Alien Manifesto (8 page)

“
That’s the sense I get too
Master,” I answered.

“
These fanatics are so
predictable. They can justify anything as long as it is in the name
of their cause,” she hissed in distaste.

“
Yes Master,” I
answered.

“
We must preempt their
strike and exact revenge at the same time,” she continued. “I will
kill the leader, you kill Maalox. We will meet up at the rendezvous
point outside the city in two hours. Be careful Human Tom. Mind
what I have taught you. Maalox is not to be
underestimated.”

“
Yes Master, I will be
careful,” I replied.

“
Do not use your blaster in
the temple, Human Tom. That may raise alarms,” the feline master
cautioned.

“
Gladly Master,” I answered
with a savage grin, my hand drifted to the killing dagger on my
belt. I would enjoy killing Maalox up close and personal. He would
have no doubt about who killed him. He would be number
twenty-two.

Maalox was not in his quarters. Next,
I tried the bar nearest to the temple. Sure enough there he was,
belly up to the bar with his back to the door. I knew this to be a
deception. Maalox knew I would come for him. He was trying to lull
me into overconfidence with his back to the door, seemingly
unprotected. However, I could see him watching the mirror in front
of him intently, waiting for me to show up. I decided not to
disappoint.

I entered the bar cloaked, and studied
the layout, making my plan of attack. As I watched, Maalox downed
another shot of some kind of liquid, alcohol most likely, or the
equivalent on this planet. I had better hurry or he may be
considered too drunk to legally be killed in a public show
down.

I took up position and readied my
attack a little to his left and behind. I decloaked and shouted
“Maalox, you have dishonored me for the last time. Prepare to
defend yourself.” Maalox shot two feet straight up in the air,
fumbling for his blaster midair.

In his drunkenness, he missed the
first attempt to draw and desperately clawed at his blaster once he
landed on the barstool. I jumped sideways, crouched and waited. On
his third attempt to draw, Maalox succeeded in clearing his blaster
from its holster, swinging it wildly in my direction. I drew in one
smooth motion and burned him right between his beady little
eyes.

The music stopped and the crowd of
patrons went silent. With a flourish, I holstered my blaster and
scanned the crowd for any of Maalox’s friends or associates. No
challenge came. As I turned to leave, a huge galactic security mech
blocked the door, blasters drawn and activated. I paused, raising
my hands over my head.

The mech had the symbol of law
enforcement plastered prominently over its front. “Hands up!!
Explain yourself citizen,” boomed a metallic voice in galactic
standard.

“
This person dishonored me
not once but twice and I claim vengeance,” I answered.

The mech paused before asking, “Who
can verify this citizen’s claim?” Most of the crowd pointedly
looked the other way. “Speak up citizens, it is your galactic
duty,” boomed the Security Mech.

Finally, the bartender spoke up. “He
gave Maalox three attempts to draw his weapon before he fired.
Maalox would have killed him if he hadn’t killed
Maalox.”

“
Very well,” said the
security mech. “Does anyone claim otherwise?” No one spoke. “Does
anyone claim vengeance on this citizen?” questioned the security
mech. Still the crowd was quiet. “Very well.” boomed the security
mech with its metallic version of galactic standard, “I judge this
self-defense. Mind yourself citizen, next time you might kill
someone with friends,” the mech cautioned. Then it left the bar,
continuing on its patrol down the street. I beat a hasty retreat,
no need to invite any more trouble from the mech police.

As I waited at the rendezvous point, I
was getting worried. The feline master should have been here by
now. Maybe she had run into trouble. I waited several more tense
minutes before I resolved to find out just what was keeping
her.

As I moved down the temple halls, I
heard someone approaching, hurriedly. It was the leader’s
assistant. I knew I could follow him straight to the leader. Those
of his kind were completely submissive to their masters and as a
result never far away.

Deeper and deeper into the temple we
went, until we reached a series of natural caves upon which the
temple had been built. Grabbing a lit torch, the assistant hurried
on. I would have to follow closer to the flickering torch than I
liked. Or risk losing my way in the natural blackness of the cave’s
winding passages.

I froze as I heard a feline
scream of rage and pain
.
I am close
. As I rounded
the next corner, bright lights came on. I ducked back into the
shadows thinking I had been discovered. Then I remembered I was
cloaked. Whoever it was in that room had no idea I was
here.

The feline master was chained spread
eagle on a stone table. I could not begin to guess how she had been
captured. The leader was holding a long, thin metal rod that glowed
red on the tip, near her head. She screamed again. That thing must
be a torture device. I drew my blaster and sighted in the leader,
my finger tightening on the firing stud, tight beam on, intending
to burn a hole in the back of the leader’s head.

Then I remembered the feline master’s
warning about blasters in the temple, and how they would set off
alarms. I would have to do this up close. I holstered my blaster
and drew my dagger, positioning myself behind the leader. In one
smooth practiced motion, I decloaked with my dagger at the leader’s
throat. “Put that thing down,” I growled in his ear in Galactic
standard.

The leader froze and dropped the metal
wand and it clattered on the floor. “Now tell your security mechs
to decloak NOW,” I hissed as I kicked the leader behind the knees
bringing him to the floor. The leader pushed a button on his
bracelet and two security mechs decloaked. “Now let the master go”
I commanded. “No funny stuff and I might let you live.” I did not
intend to do so, but as long as the leader believed I would he
might continue to cooperate.

Once the feline master was
free, she disabled the two security mechs leaving just the three of
us. The feline master and I realized at the same time that the
assistant was missing. He must have slipped out while my attention
had been focused on freeing the feline master
.

