Meeting to End all Meetings
Nan’mtek was relieved, worried, distraught and happy at the same time. Second hand spy reports had informed her of what they had already guessed, that the aliens had somehow been able to convince a large number of humans to work with them. Keenan was dead. ‘Of all things, how could I do this?’ Nan’mtek thought to herself.
She had really liked him. He was utterly loyal. Of all the people she knew, none had demonstrated the same kind of integrity. When she asked him to mount a suicide mission, he had accepted. Not eagerly though – she could see it in his eyes, and her sensors displayed a spiked emotional status, no doubt worry over his comrades. She had studied his accomplishments keenly both as a necessity but also out of curiosity. Could a man truly be as giving as he appeared to be? Or was it simply a death wish born from the death of his wife?
Those events would have scarred the psyche of any man. His family, fleeing from an ant invasion, was caught in the crossfire and killed by the defenders’ own rain of fire. And yet Keenan had no anger over the event, only regret. She had watched the bar scene video over and over again before she prepared to groom Keenan for his first suicide mission.
Keenan, on leave after the tragedy, had been sitting alone at the bar. Only one week had passed since his family had been killed. Nan’mtek well knew that accidents of this type weren’t registered so that vengeance would be prevented. The officer who had made the mistake would be reprimanded in private. But in this case, the four surviving members of the defense party in that quadrant had gone in just after Keenan had arrived and had purposely approached his table. He looked up calmly and simply said, “I want to be alone.”
“Sir, please give us a minute,” the first one said. “We were at 51 Pegasi, when your family was there.” They all stood uncertainly, not knowing how to broach the subject.
Keenan realized immediately who the four were and quietly listened.
After a moment of silence, the first one said again, “Sir, we were the defense crew that are responsible for the death of your family.” The officer could barely finish his sentence and immediately started to cry. The others, choked up because of the first, also had tears streaming down their faces.
Someone at the bar laughed as he watched four grown men cry, and Keenan slowly got up, walked over to the man and asked, “What do you find so funny?”
The man stood up, and although Keenan was tall, the man was even taller and obviously well built. “Four grown men are crying. That’s what’s funny. Pussies!”
Keenan slowly moved forward until his face was only an inch away and said, “These men have seen more ants, action and glory than you will ever see in your life. They are the epitome of Loyalty and Honor. They deserve your respect. They will get your Respect, NOW. You will bow down and thank them for watching your ass and making sure people like you can sleep at night.”
The large man smiled sarcastically but had no time to say anything. Keenan had seen the shift in the man’s eyes and the slight move that would allow him to throw a punch, but a quick shot to his throat had the man gasping. Keenan then punched him hard in the gut, doubling him over, and kneed him in the face at the same time. The man wheezed a grunt from the impact and dropped to the floor. His friends stood there uncertain, watching as five men now stood in line waiting. They backed away as the man on the floor continued to groan and gasp for air. Keenan waited for a minute, picked up the man as if he was a rag doll, and repeated, “You are to bow and thank them. NOW!”
The man stood shakily, still gasping from the throat injury, but managed to gasp out a thank you as he attempted a bow. Instead he pitched forward and fell head first onto the floor again.
Keenan picked him up and sat him on a chair, and said to the waiter, “Give him a glass of water when he can drink again. It’s on me,” and turned to the four. Looking at each one in turn, he finally said, “If my family died because you weren’t doing your duty, you’d all be dead now. As it stands, you were doing your duty. You made a mistake, and you’re forgiven. Make up for the mistake by putting your heart and soul into this fight.”
Nan’mtek couldn’t believe his self control. She had arranged for accidental meetings between him and available women to ensure that his seed would survive, but Keenan had refused to mate. Not even Jane, the perfect match, was enough to convince Keenan to take another woman. Nan’mtek smiled as she thought of how Keenan’s loyalty to his dead wife and family had foiled her secret plans in this regard. And now, he was dead. She hoped Jane had brought information that was worth that price.
And then there was Timothy and Ruth. Two out of five races had survived the extermination, and one of them solely because their planet wasn’t suitable. Two biological ingredients, both of which Nan’mtek was unsure would actually work. And then there were the infernal crabs once again.
Finley, the sleeper agent now hidden among the enemies. Would he wake up when needed? Even if he did, would he be too confused to be of any help? Would he follow the proddings of the plants she put on his subconscious? Nan’mtek wasn’t even sure he was still alive.
Which left Jack and Scratch. Alien ship in place, the seed planted. All indications were that it had been effective, as alien scout ships had increased their surveillance of Earth and the Solar System.
‘Might as well get this meeting going, now that we’re all here,’ she thought, shaking her head at the slim and dying thread of hope.
“Ladies, Gentlemen,” Nan’mtek said as she scanned the room. With her were five other Council members, and Nan’mtek was surprised they were able to be there given their heavy schedule.
Joining them were Timothy and Ruth, Jaclyn, Jason and Jane, and the scientist Stasi from the S.S. Carolina. Out of the commanding staff, Hoyt and Hollander were also there and would convey needed information to the rest.
“Perhaps we can start with you Jane?”
Jane quickly got up and started her report as a 3D visual displayed in the center of the room. They watched intensely, noting several interesting features on the alien craft as the vid showed Jane, Mike and John running out. Hollander recognized Finley and commented on it, but Nan’mtek asked them all to forget they saw him.
“What do you make of the room, Jane?” General Hoyt asked.
