Thirty-six year old Gamman Terrathor left his meeting with his little brother feeling energized. Contrary to what Saayvas thought, he enjoyed seeing him.

In the mindspace he said to Durban and Daitian, That went better than I expected.

Did it? Durban said. You capitulated without a fight.

No I didn’t. Gamman laughed inwardly. I just shifted the fight to a different level.

What exactly do you have in mind?

Something that needs privacy privilege to discuss, Gamman said. He switched back to Saayvas. As disappointed as I am that he waited this long to come to me, I’m glad to see he’s capable of looking out for his own interests. I don’t think Lord Laydeer has figured out yet what a monster he has created. He thought back to the expression Saayvas had made when Gamman asked if he was supporting Derick Lanshyre. The idea that Saayvas might be funding Derick behind Laydeer’s back filled Gamman with satisfaction.

After a moment, Durban asked, What did you really think about that thing with the little girl?

I think it’s a good move. With the right training and good luck, she actually might be well-positioned to take over a holding if one becomes available.

That’s what I thought, Durban replied. Do you think that is what Laydeer is planning?

Why would he go to the trouble? I know he’s sponsoring Saayvas, but something that touches so closely on the hearth can’t be that interesting to him. He has very precise goals - he’s not one to think much about mating aside from the political and business implications. And in this case his interest would be her family influence in Thurinia - not in Ginnie.

Lord Durban sighed inwardly, making sure it could be picked up at the subvocal level. You know better than to make assumptions about Lord Laydeer. Of all people, you should know better.

Speaking of little girls, Gamman said, we’ve got what, six weeks before the evaluation for Erin Cavanaugh, correct? She is ten now, right?

Correct, she’ll be ten at her evaluation.

The evaluation for little girls was a special ceremony - a test - designed to determine their aptitude for teaching. It was conducted by a group of sias and lords, highly educated men, who would determine her future. Specifically they were looking for signs of maturity. Using the information they gathered during the evaluation they would determine the timeline for her formal education.

They were striding along, headed towards Bonnevue Channel, the majestic waterway that filled when it rained. Bonnevue Channel otherwise served as the main thoroughfare between the entertainment district and the work area of the Jitae, the city they were in.

An empty cart floated up to them and Gamman considered whether to ride or to walk. It was a pretty afternoon. He sent the cart on its way, and continued the conversation. What we’re doing with Erin isn’t any different than what Laydeer is doing with Saayvas and that little girl.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

That’s true, said Daitian, the other man at Gamman’s side.

Yes, Lord Durban agreed. But getting her parents to let her do an exchange tour in Ginnie for two years is going to be quite the chore.

I have ideas about that, Gamman said. I’ve already put this much work into cultivating my relationship with them. Having Reyadaman situated in Jaral and the Osori Box there would be a prime placement for him. And for us. To have a family representative - a seeker, no less - in the Jatae there would be priceless.

Yes, Durban said.

Just then, as they were stepping foot on the upper level of the channel underneath the budding vines hanging down from high above, Gamman felt the atmosphere vibrate. A bell-like tone rang in his head.

His hackles rose. Unlike the naive young man he had been ten years before, he now understood exactly what he was experiencing. It was an alien core, hitting the atmosphere. His associate in Osroes, Daenan, had explained it to him. That type of core was part of a vanguard, an exploratory entity that helped to locate planets with enough gravity to gather an atmosphere.

They would be followed by advance fighters, called Talons, that would seek out any evidence of mechanical, artificial intelligence, and destroy it.

Daenan said he had felt the presence of a Talon already - ten years before. But only one. Everything since then had been part of the vanguard.

Suddenly, Gamman wanted a cart. He trusted Daenan was up above, preparing to take care of the latest threat, but he wanted to see it for himself.

Within a minute another cart stopped for them, and Gamman climbed in first. Telling Durban and Daitian to ride them around until he was fully back in his body, he let his awareness fly away.

Gamman had his own core, which rode in the atmosphere near him at all times. He could access it at will these days, and without blacking out, but it still took time. First he had to hunt down the source of his own power, and he did so now by purposely shutting out his awareness of his surroundings. He closed his eyes and entered the realm of the seeker, and within his awareness was a tiny red sprout, like the beginnings of a plant, unfurling little leaves of yellow that gracefully bent and swayed as they grew, as though they were touched by a breeze.

The yellow leaves expanded outward and gently detached from the red sprout which was itself growing and also beginning to billow out from the bottom, making a flat plane, horizontal to Gamman’s point of view.

The yellow approached him, beautiful tendrils snapping to and fro like giant snakes moving across the black cosmos.

A blue bead emerged from the blanket of red and rolled along it toward Gamman, and he felt intuitively that he could swallow it. It was the blue that ushered him forward and as he descended on it the red swallowed him up and then he could feel it all around him. He was inside his core, and fully able to control it.

It was cold, and quiet. He had to feel around and seek for the means to travel outside the atmosphere. This was the part that worried him when he thought about the technology he wanted to create. There was no easy way to transfer a fully opened core from inside the atmosphere to the low reaches outside of it, or back again.

Gamman was able to do it because there was an access point he had learned to use - something Daenan referred to as a tunnel. He had come across it unconsciously when he was younger; now he accessed it on purpose. Daenan had assured him if he got sucked into it too deeply, he would end up in another plane entirely if he didn’t burn up first. And he’d never get back to his original body.

He let the tunnel swallow him up. He couldn’t actually see it, nor could he feel it in the human way, but he sensed that it was bright like the sun, and hot.

When he emerged into the heights above the atmosphere he located the nearest inhabited satellite station, with its own atmosphere, and wondered how long it would be before an alien discovered it. So far it seemed the vanguard had only run across Ellydis, the planet itself.

Master Daenan was present, a flat wing of deep blue, divided up with black seams where his core had been damaged in the past. He was an excellent old fighter, one that had survived attacks in his distant youth, who had traveled the tunnel and wound up on Ellydis.

The blue wing - Daenan’s core - glided smoothly across the round edge of the atmosphere and slingshot himself out towards the alien, which was turning away. His core slid, flashing along like a sudden burst of lightning and smashed into the alien, causing it to fold up against him. He pushed, not slowing enough to let it unwrap itself, and forced it to descend. Using it as a shield he gathered himself up inside it and pushed it down through the upper atmosphere until it disintegrated. Then, expertly, he was gone, doubtless into the tunnel.

Gamman wondered why it was they could travel the hot tunnel, but not withstand the heat of entering the atmosphere. He had asked, but never got an answer.