The Watcher Read online

  There are other matters though, which will have a much greater impact on him, now he has started the process to being mortal. The first of those, he suspects, he has just witnessed. The buttons to open the base doors will have come from Guiding Master technology. They used to work. They would still probably work, for a Guiding Master, but they won’t for him now. They obviously won’t work for his androids either, because they are made with Guiding Master technology too. And that is just the start of things changing. It is not that he didn’t know they would, it is just that he had not really thought about the far reaching effects of the technologies that he has been using. And there is another thing; the thought just comes into his head. The other three that he has shared the Universe with, all have Guiding Master technology. Pretty much everything they use has it. The Craft they use to get around, the weapons they use to crush any opposition and of course the androids that they depend on so much, to stay in control of the places they have conquered. Well, he has enough problems of his own to be getting on with. When he has got them under control, he might start to worry about theirs.

  He has arrived at his craft. The door opens to let him in. That is a bit of a surprise, but then he remembers that this is his ship and the door recognition software is actually quite old. He doesn’t waste any time before going in. He doesn’t want to have the same experience he had at the base, where the door shut on him again. He makes his way through to his quarters. There are things he wants to do, before making contact with the base, to get them to manually open the doors. The first thing he does; is to have a look in the mirror. He struggles to recognize the person he sees before him. He takes a few minutes, before going through to the control room. He tries to make contact with the base. The communication system does not work. It will probably revert to some antiquated system in time, but he does not have that time. Everything will revert to a lower level piece of equipment; the craft, the engines, weapons, everything like that. It just won’t happen instantly. The powers have to be taken away and then things will adjust in the fullness of time. He looks at the other monitors available to him. On one he can see the android that came back with him, standing outside the main door. On another is a picture of the land to the rear of the launch pad. On another there is a picture of the base. It is taken from the antenna rising way above the craft. He peers in closely to see what is going on there. The other android had obviously stayed back at the base with the prisoners. He watches as the story plays out. He sees the way the prisoners are acting and he sees the result of that a little bit later, when The Keeper overpowers the android and then obliterates it. Damn, that is so much more than annoying. It changes everything, particularly as he doesn’t know how strong he will be. The Keeper will be strong though. He has a weapon that works so very well. He also has the assistance of two Guiding Masters. They are also free now from their shackles. They have used the weapon to remove them.

  He knows he now does not have a lot of time. They are not trying to get into the base, but instead they are coming after him. In the circumstances, he needs to get out of here. He will not be able to defend the craft. Lupus is destroyed, so that is not an option. That only leaves him one other place he can escape to; that is if he has the time to get out of sight, before they get too close. He doesn’t think he will have the time to gather anything before he leaves. It won’t be a good idea to even try to take the android with him. Anyway there is one where he is going, and that one is definitely not going to be affected by these things that are changing for him now. It has been disabled for a very long time, but it will be useful to him.

  He moves quickly to the other side of the craft. The sooner he gets out of here, the better his chances will be. He opens the exit door and climbs down to the ground. He manages to shut the door behind him. Before he left he checked the monitors and he could see that they were taking a round-about route to get to the craft. All he has to do is to keep the craft between him and where they are, until he can get out of sight. That should be possible.

  He keeps looking over his shoulder, to make sure he remains out of their line of sight. So far he cannot see them. He moves away from the craft. It is not as easy as he would want it to be. He is older now and the change is having an effect on him. He is feeling the effects of his age; that and the fact that he really isn’t that fit. He gets to the point where he can move behind some rocks. He takes a couple of minutes to recover his breath. He is out of sight now and he doubts they will be able to follow him. The ground he has come across does not leave much trace of his walking across it.

  He has rested enough for now. He needs to put some ground between the base, the craft and him. The one thing he did have time to get; was his compass. He will need that to get to where he is going. He knows which direction Lupus is in, or which the remains of Lupus are in, but where he is going is in a different direction from Lupus. He has been there from Lupus of course, but not from the direction of the base.

  He is pretty confident that he cannot be seen now from the craft. He is also fairly certain that they won’t come after him, well not yet. If he can get himself together reasonably quickly, it may well be him that is ready first, to go after them.

  The terrain he is crossing is as good as virgin land. He is certain that no one has crossed this land before him. That is a strange thought. He keeps going, but now at a slower pace. That way he is able to conserve his energy. He may know the direction he is going in, but he has no idea how long it is going to take him to get there. At least they don’t have a craft that is capable of low level flying and searching. The craft that Spirit came in might be able to do it, but as far as he knows, that has not been located yet. It is unlikely to be found by The Keeper yet, as they are following on foot too. Spirit is still safely guarded inside the base. But then of course, some of the androids will have lost some of their capabilities. The androids will have lost more than the basic robots have. Spirit will be safe in the cell they have made for him, in the control room. That way he is easier to keep an eye on. On top of that, he has a body clamp and leg clamps. Spirit will be going nowhere soon.

