Family members

I thought I had done so well today, I typed in four pages of SAASA 5 and thought I had done 1,000 words. I really did about 850. So altogether, yesterday and today I have typed in 1,500 words :(

I also drew 3 drawings for my game and scanned all 8 pictures in. Cut some paper copies out with my granddaughter. She loves them because some of the characters are family members.

Today's joke is:

What do you call a bear with no teeth?

A Gummy Bear!

Sample

While I put the sample of Attack on Thera on my blog I managed to finish SAASA 6 and finish typing in and proof read SAASA 4. I was going to put it on Amazon for free at the weekend but I'll do that next weekend. I have also typed in about 700 words of SAASA 4 today and produced 4 drawings for my card game.

Today's joke is:

I can't believe I got fired from the calendar factory. All I did was take a day off!

Attack on Thera (Chapter Seven.)

CHAPTER SEVEN

After helping to clear up the last groups of attackers Lizzie made her way to the conference room where Simpkins and the others had been holed up. She still had Paul’s notebook and made her way to give it to him. 

When they had heard that there was an attack under way Paul and Simpkins had directed those in the room to make a barricade at the main doors. Paul then led some of the others to a weapons locker and they armed themselves. Some of the advanced forces did attack the room but Simpkins and his men managed to hold them off until the metal men came. Two metal men smashed down the barricade and went about killing its occupants. Three guards were dead before the metal men were defeated with the new energy weapons that the giants had left behind on the flying island.

Paul smiled at her as she got up to him, “You’ve seen some action then?” she asked as she handed him the notebook.

“I saw you at the other end of the passage near the pads, so you had a bit as well.” He took the notebook off her.

“Just a bit, I think I need a cup of tea now.” Cheekily she looked back at him as she left.

Later on, in the break, she had a meeting with Paul in his office. She was most upset by the fact that there must have been a spy who had helped the Andacians. “So how did they get onto the island?”

“There must have been a spy on board, who switched the travel pads on,” replied Paul.

“Who is the spy then, we need to know straight away.”

“Maybe they came in with the delegations for the summit.”

“How do we check that then?”

“I have no idea, maybe ask the delegates to check them out themselves?”

“Well at least we know it wasn’t done by the delegates because they were all at the summit.” She slapped her hand upon the desk as she looked out of his drawing room window, “I think we need Simpkins, he’s a good detective.”

“We could question Dr. Oswald, he’s in the brig. He could be quite helpful.”

She smiled a wry smile, “I’ll go and get Simpkins so we can question him.” 

“Maybe you had better let Hannay have something to do with the investigation as well, keeping good relations with the Tyreen etc. Do you have any ideas about who the spy may be?”

“I don’t know…” the Vuridanian general was on her mind, “I think it is strange how Leegan started off life as a liaison officer then became a general in a few months. He was supposed to have been captured by pirates, but I’m sure I saw him in Pintarn only days after. When I asked him about it earlier he got quite upset.”

The English officer tapped his notebook on the desk gently, “Just a feeling then?”

“Yes.”

“See what you can find out about him, but be discreet.”

She nodded an acknowledgement then went to find out about Leegan before he left with his delegation.

Really, she didn’t know where she was going to start. If she questioned anyone in his delegation then they were probably on his side anyway. Did she know anyone who knew him before? While she thought about it she would go back into the meeting to observe him.

Because the attack came before anything had properly been decided about how they should deal with Andacia the delegates were holding their meeting in another smaller room. There were two guards at the door armed with Mk II electric rifles. She needed no ID for they knew who she was. As she entered some in the room looked at her including Leegan. She sat at their table and listened.

“We cannot attack the Andacians, they are part of our alliance against the Hoo,” said General Bridell of Chelac.

“Surely the fact that they were Andacians who have just attacked us shows that we have to attack them back,” replied Rotok.

“But why have they planned the attack on us in secret? Why not just declare war?”

No one at the table seemed to know except Wagstaff, “It is because they have been infiltrated by the Hoo, they have used clones to replace key officials. The common people do not want war with us.”

“So we just need to attack their military then.”

“What bothers me is that they tried to take New Britannia, that is an act of war.”

“Against the British.”

“And now the Tyreen because they are their allies.”

Lizzie motioned Wagstaff over and whispered to him, “I did spot one thing, one of the soldiers who attacked us was a Vurindanian. He was not with the delegation but dressed as a common soldier. I met him at the ambassador’s palace, he was an aide. What is somebody from Vurindai doing dressed as a soldier in the Andacian army?”

“Was he a spy do you think? And if he was then was he an Andacian pretending to be a Vurindanian? He was not with the delegation from Vurindai so he must have come through on the pads. Something doesn’t add up.”

“I suspect something is wrong with Leegan. He was a liaison officer a month or two ago, now he’s a general. Paul has asked me to find out about him.”

“You go and do that then and I’ll keep my eye on him here.”

She guessed that Simpkins would be down in the brig. She was right. There were only four cells and they were all completely full. The giants were in one cell, Oswald, Hawkins and the other doctor in another. There were ten Andacians each in the other two cells. Simpkins had one of the soldiers out of the cell and was taking him into a nearby office. One of the guards kept a gun on the prisoner at all times.

Lizzie came in behind them to listen.

“What is your name?” asked Simpkins.

The man did not answer.

“Are you an Andacian?”

He smiled smugly but still did not answer.

Simpkins picked up one of his hands to look at. There was a scar along the edge, “He’s a Gite.”

The guard who was with them grew a little tense.

