Through the Singularity

by L. Frank Wadsworth

  They accelerate slowly, using very little energy, minimizing their signatures, but are soon coursing through the interplanetary void at a sizable fraction of the speed of light. But at least one galanen anticipated such an attack might come—Fandtha.

  Jevelle is alerted in the middle of a sleep cycle. They are under attack! Information is streaming to her as she heads for the operations center. Fandtha, Beltare, and the others are already enroute. They have some time, thanks to Fandtha's foresight. Hundreds of comets are inbound from the outer reaches of the solar system—coming from every direction to frustrate any point of defense. It's difficult to discern their exact destinations, but it is clear they will impact both Earth and Luna. The shell must be trying to change the rules of the conflict it has been losing.

  The Rayleonna takes up a position opposite Earth from Luna to better spread their combined defensive fires. The first line of defense will be along the asteroid belt, where hundreds of hidden remotes with massive antimatter charges are already on intercept courses. Like the events at Juruele, the actual engagements are brief, and violent. Only a few comets make it through the initial onslaught, and the remainder are easily picked off by remotes launched from Luna Base and the Rayleonna. Fandtha is furiously scrubbing sensor data, making sure there are no threats remaining. Suddenly, he cries out with a very profane human curse. “Cloaked object inbound over the Pacific. Launching remotes; it'll be close.”

  Three remotes find their target, detonating with massive bursts of pure energy, destroying the gravity drive and the cloaking effect. But the object was much larger than anticipated, and it wasn't enough. Trailing a streamer of red dust and debris, it enters the atmosphere and impacts the Pacific near the middle, punching through the seafloor just north of Jarvis Island, to the southwest of Kiribati Atoll. The resulting shock-wave shatters these islands, just before the impact-generated tsunami erases them forever.

  Others, further removed from the immediate impact zone, have more time. It takes 12 hours for the massive waves to travel to the far coastlines of the Pacific Rim, but that is not enough time to get everyone to safety, especially in the largest cities, and the loss of life is enormous—though not nearly as bad as the absolute destruction wrought by the waves. Coastlines around the Pacific and much of the Indian Ocean are decimated. The galanen are devastated. They've failed.

  Achi and Zaleria learn about the attack while at home, making final preparations for the assault on what may be the shell's home. There is nothing they can do but watch in horror. This was one of their worst fears. Achi excuses himself and takes a long walk up the ridge until he reaches the crest and can look out over the broad, raging ocean. It is raining steadily and shows no sign of letting up anytime soon. He has asked Zaleria to keep an eye on Clive and Cheryn; they should not be alone. But Achi needs time to think, alone, so he isolates himself from Zaleria by turning his comms implant to beacon mode only. Not for the first time, he questions the cruelty of the universe and why sentients must suffer so much. It doesn't seem fair.

  This will set humans back considerably, especially as the environmental impacts resulting from the asteroid strike play out over the next decade, or more. Those who have survived may ultimately envy the dead. Achi is beginning to wonder if he has done enough for mankind, if anyone can do enough. The galanen have to end this, now. No matter the cost. They can't risk another attack like the one they just experienced. This…This will set mankind back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. How much will the galanen intervene?

  They may see mankind taking a few steps backward as a good thing, frankly. Humanity hasn't been on a very good trajectory, and the singularity was getting very close. They must get back to Earth, but there is one thing he must do first. He returns to camp.

  ∞∞∞

  A day later, Achi, Zaleria, and Clive walk into a very somber conference room on Luna base. Traemuña gives each of them a fierce hug, and Jevelle greets them, but no one else will meet their gaze. They sit there, stricken, eyes cast down, inwardly focused.

  “Yesterday, the shell tried to destroy the Earth and humanity with it. Those of you in this room, and aboard the Rayleonna, prevented that from happening. I thank you for saving my people,” Achi shares, trying to get them to focus on what they need to do next. “Right now, you are dwelling on all the lives that were lost and the damage that was done, but you should be focused on those you have saved and those who can still be saved. You can't do that if you hang your heads.”

