Odyssey (The Spiral Slayers Book 3)

by Rusty Williamson

  “Once we fully understand the information we’ve gathered from translating the super speck, we would be able to modify the super speck and add a message. Because the super speck is a reflective particle, changing one changes them all. Now if our theories are correct, when a universe dies the one thing it passes on to the next universe is a single super speck particle. So, we could send a message to all universes that come after us.”

  “d-bet only knows, it is very dangerous. If we were to unbalance the vibrations in the speck, the consequences could be disastrous. Therefore, it would only be attempted if the situation were dire enough. And it seems it was.”

  “According to the message, universes are ending prematurely. The message is very hard to translate but it seems we, that is intelligent, self-aware life forms, are responsible for this. We are unsure how. The best translation we can come up with is that it is due to ‘seeking that which space-faring races covet most.’ One might think this is faster than light travel but this is simply not possible.”

  ---

  The Slayers refueled and exited, and Nemesis followed suit but it seemed this time that the Slayers were headed nowhere. Then everything changed.

  Adamarus was in the conference room having a meeting with his bridge staff when this happened.

  “Radin, what are the next possibilities?” Adamarus asked.

  “Slim pickings. We’re coming up on a void separating this super cluster from the next. But here’s the deal, if there are no setbacks, we can catch the Blackship in three more galactic groups. However, there are only three groups left before the void and these are off the relatively straight line the Blackship’s always held. It will have to make a sharp turn to hit any of the groups left. If it goes straight, it goes off into 83 million light years of nothing.”

  The com came to life, “Admiral to the bridge.”

  Adamarus said, “Dismissed,” and made his way to the bridge. “Status?”

  “Something’s happening with the Blackship… it looks like it’s disintegrating.”

  On the Tachyon scope, the forward end of the Blackship seemed to be exploding or burning. It looked like a slim part of the front of the Blackship was missing. A quarter hour later there was no doubt, almost a quarter of the ship was gone. When the Blackship was half gone. Nemesis reacted.

  On their own, every door on Nemesis closed. The bridge door sealed. That extra shell on the front of Nemesis that had been a mystery detached. It advanced about ten feet then returned but this time when it reconnected with Nemesis, Nemesis seemed to start burning. Nemesis moved into the shell vanishing as it went!

  Adamarus hollered, “Get that door open! Status!”

  Damage control responded, “Fire reported in forward compartments. It’s advancing very fast.”

  “Why did the bridge door close?” Adamarus asked.

  “All doors on Nemesis have closed.”

  Suddenly the huge chamber that held the holograph glowed red at the far end. Then the wall of fire moved towards them.

  “Get that door open!” Adamarus yelled.

  Everyone was gathered back by the door to get away from the approaching wall of flame. Dora running from the front helm station tripped. Adamarus ran back for her. But as soon as he did, he noticed something. It seemed hard to move and the floor was so slippery. Adamarus went down before he reached her.

  He looked up and saw the wall of fire roll over her. There was no way he could get out of the way. The wall of fire took him.

  ---

  Evelyn had run back with everyone else. Not seeing Adamarus she turned in time to see the wall of fire take Dora and Adamarus.

  “No,” She screamed. Then the wall of fire took them all.

  ---

  Some 83 million light years away, on the other side of the void, a sub-atomic particle known as a speck changed its alignment. This caused other speck particles connected to it to do the same. The connected speck particles created an s-string and this s-string bent around and connected to itself forming a loop and creating a wormhole.

  Tiny s-string machines emerged from the wormhole and hooked around its sides stabilizing it. Then a stream of tiny string machines began streaming out of the wormhole.

  These tiny machines were designed to combine with each other to create a single sub-nite, or subatomic machine.

  The sub-nite was designed to connect in certain ways to others of its type. This created an anite or, atomic machine, that was designed to connect in certain ways to others of its type.

