 
Pen Draig

A Story By

Philip R Benge

Smashwords Edition

***************

Published by

Philip R Benge on Smashwords

Pen Draig

Copyright Philip R Benge 2019

Cover photo by Steve Jurvetson 2019

Thank you for downloading this eBook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form, except for quotes used in reviews.

Your support and respect for the property of this author is appreciated.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author's imagination and used fictitiously.

Pen Draig

Contents

Chapter One: Back from the Brink

Chapter Two: The Voyage Out

Chapter Three: Pen Draig

Chapter Four: The Ordovices

Chapter Five: The Vault of Myrddin

Chapter Six: The Planet Chryste

Chapter Seven: Battle in Space

About the Author

Other Books by the Author

Chapter One

Back from the Brink

It was the middle part of the 24th century, Earth was united at last under one government, however, for one man, Alun Reece, this did not lift him out of the depression in to which he had sunk following the death of his wife three years earlier. He was a tall man, just over six feet in height, aged thirty-five years, with a mop of black hair on his head, brown eyes, and a handsome, although rugged, face. His clothes had seen better days and needed replacing, one positive thing about him was the look on his face, if you looked carefully in to his eyes you would see just a ray hope, although this was still tinged with despair. His friends had wondered if anything would ever save him, at times they even feared for his life. Four weeks prior, something had come along to give him a new chance of life, something unexpected. It had been a stranger who had been behind it and Alun had jumped at the chance. The four weeks had been filled with hard work that ended with Alun standing on the observation deck of the largest of the space docks in orbit around the planet Earth. Here, he did feel better, a lot better, and he was determined to grasp the opportunity offered to him with both hands.

He felt that old spark of life flowing through him, it was because he was back in space and away from Earth, for Earth had always seemed crowded whenever he was down upon its surface. He was looking at a spaceship that was hanging in space, attached to the space dock by eight large clamps to stop the vessel from moving. There were also three docking tubes attached to the vessel, one going to the ship's main airlock and the other two going to the airlocks that accessed the ship's hold. The spacecraft had a rather cumbersome name, the Church of the Universe, as it had been the Church who had commissioned it. It had been built for a very specific purpose, to take missionaries of the Church to the stars, to spread the word amongst those who had not heard the words of the one God.

The vessel comprised of five decks; the bridge, the galley area and a small hanger bay were on the top level. The large medical section, an equally large meeting room, the main airlock and the environmental section were on the second level. The engineering department took up part of levels three and four. The residential area was also on these two levels and finally, located on level five, were the ship's hold and two further airlocks through which all the supplies were brought.

The vessel had been completed just in time to embark on a very different task to that intended, it was to travel 323 light-years from Earth to a yellow star to investigate the report that somewhere within its system there was not only intelligent life, but one that also knew the words of god. This information had been provided by Charles Samson, an obscure astronomer who lived on the planet New Caledonia, which was 110 light-years from Earth and the furthest that man had as yet travelled. The message had apparently been sent in a tight beam, aimed directly at New Caledonia, for no one else had received it. What was so special about the signal was the message within it, the Ten Commandments. The senders of the message, whoever they were, repeated the same message for one week, once every 24 hours, then the message changed, there were now only three words, 'Come to Me' followed with the co-ordinates of the star designated by Earth as HD73526. Samson had contacted the various News outlets, but they were not interested, they mentioned it once, saying that this was the latest obvious hoax to come to their attention. Samson then contacted the Church of the Universe, and some amongst the senior members of the Church did not see it as a hoax, they reminded their colleagues that they had been waiting for just such a sign from God, and this they believed was it.

Looking across at the bridge of the ship, Alun saw that three men were on it, working, they were the 1st watch he thought, waiting for their captain.

My god, their captain must be desperate for a command, Alun thought, and its crew were probably just as desperate, probably to escape justice for some crime that would carry a long prison sentence. For one seemingly filled with the spark of hope, he seemed very pessimistic and a little uncharitable, for the crew all followed the religion of the Church of the Universe and for the most part, they had no criminal tendencies at all.

Standing there, Alun thought back those four work-filled weeks to when he had called to see Archbishop Wendell, it was after he had received a phone call from Bishop Tarisman, asking him to call on the Archbishop the next day, for lunch. An invitation to lunch with one of the most powerful men on Earth, why?

He arrived early, not sure at what time an Archbishop had lunch, he was immediately shown in to a small study, with the word private on the door. One hour later, Wendell walked through the door, shook his hands and said.

"Alun, it is good to meet you, sit down please, we will have our lunch in here, it is a little more private."

They did not talk about the reason why he had been invited to join the Archbishop, instead they ate their lunch and reminisced over times past. However, when they had finished, Wendell finally got around to the reason why he had asked him to call.

"Alun, I may call you by your given name, may I?" When Alun nodded Wendell continued. "We need you back at the helm, back doing what you do best. You must have heard about the message from the distant star HD73526, and you probably know that we are sending a starship to investigate it?"

Wendell stopped here, waiting for an acknowledgement from Alun, who replied quizzically.

"I have heard about it, yes."

"Alun, I want you to captain that ship."

"Me, why are you offering the captaincy of your vessel to me your excellency, you must have many an able captain to call upon. Especially as I do not even believe in your religion any more, nor in your god?"

"You were the best starship captain in the space fleet, before you resigned your commission with the fleet, you still are the best, you just need this mission to bring you back to us. However, to answer your question, while Bishop Tarisman will be in command of the mission, I need you to be the ship's captain. Why? I will tell you Alun. Although I firmly believe that the signal was sent by God, and that when you arrive at the star you will be met, if not by God, then by his messenger, I need you to act as a counterbalance. You will be there to ensure that Bishop Tarisman and his team are not beguiled by a fraud, or worse, something sent by the Satan to seduce us in to believing that he, Satan, is God. However, to make your task all the more difficult, I insist that you give him the benefit of the doubt, up until he proves false."

Alun knew that this meant he would have to argue vehemently with Tarisman, at some point, probably during the meeting with whoever had sent the signal and, he was not so sure that in his current state he was able to do that. However, he held that thought back and instead he asked.

"Will the ship carry defensive weapons, defence shields."

"Yes, Alun, we are not foolish, however, although they will scare away a pirate, they will not allow you to engage a space cruiser." Wendell replied. "Not that we anticipate a world capable of building a space cruiser sending such a message. Now, there is no pressure, but we do need an answer from you today. Why not sit in our garden of solitude while you consider our offer?"

No pressure then Alun thought, just be sure to best the devil, however, he did not say these words, instead he nodded, stood up and followed a young novice who had appeared to show him the way to the garden. Entering it, he found that there was just the one wooden bench to sit upon, it was amid an oasis of solitude in the centre of a crowded city. However, he did not think about the Archbishop's proposal, he thought about his wife, as he always did when alone. He remembered the good times that they had enjoyed together, her terrible death beneath the building that had collapsed upon her. It had been due for demolition, a slight tremor had hastened its demise and taken the life of his wife along with it. She had been walking past it on her way to a cafe, where she was due to meet her sister, when it happened. She and a dozen other people had died under the falling building, and his life had come to a shuddering stop. Sitting there, Alun could feel her with him, urging him to take the job, go search for whoever had sent the message, and in doing so find his way again, otherwise only death awaited him.

Bishop Tarisman suddenly appeared, Alun noticed with surprise that the sun was beginning to set, he had been there all the afternoon without realising it.

"Archbishop Wendell wondered if you had come to a decision Captain Reece."

Alun looked up at the bishop, a sad sort of smile upon his face, and said.

"Yes, Bishop Tarisman, I have, is the Archbishop free."

On entering the Archbishop's study, he was greeted with a nod and asked to sit, then Wendell asked.

"Alun, you were in our garden for a long time, but then time is of no consequence when you are in that garden, time passes unnoticed, I know from experience. However, to business, please tell me that you have decided to accept my offer."

"I have your excellency, because I need to work again, or I will lose what is left of my mind, so, yes, I am your man."

Wendell looked at Alun on hearing these words. Yes, the Archbishop thought, he does need something to stop him from thinking about the death of his wife, the responsibilities that he will have on this voyage will help to take his mind off it. Wendell knew everything about Alun, he had researched him the moment that Bishop Martell, his second in command of the church, had proposed him as the Captain of their new flagship. Something about Alun's history had made him offer the post, and after meeting him he was sure that he had made the correct choice.

"The voyage is due to start in four weeks Alun; you have one week to get your affairs in order and three to get to know your vessel and crew thoroughly."

That week was not so hectic as it would have been for him before the death of his wife. All the utility bills were paid by direct debit and he spent some of the time purchasing new clothes for the trip, as his existing ones had been in need of dumping for some time. He also acquired a new personal hygiene kit and it was as he left the shop and waited to cross over the road, amid a crowd of Christmas shoppers, that he was pushed forward in to the street. As he stopped his forward momentum, he realised that a heavy long-distance road haulage vehicle was only a second away from crushing him beneath its powerful hover jets. He did not even have time to scream, when death was only a micro-second away, he was jerked back to the safety of the pavement, as the haulage vehicle roared by. His life had been saved by a marine who smiled at him and said.

"You had better be careful friend, you nearly bought it."

Alun smiled up at the young marine. "Thank you, my friend, and I promise that I will be more careful in future."

Alun thought no more about his close call with death, he thought it was because of a crush of too many shoppers, what else could it have been. However, from then on, he was more cautious, staying clear of the roadside and the crush of happy shoppers, waiting until the way was clear before nearing the edge of the pavement. His experience had reinforced his preference for outer-space over that of being on the surface of the planet, up there, there was space to breath, figuratively speaking that is.

**********

One day prior to the departure of the starship, with the incident forgotten, Alun knew his ship from stem to stern, from top to bottom. On first setting foot upon it his heart had rejoiced, for the vibrations from the ship's engines were all too familiar to him, a reminder of happier times. The smells and sounds reinforced this feeling of contentment, he had been right in accepting the captaincy.

Over the last three weeks he had spoken to his crew en-masse and individually, telling them what he expected of them and what they in turn could expect from him. He had no problems with the engineering teams, they seemed competent. Chief engineer John Trance was close to retirement, this trip paid well and he accepted the post to build up his nest egg. What he did not know about a starship's engine was not worth knowing. The engineer in charge of the 2nd watch was Michael Patel, he too had accepted the post due to the salary, having been between jobs following an accident, and he too knew his way around a Stardrive. A doctor and nurse, who Alun had been told were both first rate, had also been included so that when the starship was visiting a new planet, medical help could be offered within a well sized clinic, if needed.

Alun was amazed that the Church's gold had been the main reason that some of the crew had either accepted offers made to them, or had applied to be part of the crew, for surely they understood that this trip carried the possibility of danger, depending on who had sent the messages. All had years of experience behind them, they would not panic if they found that the sender of the message had ungodly reasons for sending for them. However, many were avid followers of the Church, Alun would have preferred an atheist crew. Why? Because, when they reached the star designated HD73526, he might have some trouble with one or more of the crew over differences in opinion, religious views up against secular ones. When he had offered this opinion to Wendell, when the Archbishop had come by to see how Alun was coping, Wendell had become angry.

"These men have all be picked because they believe, not everyone shares your current views on the Church and God." Wendell had retorted angrily.

The bridge crew were of a similar type, however, the two senior officers stood out amongst them. Alun had spoken first to his first officer, Jonah Smart. He was a dour man of forty-one years, tall, thin and able, and in command of the second watch. He was a staunch follower of the religion, known to quote scripture when angry. When Alun questioned his unswerving belief in the old testament of the bible, he had turned on him quoting scripture, warning him to watch his tongue lest God struck him down. This had unsettled Alun, a fundamentalist amongst the crew, on this particular voyage, might indeed prove troublesome, he would need watching, depending on who had sent the invitation to join him on a distant star, and the reason behind the invitation.

Thelma Nolan was different, she was a good-looking woman of thirty years, troubled that she had lost her faith in god, she had volunteered because she hoped that this voyage would give it back to her. Alun knew that she would need watching too, when they reached their destination, who knew what she might do under the right, or was that the wrong, circumstances. What Alun did not know was that she was deeply ashamed of herself, for losing her faith, for doubting the existence of God. As she left his cabin, Alun smiled, his life had suddenly jumped from that of a dead beat to being in command of a starship about to set out on a possible perilous voyage and with a crew that he had some misgivings about, not the best way to return to command.

Under normal circumstances, before the death of his wife, having seen this crew, he might have walked away, however, in his present state, he knew that he was no better than the people he was maligning, for he too hoped for some kind of salvation at the end of the voyage.

**********

On taking command, Alun had split the crew in to two watches, both doing one eight-hour watch and one four-hour watch, with each watch sleeping while the other one was doing its eight-hour stint. A twelve-hour day would test the officers and crew; however, the Church were not prepared to provide him with a third watch, financial considerations taking precedent over the workload of the crew.

There were six bridge personnel and six in engineering, three of each on each of the two watches. There was also a cook, a housekeeper, the doctor and his nurse and finally, there was the ship's captain.

Each watch on the bridge comprised of a helmsman, a science officer and a duty officer in command of the watch. On the second watch this was Jonah Smart, on the first watch it was Thelma Nolan. Of course, whenever Alun was on the bridge then he had the command of the bridge, and of course, he was always in overall command of the starship. He spent sixteen hours of every day either on the bridge or talking with his crew, so that he was not alone during his waking hours, for then he might sink back in to depression, thinking about the death of his wife.

There were also six passengers, they were a bishop, an archdeacon, a vicar and three curates, aboard, they all firmly believed that they were going to meet the sender of the message and that he would be at the very least a servant of God. This view was also held by many of the ship's crew, which, apart from the high wages, is the other reason why many signed on for this particular voyage.

Alun once again read the scanty information about their destination, the star designated HD73526. It was a main sequence type G6V star, similar in many respects to our own sun, it lay in the constellation of Vela. It had a mass 1.03 of our own sun, it was 5.589 billion years in age, so 1 billion odd years older than our own sun. It had two known planets, both gas giants with a mass thought to be double that of Jupiter. It was too far away to have been explored before by an Earth ship, and because it was thought to have no Earth-type planets, the astronomers had ignored it after their initial investigation.

**********

It was the day of their departure, Archbishop Wendell came up to the space dock on the Church's shuttle craft, with him were the other senior figures of the Church of the Universe, including Bishop Martell. After the usual customary speeches, followed by the farewells to their people and Alun, as he was the captain of the starship, the airlocks were closed and the docking tubes released. After the release of the locking clamps, the helmsman, of the 2nd watch, Crewman Marriot McIntyre, took the large spaceship away from the dock, using just the thrusters. With so many important dignitaries looking on, he made twice as sure that he did not hit anything on the way out.

"Have you the co-ordinates for New Caledonia laid in Mr McIntyre?" Alun asked.

"Yes, Captain, all laid in."

"Then take us away from Earth at our best interplanetary speed, let me know when we reach the heliopause? Mr Smart, the bridge is yours."

They term interplanetary speed referred to that used when they were within a planetary system, for it was considered highly dangerous to inhabited planets, moons or asteroids to use the Stardrive nearer than the system's heliopause. This was the boundary marking the edge of the sun's influence, which, in the case of the sol system, was roughly 100 AU from the sun. Here, the solar wind from the sun and the radiation from other stars met.

Alun left the bridge in the hands of Jonah Smart and walked down to the ship's galley, in there he found the ship's cook, a middle-aged woman named Nancy Griffith.

"We are on our way then Captain." Nancy said.

"Yes, Nancy, New Caledonia next stop." Alun replied and then added. "Is there any coffee made?"

"For you Captain, of course there is." Nancy replied while getting out a mug. "Black, that is how you like it, right?"

Alun nodded and Nancy poured the freshly made coffee in to the mug and then handed it to him.

"If you do not mind me saying so Captain, you seem a little happier than when we first met, when we both arrived on the Church of the Universe."

Alun looked at Nancy and smiled.

"I am Nancy, something about this starship has made me believe that this could be a new beginning for me. I do not mean meeting God, for I do not believe that he is to be found there, except in the hopes of our crew and the Church. Maybe it is being back in space, or merely of being back in command of a starship. Whatever it is Nancy, I do feel a lot easier in myself."

Nancy did not reveal her hopes for the voyage, she merely smiled and carried on with her work.

Chapter Two

The Voyage Out

During the first hour of the trip to New Caledonia, Alun sat in the galley and read up on Charles Samson, the astronomer who had first heard the message, supposedly from god. He had left the bridge under the control of his 1st officer, who was only too glad to be left in command. Before they had departed from Earth orbit, Alun had printed out everything the internet had on Charles Samson, which was virtually nothing, except what had been written regarding the signal and the message. Samson had gone to Berkeley college, according to the internet, and so Alun had contacted the college. This was the first moment that he had found the time to read their reply, however, on reading it, it seemed that Samson's records had been lost, as too had those of the other students who had studied with him. Alun felt a slight tingling in his stomach, a clear sign that his inner self found this troubling. However, with no evidence, good or bad, he decided to wait until they got to New Caledonia, when he would meet the man and then he could talk to him and make a more informed opinion, well at least a gut one.

It was an eight-day trip to New Caledonia, and the crew were settling in, getting to know every noise or vibration of their new home. They could have arrived earlier, however, this was also a shake-down cruise, if any problems arose during the eight days they could lay over at New Caledonia, which had the facilities to repair most problems that might occur.

Each watch, before returning to their quarters to sleep, attended a church service. Alun did not attend; he found them a little unsettling. On a planet, be it Earth or a colony, the followers of the Church of the Universe took their religion seriously. However, on a starship, this level of faith was not the norm, but his crew were happy and worked well as a team, maybe the problem could be found within Alun Reece, he thought.

**********

Five days in to their journey, Chief Engineer John Trance was checking the computer readout that told him just how their Stardrive was performing, normally he would have allowed the computer to do this task and report any problems. However, as this was the vessel's shakedown cruise as well as its first mission, Trance was monitoring every nut, bolt and computer byte himself. Suddenly, Trance sat bolt upright, he then re-read the data that he had just read, the temperature within the Stardrive's cooling system was rising beyond safety levels, the cooling program had turned itself off! He knew that he only had seconds to act, going in to the Stardrive program he instructed the computer to turn the cooling program back on. He now watched and prayed, and his prayers were answered, for the temperature within the Stardrive began to fall. With this problem solved, he went in to the computer to see why it had not warned him of the problem, and found that it and any related programs had also been turned off. Trance then entered the computer' command program and gave it a command order, to only change the present systems on his, or the captain's, personal order, using their individual command code. This command was not normal, for otherwise day to day maintenance by the engineering staff would take much longer, for he or the captain would now have to personally input their own individual command code for any engineering task involving the computer, however trivial.

He gave himself just two minutes to recover and then he asked to speak to Alun, and in private, so, intrigued, Alun took Trance to his cabin. Trance was angry and he told Alun why.

"It was either a fault of the computer programmer, Captain, or deliberate sabotage, if I had not found it, it could have burned out the Stardrive and this mission would be over. We would have survived, if we had jettisoned the Stardrive in time, but we would then have had to wait until a couple of space tugs arrived to tow us back to Earth."

"Sabotage, Chief, that is a serious charge against an unknown member of our crew and why would anyone want to stop this peaceful mission?" Alun asked quizzically.

"Maybe it was not sabotage Captain, maybe the present engineers of Boeing Space are sloppy, however, I do not think so. I know them all personally, they all know their jobs backwards. If on the other hand it was sabotage, will, whoever it was, attempt more acts of sabotage and why?"

"Chief, when did our possible saboteur make the changes to the computer program?" Alun asked.

"The new command was on a timer, it could have been anytime, when it reached zero it simply deleted everything relevant to it, apart from the countdown clock. I am afraid that there is no way of telling Captain."

Alun was silent for a moment and before replying a recent event flashed back in to his mind.

"Chief, I know what I am about to reveal will not become gossip, it is that there could have been an attempt on my life while I was still on Earth."

Trance' eyes widened, but he remained silent, bar saying. "Of course, Captain."

Alun now continued. "Now please bear in mind that I am telling you only because of your thoughts regarding the possibility of there being a saboteur amongst the crew. This is what happened Chief. Four weeks before we left the space dock, I was almost killed, only the quick actions of a marine stopped me from being crushed under a heavy road haulage vehicle that was about to drive over me. It now seems possible to me that someone could have pushed me in to the road in an attempt to stop me from taking over as the captain of this vessel."

Trance suddenly looked scared and he warned Alun.

"Captain, we had both better watch our backs from now on, our saboteur, if he exists, could be any member of the crew, or even someone amongst the clergy." He then added. "Captain, the changes to the computer's command program, you will now have to enter your own command code to put my changes in to effect, assuming that you agree with them."

Alun went in to the computer and found the changes made by Trance and also that the computer was awaiting his confirmation code to put them in to effect. He now input his code, praying that this would put an end to the matter.

"Chief, I need you and Michael Patel to go over every circuit to ensure that there are no other surprises awaiting us. Michael is definitely okay, he would have known that the changes made to the computer programming would have endangered the crew and the vessel, and he does not look suicidal to me."

"You're right, Captain, I know him and I can vouch that he is not suicidal. We will get right on it."

**********

The voyage to New Caledonia continued on without any further problems occurring, something that Alun thanked god for, and here, the crew were all granted shore leave. This was a Church of the Universe colony planet and they would be welcomed and treated as honoured guests, as their starship was the Church of the Universe. The Bishop and his people were all invited to dinner, Alun being the captain was also invited, he enjoyed the evening even if everyone else had something to do with the church. This meant some of his answers were not always the truth, well he thought, there is no sense in upsetting people, not when a small lie will keep them happy. Luckily, for him, Bishop Tarisman was sitting at the other end of the table.

The next day, Alun sought out Samson, with Tarisman accompanying him. Samson, after the usual greetings, requested permission to accompany them on the trip, he wanted to meet the senders of the message that he had been chosen to receive. This, Alun could understand, however, something inside Alun told him to refuse the request, unfortunately, Bishop Tarisman had agreed to the request before Alun could reply. As to deny his request, after Tarisman had already agreed, would sour the relations between Alun and Tarisman, he held his tongue and hoped that he would not regret it.

