Adobe .pdf - Notes from An Alien

many Protectors the Faith of Eternity had out. The Lord's Army and Disciples of Faith were using
Protectors mostly against each other but he must make no contact at all, if possible. Akla had
given him His blessing and told him to maintain his trust. Surgenta knew he had to grow that
trust as he progressed in his mission...
Nearly halfway around the planet Akla had said. Death at the end He'd said.
Surgenta only knew he had to deliver the message in his pocket. What it said or what would
happen after he couldn't think about if he was to complete his mission—make his life mean
something.
Down from the rocky hill and through the brush-land, by-passing the village. Nearly halfway
around the planet to go and he'd only been on the mission for one day.
~~~
The people surrounding Burlim in the room had to be trusted. There was no middle ground, no
way to run any probability assessment. Since arriving on Anla he'd become the leader of these
people by default—no one else wanted the job.
The room they were in was a storage shed offered for their use by the Lord's Army priest,
Shunga, a man to never be trusted. Burlim had told him that their endocrine implants were acting
like they were being scanned for reactivation and Shunga immediately made preparations to visit
the Head-Priest. Burlim had, at most, half a day to consult with his people and make plans. He
motioned the group to find seats.
"People, we need solid plans, simple and flexible. We have a good beginning for a counter
movement but we're losing too many folks to the priests. I think you all would like to never see
another of our people dead on a stake while the Anlans drink their blood."
The silence of the group spoke for itself.
"Anga will soon be sending another ship, many more eventually, and the one thing we have
going for us is the timing of the planets' close approaches. Five years between each arrival—years
to educate people, years to move our plans forward."
A small woman stood up and said: "Let me get this straight. We continue helping the priests
while we strengthen our counter-movement. But this teaming up with enemies of the Lord's
Army?"
"We have to, Trelu. We don't want to return to Anga, right?"
"Not the way things are."
"And, we don't want to sit around pretending to pray and risk becoming the next Gift to their
God, right?"
"Absolutely, but why the double goal? Why not just strengthen our counter-movement without
running the risk that the Lord's Army's enemies are even more barbaric?
"Shunga is easy to fool because he's eager to learn everything we know. He's been appointed as
our contact with the Head-Priest because he has enough independent intelligence left to
understand what we can do. And, it's fairly obvious he wants to be the next Head-Priest. We have
to trust his hints about the Faith of Eternity and the Disciples of Faith. The Faith of Eternity is
capable of rising up against the Lord's Army in open battle and the Disciples of Faith apparently
have a form of religion that can include rational thought, some at least."
"Burlim, that's all speculation built on your conversations with Shunga. How can we count on
any of it?"
"Trelu, all of you, listen. We've been very lucky so far. The Anlans need us. Even though they're
killing themselves off with their Gift to God rituals and even though they see us as possible
population enhancers, we aren't strong enough to do this ourselves and you can bet the next
shipment of settlers will have had their minds severely if not permanently damaged. We're lucky
to have been given a way to stop the signals from Anga that activate endocrine alteration but the
next wave of settlers could very well be incapable of using it. Anga is at war with this planet and
will overrun it with mind-controlled settlers, ship by ship, till they can rape its resources, too. The
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