Let me tell you about first planet-fall. The Lantis ships were designed to carry thousands of people, and we were to scatter ourselves throughout the new galaxy to better ensure the survival of our people. We expected to find other people, planned to avoid settling on the same worlds as them if at all possible. But the journey was hard on the ship, to save as many people as possible we had to make planet-fall, and fast. So, we landed on a planet with warm sunny beaches and a race of carnivorous mammals that live in both the water and on land.

  -Log A, Fragment 025 - CLASSIFIED

  Courtesy of The Alliance Department of History

  ------------------------------------------------------

  Maggie scooted up in the bed as best she could, her eyes on Theodrakis. What did he want that would only take a few minutes? And that he didn’t want Robin to be here for? She wished she knew how to turn the bed into a chair like Zo’naf had, but the buttons were somewhere on the side of the bed, and she didn’t think right now was a good time to hunt for them.

  “Are you comfortable?” Theodrakis asked softly.

  Maggie hesitated, then nodded. “As comfortable as I can be, I guess.” What else was she supposed to say? That she would really like some privacy? That not being able to walk terrified her? Or maybe that the food was about as good as any other hospitals? She smirked a little at that last one and shrugged. “Food could be better, but no one is trying to shoot at me. Your doctor could use some classes in bedside manners though.”

  “Honest and to the point I see.” Theodrakis smiled thinly, but nodded. “The food will probably be bad for a little while longer, they’re trying to get you the right amount of vitamins and protein to help your body heal. Si’l Vala Do’sai’s manners, however...” He paused and shook his head. “I’ll talk to her. She’s of an old school of thought that I try to weed out of my people. But it’s hard to convince people that were raised they were raised to believe they were better than others that they are, in fact, not.”

  “Oh yeah, I’ve met people that were raised like that. They always wind up being grade-A dicks.”

  “Did your mother teach you to talk like that?” Theodrakis let out a laugh and shook his head. “No, don’t answer that.”

  He steepled his fingers, resting his chin on the tips lightly as he stared at her with a sad smile. “You’re enough like her that the Key bonded to you cleanly. That’s not always the case. I’ve seen people that were destroyed when they tried to implant a Key.”

  “Is this supposed to make me feel better?” Maggie squeaked, eyes darting to the crystal shard in the cabinet. “Theseus told me to let him know if I started shooting crystal spikes or anything like that, am I going to explode?”

  Oh calm down, you’re not going to explode. I shoot spikes and I didn’t explode!

  Shut. Up! Maggie didn’t say it out loud this time, although she felt a twitch in one of her eyes. She missed the days when those were only brought on by the most brutal exams.

  “You’re not going to explode, I promise. We have doctors and scientists here that are familiar with Ancients technology, they’ll train you and monitor you to make sure that you aren’t hurt by it. That’s one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about.” The captain glanced up towards a corner of the room and shifted a little in his chair. “Do what they tell you to do. The sooner you learn to control the Key, the safer it will be for everyone. Including you.”

  Curious, Maggie glanced up into the corner he had looked at, but didn’t notice anything in it. It just looked like a normal corner. She looked back at Theodrakis with a frown. “So I’m just supposed to obey? That’s it? That’s what you came in here to tell me?”

  “Not entirely. I want to stress that this is for your safety, everything I’ve ever done for you and your mother was to help keep you safe. I’m sorry that meant growing up without me, and now it means going through all this. I’ll try to get word to your mother, somehow.”

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  Is it just me, or is this getting more awkward by the minute?

  Maggie slumped back in the bed, closing her eyes as she pictured kicking Te’chik in the shins. All it did though was make the voice in her head laugh again. If she was going to have an invisible friend, couldn’t it be a useful invisible friend? Instead of whatever this was.

  “You could have said all this with Robin in the room you know.”

  “That was another thing I wanted to talk to you about.” Theodrakis leaned forward, lowering his voice. “I’m not sure how much you can trust him, keep your guard up.”

