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

the enemy and the excitement of life it instilled within them; and the reward was to eat them. No other creature in the universe tasted as divine and enjoyable than the human species. For thousands of years the Arct explored the cosmos and waged war on anything remotely human until all those within their reach once again, became extinct.
Returning to surviving on wild and domesticated animals caused discontent amongst the Arct. Now spread across the galaxy they searched for a planet inhabited by humanoids. The eating of domesticated animals reduced their warrior emotions and a domesticated, boring way of life replaced their earlier glories. Tales of great battles and mighty warriors slipped into myth and legend and almost became forgotten.

Many centuries later, while testing out an improved hyperdrive, the Arct discovered a planet teeming with humanoid life.
The discoverer's, descendants of their race who had tasted human flesh did not become engulfed in bloodlust and the killing sprees of the past. Instead they reported their find to the home planet. The orders, when received a few hours later were plain; no humanoid was to be killed. Instead the crew were ordered to abduct as many humans as they could, without drawing attention to themselves.
Once they had abducted ten thousand they were to transport them to the nearest Arct controlled planet; where a breeding programme would begin.
That event had occurred many thousands of years ago and Grailem follows the successful breeding programme as recorded on the computer system. The spread of humanity throughout the galaxy in this sector is due to the Arct's desire for human flesh. Human breeding programmes were carried out successfully on every Arct inhabited world - until there was a combined rebellion on several of the planets.
The Arct, in their eagerness to breed this desirable food source had underestimated human intelligence. For decades the humanoid's on three of the Arct's planets conspired against their rulers. Stockpiling weapons and training people into warriors continued in secret until they rose up against their oppressors.
The humanoids on all three planets rebelled on the same day. Such was their store of weapons every humanoid became armed and they slaughtered every living Arct in a frenzy of killing.
The Arct tried to regain control with constant invasions and war continued on these three planets for generations until the Arct invented the military robot. Many of these robots were nothing more than walking guns and would fire at anything living that moved – human or animal.
On the three rebellious planets the humanoid's were all killed; mainly by the military robots, and within a year the Arct returned to reclaim their worlds.
The death of the millions of Arct that were killed in the uprising brought a big change to Arct society. All of the humanoid's were removed from the planets inhabited by the Arct and re-settled on habitable worlds light years away.
On each habitable world two hundred thousand humanoids were deposited, and were strictly controlled by the military robots. Allowed to breed they were kept as prisoners and harvested regularly; being outnumbered and outgunned by the robots did not stop them from planning a revolution.
A pattern developed over the centuries, as every twenty to thirty years the humanoid population would rise up against their oppressors. Many would be killed by the almost indestructible military robots before order was restored - and the harvesting of the humans could continue.
Controlling the humanoid's was becoming a regular and expensive time consuming process, and one which was slowly draining the wealth of the Arct civilisation.
The invention of the mind controlling microchip by a robotics engineer enabled the Arct to finally control the humanoid's behaviour. At first they were too repressive, putting the humanoid's on a similar level as cattle and sheep. The unhappiness felt by the humanoid's made them taste bad and the solution was to make them think they governed themselves.
Exchanging the military robots for human looking security robots and servants (that could be controlled by the military) brought happiness and a false sense of security to the brainwashed, controlled humanoids. These 'happy' worlds produced the finest tasting humanoid flesh and the exquisite taste demanded high prices on the Arct worlds. The exporters grew rich and powerful; Rames Sirap and his family were a good example. The meat they produced was considered as average quality and not the finest, which the price reflected – due to the unhappiness they created on the planet. This still did not stop them being rich and powerful and Grailem wished he had killed them all when he had the chance.

After his exploration of the main computer Grailem thinks of a way how he can defeat these eaters of his own people. Put in the right perspective from the Arct point of view is that they consider they are doing no wrong. Humans do not consider the eating of animals or fish as evil as the body has evolved to absorb the flesh of other species. The eating of your own species was the only thing that was considered as evil, even though the body could absorb it. The Arct, being alien and of high intelligence could only see humans as a food source. The thought of them being equal to humans in intelligence had never entered their heads during their entire civilisation. They believed they were the supreme beings and it was going to take a lot of convincing that they were not.

