End of Journal 13

Our speeder slowed down as we neared the new platform. We were actually below the platform and were heading to the garage. I watched as a set of glass doors slid open for us so that the speeder could enter the garage.

"You guys are going to love our parents!" said Kaseph happily.

"Do they also know about Travelers?" asked Gunny.

"No, I thought it best not to tell them," replied Lita.

I looked at Lita and Kaseph restlessly waiting to get off so that we could go to their home and meet their parents. Why hadn't Lita's family vanished, as had my family? Or Spader's family? I wanted to be happy for Lita but I felt envious that she still had a family to be with. I could still remember when I had first realized that my family was gone, I had stood in the empty lot that my house had been and it dawned on me that I would be a Traveler full time. I had thought that after Denduron I would be done with the whole Traveler business but I was wrong, here I was on Xelios ready to face Saint Dane once again after already standing against him on Denduron, Cloral, and First Earth. The speeder docked and we all filed out.

"This way!" said Kaseph and hurriedly started walking to the doors. "We live only a couple minutes from here."

Gunny and Kaseph walked in the front. I could here them both talking animatedly about their territories, something about the differences in sports. Lita and I walked a short distance behind them both lost in our own thoughts.

"What's the matter?" asked Lita looking concerned.

"Nothing," I said after a second. I didn't know why but I didn't want to tell her about my missing family, it didn't seem right not since we were on our way to meet hers. But again Lita seemed to know exactly what I was thinking.

"There are gone aren't they?" she said sadly.

"What?"

"Your family, they are gone." She said it not as a question but as a statement.

"Yes," I said heavily. "They just vanished, the house, my mom, dad, and little sister Shannon."

"Press told me, when he was here last, that they aren't my real family, not even Kaseph but I've lived with them my whole life, I don't know how I could go on without them."

We had both slowed down as we were talking and I noticed that Gunny and Kaseph had gotten way ahead of us.

"Let's go, were gonna lose them," I said but Lita held me back.

"Bobby, why didn't my family disappear like yours?" she asked starring at me again with her intense eyes.

"I-I don't know," I said nervously.

Lita dropped her eyes and looked at the ground.

"It's strange, isn't it?" she said softly, "I haven't even told Kaseph, it would be a little strange trying to figure out why he and my parents hadn't disappeared."

"Yeah, I guess so, but be happy, at least you still have them." I said. Ouch, that was a little harsh I thought but Lita didn't seem to mind instead she nodded and smiled.

"They just seem different somehow, since I became a Traveler," she said, "I guess it's not my parents who have changed, it's me." I nodded at her understanding what she meant. I felt like I had changed a lot too. The old Bobby was gone replaced with Pendragon a Traveler. " Oh, wow they are already gone, aren't they?" said Lita looking up.

I looked to where she was looking and she was right, Gunny and Kaseph were out of sight.

"Come on!" Lita said and with that she grabbed my hand and we ran to catch up.

We never did catch up with Gunny or Kaseph so instead we just headed to Lita's parents home, hoping that Gunny and Kaseph were already there. Platform L was much different than Platform E. It had houses that were actually much like houses on Second Earth only, more modern looking and more square-like. The houses also all looked the same; down to the last detail they looked exactly alike. Lita led me down the street of identical houses till we reached hers. I wondered how she could tell it apart from all the others but didn't bother asking. Lita pressed her hand the palm pad beside the door, "Welcome home, Lita Enders," said a mechanical voice as the front door slide open. As I walked into the Enders' home I immediately realized that though the houses may have looked like a normal Second Earth house on the outside they were totally different on the inside. We had walked into a small foyer with a sunroof above us. The walls were covered with pictures of Lita, Kaseph and her parents, but on the floor about two feet in front of us were four small bug-looking things that were shiny metallic with glowing green eyes.

"Sweepets," Lita said simply.

We walked about two feet when the same mechanical voice that had welcomed Lita said, "Please remove your shoes, the Sweepets have already cleaned this room, thank you." We both immediately removed our shoes. I was looking around for someplace to put them when Lita bent down and pushed a small button on the wall a door slid open to reveal a shoe rack. I smiled, built in storage space, cool. We walked into a cozy living room. It was furnished similar to a Second Earth house such as you guys living rooms would look, it had a sofa and a love seat next to a glass coffee table and it even had a way advanced television but they had no lamps or anything, the walls seemed to glow by themselves with some kind of artificial light.

Lita caught me staring at the walls and explained, "It's the paint and material they use to build the walls. It gives off light, you can change the brightness by speaking to it."

