The Circle

by Harold R Watson

  It began to look like a cigar all long and round. As we came closer and as our approach angle changed, it began to appear more like several cigars lying side by side or perhaps more like a log raft. In one of the centered logs, as it were, we watched as lights came on in long blinking rolls in parallel.

  Before long, we realized it was a long runway and our ship was set in an approach path that would allow us to land on this runway much like an airplane. I wondered how this could be out in space where there are no wind currents to provide lift. I remembered Newton s law that a body in motion tends to remain in motion and our ship was in motion and would remain in motion long enough for us to make the touch down landing on the mother ship much like landing on a large aircraft carrier. The sound of the wheels coming down and locking into position broke the otherwise stillness of space.

  Our approach angle was automatically corrected by the computer program allowing us to reach the outer edge of the runway correctly for touchdown. Then the ship began to roll forward very smoothly until it came to a complete stop. We were now on the mother ship and the last of four hundred star cruisers to arrive.

  CHAPTER 5-THE TOREN TWENTY

  Once on board, our ship was towed to a large platform and lowered into an interior bay area. After a while the outer bay doors where closed and the life support system rendered the bay area safe for debarkation without having to wear special space gear.

  My wife and I were summoned to a debriefing area while guards for our ship were posted both inside and outside the “BONNIE ONE”. That is standard operating procedure or SOP as referred to in the military. The dress of the day for the meeting was our Class A uniforms.

  We were escorted by members of the mother ship’s crew from the mother ship via rail car to an internal train terminal where another from the crew took over. We got onto the train with him and rode it for about fifteen minutes until we arrived at another terminal and took a golf cart like vehicle to a building with a large sign that said: “HEADQUARTERS”. There we were introduced to the Officer of the Day or OD in military terms. He informed us that we and our passengers and crew would continue to live aboard our ship while on board the mother ship.

  The name of the mother is “THE TOREN TWENTY” and we would refer to that designation when sending reports or other communications from our ship to the mother ship.

  It was confirmed that we were the final ship from Earth to join the mother ship. We were told that THE TOREN TWENTY had turned and was already on the way back to Starsis from where it had originated. We were also told that our journey would take another six months and that once we had reached the mother ship from Earth that our journey to Starsis was about half over.

  The OD, a Lt. Commander explained that it is customary to bring in star cruisers in large numbers into a mother ship rather than have so many straggle into a Toren planet. He said that it is much easier with one manifest than with four hundred for processing purposes.

  All mother ships in the Toren Empire have the word TOREN in their name. All are then assigned a number. There are only about twenty-five in the entire empire because they are so huge. Most are larger than a large city would have been on Earth and just as well equipped.

  We were also told that all manufacturing of mother ships is completed in space from modules and parts brought up from the ground. Once a mother ship is launched, it never touches the ground again because it would take too much power to launch one into orbit. Mother ships are used primarily to haul trade goods between the Toren planets. To capture one would be a tremendous prize for an enemy empire such as the one of the Torens mortal enemies known as the Atlantean Empire.

  To prevent such an occurrence, mother ships are heavily fortified and quite capable of defending themselves the OD bragged.

  I was surprised to hear the Toren Empire had enemies. As a lad on Earth I remembered stories of Atlantis and even one of the earth’s major oceans is known as the Atlantic Ocean. The OD said that is the same empire and they once had colonies on Earth and built great cities. He said that their history revealed that they had enslaved many people while on they were on Earth.

  Their colonies were apparently were destroyed during a catastrophe on Earth caused more than likely when the planet was struck by meteors or as, some have said, by the great flood spoken of in the Holy Bible during the days of Noah.

  The OD seemed to be very talkative. He mentioned to us that he has heard rumors that the Atlantean Empire would like to return to Earth once it is cleaned up by the Toren restoration forces.

  He then said that they might become a threat to anyone like the contingent from Earth which also planned to return to Earth someday. He was of course talking about us. Then he told my wife that there was a gift in storage that her mother had sent to her from Starsis. He made a call and asked the warehouse people to deliver it to our ship.

  The OD also said that we would be receiving invitations for the Admiral’s Ball scheduled to take place in about a week in a giant pavilion located near the mother ship’s university. He said that our invitations would come complete with instructions, maps, and all that stuff. The ball will give the mother ship commanders a chance to formally introduce Earth’s fleet officers to Toren hospitality. He also informed us that the everyday administrative operations aboard the mother ship were done at the Headquarters.

  He told us that the real power exercised by the Admirals, was in the Control Center that very few crew members like him ever see. That’s were all the secret stuff goes on, he laughed. You know, the stuff they don’t want us to know about until they give us an order.

  He then asked us if we had any questions and when we didn’t he called in our escort to take us back the ‘BONNIE ONE”. We thanked him for his candor and left.

