Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers

by Rusty Williamson

  Adamarus had been told that the ship they had intercepted had left well before the alien had reached the Loud’s world. Had they thought it through, they would have realized that no direct lines of communication existed—that meaningful information had no way to get through. But no one had and the disappointment was obvious.

  When no one said anything, Bugs continued, “We do know, however, that our world planned to break communication silence should the alien ship turn out to be hostile. Therefore we can assume that some information is en route and should arrive in about 100 years.” This revelation restored some of the dark mood. Bugs continued, “Shortly after we encountered our ship and, coinciding with the estimated arrival of the alien, tachyon scans showed enormous amounts of energy being released within our system. The only explanation for this seemed to be a massive and powerful attack by the alien ship. Three weeks after the attack, tachyon scans showed our sun exploding.” Bugs’ avatar seemed to stagger slightly, but it was subtle.

  Alarmed, Leewood said, “Are you okay, Bugs? Do you need a break?”

  “No…I am not alright. None of us are. This is the reason we did not anticipate your need for additional information and your need to ask questions. In retrospect, given the things we have told you, it is obvious and I apologize for this oversight. No, I do not need a break. I have been medicated so that I can function well enough to answer your questions.”

  “All right,” Leewood said. “We greatly appreciate your efforts. Can you tell us everything you learned from the ship you encountered?”

  “Yes. My world detected a gigantic black hole with an event horizon measuring ninety million miles in diameter approaching at just below the speed of light. It was maintaining a precise deceleration curve, indicating that it was not a natural object. This told us that it was a ship that was capable of controlling and using a black hole and that the ship’s destination was our home planet.”

  “I see.” Leewood consulted his notes again.

  Adamarus noticed that Leewood’s hands were shaking a little. It was obvious that, like everyone else, he was feeling overwhelmed by disappointment, frustration and the raw fear of the unthinkable object coming at them.

  Finally Leewood looked up, and doing his best to keep his voice level, he asked, “So, between the time the alien was first detected and the time the ship left to come here, your world learned nothing else about the alien?” Leewood shook his head in frustration and held out his hand, beseeching the avatar, “So, you do not know…” Leewood touched his first finger, “who the aliens are,” he touched the second finger, “where they came from or,” he touched his third finger “why they attacked you?”

  “No,” the Loud replied. Leewood and Adamarus exchanged looks. Adamarus subtly shrugged, indicating that he must have been wrong about Bugs knowing who the aliens were. Bugs continued without noticing, “They could not know of the ship’s intentions at that point, but were aware that the possibility of hostile intent existed. Also, seeing how advanced the race was, they knew that if the ship were hostile, they would not be able to win a conflict with it. They decided to send one ship out to our location to inform us of the development just in case it did have hostile intents.”

  “Do you know, from the ship they sent, if plans were made to attempt to communicate with the ship?”

  “There was no actual planning done before the ship left. However, it is a certainty that every effort would have been made to communicate with the aliens. I imagine efforts started as soon as the ship was within range – say three light years away – and continued up until the end.”

  “You said that your planet knew that the possibility of hostile intent might exist. Do you know what efforts were made to defend your world against these aliens?”

  “As I said, seeing how they could control a black hole, we knew they were far more advanced than us and that an armed conflict would be hopeless.”

  Leewood stared at Bugs in confusion for half a minute before carefully asking, “Bugs, do you mean to say that your world made no attempt to defend itself once it was attacked?” Leewood could not keep the incredibility out of his voice.

  Bugs replied, “That the alien would win any armed conflict with my planet was a certainty. Therefore, the efforts and cost to prepare a defense would be simply a waste of time and resources.”

  Everyone around the table started talking in low voices. Leewood and the President exchanged meaningful, looks then Leewood knocked on the table with his knuckles to silence the talking. “Bugs, does your world have any…weapons of war? Are your ships in orbit armed in anyway?”

  “No and no.”

