Tatsu replied, “You are most probably correct, Haruka. In any case we can’t take risk at this critical stage. Nothing must come in the way of Evrisoft leading development to global computer network on Earth. We must eliminate leadership and business of Pengey and others as dangerous as they arise. We cannot fail and lose this opportunity for control for Spargar on Earth.”
“Agreed,” Michiko concluded the triumvirate decision to take this recommendation to the bald-headed, long-nosed Omeyn MuneMei waiting for them back at their hilltop retreat. All three expected that action would be forthcoming but their job was only to take their judgements back to this iteration of their great Omeyn for Her to factor them into Her grand plan here. There was little doubting the nature of this decision though. Spargar demanded obedience of all its peoples to Omeyn MuneMei. Information was to be processed and integrated into the Mind1 biological master computer at The Spyre headquarters in the capital city Braganza back on planet Spargan and even their own bodies would ultimately be harvested by the Mind at their life’s ending. The Spargar empire jostled uncomfortably for dominance with Gaya across the galaxy constrained by the ruling Epsilon treaties while they each gave precedence to the struggle for dominance of their very different philosophies on all planets supporting human life. Ideally for these Zarnha agents the whole planet would rapidly bow down to Spargar having expunged all other philosophies and religions. It could then be integrated into the Spargar network and accept the rule of Omeyn MuneMei from her homeworld base. Spargar had their plans for this Earth that were being executed nicely at this critical stage of emerging computer networking technology, demonstrated by rapid growth of the internet. The peoples of Earth had scant knowledge of what the internet actually was or even where it came from. This was ideal for the Zarnha agents of Spargar waiting to interface the nascent internet to their Mind across the breadth of the Spargar Empire. Omeyn MuneMei was increasing the number of Zarnha agents on the ground as fast as they could be accommodated across all the countries and dictatorships of planet Earth.
Robert drove Darryl back to their house in the village of Los Gatos along Highway 17. They took the last off-ramp into Los Gatos as they emerged from the San Jose suburbs just where Highway 17 starts to rise up to the coastal mountain range towards Santa Cruz. They turned left onto University Avenue, a sleepy row of single-storey stucco and tile roof single family homes, close to the upmarket restaurants and shops of central Los Gatos. Their home was painted light grey with a darker tile roof and contrasting white window frames, shutters and fascias. A short drive ran down the side of the house to a two-berth garage with automatic up-and-over doors and the front of the house was set back from the street by a narrow lawn and covered deck area. Robert clicked the garage opener and drove in to park next to Darryl’s similar-vintage red mustang. Appropriately stylish vehicles for young entrepreneurs with good taste but no fortunes accumulated as yet.
They sat at the kitchen table with views of citrus trees in the small backyard as Darryl fetched a couple of Coronas from the fridge and flipped the tops off to drink from the neck.
“That was an interesting meeting to say the least,” said Darryl through tight lips. “The Evrisoft business piece was pretty much as expected but I would have expected the Zarnha agent to be less conspicuous. They must be very confident or maybe just wanting to flush us out. I don’t recall Zarnha people being so sure about you and me in such detail before. After all, we are difficult guys to keep up with!”
“The worst thing is that they seem to not only know who you are here on Earth but also who your family is and where you live on Gaya,” replied Robert. “In theory they can’t touch you there because of the treaties but with the stakes here on Earth being very high right now, who knows what their limits are? If they can get away with it they could come after us in both places, no matter how dangerous it is to go after us on Gaya against the Epsilon treaty.”2 Robert stated what Darryl was already thinking.
“I am fine with running missions here on Earth and campaigning against Spargar with the risks taken by us as individuals who know what we are getting into. Suddenly it’s not the same when my family and home get dragged in right out of the blue like this,” frowned Darryl.
“So what do you plan to do about it? We are on track with general plans here but what do we do about this news?” asked Robert.