  By the time we arrived back at our ship, the large crate had been delivered. We had a work crew take it to our quarters. There was an envelope attached to the outside addressed to Tess with instructions to read it before opening the crate. My wife opened the envelope. It contained a letter from her parents saying how much they looked forward to seeing her, her granddaughters, and her handsome husband when we would arrive on Starsis.

  They requested we send them a communiqué just before we arrived telling them the can meet us. It said the gift in the crate should bring back some childhood memories for her and they hoped she liked it.

  “How did your mother know I was handsome? I joked.

  “I might have told her a time or two be fore we were married when I sent her messages from Earth,” she laughed.

  She asked the work crew who delivered the crate to use their tools to cut the metal band and prop open the lid. Once they had done that, she asked them to return in a half hour to remove the empty crate.

  When the lid was finally off, we saw that the crate was filled with packing material. It took her awhile to remove enough to discover what was in the crate.

  “Oh my God!”she exclaimed as she stepped back.

  I looked into the box. It was a man, a real man I thought and he wasn’t moving.

  “Is it a corpse?”I asked my wife in my astonishment.

  “No, silly, it an android. His name is ‘Marvo’. “He is a domestic android that waited on our family when I was a little girl.”

  There was another envelope taped to his chest. My wife opened it and read it. Later she confided in me what it said but did not want to reveal the letter s content in front of everyone.

  It s just some operating instructions, she said as she asked us to help her lift it out of the crate. The android had an ON switch located under a plate on his back. She lifted the plate and turned it on. It went through a series of sounds like a computer warming up and eventually stood up on it s own and said in a human sounding voice of remarkable quality: Hello Captain Neville. I am Marvo your all-purpose android. Command me so I can do your bidding. Your every wish is my comma
nd.

  The letter that had been taped to Marvo s chest also told my wife there was a jeweled belt in the crate that she should wear anytime she leaves the company of Marvo. It said that she could wear it under her uniform if necessary and that this Marvo was not just a domestic android but that he was also programmed to protect her against all enemies and to obey her every command.

  There was information about a secret code she could send to Marvo anytime she was in danger that would initiate his special programming. Tess could not reveal to anyone outside her family. If anyone asked about Marvo, we were to say only that he was a domestic android programmed to do chores for Tess and our family upon command.

  Once our voices were programmed into his internal computer only our family would be able to give orders to Marvo. Should anyone other than Tess, my two daughters, or me ask Marvo to do something, he would not respond. Tess voice could override the rest of our voices if there was a conflict in orders given to Marvo.

  He had already been programmed to recognize Tess and her voice for earlier transmissions she had sent to her mother.

  Tess parents had also heard the rumors about the Atlanteans plans to return to Earth to claim it someday as well as those concerning their threats to any group that might try to oppose them. Tess mother was so concerned that she built Marvo and programmed him to protect Tess from all who would harm her as his primary mission. She also made him to act as a domestic android unless the special code was entered from Tess jeweled belt. Only Tess knew the correct codes on the jeweled belt to activate the protect mode. She could also give any other instructions to Marvo using the jeweled belt.

  In the days that followed, Marvo took over the mundane chores of making beds, shopping, cooking, cleaning, making deliveries, and the like around the ship. He was also programmed to be a gourmet cook and my wife was anxious to test his culinary skills.

  My wife had him prepare our meals for a few days just to be sure he could perform as forecast. She then decided to have guests over for dinner and to let Marvo prepare and serve the entire meal.

  She invited Dr. Miller and his wife Margaret and Dr. Collins and his wife Andrea. Andrea, often worked for my wife doing classified secretarial type work. Dr. Collins is one of her leading scientist and responsible for much of the technology in building our star cruiser. Andrea recently obtained her bachelor s degree and was currently working on her masters program.

  Of course you know Dr. Miller is our ship s doctor and his wife Margaret is my wife s best friend.

  The commissary aboard our ship had just received a big shipment from the large warehouse on THE TOREN TWENTY. We were able to get everything on Marvo s list including some things the commissary had been out of for a long time.

  When our guests arrived, Tess introduced Marvo to them. I think she wanted to show him off when she began blabbing about all the things he could do including preparing the dinner. She told them that Marvo had been programmed to emulate the finest Chefs on Starsis.

  Marvo s culinary skills proved to be extraordinary and everyone bragged on how great the meal was. I could almost sense the envy from our guests about our good fortune of having Marvo.

  After dinner, much of the conversation was about the Admiral s Ball scheduled for the next nigh t. We were looking forward to going and meeting the Admirals.

  An hour or so after our guests left, Tess said that she wasn t feeling well. I summoned Dr. Miller back and he said that she appeared to be suffering from food poisoning. He wanted us to go with him to the ship s hospital where he could run check her more thoroughly.

  Once at the hospital, it became necessary to pump out her stomach. He also talked to our other guests to see if she might have eaten anything that none of them ate since no one else was ill.

  It was determined that she was the only one who had eaten mushrooms. Dr. Miller had me go back to our quarters to see if any of the mushroom sauce was still left. I found some in the refrigerator. A lab analysis confirmed that the mushrooms were spoiled probably before they were cooked. He gave Tess some medicine to settle her stomach but said it might be a few days before she felt completely well again.

