They knew that jeterium had indeed been seeded many years ago by others of their race, but the deliberately small deposits had been washed away by the sea. Recent tidal activity reversed the process so revealing the stones once more. Because the Zennitians had evolved fantastic longevity this very lengthy pause in their experiments was of no concern. Instead of watching possible usage by medieval people they were very keen to concern themselves with those of the twenty-first century. They were just as fascinated by Professor Bettrinski’s and James’s and Martin’s discovery as that team was because, although it was a Zennitian element and they knew its molecular construction, they had never linked it with bettronium.
They learned of the experiments through an ability common in their society but only in vague form on earth - telepathy. When in company with others they could tell what people were thinking without having to wait for speech. Like many attributes the skill had evolved over centuries; now it was accepted as perfectly normal.
One of the Zennitians had taken employment with a firm making microwave ovens, guessing that developments might be of interest to the Watchers. From colleagues he learned of the firm’s link with Grantacaster University and so decided it would be useful to go there. He joined a course in which students attended seminars led by members of Professor Bettrinski’s team, then from James picked up his thoughts about the moltation experiments. The Zennitian was pleased to report the developments with jeterium. At home in Zennitia the element was referred to in their language but on earth all the Watchers preferred to use English whenever they were observing people whose language it was.
K1, whose real name was Bertrand Welchrey, also contrived to join seminars at Grantacaster. Whilst listening to James he could only detect a somewhat distant demeanour, as though his thoughts were elsewhere. He determined to get more information from James in the way he knew best - threats and torture. Accordingly he drifted quietly outside the building until James emerged and watched him find a car in the staff car park. Noting its number he carefully hacked into the Vehicle Registration database using a program he had stolen from a previous victim’s laptop. In this way he discovered James’s address. He then contacted K2, aka Jude Breasket, and the two staked out James’s house, ready they felt sure to get very valuable information about the black stone material.
Success in their nefarious activities over the years had made them slightly vulnerable. MI5 had tailed them to the university where yet another addition to the course had attended the same seminars as Welchrey and the Zennitian. James’s preoccupation had prevented him spotting the newcomers, though student changes were not unknown as occasionally ones dropped out and others changed courses. So as the two criminals walked stealthily at night from their separate cars to James’s house a sixth sense warned them they were being watched. Learning from long practice they immediately aborted their attempt and managed to get away without being tracked further. But they put on hold their intention to attack James.
Another group showing great interest in the black stones were the jewellers who had advertised for them with attractive offers. Though it appeared they were interested in developing a new line of necklaces they had no such intention. They were simply a group of characters who lived by their wits and rightly conjectured that the finds might gain value, possibly significantly so. In their adverts they quoted a fashionable London address, but once the supply of returns dried up they vacated the accommodation they had rented at a very high price, hoping for adequate returns in the future. Thus they possessed the greatest amount of jeterium anywhere. They had no inkling of its properties or what would become its inordinate value.
Having once successfully dodged under the radar of MI5’s surveillance, Welchrey and Breasket trailled James again to his home, this time with one following their quarry and the other carefully observing from a distance. This time MI5 had not detected them, so Welchrey was able to reach James as he paused in the drive to his house to get his door key out of his pocket. He tried to hit James on the base of his skull and so temporarily disable him. But he received the shock of his life, and shudderingly up his arm, as his fist recoiled as though he had hit concrete. James jerked forward slightly and turned to confront his assailant. Panicking Welchrey tugged out a knife and stabbed at James only to feel the knife rebound with a further shock to his arm. James then aimed a fist to the side of Welchrey’s jaw. Completely shocked by his inability to dominate a victim and by that man’s attack, Welchrey turned and fled away from a situation well beyond his control. Puzzled and alarmed Breasket ran after him.
It was fortunate that James had experimented with the moltation experiment. The Prof had declared that their small amount of bettronium should be locked in the lab safe and that the combination be changed to a new number known only to the three of them. But when the other two left James decided to experiment on his own with his piece of jeterium and so collected a small sample of bettronium which he placed in a small lead tube and put in his pocket along with his jeterium. As a last thought he opened the tube and immediately felt the protective force field envelop him. Then, fortunately, he decided to keep it in place as he had done when the three colleagues had tried personal experiments. This one saved him injury and possibly his life.
Secure inside his house, knowing his attacker had fled in fear, James parted the bettronium tube and his jeterium stone, thus switching off the force field. He then wondered what on earth he was going to do about the attack. He could report it to Martin and the Prof but who else? He rapidly decided there was no one because he couldn’t reveal the nature of their experiments.
