Howard replied, “I think the Blackship took the three planets, the matter that made them up anyway.”
“Why?”
“Resources. It did it because it needed resources.”
“So…” Wicker continued, “the black hole basically devoured them before leaving?”
“No, that would have taken too long. The one gas giant seemed to be shrinking before it disappeared. Had we been able to observe the others, I think they shrunk as well. This would suggest that the Blackship somehow compressed the planets and then, somehow, absorbed them. Theoretically, that would be a lot faster.”
Adamarus spoke up, “The Blackship’s course takes it very close to two of our gas giants on its way in. You do not think that this is a coincidence?”
“No, I don’t,” Howard replied.
Wicker asked, “Is there anything we can do about this?”
Howard shook his head, “Not that I can see. However, I understand that most of the Tachyon com satellites have been placed in orbit around Serena in order to use it as a communications hub.”
Wicker placed one hand to his forehead. He immediately saw where this was going. “Right,” he said wearily.
“If the Blackship somehow compresses Serena, this should not impact the satellites, provided its mass stays about the same. They should remain in their orbits and continue functioning. However, if the Blackship takes the planet’s mass, that will disrupt the orbiting com satellites. In the Loud’s system, it apparently took the compressed planets after its attack of their planet and their sun, then presumably collected them on the way out. Still, it would probably be a good idea to place com satellites in orbit around Farnom as a backup.”
Leewood nodded, “I’ll make the necessary arrangements.”
The meeting continued for another hour then finally broke up.
As the teleconference screens went dark, Adamarus got up and headed for the door. He noticed that Howard had walked the other way, approaching Bugs. As he exited, he saw that Howard was quietly speaking to the avatar.
Adamarus walked down the hall then realized he needed to talk to Howard, so he turned and walked back toward the conference room. As he approached the closed door to the room, he heard hollering from within and paused. It was Howard yelling at Bugs. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make out what was being said. He heard Howard yell, “Bullshit,” and then the door opened and Howard stepped out. His face was bright red with anger. Not seeing Adamarus, who wound up behind the opening door, Howard proceeded walking quickly down the hall.
---
Back in the conference room, Bugs stared at the door closing behind Howard Dawn. The short robot fell into a seat, then in the blink of an eye, its hand came down on the conference table. It sounded like a shotgun going off and a dent was left in the table.
On its left shoulder, a small compartment opened. The complex sub-nite that emerged was so small that it could not be seen by the most powerful scanning microscope. It flew toward the closed door. It was so small that it passed right through the molecules that made up the door, then it flew down the hall and entered the back of Howard Dawn’s head. Using material from Howard’s brain, it started growing in size. Upon reaching a certain size, it began spinning and moving about, shredding cells.
---
Adamarus followed Howard, walking quickly to catch up. “Hey, Howard…what was that all about?”
Howard turned, “Adamarus, we must speak immediately.”
Adamarus was shocked by the expression on Howard’s face, “What’s wrong?”
“Everything. I’m afraid that…” but Howard suddenly cut off and lowered his head. Then he reached up with his hands and grabbed it on each side. He let out a mournful wail and dropped to his knees.
Adamarus rushed over and knelt down beside him. He noticed in alarm that blood was coming from Howard’s ears.
“Noooo,” Howard said as he toppled over and crumbled to the floor.
Adamarus dropped down beside him and propped his head up, “What’s wrong, Howard?” but the young man was shaking uncontrollably.
Howard looked up at Adamarus. There was pain in his eyes. With great effort, he muttered, “Paladin.”
Others were now gathering around. Adamarus heard someone holler for a first aid kit.
Adamarus had heard what Howard had said, but did not understand. He leaned in and whispered, “What?” However, to his horror, Howard suddenly stopped shaking and went limp. He looked at Howard’s eyes. They were dilating. He was gone!
Then unbelievably, Howard shuddered violently and sucked in air. His pupils shrunk back down. With great effort, he reached up and grabbed Adamarus’ shirt. Shaking all over, he pulled himself closer to Adamarus. He strained to say something. Adamarus leaned in closer to hear. Struggling to cling to life a little longer, Howard forced out two words.
“Honey Sucker.”
Then he went limp for the last time. He was dead.
Someone said, “Do it!”
Adamarus looked up in time to see someone plunge an Emer-Freeze into Howard’s arm.
---
“It was a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Right now, not even the Loud can, nor could have, helped him. Perhaps, with medical advancements, at some point in the future we can revive him…anyway, we’re going to keep him in stasis and hope,” President Wicker said to the inner-circle. He had called another full meeting to report on Howard’s condition.
Wicker turned to Adamarus, “Tell me again, what the last words he said to you were?”
“He said, I think, ‘Paladin’ and then ‘Honey Sucker.’”
“Honey Sucker?” Wicker asked in confusion.
“It was a rare animal we saw at the zoo, back when you wanted me to talk to him…before he started working with us.”