  “I see. Okay, do you know if your world, knowing that the possibility of hostile intent existed, might have evacuated some portion of its population, say in a large ark ship?”

  “Yes, the ship we encountered. It was the only other space craft that existed and there was not enough time to build and test another ship.”

  Leewood started to question that statement but then changed his mind. Instead he asked the next question, “Bugs, you said that your tachyon scope showed large amounts of energy being released three weeks before your star exploded. What can you tell us about this energy release: how much, what type, how long this lasted? Anything will be helpful.”

  “Tachyon scans are not too good at showing these things. From what we could tell, there were energy peaks of (≈1046 joules)[21], but that is all we can tell. The type cannot be determined. The energy releases lasted 29.207 hours then stopped. There was a two-hour break followed by a second energy release of the same magnitude for a period of 2.83 hours. This is all we can really be sure of from the scans.”

  Leewood leaned back and consulted his notes for a minute, then asked “Alright, does anyone else have anything?”

  Adamarus leaned forward, “Bugs, what’s the rotation period for your planet?”

  Bugs’ head swiveled towards Adamarus and considered him for a minute. Finally it said, “Very good, Adamarus.” Everyone looked a little confused except Adamarus. Bugs continued, “It is 29.207 hours. Yes, it appears as though the alien ship may have stood off and destroyed our world as it made a single rotation below it. Then, it seems to have fired some kind of weapon at our sun for about two hours, which damaged it enough to cause it to explode three weeks later. After it accomplished this, it simply left.”

  ---

  Before the meeting had adjourned, the President requested they all consider what Bugs had told them – ”sleep on it” – that important follow-up questions would arise by the next morning that would need answers. He apologized to Bugs, explaining that this was the way his species assimilated information. He asked if Bugs could possibly meet with them again the next day at twelve noon, and informed the alien that they would try not to bother it further unless it was absolutely necessary, for as long as the Loud needed to come to terms with the disaster that had befallen their home world. Bugs had reluctantly agreed. Then the avatar simply went inactive, standing there like a statue.

  When they got back to the situation room, refreshments and sandwiches were brought in and a follow-up meeting was held. The President and the two other high ranking men teleconferenced into the meeting also had lunch brought in.

  “I can’t believe that they just did nothing! Did they just stand there and let these aliens wipe them out?” Leewood said.

  “You can’t apply human values to them,” Woodworth said.

  The President shook his head as he stirred his cup of tea, “True, but Leewood’s question is a good one. I mean…what did they do when the ship started firing at them? Did they run? Did they hide? Or did they just stand there and die?”

  Adamarus washed down a bite of ham and cheese sandwich with mineral water and dabbed his mouth. “Well, we won’t be doing that, right?” He got nods from the others. “And I’m hoping the Loud will see things our way and help us – if not directly fighting, then by using some of that thousand years of advanced technology they have to imp
rove our chances!”

  “Absolutely! And that’s what we’ll discuss with the Loud tomorrow,” the President replied.

  Woodworth spoke up, “If I may ask, what, if anything do we have right now as far as weapons of war? The last war we fought was over fifty years ago. Are we pretty much starting completely from scratch?”

  Leewood said, “Almost. We still have the ten battleships that settled our last conflict, though I cannot say what shape they are in.”

  Woodworth replied, “About fifteen years ago I visited Anderson, and while there, I toured the Leviathan class Battleship Victory. It seemed to be well maintained, but whether or not it still worked…” Woodworth trailed off as he looked over to the one man who would know – the President. Then everyone followed suit.

  The President, noticing all eyes on him, gave a helpless smile. “Honestly, I’m not sure, but I will find out and let you know.”

  Adamarus spoke up, “Mr. President, we need to take stock of what we have and then decide how best to use the time we have left to prepare for this alien ship. What about the original facilities that built those ships?” He looked around to see if anyone had the answer, but saw that everyone was looking at Wicker, so he turned back to the President as well.

