Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers (26 page)

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

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

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

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 These ships are out of date and they will all need reconditioning and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

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

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

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

The President smiled and nodded too, “Good. That works out
well. Okay, that covers the short range plans to light some fires, get things
moving. Long range it would seem we need to get crews for the warships, pilots
for the fighters and probably a lot of other support people. We need to get
them trained and going. The ships – all forty—need to be updated with the
latest advancements. And we will also want to start the production line going
again, build more Battleships and fighters. We may want to enlarge the
shipyards to give us more production capacity – not just Hideaway, but all of
them.”

"We also need fixed and orbital defense elements. Heck,
what we need first is a list of what we need – because you know…” he smiled,
“if it isn't on a list…it doesn’t exist!”

“Leewood,” he said with a gleam in his eyes, “in your spare
time,” several of them laughed, “I’d like you to take charge of compiling a
list of things we need to think of doing next. As always, consult with
everyone,” he waved his hand at all of them, “and grab whomever and whatever
else you need. If something gets in your way that you can’t move aside, just
call me.”

 The President looked down consulting his own list. “Oh, yes…
Shelly White will be joining the team. I know…she’s a reporter…” he rolled his eyes
and chuckled – reporters were usually thought of as being ”on the other side."
“Actually, she’s ‘the’ reporter and that’s exactly why we need her. Someone
who’s a leader, someone the public trusts and, last but not least, someone that
‘we’ can trust, and Shelly has shown time and again that she can keep things
‘off the record’. Shelly will be the method by which we filter and control the
information flow to the public.”

“Questions?”

There were plenty, but the President wasn’t the person to
ask. President Wicker signed off and the screen went dark.

Chapter Fifteen – Preliminary
Actions

“Knowing facts is not the same as
understanding them or how they relate to each other. For this reason there are
several states above the Phi State, the understanding states. As the Phi State
is almost impossible to reach, reaching these higher understanding states is
thought to be impossible as a practical matter. The highest state is the Omega
State where not only is everything known, everything is understood. It is
estimated that several hundred million years would be required for a species to
reach the Omega State.”

The Loud Named Bugs

Opening Speech, 23
^rd
Amular
Symposium
on Quantum Physics

Source: The Archive

Evelyn was lying on the couch in the hotel room reading. Their
room was on the 12
^th
floor and she had the sliding glass door that
led to the balcony open. This let in the muffled sounds of the city as well as
a cool breeze.

The sound of the doorbell caused her to look up. She bent the
corner of the page, got up and headed for the door just as Brandon came out of
the bedroom. Evelyn opened the door and standing there was a man and a woman. The
man had military written all over him – tall, short hair, a rugged face with a
hint of arrogance and a build that conveyed power. The female was tall and very
good looking – not military but definitely a professional.

The man nodded his head slightly, “Mrs. Evelyn Eden?”

She smiled, “Got me.”

“I’m Commander Patrick Leewood and this is Dr. Lorraine
Harrington. President Wicker sent us.”

Evelyn nodded, “Please, come in.” As they entered, Brandon
came forward and Evelyn introduced him, then she guided their guests to a
grouping of comfortable chairs at the other end of the living room. Evelyn
remained standing, “Can I get you something? Tea, coffee, or perhaps something
stronger?”

“If you have some water, that would be nice.” Harrington
said.

Leewood smiled, “The same, please.”

While Evelyn went into the kitchen, Brandon slapped his hands
on his knees. “Well, we’ve been imagining all sorts of reasons why we were
brought here. Are you allowed to tell us anything?”

Evelyn heard the last part of the question as she returned
with four bottles of spring water. “I certainly hope so! This is a nice little
‘hideaway’ but we’re running out of things to do.” She passed out the water as
Leewood and Harrington did a mental double take at her blatant mention of
Hideaway.

Leewood opened his water and took a sip as Harrington
answered with a chuckle. “Yes, we are authorized to tell all. Of course you’ve
guessed correctly, it does indeed pertain to the Hideaway Yards as well as the
thirty Leviathan class battleships there.”

Although expected, at this admission the Eden’s mood became
more subdued. Evelyn’s smile faded, “Yes, we were afraid of that. Not another
uprising in the settlements, I hope.”

Leewood glanced at Harrington then back, and cleared his
throat. “I wish it were that simple.” Harrington looked down, dreading having
to tell anyone what was coming at them from space or what it had done to the
Loud’s star system.

Brandon’s eyebrows compressed in concern, “Certainly not the
Loud but…in some way related, yes?”

