1. Bri was co-hosting a kids holo program when he received news that the President’s First Counselor had been assassinated.

2. Other technicians on the studio floor were briefed by supervisors at roughly the same time.  Within one minute, the entire psionic strata was buzzing with the news.   "How did that happen?" was everyone's mutual question.  "Where was the Psionic Guard?" 

3. There was more to it than that:  Prior to the assassination, the Psionic Guard Director had issued an 'eyes only' report to the President about an adverse change in Vejhon's psionic climate. 

4. Citizens across Vejhon felt like they were being shadowed by a menacing psionic presense of unknown origin.  They didn't know what it was.        

5. Vejhon was unaccustomed to panic, yet a panic pandemic swept across Vejhon faster than the medical community could treat.  Nobody could trace the panic to a source.  Because nobody actually died, the word "pandemic" was avoided.  "Fear" was the catalyst that spread the pandemic.  

6. Since so-called 'dark powers' were pure supersitition, nobody was willing to postulate a theory based on folklore or myth.   The fear was generated because there was no tangible evidence of an attack, yet, the ability to operate in cognito was the prima facie modus of both psionic polar extremes. 

7. There was a single tangible clue; the Psionic Guard infiltrator who had followed Kor's single instruction:  He dutifully reported the details of Kor's assent to Bri, and then retired with the Director's blessing.        

8. Kor knew that the testimony of a Psionic Guard was legally irrefutable and Kor had allowed the Guard to live for that reason.  The Director understood that the Guard could not function with the contradiction of what happened:  Kor restored his life with an ulterior motive.  Even if the Guard could believe that Kor was sincere, the concept of a pretentious miracle permanently disfigured his outlook and maligned his polar stability.              

9. There were subtle psionic nuances in play that the Director could not single-handedly counter on a planetary scale.  Intelligence reported that 'an unknown entity' was infusing the psionic strata with suspecion, fear and doubt that propagates social dysfunction.  Kor could not be apprehended because the psionic clutter was not tracable to him.  All of this played into Kor's private agenda:  The State was now 'on notice' of a dangerous new nemesis.

10. Neural attacks confuse synapse like an electronic pathogen.  False events are covertly installed and kinesthetically triggered.  A victims personal fears are more creative than a psionic saboteur, so the attacker only needs to plant a seed that will metastasize on its own; fed by victim's psychosis.        

11. Mental health specialists use the same method to stabalize their patients.  Virtually anything that can serve a good purpose can also serve evil.  The only moral concept incompatible with evil is 'sacrifice.'  Sacrifice is an act that invaidates the function of evil; where love is expansive -- conceit is contractive.  Virtue on Vejhon was eroding:        

12. Random acts of violence began to occupy more of the daily news.  Citizens became wantonly destructive.  Neural seizures increased everywhere. 

13. As social integrity weakened, depression rates went off the chart and moral standards declined across the board.        

14. Citizens with no criminal record began to commit strange and unusual crimes.  Some crimes were inexplicably hideous. 

15. Trust and confidence was replaced with cruelty and suspecion.  The fraternal order of unified police finally conceded that Vejhon was heading toward shellwide anarchy if steps were not taken to stabalize the strata.  Citizens everywhere routinely asked if The Psionic Guard had relocated to another planet.  

16. The government was not nieve to events spinning out of control.  The government simply did not have an immediate solution to everyone's fears.    

17. Although absolute bedlam was not an immediate threat, the situation needed to be publically addressed.

THE PRESIDENTS OFFICE AT BALIPOR

18. Bri was disturbed at his dubious promition to First Counselor, notwithstanding that the position of 2nd Counselor was a pocket spare.   It was the first event to truly mar his immaculate view of the shell, and his vacant former chair was a constant reminder.  "The system is perfect, even if the people aren't," the President would sometimes say.  The President had a way of making even the worst condition seem more palatable.   

19. The President of the Proletariat was not asked to come.   The word "proletariat" carried over from Dans past since everyone was technically among the 'working class.'  The Proletariat was a Congress of elected regional representatives; some of whom were appointed through a jury-selction process to invalidate the function of lobbies and special interest groups.  The system had worked faultlessly for so long that there was no need to fix it.     

21. The President nodded his head at the Director, who without waiting, stepped in from behind the secretary.

22. She tightened her smile toward Bri, who had reclined his plush swivel chair beyond it's balance point.  He busted his knee on the table's underside to rebalance his chair.   The Director was prepared to catch him in either case. 

23. If not his knee, Bri might have bent something else to prevent his fall.  The Director kept his grin to himself.      

24. "Sit down, sit down," the President beckoned congenially to the Director.  The President did not catch any of the miscellaneous innuendo.  He was an excellent actor, but not at all at ease today. 

