Within his helmet, projected on the sides of the visor, the e-suit’s heads-up display told him that the visor was filtering out light that was too bright for his eyes. It also told him that he was being exposed to radiation that he could only endure for about one hour.
Obviously, the walls of the listening chamber had been shielding him from this. A red indicator tracked his radiation exposure. He wondered how his new immortality would fair against it and decided that he wouldn’t put it to the test today.
A small airlock had been disassembled to get it through the hatch to the listening chamber. Then it had been reassembled and attached to the floor. Inside it, a hand-held cutting laser had cut a round hole in the floor. During this process, they had hoped that Bugs would come out and save them the continued effort, but this had not happened.
The hoist Adamarus was standing on, which was attached to the rope, was powered. He squeezed a lever on the hand grip to go down (or up if that were needed). He lowered himself to the floor. When the hoist hit the floor, the noise was deafening inside his suit, but outside, he knew the thinner atmosphere carried far less sound.
Attached to a utility belt that he wore were two tools: a hammer and the cutting laser.
His next objective was about a hundred feet away—the two fifty-feet high and thirty-foot wide doors. Suddenly, looking at them, he began to doubt the wisdom of his plan. He took a deep breath, what’s the worst that can happen? he thought.
He got off the hoist and walked quickly towards the doors. When he was still ten feet away, he took out the hammer. As soon as he reached the doors, he reared the hammer back over his head and swung as hard as he could.
---
Woodworth had joined Leewood and Harrington and all three watched from the listening chamber’s large window. They were careful not to talk as the translator would pick it up, translate it, and a deafening screech would reverberate in the dome which would not be desirable right now.
They watched Adamarus walk to the doors and immediately start pounding on them with the hammer.
“Knock, knock” Harrington muttered.
Adamarus repeated this several times, paused, then repeated it several more times. Finally he turned and looked up at them, and even with the environmental suit, they caught the shrug.
Adamarus put the hammer back in his belt and removed the cutting laser. He turned it on and they could see the red beam reaching out half a foot. He seemed to consider the door and where to start cutting. He then walked a little to the left of the seam where the two doors met. He stood back and lowered the laser. Just as the red beam touched the surface of the doors, they flew open, sliding apart with alarming speed, and Adamarus stood there looking at the lower half of a Loud!
The Loud had been stretched upward and it was now coming down screeching! The hole they had cut in the floor allowed the horrible sound in and they all grabbed their ears.
Woodworth exclaimed, “Shit!”
Through the window they watched as Adamarus fell back into a sitting position. Then the Loud tilted so the escaping air hit Adamarus, causing him to slide back across the floor like a rag doll!
Outside the translator screeched translating Woodworth’s exclamation, ergo ”shit” in the language of the Loud.
Adamarus had slid across the floor and out of view. The listening chamber’s large viewing window turned inward extending across a portion of the floor. All three of them ran across the windowed floor and turned to look back through it so they could see underneath the room. Adamarus was lying motionless on the floor.
From the translator came the translation of the Loud’s first screech! “What are you doing?”
They jumped, not expecting the question from the Loud, then their heads jerked upward towards the translator above the window—the source of Loud’s words. In their peripheral vision they caught the motion of the Loud rushing into the dome. Their eyes jumped back to Adamarus lying there helpless. What they hadn’t seen was that the Loud was also rising up, taking in air again. Suddenly they noticed a change in the light and instinctively knew that something was obscuring the window behind them. They turned. The Loud’s head filled the window and it had its head tilted downward so that its eyes were looking straight at them. Stunned by this sight, they fell back, all three falling and landing in a sitting position on the glass! Harrington screamed and held her hands over her face.
The Loud came down again and screeched, passing under the room. They raced out onto the glass again to try and see what was happening. Adamarus was still on the floor, but trying to sit up when the Loud reached him and blocked their view. In a blur they saw its six large tentacles shoot out from its sides and reach forward. Then the Loud backed up a little and they could see that it had all six of its tentacles wrapped around Adamarus and had lifted him off the floor. He was suspended ten feet in the air.
At that moment the Loud’s last screech was translated. Even through the translator, the words sounded furious, “You dare disturb us in our grief!”
The Loud brought Adamarus up and held him before its eyes looking at him. The Loud’s entire body was shaking almost uncontrollably. Then the Loud’s tentacles began to squeeze!
---
Adamarus was barely conscious, but he realized that he was lying on the floor.
The e-suit was no protection against the Loud’s screeches and his ears were ringing and bleeding.
He tried to sit up, but was grabbed and yanked off the floor. He was looking up at the Loud when it lifted him to eye level and stared at him. The Loud was so mad it was shaking! Suddenly the Loud’s tentacles covered his helmet visor blocking his view. Then something strange happened – the tentacles began to slide across the visor. A chill ran down Adamarus’ back; the Loud was tightening its grip. He heard a horrible cracking sound followed by an even louder crack! Before Adamarus could even consider his predicament, the e-suit seemed to collapse inward as the visor smashed into his face. The last thing he heard was the horrible sound of a bone snapping. The last thing he saw was bright red blood exploding outward—then his world was swallowed up by blackness.
