Odyssey (The Spiral Slayers Book 3)
Page 8
“Eventually, the Loud discovered that this area containing the new type of active galaxies stretched from the edge of the observable universe to the galaxies in their immediate area. The timing of these events showed the area had been spreading inward toward them at almost the speed of light for 12 billion years—almost since galaxies had first formed. Whatever was happening, it had been propagating across the universe since the dawn of time.”
“In due course, they found that the odd plasma stream that angled off the main jets actually pointed to the next galaxy whose central black hole was exploding. The time difference in the events always matched the distance between them in that something traveling about .99999 the speed of light would have time to travel the distance.”
“Then they discovered more of the massive black holes in the galaxies uncomfortably near to them. All were just like the one they had already happened upon. They were all traveling at near light speed toward the galaxy’s center, and they were all passing through one or two-star systems causing their suns to explode.”
“Since some of these black holes were slowing down, the conclusion was unavoidable; the black holes were being controlled.”
“For over 800 years, the Loud studied these speeding black holes and exploding galaxies, and concluded that the objects coming at them had likely originated beyond the observable universe. They had been spreading and repeating exactly the same actions for twelve billion years.”
“To the Loud’s credit, they didn’t fail to notice that in all that time, there was no evidence that any of these black holes had ever failed in their incomprehensible task.”
“The Loud gave these black holes a name that translated to ‘Blackship,’ The name for the incredibly ancient species assumed to be controlling these monstrosities translated to ‘Spiral Slayers,’”
“The final icing on the cake ladies and gentlemen: to do what the Spiral Slayers did, the Loud claim that they had to have reached what the Loud call the Omega level of scientific advancement—meaning, literally, journey’s end. They know everything. Moreover, since the discovery of galaxy SS-0 at the edge of the observable universe, the furthest galaxy that showed indisputable signs of a Blackship visit, it meant that they had reached this Omega level of advancement before entering that far off galaxy. In other words, they had reached the Omega level over twelve billion years ago.”
A red light blinded him.
“Radin? Radin, can you hear me?” Adamarus said.
---
Twenty-three-years had passed on Amular. Back in the Iceis star system Redemption, Leewood’s Whiteship, had just fueled up on the black hole that had been the gas giant Aster. The next Whiteship, The Amular, was at Farnom feeding and growing and would have to travel to the Marcus Eleven to get its black hole.
Nemesis had tried to seed the gas giant Marcus Eleven but the Whiteship wouldn’t do it and it was time for Nemesis to depart.
Adamarus was on the bridge and speaking into the com unit, “Nemesis has been able to seed Marcus Eight, but she would not seed Marcus Eleven. I guess she doesn’t have the mass. Another Whiteship will need to seed the next gas giant.” He was communicating with the 2nd Loud Umbrella Ship in orbit around Marcus Four. Rarely did Adamarus think about the delays they used to have using light speed communications.
Emo, the Loud Commander of the 2nd Umbrella Ship, replied, “We feared that might be the case. Is Nemesis ready to depart?”
“Yes,” Adamarus replied.
“Then may probability fold in your favor,” the Loud said.
“Probability fold in your favor,” Adamarus replied. He signed off.
“Radin,” Adamarus ordered, “take us out.”
Most of the crew had finished their 5-year hibernation stint in the pods, but 200 of the crew had started their 10-year sleep. Training and testing would go on always expanding the time the humans were hibernating.
---
There was a dinner engagement for the bridge crew and senior officers. It was held in a new upscale restaurant called The Shale in Nemesis City.
Nemesis City was now a sprawling metropolis covering the entire chamber. Now in its night cycle, it was aglow with light. A hundred and seventeen stories from top to bottom it was built with mostly singleton extract fused with regenerating nanites. However, the designers had done a good job using allocations for wood, marble, plants and other building resources from the Atrium to spectacular effect.
Parks and hanging gardens were everywhere. Birds soared in the air and… the huge rat problem was finally under control.
