Countdown Amageddon (The Spiral Slayers Book 2)

by Rusty Williamson

  The Spiral Slayers

  (Book Two of Four)

  Countdown Armageddon

  Rusty Williamson

  http://www.RustyWilliamson.com/

  rusty@rustywilliamson.com

  Copyright © 2014

  Rusty Williamson

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be

  reproduced in any form, except for the inclusion

  of brief quotations in review, without permission

  in writing from the author.

  The Spiral Slayers

  A four-volume science fiction epic

  Rusty Williamson

  Encounters

  Book One of Four

  (2013)

  https://www.amazon.com/Encounters-Spiral-Slayers-Book-1-ebook/dp/B008STATCO/

  Countdown Armageddon

  Book Two of Four

  (2016)

  https://www.amazon.com/Countdown-Amageddon-Spiral-Slayers-Book-ebook/dp/B01LYG98VA/

  Odyssey

  Book Three of Four

  (Estimated 2017)

  The War Lords

  Book Four of Four

  (TBA)

  Back Cover

  Countdown Armageddon

  The countdown has begun—humans on planet Amular, along with the survivors of an alien race called the Loud, face a hopeless battle: an ancient alien originating beyond the observable universe is coming, killing everything in their path. In a single day, they destroyed the Loud home world—a species a thousand years ahead of the humans. They come within a black hole the size of a small star system at .99999 the speed of light and the Loud claim that this ancient alien has reached the Omega level of advancement—journey’s end—they know everything.

  To maintain morale, only the highest officials know how hopeless the upcoming battle is and that Amular is just a minor stopover on the all-knowing alien’s way to a much more devastating objective. While Amular struggles to come up with defenses, it also grapples with a powerful resistance movement that sees things in a completely different light. Their arguments seem unshakeable but the government’s hands are tied as they cannot release the devastating truth.

  However, something is not quite right for there are too many coincidences and the ancient alien does things that make no sense. As the humans and the Loud try to unravel these mysteries, the resistance continues to launch devastating attacks. Then time runs out and the alien and the battle for Amular are upon them all.

  The Spiral Slayers Quadrilogy

  A science fiction odyssey...The cycle of universes: big bang, expansion, big freeze, death and then it starts over. Universe after universe, a cycle that has endured for time without end. But something has gone wrong--an increasing number of universes are ending prematurely--the cycle is becoming unstable.

  Existence itself is threatened...An advanced species discovers what is happening and finds a way to send a warning forward through time into future universes. Eventually, in another universe, another advanced species finds the warning. They in turn send a desperate fix into the next universe--our universe.

  An exponential step beyond anything before it...In ships powered by black holes an immortal species as old as time is chased between the galactic super clusters and across the known universe. Forged in the fires of the early universe, their scientific journey completed, they know everything... including the great enigma...the reason why we and the universe exist.

  Dedicated to

  Dublin Trees Williamson

  Our first grandson and the new center of our universe.

  Contributions

  My sincere thanks to: my wife Denise for her patience and support, Angie Sampson who performed the laborious job of proofreading and Melissa Foster who helped with the basics of online marketing and the value of social groups. Also, thanks to Henry D’Agostino who did the first alpha read and helped in so many ways and to Oscar Roca who helped with naval ships and their functions and names. To the many beta readers who struggled through the first draft. Finally, belated thanks (from book one) to Diane Thornton for naming the planet Amular and to my soulmate and wife Denise who named the planet Serena.

  A Note from the Author

  This story begins about 300 million years ago, 300 million light years from Earth, in a galaxy on the edge of the Great Coma Wall of galaxies, on a planet named Amular…

  What can I say? It’s long, long ago and far, far away...

  The intelligent life on Amular would, of course, speak different languages and, by default, have different names for everything. I decided that the ‘story’ was more important than trying in some way to reflect these differences (after all, I’m rather forced into using one of Earth’s languages to write the tale). Therefore, almost everything has been ‘converted’ to Earth, USA, Twentieth Century jargon (and yeah, feet and miles…I’m an American). It helps that humans just like ourselves evolved on this distant world.

  Wait, how could humans just like ourselves evolve on such a distant planet?

  One of today’s current theories is that the seeds of life are spread by meteorites. In this story, in the ‘Spiral Slayer universe’ I created for this series, life is spread in this manner. So, on biocompatible worlds, life takes hold and it progresses in the same manner everywhere. What kind of intelligent life, if any, arises is for the most part determined by extinction level events exactly as it did on Earth. If the meteor that hit the Yucatan Peninsula 76 million years ago had missed and not wiped out the dinosaur kingdom, raptors might have arisen as the intelligent species. If another were to hit tomorrow, termites or bees, or even ravens might get their chance (or, in the ravens case, second chance).

  In the Spiral Slayer universe, humans are the most common type of intelligent life in the universe though not by much and not by any means the brightest bulb in the heavens.

