Found my way to the end. About 4400 words, so not a bad short story. What next?

Faustina, like Reina, is the type of person who you just have to shove the facts under their noses and they come ’round fairly quickly. Guess I need to update my family tree at the top of my blog again? I’ll wait until I’ve some idea how many kids they have.

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While he and Liz picked at the food available, he did watch the empress first go to her husband and rub her cheek to his, then only after getting some food.  Do these people hate the idea of comfort so much they never sit?  No, Liz sat when I napped.  So much I do not understand.

While Faustina asked a series of questions about the manual side of the work he had done on the moon project, he was suddenly interrupted by Stephen.

“Faustina,” his tone unhappy.  “You said you would not.”

“Apologies, Stephen.  I wanted clarification without stopping the hu- without stopping Joshua’s train-of-thought.”

Looking at her Intended, Elizabeth explained, “My mother reached out to my mind when you mentioned the superconducting cables.  For you and my step-father, we are trying to be polite and use our spoken words, only.”

“Oh.  Well, the point I was trying to make, was given the very low temperature around the Daedalus crater, where the center of the array is, in its ninety kilometer diameter,” he went on, pausing for a sip of water, “there are, as I’m sure you know, the four outlying and slightly smaller craters with their own arrays.  To have them perfectly coordinated, we had to use superconducting material.  Ninon was a huge help there.”

“So far as I know,” Faustina said, taking her water glass and moving to the head of the table, her hand on the back of the chair, “you, on the project, plan to name the array after the central crater?”

“Ninon said she did not care about names, that they mean nothing to her,” Liz replied, sensing that dinner was about over and moving closer to Josh.  “With no objection from the rest of my staff, I have left a name to my Intended.”

“I can just imagine what he picked,” she muttered, then was louder.  “Well, lad?  What is it?”

“The Vee Array,” he replied quite clearly.  From the look on her face, she has no idea, was his smug thought.

“While I don’t get the reference – I was sure you’d go with a cliché such as Argus – you should not be smug to your empress, my subject.”

There was something in her voice which made him shake a little.  Liz touched his right hand with her left.

“My grandparents liked a song that my family who first came to the old US liked,” he managed after a breath.  “It was called ‘The Night has a Thousand Eyes,’ and sung by Bobby Vee.  I must have heard it every time I was visiting their place.  Did Argus occur to me?  Of course.  But Princess Elizabeth gave me this choice, this gift, and I wanted to honor my family.”

That provoked a laugh from Stephen.  He sat at his wife’s right and waved the two across from him to sit, as well.

“You have just managed to not only confuse one of the most clever mortals on this world, but in invoking family loyalty, have pretty much disarmed her!”

As she more sunk into her chair than sat, he leaned over with a smile.  “Ready to concede, dear wife.”

“Be quiet.” But her voice was softer.  “Liz?  Let’s start with you.  Reasons first, thoughts second, feelings third.  Please begin.”

Her daughter quickly and succinctly discussed Josh’s abilities and training, what he could bring to the imperial family, and that she was hopelessly in love with him.  All done in a completely dispassionate tone.  I feel out of place here, he thought.

“You are not,” she said with a squeeze to his hand.  “There are only a handful of demi-humans on earth.  I should be asking your permission to marry you, no matter what Mother says.”

“Dammit,” was the curse from the end of the table.  Stephen was about to speak but his wife rudely raised her hand.  “There was a moment of danger.  Tell me that story.  Your words.”

“My love was just off Daedalus.  There was a tidal dust basin.  He slipped and tore his suit,” Elizabeth began in almost a sing-song tone.  “In signal, I knew and reacted as one of us would.  I… went onto the surface with no suit.  I was freezing and dying at once.  But I could not leave him.”

She looked at her mother, the Empress, her eyes crying, her voice level.  “I could not leave him, Mother.”

Silence fell and they watched Faustina’s eyes flare turquoise.  A tap at the door and she rose, followed by the rest.  A priest came in.

“Father Rafferty, thank you.  There will be much ceremony later, but for now, my husband and I are witnesses.  Marry these two.  Now.”

Mind reeling, Josh didn’t know what to think, only that five minutes later, he was married to Elizabeth Hartmann.  Another handshake and smile from Stephen, now his father-in-law, and a glare from the Empress.

“You understand your duty, hu – my son?” she nearly growled.

“Yes.  Perfect loyalty.”

“God wills it.” She took their shoulders and pushed them out of the conference room.  “Get her pregnant tonight; imperial order.  My husband?  After all this, I want you, too.  Let’s all go.”