I couldn't help saying, "That's awesome!"

"Kaseph? Gunny? Where are you guys?" yelled Lita.

"Coming!" yelled a voice upstairs. Kaseph followed by Gunny came down the stairs, talking; they both already seemed to have become great friends.

"Hey you guys, thanks for waiting for us!" I said jokingly.

"Sorry, Pendragon we just got to talking and before we realized it we were home and you guys were out of sight," said Kaseph smiling.

"Is Mother home?" asked Lita starting for the another room that I later learned was the kitchen.

"No, but she left a note on the counter that she was shopping," replied Kaseph following her into the kitchen. It gave Gunny and I a minute by ourselves to talk.

"So what do you think about this whole lower class rebellion going on?" asked Gunny sitting down on the dark blue sofa.

I lowered myself onto the love seat, "I'm not sure, I understand the reason that Kaseph and the lower classes want this rebellion but I can't help thinking that Saint Dane is the one causing the violent feelings. If this rebellion continues aren't we just playing right into Saint Dane's hands?"

"I think we had better just watch and wait, knowing Saint Dane we'll see him soon enough," replied Gunny.

"I know, but I hate just waiting to find out what next destructive thing Saint Dane will do," I said angrily.

"This whole Traveler business can really get to you sometimes, can't it?" said Lita from the doorway. She was carrying a plate of sandwiches in one of her hands and what looked like a palm pilot in the other hand. She came over and set the plate down on the table. "Rose made them so their bound to be good," she said and sat down beside me.

"Who's Rose?" I asked.

"Oh, Rose is our robot, well actually one of our robots," she said, "Everyone has robots to cook, clean, and do other daily chores. I don't know how we'd get along without them."

I laughed, "You mean you can't cook or clean up around the house for yourselves?"

"I can too!" said Lita somewhat indignantly, "It's just that why bother when you have happily willing robot to do it for you?"

She had a point there. I wouldn't mind having my own little robot to do everything for me either.

"Kaseph has some work that he must finish so he won't be joining us," said Lita, "Please eat up," she gestured to the sandwiches. Gunny and I each took one and started eating; neither of us had eaten since we had left Second Earth early this morning. I was starved! The sandwiches were good, though different; they tasted sweet like they were made of fruit and honey. For a while we just talked about Lita and her family. Lita worked for the Kyliger Corporation, which was involved in communications having to do with robotics and main system grids. Some of what she talked about was lost on me because for one, Second Earth just wasn't as advanced in computers as Xelios and two, I wasn't exactly the computer expert back at home anyway. Mark I'm sure you would have understood her a lot better. Lita seems to really know a lot, especially for only being 15 years old. Yep, I had to ask her how old she because I didn't understand how someone so young could be working in a full time job. Lita said that your job wasn't so much based on age as talent and ability. Obviously she has the ability to do whatever it is she does in her job. Lita explained that Kaseph works developing speeder parts and works on their repair. Lita's parents both work with robots. I guess being in the White class pretty much guarantees you a job in electronics and computers. It was nice just talking about Xelios and not worrying about what might happen if Saint Dane has his way.

"Here, I want you to have this," said Lita handing me the palm pilot thingy that she had in her hand. "I'll get you one too, Gunny I just have to borrow one from Kaseph. I'm letting Bobby borrow mine for the time that you guys stay here."

"What is it?" I asked taking it from her hand.

"A Messenger, we use them to record our thoughts. Kind of like a diary," she replied, "The great thing about them is that you can send the computer chip through your ring to whoever you are writing to."

Cool, I thought. So instead of having to write everything out I can just talk into the Messenger save the data on a computer chip and send it to you guys, presto! This is my first computer chip and I've decided to stop here. I'm writing this in a guest bedroom that Lita let Gunny and I share. I still haven't met her parents, Lita said her father works late hours and the shopping center her mother went to is quite some distance. That's fine with me though, Lita said she'd think up something to explain why a 15-year- old boy and an elderly gentlemen are staying at their house but just in case she forgets I need to think up a reason to tell the Enders. Tomorrow Lita is going to try and get Gunny and I jobs working at a different building nearby hers. It's too dangerous for us not to have jobs and she if we tried to get a job at her building Captain Towes might recognize us. She said she'd find us something simple like making sure all the robots are turned on during the day. Nothing to complicated I hope. So far Saint Dane hasn't shown his face but I know he's around and up to no good as usual. I'll send you another journal as soon as I have the time.