Leewood jumped in, “That’s right, so a message sent at the speed of light would have been received over ten years ago.”
Adamarus slowly shook his head, his eyes staring into the distance, “Well, there’s not much we can do until the Loud decide to talk to us.”
---
Five days went by. All four of the Loud ships remained in orbit, very close to each other, arranged in a box formation. On the sixth day, they answered the hails saying only that Bugs would meet with Adamarus alone in the listening chamber at 9:00 AM.
The next day the landing craft came down at 8:30 AM. Adamarus got to the room early and waited for ten minutes. At exactly 9:00 the large door opened and Bugs entered.
Adamarus had talked with Bugs face to face in the listening chamber enough to remember its mannerisms, expressions and body language. As he watched Bugs extend upward to take in air before speaking, he knew something was very wrong.
The first difference he noticed was the sharp black thorns on the gray wrinkled lung area – these normally pointed down when the lung was deflated, and when the lung expanded with air as the Loud extended upward, the thorns stood up but remained slightly downward, as if they were relaxed. Now, however, they pointed straight out even when the lung was deflated, and when the lung was stretching up, filling with air, they seemed to bulge outward and even quiver a little. At the base of the thorns where they came out of the lung, white and reddish tissue could be seen. That had not been there before. It was as if they were being forced out, so much so that their roots were showing.
Another thing was Bugs’ eyes – they were no longer clear beneath the green transparent membrane but were clouded and red. Also, the off-white light receptors were different – about a third of them were no longer mushroom shaped – the oval top seemed bent back.
In addition to these changes, Bugs did not expand straight upward, but went off to one side almost losing its balance! And Adamarus noticed another peculiarity, the tentacles which extended and retracted from the gray area just above the layer that touched the ground – these had always been either completely retracted or completely extended. Now, however, they all protruded a few feet and just stayed there. The overall appearance and mannerisms gave Adamarus the impression of utter depression mixed with raw fury.
After Bugs expanded he seemed to waver there for many seconds. Finally, he pushed downward, but on the way down he halted several times and the normally ear splitting screech was much softer and broken by coughing sounds and clicks.
Adamarus looked at the translator and watched the progress bar progress from left to right. Finally, Bugs’ words issued from the translator, “Adamarus…I…have…terrible…news.”
PART TWO - SECOND ENCOUNTER
"Bad things come in threes."
Unknown
Chapter Ten – Distant Devastation
“The first law of the cosmos, the cornerstone of all that is, can be completely stated in six words. Once recognized, it stands on its own: rational, undeniable, irrefutable, and indisputable. Backed by three pages of mathematics, a child can see its truth and yet it is so obvious that physicists looked right past it for thousands of years.
The First Cosmic Law: More than one state must exist.
In layman’s terms it means that “something” must exist. Understanding this has profound implications on everything else we look at.”
The Loud Named Bugs
Opening Speech, 23rd Amular Symposium on Quantum Physics
Source: The Archive
No one could say exactly when it had come into being—mainly because it had started out as many different things, in different areas, in different physical locations, at different times and maintained for different reasons. These in turn had slowly and, in some cases, haphazardly, merged together over a period spanning some 300 years.
The earliest part had been put together by universities. A simple network and database to track resource reservations, quickly followed by scientific observations, ongoing research projects and associated funding and grants. Another large part came shortly after. Law enforcement latched on to the growing network with their central database of fingerprints, then criminal histories and DNA samples. Meanwhile, thousands of other databases within the government, the military and civilian businesses tied into the network.
Then came the catalyst that would eventually bring everything together. The substance was called Karanite after Della Kara, the scientist who had devoted her life to the development of the molecule. A small sphere of Karanite exactly a quarter inch in diameter called a Data Droplet had the storage capacity of ten exabyte. This was enough storage to hold every fact they had on the planet, plus every word ever spoken in all of history, and every word ever written in all of history…five times over! Four redundant Data Droplets were linked together, then a hundred primary high speed I/O ports were added to each. Finally each droplet was enclosed in a three-foot diameter sphere made out of molecularly cross-locked sheets of grapheme, the strongest material known to Amular scientists and the closest they could come to indestructible. And in this way, “The Archive” was born.
Over the next fifty years, all data pertaining to all things quickly made its way to The Archive. Besides the history and knowledge store of their race, The Archival also included all com records, all electronic mail and message records, all the data from all security cameras—basically all data recorded in any manner.
An enormous government controlled division maintained and enforced ninety-seven levels of security to The Archive as well as the World Net which grew with Amular’s expansion into their solar system.
“Archive Terminals” were established for more secure data entry. These were located in every major city. All the Archive Terminal buildings looked the same: a large hemisphere of tinted glass surrounded with trees, statues and fountains. Inside were three round structures of tinted glass set in a triangle on polished marble floors. Ringing the sides of the round structures were cubicles providing privacy. The cubicles contained all types of input devices: keyboards, scanners, audio gear, and twenty or so slots for all manner of data disks, chips, sticks and dips.
