Chapter 1: Light Gathered

"Dave! C'mon, get with the program man!" I heard Mike say from the doorway behind me.

I stood up from where I'd been sitting on the porch steps and flashed him a grin.

"Sorry. I just got to thinking about something. Is everything ready?"

"Oh Yeah!" Mike answered back with enthusiasm.

Inside my parent's house a blur of organization and activity through the course of the day had produced a sea of blue and gold balloons, streamers, and a huge banner that stretched the entire living room, from end to end that said

'Congratulations Virginia Elspeth Parkin, M.D.'

Officially, the Parkin family was coming to one of Mom's special luncheons to celebrate Ginny's graduation. Mom had indeed cooked up a storm, and tonight we were set to enjoy a taste of New Orleans, with a Pork Gumbo, craw fish pie, tomato and melon salad and corn fritters, although I remember Mom calling them 'corn oysters' for some reason. Dessert was cushaw pie. A cushaw was a kind of squash apparently, so this was like a pumpkin pie, but it had holes poked in it and filled with a butter rum glaze, and then the entire top was covered with a chocolate butter cream layer. No need for whipped cream with this pie!

Well, the food was excellent as always where Mom was concerned, and everyone had a blast springing a surprise party on Ginny.

It was still early afternoon, with all the family and friends gone off to get ready for a dinner that evening at Ginny's parent's house and only the Legion of the Doomed remaining, that Ginny and I put into action the plan that this event had really been designed for. I raised my glass.

"A toast!" I waited until I had everyone's attention, and their glasses were filled and raised.

"I salute the Legion of the Doomed." I toasted.

"To the Legion!" They replied in unison.

Ginny slid off my lap and stepped out in front of everyone.

"This evening has been wonderful, and I thank you for all the good thoughts and wishes I've received today. Today was not really about me though, and it wasn't really a surprise. Davey and I planned this evening as an excuse to get us all together again, right here in the same spot where we last gathered. We have an offer to make you all." I stood then and joined Ginny.

"Although we have had only limited contact in the last six years, phone calls and email mostly, Ginny and I have been keeping tabs on each of you, and where you are at in your lives and in your careers. Chet, that would have been impossible without Cyrus' help in your case. Your military career went classified pretty quickly."

"I'm gonna hafta lay some 'esprit de friggin corp' on that man's ass next I see him." Chet laughingly answered back.

"Mike, you were the easiest of course, since you accepted Grandpa A.J.'s offer to join the McKesson Group's legal division after law school."

"Yeah, which he paid for!" Mike shot back.

"I knew you had to figure out where that scholarship to Duke came from as well, so I'm assuming it will come as no surprise to you when I say how proud we all are that you've done so well."

"Fred, it amazes me to think that of all of us it would've been 'little Freddie Sabarte' that became a TV star."

"I just fix up pretty cars man! I can't help it if cable TV will give a show to anyone who can build pretty cars!"

And Arden! Bret Harte High School Vice-Principal Arden Anderson! What's this I hear about you getting caught necking with the Biology teacher in the teacher's lounge yesterday?"

"Well, she was kissing me pretty hard when the door opened, but it wasn't exactly necking." Arden said.

"I had a good excuse for kissing him." Alicia added, blushing. "Yesterday Arden asked me to marry him, and I said yes!"

Wow! — talk about the Return of the Chaos Bomb!!

When the dust settled from that little announcement, I continued.

"well I guess I don't need to say any more about Alicia, and of course we all took time earlier this evening recounting Ginny's successes. That leaves me, doesn't it?"

"You're the one who's always missing in action for long stretches, and impossible to reach when you're gone." Fred said.

"You're harder to keep track of than Chet, and he's had Uncle Sam helping hide him!" Alicia added.

"What kind of work could you possibly do for the McKesson Foundation that you have to disappear down the rabbit hole to do it?" Mike added.

"Well, if I told you, I'd have to kill you." I said.

Chet fell out of his chair laughing. "Hey, I thought that was supposed to be my line!"

