Journal 13 (Continued)

Gunny and I waited in the holding cell for what seemed like hours until finally another guard came. This guard was taller and less muscular than the guard we had seen earlier. He also looked much younger; he looked like he was only about 18 years old. He was also wearing a white tunic instead of a blue. He still carried a gun though, so our chances of escaping him were slim to none.

"Let's go," the guard said hurriedly, motioning with his gun for us to come with him. He then started walking down the hall without even looking to see if we were following him. Gunny and I exchanged questioning glances but stood up to follow him.

"We haven't much time before the guard comes back," said the man.

"Aren't you a guard?" I asked.

"No, I'm Kaseph Enders of the White."

"Huh?" I said confused.

The guard or whoever he was quickened his pace so that we were almost running to keep up with his long legs.

"You are in danger here, I'm afraid that you are scheduled for termination," replied Kaseph looking at us suspiciously.

"Termination!" I said, "What are you talking about?"

"My sister has learned that you are scheduled to a trial but everyone knows that the trials are just a face that the Purples and Blues put on to keep the peace. They have already planned to kill you. They think that you are rebel leaders from White or maybe Green."

I started to tell this Kaseph that I didn't have a clue what he was talking about but Gunny touched my shoulder and shook his head. He was right, I didn't need to give this guy any more reason to doubt that we were from Xelios. Instead I said, "Where are you taking us?"

"Someone safe, to my parents home on Platform L" he replied. We had reached another elevator door with the palm pads on it. I expected this guy to do the same as the guard had earlier and put his hand to the pad but instead he pulled out a thin square that reminded me of a computer chip and pushed it to the pad. The screen lit up and the door opened just as it had for the guard.

"Why didn't you just use your hand?" Gunny asked curiously.

"Because I am not allowed in this area of the building," he said. "Well, actually I'm not allowed in this building at all," he smiled for the first time and laughed. "Just don't tell anyone, ok?"

"Yeah, ok" I said though I figured he was just making a joke of it. When he smiled he looked even younger, I wondered why he was helping us but before I got to ask a man at the other end of the hall came through one of the doors. He was wearing a blue tunic and carrying a gun. He yelled something and started sprinting after us.

"Whisperer help us!" Kaseph said under his breath. "Go!" he shouted at us and we jumped into the elevator. Kaseph quickly started closing the doors. The guard was only feet from us and I noticed that he was the same guard who had brought Gunny and I to the holding cell. He was yelling into the same phone device that he had earlier that day.

"We have an escape! I repeat we have an escape!" he yelled rushing to the elevator. We barely managed to close the doors before he slammed into us.

"I take it we didn't want him to know that we were leaving?" I said sarcastically to Kaseph.

"True, I didn't want anyone to know that you were gone until we had left the building," said Kaseph wearily. The elevator plummeted down through the building until we slowed to a stop on the ground floor. The elevator doors started to open but Kaseph said, "Wait!" the doors stopped moving. Cool, I thought you could talk to the computer doors.

"What is it?" I asked

"There will probably be guards waiting for us when we open the doors. I need you two to run straight outside and across the street to Whalen's Shoe Store and wait for me there. If I don't show up after ten minutes try to make your way to Platform L. Then ask for the Enders residence, my parents will be waiting for you there."

"No, we can help you, Kaseph," I said seeing that he looked scared.

"Yes, we will stay and help, you got us out of that mess back there and it wouldn't be right not to return the favor," said Gunny kindly.

"Are you sure?" asked Kaseph doubtfully. "If they catch you they will most likely kill you,"

"Let's just do this," I said not wanting to think about what might happen if the guards caught us again.

Kaseph nodded and said, "Continue opening," to the elevator. The doors slowly opened.

'Hobey, ho!" I muttered under my breath thinking of Spader. Now I wished that I had let him come with us but I knew that having him return to Cloral had been the right thing to do.

We jumped out of the elevator to see that everything was normal. Or at least it was the same way it had been when Gunny and I had been dragged up to the holding cell. The two receptionists were still at their desk and various people were walking in and out of the elevators going about their business.

"I don't understand," said Kaseph confused. "That guard was sure to tell everyone in the entire building that we were coming down to the lowest level."

"Take it as a sign of good luck and let's just get out of here!" I said anxiously. I didn't want to stick around if an army of guards was on the next elevator down.

