A much shorter segment as, honestly, I’m not entirely sure where I’m going. There, obviously, be a big download of politics from Fussy, but after that? The Japanese are on the edge of this whole affair, whereas it happened on and under land claimed by the Russians. Thus, we all know who will have her say: Reina. Like a bad penny or herpes, she keeps showing up.

Concluding this MS on nothing more than politics would be frightfully boring. So, I’ll have to wait to be told how to shake things up. Maybe with that shrine under the waterfall being used, the Crabbies come back? By ship? Teleporter? Do the Great Powers get drawn into a war over alien technology/life? Need to light a fire somewhere.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

“It wasn’t just a circus, my family,” Alicia spoke to the large screen with images of her mother and father on one side, and her grandfather Robert on the other.  As her mother shared her nature, she had already given her a précis of what happened, “but more like a battlefield.  Kira has marshaled over two hundred men.  First, for my rescue, but now for the investigation.”

“And it was the Midwife who sent you to your great grandmother’s place on the Hellas Sea, rather than home to us?” her father Anton asked, not happy.  “I get the politics, my daughter, but…just.  Dammit.”

“I love you, too, Dad,” she smiled.  “But, yes:  politics.  I’m due for an audience – so to speak – with our Emeritus Empress in thirty minutes.  She, like Mom, knows my thoughts, but we’re family and rule on two worlds and above them.”

“And what will my mother want with you,” Faustina’s son Robert asked.  On Earth, he was thirteen light minutes away and thus not entirely a part of the conversation.  I wanted him to see me, regardless.  He’s looking like he aged five years in the days I was missing.  I’m so worried for him!  “Just another of her photo-ops?”

“She just turned eighty, Grandpa, and is worried about me.  At least, that’s what I felt from her.” She sighed.  “We all know the ‘emeritus’ thing is as real for her as it was for Diocletian and Charles the Fifth, but at least she’s here, on my planet, and not being a bother to Aurelia.  As a Hartmann, through being an Alvarez, I have a duty to her and the family.”

That drew a sigh from her father.  “I know you meant no insult by that, daughter, but sometimes…”

“I’m aware, Dad, and I apologize.  We are all a part of something greater than ourselves,” she said with a dip of her head.

“And you are now more than you know,” her mother whispered.

Alicia watched Anton look right to Saras, seeing the glow of her eyes.  “What now?” he muttered.

“We’ll sign off now,” her mother smiled.  “Say something nice to my dad before you go to your audience with Fussy.  I love all of you.”

“I love you as well, Alicia.  And, proud of you before, well, you are a Martian Hero now.  Bear yourself well, my daughter,” her father said, reaching forward to break the connexion.

Seeing him just sitting there, waiting on the transmission lag, she smiled and promised her grandfather that, once all of this was tamped down, she would visit Earth for the first time.

Time to see Faustina.