. 'Whom therefore God hath joined together, let no
man put asunder.' The marriage is valid under His--" He paused, with a
bemused expression, then went on, "or Her--Law. Though I admit it
would be helpful if it were also valid under some temporal laws as
well, which I'm working on. I don't suppose she's part of this family
she's just created?"

"Not yet--but Captain Odeon is working on a way to correct that."

"Very good. Let me know as soon as he does; if this is going to work,
she'll have to have heirs."

"Of course, Father. Uh . . . what about additional spouses for Ursula
and myself?"

"I'm working on that, too. God willing, arrangements will be complete
for you a new husband and wife by the time I activate the Strike Force,
and she'll perform the ceremony."

18. Revelation

Wednesday, 4 Mar 2572

When Cortin got to the breakfast table after Mass, she was amused to
find a heated discussion in progress, about what the family name should
be. It seemed an odd subject, she thought as she helped herself from
the hot-table rather than calling an order to the kitchen--but on
second thought, it did make sense. Women were used to giving up
maiden-family names on marriage, though a professional with an
established reputation would often hyphenate it with her husband's, but
the men didn't think too highly of the idea. She listened without
interfering; it was their Family, using a new system, so it seemed
reasonable to let them determine how it should be identified. If their
method looked as if it would work out well, she'd recommend it to His
Majesty for general implementation.

It didn't take them long to decide hyphenating all the names together
alphabetically was much too unwieldy to work. Hyphenation was fine,
they agreed, but more than two names was excessive--the problem now was
which two. Cortin favored Odeon's thinking, that everyone take the
name of the senior spouse at the Family's founding, with the other
spouses hyphenating their surnames, and that argument seemed to be
winning, with the focus changing to whether seniority should be in age
or rank. The debate was getting intense when Powell raised both hands.
"Since I don't class as senior either way, and Joan's interest seems to
be purely academic or she'd have said something before now, why not ask
her opinion?"

"Good idea," Odeon said, after looking around at the rest and getting
their agreement. "What do you think, Joanie?"

"