Well ahead of the battle group were three old and unmanned remote controlled Leviathan Battleships trying to pick up even more speed. Amular did not know when they would be needed so they had done everything possible to these ships to make it feasible for them to reach the Blackship and sit right in front of it—between it and Amular—blocking its path whenever the time was right. Because they were empty, they had fitted them with tons of extra fuel.
The three ships had arrived on the far side of Serena a day before. To maintain the speed they had worked up over the years, they had to keep moving. So they were now performing hair-raising dives toward the planet, which increased their speed even more, then they looped back up out of the gas giant’s gravity well, which of course slowed them back down, and they just repeated this maneuver again and again. In this way, they maintained their speed.
It was now their turn. Even though Amular had already tried to hail the Blackship and attacked it with grav-bombs out by the ice cloud and Dawn’s Jumpers out by Aster, Amular was going to try once more to ‘talk’ to them.
---
Adamarus’ fighter had drifted several thousand miles away from the decelerating Blackship and they could see the huge structure more clearly now. A sphere 175 miles in diameter, the size of a small moon, sat at the center. The surface of the sphere was a maze of complex shapes. On the forward hemisphere were three large holes. Within these holes, it looked like most of the forward hemisphere was hollow, and the structures inside looked like a city, for lack of a better description, with the various odd looking buildings and skyscrapers pointing up from the depths, up toward the holes.
Around the sphere’s equator, evenly spaced, were the eight incredibly long arms they had originally seen, but now they had merged so they looked like only four arms. They measured 2.5 miles in diameter at the base, then they tapered out for an incredible 3,392 miles.
At first, the arms had spiraled around the sphere but they had moved, slowly unwrapping, and now they now extended straight out from the sphere. Obviously, the arms were flexible. Each of the arms tapered into nothing at their ends.
Adamarus, Dials and Van watched as the three remote piloted battleships came around the gas giant and made their way toward the Blackship.
They had every passive sensor and recorder the fighter had running. They had raised the blast armor over the view ports and were watching everything on the monitors.
None of them had eaten anything in a while so now the three of them devoured ham and cheese sandwiches as they watched events unfold. They had a ringside seat for the diplomatic effort.
The three older battleships slowly advanced on the Blackship.
As this happened, thousands of panels all over the Blackship’s sphere that were the same dull black as the rest of the sphere slid to one side, exposing panels that looked slightly different—the same color, but shiny.
The three battleships advanced until they were about 20 miles from the alien ship facing its three large holes. They were nothing more than tiny specks next to the Blackship. They hung there, maintaining their distance, hailing the alien ship.
“They have to be crazy,” Dials muttered. The three of them sat in silence on the dark bridge, watching for many minutes.
Van broke the silence, “I think I’ll zoom in on one of those shiny black rectangles that just appeared. If they’re transparent, maybe I can coax out some details of what lay behind them.”
Windows, Adamarus thought. He nodded his approval and Van moved to the imaging station on the side of the bridge. After a few minutes, Dials followed while Adamarus remained up front, watching and checking the passive sensors.
A few minutes later, Dials returned and tapped Adamarus on the shoulder, “Adamarus, it looks like Van was right, they are transparent. He’s getting something, but we can’t tell what it is.”
“Really,” Adamarus got up. As he did so he glanced at the monitor and noticed the three battle ships had started moving slowly forward toward the alien ship again. He followed Dials back to the imaging station and looked over Van’s shoulder. Sure enough, Van had been able to pull more detail out of the dark rectangles.
It was hard to make out, but the rectangles seemed to be filled with moving shapes. Most were partially obscured but some seemed complete and it looked like, all of them had identical shapes—long and tapered at both ends. The shapes would all have roughly the same size but would be distributed unevenly within the rectangle. The shapes all moved and rotated a little at different angles.
Adamarus did a quick count and came up with 82 of the shapes in one rectangle while Van tried a different filter and was able to get some more detail—there seemed to be a dark area within some of the shapes. The shapes reminded Adamarus of a kayak he had tried years ago.
Van said, “That’s all the detail I’m going to get. Let me try another rectangle.” He shifted the focus to the next rectangle over and got the same strange shapes.
Adamarus counted over 100 in this one.
Next Van jumped across the sphere to a completely different section. Again, he detected the same strange shapes.
“Hey,” Adamarus said, “two of them just vanished and then came back.”
Van nodded, “Yes, I saw that.” He moved across the row. All the rectangles were filled with the same odd shapes.
Dials spoke up, “How many of these rectangles are there?”
“Thousands and nothing if not consistent,” Van said as he kept checking others and finding the same thing. “That means hundreds of thousands of these shapes, whatever they are. Are…are they moving in pairs?”
The enhancer screen was focused on a random rectangle and, as they watched, the three diplomatic battleships appeared in the lower left foreground of the screen and traveled across. The shapes seemed to react to this.
A sudden crash caused Van and Adamarus to spin around—Dials had knocked one of the first aid kits loose. She was backing away with her hands over her mouth. Her eyes were wide and she was as white as a ghost.
“Dials, what is it?” Adamarus asked.
