CROSS-CULTURAL EFFECTS / CH. 13: T6347
4.30PM, ATLANTIS HIGH COUNCIL CHAMBER, DECEMBER 22ND
“I hope I'm not misunderstanding the situation, gentlemen,” Karella said, “But would I be right in thinking that the Tsar listens more to results than formalities and official channels?”
“I think that would be mostly accurate, your majesty.” Yuri said.
“Yes, your majesty,” Mikhail agreed, “It would be very wrong to call him unthinking or unprincipled, but... pragamtism is more important.”
“I'm glad. You may tell him, gentlemen, that we very much appreciate the openness of communication we've enjoyed with you both, the openness and honesty of your staff, Yuri, when confronted and even when not, and the genuine friendship that we see in Yelena's helping Sue sort out the various data security issues among her staff and their spouses.”
“You thus include Sandra-Valentina?” Yuri asked.
“I leave it to you to interpret what I said, general. I don't want to dictate what you say word for word. But we certainly don't appreciate people being sent on missions to corrupt our people or our guests, attacking our ambassadors, spreading lies about our enforcement of our edicts and so on. We would like such things to stop, and friendship to continue. Do point out that had Ruth been my accredited ambassador, we'd have reacted as though the attack was on me personally, just as we presume the Tsar would. So, in a spirit of meeting friendship with friendship, we ask the Tsar if he'd like the antimatter storage device at St Petersburg connected to the power grid or removed, once it's defused. At the moment, I anticipate that will occur towards the end of January. Of course, you may assure him that if there were any more unwise decisions from his generals, I would be quite tempted to rescind my order of this afternoon to move it near the top of the queue.”
“On behalf of the Tsar, your majesty, I thank you for this gesture of friendship. Is there a risk to the city during the defusing operation?”
“The operation occurs entirely within a multi-layered forcefield. In the event of a terrible accident, the crew would die instantly, of course, but the energy would be contained. I understand there might be the equivalent of a magnitude one earthquake as the forcefield expanded slightly to contain the blast.”
“I'll pass on that information if I may, your majesty.”
“Certainly. I don't want anyone needlessly concerned. Oh, Yuri, Amos has asked me about a discussion you had, and I'm fully in agreement with my little brother. Avoiding public disgrace is far more important for the elderly than the young. The young, after all, have time to learn and repent. Speaking of which, the number burned on my conscience is T6347. I'll leave you to discover who, if anyone, saw me that day.”
“You have not looked yourself, your Majesty?” Yuri asked.
“The thing about having access to almost limitless knowledge about people is that being able to say 'I don't know, surprise me' becomes a thing to be treasured. I won't make promises about them coming to Atlantis. There might be some reason that wouldn't be possible. But it would be nice to know, and be able to tell the children both here and there about what trouble imagined or real my foolishness caused.”
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ABOVE ST BRELADES, JERSEY
“I told you there'd be no space, Sathie.” Elsie said, looking down at the carpark through a telescope.
“Bother. That means you're going to be late.” Sathie replied.
“You've got to land at the airport, or a sea-port, Sathie.” Mrs de Gruchy said “Otherwise air traffic control and immigration and all the police and everyone won't be happy.”
“Oh all right. Does that mean you've missed Church, Elsie?” Mrs de Gruchy's church had a later service.
“There's an afternoon service too.”
“Oh, I won't feel so guilty for getting you to go swimming then. Did you enjoy it?”
“It was great, thank you. And thank you for the trip to space.”
“No problem. I'm really amazed you got to Zelda's wedding, you know.”
“Why?”
“That bigger dose thing is supposed to be a load of rubbish. The power of the placebo, I guess.”
“How could you test it? No one's going to believe that anything else is potion.” Mrs de Gruchy asked.
“Good point,” Sathie acknowledged, laughing. “Jersey approach, this is Mer spaceship Albatross three, currently hovering at fifteen kilometers above St Brelade.”
“Hello Albatross three, what are your intentions, over?”
“I've got two Jersey citizens I'd like to drop off, is there a heliport or something I can use, or do you want me to do a full fixed-wing style approach?”
“Are you a helicopter?”
“No, Jersey control, I've got forcefield wings I can turn on for stability, but lift is antigravity.”
