Chapter 6: Trail of Stars

The initial survey of Mesa was done by Team One. The data feeds from the survey platforms were spectacular. Mesa contained a single island super continent, and the entire coastline duplicated the small section we saw at our arrival point. There were seven other major river canyon systems that ran to the sea. None quite as spectacular as the one we'd spotted during our initial trip.

The high plains were not featureless. There were hills and mountains, including a range with rugged peaks of near Himalayan magnitude in the far northeast.

I was too busy with other events to pay much attention. That unknown face we'd left a faint tag on in Pittsburgh years ago during the Howard Dexter ruckus resurfaced in Dearborn, Michigan at the ground breaking ceremony for the first Obsidian Motors assembly plant.

After ten years of refusing to compete against American auto makers, we couldn't ignore the closure of over half the Ford, Chevrolet and GM plants in the country. We decided to buck current trends by making cars in America with American labor. To be honest, we did it because we could afford to. First of all we were able to knock the costs of licensing the fuel cell and reactor technologies right off the top. We didn't have to pay to use our own patents and technologies.

There were a lot of future long range plans that hinged on the production from that plant, and we didn't much care if we made a penny from it for the next ten years. It may have been Dad and I standing in front of the sign holding the golden shovels, but it was A.J. McKesson's hand and mind that had hatched this scheme and mapped out the road to achieving it.

With Dad and I both there, we had security out in force, including both Chet and Cyrus as well as Sylvia and Tony Herrera. In the past ten years the couple had moved completely into our inner group, received the basic training on Obsidian and eventually moved completely over into the category of 'awakened'. Sylvia in particular had taken to the mind training, and was recently included in the small group of people who were getting Spirit Master classes. Eru and the twins were currently working with Sylvia, Laik Hulin, Porter Burgess and his daughter Ariana, and a young man from Taluat named Byl Thron.

With Chet, Cyrus, Sylvia and Tony detailed as our security for the ceremony, we had plenty of traditional support, and plenty of mental support as well. That left me free to take advantage of the situation when the tag I'd left behind in Pittsburgh was triggered.

The tag was a proximity trap wrapped around the little piece of consciousness that was 'interest in the McKessons'. It was active only when the tagged person was within 100 feet of me or Ginny. It was also very low power. So low that it wouldn't impinge on our conscious minds at all. We had set up triggers within ourselves to recognize and react to it without a conscious act on our parts. When activated our trigger jumped a tiny Light transmitter half as thick as a human hair directly under the skin, square between the shoulder blades of our unknown target's back.

Based on some of the Kri Light technology we discovered buried in the 'rabbit hole' on Autumn, the transmitter picked up any surface thoughts within a 5 foot radius and converted them to a stream of modulated Light and broadcast them out to the world, and there is no such thing as distance or direction when it comes to Light. All limitations and weaknesses are in our weak flesh and limited minds.

A person's surface thoughts generally convey all their verbalizations, sub-vocal or otherwise, as well as everything audible picked up by their hearing, even if its not consciously heard at the time. They'll even convey visuals if the person is really focusing on something.

Our faint little tag was now an untraceable tap into not only the thoughts of our unknown enemy, but every word he spoke or heard as well. On Taluat, Eru and the twins jumped up in the middle of a lesson like they'd been poked with a cattle prod when the transmitter began broadcasting. Laik described it later.

"They shot up like they were spring loaded, did a little happy dance like I'd never seen before, and then clammed up. Lesson over, time to go home now boys and girls, see you later and goodbye!"

Two days later, with all of us back on Meadow, Ginny and I got filled in on the details along with the Legion and the Directors.

"His name is Gordon Halsey. He lives on a ranch near the small town of Raton, New Mexico. This is in northern New Mexico, very near the Colorado border. He is the owner of a Colorado whitewater rafting business that offers 'luxury' guided tours of the Colorado, Snake, Rio Grand and other rivers." Eru said.

"The actual Whitewater rafting operation appears completely legitimate, and its daily operations are under the control of Diane and Roger Turner, Gordon Halsey's sister and brother-in-law. They employ about 20 other people during the peak of the season" Zaia added.

