Orashean lost no time in carrying out his plan, and by the end of the warm season, Orian’s food supply from Ernestia was cut off. I had decided to visit Enessa Fulten the day after Sargon’s escape. I didn’t know where else to go. I couldn’t go back to Selesta; I had to figure out what to do to save Orian first, and Enessa lived nearby in the Inen Uranian Observatory. We discussed what had happened, and she suggested contacting our friends from Baidarka. I hadn’t expected she would know what I should do to reconcile with Sargon, but together we had come up with an idea how to save Orian.
In order to help us, one by one the scientists from the Baidarka mission quit their stations and arranged to disappear from society, which was no small feat, considering that Orashean’s government kept loose watch over every citizen and on every notable citizen’s activities. Since the underground scientists had no other option but to assemble at Enessa’s apartment, space grew short. So far there were only eighteen of us, but others were on their way, bringing trusted friends. Yet Orashean hadn’t seemed to notice that more than twenty of his top scientists had disappeared in the last tenday. He probably didn’t care. Orashean had planned on downsizing this resource anyway in order to redirect funds into his new military machine, and for that he needed scientists and engineers to develop weapons, not useless botanists, biologists, and climate analysts. In those days, there were few nano-implants and no worldwide system of human tracking or monitoring. No one needed to fear hidden micro-bug recorders, either.
About this time rumors reached Tiasenne of Leader Beren’s sudden respiratory illness. Soon afterward, Ambassador Regorr sent Orashean a message confirming the rumors. Apparently, Leader Beren was indisposed, and his ministers were regulating all of the government’s affairs.
The Last Immortal : Book One of Seeds of a Fallen Empire Page 34
