** Oops: Look for the link for Ch 2 after Ch 18. Other than that they are in order. Couldn't get it moved behind the Home page link. Sorry about that. **

Dr. Anna Lewis: The twenty nine year old doctor weighs in at one hundred and two pounds and stands a feisty, five feet five inches tall. Her skin is pale. She wears her brown hair stylishly short. Light green eyes are set a "normal" distance apart. Her lips are full, her nose is thin. Whilst not beautiful, she certainly ain't bad either. No sir, not bad at all. She works out regularly with weights as her arms, legs, and abs testify. As a General Practitioner she splits her time between Neon City General and Pleasant Town. After many years of running a highly profitable business her Father was found hanging in his office. Anna never accepted the coroner's conclusion of suicide. And to this day she believes that one of her Father's competitors had him killed; most likely for the ranch. But whoever was behind the deed never gained possession of the ranch and its' valuable lands; for Anna received them when her Father's will was read.

Zev Stal: He is the twenty three year old son of Gath and Cela Stal. He stands six feet tall and weighs two hundred and ten pounds. His hair is light brown and falls just above his shoulders. His eyes are also light brown. His face is slightly rounded with high cheek bones and a strong, square jaw. His eyes frame a slightly flattened nose, the result of being broken twice during his training at the Academy. His skin is very tan as a result of the intense sunlight which bathes New Quantum. His body is well muscled as a result of the intense physical training at the Academy.

Herman Valenski: He stands five feet nine inches in height and weighs approximately one hundred and seventy five pounds. He is fifty two years old with an ever so slight paunchabout hismiddle. As a result of his early boxing career his arms and legs are still quite strong. He still spends as much time in the gym as his busy schedule will permit. He wears his grey hair in a pony tail and fancies his nickname, the Silver Fox. His eyes are a light blue set a "normal" width apart. Atop a rather wide mouth sits a puffy upper lip adorned with a nasty scar from his boxing days. His nose has been broken at last count, four times. His ears are large and he is said to have an insatiable sexual appetite.

Vashdon, Lazarous: They are brothers which appear physically identical. They stand approximately five feet tall and are always seen dressed in a robe-like garment whose hood covers their head. Their faces are flat and have no features. They can hear but they "talk" to others using telepathy.

Ardoron: Vashdon's chief assistant on the conquered planet of Zyphon. He stands approximately six feet six inches tall. His skin is light purple in color. His arms and legs are quite slender and are affixed to a rather boxy, chunky body. His head is wide, relatively speaking, and flattened on top. His eyes protrude slightly above a nose which is slightly flattened. His mouth is rather wide. His dark hair is swept backwards down his back.

Sel Atir: She is the girl friend and future wife of Zev Stal. She stands five feet seven inches in height. Her hair is silver/white in color and worn in two long ponytails as is the custom for engaged women on New Quantum. Her eyes are dark blue. Her skin ismoderately tanned. Her eyebrows are silver in color and have the appearance of very fine, short tufts of feathers. Her nose is slender with its endturned up ever so slightly. Her lips are very full and quite kissable as Zev found out on numerous occasions while at the academy. She has nice high cheek bones and a very shapely body.

Gath Stal: He is Zev's sixty year old father and stands five feet seven inches tall. A lifetime of manual labor has rendered him one, powerful individual. He has a deep tan as a result of outside work for over thirty years. His face is round with a thick nose,wide set eyes and slightly largish ears. His eyes once a light blue have now faded to a very dark brown as a result of his increased age. What hair he has left now runs around the back of his head in a slender band.

Cela Stal: Five feet three inches in height and is presently fifty eight years old. Still considered a looker upon New Quantum, she turns heads everywhere she goes. Her dark hair is worn short as is the custom for all older, married women upon her home world. Her eyes are now dark brown because of her age and are topped with eyebrows which still have a trace of silver color within them. Her slider body is lightly tanned. Her face is slightly rounded with very fine features. No one has ever been able to figure out just how she and Gath ever got together. As far as Gath Stal is concerned though, she is the most beautiful woman that he has ever seen.

