“Do you want us to come right now?” Amanda asked as she was thinking she should let Riccan know she was going to be doing a bit of traveling this day and the next.
“Sure, if that works for all of you.”
“I won’t be able to come,” Barla put in promptly. “I have to stay behind to watch Vinia’s daughter, Danika.”
Thinking fast, Rasa said, “Bring Danika along with you. We have a great nursery here and I’d love you to see my new home. Please say you’ll come, Mom.”
Without any other excuses, Barla reluctantly agreed to come. She could see how much her daughter wanted her to go, she could remain behind in Tuala while everyone else went to Earth. Barla immediately tapped another window open on the screen and sent Ahn a message saying where they would be for the rest of the day.
Rasa beamed with pleasure at her mother’s agreement to visit. “I’ll see you all in a few minutes. I’ll meet you at the entrance to the air field and arrange for a transport. It’s a little busier here than back at home! Oh, I’m so excited. Okay, talk to you soon!” The screen went blank as she terminated the call.
“Do you think she’s excited?” Amanda drawled, setting everyone to giggling.
“I’ll go get Danika ready to go,” Vinia announced as she turned and left the kitchen to go upstairs.
“Do you mind if I send Riccan a message? He doesn’t even know I’m here, let alone planning a trip to Manzanit,” Amanda asked.
“Sure, go ahead,” Barla replied as she hurriedly vacated the chair she had been sitting in. “I’m going to run upstairs and change my clothes and then we’ll be ready to go.”
Amanda was left alone. She tapped the message screen and entered Riccan’s code. She told him whom she was with, and what her plans were for the moment. She did not write anything about rescuing Neal yet as she wanted more details first.
The flight to Manzanit was uneventful and Amanda was thankful for Riccan’s navigation system which took them directly over the landing field without any problems. She happened to locate a landing area relatively close to the entrance and set the aircraft down with expert ease. The three adults marveled at the hustle and bustle of the larger city while Danika merely held onto her mother’s side and kept her head tucked in close.
Rasa waved them over as soon as she spotted them. She rushed forward and embraced her mother tightly before she greeted everyone else. She fussed over little Danika and even offered to carry her until Danika made it clear she was perfectly content right where she was. The group laughed and followed Rasa to the transport she had waiting for them.
Once they got to the Residence, Rasa took them directly to a meeting room where Chelesa sat waiting for them. Greetings and introductions were made and then they all sat down to discuss the matter at hand. Only a few minutes after the talking began, a maid came in holding another small child. When Danika saw the other little girl she wanted to be taken away to play. Finally they were able to openly discuss their situation.
Amanda spoke first about her dream of Dr. Gascon and his unethical means of extracting information from patients for his own gain. She told them about his latest theory on multi-dimensional disorders and how he wanted to use people like Neal to support his research. Then she informed them of how he had tried to pressure her to have sessions with him and his anger with her when she had refused.
When she talked about the center where he was being treated, she mentioned the case of the patient escaping a few anons before and how she wanted to use the same method to extract Neal from the facility. Her impassioned speech let her audience know how vitally important the success of this mission was to her personally. She sat down and said, “So now you know what I know.”
Chelesa cleared her throat and asked, “Neal’s only been there for two days. How do you know he wants to leave?”
Amanda hated to have to admit it, but she answered, “I don’t. I would rather get him out and ask him later. His own mother is being refused when she asked to visit and now Dr. Gascon won’t even take her phone calls. I believe that’s enough proof of something duplicitous going on in there to intervene.”
Rasa remained silent as she recalled the meeting they had sat in with Jehoban. He had specifically asked them all to aid Amanda whenever she asked. This seemed a little more than what she thought He had in mind, but who was she to argue? “I agree with Amanda. Tell us what you need and we will make it happen.”
Everyone turned to stare at Rasa. They wondered what had made her suddenly so amenable to helping. Amanda sighed with relief that at least one hurdle had been overcome. Now they had to figure out a way to get Neal away. Amanda had a sense of déjà vu as she realized this was almost the same scenario as before when she needed to rescue the same man from Elder Vargen. Most likely he would be drugged senseless again. Maybe she should include a couple of men to help carry him. Bryon and Riccan had been there the time before…maybe. No, she would make this work. They had wheelchairs available at the center, she would find out if she could make use of one of them. A solution would present itself, of that she felt certain.
“Why don’t we look up the building plans in our patil?” Rasa asked. “We have some pretty fancy systems in place for knowing Earth’s city on the other side of the veil.”
“You do?” Amanda asked as she wondered what else they might have concerning Earth.
Rasa used a portable patil to pull up the program and typed in the facility name. At first she saw the same statistics and details Amanda had seen herself. Then Rasa clicked a few more keys and she pulled up the utility grid under the building as well as the building plans themselves.
Immediately, Amanda could see an easy way for them to access the building unseen. They would use the utility tunnels and the service elevator to gain entry. Amanda had another thought and asked, “Do you have access to the computer system to find out Neal’s room number?”
