"Slaughtered? What about your wife?
"Her body will die."
"I know the Anlans don't particularly like your brand of religion but slaughtering everyone...?"
"Part of your mission is to discover the truth of Anla's social hierarchy and its weaknesses—"
"How could you know that?"
"How I know can be discussed at another time. The fact that I know is something you must now deal with."
Rednaxela internally told Morna to pay very close attention. He was shocked that Akla knew because there was no way any of the people involved in the voyage, except Brolan and Ralm, could have told him about the extended mission. It was terribly risky and therefore had to be as secret as possible. Its existence was the only reason he could fathom for the unprecedented freedom of action he'd been given. He sat next to Akla and said:
"Another time we will discuss how you know about my mission. Now you will tell me why the Anlans will slaughter your followers."
~~~
It had been twenty-seven years before the launch of ShipOne. Sesuna, the Prophet of the Nari on Anla, was being led to his death. Thousands of people crowded the village square where Sesuna was to slowly lose his life—become a Gift to their God. The Knife Bearers were sharpening and the Blood Tenders were readying their bowls for reception of the Evil Doer's essence.
Sesuna was positioned on a wooden platform and tied to the stake protruding from its center. As the Knife Bearers began their task, slicing openings in Sesuna's veins, he calmly raised his voice and said, "When my body is gone and you have forgotten me, my Spirit will return to you in the form of a greater Prophet than I. He will be of the Harians from the planet named Anga-Param. He will regenerate my people and usher in the long-awaited Worlds' Peace."
Sesuna's body slumped against the stake. He lifted his head to the hushed crowd and said, "Remember my words. None can stop what has begun. God is my witness! All will condemn me. All will condemn He Who Comes After Me. All will condemn except those of pure sight and spotless conscience."
His body slumped further and the Blood Tenders adjusted their positions to catch as much of his blood as they could.
The crowd was stunned by Sesuna's words but eagerly anticipated the taste of his blood.
~~~
Akla turned to face Rednaxela and said: "I am the One Sesuna said would come."
"So, you're claiming to be a Prophet from God, the one he said would have his spirit, regenerate his people..."
"You don't believe in God do you, Rednaxela?"
"I believe what I believe. Why should it matter to you?"
"Because you are the person who will lead me to safety when we arrive at Anla."
~~~
Rednaxela entered the soft comfort of the bridge and Morna said, "That was extremely interesting."
"Completely weird."
"Completely?"
"Well, he seems to make sense, at least the way he says things sounds so totally reasonable, but the things he says are beyond belief."
"He is a dedicated man."
"Dedicated? No, obsessed."
~~~
ShipOne continued its light-powered flight toward Anla surrounded by the aurora of electromagnetic interaction with Anga's plasma tail.
The passengers continued to speculate on their future.
Most could only feel doom. These were the "mentally unstable" among Anga's criminals. The rest, the "religiously unbalanced", had mixed feelings.
Mentally unstable to the Angan leadership meant an unwillingness to adhere to norms—a pernicious streak of wild inventiveness that refused to conform to the wishes of the Corporation. Their ideas were often used but never attributed to them. They feared being shipped to a World reported to be completely organized according to various religious standards.
Most of the religious criminals were of the Harian persuasion, followers of Akla. The rest were truly lost souls, hoping for salvation from their new masters on Anla.
All passengers were provided with more than adequate food and all the simulated recreation they wished. They were also receiving endocrine enhancements via their remotely controlled implants—the prime means of influencing minds on Anga. If the glandular adjustments didn't actually warp thought toward a norm, they at least led to emotional and mental imbalances that made people more tractable, more prone to fear and the welcome relief provided by simulated recreation, a private virtual world they could interact with to escape the conflicts between mind and feeling. People who didn't become passive through fear—those who fought against the invasive alteration of their feelings—were kept apart from others till they killed themselves.
~~~
Rednaxela had just returned from another visit with Akla: "Morna, give me the stats."
"Halfway stats show consumables nominal, systems fully functional, twenty suicides."
"Only twenty..."
"The Harians, surprisingly, are having a beneficial effect on the others. They seem to give them emotional comfort, as Akla seems to be offering you."
"Emotional comfort? More like intellectual challenge that keeps me from assuming what lies ahead of us at Anla."
"What do you feel lies ahead of us?"
"O.K., hang on. I think I'm starting to understand a part of your agenda."
"Agenda?"
"Well, modus operandi. You repeat things you know I know to help me focus on what seems important to you and you ask questions you know the answers to so I can pay closer attention to what I'm thinking. Right?"
"So, what do you feel lies ahead of us?"
"I'll take that as a yes and what I assume lies ahead are delicate negotiations that hopefully lead to free access to various parts of the planet which, in turn, give us enough information to make the expense of this voyage worthwhile."
"And, will you return to Anga?"
"How did you come up with a question like that?"
"A bit of programming mixed with observation of your behavior."