  He said that by pumping her stomach so soon after the meal, he had removed most of the toxins from her system and there was no evidence that she would have any long term affects. He admitted her to the hospital and said the staff would observe her through the night.

  He asked me to contact the commissary manager and have him meet us there. He wanted to run some tests on the mushrooms to determine if any more spoiled ones were in the shipment.

  Dr. Miller told the commissary manager to remove all mushrooms from the racks so no more would be sold. He also had him run a computer check to determine if anyone else had purchased mushrooms.

  Fortunately, he had just put out the mushrooms yesterday afternoon after they were delivered to the ship from stores on the mother ship. It wasn t long until he was able to determine that only two other customers had purchased any mushrooms.

  Dr. Miller took samples back to the lab and soon confirmed that some of the mushrooms mixed into the good ones were of the poison variety not meant for human consumption. He asked me to locate the customers who had purchased mushrooms to return them for a refund and not to consume them.

  I was successful in making contact before any of the mushrooms had been consumed. We then sent a message to the manager of the stores warehouse about the problem with the mushrooms so they might contact any other ships that might have purchased mushrooms.

  The next morning, Tess felt well enough to return to our quarters. I could tell she still wasn t herself and that she still felt bad. I told her to stay in bed and to take the medicine Dr. Miller had given her.

  That evening she insisted on going to the Admiral s Ball even though Dr. Miller felt she should not go. She felt going was like a military duty and she didn t want to be thought of as one who would snub her hosts. In any event, we went to the ball.

  Tables were assigned by number according to the name of each ship. Our table was number four hundred because that was our number assigned at the rendezvous point.

  Around 23:30 hours, my wife who had managed to make it through most of the affair, felt too sick to remain any longer. She made her excuses and we left with our two daughters to return to the BONNIE ONE.

  We were shocked when several of the guards outside the pavilion told us that we were not permitted to leave early.

  Dr. Miller overheard the conversation with the guards and told them that my wife had been ill and that as his patient, he would escort us back to our ship s sick bay.

  The Sergeant of the Guard called his boss, and they agreed to have one of their people escort us back to our ship. Unknown to us at the time was the real reason why the guard s orders had been to not let anyone leave the pavilion early. Once we arrived back at the BONNIE ONE, we learned the horrible truth.

  By the time we returned to our ship, it had been taken over by armed guards who arrested us the minute we stepped on board and escorted us to the multiple purpose room also used as a theater aboard our ship where we joined the other passengers and crew that had been taken there before we arrived.

  At the present time, the theater seats were in place and the guards had made everyone sit down while they guarded the exits. This had been an unanticipated rush job on their part made necessary by wife s request to return to our ship.

  The guards didn t seem too well organized but they were heavily armed enough to maintain control. The leader of the guards said that since we were all together in one room that he would no longer need so many guards on our ship to control the prisoners until we could be moved with the others.

  He ordered all of the guards but a skeleton crew to return to the pavilion where they would be needed to control the much larger crowd there. Then the leader of the guards went up onto the platform at the front o
f the room and made the following announcement:

  You are the prisoners of the Atlantean Empire. We have taken control of the mother ship and are now heading to Arkus one of our nearest planets. You and all the other Torens and Earthlings aboard the mother ship are now our prisoners. All the commanders with the exception of this ship will learn of their fate before the ball is over. The ball was the idea of our leader who has been in control of the mother ship for the last three weeks operating in secret from the control room.

  You will be impressed to know that the Admirals at the Admiral s Ball are our people disguised as the ones who ran this ship when we came aboard. Our ship came from one of your secret Toren bases on Earth which we infiltrated months before the holocaust on Earth.

  Our empire is responsible for the holocaust on Earth that has by now killed off all of your kind except those of you who ran away. The Atlantean Empire will now wait until the rejuvenation of Earth is complete enough for us to return our forces there to claim the uninhabited planet permanently for out empire.

  For now we will allow the Toren engineers to use their technology to clean up the planet before we move in and chase them off and take Earth for our empire.

  When your mother ship arrives on Arkus, all of you will be questioned and then assigned to work as slaves in our mines where you will spend the rest of your miserable lives.

  Anyone who gives us any problem will be shot. My guards have orders to shoot anyone who fails to obey them when an order is given. I will leave you now and my Sergeant of the Guard will remain with you until we can escort you to a special camp being prepared for you near the pavilion where you will join the other prisoners. Consider your selves as prisoners of a war that we have already won, ha! ha!

  With these words, the leader of the guards left with most of his guards to return to the pavilion where they apparently felt that they were needed more.

  There were four sets of doors to the multiple purpose room. He left two guards at each set and one on the platform like stage to watch over us. Many of the people seated were still wearing their sleeping clothes and had apparently been roused out of bed by the guards prior to our arrival from the ball.