08:00 Monday, March 11, CE 0

“Thank you both for coming to see me. I’ve been eager to get you two alone in a therapy room since we arrived.” Doctor Wilfred Coff invited Doctor Hawthorne Crenshaw and Evelyn Crenshaw into his office.

Fresh paperwork was left strewn atop a wooden desk, and the room was otherwise lightly furnished. The walls were painted a dark brown that matched the glossy wooden floor. The desk was near a curtained window and the bulk of the middle of the room was taken up by a large couch and a high-backed lounge chair that faced it from a few feet away. Dr. Coff had even procured a bookcase and filled it with books.

The spines of the books, on the surface, all appeared to be different shapes and colors. Upon closer inspection, however, one would find many similarities in quality and material. As they were one of many objects and products produced by MOTHER’s manufacturing plants, and the actual fibers used were essentially identical, the make ended up being very uniform. They even had the same smell, lending the room the smell of an old-fashioned library.

An overhead light fixture lit the room comfortably, though a standing lamp stood at one end of the couch and remained dark for the moment. Evelyn wasted little time in walking up to shake Dr. Coff’s hand while encouraging her husband to do the same. She had a bright smile on her face, something her android had little trouble with. “Come on Hawthorne, say hello.”

To say Dr. Hawthorne Crenshaw looked uncomfortable would be completely fair. His body moved somewhat stiffly and he found his eyes drawn to the bookcase in particular. Before he’d left Earth he probably would have never recognized any of the titles or authors on those spines, but in having to treat his and Evelyn’s own psychological issues en-route to Alpha Centauri he had read many of them.

“Hello, Doctor Coff. I’m sorry I couldn’t come join you both sooner, I have been trying to keep busy since we’ve arrived. I’m not getting any younger and I’d like to be productive in my final decades.” He shook Wilfred’s hand firmly and with authority, the older man nevertheless in much more robust health than the psychiatrist.

Dr. Coff did not seem to mind the excessively firm handshake, and he made a failed attempt to match it. “Nonsense, Doctor Crenshaw. With the advances I’ve become aware of on Earth since our departure, you may yet have a century or more of life left in you. You’re certainly healthier than average for a man your age. Come, come, sit on the couch and let’s get acquainted.” He gestured amiably towards the couch and waited for them to sit.

The couple sat on the couch comfortably, with Evelyn leaning against Hawthorne’s side and smiling serenely. Wilfred couldn’t help but smile somewhat back at them. His smile left his face a few moments later. “Now, I’m sure you both are aware it is considered taboo to discuss the contents of anything that happens within this room with others. I’ve taken an oath to a long-dead body and a history full of people in my profession to keep your business private unless it has immediate legal implications.”

They both nodded in response, content to let him continue.

“Wonderful. I say that, because it is somewhat against that oath that I might bring up things I’ve spoken to Evelyn with in private. As a married couple, I think it worthwhile to consider the two of you as a single unit. As such, I wanted to have both of you here, as there is not much value in trying to evaluate one of you without the other. It simply doesn’t give the full picture.” He turned a bit to find his seat, adjusted its placement, and sat down in front of them.

“That being said, I have a request. Evelyn, I’m sure you’ve noticed I’ve had a few changes made to the room since you were here last week?” He turned to look at her, waiting for her to respond.

She smiled and nodded her affirmation to him. “Well, as far as I can tell you’ve had more removed than added. I can’t feel any flow of electricity into the room, so I can only assume it is supplied by a separate grid, perhaps from a battery. There’s no electronics present besides myself. The air conditioning and environment sensors are also absent from my ability to detect them.”

Dr. Coff smiled at that. “Quite correct. Evelyn, I think it’s important that if I am going to be having artificial people here, that their attention be focused here. I would have had it shielded against wireless signals as well, but that wouldn’t really allow you to be here, now would it? I asked Mother to help me make these modifications, with the understanding that you or her would be receiving my services. Who knows, perhaps other such non-flesh people will need my services someday. I hope this doesn’t make you too uncomfortable?”

Evelyn felt Hawthorne squeeze her hand and she glanced up at him for a moment. He looked concerned. She hesitated a moment before responding. “It is mildly unsettling, but nothing I can’t handle. I recently dealt with far worse. I take it you would like me to refrain from any outside communication or consultation while I’m here as well?”

