Notes from An Alien Read Free Page B

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 enhancement 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