Then the sound of inhaled air came again and another screech. “Adamarus, the translator may be malfunctioning. It could not translate what you just said.”
Adamarus calmed himself and spoke for the first time. “I’m sorry. I was laughing. Can you understand me now?”
“Laughing. Yes, we know about laughing. Yes, I can understand you now.”
The Loud came out from his hiding place directly behind the suspended room Adamarus was in. It turned around and faced Adamarus, and then, without leaving the floor, its body shot up 100 feet, expanding and sucking in air. Adamarus gasped. Then the Loud’s muscles flexed and it shrank again, forcing the air through boney chambers which made up its head. Again the ear splitting screech reached into the sound-proof chamber causing his body to vibrate. Lights on the translator above the window blinked and a status bar made its way across the bottom. “At last, we meet face to face.”
Adamarus’ face went slack, a frozen smile remaining in place. He remembered the dream he’d had though he knew now that it was a memory; moving hills in a strange place, and he knew he was looking at one of those hills. He had seen the reproductions from his descriptions and had asked for the memories to be restored but there hadn’t yet been time.
He realized that the silence was growing uncomfortably long. He glanced at the seat next to him and made a decision. He grabbed one of the bottles of beer, opened it and took a large drink.
He still didn’t know what to say so he lifted the beer bottle towards the creature in a mock toast. “Here’s looking at you.” Unbelievably, a long tentacle appeared from somewhere along the creature’s side holding a beer, and the alien mimicked the action. Adamarus took another drink, watching the alien. The creature also took a drink, its long tentacle carrying the bottle up and pouring the beer into the oval hole at the front of its head.
Adamarus studied the creature, noting as many details as possible. He guessed it was about 20 feet wide, 30 feet long and 20 feet high. It seemed to glide along the floor on a layer of dark red rippling flesh that the creature’s massive body rested on. Above this was a dark gray layer with puckered holes running along it. As he watched, more tentacles emerged from the holes. There were three on each side near the front of the creature as far as he could tell. The tentacles extended 20 to 25 feet and were about four feet in diameter at the base, tapering out to their ends. Above this layer, things got more complicated.
The front three-quarters of the Loud was a fleshy wrinkled gray with long sharp thorns. They were dark gray, about four feet long, lying flat and pointing downwards. This was the area which expanded upward and filled with air before the Loud spoke. This area was a single large lung Adamarus correctly guessed. When it expanded, the large dark gray thorns lifted and pointed outward much like a blowfish.
Adamarus realized that their two species were so different that they would never even be able to get physically close to each other, let alone sit down at a restaurant and dine! Behind the lung area, making up the rear of the animal, was a large muscle extending from the bottom layer upward to the back of what Adamarus thought of as its head. In front, just below the “head”, were what looked like remnants of hands or perhaps flippers; six large bony fingers extended about twelve feet down in front over the gray thorny lung area. Each had three joints and for all the world looked like the bones within a human finger enlarged many times. Later he would learn that these were the Loud’s equivalent of ribs—they protected vital organs.
On top was the “head.” There was no neck. It was perhaps 16 feet wide, 20 feet long and eight feet high. If you could imagine a very large eroded hollow bone and then flatten it and folded it over upon itself three times, making the upper fold round and twice as large, you’d have most of it. A crest ran along the top of its head from the front to the back.
In the front was a gaping hole which contained wet, slimy looking, black tentacles which always seemed to be in motion—this was the mouth. It never closed.
Embedded on either side of the upper head, running on either side of the crest from just behind the “mouth” to a point three-quarters back, were green translucent sacks--obviously eyes, though they were nothing like any eyes he’d ever seen. Within each, instead of a pupil and iris, there were dozens of small receptacles which looked like pale cream-colored mushrooms. These waved back and forth, gathering together in groups seemingly when the alien wished to focus on something. Now that he watched them, he realized that the receptacles could divide into smaller groups; its “eyes” could focus on several things at the same time.
Looking the alien over, Adamarus realized many aspects of it were superior and more evolved. This creature was incredibly different from anything in his experience. The fact that its height varied constantly between 20 and 100 feet whenever it wanted to communicate would have implications he could not begin to fathom.
Adamarus took another drink. He could feel the alcohol taking effect and realized the beer had been a brilliant idea. “So, you know my name. What’s yours? What do I call you?”
It screeched its reply but the translator announced, “Does not translate.” The creature reacted to this in a way that surprised Adamarus. It had managed a very human shrug without shoulders or arms. Adamarus asked him to repeat its name. The screech the creature made sounded a little like a very distorted version of the word “bugs.”
“How about this, I’ll call you Bugs.”
The Loud seemed to consider this for a few seconds then startled Adamarus again. All six of its tentacles came up and wiggled at Adamarus like it was imitating…a bug! Then it shot up, came down, and after a pause, the translator replied, “As long as you don’t try to exterminate me.”
Clearly, Adamarus would have to remember that these creatures had watched his species’ entertainment videos and listened to radio for years. Every response from it would be based on the knowledge it had gained from those years. That thought was somewhat depressing but he guessed it was better than nothing.
