“Probability fold in your favor,” Wicker said.
---
The shuttle docked at one of Nemesis’ newer docking facilities. Evelyn grabbed her pack and departed. She floated down the flexible docking tube and into the processing area which was a room off the Atrium.
She knew as she stepped into Nemesis’ artificial gravity that her life had just changed forever. However, her breath was taken away by the sight of the Atrium.
All the domes preserving Amular’s biosphere Nemesis had collected, all the fresh and salt water, all the rocks and dirt that had been transferred from Amular to the ship had been assembled into a micro world 170-miles in diameter.
The wind hit her first, then the smell of the outdoors. The sound of wind blowing through pine trees and birds. The orange light acting as a sun felt warm on her face.
The purple mountains on the far end were almost lost in the haze. Closer were rolling hills and halfway across the expanse she could see a large body of water.
Various herds of animals could be seen in the distance as well as birds flying in the sky.
The sky?!
She looked up. She could see white clouds high above the landscape and high above them an orange light source traveled across the sky emulating Iceis, Amular’s orange dwarf sun. In the distance to her left were darker clouds and the vertical strips indicating rain.
To her right, built into the floor she stood on, what she thought at first to be a piece of art was, in fact, a large three-dimensional representation of the Atrium. It showed, in miniature, the mountains, seas, lakes, and deserts.
Evelyn noticed there were three main bodies of water. The largest was the Lowland Sea, a saltwater eco-system. Next was the Highland Lake and Blue Lake both freshwater systems.
There were four major mountain systems all with snow-covered peaks, Mount Burnwall, Mount Kobe, Mount Willard, and Mount Howie.
There were deserts, wetlands, rivers, and many smaller lakes. A miniature Amular wildlife preserve.
She was astounded.
An attendant walked up, “Amazing, isn’t it. It is meant to be like an Amular where humans… well, aren’t… as if we’d gone extinct and left the planet to go on about its business without us.”
---
There was a departure ceremony aboard Nemesis. All 500,000 plus humans aboard the Whiteship, as well as 58 Loud avatars, attended. It was held in the Atrium
The entrance to the Atrium was at what had been designated as the south end. The large door opened on to a natural amphitheater situated between the South End Forest at the foot of The West Howie Mountains and, on the other side, to the east, the snowcapped peaks of Howie Mountain. In front of them, the expanse stretched out for 170 miles. In the distant haze, Mount Burnwall and Mount Kobe could be made out. Midway was the lower deserts and The Lowland Sea. Just ten miles away Needle Mountain looked like its name piercing the blue sky.
Wicker made a speech then departed the ship. Adamarus made a speech welcoming everyone aboard.
As Adamarus was leaving he bumped right into Evelyn.
“Hello,” he said. “I’m so sorry about Tony.”
“Thank you,” she answered.
“Anyway, welcome aboard despite the circumstances.”
“Thank you,” she repeated.
He had things to do and decided to cut this short, “Well, guess I’ll see you on the bridge,” and he turned and left.
She said nothing.
---
Although the bridge crew was housed near the bridge, the other half million people would be housed in a city. By vote, it was called Nemesis City and everything started going into place.
First a government, then a design, then endless modifications, finally housing was built. Almost immediately restaurants and bars sprang up to feed and entertain. Next, a somewhat underground red-light district sprung up.
The potent tar-like smell of singleton mixed with lumber and the sounds of construction was everywhere and went on around the clock. Everything from libraries and schools to parks and sporting centers to pizza shops to news stations would be needed.
---
Whitehall laughed. He’d done it. He put the last of the packages in a drawer behind some shirts. He’d smuggled all of the parts on board and into his cabin.
He ran his hand across the handle of the drawer.
Now he needed to scout the terrain.
Whitehall locked his cabin door and left. He had access to everywhere. Security was there but not for him.
From his research, he located the Loud Operations Chamber where the Loud, Bugs, would control its avatar and also controlled the placement of the back hole wherever it went. He didn’t understand the process, but then no human did.
He knew the Loud Umbrella docked right under were Bugs worked. He smiled. Both so close together.
Perfect.
---
There was great fanfare when Nemesis was finally ready to depart. Towing Bugs’ original Umbrella Ship in her huge docking bay and accompanied by another Umbrella ship, Nemesis would exit the star system then drop the 2nd Umbrella ship off at the Marcus star system to start cloning efforts there. After attempting to seed one or more of the Marcus’ ten gas giants Nemesis would depart after two years. Then she would leave the galaxy and wait for, and then track the Blackship, chase it down and, with luck, destroy it.
The next Whiteship, Redemption, Leewood’s ship, was already on its way to Farnom to feed on the gas giant’s atmosphere and moons. All secondary Whiteships would target other Blackships in neighboring galaxies.
All the dinners, dedications and speeches were finally over and Adamarus, Radin and their bridge crew were on the bridge.
“Radin, if our docked Umbrella ship is secure and our second accompanying Umbrella ship is ready, kindly take us out to the safe zone.”
