The search for Kalid/meta

Welcome to the meta page for The search for Kalid. We will discuss the plot here, so spoilers are all around.

The search for Kalid is a story about interstellar travel, set in the 25th century, although at that time the dates are no longer counted that way....and at the start of the story, the reader imagines they are in a galaxy "far, far away". Leone is a scientist and engineer from the world of Sakkara, an important scientific research and development planet in the Empire. At the start of the story, Leone is searching for Kalid, a sage from the Osiris Order. Leone hopes to use Kalid to fight the evil Set, whose murderous attacks now threaten Leone's people on Sakkara. Leone is following the advice of Sybil, a priestess, who claims to know where Kalid is. Leone and another Planetary Counselor, Aristark, go to the planet Flammis in search of Kalid. Leone does not believe in mental powers even though he has been told that Kalid is supposed to have them and that everybody on Flammis possesses them.

At the time of the story, telepathy is a newly developing branch of science within the Empire. Most people still do not think telepathy is possible. However, some people are genetically predisposed to be better at telepathy. Individuals can train and practice to improve their telepathic abilities. A few new mechanical devices also exist that can amplify telepathic ability. "Set" knows about telepathy and knows it could allow him to take over the Galaxy if he can master it. Most people in the Empire are not aware that telepathy is possible.

Set is a rare individual with natural ability for telepathic signal reception. Set's girl friend was a powerful telepathic transmitter, as is Kalid. About 1 in 100 people have significant innate telepathic ability. Very few of those ever develop their powers through training and practice. Only the Osiris Order has technology for amplifying the abilities of telepaths.

Set and Leone are political rivals who competed in the most recent election of a Planetary Chief of Transportation. Set is the leader of the Futurist Party, a new political organization advocating the use of government funds for construction of Space Elevators as an alternative to continued use of spaceships to land passengers and cargo on Sakkara. Leone was the Antiquist Party candidate and won the election, although the results were disputed. The Antiquist Party is funded by the fabulously rich Spaceship Guild (see Glossary).

After defeat in the election, the Futurist Party raises enough money to build the Elevators, a pair of Space Elevators, one for moving down and one for moving up from Sakkara to orbit. Set continues political work on Sakkara and his girlfriend works on construction of the Elevators.

As the top Planetary Counselor for Transportation, Leone is involved in a scandal following destruction of the Elevators by terrorists. Set believes that Leone's decisions left the Elevators poorly defended and caused the death of Set's girl friend. However, Set's telepathic ability was awakened when he hears the death cries of his girl friend.

Set seeks revenge against Leone and the Spaceship Guild and develops a plan for taking control of Sakkara and then the entire Empire. With his newly discovered ability to detect telepathic communications, Set discovers that the Osiris Order uses telepathic agents to promote the interests of the Spaceship Guild. Set uses his powers to find, spy and kill Osiris Order telepaths. Set learns that the most powerful telepath is Kalid. Set decides that he must find Kalid and try to learn from Kalid about the secrets of telepathic transmission. With telepathic transmission powers added to his current reception powers, Set could rule the Empire!

Set traces Kalid to the green planet Flammis and Set's forces attack, killing all of the telepaths on Flammis. However, Kalid had already left the planet before Set's arrival. Kalid learns of the attack on Flammis and stops using telepathy in an effort to remain undetected while hiding on another green planet, Earth. "Green planet" means that the world's surface and atmosphere are a poisonous green cloud of nanites.....the result of a type of disaster in which nanites go out of control and destroy a world. The Osiris Order uses green planets as bases for its on-going telepathy research projects.

In search of Kalid, Leone goes to Flammis, but people working for Set are now stationed there and they attack Leone's ship. Leone thinks it is Kalid who is attacking and that Kalid's forces are still on Flammis and using their mental technology for "hiding" the Osirus Order's base and thus, Sybil was correct in her belief that Kalid was on Flammis. During the battle at Flammis, when the shields of Leone's ship are at 10%, his friend Aristark tries to flee, but Leone locks him in a room away from the central control room; Leone wants to fight back at all costs. He keeps fighting and in the last moment he activates the escape subprogram... when the Thot spaceship's shields are weakened to only 1% remaining power. Leone and Aristark go unconscious as they enter hyperspace with their weakened ship.

