Another larger segment going into the weekend. Realizing that I’m not finishing in 2-5k words but closer to 10-15k, I need the story breathing down my neck to keep me motivated. Ideally, I’d like to ship this to my copyeditor no later than December 31. That will give me five months to write two more – one of which may be another short story collection; there are loose threads everywhere, and one thing I DO NOT want to is get any further into the future. It’s just too complicated.

Allie finally walks on a new world – for her. Between the cavern, the building, the fish and leaves, and Squiddy, I understand Aurie’s caution: there’s no telling what the Hero might be inadvertently carrying. I suspect that, as I have done before, I’ll skip the speech (for anyone reading along, it would be a boring recapitulation, and we’ve already had one, which is enough) and move directly into first family politics (Aurie’s husband, Jimmy, is 2 yrs older, so a solid 70, but he, too, has been around Henge and, of course, very close to his wife) and then how international politics about the shrine are shaping up. That will act as an outline to me for everything up to the epilogue.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

Five hundred kilometers above the surface of Earth, Rahab drifted.  That meant Alicia got to, as well.

“That was grueling,” she admitted to Nichole.  They were both in the single corridor which wrapped around the motor at the ship’s center.  To her perspective, the android was upside down.  “I wonder if I’ll be able to walk, down there.”

“You’ll be fine,” Nichole said around her melted smile.  “I would recommend they start you in a wheelchair, though.  You will have to stand for some of the speeches and pageantry.”

“It’s all a bother,” the demi muttered, lightly touching the ceiling.  After feeling like she massed six times what she did on Mars, this was wonderful.  “And, have those royal pains in the ass figured out where we’re going first?”

“While this is a Japanese ship and I am a subject of His Majesty, we, and the Habsburgs, knew they are not in the running,” Nichole explained while touching Allie’s face with her remaining hand.  “So, it’s Russia or the imperium.  A nation much larger than the one I first visited, so many decades ago.”

Alicia had learned while very young that her great grandmother, starting with two legions in Knoxville, built a huge army and brought all of what was once the Deep South under her control.  Later land up to the Ohio River, followed by the Eastern Seaboard to the edge of the Northern Federation.  With Texas bribed with access to reactionless motors and a statelet on Mars, that Republic was added to Faustina’s ledger.  But nominally independent, the girl thought.  Everyone plays pretend for the sake of honor and keeping the peace.  When Canada finally imploded, except for a tiny rump state in Ontario, Faustina treated the former Midwest with “benign neglect,” letting them manage their own affairs for a half generation.  Until her retirement and relo to my planet.  One of Empress Aurelia’s first acts was to annex former Ohio, Indiana, Illinois.  No pitched battles, but some low-level terrorism was suppressed…harshly.

Nichole blinked and the floor was coming up slowly.

“I’m guessing we’ve been told where to land?”

“Yes.  Looks as if Aurelia won round one and we’ll touchdown, well, hover, in Knoxville.  The birth town of the imperium, so to speak,” she replied.

“Do you need to go to the command deck, Nichole?”

“After we left Mars have I been there once, silly girl?” she laughed.  “I can fly Rahab from anywhere in or on her.  My primary mission has been looking after you, given my reckless G loads to get you home – excuse me!  To Earth.”

“Should I strap back down in the G bed?” the Martian asked.  Nichole shook her wrecked head.

“No hurry now, but I will want you sitting down, so let’s to the mess.  Hmm.”

“Hmm?”

“Just in case, I have requested a wheelchair for you.  The stress of these three days, plus your structure, might make that a good idea.”

At the mess, Alicia sat, but looked mulish.  “I am the Hero of Mars and the talk of all Earth, and you want me for my first time on Old Home to look like a cripple?  Am I tired?  Yes.  Will I be weak?  Yes.  But the eyes of a world and History are now upon me.”

“I’m calling that a ‘no,’” Nichole tried to smile.  “But it will be in an out of the way place.  Just in case, oh Great Princess!”

Not wanting to fight, Alicia considered their flight path in her mind.  We should be there in about thirty minutes.  Press release says Aurie and many of the family will be there.  I wonder why she has not yet reached out to me?  No matter, I’ll be on my best behavior – and I won’t fall down – just to spite Miss Clarke, here!

She saw they would be just outside of the massive legionary storage fort about ten klicks northeast of the city itself.  A ferroconcrete and stainless steel structure a mile on a side, it was a depot for the legions on Earth.  And provided a backdrop meant to overawe any visitors.

Through cameras on Rahab and signal from the ground and some drones, Alicia noted they were settling next to a much smaller building just off the fort at the same time, someone showed up in her mind.

Hello, there, Cousin Hero, Empress Aurelia said.  As you came straight from the surface of your planet, I’d rather not your discovery to be a footnote to my mistake of not having you go through decontamination first, and releasing something like Andromeda onto this world.  It won’t take long and then you’ll have first of your many days in the sun.

A pause.

Even if I know why you are really here.  See you soon, Allie.

That was a bit curt, she thought, as motion stopped.  Nichole stood and beckoned Alicia to come with her.

“Not taking the ramp down?” she asked.

“Too much exposure, no,” the android said, scooping her up into what was left of her arms.  “I’m dropping out, here.  They’ve already sealed it off from the outside.  I’ll probably just be fumigated and irradiated for a few minutes.  Biologics are more tricky.”

A hole in the floor in front of them dilated open a meter and Nichole took a step.

A confusing hour of men in hazmat suits, sprays, gasses, and being briefly broiled in a microwave had a door open to Empress Aurelia, flanked by a male and female aide.  Typically wearing a legionary uniform, Faustina’s gold circlet was now hers.  Allie walked out naked and her empress pointed at a pile of clothes – a nice dress – off to her left.  She moved at once.

“Pictures do not do you justice, Empress,” Alicia began.  “For a woman nearly seventy, you look half that.”

“My mother’s fault,” she replied in the same brusk tone.  “I share her nature and she shed all over me for years.  The nanomaterials have been rebuilding me for decades.”

The Hero pulled on low heeled shoes and stood.  The woman aide made a few quick adjustments to her hair before stepping away.

“It’s show time, Hero,” the Empress declared, waving at the double doors behind her.  “Can you manage a speech or shall I feed you lines?”

“I am fine.” A tiny smile.  “This will be fun.”