Chapter Twenty:     Shamballah

SHAMBALLAH MISSION: 4th Report

Transcribed from dictation, DAWALASAT reporting--
Events of late November, file first received 8th of March

From what Dak told us 'bout the historical name of Shamballah", it ain't just one central village or governmental palace, but a cluster of temples and caverns and small colonies all connected by an ancient tunnel system under the Himalayas. Kinda like a "Greater Metropolitan Area", which is spread out over who-knows-how-many miles and populated by not only Yeti-Nokons but also include at least one temple town of NokhSo Tibetan monks. The Main Palace is located in what we can call Shamballah Central, other locations defined by Shamballah North (where the humans are s'posta be), or West, East, you get the picture.

We climbed up that mountain where Shamballah Central Town was s'posed ta be inside, there was a crater on top, but we didn' go so far up because Dak said it was usually guarded an' he knew a way thru a fissure. It should be a secret way, but it'd been more'n twenty years since last time he'd a been here, so we could'n be sure how secret it was anymore. But we didn' see nobody, and more important, there weren't nobody who saw us neither.

That crater leadin' down inter Shamballah was wide and so deep that we passed the snowline on our way down. Our white winter camouflage clothes was now workin 'gainst us: too white and too bright 'gainst the dark stone of the crater, so we peeled 'em off and hid them an' our backpack on the way down, rekonin’ ice axes 'n' ropes wouldn't be needed in a town. Warn't so cold neither. No guards nowhere. It became night and was dark, but the still 'most-full moon came 'bove us again and we could jus' see water shining an' what looked like jungle down at the bottom. I'd a been 'xpecting a town like Aket, hollowed out under a mountain, stone temples, but this was just one big conical-like open hole. Tho it did git nice'n warm as we climbed down thru trees an' bushes growing on the sides, but we couldn'a see no stone houses nor stairways below, nor any consarned sign that this was any kinds "hidden city". Nope, not even any Yeti wanderin 'round.

"They'll be gathered at the Middle Temple," Daklakht tells us, "that's the only night-life here."

O' course, Dak had been there afore an' knew the way to where everbody was. An' once we wuz all the way down we could see that there was buildin's after all: jus' different than any I'd seed afore. And there was the Nokhons-- or Yeti-folk, if'n ya want --all a-gathered together, like at "Town Square" in Aket, where there's always some kinda festivi-taties goin’ on after dark.

There were no real buildins' like we know 'em, just square-cut chambers or rooms cut into the stone floor of the crater and hollowed out. Jus' like in Aket, the 'riginal builders had some kinda way to slice thru mountains-- forgotten now thousands a years later --so the roofs were natural stone shapes left over from whatever had razor-cut the straight streets between them, with trees and bushes growin' on top, so's to look like jungle from 'bove. Couldn'a see into the houses, the doorways was dark, nothin goin on in them now at night. Folk's private-living bakhls was caves or tunnels, opened into the side slopes all 'round us, hunnerds of 'em. But the only firelight was at the Middle Temple party. There was also a waterfall an' a lake, all purty an' parklike, far's we could make out in the dark. This is s'posta be Shangri-La, after all, 'sposta be scenic.

It was only a coupla days after the full moon, so's a thin little smell o' shyøma was still in the air and we could see some few folks tryin' to get a last yøramma outta each other. But it was weakly 'nuff that we could ignore it, 'cause we didn't want to get noticed. We'd brought a supply of the little blue flowers just to make sure we could avoid a kha-rat, but we didn' even need them yet.

Dak was leadin’ us to a place he knew, away from the center of town. We could see fine while the moon was shinin' direct down on us, but once it passed the rim o' the crater I was goin' by feel. O' course, my Nokhon pals can see a lot better at night than an old white-man geezer like me, so Dak jus' kept on leadin' the way. We had to go around the lake and up the slope o' the crater to get to where he was goin'.