Back to the universe
After a jump through hyperspace after leaving Flammis, Leone and Aristark discuss Leone's behavior during the battle at Flammis. Aristark is upset and says he will quit and does not want to accompany Leone anymore. But they are heading to the Akara solar system to meet Ketar, as previously planned. The Akara system is where the world Azur is located, Ketar's home planet. This section in Spanish version was very large; we will have to make it shorter.

Akara
A little history about the planet Azur and the Akara star system. Azur is on high alert because of attacks from mysterious forces against Ketar's forces. Leone and Aristark make a second short jump through hyperspace and enter the Akara system. Leone and Aristark are then attacked again, this time by Katar's forces. When "The Invocator", the device Sybil gave them, detects the fact that due to this new attack Leone's ship will soon be destroyed, it activates and hides Leone's spaceship. Leone and Aristark fight back against the attacking forces of Ketar. This time, Leone and Aristark work well together and function as a real team. Aristark moves their ship to safety while Leone shoots.

Leone now realizes that Sybil was right; there is a "hiding technology" that can hide a ship or a base on a planet. Aristark only wants to evade the attack while Leone realizes he must destroy some of Ketar's forces in order to prevent the destruction of the ship Leone and Aristark are in. Thus, by working together and with the help of "The Invocator", Leone and Aristark survive. Leone thinks that Aristark is a coward, because Aristark always just wants to run away and not fight.

Protected by "The Invocator", Leone and Aristark are able to avoid destruction and they flee to hyperspace again. Katar's forces attacked Leone and Aristark because the mysterious forces they have been fighting also have the "Invocator" device.

Due to the attack by Ketar's forces, The Invocator was damaged. That damage triggered The Invocatorto enter into "GHOST MODE"... hiding itself from every sensor by using Osirus Order "mental" technology. Leone and Aristark were able to flee because their attackers could not "see" them. Leone now realizes that Sybil was right; Osirus Order forces possess a technology to hide spaceships and apparently even planets, like Kalid apparently once did at Flammis. They flee to hyperspace again, but Leone does not know why he has been attacked twice, first at Flammis and then again in the Akara star system.

Azur
Ketar prepares to welcome Kalid to Azur... he thinks Kalid will arrive in Leone's spaceship, coming from Flammis. Ketar is notified that there is an enemy spaceship in the Akara system. He watches the fight through normal light speed devices (not hyperspace communication), so he sees the action after some minutes. Ketar zooms in on a view of the enemy spaceship and he notices something unusual: the enemy spaceship has an "L" logo on its side. Ketar realizes that it is Leone's spaceship and that Ketar's soldiers are attacking it by some mistake. They mistook Leone's ship for an enemy ship, because Leone had "The Invocator", the device installed in the ship by Sybil. Ketar had instructed his forces that any ships with that kind of device must be attacked with no mercy.

Safe
Leone and Aristark discuss their situation and the trouble they have gotten into by following Sybil's advice. They try to decide on their next destination (another large part that should be shorter). Leone wants to keep trying to meet Ketar, but Aristark wants to return to Sybil. Finally, they agree to go to Sybil's planet, but that night, Kalid contacts Leone (and they join their spaceships?). Kalid tells Leone the name and coordinates of the asteroid where Kalid is hiding and tells Leone to memorize it thoroughly. Leone wakes up and realizes that Kalid contacted him in a lucid dream.

Meeting
Leone and Aristark go to the asteroid where Kalid is in hiding. Kalid welcomes them but says that there is a traitor among them. When Kalid is about to say who the traitor is obeying... the traitor tries to shoot Kalid, but fails, because Kalid had activated an invisible force field when they were not looking at him. Kalid guards neutralize Aristark and they decide they will try to "convert" Set, because the evil one is Ketar...

"Kalid guards neutralize Aristark" <-- Is Aristark working for Ketar?

