The psychological profile of Celeste Dresden, Martian sentry at a local restaurant meeting room
Excerpt of 3. Death Warrant from the book Martian Short Stories II - by Cliff Rhodes:
Celeste Dresden was mortified that she had allowed an Earthling access to the meeting at the restaurant. Her supervisor, Mrs. Sturdivant, a secondary school teacher of history, noted briefly in her report to headquarters that a Miss Celeste Dresden had been insufficient in her duty as a sentry. Her recommendation would be termination unless the offending visitor could be recruited and reeducated.
“Miss Dresden you are now under codified pre-arrest pending your reevaluation as a sentry. Find the man responsible for the interruption and see if you can bring him to us at the indoctrination center. Unless we can give a good report, I’m afraid that you will have to be reevaluated and sent back to Mars. There is no room for mistakes. If we get a death warrant for this offender, you will have to carry it out personally because of your lapse in judgment. You should have stopped the intruder or at least warned us to take out the children from his presence. They are not to blame for their dislike of Earthlings. We have no room for mistakes, and they should not be taken out of the program for unauthorized inopportune responses to an Earthman's curiosity. We are all in agreement. You have to bring the Earthman into the hive or fulfill his death warrant.”
Celeste Dresden was only supposed to be standing guard at the entrance door of a back room dining area to a local restaurant. This was where all the sorority girls went to test their pledges loyalty and also to partake of the great food that was served quick and easy between classes.
Martians were not like any other Earth people in that they had one mission in life and that was to recruit other humans and turn them into a host for the Martian mind. Celeste was submissive to the Collective Mind of the Martian Hive, but deep inside she wanted to control the whole thing and not just be another Martian entity.
This Martian woman was almost exactly like other human females, in that she could control the will of men by using natural biological rhythms and processes that were normal human functions. Celeste Dresden knew the mind of men and exactly how to control them. No, she wasn't manipulative for that reason only, but there was a definite plan to using her expertise.
She was a killer and a pathological liar who only said what was necessary to achieve the end to a result. Celeste would do anything to achieve the goals she had set for herself. Her work with the Martian Hive made her a serial killer in achieving their objectives, which were fulfilling every Death Warrant that was issued.
Even though she was a contract serial killer, Celeste Dresden would go on to achieve a noble end and ultimately save the Earth, as a result of her rise to power within the Martian Hive and the Collective Mind.
Excerpt from 3. Death Warrant:
Celeste was in her own unique world. Every so often there appears brilliance in the human world, as in minds that can recall exact moments, mental clarity that can memorize enormous quantities of material, and athletes who excel in all competitions. Celeste just happened to be the one Martian in millions who could control the Collective Mind. She had been doing it, little by little since she had been a child. Never exceeding noticeable parameters, she concealed her mental probes with camouflaged ideas of benign collective classifications of goodness for the sake of the order, and na?ve desires to fulfill her Martian Hive obligations. Never once did they suspect that she could shut them out, close the door, and give direct orders herself. They were, after all, supposed to be tied one to another mentally and emotionally. Celeste was the one unique item in this library of words and symbols, truly schizoid, but that was good for Earth.
Celeste Dresden was an anomaly in a world that was out of control, an entity that was being used by God to correct something that was truly off course and needed to be fixed. Even though Celeste was a serial killer, she was being used and converted into something useful to change an already evil world.
Read the book of short stories yourself to see how this story ends, the truly bizarre scenarios, understand the characters, and find the part they all play in changing the world for better or worse.