November 2008
The Prince entered the room as Lex played with Naira. The infant hybrid was practicing to walk with Lex's encouragement. The Prince stared at the child and then focused on Lex. "I have collected news concerning Earth," he said.
Lex looked away from Naira concerned. "What is it?" she asked alarmed.
"The leader of the most powerful nation on Earth is of the same appearance as your former human body," the Prince revealed.
"You mean the President is Black?" Lex asked.
"His skin appears dark brown, but I understand your primitive racial construct," the Prince confirmed.
Lex wondered how it could be possible. She had been away from Earth for so long that she didn't know what was happening in the news. "In truth, his ancestry comes from the eastern side of the 'African' continent," he said saying "Africa" in English.
"So?" Lex asked.
"The majority of descendants of slaves were from the western side of the 'African' continent. This leader is not from your clan," the Prince pointed out.
The Prince then used a remote to show files on the new president. "He still looks Black," Lex said.
"My skin color appears similar to many clans. Only by studying my genetics can one determine my royal ancestry. Loyalty to one's skin color is primitive," the Prince said dismissively.
"Why do you care? Did you support the other guy?" Lex chided.
"The other prospect was a former warrior. He killed many enemies, was captured, defied his captors, and was designated a war hero upon his return," the Prince said impressed.
Lex tried to think of whom the Prince was referring to. The Prince snorted at her ignorance. The screen showed a picture of Senator John McCain. Lex shook her head and shrugged not recognizing the picture.
"Does the war continue?" Lex asked.
"Yes," the Prince said simply.
"Thank you for telling me," Lex said appreciatively.
The Prince stared at her and then left the room. Lex continued to play with Naira. Thinking of the election, Lex morphed her right hand. Her Yautja hand and arm became human in front of her. She stared at her brown skin and then changed it back.
The Prince continued his low-profile retreats to shrines and the wilderness away from the palace. Lex finally made the decision to make her move. She placed herself in a black tight gi that would stretch or contract depending on her size. She then morphed into the Prince; the gi stretched with the new form. Lex quickly put her weapons and armor on and escaped the palace.
Using the Prince's appearance, his genetic markers, and eye scan Lex now had access to his battleship. The process took more than two hours, so Lex would continually morph to her usual self and then back into the Prince. As she fooled high-ranking officers, Lex felt giddy in her deception. She wondered what would happen if she got caught. Would the Prince be furious or proud? Perhaps both.
She ordered the battleship to leave orbit and aimed it towards Earth. The Prince encoded his files with his genetic marker instead of a complex password. He would never have assumed that someone would clone his body. As the ship approached Earth, Lex walked onto the bridge appearing as the Prince.
"We are here, my Prince," the Captain said.
"Good, place us in a stationary orbit at this location," Lex directed.
The ship moved towards Southwest Asia and started scanning the region. On a table was a hologram topography map that showed the extreme elevation changes of the mountains and valleys in the region. "A perfect hiding place," Lex thought to herself.
A dozen warriors came to the bridge for the briefing. Lex programed the computer to create a hologram of Osama Bin Laden. The warriors stared at the picture unimpressed. He was a slim man lacking any threatening characteristics. "Your mission is to find this man. You are not to kill him," Lex ordered.
The warriors sighed displeased with this mission. "We are teaching the humans to hunt one of their own. We are going to assist them in their hunt. You are to locate the target only," Lex said.
"My Prince, the search area is of significant size," the squad leader said.
"Then begin your search immediately. We are not leaving until you find the target," Lex said and then left the bridge.
In the Prince's quarters, Lex made herself at home. There was greater space than her own quarters and a number of interesting artifacts. The Prince's mask had additional sensors and scanners than her own. Every two hours or less Lex made her way back to her quarters always locking the door behind her. Even if she was discovered on the ship, the Yautja wouldn't particularly care. In fact, it was odd that the Prince didn't take any of his wives with him for company. Even odder still that the Prince didn't go down to the surface to personally lead the search.
Lex eventually went back to the bridge. The squad had found nothing yet. Lex wasn't too surprised as the entire planet's intelligence network had failed after ten years of searching. "I am going down to the planet alone," Lex announced. "Keep me informed on the progress of the search," she ordered.
Lex took a single craft down to the surface and sped towards the Pakistan/China border. The craft landed and on impact became cloaked. Lex exited the craft with high-tech equipment gear. Her mask provided her sufficient oxygen, her gloves were powerful magnets, and her boots had small rocket engines in case she were to fall she could fly away. Lex walked across the relatively flat base of the mountain. She had never climbed to the top of K2, the second tallest mountain on the planet. This would be her moment.
