The Offset by Calder Szewczak

Author:Calder Szewczak [Szewczak, Calder]
Language: spa
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857669186
Google: YdAOEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: 0857669184
Publisher: Angry Robot
Published: 2021-09-13T16:00:00+00:00

17

Clutching a glass of wine, Jac hovers around the edge of the crowd. Usually she would be in the centre of things but today she’s avoiding someone. She wishes Alix could have come with her, but she is back at home, bedridden with morning sickness. While the illness blind-sided them at first – no one at the hospital thought to warn them – really they should have expected that Alix’s body would punish her for the pregnancy, just like everyone else is hell-bent on doing. Jac left her reluctantly that morning. “I can miss it…” she said, hesitating at the door. But Alix insisted she go.

The memorial service for the Laureate, hosted by the Royal Society, is being held in a hall of Burlington House. Jac is one of the select few fortunate enough to be invited to this private ceremony. She’s not surprised; everyone knew she was his favourite student. Jac met him during her PhD, working in his lab on the trial of the project they all believed would save the world. They stayed in touch after Jac graduated, the Laureate often writing her letters of recommendation that secured Jac a series of enviable positions in labs all across the city.

The hall is magnificent. Intricately carved white stone pillars are recessed at regular intervals between vast panels of gleaming red marble, and the ornate wood-panelled ceiling is covered in gold leaf. Just as Jac tilts her head upwards to get a better look, she is approached by the one person she’s been hoping wouldn’t spot her.

“Hello, Jac,” comes a voice at her shoulder.

Her eyes snap back down to take in the familiar face of the Engineer. She hasn’t changed a bit, not since the two first met as students in the Laureate’s lab. Jac, as a mathematical biologist, worked on the quantitative aspects of the five-year pilot, whereas the Engineer specialised in biophotonics and dealt with optical microscopy. Their early collaborations proved highly fruitful and an intense romantic relationship soon followed. It didn’t last. Their temperaments were too similar and their views too disparate. Although their on-again, off-again romance had been turbulent, they managed to stay friends when it was finally done. For a while anyway, until Jac’s meteoric success drove them apart. Now the Engineer looks as radiant and powerful as ever, even if her clothes – frayed and bobbling – tell a different story.

“It’s been a while,” says Jac.

“Were you avoiding me?”

“No,” Jac replies, a little too quickly. “Of course not.”

“Funny. I got the distinct impression that you were.”

“You always did have an overactive imagination.”

The two share a warm, private smile and exchange the requisite pleasantries. Though things are awkward between them at first, Jac soon finds herself relaxing in the Engineer’s easy company. When they are called to dinner, she even turns a blind eye when the Engineer swaps her name-card to take up the seat next to Jac’s.

Side by side, and aided by the free-flowing wine, the two continue an increasingly animated exchange. Despite

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