Editing Eternity (Warhammer High) (section)

=== Let's Meet Grandma ===


Christine Donnelly coughed as the nurse adjusted her IV drip.  “Good morning, Thomas,” she said to the nurse.

“Good morning, Doctor Donnelly,” the nurse replied.  “How’s your throat today?”

“Sore,” Christine said ruefully.  “Very much so.”

“I can get you a bit of painkiller if you think it would help,” the nurse commented.

“No, I want to have breakfast first,” Christina said from her chair in the room that constituted her world now.

A quiet knock on the door drew the nurse’s attention.  He peeked out the eyehole, then looked back at Christine.  “Ma’am, there’s a guest here for you.  Your husband, I believe?”

“Let him in,” Christine said, straightening up happily.

A man in a somewhat faded-looking Imperial Army jacket appeared at the door, grinning faintly.  “Hello, Chris,” he said softly.  The orderly made his discreet exit.

“Honey!  Come here,” Christine said, rising to her feet.  She hugged her husband around the shoulders, showing surprising strength in her failing arms.  “Thanks for coming in.  How did it go?” she asked.

“The procedure was a success, Wally’s fine,” Eric said.  “And look,” he said, digging a packet of holos out of his pocket.  “I brought some ultrasounds of Mizuki,” he said.  “She’s coming well on her way,” he said.

“Aww, she’s only three months from due, isn’t she?” Christine said, looking over one of the holos.  “Hard to believe.  I feel like Hajime and Alice only met a few days ago, you know?”

“Yeah, it’s been longer, though, I’m pretty sure.”  Eric shook his head as he took back the holos.  “Have you had breakfast yet?”

“No, I haven’t,” Christine said.  “Have you?”

Eric smiled.  “Actually, I invited Jake and his girlfriend to join us, if you’re all right with that, and she wanted to cook.”

“Jake, and…Lady Primarch Venus?” Christine’s eyes widened, and she stole a look at the hallway outside.  “Oh, you didn’t.”

Eric’s grin grew wider.  “You could say no, but Jake’s only in town another day before he has to go back to school, and he wanted to introduce her to you.”

“And it’s not a bother to her?” Christine asked.

“No, she wants to meet you too,” Eric said.  He snorted at his wife’s expression.  “I know, I know, but she’s a really nice girl.  She wouldn’t be put out.”

“Well…I guess I’d like to meet her too,” Christine said.

“Good, because she’s on her way with Jake,” Eric said brightly.  Christine sighed, well used to her husband’s antics.

A few minutes later, Jake arrived at the little apartment where Christine lived in the hospital of his hab, a bag of food under his arm.  Venus tagged along behind him, being stared at by everyone in the halls and ignoring them, by and large.  “So just so I don’t trigger any awkward pauses,” Venus said under her breath, “what exactly is she in for?”

“Gerbin’s Disease, degenerative ligament disorder.  She’ll have trouble standing and talking, but not much else,” Jake said in the same tone.  In a more normal voice, he continued.  “She’s a doctor, by the way, in Architecture.  So it’s Doctor Donnelly.”

“All right.”  Venus lifted her own bag of goodies and squared her shoulders.  As they approached the room, Jake knocked once and waited.

“Come in,” his grandmother said.

Jake pushed the door open and grinned.  “Hi, Grandma,” Jake said, dropping his food on the table by the door and walking over to her.

Christine rose to her feet and hugged him despite the visible strain it caused.  “Hello, Jake,” she said back.  “How’s Kouthry working out?”

“They’re really working us in the labs, but it’s fun,” Jake said.  He retrieved the bag of food and delivered it to the counter in the tiny kitchenette of the two-room long-term-residence apartment.  Venus appeared at the door with her own bag, and Eric had to place a restraining hand on his wife’s shoulder to keep her in place.

“Doctor Donnelly?  Hi, I’m Venus,” she said, walking up to where Christine was sitting and inclining her head.  “Nice to meet you in person.”

“I’m honored, your Highness,” Christine said, averting her eyes from Venus’ fiery gaze.

“The honor’s mine,” Venus said, setting her food down on the same table where Jake was busily preparing the meal.  The food they had brought was no banquet, but compared to the reprocessed protein blocks that constituted food in the hives, it was gourmet cuisine.  “Jake and I are having a lot of fun at Kouthry,” she continued.  “Where did you earn your doctorate?”

“Here, your Highness, 19889 Polytechnic,” Christine said.

“Cool.  And call me Venus, please,” she said, dragging up a chair.

Jake spoke up from the kitchenette.  “Hope you guys are hungry, I think we may have brought too much,” he said, bringing the tray over to where his grandparents were sitting.

As they ate, Jake was practically bursting with anecdotes and stories to share.  “I never thought the Mechanicus would allow a private school to have such broad-capacity gene sequencing equipment, but they do.  And the labs are so generalized, you can do any sort of research in them if you have a bit of preptime,” he said eagerly.

“That’s nice to hear,” Christine said as Eric munched on his toast.  “Do you like the classes too?”

