Chapter 8
Everybody got busy. Forty-eight hours later The Ancient One
and Durga entered the shields seeking Chairman Ching, the
invader's leader. They found him with a group of people picking
up the bodies of their dead. "You seem to be holding up your
end of the bargain," The Ancient One praised. "In this
computer my companion is carrying are the blueprints for the
shield elements, and our people's history. Durga nearly burned
out your computer typing so fast! But everything's in
there."
The Ancient One's voice trailed off. He walked over to one of the
bodies being loaded on the vehicle which resembled a little golf
cart with a built on trailer. He began to examine the body's arms
and legs and its head. One of the invaders standing nearby
remarked, "Got pretty chewed up, didn't he?"
"He most certainly did!" The Ancient One muttered.
"Have there been any more of these?"
"At least two with this battle," the man answered.
"At least two or three with each battle we fought here. We
figured it was some weird kind of weapon the natives were
using."
"Ching!" The Ancient One snapped, "Have there been
a lot of mysterious deaths on your world where the bodies were
chewed up like this?"
The invader rubbed his chin. "I remember," he answered,
"just before we began operations here. The head of the city
police came to the high committee with a report of some unusual
deaths at construction accidents, and other disasters. He wanted
permission to launch a high investigation but the counsel was
only interested in getting this project going, and told him not
to waste his time unless somebody was caught in the act."
"Damn!" The Ancient One cursed. "Yes, they'd use
something like this to cover their harvesting. Looks like we're
not going home right away after all!" he told Durga.
"I'm going into their world. I want you to rig up a matter
separator, and for gosh sakes, don't let the natives get ahold of
it! I want negative matter, enough to make six or seven warheads,
and I'll need a launcher too." He picked up a large piece of
metal from the ground and handed it to Durga. "Make the
negative matter out of this. I want it to be from the invader's
world."
Durga looked at the body. "It CAN'T be that!" she
muttered. "You destroyed them thousands of years ago!"
"I destroyed SOME of them thousands of years ago," The
Ancient One answered, "not necessarily the ones that did
this. The ones I destroyed fed on oxygen breathers. These are
feeding on methane breathers. But I'm quite sure, if it's what I
think it is, they're just as nasty, and, just as hungry! Get to
work while I scout."
The Chairman looked at The Ancient One rather fearful. "What
is it you fear?" he asked, "if you fear something it
must indeed, be formidable."
"An ancient enemy of my people," The Ancient One
answered, "that send out mechanical servants to harvest
blood and take it back to their processors, where they use it to
feed thousands of their kind. In our mythology they are called
Bloodlots, because they seek a lot of blood. Don't worry, if it
is what I fear, I know how to deal with it."
"I certainly hope," the chairman remarked, "that
when you deal with it I am very far away! Because I do not want
to be in the way."
"Don't worry," The Ancient One answered, "I'll do
my best to make sure nobody's in the way."
He hurried to join Durga. She and The Ax Man were busy but The Ax
Man spoke up when The Ancient One appeared. "Got vampires,
huh?"
The Ancient One shook his head. "Far worse than
vampires," he answered, "I'm going to scout. Stay here.
Keep an eye on things. If they suspect we know they may try to
make a direct assault to take us out, before we can take them
out. So stay alert!"
The Ancient One went into the invader's world. It wasn't long
before he found what he was looking for; footprints in the dust
where one of the construction workers had died. They were
unmistakable! The Ancient One had seen them ages before, the same
ball shaped heel. The Ancient One began to plot the accident
sites. It didn't take him long to find a pattern. Each new
accident had occurred within twenty-five miles of the previous
one, and exactly two days, one hour and ten minutes later.
"One thing about Bloodlots," The Ancient One muttered,
"they're so damned predictable! Well, we've got just about
two days to get ready. There's three construction sites where an
accident could occur within the circle. Fortunately there were
three of them so they could cover each site. The Ancient One went
back to the dirigible's world. He had to get his weapons ready.
If the Bloodlot appeared on schedule it was going to get a nasty
surprise!
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