The recall device sat on the bar that divided up the open-plan apartment, splitting the kitchenette off from the dining table and corner sofa beyond. Maximillia reached for it. It shouldn’t have been there. She’d only made the one, not counting the prototype, and even then both were safely locked away in the High-Energy Annex-A lab of the college's theoretical physics hall. As head of the department (the youngest on recor...

Dr Max watched the object of her illicit affections from the relative cool afforded her by the shade of the old smoker's pavilion. Which was a grand name for a left-over bike shelter that had at some point in the last two decades been assembled on the rooftop of the college science block and had served as the refuge for lecturers and staff (from whose lounge the rooftop also opened onto). At least it had while there was s...