The search for Kalid/12

Hospital
Kalid awoke in a hospital bed and looked up into the face of Felice. She leaned close and said, "I failed to protect you."

Kalid tried to speak but his neck exploded in pain. Felice handed him a tube and he drank cool water. He realized that his neck was ringed with a medical device that was directing nanites to repair his damaged neck tissues. Now able to speak he put a hand on the machine that covered his neck and said, "You could not have anticipated Aristark's attack on me. I was foolish to provoke him into his murderous attack. I put you and others at risk of physical harm." Kalid drank some more water and felt his head clearing, although he was surely still under the influence of drugs that had been put into his body to limit pain and the risk of blood clots spreading to his vital organs.

Felice took the water tube from Kalid. "You anticipated his attack?"

Kalid reflexively tried to shake his head and was struck by another wave of pain. "No. I was only realizing the truth about Aristark's role in events on Sakkara and Flammis while I was talking in the courtroom. I only knew I was correct about Aristark when he launched his attack on me. I have a clear memory of everything until I was being taken from the courtroom...then things become fuzzy."

Felice explained, "When you reached this hospital the medical staff sedated you and performed an operation on your neck. You only just now regained consciousness. You are lucky to be alive. Aristark did an expert job of butchering your neck arteries."

Kalid said, "I'm surprised that Aristark was allowed to bring a knife into the courtroom."

Felice shook her head. "No, he did not have a knife. He had two blades implanted in his hands. It is now clear that Aristark was well trained in how to use those implants....and the others that we found in his body."

Something about the way Felice said, "his body" sent a chill up Kalid's spine. "Aristark is dead?"

"No, but he is not in good shape. He is in another hospital about a kilometer from here. He either tried to use one of his implants to kill himself or someone else triggered one of his implants and tried to kill him. Chances are good that he will survive."

A robot entered the room and handed a thin folder to Felice. She flipped open the folder and Kalid could see that she held the report on the Sakkaran space elevators disaster which had been prepared by Sybil and which had been in his spaceship. Felice said to the robot, "Good work. I trust you had no great difficulty getting into Kalid's spaceship and finding this report."

The robot replied, "There was no problem getting into the spaceship. Kalid had been ticketed for trans-system flight without use of a navigation beacon and forced to turn over to the space dock his spacehips's access codes. The report was sitting on a table in the main salon of the spaceship. However..."

Kalid was amused to see the robot shifting uneasily from foot to foot as if hesitating to speak. Felice said, "You can speak in front of Kalid."

The robot said, "You had also issued orders that watch be kept on Kalid's spaceship in case an attempt was made to sabotage it. Such an attempt was made. The saboteur is now being held in confinement at the space dock. He planted a device that could have been used to destroy Kalid's spaceship and he was caught after attaching it to the hull of Kalid's spaceship. He then went inside and tried to steal some equipment from the engineering room."

Kalid rose up on one elbow. His neck throbbed but he gasped, "Did he disconnect or damage that equipment?"

The robot said, "No, he was placed under arrest before he damaged anything in the ship."

Kalid relaxed back into his bed and chuckled briefly then stopped because of the pain it caused in his neck. He reached out and took hold of Felice's hand. "See, you did protect me."

The robot said, "The device is highly sophisticated. I scanned the criminology database, but this is far beyond anything previously recorded."

Kalid explained, "Set is a leader of the Futurist Party. They pride themselves on having the most advanced technology."

Felice asked the robot, "Is there any indication that the saboteur was working for Set?"

The robot replied, "No, but another name was mentioned when the saboteur was placed under mind lock. Ketar."

A doctor came in and said, "Felice, what's going on in here? You said you were just going to watch him."

Kalid said, "I'm fine, doc. Felice is good medicine...she just saved my life."

The doctor checked the data feeds from the tissue repair device on Kalid's neck. "You are still half dead. Keep straining these arteries and they'll pop...right now they are just a loose collection of nanites."

Kalid said, "I'll make a deal, doc. Get me to my ship and I'll sleep once I'm there...give these nanobots a chance to do their job."

The doctor said, "Bull shit. I heard you blasted in here pushing 5.5 gees acceleration and your spaceship can only compensate for two gees. If you had been at even one gee when you were sliced open you'd be dead right now. We are keeping this room at 0.1 gee in order to let your arteries heal. You cannot be moved now."

