The McKenzie House is the family home of Fleet Admiral Alastair McKenzie and his children, Glyse and David. Situated on a sizeable property just outside Neo Athens, it served as the family's home base for years, though by the 2690s, no one really lives there full time. McKenzie spends most of his time on Prometheus or in transit, David can't seem to stay in one place for long, and Glyse is either deployed or visiting Whitney in the Highlands Cluster. A cleaning service keeps the place spotless on retainer, which mostly just means it's a well-maintained monument to better days.
The property is ringed by Jupiter pines — Calysto-native trees that shimmer silver-red in the evening sunlight and put on a show of bioluminescence as the sun goes down. A gravel landing pad near the house accommodates gravcars and the occasional gravbike. The house syncs automatically with any recognized device the moment it crosses the property line — lights, heating, the works.
Out back, past the patio, the property extends into more natural terrain. There's a pond, and near it, a modified Sequoia that McKenzie planted when he first bought the place. The tree was engineered to grow on Calysto, and he'll never see it reach its full height. That's the point. As he once put it to friends around the fire pit: "If I'm not trying to make a better life for those two generations away, what's even the point?"
One of the larger Jupiter pines near the house still holds the rope swing McKenzie made for Glyse and David when they were children.
The front door opens directly into a long, vaulted living room that serves as the central space of the house. The ceilings are high enough to give the room a sense of grandeur without feeling ostentatious.
Near the entrance, a small alcove in the wall holds a dish for house keys — actual physical keys. This dish is McKenzie's go-to mental image whenever he has to explain Focus to someone using the "lost keys" example.
In the center of the room sits a circular fireplace, a gift from McKenzie to his wife Nyana. It was based on a shared memory between the two of them. After her death, the fireplace became one of the more emotionally loaded objects in the house. McKenzie can still light it with a tap of his phone, but doing so tends to open the floodgates.
The house has two libraries, and they couldn't be more different.
Nyana's Library is a spartan room with comfortable but basic furniture, functioning as a media center. A tray of AR glasses sits on the coffee table, and depending on which overlay is loaded, the room can look like anything. The last overlay Nyana used was a dark, gothic room with a thunderstorm raging outside. McKenzie has never changed it.
McKenzie's Library is the one people picture when they hear the word. Wood paneling, leather chairs, and actual paper books. It's a proper study, and it's where McKenzie retreats when he needs to think.
A gameroom in the basement houses fighter simulators — good enough to attract even off-duty military pilots. During the Boxing Day barbecue of 2690, Glyse, Julia Hayes, David, and Ambassador Jirael were all spotted down there sparring in the sims instead of socializing with the adults.
The patio is the heart of the house when the McKenzies are actually entertaining. It features a fire pit ringed with chairs, a fully stocked bar, dining space large enough to seat a dozen or more, and loungers. The annual Boxing Day barbecue — famous for McKenzie's ribs — is held here, and it's drawn everyone from ambassadors and admirals to thieves and pirate queens.
The house is one of the few places in the galaxy where McKenzie allows himself to be something other than a spymaster and political operator. It's where he grieves, where he hosts the people he actually cares about, and where he planted a tree he'll never sit under.
By November 2692, the house "felt dead." McKenzie stepped through the front door, tossed his keys in the alcove dish, lit the circular fireplace, and sat down in the empty living room as another year of repressed sorrow caught up with him. The house that was no longer a home.