Donnelly shook his head, “His brain cells were dying—firing off randomly. It probably meant nothing. He probably relived the memory of being at the zoo with you as he faded away.”
“And, what was it, Paladin?” Wicker asked.
“That’s what it sounded like. I checked the archive,” Adamarus said, “but found nothing.”
Donnelly was still nodding sadly, “Just random words as his brain cells died,” Donnelly repeated.
They were all saddened and deeply shaken. They had all come to like the young prodigy and his passing hit everyone hard.
---
Three months later…
As it always was, it was pitch black except for the road illuminated by the ATV’s headlights. The dotted lines dividing the two lane highway raced toward him then passed under.
Craig Winter glanced up through the sun roof checking that the night was clear and the stars were shining. He’d been the chief astronomer at the Dowser Yeoman Observatory for eleven years but the thrill of looking into the cosmos and searching for its secrets was still as fresh as it had been on his first day on the job.
He rounded the bend that indicated the unmarked turn off to the observatory was a half mile ahead when he heard a distinct pop. A second later, the ATV began to shake as the left rear blowout announced its presence.
“Damn.”
He immediately pulled over. He left the engine running and lights on as he got out and walked around to look at the tire. He hadn’t had to change a flat tire in what…30 years. He opened the rear hatch, lifted the floor section exposing the spare tire, the jack and tire iron.
It took him 30 minutes to change the tire. He was out of breath and drenched with sweat. After putting everything away, he leaned against the side of the ATV and looked up the mountain side to where he knew the observatory was.
That’s when he heard the sound. It was a roar, coming from behind him and getting louder. He turned just in time to see it. He could plainly see the object, though instead of the glowing red charcoal-like appearance he expected, the object seemed a dull black. Its fiery tail stretched behind it for 100 feet and following that the trail of black smoke, stretched off across the night sky for as f
ar as he could see.
His first thought was, My God, its low. And it was moving at incredible speed. He followed it as it passed over his head and watched it vanish over the mountain. Then…
Boom!
He stood there with his mouth open in shock, watching an ominous red glow grow over the top of the mountain. He thought, My God, it must have hit very close to the observatory! His heart was pounding as he realized it might have actually hit the facility. He tried to remember if anyone was up there right now but realized that it was impossible to know.
He jumped into the ATV and with shaking hands managed to get it in gear, pull back on the asphalt and floor it. He fishtailed onto the single lane road that led up to the installation and drove as fast as he dared up the switchbacks. When he rounded the last curve, his insides seemed to empty out as his worst fears were realized.
Scattered fires covered the road leading to the stone wall and wrought iron gate, which he realized were no longer there! In the distance, where the large white dome should be, a huge column of flickering red and black smoke rose into the sky. To the right, a large fire seemed to be burning.
He was still barreling down the road toward where the entrance gate should have been when he saw that the road before him simply vanished. He slammed on the breaks but was too late—he skidded 20 feet then went over the edge. The brief feeling of falling accompanied the realization that in his haste, he had neglected to put on his seat belt. Then he was thrown forward and something hit him in the face so hard it defied belief, after which there was only blackness.
Next he heard his name being called from a great distance…it seemed like an eternity passed…he did not remember where he was nor what had happened.
Then light and pain exploded around him.
“Oh my God,” a muffled voice said.
The light dimmed.
He made an effort to respond but something was not right…no, many things were…not right. He could see only a blurred foggy gray. Parts of his face that should not move, seemed to move…seemed to fall away.
Another voice, “Is he alive?”
He was now drowning in pain and a blackness was encroaching on the gray.
A distant female voice, “We need an ambulance! Someone call...”
“There’s one on the way.”
The blackness grew until it covered the gray.
“No. Don’t try to move…”
The voices faded and he drifted away.
Then, “One, two, three.” He felt himself being lifted.
He opened his eyes and could see blurry people above him. He could smell smoke. The people parted and he could see smoke and fires burning. He heard himself say, “The observatory…”
A figure leaned in, “Craig? Take it easy, buddy; you’re going to be okay.”
“The observatory…” Craig asked again.
The person sighed, “We can build another observatory. It’s lives that can’t be replaced.”
Craig tried to nod then he passed out again.
Chapter Ten – Trinity
“Everything in the universe originally came from the same small area. No matter where in the universe you look, the galaxies, stars, star systems, planets, elements and subatomic particles are all the same. Why would life be different? There will be differences due to environmental forces: the size and type of star, distance from the star, size of the planet and so on, but these will all cause the same variations on a theme. The most radical differences will be which species has time to become intelligent and that depends upon extinction events and this, in general, depends on the volatility of surrounding space and this, in general, depends on how far you are from the center of the galaxy. Beyond that, nature will always progress in the same manner, always working toward the optimal form.”
A Quick Tour of the Universe
Howard Dawn
Source: The Archive
T-Minus 050 Years
Thirty-two years was a long time to wait—a damn long time. Maybe they had just forgotten about him. However, the money kept being deposited into the secret account, so no, someone remembered. Therefore, that’s what Ted Desman did…wait.
