Grace looked at him, nodded and cleared her throat, “Hello, Bugs. It’s an honor and a pleasure to meet you, too.” The progress bar on the translation box shot across and a short screech could be heard issuing in the chamber beyond the glass.
Bugs replied, “The honor and pleasure is all mine. Both of you must be very proud of your husband and father. Nero, I hear that you have a couple of questions you wish to ask me.”
Nero looked nervously at his mother and then his dad. Both nodded, encouraging him to speak up. Nero looked back at Bugs and in a small voice said, “Hello, Bugs. Ah…yes, if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind at all.”
“The first one is from me and is just this: How old are you?”
Bugs answered, “Well, Nero, you have to understand that keeping track of our age is not as important to us as it is for you. I would have to look it up to be exact, but I can tell you that I am about 3,000 years old.”
“Wow!” Nero exclaimed.
Grace’s mouth fell open and she looked at Adamarus who nodded. It had been one of the initial questions he’d put to Bugs, but it as well as all information from the aliens was classified. It had not occurred to him that Nero’s questions would reveal classified information and he had not thought to mention Nero’s questions to anyone. He would have to talk to Nero and Grace later.
“And what is your second question?” Bugs asked.
“This is from my class at school.” Nero quickly dug a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it. He looked at it and began reading, “1,854 years ago your star, G214H, underwent a solar flare. It was so bright it could be seen in broad daylight for a week…” Adamarus and Grace both turned and looked at Nero, their mouths dropping in surprise. “…the question is, how did your species survive that?” Everyone looked back to Bugs.
Bugs remained perfectly still. Adamarus noticed that the receptors in his eyes had drifted evenly apart. He realized that this must mean that the eyes were not focused on any particular thing. Adamarus had never seen anything like it. They all looked at each other and Adamarus shook his head. They all looked back at Bugs. Adamarus was about to ask the alien if something was wrong, but suddenly its eyes focused again and it expanded upward. “I’m afraid you are wrong. There was no solar flare.”
---
The special team had gathered in and around one of the communication vans. There was not much to do at the moment.
They were all unhappy and nervous contemplating what would happen in the near future. Leewood had talked to De Bella earlier trying to talk him out of faking the deaths of Adamarus and his family to the point of almost being released of duty. Now he brooded in the back of the van staring into space. Harrington had slouched in one of the van’s rear seats near him pretending to read a journal. The others played cards.
Several monitors were tuned in to different news stations. Harrington had situated herself so that she could sneak a peek at all of them. She didn’t expect anything to happen this soon so she was surprised when all three channels cut away from their regular programming and announced a special breaking news story.
Leewood caught the change out of the corner of his eye, “Turn the volume up!” One of the security grabbed the remote control and complied.
“…interrupt this program to bring you a breaking news story.” A male voice said.
“What’s this?” Harrington set her journal down and leaned forward.
Shelly White came on and began speaking, “Hello. I’m Shelly White. GSN has just learned the identity of the mystery person the Loud brought to the Hillcrest ER. It was Captain Adamarus Maximus who headed up the asteroid harvesting project and was allegedly killed in an accident one day after the first successful harvest!” A picture of Adamarus appeared behind Shelly. “And he received much more than just life-saving medical treatment from the aliens known as the Loud. Captain Maximus was fifty-two years old when he was supposedly killed, yet when he was returned by the Loud, his apparent physical age was only thirty years old! He is now twenty-two years younger!”
Leewood slammed his fist down, “Shit!” Someone else hollered, “What the fuck!” Harrington acted her part by looking surprised.
“Also, GSN has learned that analysis done at Hillcrest Hospital determined that his immune system had been, and I quote, 'super charged' and that it was 'unlikely that Captain Adamarus would ever become ill or have any health problems again.' But, most incredible of all, tests also showed that his cells had stopped aging.” The scene cut to a close-up of Adamarus’ face, “In other words, the Loud have an immortality treatment and they’ve given it to Captain Maximus! A high level source confirmed that the government has known about this since the aliens landed, but has kept it a closely held secret. This same source also told GSN that the Loud wanted to give this treatment to anyone who wanted it, but the government did not want this to happen.”
“GSN will keep you posted on new developments as they occur. Stay tuned for further details of this incredible breaking story. This is Shelly White reporting for GSN.”
For several moments no one spoke. Then Leewood slammed his hand down again and muttered, “We are fucked!”
---
Adamarus and his family had relaxed and were sitting down making small talk with Bugs. They were really enjoying themselves. Suddenly Bugs lifted one of his tentacles, which until now, had been retracted. Like before, it had a device wrapped around it which was consulted. After a moment Bugs said, “Adamarus, the leak is being aired now. It is time.”
Nero looked at his father, “What does Bugs mean?”
Before Adamarus had to answer, the translator was speaking for Bugs again, “Nero, how would you like a tour of not only our ship here on the ground, but the large interstellar ones in orbit?”
Of course Nero was beside himself, “Ye-ye-yes! Wow!” but then he blinked several times, “But I thought none of the large ships were in orbit.”
