Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers (4 page)

In a senseless state of shock he looked at the reflection of
himself. He noticed that one arm was bent at a ninety degree angle at the elbow
but in the wrong direction. His other arm was lying flat across his back.

Waves of chills vibrated through him and he realized that he
was having a lot of trouble breathing.

He tried to say something but an unrecognizable guttural
sound was all that emerged.

He noticed a loud hissing sound as the blackness closed in.

Seemingly an eternity later, Adamarus regained consciousness.
The emergency lights had gone out and he could see stars spinning through the
viewport.

With a start, the realization came that his face was pressed
into the corner of the lower control console and the front viewport. One part
of his fractured thoughts tried to image how that could be possible.

He was very cold and just wanted to sleep.

All around him, scattered about the floating wreckage, eighty-one
of the one hundred sphere-bots were still functional and rebooting in local
mode. The local base AI net was established between them, and with their
limited local intelligence (about that of a well-trained dog), they attempted
to assess the situation.

One took over as the master. Determining that forty-three
percent of its fellow bots had malfunctioning radios, it went into their most
basic mode of communication. Its sides, bottoms, tops and other moving parts
began rapidly extending out and snapping back with metallic clicks and clanks
as it began directing the other bots.

It divided them into three groups.  Some began the hopeless
task of sealing all the hissing leaks allowing the atmosphere to escape, while
another group attempted the equally hopeless task of rebooting the main
computer. The third group located Adamarus and began assessing his condition.

The master bot circled Adamarus clicking and whistling as
twenty other bots checked his vitals and injuries. As the critical nature of
his injuries became apparent, the bots began opening and closing their
multi-sectioned spheres faster and faster, clicking and clanking almost as if
they were in a panic. The master flew through the group instructing several to
get the medical kit while others were tasked with attempting to slow the loss
of blood by pressing themselves against the wound or linking together to form a
tourniquet.

The bots sent to locate the medical kit found it was wedged
between the side of the seat and the bulkhead and could not be detached or
opened. The master bot instructed the remaining group to follow him to the
medical kit. After trying and failing to open it, they began slamming
themselves against it destroying themselves while others pried the side of it
to gain entry.

Meanwhile the second group, deciding the main computer was
not going to reboot, reported back to the master. Clicking and whistling it
sent half to help plug the leaks and half to help with the medical kit.

While all this was happening the mortally wounded Adamarus
stared blankly at the spinning stars while taking labored gurgling breaths.
Every few minutes the sun would come into view forcing him to close his eyes. As
he watched, a dark shape moved across his view blocking the stars out one by
one.

Disjointed memories and thoughts came and went. The memory of
a burst of laughter echoed in his head along with a voice saying,
Keep an
eye out for the boogeyman
.

As his view rotated, the thing blocking the stars became silhouetted
against the sun. The shape was moving towards him, but shifting rays of
sunlight flickering around and through it hid its form.

Rescue ship
came to his disorientated mind but something
looked very wrong. Lines and shapes emerged and the brief hope changed into
curiosity, and then into fear.

The sphere-bots finally forced open the medical kit. One went
for the bandages but the Master bot knocked it out of the way and went right
for the Emerfreeze.

The Emergency Freezing Unit, or Emerfreeze, was used only for
mortal injuries where death was eminent. It enveloped the injured person with a
nano driven chemical which froze the body, placing it in stasis for up to two
hours and, hopefully, until proper medical care could arrive.

Small mechanical claws extended from the bot's open panels and
grabbing the EmerFreeze, the bot headed back to Adamarus.

Adamarus continued to watch the object. It had slowed and
stopped its approach and a smaller shape was emerging. Again the sun was right
behind it and all he could see was an outline. Rays of sunlight broke through
its shape crisscrossing and intertwining.

The form of a giant claw emerged and began to open as it came
right at Adamarus. Adamarus could only watch and make hoarse croaking sounds as
fear turned to terror.

At that moment the sphere-bot plunged the Emerfreeze into Adamarus’
shoulder and immediately it began freezing his body. A whitish translucent coat
of ice spread rapidly down his mangled arm and across his chest. It spread up
his neck and began enveloping his head. The blackness closed in. The last thing
he saw was the giant hand reaching for him. His last jumbled thought was,
The
boogeyman is here!

