“Nothing!” Adamarus shouted back. Then in a softer voice, “Nothing at all, Evelyn. I’ve already violated security telling you what I have. My God, woman, think about it! Two of the people who attended that meeting killed themselves…” Evelyn had obviously not made the connection for her eyes went wide and her hand flew to her mouth. “…and…and…” his eyes bored into hers, “…Donnelly is not right…”
Evelyn’s sharp intake of breath interrupted Adamarus. Evelyn, her eyes even wider, her hands now fists on either side of her face, blurted out, “Harrington! Harrington has been acting so strange!”
“Yes,” Adamarus hissed. “Both she and Donnelly are undergoing…therapy. Don’t you see! You as well as everyone else who was left out of that meeting were left out to protect you!”
Evelyn was shocked. Her eyes darted around—she was speechless.
“What does Brandon know?”
She blinked several times, asked him to repeat the question. He did. “He knows nothing. I didn’t want to tell him until I figured out what was going on. Adamarus…” He heard fear in her voice. “What could possibly cause two people to kill themselves?”
Adamarus just looked down.
“Before he…Van Loader said something about God…just before…” she held herself and was rocking back and forth. She was shaken badly and on the edge. All this added on top of the stress and confusion she’d had coming in here was too much.
Adamarus leaned forward and took her hands in his. “Evelyn, listen to me. God is not coming in that ship, okay? Please just try to ease down a notch, okay? Had you asked me just yesterday, I’d have told you that you should not be told what we learned in that meeting, but now…now things have changed…maybe. Anyway, I’ve not yet told the others who attended that meeting, but I’ve spotted something that may be in our favor. And I now think that others beyond the initial group should know because we need all the help we can get dealing with it.”
“What is it?”
Adamarus sighed. “You know I can’t tell you anything no matter how badly I might want to. You know I’d be breaking the highest security level we have. The penalty, by the way, is permanent imprisonment—no exceptions.”
“God, Adamarus, permanent imprisonment! Look, you’ve already told me too much…already have me spooked so bad that at this point it would be easier on me to just tell me…so get permission to tell me. And Brandon too.”
“I’ll get permission for you. After you've heard, you decide about Brandon, and if you think it wise, we’ll get permission to tell him.”
She nodded, then just stared into his eyes.
Adamarus realized he was still holding her hands. She had been squeezing back for some time now. He broke eye contact and looked down at their hands and then he let go. “We’d better get back.”
“Yes,” she said in a low voice.
---
Adamarus postponed his afternoon departure then, the next day, met with President Wicker, Leewood and Radin—the four who had weathered the “truth” with at least no visible psychological problems. Even so, all of them looked drained and solemn. Adamarus realized they were all resigned to defeat and the air was thick with hopelessness. He had planned to tell them of the realization that had come to him, but suddenly it did not seem very important. He decided to postpone telling them. Instead he told them about his conversation with Evelyn and the video from the camera everyone had somehow overlooked. Leewood took the blame and was furious with himself for the oversight.
“None of us thought about the hall cameras so don’t be too hard on yourself, Patrick,” Adamarus said. Agreement followed from Wicker and Radin.
Leewood shook his head in disgust, but relented, “Well, what’s done is done. What now?”
Adamarus got right to the point, “Wherever possible, I believe we need to bring the rest of the inner circle in on the basic facts. We need all the help we can get dealing with…all this.”
On the teleconference screen, the President ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not sure anything can be done anyway.”
Leewood followed with, “We’ve had two suicides and…two more on very shaky ground.” Everyone knew he was very worried about Harrington. “How can we risk losing more people?”
Adamarus nodded, but said, “Bugs systematically unloaded all of it on us at once, showing us shocking visible proof, reinforcing each point with overwhelming comparisons and then extending them to the next logical level. It didn’t pull any punches and it kicked our asses. I think we can state the basic facts without using the sledge hammer Bugs used.” He looked around the table, finally settling on the President’s screen.
Wicker sighed, “Go on.”
“I think it’s a combination of the harsh and undeniable reality of it all, plus the overwhelming scope that does you in…that sent Thornton and Van Loader over the edge.”
Leewood spoke again, “It’s also the incredible time spans and the distances, and more than anything else, the age of the Slayers and this Omega level of advancement! They know everything, Adamarus! Everything. And they’re coming for us in something the size of a small star system at a hair below the speed of light, and they are coming to wipe us out and nothing can stop them! They just destroyed the world of a species a thousand years more advanced than us and they did it in a single day! They’re not interested in negotiating, not interested in surrender, and in fact, we are just an inconsequential stop on their way to their real objective which is beyond anything we can imagine!” Leewood took a deep breath and steeped his fingers, forcing himself to regain his control. A harsh laugh emerged then, “Have I forgotten anything?”
Radin closed his eyes, “Only a couple of minor details like causing a sun to go nova is obviously a piece of cake for them. Oh, and let’s not forget there’s a whole fleet of these Blackships, according to Bugs, enough to cover a third of the observable universe.”
