Stew

Dr. Julianne Belman stands in the food prep area peeling potatoes -- peeling potatoes for Jonathan Doors. She doesn't know which she finds more odd: Is it the fact that she's preparing a meal for him? She'd never cooked for Alvin, not once, and they'd been married with a child. Or is it the fact that she's making home-style stew in a "food prep" area? "That's the corporate/paramilitary mindset for you. Up's up. Down's down. Prep's prep. That's why I'm cooking this," she realizes. "I know prep's not prep, and life's not a bunker." Alvin never needed her reminding him.

Barbie

Lili Marquette selects a tag from the "Christmas Angel" tree at the mall: a girl, eight years, Barbie Doll. Lili hadn't wanted a Barbie at eight or any age. "Doll is as doll does," she thinks aloud. She couldn't be seen as vapid and frivolous -- changing clothes, changing hair, changing....identities.

Drawn to the toy store by irony, Lili's jaw drops. She finds an entire wall devoted to Tealon-inspired playthings: Leggo Embassy Sets, Plush Companions, battery-powered shuttles, retro-modern bioslurry slinkies....

Companion Agent Barbie comes with a skrill called Finchy. She's assisted by Shuttle Pilot Ken and Volunteer Skipper. Lili hesitates, listening to the little voice in her head, which sounds like Da'an, today: "Do your artists not say that, for the individual, all is subjective? Then, it is not you who must condone or dismiss the inherent metaphors within these avatars, for they are not your metaphors. They will be hers."

"Doll isn't as doll does?," ponders Lili.

"No," answers Da'an-In-Her-Head. "The rose does not become the painting; the painting becomes the rose."

"The doll becomes the girl."

"Precisely, Captain."

"The voice becomes the Taelon?," worries Lili.

"No," argues Da'an-In-Her-Head. "I am a metaphor within the Commonality of One."


Izzy and Raven

Iu'tha Na'a'ouri Rha'jhi'loo Ze'an, is a cinnamon-colored Half-A-Lop, one ear up and one ear down. Izzy, as the Volunteers call him, was a gift to Da'an from Ms. Kirkland's third grade class. His name translates as "softness deeply peering with the eyes of children."

Within, Sandoval hears, "Feed Softness crunchy noses." Raven had noted the use of carrots as snow people noses. Now, he wanted to watch Izzy eat carrots, every day. Raven loves Izzy; Izzy loves Raven. The rabbit contentedly nuzzles the glowing skrill.

"Your bio-weapon's got more of a social life than you do, Boss."

"Shut up, Tate."