“I feel like I have to get back to Gaya and check this threat out,” replied Darryl. “I don’t think I can go on here as if nothing has happened and wonder what can have happened to Kyra back on Gaya. I can’t imagine working here as normal and wondering what’s happening to her back home. Look, Rob, do you think you can manage here while I go home and check it out?”
“Truth is, I don’t really know, but in the circumstances I can work on my own until you get back. If I were you it’s what I would do. But hurry up, will you? We are understaffed as always and things here are escalating pretty fast. I wouldn’t want to be here without you for an extended period.”
“Thanks man, I will get back just as quick as I can.” Darryl gave Robert a faint smile. Best he could do in the circumstances. Now all he had to do was plan to get back to Gaya a mere four hundred and forty-four light years distant. All Robert had to do was to counter the situation where several Zarnha of Spargar agents were already deeply embedded in the most powerful software company there had ever been on Earth on his own for a while. Neither of these tasks were straightforward but they were not crises as yet either. At least Darryl knew where to start. He had to rendezvous with the nearest Gayan craft that could get him back to Gaya. That craft was currently holed up across the Sierra Nevada mountains in Nevada keeping an eye on Zarnha activity in the hotspot that was area around the military base at Area 51.
The following morning Darryl rose early and packed a few things for his trip. It was a normal day, bright sunshine, not too hot. He took pleasure having possibly his last American breakfast for a while ahead, OJ, coffee and cereal, sitting at the kitchen table again and watching the hummingbirds buzzing round the nectar feeder that was only three feet from where he was sitting. It had a red plastic hibiscus flower with a hole in the centre where the birds could feed the strong red sugar water. The hummingbirds waiting their turn stared straight at him challenging him to get in their way at his peril. All else in the yard was calm and the contrast between the daily life in Silicon Valley and his plan to journey to the stars seemed fabulous in earthly terms, but was just a long travel day for Pointers of Dawn. He did not admit to his closest colleagues he was a nervous traveller and he never truly enjoyed these moments before setting off. He envied Robert at these moments. He did like the journey, it fired him up. All Darryl could do was make his preparations and set off knowing that he would feel all right when he got going. At least the first part, travelling over the Sierra Nevada mountains, would be a trip he liked.
Darryl hefted his soft travel bag on his broad shoulder and took it to the car. He popped the trunk and dropped in the bag. The top was already down so he dropped it into the cream leather seating, polished by the pants of several owners prior to Darryl, and put his keys in the ignition. He always enjoyed the roar of the big V8 firing up. Sunglasses on, garage door up and then out into the street. He took the loop onto Highway 17 towards San Jose then onto 680 through the hills on the east side of the Bay towards Pleasanton. It was just another blue sky northern Californian day and the freeway was running well once he cleared central San Jose. He was looking forward to the drive. Once past the hills the flat farmlands of the central valley unfolded with fruit trees that soon began sloping up again to the long foothills and then the high terrain of the Sierra Nevada National Forest towards Yosemite National Park.
Daryl was aware of the dim psychic red threads to his colleagues the Cavallos of Dawn in the craft beyond the mountains. These told him where they were and they pulsed more strongly as he headed closer towards them along the sweeping turns of the two-lane road past
the small town of Priest. The road ascended gently, carved into the left side of steep hills as he drove due east. He knew that the Cavallos would be feeling him driving closer as well and would be expecting him to call. The open-top Mustang was perfect for these smooth, wide roads and he powered round the bends in muscular fashion. If a Mustang were a snorting stallion of a car then maybe he could install a Dark Matter Fusion warp drive and turn one into a spacecraft? ‘Stang in space! Motown would love to see that!’ Maybe not but the thought made the Keeran part of Darryl smile and what a sight that would be coming out of warp drive in the Pleiades! In a million pieces probably. He passed through the timber-boxy cowboy town of Groveland where the mountain oaks still mingled with the cedars and firs and pressed on towards Yosemite Park. A little further and he passed the turn for Yosemite National Park and stayed on Highway 120 to cross the crest by Tenaya Lake . It was granite rock formations and fir trees only now but still blue skies and clear road all the way. The sense of space was grand, long pulls of good road between wide peaks and close trees, the air clear and fresh, just the chrome and glass of the windshield between him and the road.
