Encounters

By Rusty Williamson

“Fascinating...an emotionally compelling, action-packed plot...The first installment of an intense, philosophical sci-fi series.”–Kirkus Reviews

It begins...
On a planet called Amular at the edge of The Great Coma Wall an alien race called the Loud make contact through Captain Maximus changing his life, his species and his world forever.

Perpetual youth... Immortality...
The world shattering impact and political upheaval caused by the alien contact is only exceeded by what happens when the Loud bestow the gifts they bring.

Scientists are replaced by something amazing... Time is redefined...
Then an unexpected discovery: something has been coming across the observable universe since the dawn of time and now it is upon them. As the mind-boggling truth is uncovered, it becomes clear that this new alien force intends to destroy Amular while on its way to a far more devastating objective.

A black hole comes at the speed of light...
Neither the Loud nor the Amular’s inhabitants can hope to stop this force and there is no negotiating, no surrender and nowhere to run or hide.

A science fiction odyssey...
The cycle of universes: big bang, expansion, big freeze, death and then it starts over. Universe after universe, a cycle that has endured for time without end. But something has gone wrong–an increasing number of universes are ending prematurely–the cycle is becoming unstable.

Existence itself is threatened...
An advanced species discovers what is happening and finds a way to send a warning forward through time into future universes. Eventually, in another universe, another advanced species finds the warning. They in turn send a desperate fix into the next universe–our universe.

An exponential step beyond anything before it...
In ships powered by black holes an immortal species as old as time is chased between the galactic super clusters and across the known universe. Forged in the fires of the early universe, their scientific journey completed, they know everything... including the great enigma...the reason why we and the universe exist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rusty Williamson
• Release date: Jan 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9781370613199

Rusty Williamson

Ronald (Rusty) Williamson lives in San Diego CA. Besides writing science fiction, Williamson works with computer animation, video and sound editing. At a layman's level, he has been interested in quantum physics (Superstrings and LQG) and relativity since 1980. His other hobbies are playing guitar and song writing. The author would love to hear from you. You can email him at [e-mail].

Book preview

Prologue

The three alien ships hung in the darkness of deep space looking down on the distant planet. It was just a tiny white crescent at this distance. Most of the time there were only two ships at this location with one stationed closer to the planet, but one had just returned—a shift change.

Arranged in a triangle, the three ships were identical. Seven miles in length, they looked like three umbrellas hanging upside down. What passed for the umbrella’s handle was a half mile in diameter and covered with dark cubes and domes. At the end, the curved umbrella-like awning was four miles in diameter and a quarter mile thick. The inside of its curved surface was a jumbled yet elegant maze of complexity bathed in a soft green glow.

The outside of the awning, which faced the planet, emitted all the radiation it blocked—all the stars, nebulas and distant galaxies that lay behind it. Everything that the ships blocked out from every angle was collected and reproduced. Visually, and in every other way, the ships where invisible should anyone on the planet happen to take a careful look.

They had been in operation for just over three years, covertly listening, watching and studying the intelligent species on the planet below, learning their languages, customs, social structures, politics and their dreams and aspirations. Their primary source for this knowledge was the rich profusion of audio and video transmissions. The planet had not been hard to find, for hundreds of light years in any direction it was the noisiest object in the sky.

They had probed the planet from afar and, using smaller crafts with better stealth, they watched the species close up as they worked in space on the thousands of asteroids they had gathered and set in orbit around their planet.

One of the ships powered up. More lights came on and the green glow intensified. It moved slowly forward until it was well in front of the other two ships. Then, it rippled and vanished. A few minutes later, the ship reappeared much closer to the purple planet.

Sixteen smaller ships deployed from the central shaft. They were smaller copies of the large ship. In a cubed formation, they headed inward, vanishing from sight as they went.

From the transmissions they monitored, they knew that this was a big day for the planet and its inhabitants. They wanted to watch the event and, if possible, do even more.

As the smaller ships flew above the thousands of asteroids, they detected activity ahead.

The aliens knew that their visibility cloaking was not perfect up close, and in fact, preparing for contact, they had been allowing brief glimpses of their ships for several months now.

Now, close to the planet, they circled inward until they were among the innermost ring of asteroids. They detected radio signals, indicating that work was in progress. The formation split apart and started hunting… for what, they could not say, but they’d know it if they saw it.

One of the ships tracked a pair of radio signals to one of the spinning asteroids. This close, the signal was strong.

