Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers (14 page)

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 3,000 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, “1,854 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!” One of the security grabbed the remote control and complied.

“…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 allegedly 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, 'super
charged' 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 walls 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 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.”

“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,
your species will die.”

“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 over-populated
that there will not be enough food, enough water, not even enough room.”