Chapter 4
MI5 reached the same conclusion. Their surveillance of the two Ks was only slightly late; two agents were in time to see Welchrey unaccountably fleeing and then being followed by Breasket. Such highly unusual behaviour by two known thugs triggered hurried consultations at HQ. It was decided they had to know more about James’s activities at Grantacaster and so set up a meeting with the Vice Chancellor, asking that it should be confidential. So two MI5 operatives and the Vice Chancellor met in secrecy, when the latter admitted he had no detailed knowledge of Professor Bettrinski’s work other than that it was a lucrative source of income from the industrial sponsors. Of course he had no reason to know the details.
The agents enquired whether there had been any surprising recent developments, but the VC had no such knowledge. So they insisted that Professor Bettrinski be called to the meeting immediately, also as clandestinely as possible. This posed a problem because no one else could be asked to fetch the Prof, whilst the appearance of the VC in the lab would hardly pass unnoticed In the event, though, the two met by chance in a nearby corridor. Mystified and slightly embarrassed by the VC’s instruction to follow him, without a hint of explanation, the Prof followed and was briefly introduced to the two agents, though without any formality.
The VC asked the Prof directly what stage his current research had reached. Disinclined to reveal the truth before unknown strangers, the Prof hesitated. One of the agents then revealed where they were from and that they had reason to believe one of his research students had used some form of hidden protection when he was attacked very recently. The Prof had heard the details from James only the day before, so was shocked to realise knowledge of the moltation experiments had become known. He therefore had to explain briefly what these were. The Vice Chancellor, understandably, showed irritation at being so thoroughly in the dark.
At this point the agent dropped his bombshell. ‘That being so we shall require you and your students, and you Sir,’ addressing the VC, ‘to sign the Official Secrets Act immediately. We have the necessary forms here. Will you ask your students to join us, please?’
Shortly afterwards James and Martin signed, albeit reluctantly, having been warned of dire consequences to their careers if they refused. The agents accepted assurances from them that no other users of their laboratory would have the slightes
t knowledge of the nature of their experiments. They then asked James whether he had recognised his assailant. Shocked to know that the event was known to others, he nevertheless explained he had felt something vaguely familiar about the face and later realised the man had joined a recent seminar. Subsequent exchanges between the agent and the colleague who had also attended confirmed the known identity of Welchrey. He and Breasket were arrested, but the questioning revealed that the two did not know of the relationship between the jeterium and bettronium. Welchrey was still very puzzled and shaken by his experience.
A secretive small conference was held at MI5’s HQ to discuss the extraordinary events and possible implications. The members knew of the request for black stones to be purchased; now they realised the exceptional value these might have if the protective force field manifestation were known. Bettronium, also, would have great value. Moltation would confer great protection to protagonists in a conflict provided opponents had no such defence. Indeed one side could wipe out the other with impunity in such a scenario. The conference concluded that its efforts should be directed to watching very carefully all known sources of jeterium and bettronium.
Chapter 5
Zennitia is a planet in a solar system some five hundred light years from earth; far away in terms of an individual life, near in terms of the Milky Way galaxy, a close neighbour in terms of the universe. It is situated in the same galactic arm as earth, one of three planets in the life zone of its star which is very similar to the sun. Only Zennitia has human beings, however. Its sister planets have only plant life. No animal life materialised. One has plenty of water, though unlike earth this is in the form of many lakes; it has no seas. The other, orbiting nearer the star at the edge of the life zone, has desert like plant life and minimal lakes; some water however exists below its surface and maintains plant roots. It is rarely replenished and thus its future life is likely to be barren.
The Zennitians developed much as on earth, but with one crucial difference. Created with gregarious natures, they never turned in on themselves and began to fight one another. The idea of killing was virtually unknown. They therefore had splendid opportunity for highly creative development. They became very highly intelligent, developed a non-stop longing to increase knowledge, and learned to control their environment so that all harmful bacteria and disease were removed. Thus they became very long lived and healthy with it.
They also worked out a crucial fact about creation, which obviously occurs throughout the universe. There has to be an infinite creative force because infinity exists, yet because every thing in the natural universe is finite, there has to be an interface through which the infinite creative force can create what is finite. The Zennitians came to realise that interface comprises a further existence to which everyone goes no matter how long or short their natural lives are. Indeed they were able to move between the phases on occasions, so increasing their knowledge of the overall plan of creation.
In this way they found that there is a universal energy pervading all phases of life. This maintains everything in the natural universe and in the second phase. In the latter they became aware that space can be controlled; people are able to move into the presence of whoever they wish to see without moving through space to reach them. Putting this knowledge to work on their planet they realised they could build a space ship that could circumvent the restriction of the so-called universal constant - the speed of light. In this way they freed themselves of exploratory restrictions. At first they visited their two sister planets; then they travelled more widely.
