Gus couldn't make out much detail but he did manage to sense objects and patches of light and darkness all around him. It was as if he was moving through a translucent fog in slow motion. He couldn't be certain but some of the blurred shapes and outlines almost appeared Human while some of the sounds vaguely resembled voices. As Gus was concentrating intently on understanding his surroundings, he felt the warm, almost wet press of flesh on his face. His flailing brain desperately tried to comprehend what was going on. At that very instant everything snapped back into laser focus. Despite returning to the four-dimensional space he knew and understood, the jarring nature of his arrival provided an unsettling jolt to all of his senses at once. Since he couldn't see what, or who was on top of him, he instinctively tried to pull back. Unfortunately, his brain's attempt to mobilize his body failed given the limited mobility the Chair currently afforded him. While his constrained arms and legs may have let him down, Gus's olfactory sense came through strong. How could he not recognize the smell of the only woman he had ever truly loved? As the reality of his situation suddenly became clear, his brain commanded his lips to meet hers. After a several second powerful kiss, that also included cheers and whistles from those who surrounded him, Maddy pulled back with a look of sheer joy that Gus knew he would never forget. True to form, however, Maddy would not let the emotional moment go too far, especially given the size of the audience that had gathered in the room.

"I was beginning to wonder if I was kissing a dead fish", she told him in a somewhat louder than necessary voice. "You know, given your age, it's no crime to ask for help in that department."

At this point, Gus was feeling like himself again. He had no problem jumping in with both feet.

"Hmm..." Gus muttered as he slowly looked at each of his strapped-in arms and legs one by one.

"So let's see... I'm completely strapped down and nearly unconscious...Then...at my point of greatest vulnerability, you see fit to sexually assault me. And you say I'm the one that needs help?"

At first, Gus was smiling but that quickly turned into pleas for mercy as Maddy began tickling her defenseless, strapped-down boyfriend. The playful exchange had many around them laughing as well. In the background, Gus also heard someone say "welcome back" which technically didn't make sense since he had never been to Arcturus. Still, he appreciated the sentiment.

Gus estimated that there had to be at least 30 individuals within 10 feet from the chair he had just arrived in. "Individuals" would be the correct characterization since it was quite clear to him that not everyone in the room was Human. The only two unmistakably 'Human beings' in that room were Maddy and himself.

No...Wait. Three!

Instinctively, he looked around and it was as if Maddy was reading his mind. As he looked to his left, she was now holding their 13 day-old baby in her hands. She held the swaddled infant directly in front of him...

"Oh my God..." Gus said with tears almost instantly welling up in his eyes.

The room grew quiet as many watched and absorbed the powerful moment.

Gus broke the silence.

"What is his name? Wait...he is a he, right?" as he attempted to peer in the necessary direction that would have confirmed such a question.

The room lit up with laughter.

As Maddy took the baby away and brought him back close in her arms, she looked at Gus incredulously.

Gus, obviously overwhelmed by it all, looked confused.

"Seriously?" She asked him. "Did you honestly think I couldn't wait 13 days to name him?"

"Well, now that you mention it, it was only six hours on my end," Gus responded, "so yeah, good thing you waited or you would have had hell to pay."

Maddy shook her head, held the baby with her left arm, quickly moved in, and applied moderate pressure with her right index finger just inside Gus's left collarbone. The unpleasant sensation caused Gus to instinctively wince and recoil his left shoulder, which, due to his current predicament, barely moved.

"You big baby," she added for good measure.

At that moment, two Arcturian medical techs entered the room and finally began extricating Gus from the Chair's harness. Within a few moments, most people in the room began to fall back, which gave Gus some room to be with Maddy and his child. With his son now sound asleep in his arms, Gus looked up and experienced his second shock of the day

"Holy crap!" exclaimed Gus as he set eyes on Quintavius entering the room.

"Does your species age at all? He called out with genuine awe. "Who needs a black hole when you can pull off this sort of bio-magic!"

