Walking an Endless Path Pt. 03

"Who did he build these for?" Joe asked.

"The Council! They were in control of these Gate Generators," Kennt blurted nervously.

"If no one can get into Sehsra without going through the Network Gate, and I assume there must be someone policing the Gates on this world to keep the non-Kel-Fahr out, then I assume these Gate Generators must have been taken from the planet by a Kel-Fahr. Maybe even by one of these Council members or someone close to them. And it happened a long time ago. Well, within the last thirty years. And sometime after the devices left the Council's control, the Vershoo used them to steal some Fahrchar from Sehsra and get them to the Ello. Unless Fahrchar can be found on another world?" he asked.

Kennt looked like he was going to have a seizure. Too much blasphemy, perhaps? Aliens on their planet and stolen religious icons. Joe was trying not to be mean, but these Kel-Fahr were not turning out to be the nicest species. So far, he'd met the Ello, the Vershoo, the Kel-Fahr, and the mechanical Tik. Only the Tik showed promise of civilized behavior. But even they were guilty of kidnapping him.

Kennha had heard enough. "No! The Fahrchar are only found on Sehsra. They are sacred to us and integral to our society. As one, the Kel-Fahr have brought unity and peace to the Assembly, the united worlds of the Gate Network. All accept our place as their leaders as we're the oldest and wisest race in the Assembly," Kennha said proudly. Joe saw Kennt watching his daughter and caught a strange expression cross his face. Joe also thought he picked up a feeling of shame from the old Kel-Fahr. Odd!

"Uh, I can name groups from two races that are not as accepting as you think," Joe mentioned. He got a stare from Kennha for that, so he continued. "At least some of the Ello and the Vershoo were working together to undermine or disrupt the Kel-Fahr somehow. Probably not all of them, but certainly the ones I met. Of course, the Vershoo I met are all dead. Did I mention they were the ones who said they got the Fahrchar for the Ello?"

Kennha didn't seem to know how to respond to that, so Joe just let it go. She had a narrow perspective, but he wasn't surprised, considering their apparent isolation. He was curious about that. "Your property seems very big. Where are all the other people? Is there a city nearby?"

"All Kel-Fahr have properties like this. There is just my father and I here. Mother left a long time ago. There are no cities on Sehsra," she answered.

"No cities? Where does this Council meet? There's some kind of centralized government buildings, right?" Joe asked, confused.

"Why would they need to leave their homes? They can all meet by avatar from the comfort of their homes," Kennha remarked.

"What about the three Kel-Fahr who brought me here? Where do they live?" Joe asked.

"Those were neighbors. I called them when my father collapsed, and I went out to pick him up. When I got back to the house, they were arriving. I asked them to investigate the stranger on our property.

You have to understand. We don't get strangers on our properties. We never meet strangers, ever!" she explained.

"No strangers? Does everyone just stay within their houses or grounds? What about traveling? Getting to see other parts of the world, meeting new people? I just started traveling at home, and outside of being abducted and forced off-planet by the Ello, I've met some really nice people. Man, I miss them! I want to go home!" Joe looked at the old Kel-Fahr. "Kennha, please ask your father to get these Gate Generators working again. He's my only hope!" he pleaded.

Life seemed to come back into Kennt's eyes. He reached forward and picked up one of the machines. His tentacle-like fingers caressed the surfaces, and his face took on an intensity Joe hadn't seen until now. "First, I must download the logs. Then, I can reset them. But if your planet isn't on the network, how will we set the destination coordinates?" he asked.

Joe thought about that. "The Ello. They know how to get there. And if they aren't willing to help, three Tik on their planet know the way."

"They have Tik working for them?!?!" Kennt gasped.

"Let's worry about that after you get these machines working again," Joe suggested, hoping the old man wouldn't spiral into despair again.

Energized with purpose, the old Kel-Fahr stood up and took the machines into the house with him. Kennha followed. Joe quickly stuffed everything back into his pack and rushed after them.

They followed Kennt into a room with long workbenches and boxes piled everywhere. Machines of all shapes and sizes covered every surface. He watched Kennt activate a workstation. The two Gate Generators were encompassed in a blue light emitted from the surface of his workstation, but immediately, the lights turned red.