“I don’t know, let me see,” Rasa said as she chewed on her lower lip and tried a few different options. On her third try she was successful. She turned to Amanda and said, “Does this look right?”
Amanda jumped out of her chair and leaned in closer to see the screen. “Yes! Type in Nealan Taivas Jr.” She spelled out his name and waited anxiously for Rasa to follow her instructions, feeling her heart rate increase as the system seemed to stall before it finally populated the screen with the current information. Room 1369! “Can you find where his room is located in the building?”
Almost too easily, the women worked out the best route and the plan for extraction. Amanda was so relieved to have included Rasa. She was certain they would have failed without her amazing program letting them know exactly what they needed. The mood in the room was almost celebratory as they finished printing out the plans and each held their own copy.
“Okay, so tomorrow morning, with the exception of Barla, we will all go to Central Park where the Gate lets out. Then we’ll take a cab to Queens where we will access the tunnel. The four of us will go in to the tunnels. One will wait at the entrance to the service elevator while three of us take it up to the thirteenth floor. One will remain with the elevator to keep it from getting used. Two of us will take a wheelchair down the hall, two doors to the left, and we will get Neal into the chair and hightail it back to the elevator. Does that sound about right?” Amanda looked around to see if anyone had any changes or objections. When everyone nodded, Amanda sat back in her chair and hoped it would go as they wanted, too much was at stake for failure.
The only things which were missing were the wheelchair and the white uniforms. Amanda mused over how they would get those things in time. She decided she needed to go home and let Riccan know what was happening. Barla and Vinia opted to spend the night in Manzanit much to Rasa’s pleasure. Rasa offered to take Amanda back to the landing field and she gladly accepted.
When they were alone in the transport, Amanda spoke of her concerns to Rasa. “I don’t know how we’re going to blend in once we’re at the center. Also I
don’t know how we’re going to get a wheelchair for Neal. I’m sure he’ll be drugged out of his mind and won’t be able to walk.”
“I see,” Rasa said as she thought swiftly about how to solve the problems at hand. “The Elders wear white pant suits for formal occasions. Do you think that would work?”
Amanda remembered the clothing Elder Debbon had worn in her dream and she nodded her head enthusiastically. “Yes, that would be perfect. Do you have enough outfits for the three of you?”
“Yes. Do you need one as well?”
“No, I’m going to buy a white set of scrubs when I get home. Now we just need to worry about the wheelchair.” Amanda’s excitement dulled as she realized the chair would be the harder of the two items needed.
“Won’t they have chairs in the center?” Rasa asked reasonably.
“Yes, but I don’t expect one to be outside of Neal’s room!”
Rasa got a wicked gleam in her eye as she said, “I do!”
“What are you thinking, Rasa?”
“As long as they have them available in the building, I can teleport one right to where we need it, when we need it. It’s simple, really!” Rasa sat back with a pleased smile.
“Do you think it’ll work just as easily on Earth? You won’t have the same control as you do here. Riccan has told me it’s slightly different.”
“Hmm, I don’t know, but I’ll certainly be trying my hardest. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll have to resort to something else.”
“Like what?”
“Translation if it comes right down to it.”
“Seriously? You think you could do that easier than producing a chair? Why don’t we just do that anyway?”
“Translation is very risky and it pulls a lot of power. We’ll only use it as a last resort because we don’t want to draw any attention to what we’re doing. Lucinden is watching for any changes in the power structure.”
“Lucinden? What has he been up to?” Amanda suddenly realized the connection between Ela Nena, Riccan, and Lucinden and she did not like where her thoughts had taken her.
“Just more of the same. He’s forever trying to keep the balance of power tipped toward his purposes. Whenever there’s a disturbance to the power, Lucinden sends out his minions to figure out what happened. When those people are around, there’s usually something catastrophic happening and we want to avoid that at all cost.”
“Disturbance of power,” Amanda muttered to herself. She realized they had been amassing power in their home for several months by collecting the samaras and probably drawing attention to their safe location on Earth. She was going to have to talk about this situation with Riccan as soon as she got home. It simply was not wise to keep the samaras together if it would draw trouble to their very gates.
The transport stopped and Amanda noticed they were already at the landing field. She hugged Rasa and got out. She waved over her shoulder as she raced back to her telepod. Amanda was desperate to get home and make plans to disburse the samaras as soon as possible.
Chapter Thirty-Six
JON WONDERED WHAT his siblings could be up to when they invited him into Behn’s room for a family conference. As soon as he saw Juila and Jena he became even more suspicious. He hoped they were finally going to tell him what they knew about their mother. They had been so secretive and the things which Sofia had been telling him were making him even more curious as to what they had been discovering.
He sat down on the desk chair in Behn’s room as everyone else was already seated on the bed. It seemed strange to have everyone looking at him, almost appraising what his reaction would be to whatever they wanted to share. Finally, he could not take the silence anymore and he asked, “What do you know about our mother?”
