Countdown Amageddon (The Spiral Slayers Book 2)

by Rusty Williamson

  Leewood stood slowly and cleared his throat, “Mr. President, as I’m sure you know, Admiral Maximus has been trying to get the Black Raven group together for several days.”

  President Wicker’s face went slack. He frowned and closed his eyes. Then he turned his head and stared at the live feed from the Tachyon scope.

  Adamarus’ insides fell further. Indeed, he thought, what ‘insights’…what words…could possibly make a dent in the shattered landscape of disaster now surrounding and closing in on them?

  Leewood continued, “The Admiral has some insights into our situation he believes no one has yet…put together. And yes, this time, he claims…promises…it’s not more bad news.”

  On the screen, the President’s stare slowly returned to the assembly. “Not more bad news,” he repeated then he smiled sadly and addressed Adamarus, “You know Admiral,” he shook his head and this time his smile reached his eyes, “just a year ago…just one year…the universe smiled down upon us—we had nothing but…” he shrugged, “…fantastic prospects. The Loud,” he glanced at the motionless avatar, “had given us perpetual youth and unlimited life. They were freely sharing all their advanced science and technology with us but more than anything…well, we were not alone anymore—we had found friends in the void.”

  The President’s smile faded, “Then,” he shook his head, “we discover that ‘an alien force’, one that uses a black hole for a starship, has destroyed the Loud’s entire star system…in a single day.” His eyes wandered off, “Gone…” he looked back at Adamarus, “then, one day later, we discover that same ‘alien force’ is now coming straight for us. A black hole with an event horizon ninety-three million miles in diameter traveling a hair below the speed of light…on a precise course and deceleration curve that will bring it into orbit around our planet in two hundred years.” He leaned back and barked a harsh laugh, “Really? Reality…outdoing…” he waved his arms, “…any horrific fictional story I have ever seen or read.”

  Wicker stared around the room but there was only silence. “If that weren’t bad enough,” he continued with a strained smile, “on its way here, it will pass through our systems ice halo bringing a swarm of comets with it…enough to destroy every rock world, including our own. We find its course will also pass so close to both of our largest gas giants, that one of them might explode, and, in any event, dozens of moons will be tossed randomly across the inner system. Oh and by the way, the ship that seemingly emerges…we must not destroy it. Doing so will cause it to lose control of its black hole…which would destroy everything. No…we need to damage it…and just enough to make it leave.”

  Wicker rubbed his temples.

  “And then…” he said in a flat voice…but he said no more. He didn’t need to—everyone in the room knew exactly what had come next.

  The meeting…the meeting with Bugs…learning what the Loud had been hiding…learning the truth, Adamarus thought and a chill went up his spine. Adamarus had come to realize that, for himself, in order to function, some aspects of that truth had to be looked at through squinted eyes. And, some of it…well, some of it had to be put into a locked box stored in the back of his mind, and never thought of at all. The truth had made them all a little crazy and, of course, in the three days since that meeting, two of them had committed suicide.

  It seemed that the Loud had unknowingly stumbled upon the approaching monstrosity long ago—they had been studying the alien for 800 years. They had not told the humans because they did not believe the humans could handle the truth.

  Actually, the Loud had stumbled upon the blight 900 years ago but had not realized it. They had discovered a massive black hole traveling almost at the speed of light through another spiral galaxy—one that was 800 million light years away. There was an odd nova seemingly in the black hole’s wake. Eventually, they decided the star had been a white dwarf in the middle of its life and that the black hole must have passed so close that it caused the young star to explode. At the time, that’s all they knew…they had no idea what they were really seeing.

  Then, 100 years later, the truth was thrust upon them.

  The Loud had conducted a scientific study. It was just one of many; this one’s purpose was to determine what percentage of the galaxies in the observable universe were active galaxies. Galaxies whose central black hole was actively eating up star systems outputting massive amounts of energy in the form of plasma jets erupting from the galaxy’s center. The results that came back contained a small anomaly; one of the random samples had a much higher percentage of active galaxies. On closer inspection, they found that it was higher because it contained a new type of active galaxy—one where the central black hole was actually exploding, returning all the matter it contained back to normal space.

  Over hundreds of thousands of years, this massive explosion of super-heated plasma and radiation spread outward through the spiral arms of the galaxy and the Loud realized with shock that this process was serializing entire galaxies for the expanding blight would extinguish all life.

  More study showed that these galaxies had another oddity: one of the two plasma jets would have a small plasma stream branching off it, at first, seemingly at random angles. This was so unique it became a footprint for this new type of active galaxy.

  Eventually, the Loud discovered that this area containing the new type of active galaxies stretched from the edge of the observable universe to the galaxies in their immediate area and the timing of these events showed the area had been spreading inward toward them at almost the speed of light for 12 billion years—almost since galaxies had first formed. Whatever was happening, it had been propagating across the universe since the dawn of time.

  In due course, they found that the odd plasma stream that angled off the main jets actually pointed to the next galaxy whose central black hole was exploding. The time difference in the events always matched the distance between them in that something traveling about .99999 the speed of light would have time to travel the distance between them.

