Empire's Son: An Epic Science Fiction Novel Series

With my hands in tight fists by my side and I clamped down on my urge to walk away. Even though I didn't want to admit it, he was right. There was so much I still didn't know, and while I wanted to be anywhere else than with this man right now, I still wanted, no needed answers. I had questions that needed answers.

"If you were so damn concerned about keeping your secret, why even build New Horizons? You are the CEO of a major technology company. It's not exactly keeping a low-profile."

Dad shrugged. "I hadn't set out to be so successful. It just happened. My main goal was to try to slowly give back to this planet that had become our safe haven. I'm not saying I am an expert in Ethian technology, far from it, but I knew enough to get by. I met a few people here who were good engineers, and I threw some ideas at them they thought were inventive, and they ran with it. I do know about being a leader, so that's how I managed running New Horizons, but I assure you, it was a partnership with other very talented individuals that got the company off the ground."

I knew that part was true. John Delany and Melody Gram were good friends of the family. They, along with my dad, were the backbone of the company. I guess I just didn't realize the truth of the dynamics of how it all came about. I just saw the three of them as friends who worked together. A dark thought came to me.

"Did they know?"

Dad shook his head. "No. Believe me, I wanted to tell them. They are my best friends, but your mom and I decided against it. Though I wonder if they might have guessed. Some of my ideas have differed greatly from what has been seen on Earth, and there were times when the idea would be there, but none of us could figure out how to make it work with current Earth technology."

I felt oddly relieved that Dad's closet friends were in the dark on this too. It made the sting of betrayal at least a little easier, knowing that I wasn't the only one they had lied to.

"Why take that risk at all?" I said, still standing between the table and my chair. I pushed the anger back enough so I could think a little more clearly and continue this conversation, but it didn't mean I wanted to sit down at the same table with him.

Dad cast a glance toward the living room again, where the news continued its relentless coverage. "Because it was the right thing to do, son. We could help these people, so we did it the best way we could without exposing ourselves. We still had to hide from Ethia, and the way this planet's communication network just blasts everything out for the whole universe to hear…" He trailed off, letting me draw my own conclusions.

"And none of the governments ever found out?" I asked incredulously. "I mean, you landed a ship here and somehow dropped it at the bottom of a lake."

Dad waved a hand as if it wasn't even a concern. "Even if our ship wasn't space worthy, we still had a lot of things working for us. Mostly, that advanced technology I was just talking about. It was rather easy to keep our ship undetectable by Earth's technology when we entered the atmosphere, and after we landed. And sinking a ship is far easier than you might think."

I blinked at him. My mind was a mess of thoughts and more questions, but another, more urgent one came to me.

"What about Emmaline?"

"What about her?"

I wasn't sure how to put what I was thinking into words, but it seemed to me that if they were on the run that it wouldn't be wise to add someone else to the mix.

Dad must have caught on to what I was thinking. "She was a surprise. We hadn't intended that to happen." A smile lit up his face. "But she was a delightful surprise."

Despite my anger, I couldn't help but smile, too. I couldn't argue with him about that. It was a shock when they had first told me they were expecting a baby right before my eleventh birthday. I thought it was weird to have a new sibling when I was so old. Besides, I already had my big brother, Eric. What did I need another sibling for? But I remembered the first time I saw her at the hospital as her tiny fingers wrapped around my much bigger one. It was love at first sight.

It had changed my life, and I couldn't imagine it without her. Sure, she was demanding, annoying, and spoiled rotten like any youngest child of a family, but that's because she was well loved by all of us. My heart swelled as I thought of all our time together. She was my little sister, and I would do anything for her, do anything to protect her. And yes, even lie to her if I thought it was for her own good. Because I imagined how she would take all this truth being offered to me right now, and my heart shuttered at the thought.

I plopped back down in my chair. My anger at my parents cooled considerably. But I wasn't ready to forgive them, not by a long shot. But I could see the impatience in my dad. I remembered he had said we had little time. I wasn't sure I wanted to know the why, but I knew what I had to ask next.

"So that ship. The big one. It's from Ethia right?"

Dad nodded.

"They found us? How? It's been twenty years." I couldn't believe how calm my words sounded, and that I had yet to break out in a cold sweat with my heart racing. It was like a part of me had known the truth deep down and was all too eager to accept this as my new truth. Though a large part of me was still in shock and disbelief, with each passing moment, I could feel this new reality solidifying inside of me. This was real. This was really happening. This was my life now. And surprisingly, I wasn't in full-out panic mode––yet.

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"I don't know, son. That part baffles me. I had thought after all this time we would have been safe."

"So does that mean…" I couldn't even say the words, because right then a whole new realization washed over me––the real reason that massive alien ship was here, on Earth, hovering over Lake Thurmond and Star Trekking that long abandoned ship onto their much bigger one.

I finally understood the panic and desperate sorrow of my mom. I understood the hard and fearful look on my dad's face. As Dad's story kaleidoscoped in my mind about my brothers' attack and their escape from that place called Ethia, it all made perfect sense to me. Safe. We weren't safe anymore.

