Torl's Journey

Torl woke early the next day, excited to get to work on rebuilding the universities and reforming the government. As he got dressed and walked out of his room, Url informed him that I’lle had already been there, and had left word that breakfast was arranged in the conference room at the end of the hall and she would meet him there to discuss his schedule for the day and the status of the items he had asked her to look into. He also told Torl that Lia and Seala were just ahead of him going for breakfast.

“Well, then, I guess we should get down there, don’t want to miss out on the good stuff.” As they reached the conference room where breakfast was to be served, Url briefed Torl that they had selected two new security staff based on interviews late yesterday, and Irnla had a series of interviews set up for today which would likely produce another couple. He wondered if Torl wished to evaluate their skills personally, as he had with them, or if he just wanted a report on the results. Torl said that the report would be fine, but it might be good work for her if they asked I’lle to do some of the evaluations. Url said that he would relay that to Irnla. As they walked into the conference room, Torl could see I’lle sitting with Lia and Seala deep in conversation at one end of the room, and Irnla sitting at the other end of the room with two new faces, one male and one female both appeared to be in their early adulthood and both were paying full attention to what she was saying. Torl walked toward Irnla first to meet the new members of his security team. As he walked over, he reached out and brushed against their minds. The male was fully shielded and looked around as soon as Torl touched his shield. The female didn’t have a shield at all. Irnla looked up and saw his approach, said something to the two who immediately came to attention.

“Good morning sir. I trust you had a good rest.”

“Yes, Irnla, I had a great rest, thank you. Am I correct in assuming that these are the new recruits?”

“Yes, sir. This one is Taarl; he says he is an initiate of the Laar order. And this one is Sila she has been working security for a merchant in the area most recently.” As she introduced them Irnla nodded to each and they saluted but said nothing.

“Taarl, who is your mentor?”

“Sir, Jin Master Sin is my mentor. Sir.”

“Interesting, I assume you know my assistant then?”

“Yes, sir, Initiate I’lle recommended that I apply for the position. I believe she also spoke to security officer Irnla. Sir.”

“Well, if she recommends you, you must be good. At least you know how to maintain and monitor a shield.”

“Sila, what merchant did you work for?”

Torl listened with his mind as well as his ears. An image of a large overweight man in his middle years came to the surface of her mind. He apparently had made many advances toward all the females in his employ. She did not like him at all.

“Sir, his name is Zarnl. He owns an import/export business focusing on clothing and jewelry.”

“Irnla, make sure she is trained on putting up a shield. Taarl is skilled in this area, you may choose to take advantage of that, or you can use one of the other initiates to validate the shields.”

“Good luck to you both. Irnla, you have done well, thank you.”

Torl turned and walked across the room to join Seala, Lia, and I’lle.

“Good morning ladies. It seems that even when I rise early, I cannot get ahead of you. Do you sleep?”

“Good morning sir. I took the liberty of having your breakfast prepared when I saw you come in. It should be here shortly. I have your agenda, and updates on the things you asked me to check on. Would you like me to brief you during or after your breakfast?”

“After please. Thank you for your hard work.” He walked over and gave Seala a hug, smiled at Lia and sat down next to Seala opposite Lia.

“So ladies, any exciting plans for today?”

“Seala has done a lot of research on Sharing Three, and has found some houses she wants me to look at. So I’m guessing that we will be house shopping today. Hopefully, once my current home sells, we will be able to afford something nice.”

“You haven’t told your mother about your prowess with the slot machines have you?”

“There aren’t any casino’s here, so it didn’t seem important.”

“What do you mean not important, you won quite a few credits on our trip. I deposited them in an account, which I believe I’lle has converted into funds here.” He turned to I’lle.

“Yes, sir, I have converted all the accounts you provided me. I got 1.8 colonial credits for each standard credit. As you requested, Seala’s funds are in an account registered to her. If she shops around, she should be able to purchase a home on Sharing Three with the balance.”

“Really, I won that much? I mean I know that it was a lot of credits, but enough to buy a house?”

“You would have had a great deal of difficulty buying a house on Earth for what you won, but with the exchange rate I’lle got for us, and the lower cost of real estate here in the colonies, it will be enough to make sure you two have a place to live. I hope you are looking for a place that will have a guest room so I can visit.” He smiled at Seala, and she grinned back.

“With all the people you have following you around, I doubt we could afford a house with enough rooms. But we will always have room for you to visit. Isn’t that right Seala?”

“Yes, you can sleep in my room, and I will sleep with mom.” Torl laughed.

“As long as I’m welcome, we can find a way to make it work.”

“Sir, your breakfast is here.” I’lle placed a plate in front of him with two Yorel eggs, and a thick slice of plox steak. Then she set a cup of caf next to the plate. Suddenly he was very hungry and he set about eating as he listened to Lia and Seala discuss housing possibilities.

As he finished the last bite and gulped down the last of the caf, I’lle cleared away the dishes and sat down across from him.

“Sir, you are to report to the high council’s chambers in two hours for processing where you will be briefed on salary and benefits and take your oath of office. Then there is a full staff briefing one hour later, and a bill authorizing expenditures for an upgrade to the building housing the bureau of taxation and several other government facilities is scheduled for vote shortly after that. The contents of the bill and a two page summary are queued up on your review system here.”

She handed him a small black device with a switch on the top and a slider bar on the side. He remembered that these worked by switching the device on and then using the slider to adjust the size and type of the keyboard and monitor projection. They were very primitive compared to what he had used back on Arth, and even compared to the portables onboard the ship. Well at least they were relatively easy to use, since he had learned how to type. Most people dictated now, typing was becoming a dead art. She was still talking, so he refocused.

“…two security officers, and they will interview five more today. I found a good accounting tech, I have queued up his interview so you can view it if you wish. The investment tech, a comp spec, legal specs, med tech, and political aids will all start tomorrow. I located three homes that meet your requirements, two of them are in the city and one is ten parses south west of the city. The one that is outside the city is much more defensible and comes with a larger tract of land than the other two. I believe Irnla prefers this choice, but she stated that all three met her minimum security requirements. I have queued up virtual tours of the three so you can go through them when you have time between meetings today. I have also scheduled two interviews for your chief of staff, which I assumed you would like to attend. They will be this evening after you return from the council chambers.

Tomorrow, you are scheduled to meet with Lar Master Flarr, and the three Kre Masters here to discuss your approach for reestablishing the vacant tiers of mastery, and schedules for testing for promotion, as well as to lay out training plans for the four of them. I have scheduled this for three hours, will that be enough time?”

“No, you probably should give us four hours for that meeting, it is important we get it right. I also need you to look for three additional initiates for me to mentor. They need to have skills we can use because I will need to provide instruction in time slices throughout my day. By the way, you need to start scheduling time for us to meet, and Taarl as well, I assume. The sessions need to be no shorter than one hour and no longer than three hours, every day.”

