Alien Manifesto by T.W. Embry

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