‘That’s Valca’ Elkante says pointing at one of the men.
‘That’s Neca and Balci standing with him. They are his generals.’
‘What’s been going on here?’ Draton asks.
‘I guess we will go and find out. Maybe I should go out alone to start with.’ The Watcher changes what he has planned to say. ‘If you take the controls and as soon as I say I am ready, open and shut the doors as quickly as possible. They won’t let anyone come in other than me for the moment, but we don’t want to antagonise the situation until we find out how the land lies here.’
‘Do you think that is necessary?’ Bluechen asks.
‘Take a look for yourself. This isn’t the sort of greeting I was expecting on Velchitta.’
‘No, you are right. This is most unusual. Actually it is unheard of.’
‘George and Cassie; I need you to just sit down beside Bluechen and Marlitta. Draton, Elkante and The Wise Soul; I think we need to be ready to take off again. I also think we need to be manning the weapons.’
‘You showed me how to use those.’ George says ‘and Cassie can do the doors so that the others can concentrate on their tasks.’
‘Alright.’ he concedes.
He goes to one of the exits and quickly disembarks. He is quickly surrounded by soldiers, but none of them try to get on board or stop the doors from shutting.
He walks over to where Valca is still standing. He notices that the stance is not overly aggressive. The same does not apply to his generals, Neca and Balci.
‘Who have you got on board?’ Valca asks him.
‘I have seven people on board’ he replies.
‘I didn’t ask how many, I asked who they are?’ Valca responds taking a more aggressive tone.
‘I was unaware that I was obliged to give my manifest on landing. Is there a reason for this Valca?’
‘Things have changed. I need you to answer my questions.’
‘You have more than one?’
‘Who exactly have you got on board?’
The Watcher knows he has played this one as far as he can safely. It makes no difference who he has on board. He does not have the one he should have. The fact Valca is here tells him that GM3 has not been to Velchitta since capturing The Keeper.
‘I have Draton and Elkante. I also have The Wise Soul, Bluechen and Marlitta. I then have two others who are not from Velchitta. They are George and Cassie.’ He waits to see what they make of his manifest.
‘What about Velchin, Skilben and Clovetta?’ His stance has resumed a more calm posture.
‘Skilben and Clovetta were killed. Velchin has been captured by Algreb and his crew and one of the Guiding Masters, GM3.’
‘I heard one had been here looking for you. They were not pleased when they realised you had somehow managed to get away. I take it that Draton, Elkante and The Wise Soul were responsible for taking this craft?’
‘Along with Bluechen and Marlitta, they were.’
‘So where are this George and Cassie from?’
‘They are from Earth. It is a long way away.’
‘Not that far as time would have passed.’
‘I believe there have been some time jumps involved. I don’t know how they have occurred, so I can only imagine that someone or something somewhere is making them happen. I guess it all has something to do with The Keeper.’
‘Something has happened. Even here; it used to be so peaceful. First we have those riots out of nothing really and then that Algreb takes control. He then abandons us to go off on this mission with GM3. There is nothing left behind. As soon as the committee realised that Algreb is out of the way for a while, we have several attempted coups. As it turns out nobody is strong enough on their own to take over. I can say that for Algreb; he seized his moment.’
The Watcher lets him tell him all this. He obviously needs to tell him, but he hasn’t asked.
‘So we have violence breaking out in the chamber followed by sporadic violence outside as little groups gelled and tried to take the power house for themselves. I have tried to stay neutral, but I cannot let this reckless and indiscriminate killing continue. I have stepped in and declared Martial law. I have curfews in place, but some are still trying to take over. I have even had two officers of mine rebel and leave. Sadly they are both dead now, but not by our hands. This is not a safe place for you to be. Nor is it a safe place for your passengers. I suggest that you leave as soon as you can, before they realise a craft is here to be taken over.’
‘I will go back and talk to them on board. I will see what they say when I tell them what you have said.’
The Watcher returns to the craft. They do not try to stop him. The soldiers around the craft have now backed off to the perimeter of the landing area.
The Watcher talks to his passengers. None of them have anything or anyone special to stay for. The Watcher advises Valca of this over a speaker. Even as he is doing so, he can hear weapons being used close by.
‘You’d better get going’ Valca says ‘it looks like they have come to try to get your craft.’
He turns his attention to where the noises are coming from and moves his men away, while The Watcher prepares to leave Velchitta.
CHAPTER 30 VEE & BAR
The cover for their craft is not ideal, but it is the best it is going to get. They get their bearings before setting off towards The Watchers craft in the mound. Size is a particular problem for them and the nature of the materials used for their build inhibits the ability for speed. Hopefully at some stage they will be able to get access to some more materials and components to improve things in that area. There is no imminent danger in their path as they move through the undergrowth. Progress is slow though, as they don’t want to risk using any of the paths and roads that they start to come across after a few hundred yards. They are unlikely to have left a trail back to where they’ve parked up and no scent either.
The quiet is broken by the sounds of several helicopters and a couple of fighter planes flying overhead. They are all flying in circles over the area, but at different levels. Vee and Bar know they have been tracked, but thankfully too late to find them still in their craft. Hopefully they didn’t manage to get a fix on the exact location of their landing. Obviously the low level they had flown at was insufficient to totally avoid detection.