Darryl realised he was feeling free of his Silicon Valley life on his journey home and enjoying the feeling of being fully back to his history as Keeran of his homeworld Gaya. He reached into the glovebox, pulled out an unmarked cassette tape and pushed it into the slot. It whirred to life and there was a long moment of anticipation as the anthem of his home world slowly built in volume to overwhelm the noise of wind and motor. It stirred powerful memories in him, as complex as nature itself and yet full of meaning as the many melodies fused together as a majestic whole. There was orchestral grandeur, occasional choirs and something deep like whale song and many other elements besides, blended together, which aroused strong identity with his home world.3 He felt his spirit soar in the cool mountain air and spread to encompass the whole vault of the sky pinned between the high mountain peaks. Keeran readied himself and came in on cue for the chorus. He filled his lungs and joined his tenor in support of the music reminding him so much of home and also fitting in here the high sierras of California.
A pair of large hawks circling high above glanced down at the bright red car flitting between the trees and winding along the road. Scanning for prey aloft they caught the music of the Gayan anthem and circled in a corkscrew down the cone of sound rising from the open roof of the little car far below. As they descended through the sound cone the volume increased and their bodies thrilled to the sound. Wind ruffled through feathers at great speed to smooth the air rippling the skin beneath their wing feathers. They bathed in the harmony washing over them from the racing car beneath and joined Keeran in the emotional rush. Eyesight and hearing already finely tuned became yet more magnified and they peered into the car with eyes amplified like binocular lenses. The hawks felt the exuberance of their first few flights again and tumbled playfully in the air, claws extended in excitement towards each other, barred wings flapping wildly; then, breaking free at tree level above the speeding vehicle they pushed wings and beaks forward to keep formation with the open car roof in a natural delta wing shape for easy cruising speed. The hawks banked right and left to follow the car round the bends of the road and stay in the focus of the sound cone from the car, the music stirring their wheeling bodies to speeds and an intensity they had never known before.
Keeran was engrossed in his song of Gaya until he suddenly heard an additional choral contribution from above that at first sounded like he was being called by his name from Gaya, Keeran. Looking up he saw the swift delta darts of the two hawks, red tails tucked to a single strut behind, in diving pose but flying level now low over the car, joyfully ratcheting their beaks wide to scream ‘Kee-Haaarr’ repeatedly into the upwelling aria.
They wound on down the road in formation, car and hawks in joyful unity. The huge granite wedge of Lembert Dome passed by directly on the left-hand side, its sheer size dwarfing the few firs that managed to find a patch of dirt in the granite to grow. The impressive mountain scenery continued either side of the road between, with the twelve-thousand-foot peaks Mount Dana and Mount Warren to right and left. Then the road ran off the plateau and swept down through the Lee Vining canyon towards his destination, Mono Lake, five thousand feet below. Eventually the music came to an end and Keeran reluctantly popped out the tape. The birds wheeled away with farewell ‘keee-eee-aaar’s and regretfully went back to their daily pursuits invigorated.
At Mono Lake, Keeran turned left onto 395 through Lee Vining, travelling clockwise north round the large alpine lake in the lee of the sierras to the west. The red threads to his Gayan colleagues were pulsing strongly now and he could see they had concealed their ship the Maria in the lake bed. He found narrow dirt roads that led down to the lake where there were otherworldly limestone formations rising from the clear blue-green mineral waters. He parked close to a deserted small beach area and stripped to his shorts. He fastened his keys in the watertight pocket and stepped into the cold water of the lake, his feet freezing momentarily with temperature shock until he immersed himself and set off swimming between the round white mineral growths towards the open water past the bigger limestone islands. There he felt the pull of the red thread signal downwards and he gathered a breath and duck-dived towards the lake bed in twenty feet of water. As he looked down he could see no sign other than the sand and pebbles of the bottom of the lake blending out from a light blue into an indigo blue haze down the slope to the deeper lake. As he descended further a rectangular shape sifting lake-bed mud from its edges hinged up in a cloud of lake particles and sat ajar for him as he swam further into it. Then it swung closed again and the lake water was vented so Keeran could breathe again. All debris and moisture was expelled before Keeran was scanned for bugs, biologic and electronic, and dried. When all was done the door opened and the two Cavallos of Dawn on duty stood there to welcome him.