Kalid sat up. He became very dizzy and almost passed out. He had to grab Felice and held on with both hands. "I hear ya, doc. You have two choices. Roll this bed to my ship or else I'm going to walk there. Get me to my ship and I promise I'll keep my cabin at 0.1 gee."

The doctor swore under his breath and left the room.

Kalid sank back on the bed, still very dizzy. Obviously the nanites were having trouble keeping up the flow of blood to his brain.

Felice asked, "What do you think you are doing? I didn't save your life just to watch you kill yourself."

Kalid said, "So, tell me Felice, where is Set?"

She quickly said, "I don't know."

Kalid made a guess and said, "There is a ship in system that you are tracking by radar." Kalid could read her face and see that he had guessed correctly. "What is the spaceship's course? What is the destination?"

Kalid felt a natural connection to Felice and now he turned his telepathic transmission up to full, with an additional amplification from equipment on his spaceship. Felice said, "I'm not going to help you kill yourself. Why do you care where Set is....can't you let our militia deal with him?"

Kalid still had hold of her hand. He stroked her palm with his finger tips. "Felice, don't put your militia in harms way. Set is a desperate murderer. Somehow Ketar is helping Set. Their target right now is the Haldus Order. I am the head of the Haldus Order and it is my duty to stop Set and Ketar. You must help me. Help me get to my ship....I must go after Set. The Haldus Order has technology that might give Ketar or Set the power to start a galactic civil war that would kill trillions. Help me now and we can prevent that."

Felice said, "Okay, but I'm going with you."

Moon Base


Set was confident that his was the fastest spaceship in the galaxy, but like many of the technological advances that were attributable to research funded by the Futurist Party, the speed boost that set this spaceship apart from all others brought little real benefit. The gain in speed that had been achieved over previous spaceship designs was actually very small. Most important was that spaceships using of the new Futurist Party antimatter drive control techniques were safer, there being no way to trigger black hole production. Still, nobody outside of the Futurist Party seemed to care. It was widely believed that earlier types of antimatter drive technology were adequately safe. Still, Set was proud of this spaceship and he imagined that eventually all antimatter drives would incorporate its new safety features.

However, his pride was slightly tarnished by how he had funded the purchase of this spaceship. Set had originally been shocked by the reality of telepathy. His initial surprise at the very existence of telepathy had soon shifted to appreciation of the fact that those rare individuals who had significant telepathic abilities kept the existence of telepathy a secret. At first Set had hypothesized that all telepaths were part of a single secret organization, and Set had hunted them down since they seemed to be involved in a cover-up of the truth about the space elevators disaster. Then he had come to the realization that there were "independents", telepaths who had no connection to the Haldus Order. One such "independent" had learned how to use her telepathic abilities to predict swings in market prices and had amassed a huge fortune. She was already a generous financial supporter of the Futurist Party and it had been easy for Set to extort more money from her once he learned the secret source of her wealth.

Set tried to shake himself out of daydreaming about the past. The truth was, there just was not a big difference between having a maximum acceleration of 5.7 instead of 5.6. Set still could do nothing except wait impatiently while the green face of Earth slowly swelled ahead. While he waited, his attention was increasingly drawn towards the silvery image of the Moon. Ketar had assured him that the Haldus Order Temple on the Moon had long ago been destroyed, but Set increasingly felt telepathic signals coming from the Moon and not Earth.

Set was reluctant to trust his telepathic sensations. He had no idea how it was possible to sense the source of telepathic signals. Ketar had made it clear that Earth was the location of an important Haldus Order base, so Set was reluctant to even contemplate a side trip to the Moon. Did it matter if there was a telepath on the Moon? But the more he paid attention to the "feel" of that telepathic signal the more he believed that it was not from some isolated individual with telepathic ability. And now that he was close enough he felt sure that there was far more telepathic thought on the Moon than on Earth. Still, could this be some kind of decoy that was designed to deflect attention from Earth?

Set had long been ignoring radio signals from both Mars and the Moon, but now he opened a channel to Moon Navcom and purposefully sent a week signal. "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. I was hit by space debris after I left Mars orbit. My ship is under repair but I will not be able to initiate normal landing procedures for my destination, Earth. I'm not sure if my navigation beacon is working. I now have an emergency transmitter online, but I'm not sure if it has enough power to be detected. I'm going to make an emergency landing on the Moon."