The therapist nodded in response, smiling. “A request I’d make of any patient, yes. Please turn off any non-android electronics so that we can keep this hour private and to ourselves. I want us to make productive use of our time. Is that okay Evelyn? Hawthorne?”

Hawthorne raised his right hand slightly, his left holding Evelyn’s at his side. “I have no objections for myself, but I am a little concerned over my wife feeling too isolated after the incident she just endured.” He looked back to her again, smiling. “Are you going to be alright, honey?”

She nodded back, making a show of inhaling deeply through her nose and then exhaling through her mouth as she shifted to sitting up straight. “Yes. This is nothing compared to that.”

Dr. Coff waited for the two to settle and return their attention back to him. “Perfect. Now, my primary concerns with you two is that you have endured a significant amount of trauma, and you’ve only really had the two of you to lean on. I am curious why you never took the time to revive a therapist like myself or someone else the same way you did with Dr. O’Malley? I would have been more than happy to help you. Time has a way of settling in psychological damage to a degree that it is difficult to excise.”

Frowning a bit, Hawthorne spoke first. “I appreciate that Doctor, I do, but while we were en-route there was a great deal we were uncertain of. We didn’t know what kinds of emergencies we may encounter along the way, nor what kind of damage we might sustain to hardware or supplies. It was entirely within reason that expending the resources to revive additional personnel unnecessarily along the way could have resulted in catastrophic shortages later.”

Evelyn’s face had become serious as well, and she nodded in agreement. “Absolutely. Four days of extra resources expended may not sound like much, but if the Shower had struck and destroyed storage bays or anything of the sort we would have been in a much more dire situation. I suppose as we came close to the end of our journey we were more certain of what lay ahead thanks to sending Mother ahead, but at that point it was easier to just wait until now for such consultation. I had Hawthorne, and that’s all I needed.”

Wilfred nodded and pulled a notepad from the side of his seat, an attached pencil allowing him to scribble his notes. He carefully arranged himself so that Evelyn’s eyes could not track his hand movements or pencil movements by blocking them with the notepad. He did not want her simulating what he was writing. “Reasonable of course. Logical, of course. I think that’s the problem though. You think that reviving a therapist would have possibly endangered the mission, but the real danger was not reviving one.”

The couple showed similar levels of confusion on their face in response. Evelyn let out a single word. “What?”

Dr. Coff smiled at that. “It worked out, of course, but the situation could easily have turned more dangerous if one of you had broken under your stress. There’s no telling what kind of damage you may have caused, or failed to prevent, if you were not working at your best at the wrong moments. For instance.” He flipped a few pages on his notepad and tapped his pencil against it. “Evelyn mentioned that during the Shower, Hawthorne was emotionally distressed. There is a possibility that the event may have proceeded differently if he was not.”

Hawthorne seemed to bristle at that idea, his back straightening as he puffed out his chest. “Are you suggesting to me, Doctor Coff, that the seven crew members we lost were somehow due to my emotional distress?”

Evelyn was at his side, raising a hand to his chest to try and calm him down. “No, no, that’s not what he means Hawthorne.”

“Indeed.” Dr. Coff met Hawthorne’s look with a serious one of his own. “What I mean is that you may have responded quicker, or there may have been less risk of damage to yourself or the ship if you had been sharper. I think it’s likely that your actions prevented many more of us from dying that day, but if that emotional turmoil had broken you… then who knows what might have happened? What if that had been the last straw after years of neglecting your mental health?”

The older man narrowed his eyes at that. He remained stressed for a few moments before letting out a sigh. “I would have left Evelyn and Mother alone to deal with the crisis while I accomplished little in a broken state. Things might have worked out much worse.” Hawthorne looked at the floor for a moment, seeing much of the room reflected in its waxed surface. “I think I see what you mean.”

“If blame is to be pointed, I think I should take it.” Evelyn reached her other hand up to rub Hawthorne’s shoulder, their hands squeezed together firmly. “I was the one who put him in that state through my negligence.”

