Ahn watched as Issyn left the harbor’s headquarters and wondered if he should first contact the authorities or Bryon. Placing himself in Bryon’s situation, he decided it was more important for the parents to know. He wished Amanda could have been alive to hear about the news. Since she had disappeared in the mudslide so long ago, both he and his wife had been heartbroken to hear of her untimely demise.
He moved through the workplace toward the back room where his patil was in his private office. Spending a moment to compose his thoughts, he tapped out the coordinates to initiate a call with Bryon. With only a short wait, he was grateful to have Bryon answer the call himself.
“Captain Ahn! To what do I owe this pleasure? It’s been a long time since we’ve talked!”
“It sure has! I’m finally able to report there’s been a sighting of Petre MacVeen’s water craft.”
“Really? How fantastic! Where is he? Have the authorities been notified?”
“I’ll send the coordinates right now.”
Bryon could hear the tapping keys through the patil connection as Ahn entered the exact coordinates.
“There, you should have them now. I haven’t talked with the authorities yet as I thought you would be most interested in this new development,” Ahn replied with a smile on his face.
Bryon watched a window pop up on his screen. The blinking red dot on the map of the Gulf of Thulen indicated where Petre was last seen. He was relieved to note Petre was nowhere near where he lived. There was less danger of the deranged man showing up to steal Juila if he were far away.
Bryon nodded his head in agreement and asked, “When was this sighting? Was it from someone we can trust?”
“Most definitely! It was Captain Issyn who saw the vessel himself. Unfortunately, he did say it was almost two weeks ago because it took him that long to get back to port.”
“That’s good. At least we can trust him not to be after the reward offered. It’s too bad this lead is as old as it is. There’s probably not much the authorities can do with it now, but I’ll contact them and give them the update. Both Alena and Amanda will be thrilled to hear there’s any news at all! Are you okay, Ahn?” Bryon was shocked to see Ahn’s complexion turn a ghastly white.
“Amanda is with you?” Ahn whispered.
“Oh, Ahn! I’m sorry we didn’t think to let you know. Amanda showed back up at our house almost sixteen mesans ago. She had lost her memory, and then we spent all of our time going through our active leads on locating Jena. We never even remembered to tell you she had returned.”
Color had slowly returned to Ahn’s face, and then he started to smile. “Barla and I would love to see her again. Barla was especially heartbroken when she heard of Amanda’s death. Is there any chance you might ‘port her over to our house sometime soon?”
“I think it might be just the thing we need to do right now. Amanda would be thrilled to see both of you, I’m sure. How does tomorrow sound?”
“That sounds perfect. Even if Barla had plans, I’m sure she’d rearrange them for another chance to see Amanda!”
“All righty then, it’s all set! If anything comes up, I’ll let you know. Otherwise, we should probably plan on meeting in the morning, say eleven o’clock?”
“We’ll be in the landing square!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bryon was startled when Ahn ended the connection abruptly. He could tell it was just out of excitement since he was grinning from ear to ear when the screen went blank.
Bryon sat back from his patil and then decided the authorities should be contacted. He typed the connection code from memory and relayed the information to the official in charge of his case. Since the evidence about Petre’s whereabouts was somewhat old, he was told they would send a patrol, but there was not a lot of hope of finding him still there.
“I understand completely,” Bryon replied for the third time. “It’s just good to know Petre is still out there somewhere. Since he slipped up this once, he’ll probably do it again. I’ll let you know if I hear anything else. I’m sure you’ll do the same.”
He stood up as soon as the call was disconnected. This new development was definitely great news to share. Walking out of his office, he saw Alena and Amanda together in the living room practicing crystal techniques. “Just the two women I wanted to see! I have news about Petre!” He sat down across from the pair as they stared anxiously at him.
“Has there been a sighting of him?” Amanda inquired into the silence as she leaned forward and set the squirming Juila down on the floor at her feet.
“I just got off the patil with Captain Ahn,” Bryon said with enthusiasm. “Captain Issyn saw Petre’s water craft two weeks ago. I then spoke with the authorities, and they are going to send a search party to the last known coordinates. I can’t imagine how he would not have come to any port for this long. Since we haven’t found any trace of the cargo he stole from Kirma Shipping and Receiving, he couldn’t have gotten any money from that angle. How has he been able to stay at sea for so long without money or resupplying his water craft?”
“Maybe he sold something besides the stolen cargo,” Alena offered.
“Like what? His water craft?” Bryon asked with a touch of irritation. “Where would he live then?”
Amanda suddenly had a bad feeling about where this conversation was going. She could not believe this idea had not occurred to her before now. With all her heart, she wished her next statement would not be true, but believing in her soul she had finally come upon the only answer possible. “What if Petre sold the most valuable thing possible? What if he sold Jena?”
The silence in the room was deafening as each person looked at one another in horror. Amanda could see the truth registering on their faces. It would explain the unknown woman Amanda had seen looking at Jena with love and adoration in her final view of her daughter through the birth crystal.
