Colonization Attempt Forbidden Text

Casomir First and Second Settlement

Two uniformed men were talking quietly in the dining room of the Gazymar IV space station that served as headquarter for the men responsible of the colonization of new territories of the Confederation of Bahjahpur. One was tall and thin. He seemed to have fifty years and he wore the insignia of a colonel in the Smirthian army. The second was smaller and younger; he proudly wore his insignia of captain.

Colonel Kaysesber spoke:

Casomir planet was discovered a long time ago and a first colonization attempt has been made. But it seems to have been in a region subject to magnetic storms and this first colonization attempt has failed  It is located at the extreme limit of the space explored by the galactic confederation of Bahjahpur. It revolves around an isolated dwarf star, a little away from a cloud of stars in the M6 galaxy.  However, a new reconnaissance conducted ten years ago concluded that it was inhabitable and that settlers could be send there. We could propose to some pioneers from Kensaar stellar Federation, which is located in the same galaxy, to settle there.

– Absolutely, and I propose lieutenant Gerberon who is a new recruit to go with them.

– In this case, we could perhaps send Lieutenant Gerberon with the next reconnaissance mission which starts next month to visit this area of the M6 galaxy. This will allow him to prepare for the arrival of the settlers.

– Yes! This is a great idea. I’ll talk to general Bergeac. It is he who must endorse the order of sending settlers to Casomir.

Lieutenant Gerberon was extremely excited to go on his first expedition. He studied carefully all reports on the planet Casomir which had been entrusted to him, and he completed his knowledge through personal research on galactic archives.

He had discovered a somewhat odd detail. Indeed, this planet had been colonized thousands of years ago and had been abandoned without explanation. And now, it was rediscovered as if nothing had happened before.

Yet, the reports indicated that it contained everything one could wish for a successful operation and long-term settlement, a temperate climate, an atmosphere similar to the atmosphere of Bahjahpur that would not need to genetically modify settlers that  would be sent, varied and abundant mineral resources and quite an enjoyable vegetation.

It was his first major mission and he wanted to succeed impeccably.

After an uneventful voyage, the exploration spaceship had come to go into orbit around planet Casomir. Lieutenant Gerberon entered the shuttle that would drop him to the ground with the other members of the third exploration expedition.

They chose a plain covered with trees in the center of which the shuttle landed. After the usual checks on the weather conditions and the radioactivity of the place, the lieutenant asked permission to set foot first on Casomir. It was granted without problems and he jumped happily at the bottom of the aircraft.

The air was fresh and the plain sloped gently down to a hedge of bushes that bordered a stream gurgling merrily under the hot summer sun.

The other members of the expedition descended in turn with different measuring instruments with which they worked all day. It was the same routine the following day, and Gerberon, who had no particular work to be done, spent his day walking in the welcoming woods. He also made a trip with the mini-helicopter aboard and reconnoitered various interesting places among those he had spotted on the map of Casomir prepared by previous expeditions. He visited the rare mountains of the single continent of Casomir which consisted mainly of plains and hills similar to the one on which was laid the recognition shuttle. The third day was uneventful and they left to join the spacecraft orbiting Casomir.

They returned to the space station Gazymar IV and Casomir planet was officially declared good for colonization.

Lieutenant Gerberon immediately returned to Kensaar stellar Federation where he would participate in the recruitment of the first settlers of Casomir. Candidates included several childless couples and a few singles. Couples with children were also presented, but they were denied for the first implantation. In fact, Casomir would not have initially the amenities necessary for the education of children. In addition, although Casomir seemed very inviting and providing no danger, shipping officials were reluctant to send children during the first colonizing expedition to a planet. However, they were promised that they could come in the second or third colonizing expeditions that were planned for the following months.

The first three expeditions took place without incident and after a few months, Casomir disposed of all the amenities needed for childcare.

There were now ten thousand inhabitants on the planet, all gathered in the city of Gromosk which was located in the exact spot where Lieutenant Gerberon landed on his first visit to the planet Casomir. As the planet had a relatively uniform landscape, the settlers moved little away from Gromosk where they found everything they might need. A boomtown had grown on the plain. It included a hospital, a bank for loans to settlers, two shops offering clothing and food, various specialty shops and a market for the sale of Casomir settler productions, a weather station and a library.

