The House is prepared for the visit. There is anticipation looking forward to seeing the family so loving with each other. Fine people. And seeing that little Lali all grown up.

“The House looks exactly as I remember it.” Brana goes from room to room enjoying every moment.

Tran and Marja are sitting in the large main living area, visiting with Lali. We join them after our personal tour to relive stories we remember.

“Well, outside is still looking barren.” Tran says, “I remember how hot the weather was. Of course when I first came here it was the hottest time of year.”

Lali sits listening to Tran, and begins to look around. Her eyes stop to focus on the piano, she goes over to it, sits and begins to play a beautiful melancholy sonata.  We all stop talking and listen to the enchanting sound. She is talented, and plays three more equally beautiful pieces before getting up and coming over to join us.

“You have been practicing,” Brana states as she walks up to her daughter and places her hands on her shoulders. Her eyes are damp and a tear shows.

“Oh, Mom, music is a perfect break from my studies. My mind can relax when I play.” She hugs her mom.


Within a couple of days all of us are systematically checking the old cities. We find them deserted, for the most part. Only a few families chose to ride out the era of devastation, and barely cling on to a healthy life.  Their gardens are sparse, with edible plants that require minimum water to grow. These plants provide the essentials for survival and the people have adjusted.

It’s common to check planets by ESP, but we use all our talents and improve the search. It’s more personal and thorough. My mind wanders thinking about the incredible talents we are richly endowed with.

Brana’s abilities easily scrambles minds. She turns them away from their posts and unwittingly changes their plans.  She can do anything with an inanimate object program too, redirect flight patterns of aircraft, changing their direction and rendering them useless to the enemy. She communicates mentally too. Then there’s Marja, who can fit into any situation. She is more than just a Psi-Shape Shifter, visible or not. She can materialize as any object, metal, cloth, and is capable of changing items around her.  Marja and Brana both read minds.  The rest of us are fast and efficient. With Tran being a Psi-Shifter with the ability to be invisible, he communicates mentally, as we all do, and I am a Psi-teleporter that travels instantaneously both in mind and body. Lali is capable of levitation, mind reading, going through solid things as though they were water. She has been at schools that have trained her to do much more than I know. By the end of the week we’ve completed our research.

An evaluation and sharing of viewpoints ensues. We all noticed trouble in one of the only bright spots left before our departure. It has historically been a favorite city to mingle and enjoy the energy of it’s residents. This city long ago was built with colorful facades, arched doorways, charming eating areas with seating and tables out of doors. Musicians once walked down the clay streets, artists had painted alongside the people that sold hand made weaved items. Some of the people remain, clinging to the memories of the once booming life that filled the streets. The city is now a scant shadow of its former life. We know the Luminaries are already at work there and giving directions sent from an established post on a distant planet, which we discovered by following the frequency pathway. “So it begins, another battle, here and far away using The House as home base. How does this plan sound?”

Simultaneously, Tran, Marja, Lali, Brana, and I agree, making a combined Chaotic sound with yes, ya, sure. “We sound like a chorus of wild animals.” I laugh.



The next two mornings we’re off, again as a united team. We go, this first day, to the outer planet called Radix. Many Luminary are in this one locale, as far as we have discovered with this project.  We hope it will be easy to overwhelm them.  Brana and Marja plan to take the left side of the city. I notice it is quiet and nobody is out of doors. This city has attractive solid architecture and smoothly worn rock pathways. It is easy to go from one side to another. The entire planet  is designed for efficient travel from place to place. Comfortable living areas and food growth in sections lend themselves to specific jobs. Quite organized. After the Bot business of years past, we watch the skies carefully as we proceed toward the groups.

“Hey, Lali, are you going with us or your mom and Marja?”

“You. I can distract the Luminary as you close in. Do you have your weapons ready?”

I look at Tran, “Same old routine, huh, buddy?”

“Oh, yes. What works should not be changed.” Tran gets a green jump-bomb and becomes invisible. I wait until he contacts me to help.

