The Watcher Page 4

  He keeps that up for another good fifteen minutes. He can probably keep this up for as long as he wants to, but he thinks it won’t help his cause. He wants them to think he is human, and so he needs to let them see him becoming tired. He needs to let them see him stop for a rest, so that is what he does. He lies back on the floor, stopping his rocking rhythm. He waits for ten minutes and then sets going again, this time sticking to just rolling back and forth and letting his body clamps clang against the bars. He does that for maybe ten minutes this time and then stops again. Still the robot has not returned.

  ‘I need a drink’ he shouts out ‘I need a drink and I need some food.’ He repeats that for five minutes or so and then resumes rocking his body and clanging against the cell bars. He keeps that up for just over five minutes and then stops and starts shouting again for his drink. Still the robot has not returned.

  He spends the next hour doing one thing and then the other, always reducing the time he does the physical bit each time he does, hoping that it will show them he is tiring, because he is human. Still the robot has not returned.

  After the hour is up, he gives it a rest for a while. He is just lying on the floor with his eyes closed. His hearing is on alert, but he can’t hear anyone coming into the control room. He believes that he would be able to hear them, if they do. He doesn’t want to open his eyes to make sure. He lies like that for maybe two hours, all the time with his eyes closed. He tries not to move a muscle, which to be frank is quite easy to do, as the clamps are holding him tightly.

  Maybe he does actually go to sleep for a while, because when he suddenly becomes conscious again, he knows that something is different in the room. He doesn’t know what yet, as he has still to open his eyes, but somethings has changed. It is not the clamps, as he can feel they are still firmly wrapped round him. He hasn’t heard anything come back into the room, but he thinks the thing that has changed, is that the robot has come back into the room. The only thing that troubles him about that is that he didn’t actually hear him do that, if that is what it is.

  He lies there and listens. He knows he hasn’t made it obvious that he is awake. His ears aren’t picking up anything at all. There are no sounds to be picked up. Nothing is moving in the room around him, but he still knows something has changed. The question is; how long should he wait, before he decides to let them know he is back in the land of the living? He ticks off the time passing, in his head. It is nearly ten minutes before he hears a slight sound. It isn’t actually inside the room and that surprises him. He opens his eyes, expecting to see that there is a robot looking at him. That is not what he sees. He has to turn a fraction to see what has caught his attention. What he sees is the robot; he has to presume it is the same one, coming through a doorway into the control room. He tries to look at as much of the control room as possible, but he can’t see anything else. More precisely, he can’t see any more robots.

  The robot comes into the control room. Spirit inwardly smiles to himself. The robot is carrying a glass of water.

  Chapter 9 The Grand Master

  The outer door has opened, to let him into the base in the hillside. He is just about to step forward to go in, when the door suddenly closes on him. He looks at the android that is with him, thinking that it has unintentionally closed the door again. The android is just as confused as he is. The Grand Master presses the button again on his pad, expecting the door to open again, but it does not. He goes up to the door and tries to push the doors apart. There is no way that is going to happen. He instructs the android to press the button on its pad. It does so, but with the same result. The door stays shut. There isn’t a bell, or anything that he can press, to contact those on the inside, that he is having trouble getting in.

  He looks over to where they have just walked from. His three prisoners are on their way over, being escorted by the other android. They are shackled, just in case they try to escape. The Grand Master retries his button and keeps jamming his finger on it. It doesn’t change things in the slightest. The door remains firmly shut. Maybe he should go round and try the other entrance. There is no reason why this one should not be working. He sends the android off, to go round to the other entrance. The prisoners and the android are now nearly with him. When they actually get to him and stop, he notices a change in The Keeper. There is something about him that has changed, maybe only a subtle change, but a change nevertheless. He looks at him closely and The Keeper looks back at him, straight in the eye. There is little doubt. That look is not that of someone who is defeated. He is going to have to get rid of these prisoners, as soon as he can get access to the base. The other two are just as confident. Is that how he sees them?

  He turns away, as he doesn’t want them to see how confused he is. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to bring them back here, where this Spirit has come and been captured. Maybe they know about Spirit and that has lifted their own spirits somewhat. He tries his button again, but the door is not opening.

  The Keeper is not sure whether he should risk saying something. It is quite obvious that something is not going to plan for GM3. He looks across at the other two Guiding Masters. They are calm and standing up straight. He hears a voice in his head. It takes him by surprise.

  ‘Look at him’ the voice says ‘he doesn’t know that something is happening, but we can see that it has started.’

