Breakfast, the most important meal of the day, and a great time to find out things which can not only shatter your world, but could shatter more than one.

Aqua hid away whatever it was that tossed Fussy and Ed three hundred years into the future. Now a team of Russians are about to start excavating their way to what seems to be another one. Reina is not one to take “no” for an answer, so this could have significant political repercussions. Already rapidly becoming famous for her accidental discovery, I have a suspicion that Allie is about to be up to her neck in international/interplanetary politics.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

At night, with her parents busy having fun in the room next to hers, Alicia was aware of the message just arrived from her older brother.  He was always a little unsure of me, five years his junior but different because of what I am.  He only really opened up to me once sent to Old Home and that military academy, in the tradition of all of the first-born sons of the Alvarez family.  She smiled in the dark at the ceiling.  His fellow cadets tease him that his kid sister caught crabs on Mars!  I hope he didn’t punch anyone.  His message ended with his pride and love for her and a desire she come visit as soon as possible.

 At breakfast the next morning, rice omelets, a meal Saras had learned from their Japanese neighbors – but she added curry and Anton put salsa on top – she confirmed her parents had read her brother’s message.

“Which points to something yet again,” her father said, halfway through his breakfast.  There were meetings to go to.  “You going to Earth, or Old Home, as you kids now call it, a bit dismissingly.”

“It’s not my home,” his daughter rejoined, “and it’s where humans started.  We’re on our way now.”

“Humans?” he reflected, taking another bite.

“My, and our, nature, is a fraction of what we are.  Hence Faustina coining the term demi-human.  In fact, when she was just twelve…”

Anton looked up as both of the women’s forks dropped to their plates with a clatter.  He could have read at night by the light from their eyes.  Knowing something important just happened, he leaned back and was still.

“Oh, my,” his wife was the first to talk.

“She did that faster than I thought,” his daughter muttered.  About to shovel move food into her mouth, Anton spoke up.

“A little help, here?” he politely demanded.  Allie lowered her fork.

“A report from Reina.  Tay has partially cracked the Crabbies’ writing,” she said, looking longingly at the plate.  Her stomach growled.  “My guess was correct:  that single building is religious and the writing and images tell a story of how they went from a paradise to where they are now.  But…”

“But?” he barked.

“But,” Saras said softly, touching his forearm, “it is not sure if they meant life on the surface, or life somewhere else.  Tay’s only five percent translated and is making educated guesses.  Her rival for ‘Smartest,’ Dorina, is saying they come from somewhere else.  Possibly somewhen else.  What happened to Faustina and Edward, and now Allen Rupert, is of grave concern to many of our Machine friends.”

Anton looked from her to his daughter.  And resumed eating without a word.  Both women sensed his agitation but neither could pinpoint its source.  For such a close family, they ate in an uncomfortable silence.  He wiped his mouth, thanked his wife, and lit a cigarette.