Gareth sat in a strange chair with straps around his waist and arms. Diodes were connected to monitoring machines all around him.

Dr. Mendez and Stephen walked quickly around the room. First, they’d visit one monitor, then another, then they’d take some notes and walk over to check another monitor.

“Um, excuse me?” Gareth felt rather constrained while strapped to the metal chair and had no idea what they were looking for.

Without looking up from the screen, Stephen responded, “Oh, don’t worry. We’re just checking you for signs of energy reaction.”

Dr. Mendez also absent mindedly replied, “…Right. So I’m sure you know about energy fields and all that. As researchers from the power company, we’re specialists in examining the field and how it interacts with our world.”

Gareth thought for a moment, “Actually, I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about?”

At that, they both stopped, gave each other a confused look. Dr. Mendez turned to Gareth. “You don’t know about the energy fields and how they interact with our world?”

“Ah… not really?” Gareth flushed awkwardly.

Dr. Mendez raised an eyebrow, “They teach it in every school on the entire planet? It’s what makes our technology work now. Is that ringing any bells?”

Gareth flushed as he realized the problem. Gareth had proficient reading experience, and a decent self-education from the books he’d read, but they were all old. They were really old. When most of the books had been written, the modern equivalent of electricity drawn from the particle field had not been refined. As such, Gareth had no idea how it worked or why it worked. “Oh. I never managed to go to school. I’ve read a lot thought?”

Dr. Mendez’s eye went wide, “Why didn’t you go to school?”

“Well, I’m an orphan and never had the chance to go, I guess? The orphanage and nuns where I live didn’t have much funding. The other kids never really got to go either.” Gareth tried to scratch his head, and then remembered his hands were restrained.

“I see.” Dr. Mendez thought for a moment. “I’ll tell you what, Gareth. How would you like me to teach you? Would you like to be my apprentice?”

“Doctor!” Stephen’s eyes widened in horror, “I’m your apprentice, and you know the laws. Researchers may only have one apprentice at a time in order to preserve the integrity of their knowledge!”

“Oh, shut up, Stephen! You know as well as I do that you’re only three months from completing your program with me anyway. In fact, I’ve already passed your approval to be a journeyman with the company! I was just waiting for the right time to tell you. Your credentials have even already arrived.” Dr. Mendez smirked.

Stephen’s eyes grew wide and a smile spread slowly across his face! He’d been an apprentice for four years, and it appeared to have finally paid off! He was going to advance!

Dr. Mendez smiled as well. Stephen was standing there uncertain of what to say next. “I’ll tell you what, Stephen, I’ve pretty much got a handle on things here. Why don’t you go and get the credentials off of my desk, you can check to see if they’ve set up a desk for you over in the journeymen division. If they have, you could even move your stuff over already!”

“R-really!?” Stephen stuttered and then took off practically at a sprint without waiting for an answer.

Dr. Mendez watched him go. He looked at his clipboard and smiled. That was easier than he had anticipated. As a journeyman, he’d have been forced to include Stephen in the researchers on the project. Now that Stephen was “off the team”, all discoveries would be the sole property of Dr. Mendez. Dr. Mendez grinned and turned back to Gareth.

“Now, let me tell you about the history of the particle field, and how we use it…”

As Dr. Mendez explained the history of energy over the last several decades, DEE supplemented Gareth’s knowledge with a more thorough explanation of the world as well.

----------------

The first man to harness the particle field was Dr. Aaron Blake, but he wasn’t the last. Since his simple generator, hundreds upon hundreds of scientists had made their contributions as well. This resulted in the current state of Gareth’s world.

The particles themselves, as Gareth understood them, did not actually exist in his dimensional frequencies. They existed in their own. After the cataclysm, all particles arrived on their own dimensional frequencies due to the cataclysm. Only through the help of DEE could he successfully access their dimensional frequencies and absorb their power.

The particles, though in his dimension, existed on their own dimensional frequency. Thus, they had no problem passing through solid matter, and couldn’t actually interact with the material world. There were two exceptions to this rule.

To create an analogy, a radio will only receive the channel that it is set to receive. The receiver cannot interact with all the radio frequencies at once. In a similar way, the entire universe that Gareth existed in was tuned to the same precise dimensional frequency. That didn’t mean other frequencies weren’t present, the universe’s “tuner” just wasn’t set to their channel.

With DEE’s assistance, Gareth understood more. The cataclysm in the other dimension had interacted with their universe simply because it spanned numerous frequencies (including their own). The energy particles were spread out across the entire spectrum of these frequencies. Some of them were closer to the same frequency as Gareth’s, others were further away.

To make matters even more complicated, the particles were also spread across different physical locations. Some particles weren’t even anchored to the same frequency or location and drifted across the dimensional spectrum like boats adrift at sea.

The first energy particle to successfully anchor itself and interact with a human was DEE. The frequency of Gareth’s brainwaves coincidentally ended up on the exact same frequency as DEE’s dimensional existence. His birth coincided with DEE’s physical location. Thus, as a simple non-sentient energy particle, she has managed to become anchored within his mind. As Gareth grew, she evolved with his developing intelligence and harnessed his growth to further her own. She used his intelligence to format her own, and using her extra energy and processing speed, she developed for more quickly than even Gareth himself. She discovered her origins, realized the truths of the cataclysm that had yet to be uncovered by humans, and figured out a way to interact with her host. She even determined ways that she could unlock her ability to adapt and interact to this new world. Finally, she activated her plan when Gareth arrived in a situation that threatened both of their survival.

What was the rest of the world harnessing for power? That was the second exception to the rule. As these particles existed on their own frequencies, they emitted a basic flaw. Raw energy bounced off their beings and phased through the various dimensional frequencies. Due to the large number of particles, this created a haze of energy that continuously existed within Gareth’s universe.

It was like exhaust from a car made up of unburned gas fumes. The “exhaust” from these particles was sufficient for humanity to harness and burn as fuel, not as a combustible, but through the absorption and ordering of the exhaust itself.

The generators were simply that; they were an interface with the “exhaust” that was then channeled through circuitry as a type of pseudo-electricity. The glowing colors were caused by the specific materials and densities of the channels being harness, and the quantity of “current” able to be processed through those channels.

The colors even had a ranking. White was the lowest. This indicated that the circuitry was microscopic or had a very low quantity threshold. Then came blue. Blue indicated that the threshold was slightly larger. Without filtration, many of the regular lights in Gareth’s world would be shades of blue. The next threshold was green. Green was like the standard power found in archaic household outlets. It was able to be harnessed for use in most applications, such as powering displays and equipment. Next came purple, purple was like the power found in old fashioned powerlines and high voltage electricity. It has many industrial usages.

Finally, there was red. Red wasn’t quite the same. It essentially indicated that their was an uncontrolled channel without the normal boundaries. That is why the crazed squirrel had been red. When biological organisms managed to harness, but not control the energy, their color was red. It had tremendous potential for use, but the uncontrolled state would often have side-effects. “Small” things could occur like insanity, spontaneous combustion, and odd abilities.

Thankfully, due to Gareth’s newborn age and DEE’s matching frequency, this hadn’t happened to Gareth. So long as Gareth didn’t bite off more than he could chew, and followed DEE’s recommendations, DEE would be able to assist him in controlling the power and safely harnessing it.