The Sleeping Army Awakes

Part 79 Skidges

"Surely everyone has stopped work for the day by now!" Kelp said to no-one in particular, reassuring himself that it was the correct thing to do. Once again he sent the first pair off on their patrol. It wasn't long before the leading couple were right over the building site, even though they should just be patrolling the periphery.

Using cross referenced thermal imaging cameras the Skidges soon honed in on the large group of humans all sitting on the lumber trucks. They had finished loading all the rescuees onto the trailers.

"They're stealing his Lordship's wood!" Kelp said, staring at the video being beamed back. "He won't like that!"

"OK we're leaving! Hold on everyone! We're going to move!" Elektra shouted to his passengers. He signalled to Basil and Basil pushed the joystick away from him and the auto-truck lurched forwards. All was going well until they drew level with the building site.

"You are in a restricted space. Leave the area immediately or face the consequences!" The lead Skidge broadcast in an incongruously warm, feminine sounding voice as if she were announcing that dinner was being served, before repeating the message in Slavik and German in rather harsher and authoritarian terms.

"What the Fred was that?" Basil asked.

"Mr God. That was Skidge!" Elektra said angrily in Slavik not really caring that Basil couldn't understand him.

This was all they needed. In the middle of a rescue too. "I bet that stupid bullock Kelp is drunk again. Skidges should have been reprogrammed to view this vehicle as friendly and therefore not target it. But then Kelp doesn't read his messages. And I told him not to send out any patrols at all today!"

Elektra grabbed his Dudat. "Abort Skidges!" and then he called out to the Skidges. "Abort patrol we are evacuating after disaster. Authorisation Kapitán Elektra."

The Skidge could not recognise Elektra's voice through the fog. He had made the mistake of addressing it in Slavik.

"Authorisation rejected!" the reply came back from the Skidge. "Leave area! Leave vehicle."

"Abort patrol we are evacuating after disaster. Authorisation Kapitán Elektra." He repeated in English.

"This is your second warning!" The second Skidge announced. "Leave this area dismount from vehicle." Once again it repeated the message in other languages.

"If he doesn't recall them then they will start firing!" Elektra said in Slavik.

"I will simply just shoot it!" Pawel called out from the cab of the tree feller that he was driving. He stopped the machine and leaped out of the cab.

"If you shoot it then it will shoot back!" Elektra warned. "The Skidges are unlikely to miss even in this mist."

"I am man not mouse and I only need once chance!" Pawel called back. "Let it shoot. I am marksman! And at least they will not be shooting old peoples."

"This is your third warning!" The second Skidge announced, still sounding as though she had romantic intentions. "Leave this area. Dismount from vehicle." Once again it repeated the message in other languages.

The first pair of Skidges were joined by the second pair who jockeyed for position and then hovered on a favoured spot like dragon flies flitting over water.

Pawel pushed the joystick on the tree feller that he was driving forward to close the distance between where he was and where the evacuees were. In the sodden ground, the wheels span and only gained purchase after an agonisingly long time but once they had bitten into the firmer ground below the large wide tyres powered it up from the water.