Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers (36 page)
Read Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers Online
Authors: Rusty Williamson
The Southern Pole Conflict dragged on, more as a cat and
mouse game than anything else. Five years later, for acts of bravery during the
defense of the Reliant AC Carrier, he got his
second Silver Star.
Adamarus was thirty-five when the Dark Mountain incident took
place. The Navy had just established a secret airport and staging area on Clark
Island just a half mile off the coast from the city of Miranee. This was done
in preparation for a major offensive against El Asfar’s Dark Mountain
stronghold—Miranee was only eleven miles from Dark Mountain. El Asfar somehow
found out about the secret base and launched an attack sending eighteen
fighter/bombers to destroy it.
Adamarus was leading a training mission which turned out to
be the only asset available to intercept the surprise attack. The squadron caught
them just after takeoff and engaged them over rugged slopes of the mountain. A
savage dogfight ensued between the nine older Navy fighters and eighteen state-of-the-art
El Asfar fighter/bombers.
During the battle, Adamarus shot down eight of El Asfar’s
fighters and directly saved four of his pilots by picking off the enemy planes
locked on their tails. This earned Adamarus the Medal of Valor and his status
as an “Ace” fighter pilot. The air engagement was won and three days later, the
offensive was launched against Dark Mountain and El Asfar was finally
destroyed.
Evelyn rubbed her forehead in confusion. As far as she could
see, Adamarus was a hero, the battle was won and then the entire war was won. Things
could not have gone any better! So why had Adamarus attempted to resign? How
did “guilt” and ”recovery” come into play?
There was a final attachment and she opened it. The first
page opened and she saw that it was another Red Raven Security Level document. She
paged down and read.
After the battle, an after action analysis of the engagement
had been conducted. It had showed that El Asfar’s pilots had been absolutely
lethal. But Adamarus’ training group had been very lucky.
During the engagement, Adamarus had been on the tail of the
fighter/bomber he had paired up with when he saw one of his pilots die as his
plane was hit, then saw that another one of his pilots was on the verge of
getting shot down. He radioed the pilot that he was on his way, but the senior
officer monitoring the dogfight from a high altitude AWAC command plane ordered
him to stay on his target. He immediately disengaged anyway, disobeying a
direct order. He went to his pilot’s aid, picking off his tail and saving the
pilot.
As the aircrafts swerved and dove around each other in rapid
succession, Adamarus found himself in the same situation three more times,
picking off three more bombers and saving three more pilots.
However, the fighter/bomber he had let go had left the fight,
broken through the ground defenses and found its way to the target. The fighter/bomber
would have caused fatalities and serious damage to the Clark Island facility,
but that’s not what happened. Just as the pilot was releasing his load of bombs,
his left wing was shot off by anti-aircraft fire. The plane flipped causing the
load of bombs to be thrown off at an angle and they completely missed the
Island, instead landing on a residential area of the nearby city. The death
toll was horrendous. Two hospitals, one pre-school, two elementary schools and
a large child daycare center had been among the hundreds of structures
destroyed. In all, 1221 civilians were killed and this had included hundreds of
children.
The after action analysis concluded that had Adamarus not
disobeyed the order and gone to the aid of that first pilot, and instead
pursued his own target, he would have shot down that fighter and still been
able to save the other three pilots. His decision had traded one life for 1221.
Adamarus blamed himself for the horrific tragedy. The
analysis was classified--Amular needed heroes not court marshals, and so while
publicly he was hailed as a hero and awarded the highest medal, inside he was
torn and twisted with guilt. Right after the awards ceremony, Adamarus vanished
and went AWOL for several days, then attempted to resign his commission. Knowing
what Adamarus was facing, his CO had ripped up Adamarus’ letter of resignation
and placed him in therapy where he remained for a year. Afterwards, he was
given the intelligence posting to allow the remaining pieces of Adamarus’ soul
to come back together.
Evelyn could hardly breathe as she stared at the screen, eyes
brimming with tears. It was unbelievable!
---
Harrington and Jan saw the tears. Harrington adjusted the
camera back to its default zoom factor and the small monitor continued its
automatic routine of switching between the two views. She looked over at Jan,
"What do you know of Adamarus' past?"
Jan paused, then looked carefully at Harrington. "Dark
Mountain?" she asked.
"Yes," Harrington looked back at the monitor. She
knew because she and Leewood had reviewed Adamarus' complete file after he'd
been dropped off at Hillcrest's ER by the Loud. She'd figured it likely that
Jan knew being in PR -- they had to be prepared in case of leaks to the press.
"So, we both know what Evelyn just read."
Jan nodded, "What else could it be?"
“Look, Jan, this is none of our business, but just so you
know, I talked to Evelyn about this and there’s nothing at all that will come
of it. She loves Brandon and would never do anything to hurt him or to put
their relationship at risk.”