Vee signals for them both to stop. She has just come into view of the mound. She can make out a distorted shape forming part of the mound. It is not this that has caused her to temporarily halt their progress. It is the number of military personnel in the field and swarming away from this field in all directions, including theirs. It seems a major operation is in progress. Surely this can’t just be a reception committee for them. Something else must be going on, but it must have something to do with the spacecraft and the people connected with it. It can really only mean one of two things really. They have lost someone; either the crew member or the one who was always been on Earth, Ricardo.
Vee has been under the impression that The Watcher had informed them that the crewman was dead. That means the other one, Ricardo, must still be very much alive but worse than that, escaped from their custody. It all adds up to making life more difficult when they want to get close to the craft. Reluctantly they swing round and take a slightly more circuitous route to the craft.
When they reach the edge of the field and come nearly out of the hedge they’ve scrambled through, they see that the mound is not as closely guarded as it had appeared from a distance. Even so, it will be quite a risky exercise trying to approach the craft without being detected, despite their small size. They have a discussion and decide they will wait a few hours for dusk and relative darkness to fall, before attempting to cross the open field.
When the time does come and the daylight seriously starts to fade, the guards have a pair of searchlights which they switch on. It is controlled by a random sequence, so is quite hard to predict where the beam will shine next. Vee and Bar believe that their si
ze is the key to getting there. The guards are looking for human size people, so hopefully they will not notice very small people. Well, a woman and a dog making their way to the mound.
They have just set out from the safety of the hedge, when they see that the searchlights are not the only means of defence they are relying on. Surely they haven’t picked up anything from the short distance they have moved away from the hedge. It is hard to answer if they have seen, heard or smelt them, but it is inescapable to notice the two German shepherd dogs making pretty much in their direction. Vee and Bar stop in their tracks and flatten themselves to the ground. As they do so they hear a shrill whistle. It is at a very high frequency. The dogs turn immediately away from them and run over somewhere out of sight the other side of the mound.
Vee and Bar jump up, wasting little time getting to their feet again. The searchlight continues with its random spotlighting of areas, but you would be hard pushed to pick out the little of Vee and Bar that shows above the grass in the field.
They reach the mound without further incident. To the right is the area dug out to release The Watcher. The top of the spacecraft is a molten lump of metal. Even down the sides the metal is melted and misshapen. The burners have done an excellent job of melting the visible areas of the craft into one big molten blob of metal. When it cooled, it left no possibility of accessing any of the doors. They move around a bit further and find the craft has been dug out to the level of the door The Watcher left by, pretty much all the way round. Any other doors there may have been at that level, are going to be inoperable. Vee and Bar had been hoping to locate one of these doors to gain entry, but that now is certainly out of the question.
Bar suddenly starts to dig a hole. Vee makes sure she is standing to the side, so as not to get a mouthful of earth.
He pulls Vee closer.
‘We are going to try to dig down to the small items chute. As that is just on the underside of the craft, it might be unaffected by the heat from the burners. There are no other doors but the chute is big enough for us to gain entry, if we can still open it.’
‘We will have to dig the tunnel a little wider than us and then put the earth behind us as we dig. That will leave us in a little underground cell.’
CHAPTER 31 MARIO & TZ
Mario leaves the apartment to go looking for a target vehicle for them to borrow. TZ spends the time he is away sorting some of her things firstly and then some of his after that. She has just about finished when he comes back.
‘So what do we have?’ she asks him.
‘We haven’t got anything’ he replies glumly ‘it appears they have changed things a bit since I was fourteen. I tried a few, but I wasn’t even getting close to getting in any, let alone start them. I think I have lost my touch.’
‘I don’t think you ever had a touch like that. It was only because the guy left the keys in the car and said it was his own fault that you got off.’
‘You’re right sis. But what you just said has given me an idea. I heard one of the boys saying at work that his cousin works out at the airport. He says that he has heard of loads of people leaving cars for others in the garage parking. Then they leave the key on top of the front tire. We could go out to the airport and pick us up a fancy job for our journey to Boston.’
‘Right let’s contact the guy and arrange to see his vehicle, say tomorrow.’ TZ says going over to the computer and looking for the item once more. ‘Look the guy has got a cell fone number on the listing. I’ll use my fone to ring him.’
TZ goes into her room to ring the guy. She is away for about fifteen minutes before she returns. She has a smile on her face.
‘Someone’s looking pleased with herself’ Mario says smiling at his sister.
‘This someone has got an address. The guy says tomorrow afternoon would be good for him as he is around then. I asked a little about the vehicle. I made him laugh when I said we want to buy it to start a war.’
‘Good going there Sis, I guess you also asked him if he could supply some missiles and automatic weapons.’
‘Not exactly, but when I said I was going to start a war, he said he had enough weapons there to get us started. I just laughed at that.’
‘Nice going Sis.’ Mario gives his sister a hug.
‘We’d better get the cash out of its hidey hole before we go. Somehow I don’t think we will be back to collect it.’