Bugs replied, “That is true right now, but in a couple of minutes, all three of them will be. Now, the environmental capsule on your left will open in a few seconds.” This was the large black oval to the left of the window. “Inside is an avatar – a robot that will allow us to interact with your species without this large dome. This is the first time these avatars have been used. Once I’m at the virtual controls inside our ship, I’ll see and hear everything that the avatar does – it will be just like I am there with you.” Behind Bugs the entry to the dome from his ship began to open. “You can enter the capsule now, take a seat and buckle up. The avatar is in the forward seat and will not become active until I reach the virtual controls.” It turned towards the large door behind it.
They walked toward the black capsule and noticed that there was indeed an opening where none had been before. Inside there were four seats, two even with the door and two in the rear. They got in – Adamarus took the back seat and had Grace and Nero take the forward two seats. Adamarus looked at the small monitor Bugs had told him would be facing him mounted in the back of forward seat backs. Next to it was the ear plug. He took it and put it in his ear. In front, his wife and son would get the tour. Unknown to them, in back, Adamarus would be monitoring another show that would play itself out soon enough.
Once they were seated they noticed that there was one more seat in the front facing them. In that seat was a robot with two arms, two legs, and a head with two glass eyes and a speaker grill for a mouth. Most of the robot’s surface was metallic blue. It did not move and looked inactive.
Nero turned and whispered to his dad, “What did Bugs mean about a ‘leak’? Is their ship leaking air?”
“No,” Adamarus laughed, “It’s nothing. I’ll explain later.”
Nero was looking around all excited. “Wow, a tour of the big ships in orbit! Dad, did you know about this? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Adamarus asked, “Do you mind?”
“No! Are you kidding?”
Suddenly the avatar came to life. The eyes lit up, th
en in the same voice the translator in the room had used, it spoke, “Okay! Fasten your seat belts.”
The opening they had used to enter started shrinking and continued until it was gone. Without warning the walls of the capsule became transparent and they could see the room around them.
The capsule rose up and hovered about two feet off the floor. All three of them were wondering where it was going to go as they could see no way for it to exit the room. Then the rear wall slid out and away. They could see the atmosphere being sucked out and the frigid cold coming in. A layer of white frost formed on everything in the room.
The capsule headed towards the back opening but stopped before it cleared the room’s floor. The avatar spoke, “Does everyone have their seat belts fastened?” Everyone indicated they did. “Okay, hang on!” and the capsule moved forward again. As soon as it cleared the room’s floor it dropped like a rock. Gasps and hollers came from all three of them, but the capsule seemed to land on some kind of invisible padding above the floor. “Oops,” the avatar said, winking by causing one of the eyes to go dark for a second, “Sorry about that.”
Nervous laughter came from all three of them.
---
The city of Hillcrest was populated mostly by professionals and it showed. During all the craziness over the aliens in every other part of the planet, Hillcrest had remained relatively sane.
When the second wave of madness struck due to Shelly White’s “immortality” story, Hillcrest itself kept its sanity once again, but it wasn’t easy, for the town was still surrounded by thousands of people. These people were already tired and angry, and the recent and massive air drops of food and water had given them energy. Shelly’s explosive newscast served to release that energy. As each minute passed after the newscast, the noise level from just outside the city’s barricades increased. To Leewood, it seemed like the thousands outside the city’s walls represented the entire planet, for the news stations showed that around the planet it was all starting again: the riots, demonstrations, marches and mayhem. But this time it would be worse. Before it had been a vague fear of the unknown – now it was a focused rage that their lives might be extended, that death might be put off forever but for the selfishness of those who would hide it, those who would keep it from them, those in charge, those in authority, those in government.
Leewood didn’t know exactly what to do. The idiot who had leaked this had no idea what they had done. As he watched the news stations from around the world, he knew that this was the time they had prayed would never come. Just then his com unit buzzed. He looked at it. It was De Bella. Just what he needed right now. He took a deep breath and lifted it to his mouth, “Hello.”
De Bella’s high shrill voice exploded from the com unit, “What the hell is going on, Leewood! Everything is fucking falling apart!”
---
Adamarus watched the small video monitor and listened through the small ear plug. It had begun and he prayed that they knew what they were doing.
Grace and Nero were engrossed in the tour of the landing craft. The avatar was telling them what this and that did. Adamarus half listened.
As he listened and watched the news channels cycling on the small monitor, he knew that what they planned would have to be timed just right.
---
The mining ships far above, tending the asteroids spiraling in, watched the news of what was happening below with dread, worrying about loved ones on the surface.
Radin was sitting in the captain’s seat aboard the Bet’ti. He had paused operations, his timing just right for Shelly’s newscast and the events which would follow. He half listened to the news feeds he had put up on all the viewers for the crew as events unfolded below. But what he was really watching for he had brought up on one of his small command viewers. On it, at full magnification, were the three gigantic Loud “Umbrella” ships still sitting millions of miles from the planet. Suddenly all of the news feeds died and were replaced by a black screen and a continuous tone. It was show time. Radin watched the three ships and suddenly, as expected, all three seemed to ripple and vanish.