"The interesting wrinkle is the dozen or so 'ultra luxury' trips taken each year by the very rich. These are always headed by Gordon Halsey himself, and the charge is anywhere from a couple hundred thousand dollars to as much as 2 million. This is where he's getting his personal operating income." Riah continued.

"So far this guy doesn't sound like quite the evil mastermind we were expecting." Formerio said.

"No, he doesn't." Eru said, shaking his head. "And to be honest, His current situation suggests someone with a much more reasonable approach than what we've come to expect from coercers."

"It looks like we can afford to take more time, so we're going to." I said. "Chet, Cyrus, Tony and Sylvia, I want you four to work on getting us the details. More background on the sister and brother-in-law and other family if they exist. We need to know what kind of security the ranch has, and whether we can get any other surveillance set up there. We have some other 'undetectable' Kri technology that we can call on, so get together with Con and Arden once you have an idea of what can be done. Unless its urgent, we wont expect an update until next month's meeting."

On the first day of May, during the by now 'extended family dinner' at our house, Chet Alvarez and Zaia Seco announced their engagement. When they did, every eye in the room turned to Riah.

Riah blew her sister a kiss, walked over to where Laik Hulin was sitting and slid into his lap and kissed him soundly.

"What???" She asked, batting her eyelashes at the room.

Once again we were the victims of a conspiracy. Chet and Zaia would be married on his parent's farm in three months, and Riah and Laik were planning a mating ceremony at the Great Library of Ureda exactly one day later.

We considered the need to get involved in the planning of Riah and Laik's ceremony a good excuse to make a trip to Borthun's Rest and see Borthun and Yela.

We did not get to see them very often, so imagine the surprise when we dropped in and discovered Yela showing a very nice tummy, looking about six months pregnant! Ginny went into Dr. McKesson mode immediately, and chastised the couple for not letting us know about the pregnancy.

"Yela, there are always health issues with pregnancy, and I am a doctor! Who has been doing your prenatal checkups? What has your diet been like? Are you getting enough rest?"

Yela had to have the concept of prenatal checkups explained to her. This caused even more Dr. McKesson indignation. Some things were said sternly in raised voices, and promises made and sworn to. Arrangements were made and when the dust cleared I was under instructions to see to it that a gate was added to the "special room" at the back of the inn. Yela would be visiting Ginny's office for a checkup on a weekly basis.

Borthun quickly and efficiently raised some serious objections to Laik and Riah's ceremony taking place at the Great Library.

"Dave, are you aware of how busy the library is these days? If you ask Laik, he'll tell you that there are an average of 300 to 500 researchers and students there every day. The visitors barracks are always completely full and a system of time-shifted sharing has sprung up all on its own to accommodate the overflow. Students are signing up 3 to a room and studying in shifts so that they can take turns sleeping."

"Borthun, I had no idea!" I told him. "Laik has been reporting that things are going very well and that we needed to think about expanding our capacity, but I didn't realize it was this bad."

"In some ways its better and worse than even what I just told you." Borthun added. "Since the library doesn't charge for the rooms, and they are available on a first come, first serve basis, we are currently seeing a large number of the homeless indigents of Ureda signed up to do research."

"Your kidding!" I said, without thinking.

"No, I do not jest. We are providing, unwittingly at the start, but with full support of the Library staff now, a complete adult and juvenile literacy program to whoever asks for it. We will soon have produced the most widely read generation of homeless Uredans in history."

Borthun may not have been kidding, but he was making a joke with that last comment, and I laughed appreciatively.

"What do you suggest then Borthun?"

"With three months of lead time? Lets hold it here at the inn. I will reserve all the rooms starting two days before and running through the two days after the ceremony. That will give time to decorate, and allow whoever you hire to cater the event time to get familiar with the facility."

"You don't want to cater it yourself?"

"Are you kidding, and miss a chance to spend five days away from the kitchen?

Laik and Riah were both thrilled with the idea, and I told Laik I wanted a complete report on the homeless student situation at the next Director's meeting. He had the grace to look embarrassed at having me find out the true nature of the situation from Borthun, but any reservations he had were wiped away when I told him that it was exactly these kinds of opportunities that we were looking for on Meadow.

Borthun also let me know that he understood the real reason for Yela's frequent trips to Ginny's office for checkups. He had certainly heard us speculate often enough about the reasons behind the Light awareness of our children.

