The Ottengla Introduction

August celebration of Jack Vance
"The Gensifer Clan" is fan-fiction
set in Vance's Alastor Cluster.

The new science fiction story below on this page (called "The Gensifer Clan") is a follow-up story to The Yerophet Experiment, which began to tell the tale of historical investigations carried out by Azynov and Yōd using the AR Simulator. Their particular area of historical interest is the origin of human telepathy.

Now, after some earlier experiments with telepathy on the planet Yerophet, Azynov and Yōd have moved on to the planet Ottengla where they come to the attention of the Gensifer clan. The Gensifers have long been space pirates. For Azynov and Yōd, their continuing investigation of the origins of human telepathy in Alastor Cluster becomes dangerous when they can no longer avoid contact with the space pirates who were first introduced to readers in The League of Yrinna.


The Gensifer Clan 
___________________________________

Ottengla, Alastor 284, is a sparsely settled world. The human population of the planet is unusual in that over 95 percent of the residents are blind. The indigenous life forms constitute a unique and rich ecology, the study of which by visiting scientists accounts for the few sighted human residents who are descendants of ecologists that came to study the native lifeforms and then adopted Ottengla as their permanent residence.  

The planet's name is derived from a word for the color "blue" in the nearly extinct language of the original settlers of the planet. The native life forms are almost all blue due to a pigment present in the photosynthetic organisms of the planet. That blue pigment, when consumed by the animal species is incorporated into their tissues, giving them a blue coloration. The plant life of Ottengla is toxic to humans, but soon after their arrival, the human settlers were genetically engineered to give them blue skin. Rumors persist suggesting that the people of Ottengla continue to be further genetically modified in an attempt to give them telepathic abilities

Space Pirates

Advice for tourists. Pass this world by. However, if you insist on visiting Ottengla then your best strategy is to apply through the Open Registry of Science to have a working vacation as an assistant for one of the ecology research teams on the planet. Unless you have past experience as a research biologist, your application will be rejected and your name will be added to the Ottengla database of suspected starmenter infiltrators. As a small, undefended world, Ottengla has a long sad history of enduring endless raids and kidnappings by space pirates. All visitors to Ottengla from off-world are treated with suspicion.

- from The Galactic Encyclopedia of Planets

___________________________________


1. Rushing to Ottengla
Ottengla had only a handful of cities and none were larger than Medio, which, even at its peak, had never grown to have a population above 100,000. Over the course of recent centuries, the urban population of the planet had declined. Most human residents on Ottengla lived on family ranches that were sparsely scattered across the continents of the planet. Although no recent census had been taken, the Galactic Encyclopedia estimated that fewer than 20,000 people now lived in Medio, most of them involved with the import/export business that was centered on Portmedio which was the sole thriving district of Medio and site of the only spaceport of any commercial relevance on Ottengla.

Shery's micro-hierion field technology

Yōd was impatiently awaiting their arrival on Ottengla and worrying that she and Azynov might be confronted by space pirates. She was holding a small hierion containment vial and endlessly tuning it over and over with her fingers.

Yōd had tried to educate herself about Ottengla, but nearly every extant report about the planet was a scientific treatise on some aspect of the world's ecosystem. Information about the telepathic abilities of the residents of Ottengla was in the form of scattered rumors. However, in the domain of rumor, the most intriguing one about Ottengla that Yōd had come across concerned whispered tales about the human residents having used methods of genetic engineering to insert alien genes into their genomes.

Now, on final approach to Ottengla and with nothing better to do, Yōd activated the hierion containment vial's release sequence and a cloud of hierions rose up and formed a churning cloud above her head. The swirling hierion cloud was lovely and Yōd could watch it endlessly with deep fascination.

Just a few feet away, Azynov was at the spaceship controls, guiding their descent to the surface of Ottengla, but he was distracted by Yōd. Noticing that she had once again released the hierions from the vial, he asked, "Are you sure that you know what you are doing?"

