Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers (3 page)

Radin replied, “Aye Captain,” and he moved to take Adamarus’
seat.

As Adamarus turned and walked from the bridge, the next
asteroid moved into position and the next countdown began.

---

The day had gone exceptionally well. They had turned the
harvesting operation over to the Smelting Station, and now it was late evening
and everyone was tired. This was the last item on Adamarus’ schedule.

On the display screen Corporal Greg Donaldson rubbed the
bridge of his nose.  The motion conveyed all the weariness he felt.

A gruff disembodied voice said, “Corporal, you said that what
you saw was…” the sound of papers being flipped, “yes… the word you used was
‘impossible’. Can you explain why?” The doctor conducting the debriefing could
not be seen and Adamarus did not recognize the voice.

Greg’s hand moved from his nose to the hair above his temple,
“Well…” his eyes looked up and to the right thinking back, “distant stars, the
ones so distant that they look almost like a cloud or haze, these were blocked
by the blackness…”

The unseen doctor could be heard flipping quickly back through
his notes as he interrupted, “Now that’s… you said, ‘a blackness that looked
like a hole… blacker than the surrounding space’?”

“Yes,” Greg answered in a tired voice.

“Okay so the darkness blocked out the distant stars… go on.”

“Yes, that’s right, but… the brighter stars… the closer ones,
weren’t blocked out… like whatever was blocking the light was between the
closer stars and the distant stars. But of course that’s insane, you looked at
it and thought, impossible.”

“Pause,” Adamarus said as he leaned forward and placed his
hands on the conference table. Corporal Greg Donaldson’s face froze on the large
screen and the lights were turned back up. Caught in the process of moving,
Donaldson’s face looked unnatural. Adamarus stared at it for a few moments
thinking.

Commander Radin, Lt. Commander McKay, head of security and
Lt. Thomas Harman, head of the Shaped Charge Array Deployment division were also
seated around the conference table.

Adamarus shook his head, “And this happened this morning?”

The head of the Psychiatric Department, Dr. Tanner, was at
the other end of the conference table near the view screen. He casually leaned
against the table over the room’s access and control station. He was an older
man with a tan face and thin gray hair. “Yes, and the pilot, Lt. Hector Servius,
witnessed it as well.” He leaned forward and keyed instructions into the
console and the frozen face was replaced with a representation of the asteroid
train around the planet. “Throughout the day there were seven other sightings in
this area.” Dots appeared off to one side and a blinking box surrounded them. The
area was between the planet Amular and its smaller moon. It was labeled Section
2C12.

“And the cameras and sensors?” Adamarus asked.

“Same as always, they show nothing.”

“How many teams did we have in that area?”

“Fourteen.”

Adamarus turned from the display to the older man, “Over
fifty percent of the teams saw this thing?”

“Today’s sightings were high. Over the last three weeks about
ten percent is pretty much the daily average.”

Adamarus caught Radin’s eye and gave a single nod. Radin had
been right to call this to Adamarus’ attention… again. Radin had briefed him on
this a month ago. Adamarus sighed. He had hoped that it would just go away but
it hadn’t. “So anyone going out there would have about a ten percent chance of
seeing this… whatever this is.” It was a statement, not a question. He looked
over at Lt. Harman and smiled, “I think it’s time you and I inspected a section
of the asteroid train…” he looked up at the display, “…section 2C12.”

Chapter Two - Encounter

“Over three hundred ‘sightings’ have been
reported over the last five months within the Project Harvest theater of
operations. Something like this has happened to one extent or another on almost
every orbital or deep space project throughout history. There never seems to be
an explanation. This time I’m going to get to the bottom of this if it kills
me.”

Captain Adamarus Maximus

Captain’s Log

Source: The Archive

Adamarus wore a silver vacuum suit, his helmet hanging on the
bulkhead behind him. It had been years since he’d been in a vac-suit piloting a
small craft over a rotating asteroid. A smile formed.
Too long,
he
thought.

The cockpit was solid, padded, insulated and comfortable. It
made the lethal vacuum only inches away seem remote. The vibrations from the
engines coincided with their muffled roar. This constant background symphony
mixed seamlessly with the other sounds of the cockpit; the air flowing through
vents, the dozens soft blips of audio indicators and the low chatter of the
radio broadcasting on the all-purpose reporting channel. Various displays
showed computer generated images of the asteroid's interior makeup, the craft’s
course across the asteroid, the status of the SCAUs already planted, and the placement
of the one SCAU left to go.

Adamarus brought the craft down until it was only a couple of
hundred feet above the gray pitted surface.

He leaned forward and looked upward through the view port. Rotating
in and out of view he could see other asteroids with other Explorer Class ships
working them, the flashing buoys, and even the huge carrier ship that had
brought them out here.

He glanced to the right where a display showed the vac-suited
form of Lt. Harman outside the craft making his way towards the last SCAU.