Using her mask as a timer, Lex morphed back and forth. She knew that the battleship might be watching her. However, on the mountain it would be difficult for even them to get a good visual. Lex was wearing so much gear that it would be difficult to tell her gender.
Finally, she received a transmission through her mask. "Target acquired. Permission to terminate," the message stated.
"Permission denied. Standby," Lex transmitted.
Lex approached the top and looked over the beautiful scenery. She then realized she had accomplished this feat as an alien and not as her human self. Realizing the risk, Lex morphed into her human self. Her gear hung loosely from her smaller body. She then took off her mask and looked around. Other than her tightly braided hair, she appeared like her human self. Immediately, she struggled to breathe in the high elevation. Before she could suffocate and pass out, she morphed back to her Yautja form. For just a moment, her human self had accomplished a life goal.
Lex came to the bridge for a report on the search. "We located a messenger with the target's DNA. We followed the messenger to this compound. We also recorded the human's communications and determined that he is connected with the target," the squad leader said.
Lex stared at the compound and then zoomed out the map. Instead of being in the mountainous areas of the Afghanistan/Pakistan border it was instead in the middle of a city. Lex stood flustered as the map detailed human military activity near the compound. She had to keep her composure in front of the warriors. The real Prince wouldn't care that Pakistan had betrayed American interests.
The next trick would be to alert the United States without being obvious that it came from an alien source. "Do we have a visual of the target?" Lex asked.
"No, the target remains inside the compound and never leaves," the squad leader informed her.
To get a confirmed visual, the Yautja would have to enter the compound undetected. Lex would also have to trust the Yautja warriors to not kill him. If the Yautja were to be discovered in anyway the occupants would become spooked and leave the area.
"Send a probe to confirm the target," Lex ordered.
A probe was the size of a baseball, had an on-board cloaking device, and had a number of different scanners. The probe descended into the atmosphere surviving the extreme friction. Once it reached the area, Lex waited in her quarters for a confirmation.
The probe finally returned back with images of the target. Lex stared at the collection of pictures on the screen. The face she remembered from the nightly news was right in front of her. He looked older, tired, and less healthier than she remembered, but it was him.
Lex felt an instinctive urge to fire upon the compound with a laser beam that would cause a one-hundred meter sink-hole. Instead, Lex went back to the surface and started transmitting her findings to various institutions hoping one would take it seriously. Once she was done, she came back to the ship where her warriors were waiting for further missions.
"We are done here. Captain, take us out," Lex ordered.
The Captain took control of the ship and sent out hunting expeditions according to his agenda. Unlike the Prince, Lex didn't host any congratulatory dinners for when the hunters came back. Although the Prince's behavior was strange, no one dared to report it to a higher authority.
With her new power, Lex considered possible options. She could impersonate the Prince and do whatever she pleased with an alien battleship. She could take it a next step further and impersonate the King thus changing the empire's policies towards humanity. Or she could impersonate Citali who was the next-in-line for the throne. The morphing cube's potential was limitless, but it was also a dangerous weapon. Lex had no intention of being trapped forever in another person's body and losing everything. She decided to use it sparingly so as to lower the risk of getting caught.
Upon arriving back at the palace, she was not questioned as to where she had gone. Lex had a tendency to go out exploring the caves and mountain peaks of Yautja-Prime by herself. The other wives had little interest in her athletic activities.
The Prince meanwhile began an odd sort of intellectual pursuits. He became overly religious visiting a number of shrines around the planet, researching the genealogy of his ancestors, and the historical record. It was obvious to all that the Prince was in a funk. It was during this time that Lex found it easy to impersonate the Prince for various functions. As Lex became more comfortable using the Prince's athletic body, she considered once more the idea of killing him outright.
UCLA California
Professor Agnew read an intriguing email in his office that claimed the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden. It didn't give a specific address, but it did give a 300km radius as to where he would likely be. Instead of the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, the email claimed that Bin Laden's location was near a collection of towns in Northern Pakistan. The professor was not a terrorist hunter but a geographer. Printing the email out, the professor decided to make a new lesson plan.
"Class, using our knowledge of political geography we are going to find Osama Bin Laden before the US government does. We are going to start here," Professor Agnew said showing a map of Pakistan.
"Begin your search."