Yōd replied, "Shery told me how to use the micro-hierion containment field before we left Yerophet. There is not much to it." Still, Yōd could have replied 'no'. Yōd had no real understanding of what a micro-hierion field was.

Azynov muttered another question, "How do we know there is anything to it? Shery didn't give you the actual device that was proven effective on her sister...."

Pulling her eyes away from the hierion cloud, Yōd looked at the tiny vial in her hand. It was much smaller than the one that Shery had used on Yerophet when she had successfully interrupted a telepathic connection between lo'Whots and Kresso. This was one of the more modern containment vials that Colleen had taken to Yerophet for use in her experiments. Sure, Colleen and Shery had programmed it to operate according to the mathematical field equations discovered by Shery and then handed the new vial over to Yōd, but would this quickly cobbled-together device actually work? Colleen and Shery had been supremely confident that it would. When they'd activated it for the first time, after just a glance at the released hierions, they proclaimed it ready for use in field experiments.

alien-human hybrids

Still, it was worrying that Azynov and Yōd would have to prove that the untested device could actually modulate telepathic signals. Glancing at the main navigational display screen, Yōd saw that it was showing a featureless white field of cloud tops. Not wanting to fret about her own ignorance and doubts, Yōd tried to change the subject and asked Azynov, "Do you know where you are going?"

He could have replied 'no'. They had hurried to reach Ottengla, both of them feeling a compulsion to gather data for Colleen and Shery on the capacity of the micro-hierion field to modulate the telepathic connections between the blind residents of Ottengla. However, during their approach to Ottengla from space, Azynov had been unable to contact anyone on the planet by radio.

Worried about the possibility of attack by space pirates (the dangerous starmenters of Alastor Cluster), Azynov was paying careful attention to the ship's radar. Strangely, there seemed to be no traffic in the space around Ottengla and only a few small, apparently automated satellites in orbit. He replied to Yōd's question, "The main spaceport is near the city of Medio, but there is no landing beacon. I'm taking us down with manual controls." The fluffy white clouds on Azynov's navigational display screen darkened as they crossed the terminator and moved rapidly into the dark side of Ottengla. Azynov muttered, "It is like is ghost planet."

Yōd checked in the Guide to Alastor Traffic Patterns. "According to the Cluster shipping database, due to the high starmenter threat, almost all commercial spaceflights to Ottengla are in clumps, big convoys of about a hundred ships." She turned off the compuplex and returned her gaze to the hierion cloud.

Azynov mused, "Today does not seen to be convoy day. I hope the planetary defense cannons don't blast us on suspicion of being a pirate ship."

Yōd was gazing intently at the swirling hierions that hung in the air above her. She thought: Amusing. The cloud almost looks like Maturin. As she watched, it became quite clear that there was a face in the sparkling cloud of hierions. Yōd began to ask Azynov a question. "Isaac, do you see..." Then she fell silent.

 

source

Azynov glanced briefly at Yōd. He saw that she was looking up at the colorful hierions. Turning his attention back to the landing process, he replied to her question fragment, "Very pretty." He noticed that the appearance of the hierion cloud seemed to have changed, but he was too busy with the landing to think about the change.

Azynov and Yōd had recently met Maturin on the planet Yerophet. They knew little about the mysterious Maturin beyond the fact that "she" had also entered into the AR Simulator from outside. On Yerophet, Maturin had helped Colleen find a telepathic test subject for experiments aimed at exploring if hierions could influence telepathic signals.

2. Machinations of Maturin
Five minutes later Azynov pushed himself away from the spaceship's control console. They were now on the surface of Ottengla, in the middle of a quiet Portmedio night. There were almost no lights showing in Medio and no other ships seemed to be moving about at the little spaceport. Turning back towards Yōd, he began to boast, "How was that for a smooth landing? I doubt if any..." That had been Azynov's first manual landing and he was proud of having completed it without any embarrassing errors.