Jan was nodding. “I can believe that. Let’s just hope that he
doesn’t find out. From what I’ve seen of their relationship, he’d be
destroyed.”
“Yeah,” Harrington replied.
They both looked back at the monitor just as it switched to
the camera showing Evelyn’s front. Their thoughts and feelings froze. Their
eyes went wide and it felt like the area just below their hearts dropped
several feet. Jan brought her hands to her mouth. Harrington brought her hands
to her chest. Neither could speak.
Behind Evelyn, just over her right shoulder, Brandon stood
watching.
---
Evelyn didn’t turn around. She’d seen him walk up behind her
in the monitor’s reflection. “Looks like I’m busted,” she deadpanned.
“Big time,” Brandon deadpanned back in a bored voice. “You’ll
be getting the morning coffee for at least a month.”
“This is…so horrible,” she whispered.
He placed his hand on her shoulder and she reached up and put
her hand on his, “I know.”
Now she turned and looked back at him, “You’ve read this?”
“A couple of days ago.”
“Geesh,” Evelyn rolled her eyes while trying to wipe tears
away with her other hand. “I should have known.”
“So, this little infatuation of yours…how bad is it? Probably
hopeless after reading all that.”
Evelyn shook her head, “Oh, yeah, pretty bad” she smiled.
“Should I be worried?”
“Absolutely.”
Brandon laughed, “You are a dog.”
Evelyn logged off and stood, “Aren’t I though?”
They put their arms around each other and walked towards the
door. “Five weeks coffee detail,” Brandon threatened.
“I bet Adamarus wouldn’t make me get his coffee,” Evelyn said
with a pout.
They reached the door. “Don’t make me hurt you,” Brandon said
straight-faced.
They walked out, “Ooh…promises, prom…” Evelyn’s voice faded
as the door closed.
---
“Oh…give me a break…” Jan said in a stunned voice, still
staring at the small screen alternating between an empty chair and a closed
door. Her eyes were watering.
“That’s what I mean about maturity,” Harrington stated, her
voice breaking.
“Well, I don’t know, you know…at some point I think it
becomes…ripe,” Jan said, wiping a tear from her check.
Harrington gave her a curious look, "You seem to know
what Evelyn was reading that was so...horrible."
Jan nodded. "I'm in charge of PR--I need to know
everyone's skeletons."
Rick chose that moment to open the door and enter, coffee in
hand. He saw their watery eyes and stopped in his tracks. “Oh wow, what’s
wrong?!”
“Goodnight, Rick,” Harrington said, and they walked out.
Chapter Twenty – Secret Disclosure
“Now, regarding dark energy…one
interpretation of quantum mechanics asserts the objective reality of the
universal wave function, but denies the reality of wave function collapse,
which implies that all possible alternative histories and futures are real,
each representing a universe on an alternate timeline. This means that an
infinite number of universes exist. In one parallel universe, we never came to
your world; and in another, we don’t even exist. So, why have I brought up this
incredible sounding interpretation of quantum mechanics…and in connection with
dark energy?”
The Loud Named Bugs
Opening Speech, 23
rd
Amular
Symposium
on Quantum Physics
Source: The Archive
Just before 5:45 AM, everyone arrived down in the atrium
where they were greeted by Adamarus. Following clearance by the armed guards
requisitioned by the President to secure the meeting, Adamarus led them to a
small conference room. They filed in and took seats at the conference table. Behind
it, the still inactive form of Bugs’ avatar stood against the wall where it had
left itself late last night.
Leewood had explained the reason for the meeting to
Harrington, but Donnelly and Van Loader were still completely in the dark as to
why Leewood had summoned them.
Adamarus got up, and while he walked over to the coffee
station, he told Donnelly and Van Loader that all would be explained soon and
to please be patient. He took a large mug from the cabinet, filled it and
returned to his seat.
It was too early for chit chat so no one was saying anything.
As the clock slowly ticked off the remaining minutes, the others got up to get
coffee. Adamarus blankly stared at the bluish metal form of the avatar. His
fingers were ice cold and he held his mug between his hands in an effort to
warm them. The silent conference room felt surreal and ominous. Adamarus took
another sip, then distracted himself by going over a mental list of things he
would soon need to cover.
Finally, the second hand on the wall clock moved from 5:59 to
6:00 and in his peripheral vision, Adamarus saw two of the teleconference
screens come to life. The Presidential Seal appeared on each. He glanced down
at the avatar and saw that it had moved—Bugs was with them. After a second,
President Wicker and Secretary of Defense Lance Thornton appeared on the two
teleconferencing screens.
Since Adamarus had discovered the situation, Leewood had
given him the chore of chairing the meeting. Adamarus took a final sip of
coffee, then got up and walked to the front of the room. “Good morning, Bugs.”
