Athan turned from the window, his reflection fading as he faced his son. The office felt smaller, the space between them shrinking into intimacy. Beyond the glass was the heart of everything Athan had built, the shipyards' activity, construction frames, docked vessels, and the constant traffic of shuttles and work crews.

  Luca reached into his pocket and pulled out the device.

  It was thick like a coin, maybe three centimeters across, made of dark metal that seemed to drink in light rather than reflect it. Intricate patterns covered its surface, microscopic circuitry visible if you looked close enough. One of the luxury items from their final delve in Alpha Centauri, the kind of tech that shouldn't exist but did.

  He placed it on his father's desk.

  "What's that?" Athan asked, his tone curious but measured.

  Luca pressed the activation stud. A soft vibration started, barely perceptible, like the device was testing the air around them. Then it stopped.

  "A privacy bubble," Luca said quietly. "Tech Level 9 trinket from our last delve. ECM, encrypted near-field isolation. We have five minutes."

  Athan's expression shifted into that look he got when reviewing damage reports or assessing threat vectors. "Five minutes for what?"

  Luca's hands found his pockets, then pulled free again. He didn't know how to start this. Didn't know how to explain what they'd found without it sounding insane.

  "Dad..." he started, then stopped.

  The words felt too small for what he was trying to say.

  Athan moved to one of the chairs positioned in front of his desk and settled into it, his movements deliberate. He waited with the patience he always offered when Luca or his brothers needed to work through something difficult, present and attentive without pushing.

  "What is it?" Athan asked when the silence stretched too long. "Is this regarding that data you weren't willing to share with Karen?"

  Luca exhaled. "Yes, Dad."

  He looked down at his hands, at the table, anywhere but his father's face. This was harder than he'd expected. The weight of it felt heavier here, in this room, with only his father as witness.

  "We found a vault in Alpha Centauri," Luca said finally. "A technologically advanced structure, buried deep on Proxima b. Much more advanced than what the System was providing as Tech Level 9. And within it, we found them."

  "Them?"

  Luca met his father's eyes. "Varnathi. Aliens."

  Athan's expression didn't change. No shock, no disbelief. He offered only that same focused attention, processing every word.

  "The System was providing them as mobs within portals," Luca continued, pacing the small length of the office. "We thought they were random encounters or generic enemies, but there was this signal. We first detected it when we were in FTL, moving to Alpha Centauri. That signal led us to the site on Proxima b."

  He stopped at the window, staring at the construction frames outside without really seeing them.

  "The vault," Luca said, his breath fogging the glass slightly. "It's like a life raft of their civilization. We found stasis pods. Thousands of them."

  Athan was quiet for a long moment. Then he crossed to his desk, a heavy workstation positioned to overlook the shipyards, its surface cluttered with datapads, engineering schematics, and a coffee mug that had probably been there since morning. He opened his laptop.

  "That signal," Athan said, turning the screen toward Luca. "Did it sound like this?"

  He pressed play.

  The sound that filled the room was unmistakable. The same rhythmic pulse they'd detected in subspace, the same pattern that had led them to the vault. Luca's chest went tight.

  "What?" The word came out strangled. "Dad? What? How did you..."

  "We've been tracking that signal for the past four years," Athan said, his voice steady. "Since we activated the Comms module of the Genesis Platform. They stopped about four months ago." He paused, and something flickered across his expression: confusion warring with recognition. "It made no sense. Unless the signal was moving faster than light..."

  "It was, Dad." Luca's voice was barely above a whisper. "We captured it while in subspace."

  The implications of that hung between them. A signal older than the System's arrival on Earth. A signal Genesis Platform had been tracking for years, not knowing what it was or where it came from. And now Luca had found the source.

  Athan closed the laptop and leaned back against the desk, arms crossed. "So you found a vault with aliens in stasis pods."

  It wasn't a question, but Luca nodded anyway. "Yes, Dad. We got in, and the facility has high-level defensive systems, but we were able to breach them. Most of the stasis pods have failed over the years. Tens of thousands, maybe more. Dead. But we didn't touch them. We catalogued what we could."

  "How many still functioning?"

  "About a thousand. Maybe less."

  Athan's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. Luca had seen that look before, usually right before his father made a decision that would change everything.

