Yep: was correct about a big fight. For those not conversant with my works, the imperium has always taken a dim view of androids, as it is policy to employ locals, human or demi, to do work. Are there exceptions? Sure, for visits, just like now. In ages past, Fausta and Nichole 5 would drop in now and again. RIght on the heels of that, when Graf explains what their assignment is to be, we get a little surprise from Alix. Still surprised, Graf pushes to know more the next morning.

Just for your weekend, a double-helping of drama. Now with fish.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

They didn’t know how long they were asleep when they heard, “…living in sin because of you!  A foreign freak!” Alix’s mother shouted.

“Oh, no,” she breathed.  Moving to get up, Graf stopped her.  “What?”

“The sooner everyone has this out, the better everyone will be,” he replied.  She relented.

“Like you and Pai fighting?”

“Yes.”

Not yelling, they could not hear Pai’s replies.  Perhaps her calm made the older woman angrier.

“No!  I would not raise them if she died!  You own them, you do it, robot!” they heard.  Alix began to cry softly.

Now I’m the one who wants to go downstairs.  They hate us that much?  The kids are their flesh and blood.  He sat up, pulling her with him, and hugged her as tightly as he could.

“Leaving?” they heard Pai’s raised voice.  The only answer was the slamming of the front door.

“Will I ever see my family again?” Alix cried, now a little louder.

“Yes, you will,” he said, standing and pulling on a robe.  “Come on, that was a lot of noise.  Let’s check on the kids.”

“And you check on your wife?” she asked, doing the same.

“Only if you are with me.”

“Ass.  How did you not seduce every girl in the county you grew up in?” she asked.  Tears ending, she wiped at her face.

“Farming is hard work, Dearest.  Looked at lots of ‘em, sure.  But…” he trailed off as they padded to the room next door.

“But?” she whispered.  Both were still asleep.  She took his hand and made for the stairs, not their bedroom.

“I guess it took a miracle to open my eyes.  And another one to have you across my path a day later.”

“Stop it.  That sounded a bit energetic, Rival,” she said, seeing Pai sitting on one side of the dinner table.

“When she came back, I still had this,” she waved at the neatly coiled cable on the table, “from the back of my neck to the wall.  One, I don’t think she knew I’d be here, and two, it reinforced every prejudice she has ever had about my kind.”

“We only heard a little, and from one side, of what was said.” To be neutral, he sat at the head of the table.  Alix got two glasses, poured a little peach juice, added some rum to his, and sat opposite Pai.  “Do you think she will come back?”

“Someday?  Sure,” Pai nodded.  “And, going forward, I don’t think I should ever be here when she is.”

“Sensible,” he agreed with a look to both of them.  Don’t ruin a compromise!  He drank half of what was in the glass.  “No word from the Empress?”

“What’s that?” Alix asked around her cup.

“We had something to report, soonest, so we cut short our scouting mission and found her near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers,” Graf explained.  “After our report, she said she would speak with us again.”

“May I ask, or is it sooper-sekret?” she smiled, mangling the pronunciation.

Pai quickly laid out what they had seen about the Empress and what she had heard about her mother, the Empress’ cousin, and Mars.  Alix finished her juice and sat there.  If she’s that tired, we should go back to bed.

She stood and went toward the front door.  Opening the small closet for jackets and coats, she rummaged around on the floor before coming out with a picture frame and a candle.  These she set on the tiny, maybe eight by eight inches, table.  I wondered why that was there.  There was one drawer under it and she took out a box of matches.  Striking one, she lit the candle.

“Y’all may want to come over and see,” she said rather tonelessly.  “I didn’t want to fight with Mom like you did, Pai, so I stashed this away when I knew she was coming.”

Graf and his wife stood and walked over.  The candle burned before a photograph of Empress Aurelia.

“Guess I’m part of your problem.  Sorry.”

Pai opened her mouth to speak…

“Not tonight,” Graf said in a hard voice.  “Tomorrow morning.  He kissed his wife and took Alix’s hand.  “Let’s go back to bed, Dearest.”

Just after four thirty in the morning, Graf gently roused Alix.  Putting yesterday’s clothes on, she felt around for her glasses and they made their way downstairs – Pai waved at them, holding Snow’s collar – and out the back door.  She grabbed the rods and tackle box and they stepped into the canoe.  Knowing the area, she told him to paddle north, to just under the Channel Bridge.  He grounded them on some sand and they prepped and cast their lines.

“I’m glad you taught me this,” she said after about thirty minutes and one fish.  “I’ll be teaching Suza once her coordination is better.”

So long as no one falls on you out of the sky, he didn’t say, tugging his line and bringing up another.  But there is something I have to ask.

“Dearest?  That picture and candle…?”

“Yeah, after what Pai said, I knew you’d come around to that.”  She reeled her line in, rechecked the bait, and cast again.  “The old timers talk about Faustina like some kindly grandmother, because our imperium was at peace for so long, after a hard start.  After the first assassination attempt, Aurelia has been very different.  As you heard me say, I was reminded of her when I met your mother-in-law.”

“Harsh, but true,” he allowed.

“But we are safer, wealthier… heck, as teen I was in space and on the moon,” she said with quiet forcefulness.  “You have to respect that.  Honor that.”

Here I go…  “Do you have to worship it?”

“She’s not God.  She’s not a god.  Wait.” She pulled up another fish.  “That’s two to your two.  Forgot how to do this, Graf?”

“Perhaps you wore me out last night,” he smiled.  “So, not a god?”

“You cannot leave this alone?  Well, I can see why.  Anyway, it’s not just me.  I’d bet at least a quarter of the houses in Wilmington have at least a picture if not a little setup like I do.  If I pray for you and the kids, why can’t I pray for her, too?” she asked.

“For, not to?” he pushed.  She set her rod down and turned to him.

“Graf, why are you being such a jerk about this?” she demanded.

“Maybe because I was raised outside the imperium, and all this is very new to me,” he admitted.  His line twitched and he pulled.  “But even as a nominal Lutheran, to see demis and Machines regarded in such a way is, well, I really don’t know what to think, other than it’s something to keep an eye on.  Like you said, if people tried to kill Aurelia, then it’s a short step for people to kill for her.”

“That’s what the legions are for, moron,” she said.  Alix looked at the pathetic fish he reeled in.  “We can give that to Snow.  Let’s go back.”

Home, Pai said took their catch and said she would make breakfast and they should shower and wake the kids.  Amorous in the shower, Graf told her, no, maybe later, and shortly were back around the table.  Tér did not even look awake.  Pai had filleted and lightly fried the fish, with some scrambled eggs and bacon on the side.  Graf’s last catch was tossed to the dog, who tore it to pieces in seconds.

Finished, Pai spoke up.  “We are to meet Aurie in Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky Province, at thirteen-hundred.  A ship will be here for us at noon.”

Alix almost dropped the dishes she was carrying to the sink.  “But… that’s too soon!  You just got here!”

“Your icon,” Pai waved at the front doorway, “demands things be done now.  You are a subject, my husband a quasi-subject, and I an ally.  This must be.”

With her rinsing the plates, Graf looked a question to Pai, who nodded.  He stood and embraced her from behind.

“As soon as we know what’s going on, you’ll know,” he said, lips close to her ear.  “I’d love to spend all summer here.”

“Summers here are hot,” she said, holding back a sob.  “But I want you here, too.  And the kids want their Auntie.”

“Noon is not quite four hours off,” he noted, turning her around.  “What can we do, no, not that, for you in that time?”

“Uh, there are a few things that need repaired…”