is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I’ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren’t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don’t know where it is going, and I’ll probably forget where it’s been. Why am I doing this? To give me an excuse and a deadline for some creative writing and because I thought people might enjoy it. Gozatu!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nMarina nodded again. \u201cYes, though it\u2019s a bit more complicated than that. I\u2019ll fill you in later but, first, we need to get you out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s the rush?\u201d asked Maite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI assume you saw all of the video screens and cameras out there?\u201d responded Marina. \u201cI\u2019m sure de Lancre is watching and he\u2019ll be sending his thugs after you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow would he know it is us?\u201d asked Kepa as he looked down at his near-naked form, blushing again. \u201cMy own mother wouldn\u2019t know it was us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marina shook her head. \u201cI\u2019m not sure. But, he always seems to be one step ahead of me in this time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHold on a minute,\u201d said Maite as Marina was about to open the door. \u201cHow did you find us so fast?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marina smiled. \u201cI knew I would like you,\u201d she said. \u201cYou are always thinking, always questioning.\u201d She paused a moment. \u201cThe zatiak. The ones you already absorbed? They act as a beacon for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd you just happened to be right here when we arrived?\u201d questioned Maite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell, no,\u201d admitted Marina. \u201cBut, in this future, the number of descendants of my blood line are quite extensive. Even a drop of blood lets me inhabit them and this one happened to be here, near where the beacon, and you, popped up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWon\u2019t de Lancre be able to find us the same way?\u201d asked Kepa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marina shook her head. \u201cEz. This is a special connection between you and me, because of those first zatiak I gave you. If he were able to find me in the same way, I\u2019d be able to sense him too. And a number of our encounters would have turned out completely differently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marina opened the door, just a crack. \u201cArraioa! Damn it! They are already here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kepa peaked out the door as Marina stepped back. He could see several black spheres hovering over the crowd, moving randomly back and forth, pinpricks of laser light shooting from every angle of their surface, touching every person in the large hallway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat are they doing?\u201d asked Kepa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cScanning the room, looking for anomalies,\u201d replied Marina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWait a minute,\u201d interjected Maite. \u201cHow are we anomalies? When we arrive in these bubbles, we take on a local identity, right? We effectively belong in this time. They won\u2019t know the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marina sighed. \u201cBut, he knows you are here. Somehow he knows. I don\u2019t know how, but he always knows.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHowever he knows,\u201d interrupted Kepa, \u201cthose balls are coming this way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you get this post via email, the return-to address goes no where, so please write blas@buber.net<\/a> if you want to get in touch with me.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cZer?!?\u201d exclaimed Maite. \u201cDe Lancre is here too?\u201d Marina, or at least the woman whom Marina was possessing, nodded her head. \u201cBai. And he\u2019s been here a while. He\u2019s somehow worked himself up in the government. He\u2019s an advisor to the lehendakari.\u201d \u201cThe Lehendakari?\u201d asked Kepa. \u201cWe still have our own president?\u201d Marina nodded again. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2640,864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa","category-bubers-basque-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/maite-and-kepa-v2-01.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-1ob","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5344,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5343\/revisions\/5344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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