A coupla local Nokons passed us on the way, sayin' "Kha" as they went by in the dark. Dak an' Dag answered right back and we jus' kept a-goin'. I tried ta stay outa sight behind my two bigger pals, which seemta go okay.

You might wonder how I'd be planning to sneak around unbenoticed in a city full of Yetis, but Daklakht had told us 'bout a specially-secret temple of Extra Holy Tibetan Monks that wuz an official part of the Shamballah complex, so little scrawny human-types sorta like me could sometimes be seen wandering 'round 'mongst the Yeti. And lucky for me those monks tended to have long hair and beards ‘steada bein’ shaven bald. Not that I had any monk's robes with whichta complete the disguise, but I wuz kinda hoping to get some before too long. But for the moment just tryinta look sorta monk-like in the dark wuz gonna hafta do. Anyway, nobody wuz shoutin "Hey, stop, you consarned foreigners!"

There wuz bushes and greens a-growin all over up the slopes, so we ate some nettles, first real food in lotsa days. But we’s careful not to get greedy 'cause there hadda be a tight ecology here: only so much food to so many dwellers, and their calculations had never reckoned on us. Altho most adult Nokhon folk get much of their energy nutrition from pulling up haka rather than eating what we think of as "food". Even I've learned how to do that, but it ain't quite ‘nuff and I still need a little real grub now and then.

As we come near the bottom o' that crater we begun to pass a few caves-holes, then so many the walls got like Swiss cheese. We could hear soft voices inside, us tryin' not to make any s'picious-like noises as we passed thru their neighborhood, skirtin 'round to avoid the town center. Finally Dak stops at one o' the more isolated caves higher up in the wall, purty much at the fringe of town. We could smell females in there, but the shyøma was too faint to bother us.

Didn't seemta be anyone else in the area, so Dak called real soft: "Da Jakkt? This is Daklakht. Can you remember my voice?"

It stayed quiet so long I reckoned nobody was home, but finally a female answered: "Da Jakkt is not here, as you know. Please leave us alone."

"Ma Silla, is that you?" Dak asked. Another long pause, whisperings. So Dak said, "I need to talk with Da Jakkt. Where can I find him?"

"You don't know? Are you not from the Alutna?"

"Not the local Alutna, I am Daklakht, the Alutna-jii from Aket. We met a long time ago... Da Jakk and I worked together against the rebel Dazzeetat and the NokhSo-Chineseli soldiers..."

"Oh, that was VERY long ago!" ('bout 45 years, I reckon) Then she goes on to say: "You might have been our friend the first time you came here, but the LAST time..."

Dak sez: "The last time I was here I was caught up in Da-starda-hat's service and under his domination. Now I am not. In fact, this time we are here to remove him from power."

There's a pause, we can hear whisperins from the back of the cave, soundin like several females discussin, kinda agitated. Then a woman comes to the bakhl's open entrance, slow, limping, leaning 'gainst the tunnel wall. Lookin like she'd been asleep but awake now, kinda s'spicious of us, tho. "Ah yes, it IS you!" She sounded not so 'special friendly-like. We couldn'a help but noticin her right foot had been broken bad an' healed all wrong.

"Ma Sila, what happened to your foot?"

She looked kinda puzzled, "What do you think? Your Alutna friends smashed it with their hit-sticks, like they do to every female they choose to punish."

"Khask, I'm sorry for you, Ma Sila, but such Alutna are no friends of mine."

"So what do you mean by remove Da-starda-hat? Just the three of..." so she catches sight o me, "...say, isn't this little twerp a NokhSo?"

'Nother female noticed, "He doesn't look like one of those monks from Shaballah North, how can he be here?" A third woman's voice deeper in the cave: "Wait, a NokhSo who's not a monk? Does he maybe have a noisekiller with him?"

Ma Silla's eyes kinda light up with hope. Or bloodthirst, hard t' tell.

"No Ma'ams," I sez, "sorry, I don't shoot people," thinkin they'd be glad to know I warn't that kinda NokhSo.

