Countdown Armageddon

By Rusty Williamson

The countdown has begun...

The humans on planet Amular, along with the survivors of an alien race called the Loud face a hopeless battle; an ancient alien originating beyond the observable universe is coming, killing everything in their path. In one day, they destroy the Loud home world—a species a thousand years ahead of the humans. They come within a black hole the size of a small star system at .99999 the speed of light. The Loud claim that this ancient alien has reached the Omega level of advancement—journey’s end—they know everything.

The truth hidden...

To maintain morale, only the highest officials know how hopeless the upcoming battle is and that Amular is just a minor stopover on the all-knowing alien’s way to a much more devastating objective. While Amular struggles to come up with defenses, it also grapples with a powerful resistance movement that sees things in a completely different light. Their arguments seem unshakeable but the government’s hands are tied as they cannot release the devastating truth.

In the fog of war and chaos...

Something is not quite right. There are too many coincidences and the ancient alien does things that make no sense. As the humans and the Loud try to unravel these mysteries, the resistance continues to launch devastating attacks. Time runs out as the alien and the battle for Amular are upon them all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rusty Williamson
• Release date: Jan 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463962435

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

The Spiral Slayers

(Book Two of Four)

Countdown Armageddon

Rusty Williamson

http://www.RustyWilliamson.com/

[e-mail]

Copyright 2014

Rusty Williamson

Published by Rusty Williamson at Smashwords

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be

reproduced in any form, except for the inclusion

of brief quotations in review, without permission

in writing from the author.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold

or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person,

please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did

not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your

favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard

work of this author.

Dedicated to

Dublin Trees Williamson

Our first grandson and the new center of our universe.

Contributions

My sincere thanks to: my wife Denise for her patience and support, Angie Sampson who performed the laborious job of proofreading and Melissa Foster who helped with the basics of online marketing and the value of social groups. Also, thanks to Henry D’Agostino who did the first alpha read and helped in so many ways and to Oscar Roca who helped with naval ships and their functions and names. To the many beta readers who struggled through the first draft. Finally, belated thanks (from book one) to Diane Thornton for naming the planet Amular and to my soulmate and wife Denise who named the planet Serena.

A Note from the Author

This story begins about 300 million years ago, 300 million light years from Earth, in a galaxy on the edge of the Great Coma Wall of galaxies, on a planet named Amular…

What can I say? It’s long, long ago and far, far away...

The intelligent life on Amular would, of course, speak different languages and, by default, have different names for everything. I decided that the ‘story’ was more important than trying in some way to reflect these differences (after all, I’m rather forced into using one of Earth’s languages to write the tale). Therefore, almost everything has been ‘converted’ to Earth, USA, Twentieth Century jargon (and yeah, feet and miles…I’m an American). It helps that humans just like ourselves evolved on this distant world.

Wait, how could humans just like ourselves evolve on such a distant planet?

One of today’s current theories is that the seeds of life are spread by meteorites. In this story, in the ‘Spiral Slayer universe’ I created for this series, life is spread in this manner. So, on biocompatible worlds, life takes hold and it progresses in the same manner everywhere. What kind of intelligent life, if any, arises is for the most part determined by extinction level events exactly as it did on Earth. If the meteor that hit the Yucatan Peninsula 76 million years ago had missed and not wiped out the dinosaur kingdom, raptors might have arisen as the intelligent species. If another were to hit tomorrow, termites or bees, or even ravens might get their chance (or, in the ravens case, second chance).

In the Spiral Slayer universe, humans are the most common type of intelligent life in the universe though not by much and not by any means the brightest bulb in the heavens.

In addition, although it’s part of the underlying plot of the story, I’ve limited the science element mostly to chapter introductions and this element is not necessary to understand the story.

For the science nerds among us, I’ve added a limited number of fictional extensions to the current standard models of quantum mechanics and cosmology. However, my fictional extensions do not include the ability to accelerate past the speed of light. Therefore, to travel, let’s say 300 million light years to Amular at less than light speed requires: an unlimited life span, technology for sleeping millions of years, unlimited power, and materials that regenerate or last a very long time. However, to travel much further than that across a universe that is expanding faster than the speed of light, without being able to exceed the speed of light…well, one would need a little bit more but… you need to read the story.

More information on the science of the Spiral Slayer universe can be found on my science fiction blog at www.rustywilliamson.com.

