abstract
| - During the past two days, six ships of Ketar's fleet had gradually assembled in orbit around Earth. Finally, the ship carrying Ketar's spy arrived in the Solar System. Ketar was not satisfied with the reports he had received from the spy. Ketar was now ready to take seriously the idea that the Haldus Order had a research program for developing technologies such as spaceship cloaking. What he needed now was solid information about where that research took place. He thought: well, if all elese fails, I'll squeeze Leone until he gives me access to his spaceship and the equipment Sybil installed there. For security purposes, only a code name was used when discussing the spy via hyperspatial communications. Ketar's fleet used encoded transmissions, but there was always a risk that a code could be compromised. Ketar knew that the spy's real name was Norshe Sleght and that she had infiltrated a Haldus Order front organization on the planet Jemini. Norshe had revealed the fact that the Haldus Order could not only trace its origins back to ancient Egypt, but that it had rebuilt its Temple on Earth. When Ketar first received a report saying that the Haldus Order had a base on Earth, he had sent one of his spaceships to investigate. Ketar had learned that Earth was not entirely abandoned to its green nanite clouds. A small base existed on the surface of Earth at the location of a magnetic mass driver that regularly launched water ice projectiles into space, destined for Mars. At that base on Earth, Ketar's team of investigators had found a small shrine dedicated to one of the goddesses that had been worshiped by Haldus Order members on Earth before it had become a green planet. However, the shrine seemed abandoned and no Haldus Order Temple was found. Later, the hidden Haldus Order base on Flammis had been discovered by Set...and destroyed. Ketar wondered what secret Haldus Order technologies lie in the ruins on Flammis. Well, that was in the past. Now Ketar was ready to more fully investigate the possibility that there was also a hidden Haldus Order base on Earth. The question was: exactly where? Ketar sent a communications signal to the ship of his fleet which had just entered the Solar System. Speaking to the ship's Captain, Ketar used the spy's code designation, "I need to speak to Bessel. Have her call me when you are a light minute from a hyperspatial communications antenna." Ketar ended the transmission and cursed the slowness of light and spaceships.
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