Once the twins’ Gifts emerged at the age of sixteen, they had learned the truth about their birthright. Though they were justifiably upset about the deception at first, in the years since, they’d come to understand why information had been kept from them as children. Wil had no regrets. He was proud of the young adults his children had become, and he credited their compassion and open-mindedness to having lived among people from all walks of life.
Now, all of them would be put to the test with this new transdimensional menace. Wil knew he couldn’t protect his children from everything, but he would always shield them as best he could. At present, that meant figuring out a way to make contact with the aliens.
He stood, feeling the need to pace while he worked through the new information. “We can’t go into an engagement blind.”
“Find a way to see the alien the way the Andvari did, you mean?”
“Yes, but still image capture won’t do it. We need to replicate those conditions in real-time.”
“That’s a tall order. From what the data showed, they nearly destroyed their own ship in the process.”
“They were a group of moderately trained civilians. Our engineering team is the best.”
“Should probably get them on it sooner than later.”
“Consider it done.” He paused and took a heavy breath. “We also need to know the terms of that treaty between the three races—what, exactly, we did to violate it. Not to mention, it would be helpful to know more about the circumstances surrounding that ancient conflict; there must be a reason the three races decided to strike a deal rather than battle it out to the end.”
“It seems the Gatekeepers were most upset about the use of their Gate tech, so I’d wager it had something to do with that.”
“I was thinking the same thing. But is it related to one race using the technology of another? Or traveling through the Gate to the Gatekeeper’s world? Or the technology itself? Are our forces equally matched? Each of those variables changes the conversation a little. Something sparked the Gatekeepers to reveal themselves to us now and then prompted these other beings to send a scout—assuming Jason’s hypothesis pans out.”
“I suppose it isn’t a viable option to just ask the Gatekeepers?”
Wil shook his head. “You saw what they were willing to do to us. That’s not a line of communication I’m ready to reopen.”
Saera sighed. “I’m not sure where that leaves us. We can’t just wait around twiddling our thumbs until these transdimensional beings decide to attack!”
“Never. We prepare for all contingencies. It’s the TSS way.”
“Even so, narrowing it down a little would be helpful.”
“There is one possible way to get a more definitive answer about the treaty,” Wil mused.
“How? You’ve already spoken to the Aesir. They don’t have anything in their records.”
The Aesir had been Wil’s go-to information source about past events, since they were former members of the Priesthood and had taken a copy of the organization’s collective knowledge when they split from the rest of the Taran Empire one thousand years prior. However, they were a private people, so getting a straight answer was often difficult. “The Aesir aren’t the sole keepers of historical information.”
His wife raised her eyebrow quizzically.
“The Priesthood’s island,” he explained. “They had vast records in the underground vaults. It’s possible we missed something in the raid. If this ancient war was such a big deal, I’d expect the Priesthood to have gathered any available information about it.”
She frowned. “The references you saw in the Aesir’s records indicated that it was potentially tens or hundreds of thousands of years ago. That predates the formation of the Priesthood.”
“However, they fancied themselves the official recordkeepers for Tarans. Someone would have made a copy of something as important as a galactic treaty, and the Priesthood would almost certainly have acquired that documentation when they came into power.”
Saera started to perk up. “And if it wasn’t a digital record, then the Aesir wouldn’t have had a copy of it to take with them when they branched off, so it wouldn’t be in their archives now.”
“Exactly.”
Saera nodded thoughtfully. “That is an interesting angle.”
“I’ll add, Raena invited us to visit the island. Apparently, the renovations are going quite well.”
“I suppose it would be appropriate for us to find a suitable location for a parents’ guest suite somewhere out-of-the-way… say, in a neglected basement?” She straightened in her chair.
Wil smiled. “A former records room, perhaps?”
“I like the way you think.”
— — —
After a terrible morning and even worse afternoon, Jason looked forward to turning the day around by spending the evening with Tiff.
It wouldn’t be a date, per se; their relationship wasn’t romantic in nature and never would be. ‘Intimate friends’ is how he labeled it in his mind, not that he ever spoke the term aloud. Honestly, he wasn’t sure how she viewed him, exactly. Whatever they were to each other, it worked—no strings, no pressure. And stars, on days like this, he needed the physical connection to unwind and forget about the outside universe for a while.
Their relationship had been Jason’s lifeline during his early years in the TSS, after Raena left for Tararia; that twin connection everyone joked about was frustratingly real. She had found Ryan, by all accounts her soulmate, while Jason was alone in TSS Headquarters, training for most of the day and studying for the remaining waking hours. In a bold move, Tiff had propositioned him with a ‘friends with benefits’ arrangement near the end of their