Enjoy,

Rusty Williamson

[e-mail]

If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. –Morpheus, The Matrix

Contents

PART ONE — Countdown

Chapter One – The Meeting

Chapter Two – The Assassin

Chapter Three – The Grand Getaway

Chapter Four – The Second Council of War

Chapter Five – Project Snowflake

Chapter Six – The Radford Revolution

Chapter Seven – The Prodigy

Chapter Eight – Voices of the Dead

Chapter Nine – Dawn’s Finale

Chapter Ten – Trinity

Chapter Eleven – Three Water Bottles

Chapter Twelve – The Ice Cloud

PART TWO – Armageddon

Chapter Thirteen – Arrival

Chapter Fourteen – Emergence

Chapter Fifteen – Echo Charlie Seven

Chapter Sixteen – Above Amular

Chapter Seventeen – The Battle of Amular

Chapter Eighteen – The Battle for Iceis

Chapter Nineteen – Aftermath

About the Author

PART ONE — Countdown

I guess cheating can help if your goal’s a destination or wealth but it makes no sense if your goal is being a good person. –Unknown

Chapter One – The Meeting

The fog of war is a hungry cannibal. She gorges herself, chews vigorously…then spits out survivors.

Fleet Admiral Adamarus Maximus

Recorded comments: Jumper One at Echo Charlie Seven

Source: The Archive

T-Minus 200 Years

Location: At the edge of the Great Coma Wall of galaxies,

The Star System of Iceis,

In Geostationary Orbit on the dark side of the planetoid Cinder,

The Hideaway Shipyards…

Fleet Admiral Adamarus Maximus slowed as he approached the conference room doors then paused before them.

The hallway was lit perfectly—indirect lighting that was not too bright nor too dim. Exactly like the rest of the installation.

The porthole to his left showed the perfectly black surface of the planetoid Cinder stretching off to a horizon that seemed much too close. Above the planetoid’s black razor edge, the rich solar wind of the orange dwarf Iceis appeared as millions of orange specks shooting upward. He knew that if he followed them upward, eventually the specks would fade then vanish, exposing a circle of star-studded blackness.

He caught his refection in the porthole and thought that perhaps he was finally getting used to the image of the impossibly young thirty-year-old staring back. It must be the same for everyone, he mused.

Standing just over six feet, Adamarus was a handsome man. His chestnut colored hair was parted on the side and his eyes were a deep blue. Before the Loud had made him young again, he had been 52 years old—crow’s feet radiating from his eyes, hair graying at the temples. Sometimes he missed his older self.

He turned his head, stared back at the double doors uncharacteristically hesitant…Adamarus Maximus was not accustomed to his present state. He was…what—discouraged, depressed, overwhelmed, scared…all of the above? The insights he’d had…the conclusions that had seemed so important for the last few days—did they really mean anything? Was the meeting that he had fought so hard for just a waste of everyone’s time?

In his present state, how was he ever going to pull this off?

Well, there was no rescheduling. Somehow, he would find a way. He took a deep breath, trying to shake off his doubts then opened the double doors and walked in.

Everyone looked up at him. Except for the President who would be teleconferencing from Amular, all of them were already present and seated around the conference table.

He nodded at them. They nodded back.

Adamarus took his seat then looked over the five other people…well actually, four humans and one five-foot robot. The robot served as the avatar for the Loud Ambassador who had the unlikely name of Bugs—a name Adamarus himself had given the alien.

Adamarus noticed it was the only face in the room not wearing a mask struggling to hide the depression, the defeat and the hopelessness.

Using the avatar-robots was the closest the Loud could come to personal interaction with the humans. In person, the Loud were huge creatures resembling small complex hills about 20-feet wide, 30-feet deep and standing 20-feet high. However, size was the least of the creature’s problems.

Their alien friends from another star—next-door neighbors at 112 light years—‘spoke’ by blasting massive quantities of air through the cavities in their bony hilltop heads producing screeching sounds so loud that they shattered glass, ruptured eardrums and even internal organs.

However, what really kept the two species from sitting down together was that the Loud had to suck in massive amounts of air before speaking. Before each paragraph, Bugs’ true form exploded upwards over 100 feet expanding to fill its single massive lung with air. Then mammoth muscles along the creature’s backside compressed the air and forced it out as the creature shrunk back to its normal 20-foot height.

Not to mention, the thought came, they also spit when they let go…quite a lot.