"Da-starda-hat is not people!" a whole buncha women inside the cave shout at us, 'cludin Ma Sila, surprisin hersself an' claps a hand o'er her mouth to keep any more spon-tan-eous fightin-words from a-poppin out.

"Oh khask, we better not say that so loudly..," She looks 'round quick to see if anybody outside couldn'a overheard, kinda skeered-lookin 'bout it too. But nobody there. "We can't talk here, Come in, hurry!"

There wuz three other women inside, we all gets introduced. Couldn'a help noticin' they all had messed-up right foots. "What IS this?" Dag asked them, tho we was beginnin' to get the picture.

"THIS is punishment for being mates to any male opposing Da-starda-hat's faction, that's what." An' they begun to tell us how bad things was in Shamballah these days.

Punishments for violations of Atli that no one had ever heard of before-- since even the local elite violated Atli constantly, including the use of skesk, but it was not the elite who were being punished. Involuntary work gangs mobilized to do chores that benefited only certain elite of Shamballah. Females being taken from their mates and forced to yøramma exclusively for Alutna and certain Elders.

And now there was talk of going to war against the entire NokhSo world, with the assistance of the little yellow NokhSo people (Chinese) who lived beyond the mountains. There seemed to be no logical reason for this behavior, except that it did coincide with the return of the once-disgraced and exiled dwarf who had come back from far-away Aket to replace a dying Elder: Da-starda-hat.

Nokhons ain't good at telling time or dating events but I knows from personal experience that Dastardat had left Aket 'bout 20 years back. Since then the con-glom-erate character of The Ultimate Nine Elders has changed from benevolent and high-minded to downright ornery. Hmm, rekon I better 'splain.

Traditionally, the Ultimate Nine Elders of Shamballah are supposed to be a gathering of the nine most wise, most noble, most spiritual Sha-hakas in the entire Nokhon world. That's actually happened sometimes, they say. In reality, some ambitious or greedy scoundrels usually manage to slip in 'mongst their ranks every generation or so. But that has hardly ever mattered, since important decisions ain't made by individual Elders, but the collective minds of all Nine telepathically united into one homogenous cluster-intelligence. They become an all-wise Entity without ego, and with 9X the intelligence of any one Elder, so any personal flaws of those individuals becomes irrelevant. That super intelligent psychic entity they become, called the One Mind, is considered infallible, and whatever it decrees is accepted as the Word of God.

It's the same system as in Aket and the two other Nokhon "cities" around the world, although they have only Three Elders each, thus is Shamballah the Ultimate Authority. Actually, an even more Super-Ultimate Authority can be convened if need be-- The Nine Elders of Shamballah as well as all three other sets of Three Elders, a conglomerate of 18 Elders united by telepathy-- but that has only occurred three times in the last hundred thousand years. For example, just before the fall of Atlantis about 10,000 years ago.

Each of those Nine Elders are assigned to that duty for life, which could be a long time since Nokhons generally live at least twice as long as standard humans. When one of them finally dies anyway, his or her replacement is traditionally decided by auditioning various candidates until the Group Mind Itself recognizes a compatible Elder. Since some Elders can live for 300 years, they are not usually replaced very often. Until brash young Dastardat came along, that is.

Dastardat has been whittling away at that structure since he was young. Born (about 1910) a dwarf by Nokhon standards, his ego evidently demanded that he become superior to all others. Living at the seat of Nokhon Authority, his ambition was to not only become one of the Ultimate Nine Elders, but to bend their system to his advantage. His unnatural talent for psychic domination made this possible. He had an innate understanding of politics and cultivated "friends" who were easy to manipulate, then helped them into positions from which they could help him later. He was always forward-thinking, became Alutna and abused his authority, but cleverly.

The first Elder to die mysteriously was years before Dastardat was mature enough to even be considered an Elder, much less a potential replacement for one of The Nine. But his "older friend", who is now called Da-jassar-hat, slipped right into place. When Dastardat's chief, the Alutna-Jii of Shamballah also died mysteriously and Dastardat had Da-jassar-hat try to assign him to the suddenly-vacant position, folk began to suspect skullduggery.

