Alien Deception (18 page)

Leumas stared at Copolla with barely concealed anger. He clenched his fists at this circus Copolla had orchestrated to oust him from his position.

"The Earth subjects refuse membership at this time," Leumas began, his voice unwavering. "However, they do reserve the right to—"

"Stop!" Copolla said, cutting Leumas off. Around him, an outburst of indignation rose from the members as Leumas admitted his failure.

Copolla did nothing to halt the uproar from the Council. Instead, he merely sat in his seat, smiling a menacing and sarcastic smile. He let the Council’s anger run its course, adding momentum for what was still to come. When the mass had satisfied itself, he began in a calm and clear voice.

"According to the Charter of the UCDW, if the subjects from a home world planet chosen for membership refuse to join the Council, the issue shall be tabled until such time as we feel it should be revisited. Is this the case?" He looked toward Greg and Sarah.

::This is it then,::
Greg thought to Sarah.
::Here we go!::

Greg faced the Leader of the UCDW, this Copolla. He did his best to square his shoulders and speak confidently.

"We will not vote on any issue that decides what will happen on Earth. It's neither fair nor part of normal evolution. The people of Earth have a right to make decisions for themselves. Right or wrong, this is our prerogative."

Sarah stepped up next to Greg and grasped his hand. He could tell she was trying not to look directly at the menacing figure of Copolla; instead, she looked toward the conglomeration of aliens and spoke.

"Learning is a valuable part of human development. We learn by our mistakes, even if we make the wrong choices sometimes. We feel it is improper for those decisions to be made by a group of outsiders for another planet or species. We therefore refuse the invitation at this time from the UCDW. We also forbid any actions to be taken toward Earth until such time as the inhabitants accept this organization." She finished strongly, and Greg felt a reassuring tightening of her grip as they looked at each other, both feeling they had made the right choice.

Copolla began to speak, ignoring them as though they were too insignificant to warrant his gaze.

"It is a disappointment to this Council that the subjects from Earth have taken this stance. This Council sent its best representative to them, and it appears there has been more than one failure this day."

Leumas remained silent at the direct accusation. He saw no point in saying anything. An outburst at this point would only make Copolla's case appear stronger, and his own weaker.

Copolla went on. "In accordance with our charter, the proposition to have the planet Earth made a member of the UCDW is hereby revoked." He then gazed directly at Greg and Sarah with piercing eyes. "Perhaps at another time the opportunity to join this Council will be offered again," he said, and quickly looked away from them, avoiding eye contact. Then he finished in a thunderous voice, "The subjects will be memory wiped and returned to their planet. That is the ruling of the Council."

Copolla rose and left his seat, brushing past Leumas. Leumas thought he heard a chuckle from Copolla as he passed by.

"One day, Copolla," Leumas said softly, "One day."

Council personnel escorted the three of them out of the Great Hall. As they walked to some unknown destination, Sarah spoke to Greg telepathically.
::Well, that wasn't so tough, was it?::

::No, and that's the part I don't like. It was too easy. The Leader can't stand us; I could sense it. For some reason, we pose some kind of threat to him,::
he thought to her gravely.

::Threat? How could we be?::
she asked, her stomach beginning to churn again.

Leumas interrupted their mental conversation as he looked about the room. "Keep your wits about you now. This is where it gets a little tricky," he said in a low voice not to be overheard by those that were escorting them.

They were taken into a large area labeled "Cerebral Alteration Facility," which was a short distance from the Hall. The door thudded closed behind them, leaving the three alone. Back in the control room area, a technician appeared to be running checks on the equipment. Leumas waved at the short alien, whose skin color was a light fluorescent blue. The technician acknowledged the wave with one of his own and returned to his work. Leumas turned back to Greg and Sarah and motioned them to come closer as he spoke quickly. "In a very short period, you will be sedated and I shall complete the memory wipe. You will have no recollection of this entire affair."

Sarah and Greg exchanged furtive glances.

Leumas further explained, "It's a painless process. You will awake back on Earth and explanations regarding your disappearances will be implanted. You will resume your lives as they were." Then he paused, and his tone turned grave. "At least, that is the way the process normally goes, but I don't think that will be the case."

"Why not?" Sarah asked.

Leumas began to rub his head, speaking carefully. "There are too many unexplained circumstances. My few sources that remain true tell me that apparently the effort to discredit me is
not
the only reason that Copolla has done all of this," he said as he loosened his Council garb he had donned for the session. "Too many life forms have been disappearing, and the explanations are just not there. There is something else here that involves you two. I just don't know what it is yet. And I have not heard from my assistant, Greta. I sent her to investigate another possibility, but now I can only assume she is dead, murdered. That seems to be the trend lately," he finished bitterly.

"And you think this Copolla is behind it?" Greg asked, although he felt somehow that the Leader certainly was.

"Most certainly," Leumas responded.

"How do we come into play in all this?" Sarah questioned.

Leumas shrugged. "It has something to do with Earth. I would assume it involves the past, because most of the records have been conveniently lost and/or destroyed regarding your planet. I have my suspicions, but no proof. I had a contact at the archives working on finding the information, but no one has seen him either. I now must assume that he also is dead."

He sighed, and looked at them both. "None of this is your concern once you return to Earth. I will keep probing into it and, if I find out anything that indicates your lives are in danger, I will somehow communicate with you."

"Do you think that Copolla will try to strike before we're back on Earth?" Greg asked, stuffing his hands into his pockets, one of his usual signs of nervousness.

"If anything happens," Leumas said. "I believe it will be during the return trip. I have prepared a little surprise just in case that happens. But, for now, we must complete this process. The Council will check to ensure that it has been done prior to you two going back."