“I have some stun-bombs.” Just in case there are innocent people around. I want to be prepared.  These green jump-bombs are far superior to those of past years. These will disable the mind powers of the Luminary, they will function on a minimal level. I love the idea they will no longer be able to hurt the masses. I think the green jump-bombs are a wonderful weapon.

I hear the ruckus caused by Tran and go to help but find he has been effective leaving the entire group milling around, confused. Their usual in charge persona is gone forever. They will go to their homes and forget all of this.

By morning we are rested and this final distant battle plan for the largest area is formulated. We go as a team, well prepared. Our attack is a complete surprise and we fight our hardest to rid the area of their damaging presence. Brana has new information. “The Luminary subjects have ideoplastia. If you hypnotize them, and they are relatively easy subjects, you can provide suggestions that will make them stray from their programmed behavior. It’s worth the effort. It’s not a 100% reliable cure, but easier on the subjects and we will keep track of them.”

“Thanks, Marja, this may be an easy job for you. What do you think?”

“Brana and I can work together on this process. She’s a whiz.”

“Beware,” Brana sends mental information to us all. “There are several scattered Lulminary here with strong mental abilities. Watch their eyes. Center your thoughts to the ones that stare at you.  Some have teleporting talents as we do. They’ll be easy for us to search out as they leave a frequency trail we can follow. We can catch up to them but must pay close attention as they are sly.”

“I’ve grown to hate fighting. It’s a distraction in our peaceful life. As long as the mental attitude of the sociopaths is to destroy, we’ll have to live with the few doing damage to the masses until every one is stopped. Peace is attainable. Well, now. If peace was everywhere, we’d be unemployed. There’s a thought.” I talk out loud with these thoughts, unaware that Tran is next to me.

“Yea, buddy. I feel the same way. I like being with Marja. We enjoy our lives. We help those that need it and we are happy together.”

“I’m glad you are my friend, old confrere.” I say to Tran. “How about rendering those devils apogenous?  Their kind would come to an end. No more of them to battle.”

“One way to end a long term corrupt bunch. Hah!” Tran says. “We’ll have to look into a way to accomplish that. Imagine their surprise, if we can implement that we can breath easy.”

We gather back at the point of beginning. Brana is holding her arm and I notice blood. I rush to her. Marja smiles, shakes her head ‘no’ to me, and touches Brana. Her arm heals as I watch. I love Marjas’ versatile powers. Brana comes closer and kisses me.

“It’s time to go back to the House and finish our last job before going home.” Brana has her newly healed arm around Lali and another around me.

Tran and Marja are hugging. We all leave in a quick motion. It certainly doesn’t take us long to be back in the House.

“We will have to be very fast at finishing our job on this planet. Do you think we should do it now?” I ask

“It’s the easiest and safest. We’re up to it. Let’s go.” Tran says.

In a moment in time we are at the problem zone we saw in our first search. Nobody has noticed that the dominant control has ended. Yet. “Same plan of attack, everyone?”

“Yes.” Well, this time it is quick. There aren’t many. We did well and the poor controlled beings were rendered temporarily confused but mentally calmed. They will not be controlled again. They’ll live peacefully and not remember this. Best of all, they’ll live with freedom.

We return to The House for the last time before going our separate ways. Sitting in the quiet large room, we share our stories of the fight that has just finished.  We’re ready to enjoy a peaceful life of a better tomorrow. We’ll always find excitement, if it doesn’t find us first.  I believe we’ll all do just fine.

So The House waits quietly alone.  Waiting for the land around to become rich with life once more. It’ll happen and when it does, this House will be ready.

Glossary Apogenous: adj. sterile, impotent Buffle:  noun. ancient term for buffalo, also called Wild Ox. Fremd:  adj. alien, strange, unfriendly. Gongoozier:  noun.  someone who stares for hours at anything out of the ordinary. Hellkites: noun.  an extremely cruel person. A fierce bird of prey. Ideoplastia:  easily hypnotized. Jocose:  adj. a joke, joking or playful. Pareidolia:  seeing faces on inanimate objects. Proctalgia: a pain in the ass.

© Copyright 2014  J. Price, E-mail  Or send to judyaprice@gmail.com in your e-mail.
Used with the permission of the author.