He pulls the blanket over his head and turns away from her.

Chelsa is standing in her office still, frowning.

"Harley is not feeling cooperative today," she says.

"You're not trying to add him to Kers's coverage. He doesn't need to cooperate for your power to work. Or mine."

"Something tells me I would rather have him cooperating than otherwise," she says. "How far away do I have to keep him before you won't be annoyed by his existence?"

"Before he was just fading out and now he's gone cold. Our deal was everyone. You provide the broadcast equipment and I include you in the kindling and I kindle everyone. He's someone."

"You are very good at solving the problem that I made that deal to solve. Harley is a problem you are demonstrably very bad at solving," says Aelise. "I would like it if you would consider leaving him to me."

"I was going to! And then - I don't even - how did he do it?"

"I don't know," says Aelise. "I hope to find out. It's not completely impossible to get information out of him; it just takes patience."

"What if I wake up one morning and Corona's gone cold too?" whispers Chelsa.

"I don't think he will," says Aelise. "There's a lot of things about Harley we don't fully understand yet. I want to understand them. But I only have the one source of information, so I need to handle him carefully. Okay?"

"How long?" Chelsa asks.

"I don't know. A while. Until I know what's going on, ideally."

"How long will it take you to give up?"

"I won't give up."

"So maybe forever, then, you might want me to wait hundreds of years, with a cold spot on the planet you said I could warm up entirely."

"Do you want him off the planet? I can do that."

"Fine. Put him off the planet. And I'll wait. But you'll try, won't you?"

"I will try."

"Thank you," sighs Chelsa. And she droops, but she goes back to her friends' quarters to warm up.

"Well, I'm glad somebody around here is happy," she remarks. "C'mon, up you get, I want you off this planet in an hour."

"What's the rush?" he asks, crawling out of bed.