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distinct impression they were security.
    One near us nodded to Martini. “You taking a trip?”
    “Probably. Giving a tour.”
    “Enjoy.” His tone made it clear this was unlikely.
    We wandered through, with Martini nodding or speaking to most of the men there, all of whom seemed bored but completely alert at the same time. “Security checkpoint?” was all I could think of to ask.
    “Yep. This site is still active.”
    “What do you mean, active? Like radioactive?” I started to worry that I’d never have children.
    “Well, in a way, but it’s not dangerous. Residue from the Ancients’ fuel source is still here—its half-life makes your nukes seem like kiddie toys. That residue helps power our transference gates. The Ancients had a lot of technology that was far beyond ours, which means much more than yours. That’s not an insult to Earth,” he added quickly. “You’re just a younger civilization than we are. And we’re babies compared to the Ancients.”
    I felt small and very insignificant all of a sudden. “How many inhabited worlds are there?”
    “Plenty, but out our way? Not too many. We live in the boondocks, spacewise. You’re even more in the middle of nowhere than Alpha Centauri is. But we’re your closest neighbor.”
    “And like a good neighbor, Alpha Centauri is there.”
    “If the slogan fits.” He looked down at me. “It’s always hard, the first time you find out it’s true, that you’re really not alone in the universe.”
    “Why?” I wanted to cry again, but this time it wasn’t making me mad, it was making me feel like a little girl.
    Martini seemed to pick this up. He moved us into an area without a doorway to nowhere or a security guard nearby and pulled me into his arms. I didn’t protest. “It’s okay. It passes,” he said, patting my back. “It’s hard for us, too. We’re taught we’re different as soon as we’re old enough to understand it, but we don’t get the full details until we’re teenagers. It’s a shock, and we have a whole extended family to help us through it.”
    “I don’t want anything bad to happen to my parents. I don’t understand half of what’s happened, but I know everything’s changed.”
    “They’ll be fine. I promise.” He rocked me for a bit, and I tried to relax. “I could get used to this,” he said quietly. “But I think we need to get moving.”
    He let me go but still held my hand. “I think I like you better like this,” I said as we moved back into the main part of what I was coming to think of as a terminal.
    He grinned. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
    “So, where can we go from here?”
    “Anywhere we need to.” Martini pointed to the big doorways. “We take the vehicles through them.”
    “How? Aren’t we in a dome or something that’s like a building?”
    “Yes. There are entry points all over the dome, though. We just open the big doors for the cars.”
    “Does each doorway thing correspond to an airport?”
    “We call them gates, and no. We have gates programmed to go straight to Home Base and our Science Center, but otherwise, we calibrate for each trip. A superbeing can show up anywhere in the world, at any time, so we need the flexibility.”
    “Makes sense.” I looked around. “This place seems pretty quiet.”
    “That’s because the grid’s quiet,” Gower’s voice came from behind us. I jumped and probably would have fallen if Martini weren’t still holding my hand. “Nice to see you two getting cozy,” Gower added with a grin.
    “Just keeping her from leaping through a gate to who knows where,” Martini laughed.
    “Ready to go to the next stop?” Gower asked Martini.
    “I think so. She’s seen everything here.”
    “I don’t understand it all,” I interjected. “Like how this can all be hidden not only from the American government but from all the other countries who monitor what we do?”
    Gower shrugged. “Our technology’s more advanced, and some of this is the