Time of Scorn

Chapter 12: multitasking

Harper knew better than to dissuade Cameron from working. He was grateful that she was home at least and letting him cook lunch as she read on her holo-rib, scrolling through people still in cryo.

"Can I get you to make some kind of better search function?" she asked from the couch. "I need to look at every single person's bio and data and I can't sort any of it by what I..." Cameron stopped talking and frowned at her holo-rib. Harper turned from his cooking to face her.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"It says this person in cryo is eleven," she said. "But I have it sorted by last name. If this is a child, shouldn't they have parents?"

"Maybe they have different last names?" Harper questioned. "Or maybe it's a typo. Those happen."

"She's from Earth, there's no one to ask," Cameron replied. "I'm going to flag her so Madison takes a look tomorrow. Maybe her genetics can find her parents. I just hope there aren't any more. Who would put their children in cryo without them?"

"I don't know," Harper agreed. "But oui, I can make you a search form. Set that holo-rib down for two seconds and stir this pasta. I'll make you one right now."

Cameron smiled at him as she rose from her seat. Harper always smiled back at Cameron, partially because he was happy she was showing any emotion at all. But he was happy here with her. He was excited about his new role in congress and their child on the way. They would have all the time in the world to be better people together.

"What?" Cameron asked, taking the spoon from his hand.

He instead kissed her cheek. "I'll be done before the broccoli is cooked."

Harper's makeshift tekcom was still in the smaller bedroom, but he had dismantled the program that tracked people's holo-ribs. He still liked having the workstation here; this way he'd be able to stay home with Cameron once she had the baby. Or if she went back to work quickly as he suspected she might, Harper could stay home almost full time.

The program Cameron was asking for would be fairly simple; he had already done much of the legwork for his archival projects. Libba had wanted the same thing to be able to search people on the base so that archives knew what relevant things to send them in what she had been hoping to make a weekly newsletter. Harper wasn't sure what would happen to her projects now. He downloaded the code from the archive tekcom and tested it before sending it on to Cameron.

Harper mocked groaned as he reentered the kitchen.

"I leave you in here for a minute and you add more garlic," he complained. "Babe, it had garlic already."

"It didn't have enough garlic," she laughed. "You're done already? Really?"

"I already had the program built," he said. "It's a good thing too, who knows how much garlic you would add given the chance."

Cameron's holo-rib chimed several times, and she handed back the spoon to check it.

"It's Madison," she said. "She says... oh, she's calling. Hello?"

"A child?" Madison questioned. "I've done a glance at her file, but I'm seeing the same thing you are. What sort of jacked-up moron puts a child in cryo?"

"I don't know," Cameron managed. She glanced at Harper with a frown. "I was hoping you would know more information. Maybe it's a typo like Harper suggested."

"I'll talk to Rainier to confirm," Madison replied. "I suspect Libba will be organizing a congress meeting in the next day or two. I'd love to have more information by then."