pdf file - Notes from An Alien

houses the Council of Justice, two days from now, two hours past midday.
Alunur passed out in his chair. He was discovered “sleeping” by the children. When they couldn't rouse
him, their mother was called. When she couldn't rouse him, a doctor was called. Three hours later, when he
regained consciousness in the hospital, he began murmuring: “Verta, Verta, Verta...”
He was standing outside the Council's building, at the front of a large crowd, at the appointed time.
Suddenly, a gaggle of Mesh reporters rushed out of the building and set themselves in front of a podium at the
bottom of the steps. The next thing he saw was a woman and a young girl walking down the steps. The woman
began addressing the reporters and the young girl began to stare at him.
A man jostled past him and stopped a few feet away.
The man screamed: “In the name of God!”
A bolt of plasma shot from the man's chest.
It hit a metal box the woman was carrying.
The box seemed to emit a stream of plasma that engulfed Alunur, swiftly followed by a bolt that killed the
man and sent Alunur sprawling.
The woman collapsed.
All was silence but for a voice coming from the box: “I have failed in my mission.”
The young girl was testing the woman's pulse.
She stood and said: “She's dead.”
Then, she walked to Alunur, who was groggily getting to his feet, and said, “She died for your sake. Now,
I will live for your sake.”
Alunur said: “Are you Verta?”
“Yes...”
“Is that your mother?”
“No. That's the body my mother was borrowing. She's a part of me now.”
The crowd was still standing in shocked silence.
The metal box could be heard murmuring: “In the name of God, In the name of God, In the name of
God...”