Chapter 8
Upheaval
Weeks later, the regional tremin walked into his office and accessed his e-mail. Included was the data report from his pilot friend, who was sent out to LOO-1 to see what Gadwin Kerman went out for. As he perused the preliminary report, he read the accounting of the small mystery craft at the south end. Checking the images associated with the report, he stopped cold upon seeing the ship.
Walking over to his hard files, he took out the Orthodoxy's copy of the "Morningstar" file. Checking out the known drawings of the Last Hope against the ship berthed at the south port, he saw his worst suspicions confirmed.
So the ship returned after all, he thought. And that crazy witch Athena Kerman is back, too. I wonder what she found out. We must activate our special resources.
So, the regional tremin sent word out, and within a few days a new patient arrived at the psychiatric hospital where Gadwin's people were "rehabilitating" psychosis-laden people. This was intended as their ace.
Instead, they got an even bigger surprise when the patient disappeared without a trace. No tracking signal, which was supposed to be receivable anywhere in the system, was ever received from his personal tracker, which was implanted in the patient's body near the brain. This frustrated the tremin, who worked hard to get this one patient classified as "rehabilitatible".
If only the tremin truly understood what was really happening.
KSPTT
"What do you mean, you lost contact with your asset?" asked the Grand Tremin, who was being briefed by the regional tremin.
"His cranial implant should be picked up anywhere in-system." replied the regional tremin. "We should be able to know where he is."
"You miss the obvious." said the Grand Tremin. "If it cannot be picked up in-system, then he must have been transported to a site well outside of the system, perhaps to a location outside the orbit of the outermost planetoid."
"Outside the LOO and LCO objects?" said the regional tremin, and the Grand Tremin just nodded. "Where could that be?" asked the regional tremin.
"We're not really sure. It seems that Gadwin Kerman has been a bit too clever for our liking. Now we'll have to nip this in the bud for good. Have an arrest warrant put out for Gadwin. We'll have to interrogate him forcefully; it's the only way to insure that we get to the bottom of his plot against us."
"Understood. I'll take care of it right away."
"And send a team to the station at LOO-1. We might find something useful there."
The regional tremin nodded in understanding.
KSPTT
Two weeks later, the regional tremin got the report from the probe sent to the LOO-1 station. It had been abandoned, and all computer hardware had been stripped. They did, however, find a piece of paper with the words, "Manifest Destiny at Kaywell". When it was shown to the regional tremin, he recognized the words as having being written by their missing patient, but the meaning of the words eluded him. Another visit to the Grand Tremin the next day yielded no further clues, even after the regional tremin showed the Grand Tremin the note left behind.
"You are sure this was written by your patient?" asked the Grand Tremin.
The regional tremin nodded. "I'd know his handwriting anywhere." he replied.
"And how is that?"
"Because he's my brother. We're from different pod banks, but he's as fiercely loyal to the Orthodoxy as I am."
The Grand Tremin considered this, then looked at the note. "At Kaywell." he mused. "What's Kaywell? And what's Manifest Destiny?"
"As you know," replied the regional tremin, "We have maintained the full Kerbin archive from the first colonization. I'm having it gone over with a fine tooth comb to see if we can find any of the two references."
"Then let's hope we can get answers fast." replied the Grand Tremin. "This is getting out of hand. How's the search for Gadwin coming along?"
"We haven't found him yet." replied the regional tremin. "We can only assume that he's somewhere outside of our reach."
The Grand Tremin shook his head slowly. "We're losing containment, aren't we?"
"Not really." replied the regional tremin. "No member of the public at large knows just what is really going on. We only stated in the warrant on Gadwin that he was being sought out for questioning. No real arrest was mentioned. As long as we keep a tight lid on what's really happening, we keep control."
After a few moments, the Grand Tremin said, "Good point. What's the status of the 'rehabilitation' efforts at the clinics?"
"They're still rehabilitating patients as we speak."
"Then shut down those operations. Somehow I doubt it has to do with true rehabilitation. First they are classed as rehabilitated, then they disappear. There's more to it than meets the eye."
"I'll take care of that as well." said the regional tremin.
KSPTT
"No one else is coming?" asked Gadwin.
"None." replied his contact source for new colonists. "The Orthodoxy claimed it was an inventory action."
"Unlikely." said Gadwin. "They must know something."
"One more thing." replied his contact. "They want you brought in for questioning."
"Then they do know something." replied Gadwin. "Close up shop, and get here quickly. We're moving out. You'll be in the last ship with me."
"You should leave now." said his contact.
"I will close the doors, and turn out the lights." replied Gadwin. "Get here at once."
"I'm on the way." the contact ended the link.
Gadwin turned to the station's commander. "As soon as he arrives, we leave."
"What'll we do about the station?" asked the station's commander.
"Give it a Bussard engine with a full power supply. Just set it to run right out of the system. It's unlikely that the Orthodoxy knows about this facility, but we'll send it out of the system for good just in case."
Thinking, the station's commander added, "Couldn't we just knock down the station and recycle the parts into metal for later use?"
Looking at the station's commander, Gadwin said, "I'm in such a hurry, I forgot about that. How long should that take?"
"No more than a week. We just need to place the fuel tanks into the storage loop. We can make the whole thing look just like it is; a portable refinery for metal."
"Then do it. How do you intend to store the metal?"
"We'll produce pods for the metal, then surface attach them. That way they'll be out of the way during transit. We already have the workshops en route to Kaywell; we'll just need to have the metal ready for use when we arrive, since we're not sure just how prevalent metal ore will be."
"That'll work." said Gadwin.
KSPTT
A week later, all the metal was produced, and two days later, Gadwin's contact arrived. He brought bad news.
"They've upgraded you to most wanted, and it looks like they have located this base. By the way, where is it?"
"We're carrying it with us as raw metal." said Gadwin. "We'll need it to restart our society when we arrive."
"When do we leave?" asked his contact.
"Right now."
KSPTT
Two days later, the first of the probe ships arrived at the former station's location. Finding a simple portable refinery, they were mystified. The Grand Tremin wasn't pleased. However, there was nothing he could do about it.
KSPTT
It turned out that the U.S.C. Manifest Destiny had left for the Kaywell region after the ships that had settled on Talia departed Kerbin, so no record of the expedition existed in the Talian records. That frustrated both tremins deeply.
KSPTT
Two years later, the first of the colony ships arrived at Kaywell. They received a big shock from Athena.
