by Amy DuBoff
Saera smiled. “I’ve been there.”
Their friend studied them. “This isn’t just a random social call.”
“No,” Wil acknowledged. “Is Michael in his office?”
Elise glanced at the staff list on her desktop. “Yes. Why?”
“Just wanted to talk about some things with both of you,” Saera said.
Elise gasped and her eyes lit up. “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”
Saera hesitated. “Well—”
“Stars, I knew it!” Elise practically leaped over her desk to give Saera a hug.
“How did you…?” Saera began.
Elise cocked her head and smiled. “Aside from knowing you for well over a decade, I am a biologist, remember. I know these things.”
Saera smiled back. “Fair enough.”
“This is so exciting!” Elise cheered and ran down the hall to Michael’s office.
Wil shook his head and chuckled as he took Saera’s hand.
“At this rate, the entire TSS will know within the hour,” she said.
“Just wait until Ian finds out…”
Saera sighed. “I guess the whole multiverse may as well be in on the secret.”
By the time they arrived at Michael’s office, only seconds behind Elise, it appeared she’d already filled him in.
“Congratulations!” Michael said when they stepped into the office.
Wil closed the door. “Thanks. We’re somewhere between excited and nervous.”
“I’m not exactly looking forward to temporarily turning into a land whale,” Saera said with a frown.
“Oh, it won’t be that bad,” Elise told her.
Saera gave a slight shake of her head. “We didn’t get to the part about twins.”
Michael’s and Elise’s eyes widened.
“Stars!” Elise breathed.
“So yeah. That’ll be fun,” Saera mumbled.
“There are too many political unknowns,” Wil added. “And, Saera wanted a girl.”
Michael nodded. “At least with twins they’ll always have someone their own age to play with around here.”
“About that…” Wil glanced at Saera and she nodded. “We’ve decided it would be best to raise them on Earth.”
It took their friends a few seconds to react.
“So, you’re moving down there?” Michael asked.
“No, you can’t!” Elise exclaimed.
“I’m not giving up Lead Agent,” Saera explained. “We’ve worked out a way to commute.”
“Transport arch, adapted from the rift gate design,” Wil clarified.
Wil detected a telepathic exchange pass between Michael and Elise.
“Are you set on going alone?” Michael asked.
“You promised you’d never leave me behind again,” Elise said to Saera.
“Well, our intent is to keep a low profile,” she replied. “Limit having others with abilities around.”
“We’ve actually talked about moving down there ourselves,” Michael revealed. “You’re right, this is no place to have a family. And nowhere else is especially accessible to Headquarters.”
“You don’t need to avoid the Priesthood like we do,” Wil said.
“No, but it makes sense for us to be there, too,” Michael said. “For different reasons.”
“Why?” Wil asked.
Michael took a moment to respond. “Since my dad defected to Earth, I’m not eligible for Taran citizenship.”
“We can’t be legally married,” Elise said. “Not that it matters.”
“I’m sure I could—” Wil began.
“I don’t doubt your political pull, but it doesn’t matter,” Michael stated. “You might not recall, but I’m actually 12th Generation.”
“Oh…” Wil’s heart ached for them. To know that their child won’t have the abilities that have been such a central part of their lives. No wonder Earth is appealing.
“So, given that,” Michael went on, “a move to Earth would be a good chance to reconnect with my dad.”
“And my parents haven’t talked to me since I joined the TSS, so it’s not like we have somewhere else to be,” Elise added.
Maybe having some backup would be good—and at least Michael is actually from Earth, so that’s a much better option than my parents. He inclined his head. “We’d be lucky to have you with us.”
Saera took his hand. “Full circle at last.”
Wil and Saera continued making the rounds to their closest friends, sharing the news in pairs and small groups. Most of the reactions were a mixture of excitement, surprise, and skepticism about Earth, but it was clear they’d have as much support as they’d need within the TSS when the twins came of age.
After hours of explanation, they were finally able to return to their quarters.
“Should our children really know nothing about their true heritage?” Saera pondered as they reclined on the couch.
“If they did, that would defeat the purpose,” Wil replied.
“What if there was a way for them to be familiar with it but not know their place?”
Wil eyed her. “What do you have in mind?”
“Well, what if they thought it was fiction?” she offered.
He thought about it for a moment. “Like, a novel that documented all the people and events, but in a way that anyone would think was just a made-up book?”
“Exactly.”
“You know, that could actually work.”
Saera placed her hand on her stomach. “They’ll never believe us when we tell them it’s real.”
Wil smiled. “I think they will when we show them all this.”
Part 2: Birthright
CHAPTER 4
“Jason! Raena! School. Now,” Wil called up the stairs for the third time. It’s official—I can never let Saera go on a TSS trip and leave me here alone ever again.
He ran his fingers through his hair and leaned against the wall next to the front door. Since moving to Earth, the challenges he faced on a daily basis were refreshingly mundane—no worlds that needed saving, no diabolical enemy to destroy. But dealing with two teenagers… Some days he felt like he’d met his match.
