Encounters (The Spiral Slayers Book 1)

by Rusty Williamson

  “Thank you.” Bugs said. “I am honored to be here and humbled by your warm reception.” The avatar paused and squared himself behind the podium. “It is said, or I guess” it looked down as if he were reading from something on the podium, “estimated by some, that our species is about a thousand years ahead of you in science and technology, and yet,” it looked back at the audience, “we find your species… you,” Bugs lifted both arms to indicate the audience, “to be… so very, very special, so very unique, in so many different ways. For instance, the many things you have developed that we have never even dreamed of. I refer specifically to…your music, your art, the theater and…let’s not forget video and radio shows.” This brought laughter—the fact that the Loud had for three years watched and listened to these in order to study the humans of Amular was well known.

  Bugs continued, “The architecture of your cities and also the many forms of mathematics you’ve developed which, to us, seem more like art, but which express the universe around you in so many beautiful ways.” Bugs made a noise like he was clearing his throat, then leaned towards the microphone so his voice would be a little louder yet imply he was saying something in confidence, “All of it wrong, of course,” it inclined it’s head, “but beautiful.” The audience exploded in laughter. Bugs waited for it to die down. He held up his arms, “I’m kidding… I’m kidding. For the most part anyway”—more laughter.

  Bugs leaned back again and stared at the audience making his tone more serious. “And so ambitious. I had the opportunity to review the five-mile-high superconductive rail gun you had planned to build to hurl payloads into orbit. I also had a ringside seat to the operation to collect iron meteors for the resources to build this vast construct. Amazing. Simply amazing. At the evolutionary stage you are at now, we were nowhere near as ambitious and creative. No—in all sincerity, I say that in these areas, it is you who are ahead of us.”

  Adamarus leaned over to Harrington and whispered, “I’m astounded. Bugs is playing this audience like a symphony orchestra!”

  “I know!” she whispered back.

  Bugs continued, “And now that I have built you up…” there was a little laughter, “I’ll get into the ways that we are ahead of you”—more laughter.

  Thirty minutes later, the 200 seat auditorium, overflowing and standing room only, was completely enthralled. They were hanging on every word Bugs uttered.

  Already Bugs had drop-kicked many of the cornerstones of present day scientific belief right out of the stadium. Many scientists and professors were madly taking notes while others just stared with glassy eyes. Some looked very unhappy and a few were actually hyperventilating or sweating profusely. Now Bugs was about to delve into realms that were beyond imagination.

  “So as you progress and begin to take knowledge directly from the fabric of our universe, scientists, like the alchemists and medicine men before them, will eventually be replaced by…well, a new discipline that we now have—but one that you have not yet created or have a name for. We shall continue to call them ‘translators’ as this is the word you have that comes closest in meaning.”

  “Now…as I said, the translators extract data from the vibrations of the universe’s most elementary particle, the super speck. These vibrations contain an enormous amount of data, in fact, all of the information needed for the creation of a universe. And, as I alluded to a moment ago, if a species spreads its seed far enough, or managed in some other way to survive the extinction probability curve for planets, star systems, and galactic extinction extents – that is to say, if the species existed for long enough, say about 500 million years—then they might have time to extract all of the data. They would know everything that could be known and thereby reach the Phi State.”

  “Looking at the I-Life/Extinction Probability Chart, we get .51 species reaching the Phi State per universe. Or, assuming the theory of reoccurring universes, that means one species every other universe will reach the Phi.” Bugs paused a moment to let this latest group of fantastic and mind numbing ideas sink in.

  Then, having turned the finest minds of men into jelly, he proceeded to whip that into a uniform grayish slush. “But…remember,” he said, “knowing is not understanding…and so, there are several states beyond the Phi State.”

  “The final state is when a species has not only extracted every fact there is from the vibrating specks, but has also studied these facts to the point where it understands everything that there is to understand. It would know how every fact interacts with every other fact. It would know…”—Bugs leaned forward to emphasize the next statement—“… how to fully use all of the knowledge that exists.” Bugs paused again to let that sink in. There was total silence. “This species would have spread its seed on an intergalactic level. Of course, it would have survived far longer than any species conforming to the I-Life/Extinction Probability Chart—in fact, reaching this level is something outside what we currently believe to be possible. This species would, at the very least, need to exist for hundreds of millions of years.” Bugs paused again, then, “We call this final state of advancement the Omega State.” Bugs straightened up and let his gaze move across the audience from left to right before continuing. “It is difficult to see how any natural species could ever achieve this state. This concludes my talk.”

  The audience was still in shock so the applause didn’t start right away. First one person started clapping, then another. Within a minute, everyone was standing and applauding. It went on for a full two minutes until Bugs again signaled an end. “With this many people, it would not be feasible to open the floor to questions, however, we know you have them, and I would certainly be glad to answer them. I understand that today’s host, Wayne Brittan, has come up with a plan for this which he will tell you about in just a few minutes.”

