Alien Manifesto (31 page)

“
Easssy, Human Tom, while
the sssurgical mech completesss his ssscan, then we can get you
into a bunk,” hissed Snarth in a stern tone.

Looking around I saw all of the other
team members crowded around the door with anxious looks on their
faces. “I am all right, I just fainted,” I protested, my cheeks
coloring with embarrassment.

“
We will let the sssurgical
mech be the judge of that,” hissed Snarth as he helped me up and
guided me toward a surgical bunk.

“
It is a curious trait of
this species to lose conciousness in times of a severe
psychological shock,” bleeped the surgical mech, “His blood
pressure has returned to normal. He sustained no injury in his
fall, he is fit for duty.”

“
What shock?” hissed Snarth
demanding an answer. “What isss it talking about, Human
Tom?”

“
I am not sure how, but I
am going to be a father,” I said, still in a daze. Howls of
congratulations rang through the ship, accompanied by much pounding
on my back until I was nearly senseless.

“
Well if you don’t know how
it happened I can get the mech here to explain it to you,” hissed
Snarth with his usual sly tentacle-wiggling grin.

“
I
know
how it happened, I just did not
think our species could have children together,” I said defensively
my cheeks getting even redder with embarrassment. “I never thought
I would be a father, much less a father of twins.”

“
TWINS!” howled Rowl; this
set off another round of ear splitting cheers from my
teammates.

“
Thisss definitely callsss
for a huge celebration. However, it will have to wait. Therefore, I
sssuggest we find the treasssure and get the hell out of here ssso
Uncle ssSnarth can throw a party,” hissed Snarth with a huge grin,
the like of which I had never seen before. “Time to go, my
friendsss, mount up, we have a treasssure to find,” hissed Snarth.
“Businessss alwaysss comesss before pleasssure.”

PART NINETEEN

From the Ashes

After seeing the Queen fall, the young
nymph ordered the few of his nest mates who were left: “As soon as
the aliens have left, gather as many charged energy collection
globes as you can and follow me.”

“
The Queen is dead,” stated
the senior elder flatly, trying to reassert his
dominance.

Gathering his courage, the young nymph
said as forcefully as he could without shouting, “All that has
transpired is as the Queen foresaw it. We must dedicate ourselves
to the hatching of the new Queen.”

“
What new Queen?” demanded
the senior elder, refusing to back down.

“
The one the Queen spawned
before the great defeat. The one who has been waiting for five
hundred seasons of the sun to take her rightful place as our
Queen,” shouted the young nymph, no longer caring if the aliens
heard or not.

“
And where is this Queen’s
egg?” asked the senior elder in continuing defiance to the young
nymph’s authority.

“
Where else but the royal
birthing chamber,” answered the young nymph, his temper under
control once again.

“
And you know this how?”
asked the senior elder.

“
The Queen’s affairs are no
business of yours. However if I must convince you to do your duty
AGAIN, I will tell you,” said the young nymph. “The Queen knew that
her time to join the Old Ones was close at hand. She knew that she
would not survive the encounter with the aliens. She instructed me
to gather any that survived and begin the birthing of the new
Queen. She told me the location of the royal birthing chamber, and
how to quicken the royal egg into life,” said the young
nymph.

Invoking the name of the
Old Ones had caused every survivor to bow, scraping their chest
plates to a high shriek on the ground, including the senior elder.
“
Her will is our
command,”
echoed through the small
chamber where the remnants of the young nymph’s nest hid from the
aliens.

“
Each of you take a full
energy collection globe and follow me. We must hurry, as we have a
long way to go and time is short,” commanded the young nymph, his
authority no longer in question.

It was two full light cycles and many
ergs of pitch-black passageways before the column of aides reached
the royal birthing chamber. The young nymph opened a chamber, which
on the outside looked exactly like the hundreds of other chambers
the column of survivors had passed, over the last two light
cycles.

The young nymphs’ torchlights revealed
an inside covered in crystals from the floor to the
ceiling.

“
Place the energy
collection globes there,” said the young nymph, pointing to an
empty corner. “Now follow this passage until it ends on the
surface, then forage and return here. We will use the adjoining
chambers as our nests until the new Queen is ready to travel to the
Queen’s chamber and take her rightful place on the throne. Now go:
I must begin the quickening.”

Once he was alone with the royal egg
the young nymph reverently placed the dead Queen’s crystal in its
rightful place on the wall. Pausing and exhausted, the young nymph
slowly circled the pedestal the gleaming, golden royal egg rested
on. It was being held in place by an exotic work of art made of
pure gold.

Then the young nymph began searching
for the lever that would open the portal in the ceiling and focus
the sun’s life-giving rays on the golden royal egg. It was not long
before he located it. It was exactly where the Queen said it would
be.

As he pulled, harder than he expected,
the ceiling began to open slowly, spilling the sun’s light into the
crystals that lined every inch of the walls. Once the ceiling was
fully open, a beam of sunlight, concentrated by the crystals, shone
directly on the royal egg, making it gleam. What the young nymph
did not know was that each of the crystals contained the lifetime
memories of a different former queen. As the new Queen soaked up
the sun’s energy, she was also absorbing the complete knowledge of
each Queen before her.

PART TWENTY

Onward to the
Treasure

As the team arrived at the flat,
protruding cliff that lead to the doorway into the Queen’s chamber,
they found it closed.

“
Blastersss at the ready,”
hissed Snarth, as I opened the door again. Two by two, they went
through the door, with the Irishman taking his usual rear guard
position. “Cloaksss on,” hissed Snarth. “Rowl, take point and keep
it quiet.”

“
Yes sir,” growled the
canine master, his twin swords twirling as he flexed his arms,
preparing for whatever may come.

