Wicker grunted, “We hope.” He turned and looked up at the screen. One showed Aster. The planet was still oscillating back and forth, however, the black hole the alien had dropped into it was dampening the motion. They no longer thought the gas giant would break apart or explode. This was good news as Battle Group Three was making its approach to slingshot around it then head toward Serena right behind and catching up with the Blackship. The three unmanned diplomacy ships had pulled ahead of the battle group and were already swinging around Aster. Again, if Aster had broken up or exploded, Battle Group Three as well as the three diplomacy ships would have had to attempt their missions with far less speed.
On another screen, Battle Groups One and Two waited on the far side of Serena.
---
High above the star system, between Aster and Serena, the History Station sped inward. Below, the black hole with the Jumper ships in tow was quickly gaining on it. At Echo Charlie Seven, the alien would pass ahead and the History Station would be playing catch up all the way to Amular.
Woodworth, with Jan and Harrington, had watched the first engagement, then watched as Adamarus’ ships had gotten caught by the black hole’s gravity.
They could detect Battle Group Three speeding toward Aster as well as the three diplomacy ships rounding Serena.
Everything was eventually headed toward Serena and the upcoming encounter at Echo Charlie Seven.
---
The months passed slowly. The black hole continued to maintain the deceleration and shrinkage curve it had maintained for over 200 years. Despite its steep deceleration, it was still dragging Adamarus’ fighter group along at incredible speeds between the orbits of Aster and Serena.
Aster’s atmosphere had fallen back, then the planet had bulged outward on the opposite side, fallen back and bulged on the other side again. Its unbalanced wobbling decreased as the black hole continued in-system and Aster’s orbit took the planet further away.
All the while, the small black hole the Blackship had injected into the gas giant had settled in the planet’s core and was consuming it at an ever-accelerating pace. So far, though, no change in its size had been detected, but the continuing oscillations made precision measurements difficult. There were no doubts that soon the changes would be obvious.
Both the Jumper Group’s incredible speed toward Serena as well as the gas giant’s own orbit bringing it closer saw the planet change rapidly from a bright star to a detailed planet. Blue and green cloud bands were visible in the slim sun lit arc while the vast majority of the surface shrouded in darkness made the planet’s raging lightning storms visible.
As Battle Group Three accelerated around Aster, it was finally confirmed—the gas giant was shrinking.
---
It was five days before Adamarus planned to break away when everything changed.
Adamarus woke to the sound of blaring alarms. He grabbed the configuration bar and pulled. His privacy shell rotated away and his sleep cubical rose up and morphed back into the Captain’s flight station.
Jag was firing the main engines.
“Status?” Adamarus yelled while turning off the audio alarms.
Jag answered while working at the controls, “The black hole’s gravitational profile changed. It reeled us in. We’re a lot closer now. It was pulling us in hard, skipper.”
Adamarus was pulling up sensor readings, “You said, ‘was’?”
Jag brought up a tactical holograph showing all six fighters and was adjusting the zoom, “Yes, ‘was’. Of course, the main engines fired full bore as we programmed them to, but for too many minutes, we were losing the battle.” Jag sagged back into his seat and looked over at Adamarus. “Then suddenly, it just let us go—its gravitational pull went to almost nothing. So, we jumped away from it a little, and a good thing, for now it’s pulling us toward it again, but even harder.” Suddenly, the ship jerked. “It’s let go again. What the hell is it doing?”
Adamarus eyebrows furrowed, “I think it’s transforming to a ship—getting ready to do the vanishing trick on the black hole.” He looked at the object's current distance, they were very close to it.
“It’s let go again…” Jag said, “but…not as much as last time. This is crazy.”
Alarms went off in Adamarus’ head. “Dials, can you do a graph of the gravity fluxes we’ve experienced?”
“Of course, Captain.”
“And Dials,” Adamarus looked back at her, “after that…have the computer do a projection on those numbers.” He turned back and looked at the black sphere; it was noticeably larger. “And Dials, please hurry. Jag…”
“Sir?”