All around, fields of wheat, corn and barley made a colorful patchwork on the plain. Cows and sheep and some horses were grazing peacefully on the plain. A simple fence separated the cultivated land from the land used for breeding.

A few houses scattered in a radius of thirty kilometers around Gromosk and two open pits completed human settlements on Casomir.

The fourth expedition brought the first children on Casomir. A school was built on the occasion, and a teacher came especially from Kensaar to settle there.

The first plant was being installed, and a dam upstream of the Ghemsar River that was crossing Gromosk, was also under construction to provide the energy needed for its operation.

Lieutenant Gerberon was quite satisfied with the results he had obtained for his first mission and was preparing to return triumphantly to Gazymar IV.

This is when the trouble began. First, some workers who worked on the construction of the dam were found lying unconscious on the ground.

When they regained consciousness, they explained to the rescue team that they had felt a violent shock before losing consciousness. These accidents having no visible consequences on the health of workers, work continued normally for a few weeks. Then, the epidemic of electric shocks continued, and one of the workers, having perhaps a constitution lower than the others, never recovered and died.

The authorities then began to be worried and to consider moving the dam on a site further upstream. As the attacks continued and a second worker died, a second site was chosen for the construction of the dam and the workers abandoned the first. A team of scientists was sent during this time to study the dangerous zone.

But the epidemic of electric discharges continued at the second site and a third death was reported.

Dams were then abandoned in favor of building a nuclear power plant at the mouth of Ghemsar River, about fifty kilometers south of Gromosk.

This attempt experienced the same troubles, but this time, Lieutenant Gerberon persisted and asked the army to intervene to protect the workers. A squadron of sappers came from Kensaar to escort the workers on the site chosen for the construction of the nuclear power plant. A team of scientists also settled permanently on the site now called Duranhal, from the name of the third worker who died when trying to build the dam. The scientists had only the task to be available to help military forces in the event of a new appearance of the mysterious disease.

It was not long before new attacks were reported, and they occurred simultaneously on the construction site of Duranhal nuclear power plant and in Gromosk town. In the city, a dozen people were affected, including two children who did not survive it.

With highly sensitive detectors provided from Kensaar ​​by the army, the scientists were able to locate the sources of lethal shock and to follow their movements. Several workers, but also scientists and military from Duranhal were affected by the discharges, but all recovered after a few hours of rest.

The news received from Gromosk were however alarming and emergency reinforcements were requested from Kensaar. Special devices were developed at the Space Station of Gazymar IV to trap the strange energy sources.

New attacks occurred and four new victims were reported, including two children from Gromosk school.

Finally the appliances from Gazymar IV arrived with the reinforcements from Kensaar.

The very next day, a mysterious energy source was captured and kept in a sort of Faraday cage. The next day, two others were captured and sent to Gazymar IV to be studied.

Meanwhile, attacks by the strange creatures redoubled power; scientists counted several hundred of thousands of these invisible creatures. They attacked specifically children, so the school was closed and the children returned with their parents to Kensaar.  Hundreds of deaths where now also counted among military forces.

Gerberon now understood why the attempt to colonize Casomir that occurred thousands of years ago had failed.

An order then came from Gazymar IV to abandon the colonization of Casomir.

All human beings then left the planet Casomir to the dismay of Lieutenant Gerberon who saw his first attempt at colonization nullified.

He returned to Gazymar IV, and no more was heard of the planet Casomir for several years. It was classified as non-settable because of mysterious magnetic storms and the folder about the planet was stored in the deep galactic archives of Bahjahpur.

Gerdraïa Defense

On planet Gerdraïa, other beings had problems with strange invaders that they did not understand. They had now been fighting huge machines, which had invaded their territory, for several weeks. At the beginning, they were only curious about the strange machines that had appeared on their planet. They had tolerated them for a few years, while a few of these machines were only exploring the planet. But then, much more of them went on the planet, and they began to dig the ground and build big walls and warehouses.

