Encounters (The Spiral Slayers Book 1)
Page 19
The room erupted in nervous laughter at this. It was a bit too close to hysterical, but it was laughter all the same.
Banner cleared his throat again, there was even a slight smile on his face, “General Burnwall, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Well, what you’re talking about—the object inside a black hole—it’s called a singularity, and we’re not really sure since no one has ever seen one. Most theories say that a singularity, although it has infinite density, will have zero volume. Others believe…”
General Burnwall interrupted, “No volume you say? You mean it takes up…no space…has no size?”
“Exactly,” Banner answered. “However, other theories say that the singularity would have an electrical charge which would cause it to spin so fast that centrifugal force would stretch it into a donut shape. However, the donut, which could have the diameter of…perhaps our small moon, would be one-dimensional and therefore still have no volume. But understand, no one really knows for sure.”
“And this is the ship?” Burnwall asked.
Several seconds went by before Banner replied. “Probably not. But understand, we do not know how a ship could exist within an event horizon or how it could ever escape one.”
“These are questions we should ask the Loud,” someone else said.
Adamarus spoke up, “Regardless, the general has a point. There’s a ship in all of that somewhere and that’s what we need to worry about. And I don’t think it matters how big it is.” He looked back at the black sphere. “We need to talk to Bugs again.”
Chapter Twelve – Forced Entry
“...long ago we had medicine men and shamans. Later still, for both of us, came the alchemists who tried to change one metal into another. These were replaced by your present day scientists who gain knowledge through the scientific method. Eight hundred years ago, we too had our scientists…but in the fullness of time, our scientists were also replaced by...
The Loud Named Bugs
Opening Speech, 23rd Amular Symposium on Quantum Physics
Source: The Archive
Adamarus, Leewood and Harrington walked quickly towards the soundproof hatch of the listening chamber. Adamarus said in a shaky but determined voice, “We must bring Bugs out and get more information.”
Leewood looked over at Adamarus and shook his head, “Good luck. Before you agreed to meet with them, we had tried just about everything to get a response from that ship…” He glanced over at Harrington, “Harrington remembers…and I’ll tell you, some of it was pretty far outside the box—none of it worked.”
They reached the soundproof hatch—as always, two guards stood on either side of it. Adamarus turned to Leewood and Harrington, “I want to break into the dome and then break through the door that leads to their ship.”
Harrington and Leewood exchanged glances. “Well,” Harrington said, “we didn’t try that one.”
Adamarus continued, “I’ll need an e-suit and something to cut through the floor of the room and the door leading to their ship.”
Leewood added, “The environmental suit we can get, but we’ll also need some sort of airlock.”
The guards were listening and looking at each other, clearly getting nervous. They reported to a duty officer, and the duty officer reported to the section chief, and so on up the chain of command, but they did not know that Commander Leewood, his Presidential Authority increasing his effective rank, was at the top of that chain. They both moved their shotguns to the ready position, “Sir, I must advise you that any attempt to damage or…”
Leewood immediately tuned them out, backed away and reached for his communicator. Quickly he made a short call.
Seconds later, the guard’s radio chirped and one of them answered it. After 30 seconds, the guard said, “Yes, sir,” into the radio and turned it off. He lowered his shotgun. “Sir, how can we assist you?”
---
Adamarus lowered himself into the dome. The first thing he noticed was the reduced gravity—about 50 percent lower. He was suspended on a hoist attached to a rope that had been lowered through the round hole that they had cut into the floor. Inside the environmental suit, his breathing was loud and all he could hear.
He turned as far as he could and looked around. The side of the dome behind the room—the part which could never be seen from the window—held no surprises. It was the same as the rest. Above him, the back of the room could not be seen, but he could just barely make out what looked like some kind of large protrusions sticking out. He figured these marked the existence of hinges or some other type of mechanism that opened the back of the room up.
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 100 feet away—the two 50-foot high and 30-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 toward the doors. When he was still 10 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 10 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. 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, clenched 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.
“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 direc
tly 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 sixty 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.”