  "The thing is, Dad," Luca said, leaning forward, "the System was showing us snippets of their civilization through a series of portal delves. Different worlds, different time periods. But the star scapes..." He gestured helplessly. "Zoe is convinced it wasn't the Milky Way. And Danny, well, you know how he gets, he's convinced the System moved the vault to Alpha Centauri."

  "Why does he think that?"

  Luca gestured helplessly. "The planets, the asteroids. There are no resource concentrations. If there had been a thriving civilization in Alpha Centauri tens or hundreds of thousands of years ago, there would be more signs of them. We'd find ruins, concentrations of debris, refined metals, something. Just the vault on Proxima b and that buried facility on Midnight Veil. Nothing else."

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  Athan's expression was unreadable. "What did the System show you through the portal delves?"

  Luca thought back to the ballroom, to Nisede's golden eyes, to the planet blazing with light beyond those massive windows. To Keth and his casual dismissal of frontier colonies. To the warmth of genuine civilization.

  "They're like us," Luca said softly.

  "Human?"

  "No. Not human. Mammalian, for sure. Bipedal. They had a civilization, Dad. An advanced one. They colonized worlds, star systems. They had personalities." A wistful note crept into his voice despite himself. "They were capitalist. Merchants, nobles, traders. They built things. Created art. Had families."

  He paused as the heavy memory of the delve settled over him.

  "The System showed us how they overextended," Luca continued. "They tried more advanced ways to terraform. Genetic engineering. They created an insectoid species to do the work for them. And..." He trailed off.

  "And?" Athan prompted.

  "Their civilization collapsed. We think the insects turned on them. Or spread beyond their control. Either way, everything fell apart."

  Athan was silent for a moment, processing. When he spoke, his voice was measured. "And the vault?"

  "We think it's a life raft. The remnants of their civilization. Whatever happened, someone. maybe many someones, saw it coming. They built those vaults, loaded them with survivors, and sealed them away. Hoping to outlast whatever destroyed them."

  Luca checked his watch. Two minutes left. Time was slipping away.

  "Dad," he said, urgency creeping into his tone. "We don't know what to do. We don't think this is something we can bring to the UER. What would they do? Study them? Dissect them? Use them?" He gestured helplessly. "And Karen, this whole noble business, the political ramifications—"

  "Karen is on our side, Luca," Athan cut in, his voice firm. "Don't ever forget that."

  "I know, but—"

  "What are you asking me regarding this vault?"

  Luca looked at his father, at the man who had built Genesis Platform from nothing, who had defended it against saboteurs, who had sent his oldest son across four light-years knowing he might never come back.

  "We don't know what to do," Luca said quietly.

  Athan held his gaze. "You know exactly what you must do, Luca."

  "But—"

  "You already know," Athan said, cutting him off again. "If you didn't, you wouldn't be sitting here burning five minutes of real privacy on it."

  Luca opened his mouth to argue, to explain all the complications, all the variables they couldn't account for. But the words died before they formed.

  Because his father was right.

  "But why are they in Alpha Centauri, Dad?" Luca's frustration bled through. "We can't make heads or tails from that. Why would the System move them to our backyard?"

  Athan leaned back in his chair, his expression thoughtful. "As far as we can tell, everything the System has done has been to push humanity forward. You know this. We know this. Everyone knows this."

  "Dad—"

  "Tech Level 8 was near-future technology," Athan continued, his tone taking on that instructional quality Luca remembered from childhood. "Achievable, but accelerated. Tech Level 9, from what you've told me, is the next tier up. Fusion reactors, stasis technology, neural interfaces. We don't know what the System is planning or why, but everything has been a stepping stone to get us ready."

  He paused, letting that settle.

  "So I'll ask you again, Luca. Why is there a vault with an alien civilization at our doorstep?"

  Luca stared at his father. The answer was there, obvious and terrifying in equal measure.

  "I don't know," he said finally.

  "Then find out."

  The thick coin buzzed once. Sharp, final.

  Five minutes.

  Athan's demeanor shifted immediately. The intensity drained from his expression, replaced with something lighter, more casual. He returned to the window, hands clasped behind his back, looking out at the shipyards.

  "So, Luca," he said, his voice taking on an easy, conversational tone. "Am I going to get the grand tour of this newly upgraded ship of yours? I'd love to see what you've done with the Triumph."