  This created a nanite, a molecular machine, which combined with other nanites of its type to create a single molecule of Nemesis and so it went at incredible speed one molecule after another until everything aboard her was transferred.

  ---

  Adamarus yelled as the flames took him and then they were gone and receding behind him. Dora was in front of him apparently okay. He checked himself, he seemed okay. He heard screams and looked to the back of the bridge just as the wall of fire passed over it and there was his crew, all seemingly okay.

  Radin ran forward, “Is everyone okay?”

  It seemed everyone was.

  Then the navigator looked at the hologram. “Holy shit!”

  The hologram was filled with galaxies.

  ---

  Both Adamarus and Evelyn were with Bugs in the listening chamber.

  “What just happened?” Adamarus demanded.

  Bugs looked half dead. “You took Nemesis to the edge of a void and she jumped.”

  “Jumped?” Adamarus asked.

  “I watched it happen from the nerve bundles and so I saw everything. The half shell coving the front of the ship… we didn’t know what it was for… remember that.”

  Adamarus did.

  “Now we know. It created quantum wormholes that reached out beyond the void to the other side. Once it created these tiny wormholes, it reinforced them. Then the shell took each of the ship’s nanites, turned them into anites, tuned these into sub-nites and these broke down into s-nites. Only the s-nites can fit through the quantum wormholes. Once on the other side, the process is reversed.”

  “But,” Adamarus said, “we’re… I’m not made of nanites and sub-nites.”

  “I’m afraid you are,” Bugs said. “Everything aboard is. The ship saw to this to be ready for a jump.”

  Adamarus looked at his hands.

  “Don’t worry,” Bugs said, “it’s done at the molecular level, and nothing notices a difference at that level.”

  “We’re not human anymore,” Evelyn said. She looked pale.

  Bugs replied, “You act and sound pretty human to me.”

  Chapter Fourteen - The Harvest of Helpers

  “If you add up all of the positive energy of the universe and you add up all of the negative energy (gravity) in the universe, the two are equal and the total energy in the universe is zero.”

  The Loud Named Bugs

  Opening Speech, 23rd Amular Symposium on Quantum Physics

  Source: The Archive

  Aboard the Blackship the Spiral Slayers continued the ancient selection process. In the great chamber, filth flew through foul air rippling with fumes. Below the dais where The-One sat watching, the hoard trudged through the sea of waste in a spiral pattern squawking in cadence.

  “Squawk… squawk… squawk…” echoed through the dark chambers. A measured cadence that went on and on and on without end. For an uncountable millennium the practice had been the same.

  The hoard formed a great rotating spiral that turned and turned over thousands of years. From above it looked like a spiral galaxy. Over a thousand had applied. Now hundreds had dropped from exhaustion or death. The process of the selection for the Harvest of Helpers would go on until exactly 186 remained.

  Then the next step would be taken.

  Before the Blackship were hundreds of galactic groups and they could choose anyone. They had just jumped and normally would refuel after the jump and there was a nice big spiral galaxy righ
t in front of it. But it didn’t have to. It had enormous amounts of singleton. And it could use this to advantage.

  It would be perfect.

  ---

  After the trauma of the jump, the news that they had finally pulled even with the Blackship was welcome if supplemental. There was still 300,000 light years between the two. Which was a good thing for Nemesis was not ready to take on the Blackship. Nemesis was very low on Singleton. They needed to refuel. Luckily, there was a spiral galaxy directly in front of them and close.

  Everyone on the bridge was still jumpy. Even though Adamarus had explained what had happened, when you die by fire and then are still alive, no explanation quite covers it. Saying ‘the de-constructor de-constructed you then you regenerated via auto self-construction’ seemed to be splitting hairs.

  The jump explained the mysterious leaps in the Slayer’s progress across the observable universe.

  The nerve bundles indicated Nemesis was low on singleton with enough mass to get to the next source but barely. They figured that the Blackship must be in the same position. It would also go to the galaxy that was in front of it. A smaller one but right there. Being in two galaxies right next to each other at the same time was far better than before.

