Alien Tango

me. You currently also represent the kind of bigotry and repression my family’s spent their entire lives trying to stop.”
    I took another deep breath. “Christopher!”
    “Yeah, Kitty.” He was next to Kevin.
    “Call your father. Tell him that unless he puts a stop to any form of forced arranged marriage and excommunicating anyone who goes against that edict, I’m going to become a worse threat than Club 51 and all the Super Fuglies combined.”
    “You got it.” Christopher started dialing.
    “Christopher! How can you do this?” Barbara had joined the party. At this rate, the hallway was going to be a total fire hazard.
    He shrugged. “I know who’s next on the forced-marriage rolls.”
    Kevin put his hand over the phone. “Kitty, your mother wants to know if she needs to provide military guard to get the refugees out, or if you’d rather just have Caliente Base annexed as their refugee station and send them there.”
    “Kitty,” Christopher said before I could answer, “my father says he has no knowledge of any kind of forced marriages in any part of our community. The Pontifex’s office officially does not authorize or sanction this kind of behavior. If, however, you feel the U.S. military needs to be involved for the safety of some or all of our people, he gives you full authorization, and there will be no excommunication of anyone for any reason related to this.” He looked over at Lucinda. “Oh, yes, he also said you’re acting far too much like your father, and you need to cut it out right now.”
    Lucinda had the grace to look embarrassed. Barbara, however, seemed dead set on making what I assumed was considered a great marriage for her daughter. “Nonsense. These are our traditions. Tell the Pontifex that we have made and accepted declarations on behalf of Jeffrey and Doreen.”
    “Barbie, babe? You really have a lot of chutzpah, I’ll give you that. However, it’s sadly misplaced. You say one more thing I don’t like, and I’ll put every threat I’ve made and all the ones I haven’t in action. Trust me—you can’t take me, and you sure as hell can’t take my mother.”
    Barbara’s eyes narrowed. “You have no right to speak to me, in any manner, let alone this one.”
    “Sure she does.” Martini’s voice came from behind me. I turned to see him at the back of the group, leaning up against the wall. He looked amused. “See, the hilarious thing is, Kitty outranks every single person in this house, hell, in our community, other than me and Christopher. So, what you’re doing is called insubordination. As I recall, our traditions have a lot to say about that, all of it nasty.”
    “That’s by declaration and decision of the Pontifex,” Christopher added. “My dad’s waiting, Kitty. What do you want to do?”
    I looked at Kevin. “Annex Caliente Base.”

CHAPTER 50
    THE BEDLAM STARTED . I was surprised. I’d gotten used to A-Cs thinking with their mouths shut. Then I realized none of them were thinking so much as freaking.
    “SHUT UP!” Martini bellowed, and the windows shook. No one could bellow like he could. The room went still. “Gee, thanks. Now . . . I think we can all handle this nicely. Barbara, I’ll marry your daughter when hell freezes over, no offense meant to you, Doreen.”
    “None taken,” she said. She was still hiding behind me. I hadn’t realized I presented such a protective figure. Then again, maybe they had guns and she was merely using me as a body shield.
    “Now, Mom, while this has just been the most fun home-coming ever , I’ll give you a choice. You can apologize to Kitty—and by apologize I mean generally abase yourself and grovel, beg, and plead for her to forgive you—and we can all eat that meat loaf I still don’t want, or you can continue this ridiculous gambit, and we can all leave. Oh, and if we leave? I’m never, ever coming back. You can be at death’s door, and you’ll never see me again. For all I know, that’s what you want. In which case, happy to be going now.”
    Christopher went and stood next to Martini. “Not that it matters, but that goes for me, too.”
    I looked at Lucinda; she looked like she was going to lose it. Alfred had his arm around her. “Boys, that’s a bit extreme.”
    “No, it’s not. You don’t get it, do you? They’re all leaving. All of them. All your children, and I promise you, all their children, too. You want to see how it’ll play out? Take a look at some history books and