Notes from An Alien (4 page)

    Mental criminal apprehension up by 5%.

#C287Q75

    Continued meteorological anomalies prompt increases in population relocations. Current goal is fifteen operations moving 619,901,583 citizens in the next two years.

#D159E01

    Mental criminal apprehensions up by 14%

    11,203 Corporate Mesh hackers identified. It appears they have developed a method of deactivating their implants. Mr. Ralm has ordered increased surveillance but no apprehensions until the Corporate Science Department completes development of manually-delivered endocrine enhancements, allowing the "turning" of offenders into agents.

#D301T92

    Permanent military presence in Beselima approved.

#J072A27

    2,004 Corporate Mesh hackers successfully recycled as Corporate agents. Remaining apprehended hackers to be given electro-shock treatments.

    Corporate Mesh Plot Development Analysis suggests increasing sexual endocrine enhancements for age range 9 to 12.

#M418M71

    ShipTwo nearing completion.

    ShipThree redesign approved.

    Rural criminal sweeps showing more promise.

    Mr. Ralm replaced by Mr. Sastu due to Mr. Ralm's sudden decline in health.

#P004B06

    Plasma-radio communication reestablished with Anla.

#P118S22

    Official Corporate Opinion has been determined: ShipOne defectors are now working in league with the Anlans.

    Priority team for search-and-termination action against Renaxela under observation. Special endocrine enhancements being developed.

    Program begun to re-establish remote activation of endocrine control of Anlan settlers.

    Mr. Sastu dissolves Board of Directors.

~~~

Surgenta slashed at the small, green, persistent insects swirling around his head. This journey across the forest of Ceia-Abi was the most important thing he'd ever begun in his life. Leaving the lands of the Lord's Army had been critical to his survival but his life in the Unholy Lands hadn't been remarkable in any way. Not until he met that strange man who claimed he knew the Promised One. Then he met Akla, Himself, and began to question everything he'd ever believed.

    Up another hill he decided—get above the soft ground and travel the rock. He didn't know how many Protectors the Faith of Eternity had out. The Lord's Army and Disciples of Faith were using Protectors mostly against each other but he must make no contact at all, if possible. Akla had given him His blessing and told him to maintain his trust. Surgenta knew he had to grow that trust as he progressed in his mission...

    Nearly halfway around the planet Akla had said. Death at the end He'd said.

    Surgenta only knew he had to deliver the message in his pocket. What it said or what would happen after he couldn't think about if he was to complete his mission—make his life mean something.

    Down from the rocky hill and through the brush-land, by-passing the village. Nearly halfway around the planet to go and he'd only been on the mission for one day.

~~~

The people surrounding Burlim in the room had to be trusted. There was no middle ground, no way to run any probability assessment. Since arriving on Anla he'd become the leader of these people by default—no one else wanted the job.

    The room they were in was a storage shed offered for their use by the Lord's Army priest, Shunga, a man to never be trusted. Burlim had told him that their endocrine implants were acting like they were being scanned for reactivation and Shunga immediately made preparations to visit the Head-Priest. Burlim had, at most, half a day to consult with his people and make plans. He motioned the group to find seats.

    "People, we need solid plans, simple and flexible. We have a good beginning for a counter movement but we're losing too many folks to the priests. I think you all would like to never see another of our people dead on a stake while the Anlans drink their blood."

    The silence of the group spoke for itself.

    "Anga will soon be sending another ship, many more eventually, and the one thing we have going for us is the timing of the planets' close approaches. Five years between each arrival—years to educate people, years to move our plans forward."

    A small woman stood up and said: "Let me get this straight. We continue helping the priests while we strengthen our counter-movement.  But this teaming up with enemies of the Lord's Army?"

    "We have to, Trelu. We don't want to return to Anga, right?"

    "Not the way things are."

    "And, we don't want to sit around pretending to pray and risk becoming the next Gift to their God, right?"

    "Absolutely, but why the double goal? Why not just strengthen our counter-movement without running the risk that the Lord's Army's enemies are even more barbaric?