Studying images of the Arct he had taken from the main computer Grailem sees them as ugly creatures with a rugged facial structure, small flat nose and deep sunken eyes. Sharp canine teeth protrude from their large mouths showing their carnivorous behaviour and Grailem starts to construct a life-like mask of an ancient resident.
Re-moulding the rubber type material that sealed an escape hatch for the mask proved the most difficult. The huge engine that powered the ship had the only sufficient heat source that would melt the hard rubber like material. The heat the engine generated was expelled into space by a complicated pattern of pipe work. Placing the rubber type seal on the hottest part of the pipe near the engine melted the material perfectly. Obtaining the shape by stretching and compressing with his vice like fingers; the face of an Arct soon began to show.
The hair that grew naturally on their faces over the dark purple and deep brown skin made it easier to make the mask as it could cover the minor imperfections. Forced to use the black insulation that enclosed some of the ships wiring for the hair took the longest time.
The problem also was the colour; the door seal rubber is a dull grey whereas the Arct have that dark purple and brown face. Grailem remembers that the robots that were being constructed on the assembly line onboard were dressed in a ready made security uniform of dark blue and purple when completed. Making his way quickly to the assembly line he sees the robots at their work. Walking to the end of the line it is easy to pick up a uniform as the robots seem unaware of his presence. Returning to the engine room he heats the uniform and using his hands like a mechanical vice he squeezes out the purple dye. Heating the mask Grailem rubs the dye into the rubber like material, at first the mask appears pink but constant addition of the dye, along with warming the mask, forces the dye in deep. Using a thick heavy grease from the engine room he works it in deeply to stain the purple colouring and covers it tightly with the black insulation 'hair'. The end result looks passable; Grailem does not want to reshape his own face yet to fit the mask as he gets the feeling that to stay with the microchips when they are unloaded, he may have to take on the personality of a robot worker again.

Removing any evidence of him ever being on the starship and remembering to shut doors he had left open, Grailem then retreats to the rear cargo hold. Finding his original position amongst the packing crates when he first boarded, he turns off a lot of his systems and waits for landfall.
Ten days pass before he feels the starship slowing down and reluctantly he leaves his dream world. Re-activating all of his systems he makes his way out of the cargo hold to the nearest window. Looking out all he can see is stars and he makes his way to the forward observation deck. The planet they are heading for already fills half the sky and Grailem realises the starship is going into a high orbit. Presumably to slow the ship down as only moments ago it had dropped out of hyperspace. The navigation is impressive as the starship is still travelling at light speed as it circles the planet several times as it eventually slows down.
The planet below has two large continents; one that is close to the equator is a sea of green tropical forest. The other continent, a quarter of the way around the planet and slightly north of the forest is mainly a uniform grey colour that is entirely composed of buildings and roads. Specks of green exists between the mighty buildings and Grailem recalls from the history records he had read on the starship computer that it was not always like this.
As industry overtook nature the atmosphere changed its composition to mainly poisonous gases. Most of the vegetation on the planet died which proved disastrous to the Arct. Oxygen levels plummeted to a few percent and due to the lack of oxygen many of the Arct population died.
The southerly continent was cleared of all Arct habitation and the forest planted to provide the vital oxygen. Small parks were the only remains of any vegetation left on the other continent which had now become their home. That had been many thousands of years ago when industry was also moved off planet. Since that time the forest had continued to provide a healthy atmosphere for the millions of Arct that now lived here.

Several Starship‘s like the one he was travelling on come into view at a lower orbit. As his starship orbits the planet Grailem counts forty nine other Starship‘s circling below. The starship slows even further lowering its orbit until it joins the other Starship‘s. The engines power down to their minimum to attain orbit and for the next seventeen days Grailem joins the 'queue' to await unloading.
His view from the forward observation deck shows a stream of space vehicles travelling to and fro from the first starship in line down to the planet below. The unloading is continuous and they move on to the next starship with hardly a break in the routine as the now empty starship breaks orbit and heads back out into space.


Chapter Twelve

Finally the time arrives when the armada of space craft come to unload the starship Grailem is on. The cargo doors open out into empty space showing more Starship‘s behind waiting in the queue as one of the unloading craft lands on the deck. Robots pour out of its own cargo hold and start to stack the crates inside. As Grailem suspected the unloading is carried out entirely by