Gus couldn't believe how little the Chairman had changed over a century.

As Quintavius approached, he smiled but did not say or mentally convey a response. Instead, he reached out and simply shook Gus's hand and followed that up with a gentle touch to the baby's forehead.

As Gus looked up towards the entranceway, it became clear that the aging process would shock him twice in a matter of minutes. This time, however, it would be in the reverse. As Clyve and Miranda Walford walked towards him he couldn't believe his eyes. Miranda reached Gus first and gave him a long, power embrace. Both she and Clyve were smiling from ear to ear. Gus was just as happy to see them, but, like Maddy, he was also in shock to see how old they had become in such a short amount of time. Still, he did his best to temper his initial, raw visceral reaction and retuned their smiles with what he hoped looked like a genuine smile of his own.

"Clyve...Miranda! I can't tell you how happy I am to see you. You both look fantastic!"

Ooof, Maybe that last bit was a tad much, he thought....

Apparently, the Walfords agreed with his assessment and weren't going to let that nonsense pass without comment.

"Cut the crap Lebanchek, we know how we look relative to you ageless fools!" Miranda smiled and gave him a second big hug.

"Now let me see that beautiful baby boy of yours again."

Her smile grew even wider.

"You are lucky Lebanchek. Thankfully, Maddy canceled out your looks on this exchange. He's gorgeous, even while he's asleep!"

"Thank you, Miranda," Maddy replied. "We are so blessed and thankful to have you by our side after everything you both have been through..."

"Yeah sure, thanks Miranda," Gus added with a smirk before turning towards Maddy. "And thanks to you too for agreeing with her about my homely genetic contribution."

"Oh, will you give it a rest already? It looks like leaping thousands of light-years in a fraction of a second didn't end up improving your terrible sense of humor at all."

During the entire exchange, Quintavius had remained quiet and stood a few feet behind the group as they interacted. Over the past century, Quintavius had developed a much better understanding of Human social and emotional behavior. He recognized, and fully appreciated, the power of the moment he had just witnessed. He also knew that sufficient interaction had passed such that it was now acceptable for him to enter into the group's personal inner space...

He began with a smile and a simple telepathic greeting to everyone.

"We are so happy that all of you are now safely here."

"Well, not all of us...not yet," Gus interjected. "However, that day will soon be upon us,"

"Yes, indeed it will," replied Quintavius.

The Chairman's telepathic response appeared to include an audible chuckle.

That was a first, Gus thought to himself. Oops...oh boy, not again...

"No, that was not my first laugh Gus," Quintavius responded telepathically.

"You forget, I have had a lot of Human exposure and a lot of time to learn. And to be sure, laughing, especially as you Humans practice it, is some of the best medicine Sektor V has ever known."

"I couldn't agree more, Mr. Chairman," Maddy added.

As Maddy and Quintavius interacted, Gus became captivated by his son's little twitches and movements as he continued to sleep (and dream?) in his arms. Gus was still in shock. I'm a father!

As he continued to stare at him intently, a thought came to him as his eyes suddenly opened to their full capacity.

Standing across from Gus, Miranda noticed his odd behavior and asked, "What's up Gus?"

"Sage," he said with a big, knowing grin.

"Huh?" Miranda responded with a brow raised.

"Sage. That's what we should call him!" Gus repeated.

They all looked at each other with slightly confused expressions, including Quintavius.

"You know, for the black hole we circled for two years? Where he was conceived...Sagittarius A star."

Maddy's eyes immediately lit up. Aha! he thought.

"Not bad." She said coolly, trying her best to squelch her obvious excitement.

"Oh give it a break woman, I saw your face. You know you loved it!"

"Ok fine, I don't hate it..."

And with that, she quickly took Sage from Gus's arms and held him close to her chest as she began slowly rocking him back and forth.

Quintavius used this brief break in the conversation to join the discussion.

He decided to audibly speak, in English.

