Gray Panthers: Battle for Earth by David Guenther Read Free Book Online Page A

quiet as both men reflected on the last couple of days.  Once again, it felt outstanding to be alive as they absorbed the day, the sun in their faces, the wind in their hair, and all was well in the world.  At the foot of the mountain, Dan slowed as Abdul hopped out as they had done thousands of times before.  Grabbing the fat old whiskbroom from the back, he followed behind the cart wiping their trail clear.  Dan was waiting at the open mine entrance with a liter bottle of water already perspiring in the desert heat.  Abdul graciously took the bottle and helped to cover the cart.  The coolness of the mine was invigorating as they headed to their small desert home inside.  Dan became alert immediately when he saw the old rusted machinery was gone and where the elevator shaft to the lower level had been was now just rock floor.  Abdul noticed as well immediately and began to ask what had happened, when the ground opened where the hole had been and then was replaced by a shiny metal square ten foot by ten foot. 
    "Grub you've been busy I see" Dan hollered as he nervously got onto the platform and quickly dropped to the lower lever.  Abdul looked down from above speechless at first.  "I see you've made some improvements while I was gone," as the platform returned to the top and he gingerly stepped onto it.
    The lower level was brilliantly lit as Dan saw the old shaft was wider and smoother.  There were also new well lit shafts going off into many directions.  The wall was blocked to the ceiling with assorted small crates made of some metal he could not identify.  Dan began to head to the crates as a pair of droids appeared from one of the side shafts with more of the crates to add to the pile.  Abdul started backing up until he noticed Dan was not bothered at all by their visitors.  "What's in the boxes there, Stretch?" Dan asked of the first droid. 
    "Per your orders, we have been mining gold and precious metals.  This is all we have mined and processed" the droid replied in a metallic voice as it stacked the new crates with the rest.
    Before the droids could leave, Dan inspected a crate and could not see how it opened.  "Please open this crate for me, Stretch," Dan asked.  The droid returned to the crate and brought out what looked like a pen, then drew a line around the top lip of the crate and then pulled the top off.  Inside perfectly stacked coins filled the entire inside.  He grabbed one and noticed the coin was a Liberty Head $20 dated 1861.  Shaking his head, he tossed it to Abdul as he instructed the droid to close the box.  The droid put the lid back on the box then used the pencil to draw a line where the two parts met connecting them and not even leaving any evidence of a seam. 
    "What's the weight of those crates, Stretch?" Dan absently asked as he tried to count the total number of boxes, and gave up.
    "The boxes were constructed to easily carry one hundred pounds metal." I do not know how many there are, do you wish me to ask Grub?" the droid replied.
    "No that's fine, I'm going to see Grub now" was Dan’s reply as he grabbed back the gold coin from Abdul and signed him to follow.
    "These big silver guys are controlled by the space ship.  Grub is the name of the ship and has an intelligent computer that can communicate to me through the silver guys or the ships public address system," Dan informed Abdul as he followed quietly intent on not missing anything.  Stepping into the cavern with the ship, everything was now well lit, as Dan was amazed at the sheer size of the ship as he headed for the hatch.  As he stepped in, Grubs voice immediately welcomed him and Abdul by name.  "Hello Grub, nice trick. How did you know Abdul’s name? Reading my mind?"  Dan asked.
    "I have been monitoring your communications.  I launched a small satellite that allows me to interact with all the satellites in orbit even with their crude security systems.  After downloading your planet’s history from