Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers

by Rusty Williamson

  A huge hole that cut completely through the rock came into view – obviously this was where the colossal battleships where assembled. The shuttle smoothly turned and went into the cavity. Bathed in stark bluish white lights, so bright it almost hurt the eyes, dozens of gigantic cranes, extendable work platforms and view ported control stations passed by.

  Finally they flew out the other side. In front of them several miles away was the next rock with its brightly lit construction area.

  The shuttle brought itself to a stop. It then rotated on its axis to the right, seemingly facing nothing. The group was wondering what was going on when Adamarus spotted something. “Look, can you see that?” he asked them, pointing out the view port. Several miles away, dark shapes could be seen blocking out the solar wind. Once again, almost on cue, the lights came on.

  The group went speechless. Some of them actually had tears in their eyes. Certainly pride swelled inside each one’s chest. No one could have talked without choking.

  Thirty brand new Leviathan Class Battleships faced them arranged in three columns running left to right. It was utterly awe inspiring. The power conveyed was overwhelming. With the ten birthed just off the Anderson Shipyard, it made a total of forty of the giant war ships.

  The shuttle surged forward and approached the ships. Their size was unbelievable – they dwarfed the largest currently commissioned ship which was the Carrier Class, like The Bet’ti that Adamarus had commanded. The Carrier Class was 1,337 feet in length—the Leviathan Class Battleships were 7,470 feet in length – 1.41 miles—almost six times longer.

  The shuttle slowly circled one of the colossal ships in the center of the formation. The ship’s powerful lines, battle armor and communication arrays were huge. The shuttle could have flown down the barrel of any one of the ship’s eight double ion cannons.

  Adamarus couldn’t remember the number of missile tubes the battleship had and tried to count them as they flew by the middle section. He only got to forty before the middle section slid by. He figured a hundred to a side and was right.

  After circling the ship, the shuttle went in close to the front and turned to face the ship. It drifted up the bow. Each armor plate was at least ten times the size of the shuttle.

  Finally, the shuttle lined up with the three large bridge view ports. Inside they could see the large multi-leveled bridge with its force field and inertia buffering arches towering over the numerous command stations. Adamarus easily found the elevated captain’s chair.

  No one he knew had ever commanded one of these battleships and he wondered what it would be like. Long ago he had had the standard tour of one of the ten at Anderson. The ships that had won the last war had been over forty years old, and at the time, despite the awe he had felt at their size and fire power, he had thought of them as old war relics.

  There had been advancements in almost every area from computers to the artificial gravity systems – the only possible exception being the weapons systems. With no war, research in those areas had stopped. He wondered what it would take to get them up to date.

  The shuttle slowly backed up allowing the rest of the armada to slowly come into view again. Now, about where it had started from, the shuttle came once again to a halt.

  Finally Leewood found his voice, “Holy mother.”

  Adamarus had a somewhat silly grin on his face. He said slowly, “Things are definitely looking up!”

  Harrington said, “Let Bugs tell us we don’t have a chance now!”

  Leewood jumped on that, “Yeah, really!”

  Adamarus felt very confident looking at the armada, but when he remembered that the alien ship was controlling and using a black hole as its power source, doubts formed sending cracks through that confidence. He decided against voicing this now—let everyone have this moment. They certainly needed it.

  Woodworth wiped his watery eyes and still looking at the ships, called forth a few historical facts, “As I recall, each Juggernaut took a minimum crew of about 1500 trained officers and enlisted, and that’s not counting the pilots and support crews for the 112 L-Class fighters each carried.” Woodworth felt everyone looking at him and tore his eyes from the beautiful sight before them. “We have a lot of recruiting and training to do.”

  Leewood looked back at the ships – the empty ships. “We have forty ships and about 200 years,” he muttered.

  Adamarus looked at him, “We need to get started.”

  Leewood nodded solemnly, “Right!” then turned and walked from the hatch to the cockpit and activated an intercom beside it. “Pilot, take us back, best speed.”

  ---

  In their mid-nineties, Brandon Eden and his wife, Evelyn Angela Eden, had lived in a quaint secluded cottage perched on the edge of an eighty-foot cliff overlooking the windswept ocean off of Sunset Point. As the waves broke on the rocks below, they spent their time primarily just enjoying each other in the sunset of their lives.

  Fondly remembered was Evelyn’s father, Donald Ryan Rafferty, who had designed the Leviathan Class Battleships and managed the construction of the secret Hideaway Shipyards as well as the battleships at the beginning of the war.

  After her mother had died, Evelyn was taken by her father to live with him at the shipyards. At that time there was nowhere in the solar system that was safer. She had been twelve then. As she grew up, she trained under him as he perfected both the shipyards and the Leviathan’s design.

  In her early twenties, she had met a young engineer working under her father named Brandon. They’d fallen in love and married. When her father passed on, she and her husband took over the shipyards and finished the last of the first ten Leviathans.

  For all the design effort, the years of work and the billions of dollars, the ten great battleships had seen only two brief engagements. Only one of their ships had fired its weapons at an enemy. But they had accomplished their objective and any number less than ten might not have.