After a stopover of two days, they set off for the star HD73526, the journey was due to take them thirteen days, once again Alun had decided against pushing the starship, allowing it to settle in first, before testing it to its limits, especially after the attempted sabotage to the Stardrive. There was no trouble regarding religion, everyone seemed happy, excited, but then they had not reached the planetary system yet, or met 'God' or his emissaries. He should have tested the ship's plasma weapon, but with so much religion in the air, it had slipped his mind. In the old days this would never have happened, more proof that he had not fully recovered from his fall from grace.

As they approached their destination, with Thelma Nolan and the 1st watch on the bridge, they received a radio transmission on their subspace communications system.

"Greetings to all aboard the Church of the Universe starship, your belief in me will not go unrewarded. Please go in to orbit around the largest rocky moon of the outer planet. I will contact you again once you are in orbit."

"So, there is intelligent life out here Captain and they sent the message." Tarisman said in an awed voice.

Alun looked across at Tarisman and said. "It would appear so Bishop, but as to who or what sort, we have yet to learn. I suggest we wait and see before we get out the best silver."

Tarisman looked back at Alun, who could see that his reply had not gone down all that well, but he had said nothing but the truth, no one actually knew if the caller had good or evil intentions in mind. Yes, Tarisman wanted to find God here, waiting to speak to a ship full of ordinary mortals, something that Alun still doubted. Whoever had called to them from the depths of space, he personally, did not believe that it was God.

As they approached the gas giant, they saw that it had many moons in orbit around it, some of them composed of mainly ice, others with more rock than ice. A small freighter was in orbit around the one large rocky moon, this was obviously their destination. Was its crew another believer, called to attend their god, or did they belong to those who had called out across the coldness of space. Its presence troubled Alun, for God would have no need of a starship, Tarisman showed no such doubts, he was a true believer about to meet his god. As soon as the helmsman had taken them in to a geostationary orbit around the moon, alongside the freighter, they received another radio call from a second caller.

"Welcome, welcome. please move your vessel closer to the freighter and when you are in the correct position, please connect your docking tube to the main airlock of our freighter. Have no fear, the air on my side is good, I will be at the airlock to greet you."

Alun remembered the instructions that the Archbishop had given to him, to trust until the messenger proved themselves to be false. Looking across at the aging freighter, he decided to obey them, for he did not trust his own feelings of distrust, six weeks ago he was one step away from the gutter, he needed more time to mend. Knowing this, still the Archbishop had appointed him captain, why? However, Alun did question the wisdom of obeying the request of whoever was on board the aging freighter.

"Bishop, why would God want to appear to us in that hulk, surely a setting resembling Eden would have been a better meeting place, or top of Mount Olympus?"

Tarisman looked a little uncomfortable with the question as he replied. "Maybe he is once again testing our belief Captain and maybe we will find Eden waiting for us when we board the freighter."

"Surely we passed any test set by him by simply turning up Bishop. Now we are here, why did he not simply appear on the bridge of our new shiny starship?"

"Maybe he wants to see if we will obey him without question, as Abraham did when God asked him to sacrifice his son to him." Tarisman replied.

"Maybe, Bishop, and you are in command of this part of our mission, however, it stills seems weird to me." Alun then turned to the helmsmen and said.

"Mr Cole take us within docking range of the freighter, when we are there, connect us up to its main airlock with our docking tube."

"Aye aye sir." Helmsman Cole replied.

The huge starship slowly manoeuvred across to the freighter and when in position, the docking tube was sent across to attach around the main airlock of the freighter. Everyone on board the starship was excited, for they were about to meet their maker, or at the very least his emissary.

The six churchmen plus Alun, Jonah Smart and Charles Samson had been chosen for this 'First Contact' mission? They were watched enviously by the other members of the crew, all who wished they could have been included in this momentous meeting.

Before leaving the ship, Alun spoke to Thelma Nolan, who had been left in command of the starship. Alun had promised her and the rest of the crew that they too could make the journey, maybe tomorrow, after the usual greetings had been made and the reason for their journey had been made known to them. Seeing their destination up close, he smiled, for it appeared that God had endured rough times as of late, if this was the best that he could afford. Unless of course Tarisman was correct and they would find Eden waiting for them behind the aging hull of the freighter. However, Alun did not think so.

"Thelma, I do not like the look of the freighter one bit. Have the crew ready to come across armed the moment that I press the alarm button."

Thelma looked to be very disappointed at his order, she wanted to regain her faith so badly, for before the event, she had been happy. The event was the untimely death of both of her parents in a traffic accident above the mega-city of London. However, all she said was.

"Of course, Captain, you can count on me."

Returning to the away team he smiled at the nervous group.

"Right everyone, let's go, I will lead, with you Mr Smart bringing up the rear." Alun said as he entered the airlock. "Let's be all on our best behaviour, but please keep together. As I said to Bishop Tarisman, our venue appears a little out of keeping with the supposed host's status."

Once again, his words did not go down well with any of the others in the greeting party, however, no one said anything, so Alun led them in to the docking tube. He was followed by the church men, then Samson and finally Jonah Smart. They walked across the docking tube to find that the airlock door to the freighter was just opening. Moments later and they were standing within the freighter and hearing the airlock door closing behind them with a soft whump. The vibrations coming from this vessel's engine were strangely muted, Alun wondered why. As for the air inside the freighter, it did not appear to be all that good, in fact it was making him feel a little groggy. However, he forgot about that odd fact when an old man with snowy white hair and a long beard appeared from the other end of the corridor in which they found themselves standing in. A thought passed fleetingly through Alun's brain, should he test the beard to see if it was real. No, that would go against the Archbishop's instructions, unfortunately, he was still not the same man that had married his now dead wife, then he would have acted and damned the consequences, now he merely pondered. The man who would be Moses then spoke.

"Welcome my friends, I am Moses, reborn in mortal form so that someone whose name and actions you are familiar with could greet you. Our lord God has asked me to speak to you first, to explain why he had called you here. Our lord God will come here later to talk to you, after you have understood all that I have to tell you."

Everyone was thrilled to meet 'Moses', a man who they knew from the bible, Bishop Tarisman fell to his knees, closely followed by everyone with the exception of one man. Alun studied the man standing before them, a man who resembled Santa Claus more than the leader of the early Israelites, however he held his tongue as 'Moses' looked on suitably impressed by their actions. Alun seemed to be immune to the effect of meeting such a holy figure, maybe because the others believed and he thought it all preposterous that God would be aboard this hulk. As for 'Moses', he seemed to ignore Alun, instead he said to the men kneeling before him.

"Please my friends, stand up, there are only two here who warrant such devotion, our lord God and his son Jesus. Please follow me, food and drink have been prepared for you and while you partake, I will explain what our lord God's purpose is in calling you here."

They followed 'Moses' through the ship's corridors to the galley and at least the air was better in this part of the ship. As they sat down to eat the poor meal that had been laid out for them, 'Moses' smiled down at them and then he explained the reason why they had been summoned.

"The Lord our God has two tasks for you. The first task is simple, he wants you to carry a message back to Earth, a message for all the people of Earth. The message is that his son, Jesus, will soon be returning there to lead his people back to the path of righteousness, for he is displeased with the violence and the many false religions which are currently worshipped upon his chosen planet." Moses declared grimly.

Listening to this declaration, Bishop Tarisman's face broke in to the biggest smile that Alun thought possible. For the Church of the Universe to be given the honour of breaking this news was simply mind blowing for him and the other church men with him. Jonah Smart appeared to be on the verge of fainting when he heard this, only Alun prevented him from actually falling to the ground. Was his heart too, a flutter, full to overflowing with joyous pride, Alun wondered, or was he, Alun Reece, just jealous of the feelings that his 1st officer appeared to be experiencing. Alun gave the matter some serious thought as 'Moses' continued with his introductory address.

"Before you return to Earth with his message, there is a second task that is not so simple, he wants you to travel to a far-off star to recover an object. On one of its retinue of planets, one much like Earth, you will find a long-lost temple and together with some of his people who currently reside here on this humble vessel, you will return those treasures to our lord God. However, you will learn more of this task later, first you must eat and rest. Tonight, after you have dined, our lord God will talk to you all, he will explain to you why you have been chosen to carry out his wishes and what else he wants you to do. I should also stress that this is a great honour, previously he has only spoken directly to the leaders of the Jewish nation."

**********

After they had finished their spartan meal, that only Alun left untouched, Alun took Tarisman to one side, he wanted to discuss the situation, one that the Archbishop had said he feared might occur after they had arrived at their destination and met the sender of the signal.

"Bishop Tarisman, the whole atmosphere of this place is wrong, there is no Garden of Eden here. If God had wanted to speak to us then surely, he would have chosen such a garden setting, or the top of a mountain at least, not a second-hand freighter that is only fit for the scrap heap."

Tarisman looked at Alun, attempting to understand his words, but failing, instead 'Moses' filled his eyes and his words repeated within his brain. He looked like a man under a spell, that or drugged. Alun finally decided that Tarisman, the other members of the clergy, Jonah Smart and Samson, were indeed all under some sort of spell, one that he appeared to be immune to, for some reason. Alun decided that the only thing to do was to break the spell, however, before he did so, he apologised.

"I am sorry Bishop, but I believe that this is for your own good." He then slapped Tarisman hard on the side of his face making him stagger back. Alun followed this attack up by repeating it as the others in the galley, stunned by his actions at first, began to move towards them, however, their progress was painfully slow, for they too appeared to be drugged. The painful slaps began to work, they brought the bishop slowly out of his drugged state, brought him back to reality, and on finally seeing Alun standing there before him, he visibly shrank back. Alun thought that he had failed in his attempt to bring Tarisman back to reality, Tarisman was now fearful that Alun would follow up his initial attack, with further slaps or worse. In fact, Tarisman's mind was fighting against the fog that filled it, it was almost as if he had been hypnotised and was only now aware of it. Tarisman held his hand up and gasped.

"I am all right now Captain, you were correct, Eden was not waiting for us, in fact, ever since Moses greeted us, something took control of my mind, the need to believe was all that mattered to me." He gasped, while rubbing his sore cheeks. "And believe I did just that, everything he said, no matter how preposterous the words or the setting. All I saw was Moses, and he was speaking directly to me, I was ecstatic, I had been chosen from all Mankind to hear his words and to be his messenger. Now, with him out of the room, your sober words Captain, your violent actions, they have released me from my trance, now I can see that what you say is true. Although how we will convince the others, look at them, they believe as I once did." These last words seemed to Alun to be filled with regret, as if he secretly longed to return there.

The others had stopped walking towards Alun, instead they stood still, in a trance of some sort. Alun thought about it for a moment, he was surprised how easy it had been for him to bring Tarisman back to the real world, he had not been sure that his violent action would work, maybe the others would see the light with equal ease. He suspected that the air near to the airlock must have had a gas mixed in to it that made you susceptible to ideas that you would normally dismiss as rubbish. Was he such a cynic now that he needed a much larger dose to affect him?

"Bishop Tarisman, if you spoke to them, they might see through this veil of evil that enshrouds them. If that does not do the trick then we will have to force them back to the airlock and across to our ship."

Tarisman did not get the chance though, suddenly, a vision, purportedly of God, appeared and it filled the large ship's galley. It was a holographic image and it showed an angry god, and his vehemence was aimed mainly at Alun, who was pressing his alarm button. However, what Alun did not know was that his signal was being jammed, for 'God' did not intend for any messages to leave the freighter.

"You dare deny me, your God, be grateful that I do not strike you down with a thunderbolt."

Unfortunately, for 'God', his entrance, and the anger that he was displaying, brought the other back to their senses. They moved forward to stand between 'God' and Alun. With this act of defiance 'God' screamed in anger and then the galley was filled with a quick acting knockout gas. Alun attempted to reach the hatchway that would take him towards the airlock, but he too was affected by its potency. When they all came around, they found that they had been moved from the meeting hall and thrown in to the ship's vast and empty hold.

Everyone was asking one another if they would be able to escape from this prison, get back to their ship and return to Earth. To one side of the hold, Tarisman was speaking to Alun.

"They seem to be one step ahead of us again Captain, maybe God is helping them? How will we be able to escape if that is so, for their technology could also be ahead of ours." Tarisman said.

"God is certainly not aiding them Bishop, they are criminals. And this hulk is not technically ahead of anything Bishop, it is as ancient as the real Moses is." Alun then added before Tarisman could cut in with a protest.

"Bishop, you will notice that our friend Charles Samson is not with us, this is all a vast deception, he is, and always has been, in league with the criminals."

Bishop Tarisman pondered what Alun had said, and looking around the vast hold of the aging freighter, he thought that Alun's theory did seem likely.

"If you are correct Captain, which I now believe that you are, then it is vital that we return to Earth, to report to the Archbishop, could we perhaps send a message to Thelma Nolan, asking her for help?" Tarisman asked.

"I have already sent a call for help Bishop, however, as help is not already here, I assume that they have jammed my signal. If we are to get back to our ship, we will have to escape without their help, and the first task is to escape from this foul hole. Oh! And do not worry about the Archbishop, if we fail to return, he will suspect that the imposter is just that. Worry instead about our fate, held by pirates aboard an aging freighter for reasons as of yet unknown."

"Pirates, Captain, but of course, for some reason they wanted our vessel, why else would they lure us so far from home." Tarisman said bitterly.

They never did get to meet Jesus, for the play had been re-written after a disastrous 2nd act, causing his part of the deception to be deleted? It was with thoughts like these drifting through Alun's brain that Moses appeared, with two armed guards, and there was no pretence of being Moses now, he looked and acted as he really was, a cheap hood and his white beard had gone.

"Captain Reece, you will come with us, the boss wants to see you."

My god, Alun thought, they talk like an early 20th century criminal. 'God' was not a religious fanatic who really believed that he was god and that his son was the Messiah, Jesus Christ, he was an imitation of a cheap hood from Chicago. As they led Alun through the freighter, he got to see some of the pirate crew, for they were indeed space pirates. The ones that he saw were a motley bunch, some straight out of Long John Silver with tattoos covering their bodies, and head with gaudy head scarves to keep their hair in place. Others looked more like the gangsters of Chicago in the early 1920's, however, all were armed with plasma weapons, even the women who dressed in cheap, but brightly coloured, clothes. In fact, five of the crew were women and they looked as hard and as tough as the male pirates. Alun was finally led in to a large office where the leader of the gang sat sprawled behind a massive desk, He was a middle-aged man, one who, Alun thought, had watched too many old movies. However, this criminal had almost pulled his deception off, only a depressed and lonely man, one who no longer believed in anything, had prevented him from doing so. The gang leader looked up and brought Alun back to the present.

"Captain, why couldn't you have believed in me, just like your crew did, it would have been so much easier, for all of us?

"I guess that I am just naturally awkward, I see things as they are, not how someone wants me to see them. It has got me in to a few tight spots before, Mr...?" Alun replied lightly.

"My name is Emrys Wledig, Captain." Wledig said pleasantly and then went on to say.

"What I am about to tell you is out of the boy's own book of adventure, and Captain, we will see plenty of that. First, you are here because we needed a starship capable of long journeys, our vessel was fine in its day, however, it is old and certainly not up to the task ahead, not without a fist full of repairs that at the moment I cannot afford. So, my friend Samson came up with an interesting plan, and you know the rest, so let's skip ahead to the adventurous bit."

Wledig seemed quite cheerful, he had obviously got over his anger at being discovered playing his previous role and was now portraying the jovial host. He got up and walked over to a lectern, it was standing near to a large bookcase filled with books. On the lectern was a sheet of paper, laminated to protect it.

"100 years ago, a scientist named Professor Cardigan found an ancient sheet of copper, it was coated in glass to protect it against the elements, unfortunately, its whereabouts today is unknown. It was found within an equally ancient stone sarcophagus, along with the remains of a body, such as they were. The sarcophagus was buried beneath the ruins of an ancient city whose people are no longer around. On the copper sheet some ancient scribe had written a space myth, one that the finder believed to be true, so Cardigan went in search of the myth. Usual rubbish, right Captain, wrong. Most of the expedition did not return, however, one survived the trip and this sheet of paper is his written record of the trip. Unfortunately, he returned just a step away from death, leaving his memory full of holes. So, Captain, please read his message to see just what he did manage to remember."

' _This is a brief record of what happened to the Cardigan team that went in search of one of the many myths about the Seeders. The myth uncovered by Professor Cardigan stated that a great wonder had been hidden within a vault on the planet of Pen Draig and that it lay behind the great waterfall of Myrddin. The vault was said to be guarded by the Demetae, whatever or whoever that is. The waterfall is to be found in the far north of the land of Caerfyrddin._

Professor Cardigan believed that the planet was in orbit about a dwarf star, unfortunately, I cannot remember its name or designation. I do know that it was more than 400 light years from Earth. All I can remember is that the planet was inhabited by people no more than five feet tall and with a grey hue to their skin. The professor followed the clues that he found on the copper sheet and after a week we found the site behind the waterfall, the others entered it and a door closed behind them locking them inside. The chief engineer and I, Heinz Volker were lucky, we were charged with staying outside in case the natives arrived and attempted to stop us, for they consider the site to be a holy place. We tried to open the door but we were unsuccessful, even out plasma pistols had no effect upon it. After twelve hours we assumed that they would not be returning, so after a gruelling trek we managed to return to our starship. Unfortunately, on the return journey we both became delirious; the natives had dipped their darts with a slow acting poison and we were both hit by one during an attack by the natives. My chief engineer died some time before we landed back on New Caledonia, but I survived. However, my health never returned and my memories of my time on the planet are extremely fragmented, in any case all I want to do is to forget the terrible experience.

"These place names, Mr Wledig, they sound familiar as does the name Demetae?" Alun replied after reading the document.

"They should be, they are Welsh, as I believe you are, Captain Reece, as too am I." Wledig replied. "They are the original Welsh names to people and places that were later anglicised. Pen Draig became Pendragon, Myrddin became Merlin and Caerfyrddin became Carmarthen and the Demetae were one of the ancient tribes living in what is now known as Wales."

"What on Earth do the Seeders have in common with ancient Wales, or Cymru as it was then known, surely it is just fanciful garbage." Alun declared.

"The Seeders were our makers Captain, they sowed the fields and scattered, why else are so many planets populated by identical copies of human beings. Myrddin, even Arthur, could have been Seeders, perhaps they came back to check on their flock. Who knows, maybe we will find out after we arrive at Pen Draig." Wledig replied. "Maybe we will find the graves of Arthur and Myrddin there, waiting to be found by us after 2000 years. There is one problem Captain, without the star's designation or name, I was unable to locate it."

When Alun did not reply immediately, Wledig said.

"Captain, you were noted for your problem-solving abilities, of course that was before your wife died and you sunk so low that the only way left to you was up. It was Samson who recommended you to me, he still believed in your abilities, Captain, if you can solve this problem, I promise that you and your starship will be released at the conclusion of our quest, that being when you have dropped us off at the planet or space station of our choice.

"What about the starship that Cardigan used, couldn't they get any more information from it?" Alun asked out of interest.

"It seems that no one was that interested, and so whatever information it contained was lost within it, for ten years later it crashed on to an icy moon while carrying a cargo of explosives, unfortunately the explosive destroyed the remains of the ship and there were no survivors of the crash." Wledig replied glumly.

"Mr Wledig, what are you doing out here in deep space, aboard an aging freighter. Surely, it was not part of your plans to come here, lure another starship in to deep space meaning to hijack it, not using such a poor bait as you have dangled before me?"

"We were attempting to find the star without your aid Captain, unfortunately when we reached our target star, we found that there were no suitable inhabited planets in orbit around it. On our return journey the hyperdrive section of our Stardrive became defective, it was quite old and had long been in need of a service. To use our interplanetary engine would have taken us far too long, our supplies would soon have been exhausted long before we reached another inhabited world at sub-light speeds. To have asked for help could have seen another pirate arrive to capture our ship, that or Earth could have sent a cruiser, then we would have been arrested, for we are known to the authorities, too well known. Thankfully, Samson was on New Caledonia when it happened and as I said before Captain, the rest is history."

"But how could you be sure that I would captain the Church of the Universe, I was still in disgrace?" Alun asked.

"One of the backers of this expedition is a member of the Church, he found the message and then when our own starship broke down, he ensured that the Church sent a starship to investigate our own message to Mankind. He also ensured that you were offered the position, maybe that was a mistake, who knows, the future keeps its secrets safe."

Alun smiled and said.

"I will dwell upon your offer Mr Wledig, should I come up with an answer, I might let you know." Alun then added. "One more thing, how do I know that you will keep your word and release me, my crew and our ship?"

"You have my word on it Captain, however, if you will not help me, then I will take your ship and leave you stranded on this immobile hulk. You have until tomorrow morning to agree, or not, as you choose. However, should you decide not to agree, I hope that you take in to account the certainty of a slow and lonely death for you and your crew. They will die Captain, due to either lack of oxygen or lack of water, for both are in short supply without a shuttle craft to continually travel down to the surface of the moon. This is how we keep our environmental system running, we smash ice that composes much of the surface of the moon and bring it back to our vessel. The ice is then either turned in to water or we obtain the oxygen that we all breathe from it. And please do not consider using the radio, that will be smashed to prevent you from putting the authorities on to us."

With that threat hanging over him, Alun was then returned to the hold where he told Tarisman all that had occurred.

"Captain, it was the Archbishop's decision to answer the call, he also appointed you captain, against the advice of many, all events that Wledig wanted to happen. He has betrayed us grievously, which cast doubts on the promises made by Wledig to release us unharmed. For to do so would see the Archbishop jailed."

Alun thought over the instructions that the Archbishop had given him after he had agreed to captain the starship, were they further proof against Wendell, a further betrayal of those he supposedly had befriended and of course of the ship's crew. Against this damning evidence were his instructions to Alun, to ensure that Tarisman was not taken in, as he and the crew were, but could that in turn mean that he was aware of the true nature of 'God'. Alun did not voice these thoughts, instead he said grimly.