“Coming!” Jason finally yelled down the stairs, followed by hurried footsteps. He leaped down the last four steps and landed nimbly, scooping his backpack off the ground and slipping his tablet into the internal pocket in one fluid motion. “You packed lunch, right?”
“Yes, but it’s high time you did it yourself.”
His son grinned back, his teal eyes sparking beneath his styled chestnut hair. “But having you or Mom do it is so much easier.”
“And with that kind of attitude you really expect us to get you a car?” Wil asked with a raised eyebrow.
“We’ve been sixteen for four months now. All our friends have had their own car for years and—”
“Most of your friends are also two years older than you.”
“It’s a time-honored rite of passage!” Jason exclaimed. “I mean, come on! The car drives itself.”
Wil sighed. “We’ll talk about it again when your mom gets back.”
“That’s what you said last time.”
“We did talk about it. The answer was just ‘no’.”
Jason adjusted his backpack slung over his shoulder. “You’re stifling our independence.”
“No, I’m making sure you have some sense of discipline before you graduate high school.”
“My grades are perfect. This isn’t fair.”
Of course their grades are perfect—they’ve never had a remotely challenging class in their lives. The twins had skipped two grades, but even that wasn’t enough to pose an academic challenge. Any more advancement, though, would have undermined the social benefits of moving to Earth. Wil let out a slow breath. “It’s not a matter of punishment or reward for academic performance. It’s concern about your safety.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Jason headed for the door.
“Where’s
your sister?”
His son shrugged. “I dunno. I didn’t even hear her and Katie in her bedroom.”
Wil resisted the urge to facepalm. “Raena! Are you coming?”
“Just a second!” his daughter finally replied.
“Go ahead to the bus,” Wil told his son. “And don’t hold it for her. She said a midweek sleepover wouldn’t change anything, so she can walk if she misses it.”
Jason laughed. “Tough love, geez. But, you know, if we had a car—”
Wil opened the door and shooed Jason out. “Have a good day. I’ll see you tonight.”
“Later.” Jason jogged down the porch steps.
“You’re going to miss the bus!” Wil shouted up the stairs. At this point, I really don’t care. They’ll never learn good time management or responsibility like this. Stars! I was almost an Agent by the time I was their age.
“Yeah, we’re coming!”
Three days. Just three more days until Saera is back. Wil took a calming breath, reminding himself that running late for school wasn’t the end of the world. Life on Earth in their year 2044 was easy—a place where he could forget about the complications in the rest of the galaxy and just be a father with some vague job as a contractor with the military.
As he settled on the couch in the living room to read the morning news, Wil ignored the sound of running footsteps above and smiled to himself. Their existence wasn’t perfect, but all in all things were pretty good. He could only hope things would stay that way.
* * *
“You cannot tell my dad I forgot to set my alarm!” Raena hissed to her friend. She slipped on a shirt and dashed over to her vanity to locate a hairbrush.
“Relax. Nothing happens in First Period, anyway,” Katie replied, calmly scanning over the books on Raena’s bookshelf.
“I have a chemistry test!”
“Psh, you’ll pass without trying.” Katie flicked her wrist and grabbed one of the books off the shelf. “What’s this? I don’t remember seeing it before.”
Raena glanced over at the book while brushing her chestnut hair back into a ponytail. “Oh, some new sci-fi thing my parents just gave me. It’s sort of written like a handbook for citizens of the galaxy, from the perspective of an advanced alien race.”
Katie read over the blurb on the back. “The ‘Taran Empire’, huh? Is the book any good?”
“It’s really far-fetched as far as sci-fi goes and almost reads more like a textbook. But, I guess that was what the author was going for.” Raena finished securing her ponytail with an elastic band. “It’s an okay read. You can borrow it, if you want.”
Her friend eyed the book. “Brent says I need to ‘expand my horizons’ and start reading more diverse literature, or whatever.”
Raena dashed over to her desk to grab her tablet with the notes for the team assignment that had been the excuse for Katie sleeping over mid-week. They hadn’t exactly been productive, but Raena could knock out the paper herself in an hour after she got home that night. “I wouldn’t call that book ‘literature’. Then again, I wouldn’t call Brent well-read, either.”
“But he’s smokin’ hot, so there’s that,” Katie smirked. She threw the book in her backpack.
Raena double-checked that she had everything she’d need for the day and hurried to the door. “Come on. We’re late for the bus!”
The two girls stampeded down the stairs. Raena grabbed her backpack and shoved her tablet inside.
“No more mid-week sleepovers if this is how it’s going to be,” her father said from the living room.
“Sorry, Mr. Sights,” Katie said from behind Raena on the stairs. “It won’t happen again.”
“We can still make the bus. See you tonight!” Raena barreled out the door with her friend close behind. “We have to run!”
Katie groaned loudly but broke into a sprint next to her. In times like this, Raena was happy for the years of conditioning from martial arts and track. She barely felt winded after four blocks, but her friend was wheezing next to her. A block ahead, Raena spotted the bus approaching the stop, where Jason was waiting with three of the other neighbor kids.