Simpkins took Lizzie to one side, “We’ll get nothing out of him. I’ve heard it tell that the Hoo and Gites are able to take an incredible amount of punishment without talking.”

As Lizzie started to shake her head the Gite grabbed for the guard’s rifle. The guard discharged it into the Gite’s stomach. Still the prisoner managed to grab the gun and turn it around towards the guard. Simpkins kicked the rifle away just in time and the discharge hit the wall. The prisoner fell dead on the floor.

“We need a clone or a human to get them to talk,” said Simpkins as he looked at the corpse near their feet.

She went back into the brig with the others and looked through the bars. Looking at their hands she noticed one who did not have a scar on his hands. “That one, he’s a human,” she told Simpkins. But too late, another Gite grabbed the man and broke his neck before they could get the cell door open.

Simpkins banged the bars in anger, “Hated spawn of hell!” he cried.

Lizzie put her arm round his shoulder, “Come on, let’s go to the medical room.”

Now, though the metal doctors aboard the ship could repair all of the wounded, there were so many of them that some had to lie in the hallways on stretchers to await their treatment. Lizzie and John checked the ‘Andacian’s’ hands and found one who was unconscious with no scars on his hands. “Now he’s either a newer Gite, the one the doctor spoke about or a human,” whispered Simpkins.

“Let’s put him first in the queue so that metal doctor can fix him,” suggested Lizzie, “then we can question him.”

One of the other wounded ones there protested that somebody else was being moved ahead of him. “I will lose my leg if you’re not quick.”

Lizzie saw he was a Gite, “You’re lucky we didn’t kill you all, it would have been a lot easier.”

The man shook his head as they carried the other unconscious man into the medical room. Another Gite had been healed and was getting off the table. He saw that the man they were carrying was a human and guessed what their plan was. Grabbing the man around the chest he began to crush him, he wasn’t in the right position to grab his neck. Simpkins caught hold of the Gite and tried to pull his arms off only to be thrown back against the wall. Lizzie smacked the half giant on the back of the head with a piece of machinery that was lying in the medical room. It broke his skull but still the half giant crushed the air out of his prey. Lizzie felt helpless as she had left her pistols back in her room. Another blow to his head by Simpkins brought him to his knees. He released the other still unconscious man. The guard who was in the hallway finally came in brandishing his rifle.

“Very good Private,” admonished Simpkins as he panted with exertion, “better late than never.” He helped Lizzie up who had fallen to the floor.

The guard helped Simpkins lay the other prisoner on the bed. Lizzie asked the doctor robot to repair the patient on the bed. Once the medical metal man had done his job Lizzie and the others made him get up and walk to another nearby room with them. 

“What’s your name?” asked Simpkins.

“What?”

“What’s your name,” he asked more forcefully.

“Arthur Grisdale.”

“Are you an Andacian or a Vurindanian?” asked Lizzie.

Simpkins looked at her, she seemed to be taking the questioning in a different direction.

“Vurindanian.”

“Why are you dressed as an Andacian soldier?”

“They wanted to make up the numbers.”

“Who wanted to make up the numbers?” asked Simpkins.

“The Red Pirates.”

Neither of them had heard who the Red Pirates were. “Who are the Red Pirates?” she asked.

He couldn’t believe her question, “Are you new or something? Who do you think steals all the tea from here to Sanctum?”

“Maybe you should be called the Red Tea Pirates,” Simpkins joked. “Why are you attacking us?” 

“I don’t know, we usually just attack tea ships. More recently though we’ve had an influx of new mates.”

“New mates?”

“Yeah, you know, people joining the Reds. Since then we’ve been doing slightly different things. Stealing technology here, assassination there, you know.”

Simpkins was thinking and looking at Lizzie trying to work Arthur out, is he telling the truth?! “Who is your leader?”

“Gaptooth Weston.” He shook his head, “What’s the use of being a bloodthirsty pirate if no one has even heard of you.”

“Is he one of the new ones?”

“Naw, he’s been pirating since I was a lad. Scourge of the Blue Sea he is. Everyone’s heard of Gaptooth Weston…” he paused a little, “except you lot!” He laughed and slapped his leg.

“Do the new mates have a leader?” Lizzie asked the pirate.

“Sort ‘o, skinny feller, bit of a wimp if you ask me.”

“That sounds like Leegan,” she commented to the others. “Is he called Leegan?” she asked Arthur.

“His name’s Cray, Elijah Cray.”

“Is he a Vurindanian?”

“I don’t know what he is, but the newer mates look to him for leadership and old Gaptooth just seems to go along for the ride.”

The interrogators talked to each other, “It sounds like this Elijah Cray is really Leegan,” thought Lizzie.

“We’ll need Arthur to check Leegan out to make sure though,” suggested Simpkins. He looked him up and down, “I’ll get him dressed in one of our uniforms and take him in.”

“How do we know we can trust him?” wondered Lizzie.

“Just show him what the Gite prisoners did to that other pirate in the cells,” he said quite loudly.

“Don’t worry,” said Arthur, “they have just tried to kill me. Gites you say? I should have known they weren’t real tea pirates, they didn’t like tea!”

Arthur got dressed in a British uniform, but his hair was too long so Simpkins had him pile it up inside his Foreign Service helmet. After combing his beard he smiled at himself in the mirror.

“Very pretty Arthur, now all you have to do is stand on guard duty in the room until I tell you I don’t need you. Can you do that?” asked John.

Standing to attention Arthur showed him what he could do. Simpkins readjusted Arthur’s rifle where it should be. He also made him tuck his tummy in.

