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  The Watcher

  Author Bill Stenlake 2017

  The Watcher Copyright © 2017 William (Bill) Stenlake

  The Watcher is the third book of The Keeper Trilogy

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form, by any means without the prior consent of the author.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. Some places named in the book exist and are real and some do not exist and are not real. The placement of all things geographical is relevant to this story only and as such should be deemed fictional.

  Book Cover Picture: Dreamstime/

  Other books by Bill Stenlake:

  THE KEEPER

  HOLLOW MILL

  KENAN’S LEGACY

  VOICES IN MY HEAD

  CORNERSTONE

  BRAMLEY THE 9 O’CLOCK GANG

  RANDOLPH

  BRAMLEY BOOK 2

  THE ROOTS

  THE MANNACHS

  LOWARTH TOLL

  THE CORIDAE KEY

  DIMENSIONS

  A PAIR OF SHORTS

  THE GRAND MASTER

  Coming Soon: IT’S DARK IN WENLOCK

  The Watcher by Bill Stenlake

  This is the third book of The Keeper Trilogy

  Chapter 1 The Story So Far

  I am the Keeper of The Balance. I have no idea what any of that means. I am not alone in that, as no one else has an exact definition either. I am watched over by a very tall man. He always wears a long black coat, which he wears unbuttoned, come rain or shine. On his head he wears a wide brimmed hat, pulled forward, so it is really difficult to see his face. This man is The Watcher. The Watcher is really an android, a Mark 2. He never lets anyone get close to him, unless he wants them to. His purpose is to watch and protect me, the Keeper.

  When the Universe was created, it was decided to have a structure, to oversee how the Universe operates day to day. Accepting in all things that there is good and bad, they decided that they would create a mechanism, to keep the Balance as it should be. This is monitored by three Guiding Masters. The current incumbents of those positions are GM3, GM6 & GM7. At any one time, there must be two of them at their base. The only more powerful being than they are; is ‘O’.

  In addition to the Guiding Masters, there is also one other in the structure. This person is the one who is the Keeper of The Balance of the Universe. This person lives and dies as any other, but in real terms they are always the same person. The Keeper is always an only child and always male. The families have traditionally lived together for most of their lives. They are aware that they are The Keepers, but not of what they are keeping.

  Through time this process has been allowed to continue, without anything ever having to be done by anyone. That is, until one day on the planet Velchitta, created to be home for The Keeper and his family, there is some serious unrest. Nobody knows where the idea came from. But for some reason it was decided by the committee who rule this planet, that they would give power to everyone on the planet, to make all the decisions. In the light of the rioting and deaths that followed, there was a rebellion in the ranks of the surviving members of the committee. Algreb seized the moment and took control of the committee and the planet. He likes having the power and knows the planet is also home to the Keeper.

  The Watcher felt it prudent to take the Keeper and his family away for a time, until it is clear that the planet Velchitta is stable again. There was an experiment being planned, to send some people off to start a new colony. The Watcher took advantage of this and brought the date forward. He used this as a cover to take The Keeper and his parents away from Velchitta. The Keeper’s Grandparents stayed on Velchitta, to try to cover for the fact the rest of the family have gone.

  The Watcher took the expedition to a new planet, Parlantte, where they established their new colony. The Watcher then had them build some new trailers, for his space craft. His idea was to take the Keeper away from Parlantte. Take him and his family somewhere, where hopefully, nobody will find them for a very long time. He succeeds in doing that, eventually landing on the planet Earth, having taken advantage of a Time Jump.

  His arrival is spotted by a solitary shepherd, who helps The Watcher secure the lands he needs, to give the family a farm. The Watcher ‘hides’ his craft under a mound of soil and grass. The field this mound is in has a covenant. That requires the field is never ploughed and is only used for grazing cattle. The cattle enjoy lying on the mound, as the temperature is always a fraction warmer than the rest of the field. Generations go by and their escape has been trouble free until now.

  With the disturbance on Velchitta, there is a change in the Universe. One of the Guiding Masters takes it upon himself to take advantage of the situation. He leaves the other Guiding Masters in a dilemma, as they can’t leave the base, but they know he is up to something bad. His plan is to track and trace the Keeper and then kidnap him. He is then going to use him, to become the ruler of the Universe. Using Algreb to assist him, he makes for Earth and the Keeper.

  On Earth, The Watcher is alerted to the danger coming from space. He is also alerted to two other dangers on the planet Earth. One of these dangers is only a minor threat to the craft. George, along with his girlfriend Cassie, are intrigued by the mound and set out to investigate it. George and Cassie find themselves roped in by The Watcher, to help him. The other danger is something of a mystery. Ricardo is a strange character. It would appear that he may have had something to do with the death of his parents in the USA, early in his life. Something appears to be controlling him and he makes his way to England, to help GM3 and Algreb in their quest to capture the Keeper.