"Oh, there have been some attempts to infiltrate the unit's domain-level software. They were not successful, but the intrusion was noted. Hmmm, yes, the logs are huge. They cover a large amount of time, and there are thousands of entries. The Vershoo were moving around quite a bit. It will take some time to catalog all these entries. There is no point in you watching this. Run along, and I will let you know when I've extracted something useful," Kennt said absent-mindedly. He was already bent over the workstation, touching its interface here and there.

Joe was quickly lost in the unfamiliar technology and looked to Kennha. She was staring off over her father's head, and this time, Joe sensed contentment from her. She seemed to feel his attention as she swung her face in his direction, then turned to leave the room. Joe followed.

When they'd left the room, Joe spoke to Kennha once more. "How would someone wishing to learn about Sehsra look up information about the planet, its rules, and rulers?"

Kennha paused and seemed to think about that for a while. "I suppose they could look it up on the public archive. The terminal is off the main hall. I don't use it much anymore." She set off with purpose in her step, and he followed.

"I don't mean to offend you, so please tell me if my question is too personal, but how long have you been without sight?" Joe asked gently.

"That's okay. I haven't had use of my eyes since my Fahrchar bonding ceremony when I was very little. I disappointed my father terribly that day. I was proven unfit for almost every occupation he had lined up for me to do when I learned the aptitude my new bonded nature would introduce. When the bonding exposed my genetic weaknesses instead, there was no point in bothering with the aptitude test. I was relegated to planet-bound duties and took up the caretaker role for my father's estate. What hurt him most was that I was taken from the roster of compatible breeders and wasted a perfectly good Fahrchar. But no point in allowing my poor genetic traits into the populace."

Joe was sickened by how unaffected she seemed by these horrible words. She had completely accepted that she was unworthy. He wanted to protest and make her try to see the injustice of their actions, but he was really out of his element with this culture. He didn't know how she would take his criticism for how she'd been treated. It might just make matters worse for her... and him. He couldn't rock the boat until he had a way back to the Ello's planet. He painfully held his tongue.

Instead, he paid her a compliment that he hoped would just be seen as polite interest in her current nature. "You seem to be very well adapted to it. I wasn't even aware you couldn't see until moments ago. Considering the first time I saw you, you were driving the vehicle, and I had no idea you couldn't see. Very impressive!"

"I can call upon my Fahrchar senses to see motion and sense the mental link when other Kel-Fahr are nearby. From a distance, your mental link just seemed like a stranger's, which is unsettling enough, but when I'm this close, I can tell you have significant differences from a Kel-Fahr. I mean, I can still understand you and have no trouble linking to you. Actually, it's a little too easy to link to you. Normally, two minds brush, and if communication is desired, a mutual decision to link is formed, and the separating barrier is dropped. It's all automatic, and the minds meet in the middle. With you, it's more like one of the gravity wells Father talks about. Once communication is accepted, it feels like... we're drawn down into your influence. The strength of your link is... troubling. I am a little afraid of what it will be like to disconnect."

"How does one disconnect?" Joe asked, puzzled.

"The same way you connected. Just by willing it," she answered.

"So, if I don't want someone in my head anymore, I can think about disconnecting them, and they can't hear me?" Joe said with incredulity. "Can we test that?" he asked, unaware he'd already begun shutting her out.

Joe watched Kennha crumple as she cried out. He bent down and lifted her to her feet, and she clung to his arms. "I'm so sorry! I had no idea it would hurt you! I still have no idea what I did!"

She was gasping, and he could feel her trembling. The sensation of her tentacles wrapping around the muscles of his forearms was a little odd. As much as they didn't look like fingers, they didn't feel like them either.

"That was... unpleasant," she breathed. "What were you trying to do?"

"From what you said, I understood that if I didn't want to let someone listen in on my thoughts, I could shut them out. I just envisioned the connection being severed between us. I'm sorry if that caused you pain!"

