Abigail sidled over to me. “I’m going to advise the command crew of what’s going on so the guys know. Any objection?”
“None, just make sure you don’t share this in front of any of the Real Naked Apes.”
She grinned. “Got it.” She zipped off.
The hardest decision was the Lewis family. We all wanted Kevin with us, but most of the kids were staying behind, meaning that Denise was going to be more helpful there. It was Sylvia who made the decision. “The youngest children are the ones who are going on. To me, that means you need Denise with you, on the Distant Voyager, not staying behind with the rest of us.”
“My sister has a good point,” Jeff said, as Raymond and Rachel high-fived each other. Sylvia beamed. Yeah, his sisters thought Jeff walked on water.
“As the father of the youngest ones, I’m in agreement, too, so thank you, Sylvia,” Christopher said. She beamed at him as well. Not a surprise—Christopher was also a water-walker to the Martini women.
“What about me?” Vance asked as Abigail returned and gave me the “all good” sign.
“You stay with Jeff and Kitty,” Raj said. “Because I’m staying on-planet.” Vance didn’t complain, possibly because MJO was going on.
“Tim wants me to stay on-planet,” Alicia said. “And I haven’t asked him, I just know.”
“What do you want to do?” Vance asked her.
“I want to go.”
Vance nodded. “Then you’re going. I’ll keep an eye on you if he’s busy Commandering.”
She grinned. “Thanks.”
“I can help anyone with spin, if and as needed,” Jenkins said. “So, if you’re not sure what to say and Raj isn’t nearby, find me.”
“What Bruce said.” Hey, wanted to be sure we spun our spin correctly, and the Tastemaker was great with spin.
Jeff looked up. “I think we’re close to the system. The Ignotforstans just all got excited at the same time.”
“That means it’s showtime, folks,” Raj said. “Remember—we’re staying because it’s an honor and because we all have jobs to do.”
“Dirty jobs,” Sidney said, rather proudly.
“Done dirt cheap,” Lizzie added with a grin.
“And,” Claire said, “we’re just the team to do them.”
CHAPTER 92
“COMMAND DECK PERSONNEL, please return to stations,” Mother intoned over the com. “All others, please strap in. Landing should be smooth, so if you wish to remain in the Observation Lounge, you should be safe to do so.”
We got the kids strapped in, then Jeff, Chuckie, Drax, and I headed for the command deck doing the hyperspeed daisy chain. Mother didn’t demand that Jeff and I switch with Reader and Jerry, and none of us asked about it, either.
We were in time to see Kreaving’s solar system come into view. The only Ignotforstans here were Kreaving and Grentix. Had no idea where the others were, but figured by now White and Gower had taken them back to the Observation Lounge.
Wruck was here as well, as was Lilith. Wruck was staring out the window. “It’s a lovely system.”
“Looks a lot like Alpha Centauri,” Chuckie said once we’d gotten close enough to the window to see things. “Three suns, two far larger than the third, almost twenty planets.”
“They’re not orbiting like those in the Alpha Centauri system, though,” Reader said. “We’ve already asked.”
“We’ve radioed ahead,” Jerry shared. “They know we’re coming and we should get to do an actual docking at an actual space station this time.”
“Not on-planet?”
“Nope,” Hughes said. “They have a nice space station that’s conveniently located for all their spacefaring planets, which is about half of the system.”
“So, Wheatles, you guys are flying around doing interesting things. You have enough spaceflight that your system has a space station. How is it that you didn’t know about the Galactic Council and so forth?” Sure, he’d talked about this with Drax and Gadhavi, but he hadn’t done so with me.
Kreaving shrugged. “Per all the maps, our system is near the edge of the galaxy.”
“Much farther out from the core than we are,” Tim added.
“We haven’t ventured too far from our own neighborhood,” Kreaving said. “We’ve paid attention for centuries to what’s outside of our area—radio waves do carry.”
“So we’ve been told. A lot. But okay, why no real interaction?”
“Because we haven’t felt confident enough to try to reach the core. And we were leery about reaching out to others. From what we can tell, there’s some kind of war going on out there, many of them, but one that’s bigger than the others. Our system is at peace, and we all want to stay that way.”
“They’re not isolationist,” Reader said, in a way that told me he’d definitely talked with Abigail and knew the current party line. “Just cautious. Which, based on what we know, is wise.”
Grentix nodded. “While we know of many, you’re the first more advanced civilization we’ve met.”
“I don’t know that we’re more advanced,” Jeff said. “Just more traveled. In some ways.”
“I’m still shocked that the Anciannas and Z’porrah left you guys alone, honestly. That, to me, seems hard to believe, based on experience.” Very hard to believe, isolationist system or no.
“They probably weren’t left alone by my people,” Wruck said. “Shape-shifters can blend in.” He changed to look just like he was Wheatles or Grentix’s cousin. Then he shifted back. “Presumably they’re far enough away from the core that the Z’porrah don’t care. Yet.”
“Yet is the key word, yeah.” Wondered if I should mention us wanting to protect this system or not. “But we’re allies now, so if you need us, we’ll come.”
“And we’re grateful for that,” Kreaving said.
“This system may be being ignored simply because the Z’porrah are being more cautious,” Lilith said. “They have lost more and more battles, and their Federation of Planets is starting to question their goals and methods.”
“Hey, did anyone else catch that the Z’porrah’s group name is the same as the good guys in Star Trek?”
“We did,” Tito said. “The rest of us just chose not to mention it.”
“Haters.”
“Trying to bring in new systems that the Anciannas have already claimed is not wise at this moment,” Lilith continues, “because the Anciannas can call on Earth for backup.”
“Gosh, we’ve gone from insolent, loser backwater to major player pretty fast.”
Everyone looked at me. “Yeah,” Walker said, sarcasm knob at ten and rising. “I wonder why the hell that is, Kitty. Wouldn’t be because of you or anything.”
“Um, it’s a team effort.”
“It is,” Reader agreed. “But we know who’s at the top of our enemies’ hit lists, and that’s you, girlfriend.”