"Right," replied Kaseph. We made our way to the doors without catching anybody's attention. Everyone was too busy to bother noticing us.

We had almost reached the door when someone yelled, "Wait!" I started to run, thinking that I could make it to the door before any shots were fired when Kaseph grabbed me to stop me from sprinting off. What resulted were both of us falling down because I tried to run, thinking that someone had just attacked me and because Kaseph had tried to stop me from leaving. I looked back to find that instead of an army of guards with shiny, silver, guns pointed at us it was the girl I had seen earlier who had looked at us so intently. She walked over to where Kaseph and I were struggling to get up.

"Thank the Whisperer you are ok," she said and hugged Kaseph tightly.

Kaseph smiled and said, "So it was you and your fingers that saved us."

I didn't know what these two were talking about or how this girl figured into everything but I did know one thing. We needed to get out of here. "Can we go now?" I said glancing back at the elevators. Still no sign of any guards but I wasn't about to take any chances hanging around here any longer.

"Yes, I agree, we need to leave," said the girl suddenly letting go of Kaseph and heading outside. We followed her back to the busy street. It was all I could do to not stare at everything. This place was awesome!

"I think it would be better if we flew," said the girl striding purposely towards another building. This building unlike the one we had just been in was small and very modern looking on the outside. The building looked to be made of some type of metal that was a shiny green color. It had sliding glass doors and a drive up window only that there weren't any cars, it was for people instead. The girl led us to the line that was at the window. We waited while two people in front of us got something, though I'm not sure what because all they were given little credit card things. It was our turn next; the girl moved closer to the window and said, "Number 334, Enders."

The man then typed something on his flat-screened computer, "Alright, that will be 14 credits." The man then pushed another palm pad screen so that the girl could reach it. She put her palm on it but this time instead of a door opening or an elevator going down the screen lit up and that was it. Though it did say, "Thank you, Miss Enders!" in a mechanical voice. So she must be related to Kaseph, I thought. My guess was that she was his sister. Now that I looked they did look very much alike, both had light brown hair and the same almost golden eyes.

"Here you go," said the man behind the window giving the girl a metallic card. She smiled at the man and then turned back towards us.

"Let's first get in the speeder before we discuss anything because I'm sure you have lots of questions," she looked at me for a moment and then started walking around the building so that we could go inside. Unlike every other door I've seen this one did not have a palm pad on it. It slid open automatically and we all filed inside. I looked around the inside of the building seeing that this building was a garage of some sort. There were futuristic looking cars parked in the building, and I realized that the building was actually much larger than it looked on the outside it had levels below us much like a parking garage does. The girl led us to a small car that had white and blue paint markings on it. Mark, Courtney let me tell you guys about this car. It was totally awesome! Imagine a really fancy convertible like a BMW or Porsche only longer and without wheels. It was floating! The girl reached in her pants pocket and pulled out the card that the man had given her and slide it into a slot near what I guesses was the driver's seat. The car then came to life, the doors opened up which unlike a normal car door, the doors opened up. We all got inside, Gunny and I sitting in the back and Kaseph sitting in the drivers seat next to the girl. The seats were made of a really soft, creamy, leather and there was a lot of space even though from the outside the car looked really tiny. Kaseph put his hand on a screen next to the steering wheel, the car started to hum quietly and all the doors closed automatically.

"Hello Mr. Enders would you like autopilot or manual flight systems today?" asked a pleasant mechanical voice.

"Autopilot, if you don't mind," replied Kaseph.

"Not at all, Mr. Enders!" replied the mechanical voice and dare I say this, it sounded excited like it wanted to be able to pilot the car. The car then started to back out of the parking spot that it was in.

"Where to?" asked the car voice.

"Home, please," said Kaseph.

"Home it is then," replied the car voice and the car started moving down the lane in the large parking garage. Now get this, we were still hovering so I guess this wasn't exactly a car, cool eh? I felt like I was in an airplane as the plane is taxiing down the runway. The car started going down the road to the lower levels until we reached the bottom level. There we actually did start taxiing down a runway! It was a very short runway; only about 50 yards long and at the end were glass doors.

"Umm, aren't we going to hit that?" I asked nervously as we started speeding up towards the glass doors.

Kaseph smiled and said, "Haven't you ever been in a speeder before? This is always the way you leave one platform to go to another."