PART ONE - FIRST ENCOUNTER

In general, it is peaceful and even pleasant as one calmly steps to the edge of the abyss.

Unknown

Chapter One – Sightings

Planet: Amular (near the edge of the Great Wall)

Eleven years earlier…

Fact, one finger was thrust into the air and held there. In less than one hundred years, depleting resources and rising costs will strand us on our planet. A second finger shot up, Fact, the only way our species can outlast the scores of extinct species that came before us is to spread out to the stars. Both arms flew upward, three fingers each, Fact, the only way out there is to build this five-mile-high rail gun. And fact, both hands came down in fists slamming the podium, the raw materials we need, an arm shot up pointing outward at a forty-five degree angle, are at the Astor Trojan points! Both fists thrust upward, We must approve Prop 824, The MUEC Asteroid Mining and Collection Proposal!

Congressman Ronald Raymore

Representative, Southern District

Video Record of the 92nd Amular Congress

Source: The Archive

Present time...

His name was Adamarus Maximus. He was the captain of MUEC Asteroid Mining and Collection Project's flagship, The Bet'ti, and in charge of the ten-year project. At the center seat of the bustling bridge, he thanked the ensign for the cup of coffee and set it in the holder. As he looked upward towards a cluster of status displays, he had absolutely no clue that within the next 24 hours, his life and the lives of everyone on his world and throughout the star system would radically and forever change...no clue that within a day a chain reaction would begin that would alter everything.

Within the next day, Adamarus would die and, as a dead man, he would initiate his planet's first contact with intelligence from another planet. In fact, within the next 24 hours, Captain Maximus would be placed on a road that would first make him the most important person in the star system, and then in the distant future many millions of years from now, the most important person...anywhere.

Currently Adamarus' ship was at yellow alert and the bridge was bathed in flashing red and yellow light. His entire focus was on what would be the conclusion of the massive effort that had collected iron-nickel asteroids from around the star system and placed them in orbit around Amular. Now the process of extracting the metals and transporting them to the surface would begin so they could be used to construct a giant rail gun to transport payloads into orbit.

The Bet'ti was currently in a geostationary orbit hundreds of miles above the planet. Against the blackness of space, her bulky silver and white form was brilliantly lit in shades of orange and yellow from Amular's orange dwarf sun. She was, at her core, a 70-year-old Carrier-Class ship, an old workhorse whose design had withstood the test of time and utility. Like her seven sisters, the old gal was function before form. Her 841 feet were a maze of storage containers of varying shapes and sizes that were all somehow strung together with scaffolding to form a labyrinth of precise geometric alignment around a mostly hidden core.

On her large bridge, crew members rushed about dealing with assorted tasks while others manning various stations focused on their consoles. However, everyone was intensely aware of what was happening on the main viewer.

The 52-year-old Captain seemed to be studying one of the display screens that dropped from the ceiling. Actually, he was mulling over the fact that there were twice as many officers on the bridge as there should be but, deciding they wouldn’t get in the way, he just suppressed a smile—they had all worked hard for this moment. The Captain refocused on stirring his coffee as if commanding the huge ship and today’s event was of secondary concern.

Adamarus had blue eyes and chestnut hair parted on the side just starting to turn gray at the temples. He stood six foot one inch and had kept himself trim and fit. Like the rest of the bridge crew, he was dressed in a crisp khaki uniform with short sleeves and an open neck exposing a white t-shirt. Only the two gold bars on his collar marked him as the ship’s captain.

His reserved nature and the serious set of his features sharply contrasted with the slight twinkle of merriment always in his eyes and a dry sense of humor that made light of almost everything. However, still water runs deep and this outside veneer hid the thick scars of a particular event which had cost many lives. The mental wounds had taken two decades to heal and the pain had to be held within due to the top-secret nature of the event. But finally, the demons and bad dreams had faded—it was ancient history now.

He leaned forward and looked to his right where his first officer, Commander Radin Talvin, sat. At 51, Radin was a jolly, heavyset man, with a deep suntan and a shiny bald head with a strip of brown hair framing his ears. Utterly dependable on duty, but off...the women, drinking and brawling were almost legendary. They had worked together for over a decade now and knew each other well. No words had to be spoken. Radin just nodded back once then fingered his headset; his deep voice boomed out over the bridge’s intercom, Attention all personnel: Ten second countdown is eminent. Radin paused a beat then, And… detonation in… ten, nine, eight…

Almost filling half the main viewer, an asteroid rotated slowly. Strategically scattered across its surface, small flashing lights marked the locations of the Shaped Charge Array Units or SCAUs and indicated that they were armed.

