Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers (10 page)

It screeched its reply but the translator announced, “Does
not translate.” The creature reacted to this in a way that surprised Adamarus.
It had managed a very human shrug without shoulders or arms. Adamarus asked him
to repeat its name. The screech the creature made sounded a little like a very
distorted version of the word “bugs."

“How about this, I’ll call you Bugs.”

The Loud seemed to consider this for a few seconds then
startled Adamarus again. All six of its tentacles came up and wiggled at Adamarus
like it was imitating…a bug! Then it shot up, came down, and after a pause, the
translator replied, “As long as you don’t try to exterminate me.”

Clearly, Adamarus would have to remember that these creatures
had watched his species’ entertainment videos and listened to radio for who
knew how many years. Every response from it would be based on the knowledge it
had gained from those years. That thought was somewhat depressing but he guessed
it was better than nothing.

“Bugs, we need to talk about a serious personal matter.” Bugs
settled back and waited. “You’ve made me young again which would be great, but
my wife and I are much older, and this has created an imbalance which is unacceptable.
You must restore me to my real age.”

“I see. This is not my area of expertise, Adamarus, and I can
see this is a big problem. Try not to worry for we will do anything you wish to
make everything okay again. I will discuss this at once with those who
specialize in this area, and tomorrow we will resolve the problem, either by
restoring you to your proper age or, another possibility is giving your wife
the treatment so she is as young as you. Is this acceptable?”

Making Grace young again had not even occurred to him. No,
that wasn’t exactly true. In the back of his mind he had wondered if that might
be possible. But this presented new problems. Would it be safe? How would Grace
feel about it? How would his superiors feel about it? Nero had to be considered.
“How safe is the…treatment?”

“I will ask that as well…in fact, I will bring a
communication device so that any and all questions you have can be addressed.”

Relief washed over Adamarus. “Thank you, Bugs.”

“Now let’s relax and talk about meaningless things today. We
have lots of time for serious issues and your world is about to jump forward a
thousand years. This is an exciting time for both our species!”

Adamarus flinched -- a thousand years! The thought of the
promise he’d made to Dr. Kallen occurred to him, but he decided he’d have to
bring that up another day. “So you estimate that your species is a thousand
years ahead of us?”

“That determination was made after much study, but it is only
an estimate based on a lot of assumptions.”

“Like what?”

Bugs took another drink, “How quickly your species has
progressed in the past, the technologies as well as the scientific knowledge
and theories you currently have, the fact that you still have scientists, the
fact that your species is still mortal…other indicators similar to those.”

Adamarus nodded then suddenly looked away with a concerned
expression. The Loud noticed this. “Something wrong?” it asked.

Adamarus scolded himself for his lapse of control. “Well,” he
said, “we were hoping to establish a trade agreement with your people, but
being a thousand years ahead of us…what would we have that you’d want?”

“Do not worry about that!” the alien replied. “Mostly your
arts and entertainment—especially music but other items as well. Wood – we have
nothing like it – and other resources your world has that we don’t.” The Loud
took another drink.

Adamarus took another drink as well. “That’s good to hear. Yesterday,
discussing this with others I work with, we were very concerned about that. They
will be relieved. Where are you from?”

“Why the ship next to this building.”

Adamarus looked confused, “No – I mean which star?”

“Oh…oh…I thought you meant yesterday…the translator will
adjust and become better as we talk. Your catalog number for our star is G214H.
It is 112 light years from here. It can be seen with the naked eye – a dim star
in the Northern sky.”

And so Adamarus and Bugs drank beer and talked and got to
know each other. They talked a little about the news and current events. The
mining project had been headline news and this was discussed. Adamarus asked
Bugs, “What if you need to say something quickly?” Bugs demonstrated by pushing
downward immediately pushing air out vents along the sides of his head creating
a loud high pitched whistle. A second later the translator said, “Help! I’m
being attacked by humans!” Of course they discussed the video dramas and the
daytime soap operas the Loud had watched so much.

At the end of the meeting, a large opening appeared in the
wall of the dome behind Bugs and then it gracefully waved its tentacles outward,
then rose and came down making its ear splitting shriek. The translator took a
long time working on it but the words came, “Probability…fold in your favor!”

