Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers (25 page)

The shuttle slowly circled one of the colossal ships in the
center of the formation. The ship’s powerful lines, battle armor and
communication arrays were huge. The shuttle could have flown down the barrel of
any one of the ship’s eight double ion cannons.

Adamarus couldn’t remember the number of missile tubes the
battleship had and tried to count them as they flew by the middle section. He
only got to forty before the middle section slid by. He figured a hundred to a
side and was right.

After circling the ship, the shuttle went in close to the
front and turned to face the ship. It drifted up the bow. Each armor plate was
at least ten times the size of the shuttle.

Finally, the shuttle lined up with the three large bridge
view ports. Inside they could see the large multi-leveled bridge with its force
field and inertia buffering arches towering over the numerous command stations.
Adamarus easily found the elevated captain’s chair.

No one he knew had ever commanded one of these battleships
and he wondered what it would be like. Long ago he had had the standard tour of
one of the ten at Anderson. The ships that had won the last war had been over
forty years old, and at the time, despite the awe he had felt at their size and
fire power, he had thought of them as old war relics.

There had been advancements in almost every area from
computers to the artificial gravity systems – the only possible exception being
the weapons systems. With no war, research in those areas had stopped. He
wondered what it would take to get them up to date.

The shuttle slowly backed up allowing the rest of the armada
to slowly come into view again. Now, about where it had started from, the
shuttle came once again to a halt.

 Finally Leewood found his voice, “Holy mother.”

Adamarus had a somewhat silly grin on his face. He said
slowly, “Things are definitely looking up!”

Harrington said, “Let Bugs tell us we don’t have a chance
now!”

Leewood jumped on that, “Yeah, really!”

Adamarus felt very confident looking at the armada, but when
he remembered that the alien ship was controlling and using a black hole as its
power source, doubts formed sending cracks through that confidence. He decided
against voicing this now—let everyone have this moment. They certainly needed
it.

Woodworth wiped his watery eyes and still looking at the
ships, called forth a few historical facts, “As I recall, each Juggernaut took
a minimum crew of about 1500 trained officers and enlisted, and that’s not
counting the pilots and support crews for the 112 L-Class fighters each
carried.” Woodworth felt everyone looking at him and tore his eyes from the
beautiful sight before them. “We have a lot of recruiting and training to do.”

Leewood looked back at the ships – the empty ships. “We have
forty ships and about 200 years,” he muttered.

Adamarus looked at him, “We need to get started.”

Leewood nodded solemnly, “Right!” then turned and walked from
the hatch to the cockpit and activated an intercom beside it. “Pilot, take us
back, best speed.”

---

In their mid-nineties, Brandon Eden and his wife, Evelyn
Angela Eden, had lived in a quaint secluded cottage perched on the edge of an
eighty-foot cliff overlooking the windswept ocean off of Sunset Point. As the
waves broke on the rocks below, they spent their time primarily just enjoying
each other in the sunset of their lives.

Fondly remembered was Evelyn’s father, Donald Ryan Rafferty,
who had designed the Leviathan Class Battleships and managed the construction
of the secret Hideaway Shipyards as well as the battleships at the beginning of
the war.

After her mother had died, Evelyn was taken by her father to
live with him at the shipyards. At that time there was nowhere in the solar
system that was safer. She had been twelve then. As she grew up, she trained
under him as he perfected both the shipyards and the Leviathan’s design.

In her early twenties, she had met a young engineer working
under her father named Brandon. They’d fallen in love and married. When her
father passed on, she and her husband took over the shipyards and finished the
last of the first ten Leviathans.

For all the design effort, the years of work and the billions
of dollars, the ten great battleships had seen only two brief engagements. Only
one of their ships had fired its weapons at an enemy. But they had accomplished
their objective and any number less than ten might not have.