“Good morning, Admiral Maximus,” the avatar said as it stepped
off to the side.
Adamarus cleared his throat and nodded at those seated at the
conference table, “Good morning.” He looked at the teleconferencing screens,
“Good morning, Secretary Thornton,” he nodded at the President, “Mr.
President.” He turned back to the conference table. “I know that at least a
couple of you have no idea why we are here.” Adamarus looked at Van Loader and
Donnelly, “I’ll quickly go over things to get you up to speed. Late last night
we learned that the Loud know more about the approaching alien than they’ve
told us.”
Donnelly’s eyebrows rose and Van Loader pursed his lips and
his face started turning red.
Adamarus continued, “Unbelievably, we've only asked the Loud
one time if they knew anything about the aliens, and strictly speaking, the
question was phrased in such a way that restricted the question to a narrow
span of time." Adamarus quickly held up his hands, stopping the objections
that were bound to come. "As I pointed out on the second day of our
meeting, we do have this ‘little’ communication glitch with the Loud.
"I stumbled over it a number of times, but only recently
figured out what was happening. If a point in time is mentioned, it carries
over to any question asked afterword." Adamarus leaned forward, "Frankly
I think what has happened is bullshit, however, within the timeframe boundaries
implied by the previous question, they would have answered in the negative…just
as Bugs initially answered ‘no’ to Admiral Leewood’s question about the
grav-bomb yesterday. In this sense, one could say that they did not lie to us.”
Van Loader, whose face had been growing redder by the second,
exploded from his chair yelling, “One could say? One could say?! You're right
about it being bullshit!” Everyone jumped. “This is utterly fucking
ridiculous!” he pointed at Bugs and yelled, “The alien bastards…”
Wicker slammed a gavel down three times. It sounded like
gunshots. His voice was raised and angry. “We will conduct this meeting in an
orderly manner, Dr. Van Loader! I think we all feel the way you do and even
sympathize with your outrage, but you will constrain yourself while others have
the floor or I will have you removed. Have I made myself clear?”
Van Loader’s face turned even redder. He would have openly
glared at anyone else, but not the President. Instead, he glared straight ahead
and sat back down.
Wicker waited for him to answer his question, but when it was
clear he didn’t intend to, Wicker said in a low, dangerous voice, “Dr. Van
Loader, I do not like repeating myself. You will respond to my…”
“Ka-rys-tal clear Mis-ter Pre-si-dent!” Van Loader
interrupted the President in a fierce voice that clearly bordered on
insubordination.
Wicker stared hard at him for many seconds. Van Loader
continued to stare straight ahead. One did not interrupt the President or speak
to him in that way, and everyone held their breaths waiting for Wicker to slam
Van Loader.
Instead, Wicker addressed the group saying, “Okay…we are
all…stressed, angry…even outraged, and certainly confused by this unexpected
turn of events…myself included. However, I would suggest that we give the Loud
the benefit of the doubt. After all,” Wicker’s eyes came to rest on Van Loader,
“some of us would almost certainly be dead right now if it were not for the
Loud.”
The only one in the room that this clearly pertained to was
Van Loader, who had been ninety-three and literally receiving last rites when
the I-Pills had virtually pulled him from death’s doorstep. Van Loader cringed,
closed his eyes, and visibly shrunk at this statement.
“So far as I know," Wicker continued, "the Loud
have had a very good reason for doing everything they’ve done. So, let us move
forward in a calm, professional manner. Consider that an order that will not be
repeated.” He nodded towards Adamarus, “Admiral, please continue.”
Adamarus nodded back at the President then turned and again
faced the group. He spoke in a stern voice, “Clearly, the Loud knew we would
want…indeed, that we would need, any and all information that they had on the
alien. Yet they only answered the questions that we put to them and they
offered no information beyond this.”
Adamarus turned and looked at Bugs, and around the anger,
there was hurt and confusion in his eyes. “Without a doubt, at the very least,
they misled us.” Adamarus paused for a second and took a deep breath. Continuing
to look at the Loud, he went on, “Still, what is not clear is whether they had
our best interests at heart.” Adamarus’ head jerked around as Van Loader
exploded halfway out of his chair with a guttural expulsion. However, with
visible effort, Van Loader stopped himself. He was visibly shaking. Everyone
was watching him. The President had the gavel raised ready to bring it down. Van
Loader closed his eyes and lowered himself back into a sitting position without
saying a word.
After a beat, Adamarus, now looking back at the group,
continued, “They claim that their reason for doing this…was that they were
afraid that we would not be able to…” he glanced back at Bugs, “handle the
truth.”
At this, both Van Loader’s and Dr. Donnelly’s angry demeanor
took a small, but noticeable turn. Obviously, neither had expected the Loud’s
reason for withholding information. Both still looked angry, but this was now
tempered with uncertainty.