The machines were hundred times bigger than themselves and they seemed to ignore them completely. They were tearing the land apart with big iron engines and made the grass which covered it disappear. Then they were sowing species unknown on Gerdraïa and, a few months later, huge plants were growing instead of the green grass. They were building huge hollow mountains inside which they disappeared at night. The people of Gerdraïa understood naught about what was happening. At the beginning, the Gerdrans were thronging around the huge creatures, prompted by curiosity. But when the beasts began molding the planet so as to adapt it to their needs, the Gerdrans understood that they had to stop them.

Then, they started studying the huge machines to understand thoroughly how they worked.

At the beginning, they thought sufficient to tease a little the machines to make them fly back aboard their gigantic spacecraft.

What they found easier to start with, was to send electric shocks to a greater or lesser power.

It startled the machines, and if the discharge was large enough they remained motionless for some time. Other machines then came to their rescue and took them away in a white mountain specially designed for this purpose. Once repaired, the machines returned to perform their usual work. Sometimes, they also attacked smaller machines that ran among the great ones. They remained motionless longer than the others and often they did not get up again. They went into the great white mountain and never emerged back. Machines that accompanied them were also absent a moment, and then returned to work, but with less enthusiasm than before.

After finding this, Gerdrans attacked especially the smaller machines. This strategy seemed to be successful. Large machines left, taking with them the small ones who had survived. Gerdrans thought that they got permanently rid of them.

They put their planet back in order and completely forgot this story. There were barely a few lines that made reference to it in the great book of the history of their people.

Casomir Third Settlement

Years had passed, during which Lieutenant Gerberon made ​​his way. He became captain, and after several successful experiences at colonization, colonel of the engineer corps of the army of Bahjahpur and he eventually became the head of operations for the area of space controlled from the Gazymar IV space station with the grade of general.

One night in his office, while he was calmly considering retiring in a few months, he received a visit from a young lieutenant, fresh from the war academy, whose name was Kerveran. He was doing for his studies a report on the latest aborted attempts at colonization, and in particular, on successive attempts to occupy planet Casomir. He explained to general Gerberon that he discovered with one of his comrades a way to colonize areas at risk such as Casomir without risk of casualties. It was to transfer intelligent energy sources such as those discovered on Casomir into human bodies, in clones specially prepared for this purpose and to educate them and make them work on their home planet.

“Such experiments had already been attempted from specimens preserved in the natural history museum of Bahjahpur. They had not been very successful, except those made ​​from the intelligent sources of energy from the planet Casomir.

– I have with me two people I’d like to introduce you, and who may convince you of the importance of this project, said the young man. Can I bring them in?

– Of course, replied Gerberon who still kept fond memories of his first failed attempt at colonization of the planet Casomir.

Lieutenant Kerveran opened the door and two men who were waiting in the anteroom entered.

– I present to you my friends Korvengo and Gerdranar. Korvengo is the classmate with whom I developed this method and … Hum! Gerdranar … is the result.

– Hello sir, said simultaneously Korvengo and Gerdranar.

The two men were absolutely identical in every way except the color of the jacket that was blue for Korvengo and beige for Gerdranar.

– Gerdranar is a clone created from a cell of Korvengo and inhabited by a Gerdran. Thus call themselves the inhabitants of the planet Casomir. The planet itself is called in their language Gerdraïa.

Wait, wait, interrupted general Gerberon, you’re telling me that the hundreds of thousands of invisible energy creature that infest the planet Casomir are all intelligent creatures and that you put one of them in a human body which is a clone of your friend here. Is that right?

– Yes! That’s exactly it, replied lieutenant Kerveran without being put out.

– So! Out of here! Bunch of crooks! Your hoax of young students does not amuse me at all! Go with your nonsense elsewhere, I do not have time to waste with puppets just like you! Come out!”

The general stood up and opened the door of his office while uttering these words.

Lieutenant Kerveran did not move, and just made a simple nod to the intention of Gerdranar.

Gerdranar turned to general Gerberon who startled violently before collapsing on the floor.

Lieutenant Kerveran and his friend helped general Gerberon to recover. The discharge was not too violent, but still enough to shake the general.

He resumed his invectives against the three friends.

– Assault of a senior officer in the exercise of its functions, failure to assist a person in danger! You know that you can’t get away with that! I’ll demote you, expel you from the army!

