The Quantum Connection
 The Breathtaking Sequel to Warp Speed
—Science Fiction Written by a
Real Scientist Who is Also a Gifted Writer.
Steven Montana, computer whiz and hacker extraordinaire, was attending college in Ohio when his world fell apart. A swarm of huge meteors fell all over the world, on Europe, on the United States, and in particular on Steven's home town in California. In an instant, his family and all his friends were gone.
Suffering fits of deep depression, he dropped out of college and ended up working as a repairman in a video games store, where he did a brilliant job of repairing a 30-year-old video game. That caught the attention of the game's owner, who happened to be in a position to get Steven a government job, cracking computer codes, and reverse engineering unusual hardware.
When he was given a tiny piece of hardware to examine as a "test," he worked out its functions so well that he and his boss were called to Washington for a Top Secret meeting. They asked him countless questions, yet declined to answer his; but he would soon learn all the answers.
The "meteor" onslaught that had orphaned him had actually been a brief and still secret war between the U.S and its enemies (as told in Warp Speed) using a new warp drive technology that was more secret than top secret. Another secret was that U.S. had been sending faster-than-light ships to other star systems. Most secret of all was that unfriendly aliens were observing the Earth, and while U.S. spaceships were not quite in a war with the unknown aliens, they were shooting at the intruders.
Whether any of these answers would do Steven any good was an open question because he learned them only after he was abducted by those very same aliens and was held prisoner on one of their ships orbiting Saturn. At first, he was one of three human prisoners, but he had just seen the aliens completely dissect one of the three, and it looked like either Steven, or the Russian girl who was his fellow prisoner, were scheduled to be the next alien lab experiment. . . .
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Travis S. Taylor—“Doc” Taylor to his friends—has earned his soubriquet the hard way: He has a Doctorate in Optical Science and Engineering, a Master's degree in Physics, a Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering, all from the University of Alabama in Huntsville; a Master's degree in Astronomy from the University of Western Sydney, and a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University. Dr. Taylor has worked on various programs for the Department of Defense and NASA for the past sixteen years. He's currently working on several advanced propulsion concepts, very large space telescopes, space-based beamed energy systems, and next generation space launch concepts. In his copious spare time, Doc Travis is also a black belt martial artist, a private pilot, a SCUBA diver, has raced mountain bikes, competed in triathlons, and has been the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of several hard rock bands. He currently lives with his wife Karen, his daughter Kalista, two dogs Stevie and Wesker, and his cat Kuro, in north Alabama.
Praise for Warp Speed, the prequel:
“Reads like Doc Smith writing Robert Ludlum; beautiful, vivacious female astronauts, sterling-hearted redneck scientists and evil mercenaries bent upon galaxy-wide conquest. You won't want to put it down. FLUBELLS AWAY!” —John Ringo
“You thought they didn't write 'em like this anymore? Doc Travis does!” —Jim Baen
Cover art by David Mattingly
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 Hardcover
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and
events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real
people or incidents is purely coincidental.
First printing, April 2005
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Taylor, Travis S.
The quantum connection / by Travis Taylor.
p. cm.
"A Baen Books original"-- T.p. verso.
ISBN 0-7434-9896-8
1. Computer hackers--Fiction. 2. Alien abduction--Fiction. 3. Meteors--Fiction.
I. Title.
PS3620.A98Q36 2005
813'.6--dc22 2004029932
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ISBN: 0-7434-9896-8
Copyright 2005 by Travis S. Taylor
All rights reserved, including the right to
reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
http://www.baen.com
Production by Windhaven Press
Auburn, NH
Electronic version by WebWrights
http://www.webwrights.com
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