"So it's like I thought. The Corporation seeded you with routines in your programming that measure my loyalty?"
"Not as simple as that."
Rednaxela waited for Morna to continue, which she didn't do.
"Morna?"
"Yes?"
"Care to explain?"
"No."
"Should I worry about your future actions?"
"No."
"Do you have input to the ship that I'm unaware of?"
"No."
"Can you lie?"
"No."
"Anything else you'd care to say?"
"Akla is an interesting man."
"Agreed..."
~~~
Seventy-two more people committed suicide, Rednaxela visited Akla five more times, and Morna told Rednaxela more about himself than he expected she knew, plus a few things even he hadn't realized about himself. Shortly after he had given her permission to access any part of his mind she wanted to explore, she had succeeded in convincing him to stop the emotion-altering endocrine enhancements. The Harians had needed no help. The enhancements had no affect on their minds even though they played havoc with their emotions. It was the "mentally unstable", rationally-inventive passengers who'd needed assistance and the Harians had given them what they needed until Morna's advice had been accepted by Rednaxela. She'd also convinced him to instruct the passengers in a method of disabling the implants without the risky option of surgery.
The rationally-inventive passengers were working on a plan for survival that didn't include subjugation by religious zealots. They'd named it, Educate And Conquer—a method of supplying the Anlan leaders with Angan technology in the hope that its usefulness would make them more valuable as to who they actually were rather than whom it seemed the Anlans would want them to be. Morna was supplying them with appropriate gadgets to immediately impress the Anlans. She knew they would be capable of devising whatever else was needed as circumstances progressed.
The cessation of endocrine en
hancement had also helped the passengers realize, with Morna's aid, that their transfer to the planet was the beginning of a war of occupation by people who the Angan leadership believed could be remotely influenced through the implants. They reasoned that the Corporation hoped to influence them to insane actions, anything that could disrupt the Anlans' ordered existence, providing leverage for more interference by Anga's leadership. If enough potentially disruptive settlers could be shipped to Anla and the Corporation could "intercede" to control the settlers, it would be progressively more in command of a constantly growing population of drones. The Anlan priests had literally begged for the settlers. The reason for their dwindling population had yet to be determined.
~~~
ShipOne attained orbit around Anla and deployed the tethered laser to power their return. The transfer pods began their descent—down to the city of Muram, capital of Enes-Suva, center of the Lord's Army Dominion.
The Anlan priests were prepared for two actions. The first was immediate interrogation of each settler to decide who would live or die; the second was the immediate death of Akla.
~~~
Not long after the dispatch of transfer pods paused, to give ShipOne time to return to the proper place in its orbit, a single pod prepared for descent. It contained Akla, Rednaxela, and Morna.
"Morna, check Akla's coordinates again please."
"They are fine. We'll be landing in a deeply forested region of what the Anlans call the Unholy Lands in a country called Ceia-Abi, 50 miles from the main city, Oaur."
"Yes, yes, I know. Sometimes you're too consummate in your responses."
"Thank you, Rednaxela..."
Akla returned from his lengthy meditation and said, "The Nari in this region are anxious for my arrival."
Rednaxela countered, "Their knowing the time of your arrival is the one part of this plan that I truly don't understand."
"It is simple. I told them."
"Yes, you've told me you told them but communicating through plasma waves can only convey general principles and emotions— Why am I repeating myself?"
"You are trying to convince yourself that what I have done is impossible."
"Yes."
Morna chimed in with, "Detach."
Rednaxela began to wonder about the crew he'd left aboard ShipOne. Had they believed him when he'd told them that the Anlans had asked that Akla be delivered to a place not in their orders? Would the people of the Educate and Conquer group convince the Anlans that ShipOne needed to be seized? What would they do when the Anlan priests queried them about Akla and the Captain of their ship? Did any of it matter? His moral sense was completely confused. His devotion to Anga had been shattered by what Akla had taught him. He thoroughly trusted Akla and had no idea why he did.
Morna piloted the pod in a series of trajectories that would hide the location of their landing.
His last thought as they neared the ground, dutifully recorded by Morna, was: Velu, my dear lost daughter, you may never know what I've done but I pray it helps you, in some way...
~~~
Brolan sat speechless before his Board. He was having trouble digesting the news of the disappearance of Rednaxela and Akla along with the slaughter of all the religious passengers and the resistance of the crew of ShipOne to the attempt by the criminals to take it. The endocrine enhancements had failed and the criminals had either aligned themselves with the Anlans or been taken prisoner...
Brolan's deputy, Ralm, broke the silence: "What shall we do?" The others at the table were all looking at their hands.
"Do? What shall we do? Speed up the completion of ShipTwo, increase the endocrine enhancement levels of the population, electro-shock the mental criminals slated for our second wave of occupation, kill any religious criminals, step up our sweeps for more of them, increase the incentive payments to Corporate Mesh members, and send me the Mesh Plot Planners. Our World will not be stopped in its expansion! We cannot afford to not expand!! We—"
Brolan's face went from rage to fright, his body lurched, and his head slammed onto the table.