  “Nevertheless, we failed. We didn't devote enough resources to the defense of Earth,” Fandtha says, angrily. “That has changed. We now have 15 support ships like Rayleonna setting up a defensive picket around Earth, with another hundred craft coming. We'll scour this system and the surrounding star systems until we are sure no threats remain.”

  “We must end this threat now,” Jevelle interjects. “Cloufen, what have we learned about the site Achi identified. It is our best lead.”

  She looks at Achi, a mix of emotions uncharacteristically clouding her features as she shares her results. A three-dimensional rendering of the area fills his vision. It is a substantial complex. Several layers of tunnels connecting multiple rooms, with ventilation shafts and chimneys. All of which appear to be a carefully constructed screen. For beneath this, the real facility exists. It extends deep into the Earth, with three rings that appear defensive in nature. Anyone entering from the outside must pass through multiple defensive positions to finally pass to the next ring—and start all over again. “There is a well-designed structure within this location. I don't know for sure if this is the shell's home, but it is certainly a substantial base. It will be very hard to get to the central parts of the facility—these large chambers here, that look ceremonial in nature. Behind which are what appear to be several living quarters—the largest area of the facility. If this is Sklávoi Ashtoreth's main facility, I would expect to find the leaders here.”

  They contemplate the map. A frontal assault would be daunting. “Well, I'd love to find a way to avoid coming in the front door. They have obviously thought about defense for a long, long time. It'll take time to clear, and time favors the defender. But is there something they're missing? I'd love to just feign a frontal assault and then pop in, right about here.” Achi indicates the large central chamber. He then regards Fandtha. “So, tell me more about galanen ability to use dimensional travel. How precise can you navigate? I assume this is up to the gatekeepers?”

  Fandtha looks at him wide-eyed, shocked at the audacity of the suggestion. Then his eyes narrow as he starts to think about it. “I, I don't know. I don't believe we've ever explored this. We slip into D-space by modifying the structure of this universe to open a passageway. But our ability to then transit the next dimension is up to the gatekeepers. They usually deposit us a few thousand kilometers above whatever destination we select, but I don't think it's ever occurred to us to try a different approach. I mean, we usually travel with a fair amount of gear and supplies, so it just makes sense to sit in orbit and shuttle to the surface.”

  “Perhaps we should ask,” Achi suggests. He turns to Zaleria. “Keep planning; we'll be right back.” He and Fandtha make their way to the hanger to take a waverider to the D-ship at L2.

  “Assuming we can make this work, the plan will be a classic vertical envelopment,” Zaleria explains. “A frontal assault to divert forces away from the leaders, followed by a sudden strike right into their heart, and finally we’ll clean up from within and without. The defenders will find themselves pinched between both forces. We've been working on offensive nanites; we'll need to flood the area with them prior to sending in Irruptors.”

  “There will be no reason to be subtle,” Cloufen reminds everyone. “There is no reason to not use plenty of antimatter or thermal oscillators to clear the path. And if all else fails, we should be prepared to destroy the entire facility. Whatever it takes.”

  Jevelle nods her head. “Absolutely, whatever it takes. But we also need
to ensure we get them all. We can't leave any of them to regenerate. Their home must be destroyed.”

  “That is why we have to conduct a ground assault,” Zaleria emphasizes. “We have to be sure we've got them all, that no others remain, that there are no other locations. And then we must clear it out. We must destroy every last symbiot or nanomachine, every last regeneration pod, every last data store. Everything.” Zaleria is grim. “Even if that means we erase a few hundred square kilometers of real estate. It'll be a small scar compared to what just happened around the Pacific.”

  “Do we have everything we need?” Beltare asks.

  “I think so. We've got enough gear for all our Irruptors and several hundred kilograms of offensive symbiots, loaded onto hundreds of remotes,” Zaleria ticks off. “And that doesn't include whatever Fandtha has cooked up.”

  Suddenly, the middle of the room appears to balloon outward, right before a brilliant flash of light momentarily blinds everyone. When they can see again, they notice Achi and Fandtha standing there, smiling. “Sometimes all you need to do is ask,” Achi says, laughing.