…seven, six, five...

Behind the asteroid lay the bluish purple and orange surface of Amular a mere 400 miles beyond. Amular's orange dwarf sun lay behind the ship optimally lighting the scene.

…four, three, two…

Everyone on the bridge stopped what they were doing and looked at the main viewer.

…one, zero.

Though they could not see it, on the asteroid, each of the eight SCAUs now extended its 20-foot pole to its full height. On top of the poles were large saucers—these were the glober charges. From the saucer's underside, four guidance rockets fired and the saucer detached and flew straight up.

From the main viewer of the Bet’ti’s bridge, it looked like nothing was happening while the glober charges rose to their precise computer generated positions. Then, the SCAUs’ buried liquidation charges fired and the bridge’s main screen went white. Within the white, for just a second, the red liquefied rock could be seen blasting outward. Then the glober saucer charges fired and expanding balls of white could be made out forcing the liquid rock inward. The white faded and everyone on the bridge held their breaths.

On the main viewer, instead of the asteroid, there was now a turbulent churning ‘glob’ of glowing red liquid. Everyone was mesmerized by it. It seemed like it would break apart any second but… it held… one second, two… cheering broke out on the bridge.

With a big grin on his face, Adamarus keyed his throat mic, Now, now… his voice was filled with amusement, quiet on the bridge. The cheering subsided with a few nervous laughs. Zoom out to fifty and justify left, Adamarus ordered.

Zooming out to fifty, left justification, an officer repeated and the churning red glob shrunk to half its size moving to the left side of the viewer. On the right side, the Smelting Station came into view, heading toward the glob.

The Smelting Station was almost as large as the Anderson Shipyards; almost three miles in length. Its scoop measured one point three miles. Behind the scoop was the casting section where the molding and surface preparation took place. This area was marked by the large heat dispensing rings. The final section was the linking distribution area where the tugs picked up the shaped and prepared ore for atmospheric entry. The control center was a large circular structure at the end of a huge crane, which was anchored to the linking distribution section. The crane was long enough to suspend the control center in front of the scoop. On the bottom of the linking distribution section was a large circular structure which housed the officers and crew.

The glob started entering the scoop. The biggest danger now was that parts of the molten metal would escape. This could be very hard to recapture before it hit something or worse, made an uncontrolled fall to the planet.

All seemed to go well until suddenly an alarm went off. At the same time, the bridge crew could see that a large piece of molten ore had separated from the main body and was spinning off to one side of the scoop. It was solidifying quickly.

The Smelting Station maintained a fixed home station for dispensing the long sections of prepared ore to the tugs. When it moved forward to collect the molten glob, it then circled back to its home station while the captured ore was processed. The huge facility was hard to maneuver and veering away from its planned route was not something anyone would want to do.

The plan for this scenario was to have Explorer mining crafts capture lost ore and move them to a safe holding orbit, but this was a lot easier said than done. Lost pieces were almost always spinning, making it hard to lock onto, and they could also break apart, multiplying the problem.

This piece was large and spinning around rapidly. As they watched, it elongated until it looked like a misshapen barbell. It was going to be a bitch to capture.

Scramble four Explorers, Adamarus ordered.

At that moment, the Smelting Station hailed the Bet’ti. It was the station’s captain, Emit Walling, Captain Maximus, I think we can clean up after ourselves this time.

Maximus agreed but said he’d have four recovery craft standing by just in case.

The Smelting Station stayed on course until it had taken in the main body of the glob. It only took 40 seconds but seemed to take forever. As soon as this was done, the Smelting Station rotated until the funnel faced the now hardened piece, then moved forward and collected it. The misshapen barbell connected with the station’s red hot grid, and after a few seconds, the piece re-melted and entered.

Now came the tricky part, getting back on a course that would bring the station back to its home position. However, as the bridge of the Bet’ti watched, the station made a series of graceful turns and arrived right on schedule back at its home position between the lines of waiting front and rear tugs that stretched into the distance.

Adamarus keyed his throat mic, Adamarus to Captain Walling.

Walling here, came the reply.

My compliments, that was nice flying.