The war had been at its height, both sides seemingly more or
less matched, both sides posed to strike at the heart of their enemy. A fleet
of seven enemy battleships and assorted support vessels had been en route to
attack defense installations on Amular’s larger moon – a precursor to attacking
Amular itself. They were intercepted by all ten of the new never before seen
Leviathan battleships. The sight of the new ships must have shocked the enemy
fleet, but none the less, they had launched 800 missiles at the new ships. The
advanced counter measures of the new ships had shot down all of the missiles. Then
the lead Leviathan Battleship had fired two shots from its enormous forward ion
cannons – a weapon that was also completely new and unknown. It tore through
the battle armor of the two lead enemy battleships like a hot knife through
butter, the powerful beams exiting the rear and nearly hitting several other
ships. As the two enemy ships disintegrated in secondary explosions, the same
lead ship then fired ten salvos of its new Mach-22 nuclear tipped missiles from
its 200 silos at the remaining enemy fleet – all in under a minute – then
demanded immediate and unconditional surrender.

The enemy watched the expanding plumes of their two lead
battleships and tracked the 2,000 nuclear missiles arc outward at Mach 22, then
turn in towards their ships. The number of missiles was clearly overwhelming
and certain doom. They contemplated the fact that all this had come from only
one of the ten Battleships. They surrendered immediately. They had been
transmitting this battle back to the enemy capital located on the largest moon
of the 2
^nd
gas giant, so when the new Amular fleet approached with
all of its 1200 L-Class fighters deployed like angry hornets around it, the
capital of rebelling mining settlements that called themselves the USIMD, or
United Settlements of the Independent Mining Consortium, transmitted their
unconditional surrender after a brief coup and the assignation of their
military leader. Thus, the hopes and dreams of the new rebelling government
faded into the chapters of history.

But the war had been devastating in both the loss of life and
property, surpassing all the previous wars before it combined. Then President
Bonnet decided that Amular would never be caught off guard and subjected to
such a horrible war again. So at the request of President Bonnet, both Brandon
and his wife had stayed on at the secret shipyards after the war and
constructed thirty more ships over the next twenty years.

The Edens had never had time for children—at the time they
had kind of felt that they had had thirty of them. If they tried, they could
remember the day they and all the workers had left, closing the great shipyards
– remember the last lights going out shrouding everything in total darkness. Evelyn
had cried. But those days as well as the shipyards and the thirty great ships
that still floated out there in the deep dark coldness of space never came to
mind anymore – it was ancient history and they just never thought of it.

And then the Loud had come, and with them, the wonderful
incredible miracle:  restored youth and a second chance at life. Unending life!
Now they were both in their late twenties again. Brandon was his old tall,
lanky, handsome clean-cut self. And Evelyn…the incredibly beautiful woman that
had turned every head was turning them again. She had a round face with rich
full lips, the most perfect little nose, stunning brown eyes and a high
forehead. She was of medium height and had a perfect figure. They were both
enrolled in the prestigious Brentwood University taking classes trying to catch
up in the engineering fields they had once been on the cutting edge of.

Then came the day when Brandon and Evelyn were both called
out of their classrooms. Serious men in gray suits requested that they please
come with them – that it was ”very important.”  For a brief moment neither had
the faintest idea what was going on. Then, suddenly, they looked at each other
knowing what it had to be.

In a mild state of shock they had been taken to the airport
where they were put on a jet plane and flown to the capital. There, they were taken
to an unmarked building and left alone in an expensive looking conference room.

Twenty minutes later, they were completely shocked when
President Wicker, the Secretary of Defense, and several other aids walked in. President
Wicker had first sincerely apologized to them—both for interrupting their
classes and also for all the mystery. He told them it was of the utmost
importance and asked them to be patient; they were needed, and soon he would be
able to tell them why. But of course they knew it had to be related to the
shipyards and the thirty ships. And that was very exciting!

They had no idea if the Hideaway Shipyards that they had left
all those years ago had been left alone all this time or reactivated, or
really, if any of it was still there.