    "Shunga is easy to fool because he's eager to learn everything we know. He's been appointed as our contact with the Head-Priest because he has enough independent intelligence left to understand what we can do. And, it's fairly obvious he wants to be the next Head-Priest. We have to trust his hints about the Faith of Eternity and the Disciples of Faith. The Faith of Eternity is capable of rising up against the Lord's Army in open battle and the Disciples of Faith apparently have a form of religion that can include rational thought, some at least."

    "Burlim, that's all speculation built on your conversations with Shunga. How can we count on any of it?"

    "Trelu, all of you, listen. We've been very lucky so far. The Anlans need us. Even though they're killing themselves off with their Gift to God rituals and even though they see us as possible population enhancers, we aren't strong enough to do this ourselves and you can bet the next shipment of settlers will have had their minds severely if not permanently damaged. We're lucky to have been given a way to stop the signals from Anga that activate endocrine alteration but the next wave of settlers could very well be incapable of using it. Anga is at war with this planet and will overrun it with mind-controlled settlers, ship by ship, till they can rape its resources, too. The Corporate mentality is sicker in some ways than these delusional religionists so we need to find a way to fight the priests while we help them control the waves of robot-settlers. Of course, there's the possibility that Anga will start using weapons against the planet..."

    Trelu sat down.

    "As I see it, we have three immediate goals: strengthen the resolve of our people, discover a safe method of disabling the crews of the ships from Anga, and, somehow, begin negotiations with the Disciples of Faith."

    He looked at each of them, eye-to-eye, then said: "One more thing to chew on. Shunga told me that the Head-Priest is very happy with our technology and that such a gift from us may demand more Gifts to their God."

~~~

Velu and her father walked the long corridor that connected the orbital base to the ship. Jalur knew that his wife, Suris, was under extreme surveillance and he truly hoped she could find a way to appease the Corporation. If things went exceedingly well they might be reunited...

    Whatever awaited them on Anla would be radically different from the oppression of the Corporation. He certainly wasn't looking forward to religious oppression but he hoped that at least some of the people who preceded him in this transfer of undesirables would be capable of using the Anlans' superstitions to gain a rational foothold on the planet that was to be his new home.

    "Father?"

    "No 'Daddy' today, Velu?"

    "Oh! Well... This is our turning point. We're leaving something behind and we're approaching something else. I'm having to deeply reappraise what lies in either direction."

    "Velu, I swear you've lied about your age."

    Father and daughter shared laughing vibrations with their brief hug and were jostled along by the stream of passengers/settlers/criminals.

    "Dad, you seem perfectly calm."

    "And, you, my sweet, seem perfectly enthralled. Looking forward to the hunt, eh?"

    "Can we actually do it? I know we're both resourceful and all that but..."

    "Velu, you're on a quest and I don't think it's just to find a biological father."

    "If I find him, I'll have two fathers; one I know everything about and one I'll have to explore."

    She grasped his hand, pulled him to the side of the stream of passengers then around to face her, and said: "Suris was her name—running water—she flows on and on..."

    Jalur knew his daughter to be poetic but, "Suris
was
her name", shook his being. He hugged Velu, long and hard. She said: "Come on, Father, into our future."

    They'd reached the section where passengers were being directed to their respective spaces. Their endocrine implants were scanned and they were issued an interface pad for the ship's simulated recreation. The pad was necessary since they were very special to the Corporation and wouldn't be subjected to the same recreations as their fellow, electro-shocked passengers.

    He knew the ship would be isolated from the plasma tube reaching toward Anla but wondered how the Corporate leaders could continue to be so deeply mistaken if they thought the Anlans hadn't deduced foul-play from a ship that actively blocked the thoughts and feelings of its passengers. This war was completely irrational and he was irrationally happy he was plunging into the unknown.

    Jalur and Velu found their compartment and greeted their flight-mates—a male who seemed to be near Velu's age and a woman who was looking at Jalur with intimate longing...

~~~

The plasma shield around ShipOne was worthless while it was orbiting Anla. The proximity to the planet permitted penetration by well-trained minds. The crew, reduced to four through insanity-induced suicide, had had their minds and emotions completely infested by the Anlan priests.

    Mr. Sastu, most recent Chief of the Corporation—a corporation with no board of directors—had decided to communicate with the crew as they prepared for launch back to their home World.

