The Grand Master

by Bill Stenlake

  Spirit waits to see if there are any messages going to come to him. Has this craft gone back to discuss what he has said before a decision is taken? He doesn’t know, but he is prepared to wait it out. He will give them some time to come to a decision. Something inside him tells him that he isn’t going to see a green light invitation. He decides to retreat a little further away, while giving them the time he thinks they might need.

  He sets the instruments onto a high alert, not just for activity on Luvus, but from the rest of Boristal 7 too. He does this just in case they have weaponry capable of being launched from elsewhere on the planet, however unlikely that may be.

  CHAPTER 54 THE GRAND MASTER

  The length of the journey is unimportant to The Grand Master. What he knows is that he has as many androids as the craft can comfortably hold. He thinks about stopping off, not exactly on the way, to pick up some of the ones on Luvus. But in the end he decides that if he doesn’t have enough with him on board once they have all been constructed, then another twenty or so won’t make too much difference.

  He has been expecting some sort of communication from the Guiding Masters, after the point when he knew he was in the home stretch. There is normally a point on the approach, a long way out, when he should have been contacted to confirm that it is indeed him on the inbound craft. When the others have been out on their missions and he has been in the base, this was sent as an automatic transmission. He thinks that it is highly unlikely that this has been abandoned as a practice. That in itself can only really mean one thing. They know it is not one of their own coming in and they are probably guessing that it is him. If this O is as good as he needs to be, he will know that it is The Grand Master coming in. Surely then he will do something to prevent him from reaching them. But then it would have to be something that The Grand Master does not know about. He knows about the basic defence mechanism and that is no match for him. At the very least, what he has on his craft now is just as powerful.

  He sits himself in front of the console to let his eyes see for themselves what the Guiding Masters might throw at him to stop him landing. Maybe he is not as close as he has initially thought. The lights are showing on the console to show the distance and time left until his arrival. But and it is a big but, he is starting to realise; either the coordinates are wrong or there is nothing there. At the moment there is nothing there for him to see.

  He checks and double checks the coordinates he has entered, but they are correct. He is now virtually on top of the place he should be at. The only problem is that he is sitting in the middle of space with nothing around him in any direction, as far as the sensors can pick up. Whether they knew he was coming or not is irrelevant. The base has moved and that is something he had been unaware of that it could do. He takes over manual control of his craft and makes a circle round the area where the base used to be. There is nothing there, nothing left of the base at all. GM6 & GM7 do not have the knowledge to do that. They wouldn’t have known the base could move. He wasn’t aware of that and he had been a Guiding Master from the very beginning of their time.

  He suppresses a surge of frustration and switches the controls back onto the system. He then starts to ask himself some questions, about how the base would move and how long ago had it done so. Surely it could not have been long. Maybe it had been done when they realised that he was on his way there. At what point would they have known that? In truth that is probably at the point where the automatic signal would have been sent out.

  He starts to get a little excited about that prospect. That is because if that is the case, there may well be something traceable still in the space around to indicate in which direction it has left. He starts to punch some information requests into the on board system. He then allows the system to start to analyse the space around the coordinates where the base has been up to this point. At first there is no reward for his efforts, but after a few minutes a light comes on to let him know something has been discovered. There is a minute trace of a passage leaving the area. It is miniscule, but it has been picked up. The Grand Master would have expected there to have been a stronger trace than that, if they have left relatively recently. That can mean probably only one of two possibilities.

  Firstly, that they left way before he even got close to the signal being triggered to request confirmation of his authority to approach, or secondly, that the base has moved away using a very low propulsion in the hope of not leaving a trail behind it.

  Either way, he has the direction it has left in and they are one and the same. He turns on his defences to maximum and starts off in the direction to pursue the base. The further away he gets from the original area the stronger the trace is. Again it could be for either reason, but the trend he is getting points to it being the second option. Their speed is only being very gradually increased to minimalize a chase.

  This gives The Grand Master heart, as it makes him believe that they are trying to escape him. They know they will not be able to resist him taking over the base. This makes him slightly more reckless and increase the speed of his pursuit. His heart jumps when he gets a communication appear on the screen, but it is only the usual ‘declare who you are’ message. That means he is closing in. He increases his speed to maximum and it is not long before he has them on his console screen. Their speed decreases as they realise he is closing on them and soon he is alongside ordering them to open the launch pad. There is no response, but the pad is opened for him to land on the base.

  CHAPTER 55 THE BADDIES

  Valpar watches as the hall of people is brought under control. The masses of people outside have scattered as soon as they realised that the meeting taking place in the hall is turning into a killing field. The people in the hall, for the first time in many years, group together and unite in their fear of these people and their killing machines.