"We cannot refuse his offer, as otherwise, our deaths would be all the sooner, all we can do is pray that a chance will offer itself on the trek across the planet." Alun then added. "l will tell Wledig that I agree to his offer and ask him to allow me to use his library in an effort to track the elusive planet down. He has shelves full of up to date astronomical text books and charts."

"While you busy yourself with that, I will speak to the others, let them know the current situation." Tarisman replied.

**********

Thelma Nolan was getting worried, she had not been able to contact Alun, or any of the others of his party, and she could get no reply from the freighter when she attempted to contact them. The captain had been correct to fear a trap, she would need to arm herself and the crew, then lead them through the docking tube to free her captain, Jonah Smart, Samson and the six men of the cloth. She had just come to this decision when the pirates, following behind Grimes, were being led to the docking tube. While she was still making plans, the pirates surged across the docking tube and took Thelma and the remainder of the crew by surprise and before Thelma had armed herself or the crew. The crew, not having any idea what had befallen their comrades, were brought across to the freighter where they joined their captain in the hold.

Alun approached Thelma and asked.

"Is everyone okay Ms Nolan, no injuries?"

"No, Captain, if only they had waited five minutes, I was just about to head down to the armoury with the others when they burst in on us. With so many plasma weapons aimed at us, we could do nothing but surrender." Thelma replied downcast. "Captain, have they told you what this is all about?"

Alun explained to Thelma and the 1st watch why the pirates wanted them and their ship, finishing off by saying.

"Our starship is far more advanced than their freighter, they will need us to operate it. One other thing I want to stress, do nothing that will get you or the other members of the crew killed. If you come up with a plan to turn the tables on the pirates, speak to me first, for any attempt to overcome them will have to be made en-masse, or it will fail and it will see reprisals.

"Isn't better to die fighting, rather than to die cowed?" Jonah Smart declared bravely, having moved over to listen to their conversation.

"Yes, it is Mr Smart, but if we can come through it victorious, and without too many deaths, that would be better still." Alun replied to which Jonah Smart could only nod in agreement.

**********

Wledig had agreed to Alun using the library, however, he said.

"I think you will be wasting your time Captain, if there had been anything to find, believe me, I would have found it."

"Then permit me to use the navigational computer on my ship, it will have more stars listed, as well as having all of the historical records." Alun said.

Wledig thought the request over before replying.

"Okay, Captain, but I will have three extra men go across to your vessel, to stand guard on you while you are there."

"Send as many as you wish." Alun replied having foreseen this event in any case.

Leaving the others to the discomfort of the hold, Alun went back aboard his ship and sat down in the command chair on the bridge. For hours he waded through the computer records until, at last, he found what he had been searching for, an old and almost forgotten memory that had been evading him ever since hearing the name Pen Draig. Turning to look at his guards, he saw that one of them was staring at the screen, his face radiating his excitement, Alun knew that he could not keep his discovery a secret from Wledig.

In short, the brief article said; the yellow dwarf star named by the IAU (International Astronomical Union) Avalon, was 403 light-years away from Earth. Their choice of name was remarkable. The sun had four planets in orbit around it, one of which was found to be an Earth-like planet, that was back in 2205. A survey was immediately planned; however, the team was only sent in 2241. The primary reason was to check its suitability for colonisation; however, the natives were found to be far too dangerous. Other known facts were that the natives called their sun Inis Witrin, having been asked by the survey party for this information, and Pendreg was their name for their planet. The article then went on to list the exact position, mass, designation, type and size of the star.

Alun read the article again, his excitement rising, this had to be what Wledig had been searching for. The planet had been written off as a new colony prospect by the survey party, however, he was not writing it off, it must be the planet Pen Draig inside of which Professor Cardigan had disappeared. Seeing that the one interested guard was still absorbed in the article, Alun brought the guard's focus back to himself.

"Gentlemen, I have here what your captain desires, therefore, let us return to the freighter and put him out of his misery."

Once back in Wledig's cabin, Alun smiled and said.

"Mr Wledig, I have proved that Samson's faith in me was obviously well founded."

"You have something Captain, you have really found Pen Draig?" Wledig cried out joyfully.

"Mr Wledig, from what you have told me so far, your account obviously has an Arthurian theme, so, maybe I have found the planet Pen Draig." Alun said to an enthralled Wledig and then went on to say.

"The yellow dwarf star Avalon was found to have an Earth-like planet amongst its retinue, and so in 2241, a survey party from Earth called there to check its suitability for colonisation. The natives were found to be far too dangerous, therefore, the planet and its star were forgotten. However, I believe that there is a strong possibility that the planet is Pen Draig, it being the name used by the natives. As for their sun, they call it Ynys Witrin, an ancient Welsh name. However, as the natives had no written language, the survey party, when they requested that information, wrote down Inis Witrin for the sun and Pendreg for the planet. Which is why no one realised that there might be a connection between the planet and the Arthurian myth."

Wledig was beside himself with excitement when he heard this, however, Alun was not finished just yet.

"In case you did not know Mr Wledig, Ynys Witrin is the earliest known name for Glastonbury, itself a possible location for the mythical Avalon. So, a star some 403 light-years away from Wales is known by its population by a Welsh name, Ynys Witrin, the island of crystal, named for the way the star seemed to glisten through the atmosphere of the planet. And then, what is a star but an island in space, if not one anyone would want to land upon. However, it is a long way from here, if my maths is correct that would put it at a distance of 236 light-years, another long trip. Of course, Cardigan set off from New Caledonia, a greater leap of faith 100 years ago, but seemingly not impossible."

"Samson was right to have faith in you Captain; you did in hours what I could not do in months. Tomorrow morning, your crew will be led back aboard your starship, there they can shower and have their breakfast, then we will set off for the star Ynys Witrin. Thanks to you Captain, I will get to land upon Pen Draig, trek to the waterfall, find the hidden vault and once we have gained entrance, look upon the treasures that it contains." Wledig said excitedly before adding.

"Of course, Captain, my people will still be in charge of security aboard your vessel, to ensure that we do arrive with myself in command. My crew, with the exception of myself and Oswald Grimes, who you knew as Moses, will sleep within the meeting hall aboard your vessel. Grimes and myself will use the two spare guest quarters, please arrange that Captain."

The meeting hall aboard the starship was to be used when and if they entertained alien leaders or priests, in the hall they could be properly entertained and hear the word of god in comfort.

"Mr Wledig, with all the extra people aboard the starship, we should fill our water tanks and also bring over what food you have aboard your freighter, otherwise, we could find ourselves short of both." Alun advised.

"You are correct Captain, I will see to that immediately, for I do not want to incur any further delays to our voyage of discovery." Wledig replied.

Alun returned to the hold of the freighter where he advised the housekeeper, Tobias Jones, of his new responsibilities, warning him to be both respectful and careful. Then he updated everyone about what he had discovered and of their immediate future, he finished off by saying.

"Carry out your respective duties in the same way that you did on our journey here. Do nothing to endanger yourself, the crew or the ship, at least not until speaking it over with me, when I will decide on our future actions. It is thirteen days to our destination, much can happen in that time, however, there are twenty-eight of them, all armed with plasma weapons, any move against them would have to be well co-ordinated and well thought out if it is to succeed." Alun ordered and then added.

"Even if we are not successful in taking back our ship, the future should be interesting, not least as it concerns the Seeders. Also, remember, the natives on Pen Draig are considered dangerous, while we are on their planet do nothing to bring them down upon us, as we will be unarmed and reliant on the pirate crew to keep us safe, who will be more concerned for their own safety."

With this attended to Alun sat down in a quiet space and pondered. Their future was precarious to say the least, their lives would only be safe while they were needed, after that it depended on fate. Probably, if they were successful in finding the treasure, after they had carried it back to the ship, Alun believed that their life span could be measured in minutes, except for anyone considered to be useful by the pirates. Otherwise, if they were lucky, they would be marooned upon a planet full of enemies. Their only chance would be either when he and his crew were back aboard their starship on the journey to Pen Draig, or on the journey back to the starship with the treasure, if it actually existed.

Chapter Three

Pen Draig

The journey to Pen Draig for the crew and their captain was one of watchfulness, looking for any sign of laxness on the part of the crew, however, both Grimes and Wledig ran a taut ship. Wledig broke his pirates in to two watches, just as Alun had done, with each pirate on duty for twelve hours each day, as for Wledig, he slept for the six hours, at most, and only when Grimes was back on duty. The two-watch system meant that there were always at least fourteen pirates on duty, plus others resting nearby in the galley. Three pirates were in engineering at all times with another three were on the bridge, with either Wledig or Grimes there for most of the day. The ship's air tight crash barriers had been activated, effectively trapping the crew and preventing them from moving around the massive starship. With the crash barriers down, Wledig could threaten to turn off the air to any portion of the ship, should Alun attempt to retake his ship. Yes, Wledig might lose some of his pirates, however, Alun would lose some of his people as well, both when their air was turned off and later, when Wledig punished him by executing more of his crew or passengers.

Level five, comprising the large hold of the ship and its two air locks, was locked up and designated a no-go area for the crew, as was the second level, anyone requiring medical attention would be taken down under guard by whichever pirates were in the galley. As for when any goods from the hold were needed, pirates were again taken from the galley to escort the housekeeper and the cook down to this level to obtain the necessary stores. Wledig had turned the auxiliary bridge, in engineering, in to a security area, which the crew were again forbidden to enter, three more of the pirates being based there. Of the remaining four pirates on duty, two was based in environmental, on level two, and last two in the hanger bay on level one.

Alun knew that up to thirteen pirates could be gassed while asleep within the meeting hall, however, that would mean first capturing the auxiliary bridge and environmental, and without alerting the other pirates. They would also have to open one of the heavy crash barriers, which would be difficult, for as soon as one opened a barrier, it alerted both the bridge and the security team on the auxiliary bridge. The security team would also be making use of the CCTV cameras that were located along all of the passageways of the starship, they would soon notice any unauthorised movement of the ship's crew. If this happened, Alun was under no misconception as to how Wledig would treat his crew, he would punish those involved severely. And as for a full-blown rebellion, Wledig would have any of his crew still under his control killed, if those rebelling did not surrender immediately. No, either their rebellion was able to be conducted within seconds or they did nothing. Therefore, the journey was uneventful and his crew sullen and downcast. Alun began to wonder if he had become too careful, too afraid to make decisions that could lose members of his crew their lives. If he could have communicated with his chief engineer, he might have been able to come up with a plan, however, all communication was carried out through Wledig, the pirate chief had thought of everything, he had obviously made use of his time orbiting the gas giant. In fact, Wledig had been sent a VR plan of the starship by his man within the senior echelon of the Church. He had studied it even before the starship had left Earth, he knew as much about the layout as did Alun or Trance, and made his plans accordingly.

**********

They were finally in orbit around Pen Draig, the planet was almost equal to Earth in size and mass and they looked down upon large blue oceans dotted with banks of white clouds, with a large single land mass straddling the equator, it looked very beautiful. Its one large land mass was the size of Asia and Africa combined and vegetation seemed to rule supreme, except for where the mountains pushed up through the clouds, clouds that at times covered much of the forest. Rain forest was the predominant feature of this planet, with rivers snaking through them on their way to empty their millions of gallons when they reached the ocean. Alun had one question for Wledig.

"Mr Wledig, how will you be able to locate one waterfall within such a massive area of land?"

Wledig looked at him, momentarily lost for an answer, then he smiled and said.

"Although the main land mass is too big to search on foot, I am not daunted, up here, in space, we should be able to identify any large waterfalls. Move the ship so that it orbits the northern part of the land mass, when we identify the largest of the waterfalls, we can land there and ask the natives if it is the land of Caerfyrddin."

Alun did not appear to be convinced, even so, he ordered the starship moved so that they were in orbit above the northern part of the land mass. Their main computer had worked out which part of the planet was North and which part was South, using the Sol solar system as the norm. Alun hoped that Professor Cardigan had used the same basis when he had decided that Caerfyrddin was in the Northern hemisphere of Pen Draig.

They then began to record the position of each large waterfall, but which one was Myrddin, if any, Alun wondered. A number of falls and cataracts could be seen along one of the major rivers below them, this one easily the equal of the Amazon, and so Wledig said.

"We will land near to the waterfall on the screen, it is easily the largest one along that stretch of river, it must be the one, it is magnificent. We will have to use the ship's plasma weapon to clear a large enough space in which to land our starship, please take care of that Captain."

Alun shrugged, he did not agree with the pirate chief, however, he decided to obey the order. Bringing up the weapons program on his computer, he zeroed in on the area of forest near to the waterfall and chose the maximum wide spread available, so as to clear the forest quickly. Pressing the shoot command, caused the plasma weapon to vibrate wildly and then it exploded. The explosion brought with it more problems, for it shorted out all the ship's systems and Alun realised that it was down to him and the chief engineer to save the ship and before it burnt up in the planet's atmosphere, that or crashed in to the rain forest far below them. Before he could leave the bridge to help Trance, Wledig screamed out in rage and turned on Alun angrily, his face, now deep red, contorted in rage, he was no longer Mr Congeniality.

"You have tampered with the weapon Captain; you and your crew will pay for that act of mutiny."

Alun did not want to reveal that they may have a saboteur aboard their ship, mainly because he did not want to alert the person responsible that they were on to him or her, so instead he said.

"Later, Mr Wledig, please allow me to save the ship first or we will all die, then you can take your anger out on me and me alone."

Alun turned away contemptuously from the fuming pirate saying.

"Mr Smart, you have the bridge, please see to any of the hardware that was damaged here, I will be in engineering if you need me. Would you mind Mr Wledig, opening the necessary crash barriers?"

Wledig scowled but opened the crash barrier, it moved silently aside and allowed Alun to leave the bridge and then to use the elevator to go down to engineering. Once there, he had to call Wledig on the intercom, to ask him to open the crash barrier on that level.

Alun hurried in to engineering and on seeing him, Trance came over to him to give him the latest update on the crisis.

**********

"It was sabotage Captain, we were correct, there is a saboteur aboard this starship." Trance cried out in rage. "The plasma weapon was wired up to blow itself apart as soon as you attempted to use it. It must have been done before we left the space dock back in Earth orbit. It could have been one of the crew, one of the Boeing space team or anyone bold enough to walk aboard with forged papers." Trance now came to the really bad news.

"Captain, it also damaged some of the Stardrive main circuits, I would say that we have two hours at most to repair them before the planet's gravity begins to pull us down, and without power we will burn up or crash in to planet, or perhaps both."

Alun had not realised the extent of the damage; however, he did not allow it to faze him, or the crew would begin to panic and that would mean sloppy workmanship, he merely said.

"Then we had better get to work chief, where do you want me to start?"

As Alun worked away repairing the burnt-out circuits, the seconds ticked away and very quickly, or so it seemed to Alun. Already the ship was being drawn in to the planet's atmosphere, vibrations were threatening to shake the vessel apart. The only thing between the ground and safety were the ship's thrusters, unfortunately, they were smoking hot, for they were not designed to defy gravity for two solid hours and certainly not without some help from the vessel's interplanetary engine which got its power from the Stardrive. With only seconds to spare Alun felt the healthy throb of the starship's engine begin to build. Had they been able to complete the repairs in time or would gravity win this dramatic tug of war? Alun had finished his task literally seconds before, now he hurried over to Trance to ask.

"Will we make it Chief, did we do enough in time to stop the ship from burning up or crashing on to the planet?"

"Aye, Captain, can you not feel it, the ship is in cruising mode, where would you like to go, an empty beach cleaned by a mighty ocean, wherever it is this ship will now take us there."

Alun smiled and said.

"How about the yellow grass of a sun-drenched savannah Chief, because that is where Wledig will need to go if he is to succeed in his quest."

Alun now contacted the bridge. "Mr Smart the Stardrive is back in operation, take us in to a safe orbit, I will be back on the bridge as soon as I finish off here."

Trance looked at Alun and said. "Captain, I just wish that I knew who our saboteur is and why is he doing this? As to why, well Captain, I reckon that we have two front runners."

Alun waited for his engineer to continue.

"It is either for religious reasons or for gain. If religious, then I do not believe we will be able to find out until we return to Earth where the police can investigate. I believe that it is more than likely to be for gain Captain, someone else is after the treasure and they have managed to get an agent aboard our ship."

Alun nodded and then added to the engineer's thoughts.

"I doubt that our new enemy could have got an agent aboard the ship that late in the day Chief, it is more likely that he paid one of our crew to simply delay us, although the agent nearly put paid to us twice. Why, was it that the agent simply did not know enough about this vessel's engines or its main computer?"

"It could well be Captain, which narrows the field some. It rules out Jonah Smart, Thelma Nolan and Michael Patel. As for the cook and the housekeeper, they could hardly have managed to accomplish such a technical task."

"So, it is either one of the science officers, who know just enough to be able to accomplish the near fatal attempts, or one of your people down here in engineering. Do you want to pick one Chief, to play the role of prime suspect?" Alun asked grimly.

"I will let you know Captain, for the moment, I will watch the two on my watch and ask Michael Patel to watch his guys. How about you Captain, care to make a guess?"

"No, Chief, like you I do not want to condemn a man just because I do not like his after shave."

Alun, looked glum, his new command was not going well, the lives of his crew were in danger both from the pirates and the saboteur, and as captain they were his responsibility. His senior officers would help him but ultimately it was down to him to come up with a plan to save the day, unfortunately, he could think of nothing that would not endanger his people.

"Chief, I had better go and put Wledig out of his misery before he blows a fuse, that or despatches a search party for me."

Alun then left a weary chief engineer and after requesting that the two crash barriers be opened, he was finally standing in front of Wledig, however, he did not intend to tell him the true reason behind the near disaster, instead he said.

"Mr Wledig, the fault lay with the plasma weapon, but it was not the fault of the crew. You must realise that for my crew or I do to commit such an act, without your security detail knowing, is impossible, and certainly not without them asking questions and then reporting it to you. No, the reason is that this ship has not been fully tested, it is why I have not used the Stardrive on full power. There was obviously something wrong with the weapon, and as this was the first time that we have used it, it malfunctioned and nearly cost us our lives." Alun said and then added. "I thought your plan foolish in any case and I would never have committed such a violent act of destruction, as we had no idea if any of the locals were within your chosen fire zone."

With Wledig about to explode, Alun then added.

"Think about it Mr Wledig, Cardigan's starship would not have been armed, however, he was still able to land and set out upon his task, which if you remember took him a week to arrive at the waterfall. No, he would have been forced to land somewhere upon the vast savannah areas to the west. If you are correct about your choice of waterfalls, then after landing on the edge of the savannah, we should head north east, it will mean a long arduous trek, an ordeal, however, if you want to proceed on this quest of yours then what other option do we have."

Wledig calmed down and nodding his head said.

"Captain, one of the proposed meanings of Caerfyrddin was Merlin's fort, if this is in fact correct, then we should be able to locate it from space. Let us first attempt to find it with our cameras before we are forced to use our feet."

Alun accordingly set the computer to search the surface of the planet for such a building, however, no buildings of any sort were seen. Following this lack of success, Alun spoke to Wledig.

"The term could mean a hill fort, one that has now been covered by forest, however, once again there are too many hills to investigate."

Wledig was beginning to feel disheartened by their quest, however, he would not let Alun see him defeated, no, anything but that.

"You are correct Captain, please take the ship down now, head for the savannah, we will land as near to the largest of the waterfalls as is possible and then walk. As you said earlier, Cardigan must have done likewise. How long do you estimate it will take us?"

"Up to a week, it is certainly not beyond us, it depends on what natural trails there are and the density of the rain forest that we will have to pass through, especially if we are forced to cut our way through." Alun replied before turning to the helmsman and saying.

"Mr Cole, take us down to the large savannah area to the west of the large waterfall on the screen."

From there, Alun would have liked to use the shuttlecraft to explore the waterfalls along this majestic river before they set out on their dangerous trek, dangerous because of the natives that had attacked Cardigan's party. However, Wledig refused, he wanted all of his people on the trek, not idling their time away in a shuttlecraft that could never land. Alun looked at the large viewscreen, it was set upon the wall in place of a forward window. They had come in low over a range of snow-capped mountains, small streams were cascading down them to form in to rivers as they met and rushed onwards towards the great ocean that surrounded the immense land-mass. The starship was soon over the eastern edge of the savannah, beneath them they could see vast herds of animals, that in turn would mean numerous carnivores, there to prey upon the grazing herds.

The helmsman took the starship down towards an area that was devoid of the trees that were dotted elsewhere on the savannah. Then they were down on the grass that was being cropped by the vast herds of grazing animals, prior to their making an appearance.

Even though things had not gone his way, Wledig was excited to be on Pen Draig, soon his quest would begin, forgotten was the coming ordeal, he looked and acted much like a school boy about to set out on an adventure. As for Alun, he would have felt better about the dangerous trek ahead of them if only they knew that they were in or near the land of Caerfyrddin. As it was, they were about to embark on a journey, where some of them might not return, in the hope that the large waterfall was the Falls of Myrddin.

They needed to leave a security detail behind, to ensure the safety of the ship, however, Wledig did not leave anyone who could pilot the starship, these he took with him. Those left on board were the housekeeper, he being too old for such a trek, the cook and finally the nurse, who was needed to tend to those who remained and who once again was not fit enough for the coming ordeal. The chief engineer was also ordered to stay behind, together with three others from the engineering department, they were left aboard the starship to overhaul the ship's engines and to carry out any repairs found to be necessary to the starship. If necessary, they were also ordered to assist the eight pirates in guarding the ship against any attack from the natives, even if the four engineers were not armed, making a total of fifteen men and women.

Alun walked over to Jonah Smart and said. "Mr Smart, I believe that we have some waterproof clothing on board as well as some waterproof sheeting, you had better dig it out, that is a rain forest out there which means that it will rain a lot. We will also need some rope to tie the sheeting down."

"Yes, we do have Captain, I wondered why it was included, now I know." Smart replied and went off to see to the task.

As it was nearing the time to leave the starship, Wledig not being able to hold back his excitement, ordered everyone to ready themselves for the long trek. Those who were to accompany him were Alun, Grimes, the two remaining engineers, the six bridge officers, eighteen pirates, Samson, Tarisman, the archdeacon, the vicar and the three curates and finally the ship's doctor. Only the pirates had plasma weapons, the others had to content themselves with whatever they could find to use as a weapon. Wledig had brought six machetes with him. Although, originally his pirates would have had to cut their way through the rain forest, he now planned to use Alun's people, so he handed the six machetes to the strongest amongst them.

