Amara stood in the station's security room, arms crossed, watching the feeds from the meeting room with the kind of professional irritation that came from babysitting situations she couldn't control. The monitors showed Tanya settling into her chair across from two strangers who'd appeared out of nowhere, claiming to be researchers but carrying classified markers that made Davidson's people nervous. She was happy that Tanya had at least reached out first before meeting them. She was thankful for the small mercies of life.
"Too green," she muttered to herself, watching Tanya's body language on the screen. "Smart as hell, but still too trusting. Dragging us all into trouble she doesn't even see coming."
Her secure comm chimed, displaying Davidson's contact signature filling the screen. She accepted the call with a tap.
"Should I shut this down?" she asked without preamble. "Your dossier shows these two are connected to some sensitive technologies. We can cite security protocols, have them escorted off-system."
"Negative," Davidson replied, his tone clipped. "Higher-ups made arrangements. The Welsh siblings have… authorisation to make contact. It was the higher-ups who gave them our location"
"Authorisation from who?"
"People who don't explain themselves to me," Davidson said dryly. "Fair warning: reports say they're uncooperative. I suspect this is some kind of experiment.
Amara could tell decisions were being made by those they couldn't question, but that just made it situation more precarious for everyone involved.
Amara tightened her grip on the security console, cycling through camera angles to get better coverage of the meeting room. "Understood. I'll keep the feeds live and monitor for any problems."
"Do that. And Amara? Trust your instincts. If something feels wrong, pull Tanya out immediately."
The comm link closed, leaving Amara alone with her growing unease and a dozen monitors showing different angles of a conversation.
Back in the meeting room, Tanya was discovering that her expectations about the Welsh siblings had been completely wrong. Instead of Cameron, the elder of the two taking the lead, it was Janet who immediately commanded the conversation with an energy that filled the small space.
"Oh, this is exciting!" Janet said brightly, sliding into her chair as if she'd been invited to a party. "Cameron's been talking about your forum discussions for days now. He was absolutely fascinated by your questions on crystalline matrices and dimensional manipulation. Very advanced stuff."
She gestured toward her brother with an easy flourish, like she'd been introducing him her whole life. "Of course, once his posts started lighting up government monitoring systems, we had to be more careful." She rolled her eyes playfully. "Paperwork in triplicate, stamped in red, the whole bureaucratic parade. In the end, they said we couldn't contact you"
Tanya kept her posture deliberately stiff, examining both siblings with the wariness that small-town life had taught her. Janet's bubbly confidence seemed practised, polished in a way that reminded her of the corporate reps who occasionally visited Eden-Five to negotiate crop futures. Everyone had an angle, and the trick was figuring out what it was before they figured yours.
Cameron, by contrast, was almost painfully withdrawn. He sat hunched slightly forward, his attention focused on the table's surface while his fingers worried at something on his sleeve. When he did glance up, his eyes darted away from direct contact, and Tanya got the impression that every word required effort.
"The government told you not to contact me?" Tanya asked, keeping her voice neutral and direct. No point in dancing around the obvious.
"Oh yes," Janet laughed, her tone light. "Very officially. Lots of paperwork about proper channels and authorised contact protocols. But our father has some experience with bureaucratic foot-dragging. He suggested we might make better progress with a more direct approach."
She turned to her brother. "Cameron? What was it Father said about committees?"
Cameron startled slightly, as if pulled from deep thought. His voice was quiet, halting, but precise. "He… he said people who build real things… don't have time to wait for committees to decide what's possible."
Tanya studied him, noting the way his few words were carefully considered even as he struggled to maintain eye contact. She'd known people like Cameron at university. Brilliant with schoolwork and concepts, but uncomfortable in the social machinery that most folks navigated without thinking.
"Right then," she said, still cautious but willing to let the conversation continue. "What exactly are you here to discuss? Your brother's forum posts were interesting, but they were also deliberately vague."
Janet's smile widened. "That's because we weren't sure who was listening. But now that we're here in person..." She turned to Cameron with the kind of gentle command that suggested years of practice. "Why don't you show her the thing father gave us?"
Cameron flinched, then fumbled in his jacket pocket, his expression flickering between panic and focus. "Oh. Uh—yes." He pulled out a small metallic disk, holding it like it might break if handled wrong. "He said… to show this to the right people. That they'd understand."
Cameron touched the disk's surface, and the air above it shimmered into a holographic pattern that made Tanya's breath catch. The design was abstract, almost organic, with flowing lines that seemed to shift and pulse with their own internal rhythm. It was unlike anything in human design philosophy. It was beautiful, but deeply unsettling in its alien logic.
Tanya didn't recognise the symbol, but Sage's reaction was immediate and intense.
//The Lady's mark,// his mental voice carried a depth Tanya had never heard before, heavy with memory and reverence. //This is genuine. This is trust.//
Tanya wasn't convinced; it might have meant something to Sage, but his memory was also damaged. Maybe they had once been allies, but that doesn't mean they still were.
"What is this symbol?" Tanya asked bluntly, her plain-spoken directness cutting through the careful atmosphere Janet had been building. "Where did you get it?"
"Our father said it would mean something to the right people," Janet said smoothly, her cheerfulness intact but her words firmer now. "Not for us to explain. Just that those who needed to understand would."
Cameron added quietly, almost apologetically, "He called it… a key. Or a trust signal. To show… legitimacy."