"Not pain, not really. The sudden separation was so drastic I felt an odd sensation of falling. It was frightening, though." She gave herself a little shake, then realized she was clinging to him. "OH! What are you? What's inside your arms?" She slid her tentacles down his arms to grip his fingers. He curled his fingers inwards for her. "Oh! What? You only have five digits per limb? They're so short!"

"I think it's because my planet has heavier gravity than here. Many of the creatures on the planet, including us, have a rigid internal skeleton to support our bodies. All of our muscles are tied to our skeleton. What we lose in flexibility, we gain in strength, I guess. By how gracefully you move, I assume your bodies are not supported by a rigid internal structure."

"No, we have a flexible internal lattice that our muscles are interwoven with. Why are you so hot?" she asked in wonder.

"I'm not sure. Human bodies are typically warm, but my body seems to really enjoy the heat. I can tolerate some intensely high temperatures," he replied and kept his aversion to cold to himself.

Kennha suddenly realized she was touching an alien and pulled her hands back. "I will show you to the terminal for your research. For future disconnections, please try to be gentler. They will dissolve on their own when we leave each other's vicinity. The range is limited. I'm still worried about the strength of the linkage. It shouldn't be like this." She turned and walked through two rooms to bring Joe to a workstation a little bit like the one Kennt used to work on the Gate Generators.

"There should still be a program here to simplify the interface I used as a child. Yes, here we go. It's now active. It will limit the controls to allow your reduced digits to activate the screen but also turns off the ability to communicate with anyone outside the building. You can look up information but not contact the people you see on the screen. Is that sufficient?" she asked.

"That's perfect."

She sat with him for a few minutes to ensure he grasped the basic controls and had no questions. She showed him how to direct his questions to the machine and saw it respond by displaying the requested information. Then she left him to it, promising to collect him shortly.

Joe started with a quick review of the Gate Network. It connected thousands of planets, not all inhabited by alien races. He pulled out his cell and took a picture of the screen. Reviewing it and zooming in, he was pleased to see it was sharp. Turning back to the terminal, he poked around a bit and found how to filter the map to only show worlds with currently living alien races. There were hundreds and hundreds of them. He took another picture. He looked back at the controls for the filtering and found he could filter out worlds the network knew about but weren't currently members of the network. There were hundreds of those as well. He took another picture and looked closer. Most of them were either too primitive to contact, pre-sentience stage or had red flags, which he assumed was something bad. Tapping on one of them, brought up a box which read itself into his mind."

"Restricted planet. Banned from membership by Council vote GGH75.53322.20.2. All further information is available by permission from Council members only."

Joe realized that Earth might be one of these red-flagged planets, meaning he'd get no information about its whereabouts unless he asked a Council member to do it for him. Right. Moving on.

There was also the possibility that Earth wasn't listed at all. The Ello knew about it, but maybe they found it by chance? He really hoped that wasn't the case.

So, it came back to the Council members. Maybe there was a moderate in the group who would see his discreet departure back to Earth as the best solution. Chances of that? He feared slim to none.

He asked a few more questions and determined there were seven Council members. All had been in power for longer than he'd been alive. Longer than anyone on Earth had been alive! The question was, which of them might have been involved in getting the Gate Generators off the planet? He recalled that the council members didn't meet at a headquarters but worked from their homes. Did Kennt mention who he'd given the devices to? He thought of going back to speak with Kennt about it.

"What is it? I'm busy!" suddenly burst into his thoughts. Joe froze. He'd been thinking of asking Kennt a question, and his link to the man must still be open. The old man was on the other side of the house, but the voice came in as clear as if he was next to Joe. He decided to try asking his question.

"Sorry to bother you, but do you recall which council member you gave the Gate Generators to?" he said aloud while picturing Kennt in his mind. He had no idea if this would work.

"Council Member Rensley. Now leave me be!" came the distracted but abrupt answer, and Joe got a distinct impression that Kennt had tried to close the link down, but Joe could still just feel him on the periphery of his mind. He'd ask Kennha about that later.