This made a total of thirty-six people, twenty-eight men and eight women. Each of them had a bag of sorts containing their personal items, such as toothpaste and brushes, shaving gear for the men, soap, clean underwear, and finally an assortment of water bottles. The pirates had proper canteens; the crew had taken whatever container they could find on the starship that they could fill with water.

"Mr Wledig, I have another suggestion to make, if I may?" Alun said and when Wledig nodded his assent, Alun continued. "Have two of the pirates that are to be left behind at the ship hunt the local antelope or buffalo, my cook can cut it up and freeze it, for we shall need it when we leave this planet. Our supplies are not inexhaustible and who knows what the future has in store."

Wledig thought for a moment before speaking to the man he had left in charge, for Wledig once again saw the logic in Alun's suggestion. For even he could not say when he would be ready to rid himself of Alun and his crew.

**********

Wledig looked at the pirates and their captives, none seemed to have a sense of urgency and with his impatience getting the better of him he ordered them to move out, ready or not. They clergy and some of the crew walked down from the main airlock and on to the alien planet, gathering in the shade beneath the large starship. The remainder of Alun's crew passed down the many boxes of food stuffs and large containers of drinking water that they would need to survive on this dangerous planet. The clergy and crew were all to be used as porters, and Alun insisted in taking one of the heavier packs, although Wledig had said that he need not do so. In addition to the boxes of food and the containers of water, the porters would also have to carry dry firewood, which would be collected by the pirates as they travelled and handed to the porters to stash away in their packs when they stopped to rest. Then, when the safari, as Alun had begun to think of the crew, the clerics and himself, had picked up their heavy loads, they moved off across the savannah and towards the rain forest, which was 500 feet away. They were soon inside the rain forest, the brightness of the savannah behind them dimmed as they walked further inside this primeval world. Then the savannah was no longer visible, only the trees and the vegetation that could thrive in the dim light beneath the tall trees.

Wledig moved over to Alun and said.

"Captain, I have decided that any animals that we come across will be shot by my people to provide us with extra food, and so eke out our provisions, that is if we are lucky enough to come across any of the forest dwelling animals. Their carcases will be hung from a stout pole and carried by two of your people, their normal load will be distributed amongst the others. The carcases will be carried until we stop for a break, then it will be cut up, the best of the meat eaten that night, the remainder left on the trail for the scavengers."

Alun simply nodded his agreement and smiled, for with all the noise that the safari was making, he did not expect to see too many animals.

The column was divided into three groups, Wledig had Alun and Samson walk beside him, with nine of the pirates close behind them, next came the main part of the column, which had been ordered to walk ten feet behind them, no nearer. The remaining nine pirates were to be found ten feet behind the rear of the column, in this way Wledig had ensured that Alun and his people could not attack the pirates, even though they only had their six machetes. Some of the porters had an assortment of clubs picked up by them for use both as firewood and protection.

Wledig had intended to set a fast pace, however, the trail was overhung by so much vegetation that he had to order the two strongest of the crewmen to hand their load over to the other porters, and then to walk ahead so that they could hack a way through the vegetation that either hung or leant in the way of the main party. The two men would be replaced after an hour by a fresh pair of crewmen. Even with the slow rate of progress, many of the crew and the clerics were soon puffing and wheezing, being unused to manual work of this kind, and of course the heat. The shade did help, for a while, until the humidity then made its presence felt, and their loads began to feel heavier the longer they carried them. They were following an animal trail that went roughly in the direction they wanted to travel, and after only two miles the three curates began to complain and Bartholomew most of all.

"Bishop, this is really too much, how can we be expected to carry these heavy loads, we are men and women of god, not servants, and in this humid heat too, I will pass out unless you do something soon."

"Pull yourself together Bartholomew, our lord carried the cross so that he might save us all, it was far heavier and he knew that death awaited him." Tarisman said by way of a rebuke. "All you have is food and water, essential to us all if we are to survive this ordeal."

Tarisman was also tiring fast, as he was older than any of the other clerics and Alun could see this. In fact, half of the crew and the clerics would be glad of a rest and none of them were looking forward to sleeping on the forest floor. And with his own body complaining, after they had walked for a further three miles, Alun decided to speak to Wledig.

"Mr Wledig, you will have no porters left unless you allow them to rest, they are not used to such hard toil, especially in this humid heat."

Wledig looked back at Alun in anger, smiled when he saw the sweat on his face, and then he looked at his porters and saw that Alun was correct, he knew that he would have to stop and rest-up, and after travelling barely five miles. Therefore, he signalled a rest stop and then he spoke to Alun.

"The falls are 100 miles away; at this rate we will take weeks to complete it." Wledig complained.

"It depends on the countryside ahead of us and of course there is a good chance that our people will complete less miles per day, the further we travel. However, their load will also decrease, so who knows. In any case, we have not done badly so far, we should be able to make another five miles today, better not to push them too far on their first day, then tomorrow, after an early start, they might surprise you." Alun replied.

The crew and the clerics sat tired upon the ground, glad of the rest and grateful that Alun had procured it. However, the pirates, although hot and sweaty, seemed to be in much better condition, of course they were only carrying their small backpacks.

"Mr Wledig, we will need more water than we are carrying, when we get to a stream or river, we will need to replace what we have drunk. Did you bring any Lifestraws along, or have you something else in mind?" Alun asked.

A Lifestraw is a Swiss hand-held invention that allows hikers and campers to safely drink dirty water, filtering out waterborne bacteria and parasites, you can safely drink from a muddy puddle and each one will clean thousands of litres of water.

Wledig looked rather embarrassed when he replied.

"No, Captain, I did not expect to have to walk to the falls, not with a modern starship under my command, a bad mistake to make, I should have made preparations for the unexpected. We shall just have to boil it when we set up camp, but tell me Captain, do you have any suggestions?"

"Yes, Mr Wledig, for luckily, I brought four Lifestraws with me, I always keep a few put by, you can never be sure of the drinking water when away from home. I will be happy to share them with your men, however, four amongst thirty-six people will mean queues at each water source or rest stop." Alun replied without a trace of contempt, although Wledig was expecting it.

Wledig looked suitably thankful, however, after ten minutes had passed, he said.

"Okay everyone, let's move out, we can rest again later, this heat is more than I expected, therefore, I will allow more breaks than I had originally allowed for, this should allow you to keep up." Wledig said and then added. "Those who do not will first be encouraged to speed up and if that does not work, their load will be distributed amongst their comrades and the culprit will be put on short rations until he or she improves."

With these words he reinforced the crew and the clerics view of him as a vicious thug, so, though tired, the unwilling crew and the clerics collected their loads and followed on behind the pirate leader, who spent most of his time in conversation with Samson, his other junior partner along with Grimes.

It was now that the heavens opened and it began to rain, the porters hurriedly put down their loads and donned their waterproof clothing, as did the pirates who had brought their own along. Thankfully, the boxes were made of plastic, so they did not suffer and the firewood collected so far was put in them to keep it dry. With all this attended to, they picked up their loads and continued their onwards, now though in discomfort as the rain soon found ways to enter the waterproof clothing.

The second five miles was a little worse than the first, during it they heard the roar of a large animal and it sounded as if it was very near to the track that they were walking along. Even the pirates looked fearful when they heard a series of loud roars very near to the trail, pulling out their plasma pistols and firing in to the undergrowth until Wledig stopped them, fearing that their pistols would run out of energy. Coupled to that were the insects, they were tormenting everyone in the party, even Wledig, they were attracted to the sweat now freely rolling down every inch of skin. When the safari reached a large clearing, in which Wledig thought was eminently suitable, the crew and the clerics collapsed to the ground exhausted. They were too tired to even swat at the insects, whose numbers had lessened as the sun began to set. However, Alun expected their place to be taken by the planet's mosquito-like insect, there had to be one or more of them.

Dinner, if you could label so poor a meal with such a title, did provide them with something to fill their stomachs. Wledig had hoped that they could have added the planet's wildlife to their store of food, unfortunately their large number and the noise that they made, had indeed scared any animals away. Seeing the state of his porters, he was glad that he had ordered his pirates to collect suitable tinder as they had marched, for his porters were now in no state to attend to this. The tinder being dry, or almost anyway, meant that they soon had three fires blazing away, lit by their plasma weapons. Alun wandered across to the small group of clerics to check on them and commiserate with them, but there was little else he could do. He then spoke to his crew, to bolster their spirits, for, as he told them, there were up to seven long arduous days ahead of them, and the trek would take them through a hostile forest full of very dangerous natives. Much could and probably would happen, the pendulum could easily swing their way, they had but to recognise the moment and then to seize it.

As for Wledig, he was not that concerned about the welfare of his porters, if one died, so be it, there were many more to take up his load. All that mattered was the treasure in the vault of Myrddin.

Chapter Four

The Ordovices

The rain had stopped and the clouds cleared away to reveal the planet's small moon, and it was now that the first natives arrived, five of them, they had been drawn to the safari when the pirates had used their plasma pistols, that and by the lights of the fires. Alun would have been surprised, as he was later that week, to hear the name of their tribe, it was the Ordovices, another Welsh name from out of history. However, these men were not Welsh, for they were grey in colour and not one of them above 5 feet tall. The size of the strangers, their colouring and the large number of the strangers prevented the small group of natives from attacking, as was their custom when another tribe trespassed upon their territory. They looked anxiously at the strangers warming themselves around three blazing camp-fires. They had heard tales of such people, ones told by their ancient ones, but never had they seen a human. They decided after much discussion to send the most courageous of their number, Gruffudd, back to their village, while the others stayed to watch over the strangers. Gruffudd did not run wildly back to his village, or he would be taken by the Jaguar of Pen Draig, or even by one of the evil spirits that they believed always lurked in the darkness for the unwary. Therefore, it was not until sunrise that his weary body entered the village and called for the village elders.

They were angry at being woken so early, only the women of the tribe were normally up at this time, preparing their menfolk's' breakfast, or leaving a bowl of water upon the floor just outside of their huts so that their menfolk could wash. When the elders saw that the cause of the alarm was Gruffudd, their rebukes turned to greetings of welcome and they bid him to tell them why he had returned alone and at this early hour.

"Many strangers have entered our land from the grasslands to the west, they are very tall, giants even and while some are the colour of the night, some the colour of the Lahti fruit and then some amongst them are pale, almost white. Our warriors must collect their weapons and hurry to meet them, we must demand that they leave our land or die." Gruffudd explained.

"Maybe we should first ask the ancestors who they are and what we should do, for they sound formidable." Magrath advised. He was never in favour of war, mainly because he had two left feet and had never been able to learn the art of war.

"No, Magrath, they must be invaders, they wish to drive us from our lands before they build villages and send for more of their kind." Garth cried out in alarm. "We must kill them and only then ask our ancestors why these strangers dared to enter our land."

At one time, Garth had been a powerful warrior, now his age meant that he had to stay at home while younger men went to fight. Each time he had asked to go with them, to die a warrior's death, however, the tribe valued his advice and would not let him go to war.

Arthfael now spoke, he was the chief of the tribe and a brave warrior.

"Collect your weapons my warriors and be sure to bring along food and water, we go to war."

While Arthfael and his warriors hurried towards their enemies, Alun had called Chief Engineer Trance to hear how the maintenance, and any repairs subsequently found to be necessary, were going. Trance told him.

"Slowly, Captain, however, we should be finished by the time you return, assuming that nothing else goes wrong. How are things with you, is everyone holding up?"

"As well as can be expected, for none of us is fit enough for a two-day hike, never mind a seven-day hike through a humid rain forest teaming with unfriendly insects and what sound like very large lions." Alun did not comment on the latter part of Trance's grim statement, for he knew what Trance had been referring to, the saboteur, so he signed off and joined the others as they moved off. Once again, he was walking behind Wledig and Samson, listening to them talk over past crimes.

When Arthfael finally caught up with the strangers, he found that they had woken, fed and moved off, however, Arthfael did not immediately attack them. He had not expected to find quite so many armed strangers, for Gruffudd had been known to exaggerate at times. The four warriors who had followed the strangers then told Arthfael of their powerful weapons that, according to the four men, must have been gifts from the gods, so once again he held back from attacking the interlopers, he needed to think. He finally decided against declaring war on so large a group, he hoped that his words would be enough, if not then they would have to go to war. Keeping hidden from the strangers, he called out to the slowly moving safari which had walked a further two miles along the trail and was now about to stop for a rest. The animal track widened out just ahead of the safari, and then transformed in to a myriad of tracks that ran through a land riven by gullies, narrow ones, deep ones, and wide ones. They continued on for a mile while the rainforest retreated away from them, giving no cover whatsoever to the native warriors. To attack along one of these gullies would give his people protection against the enemy, however, the walls of the gullies would provide the strangers with equal protection against his people, Arthfael did not fancy the odds, so instead he screamed out a warning.

"Return to your land, to advance any further will see you punished, you will face a horrible death when Myrddin hears of your presence, in his land. He will destroy you by sending creatures of the night to kill and eat your flesh."

This was all very well, however, Wledig did not understand every word that was said, for it was not even the language of the ancient welsh people, which Wledig spoke after a fashion, it was ancient welsh plus 2000 years of mutation. This meant that it had changed so much that even Merlin would have had trouble understanding their warning to go no further and to turn back.

"Obviously, they are either warning against continuing on or they are asking what we want." Alun suggested to Wledig although he was sure it was the former of the two.

Alun had learnt Welsh as a boy and had managed to understand the native, with some difficulty, however, he felt that he should keep this fact hidden, for who could tell when it might just be turned to his advantage.

"From the few words that I managed to understand, I believe that they are threatening us, however, I could be mistaken." Wledig replied.

Alun looked across at Wledig and smiled.

"I suggest you decide carefully, for our lives might be at stake." Alun suggested.

"They are watching us Mr Wledig, the little grey natives, I can feel them, they are all around us." Samson cried out fearfully.

"You always were a coward Samson, take heart or join the others as a porter." Wledig replied contemptuously.

Both Alun and Wledig were silent for a moment, then Alun had an idea that he thought might save them some pain.

"Call the ship Mr Wledig, have one of the engineers pilot the shuttlecraft to our position, they are qualified, if he were to overfly this position a few times, it might make the natives think twice before attacking us."

"That is sound advice Captain, however, in the meantime we will move forward, if we can find a small clearing, the shuttlecraft will be more effective there. We painted mythical monsters on the sides and bows of it, for just such a situation as this. Why I did not think of it before I do not know, the heat of this damned rain forest must be turning my brain to mush."

After contacting the starship, Wledig pulled out his plasma weapon and cried out to his fellow pirates.

"Fire at the high branches at the edge of the tree-line, bring them down upon the heathens, let us give them a taste of modern weapons, they just might decide to leave us alone."

Having given his order, Wledig took aim at a high overhanging branch and fired a bolt of energy that whistled menacing through the air and exploded against the branch, the branch shook wildly and fell slowly to the ground. It landed only inches away from the nose of Arthfael, who, too stunned to move, hugged the ground in fear until the demons flying through the air departed back to their lairs far beneath the ground.

"You see Samson, they are terrified of us now, that demonstration of the power of our weapons will stop them from attacking us, even if it only for a while. The next time they attempt to stop us we will show them the what these weapons were really made for, to kill."

Samson was not so sure, he reckoned that they would have been more likely to choose a better ambush site and then launch another attack upon them, and this time they would be certain to take out many of the armed pirates, with disastrous results for him. However, he kept silent, for he had learned long ago that Wledig did not appreciate criticism.

Alun also felt that the natives would quickly get over their fright, when they realised that none of them had been hurt, so he kept alert for even the smallest sound or movement, and as he was not in command that is all that he could do. Meanwhile, Wledig was eager to move on towards the waterfall.

"Onwards, at a brisk pace, we will proceed through the wide gully ahead of us, there is no need to use the machetes here, let us show the little grey warriors what sort of foe they face. We will rest only when we come to a clearing, so I recommend that everyone moves a little faster than we managed earlier."

The gulley was not deep, in fact, Alun's head was above the top of its walls, as were the heads of many of the others in the party, they could not be approached unseen along this part of the rain forest.

Proving that Samson was correct in his summing up of the situation, when Arthfael saw that no one had been killed, his courage returned. He immediately took his men forward at a quick pace, for he knew places along the direction of his enemy's route that would make superb ambush points.

Meanwhile, the safari moved at a fast pace too, with many of the marchers feeling as Samson did. Fear bit at their innards, a fear that they were being watched by the small barbarous grey warriors, they started at the least sound or movement, wishing fervently that they were back on board their starship. For once this all-consuming panic adding impetus to the march, only Wledig seemed unaffected by it all. No one complained about being tired that day, no, instead they pushed on regardless of the pain in their legs and backs, for even this was better than a painful death. Alun finally stopped the hurried march as they exited this broken land, causing Wledig to become annoyed at Alun's impertinent at presuming to give orders. He had stopped as the animal track they were walking along was about to pass through a twisting defile, one that was at least sixty feet wide, with cliffs that towered up to the sky. It ran for a mile as it cut its way through a steep range of hills, and to either side of the track the ground was filled with dense undergrowth, this Alun knew was perfect ambush country, was this why the natives had not attacked them, had they chosen this for their killing ground. Certainly, at close proximity, their darts, tipped as they were with poison, would nullify any advantage the pirates' plasma weapons possessed. Unfortunately, this was the only option, for the hills were too steep for most of them to scale and there was no other option within sight.

"Mr Wledig, get everyone off the track." Alun ordered. "I firmly believe that you should take a moment to consider your next move, the animal track ahead might easily be their chosen killing ground. We should wait until the shuttlecraft gets here, it can fly low through the defile a couple of time, rout the natives, if they are here, and allow us to hurry through. If you do not Mr Wledig, then we could lose half our people in there from the natives' poison darts, maybe even more. Certainly, if I were the native chief, that is where I would lay in wait, hidden there beneath the undergrowth, waiting for the unwary to move through the defile."

Wledig, his anger subsiding, stood at the head of the safari and he realised that he would make a clear target for the small natives, should Alun be correct in his warning, he took only seconds to decide, his fear winning out, then he called out.

"Off the track, Captain Reece believes that the natives are ahead of us, waiting in the undergrowth. We will wait for the shuttlecraft to rout the beggars, if indeed they are there."

Wledig then spoke to the nine pirates who were at the head of the safari, however, the rest of the safari stopped where they were and scanned the surrounding undergrowth for signs of an ambush.

"When the shuttlecraft arrives, fire in to the undergrowth, only stop firing when it is flying through, but resume the turkey shoot when it is out of the line of fire. The little grey warriors die today, if they have been unwise enough to dismiss my previous show of strength."

Alun took Wledig to one side, he had other misgivings.

"Even if we survive this day without losing anyone Mr Wledig, there is the night to get through, then they will have the advantage and if we lose all of our guards to their poison darts none of us will survive to see the sun rise."

Wledig's anger exploded.

"First you keep us here instead of ploughing on, then you tell me that we will all be dead by tomorrow morning, from the natives' poison darts. What do you now advise Captain, tell me and if I agree, we will act upon it, only give us an option where at least most of us survive?"

Alun looked angrily back at Wledig and replying equally angrily said.

"Mr Wledig, this is your safari, you brought us here, you should be leading, not asking for suggestions. However, as you asked, I will tell you. After we see what the present plan regarding the shuttlecraft produces, we bring the starship overhead and use the shuttlecraft to transport everyone save yourself, Grimes, me and six of your pirates. The shuttlecraft can then transport us to the waterfall, we must be able to find some place to hover, even if it is over the river, to allow us to bail out and investigate the waterfall. The shuttlecraft can wait for our return, if it is the Myrddin falls, then we can proceed from there, if not, then the shuttlecraft should be able to hover just above the water to allow us to get back in."

It was just then that the shuttlecraft arrived and Wledig explained the plan to the pilot. The craft proceeded to fly low over the ground, almost brushing the vegetation while dodging any of the trees, which inside the defile were few in number. As it climbed away to prepare for another pass, the pirates blasted the vegetation with their plasma weapons, however, no natives were to be seen or heard. When the shuttlecraft climbed after it final flight through the defile, Wledig turned to Alun and screamed in rage.

"Captain, you delayed us for ten minutes, if the natives were chasing after us, they will have caught up with us by now, thanks to your fool ideas."

However, Wledig did order the shuttlecraft to recce the waterfall, to see if there was a large enough area for it to land securely. After the shuttlecraft had flown on towards the falls, Wledig urged his safari on. With him leading as before, with Grimes harrying the slower members from the rear, the safari made good progress through the defile and was soon walking along the now familiar animal track with the jungle close in around them. They were now approaching hill country, the land rising, the rain forest turning in to forest where the humidity was much less. Just five minutes after they had entered it, as unknowingly they drew nearer and nearer to the native's village, the natives watching fearfully as the intruders approached, two of the crew once again in the lead, cutting away any overhanging undergrowth.

Arthfael was no longer afraid of the flying demons, for they did not kill, they only shrieked and broke the branches of the tree. His tribe had a real weapon, their poison darts, they would go to war with the intruders. He smiled as the intruders walked out of the defile, they had thought that he had lain in wait for them there, but no, and it was now that the Ordovices launched their attack, when the intruders felt safer.

At the front of the column, three pirates cried out in surprise, for there were small darts sticking out of their necks, then the pirates fell to the floor, two more followed at the rear of the column. However, the pirates then turned their plasma weapons on the natives, taking out the next three natives who had exposed themselves as they prepared to send a silent dart winging its way towards the intruders. Alun scooped up a fallen plasma pistol and moved forward with Jonah Smart, who had run forward, now at his side, and he too now held a plasma pistol. Their attack on the natives' position took Arthfael by surprise, for he was still cowering behind a tree, away from the terrorising explosions all around him. The first he knew of their attack was when Alun clubbed him with the flat of his machete blade, seconds later Smart killed a fleeing native. However, Alun did not get to use his weapon, for the natives, after witnessing the loss of so many members of their tribe, and of their chief who they believed to be dead, either ran or surrendered.

