Read Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers Online
Authors: Rusty Williamson
“Adamarus has said many good things about you.”
“I hope I did not kill him.”
“Bugs, you must talk to us about the aliens that are coming. We
have questions we must have answers to.”
It considered her words again, then said, “Yes, this is a
reasonable request. I will answer your questions.”
Harrington had opened her mouth to speak, to continue the
argument when she realized that the Loud had agreed. So her mouth moved but
nothing came out. She took a step back, then collapsed into one of the seats
facing the window, let out a ragged breath, and closed her eyes. She noticed
that she was shaking all over, then became aware of the fact that her face was
all wet. She realized that she was crying uncontrollably.
“Scientists eventually discover the basic
subatomic particle that all else is made from: the Speck—a tiny wrinkle in
space time. It vibrates. It's discovered that the complex vibrations are not
random and that encoded within them are massive amounts of data, in fact, all
the information necessary to make a universe. The scientific method is like
swinging in the dark compared to reading the exact instructions directly from
the source.”
The Loud Named Bugs
Opening Speech, 23
rd
Amular
Symposium
on Quantum Physics
Source: The Archive
Leewood, Woodworth and Harrington were waiting for Dr. Kallen
when he arrived. He looked at them and slowly shook his head as he closed the
door to his office.
“How is he?” Leewood asked. It was the next day. Adamarus had
spent the night in the hospital.
Kallen walked around his desk and sat down. “Better than he
looks, but not by much. You know, the e-suit he was wearing was cracked in
three places.” He’d been told what had happened; still, cracking the tough
polycarbonate shell of an environmental suit was not easy. Getting no response,
he continued. “Based on what you’ve told me, when the Loud was holding Adamarus
and made that rapid movement to place him back into the airlock, it was like
getting hit by a truck moving at sixty mph. Luckily, the e-suit is built to
handle high G’s and this provided some protection…but it cannot completely
protect against an almost instantaneous zero to 60 mph change.
The front of the e-suit actually slammed into him, but
because of the tight padded fit, there were no broken bones other than his
nose. But the sudden acceleration did cause internal injuries…mostly to his
brain. Basically his brain was violently thrown forward, ripping it away from
the back of his skull and compressing it.” Kallen hid a smile. He had carefully
selected this description, which was true, but sounded much worse than it
really was—a little payback for what he knew was coming and it had the desired
effect—his three visitors looked at him in horror. That reaction was enough for
him and he held up his hands, “In other words, he has a concussion, but I
suppose, as usual, you need him released right away.”
Leewood, Harrington and Woodworth looked at each other, then
Leewood said, “If it is at all possible. It’s important.”
“Well, fortunately, our new youth and immortality seems to
speed recoveries, even from concussions. He seems fine this morning so, yes,
you can have him.”
---
Adamarus was getting dressed when they got to his room, his
nose was bandaged, but otherwise he looked fine. He looked up at them as he
buttoned his shirt. “Well, that was fun.” That got some smiles. “But I hear it
worked.”
Leewood said, “Really, it was Harrington’s charm.” Harrington
smiled sweetly on cue.
Adamarus sat on the bed and put his shoes on. “So, what’s the
schedule?”
“Bugs, or rather his avatar, will meet us in the situation
room in…” Leewood consulted his watch, “fifty minutes. Bugs has promised to
answer all our questions.”
---
A little before the appointed time, Adamarus and Harrington
were there waiting along with the two guards. Ten minutes previously, the
light outside the listening chamber’s door turned red. A minute later, the
light turned green again. The door opened, releasing white mist and cold air,
and the five-foot metallic robot that was Bug’s avatar stepped out. Condensation
immediately formed on its almost cute form, fogging the few chrome areas and
the bluish metal. Cold radiated off of it.
The head turned looking at each one with its two black eyes,
then returned to Adamarus. “It is good to see you, Adamarus. I am glad I did
not kill you.”
Adamarus raised an eyebrow, “Hello, Bugs. I too am glad that
you did not kill me.”
Bugs turned to Harrington, “Lorraine Harrington, hello. It is
good to see you again.”
Harrington nodded her head.