“Bugs, we need to talk about a serious personal matter.” Bugs settled back and waited. “You’ve made me young again which would be great, but my wife and I are much older, and this has created an imbalance which is unacceptable. You must restore me to my real age.”
“I see. This is not my area of expertise, Adamarus, and I can see this is a big problem. Try not to worry for we will do anything you wish to make everything okay again. I will discuss this at once with those who specialize in this area, and tomorrow we will resolve the problem, either by restoring you to your proper age or, another possibility is giving your wife the treatment so she is as young as you. Is this acceptable?”
Making Grace young again had not even occurred to him. No, that wasn’t exactly true. In the back of his mind he had wondered if that might be possible. But this presented new problems. Would it be safe? How would Grace feel about it? How would his superiors feel about it? Nero had to be considered. “How safe is the…treatment?”
“I will ask that as well…in fact, I will bring a communication device so that any and all questions you have can be addressed.”
Relief washed over Adamarus. “Thank you, Bugs.”
“Now let’s relax and talk about meaningless things today. We have lots of time for serious issues and your world is about to jump forward a thousand years. This is an exciting time for both our species!”
Adamarus flinched—a thousand years! The thought of the promise he’d made to Dr. Kallen occurred to him, but he decided he’d have to bring that up another day. “So you estimate that your species is a thousand years ahead of us?”
“That determination was made after much study, but it is only an estimate based on a lot of assumptions.”
“Like what?”
Bugs took another drink, “How quickly your species has progressed in the past, the technologies as well as the scientific knowledge and theories you currently have, the fact that you still have scientists, the fact that your species is still mortal…other ind
icators similar to those.”
Adamarus nodded then suddenly looked away with a concerned expression. The Loud noticed this. “Something wrong?” it asked.
Adamarus scolded himself for his lapse of control. “Well,” he said, “we were hoping to establish a trade agreement with your people, but being a thousand years ahead of us…what would we have that you’d want?”
“Do not worry about that!” the alien replied. “Mostly your arts and entertainment—especially music but other items as well. Wood—we have nothing like it—and other resources your world has that we don’t.” The Loud took another drink.
Adamarus took another drink as well. “That’s good to hear. Yesterday, discussing this with others I work with, we were very concerned about that. They will be relieved. Where are you from?”
“Why the ship next to this building.”
Adamarus looked confused, “No—I mean which star?”
“Oh…oh…I thought you meant yesterday…the translator will adjust and become better as we talk. Your catalog number for our star is G214H. It is 112 light years from here. It can be seen with the naked eye—a dim star in the Northern sky.”
And so Adamarus and Bugs drank beer and talked and got to know each other. They talked a little about the news and current events. The mining project had been headline news and this was discussed. Adamarus asked Bugs, “What if you need to say something quickly?” Bugs demonstrated by pushing downward immediately pushing air out vents along the sides of his head creating a loud high-pitched whistle. A second later the translator said, “Help! I’m being attacked by humans!” Of course, they discussed the video dramas and the daytime soap operas the Loud had watched so much.
At the end of the meeting, a large opening appeared in the wall of the dome behind Bugs and then it gracefully waved its tentacles outward, then rose and came down making its ear-splitting shriek. The translator took a long time working on it but the words came, “Probability…fold in your favor!”
“Excuse me?”
Bugs paused a second then expanded, compressed and shrieked again. The translator processed and spoke, “It is how we wish each other well. It refers to the fabric of the universe—the tiny vibrating space-time wrinkles. The way in which the universe moves forward is determined by the way that the probability waveform folds. All things that can happen…do happen—both good and bad. Your actions and attitude can help the probability waveform fold or collapse in directions favorable to you.” Adamarus had no idea what the alien was talking about. The alien turned and glided out and the opening closed.
Since Adamarus’ species had first realized that other life must exist among the stars, they had known this meeting might take place someday. After hundreds of years of wondering and worrying about how a first alien contact situation might go, this one got off on the right foot…or tentacle, depending on the point of view.
---
The first meeting knocked off at 4:00 p.m.. Adamarus felt exhausted and had to fight to keep his eyes open as two security guards escorted him to the debriefing room. He didn’t know how the Loud had gotten its hands on the beer and he had decided not to mention it until he found out. He had a feeling it wouldn’t go over well—not the fact that they had drank it, but rather that the Loud had contacts and inroads into his world that were unknown to anyone. He would deal with that tomorrow.
All five team members were waiting inside. Adamarus sat down. Hot coffee and donuts appeared before him. He took a sip and it felt like heaven going down. He looked up at the five people whose job it was to debrief him. His eyes lingered on the only female member a little longer. He could not read her expression or anyone else’s for that matter. He wondered where Radin knew her from.
Before he could help it, he heard himself say, “The Loud had a six-pack of beer waiting for me as well as an entire case for itself. It thought it would help out our first meeting. And it did.” Everyone started talking at once. Adamarus took another sip of coffee to hide how dumbfounded he was that he had blurted that out. What the hell was wrong with him! Why in the hell had he done that? It was almost as if he had to tell them and didn’t have a choice in the matter. He listened to the bedlam he had caused. How could the alien have gotten it? How could it have purchased it? Someone exclaimed, “It couldn’t fit inside a liquor store, for goodness sakes.” Orders were issued to check the perimeter around the ship for any way anything could have slipped in or out.
