Alien Manifesto (26 page)

“
That’s enough for tonight.
My watch starts in an hour, time to go,” I called out to my mate
the feline master.

Nodding her head in agreement, she
added, “Snarth will want to know about this right away.” I got on
the com-link to tell Snarth what we had found. I got no answer,
just dead silence.

“
It’s probably just the
depth of the tunnel blocking the signal,” I reasoned to my
mate.

“
We should not assume that
is the case. We need to get back to the ship as fast as possible
just in case.” In unison we hunched down on our bikes and rolled
the throttles all the way on. At this speed, we would be back at
the ship in mere minutes. However, there was absolutely no room for
pilot error or we would end up splattered on the tunnel
walls.

“
Snarth,” SSlice’s voice
called over the ship’s intercom.

“
Report,” Snarth hissed in
response, having been roused out of a light sleep.

“
I have lost contact with
Human Tom and the feline master,” whispered SSlice.

“
What do you mean, lossst
contact?” hissed Snarth, demanding an answer.

“
I cannot raise them on the
com-link and I have lost their bikes’ tracking signal. It may just
be that the tunnel goes too deep for our signal to reach. It is
solid rock after all,” SSlice offered in response to Snarth’s
ire.

“
Rowl, report,” Snarth
barked into the com-link.

“
All quiet here sir, not
even an insect moving anywhere near the ship,” came Rowl’s
immediate response.

“
Damn thossse two. I warned
them about being foolish. All right, everyone mount up. Let’sss go
sssee what thossse two have gotten themssselvesss into. SSlice, arm
the ship’s defense systems and join us,” hissed an outwardly angry
Snarth, who was in fact worried about the pair’s safety much more
than he let on; he had grown quite fond of the young Human
Tom.

“
I think it best that I
stay here in case they come back into range,” whispered SSlice in
response to Snarth’s orders.

“
You might be right, the
ressst of usss leave in two time unitsss, get a move on
Irissshman!” hissed Snarth.

“
I am mounted up and
waiting on you sir,” came the Irishman’s immediate and somewhat
frosty reply from the cargo bay.

Just as Snarth swung his leg over his
cycle, SSlice’s whispery voice sounded on the com-link. “I just
picked up Human Tom’s bike’s tracker signal and the feline master’s
as well. They are headed this way and moving dangerously fast. I
don’t see anything chasing them.”

“
Defensssive posssitionsss
everyone, blasssters at the ready jussst in cassse they are being
chasssed. MOVE IT!” hissed Snarth loudly as he moved into a
defensive position covering the ship’s rear quarter and the tunnel
entrance.

The Irishman and Rowl took up flanking
positions opposite Snarth, also covering the ship and the tunnel
entrance, waiting calmly for me and the feline master to emerge
from the tunnel, ready to blast anything following us into
oblivion.

Snarth heard SSlice say “Base to team
two, Tom can you hear me? Are you being chased?”

Much to Snarth’s relief I answered,
“Team two returning to base. Good to hear your voice, we are not
being chased. I repeat we are not being chased.”

Hearing that Snarth barked another
order, “Stand down everyone. When team two returns I want everyone
in the forward lounge for a debriefing.”

As the team gathered in the forward
lounge waiting for me and the feline master, anxiety was very high.
The unasked and unanswered questions about what team two had found
and the mysterious power loss were thick in the air. Snarth paced
back and forth across the exquisitely wrought mosaic of polished
stone deck in the forward lounge, growing more agitated with each
time unit of delay.

Finally, I and the feline master
joined the team in the forward lounge.

Sensing the tension in the air, I
broke the silence. “Well, we found treasure, sort of.”

All eyes were trained intently on me,
making me feel a bit foolish about my statement.

“
What exactly did you
find?” hissed a decidedly grumpy Snarth.

“
We found ships, and lots
of them,” I answered. “Mostly one man fighters as far as we could
tell. This entrance ends in a huge cavern about two miles down the
main tunnel. When I say huge, I mean a mile or more across. It
easily holds thousands of ships. All of the ships we saw are fully
armed and ready to go, just waiting for their pilots,” I
finished.

“
I uploaded the sensor
scans from their bikes to the ship’s main computer. We can study
them anytime you like, Snarth,” interrupted SSlice.

“
Put them on the viewer,”
hissed a now intrigued and much less grumpy Snarth.

Whistles of amazement came from the
team members as the scale of the tunnels and chambers unfolded in
front of them. “Wait until you see the chamber the ships are in,” I
said, still not believing the sheer size of the tunnel complex.
More sounds of astonishment came from every team member as the scan
of the cavern scrolled across the screen.

“
I do not think thisss isss
the entrance to the main city,” hissed Snarth thinking out
loud.

“
It appears to be the
entrance to the planetary defense complex,” interjected SSlice
matter of factly, his whispery voice breaking the silence, each
team member having been completely lost in thought.

“
ssSo where isss the city?”
hissed Snarth.

“
I have been running some
probability calculations and IF the Ones stay true to form in their
love of symmetry it will be exactly opposite this complex,”
answered SSlice. “I have located a large extinct volcano here,” he
whispered, highlighting a section on the map-reader. “I have good
reason to believe that this may indeed be the temple of the
sun.”

“
But we already searched
that quadrant,” interjected the Irishman, “No indications of an
underground entrance showed up on the scans.”

“
Nor would it if the Ones
were using the natural lava tubes of the volcano as an entrance to
the city: we were searching for the wrong kind of reading,”
whispered SSlice. “As you can see from the scans, this area here
seems to have been of particular interest in the bombardment that
ended the war.”

“
Wouldn’t the bombardment
have destroyed the city entrance, burying it under tons of rubble?”
I asked.

