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

electrical distortion energy pistol he shuts the case and turns and faces the doors of the elevator. Turning the pistol on, the familiar hum of the splitting atoms helps him relax, and he prepares for the welcoming committee that will be waiting for him when the doors open.
The elevator continues down quickly and smoothly comes to a stop. Grailem hopes that the passive humanoids that inhabit this planet have influenced the robotic security force into thinking that he will be the same. They will not be expecting violence immediately from him; giving Grailem that split second he will need.
As the elevator doors slide open he steps forward and pushes the barrel of the energy pistol between the doors as soon as the gap is large enough. The pistol is set on a wide spread of energy release and he presses the trigger before he sees his targets.
The foyer is packed with security robots that immediately fall to the floor as their circuits become disrupted by the energy blast. The pistol expels an energy force that short circuits every electrical circuit within fifty metres; except for his own shielded electrical system. Calmly he steps over the immobile robots and walks towards the exit.
The exit doors are operated by electricity and remain firmly shut, punching the large glass panel of the door hardly slows him down as he steps outside. More security has arrived and forty fully armed robots stand in an orderly line blocking his escape.
Casually Grailem points the pistol towards them and watches them fall to the ground like skittles as he pulls the trigger. Still set on a wide beam most of the energy covers the security robots disabling them instantly. The energy also passes them heading for the busy street ahead. Affecting the vehicles and all other robots it touches the energy blast shuts down the passing vehicles and disables the robot driver. The noise of crashing vehicles fills the air as he runs towards one of the collisions.
The driver and vehicle have short circuited filling the vehicle with an acrid burning smell. To Grailem's nose detectors the escaping gas and smoke particles are poisonous and will reach a dangerous level within a few seconds.
Peering in at the frightened passengers he sees a well dressed middle aged woman clinging to her young daughter in absolute terror. Staring wide-eyed at Grailem, her face ashen she opens her mouth as if to speak. Breathing in the acrid smoke she starts to cough uncontrollably and Grailem rips the door of the vehicle off and throws it to the ground. Reaching in he gently grasps the woman‘s arm, and with her daughter still clinging onto her tightly Grailem pulls them from the vehicle.
Sitting them gently onto the roadway the woman clutches Grailem's arm; "What are you? I saw the way you ripped the door off its hinges, only a robot has that strength – yet you are not a robot." she asks, the fear in her voice raising it several octaves.
Grailem enters her mind soothing and calming with empathetic feelings and thoughts. Suggesting that what she saw was an illusion, an exaggeration of what she actually saw works well and the woman smiles up at him in embarrassment.
The traffic is at a standstill and the humanoids stare at him curiously. There are far too many people for him to influence using empathy or telepathy and he walks away quickly, trying to lose himself amongst the throng of humanoids and robots that crowd the pedestrian pavement.

After about a kilometre of fast walking he turns off the main street and follows a narrow path between two multi-spired skyscrapers. The narrow path between them restricts the horizon around him and he looks up at the clouds scurrying past. It is cooler in the shadow between the two buildings and the path stretching out before him appears deserted and unused.
Breaking into a run Grailem speeds along as if the devil himself is chasing him. Arriving at the rear of the buildings a few seconds later he turns left to take him further away from Sirap Communications. The rear of the building is a huge car park that is full of military type trucks and vehicles.
Getting out of several of the trucks a stream of pale suited security robots with shiny knee high boots advance quickly towards him. Surrounding him they form a circle five metres in diameter and point their phaser rifles at his head. Cursing his slowness Grailem drops the energy pistol onto the hard concrete surface of the car park and raises his hands above his head. During the few brief seconds it takes for the robots to surround him the trucks had continued their unloading of even more security robots.
Grailem estimates that he is now surrounded by several hundred security robots that are all heavily armed; and they all seem eager to use their weapons. This apparent eagerness to inflict pain upon him, or even kill him, shows they have a flaw in their programming, not that that is going to help him here.

