Liana felt her pulse pounding in her throat again, even though the extreme silence of a dead and empty world was far behind them by now. This part of the operation was starting to get more serious, and she was beginning to wonder what kind of story she'd actually gotten into. They had almost arrived at the majestic city gate, which was still more like a small opening in the enormous continuous force-field-enhanced city wall, that closed off the base of the Onnobolda from the rest of the dead world of Kavanderra, and probably was built all the way around the ziggurat and the adjacent part of the city.

The big test now for their disguise was whether they would get in through the double sentry. Inaya had naturally taken the lead, and walked casually up to the three Nummerfil guards without showing any hesitation. Lun and Liana followed. “shut off your head” Inaya communicated to both of them before they got too close. The penetrating gaze of the officially invisible guard pierced her, which made that the closing off that she needed suddenly came natural to Liana, and she hoped the Nummerfa would do the same among themselves. She noted that the unseen guard was clearly in charge of the other two Nummerfa, although you had to look very closely to notice any of that. She hoped Lun was equally good at shutting his head off, but as a yam-healer, he'd probably also had a lot of training for that sort of thing.

The guards didn't seem very interested in who went in and out of this city, and they barely even scanned the three of them. The other female guard, the visible one, only asked Inaya a few questions. It seemed that the colours on her uniform were important, but they were talking to her in Nummerfil, a language that Liana hardly understood. Behind the door they now saw a whole other world looming, full of intricate activity, with noise and bustle and an industrial stench that seemed very inappropriate in this world.

While the structure of the base was still made up of all sorts of ancient alien buildings like the rest of the city, there were many more recent constructions scattered within the city wall. There were also people of different kinds and heights walking around, and their vehicles from three worlds went back and forth in all sorts of directions so that the whole thing almost resembled a human anthill. The new world that ensued was very confusing, and an assault on Liana's poor senses in a very different way.

Liana was so deep in thought again that Lun had to tap her shoulders to signal her to get out of the way. Behind them a vehicle had appeared, very different from the jeeps they had seen before. It was a vehicle from at least two worlds, driven by two Nummerfa who wore the same clothes as Inaya and Liana. The wagon itself still looked like some sort of very primitive wooden bullock cart, of which the oxen had been replaced by a strange alien machine on wheels that acted more or less like a locomotive, pulsing strangely in an irregular rhythm. On it they brought with them all sorts of strange fragments of alien technology in assorted heaps, like they'd seen gathered in the warehouse before. They now had the full attention of the guards, so Inaya and the woman stopped whatever they were talking about and the three were let in without many questions.

“It seems that our uniform indicates that we belong to the Andira team.” Inaya whispered in Dutch. “Andira? She’s here?” murmured Lun, apparently recognizing that name. He seemed annoyed. “Someone you know?” asked Liana. “Someone from the university of mirato-kwoburuë, from the department of Oranderran studies. She officially distanced herself from the Onnobolda after they killed some Hmana-orr in the baro-tentue a few years ago, but apparently that was only for appearances. She seems to have a lot of power here now. Oh, and Akhina studied under her at the time, but it’s better not to ask her about that time ever.” “Ah” murmured Liana, as if she understood it, while she knew nothing at all about the history of the university of the oak wood and about what the Onnobolda had done in the Baro-tentue, but now was not really the time to catch up on that.

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Meanwhile, the alien ox cart's Nummerfil man continued to show some of his found items to the Drotnira guards with great enthusiasm, while the nummerfil woman next him seemed to stare into thin air in the direction of the Nummerfil guards. Liana realised that she was actually mainly focused on the third watch. “She’s communicating with the invisible guard. The Nummerfa here are hiding something from the rest of them, not only from the Hmana but also from the Drontnira.” Inaya muttered, and Liana nodded.

But they had other things to think about now. They had very suddenly been thrown into some sort of anthill that clearly had its own rules that they didn’t know. Their first objective now was that they had to make sure that they wouldn’t stand out here; and that they would collect as much information as possible. Bot those things were complicated by the fact that some of the people here that could read thoughts and feelings, and Liana had no idea how to recognize them, other than the fact that it was obvious for her when someone was trying to get right into your head, she knew how to recognize that very good by now. In addition, there were also sentries that stood here and there to check vehicles and sometimes also apparently random passers-by. Usually they were teams of both Drotnira and Nummerfa -usually with an extra invisible guard- like they had already seen, but a little further they also saw the people of the mysterious STC, who were unmistakably Oranderrans from her own world now to Liana, with heavy machine gun-like firearms but also with strange alien devices that were without a doubt also weapons.

All they could do was to ignore all this as much as possible and move on to the main building, and gather as much information there. The more crowds, the less they would stand out, and more importantly, the less the attention of a "scanner" as Inaya called it would be focused on them. Again they passed a group of STC people. These were carrying crates with unknown contents, and went in the direction of another vehicle that resembled a pimped up jeep with a little too much alien gadgetry to be believable.

“Was that a group of Hmana-orr or were they people of my kin?” Lun whispered. “I haven't seen any Tillianders here yet. But why would the Onnobolda team up with Oranderrans? That is the enemy they want to kill, and want to keep out of the other worlds, including this one.” Inaya said. Liana had heard that before, but she could no longer believe in it, so she burst their bubble. “The humans here are all from Oranderra as far as I can see. Their weapons and vehicles also.” Neither Lun nor Inaya contradicted her this time, but continued to raise questions, more than could be answered now. But too much discussion in Dutch could draw attention here so communication was kept to a minimum. Liana wondered if she'd heard the people speak and what language that had been, but she couldn't remember hearing anything clearly. But they must have gotten their Earth weapons and vehicles from somewhere, and their wifi…

Liana's thoughts were cut short when she suddenly felt that someone was trying to enter her head. At the same time she saw two guards who seemed to be paying a lot of attention to her. “Stt, someone is coming at us.” she muttered, but it was too late. Two Nummerfa came from behind the corner, armed with a strange weapon of alien origin that Liana had seen before, but she had still no idea what it did or how it worked. It looked like a strange cylinder with lights and buttons. The guards said something unintelligible in Nummerfil as they aimed their weapons at the trio. Liana sighed. So that was the end of the attempt to sneak around the base of the Onnobolda undetected. It hadn't been long, she thought bitterly.

The two guards turned primarily to Inaya, who apparently recognized them immediately. "Marah, Frest?" She called them by name, followed by something in Nummersil that Liana couldn't follow. They looked away from Inaya and closed their heads off, but continued to point their weapons at the trio. The only command they gave in mental telepathy was clear, whether she knew the language or not: "Come along!" Since Inaya and Lun apparently surrendered without much struggle, Liana did the same, and she followed the two guards without any protest. Why had they just surrendered themselves? She was was a prisoner of the powers that might be planning to wipe out her entire species from Earth, and from all the other worlds too, but for some reason remained calm about it. She had been through so much now lately that she could take this too…