  The Grand Master concentrates on the job in hand; reaching the safety of his old hideaway.

  Chapter 24 The Keeper

  We watch for a few minutes from our position. The android is not particularly vigilant as it is standing there. It looks at first glance as if it is guarding the door, but then on the other hand, it also looks as if it is just standing there. Just like the other android, it will have lost some of its powers. The question still remains, as to whether GM3 is inside the craft, or if he has not been able to get in; where has he gone?

  We need to know the answer to that one. It isn’t going to be easy to approach the android. Yes, we do have the superior weaponry, now I have the Air Micro Compounder weapon, but it would be good if we didn’t have to destroy this android. There is information that would be good if we could access it. I don’t think we are going to be able to just walk up to it and convince it we are superior to it and that on that basis, surrender.

  Ideally, we realize now, it would be good if we were coming in from different directions. To do that now would take a long time for us all to get into the right place. It will be quicker for us to keep moving round, rather than go straight in towards the craft.

  It takes us much longer than I would have liked, to get to a place where we are out of sight of the android again. We have been concentrating on the android and the craft, but we have also been keeping a watch on the area beyond the craft. If GM3 is not in there, then he will have gone off away from the back, we are sure.

  I make my way round one side of the craft, while the two Guiding Masters go round the other side. The concern is that they are not armed, but there is nothing we can do about that at the moment. As soon as we come across some weaponry, we will take it and arm them. That might go against their position and what they are there for, but we think the circumstances warrant it. The plan is for the Guiding Masters to provide a dist
raction for the android, while I come up behind it and try to disarm it. That is the basis of the plan, but of course nothing is guaranteed. How I am going to be able to disarm it, without having to destroy it, is going to be the biggest challenge.

  Right on the second, the distraction starts. The two Guiding Masters start throwing little bits of rock out in front of where the android is standing. They then don’t throw the next ones quite so far, so that the android has to turn in their direction. It has visibly woken it up, that is for sure. By the time I have it in my sights, it is aiming its weapon and starting to move round the front of the craft, towards where the Guiding Masters are. Actually it is probably towards where they were, because the plan is for them to retreat as hurriedly as possible, back round the craft and come up behind me. The Guiding Masters have shown me how I can regulate the force of the weapon. If it is at all possible, I will not be destroying this android.

  I make a noise on the ground, a little bit before I intended to. The android immediately stops and turns in my direction. I am almost ready for it, but not as ready as I would have liked. I know which arm will have the weapon. I intend to take out the shoulder of that arm, if my aim is good enough.

  This android is obviously not quite as confused as the other one had been. It instantly knows that I am up to no good. It knows that I should be a prisoner and I should have shackles on. I am neither of these things. The one thing that I am fairly certain of is, that this android, like the other one, will not be able to use the weapon it has in its hand. Well that is always assuming that it hasn’t tried it, to see if it works after the changes that have gone on. I won’t know that until the moment comes. It raises its arm and depresses the button. I am not quite ready to fire where I want to, so I take an avoiding step or two, hoping that will be enough, if the weapon does actually fire.

  By the time I realize that the weapon is useless, the android has already dropped it. It is so much quicker than the other one, to reach into a pocket for a back-up weapon. It is so much quicker, but not quite quick enough. I stop, aim and fire, all in just over a second. I get it just below the shoulder and the arm drops off. The android goes for a pocket on the other side, but I have been expecting that and my next shot removes the arm on that side too. Just as I am thinking that I have succeeded in what I wanted to achieve, the android starts to run straight at me. It may well have no arms to hold weapons, but that does not stop it from being a potent force. Spikes appear on the body, as it races towards me. I have no choice but to take out the legs, just as I did the arms. The android falls to the ground with a thump, about ten feet away from me. But that isn’t the end of its efforts. It tries to turn the front of the face towards me. I am thinking this is not going to be just for a chat. I am not wrong in that. It opens its mouth as it starts to face me, as best as it can from where it is lying. I suspect there is another weapon somewhere in the mouth. I don’t really have a choice in what I need to do. I step up the force of my weapon and fire first at the head and then at the body. The effect of this is virtually the same as the effect my shot had on the first android. It is pulverized, well the head and body parts are. For good measure I repeat those shots on the loose arms and legs, just in case there is a potential threat to come from them too.

  It is not what I wanted to do, but in the end I feel I had no choice. I just couldn’t take the chance that the android might still have the capability to get me and the two Guiding Masters.

  They come out into the open, once I have called out to them that it is safe to do so. Well I mean by that, safe as far as the android is concerned. I walk over and pick up the Air Micro Compounder weapon and hand it to one of them. They take it reluctantly and then take a minute or two, trying to decide who is going to have it.

