"A silent elevator took them swiftly to the building's lower level where the mighty portal machines were housed. Most of the hundred or so mechanisms ...hat sprawled across the expanse of floor were silent, unattended for the moment to reduce any possible interference. Only occasional mechanisms scattered about the room were active."Over here," a technician waved her arm to attract their attention. "Nothing's happening right now, but I'vegot the location spotted."Looking down at the planet from. Quite similar to sound and the sense of hearing. By focusing and raising a mind-shield an empath could stop these outgoing transmission, hence increasing his privacy. A mind shield also blocked active probing by other empaths, hence preventing others from performing what was called a ‘mind scan’. Probing transmissions of the types used in mind scans, could also be compared to sound and the sense of hearing, this time the comparison would be: Sonar. A mind shield, however, had no effect on. " I don't know," a girl said from down the table. "I like cooking. It gives me a chance to express myself." That's good for you," Robin said. "I bet you're doing fancy cooking. Mom didn't. It was meat and potatoes, seven days a week, with only a little variation. That got so boring. Nobody wanted creativity, just lots of food."The girls all nodded. That made sense."So what brought you here?" Fiona asked."Dad's company landed a contract to build a radio-navigation system. We're doing three main. But Bobby would think I had abandoned him.They were walking me to the car when they both just stopped. Neither said anything. They just stood there. Number two had been holding my elbow and his hand dropped limply.It had to be Bobby.I looked around and he was walking towards us.“I’ve interrupted their motor synapses,” he said. “They can still see and hear, though.”“Shit,” I groaned. They’d remember his voice, and those words.“I can try something,” he said. “It’s something I’ve been thinking.