---
The three of them watched in horror as the Loud squeezed Adamarus harder and harder. Then, so fast that it was just a blur, the tentacles holding Adamarus shot upward and back underneath the room. A sound from the airlock made them whip around in time to see Adamarus being thrown up into the chamber. He hit the top, then fell limply to the side of the round hole and lay there motionless.
They dashed over and Leewood hit the switch that closed off the hole leading to the dome and cycled the air back into the airlock. It only took a second to cycle the atmosphere—but not the cold. It remained.
As they threw open the hatch and grabbed Adamarus, condensation formed on the glass and a white mist formed and poured out of the chamber. As they handled Adamarus, the skin was torn from their hands as it stuck to the freezing cold exterior of the e-suit. They had to rub away the ice that had formed on the visor to see Adamarus’ face, but when they did, all they could see was blood.
The Loud’s screech came again – the airlock hatch covering the hole blocked some of the sound but not enough. Harrington turned and looked out the window as Leewood and Woodworth struggled to get Adamarus’ helmet off. The Loud was heading for the doors. It was leaving!
Its voice issued from the translator, “How dare you! Do not disturb us in our grief again!”
A rage came over Harrington and she jumped up, clinched her fists and screamed right back at the Loud. “How dare you tell us a hostile alien is coming to destroy us and then just…” -- she waved her arms in frustration, “…walk away!”
Just as the Loud reached the doors, the translator screeched out Harrington’s words. The Loud entered the opening, but then paused halfway through it. For a full minute, it remained there unmoving. Harrington tried desperately to think of something else to say to make it talk to them. She was just about to tell it that they would keep on ”disturbing�
�� it until it talked to them when it turned, faced her and rose up sucking in air. It came down expelling it—making its terrible screech. It was everything Harrington could do to keep from holding her ears. A moment later, the mechanical voice came from the translator. “Yes, I think I understand now. But you do not. There is nothing that can be done. Nothing can stop the thing that approaches. We are beyond sorrow for this and for the fate of your world.”
Harrington, still angry but also scared, rejected the Loud’s statement out of hand and hollered back, “Maybe you can do nothing, but we do not give up so easily!”
The Loud seemed to deflate at her words. After a moment, it straightened and rose up again. It asked, “Where is Adamarus?”
“Adamarus was inside the environmental suit you were just tossing about. You may have killed him.” She glanced back at Leewood and Woodworth. They had the helmet off and had felt for Adamarus’ pulse. Leewood saw her looking back and gave her a thumbs up to let her know he was still alive, while Woodworth tried to wipe more of the blood from Adamarus’ face.
“When will you know if I have killed him?” the Loud asked.
Harrington turned back to the Loud. “I have just been told that he still lives, but may be badly injured and may still die. We do not yet know.”
“When he can, have him come back to talk with me. If he dies then you, and only you, come back and tell me.”
Harrington’s rage returned and again she screamed at the Loud, “No! You will talk now or I will be the next to come to the doors. Then another and another until you talk to us!”
The Loud again remained still for almost a minute looking at Harrington. Then it rose up, came down, “Really?”
“Yes, really.” She replied hotly.
Again the Loud went still for many seconds. Then it seemed to deflate further.
Behind her she could hear Leewood and Woodworth picking up Adamarus. She started to turn, but Leewood whispered across to her, “We’ll take care of him. You just try to keep the Loud talking!”
She nodded once and focused on the Loud again. “Are you Bugs?” she asked.
“I am Bugs.” It answered.
“Adamarus has said many good things about you.”
“I hope I did not kill him.”
“Bugs, you must talk to us about the aliens that are coming. We have questions we must have answers to.”
It considered her words again, then said, “Yes, this is a reasonable request. I will answer your questions.”
Harrington had opened her mouth to speak, to continue the argument when she realized that the Loud had agreed. So her mouth moved but nothing came out. She took a step back, then collapsed into one of the seats facing the window, let out a ragged breath, and closed her eyes. She noticed that she was shaking all over, then became aware of the fact that her face was all wet. She realized that she was crying uncontrollably.
Chapter Thirteen – Alliance
“Scientists eventually discover the basic subatomic particle that all else is made from: the Speck—a tiny wrinkle in space time. It vibrates. It's discovered that the complex vibrations are not random and that encoded within them are massive amounts of data, in fact, all the information necessary to make a universe. The scientific method is like swinging in the dark compared to reading the exact instructions directly from the source.”
The Loud Named Bugs
Opening Speech, 23rd Amular Symposium on Quantum Physics
Source: The Archive
Leewood, Woodworth and Harrington were waiting for Dr. Kallen when he arrived. He looked at them and slowly shook his head as he closed the door to his office.
“How is he?” Leewood asked. It was the next day. Adamarus had spent the night in the hospital.