“So far…well.”  Jake looked aside for a moment.  “Kind of.  Some of my teachers are clearly just there to do research.  But the ones who really like teaching?  Sure, I like their classes.”

“That’s good.”  Christine finished her toast with some difficulty.  Jake tried not to look like he was staring.  Eric barely noticed.  “What about you, Lady Venus?”

“Just Venus.  And I love my classes, but I think I picked the wrong minor,” Venus said.  “I had this crazy idea that Criminal Justice was a good minor for me.”

“You don’t like it?” Christine asked.

“It’s kind of samey, that’s all.  It’s just the teachers, the subject is fascinating,” Venus said.  “I think I’ll switch over to Sculpting instead.  I prefer working with my hands.”  She held up her palms to reveal the tracery of tiny scars, burns, and other marks of hard work that she had earned with nearly fifteen years of forging.

Christine stared.  “Goodness.  Your hands look like a map of Terra.”

Venus smiled.  “Well, I’ve been working in a forge or welding since I was four.  It shows.”  She lifted a tiny golden bauble from her pocket and placed it on the table between them.  “Here.  Look.”

Christine lifted the little golden object and looked it over.  It was a pendant, she realized, embossed with two golden letters: E and C.

“Oh, it’s beautiful,” Christine said.  “You made this yourself?”

“I did.  With some assistance from Jake,” Venus said.  “He provided the holo.”

“Holo?” Christine looked askance at the seemingly solid piece of metal, until Jake gently took it from her hands and pressed the clasp that held the chain.

The pendant swung open, becoming a locket.  Inside was a tiny holo of Eric and Christine standing together at their anniversary party just before Christine had been hospitalized.

Christine looked up at Venus, as did Eric, both stunned.  Venus smiled.  “Call it a gift,” the pretty young Salamander said.

“Oh…oh, your Highness, I couldn’t even…begin to…” Christine managed.  Eric felt his eyes tearing up.

“Hush.  I make these things because I love doing it.  And what good is making them if you don’t share them?” Venus asked.  She decided not to mention that it had been the work of perhaps an hour in her forge, the first place she had visited upon coming home the previous day from the distant college where she lived.

Eric covered his mouth with his hand, stifling his tears, as Christine clutched the golden chain with her shaking hand.  “Venus, I’m…overwhelmed,” Christine said, starting to tear up herself.

“Good.  I hope you like it,” she said happily, and returned to making herself a bagel as if she didn’t have a care in the world.


Jake and Venus didn’t stay much longer.  Both had work to do before they went back to school, and Jake had promised Vulkan a full report on the lab Vulkan had ordered built with his money on the Kouthry campus.  As they stood up to leave, though, Jake hesitated.  “Venus, baby, I’ll see you in the car, all right?” he asked.

“Sure.  Goodbye, Sergeant Donnelly.  Nice meeting you, Doctor,” she said to the Donnelly couple at the table.

“Thank you so much for this, Venus,” Christine called after her.

“You’re very welcome,” Venus said, as she vanished out the door.

Jake turned to his ailing grandmother.  “How are you doing, Grandma?” he asked quietly.

“Jake, sweetheart, did you tell Her Highness I would have liked this?” Christine asked, staring at the little pendant.

“Nope.  She’s just a sweetheart like that,” Jake said honestly.  “You know jewelling is her hobby, right?”

“But I met her today,” Christine said, clearly having as much trouble coming to terms with the fact that she had been given a gift by a Lady Primarch as any hiver would.

“And she’s a sweetheart like that,” Jake repeated, grinning.  He stood.  “I watched her make it, you know.  That’s twenty-two karat solid.  She has entire drawers of jewelry she makes every time she comes home.”

Christine stared.  “You’re in good hands, Jake,” she said at length, a smile appearing on her face at last.

Jake grinned.  “You’re fine too, then?  Good,” he said.  He leaned down to hug her.  “I’ll see you at the end of the next break, all right?”

“Absolutely, Jake, and tell her not to bring me anything next time, I’d feel terrible if she made a habit of this,” Christine said.

Jake snorted.  “Okay.”  He turned to his grandfather.  “All right, Grandpa, I have to run.  Goodbye,” he said, shaking his hand.

“Goodbye, Jake,” Eric said.  “See you in a few months.”

As Jake walked out the door, Christine sagged back into her seat.  “Wow.”

“Yeah, she’s quite something,” Eric said.  “This was as much a surprise to me as it was to you,” he added.  “It’s gorgeous."

Christine held it up the light over the table.  “Isn’t it?” she asked.  “What a fine gift.”  She pressed the button on the top of the locket again, and it popped open along an invisible seam, to reveal the picture of the two of them in their finest at the dinner.  “Do you want to keep it at home?  I’m afraid I’ll lose it here.”

Eric shook his head.  “No, no, keep it here.  I’ll be back tomorrow,” he said.

The two of them sat in silence for a while, looking at the locket.  The image of the two of them didn’t fade at all, and reflected the love they shared as brightly as the gold of which it was made.