Kerveran and Korvengo were calmly watching the general until he finished. They were amused and not at all afraid. The general returned to his desk and was about to press a little bell to call for reinforcements when Lieutenant Kerveran spoke again.

– Do you remember what an electric shock sent to its maximum intensity by Gerdran does to a human being?

The general hesitated and hung his gesture.

– Yes! I see you remember, went on Kerveran, it kills him!

Now let’s talk quietly, after which you can refuse our project, then we will leave quietly and we will trouble you no more. And to demonstrate our goodwill, Korvengo will bring Gerdranar back to our hotel. Then we can continue our conversation quietly.

– Wait a minute, I want to talk a little with this Gerdranar.

– My friend, he said, addressing Gerdranar, how old are you?

Gerdranar hesitated, he turned to Korvengo, and then he spoke.

His voice was very similar to Korvengo’s and one would have thought that it was simply a demonstration of his talents as a ventriloquist.

– Are you talking about the age of my body or my personal age?

– Both, nodded Gerberon.

– Eh! Well, for my body, it is easy to answer. From what was explained to me by Korvengo, my body has existed for five years. It was created from one of his cells when he went to the university. His parents have requested its production, in order to provide replacement organs for him in case of an accident. He stayed for several years on the home planet of Korvengo, called Manoïa, if I remember correctly. Korvengo then asked his parents to send it to him giving them a phony excuse. As soon as the body arrived, Korvengo transferred me from my electronic prison to this biological prison.

– A human body is not a prison, as far as I know!

– Not for you, but for me, it is, though I’m a little freer that in the electronic jail where I have been imprisoned since you have invaded my home planet Gerdraïa, that you call Casomir in your language. But I have to carry what you call a human body everywhere with me, and it’s awfully cumbersome. It cannot fly, it moves at a ridiculous speed and when you want to go faster, it is necessary to put it in another box even more cumbersome. In addition, it is equipped with poor cameras, failing hearing and smell and in addition, it needs to be fed twice a day, and sleep every night, otherwise, it is sick.

However, anything is better than staying in an electronic jail like the one I stayed locked up for forty of your years. That is why I would be eternally grateful to Korvengo who made ​​this possible. That said, I’d still be better off this biological prison, but Korvengo claims that it is not possible. Okay, well, I will not bore you with my little problems.

As regards to my own age, I could not tell you. We, Gerdrans, do not take an account of years. I can only tell you that as long and painful may that have been forty years in the electronic prison, they are nothing compared to what I experienced before. Do you have any other questions?

– How did you learn our language so quickly, if you are in this body only for a year?

– I started to study your language when I was on Gerdraïa during the first invasion of machines such as you. Then after my capture, I continued to study from my electronic prison. Finally, Kerveran and Korvengo have spent a lot of time with me to teach me how to speak your language, so that now I’m not speaking too badly. An advantage of this body, which is a copy of the one of Korvengo is that he already knew how to pronounce all the sounds Korvengo knew when he was eighteen years old. I therefore had no difficulty with the pronunciation of words.

– Mmmhh, great story, very well told, almost plausible, grumbled general Gerberon, you may leave, uh … Gerdranar.

Korvengo went along with Gerdranar and general Gerberon heard their footsteps away in the hallway.

– How would you have found the famous technique for transferring this … uh! Gerdran … from his electronic prison into a clone of a human body?

– Uh! I learned it from a sorcerer on the planet Manoïa who I met when I was a student. He told me to call him Chtulhu or Ghor, I think.

– And what has become of this ah! Ghor … since?

– I do not know! We worked together for a few months, the time for him to teach me most of what I know now, then he disappeared. I completed my research in the university with the help of Korvengo, and now, here we are…

– Do you have any proof of what you say to show me, for example, the result of other experiences you made with Gerdrans or other intelligent sources of energy, asked general Gerberon, who seemed to start to be interested in the case.

– Yes! Of course! If you can come visit our laboratory at the Moxti University of Bahjahpur, we would be delighted to present to you the details of all our work.

– Good! I ‘ll think about it! I’ll remind you tomorrow morning at your hotel, meanwhile, I’ll sleep on it. This is Milton hotel, is not it ? This is where visitors from Gazymar IV usually settle.

– Yes! That’s it!

