by A. K. DuBoff
I never thought I’d experience this for myself. I wasn’t even sure it was real. Lexi met Jason’s gaze. “My sister experienced it with someone, too. A former TSS Agent.”
“Really?”
“She’s much older than me,” Lexi explained, hesitant to get into too many details. “The guy was discharged after the War and went to find her. They’d met briefly while he was on his internship. Couldn’t let her go.”
“Yeah, that’s how it tends to be.”
Lexi had seen what that resonance connection had done to her sister and how it had shaped her life. Trying to fight the feelings didn’t work.
Even though this seems impossible, that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try. Lexi folded her legs up to sit cross-legged in the chair. “All right, if we’re going to be stuck with each other, then we should probably dive into this getting-to-know-you thing.”
Jason smiled. “Right. Yes.” He settled back in his seat. “Basics. What, if any, do you consider your homeworld?”
“That’s not an easy answer.” She didn’t mean to be evasive, but it was the truth. Could we have started with anything else?
He seemed a little taken aback by her terse response. “I know from your file that you were born on Cytera.”
She shrugged. “I was less than a year old when we fled.”
“I understand there are lots of people with strong abilities there. It partially explains yours.”
This is really not where I want to begin. “I was never properly trained like you,” she deflected.
“But you’re not un-trained, clearly. Between fleeing as a baby to getting involved in the Alliance, you must have quite the life story.”
Lexi was all for getting to know Jason, but discussing her past was one topic where she needed to ease in. “You first,” she said and raised her brows expectantly.
“Oh boy.” He let out a long breath. “Well, a few years after the Bakzen War ended, my parents moved down to Earth to raise my sister and me out of the public spotlight. It wasn’t until I was sixteen that I even found out about the Taran Empire, let alone the whole ‘secret prince’ angle. Raena, being much more politically minded, went off to Tararia and I stayed with the TSS. For the last decade, I’ve done little more than work. I’m tied for the highest Agent score on record, with my dad, though I wasn’t officially tested. The one person I was close to through it all died not that long ago. So let’s just say it’s often lonely at the top.”
Lexi blinked at him for several seconds before speaking. “Wow, that’s quite the highlight reel.”
“There’s been some bad. Mostly good. It’s strange, though. Growing up on Earth, I couldn’t have imagined this kind of everyday life. Now, I can’t fathom how it could be any different.”
His experience was almost the polar opposite of Lexi’s—stable, supportive. It was everything she’d always dreamed about on the lonely nights when she’d curled up behind a crate in an alley with an empty stomach and her backpack as a pillow. “Are you close with your family?”
“Very.”
“That must be nice.” A touch of bitter envy crept into her tone.
“What about yours?” he asked.
“A foking shiteshow, for the most part.” She shook her head. “What do you know about Cytera?”
“Just an overview that came up when reviewing your file. It sounds like they often arranged pairings to augment bloodlines with abilities, and it resulted in a sort of caste system?”
“Yep, that’s Cytera for ya. My family was wrapped up in it at a pretty high level.” She wanted to leave it at that, but Jason’s intent gaze urged her to continue. I may as well throw it all out there up front.
She took a deep breath. “To put it politely, my family fell from grace, and my older sister turned to a life of crime to get by. She’s a half-sister, actually. She wasn’t Gifted, but I was because of the way the Generations worked out with our different moms. When shite went sideways and the planet’s government started to break down, I was taken off-world. My sister eventually tracked me down, but she wasn’t in a position to raise me so I bounced from place to place. I was pretty desperate by the time I fell in with the Alliance, and having a reliable bed with three square meals a day was nice even though I’d joined up to search for my friend. Melisa is pretty much the only person I have left.”
Jason took in the story, his gaze compassionate. “We’ll do our best to find Melisa.”
“And now Leon is missing, too.” Lexi winced. “It seems like things always turn to shite when I get close to someone. Be warned!”
“Having past misfortunes doesn’t mean things can’t work out in the end,” Jason assured her.
“Easy for you to say. Life was handed to you on a silver platter.”
He didn’t reply at first. “Regardless of my family’s power or influence, I’ve still put in the work to become the best TSS Agent I can be. But you’re right, I’ve never had to worry about going hungry or not having a safe place to sleep. And more than that, I was lucky to have supportive parents. I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been growing up how you did.”
She shrugged. “It gave me grit. So there’s that.”
He nodded. “One of the best traits a person can have.”
“They’ve probably taught you a lot more valuable skills in the TSS.”
“Some. But grit is something you either have or you don’t. It’s tough to train into a person later in life.”
“And you? Ever had your resolve tested?” Lexi asked.
A pained expression flitted across his face. “I consider myself someone who’ll fight for survival if I’m backed against a wall. I bet you could teach me a thing or two, though.”
She smiled slightly. “Maybe.”
He shifted in his seat. “You mentioned earlier that you’ve had a few instructors. How’d you get that training for your abilities?”