“Yes sir. Sir, please be cautious during today, we have limited security resources to send with you and no political or legal advisors to assist you until tomorrow. I need to attend to several other activities today, so I will only be able to check in with you between your meetings. It would be advisable for you to delay as many decisions as possible to allow time to get your staff in place.”

“Yes, mother.” He gave her a wry smile. She rolled her eyes at him, causing him to laugh and ask Seala if she had taught I’lle how to do that. Seala rolled her eyes at that comment, and soon they were all four laughing.

“Well sir, it is time for you to get going Irnla has a copy of your agenda, and she knows where you are supposed to be when. I will catch up with you after your in processing session, and again after the vote. Is there anything else you require right now?”

“No, I’lle you have covered everything I can think of. Thank you. Wait, there is one other thing, can you check into an import/export merchant named Zaml. I have reason to believe that he is harassing his female staff, and may be doing more than harassing. I think we should see what we can do to put an end to that.” She made a note on her e-pad and nodded. He gave Seala a hug and clapped Lia on the shoulder, wishing them an enjoyable day of house hunting, as he headed out with Irnla and Taarl at his sides.

“Irnla, don’t you have interviews today?”

“Url will handle the interviews, I can review them this evening when we return, and then we will get together and decide if any of them meet our needs. With all the moves you made yesterday, I am not about to let you out of my sight today.”

“Between you and I’lle, I may never see another private moment. I’m surprised you two allow me to be alone in the refresher.” He smiled.

“You think you are alone in there?” She snickered.

They continued to banter back and forth all the way to the High Council’s Chambers. Once they reached the High Council’s Chambers, things started coming at Torl in rapid fire succession.

First there was a reconfirmation of his identity, and then he signed all kinds of documents attesting that he had been informed of everything from benefits, to privacy, to security clearance investigation and on and on. He even had to sign documents to authorize security clearance investigations for his personal security staff, and they all had to sign consent forms as well. Finally, hours later he was sworn in and became officially the First Chair of the High Council for the Free Colonial System, the most powerful person in the Free Colonial System, and the one with the greatest responsibilities. After that he attended a long series of briefings on everything from which planets in which systems were populated and by how many people, what they produced for trade, and what they required in trade to survive, to the most pertinent state secrets, including the number of spies they had been able to place into key positions in the solar systems nearest to the boarders of the Free Colonial System, and even that they had a few in Arth holding seats in the congress, and minister’s offices.

He was allowed to break out of the briefings long enough to attend the high council’s review of a major expenditure bill, where he spoke against the bill and indicated that it would be vetoed if it reached his desk. He indicated which parts of the bill he was opposed to, and recommended that the council send it back for rewrite eliminating those items. He stayed for the vote and was pleased to see that it was defeated and sent back for rewrite. It was anyone’s guess how many of his recommendations would be considered, but they had gotten the message that he would read and analyze bills that came to him, so they were not likely to be able to send a special interest bill like the one presented today and expect him to sign it. At least not until they had leverage with him.

He finally returned to the hotel very late in the evening, and he was exhausted. The day had been successful, in that he had gotten through the barrage of information that was supplied immediately upon taking a position of this nature, and had established himself as being someone who would not be a pushover. He would still have to deal with those who would try to hold the government hostage in order to get passage of the bills they wanted, but since the executive budget for the year had already been passed, he would not have to worry about that particular issue for nearly a year, and he did not have any other skin in the game at this point, so he would have time to find the leverage points for key council members before he had to try and push something through. Even so, he still felt that he would need to return to the high council’s chambers again tomorrow to work through some of the items he had not had time to deal with today, so much for his plans to spend all of tomorrow on the universities. He would just have to multi-task a little more.

He wanted nothing more than to collapse and vegetate when he got back to the hotel, but unfortunately, he had not had time to review the things I’lle had provided him such as the virtual tours of the various houses she had found, and the interviews with the candidates for his chief of staff that he had missed, so he spent a few more hours reviewing those items and deciding to purchase the house that was outside the city, hire one of the applicants for chief of staff, concurred with the selections for two additional security staff members, and review ten applications for apprenticeship with him. In the end he selected four of the ten applicants even though he had only intended to select three. He sent a quick note to I’lle outlining all his decisions and asking her to take care of the notifications and offers for him.

A few minutes later she arrived in the conference room he had taken for his private office, with some hot caf and nutria-bars and another long list of items she needed his decisions on. He started going through the list and determined that the majority of the items on the list were things that he would trust her to make the decisions on, so he decided to scan for only things that were of high importance to him. He found only three items on the list that met that criteria, Irnla’s recommendations for the security system to install in their new home, which he endorsed, an invitation to a political ball at Councilman T’Lane’s home, which he declined, and an appeal from Lia for him to commute her exile, which he requested I’lle to present to his legal staff for a legal opinion, not as to whether or not he could do it, but as to whether or not there was a precedent for it, and if not whether or not it would set a precedent and what implications such a precedent would have legally. He also asked that it be presented to his political staff for their opinion on the political ramifications of granting such a request. For the rest, he told I’lle that she was his assistant and as such she had full authority to make decisions on such matters as these. If the decision obligated his time, or could have political implications, he would make it, but if it had to do with routine running of his household it should go to the chief of staff, if it had to do with meeting the needs of the staff she should make the decision, if it had to do with security, she should consult with Irnla and make recommendations to him. She seemed quite pleased and stood a bit taller as she prepared to leave his office.

“I’lle, are Seala and Lia still up?”

“I believe I saw them in the dining hall when I picked up the caf and nutria-bars on the way up here, would you like me to ask them to come and see you?”

“No, no, I’ll go to the dining hall to see them. Thank you I’lle. You did a great job today, I really appreciate it.” She blushed and told him that it was an honor to serve, but she nearly floated out of the room. Apparently she was not used to being appreciated. He would have to make a point of doing it more often.

As he walked into the dining hall, Seala looked up, saw him and came running over bouncing up and down with excitement.

“Torl, mother says that you can give us permission to go see her home tomorrow, if you wish. Will you let us go? Please?” She smiled up at him, and batted her eyes. He could feel himself being wrapped around her little finger, and smiled back. He turned to Url who was now on duty as his personal security.

“Can the new security staff handle things here while you escort them tomorrow?”

“Yes, sir. I think Taarl can handle things here, based on Irnla’s report on his performance today. Irnla and Sila will be handling your personal security tomorrow. We hope to have some of the others ready to assist with that in another day or two.”

He turned back to Seala as Lia arrived beside her.

“Lia, if you will consent to taking Url and one of the new security staff with you, and to make sure neither of you is ever without at least one of them, then I think it would be fine for you to show Seala your home, provided that you can work it in around our meeting with the other senior masters.”

“That is more than reasonable, thank you.”

“Okay, Seala, you have my permission.” Seala smiled a satisfied smile, and gave him a big hug.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, welcome, welcome.

