Page 1 (2/2)

Paolo turned off the video display and checked tobefore he stood up

“Yes, of course,” he said And then, because he wasan effort these days, “Thank you Cantor?”

“Caton,” the tech replied with visible relief

“Of course Please let the director know I’m on my way”

“I’ on the hand terh this fact was on a list somewhere

“Of course” Paolo pulled his coat off a rack by the door and headed out

The bioengineering and nanoinforest research lab on the planet Possibly in the entirety of human space The university campus spread across nearly forty hectares of land on the outskirts of the Laconian capital city His labs accounted for al on Laconia, it was orders of er than it needed to be for the people who inhabited it now It had been built for the future For all those ould come after

Paolo walked briskly along a gravel path, checking thebehind

“Doctor,” the lab tech said, pointing in the opposite direction, “I brought a cart for you It’s in Parking C”

“Bring it around to the Pen I have so to do there first”

Caton hesitated for a ht between a direct order fro his chaperone

“Yes, Doctor,” Caton said, then ran off in the other direction

As he walked, Paolo scanned through his task list for the day to be sure he wasn’t forgetting anything else, then plucked his sleeve down over the monitor and looked up at the sky It was a lovely day Laconia had a bright cerulean-blue sky, with a few cottony white clouds scattered about Theof the planet’s orbital construction platfor aronucleotide floating in space