The unquestionably high-end restaurant had fish ponds around every booth. Glass windows beyond the fish ponds had a fantastic view of the city.
It was just the luck of the draw that put Evelyn in the booth next to Adamarus. However, it wasn’t too awkward.
Adamarus tried harder than usual to be engrossed in conversation with his neighbor so as not make eye contact and make things even more awkward. They’d both be embarrassed if she showed the… abruptness she’d showed last time.
He also drank a little more wine than usual.
The dinner wore on. Adamarus made the rounds and strategically timed the visit to Evelyn’s booth when she went to the lady’s room.
A band was playing, a few people were dancing. Glasses and silverware tinkled, and conversation mixed pleasantly.
Later, he found his way to a fresh glass of wine then back to his booth. He was feeling the wine… all the other people in his booth had left… probably time for him to head out.
“Hey, you,” Evelyn said
Startled he looked up.
Evelyn stood there with a glass of wine in her hand. She kind of flopped down in the booth beside him. She surprised him more by placing her hand on his. “Adamarus,” she slurred her words a little, “how are you?”
“I’m… okay,” he said uncomfortably. “You?”
“Okay,” she held his gaze. “I’m… sorry about… last time.” She let go of his hand and took a drink. “I just… I don’t know. You know, I loved Brandon.” Her voice broke.
Adamarus didn’t know what to say. A slow song started.
Her expression changed. She looked at him, mischief in her eyes, “Let’s dance.”
Adamarus opened his mouth to decline, but she grabbed his hand and pulled him up. He held her, and she felt good, smelled good.
“We’ve been through a lot,” she said.
Yes, they had but what he said was, “Not lately.”
She lowered her head, “I’m sorry… I’m… just sorry.” And she broke away and left him standing there.
Adamarus watched her walk away. Well, that was… abrupt.
---
Adamarus went back to his cabin. He undressed, got in bed and tried to sleep but couldn’t. The faces of his dead wife, daughter, and son kept appearing, but they were blurred. He realized he couldn’t remember their faces.
He jumped out of bed and retrieved a picture of his family and looked at each face, the void in his soul growing.
Angrily he put on civilian clothes with a windbreaker pulling the hood over his head. He put on a pair of aviator sunglasses and headed for Nemesis City.
When he got there, he again just walked aimlessly through the streets. It was a weekend, so the streets were crowded at first but as the night wore on the crowds thinned. He walked and walked some more. The faces didn’t come, the wake couldn’t seem to overtake him if he kept walking.
He realized he’d wondered into Nemesis City’s red-light district. Then he saw her. She was stunning. The short dress and long legs affected him in a way he hadn’t been in a long time.
She noticed him and smiled.
Her smile lit him up inside. Made him feel good. He realized that he was so tired of feeling bad all the time.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hello, my name’s Dash, who are you?”
“Joe.”
“Right. Well Joe, are you looking for a good time?”
Her smile widened, and she took his hand. She led him into a somewhat run-down hotel then up the stairs and to a room. After she led him in, she closed the door.
“Now,” she said softly and took off his sunglasses then slipped the hood off Adamarus’ head. She looked at him, and her eyes went wide, “Oh my God.” She stepped back and put her hands over her mouth first and then on each side of her head. “Admiral Adamarus Maximus? Am… am I under arrest?”
“Shhhh,” he said. “Can it be our secret? If so, I won’t have to put you in handcuffs.”
She giggled. “Sure. On both counts.” Her face was red and glowing, her eyes wide.
He didn’t believe she’d keep a secret for a second, but he didn’t care right now.
She came to him, and she was warm and soft and smelled good, and her smile made him glow inside. They talked for a while and then made love.
She filled the void in him.
The next morning Adamarus felt better than he had in memory.
Chapter Five – Hiber-Dreams
“The super speck is the most basic particle. Everything else is made from this particle. Therefore, by definition, all the information needed to create the universe is contained in the super speck. Mining this information is called translation.”