  As Bugs made his way off stage, Adamarus and Harrington got up to make their way back stage as well. As they stood, they noticed that Woodworth was headed towards them. They waited for Woodworth, and when he arrived, they shook hands and exchanged pleasantries then headed back stage.

  They entered Bugs’ dressing room without knocking. Adamarus brought Woodworth over to Bugs. “Bugs, may I introduce Professor Floyd Woodworth,” Adamarus said as he indicated the Professor, “Professor, this is Bugs.”

  “Author of ‘Advancement of our Species – A Historical Perspective’?” Bugs asked as he rose from his seat and extended his hand.

  Woodworth interpreted the gesture correctly and stepped forward to “shake” hands, “One work, but endless fame, it seems,” the Professor deadpanned.

  Bugs seemed delighted to meet the professor. “We could only access parts of it on the World Net—it was the first book, or set of books, I should say, that we requested. A masterful work!”

  “Thank you for the kind words.”

  Bugs turned to Adamarus, “Adamarus, it occurs to me that we need a historian!” He looked back at Woodworth, “I can think of no one better!”

  Adamarus jumped in, “An excellent idea! Professor Woodworth, would you consider such a task?”

  Woodworth had been looking back and forth between them. This had caught him totally off guard. “I…I…Well, I’m, of course, honored.” He tried to collect himself and think about the offer. It was an incredible opportunity, and of course he would jump at it, so why was he hesitating? “And yes. Yes. I could not possibly turn down such an opportunity.”

  “Fantastic.” Bugs said. “Fantastic!” It clasped its manipulators together with a thunderous clank that made everyone jump. “Oh, sorry,” it looked at everyone, “we try very hard to express as much human body language as possible with these avatars, but sometimes it doesn’t work as we expect. But I am delighted. This is perfect.”

  Adamarus had a broad grin – so did Harrington for that matter. Adamarus got the professor’s attention, “We’ll discuss the details…say, tomorrow?”

  Woodworth nodded but seemed preoccupied. He turned back to Bugs, “If you don’t
mind me asking, just how do you ‘try to express human body language’? You did not know you would need to do that beforehand and it was instantaneous.”

  Bugs looked at him for a moment then said, “Actually, it was not quite instantaneous. We are very serious about communications. Each avatar has an entire team of Loud assigned to it, one to be the id or self of the avatar, in this case that’s me, and others for different purposes. One monitors everything going on around the avatar and tries to suggest appropriate body language. When you accepted the offer, I was truly delighted and I said, ‘fantastic’ and the hyper-translator translated it almost instantaneously. But from the moment we saw the situation I was in, the database was queried for a like situation. This was found and transmitted to me. In the lower portion of my vision, I saw a human clasping his hands together and I mimicked this action.”

  Everyone was amazed at all the behind-the-scenes effort that had been hidden until now.

  Remembering the Professor’s original reason for being here, Adamarus said, “Actually, the reason Professor Woodworth is here is the star flare. It was his class that decided the question for my son to ask and your response was unexpected. There was something observed which…”

  Bugs held up both manipulators, “I had forgotten.” He spread his arms wide, “I am sorry. We have figured that out.”

  “Well, I’m sure glad!” Woodworth beamed. “A month ago, my students were still beating me over the head for wasting their one question. What did you find?”

  “Nothing,” Bugs answered. Everyone looked at the robot, their smiles frozen in place.

  Finally Woodworth stammered, “But…but…I don’t understand. Didn’t you just say that you had figured it out?”

  “Yes,” Bugs said this time. “First, I knew our sun had not suffered a solar flare…”

  Adamarus had now seen several translation glitches like this in conversations with Bugs. Next time it happened, he would have to question Bugs about it and see if the problem could be corrected. Something about this and the other times seemed similar, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

  Bugs continued, “Second, when Nero asked the question, he stated ‘about eighteen hundred years ago.’ I queried our database and found nothing occurring near our star that would explain this. However, we observe the universe not in visible light or slower wave lengths as you do, but in Tachyons, which travel faster than light. Later I realized my mistake—that you still used visible light and nothing faster—so I subtracted the time light would take to travel here from our star—one hundred and twelve years—in order to determine when it occurred at our star, and still found nothing. Then I remembered Nero had said ‘about,’ so I started searching before and after that time and found it. The light from a super nova that occurred ten thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight years ago passed our system nine hundred and eleven years ago and, therefore, passed here one thousand and twenty-three years ago. The star that exploded was almost perfectly aligned with both our stars so it looked like the light was from our star.”

  Woodworth put his hands on his hips and smiled, “Well, I knew it was going to be something like that.” He turned to Adamarus, “Do you mind if I call Nero and explain this to him?”

  Adamarus said, “No, not at all.”

  ---

  Two months later, it was finally time for the Loud to make the return trip to their system. They promised to return in under 300 years.

  Many farewell celebrations were held. An official trade agreement had been drafted and two of the Loud ships would make the 112 light year journey back to the Loud system where their world was expected to ratify it.