Damn,
they will be on us in minutes
. In
one gracefully swift stroke, the feline master decapitated the
leader with her reacquired feline blade. I let the leader’s body
fall to the ground. It hit the floor with a sickening sound, like a
huge bag of wet cement, the head rolling to a stop by the wall. To
my surprise, the feline master grabbed the severed head as we
trotted toward the door. “A trophy,” she explained as we made our
way out of the dungeon, toward the temple entrance.

The feline master had lost her
cloaking device and there was not enough power for two to use my
cloak. We were fortunate; we had not encountered any security mechs
or believers. Soon we were clear of the natural caves leaving only
the temple between us and freedom.

However, our luck soon ran out. A
huge, heavily armed security mech stood blocking the way forward,
forcing us to retreat in order to avoid detection and activation of
its blasters. “Any ideas, Master?” I asked the feline
master.

Just as she was about to answer there
was a loud thump ahead of us, in the direction of the security
mech. I drew my blaster and prepared to go down
fighting.

“
Hold,” hissed the feline
master.

I froze. A good thing I did, as the
canine master squeezed past the downed security mech.

“
Thought you guys could use
a hand,” he growled in greeting.

“
Your assistance is
appreciated but unnecessary,” sniffed the feline master
disdainfully.

“
You’re welcome,” woofed
the canine in response.

“
The rest of the way is
clear, let’s go,” growled the canine master as he disappeared
behind the fallen security mech.

Snarth and the Irishman were waiting
for us at the temple entrance, covering our retreat. “Thisss way to
the ssship,” Snarth commanded, as we beat a hasty retreat across
the courtyard, blasters drawn, and heading for the nearby
ship.

~

Later, at Snarth’s estate, after much
food and drink, the feline master sprawled out next to me on the
dining couch. “Thank you for coming after me, Human Tom. You are no
longer my student. You are now my equal and I owe you a life
debt.”

“
You would have done the
same for me,” I answered sleepily.

“
Let us hope we have the
honor of fighting together again,” she purred.

“
Well done, Human Tom,”
said Snarth as he pounded me on the back in congratulations. “Well
done all of you. Now get sssome sssleep, training ssstartsss at
0400.”

~

0400 came and went several
times as the team trained on. With no clear objective, I took
pleasure in the company of my teammates and the routine.
Snarth’s regeneration must be complete,
I thought to myself; watching Snarth rappel down
the rock face they had just climbed. The team was functioning as
one, operating with the smoothness that only a team of
professionals who completely trusted each other could, conquering
every obstacle the training field threw at them.

Following Snarth’s lead, the team
headed into the jungle after retrieving their gear when a low
flying shuttle appeared, making a beeline for the estate’s main
housing compound. All heads turned automatically toward Snarth who
was grimacing as only he could.

“
That’sss a galactic
council envoy’sss ssshuttle,” Snarth hissed. “Everyone back to the
main houssse now, double time. I am taking the ssshuttle back. Meet
me in my ssstudy azsss quickly azsss you can. Be on the lookout for
othersss. Human Tom, come with me now,” hissed Snarth.

The team vanished into the
jungle, headed for the main house at a dead run.
Still, it will be some time before they would get
there,
I thought as Snarth and I boarded
the transport.

The shuttle’s engines
erupted with full power at lift off.
We
will be at the main house in just a couple of minutes at this
rate,
I
thought
as I held on for dear life.
Snarth is not
holding back.
I closed my eyes and felt
the braking thrusters fire with relief.
Snarth is driving like a crazy son of a bitch. This must be
important. Wow! And I thought the bike ride was bad.
I marveled at the exhilarating ride, filing one
more fact about the enigma that was Snarth away for later
contemplation. I wondered why Snarth feared the Galactic
Council.
But more importantly,
what does he need me for?

When we landed, Snarth and I hurried
toward the courtyard at double time. Then at the rear entrance to
the courtyard, Snarth paused, composing himself and said, “Human
Tom, cloak yourssself and do not interfere until I tell you to. I
have inssstructed the sssecurity sssystem to allow you to move
around cloaked without sssetting off any alarmsss. However, that
meansss we won’t be able to sssee if whoever thisss isss alssso
hasss cloaked accomplicesss.” Then Snarth sauntered into the
courtyard with his best devil may care attitude.

I quickly made my way to the center of
the room then second-guessing myself I retreated into the only
corner that I could see both the exits from, and have the wall to
my back. The most unlikely place someone trained in stealth would
choose. Here I would wait until Snarth’s signal to uncloak
came.

The mechs had already admitted the
visitor into the courtyard. A hooded figure was seated on the
eating couch, waiting for Snarth’s arrival. As it threw back the
hood, I was surprised to see it was the same species as Snarth. I
had never seen Snarth stunned until now. They just stood there
looking at each other.

My skin prickled with the
sense of another cloaked figure and I tensed, reaching for my
blaster. I felt the soft paw of the feline stealth master stay my
draw.
Damn it,
she had gotten close to me, again. Too close to let me forget
about it any time soon. However, I am glad she is
here
.

The Irishman and the canine
master must not be far behind. As if in answer to my thoughts, I
felt the hot breath of the cloaked canine master, Rowl as he called
himself since his string of professional victories in the fight
ring. That meant the Irishman was guarding the door outside. I
grinned wickedly.
Anyone who tried to get
through that door was in for a real fight, I can assure
you.

Finally Snarth spoke. “It’sss been a
long time, brother. To what do I owe the honor?”

“
Do I really need a
reassson, brother?” said the newcomer.

“
If I had known you were
coming, I would have prepared a proper feassst.”
Still no sign from Snarth to decloak.