The Loud screeches along with the chemical makeup of their spittle was processed by translation devices. The Loud had constructed these before they had made contact with Amular during the three years the aliens had secretly studied the indigenous intelligent species mostly via the human’s copious audio and video transmissions. After processing for a few seconds, in a slightly mechanical, gender-neutral voice, words magically came out of the translation device. Then, the process reversed and words were turned into ear shattering screeches and a virtual sprinkler system of spittle. It was a dangerous and messy process, which was why the Listening Chamber had been constructed and used before the appearance of the avatars.

The Loud were estimated to be a thousand years ahead of the humans in science and technology and, they had certainly made their mark on Amular from day one. Five days after then Captain Adamarus Maximus, one of Amular’s most famous and decorated heroes, had seemingly died in Amular’s worst orbital disaster, the Loud had, with no warning, made their presence known by delivering a repaired, bandaged and somehow still breathing Adamarus to the ER at Amular’s largest hospital.

However, it soon became apparent that Adamarus was not the same. He was twenty years younger, had a ‘supercharged’ immune system and, he was no longer aging.

Within mere months, the Loud did the only fair thing; they gave all of the humans on Amular and within the Iceis Star System this same perpetual youth and supercharged immune system—immortality except one could still be killed by injuries.

Then, to take care of the population explosion, the aliens had spent three years helping the humans build off-world settlements, power stations and multi-level farm moons. Their construction nanite were indistinguishable from magic.

So much had happened since those glorious days…what? A mere six months ago.

Adamarus looked from Bugs’ avatar to the head of the table where a dark teleconferencing screen had risen from the table. There it sat waiting for the man they all waited for, President James Olson Wicker.

Adamarus glanced over at his superior Rear Admiral Leewood who took a deep breath and answered Adamarus’ unspoken question with a small, if begrudging nod.

Adamarus swallowed, nodded back once.

Thanks to the Loud, Leewood, like Adamarus and like everyone else, was at his or her prime age, around 30 years old. Leewood’s face was all hard angles—that and his buzz cut blond hair and ramrod posture shouted military.

Over four years ago, when the President’s Special Team had been created to deal with Amular’s first alien contact, then Commander Leewood had been named the team’s leader. Leewood’s nod confirmed that, as usual, it would be on him to introduce the purpose of the meeting to the President—only after this would Adamarus take over.

Right on time, the blank screen came to life and the President of Amular and the Iceis Star System, James Olson Wicker, appeared.

The Tachyon Com System from the Loud cheated space and time by eliminating the 14-minute response time and providing instantaneous communication.

As usual, the President’s thick brown hair was neatly parted to the side, his brown eyes were clear and his expression was neutral. Not as usual were the cuts and bruises on his face.

Immediately everyone noticed the green glow on the right side of the President’s face and knew exactly what it was for each one of them knew that green glow.

The lights in Wicker’s office were dimmed—behind him, in shadow, the grand circular windows of the presidential office, curtains drawn, could still be made out.

Wicker make a face then glanced to his right into the green glow. He stared for a moment then he looked back at the camera. Look at it, he said shaking his head. So that they could look at it, the president reached forward and swiped his touch-top desk to share.

Around Adamarus and the others, the lights in the conference room dimmed and the back wall screen came to life displaying the familiar green image—the live transmission from the orbital Tachyon scope—one of the Loud’s more advanced and elaborate gifts.

They’d all seen the image many times. It showed the faster-than-light Tachyon surge coming from the energy emitted by the exploding star 112 light years away. What they were looking at was what remained of the Loud’s home star. The explosion had vaporized all of the planets including the Loud home world. Except for the few hundred Loud aboard their four interstellar ‘Umbrella’ ships, their species was now extinct.

The nova was a hideous sight; however, that’s not what took the breath away from all of the humans. A small black dot near the center, silhouetted against the expanding plasma, was the source of all their problems—an event horizon 93 million miles in diameter coming straight at them at a hair below the speed of light.

President Wicker’s normal upbeat smile was strained and didn’t extend to his eyes. Hello, everyone, he said looking at each of them. He waved in the direction of the green glow, Nothing’s changed, of course. It’s still coming on its digitally precise course, deceleration and shrinkage curve. I was just…watching. After a second he looked at Leewood and raised both hands, So Admiral… his reluctance to ask was frank and obvious, …what’s the subject of this meeting?

Leewood stood slowly and cleared his throat, Mr. President, as I’m sure you know, Admiral Maximus has been trying to get the Black Raven group together for several days.

President Wicker’s face went slack. He frowned and closed his eyes. Then he turned his head and stared at the live feed from the Tachyon scope.