“…get us away from that thing…as fast as you can.”
“Aye, sir. How far?”
“Quickly, Jag. Just keep going…until I say stop.”
Jag clicked his throat mike, “Jumper One to Jumper Group, set course two zero five nine…V-form…full speed…”
Dials had run the numbers and she screamed, “Get us out of here now!”
“…and execute,” Jag finished.
Adamarus’ head jerked around and looked at Dials. The look on her face told the story. The gravitational pulses were increasing in power exponentially and they had gotten too close. The main engines came to life, firing at full power. Adamarus squeezed his armrests, praying they were in time as the thrust pushed him back into his seat. The fighters shot off away from the black hole…for about two seconds. Then all six began shaking. They all slowed, then stopped, then began falling back toward the black hole.
Adamarus keyed his throat mike, “This is Admiral Maximus. Go redline and hold.” He looked at the rear viewer. The black hole looked even larger, but that was impossible. “Dials, how long until it switches again?”
“It won’t,” Dials replied. “Or it will, but only for a split second …shit!” Dials screamed. “Bandit has jumped forward. It’s coming up on us fast.”
Adamarus looked at the rear view screen. The event horizon had more than doubled in size. “That’s not possible,” Adamarus said, “It would have to be traveling faster than light to do that.”
Jag slammed his hand down. “Losing speed…damn it, damn it, it’s got us. It’s pulling us in.”
Adamarus tried to get control, “Fire side thrusters, try to shear away.”
Dials’ panicked voice came from the rear, “God, Adamarus, its right behind us.”
Adamarus looked; the object now filled the screen. He yelled over the noise, “That’s not possible.”
Jag laughed a little hysterically, “Tell it, why don’t you.”
Dials hollered, “Admiral, it’s not an object…it’s just an event horizon and what it’s really done is increased in size.”
Adamarus hollered back, “Okay, so what’s it doing?”
Jag threw his hands up, “No good, no good, we’re falling in.”
The ship was shaking violently—it felt like it would fall apart at any second. Even worse, they could all feel the gravitational pull now, pressing them back into their seats as if they were accelerating forward, but they were not—they were accelerating back.
Suddenly the emergency channel cut in over the speakers. It was filled with static and cutting out, but shouts and screams could be heard. It was Jumper 4. “This is Jum…4. We’re…pulled apart. Can’t…” and the channel went dead.
Adamarus activated the rear camera and was shocked by what he saw. Jumper 4 had broken up, the pieces flying back into the solid blackness that now almost filled the screen. As he watched, what was left of Jumper 4 vanished and two more fighters, Jumper 3 and Jumper 5, lost control and started dropping back toward the blackness. Both broke up, their pieces sucked back into the blackness.
Dials had to scream to be heard over the noise, “Admiral, it’s like the gravitational pull is increasing. Its pull on light is increasing, which is why the event horizon is expanding.”
That made no sense. However, no one knew how the Spiral Slayer’s did wha
t they did. That’s when realization hit Adamarus like a punch to the gut. The only thing they did know was that, regardless of what happened in the process, the black hole was going to vanish. Adamarus had seen the Loud Tachyon scans of its transformation in the Loud star system and the black hole just vanished in the blink of an eye. It did not go away slowly. And when the black hole vanished, all the tremendous gravity that they were fighting would also go away…instantly. It would be like the fighter was an arrow pulled back in a bow. When the gravity vanished, the arrow would be released. His ships would shoot off, whiplashing away, the engines firing at full power. He had to cut the engines the instant that the gravity died.
He tried to move his hand toward the emergency shut off, but it was impossible, the gees were too strong, the shaking too violent. He could hardly move. He hollered out in the hope that someone else could do something but it was very hard to speak with all the shaking, “All…fighters…must…cut engines…” how to explain in a few words?
What Adamarus had said so far shocked Jag and he jerked his head around to look at him. This caused his seat swivel a single click toward Adamarus, a tiny move that would cost Jag his life.