Although the victor in this short battle, Wledig looked to be very angry as he advanced upon the cringing natives, it was all he could do not to order all of their deaths there and then. However, he knew that he needed information from them, so he grabbed a hold of one of the natives and began to interrogate him. "Where is the land of Caerfyrddin, tell me or die?" He asked in the ancient language of Wales.

The native looked up at Wledig, both in fear and puzzlement, until his brain fought its way through the all-consuming fear and finally deciphered what Wledig had said, and then he pointed northwards and said. "Caerfyrddin, Caerfyrddin."

Wledig sneered at the native and said to him. "You will be our guide, if you do well, I will reward you."

The native shrank back and cried out fearfully. "No, Caerfyrddin is the land of the Demetae, they will kill me if I trespass upon their land, for I am of the Ordovices."

"You will guide us or I will kill all of your tribe, right now." Wledig threatened loudly.

It took a moment for the native to get the gist of the threat, but finally he did and he nodded his acceptance, however, he added a further warning. "Beware, they have a Dryw with them, he too has a weapon of the gods."

The name Dryw is the ancient welsh name for a priest and the native meant that he was druid, as Wledig knew. However, if he had a plasma weapon, Alun realised that he could be behind the sabotage of his starship.

Wledig had decided to allow Alun and Smart to keep the plasma pistols, with five of his men dead he was in need of replacement warriors. He also decided that the natives could help carry Alun and Jonah Smart's loads plus some of the loads being carried by his porters, so he rounded up the six men who had not escaped back to their village and pressed them in to service. One of them was Arthfael, who seemed very disgruntled at being forced in to women's work, as he saw it. However, with the plasma pistols, or again as he saw it, the weapons of the gods, always in the hands of his captors, to complain or attempt to escape, for the moment, would be foolish, for it could easily result in his death.

Alun took the opportunity to call the starship, to update them on the progress the main party was making, and to check on how things were back at the starship. All was fine, however, Chief Engineer Lance was interested when he heard that the number of pirates had decreased by five, for he had plans of his own.

It was now that the shuttle pilot, engineer Cummings, called Wledig on the radio, incidentally, Cummings, unknown to anyone, was the saboteur. "We cannot land anywhere near to the falls, and to land or return aboard the shuttle would give clear targets to any waiting natives, if as before they were waiting there for you. Also, initially there would only be a small number of men on the ground, or in the water, they would be too tempting a target for the natives to pass-up."

Wledig agreed with the summation made by Cummings, for this had crossed his mind when Alun had first raised the subject. However, Alun was thinking more of his own people, for to do it his way, then only the pirates would need to show themselves, once they had reached the falls.

The march went on all day and when night fell, and it came down very quickly, guards were posted and after everyone had eaten, the lucky ones went to sleep. The pirates had groundsheets to sleep upon and waterproof sheets to cover them. The crew used one of the waterproof sheets that they had brought from the starship to cover the ground and to hang from the trees, covering them, so that if it rained, they would not get wet. They spent most of the night completed covered by their sheets, so as to keep the many insects away from their bodies.

The six natives who were now captives were filled with anger at their treatment, but what could they do, for their hands had now been bound behind his back and creepers used to tie them to the nearby trees. Arthfael had a sharp piece of obsidian secreted between his bound hands and he used it to cut his hands free and then to cut through the creeper that bound him to the tree. After freeing the others, he told them to wait their opportunities, then when the guards' attention was elsewhere, he ordered four of his men to slip away. Finally, only the guide and Arthfael remained, and before Arthfael left, he told the guide, Adeon, that he must stay behind, but he left him with instructions on what he must do the next day.

The first thing that Arthfael decided upon when he returned to his village was to move his people to their winter quarters, one month earlier than planned. Only then would their families and elders be safe from the intruders. As for his warriors, it was time for them to revenge their fallen friends, this time victory would be theirs.

Wledig was angry to see his new porters gone and he blasted the guards as incompetent fools, however, at least their guide had been too fearful to leave, after Wledig's threats of extreme retribution. Once they had finished their breakfast, they started again upon their quest, Alun and Jonah Smart once again carrying a heavy pack. Adeon took them along much easier trails now heading towards the wide river and its massive waterfall. It was towards evening, as the light began to fade, that they approached a treeless plain with tufts of grass growing in it intermittently. The insects had increased in number here, making everyone spend more time swatting at them and less time on looking around them. Wledig decided that they would camp in the middle of the plain, away from any chance of a surprise attack from the natives.

Arthfael and his warriors suddenly appeared at the edge of the tree line, which was over 600 feet away from the safari, they were after their revenge. They immediately made their presence known to the intruders by emitting terrifying screams, these were followed by the warriors throwing wooden spears, some tipped with obsidian, some hardened within a fire. They used spear throwers to increase the killing distance, the spears winging their way towards the intruders. Wledig, with his fellow pirates, the crew and the clerics, reacted just as Arthfael had expected, they all hurriedly moved away from the line of march, crouching down as the pirates prepared to return fire. It was now that Wledig found out that Adeon had deceived them, for his foot disappeared through the tall grass and in to a thick grasping bog, fear filled his mind as he struggled in vain to escape from the glutinous clutches of the bog, making him sink all the faster. All around him he heard cries for help as the rest of the safari discovered that they had been led in to the middle of the evil bog. Wledig, his balance thrown for the moment, his attention all upon regaining it as he began to sink further in to the mud, experienced a moment's numbing fear as he realised that the thick mud did not want to release its hold upon his boots. Looking about him, he saw that the rest of the safari was experiencing similar problems, and it was now that Adeon slipped hastily away. Arthfael and his warriors sensing victory, sent more spears winging their way towards their enemy, which they saw was panicking as fear drove away all reason.

Alun, on hearing the screams coming from the natives, had turned, and on seeing the spears flying through the air, kept one eye on the spears coming his way and one on the natives. Alun quickly deduced that none of them would strike him so he dropped his load and pulled out his plasma pistol and fired at the attackers, the high-pitched whistling of his weapon's energy bolts bringing fear to the natives' hearts. His energy bolts were followed by others, sent by Jonah Smart and Grimes whose boots were not in the grip of the bog. Alun knew that his crew and the clerics were lost unless he got through the fear gripping the safari and he remembered reading an article about bogs and he now used the information within it.

"Everyone, listen to me, stop panicking now, throw your loads down to reduce your weight." Alun called out above the ensuing panic while continuing to use his plasma pistol with devastating results. "You will not sink far, but you must stop panicking. If your shoes are stuck, try to take them off, if all else fails then sit down, then lay down, you will not sink then, you will float on the top of the soil. Only then will you be able to regain the track which, in any case, is not far away." Alun instructed loudly above the deafening whistling of the plasma bolts heading towards the natives. "Jonah and I will keep the natives off you, and anyway, very few of the first salvo of spears managed to get anywhere near us."

One spear however, had, it was protruding out of the dead body of one of the curates, its obsidian head cutting deeply in to the unfortunate cleric's chest. Most of the safari heeded Alun's call to stop struggling and to put their loads down, even Wledig heeded his advice, even more thankful now for not disarming him. However, Samson and the two remaining curates did not stop struggling against the bog, and they had to be helped by the crew or the clergy, who were already slithering back to dry land. This meant that the pirates, who had by now pulled out their plasma weapons, could put their minds to repelling the attack upon them. The multitude of energy bolts soon reminded Arthfael of their danger, and he and the natives quickly disappeared in to the woods, for the intruders were too far away to be able to use their poison darts upon them.

The battle was soon over, with the loss of just one man, the curate, however, the natives had lost ten warriors, far too many, and Arthfael decided against attacking the intruders again, no, their near victory had been snatched away by one of the intruders, obviously a great warrior, as he had not shown fear at the bog. In any case, he had another idea, one which would not endanger his warriors.

When finally, the safari had reached a solid piece of ground, then rescued the abandoned loads, they carefully backtracked to a safer area of ground, whereupon, Wledig complained.

"We are lost Grimes," he complained, "how the hell do we quickly get back on track?"

It was Alun who supplied the answer. "The ship knows the location of the river and the falls, and when we contact it, it will know the direction that we have taken. We have only walked some thirty odd miles, with this information it should be easy for them to give us the correct direction to take so that we can find the river, then all we have to do is follow the river upstream to reach the falls?"

Alun and his crew buried the curate, with Tarisman praying for his soul. With so much time lost and night approaching, Wledig decided to camp for the night. Fires were quickly built and they used the flames to warm their bodies, dry out their clothes and also to keep away any nocturnal carnivores. Dinner was a quiet affair for the crew and the clerics; however, the pirates went over their latest victory against the natives, and this time, one they had accomplished without any loss of life upon their part, the cleric they dismissed as an inconsequential porter.

After three more days of trekking, finally, the river came in to sight, one day later and they could hear the roar of the waterfall and it was now that Arthfael tried again for his revenge, this time though he would use the Demetae and their Dryw.

**********

The land of the Demetae stretched from the other side of the river until it met the land of another tribe, some ten days' march away, however, they had also laid claim to the waterfall. It was here that the Dryw with his minor priests set up their camp. The Dryw was named Bailey, he was from Earth originally, many years ago, today he was leading a ship full of pirates, he had arrived three days prior to Wledig. Rose Bailey, a member of Wledig's crew, was Bailey's cousin and two months before she had told Bailey about the quest that Wledig and Grimes were upon. Rose had sent her cousin the coordinates of Pen Draig after Alun had discovered them and Bailey had immediately set course for the planet. His vessel being much closer had allowed him to arrive on Pen Draig, find the waterfall and subdue the natives using his shuttlecraft to great effect by landing in the middle of the village of the Demetae at midnight. His starship was parked on a nearby ice moon, here it would stay until he called for it. To announce his arrival to the natives he had played music, loudly, waking the natives who had rushed from their huts with their weapons ready for use. Instead of killing them, Bailey gave them gifts made of a wonder material, steel; the gifts were knives, axes and hammers. They provided them with one other gift, a longbow made from the local wood, with hemp for the string and arrow heads made of obsidian, which the Demetae had in plenty. He had decided upon this plan of action after he had learned that his competitor had landed on Pen Draig. Rose had been one of the pirates who had been left behind on the starship. Four days after the safari had set out, it was her turn to man the communications centre from sunset until dawn, and as Alun spoke to Trance every evening, she knew that the safari had reached the river and would soon be approaching the waterfall. She dutifully told Bailey this during the night, when everyone else was asleep and he in turn spoke to the Demetae.

Using sign language, Bailey managed to talk to the natives, telling them that strangers were coming to defile their sacred place, he accomplished this by drawing pictures on the ground and he managed to convey to them his plan for the capture of the safari led by Wledig.

However, Bailey also wanted Alun, alive, for although he had found the vault, neither he nor his crew had been able to discover how to procure entry in to it. They too had belatedly heard that Alun was a very able starship captain, via Rose Bailey, one who was very adept at solving any problem put to him. He also decided that he would also take possession of the starship that Wledig arrived in, to use for his return journey to the planet of Lymph, which he and his crew used for R&R. As for his beat-up old freighter, it too was in need of replacing and would be left on the moon where it would be battered by meteors until it fell apart.

It was now that Arthfael sent warriors to light large fires on his side of the river, near to the falls, to tell the Demetae that someone was on the river border of their land and that they could be a threat to the sacred vault of Myrddin which both tribes revered.

Chapter Five

The Vault of Myrddin

Wledig led his safari along the river bank towards the Myrddin waterfall, and it was here that they came upon the first of a long line of smokey fires set along the banks of the river. His first thought was that they were there for some ritual, then he wondered if the Ordovices had lit them to warn the Demetae of his arrival at the river boundary. Thankfully, he thought, the Ordovice did not attempt to launch another attack upon them and all seemed peaceful, even his porters were beginning to feel excited. To the North a range of snow-capped majestic mountains marked the end of the forest, it was from this mountain range that the river flowed down from, gathering strength as it did. The tops of the mountains had been visible for some days, peaking over the trees of the forest, but so far away were they that the safari never did get a clear sight of their flanks or foothills.

As they trudged further along the river bank, they heard the faint sound of falling water, which grew the further north they walked until it became a roar as millions of gallons of falling water crashed down to the water below and sped towards them. The safari finally caught sight of it and even the pirates were left in awe of the beauty of the Myrddin falls.

When the safari finally reached it, the clerics and the crew were ordered to wait behind, this part of the safari was to be left unguarded, as Wledig had lost too may pirates to the natives' initial attack. Jonah Smart stayed with the crew and the clerics, and he had his plasma pistol out, ever watchful for an attack upon them by the natives. Alun instructed him to take this group up to the top of the falls and to find a defensible area. He gave Thelma his pistol to assist Smart, fearful that he would return to find many of them had been killed by the natives.

Wledig had left seven of his crew on the side of the river belonging to the Ordovices, six pirates were sent to watch the land on the other side of the river, the land owned by the Demetae. Wledig then led the way along a narrow track that took him behind the falling torrent of water, with him were Grimes, Samson, Bishop Tarisman and Alun.

Behind the waterfall they found a small cave, entering it they found that a wide tunnel led off it, initially it led them up a slight incline for ten feet. It was dark within this part of the cave system; however, the pirates had come prepared, they each pulled out a strong flashlight and they now turned them on. The tunnel now dropped down for 200 feet, leading them in to a massive underground chamber, one that had been made by the river water seeping through the limestone rock. Inside they were amazed at the sight that met their eyes, large stalagtites hanging down like massive spears with stalagmites rising from the ground to meet them and an underground stream flowing for miles from beneath the Caerfyrddin mountains, a name given to them by Wledig, and out to provide a constant supply of fresh water to a large lake where the Demetae had their village. At the far side of the chamber they saw an open doorway that seemed to lead in to a large lit room, they moved across to it, their attention concentrated upon it rather than the dark recesses from which other tunnels led down in to the depths of Pen Draig. They found the door had been wedged open to stop it closing and trapping them inside, which meant that they would not suffer the fate of the Cardigan team.

Hidden in the shadows, down one of the hidden side tunnels, and away from the lit room, the Demetae waited, with them was Bailey and twenty of his pirate crew. As Wledig led his small party in to the room, Bailey led his pirates forward behind them. With their plasma pistols out and aimed on the backs of their competitors, Bailey announced their presence.

"Drop your weapons, all of you, or die now." Bailey ordered, amazed that Wledig had entered the cave with so few people.

All five men turned around to see twenty-one plasma pistols aimed at them, those who were armed gently put their weapons down on the floor, for what else could they do. Wledig swore and said.

"Bailey, how did you find your way here?"

"It was quite simple, one of your people is loyal to me, I always knew where you and what you were planning to do. Using this knowledge, I knew that you intended to hijack the captain's vessel and I was able to bribe one of the captain's crew. He was meant to sabotage his vessel and stop his arrival at your clapped-out freighter, unfortunately, the captain and his engineer managed to overcome everything that my man threw his way."

"Then why are you still here, don't tell me, let me guess, having got here, you find that you cannot get in to the vault." Wledig sneered.

"I have tried everything to lower the force-field, nothing makes the slightest impact against it." Bailey said angrily.

"Maybe you should have used your head against the force-field, it certainly would not have damaged it any more than it is already." Wledig sneered across at his captor.

Alun moved away from his group to look around the room, four plasma pistols following his every movement, the pirates having been ordered to allow him some freedom of movement prior to his arrival. All around the walls of the room there were pictures showing views of many other planets. One showed a man in prayer, and the longer he studied this picture, the more he felt at peace here, even the roar of the falls was muted, and then the words of an old song entered his mind, 'nice and easy does, ever time'. Alun smiled, this was not a force-field protecting a vault, it was something much more interesting, however, he could not guess what they would find once they had passed beyond the energy field. He decided to interrupt the angry exchanges between the pirates that had been raging all the while that he had been enchanted, by the room and its pictures.

"Gentlemen, you have been using brute force against what you all thought was a force-field, and one that was manufactured by a people whose technology was far in advance of our own. You should have used your brains." Alun said and walked across to the energy field.

His words had caught their attention, and everyone looked at him waiting for him to continue. However, Alun simply leant against the solid force field, his arms up and at an angle, as one of the statues in one of the pictures was doing, then he closed his eyes, wiped his mind clean of every thought and waited. It was now that he felt a tingle over all of his body, he suddenly realised that his body was moving and ten seconds later the movement stopped.

He opened his eyes to find himself standing within another room, however, it was a very empty room, lit by, what by Earth standards would be, a 40-watt bulb. The air smelt musty, as if he were in a very old church whose doors had been kept tightly shut, or a very old second-hand book shop. There were no pictures upon its walls, nothing what so ever. The only sound was the hum of the environmental unit pumping air back in to the area around this room as it readied itself for its new inhabitants. Then a voice spoke to him from an ancient speaker set in to the wall.

"Welcome Alun Reece, you have proved yourself to be a worthy successor to Myrddin and Arthur."

Just then a small round table rose from the floor to stop at waist height, upon it was a very modern looking plasma weapon, the voice now continued.

"Your erstwhile captors will soon be arriving her, once they have figured out how you passed through the energy barrier. Their weapons will not function, however, your one does, it is set on its lowest setting so you can easily take them out without having the stain of murder upon your soul. Then we can continue our talk."

It was then that the pirates began to arrive in the room, followed by Bishop Tarisman, their eager faces quickly clouded over, for not one of them had expected to find this awaiting them. Alun was the first to move, he picked up the plasma weapon before him and shot Wledig, Bailey and Grimes first, then while the pirates attempted to make their own plasma weapons function, he took out the other pirates, this time with the weapon set on a wide beam, otherwise they might have rushed him before he had finished taking them out. That left just him and Tarisman standing. Alun headed for the doorway, through which he could see an equally dimly lit corridor. The first thing that he noticed were the windows, or that is the views through them, and it was obvious to Alun that they were all in space. Moving quickly to the nearest window, he saw that they were in fact on a space station, and the space station was in orbit around an earth-like planet. He scanned the parts of the space station that he could see through the window, however, nothing was moving outside, or, from what he could see through the windows on another section of the station, inside either, the space station appeared to be abandoned. He then spoke to the voice.

"What happened to Professor Cardigan and his team, they arrived in the cave some 100 years ago?"

"From the records that I found when I arrived here, it seems that they were given twenty hours to find a way through the energy field and then they were released. If they never returned to your people then I assume that the natives of this land either killed or enslaved them."

Tarisman was looking a might confused so Alun quickly brought him up to date, then Alun asked the voice.

"Is this all there is, surely there must be more or why bother to keep the matter transporter in working order, this station looks and feels as if it has been empty of people for eons?"

Silence greeted his question.

**********

With Bailey and his pirates no longer in the cave, for they had all gone through the wondrous wall, the Demetae streamed out of the cave to look upon the two groups of pirates guarding the two river banks, these strangers were not protected by their Dryw, they were fare game. They first went to the ones on the side of the river where their territory began, and then sneaking up on the pirates quietly from behind, they launched an attack, not using their bows, but the quiet, but deadly, poison darts. This time the poison was quick acting, and seconds after the pirates felt the sting of the darts, all the pirates had slumped to the ground dead. Then they moved to the other side of the river and seconds later, unknown to him, Wledig had lost all of his people except Grimes and Samson, who were with him.

**********

The space station was being dragged slowly towards the planet that it orbited by the gravitational forces of the planet, although it would be safe for another couple of years. The power to station's thrusters were only now operating at their minimum setting in the main computer's bid to keep the station operational until such time as it was refuelled. Alun decided to make a hurried inspection of the empty space station, to see if there was anything of value there, but he found that those parts that were accessible had been stripped bare of everything apart from the device that brought them here. How long ago this had been done, neither of them could guess, however, Alun thought that it could have been hundreds of years ago, maybe more than one thousand years. It seemed that the Seeders had decided to move elsewhere, if in fact they were the original occupants. He called out again to the voice.

"I need to return to Pen Draig, my crew are depending upon me to get them back to our vessel."

Tarisman agreed with him and he began to walk back to the portal and when they neared it, a bright light filled the room and the pirates en-masse disappeared, transported back to the room behind the waterfall.

"What have you done to them." Alun demanded to know.

**********

The trip through space awakened the pirates and finding themselves back in the chamber, they hurried back up the long slope and in to the outer cave, happy to be away from the empty space station. Then, the energy field suddenly blinked out for a second, due to its lack of maintenance and then being used after being inactive for so long. This in turn caused a massive vibration that damaged parts of the outer cave, its ceiling collapsing around the pirates, burying five of the pirates alive. This disaster was followed by water from the river feeding the falls to flow down through a newly created hole in the roof. As the flood of raging water rushed through the outer cave, it washed five more pirates out in to the river. Here, they were pushed down to the river bottom by the force of the falling water and carried along by the current, never to be seen again.

The survivors of the ill-fated trip managed to climb out of another newly created hole, this one took them up to dry land, with just a trickle of water running down through it. On gaining the top, they found the angry Demetae waiting for them, having just killed Wledig's pirates who had been guarding the Ordovices side of the river. The anger of the natives was easy to explain, for they believed that the vault had been destroyed by the Dryw, so they launched their attack on this new enemy with all their might, the rage fuelling it making them fearless.

**********

On the space station, Alun and Tarisman were awaiting an answer to Alun's question, and the voice now responded to it.

"I have sent them back to the waterfall, they arrived safely, however, when they arrived, the transmatter machine winked out for a second and caused part of the outer cave to be destroyed, the machine must have been in need of a service after being inactive for so long. And before you ask, most of them should have survived, unfortunately, I have no way of knowing just how many."

"That just leaves you to send us back too, as I said before, my ship and crew are in danger every second that they stay on one very hostile planet filled with enemies.?"

"There is more for you to do Alun Creed, and to accomplish it you will need your ship and crew. Therefore, I will send you back to save them before anything else happens to them. When you are standing back on your bridge, I will send you on the next leg of your voyage."

