A short flight from Russia to the imperium allowing for a little exposition of Robert’s background.

I’ve already started Part 2, but have to take most of today doing RealLife stuff, unfortunately. I should wrap up Part 1 by Friday.

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Annie, Crown Princesses and heir, got them a Shch Mk.II.  Looks like a version of our T3, Robert thought.  But smaller, and with a tapered nose, like a submarine, as this was developed for mostly atmospheric flight.  The fifty-meter craft sat on stubby landing legs in the central courtyard of the Hermitage, waiting for them.  He wore an unadorned legionary uniform with his sidearm and Nadia a charcoal-gray business suit and skirt to just below her knees; her revolver was in her handbag.  In an emergency, a dress would just be trouble and Robert knew everyone would change before their meeting.  The Empress had sent a message that Eloise, and the girls, were on their way from Knoxville.

They know nothing, she had written.

They with an escort of four of the Imperial Household Troops, personally loyal to the Romanov family, not the military, strapped down.  The co-pilot announced they were lifting.  They tore a hole in the sky with a six G takeoff.  When the pressure eased off, Robert looked over at his wife; more precisely at her belly.

“I think everything is fine,” she said, “but perhaps we should have a word with the captain?”

Robert pushed a button over his head.

“Permission to come forward?” he asked.

Only a few meters ahead – most of the rest of the ship was the motor and power source – she heard him tear into them, with “…if your empress’ niece miscarries, both of you are dead!” being his conclusion before stalking back.

“Assholes,” he muttered.  “They apologized.  If they screw up the landing, I’ll have them arrested.”

She nodded.  The world was a hard place.

“How long until arrival?” she asked.

“Two hours,” he replied.  What had been his father’s house, on family land for nearly two hundred years, on the northeast face of Wade Mountain, just north of Huntsville, had been taken over by his mother after the death of her first husband, Robert Wade.  My father, who died before I was born.  It was now a much larger complex but still built so that the natural beauty of the area was not compromised.  While remarried with two more kids, it seems Fussy cannot let go of the memory of her first.  It was the only thing that came close to a permanent home for her.

Robert heard the pilot radioing their location and status and a request to land.  Looking out the porthole just past Nadia, he saw the large pond a few hundred feet west of the central house.

“I know you told me you always preferred to swim there than in the house’s pools,” she said, looking, too.  “I cannot criticize:  I used to swim in the Neva when my mother and my tenders weren’t looking.”

“We’re contrarians from hard families,” he said quietly as they first hovered then dropped slowly next to a cleared area between the trees.  “Those guys up front must have got my message.  Much better for a lady such as yourself.”

“Robert?” She released her harness as they felt the landing struts flex.  “Have I ever been a lady?”

“Good point.  Let’s switch to English and be on our way,” he replied, standing.

“You will make fun of accent, again,” she mumbled.

“I know.”