Adamarus continued, “…the instant…the gravity…vanishes.” Adamarus tried to speak again, but the ship was shaking too badly. All he could do was hang onto the arms of his command seat. That’s when he remembered the emergency cut off in the arms of his command seat. He tried to extend his arm and reach the control cluster at the end of the armrest. As he did, he glanced at the view ports. The black hole, or rather its event horizon, was overtaking them. The shaking doubled and just as Adamarus was sure the ship would fly apart, the event horizon passed over them and, for an instant, all the shaking stopped.
Then the huge event horizon popped like a bubble and vanished. So did all the gravity that had been holding back the fighters. Adamarus’ fighter, Jumper One, as well as Jumper Six suddenly released from the pull of the black hole, shot off like they’d been hit by a baseball bat. Jumper 2 was not so lucky—she had been veering off to port when it happened. She was hit with that same bat, but she just spun madly for a split second, then burst into small pieces.
Adamarus had been leaning forward trying to shut down the engines and the sudden increase in gees slammed him back into his seat and knocked him out.
Dials had been sitting in the perfect position, pushing herself back into her seat, when it happened. She just lost consciousness for a second.
Jag was not so lucky. He’d had his head turned and was leaning toward Adamarus. Even worse, his seat had swiveled one click to the left. When it happened, his head was flattened, facing left on the left side of his headrest. Because his seat had swiveled slightly, his head, pulled back by the massive acceleration, was creeping toward the edge of the headrest and he was trying with all his might to pull back.
The ship had yanked violently when released and half a dozen pieces of equipment were torn away from their mounts and flew toward the rear of the cabin. One piece grazed Van’s head and knocked him out. However, the crew members behind Van took the full impact, blood exploding from their bodies.
Dials sat right behind Jag. She came to and sucked in her breath when she saw Jag’s nose come into view on the left side of his headrest. More and more of his head came into view.
The weapons console between Adamarus and Jag exploded, throwing sparks through the cabin. A fire started. The auto fire-suppression systems came on, trying to put it out. Putrid, eye-burning smoke filled the cabin faster than the ventilation system could remove it.
Without warning, Jag’s neck broke and his head slipped around the side of his seat. Dials screamed as Jag’s head flew back toward her, his neck grotesquely stretching out. His head yanked to a stop. Jag was looking straight at her with a ghastly expression on his dead face. She screamed again but then froze as she realized that his neck was still slowly stretching out. In sheer terror, she started hyperventilating as his face came closer and closer to her. His eyeballs were bulging out and the air in Jag’s lungs was being pushed out, causing his lips and tongue to move as if he were trying to tell Dials something.
Dials was gasping in terror, but she couldn’t turn her head away, and for some reason, she could not close her eyes.
Jag’s head was only two feet from Dials’ when the gees tore his eyeballs from their sockets—one tore away and flew to the rear, the other continued to dangle there.
At the same time, blood began gushing from his mouth. Dials screamed again and this time didn’t stop. Jag’s eyeless face stared at her while the gee forces siphoned all of the blood in his body back through his neck and out his mouth.
When all of the blood finally drained, his tongue flung completely out of his head stopping only half a foot from Dials’ face. For many minutes, it rippled violently, throwing off the remaining fluids that continued to drain from Jag’s body.
Finally, Jag’s neck tore at the edge of Jag’s headrest and his head flew back just to the left of Dials’ head, hit her headrest and rolled off, flying to the rear of the bridge. Dials’ screaming stopped as she passed out.
---
“Sir. The black hole is…growing!” Radin’s science officer shouted.
Radin jumped to his feet. “Put it on the viewer.” Radin’s jaw dropped. After 200 years of predictability, the black hole, or rather its event horizon, was swelling. It swelled to twice its size then four times its size. “My God!” Radin exclaimed. “Where are Admiral Maximus’ fighters?” A small green circle appeared on the viewer. “Magnify.” The fighters became visible as tiny specks, but there were only three. It was clear that they were fighting the increasing gravitational pull. The event horizon overtook the fighters and continued swelling for several seconds, then it simply vanished. The three fighters vanished as well.