The Loud Named Bugs
Opening Speech, 23rd Amular Symposium on Quantum Physics
Source: The Archive
Nemesis was traveling at .9987 the speed of light. Adamarus looked at the atomic clock. On Amular 1,183 years had passed since the battle of Amular. On Nemesis, due to the singularity and their relativistic speed, only 23 years had passed. It was hard to believe.
All the Whiteships had certainly left by now, and Amular and the Iceis system were empty. He hoped everything had gone well. They would probably never know.
He turned to Radin, “Well, it’s time for us to go.” Five of the bridge crew were scheduled to go into the hibernation pods including Adamarus and Evelyn. It would be their first fifty-year sleep.
Adamarus stood, “Radin you have the con.”
“I have the con.” Radin confirmed. “Sleep well.”
Adamarus, Evelyn and three others left as their backups took their place.
---
The maximum rotation period was expected to be hyber-sleep up to 1,000 ship years, awake for at least four months. Everyone was still working their way up. They’d been gone for 1,183 years according to time on Amular or normal time, 23 ship years and 10 experienced years.
Everyone got down to a routine. You worked, you ate, you slept, you hibernated. There was lots of entertainment in Nemesis City; restaurants, bars, clubs, sporting facilities, and educational services. Of course, almost everyone visited the Atrium. It was almost like living on a planet.
---
Evelyn had been under six times before, working her way up to this. So far all had been pleasant experiences reliving various parts of her past life’s memories. She smiled up at the tech, “See you in 100 years,” and she was out…
She was in the control center of the Hideaway Shipyards. Her husband Brandon on the Stellar Cannon appeared on the teleconference screen. “Hello, honey.”
Evelyn was frantic, “Brandon, listen, you have to get out of there. There’s a stellar eruption rising from the impact point.” She knew her transmission would take over a minute to get to him and his response would take another minute.
Without yet hearing Evelyn’s words, Brandon continued, “I assume you’re calling because you’ve seen the eruption.” He paused for a moment, lost for words. Finally, he said “I’m so sorry, my love. There’s nothing we can do.”
Evelyn burst out, “No! No…there must be something.”
Without hearing, Brandon had continued, “I love you with all my heart, and I want you to know that I have no regrets…none at all. My life with you has been wonderful…” he paused, closed his eyes. He was receiving her transmission.
She glanced over at the screen showing the rising stellar eruption. It was approaching the Star Cannon. “No,” she squealed, “No…Brandon!” Tears ran down her face.
On the com screen, a sad smile appeared on Brandon’s face, “Ah…yes, as I’ve said, we know. Always remember, my love…”
She watched as the plasma engulfed the Star Cannon. A moment later, it exploded. She screamed and fell to the floor. Crying uncontrollably, she watched the teleconference screen as Brandon’s delayed transmission continued, “I have and always will love you with all my heart until the end of time.” He smiled. Everything jumped, and Brandon’s expression changed. He looked to the left, but then the image turned to static.
Evelyn sat on the floor and cried uncontrollably. Her Brandon, her husband, and love for over 200 years, was dead.
Red light blinded her...
“Mam, are you all right.”
Evelyn was crying, but she said, “Yes, I’m fine.”
---
The second time Adamarus went under he was not so nervous. The first one had gone okay. He allowed himself to relax and drifted off…
It was growing dark, and blood kept getting into Adamarus’ eyes.
Then he saw them on the other side of the marble plaza. Grace was standing right in front of the tallest building holding Isabella. He screamed their names, “Grace! Isabella!”
She saw him and started running toward him.
Green light flooded the plaza. Adamarus turned and saw a green energy beam strike very close—perhaps only blocks away. Rocks began to rain down. Adamarus shielded his head as best he could and watched to see which way the beam was headed. Thankfully, it angled away from them. Shockwaves caused the buildings to rise and fall. He turned and ran toward Grace and Isabella.
