Paul was in a room, lying down. Mike, Dorn, Amy, and another woman, who Paul recognized as Prienna, were speaking in hushed tones. Paul didn’t see his parents anywhere in the room. He was even more convinced that that explosion in the circuit really had killed them.
“I sure am glad we were finally able to do the implantation,” Mike said. “I was beginning to think this day would never come.”
Amy said, “Yeah, I can’t believe it’s been almost two years.”
“It does seem hard to believe,” Dorn agreed. “But, since we’ve been so focused on defending ourselves against Dreggan’s constant attacks, it’s been difficult to work on the new systems and do the implantation.”
“That was probably his intention,” Prienna pointed out.
Mike smiled. “Well, Manasto sure outsmarted Dreggan with that diversion. It gave us enough time to do the surgery.”
Manasto walked in at the end of their conversation. “Well, I’d like to take all the credit for that diversion, but I’m afraid a big part of it was luck.” He leaned over Paul. “How are the children?”
“They’re doing fine,” Prienna said.
“Good. Now, let’s go over the plan again while we have a moment.” Manasto signaled for everyone to gather in closer. “First of all, the system files have already been backed up. And, as soon as everyone, except for you two,” he pointed to Amy and Mike, “is evacuated, Verissa and I will put up the mountain shield. Which reminds me. Did you have any questions about your escape route?”
Mike shook his head. “No, we got it.”
“I still can’t believe we have to abandon Teruvisa.” Amy sighed.
“It’s the only way,” Mike said, apparently trying to reassure her. “We’ll just need to have patience. When the children are older, they’ll be trained, and we’ll be able to come back to Teruvisa.”
Manasto added, “Until that time though, Teruvisa should remain safe while we’re gone. I doubt that Dreggan will be able to penetrate the shield or that he would even want to waste his time trying. He’ll be too busy trying to track everyone down and locate the MSIs.
“And, once the children are on Earth, Dorn will take Paul to stay with his uncle. Prienna will take Danielle and hide at the location we discussed.”
“And, we’ll,” Mike pointed to himself and Amy, “take Jared with us after the shutdown.”
“Good,” Manasto said. “It doesn’t sound like we’ve left anything out. But, I would like to remind everyone that once we’re all out of Teruvisa, our next meeting will be at the backup archives 24 hours after the shutdown. We’ll need to discuss our plan to get the decoder back. Well, I guess all that’s left to say is good luck. So, good luck.”