“This is amazing Michael but I’m not sure how I can help you,” Mark Wiseman said while staring at Baka.

“I want you to share credit with Baka and Kinto for the papers you write and the patents you publish. I want your colleagues to meet them. I want Baka and Kinto on Oprah. I want them to be household names. I want to build humanity’s chances against those that enslaved their people and who are here for us,” you speak with a passion that spreads.

“I want to help you, Michael, I really do, but I don’t think I can do all that,” Mark turns to Baka and Kinto, “you truly are extraordinary.”

“Thank you, Professor Wiseman, your’s is the first species to have successfully pushed back our masters, it was a pleasure to have met you before they destroy you.”

“They require more care than normal as they are from another world, one where the gravity is less. They need to be carried. They are very weak,”

“Were they OK on their spaceship?”

“Yes and … damn. I should have somehow kept the ship for them to live on,” you say realizing your mistake.

“Or handed them over to the American Military,” Mark suggested.

“We are selected for high gravity works. We will acclimate to your gravity in time. Or we will die,” said Baka.

“We won’t let you die, Baka,” you say.

“You can control life and death also? You are as mighty as the Masters.” Baka sat looking from you to Mark.

You laugh and say, “Heh, we are not that powerful Baka, at least not yet.”

You look the professor in the eye and say, “What do you say, Professor. I’m not asking for miracles, I just need your best shot. Will you help us?”

The professor looks back and nods, “I’ll do my best. What is next on your agenda?”

“I have to track down some family members that I just found out that I had. I want to prepare them for what’s coming.”

He looks at you, “you know I may want to track down my own family to prepare them.”

“Is it OK if I leave them with you now then?” you ask getting up.

“Wait what do they eat, how do I …”

“Don’t worry, Baka knows how to survive here. Adapting to new worlds is what they were bred to do. Baka, you have my number correct?”

Baka nods.

Mark said, “This is somewhat abrupt.”

“I just got this feeling I need to leave now or something bad will happen,” you reach to shake his hand, and then Bakas.

“Till we meet again, and be … spectacular.”

You go back to the rental car and drive off. Before leaving the campus you notice you are being followed by two black cars and they are being obvious about it. When you make it to the main road, you try speeding away and find that they follow you. You pull over to find out who they are.

“What do you want with me,” you shout over the sound of cars rushing by as you wait on the side of the road.

“You are some kind of alien who sells the human race out to aliens. So you must die,” said the lead man pulling out a gun and points it at you.

A plastic bat, at forty-five miles an hour, can kill a man, and he gets hit in the back and screams in pain. He passes out from the pain. The others step up with exposed guns. You rush into traffic. A car swerves, misses you and clips another at about fifty, rendering him unconscious or worse. The next one gets a flying kick to the neck as a gun goes off. You made a perfect kick and he goes down with probably a fractured neck.

“I’m innocent. Take me to your leader where we can sort this out. If you kill me you kill an innocent man. There were four men and he was the last man standing. He looked conflicted. He takes out a phone.

“Abrams told us to bring him in if he surrenders. Carlson told us to kill him. He is surrendering what should I do.”

You remain quiet as he speaks on the phone.

“Yes sir,” he said to the person on the other end of the line, he turned to you saying, “get in.” He checked the other three and put them into the other vehicle and leaving them there we drove off in the first vehicle.

“You’re in a Family,” you say.

“Of course I’m in a family, what about you, you hatch from an egg?” the guy said.

“I mean are you from a … special Family. You shouldn’t have been able to track me.”

He focused on driving.

You say, “here let me start again. Hi, my name is Michael Tanner. We …”

“Don’t need a conversation. I was told to kill you or bring you in. I can’t believe we had such bad luck as to let you take out three of us.”

You quiet down and ride on in silence. There was a possibility that this was the first contact with another house. As far as was known, The Family was the only house with extraplanar capability. It was the only dimension-hopping house.

When you arrived at your destination it was an old farmhouse. There was a long driveway with several new cars parked alongside, on the grass. You get out and are escorted to the door. Two large men let you in. You follow them to a large living room where you see an old woman seated on an easy chair.

“Hi, my name is Michael Tanner,” you begin..

“Were you born on Earth?” asked the woman.

“Yes, I was born in Jamaica Queens. I grew up …”

“So you were born on this planet,” interrupted the woman as she froze me with her gaze.

“No, I am not from this Earth. I was born close to seventeen million planes from here.”

“You helped a member of an alien race avoid our military?” she asked.

“Yes, but it was not …”

“Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you right now,” she said.

“Because I’m not your enemy.”

“How can you not be our enemy when you admit that you, an alien, have brought our enemy into our midst?”