Adamarus’ insides fell further. Indeed, he thought, what ‘insights’…what words…could possibly make a dent in the shattered landscape of disaster now surrounding and closing in on them?

Leewood continued, The Admiral has some insights into our situation he believes no one has yet…put together. And yes, this time, he claims…promises…it’s not more bad news.

On the screen, the President’s stare slowly returned to the assembly. Not more bad news, he repeated then he smiled sadly and addressed Adamarus, You know Admiral, he shook his head and this time his smile reached his eyes, just a year ago…just one year…the universe smiled down upon us—we had nothing but… he shrugged, …fantastic prospects. The Loud, he glanced at the motionless avatar, had given us perpetual youth and unlimited life. They were freely sharing all their advanced science and technology with us but more than anything…well, we were not alone anymore—we had found friends in the void.

The President’s smile faded, Then, he shook his head, we discover that ‘an alien force’, one that uses a black hole for a starship, has destroyed the Loud’s entire star system…in a single day. His eyes wandered off, Gone… he looked back at Adamarus, then, one day later, we discover that same ‘alien force’ is now coming straight for us. A black hole with an event horizon ninety-three million miles in diameter traveling a hair below the speed of light…on a precise course and deceleration curve that will bring it into orbit around our planet in two hundred years. He leaned back and barked a harsh laugh, Really? Reality…outdoing… he waved his arms, …any horrific fictional story I have ever seen or read.

Wicker stared around the room but there was only silence. If that weren’t bad enough, he continued with a strained smile, on its way here, it will pass through our systems ice halo bringing a swarm of comets with it…enough to destroy every rock world, including our own. We find its course will also pass so close to both of our largest gas giants, that one of them might explode, and, in any event, dozens of moons will be tossed randomly across the inner system. Oh and by the way, the ship that seemingly emerges…we must not destroy it. Doing so will cause it to lose control of its black hole…which would destroy everything. No…we need to damage it…and just enough to make it leave.

Wicker rubbed his temples.

And then… he said in a flat voice…but he said no more. He didn’t need to—everyone in the room knew exactly what had come next.

The meeting…the meeting with Bugs…learning what the Loud had been hiding…learning the truth, Adamarus thought and a chill went up his spine. Adamarus had come to realize that, for himself, in order to function, some aspects of that truth had to be looked at through squinted eyes. And, some of it…well, some of it had to be put into a locked box stored in the back of his mind, and never thought of at all. The truth had made them all a little crazy and, of course, in the three days since that meeting, two of them had committed suicide.

It seemed that the Loud had unknowingly stumbled upon the approaching monstrosity long ago—they had been studying the alien for 800 years. They had not told the humans because they did not believe the humans could handle the truth.

Actually, the Loud had stumbled upon the blight 900 years ago but had not realized it. They had discovered a massive black hole traveling almost at the speed of light through another spiral galaxy—one that was 800 million light years away. There was an odd nova seemingly in the black hole’s wake. Eventually, they decided the star had been a white dwarf in the middle of its life and that the black hole must have passed so close that it caused the young star to explode. At the time, that’s all they knew…they had no idea what they were really seeing.

Then, 100 years later, the truth was thrust upon them.

The Loud had conducted a scientific study. It was just one of many; this one’s purpose was to determine what percentage of the galaxies in the observable universe were active galaxies. Galaxies whose central black hole was actively eating up star systems outputting massive amounts of energy in the form of plasma jets erupting from the galaxy’s center. The results that came back contained a small anomaly; one of the random samples had a much higher percentage of active galaxies. On closer inspection, they found that it was higher because it contained a new type of active galaxy—one where the central black hole was actually exploding, returning all the matter it contained back to normal space.

Over hundreds of thousands of years, this massive explosion of super-heated plasma and radiation spread outward through the spiral arms of the galaxy and the Loud realized with shock that this process was serializing entire galaxies for the expanding blight would extinguish all life.

More study showed that these galaxies had another oddity: one of the two plasma jets would have a small plasma stream branching off it, at first, seemingly at random angles. This was so unique it became a footprint for this new type of active galaxy.

Eventually, the Loud discovered that this area containing the new type of active galaxies stretched from the edge of the observable universe to the galaxies in their immediate area and the timing of these events showed the area had been spreading inward toward them at almost the speed of light for 12 billion years—almost since galaxies had first formed. Whatever was happening, it had been propagating across the universe since the dawn of time.