  Clive watches from the sidelines, knowing he will not be invited to participate. His eyes smolder as he considers his options.

  ∞∞∞

  A stone-faced Zargus stands at the door of his waverider. Next to him is Cloufen, rose eyes narrowed with resolve. Rialle is in a separate shuttle leading the other half of their team. They've formed up on the far side of the moon, along with the other two teams, and will descend as close to light speed as they can to prevent any potential counterattack or warning. The first waveriders will dump their loads of remotes just above the entrance to begin neutralizing defenses. Then the Irruptors will land and start picking their way through the facility. Their bodies are augmented with a half billion defensive symbiots in addition to those that usually augment them. They are each carrying heavy weapons, meant to destroy anything in their path. They will not be trying to spare enemy casualties this time. There is too much at stake, and the goal is to end the conflict decisively.

  It is 0100 local at the facility. The first waveriders make their approach, unloading their payloads. So far so good. They wait two minutes. The landing zone is beginning to get hot as the defenders start sending out their own remotes. Suddenly, they're on the ground, scrambling for cover, and launching waves of explosives—both fragmenting and antimatter. It isn't clear what the defenders were expecting, but the full wrath of the galanen is much more than they'd prepared for. The entrance is quickly cleared, and hordes of galanen remotes start making their way down the corridors, ferreting out all resistance. Neither Zargus nor Cloufen notice one extra figure detach itself silently from their shuttle, before shimmering slightly and disappearing.

  Jevelle stands with Traemuña and Toshi as Fandtha, Beltare, Zaleria, and Achi finish loading their specially modified waverider, the smallest model the galanen have at Luna base. When asked by Traemuña, Achi said Clive elected to stay with Cheryn, having been firmly denied an opportunity to participate in the assault. He seemed to be resigned that he'd not be able to participate in the final assault; it would be entirely too dangerous.

  They want to wait as long as possible; they don't have a lot of room and can't fit too many people with them. They must count on the others to draw off the bulk of the defenses to ensure they have the best odds. The Irruptors are nearing the choke-point between the outer ring and the middle ring. Now is the time. Fandtha's team departs and makes the transition to D-space. Soon, they stand before a gatekeeper. This one is different than any they've encountered before.

  It, for they can't tell its race or its sex, stands at least 3 meters tall and is huge. Its face looks something like a bull, with slitted eyes and a squat snout with flared nostrils. It has four arms that cross its chest, ending in square hands with three fat fingers and a thumb each. It stands on two legs like small tree trunks that end in a splayed hoof-like foot. It is clothed only in thick, wiry fur. Its voice is a deep rumble as it asks, “For what purpose do you come to this place with anger in your heart, weapons in your hand, and violence on your mind?!”

  They are stunned; this reaction is completely unexpected. Achi is the first to react. “I am the human, Achi. Some here know me as Hunter. I seek Prey, who wants to cause my race to fail or be destroyed. We seek to stop its efforts.”

  “I am Zaleria, a galanen. Some here know me as Virtue. I am bonded to Hunter. Prey is a creature of the deepest darkness; it should not exist on Earth.”

  The creature turns its gaze upon them. “You are known to me,” it rumbles. “Your cause is Just, but be warned. You walk a fine line when you come to this place as you are. Anything short of Justice is Death.”

  “This thing has killed millions of humans. It tried to destroy the Earth, the human race,” Beltare says, angrily.

  “You speak Truth, but you lack Wisdom. Everything must fulfill its Purpose. Hunter with Virtue and Truth overcomes Prey. That is your Purpose. The material universe separates Life from Death. That is its Purpose. Death cannot enter here; that is my Purpose.” Its threat rumbles through their very beings, shaking them to their core.

  Fandtha finally finds his voice. “Thank you for sharing this information.”

  “You are warned. But know this, One far greater than I grants you this boon. Behold Prey!”

