| abstract
| - Sybil was saying something. At first Leone thought he was dreaming, but then he opened his eyes. It was Sybil, and he was awake, sprawled on the sleeping platform of his room at the Temple. He noticed that nice scent she always had. Sybil stood just inside the door of the room, smiling. "Sorry to wake you up. You must be very tired to have fallen asleep so quickly. I'll come back in the morning." Leone sat up. "No, stay! It's just been a long day... how did you find me?" Sybil sat down in a chair. "I was in the Temple all day and just learned that you had arrived today. Frank told me that you came with Aristark but that he is now on his way to Mars." Leone checked the time. "He might not have reached the docks yet. Should I call him back? Are you here with Kalid?" Sybil explained, "Kalid and I arrived here about three days ago. This morning I woke up and found a message from Kalid. He also left Esclangon... he said that he had to investigate something. Very mysterious!" Leone was finally fully awake and let his eyes drink in the sight of Sybil. She had tinted her skin a faint green and her hair was done up in an intricate set of knots. He was not really surprised to find her here, but he was alarmed by the idea that Kalid would suddenly go off 'to investigate something'. "Kalid gave no indication of where he is going or when he will be back?" Sybil went to the room's data terminal and pulled up the message from Kalid. Leone heard Kalid's voice: "When you hear this, I'll be off Esclangon. Someone followed Leone to this system. I'll be back when I figure out what is going on." Sybil inactivated the terminal. "That's all I know. I assume by the look on your face that you did not know you were being followed." Leone thought back to the events of the past week. "I've been wondering if we were followed all the way from Sakkara, but I did not really have any evidence. However, let me tell you what I do know and what has happened..." Leone told the story of the battles at Flammis and in the Akara star system. Sybil said, "Kalid arrived on Sakkara about the same time that you were attacked at Flammis and he warned me that I was in danger. Kalid was able to monitor what was happening to your spaceship by making use of the equipment my servants gave you. After you were attacked in the Akara system Kalid felt it was important to contact you and try to make you come here." Leone was intrigued by the idea that the "Invocator" had yet another function: transmitting reports to Kalid. "I still do not know what is going on." Leone asked, "Who attacked me at Flammis? Why did Ketar's forces attack me in the Akara system? Who might have followed me to this system?" Sybil seemed lost in thought for half a minute then she said, "There are aspects of this that I'm still not clear on, but Kalid thinks Set is responsible for the attack against you at Flammis." "Ah, so you think Set followed me from Sakkara to Flammis?" "No. The Haldus Order base on Flammis was attacked about a day before you got there." "I did have about a day delay between when you told me to go to Flammis and when I actually left Sakkara. While the technicians installed your equipment on my spaceship I spent that time reading about the Haldus Order." Sybil nodded. "I see. And then the second attack near Azur; Kalid told me that Ketar has recently learned how to detect the Haldus Order identification beacon." Leone guessed that Sybil was quite naive about these technical matters. He knew that Aristark had no real problem detecting the special Haldus Order beacon signal when it was being transmitted by the Invocator on Leone's spaceship. Leone thought about the implications of Ketar knowing about the Haldus Order beacon and possibly attacking Leone's ship because it was using that beacon. "So Ketar is at war with the Haldus Order?" Sybil shrugged, "Apparently Ketar has decided that it is in his interest to attack any ship using the Haldus Order beacon. I do not understand why." Leone wondered who could have followed his spaceship to this star system. "After we left the Akara system and we were in interstellar space waiting for my spaceship to be repaired, there was a scanner transient... something was detected at extreme range. If that was another ship following us..." Leone thought about his lucid dream. "I had a dream about another spaceship..." Sybil said, "When Kalid told me that he had contacted you in a dream, I started thinking back to a dream I once had. I never told you this, but... do you remember when we first met?" Leone nodded. "I've been thinking about that a lot since I learned that you are a member of the Haldus Order." "It was the first week I knew you when I had a special dream about you. Actually, it was a dream about our grandchild. I was old and our grandchild was asking me about you. You were dead, but I was telling your granddaughter about you. We were looking at a video of you... you were very famous... I was very proud of what you had accomplished in your life. Our granddaughter was going to take up your work..." Sybil wiped away a tear. "Do you think I'm silly?" Leone got off the sleeping platform and went to Sybil. He took her hands and pulled her to her feet. They embraced and just held each other for a long time. Finally Leone said, "I've been wondering if telepathy during dreams is a way for two people to communicate and decide if they are right for each other. I also had a vivid dream soon after we met... I've never had a similar experience until Kalid contacted me telepathically." Sybil asked, "You dreamed about me? What was your dream about?" Leone told the dream in full detail. Sybil started to laugh and when Leone was done telling about the dream she said, "So you thought I was stone cold, eh? As I recall you kept hitting on me for weeks after we met." Leone chuckled, "I did not want to give up. I was having far too much fun with you. I thought you were just this nerdy student who did not know how to lighten up and live a little. Actually, I wanted you to live a lot... I wanted you to live your whole life with me." Sybil held Leone at arms length, "I could not tell you that I was a member of the Haldus Order. Since I could not tell you the truth, I could not involve myself with your life." Leone asked, "Could not, or would not? What if you had told me thirty years ago what you finally did end up telling me a week ago?" Sybil replied, "I'm not very good with hindsight, but maybe you would never have become head of Transportation and maybe I would never have told you to go to Flammis and maybe Set would never have murdered all those innocent people on Flammis..." That chain of maybe, if and might-have-been sounded like a case study for the ancient discipline of chaos theory. Leone asked, "How many died on Flammis?" Sybil shivered and snuggled against Leone's chest. "From what Kalid has hinted to me, I suspect it was many thousands... all of Kalid's family... all the people who were dear to him." Leone was shocked. "I see. So is this how wars come about? Ketar wants to avenge the millions who died on Azur. Set wants to avenge those who died on Sakkara. Kalid wants to avenge those who died on Flammis. Will it ever end?"
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