  Then they discovered more of the massive black holes in the galaxies uncomfortably near to them. All were just like the one they had already happened upon. They were all traveling at near light speed toward the galaxy’s center and they were all passing through one or two star systems causing their suns to explode.

  Since some of these black holes were slowing down, the conclusion was unavoidable; the black holes were being controlled.

  For over 800 years, the Loud studied these speeding black holes and exploding galaxies, and concluded that the objects coming at them had likely originated beyond the observable universe. They had been spreading and repeating exactly the same actions for twelve billion years.

  To the Loud’s credit, they didn’t fail to notice that in all that time, there was no evidence that any of these black holes had ever failed in their incomprehensible task.

  The Loud gave these black holes a name that translated to ‘Blackship’. The name for the incredibly ancient species assumed to be controlling these monstrosities translated to Spiral Slayers.

  The final icing on the cake: to do what the Spiral Slayers did, the Loud claimed that they had to have reached what the Loud called the Omega level of scientific advancement—meaning, literally, journey’s end. They knew…everything. Moreover, since the discovery of galaxy SS-0 at the edge of the observable universe, the furthest galaxy that showed indisputable signs of a Blackship visit, it meant that they had reached this Omega level of advancement before entering that far off galaxy. In other words, they had reached the Omega level over twelve billion years ago.

  Dr. Van Loader, who had been Amular’s top scientist, had come to believe that the duration of these acts (almost the same age as the universe) plus the fact that these Spiral Slayers were supposed to know everything took these aliens beyond the definition of ‘intelligent species’. Add to this that the Spiral Slayers also met the definition of a “force of nature” and Van Loader had proclaimed as he jumped to h
is death that what was coming met the definition of God.

  “You have my attention, Admiral,” President Wicker said.

  Leewood sat and Adamarus stood.

  “Mr. President,” he circled behind his chair and slid it back under the table, “we’ve learned about this situation that we are in just four days ago. A very complex, not to mention overwhelming state of affairs dumped on us in a very short span of time. There are a few things that, so far, no one has discussed. These…‘things’ affect assumptions we’ve made that may need to be reconsidered. In addition, there are other assumptions that we should be making that, so far, we’re not.”

  President Wicker inclined his head, “Such as?”

  Adamarus turned to the five-foot robot sitting at the table, “Bugs.”

  Only a small red light on its head indicated that the avatar was active. For the first time since the meeting started, the avatar moved—its head snapped toward Adamarus, causing a couple of people to jump. Its familiar slightly mechanical, genderless voice said, “Adamarus, as I have said, we stand no chance of even slowing down this ancient Omega force. Nothing can change what is going to happen.”

  Everyone stared back at the avatar. They had all heard it many times, Bugs’ insistence that preparing to fight the coming alien was a waste of time—a point hard to argue with. Still, in the end, the Loud had agreed to help the humans defend their star system.

  Adamarus held out both hands, “My friend, you know that it is in our nature…no matter how hopeless, we must do everything that we can to survive.”

  The Loud had captured high definition Tachyon scans of the invasion and subsequent destruction of their star system. Analysis of these scans showed that as the black hole entered the inner system, it simply vanished and what appeared to be a single large ship emerged. This ship continued into orbit around the Loud home world. Then massive amounts of energy were discharged for a duration equal to a single rotation of their planet. After this was a 20-hour pause then, a burst of energy 10,000 times more powerful was detected between the ship and the Loud star. It lasted for a period of 28 minutes. After this, the Tachyon scope could detect nothing for three weeks and then the Loud star had exploded.

  Adamarus said, “I have a different question, Bugs.”

  The avatar inclined its head.

  Adamarus continued, “We can trace the activities of the Spiral Slayers, or their Blackships anyway, back about twelve billion years but…that’s normal time. Because the Blackships are very close to a black hole and because they are traveling just below the speed of light, time dilatation comes into play. Because of this, the aliens have experienced far less time. Can you estimate how much?” Adamarus sensed everyone leaning forward.

  “I can only offer a rough estimate,” it said.

  “That’s fine.”

  “We have been tracking one Blackship that is in between galaxies. We estimate that it is traveling at .99999c—that’s a decimal point followed by five nines. However, the alien ship also sits next to a black hole, which increases the time dilation. At its current distance, we cannot get a good estimate of the size of the singularity. Therefore, we can only provide a best guess. Assuming they have our speed stepping technology and adjusting for the estimated time for an average of two-star system stopovers per galaxy plus the estimated time that they spend at the galaxy’s center plus...” it paused and looked at Adamarus, “Do you want the overall time that they have experienced since they entered the observable universe?”

  Adamarus nodded.

  “To them, only about ninety-eight million years have passed.”

  Sounds of surprise came from everyone.

  Wicker said, “That’s…” the president was going to say ‘all’ but ninety-eight million years still was an enormous amount of time so instead he said, “that’s quite a difference.”

  But Bugs hadn’t finished. “Almost certainly,” the avatar continued, “some sort of hibernation would be employed bringing their actual experienced time down further—perhaps up to fifty percent.”

  Admiral Leewood spoke up, “So, you’re saying around fifty million years.”

