Quantum Gods

There was something beautiful about the slab of falling marble, the light of the afternoon caught on its polished surface, as it rushed towards Ethan from the sky.

Perfectly aimed, it should crush Ethan in the square root of 2 times the remaining distance of 3 meters over g. Or .78246 seconds. Almost enough time to...

The bullet touched the skin of his temple, traveling at 498.63 metres per second, significantly ahead of the gun's blast. It will travel 0.5m (or 1.64 feet) in the next millisecond.

If this all wasn't going on, Ethan might have just felt the pressure of a blast wave from the car bomb detonating behind him.

---

The human brain is amazing. In 5 milliseconds it can clench your body in preparation for action, 100 times faster than conscious thought. Your brain is fast, it is processing information before you're even able to think. Unfortunately, in that same span, the supersonic bullet will have travelled another 2.5 metres... through his head and into the street.

People think time is consistent and uniform, but they only experience time in a narrow scale... Limited by the 'hardware and software' we are equipped with. In a microsecond (0.001s) the human mind, and body, cannot accomplish anything. Even that bullet will only travel another half a millimeter (0.5mm), barely breaking the skin of Ethan's forehead.

In that same microsecond, a supercomputer can perform 100 trillion operations.

A quantum computer though... can solve problems in hours that would take super computers years. A quantum computer embraces uncertainty and uses it to solve problems faster, and what is more uncertain than life?

Superposition let's a quantum computer solve a problem in all of its variations at the same time, so the uncertainty of yes or no, true or false, left or right can all be valid as it calculates the best solution (and the probability of achieving it).

So, while the most probable endpoint for Ethan would be shot in the head, crushed by a marble block, and set ablaze by the explosion; that is not the ideal solution.

Not that he has time to think this, but how did a 16 year old, half Chinese, half caucasian boy with poor grades, but good habits, end up here?

_--------

"Hajime!"

There was no hesitation. The edge of the lanky kid's foot arced towards Ethan's jaw with impressive linear velocity, but would miss by 2cm. Ethan stepped into his opponent, feeling the wind of the kick with his face, left hand striking towards the opponent's face.

"Thwack" Ethan's punch was solidly blocked with a forceful sweep of a forearm. Right chest strike, left roundhouse kick, right sweep; Ethan's flurry of attacks were blocked and dodged, seemingly with ease.

Time seemed to slow as Ethan rotated up out of the sweep. Usually this feeling of hyper awareness came earlier in his fights, and, combined with his exceptional depth perception and kinaesthetic sense, he was able to perform counters almost before his opponent started his attacks. This time, without seeing, he knew the kid didn't just hop above his low leg strike. It felt like he had all the time in the world to calculate every possible counter about to be unleashed on him, if he could just get up fast enough to ...

"Whuuuff"

'Did I just bounce off the mat?', he wondered. The kick waiting for his chest was strong enough to knock him right off his feet. Ethan can see the look on Liz's face from this position on the floor, 'is that concern, or embarrassment?... probably both'.

----

"Losing in the semi finals is pretty good man", Dan says with a grin. He roughs up Ethan's hair as they walk away from the school gym. At 6'4", the green eyed, blonde haired Dan makes Ethan seem short, though he is already 5'10", "and still growing", as he so often tells his mom.

The Fall breeze fills their companionable silence, two 16 year olds considering what comes next.

"How bad did I look during the fight", Ethan asked, his cheeks reddening slightly. He glanced at Dan, seeing the same easy smile as always .

"Well, the last fight was fast, you know?"

"Yeah, I was there", Ethan replied.

"It was more like... you made the other guy look good I think", Dan says, seemingly genuine.

"Thanks for that painful bit of honesty, I hope it wasn't hard to stab your best friend with your insight"

"Nope, easy as pie, man", Dan's smile widened as he said it.

Ethan wins local tournaments fairly often, he is an accomplished martial artist already and has done well in the regional and national tournaments he's been invited to as well. To lose in a semi final round, without scoring a single point, to an average martial artist shouldn't have happened.

"He didn't even win the tournament," Ethan groaned. "I know it sounds lame, but I wasn't able to do my best out there for some reason."

"Well, it could be a lot of things, but I bet Liz watching added to your stress. You were reacting and he was anticipating."

"Liz doesn't stress me out!' Ethan protested, a blush coming up his neck.

"If you say so Ethan, but you've been acting a little weird ever since she asked you to the Dance. I know you've been friends forever, but I don't think going to a dance is going to change much."

By now, Ethan was scarlet and looked ready to run or fight. "It isn't a big deal," Ethan said. "She and her boyfriend broke up and she wants to make him a little jealous. I'm just a part of the stage settings."

"Sure, sure man." Dan smiled wide, his eyes crinkling. It occurred to Ethan that he was the funny awkward one compared to Dan.

"You're a dick," but Ethan was smiling.

The smile was still there when the SUV jumped the curb. The back tires were on the road, but the front tires were almost a foot (30cm) in the air, spinning as they continued to rise. Headed right for them.

People often claim to see their life flash before their eyes before death, but, as more than 5500kg of metal rushed towards him, Ethan saw equations, vectors, predicted paths of impact, lines of escape, and, just at the edges of his vision, a staticky shimmer of aqua.

'Did time stop. Do I have time to think?' Ethan thought. The chrome grill was less than a metre from their heads, and, though the brakes were screeching, it was travelling 50km/h and would hit them with nearly 55 tonnes of force... enough to break every bone and rupture every organ in their bodies.

Impact was... will... should.... could be in .07 seconds (7 milliseconds). Not enough time to scream

---------

When Dan came to, he saw a scene of carnage. A large black SUV, covered in chrome, was crumpled into the storefront that he was sure he'd been standing in front of moments ago. Black smoke leaked out of the vehicle, a woman pressed into a deflating airbag, unmoving as far as Dan could see. Glass glittered everywhere on the street, and slowly it was being stained red by a growing puddle from under the SUV.

"Ethan," Dan screamed as he stumble ran from the other side of the street, "Ethan!!".