Odyssey (The Spiral Slayers Book 3)

by Rusty Williamson

  “Also, since Nemesis is the first, and only so far, successfully born and developed Whiteship and will be leaving first, it has the greatest chances of success. Nemesis will be carrying a Loud Umbrella ship and these Loud can best work on a way to repairing some of our critically injured. The Spore will carry two stasis chambers, one carrying Howard Dawn and one carrying Nero Maximus.”

  Adamarus nodded his gratitude.

  “Adamarus, you need to complete your crew selection.”

  Adamarus replied, “Yes sir.”

  “Alright then, if there’s nothing else,” there wasn’t. “Okay. Good job everyone. Probability fold in your favor. Dismissed,” and Wicker signed off and the screen went blank.

  ---

  Not half a mile away from Wicker’s office, was the only bar on New Axes Station, The Big Moon.

  It was a rundown place with a notorious if ancient, gag. Inside the woman’s restroom was a naked man with a hinged fig leaf over his privates. If the leaf was lifted a red light and siren went off outside the women’s room. Paton’s placed bets on who would and who wouldn’t light up the night.

  General Whitehall brooded alone in the back in a dark booth. He considered his surroundings. The table was okay really, a nice wood with that one-inch-thick plastic protective coating. The booth? Too dark to see, so then, it was good enough.

  The bar fit his mood. Only lit by small lights and illuminated ad signs, it smelled like beer and sweat. The murmur of voices was perfect.

  He nursed his drink and thought through his situation again.

  Blain Usher, his number two man, was gone, presumed killed during the attack. He was alone but in a position of power, even prestige.

  There was a lot of resentment from many officers because he had raced away from the battle line. But he’d won the top medal for doing it so, fuck them.

  He needed three things.

  One, he needed to be on Nemesis when it left. He’d gotten that.

  Two, he needed to get rid of his second in command…no ideas yet.

  And most importantly, three, no way did he want to chase down and confront that Blackship again. That mission had to change.

  He took a sip.

  The broad strokes of a plan to change those last two items were surprisingly clear. As always, the devil was in the details.

  He’d have to take control.

  Getting rid of all the Loud was the first step. Then getting rid of Dolton and Adamarus or… discrediting them.

  He took a large drink and set the glass down too hard.

  He needed somehow to kill two birds with one stone.

  ---

  Nemesis left orbit and began the ten-month journey to the Serena black hole.

  Evelyn was of course selected to be part of Nemesis’ crew. She had to take the short hop from Anderson to the Larger Moon and New Axes for training.

  The shuttle docked, and she disembarked. She checked the time. She could just make today’s briefing.

  She sent her luggage on ahead to her cabin and found her way to the facility.

  The sign outside said ‘Where you’ll be 99 percent of the time, asleep.’

  She smiled.

  The briefing was conducted by Doctor Bradley Donnelly and it revealed an unexpected and upsetting surprise.

  Donnelly pointed at the large machine and said, “This is the Loud’s G2 Mark-16 Hibernation Chamber. You will be spending a lot of time in one of these…” he went on to explain that it was constructed with regenerating materials, ergo nanomachines.

  He explained that human testing had been going on for two months now and fine-tuning was proceeding on schedule.

  Donnelly then went over the basic operation of the unit.

  Then, “Okay,” he said, “Now for the not so good news. There is a potential problem we and the Loud are still looking at. These hibernation chambers will almost last forever…a billion years or so and its designed to keep a human in stasis indefinitely within those limits. However, your memory fades—ours and the Loud’s. To prevent this, the Loud introduced a chemical into our systems. This chemical contains nanites that enter the brain and constantly trace and reinforce the memory pathways. This works perfectly.” Donnell paused and looked around.

  Someone raised a hand and not waiting to be called on asked, “Then what’s the problem?”

  Donnelly continued, “Yes, well, human brains it seems are a little different from the Loud. They’ve found that when human memory pathways are traced, we relive that memory as if it were real. It seems you cannot tell the difference. Initial human test subjects are finding this very disturbing, and disorientating and the Loud are not sure what to do about it.”