“The bright side would be that Petre was not keeping Jena anymore,” Amanda offered. Having been held captive herself by Petre for several weeks when she accidentally arrived in Tuala through an electrical storm in the Bermuda Triangle, Amanda knew firsthand how manipulative Petre could be when he wanted something. Petre had even told Amanda she was his wife simply because she had lost her memory during the transfer into Tuala. At first, she had believed him, but then she started to notice almost everything he told her had been lies. She knew she needed to escape from him before he decided to insist on her performing wifely duties with him in bed.
“So if he put her up for adoption, wouldn’t there be some sort of record?”
“Good thinking, Amanda,” Bryon jumped up from the couch and swiftly walked into his office across the hall from the living room.
Alena looked intently at Amanda as they could both hear Bryon typing on the keyboard of the patil. “You’re right, Amanda, an Elder would have to approve a formal adoption request. We also have to consider the people who have Jena might not have formally adopted her. However, if there is a record, Bryon will do his best to find it.”
“I know. I just have to believe this idea will lead us in the right direction.” Amanda tried to remain hopeful even while she was working on a way to get back to Earth. She realized she had spent so much time searching for Jena that she had neglected to go back to the first people who had helped her after she had escaped from Petre.
Amanda got up from the couch suddenly nervous about the implications of their latest theory. She looked down at Juila playing quietly with her set of blocks and asked Alena, “Would you mind watching Juila while I go to the office with Bryon?”
“Not at all, go ahead!”
“Thanks,” she replied and left the room. Waiting at the door to the office, she saw Bryon typing on his keyboard and staring at the patil screen. She noticed the stacks of paperwork on his big, mahogany-colored desk even as she wondered at all of the books on the shelves which covered three walls of the room. Some of the books were for research, she knew, but some of the others looked m
ore used. At some point, she would like to spend some time looking through the selection to see what else she might learn about Tuala. More than once it had been awkward to ask certain questions regarding daily life, while the answers may be just a few steps away.
Bryon saw Amanda in the doorway and waved her into the room. He watched her slowly enter the room and wondered when she had gotten so thin. Her long, dark hair which was usually so shiny now seemed dull, and her worried expression did nothing for the dark circles under her light brown eyes. Her full lips were pursed in contemplation. Naturally, Bryon could not blame her for losing weight with all of the stress over her missing daughter. He was sure she was not sleeping well as he and his wife had not been either.
Bryon finished his query and turned off the patil. “I made arrangements for us to visit with Captain Ahn and Barla. He seemed almost insistent on seeing you. I can’t believe we forgot to tell them about your return. I felt so bad when he discovered you weren’t dead and living with us again; he looked like he was almost ready to pass out.”
“I really would like to visit with them for a while. I’m sure they’d like to meet Juila as well,” Amanda agreed.
“We planned to meet tomorrow at eleven o’clock. I hope that’ll work? I imagine Barla will come and pick you and Juila up to go back to their house for lunch. Ahn and I will go down to the local deli to grab lunch and catch up on all the latest gossip. I hope it’s okay; I know you wanted to talk to Ahn as well.”
“Oh no, it’s perfect. I really don’t like talking about Petre, so it works perfectly for me to let you do that. I’d love to spend some time with Barla. I haven’t had a chance to thank her for making the arrangements for me to come live with you and Alena.”
Bryon looked slightly embarrassed by Amanda’s comment since he felt guilty about his role in Amanda going missing for six mesans. If that were not bad enough, then they had lost Jena from their care before Amanda returned to them. He knew Alena enjoyed having Amanda around, yet there was also the underlying guilt for their part in breaking up her family.
To cover his confusion, he said, “I’ve entered a query for any formal adoptions matching Jena’s age and description for any time between when she was taken and today. My best guess for the timeline would be four days after she was abducted since that was when you lost your ability to access Jena’s birth crystal.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ahn had been eager to tell Barla about Amanda being alive and her planned visit for the following day. He knew his wife felt a special bond with Amanda. Their connection was one which could not be spoken of in public as they were both displaced from Earth, known in Tuala as old souls. The Elders of the community had slowly cultivated the idea in which old souls were a danger to the Tualan people. Their nurtured fear caused the populace to turn over any person suspected of being an old soul to the Elders for questioning. The people taken into custody were seldom, if ever, seen again.
Ahn dearly loved his wife, and he knew even though she had not been born in Tuala, she was a Tualan at heart. Their children were born in Tuala and their youngest daughter, Rasa, was even being trained by Jehoban Himself. Ahn would do anything for his wife, which she knew, and returned his love more than he ever hoped for himself.
Barla had barely been able to contain her delight. She had missed Amanda since she had gone to the safe house with Bryon. Moreover, she was eager to meet Amanda’s daughter since she had not even known she was pregnant when she had left.
There were only a few more minutes before she and Ahn were to leave their house to go down to the open square where people landed their telepods. Being an ocean-side community, people did not like to teleport too close to the water since the wind gusted unpredictably and made the manual guidance difficult to control in the telepods. She glanced at her timepiece again and wondered where her husband had disappeared.
As if on cue, Barla saw him walk around the corner of the house. She stood up from the front porch bench and smiled at Ahn. She loved his confident stride and his air of authority. He was tall and muscular, but lean with his build. She suddenly noticed his short, dark hair was starting to gray at the temples, but his full beard was just as dark as ever. Though they had been married for over twenty-five anons, she never noticed they were both getting older.