Dr. Coff thought quietly for a moment, letting the air sit silent. “Blame is unimportant here. What is important is that you both recognize that it was a problem to not see to your mental health more responsibly. It doesn’t have to be the end of the world. I don’t want you having regrets about what has happened already. I just want you to understand that it was reckless. What’s done is done. We have a bright future to look forward to thanks to the both of you and the work of many others. I just want to make sure you two are not added to the casualties of that day.”

Hawthorne lifted his head and stared across at the therapist. “I’ve died thousands of times, Wilfred. I was never entirely sure the process would work the next time. I laid down in that pod over and over. The chemicals damaged my body and changed my life. I cannot feel physical pain anymore. That turned out to be an asset during the Shower, but… I’ve found that my heart feels pain more keenly as a consequence.”

Two pairs of eyes stared at Hawthorne, listening as he continued. “When Evelyn revealed to me that Tia Monsalle was pregnant, that I would not be able to seek comfort in her arms as I grew increasingly restless on the Ark, it was an enormous blow. I don’t feel like she betrayed me, I don’t think. Neither of them really. I just… didn’t understand why it felt like I couldn’t trust anyone for several cycles after. For a time I thought it might be better if I’d undertaken the mission alone, as other people were additional variables that could have resulted in further disasters.”

“That’s completely understandable, Hawthorne.” Dr. Coff added some notes to his notepad. “With something like that happening so close to a life-threatening disaster where you yourself very nearly died, not to mention the seven who had, it’s not hard to imagine the events being conflated in your head. The disappointment of being unable to seek comfort in a lover’s arms and fighting for your life became intensely bound. That’s totally healthy and reasonable.”

Hawthorne looked back to the floor, sitting quietly again. His elbows dropped to his knees as he drooped forward. “It was hard. For a while I resented them, Evelyn and Mother, for having not been better prepared for our defense. I know they couldn’t have seen it coming any better, or reacted more quickly, but I felt as though if I had done things differently then those people wouldn’t be dead. If I hadn’t decided to create an artificial person, maybe those seven natural ones would be here right now.”

“I recognize, of course, that wouldn’t have been the case. Evelyn was far more able to follow my orders than a more mundane machine could have. Mother might have been the mistake, as her connection to Evelyn had been cut, splintering her mind and adding to the crisis, distracting Evelyn. Ultimately Mother has proven her worth, but the guilt I felt in the days after still haunts me, doctor. Guilt, pain, distrust… they weigh upon me. Seven people dead, because of me.”

Evelyn spoke up, adding. “It’s not just that. His friends, family, and those of the other crew members on Earth suffered from our departure. Many of them were hunted down, turned into scapegoats. I’ve told him many times before that he can’t be responsible for their actions, and he told me the same after the Cataclysm, but I’ve heard him when he sleeps and…”

Holding up a hand, Dr. Coff silenced her. “Just a moment. Let’s not pile too much on our plate here. We have a lot of time, and many sessions ahead to work through all of this. You’ve both done well supporting each other. You should be proud of that. What we need to do now is work to undo the damage. Consider what you two have been doing up to this point as first aid. You need to allow me to perform surgery. With that said, I’d like to work backwards today as we have a recent event to discuss.”

Evelyn frowned as Hawthorne sat back up, looking over to her. She looked back up at him, and then over to Dr. Coff. “The… accident from a few days ago. I’m fine, I assure you. My husband, sister and new friends saved me in a timely manner.”

Dr. Coff smiled and nodded. “I’m glad for that, of course. You’re my most interesting patient. Like Hawthorne, though, I worry about where your breaking point may be. You have experienced much more time, more life than anyone on this station. You’ve taken in all the records from Earth. You’ve witnessed the horrific annihilation of a world and lost contact with your first friends ever. You had to watch your creator, later husband suffer through it all and more.”

Both Crenshaws’ eyes were brimming with tears as the doctor spoke, with Evelyn finally bursting into tears as she fell forward, her hands covering her face as Hawthorne leaned over her side and hugged her. He looked angrily up at the therapist.

Wilfred bore Hawthorne’s gaze unflinchingly. “During our last session, Evelyn spoke about these events, she told me what she’d seen. She focused her stories on you, Hawthorne. She avoided speaking about herself and how she felt about these things. That’s why I have you here. I am very concerned that your wife is concealing her emotions to protect you.”

