Another busy day for our hero, getting a bit more and more unsettled by the culture shock of Old Home, as she calls it. Politics continue to play a role and Aurie hints as something of a trial ahead for Allie. I was surprised that slightly chonky Annie from Part Three of Obligations of Rank has put Reina (and yes, that’s her on the cover) into her place; and more than once. Makes me wonder how many kids she and Pavel have now (recall we met part of her first son, Ivan, back in Part 3 of this MS, Tay being their adopted daughter).

I love road stories; it really makes writing so much simpler. The only thing easier are dinner scenes.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

A quiet breakfast – “you eat bacon?  Like, every day?” was Alicia’s shocked question – was followed by a meeting with Aurelia and several of her advisors to give them personal insight into what happened.  At its close, the empress told her she would be travelling on an old Mark Three to Waxahachie, Texas just before noon.  Alone.

“But, why?  You rule there…”

“That is a polite fiction we care to maintain.  Texians are odd people about their self-image and don’t need the reminder that our family, while polite to their self-rule, ultimately hold the whip hand,” Aurelia explained, leading Alicia outside, close enough to catch her if she fell, still not really used to the higher gravity.  “And, even sending you into their capital, Austin, is more provocative than needed.  As Waxahachie is an out-of-the-way place, and once home to the first Friend of the Machines, our relative Lily, this makes you a person with a great story to tell rather than a scion of the Hartmann imperial family.”

“Yeah, I get that.” She paused to catch her breath, even in for her an oxygen-rich environment.  “And I see from the itinerary you just pushed out that in the evening I’m off to St. Petersburg?  Couldn’t I just stay here, with you, and have out what we need with Reina?”

“Yes and no, Martian Hero,” Aurie said with a smile and push to her arm to get her moving again.  “Yes, Reina is effectively dictator, but Tsarina Annie, if you’ll forgive the familiarity between one empress and another, has not wasted her decades on the throne just being a figurehead.  She has, um…”

When the empress fell silent, Alicia stopped again and looked at her.

“Annie has, this is tricky to say, and I cannot think it to you, as someone might be listening, but Annie has said ‘no’ to Reina in several instances, and made it stick.” Allie was surprised to see her empress glance left then right, as if in a cheap thriller movie.  “More and more, Reina is interested in her family and not so much being the PM of the Russian Empire.  It may be you see great things in your lifetime.”

“I…cannot say I understand, Empress.  But I will think about this carefully,” the young Hero admitted.

“Good!” They turned a corner and beheld the one-hundred meter rod which would take her to her next two destinations.  “And, to go back to your concern, Annie, who is just a few years my junior, will likely dote on you like a grandmother.  When we – and that means Reina – talk business, I’ll be there.”

She turned and took the girl into her arms.

“Fret not, Little Hero, you are never alone.”

They kissed one another’s cheeks, and Alicia carefully made her way to the ship, still unsteady in Earth’s gravity well.

“I am a terrible person, manipulating a child like this,” Empress Aurelia Hartmann said to the cool air.  “And, I must purge my jealousy.  I once wanted what she shall have.”

From the town’s main square, with the statues of Livia Barrett and her husband Arpad Rigó just behind her, Alicia gave a speech about her past and recent adventure similar to what she had done the day before, but, with the Empress’ words in mind, made it a bit more folksy and was also to talk about the small, but growing!, Texan colony on Mars, a part of the territory staked out by the imperium.  I didn’t mention that.

Unlike her first presentation, there were questions shouted from the audience, who, knowing she was coming – thanks, Aurie – had come from all over their country.

“No, I did not.  Tay, in Russia, has just begun to decipher their language, and it appears the building had some religious or historical significance.”

“I,” she tried to not think of Nichole’s injuries, “I think Squiddy is there to look after things.  Intelligent?  No idea.  When I go home, I’ll try to ask him.  Or her.”

“Yes, I’m supposed to go from here to Russia, but a great man, a Texan man, Allen Rupert, saved me.  I shall pay my respects at his and his wife’s gravesite, after all this folderol.”

“Never been to Texas?  You forget I’ve never been to your planet.  I’m a Martian.”

“Hero?  I’ve heard that, and it’s silly.  I’m a girl who fell down a hole into a wonderland.  The heroes are Midwife Kira, Nichole 5, and poor Zhukov, not me.  And, can we have a moment of prayer for him:  Mikhail?”

She took that as her chance to jump off the platform, nearly shattering her ankles in the process, to be taken back to the Mk III.  “Galveston, first, she ordered.” Her first.

 Using a ramp this time, Alicia walked across the campus of the Texas Naval Academy on Pelican Island, waving at the stares and scattered applause from the cadets as she did.  Across the main road was a small cemetery for only the most important graduates.

“They are real heroes, not me,” she murmured, pausing before a marker.  Allen and Ryland Rupert.  “Together at last,” she read.  After her husband’s disappearance so long ago, Ryland had moved to Mobile, in the imperium, at Faustina’s prodding, and set up a naval academy there.  Later promoted admiral, once Allen sudden return – barely aged at all to her twenty years – she immediately resigned and went to live out a quiet life with her husband, trying to make up for so much lost time.

“It was too late for her to have any more kids,” Alicia said to the steady breeze of Galveston Bay, “but they did foster three.  Being an imperial princess made adoption not really an option.”

She stared across the bay toward Texas City.  “Being in this family, on this planet, must be a bother.  I’m happy to just be an Alvarez, and soon back to my home.”  She fished her phone out of the purse she’d been given and called the ship to descend and get her.  Time for my next adventure.  Midwife Kira’s older sister, now the aged Tsarina, and, of course, her, their PM.

“It’s so bright on this world,” she said, shading her eyes.  “I want to go home. But I have my duty.”