Part one of two of the story’s end. This wraps up Bob’s side of things. I’m edging out of “hard SF” here, but that’s okay. Their world is Changed and we know a helluva lot less about ours than we think we do.

Off to Imaginarium in an hour. Four to six hour drive, depending on weather and traffic. Nothing on the schedule tonight, so I’ll see what I can do for Konev’s wrap up. Obviously, Reina will be there. She’s always there.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

Drifting out and back into consciousness, Bob finally was able to focus on the wall clock opposite the hospital bed he was in.  0957.

“What happened?” he wondered aloud, letting his eyes close again.

“Quite a lot.” He recognized the voice the moment before his eyes reopened.  His Uncle Gary, the Empress’ brother.  A medical doctor, among other things.

“So, I’m in Knoxville?” Once again, by training and family, he kept on.  “But more importantly:  my men, Eloise, her family, and the Russians.  Status?”

“You team will have several more days debriefing before being returned to their unit,” his uncle began.  “Eloise is in the hospital’s cafeteria by my orders.  She refused to leave your side until about thirty minutes ago.  Nice girl.  Her parents and two brothers are enjoying the culture and weather shock of the Gulf Shore right now; they are aware of why they had to be evacuated.  Finally, the Russian delegation has been expelled from Ottawa; no explanation given.”

Bob had to snort at that.

“Yeah,” came a young woman’s voice as she walked in, “that was about what I thought, Cousin.”

“Aurie.  If you are here and Mom’s not, I guess I’m in the kind of trouble Ed was when he nearly killed Ryland?” He tried to shift and simply rolled left, his face against the bed’s raid.  “What…?”

And he remembered, just as Gary was propping him back up while Aurelia pressed a button to elevate the head of the bed.  Bob saw Gary look to his daughter and give a nod.  She was much more a political creature than he ever had been.

“To say we have a million questions does not begin to describe what the mood of the Imperial Family is right now.” That she began to talk while smiling was disconcerting.  “With you unconscious, the empress demanded basic answers.  I rooted around your brain a little but not enough.  We turned it over to Reina who got the story, at least from your perception.”

“Reina,” Bob muttered.  “That must have cost…  Well, that’s not really funny anymore, is it?”

Aurie nodded.

“She now has the full report of Mars, three centuries hence.  Worse, in my opinion, is that she now knows time travel is possible, Cousin.” She walked around his bed and pulled up a rolling stool before taking his right hand.  “No one can predict what will happen next.  At least we know Aqua and his team grabbed that ancient tech you mother screwed with.  He refuses to let anyone near it.”

“If something was built once…” he began.

“…it can and will be again,” she finished.  “We know and are already thinking about that.  Competing in space is one thing.  We cannot compete in time.”

“Anyway,” she shot a near-instant look to her father, who walked out, “Reina took a look at your memories.  Because she’s a little nicer these days, being married with a family, she told us that your friend, Sergeant Konev, met this peddler, Joseph, some months ago when he and his men were at point on their occupation of central Canada.”

She paused to look out the window but never let go of his hand.

“Konev came across a tribe who had several young men suddenly dead, with the flesh stripped from them, using a technology unknown to them.  Or us.”

She looked back to him.

“Similarly, your arm and leg.  Not even Daddy, aided by my brother, could do something like that.  Over days.  And this happened to you in seconds.”

“Some kind of android?” He tried to put aside half of him was missing right now.  “Maybe one from tribe Arpeggio?  They are kind of clannish…?”

“I have in my head,” Aurie talked over him, shaking hers, “a copy of what Reina saw in you.  Just as Joseph said, I, and now all of us know who he really is.”

She added her other hand to his.

“We live in the Change, Cousin.”

He didn’t need philosophy right now.

“Who is he, Aurie?” he demanded.

“Cartaphilus.” The name meant nothing to him and she saw that.  “There are two version, so I’ll simplify it:  he cursed or struck Jesus on the way to the cross.  He’s cursed to live forever but without immortality.  He has to continually, er, replace parts of his body.”

Growing up in a world no one a hundred years ago could have imagined, Bob did not doubt her for a minute.

“So, when he asked to make a deal…” he whispered.

“You agreed, thinking it a metaphor.” She looked away again.  “You… you have absolutely no idea how furious the Empress is.”

He noted she kept saying her political title and not “aunt” or “your mother.”

“I screwed up.  I’ll own it,” he said.

Her eyes came back, swimming in tears.

“Not at you!  Dammit, you men…!  She wants to obliterate everything within five hundred miles of where Cartaphilus was last seen, just to make sure she kills him.”

