Odyssey (The Spiral Slayers Book 3)

by Rusty Williamson

  They’d certainly liked each other at one time…almost too much considering they had been married to two other people. But now, his wife Grace and her husband Brandon were both dead. Maybe that was the reason she seemed to be avoiding him. Things had been safe before. Or maybe she was gravitating towards someone else. Or, was this all too convenient… too… made to order. Maybe it was just too soon or, all of the above. He decided he didn’t know and to just continue to give Evelyn her space.

  The party wound down, many of the dancers tired out. Adamarus found himself in the middle of a group of officers talking about the war and the rescue missions.

  Suddenly he found himself next to Evelyn, she was having an animated conversation with Matt Dolton. She hadn’t seen him yet. He decided to just turn and wander off, he didn’t feel like any kind of confrontation and based on her recent actions that’s what he’d be in for.

  However, just then Admiral Warren said loudly, “It was a miracle when Dolton took down that staple ship.”

  Dolton turned and spoke up, “It was also due to a lot of ground fire as well as air support.”

  Evelyn also turned and saw Adamarus. Her face turned white, her lips went thin, and her eyes went dead.

  He looked over at her and seeing her expression, his mouth went dry. What did I do? Adamarus thought. He closed his mouth, recovered and boldly walked up to her.

  Her eyes went wide, but otherwise, her pale stone-like face did not change.

  Admiral Warren continued, “But you nailed the shot that took it down. Here’s to that.” The Admiral raised his glass in a toast.

  Evelyn turned from Adamarus and raised her glass joining in the toast.

  Adamarus followed suit.

  Dolton held up his hands, “As I’ve said, only afterward did I find out the blast had come from that particular staple ship.”

  Adamarus looked down at his drink trying to think of what to say. He suddenly felt very awkward.

  Evelyn turned to Adamarus. Her face had regained its color, and her cheeks were red. “You’ll have to excuse me, I must leave,” and she turned and walked away.

  Adamarus was stunned. He just stood there and watched her walk away.

  Another voice spoke up directing a question to Whitehall who was a dozen feet away with another group, “Whitehall, what happened from your perspective?”

  Whitehall turned and spoke. “We were ordered to race to population centers just ahead of the battle line, evacuate as many civilians as possible to sites already hit by the alien.”

  A gruff voice from the crowd said, “Well, from my own perspective…” A loud slap followed by a grunt that shut the speaker off.

  However, someone else in the crowd coughed loudly. “You ran!” could clearly be made out.

  Dead silence spread throughout the crowd.

  Whitehall’s eye’s blazed, he stepped forward.

  Adamarus thought, Oh, boy and he looked for somewhere to set his drink but then he saw Radin step out with a tight smile blocking Whitehall. Adamarus relaxed. Radin had this.

  ---

  Radin stood five-foot-eleven inches. He was a stocky man with thin brown hair and brown eyes. He looked small next to Whitehall.

  “Begging the General’s pardon,” Radin said reasonably, “tracking clearly shows your division racing away from the front, ah…the only ones doing so I might add…” Radin waved one hand.

  Whitehall was furious and sizing Radin up.

  Radin continued, “…a brilliant move!” Radin’s other hand came up more to include the surrounding crowd, “Given all the lives you saved…we can only be happy and grateful for your…rearward movement and forward thinking.”

  Whitehall starred hard at Radin. Radin held his tight smile. Both men realized that there was a lot of hostility in the room.

  Wearing the highest medal awarded, Whitehall looked defiantly at the angry faces, his thoughts clear. Fuck you.

  ---

  Adamarus walked through the corridors of New Axes Station. It was basically a huge enclosed tunnel drilled out of the crust of the Larger Moon with four levels of offices and amenities. He turned a corner towards New Hillcrest Hospital—just another door in the side of the tunnel really. He passed a sporting store, a bank, a vegetable stand… the corridor was crowded with people, but Adamarus was preoccupied and noticed none of it.