"Oh yeah, right," I said feeling foolish for saying something that made myself look even more of an outsider. We were almost on the glass doors when they slide open and we flew right by them. When I say flew I mean it because we were now flying! We were up hundreds of feet in the air flying over the farmlands that Gunny and I had been walking on only hours ago. That seemed like so long ago, yet it really was only a couple of hours ago that Gunny and I had first come to Xelios.

After awhile I started to get used to the sensation of flying in the speeder, for that was what it was actually called. We were flying over farmland as far as the eye could see. I hadn't seen more than a few building the whole time and then had all looked the same as the building that Gunny and I had managed to find earlier that day. My thoughts were interrupted though by the girl.

"Alright, I think everyone needs to do some explaining," she said. Yikes, I thought, what was I going to say to explain why Gunny and I one, didn't have the same clothes as everyone else, two were found on the surface of Xelios and arrested and three, why we didn't know anything about Xelios. I took a deep breath planning what to say but before I had a chance to say anything the girl took the lead.

"My name is Lita Enders, my brother you have already met, Kaseph. I'm the Traveler for Xelios and I assume you two are Travelers from other territories."

"Whoa!" was all I could say, "You're the Traveler from here?"

"Yes, though I'm still new at all of this Traveler stuff. A man named Press told me about a year ago. He was a great man but he had to leave before he was able to explain everything to me." There it was again, Uncle Press had truly done a lot of great things. Everyone seemed to have met him and knew how great a guy he was. Gunny looked at me, waiting for me to break the news to Lita about Press but I couldn't do it. I had already had to tell too many people.

Gunny seemed to realize it so he said, "Lita, I'm sorry to have to tell you this but Press is dead."

"What?" said Lita sounding shocked and hurt.

"I am truly sorry to have to tell you," replied Gunny sadly.

"We will all mourn the loss of Press, he was a great man," said Lita sadly. She shook herself a little as if to get rid of any unhappy thoughts. After a moment she spoke again, "Now may I ask what are your names?"

"My name is Vincent Van Dyke from First Earth," said Gunny, "But you can just call me Gunny."

"I'm Bobby Pendragon from Second Earth," I said.

"Well now that we all know each other," said Lita, "I guess the real question is what are you two doing here?"

"Saint Dane is here, on this territory," I said, "We tracked him to Veelox but he then decided to come here."

"I figured as much," replied Lita to herself. "Oh and didn't you guys learn that you are supposed to put on the clothing that the acolytes leave you at the flume?"

"There weren't any clothing or equipment at the flume. We searched the whole cave around the flume but nothing was there," said Gunny.

"That's strange, there should have been. I haven't been there in over a year but when Press and I went to Third Earth we had clothing," said Lita looking confused.

"Maybe somebody moved the clothing and supplies," said Kaseph. It was the first time he had said anything in the conversation. We all looked at him and I thought for the first time if maybe he shouldn't be hearing this. Lita seemed to sense what I was thinking and said, "It's ok, when I first found out that I was a Traveler and went to Third Earth I wrote to Kaseph. I tell him everything."

"How'd you know that we were Travelers?" I asked

"I work in the building that you were being held at, I saw you two being dragged in by Captain Towes and saw your clothes. I immediately knew that you were Travelers and knew that I had to find a way to get you free," replied Lita, "Because I work with computers a lot I've learned how to manipulate them-"

"She's awesome with computers and really anything electronic!" interrupted Kaseph looking admiringly at his sister.

Lita turned red and muttered something under her breath about not knowing that much. "Anyway," she continued, "Whenever someone uses the palm pad it leaves a print of his or her hand on the screen for just a second until the screen automatically erases it into an unused databank in the computer system. I simply rerouted the handprint of a guard to a separate database that I was using. I then imprinted the handprint on a computer chip so that the computer would think that it was reading a person's handprint and not a computer chip. I would have come and got you myself but I wanted to make sure the guards did not know you were escaping so I hacked into the guards security channel that they communicate with and turned off all the alarms that went off when you guys left. I didn't take into thought that a guard might be coming into that part of the building that quickly so when Captain Towes showed up I had to cut the line of his communicator off from the rest of the guard force. That's why it took me so long to reach you guys."