“Will Leegan, or Cray, remember you?”

“Not dressed like this he won’t.”

Attack on Thera (Chapter Six.)

CHAPTER SIX

It was a bright day and Lizzie had awoken early. After she got dressed she was about to have breakfast with Simpkins and Paul when they all got a call to come to the docking port docking bay. When they got there they saw the Volans Terrorum hovering close to the New Britannia and a smaller craft floating towards the bay. Johnson piped them aboard as the Tyreen officers walked down their gangplank and onto the bay. The other senior officers of the island also came to have a look. Paul was the most senior British officer and he stepped forward to salute with Captains Grenville and Deacon. The five officers saluted back, they were all from the air navy and their uniforms showed this. The commanding officer among them spoke, “Captain Hannay and Lieutenants Taylor, Mosley, McQueen and Hire reporting for duty.”

Paul introduced his officers, and Lizzie and the other VAS members who were there. 

They were taken to the bridge initially to let the officers look around before they had lunch in the officer’s mess.

Hannay was impressed by the Britannia and said so, “We were lucky weren’t we,” he said to Lizzie whom he was sitting beside at lunch, “the Hoo could have destroyed us hundreds of years ago if it hadn’t been for the lightning shields. Look how far ahead of us they were even then!”

Lizzie had heard stories of the newer Hoo technology, “Mini transport pads, chemical weapons, exploding comets and ultra fast airships.”

“Yes I have heard of similar devices. And that the Hoo are preparing an armada to sweep over us when they have destroyed the lightning shields.”

“Until now the Hoo have been at war with each other but there is now a new leader in the eastern continent, Drakuum.”

“I have heard of him. With the resources of three giant kingdoms he can surely defeat us.”

This bothered Lizzie for she knew that unless they defeated Andacia quickly then they would have to fight on two fronts.

There was to be a summit between the military leaders of the Tyreen, Chelaccian, Fenegans and Vurindainians to be held on the New Britannia which was deemed a neutral kingdom for this purpose. As the leaders were landing on the small airstrip created for the event Lizzie saw Leegan who was part of the Vurindainian delegation. She went over to greet him, “Leegan, I have not seen you since last we met in Sagus.”

He looked down his nose at her, “General Leegan.”

“Although once I thought I espied you in Pintarn, which was odd because you were supposed to be have been captured at the time.”

He looked a little shaken, “Excuse me Miss McBean,” he said as he went to catch up the rest of his delegation.

Lizzie followed Paul into the large dining area that they now used as a hall for the meeting. He sat at the head of the tables because it was the British who were hosting it with the Tyreen. To his left sat General Bridell of the Chelaccians and his party. To the right was General Leegan with his advisors, and in front of him but at a lesser table was Rotan of the Fenegans. 

Looking at Lizzie Paul asked, “Lizzie can you be a dear, I have left my notepad in my quarters, can you fetch it?” 

She nodded, she didn’t mind because the actual thrashing out of the plan would probably be boring anyway. Walking down the ramp to the next floor she walked through the passage that led to all of the travel pads on this side of the ship. The soldier on guard saluted her as she passed by. It was a pleasant day and she looked out of the windows as she walked and daydreamed about picnicking and reading in the shade. She hadn’t read anything for ages. I’ll have to remedy that.

To stop incursions by the Hoo or the Gite the travel pads had been switched off. When they were switched on it was at a pre-determined time so that there was less of a chance that they would be invaded. Also, when they were switched on, there was a heavier guard presence and all personnel were checked, needing special documents produced back on earth. 

She opened the door at the end and startled the other guard, “You scared me Miss, I thought things was goin’ a be quiet.”

“I am quiet private, as quiet as a church mouse,” she put her hands up to her face pretending they were mouse whiskers to have a joke with him.

He obviously enjoyed her act.

Down another two floors and she came to the rooms that had been converted into Paul’s apartment. There was another guard on the door, it was Sergeant Brown, the Corporal had been promoted, “Hello Lizzie,” he grinned, “has he forgotten something?”

“His notebook.”

He opened the door for her and she entered the apartment. She retrieved the notebook and had a look in the mirror at her own appearance, I need to get a better style for my hair, maybe something like Reena’s? She passed Brown again, “Thanks Tom.”

He nodded at her and closed the door then stood quite straight again.

She nearly went through the terramidion on the way back but thought better of it in case one of the doors was locked and then she would have to double back. She passed the private again but as she started down the passage she heard a noise from one of the far travel pad rooms. Opening a closer door she hid in one of the rooms with the door slightly open so she could see what was going on. Four men, they looked like Andacians, stepped through the door, looked to the right and left then walked towards the farthest door. This is not right. She heard a muffled thump at the other end and saw the body of the other private fall into the hallway. She listened for a second to make sure there were no other transports then ran out to the soldier guarding the door at her end. “Quick, some Andacians have made an unauthorised transport, get some men up here.”

He started to run down the passage that she had come from before she rebuked him.

“Go the other way in case any more come.”

He set off down the ramp to the next level as she did. She continued on to the next floor to her quarters to get her pistols and a couple of electric grenades Wagstaff had made her and to warn Brown that there seemed to be an attack. “Brown she called down the passage.”

“Yes?” was the reply.