  After last night he was more confused than ever over Evelyn and rather fed up and angry about the whole thing. He needed to forget her and move on. But then he really needed to talk to her, too. What he needed was to understand what was going on with her.

  He tried and failed, to put her from his mind.

  At last, he reached the hospital and walked into the lobby.

  “Hello, Alice.”

  “Well hello Admiral Maximus,” the receptionist said. She smiled her dazzling smile, “isn’t it a gorgeous day outside today.” It was an old joke.

  Adamarus laughed and countered with “We don’t get enough rain.”

  She giggled. “Here to see Nero? I know he’s looking forward to it. You go on in.”

  “Thanks, Alice.”

  He walked down the hall to Nero’s room, then paused outside the door and composed himself. Then he went in.

  “Hello son,” Adamarus said forcing a smile.

  Nero was in a wheelchair. His mouth was agape, eyes to the ceiling, drool running down his chin. His hands clenched in fists and bent inward.

  Adamarus walked over, took a cloth and wiped Nero’s chin.

  “How are you doing today son?”

  “Eeeeeeeeeee,” Nero answered.

  Adamarus tried not to cry.

  ---

  The four-foot robot that the Loud named Bugs controlled from its Umbrella Ship wherever it was, now clanked down the hallway of New Axes Station. It led four human scientists past the Section-D where more data-droplets were being made to back up the Archive. Without a glance they moved past this and on to Section H were the Whiteship cloning attempts were being made.

  The lights were bright but cast no shadows. The air had an antiseptic smell, and the steady hum of motors and vents could be heard. Heels clicked crisply on the floor as workers in white scrubs went about their business.

  Bugs led the group in. Finally, they turned and entered double doors. Bugs said “Number two expired a couple of hours ago. Attempted patches to the DNA failed.”

  They paused just inside the entryway of the large room. Inside eight thirty-foot transparent domes held the current cloning attempts in a vacuum. To the left, in dome number two, what had been a pasty white sphere the size of a watermelon was now obviously dead, misshapen and discolored. The eight arms that had grown from the sphere were still microscopic and too small to see.

  The four humans looked with massive disappointment on the dead baby Whiteship.

  Bugs said, “Chambers three, four and five are being prepared.” The avatar led the group to the three domes where the new attempts were being staged. There was nothing to see yet, so they moved on to dome number six.

  Inside dome six was a pasty white sphere with pink lines running through it. It was just over ten feet in diameter. The eight tentacles emerging from the sphere were just barely visible and after a few feet they tapered to microscopic size and vanished from sight. So far, this clone had refused to die. However, it was not healthy. A yellow tint had spread across its bottom half.

  It had survived longer than any other clone attempt but, it was sick, and no one knew what to do.

  Footsteps announced the arrival of President Wicker and top cabinet members.

  Only Admirals Leewood and Adamarus represented the President’s Special Team which worked closely with the Loud Ambassador Bugs.

  ---

  This was Adamarus’ first visit to the cloning facility. He didn’t know what to expect.

  Someone had posted a sign naming the struggling baby Whiteship, perhaps some kind of a good luck wish. The sign said ‘Nemesis.’

  He looke
d to the center of the transparent enclosure at the baby Whiteship and immediately déjà vu poured over him like some strange, potent syrup. It was so intense he didn’t hear a word of Bug’s presentation about why this one had lived so long, why they thought it would die and their plans for future attempts. He had seen the infant Whiteship somewhere before.

  ---

  Amular’s skies had turned from black to dark gray since the Slayer’s attack. The wind and rain had carried much of the ash away to be swallowed by the oceans, land, glaciers and snowfields. The horrible smell had faded but not completely disappeared and yet, the ash still somehow managed to mute all sound.

  On the surface of Amular, except for the occasional rumble from distant volcanos, silence, darkness, and death filled the world.

  The countless gray domes the Loud nanite had constructed stretched across thousands of square miles of what had been rainforest. The fortunate thing was that the thick canopy had caught most of the ash protecting much of the ecosystems beneath… and the Loud were desperately trying to save as many plants and animals as possible. Every Loud avatar not working with the cloning effort worked around the clock on this endeavor.

