselves.

Not today.