In due course, they found that the odd plasma stream that angled off the main jets actually pointed to the next galaxy whose central black hole was exploding. The time difference in the events always matched the distance between them in that something traveling about .99999 the speed of light would have time to travel the distance between them.

Then they discovered more of the massive black holes in the galaxies uncomfortably near to them. All were just like the one they had already happened upon. They were all traveling at near light speed toward the galaxy’s center and they were all passing through one or two star systems causing their suns to explode.

Since some of these black holes were slowing down, the conclusion was unavoidable; the black holes were being controlled.

For over 800 years, the Loud studied these speeding black holes and exploding galaxies, and concluded that the objects coming at them had likely originated beyond the observable universe. They had been spreading and repeating exactly the same actions for twelve billion years.

To the Loud’s credit, they didn’t fail to notice that in all that time, there was no evidence that any of these black holes had ever failed in their incomprehensible task.

The Loud gave these black holes a name that translated to ‘Blackship’. The name for the incredibly ancient species assumed to be controlling these monstrosities translated to Spiral Slayers.

The final icing on the cake: to do what the Spiral Slayers did, the Loud claimed that they had to have reached what the Loud called the Omega level of scientific advancement—meaning, literally, journey’s end. They knew…everything. Moreover, since the discovery of galaxy SS-0 at the edge of the observable universe, the furthest galaxy that showed indisputable signs of a Blackship visit, it meant that they had reached this Omega level of advancement before entering that far off galaxy. In other words, they had reached the Omega level over twelve billion years ago.

Dr. Van Loader, who had been Amular’s top scientist, had come to believe that the duration of these acts (almost the same age as the universe) plus the fact that these Spiral Slayers were supposed to know everything took these aliens beyond the definition of ‘intelligent species’. Add to this that the Spiral Slayers also met the definition of a force of nature and Van Loader had proclaimed as he jumped to his death that what was coming met the definition of God.

You have my attention, Admiral, President Wicker said.

Leewood sat and Adamarus stood.

Mr. President, he circled behind his chair and slid it back under the table, we’ve learned about this situation that we are in just four days ago. A very complex, not to mention overwhelming state of affairs dumped on us in a very short span of time. There are a few things that, so far, no one has discussed. These…‘things’ affect assumptions we’ve made that may need to be reconsidered. In addition, there are other assumptions that we should be making that, so far, we’re not.

President Wicker inclined his head, Such as?

Adamarus turned to the five-foot robot sitting at the table, Bugs.

Only a small red light on its head indicated that the avatar was active. For the first time since the meeting started, the avatar moved—its head snapped toward Adamarus, causing a couple of people to jump. Its familiar slightly mechanical, genderless voice said, Adamarus, as I have said, we stand no chance of even slowing down this ancient Omega force. Nothing can change what is going to happen.

Everyone stared back at the avatar. They had all heard it many times, Bugs’ insistence that preparing to fight the coming alien was a waste of time—a point hard to argue with. Still, in the end, the Loud had agreed to help the humans defend their star system.

Adamarus held out both hands, My friend, you know that it is in our nature…no matter how hopeless, we must do everything that we can to survive.

The Loud had captured high definition Tachyon scans of the invasion and subsequent destruction of their star system. Analysis of these scans showed that as the black hole entered the inner system, it simply vanished and what appeared to be a single large ship emerged. This ship continued into orbit around the Loud home world. Then massive amounts of energy were discharged for a duration equal to a single rotation of their planet. After this was a 20-hour pause then, a burst of energy 10,000 times more powerful was detected between the ship and the Loud star. It lasted for a period of 28 minutes. After this, the Tachyon scope could detect nothing for three weeks and then the Loud star had exploded.

Adamarus said, I have a different question, Bugs.

The avatar inclined its head.

Adamarus continued, We can trace the activities of the Spiral Slayers, or their Blackships anyway, back about twelve billion years but…that’s normal time. Because the Blackships are very close to a black hole and because they are traveling just below the speed of light, time dilatation comes into play. Because of this, the aliens have experienced far less time. Can you estimate how much? Adamarus sensed everyone leaning forward.

I can only offer a rough estimate, it said.

That’s fine.