Both Cavallos were of similar height to Keeran but far broader, their physique only mildly concealed by their flowing brown travel robes embellished with golden badges of military honours and prior campaigns. In times gone by Keeran had attempted to work out what these various sigils denoted but soon realised that the origins were deliberately obscure so that only Cavallos could determine their position within the arcane intricacies of their brotherhood. Cavallos as warriors of race Dawn were driven by souls honed by permanent training and occasional conflicts over many generations in earthly human form. Their musculature was stronger and denser than earthly soldiers, the fibres of their musculature tempered by the intensity of their Gayan souls like iron forged into steel by fire. This was much the same as Keeran’s soul exercising his earthly body, but in the Cavallos this power was further expanded by their martial training. Their plain robes concealed the swollen solidity of muscle that they continually developed and kept in fighting tone. Where Keeran was tall and lean the Cavallos seemed half as wide again as Keeran across the torso. Rafaello was the shorter of the Cavallos by about two inches. All this physical prowess was belied by the engaging roundness of their animated faces.
It was Rafaello who reached out both arms to enfold Keeran in a bear hug. This seemed natural as Rafaello had always seemed the more senior of the Cavallos Keeran had worked with here on Earth, including prior generations with Keeran’s soul, but they were largely informal in their approach and they did not declare their ranks willingly to non-Cavallos.
“Come to me, my friend, and give Rafaello a proper hug!” His face beamed and no man could fail to grin back into Rafaello’s widest of smiles. His eyes disappeared into lines of smile wrinkles and his red cheeks bulged with happiness. Despite Rafaello being the shorter man his arms seemed to wrap further around Keeran than he could manage embracing Rafaello’s barrel chest in return. Keeran was caught in Rafaello’s embrace like the wooden slats of a beer keg within its steel hoops. He was grateful that Rafaello was being gentle and he renewed his appreciation of the physical strength of
the Cavallos.
His pleasure at escaping Rafaello’s embrace was mitigated by the waiting approach of the larger and altogether less gentle manly embrace from Umberto. Keeran was being painfully crushed now despite tensing his athletic frame prior to being enfolded by the second Cavallo. Eventually he was released when Umberto realised Keeran was struggling to breathe and they showed him into the minimalist control area of the Cavallo craft that they had named ‘Maria’, as she was the mother they loved who loved them back and cared for them in return.
They exchanged updates on their missions. The Cavallos were acting as a communications hub for Dawn of Gaya agents in North America as well as monitoring Zarnha of Spargar activity down Highway 375, ‘Interstellar Highway’, around Area 51 in Nevada, and other military bases in south-west USA. They were completely aware of Keeran as Darryl and Alron as Robert’s progress in San Jose as they passed on their messages back to Worders of Gaya on planet Chamarel and also checked to see if the Pointers of Dawn needed Cavallo support if things became a little too dangerous.
Keeran regularly obtained information from the Cavallos about the wider picture of the Gayan campaign on Earth particularly as it affected their work in California.
“How are things in your world?” Keeran inquired.
“Things are very much the same as always for us Cavallos, my friend,” offered Rafaello with an exaggerated shrug. “It’s always rush, rush to get in position then sit and wait for something to happen. We have a handful of Gayan teams like yours across the planet; Spargar has a hundred times that number but we mostly know where they are and what they are up to. Wherever there is technical advancement linked to political or military tyrannies then you can bet that Spargar agents are behind it somehow. I can tell you they are upping their numbers on the ground in all the major theatres of activity here.”
Star Matters Page 4