Set kept adjusting his spaceship's flight path so as to try to allow his telepathic sense to determine the exact location on the Moon that was the source of the powerful telepathic signal he was sensing. As he entered into orbit around the Moon it became clear that he could match sensed telepathic signals to all of the inhabited Moon bases, but one base was by far the strongest source of telepathic thoughts. He instructed the spaceship's artificial intelligence to follow a landing program that would put the ship down at the small base near Shackleton crater. There was something very unusual going down there....a level of telepathic mental activity that he had found no where else.

Set was watching the surface of the Moon and marveling at the sharp contrasts between the shadows and the sunlit rim of Shackleton crater. He was having an argument with the spaceship's artificial intelligence since the navigation records it was using showed no landing sites at Shackleton crater. The machine said, "Shackleton base was destroyed long ago."

Set insisted, "There are people down there. Keep trying to make radio contact. Scan for a landing site."

Finally Moon Navcom called. "Set of Sakkara. Set of Sakkara. This is a warning. There are no repair facilities at Shackleton."

Set chuckled. It was nice of the folks at Moon Navcom to provide a warning, but they probably had not actually fallen for Set's fake excuse for why he was landing on the Moon. Set spoke to his crew, "This is getting tricky. I'm sure that there are telepaths below, on the Moon, but they seem to be hiding. My telepathic sense indicates that the crater rim below us is the source of telepathic mental activity. There seems to be an ancient landing platform at the solar power array on the crater rim, but it is small. Maybe I should go down with a life boat."

The ship's engineer replied, "Gravity is very gentle here. Our graviton field could hold us above the landing platform without crushing it."

Set shrugged. "Very well. I'm taking us down. As a precaution, prepare for possible attack. All defensive systems armed and stand by to return fire if we are attacked. We may have to force our way inside if they do not invite us in."

Ten minutes latter Set had the spaceship balanced on the rim of Shackleton crater. From this point on the rim the nearby array of solar energy collectors was no longer visible, but he could see that there was an airlock of ancient design that seemed to be cut into the crater rim a short distance away from the landing platform. However, that airlock could just as well have been on the far side of the galaxy. Set had nothing that could serve as a spacesuit and allow him to walk from his ship over to the airlock. He was contemplating the possibility of blasting open the airlock and flying a lifeboat inside.

Suddenly the airlock opened and a strange robot came out onto the surface of the Moon. Working quickly and efficiently, the robot pulled a flexible telescoping tunnel out of the wall surrounding the airlock door. After a few leaps and bounds the robot had pulled what looked like a fabric tunnel across to the spaceship, sealing it around the spaceship's airlock. Set left the control room and went to the airlock. He could hear clanging from outside. He exited the airlock, closed the inner airlock door and opened the outer door at the surface of the ship. The robot came into the airlock and started banging on the inner door.

Set closed the outer door and opened the inner door. He stood before the robot with his laser pistol drawn and ready. The robot asked, "Why have you come here?"

Set was barley able to make sense of the robot's archaic language. For a moment Set wondered about the possibility of telepathic robots, but he could sense no telepathic signals coming from the machine. "I was on my way to Earth, but I noticed telepathic signals here. Can you take me to your master?"

The robot produced a perfectly human laugh. "Don't insult me, stranger. Oh, I see. You think this is a robot. Well, you can call me 'Waldo'. Ha, ha. Anyhow, come on across through the tunnel so that we can talk."

Set considered asking whoever was running the "waldo" to come to the ship, but it now seemed like there were many telepaths nearby. There was no point in sitting there on the spaceship and hoping to learn the source of all this telepathic thought. Still, Set was about equally divided between fascination with all the swirling patterns of telepathic signaling and fear that he might be personally in danger. However, the was something familiar about the pattern of telepthic thought here...it was very different from what he was familiar to among the telepaths of the Haldus Order. He could not explain that odd sensation of familiarity, but somehow it suggested femininity to Set, which was odd since the voice coming through the "waldo" was clearly that of a male. "Okay, lead the way."

Set went into the airlock. It was barely large enough to hold both the machine and Set. He closed the inner door and opened the outer door. Set moved quickly through the tunnel, trying to keep up with the quick machine. It was dim in the tunnel, but just enough sunlight found its way through the fabric. The air on the sunlit side of the tunnel was hot while the other side was already accumulating a layer of frost.

The airlock at the other end of the tunnel was even smaller. The machine said, "Go in. It is not safe for you out here...this tunnel does not block the damaging cosmic rays from the Sun."