We are calling Shamballah a "city", which in some ways it resembles, but there are population limitations to a crater hidden in these frozen mountains-- such as available food --so ideally there are less than a thousand Nokhons/Yetis actually living there. It's really a small town where everybody knows everybody else and Dastardat was well-known to bend rules. There was no evidence to prove murder, but he was exiled by The Nine, who simply knew things.

So about 70 years ago young Dastardat walked halfway around the planet to Aket, and using his psychic talents, became the Alutna-Jii-- you already know that part of the story. But he still had "friends" over in Shamballah-- or rather, syssk-slaves he could control all the way from Aket due to several telepathically adept Sha-hakas he 'd also recruited. Another Elder died in a "mysterious accident", although none of Dastardat's "friends" managed to replace that Elder-- the slot was filled by Da-sinta-hat, who was and is yet adamantly opposed to Dastardat's growing faction. But eventually, over the years, a second crony joined the Nine: Da-logar-hat. And then a 3rd: Da-zinta-hat, although he was not of the Starda Faction and opposed them in many instances.

Twenty years ago another Elder became deathly ill, just as Dastardat was returning to Shamballah. The Elder died a day after Dastardat's arrival. Three of his psychic slaves were by then already puppet Elders among The Nine, deals had been made with others, his powers of persuasion were so formidable that Da-starda-hat became the 4th of his own faction to join The Nine Elders. Which is when decisions made by The Ultimate Nine Elders began to change towards establishing a dictator state.

One change was that a new guard corps was organized to protect the Elders-- from who or what was never mentioned --the agents were selected from Shamballah's already existing Alutna and their numbers were expanded by deputizing the least intelligent males they could find. The guards were issued wooden batons— hit-sticks --which had never been allowed before because such artifacts are skesk and forbidden by Atli. The armed guards tended to be more aggressive than Nokhons are accustomed to and they hurt people with their clubs. Recently the standard Alutna have also taken up bearing clubs, seems the Starda Faction just can't get enough of hurting folks.

Even so, everything became much worse less than a half season-cycle (4 months) ago, when the beloved old Elder Da-marza-hat was found stabbed to death and was replaced by the unpopular Da-binfaa-hat almost simultaneously. It was obvious what the Starda Faction had done, but the current Alutna-ji-- a brute of a Nokhon called Da Jongarr --refused to investigate because he was a member of the Starda Faction. Now the Nine Elders are composed of five Starda supporters opposed to four of the original Elders, and as they convened that same day Da-starda-hat became one of them the composite entity of the Ultimate Nine was another persona than before, speaking with another voice. Making new laws. This was when Aket revolted against the dictates of The Ultimate Nine Elders of Shamballah.

"Too messy," Dagrolyt insists, "we need to consider the lowest body-count."

"I can only see one logical way to fix things," Daklakht says, "which is what I'd been intending all along: body-count of One."

All four females agrees: "Ra, kill Da-starda-hat."

Tha's a thing we NokhSos tend to say too easy-- "jus' murder the sombitch" --but for Nokhons that's purty much un-thinkable. Goes 'gainst the grain of their whole culture, worst violation of Atli ever. Jus' showed how thunderin' pissed-off they was with Da-starda-hat an' his consarned regime. Course, seein how he'd crippled up their feet I cain't blame them ladies much.

"I need to find Da Jakk," Daklakht tells the women, "where is he?" he asks.

We get told that Da Jakk was last seen bein’ dragged down into the big tunnel complex 'neath the town a buncha season-cycles ago-- that's to say years -- So the ladies don't even know if Da Jakk is still alive, since no word ever comes up from Da-starda-hat's underground slave camps.

"Slave camps?" Dak wonders, "What does Da-starda-hat need slaves for?"

