Approaching the Gate call Wormhole Control on 4723 over." Cleared direct; Wormhole 4723. Moving now. "Grendel" clear." Wormhole Control this is "Grend...l", approaching the gate." Grendel", take Blue Route, call Departure 4565 approaching Alpha35." Blue Route, Departure 4565 Alpha35, "Grendel" clear." "Grendel" approaching Alpha35." "Grendel", zero three zero, zero eight zero, decrease to one hundred gravs, call at the outer marker." "Grendel" zero three zero, zero eight zero, one hundred gravs,. “I’ve made your wife a proposition, but she assures me that it’s not something that she can consider until she discusses it with you. I’m here to facilitate and perhaps lend clarity to that discussion.” It occurred to me that Derek and Louis might be very happy talking to each other, as both seemed to favor a somewhat more formal and stilted manner of speaking than we mere mortals tend to use. I looked at him for a moment, not really grasping where he was going. “An, uh…a proposition? What kind. Her father's prophecy didn't come true until the spring of her twenty-first year, when there also came a chance to do a part in turning back the deterioration of the earth she had promised old Henry's ghost to do something about.By that spring, Heather had blossomed into a young woman of medium height, with hair that indeterminate shade that's right between redheaded and blonde, and freckles on her face, which she never covered with makeup. She didn't have exactly what you would call a bikini. Guess you must have found something strange last night. Sit down, I need to talk to you.’ I plop myself down next to the door. ‘The only thing strange I’ve seen lately is what I’m looking at now!’ And I stare right at her to make sure she gets the point. Like she wouldn’t. ‘You know that campaign you bullied my project group to buy into? It’s going down the toilet. The client is not happy and you’ve got my ass in a sling again. How’re you going to fix it?’ She knows as well as I do I didn’t.