However, Azynov now saw that Yōd was not moving at all. She seemed frozen in place. Yōd was staring intently at the hierions suspended above her head. Azynov looked carefully at Yōd's pretty face and now he noticed that her lips were twitching slightly, as if she was mumbling quietly to herself. Azynov re-focused his eyes on the dancing hierions and was amused to see a fuzzy image of Maturin. "Hey! That's a neat trick. So, you learned how to control the field and shape it into..." There was a gentle sensation of breaking through a barrier and then suddenly Azynov could 'hear' Yōd in his mind.

the Bimanoid Interface

Azynov assumed that they were now using a form of technology-assisted telepathy made possible by the Bimanoid Interface. He "heard" Yōd as she was telling Maturin: We promised Colleen some data, so why should we drop everything here and go to Zeck? Yōd noticed that Azynov was now there with her, in a shared mind-space with Maturin.

Maturin rather impatiently told Azynov and Yōd: You only have to complete one quick task here on Ottengla. This is a convenient time and place to introduce you to the Gensifer clan.

Azynov and Yōd had spent only about a day with Maturin and Colleen on the planet Yerophet. Posing as an assistant of Colleen, Maturin had revealed herself to Azynov and Yōd as playing a key role in shaping the experiments conducted by Colleen that were aimed at testing the effect of hierions on telepathic signals. Yōd had formulated the hypothesis that Maturin was a powerful agent of the alien pek.

fanciful depiction of the pek (source)

Thinking that Maturin had been left behind on Yerophet, Azynov was surprised to bump into her on Ottengla. Speaking out-loud, he asked Maturin, "What is this... are you following us now?"

Yōd explained to Azynov, "I think Maturin stowed away inside the hierion containment vial and came to Ottengla with us." Yōd was working hard to stabilize her tenuous telepathic connection with Maturin. She switched back to the speechless communication that Maturin seemed to prefer and asked: What is so special about this Gensifer clan?

Maturin replied: With time, you will come to understand the link between starmenters and telepathy. As a beginning, I want to introduce you to the particular starmenter who captured Colleen.

a Kerub

Azynov moaned. He and Yōd had come to Ontengla in order to prevent Colleen from having her life and that of her family shattered by predacious space pirates. In the original timeline of the Asimov Reality, Colleen had disappeared from Ottengla, having been targeted by starmenters.

In that original timeline, Colleen's success in deploying micro-hierion fields and protecting the settlers of Yerophet from the telepathic mind probes of the Kerub had been sensational news throughout Alastor Cluster. Colleen had made no secret of the fact that after completing her work on Yerophet, her next set of hierion experiments would be performed on Ottengla. Upon her arrival on Ottengla, the pirates had been there, waiting for her.

the Asimov Reality

In the altered timeline of the Asimov Reality that included Azynov and Yōd as visitors in Alastor Cluster, they had rushed from Yerophet to Ottengla, promising to conduct telepathy experiments for Colleen, thus taking her place. Azynov hoped to complete their mission before the space pirates even knew they were on the planet. Azynov told Maturin, "I've been hoping to avoid all contact with space pirates."

Maturin was tapping into the core mechanism of the AR Simulator in order to make Azynov and Yōd imagine that they were telepathically linked to her.  That will not be easy. Anywhere in the cluster where something new and interesting is happening with telepaths, the starmenters won't be far away. Back when humans first reached Alastor Cluster, the Phari decided to make use of space pirates as their telepath collection system. For centuries, the starmenters have been collecting telepaths and concentrating human genes for telepathy on the planet Yrinna.

Azynov proclaimed, "I can protect Yōd and myself from pirates. If there is an emergency, I can always restart this simulation. They won't be able to capture and hold us the way they imprisoned Colleen. I just don't want our work to be slowed down or diverted by the starmenters. If we complete our work here quickly, we can be gone before news reports about Colleen's success on Yerophet begin to spread through the Cluster."

Maturin was amused by Azynov's self-confidence. He imagined that he was in complete control of the Simulator. Maturin knew better. She asked: Your work? What exactly do you expect to accomplish on this world?