“Please follow standard approach vector, Albatross three. Please specify minimum and maximum air speeds.”
“Hover to hypersonic, Jersey control. Maximum acceleration five gees, in any direction, unless there's an emergency, in which case the cabin is tested to ten, but I'm not sure about my passengers.”
“Albatross three, please perform circling descent to one thousand meters, above Elizabeth castle, then head to outer marker and follow standard approach.”
“Acknowledged, Jersey control.”
“I bet that flight plan is for tourists.”
“I know. How come Zelda got to land in a field?”
“Mia's father arranged for the immigration guy to come out.” Mrs de Gruchy said.
“Oh well, let's go show off.”
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IMPERIAL FOREIGN SERVICE, RUSSIA, 9.15AM MONDAY, DECEMBER 24TH
“T6347, you say?” the head of the diplomatic service said.
“That was what her majesty said, yes,” Mikhail confirmed.
“I don't understand why she wants to be embarrassed like this.”
“She sees it as evidence that the young can learn from their mistakes.”
“And this was the same conversation as the rest?” the chief diplomat asked.
“Yes.” Mikhail said.
“So, she all out of the blue tells us that they're going to defuse the one bomb which has the Tsar the most worried, complete with a timescale, commends an attitude of friendship, warns about generals stepping out of line and hints that the prince should be publicly disciplined for the Mars fiasco?”
“Who?”
“You didn't hear me utter an unwise word,” the chief diplomat said.
“Absolutely not,” Mikhail agreed.
“I wonder if she's spotted that someone is planning something else stupid.”
“It's always possible,” Mikhail agreed. “There might be another issue, I'll get to it later. I am not impressed about that one, anyway.”
“OK. Now, you said she assumes that the Tsar would take any attack on his ambassadors as a personal attack?”
“Yes. I told you I felt entirely safe here. That attitude is clearly the implication on their accreditation letters. The ambassador represents the person of her Majesty, ignore it and face the consequences. You know they don't make empty threats.”
“No. Pigheadedly obstinate about keeping their word, aren't they?”
“Almost as obstinate as certain other world powers I could mention,” Mikhail said.
“Try not to. Right, that's the end of my clarification questions. You said there was something that had upset you?”
“A young female naval intelligence officer, officially a lieutenant, was sent here, under cover as a tourist, with clear orders not to get in touch with me at all. The Mer believe it was to test their determination to keep to their word about not allowing officers to visit. She honestly has no idea of the purpose.”
“And she got caught?”
“Not directly, no. She was initially spotted in connection with booby-trapped files her wrist unit has been spreading to people, mainly embassy guards. Then she got recognised by a computer.”
“That it took a computer to flag her up is not the best evidence of the Atlantis security processes being effective, is it?”
“But the ban is on commanders of ten, and for all she's a lieutenant, she's never had command of anyone,” Mikhail said, “so the ban doesn't apply. They decided she was just a puppet. I agree, basically by the sound of it her career has been as a decoy and a bar-room spy, and she's hardly been trained to anything beyond acting. They kept putting her off any proper training, which is a bad sign in itself.
"But, having heard what her wrist unit was doing, she's decided to press for her commanding officer and various others to face charges for degrading treatment. To add to the confusion, she's a dual national, and travelled here on her other passport.”
“How did she end up in the military as a dual national?”
“I've no idea, but maybe that's why she got shunted into being an actress, alternatively maybe no one thought about it, she was raised in Russia from age five up.
"She found her childhood passport when her father died, and her commanding officer ordered her to renew her passport, which had lapsed about fifteen years ago. Can you believe it? Ordered her to renew her allegiance to a foreign power? I'm not sure if that counts as something treasonous or not. Anyway, the Atlantis government are deeply offended for her being sent here as a test, I'm deeply offended that someone thought they could just order her to ignore procedures and leave me the mess to sort out, and just about everyone is offended that her wrist unit was taking videos of her in the shower, and then offering them to the navies of the world with booby-traps attached. All set up remotely, of course, and hidden from her. You're aware I've got some house guests from the secret services?”
“Yes. Quite a full embassy you've got there.”