“Oh no,” she whispered as she backed away. Her tone made the hairs on Adamarus’ neck stand on end.
“Dials?” Van said.
Dial’s hands went from her mouth to the sides of her head. She looked very pale. “Those shapes…oh, God…they’re…they’re…eyes.”
Van got up from his seat, “What Dials?”
Dials hugged herself and whispered, “Eyes. Thousands of eyes. And…they’re…watching.”
Adamarus and Van swung back to the sensor screen. Immediately, they realized she was right. The dark areas within the shapes had moved from the left to the right, following the three battle ships.
Adamarus ran his hand through his hair. He could not remember a time when he had ever been this spooked. Hundreds of thousands of eyes were looking out of that ship. “I guess that answers the question of whether there's still anything alive.”
At that moment, the Blackship moved. It did so unbelievably fast. The central sphere spun around several times. This coiled the four arms loosely around it so that they resembled the arms of a spiral galaxy again. The Blackship came to an abrupt halt, the sphere winding up back in its original position—right in front of the three battleships. As soon as the Blackship stopped, something formed right in front of the sphere’s three holes. Whatever it was could not be seen except for the way it made the stars behind it ripple and warp. It was similar to the way heat waves cause ripples in the air. The ripple reached out and engulfed the three battleships, and instantly gray clouds seemed to form around them.
“What the hell?” Adamarus said. He glanced back at the Blackship just in time to see the panels sliding closed over the transparent rectangles.
Dials returned to her station and studied the cloud, trying to find the ships within.
Adamarus turned, “Dials, what’s the composition of that cloud?”
Dials started scanning and after a moment said, “That clou
d is as fine as talcum powder…its composition is….”
“What?” Adamarus asked.
“That cloud…” she turned and looked at him, “…it is the three ships.”
---
The four huge kinetic cannons were positioned so that the eight rods they each fired would converge on the Blackship from four different sides. Just seconds after the diplomatic ships were destroyed, the order to fire came in from Radin.
The weapons had been charged up and ready to fire for some time. All four had targeted and then followed the Blackship, keeping equal distances from it. All fired at the same moment.
Small charges behind the 50-foot rods sent them flying along super-conducting rails, which hurled them up to far greater speeds, then just before they exited the launchers, a small grav-bomb propelled them up to point one percent of light speed. Per their design, the final propelling explosion destroyed the kinetic cannons themselves as the rods sped toward their target.
---
The president, who had given Admiral Radin approval to fire the weapons, stood with General Burnwall and Dr. Donnelly before the main screen watching the Blackship. A countdown was projected in the upper right-hand side of the screen. One hundred and twenty-seven seconds remained to impact.
“If those rods hit it, it will be destroyed,” Donnelly said confidently.
“We thought that about the Jumper devices,” Burnwall said.
Donnelly shook his head, “If the Blackship employed multiple singularities, there would have been additional chambers within the event horizon—we might have completely missed the ship. But this time, if it does not somehow get out of the way, we have it.”
Wicker asked, not for the first time, “And if we destroy the ship, its black holes will come back?”
“Yes,” Donnelly answered. “However, Serena should sling them out of the system.”
“Should?” Burnwall asked.
“It depends on how many singularities we’re dealing with and we just don’t know.”
At t-minus 10 seconds, the screen seemed to blink. Foreheads creased around the room. The countdown went to zero, but nothing happened.
To say that shock rippled across the star system would be an understatement.
---
Radin and his top officers assembled in the conference room on The Bonnet. On the screen before them the President, flanked by Burnwall and Donnelly, appeared.
Radin knew that Wicker was addressing all four battle group flagships, plus both Loud Umbrella Ships.
“We have analyzed the kinetic cannon assault and here is what happened. At ten seconds before impact, the Blackship did all of the following: It divided its apparent four arms, if I can call them that, back into eight arms or four pairs, and positioned each pair in front of each of the four groups of depleted Uranium rods. Four singularities formed, one at the end of each pair of arms. The singularities…devoured, for lack of a better term, the four groups of rods. The singularities then simply vanished. The eight arms merged back into four and resumed their previous position. It did all of this in the span of an eighth of a second—far too fast to see.”
Radin and his officers were stunned.
“I’m just as dumbfounded as you are, Admiral Radin. Tell me, if we hit it with ten thousand low yield grav-bomb missiles…all at the same time, do you think that particular trick of theirs would work a second time?”
Radin smiled, “There’s only one way to find out.”
---
It was time to bring the battle groups with their assigned Umbrella ships to bear.
Radin left the conference room and strode onto the bridge. All around him and above him on the two upper levels, people were busy taking care of the massive number of details related to running his flagship, his battle group and his armada of battle groups. He reached his seat and dropped into it.
“Commander Boshear, I have the com.”
“The Admiral has the com,” repeated the first officer.
Radin looked at the overhead status screens, verifying that all his battle elements were in position. Just like his Battle Group One with the Loud Umbrella Ship, Battle Group Two, 10,000 miles to port, was hiding behind the gas giant, Serena. Battle Group Three, with the Loud’s second Umbrella Ship, had rounded the wobbling gas giant, Aster, without incident, picking up the exact amount of speed projected. Currently, they were now en route to Serena and Echo Charlie Seven precisely on schedule.