"I like your naming convention. I think it is fitting. I also think we should get you up to speed Mr. Lebanchek, as soon as possible. Much has transpired during your absence."

Maddy and Gus glanced at each other almost simultaneously. Hearing Quintavius speak, especially English, was surreal. Gus could tell Maddy was just as astonished as he was. The sound itself was odd and took on an almost mechanical quality.

Within a few seconds, Gus regained his composure and responded.

"I'm sure you are right, Mr. Chairperson. Things can't stand still for 103 years. I'm all ears."

Quintavius then motioned to all of them to follow him...

He led them out of the medical facility where Gus had arrived towards a small conference room situated down an adjacent hallway. As they entered, Gus noticed another "old" friend who was already present. On the far side of the small table that was situated in the middle of the room sat Sektor V Councilman Zyok Melkaan.

Gus smiled and called out his name.

Melkaan looked over at Gus, slightly surprised but said nothing. However, he did respond telepathically.

"There is no need to shout Mr. Director, thankfully I am not deaf."

True to form, Melkaan's expression remained emotionless.

Gus smiled and replied audibly.

"Well, scratch that Quin, some things will never change with teh passage of time!"

Gus's quip got everyone not named Zyok Melkaan to laugh, including the Chairman himself.

There were six seats at the table, which meant none of them would go to waste.

After everyone situated themselves, Quintavius began communicating telepathically.

"Gus, we have already briefed Chancellor Wilheim, so this gathering is primarily for your benefit. We also may have a few additional questions for you regarding your two-year journey to the center of the Galaxy. I hope this will be acceptable to you?"

"By all means. Whatever you need to know, I'm an open book." Gus replied.

"Excellent, then let's begin. As you all know, just over 103 Earth years have passed during your nearly two-year journey orbiting Sagittarius A star. Here, on Arcturus, the integration of your species into our society has gone exceedingly well. By most measures, it has proceeded better than anyone could have expected. Overall, many aspects of Human culture have managed to blend well with existing Arcturian societal structure. In fact, blending has extended into the realm of genetics. As you already have no doubt noticed, hybridization has begun. The modest genetic differences between our species that initially prohibited procreation were resolved rather quickly by our bio geneticists. As a result, many first, second, and even third-generation Hybrid individuals exist today. Unlike our Zeta contemporaries, it would appear that our species share a proclivity for trouble-free reproduction.

Quintavius paused as he reached for one of the 6 glasses of water that were neatly positioned near the center of the conference room table. During this brief break, no one interrupted him. Finally, the Chairman put the glass of water down and continued.

"What makes this social experiment even more remarkable is the rapid acceptance of the Hybrid species within our Arcturian society. Even "purebred" Humans have embraced the co-joining of our cultures without any outward evidence of discrimination or intolerance."

"Really?" Gus thought to himself.

As soon as he "uttered" the thought, he knew, once again, the ETs had "heard" him too.

"Do you doubt my thoughts?" asked the Chairman who appeared to be genuinely surprised by Gus's remark.

Gus didn't particularly appreciate his inability to think and process without being instantly analyzed but he knew that was the new normal and something he would simply have to learn to live with going forward. For now, he would just answer to keep things moving forward.

"No, my apologies Mr. Chairman, please continue," he said.

Quintavius produced a polite smile and picked up where he had left off.

"Humans, and the Hybrids that followed, have had up to a century of your time to absorb Arcturian knowledge and experience that has amassed over many millennia. This cultural and physical evolution and revolution have not been a one-way street. Arcturus has learned much from our Terran counterparts over the past 100 years as well. Human ingenuity, doggedness, aspects of your physical prowess, and advanced emotional capacity are exceptional traits that have been received as precious gifts by our people.

