Back in the river for more fish. Suza says something a bit startling to her dad, who runs it back past Alix. Later, at breakfast, Pai gets sneaky again about later that day. Then she shocks Mindy awake with her news of her unilateral action.

If I can just get everyone to this afternoon, the next segment, I can return to the plot of “religious war?” and start making trouble for everyone.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

Little Suza, in only the barest light of dawn, already had four fish in the bucket.  “It’s because of you, First Girl, that your mom and I have nothing,” Graf accused from the back of the canoe.

“Daddy!  Hush!  You’ll scare the fish!  I’m talking them over,” the girl replied.

“She can hear the fish?” Graf mouthed to Alix.  “She’s not…?”

“No one from the imperial household has ever asked a thing about her.  We are both ‘normies,’ Graf,” she barely replied.  “She’s precocious as all get-out, but she cannot be one of them.”

“Daddy?  Hush.”

He finally caught one, shortly after, Alix, too.  Enough for breakfast.  With a look up to the morning sky, which so changed his life nearly four years ago, he paddled them back to the northwest shore.

Pai was set to make hashbrowns and was just waiting on the fish.  She ordered her husband and woman to take a shower, “And do whatever you want,” before she summoned Min to bring down Tér.  Their father kept farmer’s hours and would be along presently.

Graf and Alix did want they both wanted in the shower, got dressed, and came back down.  A sleepy Mindy and barely awake Tér were at the table.

“Breakfast!” Pai called.  “It will be more traditional, bacon and eggs, tomorrow, for reasons.”

Dammit.

“Are you ever going to tell…” he began to demand.

“No.  No, Beloved, I shall not.  This afternoon, I shall show, not tell,” she said with that smile which always got to him.

Sheesh.  He cut up the fish for Tér, making sure there were no bones.

“Just so you know, Min, and be sure to tell your soon-husband, I have forwarded your initial colonial applications to both the imperium and to Russia, where, um, I do have some sway in decision-making,” Pai said while cleaning and drying the skillet.

“You did what!” Mindy demanded, now wide awake.

“I said yesterday you’d both be subject to a battery of tests,” she carried on, now clearing the table, “and, if approved by my people, you’d have to learn Russian.”

“But… I… Joe and I are happy to live here!”

“Fine.  But we’re not.  And, if approved, I’ll throw both of your asses on the space freighter.”

“Asses!” Suza cried, liking to use a naughty grownup word.

“I, we,” Min looked to her older brother.  “We don’t have any say in this?”

“Yes, you do,” he smiled at her before ruffling her unwashed hair.  “Pai is bullying you.  If you two don’t want to go, you won’t.  But…”

“But what?”

“It would be an amazing adventure.  And dad would be so proud of you,” he concluded.

“And just what am I proud of?” his father rumbled, coming into the kitchen.  Pai instantly had the last fish and hashbrowns set in front of him.

“Your Martian grandchildren!” she laughed.  “And, as for these two, here, Suza has already been a big help, catching the fish.  I’d like to take Tér with us, Mister Winstead, and get him used to working on the farm, please.”

After a glance at Graf, his father nodded.  “Somewhere, in the storage in the basement, there should be a pair of boots from when Graf was a boy.  We can see if those fit.”

“Work?” Tér asked, not looking thrilled at the idea.

“Oh, pooh!” Pai smiled at him.  “This’ll be fun!”

With her father now with two helpers, Mindy asked if she could ride over and see her Intended.  “After all, we’ll need to talk about this whole Mars thing.”  He said yes, but Alix piped up to say to be sure to be back around five.  She seemed curious about that, but then I am, too.