Write a short story set on the day Q-Day arrives

[Isla89]

This forum takes its name from Q-Day, the moment when a quantum computer becomes powerful enough to break the encryption that protects much of the digital world. Nobody knows when it might happen, or whether anyone would announce it if it did. That uncertainty makes it a brilliant setting for fiction. What would an ordinary day look like if Q-Day arrived without warning?

Stories can take any angle. It might be a thriller set inside a bank or a research lab, a quiet domestic story about a family whose smart home stops working or a comedy about someone who finally gets back into a long lost email account. Science fiction, satire and drama are all welcome. Technical accuracy is nice, but story comes first

I have tried a short one myself. At 9:14 on a Tuesday morning, every padlock icon on every browser in the office turned red at once. Nobody screamed. Margaret from accounts made a cup of tea, looked at the screen and said she had always preferred paper anyway. By lunchtime, she was the most important person in the building

A few hundred words is ideal, but shorter pieces are welcome too. If you know the technology well, feel free to weave in some real details about encryption, quantum computers or post quantum cryptography. If you do not, invent freely

What happens on Q-Day in your story? Let's hear it