Woodworth had just finished the data stick transfers of his work as the official historian of the first alien contact when his PDA vibrated. He pulled it from his pocket and looked at the screen. On it was simply a pulsating icon of a red raven and it caused his mind to go completely blank with shock. He had never before seen, nor expected to ever see, a Red Raven level alert. To his knowledge this was an alert reserved for such things as an impending extinction level event or something just as serious. With a numbing sense of disbelief, he touched the icon and it vanished. For several seconds he stared blankly at the empty screen, then, almost in a panic, he shoved the data sticks back into his briefcase with shaking hands, checked himself out of the Archival entry cube and raced outside.
It was hot. He stood in the shade wondering what this could be about – almost certainly something related to the early return of the Loud ships—but what would cause an alert of this magnitude? After a few minutes he heard the helicopter approaching. It set down on the lawn and he ran to it and boarded as dozens of people stopped and watched.
Twenty minutes later he was coasting down the runway in a supersonic jet fighter which had been waiting for him at the airport. It was just him and the pilot. Woodworth had never ridden in a jet fighter before. He was still dazed as the after burners kicked in with a deafening roar, pushing Woodworth back in his seat, and the jet shot off the runway headed for Mach 3.
---
Harrington was in the middle of her yearly four-week vacation. Rock climbing was a hobby she had picked up two years ago from her last boyfriend, and while she had let the boyfriend slip away, the hobby had had more staying power.
She was about halfway up the face of what was aptly called the Dead Drop Wall when her pager vibrated.
It was a hot and dusty day, and she was covered with sweat and crusted dirt.
<
br /> It took her several minutes to get into a position where she could stop and look at her PDA.
On hearing that the Loud ships had unexpectedly returned, she’d checked in and almost packed it in and headed back. Stubbornly she’d stayed to do the climb.
Now hanging on the sheer wall, she was stunned by the top level alert. After acknowledging the alert, she reported in, advising the control center of the awkward position she had been caught in. She was told not to worry and to keep climbing, so she did. About fifteen minutes later, she heard a chopper and looked up to see a hoist being lowered.
---
Adamarus had stuck his head out of the listening chamber just long enough to give Leewood enough information to justify the Red Raven Alert and get him to initiate it through President Wicker. Then Adamarus had ducked back inside the soundproof room attempting to get more details from the Loud. That had been ten minutes ago. Leewood had learned just enough to make his insides twist and his head spin.
Now he paced back and forth outside the soundproof door and the two guards that manned it. Of course the guards had also heard what Adamarus had said. Leewood had reminded them that what they had heard was top secret and that they needed to forget it. Nevertheless, their faces were pale, their eyes a little too wide—it was obvious that they could not forget, as much as they might want to.
Leewood stopped pacing and checked his PDA – Harrington and Woodworth would both be landing within the next ten minutes, and President Wicker would be standing by for a teleconference meeting in fifteen minutes. Leewood hoped Adamarus would be available by then.
He put his PDA away and walked to the side windows and looked out. He noticed that the sun was setting, but the spectacular sunset was lost on him.
---
Adamarus knew that he was in a state of shock as he watched Bugs struggle out of the chamber. There must be a million things he should ask, but his mind had turned to clay. On top of that, Bugs was so distraught that he doubted the alien could tell him much more right now anyway.
He tried to imagine how he would feel under the same circumstances and then realized that he just might get the opportunity to find out.
“Probability…fold in your favor!” Adamarus said.
Bugs turned and rose up, “Probability will never fold in my favor again, my friend,” and it made its way out of the dome.
Torpidly Adamarus made his way to the soundproof door, opened it and stepped into the corridor. His heart was pounding and all he could do was stare ahead blankly. Someone said something to him but it did not register. His arm was grabbed – it was Leewood. “Are you all right?” Leewood asked again.
Adamarus pulled himself together. “Yes. Sorry.” Leewood started walking down the corridor, pulling Adamarus along.
When they were out of voice range from the guards, Leewood continued, “We’ll meet in the situation room. Woodworth is almost here; Harrington is in route from the airport and President Wicker is standing by to be teleconferenced in.” Adamarus nodded. Leewood went on, “For now I’ve decided that we contain this information to just the five of us.”
They had reached the moving walkway to the ground level and started trotting down it. “Good,” was all Adamarus said. He wiped his forehead. Despite the air conditioning he had broken out in a sweat. His mind was racing, “We’ll need to tie in the orbital tachyon scope.” He wiped his forehead again, “And we need to have an operator up there with enough security clearance.”
The orbital tachyon scope had just come online. The Loud had used tachyons to view the universe for thousands of years. Tachyons traveled faster than light and therefore showed events involving large amounts of matter/energy much sooner than waiting for light to reveal the event which, depending on the distance, might take thousands of years or more. Tachyons traversed the distance almost instantaneously. Leewood started to ask why they would need the scope, but then changed his mind. “Jake Banner is in charge up there. He’ll have to do. I’ve known him for a few years and I’m sure I can get his clearance bumped up. Really no choice, he’s about the only person trained on the thing.”