  Maggie’s eyes shot open, and she frowned at Theodrakis. “Robin’s been with me through a lot of this, he’s earned my trust by now. You haven’t. You’re just some guy that says he’s my dad, but all the proof you have is your word and a little hologram of you and my mom.”

  Theodrakis leaned back as if he had been slapped. “There’s also the genetic evidence.”

  “Which isn’t likely to make any sense to me.” Why the hell did she feel like crying all of a sudden? She had dreamt of meeting her dad hundreds of times as a child. But now that it might have happened, how could she even be sure it was him? He looked like how her mother described him, but how many people did? Hell, Theseus and Robin could look like her dad if she went by the basics: white, brown hair, tall. Except they had blue eyes, and her mother had always said that he father had green eyes, just like her.

  “Whether you believe it or not, I am your father.” Theodrakis stood up, giving his uniform a firm tug to pull it back into place. “And I’m going to do what it takes to protect you, from whatever or whoever may want to hurt you.” He glanced back in the corner again, then turned and strode towards the door. “Get some rest, I’ll have you moved to your room tomorrow, and then physical therapy and training will begin.”

  “I-” Maggie stopped, not sure what to say to him. She bit her lower lip and lowered her eyes. What could she say? “I’m sorry. I just want to go home.”

  Theodrakis paused in the doorway and looked back at her with a sad smile. “I know, I’m sorry too. I know I said it before, but I never wanted this for you. I think we both need some rest though, I’ll come visit again tomorrow, in your new room. You’ll also get to meet Ux’thu. He’s very eager to meet his granddaughter.”

  “Ux’thu? You said he was an ambassador or something.”

  “He is the Silvarian ambassador for this sector of space. He’s been a strong supporter of human rights in the past forty or so years.” Theodrakis stood in the doorway for another moment, then turned and headed back to the chair, sitting down wearily. “I won’t say he’s perfect, no one ever is. But he’s been good to me, and I trust him to be good to you as well.”

  Maggie nodded slowly, then paused. “Wait, he’s a Silvarian. But you said he was eager to meet his granddaughter?” Did he mean her? Did she have an alien grandfather? She thought of Jo and Tommy, playing in the play area on Galaux Station. It wasn’t impossible, it was just.. well, it was just plain weird.

  “Yes. He raised me like his son, and called you his granddaughter just earlier today. You have family out here Maggie, you aren’t alone like you were on Galaux Station. You don’t need that holographic thing anymore.” Theodrakis leaned forward, meeting her eyes anxiously. “We aren’t even sure what he is. He could be dangerous.”

  “He’s a ghost, and he’s my friend.” Maggie said firmly, anxiety closing around her stomach like an ice-cold vice. “He’s one of the first people I met out here, and I’m not going to just abandon him now. He left his brother to keep me company.”

  “Ghosts aren’t real.” Theodrakis said gently.

  Maggie stared at him a moment, a laugh bubbling out. Aliens that didn’t believe in ghosts, who’d have thought? She supposed Bobby didn’t believe in ghosts either, so there was that. “You’re a human in space, and you don’t believe in ghosts. You know I didn’t believe in aliens before this? There are lots of things we don’t know anything about. Just because you have fancy space tech doesn’t mean you know everything that’s out there.”

  “I’ll admit there’s plenty we don’t know, but ghosts?” Theodrakis spread his hands, looking at her imploringly. “I know your mother probably raised you to be religious but some things are just too much of a stretch to believe.”

  “She did raise me to believe in God, but I wouldn’t say we were ever religious. It’s not like we went to church every Sunday or anything like that.” How the hell had they gotten on the subject of religion? “Either way it doesn’t change that Robin is my friend, whether he’s a ghost or something else.”

  Theodrakis let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Just- just don’t be too trusting of it, not until we know more.”

  “Sure.” Maggie shrugged. It seemed easier just to agree, but she trusted Robin more than she did these strangers, even if one of them was probably her dad. She had just met him!

  “Alright.” Theodrakis let out a weary sigh and stood up. “I have to get back to work, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Okay, see you later.” She slumped back in her bed, closing her eyes. Hopefully, they would bring Robin back and they could go back to watching cartoons.