Lunawas looking down the long central space of the fighter hangar. “Thisis as good a space for us to talk as any boardroom,” she said,waving up at a group of crewmen working on a fighter.
Sheturned to face the group and sat.
Adelinamoved to reach out, drawing breath to shout a warning, but her sisterdidn’t fall on her backside. A seat flowed up out of the deckplating.
“Thatis several different kinds of cool,” Adelina observed, watching thetracery of gaps in the decking close up.
“Hah!”Gabriella laughed, now seated. “I see why you couldn’t tell usanything beforehand. If you said I’d be doing a trust exercise witha spaceship, we’d be driving home right now, worried about yoursanity.”
Adelinarealized she was now the only one standing. She moved back a bit soshe wouldn’t be blocking her daughter and…began the ‘landing’ procedure.
Evenknowing there’d be a seat there, she still felt a surge ofresistance from her instincts as she started awkwardlylowering her backside likeshe was getting ready to lay an egg. She nearly abandoned the attemptat the point of no return.
Ofcourse, everyone was watching her. “I’m alright,” sheinsisted.
“Betterthan alright, I’d say,” Luna told her. “After all you’ve seenin the last half hour, I can’t say for sure I’d be so composed.”
“Butyou are, composed.” Adelina pointed out.
“Yeah,but I was a part of this from the moment I dragged him into ourelevator in San Diego.” She jabbed a thumb at her husband.
“Howdidyou find out?” Gabriella asked. “I mean, didhe bring you up here? Whatdid he bring along for the big, show-and-tell moment?”
Lunagave her niece a suspicious look. “I’m gonna assume that’s aninnocent question. He…” She looked at Adelina, pursing her lips.
She stilldoesn’t know her own tells,Adelina thought. That simple Human foible was immensely reassuring.This was still her little sister and she was trying to decide howmuch to reveal to Adelina.
“Ican handle it, Sis.”
Lunasighed. “He demonstrated an ability that nobody on Earth has.”
“O...Kay…”
“Ai!Grow up! I’m not talking about sex!”
“Sowhat did he do?” Gabriella asked.
“This,”Gleb said from behind them.
“Shit!”Gabriella jumped up from her chair.
“Language!”Adelina scolded automatically.
Lunaneeded a few seconds to stop laughing. “You can take the girl fromEarth,” she said, still giggling, “but you can’t take the momout of the girl. I never would have expected that to be yourresponse!”
“Youever see Momlet up?”
“Fairenough,” Luna conceded. “But that’s what he showed me asproof.”
“Howdid you do that?” Adelina asked him but he was gone again. Sheturned to find him taking a seat next to Luna again.
“Well,”he began slowly. “A short time ago, none of us could do anythinglike that. We were no different than you, except we were grown inchambers by a corporation that sold us to the lord of Kish asslaves.”
Hegestured to Eth. “We were never children, like you. We becameconscious as adults, with knowledge already programmed into ourminds. We were created for combat and we served our lord so well inthe Brush-FireWars that he freed our people.”
Helooked at Eth again. “Then we arrived at an ambush and theVarangians, the emperor’s personal military, were there, preventingthe ambush from triggering.They requested an interview with our lord but it was just a cover fortheir real intent.”
“Whatdid they want?” Gabriella asked eagerly.
“Me,”Eth said.
Everyonelooked at him.
Heshrugged. “I’d met one of their people at Kwharaz Station and heseemed to take an interest in me.” He grimaced. “Perhaps it mightbe more accurate to say they already had an interest…” He stoppedtalking and turned to look behind himself. “Wonder how many timesI’ve died…” he muttered.
“What?”Gabriella asked.
“Nothing,”he shook his head. “Best to just keep things simple.” He took adeep breath and resumed.
“Theytook me to a portal in their ship. It took me out of the Universe, ina way. I found myself in a place that… had more dimensions thanwe’re usually comfortable with.”
“Whythe hell would they do that?” Adelina asked.
“Ifyou find out...” Eth shook his head. “… Letme know. Expecting a straight answer from a Varangian is a sign ofinsanity. AllI know is that they were curious about our presence in the empire,aboutour impact on its affairs.
“Theexperience changed me. I could do what you saw Gleb do just now.”
“Iwas able to learn,” Gleb said, “but not everyone can. Scylla, whowas also taken to the same place, has a much better grasp of theintricacies. She’s kind of our high priestess.”
“Shetaught me,” Luna said.
“Youcan do that?” Gabriella whispered.
Lunanodded. “That, and… other things. But we’ve got a lot of opencans of worms here. Let’s focus on why we asked you to come heretoday.
“Theseguys were never kids. They have no idea what it’s like to grow upbuttheir sterility implants are being deactivated by some techs we haveon loan. There are going to be lots of pregnancies happening and noneof them know the first thing about being a kid or being a parent.”
“Thisis a pivotal moment for our species,” Gleb said. “Irth willeventually have to learn that they’re a part of the republic andour people will have to learn how to bea people.”
“Ourpeople from the empire,”Luna reminded him. “The folks on Earth are our people too, now.”
Henodded, accepting the correction. “We’ve all got a lot ofadjusting to do. Havingthe two of you spend time among us, just as yourselves, would beincredibly valuable.”
“Youwant us to be a model family?” Adelina was shaking her head. “It’s…just the two of us…” She stopped, not wanting to denigrate herex-husband in front of Gabriella. Jacques was still her father, afterall, even if he’d run off back to Corsica.
“Youstill held it together,” Luna said quietly as if she didn't quitetrust her voice. “And you’re clearly doing a great job as a mom.”She nodded at her embarrassed niece.
“Youcould really help our people,” Luna said, “and folks out hereexpect their nobles to set the example. That would include the two ofyou.”
Somethingoccurred to Adelina. “Do Momand Dadknow about all this?”
“Notyet. We need to settle into all this before we start telling morepeople. For themoment,it’s just you two because we need you. We’reasking now because you’re still between gigs.”
“So,what happens? We just