I’ll pass that on to our computer, Walling said with a laugh.

The station’s heat dispenser rings were glowing red now. Eight minutes later, the first Load, a three-quarter-mile long string of 20 hardened rectangular segments, slid into one of three racks at the end of the station. Front and rear connecters had been added to each end, a small segment to which the tugs connected. Green lights began to strobe around the left and right connectors.

The first pair of tugs moved in. The front tug was half the size of the rear tug; its wings were folded down. The rear tug had huge wings that were folded down and rotated back. Both connected perfectly with each end.

The tracks which held the Load to the rear of the station opened and pushed off the Load with its tugs, then both tugs extended their wings. The rear tug fired her engines and the newly assembled tugs and ore pulled away and angled downward.

Ten minutes later the assembly entered the planet’s atmosphere, the front tug taking most of the air friction. As the assembly descended, it began to level out and the rear tug fired its eight large forward-pointing engines, slowing the assembly down.

Finally, it crossed from the Western Ocean to the white sands of the Eastern Desert. Descending through 3,000 feet, it was close to the ground now. The forward tug fired its rear engines and separated, pulling forward and up. Several minutes later the rear tug also separated.

The Load was on its own, still hurtling forward faster than it was falling, with its nose slightly raised. Precisely as planned, it hit the first huge sand dune and the sand exploded upward. There were 50 sand dunes of decreasing size spread across two miles and the Load plowed through them all in five seconds. From afar, the first 25 sand dunes seemed to explode upward almost at the same time, but then the second half showed a noticeable slowing as the speed bled off. Giant lifts immediately rose reforming the sand dunes. After hitting the last dune, the Load landed almost perfectly on a flat plain of sand and sped across it. Three huge parachutes emerged from the rear connecter and opened, slowing the Load further, and then it plowed into the final three sand dunes and came to rest.

Four large vehicles raced to the Load’s side and began pushing it off to the side. Three minutes later, it slid onto a concrete surface then right onto a string of flatbeds. Machinery on the flatbeds finely aligned the Load, then clamps rotated up from the far side of the cars, securing it. Then, the train pulled away.

Four hundred miles above the surface, on the bridge of the Bet’ti, someone hollered out, All right! and clapping and whooping broke out.

Adamarus leaned back in his chair and smiled, Yes, indeed. He now needed to take a shuttle over to the Smelting Station and inspect the process there while Radin kept the process going here.

He rose from his seat, straightened his shirt, then keyed his mic, People, the clamor quieted down, that was absolutely perfect. I thank each and every one of you for a job well done. Commander Radin will be taking over now and we’ll baby in the next dozen or so before turning the operation over to the Smelting Station. Radin was already standing at parade rest with a smile on his face. Commander Radin, you have the con.

Radin replied, Aye Captain, and he moved to take Adamarus’ seat.

As Adamarus turned and walked from the bridge, the next asteroid moved into position and the next countdown began.

---

The day had gone exceptionally well. They had turned the harvesting operation over to the Smelting Station, and now it was late evening and everyone was tired. This was the last item on Adamarus’ schedule.

On the display screen, Corporal Greg Donaldson rubbed the bridge of his nose. The motion conveyed all the weariness he felt.

A gruff disembodied voice said, Corporal, you said that what you saw was… the sound of papers being flipped, yes… the word you used was ‘impossible’. Can you explain why? The doctor conducting the debriefing could not be seen and Adamarus did not recognize the voice.

Greg’s hand moved from his nose to the hair above his temple, Well… his eyes looked up and to the right thinking back, distant stars, the ones so distant that they look almost like a cloud or haze, these were blocked by the blackness…

The unseen doctor could be heard flipping back through his notes as he interrupted, Now that’s… you said, ‘a blackness that looked like a hole… blacker than the surrounding space’?

Yes, Greg answered in a tired voice.

Okay so the darkness blocked out the distant stars… go on.

Yes, that’s right, but… the brighter stars… the closer ones, weren’t blocked out… like whatever was blocking the light was between the closer stars and the distant stars. But of course that’s insane. You looked at it and thought…impossible.

Pause, Adamarus said as he leaned forward and placed his hands on the conference table. Corporal Greg Donaldson’s face froze on the large screen and the lights were turned back up. Caught in the process of moving, Donaldson’s face looked unnatural. Adamarus stared at it for a few moments thinking.

