Ugh. Helping to move Daughter #2’s stuff to her new house. In 87F/90% humidity. I’m too old for that.

Decided to conclude this one, so it is just a tiny bit longer. Having always been content to just be as her man’s side, Min gets a little surprise from Fussy at the conclusion of Les’ funeral. And then there is the interplay with Reina. Aurie gets in first, to make sure that most dangerous of Thinking Machines does not do anything stupid. Min was, after all, once her.

For the next week, I need to flog Matters of Life and Death to where I can hand it off to my copyeditor. And, I need to ponder the eleven stories and decide what I’d like to see on the front and back covers so my designer can get started. Everyone have a good weekend.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

A crowd of the extended Hartmann-Rigó families stood at the north end of the clearing.  Minerva noted the simple casket made of local hardwoods on a platform.  A few of the younger ones saw their arrival and started to salute.  Aurelia made a chopping motion with her hand and spoke to the minds of her kind:  “We are here for him, not me.”  Even so, she went to the front, pulling Minerva along with her until they came to Faustina, indeed leaning on the cane in her right hand.  Aurie took her left and Min’s right and nodded at the priest.

Shorter than some of the Masses Les had taken her to, because the priest skipped the homily, once everyone received Communion, with me being a very obvious exception, the priest looked at the empress with a small nod.

“Nope,” she said with unusual levity.  “You’re up, Fussy.”

“I expected this,” Faustina sighed, gimping forward, around her son’s coffin.  She let her left hand glide along it as she did.  She has amazing self-control, but I see she is hurting very badly.

Without mentioning the degeneracy of his youth, she spoke of his service in the legions, acting as a diplomat amongst the Great Powers, and his exploration of the planets and moons.  And all without a mention of me.  Am I such a disappointment to these humans and demi-humans?  Oh, she has paused and is looking about at her massed family.  And now her eyes are on me.

“Minerva,” at least she pronounced it correctly, “please come stand at my right hand.”

She did, noting the emotional ripple in the audience.

“There is a matter I must address,” the emeritus empress said, raising her voice.  “Out of my stupidity, for a century, I have deliberately neglected and slighted this beautiful woman at my side.  Who was at my son’s side every day for all of those hundred years.  A perfect loyalty which even we Hartmanns cannot hope to match.”

A round of applause.

“So.  There are two matters at hand.  The first,” she said, turning to Minerva, “is I beg your forgiveness.”

Before her startled family, Faustina knelt.

I did not need this complication.  Minerva placed her hands on the other’s head.  “I have nothing to forgive.  You are you and I, me.  You allowed me a life with your son.  You have graced me with more than I could ever have hoped.”

Faustina stood and kissed her cheek before turning back to the assembled.

“The second matter.  I have lost one of my sons.  Again.  But I now proclaim that I have gained a daughter.  Minerva Hartmann was, is, and always shall be my daughter and y’all’s cousin.  And Les’ beloved wife.  Deus vult!”

“Deus vult!” the crowd thundered, now yelling in happiness as they clapped once again.

“This is more an Irish wake than a funeral, Mother,” she thought to Faustina.

“Les would have wanted it so,” she thought back.  “And I am so sorry, my daughter.”

The formalities over, the two clasped their hands and waded out into the crowd.  Empress Aurelia was the second to kiss her before shouting that there was food and drink at the tables to the south, back toward the main house.   But she also immediately went to Crown Prince James, the presumptive heir, for a mind-to-mind independent of the rest of us.  Politics.

It was near midnight when having walked Minerva through Les’ old room and told her she could have whatever she wanted, she was passed off to the empress, who led her to the charging chair.  After her upgrade forty years ago, she still possessed the comm and charging ports in the back of her neck common to all Somi models, but those were just backups.  Now, she sat on a metal stool and took in power.  Curiously, Aurie pulled a wooden one up, as well.

“Before you speak with Reina, I’m going first.  And, yes, I want you to listen,” the empress explained.  “Ready?”

“Yes.”

“Good morning, Prime Minister,” Aurelia thought formally.

“And good evening to you, Empress.  Business?” the dictator of the Russian Empire replied.

“Of a sort.  Please note this is an official communication, open to audit, in the event of hostilities.”