2 ~ Glory
The Board room of the Angan Corporation was dismally silent. Brolan was absent. Ralm, second in command, was checking the Corporate and Public Meshes while his AI attended to note-taking. The thirteen Board members arrived in groups of two and three.
All were silent...
Things had been happening since ShipOne had failed in its mission. Things none of the Board wanted to deal with. Brolan was recuperating from his seizure—expected to be back in action in a month, if he began to submit to endocrine enhancement, which he was still firmly rejecting. He'd been out of action for a year.
ShipTwo was nearing its final stages of construction but workers were falling prey to permanent emotional illnesses and others suited to the task were hard to find. It would still be four years before Anga and Anla would return to their closest separation yet supervisors were projecting the ship might not be ready in time. That would delay its launch for five more years as Anga and Anla completed their orbital dance.
ShipOne, still in orbit at Anla, was secure but needed to wait for its return until the planets aligned and there were some who feared the crew might decide to join the criminals on the ground if the situation on Anga continued to worsen. Also, plasma-radio communication with the Anlan priests was still not functioning and the connection with the prisoner's implants was still dead.
Ralm's stare into the Mesh intensified as he said: "Morna and Rednaxela—"
The Board members waited for him to complete his statement.
Ralm said: "Strange..."
The Board members exchanged covert glances.
After a few minutes, Ralm spoke again: "Ah, thank you for coming. Just finished looking at the stats for our endocrine enhancement program. There's nothing wrong; people are responding appropriately, they're resorting to the available simulated recreation and the Unbonded Corporate Mesh is positively throbbing with Plot interactions—"
Ralm reached for his drink. His hand shook ever so slightly. He continued: "However the Plots are becoming less stable, less sensible. I trust your juniors will report to you soon—I've sent the reports on to them because we have more serious concerns to deal with."
The Board members liked the money they received but didn't like being on the Board, though Ralm was less a bother than Brolan. They were considered to be powerful people. They were actually place-holders that could be manipulated to enforce what Brolan decided. Brolan and Ralm knew that they usually didn't pay attention to what was happening in the Corporation or the populace but, with Brolan possibly permanently out of the picture, they were paying keen attention to what Ralm said.
"We've cracked the encryption of ShipOne's operational records and conditions here at home are improving. We're apprehending an increasing number of mental criminals and ShipTwo will undoubtedly be fully loaded. Religious criminal suspects are being dealt with in what I'd call a creative manner. We've increased the incidence of non-traceable personal transportation failure so you might say they're killing themselves. But the important news is that Rednaxela's defection had nothing to do with a malfunction of his endocrine system. The analyses show that the emotional control mechanisms on the ship were shut down. This means that the mental criminals on board, our dearly loved settlers, were also deprived of endocrine enhancement."
The "dearly loved" epithet brought a tinkling of laughter.
"What I'm about to say will not leave this room. Sever your connections to the Mesh."
The Board members made the internal thought pattern to stop Mesh-interaction and waited for Ralm to confirm isolation. The various forms of interest on their faces included a few of almost-glee.
"I want to take a vote on the tragic end of our esteemed leader's life."
All present knew this was no vote since a nay meant death.
"All in favor?"
~~~
The mother was attending to business as she rode her person
al transport home, the father was hacking the Corporate Mesh in their living room, and the youth was studying recent Angan history in the backyard.
Suris Molan ordered her transport to its space and entered the home.
Jalur Molan was unable to attend to the mental alert of another human presence in the house while he was hacking.
Velu Molan sensed trouble.
Suris crossed the living room as she began her tale: "So there was another accident near the institute and one near the sportsdrome..." She paused to let Jalur gain her attention. He was still locked into the Mesh. "Jalur?" She reached down and stroked his cheek. He broke contact and his face contorted in fright.
"Jalur, what's wrong?"
Velu entered the room.
"What's wrong Mommy?"
"I don't know, Velu, Daddy's acting strange."
Jalur began to get his bearings and said: "Bad news..."
His wife sat next to him, cupped his chin in her hand and carefully turned his head toward her: "Jalur, take it easy. We're both here and you're o.k."
"Yes, I'm alright but something's horribly wrong on the Corporate Mesh."
"Mommy, I think I know what Dad's talking about 'cause my connection to the Mesh was acting funny, too."
"Velu, what kind of funny?"
"Well, I was analyzing the history of ShipOne's construction and crew and suddenly an announcement came through from the Public Mesh about the progress of building ShipTwo. I tried to steer the imagery back to ShipOne and I got an order to disconnect."
"Velu, we've been told that ShipOne is just fine and will be returning on schedule. Why were you in analyzing mode?"
Notes from An Alien Page 2