  The Watcher fails to adequately protect the Keeper, so GM3 is successful in capturing him. Ricardo is injured in the clash near the mound, but has survived. Bluechen and Marlitta, the Keeper’s grandparents from Velchitta, have managed to pursue GM3 and Algreb to Earth by means of a tracking device, designed by the Wise Soul. Their craft does not arrive in time on Earth to help stop the Keeper from being captured. But their arrival is timely, in that they can assist The Watcher, George and Cassie in their pursuit of GM3.

  The Watcher’s craft in the mound has been crushed by GM3’s craft, when it landed on top of it, sadly killing the Keeper’s parents here on Earth.

  Chapter 2 The Grand Master

  The Grand Master 3, or GM3 as he is known, makes his escape from Earth. He has with him, The Keeper. He is unsure of exactly what powers The Keeper might have, so he secures him safely in one of the travel pods, for the journey back across space. Once on the journey, he decides to dispose of Algreb and the others who accompanied him on the journey to Earth. When that is done, he changes course and makes for his own secret escape bolt hole.

  Back on Earth, Ricardo has been injured and is taken to hospital, where he is kept under guard. He manages to escape and goes back to the place he was staying, in Exmouth, where he finds the people there have found his money. They offer to be part of his crusade and so they set off over the fields, to evade the road blocks that have been set up to recapture Ricardo. Once they regroup, they set off on a series of attacks on society. But eventually Ricardo realizes that his calling is elsewhere, so he makes his way back to the USA.

  In the USA, another sleeper cell is activated. Mario & Tz find that they are drawn into starting their own disruption. They find that they have more cash than they thought they had saved up for this day, but just accept that it is at it is. They locate a vehicle online and go to buy it, although they don’t really have enough money to buy it. When they get there Mario & TZ find that they have a new partner each. So they separate, to work with their respective new partners.

 
The Watcher and his helpers make their way back across space, in the craft that Wise Soul had arrived on Earth in. They had been following GM3, but they arrived too late to thwart the kidnapping of The Keeper by GM3. They leave Earth, to take up the pursuit once more. Before they get too far from Earth, they manage to put together two small robots to go back to Earth, to help deal with the threat of Ricardo, Mario & TZ.

  The overseers are left powerless, as GM3 moves around the universe making it his own. They seek help from their senior, but it appears that there is no pre-set system to deal with any deviance from agreed protocol. What does happen though; is that Spirit is born. He is woken from his sleep and sent out into the universe, to try to find The Keeper and help rescue him. He finds the secret base that GM3 has constructed for himself. It is defended by robots, but he has much superior weaponry, with the Air Micro Compounder technology.

  GM3 returns to kidnap the remaining Grand Masters. In the process of doing that, he finds that O has self-destructed and then when he kidnaps the remaining two Grand Masters, their base in space auto-destructs too.

  GM3 recruits three warriors to help him conquer the universe. They divide up the universe, so they each have a quarter. Having supplied them with an army of robots, the trio set out to conquer and take immeasurable wealth for themselves.

  With Vee and Bar struggling to do anything on Earth, to even start their challenge of dealing with Ricardo, Mario & Bar. With Spirit being captured by GM3! With The Watcher still unable to catch up with GM3 and The Keeper! With the remaining two Grand Masters also having been captured! With the 3 Baddies running amok around their respective segments of the universe! With GM3 holding all the aces! It would appear that GM3 can do anything that he wants, in his quest to rule the universe! But, for how long will he be able to keep his powers that he had when being a Grand Master? But, when will The Keeper awake to what he can actually do? Will Spirit, who is the double of The Keeper, although being captured, be able to unite with him, to take back power? Will The Watcher and George manage to get close enough, to be able to lend a hand and bring this dreadful chapter of Universe history to a close?

  The story continues:

  Chapter 3 The Baddies

  Valpar leaves Loxit, the last of the four planets he has conquered since leaving Torlech 74. Now is the time to return to Torlech 74 and see how things are there. Valpar listens to the messages that are being transmitted from down on the planet. He is glad that he had taken the decision to use the chutes, to dispatch the robots and people onto the surface. He also realizes that he could have landed to drop off the supplies. Would he have picked up traces of the virus by doing just that?

  The riches to be had here are mind boggling. If he can find a way to extract them, or at least get at them without being plagued by the virus, then that is what he will do. But first of all, he has to do everything in his power to make sure that no one on the craft has come into contact with the virus. He realizes that it might be right out of his control. To that end he orders everyone on board to their quarters, for the next 7 days. Even the robots will be confined and not to come in contact with any of the humans.

  Before this plan is put into action, he directs the three groups on the planet surface to come together. Once they have done that, he tells them to move into the mountains, to see if there are any survivors there.

  Of all the people on the craft, only Valpar remains in the control room of the craft. He wants to be there, to see what they find when they move into the mountains.