“I thought he couldn’t die…”

“If there are nothing but ashes, it’s a risk she’s willing to take.”

“I’ll stop her,” he sighed and shifted again.  “Hey!  I can get cybernetic replacements like great-grandfather!”

“Those,” Gary said, coming back into the room holding a tray of food, “have already been ordered.  Tribe Tohsaka checked the design and passed the plans onto Somi Corporation.  They build the best androids on this planet and are fabbing them now.  And come on in, Miss Patel.”

With Aurie holding his hand, Bob was able to twist his head left without rolling over again.  Wearing the same shirt and pants from their spaceship ride, she gripped the door frame, crying again.  She couldn’t seem to move.

“You…” she cried softly.  “This happened to you because of me.  Because I was stupid.  I should never have gone back.”

“You did.  I came for you.  Everyone is safe now.” He gave a smile.  “I think this hero deserves a hug and kiss.”

She flew into the room and did, over and over, yelling now how much she loved him.  Where his limbs used to be ached just a little but didn’t really hurt.

“I wonder,” he said as Aurelia stood and relinquished her seat to Eloise, “if, now being a cripple, Mom will let me off the hook about marrying a Russian imperial or aristocrat.”

“The answer is no,” Aurie replied.  “I just asked.  She is very happy you are well.  As can be.  She will not be able to see you until about a day.  The Canadian government has fallen and, from what we hear, is under martial law.  Tenth Legion is on full alert and two more being moved to the border.”

“Our unconventional forces?” Bob asked, prying his hand out of El’s to caress her cheek.  Aurie didn’t even hesitate with a non-family member there.

“Also full alert.  We think three well-placed nukes – you recall I’m rather deedy with those – then a rock dropped onto Toronto should end it all.  If we have to, of course.”

“A rock?” Eloise used her right hand to wipe her face.

“A big one,” Aurie nodded with no smile.  “Dropped from orbit.  Makes a mess.”

“Everyone I’ve ever known, even by reputation,” Eloise said with her jaw quivering again.

“My sister is trying to avoid this.  All of it,” Gary spoke up again.  “These are contingencies, Miss Patel.”

“After all, we’re Hartmanns – and you will be, too, kinda,” Aurie smirked.  “You will be older that if we can’t do good, we’ll do bad well.  I’m off!  Here!”

She rolled an instrument tray over and set the cafeteria tray her father had brought onto it.

“Help him eat, Concubine.  You are his property now.” She turned and was gone.

“I…am?” Eloise looked from Bob to his uncle, who rolled his eyes and shrugged.

“Your latest labs are due back,” the doctor said.  “I’ll check those and return, presently.”

Bob sighed and reached with his right to lift the lid off the bowl in the middle.  Some kind of stew. 

“That was not exactly true,” he said.  “Being demi-human and in signal, uncle can see the labs right now.  He was being nice to us.”

He reached for the spoon, only to see Eloise seize it first.

“I… I’ll feed you.  That Regent gal just ordered me.” For the first time since her rescue, she tried a smile.  “Okay, Master?”

“Prince was bad enough, El, so please don’t,” he glared with the same small smile.  “Hey, this is pretty good, for hospital food.”

It was already cooling, so no one spoke until he finished.  There was also some sad looking broccoli and a cookie.  Bob said no to the rest and Eloise stood to move both trays away.

“You are a lot prettier than I expected,” he admitted as she turned back around.

“In the middle of all that, you were looking at me naked?” she asked, almost sounding like an officer again.

“Men are pigs,” he said, shrugging one and a half shoulders.  “Can you get me a tablet?  Aurie’s briefing was nice but short.  I need to be older about what’s going on.”

“I don’t have one but can ask,” she said, sounding steadier all the time.  “That word again.  Older.  I don’t get the context.”

“We picked it up from the Machines.  It means to learn.  To learn is to change.  To change is to be older.”

“Oh.” She looked at the door, to go find a tablet, but didn’t move.

“El?”

“Yes, Bob?”

“We need to seal our contract.”

“What!” She took a step back with her hand onto her stomach.  “Right here?  Now?  With the door open!”

He stared at her.

“A kiss.  They do kiss in former Canada?”

Looking mortally embarrassed, she came to his missing side, pulled her hair back, and leaned down.  After nearly a minute…

“We could… even with the door open…” she tried.

“I’m,” Bob said in fake exasperation, “going to look up the Latin for ‘horny’ and make that your new name.  Go get me a tablet, El.  God first, family second.  Now is duty.  You’re lucky you’re on my missing side or I’d swat your butt.”

“I’d like that, Master,” she said before walking out.