The team crossed the Queen’s chamber
without seeing any sign of whoever or whatever closed the door. We
headed for the hidden passageway that led to the chambers SSlice
had located. Still no sign of the aides or any sign of recent
activity, according to SSlice’s scans.

That left a trip down the black
passageway. Even my enhanced night vision would be useless. At the
entrance to the passageway, Snarth reached into his pack, producing
four headlamps. Their brilliant beams sliced through the pitch
black, revealing that the hallway extended further than the beams
could reach. Illuminating dozens if not hundreds of rooms, all
sealed, just waiting to be opened.

“
Rowl, take point, I will
back you up, hissed Snarth. “Human Tom, you and the Irissshman
guard the rear ssso ssSSlice can work on the door.”

SSlice began scanning the door then
reached for a hidden lever. Opening the door a crack, with a hiss
of escaping atmosphere, a fetid, dank smell invaded the passageway,
leaving the team to wince and groan at the smell. With a shuddering
grinding against its frame, the door slowly opened for the first
time in at least five hundred years.

What was inside dumbfounded the entire
team at first glance; stacks and stacks of brilliant blue crystals
each a full twelve inches long, ten inches in circumference, each
with exactly the same inclusion in the exact center.

“
Those are banking
jewelsss,” hissed Snarth as it dawned on him the magnitude of
wealth that was in front of them. In addition, this was just the
first chamber.

“
There must be thousands of
them,” breathed Rowl still in awe.

“
One hundred thousand, one
hundred and ten to be exact,” answered SSlice at the conclusion of
his scan.

“
What are banking jewels?”
I asked.

Snapping out of his muse, Snarth
hissed, “They are the intergalactic currency that one planet paysss
another or the credit lendersss lend, in the courssse of
intergalactic trade. Without them the Galaxy would fall into
countlessss sssmall warsss very quickly,” he hissed. “A cache
thisss sssize may well caussse ssseveral large onesss, at the
sssame time thossse who suffered under the Onesss’ reign of terror
will want war reparationsss.”

Turning to the team, Snarth hissed,
“We mussst be very careful. If word of thisss treasssure getsss
out, and it will, I fear we may all be killed in the russsh azsss
many very large playersss in the galaxy maneuver for their ssshare
of thisss treasssure. Any ideasss, ssSSlice?” hissed
Snarth.

“
Yes, but I must return to
the ship to get my answers,” whispered SSlice in his usual cryptic
speech.

“
Human Tom, you and
ssSSlice head back to the ssship on the double. It isss almossst
time for the feline massster to come out of the bacta tank anyway,”
hissed Snarth.

“
Yes sir,” I answered as I
turned to follow the rapidly retreating SSlice.

“
Azsss for you two,” Snarth
hissed, pointing at Rowl and the Irishman, “I want to open a couple
of more roomsss. Rowl, you take point and if we sssee any of
thossse aidesss, keep it quiet! Irissshman, you do what you do
bessst, cover our retreat. Now move out,” he hissed.

As the trio opened the next three
doors, they found that each of the three chambers had exactly one
hundred thousand, one thousand, one hundred and ten brilliant blue
crystals in it.

“
OK, my friendsss, I have
ssseen enough for now,” hissed Snarth. “Let’sss get back to the
ssship; I have sssome inquiriesss and sssome plansss to make. Move
out.”

PART TWENTY-ONE

A Team Healed

Once I was back on the ship
and had stowed my cycle, I went straight to the medical bay to
check on my mate.
She should be out of the
tank soon,
I thought.
And I want to be there when she does.
The lead surgical mech was waiting for me when I arrived at
the medical bay.

“
Your mate will be out of
the bacta tank in fifteen short time units,” croaked the mech in
its metallic version of galactic standard, even before I
asked.
Just enough time to shower,
I thought.

“
Thanks Doc,” I said, my
heart aching a little less at the news. Looking around I did not
see any sign of SSlice.
Probably up in the
bridge talking to the ship’s computer again,
I thought as I headed to my
, errrr,
our
quarters
. I
have a lot to get used to,
I
decided
,
the
happiest I had ever been.

Snarth, Rowl and the Irishman soon
arrived. Once their cycles were stowed, Snarth turned to the pair
and said, “I am going to my quartersss. I have many arrangementsss
to make in private. ssSee to it I am not disturbed unlessss it isss
an emergency, and I do mean an emergency,” then with a swirl of his
cape, Snarth disappeared in the direction of the owner’s
stateroom.

“
Hey buddy, do you want
first watch?” the Irishman asked Rowl.

Seeing for the first time in a long
time a practical joke in the making coming from his friend: “OK old
friend, I will take the first watch, you go be with, what did you
name her?” answered Rowl, before his friend could launch into an
explanation or some silly game to see who took first
watch.

“
Mona is her name,”
answered the Irishman hotly.

“
Sorry my friend, I forgot
OK, forgive me please,” said Rowl with exaggerated pronunciation.
“Now get the hell out of here before I decide to wrestle you for
it.”

Back pedaling his way out of the
forward lounge, the Irishman said, “Yeah, you and whose
army?”

“
Army one and army two,”
said Rowl as he flexed each of his massive arms.

“
Maybe later I will let you
try,” retorted the Irishman as he turned and headed for his
quarters, leaving Rowl to stand watch to see that Snarth was not
disturbed.

It was good to see his
friend happy, thought Rowl.
If only my
matters of the heart were so simple
,
turning his thoughts to Kareen, his betrothed on his home
world.

~

I watched and fidgeted nervously while
the last of the bacta solution was washed from my mate. Soon the
mechs would bring her back to consciousness and I wanted to be the
first thing she saw as the effects of the stasis field wore off. I
did not have to wait long.