DILUS SHOWS HIS AMAZED SENATORS THE NEW DILUSPHERES. HE THEN TELLS THEM OF HIS PLAN TO REAP PLANET EARTH OF ONE OF ITS NATURAL RESOURCES. MASTER DANTE TRIES TO UNRAVEL THE MYSTERY AS TO WHAT DILUS' INTENTIONS ARE.
Chapter Four
DILUSPHERES
THE Great Hall of the castle was dimly lit by candles, in contrast to the outer connecting caverns that were enriched with the ever glowing light of the prismatic beams. Dilus preferred it this way. He now stood in front of a huge stone table. He then turned round to pull down a large projector screen from above. Turning back he leaned forward with his paws on the table, facing his Senators.
"Projector on!" he shouted to the back of the Hall. The large screen lit up with the first projector slide.
"This," said Dilus pointing to the screen. "Is my 'Dilusphere'. Two years in the making and revision of. Just beyond the 'Great Bear' constellation we now have one thousand of these spacecraft cargo carriers on stand-by. Each one," he continued, "is one hundred kilometres in length, twenty kilometres in width and three kilometres in depth. Every Dilusphere holds eight containers capable of carrying thirty square kilometres of cargo per container. Which, my friends, brings me to the reason why we are here!" The Senators turned to one another, in awe at the sheer size of these spacecraft carriers they were seeing.
"At the moment one of the greatest commodities in demand by the Intergalactic Auction Sales Associates, as you all know IS," he paused for a little while and watched as his Senators began muttering out loud the word on their lips. "Yes, Wood, " said Dilus simply. "And planet Earth is still rich with this resource, having both hardwood and softwood forests.
"Our plan of action commences the day after tomorrow, at 10am Earth Greenwich Mean Time. The Diluspheres will, well I suppose, invade the Earth," he said coldly.
"Each Dilusphere has been allocated a mapped out region. We will be concentrating mainly on the hardwood forests situated over the five main continents on Earth, and from the Amazon to the Congo to Borneo. The Diluspheres will spread out and reap up all of the trees. 'Intensive Farming' I like to call it," said Dilus. He then continued:
"The humans are chopping down the forests anyway, leading to their own inevitable destruction. We're just helping them along, by doing it a little bit quicker." The Senators all laughed.
"How do these new Diluspheres work?" asked Garth, one of his Senators in the front row.
"Ah, as I was saying earlier - each Dilusphere contains eight cargo carriers. When the Dilusphere reaches its selected location, the cargo containers are lowered one at a time, from the mothership. Then as they reach surface level the container front drops down, rather like a large door. On the ends of these doors are the nuclear laser cutting spheres, which cut through the base of the trees as the container is propelled forward. The trees are then simply scooped up into the containers. When a container is full it retracts back into the mothership. The next container is lowered, and so on until all are filled to capacity. The Diluspheres will then return to the D.M.P. - Designated Meeting Point." The Senators nodded with amused appreciation as they talked amongst themselves for a moment.
"Okay, Senators. Tomorrow, have your bears located to their regional forest sections ready to guide in the Diluspheres. Possible resistence from the Earth's armies or airforces will be dealt with by Senator Krakov and his fleet of destroyers. Any questions?" The Senators checked their notes.
"Everything ready?" asked Dilus.
"Yes, sir," came the replies.
MEANWHILE back on planet Vynen...
Master Dante had received a message to go to the the monitor room. As he entered he saw that Sarria was by the monitor screens and Jai was collecting printouts from the ecomorphosis.
"You called for me?" asked Dante.
"Yes, sir," replied Jai as he turned to Dante with the notes.
"We have located the position of a large fleet of spacecraft near a star called the Proxima Centuri, only four point three light years away from the planet Earth, sir. There are approximately one thousand in quantity."
"Good," said Dante. "Anything else?"
"Yes, sir. The spacecrafts appear to be cargo carriers, bigger than any others we have seen before; up to one hundred kilometres in length." said Jai.
'One thousand cargo carriers, in the Milky Way Galaxy,' thought Dante to himself.
"Sarria," said Dante
"Yes, sir?" she replied, turning away from the monitors to face Master dante.
"Give me a list of all known commodities on this planet Earth." Sarria swivelled back round to the monitors and immediately began tapping the keys on her computer. Within seconds she was reeling off a list of precious metals, rocks and granites that could be sold or traded in other parts of the Universe.
"No, no," said Dante. "What are the life sources there?" Sarria again tapped away on her keyboard. This time she started to read out a list of species and types of flora and fauna.