“Secret service is aware of the videos, and have taken steps to make backups as evidence. If you could kick up a stink and get the commanding officer put to scrubbing decks for the next decade or something, that would be most helpful. Oh, in collecting that evidence, the ladies found out that it seems like most of the attractive women in that division of Naval Intelligence have been roped into being unwitting video stars from their own bathrooms. So scrubbing decks might be the least of the officer's problems, if it's not handled quickly. The lieutenant said that during orientation they'd warned the class that there'd been problems with wrist units leaking if they got a call when wet, so take it off in the shower, but make sure you can look at the screen in case there's a call.
"That was four years ago. So I guess it's been going on a long time. If he says anything about them volunteering, then she flatly denies it and there was even a document on the file store about how to obtain signatures from them without them knowing.”
“And you're sure the woman knew nothing about it?” the minister asked.
“Entirely. She's planning on writing an open letter to the Tsar denouncing her superior officers, detailing what happened, and renouncing her citizenship if it's not sorted in a week. You can imagine how that'll play in the international press. So, that's going to be embarrassing on a worldwide scale. My counterpart from the Restored Kingdom — that's her other nationality - has seen some of the recordings, so expect pressure from that end too. Internally, what on earth did that officer think he was doing commanding her to not make contact? Where did he get that authority from, or did he just decide he could claim it?”
“I'll look into it, certainly. Hopefully it's an isolated event,” the chief diplomat said, but didn't sound too hopeful.
“Hopefully submarines don't go into space and out-fly interceptors.”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Pardon?”
“Haven't you heard? Someone decided to harass the medical evacuation that brought me most of my guests. Some idiot thought they could follow a spaceship capable of getting to Mars and back without refueling, using an air-superiority jet. I've heard he needed to do an emergency landing on a civilian airstrip with no fuel left. The general thought that was most amusing.”
“Ah. I expect he has his own sources of information.”
“I've had a little informal briefing myself. The submarine-spaceship was a prototype, based on the things that got to Mars in a week, but with underwater capability. They're looking to build more. Since it's almost all forcefields, they're apparently easier to make than their submarine with wings, and apparently can do a constant five G in any direction, as long as you're strapped in well. And the queen's fifteen year old daughter flew half of the Mars flight, including take off and landing. Based on various things reportedly said by the pilot on arriving at St Petersburg I think it's probably got some kind of obstacle-clearing armament, possibly some kind of asteroid smasher for all I know. The general suggests they're capable of producing ten a month, maybe more, without even ramping up production, so total air superiority over our airspace is something we should be expecting to lose in the event of a conflict.”
“And that is just a footnote in your report?”
“They're offering peace. We've known they've got the technology to wipe out the navy, and that they've got the technology to cut down airborne forces. This just completes the picture. They're not going to start a shooting war, it's not their way. War would interfere with their swimming too much. Just please beg our beloved Tsar to tell the generals to stop poking sticks at the lion. If there's a cage, it's to keep idiots away from the lion cubs, not the other way round. Oh, and do also point out that there are at least a hundred thousand rock cutters here, and one in the hands of a rebel force or mafia boss would seriously threaten internal security. We really do want the Mer to stay our friends, stay away from our internal politics, and not decide we need their help in dealing with corruption.”
“Thank you Mikhail, I'll try, that's all I can say. Any other news?”
“Yes, I'd like to formally tell you I expect to be engaged tomorrow.”
“Oh yes? Is this your famous childhood sweetheart?” the chief diplomat asked.
“It is.”
“What makes you think she'll say yes this time round?”
“Well,” Mikhail said, “her telling me that she took a vow at university that she'd not refuse if I asked her again, might have given me a little bit of a hint. Would it be possible for her parents and mine to get somewhere near by military transport?”
“For your engagement? That's a bit short notice!”
“I was actually thinking of getting here for New Year, and staying say a week, so they're here for Eastern Christmas, too?”
“I'll see what's possible. Any idea when the general's coming home?”
“As I understand it, his wife ought to be able to move by the end of today,” Mikhail said, “but I'm not sure if that's just walk slowly or actually travel anywhere.”
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6PM MONDAY, DECEMBER 24TH
“Someone's having a joke,” the captain's wife said, looking at the message.
“Come on, tell me, or pass it over.”
“Dear Captain Ivanovich, we see from navy records you served on the T6347 about 22 years ago. We have reason to believe that in that time period an unusual sight was briefly visible by periscope, which a sensible person might not have reported. If you are aware of any unusual periscope sightings, or made one yourself, please do get in touch. An amnesty has been agreed for non-reporting. Imperial foreign office.”