Joe turned back to the terminal and pulled up details on Council Member Rensley. Her image showed her to be tall and slim, kind of regal, what you'd expect one of your leaders to be. Compared to the other councilors, she was the youngest. Reading her bio, Joe saw her policies were by far the most liberal of the group, which caused her quite a bit of grief with the others. She had been vocally critical of Councilor Tyreen, the oldest of the councilors, and had been censured because of this. Joe sat up and took a second look. There was a lot of bad blood between the two councilors, but much of their disagreements were stricken from the records, leaving behind just the stain of their conflict. Rensley was on probation, unable to attend council meetings for a period of time. Joe still hadn't fully grasped their time units yet.

Council Member Tyreen. There was a lot of information about this female. She'd been in power the longest of the seven members. She may have even been older than Kennt. She was responsible for initiating restrictions on a huge number of worlds. Reading through the list of motions she had presented to the Council, Joe got the impression that this woman was a hardliner. Her name also appeared as the main sponsor for quite a few policing actions the Council ordered on the worlds linked by the Gates. The Mediators Kennha mentioned earlier were the police the Kel-Fahr used to subdue unruly races on other planets. Just keeping the peace and restoring order for the good of civilization, so to speak. Joe pulled up a picture of the Mediators and wasn't surprised to see a fully armored battle suit, which no doubt contained a Kel-Fahr. Very intimidating, and Tyreen used them willingly and often to crush anyone she saw as a threat.

Joe pushed back from the terminal. Between the two of them, Rensley seemed like a more likely candidate for being responsible for getting the Gate Generators into the hands of the Vershoo, so he placed his bets on her.

Joe did another search to see if he could find anything regarding the theft of the Fahrchar. He wasn't really surprised when he found nothing. He asked where the Fahrchar lived and discovered that they only existed in a sacred reserve located on the other side of the world, within a desert biome. The creatures had a very limited environment. Then, Joe noticed that many Council Members lived close to the reserve, including Tyreen. Rensley apparently lived not too far from Kennt. Maybe he could convince her to discover if Earth was one of the red-flagged worlds.

Kennt suddenly rushed into the room and slammed his tentacles down on the terminal surface, shutting it down. "What have you done!" he yelled, a look of panic on his face.

"What? I was just researching who I should speak to next to get home!" Joe replied.

"They're coming! Whatever you searched for caught the attention of Security Services, who've had their eye on me for years, and their attention triggered my warning system. They're on their way here. We have to leave!"

"Shit! Why didn't Kennha warn me that you were under observation?" Joe jumped from the chair and grabbed his backpack.

"She doesn't know!" Kennt growled. "It was from before her time."

"What about the Gate Generators?" Joe asked as he followed the old Kel-Fahr down a hallway.

"The logs are extracted, and the devices have been reset, but there's no time to read them to determine where they've been. We'll take the data and devices with us." He entered the lab and returned with the two boxes and a small handheld device that Joe assumed contained the log data. Joe accepted them, stuffed all three into his backpack, and hustled after the fleeing Kel-Fahr.

"Kennha! Join us in the vehicle bay!" Kennt bellowed with his mind. Joe winced, but he noted that Kennha heard the message and was moving.

They moved down the hall and exited into a large, cavernous room. There were three vehicles stored there. The open platform hovering... truck? He guessed it could be called a truck. Next to it was another similar vehicle with a closed-in platform. The last vehicle was more like a car. It was smaller, with just a passenger seating section. None of them looked anything like the space-age futuristic craft he'd expected to see.

Joe squeezed himself and his backpack into the rear compartment of the smallest one while Kennt sat in the passenger seat in front.

Kennha came running into the room and spotted her father in the car. She immediately got in behind its controls. She glanced nervously over her shoulder at Joe.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"We're going to see... your sister," Kennt said after a slight pause. Joe picked up that feeling of shame coming from the senior Kel-Fahr.

Kennha sat still, looking in her father's direction in shock. Joe could see the news that she had a sibling was completely unexpected.

Kennt leaned forward and entered the address into the vehicle's guidance system.

Kennha turned back to the wheel and activated the car's engine. The wall opened, and she moved the vehicle out of the bay into the open field next to the homestead.

"Shut off the transponder, bypass the limiter, take us there as fast as this vehicle will go, please," Kennt said to his daughter.