  Once order has been restored, Valpar sends the dictate that all weapons must be brought to the hall within twenty four hours. The people only have these 24 hours to comply. If he, or any of his men and androids, finds any weapons as they search the planet after that, they will execute not only that person who has the weapons, but also one hundred others. There appears to be some agreement to comply. Valpar then selects 10 of their number to represent the people of the planet. These are the ones who will take Valpar’s instructions and pass them onto the masses to carry out. They will have to build secure places for Valpar and his men to stay while they visit. They will have to build secure places for the minerals to be stored. This puzzles the inhabitants as they have done little mining to this stage, other than what they need for their technology. Valpar says they will have to mine for gold, diamonds and platinum amongst other things. They will also have to work harder than they have been in the habit of doing.

  There is a little muttering, but they do not have the resistance to do anything about it. Seven days later everything is under control and Valpar has left to make his way to his next target. One man and 6 androids have been left to oversee his new wealth. There will be more androids built, but with nothing like the capability of the original ones.

  - - - -

  Grillech comes out of his travel pod as his craft approaches the first of his targets, Minelgea. Minelgea is a planet that has been colonised and populated for a long time. There are large areas of desert which are unpopulated. There are also many large areas of populations. The planet has somewhere in the region of 100 million people spread over maybe 15 or 20 different regions of the planet. From the information he has been given there are differing levels of the spread of wealth. The planet is extremely rich in minerals, but that wealth is controlled and owned by just a few.

  Grillech also notes that these people have tried to launch their own space programme. They have also developed some particularly effective weapons of war, which have been used against themselves at varying times of their history. His information tells him that there is little evidence of the different areas helping each other out at any time of attack
from their neighbours. On one hand that makes his task easier, but on the other hand it gives him many battles to be won. He has pinpointed his place of landing near to what he considers to be the most fortified and armed section of the planet.

  As they start their final approach, they detect that they have been noticed and that someone at least is trying to lock onto their craft. This is not totally unexpected, but still not particularly welcome. He has chosen not to communicate before he lands, although he is well aware that he could do so and they could receive it. What he doesn’t want is for them unite and make his task any harder than is possible.

  The inhabitants are watching as he starts his final descent. It must be becoming clear to those on the ground, exactly who is going to be graced with their visit. Suddenly missiles are launched in his direction. This is not an ideal scenario, but he knows he has to deal with it ruthlessly. He instructs his three micro fighter androids to launch their craft. Fitted with Air Micro Compounder engines and air compounder weaponry, they are a formidable attack craft. They need to be, as a barrage of missiles and aircraft are launched in their direction from multiple locations. Grillech makes sure his systems are noting the source of these missiles and planes.

  The first missiles are taken out by the defence systems of the main craft. They are still being launched from even more places across the planet. Grillech believes that at least 3 different areas are aiming their missiles on him now. His attack craft get down to the job of engaging the airplanes at a lower level. It is no contest, as the air micro powered craft are so fast and manoeuvrable they are running rings around what would normally be considered fast and powerful craft. They deal with the attack so swiftly that soon the assault ceases, but Grillech does not stop there. He is wary that there may be further craft held back. He aims his weapons on the missile bunkers, while his attack craft destroy the airfields and helicopter pads on the ground. An hour after the initial attack has commenced, the battle is won. Grillech then flies towards the next area where the exercise is repeated successfully. Area after area is nullified, with each area having amazingly similar defences. It would be astonishing if there hadn’t been communication between them all, but it only really appeared to have happened towards the end. Even then despite a mass assault from the last five areas, they are easily disposed of in customary fashion by the invading force.

  If the inhabitants are hoping that their attackers are going to run out of firepower and ammunition, they are going to be extremely disappointed. The discovery of the amazingly simple air micro compounder weaponry means that there is no need for arsenals. The technology is self-fulfilling, as long as there is something left. It is impossible to use that last particle.

  CHAPTER 56 RICARDO

  They take two vehicles with them when they leave an hour later. John has left in one vehicle with his Mum and Mike, about fifteen minutes before Ricardo and Tim. The idea is for them to travel towards the Motorway and make sure the route is alright to travel on. It is a good job they do that, because they get stopped at a checkpoint on the edge of Exmouth. A quick search of the vehicle is done, but also each passenger is asked to get out of the vehicle. Two officers come up to each passenger and are comparing their face to a picture they have. John says that he didn’t get a look at the picture, but they know it is of Ricardo. No sooner are they through the checkpoint than they phone Tim to let him know he can’t use that way out.

  Tim is pretty sure that will mean all the roads out of Exmouth are going to have a checkpoint. He had a funny feeling the moment Ricardo mentioned he had been brought by taxi back to Exmouth, that they might block the roads. He tries to think of the different ways out of town that he knows and where they might put the road blocks. When it comes down to it there aren’t that many roads out, but it will still take half a dozen or so road blocks to be effective. He also reckons that they will be checking any boats going out along the estuary or upstream for that matter. He will have to think of another way out. Suddenly a thought comes to him. It is a good job he has a 4 x 4, because he is going to need it. If he can do it unnoticed that would be good too, but that is going to be down to luck.