His mood suddenly changed from serious and grave to one of compassion. He stepped closer to them with his hands outstretched, smiled and said in a pleasurable tone, "It has been a pleasure to meet both of you. I wish we had more time, but we don't. Of course, the prospect of having you both back here will be embedded into your minds. It will be triggered at the appropriate time if your thoughts move in that direction. Our little arrangement will remain a secret between us."

"Will you be all right? This Copolla doesn't seem like the forgiving type," Sarah asked Leumas with concern.

"For the moment, he is satisfied; he has gotten what he wanted, my head on a platter," Leumas said bitterly. "Don't worry; I'll figure out something. I always do. Now, you two must get going." He gestured to the two reclining seats in the center of the room, and said, "Please have a seat and we shall begin."

They moved toward the sterile white chairs.

::Sarah, listen. This whole story…there's something here that's just not right. I really believe there is more here that involves us. Copolla knows what it is. I'm not sure about what Leumas knows, but I think he is holding his own ideas in his mind.::

::What do you think we should do?::

::I want you to concentrate, and try to set up a mental block to the memory wipe process.::

::How do I do that?:: .

::I think I know how. Just envision a wall in your mind. Fixate on that one thought. Nothing else. Concentrate on the wall!::

::Okay, I think I can do that. A wall.::

::Good. If it works, I think we'll remember enough so that, when we get home, we can contact each other and decide what to do. Got it?::

Greg began forming the image of a wall in his mind. A large thick wall that encircled him protecting him from anything trying to break in.

::Got it,::
she said quietly.

::Sarah,::
he began softly.

::Yes, Greg?::

::It's been a strange experience. Yet I couldn't imagine doing this with anyone else.::
He was suddenly glad he had the ability to send this to her without speaking. He didn't want to share that thought with anyone else but her.

::Same here,::
she said, smiling at him as they laid down in the reclining chairs.

Leumas began, not knowing of their conversation. "You won't feel a thing. You'll just fall asleep and wake up back in your homes. Once again, I would like to say it's been a pleasure. So long, and have a safe trip."

They looked at him and nodded. But inside their minds, they concentrated on building the mental walls. Two med robots quickly appeared and injected them with a sedative. In a matter of seconds, they felt drowsy, their eyes closed, and they were quickly asleep, at least physically.

* * * *

Leumas began the memory wipe process. The equipment was brought up and running by the standby tech that maintained its ready state. It was virtually an automatic process after the computer was programmed to identify the area of the brain that held the memories of the past couple of days. Once these were located, these images were subsequently erased. In their place, harmless substitute memories would be left.

While the process was beginning, Leumas remembered the communiqué he had received moments before the Council meeting. There had been an explosion in the archives. From what the examination team could discern, two life forms had been killed…murdered by a laser blast weapon; the distinctive trademark of Copolla's henchmen. Because he had not heard from Greta or Robise, he could only assume they had been killed.
When will this nightmare come to an end? How many have to—

His thoughts were suddenly jarred from his head as an alarm blared. He quickly glanced up at the display console to see what the problem was. It was the neural overload alarm. He searched frantically for the med tech that had powered the equipment up, but he was nowhere in sight. Part of the technician's responsibility was to ensure that the fail-safes were all operable and functioning.

The readout indicated that the fail-safes had been disengaged and the equipment was malfunctioning by sending too much neural input into the humans. He reached for the emergency cutoff device and activated it. The electronic hum of the equipment wound down and then completely stopped. The power register indicated that the current sent through Greg and Sarah's brains was more than ten times the normal level required for a memory wipe. Leumas opened an emergency communications channel.

He yelled, "Alert… Alert! I have a medical emergency in the Cerebral Alteration Facility! Get somebody in here
now!"

Leumas silenced the overload alarm. He moved over to check the life signs monitor. Incredibly, both Greg and Sarah's vital signs were still okay. Their respiration and heart rates were still all within normal parameters. But it was their brains that he was concerned about.
How could they have withstood this kind of overload,
he wondered.

He accessed the brain-scanning computer and instructed it to check for neural damage; this would take several minutes. As he waited, he confirmed the extremely high levels of neural input that had shot through Greg and Sarah.

"Damn," he said out loud, shaking his head. "No brain should be able to handle that much. They have to be brain dead." Silently, he still hoped for a miracle of some sort. As he examined possibilities as to how this could have happened, a lab technician entered the room. Leumas looked up and quickly observed that this technician was not the one who had been in the room when he had first arrived. Instead of being short and blue as Leumas remembered, this one was tall and pale as a ghost.

"Who are you?" Leumas demanded.

"I am the technician assigned to this equipment," the alien answered nervously as he observed Leumas’s disposition. "My presence was requested at another lab. When I arrived there, nobody knew why I had been called," the technician explained, shrugging.

"Do not touch anything at all," Leumas commanded, tight-lipped. "I will handle this investigation myself."

"Understood, sir. I shall stand by to assist you," the technician responded, moving off to the side of the room.

Leumas continued to weigh the odds of an equipment malfunction against someone actually sabotaging the program. He would have to check the program sequence.
If it had been tampered with, the evidence would be there. But why try to kill these two? They could have simply been sent home with no memories. Or was this about discrediting me even further by the deaths of the two humans?

His thoughts were interrupted by the monotone computer voice that indicated the test completion of the brain scan. He looked at the monitor and read the results aloud, "All brain activity normal. Memory wipe complete. Subjects normal." Surprised and shocked, Leumas read the three phrases over again in his mind.

"How in the blazing moons of Gimsom could that be?" he asked incredulously. "Ten times the normal level of neural input was fed into their brains. There should be nothing left but mush. Thank goodness they're not harmed, but how?" Before Leumas could take all this in, his eyes riveted on the red flashing sign of the main memory wipe program terminal. It flashed in bold red letters: Program sequence erased.