"No one knows," says Ma Silla, "it's only a rumor that any prisoners are still alive at all, forced to do some secret project down in the tunnels."

------------------------------ Daklakht had once been Alutna-ji here so he knows 'bout the tunnel complex, where Shamballah's few prisoners had always been kept. But now there wuz heaps more prisoners than ever before-- seems it's real easy to get in trouble with the present regime. According to those ladies half the population of Shamballah was incarcerated and the other half had become a Gestapo.

"Why was Da Jakk arrested?" Daklakht wanted to know.

"For accusing the Starda Faction of murdering the original Elders to replace them with their own agents. Which was true, but speaking of it is forbidden, although everyone has figured it out. The Starda Faction will not allow anyone to call them to task for their evil actions."

"We've had a revolution against their policies in Aket," Dagrolyt asks, "why has that not happened here?"

"Aket is far away," Ma Silla says, "it's not so easy to ignore the syssk powers of our corrupt Elders at such close proximity."

And another female says, "This is a police state now-- or rather zombie-police --since the Alutna here are all enslaved by the Starda Faction's syssks. They are incapable of disobeying The Ultimate Nine and there are so many of them now. The only ones remaining here to revolt are children and females with broken feet."

"All right then," Daklakht sez, "then we need to locate Da-starda-hat. I assume that he still resides in Ke Bakletrattet (The Palace) along with the other Elders?"

"He has a chamber there he uses now and then, but he resides somewhere else, secret to the general public. And whenever he is present the palace is always surrounded by many guards, day and night. It would be impossible for you to enter and he rarely shows himself outside."

"Don't The Nine Elders publicly convene every mid-day?" Dagrolyt wonders, since that's always been the tradition.

"Not anymore; they have become too unpopular. Instead they have an Orator make public announcements after they have convened, to inform us of what new atrocity they have decreed."

"IF they have convened at all," Ma Silla noted, "we suspect that they only lie about that; we haven't heard the One Mind's actual voice in over a season-cycle and there's not much wisdom coming out of their so-called convenings."

"Have they announced anything new about attacking the NokhSo civilization by neutralizing their skesk?" I asks.

"Nothing new, but they still plan on it. As far as I am concerned," Ma Silla says, "that's the one good idea they have. To finally stop all those little hairless freaks from destroying our world." Then she re-notices that I'm a NokhSo and sez, "Er-- no offense."

"None taken," I sez, "I've hopped off the civilization-parade long ago. But that might not be the best way to save the world."

"No, it wouldn't," Daklakht agreed, "Adam convinced me that such a thing would cause much death and destruction among the NokSos, but that the survivors would seek revenge and their noisekillers would still function."

"At least there would be less of them. Then we could take their noisekillers away and come out of hiding!" Seems Ma Silla really IS a bloodthirsty little vixen. Mostly tho, she was bitter and frustrated about the life they were living under the Starda Regime. Then we realize that these girls are also much more frustrated 'bout something else.

The shyøma smell of all four females suddenly got stronger. It was still weak, we could resist easy 'nuff, but we couldn't help noticing. So did the females, and they were surprised.

One o them said, "It's been so long since..." The other ladies gets all confabulated too. So do we, assuming the kha-rat had been only two days before, but those ladies say, "No, it's been... years!"

So then they 'xplain that none of them will yøramma with Starda Faction Alutna anymore, and since those have been jus'bout the only males available, so they've all avoided the kha-rats and tried to repress their own shyøma as much as possible. But us bein here-- three males not their enemy --had sprung the dam and they was having shyøma de-lay build-up over-reaction.

Well, by now the smell had got to us too, because we hadn't bothered with our little blue flowers, and we felt that we had to help them out-- so we all took a little time out for a belated kha-rat. They wuz just so grateful for a little yøramma. So were we, truth be said.

It was just's well: now we had us a hiding place inside Shamballah and some females to forage some food for us. But we couldn'a just hide out now that we was here, we had stuff to do.

