On the final approach to Torlech 74 they receive a communication from the people on the planet. It tells them that the planet is in quarantine because of a deadly virus which they are trying to contain.
As far as Valpar is aware, there has been little space travel from this planet. Certainly there has been nothing manned outside of both the moons it has circling around it. It is not on the list of planets he has been given, showing which ones The Grand Master or any of the Guiding Masters have ever visited. Therefore, if that is the case, why are they using this tack of information to deter him from landing? Has there been some form of communication from Torlech 72? The information he has would lead him to suggest not, but that isn’t necessarily true. He will only know that when he lands, if he lands.
He decides to send back a response to say that they need to land to do some repairs and that they need some resources to fix their problem. He receives exactly the same message in response to these comments. He tries again, but is only rewarded with exactly the same message once again. This leaves him in a dilemma. He continues to orbit the planet and every now and then communicates with the planet. The vast majority of the surface is covered with water, with only three main land masses where there appears to be any buildings visible. There well may be more under the surface, but all that he can go with for now is what he can see and the sensors can detect. Other than the message which is repeated from different sources on the planet, there is no other response to their approach.
Eventually Valpar decides to break into the atmosphere and see if there is any more information available from a lower orbit. They settle at around forty thousand feet above the surface of the planet. He is a little surprised that no one has come to take a closer look or even escort them down to the ground. More strangely, the sensors are picking up no movement on the ground where they are flying over. Valpar moves over to the next land mass and finds the exact same there. When the third land mass comes up with the same result, he is starting to believe that something is badly wrong down there. The communication has not changed once and there has not been one trace of movement anywhere on the planet.
He decides he will land on one of the land masses and unload two androids there. They can then investigate the situation, before he decides whether he is going to go out there himself. He is loathing not to land here, because the planet is very mineral rich according to the maps The Grand Master supplied. When he nears the ground, he decides to use the ejector chute rather than land. He isn’t sure what makes him change his mind. He takes the same course of action in the other two places. He deposits one android and one of the less capable ones in each place. It is quite eerie as nothing moves anywhere. The first ones he has dropped on the outskirts of the built on areas, but the next two he lands right in the middle of the built up areas. No one and nothing approaches them.
Once he has unloaded his cargo onto the surface, he then rises to about twenty thousand feet to await the outcome of their investigations.
Over the course of the next few days, the ones on the surface search wherever they can. There is transportation they can use on the planet. They commandeer some to make their job easier and quicker. If the message is to be believed, Valpar had expected to find some bodies lying around. So far none have been discovered. The whole planet so far, appears to be deserted. Yet there is no way the people could have escaped off the planet. But then there are no animals moving around either and no dead carcasses.
When the androids find the places where the messages are being transmitted from on each of the land masses, there is a little more explanation, but not much. They find notes there, almost identical in each place.
‘We tried to warn you with the message broadcast. It came overnight with no warning. In the little time we had to analyse it, we found it was a virus. At first it affects the coordination and balance and then after a couple of days it attacks the brain. Everyone and everything ends up walking into the water to their deaths. The sea life here is powerful and aggressive so the people, animals and birds were attacked and eaten as they entered the water. We are not sure whether the virus has mutated enough to take hold on the sea life. We have no idea how the virus spread. Even when we isolated ourselves from the infected ones, we still succumbed to it. Do not leave this place, until you can be certain that you are not carrying this virus on you or with you. If anyone is still alive when you find this note, it will be the ones who live in the mountains. They seem to have more resistance to most things here. This is not the first time a virus has rampaged here. We do not know why this is the case. It is almost as if something is being experimented on here and we are the ones being experimented on.’
CHAPTER 91 RICARDO
The sight that meets his eyes is not a pretty one. The Micro Air Compounder (not that he knows what it is) has made little work of destroying the men. They are not just dead but are going to be impossible for anyone to identify. There is little point in wasting time. He makes his way round the side of the motel and is just starting along the front when more engines can be heard arriving at high speed. It sounds like they all have raised the alarm before he has killed them. Either that or these ones are just a bit late getting here. Either way something is a little different here than he is used to. From just a few guys trying to rob him and failing, it looks like he has the whole gang onto him now. This time three pick-ups race into the lot. They peel apart, with the lead one going straight to where Ricardo’s car is parked. The driver doesn’t brake, but ploughs right into it mounting the bonnet and smashing the windshield. The driver parks up where they are and leaps out along with his three passengers, all brandishing semi automatics. These guys are better armed than the others.
They fan out and are joined by the occupants of the other two pick-ups. Ricardo is facing a wall of ten men, all armed.
‘Hand over the bag boy, so we can see what you’re hiding in there. It’s gotta be pretty big, judging on what Mac told us. Where are the boys?’
