Valterion: The Space/Arch? Mage

Location: Solar System; Above Venus; Valterion Shipyard

I have to admit that I enjoy this way too much. Their reactions are just too cute, and seeing their brains literally stop working for a second is too amusing. Still, I revealed myself for a reason, and so, after dropping the probably biggest bomb I have on Nick, I point at the big blast door behind me and start turning around.

"I promise to explain. Everything will make sense, but we have two friends to rescue first."

I hear a relieved sigh from Dave and feel kinda bad for ignoring the three archaeologists so far. Therefore, I wave at them and beckon them to join me at the panel.

"Are you really…?" Fabio asks, his voice barely a whisper.

I nod while tapping the panel before me to turn it back on. "Yes, and I will explain right after we've rescued Lena and Toby. It's kind of a long story, and I don't want to go over it a hundred times because I know you'll have questions… My parents were the same…"

That final comment shuts them up, and they seem to get lost in their thoughts. I send a quick message to Clara, asking her to set everything up while removing the glove on my right hand. It's a bit of a hassle as the suits aren't really designed to take off parts of them, but I manage after a few tries, and the glove neatly detaches.

"It's ready," Clara calls out for everyone to hear. They have all gathered around me and seem to hold their breath. I step forward and place my palm on the panel.

For a few moments, nothing happens, then there is a soft chime, and I remove my hand. Familiar words start filling the screen, and I take a relieved breath myself.

DNA match confirmed. Security measures deactivated. Welcome, Miss Valterion!

"It's really true," Tim whispers.

I ignore him and look at the door. Why isn't it opening? "Clara?"

"Give me a second. The panel doesn't want to work the way I want it to work… There, I've got it."

A hissing sound comes from the ground, and a bit of dust blows out. Then the blast door starts moving upward at a very slow pace. First, I see the shoes, which are quickly followed by legs and upper torsos. It takes a few more seconds, but then Lena and Toby are fully revealed. They hesitate for a second as if expecting the blast door to start dropping down again, but then they rush forward toward Dave, Kylie, and Fabio.

The five archaeologists meet in the middle and hug each other fiercely. The twin girls have tears streaming down their faces, and even Toby has to wipe a few drops away. We keep back and let them enjoy their reunion, but all too soon they release each other and turn toward me. Toby clears his throat a few times but otherwise manages to hide his shock pretty well.

It still doesn't stop him from swearing under his breath before Dave punches his shoulder. "Err, thanks for saving us, Sara… But what the hell?" He points at me, and Lucy bursts out laughing.

"Yeah, you promised an explanation," Tim chimes in.

I nod slowly. Somehow, Toby and Lena took the news better than the others. "I do, but we'd better find somewhere to sit down. This might take a while."

Lena looks a bit more freaked out and points over her shoulder into the command center that was previously blocked by the blast door. "Uhm, there… There's a conference room inside…"

I flash her a wide smile and step forward. "Cool, then let's get there!"

Everyone follows me, and I enter the command center from where Conor Valterion's top executives managed the whole shipyard. It feels surreal to follow the footsteps of my ancestor, and I stop at the threshold for a moment to take it all in.

Wow.

The room is filled with stations and looks surprisingly similar to the bridge of the Stargazer. Just a lot bigger. The most prominent feature, though, is the gigantic pane of glass that overlooks multiple bays of the actual shipyard, which is also very similar to the big window at the front of the Stargazer's bridge. Looks like the Valterions really like their one design. Anyway, the command center is for later, as I promised an explanation.

While I stopped, Lena overtook me and now leads the way toward a door at the far left side of the command center. She walks through, and we quickly follow. Inside, there is a big conference table, just as she promised.

I walk up to the head of the table, place my hands on the table top, and lean forward a bit. "Please sit down. Depending on how many questions you have, it'll take a long time. And I promise that you will have questions."

My friends nod and place themselves on the surprisingly still stable chairs around the table. After a stern look from Shay, the other five Peacekeepers sit down too. I remain standing for now and look at each of them for a short moment before taking a deep breath.

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"So first of all, I should probably introduce myself… As you've probably guessed by now, Sara Green was a disguise…" I look at Lucy, Lydia, and Shay, "Some of you knew that already… Again, you might have guessed by now that my true name is Sara Valterion."

I pause for a moment and let it sink in. Especially the Peacekeepers who have kept their distance previously need a minute to compose themselves. I can literally see how they try to deal with this new information, and I smile inwardly.

"Now, before you ask the question, yes, the Duke and the Duchess are my parents. I'm their third and youngest child. As for why you don't know about me, well, that's my story and also the reason why we are all here today."

Name-dropping Mom and Dad causes a few louder reactions, as not everyone has connected the dots yet. From then on, I continue to tell them my story. Well, a much shortened version of it, as they don't need to know every single detail. I go over the most important parts, like being kidnapped as an infant and growing up in an anti-Mage nation. I don't mention my inhibitor Artifact and just say that I didn't start as a very strong Mage and worked my way up to where I am now.

Tim smiles knowingly when I say that. He probably thinks my parents stuffed me full of power enhancements as soon as I was back. Not that I care. It's a good distraction, as me being a pseudo Archmage has to stay a secret.