Captain Rushton Seloco: Forty five years of age, hestands six feet five inches in height. He maintains an over all tan, even in the winter months. He works out regularly with light weights maintaining a lean, hard body. He has a full head of short cropped, gray hair. His eyes are brown and set close together. His lips are thin, his head long and thin with ears which are just a bit on the large size. He keeps his hands well manicured.

Watch Controlled Zypher: He walks with a decided limp as a the result of the injuries whichhe suffered on one of his many survey missions. He has a burned in tan as a result of the radiation from the many alien suns which he has walked under. His hair is dark black and worn shoulder length. He stands 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs in at around 140 pounds. He's as mean as a ground serpent and as tough as bi-trillium. His eyes are a deep blue and are set slightly close together. His face is slender with a strong jaw. His entire body is badly scarred from his many years as a survey pilot.

Herman Valinskies Primary Gang

All descriptions are after attachment of the Morphing Bands.

Angela Bassing: 5 feet 4 inches tall. Thirty years old. Short dark hair. Olive complexion. Weight, 110 pounds. Slender body type. Slender nose. Blue eyes set a "normal" width apart. Thin lips. Highly intelligent. Can merge with computers and computer networks and manipulate data within them. Ex: bank transfers, electronic records.

Frank Mascorn: 5 feet 5 inches tall. 170 pounds. He wears his curly blond hair short. Pale skin. Wide set, green eyes. Chin slightly pointed. Lips and nose thin. Very powerful legs with a low center of gravity. He is able to achieve running speeds approaching 350 to 400 MPH.

Shela Reclu: She stands five feet tall and weighs 105 pounds with long, dark, curly hair. She has olive skin, dark eyes and full lips. She has a beautiful face and figure but is extremely dangerous. She is able to bend light around her effectively rendering her body invisible to the naked eye.

Betty Lou: 5 feet 4 inches tall with short brown hair. Her brown eyes are set a "normal" width apart. Her face is slightly rounded with a thin nose which tops her slightly thin lips. Her skin is pale, her legs and buns are only slightly heavy. One might call them pleasingly plump.

Marmatilda Laidlaw: She stands 6 feet 2 inches tall and is topped with long blond hair. She weighs in with 130, well distributed pounds. Her face is only slightly rounded. Her eyes are light blue and are set a "normal" width apart. Her chin is slightly rounded. And "rounding" out our description, she has slender lips, pale skin and a flat stomach.

Betty Lou and Marmatilda Laidlaw are called respectively, Short and Tall. Short (Betty Lou) can temporarily scramble people's mental processes for periods of time, leaving them with total amnesia for those time periods. Marmatilda Laidlaw (Tall) can scramble electronic equipment, cameras, alarm systems etc. so that they become useless. In combination they both form the perfect duo for providing cover for various criminal activities.

Martha Petowski: 5 feet 8 inches, 115 pounds. Keeps her hair completely cut off. Blue eyes slightly wide set. Rather angular face. Nose is slightly long, her lips thin. She sunbathes and works out with weights leading to a very tan, muscular body. Her hands are slightly larger than normal. She usually works with Willow Bow.

Willow Bow: Standing 5 feet 7 inches tall wiht aknockout figure. Sheweighs in at 115 pounds. Her long black hair is worn braided at all times. Her face is thin with fine features and is adorned with large, dark brown eyes which are set a "normal" width apart. Her skin is light chocolate in color. Even with her great figure her fella likes her feet the best.

Martha Petowski works with Willow Bow. She is able to generate very strong force fields for up to fifteen minutes at a time. Willow Bow works with Martha Petowski and is able to generate and sustain an intense energy beam for up to five minutes.

