Brief

“There was a military psi on the scene. I'd like to know how they found out about the ambush we planned,” Jueqel wasn't even out of bed before he started to brief those surrounding him.

“Etten took out two of them,” came the now familiar pleasant voice. “The other houses have seers. They would have utilized any resource to obtain that man.”

Jueqel snapped out of his delirium at hearing Raymond speak. He backed away on the bed until the wall blocked his escpae. “Keep away from me.”

Raymond straightened up from sitting on the bed.

Nita scoffed, “fine way to treat someone who's been saving your life.”

Jueqel responded, “you have no right.”

“We have every right,” she retorted.

Jueqel was in his room at the Red House. “And what are you doing in this House? Your kind are not allowed in here,” on the verge of yelling.

“Ingrate,” Nita said.

Etten shimmered into the room. He exclaimed, “you're up!” His excitement went unnoticed.

Jueqel sent a barrage of questions, never stopping to let Etten answer. “Why are these two here? Do you know what they did? Who let them in? Do you know what will happen now that these two have access to this place? What's gotten in to you people? How far did you let them roam?”

Calmly Etten spoke and pointed to the Yogans, “you're up, thanks to these two.”

“Thanks to Raymond,” Nita corrected harshly. She wanted no credit for it.

“Oh, no,” Jueqel pained a deep sign. “You didn't let them? Tell me you didn't let them.” But he knew they did allow the Yogan, or Raymond, at least, into his head, and that upset him.

“You were going comatose,” Etten explained. “The Yogan techniques are the most effective, and we didn't want to take any chances.”

Jueqel was about to say that they should have left him in the coma, but that would have been a desperate attempt to retort a moot argument. A lie at best. The Yogan's ability to turn the body into an extension of their mind made them legendary healers. Though, they rarely used this to help others. Purging poison was one of the few things Jueqel had ever approved of about the House Yogan. “You could have asked,” he said, knowing it was a lame response, but he had to object to something. Not wanting to give in to thoir decision. After all, it was ultimately the correct one, no matter how much he disliked the thought of melding with a Yogan.

He looked up to Raymond and noted his cheeks were a dark rose color. Raymond said, “you are welcome.” He abruptly exited the room.

Nita stood dumbfounded. Her expression turned to an odd mixture of embarrassment and anger. Something she was obviously not used to feeling and stormed after Raymond.

“That was weird,” Jueqel said, relieved they were gone.

Etten whispered, “Raymond stayed by your side the entire time. He never once took his eyes off of you.”

Jueqel asked, “how long have I been out of it?”

“It has been a little over an hour.”

Jueqel mulled over the events at the rest stop. He remembered the psychic impressions the Yogans had missed, “did you find Breyn? Is she alright?”

“Yes,” Etten assured him. “She's a bit shaken up, but she'll survive.”

“So, what happened?”

“It turned into a mess as soon as you and Yogans joined forces,” Etten started.

“Joined? Stolen would be more accurate,” Jueqel inserted.

“Can I tell you what happened?” Etten asked, perturbed at the interruption.

“Sorry, yes. Please, go on.”

“Not long before you joined with the Yogans, we had a tough time viewing. It got worse as time went on. Dru was putting a lot of effort into the viewing, but it didn't do much good. It got to the point that we couldn't see anything remotely. Kefen and I added out strength to his, but it still got us nowhere. That's when Dru asked for Nepal's help. He was willing enough, but I don't think we should have asked.”

“Why not? Did something happen?” Jueqel asked, clinically interested in anything Psychinian.

“We got through to the scene, and Karden was in sight. Dru tapped into the extra strength Nepal was giving us. When he attacked, Karden appeared to get stronger.”

“What? Who attacked? Nepal?”

“Dru sent the attack, but we all allowed it to happen. Even Nepal did not object. That is until he came around and realized what danger he had been in.”

“Nepal is well?” Jueqel asked, eager to know his condition. "Of course, he would be."

“He's sleeping, but he wants to talk to you as soon as you are up for it.”

Jueqel noticed Raymond's shoulder leaning against the hallway wall, and thought he might need to thank them. He wasn't sure he was up to it. Later, perhaps.

“What about the military?” Jueqel asked.

“Once Kard left the scene, viewing cleared up. I got there as quick as I could. I left the guy that shot you up in a tree. His superiors will know what to do with him. I pinned a subliminal message to his brain. There were other operatives in the area and a dozen Seishin. I got our team out before anyone could be questioned, but we were noticed. They will have figured out by now that the Thero and Yogan are working together. I' m sure they realized Oragwains were there. Their precogs and sensors will figure it out eventually anyway. I imagine the Seishin and military have their hands full with each other. Seishin will not take kindly to being captured, even if they've overstepped their authority.”

Jueqel got mild satisfaction from knowing Seishin and military would have to explain with great difficulty their presence or most likely ignore either one was near. The military psi were disliked by the blank force leaders. “We'll send cleanup crews, and see what we can patch up. We'll have to reveal our secret to another blank, and I don't like that.” Jueqel decided that would most definiately wait, and turned his attention to thing closer to home. He recapped, “so, Dru tapped Nepal as a resource and attacked Karden?”

“Yes. Dru despises Karden with a deep passion. He believes Karden is a monster. I agree with him, but Dru's passion goes beyond anger at the deaths of innocent people in the wrong place at the wrong time. This monster is no where near anything we have encountered in a long time. Not since Dr. Oragwain. Dru hates this monster as much as he hates Dr. Oragwain. Perhaps more.”

Jueqel considered a moment and asked, “did you ever find the doctor?”

“There was nothing we could have done to him if we had found him, but the answer is no. We never found him. We never really wanted to. I take that back. We wanted to know where he was only because we wanted to know he was far away.”

“Why couldn't you have done anything to the doctor?”

“We could not harm Dr. Oragwain,” Etten explained, though hesitant. “We could not harm him, because we were designed with a failsafe to never turn against him.”

“But you did turn on him.”

“Technically, no. We turned away from him. We got as far away as we could. Not all of us at first. I was one of the later creations. I was sent out to find the others, but once I joined the 'one mind', I turned from the doctor, as well.”

“Was he that bad?” Jueqel asked. This was more information than he had ever obtained at any one sitting. He wanted to hear more.

“Yes, he was that bad,” Etten said. “The doctor was obsessed with creating the perfect human with all the abilities of the strongest psychics, combined with a kindness found in the selfless, and self discipline to rival anything humans have yet achieved. Once he found it, he would encourage those to produce offspring.”

“Have there been any children?”

“Yes, Breyn is one.”

“You are amazing people,” Jueqel admitted his envy. “Even in his madness, Dr. Oragwain was a brilliant scientist.”

Etten seemed to take offense to that. He snapped, “he was no scientist. Not a true one. Sure, he knew his biology, but just enough to give his talent what it needed to work on experiments. We are psychic creations. He used his esper abilities to augment his genes and others to create us.”

“I meant no offense,” Jueqel apologized.

Raymond shuffled his feet. Jueqel had forgotten he was standing just outside the room. He had not meant the Yogan to hear any of that. The bear looked to Jueqel and stared. Something in his eyes spoke softly, but Jueqel was not listening.