  Bugs said nothing.

  “That’s still enough time,” Adamarus said.

  Leewood turned, “Enough time for what?”

  “For evolutionary changes,” Adamarus said, which caught everyone off guard.

  “Evolutionary changes,” Leewood said in surprise.

  “Yes.” Adamarus turned his attention back to the Loud Ambassador, “Tell me, Bugs, can a species stop evolving?”

  The short robot took several seconds to respond. “Evolution occurs when cosmic rays affect DNA causing mutations which help an organism’s survival. Close to a black hole, the amount of cosmic radiation is multiplied millions of times. Normal levels of cosmic rays can be filtered out but it takes a lot of effort and normally it isn’t worth it. I’m not sure if anything near a black hole could really block out very much.”

  Adamarus raised an eyebrow, “Okay. However, regarding evolution, aren’t you forgetting something?”

  The avatar just stared back.

  “Don’t you also need natural selection? Mutations will be both good and bad and natural selection eventually promotes the good and phases out the bad.”

  Bugs’ head moved slightly, “Yes, that is correct.”

  “And,” Adamarus said, “with regards to a species who knows everything and who travels around in a starship powered by a black hole, in this environment what kind of natural selection would be in operation?”

  “Very little.”

  “None,” Adamarus shot back.

  Bugs was silent for second then, “Probably none that would affect evolution.”

  “But mutations would continue.”

  “Yes,” the avatar said.

  “But none would really be beneficial to survival though some would be detrimental to it. The detrimental mutations would be the only ones with any evolutionary impact. So, over such a vast length of time, you’d either wind up with grossly mutated population or, perhaps more likely, the species would have evolved to extinction.”

  President Wicker cleared his throat, “What are you getting at, Adamarus? Clearly, whatever the case, the Spiral Slayers are still functioning.”

  Adamarus turned to the president, “Well…their machines are still functioning. Sir, what stands out to me is that we have seen no evidence of change in what they do in twelve billion years. That’s evidence of a force of nature or maybe of advanced machinery but not of an intelligent species.”

  President Wicker barked a laugh, “What difference does that make?”

  A small smile appeared on Adamarus’ face, “Adaptability.”

  Wicker ran an impatient hand through his hair, “Admiral…what would they need to adapt to?”

  Adamarus’ smile broadened, “Us.”

  “Us,” Wicker said incredulously.

  “Please bear with me for a moment, sir.” Adamarus turned again to the Loud Ambassador, “Bugs, you’ve said that your studies of the Spiral Slayers show that they enter a galaxy and head straight for the central black hole and seemingly, cause it to explode. Along the way, they destroy any star systems they encounter.”

  “Yes,” Bugs answered. “We’ve detected over two dozen galaxies containing these black holes and showing this process.”

  “However, we both know that this process, as stated, is quite impossible.”

  “Impossible,” President Wicker barked even more incredulously. “The Loud have identified and verified this in over twenty-four spiral galaxies.”

  Adamarus held up a hand, “And that’s exactly what’s impossible about it, sir. Please…bear with me. We’ve been assuming that the Blackships enter a galaxy, make a straight line for the center and destroy stars that they encounter along the way. This, and remember I said ‘as stated,’ is simply not possible.”

  Wicker threw up his hands in exasperation but said, “Please…continue.”

&n
bsp; “It’s…the emptiness, sir. None of us can really imagine the emptiness of the universe and, more specifically, the amount of empty space within galaxies.”

  Each seat at the conference table had a standard monitor and control station embedded into the table. Adamarus removed his PDA and attached it to his station. Above the table, a hologram of a galaxy appeared.

  “This,” Adamarus said, “is the Spoke Galaxy—the closest spiral galaxy to us. The density of matter within this galaxy is similar to our own galaxy as well as ninety-nine percent of all galaxies and, the few exceptions you find are not far off.” He walked slowly around the table pointing at the holograph. “For instance, the volume of this galaxy is about eight trillion cubic light years—eight trillion,” he repeated for effect. “It contains billions of stars, planets, neutron stars, black holes and lots of interstellar gas.” He paused and looked at the president. “However, if you could take all of the stars, planets and moons and put those together, their total volume would barely amount to a thousandth of one cubic light year.” Adamarus paused and looked around trying to find a way to explain. “Within eight trillion cubic light years, you’re trying to hit one one-thousandth of one light year. If you had a giant machinegun that could fire a hundred of these Blackships a second into this galaxy, your odds of hitting anything would be around eight quintillion to one and, because the stars are in constant motion, these odds do not go down with each shot…they stay the same.” Adamarus laughed, “You could fire away all night and day for centuries and never hit anything.”

  The room was silent for many seconds.

  Finally, President Wicker looked at the five-foot robot, “Bugs?”

  “Adamarus is correct,” the alien replied.

  Adamarus nodded, “Any star system the Blackships encounter is actually selected and purposely navigated to.”

  Admiral Leewood spoke up, “Well okay, but actually we kind of already know this…I mean we know that they are targeting star systems that contain intelligent civilizations…they detect the transmissions radiating into space. So they have to change course a little to encounter them…I don’t see…”