One of the things I am just now realizing it that by being away from these people for just over four months, details that I knew better than my meatspace relatives become clouded or lost. In this case, while I knew Liz’s bio-dad dies in an accident (and her mom later remarries), I screwed up the dating. So, Liz cannot be 25; hell, she can barely be 18, and that still might be wrong. So, Josh is now just turned 23, while they were working on the moon.

So, when I’m starting to edit all of this into my third short story collection, I’d have to be very careful. I’ve made myself some notes in the Word file, so I don’t forget. Again.

Below the fold, Josh learns a little more about what is pending-wife is. And there’s a little romance for these kids who are now both years younger.

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His briefing over, she leaned over and gave him a hug.

“We’ve never kissed,” she noted.  “Will you do that now?”

“Won’t your mom shoot me?” he only half joked.

Her response was to hood her eyes just bit and part her lips.  Worse ways to die, I guess, he thought, leaning into her with his arms about her waist.  About a minute later, she sat back with a smile he’d never seen before.  She stood, pulling him up with her.

“I’d really no idea that your family was telepathic,” he ventured, after all she had told him. 

“It’s not telepathy, per se,” she corrected, “and we can only do it while in signal or touching one another.  But, we do find it useful.”

“So that’s how you were able to get so much done, on our lunar project?” he asked.  “Being in touch with the empress for resources and the rest of your family if you had questions?”

“Not exactly,” she said.  They walked hand in hand.  As the first born, she was relatively well known, so many legionaries and local contractors called greetings to her, but wondering who that guy was.  “Most of my time was spent with Ninon in mind.”

A part of the project for so long, Josh knew she was one of the Thinking Machines from tribe Tohsaka, just one of the lesser known, unlike Ai or Fausta, the latter’s android still showing up in the imperium now and again.  The only two images he’d ever seen of her was of a veiled figure or one wreathed in flame, like a phoenix.

“And,” Liz continued after sure he’d mentally caught up, “if you think our kind thinks fast…  Well, the Machines really have to slow things down.  It’s one of the reasons most of them get bored with mortals; I suppose it would be like us trying to have a conversation with a flatworm.”

“Should… should I be insulted by that?” he said with another little squeeze to her hand.

“No.  We’re all different.  We should revel in those differences.”  That provoked a thought on his part.

“Speaking of, your mother, you, and several of your brother and sisters are demi-human.  But your dad wasn’t. Or your step-father.” He pulled her to a stop and moved in front of her.  “So it’s inheritable?  But not always?”

“Correct.  There is no guarantee if our children will be like me or you.”

“You do know that can come across as a little sinister, sometimes?”

“I’m aware.” A smile and flash of yellow.  “Will your sons and daughters being different be a problem to you, Intended?”

“Not at all.  Two things, though.  Your mother looks really young for her age.  Do y’all age differently?  And, just how many kids are we talking about here?” he laughed.

“To the first?  Yes, my uncle, Gary, thinks we age about at about half the rate you do.  Thus, it is likely you will die long before I do.” She ignored the look on his face.  “How many?  As many as we can.  I hope you are up to it.  Wait; was that a pun, right then?”

Ignoring the looks, he took her into his arms.  “I love you, Liz.”

“Forever,” she said back to him.