I grew up in Palo Alto, which is a little ways outside of San Francisco. My parents aren't the most exciting people in the world; my father is a Professor of Philosophy and his mother a Professor of Social Work at Stanford. With parents like that, It probably doesn't surprise you that school came pretty easy to me. The funny part was that it was math and the modern sciences that grabbed my interest.

My natural aptitude towards Math and Science earned me many awards in school and science fairs, but in the end there were more awards than friends around. Without friends to hang out with, I found myself exploring the University Library and eventually worked my way into the computer labs.

Not that I had any major issues with my parents outside of their pushing me academically, but I wanted to go to school away from home so that I could spread my wings a little. That is how I ended up in Massachusetts at MIT. How else can you get an excellent Math degree and still be 3000 miles and a phone call away from home?!

For some reason, my professors seem to notice and like me. Well, the ones that aren't intimidated! It does pay off in general to show interest in your classes. So anyway, I'm working primarily on probability and statistics, but am finding myself more and more interested in chaos theory. I think it was the chaos theory part that helped me the most in ending up with some scholarships and a research position. I figured why not include all of them in a dissertation?

Somewhere along the line, my fellow students nicknamed me "Euclid." I didn't think it would stick, but it has seemed to. That is what most people call me and I'm pretty used to it now. Now big deal either way.

The research I was doing was for a company called Technology Security, Inc. I guess they really liked my work because they offered me a full-time position and set me up with an amazing computer to work on so that I could work from home instead of moving out to Denver. I actually hadn't met anyone from there, but working from my apartment was enough to sell me. There were other perks too, but the hardware was the best!

I really, really enjoyed the work and research I was doing. It was pretty much cutting edge technology, taking chaos theory, probability, and statistics and weaving them together into computer and networking security. The best part was then testing it and other algorithms by working to break them using similar techniques. Over time I became quite an expert in computer security, cryptography, and code breaking.

I guess I wasn't the only person happy with my work. The director of my division, a Dr. Kertzer invited me to fly out to Technology Security, Inc. Corporate to speak at a conference. While at the seminars, I didn't sleep very well and kept waking up in the middle of the night having strange dreams. In one of them I was having a debate with Dr. Kertzer about Chaos Theory. I woke up kind of in shock at 2 AM that night and couldn't sleep any more. My mind was buzzing with the realization that I could actually control the chaos myself! All the laws of math and science that I had been taught my whole life weren't true. You see, reality wasn't static, it was dynamic! Dr. Kertzer aided me in discovering the truth and I became Enlightened.

The next year was an amazing one for me. I worked very closely with Dr. Kertzer (most of the time remotely) and found that my understanding and research progressed far beyond my wildest dreams. I did spend some time discussing my new understanding of reality with Dr. Kertzer, which was of great help. At the end of that year, I was invited to speak at another conference, this time for a group called Iteration X.

My life dramatically changed after the Iteration X conference. I found that I was flying out to Denver much more often, yet met fewer people interested in the details of my research. Instead, I was dragged into discussions about controlling the masses. The worst part of it all was discovering a dark side to Dr. Kertzer. Feeling the loyalty that all do towards their mentors, I worked at ignoring the growing unpleasantness, close-mindedness, and cruelty I was being introduced to.

It all came to a head on what turned out to be my last trip to Denver. I had become friends with another of the speakers I regularly met at these conferences. At dinner one evening, Joseph took me into his confidence and told me about the Virtual Adepts. He explained them as a group similar to Iteration X, but where personal freedom and freedom of thought was important to all, not like the mandatory party line that Iteration X demanded. For the first time in my life, I found myself afraid and began looking around to make sure no one could over hear our conversation. It was the nagging feeling that this discussion could get us in trouble. I was right. After saying our farewells and heading to our separate cars, I was knocked flat by the explosion of Joseph's car. It would have seemed coincidental if it weren't for the aura of magick around his vehicle.

Shocked and scared out of my mind, I called Dr. Kertzer and told him all about it as soon as I got back to the hotel. At first, he was pissed not about Joseph getting killed, but about what he had told me about the VAs. Then, almost as if a switch was thrown, Dr. Kertzer was calm and ordered me to stay where I was, that he'd send someone to pick me up right away. At first I was relieved. Then it hit me like a powerful punch in the gut. I WAS NEXT!

I barely made it out of the hotel as the black cars screeched up to the front and back of the hotel. Men in overcoats jumped out and went running into the building. My eyes were drawn to the front vehicle and me heart broke when I noticed Dr. Kertzer in the front seat. The sound of yet another explosion and the raining of glass from my hotel window shook me from my trance.

I took the next train back to Boston. An airplane seemed too risky and I wanted time to think. It took a couple of days for all the events to sink in. When I got home, my computer was missing and my apartment was trashed. I spent the next few nights at a friend's place.

After getting my bearings, I logged onto the net and begin my search for these Virtual Adepts. Subtly, I left messages implying that I wanted to be contacted. After a few days I was invited to a private chat room and began the slow process of breaking into the VA community.

I wasn't trusted for a long time, but to convince the VAs of my sincerity I published everything I knew about the Technocracy, Iteration X, and their techniques. I also made public the majority of my research in cryptography, digital web security, and code breaking using chaos theory. A small part of this research was held back so that it could be used to help the VAs, although they don't know it yet. They may suspect, but that is about it. After many different discussions and debates, I was invited to join the VAs and happily accepted.

After settling back down in the Boston area and building relationships with some VAs on the digital web, I was very disappointed to discover that there was only one other VA left in Boston. All of the others had fled the influence of the Technocracy that had grown as more and more technical companies moved into the area. They seemed to have relocated to places such as Atlanta, Silicon Valley, Colorado, and Arizona. One VA is left in the area and we get together on a quasi-regular basis. Fred Orispaa is a local and didn't want to relocate. It isn't that Fred and I are good friends, but he is the only other VAs around and as such, we need each other. Our monthly get togethers (outside of VR to ensure extra security) mainly consist of technical discussions, talking about where the VAs are headed, and most importantly, what can be done to bring the VAs back to Boston.

Over time, I also discovered that not only had almost all of the VAs left, but so had most of the other Tradition Mages. It just seems too much like they had all given up and surrendered Boston to the Technocracy. Being pumped for a fight and still extremely pissed about my poor Technocracy experiences, I have decided to take on the task of working to:


For this plan to even have a chance, I have begun opening my mind to other ways of thinking, other ways of performing magick, and reaching out to as many of the other mages as I can find, regardless of their philosophies and traditions. This has resulted in a very diverse cabal forming, but maybe that diversity is what is necessary to develop and present a combined front in this ugly war. In addition, this has peaked my curiosity and interest about non-technical magick. Why not be armed for the Ascension War with all weapons and abilities available?! The direct result is my recent study into the sphere of Prime and resolve to go on a Seeking to meet and communicate with my Avatar.

I own a two-bedroom condo just off Comm. Ave near the Public Gardens. It is centrally located and kind of electronically shielded by everything else that goes on in the city so I thought I'd use that to kind of blend in. Of course, my second bedroom is really a high tech computer room.

On the Digital Web I can usually be identified because my icon will have the Pi symbol on it somewhere. Occasionally, the icon will be just the symbol Pi. Believing that most of the Digital Web should be available to all mages, I keep a pair of VR sunglasses with me to allow members of my cabal to join me in the Digital Web.

Sean "Euclid" Harrison is copyright 1999 Derek Dunn.
Created as an original character for _The Jehovah Contract_ stories.
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Last update 16-april-99