The work was interesting and now that a person could go into town for all manner of entertainment, he was enjoying himself.
The Trinity compound had turned into a vast facility with a full-blown city next to it. The three massive arks looked like space ships now. They were nearing completion.
Ted’s shift had just ended and he was back in his room sitting in front of the video screen drinking a beer when everything changed. His com unit buzzed and he answered it, thinking it was just one of his friends calling to ask if he wanted to go into town.
With a smile, he picked up his com unit and said, “Hello…”
“Hello, Ted,” came a deep voice.
The smile instantly faded from Ted’s face, the room seemed to tilt and chills went up his spine.
The voice continued, “Yes, it’s me. The time, my friend, has come. Here’s what will happen…”
---
President Wicker addressed his inner-circle. It was their monthly meeting. “I’ve just been informed that within the next month, we will move from the research and development phase to the construction phase.” He paused a beat then continued, “R&D will, of course, continue, but all the things that have been invented and designed over the last one hundred and fifty years will start being manufactured—the new ships, new fighters and the new weapons. Orders have already gone out to all the shipyards and factories. As you know, nothing has changed with the Blackship. It continues with the same deceleration curve, same arching course and same shrinkage rate.” He took a drink of water.
“Also, the mining of both the Aster and Serena moons was completed last month and so we must now destroy what’s left out there.”
“Out at Trinity, construction is nearing completion. Within six months, shakedown cruises should begin.
“Questions?”
There was none.
“Then let’s get to work and probability fold in our favor.”
---
One of Howard Dawn's realizations was that to fight the approaching alien, they had to view and utilize all the available energy at hand—ergo, the energy within their star system. Moving forward on that idea, he designed the Star Cannon to utilize the energy of the sun. He had also used the star system’s gravitational energy to solve some of the problems they faced. If they destroyed the Blackship with the Jumper devices, its black hole would remain so they would use Aster’s gravitational pull to slingshot the black hole back into space.
Based on what had happened within the Loud system, the Slayer’s would somehow cause their black hole to vanish somewhere between the orbits of Aster and Serena and Amular’s forces would be facing a large ship.
If the Jumper devices didn’t do the trick, they would try diplomacy. To that end, three older battleships would ride along with Battle Group Three, building up their speed by performing slingshots around the star system so that the three ships would be traveling fast enough to position themselves in front of the Blackship and try to talk to it. Never mind the fact that they would attempt this diplomacy after hitting the alien with high-yield grav-bombs out near the ice cloud and after attacking it with the Jumper devices. No one thought a diplomatic effort would work, but it had to be attempted. The three diplomatic battleships would be unmanned and operated by remote control.
If this failed, they would confront the alien ship with four powerful kinetic missile launchers, each hurling out eight 50-foot depleted uranium rods. These would hit the alien ship from all sides.
On top of the kinetic launchers, three battle groups would also be there to greet it. The problem was the Blackship would still be moving too fast to keep up with. Therefore, Admiral Richard Willard’s Battle Group Three would start an eight-year trek around the star system, performing repeated slingshots around their sun and gas giants to build up enough speed to keep pace a
nd do battle with the Blackship, again using the gravitational energy of the star system. Battle Groups One and Two would meet it head on while the accelerated Battle Group Three would attack it from behind.
The Star Cannon would also start hitting the alien ship at Echo Charlie Seven.
If the alien got through all of this, it would be attacked by thousands of smaller fighters inside the orbit of Serena. If it made it into orbit around Amular, they would hit it with more kinetic weapons, the orbital fortresses would unleash their vast power against it and Battle Group Four, which would be concealed behind Amular, would engage it.
Failing that, the ground elements to resist a planetary invasion would be substantial. However, if they had to resort to these, everyone knew that it might be too little, too late.
---
Adamarus looked at his ‘countdown’ watch—the one President Wicker had given them back when they had exactly 200 years to prepare. Everyone knew or realized later that that was not exactly true. More precisely, at that time, it was 200 years before the Blackship ended its flight in orbit around Amular. Since they had to attempt to stop the alien well before that, they had less than 200 years to prepare.
His watch now read exactly t-minus 25 years. They had weapons now that should stop it—at least no one could imagine how anything could survive them and most people were hopeful. In addition, they were certain that the alien had never had to face an armed resistance. As far as its adaptability, if nothing else, from everything they could tell, it had never made a significant change in the way it did things over a period lasting 12 billion years.
Adamarus looked out the view port and was impressed, but with mixed feelings. Ahead of his shuttle was one of four orbital fortresses, an immense armored sphere three-quarters of a mile in diameter bristling with weapons and launch tubes.
Adamarus was somewhat concerned about the decision to make the fortresses unmanned. Controllers on the ground would operate each one. Of course, the concern was that the fortresses could be taken over by the alien and turned against them no matter how clever the communications protocol.
Countdown Amageddon (The Spiral Slayers Book 2) Page 24
