Deadly Deception
By Michael P. Rogers
Copyright 2013 Michael P. Rogers
Prologue
The sleek silver craft initiated braking manoeuvres half a million miles from Earth. The occupants of the craft needed time to think. Plans had to be assessed, tactics analysed, simulated and proven before the next move, which would only be taken when one hundred per cent success could be guaranteed; a possible failure was not something to ponder over.
They wanted planet Earth to add to the long list of worlds that they had taken over and colonised; poisoning their atmosphere and destroying all indigenous life forms as coldly and casually as treading on an insect, in their path through the universe. They hadn’t any feelings, for they were not flesh and blood.
Their ship’s sensors had been analysing the many broadcasts emanating from Earth, and they used these to build up a detailed picture of our habits and way of life. A cunning plan was carefully devised, and the craft continued on towards the third planet with its deadly intentions; more were to follow. In the small hours it descended covertly through the clouds and fog, landing in waste ground somewhere in the London suburbs.
Nothing registered its arrival; its technology was far too sophisticated for even a blip to be noticed on a radar screen. What appeared on the waste ground when dawn broke bore no resemblance to a ten thousand ton space ship, it was something far more commonplace, simulated faultlessly by means of highly advanced holographic imagery, and it looked totally convincing. Also, throughout the night, the brain patterns of the local population were probed and modified remotely by the malevolent visitors. This was an important part of the plan.
Just another Day
Steve Collins waited for the bus into town as usual, hardly noticing the new supermarket that stood opposite the block of flats. He remembered having had a strange dream during the night; really weird, but nothing that he could recollect. Seeing the bus pulling up, he jumped on it and his thoughts quickly turned to yet another long boring day at the office. Pulling out a crumpled shopping list from his pocket, he thought he’d better not forget about it when he returned on the bus from work or he’d be in big trouble with Susan. Okay, there was quite a lot to get but it was only a short walk from Merryfield’s supermarket across the road to his flat, and he’d borrow one of their shopping trolleys if he had to.
While she was waiting for breakfast, little Jane Woods eased her electric wheelchair up to the balcony window in the top floor of the block of flats. She was seven years old and had a severe physical and mental disorder. She enjoyed looking out across the rooftops. While she was giggling with glee at the people crawling about like ants far below, something caught her attention.
She cried, “Mummy, there’s a new supermarket over the road!” “Don’t be silly Jane, it’s been there for ages!” her mother replied, surprised she hadn’t noticed it before, but forgiving her for her mistake all the same. Jane doubted her mother’s words but didn’t want to get into trouble like so many times before, so she said quietly “So it has mummy.” Just to keep her calm.
After slamming the fridge door shut in anger, her mother called to her, saying “Damn! We’re out of milk. I’ll have to pop over the road and get some more. I shouldn’t be too long Jane.” She left the flat and headed towards the lift, wondering how long it would take to arrive today. Punching the button, she heard it ascending from a few floors below and sighed with relief.
On the way down she was hoping they had some offers on at Merryfield’s, as her purse was getting very light. When the lift doors opened on the ground floor she bumped into Joan Carter who was staring out across the road, and surprised her saying “Good morning Joan, daydreaming again?” Joan replied, slightly startled, “Oh hello Pauline, I was wondering if I needed to do any shopping this morning!”
“I’m just going over to the supermarket for a couple of pints of milk. My daughter is waiting impatiently for her breakfast. Why don’t you come with me?” said Pauline hopefully. She welcomed a change of company now and again because she didn’t have many people to talk to on the fifteenth floor with there being just her and her daughter Jane to look after. “Okay let’s go then, I’m sure there’s something I need.” Joan said smiling.
The First Victims
They approached the supermarket entrance, went through the door and Joan grabbed a trolley. “It looks as though we’re the first customers. Mind you, it’s only just turned eight o’clock.” commented Pauline, glad that it wasn’t crowded. The lights were blazing, illuminating the row upon row of aisles stacked high with goods.
What seemed very strange was the shortage of staff; it was so quiet. The whole place was almost empty apart from a few shelf stackers. They walked through the security tag detectors and it was precisely then that the scene changed abruptly and dramatically. The illusion that had been presented to them before they entered was not necessary now; they had fallen into the trap!
They stood gazing round an empty cubicle approximately eight feet square with green lights shining feebly overhead, wondering where they were, and that’s when they noticed them. Standing in front of a doorway were two smiling humanoid robots wearing Merryfield’s supermarket uniforms with a large smiley face badge pinned on them, with ‘Can I Help You?’ printed on them. One of the robots spoke to them politely in a perfect local accent, “Follow us, ladies. We’ll show you where the special offers are.” The two women followed obediently through a narrow corridor with Joan pushing her shopping trolley as a door hissed shut behind them. Jane would never see her mother again.
Steve climbed wearily off the bus at six o’clock carrying his briefcase, glad to be away from the office at last and tramped over to the supermarket feeling a bit disgruntled that he’d got to cart a load of shopping home after a tiring day. “At least it doesn’t look crowded. That’s something I suppose.” he sighed dejectedly. He spotted the frozen food section on the second aisle and made straight towards it passing through the security barrier. The trap was triggered once more! He never made it home with the shopping.
Missing Persons
Jane Woods had been screaming her head off for hours until a neighbour heard her and knocked several times on the door. She finally opened the door, sitting in her wheelchair with tears streaming down her face and cried pathetically, “My mummy hasn’t come back from the supermarket yet and she’s been gone all day. I haven’t had my breakfast yet and I’m hungry! Where is she?” Mrs Williams from the next flat tried to console her without any effect and ended up phoning the police in frustration. Social Services were called in and took her into care until her mother could be found.
“He’s a long time with a few bits of shopping! It’s almost seven!” moaned Sue Collins as she peered through the window. It was nearly seven thirty when she decided to go over the road and see what was taking him so long. She threw her coat on and slammed the door shut behind her in a temper as she left the flat. She eventually arrived at Merryfield’s hoping he might at least be on the check-out, and raced through the entrance to look for him.
The trap opened and she unknowingly entered a passageway into the depths of the spacecraft. Shocked by the sudden change in appearance of the surroundings, she ran around in tears and panicked, trying to find a way out. She thought she heard strange noises coming from a room somewhere nearby. Following the noises, she slid open a door and found her husband clamped to a metal table in the process of being dissected by an automated device bristling with razor sharp blades and wheels. His heart was exposed and pumping wildly while part of his rib cage was being removed with a spinning metal blade. Screaming until her face went purple, she fainted.
The Surgery
Zalkar walked in and saw the human specimens being dissected and
said “This is excellent, now we have four of their kind for analysis. We will soon discover an efficient means of wiping out these pathetic creatures completely and have this entire planet for ourselves.” Zalkar was far superior to the standard lower class of robots. A living brain had been incorporated into his titanium skull many years ago. The brain had been removed from an unfortunate species on one of the many worlds they had taken, and connected intricately to his decision processing circuits, giving him a more intuitive insight than just binary 1’s and 0’s, true or false. He gave the orders; nothing was done without his approval. He was the master of them all. The remaining fleet of one thousand ships waited patiently for his order to follow. They would only be called when all life had been erased and the path was clear for colonising and building on their newly acquired world.
Merryfield’s Supermarket
It was decided to carry on with the supermarket illusion as they now had sufficient specimens to examine for their purposes. Humanoid robots looking surprisingly authentic were used to staff the tills and stack the aisles. There was one particularly embarrassing moment when one of the male shelf
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