Captain Adamarus Maximus was now clinically dead though
potentially revivable.

---

What was left of Adamarus' craft looked much like the few tumbling
rocks around it.

The huge alien ship dwarfed it and the alien claw making its
way between the ships looked to be half machine and half plant. The claw had
three multi-joint appendages extending from a cube whose surface was seemingly
lined by vines and pipes.

Extending from the top of the cube was another smaller cube. Its
sides were transparent. Inside were large control consoles and flat screens. Behind
these were two large mounds. Half a dozen long tentacles extended upwards from
both mounds and moved about the controls. Frequently the mounds rapidly
increased and decreased in height.

The alien claw began rotating around the ruined craft. After
a few minutes, it matched its wobbling spin and the claw slowly closed on it. As
soon as the claw firmly held the ship, it began slowing its spin and moving
back toward the large ship it had come from. Once there, it made its way down the
ship’s central column.

After a few minutes it came to a section of the column where row
after row of squares formed a rounded wall. It traveled along the wall until it
came to a hole where a square was missing, then it smoothly rotated itself
until the claw and Adamarus’ ship faced the opening. Claw first, it lowered
itself into the hole until it was flush with the wall, the only difference was its
smaller transparent cube holding the two alien beings. Then, that too,
retracted until it was flush and there was just an unbroken wall of squares.
u

Chapter Three - Rescue

 “Today a mining accident took the lives of 47
men and women and injured 158. Among those killed was Captain Adamarus Maximus,
head of the Asteroid Harvesting Project and captain of the Carrier Class Mining
Ship ”The Bet’ti”, the flagship of the Harvest Fleet. Captain Maximus is
survived by his wife and one child. The disastrous accident took place the day
after Captain Maximus oversaw the successful harvesting of the first asteroid,
the crowning moment of a ten-year project. Most of the victims…”

Network*News Headline News
Bulletin rn377327.9971

The Amular Network*News! All the
news that’s NEWS!

Source: The Archive

Four days later…

Like the vast majority of intelligent life in the universe,
the individual nations of Amular had merged into a single entity and armed
conflicts had all but disappeared.

Then they had moved out into the solar system. Due to early
technology, the initial degree of isolation resulted in the young space
settlements breaking away.

Divided once again, conflict and wars broke out. The largest
of these ended fifty years ago, but it finally unified Amular with the
settlements throughout the solar system.

And so the time of monitoring the skies diligently for
defensive purposes had passed—now it was done for science and orbital projects
like the asteroid collection effort. This meant that the skies were watched
only in limited areas, which was why the approach of the seven–mile-long
spaceship went undetected.

Once in orbit, the ship was visible to the naked eye in broad
daylight. Some who saw it just ignored it, while many pointed it out to others
with a shrug. These reactions came from the fact that no one dreamed that it
was something that should not be there. After all, the news stations or their
government would certainly be aware of it, and if it were anything unusual,
would have said something by now.

Finally, after almost an hour, someone in the space program
saw it and asked a local observatory to identify it.  The astronomer on duty
was just heading home after a long night and the call annoyed him, but he
looked out the window and his brow creased in puzzlement. Mumbling something
about wasting his time, he booted the computers and trained the large scope up.

As he gazed upon the object with tired bloodshot eyes, ever
so slowly, the inescapable reality settled in and annoyance was replaced by
shock. He knew immediately what it wasn’t. It wasn’t anything from his planet.

His tiredness now forgotten, he started making calls. At
first, no one believed him, but finally, after getting confirmation from two
other observatories, and two hours after the seven-mile umbrella shaped
spaceship went into geostationary orbit, the news reverberated around the
planet, and basically, all hell broke loose.

---

When Adamarus awoke it was like coming back from some distant
place. It seemed like eons had passed.

His eyes opened revealing a circular glass wall ascending
into an indistinct fog. He closed his eyes and tried again but saw the same
thing. After several minutes he tried lifting his head and looking around. The
scene that greeted him was incomprehensible.

He managed to rise up using his elbows for support. Mild pain
rolled over him like an old friend. He was definitely alive. He tried to make
sense of where he was. He was in a circular glass enclosure, perhaps fifteen
feet across, which had a rounded bottom and whose sides rose upward,
disappearing in to a vague dark mist high above him. The glass structure seemed
vaguely familiar, and at the same time, somewhat disturbing.