‘Resting’ Ricardo responds trying to weigh up how he should deal with this situation. The men start edging forward, closing in on him. He stands his ground, keeping his weapon ready to fire when he gets the chance to do what he has to and be able to survive. Surely he is not meant to die this way!
He knows he must not make any sudden movement to spook these men, or they will open fire. Except that he has the feeling they fear they might destroy what is in the bag and they don’t really want to do that. He takes a quick look at their eyes. They are on the man, but also on his bag. He finds that encouraging.
‘I don’t want to have to do this’ Ricardo suddenly speaks. The men stop, slightly surprised by his comment.
‘What don’t you want to have to do boy? He is asked back by the same man who spoke earlier.
‘All I wanted to do was lay my head down on a pillow and sleep. I was just minding my own business, when some of your buddies burst in trying to rob me of my bag. Then you send some more of your buddies to do the same. Now all I want to do, is get is get in my car and drive away. But I can’t do that, because you have decided to park your truck on top of it. Someone in downtown Manhattan is going to be mighty upset with what you’ve done to his car. I reckon I’ll just have to take one of your trucks instead to make it up to him.’
‘Did I just hear you right boy? You think you are just going to walk up and take our truck and we are going to let you?’
‘Well, that is what you were doing when you broke into my room to steal my bag. Difference is, I decided to defend myself and your buddies came off worse. Then your other buddies tried to do the same and they came off worse too. Now you come here and crush my car and want me to hand over my bag. On top of that, you don’t expect me to defend what is mine. So let me get to the truck and drive off and you can stay alive, unlike your buddies.’
Ricardo notes a slight change to their faces, when he tells them what they have probably already guessed. It actually makes them all take a very fractionally less aggressive stance,
but that isn’t going to last for long. Ricardo takes his opportunity and waves his weapon in a fan firing all the time. It takes him less than a second to disable them all, if not kill them. His eyes quickly seek out who are the likely dangers. He wastes no more time in systematically killing them all. He has a quick glance at his weapon amazed at how deadly it is, how silent it is and how it doesn’t appear to need reloading. It certainly has made this situation come out in his favour, when he would most certainly otherwise be dead.
He makes sure there is nothing left in his car, before selecting one of the pick-ups and before any more of their buddies appear out of the woodwork, he leaves.
It isn’t ideal as he is tired, but he needs to get completely out of this area. Something pops into his head that he should be making for Washington. He doesn’t know how he is going to find his way there, but reckons he will be able to stop in a couple of hours and be able to work it out. He just needs to get out of this area without anything else coming up to stop him. He has a look at the gas tank. It is about three quarters full so he will be ok for quite a while.
He stops later at a truck-stop and gets an early breakfast, along with a roadmap. It is nearly lunch-time when he rolls into Washington. He will find a bed to have a sleep before scouting his target, the one that came to him on the journey through the night.
CHAPTER 92 THE WATCHER
The Watcher is greeted by The Wise Soul, Draton and Elkante, as he walks into their quarters guided by the guards. Bluechen and Marlitta are resting on the beds in one of the bedrooms, as are George and Cassie. The Watcher walks through, to bring them into the main room. He is aware that their every move and sound is probably being watched and recorded, but he is going to tell them nothing other than what has occurred. He explains to them what has happened and how they have reacted when he removed himself from the vortex.
There is a general air of surprise at that. When he has finished telling them, he gets them all to lean in closer, so that their heads are almost all touching each other. It is barely five seconds after he has done that, that the doors burst open and the guards come in. They all sit up and turn in their direction. The guards are followed in by Baram, Melde and Sinca.
‘You are really rattled. I am sure you heard every word I spoke. Then when we put our heads together you burst in. Is there no privacy in this place of yours?’
‘Captives do not have any privacy when they are a threat to the security of Parlantte.’
‘So we are officially captives now are we? It appears that I may have misjudged you.’ He is smiling as he speaks the words.
They huff and puff, but turn round leaving them alone in the room. The Watcher waits for the door to close and they are alone again, before he does what he wants to do next. He thinks the words but does not speak them. He starts with George.
‘If you can hear me in your head please do not reply. I want you to close your eyes instead, for about two seconds.’
George closes his eyes for about two seconds and opens them again. In turn The Watcher goes round the rest of his crew establishing the same manner of contact with the same response from each one.
‘I will now try to go round and link you all together, so that I can speak to you as one. I have not done this before, as I have only ever done a one to one. I am not sure if I can, but I think it must be possible.’ Again he has to do this individually.
One by one he manages to join them together, so that they can all hear him at the same time. He then disconnects George, to test the system before rejoining him once more. He wants to be as certain as he can be that only the seven of them can hear what he is saying. To further test this, he says something controversial about his hosts. It should and would have been enough to bring them running, should they be able to hear him.