Lia, I did receive your request, and have sent it for legal and political review. I should be able to give you an answer some time tomorrow. If it were approved, do you have a plan for what you would do for a living?”

“I have considered several options, but I think the one that best fits both my skills and my legal limitations is to return to farming. That is what my parents did, and I have a fairly large chunk of land and a larger one next to my place is for sale, the two together should be large enough to make a profitable farm.”

“That sounds well thought out. It must have been something you were considering before you had your options limited. As I understand it, your daughter has pretty strong skills in that area as well, it would drive me nuts, but sounds like a perfect fit for you two.”

“Yes, it does, doesn’t it? Thank you.”

“So, ladies, tell me about your day.”

They alternated, both of them excitedly telling about the joy of hanging out together, the online shopping they had done, the house hunting on Sharing Three, and the inevitable comparisons of those houses to Lia’s current home. It was a very pleasant ending to a very long day. When I’lle finally came in and insisted that he go to bed because he was going to have an even longer and more stressful day tomorrow, he had to regretfully agree.

He hugged Seala, and was surprised when Lia also hugged him and said good night. He returned to his room and fell to sleep almost before he hit the bed.

The next day, he awoke before the sun had begun to lighten the sky, and was eating breakfast when the light began to appear. After his morning briefing with I’lle, he gathered up Irnla and Sila and headed out toward the high council’s chambers, hoping to be done there before mid-day meal.

On his agenda this morning, he was scheduled to speak with the appointees, and ask them to stay on for 30 days to assist with the transition. He hoped to interview each of them, retaining many for the stability of government operations. After that he was to speak to the entire executive staff to set the direction of the government and provide them with his expectations. Then he would be off to the main chambers to speak to the full council, in the traditional acceptance speech that would be broadcast across the entire Free Colonial System. He then needed to review the approved budget with the financial management branch. It would be a long morning, but if he could keep it moving, He would be able to wrap up in time to have lunch back at the hotel with his personal staff.

They entered the high council’s chambers and moved quickly to the executive branch section, reaching his office suites with 20 minutes to spare before his scheduled meeting with the appointees, the first’s staff had everything ready and his first assistant met him at the entry to the suites with a cup of caf and a copy of his acceptance speech that he was to review as soon as possible so that they could make any needed changes in time for him to approve it before he made his way to the main chambers. Her name was N’Jill and she was a dark skinned beauty in her middle years with black curly hair showing only a few strands of gray, large brown eyes and a small pointed nose above full rich lips that were in a perpetual scowl. She seemed very intense and focused on the job at hand. No doubt she was concerned about her employment future like most of the immediate staff. He accepted the caf and speech, thanking her, and walked into his private offices, followed by Irnla, she positioned Sila outside the office to ensure his privacy. As they entered Irnla swept the office with her eyes and the portable persona detector she carried everywhere now. Shortly, she nodded to him indicating everything was clear. He went to his desk, sat down and began reviewing the speech. He made two minor corrections and handed it to Irnla to return to the first assistant. Then he quickly reviewed his notes for the meeting with the appointees, before the warning bell rang telling him that he had 15 seconds until the beginning of the session.

Irnla returned to stand just behind him as the vid screens came on showing the offices of the 289 appointees many of whom were spread across the realm on the capital worlds of the solar systems in the union that was the Free Colonial System. The vid screens spread out in a semi-circle taking up the majority of the office in front of Torl. He scanned the screens and noted that every office had an official in it and all appeared to be focused on the vid in front of them where his image would appear momentarily. The countdown appeared superimposed over the center of the vid displays. 10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1…

“Good morning honored members of the executive branch of the high council. Thank you for taking time out of your busy days to meet with me. I realize that for some of you it is late evening, for some it is the middle of your sleep period, and for others it is very early in your day. While I tried to schedule the meeting to be a minimal inconvenience to the majority of you, it simply was not possible to meet with all of you at the same time without inconveniencing some. I apologize to those of you for whom this meeting falls outside your normal work hours.

As you know, I am Torl, son of the Firsts of Tali. My father Teal was high commander of the defense forces, and my mother Rhea was high administrator of the executive of the Tali system, a position roughly equivalent to the one I now hold here in the Free Colonial System. With this direct descendancy, which has been fully proven and validated by the former first seat, I have claimed and will hold the First Seat of the High Council for the Free Colonial System. Since Trali had no children, and her family was wiped out in the early days of the purge, there is no possibility of anyone with a higher claim to this seat. Therefore it is logical to believe that those whom I appoint to the positions you now hold will hold those positions for the remainder of their careers assuming they are loyal and advance the policies I issue.

However, it will take some time for me to find the right individuals to fill these positions. I believe that many of you who currently fill these positions are excellent choices for those positions. So, for the stability of the government, and to allow me time to interview each of you personally, I would like to ask each of you to accept my offer to extend your appointments for a period of 30 days or until I have had a chance to interview you personally and make a decision on who will fill your position long term. Please indicate your willingness to accept this extension in the usual manner.”

He waited as all but three of the appointees indicated that they accepted the extension. The three who declined were all located on Sharing Six and held high cabinet seats.

“Thank you; there were only a couple of you who declined. I thank those of you who declined for your service to the high council and the Free Colonial System. Your appointments are terminated effective at the end of the day. You are excused from this meeting and all other executive branch activities so that you can close out your activities and collect your things. Your credentials will expire as you depart the executive suites, so please make sure you take all your personal belongings with you. “

He paused for a few seconds while the three who declined the extension signed off and their images disappeared from the vid screens.

“Okay, for those of you who have chosen to accept the extension, I would ask your indulgence as I go through a few changes that I wish to make effective immediately.

First, each of you serving as ambassadors to the solar systems of the realm, should reach out to the senior masters of the universities in your solar system, and ask them to appoint a team of three masters to function as an advisory council to the ambassador’s office. These masters will be consulted on any local policies issued by the ambassador’s office which may affect our relationship with the members of that solar system. They will have no authority other than as an advisor, meaning that the final decision on and responsibility for such policies remains with the ambassador, however, I wish you to consult with them before issuing a policy change. They will most likely shed light on things that we overlooked when we planned the policy change. Please provide a list of the appointed masters to this office within 5 days.

Next, I wish to receive a report from each office on the status of our relationship with the local governments of your assigned solar system and their relationships with the planetary governments on the first day of each month. This report should cover political as well as administrative relationship status. Those of you, who do not deal with local governments, will provide the same information for the customers you do deal with. I want to know if our policies or the administrative procedures are helping or hurting the relationship, and I want to know if the solar system governments are doing their jobs in relationship to the planetary governments. Report successes as well as failures.

Finally, each of you should review your succession planning, and make sure it is up to date. We cannot afford to have governmental failure due to lack of planning.

On a more personal level, I would like to ask each of you to put together a plan for what you would have your office do and become if you had absolute control and an unlimited budget. Please forward that plan to me at least one day before our scheduled interview session. Those of you who are scheduled for interviews in the next two days should have the plan ready for review in the interview since it would be unrealistic to expect you to provide it to me now.