“Commander Boshear,” Radin said.
His first officer turned toward him, “Sir?’
“It’s show time, Commander. Are Battle Groups One and Two ready to move out?”
Boshear turned back to her console, and after a moment replied, “Aye, sir.”
Radin keyed his throat mike, “Bugs, we’re going in. Are you ready?”
“We are ready.”
“Then let’s go—formation Bravo Sierra, course one seven two four.”
Battle Group One came to life and the battleships, along with Bug’s Umbrella Ship, began to move. They dove inward toward the gas giant, picking up speed, then veered off and rounded the gas giant. Beneath them, the dark side of the planet passed by lit by huge lightning bolts. As they passed into the sun lit side, the sunrise created shadows, and rays of light shot between the upper level clouds, bringing out their three-dimensional nature. The cloud bands receded as the ships began to distance themselves from the planet, firing their rear engines to pick up more speed so that they could stay with the Blackship long enough to engage the alien.
As the Blackship came into direct view, it was magnified on the main viewer. It looked the same as the transmitted image, but it felt different—now, presumably, it could see them.
Battle Group Two swung around the gas giant as well and lined up with Radin’s group.
If it went that far, as the Blackship continued to decelerate, Battle Groups One and Two would catch up again for another go before the alien reached Amular. However, that was the fallback plan. They just had to make sure that it didn’t come to that.
Chapter Fifteen – Echo Charlie Seven
“I disagree. Being able to equal the alien’s acceleration actually is important. This is because a battle element’s problem will not only be obtaining speeds equal to the alien—just as critical, is being able to decelerate as hard as the alien can or…we’ll fly right by them, right? Which is to say, being able to equal their acceleration in the opposite direction of flight, right? ‘Relativity’ speaking of course.”
General Joseph (Joe) Burnwall
Discussion on Sustaining Continuous Contact
Source: The Archive
T-Minus 02 Years
Echo Charlie Seven…
Radin closed his eyes for a second and then opened them. He keyed his throat mike, “Battle Groups One and Two to general quarters.” An alarm began sounding in even increments, the lights on the bridge turned red, and a deep roar sounded as the engines fired. Radin’s flagship began moving to its battle station at the rear of the battle groups—a position Radin hated, but could not contest. At the same time, thuds echoed through the bridge as the bridge locking pins were released in preparation of lowering the bridge into the armor wedge.
Radin retreated to the captain’s seat. “Activate hologram, wide angle, tactical.” A 12-foot sphere flickered to life in the bow of the bridge in front of Radin and above the forward stations. In it could be seen the gas giant, Serena, and markers for both battle groups and a flashing icon for the Blackship. Battle Group Three was not yet in range.
A new deep hum began. Radin glanced at the side view ports—armor rose from the bottom as the bridge was lowered into the massive armored wedge. This same process was occurring on all 200 battleships of the first and second battle groups.
Outside they were passing by the enormous Loud Umbrella ship as Radin's flagship continued its fallback to the rear. Radin’s brows knotted—he hated this fallback. He would have rather been at the front leading his group into battl
e, but…he knew the reasoning for it. “Lt. Boshear, time until the alien is within missile range?”
“Forty-three minutes, sir.”
“Time until Battle Group Three is in attack range?”
“Sixty-eight minutes, sir.”
That’s when it happened. No one really saw it exit from the Blackship; it wasn’t detected until it was about 50 miles away from the alien ship and even then, it was only luck that someone spotted the distorted stars.
Everyone knew immediately what it was—the same thing the Blackship had injected into Aster—a small singularity. They watched it speed over to Serena and then descend into the gas giant.
---
Adamarus watched as Serena fell behind. All at slightly different angles and speeds, his damaged fighter, the Blackship as well as Battle Groups One, Two and Three were all headed toward a spot in space known as Echo Charlie Seven.
Adamarus was finding it very hard to accept that he had been reduced to an observer. His son, Nero, and his longtime friend, Radin, as well as Bugs were all out there in Battle Group One about to engage the alien, and all he could do was watch. If the alien could not be stopped here, his fighter groups would be the next to engage the Blackship…again, without him. His fist clenched and unclenched as he sat silently watching the screens and monitors.
“Admiral, detecting multiple missile launches from Battle Group One and Two,” Dials announced.
Adamarus leaned forward and Van came up beside him to watch. Adamarus glanced at Dials, “Can you determine time to impact?”
“Working on it, skipper,” however, she couldn’t calculate an exact time. All of them knew that. Many of the missiles traveled away from the Blackship, then circled back in so that they could target the sides and rear of the sphere, while others went straight in aiming for the front. All were traveling at different speeds so that they would hit the alien in coordinated waves of force. Dials did not have enough data. She gave her best estimate, “Only a guesstimate,” Adamarus nodded understanding, “first wave, thirty-five to forty minutes.”
Countdown Amageddon (The Spiral Slayers Book 2) Page 32