“Well, that's suitably vague, isn't it? Briefly visible, my foot. She was there at least a minute.”
“'She?' What are you talking about?”
“That mermaid.”
“What mermaid?” his wife asked.
“The Mermaid that was pulling faces at the back of the other periscope.”
“Hold on, you're saying you saw a mermaid twenty-two years ago?”
“Yes.”
“That's before we got married.”
“Yes. I thought maybe I was going mad because of missing you so much. But she was younger than you. And had scales from the waist down.”
“And what did she have on top might I ask?”
“A blue swimsuit, just like yours.”
“You never said.”
“Well, would you expect me to? 'By the way, love, you know I said I was missing you too much to wait? That was because I've started seeing mythical creatures while on watch.'”
“Are you going to contact them?”
“I'll call Ivan first. He saw her too.”
“If he saw her too, why did you think you were going mad?”
“He thought she had a white swimsuit on.”
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EMBASSY OF RUSSIA, ATLANTIS, TUESDAY, 25TH DECEMBER
“Happy Western Christmas, Yelena Petrichna,” Mikhail said formally. Giving her a small gift-wrapped box.
“I thought you said we'd be celebrating Eastern Christmas.”
“We will. But it would make me very happy if you accept that small token from me today.”
“And you want me to open it now?”
“Please.”
Carefully, she opened the wrapping and wasn't very surprised to see a ring box inside. She was however surprised to see a gold band set with a diamond in it. She looked at Mikhail and saw him drop onto one knee.
“Yelena Petrichna, will you marry me?”
“Of course I will, I vowed I would, remember? But I have no regrets about my vow, Mikhail Aleksandrovich.”
“You've made me a very happy man. And I suppose I ought to admit that I've invited your parents and mine to Atlantis. The embassy guards are changing in four days time, and there is space on the ground effect vehicle.”
“I saw a lot of ice in St Petersburg harbour,” Yelena pointed out, “they might not be able to clear things well enough.”
“I'm sure they'll manage, don't worry.”
“I'm not worrying, I'm just pointing out an opportunity for another show of friendship, if the Mer really want to lay it on thickly.”
“You're thinking four trips by multiple flying fish, rather than two by a single imperial ground effect vehicle. I'm not sure it's going to be popular. Nor would rubbing the noses of the imperial navy in the fact that they're out-matched by the Mer.”
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EMBASSY OF ATLANTIS, ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA, 9AM WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26TH
“Mr Ambassador, Queen Karella was interested to know if she was seen by anyone on the T6347,” the chief diplomat said over the phone, “she was.”
“My complements on your efficiency! I only received word that she'd made the number known last night.”
“Oh? She told your opposite number in Atlantis on Saturday. She asked that you be told the result of the enquiry.”
“I suppose I should have let you know that my staff have been preparing an illustrated children's book about life in Atlantis. It'll be nice to be able to finish it. Would it be possible to interview the submariner?”
“Two of them, actually.”
“Two? Oh!”
“Apparently she was making faces at the periscope for about a minute. One of them called his colleague to confirm the sighting.”
“She asks if they then told anyone, or recorded it in the log.”
“Apparently, they decided that since they couldn't agree on what colour her swimsuit was it wasn't a confirmed sighting, and they'd probably just both imagined it. They also agreed that writing anything down would get them in deep trouble.”
“I hope they don't get in trouble for not reporting it.”
“The Tsar agreed that a general amnesty was appropriate for unreported past mermaid or merman sightings, since everyone agreed your people were a myth.”
“I'm pleased, I'm sure her majesty will be too. Are they still in the forces?”
“One is a captain. His brother-in-law retired from the navy some years ago. He is now working as the director of a publishing company. Apparently they specialise in children's books. The office is here in St Petersburg.”
“Well! That answers one question I had. We were wondering if there was a publisher you could suggest. With the personal connection his seems the obvious first contact.”
“Well, yes. But there are children's books and children's books. You might not find his publishing house quite appropriate for your purposes.”
“Oh, true. But I'm sure he knows whether our book would be of interest to his audience.”
“Would it be acceptable for someone from our staff to come and have a look at the draft as it is now, and then make the introductions?”