  The third ship would stay behind for another 50 years to help with the migration of people to off-world settlements and with the development of various technologies and resources, including additional food production to account for the population explosion.

  Adamarus’ world had finally settled back to a normal state, or as normal as could be expected now that everyone was around 30 years old and immortal.

  Training and education were the main concerns so people could develop, manufacture, service and operate the new technologies the Loud would leave behind and were still handing out via the remaining ship. There was a critical demand for trained people to fill the new positions, occupations and services for the new forms of transportation, the expansion of new off-world settlements, construction of the orbital habitats, the multi-level moon farms and all the new and/or improved technologies blossoming everywhere.

  Adamarus and his family, plus Radin, Leewood, Harrington and Woodworth were on hand for the departure of the two ships. They gathered in the new observation deck of one of the first orbital habitats to be built to watch the ships depart. It was bare inside; no one had even moved in yet.

  There was also an avatar present which Bugs was operating from its ship. “Well, my friends, we’ll be back before you know it.” It bowed slightly, then said, “May probability fold in your favor!” and the avatar went still.

  They watched as the graviton drives, which no one understood yet, engaged and the two ships shimmered and vanished using the phased acceleration technology that no one understood yet.

  Overhead on a large screen, telescopes tracked the ships which had jumped to relativistic speeds almost instantly. They watched until the ships were just dots of light at the highest magnification.

  Adamarus turned to the assembled group, “Well, what are we waiting for? We have an enormous amount of work to do over the next three hundred years.” The statement, though absolutely true, brought laughter from the assembled crowd. “Let’s get to it!”

  ---

  Eighteen months later…

  The day it happened, Radin had been in a great mood. He had a new girlfriend and it was looking like a serious relationship. So, at the exact moment that it happened, it was her long legs that his mind had been visualizing.

  Her name was Shannon and he had met her at the SS1 Space Station dry docks during his ship’s last overhaul. She was an engine thrust specialist and he liked to tell her that this was in more ways than one. She was a total sweetheart! He hadn’t seen her in 25 days and he couldn’t wait for the planet-side leave they had planned to take together.

  Such were his thoughts as he led the team out of the ship through the coupled airlocks to the rear dome of the new Asper-7 settlement and power station. Behind him were eight technicians and engineers, plus four technician-cast Loud (avatars) and one historian, Woodworth, and Woodworth’s camera team of two. The historic occasion was the activation of their first fusion power station which would produce almost unlimited power and transfer it as needed to all the human worlds and settlements via multi-phased Barca beams.

  What “Barca beams” were only the Loud knew—more Loud magic that no one really understood. Technology based on scientific principles that teams of their scientists slaved day and night to understand but never really did. They were just trying to skip too far ahead—sometimes completely jumping over scientific facts and principals that were the basis of what they were trying to understand—like trying to understand how a train moved without knowing about the engine. They were trying to grasp the hundreds of scientific principals in just years that the Loud had had centuries to digest.

  The new power station and the settlement for the workers that would be needed to maintain the power station were completely empty right now. The complex was located on the seventh moon of the gas giant named Asper—ergo the name Asper-7.

  Leaving the airlock station and entering the open dome, the first thing one’s attention was drawn to was the enormous window on one side of the 500-foot dome. It was hemispheric in shape, starting at the floor it curved up the rounded wall of the dome. Radin didn’t know the specs, but thought that the window must be 100 feet high and 200 feet wide.

  Through the window they could see Asper’s bloated form taking up far too much of the view for comfort. Seen this close, Asper’s pastel cloud bands were startling
ly clear, complex and richly textured. This close you could see shadows created by the upper cloud layers and misty beams of sunlight falling deeply into the multiple cloud layers below. It looked very three-dimensional and quite beautiful.

  Also through the window, in front of the gas giant, hung both space ships, Radin’s ship The Bet’ti, looking like an ant next to the Loud’s Umbrella ship, both ships utterly dwarfed by the gas giant beyond.

  Radin and his team took the shortest route to the control room entrance which was a walkway that arched up and ran parallel to the huge window. Radin was daydreaming about the wonderful curves of his new girlfriend’s long legs as he traversed the walkway.

  It happened when the precession was about a third of the way across the window walkway. From behind, Radin heard the sound of things falling and hitting the walkway, heard Woodworth exclaim, “What the hell!” and someone else—one of Woodworth’s cameramen—say at almost the same moment, “Bloody hell!”

  The vision of Shannon’s wonderful legs vanished and he swung around.

  The humans behind Radin had also turned around.

  Woodworth and his cameramen had seen it happen because they had been behind the Loud.

  The cause of the exclamations was immediately clear. All four Loud, or rather their avatars, had collapsed and were lying motionless in random odd-looking positions on the floor of the walkway.

  Everyone stared motionless for several seconds. No one knew what to do. Radin didn’t know what to do! This had never happened before. He walked back for a closer look. Glancing up, he could see Woodworth and his camera team standing there with their mouths agape, however, they were not looking at the fallen avatars. They were looking out the window. Radin followed their gaze. The Loud ship was no longer there.