Both he and Harman had insisted that in order to keep
appearances the same, they would take part of a normal ‘planter’ shift. Harman
would normally be back on board the carrier tasked with the mundane chore of
monitoring all of the planter teams. He seemed like he was having the time of
his life actually being out here and Adamarus had to admit he was having a
great time flying the small Explorer craft.

As the one mile by one-half mile rock passed beneath, the
next drop site came into view on the display.

They were almost three hours into the shift and about to wrap
up their first asteroid.

So far they had seen nothing unusual.

“Coming up on the drop” Adamarus said into the microphone.

A burst of muffled static erupted from the speakers. Through
it Harman replied “Got it.” Adamarus checked the radio settings—sunspots were
playing hell with communications today.

A few minutes later Harman and the SCAU dropped away from the
ship.

Adamarus again studied the stars spinning overhead for
anything strange—absolutely nothing.

Ahead was a ridge hiding the horizon. “Lieutenant,” he said,
“I’m going ahead for a look–there’s a canyon beyond that ridge.”

On the descending SCAU Harman replied, “Don’t be too long.”

The SCAU landed. Twenty feet below Harman the explosive bolts
fired, locking the unit down. As the shock absorption pole collapsed, Harman
dropped rapidly into the center of it all with an explosive burst of laughter. “You
know, I forgot how much fun this was!”

Adamarus shot back, “I’d give it a week for the thrill to
wear off.”

“Probably less than that, like right after having to use the
suit’s waste disposal systems the first time.” Both laughed. “Well, keep an eye
out for the boogeyman,” Harman said.

“Roger. Be right back.” Adamarus pulled back on the yoke
causing the craft to fly faster over the asteroid’s surface.

Computers controlled the complexities of maintaining the
ship’s relative position to the asteroid’s surface. The asteroid itself was
moving around the planet at high speed as well as rotating rapidly on its axis.
Visually, this was transparent if you focused on the asteroid below, but the
forces pushing and pulling were still there and often conflicted with what you
saw. Sometimes speeding up was really slowing down and it could, at times, be
confusing to the senses.

Adamarus did his best to ignore this and divided his
attention between the terrain and the stars spinning overhead.

The ridge was coming up quickly. There was a gorge cutting
into it—he headed for that.

---

Harman walked carefully out along one of the SCAU’s metal
legs then paused and watched the spinning universe for anything strange.
Nothing.
Ridiculous
he thought once again…but then, he corrected
himself; too many of his people were seeing this stuff.

After checking all four legs, he returned to the center and
started the drilling sequence.

He scanned the heavens again—nothing.

Since Adamarus would not be back for a while, he had some time
to kill. He decided to check the legs a second time and headed out.

Through his magnetic boots he could feel the vibration coming
from the center of the SCAU where the drill bored into the solid rock.

 Reaching the end he again inspected the steel spikes then
turned and started back towards the center. He had to admit it was good being
out here again—this was the reason he’d joined the astronaut program ten years
ago—but promotions eventually put you behind a desk.

---

Adamarus steered the craft through the gorge which opened up
into a large canyon that cut deeply into the asteroid.

He scanned the stars above the horizon before turning the
craft downward.

He glanced at the instruments checking the locations and
status of all the drops they had made. He noted the readings from the SCAU unit
Harman was currently securing.

There was a minor warning, the drill had hit an empty space
within the asteroid but it had already passed through and was drilling into
rock again.

Adamarus looked back up as the canyon floor came up. He
leveled off and started following it.

---

Harman was halfway out on the second leg. He again scanned
the spinning stars for anything unusual but was distracted by the same warning
on his helmet’s heads up display. It was a common one and he ignored it. Not
wanting to be distracted again, using his HUD, he turned off the helmet’s SCAU
monitoring.

He could not see the strange crystalline formations that had
started growing around the center of the SCAU behind him. They emanated from
the area below the drill housing. Wistful lattice-like shapes of frozen gas
formed, much of it breaking apart and flying off, but enough of it sticking
together so that the size of the formation grew rapidly.

---

Inside the craft, Adamarus was distracted by another
indicator, this time accompanied by an alarm. He quickly located the source –
it was coming from the SCAU monitoring panel. The drill had hit a pocket of
gas, not unusual, but it was a big one from the looks of it. A vague uneasiness
formed in his gut. “Harman, what’s your status?”

The static filled reply came immediately, “Just checking the
second leg. So far so…”

Adamarus cut him off in a calm voice, “The SCAU has hit a gas
pocket… looks big…”

---

Harman turned around and saw the formation, “Damn, look at
that!”

As he watched the growing formation, he was unaware of the
increasing force of the gas jetting out from around the steel drill shaft. He
did not see the chip of rock break free from the side of the drill hole, nor
the escaping gas catching it and flinging it upwards. It hit an area of the
metal drill housing which was coated in a thin layer of the frozen gas. The
asteroid’s gas happened to contain an oxidizer and this allowed a small spark
to form and the frozen gas to oxidize. What happened next happened in the blink
of an eye.