“Certainly, certainly. We don't want to be accused of corrupting your youth, or anything like that.”
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EMBASSY OF ATLANTIS, ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA, 12.30PM WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26TH
“Hey, this artwork is good! I like it! I'm sure the kids will.” Ivan the publisher said, “who's the artist?”
“My daughter,” Lamura, the ambassador said.
“She must have trained somewhere. Where was it?”
“Atlantis,”
“I should have known,” Ivan replied, and turned the page to what was obviously meant to be a view through a periscope “Were there pictures or something? This is so like what I saw her doing!”
“Standard Mer teenager 'look who thinks they're so clever' sign, sorry.”
“Are you sure about the colour of her swimsuit?”
“No.”
“Bother. Long standing argument with my brother in law. He thinks it was blue, I think it was white.”
“Might have been both. If I remember right there were a lot of girls wearing white on the front, dark blue on the back, supposed to be for camouflage when swimming, as though that would help much.”
“Ha! I'll tell him that. Thanks.”
“And in the interests of historical accuracy, I'll get Karella to change the colours. I was going to say something about bright orange, anyway. Not very likely at the time.”
“You named your daughter after your queen?” Ivan asked.
“No, I named my daughter after my famous ancestress, just like her majesty's parents did. We're fifth or sixth cousins, if I remember right.”
Karella, who was eighteen, came in, “Did you want me, Dad?”
“Hi, Karella. When Karella was teasing the submariners she was probably wearing one of those white and blue swimsuits, back and front, you know?”
“Like granny's?”
“Yes. Better camouflage. Meet Ivan, who saw her.”
“Oh. OK, Hi. But it's not going to work for the pictures. I could do yellow and black, but we don't want her camouflaged in the pictures, do we?”
Ivan laughed, “Number one rule of book production, your excellency, learn to compromise with the artist. Speaking of which, that cut-out for the periscope view.”
“Was a wrong guess, I'm sure,” Karella said.
“Binocular, with an intermittent grid pattern, and a magnification scale on the side, and a compass at the top.”
“You could zoom?”
“Yes.”
“Would you mind thinking of what you've just described? And think it to me?”
“Pardon?” Ivan was totally confused at the request.
“If you can picture what you saw, and sort of imagine giving me the picture as you touch my hand, I might get it right. And I don't want someone who's been in one to say, ha, stupid artist, it doesn't look like that at all.”
Ivan realised she must be a thought hearer, and tried to do what she'd asked.
“Excellent!” Karella said, grinning, “Let me go an sketch that view,” she ran off.
“She's still in education?” Ivan asked.
“Yes.”
“Useful skill, that.”
“I'm just a bit worried about that grin,” Karella's father said.
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EMBASSY OF ATLANTIS, ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA, 12.45PM WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26TH
“Hi, How's this?” Karella said with the sketch she'd done from Ivan's memory.
“Karella!”
“Yes, Dad?”
“This is a children's book.”
“Urm, quite accurate though,” Ivan admitted, blushing. The default zoom setting, intended to let you identify a ship on the horizon, didn't let you see much of a person at that range. He'd had a view of her chest and a bit of her arm before zooming out.
“It must have made an impression,” Karella said, “you sent a very clear image. But did I get the rest of the display right? That wasn't quite so clear.”
“Yes, thank you, young lady.” Ivan said, embarrassed.
“I think I'd better zoom out so we can see her actually pulling faces, hadn't I?” Karella said, critically, “but clearly the original has far too much sea and not enough mermaid. Dad, I'm going to need a picture of her majesty at about the right age, unless I do a back view.”
“I'm sure that can be arranged. From her trial if nothing else.”
“You saw her scale?”
“Yes, she was about four meters from the periscope, I guess. She'd come up, pull a face and then swim round a bit more. Her tail kept coming partly out of the water.”
“Don't you wish you'd had a recording?” Karella said.
“The video camera was broken, that trip.”
“Oh, Dad, we've got to put that in.” Karella said. “And your brother-in-law saw her too?”
“He called me over. There's a second set of eye pieces.”
Karella sketched, “Like this?”
“Not bad. Another picture?”
“Please. Wonderful! That thing with the wires is the video camera?”
“Yes.”
“And it was really just hanging there like that?”