Valentina and Behn exchanged looks of surprise before Valentina replied, “We found out about someone who thought she was our mother. We wanted to meet with her and ask her questions to make sure she really was our mother before we told you anything about her. The last thing we wanted to do was keep you out of the loop, it’s just, you’ve always said the Wilson’s were our parents.”
Jon smiled at Valentina’s nervous rambling. She must really be rattled if she felt she had to explain so much. Normally, she was a very matter-of-fact, too bad if it hurt your feelings, kind of sister. “So I take it you’re satisfied that she is our mother. Why has it taken her so long to try to find us?”
Again, Behn and Valentina exchanged knowing looks before Behn answered, “It’s complicated. What we share with you today must not leave this room. Promise us right now that you’ll tell no one what we are about to talk about.”
Now it was Jon’s turn to raise his eyebrows at his brother’s edict. He could not imagine anything being so top-secret that he would not be able to share it with at least Sofia. Finally he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Okay, I promise. What’s the deal guys? Is our mother a secret service agent or something?” He tried to make a joke of it, but soon realized nobody was laughing with him.
Juila spoke up and said, “I think you should demonstrate your skills before you tell him anything more. It’s already hard enough to believe without actual proof of what you’re saying. Why don’t you show him the progression of lessons together?”
The siblings nodded as they each held their hands out in front of them and produced a ball of elemy seemingly out of thin air. Jon’s eyes widened as he stared at the spheres of light as they formed, moved away from their hands, and then promptly retreated back into nothingness.
“That was wicked! When did you learn to do magic and what does that have to do with our mother?” Jon tried to process everything all at once and failed to see any connection.
Instead of answering Jon’s questions, Jena began telling Jon the history of his world as he would have heard it as a child. “Long ago, Jehoban created the universe.”
Jon stared in disbelief as he turned his gaze to Jena and continued to listen to her bizarre tale.
“Once the worlds were created, Jehoban and His son, Emmanuen, decided to create people in their image. The people of Tuala pleased them the most and they decided to live with them on an island known as Acaim. Emmanuen went out into another world to teach while Jehoban stayed in Tuala and taught the Elders how to rule over the other children. Tuala became very populated and the Elders each took a seat of power at the major Ascension Gates.
“Jehoban blessed all of His children with birth crystals which allowed them to access the land’s elemental energy, known now as elemy, so they could prosper and lead simple lives without toil and stress. The children are taught how to use the elemy in their everyday lives and it is our way of life.”
Juila used Jena’s story to prove what she did next. She pulled on the chain around her neck until the tree-of-life pendant filled with ruby crystals appeared above the collar of her shirt. “This is a birth crystal. Within twenty-four hours of taking their first breath, each child is given his or her own. It is a symbol between Jehoban and His children of protection and acceptance. Only children of Tuala are ever given this gift. Every one of us in this room has been blessed by Jehoban in the receipt of our own birth crystals.”
Unconsciously, Jon raised his hand to feel his own pendant hidden under his shirt. The jewel had always been a part of his life and he seldom even remembered he wore it. Even as he processed the things which he heard, he began to remember something about watching his siblings practice the same skills they had just demonstrated for him. He shook his head as he tried to make sense of the confusing images.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying. What does this have to do with finding our mother?”
“Look deep into your first memories, Jon. Do you recall ever learning to use your birth crystal? Do you recall sitting at the wooden table with your mother while each of you showed her how skilled you were at learning your first lessons? Can you remember Vinia clapping her hands and telling you how wonderful and smart you all were for being so good at it?” Juila as
ked her questions softly without pausing in between for Jon to refute anything.
“Vinia? Her name is Vinia?” Jon spoke in a whisper, speaking only to himself. Testing her name on his tongue and finding a ring of truth in his earliest memories. “What is all of this talk about Tuala and Jehoban? Where is Tuala and who is Jehoban?”
Behn spoke, “Tuala is where we’re from and Jehoban is who we call God.”
Jon began laughing and slapped his knee as he said, “You guys had me going there for a minute. Now really, what have you found out about our mother?”
Valentina shook her head pityingly as though Jon were slow and said, “Here’s the whole truth, Jon. Our mother’s name is Vinia. She’s from a place called the Roanoke Colony in Tuala. Mrs. Stel went to Tuala and brought her back to her house so we could meet her and find out if she really were our mother. Just over a year ago our mother feared for our lives and she sent us to Earth to keep us safe. She had no control over the passage of time and accidentally sent us back in time eight years. For her we’ve only been away for a year.
“We have a little sister named Danika who’s about eight months old now. Behn and I went and saw her yesterday in Tuala. That’s the reason we were gone so long without calling because we were in a different dimension and cell phones don’t exactly work that far.”
“Jeez, Val, you don’t have to get all snotty and start telling me crazy stories. I can honestly handle the truth if you’d just give me the chance,” Jon almost yelled as he stood up from the chair and made to leave the room. He would rather spend his time talking to Sofia on the phone than listen to fables.
“Sit down, Jon,” Behn ordered in his best big-brother attitude.
Jon sat only because he was surprised to hear his brother’s stern tone.
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