Notes from An Alien

2 ~ Glory

The Board room of the Angan Corporation was dismally silent. Brolan was absent. Ralm, second in command, was checking the Corporate and Public Meshes while his AI attended to note-taking. The thirteen Board members arrived in groups of two and three.

All were silent...

Things had been happening since ShipOne had failed in its mission. Things none of the Board wanted to deal with. Brolan was recuperating from his seizure—expected to be back in action in a month, if he began to submit to endocrine enhancement, which he was still firmly rejecting. He'd been out of action for a year.

ShipTwo was nearing its final stages of construction but workers were falling prey to permanent emotional illnesses and others suited to the task were hard to find. It would still be four years before Anga and Anla would return to their closest separation yet supervisors were projecting the ship might not be ready in time. That would delay its launch for five more years as Anga and Anla completed their orbital dance.

ShipOne, still in orbit at Anla, was secure but needed to wait for its return until the planets aligned and there were some who feared the crew might decide to join the criminals on the ground if the situation on Anga continued to worsen. Also, plasma-radio communication with the Anlan priests was still not functioning and the connection with the prisoner's implants was still dead.

Ralm's stare into the Mesh intensified as he said: "Morna and Rednaxela—"

The Board members waited for him to complete his statement.

Ralm said: "Strange..."

The Board members exchanged covert glances.

After a few minutes, Ralm spoke again: "Ah, thank you for coming. Just finished looking at the stats for our endocrine enhancement program. There's nothing wrong; people are responding appropriately, they're resorting to the available simulated recreation and the Unbonded Corporate Mesh is positively throbbing with Plot interactions—"

Ralm reached for his drink. His hand shook ever so slightly. He continued: "However the Plots are becoming less stable, less sensible. I trust your juniors will report to you soon—I've sent the reports on to them because we have more serious concerns to deal with."

The Board members liked the money they received but didn't like being on the Board, though Ralm was less a bother than Brolan. They were considered to be powerful people. They were actually place-holders that could be manipulated to enforce what Brolan decided. Brolan and Ralm knew that they usually didn't pay attention to what was happening in the Corporation or the populace but, with Brolan possibly permanently out of the picture, they were paying keen attention to what Ralm said.

"We've cracked the encryption of ShipOne's operational records and conditions here at home are improving. We're apprehending an increasing number of mental criminals and ShipTwo will undoubtedly be fully loaded. Religious criminal suspects are being dealt with in what I'd call a creative manner. We've increased the incidence of non-traceable personal transportation failure so you might say they're killing themselves. But the important news is that Rednaxela's defection had nothing to do with a malfunction of his endocrine system. The analyses show that the emotional control mechanisms on the ship were shut down. This means that the mental criminals on board, our dearly loved settlers, were also deprived of endocrine enhancement."

The "dearly loved" epithet brought a tinkling of laughter.

"What I'm about to say will not leave this room. Sever your connections to the Mesh."

The Board members made the internal thought pattern to stop Mesh-interaction and waited for Ralm to confirm isolation. The various forms of interest on their faces included a few of almost-glee.