Alexander Quill

Born

January 3rd, 1980 (age in 2030: 50)

London, UK

Died

n/a

Aliases

TBD

Family

Mustafa and Huma Qaikhani

Racial characteristics

Human

Sex

Male

Height

6'3"

Weight

185 lbs

Hair

Black

Eyes

Brown

Affiliations

The Suicide Kings

Biography

Born to affluent parents in the UK, Alexander Quill (born Azeem Qaimkhani) was well educate, attending the University of Cambridge and earning advanced degrees in maths and quantum physics. He spent time as a graduate student, failing to defend several dissertations on grounds of his ideas being too far from scientific orthodoxy. Frustrated by the academic system, he found employment in the private sector, where his genius was properly rewarded.

With the help of state-of-the-art supercomputers, analyzing billions of data points in real-time streams, Alexander could predict the fundamentally unpredictable. While many unsavory uses could be imagined for his technology, he wanted it to do some good, and after the 7/7 attacks, he wanted to use his power to prevent tragedy. Modern governments, increasingly wary of terror threats, had gigabits of data streaming in from every corner of their nations, far in excess of the ability of human analysts to make sense of. His algorithms could help law enforcement hone in on the most clear and present threats, preventing disaster before it could fully manifest.

He became disillusioned of the UK government as they increasingly used his technology to monitor and control threats to their own power, not to the public welfare. In an act of rebellion, he sabotaged his own creation, only to find himself imprisoned, compelled under duress to restore the power he'd taken from them. When he resisted, they threatened his family instead. Elizabeth, his research partner and wife, was vulnerable, and they used her to keep him docile.

Against his will, he helped them advance the technology, taking it beyond prediction and into manifestation. Quantum particles, it seems, interact with fundamental probabilistic waves as readily as they do the fundamental forces, making it possible for those forces to affect probability. At first, his efforts were scientifically exciting but impractical--flipping electron spins, manipulating quantum entanglement, and so on. But with research and experimentation, larger-scale phenomena could be manifested. When he reached the required threshold, the authorities revealed that this technology had long since been established, but had stalled out, and they'd been searching for decades for a way to resume it. U.S. black projects dating back to the 40s had uncovered similar concepts, and a private-public partnership had even developed it to the point of useful manipulation, until the entire program collapsed in the late 1980s, seemingly overnight. Drunk on the power of his discoveries, Alexander continued of his own volition, seemingly liberated from his prior compunctions.

The possibilities were literally endless--teleporation, time travel, spontaneous creation--all one had to do was master the fundamental mathematics. He made a particular study of games of chance, where the probabilities were simple to calculate, and the outcomes could be significant. Given this control, he was able to isolate a factor that wasn't purely mathematical, something that warped probability in an entirely organic way--ruling out other factors, he concluded that human belief and observation could subtlely affect reality.

As his research reached a zenith, he developed stable "portals", conduits to other realities, where he could glimpse alternate laws of physics, different mathematics, hints at the ultimate nature of the cosmos. And, of course, holes through which things that Should Not Be can access our world, and into which things that should be in our Universe exit it.

Ultimately, this discovery cost him everything he held dear. His own wife fell through one such portal, seemingly exiting the Universe entire, and the disaster claimed most of the research facility in which he'd perfected the technology.

He fled. He had his means, his own devices, metaphorical and literal. In his grief, he remembered the compunctions he'd once stood upon, and cursed himself for letting his curiousity take him too far. In his trauma, he could not let go--she was not gone, just...somewhere else. Somewhere he could find her, and bring her back.

But he would need a place to work. He would need equipment.

Having had access to privileged information, he knew of a facility, perfectly placed for his needs. A nuclear launch silo, converted into a listening facility, before being decommissioned in the late 1970s. Conveniently, it was located underneath Nellis AFB in Nevada, forgotten even by the commanding personnel of the base. Its ancient computers would need some maintenance, but were up to the task. Extensive work would be required, but he had the materials, expertise, and patience.

In Pathfinder One, he built his new mission. He would master the multiverse, find his wife, and restore what he'd lost. The probabalistic waves converging on the city were a perfect data source to advance his research. And yet there, he found something else: vergences, breaches in continuity, and for once not caused by his own machinery. Creatures from beyond, things that shouldn't be, slipping through holes in reality. He realized that others were aware, and did their part to combat this problem, in their primitive way. With his expertise and leadership, they could be honed to a fine edge. They could protect the city from supernatural threats--and he could conduct the experiments and research needed to achieve his goals.

Skills and Powers

Various sci-fi devices that rely on quantum probability manipulation.