“There is an attack on the island, they’re coming in on the travel pads. With me.” She led him back up to the travel pad area. Her intuition was right, she heard the travel pads hum slightly. They both covered the hallway and when Andacians entered it they shot at them. A lot more of the doors opened and more enemy soldiers came through. There were too many to shoot so Lizzie threw a grenade down the middle of the passage and nearly all of them were knocked out. “Throw down your arms,” she cried to those who were still standing. Some of them threw down their weapons. Those who did not were shot at by Brown so accurately that they decided to surrender after all. She heard the machines hum again and another batch came through. They had difficulty opening the doors and were kept in the rooms by Brown and Lizzie firing at them. A group did force the doors open and attempt to rush Lizzie and Brown but her last grenade stopped them. She didn’t know how they were going to contain any more attacks when some soldiers led by Paul opened the other door. The resulting crossfire stopped any more Andacians from entering the hallway. As some more soldiers came to her side to help her she asked another corporal, “Have we successfully stopped the attack?” 

“The ones who got in on the other side have taken over the metal men factory. Sarn’t thinks they are making the metal men work.”

She ran up to the next floor accompanied by Brown and saw some of her own soldiers held off at the corner overlooking the door to the metal man factory. I need some more grenades.

She needed to be back down on the next floor to Wagstaff’s quarters. He had some grenades he was working on, she had seen them, but also, his door was locked and he was obviously trapped in the summit. “You help them out Brown, I’m going for some more grenades.”

Her hat pin was the usual mode of opening locked doors on the earth, even in most parts of Tyreen or the other human kingdoms she was able to open most of them. But these new locks were electronic, and had a keypad. She needed to guess his number. Can I do it?

Wagstaff’s birthday? It didn’t work. What was Irene’s birthday again? The 31st of August 1827. It still didn’t work. Or was it the 27th? She inputted 310827 into the keypad and it opened. “Yes!”

His room was nearly as small as hers and full of Hoo junk, bits of artefacts he was interested in and didn’t want to keep in his lab or that he forgotten he had in his lab coat when he got back to his room. There were two of the newer grenades, based on the technology he had found in the energy rifles, on his desk. She picked them up. When he had showed her, they worked in a similar way to the old ones except that you could set the timer between 1 and 10 seconds. Looking around for anything else of use she found an energy rifle with no battery pack. “He always takes things to pieces,” she moaned to herself as she looked for a battery pack. 

As she looked under the bed and moved one of his spare shoes she found one. It might work. When she had loaded it in she did a test shot at his door and found out it did work, especially when it burned a hole straight through it! “Oh dear, well never mind, he’ll have to get a new door.” She pulled the door closed and found out that it no longer locked. Trying a couple of times more she decided to leave it and made her way back up to the fight on the floor above. Brown was taking pot shots at those he saw near the doorway. His rifle versus their first generation energy weapons. She handed him the newer energy weapon she had found in Wagstaff’s quarters. “Thanks,” he said as he put his old rifle down. 

“I’m going to throw one of these newer grenades in,” she told him as she looked towards the doorway. A bolt from an energy rifle passed her and hit the man to her left. She stood back, “I’ll need some cover Tom.” 

“Let me oblige then,” he smiled as he put three shots into the doorway. It looked as though he hit one of them as well.

While he was shooting into the doorway she ran across the hallway onto the same side as the door. She turned the timer for three seconds and threw it into the doorway. There was a large discharge and she heard four thuds on the floor. Leaning forward slightly she saw that the four men holding this door had fallen. Motioning to Brown to move forward she got her electric pistol out. Once both she and Brown had got to the door she saw another two men coming to take over the position from their downed comrades. She stunned one and the sergeant killed the other with a hole straight through his chest. 

“Nasty,” he commented as he took a position inside the room to fire on a metal man that was coming towards them. 

Lizzie didn’t know whether to throw another grenade for she could see three more metal men and about ten Andacians behind it. She decided to try and shoot it with her electric pistol. Brown hit its shoulder and melted it slightly but still it came on. Lizzie’s bolts of electricity were doing no good, again Sergeant Brown aimed at it but this time its chest and he hit it. The thing had its chest plate fused to the workings inside and it also took a step back. Two more steps forward and it would be upon them. The rest of Paul’s men from the hallway had also come into the room and fired their weapons at it. Some of the bullets must have done something to its insides because one half of its body seemed to stop working. It stood there and tried to reach for Lizzie just inches off her head. Another shot from Brown’s rifle and it became inert. Now the other three metal men and the soldiers were coming down to deal with Lizzie and the rest. She fumbled for the grenade and wen she found it turned it to a full ten seconds and threw it. It landed right among them but before it went off the invaders were able to shoot at them. Brown was hit in the shoulder and a couple of the other men were downed. Lizzie hid behind the inert metal man that was still standing. 

The grenade went off and all but one of the metal men was caught in its discharge. The one that still could ran towards them. Brown missed two shots. It charged into the broken metal man and knocked Lizzie flying. The sergeant made one last shot and managed to hit its leg bringing it down. It slid on the floor towards them then started to crawl in their direction. The sergeant tried to fire again but the power cell had been depleted. He whacked it with the now useless rifle that was snatched off him by the crawling machine. Falling backwards over a fallen comrade he tried to evade its grasp. Lizzie was now behind it for it had passed her, she emptied the chamber of her DN35 into the back of its neck and the last shot severed the bundle of wires housed there. The metal man’s arm fell onto Sergeant Brown’s leg but did nothing more. “Ow,” he cried just before he kicked the lifeless arm away from him. 

Attack on Thera (Chapter Five.)

CHAPTER FIVE

When Lizzie got there she went straight over to the queen to see how she was. She looked concerned, “How is she?”

Parvill was haughty, proud and was also not overly concerned, “As long as she wakes up slowly then there will be nothing wrong with her.”