  We check over the remains of the android and then turn our attention onto the craft. We approach the door and to our amazement, we press a button and the door opens. Warily we go in. It takes us about ten minutes to be absolutely certain that there is no one in there. We check every space that he could possibly be in, but he is not there. It would appear that everything is in place. We, of course, see the monitors and see that he would have been able to see us at the base. He would have been able to see us take out the other android. There is little doubt that he has gone off somewhere. Maybe he has gone back to the base; that is if he managed to make contact. We try the communication system and it is responded to immediately. As soon as we speak, the robot or android that answers it, knows we are not who is expected to be here. It cuts the communication, before we get the opportunity to ask anything. What we make of that; is that we just don’t know. We believe that the system worked for us, but may well not have worked for GM3. It doesn’t resolve anything for us. But we believe that he wasn’t able to make contact with them.

  We have a look around, to see if we can find a set of buttons that might give us access to the base, but there are none to be found. It doesn’t really matter where we think he might be; we have to go back to the base and try to gain access. If he is there, then that is good, but if he isn’t, then we will hopefully be able to rescue Spirit. We try the communication system again before we leave, but this time there is no response.

  We make ready to leave and find there is a back door. We close up the front and leave by the back door. We are going to take an even more circuitous route back to the base, than the one we took from there to here. We make sure that we have a third weapon to take with us too. It isn’t the same as the one we have, but it does work; we tried it.

  Chapter 25 The Baddies

  That now makes sense. The creatures that smothered his android are the ones who sleep in these small beds. Now the assumption that he is going to make may be a wrong one, but it is the one he has decided upon. The creatures are small, because they are not grown up. The problem with that assumption is that, if that were true, then they would all be likely to be different sizes, depending at what stage of growing up they are at. Posdon is not thinking along those lines. His thoughts are that this place is like a kind of school. They sleep in dorms and are fed in canteens. The question he wants the answer to, is where are the adults? He also wants to know some other things. Who cooks the food for them? Why can’t he gain access to the other building? Where are they now? Well they appear to be in the woods, but what do they do in the woods, other than capture androids when they come across them. How did the androids not see this coming and protect themselves? Why are there no vehicles here?

  Now he is thinking about vehicles, he thinks it a good idea that he unloads some of his own. There is no point staying here and watching.

  They unload four vehicles, each one holding a member of his team and three androids. They drive off towards the woods. When they get there, he sends one vehicle to the left and one to the right, instructing them to go round the perimeter of the woods, to see how far they stretch. It takes them much less time than he would have imagined, to meet up on the far side. The woods are only a mile in diameter. He sends one of the vehicles from the far side and one from his side, into the woods. Rather than just ride into the woods, they blast their way in, creating a wide path through the trees. When they reach the point where the land starts to fall, they fire in an arc, destroying a wide arc of the woods in front of them. Once they have done that, Posdon brings the other two vehicles in, to join the first two. They are still on opposing sides of the woods. The two sets of vehicles descend through the trees, stopping every few yards, to destroy the woods each side of them. Once this is done, they descend until they reach the point where the mist starts. They turn their weapons onto heat fire and blast the mist. Soon it begins to break up. They edge forward yard by yard, as the mist clears in front of them. They clear more trees and then continue to disperse the mist. There is still no contact from the three androids who ventured in there before them.

  The land starts to level out. They make sure they are not firing straight ahead, in case they fire upon their own vehicles coming towards them. Their instruments a
re showing that they are quite close now. The last of the mist between them is cleared. Midway between them they can see the three androids lying in a pile on the ground. There is a small group of creatures round them. As soon as they see the mist has cleared, they scatter. In the matter of a few seconds, they disappear down some holes in the ground. Posdon takes the vehicles over to where the androids are lying. They have been stripped of all of their valuable parts. What is left lying is virtually useless.

  A voice comes over the radio to Posdon’s vehicle.

  ‘Please withdraw back to the village. We need the mist to be able to survive. You will find the mist comes down over the entire planet at the end of the day. During the day it only stays in this hollow.’

  ‘Why did you attack the androids?’

  ‘We were afraid. We need everything we can get, when we get the chance. We do not have very good resources here on Zenfa 2.’

  ‘What time does the mist come down?’

  ‘In about two hours.’

  ‘We will meet you at the village.

  Valpar is encouraged by these new findings. It doesn’t explain where they get their drinking water from, but it does give an insight as to what might be the solution to their problem. They are hoping the solution is going to be the addition of water. They have already worked out that it is not going to be any old water, but water from this planet. The same water that may well contain the virus that has wiped out the population completely, the last time it struck. But then if it has struck several times before and people have survived, why were the same people not immune this time. The answer to that one; is either that the virus has mutated and the people had no resistance this time, or that like before there have been survivors and they just haven’t come across them yet. They retire to the main ship again, to discuss this. After a couple of hours of discussion, they decide that there are survivors. The main point in this argument, is that they have been unable to find the vehicles, or what it is that is used to collect the water, to add to the material, so you can make what you want. The reason they can’t find them, is quite possibly because that is where the people are.