We have been tracking one Blackship that is in between galaxies. We estimate that it is traveling at .99999c—that’s a decimal point followed by five nines. However, the alien ship also sits next to a black hole, which increases the time dilation. At its current distance, we cannot get a good estimate of the size of the singularity. Therefore, we can only provide a best guess. Assuming they have our speed stepping technology and adjusting for the estimated time for an average of two-star system stopovers per galaxy plus the estimated time that they spend at the galaxy’s center plus... it paused and looked at Adamarus, Do you want the overall time that they have experienced since they entered the observable universe?

Adamarus nodded.

To them, only about ninety-eight million years have passed.

Sounds of surprise came from everyone.

Wicker said, That’s… the president was going to say ‘all’ but ninety-eight million years still was an enormous amount of time so instead he said, that’s quite a difference.

But Bugs hadn’t finished. Almost certainly, the avatar continued, some sort of hibernation would be employed bringing their actual experienced time down further—perhaps up to fifty percent.

Admiral Leewood spoke up, So, you’re saying around fifty million years.

Bugs said nothing.

That’s still enough time, Adamarus said.

Leewood turned, Enough time for what?

For evolutionary changes, Adamarus said, which caught everyone off guard.

Evolutionary changes, Leewood said in surprise.

Yes. Adamarus turned his attention back to the Loud Ambassador, Tell me, Bugs, can a species stop evolving?

The short robot took several seconds to respond. Evolution occurs when cosmic rays affect DNA causing mutations which help an organism’s survival. Close to a black hole, the amount of cosmic radiation is multiplied millions of times. Normal levels of cosmic rays can be filtered out but it takes a lot of effort and normally it isn’t worth it. I’m not sure if anything near a black hole could really block out very much.

Adamarus raised an eyebrow, Okay. However, regarding evolution, aren’t you forgetting something?

The avatar just stared back.

Don’t you also need natural selection? Mutations will be both good and bad and natural selection eventually promotes the good and phases out the bad.

Bugs’ head moved slightly, Yes, that is correct.

And, Adamarus said, with regards to a species who knows everything and who travels around in a starship powered by a black hole, in this environment what kind of natural selection would be in operation?

Very little.

None, Adamarus shot back.

Bugs was silent for second then, Probably none that would affect evolution.

But mutations would continue.

Yes, the avatar said.

But none would really be beneficial to survival though some would be detrimental to it. The detrimental mutations would be the only ones with any evolutionary impact. So, over such a vast length of time, you’d either wind up with grossly mutated population or, perhaps more likely, the species would have evolved to extinction.

President Wicker cleared his throat, What are you getting at, Adamarus? Clearly, whatever the case, the Spiral Slayers are still functioning.

Adamarus turned to the president, Well…their machines are still functioning. Sir, what stands out to me is that we have seen no evidence of change in what they do in twelve billion years. That’s evidence of a force of nature or maybe of advanced machinery but not of an intelligent species.

President Wicker barked a laugh, What difference does that make?

A small smile appeared on Adamarus’ face, Adaptability.

Wicker ran an impatient hand through his hair, Admiral…what would they need to adapt to?

Adamarus’ smile broadened, Us.

Us, Wicker said incredulously.

Please bear with me for a moment, sir. Adamarus turned again to the Loud Ambassador, Bugs, you’ve said that your studies of the Spiral Slayers show that they enter a galaxy and head straight for the central black hole and seemingly, cause it to explode. Along the way, they destroy any star systems they encounter.

Yes, Bugs answered. We’ve detected over two dozen galaxies containing these black holes and showing this process.

However, we both know that this process, as stated, is quite impossible.

Impossible, President Wicker barked even more incredulously. The Loud have identified and verified this in over twenty-four spiral galaxies.

Adamarus held up a hand, And that’s exactly what’s impossible about it, sir. Please…bear with me. We’ve been assuming that the Blackships enter a galaxy, make a straight line for the center and destroy stars that they encounter along the way. This, and remember I said ‘as stated,’ is simply not possible.

Wicker threw up his hands in exasperation but said, Please…continue.

It’s…the emptiness, sir. None of us can really imagine the emptiness of the universe and, more specifically, the amount of empty space within galaxies.

Each seat at the conference table had a standard monitor and control station embedded into the table. Adamarus removed his PDA and attached it to his station. Above the table, a hologram of a galaxy appeared.