There was complete silence on the bridge for many seconds. Finally, “It’s just gone.” Commander Boshear stammered.
Even though its disappearance had been expected, for another second Radin was speechless. Then, “Where’s the Jumper Group?”
Boshear, as well as several others, frantically went to work trying to locate Adamarus’ fighters. Finally, the first officer’s hands rose up as if she were trying to figure out what else to do. At length she stood and walked back to Radin, “They're gone.”
“No, they’re out there,” Radin insisted.
Boshear leaned in and said in a lowered voice, “Sir, there is some widely scattered flotsam. It may be what’s left of the fighters. We’re scanning to determine how much debris is out there. We’re also scanning a wide area in case the fighters whiplashed when the black hole’s gravity vanished.”
Radin’s frown deepened. He knew that surviving a whiplash like that was not likely. He nodded, then stood and walked forward to the sensor specialist’s station. Boshear followed him.
Radin placed his hand on the young man’s shoulder, “Lt. Rinker, the black hole has vanished so now…we have a ship out there and we really need to find it.” Radin patted him on the arm then turned and looked over at his first officer, motioning her to follow him back to the command platform. On the way, he leaned in to Commander Boshear and said in a lowered voice, “Nancy, Adamarus’ son, Captain Nero Maximus...we will wait until we know more before contacting him.”
“Yes, sir,” she replied. “We’ll find them, sir.”
---
Adamarus woke to an intense shaking, a deafening roar, the putrid smell of burning plastic and…pain. For the first few seconds, he did not know where he was, then the memory fragments started coming back to him.
The bridge was bathed in the red glow of emergency lights and there was a lot of smoke in the air. The pain was the gee forces pushing him back into his seat. His eyes burned from the smoke and he could feel tears streaming from his eyes, the gee forces pushing them straight back along the side of his face and into his ears.
“Jag,” he called out. His voice was strained and guttural. There was no an
swer and there were too many gees to attempt to turn his head. He tried to look at the instrument readouts, but his watery eyes made them too blurred to see. That was a waste of time anyway, he thought, as what he needed to do became apparent. He tried to reach the controls to cut the engines, but could not move his hands to reach the panel. Then he again remembered the emergency control cluster on the arm of his chair. He reached forward, fumbled for it, flipped the cover open and finally found the right switch. The engines shut down and instantly the roar, the vibration and the gees vanished.
He turned to Jag and shuddered. Jag’s head was gone.
Adamarus slammed the emergency release on his restraint harness and got up on shaky legs. His head felt funny. He noticed a large section of Jag’s overhead control panel was missing, then noticed the weapons console was charred and melted. He turned and looked back at the rest of his crew and saw lots of blood. The two crew members who sat in the rear, Hack and Cheater, were covered with it. Directly behind Adamarus’ seat sat Van who was slumped over.
Sphere Bots were deploying and starting in on damage control and inspecting the crew members. He noticed Dials’ seat was empty just as someone grabbed his arm and startled him. It was Dials.
“Oh God, Adamarus. Can you understand me?” For some reason that Adamarus couldn’t put a finger on, the way in which she looked at him sent chills up his spine.
“Of course,” he stammered, confused by the expression on her face, “Are you okay?”
She kept looking at him in such a strange way. “Please sit down” she said slowly.
He shook his head—which really felt strange as it went back and forth. “What? No. Help me check everyone.” He tried to move toward the back, but Dials grabbed his arm and stopped him.
“No, Adamarus. You must sit down.”
Adamarus’ anger flared, “Dials…”
She suddenly squeezed his arm very hard and moved in close to his face. “Adamarus, you have a large piece of metal coming out of the side of your head. Now sit down.”
Adamarus’ eyes went wide and he stumbled back into his chair. Dials turned and ripped the first aid kit from the wall. As she did, Adamarus reached up with both hands. One connected with a cold jagged metal edge.
Countdown Amageddon (The Spiral Slayers Book 2) Page 30