I thank you all again for taking time to meet with me today. I will now open the floor for any questions you may have, but I will caution you that I have a limited amount of time for this meeting, so please ask questions that will be of general interest, you can send your other questions to me by interoffice, and I will get back to you as quickly as I can.

Are there any questions?”

There were a few questions about the implementation of the new policies, what if the universities refused to provide the advisors, what compensation would the advisors receive and from whose budget, since the month ended in two days, would they be expected to provide the first report in three days, and so on. He made a mental note of which of the staff members were trying to find ways to avoid complying with the new policies.

A few minutes later, Irnla, as agreed, interrupted to tell him that he was out of time. He thanked everyone for attending again, and then terminated the meeting. Okay, the first meeting was a success; he had only a very small number of officials’ decline the extension and none of those who did were in the key positions as ambassadors. He would have to move promptly to refill their positions, but he would not have to soothe the feelings of local officials at the same time. Now on to the full staff. He had thirty minutes until that meeting.

N’Jill entered seconds after he terminated the call with the appointees. She had the updated speech, another cup of caf and some sweetbreads, as well as a list of items for his approval. He thanked her for the caf and sweetbreads, and asked her opinion on the items that needed his approval. She looked pleased as she went through the list. He followed her advice on nearly all the items, he was pleasantly surprised to see that she recommend disapproval on a couple of items that had been initiated by J’Irle the former first seat and her former supervisor. There were two items dealing with screening of the crews of incoming starships that he sent back for more information and for legal opinions from the high court. He also asked her to get more details on several items dealing with staff discipline and benefits. He thanked her and as she departed, he reviewed the changes to his acceptance speech and marked it approved.

As he completed that I’lle entered and informed him that their offer on the house had been accepted and they would close on it tomorrow. She would have them moved in by the time he completed his day tomorrow, so he should plan on that change. She also had relayed Lia’s application to the legal and political staff members and would have their opinions for him by the time he returned to the hotel for mid-day meal. She then disappeared as quickly as she had appeared, leaving him a little off center as the warning bell sounded indicating he had 15 seconds until the beginning of his whole staff meeting.

He took a deep breath and a drink of the caf to calm his nerves as he refocused for the meeting. The vid screens were once again lighted showing him various offices across the realm all filled with staff members, mingling and talking as they waited for him to be displayed on their vid units.

10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1 “Good day everyone, I realize that many of you had to come in during your off duty hours for this meeting and I apologize for asking you to do so. Unfortunately, there is no possible way to meet with all of you without making someone come in on their off duty hours. In the future, I will try to schedule multiple meetings to account for the various time zones.

As most of you know, I am Torl, son of the Firsts of Tali. My father Teal was high commander of the defense forces, and my mother Rhea was high administrator of the executive of the Tali system, a position roughly equivalent to the one I now hold here in the Free Colonial System. With this direct descendancy, which has been fully proven and validated by the former first seat, I have claimed and will hold the First Seat of the High Council for the Free Colonial System. Since Trali had no children, and her family was all killed in the early days of the purge, there is no possibility of anyone with a higher claim to this seat coming forward, so this should be the last change in the high seat that most of you will experience.

I have no plans to make any wholesale changes in staff as has been experienced in past regime changes, so let’s put that rumor to rest now. There will be some changes in the cabinet as three members declined the offered extension of their terms earlier today, and it is possible that others will choose to leave over the coming days. I do intend to interview all of the appointed staff and hope to keep many of them in their current positions, some others will also need to be replaced, but it is my hope that the number of changes can be minimized to ensure the stability of our branch and it’s relationships with the member solar systems and planets.

I have asked each of the ambassadors to contact the senior masters of the universities in their solar systems and request that they appoint an advisory council to help us reduce the number of policy changes which have unexpected results due to factors we failed to consider. These councils will be advisory only and will not affect the authority or responsibility of the ambassadors themselves.

In addition, I am requesting that every office in the executive branch review and update their succession plans to ensure we are prepared to deal with any unforeseen situations without a loss of continuity of operations.

Finally, I intend that we will refocus our energies to ensure that we are serving the people who pay our salaries, not demanding that they serve us. I strongly encourage each and every one of you to take a long look at how you deal with others and try to find ways in which you can operate more as one who serves than as one who is to be served.

I thank you all for your hard work and dedication to the mission of the government, and for taking the time to meet with me today. Please know that it is my intent to ensure that you have the tools you need to do the job you have been entrusted with, and to ensure that the jobs we do, have meaning to the people we serve.

Thank you all, have a wonderful day.”

With that, he closed the communication channel. Once more, N’Jill entered seconds after he closed the communication channel. This time she had a list of councilors who had requested meetings with him to discuss bills that they were authoring. She had marked them each with a color indicating who had the most influence within the council halls and who had the least. She had also indicated which were aligned with J’Irle, which were aligned with Ganz and which were independents or aligned with smaller coalitions.

“Set up a single meeting with J’Irle and Ganz, tell those in their coalitions that I will meet with the heads of their coalitions to discuss their proposed bills. Set up a second meeting with all the independents and smaller coalition leaders. I will discuss the proposals in group with the intent of hearing both those for the proposals and those opposed to them. This will minimize the number of rumors about what I will or will not support.

Is the speech queued?”

“Yes, High Councilor, it is queued and I proofed it after it was queued up. On informal visits to the main council chamber, you could enter from a side entrance, but for this and any other realm broadcast speeches, you must enter through the main entrance, I queued the seating chart on your optical presenter so you can see the councilor’s names as you approach each.”

“I sincerely hope that you are not planning to leave your position N’Jill, you are very good at it, and I will desperately need your skills and anticipation.”

She smiled broadly. “Thank you High Councilor, I am honored to serve. I would be proud to continue service while you are First Seat of the High Council.”

“Excellent. Well, wish me luck; I am off to greet the realm.”

“From what I have seen High Councilor, luck has nothing to do with it when you are involved. But I will wish you good luck just the same.”

Torl, Irnla and Sila left the private offices of the First Seat of the High Council and began to make their way to the main council chamber. As they went, Irnla briefed him on information I’lle had been feeding her while Torl was dealing with the matters of state.

The closing had been moved up and she had been able to close on Torl’s new house while he was speaking with the executive branch staff. They would be moving in today. She apologized in advance for the fact that it was unlikely everything would be setup this evening, and understood that he might wish to spend one more night in the hotel. She had made arrangements to retain their floor in the hotel just in case.

Url had gone with Seala and Lia to Lia’s home, and as a result, Taarl had performed the initial security scan and system tests for their new home. He said that it had passed with flying colors, but that he would be more comfortable when either Url or Irnla had confirmed his findings.

The meeting with the masters of the universities had been confirmed and would still occur in the large conference room at the hotel, where security and privacy could be ensured.