The safe zone was ten million miles beyond the orbit of Farnom where it was safe to bring out the singularity. It would take ten months to get there. From there they would use the black hole to speed the ship across to Marcus at .9999 the speed of light. It would take eight-years to get there…eight-years of shakedown, training and drills.
Adamarus had discovered that Evelyn had assigned her second in command to bridge crew duty as she was temporarily working in the computer center with the ship’s new AI interface systems. He had been relieved. After all that had happened, it would have been awkward…a distraction.
The hibernation pods continued to be tested, but the crew didn’t get to use them on this leg of their journey.
---
The eight-year trip to Marcus went slow and despite rigorous training and drills, the trip seemed to take forever.
Construction on Nemesis City was completed and the city was open for business.
Going to the Atrium for fishing, skiing and water sports got very popular.
Finally, Marcus became the brightest star in the sky. Then, slowly, its yellow radiance filled the heavens. It had a large planetary system with five rock worlds and ten gas giants.
The second Loud Umbrella ship caring over 50 humans to assist with the second cloning effort went into orbit around Marcus Four, and the construction of a planetary base was started using Loud nanites.
Nemesis went to the largest gas giant, Marcus Eight, a six-month trek to attempt to insert a small black hole into it to cause it to collapse into a black hole to fuel another Whiteship. Marcus Eight was slightly smaller than Aster Iceis’ largest gas giant Aster.
At the same time, the crew would be starting two years of extensive testing in the hibernation pods.
---
Patty Middleton was one of the first to ‘go under’ for that first one-week test in hiber-sleep. She was in the first row as Bugs began to speak to everyone.
“The following is a requirement for all humans. You must qualify for hibernation pod sleep. First, everyone will go under for one week,” Bugs said.
This was a required ship-wide message, and all 500,0
00 plus crew were listening. “After that, you’ll be evaluated for three weeks. Then you’ll go under for one month and afterwards be evaluated for a month. You will work your way up… six months, one year, five, ten, fifty and so on up to whatever length of time will be required.”
Patty swallowed and squirmed. Fifty years! She looked back to the four-foot avatar.
Bugs was looking around at the two hundred people in the room who would go under today. Patty looked around as well…the body language was clear to everyone, fear.
Bugs was speaking again, “Listen up. All of you must forget time as you know it, the only time that will concern any of us in this new environment is experienced time, that is, time that you are awake. The millions of years,”
Millions of years! She thought.
“… that time will pass while we hibernate and does not exist to us. Now no one will hibernate for a million years at a time. There will be an upper limit of time anyone will hibernate for on one sleep cycle—we are still determining this. But only waking hours concern us.”
“When you go to sleep at night and wake up in the middle of the night, do you know how long you’ve slept without looking at a clock? Look at it like that, if you can.”
She tried.
“I can’t lie to you,” Bugs went on, “While you hibernate you will be reliving your lives as nanites trace and enforce the memory pathways in your brain. But you’ve lived your lives before, you’ll just be doing it again. The vast majority of you will have no problems with this.”
She felt dizzy.
“Let me be clear. Your brain will not be able to tell the difference between a hiber-dream and, what is real. You will be going through, in every way, what you are going through right this moment…look around you.”
She did. People were wide-eyed.
“When your memory of this moment is traced and reinforced, and it will be, you will not know the difference. This, right now, could be a hiber-dream.”
Patty laughed and blinked. She smelled a metallic smell…her vision blurred, the classroom faded…red lights everywhere…a hatch opening above her…a man was looking down at her…
She now remembered climbing into the pod, she remembered Bugs making the announcement, but she did not remember a dream. Which had come first? Which was now? Was this a dream? If not then… it would be!
She screamed and kept screaming.
Patty Middleton along with five others did not qualify for hibernation pod sleep for one reason or another. All six were reassigned to the Umbrella Ship and later to the Marcus Four Base.
---
Adamarus got into the pod with gridded teeth. He just wanted to push through it… get in, get to the other side… he drifted off… and dreamed…
Grace and Nero had just taken the Loud perpetual youth drug. Grace was so beautiful at 50 that Adamarus couldn’t imagine her being younger…but she and Nero had taken the Loud ‘eternal youth’ drug that evening and already both were upstairs fast asleep.
He walked over to the fireplace, took down a picture of him taken a year ago, then walked to a round mirror on the side wall and looked at his refection…looked at the picture.
In the picture he was 51 years old, he looked in the mirror, he looked like a boy. Thirty years old? He seemed younger…at least to himself.
Nero would not change, he’d sleep a lot like Grace for the next week or so, but after that, he’d develop normally until he reached his prime, around 30-years-old then he’d stop aging.
The next morning Adamarus got up and caught his wife wondering around half asleep, “Hey there.”
She turned, Adamarus’ mouth dropped, her face seemed like it was glowing and…somehow blurred. “What?” she asked.
He looked closer. No, the wrinkles he lovingly remembered were still there…he suddenly felt he might miss them… “You look beautiful.”
“Well,” she mumbled, “I’m not any younger yet, but it’s only the first day. However, I feel really nice just,” she yawned, “can’t keep my eyes open.”
“Well go back to bed,” Adamarus said.
“I was checking on Nero,” she said, “then felt like coffee.”