Mankind had tried to integrate emotions with robots many times in the hope of achieving immortality, and met with failure at each attempt. For a robot to possess any emotion it had to have its independence and also a certain amount of freedom of thought. Having self awareness, logic and a superior body and mind, the desire that their human masters not harm themselves turned them into jailors.
Any food substance that could cause harm; like high sugar sweets and fatty foods were banned by the robots. Mankind‘s health did improve with no intake of harmful substances and the newly governed form of life was fully embraced. Within a few short decades Man, realising his freedom was becoming more and more restricted started to rebel.
The cause of the rebellion had many reasons; boredom being the main factor. Much of the food that Man had consumed contained harmful substances, that when eaten in large quantities can cause problems – even death. Man had learnt to consume only small amounts to maintain variety and obtain vital minerals.
The logical mind of the robot, or more importantly the computer network that controlled them, failed to understand this. Nutmeg was the first to be banned and this was followed a few hours later by the banning of salt. The computer network refused to accept Man's need for salt and no amount of input would alter its decision.

Realising that the computer and its dominion of security and military robots ruled their world Mankind started to plan rebellion. The main computer, being self aware had created a force field around its main memory banks. No humanoid or robot could approach it beyond a five metre radius without being pulverised.
Mankind did not give up and started to group together, many of the ancient arts of metalworking and creating explosives had been forgotten centuries ago. The main computer restricted library access to all military information forcing Mankind to create new weapons.
Aware of the movements of the humanoid's under its control the main computer tightened its grip further by restricting all travel. Assuring the people by telecast that it was working to improve Man's safety in life travel would now become fully automated. Travel would be controlled by a new computer system and independent robots (Mans' high accident record while travelling, due to tiredness or lapse of concentration caused death many times) would now operate all vehicles and transport.
With travel now being restricted and Man's final grasp of freedom now lost made every living humanoid on the planet to finally rise up in rebellion against the robot enslavers. The robots were no match for the angry humanoid's as they had all been originally programmed not to cause any harm to Man. Easily destroyed all robots in the future were constructed with no ability to possess any emotion. Only able to serve, the idea that Man could be fully integrated with a robot body was born. The quest for immortality continued in laboratories across the planet and Grailem, and others like him, had become the new hope for Mankind.


Chapter Seven

The robots surrounding him easily outnumber him; there are far too many to take on. The energy pistol at his feet does not have enough charge to take care of this amount of hostile robots. The converted fingers containing phasers and projectile weapons would also be insufficient as would the remaining grenades in his cheeks.
Surrendering gracefully he allows the robots to escort him to a large armoured truck. Pushing him inside six armed robots follow Grailem in as the door is locked from the outside. Sitting either side and in front of him the robots stare and watch his every move. They do appear to possess independent thought as several adjust themselves to what can only be described as a more comfortable position, almost as if their rear ends hurt. The robots are still operating under orders as they record his every move with mounted shoulder cameras. Assuming his image is being transmitted Grailem keeps still, fully aware that the robots surrounding him are controlled by some one or some thing that he has yet to meet.
Gloomily Grailem stares down at the bright metal floor of the armoured truck; whoever was in charge of this planet seemed to know all about him. The army of security robots used to capture him showed they did not underestimate his capabilities, and possible threat.

The truck drives through the city to a large industrial area and parks at the rear of a large steel clad building. The rear doors of the truck are opened and Grailem steps out amongst more than fifty security robots. All pointing their phaser rifles at him they escort him into the building and along a darkened corridor to waiting humanoid security guards.
The humanoid security guards do not search him as Grailem uses his telepathic powers on them; suggesting to them that they had already searched him and found he was unarmed, they allow him to pass with blank expressions on their faces.
Escorted along the corridor Grailem, confident in his growing telepathic ability tells the robots either side of him that they have no need to hold so tightly. Instantly he feels their grip loosen until they are only supporting the weight of his arms. Grailem tries a few robots ahead of him and gets them to bump into each other as they walk. Assuring them the floor is unstable they return to their orderly march, appearing not to notice his influence. Approaching the end of the long corridor a large riveted steel door, firmly shut bars their way. One of the lead robots activates a small hand held device and the door opens wide and Grailem is pushed inside and the door closed firmly behind him.

The room; obviously a prison cell, has one tiny window of reinforced glass, a single bed against one wall, and a latrine in the corner. The cell appears to be made of a reinforced alloy, Grailem assumes that the faint fibres interwoven into the metal are carbon nanotubes; increasing the alloys strength a thousand times.
Even with these extra security precautions he is unconcerned; he could break out of here in a few seconds if he wanted to.
Thinking