– Well, you may leave, ended General Gerberon while leading Kerveran to the door.

General Gerberon laid in his chair, reflecting on the consequences of what he had heard, if this proved true.

He telephoned to his friend General Bergeac, now retired, but who continued to give lectures at the University of Bahjahpur.

– Howdy! General Bergeac! Here the general Gerberon calling you from Gazymar IV.

– Hello! How’s my favorite student? Soon to retire, is not it?

– Oh Yes! Soon, and in fact, maybe I’ll have something interesting to do before I quit! Do you remember the planet Casomir on which I did a so disappointing start?

– Yes! But it was not your fault! The planet was not settable, and that’s it! Moreover, nobody has held anything against you about that!

– Two students came to offer me a way to colonize it without risks. Have you heard of a laboratory at the Moxti University of Bahjahpur that would make experiments on human clones?

– No! This tells me nothing!

– Lieutenant Kerveran who told me he works in this lab has just leaved my office. He told me he has managed to implant an intelligent energy source from Casomir in a clone of a human body. Have you heard of it?

– I know Kerveran and his friend Korvengo, they came to see me frequently lately for information on the planet Casomir. Kerveran makes his thesis on colonization attempts that have failed, I think.

– Can you tell me the name of their thesis manager?

– Yes! His name is Kranevag. I only know him by sight, but I can find you his coordinates if you want to join him.

– Yes! I want it! Thank you!

– Here! I found them in the university directory. This is the 05-AZE-34-10!

– Thank you! I’ll call him right away!

General Gerberon called this number and received confirmation about the work made by both students at the Moxti University of Bahjahpur.

General Gerberon went to Bahjahpur and visited the laboratory where the two students worked.

He was soon convinced of the correctness of their theory and returned to Gazymar IV where he called a meeting of his top aides.

After a few stormy deliberations and some striking demonstrations, they decided to make a try at it.

Two copies of the device designed by Kerveran and Korvengo were made and sent to Casomir with equipment and space engineers from Kensaar. They were protected by special combinations that could withstand a shock of 100,000 volts. Their equipment also included ultrasensitive detectors to detect Gerdrans and electronic traps to capture them. As soon as they arrived, the soldiers led by Lieutenant Kerveran captured several hundred Gerdrans. Their devices allowed them to detect several hundred thousands of Gerdrans upon their arrival on Casomir. They continued to hunt them for several days and still imprisoned thousands. Then suddenly, the auras of Gerdrans disappeared from the planet.

The soldiers found them on a small satellite of Casomir and pursued them. They captured one hundred more Gerdrans before they disappeared from the monitors. They then continued to pursue them on another planet in the solar system of Casomir. And then, the electronic auras finally disappeared, permanently this time.

Military patrolled for a few months, and then the planet was again declared as settable.

Meanwhile, thousands of human clones were brought on Casomir and Kerveran and Korvengo began their experiences.

First, they transferred about ten Gerdrans in human clones and began their education.

Civilians were also sent to Casomir to help Kerveran and Korvengo in their work.

As no more incidents took place on Casomir, new families were installed. The nuclear power plant was rebuilt, as well as the various buildings of the city of Gromosk

Kerveran and Korvengo were promoted to captain for this success story. Meanwhile, their experiences on Gerdran clones gave spectacular results. The Gerdrans advanced in their studies at a spectacular speed and perfectly integrated the human population of Casomir.

*

The Battle of Gerdraïa

Gerdrans on planet Gerdraïa had been living quietly since the first attempt at colonization by the machines and had completely forgotten them.

However, some time later, other machines had returned. They were larger than the first ones and of a uniform green color.

The Gerdrans tried to inflict electric shocks like the first time, but it had no effect. The Green Machines were manipulating devices that emit strange waves. The Gerdrans quickly realized that these devices allow machines to spot them. The machines then emitted a multicolored light beam and the aura of the Gerdrans reached disappeared.

After a few of them have disappeared, the remaining Gerdrans fled, pursued by the giant machines and the strange devices.

Machines pursued them until Gerdrans survivors decide to abandon their planet. They tried to colonize a satellite of Gerdraïa, but the machines continued hunting them. It was the same when they tried to colonize neighboring planets. They then abandoned their solar system and sought refuge on a distant planet uninhabited located in another galaxy and they called it Germusa.

