Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers Read Online Free

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!”
    As he watched the growing formation, he was unaware of the
increasing force of the gas jetting out from around the steel drill shaft. He
did not see the chip of rock break free from the side of the drill hole, nor
the escaping gas catching it and flinging it upwards. It hit an area of the
metal drill housing which was coated in a thin layer of the frozen gas. The
asteroid’s gas happened to contain an oxidizer and this allowed a small spark
to form and the frozen gas to oxidize. What happened next happened in the blink
of an eye.
    The small spark ignited the lattice formation. Harman didn’t
have time to react as he watched the lattice being devoured by a ghostly blue
flame. Though it surprised him, it did not concern him—the massive explosive
power of the SCAU unit was safely separated into three steel containers.
    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 half way mark the AI sent out a Priority One Mayday and started the release
of all one hundred 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