Azynov had come to Ottengla in the spirit of exploration and discovery. He and Yōd had not yet had much time to research the telepaths of Ottengla. Having learned from Colleen that Ottengla was a world with telepaths, Azynov was curious and wanted to investigate, but more importantly, he felt a strong desire to protect Colleen and her family from harm. Azynov told Maturin, "Yōd and I both felt compelled to come here to Ottengla, but I can't imagine blindness as a viable path towards human telepathy. All I want is to collect some data about the effect of Colleen and Shery's hierion field on the telepaths of Ottengla. That should satisfy Colleen and keep her away from this planet and the starmenters."

Maturin had been given an assignment: she was to move Azynov and Yōd on to Zeck as quickly as possible. From her apparent position inside the hierion cloud, Maturin seemed to swell up before Azynov's eyes. He felt transfixed, unable to shift his attention away from her synthetic representation within the boiling hierion cloud. Maturin explained: Most people with good eye sight would never trade away their vision, but converting the occipital lobe to an organ of telepathy is actually a very good approach. Some of the best human telepaths live here on Ottengla, although they are quite family-oriented and seek to avoid drawing attention to themselves. Unfortunately, the telepathic abilities of the people on Ottengla is what makes this world of great interest to the Gensifers.

Yōd complained out-loud, "I've never heard of the Gensifers." Yōd was trying to use the Bimanoid Interface to access Maturin's deep memories, but she could only receive her superficial, language-like thoughts.  She asked, "Are the Gensifers also blind telepaths?"

Maturin told Yōd: Help me out here, Yōd, and use the Bimanoid Interface when you speak to me. We are trying to attract attention. Anyhow, the answer to your question is 'no'. The Gensifers are not of this world... their headquarters is on the planet Yrinna. The Gensifer clan hates the idea of attaining telepathic abilities by giving up vision. The Gensifers are repulsed by the Ottenglans, but they can't resist coming here in search of useful gene combinations. The Gensifers have long mined the population of this world for useful genes that can boost human telepathic powers.

Bimanoid Interface

Azynov was struggling to resist the hypnotic influence of Maturin. He said to Yōd, "If using the Interface is going to attract starmenters, then I'm going to talk, not use telepathy. Don't let her talk you into anything dangerous, my love."

But it was too late. Yōd noticed that a fourth mind was already with them, inside some sort of shared telepathic space with Maturin. Whoever the new arrival was, they seemed surprised to be engaged with a telepathic mind-conference and asked: Are you inside the ship?

Having successfully attracted the attention of a resident of Ottengla, Maturin told Azynov and Yōd: I'll let you handle this.

3. Defenders of Ottengla
The ship's radio system came alive. "Spaceship ACS372654, this is Portmedio Traffic Control. Open up for inspection."

Glancing at the spaceship's security display, Azynov saw that a young woman was outside in the dark, waiting at the main hatch of the spaceship. The woman held a small electronic device in her hand that continually scanned her surroundings and provided her with tactile stimulation that conveyed information about nearby objects in the environment.

Azynov imagined that Maturin was making it possible for he and Yōd and this woman of Ottengla to communicate by way of the Bimanoid Interface and share a telepathic link. Azynov was grateful for this introduction to an Ottenglan. Azynov could sense something of the woman's thought pattern, but it seemed as if her mind and streams of on-going thought did not mesh easily with his own. Sensing no danger from her, only an intense curiosity, he used the control panel to initiate the pressure-equalizing hatch opening sequence and told Yōd, "A local... I think she's blind."

The robots of Ottengla were
imported as part of efforts to provide
protection against starmenter raids.

With the pressure-equalizing jets screaming, Yōd prepared for the hatch to open. Fearing that the micro-hierion field might disrupt her weak telepathic connection to the port agent, Yōd put the hierions back into their containment vial and slipped the vial into her pocket. Yōd felt her ears pop. She centered all of her attention on trying to use the Interface to communicate telepathically with the woman who was now just outside the ship: Hello. Welcome. I'm Yōd. Azynov is opening the hatch. Please come in.