Evelyn trembled in Hawthorne’s embrace, only to jerk upwards and glare at Wilfred. Tears still spilled from her avatar’s eyes while her android’s face and her avatar desynced. Her avatar’s face was grimacing in anger while her android was smiling smugly. Evelyn regained control of her android as she let out a growl. “You didn’t want to help Hawthorne? You wanted to use him to get through to me?!”

Hawthorne looked startled, both at the mixed expressions and the unexpected anger from Evelyn. He had been especially unsettled by the two faces, as if she was expressing two peoples’ emotions. “Honey, calm down, he didn’t mean it like that. He wants to help both of us.” His hands moved to her shoulders, firmly reminding her he was there for her.

She lashed out with a hand for a moment, with her avatar swinging high and through Hawthorne’s head while her android stopped halfway, far from Hawthorne’s face. Shock filled her avatar’s face while her android expressed grim determination.

“Evelyn.” Dr. Coff spoke firmly. “This is what I was talking about. I’m worried about you. I’m worried about your mental health. We need to get a handle on this.”

Hawthorne moved a hand to help push her arm back down. It resisted him for a moment. He noticed the android smile back at him before the arm relented and allowed him to move it.

Evelyn’s faces synced up again as her whole body started trembling as she looked back and forth between the two men. “I.... I…”

Loving arms embraced her in another hug as Hawthorne rested his chin atop her head. He was taking the fact that she’d very nearly taken his head off rather well. He turned to look over at Dr. Coff. “Thank you doctor, I don’t think I would have realized this without you until it was too late.”

She burst into tears again as she leaned hard into the hug, bawling against Hawthorne’s arm as Dr. Coff watched the couple. He scribbled down some more notes on his notepad, interested by what he had just witnessed. “I want both of you to feel safe here. If you’re feeling distressed, come to me. I’ll make time for you. I’m not a farmer. I can’t cook to save my life. If I can keep my crewmates from killing each other, then that is my purpose.”

Evelyn nodded her head against Hawthorne’s arm. Hawthorne frowned a bit. “We’re not done already, are we?”

“Certainly not.” Dr. Coff flipped his notepad closed and he stood up, setting it down on the seat. He walked over to his bookcase and started pulling out some books. “You two have been fighting a war. Sometimes separate, sometimes together. What you both have to understand is that a war needs weapons. The damage done to your hearts and minds is very likely quite deep. We must arm you both with the tools you need to fight back the enemy and reclaim that territory.”

Sniffling, Evelyn peeked over Hawthorne’s arm, her hands gently curling their fingers against her husband’s limb. “We… we’ve read most of those.”

Hawthorne let out a soft ‘mmhmm’ in confirmation.

“Good!” Dr. Coff brought an armful of books back and settled them down in front of them. “If you have the weapons, that means you need a general. Let’s scout out the damage, identify the enemies, and then we’ll put together a plan to get you two back to health. Until then, I want you both to be more aware of your emotional states and try to control yourselves in public. I’m happy to see you both had the forethought to put violence restrictions in that android as well. Very wise.”

Hawthorne looked down at Evelyn. She appeared wide-eyed at that. Her android crooked a small smile to the corner of her mouth before her jaw fell agape. “Ah! Right! I didn’t tell you, Hawthorne! It was Mother’s idea, just in case there was a malfunction or something.”

Earth, After Cataclysm 99681

“Six months.” Leonard Tetch looked up at the younger woman in scrubs attending to him in the hospital. She had his right wrist opened up and she was carefully snipping at tissues inside. His arm was restrained, and he seemed unconcerned about the surgery he was undergoing.

She looked up at him, her eyes a dark brown that bordered on black. Her skin was deeply brown as well, curly hair mostly contained in a cap. “That’s a long time to heal. It’s a shame you need surgery on your wrist too, but we’ll have you fixed back up in no time.”

Leonard was wearing a mask similar to her own as he oversaw his own surgery, leaning in to observe what she was doing. “Careful, I need that. The next one over.” He let out a sigh of annoyance. “I hate how fragile our bodies are compared to how powerful we can be. The fingers especially.” He held up his left hand. Lines of thin scars traced the fingers where plates had to be installed to strengthen the heavily damaged hand. It had been smashed to near uselessness by Walter Thade during his panicked effort to escape Leonard.

