I didn’t leave my Penthouse for two days after that. Katie passed out in a spare room and left the next morning and Zia had to bite me to feed her. I almost didn’t get out of bed the day after until Zia handed me her tablet with a puppy game loaded.
“Puppies make me happy. Mommy please be happy.” The sadness in her voice shocks some emotion back into my heart.
“Oh, baby, I’m so sorry. Your Papa came over and we talked about sad stuff. Really sad stuff.”
She nods. “I wanna see Papa more, but not if Mama is hurt.” She flops into me, and I hug the little happiness battery tight.
“I love you so much Zia. You’re the sweetest little Pixie that ever was.”
We spend most of the morning playing her puppy game which focuses on making moral choices and doing good things for others. It’s pretty cute, but she likes the practical joke part of the game where she teases and pounces on the other puppies. Yeah, she’s definitely a pixie.
“Honey, Mama’s hungry and I want to run some errands. Want to come with me?”
“Do we fwy?”
“Yes, Zia, we can fly.” She squeals with delight and chants “Fwy” while pumping her arms. Cutie.
My first errand is to my office. Naomi usually handles my mail, but we’ve been missing each other as of late and she forgot after I told her I had a baby. There is a large pile of mail behind the post slot in the door. Has it been that long or is it panic over the war? I’ll find out later and stuff the mail in the hard-shell pack I swapped in for the extended battery pack today. Zia is giggling in a small harness clipped into some straps on the front of my armor. I engraved and enchanted a small headband of silver for a head-shield for her.
I send a message to Rich asking about defense plans for the Herrat arrival with my thoughts that depend on my next project: a big moon laser. Dude, I could totally be a campy supervillain. I do have plans to crash a moon into a planet. Maybe I just like fucking with moons. They are why I got interested in space after all—junior astronomer telescopes for the win.
Our food stop is to the meat man. I have three cubic meters of Aether Forged Pavul in my fanny pack. I haven’t been in the portals in my Vault, so I don’t know if any of them are time frozen or delayed.
“Hey meat man! I got some . . . “ his son stops before me, lightning quick. Holy shit. “Aether meat?”
“Empress, would you like us to grill by the lake? Or we have installed a rooftop area for rental and special guests.”
“Oh, the rooftop please.”
The boy claps twice and shouts. “The roof!”
“Is on FIRE!” I hear from the kitchen and the servers. Suddenly two people break off and head upstairs and someone from the kitchen runs out with a pan full of sauces and lugs them up the steps. “May I get your drink order before you ascend?” Odd wording but okay.
“If you have an aether infused wine, I’d like that, and a juice for little Zia.”
The boy nods and scampers off. About a minute later, Alfonso comes out dressed for a grille war with his brushes and tongs on his waist and a sweatband around his head.
“Empress! So good to see you. You will show me these meats, come come.” He says while waiving me upstairs. It’s two flights up, much longer than a usual patio climb, but when I get there I’m amazed at the setup. They have a monster grill up here like the one they carted out to the lake and Capitol Square, but installed with sinks and cupboards around it. The seating area is open with arranged picnic benches with a raised area for a band or something, but in the corner of the raised area is a dining table with a high-backed chair and several lower smaller chairs.
They made an area up here just for me. I might cry.
“You see? We always have table for you!” Yep, turn on the misters. “But first, I would see the meat.” He says, and slaps the steel table next to the grille. I pull out a huge section of pig and drop it on the table, and I also take out some chipped sweet-smelling wood from Elysium.
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“You light smoke with this?”
He squints his eyes at me and lights the corner of it on fire. It starts smoking and he wafts it under his nose a few times before his eyes widen. “I would be delighted to cook with this! Yes yes, how many chops would you like from this haunch?”
“Ten? Yes ten. There should be plenty leftover for adventures in cooking.”
Alfonso beams at me and pulls some things out of a cupboard including a bucket he fills with water and dumps the wood chips in. He starts the grill that has a mix of new wood and coals in it then starts in on the Pavul haunch.
Before I can get too involved in the butchering process, the son comes up with our drinks and some small tapas while we wait. Zia is thrilled when I tell her the weird stuff that smells good is food. She enjoys a few stuffed mushrooms and tries to climb on the table when she tastes the tapenade and the bread.