Kallen walked around his desk and sat down. “Better than he looks, but not by much. You know, the e-suit he was wearing was cracked in three places.” He’d been told what had happened; still, cracking the tough polycarbonate shell of an environmental suit was not easy. Getting no response, he continued. “Based on what you’ve told me, when the Loud was holding Adamarus and made that rapid movement to place him back into the airlock, it was like getting hit by a truck moving at sixty mph. Luckily, the e-suit is built to handle high G’s and this provided some protection…but it cannot completely protect against an almost instantaneous zero to 60 mph change.
The front of the e-suit actually slammed into him, but because of the tight padded fit, there were no broken bones other than his nose. But the sudden acceleration did cause internal injuries…mostly to his brain. Basically his brain was violently thrown forward, ripping it away from the back of his skull and compressing it.” Kallen hid a smile. He had carefully selected this description, which was true, but sounded much worse than it really was—a little payback for what he knew was coming and it had the desired effect—his three visitors looked at him in horror. That reaction was enough for him and he held up his hands, “In other words, he has a concussion, but I suppose, as usual, you need him released right away.”
Leewood, Harrington and Woodworth looked at each other, then Leewood said, “If it is at all possible. It’s important.”
“Well, fortunately, our new youth and immortality seems to speed recoveries, even from concussions. He seems fine this morning so, yes, you can have him.”
---
Adamarus was getting dressed when they got to his room, his nose was bandaged, but otherwise he looked fine. He looked up at them as he buttoned his shirt. “Well, that was fun.” That got some smiles. “But I hear it worked.”
Leewood said, “Really, it was Harrington’s charm.” Harrington smiled sweetly on cue.
Adamarus sat on the bed and put his shoes on. “So, what’s the schedule?”
“Bugs, or rather his avatar, will meet us in the situation room in…” Leewood consulted his watch, “fifty minutes. Bugs has promised to answer all our questions.”
---
A little before the appointed time, Adamarus and Harrington were there waiting along with the two guards. Ten minutes previously, the light outside the listening chamber’s door turned red. A minute later, the light turned green again. The door opened, releasing white mist and cold air, and the five-foot metallic robot that was Bug’s avatar stepped out. Condensation immediately formed on its almost cute form, fogging the few chrome areas and the bluish metal. Cold radiated off of it.
The head turned looking at each one with its two black eyes, then returned to Adamarus. “It is good to see you, Adamarus. I am glad I did not kill you.”
Adamarus raised an eyebrow, “Hello, Bugs. I too am glad that you did not kill me.”
Bugs turned to Harrington, “Lorraine Harrington, hello. It is good to see you again.”
Harrington nodded her head.
Bugs turned to the guards intending to continue pleasantries, but Adamarus waved his hand in front of its eyes, “Bugs, please come this way, okay?” Bugs hesitated for only the briefest moment then followed Adamarus and Harrington.
There were a dozen people in the situation room including Woodworth and Leewood. They sat around a large conference table. Three of the screens along the wall were active showing the President and two top advisors who were teleconferencing in. Adamarus and Harrington led Bugs to the head of the table indicating this was his place, and then took their own seats. Bugs did not attempt to use the chair and remained standing.
The President started right in, “Bugs, all of us are devastated by the horrific news of your home system and your…people. The magnitude of the tragedy is unimaginable. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help or if there is anything you need.”
Bugs said, “Thank you, President Wicker. We will do that. Right now I have a request: that you ask the questions that I know you must have.”
The President nodded then turned to Leewood. “Commander Leewood…”
Leewood nodded back and then looked at Bugs. “Bugs, what can you tell us about the attack on your solar syst
em?”
Bugs’ head swiveled from the President to Leewood. “Not much, I’m afraid. What we know is from the ship we encountered. Our world detected the alien ship on long-range tachyon scanners forty-five years after we left. Ten years later, our world dispatched a forth ship here to inform us of the development.”
“Surely some type of communication could have been sent to you and/or the ship that was sent here,” Leewood said.
“Outside of pre-arranged signals, superluminal communication such as our Tachyon com system will not work over interstellar distances. After about three light years, the increasing lines of probability blur the signal and the only thing that can be determined are fairly large energy discharges. It is true that a light speed message would have arrived a little sooner than the ship, but then…‘you’ would have detected the message and we did not wish to alert you to our presence until we had studied you and decided it was safe. We sent a message to our world the day after our first meeting with Adamarus okaying communications, but that message was traveling at light speed and it will take over 100 years to arrive. At this time, our only two sources of information are from the ship we encountered and the tachyon scans of our system.”
This information hit everyone hard. No one had known how much information they would be getting, but they had all thought that it would be much more. They had hoped for firsthand accounts on what the black hole had done when it reached the Loud’s solar system; what, if any, communication had taken place between the Loud and the aliens; and finally, how an attack from a black hole was even possible? They had also expected information on how the attack had started and progressed and what kind of weapons both sides had used.
Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers Page 19