That was another topic she wasn’t too keen to discuss, but it made sense that a TSS instructor would be curious. She raised one shoulder and let it fall. “I’ve worked with various people here and there. I spent a month with a woman from Valdos at one point who gave me some tips.”
The planet was one of the few places that had never caved to the Priesthood’s ban on telekinesis, so the use of abilities had remained a core component of their culture. Once the restrictions had been lifted, many people had left Valdos to help teach others about the suppressed parts of themselves. Working with Reva had been the first time Lexi hadn’t felt ashamed of herself.
Jason sat up with interest. “My grandmother did her TSS internship on Valdos.”
“Hey, small galaxy.”
They fell silent.
It did seem like a small galaxy in that moment. Trillions of people, and yet the two of them had met through happenstance. Resonance connections were rare. Them being brought together was special.
“You don’t have to be alone anymore,” Jason said, meeting her gaze.
I want this more than I’ve ever wanted anything. She wasn’t yet convinced it was possible. “How would this even work? Would I have to join the TSS?”
“There are options. But I know for certain that I want to get to know everything about you.”
“You might not like what you discover.”
He smiled. “Only one way to find out.”
— — —
One of Raena’s favorite things was to solve problems, but she hadn’t expected her solution about Earth’s historical sites to lead to even greater difficulties.
“What do you mean they won’t move?” she asked Trevor. She had a fair understanding of what he’d just told her, but clarification didn’t hurt.
“The people have assembled on the pyramid and are now sitting down without any signs of getting up,” the young man restated.
Okay, so our marketing campaign didn’t land with everyone. She’d known they would encounter resistance on Earth, and she was ready for it. They were in it for the long game. The work hel
d too much potential importance to abandon, no matter what they went up against.
“Are they locals?” Raena asked.
Trevor laughed. “No, that’s the frustrating thing. Just a bunch of tourists claiming to speak on behalf of the locals. Except, the locals are fully on board with our investigation, and they have offered up a number of volunteers to help us. They’re as curious to find out about the history as we are.”
“What’s the deal with the protestors, then?”
He frowned. “My guess? They’re either looking for attention for the sake of it, or they’re plants.”
Raena rapped her fingers on her desk. They hadn’t been able to disprove the hypothesis that the same group behind the uprising in the Outer Colonies wasn’t also organizing protests on Earth, so this latest demonstration at the excavation site very well may be part of the larger disruption plan.
“Why this location?” she mused. “Has there been trouble elsewhere?”
“Not so far,” Trevor replied. “This could just be a particularly passionate group.”
Or, this site is the most important and they’re trying to delay us while a shadow faction completes their own investigation. Raena was hesitant to share her suspicions outside her trusted advisory group, so she kept the thought to herself for now. “You said these people are tourists and not locals. Are we sure they’re even from Earth?”
Trevor’s eyebrows shot up with surprise. “I can’t say I’ve looked into it.”
“I know you’re already swamped. I’ll get someone to take on the background checks.”
“What makes you think they’re not Earth natives?” he asked.
“A hunch. For the time being, can we make progress at another site?”
He smiled. “Actually, that was the real reason I called. We’ve already found something in Belize.”
“Oh yeah?”
“This is going to sound a little crazy, but we think it might be a ship.”
She sat up straight. “What?”
“The ground around it hasn’t been disturbed for at least ninety thousand years.”
That’s pretty close to the timing of the alleged ‘missing link’ in the human evolution record. Were Tarans actively guiding development of the life on Earth? She leaned back in her chair. “That’s a very interesting discovery.”
Raena had been taught that Earth’s development was the product of primordial panspermia and that Tarans had interacted with those natives later on, eventually settling on the planet and branching off into modern humans. To her knowledge, there had been minimal physical evidence of those early years of Taran involvement with Earth, so most of the history was an educated guess. Most of the panspermia hypothesis made sense to her, but the independent development of humanity’s ancestors had always struck her as a little suspect—and why anyone would ever interbreed with more primitive apes.
This evidence of a ship on Earth ninety thousand years ago changed things. It lent credibility to an alternative hypothesis that modern life on Earth had been intentionally designed in some fashion. After all, many historians suspected that ancient Tarans had been traveling the stars for millions of years, and there was a strong tradition of genetic engineering in the Taran culture. It was possible that Earth had been a giant experimental playground and some of the scientists had eventually gone to live with their creations. Experimental gene therapy would certainly explain the jumps in hominid development over the years.
For that matter, there were a number of oddities across the planet. How many other species on Earth might be the product of genetic experimentation? One very specific duck-billed, egg-laying mammal came to mind. Maybe it was a joke, after all!
“Really brings a different meaning to the ‘Lost Colony’ nickname for Earth, doesn’t it?” Trevor said.
“A very interesting spin, indeed.” Her mind raced through the implications for both the history she’d learned on Earth and what she’d been taught as a new citizen of the Taran Empire when she was a teenager. Actual physical evidence was going to change a lot. “Have you gained access to the ship?”
Trevor deflated a little. “I may have oversold what we found. There’s a hull, which is in amazing shape. However, it looks like it was stripped clean before it was buried.”