Beerfenegar was among the survivors. But he could not bring himself to the loss of his close friends. A few years later, he decided to go back to see what was going on Gerdraïa.

He saw that the big machines were back together again accompanied by smaller machines, and they were more numerous than ever. He approached nearer to observe what had built the machines during his long absence. Mountains built by machines now occupied a huge surface of Gerdraïa and plants brought by the machines occupied almost all of the remaining space.

Beerfenegar was there in his reflections when a multicolored light beam struck him full force. He felt drawn by the light and lost consciousness.

When Beerfenegar regained consciousness, everything was dark around him. After a few moments, he realized he was inside one of the gigantic machines. He tried to escape, but he did not succeed. He had never thought that he would one day find himself blocked within one of the machines. However, he knew enough about their functioning to be able to operate them. He opened the shutters closing the two outer cameras and light filled in the control station.

Beerfenegar then saw hundreds of green leaves dancing above him in a blue sky.

He closed the shutters of the cameras. He was again in complete darkness.

It took him a moment to remember what he had learned about the functioning of this type of machine.

He opened the shutters and swung the two adjustable cameras from right to left and from left to right. He saw over him the leaves of a tree swaying in the gentle breeze in the middle of the afternoon.

He could not see directly outside, but the giant screen that filled half of the control room allowed observation in three dimensions of what was happening outside of the machine. The control system made it possible to orient the two cameras to cover an angle of one hundred and eighty degrees. To see back, he had to rotate the top of the machine to the right or to the left.

The machine was lying at ground level and Beerfenegar knew he had initially to put in a vertical position in order to make it move.

It powered the two lateral arms to lift the machine. The landscape changed on the giant screen. Now he saw a green meadow dotted with trees of various species which sloped gently down a hedge of bushes and shrubs. The two lower legs were still lying on the ground. He folded them and stretched his side arms out to lift the body of the machine and make it rest completely on the two lower legs. Then he unfolded his two lower legs, which had the effect of raising the body of the machine at a dizzying height. Fortunately, the onboard computer helped enormously to ensure coordination of all movements in order to maintain the balance of the machine. Even so, the machine swung dangerously right and left. However Beerfenegar knew he was not arrived to the end of his troubles. Indeed, the propulsion system of the machine was to put it in a state of imbalance alternately lifting each of the two lower legs which supported it. The trick was to throw the second lower leg ahead of the machine and make the machine rest on it before it makes too much a wide angle with the ground so as to remain in balance. The machine was then again in balance on its two lower legs.

He could adjust the speed of the machine in two ways, by increasing the rate of transition from one leg to the other or by extending the distance traveled by the lower leg for each pace.

The fastest method of propulsion was to bring the machine to a state of permanent disequilibrium in which, at times, none of the two lower legs were touching the ground.

He started however, first cautiously, constantly maintaining a balance on the lower legs, then more confidently thereafter. The machine moved slowly, and then left the protective shade of a poplar to arrive in the sun-drenched meadow.

Far below Beerfenegar, insects like bumblebees buzzed close to the ground. They were landing on huge yellow or white flowers.

Beerfenegar saw a little further another machine lying on the floor. He approached it and when he was close enough, he sent a first shock, followed by another at maximum power. The first discharge had only as an effect a small burst of the machine. With the second discharge, the machine did not move, but a faint glow emanated from its peak. The light grew while Beerfenegar was approaching. Then he felt the reassuring touch of the aura of his friend Iona. As soon as he saw Beerfenegar’s machine, Iona issued a shock at full power. Beerfenegar felt a violent pain, the machine where he was prisoner reared, and collapsed on the floor. Beerfenegar suddenly felt released from his prison and rose slowly above the now motionless machine. He then saw clearly the ultra violet aura of Iona.

Both flew and returned immediately to Germusa to hold a council of war.

Beerfenegar and Iona reported what they had seen to the other survivor Gerdrans who had taken refuge on Germusa. They chose to call the machines Cobems, short for Carbon Oxygen Biological Engine Machine.

