The Grand Master

by Bill Stenlake

  He stops to look around to see if his audience is keeping up with him. Everyone appears to be doing so.

  ‘Why they were sent as sleepers is anyone’s guess and there is a good chance we will never know. What we can say is that someone foresaw the day when The Balance would change. They set about something to be activated at this time. Their role is unclear, but would seem to be to create chaos. It is as if someone is going to play out a scenario, using the planet Earth as the playground. Something happened on the journey in the trailer. We don’t know what that was, but we do know that when these people came out, the brother and sister went in one direction while the other couple went in another. We think the brother and sister might possibly be in android form, but we don’t know; otherwise they would not have been able to survive. The other couple seem to have changed personalities. Each generation on Earth they became more changed. It reached a point, years before activation where they somehow had a child who then murdered the parents. In effect the four became three and these three are now active on Earth. One of those came to join up with GM3 when he came to seize The Keeper. It is fairly safe to assume GM3 was the one who activated them. He may have been involved in putting them there, but that is less clear. So coming back to George and Cassie, we start off maybe thinking that some sleepers may have been put there to be a force for good, but there is no way we can see that could have happened. There were no more people missing from here or Velchitta.’

  George and Cassie have noticeably sat forward in their chairs. They still have the puzzled look on their faces. Melde smiles at them and then continues.

  ‘It is no coincidence that they turned up at the mound. Considering their roots, then at some time or other they were going to investigate the mound, even if they were unaware of the reason why they were doing so. The family of The Keeper only have one son per generation. The woman recently is from Earth, but the male line is from Velchitta. What happened only happened a generation back. The Keeper’s grandmother is a twin, an identical twin.’

  ‘I am a twin’ says Marlitta.

  ‘Yes you are and in one sense this is you we are talking about. But because of the time jump and her being on Earth and you on Velchitta, it is not actually you we are talking about here.’

  ‘Alright, I think I understand that.’ Marlitta replies as Bluechen holds her hand.

  ‘As a bit of fun the sisters swopped places one night. It has to be said that both sisters were more than just interested. Things went further than maybe one sister planned, but maybe not the other. The sisters never let on and while one sister married, the other sister went away. The married sister had a boy child a few years later, but then she died relatively young from cancer. The other sister, the one who had gone away, had a son too nine months after she went away.’

  CHAPTER 58 VEE AND BAR

  Vee keeps stopping what she is doing, to go carefully back to the entrance. She can hear that they are still outside, as there is plenty of talking going on nearby. She would dearly love to go out to the metal plate to try to see through the gaps round the edge of the plate, what exactly is going on. That is a risk too far and one that she doesn’t need to take. Bar will have to decide how he is going to deal with the situation on his own. She knows there is no way he is going to alert them to her presence and that if they try to invade his systems; he will destroy them to prevent any access. The obvious problem she has is that this is the only way she has of getting out. Now that they know about it, they are probably going to keep it monitored. She has to presume they will find the things that Bar took out earlier and that they are probably going to be lost to her too. She is just going to have to manage with what she has. Hopefully they are not going to search far enough over to find their craft. If they do that, then she is really going to be restricted in what she can do. They have not really hidden that craft too well, certainly not well enough to escape discovery if a proper search of the area is done.

  She knows Bar has switched on again, as she suddenly hears him talking in her head. He is not talking directly to her, but he wants her to hear that he is still in one piece.

  Bar is aware that Vee has heard him. He is aware that she is unable to get out of the craft, as the chute is the only way in and out left available. Ideally he would like to be able to carry on with the mission. But if that is not going to be a possibility, then he needs to do what he can to help her get out of there unnoticed.

  The circle they have cleared for him is slightly nearer the hedge than he is at the moment, but still too much in the open. He can see a couple of soldiers over where he has left the things he brought out earlier.

  ‘Are you alone?’ the officer asks Bar.

  ‘I am’ he replies without delay. ‘I am a robot dog. They use me to take small objects around. I was instructed to remove these parts when they left me here. They realised that the one in the field is still alive. He needs to be stopped as he is not one of you. I have to build myself the equipment I need to locate him and take him out of action.’ Bar decides to try the truth for his response, other than the being alone bit of course.

  ‘We are not going to be able to allow you to do that. We have orders to take you back to the base. It will be up to more senior people than we are to decide what happens to you now.’

  ‘I don’t think you can do that. I believe time is of the essence. This person is out to cause disruption and chaos to your society. You will not be able to deal with him. I am not sure you will even be able to find him. I can do that.’

  ‘I’ve already told you I do not have the authority to let you go. You will have to come with us. They are bringing a cage across now. I will have to ask you to go into the cage quietly. Those are my orders. You can discuss what you want with my superiors.’

  Bar notices four men carrying a metal cage over towards him in the circle. He knows that he has two choices. He can go quietly into the cage or he doesn’t go into the cage. If he goes in, then they are going to take him away. It is likely they are going to try to inspect inside the chute with cameras probably. Vee is not going to have a chance to escape. If he stays out and tries to escape, then he is not sure he has the speed and ability to do that; but if he does then he at least might be in a position to help Vee. He doesn’t have long to make up his mind.