Set did not hesitate, but once inside the airlock he was puzzled. The was only one door. The door closed and there was nothing to do. He started to examine the unfamiliar fixtures inside the airlock. Then the door opened again, revealing a large chamber. Apparently the airlock was an elevator that had transported him deep into the wall of Shackleton crater.

Set stepped out into the chamber and looked up at a simulated sky. The air seemed hot and humid, but stale, somehow tainted with the smell of dust. Except for a set of simulated suns scattered across the dome of the chamber, the sky was blue and the floor was green. The bright colors were a shock after the stark and colorless surface of the Moon. He knelt down and touched the floor....it seemed to be covered with some kind of plant growth that clung tightly to ground. He dug in with his finder tips and was able to pull away some leaf fragments that deposited a sticky resin on his skin. As he stood up he noticed motion on the far side of the chamber.

Coming across the chamber was a naked woman. She moved in graceful bounds and Set was fascinated by the way her breasts bounced in the low gravity and he noted that she was totally hairless. Just as she reached Set, the remote-controlled "waldo" machine emerged from the elevator behind Set. The woman completed one last high leap, landed gracefully close to Set and said, "So, you are Set, from the planet Sakkara. Why are you here?"

Set could sense a telepathic pressure emanating from the woman. He explained, "I'm searching for telepaths of the Haldus Order."

She shook her head, "You came to the wrong place. Long ago they had a temple in the crater, but it was destroyed."

Set was impressed by her self-confidence. She seemed to have no qualms about standing naked in front of a complete stranger. Even as he thought about his clothing he felt sweat starting to run down his sides under his tunic. Set wondered if she even knew that she was a strong transmitter of telepathic signals. He suggested, "Well, I'm interested in telepathy in general, so maybe you can tell me-"

The "waldo" grabbed Set's arm and pulled him across the chamber, "Come to my lab so we can talk. Don't pester the girl with questions. She knows nothing of your ways and your concerns. I'm the one you need to talk to. By the way, her name is Amethyst and I am called Salvaje, although my real name is Ben Olmo."

Amethyst said, "Salvaje, let go of his arm. You are being rude to our guest." She moved between Set and the machine and pushed it away, taking hold of Set's hand. "We do not get many visitors here, so we are not very good at welcoming strangers."

When Amethyst took hold of his hand, Set felt dizzy, as if the swirling pattern of her thoughts was scrambling his mind. Memories of Katherine appeared in Set's thoughts and images of her flashed up from the past like a hail storm. He noticed that her skin was slightly wet, but her hand was warm. He concentrated on keeping up with the pace of her quick and playful leaps across the chamber.

Salvaje, speaking through the waldo said, "We get more than enough visitors, they bring nothing but trouble from outside."

Set was just starting to get into a natural rhythm for moving in the low gravity when they reached the far side of the chamber where there was a small pool of water. Amethyst released his hand, dove into the pool and disappeared like an otter dropping into a pond. Salvaje asked, "Do you know how to swim?"

Set replied, "Yes."

"Good. Take a breath and relax." The machine again grabbed Set's arm. "The tubes can be disorienting so let me guide you."

Set asked Salvaje, "To reach you I have to swim?"

"Yes. Shackleton base was built to allow collection of water from the south polar ice deposits. We use water here in many unusual ways. I suppose you could say that water works are our major form of art. After Shackleton base was destroyed, some tyrant decided to impose a tax on us and it was found convenient to shield ourselves behind water. We are the only people on the Moon who can swim. Eventually, after trying to hand us our tax bill, the tax collectors went away, wet and happy, and ever since they collect their taxes in the form of water. Idiots. There is plenty of water here...it is absurd that they have to invent a stupid tax in order to get the water they need. Really, we want nothing to do with tax collectors or any other fools from the 'civilized' world."

Set said, "I'm glad you do not think of me as a fool."

Salvaje laughed, "I never said that! But I do not know you, so for the moment I have not passed judgment...maybe you are a fool. I still do not understand why you are here. No, don't try to explain yourself here. Take off your filthy clothing." Set decided to comply. "Ga, you are a hairy barbarian! I should shave you before letting you into my home, but I want everyone to see you for the ugly beast that you are. Jump in."

Set jumped into the pool and the machine gracefully followed his motion. The "waldo" guided Set through the branching network of water-filled tunnels. About every thirty seconds Set's head was pushed into an air-filled bubble and he was given a chance to draw a fresh breath. It took about five minutes and a dozen such stops before the waldo pulled Set out of the water.

