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| - Welcome to the meta page for The search for Kalid. We will discuss the plot here, so spoilers are all around. The search for Kalid is a story about interstellar travel, set in the 25th century, although at that time the dates are no longer counted that way....and at the start of the story, the reader imagines they are in a galaxy "far, far away". Leone is a scientist and engineer from the world of Sakkara, an important scientific research and development planet in the Empire. At the start of the story, Leone is searching for Kalid, a sage from the Osiris Order. Leone hopes to use Kalid to fight the evil Set, whose murderous attacks now threaten Leone's people on Sakkara. Leone is following the advice of Sybil, a priestess, who claims to know where Kalid is. Leone and another Planetary Coun
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| abstract
| - Welcome to the meta page for The search for Kalid. We will discuss the plot here, so spoilers are all around. The search for Kalid is a story about interstellar travel, set in the 25th century, although at that time the dates are no longer counted that way....and at the start of the story, the reader imagines they are in a galaxy "far, far away". Leone is a scientist and engineer from the world of Sakkara, an important scientific research and development planet in the Empire. At the start of the story, Leone is searching for Kalid, a sage from the Osiris Order. Leone hopes to use Kalid to fight the evil Set, whose murderous attacks now threaten Leone's people on Sakkara. Leone is following the advice of Sybil, a priestess, who claims to know where Kalid is. Leone and another Planetary Counselor, Aristark, go to the planet Flammis in search of Kalid. Leone does not believe in mental powers even though he has been told that Kalid is supposed to have them and that everybody on Flammis possesses them. At the time of the story, telepathy is a newly developing branch of science within the Empire. Most people still do not think telepathy is possible. However, some people are genetically predisposed to be better at telepathy. Individuals can train and practice to improve their telepathic abilities. A few new mechanical devices also exist that can amplify telepathic ability. "Set" knows about telepathy and knows it could allow him to take over the Galaxy if he can master it. Most people in the Empire are not aware that telepathy is possible. Set is a rare individual with natural ability for telepathic signal reception. Set's girl friend was a powerful telepathic transmitter, as is Kalid. About 1 in 100 people have significant innate telepathic ability. Very few of those ever develop their powers through training and practice. Only the Osiris Order has technology for amplifying the abilities of telepaths. Set and Leone are political rivals who competed in the most recent election of a Planetary Chief of Transportation. Set is the leader of the Futurist Party, a new political organization advocating the use of government funds for construction of Space Elevators as an alternative to continued use of spaceships to land passengers and cargo on Sakkara. Leone was the Antiquist Party candidate and won the election, although the results were disputed. The Antiquist Party is funded by the fabulously rich Spaceship Guild (see Glossary). After defeat in the election, the Futurist Party raises enough money to build the Elevators, a pair of Space Elevators, one for moving down and one for moving up from Sakkara to orbit. Set continues political work on Sakkara and his girlfriend works on construction of the Elevators. As the top Planetary Counselor for Transportation, Leone is involved in a scandal following destruction of the Elevators by terrorists. Set believes that Leone's decisions left the Elevators poorly defended and caused the death of Set's girl friend. However, Set's telepathic ability was awakened when he hears the death cries of his girl friend. Set seeks revenge against Leone and the Spaceship Guild and develops a plan for taking control of Sakkara and then the entire Empire. With his newly discovered ability to detect telepathic communications, Set discovers that the Osiris Order uses telepathic agents to promote the interests of the Spaceship Guild. Set uses his powers to find, spy and kill Osiris Order telepaths. Set learns that the most powerful telepath is Kalid. Set decides that he must find Kalid and try to learn from Kalid about the secrets of telepathic transmission. With telepathic transmission powers added to his current reception powers, Set could rule the Empire! Set traces Kalid to the green planet Flammis and Set's forces attack, killing all of the telepaths on Flammis. However, Kalid had already left the planet before Set's arrival. Kalid learns of the attack on Flammis and stops using telepathy in an effort to remain undetected while hiding on another green planet, Earth. "Green planet" means that the world's surface and atmosphere are a poisonous green cloud of nanites.....the result of a type of disaster in which nanites go out of control and destroy a world. The Osiris Order uses green planets as bases for its on-going telepathy research projects. In search of Kalid, Leone goes to Flammis, but people working for Set are now stationed there and they attack Leone's ship. Leone thinks it is Kalid who is attacking and that Kalid's forces are still on Flammis and using their mental technology for "hiding" the Osirus Order's base and thus, Sybil was correct in her belief that Kalid was on Flammis. During the battle at Flammis, when the shields of Leone's ship are at 10%, his friend Aristark tries to flee, but Leone locks him in a room away from the central control room; Leone wants to fight back at all costs. He keeps fighting and in the last moment he activates the escape subprogram... when the Thot spaceship's shields are weakened to only 1% remaining power. Leone and Aristark go unconscious as they enter hyperspace with their weakened ship.
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