**********

Taken by surprise, by the voice's words they were already unbalanced, mentally, therefore, Alun and Tarisman almost fell over when they suddenly appeared in the large chamber, they found a powerful flashlight laying upon the floor, luckily, it was already switched on, and Alun supposed that the voice had supplied it. Using it they were able to find their way back to the outer cave. Behind them the energy field registered another traveller following on behind them, then it collapsed, the vault of Myrddin was no more.

As for the pirates, many more of the pirates died in the battle that ensued their arrival back at the waterfall, natives and pirates were strewn across the small battle field, the pirates who still survived were panicking, fear filled their hearts, confusion filled their brains. Alun and Tarisman now appeared atop the broken cave and seeing the chance for his crew to escape, Alun fired at Wledig, stunning him. Grimes had already fallen to an arrow through his heart. Alun blasted a tunnel through their attackers and led Tarisman to safety, he did not see a stranger following on behind him, for he was invisible and he was killing any native that posed a danger to Alun.

Bailey, on seeing them escaping, made to follow, but a well-aimed arrow through his heart killed him, he fell on top of the native that moments before he had killed. Not long after, what remained of his pirate crew either died in the final assault, or were taken prisoner. They stood terrified upon their exposed position atop the broken cave, their weapons discarded upon the ground, their new masters, angry and cruel rushed to bind them. They were led away towards the native village where they would live out the remainder of their lives as slaves. Their plasma pistols were collected and deposited in the cave behind the waterfall, an apt gift to their god, their high priest had thought. Maybe it would be enough to soothe the anger of their god, make him forget about the destruction of his vault and once again have him look favourably upon his people.

**********

Alun and Tarisman escaped from the small battlefield and found their waiting crew and clerics on a small treeless hill where they were greeted by Jonah Smart, his pistol grasped firmly in his hand and expecting an attack at any moment from the natives. With the weapon that Alun possessed their situation was a little safer, and with everyone still alive, apart from the one cleric, Alun called his chief engineer and told him of the fate of the pirates. On the starship things had also changed, the crew who had remained aboard her had taken back their vessel, the cook having drugged the eight pirates, who were locked away in an empty room. Trance was now up on the bridge of the starship, and on hearing the good news, Alun ordered Trance to lift off and fly to the falls and before they were attacked by the natives. Once the starship was there, hovering over the riverbank, the crew were brought back to the ship in the shuttlecraft, unopposed, for the sight of the starship frightened both men and animals well away from the falls.

Back on board the starship, Alun thought about the cost of the trip, financial, the time wasted and more importantly, the lives lost, both those of the pirates and the natives, and not to forget the one cleric, Bartholomew, who had also died and what for. The ancient device was no more, the natives would never put their trust in humans ever again and the Church had lost as well. It would take time for the Church of the Universe to put the Archbishop's bad decision behind it, that is, if it was only that, a bad decision.

Suddenly, the voice from the space station spoke from their communications centre. "You are all safely back then Alun Reece, then I will take you on your next leg of your voyage, to the planet Chryste. You see Captain, your starship arrived here at a most opportune moment, my people need you to help us save one of our scientists, he has been working on the planet Chryste in secret. Unfortunately, my people do not have a spare intergalactic starship available."

As the voice spoke, their starship rose up from the surface of the planet Pen Draig, causing consternation amongst the bridge and the engineering crew. Assuming correctly that the voice was taking them up in to space, Alun called out to it.

"Wait, whoever you are, we need to fill our water tanks, take us over the nearby ocean and allow us to fill our tanks there." Alun asked.

The starship stopped ascending and flew out across the ocean, when the voice considered the time was right, the starship began to drop until it was just fifty feet above the water, then a hose dropped down from it and the environmental computer was activated. Water was pumped up in to the near empty water tanks until they were full, then the pump turned off. With this, the starship continued its way up through the planet's atmosphere and in to space. Nothing the chief engineer or Alun could do seemed to work; the owner of the voice had somehow taken over its controls. He now spoke again, meaning to delay Alun from attempting to get the starship back under his control. He knew that while he had Alun at a distinct disadvantage, he believed him to be a very capable man, one who could thwart his own plans, given the chance.

"Alun Reece, please listen to me why I explain to you why I need your starship." A tall young man said via their communications system. Although no one could see him, he was standing at the entrance to the bridge, wearing a lightweight space suit. This way he could speak in to an internal microphone without anyone knowing just where he was standing.

Alun looked around the bridge for some trace of the alien, but there was no sign of anyone, but then he could have been anywhere upon the starship. If they could have seen him, they would have thought him to be human, another pirate wanting their ship for his own purposes.

"Where are you, and how did you manage to get aboard my starship." Alun demanded angrily. The plasma pistol was back in his hand and it was aimed at the door to the bridge, for this was where he imagined the stranger to be, and he was spot on.

"I used the remaining energy at the complex behind the waterfall to transport me here, Alun Reece, you have nothing to fear, I will not harm you or your crew in any way. The stranger said ignoring the pistol. Not everything that he had said was true, he had entered the starship through the emergency airlock in the environmental department, having travelled to the starship in a small craft of his own. This craft had been stolen from the planet Chryste, some upgrades made to it to make it useful to a space pirate and it was currently attached to the upper hull of the starship.

"Just call me Alun, whoever or whatever you are, okay, or Captain Reece, I do not mind which." Alun said. "I know that you will not harm my crew, because if you attempt to, then I will destroy this starship rather than allow you to use it. Do you understand?"

The alien smiled. "Captain Reece, put your weapon down, it is of my own manufacture, and even if you could see me it could not be used against me. Oh! And you may call me Hereweald. Captain, you will not be able to resume control of your starship until after we reach our destination, my computer is controlling everything aboard your vessel." The alien said in a confident but pleasant voice, leaving Alun to wonder what computer and where was it situated, in fact, it was aboard his small craft.

"Now to get back to business, Captain, this galaxy is in danger from an android race who have already taken over two planetary systems and are heading towards Pen Draig, via the inhabited planet of Chryste. The scientist in question is currently working on a way to scramble the electronic part of their brains in the hope of making them more peaceful. If he is captured Captain, it would give our enemy an enormous advantage, you must rescue him and take him to Earth. As soon as one of our starships is available, we will come for him. However, if he has already completed his task, then I will have it immediately installed on this starship. We can then assist the people of Chryste by immobilising their enemy."

Alun was as angry as he was puzzled. "Surely if it is so important to save your scientist, you should reassign one of your galactic starships. So, what are you not telling us?"

"We only have two such vessels and they are both so far away, and on other important missions. So, you see that we cannot do that, which is why I am here on your starship, asking for your help and understanding. Captain, please accept this very important fact, we are all heading for the planet Chryste where my scientist has his laboratory."

"Your people, are they the mythical Seeders?" Alun asked quizzically.

"Yes, we do go by that name, amongst others."

"I do not believe that you are telling us everything Hereweald, will you tell us a little more, such as what we can expect when we get to the planet Chryste?" Alun asked.

Hereweald thought for a moment and then said. "The situation is fluid Captain, the technology of the space fleet of Chryste is of a similar level to your own, however, the android's space fleet is of a superior nature, which is why they are pushing the battle line ever closer to the planet Chryste. I believe that we should arrive there with just hours to spare."

"Why did you not bring one of your starships with you when you came to our galaxy, to help out, surely the Seeders have ultra-modern starships? Alun enquired, not entirely trusting the alien yet, he could even be talking to a robot, a computer or even an android.

"I am in your galaxy strictly as an observer Captain, up until the arrival of the androids we had left your galaxy to develop without any further help from us. Unfortunately, many of the people in our government now want to keep it that way, they cannot see the possible future dangers presented by the androids, even our own civilisation could ultimately be in danger. Until we can win over the doves of our government, our scientist is the best hope for Earth to survive any future battles against the androids."

"Hereweald, this ship does not even have any weapons to defend us against a space pirate, let alone one of the most dangerous civilisations in the universe. We are wholly peaceful, built to allow one of the religions of our planet to visit other worlds and spread the message about our world's god." Alun protested.

"Yes, I did notice that your plasma weapon is defective, luckily, I brought along some robots that are even now repairing your weapon. Later, they will upgrade the defensive shields on your vessel. It will still not be enough against an android space cruiser, but it might help. I have also added the language of the planet Chryste to your data banks, that should make greeting them a little easier."

The crew looked on in fear, fear of losing their lives against a new enemy of Earth, fear of not even being allowed the right to choose to live or to die. Alun was also a little fearful however, he was used to danger, so he could deal with it. He wondered if another robot was controlling their vessel, one purporting to be organic, if so, whose side was it really on, the supposed people of Chryste, or an android or mechanoid race.

"I need to call the Church, to let them know that we are okay but will be delayed. I also need to speak to Admiral Jennings, to tell him about a new powerful enemy. Earth will need time to prepare its defences against such a ruthless civilisation, one intent on ruling the galaxy.

"Just send the one message to your admiral, he can decide whether to pass it on to the Church, send it on a narrow beam transmission and if possible, encode it. We do not want the androids listening in, they might just decide to bypass Pen Draig and head straight for Earth." Hereweald replied using fear tactics to get his way.

Alun agreed to this, although he still did not trust the alien, or everything that he had told them, however, if only part of it was true then Earth needed to know of this possible new and advanced enemy, one more powerful than they were. Twice now his starship had been highjacked, although this time he was in agreement with the alien who had taken over his vessel, yes, he needed to contact the government of Chryste, but it was vital to Earth that he help to rescue the scientist and his research. Once he arrived at the planet Chryste, he could ascertain what was true, find out how long the people could hold out, and then relay this information back to Earth for the government to decide on any future actions. First though, he asked Doctor Miles to see if any of his medical devices could find the alien and if so, could he check him out. Firstly, to see if he was an organic or an android or whatever, and secondly, so that they could track him and maybe take him out. Alun needed to know more about their guest, to this end he ensured that he or a senior member of his crew spent every minute talking with his guest, the lives of his crew could depend on what they learned about the alien.

Doctor Miles used a hand-held X-ray machine to secretly check out the entire area of the bridge. However, their unwelcome guest caught him at it, although he did not seem to mind, merely smiling at Miles, of course this was unseen by the doctor, moments later the hand device stopped working. Hereweald had jammed it with a device on his belt, just before moving his position. As he stood there, he asked the doctor if there was anything else that he needed?

"A blood sample would be nice." Miles replied, not at all bothered at being caught in the act, while looking rather annoyed at being stopped from completing his assignment. Miles pulled out a syringe from his bag and said. "Will you, or shall I?"

"Of course, Doctor, allow me."

The syringe shot out of the doctor's hand and unseen by anyone, Hereweald used it to extract some of his own blood, finally, the syringe reappeared on a work surface next to Doctor Miles. Just then John Trance called Alun on the intercom.

"Captain, I need to see you right away."

"I will be right there chief." Alun replied.

Alun turned to Jonah Smart and said. "Jonah, you have the bridge, I am going along to engineering, maybe Trance has thought of a way to return the command of the starship to its captain."

The business with the syringe had unsettled Alun, he needed time and space to think. On his arrival at the doorway to the engineering department, he found that all of the engineering section had been forced out of it. Trance, on seeing him, explained.

"The maintenance robots that your guest brought with him will only allow us to watch from here, they will not allow us to get any closer to them. They are all armed with a Taser weapon that they use whenever we get too close to them, they also have a defence shield, you can see it, do you see the shimmering that surrounds them?" Trance asked and when Alun nodded, Trance continued his report.

"I am able to follow what they are doing; however, I have no idea what they have done to our plasma cannon, but whatever it was, the cannon now works. They began to change the software just before you arrived, they also appear to be upgrading the link from the cannon to the Stardrive, it can only be to add more power to the plasma bolts."

"So, they are not harming the ship. Merely making much needed improvements. Chief, given the number of pirates that have hijacked our ship on its maiden voyage, that may not be a bad thing." Alun replied and then added. "Even so, we need to find a way to incapacitate them, unfortunately, their owner seems to be able to turn invisible. He also claims that that this plasma pistol will not harm him." Alun said taking out his plasma pistol. "Do I dare to try one of ours on him Chief? Up until now he has been polite, apart from taking over our starship, but how will he react to an outright challenge. Taking him and his robots out, if we decide to attempt it, will probably challenge you, me and Doctor Miles."

What Alun did not say, as the alien could be standing with them, was that they would have to try. John Trance looked up at Alun and gave the briefest of nods, hoping that Alun would interpret it correctly, for he understood everything that Alun had not said.

One hour later, Doctor Miles asked Alun to join him in the medical centre.

"He is human Captain, my mobile body scanner did manage to pick him up for a few seconds before he temporarily immobilised it, he could even be from Earth, he has the same organs that we possess and they are in the same place." Doctor Miles whispered and then went on to add. "Oh, you can speak without fear of our guest listening in on what we say Captain, just keep your voice down. I have set up the second of my mobile body scanners to notify me on my communications device, should he approach the medical centre. One other piece of good news, his blood is similar to our own, so Captain, we should be able to overpower him using a quick acting knock out gas, assuming that the blood he provided was his."

Alun smiled. "This is good news indeed Doctor, well done, however, I think that I will allow the alien to finish installing his modifications to our vessel before we attempt to take him out. We will need them if the android threat is real."

Later the next day, Alun asked John Trance to meet him in the medical centre, for only in this part of the ship would they be able to talk without the alien listening in, or so Alun hoped. When Trance arrived, Alun asked.

"Chief, have you discovered how to turn the maintenance robots off, time is short and we will soon have to go up against our invisible guest? If we succeed in taking him down, I do not want the maintenance robots stopping the ship in deep space and demanding that we reinstate the alien as commander of our starship."

"I am making good progress Captain, I reckon that we can complete our robot killer within two days, assuming that your invisible alien allows us to complete our work."

"Yes, I too wonder why he has not stopped you Chief, is he waiting until you are almost done before he steps in, is he only allowing you to work because he knows nothing will come of all your efforts. Is he merely allowing the clock to run down so that we do not have sufficient time to attempt anything else?"

They left it there and the next day space fleet contacted him, they acknowledged receipt of his message and requested that he do what he had already decided upon, to let Earth know the true situation in the sector of space that contained the planet Chryste. Unknown to Alun, Earth had despatched a space cruiser to confirm all that he had reported to them. Alun might have once been the best captain in the space fleet, but after losing his wife, his credibility had sunk to rock bottom. The space cruiser was brand new and he, at one time, had been scheduled to command her, now it was under the command of Captain Davis, one of Alun's oldest and trusted friends.

Alun was feeling better, although he did not have full command of his starship, the robots had performed wonders, repairing his plasma cannon and upgrading his defensive shields. They were now upgrading his engines to give him some sort of advantage over the androids, even if it was only flight. Although still only a non-combatant, his starship was now the most advanced one of its kind, not even the Planet Mazere had anything that could compare with it. Unfortunately, Alun thought, unless the modifications made by the alien were very advanced, one salvo from a space cruiser would probably completely destroy his new and shiny starship.

Alun decided to wait for three things to happen before attempting to take back control of his starship. Firstly, for John Trance to complete his task, one that would disable the maintenance robots. Secondly, for the robots to complete their work on his engines. And finally, for the alien wonder weapon to be installed and working on his starship, if it had been completed on their arrival at Chryste. Only then would the android threat be nullified, assuming that there was an android threat.

The following day, their long-range sensors found the planet Chryste, its planetary system appeared to be relatively quiet and they exited hyperspace at the edge of its small planetary system, speeding towards its only inhabitable planet.

"Mr Smart, turn off all active sensors, we do not want the locals to concern themselves with us." Alun ordered.

"Their fleet is probably fighting the androids; there will only be small interplanetary craft left in the system." Hereweald said.

"Even they could damage us, and I would expect that the locals will have already despatched one to see who we are, how do you want to play this?" Alun replied to the invisible alien.

"That this is an Earth ship on a voyage of discovery, that we only have a small offensive capability, for use against space pirates. That we request permission to land on their planet and meet with the authorities in order that we can speak to them regarding opening diplomatic relations between Earth and Chryste." Hereweald replied. "I will send a coded message to our scientist, but only once we are on the ground, and using the local technology so that there is less likelihood of their tracing it and believing us to be yet another enemy."

"If they give us permission to land." Alun said.

"They will, the chance to enlist the aid of a civilisation similar to their own will be too good to pass up."

"They may ask us to dock at their space dock, they do have one, I saw it on our active sensors before we switched them off." Alun replied.

"I do not believe they will, it will have been militarised, it will now be a top-secret installation, they will not want you seeing what work has been carried out there, not until they know you better."

"You may be correct, and by the way, here is our escort." Alun replied.

Two fast patrol inter-planetary spaceships were approaching, and the commander of the nearest vessel hailed them. "Who are you and what business do you have in our system?"

Alun was surprised to hear the request in English, but he managed to suppress it, remembering a second later that Hereweald had installed a translation program in to the computer banks, so he was able to reply in a calm voice.

"I am Captain Alun Reece commanding the civilian starship the Church of the Universe. We are from the planet Earth, and our purpose is to find new civilisations of a similar political make-up to our own. We want to join any such civilisations in peace and mutual defence, trade and space exploration. May we approach your home planet to meet with your government and open negotiations with them."

All the while Alun was speaking, the two local spaceships were scanning their starship, noting its defensive capabilities and anything else that their scanners could detect. The alien commander now answered.

"Proceed, Captain Reece, the authorities will be interested in learning just how you speak our language."

With that the transmission was terminated and Alun turned to Hereweald.

"Just how do I explain that, seeing as you want to remain incognito?"

"Captain, that is no problem, tell them that your planet despatched countless drones that searched the galaxy for inhabited worlds. They simply recorded the television programs beamed out by any such civilisation that they located. Your computers were soon able to provide you with an all but complete English-Chryste dictionary."

"As we are not androids, they may accept that, especially as they will want to enlist our aid in their war against the androids." Alun replied and then added. "I had better report in to Earth, to see how they want me to play this."

"Of course, Captain."

They were still hours away from Chryste when Earth replied. "Captain, find out who started the war, the reasons behind it and the level of technology both of the combatants have reached. Before we agree to anything, we need to know if they and the android race are ahead of us and how far. Finally, if the people of Chryste are losing the war, ascertain as to how long can they hold out. Captain, do not embroil us in a war, a space cruiser is on the way with an ambassadorial team onboard, they will conduct the final talks with the government of Chryste. Keep us fully informed, as much as you can, about the state of the war. Bear this in mind at all times, we cannot afford to lose the cruiser if the war is already lost, we will need it ourselves if the androids subsequently come after us."

Alun would rather have been on board the cruiser, rather than an ultra-large space yacht, which is how he saw his vessel. Also, he would have to speak to his officers, because their vessel could not be allowed to fall in to the android's hands. It would give away far too much information regarding the level of technology reached by Earth. It would also give the androids the exact co-ordinates of Earth and all of its colonies. These points had not been mentioned by Earth, however, he expected the space cruiser to order them home as soon as it arrived.

He met his officers in the meeting room of the starship, to issue his orders. With him were Bishop Tarisman, Jonah Smart, the two senior engineers, John Trance and Michael Patel and finally the two science officers, Alice Bridger and Mitchell Grant and one invisible alien. Also, there was Thelma Nolan, who he had asked to cut her rest period short so that she too could listen to what he and the other officers had to say. Although not a research vessel, it had been thought better to include the two science officers, their knowledge would be essential when dealing alien races, especially ones such as they had met on Pen Draig. If Wledig had used their expertise, he might not have lost his life and those of his pirates. Alun brought the meeting to order and then said.

"This meeting must be brief, for we are all busy with important tasks, you are all aware of the android threat to the planet Chryste, that the androids are also a threat to Earth is obvious. This means that if we are delayed here for longer than a couple of days, this vessel could be targeted by both sides, one to use it in their war, the other to capture it. Neither side can be allowed access to its computers, if the androids learned the co-ordinates of Earth and its colonies, they could easily be their next target." Alun then turned to the two science officers.

"Alice, Mitchell, devise a way to wipe all of the information contained on the computers, everything, if we are boarded one of you must ensure that this is done before you consider the risks to your own lives." He then turned to his two engineers. "John, Michael, if we lose control of the vessel again, this time to the androids, I need a way to destroy it at the press of a button, see to it, with the option of a time delay built in. Oh, but please ensure that the button cannot be pressed by mistake, because we need this vessel to get us the hell out of here." Alun then called out to their new guest, assuming that he was with them in the room.

"Hereweald, I said a couple of days, can you give us a more precise number?"

The alien had indeed followed them, his voice this time coming from the intercom. "My information is over a week old; however, the android fleet is finding the Chryste space fleet a tough nut to crack, assuming that this is still so, the androids will be here within seven of your days, maybe sooner. However, the scientist we are here to rescue may have finished his work, all we would need to do is to fit his weapon on to this vessel and attack the android fleet. If it works as well as we hope it will, then the android threat would be over." Hereweald replied. "If on the other hand we find that he still has much to do to complete his work, then it would be up to Earth. If it sent enough vessels to assist the Chryste space fleet without my weapon, I believe that the android fleet would retire to lick their wounds. Unfortunately, they would then return within five years with a much larger, and better armed, space fleet. Earth and Chryste would have to use the time to prepare their defences and increase the numbers of their own vessels to counter this threat. If my people do not intervene, I would be prepared to upgrade your technology so that the android threat was a thing of the past as far as your planet is concerned." Hereweald then added. "Of course, by then the new weapon should be ready for testing, if successful, it would stop the android threat in its tracks."

Alun did not reply, because he still did not trust the alien to keep his word or not to intervene at a critical moment that could be disastrous for the people of Earth. Alun returned to the bridge with Jonah Smart and Bishop Tarisman, the others left to carry out his orders, soon they would be approaching Chryste, this meant that they had to accomplish a lot before they went in to orbit around the planet.

When they arrived at Chryste, they found that it looked a lot like Earth, the colouring and the make-up of the land masses especially. There was a similar space dock in orbit around the planet and countless satellites. There escort now spoke again.

"Captain Reece, a shuttle is approaching your position, please go aboard it, it will take you and your party to meet a delegation from our government. Please do not bring any weapons with you, this would be considered an aggressive act and the meeting between our two worlds will be cancelled."

"It looks as if they do not see the need for us to land on their planet." Alun said to his officers on the bridge.