She also reminded him that he had a training session with his initiates this evening for three hours per his request. This session would begin one hour after the evening meal, in the workout facility as requested.

They were entering the main hall leading toward the main council chamber as Irnla finished relaying messages. He took the opportunity to pull up the seating chart and prepare for his entry into the chamber. Again, N’Jill had coded importance and alignment into the chart so he could use that information to determine who to speak to and who to shake hands with on entry. She was very impressive in her anticipation of his needs.

Suddenly, he felt two thuds, the first was something hitting the protect shield Irnla had insisted on, and the second was a body hitting his and knocking him to the ground, landing on top of him. He instinctively started drawing in the power colors as he spun and swiveled, reversing positions with the person who had tackled him, coming up in side guard, and moving for a hold that would disable his opponent, before he realized that the person who had tackled him was Irnla, and she was working as hard as she could to defend herself without hurting him in any way.

He ceased his attack, grabbed her and rolled to the opposite side of the hall, reaching out with his mind and scanning for the individual or individuals who had attacked. There, he felt fear through a man’s shield. He attacked the shield breaking it down like a blaster went through air. Yes, this man had fired a blaster and knew that he had missed the mark. Torl immediately wove and placed a nerve block to paralyze the attacker from the neck down. Then he resumed the scan.

There, another who scanned the hall with a blaster pulled and aimed as he searched for Torl. The hatred was clear in this unshielded mind, and Torl recognized the mind instantly. He quickly wove another nerve block and paralyzed the second attacker.

He continued to scan as he came to his feet with his own blaster drawn. He was a couple of seconds behind Irnla who had already gotten to her feet and started moving down the hall in the direction the blaster fire had come from.

He moved quickly to cover her flank and stay with her. She would be angry about that, but he would not leave her unprotected while she attempted to protect him. As she edged around a corner, he saw Irnla tense. He scanned furiously, but could not find a mind preparing to attack anyone. As he looked around the corner, he saw what had caused her tension, the two downed men were both councilmen and their guards were standing over them with blasters pulled, prepared to defend them from the unseen attacker who had disabled them. Torl reached out with the power and put nerve blocks on the two guards as well, to avoid any other random blaster shots. As they fell on top of their councilmen, Irnla relaxed a little, she had seen this before and new that Torl had taken action. She moved forward quickly and kicked four blasters out of reach of the fallen. Then she came back to Torl.

“Are you okay sir?”

For the first time, Torl thought to look and feel to determine if he had been injured. Other than a couple of bruises from being tackled onto a marble floor, and a slight burn on the side of his jacket where the blaster shot had been deflected, he felt okay.

“I’m fine, thanks to the shield you insisted I have. How about you?”

“The shots went over my shoulders, they missed me, but then I was not the target. Unfortunately Sila was right in the path after I took you down. I’m pretty sure she was hit.”

“Go check on her, and get some of your team up here. I have this under control. I’m going to have N’Jill send over some of the secret service folks she has been trying to get me to accept, we need security here now.”

He opened a communication channel to N’Jill and relayed the situation, then asked her to send over two of the best of the secret service staff that had been assigned to him. She was already relaying those orders before she acknowledged them. Then she stated that she had also contacted the council security staff to come and take the attackers into custody. He thanked her, asked her to reschedule the budget meeting and disconnected as Irnla returned shaking her head.

“Sila caught a direct shot to the neck and a second one to the chest. We lost her sir. Taarl is on his way with Ziin, one of the new security team members. Url has been contacted, and he is bringing Seala and Lia back to the hotel, where he and Darl, the other new team member will secure things.

Sir, I strongly recommend that you forego this acceptance speech until we find out how deep this plot goes. We need to get you to a secure location.”

“No, I cannot allow them to succeed. I have got to proceed with the speech.” His heart hurt at the loss of Sila. She had been so young, and she had been through so much in her previous position. This should have been a good stable career launching job for her; instead it was the end of her journey. As he thought of that, he felt anger beginning to rise in him. And before he could regain control, he had reached Councilman T’Lane who looked up at him with a mix of hatred and fear.

“Who is behind this? You are not smart or brave enough to have come up with this plan.” As he asked the question, he scanned T’Lane’s mental responses. Councilman Aarl had contacted him, but T’Lane believed the orders had come from Councilwoman J’Irle. T’Lane spat at him, and he responded with a right cross to T’Lane’s unprotected jaw. The mental responses went blank. T’Lane was unconscious.

He walked over to the other councilman; he recognized the face from a mental image that had been shared with him earlier. This was Aarl.

“Councilman Aarl, so we meet at last. I didn’t think you would have the guts to come after me yourself; after all, you hired assassins to come after me. They failed by the way, I know you did not get the message you were expecting. So who sent you?”

As he reached out to read Aarl’s mental response, he felt the mind blast that had been aimed at Aarl. Someone wanted him silent. That level of blast might well wipe out his memory. Only time would tell if Aarl would recover. Torl put a protective shield around the man’s mind, to protect him from a second blast, but he doubted the person who sent the first would risk sending a second, not when they clearly knew that Torl was capable of tracking it now that he was prepared.

The secret service arrived, with the council security staff. He directed the security staff to secure the four that were down, sent one of the secret service officers to see to Sila, and had the second join Irnla as his security. He made it clear that Irnla was in charge of his security as he made his way to the main council chamber. He had just been announced, and people would be wondering what was keeping him.

Torl entered the chamber, and pulled up the seating chart, shaking hands and greeting council members as he made his way to the podium from which he would deliver his speech. 30 minutes later, after the speech was complete, he made his way back out of the chamber without the normal pomp and ceremony, causing several council members to show annoyance. As he exited the chamber, he noted that he now had a security force of four with the addition of Ziin and Taarl. The new security team member, Ziin was a man in about his 30th year. He was Torl’s height and build, with dark skin and close cut very curly black hair. His dark brown eyes moved constantly and his large flat nose moved as he appeared to be smelling the air as though he could smell danger.

Irnla was leading them through the less traveled halls to a side exit. She clearly wanted to get him back to the hotel where he would be protected by her team exclusively and was in no mood to brook any resistance from him.

Torl was a little ashamed to realize that he too wanted to get back to his secured temporary home. No one spoke as they made their way back to the hotel. As soon as they arrived, Url and a young lady in Torl’s security team uniform, Darl he presumed rushed out to meet them.

Darl appeared to be too young to be out of school, she was tall and very thin and had short brown hair with blue green eyes that looked more curious than confident. Her small narrow nose flared and her lips were drawn tight as she scanned the area constantly looking for anyone or anything that might be a threat.

Like a well-oiled machine, his team flowed together, and Torl was completely surrounded as they ushered him back into the hotel and up to their floor.

Immediately as he walked into the hallway of their secured floor of the hotel, Seala came running over to him, followed more gracefully by Lia.

“Torl are you okay? We heard that you were attacked again. Did you get them?” Seala slammed into him with a violent hug.