They decided to try an action to release the Gerdrans still held in machines on Gerdraïa. After exchanging their impressions on the machines, Gerdrans concluded that the machines were generally inactive at night, and that their night vision was very low. That would be the best time to attack them. They needed also to disconnect the devices that allowed the machines to identify them so as to act safely. As electric shocks that they emitted individually were not always sufficient to put a machine out of service, they decided that two Gerdrans would attack the same machine simultaneously. They would all go together on Gerdraïa, and, as they did not know in which machines the Gerdrans were held prisoner, they would put out of action all the machines they met until they have released all Gerdrans who had disappeared. Having made their move, they would all go back to Germusa and give up Gerdraïa to the machines which would not fail to return as it had been the case the first time they had defeated them. Their plan was simple and effective, at least they hoped so.

They arrived at night near the inhabited part of Gerdraïa which was a single continent surrounded by an ocean that covered three quarters of the planet. The Gerdrans remained in orbit around the planet while Beerfenegar and Iona went down as explorers.

Beerfenegar spotted the main energy source located close to the city that the machines had built on Gerdraïa.

He went immediately to the command post which controlled the power plant and issued a discharge of energy. The lights that illuminated the city then extinguished in one fell swoop.

Then he went with Iona in the building where the machines stored the detectors and the guns with multicolored rays. Iona and himself lifted them and gave them sufficient momentum to lift them out of the building. Then they went to join the other Gerdrans in orbit and entrusted them the weapons so confiscated.

The Gerdrans then descended into the buildings in which most of the machines were lying motionless. Between buildings, some machines were running in all directions. These were the first that the Gerdrans knocked down, methodically, one by one. Some machines were protected by combinations that protected them from electric shocks. Against those, fifty thousand Gerdrans emitted their electrical discharges simultaneously. Fortunately, they were few of them and after having eliminated them, they could resume their attacks in groups of two as originally planned. During this attack, they had the surprise to see the auras of Gerdrans who they did not know. However, they had the joy of seeing one of their own among those who was called Vradenegar. They tried to communicate with the others, but they did not respond. They supposed that they were neighbors of other planets who had been caught in the same way by the machines.

Beerfenegar was busy killing the Cobems to free his Gerdran friends.

When a Cobem died, the prisoner Gerdran was freed. Most of them were very happy to get out of their mechanical jail. But sometimes, the freed Gerdran seemed unhappy, as if the Cobem was not a jail, but his house, a slightly mobile house.

Beerfenegar tried to reason these, but it became each time more difficult. Some of the freed Gerdrans had difficulties to readapt as if they could see only through the Cobem eyes and hear through the Cobem ears. Some had even lost their telepathic capabilities and it became more and more difficult to reach them.

They had only a short time before daybreak and the awakening of the other machines. So, they did not deepen the study of their new friends. They attacked relentlessly the sleeping machines. They thus freed thousands of Gerdrans, two thirds of which were unknown.

They had the joy of finding all of their friends, yet they continued to electrocute all the machines they came to in order to release also all foreign Gerdrans.

All the machines were out of action well before sunrise. Liberators tried again to communicate with the foreign Gerdrans, but these displayed an obvious unwillingness to collaborate. The Gerdrans would have liked to warn their new friends that the machines would surely come back and that they had to leave before their return. But they didn’t manage to do it, the new Gerdrans seeming deaf to any explanation. In desperation, the Gerdrans went back to Germusa with their released friends, leaving behind the unknown Gerdrans. They had already well helped them, and if these did not want to accompany them on Germusa, they may get out of the situation by themselves.

On Gazymar IV station, General Kerveran was preparing his retirement. Thirty years had passed without any problem on the planet Casomir and Kerveran had now become the director of the Gazymar IV Space Station sector. His cloning technique was now proven and intelligent energy sources encountered in the new territories under his control were quickly cloned in the same way as Gerdrans were and educated to become settlers on new planets.

He was quietly preparing to the party that his team had organized for his retirement, when the news arrived from Casomir. All members of the colony Casomir, including all Gerdrans, died overnight.

Investigators who went to the scene could only note that all settlers died electrocuted.

The colonization of the planet Casomir was abandoned for the third time; and in his record was added the words “Colonization Attempted Forbidden.”

—— End of “Colonization Attempt Forbidden” ——