Beyond the glass he could see things that made no sense. Around
him was a very large cavernous space which contained dozens of strange looking
hills. Beyond the hills he could see large black arches that stretched upward,
disappearing into the dark mists above.

He had not yet had the presence of mind to think about how he
had come to be here. He remembered nothing, not even his name. He was just
getting around to thinking about these things when movement caught his
attention.

One of the hills tilted back and forth, then it moved towards
him. It seemed to simply glide across the floor. Adamarus noticed that where
the large mound met the floor, a shiny black area about three feet high rippled
as it moved.

The thing was big, perhaps twenty feet high, twenty feet wide
and thirty feet long.

It was hard to see, hard to focus on. There was enough light,
but the details, while there, were complex and strange and his eyes could not
find anything familiar to anchor them.

As it continued towards him, alarms began going off in the
back of his mind. The monstrosity came right up to the glass and then stopped.

Adamarus had also neglected to consider his own state of
being. Had he, he would have noticed that he was wrapped in white cloth
connected to dozens of tubes that dangled from the mists above. He would have
also noticed that although his mind was fogged and confused, he was feeling
really good in a way that was both strange and familiar.

After several seconds the glass surrounding him seemed to
slide down and away. Frigid air and the strong scent of mold washed over him.
His ears popped several times. The moving hill seemed to sigh.

Without giving it much thought, Adamarus threw his legs over
the side of the platform he was lying on and tried to stand, but the floor
rushed up.

The strange hill seemed to flinch as he hit the floor.

Then, as Adamarus stared at it, it did something
inconceivable. In a blur of motion and with the sound of sucking air, it
stretched upward at least 100 feet. The expansion came to a halt. Adamarus
looked up at it dumbfounded. It looked like a giant blimp set on end.

Then, muscles seemed to flex and the walking hill came down
again emitting a horrible screech that was the loudest sound Adamarus had ever
heard. A wall of sound and wind physically slammed into him, lifting him up and
throwing him back. Still attached to tubes reaching down from the heights, his
body swung upward until his back hit a wall. The tubes stretched, allowing him
to slide down to the floor as he screamed and held his ears.

Simultaneously, many of the ”hills” had expanded upward and
were coming down, all making that incredibly loud noise.

The floor and walls vibrated and his back arched in pain from
the explosive sounds. Blood started running from his ears and nose. Then,
suddenly all was quiet.

Blackness was pulsing in and out from the edges of his
vision. He could hear small sounds from all of the hills as they jerked up and
down a few feet. He tried to look up but that was when the blackness closed
over everything. The last thing he remembered was seeing the moving hill coming
towards him.

Eons later Adamarus felt himself being moved, but quickly
slid back into unconsciousness. Sometime later, he again regained consciousness
briefly, and had the impression that he was on an airplane.

---

While everyone was looking up at the enormous ship, the
smaller atmospheric shuttle, which had detached from the ship before it had
become the center of attention, descended unnoticed. It remained that way until
it uncloaked and became both visible and very noisy thirty feet above the
helipad at Amular’s largest hospital, Hillcrest General Hospital in the city of
Hillcrest.

With an ear-splitting roar, it set down next to the emergency
room. Being many times larger than a helicopter, it extended out onto the
parking lot but had carefully avoided crushing any cars. The huge circular
craft rested on eight extended legs. It was 160 feet in diameter, looked sort
of like an upside-down umbrella—exactly like the seven-mile ship in the sky.
The thunderous roar died as hundreds of people in cars and on the sidewalks looked
on, momentarily frozen in total shock.

The aliens, having clandestinely studied the planet for over
three years, mostly via video and radio broadcasts, then acted in a very
logical way. However, the people within audio and visual range just didn’t catch
on right away.

First, an ambulance-like siren blared out at such volume it
could be heard for miles. A large hatch on the bottom opened and a fifteen-foot
ramp slowly extended to the ground. Almost at once, a black ten-foot square
only an inch thick literally flew down the ramp, and floating in the air,
proceeded to the side of the ship and started rotating. It gained speed, and in
seconds, was spinning so fast it became a blur.

It was at that point someone screamed, and people who had
been frozen in place suddenly started running.