Dagrolyt had learned about disguises by passing hisself as Adam a few times in the NokhSo world, so he came up with the idea of puttin' more hair on Dak's head an in his beard. I always has my forbidden little BSA pocket knife in my Sha-haka bag-- it's skesk, but I don't go without it-- so we clipped some hair off the females, who had so much of it we could'na even see that we'd taken any. We stuck it on with sap from a bush. The ladies laughed at how Dak looked, but he felt better about walking around in public.

They went off to reconnoiter. I could only wait. It was 'most dark again when they come back.

They'd gone around the Palace where the Nine Elders usually stay, but there were guards all over the place. Daklakht studied those guards to see if he knew any of them, since he'd once been the acting Alutna commander for a while. And he did see some he knew, but no one he trusted enough to risk makin' contact with. So he avoided giving them a chance to recognize his voice or his bigger'n average size.

"I know a secret passage into the Palace," he told us, "but we'll have to wait until dark to use that."

The females were still flowing some last vestiges of shyøma, so they insisted that we yøramma them some more. To be polite to our hosts, Dag and Dak took care of them, but I'm too old to just keep going on like that. 'Asides, those girls were nice 'nuff, but I was more longin' for Mazaza, my own Nokhon lady.

But finally it was late enough that we'd go try to slip into the Palace. We go soon's it's dark, the moon not yet passing over the crater, so we was movin through some real darkness 'xcept for some far-off firelight over at the Middle Temple. Dak an' Dag had worked out the route earlier that day. We did'n go towards the Palace but up the crater slope, to where some tunnel openings were.

Ke Bakletrattet don't look like the any of the Palaces human kings have built all over the world, there ain't no towers nor minarets nor sawtooth fortifications against war; it's just a big flat cliff wall with a buncha open holes for windows, but all asymmetric, no square lines anywhere. There's one 'specially big open balcony where the Nine Elders are traditionally 'sposta convene every day. It's Nokhon culture, so there's no writing nor dates etched in stone, no ornamentation, no sculptures, no symbolic decorations to be seen. But it looms above the whole town with a certain majesty and seems like a place of authority anyway.

Daklakht led us into a small tunnel that looked no different than any other, the two Nokhons barely able to stand up without bumping their heads. I had lots of head-room, of course. I also had a little LED flashlight in my bag of forbidden skesk-tricks. We walked a fair ways, past various tunnel branches, taking ramps up, stairs down. Dag and I asked Dak if he really knew the way, it all seemed kinda confusing. Then we came to the end of the tunnel and he finally said "Gunkh!" That's the Nokhon word for Ooops! We had to go back.

But not far. Dak measured out a certain number of steps, then turned to the wall and pushed on it. A large square of stone rotated to reveal a real-live secret passageway and we went into it.

"This is not guarded?" I asks, careful of how far ahead I should shine our light.

"Probably is, we'll have to be careful now," Dak says.

Well, it was guarded, we came upon three Alutna in the tunnel. But they did'n notice us, which might sound kinda queer. But it was as Daklakht had predicted, reckoning that they were all infected with syssks to ensure perfect obedience-- at the expense of flexibile routines an' free intelligence, y'know. Dak is also extra-expert at usin' syssks hisself, so he put his own spell on those guards. Then we moved quiet as Sasquatches, so slowly that those guards wuz unawares of us whilst we passed them by-- even tho they was squatches too. As Ma Silla had told us; they acted like zombies.

We came up some stairs and were suddenly inside the Palace, in the middle of a big chamber carved out of solid cliff stone. There wuz ten curtained doorways, a different color each; nine to the Elder's chambers, the last one to the public balcony which we'd seen from below. Two guards to each doorway, standing ready with their batons to club anyone who might try to pass them, in all twenty armed guards ready to defend the Elders...or to keep them prisoner. We was mighty uninterested in tussling with them, although Daklakht wuz ready to.

