August

July 9: Sunday

There had been nothing more to do for Ghali but wait, and so Henrik had busied himself with his lab and the tests he'd run on Baby Angstrom. The sequencing was different this time than any of the last, but he couldn't seem to ignite it. Turning sections on and off seemed to make no difference; he couldn't account for the hereditary resilience of Phidias' inclination to change. He stared at the little statuette of a golden elephant on his desk and saw nothing.
Eventually, he gave up and went out to the top level to step outside and have a smoke.

The Firm had promised three weeks. Twenty-one days, and they were burning through like a short match. One week had gone already; the Union government would be calling for answers soon. He, Anthony, Tyson, Everett, and Mahir had been in the laboratory night and day; nothing was yet yielded. But it was long work, and the machines were already hot and overloaded; it was becoming more and more difficult to keep everything running. Henrik felt nervous; if he was honest with himself, a lot of things had gone right the first time he'd made the Phantom - a lot of luck had gone into that first batch. He could only hope that Providence would favor him again.

~:~

Sheridan packed boxes and didn't talk to his husband. Across the room, Aaron Soyinka packed boxes and didn't talk to his carrier wife. There was nothing to be said just then, anyway. Sheridan had lapsed into silence again, and Aaron hated to feel as if he were talking to himself.

Soyinka looked across the room again, to where Sheridan knelt, fingering some minor article before putting it away, his belly just beginning to stand out over his lap, the outline of the waist amulet just barely visible through his shirt.
Many things had collapsed, Aaron marveled, but not this.
It still startled him how something so fragile could sustain so much. But that was the miracle of it - Sheridan was stronger than anyone gave him credit for. And that strength had saved them both.

Aaron looked around the main room of the house one more time. It would be good to be back home, back in the A.W.N.S. And Sheridan might like it there, too - the freedoms they allowed carriers were greater, and more liberal. And his father would be nearby, to help with the baby when it came, and all the changes that came shackled to that.

Sheridan was packing something of James' now - Soyinka knew because the carrier paused, stroked the item as if hoping it contained a dead man's ghost, then put it away again.
Soyinka recognized this gesture because he did it, too. Packing up the life of a half-dead man was painful, too.

Harley was ranting, now, when they went to go see him. The doctors had kept him for observation after he'd recovered from his injuries - they had been worried about self-harm. At first, Soyinka hadn't understood why.
But Harley ranted at them now, and swore that James was still alive, that whatever had been in him was still alive. That it was in Harley now.
Eventually, the doctors had told Soyinka it was best not to upset him; daily visits were no longer necessary.
So Sheridan and Aaron Soyinka had gone back to the B&B, then back to the house, and begun packing up four men's lives.

~:~