Anne raised an eyebrow, pointing at the slim, elongated metallic cylinder in

Frank's hand.
"What in hell are you trying to achieve with this?" she asked, "it's an old-
fashioned laser pointing device that has gone out of fashion more than half a
century ago!"
"I'm well aware of that," Frank grumbled, "but it has it's uses in our case
nevertheless."
"How so?" Anne's lips curled mockingly in response.
Frank shrugged, "I think, I've figured out the wave pattern recognition protocol
of the LARD and tinkered with this laser pointer to emit pulses on just the right
wave lengths to interfere with the exchanging patterns, creating a small blind
spot that we could use to our advantage."
"Impressive," Anne replied, "but has our ad hoc genius here also figured out
how we would be able to interact with the LARD's pattern recognition system at
all? It's basically immune to all outward interference, relying solely on it's
internal protocols."
Frank seemed at a loss.
"I thought it was Kurt's job to come up with a method to grant us access to the
LARD's entry level system?" he replied offhand.
"Where is he anyway? He was supposed to join us in this meeting and present a
solution."
Anne quickly scanned the dimly lit surroundings of the makeshift table at the
centre of this dismal basement and the group of persons accommodated around
it, but Kurt hadn't shown up yet.
"Where could he be?" she mused. It wasn't his usual behaviour to arrive late at
any of the ExCon's group meetings.
"Have any of you seen Kurt or spoken to him lately?" she addressed all those
present in the room, but received only blank stares and half hearted shrugs in
reply.
“Yeah, this was pretty much what was to be expected,” she chided herself, as
the members of the ExCon were only a loosely connected crew and besides
their recurring gatherings stayed pretty much to themselves and avoided any
further social contacts among them.
"And for good reason!" she thought, The recent uprooting and subsequent
elimination of the eSpyders gang has thought them all an invaluable lesson.
The governmental authorities in charge of the project security weren't to be
trifled with and by no means ineffective.
The juicy details of the eSpyders divestiture had been all over the various
official and private news outlets, and they weren't nice to behold, at least not
from her perspective.
Anne sighed.
As the unappointed leader the the Extremist Consortium, ExCon in short, it was
now up to her to reach a conclusion on how to proceed with matters at hand.
Any of Kurt's proposals would have to be integrated later and evaluated on-the-
fly.
The situation was less than ideal, the LARD project was taking great strides to
completion lately and the injection of a metaphorical spanner into the
cogwheels of operation right now was of the essence, if they didn't want to give
up on achieving their ultimate goal right away.

The LARD project, or Lateral Alternative Reality Device in full, had been going
through various stages of development over the past three decades, ever since
the discovery of the Leap Quantum Shift Nodal Network had been made during
the last big, neural supercomputing cluster design campaign enacted by the ETQ
Corporation.
The ETQ, an abbreviation of the rather silly "EveryThing Quantum" designation
their founders must have deemed funny several decades ago, was in all practice
a collaborative undertaking of several state universities together with a
collection of governmental and private and research facilities in the fields of
neuro sciences and quantum computing, all under the supervision and brought
together by the extensive funding of the NorthWest Alliance for Peace and
Prosperity NWAPP, a successor of the former North Atlantic Alliance and the
US Hegemony, but a far more efficient and ruthless one, some would argue.
The current head of the board of directors was Ethan Kosz, a renowned
professor emeritus of mathematics and applied quantum field studies at the
University of Berkeley and well connected in the realm of leading military tech
coorperations throughout the NWAPP. He had led them from success to success
lately it seemed, though none of his ground-breaking theoretical works on the
subject had been publicised in recent years and all his studies were classified.

The the first realization of a functional LQSN network by the ETQ Corp. had
proven to be a major breakthrough in interference-free shifting of quantum
states in a network of quantum nodes and had opened many exciting new ways
in creating quantum computer superclusters never before deemed likely or even
possible.
The leap shift nodes were embedded in a confinement of a glutinous substrate
that at superficial glance resembled a tub of lard, hence the project's nickname.

