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energy fluttered in recognition. Her gaze flew to the com screen when it began to flicker wildly as data flashed across it. Documents, images of space, and all manner of other foreign sights flashed across the screen faster than she could make sense of them.
    There was a collective gasp from everyone present when he opened his eyes and turned to face them. His eyes had turned pitch-black with ribbons of molten gold swirling through them.
    Kiana’s attention was caught by more flickering images on the com screen as Tiaki continued to hold his hand over the computer terminal. Maps flashed across the screen. They appeared and disappeared before she had a chance to focus on any of them. It finally stopped on a picture of a solar system. Only it wasn’t their galaxy. This one had a deep purple sky so dark it was almost black, with red stars. Off in the upper-right corner was a planet in shades of green and blue.
    Her gaze flew back to his, and she watched as his eyes faded back to their intense shade of crystalline blue. She opened her mouth to ask what the hell was going on, but then thought better of it when she felt something calling to the energy inside her.
    The energy strained toward both him and Mateo.
    Tiaki put the chip back in the pocket on his sleeve and turned to address the room. “What you see on the screen is my home planet, Mākutu. It resides in the Phoenix Galaxy 27,000 light-years from Earth.” He paused and waited while they digested the information.
    Kiana’s heart rate sped up when his gaze shifted back and forth between her and Mateo a couple of times as though he was trying to tell them something. She could feel that restless energy reaching out for Tiaki, urging her to accept… What, she didn’t know. She broke eye contact with him when Mateo shifted in his chair beside her.
    “How did you come to be here, Mr. Jamison?” Lieutenant Commander Pearce’s voice cut through her thoughts.
     
    TIAKI CLEARED HIS throat. “It will be easier for you to understand if I give you a little history of the Phoenix Galaxy.”
    Pearce nodded. “Proceed.”
    Taking a deep breath, Tiaki began. “When the gods began to fall out of favor, they gathered their most loyal subjects and journeyed to a sparsely inhabited galaxy, which they dubbed the Phoenix Galaxy.”
    “What gods?” Elias asked.
    “What you know of as mythology were actually religions pushed into extinction by newer ones. The gods that moved to the Phoenix Galaxy in hopes of reviving their following are from nine different pantheons, although a few combined and settled on a planet together. The most powerful of the nine is the Greek pantheon.” Tiaki glanced around the room and watched to see if anyone showed knowledge of this information.
    “And the other pantheons? Who are they?” Pearce asked.
    Tiaki flipped through some of the images he’d uploaded to their system. “The other pantheons are from Celtic, Norse, Native American, Polynesian and Australian, Egyptian, Japanese, Chinese, and Indian.”
    “You mentioned that the planets in this galaxy were sparsely populated. What happened to the people who were there first?”
    Tiaki heard the sharp edge in Mateo’s voice. He met and held Mateo’s gaze. “Yes. There were some alien life-forms. Most of them were welcoming. Those that weren’t, we were able to negotiate treaties with through one of the best arbitrators known to man.”
    “And just who might that be?” Mateo bit out.
    Tiaki glanced around at the men and woman sitting at the table. “King Arthur and his knights of the round table followed the Celtic pantheon. They were appointed ambassadors when it looked like the aliens were gearing up to wage war on those who’d followed.”
    “What does all this have to do with how you came to be here, Mr. Jamison?”
    Pearce’s question broke the tension that was quickly becoming palpable. Tiaki didn’t blame them. It was a lot to take in. Especially if they knew nothing about this