Commander Radin, Lt. Commander McKay, head of security and Lt. Thomas Harman, head of the Shaped Charge Array Deployment division were also seated around the conference table.

Adamarus shook his head, And this happened this morning?

The head of the Psychiatric Department, Dr. Tanner, was at the other end of the conference table near the view screen. He casually leaned against the table over the room’s access and control station. He was an older man with thin gray hair. Yes, and the pilot, Lt. Hector Servius, witnessed it as well. He leaned forward and keyed instructions into the console and the frozen face was replaced with a representation of the asteroid train around the planet. Throughout the day there were seven other sightings in this area. Dots appeared off to one side and a blinking box surrounded them. The area was between the planet Amular and its smaller moon. It was labeled Section 2C12.

And the cameras and sensors? Adamarus asked.

Same as always, they show nothing.

How many teams did we have in that area?

Fourteen.

Adamarus turned from the display to the older man, Over fifty percent of the teams saw this thing?

Today’s sightings were high. Over the last three weeks, about ten percent is pretty much the daily average. Up to that point it had been quite rare.

Adamarus caught Radin’s eye and gave a single nod. Radin had been right to call this to Adamarus’ attention… again. Radin had briefed him on this a month ago. Adamarus sighed. He had hoped that it would just go away but it hadn’t. So anyone going out there would have about a ten percent chance of seeing this… whatever this is. It was a statement, not a question. He looked over at Lt. Harman and smiled, I think it’s time you and I inspected a section of the asteroid train… he looked up at the display, …section 2C12.

Chapter Two - Encounter

Over three hundred ‘sightings’ have been reported over the last five months within the Project Harvest theater of operations. Something like this has happened to one extent or another on almost every orbital or deep space project throughout history. There never seems to be an explanation. This time I’m going to get to the bottom of this if it kills me.

Captain Adamarus Maximus

Captain’s Log

Source: The Archive

Adamarus wore a silver vacuum suit, his helmet hanging on the bulkhead behind him. It had been years since he’d been in a vac-suit piloting a small craft over a rotating asteroid. A smile formed. Too long, he thought.

The cockpit was solid, padded, insulated and comfortable. It made the lethal vacuum only inches away seem remote. The vibrations from the engines coincided with their muffled roar. This constant background symphony mixed seamlessly with the other sounds of the cockpit; the air flowing through vents, the dozens of soft blips of audio indicators and the low chatter of the radio broadcasting on the all-purpose reporting channel. Various displays showed computer generated images of the asteroid's interior makeup, the craft’s course across the asteroid, the status of the SCAUs already planted, and the placement of the one SCAU left to go.

Adamarus brought the craft down until it was only a couple of hundred feet above the gray pitted surface.

He leaned forward and looked upward through the view port. Rotating in and out of view, he could see other asteroids with other Explorer Class ships working them, the flashing buoys, and even the huge carrier ship that had brought them out here.

He glanced to the right where a display showed the vac-suited form of Lt. Harman outside the craft making his way towards the last SCAU.

Both he and Harman had insisted that in order to keep appearances the same, they would take part of a normal ‘planter’ shift. Harman would normally be back on board the carrier tasked with the mundane chore of monitoring all of the planter teams. He seemed like he was having the time of his life actually being out here and Adamarus had to admit he was having a great time flying the small Explorer craft.

As the one mile by one-half mile rock passed beneath, the next drop site came into view on the display.

They were almost three hours into the shift and about to wrap up their first asteroid.

So far, they had seen nothing unusual.

Coming up on the drop Adamarus said into the microphone.

A burst of muffled static erupted from the speakers. Through it Harman replied Got it. Adamarus checked the radio settings—sunspots were playing hell with communications today.

A few minutes later Harman and the SCAU dropped away from the ship.

Adamarus again studied the stars spinning overhead for anything strange—absolutely nothing.

Ahead was a ridge hiding the horizon. Lieutenant, he said, I’m going ahead for a look–there’s a canyon beyond that ridge.

On the descending SCAU Harman replied, Don’t be too long.

The SCAU landed. Twenty feet below Harman the explosive bolts fired, locking the unit down. As the shock absorption pole collapsed, Harman dropped rapidly into the center of it all with an explosive burst of laughter. You know, I forgot how much fun this was!

Adamarus shot back, I’d give it a week for the thrill to wear off.

Probably less than that, like right after having to use the suit’s waste disposal systems the first time. Both laughed. Well, keep an eye out for the boogeyman, Harman said.