  The war had been at its height, both sides seemingly more or less matched, both sides posed to strike at the heart of their enemy. A fleet of seven enemy battleships and assorted support vessels had been en route to attack defense installations on Amular’s larger moon – a precursor to attacking Amular itself. They were intercepted by all ten of the new never before seen Leviathan battleships. The sight of the new ships must have shocked the enemy fleet, but none the less, they had launched 800 missiles at the new ships. The advanced counter measures of the new ships had shot down all of the missiles. Then the lead Leviathan Battleship had fired two shots from its enormous forward ion cannons – a weapon that was also completely new and unknown. It tore through the battle armor of the two lead enemy battleships like a hot knife through butter, the powerful beams exiting the rear and nearly hitting several other ships. As the two enemy ships disintegrated in secondary explosions, the same lead ship then fired ten salvos of its new Mach-22 nuclear tipped missiles from its 200 silos at the remaining enemy fleet – all in under a minute – then demanded immediate and unconditional surrender.

  The enemy watched the expanding plumes of their two lead battleships and tracked the 2,000 nuclear missiles arc outward at Mach 22, then turn in towards their ships. The number of missiles was clearly overwhelming and certain doom. They contemplated the fact that all this had come from only one of the ten Battleships. They surrendered immediately. They had been transmitting this battle back to the enemy capital located on the largest moon of the 2nd gas giant, so when the new Amular fleet approached with all of its 1200 L-Class fighters deployed like angry hornets around it, the capital of rebelling mining settlements that called themselves the USIMD, or United Settlements of the Independent Mining Consortium, transmitted their unconditional surrender after a brief coup and the assignation of their military leader. Thus, the hopes and dreams of the new rebelling government faded into the chapters of history.

  But the war had been devastating in both the loss of life and property, surpassing all the previous wars before it combined. Th
en President Bonnet decided that Amular would never be caught off guard and subjected to such a horrible war again. So at the request of President Bonnet, both Brandon and his wife had stayed on at the secret shipyards after the war and constructed thirty more ships over the next twenty years.

  The Edens had never had time for children—at the time they had kind of felt that they had had thirty of them. If they tried, they could remember the day they and all the workers had left, closing the great shipyards – remember the last lights going out shrouding everything in total darkness. Evelyn had cried. But those days as well as the shipyards and the thirty great ships that still floated out there in the deep dark coldness of space never came to mind anymore – it was ancient history and they just never thought of it.

  And then the Loud had come, and with them, the wonderful incredible miracle: restored youth and a second chance at life. Unending life! Now they were both in their late twenties again. Brandon was his old tall, lanky, handsome clean-cut self. And Evelyn…the incredibly beautiful woman that had turned every head was turning them again. She had a round face with rich full lips, the most perfect little nose, stunning brown eyes and a high forehead. She was of medium height and had a perfect figure. They were both enrolled in the prestigious Brentwood University taking classes trying to catch up in the engineering fields they had once been on the cutting edge of.

  Then came the day when Brandon and Evelyn were both called out of their classrooms. Serious men in gray suits requested that they please come with them – that it was ”very important.” For a brief moment neither had the faintest idea what was going on. Then, suddenly, they looked at each other knowing what it had to be.

  In a mild state of shock they had been taken to the airport where they were put on a jet plane and flown to the capital. There, they were taken to an unmarked building and left alone in an expensive looking conference room.

  Twenty minutes later, they were completely shocked when President Wicker, the Secretary of Defense, and several other aids walked in. President Wicker had first sincerely apologized to them—both for interrupting their classes and also for all the mystery. He told them it was of the utmost importance and asked them to be patient; they were needed, and soon he would be able to tell them why. But of course they knew it had to be related to the shipyards and the thirty ships. And that was very exciting!

  They had no idea if the Hideaway Shipyards that they had left all those years ago had been left alone all this time or reactivated, or really, if any of it was still there.

  But all of this had to mean something else too—that there was danger, that all was not as it seemed, and that was very worrisome. They wondered if there was trouble developing with the Loud; was someone worried that they might attack us? As terrifying as this was, the thought that their government might be the aggressor, planning a move against the Loud, was far worse.

  Eventually they were taken to a hotel room, courtesy of the government, and asked to remain there until further notice. They didn’t have to wait long.

  ---

  Leewood, Adamarus, Harrington, Woodworth and the recently added Commander Radin had become the small group who had taken charge of “the crisis,” reporting directly to the President. Adamarus had lobbied for Radin, his long time friend and second in command, to come aboard as their primary point of contact with the military. Radin was from the Far North region where the first name was the family name, so he was officially Commander Radin, although his name tag read “Radin Talvin."

  As new elements of the crisis came to light, the team had had the authority to pull in anyone and anything they needed. And, as the usual red tape and bureaucracy got in their way, they cut right through it with the Presidential authority each carried. And if that didn’t do it, they called the President and he dealt with it.

