The family was coming together. Maybe it was the Nekuia, or maybe it was Lucas. Something inspired the Alexander clan to unite.
Most of them were too young to remember, but things hadn’t been this collaborative since the Massacre. A generation ago a small group raided the compound and killed most of the family. After that everyone worked together to rebuild, support each other and make the family great again.
This time they came together for different reasons. They knew someone was coming. They knew there was an enemy at the door. So, this time, they came together to defend. The point was to protect before anyone was lost, not to rebuild after they were already taken.
And Lucas was foremost on everyone’s mind.
The Machinists, who kidnapped Lucas, had taken him to their base on Mars. There was only one place on that planet where a group like the Machinists could grow and organize without so much as a rumor slipping out about their existence – the Prosperity Ghetto.
This was the area where the first colony was built. The first planet humans settled. When the Moon was still just a hub, people came to Mars. It soon lost its charm and began to erode until those looking for a place to hide called it home.
This was the one place in the solar system they could hide.
The Machinists believed the Alexanders lied about the box, lied about how they got it, and how it worked. They thought it should be something the world could access, not just one family.
But they were wrong. Only an Alexander could open the library stored within it. It was always meant to be limited. It was always meant to help humans ask the right questions, never to present them with the right answers.
The family knew this. They had been learning how to use the box for hundreds of years, and had just begun to understand its purpose – to help the human race survive.
But if the Alexanders were going to save anyone today, they wanted it to be Lucas.
The first step was to look for allies on the red planet. In order to mount a rescue, they were going to need friends. Maria, the Ambassador, worked her magic and a special team of soldiers was assembled for the task.
While they studied Mars, the ghetto and the history of the group, Hermes and the Engineering Panel continued their own projects.
These projects were the first steps in a war against an unseen enemy. An enemy the Alexanders could not see or hear or touch. The Nekuia only really existed inside the box. These mysterious beings from another world haunted them like ghosts. They knew the Nekuian system existed and, according to the box, there was a dangerous race of beings in that system, a race that only wanted to destroy everyone else in the galaxy.
The Alexander clan could not prove the Nekuia were real or even dangerous. All they could do was prepare for the worst, prepare to defend themselves.
The first blueprints for warships were complete. The factories to build these machines were already under construction. And the army grew larger everyday.
The family continued to prepare for battle, continued to work together. They had one enemy they could see and one they could not. Somehow seeing just one enemy, the Machinists, was enough to support both theaters. At least, for now.
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