  The Loud had raided the human population for veterinarians, botanists and any specialty related to saving what they could of the planet’s biosystem.

  When asked about it, all the Loud would say was that the humans could not survive without their biosystem.

  As for Iceis, Amular’s orange dwarf star, the Blackship had only attacked it for a few minutes, still forty percent of it was now covered with a dark red color, like some giant sun spot. Due to its volatility, magnetic field fluctuation and constant flare-ups, the Hideaway Shipyards on Cinder had been abandoned.

  Despite this, both the Loud and human scientists predicted Iceis would remain stable for the foreseeable future.

  ---

  Several nights later Adamarus had the dream again. He watched distant spiral die, saw the endless numbers of Blackships crossing the universe spreading death on titanic scales. Again, he was impossibly standing on the surface of a gas giant, Evelyn next to him though he could not turn to look at her.

  And again, the new extension to the dream…the pasty white globe with pink lines running around it.

  Again, something hit him in the stomach.

  He woke.

  He sat on his bed for several minutes then got up.

  He dressed quickly and made his way back to the cloning lab.

  It was the night cycle on New Axis, and the lights were dim as he approached the enclosure. He passed several technicians working the night shift. Everything was so quiet that the air vents sounded deafening.

  Again, he looked at the sign with the word Nemesis on it—he wondered who had posted it. Then he brought his focus to the center of the enclosure.

  Was it what he’d seen in his dream?

  Well, very similar, he thought. Not the exact colors nor texture. He walked up to the transparent barrier. A blurred area, just a stringy ripple that seemed to run across the sphere caught his attention. The more he tried to focus on it the more the reality sunk in. It was a distortion on the otherwise clear barrier. He placed his hand on the surface to see if it could be wiped away.

  Something hit Adamarus in the stomach, his ears were assaulted by blaring alarms, the chamber flooded with red strobing lights then a computer-generated voice began repeating “Containment breach, containment breach…”.

  Adamarus discovered he had been shoved back against the far wall. He was gasping for breath. He could see the three technicians running towards him.

  Adamarus didn’t know that something was holding him up until whatever it was seemed to let loose and he fell to the floor.

  Adamarus’ memory of everything that happened next was foggy. He was raced to the infirmary, looked over, x-rayed then shuttled to the hospital. More exams, tests, an MRI…finally a room and a bed.

  Bugs arrived the next morning.

  “How do you feel?” the avatar asked.

  “A bit dis-heaved, other than that, okay. What happened?”

  “First, may I ask why you were down there?”

  Adamarus didn’t want to mention the dream. “I couldn’t sleep. I was just walking around. Was there a containment breach?”

  “Yes, and you and three technicians are in quarantine for at least three weeks. The video log shows you touching the barrier with your hand. What were you doing?”

  “I thought there was something on it.”

  “What you saw was one of its eight tentacles resting against the inside of the barrier—they’re just barely visible now.”

  “What happened?” Adamarus asked again.

  “The moment you touched the enclosure all eight tentacles extended breaking through the barrier. One punctured you, passed through your stomach and out your back. The hole is so small that not much damage occurred. Still, you will be monitored very carefully.”

  “And I caused it to do this by placing my hand on the barrier?”

  “We think it was just a coincidence.”

  They talked for a while longer. Then Bugs said. “I must go. I will check in on you later. Probability fold in your favor Adamarus Maximus.”

  Bugs left, and Adamarus sighed. It had been just like the dream… sort of. Or was he just inventing things in his head?

  He looked around his room. There were lots of flowers and get-well cards. He leaned as far as he could from his bed to read one of the notes just as a nurse came in.

  “Didn’t anyone read the cards to you?”

  Adamarus had had many visitors, but none had read the cards to him. “No.”