“I am as human as you are. As for the aliens, they are engineers and slaves, of our mutual enemy, that I freed. I am here to help you. I taught the slaves English and our customs in less than twenty-four hours so that they could help you. Help us!” you shout.

“You know a lot about us,” she began.

“And you know a lot about me, and most of it is wrong, no skewed wrong. It’s like you see something and interpret what you see wrong. It … it … I know what your power is, at least one of them,” you feel as if a weight has been lifted off of you.

“Divination. You can see the future. That is a rare gift. But you’re interpreting what you are seeing wrong. I am not your enemy I am your helper, your friend. We belong to adjacent houses. We …”

“Prove it,” she interrupts.

“We are the Tanners!”

“And that means …” she asks.

“We see and guide Fortune.”

“You divine the future as we do,” the woman’s eyes hold you.

“No, we don’t just divine it, we guide it.” Silence follows.

She asks, “how did you get here?”

“We drove here …”

“Don’t be funny, you didn’t drive to this Earth in a car did you?” She asks, she sounds unsure.

“It is another of our talents, we can envision a place and walk to it. I was looking to train Tanners and I lucked out to find you also.”

“You consider it lucky to find us when I may kill you in the next second. Or can you stop me? Sean, test his story out, kill him.”

Sean, who was in the doorway, enters the room quickly, too quickly and trips. There is a fish tank. He breathes water in and begins choking. He faints as they turn him over.

“He has a fear of drowning. I take it you caused that?”

You say, “we guide fate, we don’t control it.”

“Are you sure?” she asks.

You nod no and say, “with Fate and Fortune, how can one be sure.”

She nods, “as with divination.”

She stands and walks up to you, “I believe you, young man. I have a task for you, one that I have seen you on.”

You smile.

“I want you to steal one of their ships.”

Your brown-skinned face pales and you say, “you want me to …” Your eyes widen. Something is happening that has never happened before. As far as you know, in the history of the family, and that is something you are well-versed in, this has never happened.

System Message: Quest Available!

Hijack Arkanian Pintoch Class Mothership!

Success: 10,000 Universal Experience Points, 9 Slot Inventory, System Upgrade Level One, One Life

Failure: Death or Enslavement

Accept/Reject

You stare at the words that suddenly appear before your eyes. A quest, a level one quest from the system. You whisper, “I accept.”

She looks at you, “what was that you said, boy?”

“I accept, I will steal a Pintoch Class Mothership.”

“The what now?”

“Didn’t you just create the quest?” you ask.

“Yes?”

“Didn’t you set the rewards?” you ask.

“No?” She says, “what rewards?”

Without thinking you answer her, “I got system rewards If I succeed, and death or enslavement if I fail. May I have help?”

The old woman smiles at you, “I think you’re gonna need all the help you can get. Yes, you may request help from us and others. Perhaps this will mark the start of a relationship of solidarity between our two houses. We want the same thing, freedom of this world from oppression. Yes, child, you may elicit help,” she says.

“Who can you send with me and what are their abilities?

“Lawrence is our best and I saw him with you. I also saw two women and a man and a child.”

“A child? What’s a child doing with me?”

Lawrence said, “I don’t know, I just saw him running with you in a corridor.”

As you contemplate this new development, wondering what ability a child could have that inspired his inclusion on this mission, a thought comes to you in the form of a grumbling stomach, “can you drop me off at a restaurant close to a hotel?”

Everyone in the room laughed and the old woman said, “nonsense, you can stay here and Sharon is known for her cooking. Sharon is a young and beautiful woman without a husband, can Families intermingle?”

Blushing once again you answer, “only one trait survives, and so far it has been Fortune.”

The thought enters your mind, what happens with System coming online. You don’t have time to wonder however as you are rushed into the kitchen to meet Sharon, the bathroom to prepare for dinner, and the dining room to wait on dinner. The dinner was fantastic. Beef tips in sauce over rice with a glass of red wine. You slowly savor the meal not knowing when your next good meal will be.

Afterward, you are shown to your room and you take out your phone and call Danny.

“Danny I got my first quest. It is to steal a large ship from the Arkanians. One of the rewards is a new life. That was just one of the rewards. I’m calling to invite you to come with me. I …” you say.

“What the hell. Words just flashed in my head. Let me read … oh my God. I accept. I accept. You can share these quests and the rewards are phenomenal. Let’s call the girls.”

They accepted too.

Name

Michael

Abilities

skills

Characteristics

Char Values

Fortune 15

Arkanian Culture

Strength

9

Travel 1

Arkanian Tech

Intelligence

16

System 0

Mythrian Sci

Knowledge

15

Mythrian Tech

Dexterity

10

Kung Fu

Constitution

9

Human History

Charisma

9

Human Sci 3

Luck

28

Human Tech 3

Wisdom

12