No secret information stash about our past, then. She nodded. “Find out everything you can. And we’ll work on getting those people off the other site so you can proceed. I suspect this ship isn’t the only buried artifact we’re going to find.”
Chapter 15
Jason’s stomach was in knots by the time they reached TSS Headquarters. On the one hand, he was overcome with joy unlike anything he’d ever experienced just being in Lexi’s presence. It was incredible to feel so energized by simply standing next to someone.
Conversely, he was terrified about what his parents were going to say regarding their connection. When he’d set off on the mission to Duronis, it was to extract Kira. He didn’t think he’d be coming home with someone who could very well be a lifelong partner. Not to mention the factor of her having been a part of the very terrorist organization they’d been investigating—though the argument could be made that she wasn’t ever really a part of the group and was more of a civilian vigilante.
He took a deep breath. It was too much to process right now. One moment at a time. First, they’d debrief, and then they could take the personal stuff from there.
Lexi was tense the entire elevator ride down. Her eyes kept shifting to the side, as if something was going to jump out to attack her from the walls. Kira, meanwhile, was fascinated by every detail.
“I’ve always wanted to visit this place,” the Guard officer said. “I hear you have all the fancy things.”
“I don’t know about that,” Jason replied. “It’s no Tararian estate, but we do have it pretty good here. I can’t imagine being anywhere else.”
At that, Lexi glanced up at him with a questioning gaze. Their prospective future together would no doubt be an ongoing discussion, and Jason’s position as a TSS Agent and presumptive future High Commander was one of the biggest factors. He liked the idea of Lexi potentially joining the TSS—or at least staying at Headquarters with him—but he didn’t know how reasonable an ask that would be.
Thinking about it made him envious of his sister and her husband; Raena and Ryan had a political future laid out for them that fit perfectly with their resonance connection. By contrast, his relationship with Lexi meant trying to find common ground while coming from two different existences. Not only was he unsure if his family would approve, but it was possible Lexi herself would walk away because of her distrust for Taran institutions. The next few hours and days would be very telling.
Jason reached out to Lexi’s mind. “I’ve got your back,” he told her.
“Easy to say now, before you’ve heard the rundown of everything I’ve done.”
“Have you intentionally hurt anyone who wasn’t trying to do something harmful to others?”
“No.”
“Then I don’t need to know anything else.”
The elevator stopped at Level 1, and Jason cut off the telepathic conversation. Any Agent would be able to detect a telepathic exchange in progress, even though they wouldn’t know what was being said, and he didn’t want anyone to think that he was trying to coach Lexi.
His parents were waiting for them in the lobby.
“Hey,” Jason greeted. “I brought some friends.”
Kira smiled at Wil and Saera. “Sir. Ma’am. It’s great to meet you. I’ve heard so many good things.”
“As we have about you,” Saera replied with a warm smile of her own.
“Welcome to TSS Headquarters,” Wil added. “I appreciate you taking risks on behalf of the TSS and helping us protect the Taran people.”
“There’s still a long way to go on that.” Kira’s smile faded. “I’m afraid we’ve let this one escalate in an unfortunate way.”
“Through no fault of your own,”
Wil said. “There’s something bigger than what you were tracking on Duronis. The people behind it are very good at covering their tracks. But we’ll root them out.”
“There’s one group I want to find, in particular.”
Saera nodded. “Yes, and we’ll do everything we can to get Leon home safely.”
Kira dropped her gaze. “Yes, ma’am. Thank you.”
Wil and Saera then turned their attention to Lexi. They studied her for a moment, then looked to Jason and back again.
His parents were probably two of the most perceptive people alive. Jason didn’t need to say anything for them to know what was going on.
“Well, this is unexpected,” his father said at last.
“Tell me about it!” Jason laughed. “So, that’s going to be a ‘thing’.”
“It’s a far more welcome twist than everything else we’re dealing with right now,” Saera said. “Lexi, welcome to TSS Headquarters. I’m Saera, Jason’s mom.”
“Wil Sietinen, TSS High Commander,” his father said.
“Uh, hi,” she replied hesitantly. “Nice to meet you.”
“We’ll have a proper sit-down later,” Wil continued. “Lexi, I’m looking forward to getting acquainted. However, there are some pressing official matters I need to discuss with Jason.”
“We can get you set up in temporary quarters down on one of the Militia levels,” Saera offered.
Jason turned to Lexi. “Or you can go to my place instead, if you prefer.”
Lexi looked surprised but appreciative. “Sure, sounds good. Thanks.”
His parents didn’t quite hide their shock, but they gave respectful nods of assent.
Kira looked over Jason and Lexi with an amused smirk.
“Kira, please report to Medical for a physical. Standard procedure post field op,” Saera said.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“While Kira is doing that, I’ll get Lexi settled and then meet you in your office?” Jason addressed his father.
“All right. See you there.”
Jason motioned for Lexi to follow. He summoned an elevator to take them down to Level 2.