  President Wicker set down his cup of tea and looked back at them. “I guess I need to explain that there are certain things that I cannot disclose without going through proper channels. Safeties were put in place to protect everyone – it is that system of checks and balances – remember that? Rest assured this will be my top priority, but it may take several days…” the President looked away for a moment then refocused on the camera, “…it might take as long as a week, I guess. This has all happened so quickly. Under the circumstances, I think I can tell you that we have things…that will help. We won’t be starting with only ten fifty-year-old relics but,” he held up his hands in an apologetic manner, “more than that I am not at liberty to say just yet. However, even if it were just those ten battleships, one big problem we face is trained and experienced people. No crew has manned a battleship and very few have flown a fighter craft in forty years.”

  ---

  The next day, at the second meeting with the Loud, “We need to understand this a little better, Bugs, and we’re hoping you can help us.” Leewood said. The same group as yesterday was gathered and to everyone’s relief, Bugs seemed less stressed…less robotic. Also, before Bugs had joined the group, Harrington had initiated a strategy at the start of the meeting – she had refused to sit down. When asked why, she told them that yesterday it had been uncomfortable with everyone sitting while Bugs had remained standing. At once everyone had agreed, so they were all standing, some holding the backs of their chairs, some standing at parade rest and others, like Leewood, pacing back and forth. The meeting had only just started, but it was obvious by the way Bugs’ head swiveled from one of them to another that he had noticed something.

  It was the third day since they had found out that a civilization that was a thousand years more advanced had been wiped out…in a single day! Found out that the thing that had done this was an unbelievably huge black hole that was now coming straight for them and coming at almost the speed of light. Every person there looked ten years older…as if the Loud’s anti-aging treatment had stopped working.

  To one degree or another, everyone assembled there was in a state of disbelief and shock. And everyone there was utterly exhausted for no one was sleeping much. Some of them had broken out in welts or hives. Irritability, tempers, headaches, bloodshot eyes, stomach-aches and chest pains were all signs that the stress was taking a heavy toll. In these circumstances, humans always sought a release of some kind, so when they found themselves all standing instead of sitting, and Bugs’ looking from person to person and then chair to chair, all of them had trouble keeping a straight face, despite the dire circumstances.

  “Of course, I will do all I can to help you.” Bugs replied. Its head swiveled from one person to another again, and then it looked lower and went from one chair to another again.

  “Excellent,” Leewood said. “Right now the alien ship looks to us like an enormous black hole – its diameter is ninety million miles. Do you know, from the ship that left your system, if the object we are seeing is similar to what your planet saw?”

  “Yes, it is the same.”

  Leewood stopped pacing and turned to the Loud, placing his hands on his hips. “While we know this object is moving in ways that a natural object – indeed a natural black hole – could not…we cannot imagine how this black hole can be an alien ship. Your race is more advanced than ours, and so we are hoping that you understand how this black hole could possibly be a ship. Can you help us understand this?”

  Bugs stepped forward and grabbed the back of his chair with both hands imitating how some of the humans were standing. “Sometimes I wonder which of our races understands ‘certain’ things better.” He pulled his chair out, stepped around and turned as if he were going to sit, but then remained standing and crossed his arms in a very human-like manner. “But I believe one thing is true,” one arm raised up and rubbed what would be the closest thing to a chin the robot had, then he sat down in the chair, scooted it up to the table and then placed his arms upon the table. Being only five feet high, the chair was definitely too low for him. “Your race appears to be a lot sneakier than ours.” He opened his arms indicating that the rest should also sit. Everyone laughed as they sat down, a release they disparately needed. Now they looked down at Bugs and it had to look up at them. “But your antics to gain slight psychological advantages…” his neck began to extend out from his chest, raising his head until he was again looking down at everyone else, “…is at times too obvious.” Bugs then said, “Are we all more comfortable now?”

  Leewood smiled widely, “We are all glad that you seem to feel better today.”