25. The Director took his seat.

26. Three of the four most powerful figures on Vejhon sat around a lustrously polished table.  The lighting was demure to emphasize the elegance of the room while inviting a drawing room atmosphere.  A soft green and blue haze intruded from outside the windows to contrast the dark interior features.    

27. Crystal decanters were neatly arranged on a wooden tray in the center of the table with matching tumbler glasses.  A small, glass-lined silver bucket with ice sat alongside in official State fashion.  The decor was fautless for a Head-of-State. 

28. "Help yourself," the President prodded, reaching for a glass, adding two ice cubes and pouring some Jolvian Ale into it.

29. "There's no denying it," Bri thought as a private pun -- he knew the docking collar story and grinned at finally uncovering the real caveat.  The Director took it all in stride.    

30. The President sat back in his plush, custom-made swivel chair and sighed contemplatively with fatherly understanding.   One would think he was contemplating a sports strategy or something of less importance than what was on his mind. 

31. He made unconscious gestures with his facial muscles and giggled his jaw sometimes.  Bri and the Director stared respectfully at him – familiar with all of his facial gestures and catching the subtext of what he wasn't saying.  It's considered polite to not recognize a thought until it is offered.     

32. "Mr. Director," said the President, "What's going on?"  The President's style fluctuated according to the number of guests.  He wasn't being formal.   

33. The Director answered, "Do you want the long or the short version, Sir?"

34. "Oh, by all means," said the President, "give me the short version," then he warmly gestured toward Bri, "and give him the long one - he needs it."

35. Bri loved the way the President spoke so charming and disarmingly -- his voice alone could warm the coldest room.  

36. "Let me put it this way, Mr. Director," the President said, "How long?"

37. That went straight to the point.  Conversations within conversations that had already taken place and Bri was in the loop. 

38. "Mr. President," said the Director, "we have between three and five months before we can expect a complete revolution."

39.  "Ask and the shell receives," the President pondered.  He was only this relaxed among certain friends.    

40. He allowed his eyes to glance up toward the ceiling as though he were seeing a divine vision.  Bri and the Director wished they had more clarity on those visions, but restrained themselves.    

41. The President's eyes looked as though they were getting a touch watery.   It was a wave of reality that no civilized shell leader could casually accept. 

42. Bri had come to know and understand the President's mind and heart very well, and he knew that the President's heart was breaking.  That pain, hurt Bri worse than the inexplicable afflictions that Vejhon was suffering.  Symbolically and in fact, the President felt the planet's pulse.  He was the living symbol of Vejhon. 

43. "Guards," the President swore despairingly, then he mumbled another word as if the purpose of an explaination was useless.    

44. He recomposed his thoughts.  "First Counselor," he said, directing himself toward Bri,  "Are we ready?"  

45. "Yes, Mr. President," Bri answered, "The last three units are being detailed but the rest of them are ready.  We even have money left over."

46. There was an understanding among them that was not being verbalized or thought-out-loud on purpose.  All of them knew basic guardianship, and were in the company of the premier authority on the subject.  A proposal of megalithic porportion had been debated several years prior and enacted by the three of them.  That proposal was now a reality.  

47. Vejhon was about to stage one of the most incredible events ever to occur anywhere in the Universe, without divine intervention.  

48. "Divine" was an interesting concept since the Cacci Dai system is a machine world that also believes in The One.  Tactically, however, machines are apsionic, which enables them to guard psionic secrets better than biologicals.  Machines do have networking vulnerabilities but psionic leakage is not one of them.  They march to a different drummer.  

49.  For the discussion at hand, no other civilization could have filled an order of this magnitude on such short notice and produced a reliable product.  

50. "Is there anything else, Sir?" Bri asked.  The code between them was to know as little about this massive project as possible. 

51. "No Bri," the President replied, "It confounds me that those ships could have been built.  Did you see the numbers?  They go completely off the page!"  It wasn't the number of ships, but the dimension of the ships that the President referred to.  To say more would have been compromising.    

52. Psionically, Bri said to the President with the Director shilding them, "It took the entire treasury to pay for it, Sir.  But we have them.  They're real.  They work.  Just awaiting your order."

53. The President was impressed with his protoge'.  "Thank-you for coming gentlemen."

54. He nodded politely at the Director, "You may go now Mr. Director -- I need to brief the First Counselor on the evacuation plan, since he will be overseeing the operation, but do keep me apprised as always."  The director had other Guards shielding the meeting so that he could attend to other matters. 

55. The Director rose, nodded kindly to both, and exited.  He would remain with them in a spiritual sense.  

56. Now that the plan could finally be enacted, details of the most comprehensive planetary evacuation in history could be finalized.