  The men surrounding him seem to step up their alertness, almost as if they have picked up on his debate. The dogs too move in closer again, on instruction from their masters. He sweeps his vision in a wide circle to see where he can make for. He needs to take them away from the chute, but he also needs to give himself a reasonable target where he might be able to keep out of the dogs’ jaws. The dogs are the real danger, not the soldiers. The soldiers are grouped around him in such a manner, that if they open fire they are just as likely to shoot each other as hit him. It is the dogs he has to decide his moment on. He decides to speak, not really for the benefit of his captors, but trying to let Vee know what his intention is.

  ‘I do not want to go in the cage. I will travel with you openly, but please do not cage me. It is something my programmes will not like.’

  ‘I have my orders. You have to travel in the cage.’

  He notices that the soldiers circled around him are now even more alert. The four men have brought the cage close and are now standing about ten feet away waiting for the order to take it in for Bar to get into.

  ‘If I have to comply then I will’ Bar announces.

  ‘They will move forward and put the cage over you. Then we will slide a plate along the ground and clip the base into place.’

  CHAPTER 59 TZ and Mario

  ‘They will listen to me now’ Maria writes on her paper to show everyone. The force she uses with the pen to write those words is quite scary. The writing itself is beautiful and dainty, but the indentations on the paper show the passion she is feeling within about it. She continues to write some more, but resorts to a lighter style again as she continues.

  ‘When I was born the elders looked at
me and saw that there is something in my eyes. They saw something that they believed was unreal and that would not be good not only for our tribe, but also for the whole nation. They say that this soon dimmed, but they were always watchful of me. I found that I could not make a noise when they wanted me to. I do not talk, because I heard what the elders said to me. They believe that I have not been blessed with a voice in this world. I heard them say that as I was, that was probably for the best as I would create unrest if I ever put the look that was in my eyes into words. They gave me horrible medicines and did dances around me to ward off the evil they say I have in me. It does not help that I am a woman. If I had been born as a man, then I would have been looked on as strong and someone who was going to stand up for the rights of the tribe. As a woman I have no place of authority in the tribe. I am there to gather food and keep the camp running. As a woman in the camp, I would be there to make sure that the men have everything that they need. I would have been expected to mother their children. When they saw that the look stayed in my eyes, they also realised that no man would want me for their woman. I scared them, so in the end they outcast me from the tribe. There will be no surprise when I make contact and tell them what they have to do. They will do it, as they have known from the beginning of my life this day would come. They just didn’t believe that it truly could.’

  She stops writing and sits back in her chair. Mario is not feeling this course of energy, but he does feel that at last he is managing to catch up with everything. What is being said is making sense in his head, even though he hasn’t got what TZ and Maria have received.

  The door bursts open and two of the men who had been in earlier come in carrying a large bag. They have big smiles on their faces, as if they have just had their birthdays and Christmases all rolled into one. Ma looks up at them with a stern look on her face.

  ‘You two know better than to burst your way in here like that.’!

  You could almost see the bubble burst as their faces drop. However what they have to say is going to override that.

  ‘Sorry Ma’ Sly speaks having regained his composure ‘It’s just, we know you are going to be talking about the action.’

  ‘Yes we are Sly and we are supposed to be talking with just the five of us. You boys knew that was what was going to happen. This had better be good for you to burst in like this.’

  ‘Sorry Ma’ Don says ‘but we have been putting some small bits of cash away when we can. You know how much we all are behind you. We have put what we agreed in with you, but we have also been collecting some extra of our own.’

  ‘I know that’ Ma says getting a little annoyance filtering through to her tone of voice. ‘So how much have you boys collected then.’

  Sly and Don look at each other before the smiles come out on their faces again.

  ‘We had saved over $5000 dollars, but we have just dug it out of the barn. We went to count it and we don’t know how it all got there, but there is now $55000 and change in the sack.’

  ‘We’ve had that happen too to our money store in here’ Ma says relaxing her stern look and tone of her voice.

  The five look at each other. Half as much money again as they already have, is going to make things even easier to get more people and more ammunition.

  ‘Thanks boys’ she says as they put their sack on the table pouring out the bundles of cash as they do so. The boys retreat leaving the five all alone again.

  Over the next three hours they sit and plan what they are going to do. Then they bring the men in and run through it all with them. Everyone is allocated a job to do with groups to activate. Ma takes control of the cash and starts to calculate how much is needed for each section. They meet up at the end of the day to go over everything that has been achieved and those parts which they have been unable to get done. Ma has got all the western union forms pre-done and she goes to the local office to process them.

  Maria is busy preparing the meal with Mario and TZ assisting her. Tomorrow is the big day when they get involved themselves. All that needs to be sorted are the fine details of their involvement. They will do that when Ma gets back.