“Excuse me?”

Bugs paused a second then expanded, compressed and shrieked
again and again. The translator processed and spoke, “It is how we wish each
other well. It refers to the fabric of the universe – the tiny vibrating
space-time wrinkles. The way in which the universe moves forward is determined
by the way that the probability waveform folds. All things that can happen…do
happen – both good and bad. Your actions and attitude can help the probability
waveform fold or collapse in directions favorable to you.” Adamarus had no idea
what the alien was talking about. The alien turned and glided out and the
opening closed.

Since Adamarus’ species had first realized that other life
must exist among the stars, they had known this meeting might take place
someday. After hundreds of years of wondering and worrying about how a first
alien contact situation might go, this one got off on the right foot…or
tentacle, depending on the point of view.

---

The first meeting knocked off at 4:00 PM. Adamarus felt
exhausted and had to fight to keep his eyes open as two security guards
escorted him to the debriefing room. He didn’t know how the Loud had gotten its
hands on the beer and he had decided not to mention it until he found out. He
had a feeling it wouldn’t go over well – not the fact that they had drank it,
but rather that the Loud had contacts and inroads into his world that were
unknown to anyone. He would deal with that tomorrow.

All five team members were waiting inside. Adamarus sat down.
Hot coffee and donuts appeared before him. He took a sip and it felt like
heaven going down. He looked up at the five people whose job it was to debrief
him. His eyes lingered on the only female member a little longer. He could not
read her expression or anyone else’s for that matter. He wondered where Radin
knew her from.

Before he could help it, he heard himself say, “The Loud had
a six-pack of beer waiting for me as well as an entire case for itself. It
thought it would help out our first meeting. And it did.” Everyone started
talking at once. Adamarus took another sip of coffee to hide how dumbfounded he
was that he had blurted that out. What the hell was wrong with him! Why in the
hell had he done that? It was almost as if he had to tell them and didn’t have
a choice in the matter. He listened to the bedlam he had caused. How could the alien
have gotten it? How could it have purchased it? Someone exclaimed, “It couldn’t
fit inside a liquor store, for goodness sakes.” Orders were issued to check the
perimeter around the ship for any way anything could have slipped in or out.

The debriefing took three hours. Several times aids had come
in and whispered something into Leewood’s ear. Finally a weary Adamarus was
driven home.

---

“Well you won’t believe this.” Radin said. They had just
eaten dinner and, like the night before, retired to the drawing room. Radin was
making them both a drink. He had gotten another briefing from his friend who he
had started referring to as sky-eye. Radin brought over the drinks and they sat
in the same place they had the night before. “Sky-eye had some surprising news.
The Loud have been busy. They somehow, without anyone detecting it, tunneled
down and over, coming up beneath a vacant mansion on the next street – it’s for
sale. It’s believed that they found out about it being unused the same way they
got themselves Universal Credit IDs and made orders for that beer they had
delivered to that mansion.” Radin stirred his drink, “The mystery is this: The
tunnel is only eight feet square. How could they fit through it?”

“I’ll be damned,” Adamarus said.

Radin looked away briefly then said, “More news...” He took a
drink. “…more BS. I just…” He let the unfinished sentence drift away as he took
another drink, avoiding Adamarus’ eyes.

Adamarus knew his old friend well. He set his drink on the
table between them and leaned forward. “Out with it.”

Radin looked up sheepishly and took a deep breath. “Sky-eye
told me that they started slipping you some kind of truth serum today…”

“Damn, I should have figured that out.” Adamarus replied
thinking of how he’d blurted out that Bugs had somehow gotten beer.

“… to make sure you would report your conversation
accurately.”

Adamarus shook his head, “I can’t believe this.”

“It’s just that this is so important, Adamarus. It is so
important that they would probably sacrifice this entire city if it came down
to it. And as much as I hate to say it…”

“They’re probably right in their thinking,” Adamarus finished
for him. Radin just looked down. Adamarus asked, “What are they giving me?”

Before answering, Radin finished off his drink in one
swallow, “Don’t know.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Sky-eye
wanted to find out but couldn’t think of a way to ask without sounding too
interested.”

Adamarus looked confused, “How are they giving it to me?”

