23. [texts]
Dr. J
I forwarded you the email—emergency permissions from ICSMVS came through, and we’re officially, legally good to hatch the owl-bear egg.
Helena
Fantastic! Thanks for the update.
Dr. J
I also sent along the finalized necropsy; not sure if you saw.
Helena
I did. Sorry for not responding. Full disclosure: It made me cry. A lot.
Dr. J
I know ?
Very sad situation.
But! Yielding great, never-before-known data, and will make an extremely compelling case for why creating and preserving otherfolk crossings/corridors is so important.
Helena
That’s what’s keeping me going. When are you coming back?
Dr. J
Not any time soon, I don’t imagine.
Helena
?!
Dr. J
Didn’t I tell you? I’m in the Arctic right now.
Helena
?!?!?!?!?!
Dr. J
After I finished the necropsy at SDZMSP, I got a call from Perry, who’s been the on-the-ground lead for the study of Arctic blue fairy penguins (not to be confused with blue/fairy penguins) who ended up with a nasty flu and needed to get somewhere warmer to recover so he asked if there was any way I could come supervise, and I said the timing was perfect.
Helena
?!?! How is the timing perfect?! You’re supposed to be leading a study in North America?
Dr. J
My plan was always to get the ball rolling on the owl-bear study and then visit other study sites as well; you knew that.
Helena
I did not know that.
Dr. J
I told you!
Or maybe I just told Bertram. This is earlier than I planned to leave, but if the owl-bear hatches, the fewer humanoid beings around, the better chance of rewilding the cub-chick. I’ll leave it to the two of you to handle. I have complete and utter faith in your ability to come together over this.
Helena
Please tell me you are not actively abandoning a research project because you want Bertram and I to work out our interpersonal issues.
Dr. J
Don’t be absurd.
Although of course I would love for my children to get along.
Helena
I really wish you wouldn’t refer to us as your children.
Dr. J
Ah. The implications? Because of the prior sexual intercourse?
Helena
I’m going to go review the egg permissions. Keep me updated on the penguin study.
And for the record, the most hurtful part of this isn’t that you very suddenly abandoned us at the beginning of a project, it’s that you thought there was any universe in which I would confuse the mundane Australian bird Eudyptula minor for literally the only known penguin species above the equator and also one of the few species of birds with two sets of wings? It’s like you don’t even know me ?