“Almost there!” Raena encouraged.
Katie grimaced and accelerated to keep pace with her.
They finished their dash through the suburban neighborhood that had been Raena’s home for her whole life. The homes were mostly newer, but some blocks still had renovated houses from the 1910s or even older. All her history classes in school had driven home the heritage in Virginia, and she considered herself lucky to live in a place that offered some glimpse of another time. All the same, she more often found herself looking upward toward the stars and wondering if there was any other life out there.
With Katie panting behind her, Raena slowed as she neared the bus stop. The yellow bus had on its flashers and the door opened.
Their family friend, Corine, was first to climb up the stairs.
Jason watched them approach as he boarded with a smirk of casual amusement. The two neighbor boys, both freshman, smiled at Raena and Katie with thinly veiled panic in their eyes.
They should have learned to talk to a pretty high school girl after two months of school. She flashed them a polite smile and then turned her attention to boarding the bus. “Good morning,” she greeted the middle-aged woman who’d been on the route since her own freshman year. Though the bus was self-driving, like all other modern vehicles, having an adult around to keep order was a requirement.
Raena proceeded to her usual seat in the center left of the vehicle.
“Cut it a little close, didn’t you?” Jason ribbed from across the aisle.
She glared at her brother. “You’re normally the one running late.”
He grinned at her. “But not today!”
She sighed and sank into her seat behind Corine. “Good morning,” Raena greeted.
“Hey,” Corine replied.
They’d known each other for practically their whole lives, since Corine’s parents, Michael and Elise, were best friends with Raena’s own parents. Though Corine was only a year younger than Raena and Jason, they’d never particularly bonded as friends. In some ways, Raena regarded Corine in much the same way as her cousins on her mother’s side—someone with whom to be cordial at family gatherings, but she wouldn’t go out of her way to hang out.
Katie collapsed next to Raena. “Next time, I’m setting my own alarm.”
“Oh, so that’s what happened?” Jason asked. He crossed his arms and leaned back, bracing one of his knees on the back of the seat in front of him. “I should have known something was up when I didn’t hear you taking forever in the bathroom.”
“Yeah, thanks for checking, by the way,” she shot back.
“Your schedule isn’t my problem. But you better watch it—I think I’m finally making progress with the whole car thing. Don’t screw this up for both of us.”
“I was running late one morning, geez!” Raena smoothed back a loose strand of hair that had escaped from behind her ear. “Gosh, it’d really be nice to have a car to take to college. I’d hate being stuck on campus.”
“Every campus has a car-share program these days,” Katie pointed out.
“True,” Raena conceded. “But still.”
“Have you tried talking to them about out-of-state applications again?” Katie asked.
“That’s going about as well as getting a car,” Raena huffed. “We certainly lucked out with the most sheltering parents ever.”
“I’m applying to at least three schools in California whether they like it or not,” Jason declared. “I’m sick of these snowy winters.”
Katie laughed. “Three? You can just apply to your top pick and call it good. Both of you are guaranteed to get in anywhere you apply with perfect SAT scores and your straight-As.”
Jason shrugged. “I want to keep my options open. I haven’t decided what to study yet.”
“Me either,” Raena admitted. “Nothing has really clicked.”
Katie rolled her eyes. “I’d give my spleen to have it as easy as you two. Never having to study and still rocking it all the time.”
“I study!” Raena retorted.
Her friend eyed her from above her glasses. “Yeah, college textbooks you check out from the library for fun. That doesn’t count.”
“Sorry, I just like physics,” Raena muttered.
“I think you want to be an astronaut and won’t admit it to yourself.”
“Air force wouldn’t be bad, actually,” Jason said after a moment. “Guaranteed flight training for officers.”
Raena chuckled. “There is no way Mom would agree to you joining the military.”
“Grandpa worked for the FBI. It’s not all that different.”
“Good luck with that.” Raena dug into her backpack for her phone. “Hey, is Britney’s birthday party still on for Friday night? I saw a post on her Feed that she was sick.”
“Last I heard it was. She just had a cold or something,” Katie replied. “Are you going, too, Jason?”
He groaned. “I hate attending co-ed parties with my sister—no offense, Raena. Watching guys fawn over you is just… creepy.”
“You think it’s any better for me with you?”
On cue, Katie slid over to Jason’s seat across the aisle and leaned up against his shoulder, playfully trailing her finger over his chest. “Like Molly Suthers at James’ party last weekend—”
“Gah, stop!” he threw up his hands and tried to escape, but there were only a few inches between his present position and the window. “You may as well be my sister, too. God, Raena and I have known you since we were what—five?”
She kept up the mocking voice, “But maybe seeing Molly with you has awakened an unrequited love—”
“And what does Brent have to say about all this?” Raena cut in.
“Frankly, I think he’d be fine with sharing.”
Raena laughed.
Jason let out an exaggerated sigh and gently shoved Katie away. “Go back to your seat and talk about your girl things.”
“But Jason, what about our future?” Katie cried, the melodrama dripping from every syllable.