He returned the hug, gently patting her back. He marveled at how this young girl who had been so strong on their journey here, could have reverted again to the small vulnerable child she should be at that age. “Yes, Seala, I’m okay, and we did capture the culprits. Council security has them under arrest. They are in the same state as I put the previous assassins in, so they will not be a threat again without some very significant help.

Lia, I’m sorry I had to cut your visit to your home short. ”

“Sir, I completely understand. I am just glad that you are okay. I am sorry that I was the cause of your security staff being depleted when you needed them the most.”

“You were not the cause, my stubbornness was the cause. I have always taken care of myself, so I did not feel I needed a large security staff. It never occurred to me that my small staff put the staff at more risk. We will be fixing that immediately.”

I’lle came in just then, rushing over to ask if everything was okay, and should she reschedule the meeting with the masters? He told her that it was still critical that he meet with the masters. He also, told her that they had lost Sila, and he wanted to speak to her family as soon as possible, and that she should pull together a compensation package for her family. He also wanted her to post ads for 12 additional security personnel immediately. She acknowledged the requests, and disappeared as suddenly as she had appeared.

Well, he had better face the music with his security chief before moving forward.

“Irnla, you were right, I need a larger security staff, and I cannot assume I am safe just because I am in an area that others have supposedly secured. As you heard, I have authorized additional security staff; fill those positions as quickly as you can. In the interim, I will have N’Jill send over some secret service staff to augment your team. Screen them as you would a new applicant for the security team, they will follow your orders.” He looked pointedly at the officer that was with them at the moment.

“I will also authorize the equipment and tools you think you need, within reason of course. Is there anything else you need from me?”

“Yes, sir. A reduced activity schedule would be nice, it takes time to secure sites and you are always at more risk when we are on the move.”

“You know I cannot do that. The efforts I am championing are those that will eventually make it safer for everyone. You will just have to deal with the schedule.”

“Well sir, you remain our greatest security threat with this level of activity, but I do understand. We will have to deal with the schedule. Could you at least provide it to me a little sooner?”

“I will have I’lle and N’Jill grant you full access to my calendars, will that be good enough?”

“Yes sir that will improve things. Thank you, sir.”

“Now that that is settled, I recommend we get you some food, since we are to meet with the other masters in less than an hour. Seala and I brought my cook back and she has prepared a nice meal for us all.”

Torl smiled at Lia, expressing his thanks for breaking the tension. In all the excitement, he had forgotten that he had not eaten since his morning meal which was particularly early today. He had to remember to tell N’Jill that he would prefer to have nutritional snacks rather than the sweet breads she had brought him today. His workout schedule would be dramatically reduced with the new duties, so he needed to control his caloric intake.

They entered the conference room that had become their dining hall, and wonderful smells of cooking assaulted his senses. He suddenly was very hungry. As they sat and ate the mid-day feast Lia’s cook had prepared, Torl went over his memories of the attack and what he had learned from the councilmen, with Seala, Lia and Irnla, who all listened intently. Lia stated that T’Lane was a member of Ganz’s coalition not J’Irle’s, he must have been one of J’Irle’s spies to have believed he was taking orders from J’Irle and not have strong resentment present. He was a prideful man, and the way Torl had treated him, almost certainly would have generated the hatred Torl sensed. Aarl on the other hand was well known as J’Irle’s right hand man. She was really shocked that J’Irle would allow him to be directly involved, because that would point a finger directly at her if he was caught as had been the case.

Irnla stated that she agreed with the assessment, her research on Councilwoman J’Irle indicated that she would avoid implication at all costs. It was possible that Aarl took the action on his own, but that was inconsistent with what she had been able to find out about him as well. This looked very much like a setup, someone wanted to eliminate both Torl and J’Irle, or at the very least, make sure there was significant distrust between them.

Torl listened with great interest. Their logic was good. He did not believe J’Irle would be careless enough to implicate herself directly. She was certainly capable of having ordered a brazen attack in broad day light, but she would have made sure it could not be traced back to her. That meant that there was another player here.

Who would benefit if they both fell, or if they could not work together? Ganz would benefit if they could not work together, but was not in the succession line for the First Seat, and reportedly hated Councilman Franks even more than J’Irle. Franks was the next in line for J’Irle’s coalition. So there had to be someone else. He voiced his logic to the others and they agreed.

Lia and Irnla would work together to try and figure out who might be behind the action. Torl would make arrangements for Lia to be present when the councilmen were questioned.

I’lle came in to announce that the other masters had arrived, and Torl and Lia should meet them in the large conference room.

The next four hours were filled with debate on how to reorganize the universities to allow the rebuilding of the missing skill levels. What schedule should be implemented for testing, and who needed to certify the tests at each level. Who would set the rules, and how changes would be implemented. In the end, Torl felt confident that they had an approach that would start moving them rapidly toward a complete system that would help them rebuild the lost greatness of Tali.

As he left the conference room, I’lle appeared out of nowhere, as usual and informed him that she had reached Sila’s parents and he could speak with them now. He went into one of the small conference rooms, bringing I’lle with him.

She opened the communications link and introduced him to Sila’s parents.

“Sir, Ma’am, as you may have guessed, I hired Sila to be a member of my security team a few days ago. Unfortunately, I must tell you that she was killed today defending me.” He paused for a while as Sila’s parents grieved loudly. They had been expecting such a call, but were hoping that this was not it.

In a little while, her father asked how it had happened, and Torl relayed the story, leaving out the names of the attackers.

“She was an exceptional young lady and I assure you she will be honored for her sacrifice. If there was anything I could do to bring her back, I would do it in a heartbeat. Please accept my sincere condolences. I’lle my personal assistant will send you her personal belongings and information on the benefits and rights you have as her next of kin. As soon as her body is released by the investigative unit of council security, we will contact you to assist you in making arrangements for her interment. Again, please accept my heartfelt condolences on your loss. Sila was a hero and will be honored as such.”

They thanked him for contacting them personally, and then disconnected to grieve in private.

Torl sat there for a while, wiping tears from his eyes as he tried to regain his composure.

“That was done well, sir. Forgive me for pulling you away from your grief, but you still have a very tight schedule of meetings today. Your evening meal is ready and waiting for you in your office and you have less than an hour before your training session with the other initiates and I.

In addition, council security would like to begin questioning the prisoners this evening. I reminded them that you wished to be present for any questioning, and that you wanted to have members of your staff present any time the prisoners were spoken to. Needless to say, they are not happy about the situation, one of them even went so far as to hint that it might become difficult to get your staff approved for access to the council chambers if we made it difficult for them to do their jobs.”

“What was the name of the individual who made that threat?”

“Sir, his name was Colonel Charpil; he is the station commander for the northern area control center. That is the command in charge of this investigation.”

“Get the secretary of security on the communicator for me. I wish to speak to him immediately. Please contact the other initiates and move our training session out two hours, I need to deal with this council security issue first.