This, Adamarus said, is the Spoke Galaxy—the closest spiral galaxy to us. The density of matter within this galaxy is similar to our own galaxy as well as ninety-nine percent of all galaxies and, the few exceptions you find are not far off. He walked slowly around the table pointing at the holograph. For instance, the volume of this galaxy is about eight trillion cubic light years—eight trillion, he repeated for effect. It contains billions of stars, planets, neutron stars, black holes and lots of interstellar gas. He paused and looked at the president. However, if you could take all of the stars, planets and moons and put those together, their total volume would barely amount to a thousandth of one cubic light year. Adamarus paused and looked around trying to find a way to explain. Within eight trillion cubic light years, you’re trying to hit one one-thousandth of one light year. If you had a giant machinegun that could fire a hundred of these Blackships a second into this galaxy, your odds of hitting anything would be around eight quintillion to one and, because the stars are in constant motion, these odds do not go down with each shot…they stay the same. Adamarus laughed, You could fire away all night and day for centuries and never hit anything.

The room was silent for many seconds.

Finally, President Wicker looked at the five-foot robot, Bugs?

Adamarus is correct, the alien replied.

Adamarus nodded, Any star system the Blackships encounter is actually selected and purposely navigated to.

Admiral Leewood spoke up, Well okay, but actually we kind of already know this…I mean we know that they are targeting star systems that contain intelligent civilizations…they detect the transmissions radiating into space. So they have to change course a little to encounter them…I don’t see…

Adamarus held up both hands and interrupted, I’m getting to that, Patrick. He turned back to the avatar, Bugs, when did the Loud know that the Blackships were targeting stars with intelligent civilizations?

We became sure when it left our star and instead of heading directly for the galactic center, it headed here. If it had headed for the galactic center, it would have missed your star system by thirty-four light years.

Adamarus nodded. And before it headed for us, before it entered your star system, when you were only watching these Blackships in other galaxies, what did you think?

We were not sure why the Blackships destroyed the star systems they did.

And, when your planet concluded that what approached it was a Blackship, what did they believe was going to happen?

We assumed that the black hole would slow down and pass our star close enough to destabilize it and cause it to explode.

The room erupted—everyone started talking at once. Adamarus knew why. Half a year before, when the Loud ships had returned early and Bugs had met with them to explain about the destruction of their star system, it had told them that analysis of the Tachyon scans had shown that the black hole had disappeared and a large ship had attacked the planet and then their star. When asked what kind of defense their planet had likely prepared against the Blackship, Bugs had said none because any alien advanced enough to use a black hole for a power source would be too advanced to be defeated. They had stared in disbelief at the short robot. Now they realized for the first time that the Loud had had no idea that a ship would emerge…a ship that could be opposed. And, no one would mount an armed defense against a black hole. It would be like an armed defense against a 100-foot tidal wave.

President Wicker brought the meeting to order again then asked Bugs, So, you did not know that a ship would emerge from the black hole or that the Blackship was targeting civilized systems until after it attacked you?

No. How could we? Bugs replied.

Adamarus spoke up, So think about it…the only way that we know an armed defense has any chance at all is because we have the data from the attack on the Loud system.

Everyone stared at him and Adamarus could see that they were not catching on. He continued, The odds of a situation like ours…of there being two stars with intelligent civilizations close enough together in both space and time and also close enough in line with the Spiral Slayers course to the galaxy’s center is…well, those odds are far worse than eight quintillion to one. It could never ever happen.

The President looked at Adamarus straining to understand. But…what does that matter? It did happen here.

Adamarus sighed, Yes, it did happen here but we can be pretty damn sure that it’s never happened before. Every star the Blackships have visited knew only what the Loud knew—that a black hole was going to enter their system. No one would prepare an armed defense against a black hole. And that means that, Adamarus faced the gathering, the Spiral Slayers have never before faced an armed defense. He could feel the shock rolling across the conference room.

He continued, At least not a massive defense prepared well beforehand—like the one we’ll be greeting them with. That’s why adaptability is important and, since…hell, almost the dawn of time, he said incredulously, we can look back and see that they have not exhibited a single sign of adaptability.

Never faced an armed defense, Wicker muttered.

That’s unbelievable, Leewood said.

However, the shock level in the room was about to spike even higher. Bugs had repeatedly insisted that they had no chance against the Spiral Slayers—no chance at all. No one thought the alien would ever budge from this.

Now the five-foot robot stood and faced Maximus. That is a very good observation, Adamarus, the robot said. It turned to the gathering Given this, we would have a slight chance of surviving the Spiral Slayers. The possibility is very small …nevertheless, we now have some chance.

---

Ninety million miles away on the human’s home world of Amular, the teleconferencing screen faded and went dark. The side of President Wicker’s mouth twitched and he felt the pain where he’d bitten his tongue and from the cut on his swollen left lip—it had required two stitches.

