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experienced with Ogdan, she knew she wanted to be with him. He told her that this was his last assignment before he was going back to Earth. They swore eternal love for each other, and made plans for the future at every opportunity - when he wasn’t servicing the requirements of the other modules in the neighbourhood. Then he was gone. After a few passionate calls between her module and Grand Central, he left for Earth. It had all happened in less than a fortnight.
She thought about what she was going to do. When Ogdan returned, she didn’t say a word about what had happened. It would hardly have mattered anyway, for he would scarcely have noticed even if she had told him outright. He had been promoted to Grand Central. They were made, he told her. They were now entitled to a bigger module at HQ. GCHQ looked after its own, he proudly informed her.
But it made no difference to Neenah. Early one morning, a few days after he returned and before Odgan was awake, she put back the old oxygen pump in the air supply, shorted the house communicator (making it look like a genuine failure), vented Ogdan’s work suit (leaving less than an hour’s oxygen), made his breakfast, put on her suit (now, like the buggy, fully functional, thanks to Patrick), and shook him awake.
“Good morning, sweetie. I made some breakfast for you. I’m off to the Copes’ for a coffee morning. Sorry about the short notice. An invitation came in this morning. There’s a workshop on how to get better meals out of the FPU. Anyway, I won’t be long. If you need me, you know where to call.”
She kissed him, and without a backward glance, pushed up her faceplate, and cycled through the VC.