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And that was it Nat saying she loved hiht he had, and he spent the next severalshamefully to himself

Someone tapped at his door, and he called out, “Give me a moment!” Then rushed off to his private bathroo his face, he heard the sounds of so up his office, and by the time he’d put himself back in shape to see people, there was a fresh pot of coffee percolating on the shelf A nonco neers in his vase The chief threw him a snappy salute, then faded out of the room like a cat

Singh sat at his desk, co to Nat “Hello, e I’ well there, and Monster looks very well fed, soher rotten with sweet rolls Things are still ahead of schedule here Living here will take so used to, but there’s plenty of usable land for your sheep and lab, and we’re working to get all the services up to snuff for irl Talk soon I love you, Nat I love you—” He al her pet name “I love you, Elsa”

He killed the connection, and sent the file for processing to pass it down to Laconia with the next co “I love you” to Nat hadn’t sent hiht that sort of thing was unnified

“Five n Somebody said from his monitor

“I’m ready,” he replied

Carrie Fisk sat in a chair in his office, drinking his coffee and looking twitchy and uncomfortable She’d been picked up at her office by fully arovernor’s offices in a convoy of three carts filled with other Marines For her protection, certainly, but it could also be a little intih a bit of a ho with the minor functionaries on Medina, he’d happily take it He waited until she’d stopped fidgeting and started paying attention to hi systems that had habitable colonies and threw the list up onto his wall

“Mada moment for us all, but especially for you as the first president of the Laconian Congress of Worlds”

“Are we e?” she asked “Or …”

“The naislative body is established in the docu Did you not read those documents?”

“I did,” she said “I just wasn’t sure if that was a working title, or not We haven’t voted on adopting the new—”

“You do not vote on directives delivered froh consul’s office”

“I see,” Fisk said She stared at her lap and blew steam off her coffee

“As I was saying,” Singh continued “This is an exciting tih Adh to allow liates”

Fisk looked up at hienuine surprise “What?”