by Ric Locke
“To my vast regret, no. I’ve got a Cabinet meeting in—” he glanced at his watch “—two hours, and I’ll probably eat a sandwich over working papers, with people whining at me.”
“Consider it a standin’ invitation.” Peters held out a hand. “Good luck, Gene.”
They shook. “Good luck to you, John,” Hansen said. “I think we’ll both need a lot of it. George, it’s time to go. Do you need to sweep the hall first?”
“No, the others are out there,” the agent said practically.
“Let’s go.”
Peters, Dzheenis, and Steward watched them leave. “He seems a good man,” Khurs observed from the couch.
“Yes, I think so,” Peters agreed. “Will dinner be soon?”
“Soon enough,” Dzheenis said cheerfully. “And there is a great deal on your plate.”
“Ooh!” Khurs cried out. “Something just happened.”
“Let’s go in the bedroom and find out what,” Steward suggested. “Grallt pregnancies are still a little new to me.” Denis came in from the kitchen with a sandwich in one hand; he raised his eyebrows and followed Khurs and the doctor out of sight.
Peters looked at Ander, still curled up asleep with Eve in her lap, and at Lisi, who was swaddling the now-sleeping baby. Dzheenis hovered, regarding his mate and offspring. “Yes, there’s a great deal on my plate,” the depa’olze of Peters pa’ol thought to himself. “But I’ll make the best meal I can of it.”
* * *
At 0343 Jack Steward swaddled the newborn and handed it to its mother. “Male,” he said. “He seems healthy. Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” said Khurs, and guided the infant to her breast. “Welcome to the Universe, John,” she said.
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events herein portrayed are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2010, 2011 by Warrick M. Locke. All rights reserved.
Cover image copyright © 2011 by Stoaty Weasel, http://sweasel.com/ Used by permission.
A slightly different version of this story, with a lot of errors typographic and otherwise, was previously posted at
http://warlocketx.wordpress.com/fiction/temporary-duty/
FB2 document info
Document ID: 4e180f10-88d4-45d5-8609-e1eddfff4dde
Document version: 1
Document creation date: 20.12.2013
Created using: calibre 1.15.0, FictionBook Editor Release 2.6.6 software
Document authors :
Namenlos
About
This file was generated by Lord KiRon's FB2EPUB converter version 1.1.5.0.
(This book might contain copyrighted material, author of the converter bears no responsibility for it's usage)
Этот файл создан при помощи конвертера FB2EPUB версии 1.1.5.0 написанного Lord KiRon.
(Эта книга может содержать материал который защищен авторским правом, автор конвертера не несет ответственности за его использование)
http://www.fb2epub.net
https://code.google.com/p/fb2epub/