Alien Manifesto (9 page)

Suddenly the two brothers lunged
toward each other and I felt the restraining paw of Rowl on my
shoulder. The two brothers embraced, each pounding on the other’s
back. It was not a fight; it was an embrace from one brother to
another.

“
Why all the sssecrecy
brother?” Snarth asked.

“
I jussst wanted to
sssurprissse you, that isss all,” answered the brother with a
tentacle-wiggling grin I recognized. Snarth used the same one when
he was up to something, something not good. Still no cue to decloak
came. There was more to this meeting than met the eye.

“
ssSnarg, ever sssince we
were kidsss and you gave me that sssmile, we got into trouble. ssSo
let’sss have it, what do you want?” Snarth hissed in a low,
menacing voice.

“
Okay, here it isss. Rumor
hasss it that you killed the leader of the Cult of Eli. It would
ssseem that after hisss death, a full-ssscale riot broke out and
the galactic sssecurity mechsss were called in to ressstore order,”
he hissed. “Now ordinarily, the Galactic Council would not be
involved in sssuch a trivial matter. However, one of the people
killed wasss the ssson of a very prominent colleague of mine. And
he isss most dissspleasssed with the whole matter. I am here at the
behessst of the new intelligence chief AArat.”

“
I don’t do that kind of
work anymore,” hissed Snarth angrily.

“
That’s jussst what I told
him, brother,” hissed Snarg. “I don’t blame you, not after the way
they treated you after your lassst mission. But AArat told me to
tell you that he knowsss you have been recruiting from Earth. And
he wantsss to remind you how sssevere the penalty for that isss,”
said Snarg.

“
Tell AArat I can pay any
fine he can legally dream up,” hissed Snarth, angrier than I had
ever seen him.

“
Dear brother, he isssn’t
going to levy any fine, not thisss time. AArat intendsss to have
you jailed then confissscate all of your property. I am here to
intercede on your behalf,” said Snarg with a flourish of hands and
tentacles, then a bow.

“
You sssee, there isss a
very sssimple way out of all thisss messss. It would ssseem that
AArat is a believer in the Cult of Eli. He wantsss the artifact,
and he wantsss you to give it to him.”

“
I haven’t got it anymore,”
said Snarth very carefully maintaining a neutral
posture.

“
Be that azsss it may,
AArat thinksss you do, or at the very leassst know where it isss,”
sniffed Snarg with distaste. “If you give AArat the artifact he
will make the evidence he hasss againssst you
disssappear.”

“
I sssaid I don’t have it
anymore,” hissed Snarth quietly.

“
Then I ssssuggest, dear
brother, that you find it again. What isss making my nossse itch
ssso?” said Snarg, holding a cloth to his nose, his eyes watering.
“Do you have a feline massster here ssSnarth? You know I am
terribly allergic.”

Finally, Snarth gave the signal to
decloak and all the team did so at the same instant, already in a
defensive posture around Snarth.

“
ssSo it’sss true,” said
Snarg as he slowly sized me up.

“
He isss an orphan, no one
will missss him,” answered Snarth.

“
What of the one guarding
the door?” said Snarg

“
He isss an orphan also,
brother.”

“
ssSnarth, I am not here to
judge, just verify the factsss. So what ssshall I tell AArat?”
asked Snarg.

“
Tell him I do know where
the artifact isss. But I cannot, on my honor, tell him itsss
location,” answered Snarth, his devil may care attitude
returning.

“
Well ssSnarth, for your
sssake I hope whoever you sssold it to will sssell it back. AArat
isss not one to take no for an anssswer. Watch your back, brother.
Well thisss hasss all been fun but I really mussst go, duty
callsss.”

“
I will walk you out
ssSnarg…brother.” Snarth hissed reproachingly, not wanting his
brother’s visit to end on a sour note, again.

“
That’sss all right, I know
the way. It hasss been a pleasssure to meet you all.” Then he
turned and strode back across the courtyard toward his waiting
shuttle.

“
All right everyone, get
cleaned up; training ssstartsss at 0400,” hissed Snarth
loudly.

