Allie tells her story, most of it, to her parents. Their pride in her is obvious, as is her modesty; she is no Fussy or Aurie

Between the Lewis Carroll and Easter references, this is becoming an allegory. I need to review my notes for the rest of Part 5 this weekend. I’ve got a pretty good idea about the Epilogue, but need to get from here to there, first.

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Ignoring the wet sheen of Allie’s eyes, he put his arms about the both of them and led them to the door.  “But it seems I’ve a new son to raise.  Boys are much more important to us Mexican men, you know.  You’ll have to be princess, hero, and…whatever that word was, without me.”

Not caring who was looking, Allie’s tears broke free and she buried her face into the fabric of his skinsuit.

“I’ll always need you, Daddy!” she shouted into his chest, arms around him with all her girlish strength. 

Up to their flat, Saras flew into dinner-mode.  “I know more than you can guess, Husband.  Get the Hero some juice, sit on the couch, and talk.  Shoo!”

Doing as he was told, they were both pleased to hear and smell the beginnings of Butter Chicken.  “There goes this month’s budget,” her father mutter.  “Now, start at the beginning…”

“Go all the way to end, then stop,” she smiled.  “Yes, sir.  We, a team led by Midwife Kira, were asked to investigate a cave complex about two hundred klicks west of Ekatarinberg, high up the Tharsis Rise.  I made a misstep and fell down a hole.”

“You stepped into a hole?” He was incredulous.  “Why in the world…”

“Dad, please,” she said over the cup.  “It seems, now, there was a thin shale cover to the hole – a made hole, nothing natural like an old magma tunnel.  So, even before I finally ended my long slide ride on my butt, I knew I was in someone else’s home.”

“Apologies,” he said a little formally.  “Continue.”

She did.  The first cave.  The cavern with water and light.  The building with images and writing.  Fresh water in pipes.   Allie paused to think to her mother as she could not hear the Midwife right now.  Did Kara say I could talk about, ah, that guy?

“She mentioned it to me,” Saras replied aloud, stirring a pot.  “So, sure, tell your father about your uncle.”

In the process of standing to get her more juice, Anton staggered back, nearly falling.  “Your what?  Where?”

Cup refilled and returned, she returned to her story.

“A man out of time, Dad.  And for the first time in my life, I must travel to Earth.” She saw his confusion.  “To visit and honor his grave.  Allen Rupert saved me, Dad.  Let me tell you how…”

Her first night in the cavern.  Fishing.  The waterfall, she had forgotten to mention earlier, and gunfire.  Zhukov’s body.

“If she were not a crown princess in her own right,” her diplomat father said with a shake of his head, “the Viceroy and Reina would kill her for wasting a Russian’s life.  Did you at least…”

“Yes.  No way to dig, so we built a cairn.  And prayed for him, poor, brave man.”

She grew very cagey about the shrine behind the waterfall and her uncle’s disappearance.  The one that Faustina and Edward accidently found is held by Aqua at a secret location.  No one even speaks of it.  And I found another.  Hope that doesn’t get me in too much trouble.

Alone in her story now, she told of the path and the wall, where he smiled before hearing she accidentally poisoned herself.  “You didn’t even look at the leaves?” he demanded.

“I was a little distressed, Father!” she said too loud.  “I’m sorry.  I, well, this is a little weird, but I had a kind of vision.  Uh, I don’t think I can talk about the details right now.”

Anton’s eyes went to his wife in the kitchen and saw shake to her head.  “That’s fine.  We all bear secrets.  Do go on.”

Alicia told of waking in an android’s lap.  Her mother and father knew of Nichole 5 only through pictures and videos.

“She, this is also maybe not something to talk about, but everyone must have seen her when they got her out, she was badly injured from fighting the Watcher.”

“The one you also named Squiddy?” her mother smiled to ask, turning off the stove.  Her daughter stood and made to set the table for the three of them.  There was a fourth place, for her older brother, just so they would remember him on an alien world.

“Yeah.  She seemed to think it no big deal; plans to get repaired on Earth,” she replied, getting and opening a bottle of wine for her parents.  “She hooked me up to a harness and over several hours, I was hoisted to the surface.”

“Hero?” Alicia sighed, sitting as her mother brought the ceramic serving bowl of the pricy soup.  “I was a sack of meal pulled out of my own stupid mistake.  Ouch!”

The last was as her father lightly cuffed her head before he also sat.

“You have changed the course of all of human history, my daughter.  Did you sit in that first cave and wait to die?  No, you went looking, for yourself and for all of humanity,” he said, his voice on edge.  “You had a great adventure, being raised from the depths after three days by another power.”

He and his wife raised their glasses to her.

“You are Hero Alicia Alvarez.  Let us praise God for that!”