"Well, if it means taking our belongings," Sedriil said, having a difficult time to contain his excitement at having Alaema under the proverbial gun at long last, "then we will need to stop by our home."
"The transcon is too far away," Skori remarked, striking down his brother's suggestion. "And it may be too dangerous to try and go there."
"But what about Meri?" Sedriil said. "She and Aldrec need to know about this. It revolves around them, doesn't it?"
"They aren't home," Tescadji said, his words eliciting a chorus of, "What?" from all present.
"I thought I explained it a moment ago," Tescadji said, evidently confused at the reaction.
"No, you didn't," Garen said. "You only told us about the report and the violence, and didn't go into too many details about that."
"Please … what happened to Meri?" Noroa said, her voice croaking and raspy from the profuse tears she had been crying after Tescadji's news. "Can you find out where she is?"
"We tried already," Tescadji explained, shaking his head, "several times, as a matter of fact, but our information is too limited."
"As for getting to your house, we can do that safely enough," Jenius said. "I'll use the same spell that I used to come here, although I can only take two at a time. When all is done, I can assure you that we will pool all our available resources to find your lost sister."
"What about the codec search grid?" Sedriil said.
"That's illegal," Skori warned his brother. "They put that thing out of use right after the war, as a matter of fact."
"Yes, but no one shut down the satellites that run it," Skori said. "Their orbits haven't degraded past the effectiveness point. And there haven't been any more upgrades on the surveillance equipment for the network in years; I can hack straight into it, and find Meri. I know her codec number. If she's alive or dead, it'll be able to find her."
"You've hacked into that grid before, haven't you?" Skori said, a curious expression on his face.
"How else would I have been able to find all those androids back during our days in the Force?" Sedriil replied, making a lopsided grin. "As a matter of fact, that's how we were able to find Noroa, hiding under the highway rubble on the outskirts of Berengard."