Ronson Jones: He stands 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 210 pounds. His hair and skin are black. His face is rounded with wide set, dark brown eyes and slightly large ears. He keeps his hair and beard closely trimmed. He doesn't particularly like his beard but finds it useful in hiding the scaring which his acne left many years before. He has a muscular body.He can start fires by touch orconcentrationleaving notrace of how they started. He can also cause explosions within line of sight up to one mile away by concentrating.

Olaf Smith: Standing 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighting in at 280 pounds he is one, big man.When one includes his extreme muscularity he is an even more impressive and imposing individual. Rumor has it that not only can he lift a locomotive into the air and hold it there for several minutes but he can also rip the doors off of bank vaults.

His jaw is strong and square. His ears are slightly large. His eyes are set wide apart and are reported to be the deepest blue anyone has ever seen. Sitting atop a wide mouth which is populated by extremely white teeth, is one, honking, crooked nose. His skin is deeply tanned, his hair blond and worn in a ponytail. His skin is very tough and is resistant to physical injury.

Greta Mark, Benz Snofson: Both are rather non descript in their normal appearance. Simply ordinary would be a good description of the two. Both have short brown hair along with brown eyes. They have pleasant enough faces, but are not overly beautiful or handsome. They both prefer to shape shift into and freely mingle with the beautiful people of high society. They are able to impersonate anyone for up to one week.

Friendly Evers: He is anything but friendly. He is an ex Green Beret who lost everything and was forced to live on the street. He stands 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 170 pounds. He wears his brown hair short, buzz cut style. His wide set brown eyes are topped by bushy eyebrows. A nose which has been broken several times sits atop thin lips and teeth with just ok dental work. His body is moderately muscled. He enjoys wearing a huge, handlebar mustache. His skin has the slight of olive tints to it. His ears are slightly larger than normal. With a touch he can merge with and understand everything about a weapons capabilities and modes of operation.

Waudsworth Boxton: He stands a scraggly 6 feet 140 pounds. His red hair is worn over his ears and is never, ever combed neatly. His eyes are blue green and close together. His face and lips are thin, his nose long and thin. His skin is as pale as milk and looks as if it has never seen the Sun. He is hyper and is prone to quick, jerky movements. He is one, very nervous person. Despite these irritating traits he is a meticulous planner. He can devise, delineate, and plan to the nth detail the most intricate of criminal endevors.

 

                                                                                                                CHAPTER 1

Countless millennia before our time the saga of Quantum Man begins. On the far side of our galaxy sits Eschtalon, a heavy gravity planet which is unique among all the other known worlds in this galaxy. Because of its immense size and composition it is able to bend the very fabric of space. This distortion when combined with the activity of the Machines allows the people of Eschtalon access to the Quantum Plain.

While the visible portion of the Plain travels through normal space, the vast body of the Plain is not a part of ordinary space. The bulk of the Plain, a massive but uniform energy field, like the proverbial iceberg, can't be seen. It exists, invisible, slightly out of phase with space as we know it. Despite Eschtalon's best efforts at analysis, the energy field resists all oftheir attempts at understanding. Generation after generation of scientists find the Plaincompletely baffling.

Although all attempts at analysis prove futile, the scientist's of Eschtalon are eventually able to discover that travel within the Plain is a possibility. And indeed that possibility is proven to be a fact many years later; for a fleet of first generation robotic ships are able to traverse the Plain at speeds that have never been witnessed before. The knowledge accumulated by these ships indicates that the normal laws of space and time do not seem to apply within the energy band. Using this knowledge, along with the aid of the Living Machines allow the people of Eschtalon to construct ships for voyaging within this uniform energy matrix. Utilizing gossamer-like ships they find that they can traverse great distances at incredible speeds. It is at this time that the people of Eschtalon began to build a lucrative and monopolistic business trade with the other inhabited worlds of our galaxy.

It is Eschtalon's position and knowledge within the galaxy that makes this planet the center of all commerce and wealth. Having this single, dominant advantage over the other worlds leads to terrible abuses by the people of Eschtalon. The people's memories upon this desert world prove fleeting; for they quickly and conveniently forget that it is the Machines who enabled them to utilize the Plain.