“The elaborate rack appears to be some sort of delivery or loading system. The black spheres don’t appear particularly dangerous, as they’re all sitting there on the steel rack. A good hit on the ship would disturb the racks enough that I could see one falling, so they’re obviously not too afraid of it. But the equipment is very elaborate and nothing I recognize.
“Oh, forgot to mention. They did call it the Singularity Room.”
Nan’mtek’s eyebrows raised as she considered the ramifications.
“Was the room for experiments?” Stasi said.
“We would be very surprised to see a super capital ship carrying out singularity experiments,” Nan’mtek said. “No, it is a weapon.”
Stasi thought for a moment. “You know, it could be.”
“Explain,” General Hoyt said.
“Sir, the ship is huge and the wrong shape from the shield generation standpoint alone. It’s inefficient at that size and ants are anal about efficiency. If it’s that size and shape, then my only conclusion is that they had to make it that way. The only thing I can guess, if in fact they refer to an actual singularity when they say ‘Singularity Room’, is that the ship is a huge Collider that is somehow generating singularities.”
“But what for?” Commander Hollander said. “We’ve created singularities but they only last less than a second.”
“That’s not true, Commander,” Nan’mtek said. “We’ve been able to sustain a singularity for over a minute, under certain conditions. Work on the assumption that they have found a way to somehow stabilize and store a singularity.”
“Well, then this room would be the receiving end, the place where they would either be sent to or stored.” Stasi looked at the balls once again and said, “Of course! Those balls. If they found a way to stabilize the singularity, then a sphere would be the perfect shape. Throw it at something and shut down the energy source locking it in place, and the singularity would escape and consume anything in its path.”
“Anything, such as shields?” the General asked.
“Yes. Everything. It would pass through like a hot knife through butter, but worse. The singularity’s mass would be enormous, and its gravitic force would suck it towards any near object with a lot of mass too, like a magnet attracted to iron. It would randomly propel itself through the object, never leaving it until the singularity collapsed or the object was consumed.”
“But why all those ports on the ship surface facing different directions?” Ruth asked.
“If I’m correct, they’re the tubes the singularity spheres would be ejected from. I’m guessing they can’t take severe directional shifting once the singularity is inside, and a ball would be loaded and shot out in the near direction of the target, or perhaps a number of them would be fired at the same time. Gravity would do the rest.”
“Or then,” Timothy added, “it would allow them to fire all the balls at the same time.” They looked at the dozens of tunnels apparent on the bottom of the disk and presumed the same amount would be on top. A chill worked its way down all their spines.
“My God,” General Hoyt said.
Nan’mtek was seeing this quickly get out of hand. “Any other observations?”
It took a moment for most to regain their composure. “I have one,” Timothy said. “If they are singularities, they would have huge mass. If they are released at the same time, the spheres must have some way of shielding this, at least for a bit. Otherwise, they would be attracted to each other and to the singularity ship itself. Actually, they probably couldn’t even be launched.”
Stasi nodded his head. “Excellent, Mr. Timothy. There’s always a spot for you and Ruth on my team, if you ever decide to change careers,” he said with a smile. “I consider it likely that the spheres stabilize, carry and shield most of the mass until it has passed a certain point, as Mr. Timothy says. We should plan on this assumption, that the worst is very possible.”
“Thank you, Mr. Stasi,” Nan’mtek said. “Please work closely with Captain Elroy Dickens on a countermeasure, if there is one. Let’s proceed to you, Timothy and Ruth. Report.”
Timothy still jarred by what he had heard, proceeded anyway, describing the dust they had started production on and the mould they had gathered and was now growing, together with Stasi’s report.
Nan’mtek listened carefully and replied, “Continue with the production of the dust as you call it, but it’s not the mold we want, it’s the spores. It will be weaponized, and every ship, from fighter to WF is to have every missile and every bullet coated with the spores.”
“But why? Why are these spores so important?” Commander Hollander said.
Nan’mtek smiled and said, “I can’t tell you.”
Hollander and Hoyt protested, but Ruth raised her hand in protest. “Council, we agreed on no more secrets. You also agreed, if memory serves me. You can’t do this.”
“Ruth, Command team, I would suggest we all concentrate on our assigned duties. Some things simply can’t be shared, and this issue is too important to consider out loud. Too much is at stake.”
General Hoyt was exasperated. Spending time bathing every bullet and missile with these spores was time taken away from other extremely important duties, but he didn’t say anything as he was sure the Council had already considered this. He knew they all had the same objective.
“Commander, General. How is the work going on the installations?” Nan’mtek asked as if reading their thoughts.
Hoyt looked at Hollander and replied, “Slightly behind schedule, but we’ve ramped up operations and will be ready before the target date, ten days from now.” The others were curious as to what these operations were but knew better than to ask.
“Good. In five days time, have the... sacrificial lambs jump in and power down. As enemy scouts come in to look around, continue with our average rate of success on them – eight out of ten are to be destroyed. That is all.”
‘Sacrificial,’ Hollander thought, mirroring Hoyt’s thoughts too. ‘How many humans will be sacrificed before this is all over?’ he wondered as they got up to leave.
“Oh, General, one more thing,” Nan’mtek said. “Commence bombing of all the earth bases five days from now. Tighten the net, allow no scouts in or out during the bombing. Tell the base leaders to expect the bombing and allow no human outside during or after.”