Radin took another deep breath, “Notice how no one rode with
you in the back of the limo today? You breathe it in. It’s vaporized and mixed
with the air in the limo’s heater.” Radin let that sink in then reached into
his pocket and tossed Adamarus a small device. “Here…”

“What’s this?”

“Re-breather. See the mouth grip? Bite on that and turn the
dial on top. Up to two hours of your own personal air!” Radin winked.

---

After Radin had left, Adamarus took Nero and Grace into the
backyard. A chill wind was blowing and the night sky was clear. After several
minutes of consulting his PDA, he was able to locate the Loud’s star. He
pointed it out to his wife and son and they stood there looking across the
light years at the dim nondescript point of light.

Chapter Seven – Subsequent Meeting
s

“We are most honored to have as our opening
speaker for the 23rd Annual Symposium on Quantum Physics the Loud known as
Bugs. (applause) Yes… (applause) Okay… (applause) Please… (applause) Actually…
(applause) Actually due to incompatibilities with the environment, physical
space and communication, an avatar or robot will be used. This avatar will
provide Bugs and ourselves with a full spectrum, real time, interactive virtual
presence. (applause)”

Dr. Wayne Brittan, Chairman of
the House Science Committee

Introduction to The 23rd Amular Symposium
on Quantum Physics

Source: The Archive

The next morning Adamarus read yesterday’s newspaper in the
back of the limo on his way to the listening chamber. He had the newspaper
open, covering his face, thus hiding the re-breather. With the limo’s tinted
windows and being alone in the back, it was just a precaution against the
driver rolling the window down and looking in the back. The re-breather had
been hard to get used to at first, but after a few minutes Adamarus hardly
noticed it. When the limo arrived he merely took it off and, holding his
breath, put it in his pocket and got out.

According to the plan, in this second meeting Adamarus would
attempt to get answers for: how the Loud had gotten the beer, how many aliens
were aboard the landing craft, as well as in total and the reason the Loud had
contacted Amular. Beyond this, he would attempt to gather more facts about the
alien and its culture. However, as Adamarus entered the listening chamber and
walked to the green window, he only had one thing on his mind.

Like yesterday a green mist floated on the surface of the
thick glass and he could feel the cold radiating from it. He could see Bugs
waiting on the other side. “Hello Bugs.” His words were translated and seconds
later, a short screech could be heard within the dome.

Bugs screeched and the progress bar on the translator progressed
to 100 percent, “Hello Adamarus.”

Let’s just get it over with,
Adamarus thought. “So
tell me, Bugs, can you put me back the way I was, that is, back to the same age
that I was?” Adamarus looked down at Bugs, who sat thirty feet below him and
waited. Then he followed Bugs up with his eyes as the Loud expanded its one
enormous lung with air.

After a moment the translator spoke, “I have consulted with
our medical experts as you requested. No. I’m sorry, Adamarus, your current
condition is irreversible. Keep in mind that it was necessary to save your
life.”

Each word hit Adamarus like the blow from a sledge hammer. In
his mind’s eye he watched Grace growing old and then dying of old age as he
followed twenty years behind her. Yet he treasured his new found youth. He
bowed his head in confusion and a single word escaped his lips, it was spoken softly,
“No.” And just like that he made a decision. He looked up, “Bugs, you have
given me a remarkable and astounding gift, and yet your gift puts me in an
impossible situation.” Adamarus paused and Bugs seemed to lean forward, “How
difficult is it to…treat another person, to turn back their age as you did with
me?”

The Loud’s tentacles came up and he tapped something into a
device he wore on one of his tentacles. A few seconds passed as he appeared to
read something on the same device. “As easy as drinking a small amount of
liquid. The person will get slightly sick for several days, then they will
sleep a lot for about a week. Then it is done.”

Adamarus’ frown turned into a tight smile. Then he described
his situation to the alien, how his wife – his soul mate – would grow old
without him and how it would tear both of them apart. When he was done he
asked, “How much danger is there in this treatment? What are the risks?”

“None that we are aware of,” Bugs said. The Loud seemed to
lean forward, “Adamarus, I would like very much to meet your family. Kindly
inform your superiors that I have asked. Inform them that it has been many hundreds
of years since we’ve had family units and we are most interested in observing
one. Also tell them this will represent a symbol of trust between you and I as
well as between our species. This visit should take place sometime within the
next month. I can have the treatment waiting at that time.”

