Alien in the Family

one hand. I was prepared for every A-C to do this shortly.
    “So that message could have been sent in to any region?” Chuckie was being polite, but I could tell he was getting tired of one-sentence answers.
    “No. It went to the nearest formation by the active piece.” White indicated the necklace. “How did you realize what it was?”
    Chuckie shrugged. “I’m observant, more than most people.” This I knew to be true. “I’ve seen that thing around Kitty’s neck any time I’ve seen her for the last six months. It was easy to recognize. Six months ago, the second time I saw it,” he added.
    “Why didn’t you bring this to our attention sooner?” White sounded angry.
    Chuckie let the knife show, just a bit. “Because we had to make sure this wasn’t some kind of dangerous power play by Centaurion personnel.” He pointedly looked over at Martini.
    “Jeffrey has nothing to do with this,” White said, eyes narrowed.
    “Bullshit. He has everything to do with it. However, I’m willing to accept that he had no idea what giving that necklace to Kitty was going to trigger.”
    “Richard, it’s sort of creepier than that. The first light manifestation appeared during Operation Fugly.” On cue, White winced. “Um, I mean, during the Big Takedown. Or whatever you call it.” I never paid attention to their names for offensives—they were always official and boring.
    “When Jeff knew he wanted to marry her,” Christopher added quietly. “As near as Reynolds has told us, pretty much the same night.”
    White nodded. “They are tuned to the family, and Jeffrey’s the last in Alfred’s line.” He closed his eyes. “This will happen with you, too, Son.”
    “What?” Christopher looked shocked. “I’m not getting married. And I’m part of your male line.”
    “Yes, but it’s different for you because of your mother. And I know you’ve not declared for anyone yet, but when you do . . .” White’s voice trailed off and he looked at me. “Oh, dear.”
    “This just went to DEFCON Worse, didn’t it?”
    “Oh, hell.” Reader had his head in his hands. It was catching.
    “What? James, what?”
    He looked around. “Oh, well. Not like it’s a secret to anyone in this room.” He sighed. “Kitty, Jeff wasn’t the only one who, ah . . .” His voice trailed off, and he shot an uncomfortable look toward Christopher.
    Who went pale. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding! We’re past that!” He shot a look at Martini. “Really, we’re past that.” What we were past was the fact Christopher had also wanted me when we’d first met, and we’d had a brief, wild moment in an elevator. Martini had had a hard enough time letting the incident go, but Christopher and I had been very careful since then and hadn’t done anything remotely romantic; in fact, we acted like opposing magnets when something potentially romantic loomed.
    “Yeah, yeah, doesn’t matter,” Martini shot back. “Reynolds is going to be a bigger problem.”
    “Me? Why?” Chuckie sounded confused for the first time.
    Martini spun around. “Because you still want to marry her if you can. It’s complex, and it’s not pretty, and I need to get the rest of the details.” He looked at Gower. “We need everyone on high alert. Everyone’s going to have to be briefed, in shifts, key personnel first. But down to the youngest child who’s of age to know why we’re all really here. Oh, and all of my family, and I do mean all, down to the youngest kids who can communicate verbally or mentally.” He went back to his corner.
    We all looked at each other. “Richard, you mind telling us what’s going on? I mean, it’s that, or we all just go running off screaming into the streets.”
    White took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Alfred and my late wife were cousins, not as close as Christopher and Jeffrey are, but about as close as Jeffrey and Paul and Michael, are.”
    Interesting, hadn’t known that. “Okay . . . so, cousins married a brother and sister. Not totally unusual.”
    “No, not at all, on either one of our worlds.” White didn’t want to go on, it was obvious.
    Michael, who’d been uncharacteristically quiet this entire time, spoke up. “You want me to explain it?” He was a smaller version of his older brother—big, black, bald, and gorgeous. He was also a major womanizer, but I doubted that had relevance here.
    “How do you know?” White sounded shocked. Gower looked as shocked as White