"Okay, I wouldn't have to kill you, but I can't tell you anything unless I can get your sworn promise that you'll never tell another soul without my permission. Will you all make that promise to me now?" As I asked, I reached out with my thoughts and lightly touched each of them.

"Yes." I got from all of them, both in word and in thought, except Chet.

"Chet, I can tell you that Cyrus already is aware of what I will reveal. I know you have reservations, as he did, and I know where they come from." And with that I felt Chet's reservations vanish.

"Very well, thank you all for your trust, and faith in me. It is true that I didn't follow the road people thought I should have. I didn't go to college, I didn't become an engineer like my Dad, or a Pilot like Grandpa Carson, although I did get my private pilot's license. The reason I didn't do these things is because I discovered I had a gift. I've known about this gift for about as long as the Legion of Doom has existed. The group of people who I revealed my gift to was very small at first; my parents, and grandparents, and Ginny of course. Later, when I went to visit my grandpa McKesson in North Carolina, I learned that my gift was something that tied into the history of Dad's family, and so the number of people who knew grew again, including Cyrus, and eventually Felicia Poole. Ginny's parents know, but not the rest of her family, although I expect to share this knowledge with her brother Pete in the not too distant future."

"Well geez! What is it?" Arden threw in. "You actually some alien from another planet? Those Men in Black guys will be busting down the doors any second now, I'm sure."

"Hah! More likely he's some lost crown prince of Finland or something!" Mike added.

"Or something." I answered. "The easiest way is to show you." And as I said it, I moved us through to Meadow, back to that same grassy field where I'd delivered so many others for the first time.

Birds chirped, the wind moved through the trees, that nearby stream babbled its usual confession. This time I didn't wait for a reaction.

"Welcome to Meadow." I said.

"Wow!" Fred said.

"Jesus Fucking Christ!" I heard from Chet and Mike, almost simultaneously.

"Oh my God!" I got from Arden and Alicia.

I had moved everyone here, picnic table and all, and had arranged our arrival so that they faced me, looking out into the empty, untouched field.

"Meadow, as we have come to call it was the first place I was able to jump to, but this location on Meadow was not the first I learned to get to. Can anyone guess, thinking about our history together, where the first place was?"

This got me some silence for a couple of minutes, and then Alicia jumped up.

"Ooh! The Ledge!" She said excitedly. "You were always running of to that ledge up on the lake to collect rock samples!

"Oh Yeah!" Chet chimed in. "I always wondered what was so damned special about that place. I mean its kinda cool and all, but it wasn't that cool!"

"Yeah." I laughed. "Good work Alicia."

Alicia had turned to sit back down, and that's when she saw it.

"Oh my God!" She said, pointing behind the rest of the group sitting at the table. "Look at that!"

'That' was a big mansion-sized log cabin. The kind you see when you go to one of those fancy wilderness resorts in remote areas, made of cedar or redwood logs, but with all the amenities. This one had huge two story glass windows in the front and huge decks on both sides. Right now the entire thing was lit up from the inside as it appeared every light in it was on. Con had claimed he got the plans from the Internet while at Grandpa A.J.'s and 'had it built' I knew exactly how he had it built of course, because I had to bounce a railroad car sized container to Meadow for him from where he had parked it next to the Seeker world focus.

"Lets head to the house." I said. "There are a couple people here I'd like you all to meet."

As we headed towards the house I popped the picnic table back into Mom and Dad's back yard.

Eru and Pearl met us at the front door, and I made the introductions.

"Where is he?" I asked.

"In the Garden. Shall I get him?"

"No, lets go out there. We're not staying this time anyway, so we might as well save the tour for another time." We quickly went through the house to the back garden, which met the back of the house in a beautiful, quiet flagstone covered patio area. Waiting there for us was Construct.

"Con, allow me to introduce you to the Legion of the Doomed." I offered. Construct, in the years since we'd restored the focus had decided he needed a real name, and had settled eventually on Constantine Dedomena Fylakas, and that was how he introduced himself.

"Arden, now that you have met Eru and Con, you have indeed met your first two aliens. Con and I have known each other since my sixteenth birthday, and Eru and I since I was eighteen. Con is more than just an alien however, he is an artificial being."