  She began reading through them. After just a few, “Get well soon. Sorry about the last meeting. Give me more time, and we’ll talk. Evelyn”

  “Let me see that one,” Adamarus said. She brought it to him. He recognized Evelyn’s crisp script. She hadn’t visited him, but she had sent a card. Give me more time, and we’ll talk. Well, whatever. He sighed.

  ---

  It was four weeks later and Adamarus and the night techs had been given a clean bill of health and released from the quarantine, and that wasn’t the only good news.

  Regarding the infant Whiteship now officially called Nemesis, all the yellow discoloring had disappeared and it had doubled in size. Its eight tentacles had spiraled around the center sphere instead of growing straight out, so its enclosure was no longer too small.

  It was late and Doctor Donnelly had just finished processing a sample of the Whiteship’s DNA.

  Bugs was the only other one in the lab with him and it simply said, “Well?”

  Donnelly nodded, “As we thought, it repaired its DNA.” Donnelly faced Bugs, “It got Adamarus’ DNA. It disassembled it then used it to repair itself.”

  Bugs was silent for a beat, then waved towards the screen where the DNA results were displayed, “Doctor, given what we’re left with, there is no way to absolutely prove what you claim.”

  Donnelly was shocked, “But we can see DNA sequences from Adamarus within…”

  Bugs interrupted, “Similar sequences do not absolutely prove they are ‘from’ Adamarus and to put out there that the Whiteship shares DNA with its intended Captain when we can’t be sure… that is something we should avoid. I believe nothing should be said to anyone about this theory. In fact, I insist.”

  ---

  Adamarus’ son, Captain Nero Maximus, hated… what he hated was… the smells. They said he smelled smells that weren’t really there. Well, they were there to him.

  He loathed being unable to control his body, abhorred being unable to speak, despised being unable to remember or even think straight. He really loathed that the only thing he could ever see was the ceiling.

  A nurse came in, a middle-aged woman from the little he could see as she came into his field of view. She wiped the drool from his chin. He saw pity. It was all too insufferable.

  However, Nero Maximus always had a plan. He had been mak
ing his for weeks now. Today was therapy day, the most excruciating day of all… normally anyway but, not today. No not today.

  The nurse rolled his wheelchair out and down the hall…one, two, three, four doors and in we go. Now she unlocks the door. There it is…where it always is. Now the others come in, they talk, I stare at the ceiling but…I can see it.

  They all leave to gather their stuff and unlock the inner door.

  Time to fix all my problems. Time for the smells to fade away. Time for all the misery to go away.

  He lunged up and dove through the third story window, free at last.

  ---

  “He’s clinically braindead, but we’ve got him in stasis, sir,” Doctor Turnage, Nero’s doctor, said to Adamarus.

  Adamarus was grief-stricken, and he just looked blankly at Turnage. He was in shock.

  “Bugs requested it.”

  Adamarus gave him a questioning look.

  “The Loud might have a breakthrough that would…make it possible to bring him back…you know…back and back to normal.”

  Adamarus nodded, “Can I see him.”

  “Nero landed on his face.” He stared at Adamarus blinking nervously, “It’s… not pretty.”

  Adamarus closed his eyes. Then, “Please take me to him.”

  “This way.”

  They walked down a hall to a door and the doctor entered a code into the door, and Adamarus heard a click. The doctor walked in. Adamarus followed. They entered a smaller room with a single large stasis chamber in the middle. The room was cold.

  Adamarus kept his mind blank. He walked slowly up to the chamber and looked in the small window. Nero’s face was smashed flat. It hardly looked like him.

  Emotion surged through Adamarus. He grabbed the side of the stasis chamber to steady himself. The metal was cold. Again, he closed his eyes. He remembered how Nero had looked… in his wheelchair, his mouth agape, his head bent back, his eyes always to the ceiling. It seemed Nero the son he had known, had been gone for a very long time. He could no longer picture Nero’s face before the brain injury.

  He hung his head.

  Services were held the next day even though Nero’s body remained in stasis and a small hope still existed.