  Bugs said, “Improving moods, even in dire circumstances, seems to be a gift your species has and, I must admit, one that we could use more of. There is no doubt that this improves functionality and it is during dire circumstances that this is needed most.” The avatar looked around and then shocked everyone by drumming the “fingers” of one manipulator. “But returning to the business at hand, actually the ship that returned with us, during its voyage here, gave a lot of thought to the Blackship and how such a thing could work.”

  Leewood interrupted, “Blackship?”

  “This is what we call this type of ship because it is powered by a black hole. As you know, our ships are powered by engines that use gravity waves. This knowledge was one of the first useful things that our translators extracted from the super speck vibrations. The basic principles are the same but on a much larger scale. In addition, methods, technologies, and exotic materials for manipulating a singularity which are unknown to us are being used.”

  Leewood nodded. “But where is the ship? Is it inside the Event Horizon?”

  “This is not my specialty, but I had a briefing on this so I will try to answer your questions, and if I can’t, I can probably find out. Yes, to the best of our knowledge, the ship resides within the event horizon.”

  “How can it survive there?”

  “Gravitational forces, no matter how strong, can be bent, reflected and reversed so that a ZOB or zone of balance is created. Upon this structure, a BOS or bubble of stability can be created. The ship may sit above the singularity controlling it with some sort of zero mass structures.” Everyone was lost and it showed. Bugs seemed to sense this. “Some of these techniques are known to us and, on smaller scales, have been created in our labs. Although I know and can quote some of the basic principles and techniques, as I said, this is not my specialty and I do not really know the underlying science.”

  Leewood had lost track of his line of questioning and had to consult his PDA. “Let’s see…from our studies and our theories of black holes, nothing can escape once it is inside the event horizon. Does the ship simply stay there…was the attack whi
ch you said you detected on your tachyon scope somehow made by forces or devices which are outside the event horizon?”

  “This is another problem we have been studying,” Bugs replied. “As I understand it, they may be using a mathematical anomaly. It has to do with singularities which…”

  President Wicker interrupted in an uncharacteristically meek voice, “I must ask a stupid question…”

  Leewood, attempting to save face for Wicker, evoked the old adage, “There are no stupid questions, sir.”

  The President gave him a grateful look, “Yes, well then, what exactly is a singularity?”

  Leewood turned to give his full attention to President Wicker, “I will try to explain, Mr. President. Picture an immense star – a red super giant a thousand times larger than our sun. It has enormous volume (i.e. its size or the space it takes up) and it also has enormous mass (how much matter it contains). While the nuclear reactions at its core are strong enough, it holds off all the gravity created by the star’s mass and the star’s huge size is supported. Do you have that picture?”

  “Yes, go on.”

  “Now imagine that the nuclear reaction runs out of fuel and stops. Suddenly the immense gravity causes the star to collapse inward and the massive star gets smaller and smaller. As this happens, its gravity grows stronger and stronger because it is all contained in a smaller and smaller volume. This in turn causes the star to fall in on itself with more and more force, faster and faster. Now, for simplicity, I’m going to skip some of the details okay?” The President nodded.

  “The giant star’s matter is getting packed together tighter and tighter (i.e. the star’s density is increasing). Soon it becomes packed so tight that atoms are crushed together, and then the subatomic particles are crushed together. All this time, the star’s gravity increases as it gets smaller and smaller until its volume becomes microscopic and finally zero – there is no volume. At this point, its gravitational force reaches infinity. This is called ‘the singularity.’” Leewood paused to let this sink in then continued. “At this point, even light gets trapped by the gravity. Light tries to radiate away from the singularity, but at some distance away from the singularity, the light is pulled back. The distance depends on how much mass the singularity contains. So the point at which light is pulled back is called an ‘event horizon’ because no ‘event,’ that is, no information, not even light, can escape beyond this point. All is trapped within, and anything entering the event horizon is trapped as well.”