This is the next shoe to drop: Anton, as a soldier and diplomat of a minor power, sees what will come next: the shrine, the device behind the waterfall. Unlike the one Aqua hid, this will be in Russian hands in less than a month, with the potential to destabilize everything generations of humans, demi-humans, and Machines have worked so hard for.

The latter half of this segment did not exist until Sunday morning: Mass, again. This story is about to go off in a direction I never anticipated.

I would also like to formally thank Kalogeros Stilitis of Gab for his help with the Greek. I taught myself some koine Greek when I was 25 years old, but that was a lifetime ago and I recall almost nothing.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

“You deliberately skirted telling me about your uncle’s disappearance,” he began as Saras turned on the overhead air scrubber with a thought.  “No, I’m not like you two, but I’m not an idiot.  It was another of those things from the Second Inundation, when the Empress and her son were tossed into the future.”

A huge drag and exhalation.  The poor scrubber tried to keep up.

“Aqua is hiding the first.  I bet the Midwife, Kira, is already setting up mining teams, yes?” That both women looked down at the table was his answer.  “So in months, maybe weeks, we’ll have another.  And this time, there are enough people here that Aqua cannot put together a team and make off with it.  It is under Russian territory and everyone there now is a Russian subject.”

He stabbed out the butt of his cigarette.

“In less than half an Earth year – Old Home, Allie – the Russian Empire will have a time travel device.  I fear…” His pause was long enough for his wife to leave her chair, come behind him, and wrap her arms about her husband.  “I fear we are on the edge of an abyss.  Science and theology about what our Hero has done is one thing.  This technology will destabilize the Polar Alliance, which has kept the peace, and remade this world, for over one hundred years.”

Allie watched him kiss his wife, stand, kiss her, then put a suit on.

“My meeting with the Japanese Sea Minister in fifteen minutes is now rather low on my priority list, but must be.  I understand I’m married into the Hartmann family, and you both know my citizenship is Mexican.” He reached for the cigarette pack, looked at it, and tossed it back onto the table.  “It’s going to be a hectic few days for all of us.  My daughter?”

She stood and came before him.  A nod.

“Use what you call your lines to talk to Kira and Faustina.  Now.  For at least a month you are the most famous person alive.  Lever that to stop an interplanetary war.”  He went for his jacket; no skinsuit today.  “I’ll see everyone at dinner.  What are you doing next, Allie?”

“I was going to see the bishop in an hour.  Confession and Communion.  I shall do as you say, father, and speak to the Midwife and Empress immediately afterward.”

He nodded and was gone.

“Confession, my dear daughter?” her mother asked, picking up the plates.  Alicia moved to help rinse them off.

“A man died trying to rescue me.  Not my fault, per se, but a second degree result of my actions,” she explained.  “And I shall have Mass said for him.  When I can afford it, I will build a Russian Orthodox Church in Ekatarinberg in his honor.”

A sigh.

“Visiting his family on Old Home is yet another task of mine.  Mom?” She paused with the dishes and looked over.  “I think I might be leaving in days, not weeks.”

“You, like the originator of our families, understand the imperative of ‘sudden,’ my all-grown-up daughter.”

They both cried inside while wiping the plates and flatware dry.

Her walk to the small cathedral made her aware of the stares.  And whispers.  Some of the more recent arrivals didn’t think the seeming White girl spoke Japanese and said more than they probably would have had they known she did.  Nothing bad or rude, but this is the first time I’ve ever felt self-conscious in my hometown.  I wonder if, a hundred years ago, this is what Nichole 5 had to put up with in Japan?

Confession was simple and Alicia knelt to receive the Lord, after.  She asked if she could spend some time in the church and the bishop laughed at her.  “The most important person in the solar system wants to spend time here?  I should record this for advertizing!”

He didn’t, of course, but that reinforced what Dad said and Fussy implied:  I’m known, now.  Sitting in a pew, she stilled herself and opened her mind to another.

Yes, Hero? Faustina answered her.

Is great grandfather okay? was her first question.

For now.  Thank you.  Ah, I see.  Your clever human father sees the coming troubles.  Vexing, isn’t it?

Is there nothing we, I, can do, Empress?

Pray daily, of course.  And, I think, use you.

I was afraid she would go down this route.

So, I am to go to Old Home soon?

Soon?  Her laughter echoed in a creepy way down her spine.  Nichole 5 shall be at Neo-Yokohama’s spaceport within the hour.  Have you packed anything?

I’m at the cathedral, Fussy, she snarked a little.

Good for you.  Nichole was just about to leave for Earth and her repairs, but I prevailed upon her for a short delay until I had a better feel for how the politics are beginning to play out.  Only us, at the top of the tree, so to speak, are focused on that shrine, as you call it.  Everyone else on Mars and Earth talks of your Crabbies.

κάβουρας αρης χαρτμαν, Allie corrected her.

Hartmann Mars Crab?  Faustina laughed at her.  Very clever to work us in there, but you are the discoverer and it is your right.  I’m letting the appropriate people know of the name, now.  And, I was kidding about packing.  Nichole’s ship, Rahab, is now there but she has to take on provisions for your three day trip.  I expect you there in no more than one hour.

My mother and father…

Already know.  Run home to them and they’ll see you off.  Move, it girl!

Pushy ex-empress!  But Alicia jumped from the pew and ran.