  The Keeper looks at the two Guiding Masters. One of them smiles at him and he knows where the voice is coming from. He turns to look at The Grand Master. He has his back to him, but he notices a change in his stance, even as he is looking at him. His shoulders become slightly more rounded. It is hard to describe, but his legs change shape as well. They are slightly less straight. He lets his eyes wander up to the back of his head. That area has changed too. His hair has changed from being brown and vibrant, to being straggly and grey. The Keeper can hardly wait for him to turn round. The Grand Master stays looking at the door, repeatedly pressing the button, trying to get the door to open. The android that is guarding them, has also noticed a change in GM3. You can see by the way that it is looking at him, that it is seeing the changes as they occur. Surely GM3 must be aware of the changes too. Maybe that is why he has turned away from them, as he knows it is going on and he doesn’t want them to witness it. That wish isn’t going to happen.

  The other android returns and goes straight up to GM3. Well, it does nearly. It stops about three feet from him, as it thinks it is about to approach the wrong person. It looks at the other android and then steps forward to GM3.

  ‘The other door will not open either.’

  ‘We will have to go back to the craft. We can contact them from there and get them to open the doors from the inside.’

  ‘Shall I go back and do that?’

  ‘No, I think we all need to go back.’

  The others can hear this conversation. It doesn’t make sense for them all to go, unless GM3 realizes that there have been changes. He needs to regather and he is vulnerable out here, when he doesn’t know the full extent of the changes.

  He turns the other way, so that he keeps his face away from their position. He starts to walk back towards their craft. The one android is walking just behind him. The three prisoners stay where they are. They are not just being awkward. GM3 has given no instruction to the android, or them. I know he said that they all need to go back, but he didn’t direct an order to the android.

  The Keeper and the two Guiding Masters find this interesting. In the normal light of things, the android would have moved off too, escorting the prisoners back to the craft. This has not happened and the android does not seem to be that concerned that it hasn’t moved them along.

  The voice sounds again in The Keeper’s head.

  ‘I believe the android is being affected by the changes too. Now that he is not a Guiding Master any more, some of the technologies that he had access to will have been removed. That will include the technologies that made the androids. We are not sure how much they wi
ll change, but there will definitely be a lessening of their capabilities.’

  The Keeper decides that he will try to talk back to them.

  ‘Will their weapons and the craft change too?’

  ‘Almost certainly they will. We just do not know how much they will change. It depends on what level of technology was used. We suspect that these androids will change more than others. These are the elite ones. They have the most to lose, if you like.’

  ‘So the indecision he is showing right now, is an effect of those changing powers?’

  ‘Most definitely that is correct. As I said, it is unknown how far reaching the changes might be. This is not something that we have come across before. It is the first time in history.’

  ‘Do you think that the doors not opening, is also an effect of that?’

  ‘I suppose it could be, if the technology used in the buttons was deemed to be only available to a Guiding Master. I am not sure, but at a guess, I would say that is the reason why the buttons are not working.’

  ‘Will he be able to get back into the craft?’

  ‘Now there is a good question. I imagine that we will get the answer to that one in a few minutes. That is dependent, of course, whether we decide to go back with him to the craft. At the moment, we are going nowhere.’

  ‘Is there any way we can get these shackles off? Do you think they might be designed using Guiding Master technology?’

  ‘There is a possibility. We would need the key, I think, to get these off. Now there is a chance that this android will have a key with him. The question is, or will be, how much have the changes affected him? We might be able to get him to use his key.’

  ‘I’m surprised that they don’t appear to have noticed that we aren’t following them.’

  ‘I think he has other things on his mind at the moment. Not that I know about these things from experience, but I expect that he is feeling quite odd, physically. I would also imagine that the mental pressure is immense too. Other Guiding Masters have gone before. Although we have had no direct contact with them afterwards, we were told about the changes. They might be quite challenging, as the body readjusts from being immortal, to be mortal again.’

  They lapse into a few minutes silence. They are standing quite close together and the android is standing maybe three feet away from them. It keeps looking at them and then at the departing android and GM3. It isn’t saying anything though and it isn’t making any signs that it wants them to follow. They don’t have a problem with that.

  The other android and GM3 disappear from view. The craft has been landed on the temporary landing pad, which is just a bit beyond where they can see. They didn’t look round once on the way there and they haven’t turned to see what they are doing, before they lose sight of them. The android that is with the three prisoners does nothing different, when they disappear from view. It just stands there, looking around it now. It isn’t even really concentrating on guarding the prisoners either.

  ‘Do you think it is worth challenging this android’ The Keeper asks, breaking the silence.

  ‘I think there is little to be lost by trying?’

  ‘Shall I do it or you?’

  ‘I will give it a try first, if you like.’

  The Guiding Master then speaks out loud to the android.

  ‘Why are we just standing here, when they have gone back to the craft?’

  The android does not answer straight away. It takes is a minute or so, before it does answer.

  ‘I do not know what I am supposed to do.’

  ‘Why do we have shackles on our legs? We should not have those. It is as if we are prisoners.’