“Sir, perhaps it would be better to reschedule the training session for tomorrow, you look exhausted already.”

“Url, I will be returning to the high council chambers this evening, and I wish to take Lia along. Please make sure someone is assigned to security for Seala while we are gone.”

“Yes, sir. Irnla will want to have a full security escort for you sir.”

“I understand, whatever she feels is needed will be done.”

“I’lle, Thank you for your concern, but I am afraid if I don’t force the issue, there will never be a convenient time to attend to your training, and that needs to be a priority for me. I will be okay, let’s just push it out a couple of hours.”

“Yes, sir.” And she was gone again. Torl hoped he was not pushing I’lle too hard, but she was so good at getting things done that he had come to depend on her already. Maybe he should have her hire an assistant for herself, to take on some of the workload.

He walked to the conference room that served as his private office, and found a steaming meal waiting for him along with a number of messages from various council members and masters. He began reviewing messages as he ate his meal.

The first was an invitation to join Councilwoman J’Irle for caf to discuss her goals for the council and the government as a whole. He forwarded it to I’lle with a note to work out a time that fit his schedule.

Then there was a series of requests for him to speak at meetings of the various committees of the council. These he forwarded to N’Jill with a note that she should use her discretion in choosing which of these to accept and which to decline. She should please be sure to coordinate with I’lle on the availability of his time.

Then there was a message from Lar Master Flarr, requesting a session to discuss the timing of testing for the senior masters. It appeared that there was an issue with getting the appropriate masters in from the other solar systems. He responded that the testing needed to occur as soon as possible so that they could get a feel for where everyone was, but that having at least some of the other masters was critical, so please use his discretion in determining when to schedule the session.

As he wrapped up that response, I’lle notified him that Secretary Efrain, secretary of security was on the line for him, and the channel had been secured.

“Secretary Efrain, good day. Forgive me for interrupting you during your evening respite.”

“High Councilor, I am always available to you. It is not an interruption; we were not doing anything anyway. How may I be of assistance?”

“A member of your staff, a Colonel Charpil, implied to my assistant that if I continue to interfere in council security business, there might be difficulties with getting approvals for my staff to enter the high council chambers.

This type of behavior in a person in position of authority is unacceptable, and I will not tolerate it on my watch. My team and I are heading to the council chambers to question the prisoners from the attack on me this morning. By the time I arrive, I would like to be met by the new acting commander for the northern area control center. You also need to send a memo to your entire staff advising them that I have ordered one removal already and that I will order others if need be. We are a service agency, we will provide service. I realize that sometimes we have to do things that are not popular to ensure security, but we will do it with a service attitude, and that does not include threatening not to provide service in order to get what we want. Am I clear Secretary Efrain?”

“Yes, High Councilor. Let me say that Colonel Chapel’s actions are not indicative of the way we run the security division, and I am appalled at the way he has conducted himself. Major Carmel is his second and will be the acting commander who greets you when you arrive. I will make sure she understands that she is to give you and your team every courtesy.”

“Thank you Efrain. Good day.”

“Thank you High Councilor again let me apologize for this unfortunate incident.”

Torl closed the connection. He finished his meal in a rush, and prepared himself to go question the two councilmen who had attempted to assassinate him, and possibly their guards as well.

A couple of minutes later, he and Lia were on their way back to the council chambers under heavy guard. Irnla had joined Url and brought four secret service agents and Ziin with her. She informed him that Taarl was personally assigned to guard Seala, and manage security at the hotel in their absence.

He noted that she had brought along another shield unit for Lia, and insisted that Lia wear it for protection while they were outside the secured hotel. Lia rolled her eyes as she put it on and activated it. Torl laughed, now he knew where Seala had gotten the habit. Lia looked at him quizzically.

“What are you laughing at?”

“You rolled your eyes just like your daughter does. It is really quite amusing.”

She smiled and blushed a little.

“Don’t make fun of my flaws.”

“I’m not sure I would call it a flaw, but neither was I making fun of it. I just find it amusing.”

“Well, I’m glad I can provide you with amusement.” She smiled to take the sting out of it, but Torl was sorry he had said he found it amusing, just the same.

They arrived at the council chambers, and were greeted by a tall well-muscled woman with long blond hair and blue eyes so intent that Torl felt a little uncomfortable when she looked directly at him, as if she might find a piece of lint on his clothes or some other minor fault that would displease her. She had a very strong face with a sharply pointed nose, thin lips and a square jaw, and looked every bit the commander of a semi military organization.

“Major Carmel, I presume. This is Irnla, my head of security, Url her second, and Kre Master Lia who will assist with the questioning. Please show us and our security team to the questioning area and bring the prisoner Councilman Aarl in for questioning. I assume you have some investigators that you would like to have present as well?”

“Welcome, High Councilor, Master Lia, Irnla, Url. Please follow me. Yes, I would like to have two investigators present at all times during the questioning if that is acceptable to you High Councilor. They are both initiates and have skills that are very helpful to questioning prisoners of this sort.”

“Very well, Master Lia and I will question the prisoner first, your initiates may listen in, with all their skills, then they can ask any questions we missed, and we will listen in. Does that work for you?”

“Yes, High Councilor.”

“Secure Councilman Aarl’s hands and feet, when he is brought in, I will likely restore his mobility during the questioning.”

“Yes, High Councilor.” She looked at him strangely for a moment, before relaying the commands.

As they arrived at the questioning room, a room with monitors set to view all angles of the entire room, allowing one or two interviewers to interrogate the individual while others viewed the interview from another room; Major Carmel received a message, and grew very pale. Irnla immediately nodded to Url who had the security team spread out scanning the area, every other member had a hand on their stun guns.

“High Councilor, when my officers arrived at Councilman Aarl’s cell, they found that he had committed suicide. He was hanging from a rope made of the plasti-sheets from his sleep station.”

“Take us to the cell, and have your team make sure Councilman T’Lane has not met the same fate.”

“Yes, High Councilor, immediately.” She changed directions as she gave orders to secure Councilman T’Lane.

“Lia, there was a nerve block on Aarl using this weave.” He demonstrated the weave for her. “How would you go about removing such a block?”

“I have never seen such a weave before, so I would have to guess. Possibly with this weave wrapped around it then dissolved.” She demonstrated an encapsulation weave, wrapping it around his weave and then dissolving it. It was a good attempt, but did not work.

“Very nice approach, if you added these weaves to your encapsulation weave it would work.” He replicated her encapsulation weave and added some additional strands to the weave then placed it around his original weave and dissolved it. The original weave dissolved with the encapsulation weave.

“The important thing here is that while you are one of the most talented masters on planet, you did not know how to remove the weave. We must be very, very careful here. If the block was removed, we need to do a full analysis and trace any remaining power prints.

Irnla, work with Major Carmel, I want someone from your team with her people when we secure the monitoring images. Have them brought back to the interview stations, we will view them there.”

