There are vampires on other planets.

There are vampires on other planets!

What if… what if we didn't have to hide? What if the vampires could come in their ships and save us? I walk through the corridors and open spaces of New Eden as quickly as my thoughts. The other vampires could come and get us… or we could make it a first contact situation. Humanity isn't ready to discover us, but are they ready for first contact? I open the door to my quarters, close it quickly behind me and start unzipping my dive suit.

Will we wind up at war no matter what we do?

"I like what you've done here—"

"Holly fucking shit, Damian!" I scream, spinning around, hand over my still heart. "What are you doing here?"

Damian looks completely non-pulsed. "Wow," he says, voice dripping sarcasm, "guess you were really lost in thought." He carelessly drops a priceless artifact on my desk. I move quickly to catch it before it connects, so it doesn't break. A pot shard from middle kingdom, Egypt. Great.

"Could you not. These are priceless artifacts." I put the pot shard back in place. It seems weird to look at history from the lens of archeology when I could just walk down the corridor and ask someone. I could probably ask Damian, but he wouldn't tell me. His carelessness around the artifacts tells me he is older than the middle kingdom, but no one really knows how old he is. He changes his name and reinvents himself randomly. If I had to guess, I would think he has every PhD on offer. You can actually tell when someone was turned by what they call him. I'm not sure anyone even remembers his real name.

Speaking of Damian, he looks completely unimpressed. "This place looks like an archeology lab met a tornado. What had you so lost in thought?"

"Nothing," I straighten and cross my arms across my chest, "I just got back from escorting elder Isis here, I just wanted to get home and rest."

His damnable eyebrow arches up. I swear he spent at least a century perfecting that look. And it works. "Uh-huh" he says. The longer he holds that look and remains silent, the more I want to tell him the truth. It's clear I'm not fooling him anytime soon.

I turn around and sigh. He shifts his weight. He know's he's won. "Did you know there are vampires in space on other planets?" I rush out while turning to look at him.

I have never seen behind Damian's mask before. Usually you only get to see what he wants you too, but this time his face is in open shock. "I…what…? If… If vampires were in space, we would know about it," he intones.

"Elder Isis told me on the trip here. Apparently Ra went up in space too." I watch him closely, looking for any micro twitch that may give him away. Based on what I'm seeing, though, the space era predates him. I knew he wasn't an elder, but I'm still not sure when exactly he was turned.

"But if there are vampires in space, on other planets, surely they have the technology to come get us so we don't have to hide." He says this slowly, deliberately, like he isn't sure of the words and needs to try them out first.

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"That's what I was so lost in thought about." He turns around, finds the couch, and collapses into it, resting his head against the back and looking up at the ceiling. Then he stills. Not a muscle twitches, or a hair moves. I walk to the bedroom and get changed. There is no point trying to talk to him while he is processing. He'll come back when he is ready.

I stop by the kitchenette, and pour two blood packets into two cups, then pop them in the microwave. When they are done, I sit in a chair across from him and set a hot cup of blood in front of him. I drink mine while I wait, sure our coven's fix it guy will come to the same conclusion as me: this information can change everything, and we have to do something.

I'm not sure how long I wait for him to come out of his trance. Time is a construct we tend to reject in our eternal lives. My cup is empty, his is cold and congealed, and I'm on my third book by the time he comes to.

He sits up quickly, picks up his cup and makes a face before adding some water and throwing it back in the microwave. It won't be as good, but Damian is the least picky eater I've ever met. He will take any and every kind of blood in any state it's in. I once caught him waiting for his blood to congeal just so he could cut it and eat it like a steak.

I close my book and wait for him to talk.

"I've run through every scenario I can think of." He sips his, now hot, blood and sighs. "I think we have no choice but to contact the extraterrestrial vampires."

"First contact or evacuation?" I put my book down and turn to face him.

"First contact. If too much magic leaves the earth, it could die."

"Elder Isis said the same, but I don't really understand."

He sighs while putting his cup down on the counter, then he leans back against the wall with his hands in his pocket. His gaze is locked firmly on my bookshelf. "It's about ley lines. You know how the humans found meteorites with RNA in them?"

"I may have read something about that…"

"Well, the RNA didn't combine to form DNA and life by accident. It was influenced by magic. Every star system that intersects a ley line full of magic should, theoretically have life. But if that magic dries up… the building blocks for life stagnate and everything dies."

"Why wouldn't everything just continue? If life already exists…"

"Remus never gave me a good explanation for that either, just that he trusts Hermes' conclusion in the matter and if I wanted more, I could go find and talk to Hermes."

"Isn't Hermes a Fey?"

"Yes, and absolutely impossible to pin down."

"So… you never got an answer."

"Nope," He grabs his cup, saunters his way back to the couch, takes a long drag from the cup before placing it on the table and leaning forward with a serious look. "Magic has to exist here. Humans are already polluting the world and causing mass extinctions. I'm sure we are close to upsetting the balance and destabilizing the ley lines running through the earth. If we have our space faring compatriots approach the humans first in a peaceful way, we will seem less threatening than if they find out their horror stories are somewhat true."

"I kinda was thinking the same thing. The only problem is, how? How do we contact them?"

"They would have needed a ground control during the launch. Do you know if they had contact with other planets during this time frame, or were they just going out to explore?"

"They left earth to stabilize another planet on the ley line. They were called to help."

He rolls the mug between his hands, his gaze locked on the swirling dregs before draining it. "There must be a communications array."

"Who would know where it is?"

He places his cup down with finality. "We need to talk with Elder Vulcan. He would have been the one to build the array." After crossing the room and opening the door, he turns and locks eyes with me. "Rest up tonight and gather supplies. We'll leave as soon as you are ready"

"Do you even know where he is?"

"Unfortunately," Damian says, sounding defeated before he leaves.

On to talking to Elder Vulcan, I guess.