We was surrounded by 'em but still not bein’noticed, us standin' stock-still so's not to be. Had to wonder whose great idea it was to syssk-spell all the guards so deep that they was useless. Prob'ly Da-starda-hat hisself-- he liked to dominate folk, even when it warn't necessary.

Our plan was to contact at least one o' the original four Elders who had so-far survived the murderings and was opposed to the Starda Faction. It was more'n likely they wuz cognizant of the dangerousness they wuz in.

Daklakht told us our best bet was Elder Da-zinta-hat, whom he'd once known purty well. Da-zinta-hat was by far the oldest of the original Elders from before the Starda Faction began replacin' his fellow Elders. We needed to find his chamber, which should have a yellow curtain hanging.

It was so dark in the hall that we couldn't see what colors the curtains wuz, but using my flashlight would definitely alert the guards. We knew if we approached a doorway the guards standing on each side of it would have to notice us, there had to be a limit to how zombied their senses wuz. So we didn't know what to do.

But then one o' the curtains fluttered and opened to the chamber inside. Flickering firelight spilled out into the hall, shined right on us. A tall, thin Nokhon filled the doorway, making no sound but holding up a hand like to greet us. We didn't know if we was bein' welcomed or about to be captured, but the two guards at the doorway had to have spotted us now, bein’ all lit-up like we wuz.

But no. The tall thin Nokon whispered two words to the guards and they both turned away from his doorway, still ignoring us. Then he signalled for us to come in to him and we sees that ALL the guards-- all 20 of 'em --had also turned their backs to us, nice'n convienient-like. It became kinda obvious that they were being mass-entranced by the thin guy with some good old psychic domination. So we hurried into his chamber, noticing on the way into the light that the curtain was yellow.

That tall thin Nokhon was obviously an Elder, his fur completely white (he's three times older'n me, I later learns), but still standing straight and moving with impressive grace and true dignity. He signals us to keep quiet as he leads us deeper into his chamber, which was spartan and bare, and then down a ramp to another chamber which was plush with pillows and colored fabrics. He adjusted another curtained door then turned to us and said, "Now we can talk. No one can hear us here."

Daklakht greeted the Elder. "Kha, Da-zinta-hat, I'm glad to see that you are still alive."

"Ra, yr kha, Daklakht, and I'm glad you got here before the Starda Faction arranged for me not to be. And greetings to you Dagrolyt and Dawalasat, thank you for coming."

"You know who we are?" Dagrolyt asks, kinda s'prised. Me too, actually.

"I've been in telepathic contact with Da-nama-hat in Aket, he filled me in."

So I jus' hadda ask: "Does that mean Da-starda-hat and his cronies also knows we are here?"

"Not from me, but he has spies and informers everywhere, so he might already know. Eventually he will, so you had best work fast."

"Do you also know our plan?"

"Not really, but I can guess it involves eliminating Da-starda-hat. I hope. Which won't be easy, he is well guarded and hard to find. He's not living here, by the way, he abides in a secret place. The only Elders remaining in this Palace are the four of us from before the Starda Faction started reforming the Ultimate Nine to their advantage. Now we are prisoners here and must stay in our chambers. But at least the Starda Faction still needs some of us alive, so they dare not kill us yet.

"As it is, they are five extremely egocentric younger Elders against we four more spiritual older Elders. They have put the convening of the Ultimate Nine too far out of balance to allow even one more of their faction to assume membership: The Nine would simply be unable to become One Mind and they would no longer have any authority".

"I'd say that The Nine Elders should have already lost any authority they did have;" Dagrolyt said, "Shamballah has become a tyrant state now. If the One Mind is intrinsically nine times more intelligent and wise than the rest of us, how can it be fooled into being cruel?"

"Wisdom is intrinsically neither kind nor cruel, those are only matters of perception and opinion, which are in constant flux. Life and Death, Creation and Destruction are natural processes: Nature can be ruthless, but that does not make it evil."

"No, but Da-starda-hat IS!"