The small spark ignited the lattice formation. Harman didn’t
have time to react as he watched the lattice being devoured by a ghostly blue
flame. Though it surprised him, it did not concern him—the massive explosive
power of the SCAU unit was safely separated into three steel containers.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something move
among the stars. His eyes glanced over to it. The word that came unbidden to
his mind was
impossible!

However, before he could really focus on what he was seeing,
a blur of motion streaked across his vision. This time what jumped into his
mind automatically from years of space duty was 'micro meteorite'. His eyes
followed the barely visible streak to the center housing of the SCAU, watched
in awe as it passed through the three steel containers holding the powerful
explosive materials, watched them bursting apart, and before he could register
alarm, he was literally vaporized into his component atoms and molecules.

---

In the cockpit of the Explorer craft Adamarus had thumbed the
transmit switch to repeat his message, but a sudden flash of light up on the
canyon’s rim caught his eye. As he started to turn towards it… he blinked.

---

The ship’s sensors, computers and AI function operated
millions of times faster than the human brain. By the time Adamarus’ eyelids
had dropped a quarter of the way down, the ship’s sensors had taken a full
spectral scan of the growing plume of light beyond the ridge, measured the
shock waves passing through the asteroid, and detected dust and small rocks
coming over the ridge.

At the same time the AI noticed that the status packets from
Harman’s suit as well as the SCAU had stopped. The intelligent receiver had
already resent queries which had gone unanswered and initiated Level One alerts.

All this information fed into the computer system and the AI
analyzed it, determined what was most likely unfolding, and had calculated the
best course of action.

As Adamarus’ blink continued and his eyelids dropped towards
the half way mark the AI sent out a Priority One Mayday and started the release
of all one hundred sphere-bots to help with damage control. These round softball
size robots usually performed all of the ship’s standard maintenance and
repairs, but they were also programmed for first aid, damage control and other
emergency functions.

At this point the ground beneath the ship shot upward and
automatic systems kicked in: a text message on a status screen above Adamarus’
head changed from ”Tracking” in green letters to ”Proximity Alert” in red,
thrusters kicked in to lift the craft away, and magnetic and pulse shielding
came online to protect the craft.

As Adamarus’ eyelids dropped below the halfway point, the
raising surface broke apart and suddenly thousands of rocks were exploding
upwards. Elsewhere the surface of the asteroid changed, becoming lined with
thousands of cracks. The message on the status screen changed to ”Explosion
Detected” in bold red flashing letters followed immediately by ”Emergency
Egress."

The AI fired the craft’s afterburners, fired the explosive
bolts that slammed the viewport blast armor in place, and engaged internal
dampening. Adamarus’ seat went into crash mode and folded around him.

As his eyelids closed the ship had started turning away from
the asteroid, however, it just wasn’t fast enough. The edge of the blast wave,
thick with pulverized rocks, slammed into the ship, catching and tearing off a
section of the front blast armor and ripping away all the sensor studs and
utility arms.

 That blast wave was from a single SCAU. As Adamarus’ eyes
rested closed for a beat, the other five SCAUs implanted in the asteroid blew
and the entire mountain of rock blew apart.

From a distance it looked like a fire cracker popping – there
one instant, gone the next. This blast wave hit the ship so hard that in an
instant, the craft was thrown outward almost a mile and continued racing away
at high speed.

Adamarus should have been killed instantly but unknown to him
or anyone else, an alien force field had folded around his craft. Even so, as
his eyelids came half open, sparks flew and fires broke out in the spinning
cockpit.

A heavy instrument panel broke away and hit the pilot seat,
knocking it loose as one hundred sphere-bots and smaller pieces of steel flew
around the cockpit, many hitting and becoming embedded in Adamarus’ chest, neck
and arms.

Blessedly the pilot seat separated completely and it, as well
as Adamarus, were slammed and wedged into a small corner where the front
viewport met the lower control panels. This protected Adamarus to a degree, but
he was knocked senseless, organs had ruptured and bones had broken. His legs
were caught between the seat and the control panel, crushing both and all but
ripping them away. Both arms were broken, and the upper control cluster had
caught his head tearing part of his skull away. His face was pressed up against
the armored glass right where the outside blast armor had been torn away.

Everything had happened in point seven seconds and none of it
had registered within Adamarus’ brain. Literally in the blink of an eye, Adamarus
had turned toward a light on the ridge outside, then found himself amid smoke
and fire, and a growing plume of blood that floated above him. It was a miracle
that he somehow clung to life.

Still strapped into the pilot’s seat, his eyes stared blankly
out the front viewport. He could not remember anything.  He was no longer self-aware
and jumbled thoughts and images came and went randomly.

All the lights on the control panels were out and the
emergency lights were on, but the red lighting covers had broken off. It was a
harsh white light that allowed all the destruction of the cockpit and his body
to be reflected in the glass for his shocked and dying eyes. He noticed the
blood floating around him. He coughed and more blood sputtered from his mouth
spraying the viewport.