All my anger, all the bad thoughts I had had about my parents, disappeared in a blink. This was why they had lied to us. This was why they had hidden the truth. I felt sick to my stomach as the full scope of it all washed over me. They wanted to keep us from worrying about this very thing happening.

My dad, my mom, Emmaline, and I. They had come for us. And then I felt the panic crashing into me like a tsunami. My palms started to sweat. My heart jumped into a thundering gallop. I suddenly found it hard to breathe. Oh my God, this wasn't happening.

Dad must have seen my panic and fear. He moved to stand by my side and laid a gentle hand on my shoulder. "Son, listen to me. It's going to be alright."

"How?" I rasped out between my ragged breathing. "How is this going to be alright, Dad? They came here for us. Do you really think they'd leave without us? I don't want to leave, and I don't want anything bad happening to you, Mom, or Emmaline."

"I know, but I think I've figured out a workaround so you, your mother, and Emmaline can stay here. But I wanted to make sure you knew the truth before I left, because I wasn't sure your mother could do it, and I felt you needed to hear this from me. Your mom and Emmaline are going to need you more than ever after I'm gone."

"What, no, Dad-"

Dad held up a hand to stop me.

"It's done. Remember when I told you I had to go do something? I still had a communication device from before. I used it to contact someone on the ship. He's a friend. Someone we trust. I've already told him I plan on turning myself over, and to let the commander of the ship know. I already have a good story about the loss of you and your mother during the ship's crash on the planet. They'll believe it because the ship suffered some major damage in the living quarters. And I won't even mention Emmaline––they don't know of her existence, so I'm not going to tell them about her."

My dad then pulled a key out of his pocket and set it on the table in front of me.

"This goes to a storage unit near the edge of the city. It has what's left of what your mom and I could salvage from the ship. It's yours now to do with as you wish. I also called the business lawyer and started having him sign you over as the new CEO. Remember, we'd talked about you taking over the company down the road? Well, I already had things lined up, so now it's just a matter of signing a few papers."

My head was spinning. This had gone from bad to worse in the blink of an eye. It was going way too fast, and in a direction I most definitely did not like at all. The idea of Dad just being gone seemed intolerable to me. Yes, we'd talked about me taking over the business someday, but that was a day long into the further. Not today, and definitely not like this. But the thought that got to me was the one I couldn't seem to find words for, because it was too horrible even to comprehend. I wet my lips as they trembled with the effort of asking the question.

"W-what's going to happen when you turn yourself over?"

Dad gave me a sad smile. "That doesn't matter. What matters is that you, your mom, and your sister will be here and live long, happy lives on this planet. That's what I want. That's what matters to me."

"But-"

Dad stood up tall and straight and gave me that stern look he always did when he had had enough, and I was supposed to do as I was told. "It's already done. They already know I'm giving myself up. I have two hours to reach the rendezvous."

"And if you aren't there?"

Dad pressed his lips together in a thin line. I could tell by what he wasn't saying that none of us would like the consequences of his not being there. So I just nodded, knowing this had to be done. I didn't like it, not one bit, but it didn't seem like I had any say in the matter.

"Where is the rendezvous?"

"Just outside the city."

I looked at him in surprise. "Can they get from Georgia to New York that fast?"

"No. They can do it way faster than two hours." Dad waved a hand. "It will take them no time at all. But it's not their arriving in time that I'm worried about. It's going to take most of that two hours to get out there with traffic, so I need to leave as soon as possible."

"Why didn't you just set up a meeting point in the city?"

"Because that would have been too close to you, your mom, and sister for my comfort. Also, the place I have in mind is far away from the public too, so hopefully no one else will get dragged into this. And look, I'm leaving it up to you to tell Eric about this. I know he's off playing soldier right now, but his tour will be up soon. He knows nothing of this, but I want you to tell him everything. He deserves to know. I'm just sorry I didn't tell you all sooner, so we could have dealt with this as a family."

"What should I tell Emmaline?"

Dad gave a weary sigh. "I will leave that up to you. She's still so young, but you two have a good connection, and I think you know what she can handle better than anyone."

I nodded in agreement. Even though we had a large age difference, we were still close. I cherished the relationship I had with my sister. And I already knew she could handle the truth, maybe even better than me, because at this moment, I was doing everything I could not to scream and yell at the whole universe for what was happening.

"Michael!"

I looked up at Dad. There was a concerned look on his face.

"Are you going to be alright?"

I nodded, but I didn't feel all right, not even a little bit. This all was happening too fast. All I wanted to do was crawl back into bed and start this day over and pretend this wasn't happening.

"I have to go, son. And it will be alright. Life will go on."

I nodded my head again out of pure reflex, but I didn't believe him. I didn't want to believe any of this. It was all too fantastic and awful to comprehend.

Dad squeezed my shoulder, and then he was gone, leaving me in a turmoil of scattered thoughts and emotions, and to get myself back under control for the second time today.