Anyway, I continue to tell them about how I escaped from the Estriduros Republic while omitting the fact that I almost died on that pirate ship. But I do tell them about the horrors they tried to create with their first fully sapient AI. Then I look at the Peacekeepers and decide to drop another bomb on them.

"That's where I met Maja, by the way…"

When they look confused, Shay chuckles and speaks up. "The Captain!"

"Oh!" It takes a few seconds for the first one to get it.

"She's an AI? Holy shit."

Sorry Maja…

I do a quick digression and tell them the reasons why Maja is currently going through Peacekeeper training, and they quickly understand and support the idea. They even go so far as to promise not to tell anyone until Maja shares it herself. I hadn't expected that. That's loyalty, I guess.

"And then I entered the wormhole together with Maja's chip… At the same time, some pieces of the destroyed ship hit the wormhole ring, causing it to collapse."

And if there haven't been disbelieving shouts before, now we have them. Everyone knows what a collapsing wormhole means. And here I am, standing right before them. I wait for the shouts to die down.

"I don't know how, but something pulled me out from hyperspace, and I landed here." I turn to Nick and wink at him. "That's why I wanted to discuss your hyperspace theories with you. I might have some insights."

He looks at me like a dead fish with bulging eyes. "You didn't lie earlier… You really are the one who rediscovered Earth!"

I nod. "I am. The Emperor will officially announce this as soon as the competition is over. You guys are getting the information early."

I'm pretty sure they would have completely lost it if I had said Grandpa John… It takes enough time as it is to get them to be quiet again. Now, after revealing that I rediscovered Earth, I quickly go over the few places I've visited on the planet and how Maja got her body before telling them how I've learned about my true identity inside the planetary headquarters of VHI. For obvious reasons, I don't tell them about the Worldender Ship stuff from Conor Valterion, but no one notices that I left out that part. Visiting all the original headquarters of the Big Five for the first time in 11,000 years and finding an old starship that can get me home is more than enough to amaze my friends. And yes, I simply tell them that I learned about the Stargazer's location inside the VHI headquarters.

Nick basically drools when I report on how I traced back my route through hyperspace and arrived back in the Estriduros Republic.

"I didn't know that was possible, holy shit!" He exclaims and begs me to join his research group as soon as the Earth Adventure is over.

Wow, I didn't know that his little side project got so big that he now has a whole group working with him. I give him a thumbs-up. "Sure, I can do that. Oh, Lucy and Shay, can you take over for a bit? I need something to drink."

They both stand up and head over to the head of the table while I sit down and grab a bottle of water from my bag.

Lucy starts. "So after returning as a free Mage, Sara set out to find a crew for her new starship, and who is better qualified than her friends? Well, she set out on a tour through the republic and freed us all. Us, that is Shay here, Simon and Thomas from the Peacekeepers, and finally, my brother Jack, his wife Alex, and Greg from MARA Deliveries."

I silently ask Lydia to join them. She gets it and starts walking over while Shay speaks up. "It got a bit dramatic in the end as we were chased by the military, but we managed to escape to the Dakarti Federation. That's where we met Lydia here."

She arrives at the perfect moment and waves before taking over the story herself. She talks about our journey, how we took down some pirates, and how we finally arrived at The Empire's borders.

The others, who haven't known before that most of us are from so far away originally, stare in amazement.

"Holy shit, I can't imagine growing up like you all did…" Nick mumbles and looks at his girlfriend in a new light. He hugs her while others offer similar mumblings.

I use that gloomy moment to gloss over our issues with border control. "Anyway, when we finally arrived at The Empire to look for my family, we were thrown into prison because of a misunderstanding… This led to my data being put into the systems, which my mom's AI picked up and deleted right after."

I look at Tim and wink. "You've probably already connected the dots, but Mom caused quite a fuss at your parents' place when she found out about my return."

"I suspected," he replies, "but I didn't get that you're from the main line until much later."

Huh, I hadn't expected that. But, well, I didn't think of myself as the child of the Duke and Duchess either. "Fair enough. Well, the rest of it is pretty much history. I met my family, including Mom's side of the family…"

Realization takes a few moments, but then everyone gets it and stares at me with wide eyes. I chuckle. "Yes, that includes the Emperor. But he also surprised me when he announced the Earth Adventure! Anyway, my family and I decided to keep me away from all the Noble shenanigans, and so Sara Green was born. Most of you know how well that played out…"

I put my hands behind my back and look at everyone. "Now, all that aside, I didn't pretend to be someone else. Everything you saw from me was the real Sara. And yes, that includes my cluelessness about Noble politics and stuff. Now you know the reason."

I sit down and wait for someone to say something. They all look very shocked still, so I expect it to take a while until they accept that I'm not a different person suddenly. There is a reaction surprisingly fast, though not what I expected. Tim starts laughing!

He can barely stop himself and even has to wipe a few tears. After a minute, more and more people join in until almost everyone is laughing. I tilt my head in question.

Tim struggles to get himself under control. "It's just too absurd… I… I can't. Imagine reading about what you just told us in the newspaper… You wouldn't believe a single word. This is science fiction stuff, but somehow it is all true and we're now sitting inside the original shipyard of VHI in the freaking Solar System!"

I start chuckling myself. When he says it like this, it really is funny!