Tiet sat quietly as the letter dropped from his hand to the floor. All he could think was, why? His son had gone. The letter gave some answers, but he wasn't able to absorb them now. Mirah still sobbed in their living compartment. She had called for Tiet in the middle of the proceedings with the Guniran Council. He had rushed home immediately to the Equinox and found her hysterical with grief.
Emil, along with Jael and Merab, the brave Horva soldiers who had fought so heroically with them against the symbytes, had already begun working feverishly to try and break the coding on the transgate sequence used by Kale to make his jump. So far, it had been to no avail. He had not intended for them to be able to follow him. His intentions had been to save his family and friends from his self, but that bore them no comfort now.
Tiet turned to Emil and said, "Out of all of the planets listed by the Vorn as habitable, how many are listed as restricted and hostile?
Emil pecked away at the computer controls for the transgate. "Well actually, out of the planets the Vorn military left in this databank, the majority are just traps."
"What do you mean?" Tiet asked.
"You see, the Vorn military evidently figured that if someone stole this technology, like my father took it from them, then they might trap those persons by having them jump onto an uninhabitable world, thus killing their enemies. They've listed a number of worlds that have deadly atmospheres or Ammonia cloud storms and five hundred mile an hour winds and so forth."
"So it's-"
"-not a very good trap, you're right. Actually, all of the known habitable worlds are listed as hostile, I suppose to keep someone from wanting to jump to those," Emil said.
"Print out all of the information for those planets and bring it to me when you have it."
"Yes, sir."
Emil turned back to the computer, the dim light reflecting off of his dark skin and bald head-Horva males did not begin to grow hair on their heads until they became men. They kept it shaved until the day they were declared. Tiet didn't doubt that Emil was going to make a fine warrior. He had his father's tenacity, but it was all bottled up in boyish features and a wiry muscular frame.
Tiet walked back toward the common living area to get something to eat. Wynn and Grod remained with the Gunirans. Even if they found the right planet it would be a matter of searching for one boy in the midst of an entire planet's population. But someone with Kale's unique abilities would have a hard time remaining anonymous among the other inhabitants. If anyone started anything with him he would defend himself and it would break loose from there.