  CHAPTER 60 SPIRIT

  Spirit remains alert for many hours. There is absolutely nothing coming in the form of communications from Luvus. At least he now has a channel frequency that he knows is active. Spirit sends a message asking for permission to land and enter Luvus. He sends this message several times without a response. He gives it a while longer before preparing to go in regardless of what the reception is going to be. He still has no idea of whether The Keeper is here and has no clues to guide him on that either. That means he has to very careful about damaging Luvus too much, should he get that far.

  He starts the craft onto an approach course again towards Luvus. He has switched the system onto vocalising any message or alerts that may arise. He wants to keep his eyes on Luvus without distraction. He knows that if an attack is launched, his defence system will automatically move him to where he needs to be to activate it. He has returned to the far limit range of his laser, when he sees that missiles have once again been launched towards him.

  Rather than veer away, the system and he have planned a different tactic this time. The front screen opens up allowing him a visual of the scene between him and Luvus. The missiles have been launched in an almost continuous stream, but this time they have been programmed to go out in different directions, with some of them even trying to swing round behind him. Spirit calmly takes hold of the control and fires intermittent bursts of the laser defence system in multiple directions, even looping some of them behind him for protection.

  Missiles are exploding all over the sky in front of him and to the side. None of the missiles make it anywhere near to coming up on him from behind. Wave after wave of missiles keep being fired from Luvus, but Spirit comfortably deals with them all. After maybe seventy or eighty missiles have been shot down the assault from that particular form stops. What happens next is that a stream of maybe twenty of the hovering craft are seen leaving a different exit on Luvus. They fan out in an arc with three of them spearheading the group.

  Spirit has all the while the missiles were attacking, been slowly advancing on Luvus. He continues to do so as the fan of craft and he near each other. His defence mechanism is in place, as they stop maybe only half a mile apart from each other. The Luvus craft increase the space between themselves, increasing the breadth of the fan. Spirit does not know what sort of armaments they have, but he notes that they do not expand the fan too far that they might get caught in their own crossfire.

  ‘We will escort you away, but we are not permitted to allow you any closer. If you leave now we will not open fire. If you force us to do so you will be destroyed.’

  ‘I have to go to Luvus. I have no option to turn away. Please do not make me force my way in. You have seen how ineffective your missiles have been against me. I will give you ten seconds to stand aside and allow me through. If you do not comply I will be forced to make you.’ Spirit relaxes a fraction as he speaks the last words. The fan of craft is closing in again and tightening up their formation.

  Without warning just before the ten seconds is up, they scatter in all directions with tremendous acceleration. No sooner have they done that than they open fire on him. He can feel the jolts as the defence system takes the sting out of their attack, but it doesn’t protect him totally from the force of their weapons as they come into contact with the shield. His system speaks to him before he can decide what his best action should be.

  ‘Ride it out Spirit, is what is recommended. With the current level of attack we are comfortably within the parameters of safety. If they do not stop after one minute, then we will have to return fire and remove them from our path.’

  At that the front three craft dive bomb Spirit, timing their attack together they crash straight into the defence cone and disintegrate. The craft shudders at the reverberation of the impact, but other than that is undamaged. Spirit sees five of the craft
closing together with what he thinks is the same intention.

  ‘Time to change all this’ he announces to himself and the system.

  The five start their charge but Spirit’s craft dips and flips, taking them by surprise. He chooses to use the button to fire rather by thought. He presses the button several times and sprays the five with pellets before dipping further away from the oncoming explosions. He doesn’t stop there though, as before the other craft can see what has happened he corkscrews round firing all the while, sending streams of compounded micro laser beams towards every direction. In less than five seconds, every single one of their craft has been hit by streams of pellets and been disintegrated. Not one trace is left of the attacking force. Nothing remains to prevent him from now descending to Luvus.

  As he approaches he send some more pellets down to the still open missile launch pad, which effectively puts that out of any further use to the occupants of Luvus. The area the other craft had exited from is still open too. Spirit approaches that with caution, as he thinks it unlikely that everyone would have been used in the last assault. He tries to communicate while hovering nearby and to the side, hoping that there is no other place they might attack him from.

  A message comes back to him, vocalised by the system.

  ‘You are permitted to land. You will discover that I am alone now. I will stand inside the launch pad so you can see I am unarmed.

  CHAPTER 61 THE GRAND MASTER

  He is certain within himself that if there had been going to be a defence, then they would have put up more resistance by now. The fact that the launch pad has been opened is testimony that they are powerless to stop him. They must certainly know who he is and he is sure they can guess why he is there today. He is still wary though, as he instructs the system to land him on the launch pad. He is no sooner down and the outer doors have closed, than he sees two known faces appear through a door on the launch pad. He is relieved to see that they have no weapons, but that is hardly surprising. They have never had any need of any here on the base. No one has ever deemed it appropriate to try to get here other than when a replacement Guiding Master has arrived.