Unexpectedly, the rolling shockwave passed under the plaza, causing it to heave upwards, throwing Adamarus to his knees. He looked up and saw that Grace had maintained her balance. He jumped up only to have the ground fall out from under him as, with a loud crack, the plaza cracked in half—one side with him, and the other with Grace and Isabella.
He saw Grace holding Isabella and cartwheeling her other arm trying to keep her balance. Then she seemed to fall, but the sides were falling while the center of the plaza rose and his view was blocked. He jumped to his feet, but the ground fell away again as the shockwave passed and he was airborne. He hit the ground on his face—tried to get back up, but rocks rained down, striking him. One hit his head again, slamming it down into the marble plaza. He blacked out for a second, came to and looked up. The plaza had mostly fallen back into place, but he could not immediately see Grace.
He rose and looked around…he saw an arm sticking up. Not understanding what he was seeing, he took off running toward it.
Another beam struck, and again the plaza heaved, and again debris rained down and Adamarus dove, sliding across the ground the last ten feet and grabbing her hand. For just a second, he thought she squeezed his hand, but then he saw the truth. It was just her forearm coming out of a two-inch-wide crack in the marble.
The energy beams had passed over them and continued their westward assault. A fierce shudder ran through Adamarus. He lowered his mouth to the crack and screamed, “Grace!” He put his ear to the crack, but with the continual booms from the receding energy beams, nothing could be heard. He cried her name again. Then he tried with all his might to pull the crack apart. It didn’t move.
His insides fell as he realized blood was seeping up from the crack. He called her name repeatedly as he used stones to chip at the crack. He tried again to pull the crack apart, ripping off his fingernails.
“No,” he cried. Then he looked all around, “Isabella! Isabella!” She had been on Grace’s right side. He scanned the crack in that direction and saw a lock of her hair coming from the crack. Close to where it disappeared into the crack, it was soaked with blood. He cried her name, put his ear to the crack, pulled away and screamed their names again.
From somewhere water began running down the crack. He tried desperately to brush the water aside as he continued to scream their names.
Then another shockwave struck the plaza. It ground the crack harder together, and Adamarus cried out in horror.
Somewhere to the right, water broke through the marble and surged upward. He continued desperately clawing at the crack. Unexpectedly, a two-foot wall of water hit Adamarus, knocking him back and he slipped and went down. He fought his way back, but the crack was now underwater—he could not find it.
Adamarus broke, his emotions exploding as he launched himself into the air just as another shockwave rippled through the ground. The shockwave propelled him high up into the sky as his arms and legs clawed the air. He lifted his head to the heavens and screamed, “Noooo!”
Red light poured over him, and Adamarus was momentarily blinded. Pain racked his body, and he cried out. Hands grabbed his arms and held him down. A voice was saying “Adamarus, it’s alright. Be still.”
Adamarus still seeing only the red light struggled against the person, “Grace… Isabella…”
“Adamarus it’s alright. It was just the Hiber-dream. Please lie still.”
The red light faded and he looked up at his second in command Radin. Now Adamarus could see that he was in the hibernation pod. He let out a breath and tried to calm himself.
Radin let go of him, “Was it the day they destroyed Amular?”
Adamarus stared up at him, “What?”
“The dream… was it the day…”
“Yes, Radin. Yes, it was.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I really hate the hiber-dreams.”
“We all do, but you’d think we could program the memory refresher to skip that one day.”
Adamarus sat up and looked around his Whiteship. Its steady hum felt peaceful. “No Radin. We need to remember, especially that day.”
---
In the Atrium the days passed as the orange light rose, traversed the sky and set. The arc of the light varied causing seasons. The wind blew through the trees, grasslands, hills, valleys and across the water and down snow-capped mountains. Birds, insects, mammals, reptiles, and fish as well as bacteria lived, ate, reproduced and died. The years came and went.