Alien Manifesto (16 page)

“
Welcome, Benji King,” she
whispered in galactic standard after I had recovered from her
touch. “I am what you would call the Queen of our race, the Ones.
We now know what you know and you know what we know.” I could feel
her sadness at what must happen. I understood that this was not
what she wanted but it must be done to protect her people, the
Ones. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the fang begin to descend
toward my neck, felt a sharp pain, paralyzing numbness, and then
blackness.

Later, I have no idea how long, I regained my
senses, squinting from the bright light, feeling the heat of this
planet’s star on my bare skin. I was outside and confined at my
hands and ankles. I was lying prone on what I had been using as a
bed in the cave on top of the hilltop I had been living on. As I
lay there I realized this was no bed: it was a sacrificial
altar.

~

As my senses slowly sharpened, I notice a huge
number of George’s people in the shallow valley that surrounded the
hilltop. They were all quietly facing the hilltop in what seemed to
be anticipation of something, like expectant children.

As I watched, the Queen emerged and a buzzing
sound erupted from the crowd. They furiously scraped their abdomens
on the ground, in reverence to their Queen. As I turned my head, I
could see George and his friends lined up behind her, corralled by
two huge males.

As the Queen waved her arms at the crowd to be
silent, she spoke in a frenzied motion of mandibles and
high-pitched screeches. “My children, today we celebrate the
beginning of the season of the Sun. And I have a special surprise
for you. As you know we have in the past been visited by and
learned from strangers to our land.”

“
Today I will share with you
another visitor. Not just from a far place but from another planet.
I have learned a great many things from this being. This Season of
the Sun will mark a period of great change for our people. We now
have the knowledge of how to travel to other stars ourselves. We
must spread the way of the Ones. But first I must tell you that
these four males have dared learn the knowledge of the Sisters. I
invite you to share in their essence with me,” chanted the Queen,
swaying in time to the sound of the buzzing.

As I watched, the Queen lifted George up and
out came the fang. She impaled him with it and flung him down to
the crowds below. I could not see what happened to him from the
angle I was being held in but I knew it was not good. That meant
the same or worse for me, I feared.

One by one, the Queen
dispatched George’s companions, as they passively waited,
expectant, scraping their chest plates on the ground, just like the
now frenzied crowd below. I was filled with a sense of finality as
the Queen motioned for me to be brought before her. As she towered
over me she said in her whispery Galactic Standard, “I am sorry I
must end your life, Benji King, but I must protect my people from
the dangers you bring with you.” I closed my eyes and I imagined
seeing the fang headed straight toward me preparing for its
strike.
Where was my
brother?

PART FOUR

“
Greed and honor are opposites on
a two edged dagger”

As I, Thomi King, floated in
complete serenity, I suddenly felt waves of urgency tugging at my
mind.
Who would dare interrupt my
session?
I
thought
,
I have paid for a full
session and these meditation rooms are
expensive.

“
A message for you sir.” The
metallic Galactic Standard greeting from the message drone broke
into my mind. Slowly I floated back to full consciousness.
Who could be sending me a message by drone?
Aside from being expensive, they were only used on the most
sensitive matters of family business. “Lights on,” I spoke when my
mind had fully reconnected with my body.

Sensing my movement, the
drone croaked in its metallic version of a Galactic Standard, “Are
you Thomi King ruler of all the known universe?”
Now that was a coded message, only known to the
family.
The use of that particular
family joke indicated the message was very sensitive indeed and
from my brother Benji.

A light on the front of the drone began to
blink faster and faster. This drone was programmed to timed
self-destruct, killing everyone in close proximity unless it
received the proper answer to its query. Whatever this drone
carried was important. “I am and I direct you to board my ship in
docking bay 94. Allow no interception or detection and await my
arrival.”

As instructed, the drone turned and silently
disappeared in the direction of the docking bays of space station
Omega, where my ship is docked.

Strange and dangerous,
this business,
I
thought.
After lingering in the meditation
lounge long enough to not raise any further suspicions, I made my
way back
to docking bay 94.

I checked the exterior of the ship for any
sign of tampering as I returned. It was just one of the many habits
that had kept me alive this long. All my sensors and booby traps
were intact. There was also a mention in the security log of the
admission to the ship of the message drone, per my order. And that
was all. Now I could relax and see just what this was all about in
safety and privacy.

I made my way forward from the airlock to the
control room with the drone in silent tow. “OK my little friend,
what kind of a message do you have for me?” I asked as I placed my
face close to the now projected retinal scanner to verify my
identification, again the blinking light. With that done, a small
object slowly ejected from the storage compartment of the
drone.

Humm
, a
holo-cube, that is interesting.
Turning to the
console I placed the cube into the cockpit’s holo-reader. The image
of my brother and sometime arch-rival Benji King came into
view.

“
Thomi, I have suffered severe
damage to my faster than light drive and my ship’s main engine’s
plasma is almost completely drained. I will attempt to land, maybe
even crash land on the third planet from the binary star of this
system. I have found a life planet and it is unclaimed and
unpopulated. I am giving you the coordinates in order to arrange
for a rescue and return to civilization. This drone will take your
verbal contract and file it with the nearest Galactic Government
clerk of wherever you are, for safe keeping. Once that is done it
will release the second cube’s information for your
navi-computer.”