Leewood shook his head, “No. And yes. The Loud are our
friends and allies. Of course you’re aware of the Loud’s early return?”

Brandon glanced at Evelyn. They both nodded.

Leewood went on to tell them the sequence of events. Both
took the news of the destruction of the Loud’s entire solar system hard – first
their eyes went wide with shock and their mouths fell open. Evelyn covered her
mouth with both hands as tears came to her eyes. Brandon put his head down in
his hands.

At learning of the discovery of the black hole ship, with a
one AU diameter event horizon coming at them at almost the speed of light,
Brandon held up both hands. “Whoa…whoa! A black hole that large! What can
anyone do with something like that! No amount of super weapons or ships will
have any effect against something like that!” He looked from one person to
another. Evelyn had crossed her arms and her entire body shook for a fraction
of a second as if a chill had passed through her.

Harrington said, “Granted, but we don’t think we’ll be facing
anything like that. All the data from the tachyon scope studying the object and
what happened at the Loud’s solar system indicate that the event horizon
shrinks and…disappears before the attack. We have no idea how this can happen,
but an alien ship of some kind is what we’re assuming we’ll face.”

Leewood jumped in before more questions could be asked. “In
any event, our orders are to get you out to Hideaway A.S.A.P. so we can
immediately get the installation up and running. If you don’t mind, we can
discuss the rest en route.”

Harrington stood and rubbed her hands together, “We’ll be
taking a shuttle up to Anderson’s where we’ll stay for a few days. This is so
you can take a look at the ten Leviathans up there and meet with the people
tasked with getting and training crews for the ships. The ships and crews are
being prepped now and will depart for Hideaway as soon as possible.”

Despite all the bleak news, Evelyn managed a slight smile,
and more to herself than anyone said, “I can’t believe we’re going back after
all these years.” She looked over at Leewood, “Tell me, has it really sat there
in the dark for all this time?”

“That’s my understanding.”

She took a deep breath and let it out, “All those years we
spent out there seem like a dream.” She looked at Brandon and he reached over
and held her hand, “I never dreamed I’d see that place again.”

---

 Woodworth had been inside the capitol building several times
over the last twenty years, and before that, so long ago that it seemed like a
different life time, he had actually worked here for several months. As always,
he felt somewhat awed by it all. There was so much history here, and so much
power. Everything was so grand and dignified, but all in an older, more
cultured sort of way.

It had been built over 300 years ago and parts of the
building were both larger and smaller than one would find in newer buildings. Large
sweeping staircases rose and split off, graced by two 20-foot statues on either
side. The walls were adorned with paintings of former Presidents which must
have measured ten feet in height. At the same time, right next door were the
tiniest administrative offices, restrooms, and ancillary staircases, so narrow
that you could barely fit between the walls. He sometimes wondered if people
had been smaller 300 years ago and that somehow, that fact had simply gotten
lost. Incredibly detailed carvings lined the upper walls and domed ceilings and
great chandeliers the size of trucks hung in almost every room. It spoke of
power and money, and also of times gone by.

Woodworth received his color coded name tag at the security
station, then asked for directions to the public relations office. The security
officer looked down his nose at Woodworth, and in a condescending voice,
rattled off the directions. Woodworth meekly nodded, feeling somewhat
intimidated.

Taking an antique glass elevator to the fourth floor, he
watched all the serious people walking briskly about with things to do and
people to see. The overall impression was organization, efficiency and
professionals dotting every ‘i’ and crossing every ‘t’.

He located the appropriate office number only to find a note
saying that the office had moved to a bigger area in sub-basement five. It was
written on the back of a paper plate with a black marker. He blinked, stood
there for a moment, and then rolled his eyes. How could he have forgotten?

He looked around a second time seeing everything from a
different perspective and nodded – it had been a long time, forty to fifty years
since he had worked here, but now it all came back to him. Despite appearances,
the fact was that most people didn’t know what the hell was going on and it was
a miracle that anything got done! He remembered the all knowing condescending
security guard and looked back at the note…this was typical…this was
government.

Backtracking to the elevator, he took it down and found the
offices. You could hardly miss them as they took up the entire sublevel. A
large sign facing the elevators said, “Public Relations Department”,
handwritten with the same black marker on blue bar computer paper and held up
by two tables turned on their sides. Behind it, work cubes stretched off for
perhaps 200 feet and hundreds of people rushed about intent on various tasks.

He moved into the large room and went to the first cubical
which seemed to be set off from the others. Within, two young men typed on
keyboards. “Excuse me, I’m looking for Jan Parker.”

One of them stood and pointed, “First office.”