Ahn took the porch steps two at a time before he lifted Barla in a huge hug and kissed her soundly on the mouth. He never had any problems with public displays of affection for which Barla was pleasantly exultant; she was always eager to return the warmth. “Are you ready to get going?”
“I’ve been ready all morning!” She smiled up at him as she put her arm around his waist. They descended the stairs together and she added, “This has been the slowest morning of all time! I sure hope Amanda will let me spend a lot of time with her daughter.”
“I’m sure she would be more than happy to let you watch over her toddler. She is probably running herself ragged keeping up with her!”
“I can’t wait! It’s been forever since we’ve had a little one running around!”
“I don’t think it’s been all that long,” Ahn replied. While he loved having children around, he found as he got older he enjoyed some quiet time at home when he finished a long day at work.
Barla looked sharply up at Ahn but refrained from speaking as they walked up the pathway toward the landing square. She had noticed a few anons back Ahn was getting worn down from the workload of being the Harbor Master. While she was the founder of the orphan training program and the children usually lived in their house, she had started fostering the children at the houses of the women who volunteered with the program. Now she spent more time working with the children in other homes and then had to come back to her own empty house.
Their son, Gravin, had come home for a short time after finishing his post-study program, but now he was enjoying his retirement with several of his school friends. She wanted to become a grandparent sometime soon, but Gravin appeared to be having too much fun in his travels even to consider finding a girlfriend. At twenty-three anons old, he still had plenty of time to find the right woman to settle down with before beginning his career.
Their daughter, Rasa, was two anons younger than Gravin, but her life had taken another path entirely when Jehoban’s representative had requested she come study with Jehoban directly. While Barla and Ahn went to visit with her whenever it could be arranged, she was very busy with all of her schooling. Rasa had matured beyond her anons, and she took her training so seriously her interest in the opposite sex really was not a consideration.
Barla had not realized her musings over her children had taken so long and was astounded to discover they had already arrived at the landing site. She looked around to see if the telepod had arrived, but the area was empty of any vehicles. Ahn was directing her over to the shaded seating area, but before they turned to sit down, they felt a burst of elemy emanating from the open grassy area. Barla never tired of the electric feeling and then suddenly seeing the vehicle pop into existence where before had been nothing but empty air. She knew how the technology worked, yet she had never mastered the technique. Barla held on to Ahn’s hand tightly in anticipation as they waited for the door to open.
Chapter Four
ALENA SAT IN fascination as she watched Juila play with her blocks. What had started as a normal activity promptly turned into an unusual occurrence. She had thought to call for Amanda to come and witness what she was watching, yet she did not want to disturb Juila’s concentration.
Juila had been quietly playing with her pile of blocks when she suddenly jumped up and called out, “I want to try it too!” Without any guidance on Alena’s part, Juila pulled elemental energy through her birth crystal and used it to lift one of her blocks to her head height. She was running around the room with her arms raised and she was laughing at the new game she had created.
This activity was something which should not have occurred to Juila until after her crystal training began in appro
ximately another anon. The most surprising thing to Alena was Juila’s phrase before she even started. It sounded as though she were having a conversation with someone even though Alena was the only other person in the room. She wondered if maybe Juila did still have a connection with her sister and maybe Jena was being trained to use her own birth crystal. This idea brought another thought to Alena, causing her to whisper in wonder, “Who would be able to train her so young?”
The activity only lasted for a few moments before she let the block drop to the carpet. She turned to Alena and beamed with her newest achievement. Alena smiled at her and clapped her hands. In the next instant, the block disappeared and then instantly reappeared with the other blocks at Alena’s feet. Alena did not hide her look of surprise at this other new talent demonstrated by Juila. She held out her hands to the little girl and said, “Come to Alena.”
Juila smiled and happily skipped over to the woman she thought of as her second mother. She loved to be held and cuddled. Once she was comfortably settled into Alena’s lap, she asked, “Can we make something special in the kitchen?”
Alena was surprised at the change in subject and replied, “Sure, but can you tell me where you learned to do the trick with the block?”
Juila cocked her head to the side as she considered her answer. She furrowed her brow and pursed her lips before she finally answered, “I saw myself doing it in the other room.”
“What other room? The kitchen?”
“No, the big white room with the desk!” She answered indignantly.
“We don’t have a big white room with a desk,” Alena said with more than a little confusion.
“It’s not here, silly,” she said with a grin on her face, “It’s at the other place!”
“Have you ever been to this other place?”
“No, but I see myself there every day.”
“I see,” Alena answered as she contemplated the implications of this newest revelation. Now more than ever Alena was convinced Juila was intimately tied with her twin sister. Even though Juila did not remember having a sister, their minds were clearly seeing what the other was doing. This was going to take some serious consideration. She was going to have to talk to Amanda about this news. “Let’s go to the kitchen and start making a snack. We can put together a basket of goodies to take when you visit with Barla and Ahn later this morning.”
Ascension Discovery Page 56