“
If it were anyone but the
Ones I would say yes,” whispered SSlice. “However, I think that
this area may have been a decoy to protect the real entrance all
along. Remember the temple of the sun was their most sacred site.
And,” SSlice added, “the home of the Queen.”

“
Before we go sssearching
half way acrossss the planet again, we mussst consssider the
problem of the power lossss and consider resssupplying the ssship,”
hissed Snarth, reminding us all that we must be cautious even if
discovery seemed easily within our grasp.

“
ssSSlice, you sssaid you
had an idea about what causssed the power loss. Now would be a good
time to elaborate,” he hissed.

“
It is just a wild theory,
purely conjecture with no proof,” whispered SSlice
evasively.

“
Out with it, old friend,”
hissed Snarth. “There are no ssstupid theoriesss or questionsss
here.”

“
Mind you, I have no proof,
and the answer I have seems impossible considering that we have
found no evidence of any kind of life other than plants since we
arrived here,” SSlice whispered. “When I found the reference to
this planet in the databanks of that long abandoned space station,
I found something else. It was just a fragment of a distress call
from the brother of the explorer who discovered this world shortly
before the war,” he continued. “It too concerned a warning about an
unexplained power loss.

“
It seems he was trying to
rescue his brother who had crash-landed on this planet when it was
populated by the Queen and her subjects. That is all I have been
able to find out about this planet before the war,” whispered
SSlice.

“
What does that have to do
with us?” I asked, puzzled.

“
There have been a lot of
theories about just what the Ones did with their prisoners. No one
really knows for sure. At least, that is the official scientific
version spread by the galactic government,” SSlice whispered. “I
however know the truth. My great grandfather was one of the spinner
elders who was captured and brought before the Queen during the
war.

“
This is a closely guarded
family secret and I ask each of you to keep it that way,” SSlice
whispered desperately, growing agitated, “The Ones ate their
prisoners. Dissolving them at a cellular level, feeding on the
cellular energy,” SSlice said, emotion turning his whispery voice
husky and ragged. “My great grandfather watched as the Queen ate
the spinner elders one by one until those who remained surrendered,
agreeing to slavery rather than annihilation. That is a shame we
spinners will have to bear as long as the legends of the Ones
live,” he finished.

Stunned by SSlice’s revelation, the
team sat in silence, each trying to grasp what SSlice was trying to
tell them.

Finally, it was Rowl who broke the
respectful silence. “Are you telling us that the Ones caused the
power loss?”

“
I do not know for sure,”
answered SSlice, his emotions under his usual icy control. “The
sensor logs show nothing. The scans for biological life forms show
nothing, not even insects.”

“
It could be some sort of
left over ancient machinery,” volunteered the feline master,
breaking her long silence.

“
Perhapsss,” hissed Snarth:
“Whatever it isss we will have to be extra cautiousss. I have no
desire to get into a firefight with any One warriorsss. Even if
they are 500 yearsss old

“
All right, my friendsss,”
hissed Snarth: “Teamsss of two on the outside on ssship’s watch at
all timesss. Tom, you and the feline massster have the firssst
watch. Rowl and the Irissshman will relieve you in sssix hours.
ssSSlice and I will monitor the ssship from the control room.
Remember where we are and ssstay sssharp. Report anything out of
the ordinary at once. I want each team member cloaked and armed
with blassster riflesss azsss well azsss persssonal weaponsss and
ssside arm blastersss. Disssmissssed” hissed Snarth.

It was several hours later
that I heard the scraping sound of many tiny feet coming toward my
position and the ship. Using my wristband, I alerted my mate and
Snarth at the same time, maintaining both my position and my cover.
Two messages scrawled across my wrist pad almost instantly. One
from my mate: it said simply
What took you
so long
? Typical feline reply I thought.
The second was from Snarth.
Hold position
while I try to get a sensor fix,
it said.
So I held and waited, practicing my patience.

Several minutes passed and I was
getting nervous, as the sound of the feet was getting closer. I
still did not have a visual even with my enhanced night vision.
Could it be that what or whoever was coming was cloaked? I moved
the blaster rifle into a ready position, quietly, smoothly in a
much-practiced movement. Snarth said take no chances, shoot first
ask questions later.

Good advice if you asked me, but it
was too early to give away my position without a definite target.
All I had to go on so far was the faint sound my new hearing told
me was coming this way, slowly, steadily. I sighted the blaster
rifle on where my ears told me my target would appear and I waited,
trigger finger itching yet held in check by many years of practice
in just this kind of situation.

Whatever they were, they
were about 100 yards away just around the corner of the tunnel
entrance when the message from Snarth scrawled across my
wristband.
They appear to be cloaked.
Acquire targets, prepare to lay down covering fire as we exit the
ship. On my mark.

With a faint hum then a slightly
louder whine, the cargo ramp of the ship opened. At the same time
the ship’s defensive array of blasters swiveled to life, coming to
bear on the tunnel entrance. The sound of the feet suddenly
stopped.

Several tense minutes
passed. Snarth, the Irishman and Rowl were cloaked. Quickly they
made their way down the cargo ramp, taking up flanking positions to
the ship’s blasters. There was still no movement. Calmly,
expectantly we waited.
With all the
firepower aimed at the tunnel entrance, I would not want to be the
first man in a wave attack if that is what they were
planning,
I thought.

In a flash of brilliant blaster fire
the weapons array on the opposite side of the ship exploded, firing
at some unseen enemy movement. They were coming up the cliff face
toward the tunnel entrance.

We were being probed, and
now caught in a two pronged pincer attack. We were very much out of
position. Yet if we gave away our positions, we may draw fire and
get pinned down, sealing our fate.
Move to
a port side flanking position
came the
message from Snarth across my wristband communicator. I signaled my
acknowledgment and eased out from behind the boulder where I had
been taking cover, moving toward the opposite side of the
ship.