“Yes, sir.” She immediately fell in beside Carmel and they sent one member of each of their teams running down the hall in another direction. She said a few more words to Carmel who then reached down and activated her personal shield. Irnla nodded and returned to Torl’s side.

“Sir, Councilman T’Lane is still alive, and has been secured by the Major’s team, and the images will be secured in a few seconds. Councilman Aarl’s cell is through the first door on the right. Please allow my team to secure the area before you enter.”

“Okay, but be quick, power traces fade quickly.”

“Yes sir.” She nodded to Url who took two of the secret service and went through the door into the cell area to secure it. A few seconds later, Url returned and indicated that the area was secure.

They entered the cell area and saw Aarl hanging from a plasti-sheet wrapped around his neck and tied to the top of one of the bars on the front of the cell. Torl could see that the plasti-sheet had been bonded to the bar, something that was not supposed to be possible without an alarm sounding.

He pointed to it for the Major, and raised his eyebrows. This was starting to look like an inside job rather than a suicide. He scanned the area for those with the talent, and found only Lia and the Major among them had the talent.

Lia looked at him and nodded indicating she had performed the scan as well.

“Carmel, who do you study with?”

She seemed a little stunned for just a moment. Then fear and irritation passed through her face briefly.

“Srin Master Torl, I am an initiate apprenticed to Jin Master Finkle, please forgive me for not stating so earlier.”

“Forgiven. Now, scan for power traces, I would start with that bonded plasti-sheet.”

She bowed her head in acceptance and then created an imperfect tracer weave.

“No, like this.”

Lia demonstrated the correct way to make the weave, and Carmel dissolved her weave and regenerated it correctly.

“Thank you Kre Master Lia.”

While they were working on that weave, Torl reached out and touched the weaves he had put on Aarl. The nerve block and the mind shield were both still in place and secure.

“Lia, look, the weaves are still in place and untouched by the power.”

She took on a look of complete concentration for a couple of seconds.

“Yes, I see. Apparently this was murder not suicide. You will have to show me how to do that second weave someday, it will be very useful.”

“Certainly, but not here.” He nodded toward Carmel pointedly and she nodded her agreement. Then Torl reached out and dissolved the two weaves on Aarl. As he did so, the body sagged even more.

Then he scanned the area for any power traces and found none that could not be directly traced to himself, Lia or Carmel.

“Okay, Carmel. Did you find anything?”

“No Srin Master. I found no traces that could not be accounted for by our activities here. It appears that the bonding was done manually. The images should show us more about what happened here. I will have my forensic team get to work immediately if we are done here.”

“Yes, I’m done. Lia? Irnla?” They both indicated they were done as well.

“Call in your forensic team. Have Councilman T’Lane moved to the questioning area. We’ll go back and view those images first, then question him.”

They left the cells area and returned to the questioning area. As soon as they arrived, the two who had run out to secure the images, ushered them into a conference room. They had the images queued up and ready for review.

“Carmel, you should bring in your investigators for this as well.”

“Thank you, High Councilor.” She gave the orders and very shortly two new officers joined the group. As soon as everyone was present, Torl had them start the playback of the images from the time that Councilman Aarl had been brought in and put in the cell. They scanned through seeing officers come by to check on Aarl every couple of hours. An individual Carmel identified as Colonel Charpil came into the cell and spoke to Aarl for a short period of time a couple of hours before they arrived, but the audio was garbled as though a scrambler had been in use, and they could only view Aarl’s lips for translation. All he said was “I understand. Tell her I understand and will comply.” While that was suspicious, it provided them with no evidence of anything. Torl now suspected that Charpil was involved in whatever happened here.

Charpil left the cell, and no one else entered for over an hour, then there was a flash and the next image showed Aarl hanging from the plasti-sheet attached to one of the bars of the cell. The images had been modified; nearly a half hour was missing.

“Carmel, you and your team need to track this down immediately. I’m guessing those involved are already gone, but we need to do everything in our power to try and capture them.”

“Yes, High Councilor, we are already working on it.”

“Okay, let’s go talk to T’Lane. I don’t think he will have much of interest, or he would not still be with us, but it never hurts to double check and make sure someone did not make a mistake.”

They moved on to questioning T’Lane and as expected did not learn anything new, in spite of Lea’s questioning and that of the investigators from Carmel’s team. They had plenty of evidence to convict him of attempted murder and traitorous acts against the state, but only his belief that he had taken orders from J’Irle through Aarl to point at who had been behind the attempt. Torl decided to keep his suspicions to himself where it came to the who and the why. He had already discussed it with Lia and they were in agreement, but he saw no need to share with Carmel. He would wait and see what Carmel came up with. He removed the nerve block from T’Lane and told them they could proceed with the investigation at their will.

“Thank you for your cooperation. Please keep us informed of your progress on the investigation. We will get out of your way now and let you have free rein to follow the leads wherever they take you.

Thank you, Major Carmel, for your hospitality. Have a good evening.”

Torl and his team left the council’s chambers and went back to the hotel. Once there, he thanked Lia for assisting, and went directly to meet with his initiates. He spent the first session evaluating their skills and testing each of them on the skills required of a Jin Master in their respective orders. I’lle was clearly the most advanced among them and ready to test for Jin Master, but Taarl was not far behind, the other four needed a lot of work. He laid out practice schedules for each before dismissing them and sending them back to their duties. He sat down with I’lle last.

“I’lle, you are ready to test for Jin Master. I believe you could pass today. I would like to see you work on some additional power techniques, especially in the areas of shielding and projection. Are you sure that you have chosen the right order? Your personality traits and well-rounded skills indicate to me that you might be a better fit in Iial order. I do not wish to push you in any particular direction, but I think that you would find Iial to be a better fit for you.”

“Yes, Master Torl. Iial was actually my first choice, but Master Lia was not taking on additional initiates when I needed to apprentice, and there were no other masters of the Iial order on planet. With my prior career choice, I just kind of became comfortable with the Laar order, until I started working with you. Recently I have been asking myself the same question. Is it wrong to change?”

“No, I changed orders twice before I became a master. It is; however, better if you make your changes prior to testing to be a master. So give it a few days thought and let me know. We are planning to have a large testing session at the end of this month.”

“Yes, master. Thank you. “

“Okay, back to our day jobs, then. I would like you to start interviewing for someone to assist you. I have come to rely on you completely, and would like for you to get someone to take some of the workload off your shoulders. You will remain my assistant, but hire someone to assist you.”

“Sir, I’m not sure I will be able to trust someone else to assist, but I will try. Thank you sir.”

“Okay, that’s settled, what else is on my calendar for today?”

“N’Jill sent over some bills that are being proposed in the high council, she said you should try to review some of them this evening if possible.

And I have queued up the opinions from your legal and political teams on the appeal of exile from Lia. And Lia and Seala had requested that you take some time to visit with them today. Topic unknown.”

“Thank you I’lle.” As she disappeared again, he made his way back to the conference room that had become his office.