To be merged
Set follows Leone to the asteroid, and, using his telepathic powers, finds a Base on the Moon. The Moon Base is populated by survivors of Earth's destruction who report that Earth was destroyed by an exploding spaceship's matter-antimatter engines (note: the explosion was over the Suez Spaceport, creating a crater that turned most of Egypt into a new sea connecting the Medeterranian to the Indian Ocean). Set learns that the Osiris Order hides the destruction of planets due to spaceship engine explosions by quickly going to such worlds and infecting them with "green goo", a nanite slime that makes it appear the planet was destroyed by a runaway nanite disaster.

Set then finds Kalid and Leone on Earth and makes Kalid understand that the Osiris Order is using telepathy to keep the Spaceship Guild in power, which keeps a flow of money coming for further telepathy research. Kalid decides that Space Elevators must replace spaceships near planets in order to prevent future destruction of planetary atmospheres by exploding spaceship matter-antimatter engines.

Osiris Order
1. What is the Osiris Order? How does the Osiris Order relate to/interact with the Empire? How does the Osiris Order relate to/interact with the Antiquist Party and the Spaceship Guild?

It seems like the Osiris Order has spent a long time developing technology and training methods that allow amplification of the innate telepathic abilities of humans. What do they do with these technologies and training methods?

The Osiris Order is an esoteric secret society commanded by Kalid. Its purpose is to maintain the statu quo and to avoid wars. As Kalid knows Ketar's plans for overthrowing the Empire, Kalid will try to avoid this. The new technology is part of that; think of it as a Second Foundation or something like that.

2. At what point in history do members of the Osiris Order realize that telepathy is possible and start to develop ways to train people how to better use their telepathic abilities?

Maybe 10 years before the story.


 * Possible alternative; the Osiris Order discovers that telepathy exists before the space age. The Osiris Order starts to research telepathy-amplifying technology about 200 years before the start of "the search for Kalid".

3. In the first section of this page, it says that the Osiris Order supports the Spaceship Guild. Is that true or does it just appear that way to Set?

>Set discovers that the Osiris Order uses telepathic agents to promote the interests of the Spaceship Guild.

Well, I don't remember why I typed that... Set just discovers Kalid is using telepathy for whatever reasons.


 * I may have put that in, just to provide an excuse for the conflict between Set and forces beyond Sakkara.

New content
We need to add content about Ketar and his evil plans. Also, when Set makes peace with Kalid and Leone because Kalid has enough proof that it was Ketar who ordered the attack (on the space elevators?).

Any additions and collaborations are highly appreciated.

Scenes
An easy but not elegant way to build plots:


 * Leone remembering Sybil
 * Leone talking to Aristark on Thot spaceship, on their way to Flammis
 * Thot tries to land
 * Thot is attacked by Flammis people (Set has already arrived and now controls the planet). Set stole the receiver and gave the order to attack to any transmitter.
 * Leone flees and contacts Sybil
 * Sybil thinks it is a mistake, maybe Leone went to another planet or maybe the planet is taken down by their enemies, Leone does not believe a thing about that. He forgets about Kalid. He advices that if Flammis people try to contact him, he will blast them
 * Sybil tries to contact Kalid, with no apparent results
 * Kalid contacts Leone in his dreams and tells him that he fled Flammis
 * Leone, reluctantly, goes to search him again, for the last time, he thinks
 * They meet on another planet, Leone tried to get Kalid to help destroy Set
 * Set follows Leone to another planet and learns the truth about green planets (I have no idea yet)
 * Ketar is the real bad guy, not Set. Set is just a puppet.

Possible Chapters
1) Approach to Flammis This chapter is what has been written so far and includes the flashback scene with Sybil. I think it needs to be slightly modified to include the idea that Leone will take Kalid from Flammis to Azur in order to meet Ketar and make plans for how to fight Set. At the end of the chapter, Leone and Aristark talk about the Earth and the marvelous discovery that it would be when someone find the original coordinates of it; the Earth's location was hidden about 100 years ago. The newly formed Empire altered all astrogation computers to make it appear that some star system near the Sol System was Earth's star system. They selected an uninhabited world in that star system and infected it with green goo nanites, then pretended that was Earth. Doing this would have prevented close examination of Earth and recognition of the fact that a spaceship explosion had happened on Earth. The Empire also created a false history of Earth in an attempt to make people think that Earth had been successfully governed by monolithic Empires in the past.