They became interested in the earth because they had seen the planet on an exploratory journey they took to check their control of time, so that they did not age differently from their people back home. It looked so attractive, though very small, with its swirl of white clouds over blue seas and variously coloured land masses. So one space ship landed unobtrusively and its occupants looked forward to exploring the land and possibly meeting inhabitants they felt would be as pleasant as the appearance of their world from space.
Merging easily with their superior skill they were shocked beyond measure at what they found. They were in medieval England; whilst they found some friendship between individuals they also met appalling cruelty and watched in horror a public execution where the victim was partially hanged then sliced open and his entrails dragged out; after an interval to ensure maximum pain, the body was hacked into four parts and taken away to be stuck on spikes around a stone gateway. The Zennitians were shocked beyond measure; not only had someone dictated the deed should happen but also others had actually performed the atrocity. They could scarcely imagine such people were members of the same act of creation as they were.
Yet they found the countryside very pleasant, not unlike their own planet, though England had many more forests. Some of these however were being cut down. The Zennitians found the wood was then used to build ships to be used in warfare against enemies. What ghastly people these were! What would their life be like when they moved into the next phase, which the people seemed to do after a comparatively short life. As the Zennitians knew the quality of that permanent life depended on the character developed in the first one.
The first Zennitian visitors to earth returned immediately to their home and recounted their experiences. They decided they would monitor earth if only to see whether characters changed over time. In this way they watched earth’s history through various centuries of warfare, though individuals seemed to improve dramatically. They were not surprised, however, when earth people conceived the idea of travel through the universe they assumed there would be warfare!
On one visit they decided to leave some jeterium stones because, being harder than diamonds, they wondered how people would respond to them - try to find a use, or use them in weapons of some kind. They chose the Jurassic coast because it would be assumed they had come from the cliffs and their possible origin ignored. So the unfortunate Wendell Manton had been correct in his article, though that had been pure conjecture. The tidal surge that removed the stones scrapped the Zennitian experiment, which hadn’t been regarded with any great importance. Their reappearance, however, renewed interest. That increased greatly when the chance link with bettronium occurred and manifested the totally unexpected hyperactivity between molecules originating on two different planets.
Chapter 6
The group who had advertised themselves as jewellers had very nearly cornered any possible market for jeterium. They were four former school friends who, having been sent to a highly selective independent school because they were highly intelligent, banded together to make as much money as possible before reaching the age of forty, at which point they intended living lives of complete indulgence using the proceeds of their quite amoral earlier activities. They quickly developed very good sensitivity to
what efforts would repay exceptionally well - and in the matter of jeterium their instincts were absolutely correct once again.
The notion that their collection of black stones was exceptionally unusual arose from a chance conversation between one of their number, Richard Blainey, and a friend at Grantacaster Uni who attended James’s seminars. The latter alluded to a circulating rumour that suddenly some experimenting had become very hush-hush and so everyone was speculating on what this was. Then more intriguing hints were added that one night someone had lain in wait and attacked James near his home but had been driven off because James had somehow gained unusual strength. Given that all people hearing these rumours were very intelligent it was surprising that much nonsense was swallowed as possible explanation, so when a hint arose that a black stone figured somewhere, it was not ridiculed. Certainly Richard Blainey didn’t ridicule it - he reported it to his friends who rapidly determined to investigate any such recent references. The group also agreed to investigate their hoard as fully as possible. In so doing they discovered jeterium’s exceptional hardness and the fact that it could be cu
t only with a diamond wheel operating at very high speed. From this they realised they had something unique in their possession.
They had to be patient, however, because for some time no further developments occurred. Professor Bettrinski with James and Martin was not in a position to take their experiment further due to the restrictions placed upon them by the minnions of MI5 and latterly by the Vice Chancellor who felt they were moving away from lucrative industrial applications. Welchrey and Breasket, on police bail, were stymied because they were unable to discern why the former’s attack on James had been such a disaster. Public interest in black stones soon waned when no further news about them appeared. So it fell to the Zennitians to decide whether to leave matters alone or to prod further action.
Because their interest in the earth was almost entirely a matter of observation they were disinclined to intervene. However because they had originally introduced the black stones as an experiment they felt justified in doing so to a slight degree. So they exerted mild mental influence on Blainey to monitor James closely which he was very willing to do. This paid off because he caught a reference to bettronium in a quiet conversation between James and Martin in a corridor near their laboratory. This was about supply, because since its original synthesis one small factory had been set up to manufacture the volatile material for industrial use. But it was enough to make Richard Blainey suggest to his friends that bettronium might be as important a lucrative source as jeterium. In this way knowledge of the amazing link spread gradually beyond the walls of Grantacaster University.
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