"Of course no transition, especially one that involves the cross-pollination of cultural ideas and traditions that span millennia, can be expected to occur completely without incident. You must remember, and although time has passed quickly from your vantage point, we are many of your decades into this social blending experiment. Truth be known, the early years had several setbacks. Some were modest in nature, including issues related to housing and diet while others were more substantive including the desire of some to establish a separatist, more isolationist existence. Thankfully, these differences never amounted to much and were eventually resolved over time. So what you see today is a well-adapted heterogeneous community that co-exists in harmony and willingly embraces cultural and physical differentiation and diversity."

Gus was smiling and shaking his head. What he didn't realize was that everyone else was watching his reaction.

"What?" he asked aloud as he looked around the room.

"Look, I'm a student of Human history and behavior. I'm not saying what you just told us isn't true. I'm just thinking how incredibly unlikely this would be on a grand scale back on Earth. And I am not talking ancient times. You could pick three years ago. Scratch that, 103 years ago and I would have the same thoughts. I can't speak for Arcturians, but from the Human side of the ledger, our history has shown us time and again that differences almost always divide us and inevitably lead to conflict. This is sad, but it also is very true. So what you are describing to me sounds like Fantasyland straight out of Orlando. If this is indeed the case, it's nothing short of miraculous."

Clyve Walford jumped in.

"Trust me, brother, I was just as unbelieving as you are right now. But it's true. It's not all unicorns and rainbows but as a species, we've taken a huge leap forward. Something like this would have never naturally evolved on Earth. Well, at least not for thousands of years, if at all. Quin hasn't told you some of the best, really craziest part of this transformation."

"Like what?" Gus asked, taking Clyve's bait.

"Like telepathy, like telekinesis, like self-monitoring and self-healing. Over the millennia the Arcturians have managed to eradicate all forms of slow-growth disease. They can monitor and adjust their bodily functions down to the cellular level. Even more remarkable, apparently Humans share some of these innate capabilities. They have helped us in so many beneficial ways it would make your head spin and take days to go through it all. Bottom line is that we as Humans, at least on this planet, have made a quantum evolutionary leap in an incredibly short amount of time. And we have our galactic friends from Arcturus to thank for it."

Gus looked over at Maddy incredulously. But Maddy just smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Wait," Gus asked, "are you talking about Hybrids having these powers or full-on Humans?"

"Both," answered Melkaan in his typical matter-of-fact style.

"Seriously?" asked Gus incredulously.

"So you are saying that all pure-blood Humans now have telepathic, kinematic and self-monitoring and self-healing biological powers."

"No, you are saying that," Mekaan replied. "Not all Humans or Human-Arcturian Hybrids or full-on Arcturians for that matter, possess these capabilities. Some do, most do not. As for Humans, a small number of individuals are selectively screened at a young age and enter into advanced training for several years. Some of those individuals end up with enhanced mental and physical capabilities. 'Powers' sounds magical. This is not magic."

Gus laughed. But no one else around him joined in. He was having a hard time believing this.

"I guess my top secret and site access clearance means nothing at this point so what the hell. The most covert parts of our government spent decades trying to advance this type of pseudoscience. We spent many millions over the years with kids who were marked early on as having 'special abilities'. Despite all the time, effort and resources spent we had zero point zero to show for it when it came to any of these individuals moving even the smallest of objects using so-called 'mental powers'. The projects I funded had no success, despite trying for the better part of a decade. A few other efforts that I had nothing to do with claimed marginal success on the telepathic front but irregularities were found with some of the results so even in those limited instances considerable doubt remained. Self-healing? Please. Even the overzealous and paranoia-driven US government knew where to draw the line between pseudoscience and outright science fantasy."

Melkaan interjected telepathically.

"The blind cannot teach the blind to see."

Melkaan being Melkaan. He was nothing if not consistent.

"Damn it!" Gus said aloud knowing he had just done it again.

"I fail to see how consistency is undesirable," Melkaan replied telepathically to the group.

Gus knew that only he and Quintavius understood Melkaan's comment since no one had "heard" Gus's earlier thought.

Quintavius stood up and left the room without explanation.