With a large exhale of air,
I sank back into the pilot’s seat.
An unclaimed,
uninhabited life planet you say! That would be worth an enormous
fortune to whoever was able to legally claim and prove they found
it first.

Many races in the galaxy were beyond desperate
for natural resources and food, existing by predation on weaker
species. A properly cultivated life planet could supply food for an
entire species for generations. Many wars had been fought over the
few known unclaimed life planets of the galaxy.

The question of the hour was, do I
file the verbal contract, therefore obligating me to rescue my
brother, or not. Wealth beyond imagination is a powerful
aphrodisiac. Yet honor demanded that I rescue my brother. Now if I
got rich doing it then all the better for me. I was taking a big
risk. What if what Ben said was a deception, he might still be mad
about that business on Alpha station last year. Oh what the hell,
he is my brother after all.

“
I, Thomi King do affirm that I
will rescue and return to civilization one Benji King, provided his
information is accurate,” I told the drone. With a beep, the drone
released the second cube, having electronically filed my verbal
contract with the space station’s central computer.

As I dropped out of folded time space and into
true time space at the coordinates I had been given, I was awed by
the sight of not only a life planet, but a water world as
well.

While many technologies exist in the known
galaxy that produce water, only a handful of planets in the entire
known galaxy are natural producers of it. In addition, here was one
that was unclaimed, and unpopulated according to my
sensors.

If news of this planet gets out to the wrong
people too soon, and it will, there will be a war, maybe even
several at the same time. That is how much wealth is at stake. Even
worse, the King family had been unwittingly dragged right into the
middle of the whole mess.

Thanks a lot Benji. Well
I guess I got myself into this one; I just hope I live through
it.
I locked onto Benji's distress beacon and
prepared to land as close to it as possible.

As I began my final descent,
I saw the beginnings of a debris field.
Damn,
Benji, I guess crash land is what you did. I just hope you are
still alive so we can buy neighboring planets and retire,
forever.

After a smooth landing, as the
repulser lifts spun down I armed the defensive weapons and made my
way to the airlock. Heading toward the crash site, I feared what I
might find. As I neared the wreckage of Benji's ship, I could see
signs of a makeshift camp. Benji had survived the landing after
all, I realized with a wave of relief.

As I poked around, I deduced
that a second accident had befallen Benji after he crashed. It
looks like he was trying to energize his fuel cells with the
natural electric discharges that this atmosphere generated.
It was obvious this camp was built after the accident and
then deserted some time ago.
Where are you
Benji?

I found a holo cube in the
makeshift shelter, its power source exhausted.
I
will return to my ship and see if I can retrieve any data from this
cube that might shed some light on where Benji might be. Well, at
least he survived the crash, now I just have to find
him.

Exhausted by the time I returned my ship, I
decided to eat, hit the fresher and grab some sleep before I
tackled trying to get anything off the holo cube.

With a shrill beep, the
perimeter alarm went off, interrupting my fresher routine. Grabbing
my hand-held blaster I clawed my way into the cockpit to read the
sensors’ analysis of the intruder and checking the status of the
defensive weapons arrays simultaneously.
Nothing to
get excited about, just some sort of indigenous, insectoid life
form crawling on the ship’s hull.
Well, I am awake
now, might as well get to work on finding
Benji.

As I powered up the holo cube and
scanned through what was obviously Ben's daily personal log, I
realized that he had been studying those things that were crawling
around on my ship. As I scanned forward, I found out that these
creatures feed on energy and they like main engine power cells best
of all.

Looking up I punched up the
power reserve readings, just as a precaution.
Damn
,
they are down 30%.
Those creatures must be feeding on the ship’s engine plasma, using
the main power cables that connected all the electrical systems
together, probably at the junction by the main
engine.

Strapping on my blaster I headed
for the airlock. If I acted quickly, I would still have enough
power to get back into space and to the nearest repair
facility

There's
one
, with a quick snap aim I fired my hand held
blaster, watching as the strange creature disappeared in a puff of
smoke. My stomach churned at the required violence, such brutish
things these blasters.
Why couldn't they
just disintegrate whatever they hit? Was the smoke and smell really
necessary? Savage!!
I hope that is the only one. No,
there is another and another.

Twice more I fired, and then
I got physically ill. As I heaved the
contents of my
stomach out while on my knees, I could see more of the bigger
creatures approaching closer, closer, then
blackness.

“
My Queen, the aliens have
returned. And they have killed 3 of my brothers. Another ship has
landed near the wreckage of the first one.” Antennae quivering
nervously, the messenger awaited the Queen’s answer.

Turning slowly to face the messenger the Queen
said, “How many?”

“
Only one being, my Queen,”
answered the cowering messenger.

“
Bring it to me at the Temple of
the Sun. Send word for all my children to join me there once it has
been captured. Do not harm it and use my personal guard to subdue
and capture it. For the sake of your nest-mates tell no
one.”

“
Yes my Queen,” the messenger
replied, scurrying out the door of the Queen’s private
chambers.

As the blackness lifted from my eyes, I could
see a very large insectoid standing over me. I realized I was on a
hard raised platform. As my vision cleared, I could see I was
surrounded by several more of the large insectoids. They had a
hard, shiny exoskeleton, a pair of bulbous eyes, two antennae, and
four long arms. There were two smaller arms with some type of
digits near the large mandibles of the mouth.