  The waverider transitions back into the material universe inside the chamber outside the main living quarters. They immediately dump their payload of remotes and offensive nanomachines, while using their gravity drive to create a nearly impenetrable shield around their craft. After a few moments, things begin to quiet down outside, so they decide to join the fray. Achi and Zaleria exit first and immediately start to take fire from multiple turrets. Their symbiots direct the remotes to take out several, and Achi and Zaleria each take out two. There are alien remotes moving everywhere. Achi directs a barrage of antimatter charges that annihilates the majority of them, while the squad uses their graviton generators to shield themselves from the high-energy gamma rays the attack produces. They quickly mop up the remaining remotes.

  They don't see any other enemies nearby, so they begin to head for the living quarters. They are unlocked and appear empty. They do a thorough search with the remotes and find nothing. So they decide to head toward the fighting, concerned their Prey may be trying to flee. They reach out to Zargus, who is confident they've maintained containment. The design of the place makes escape nearly as hard as assault.

  Achi's group begins to find the rear guard. Mostly remotes, at first, that they quickly dispatch with explosives and well-aimed fire. Then they start to find humans, well trained and well equipped but no match for them. They quickly cut them down.

  Suddenly, they see one of the strange beings up ahead, hiding behind a dozen humans. Zaleria lobs several fragmentation grenades at them, while Achi, Beltare, and Fandtha pick off anyone that becomes exposed by the blasts—using their adversary’s strategy against them. But their enemies return the favor, and Fandtha ends up getting his left shoulder pierced by a coherent beam. He curses under his breath, but it does little serious damage. Soon the tall alien is alone, so it quickly retreats down a passageway that leads toward the middle ring. Beltare lets Zargus and the others know. They've already engaged two others like it and have eliminated one, which triggered a thermal oscillator to prevent capture. Assuming there were eight total to start with, that leaves one unaccounted for. The creatures must be in the middle ring.

  Zargus's team slows down and becomes deliberate in their attack, making sure they don't allow anyone to get outside. And Fandtha reminds his team to make sure they don't get overwhelmed if the defenders retreat to them. They decide to take the precaution to set up a few defensive traps at the single passageway between the inner ring and the middle ring. If they do have to give ground back inside, then their attackers will get a nasty surprise.

  Another of the alien beings goes down and disintegrates. Unfortunately, it takes out several gal
an with it. The sounds of battle get louder, as the remaining enemies decide to head back inside and make their final stand deep within. Achi and his group withdraw and use the enemies’ defenses against them. Several humans come running down the passageway and are quickly taken out. Suddenly, a small horde of about two dozen people come running down the hall, trying to overwhelm them. Grenades fly in both directions, but Achi and Zaleria anticipated this and used their graviton generators to deflect them. They set off their booby traps, which takes out half a dozen of their attackers. Zargus and his squad begin closing in from the other direction.

  Then they face a new threat, as the galanen begin having difficulty focusing. Achi and Zaleria begin to perceive strange sensory inputs; someone is trying to feed false data to them through their symbiots. However, they are able to reject the false signals because their symbiots are fully intelligent. Still, the rest are in trouble. Achi and Zaleria start cutting loose with antimatter and fragmentation grenades and a well-placed thermal oscillator. Most of their adversaries are now dead, but two of the alien beings are still active, taking a heavy toll on the nearly defenseless invaders. They are trying to break out, and are quickly carving an escape path. Achi and Zaleria engage the first one and pin it where it can neither advance nor retreat. It takes a minute, but they finally degrade its armor enough to critically wound it. It triggers its self-destruct with a scream of rage. There is one left.

  This being is far more efficient than the others. It is killing the defenseless galanen freely, leaving many bodies in its wake. The only thing that stands between it and freedom is a frozen Cloufen. Suddenly, a burst of well-aimed fire hits the being from its flank. There is another galan there, who has apparently stilled their symbiots to remain functional, for neither Achi nor Zaleria can determine who it is. What a brilliant move! The galan starts rapid firing at the creature's head. Whoever it is staggers it, before it screeches pure hatred and launches a barrage of grenades at him. Without active symbiots, he moves too slowly to avoid them. He goes down but bought enough time for Achi and Zaleria to bracket it.