  In addition, although it’s part of the underlying plot of the story, I’ve limited the science element mostly to chapter introductions and this element is not necessary to understand the story.

  For the science nerds among us, I’ve added a limited number of fictional extensions to the current standard models of quantum mechanics and cosmology. However, my fictional extensions do not include the ability to accelerate past the speed of light. Therefore, to travel, let’s say 300 million light years to Amular at less than light speed requires: an unlimited life span, technology for sleeping millions of years, unlimited power, and materials that regenerate or last a very long time. However, to travel much further than that across a universe that is expanding faster than the speed of light, without being able to exceed the speed of light…well, one would need a little bit more but… you need to read the story.

  More information on the science of the Spiral Slayer universe can be found on my science fiction blog at www.rustywilliamson.com.

  Enjoy,

  Rusty Williamson

  rusty@rustywilliamson.com

  “If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.” –Morpheus, The Matrix

  Contents

  PART ONE — Countdown

  Chapter One – The Meeting

  Chapter Two – The Assassin

  Chapter Three – The Grand Getaway

  Chapter Four – The Second Council of War

  Chapter Five – Project Snowflake

  Chapter Six – The Radford Revolution

  Chapter Seven – The Prodigy

  Chapter Eight – Voices of the Dead

  Chapter Nine – Dawn’s Finale

  Chapter Ten – Trinity

  Chapter Eleven – Three Water Bottles


  Chapter Twelve – The Ice Cloud

  PART TWO – Armageddon

  Chapter Thirteen – Arrival

  Chapter Fourteen – Emergence

  Chapter Fifteen – Echo Charlie Seven

  Chapter Sixteen – Above Amular

  Chapter Seventeen – The Battle of Amular

  Chapter Eighteen – The Battle for Iceis

  Chapter Nineteen – Aftermath

  About the Author

  PART ONE — Countdown

  “I guess cheating can help if your goal’s a destination or wealth but it makes no sense if your goal is being a good person.” –Unknown

  Chapter One – The Meeting

  “The fog of war is a hungry cannibal. She gorges herself, chews vigorously…then spits out survivors.”

  Fleet Admiral Adamarus Maximus

  Recorded comments: Jumper One at Echo Charlie Seven

  Source: The Archive

  T-Minus 200 Years

  Location: At the edge of the Great Coma Wall of galaxies,

  The Star System of Iceis,

  In Geostationary Orbit on the dark side of the planetoid Cinder,

  The Hideaway Shipyards…

  Fleet Admiral Adamarus Maximus slowed as he approached the conference room doors then paused before them.

  The hallway was lit perfectly—indirect lighting that was not too bright nor too dim. Exactly like the rest of the installation.

  The porthole to his left showed the perfectly black surface of the planetoid Cinder stretching off to a horizon that seemed much too close. Above the planetoid’s black razor edge, the rich solar wind of the orange dwarf Iceis appeared as millions of orange specks shooting upward. He knew that if he followed them upward, eventually the specks would fade then vanish, exposing a circle of star-studded blackness.

  He caught his refection in the porthole and thought that perhaps he was finally getting used to the image of the impossibly young thirty-year-old staring back. It must be the same for everyone, he mused.

  Standing just over six feet, Adamarus was a handsome man. His chestnut colored hair was parted on the side and his eyes were a deep blue. Before the Loud had made him young again, he had been 52 years old—crow’s feet radiating from his eyes, hair graying at the temples. Sometimes he missed his older self.

  He turned his head, stared back at the double doors uncharacteristically hesitant…Adamarus Maximus was not accustomed to his present state. He was…what—discouraged, depressed, overwhelmed, scared…all of the above? The insights he’d had…the conclusions that had seemed so important for the last few days—did they really mean anything? Was the meeting that he had fought so hard for just a waste of everyone’s time?

  In his present state, how was he ever going to pull this off?

  Well, there was no rescheduling. Somehow, he would find a way. He took a deep breath, trying to shake off his doubts then opened the double doors and walked in.

  Everyone looked up at him. Except for the President who would be teleconferencing from Amular, all of them were already present and seated around the conference table.

  He nodded at them. They nodded back.

  Adamarus took his seat then looked over the five other people…well actually, four humans and one five-foot robot. The robot served as the avatar for the Loud Ambassador who had the unlikely name of Bugs—a name Adamarus himself had given the alien.

  Adamarus noticed it was the only face in the room not wearing a mask struggling to hide the depression, the defeat and the hopelessness.

  Using the avatar-robots was the closest the Loud could come to personal interaction with the humans. In person, the Loud were huge creatures resembling small complex hills about 20-feet wide, 30-feet deep and standing 20-feet high. However, size was the least of the creature’s problems.

  Their alien friends from another star—next-door neighbors at 112 light years—‘spoke’ by blasting massive quantities of air through the cavities in their bony hilltop heads producing screeching sounds so loud that they shattered glass, ruptured eardrums and even internal organs.