“So what were you doing to her then?”

“We are changing her thought processes so that she will be more amenable to the Hoo cause.”

“I thought you were Andacians?”

“No, we are Hoo.”

“But you are not giants?”

“We have been genetically manipulated to look human.”

“Gene what?”

Wagstaff was listening, “Changed Lizzie, in their bodily structure, so they look more like us. I bet he is still super strong though,” The professor threw a small metal container at Parvill who caught it and crushed it in one hand.

“See what I mean, super strong.”

“But I thought giants were supposed to have six fingers?”

Ichabod looked at the side of Parvill’s hand, “See, he has a very feint scar on the side of his hand, he has had his extra fingers surgically removed.”

Parvill put his hand in his pocket but too late because Lizzie did see the scar. He then sneered at them.

“What is it,” asked Wagstaff, “what do you know?”

“We can genetically engineer Gite without six fingers or toes. There will be no scars then to reveal us.”

“Why do you call yourselves Gite?” asked Lizzie.

“As Hoo means ‘Heroes of old’ so Gite means ‘Giants in the earth’. The Gite are the children of the Hoo and we shall rule the solar system.”

“But we have stopped your plans to invade earth.”

Parvill laughed menacingly, “That was just one plan, to take your Great British Empire by deceit. It would have made it easier on you, now you shall have to suffer invasion from the air as we fly our spaceships to earth to turn you all into slaves.” 

To Simpkins she looked for backup before she spoke to Parvill again, “You have to defeat the people of Thera first.”

“That will be underway soon, the ships are readying even now to bring devastation on Tyreen, Fenega, Vurindai and Chelac.”

“What about Andacia?”

“We already rule Andacia, our clones have infiltrated all of the key positions, it is they who will help us defeat the rest of the human kingdoms, from within the electric shield.”

“Which giant kingdom are you from?”

“We are from the United Kingdoms of Grak, Flymm and Svastol.”

“How have they become united?” asked Wagstaff, “they have been at war for hundreds of years.”

“A powerful ruler has united us, Drakuum.”

This sent a chill through Lizzie’s being.

Now they needed to discuss all of these revelations more privately so Lizzie asked one of the soldiers to guard Parvill while she spoke to Wagstaff and the others. She closed the door of Victoria’s room. “The United Kingdoms of Grak, Flymm and Svastol are planning to invade both the human kingdoms on Thera and earth soon. We must warn Tyreen and the rest. Andacia has already fallen to the plot and they will also be attacking the kingdoms to the south.”

“We must tell them at once,” said Simpkins, “Andacia needs to be attacked.”

“We need to take Gersbalk first,” thought Wagstaff, “it can be used as a flying base to attack the Eastern giant kingdoms, we can even used their travel pads against them to land troops behind their lines and cause disruption.”

As they were talking the doors at the top of the amphitheatre burst open and some of the slave males who worked on Gersbalk ran in with clubs. Tran called to them, “Sot hama din got,” but too late for as the men continued into the room they attacked one of the soldiers and clubbed him to the ground. Tran continued to cry out in protest.

Lizzie brought three down with her electric pistol. Things got so desperate that the soldiers had to use their rifles as clubs because they couldn’t reload in time. Wagstaff used his last good grenade that knocked most of them out and one of the soldiers. The rest were frightened by the use of the grenade and cowered over near the right wall, dropping their weapons. “Dinat sant bund ganto,” they cried.

“What did they say Lizzie?” inquired Simpkins.

“We were made to do it.” She knew intuitively what would happen next. “Quick, the rest of the giants are about to attack!”

She was right. The other four giants came through the door shooting energy weapons. One of the soldiers fell immediately. The professor threw one of his makeshift grenades and stunned two of them who fell to their knees. Lizzie used her pistol to good effect shooting three charges at another and bringing him down. The one who was unaffected, a good seven or eight feet tall, picked up a bench and threw it at three of them, Lizzie included. All of them fell under the impact of the bench. Johnson kept firing his energy weapon at the giant, who was dressed in such a way that the material deflected the rays harmlessly.

Brown managed a reload and shot at the giant wounding him in the leg. The giant yelled in anger more than pain and charged at Brown smashing him into the wall. Lizzie had dropped her electric pistol on the floor and while she was trying to get it back saw that the two stunned giants were now preparing to shoot. Simpkins and Paul both made shots at the giant’s heads, Simpkins missed. One of the giants fell to the floor dead.

Unable to retrieve her electric pistol instead Lizzie used her DN35 and fired from the floor at one of the giants. As she did she saw Parvill grab for something from the corner of her eye. He was above her eye line so she pulled herself up onto the bed and saw him going to fire something into the Queen’s neck. “Get away from her or I’ll fire.”

“Shoot me dear and it’ll probably inject into her neck any way, as part of the nervous reaction.”

Lizzie held back. Parvill then took a small transport device from his pocket with the other hand, held on to Queen Victoria, then they both vanished. “Noooo,” cried Lizzie in despair.

Wagstaff used another grenade on the last giant and as he fell to his knees Simpkins shot him through the heart.

One of the soldiers was dead, the others were badly injured. Wagstaff and Lizzie had bruises. Simpkins, Phoenix and Johnson had got away with it lightly. They now had three captured giants, Oswald and the other doctor to store somewhere. 

Tran directed them to the cells that the giants locked unruly slaves in. They also found out that some of the slaves could use the Hoo technology and had been doing so without the giant’s knowledge. Lizzie and the others were told that the slaves could switch the travel pads back on and also ‘fly’ the island to wherever they wished. It was decided that they would make their way to Teredon so that Tyreen’s scientists could study her and also to receive protection from the base itself in case the Hoo tried to recapture her.