  Over the course of the next couple of days, the three men and the three robots search the mountains, in the hope of finding survivors. They do find evidence of where people had once lived, but it is clear that they aren’t there anymore. Whoever it was who had lived up here, must have also succumbed to the virus. There is no evidence of anyone being alive now. They come across a few abandoned small communities, but all are devoid of people, animals and birds. After they have exhaustively searched the mountain areas, Valpar gets them to move back down to the main settlements again. He would really like to know if any of the life in the sea is still there, or if the virus has wiped out all life on the planet. There is no easy way to discover if this is the case, without sacrificing one of their own. He can’t see that being an option. They approach the shore with great care. They remain in their vehicles, because they aren’t sure what the capabilities of the creatures that live there might be. One of them braves it though, and drives quickly into the shallow waters and then as fast as they can, turns round and makes it back to the shores again. They only just make it, before the seas become alive with thrashing creatures, swimming right into the shallow waters, looking for prey. At least that answers some of their questions. The creatures in the sea have obviously not been affected by the virus, even though the people and animals that came into the sea had the virus in them. That is interesting and in many ways not what Valpar really wanted the situation to be. If the sea creatures had been wiped out completely as well, he thinks that the virus would have gone too. With there always being a possibility that the virus still exists in the sea, then there is always a chance it can spread back to the land again.

  Not that he thinks it would be safe and possible to fish for food anyway. And if they did, then there would always be a chance that the fish would bring the virus back to them. The fact that all life on land has been wiped out, makes the job of extracting the minerals much harder. He will have to, if he decides to go for it, use his own people and robots, to do all the work. That is not ideal. He decides that he might do a test extraction and evaluate the situation, depending on how hard that job is.

  Three weeks later, the three humans on the surface are still fit and well. He makes contact with all of those on board and no one there is suffering from anything either. It would appear that the virus is no longer active. He calls everyone together and they decide that it is reasonably safe enough, on the little information they have, for them to land and see what they can do, in the way of extracting minerals. That decided, that is exactly what they do, wisely or not, but with greed in their eyes.

  Grillech has agreed that he will give the Cotons a bigger slice of the proceeds, when they get to Nitll. He has already broached the subject with them and quite naturally, they are keen on the idea. Grillech has already realized that there is little point in him going from planet to planet, just conquering them and plundering their wealth. He already has far more than he is ever likely to ever need, or be able to spend. The Cotons, on the other hand, are still more than willing to increase their wealth. They are not really able to manage it all on their own. They will need equipment, but more importantly they will need robots and quite a lot of them at that. It is going to take quite a time, once they have established their position on Nitll. There is never any doubt that they have the superior weapons and craft, to defeat pretty much any peoples on any planet they choose to invade.

  With a plan at the ready, they carry on, until they are near to Nitll. Nitll is one of many planets that have a population, which has not yet ventured beyond their own planet. The population is not huge, as Nitll is a planet with vast oceans and relatively limited land mass. What it lacks in land mass, it more than makes up with the vast array of treasures it holds. Grillech is puzzled as to how GM3 has managed to have such an accurate map, of which planets are worth the effort of invading. It seems to him that some of these planets have never been visited by anyone before and in a lot of cases, certainly not by GM3. So, if that is the case, then how does he know about the minerals and riches that these planets have stored on and under the surface?

  They are ready, as they come into visual range of Nitll. For the first time that he has experienced, Grillech notices that the craft is not running as smoothly as it has done up to now. They are still moving and the controls are still working, but something isn’t quite right with his craft. He can’t put his finger on what it is that is wrong, he just knows that something isn’t right. The next thing that tells him that som
ething is wrong; is when the planet’s inhabitants send up some craft to greet them.

  Posdon leaves Zalofa 7 and Zalofa 7B behind him, once things are settled and his committees are definitely in charge of things on both planets. He leaves to make his way to Zenfa 2. There is little information that has been given to him about Zenfa 2 and the reason he is going there next, is because his visit to Zalofa 7 has not gone totally to plan. The people on Zenfa 2, according to the information GM3 has given about them, are a mild mannered folk. They do not bear arms. Part of that is because there is little on the planet for them to have the need to do so. There are no great riches. There are some base metals and minerals, but only those that provide a comfortable existence for these people. It is the fact that the report says so little about things on Zenfa 2; that makes the suspicious Posdon think that maybe there is more on the planet than GM3 has let on about. In fact Zenfa 2, the more he reads the bit about it, is a place he believes that GM3 does not want him to invade. That of course, once that thought gets into his mind, makes him want to do exactly the opposite of that.

  He isn’t going to be complacent about things. As they make the final approaches to Zenfa 2, everyone on board is tensed up and ready for something unexpected. There are no telling radio signals and there are certainly no craft being sent out to greet them. They still keep their wits about them, as they enter the atmosphere and select their landing place, near to where there appears to be some sort of built up area. That area is not large and is maybe only a couple of hundred buildings. There is nothing moving on the ground, as they gently descend the last few metres onto the surface. The engines are cut and the crew looks at their monitors, to await the appearance of some kind of welcoming committee. They wait for about ten minutes, but not one soul has come out into the open to greet them. Posdon is still suspicious, so he decides to send out a couple of the robots, to search the surrounding areas.