as though I was looking into Anna’s eyes, not theirs.
Character-wise, however, Tristan and Esme were polar opposites.
“Okay, so, it’s you and Derek, Tristan and me, Amal and Nethissis, right?” Esme said, recapping yesterday’s discussion. During that GASP meeting, we’d made our selection, insisting that the team be kept small. As expected, most of the officers present, including my father, had not been too happy about it.
“Yes. Few but mighty.” Derek chuckled.
“I still think you should at least take a dragon with you.” Julian sighed. “And a sentry.”
“And a white witch. And a werewolf. And a Perfect. And I could keep going,” Derek shot back, slightly irritated. It was nothing against Julian, but rather against the mindset. “We’re going to visit a new world. We’re not going to invade it.”
“They might mean you harm,” Julian insisted.
“Dad, not everyone is out to get us,” Esme replied. “Besides, Nethissis is more than capable of holding them off, should things get rough. But we’re not giving them any reason to behave aggressively toward us.”
“Ta’Zan got the day-walking protein from them somehow. I don’t think we’ll have issues communicating with them,” I said. Julian looked at me, his brow furrowed.
“You don’t even know what they are. What species. What kind of people. What culture they have.”
“But that’s the beauty of it!” Tristan replied, smiling. “We’re exploring. We’re going over there to meet them. We’re making contact with a new civilization, and the last thing we want is to appear threatening. We want them to consider us benign, perhaps even friendly.”
Derek cleared his throat, his attention briefly drawn by Lumi, Nethissis, and Kailani talking, somewhere at the back of the shuttle. “Julian, I don’t want us to go there, guns blazing, demanding their blood. The Hermessi ritual has taught me a valuable lesson about the universe and its natural balance. I don’t want GASP to become some kind of world police, where we consider ourselves entitled enough to just walk into a new civilization and ask them to give us things—especially blood, the very life force that allows us to exist.”
“As we explained yesterday, we’re going for a more cultural and diplomatic approach. We want to meet them,” I said. “We want to get to know them, to understand them, and most importantly, to figure out what made their day-walking protein stick so well to Derek’s DNA.”
“You think they might be some kind of vampire,” Ariana replied, reminding me of a theory we’d floated during yesterday’s meeting.
I nodded briefly. “It’s a possibility, yes. Either way, we want them to give us what we need, willingly. Unless there’s a direct threat to our planet, we’ve decided not to consider any kind of armed or supernatural interference.”
“That means your asses are on the line,” Julian said, scowling at Tristan and Esme. “Did you both get that part during yesterday’s briefing?”
The siblings nodded in perfect unison. “It means that, should one or more of us get hurt, no one else from GASP is to engage these people,” Tristan said. “It’s a risk that Esme and I are both willing to take, especially if it gets us closer to a day-walking cure. I don’t know about you, Dad, but I’m kind of tired of hiding from the sun and living in darkness. I think I speak for the entire species, at this point.”
Ben shook his head. “Dad, if you and Mom get hurt out there, we won’t just sit back and do nothing. You know that, right?”
“I need you to at least consider it,” Derek replied. “Haven’t our worlds been through enough, already? If the worst-case scenario comes to happen, and we find ourselves in danger on Trexus-2, then so be it. We can’t start a war with another civilization over the day-walking protein. It’s ridiculous. I will not have the blood of any other Shadian or GASP agent on my hands for this, okay?”
Esme smiled. “Besides. We’re assuming the terrible version of possible events, and we haven’t even left Earth yet.”
“That being said, it’s why Sofia and I are leading the mission,” Derek said. “Should we be successful, we’ll return with enough blood samples for Amal and Amane to synthesize a cure for our sensitivity to sunlight. If we fail, then that’ll be it. I have faith that our children, our grandchildren… our family and friends will be able to take over.”
“God, Dad, stop being a drama queen,” Rose muttered.
I had to laugh, just to defuse the swelling tension that threatened to cloud an otherwise beautiful, moonlit morning. “You’re