—I…

—Yes?

—I—

—He has no clue. Rose, can you send someone to dig us out?

[There’s a team on the way. It might take them awhile to dig deep enough.]

I figured as much.

—Kara—

—Don’t talk to me! I’m pissed. I wanna get out of here, but you don’t wanna hurt the guys that were shooting at us a minute ago. Now I’m stuck in a hole for God knows how long.

—You’re smiling.

—Maybe. But I’m pissed.

—You’re happy.

—I…I guess I am.

—Kara?

—What? Why are you grinning?

—Kara Resnik, you have made me—

—Oh no! You’re gonna propose now?

—I—

—Stop. Stop. We don’t want the same things. I’m not ready for the whole family thing.

—I know.

—No kids.

—I know.

—Do you really wanna grow old with just grumpy old me?

—No offense, Kara, but I don’t think either of us will get to grow old, especially if we’re together. The only question is: Do I wanna die young with anyone else?

PART TWO

ALL IN THE FAMILY

FILE NO. 1521

INTERVIEW WITH BRIGADIER GENERAL EUGENE GOVENDER, COMMANDER, EARTH DEFENSE CORPS

Location: New Dynasty Chinese Restaurant, Dupont Circle, Washington, DC

—Sit down, Eugene.

—What’s good here?

—You should try the kung pao chicken. The Indonesian rice is also very good.

—I’ll have what you’re having. How was the wedding?

—It was a surprisingly large affair. I did not think Ms. Resnik—excuse me, Mrs. Resnik—

—She’ll kill you if you call her that.

—That either of them would want a traditional ceremony, let alone that they would indulge in such a lavish celebration afterwards.

—Oh, weddings aren’t about the bride and groom. You propose, or you say yes, because you love the other person. You start imagining your perfect wedding, a small thing outdoors, intimate, with just the people you’re closest to. It takes about a week after you announce it before you realize that the proposal was really the only part of getting married that was about you. The wedding itself? That’s all about your mother, your aunt who’s dying, how it’ll look like you’re taking sides if this second cousin you never met isn’t invited. Still…Where was it held?

—At a hotel in Detroit. You were greatly missed.

—I doubt they even noticed.

—They watched you on television after the ceremony. That would suggest they were aware of your absence.

—Well, I get that they wanted to get married on the anniversary of their victory, but there was another ceremony in London. Someone had to be there. Who has their wedding in December anyway?

—I thought the London memorial would be on the anniversary of the attack.

—I guess they wanted to focus on the positive. I don’t blame them. One hundred and thirty-six thousand dead.

—At the risk of sounding insensitive, that number is lower than what I anticipated.

—A hundred and thirty-six thousand is a lot of dead husbands and wives, sons and daughters. I would call you an asshole, but I thought the same thing. It could easily have been a million.

—We were lucky.

—This time.

—Do you believe they will come back?

—Don’t you? We don’t even know what they came for. I don’t think it was to pick a fight with the British Army. Do you?

—I do not. They could have attacked at any time. It is a reasonable assumption that the British Government precipitated this conflict.

—Well, they’re dead now. Their robot’s destroyed. Their two pilots were dead when we got there. We don’t know if they died when their robot was sliced in half or if they committed suicide to avoid being captured, but the end result’s the same. They’re dead. At some point, whoever sent them will know something’s up. I don’t think they’re just gonna forget about it. Yeah, I think they’ll come back. So young, too. Such a shame.

—Who?

—The pilots. You saw them. Those boys looked like they were what? Eighteen…twenty tops. Amazing how much they look like us. Sure, they had their legs backwards, but I’ve seen Vincent flip his so many times, it sorta looks normal to me now.

—Have we learned anything new from the autopsy?

—Nothing a dinosaur like me can understand. You’ll have to talk to Rose. I do know these two were just kids doing their jobs, whatever that was. There’ll be some grieving people where they came from. And grieving people make rash decisions. I think they’ll come back. I think there’ll be a whole lot more of them. And this time, I bet you they won’t stare at the scenery for a week before they start blowing shit up.

—That is a very pessimistic view of things. How about the robot? Has it revealed any of its secrets?

—That, I can answer. We’ve learned so very little about that robot that I actually understand all of it. They pretty much build them like they used to. The basic design’s the same. Same number of parts—it fell to pieces a few minutes after it was disabled. The control room is almost identical to ours. The console has a couple more buttons, but that’s it.

—Can we put it back together?

—You’d like to have another one. Wouldn’t you?

—Well…

—Don’t get your hopes up. That thing’s busted. Nothing works anymore. Themis’s shield cut through the control room. The sphere is broken, all bent up, lost the white stuff it was floating in. Whatever it was, it evaporated almost instantly. The torso’s cut in half. We can’t weld any of it. Duct tape won’t work either. The rest of the robot, well, we don’t understand how it works any more than we understand how Themis can move. You look at the cross section and, aside from the big hole where the control room was, it’s just a big hunk of solid metal. The only good thing I can think of is that the controls are so similar, we might be able to use theirs for spare parts if we break anything. Judging by the way our pilots handle things, I’d say that’s likely. The science team will be happy come Monday.