Woodworth turned and noticed a row of offices along the same
wall as the elevators that he had missed looking outward into the room. He
waved a hand at the two men, “Thanks!” and started towards them.

“Hey, excuse me.” Woodworth halted and turned. The other
young man had gotten up and was walking towards him. “Woodworth? Dr. Floyd
Woodworth?”

Woodworth smiled, “Yes, that’s me.”

“I thought so.” The young man held out his hand and they
shook. “I’m Lenny, Lenny Grant.”

“A pleasure, Lenny.”

“Boy, are we glad to see you!” Lenny said. Woodworth cocked
his head. The other man had walked up and Lenny turned to introduce him, “This
is Trevor.” Woodworth and Trevor shook hands. “We’ve been assigned to dig up
information on every war since the dawn of time and ascertain which ones had
public support and which didn’t. We heard you were coming. Come on! I’ll take
you over to Jan.”

Trevor waved and returned to his work area while Lenny led
Woodworth to the first office.

Jan Parker was a small thin woman who wore thick glasses
which magnified her blue eyes. She had stringy blond hair that fell to her
shoulders and wore a conservative gray business suit. When they walked into her
office she was standing, flipping through a ledger, a pencil held in her mouth.
When she saw Woodworth, she set the ledger down, removed the pencil and came
over and shook his hand.

“Dr. Woodworth, I’m so glad you’re here.” She motioned him to
a seat. “I see you’ve met Lenny.” Lenny leaned against a wall, a smile on his
face. Jan walked around and sat down behind her desk. “So tell me, Floyd…may I
call you Floyd?”

Woodworth smiled, “Absolutely, Jan.”

“Good. So tell me…” she opened a drawer and took out a pack
of cigarettes and quickly glanced at Lenny who reached over and closed the
office door, “… all those history books that you wrote…” she began tapping the
pack, forcing a cigarette to slide out, “… the ones that all of us…” she put
the cigarette in her mouth and tossed the pack to Lenny, “…had to memorize in
school…” the cigarette drew circles in the air as she spoke. She took out a
book of matches and struck one and stared at the flame, then shook the match
out without lighting the cigarette and closed her eyes. A dreamy look appeared
on her face. She removed the unlit cigarette and used it to point towards
Woodworth “…how much of that history do you still remember?” She put the
cigarette back in her mouth, cocked her head and stared at him with a sparkle in
her eyes.

Woodworth smirked then looked over at Lenny who also had an
unlit cigarette in his mouth. At Woodworth’s look, Lenny smiled, removed the
cigarette, and blew out pretend smoke. Woodworth just shook his head and looked
back at Jan, “May I ask how old you were when the Loud gave out the immortality
pills?” They had not been pills at all but something that looked like pieces of
paper, however, everyone now referred to them as immortality pills or I-pills.

“You may not.” Jan said, raising her eyebrows.

“That old, huh?” he said, raising his eye brows. “Then ‘you’
may remember that all that stuff that slipped away from us when we were old…how
it came back as we became young again. Every page; I remember every page.”

Jan gave Lenny a look, took another hit off her unlit
cigarette and looked back at Woodworth, “Good. Because what we need to do is
look back at each of our wars and figure out which one had the most public
support and why.”

Lenny picked up the thread, “We have over 200 years to
prepare so we have lots of time to ease the public into awareness in any manner
we need to…to insure their optimal support and optimism for the coming
conflict.”

Woodworth changed positions in his chair and cleared his
throat. “I’m afraid it won’t be quite as simple as that. The attitudes and
customs of the times have to be considered. For instance, 1500 years ago, in
the Fourth Empire, most men lived to fight while women had no say, whatsoever,
so public support for a war would always be positive. We’ll need to find societies
and social structures that resembled ours. But there is a lot of history to
choose from and even if there are differences, perhaps we can account for them
to some degree.” Both Jan and Lenny had concerned expressions that told
Woodworth they had not considered some of these elements.

Jan stubbed her unlit cigarette out in an ashtray she pulled
from her drawer, then passed it to Lenny who had walked over to her desk. Jan
looked at Woodworth, considering for a moment, then asked, “Do you think what we
are trying to do will be possible?”

“Can we find parallels that can guide us? Certainly. Will
what we do be based on this work? Can we create the public attitude we’d like
to see, and perhaps more importantly, will it last for over 200 years? The
public is a strange beast, and really, it’s impossible to know for sure. I
think we need to identify groups that will oppose the war as well as those who
are already on board. I think we will need to release facts and/or events over
time to rekindle the public’s mind-set over time.”