  Luca blinked, his mind still reeling from the conversation. Then the shift registered. Right. The privacy was over. Anyone could be listening now.

  He forced a grin, matching his father's tone. "Sure, Dad. Though I'm warning you, the ship's fresh from the upgrades. Still feels a bit empty without all our gear moved in yet."

  Athan smiled, the expression reaching his eyes in a way that made Luca's chest ache. How long had it been since he'd seen his father smile like that?

  They left the office together, Luca retrieving the privacy device from the desk and pocketing it. It had drained its entire power cell, but it had been worth it. The corridors of Genesis Platform hummed with activity: crews changing shifts, cargo loaders rumbling past, the distant clang of construction work echoing through the bulkheads. Luca talked about the ship, listing the upgraded engines, the new medical bay, and Emily's insistence on including a pool. Athan asked questions, commented on design choices, made observations about the engineering challenges they must have faced.

  To anyone listening, it was a father and son catching up, talking shop and nothing more.

  But Luca felt the weight of what they'd discussed pressing against him with every step.

  Find out.

  The command was simple. The execution would be anything but.

  They reached the observation deck overlooking the external docking berths. The Triumph was moored in one of the outlying bays, some distance from the main Genesis shipyard clusters. Her hull gleamed under the platform's work lights, freshly upgraded and looking more formidable than when she'd left.

  Athan stopped at the large portholes, taking in the sight of the ship that had carried his son across four light-years and back.

  "She's beautiful," Athan said softly.

  "Yeah," Luca replied. "She is."

  For a moment, they stood side by side, father and son, looking at the vessel that represented everything they'd built together. The risks they'd taken. The trust they'd placed in each other.

  "Your mother would have been proud," Athan said, so quietly Luca almost missed it.

  Luca's throat tightened. "Yeah. She would have."

  Athan turned to face him, and the casual mask dropped for just a second. His expression was raw, unguarded. Pride and fear and love all tangled together in a way that made Luca's chest ache.

  "Whatever you decide," Athan said, his voice low, "I'm with you."

  Then the mask was back, and Athan was gesturing toward their shuttle. "Come on. Show me this pool Emily insisted on. I want to see if it's as ridiculous as it sounds."

  Luca laughed despite himself. "It's not ridiculous. It's strategic relaxation space."

  "That's what ridiculous things are always called. Like that lounge you insisted on the old ship."

  "Yeah... about that." Luca rubbed the back of his neck. "We might have three lounges now."

  Athan stopped walking and stared at him. "Three?"

  "Different purposes," Luca said defensively. "One's formal, one's casual, and one's basically the rec room."

  "That's called having too many lounges, Luca."

  As they approached the shuttle bay entrance, Luca spotted movement ahead. Emily and Zoe emerged from wherever Karen had taken them, Zoe's small form practically bouncing with energy.

  "Mom! Dad!" Zoe's voice carried across the corridor as she broke into a run, racing past them toward where her parents were standing by the airlock.

  Emily walked toward Luca, and he saw it immediately: her eyes were red-rimmed, the kind of red that came from hard crying. But she was composed now, present. She slipped her arm around his waist and leaned into him.

  "You okay?" he murmured.

  "I am now," she said softly, her voice steady despite the evidence of recent tears.

  Athan had turned to watch them, and something shifted in his expression. Luca recognized it immediately, seeing that distant look that surfaced when his father remembered Mom. The way Athan's eyes softened watching them stand together, the slight catch in his breath. He looked like he was seeing something beautiful and heartbreaking at once, watching his son with the woman he loved, standing the way Luca's parents must have stood years ago.

  They walked toward the jetbridge together, and Luca felt the weight shift slightly. It wasn't gone and never would be, but it felt bearable.

  His father had given him the answer. Not the solution he wanted, but the framework to find it.

  Find out why they're there. Find out what the System wants.

  And in doing so, figure out what to do with a thousand sleeping aliens in humanity's new backyard.

  No pressure.

  Karen Stevens and Michael were waiting near the shuttle dock, both wearing Genesis Shipyard guest badges. Karen's expression carried that protective concern she always had for "her kids."

  "Ready for the tour?" Luca asked.

  "Lead the way, Captain," Karen said with a slight smile.

  They boarded the shuttle together.