Two
armed intruders, young male and female, were on the premises. This,
by itself, was not alarming since there had been other intruders in
the past thousands of years.
The
unique parts this time were, first, all the others had been lost,
looking for a way out; this couple was on the run, looking for a
place to hide.
Second,
the present pair had penetrated deeper than any others because the
Complex was well on the way to being abandoned, and, so, most
security measures to keep animals and people out, had been
deactivated days ago.
Most
important of all was the invisible electric perimeter fence around
the Complex. When touched, it gently and instantly re-located the
intruder object miles away into the empty desert.
The
single non-life mechanical Unit within the Complex, its Dismantler,
was so remarkable in its capacity for self-repair, maintenance, and
improvement, as to render it, virtually, living, if it were not that
it far excelled all life in every living physical ability of sight,
touch, smell, hearing, taste, speed, flight, strength, and many
others.
The
Dismantler was of a species travelling the Universe for so long, they
themselves were not sure of their origins. They were, though, capable
of continual and instant contact with others of their kind throughout
the stars.
This
particular Dismantler, had been on Earth for thousands of years,
refitting its spacecraft, a process that usually took hundreds of
years from start to finish.
The
process could be engaged in only when the spacecraft could connect
itself to the deep-core boiling energy of a big enough star. The ship
used the energy to create and to utilize the special components
required to keep the craft running for the next few thousands of
years.
The
spacecraft itself was virtually sentient because of its complete
autonomy in self-diagnostic and prognostic functions.
As
was the routine protocol on arrival on a world for self-repair, the
Dismantler had landed the craft on an uninhabitable site, and had
disguised it as an inhospitable mountain. That was then.
Since
then, quite unpredictably, nearby territories had become thriving
human centres. Even so, the mountain disguise had served its purpose
well enough. Down the centuries, very, very few humans and animals
bothered to pay attention to a mountain so carefully designed to be
forbidding.
The
craft's monitors had indicated days ago that the operation was being
successfully closing down. The craft would be ready to function
perfectly for the next few thousands of years among the stars
throughout the Universe.
The
two armed human intruders were not a problem for the Dismantler. An
engineered prolonged violent electric storm would motivate the humans
to vacate the premises, especially if the mountain itself was eroding
away by torrents of rain and raging rivers.
The
Dismantler was back in the spacecraft, minutes away from its intended
storm creations.
Human
law enforcement arrived, in pursuit of the two armed humans.
Helicopters, all-terrain police vehicles. The Dismantler had to
accept situation had become unusually complicated.
By
its own self-programming, the Dismantler species was to never cause
harm, directly or indirectly, to life anywhere in the universe.
Hence, the Dismantler's original plan was to simply wash the two
armed humans off the outside of the craft, and then to transfer them
safely in a cave somewhere.
That
could not be the plan anymore because the intruder human couple
decided to violantly oppose the human law enforcement arrivals. They
ran deeper into the mountain. Law enforcement released police dogs.
The
Dismantler lured the hounds deep into the mountain, fed them, and put
them into a deeply resting sleep, until later.
The
Dismantler calibrated that the human couple's determination to fight
back as they ran, made their deaths imminent at the hands of officers
of the law.
The
Dismantler initiated a different plan.
The
Dismantler altered its outward appearance to appear as an old woman.
She intended to read their minds and to steer the conversation
accordingly. She revealed herself to them in a cave inside the
mountain, by lighting a candle which drew them warily to where she
was.
"Hello,
there." They pointed their guns at her. "Easy, people. I am
unarmed. I lit the candle to invite you here." "Who are
you?"
"I
am Seetha Rai. If you are not familiar with that name, you must have
dropped out of kindergarden." "Seetha Rai who murdered her
four husbands?" "The same. Those husbands deserved it. I
have scars as evidence." "They never caught you?" "I
am here, am I not?" "Can you help us?" "Perhaps.
But wouldn't you like to hear the rest of my story?" "Of
course, but while we are on the move, please." "Good
enough. Follow me."
"From
what I know, no bodies were ever found." "That's right."
"Then why did you run?" "Because of my elder spinster
sister. She went to the police with, she said, evidence that
incriminated me."
"Your
own sister?" "Uh-huh." "Any particular reason she
hated you?" "She was born ugly, and never could get a
husband for herself."
"I
don't understand. How does that fit in?" "She got my
husbands drunk and drugged and seduced them when I was at work,
earning the rent. And when I came home, my current husband would beat
me up, on my sister's suggestion, no doubt. And, so, I killed them,
one by one. Overdosed one by one. With her drugs. I never touched the
stuff for myself."
"Oh,
man! If I had a sister like that, I would have killed her."
"Exactly what I did after she went to the police."
"The
bodies were never found." "That's right. And will never be
found." "You cannot be sure of that." "Oh, yes, I
can, as long as I live here with them."
"The
bodies are here?" "All four of them. I check on them every
day. Care to hear the names of husbands?" "No, no, please.
If I hear I share a name with one of them, I am going to have to kill
you." "Good enough." "The same goes for me and
the name of your evil ugly sister."
She
led the way with her candle. There were just too many law enforcement
units around. She decided there was only one way out. She would lead
the two into a compartment of the spacecraft she had transformed to
appear to them as just another mountain cave. She would put them
instantly into a cryogenic condition. She would take them with her to
another world where she and other Dismantler units would treat them
as guests, as it had been on this human world for so many thousands
of years.
The
Dismantler did not forget the police dogs, before it flew its
spacecraft off Earth, within the hour.
Contact
Ezra (Unless
you
type
the
author's name in
the subject
line
of the message we
won't know where to send it.)
Photo by Dhivakaran S at Pexels.