  Adamarus gave the order and they made for the spiral.

  ---

  Bugs was resting when a Tachyon burst arrived and the system notified it. It was tired. It hurt. It reminded itself that it was lucky to still be alive. Lucky to still be able to serve.

  Bugs moved the huge hiber-pod holding its disabled hill sized body along the rail to the proper nerve bundles. It had several choices. It decided on a softer, drawn out version.

  There was, always things to check, work to do. So, Bugs went to work. It whistled while it worked though it didn’t realize it.

  ---

  Adamarus had just completed full system tests, an emergency drill and two hours of tactical battle simulations. Both he and Radin were looking forward to downtime. That’s when the entire massive ship shook and the alarms went off.

  “Status?” Adamarus demanded.

  “Checking,” came from engineering and damage control.

  Moments dragged on… finally.

  “We’ve no longer have the singularity. It’s shifted into the Basin.”

  Adamarus looked at the com panel on the arm of his chair intending to contact Bugs when it lit up. He touched it.

  “Adamarus,” came from over the speaker. It was Bugs.

  “What’s happening Bugs?” Adamarus asked.

  “We had some kind of malfunction. The ship lost control of the singularity, so it immediately put it in the Basin to protect itself. The ship is naked, no event horizon and no singularity to protect the ship against space debris. Nemesis is still traveling at .99999 light speed and will continue to do so, but we have no protection or control over the ship. Nemesis is adrift and at the whim of gravitational influences. I am investigating the cause and will attempt repairs.”

  Adamarus was speechless. He looked at Radin. Radin’s mouth hung open. Finally, Adamarus said, “Is there anything we can do?”

  “Not that I know of right now.”

  “When will you or we know something?”

  “I can’t say.”

  “Well don’t let me hold you up. And please keep us posted and if there’s anything we can do, let us know.”

  “I will let you know what I find.”

  Adamarus cut the connection. He looked at Radin, “Okay, what do we need to do?”

  “Make an announcement, tell everyone what’s happening. We need to worry about… shit, any rocks in our path.”

  Space was very empty and vast. Stuff was out there, some of it traveling very fast. The chances you’d get hit by something? Small. The chances of a disaster if you did hit something… almost certain.

  Adamarus was nodding thinking to himself. He said, “Get with damage control and let’s be prepared. The Nano-tech will seal the punctures but if there’s a big one…”

  “Zip up and hunker down?” Radin asked.

  “No. We’ve got a mile of hull, all regenerative and, we might be talking any length of time. Suiting up a quarter million people wouldn’t be practical for any length of time. The half in hiber-pods are basically in suits. I think we just have everyone keep their suits ready. If this turns into a drawn-out affair rather then put everyone in suits, we put them in hiber-pods.”

  “All right. Sounds good,” Radin said.

  Three months later they placed everyone beyond the required crew in hiber-sleep.

  ---

  “Bugs, can you try to explain what’s happened?” Adamarus asked. Nemesis had been adrift for eight months now.

  Bugs said nothing for a long time. Finally, “Nemesis is sick. It may be some genetic defect that was missed. I’m doing everything I can, but it may be… it might be that nothing can be done.”

  This was the first time that Bugs had admitted that maybe nothing would fix Nemesis. However, the Loud had more or less been preparing Adamarus for months now and though Adamarus was taken back, he was not surprised.

  “I will keep working at it,” Bugs said.

  “Okay,” Adamarus said. “Fold in your favor.”

  Adamarus exited the listening chamber. Evelyn was waiting for him. They fell in side by side walking down the corridor.

  “Well?” She asked.

  “Bugs is still working on it but, it finally admitted, for the first time tonight that maybe nothing can be done.”

  “And we’re supposed to just whirl around the universe at a hair below light speed for eternity?”

  Adamarus started to reply then changed his mind.