Pressure having been equilibrated between the inside of the ship and the planet's atmosphere, the hatch swung open and Yōd tried to focus her eyes on the smokey-blue facial features of the Ottenglan. The woman of Ottengla entered the spaceship through the open hatch. My name is Ebernal. Following along behind Ebernal, but remaining just outside the hatch was a tall man. The man did not have the blue skin tone of the typical Ottenglan.

He could hear her unspoken words swirling in his mind, but Azynov did not want to use the Interface. Trying to ignore the blue color of Ebernal's face which reminded him of some exotic mold, he spoke out loud, "I tried to make radio contact before landing, but I got no reply to my repeated requests for a landing protocol."

Ebernal turned her strange eyes towards the sound of Azynov's voice. We don't make it easy for outsiders to land. Most visitors to this world only bring us trouble. This space port exists for just a few regularly scheduled supply vessels that bring us everything that we need from other worlds.

Dimensional Engineering

Rather amazed to be efficiently sharing thoughts with Ebernal, Yōd spoke excitedly to Azynov, "So, the rumors are true. Telepathy! A form of telepathy that even works with us... could the Bimanoid Interface be in use here on Ottengla?"

Never having heard of the Bimanoid Interface, Ebernal asked Yōd, "Bimanoid?" But it did not matter if Ebernal was familiar with the Bimanoid Interface. By looking into the minds of Azynov and Yōd she had learned what she needed to know and had quickly reached a decision.

Azynov suggested to Yōd, "Let's not jump to conclusions. In the Asimov Reality, these people must have been using twitino-mediated telepathy."

Yōd nodded, "It is an interesting technical problem... how would the ARS simulate twitino-mediated telepathy?" In the Final Reality, the dimensional structure of the universe had been altered, making twitino-mediated telepathy impossible. Yōd approached Ebernal and waved her hand; Ebernal's eyes followed. "You are not completely blind."

Ebernal nodded. "My grandfather is an ecologist, his name is Mecklowsky. I'm a hybrid, part Ottenglan, part normal human. My given name is Jenny. I grew up on the Ebernal ranch, so I'm known here in Medio as Jenny Ebernal. I grew up with some weak telepathic links to my family members, so my real name is a kind of thought pattern, a gestalt, that I probably can't share with you outsiders."

Looking into her mind, Yōd could sense that Jenny lived in fear of the omnipresent starmenters, but below that dominant theme in her mind were thoughts of her family and plans for driving the starmenters away from Ottengla. Yōd asked, Your true name... is that the 'Semod' that I can sense in your mind?

Ebernal looked at Yōd with consternation. How is it that you can look do deeply into my thoughts? Even my mother could never go into my unspoken memories. Who are you?

Yōd explained, "I don't have natural telepathy. My ability to touch your mind is a trick of advanced technology. Believe me, Jenny, I'm nobody special. Azynov and I came here from Earth to learn about the telepaths of Alastor Cluster." I'm very glad we met, Jenny.

Ebernal sighed and said: You are outsiders, but I sense you are not starmenters, so... "I don't understand how it is that I can enter the minds of two off-worlders... I have never done so before..." Intrigued by the apparently powerful telepathic abilities of Azynov and particularly Yōd, but satisfied that they posed no danger to Ottengla, Ebernal said, "For your safety, please leave this planet immediately." She turned abruptly and began walking towards the hatch.

Azynov noticed that Ebernal seemed to have a tail. He thought of the Kerub, lo'Whots, the alien who he and Yōd had recently seen on Yerophet; a humanoid creature that had been mostly covered by fur. He wondered: were the humans of Ottengla evolving towards such a furry phenotype? As far as he could see, most of Ebernal's skin was naked and blue while the hair covering the back of her head and that of the tail were a slightly different shade of blue.

Not wanting their conference to end, Yōd rushed after her and touched Ebernal's arm. The man who had remained outside in the shadows now ran into the spaceship and stepped between Yōd and Ebernal. He took hold of both Yōd's wrists in his powerful grip. Yōd complained, "You are breaking my arms!"

Ebernal tried to slip away through the open hatch. The man smiled at Yōd then let go of her. Looking up at his face, Yōd seemed to recognize him.