Adamarus stood and spoke forcibly, “That’s just it! It’s not believable unless you see the galaxies as we did and we won’t show them. Without the harsh undeniable truth we were subjected to, we let there be an element of disbelief. We don’t mention that their activities can be traced back twelve billion years…or anything about the Omega level…nor the Loud's calculations that show that to do what we're seeing the number of Blackships must be in...” Adamarus faltered unable to say it.
“...in the billions,” President Wicker finished for him.
Everyone was quiet for a long time. Finally Wicker broke the silence, “Okay, I think that might be okay. I think that would work.” He looked at the others for support.
Leewood said, “We don’t tell them everything.”
“Exactly,” Adamarus said.
Radin nodded then said, “And we definitely don’t mention that using us versus the first one-celled organisms that existed on our planet as a comparison won’t work because our planet isn’t old enough.”
Adamarus was also elected to do the briefing so he postponed his departure for several more days. Bugs had agreed to bring the Loud ship back to take him home.
---
Later that day, Adamarus got permission from the President to brief Evelyn and Brandon Eden, General Burnwall and Professor Woodworth, provided each underwent a psychological evaluation and it showed that they could ”handle” the diluted facts.
It was not easy getting all the psychological evaluations, especially since none of the individuals could be told the reason why in case they failed.
The next day the results came in, and strangely enough, Adamarus had been right to worry about Brandon as his results came in as borderline. His passion was cosmology and he knew better than the rest just how impossible the facts were. It was decided to let Evelyn decide after she had heard the details.
---
The next day, Adamarus met Evelyn, Burnwall and Woodworth in the same conference room where the first meeting with Bugs had taken place. He explained about the translator problem between them and the Loud, a
nd on top of this, why the Loud had not wanted to tell them.
The therapist had recommended coffee, sandwiches and cookies, saying that the more casual and familiar the meeting environment, the better. The meeting had also been scheduled so that it was lunch time and everyone would be hungry, and they were all eating when the meeting started.
“The Loud have been studying the movements and activities of the approaching alien for some 800 years. They call the alien the ‘Spiral Slayers’ and they call their black hole powered ships ‘Blackships.’” Adamarus shrugged, “We’ll continue with those names. The facts about these aliens are about as overwhelming as it can get. The Loud have detected more of these Blackships. There is also a Spiral Slayer ‘footprint’ which I’ll talk more about later, and it is this footprint, in part, which has allowed the Loud to find the ships as well as track their movements back over time. These ships and their footprints are widely spread across the universe.”
“Universe!” Evelyn exclaimed.
“How widely?” Woodworth asked.
“They believe that they see Blackships in three galactic super clusters,” Adamarus said, telling the truth but not mentioning that “signs” of the Slayers’ ships, the exploding galaxies, could be seen in thousands of super clusters.
Sounds of disbelief came from all three. Adamarus knew it wouldn’t be the last time. “Yes, it is unbelievable,” Adamarus continued, “but I’ll warn you now, this is only the tip of the iceberg.”
Woodworth interrupted again, “Admiral, that is simply not possible. The distances and time involved are just too great. The expansion of the universe puts super clusters out of reach, even to non-stop ships at near light speed…” Woodworth’s eyes suddenly went wide, “… are you saying that they have an FTL drive?”
“The Loud don’t believe so,” Adamarus said. “No ship the Loud have tracked has exceeded the speed of light. However, they are certainly doing something to allow them to cover these distances. What it is, the Loud don’t yet know.”
It was Evelyn’s turn to jump in. “Wait a minute! How old is this species?”
There it was. Adamarus took a deep breath. “We simply don’t know.” It was a lie, but it was also the truth.
Burnwall ran both hands through his hair, “So… pretty much this is like us taking all our military might and bringing it to bare on…what…?”
“An anthill,” Adamarus filled in for Burnwall.
“Us being the anthill,” Woodworth added.
“So we have no chance at all,” Evelyn said in a stunned and shocked voice, “just as Bugs has said all along.”
“Listen up, people,” Adamarus got up and leaned forward on the conference table, “there are some things that may give us some hope, but I must ask you to be patient and let me get through my presentation.”
Adamarus took a sip of water and set the glass down. Woodworth was looking at the table. Evelyn’s eyes were tearing up and Burnwall had that thousand-yard stare…and he hadn’t even gotten to the worst of it. “The Blackships will enter a galactic cluster and then enter one of the galaxies—for some reason they seem to only pick on spiral galaxies. The ship heads straight for the galaxy’s center.” Adamarus shifted positions, “If they encounter any civilizations along the way, they attack and destroy them as they’ve done with the Loud’s and…intend to do with ours. But their true objective is the black hole at the center of the galaxy. Once they get to it, they do something that causes the black hole to explode. This explosion releases all of the matter within the black hole as super-heated plasma and radiation. This, over the course of hundreds of thousands of years, spreads outward through the spiral. It kills all life and sterilizes the galaxy.”
“What?” General Burnwall said in shock as Evelyn whispered, “Oh God,” in disbelief.
Woodworth’s mouth dropped open in astonishment. Realization hit him after a moment, “And that’s what that thing is doing here?”
Everyone turned first to Woodworth, then to Adamarus.
“Yes,” Adamarus said.
“And we’re just some recreation along the way,” Burnwall added.