---
Leewood was in the van with a fresh cup of coffee watching six different news stations on six different screens. When all of the screens suddenly went black and started emitting a solid tone, he jumped in surprise and spilled his coffee, most of it catching his shirt and burning him. At the same time, through the cracked van door, he could hear one of the guards frantically yelling for him. He looked at the black screens, then got up and jumped out of the van. He didn’t think he needed to be told why the guard had yelled for him; he could see. The Loud landing ship was lifting off. It rose straight up a thousand feet, then moved forward angling up.
But Leewood was wrong. This was not why he had been summoned. The guard grabbed his arm and pointed not at the vanishing Lander, but at the sky in the east. Leewood looked and could clearly see one of the Loud’s huge “Umbrella” ships hanging in the sky.
Then, before he could digest either event, someone inside the van was hollering for him. He raced back into the van. From all six channels, screens still black, a voice started speaking.
---
The Loud had captured every video channel and every radio station on and off the planet.
“This is the alien you call the Loud. We came to you in peace, in friendship, and with hopes of finding a neighbor in the vastness of space. And we came with gifts, one of which was the knowledge to turn off the life ending timer in each of you. Until this gift was ready, we did not want to announce it. But during this short time something went wrong, a misunderstanding. We see it has caused widespread disorder and we feel it is our fault—we are dismayed. No one in your government was keeping anything from you to our knowledge. We had not told anyone in your government. It was our fault and we feel we must correct the damage we have done.”
“We wish to give immortality to everyone. However, if we do and you do not in turn do something for yourselves, your species will suffer, your species will die.”
“If we turn off your aging process and you do not spread to the other planets and moons of your system, your planet will become so over-populated that there will not be enough food, enough water, not even enough room.”
“We will make it possible for you to expand to the other planets and moons of your system, but we need to have at least one billion volunteers to go to these other worlds and moons and help us create the settlements for your race to expand.”
“Look up. You will see billions of small red squares raining from the sky. Our three ships are dropping these on every part of your planet. If you will volunteer to go into space and help us, take one of these squares and place it on your arm or anywhere on your body. It will stick there and you will be counted. As soon as the number of volunteers has reached one billion, look up, you will see small white squares raining from the skies. Place one of these on your tongue and you will revert to your prime age, around thirty years old, you will stop aging and your immune system will be boosted. In the next three days, distribution sites will be set up in every city to hand out more white squares for any who miss getting one today. Today you can have immortality! So, step forward and take it!”
---
In every corner of the planet it rained red squares. The one billion mark was reached within two hours of the squares reaching the ground. As the white squares started filling the skies, the increasing number of space-bound volunteers slowed but still continued to grow.
---
The tour of the large “Umbrella” ships was interrupted by the unfolding events on the planet. Adamarus’ family watched their race change from mortal to immortal from orbit. The fact that these events had been planned by Adamarus and the Loud would be kept from Nero. He was too young to bear the weight of keeping such a secret – it would have been unfair, not to mention risky. Adamarus did not keep secrets from Grace.
The landing craft returned to the vacant lot. Adamarus’ family was re
turned to the listening chamber in the same manner in which they had left.
When they exited the soundproof room, Leewood and Harrington were there to meet them. Silently they escorted them to the waiting limo. It was dark now and cold. Everything was wet from the snow melt. Before Adamarus could enter the limo, Leewood touched his arm and said he wanted a word with him. They walked across the field while Grace and Nero waited in the limo. They avoided the puddles, their breath making steam, the gravel crunching underfoot. They stopped out of earshot and out of the lights. Leewood looked like he was about to say something, then he closed his mouth, his lips tight, and shook his head. He looked up at the sky, then down at Adamarus and shook his head again. “I guess I did give you the freedom to do whatever the Loud wished to do.”
“Yes, sir, you did.”
Leewood looked away, “So Bugs took your family for a tour of the Loud ships.”
“Yes, sir.”
“How was it?”
“Well, it was interrupted by the events here on the planet.”
Leewood nodded, “A shame. Well…okay. Well done.” He continued to stare at Adamarus for several seconds. “Captain, why do I have the feeling I’ve been had?”
“I have no idea, sir.”
Leewood smiled tightly, “Yeah.” They started walking back to the limo. “Well, everything seems to have turned out okay.”
“Yes, sir.’
“In fact, it couldn’t have been any more perfect if it had been all planned out beforehand.”
“No, sir.”
They reached the limo and Leewood opened the door for Adamarus. “Captain, I want you to take a couple of weeks off with your family. Everything has changed now, for the better, I think. We’ll just let things settle a bit before we continue the talks.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you.” Adamarus knew that everyone except himself was going to be feeling sick and sleeping a lot for the next couple of weeks.
Standing next to Harrington, Leewood watched the limo pull away. He looked at the Eastern sky – the ”Umbrella” ship was gone. He pulled two white squares out of his pocket and offered one to Harrington. “I wonder who leaked that info. Considering how everything turned out…it was a fucking brilliant move.”
Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers Page 13