"Wait!" said Dante, stopping Sarria in mid-flow. "Of course! Earth will have a photosynthetic biosphere, owing to the interaction with its star's energy, the one the humans call the sun." Dante paused to think for a moment, then went on. "This planet will have evolved over millions of years, eventually leading to 'Arbor Vitae'."
"What's 'Arbor Vitae'?" asked Sarria.
"It derives from an old Earthling language, and literally means 'Tree of Life'. Trees! That's it." said Dante. "They are a large perennial plant found on these types of planets, but very rare..very rare indeed," he repeated, deep in thought. "These are one of the most sought after commodities of the now illegal Intergalactic Auctions, known as 'i-bay."
"Why?" asked Jai inquisitively.
"Hm," said Dante with a shallow sigh. "Again it is the super-rich in this Universe, still stuck with their old ideas of commercial interest. The stems of these trees can be used in all forms of crafts, manufacturing and industry, even burned on fires to celebrate old traditions. Such events are now illegal in most modernised galaxies.
"Earth is a young, modernising planet of mediocre intelligence. They still have a long way to go before they will be asked to join the 'Interuniversal Unification of Species Scheme', as now adopted by most galaxian species.
"These humans, as we all know, have to go through their own learning curves, in order to appreciate that catastrophes occur when they don't pull together, agree and act accordingly upon matters regarding the total preservation of their life giving Mother planet. I believe they may have another two hundred and fifty years to go before they can be approached by the governing bodies of the I.U.o.S.S.
"Typical of this type of hybrid species, they are still arguing and fighting in the name of 'gods' that they create in their own images. 'Zeus' was one of my favourites," Dante laughed. "And of course, there is still the ongoing Intergalactic problem of illegal commercial trade-offs." Master Dante suddenly stopped talking for a moment. He began pacing up and down the length of the monitor room, trying to work out what Dilus was up to.
"That's it," he started again. "Dilus knows that these earthlings, despite their ability to blow themselves and their planet sky high with nuclear weapons, are far from capable of protecting themselves from Dilus and his fleet of destroyers. They are an easy target for him. Damn him!" shouted Dante. Jai and Sarria looked at him, startled. This outburst was totally out of character for Master Dante.
"If it wasn't for the fact that," Dante suddenly stopped. He looked troubled as he turned to face Jai and Sarria.
"If it wasn't for what, sir?" asked Jai.
"Nothing. I'm sorry for that outburst. You two carry on with your work. I must go and speak with Supreme Hyred now. We need to organise a meeting of the councils to confirm what the Echameleon's plan of action will be.
DILUSPHERES
THE Great Hall of the castle was dimly lit by candles, in contrast to the outer connecting caverns that were enriched with the ever glowing light of the prismatic beams. Dilus preferred it this way. He now stood in front of a huge stone table. He then turned round to pull down a large projector screen from above. Turning back he leaned forward with his paws on the table, facing his Senators.
"Projector on!" he shouted to the back of the Hall. The large screen lit up with the first projector slide.
"This," said Dilus pointing to the screen. "Is my 'Dilusphere'. Two years in the making and revision of. Just beyond the 'Great Bear' constellation we now have one thousand of these spacecraft cargo carriers on stand-by. Each one," he continued, "is one hundred kilometres in length, twenty kilometres in width and three kilometres in depth. Every Dilusphere holds eight containers capable of carrying thirty square kilometres of cargo per container. Which, my friends, brings me to the reason why we are here!" The Senators turned to one another, in awe at the sheer size of these spacecraft carriers they were seeing.
"At the moment one of the greatest commodities in demand by the Intergalactic Auction Sales Associates, as you all know IS," he paused for a little while and watched as his Senators began muttering out loud the word on their lips. "Yes, Wood, " said Dilus simply. "And planet Earth is still rich with this resource, having both hardwood and softwood forests.
"Our plan of action commences the day after tomorrow, at 10am Earth Greenwich Mean Time. The Diluspheres will, well I suppose, invade the Earth," he said coldly.
"Each Dilusphere has been allocated a mapped out region. We will be concentrating mainly on the hardwood forests situated over the five main continents on Earth, and from the Amazon to the Congo to Borneo. The Diluspheres will spread out and reap up all of the trees. 'Intensive Farming' I like to call it," said Dilus. He then continued:
"The humans are chopping down the forests anyway, leading to their own inevitable destruction. We're just helping them along, by doing it a little bit quicker." The Senators all laughed.
"How do these new Diluspheres work?" asked Garth, one of his Senators in the front row.
