Adamarus keyed his throat mic, “Adamarus to Captain Walling.”
“Walling here,” came the reply.
“My compliments, that was nice flying.”
“I’ll pass that on to our computer,” Walling said with a laugh.
The station’s heat dispenser rings were glowing red now. Eight minutes later the first ”Load", a three-quarter mile long string of twenty hardened rectangular segments, slid into one of three ”racks” at the end of the station. Front and rear connecters had been added to each end, a small segment to which the tugs connected. Green lights began to strobe around the left and right connectors.
The first pair of tugs moved in. The front tug was half the size of the rear tug, its wings were folded down. The rear tug had huge wings that were folded down and rotated back. Both connected perfectly with each end.
The tracks which held the Load to the rear of the station opened and pushed off the Load with its tugs, then both tugs extended their wings. The rear tug fired her engines and the newly assembled tugs and ore pulled away and angled downward.
Ten minutes later the assembly entered the planet’s atmosphere, the front tug taking most of the air friction. As the assembly descended it began to level out and the rear tug fired its eight large forward-pointing engines, slowing the assembly down.
Finally, it crossed from the Western Ocean to the white sands of the Eastern Desert. Descending through three thousand feet it was close to the ground now. The forward tug fired its rear engines and separated, pulling forward and up. Several minutes later the rear tug also separated.
The Load was on its own still hurtling forward faster than it was falling with its nose slightly raised. Precisely as planned, it hit the first huge sand dune and the sand exploded upward. There were fifty sand dunes of decreasing size spread across two miles and the Load plowed through them all in five seconds. From afar, the first twenty-five sand dunes seemed to explode upward almost at the same time, but then the second half showed a noticeable slowing as the speed bled off. Giant lifts immediately rose reforming the sand dunes. After hitting the last dune, the ”Load” landed almost perfectly on a flat plain of sand and sped across it. Three huge parachutes emerged from the rear connecter and opened, slowing the Load further, and then it plowed into the final three sand dunes and came to rest.
Four large vehicles raced to the Load’s side and began pushing it off to the side. Three minutes later it slid onto a concrete surface then right onto a string of flatbeds. Machinery on the flatbeds finely aligned the Load, then clamps rotated up from the far side of the cars securing it. Then, the train pulled away.
Four hundred miles above the surface, on the bridge of the Bet’ti someone hollered out, “All right!” and clapping and whooping broke out.
Adamarus leaned back in his chair and smiled, “Yes, indeed.” He now needed to take a shuttle over to the Smelting Station and inspect the process there while Radin kept the process going here.
He rose from his seat, straightened his shirt, then keyed his mic, “People,” the clamor quieted down, “that was absolutely perfect. I thank each and every one of you for a job well done. Commander Radin will be taking over now and we’ll baby in the next dozen or so before turning the operation over to the Smelting Station.” Radin was already standing at parade rest with a smile on his face. “Commander Radin, you have the con.”
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 coin
cided 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.
Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers Page 2
