Empire Reborn (Taran Empire Saga Book 1): A Cadicle Space Opera A.K. DuBoff (guided reading books TXT) 📖

head and looked at her. “Well, of course. What I mean is, Tarans have gone to great lengths to keep the Empire’s presence hidden. It’s always felt like there must be a reason for it. The cost and labor associated with that secrecy is astronomical.”

“I suspect you have a hypothesis,” Cris stated.

“More of an inkling, at the moment. I wonder if it has something to do with this ancient alien tech from the galactic war.”

“What makes you wonder that?”

“There’s no shortage of ancient alien stories on Earth. In the time we lived down there, I figured most of it stemmed from former Taran interaction—and that’s certainly part of it. But I wonder if there was also something else going on. Perhaps even one reason colonists from so many disparate planets settled on Earth to make it the cultural melting pot it is today.”

“What could be there?” Cris wondered aloud.

Wil shrugged. “I have no idea. But, what if all of those ancient sites on Earth were built in those locations because there’s something important there? Buried deep beneath the pyramids or Stonehenge, or any number of other historic sites.”

Saera raised an eyebrow skeptically. “I think you watched too many of those conspiracy shows on TV. Wouldn’t something have been found, if it exists?”

“Has anyone bothered to look? Taran researchers, I mean,” Wil clarified. “Everything I’ve ever heard is that modern-day people write off Earth as a nothing backwater world. But there must be some reason the specialized stewardship we show the planet started all of those years ago. We go through the motions now because that’s how it’s been done as far back as anyone can remember, but why?”

“I must admit, you raise an interesting point,” Cris admitted. “To my knowledge, Earth is a no-fly zone except for sanctioned military and political operations—and, naturally, some space tourists occasionally skirt the law and mess with the local humans. But research historians? No.”

“The mystery continues,” Saera said dramatically.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have a good suggestion for how to begin an investigation on Earth,” Cris said.

“It’s something to keep in mind, anyway.” Wil gazed at the toradite crystal record. “At least we got what we came for. We’ll get some other eyes on it to make sure we didn’t miss anything. On that note, we should return to Headquarters.”

“Stay the night,” his father suggested. “Fill everyone in on the discoveries. It might be quite a while before we have another chance to be together.”

“We shouldn’t delay,” Wil said to Saera telepathically.

“The research team at Headquarters can get started on the image analysis without us. One more night here won’t make or break things.”

“All right, one more night,” Wil yielded. “Then we have to get to work.”

—     —     —

Something had changed. Only a short while had passed since Lexi had met with Oren about the grand vision for the Sovereign Peoples Alliance’s movement, but she’d noticed a shift in the energy around the office. People were more serious and fervent in their actions. They sat huddled in small groups talking rather than watching vids on the main viewscreen. When they did watch anything, it was flipping through the official media broadcasts to see the spectrum of political coverage.

The rally on Duronis was no longer the focus, but the political commentary had persisted. They had sparked a conversation, which was the point.

So why doesn’t anyone seem happy? Lexi looked around the lounge room at the serious faces. She was by no means the lowest-ranked person in the organization—especially not now, after her promotion—but everyone seemed to be picking up on something she wasn’t. It was frustrating to continually feel like an outsider. And she knew she wasn’t stupid. What the fok is going on?

“Lexi!”

The sudden call of her name from Shena made her jump. “Yeah, what?” Lexi replied.

“You’re late for the meeting.”

What meeting? Lexi rose from her seat to see Shena motioning for her to follow. “No one told me there was one.”

“Oh, oops.” Shena shrugged. “I guess I forgot to pass on the message from Oren.”

Forgot or didn’t care to? Lexi followed the other woman, as requested. “What’s the meeting about?”

“Next steps.”

“Is this meeting a new thing…?”

“You mean this one specifically, or these kinds of tactical discussions?”

“The latter,” Lexi clarified.

“Oh, we have them every couple of days.” Shena said it so casually, Lexi almost felt silly for asking.

But she was well aware that she was right to feel surprised. The people she slept next to, ate with, talked to every day, had been having secret meetings ‘every couple of days’ for who knew how long, and she hadn’t had a clue.

It was obvious, then, that the others in the Alliance probably learned something in their last meeting that had set them on edge. That’s why everyone had turned somber and she was still clueless about why. The explanation made her feel better, but only marginally. It still didn’t offer any insight into what.

Think about Melisa. She reminded herself. You need to stay the course for her.

If it wasn’t for that singular drive, Lexi would have run far away from the Alliance after the way things had been going the last few days. The mounting tension was the sort that could only be released from a physical altercation. She wanted political change, but not through violence.

Of course, she couldn’t say any of that out loud. She needed to play along, be an unwavering supporter of the Alliance and its quest for independence in the Outer Colonies. Sovereignty of the planets. So, she followed Shena downstairs… and directly through the door at the end of the hallway, which she’d recently gone through with Oren. The door that Shena said was always locked when Lexi had asked her about it.

As they passed through, Shena must have noticed Lexi’s expression of confusion and