And then someone went and nuked Londinium...

We are home and Aurora is safe. Two things that give me nothing to complain about. But once things spin up, they always seem to take much to long to settle back down again. Take, for example, the terrorist nuke on Londinium.

Now, I can well imagine that when that little gem hit the Cortex news service, there were cheers on a couple of dozen Rim colonies. While Unification wasn't rejected by everyone out here, there were a lot of folk who thought, and still think, that the 'Verse would be a much better place without the Alliance meddling in everyone's affairs. Not that they actually had the forces to do much meddling out here.

Though, in all honesty, as I watched the reports I had my doubts whether the culprits had been, as claimed, Independent sympathizers bent on terrorism. For one thing, the 'Browncoat Resistance' seemed like something out of a bad tabloid. During the war, the Indies had never referred to themselves as "Browncoats." That was an Alliance Media construct. Just like "Purplebelly" was an Indie Media construct. They'd referred to themselves, usually, as some unit or another from some colony or another. They may have shared the uniform, at least sometimes, but they were independent.

The nearest thing the remaining Indies had to an organized 'resistance' were the Dust Devils. And they weren't inclined to nuke a civilian target on a core world. No. This had all the hallmarks of a False Flag operation. The fact that it was in a warehouse district, rather than, say, a major shopping district, spoke to someone wanting to keep casualties to a minimum while still making the point. Add an apparently made up 'resistance group' and it sounded more like another Hardliner black ops mission. One executed very close to home.

Not good at all.

Ultimately though, it wasn't my issue. Unless the investigation somehow led out here and I had to get involved in any of my various capacities, the whole incident wasn't my world. A fact of which I was eminently grateful.

Things that were my issue were taking care of Aurora, and trying to deal with Lily. Both of which could prove to be challenging. Take, for example, Lily's interaction with menfolk. In the past, there'd been some rather unfortunate encounters with men who'd taken a fancy to her. She just didn't have real good fortune in that respect. It didn't help of course that she had a figure that put mine to shame. I'd said more than once, "Yes, my little sister is hot. Thanks for noticing." And she was. A real stunner. But mentally, she wasn't what she appeared. Where she had an amazing intellect in terms of raw knowledge and straight logic, she had an emotional maturity that ran between five and fifteen, with occasional flashes of truly adult insight.

Normally, I tend to be a bit harsh with men who take a shine to her. A couple of them nearly ended up communing with a mine shaft, but it seems she's got one now who's taken a shine to her and seems to understand that she's not like the other girls he might have known. Fact is, Cody's the first boy that's not gotten the "You make her cry, and I'll make you cry." talk. He hasn't needed it. Unique in that respect.

No telling how that was going to develop. Though he's been honest with me and forthright. Even told me about them going to the Wastes and encountering something that said it was Blue. Only it wasn't. Which we found out when Blue made his presence known in my office while we were talking.

Blue had his usual unsettling affect on people who're not used to him. Gave Cody's little sister, Kitten, fits. Gave me a revelation about who'd arranged Aurora's kidnapping, too.

But that was neither here nor there in this context. Lily, and how she was reacting to Cody's affection was. It was hard. I know x0x0 said Lily didn't really have feelings, and maybe I was deluding myself when I saw them in her, but I couldn't hear her talk about love and how she felt and not believe the feelings were real.

Lily was real in every sense that mattered. That made her feelings real too.

Feelings I wouldn't have cared about when I came out here. And now, how my girls felt was more important than I wanted to admit. My wife, and my adoptive daughters. Very real. Very important.

More so than a Nuke on Londinium.