“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 and die from overpopulation.”
“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 overpopulated 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 returned 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 snowmelt. 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.”
Harrington took the square then looked up at him, trying and failing to hide a small smile, “Why, thank you, sir.”
He just returned her smile and they walked towards the nearest van. Then suddenly his smile faded. A large gray utility van had pulled up and two men had gotten out. Upon seeing Leewood and Harrington, they walked towards them. De Bella’s “special” team.
“Get in the van,” Leewood said to Harrington.
“But…” she tried to protest.
“That’s an order.” He watched her get in the van, then turned and faced the two men. They walked up and stopped six feet away from Leewood.
“Things have not exactly gone according to plan,” one of them said.
“That’s an understatement,” Leewood replied.
“Don’t suppose you have any idea what the hell happened?”
“Everyone seems to be asking that question.”
“We were ordered to…gather up some doctors and nurses,” the speaker gestured back towards the gray van.
Leewood looked over at the gray van then back at the speaker. “I’d return them if I were you.” Just then Leewood’s com unit buzzed. He looked at it, it was President Wicker. “Excuse me for a minute,” he said, then he spoke into the com unit, “Leewood here.” He listened for a moment then, “I’m glad to hear that, sir. There are some people here who have told me they were ordered to 'gather up' some doctors and nurses…yes, sir.” Leewood tossed his com unit to the man he’d been speaking with. “It’s for you.”
The man said, “Hello,” and his eyes went wide. “Yes, sir, right away, sir.” He handed the com unit back to Leewood. He looked a little panicked. “We…need to return our guests.”
---
Congressman De Bella jerked his arm free from the hand of one of the security officers who had escorted him to President Wicker’s office. As he did, the blubber in his jowls shook violently. “I took the steps I considered necessary for the security of Amular,” he spat out in his shrill voice.
“They were bad choices,” Wicker said. “Very bad choices.” De Bella glared back at him. Only the President, the Secretary of State, Ed Fisher, De Bella and the two security officers were present. The President placed his hands on his desk palms down and said softly, “I want your resignation on my desk by the end of the day.”
The congressman literally screamed, “The hell, you say!” Spittle flew from De Bella’s mouth. “I’ll be…”
Wicker came around his desk so fast that De Bella and the two security men all took a step back. He got nose to nose with the congressman and jabbed his finger into the fat man’s chest. “Falsifying reports and withholding information from your Commander in Chief.”
“You needed plausible deniability!” De Bella hissed.
Wicker continued as if he hadn’t heard. “Faking an accident and the death of one of Amular’s most cherished heroes and his wife and his child,” Wicker yelled. “Ordering their imprisonment along with a doctor and five nurses.” Wicker was shaking. He jabbed his finger again into De Bella’s chest, “You are lucky I’m not filing charges! You are lucky I’m not releasing your actions to the press!” Wicker stepped back and composed himself. De Bella had turned white. Wicker turned and walked back to his desk. Without turning around he said, “Please remove him.”
After De Bella was gone, Ed Fisher asked, “Why did you let him get off so easily?”
Wicker stared into space for a few seconds then said, “What if the Loud hadn’t taken the extreme action they took? What if they hadn’t offered to resolve the overpopulation problem?” He looked over at Fisher, “What would have happened?
What options would we have had?”
“I don’t know, Mr. President, but I know that you wouldn’t have done what De Bella planned.”
“Yes,” the President replied, “but De Bella didn’t know that.” The President’s eyes went out of focus again. “And I’ll tell you, Ed, I’m not sure if my decisions would have been any better than De Bella’s.”
Chapter Nine – The Avatars
“The Loud are about a thousand years ahead of us in technology and science, and Bugs, in the opening address, plans on discussing some of the main differences in how we view the universe (applause) … please, (applause) please… (applause) thank you. This should be one of the most eye opening and important opening addresses in our history. As you know, the Loud have a great desire to open trade with us (applause) and have stated that they intend to freely share their advanced technologies and knowledge with us. (applause) Please, (applause) please… (applause) thank you, (applause) thank you. Despite the differences in our physical appearance, mannerisms and biology, we have many things in common: our desire to grow as a species, advance our knowledge and sciences, and our dedication and desire for peace and cooperation (applause), exploring the universe (applause) and living in harmony (applause) with our new neighbors from the stars. (applause) It is my great pleasure (applause) to introduce (applause) Bugs. (applause)”
Dr. Wayne Brittan, Chairman of the House Science Committee
Introduction to The 23rd Amular Symposium on Quantum Physics
Source: The Archive
One year later…
Adamarus, Leewood and Harrington looked out through the curved transparent walls of the hover capsule at the miles of wheat that stretched off unbroken to the enclosed horizon. The hover capsule maintained an altitude of 250 feet—midway between the fields below and the ceiling of lights above. Stretching off into the distance, impossibly thin looking columns supported the ceiling. Far away, they could see a darker area shaded with gray mists with vertical streaks—rain, or at least water, coming down from the ceiling. In the other direction, several massive machines could be seen—harvesters sitting idle now, but soon they’d harvest tons of wheat and other crops which would be distributed both to Amular and the off-world settlements.
Bugs, or rather the robot avatar, turned from the front pilot seat, “Would you like to land and walk around?” Adamarus had not faced a Loud in person in the listening chamber in almost a year and almost no one else ever had. The Loud’s use of avatars had become so common that the avatars were the Loud in people’s minds and even Adamarus had slipped into that illusion.