Bugs turned to the guards intending to continue pleasantries,
but Adamarus waved his hand in front of its eyes, “Bugs, please come this way,
okay?” Bugs hesitated for only the briefest moment then followed Adamarus and
Harrington.
There were a dozen people in the situation room including
Woodworth and Leewood. They sat around a large conference table. Three of the
screens along the wall were active showing the President and two top advisors
who were teleconferencing in. Adamarus and Harrington led Bugs to the head of
the table indicating this was his place, and then took their own seats. Bugs
did not attempt to use the chair and remained standing.
The President started right in, “Bugs, all of us are
devastated by the horrific news of your home system and your…people. The
magnitude of the tragedy is unimaginable. Please let us know if there is
anything we can do to help or if there is anything you need.”
Bugs said, “Thank you, President Wicker. We will do that. Right
now I have a request: that you ask the questions that I know you must have.”
The President nodded then turned to Leewood. “Commander
Leewood…”
Leewood nodded back and then looked at Bugs. “Bugs, what can
you tell us about the attack on your solar system?”
Bugs’ head swiveled from the President to Leewood. “Not much,
I’m afraid. What we know is from the ship we encountered. Our world detected
the alien ship on long-range tachyon scanners forty-five years after we left. Ten
years later, our world dispatched a forth ship here to inform us of the
development.”
“Surely some type of communication could have been sent to
you and/or the ship that was sent here,” Leewood said.
“Outside of pre-arranged signals, superluminal communication
such as our Tachyon com system will not work over interstellar distances. After
about three light years, the increasing lines of probability blur the signal
and the only thing that can be determined are fairly large energy discharges. It
is true that a light speed message would have arrived a little sooner than the
ship, but then…‘you’ would have detected the message and we did not wish to
alert you to our presence until we had studied you and decided it was safe. We
sent a message to our world the day after our first meeting with Adamarus
okaying communications, but that message was traveling at light speed and it
will take over 100 years to arrive. At this time, our only two sources of
information are from the ship we encountered and the tachyon scans of our
system.”
This information hit everyone hard. No one had known how much
information they would be getting, but they had all thought that it would be
much more. They had hoped for firsthand accounts on what the black hole had
done when it reached the Loud’s solar system; what, if any, communication had
taken place between the Loud and the aliens; and finally, how an attack from a
black hole was even possible? They had also expected information on how the
attack had started and progressed and what kind of weapons both sides had used.
Adamarus had been told that the ship they had intercepted had
left well before the alien had reached the Loud’s world. Had they thought it
through, they would have realized that no direct lines of communication
existed—that meaningful information had no way to get through. But no one had
and the disappointment was obvious.
When no one said anything, Bugs continued, “We do know,
however, that our world planned to break communication silence should the alien
ship turn out to be hostile. Therefore we can assume that some information is
en route and should arrive in about 100 years.” This revelation restored some
of the dark mood. Bugs continued, “Shortly after we encountered our ship and,
coinciding with the estimated arrival of the alien, tachyon scans showed
enormous amounts of energy being released within our system. The only
explanation for this seemed to be a massive and powerful attack by the alien
ship. Three weeks after the attack, tachyon scans showed our sun exploding.” Bugs’
avatar seemed to stagger slightly, but it was subtle.
Alarmed, Leewood said, “Are you okay, Bugs? Do you need a
break?”
“No…I am not alright. None of us are. This is the reason we
did not anticipate your need for additional information and your need to ask
questions. In retrospect, given the things we have told you, it is obvious and
I apologize for this oversight. No, I do not need a break. I have been
medicated so that I can function well enough to answer your questions.”
“All right,” Leewood said. “We greatly appreciate your
efforts. Can you tell us everything you learned from the ship you encountered?”
“Yes. My world detected a gigantic black hole with an event
horizon measuring ninety million miles in diameter approaching at just below
the speed of light. It was maintaining a precise deceleration curve, indicating
that it was not a natural object. This told us that it was a ship that was
capable of controlling and using a black hole and that the ship’s destination
was our home planet.”
“I see.” Leewood consulted his notes again.
Adamarus noticed that Leewood’s hands were shaking a little. It
was obvious that, like everyone else, he was feeling overwhelmed by
disappointment, frustration and the raw fear of the unthinkable object coming
at them.