~

Later in the solitude of
his meditation garden, Snarth pondered on his current
predicament.
I must tread lightly on the
slippery slope AArat has forced me onto,
he thought.
I know that he will be
watching me, tracking my movements, eavesdropping on my
communications to see if he can find out whom I sold the artifact
to. Then he could jail me and get the artifact in the same play. I
should have killed him when I had the chance,
thought Snarth regretfully.

AArat has obviously
forgotten that I saved his life on that last mission I did for the
Galactic Council, after he fumbled it up. It is just my bad luck
that he has managed to worm his way back into the leadership of the
intelligence service.

I wonder how many people
he had to blackmail to get there. Surely he has enemies by now, I
just need to find out who they are and use them to my advantage. If
he is truly a believer of Eli then that in itself is enough to get
him thrown out of the service. However, that depends on who his
allies are and if they themselves are believers of Eli.

It would be impossible to
say until he found out how deeply the Cult of Eli had penetrated
the Galactic Council, Snarth realized. “That’sss just great! Once
you finally get free of their liesss sssomething like thisss
comesss up and sssucks you right back into the middle again,” he
said bitterly, aloud to no one. It was time to tell the team,
Snarth realized.
I just hope they do not
quit and leave me to straighten this all out by myself,
he mused as he headed for the gymnasium, as it
was 0400.

~

As the team gathered around him,
Snarth wondered again how to tell them about his quandary, and how
to ask for their help. He decided that the plain and simple truth
was the best course.

“
My friendsss,” Snarth
began, “I find myssself in need of your help. I have gotten
myssself into a sssituation with an old asssociate and enemy. A
sssituation hasss arisssen that hasss put me, and by assssociation
you, in a very difficult and dangerousss posssition. It ssseemsss
that one of my old asssociatesss, AArat, hasss managed to worm
hisss way back to the top of the Galactic intelligence ssservice.
And azsss you know hasss found out about the artifact. Whether he
wantsss if for himssself, or for the Cult of Eli … I can’t be
sssure. In either cassse I cannot tell him itsss location. If I do,
I will violate my persssonal code of honor and dessstroy a
reputation I have ssspent a very long lifetime building. When I
recruited each of you I had no idea that my actionsss would lead to
thisss. I don’t yet have a plan of action and I am asssking each of
you to join me in righting what I believe to be a grave threat. Not
only isss it a threat to each of usss but it isss a threat to the
entire Galactic government, and through it every civilized being in
the galaxy. If you choossse to move on I will underssstand and not
hold a grudge. However, I caution each of you that the reach of
AArat and hisss assssociatesss isss vassst and encompassssesss
every inhabited planet in the galaxy. There will be no place that
is sssafe for long and for that I am deeply sssorry. I do think
that with your help we can put a ssstop to AArat and the Cult of
Eli’s plansss,” finished Snarth with shoulders slumped, his
tentacles drooped and still.

“
I for one intend to take
them head on,” I declared. “I may be the newcomer but the thought
of running turns my stomach. I would rather die standing up on my
own two feet having taken as many of those bastards with me as I
can.”

“
Count me in,” said the
Irishman.

“
Me too,” growled Rowl.
Because where one went the other was not far behind, such friends
were they.

“
I have no better offers at
present, so I guess you can count me in too,” mewed the feline
master, throwing her hat into the ring as well.

Snarth bowed from the waist to each of
the team members and said, “I pledge my life and fortune to each of
you. You have each ssshown the noble character from which you were
cassst. I am forever in your debt. Rowl, you are in charge of the
team’sss training until I return. I have sssome old friendsss to
visssit. Maybe they will have sssome information that I need in
order to form a plan of action.”

Raising his hand to the forthcoming
objections Snarth said, “I will be sssafe as long azsss AArat
thinksss I might hand over the artifact. And I may be able to lay
sssome falssse trailsss in the meantime. However if I don’t return
in three daysss I suggest you all ssscatter and find sssome place
to hide until I contact you. Be sssure and keep your
communicatorsss clossse and trust no one except each other,”
cautioned Snarth. “Three daysss should give me enough time to
assscertain jussst how deep the Cult of Eli hasss penetrated the
Galactic Council, if at all. Until then.” Turning with a swirl of
his cape Snarth headed for his now waiting shuttle.

Rowl wasted no time in trying to train
us to exhaustion. As a result, the three days went quickly. Near
the end of the third day at the evening meal, as the team was
making plans to scatter, Snarth’s shuttle returned.