The hundred or so slaves that were on Gersbalk were very helpful to Wagstaff and the other scientists showing them how things worked on the island.

There was one more secret the slaves revealed that solved a problem that Wagstaff had encountered in his study of the metal men. He was talking to Rolf Jacquabean, one of the ex-British slaves who had been captured recently and had ended up on the island, in the metal man factory that they were getting ready to use again. Wagstaff was trying to shut down the lasers to make it safer to walk around on this part of the ship, “I still have not been able to work out the mechanism for the metal man brain. I know that it is housed in a box in the head but that when you detach it stops working. Some kind of organic material.”

“It is brains Professor,” replied Jacquabean, “they cut out human brains and put them in that box.”

“Brains?” flustered the professor, “but the box is square?”

“I have heard that they squished the brains in. They also used electronic means to control the brains so that they did what the giants wanted. This was the reason they stopped production here, they ran out of suitable human brains, that and they thought they had enough metal men made for any eventuality. Over time some went mad and others overcame the programming and attacked the Hoo. So the giants developed other technologies to counterbalance this.”

“What other technologies?” asked the professor as he cut the circuit and stopped the laser.

“The ones they are using on the planet. Up here on Gersbalk they didn’t bother to upgrade anything because it was so old and only supposed to be a transport pad overflow really. They had only started fitting newer guns more recently because they heard that Gersbalk might be a target for the human kingdoms to attack.”

Once they got back to Teredon Lizzie and the others was called into a meeting with Admiral Shore, he was most pleased that they had captured Gersbalk. “We should rename it,” he suggested.

“We had thought about renaming it New Britannia,” she replied.

“I don’t know, that might cause rankles with high command.”

 “Well then, allowing Colonel Phoenix to be its new captain might cause even more rankles,” commented Wagstaff. “Also, Lizzie gets on so well with all the old slaves because she speaks Hoo that they have offered to stay on and help us.”

“You can’t be serious,” said the Admiral, his jaw dropped.

“The New Britannia would make a good base for the Empire to work from. We would not be taking over anybody else’s land, just making sure that the earth is not invaded.”

“You cannot do that!” blustered the admiral.

“We captured her and it is we who should have the biggest say,” demanded Lizzie. 

“This is not right, my government shall have something to say about this.”

She opened a file she had on her, “Here is a letter to Queen Isabella, requesting said flying island for a roving base.”

Shore took the letter and dismissed them. He did not like this turn of events at all, an Empire presence on Thera with a flying weapon as powerful as the best in their fleet. Though he was originally British his allegiance was now with the kingdom of Tyreen and he would separately advise his queen against this course of action.

The VAS members of the soon to be renamed New Britannia had already been receiving reinforcements and supplies via the travel pads from earth. Wagstaff and his scientific team had figured out how the Hoo had been able to do this. As long as there was one IWTD in operation then that could direct its payload to any other travel pad.

Paul’s entire unit had come through as well as the scientists from Rookwood. Their first target was to get all of the cannons working. About ten percent of the guns were the modern ones that the giants had been fitting when they were attacked. Ten percent of the old ones were working and the rest needed either replacing or repairing. They did not have enough scientists or engineers to do this so some of the guns were sent back to the earth.

Lizzie received an invitation to meet with Queen Isabella at the Spanish Palace in the capital city of Tyreen. She travelled there on the Princess Tawa and the admiral had also ordered that Reena and her ship go with them as an escort. 

Lizzie waved to both Charlie and Reena from the deck of the Tawa as they flew over the city. When they landed the Queen herself and her household was there to greet them. Lizzie bowed slightly to as they shook hands. Queen Isabella led the way into the palace. 

The meeting was in the rear reception room, the queen sat first followed by Lizzie. Isabella picked up the letter from the table they were sitting at. “Thank you for your letter Miss McBean. I was advised by Admiral Shore to reject your request.” She looked over the letter before she made her statement, “However I have considered your request and after deliberation with my officials I am pleased to inform you that you can have the flying island, with one proviso, that some of the crew will be from the Tyreen air navy.”

Lizzie nodded back at her and smiled, “This is commendable Your Highness, and may our two great nations be able to defeat the giant menace.”

They both looked pleased with each other.

“This reminds me of the time I met Maximilian who became the Emperor of Mexico,” commented Lizzie.

“Most of my ancestors are either Spanish or South American, I do however have an English uncle.”

“So do I!” replied Lizzie which sounded a bit foolish really because she was English.

They left on good terms.

She rode back with Reena and her crew to catch up on the gossip. As she sat in the galley looking out of the window she saw Simpkins peering over at them with a telescope, I do believe he’s jealous! This pleased her no end.

★★★★★★★ "Incredulouso!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"You do know that's not a direct quote from anything but this blog don't you," King Arthur asked me. "And seven stars, they don't even do seven stars on Amazon."
"I know," I replied, "I was just having a bit of fun that's all."
"And incredulouso sounds a little like incredibly lousy, and you don't want them to think that do you?"
"Oh..."

Attack on Thera (Chapter Four.)

CHAPTER FOUR

The explosion was unexpected. The sound she had been listening for was that of an electrical discharge, a kind of crackling buzz this however was definitely an explosion. Her ears rang, then she heard Simpkins’ voice.

“Do you surrender?” he called.

“Yes,” came the reply, “we give in.”