Adamarus heard himself say, “Thank you, Bugs. I’ll request
the meeting but I, as well as my wife, must give some thought to giving her an
alien de-aging treatment. It is certainly what I want but it is a big step.”

“I understand.”

Adamarus decided to be blunt, “Bugs, how did you get the beer
for yesterday’s meeting?”

“We know that you have detected the tunnel from our ship to
the vacant structure on the other side of the hill. I presume you wish to know
how one of us could fit through the tunnel. A robot we are testing performed
this. We hope the robot will allow us to interact with your species in a fuller
and more intimate way.”

“Can you tell me how many of your kind there are in the
landing craft and also how many are in all your ships?”

“There are four of us within the landing craft. Each large
ship carries sixty-two of us and there are three large ships for a total of 186.”

 “Why did you contact us?”

“Although we have detected seven intelligent civilizations,
most are too far away or too warlike. We contacted you because you are the
closest. We are tired of being alone and wish to establish friendly relations
with your world as well as trade.”

They spent the rest of the day talking about inconsequential
matters and learning more about each other.

---

The debriefing team had grown. Five additional people had
been added: a psychologist, two scientists, the secretary of trade and a
presidential advisor. Ten people sat across from Adamarus for the second daily
debriefing.

 First Adamarus told them the answers to the questions they
had wanted him to get. They discussed these for a while, then Adamarus said, “We
also discussed family, which reminds me, it asked if I could bring my wife and
son in sometime over the next month.”

They looked at each other at this. Adamarus held his breath. Finally,
Leewood, the one who still seemed to be the leader, said, “I don’t know about
that one.”

Adamarus’ heart sank but then he remembered how he was
supposed to present this, “I think it is a matter of meeting a family unit—the
Loud have not had these in hundreds of years, family has become foreign to them—but
also, this would be a way of establishing more trust with the Loud. I think it
is important. Probably they would just be in with me long enough to meet Bugs
and perhaps for it to ask them a few questions.”

Leewood thought a moment, then, “I guess it would go a long
way…not only in their learning about us but also for relationships with them in
general. I guess I don’t see any harm.” He looked around for support and got
nodding heads. “It shouldn’t be a problem as long as nothing unexpected comes
along. Let me think about when we should do this.”

They discussed the other things Adamarus had learned and
finally the debriefing wound down. “OK,” Leewood said, “tomorrow we think you
should attempt to discuss more cultural issues. We need to know more about them.”

---

Adamarus rode home in the limo wondering how Grace would feel
about taking an alien youth treatment.

He looked at his reflection in the limo’s tinted window. He
was doing that so much lately. The impossibly young face stared back. And he
felt so good. He wanted badly to share this with his Grace and the situation
had left him little choice. Irreversible, what else was he supposed to do?

The limo dropped him off at the curb. When he entered the
mansion’s large entry doors he could smell dinner cooking. He found Grace
sitting on the floor with Nero helping him with his homework. He went over to
them, “Hi love.” He looked at Nero, “How’s my boy?”

“Hi sweetie.” Grace turned and he leaned over and hugged and
kissed her.

Nero was always excited when Adamarus came home wanting to
know all about the “space alien” daddy talked to all day. “Daddy! Daddy! Did
you do what I asked you to do? Did you tell Bugs I said hello? Did you?”

Adamarus had forgotten all about that, but what luck—this was
the perfect opening. He sat down on the floor with them. “Yes, I did,” he lied,
“and do you know what happened then?”

“No! What happened?”

Grace got up whispering, “I’ll check dinner.” But Adamarus
caught her arm, “Wait just a second, babe. You need to hear this.”

Grace sat back down, “Well…make it quick or you’ll be eating
burnt casserole.”

Adamarus smiled and looked back to Nero, “Bugs asked if I
could bring you and your mother in to meet him sometime.” Nero’s mouth opened
and he looked at Adamarus with complete wonder. Grace looked at him in utter
shock. He continued, “I got it approved by my boss and everything is set. It
will happen sometime within the next few weeks.”

