Instead, he walked around the small hill in the center of the clearing, muttering now down to the grass, shouting now up to the sky. Half words, half sentences, anything to vent the pressure he felt building inside him, but there was nothing to be done.
When the response finally came, he realized he’d only made it halfway around that hill. Less than a minute must have passed. Time seemed to have stretched itself out long. The response was a mumbled, sleepy-sounding address.
Tycho left before his next footfall hit the ground.
-Low clouds hung above the low house on the shortgrass prairie. He forced himself to walk, not run, up to the house, where he could already see a light turning on, vague shapes moving behind the glass. The soft chime that announced his arrival led to those two shapes, one human, one not, looking up, and before he even made it to the house’s door, Codrin was already there, much as he remembered, though much more tired.
+Low clouds hung above the low house on the shortgrass prairie. He forced himself to walk, not run, up to the house, where he could already see a light turning on, vague shapes moving behind the glass. The soft chime that announced his arrival led those two shapes, one human, one not, to look up up, and before he even made it to the house’s door, Codrin was already there, much as he remembered, though much more tired.
“Tycho Brahe, yes?” ey asked. “Is everything okay?”
He tore his eyes away from the figure beside the historian, what looked to be some large-eared vulpine standing on two legs, looking just as tired as Codrin.
“Uh, yes.” He stammered. “No? I don’t think so, at least. I’m sorry for waking you. I don’t think things are okay, though.”
@@ -44,8 +44,9 @@Tycho stared at the fox.
It stepped forward, set the three mugs down on the table, each smelling of chamomile. “You must forgive me for eavesdropping, but I did hear you mention the Dreamer Module. I can assure you that I share little in common with the elements of the clade that were against its inclusion. It is not something that I particularly care about, but it is fine, I am sure.”
“I can vouch for it,” Codrin said, reaching for eir mug but simply holding it in eir hands rather than sipping. “If we absolutely must step outside, you understand that, as it’s my partner, I’ll likely tell it about our conversation anyway, yes?”
-After a pause, Tycho’s shoulders slumped as he let out the pent up tension within them. “Alright, alright. Besides, it doesn’t sound like there’s much use in trying to hide anything from them.”
+After a pause, Tycho’s shoulders slumped as he let out the tension pent up within them. “Alright, alright. Besides, it doesn’t sound like there’s much use in trying to hide anything from them.”
Dear rolled its eyes, but sat at the table anyway. “You could hide whatever you like from me, Dr. Brahe, I will not look. As you guess, though, the same is not true of other Odists.”
+One of them, perhaps Codrin, willed a cone of silence into being.
“I read the History, Codrin,” he said at last. “So I know you know what’s on the Module.”
Codrin froze, mug halfway lifted. Dear’s ears stood erect, and all sleepiness fled from its features.
“You understand why I’m concerned, then, right?”
@@ -56,7 +57,7 @@There was a long moment of silence around the table as the words sank in.
“The mechanism,” Codrin said, finally breaking the silence. Ey sounded hoarse, unprepared. “The Ansible? The instructions for creating a signal that it’ll recognize?”
Tycho stared down into the pale yellow tea. “Yes.”
-“Did you respond?” Ey frowned. “Is that even possible? I never thought to ask.”
+“Did you respond?” Ey furrowed eir brow quizzically. “Is that even possible? I never thought to ask.”
The silence fell again, and he could feel the expressions of the other two deepen into frowns as he kept his eyes on his tea.
“Tycho,” Dear said, and he couldn’t understand how the fox could keep its voice so level. “Did you respond?”
“Awaiting consent,” he mumbled. “That was the last bit of message. Awaiting consent.”
@@ -78,7 +79,7 @@Ey sighed, leaned over and patted him on the shoulder. “Well, since I’m sure as hell not sleeping anymore, I guess coffee’s next. Coffee, and figuring out what to do with our wayward astronomer and upcoming guests.”