Set found himself in Salvaje's cluttered workshop. Amethyst was there waiting by the pool and handed Set a towel. She said to Salvaje, "Yikes! You are right, a hairy bear!"

Salvaje disengaged himself from the array of sensors that allowed his own bodily movements to be translated into movements of the waldo. "Well, doubtless I'd look no better if I let my hair grow." He approached Set and took the towel. "We keep it warm in here, but if you are chilled let me know."

Set could sense similar patterns of telepathic signals from both Salvaje and Amethyst and he sensed that there were other telepaths not too far away. However, he was now doubting if anyone here was actually a telepath in the conventional sense. The patterns of telepathic signals produced by Salvaje and Amethyst seemed to resonate and align, so there was some kind of telepathic communication, but Set could sense no flow of organized information content. "I'm comfortable enough. I'm sorry that my body hair offends you."

Amethyst shrugged, "I do not care. It is just our custom to be hairless."

A robot entered the room and placed a tray on a table. The robot took the wet towel from Salvaje and departed. Salvaje served tea from the tray. "Another custom we have, hot tea."

Set accepted a steaming mug. "Thank you. There is nothing about this community in the space navigation database. How many people live here?"

Amethyst replied, "83."

Set looked back and forth between Amethyst and Salvaje. He asked Amethyst, "You are Salvaje's daughter?"

She laughed, "Is there any doubt?"

Set nodded. "I see some similar features, but I was not sure. Is your mother also here?"

Salvaje explained, "We never knew her mother. She lives over in Tranquillitatis base, or she did, last I heard. As is our custom, Amethyst was conceived by artificial insemination. I met the mother twice, once for the contractual arrangements and once more when I collected Amethyst and brought her home."

Set asked Amethyst, "You've never met your mother?"

Amethyst shook her head. "Of course not."

Salvaje asked, "Do you disapprove of our customs, Sakkaran?"

Set shrugged and replied, "I have no basis for disapproval. Amethyst seems like a healthy and happy young woman. As I mentioned, I'm interested in telepathy. I just wonder if Amethyst's mother was selected at random."

Salvaje sighed. "No, of course not. This is such a small community that we are very careful when we bring in new genes from outside. Amethyst's biological mother was carefully selected with the hope of creating the wonderful individual that now stand here before you. She calls a dozen women of this community 'mother' and a dozen men 'father'. Of course she is happy and healthy." But Salvaje's tone of voice had grown dark and he stared at Set as if challenging him to contradict what Salvaje had said.

Set cautiously said, "I see."

Salvaje turned to his daughter, "I want you to leave us now. I need to talk to Set about outside matters."

Amethyst objected, "I'm old enough to hear such things."

"Yes, you are, but humor me. There is ugliness out there that I still prefer to shield you from."

Amethyst frowned, "Very well, father, but I think you are over-protective. One day I will be he gate keeper." She turned and left the room through the same door that the robot had used.

When the door closed Salvaje said, "She knows nothing about telepathy. Like most people here, her brain emits a strong T-particle flux, but she has no conscious receptive ability."

Set asked, "But you are different? You can detect telepathic signals?"

Salvaje nodded. "I have learned how to use this..." He went to a cluttered bench and picked up a strange device. He asked, "Do you know what this is?"

Set replied, "I have no idea."

Salvaje explained, "Its function is not obvious. Hundreds of people have looked at it and almost all think it is just some antique piece of electronics. However, it is a T-particle detector."

Set asked, "What do you mean by 'T-particle'?"

Salvaje seemed surprised by Set's ignorance. "You come here talking about telepathy and the Haldus Order but you know nothing about T-particles? How do you think telepathic communication works?"

Set explained, "I've only known of the existence of telepathy for a short time. You are the first person I've met who seems to be willing to discuss telepathy."

Salvaje held the T-particle detector near Set's head. "Do you mind if I do a careful scan, I'm not registering a signal from you." He spent a few minutes making careful measurements and sometimes took reading of his own brain's activity. "I do not really understand T-particle detection myself...maybe nobody does." He went over to one of the work benches and checked a data display there. "It depends on some kind of triangulation process, but it is tricky because T-particles do not move through spacetime in a normal way." Salvaje set the hand-held detector down on the bench and then returned to Set. "You seem to be a pure telepathic sensitive, that is, your brain produces no more T-particles than the average person."

