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

approaches a large opaque robot that is in the central position and seems to control those around it. The opaque covering, about twelve millimetres thick, encloses the robot completely and merges it with the metal framework that supports it. Like the other robots around it, the arms and head are the only part of it that are capable of movement.
As Grailem steps in front of it, the multi-faceted eyes change colour from a pale grey to a deep amber. Raising its right arm as if in acknowledgement of his presence it reports to him the condition of the ship. The translator chip inside him converts the strange language the robot is talking into one he understands. The language is similar to early computer communications that the Arct first employed when they started to spread across the cosmos.
The robot reports atmospheric concentrations inside the craft, the percentages of electrical power available in various sections and on the condition of the humanoid's held in stasis.
The good news is that all the humanoid's are in good health and none have died since its last report.
The bad news is that the robot seems unaware that the spacecraft is idly drifting in space and that the plant life is out of control. It also does not know when it made its last report and how long the craft had been in space.
The robot continues its report verbally, though no lips move, for nearly half an hour before it finally subsides into silence. A lighted panel set into the structure of the framework supporting the robot and directly in front of it attracts Grailem's attention.
Hoping it is a main access terminal to the computer banks he approaches slowly. The robot makes no movement or further acknowledgement that he is there and Grailem looks down at the panel. It is a touch screen panel that is covered in the writing of the language the robot speaks. The translator chip inside of him is able to translate the spoken word but the written word would need a complicated display screen; which he does not have.
All previous alien languages he had come across in his long life had been based on simple phonetics and easy to understand. The translator chip easily converted any language which his mind understood also. Already thinking how he is going to make the connections between himself and the computer panel, an easier solution presents itself. The robot beside him must have been monitoring him in some way as suddenly it asks in an almost friendly voice what service he would like?

Twenty-eight hours later Grailem finally finishes his exploration of the ship's computer's; with the help of the master robot.
He had been right in his first assumption that the opaque robot controlled those around it. Capable of independent thought it was used mainly as a relay between the technology of the spacecraft and operating robots and the main computer. The main computer made the decisions but needed the master robot to implement those decisions.
Instructing the master robot to search the memory banks Grailem learnt of the history of the noble race called the Buidshee.
The Buidshee had evolved on the inner planet in this system; the planet that was orbited by the three moons and had been Grailem's main destination. Evolving in a similar fashion to other humanoid's spread across the galaxy, the evolution from ape to human had continued. Affected by the gravitational effects of the three moons their bodies elongated until maturity but the brain continued to grow in intelligence and the skull continue to expand around it.
The evolution from ape and stone age man to a civilisation capable of space exploration took less than three thousand years. Colonising the moons was their first objective and easily accomplished within a few years. The reduced gravity in space and on the moons also accelerated their brain growth. The cost was less reliance on the body as more intellectual pursuits reduced the bodies activity.
Creating robots to do the manual work they integrated their bodies into the computer systems. The Buidshee soon became totally dependant on the technology they had created. Unable to function in a natural environment the Buidshee created an electronic dream world of their own making.

Secure and more suited to their artificially created environments on the moons and in space the Buidshee left their home world to explore the cosmos. The craft Grailem was in was one of thousands that had been one of the last to leave, ninety-seven thousand years ago. The huge spacecraft had taken two hundred and thirty years to reach this far into space when the main engines failed. Since then the craft had drifted in this far orbit - and would continue to do so until the end of time.
For all their intelligence the Buidshee made a large error when programming the ships computer's. Making the dream world for the Buidshee for when the craft was in flight took up most of the computer's memory banks. Leaving the running of the ship to what room remained in the craft's computer's and robots all of the Buidshee went into a form of hyper-dream sleep. More interested in the mind stimulation generated to occupy them during flight the Buidshee slowly slipped from reality.
When the spacecraft's engines broke down the computer could not repair it; or instruct the mobile robots to fix it either. Such was the faith in their engine design as none had broken down before, the Buidshee did not build any fail-safes into the system. The robots main job was ensuring the good health of the Buidshee, though the hydroponics had got a little out of control no alarm registered within them. As far as they were concerned all was well and they would serve their Master's until told otherwise.
Grailem could not see the point in waking any of the sleeping occupants, as all he needed to learn he could get from the computer banks.
What Grailem learnt from the computer banks made him feel the loneliest being in the universe. He had nothing in common with any of the Buidshee apart from the aeons of time he had spent in his own dream world. He had no desire to repeat any of it so he let them sleep and dream on.
The Buidshee had thoroughly explored this quadrant of space thousands of years ago. Using robotic craft they had visited every planet light years away and made some of the fertile ones the final destination of the huge starship's. The journey in many cases would take thousands of years as the distances were so vast, but that made the voyage even more appealing as more time could be spent in their dream world.
In all of their explorations from the beginning of their time to the present, they encountered no other life forms like Grailem. Humanoid's were spread across this sector of the universe; and they all appeared to originate from one source.
His own home world.
Grailem recognised many of the star formations and the universe his home had been. Even though he had been cruelly treated during his entire life there – it was still home. He wished again for the happy days that never happened, or maybe it was his own naiivity that he wished for.
Feeling close to a mental breakdown and with a wave of loneliness washing through him, Grailem runs out of the control room and heads back to his shuttlecraft as fast as his legs will carry him.

Blasting off from the top of the huge starship he heads back to his flagship and robot legions. They all wait patiently for him, loyal yes, but none of them would ever be a friend, or give birth to his children.
Cursing his creators he sets course for the next Galaxy; he had learnt well from the Buidshee computer banks about their technology and had many plans to improve his own. The computer's calculate Grailem will reach the next Galaxy in three hundred and fifty seven years.
Maybe there he would find a friend or at least someone who liked him.


The End


The Author;

Gary L Beer born in Kent, England and of English and Welsh descent became a traveller at an early age. The travels to the mountains of Wales with his parents as a child instilled in him a wanderlust that has remained to this day.
After raising a family a new life was forced upon him and taking up the challenge Gary went to university and achieved a BSc in Pharmaceutical Chemistry following this with a Masters Degree in Chemistry, studying nano-particle science at the very cutting edge of technology. Able to turn his hand to most things in life he has worked as a Carpenter, Steeplejack, Car Mechanic, Panel beater, Chemist and Teacher.

Gary has written many popular novels;
Journey Thru America My Quest For Peace and
Journey Thru America The Way Home.
A Good Find
SUZY
Starship Stinedern
Grailem
Belief of the Reborn
Imprint

Text: Gary L Beer
Publication Date: 12-25-2012

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