“Don’t hold your breath for another castle,” Raena said, taking a cautious sip of coffee now that her chuckling had subsided. “We’re finally making headway redecorating this place and I don’t want to start over. Besides, the TSS can’t benefit us again or we’ll have a riot on our hands.”
“Obviously, I’m joking.” Ryan took the last bite of his buttery pastry and dusted the powdered sugar off his hands.
“I know. But even so, we walk a fine line.”
“Public approval ratings are high. People don’t seem to care.”
“That can shift at any moment. As it is, having members of the Sietinen Dynasty holding the top spots in the TSS is a potential conflict of interest with political and military forces. All it would take is a spark to blow it into a big issue.”
Ryan tilted his head, casting her a look he’d perfected that told her she was starting down a needlessly worrisome path.
Raena took a long drink from her mug. “And this is why I don’t get into business before breakfast,” she muttered.
“My love, let the TSS worry about the Rift. Your parents and brother can handle it.”
“Yeah.” She looked out at the ocean. It could have been me.
She’d had every bit of the Gifted talents as her brother, perhaps even more. Though she’d technically graduated from the TSS academy thanks to some rule-bending by her parents, she wasn’t an Agent and could never be, because it would conflict with her political position. When she was honest with herself, there was a touch of resentment there.
It felt unfair to have had to set aside that part of herself. Her paternal grandparents had done the same, but they’d already had full careers in the TSS to explore their Gifts. Conversely, her abilities training had been cut short at the age of only seventeen, when Raena had ‘taken one for the team’ and gone to study on Tararia. There, she’d trained to become the perfect combination of politician and businessperson, poised to take over the Sietinen Dynasty and the family enterprise, SiNavTech. She couldn’t help wonder what she might have accomplished if she’d gone down the other path.
They finished breakfast in relative silence, content to simply be in each other’s company. When the meal was complete, and all requisite coffee had been consumed, it was time to find out how serious an issue they were facing.
Leaving Ryan to his own business, Raena took the short trek down the hall to her cozy secondary office. Since she made it a point to keep work away from their private residential suite, it offered a convenient place to go for urgent meetings. While her primary workspace on the other side of the sprawling estate was designed to impress visitors, this one was sparsely furnished for productivity, with the desk arranged so she could look out to her right through the window and feel like she was flying above the waves.
She settled into the padded swivel-chair behind the desk and opened up a secure vidcall over instantaneous subspace relay to her father, following the contact instructions in his message.
The viewscreen embedded in the wall behind the three visitor chairs resolved into the image of her father in his office. It hardly seemed like he’d aged since her childhood, still appearing youthful despite being in his fifties. His commanding presence, however, was the true representation—not just of age, but of the wisdom of someone who’d lived through devastation and would do anything to prevent future tragedy. He didn’t talk about it much, but Raena knew the war had changed him. But he was her dad, and she couldn’t imagine him being any other way.
“Hi,” she greeted. “I got your message.”
“Thanks for getting back to me quickly. I’m sorry to disrupt your morning routine.” Even though TSS Headquarters was on the other side of the galaxy, the time aligned with Raena’s since the former Priesthood’s island served as the standardized clock across the disparate Taran worlds.
She smiled. “I’m fed and caffeinated, so I’m ready for anything. Now, what about this ship?”
Her father folded his hands on his desktop. “We’ll know more soon, but I wanted you to be prepared in case it’s what I fear. Something may be coming through the Rift.”
Now that I wasn’t expecting. She pursed her lips and took a calming breath through her nose. “I see.”
He gave a solemn nod. “Worse, it may be connected to that incident a few months ago.”
“Which…?” It took a second for her to make the connection to the recent tragedy in the Outer Colonies. “Oh.” A knife drove into her heart with the reminder. Several planets had been assaulted, displacing millions, and costing the lives of too many others. The circumstances were so different that she didn’t see how they were related. “How? I thought that was resolved?”
“There was a little more to it than what the TSS shared with the High Council at the time,” he revealed.
Her eyes narrowed slightly. “What happened to transparency?”
“Information that has no actionability can cause more harm than good. It was a calculated omission, reserved until it became relevant.”
“And now it is, because of this attack? Why?”
“I’ll get to that.” Her father took a deep breath and looked through the screen, giving the impression that he’d rehearsed what he was about to say. “As I told the High Council then, the TSS learned that a rogue group had been gathering Gate-travel tech. The Gate spheres open a temporary passageway for instantaneous travel between worlds, but they are genetically keyed so only people with a specific gene can pass through. They are remnants of