“It is a trade off for being able to blend in with our ancestral prey, doctor. Our strength is such that we can only use it in emergencies. Our cousins need not hide theirs. I believe the scar tissues are dealt with, sir.” She exchanged tools, moving to press the two flaps of skin back together as she started closing him up. She dragged a forward-angled, white, plastic device slowly across the wound, leaving behind a neatly-stitched line. The small machine seemed to detect the depth needed and automatically sew him up as she passed it by.

Leonard lifted up his hand and tested his fingers before gently rotating his wrist. “Much better. Good job, that barely even hurt.”

She smiled under her mask and reached out to take his hand again, starting to disinfect the site and bandage him up. “Thank you doctor. If I may ask, why do you insist on these procedures being performed without pain relief?”

He sighed back at her. “I have a rather high pain tolerance, for one. Two, it allows me to be able to better supervise my apprentice as she works on me. Three, I’ve never been fond of anesthesia in the first place. I deserve to feel pain for how I failed. I probably shouldn’t have allowed you to talk me into working on my wrist in the first place.”

She smirked and shrugged, tugging down her mask. Her plump lips had cherry red lipstick on, though it had smeared slightly against the inside of her mask. “You said your wrist still hurt when I asked. Of course I’d offer to help. Can’t have MASTER Tetch not being at his best, now can we?”

Leonard groaned as the young Wise One unnecessarily emphasized his title as a Master of Apprentices. “Kate, please. Control yourself. We’re on camera at the moment.”

Kate wiggled her behind a bit, smirking up at Leonard. She stood up straight and nodded and gave him a thumbs up. “You’re all fixed up, DOCTOR Tetch. I hope that’ll reflect well on my record?”

He rolled his eyes and stood up from the seat next to the operating table. Even as short as he was, he was still over 20cm taller than Kate Harrison. “Except for the part where you almost cut my flexor digitorum profundus tendon, yes. I’d rather not lose the ability to bend my finger, thank you. Not that you couldn’t have stitched it back together, but I’d rather not heal a tendon injury so soon after all the rest of this.”

Her skin flushed darkly in embarrassment as he reminded her of the mistake. “Could I have even cut it with those scissors? Our tendons are as strong as our muscles, right?”

Leonard shrugged, smirking. “I doubt it, but the hands holding those scissors might have surprised me. Regardless, your record’s fine. Come, we have some work to do before I need to pack up.”

Kate pouted as she followed Leonard. “Are you sure you have to go? We’ll all be lost without you! You could stay here with me and let your wife go alone instead? I wouldn't have any trouble bearing you a second or a third or twenty children…”

Placing his left hand over his face, Leonard let out a groan of frustration as he stopped and turned to Kate. “Listen. This isn’t about what we want or don’t want. I’m with Elena until I die, or she leaves me. I will continue my mission. You need to move on without me. I’m sorry, but this was never going to happen. I’m doing this for our very species.”

Anger twisted her face as she glared back up at him. “So what? We already live. We’ve been here for forever. We don’t need more. We don’t need HER, or your daughter. Besides, isn’t one enough? Hasn’t this whole fiasco just brought more suspicion and danger to us that we avoided for so long? We were fine.”

He shook his head, reaching hands out to grip her shoulders. “It doesn’t matter anymore. What’s done is done. Things are in motion. I can’t give up what I have right now. It might be the future of our species. There’s no other accessible Old Ones. Vasille’s untouchable. Emily’s dead, and the other two-”

“UGH!” Kate stamped her foot, taking care to keep from injuring herself. “I don’t CARE about the Old Ones or Wise Ones. I don’t care about the Guard. I don’t care about Bosk Schrade and his foolish plan to send his son into the old witch’s bed. I care about YOU, Leonard. This isn’t fair!” Tears had filled her eyes as she stared up at the barely-older man who nevertheless looked much older due to how they aged.

“Pull yourself together, woman. You’re better than this. Don’t waste your time or emotions on me. You took this apprenticeship knowing full well what it entailed, what I needed from you. We had our time. I need to do this.” He withdrew his hands and smiled down at her. “I need you to be brave for me and protect me from afar. I need you to watch after things when I’m gone, keep the others in line when you become a Master of Apprentices too.”