"It is of no consequence; I will travel down to the surface of the planet in their shuttlecraft." Hereweald said, assuming that Alun's comment had been intended for him.

This meant that someone would register his presence, for the shuttlecraft would be crowded, what with both the aliens and his people inside a relatively small vessel, Alun fingered a small tracer that he had Alice manufacture for just this reason.

Chapter Six

The Planet Chryste

Before they left their starship, Alun had Alice Bridger download the English to Chryste and vice versa translation program on to six small tablets owned by various crew members. Each electronic tablet had of course a microphone, and earpieces were attached to the tablets so that they would each be able to communicate with the aliens. They would hear the aliens, translated in to English, through their earpieces, while the aliens would hear them speak through a wireless speaker which Alun would place on a suitable place between the aliens and themselves.

Bishop Tarisman, Archdeacon Jerimiah Matlock, Alice Bridger and Thelma Nolan accompanied Alun, with Jonah Smart left in charge of the starship with instructions to not allow anyone else aboard it. Of course, Hereweald also accompanied the team as it was vital to him to travel down to the planet Chryste. They were met at the other end of the transfer tube and airlock by a Chryste officer and six troopers, who welcomed them aboard the shuttle. The welcoming party stayed with them even after the shuttle landed in the grounds of an affluent looking manor house, where they escorted them to a large meeting room where a dozen men and women were eagerly waiting to speak to them. The tall man in the centre of the group of the aliens, First Minister Ry'Cot, opened the proceedings in a grim tone.

"Greetings to our guests from the planet Earth, your arrival on our planet comes at the darkest of times, for we are at war with a race of androids that attacked us without any provocation. Our people are faced with the death of most of our people and the enslavement of any allowed to survive, quite possibly as future androids. It seems impossible to believe that we only heard about the android race days before they attacked one of our mining colonies in a planetary system 50 lightyears away from our world. The survivors of a similar civilisation to our own finally reached us in an assortment of starships, their arrival was just days before the war began. They told us of their own war, a very sad tale of death and destruction, and finally they told us to run, and to hide somewhere far away. We did not believe everything that they told us, surely their race must have done something terrible to incur such an evil response. However, their story could well have been a portent of our own future."

Alun's face had taken on a grave countenance as he listened to First Minister Ry'Cot and he replied in a similar tone to that of Ry'Cot.

"We are saddened to hear of this grave threat to your people, my government will wish to offer your people any medical aid that you require, and sanctuary of course. To offer anything more substantial, such as military assistance, they will need to know more about the android's technical level and that of your own. Only then can we evaluate the level of our response, whether we should wait to build up our own forces or, attempt to help you before the android fleet arrives here. We would also like to speak to the refugees that arrived on your planet from the last civilisation to be destroyed by the android civilisation."

"Normally we would never reveal the level that our technology has reached to a people that we have only just met, however, with defeat staring us in the face, I will have our science minister tell you whatever you need to know. In any case, the androids are well aware as to the level of our technology, they have had plenty of time to inspect our wrecked space cruisers." Ry'Cot replied looking across at the science minister of Chryste, Armen Rit. "As to the level reached by our enemy, I would say that they are only one generation ahead of us, definitely beatable if we had a larger force available to us, especially as their battle plans lack imagination."

Alun had another question for them. "Has anyone actually seen any of the androids, can you tell me if they resemble us or can you tell that they are obviously androids?"

"Their leaders did communicate with us via our communications system. They appeared both visually and audibly Captain, and yes, one can tell immediately that they are androids. Frightening to look upon, anything that was at one time was human, is now almost wiped away, only the monstrous is left to see, something that is reflected in their actions." Ry'Cot replied. "Why do you ask?"

"I asked because if they looked similar to us, then how would we know if a spy was in our midst, from your reply it seems that we would know immediately." Alun then went on to say.

"Time is always in short supply; we should speak to your science minister now and then report these grim findings back to my government."

And so it was, Armen Rit led them in to a side room where a computer screen took up most of a wall. In front of it were three rows of chairs and beside one was a computer module.

**********

Hereweald walked to a far corner of the room and began to speak in to his helmet microphone, which was now connected up to a small transmitter attached to his belt. Little did he realise that Alice Bridger, one of Alun's science officers, had found the waveband he used when speaking to them and now Alun was listening in to everything he said. Although he spoke in the language of the Seeders, Hereweald had input another dictionary in to the starship apart from the English to Chryste one, it was so that when he spoke to them, they could understand him, and vice versa. Alice had certainly not been idle on the journey to Chryste, for she had discovered this program buried deep within their main computer and Alun was able to use it. It meant that the translation was out of sync with Hereweald, but only by seconds. The bug that he personally had planted on the alien during their journey in the alien shuttle craft also meant that Alun knew exactly where he was standing.

"Professor Syne, please answer, it is Hereweald, I am on the planet Chryste, my starship is in orbit above the planet, even if the vessel is only of Earth origin."

Within seconds Professor Syne replied.

"Hereweald, I have traced your location, you are in the manor house owned by the First Minister. It is only twenty-nine miles away."

"Professor, do you have any transport?"

"Yes, but it is only terrestrial Hereweald, we must use a shuttle to transport my weapon up to your starship."

"There is a small shuttlecraft aboard it Professor, as long as we can obtain permission from the locals to use it, then I can easily get you aboard the starship with your research."

"Then do so Hereweald, but please hurry, for I have completed my research, I even have a working unit. We just need to assemble it on the starship and then connect it up to a Stardrive. We can then go to the battle zone and test it against the androids, if I am correct, they will not be able to defend themselves, they will be house trained before they realise just what is happening. If I am wrong, then we will need to refine my unit while the battle continues around us."

"It will work Professor, of that I am certain, and when it does their fleet will then be ours for the taking. From there, we can go on to bring the planet Chryste under the control of our new android army, then Pen Draig which is so rich in the crystals that power starships, then Mazere and finally Earth. Emperors Hereweald and Syne, rulers of the galaxy, it has a good ring to it, and we have that poor sap Captain Reece to thank for it, well him and the space pirates who found the message sent by the survivor of the Cardigan expedition. Their arrival at that actual time was perfect professor, it meant that we had an Earth starship to travel to Chryste in and it arrived just at the moment when you had not only designed your weapon, but had actually completed its construction."

Hereweald had been in contact with Syne during the trip to Chryste and so he knew exactly to what Hereweald was referring to in their conversation.

"Just as long as our fellow Seeders do not seek to discover why the portal on Pen Draig no longer works." Syne replied.

"They will not professor, they are too busy being isolationist to even notice that we have disappeared from the scene and that the Pen Draig portal no longer functions. And even if they did notice that the portal no longer works, they would not investigate it, they would be too busy looking deeply in to their minds to find their true self. I had better get back to the good captain, before he gets too confused, I will call you later today to update you on the situation."

Alun, having heard the conversation, now had proof that Hereweald meant to betray him and the people of Chryste, for the conversation had been recorded. Only the fact that both Earth and Chryste needed the weapon that his scientist had designed and which was now ready to be assembled, stopped him from shooting the alien. To have told Armen Rit everything could see them all imprisoned, far better to take command when the weapon had been fitted to his starship.

**********

Even though Hereweald had been gone for five minutes, Armen Rit had only just begun to give his report to Alun and his team. They believed from what they had learned that the technology used to build the Chryste space cruiser was of a similar level to that of Earth and Mazere. As for the android space cruiser, it was one generation in advance of all three, so of a better design but as Armen Rit explained, the captains aboard the Chryste space cruisers were destroying two enemy cruisers for the loss of one of their own. This was both good and bad because the android space fleet was three times the size of the Chryste space fleet.

"That sounds promising, if Earth and Mazere came to your aid we would be able to destroy their fleet before you run out of space cruisers. Armen, how long can your fleet hold out, Earth and Mazere are many days flight from here, even if they started now, it would be some time before they arrived?"

"In ten days, maybe fifteen if fate allows it, the android fleet will arrive above our planet, by that time most of our fleet will have been destroyed."

"Armen, I will contact Earth and tell them all that you have told us, however, when I have done so, I will need to see the battle first hand, do you possess a fast scout ship, one that could transfer me and my small team to one of your space cruisers. If Earth decides to send a fleet, they will want this information verified and also have a living android to interrogate." Alun had debated whether to risk using his starship or one from Chryste, he chose the latter as a strange starship appearing in the battle zone could see it fired upon by both sides. He also did not want his starship to be captured by the androids, for he did not know how long it would take for the Seeders weapon to be installed on his starship and time was of the essence. If it was installed before he had returned, John Trance could use his robot killer to take out the Seeder's robots and Doctor Miles could assist Jonah Smart in taking out Hereweald and his scientist friend. Then he could bring their starship to the scene of battle to defeat the android fleet. He was expecting a lot from his crew, but he reckoned on being back on his ship before the installation of the weapon had been completed.

Armen did not take more than a couple of seconds to answer his question, for he fully understood the need to travel to the scene of battle, and for a captive android. It was because neither race had even known about the other before today, trust had to be won, not freely given away to an alien race.

"I can arrange that Captain, one of our scout ships has just returned from a scouting mission, it can be ready to depart in an hour if need be. However, I think that only you should make the trip because it will be a very dangerous mission that you will embark upon, the rest of your party can remain here or they can return to your ship." Armen replied.

"It would be better if the two clerics remained here Minister, in that way they can learn more about your way of life and you ours." Alun suggested. "However, my two officers must return to my ship, not only to contact Earth, but to be there should an emergency arise."

So it was agreed, Alice and Thelma were taken back to their starship, where Thelma sent a message to the space fleet of Earth. The two clerics stayed behind on the surface of the planet to get to know its people. Alun was taken out to the nearby space port, which was set alongside one of the planet's oceans and once there he was escorted across to the scout ship. The crew were just arriving back and moments later Alun and the crew were walking aboard the fast scout ship, unknown to Alun, so was his invisible friend. Alun had made a bad mistake, he had assumed that Hereweald would be busy elsewhere, with his scientist, however, the alien now had very different plans to those that he had explained to Alun. He had responded to events rather than be left behind while sticking to the original plan.

Immediately on boarding the scout ship, Hereweald set off a stun grenade that knocked out the crew and Alun Alun's last thoughts as blackness overcame him was that he had badly under-estimated the alien for the bug that he had attached to the alien was still showing Hereweald to be back at the manor house. Hereweald went up to the small bridge and sat in the pilot's seat, after a quick check of the instruments, he was ready to lift off. Turning on the engine, he used the thrusters to lift off, then he took the vessel skimming along the coastline until he arrived at the secret laboratory. When he arrived, he dragged the still unconscious crew in to one of the cabins and welded the door shut with his plasma pistol, Alun he took to the bridge and tied him to one of the seats, he wanted to taunt him when he woke.

He left the vessel and walked quickly over to the door to the laboratory and putting his hand on to the plate next to the door, it slid open. Entering, he took of his space suit and walked along to the laboratory, inside he saw Professor Syne, who was looking across at him and smiling.

"You arrived just in time Hereweald, I have packed everything up, I am ready when you are."

"I have a local scout ship parked outside Professor, we had better load everything aboard before the locals come looking for their missing ship."

With that, Hereweald and Syne, with the help of the maintenance robots that the scientist used in his laboratory, carried the weapon out of the laboratory and loaded it aboard the scout ship. It took them ten minutes to carry everything in to the scout ship and then to place it near to where it would be fitted. Finally, they were done, and Hereweald was able to take the scout ship up through the planet's atmosphere and set it on course for the android fleet.

While Professor Syne installed the weapon, a simple task for him as he had built it to use the local technology allowing him to connect it to the Chryste Stardrive and the vessel's communication array. The weapon worked in two different ways. Firstly, the weapon could be used as a sub-space wave that allowed the user to hack in to the electronic parts of the androids' brains. The user could then make the androids docile, up until they were given fresh orders by the hacker, using the same wavelength to input the new instructions. Secondly, against a flesh and blood enemy, the weapon could take over the communications network of the victim and after changing the wavelength it became a powerful sonic weapon that could kill. While the professor was busy, Hereweald took the scout ship in to the battle zone, approaching it from the left-hand flank.

The Chryste starships were alarmed to see one of their scout ships approaching the enemy position as speed, they were amazed when the vessel was not fired upon, instead, the android starships initially took no notice of it. By the time they saw it as a potential risk, Hereweald had activated their secret weapon and proceeded to take out the nearest of the android ships, that although undamaged were left hanging in space, stationary and fully under his sole command.

He turned to look at Alun, who had finally woken up, gloatingly he said. "See how easy it was Captain, it falls upon you to witness my rise to power, my rise to become the Master of the Universe. Now you can watch as I kill the all of the crews aboard the Chryste starships, see it as a prelude to those of Earth and Mazere."

Hereweald then began to adjust the settings of his weapon, soon it would kill the crew of the Chryste space fleet, leaving the vessels for his new android army to commandeer them.

Alun had not been idle as he sat watching the alien take command of the android starships, he had found a small thin screwdriver laying near to him and used it to pick the lock that held the chains that bound him to the chair. Hereweald knew much, unfortunately for the alien it did not encompass padlocks, this one, Professor Syne had purchased on Chryste to secure the external store room. Throwing the chains from him, Alun rushed at Hereweald, who turned on hearing the rattle of the chains. The two men struggled, both of them were strong men, Alun fought dirty, his knee came up and crunched in to the alien's crutch. Hereweald screamed in pain but did not release his hold on Alun, instead he put his leg behind Alun's and pushed. Alun fell to the floor with a dull crash, Hereweald kicked him hard, his boot catching Alun in the side and hurting him and causing him to be rolled over on to his stomach. Alun used the momentum to push himself up against one of the consoles and was about to hit the alien when Professor Syne fired his weapon, the first shot missed but the second one stunned him and he fell to the floor unconscious.

The gaze of both of the aliens went from Alun's body to the console behind him, it was crackling with damaged electronic circuits and smoke was billowing out of a large hole in the console's front panel.

"You fool Professor, your first shot has probably destroyed the control console used by our weapon. Why did you use your plasma pistol, he could not have overcome the two of us?"

Professor Syne ignored Hereweald's words and rushed across to check on the control console, moments later he turned to Hereweald, his face telling his friend all he needed to know.

"It is even worse that what you think Hereweald, yes the console is badly damaged, but I believe that it might have shorted out the weapon itself."

Professor Syne moved across to a large unit set beside the communications centre, a smell of burning came from it and when the professor opened an inspection hatch, a thin spiral of smoke escaped from the unit.

Hereweald sat down at the communications centre and he sent a coded message to the android starships, he had ordered them to follow the scout ship to the planet Pen Draig. This he could do, but he could not order them to resume their attack upon the Chryste battle fleet, only his weapon would have allowed him to do that. Once they were near to Pen Draig, they would board the android cruisers, one by one, and manually hack in to their control computers. First, he would order the android crews to make certain alterations to their defence shields, for he felt that this would give them enough of an advantage to destroy the space fleets of three planets, ones that were on his list of planets to be enslaved, Chryste, Mazere and Earth.

His original plan must be delayed, he had intended to send one of the android starships back to their home world, where armed with Professor Syne's invention, it would capture any starships it found there. Then it would target the ruling body on the planet and bring it and the other androids there under the power of the two Seeders.

Professor Syne interrupted his thoughts, he had some bad news for Hereweald. "Hereweald, without certain items, ones that can only be found on a technologically advanced planet, I will not be able to repair the damage done to our weapon because of the earthman."

"Then we will return to Chryste with our upgraded android fleet and destroy their fleet. Then we can land on the planet and take whatever we want."

"When will the upgrade to the android defence shield be ready?"

"They can carry out any necessary repairs to their vessels once we have reprogrammed their computers, when we arrive at Pen Draig. Only when they are finally finished with the repairs, can they can then begin to carry out the upgrades to their defence shields. The upgrades themselves should only take them 48 hours. They will have to work full time of course, without a break while they complete the repairs and the updates, a total of almost 200 hours, a human could never manage it. However, it should not harm their circuits, and they can recharge their batteries and carry out any repairs to their circuits while we are on the return journey to Chryste."

The android fleet, together with their scout ship, were soon heading away from the Chryste space fleet, who were stunned by the strange events that had occurred over the last hour. The fleet commander despatched their fastest vessel to shadow the android vessels, he did not want them changing direction and attacking his planet, or his fleet which was now returning home for repairs. He was delighted for this delay could be enough to allow the space fleet of Earth to arrive, and maybe that of Mazere too, if they were despatched within the next 12 hours to help the planet of Chryste.

Unseen by the two aliens, Alun had recovered from the plasma bolt, which had been a low power bolt of energy, and he was listening to their conversation. He could see a cannister laying beneath the computer console, somehow it had rolled under it and had not been retrieved by its owned. It was a spray cannister of some sort, he realised that he could make use of it to regain control of the scout ship. However, it was a dangerous plan, for Hereweald still wore his energy weapon on his belt, as did Syne, he needed a diversion, it came when Syne noticed that they were being followed by another scout ship.

Alun stretched out his hand under the console and grabbed hold of the cannister, then he regained his feet and rushed the alien. As Hereweald turned towards him, Alun used the spray, its contents shooting across the space between the two men and hitting Hereweald in the eyes. As the alien screamed out in alarm, Alun pulled the alien's plasma pistol out of its holster and brought the butt hard down upon his head, stunning him.

Professor Syne cried out in alarm as Alun turned the weapon upon him and the alien shrieked in fear as Alun squeezed the trigger. An energy bolt shot from the barrel, flew across the room in a micro-second, making a loud but very short squeak as the air it encountered was destroyed. This was despite it travelling for only a micro-second, ending abruptly when it struck the scientist, stunning him. The professor slumped down to the floor unconscious, laying awkwardly, his backside raised up against the side of a console, his face on the floor.

Alun turned quickly back to check on Hereweald, but he too was unconscious, so Alun bound Hereweald's hands behind his back, using the alien's own belt. Then he dragged both aliens in the nearest cabin and proceeded to tie them much more securely, also making use of the chain and padlock to bind Hereweald's legs together. He then left the cabin and he also made use of the plasma pistol to weld the door shut to the metal doorframe.

He now had time to think and his first thought was to release the crew of the scout ship, when he explained all that had happened, they were very angry, especially their captain.

"If you knew that he had an invisibility device and that he meant to betray both of our worlds, why did you not inform us of his intentions when you met our government's ministers?"

"First off, he was invisible, so if I had attempted to betray him, he could have used his hand weapon on all of us. Secondly, and more importantly, our two worlds need his device to defeat the androids. Unfortunately, they damaged it when I stopped them from destroying your fleet. Thankfully, it was after they had immobilized the android fleet." Alun explained.

"I am going return you under arrest to Chryste, there you can speak to my superiors, you should prepare yourself to answer some very difficult questions."

"Captain, time could be of the essence, before taking me back under arrest, please contact your superiors, you must update them regarding the state of the android fleet, there is time now to destroy them, later, who knows."

On hearing the report, the authorities were also very angry with Alun, however, they agreed that the matter of the android fleet must come first. They sent their fleet to Pen Draig with orders to destroy the android fleet, while it was possible, for who knew just how long their conditioning would last. The scout ship was to continue on to Pen Draig and report constantly upon the state of the android fleet.

**********

Locked away in a cabin just behind the bridge, Hereweald and Syne woke up with headaches, and to find themselves tied with belts, chains and strips of bed sheets ripped up to bind various parts of their anatomy. Although Alun had searched their clothing for weapons, he had missed a small knife-blade that was hidden in the thick sole of one of Hereweald's shoes. After a struggle, Syne was able to pull it out and cut Hereweald's bonds, who then cut those binding Syne. Hereweald had no trouble with the padlock, opening even quicker than Alun had done. They listened at the closed cabin door to the conversation on the bridge, and they learnt to their delight that they were being taken back to Pen Draig in pursuit of the android fleet. During the flight, Professor Syne was constantly coming up with ways to overpower the crew, with Hereweald pointing out the dangers involved in each plan. They were approaching the planet when Hereweald decided to put his friend's mind at rest.

"Professor, we only need to cut our way through the locked door before we reach Pen Draig, my personal shuttle has latched itself on to this scout ship. It is camouflaged, which is why the Chryste spaceships did not see it when the Earth starship first entered their system. It is programmed to follow me wherever I go, a security measure that I have found invaluable when I outstay my welcome and need to leave in a hurry. Once aboard, we can then send a message to one of the android vessels to pick us up, then we can use their computer to order them to take us to the space station."

"Just how do we get aboard her Hereweald?"

"That part is simple Professor, we put on a spacesuit and walk through the main airlock, with luck we will be aboard her before they even realise what is happening."

"Then all we need to do is get out of here Hereweald, just how do you intend to do that, knock on the door and ask them to let us go?" Syne asked sarcastically.

"No, I do not think that they would allow us to leave, not after what we intended to do to their space fleet, we will just have to use what we have to hand."

Hereweald then removed his other shoe and extracted a small power cell, from his jacket pocket he took out an ornate biro. He then unscrewed the bottom and attached the power cell. Taking off the nib he revealed the cutting part of his mini-cutter, Syne looked on in amazement saying.

"You are simply outstanding Hereweald, but why did you not tell me that you had a mini plasma torch. It should make short work of the door, however, is it quiet enough to allow us out to escape from here without the crew hearing us?"

"It is all but silent Professor." Hereweald replied as he put his shoes back on. "Professor, will you listen at the door while I use my cutter, tell me if anyone approaches."

Professor Syne's duly took up position on one side of the door, his ear pressed up against it to listen out for any approaching footsteps while Hereweald began to cut the through the door, which in any case, was not a heavy-duty crash door. It was merely a privacy barrier made of a lightweight metal and only thick enough to make it suitable for a door. Hereweald sliced through the lightweight metal, cutting away the section that held the locking mechanism and within two minutes he had finished, luckily there had been no interruptions, for the crew were all at their posts. Then, after checking that the coast was clear, they made for the main airlock. Here they found two lightweight spacesuits, which they quickly put on and after connecting up an air tank, they opened the interior door of the airlock and walked inside.