Set said, "I'm glad I came here. It is a relief to finally find someone who knows something about telepathy and is not fanatically trying to hide that knowledge away like some kind of taboo secret."

"Well, if you have been dealing with the Haldus Order, as an outsider, it is no wonder that they tell you nothing and that you have learned nothing. Telepathy is their great secret. Of course, such a wonderful secret is hard -or impossible- to keep."

Set asked, "How did you come come to know this secret?"

For a minute Salvaje was silent and Set wondered if he would reply. Finally Salvaje said, "You could call it a family inheritance. After Shackleton Base was destroyed, including the Haldus Order Temple, a few of their outer Circle members were left here. This was originally just a tiny station for the solar energy farm. Over the years we have grown, slowly. My great grand mother found the T-particle detector in the ruins of the Haldus Order Temple. I suspect she was an inner Circle member of the Order, but she did not try to to keep the Order alive here on the Moon. Still, she did continue with experiments on telepathy that had been started by the Order and I continue that work...it is a research project. The question is, can you select genetically for better telepathic abilities?"

Set suggested, "The answer seems to be yes."

Salvaje asked, "Why do you assume that?"

"I suspect you carefully selected your daughter's mother so that Amethyst would be genetically equipped to grow a brain that would generate powerful telepathic signals."

Salvaje explained, "Yes, but it is only a genetic predisposition. In this case, it is like learning a language. Amethyst grew up here among a group of people with similar minds...that environment allowed her brain to develop its full for T-particle production. If she had grown up on Sakkara she would have little more T-particle production than you have. I'm curious. What is it like when you sense those telepathic signals?"

"It is a strange sensation. It is like a dream where the meaning of words and events is just beyond awareness. It is frustrating, because I can sense that there is a mind reflected in the telepathic signals, but I cannot decode the meaning of those signals. That is strange because I have found it possible to obtain useful information from much weaker telepaths."

"Yes, that is a paradox that the Haldus Order was trying to understand before their base was destroyed. According to the records kept by my great grand mother, the Order had collected all of the most powerful telepaths here on the Moon in order to study them and segregate them from the weaker telepaths who stayed on Earth. Somehow, strong telepathic transmission interferes with telepathic information exchange. It might be like trying to send traffic signals using blindingly bright flashes of light. Anyhow, I continue my great grand mother's work, but I can't say that I've learned a damn thing about telepathy."

"Since you've kept your little research project here a secret for so long, I'm surprised that you are so openly discussing everyting with me."

"I've told you nothing of importance. But the truth is, I want something from you."

"I agree that you have told me nothing useful. Do you know anything about the Haldus Order. I'm told that they have a secret base on Earth."

"Maybe we can make a deal."

UNDER CONSTRUCTION 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. Also, Set explains how he came to be working with Ketar and that Ketar was the source of information that led Set to Earth.

Survivors?
It had been weeks of living hidden, as his father had taught him. Kaleb, Kalid's son, was at Flammis, near the base of the Haldus Order, hidden from Set. Set had thought he had killed everyone but Kaleb could escape due to an underground refuge his father had built. Kaleb remembered that horrid day as if it were the day before...

Kaleb woke up early that morning, the day Set attacked Flammis. His father had had to leave the planet and he left Kaleb in charge of the Haldus Order while he was away. Although Kaleb was only in the Third Circle, his being near his father granted him a high rank in the Order. According to Kalid, his son's powers were sometimes even stronger than his. But Kaleb was not so sure... That day he felt emotionally depressed. Depression always means having no reason at all to be sad. What would that mean? Kaleb went directly towards the Temple. He greeted the guards and entered. Haldus Order was old fashioned in some aspects. They did not use any robots at all, only the spaceship AIs. Kalid started to suspect robots after some of them had been hacked and reprogrammed as spies. Moreover, Kalid knew that the Empire's robot spies were far more numerous than human spies. Anyway, people would trust a robot more than a human and besides, robots could hide their emotions more easily. If they could have emotions... Kalid did not think they had.