Leewood took out his communicator and started making the arrangements as they pushed through the doors.
Outside, the sun had set and the day had started cooling down.
They quickly crossed the street to the entrance to the command center that had been built over the last fourteen months. As they pushed through the doors, Leewood put away his PDA and turned to Adamarus. “What else did you find out?”
Adamarus looked over at him, and the look on Adamarus face scared the hell out of Leewood. Adamarus looked forward again as they entered the elevator that would take them down 200 feet. “Patrick,” he said breathlessly, “believe it or not, it gets much worse.”
---
Woodworth was already there, and both Jake Banner at the orbital tachyon station as well as President Wicker who was at the capitol were already online and visible on two of the large screens. Technicians were still setting up a direct feed to the orbital scope at the President’s end.
The door opened and Harrington entered. She had not had time to clean up or change and was still in her climbing outfit covered with dirt. With no apologies, she nodded to the others in the room and took a seat.
President Wicker was looking off screen. He nodded and looked back, announcing that he now had a direct feed from the orbiting scope.
Leewood got things started, “Mr. President, with me are Captain Maximus, Dr. Harrington and Professor Woodworth.” The President nodded to each. Leewood continued, “Also joining us from orbit is Dr. Jake Banner who is in charge of the new orbital tachyon scope – out of necessity, I have increased his security clearance for this meeting.” Leewood paused a beat, then continued, “As you know, about eighteen months ago, two of the three Loud ships departed for their home planet to ratify the agreement and load goods for the first exchange. They were not expected to return for about300 years, but as you know, six days ago both ships returned and they returned with a third ship. As you also know, whatever brought the Loud back was serious enough to cause every Loud manning an avatar to stop what they were doing so quickly that their avatars simply fell to the ground. Furthermore, after all four Loud ships had grouped together in orbit, for five days the aliens have refused or been unable to answer our attempts at communication. Then, suddenly today, at Bugs’ request, a face-to-face meeting in the listening chamber was held with Captain Maximus– for whatever reason, Bugs did not use his avatar.” Leewood looked around at the faces before him. “That meeting has just concluded. And we have answers.” Leewood nodded to Adamarus, then took his seat.
For several seconds, Adamarus remained seated, looking down. Then he seemed to gather himself and rose from his chair. “Mr. President,” he nodded at President Wicker and then to the others present. At first Adamarus faltered not knowing where to start, but then he took a deep breath and spoke. “I will just try to repeat word for word what Bugs said. Bugs was very distressed…in fact, he seemed to be barely functioning. He said…Adamarus, I have terrible news. Our home system has been attacked by an alien race. It has been completely destroyed.” Gasps of disbelief came from everyone. Adamarus continued, “He told me that, except for the Loud aboard the four ships in this system, his race has been rendered extinct. None survived the attack.”
Everyone was dumbfounded. Harrington uttered, “Oh, my God!” The President’s face went white and his mouth dropped open. Leewood, already aware of this, just stared down at the table. Woodworth, perhaps aided by an historical perspective, simply looked at Adamarus with dread – he was the only one to guess what the rest of the “bad” news might be.
The President looked up and said, “This is unbelievable. Did the Loud…did Bugs say whether they knew who this alien race was?”
Adamarus ran his fingers through his hair. “My impression was, yes, they knew who attacked them.”
The President shook his head, “And he…it…Bugs wa
s certain that there were no survivors?”
“Yes, Bugs was quite sure of this.”
“But how…” the President started but his words trailed off, “My God… my God.” The President rubbed his temples as he tried to come to grips with unbelievable news. Finally he said, “Well, of course the Loud are welcome to remain here with us and…we’ll try to…”
Adamarus cut him off, “I’m afraid there’s more, sir.” Everyone looked at him except for Woodworth who had guessed. His frown deepened and he just closed his eyes waiting for what he feared. Adamarus went on, “I’m afraid that remaining here may not do them much good.” Adamarus cleared his throat, “Bugs went on to say that we should train the tachyon scope on the Loud’s star system and…,” Adamarus let his sentence trail off. He looked over at the screen with Dr. Banner’s image on it, “Could you…?”
Banner, gripped by the tragedy, was caught off guard but recovered quickly, “Right away, sir,” and he went to work. After a few seconds he said, “While the tachyon scope is being aligned, I’m switching over to show you what our optical scope sees.” At this Banner vanished and stars appeared on the screen. A red circle appeared around one of the dimmer stars and Banner’s voice continued, “This is the Loud’s star. We are now seeing it as a regular telescope would see it. We are seeing it as it was 112 years ago as that is how long it takes for its light to reach us.” There was a pause, then, “Ok, I’m now switching over to the tachyon scanner which will reveal things as they are right now.”
The image on the screen changed. Everything was a little blurred and tinted green. Now the Loud’s star dominated the screen in size and brightness. There seemed to be a small ring around the grossly swollen star which appeared to radiate outwards. There were a few gasps from the assembly as they all stared at the image in disbelief. The President asked, “It looks quite different. Can you explain what I’m looking at?”
Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers Page 17