A decidedly harried and thinner Snarth
made a brief appearance at the dining hall. His only words were
that there would be a briefing at 0400 and that he was not to be
disturbed until then. His departure left a room full of unasked and
unanswered questions; the team would have to wait until morning for
their answers.

Unable to sleep I stared up at the
ceiling of my bedchamber, wondering what Snarth had found out and
why he looked so haggard after only three days. So intense was my
concentration that I almost missed the change in pressure that
alerted me to a silently opening door. Without thinking, I leapt up
from the bed, activated my cloak, and grabbed my boots and weapons.
In a few, smooth, practiced, silent motions I was invisible, silent
and waiting for the intruder, blaster drawn.

A stray draft of air gave
away the anti-grav sled’s silent passage as it headed for the
center of the room.
These were stealth
tactics.
I controlled my breathing,
remaining absolutely still, waiting for the intruder to revel
itself. Moments turned into minutes and still I held, unmoving as
the stone I willed myself to be.

After an hour had passed, I was quite
sure that who or whatever was in the room was waiting for me to
return, not knowing that they had been detected. That meant it was
my move. I needed a distraction so my attacker would reveal its
intent and thereby its exact location. Very slowly, I moved my arm
so I could access my wristband; I had to alert the others. I also
summoned a servant mech to bring me a drink.

A short time later as the servant mech
activated the door into the bedchamber a blaster bolt exploded,
destroying the unfortunate mech as it entered the room. Without
thinking, I returned fire, hitting its attacker. It exploded into a
ball of electrical fire sending the anti-grav sled slamming into
the walls of the bedchamber and causing quite a racket, narrowly
missing me as it finally crashed to the floor,
riderless.

When the smoke finally cleared I found
myself surrounded by my team members, all with blasters drawn in a
circle around me, calmly waiting for the next attack. It never
came: the assassin mech was alone.

“
ssSomeone doesssn’t like
you very much, Human Tom,” was Snarth’s reaction when he arrived at
the shambles that had once been my room.

“
If he were indeed the
target,” interjected the stealth master.

“
Before you reconfigured
this dwelling, this was your room. So whoever sent that mech is
using old information,” surmised Rowl.

“
Which meansss it isss
retaliation, and unrelated to our current troublesss,” finished
Snarth. “ssSniggle, it has to be ssSniggle. He isss the only one
who would have the old plansss to my essstate.”

“
Or someone in Shorty’s
operation.” I offered, getting a look of concern from
Snarth.

“
Well whoever it was, we
won’t find out from the mech, it’s completely destroyed. It must
have had a self-destruct back up,” commented the Irishman as he
inspected the remains of the assassin mech. “You are lucky to be
alive, Tom,” he said as he finished and wiped his hands
clean.

Shaking his head Snarth said, “We are
meant to think it was ssSniggle who sssent the asssasssin mech,
when in fact it wasss AArat. Only hisss organization hasss the
ssophistication to get through my sssecurity sssensors network.
This wasss jussst the firssst of what will be many probesss to
assscertain our capabilitiesss. Well done Human Tom, you bring
honor to the team once again. All right, everyone to the briefing
room, I doubt anyone can sssleep after thisss anyway,” finished
Snarth.

As the team gathered in the briefing
room, Snarth began the explanation of what had transpired during
his three-day absence. “I believe the Cult of Eli has a foothold in
the Galactic sssenate,” Snarth began. “I don’t have an exact figure
on how many sssenators are believersss or sssupporting the cult’sss
agenda. However, I believe it to be a sssmall minority. They do,
however, have complete control over the intelligence ssservice with
AArat at itsss head. And I believe they have their sssights ssset
on getting control of not just the sssenate but the executive
branch azsss well. My contactsss were reluctant to discussss the
affairsss of the executive branch for fear of AArat and hisss
goonsss. It isss my belief that a coup is in the worksss and that
is why AArat isss coming after me. You are all guilty by
assssociation. I don’t have any proof yet but I will sssoon. I only
hope we are in time to prevent the coup. I intend to ssstall for
more time. What I can’t figure out isss why AArat sssent the
asssassssin mech knowing it might fail and reveal his
plansss.”