Empire Reborn (Taran Empire Saga Book 1)

Chapter 2.2

They finished breakfast in relative silence, content to simply be in each other's company. When the meal was complete, and all requisite coffee had been consumed, it was time to find out how serious an issue they were facing.

Leaving Ryan to his own business, Raena took the short trek down the hall to her cozy secondary office. Since she made it a point to keep work away from their private residential suite, it offered a convenient place to go for urgent meetings. While her primary workspace on the other side of the sprawling estate was designed to impress visitors, this one was sparsely furnished for productivity, with the desk arranged so she could look out to her right through the window and feel like she was flying above the waves.

She settled into the padded swivel-chair behind the desk and opened up a secure vidcall over instantaneous subspace relay to her father, following the contact instructions in his message.

The viewscreen embedded in the wall behind the three visitor chairs resolved into the image of her father in his office. It hardly seemed like he'd aged since her childhood, still appearing youthful despite being in his fifties. His commanding presence, however, was the true representation—not just of age, but of the wisdom of someone who'd lived through devastation and would do anything to prevent future tragedy. He didn't talk about it much, but Raena knew the war had changed him. But he was her dad, and she couldn't imagine him being any other way.

"Hi," she greeted. "I got your message."

"Thanks for getting back to me quickly. I'm sorry to disrupt your morning routine." Even though TSS Headquarters was on the other side of the galaxy, the time aligned with Raena's since the former Priesthood's island served as the standardized clock across the disparate Taran worlds.

She smiled. "I'm fed and caffeinated, so I'm ready for anything. Now, what about this ship?"

Her father folded his hands on his desktop. "We'll know more soon, but I wanted you to be prepared in case it's what I fear. Something may be coming through the Rift."

Now that I wasn't expecting. She pursed her lips and took a calming breath through her nose. "I see."

He gave a solemn nod. "Worse, it may be connected to that incident a few months ago."

"Which...?" It took a second for her to make the connection to the recent tragedy in the Outer Colonies. "Oh." A knife drove into her heart with the reminder. Several planets had been assaulted, displacing millions, and costing the lives of too many others. The circumstances were so different that she didn't see how they were related. "How? I thought that was resolved?"

"There was a little more to it than what the TSS shared with the High Council at the time," he revealed.

Her eyes narrowed slightly. "What happened to transparency?"

"Information that has no actionability can cause more harm than good. It was a calculated omission, reserved until it became relevant."

"And now it is, because of this attack? Why?"

"I'll get to that." Her father took a deep breath and looked through the screen, giving the impression that he'd rehearsed what he was about to say. "As I told the High Council then, the TSS learned that a rogue group had been gathering Gate-travel tech. The Gate spheres open a temporary passageway for instantaneous travel between worlds, but they are genetically keyed so only people with a specific gene can pass through. They are remnants of a galactic war sometime in the ancient past between Tarans and two other powerful races."

Raena's eyes widened; that was new information.

He nodded at her reaction. "I'd never heard about the conflict before, either; it seems the history must have been lost to modern Tarans during one of the Revolutions, like so much else."