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<p>May made it through dinner — Ioan was heartened to see that she’d actually eaten all of the chicken soup ey’d made — before padding off to a beanbag to curl up. She kept up a sleepy conversation for a few minutes while Ioan cleaned, but even that tapered off to silence. When next ey looked back, the skunk was asleep.</p>
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<p>Every time ey’d left her to sleep out on the beanbag in the past, though, she’d spent the next day disoriented and moody — ey suspected this is what she’d meant when she said she slept better next to someone all those years ago — so once ey finished the (unnecessary but meditative) task of cleaning, ey knelt beside the beanbag, wormed eir arms beneath her, and scooped her up.</p>
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<p>May made a sort of drowsy chirping noise as ey lifted her, hugging her arms around eir shoulders for the short journey to the bedroom. Long as her tail was, ey had to be careful not to step on any of her fur with it hanging limply, almost to the ground.</p>
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<p>She made a sort of drowsy chirping noise as ey lifted her, hugging her arms around eir shoulders for the short journey to the bedroom. Long as her tail was, ey had to be careful not to step on any of her fur with it hanging limply, almost to the ground.</p>
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<p>Once there, ey helped her out of her clothes, unsteady as she was, and then tucked her into bed, leaning down to put a kiss on her cheek.</p>
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<p>“Ioan?”</p>
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<p>“Yes?”</p>
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<p>This Ioan, the one ey was now, understood the value in attachments, and yet ey could still marvel, twenty years on, at just how much more complete ey was with May in eir life.</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-04-08</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-05-08</p>
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@ -54,10 +54,10 @@
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<p><em>Amusement, perhaps?</em> Codrin thought. The atmosphere certainly seemed to have lightened.</p>
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<p>“Radio emanations, <em>anem.</em> To far for visible light, useless light.”</p>
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<p>Tycho grinned, nodded. “Apologies, that will be my question, then.”</p>
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<p>“I ask,” Stolon said. “How launched vehicle? We see also another.”</p>
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<p>“I ask,” Stolon said. “How launched vehicle? We see also another, we learn language from.”</p>
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<p>“A station — a construct, as you say — rotating with the Castor and Pollux launch vehicles at the end of long launch arms, released us at tangential velocity, then photon sails, Hall Effect engines, and gravity assists on our way out of the system.”</p>
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<p>“You move not so fast, <em>ka?</em> Conserve fuel?” They chattered their teeth again. “Sorry sorry, will ask again soon.”</p>
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<p>“I am pleased to see scientists excited,” Turun Ka said. “Recorder Codrin Bălan? Recorder Turun Ko?”</p>
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<p>“I am pleased to see the scientists excited,” Turun Ka said. “Recorder Codrin Bălan? Recorder Turun Ko?”</p>
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<p>When Turun Ko did not speak, Codrin asked, “Does your system allow you to forget?”</p>
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<p>“Memories degrade-rot,” the other recorder said. “Saves-preserves storage. Garbage collection process trims-prunes old-unaccessed memories.”</p>
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<p>Both True Name and Sarah reached for their pens to make note of the answer.</p>
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<p>“I don’t know about that either, as representative. I hope I get to ask more. Though, well…” Sarah glanced over to where True Name and Why Ask Questions had sat at a table, still talking earnestly within a cone of silence. “I don’t know what’s more interesting. The emissaries or the Odists.”</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-04-27</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-05-08</p>
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<p>“Will they remain afraid-in-pain? Will they cohere?”</p>
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<p>Codrin was silent for a long moment as ey thought about this. The part of em that wanted to say ‘yes, of course’ argued against the part of em that was intensely focused on that wave of skunk fur creeping its way up over Why Ask Questions’s cheek.</p>
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<p>“I don’t know,” ey said at last. Ey pointed carefully toward that trim of fur. “How long did it take for this to appear?”</p>
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<p>“Zero-point-one-six seconds common time from your arrival-constitution.” Turun Ko stepped closer, bowing its head to investigate the fur. “She is existing-in-time slower. She appears-seems frozen because she is in slow-time. She skewed-departed-slid-away from common time zero-point-one-eight seconds after arrival by a skew of negative two-point-six. Think-remember, recorder Codrin Bălan, and you will know these things.”</p>
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<p>Ey tilted eir head and then, considering how it felt to have a merge available to remember, tried to remember the ‘skew’ factor by which eir experience of time differed from common time. The concepts were hazily defined to em — ey didn’t know what common time was, where the point of reference lay — and yet all the same, ey knew that eir time-skew factor was two-point-one-eight.</p>
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<p>“0.16 seconds common time from your arrival-constitution.” Turun Ko stepped closer, bowing its head to investigate the fur. “She is existing-in-time slower. She appears-seems frozen because she is in slow-time. She skewed-departed-slid-away from common time 0.18 seconds after arrival by a skew of -2.6. Think-remember, recorder Codrin Bălan, and you will know these things.”</p>
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<p>Ey tilted eir head and then, considering how it felt to have a merge available to remember, tried to remember the ‘skew’ factor by which eir experience of time differed from common time. The concepts were hazily defined to em — ey didn’t know what common time was, where the point of reference lay — and yet all the same, ey knew that eir time-skew factor was +2.18.</p>
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<p>On a spark of intuition, ey tried to ‘remember’ being at a skew of one, and sure enough, the world stumbled into movement again, though everything was moving half as fast as ey expected. Sound came through slowly, and ey could hear words beginning — words from Sarah, from Tycho, from Turun Ka. It was unnerving to hear that they had been time-stretched without having their pitch modulated, but ey supposed that would be helpful in time-skewed conversations.</p>
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<p>Ey felt the briefest twinge to eir sensorium and frowned. “What was that?”</p>
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<p>“I have tied-attached-synchronized my time skew to yours. If you require help with skew manipulation, I will assist. Think-remember common time, recorder Codrin Bălan.”</p>
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<p>He looked back toward the door, worry painted on his face, and nodded. “I’m not totally sure how I know, but I don’t think that was Why Ask Questions. That was Answers Will Not Help.”</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-03-28</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-05-08</p>
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<p>“Yes. Representative Iska will see to the arrangements. One of us will fetch the other emissaries to guide you back to the new meeting location.”</p>
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<p>The soft-furred secondracer stood still for a moment, squinted. “You should be locked to common time for the time being. It is very difficult to synchronize skew with you, though. I don’t know why. I will contact a system technician during our break.”</p>
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<p>“If I walk backward, time moves forward. If I walk forward, time rushes on,” she gasped out, then laughed hoarsely. “If I stand still, the world moves around me!”</p>
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<p>True Name jolted at the brief recitation, standing quickly and taking her cocladist by the elbow. “Come on, my dear. Let us get to the room.”</p>
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<p>True Name jolted at the brief recitation, standing quickly and taking her cocladist by the elbow. “Come, my dear. Let us get to the room.”</p>
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<p>Tycho looked to Codrin, who only frowned.</p>
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<p>Something had happened, just then. Something of import. He had no clue as to what it had been, though. Neither did he understand how he knew, he realized, but he knew that it was something distressing. Something wrong.</p>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-04-08</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-05-08</p>
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