  Evelyn raised her hand.

  “Yes,” Donnelly pointed at her.

  “What exactly is going badly?” She asked.

  “Early subjects are having problems telling what’s real and what’s a hiber-dream. There are other problems as well. Fran,” he pointed to a woman, “is one of the test subjects.” Donnelly addressed her, “Fran, are you having any problems today?”

  Fran stood, “So far… so good. But if I smell something strange and see red lights and wake up in a fucking hiber-pod… I will scream for a long time.”

  “Thank you, Fran,” Donnelly said.

  Fran sat down.

  “That’s called wakeup anxiety. The Loud are experimenting with different drugs and have had some success.”

  Evelyn raised her hand again and asked, “How… much of your memories will be…”

  “All of them, over and over and out of order but… you will completely believe you are reliving these moments. It will seem real. You will not be aware of events in the future. You will not remember getting into the hiber-pod nor know in any way or suspect that you are dreaming. You will relive moments as if they were real… in every way.”

  ---

  It was right after the first briefing when the impact of what was happening hit Evelyn. She would be stuck with seeing him every day, forever. No getting away. Never seeing Harrington or Leewood or Wicker or all her new friends on Anderson. And spending thousands of years reliving her life—no way! She was not ready for that right now…maybe in ten years the Loud would fix this.

  She now felt she’d rather go out on the second ship with Leewood and Harrington.

  She put in for a transfer that night. She could actually arrange her replacement, maybe Clifford Owen or there was a woman named Tony who would jump at the opportunity.

  ---

  When word of Evelyn’s transfer reached Adamarus, he was in the middle of the fueling operation—grabbing the Serena black hole. He was stunned. He would never see her again, and that’s the way she wanted it. He simply had no time to think about this now which was, he decided, a blessing.

  Nemesis had passed through the millions of Tach-com satellites placed in orbit around the gas giant Serena. The gas giant was gone and what was left of Serena was a small black hole spinning madly at the center.

  Adamarus approached it slowly.

  Due to the risk, Leewood and Harrington had been left at New Axes. It was just himself, Radin and their bridge crew now. Adamarus was not sure what to do. He looked over at the four-foot avatar. “Bugs?”

  It turned its head towards Adamarus, “Yes?”

  “What is supposed to happen?”

  Bugs mechanical form turned back to the holograph before them—a tactical view of the black hole as Nemesis approached. “Let Nemesis drift,” Bugs said.

  Adamarus raised an eyebrow, then ordered, “Cut the engines. Let her coast.”

  They waited. But not long.

  “She’s turning and picking up speed,” Radin reported. “She’s headed towards it… making a pass over it?”

  “Or positioning over it,” Adamarus said.

  Adamarus was right. Nemesis got above the black hole and lowered itself. Just outside of the event horizon Nemesis lowered all eight tentacles down into the event horizon and the black hole vanis
hed.

  Bugs reported, “Black hole absorption complete. Transfer to Basin complete. All green.”

  Chapter Four – The Secret

  “Only within the observer’s frame of reference do some things appear infinite.”

  The Loud Named Bugs

  Interview with Lorraine Harrington

  Source: The Archive

  Nemesis had come back to Amular the second most powerful energy source in the star system, second only to Iceis.

  Now the docking of Bug’s Umbrella Ship was undertaken. The seven-mile-long, four-mile-wide umbrella shaped ship easily fit through one of the three openings in the stern of Nemesis. Once inside, it was attached to the hull where Bugs would be working inside the ship.

  In addition, supplies, equipment, ships, and hibernation pods were being loaded and installed.

  Six months into the supply effort a secret meeting was called by Bugs. Only Adamarus, Radin, Wicker and four members of the bridge crew would be included. Of course, word got out about the strange request.