Not knowing if he could really trust them he nodded to Paul so as to make sure that the other man would maintain his vigilance over the gap in the barricade. Warily he climbed over it, grenade in hand. When he looked over the other side he saw that six of the ten men were dead outright. The other four were wounded, one bleeding out. He looked back at Lizzie and the others who had come out of the door to make sure they could help if he needed it. “Come on they need help.” Climbing over one of the men Paul had shot earlier he made his way to the soldier who could talk. “Where are you hurt?” he asked.

The man had been wounded in the side.

Lizzie came over next helped by Johnson. She looked at the one who was mortally wounded. He had been hit in the throat and could not speak. A look of terror was in his eyes and he seemed to be trying to gulp. As she held the wound on his neck, a half smile came across his face then he stopped breathing. Poor man. She wiped her hands with the handkerchief from her bag.

Wagstaff, who had a little more medical knowledge than Lizzie, helped the one who needed the attention most out of the others. He tied off the man’s leg with a tourniquet before he bled to death.

Lizzie went over to the man who had called the surrender to them. He was holding his side. “Let me see,” she asked as she took hold of the hand he was using to cover his wound. He lifted his hand. When she uncovered his side she saw that a piece of shrapnel had hit him. It needed removing, but she had no tools to do so. She stemmed the flow of blood as best she could with a wad of cloth given to her by Phoenix who was standing near. “He needs a surgeon really,” she told Paul.

Paul could do nothing but shrug.

After tying the other man’s leg up he came over, “How is he?”

He has shrapnel in his side, he needs someone to take it out, but I have no tools,” she replied.

“I have some pliers, they need cleaning though.”

“I do have some tweezers but I fear they would be too small.”

Wagstaff looked at the wounded man, “Is there anyone on the island who can help you medically?”

The man looked up in obvious pain, “There are a couple of Doctors/scientists who came through the planet portal with us. One of them has surgical skills.”

“Can you contact them?”

The man had trouble reaching into his pocket but managed to retrieve a small communications device. He twisted it slightly to reveal a mouthpiece and earphone then spoke into it, “Dr. Oswald, can you put Dr. Oswald on please.”

They heard another voice on the other end, “What do you want Brown?”

“Is Dr. Oswald there, we need medical attention.”

“Did you kill Wagstaff and the others?”

He remained silent not knowing what to say. 

There was hardness in the man’s voice as he replied, “Unless you kill them all then you will get no attention from Doctor Oswald.” The line went dead.

“Parvill, Parvill…” cried the man, desperately.

Lizzie glanced at Wagstaff who shook his head. This man could die at any time, Parvill is evil! She thought to herself.

“Can you ask Tran if there any medical facilities near please Lizzie,” asked the professor, “my Hoo is not as fluent as yours, not the spoken kind anyway.”

There was a medical station further down the passage they were in but they had to climb back over the barrier. Paul and Lizzie guarded the doorway that Parvill’s men had come through just in case he sent reinforcements. Simpkins and the others pulled some of the barricade down to allow easier access to the part of the passage where the medical station was, then took the wounded there.

Everything in the room was white, the bed, the surfaces of the cupboards, the floor, the ceiling. Tran directed Simpkins and Johnson to lay the man with the side wound on the bed. As they did so he said, “Se glimpto flang ton.”

A small silver coloured metal robot came out of a panel in the wall and scanned the wounded man. It then proceeded to put him into a type of stasis before it operated on him to remove the piece of shrapnel. After sealing him together it then stopped the stasis. The man did not awake, for he was never put to sleep, but, because he had been repaired and given some kind of pain relief, he sat up and said, “I feel hungry!”

Lizzie was amazed, a man who could have died within hours now healed and asking for food!

The medical metal man ‘repaired’ each of the humans, including Paul’s ankle.

Touching her chin in thought she asked the Corporal who had the side wound a question, “Are you real?”

“What do you mean Miss?” he asked. 

“Are you one of those doubles.”

“No, not me, I come from Paddington.”

“Well then, why were you working for Parvill then?”

“Me and me mates were recruited in a bar on the Chippenham High Street. They took us to that castle, gave us uniforms and trained us. We thought we was in the army.”  He let his hand run across the side he was standing against, preparing to tel her his innermost thoughts, “Then we were dragged into this nightmare. It’s not right you know, “ he looked her in the eye, “they have the queen,” he said with emotion.

“Are you with us? “

“They also have giants. Parvill had two of us killed when we wanted to go back home.”

“So, are you with us?”

“Can you get me and the lads back home?”

She nodded, “Of course, we just need help getting the queen back.”

Checking with his other men by nodding to each of them he then replied to her, “We are with you.”

When he heard this Paul said, “You can lead us to Parvill then.”

“He might kill her you know, so we can’t rescue her.”

Simpkins also came over, “You know where she’s being held and the security he has, can we do it before he does?”

“He has her strapped to a bench in a laboratory on the next floor. They are trying to change her mind in some way so that if she goes back home she will be working for them. They have set up cameras on the way there so they can see if we try anything.”

“They take photographs?” wondered Lizzie.

“More like moving pictures, but in colour and with sound.

“‘We found out that this flying island is very old, the giants have developed newer technologies since it was built. It is only more recently that one of the giant factions has been using it as a flying base. Oh, by the way, he’s a spy.”

He nodded over to Hawkins.

Quickly Hawkins looked from man to man then started to run away from the door of the medical room. Lizzie stepped out and shot him with her electric pistol. He fell down mid run. “How do you know he was a spy?” she asked the corporal.

“Parvill spoke to him over his communications device, it was him who raised an alarm to let us know you were here.”