“You go lay down…”
“I’ll fall asleep…”
“I’ll wake you when your coffee’s ready.”
“Okay,” she mumbled as she retreated to the bedroom.
It was on the fourth day when the wrinkles filled in and the luster of youth returned to her face, hair, and body.
Adamarus looked at her lying in bed and she never looked so beautiful. He smiled and went to her. He made love to her…
He wrinkled his nose…there was a strange metallic smell.
He pulled away the covers and red lights burst from beneath them.
Within the light, something opened.
A man was looking down at him.
“Are you okay?” Radin asked.
---
General Whitehall wanted to ask a very important question as he was lowered into his hibernation pod. However, he wanted it to seem like he was asking it in jest and he practiced in his head several times. Finally, just before the tech closed the pod, he laughed and asked “Hey, these dreams, can others tap into them…see them?”
“No sir,” the tech answered formally in a deep voice, “only you can see your dreams.” He smiled… “sleep well, General.”
Whitehall attempted to nod back but fell asleep midway through…
A year and a half had passed since the transplant surgeries, and ex-Congressman De Bella was now Whitehall…almost.
He had left the clinic where he had suffered long and hard, learning to use his newly transplanted hands and legs. He had moved into a secluded mansion he had rented along with a full staff of nurses, therapists, and servants. Though he missed his old estate, the place was nice. It was on the coast and contained many acres of forest with streams and quaint meandering paths.
Through the forest he walked slowly and stiffly forward; his spine, neck, head, pelvis, arms, legs, feet, hands and even fingers locked down to a metal exoskeleton that controlled his entire body, his every move. It forced him to move like the late General Whitehall whose body had been cremated along with De Bella’s spare parts long ago. The exoskeleton had been programmed from the hours of video showing Whitehall walk, talk, exercise and interact with others.
De Bella/Whitehall walked over a bridge, his steps loud on the wooden planks, muffled only by dried leaves that crackled under the combat boots the General had always worn.
He paused mid-span and looked down at the lazy stream.
Although mid-day, the air was chilly—it made him shudder. He managed to get his hands in his pockets—no easy feat—then rested and stared into the distance.
“Shit,” he mumbled absently for no particular reason. His voice was no longer his own but Whitehall’s deep growl. He had to admit, he rather liked it.
A dong sounded. “Correction…” came a computer-generated voice from the speaker near his left ear, “that is out of character. Substitute appropriate…”
“Fuck off,” again that growl of someone he didn’t yet know.
A ding sounded. There were dings and dongs—dings were good. “Much better,” came the voice.
Whitehall smiled—the smile had been a surgical correction—it was Whitehall all the way, and there had been no need for hours of practice. He didn’t even feel the difference.
Three months of this shit at a price that cut deeply into his remaining fortune.
His face was still puffy and disjointed. That had been expected. Hiding out at the mansion to complete the makeover while his face continued to heal had been the only option.
He sighed, then he slowly swaggered off, the exoskeleton protesting every now and then. “Yeah…yeah…” he said. He smelled a funny order…what?
Dong.
“Correction” came a computer-generated voice. “That is out of character…”
And red light flooded his world
, something over him opened…
The tech was there. “General Whitehall, how are you?”
---
Radin did not like this at all. Sleep for five years, were they mad? He allowed the tech to help him into the hiber-pod. Then lay there looking nervously around. When the tech started to close the pod, Radin blurted, “Do you… never mind, of course, you do.”
The tech smiled and finished closing the pod. Radin didn’t remember any more…
Yet another briefing on the Spiral Slayers. Radin was so tired of giving these damn things.
The title of his briefing was ‘The Discovery of the Spiral Slayers.’
He looked at the officers in front of him. They were starting to all look the same.
He began, “An alien race called the Loud stumbled upon the blight 900 years ago but” he wagged his finger, “did not realize it. They discovered a massive black hole traveling almost at the speed of light through another spiral galaxy—one that was 800 million light years away.”
“There was an odd nova seemingly in the black hole’s wake. Eventually, they decided the star had been a white dwarf in the middle of its life and that the black hole must have passed so close that it caused the young star to explode. At the time, that’s all they knew…they had no idea what they were really seeing and it remained a mystery.”
Radin paused for effect, “Then, 100 years later, the truth was thrust upon them.”
“The Loud had conducted a scientific study. When the results that came back, they contained a small anomaly; one of the random samples had a much higher percentage of active galaxies. On closer inspection, they found that it was higher because it contained a new type of active galaxy—one where the central black hole was actually exploding, returning all the matter it contained back to normal space. They had never seen anything like this before.”
“Over hundreds of thousands of years, the massive explosion of super-heated plasma and radiation this resulted spread outward through the spiral arms of the galaxy. The Loud realized with shock that this process was serializing entire galaxies for the expanding blast would extinguish all life.”
“More study showed that these galaxies had another oddity: one of the two plasma jets would have a small plasma stream branching off it, at first, seemingly at random angles. This was so unique it became a footprint for this new type of active galaxy.”
Odyssey (The Spiral Slayers Book 3) Page 7