Finally Leewood looked up, and doing his best to keep his
voice level, he asked, “So, between the time the alien was first detected and
the time the ship left to come here, your world learned nothing else about the
alien?” Leewood shook his head in frustration and held out his hand, beseeching
the avatar, “So, you do not know…” Leewood touched his first finger, “who the
aliens are,” he touched the second finger, “where they came from or,” he
touched his third finger “why they attacked you?”
“No,” the Loud replied. Leewood and Adamarus exchanged
looks. Adamarus subtly shrugged, indicating that he must have been wrong about
Bugs knowing who the aliens were. Bugs continued without noticing, “They could not
know of the ship’s intentions at that point, but were aware that the
possibility of hostile intent existed. Also, seeing how advanced the race was,
they knew that if the ship were hostile, they would not be able to win a
conflict with it. They decided to send one ship out to our location to inform
us of the development just in case it did have hostile intents.”
“Do you know, from the ship they sent, if plans were made to
attempt to communicate with the ship?”
“There was no actual planning done before the ship left. However,
it is a certainty that every effort would have been made to communicate with
the aliens. I imagine efforts started as soon as the ship was within range –
say three light years away – and continued up until the end.”
“You said that your planet knew that the possibility of
hostile intent might exist. Do you know what efforts were made to defend your
world against these aliens?”
“As I said, seeing how they could control a black hole, we
knew they were far more advanced than us and that an armed conflict would be
hopeless.”
Leewood stared at Bugs in confusion for half a minute before
carefully asking, “Bugs, do you mean to say that your world made no attempt to
defend itself once it was attacked?” Leewood could not keep the incredibility
out of his voice.
Bugs replied, “That the alien would win any armed conflict
with my planet was a certainty. Therefore, the efforts and cost to prepare a
defense would be simply a waste of time and resources.”
Everyone around the table started talking in low voices. Leewood
and the President exchanged meaningful, looks then Leewood knocked on the table
with his knuckles to silence the talking. “Bugs, does your world have
any…weapons of war? Are your ships in orbit armed in anyway?”
“No and no.”
“I see. Okay, do you know if your world, knowing that the
possibility of hostile intent existed, might have evacuated some portion of its
population, say in a large ark ship?”
“Yes, the ship we encountered. It was the only other space
craft that existed and there was not enough time to build and test another
ship.”
Leewood started to question that statement but then changed
his mind. Instead he asked the next question, “Bugs, you said that your tachyon
scope showed large amounts of energy being released three weeks before your
star exploded. What can you tell us about this energy release: how much, what
type, how long this lasted? Anything will be helpful.”
“Tachyon scans are not too good at showing these things. From
what we could tell, there were energy peaks of (≈1046 joules)[21], but
that is all we can tell. The type cannot be determined. The energy releases
lasted 29.207 hours then stopped. There was a two-hour break followed by a
second energy release of the same magnitude for a period of 2.83 hours. This is
all we can really be sure of from the scans.”
Leewood leaned back and consulted his notes for a minute,
then asked “Alright, does anyone else have anything?”
Adamarus leaned forward, “Bugs, what’s the rotation period
for your planet?”
Bugs’ head swiveled towards Adamarus and considered him for a
minute. Finally it said, “Very good, Adamarus.” Everyone looked a little
confused except Adamarus. Bugs continued, “It is 29.207 hours. Yes, it appears
as though the alien ship may have stood off and destroyed our world as it made
a single rotation below it. Then, it seems to have fired some kind of weapon at
our sun for about two hours, which damaged it enough to cause it to explode
three weeks later. After it accomplished this, it simply left.”
---
Before the meeting had adjourned, the President requested
they all consider what Bugs had told them – ”sleep on it” – that important
follow-up questions would arise by the next morning that would need answers. He
apologized to Bugs, explaining that this was the way his species assimilated
information. He asked if Bugs could possibly meet with them again the next day
at twelve noon, and informed the alien that they would try not to bother it further
unless it was absolutely necessary, for as long as the Loud needed to come to
terms with the disaster that had befallen their home world. Bugs had
reluctantly agreed. Then the avatar simply went inactive, standing there like a
statue.