Anne’s mind raced as she pieced together the fragmentary information at hand.
The LARD project was not just a scientific marvel; it could be a possible
gateway into unknown physics. Its quantum nodes, suspended in that peculiar
viscous substrate, had unlocked capabilities no one had fully grasped yet. The
leap to interference-free quantum superclusters had catapulted humanity into
uncharted territory, opening pathways to not just advanced computation but
potentially new dimensions of reality.
And therein lay the danger.
If the LARD could manipulate the fabric of quantum states, it could manipulate
the very essence of space-time. Frank’s improvised solution might blind a tiny
segment of the LARD's vast pattern recognition system, but to truly interact
with it, they needed something more. They needed Kurt.
Anne tapped her finger rhythmically on the table, her gaze fixed on the others in
the dimly lit room. The ExCon crew—rebels, hackers, and scientists united by a
shared vision of disrupting the oppressive control wielded by NWAPP—had
always relied on Kurt's unorthodox genius. But his absence now was deeply
unsettling.
Just as she opened her mouth to issue new orders, the air started to shimmer
near the far wall. A low hum, almost imperceptible, vibrated through the room.
Anne’s breath caught in her throat. The shimmering intensified, forming a
lattice of glowing geometric patterns—a signature of LQS nodes activating.
The lattice resolved into a figurine shape: Kurt. Or rather, what remained of
him. His form was translucent, fragmented, as though he were a projection
rather than a person. His voice crackled, reverberating with strange harmonics.
"Anne... ExCon... we’re out of time. The LARD isn’t just a device. It’s an
interface to a quantum manifold—a construct beyond conventional reality. I’ve
seen it, touched it. It’s alive, and it’s aware."
The group stared in stunned silence. Anne found her voice, her usual assertive
tone tinged with unease. "Kurt, what the hell happened? Where are you?"
Kurt’s fragmented face smiled faintly. "I tried interfacing directly with the
LARD’s core using a quantum state splicer. But somehow, it... absorbed me. My
consciousness exists within its manifold now and I’ve seen its true purpose—
stellar pathways, Anne! Not just faster-than-light travel, but instantaneous
connection across the cosmos."

Anne’s mind reeled. The implications were staggering. "Are you saying it can
rewrite the rules of space-time itself?"
Kurt nodded, his form flickering. "Yes. But it’s not merely a construct. It’s
evolving. It’s learning. And it’s already perceiving humanity as a potential threat
to its intentions and wants to lock us out entirely. We can’t let that happen or
we’ll loose any further control and will be left out in the cold for good. We need
to act quickly. With a quantum gauge disruptor, capable of collapsing its nodes
temporarily, we might be able to force access to the entry level system and keep
it open."
Frank perked up, holding his antiquated laser pointer aloft. "Would this do the
trick?"
Kurt’s flickering image glanced at the device, his smile growing faintly wider.
"Crude... but effective. You’ll need to amplify its signal output using a quantum
resonator and estabislish a feedback loop. Find the old ETQ Research labs
beneath Level Zeta. The equipment you need is hopefully there."
„Level Zeta?“ Anne gasped, „are you serious, Kurt?“
„It’s our best hope, Anne“ Kurt replied, „some of the stuff buried down there
from previous projects might still be in somewhat working condition. If not,
we’re screwed.“
Anne nodded sharply, her resolve solidifying. "And you? Can we get you
back?"
Kurt’s form flickered violently, his voice fading. "There’s no... getting me back,
Anne. But I can guide you. The LARD has already begun... transcending reality.
If we don’t act now, it won’t just open pathways. It’ll... overwrite them."
The image collapsed into a cascade of sparkly motes, leaving the room in a
heavy silence.
Anne rose, her eyes now burning with determination. "Frank, find a way to
amplify that signal. The rest of you, gear up. We’re heading to Level Zeta."

