Mr. Hallod himself picked up Keelic and the alien the next day. Keelic noted a new orientation in the control panels from where he sat in the co-pilot’s seat. There was a tactical screen and a weapons con. Mr. Hallod was unusually quiet. Keelic wanted to ask him why he and Leesol hadn’t come to the planetary shelter during the attack.
Indicating the weapons con, Keelic asked, "How is she armed?"
"What do you think about the ADL taking control of the media?" said Mr. Hallod instead of answering.
Keelic knew the question was serious, but also had a lot of answers. Mr. Hallod was like that, so he put real thought into his answer.
"They’re bullies?"
Mr. Hallod quirked a grim smile. "What else? Why do bullies attack?"
"Because they like it."
"Why do they like it?"
"They’re afraid?"
"Of what?" asked Mr. Hallod.
The only thing Keelic could think ADL could be afraid of was an attack they couldn’t repel. He asked, "Is it because the catcher-net can only take fifty more torpedoes?"
Mr. Hallod looked searchingly at Keelic and said, "Well reasoned. The reason is that the ADL believes that the attack was only a foray."
"A for-what?"
"A foray is an action that comes before another. It sets up for the next step. Like a prelude in music."
Once at home Mr. Hallod was his usual self, and tried to bring Keelic up to Leesol’s level in mathematics, but Keelic was distracted by thoughts of tactical forays.
"You’re losing your focus, Keelic. Think about the problem in front of you. If you do not finish reducing that formula, I will be forced to write an unfavorable evaluation today."
Worried, Keelic bent to his work and finished a couple more problems with the alien, then glanced at Leesol to see what she was doing.
At lunch Leesol, Keelic, and the alien sat up in her room looking out over the valley. The alien sat between them and they each fed him bits off their plates.
Wondering what to say now, Keelic asked his friend for suggestions.
Warm orange blue magenta image of Keelic kissing Leesol.
No, he thought, blushing.
The alien splattered his vision with amused colors. Then Keelic felt something in his friend that had never been there before. Curious, he reached for it, and found another mind.
Leesol gasped and spilled her plate. Keelic flinched, too, but the alien remained sitting as relaxed as before with one eye looking at each of them.
You haven’t told her about the simulator, have you? thought Keelic, suddenly upset.
Brown irritation swirl shot with sparks of purple indignation.
Leesol had picked up her spilled food, and was looking at them both.
"Are you talking to him now?" she asked Keelic.
He gave a small nod and swallowed.
"I felt you," she said.
"Me too," he said, realizing that this might make him seem more special to her, though he wasn’t sure he liked the alien talking with someone else. A big part of him was still afraid that if Leesol saw him for real, she wouldn’t want anything to do with him, and there was nothing closer to his real self than what he shared with his friend. He also wanted to share that with Leesol, but was afraid to go that far.
All three of them looked back out the window. Leesol pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Her face was unreadable, and Keelic wanted to know what she was thinking.
The alien let him know that she was hurt because the alien had cut contact with her when it found that Keelic was unhappy about its communication with her. Now she was thinking of her mother, gone for more than a year. The alien sent a wash of sharp empty pain and gray-blue loneliness surging through Keelic to let him know what she was feeling.
He wondered if she felt like that all the time, and how bad it would be to have her mother gone for so long with the Galahad. Keelic told the alien to move, scooted over to Leesol’s side, and leaned his shoulder against her. She was warm and firm, and leaned back. The alien sat next to Leesol on her other side and wrapped a few arms around her.
They sat together until Mr. Hallod called them back to work.
Keelic spent the rest of the day glancing at the sky and wondering. At home he failed to draw his parents into talking about the attack. They told him everything was fine. He retreated to his room to talk to Anny.
"A prelude? It is very likely. I have been discussing it with Ols, and we believe that this planet is about to face a large threat."
The alien crawled over for comfort, echoing Keelic’s fear in magenta-red.
"Why here?"
"That is one of the things we are trying to discover. There is nothing strategic or particularly valuable here."
Images of the simulator blazed through Keelic’s mind.
"What can we do?" he asked.
"Nothing. We must hope."
He turned his gaze northward to the bluff and the secrets it held.
That night he lay awake in his bed. A Lasiter Attack Frigate appeared in his vision, ready for battle, but he shook his head and said, "Later."
The alien relaxed and went dormant.
Keelic felt different. Less afraid, but more tight and worried, and more thoughtful. He ran all the things through his mind that had happened in the past year. The secrets he carried weighed on him, and also filled him with a sense of importance. That night Keelic resolved to tell his parents about the simulator. He would retrieve the nuclear assault rifle and pulse pistol and bring them back as proof of what he had found. They might believe him without the weapons, and even investigate if he really asked them to, but if he brought home the guns, then there would be no question. It would also mean that his family had more than Anny’s house gun to protect them.