Once he is certain that they are secure in their privacy and unable to be heard, he gets them to disperse a little, but still remain in the main quarters. This way it will not look as if they are in even silent discussion. He arranges that if anyone wants to interrupt, then they should tap their hand on the arm of their chair. George is the only one who seems to be able to respond to him and talk back to him in his head. Even then the others can’t hear him when he does so.
He tells them that, even though it would have been an ideal place for them to sit things out for a while, that is not what is going to happen. Without telling them about what he has learned about his inner programmes, he gets the message across that they will not be in an ideal position here, should anyone else find out about Parlantte? Without their craft they will be totally useless in any planned action to restore the Balance of the Universe. They are going to have to come up with a plan where they will be allowed to leave their quarters to start with. Then hopefully they will be able to make it to their craft and release it from their grasp, to escape the force field it has been brought down by.
Without any weapons it is going to be hard. It is also imperative that they do not allow them to split them up. If they do get the chance to leave, then it must be all of them leave. The Watcher knows from what he has seen that he has to keep the crew together. They are going to be the seven who can do something to restore the Balance.
They are interrupted by Baram coming into the quarters along with several guards.
‘We are unable to get within six feet of your craft. Why is this?’
‘It is because the craft is defending itself from you. You have chosen to treat us as captives.’
‘A craft cannot do that on its own. What have you done to it?’
The Watcher allows a smile to creep onto his face.
‘I have no idea what you are talking about, but if you would care to escort us there we will be able to see what you are talking about. I do not know how it can do this. Are you sure it is not something to do with the magnetic force you used to bring the craft down to the surface?’
‘We have turned it off, but it makes no difference.’ Baram says and then quickly follows with ‘so we turned it back on again.’
‘It must have affected some of the systems somehow. I am sure that if it won’t allow you to get close, it will not be able to differentiate between you and us. It is only a space craft. Come on everyone, let’s go and take a look.’
‘You are not all coming’ Baram says huffily. The Watcher sits down again.
CHAPTER 93 VEE & BAR
‘It would appear that when he escaped he came back to the town nearby. We have found the place where he was staying, but he is no longer there. Nor is the family who live there. We believe he may well have got them involved.’
‘We need to get out of here and try to find him.’ Bar says with an agreeing comment from Vee.
‘We have people all over trying to find where he has gone. It is doubtful that two more is going to make any difference. Anyway you are going nowhere at this point. We have to establish exactly what you are and why you are here. We also want to know where you are from and how you came to Earth. On top of that we have trouble breaking out all over the country.’ He stops talking again. ‘Is that anything to do with all this?’ he asks thoughtfully.
‘What sort of trouble have you got breaking out?’ Vee asks from her craft. She is able to easily pick up every word that is being spoken.
The man thinks again before deciding whether to let them know what is happening. He lands on the side of imparting the information.
‘There have been people on the streets vandalising, rioting and such like. It is more than that though. It is as if a terrible frustration has been unleashed. It is growing and growing by the day. There is such violence and it all started soon after this man escaped. It has spread over the channel into Europe and across to North America. Nowhere seems to be free of it and it came out of nothing.’
‘It has started then’ Vee says to Bar.
‘What has started?’ The man asks.
‘It is something that we do not know everything about. In fact as it turns out no one seems to know much about it.’
‘Please don’t talk in riddles. Tell me what you have to say about this.’
‘We need to get out of here and try to do what we can to limit the damage before it takes over’ Bar replies.
‘As I said before, you are not going anywhere until we get some answers. But first I need you to tell me what you mean by ‘it has started then’.’
‘The person the first craft came here to take away is someone who is known as The Keeper. Even he is not really aware of what he is The Keeper of, but putting it simply, he is supposed to be The Keeper of The Balance; The Balance of the whole Universe. In all of time he has never had to do anything. No one knows what he can do if called upon, as it hasn’t happened before. Until now that is. One of the Guiding Masters who oversee all life in the Universe has changed sides. In fact to be more precise, he has decided he will be in charge of everything. It was he who came to earth and kidnapped The Keeper. It would appear he has decided that it is time the Balance of every planet in the Universe is upset. The fact he has The Keeper, means that no one can do anything about it. Something has held everything in control through all time. Now that hold has been released, it would appear that generation upon generation of frustrations have been allowed to be released. Put very basically the power of evil or badness has been released on your planet. We need to get out there to try to stop it.’
‘If you think for one minute that we are going to allow you to just go and cause even more mayhem than is already happening out there, then you have another think coming. We cannot just take your word for it. Who knows what you might do if we allow you to go free again?’
‘We have not harmed you or attacked you.’ Vee states adamantly.
‘That is true, but at this stage we need to know some more answers.’
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