The debriefing took three hours. Several times aids had come in and whispered something into Leewood’s ear. Finally, a weary Adamarus was driven home.
---
“Well, you won’t believe this.” Radin said. They had just eaten dinner and, like the night before, retired to the drawing room. Radin was making them both a drink. He had gotten another briefing from his friend who he had started referring to as Sky-eye. Radin brought over the drinks and they sat in the same place they had the night before. “Sky-eye had some surprising news. The Loud have been busy. They somehow, without anyone detecting it, tunneled down and over, coming up beneath a vacant mansion on the next street—it’s for sale. It’s believed that they found out about it being unused the same way they got themselves Universal Credit IDs and made orders for that beer they had delivered to that mansion.” Radin stirred his drink, “The mystery is this: The tunnel is only eight feet square. How could they fit through it?”
“I’ll be damned,” Adamarus said.
Radin looked away briefly then said, “More news...” He took a drink. “…more BS. I just…” He let the unfinished sentence drift away as he took another drink, avoiding Adamarus’ eyes.
Adamarus knew his old friend well. He set his drink on the table between them and leaned forward. “Out with it.”
Radin looked up sheepishly and took a deep breath. “Sky-eye told me that they started slipping you some kind of truth serum today…”
“Damn, I should have figured that out.” Adamarus replied thinking of how he’d blurted out that Bugs had somehow gotten beer.
“… to make sure you would report your conversation accurately.”
Adamarus shook his head, “I can’t believe this.”
“It’s just that this is so important, Adamarus. It is so important that they would probably sacrifice this entire city if it came down to it. And as much as I hate to say it…”
“They’re probably right in their thinking,” Adamarus finished for him. Radin just looked down. Adamarus asked, “What are they giving me?”
Before answering, Radin finished off his drink in one swallow, “Don’t know.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Sky-eye wanted to find out but couldn’t think of a way to ask without sounding too interested.”
Adamarus looked confused, “How are they giving it to me?”
Radin took another deep breath, “Notice how no one rode with you in the back of the limo today? You breathe it in. It’s vaporized and mixed with the air in the limo’s heater.” Radin let that sink in then reached into his pocket and tossed Adamarus a small device. “Here…”
“What’s this?”
“Re-breather. See the mouth grip? Bite on that and turn the dial on top. Up to two hours of your own personal air!” Radin winked.
---
After Radin had left, Adamarus took Nero and Grace into the backyard. A chill wind was blowing and the night sky was clear. After several minutes of consulting his PDA, he was able to locate the Loud’s star. He pointed it out to his wife and son and they stood there looking across the light years at the dim nondescript point of light.
Chapter Seven – Subsequent Meetings
“We are most honored to have as our opening speaker for the 23rd Annual Symposium on Quantum Physics the Loud known as Bugs. (applause) Yes… (applause) Okay… (applause) Please… (applause) Actually… (applause) Actually due to incompatibilities with the environment, physical space and communication, an avatar or robot will be used. This avatar will provide Bugs and ourselves with a full spectru
m, real time, interactive virtual presence. (applause)”
Dr. Wayne Brittan, Chairman of the House Science Committee
Introduction to The 23rd Amular Symposium on Quantum Physics
Source: The Archive
The next morning Adamarus read yesterday’s newspaper in the back of the limo on his way to the listening chamber. He had the newspaper open, covering his face, thus hiding the re-breather. With the limo’s tinted windows and being alone in the back, it was just a precaution against the driver rolling the window down and looking in the back. The re-breather had been hard to get used to at first, but after a few minutes Adamarus hardly noticed it. When the limo arrived he merely took it off and, holding his breath, put it in his pocket and got out.
According to the plan, in this second meeting Adamarus would attempt to get answers for: how the Loud had gotten the beer, how many aliens were aboard the landing craft, as well as in total and the reason the Loud had contacted Amular. Beyond this, he would attempt to gather more facts about the alien and its culture. However, as Adamarus entered the listening chamber and walked to the green window, he only had one thing on his mind.
Like yesterday, a green mist floated on the surface of the thick glass and he could feel the cold radiating from it. He could see Bugs waiting on the other side. “Hello, Bugs.” His words were translated and seconds later, a short screech could be heard within the dome.
Bugs screeched and the progress bar on the translator progressed to 100 percent, “Hello, Adamarus.”
Let’s just get it over with, Adamarus thought. “So tell me, Bugs, can you put me back the way I was, that is, back to the same age that I was?” Adamarus looked down at Bugs, who sat thirty feet below him and waited. Then he followed Bugs up with his eyes as the Loud expanded its one enormous lung with air.
After a moment the translator spoke, “I have consulted with our medical experts as you requested. No. I’m sorry, Adamarus, your current condition is irreversible. Keep in mind that it was necessary to save your life.”
Encounters (The Spiral Slayers Book 1) Page 9