Kaleb was thinking about how robots could one day control the Galaxy, if artificial intelligence improved some day. A dramatic change and they would enslave humanity because they outranked in numbers to human populations in most planets. Anyway, Kaleb thought that treachery could be in humans too, there were many spies. He remembered how he had to personally execute some spies he found at the Order. It was brutal to do that, but those were the rules at Flammis planet. That planet was so important for being the hidden center of the Haldus Order, that they could not risk by letting spies live. Kaleb was Kalid's right hand, not only because his advanced precognition abilities but also due to the fact that he was an expert in Bushitsu, the art of hiding. It was a secret martial art that was only taught to some selected people inside the Order, people like Kalid or Kaleb. There were very few people trained in that strange art, but they were deadly.

Kaleb started inspecting the security cameras inside the Temple. Although there were guards for that purpose, he liked to supervise them directly, sometimes. A friend of him, another Bushitsu expert, entered the cameras room. They greeted and started inspecting every camera. They also watched the global radars. It was much time since Kaleb did not do that. He felt the need to do that that very day. And he was right! There were some strange spaceships approaching the planet. It was unbelievable! Nobody knew about that planet, nobody outside the Order... Very few people inside it, actually. That woman called Sybil and Kaleb knew that 2 counsellors would get there. But he had been instructed to wait for only one spaceship and that ship would have to possess the Invocator device. So, it meant trouble.

"Morgan. We have company. Prepare to activate all invocators."

"All of them? I do not know if we have the energy to do that."

"Find out and do it now. We have no time and it seems that those spaceships are hostile... they do not have the identification beacon."

"Right."

They tried to activate the whole network of hiding nests in the whole planet. But it was too late. The spaceships started the attack. The problem was that the spaceships blew the energy generator for the hiding spots.

"We are lost!" Morgan shouted. "See, they blew our generator... and we don't have any other, remember the backup generator is still damaged."

"Oh, no. It makes me think that it was the same people who damaged our past generator. Maybe using spies."

"Yes."

Kaleb knew they had no time. He instructed Morgan to control everything from there and activate the planet's alarm. Kaleb had to save his family first. His duties had made him forget what was more important for him and his father. His brother and sister were in danger. Kalid's wife had already died years ago. So, they were a family of four now. Kaleb tried to send a message through hyperspace to Kalid but he could not. It seemed communications equipment had also been damaged. He looked at the damaged places and he was right. Whoever it was who was attacking them, he knew all important places at Flammis. It had been an inside job. Someone from Flammis had betrayed them, it was sure.

Kaleb got out from the main building by using the underground tunnel. He could not communicate with his family either so he took his flying motorcycle and went directly home. There was no other way to talk to his family except... by using telepathy. He put the motorcycle in automatic mode and went directly into conscious REM state. He needed to talk to his brother and sister fast. He sent a message but, strangely, he did not feel his brother or sister's presence. It could only mean one thing. They could be unconscious, kidnapped and shielded against telepathy or worse; they could be dead!

Kaleb took manual control of the motorcycle and pushed the throttle to maximum. He finally got home and went directly to the elevator that would take him home. The elevator was destroyed. It seemed that they had already bombed his home! He tried to find a way out but it was pointless. Everything was covered by rubble. He went to his motorcycle again to try to contact the main room. But he remembered that communications were damaged, so he could not know if his own home had been destroyed completely. He tracked back to another tunnel and could finally get to the surface. He approached what used to be his home and found the horrible truth... it was completely destroyed. He tried to contact his sister with his mind... he finally could do it. She was hurt... but alive. He found her near a tree at the house surroundings. He could talk to her and noticed that her wound was not lethal.

"Kaleb. He is dead. Logan is dead!"

"No!"

He felt his mind was dizzy now. He had lost his brother... and he was guilty for having forgotten to save his family. His training inside the Order had made him think on behalf of the Order and the planet first. It was a mistake and it seemed he could not forget himself.

"It is all my fault..." Kaleb said, crying like a child.

"No way. Don't ever say that again. You saved me. The attack was so fast that you could have never come here in time. Communications were destroyed. Our home was the first target of the attack, I guess. As soon as I watched the spaceships coming, they bombed us."

"Well, it could be. Whoever it was who made this, he will pay with his blood and the blood of his entire family! I promise."

"Yes. Although the Order forbids it, I am with you. We must take revenge."

After that moment, neither Kaleb nor Megan could be the same persons. Kaleb promised he would take revenge again and they both went towards another refuge. They had to abandon everything... the most probable thing was that the spaceships would land soon, when they considered they had killed everyone in the planet. Kaleb felt it would be very soon so they went towards the motorcycle again and hid, waiting for an opportunity to hit back.