Shelly stopped listening and smiled. Got it! ,she thought, My God, it’s really true! A chill went up her spine. And I’ve got the scoop! The sound of Beverly’s voice still talking on the com unit brought her back to the present. Shelly looked at the receiver with bored eyes…it was suddenly just a minor annoyance. With a slight cringe, she simply disconnected.
She then hit a speed dial number. “Vince? Hold the press, honey! I have a bombshell! I want a planet-wide interrupt, all stations at,” she glanced at the clock on the wall, “5:00 p.m.—no, make that 4:40 sharp. What studio?” She listened as she grabbed her PDA and started typing up the story. “Okay. Can you be a dear and run by there and make sure that it’s going to be mine and ready on time? Then drop by and I’ll fill you in. This is huge, Vince. Huge! And, yes, solid confirmation from three independent sources.” She slammed the com unit down and continued typing.
Dolly had been leaning against the wall watching Shelly’s entire performance. With a look on her face somewhere between utter disbelief and total admiration, she started slowly clapping her hands together.
Shelly turned, “Dolly?” Then she smiled and did a mock bow. “Now get to work, girl! I’m going global in fifteen!”
---
They entered the darkened room slowly. The soundproof door closed behind them. Grace and Nero were seeing the room for the first time and so the strange addition did not stand out to them. Adamarus, however, immediately saw the large black oval cylinder next to the green window. He looked over at the counter. On it were two glass bottles. “Okay,” he looked at Grace, her eyes wide as she looked around the room, “Nero, honey, first over here by the sink.”
Nero glanced over at the counter and started moving towards it, but his eyes looked back at the glowing green window at the end of the room. Grace couldn’t take her eyes off the bottles on the sink. “Is this it?” she whispered.
Adamarus nodded. He opened both and handed them to Grace and Nero. Grace looked at it with awe.
Nero gave it a suspicious look then smelled it. “No way! This stuff is gross!” He stepped over to the sink and tipped the small bottle to pour it out.
“Noooo!” Adamarus shouted. His hand shot out and stopped Nero just in time. This startled Nero. He looked at his Dad, “No way will I drink this! Smell it!”
Adamarus thought quickly, “Nero…Nero, I need you to do this for me—it’s very, very important, son.” Nero made a defiant face. Adamarus knew how stubborn Nero could be. Think! What to do?
Grace came to the rescue. She kneeled down by Nero, “Hey…would Swing Fist act like this. Come on, Swing…Dun, Dun, Da, Da, Dun…”
Nero stood straighter, his face took on a serious expression and his head moved from side to side in a cocky gesture. He squinted his eyes and swirled the liquid around in the bottle as he said in a deep voice, “On the rocks, straight up, in a dirty glass!” He downed the contents in a single gulp, then slammed the bottle down on the sink saying, “Ahhhh…” as if it were the best thing he’d ever tasted. But when he turned around, his was face twisted, the color had drained from it and his hand shot to his mouth.
“Good boy!” Adamarus said. “Here,” he handed Nero some gum, “this will get rid of the taste. He looked at Grace. She was just staring at the bottle. Feeling his gaze she looked up, shrugged and downed it just as Nero had.
The three of them walked around the featureless black oval that had never been there before and approached the green window. Adamarus hoped that Bugs was hiding behind the suspended room as he had been on the day of their first meeting so that introducing the alien could be done in stages. But Bugs was right there waiting patiently. Adamarus could hear the sharp intake of breath from both Grace and Nero as they caught sight of the alien.
As soon as Bugs saw them, it sucked in air and rose rapidly up towards the ceiling. Even having been told about this, it startled Grace and Nero and they took a step back. As Bugs pushed the air out and issued the ear-shattering screech, Nero grabbed his mother’s leg tightly. The translator issued its words almost without delay, “Greetings, beloved wife and son of Adamarus. I am honored by your presence.”
Both mother and son relaxed a little upon hearing its words, but they just stood there staring at it, not saying anything. Adamarus nudged Grace and whispered, “Say hello.”
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 three thousand 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, “Eighteen hundred and fifty-four 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!”
“…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 alleged
ly 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, ‘supercharged’ 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, then 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 barricades 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 friendly 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.”
Encounters (The Spiral Slayers Book 1) Page 13