The blurred spinning black square came to life, displaying 3D
images like a hologram.

Incredibly the theme song from a popular weekly real life
entertainment show called ”Emergency Room Trauma” blared out at a volume no one
thought possible.

At this, a couple of the fleeing people looked back, and then
they slowed down as they saw the 3D images displayed on the spinning square. It
showed some kind of wreckage. The familiar mining company’s logo could be seen
on the dented and torn hull.

Fingers crammed into their ears, a couple of people wandered
cautiously back toward the spinning square, watching as it showed small black
machines cutting into the wreckage. Then the image showed a broken and bloody
body being carried out of the wreckage by four of the black machines.

One of the people watching was a doctor and he had gotten as
close to the spinning square as possible.

Something bumped into him. With his eyes glued to the screen
he held up a hand, waving off the intrusion and hollered above the noise,
“Wait! This is showing an injured person.” Something bumped him again, harder
this time and he turned angrily… but then froze.

No one had noticed the second smaller black rectangle float
down the ramp. Now it floated beside the doctor, bumping him to get his
attention. On the floating black rectangle lay a body bandaged almost from head
to foot. At that moment a booming voice came from the ship. “He will live. Feed
him when he wakes. When the bandages fall off, send him back to us.” It was so
loud that everyone fell to their knees.

After Adamarus was transferred to a gurney and rolled into
the emergency room, the ship went quiet. Both the black platform and the black
square returned to the ship and the ramp closed. The ship then sat there
quietly doing nothing.

---

The city of Hillcrest had been a small town with a population
of about 1,200 before the Hospital had been built forty-two years ago.
Hillcrest was in the middle of nowhere which was the reason it had been chosen
for the site of the new hospital.

Eight years before its construction, the victorious soldiers
had returned from the twenty-year interplanetary war, bringing with them a
virus picked up from the prisoners of war. The virus swept across the planet killing
hundreds. The new center of medicine was located in an isolated area to keep it
safe and functional should such a thing ever happened again.

The nearest small town was Big Rock forty-two miles away. Its
large hydroelectric plant was another reason Hillcrest had been chosen for the
hospital. Best of all, other than Big Rock, for almost a hundred miles in any
direction, Hillcrest was surrounded by forests and mountains, all of it
government owned land.

Being the planet’s central hub for medical training and
research, the larger news networks had reporters permanently stationed in
Hillcrest, so the news of the alien ship landing hit the wires within five
minutes.

Within twenty minutes, all of the other news networks had
reporters headed towards Hillcrest.

Within half an hour, news of the two ships had spread around
the planet.

---

 The government had a contingency plan for everything.
However, some of these plans were somewhat old. In this particular case, eighty
years old.

As it turned out, the twelve-man team of experts to be
notified, and who would take the appropriate action in the case of alien
contact, had all passed away years ago. Of course replacements had been
appointed and re-appointed over the years. However, none of the current
appointees had ever given any thought to alien encounters and, in fact, most
didn’t even remember being appointed to what had become something of an
honorary position, or worse, a complete joke.

And of course the ”procedures” that had been painstakingly
worked out and documented eighty years ago were as lost as the clueless
appointees. Fortunately, things went well despite all this.

Within an hour of the landing, the Hillcrest police cleared a
five-block area around the ship and, except for hospital staff and patients,
the public was kept away. The police passed the news up to the local government,
who passed the news right up to the top, the President of Amular and its solar
system colonies.

President James Olson Wicker, a cool-headed person with a
ration of common sense, knew instinctively that a contingency plan and a team
assembled eighty years ago would be useless now. He immediately had the most
capable person he knew of tracked down, a fairly young commander named Patrick
T. Leewood.

Then, knowing communication would be a large factor, he
remembered an article he’d recently read on communicating with advanced
computer AI systems – the article had likened it to communicating with an alien
intelligence. The author was one of the top experts in the field of AI
communications, Dr. Lorraine Harrington. He had her tracked down.

Finally he added the top four members of Amular’s Security
Agency.

As each person was located, they were rushed to the nearest
airport and air lifted, many via supersonic fighter jet, to Hillcrest.

Once everyone was airborne, a secure teleconference was set up
with each of them and the President, and he personally briefed them. He put
Leewood in charge, named Harrington as second in command, and told them to get
on site, assess the situation and report back.