“Yes.”
“Wonderful.” It didn't take her long to sketch an inside view of the submarine, with one sailor (with his face invisible because of the periscope) calling the other over.
“You, young lady, are very good at this,” Ivan complimented her, “I'm sure you're at least as good as some of the illustrators we currently employ full time.”
“Thank you,” she grinned, “that'll help me negotiate with daddy about my fee for this.”
“I'll very happily pay you land-folk rates, daughter,” Lamura said, “Just say the word.”
“Oh, bother,” Karella said, “I don't suppose I'd get many rubies from you for working on this book, would I, Ivan?”
“Depends how minuscule they were,” Ivan said, honestly.
“Currency problems, beloved daughter, currency problems. They can't give pearls or nuts, there are too many of them to give you pretty gems, about all they could do is give you lots of wood, but one pretty gem from your collection would buy you all the wood you wanted for a life-time. You're going to do better to barter for hand-crafted goods, or something like that. Something where the value is in the time. But again, if you bring gems into it then it all gets distorted.”
“Is it right, Ivan, that when you go on holiday you spend lots?” Karella asked.
“Don't you?”
“Not normally, we collect gems or gold from the sea floor. It's tiring, but it's fun.”
“So you go on holiday and come back richer than when you left?”
“Yes.”
“Why don't you stay then?”
“Same reason we don't pick up everything. You don't want to spoil it for everyone else, surely?”
“It's called entirely different cultural values, Ivan,” Lamura said. “It's what this book is about. It's also about a hunter-gatherer mentality, which we've kept because there's half a million of us and we've got more than two thirds of the planet to play in. Of course, there's also the fact that there's only half a million of us because there are a lot of ways to die at sea. It's not like we couldn't have made another Atlantis-style dome if we'd needed more living space.”
“You mean... it's not population pressure in the city's making you have small families?” Ivan asked.
“No. It's that we live a happy active lifestyle in a dangerous environment,” Karella said, “and sometimes sharks or accidents kill good people. That's something else we need to put in dad. A quarter of my class-mates not reaching adulthood.”
“What?” Ivan asked, shocked.
“Summer holidays are dangerous, that's to say unfamiliar waters with rip-tides, and ignoring rules about decompression are dangerous, alcohol is dangerous, breaking oaths is stupid, three found judgement can come from jelly fish as well as sharks. Trying to rescue people when you're twelve is dangerous. Seven out of twenty eight.”
“Three oath-breakers in a class is very rare, Karella.”
“I know, dad, but it happened. One stupid girl playing the Canaanite.”
“And they all died at the same time?” Ivan asked.
“Not quite. She and one boy were found in each others arms, as well as a jellyfish's. Then while some of us were in shock, asking how she was found like that, since she'd been a Christian, the third said it served her right for betraying him, then he realised what he'd done and swam off in a panic, right into another jellyfish.”
“Why was that oath-breaking?”
“She was a Christian, for all that she'd turned into a idiot. The boys weren't. Her first lover had helped break her oath of allegiance to God, the second lover broke implicit marriage vows. Oath-breakers all three. At least, that's the presumption.”
“And so you damn all three?” Ivan asked.
“God is judge, and is just. We presume that all three broke oaths. It certainly looked like it.”
“And no one tried to rescue the one you saw swim into a jelly fish?”
“Try to protect someone from divine judgement?” Karella asked, shocked. “He'd just said he'd broken her oath. Anyway, that many stings from one of those jellyfish is fatal, no matter what you do.”
“So you just watched him die?”
“No. Our teacher gave him a powerful painkiller, and we helped him repent of his sins.”
“Perhaps that should also be in your book.” Ivan said.
“It is,” Karella said. “His parents gave permission. They were sad he'd died, but very pleased that he'd finally turned to God.”
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EMBASSY OF ATLANTIS, MARS, SATURSOL 26TH DEC 2277
“Boris?” Hathellah asked, as they watched Ruth and Robert swim away from the function room.
“Yes, my Hathie?”
“I hope you realise, I expect to be wearing my wedding dress.”
“That'll make swimming away hard,” Boris said.
“That's why I think walking away from our reception to get changed is very much preferable.”
“Oh. OK,” he sounded disappointed.
“We can swim once we've got changed, of course,” Hathie conceded.