Grace was trying to interrupt him, “Wait just a minute, honey…”

Adamarus held up his hand and, still looking at Nero,
continued, “And, guess what?”

“What?” it came out as a whisper.

“You get two and only two questions you can ask Bugs, and I
think tomorrow at school you can get the class to help you choose one and one
you can decide on all by yourself.”

“No way!” Nero exclaimed.

“Way, little buddy! Now go and wash up for dinner.” Nero shot
down the hall as Adamarus turned and faced Grace.

“I don’t believe this!” she hissed. “Don’t you think you
should have discussed this with me first?” She put her hands on her hips.

Adamarus groaned and rubbed his head then looked up at her. “Grace,
this is much more than you think, so please, let’s discuss this later. So much
happened today, and there is so much I need to tell you.”

She stared at him a moment longer then just turned and went
in the kitchen.

Later after dinner Nero raced to the entertainment screen to
watch his favorite show before bed, Super Secret Agent—Swing Fist. While Swing
performed daring deeds, Adamarus helped Grace with the dishes. Grace had asked
him to explain but he insisted on waiting until Nero was in bed so they cleaned
up from dinner in silence. After Nero was asleep he explained everything to
her.

 Grace’s hands went to her mouth and her eyes went wide, “Oh
my God! You really asked them to make you old again? For me?"

"Well...yes. This youth I've gotten would be a curse if it
meant watching you grow older before I do...then, losing you to old age. It's
like losing you. But, in any case, it's not possible and anyway, making you
young is far better."

I can't believe that Bugs has offered to make me young too!”
Fear crept into her face. "Adamarus, this is very scary. How safe is it?"

He took her hand, "Bugs says it is totally safe..."

She interrupted, "Do you really trust Bugs?"

Adamarus looked away and thought for a moment, then he turned
back and looked her in the eyes and nodded, "Yes...I do. Somehow...I do.
But, I know...I know," he rubbed his temples. "Well, it won't happen
for several weeks. We have time to think about it, talk it over. See...what we
want to happen."

She squeezed his hand and said with an ironic little laugh,
her eyes twinkling, "What we want to happen isn't in doubt. It's the road there
that's scary."

---

The next day the family visit was scheduled—it would be done
in three weeks.

The daily meetings with Bugs continued. Among the more
significant things they learned was that, other than dying from an injury from
some accident, the Loud were immortal. They discussed in detail each other’s
physiology and anatomy as well as each other’s evolution and development.

Radin had to go off-planet to oversee the ongoing asteroid
project, but was in touch with sky-eye every day promising Adamarus that he’d
be contacted with any new information. But outside of a few minor issues, there
was nothing new to tell.

A major question the human’s had been putting off—how much of
their advanced technology and scientific knowledge were the Loud willing to share—was
finally answered, all of it!

Adamarus had not forgotten the questions the doctors had
wanted answered and he discussed this with the debriefing team. It was decided
that Adamarus was not qualified to discuss these issues and that a team of
doctors and scientists would need to question the Loud directly. It was decided
that the question of allowing this would be put to Bugs after the family visit.

It was the day before Grace and Nero were to visit when finally
Adamarus and Bugs got to the subject of trade. Bugs was saying, “We wish to
deal primarily through you, Adamarus, although there will also be a small team
that you and I will decide upon. The reason for this is that it will take, on
average, 250 years to travel to our star system and back again and many things
can change between visits. Dealing with you each time will help maintain
consistency with our relations.” The Loud immediately rose again sucking in air
to continue speaking.

The meaning of what Bugs had just said dawned on Adamarus. He
stood and walked towards the green window shaking his head and almost laughing,
“Ah…we have a little problem…,” but Bugs was already descending with ear
splitting sounds.

“Besides ourselves, the team should include a backup for
yourself and myself in case anything happens to either of us…”

Adamarus tried again to interrupt, “Excuse me Bugs, but…”

“…plus twenty of your people who can serve to clarify issues
and details on what will be traded,” the translator continued.

“…this isn’t going to work,” Adamarus waved his arms to get
Bugs’ attention.

“They will work with twenty of my staff. I will only deal
directly with you and…” Bugs had started on his way back up but now stopped
mid-way and looked at Adamarus.