I stared at Lita, not knowing what to say, she had done an awfully lot of things just to get Gunny and I out and it all sounded really hard. Gunny looked totally lost but that was because he was from 1st Earth and didn't even know what a computer was. Kaseph smiled and hugged Lita, "That's my sis!" he said proudly.

"Wow!" I finally managed to say, "Thank you!"

"No problem," replied Lita smiling, "On to more important things."

"Well," said Gunny, "Can you think of anything that has been happening that might explain what Saint Dane is trying to do?"

"Yes," said Lita after a moment, she looked at Kaseph, he frowned at her but she continued, "On Xelios everyone is divided into classes. The classes are based on rank or how much power and money you have, or more correctly how much power and money you will get. There are five classes: Brown being the lowest of all classes. People who are in the Brown classes are treated like dirt with no respect at all. They work and live on the surface on the farms and in mines for the most part, they are also the only ones allowed on the surface except the guards. Then there is the White class, that's the class that Kaseph and I are in. We are not treated much better than the brown. Every person in the white class works with computers to make sure that if something goes wrong or a robot malfunctions that we fix it. Next comes the Green class, which is similar to ours except instead of working with computers they do other things like clerks and secretaries. The Blue class is next; they are the owners of businesses and the bosses of almost everyone. Guards are in the Blue class. The highest class is the Purple class. They are the people who are in control of the platforms; they are the guards bosses and own all the huge corporations."

"The problem with classes is that the Blue and Purple classes treat everyone else with little to no respect at all," said Kaseph, "It's supposed to be that everyone is equal and when we first had classes they were, but now they have become corrupted by individuals who want power."

I remembered the way Captain Towes had treated Lita compared to the receptionists and finally understood. It wasn't about age it was that the receptionists were in the Green class and Lita was only in the White. Even though they were both below the Blue guard he treated the Green receptionists better because they were higher. The whole idea of classes gave me a nasty taste in my mouth.

"But the lower classes won't allow this to happen any longer!" said Kaseph angrily. "We are starting a rebellion against the higher classes. They will soon learn that they cannot treat us like dirt much longer! We want equal rights again!"

I looked at Kaseph and then back to Lita. She wasn't smiling; I guess that she felt differently than Kaseph about the rebellion. All I could think was back on Denduron when the Milago had started a rebellion and almost killed everyone in the process, plus what would keep the lower classes from just taking over the higher classes positions and turning the tables on the Purple and Blue classes.

"I think that this Saint Dane must be trying something else," said Kaseph confidently, "Because so far the rebellion is going just the way we want it to,"

"No, I think you are wrong brother," said Lita, "I think that this is exactly what Saint Dane wants. If the classes go to war then it will cause all sorts of problems!"

"But we want this revolution!" said Kaseph angrily, "Do you want to be treated like we are forever?"

"No, but I feel that there must be some other way to resolve the problems with the classes than violent acts!" shouted Lita, "Also Saint Dane maybe doing something else along with causing the rebellion that we do no know about and for all we know the lower classes rebellion maybe exactly what he needs to put Xelios into total chaos." The two must have had this discussion before because they were both breathing heavily and glaring at each other.

Then Kaseph turned to me and said, "Don't you think that it is our right to be equal with the higher classes, this discrimination can go on no longer!"

I glanced at Gunny but his face was blank. "Kaseph, I understand that you want equal rights for the lower classes but I have to agree with Lita on this, there must be some way other than violence to talk to the higher classes. I'm worried that Saint Dane has alternative motives for causing this rebellion and that he is only using the lower classes as pawns in a much larger chess game."

"But we've already tried talking to them, they just ignore us or tell us that they know what's best. The Purple and Blues act as if we can't think for ourselves!" shouted Kaseph angrily; he did not want to listen to us. Kaseph really believed in this rebellion and I could tell that he did not want to think that the lower classes were being used for some evil purpose.

"We're almost home," interrupted Lita.

I looked outside to see us reaching another platform. This one was smaller than Platform E but it was still larger than my old neighborhood back in Stony Brook.

"Let's continue this discussion one we get home," said Lita tiredly. "I'm sure that with you here," she said looking at Gunny and I, "we can come up with a solution that benefits all." We slowly descended down to the platform. Well at least we had found the problem that Saint Dane was causing. He was starting a civil war between the classes. It was exactly something that Saint Dane would enjoy.