Yōd shouted at Ebernal, "Wait. Don't go. We want to talk to you and make plans for some telepathy experiments. We might find a way to protect this world from the starmenters."

Ebernal turned and came back towards Yōd. Now standing behind the looming bulk of the man, Ebernal put out an arm, reaching around his side and touched the hierion vial that was in Yōd's pocket. She asked, You brought experimental nanites to Ottengla? Are they dangerous?

Yōd brought out the vial, held it up and showed it to Ebernal, then she remembered that the woman did not have good vision. "No, there is no danger. What I have stored in this vial are actually hierions. When deployed in a coherent field, the hierions might be able to shield you from telepathic starmenters."

Ebernal laughed. You want to do a telepathy experiment on a starmenter? You are crazy. However, I can oblige you with test subjects. There is a starmenter spaceship here, just a short distance away, across the landing field. For a moment Ebernal seemed to look outside through the open hatch, then she turned towards Azynov. "Yes, Azynov, most people on this planet do have tails." She reached back tugged, and pulled off her tail. She tossed it through the air to Azynov. "Sadly, my tail is only a fashion statement."

Glisten, beside the Shard Sea on Zeck, Alastor 503.

Azynov briefly looked at the artificial tail and then he handed it back to Ebernal. He muttered, "I've heard rumors about genetic engineering on Ottengla."

Ebernal reattached the tail to her pants and explained, "I doubt if there is any other world that knows more about creating artificial gene combinations. A few of our scientists pretend to be ecologists and that creates cover for our true scientific endeavor. Our people have been genetically engineered into a unique human variant and we have some surprising anatomical features."

Yōd suggested, "Your people want to change the human form and..." Yōd imagination faltered. She could not imagine an organized scientific effort aimed at giving people tails.

Ebernal laughed. "Of course, the real goal of these genetic experiments is to improve our telepathic abilities." She turned her nearly-blind eyes back towards Yōd. "I'm afraid that you have already come to the attention of the starmenters and this is quickly changing into a dangerous situation."

Yōd asked, "Do the starmenters know everything you just told us about the secret genetic science of Ottengla?"

Ebernal shrugged, "They may suspect, but we maintain careful security. The genetics labs and most of the population is hidden in underground locations. Genetic deficients such as myself live on the surface and interact with visitors."

Yōd slowly shook her head in wonder, "I'm amazed that a secret of this magnitude could be kept for centuries."

Azynov added, "Even more amazing that you would share this secret with us."

Ebernal laughed again and looked back and forth between Azynov and Yōd, "Something amazing has happened here today. I was given my job here at the spaceport because I have little telepathic ability. Yet, somehow, I have been allowed to gaze deeply into your two minds and I'm also able to sense what Tirret is thinking. I can tell that you two are not a danger to my people and I suspect that your telepathic powers, if studied by our scientists, might allow us to finally free ourselves from the meddlesome starmenters."

Yōd chuckled nervously. "We came here to study the telepaths of Ottengla, not become objects of study ourselves. I assure you, neither Azynov or I have any significant telepathic ability."

Ebernal protested, "But our minds have been linked!"

Azynov tried to explain the situation, "I'm afraid it is a fraud. We are from outside your universe. It is only a technological trick that makes it appear that Yōd and I have telepathic powers."

Yōd added, "What Azynov means is that technology-assisted telepathy has been developed where we come from. Our minds are being linked artificially, by methods that your people cannot use or exploit. It would do you no good to study us."

Suddenly Ebernal shouted, "Quickly, close the hatch!" She told Azynov, "We must flee!" Azynov could also sense her unspoken thoughts: Let's go to Ebernal Ranch and get help from Semod.

Ebernal's companion activated the manual hatch controls and the hatch instantly clanged shut. Yōd could sense Ebernal's terror. She told Azynov, "Take us up! Back into space! There is a warship out there, powering up its systems." 

In Alastor Cluster.