“Yes,” Adamarus said.
Burnwall continued, “I don’t believe it. It is just not possible to destroy an entire galaxy. It is just not possible to ‘work your way across the universe’! Unless they do have an FTL drive, then that changes everything.”
Adamarus replied, “The Loud believe that the Spiral Slayers have reached a very high level of evolutionary advancement. Based on the Loud’s analysis of the Tachyon scans of the battle, they believe that the Spiral Slayers somehow force their black hole into some kind of upper dimension and hold it there while they attack the planet, space installations, and finally the star.” Adamarus paused and closed his eyes. Now was the time to hit them with it...no choice...they had to know. And there was no easy way to do it.
He cleared his throat. “The Loud say that holding the singularity there takes enormous power and it is likely that they somehow route the singularity’s power in a feedback loop to accomplish this. As a result, if we were to somehow luck out and destroy the Blackship, its singularity would no longer be held in that upper dimension. It would return to normal space.”
“Oh, great!” Burnwall yelled, literally throwing his arms in the air. “That’s just great!”
“What does that mean?” Woodworth asked.
Adamarus explained, “Having a black hole that large next to our planet, or for that matter anywhere within our star system, would be utterly catastrophic. It would devour our planet and our moons, then it would suck in all the rest of the planets—every single one of them, then it would eat up our sun, and finally it would devour every comet in the ice cloud. There would be absolutely nothing left of our star system.” He sighed, “We have some serious problems yet…there is a quantum of hope.”
---
The President and his entire inner circle had hit the bottom. Overwhelmed and stunned by the events that had brought Amular’s first Council of War to a premature close, but most of all, by the shocking news from the Loud about the approaching alien’s age, technology and power, each one of them had simply shutdown. Each knew that somehow, they had to pick themselves up and carry on; nevertheless, right now they could not find the strength. None of them, including President Wicker, showed themselves. Queries from their next level of command were going unanswered and people were beginning to notice.
Adamarus had been trying to get everyone together for several days to no avail, but finally on the fourth day, he succeeded.
Except for the late Lance Thornton and Dr. Van Loader, all the attendees of the original Black Raven meeting were asked to attend, including Bugs.
---
Adamarus approached the conference room doors but then slowed and stopped before them.
The hallway was lit perfectly—indirect lighting that was not too bright nor too dim. Exactly like the rest of the installation. The porthole to his left showed the perfectly black surface of the planetoid Cinder stretching off to a horizon that seemed much too close. Above the planetoid’s black razor edge, the rich star wind of the orange dwarf Iceis appeared as millions of orange specks shooting upward. He knew that if he followed them upward with his eyes, eventually the specks would fade then vanish, exposing a circle of star-studded blackness.
He caught his refection in the porthole and thought that perhaps he was finally getting used to the image of the impossibly young thirty-year-old staring back. It must be the same for everyone, he mused.
Sometimes he missed his older self.
He turned his head, stared back at the double doors uncharacteristically hesitant…he was not accustomed to his present state. He was…what—discouraged, depressed, overwhelmed, scared…all of the above? The insights he’d had…the conclusions that had seemed so important for the last few days—did they really mean anything? Was the meeting that he had fought so hard for just a waste of everyone’s time?
In his present st
ate, how was he ever going to pull this off?
Well, there was no rescheduling. Somehow, he would find a way. He took a deep breath, trying to shake off his doubts then opened the double doors and walked in.
Everyone looked up at him. Except for Wicker who would be teleconferencing from Amular, all of them were already present and seated around the conference table. He nodded at them. They nodded back.
Adamarus took his seat then looked over the five other people…well actually, four humans and one five-foot robot. Adamarus noticed it was the only face in the room not wearing a mask struggling to hide the depression, the defeat and the hopelessness.
Adamarus glanced over at Leewood who took a deep breath and answered Adamarus’ unspoken question with a small, if begrudging nod.
Adamarus swallowed, nodded back once.
As usual, it would be on Leewood to introduce the purpose of the meeting to the President—only after this would Adamarus take over.
Right on time the blank screen came to life and the President appeared. There were the cuts and bruises on his face from his struggle with Thornton. Everyone also noticed the green glow on the right side of the President’s face and knew exactly what it was.
The lights in Wicker’s office were dimmed—behind him, in shadow, the grand circular windows of the presidential office, curtains drawn, could still be made out. Wicker make a face then glanced to his right into the green glow. He stared for a moment then he looked back at the camera. “Look at it,” he said shaking his head in disgust. He reached forward and swiped his touch-top desk to share.
Around Adamarus and the others, the lights in the conference room dimmed and the back wall screen came to life displaying the familiar green image—the live transmission from the orbital Tachyon scope.
President Wicker’s normal upbeat smile was strained and didn’t extend to his eyes, “Hello, everyone” he said, looking at each of them. He waved at the green image, “Nothing’s changed, of course. It’s still coming on its digitally precise course, deceleration and shrinkage curves. I was just…watching.” After a second he looked at Leewood and raised both hands, “So Admiral…” his reluctance to ask was frank and obvious, “…what now?”
Encounters (The Spiral Slayers Book 1) Page 37