**********

Up on the bridge of the scout ship, the bridge crew and Alun are watching as their space fleet attacked the android fleet, which in its passive state did not return their fire. Even as they watching the destruction of their enemy, Hereweald and Professor Syne have activated the exterior door of the airlock, unfortunately, the member of the crew responsible was watching the forward view screen, which was showing him that the danger facing Chryste would soon be no more. Leaving the airlock, they walked around the hull of the scout ship and were soon entering the small shuttlecraft belonging to Hereweald. He immediately turned on his communications centre and ordered one of the android starships to move towards the scout ship to allow his small shuttlecraft to enter their hanger. The order was hardly an important one, and so as the androids were in their passive state, they obeyed it like good little servants. The two Seeders were planning to enter hyperspace and head for the distant space station, where Hereweald thought they could find whatever parts Syne required to repair his weapon. It was now that ensign Li-Fat noticed the flashing light on his console, in panic he turned to his captain.

"Captain, the exterior door to the main airlock has been opened."

Captain Mur Lyn looked at his junior officer and ordered the airlock door closed. It was just as his 1st officer called across to him.

"Captain, one of the android cruisers is heading our way at speed." Jo-Han reported in his normal clipped tones.

"Move us away helmsman, evasion plan Delta 4, they are too powerful for us to play with."

"Captain, a small craft has suddenly appeared on our sensors, it was right above us, the android ship is not changing course to attack us, it is on a course that will intercept the small craft." Jo-Han said quizzically.

"Hereweald and Professor Syne must be aboard the smaller ship, they somehow escaped from their cabin and went out through the main airlock." Alun said angrily.

Jo-Han left the small bridge and returned seconds later and reported. "Captain, they somehow cut through the door and escaped."

Ensign Li-Fat now called out. "Captain, the smaller craft has entered the hanger of the android craft."

Aboard the android space cruiser, Syne was able to order the few remaining android vessels to raise their defence shields. This order coming from one of their own vessels the androids would be able to obey, even so, it took them valuable seconds to comply with.

"Captain, the android vessels have raised their defence shields, they have woken up."

"It is too late for them Jo-Han, we now outnumber them two to one and our plasma bolts are whittling them down even as we watch." Mur Lyn replied.

Moments later and the android space cruiser entered hyperspace and left the two fleets to battle it out alone, a battle that would soon be over leaving many shattered vessels littering the area of space around the planet Pen Draig.

Captain Mur Lyn turned to Alun. "Do you have any idea just what they will do, where they will go, now that their android fleet is all but destroyed and their weapon, which is on this vessel, is badly damaged?"

"What they will do Captain, I believe I can guess exactly what they will do, they will construct a second weapon and fit it on to the android vessel, then they will head for the android planet where they will use their weapon to take it over. You can expect them back some day, at the head of another android fleet, one armed with their weapon. Unless we can learn the secret of the weapon, they will use it to kill your crews and capture your cruisers undamaged, then they will enslave your people. Then they will head for Earth and Mazere." Alun replied grimly. "Captain, time is of the essence, your scientists must take the weapon apart to see how it works, it should not be too difficult, re-writing any damage to the software will be the hard part."

Mur Lyn looked in to Alun's eyes for a long moment and then nodded his agreement, he had seen the destruction of his worlds space fleet, felt the death of everyone aboard those vessels, the thought of another, stronger, enemy returning with plans to enslave his people was too much.

"Captain, first I need to return to the surface of Pen Draig, now, before your politicians look for a scapegoat. There might be evidence in what is left of Myrddin's vault that will point the way to the space station, because I believe that could be their destination. Captain, I also need my ship back, and its crew, if I am to go in search of our two escapees. I could also do with some of your marines, are there any aboard one of your cruisers. I will need them to keep the locals off my back while I am inside their vault."

Captain Mur Lyn contacted the commander in chief of the Chryste space fleet, Commodore Psymons, and arranged for Alun and himself to meet with him aboard the flagship. Alun once again explained to Commodore Psymons the danger posed by Hereweald and Professor Syne and what he wanted to do in an attempt to stop them.

Commodore Psymons did not reply; however, he did order the scout ship to return Chryste so that their scientists could attempt to learn its secrets so that they could defend against it, he also wanted to replicate the awesome weapon for use against the androids, should they return.

"Captain, you played a very lonely dangerous game when you went along with the two renegade Seeders. It could have gone very wrong, it didn't through sheer luck on your part, however, it must be said that the galaxy owes you a debt of gratitude. So, in the interests of galactic harmony, I will recommend that my government allows the starship, the Church of the Universe to return to Pen Draig. I will also recommend that it allow you to lead a party down to this vault of Myrddin, as you were able to get so much from your previous visit. In the meantime, you can rest up on my flagship while I speak to the president of Chryste."

Alun felt every second that past, for it gave Hereweald more time to reproduce his awesome weapon. And who knew how much time Hereweald required to complete it or, whether on assembling the necessary parts, if he would choose to assemble them on the android starship while it moved towards its home planet where, like a Trojan horse, it would gain entry in to their region of space and strike at them from within.

After many hours in deliberation, the government of Chryste finally agreed that his plan to return to the surface of the planet, while highly dangerous due to the locals and the state of the chamber, they felt that it was worth pursuing. They stressed that they too were still angry at being left in the dark about the danger posed by the two Seeders, even if they understood his reluctance to tell them in case he was stopped by their invisible enemy. They finally gave the commodore the go-ahead to proceed with the mission, with the commodore himself overseeing it.

Commander Psymons walked in to the galley where Alun was anxiously waiting for permission to start on his mission, he looked at Alun and smiled, just.

"Captain Reece, my government has agreed with your plan to return to the planet's surface. I will be in overall command of the mission; we will travel to the planet's surface in one of this vessel's shuttlecraft. We will be supported by another of our scout ships, there to deter the locals from launching an attack upon us while we are there. We will be accompanied by a squad of marines and also officers from one of the damaged space cruisers, they can assist in the search for any information that will show the location of the space station. Their own vessel, with a skeleton crew aboard, is to be towed back to Chryste."

"Thank you, Commodore, first off, we will need a lot of portable lamps to light up the cave system and the chamber itself." Alun replied.

"No problem Captain Reece, my engineering team will be able to put something together." Psymons replied.

"Fine, in that case Commodore, if we can make use of your vessel's camera or telescopes, I can then identify the waterfall. We should also use your vessels weapons to clear an area near to the waterfall, one large enough to permit the shuttlecraft to land, the area should also be large enough to make an attack upon us difficult, maybe the scout ship could hover close by to deter the locals." His reluctance to use a plasma cannon to clear an area for the shuttle to land had faded away, the peace of the galaxy depended on the success of this mission.

"Of course, Captain, I was going to ask you to identify the location of the falls, please come this way." Psymons replied.

They went up on to the large bridge of the space cruiser, Alun was impressed, although his previous command was of a similar size. After being requested by Psymons, an officer turned on the forward view screen and seconds later Pen Draig appeared on it. Thankfully, the falls were on the day side of the planet and Alun quickly identified them. The camera quickly zoomed in to show the impressive waterfall, it also showed the opening that had allowed Alun to escape from the chamber. That time, he had run the gauntlet of hostile locals and desperate pirates. This time, there were only four locals, there to guard the chamber should anyone want admittance who was not a member of their tribe.

"Good." Psymons remarked. "There is only a small guard posted and they should run when our energy bolts begin to clear a space large enough for us to land. If after, they regain their nerve, when the scout ship appears over their heads, they will soon scamper away." Psymons then turned to his 1st Officer and said. "Commander, please use our plasma cannon to clear a space for our shuttlecraft to land."

Alun was of the opinion that as soon as the energy bolts rained down from the sky, the warriors of the Demetae would hasten over to the falls, in an attempt to prevent more strangers accessing their holy chamber. However, he kept his thoughts to himself, he was getting what he wanted, no point in muddying the waters.

As the Chryste cruiser used it plasma cannon to clear a landing area on the planet's surface, Psymons led Alun along to the hanger deck. Here he found ten marines and five officers were waiting, they boarded the shuttle, and with eighteen people, including the pilot, it was cramped. The Hanger deck was cleared of all personnel and then emptied of air. Seconds later the shuttlecraft lifted off and slipped easily through the now open hanger doors and away from the starship. Ahead of them was the scout ship, and soon both vessels were moving down through the planet's atmosphere and once through the upper region, the two vessels turned and headed towards the Falls of Myrddin. Soon the falls were in sight, and while the scout ship hung in the air above the falls, the shuttlecraft prepared to land near to the falls, on the flat dusty surface created by the starship's plasma cannons.

Chapter Seven

Battle in Space

The ten marines exited the shuttle first, five of them staying on the surface to guard against attack while the remainder led the way down the newly made stairs, built by the Demetae. The stairs had been partitioned off from the roaring waters of the waterfall with a bamboo framework covered with a clay and straw daub. It led down in to the outer cave, Alun now led the way up the slight incline and then down in almost total darkness to the lower level, luckily, powerful flashlights had been brought for just this sort of problem and so no one tumbled down the slope. Poor light within the chamber had also been anticipated, the five officers carried larger portable lights, as well as their torches, that when switched on illuminated the large chamber where the energy field had once been. Alun was very impressed by the locals' work, and in addition to the stairs and the newly fashioned corridor, he also noticed that any part of the roof that looked to be in danger of collapse, had been supported, the locals had used wooden beams cut from the forest. This was obviously a very important place for the Demetae, one which they would have to respect while they were inside the chamber and he decided that they would leave it as they found it, an ancient monument of Pen Draig and possibly one relating to the history and myths of Earth.

Once within the large chamber, the newcomers saw that the walls were covered with paintings, ones that Alun had seen before, their surfaces were pristine, cleaned by the locals. The paintings had been protected by the Seeders with a glass-like substance, to preserve them and to make them easy to clean.

The paintings were of places on many different planets, that much Alun could read, for in the smallest of print beneath one denoting a hill fort was its name Moridunum, written in the ancient Welsh language and which Alun remembered was the ancient Welsh name for the original coastal fort of the town of Caerfyrddin or Caernarfon as the city was now known as. He and the Chryste officers, including Psymons, studied the various pictures without learning anything, with the officers finally getting bored by the whole thing, Alun decided to look for the room that housed the controls for the energy barrier, for there had to be one in the chamber, if only for maintenance purposes. He had thought that finding the door would be an easy task, however, in the poor light given off by the portable lamps, in such a large chamber, he could not see even one door. He decided to start at the entrance to the chamber and walk around the walls of the chamber, he finally found what he was looking for. It was a slight discoloured hand-shaped mark on the wall, and when he put his hand on to it, a hidden door swung open, some latent power still remained, this was much to the surprised delight of the others who had been eager to return to their starship.

Alun stood at the entrance to the new room and looked inside, it was full of computers, view screens and banks of dials. However, there were two more pictures upon the walls of the room, on opposite walls to one another. One was of a space station, it was orbiting a blue and white planet and clearly showing the multicoloured land masses that Alun had seen while on the space station. The other was a larger picture covering one whole wall and it was a star chart. On the bottom of the picture of the space station were some indecipherable words, however, on walking across to look at the star chart, after a long search of it, he finally identified the space station. Against a small gold circle upon the star chart were the same words that were on the bottom of the painting of the space station.

"This must be it here, it should take us three days at my vessels top speed." Alun said making a note of its exact location.

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Hereweald and Syne had originally planned to take their new space cruiser to the android planet, but now there was this delay, one forced upon them by Alun. They would make the trip only after they have constructed a second weapon and fitted it to the android vessel. Unfortunately, the parts they required were of a highly advanced nature so it meant a pit stop to obtain them. However, they knew just what they required and where they could obtain them, the Seeders space station had most of them, they would just have to recycle the necessary parts from its devices, ones that had been shut down when the station had been mothballed, the android ship had the remainder.

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The space cruiser from Earth, the Endeavour, had arrived at the planet Pen Draig, Alun was immediately transferred aboard it to bring the captain up to date, Commodore Psymons had accompanied him as he wanted to meet and talk to Captain David Davis. When Captain David Davis was fully up to date regarding the two aliens and their weapon, he agreed to give chase, recognising the danger to Earth if the aliens were allowed to escape. Psymons stated that his flagship and another of his space cruisers would accompany the earth ship, for he wanted to be on the scene if and when they caught up with the two renegade Seeders.

The diplomats aboard the cruiser were transferred to another of the space cruisers of Chryste that was heading back home. Later, the diplomats would complete their journey aboard the starship the Church of the Universe, which had now been ordered to return to Chryste with the diplomats on a real diplomatic mission.

Accompanying the space cruiser Endeavour were two small unmanned drones, they were much smaller than the cruiser but had stronger defence shields and more powerful plasma cannons. This was because the Stardrive that powered the drones used none of their immense power to keep a human crew alive, so they did not have to worry about shielding the radiation of the Stardrive from the fragile humans. The drones were much more agile than the larger space cruisers, in fact, they were able to run rings around them. They were controlled by officers aboard the cruiser, one officer assigned to each drone, operating them much as a video gamer and using similar devices.

Alun had heard about the drones that accompanied the space cruiser; however, he was worried that the Seeders' new weapon could take control of them, Captain Davis assured him that this was impossible.

"Their computer systems are protected by their own defence shielding to prevent anyone from hacking in to them, it should be more than enough to prevent the two renegades from taking over control of the two vessels." Davis replied confidently.

"I hope so, because otherwise we will be in deep trouble." Alun said and then added. "Thankfully, their shuttlecraft does not appear to have any of the Seeder technology on it, except for its chameleon ability that is. Otherwise, they would have used it to regain command of the scout ship." Alun said and then turning to Psymons added. "Or even your flagship Commodore, assuming that the Seeders are still a technologically advanced people."

"Yes, Captain Reece, and the reason could be that they are renegades, space pirates, and like our home-grown variety they do not access to the latest technology." Psymons replied.

"I hope that we are both correct Commodore." Alun replied.

Captain Davis brought the conversation back to their coming battle.

"Once we sight either the android vessel or the space station Commodore, I will need to turn off our communications systems, just in case they have already constructed and installed their weapon. Prior to that, the drones will have been put in to their auto-mode, they will have orders to attack the android space cruiser. In this mode, they will also be capable of tracing the location of anyone who makes an attempt to hack in to their systems, and they will automatically destroy the hacker. When the threat is dealt with, they will await our signal to return to their normal operating mode."

"Understood, Captain, my two vessels will also turn off our own communications systems as well as all our other non-essential systems, just in case they can gain admittance through one of these. It might also be better if we all hang back, to give your two drones the chance to destroy the android space cruiser. That way we can be sure that we all survive the battle, should the renegades have already constructed and installed their weapon."

"Agreed, Commodore." Davis replied.

Commodore Psymons was very impressed by what he had been told about the drones, both their defensive and their offensive capability. Unlike a space cruiser, they were all about destroying an enemy without endangering the humans who controlled them, black sleek and deadly. Coupled to this was the financial savings his people could obtain over a full sized, and crewed, space cruiser. The smaller vessel would be less expensive to construct, the running costs would also be less, with their lack of a crew. It would mean that Chryste could quickly expand its fleet and allow them to meet the androids with a much greater force than they had previously thought possible. He decided that on his return to Chryste, he would recommend the setting up of a panel consisting of their top military and scientists to go in to both the benefits and the drawbacks, if any, of constructing their own drone warships, if that is, everything went well on this mission. The five starships set course for the space station, travelling at their best possible speed, Alun hoped that they would arrive before Hereweald had the time to both build and to install his weapon.

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The android space cruiser arrived at the space station and docked at the number one airlock. Professor Syne had already identified the parts on the android space cruiser that he needed for his weapon, now he walked on to the space station to search out the remaining parts. Once he had identified the parts, he had the androids disassemble any that were part of a device and then carry all of the parts aboard the space cruiser.

With all of the parts laid out on the hanger deck, he and Hereweald, with the assistance of the androids, began to assemble their weapon. With all of this help, the weapon would soon be ready for installing on to the android space cruiser.

**********

The allied battle fleet of five starships finally arrived at the planetary system where the space station was located, then finally, the space station itself was on their view screens. Their scanners soon picked up the signature of the android space cruiser and after a final au revoir, they turned off their communications centres and all non-essential systems and approached the space station with their weapon's systems fully charged. The two drones were now at the head of the small fleet and they headed in towards it at battle speed. The android cruiser suddenly sprang in to life and cast off from the space station, it immediately turned on its defence shields, however, it was barely moving. The two drones continued their approach and when the android cruiser was within their weapons' range, the drones opened fire on the engineering section of the android space cruiser, their energy bolts blasting against the defence shields of the android starship. As more energy bolts hit the shields they finally buckled and dropped, and the next two plasma bolts hit the armoured hull of the android cruiser and broke through. Hereweald and Syne were both thrown to the floor even as the android crew charged up their own weapons, Hereweald got to his feet and touched the controls of his new powerful weapon, a sad smile came fleetingly to his face, for it had not yet been connected up to the Stardrive, and then the power within the android cruiser suddenly disappeared as the crash doors dropped locking any within the breached sections, death was quick for the androids, as they were sucked out in to space. Hereweald knew what had happened, his engineering section had been destroyed, which was why everything on the bridge of the starship was floating, including him and Professor Syne. Another two explosions rocked the ship as the starship drifted ever nearer to the space station, the battle was over, the allied fleet had saved their planets from slavery, for the moment, now their politicians of Earth would have to work together to ensure that they survived if another android space fleet appeared, this time in their section of space.

Hereweald heard the sound he had been dreading, the hiss of escaping air. He pushed off from the wall he had drifted against, pushed off towards the doorway out of the bridge, just as the crash door to the bridge slammed shut, for it still worked on battery power, he hit the door seconds later, just as the emergency power came on. Unfortunately, none of the other systems returned, not even the artificial gravity. He looked towards the androids, they were attempting to open the crash door manually, using the battery power within their bodies to do so. He wondered why no other energy bolts had hit his ship, of course, they wanted the weapon for themselves. He hauled himself over to the communications centre which was still working on its own battery power.

"Captain Reece, I am still alive, if you want the weapon then you had better save my life, otherwise, I will destroy it." He called out, the unit was working, but no one responded to his call.

Unfortunately, the allies had not yet turned their communications systems back on, time past and the Endeavour approached the crippled cruiser and sent out its docking tunnel to couple up to the airlock on the android ship. The two drones were still incommunicado, in case Hereweald was able to use his weapon, their targeting computers for the plasma cannons were locked on to the engineering department and the bridge, at the slightest sign of returning power to the android cruiser, they would open fire.

The battle with the android ship had been won without damage to any of the allied starships, Hereweald had thought that his location was unknown to anyone, so the arrival of the allied starships had taken him by surprise. The android crew had all been busy installing his weapon, in another hour it would have been ready. Unfortunately, time had not been on his side. The normal space engine that powered the android vessel was only ticking over, the only power it was receiving was from a small nuclear generator. It powered environmental, artificial gravity and provided electricity to the cruiser, allowing the computers to work. The Stardrive had been turned off for safety reasons, it was not to have been turned back on until after the weapon had been installed.

Ten minutes after Hereweald's call for help, saw Alun standing inside the alien vessel, he was wearing a space suit and magnetic boots, in his hand he held a plasma pistol, as did the ten marines who had followed him aboard, behind them were two of the ship's engineers. The first thing that he saw were two androids, they were floating near to the ceiling of the passageway. He fired at them, stunning them both, they were far too strong to handle in any other way. They stunned five more androids as they walked to the bridge of the cruiser, none of them had been armed, the crash doors along the way were being opened, cautiously, by the engineers from the Endeavour using a portable battery for power. So far, they had not encountered any armed androids. The final door they came to, opened on to the bridge. Behind it, five androids and the two Seeders were dying from oxygen deprivation. As the door opened, air rushed in to replace that lost to space. The hole had finally been fixed, by Hereweald, he had slammed an ancient coin on to it, the internal pressure holding it there, but too late. As he saw Alun enter, his hand reached for his pistol, but in the state that they found him, he was far too slow, for Alun stunned him with an energy bolt from his borrowed Colt P4 plasma pistol, the bolt whistling across the room and taking Hereweald out. The marines that had followed him in to the room quickly stunned the androids and Professor Syne before they were able to return fire. The two Seeders were taken aboard the Endeavour as prisoners, the androids were relieved of any weapons or tools and put in the hold. The ship was searched for any other surviving androids, however only two were found that were alive. On the space station, they could see five more, standing there, wondering what they should do, the marines answered their question by landing there and imprisoning them aboard the alien vessel. They were all to be handed over to Commodore Psymons as prisoners of war.

One hour later, with all of the enemy their prisoners, Alun, Commodore Psymons and Captain Davis looked down at the new weapon console, it, and the other parts of it, were to be uninstalled and taken back to Chryste aboard the Endeavour. There, its secrets would be learned by the scientists of Chryste and the science officers of the Endeavour. As for Alun, he and his crew returned to Earth, in triumph, and all agreed that the trip had been eventful and everyone had worked hard and come through a very testing time. Alun expected many of the crew to look for another berth, unexpectedly, they all signed on again, but only when they had heard that he had been appointed captain of the starship for its next voyage.

The End

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Also, why not visit my author page by clicking on the link. Smashwords Books.

About the Author

I was born in London, England. Like most of the world, I had to work hard to pay my mortgage and all the other bills, so I only had the time and the energy to write some short stories. My wife and I have a son who is now married to a lovely wife and they have five children of their own. Since retiring to the Greek island of Crete, I have finally found the time and the energy to write some full-length Science Fiction stories.

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Other Books by the Author

Colonies of Earth Series in order

Galaxy Spies

Time Storm

Rebirth

Trial by Ordeal

Horror Stories

Strange tales; three short mild horror stories

The Vampires of Cymru-- coming soon

Rob Hinds black magic stories

Kidnapped and Bound for Hell

The Satanists

Dreamscape

The Return of the Bitch from Hell

David Charlton stories, a science fiction series

Rescue Mission to the Stars

The Treasure of Altaraus

Return to Mazere

Other science fiction stories

Quasar

The Venetou

Invasion Earth

Lost and Far from Home

Journey to the Stars

Rebellion is in the Air

Short children's stories

Three Journeys of the Scary Kind

