“Well, Demy,” Dad began, “there are two main inhabited planets there. Altair VI was settled by humans over a hundred years ago, though it never joined the Federation. There’s also a native humanoid people on Altair III. At first, they seemed like they didn’t have space travel, so the colonists mostly avoided them.”

“The Prime Directive?”

“No, that was before the Directive. They just didn’t think the Altairians had a lot to offer them. But then they found ancient ruins on Altair VI, and eventually they figured out that it was the original homeworld of the people who migrated to Altair III thousands of years ago.”

“Why did they leave?”

Uncle Pavel fielded that one. “A lot of smart people have been trying to figure that out for a long time. What we do know is that when the native Altairians found out that aliens had settled their ancient homeworld, a lot of them weren’t happy about it.”

“So the two planets have been fighting for a long time,” Demora’s father went on. “They’ve been at war on and off for the past hundred years. The Federation’s stayed neutral, tried to broker peace and give medical aid, but the instability on our border was dangerous for the whole region. The Klingons even tried to back the natives, hoping to gain a foothold close to the heart of the Federation.”

“But then our diplomats finally convinced them to make peace,” Uncle Pavel said. “That was, oh, about a dozen years ago. And it was a solid treaty too, with real solutions. Things have finally stabilized, and there’s even talk of both worlds applying for Federation membership.”

He sighed. “But that sort of thing always gets a reaction from people who prefer to stick to themselves, so there are new tensions on Altair III. Luckily,” he finished with a smile, “Captain Terrell is very good at defusing tensions.”

“I hope so,” Dad said. “Altair’s a beautiful system.” He turned to Demora. “Pavel and I were there for the inauguration of the new president of Altair VI, after the last wartime president resigned to secure the peace.”

“Well, we were a little late,” Uncle Pavel said. “We had to make an emergency detour to Vulcan.”

“But we were there for the end of it. Luckily there was a lot of celebrating. Even in wartime, Altair VI always had excellent recreational facilities.”

Uncle Pavel tilted his head, looking puzzled. “Now that you mention it, it’s quite a coincidence that both flares happened at popular shore leave destinations.”

“Do you think it means anything?”

“How could it? I still don’t know how it could even happen more than once in a billion years. Let alone in consecutive months.”