//Tanya, this is real, I remember the Lady was an important member of society,// Sage interjected with more certainty than she'd ever heard from them.
Tanya felt that Sage was confident in its belief. But her natural caution held firm, the years of farm life had taught her that trust came from actions, not symbols, no matter how impressive.
"I see," she said carefully, not committing to belief or disbelief. "And your father thought I would recognise this... trust signal?"
"He thought someone in your position would have the right connections to understand its significance," Janet replied smoothly. "Whether that's you personally or... advisors you might consult."
Tanya studied both siblings, noting how Cameron had relaxed slightly now that the demonstration was complete and he was leaving everything to his sister, while Janet maintained her cheerful vigilance. She didn't like being cornered into decisions, and she certainly didn't like strangers who claimed to carry messages from mysterious fathers with connections to alien technology.
But Sage had never spoken with such absolute certainty before. And despite her wariness, she couldn't ignore the possibility that these two represented exactly the kind of help she needed.
"Alright," she said finally. "I'm listening. But I don't make commitments lightly, and I don't trust easily. If you want my cooperation, you'll need to do better than showing me pretty holograms and telling me your father said so."
Janet's smile didn't waver, but something in her eyes suggested she'd expected exactly this response.
"Fair enough," she said. "Why don't we start with how we can help you?"
Janet's expression grew more serious, though she maintained her easy confidence. "Cameron and I had what you might call an unconventional childhood. Our parents believed in hands-on education and took us exploring different worlds from the time we were old enough to wear environment suits."
She gestured broadly, as if encompassing vast distances. "Barren rock worlds, gas giant moons, systems that barely showed up on the navigation charts. Some were completely empty, just geological formations and stellar phenomena. But others..." She glanced at Cameron, who had perked up noticeably at the change of topic.
"Others had ruins," Cameron said quietly, his voice gaining strength as he continued. "Ancient structures, abandoned installations, technology that predated human space travel by millennia."
Tanya leaned forward slightly, genuinely curious despite her caution. This was the first time Cameron had spoken without being prompted, and she could see passion building behind his reserve.
"We spent years cataloguing what we found," he continued, his fingers unconsciously tracing patterns on the table as he spoke. "Different architectural styles, various levels of technological sophistication, but there was one constant across nearly every site."
"Crystal technology," Janet supplied when Cameron paused, clearly familiar with this explanation.
"Exactly," Cameron said, becoming more animated. "Not just decorative crystals or basic energy storage, but sophisticated computational matrices, dimensional manipulation arrays, and communication networks that spanned star systems. Nearly every advanced alien civilisation we encountered had some form of crystalline technology at its core."
His eyes finally met Tanya's directly, his earlier shyness overcome by professional enthusiasm. "I've come to believe it's the next major leap in the human technology tree. We're still building with metals and polymers, but crystal-based systems offer capabilities that conventional materials simply can't match."
Tanya found herself smiling slightly, recognising the passion of someone completely absorbed in their field of expertise. It reminded her of her own enthusiasm when explaining ship design principles, the way technical fascination could overcome social barriers.
"Cameron has an unusual talent," Janet added, her tone carrying genuine pride. "He can usually tell what a crystalline system is designed to do just by studying its structure. Can't build them yet as that's still beyond human manufacturing capabilities, but he can analyse function from form with remarkable accuracy. It has helped keep the government off our backs."
Cameron's confidence faltered slightly at the praise, but he nodded. "Pattern recognition, mostly. Once you've seen enough examples, the design principles become clearer. Crystal matrices encode their purpose in their geometric arrangement."
"And your skills?" Tanya asked, looking at Janet, noting how the siblings complemented each other.
"I'm the practical half of the partnership," Janet said with a grin. "While Cameron was studying alien artifacts, I was working with our mother and making sure our ship stayed in one piece and that we had a way to get home. Mechanical engineering, improvised repairs, jury-rigged solutions using whatever components we could find or fabricate."
She leaned back in her chair, her expression growing more serious. "When you're months away from the nearest supply depot and your life support starts acting up, you learn to be creative with problem-solving. I've rebuilt engine components using asteroid minerals and kept fusion reactors running with spare parts that weren't designed for the job."
"Janet kept us alive," Cameron added quietly, the simple statement carrying obvious gratitude.
"We're a team," Janet said firmly. "Cameron understands the theory, I handle the implementation. Together, we can usually figure out how to make alien technology work with human engineering principles."
Tanya studied both siblings, reassessing her initial impressions. Their skills were exactly what she needed. Someone who could analyse the crystalline structures in vortex drives, and someone who could help adapt that knowledge into practical systems. It seemed too convenient; she had to wonder exactly who or what their parents were.
"Alright," she said slowly. "I'm interested. But I still need to know what you want in return. Nobody offers help like this without expecting something back."
Janet's smile returned, warmer and more genuine than her earlier professional pleasantness. "What we want is simple, the chance to work on something meaningful. We've been cataloguing alien ruins for years, but we've never had the opportunity to apply what we've learned to active research."
"Plus," Cameron added with growing enthusiasm, "the chance to work with someone who has access to dimensional manipulation technology. If you're building what I think you're building based on your forum posts, you're attempting something that could revolutionise human space travel."
Tanya guessed her posts weren't vague enough to cover her tracks.