“Zia, if you get full before the meat is done, you’ll be upset honey. Remember, we’re only eating aether during meal times.” She tries to throw a mushroom at my face, I teleport it into my mouth. She gasps, then squeals at the magic--so she does it again. I don’t have many organs, so I‘ve got room to spare for these food games. We play a little, but I keep it tame enough that it wouldn’t spill off the platform if anyone else were up here. We’re mostly successful.
Thirty minutes later, Zia and I are giggling, she is wearing a smattering of every appetizer that came to us, and several groups came up to sit in the meantime.
“Empress! Best meat yet! I invite other friends to appreciate. Is okay yes?” I nod. “Yes! We have many prep for you to try.” The first plate is a seasoned chop, the second is a benedict salad? And the third is street tacos.
“Alfonso, we should discuss. Payment or barter?”
“Barter! After your meal, Empress, it would be my honor to barter.” I’ve never seen a man so excited to not take cash. A-F meat must be hard to come by. He walks away immediately and starts chatting with other tables. He must make bank when I come in if he offers a special menu. Dude, that is a mad on-call business plan. Pop-up rare meats, come get seats.
I try to give Zia a nugget of chop and she waves me away. “Mamma, is full.”
“Honey, I want you to try a nugget to see if you like it. So I can order ready meals.”
She takes the small cube and starts chewing. And then she starts crying.
“Zia what’s wrong! Are you in pain, are you allergic?”
“Nooo.” She cries, “so good. Too full.”
I bust out laughing. This is the most fun I’ve had on a date in a while. My kid is amazing, and she is easily entertained by my antics. She falls asleep quickly after her crying period, so I put her harness on and strap her in.
Mr. Costa comes up and tries to barter half of my meat stash away, but I settle for a whole belly of smoked bacon for me and my tab in exchange for a haunch of ham and a side of ribs. He gets the better deal, but he also keeps a table for me. He also agreed to post the order on the Exchange so I wouldn’t have to come by to pick it up.
I leave the meat on my table with a credit tip and leave the restaurant. Half the family waves me out and I feel so welcomed here.
I head to the bathroom and blip back to the Castle from there. Zia is pooped so I plop her on my pillow, tuck her in, AC on the face, and start jamming antimatter charges. I’ll be honest, I’m surprised that my suit’s tier three shields are rated for the Joule output of my charges, a whole kilogram in fact. I know they are top of the line t-3 because I paid a fortune for them, but still. Only a tier 3 or higher civilization would stand a chance against me long term. Tier two could kill everyone I love before I get them though, which is why I need some super shite responses to get them to back off.
I remember I need to order two gateway blanks and have them land on my workshop floor on 42. I’ll need two weeks to make those happen and another week to get them in place. I can’t take Zia with me unless she transforms or confirms she doesn’t have to breathe before my time runs out.
Tessa takes this moment to tell me my initial plans of 1g of antimatter per second would not be enough, nor would my maximum of four. Crap. The Slow bullshit and steady way won’t work. But the other way will definitely compromise the gates. Fuck. Though I am super interested to find out how far a gate will survive being thrown into a star. There are several reasons people don’t fight wars like this: Two unique, linked aether gates cost a million CE for blanks and pure time from a master or advanced enchanter. Already paired gates? 2.5 mil CE easy. Another reason is most participants hope for spoils of war. Wanting spoils of war from a weaker position is a folly. Spend to win, win to survive.
I’m thinking of these violent applications of tech, and it makes me mad that I have to. Stupid Herrat and their predatory practices. Andromeda, some how the fire of indignation is hotter with Zia in my life. I really didn’t need more fire for smiting my enemies than I had before. Planning and assistance are better or me than vengeance served how you like it.
It’s hard to set Tessa to tasks now, but Oren is game. I set him or terrestrial gathering tasks while testing the ripple drive launching tech I gave him. He confirms my test routine and shuts down for the evening.
With some sorrow, I end my night snuggling my kid and sulking a little as most of my friends are distant for valid reasons. I still want some support, but that can wait for tomorrow. My tiny love, my new family is enough tonight.