Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers (15 page)

“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 snow melt. 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 solar 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 farm land 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 forth 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 twenty-seven and thirty-two 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 twenty-seven
to thirty-two 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 least 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 insure 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 applications. 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 round enormous conveyer belts and control
towers to the dock where they had locked down their landing craft. Bugs parked
the hover capsule perfectly beside the dock landing, then the three humans and
one avatar exited and walked down the suspended ramp to their ship, a standard
in-system craft made for travel within the planetary system.

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 check list 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 23
^rd
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 televised around the planet and anyone
remotely interested in science would be watching.

It happened without warning as the craft left the moon.
Adamarus abruptly stopped checking the schedule on his PDA and looked up, his
eyes unfocused. Through the semitransparent hull, the unnatural geometric
mirrored surface of the moon was dropping away, but none of this registered
with Adamarus. It had come to him out of nowhere…in a flash of insight that had
jarred him. He suddenly knew exactly what was causing the bouts of sadness
inside him. He didn’t know why he hadn’t seen it before. It seemed so obvious.

Before the Loud had come, his people had strived to progress
– to move forward with both disappointments and elation, failures and victories,
but always advancing and discovering. Ever since they had fallen out of the
trees and started walking upright they had, without help, pushed the envelope
of their understanding of the universe. There had been pride, ambition, newness
and wonder.

But now? Now all of that was gone. The Loud were a thousand
years ahead of them. Want to know something…anything…just ask and get the
answer from the Loud.

No, he corrected himself, not ”all” of it was gone. There
were still areas that the Loud seemed to have no interest in: art, music,
fiction and even some areas of science. And in some areas the Loud would give Amular
what they knew and then they would be even, both on the edge of that one area
pushing the envelope.

Still, overall, these were just small exceptions. He rubbed
his eyes and wondered if anyone else had looked at it this way. He thought of
the suicide rate and wondered if that was related at all.

A sharp sound shook him out of his thoughts. A heat shield
had slid over his window; they were entering the atmosphere.

---

Professor Floyd Earl Woodworth, famous historian, had been
seventy-two years old. Finding retirement not completely fulfilling, he had
taken a second grade teaching position in Hillcrest.

Then the skies had filled with little white immortality
doses. Now he was a young man again and of course he loved it. Besides the
de-aging process making him look young again, it was the difference in the way
he felt! Endless energy is the only way he could describe it.

Like many in his same situation, he felt more comfortable in
the type of clothes he had worn as a young man and chose to dress that way at
his “new age.” He looked quaintly out of date. However, this mode of dress had
become a style in itself.

Professor Woodworth stood five-foot-eleven again, but at
first, his body had been just as out of shape as it had before the treatment. He
had placed himself on an exercise routine and now it was starting to show.

Life was good. Life was great!

But right now he was confused, not to mention embarrassed. The
suggestion he had made to his second grade class regarding their one and only
chance to ask a Loud a question had seemingly backfired.

Mistake indeed! How could such an error be made? People all
around the world had seen the dim star change into a bright new star and
reported it, some meticulously describing the location.

When Nero A. Maximus had told the class that the Loud had
said that there had never been a solar flare, he had been shocked. He made a
class assignment out of researching the issue and finding the problem. But none
was found and so he had had to wait until the summer vacation before he could
pursue it further.

And so here he was. He had traveled 700 miles from his home
in Hillcrest to Bakersfield where the archives were kept at the Central Museum
of Science. He was supposed to be on his way to the 23
^rd
Annual
Symposium on Quantum Physics, but felt that he could make this detour and still
be there on time. Now, he sat in a viewing room reviewing the original accounts
of the solar flare that had been observed 1,023 years ago.