"Personally, I tend to agree with you on that, but the One Mind might not. Obviously it has allowed the Starda Faction to have its way here. Although it has not yet allowed them to take the next step of attacking the NokhSo world, evidently considering that war unwise.

"As it is, Da-starda-hat wants to topple the NokhSo Civilization but lacks the ultimate knowledge to do so. The formula for calling up the energy storm that the Nokhontli once effected to topple evil Atlantis can only be found within the Secret Verses of Atli, which no member of the Starda Faction has ever been privy to, having been assholes instead of spiritual masters.

"Even among we four original Elders only certain parts of the Secret Verses are known to each of us, which we have not yet revealed to one another. Dangerous knowledge lurks in those Secret Verses, and we are dedicated to keeping it safe."

"But can you hide whatever you know from the composite One Mind when you convene?" Dagrolyt asked.

"I doubt it, but not one of us can retain our x9 intelligence when the convening is over, so we cannot remember what was known so clearly at that time. The knowledge of the One Mind is as much a mystery to us as to anyone else. And, yes, perhaps our composite entity already has the accumulated knowledge to work that magic-- although we can never be certain until they attempt it-- but up to now it has apparently resisted doing so, even under the sway of the Starda Faction. And will probably refrain unless it is the only way to save the planet from the NokhSo skesk.

"But be warned that the next time We Nine convene our One Mind will be aware of this very conversation. Whether or not the Starda Faction will also be made aware of it depends on whichever proclamations are made public. So there is a risk that you could become exposed."

"When is the next public convening of The Nine?" Daklakht asked.

"Unknown. They have not convened in three lunar cycles. They’re afraid the One Mind will overtake them."

"We'll consider that a benefit," Dak said to us, "can we meet with the other Elders not in the Starda Faction?"

"We are four Elders and they are already here," Da-zinta-hat tells us, touching his head, "since it is dangerous for us to leave our respective chambers, we often use telepathy to communicate." These Elders are all adept telepaths, of course.

"Da-starda-hat can't listen in?"

"Not secretly. If he tried to, we would all know. And give him a headache! my good colleague Da-hassaba-hat has just offered. My other two friends, Da-chiggo-hat and Da-kando-hat, also promise to assist with intensifying the headache."

"We need to locate whatever passes for an underground resistance group here," Dak sez, "I once knew a man named Da Jakk..."

"Yes, he is in the slave tunnels, along with many others. It would be difficult and dangerous to go to him, you would risk becoming prisoners yourselves."

"But I really like that he is with many others who also hate Da-starda-hat," Dak sez, "we'll simply free them all. So where can I find them?"

"That is a well-kept secret; there are many tunnels leading to many destinations, not even we Elders have learned where Da-starda-hat's slave camps are located. All we know is that they are not far away, within a half-day's trek. You can only search, but cautiously, we know that the tunnels are guarded."

So all four Elders had some kinda telepathic confab and came up with some starting point instructions that Dak could understand, since he was already familiar with the tunnel complex under Shamballah. It has been years since he'd been down there, but there wuz no changes to worry about, since no Nokhon alive today knew how to make new tunnels and those who'd originally made them had been gone for thousands of years.

It wuz decided that Dak and Dag would make the trip, I wuz way too easy to spot as a NokhSo (and too little if'n we got into any kinda fight, altho nobody was so impolite as to tell me that). So I was to wait in the Palace for them to come back for me-- hopefully with a whole band of revolutionaries in tow.

I gave them my flashlight and they wuz just about to go off when Da-sinta-hat calls out: "Oh wait!" then listens to somebody somewhere else.

"You are familiar with Ma Silla? Go to her. Her group of females are offering you a guide." And off they went.

I stayed behind, as arranged, so I've had time to tell our story to this here recordin' thingy. Hmm, looks like the battery is wearin' down to 'bout half way. We've got that little solar charger, but it won't do no good here inside a mountain. Lucky I got one other backup battery, but when that's used up...well, maybe we'll have solved all the problems here and be on our way back home by then. I'd ‘preciate that.