  However, what really kept the two species from sitting down together was that the Loud had to suck in massive amounts of air before speaking. Before each paragraph, Bugs’ true form exploded upwards over 100 feet expanding to fill its single massive lung with air. Then mammoth muscles along the creature’s backside compressed the air and forced it out as the creature shrunk back to its normal 20-foot height.

  Not to mention, the thought came, they also spit when they let go…quite a lot.

  The Loud screeches along with the chemical makeup of their spittle was processed by translation devices. The Loud had constructed these before they had made contact with Amular during the three years the aliens had secretly studied the indigenous intelligent species mostly via the human’s copious audio and video transmissions. After processing for a few seconds, in a slightly mechanical, gender-neutral voice, words magically came out of the translation device. Then, the process reversed and words were turned into ear shattering screeches and a virtual sprinkler system of spittle. It was a dangerous and messy process, which was why the Listening Chamber had been constructed and used before the appearance of the avatars.

  The Loud were estimated to be a thousand years ahead of the humans in science and technology and, they had certainly made their mark on Amular from day one. Five days after then Captain Adamarus Maximus, one of Amular’s most famous and decorated heroes, had seemingly died in Amular’s worst orbital disaster, the Loud had, with no warning, made their presence known by delivering a repaired, bandaged and somehow still breathing Adamarus to the ER at Amular’s largest hospital.

  However, it soon became apparent that Adamarus was not the same. He was twenty years younger, had a ‘supercharged’ immune system and, he was no longer aging.

  Within mere months, the Loud did the only fair thing; they gave all of the humans on Amular and within the Iceis Star System this same perpetual youth and supercharged immune system—immortality except one could still be killed by injuries.

  Then, to take care of the population explosion, the aliens had spent three years helping the humans build off-world settlements, power stations and multi-level farm moons. Their construction nanite were indistinguishable from magic.

  So much had happened since those glorious days…what? A mere six months ago.

  Adamarus looked from Bugs’ avatar to the head of the table where a dark teleconferencing screen had risen from the table. There it sat waiting for the man they all waited for, President James Olson Wicker.

  Adamarus glanced over at his superior Rear Admiral Leewood who took a deep breath and answered Adamarus’ unspoken question with a small, if begrudging nod.

  Adamarus swallowed, nodded back once.

  Thanks to the Loud, Leewood, like Adamarus and like everyone else, was at his or her prime age, around 30 years old. Leewood’s face was all hard angles—that and his buzz cut blond hair and ramrod posture shouted military.

  Over four years ago, when the President’s Special Team had been created to deal with Amular’s first alien contact, then Commander Leewood had been named the team’s leader. Leewood’s nod confirmed that, as usual, it would be on him to introduce the purpose of the meeting to the President—only after this would Adamarus take over.

  Right on time, the blank screen came to life and the President of Amular and the Iceis Star System, James Olson Wicker, appeared.

  The Tachyon Com System from the Loud cheated space and time by eliminating the 14-minute response time and providing instantaneous communication.

  As usual, the President’s thick brown hair was neatly parted to the side, his brown eyes were clear and his expression was neutral. Not as usual were the cuts and bruises on his face.

  Immediately everyone noticed the green glow on the right side of the President’s face and knew exactly what it was for each one of them knew that green glow.

  The lights in Wicker’s office were dimmed—behind
him, in shadow, the grand circular windows of the presidential office, curtains drawn, could still be made out.

  Wicker make a face then glanced to his right into the green glow. He stared for a moment then he looked back at the camera. “Look at it,” he said shaking his head. So that they could look at it, the president reached forward and swiped his touch-top desk to share.

  Around Adamarus and the others, the lights in the conference room dimmed and the back wall screen came to life displaying the familiar green image—the live transmission from the orbital Tachyon scope—one of the Loud’s more advanced and elaborate gifts.

  They’d all seen the image many times. It showed the faster-than-light Tachyon surge coming from the energy emitted by the exploding star 112 light years away. What they were looking at was what remained of the Loud’s home star. The explosion had vaporized all of the planets including the Loud home world. Except for the few hundred Loud aboard their four interstellar ‘Umbrella’ ships, their species was now extinct.

  The nova was a hideous sight; however, that’s not what took the breath away from all of the humans. A small black dot near the center, silhouetted against the expanding plasma, was the source of all their problems—an event horizon 93 million miles in diameter coming straight at them at a hair below the speed of light.

  President Wicker’s normal upbeat smile was strained and didn’t extend to his eyes. “Hello, everyone,” he said looking at each of them. He waved in the direction of the green glow, “Nothing’s changed, of course. It’s still coming on its digitally precise course, deceleration and shrinkage curve. I was just…watching.” After a second he looked at Leewood and raised both hands, “So Admiral…” his reluctance to ask was frank and obvious, “…what’s the subject of this meeting?”