Grailem by Gary L Beer (top 100 novels txt) 📖

towards the exit and steps out into the sunshine. Glad to be away from the noisy crowd he makes his way to the completed starship. A kilometre walk later Grailem is standing in the shadow of the mighty craft. The main cargo hold at the rear is being filled with supplies by an active robot workforce.
Returning to the main building now that he has found his way off this planet Grailem looks for a suitable candidate to receive his microchip's information on his identity. Looking around the building he sees two groups of tourists similar to his first visit here, one group has just arrived and the second group has about a half hour before their tour is completed.
Studying the second group Grailem notices one individual, a young female who appears on her own. Casually following them on their tour he sees that she talks to no other tourists and looks ideal for his purpose.
As the group cluster around a model of an earlier starship from centuries ago she stands separate and away from the group. Taking this opportunity Grailem takes the microchip out of his pocket that he has programmed to record his normal vital signs and holds it in his left hand. Approaching her quietly from behind he reaches out with his right hand and encircles the back of her throat. Applying enough pressure on her nerve endings Grailem renders her unconscious in under a second and holds her upright. Using his left hand he reaches to the top of her head and locates her microchip. Cutting the skin with a sharpened nail he pushes his microchip next to hers, activates it, and fuses the wound with a squeezing of his fingers.
The bleeding stops immediately and taking a small phial from his pocket he opens it and pours a pain killing substance onto the scar. The pain killer is powerful and providing she does not wash her hair it will be effective for twenty-four hours; by then the wound would have healed. Sitting her down on a metal bench that is next to the display Grailem leans her against the back of the bench until she is stable. Moving to the end of the bench he watches her regain consciousness; at first she looks confused and with a little shrug of her shoulders she stands and joins the group.
De-activating the alien microchip in his head Grailem turns on the chip that has a similar code as emitted by the robots. Walking across the spaceport and secure in the knowledge that the girl is transmitting his health and coordinates of his assumed identity Grailem Almond, Grailem approaches the spaceship.
The rear cargo hold is quiet, as a line of robots stand ten metres from the cargo hold doors and await the next delivery. Slipping past them and entering the cargo hold Grailem is not noticed as he transmits the robot frequency. To other robots regard him as one of their own and he walks to the back of the cargo hold and loses himself amongst the crates and boxes. Making room against one wall he surrounds himself with packing crates and sits on the floor. Switching off all his systems except for the surveillance camera in his eye and his ears tuned to receive any noise he remains motionless and awaits take-off.