Adamarus shook his head, “I don’t think so, Bugs.” He looked at the others who indicated their agreement. “I think we’re done here. You can take us back to the ship.” This had been their first chance to get up to the planet’s smaller moon to see “the farm”. The moon had been completely enclosed by the Loud using the same nanotechnology they used to build the listening chamber back at Hillcrest—the same technology which had created the hundreds of domed settlements scattered across the larger moon, and the neighboring planets and their moons.
Beyond the lights above them, the outside surface of the moon was covered with solar cells. The only areas of the surface that were different were the thirty-six one-mile circles that were used for docking and the five-mile circles at each pole. Here, comets were deposited providing water and atmosphere. Right now, the comets being used were ones that orbited among the planets. Eventually a steady supply would come from the star system’s distant comet shell—the first shipment was already in route from this distant haven.
So much had changed in so little time, Adamarus thought. The titanic asteroid project which had been needed for the giant rail gun had been scrapped—the Loud had handed them technologies that superseded the need for a rail gun to launch things into orbit. The asteroids had been reallocated for orbital habitats that would, in time, ring their planet and others. These orbiting cities would be the transfer points for goods to and from the planets as well as shipyards and zero-gee manufacturing environments.
The Loud had kept their promise to resolve the problems with overpopulation resulting from their immortality treatments and the conversion of Adamarus’ people from a mortal species to an immortal one. Half a billion people were now living and working in off-planet settlements and another half billion would be relocated in the next year.
This moon could feed all of them and expand almost endlessly to feed the increased populations of the future. The second level was already being created underneath the surface of the wheat fields they now flew over. Below the surface, countless nanite were busy converting the rock that was there now into supports that would allow another level of farmland to exist below this one. And, after that, levels could keep being added as needed, deeper and deeper into the moon. A moon on the fourth planet out was also being converted so there would be more than one food production world.
Adamarus watched the fields. The thin black columns and overhead lights passed by faster and faster until they were just a blurred mixture of colors. Not for the first time he wondered why, with all the excitement and wonders of their contact with the Loud, he felt an undefined hollow ache inside, an immense sadness that he could not define nor give form to. When he was busy, which was most of the time, he was fine, but during idle times when his thoughts could drift where they would, like before sleep or while jogging, the hollow ache and sorrow would come. He had tried to look at it, see its face and understand it, but time and again he failed to identify it.
The conversion from a mortal society to an immortal one was done. A year after the first distribution, the campaign to dispense the doses to every person on the planet had been declared a success with 100 percent of the population treated. There was a very small percentage—less than .01 percent—that refused the treatment for various reasons. Other than that, everyone was now between the ages of 27 and 32, depending on their own biological clocks. This had had some unexpected side effects. For one thing, mortuaries, many pharmaceutical companies and thousands of other businesses dealing with all manner of middle age or geriatric needs had all but gone out of business overnight. At the same time, industries tied to the needs of the 27 to 32 age group suddenly could not keep up.
Most of his world was scrambling to adapt and redefine. Leading the list was insurance companies, health care professionals and religious institutions.
Older people who had been counting their days, some in their nineties, suddenly found themselves back in the prime of their lives. While some of these people were redefining the terms “overachiever” and “type A personality,” others feared going outside lest some accident take away their newfound immortality.
Divorces were way up in this older-made-young-again group as were pregnancies. Also, many of these people had retired with only enough money to last the remainder of their days. Now they needed to re-educate themselves and get back in the work force.
At a more basic and deeper level, death had been inevitable for “everyone”—now, it was not. This was a profound change. Before, some had risked their lives to one degree or another with the attitude that they were going to die anyway, while others had done everything to ensure their life would be as long as possible. Overnight things had changed. Now, you could live virtually forever unless a fatal injury took your life. Now life was worth a lot more in some ways and a lot less in other ways. No one could yet predict the full impact this would have and everyone would need time to adjust. More than not, people would forget and carry on as if death was still inevitable in a certain number of years—then they’d remember. But for everyone, it was just too new and too soon to process this new situation and integrate it into the way they acted or made decisions.
But trends were beginning to show. People were making more babies—the birth rate was up by over 100 percent, which was worrisome. Suicides were up by 300 percent, which was wholly unexpected. The crime rate had not changed. Colleges were swamped with appl
ications. Savings were down, the debt rate was up, the stock market had gone insane and unemployment was non-existent due to the effort to move people off-planet.
Adamarus continued to watch the fields fly by below the hover capsule while he thought about all these things.
Bugs announced that they were almost there, interrupting Adamarus’ train of thought. Soon, what looked like a black wall appeared ahead. One of the space ports. It stretched from the golden fields to the lit ceiling. The space ports were built to hold and load the large carrier ships that were just being built and had numerous docking facilities for other ships.
The hover capsule entered one of many entrances along the enclosing wall, and then wove its way around enormous conveyer belts and control towers to the dock where they had locked down their landing craft. Bugs parked the hover capsule perfectly, then the three humans and one avatar exited and walked up the suspended ramp to their ship.
Both the hover capsule and the ship were built by the Loud, but even now, factories were being built to mass-produce these types of craft.
Once aboard, Bugs began the pre-flight checklist while the others got strapped in and back to work. Leewood got right on the com unit while Harrington unfolded her PDA and started answering messages. Adamarus also got on his PDA and started checking the schedule for the coming week. There was so much going on and so much to do. It was overwhelming.
Ten minutes later, the craft lifted up and departed the moon. Their next stop was the 23rd Annual Symposium on Quantum Physics. Bugs had agreed to be the keynote speaker and planned to address how the two species viewed the universe. It would be broadcast throughout the star system and anyone remotely interested in science would be watching.
Encounters (The Spiral Slayers Book 1) Page 14