  ---

  d-eli happened to see it. She was just returning to the lava tubes entrance high on North Peak when she turned to look out over the Atrium to judge the weather. They needed rain.

  It burst through the west wall which, looked like sky to d-eli. It happened on the other side of the Atrium and details were lost to the haze. The wall exploded inward and a huge fire ball trailing black smoke ripped across the Atrium. It went almost the entire length angling downward. It passed over the Lowland Sea and water was tossed hundreds of feet in the air. Then the meteor slammed into the ground on the east side. Rock and dirt were thrown high into the air. Then it ripped through a forest then exited the east wall and was gone.

  It happened so fast—two second perhaps. The space rock was hardly slowed down at all by the brief encounter.

  d-eli stood there in shock. Her heart was hammering in her chest and her antenna quivered. A soft breeze brushed against her cheek. Such destruction on such a scale. And yet around her, right now, it was still, quiet, peaceful…

  Then the horrible sounds reached her. She ducked as the pounding of it knocked the wind from her. The explosion, the sonic boom, the horrible screeching sound, more explosions…

  Then she saw it. A second shockwave was traveling across the Atrium towards her. Trees were being uprooted… entire forests flattened. She had been frozen in shock. Now she ran, ran for her life into the entrance and deep into the lava tubes.

  ---

  Adamarus surveyed the restoration work. The holes had been repaired by Nemesis’ regenerative nanites, but the damage to the Atrium itself would take decades to repair and heal.

  The blast wave and fires had destroyed 70 percent of the Atrium’s forests. Damage to wildlife was yet to be determined. Three thousand had been awakened from the hiber-pods to help with restoration.

  They had had to dig the Stows out of the lava tubes. Thousands had died.

  Now that d-eli was free, she was waiting for him. She was not happy.

  “What happened?” She asked.

  “Nemesis is sick. Normally we are protected against this kind of thing…”

  d-eli interrupted, “We have translated almost all of the vibrations of the super speck particle, Adamarus. We are far more advanced scientifically and technologically then you are. We know a
ll about this living ship. We know how it works. We studied it in detail many hundreds of years ago. Its workings are transparent to us. The ship is not sick.”

  “The ship is not sick?” Adamarus repeated as a question. “How do you know?”

  “It would show here in the Atrium first. We can look at the problem if you like.”

  Adamarus wasn’t sure what to say. “Let me get back to you on that.”

  Adamarus went directly to the listening chamber. Bugs wasn’t in view. Adamarus looked through the foot-thick glass at the empty tracks leading off in both directions. Beyond the tracks, the mysterious nerve bundles seemed to pulse. These too ran off in both directions as far as he could see.

  “Bugs,” he hollered. The translator translated then Adamarus could hear the ear shattering shriek despite the sound proof glass. Bugs could only make relatively soft sounds from air vents in his head. He wondered why his translator still had to make such ungodly noise.

  The place gave Adamarus the creeps. He honestly didn’t know how Bugs could stand its current life.

  Then he saw movement off to the left. Bugs’ hiber-pod came into view slowly moving down the tracks. Finally, Bugs’ hill sized form was in front of the window.

  “Adamarus,” it said.

  “Bugs, the Stow have translated almost all of the super speck… scientifically they are way ahead of us and you. They are telling me that the ship is not sick and that they studied Nemesis long ago and know how she works and they want to have a look at her.”

  “Adamarus, that cannot be allowed. I’m sorry.”

  Adamarus was dumbfounded. “Let me get this straight, you do not want their help?”

  “I do not need their help.”

  “Bugs, we’ve been adrift for…”

  “I do not need their help because all is fixed now.”

  Adamarus was speechless. Finally, he said, “Nemesis is fixed… working?”

  Bugs’ blubbery body jerked up and down within his huge pod. Droplets of spit blew from the three visible air vents in his boney head. The translator did its job. “Yes.”

  Adamarus took a breath. “When did this happen?”

  “Just now.”

  “Just now, just this minute?”

  “Yes.”