Paul walked over to Lizzie who had made her way over to the unconscious Hawkins, “It seems as though that other fellow back at the base was set up.”

“Unless there were two of them?” she looked at Johnson.

He had an open expression, “I’m not a spy.”

She believed him, “I don’t think you are.” scanning the downed Hawkins she asked, “What do we do with him then?”

“Let’s tie him to the medical bed,” said the Corporal, “get that metal doctor to perform an operation on him.” He smiled and cocked his head slightly.

So they tied him to the bed but Lizzie had assumed he was joking about the operation bit. “When he wakes up he might have a nice headache.”

Wagstaff took Lizzie, Simpkins and Paul to one side to talk to them quietly. “Knowing that Parvill is waiting for us, and may kill the queen, concerns me.”

“I have an idea,” she revealed, “we could send the Corporal and his men in to either attempt the rescue or interfere with the camera things so we can get in.”

“Do we trust them now?” asked Paul.

She pointed at him, “You can go with them, put some black on your face like one of the dead ones, you’re dressed nearly the same. Put one of their hats on and go in near the back.”

“It might work,” agreed Paul.

“You can take my last two good grenades with you,” offered Ichabod, “that will knock out anyone in there, and deal with any electrical equipment.”

“I could dress as a soldier as well,” said Simpkins, “we could even bring the rest of you in as prisoners.”

They told the others this plan but the Corporal told them that the prisoner part would not work, “Parvill told us to make sure you were all dead.”

So it was decided, Paul and Simpkins would go with the corporal and his men. They walked behind the rest of the soldiers as they went through the passage towards the next deck. Lizzie and the others followed until just before the first camera.

As she waited she notice her palms were sweating. Would they succeed or would Paul and Simpkins be killed in the crossfire? Wagstaff saw her and tried to calm her nerves, “I’m sure they’ll be all right, both of them are resourceful and tough.”

She smiled at him but was still very bothered about them.

They all walked down the ramp, Paul saw one of the cameras and made sure he looked down at the floor, Simpkins readjusted his helmet. As they passed it they glanced at each other. John fingered one of the electric grenades in his tunic pocket.

Once they had passed two more cameras that seemed to follow them they continued on towards the experimental section. 

Entering through the double doors Simpkins and Paul saw something similar to an amphitheatre that led down to a staging area. There was a collapsible screen at the other end that was partially open and there was another room beyond where Simpkins could see that Queen Victoria was lying with wires and tubes attached to her.

Parvill came through an office door that led into the area behind the screen, followed by the Oswald and the other doctor. They had seen the men returning on their surveillance system.

There seemed to be no obvious threat from Parvill and his doctors so Simpkins nodded to Paul to see how it would play out if they just listened for now.

“So they are all dead then?” Parvill asked the corporal.

“Er, yes.”

“You seem a little confused by the question, are they all dead or not?”

Now the corporal was a little confused because he had expected Simpkins to throw one of the electric grenades. He looked down at the floor because he didn’t want to reveal either Simpkins or Phoenix by looking at them, “Yes they are all dead, even the girl.”

Parvill looked among his men, “Four dead, where’s the air sailor who was with them?”

“He’s dead as well, they found out he was a spy and killed him.”

Parvill considered this, “We can grow another Hawkins if we need one. Now which of you needs medical attention?”

“A slave led us to a medical room and we were repaired by the metal man there.”

“Mmm,” hummed Parvill, “go and clean yourselves up and get a meal. If I need you again I’ll call you.” 

Dr Oswald turned and went back into the office followed by one of the other scientists.

Parvill instead went over to Queen Victoria and checked the wires and tubes going into her body.

The corporal glanced at Paul to see if they were indeed going to get cleaned up and some food. Paul then motioned to Simpkins to let him know that they were going to move now. Paul went for Parvill while Simpkins went for Oswald. Parvill put his hands up when Phoenix trained his rifle on him, “What do you think you are doing?”

As Simpkins got to the doorway he did not just see Oswald and the other doctor there but also two seated giants. He fumbled in his pocket for the grenade.

“What do you want?” asked Oswald.

Simpkins knew that when he had turned the dial on the top of the grenade they would have ten seconds to respond once he had thrown it. He turned the dial, “Er, what I was going to say is that we found this on them.” He took the grenade out of his pocket, counted beneath his breath, “5, 4, 3,” then threw it into the room. As he dived out one of the giants caught it and tried to crush it, but too late. It went off and Oswald, the other doctor and the two giants were shocked into unconsciousness. “Whew that was close,” he said to the corporal who helped him up. As he brushed himself down he asked, “By the way, what’s your name?”

“Corporal Brown, Corporal Tom Brown.”

“Can you Let Lizzie and the others know that we’ve been successful.”

“Of course,” replied Corporal Brown as he turned to go back up to the entrance.

Simpkins then went over to see Phoenix who was talking to Parvill.

“… when?” Paul looked over at Simpkins, “He says he cannot take her off of the machine yet in case she dies.”

His lips thinned in obvious displeasure, “We will be hanging around here like sitting ducks with I don’t know how many metal men, drones and giants after us.”

“Four giants.”

“Eh?”

“If there were only ten giants to begin with then there are only four left.”

“Whatever.” He looked back at the Parvill, “How long?”

“About two hours,” he smiled ominously.

Simpkins knocked the chair sideways that was near him. He saw Brown’s soldiers looking at him and tried to calm himself down a little then ordered them to, “Bind up Oswald and the others so we don’t have any problems with them.”