But all of this had to mean something else too—that there was
danger, that all was not as it seemed, and that was very worrisome. They
wondered if there was trouble developing with the Loud; was someone worried
that they might attack us? As terrifying as this was, the thought that their
government might be the aggressor, planning a move against the Loud, was far
worse.

Eventually they were taken to a hotel room, courtesy of the
government, and asked to remain there until further notice. They didn’t have to
wait long.

---

Leewood, Adamarus, Harrington, Woodworth and the recently
added Commander Radin had become the small group who had taken charge of “the
crisis,” reporting directly to the President. Adamarus had lobbied for Radin,
his long time friend and second in command, to come aboard as their primary
point of contact with the military. Radin was from the Far North region where
the first name was the family name, so he was officially Commander Radin, although
his name tag read “Radin Talvin."

As new elements of the crisis came to light, the team had had
the authority to pull in anyone and anything they needed. And, as the usual red
tape and bureaucracy got in their way, they cut right through it with the Presidential
authority each carried. And if that didn’t do it, they called the President and
he dealt with it.

They had all just returned to the situation room at Hillcrest,
and although they had slept a lot on the long flight back from the Hideaway
Shipyards, they had come straight from the Presidential Yacht where they had
been cooped up for the last twelve weeks. They were travel weary to say the
least, but you just didn’t tell the President something like that.

The situation room’s main screen came to life and President
Wicker’s face appeared. He looked as tired as they did. “Ah, good, you’re all
there.” He took a deep breath and leaned forward, “I suppose I could have just
told you about the Hideaway yards and the ships. But I remember when I was
taken out there…the impact when the lights went on…I felt you all needed to see
it in person. Besides, feeling the reality of Hideaway tends to provide a
morale boost I felt you all could use.” They couldn’t argue with that.

Wicker leaned back gathering his thoughts. “As I’ve said, I’m
going to depend on the five of you to figure out what needs to be done and make
it happen. You are in charge of this effort and rarely will I butt in and tell
you how to do your jobs. However, I have just hit you with a lot that you did
not know about, plus I’ve taken the initiative in kicking off some related
activities, so I’m going to go over these and what I think we need to do right
away.” He waited for everyone to indicate agreement. “If you know of something
that needs to be done…before the items on my list, just jump in and tell me. If
you think there is a better way to do it, tell me.”

“I have put a few of my aids on contacting all the people
still around who worked at Hideaway twenty years ago. Luckily, the two people —
husband and wife by the way – who managed the Hideaway yards as well as the
Battleship’s design and construction are still with us and have been…collected.
I have both of them on ice in a hotel room here at the capital. I met with both
of them briefly, but I didn’t have time to tell them anything so…they know
nothing, though I suspect that they’ve reasoned it involves Hideaway.”

Wicker consulted his notes then continued. “I was thinking
Leewood and Harrington could collect them and take them right out to Hideaway. I
do not see any communication problems with the Loud and so Harrington really
isn’t needed here, but given the outdated state of the Battleship computers,
she would do more good out there. Make sure they have everything they need – I
want the switch turned ‘on’ out there and those facilities in operation again
as soon as possible. Between the four of you that should be doable. You can get
them up to speed on what it is we’re facing on the way out there. I’m sending
their location as well as their bios to your PDAs now.” Both nodded and took
out their PDAs to check on the data transfer.

The President moved on to the next item, “Now, we cannot hide
this from the public for long, let alone the next 200 years – we need to tell
them. In fact, we need the public to help us prepare. But we have time to
figure out the best way to break it to them and lots of time to piecemeal it
out. Jan Parker, our public relations expert, is already assembling a team to
work on this and she specifically asked for Woodworth’s help. Basically, she’s
hoping you can look back at the wars of our past and look at the different ways
events and news stories led up to the war. The idea is to see what worked well
and what didn’t as far as public support for the conflict.” The President waved
a hand, “I guess many elements could be involved.”