Tangle in the Dark - Kassidor

10:47pm Tue. Apr. 10, 2384Alan was alone in his universe, as he spent most of histime. It was still Morningday, a bit hot and sticky, especiallyfor week Ekendosa, the dead of winter in this part of hisuniverse. There were a few things he needed to get donetoday and he was already in the garden.It was half a local year since he told Ava about the visitfrom Elmore and he still saw little of her outside of duty. Inthe past she had been friendly with him during businesshours. Nowhere near cuddly or demonstrative, but warm andpersonable. It was not like that lately. Now she was guardedand cool. She was still polite and said nothing to officiallyend their relationship, but he was pretty sure it was over. Infact it took him too long to admit to himself that it was over,he probably should have re-arranged his life as soon asElmore spoke to him.He had little other company either, not even MajorTengine. He noticed her hanging around Thom a lot lately.Alan would probably play with one or more of the villagecherubs this evening if the weather stayed pleasant. He wasallowed to run up to four standard ones with the cheronallotment he had. That was not enough to run Desa or Kuthra,even in their cheron versions, he could run Kaha if he usedhis whole allotment on one.He had been invited to less meetings than ever, andassigned nothing but calibration reviews and accounting90