"I will not mention it to Yela unless she asks." Borthun told me. "A pregnant woman should not be given new things to worry about."

Ginny didn't have an office, but she would by the time Yela was due for her first appointment. I knew who'd be put in charge of making it happen to. So while the ladies were of for an initial examination, I gave Con a mental shout.

<Con! You busy?>

<Never too busy for you Dave. What's up?>

<Ginny is going to need a complete and fully equipped Doctors office somewhere in the house by this time next week. Can it be done?>

<Easily! Do you think anyone would object to having the laundry room moved to the basement?>

<Probably, yes. Lets plan on one of the downstairs guest rooms for now, but let me ask Ginny first, before we start anything.>

I caught Con up on the reason we were adding an office, and a few other things, and I realized that outside of our more or less weekly scouting trips, I wasn't spending much time with Con these days. Not to mention Borthun, or Eru, or the guys in the Legion. I was firmly stuck in the world of fatherhood and David Alan McKesson, head of the Obsidian Technology Group. I was going to have to do something about that.

Engagements and pregnancies and family time were going to have to get set aside for a guys' night out one of these days, and pretty darned soon. Obsidian Technologies could do without my smiling face for a day or two as well. I was more the wind in the sail than I was the pilot of that ship anyway.

Over the next three days I stoked the engines and got the sails out of their lockers. The S.S. Guys Night Out was going to sail. With Con as my first mate, we soon had recruited the full original crew. Chet, Cyrus, Arden, Mike, Fred, and Pete were signed on. From my end I recruited Eru, Laik, and Borthun. We rounded out our crew with Chet's brother Dwight, Uncle Aaron, and Tony Herrera.

I was going to suggest borrowing the island retreat we'd built on Archipelago for Uncle Ambrose and Aunt Ia's honeymoon when I was soundly vetoed by Brin Dolin and Eru.

"Dave, what good does it do to have yourself a world full of admirers if you're not going to take advantage of it?" Brin said. "I am personally recommending we convene in a local watering hole in Sheye that Eru and I know of, and sample the Taluatan hospitality!"

"The upside of this idea is that you can leave security up to The Soul Divers and their students at the school. It will be good training for them, and who could provide better security for us?" Eru added.

It met with such immediate approval from everyone else, that I just couldn't say no. That's my official position, and I'm sticking to it.

Probably due to the Soul Diver school connection, we quickly wound up adding Porter Burgess and Diyr Oli, our recently recruited Linguistic Anthropologist, who suggested we also invite his research partner, Jon Turley. This brought our number up to eighteen, and there it stayed until the night before our scheduled event, when I got a call from Master Lev.

"Hi Dave! I hate to wait until the eve of the debacle to ask, but I just got back from another mission to Lesethe and heard about your plan from an old friend. Do you have room for one more thirsty old campaigner? I'll be a little late, and dragging my old friend along."

Always room for more of course, and suddenly we were twenty in number, and we were thirsty!

The 'local watering hole' that Brin and Eru led us to that night was 'The Event Horizon'. The city of Sheye, in addition to being a big commercial shipping port, was also a college town.

Shipping via Barge and Ship were less important than ever on Taluat these days, now that the restrictions on commercial air traffic between the East and West had been lifted, but the shipping side was quickly evolving into a re-shipping center. Items going East came here first for consolidation into more efficient cargo units, and shipments coming in from the East came here where they were broken up and sorted into smaller loads for shipment to their final destinations.

Sheye was home to RUAAT, the Regional University of Astrophysics and Advanced Technologies. And EULAH, the Eastern University of Language, Arts and Humanities. The Event Horizon was where the local science and technology geeks came to let off steam, and the local liberal arts students came in search of smart, soon-to-be-successful future husbands.

Brin had managed to reserve an entire section for us. We had a straight shot to the bathrooms and were away from the band and the dance floor. We also had our own cadre of servers, but I suspect that that was more a management decision, since Brin said the reservation had been made for 'Spirit Master McKesson and party'.

Our cadre of servers also included two imposing bouncers named Mat and Arom, who were under orders to keep the rest of the patrons away from us. We quickly got them straightened out. Their job was to guard the main door and prevent publicity seekers and media from entering. Regular customers were welcome, and they were free to approach us if they wanted.