  They leave the house and instead of making out on the Exeter Road, they make towards the holiday park on the other edge of town. Tim is hoping that they haven’t put the block before there. He reckons that more likely it will be up by the Budleigh roundabout because of the lanes. The lack of a queue as he approaches the turn to the holiday park bodes well for him being right. He’s been up here several times before and if he is right, there is access to the fields at the end of the park. Hopefully there won’t be a padlock on the gate.

  The holiday park is fairly busy, but no one pays them undue attention as they stop right at the gate. Tim is relieved that he isn’t going to have to use the cutters, as the gate is unlocked. Ricardo nips out to open the gate. No one shouts, because no one really takes notice of a dirty 4 x 4 going onto farmland. The track leads through the field, climbing slowly before falling into a dip just before the next gate and the next field. Tim has only seen as far as here. Ricardo opens the next gate and they find themselves in a field with some cows grazing. The cows look up expectantly and stand watching them, while chewing the cud. There is no real track across this field, but Tim can see a gate in the far corner. This field is climbing steadily again as is the cliff along the right hand edge of the field. The next field levels out some and once into that field they are no longer in sight of the holiday park at all. More to the point they are out of sight from anyone who might look up to the fields and see them crossing them. The farmer calling the police out would not be helpful in their quest to escape.

  This field is empty other than grass. There is a gate through to a field at the left hand side of this field, but when they get there they see that there are reasons why they shouldn’t go that way. Firstly it goes downhill; secondly as they can see no gates on the two sides going away from the holiday park; but the main reason is that coming through the gate at the bottom of the field is a tractor. They haven’t been spotted, as the farmer is just closing the gate. Tim quickly reverses away as quietly as he can.

  They swing up to look along the top border of the field. There isn’t a gate but the hedge is very thin in places, but not thin enough to get through. Tim goes to the other side of the field. Here it borders the cliff in places and also has the coastal footpath running along the edge. They hadn’t noticed it previously because the edge of the field is a little lower than the rest of the field.

  The footpath has not always been here, but as the cliff has eroded so the footpath has moved inland, hence it now running along the edge of the field. In the top corner there is a gap made in the hedge where the path runs through it. Tim makes for this point while Ricardo keeps an eye on the gate to see if the tractor is coming their way. So far it isn’t.

  The gap through the hedge is not really wide enough, but Tim forces his way through anyway. Out the other side they are on the footpath, which they have to follow for about fifty yards before the path narrows too much for them to follow anymore. However on their left now, with just a broken old fence between them and it, is a golf course fairway. Tim doesn’t even stop to think about it, but goes straight through onto the course. There is no one in sight as they follow the edge down, until they come across a rough track. They follow that downwards further until they come out near the clubhouse. They get a couple of odd looks from two golfers unloading their clubs from cars in the car park, but that is all.

  CHAPTER 57 THE WATCHER PARLANTTE

  ‘So coming back to what I was asking; what do you know about George and Cassie?’

  ‘When you gave us the names of the people you had on the craft with you when you arrived, we knew nothing of them. Almost immediately we receive a communication; well that is not correct. We were directed towards a file on our system, which we were unaware that existed until that second. Of course there is no track of where this file appeared from, but it does tell us a little bit a
bout them. Before I answer you that, I need to clarify a point about something we said a little while back. It will lead to the answer to your question. When we said that we got everyone together we know about, that is exactly what we did. What that didn’t say was that we were not at full strength. When your craft left for Earth we found that we were four people short. They had disappeared. The reason they managed to do that is that the four were two couples. But even that turns out not to be correct information.’

  He stops to have a sip of his drink before he continues.

  ‘One of the couples turns out to be a brother and sister. Even now we are not sure how they came to be selected for this expedition, as that wouldn’t have been helpful. We just have to accept that we have found out that they were brother and sister. These two secreted away on one of the trailers with you when you left here. There were already two more people on board the craft. They were a strange couple and we really wondered how they had been chosen for the expedition. They must have been in the motorised trailer, as none of the others would have been capable of a safe landing. From the information we have been given about the time when you landed on Earth; after you detached from the trailers you dropped down close to the surface of the planet. The others initially took off and left the Earth’s atmosphere, until such time as they were in a different arc to your craft. Your instruments would not have picked them up anyway, as you thought they were off to other planets. Someone overrode the coordinates you had entered. The craft, as soon as it was out of your arc, came back down to Earth on a continent across a large expanse of water. It would appear these four people had been chosen as sleepers. Whereas The Keeper is a force for good, these four people were sent along as sleepers, but as a force for bad or evil.’