He barked another humorless laugh—rough days were the norm for him but rarely did they include physical injuries. He also sported a bruised and swollen right eye. In fact, he had bruises all over him and felt like a train wreck.

Well, his friend Thornton had been a strong man, physically anyway. Even after writing the suicide note and kicking the chair out from under himself, Thornton had fought—or more probably, it was just spasms. Whichever, it had beaten the hell out of President James Olson Wicker as he tried to hold on to and lift Thornton’s thrashing body to keep the cord from strangling him. Thornton had tied the electrical cord to the ceiling fan then looped it around his neck.

However, how do you stop a man from hanging himself after he’s already falling? The President certainly had no experience—such a thing was certainly not in his job description.

He’d lost the battle. His friend and…his Secretary of Defense had knocked him away, the cord had jerked and there’d been a distinct crack. Wicker had toppled from the chair he had been standing on and had fallen to the floor. When he looked up, Thornton was hanging there, no longer fighting, just swinging back and forth, his neck elongated grotesquely. Wicker had remained sitting on the floor not even realizing that tears were flowing down his face.

That’s how they had found the President of the Planet Amular and the Iceis Star System—sitting on the floor crying, his Secretary of Defense dead and dangling above him. That was just one hour after the meeting.

That had rather said it all, hadn’t it—or at least one would have thought.

Yet that hadn’t been all. One day later, their top scientist, Dr. Van Loader, had taken his life, though in a much more spectacular fashion.

In front of a full session of Amular’s First Council of War—almost 200 of Amular’s top government, military and scientific people—Dr. Van Loader had quite expertly skydived from the 1,000-foot atrium ceiling, screaming about God and the end of everything as he skillfully aimed himself at the center of the main conference table.

He had not been wearing a parachute.

Dr. Van Loader had hit the thick wooden conference table and, amidst a shower of blood and gore, the shredded bag of flesh and broken bones had jetted across then off the massive table. En route, what had been left of their top scientist, hit two of the main players sitting at the conference table—they simply vanished. Then they and Van Loader had slammed into two aides sitting beyond and then the whole lot had hit the back wall and been propelled upward and into the assembly area, raining down on the unlucky attendees. Dr. Van Loader had taken with him the leaders of both of Amular’s primary shipyards…both killed in an instant.

President Wicker shut down the live feed from the orbital Tachyon scope and pressed a button, causing the curtains to open. He got up and walked to the window and there he stared unseeing at the sprawling city of Axes.

They had not changed the way they do things…shown no signs of adaptability…they have never before faced an armed defense, he thought. Did it really mean anything? How could they use that information? He closed his eyes.

No answers came.

---

Three miles away, President Wicker’s head came into focus in the eight-inch reflecting telescope. With great precision, the joystick controller moved the scope’s crosshairs across his face until they were centered on his cheek.

A button was pressed.

Boom!

Even with the most advanced sound suppressor available, the blast was deafening. The sound echoed into the distance. At the same time, the computer-controlled gun slid back on its hydraulic rail, absorbing the recoil and ejected the spent shell then it slid back into place, loading the next round.

Clank, clank.

In what amounted to an astronomical telescope with cross hairs, the bullet came briefly into view as it sped the three miles to its target. Then President Wicker’s face was replaced by an expanding red mist.

The scope moved to the right, finding Adamarus’ face…Boom...the face vanished replaced by the red mist…then Admiral Leewood…then finally Dr. Lorraine Harrington.

Boom! Clank, clank. Boom! Clank, clank.

Clouds of red mist…

When the last echo had died away, a tall lanky man removed himself from the cushioned seat attached to the large gun and stepped from the wooden shed that served as a shelter from the blazing orange sun. His name was Aaron Towers. With both hands, he swatted his pants, creating a cloud of dust then he removed a canteen and took a long drink. After wiping his mouth, he got into an old truck, started the engine and drove off across the barren landscape.

Twenty minutes later, he arrived at the targets. The heavy table was covered with red pulp and black watermelon seeds and, surrounded by a cloud of buzzing flies. Aaron got out, walked around to the back of the truck and, from a cooler, removed four more head-sized watermelons. Wading through the flies, he carefully placed the green melons on the wet sticky table, spacing them evenly apart. Returning to the truck, he removed four more life-size pictures of heads from a file folder: President Wicker, Admiral Adamarus Maximus, Admiral Patrick