“There have never been such between our realms.  I know you are more brash and harsh than your predecessor, but this seems a bit much, even for you,” Reina thought.

“In just a moment, my cousin, Minerva Hartmann will contact you,” Aurie bulled on.  “If you do not already know, she has been publically recognized as a member of the imperial family.”

“I saw.”

“You will not take any offensive action against her.  To attack her is to attack me.”

They both felt what a human would have called a sigh.

“Go find another brushfire war to fight, Empress.  Leave me with my former self.”

“We shall speak again, soon.  Thank you, Prime Minister.”

That connexion was severed and Minerva instantly opened another.  “As always, thank you for allowing me to live, Reina,” she thought, noting Aurie stood and left the room.

“A century with that man and you are as ‘wild and dangerous’ as any mortal.  While I do not fully understand the nature of your loss, I certainly do understand death.  I am sorry for you, former self,” Reina allowed.  “Come, let us not use words.”

She knew that if they opened their minds to one another, Reina could seize her self.  And after what Aurie just declared, that would mean a genocidal war across the solar system.  I do not know you, Lord God, but please help me.

Minerva opened her mind.

Their exchange was over in seconds.  After twenty minutes and at 85% power, she stood.  A corner of her mind told her that even in the blackness of the now-morning, the empress was in an office, working.  She went to the ground floor and was about to tap on the door.

“Come,” Aurelia called.  She walked in just as Aurie came around her desk, took her hands, and led her to the couch along the wall.  “You seem okay.  I don’t get to start a war?”

“I am sorry to disappoint, Empress,” Minerva replied, allowing her mouth one of its rare twitches.  The violent demi-human dissolved into laughter.

“You’ve always been family, it’s just official now, so I will not ask what y’all talked about,” she began, pouring herself some water from a glass pitcher.  “I am very curious, personally and officially, what your plans are.”

“As you ordered me, as family and sovereign, to not shut down,” she held Aurie’s eyes like her hands, “and, yes, that was one of my primary considerations on my – our – trip back to Earth, then it seems I am at your service.”

“Do you want to go back?  Keep exploring and surveying?”

She shook her head.  “Absolutely not.  Every moment would remind me of my husband.  Over time, I would disobey your command and destroy myself.”

“Well, now,” Aurie said, letting her breath out with a whoosh, “let me try another tack.  After a suitable period of mourning, do you think it possible you might fall in love again?”

Minerva flinched so badly, that her hands jerked back from Aurie’s.

“Too soon,” the empress said with a rueful smile.  “I retract the question.”

“I…I…”

“Stop it, Cous – no.  I’m going to call you my sister.  Starting now,” she said in that tone when ordering her legionaries.  “So, let’s start with location and work forward.  You are family and also my subject.  Earth, the moon, or Mars, which would have you under the jurisdiction of my royal cousin, Queen Alicia.”

The shake in Minerva’s eyes was noticeable even to Aurie.  She dipped her fingers into the cup and put little beads of water on the corners of the machine’s eyes.  “There.  Cry a bit.  But I want that first question answered.”

“You are a harsh mistress,” she whispered.

“I’m aware,” the empress replied.  And waited.

If I go to space, I will think of him more than I do now, which is constantly.  The empress’ order aside, I am so sad.  I am so… is this what tired is for humans?

“Earth,” she allowed in a soft voice.

“Good.  That’s enough for this night.  You are a brilliant and loyal person, Sister, and an adornment to House Hartmann,” the empress declared, gently slapping her hands on the top of Minerva’s thighs.  “I’ve much in mind for you, but that’s for later.  Er, well, later today; this afternoon.  Your late husband is now in the tomb.  This is pushy of me, but I order you to go there and kneel.  Pray.  Think.  Until dawn.”

She stood and pulled the machine up with her.  “I will not use you.  I ask you to let me help you.”

Minerva put her arms about her new sister.

“Please.  I miss him so much.  I cannot be alone.” I wish I could cry.  “Perhaps…perhaps I shall spend a decade of years in the Ascension Convent, in Moscow, which was rebuilt a generation ago.  I want to try to talk to Laszlo.”

“A good beginning,” Aurie nodded her face next to hers.  “You will see him again, sister.”