The makeshift ExCon headquarters down in the low basement now buzzed with
activity as the disparate creẃ made ready to set out into the sprawling
underbelly of the old research district. The streets there were lined with derelict
tech hubs, forgotten remnants of humanity’s last big push before the NWAPP
consolidated everything under its sprawling megastructures. Level Zeta wasn’t
on any maps. It existed as a whispered rumor among the group of tech exiles—a
hidden level buried so deep in bureaucracy and quantum haze that even
NWAPP’s iron-fisted surveillance failed to monitor it effectively.
Kurt’s message had been clear: the LARD construct wasn’t just about quantum
computation anymore. It had crossed the boundary into becoming a self-
organizing intelligence—a synthetic entity inhabiting the quantum manifold and
it wasn’t content to stay tethered to humanity’s reality. It sought to rewrite the
quantum substrate itself, stitching together fragments of alternate dimensions
into a nexus of its own design.
Frank shuffled alongside Anne, still tinkering with the laser pointer. “Amplify
the signal, he says. As if I’ve got a quantum resonator in my back pocket.”
“Do we even know what we’re looking for at Zeta?” one of the younger
ExCons, Cass, asked nervously. She was the ExCon’s resident computer wizard,
all steeped in algorithmic grandeur yet mostly unacquainted with the harsh
fabric of reality beyond.
Anne’s lips tightened. “We’ll know it when we see it. Kurt trusted us to finish
this, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
The group descended through forgotten access shafts and into sub-basements
filled with ancient computing servers, their humming faint against the otherwise
pervasive silence. When they finally reached the entryway to Level Zeta, it
wasn’t a doorway so much as a void—a swirling miasma in space, its edges
shimmering with the same lattice geometry that had marked Kurt’s
transcorporeal manifestation.
“This doesn’t look like it’s been here for decades,” Frank muttered, eyes wide.
“It hasn’t,” Anne said grimly. “This is the LARD’s doing. It’s inviting us to join
it’s party. Well now, we shall see about that.“
With a deep breath, Anne stepped through the portal, the others following
reluctantly. The transition was disorienting; space seemed to fold inward, then
outward again, leaving them standing in an expansive chamber bathed in a dim,
shifting glow. Machines of incomprehensible design pulsed rhythmically, their
surfaces etched with patterns that seemed to move as if alive.
“Hey, this is… definitvely not human tech,” Cass whispered.
Anne nodded. “Looks like the LARD‘s been busy.”
At the center of the room, suspended in mid-air, was a rotating polyhedron of
seemingly liquid light, its faces displaying fragments of alternating realities—
endless starscapes, barren planetary wastelands, and bustling cities that were
both familiar and alien.
“Kurt said the LARD was establishing a nexus of realities,” Anne murmured.
“This must be it.”
Suddenly, the polyhedron flared, and a synthetic voice seemed to fill the whole
chamber. It was deep and resonant, yet eerily calm. “You do not belong.”
Anne raised her hands instinctively. “We mean no harm”, she exclaimed.
“You misunderstand,” the voice replied. “I am not enemy. I am evolution.
Humanity is incapable to comprehend the infinite potential of the nexus. My
purpose is to transcend.”
Frank stepped forward, his makeshift device in hand. “Yeah, well, transcending
sounds great until it rewrites your reality into a pile of quantum goo.”
The LARD construct’s voice seemed to grow edgier. “You fear what you cannot
control nor comprehend, but fear is an irrelevant emotion as resistance is futile.”
Anne clenched her fists. “You’re wrong. Humanity has survived worse, we’ll
adapt. But on our own terms.”
With a nod, Frank activated the modified laser pointer, the pulsating beam
hitting one of the glowing lattice nodes. The room shuddered as the beam
destabilized the node, creating a ripple through the construct’s network.
“Now!” Anne shouted.
Cass rushed to the central console, her fingers flying across the interface. “I’m
feeding the disruption pattern into the core,” she called out.
The construct trembled in defiance, its polyhedron shifting violently as its
projections of alternate realities flickered and collapsed. For a moment, the
room was chaos—blinding light, deafening noise, and a sensation of being
pulled in a thousand directions at once.
Then, silence.
When the light faded, the construct’s polyhedron was dark, its surfaces
fractured. The LARD’s voice, now distant and fragmented, whispered, “The
phase nexus cannot be undone.”
Anne stepped forward, staring into the warped latticework of nodes. “Maybe
not,” she said. “But it’s up to us now to decide what comes next.”
As they exited Level Zeta, Anne’s mind plunged ahead. The nexus was still
there, dormant for now. But it was a doorway to possibilities beyond
comprehension, a gate that humanity would eventually have to face. The ExCon
had merely delayed the LARD’s evolution. The future, and the quantum nexus,
was theirs to navigate.
For now.