  The meeting lasted two hours and when it let out everyone that attended was angry. No one was allowed to say what the meeting was about. In the weeks following the meeting, everyone who attended acted strange…stone-faced, all business, never any kidding around or laughing.

  Rumors flew, and General Whitehall who had not been invited was livid over the fact that he didn’t know what was going on.

  Tempers flared, and fights broke out among some of the bridge crew who had been in the meeting. It was one of the two navigators, William Sanders, who decided things were unacceptable and took matters into his own hands.

  ---

  Adamarus collapsed in his office. He couldn’t believe what Bugs had revealed and told them. He couldn’t believe what they’d agreed to do. It made him sick to his stomach and gave him a headache.

  He’d been worried about himself before Nero. After Nero’s suicide… he made it moment by moment any way he could. This new hitch… he didn’t know if he could handle it. He couldn’t sleep now. Work was the only thing that saved him, but there was only so much time you could spend doing that. Sooner or later you had downtime, and Adamarus hated downtime.

  That’s when the wake of all that had happened hit him from behind.

  Bug’s meeting was like being hit by a tsunami from the front.

  He looked down at the laser pistol in his hand. A ding sounded. He sighed. Slowly he got up and put the pistol back away. In half an hour he had a tour of The Spore. At least they kept him busy.

  ---

  Tony Jay Mayor thanked Evelyn Eden again for letting her replace Evelyn on Nemesis. She couldn’t believe the bridge, and she had a front-row seat at the coms panel.

  If she could only get the hang of the virtual-language distributor. It was late and she was alone on the dimly lit bridge working on it so when someone walked in carrying a large container, she glanced up absently.

  It was one of the navigators. He looked weird, must be a heavy container, she thought absently. She nodded to him, but he ignored her. She was too wrapped up in what she was doing to pay much attention.

  After just a minute she sensed rather than saw him leave. She was just starting to catch on to things when she suddenly died.

  It was not the explosion from the bomb that killed her, rather Nemesis’ nanite-material’s reaction to the explosion. The floor exploded upward to contain the bomb’s explosion to the smallest area possible. The explosion would have killed her, but instead, the floor ripped her in two.

  Immediately afterward the ruined area bubbled and melted then grew back as best as the regenerative nanite based materials could do. In the case of the bridge, it was perfect. In the case of Miss Mayor…not so perfect. She was in one piece again but still dead.

  The explosion was contained and the video of the navigator planting the bomb left no doubts.

  ---

  Adamarus looked at The Spore. She was large and sleek.

  Designed to perform a bare-bones human bio-sphere restart on a compatible planet it was quite impressive.

  It was 200-feet long and 40 feet tall but could be flown by one pilot. It was interstellar with hibernation pods for 40, and everything was made with nanite regenerative materials.

  The ship was actually kept in an air-lock, ready to go in what was considered one of the safer parts of the huge ship.

  It boasted a Loud gravity engine with speed-stepping and a top speed of around .99 light.

  Adamarus toured the ship’s weapons which were very impressive. His jaw dropped when he saw the armory. Plus, the ships probes and its separate two-man lander were all leading edge.

  He was then shown the Archive. Housed in its molecular bonded slate teardrop shaped container the data-droplet within held all the knowledge of the Amular humans. So much data was stored that no one really knew what it contained anymore.

  He saw the refrigeration modules holding the embryos of animals as well as plant seeds. The automatic medical units and science labs, all first rate.

  Finally, he was taken to the stasis chambers and immediately he felt horrible guilt for not visiting his son Nero before this. Like Evelyn, he had put Nero out of his mind.

  He asked to be alone for a moment.

  He first put his hand on Howie’s chamber. “Patience,” he whispered.

  Then he went to the foot of Nero’s chamber and laid his hand on it.

  “Nero, I’m so sorry. If there’s a way to bring you back… fully bring you back I will… I promise.” He hung his head.

  After several minutes, he left the chamber. Radin was waiting for him. The expression on his face said it was bad news.

  “There’s been an explosion on the bridge.”

  “What? Was anyone hurt?”