They walk into the kitchen together. TZ bends down and removes the kick plate at the front of the kitchen units. She pulls out the back pack from under there. Mario then goes to the cooker and pulls it out. Then leaning it backwards, he pulls a bag out that has been tucked underneath it.
They put both their bags on the table to open them.
‘Have you been in my bag?’ TZ asks him.
‘No, but I was just going to ask you the same. There is more in here than the last time I put some in.’
‘Mine is the same. She takes out a couple of wads of notes and starts counting.’
Mario does the same and all is quiet for a few minutes, while they count their unexpected bonus money.
‘Someone’s got to have added about $5000 to mine.’
‘Same for me!’ TZ says.
‘Who could have wanted to put that much in each of our bags? Who knows where they are except for us. There is something going on in our lives that we aren’t aware of. Someone is pushing our buttons. Someone is on our case and is, oh I don’t know what!’
‘Let’s go and get the bus to the airport. We can try to work out this thing later.’
They pack up their bags, keeping a small amount of cash out for spending money. Spending money for things like for a hotel and to put some gas in the car they are about to try to steal.
They catch the bus to the terminal at JFK and then another to the long stay car park. They walk some way into the lot, before they start to search for keys on top of front tires. There are a few people around, either going back to their vehicles or leaving them as they go off on a journey. They try to act as if they are trying to find where they have parked their car, as if they can’t remember whereabouts in the lot it is. Then just as they were starting to think this is a rotten idea TZ strikes it lucky. She whistles to Mario and smiles when he spots the keys in her hand. In the meantime TZ is climbing inside and looking to see if there is a ticket. She finds it tucked into the sun visor.
‘Come on Mario’ she says as he ambles over to her ‘We don’t have all day. Someone could be here any minute to pick this one up.’
He doesn’t reply, but goes to the passenger side and gets in. He chucks their bags over into the back seat. He then takes the ticket from her. The car has been in the lot only for a couple of hours.
‘I’ll tell you what is strange’ he says slowly as he inspects the insides of their Ford Edge ‘This is a rental, so why has someone left it at an airport, but not in the rental bays?’
‘I don’t know but we have it now. It’s gonna be quite a while before it is missed I hope. That way we won’t have to worry too much.’
TZ starts the engine and moves out of the space towards the exit. She stops by the machine, where she gets out and pays the fee. Two minutes later they are leaving the airport and heading towards Boston. The tank is just over half full of gas, so they should have enough to make it there without topping it up.
CHAPTER 32 SPIRIT
Spirit finds the cockpit of the craft is quite snug. There is room for another person should the need arise, but it is not ideal. He makes sure he is well away from the base before he decides to take a closer look at what he has been given. The fact this craft was concealed under the other spare craft there, tells Spirit that he has not come from anywhere else. He has been waiting for his moment in time to come and now it is here. This space craft has been waiting for this time too.
The engines and power systems are Air Micro Compounder Engines. There is no real fuel as such, other than the compressed air pellets that are used to supply the initial power each t
ime the craft is started up. Once that has been activated, the Compounder multiplies that energy rapidly. This is only limited by the required use of the power. To run all the systems on a craft takes relatively little power, so there is a limiter which only allows sufficient power to be created for this use. For travel through space or just over the surface of planets, the energy is diverted into the thrusters and burners. Here every piece of energy used is compounded creating a staggeringly powerful engine power. There are limiters here too; otherwise the craft would not be able to take the strain and pressure of the continuing compounding of the energy.
Spirit decides to give it a test and see what the craft is capable of. He makes sure he is well strapped in, as he has a feeling that the G forces on acceleration might be frightening. He is right to do so. Wherever and for how long this craft has been waiting under the floor for him to come and fetch it, it has been fitted with the very latest engines and Air Micro Compounder. Spirit knows this craft is only small, but the results of his test tell him he has as advanced a vehicle as is possible in the Universe.
Having satisfied himself as to the speed and manoeuvrability of the craft, he now turns his attention to the defence and attack mechanisms available to him. Somehow he knows exactly where to look, although he had not been aware of that before he found them. He knows somewhere he will find a code or access to view the defence. As he is looking around the console, the screen in front of him lights up. He sits back in his chair to watch the screen.
It shows him how a force field is created around the craft, just by his thought to do so. It has something to do with the key sequence that has happened earlier. Only he can activate and deactivate the force field. It is also linked to an Air Micro Compounder, but it is a separate unit to the engine and power systems unit. The defence shield makes the air around the craft so dense that it cannot be penetrated by anything, or so the screen says. The story moves straight on to the attack features of the craft. Again they are thought activated and controlled or can be used manually, but again only by Spirit. This craft has been designed and built solely for his use. The weapons for attack consist of two items. Firstly there is the Air Micro Compounder Laser which is capable of hitting and destroying at up to 1000 miles distance. The Laser is not a straight line laser, but can be fired at anything in any direction and it will make for its target, even when moving and twisting and turning. The screen says this beam is capable of not only disabling a normal size space carrier, but it is also capable of totally destroying it too, should that be the required action.
The Grand Master Page 9