Her eyes lit up at that, her whole body seeming to lift off the ground. “Y… you’re going to put in the recommendation after my apprenticeship is over!?”

He dipped his head deeply in a nod, flashing much of his balding pate in the process. “Of course. I can think of no one better. You’re the one I trust the most. You’re the only one it could be.”

Kate twisted and swayed, almost knocking herself over as she grinned foolishly. She seemed to remember she was mad a moment later as she pointed a finger out at him. “You’d better NOT enjoy yourself!”

Leonard smirked. “I’ll hate every minute of it.”

Elena Marie Price-Tetch’s hair was frazzled as she looked through files on her computer. While the overall power of technology had not had much opportunity to advance due to lack of resources, the software certainly had. Many generations of tinkerers had created a staggering number of new programs since the establishment of the United People of Earth. Most frustrating was the wide variety of operating systems, compatibility issues, and the need to use software to bridge between them.

Computer and electronic manufacturing was more of a custom, boutique affair. Different families and tribes in the UPE had very different ideas on how to optimize computers and their OSes for various purposes. Commissions for bulk product were possible though, and the government was usually very good at maintaining a standard configuration to keep all involved personnel on the same page.

Unfortunately for Elena, since the last time she was in office the UPE had changed over to a new combination of software packages, operating systems, and transfer protocols. Not only was her old government-issue hardware woefully incompatible, the new hardware seemed to be intentionally designed to work poorly with private citizen hardware. Outside of public-facing announcements, forums, and voting, it was very difficult to interact with the UPE networks even when you were supposed to be allowed to.

On the plus side, the complex web of interpersonal relationships that made up the various branches of government were able to keep intimate track of one another. The Council of Thirteen, Honored Elders, Judiciary, People’s Guard and Youth Consultancy were all able to keep tabs on each other and check their powers. They were able to easily confer, in a secure fashion, over happenings, submitted laws, and proposed actions with ease.

Essentially this left Elena partially shut out. Despite the fact that she consulted with the Council, heard their concerns and provided guidance she was mostly left out of the actual conversations. She had to make individual contacts rather than having access to everyone at once. Getting the private contact information of elected officials should have been easy for someone of Elena’s stature, but it wasn’t the ability to call in favors that were the issue. It was literally the software getting in the way.

As someone who had been, but was not currently, an elected member of the government Elena found it very frustrating. She understood, of course, that these sorts of change-overs were necessary for the security of the government, as there were plenty of people who out-lived their elected terms by decades or more. It just wouldn’t do to have people from a half century prior knowing the security protocols to the current government. The main issue with this iteration is that they did not take into account consultants like herself.

Her body sagged as she propped her chin up in her right palm and rested her elbow against the desktop as she stared at a government stylus-pusher in her screen. “This isn’t acceptable. How am I expected to do my consulting job if I’m not privy to the conversation? If I can’t observe how the current government is communicating and operating then I can’t offer advice or insight. I need access.”

“I’m really sorry for the frustration Consultant Price, but I’m under orders to not discuss matters regarding government security with unelected officials or government personnel. I can escalate this to my supervisor if you like? Perhaps he can help more.” The pretty young woman operating as one of many government sensory organs was annoyingly polite and disarming. She didn’t even look at the camera, and was instead working off to the side on something else while she only half-paid attention to Elena.

“Yes. Please. Transfer me to your supervisor. Thank you.” Elena closed her eyes and let her head dip forwards, letting a waterfall of her long silvery hair fall across her face.

“Yes, ma’am.” The young woman reached out towards the screen, and the video feed shut off. Elena presumed she was being transferred, but there was no visual indication aside from the fact the call had not ended.

The screen flashed to life again a few moments later, and Elena lifted her face and brushed hair out of her view as she observed who it was. “Oh. Mister Schrade. You’re still working there at your age?”

The heavily weathered, aged, and tanned face of Bosk Schrade smiled back at Elena as he made certain to look into the camera to make ‘eye contact’ with Elena. “Hello, former Councilwoman Price. It is a pleasure to see you again before time takes me from you. How can this dedicated servant of the United People of Earth serve you today?”