2) Battles This chapter would describe Leone's battles at Flammis and in the Akara star system, as they are heading to Azur, Ketar's home planet. This last battle shows that Kalid owns a technology to hide spaceships and even planets. This chapter could include a flashback that describes the attack on the Elevators and Set's reaction to that attack....basically, the flashback in this chapter provides an account of why Set is in conflict with the Antiquist Party.

3) Azur The focus of this chapter is Ketar and his activities, his plans to liberate Azur from the Empire. This chapter could include a flashback that describes Ketar's involvement in the attack on the Elevators as part of his efforts to extract money from Spaceship Guild operations and use that money to fight against the Empire.

4) Dream This chapter includes Kalid's telepathic contact with Leone while Leone is dreaming. Leone realizes that he has a chance to test the existence of telepathy...if he follows the instructions provided by Kalid in his dream and finds Kalid, then that would be good evidence for telepathy. This chapter includes a flashback that describes an earlier dream Leone had which also might be viewed as having correctly predicted something that Leone learned was true after having the dream.

5) Esclangon Aristark and Leone visit the Esclangon asteroid in the h32 star system. Leone discovers that Sybil is there and they compare notes on recent events and the actions of Kalid, Ketar and Set.

6) Traitor When Leone and Kalid meet, Aristark is revealed to be working for Ketar and to have been involved in the attack on the Elevators. This chapter could include a flashback that describes Ketar and Aristark making plans to attack the Elevators.

7) Moon Base Set visits the base on Earth's Moon and learns from the local residents that Earth was destroyed by a spaceship explosion and that the Spaceship Guild covers up such disasters by releasing the "green nanite goo". This chapter could include a flashback that describes how the green goo was first used.

How does Set find out the location of Earth? He meets with Ketar in the Akara star system and for a pact to capture Osiris Order technology. Ketar tells Set how to trap Kalid on Mars and tells him to find the secret Osiris Order base on Earth (and that Earth is really h32.3).

8) Green Earth Kalid, Leone, Set and Ketar all meet at the Osiris Order Temple on Earth. Kalid realizes that Ketar has corrupted part of the Osiris Order in an attempt to liberate Azur from the Empire. This chapter could include a flashback that describes how the Osiris Order was first formed and its goal of preventing the mis-use of telepathy. Ketar kills Kalid and tries to take complete control of the Osiris Order.


 * I am not so sure if Kalid should die. It is not good that they search Kalid only in order to see him die. Plus, I do not believe in mind transfer to a robot, maybe it is impossible. --David 17:28 22 oct 2008 (UTC)


 * Kalid does not have to die. I'm also skeptical about mind transfer, but I think it is worth thinking about the idea that nanites could integrate into a living biological brain and essentially record the structure and function of all the neurons. Could those nanites re-create significant amounts of the corresponding mind in another medium...such as a nanorobotic brain? --JWSchmidt 00:58 23 oct 2008 (UTC)

9) Life after Death A flashback shows that all "Thot" spacehips are made by imprinting their computers with Kalid's mental ability to take full control of the ship, in case of any problem. In essence, Kalid secretly lives on and all of the "Thot" spacehips continue Kalid's work. Some Scenes could be shown indicating that Ketar is not able to carry out his plan for taking control of the Empire because the "Thot" spacehips all counter Ketar's efforts. At his death, Kalid telepathically transferred much of his consciousness into Leone's "Thot" spaceship, so in a way Kalid lives on in machine form. Kalid is reborn, resembling the myth of Osiris. Kalid could, in principle, take command of a humanoid robot too, sometimes.

Characters

 * see: List of Characters


 * Leone: he is a minister of transportation for the Antiquist party. He tries to go on a search for Kalid, in order to defeat Set, his enemy.
 * Aristark: second in command in Thot spaceship. Friend of Leone, he helps him to find Kalid.
 * Sybil: priestess of Isis. He helps Leone to find Kalid.
 * Kalid: priest from the Osiris order with telepathic gifts.
 * Set: minister for the Futurist party.
 * Lilly, Set's girlfriend: She is killed in the accident of the Space Elevators.
 * Ketar: the head of the Antiquist party.