Gradually over time, these same people take their wealth and unique position for granted. They begin to use both to wrongly force their will upon many of the worlds of this galaxy. This dictatorial attitude effectively forces the other planets and their peoples into economic and political servitude.

After many centuries, the patience of the Machineshas finally reached an end. In a group conference it is decided that the people of this world will have to be punished for the evil which they have committed. So, one bright and sunny day, the people of Eschtalon awake to find their access to the Quantum Plain has been cancelled.

Eschtalon's influence upon the other worlds rapidly decreases. Five years later their influence has vanished completely. Without the speed of travel that the Plain provided, commerce between the other worlds slows. Trade reverts to methods used generations before Eschtalon's rise to power. Sub-light, robot carrier ships once again ply the normal space lanes between planets; sometimes taking decades to reach their intended destinations. It is slow trade to be sure, but without Eschtlon's presence, it is once again free.

Eschtalon's "Dark Time," as it became known, lasts for five, long, painful centuries. Because of its location on the very edge of this galaxy, the once powerful world is effectively isolated from the Central Planets. In essence it sits totally alone in the blackness of space.

All of the wealth that the people had managed to acquire in the past now has little meaning; for they can no longer obtain the thingswhich they have become so accustomed to.

Machinery, once powerful and taken for granted, can no longer be repaired; factories close for lack of raw materials from off world. Medicine and other necessities of everyday life grow scarce. The entire planet plunges headlong into the greatest of depressions. The glory of Eschtalon is now nothing more than a dim and distant memory.

During these centuries all attempts at contact with the machines proved fruitless; for the great, metallic entities no longer seem alive. Everyone that is sent into the desert wastes return with the same story. Every machine is cold to the touch and completely void of even the slightest of vibrations.

Without the needed off-world materials of which the people have grown so accustomed to, the planet's infrastructure finally collapses. People wander from town to town in hopes that the village just over the next hill will be in better shape than the last one that they had visited. By the end of the first century of the planet-wide depression, a once proud, perhaps too much so, and prosperous people, are reduced to nothing more than subsistence living.

Deep into the second century of Eschtalon's Dark Time, individuals begin to be heard here and there. They attempt to tell the inhabitants of Eschtalon how badly they had treated the other worlds in the past. They are politely listened to, but as soon as they have moved on, their message isquickly forgotten.

These Sayers as they would eventually come to be called, appear sporadically throughout Eschtalon's centuries of darkness. Through the latter part of the second century, into the third and fourth centuries they occasionally appear trying to make the people listen and understand just how terrible their planet's past had been. The people listened politely...

The change in Eschtalon's people begins at the dawn of their fifth century of darkness. The stubbornness and refusal of the people to recognize what they had done begins to lessen. Throughout the century this realization slowly spreads.

The final decade of this century is marked by a profound determination by the people to change. They now desperately want to face the future with a new heart, with a respect for the other worlds and for their peoples. This renewed desire for change continues to grow throughout the decade; finally reaching its peak at the very end of the fifth century of their depression.

It is in this sprit of change that the people of Eschtalon hold what is to become known by future generations as The Grand Conference of the Choosing. Runners carry notices of the conference to every corner of the planet. When this monumental event finally begins, it takes place over the course of two weeks and is considered of such great importance that as many of the planets' population as are able camp close to the Grand Hall to follow the events as closely as possible.

The purpose of the conference is to choose one or more representatives to once again make contact with the machines and to convey to them the new attitude which has sprouted amongst the people. During these two weeks, candidates from all of Eschtalon are considered. Every candidate is sent through the testing chamber,the only technology which still works,to ensure their suitability. Sadly, not one volunteer survives. To this day their names and life histories are kept for all to see and read in the Hall of Honor.

A great sadness sweeps Eschtalon's face; the people feeling as if their past might haunt them forever.