    "Hello?"

    "ShipOne to Anga Control, we read you."

    "Oh! Yes... Anga Control. Somewhat of a joke, eh?"

    Mr. Sastu's secretary whispered something in his ear.

    "Yes. This is Mr. Sastu, Chief of your Corporation. How are you all doing?"

    The man at the controls of ShipOne looked around at his pitiful crew and said: "We're in hell, sir."

    "Ah, well, you'll be home soon and we'll make it heaven for you."

    "I doubt that, sir."

    "Who am I speaking with?"

    "Officer Spra, sir."

    "Well, Mr. Spra, get on with your work. Bring that ship home."

    "Doing that, sir."

    "Good..."

    There was a lengthy pause then the voice of Officer Spra: "Boot us out, Tlin, and pray for our souls, Mr. Sastu."

    There was another lengthy pause, then, after his secretary had whispered in his ear again, Mr. Sastu said: "We look forward to your debrief when you've returned. Bye for now."

    Mr. Sastu glanced at his secretary and rose from his chair. As he left the room he felt like he was stumbling even though his gait was a well-practiced stride of confidence.

    Officer Spra broke into a fit of heaving sobs.

~~~

Select Reports from the Angan Bonded Corporate Mesh:

#Q114T17

    ShipOne and ShipTwo launched.

    Mr. Sastu invokes lock down on Corporate Science Department.

    Births up 20%. Analysis shows simulated recreation tools working as anticipated.

    Mesh-controlled personal transport deaths of religious criminals up 15%.

#Q498U96

    Meteorological anomalies on all land masses.

    Mr. Sastu invokes Population Migration Surge.

    Insect infestations on the rise.

    Agent Suris Molan meets untimely death; given hero's honors.

#A0246F861

    Mr. Sastu involuntarily relieved of his duties. Interim Corporate Regeneration Committee convenes.

#A1863G113

    ShipOne arrives at space dock; crew placed in isolation at Corporate Science Department.

#B0089S001

    ShipTwo arrives in Anlan orbit and is seized.

3 ~ Beauty

Burlim had sent his most trusted people to attend the checkout of the new arrivals from ShipTwo, almost all suffering from electro-shock trauma. He doubted the priests would allow them more than a cursory examination. Even though they were becoming quite addicted to the technological marvels his people could give them, the priests still showed them little in the way of real trust. He felt the most important thing they'd done, at least as far as the priests were concerned, was making the transfer pods capable of re-docking in spite of any attempt to lock them out. Once the re-docking had been accomplished, the short-range stunners they'd made had been the key to taking ShipTwo.

    He continued to wonder about the captain of ShipOne, Rednaxela—the man who had chosen a crew that fought so well to save their ship—the man whose daughter he was about to meet.

    Rednaxela was reported to be in the Unholy Lands with the supposed Savior of the Narians. Burlim's people had come up with a way to filter their operatives into the region of the Disciples of Faith but this religious group, even though light-years more rational than the Lord's Army, was still too cautious to aid the Angan counter movement in its attempts to penetrate the Unholy Lands.

    The method they were using to get their people into Suva, the main territory of the Disciples was gruesome but effective. The Anlan priests were totally blind to the individuality of their followers. Except for the sexual differences, they seemed to literally see them as interchangeable. This most propitious mental flaw made it easy to substitute the more pliant followers of the priests for the Chosen Ones among his own people. His mind was intrigued by how the Anlans and Angans had evolved to look essentially alike—so similar that the priests would accept one of their own as a sacrifice when they'd intended to kill one of his people and make of them a fitting Gift to their God for His Grace and Mercy in sending so many new people to their failing population. And, since they took little notice of how many followers they actually had, the substitutions enabled his people to make their way, ever so covertly, toward Suva. If this girl, Velu, was as remarkable as his people had said, she could be the key that unlocked the path to the territory of Vaei and then to the Unholy Lands—the ultimate staging ground for what Burlim planned as his people's new home. Even though those in the Unholy Lands were the avowed enemies of the Lord's Army and the Faith of Eternity, the priests never considered going there to deal with their most feared enemies. Their superstitions would be his people's protection.