Roger. Be right back. Adamarus pulled back on the yoke causing the craft to fly faster over the asteroid’s surface.

Computers controlled the complexities of maintaining the ship’s relative position to the asteroid’s surface. The asteroid itself was moving around the planet at high speed as well as rotating rapidly on its axis. Visually, this was transparent if you focused on the asteroid below, but the forces pushing and pulling were still there and often conflicted with what you saw. Sometimes speeding up was really slowing down and it could, at times, be confusing to the senses.

Adamarus did his best to ignore this and divided his attention between the terrain and the stars spinning overhead.

The ridge was coming up quickly. There was a gorge cutting into it—he headed for that.

---

Harman walked carefully out along one of the SCAU’s metal legs then paused and watched the spinning universe for anything strange. Nothing. Ridiculous he thought once again…but then, he corrected himself; too many of his people were seeing this stuff.

After checking all four legs, he returned to the center and started the drilling sequence.

He scanned the heavens again—nothing.

Since Adamarus would not be back for a while, he had some time to kill. He decided to check the legs a second time and headed out.

Through his magnetic boots, he could feel the vibration coming from the center of the SCAU where the drill bored into the solid rock.

Reaching the end, he again inspected the steel spikes then turned and started back towards the center. He had to admit it was good being out here again—this was the reason he’d joined the astronaut program ten years ago—but promotions eventually put you behind a desk.

---

Adamarus steered the craft through the gorge, which opened up into a large canyon that cut deeply into the asteroid.

He scanned the stars above the horizon before turning the craft downward.

He glanced at the instruments, checking the locations and status of all the drops they had made. He noted the readings from the SCAU unit Harman was currently securing.

There was a minor warning, the drill had hit an empty space within the asteroid but it had already passed through and was drilling into rock again.

Adamarus looked back up as the canyon floor came up. He leveled off and started following it.

---

Harman was halfway out on the second leg. He again scanned the spinning stars for anything unusual but was distracted by the same warning on his helmet’s heads up display. It was a common one and he ignored it. Not wanting to be distracted again, using his HUD, he turned off the helmet’s SCAU monitoring.

He could not see the strange crystalline formations that had started growing around the center of the SCAU behind him. They emanated from the area below the drill housing. Wistful lattice-like shapes of frozen gas formed, much of it breaking apart and flying off, but enough of it sticking together so that the size of the formation grew rapidly.

---

Inside the craft, Adamarus was distracted by another indicator, this time accompanied by an alarm. He quickly located the source – it was coming from the SCAU monitoring panel. The drill had hit a pocket of gas, not unusual, but it was a big one from the looks of it. A vague uneasiness formed in his gut. Harman, what’s your status?

The static filled reply came immediately, Just checking the second leg. So far so…

Adamarus cut him off in a calm voice, The SCAU has hit a gas pocket… looks big…

---

Harman turned around and saw the formation, Damn, look at that! Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something move among the stars. His eyes glanced over to it. The word that came unbidden to his mind was impossible!

However, before he could really focus on what he was seeing, a blur of motion streaked across his vision. This time what jumped into his mind automatically from years of space duty was 'micro meteorite'. His eyes followed the barely visible streak to the center housing of the SCAU, watched in awe as it passed through the three steel containers holding the powerful explosive materials, watched them bursting apart, and before he could register alarm, he was literally vaporized into his component atoms and molecules.

---

In the cockpit of the Explorer craft, Adamarus had thumbed the transmit switch to repeat his message, but a sudden flash of light up on the canyon’s rim caught his eye. As he started to turn towards it… he blinked.

---

The ship’s sensors, computers and AI function, operated millions of times faster than the human brain. By the time Adamarus’ eyelids had dropped a quarter of the way down, the ship’s sensors had taken a full spectral scan of the growing plume of light beyond the ridge, measured the shock waves passing through the asteroid, and detected dust and small rocks coming over the ridge.

At the same time, the AI noticed that the status packets from Harman’s suit as well as the SCAU had stopped. The intelligent receiver had already resent queries which had gone unanswered and initiated Level One alerts.

All this information fed into the computer system and the AI analyzed it, determined what was most likely unfolding, and had calculated the best course of action.

As Adamarus’ blink continued and his eyelids dropped towards the halfway mark, the AI sent out a Priority One Mayday and started the release of all 100 sphere-bots to help with damage control. These round softball size robots usually performed all of the ship’s standard maintenance and repairs, but they were also programmed for first aid, damage control and other emergency functions.

