Free Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold Page A

hope that screw-ups and delays in other departments might cover those in his own. It was time for his welding crew to make its debut.
    All right, Pramod, get suited up. You'll take over Tony's position, andB obbi from Gang B will take yours. Leo hurried on before the startlement in Pramod's eyes could turn to stage fright. It's nothing you Page 33

    haven't practiced a dozen times. And if you have the least doubts about the quality or safety of any procedure, I'll be right there. Reality first—you people are going to be living in the structure you build today long after Vice President Apmad and her travelling circus are gone. I guarantee she'll have more respect for a job done right, however slowly, than for a piece of slap-dash fakery.
    For God's sake makei t look smooth,Van Atta had instructed Leo urgently, earlier. Keep to the schedule, no matter wha t—w e'll fix the problems later, after she's gon e. We're supposed to be making these chimps seem cost-effective.
    You don't have to try and seem to be anything but what you are, Leo told Pramod. You are efficient—a nd you are good. Instructing you all has been one of the great unexpected pleasures of my career. Be off, now, I'll catch up with you shortly.
    Pramod sped away to find Bobbi. Leo frowned briefly to himself, and floated up the length of the locker room to the comconsole terminal at the end.
    He keyed in his ID. Page, he instructed it. Dr. SondraY ei.At the same moment a message square in the corner of the vid began to blink with his own name, and a number. Cancel that instruction.
    He punched up the number and raised his brows in surprise as Dr. Yei's face appeared on his vid.
    Sondra! I was just about to call you. Do you know where Claire is?
    How odd. I was calling to ask you if you knew where I could reach Tony.
    Oh? said Leo, in a voice suddenly drained to neutrality. Why?
    Because I can't find her anywhere, and I thought Tony might know where she is. She's supposed to be giving a demonstration of child care techniques in free fall to Vice President Apmad after lunch.
    Is, um, Leo swallowed,Andy at the creche, or with Claire, do you know?
    With Claire,of course.
    Ah.
    Leo... Dr. Yei's attention sharpened,her lips pursed. Do you know something I don't?
    Ah... he eyed her. I know Tony has been unusually inattentive at work for the last week. I might even sa y—depressed, except that's supposed to be your department, eh? Not his usual cheerful self, anyway. A knot of unease,tightening in Leo's stomach, gave his tongue an unaccustomed edge. You, ah, got any concerns that you may have forgotten to share with me, lady?
    Her lips thinned, but she ignored the bait. Schedules have been moved up in all departments, you know.
    Claire received her new reproduction assignment. It didn't include Tony.
    Reproduction assignment? You mean, having a baby? Leo could feel his face flushing. Somewhere within him, a long-controlled steam pressure began to build. Do you hide what you're really doing from yourselves with those weasel-words, too? And here I thought the propaganda was just for us peons.Yei started to speak, but Leo overrode her, bursting out, Good God! Were you born inhuman,or did you grow so by degrees—M.S., M.D., Ph.D. . . .
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    Yei's face darkened, her accent grew clipped. An engineer with romance in his soul? Now I've seen everything. Don't get carried away with your scenario, Mr. Graf. Tony and Claire were assigned to each other in the first place by the exact same system, and if certain people had been willing to abide by my original timetable, this problem could have been avoided. I fail to see the point of paying for an expert and then blithely ignoring her advice, really I do. Engineers . . . !
    Ah, hell, she's suffering from as bad a case of Van Atta as I am, Leo realized. The insight blunted his momentum, without bleeding off internal pressure.
    —Ididn't invent the Cay Project, and if I were running it I'd do it differently, but I have to