---
At 6:30 a few early birds turned out for the day’s scheduled
meeting. They had not seen or had left their cabins before the cancellation
notice arrived. They took the elevators down before signs had been set up at
the entrances to the elevators. They had no clue until they got off the
elevators in the atrium. There, in surprise, they saw the signs and ropes going
up. They jumped when the walls lit up as a flash of lightening shown through
the front windows, followed quickly by the crack and rumble of thunder. Turning
to the glass doors that led out into the atrium proper, it was easy to see that
there’d be no meeting…not right now and probably for the entire day. The rain
came straight down, each drop making a small splash in the thin sheets of water
already streaming across the concourse’s granite tiles.
---
“We have purposely kept this meeting small…” Adamarus
continued, “as well as ‘ultra’ secret at Bugs’ suggestion. Not knowing what to
expect, this seemed prudent.”
Adamarus waited several seconds then squared his shoulders,
“Okay, please listen up. This meeting carries a new security level called
‘Black Raven.’ This special security level was created last night by the
President specifically for this issue and this meeting. It is above the Red
Raven level. It is very important that, unless specifically told otherwise by
myself, Leewood or the President, no one is to discuss this new security level,
this meeting, or anything discussed here this morning.” Adamarus paused and
looked at each face making sure everyone understood.
Adamarus then took out his communicator, touched a button on
it and held it up. “Everyone should now set their communicators to
‘unavailable’ then set them face up on the table in front of you.” Everyone
began making the adjustment. Adamarus continued as he walked around checking
each com unit, “One other thing, we…created a weather problem in the atrium in
order to postpone today’s scheduled meeting. This was done so that we could
hear what the Loud have to say before moving on with those discussions. This
fact is also covered by the Black Raven security level.” Adamarus then asked if
there were any questions.
Van Loader’s loud arrogant voice caused everyone to cringe
inwardly. “Yeah!” he demanded as he slapped his hand down on the conference
table, “Exactly what facts have they been withholding from us?”
Adamarus replied calmly, “We will hear that now, Doctor.” He
nodded to Bugs and moved to his seat, aware that Van Loader’ red face and
glaring eyes were following him.
Bugs walked to the front of the room. Its voice was stern and
the volume was turned up, “First, I want to say that we regret that we felt it
necessary to keep information from you. However, we regret even more that you
have discovered this. We were and are acting in your best interests, and if
this meeting continues, you will see this.” Bugs paused, allowing that to sink
in then continued. “With one exception I will get to in a minute, this
knowledge will not change anything in our joint defensive planning and
strategies.”
Bugs took a step forward, and as it looked at each person in
turn, it spoke in a stern voice clipping off each word. “I am compelled to warn
each of you, in the strongest possible terms, that the knowledge you have asked
for, may harm you.” Adamarus could feel his heart pounding. “At the very least,
it will cause stress and depression, and even though you may continue with the
preparations of your planetary defenses, you will be stripped of all
enthusiasm.” Bugs stepped up to the table, and leaning forward, placed its manipulators
on it. It continued to look at each person in turn. “This information will
overwhelm you. You will experience feelings of inadequacy and inferiority.” Bug
raised its voice another notch, “In some cases…” the avatar pushed away and
moved along the table, “this knowledge will be too much…” it paused in front of
Dr. Van Loader. “In some cases…this knowledge may cause irreversible
psychological damage.”
Bugs paused for half a dozen seconds staring at Van Loader. During
that time, it began secretly sampling everyone present for pulse rates, blood
pressure, body temperature, pupil dilation, skin color, perspiration, respiratory
patterns, facial expressions and body language. It would continue to monitor
these indicators if it was forced to release the information. Presently it
detected disbelief, anger, fear and anxiety.
It continued, “Also, that one exception I mentioned…it is
this: After hearing what you want me to reveal, it is quite likely that some,
if not all of you, will decide to simply give up and accept the fate that
approaches.”
Adamarus felt the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck
stand up. He could not believe what he was hearing. He looked around at the
others —faces were slack, mouths hung open, shock and disbelief was evident. Adamarus
could not imagine what Bugs could say that would result in the drastic
reactions it described.
Bugs waited, looking at each person. It turned to the
President. Wicker nodded, acknowledging the warnings. Bugs continued slowly,
biting off each word, “I give all of you one last chance to cancel this
meeting.” No one said anything. “If you will not cancel this meeting, then I
beg each of you to make a personal choice –leave this meeting, thereby sparing
yourself.” The volume of the Loud’s words increased. “Knowing what we know will
absolutely do you no good. It will give you no advantage, offer no benefit,
suggest no new strategies, and offer no new insights. It will only cause harm.”
The avatar’s head swiveled, looking from person to person again. No one moved
or said anything. Still, it continued waiting, looking again at each person as
if to be absolutely sure.