At this point, the ground beneath the ship shot upward and automatic systems kicked in: a text message on a status screen above Adamarus’ head changed from Tracking in green letters to Proximity Alert in red, thrusters kicked in to lift the craft away, and magnetic and pulse shielding came online to protect the craft.

As Adamarus’ eyelids dropped below the halfway point, the raising surface broke apart and suddenly thousands of rocks were exploding upwards. Elsewhere the surface of the asteroid changed, becoming lined with thousands of cracks. The message on the status screen changed to Explosion Level Four in bold red flashing letters followed immediately by Emergency Egress.

The AI fired the craft’s afterburners, fired the explosive bolts that slammed the viewport blast armor in place, and engaged internal dampening. Adamarus’ seat went into crash mode and folded around him.

As his eyelids closed, the ship had started turning away from the asteroid, however, it just wasn’t fast enough. The edge of the blast wave, thick with pulverized rocks, slammed into the ship, catching and tearing off a section of the front blast armor and ripping away all the sensor studs and utility arms.

That blast wave was from a single SCAU. As Adamarus’ eyes rested closed for a beat, the other five SCAUs implanted in the asteroid blew and the entire mountain of rock blew apart.

From a distance it looked like a firecracker popping—there one instant, gone the next. This blast wave hit the ship so hard that in an instant, the craft was thrown outward almost a mile and continued racing away at high speed.

Adamarus should have been killed instantly but unknown to him or anyone else, an alien force field had folded around his craft. Even so, as his eyelids came half open, sparks flew and fires broke out in the spinning cockpit.

A heavy instrument panel broke away and hit the pilot seat, knocking it loose as 100 sphere-bots and smaller pieces of steel flew around the cockpit, many hitting and becoming embedded in Adamarus’ chest, neck and arms.

Blessedly, the pilot seat separated completely and it, as well as Adamarus, were slammed and wedged into a small corner where the front viewport met the lower control panels. This protected Adamarus to a degree, but he was knocked senseless, organs had ruptured and bones had broken. His legs were caught between the seat and the control panel, crushing both and all but ripping them away. Both arms were broken, and the upper control cluster had caught his head tearing part of his skull away. His face was pressed up against the armored glass right where the outside blast armor had been torn away.

Everything had happened in point seven seconds and none of it had registered within Adamarus’ brain. Literally in the blink of an eye, Adamarus had turned toward a light on the ridge outside, then found himself amid smoke and fire, and a growing plume of blood that floated above him. It was a miracle that he somehow clung to life.

Still strapped into the pilot’s seat, his eyes stared blankly out the front viewport. He could not remember anything. He was no longer self-aware and jumbled thoughts and images came and went randomly.

All the lights on the control panels were out and the emergency lights were on, but the red lighting covers had broken off. It was a harsh white light that allowed all the destruction of the cockpit and his body to be reflected in the glass for his shocked and dying eyes. He noticed the blood floating around him. He coughed and more blood sputtered from his mouth, spraying the viewport.

In a senseless state of shock, he looked at the reflection of himself. He noticed that one arm was bent at a ninety degree angle at the elbow but in the wrong direction. His other arm was lying flat across his back.

Waves of chills vibrated through him and he realized that he was having a lot of trouble breathing.

He tried to say something but an unrecognizable guttural sound was all that emerged.

There was a loud hissing sound as the blackness closed in.

Seemingly an eternity later, Adamarus regained consciousness. The emergency lights had gone out and he could see stars spinning through the viewport.

With a start, the realization came that his face was pressed into the corner of the lower control console and the front viewport. One part of his fractured thoughts tried to imagine how that could be possible.

He was very cold and just wanted to sleep.

All around him, scattered about the floating wreckage, 81 of the 100 sphere-bots were still functional and rebooting in local mode. The local base AI net was established between them, and with their limited local intelligence (about that of a well-trained dog), they attempted to assess the situation.

One took over as the master. Determining that 43 percent of its fellow bots had malfunctioning radios, it went into their most basic mode of communication. Its sides, bottoms, tops and other moving parts began rapidly extending out and snapping back with metallic clicks and clanks as it began directing the other bots.

It divided them into three groups. Some began the hopeless task of sealing all the hissing leaks allowing the atmosphere to escape, while another group