  “One dead,” Radin handed Adamarus a PDA.

  Adamarus lowered his head again. Commander Tony Jay Mayor was the one hundred and eleventh death so far on the Nemesis endeavor. “I’ll contact her next of kin Radin if you’ll arrange for the service and contact her backup.”

  Radin nodded, “Her backup is Evelyn Eden.”

  Adamarus nodded, “I know. Let’s get it done.”

  ---

  President Wicker and Adamarus escorted by two guards walked down a long corridor to a closed door with a window next to it. The entire place was unpainted and had an odd musty smell.

  “Sorry, sir,” one of their escorts said, “we can’t go beyond this point.”

  Both Wicker and Adamarus nodded.

  Both guards turned and walked back the way they’d come.

  The guard behind the window did not know who she was guarding, only that only two people were allowed to visit whoever it was. She buzzed the door, and the President and Admiral passed through.

  The navigator sat alone, his head down.

  “William,” Wicker said. The navigator looked up. “William, you killed two people.”

  William Sanders, the navigator, spoke in a haunted and shaky voice, “You can’t really mean to go on…knowing what the Loud told us… knowing what we know…you can’t.”

  Adamarus stayed silent.

  Wicker looked away, “Troy Mayor was a good person…”

  William interrupted, “I know she was a good person. Who else did I kill?”

  Wicker looked back, “It was announced that Troy Mayor and… you were killed in an accident. We will keep you alive and even entertained until telling what you know makes no difference. Until then you go nowhere, you see no one. You died.”

  William looked back agony on his face.

  ---

  Evelyn had finished unpacking and was back home on Anderson…well, her home since the battle. She had regrets, big ones. Since getting back, she had been next to panic—she’d never see him again. She plopped down on the bed and put her head in her hands.

  Her friends had welcomed her back with lots of hugs and tears. This warmed her heart. She took a deep breath and fought back the tears.

  Glancin
g around her small apartment, she felt no joy really. Why had she transferred? She knew it was simple, she transferred because he didn’t know and she couldn’t tell him.

  Beep, beep.

  She pulled out her com unit, “Eden here.”

  She listened for a moment then exclaimed, “Tony’s dead! How?”

  After a moment, “Yes…”, her eyes went sideways and teared up, her hand went her mouth, “yes, I did agree to be her back up… yes… one week… I’ll be there.”

  The line went dead.

  “Shit,” she said filled with relief and furious that she was.

  ---

  Nemesis was ready to leave. She’d be taking Bugs along to handle the singularity manipulation and management of the Basin exchange. A backup Loud would not be needed as an entire Umbrella Ship full of Loud would be coming along. Those Loud would act as advisors. They would be working on a way to bring back Howard Dawn and Captain Nero Maximus. Those Loud would continue to translate the vibrations of the super speck particle advancing their own and the human’s knowledge. Finally, the Loud would help the half million human crew and populace of Nemesis where needed and also add to Nemesis’ defensive and offensive capabilities.

  Nemesis’ departure was also breaking up the President’s special team with Adamarus, Radin, Evelyn and Bugs leaving on the first Whiteship.

  General Whitehall would be in charge of the Marines and newly promoted Commander Matt Dolton would be his second in command.

  To survive this journey not only would a deep biosphere be needed, a deep and diverse technical infrastructure would also be needed—one basically half a million people strong. Everything from farmers to doctors to shoemakers to steelworkers.

  It took only eight months to get everyone on board with all they needed.

  ---

  A final dinner was held for the President’s special team. Attending were Adamarus, Radin, Evelyn, Leewood, Harrington, Woodworth, Jan, Donnelly, Ed Fisher, Sally Barrington, Shelly White and of course President Wicker. All of the surviving members of the team.

  Toasts were made to the team members they’d lost; Brandon Eden, General Burnwall, Lance Thornton and Gerald Van Loader.

  When dinner was over, they solemnly said their goodbyes. And it almost certainly was goodbye forever.