Fifteen hours later and with a crammed cargo hold, Grailem hears the engines of the starship starting to operate. The Starship‘s engines slowly build up their power and are kept at the same level when the regular beat seems to operate on its own. The engines are kept at this regular beat for a half hour before the engine sound changes. The beating of the engines increases and Grailem can feel the enormous starship lift off from the ground.
With the starship having to travel such a long distance Grailem waits for twelve hours before attempting to leave the cargo hold. This should give ample time for the crew and passengers to have been placed in deep hibernation. Computer systems and robots will take care of the human cargo until it is time to wake them; which may be hundreds of years away.
Crawling out from amongst the packing cases Grailem locates the exit; the door has a simple opening mechanism; but one that is connected to an alarm system. No attempt has been made to hide this fact and must be a part of the safety system. Looking closer Grailem can see that the mechanism also incorporates a smoke and heat detector.
By-passing the mechanism is child‘s play and Grailem deactivates the system as he steps through the door. Closing the door behind him he activates the doors safety device and proceeds to explore the ship. As he reaches the end of the corridor two service robots are replacing a circuit board that operates the elevator. Paying him no attention they continue with their work as they remove the damaged board.
Some of the removed board is black and burnt where it has short circuited and the robots slot a new board in. Sealing the panel and carrying the old circuit board the robots walk past Grailem as if he is not there and continue down the corridor. Grailem admires their confidence as they had not tested the new board, appearing to assume that fitting the new board will be sufficient.
Grailem decides to test it for them and presses the button that has an arrow shape pointing upwards. The elevator doors slide open and Grailem steps inside; a glass panel with a multitude of signs gives him the option to go anywhere in the ship that he wants to. Pushing the panel above the highest sign which appears to resemble the bridge Grailem watches the doors slide shut before him.
The elevator makes no sound and their is only the slightest feeling of acceleration as the elevator speeds towards the bridge. Coming smoothly to a stop the doors slide open and he sees his hunch is right; as before him is the bridge. Empty of people with only a navigating robot at its station. Grailem steps out of the elevator and the doors obediently shut behind him.
The large forward viewing screen shows a galaxy of stars before them; aware that the starship is in hyperspace Grailem is surprised to see that most of the stars look like they normally do. He could just as easily have been standing on a planet looking up at the clear night sky, the sight being so familiar. Though the starship is travelling at many times the speed of light the stars, being so distant, appear stationary.
Walking over to the navigating console Grailem looks at the readout on the viewing screen in front of the robot navigator. Their route to a star system is displayed before him and Grailem is surprised to see that it is not in a straight line. A detour around a large gas giant and a dust formation are plotted on the screen.
Looking at their final destination Grailem enlarges the image at this point to show the star system they are heading for. The system only contains one planet in the habitable zone, six other planets millions of kilometres beyond the orbit of the habitable planet circle the distant sun in icy orbits.
What about the ten inhabitable planets that they were meant to be destined for? With the passengers and crew in hibernation there should be more than enough oxygen and life support to last for hundreds of years. Plotting the distance from the planet they took off from Grailem calculates that the planet they are heading for is only eighty light years away.
With his curiosity burning a hole in him Grailem leaves the bridge and heads back down to the cargo hold. Entering the hold Grailem examines the packing cases, boxes and sacks that fill it from floor to ceiling. Approaching the first stack of packing cases Grailem sees they are stamped with a number and the word 'canned'. Walking to the next stack they are also stamped with a number and the word 'canned'. Curious as to what is inside Grailem is forced to climb the tall stack of crates to the top.
The crates are stamped with the same word and number and Grailem grabbing hold of the lid with his iron hard fingers effortlessly pulls the lid off. Inside the contents are protected by a thin waterproof casing made of thin plastic which Grailem rips off. Inside are one hundred cans the colour of gold. Reaching in Grailem takes out one of the cans and reads the label which is impregnated into the surface of the can.
Prime Organic Liver is the main title on the can with the image of a deep red liver below it. Below the image more information is supplied; 100% pure succulent humanoid liver; grown as nature intended. On the side of the can is storage instructions; nothing about how to cook the contents, making Grailem wonder if it is eaten raw.
Replacing the can and refitting the lid to the case, Grailem climbs down and examines the stack next to it. The number is different but the word 'canned' remains the same. Climbing the stack Grailem opens one of the top cases to find it contains Prime Organic Hearts; which are also humanoid.
Examining the cargo Grailem is shocked to find that it mostly contains humanoid body parts. No part of the body is wasted as he finds pet food of canned toes to canned brains; all guaranteed succulent humanoid to make your pet fit and healthy.
One section of the cargo hold held their latest technology; microchips. The type that are fitted into the security robots and there are thousands of them. Grailem recognises some of them as the ones that were produced in the factory where he had worked as Martin Maseeve. The machine that completes the programming is stored in the same section and looks operational. As Grailem has nothing else to do until the starship reaches its destination he decides to modify the microchips.
According to the navigation chart the starship would still take nearly a year to reach its destination; giving him more than enough time to carry out the improvements. Unpacking the programming machine Grailem connects it to an unused solar array. Even at hyper speed the array would still gather enough light and power to operate the machine; and he hoped, remain undetected.

Once Grailem had programmed the machine to alter the microchips with his design his only job was to unpack them, feed them into the machine and repack them. The work soon became repetitive and boring and Grailem is tempted to hijack a couple of robots to do the work for him. This would have been easy to achieve as he could insert a modified microchip into the robot. The thought that the robots themselves could be monitored decided him to play it safe.
Six months of boredom follow while Grailem converts hundreds of thousands of microchip's. While the machine is converting the microchip's, Grailem has time to search the rest of the rear cargo hold; and in no time finds the security robots the microchips he is converting fit into. Neatly stacked in large metal containers Grailem counts the robots. He is shocked at the final figure as there are two hundred thousand; and they are all fully armed.
With all these