  They had all just returned to the situation room at Hillcrest, and although they had slept a lot on the long flight back from the Hideaway Shipyards, they had come straight from the Presidential Yacht where they had been cooped up for the last twelve weeks. They were travel weary to say the least, but you just didn’t tell the President something like that.

  The situation room’s main screen came to life and President Wicker’s face appeared. He looked as tired as they did. “Ah, good, you’re all there.” He took a deep breath and leaned forward, “I suppose I could have just told you about the Hideaway yards and the ships. But I remember when I was taken out there…the impact when the lights went on…I felt you all needed to see it in person. Besides, feeling the reality of Hideaway tends to provide a morale boost I felt you all could use.” They couldn’t argue with that.

  Wicker leaned back gathering his thoughts. “As I’ve said, I’m going to depend on the five of you to figure out what needs to be done and make it happen. You are in charge of this effort and rarely will I butt in and tell you how to do your jobs. However, I have just hit you with a lot that you did not know about, plus I’ve taken the initiative in kicking off some related activities, so I’m going to go over these and what I think we need to do right away.” He waited for everyone to indicate agreement. “If you know of something that needs to be done…before the items on my list, just jump in and tell me. If you think there is a better way to do it, tell me.”

  “I have put a few of my aids on contacting all the people still around who worked at Hideaway twenty years ago. Luckily, the two people — husband and wife by the way – who managed the Hideaway yards as well as the Battleship’s design and construction are still with us and have been…collected. I have both of them on ice in a hotel room here at the capital. I met with both of them briefly, but I didn’t have time to tell them anything so…they know nothing, though I suspect that they’ve reasoned it involves Hideaway.”

  Wicker consulted his notes then continued. “I was thinking Leewood and Harrington could collect them and take them right out to Hideaway. I do not see any communication problems with the Loud and so Harrington really isn’t needed here, but given the outdated state of the Battleship computers, she would do more good out there. Make sure they have everything they need – I want the switch turned ‘on’ out there and those facilities in operation again as soon as possible. Between the four of you that should be doable. You can get them up to speed on what it is we’re facing on the way out there. I’m sending their location as well as their bios to your PDAs now.” Both nodded and took out their PDAs to check on the data transfer.

  The President moved on to the next item, “Now, we cannot hide this from the public for long, let alone the next 200 years – we need to tell them. In fact, we need the public to help us prepare. But we have time to figure out the best way to break it to them and lots of time to piecemeal it out. Jan Parker, our public relations expert, is already assembling a team to work on this and she specifically asked for Woodworth’s help. Basically, she’s hoping you can look back at the wars of our past and look at the different ways events and news stories led up to the war. The idea is to see what worked well and what didn’t as far as public support for the conflict.” The President waved a hand, “I guess many elements could be involved.”

  Woodworth was hanging on the President’s every word. This was one assignment that would use his expertise to the fullest.

  Wicker continued, “And this goes beyond just general public opinion, Woodworth. There are many elements involved here. We need far more than just public support. Morale needs to be high, the public needs to be highly motivated, even enthusiastic. We need volunteers to build up our Navy, but we also need their wives or girlfriends, their friends and their parents supporting them, patting them on the back, giving them high fives! We need the workers in the factories taking pride in their work and putting in overtime, not for time-and-a-half, but in support of the cause. We need every person in this solar system believing that we can knock this God Damn alien ship back to wherever it came from. And more than that, we need them wanting to do something to help. Therefore, we need to do everything we can to
build that positive energy, and looking at the historical perspective – what’s worked before – is a very important part of that!” The President was so worked up that he was literally bouncing up and down and swinging at the camera. Everyone was looking at him a little bug-eyed, some trying to hide smiles at the energy he was putting out.

  “Yes, sir!” Woodworth shot back and saluted, bringing a couple of chuckles.

  Then, in the blink of an eye, Wicker’s bouncing energy vanished and was replaced by a serious expression and deliberate manner – he’d used this entertaining ploy during his campaign. “Radin, I need you to get out to Anderson and collect the ten Leviathans we have there and get them to Hideaway. These ships are out of date and they will all need reconditioning and upgrades. You’ll need to organize skeleton crews – we actually have over 300 officers and enlisted men qualified, whatever that means, on the Leviathan Class Battleships. I’m sure their training is minimal – Lord knows whoever thought we’d ever need those old war horses again. All of these people are being contacted now and ordered to report to Anderson A.S.A.P. General Burnwall is the top dog out there. He’s expecting you and will help you get organized.”

  The President’s attention shifted off screen and he nodded to someone, checked his watch and turned his attention back to the camera. “Never a moment’s…anyway…” he looked back at Radin and continued, “Joe’s a good man, you’ll like him. If you need anything, let him know.” Radin nodded, his mind already turning to the task.

  The President turned finally to Adamarus and leaned forward, “Adamarus, I think you should continue to work with the Loud. They’ve promised to help with our defenses – mainly in the area of new weapons. We need these in time to test and manufacture them, get them installed on whatever platform and train the personnel to use them.”

  Harrington looked over at Adamarus, a small smile on her face, “How long since you’ve seen your family, Adamarus?” Adamarus just smiled back.