Azynov activated the emergency take-off protocol and they were all slammed to the floor by a strong acceleration that the artificial gravity compensators could not handle. Azynov toyed with the idea of jumping out of the Simulation, but he was pleased with the progress they had made in getting to know Ebernal. Azynov wondered: Did Maturin arrange for us to make use of Ebernal for telepathy experiments? He decided not to pause the Simulation and waited for the acceleration to drop when they attained orbit.

Displaying super-human strength, Ebernal's companion picked himself up off the floor and went to the control panel. He reduced the ship's acceleration and asked Ebernal, "Do you really want to risk going to the ranch?"

In the lower acceleration, now partially compensated for by the ship's gravitational field modulators, Ebernal struggled to her feet and entered a sequence of numbers into the navigational system. The autopilot took control and Ebernal read data off the radar screen, "The Kraken is following us, but they are bigger and less agile than this little ship. We may have time to get help from Semod. And I sense that Azynov and Yōd do not fear the starmenters. This may finally be our chance to stand up to Tirret!"

Struggling to keep his balance against the rapidly changing accelerations of the ship, Azynov checked on their course and saw that they were on a sub-orbital trajectory, already falling back towards the surface of Ottengla. He asked Ebernal, "Do you mind explaining what is going on? If we are truly in danger, I can protect us from harm."

Ebernal was electronically scanning the interior of the ship with her hand-held device. She said, "As far as I can tell, this little ship has no weapons at all. The Kraken is a war ship. How could you defend yourself against the starmenters?"

Azynov explained, "I can take us out of this s- situation." He did not really want to explain the full truth of them being inside a Simulation of the Asimov Reality. "In a millisecond I could have us a million miles away here."

Ebernal was skeptical. "What are you talking about, some sort of spaceship jump-drive?"

Alastor Cluster (source)

Yōd replied, "Something like that. We recently arrived in Alastor Cluster from Earth and we have advanced technology at our disposal."

The spaceship was slowing for a landing. Ebernal said, "Let's try it my way first, but standby with your advanced technology in case the starmenters threaten to destroy us." The ship hit the ground with a thump and almost at once Ebernal and her companion were out the hatch. Under the starlight, Azynov and Yōd saw them run quickly away from the ship, then they suddenly came to a halt.

Yōd said, "There's someone else out there." She was now feeling the presence of an unusual mind, something alien, in addition to sensing Ebernal's thoughts, which were still full of fear. Ebernal was saying: These foreigners have some strange type of telepathy and it might be possible to use them as a weapon against the starmenters.

The other mind said: The herd is assembling, but time is short. Eby, climb on. Niel, use the ranch comsystem to contact your friends at all the nearby ranches. We need many flyers here as quickly as possible.

Ebernal returned to the space ship, riding on the back of a four legged beast that Yōd now sensed was in telepathic communication with her. Approaching the ship at a full gallop, Ebernal called to Azynov and Yōd, "This is Semod, a Plesypy."

Under the starlight, Yōd could see the general form of the alien Plesypy. In Earth terms, it was structurally similar to a horse, but it had four feet that looked similar to the feet of a dog.

The alien slowed and came to a halt beside the spaceship. Semod could not speak and instead used telepathy to tell Azynov and Yōd about his plans: We Plesypy will attempt to defend you against the starmenters. To Yōd, the alien's thought pattern seemed jerky and rushed, semantic content being constructed from an alien thought pattern. Quickly, tell me; why have you two come to Ottengla?

Yōd replied: We brought an experimental micro-hierion field that can block telepathic signals. She opened the hierion containment vial and the glowing hierions rose up above them, looking like part of the rich Alastor star field that decorated the sky. Looking up at the sparkling hierions, Yōd now saw out of the corner of her eye a large spaceship dropping down towards them from the sky.

Ebernal also saw the approaching spaceship and cried, "The Kraken!"

Azynov shouted, "Everyone into the ship!"

Semod immediately galloped up the ramp and into the ship and Yōd sucked the hierions back into their vial and quickly had the hatch closed behind them.

Azynov ran to the control panel. "Damn it all. Maturin set us up..."

Next: continue to part 4 of "The Gensifer Clan"

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