  ‘But you are prisoners.’

  ‘That was before, but now things have changed.’

  ‘What do you mean by; things have changed.’

  ‘Your GM3 is no longer a Guiding Master. He has lost his powers. They have been taken away from him. He cannot do the things he has done up to now.’

  The android watches them as they say this. They can see that it is taking in what they are telling it, but they can’t see what the android is making of it all.

  ‘You have to undo the shackles from around our legs. We cannot be your prisoners any longer.’

  Chapter 10 The Baddies

  Posdon sends out a couple of androids. He watches them go towards the buildings. Still there is no reaction to their arrival, or the androids leaving the craft. The androids reach the first building. They try to get in, but the access is blocked. Posdon is watching through a camera, on one of the androids.

  They move to the next building and try to access that, but again with no success. They try several more, before Posdon starts to lose his patience. He sends a message to the androids, to select a building and force their way in. They select the nearest one to the craft. It is also the last one on this side of the settlement, if that is what it is.

  The android takes out a weapon and blasts where it thinks the lock on the door might be. It makes a hole in the door, but the door still holds. The android then takes out one side of the door. This is too much for the door to withstand, and it falls open. The android walks in. The other android stays outside on guard.

  Posdon watches the monitor intently. The inside of the building is certainly a place where people live, but it is not a house, or type of residence that he is used to seeing. The inside of this building is just like a dormitory. There is a long row of beds. Beside each bed is a cabinet. The android walks the length of the dormitory. There is a row along each side and another row that goes down the middle. There are ten beds in each row, so this building will sleep 30. The question is 30 what? The android gets to the bottom of the row. There are two doors at this end. The first door leads into a large bathroom. There are six sinks and six cubicles for toilet facilities. There is nothing else in there. The android moves out of there and into the other room. As expected this turns out to be the wash room. There are two rows of showers, with five in each row. There is nothing else in this room either. The android checks the rest of this building, but there is nothing else to be found.

  Posdon tells the android to come out of there and go along to the next building, to see what that holds. When it gets there and gains entry, they find that it is exactly the same. There must be some different buildings somewhere. They need to have some place to eat and some place for leisure and entertainment. Well, that is what they think there must be.

  The androids move further in and try another building there. This time when they break through the doorway, they find what looks like an eating hall. The place has several long tables and can probably seat maybe 200 people at one session. At the far end there is a kitchen. There isn’t any food in there. In fact there are no containers that could be used for the storage of food. There are worktops which could be used for the preparation of food, but when the android searches round, there are no facilities for the cooking of food either.

  Posdon gets the android to come out and try another building further on. It comes across another building with beds in it. Posdon gets the androids to walk round all the buildings to see if they all look the same. They come across one building that looks slightly different from the others. First of all it looks sturdier than the rest. Secondly, the door is made of a different material. When the android tries to gain access to this building, the weapon has no effect on the door. That puzzles Posdon, because the weapons have been pretty much able to do everything expected of them, up to now. It is not as if the weapon has failed. They go back and try it on another building. It still works, but not on this door.

  Valpar leaves a skeleton crew on board the ship. He does it as a precaution really, rather than he expects them to be needed. If he was really worried about succumbing to the deadly virus that has swept through here on Torlech 74, then he wouldn’t have come onto the surface himself. But anyway, the thought of the great riches that could be available to him, overrule any thought he might have had, about preserving his life against the vir
us. The truth being, that he does not really trust anyone else. to discover the wealth of jewels and minerals available here. He wants to see what there is here, for himself.

  They meet up with the three men, and the androids that have been down on the planet. Their first task; is to discover where on the planet they might find what they are looking for. It is most unlikely to be in the seas under the water, but there is probably just as much wealth available there, if not the greatest wealth to be had there.

  There are buildings that look like they should hold some of the information they seek, but they don’t come across any maps or drawings. The other thing that they don’t find; is a place where the minerals have been stored, that they have already mined. Valpar gets the information that GM3 has given them about this planet, sent to him again from the main craft. There is little doubt that this is one of the richest planets in the universe, according to GM3. He has not tried to hide it from them. But now they are here and there aren’t any people to show them where they mine it from, Valpar is starting to doubt GM3’s words. He needs to discover something tangible, to make him believe again.

  They systematically go through the buildings, searching for clues. Eventually they come across some information. It isn’t in a general building, but is in one of the nicer residential buildings in the settlement they are in. There is a hidden safe cabinet, in one of the basement rooms. They manage quite easily to gain access to it. The Air Micro Compounder weapon persuades the door to open at the first attempt.

  They find out several things from this one compartment. The person who lived here has left some information, quite possibly because they knew the inhabitants were all going to die. The information he has left, will be invaluable to the person who finds it. In this instance that is Valpar.