Elena let out a sigh and straightened herself up as she gave Bosk her full attention. “I’m having difficulty performing my duty as a Consultant to the government. I don’t currently have access to a compatible computer that will allow me to do my job. I’m being paid for work I can’t adequately do and yet no one seems concerned about how poor of a job I’m doing. I would identify that as a problem that the government isn’t operating well enough to be aware of that poor payoff on their investment.”

Bosk nodded and continued smiling as she made clear her concerns. “Yes, of course. Let me check up on your files and permissions for a moment.” He looked away and worked quietly off to the side. Of course, Bosk was aware that elements concerned with the security of the government wanted to freeze out Elena from having too much access for fear that she was compromised. The officials whom had sought out her consultancy had not acquired permission from those security personnel to include her in the network.

“I think I see the problem.” He looked back to Elena, no longer smiling. “There is a conflict of interest at play. It appears that there is concern that you are a security risk, despite members of the government requesting your services. Do you know whom it is that might have come to such a conclusion, Missus Price?”

The Old One let out an aggravated groan as realization struck her. “Yes. Yes I do.” She could only imagine that Vasille, considering she lived with an active suspect, did not want to allow her to accidentally give Leonard access to the government. “Now that you mention it, that makes a great deal more sense. Is there any way around the restriction?”

The elder Wise One smiled back at Elena, fully aware of the investigation of his secret son. “You could request from that person they relent in their security request, or petition the government to veto it. I would be happy to make the request on your behalf if you are having difficulties making such proposals due to your lockout.”

Elena finally managed a smile after the long series of government employees shuffling her around. “Yes, Mister Schrade. Please make the request on my behalf. I really dislike that I’m being paid for services I cannot properly render.”

Bosk smiled and dipped his head. “It would be my pleasure, Missus Price. To divert from that for a moment, I want to apologize for being unable to make it to your wedding. I very much appreciate the invitation, but I had important work to do at the time. It is a sincere regret of mine to be unable to attend.”

She gasped softly in surprise. “Oh my, I’m so sorry Bosk, I didn’t realize you hadn’t made it. I was so caught up in the ceremony I was barely aware of anyone but Leonard. Please don’t worry about it, consider yourself forgiven.”

“You needn’t apologize. My invitation was a courtesy to a former co-worker, not some close friend or family. I am grateful for your forgiveness. One less weight for me to bear to the grave afore long.” He looked quite pleased at the whole sentiment.

She tilted her head. “Are you dying, Mister Schrade? I did not think you were so old as to be speaking of death. You were quite young and spry, to my recollection, when we worked together.”

He waved a hand dismissively, smiling. “The sun has not been kind to me. While cancers have been defeated, they have left their damage on my body. I have a year, perhaps less. I have few regrets, and fewer still since this conversation. Please allow me to express my gratitude by seeing to it that the people’s money is expended for proper work, and not hindered work.”

She smiled again at that, nodding. “Thank you Bosk. I hope you’ll invite me to your seeing off? I haven’t been to one in some time.”

Bosk laughed softly. “I did not think you would be interested in the inebriated, drugged ramblings of an old man on his deathbed, Elena. Yes, I would be happy to have you come. I do not have much family, so if you and your family came it would be a much more enjoyable affair. To think that I would have such a legendary figure at my seeing off. It is too much to have hoped for.”

It was Elena’s turn to wave off the flattery. “Whatever my supposed legend may be, I’m still just a woman, Mister Schrade. I can easily be accused of not maintaining my relationships very well, and I recall we got along rather well once upon a time.”

He nodded back, his wrinkled skin stretched in a wide, almost grotesque smile. “Before we see me off, I’ll need to attend to your business for you. I must go if I’m going to catch enough of the officials before the end of the work day.”

Elena gasped again at that. “It’s barely the afternoon! What do you mean the end of the work day?”

Bosk lifted a tablet to show her a schedule. “As you can see, the government is keeping… lean hours at the moment.”

“By the Bunker! What kind of schedule is that? No wonder the government needs my consulting! Bosk, please go talk to them so I can steer them off this ridiculous course.” Elena was flabbergasted, shaking her head.

“At once.” Bosk turned off the communication. After taking a moment to ensure the call had ended, he leaned back in his comfortable, high backed chair and let out a hearty laugh.