"Ah, as I was saying earlier - each Dilusphere contains eight cargo carriers. When the Dilusphere reaches its selected location, the cargo containers are lowered one at a time, from the mothership. Then as they reach surface level the container front drops down, rather like a large door. On the ends of these doors are the nuclear laser cutting spheres, which cut through the base of the trees as the container is propelled forward. The trees are then simply scooped up into the containers. When a container is full it retracts back into the mothership. The next container is lowered, and so on until all are filled to capacity. The Diluspheres will then return to the D.M.P. - Designated Meeting Point." The Senators nodded with amused appreciation as they talked amongst themselves for a moment.
"Okay, Senators. Tomorrow, have your bears located to their regional forest sections ready to guide in the Diluspheres. Possible resistence from the Earth's armies or airforces will be dealt with by Senator Krakov and his fleet of destroyers. Any questions?" The Senators checked their notes.
"Everything ready?" asked Dilus.
"Yes, sir," came the replies.
MEANWHILE back on planet Vynen...
Master Dante had received a message to go to the the monitor room. As he entered he saw that Sarria was by the monitor screens and Jai was collecting printouts from the ecomorphosis.
"You called for me?" asked Dante.
"Yes, sir," replied Jai as he turned to Dante with the notes.
"We have located the position of a large fleet of spacecraft near a star called the Proxima Centuri, only four point three light years away from the planet Earth, sir. There are approximately one thousand in quantity."
"Good," said Dante. "Anything else?"
"Yes, sir. The spacecrafts appear to be cargo carriers, bigger than any others we have seen before; up to one hundred kilometres in length." said Jai.
'One thousand cargo carriers, in the Milky Way Galaxy,' thought Dante to himself.
"Sarria," said Dante
"Yes, sir?" she replied, turning away from the monitors to face Master dante.
"Give me a list of all known commodities on this planet Earth." Sarria swivelled back round to the monitors and immediately began tapping the keys on her computer. Within seconds she was reeling off a list of precious metals, rocks and granites that could be sold or traded in other parts of the Universe.
"No, no," said Dante. "What are the life sources there?" Sarria again tapped away on her keyboard. This time she started to read out a list of species and types of flora and fauna.
"Wait!" said Dante, stopping Sarria in mid-flow. "Of course! Earth will have a photosynthetic biosphere, owing to the interaction with its star's energy, the one the humans call the sun." Dante paused to think for a moment, then went on. "This planet will have evolved over millions of years, eventually leading to 'Arbor Vitae'."
"What's 'Arbor Vitae'?" asked Sarria.
"It derives from an old Earthling language, and literally means 'Tree of Life'. Trees! That's it." said Dante. "They are a large perennial plant found on these types of planets, but very rare..very rare indeed," he repeated, deep in thought. "These are one of the most sought after commodities of the now illegal Intergalactic Auctions, known as 'i-bay."
"Why?" asked Jai inquisitively.
"Hm," said Dante with a shallow sigh. "Again it is the super-rich in this Universe, still stuck with their old ideas of commercial interest. The stems of these trees can be used in all forms of crafts, manufacturing and industry, even burned on fires to celebrate old traditions. Such events are now illegal in most modernised galaxies.
"Earth is a young, modernising planet of mediocre intelligence. They still have a long way to go before they will be asked to join the 'Interuniversal Unification of Species Scheme', as now adopted by most galaxian species.
"These humans, as we all know, have to go through their own learning curves, in order to appreciate that catastrophes occur when they don't pull together, agree and act accordingly upon matters regarding the total preservation of their life giving Mother planet. I believe they may have another two hundred and fifty years to go before they can be approached by the governing bodies of the I.U.o.S.S.
"Typical of this type of hybrid species, they are still arguing and fighting in the name of 'gods' that they create in their own images. 'Zeus' was one of my favourites," Dante laughed. "And of course, there is still the ongoing Intergalactic problem of illegal commercial trade-offs." Master Dante suddenly stopped talking for a moment. He began pacing up and down the length of the monitor room, trying to work out what Dilus was up to.
"That's it," he started again. "Dilus knows that these earthlings, despite their ability to blow themselves and their planet sky high with nuclear weapons, are far from capable of protecting themselves from Dilus and his fleet of destroyers. They are an easy target for him. Damn him!" shouted Dante. Jai and Sarria looked at him, startled. This outburst was totally out of character for Master Dante.
"If it wasn't for the fact that," Dante suddenly stopped. He looked troubled as he turned to face Jai and Sarria.
"If it wasn't for what, sir?" asked Jai.
"Nothing. I'm sorry for that outburst. You two carry on with your work. I must go and speak with Supreme Hyred now. We need to organise a meeting of the councils to confirm what the Echameleon's plan of action will be.