Both time and reality have always been regarded suspiciously in the Village, and various pharmaceutical concoctions are purveyed to those who wish to… - T. A. Waters

We were getting very good at pauses.
This one, while not quite pregnant, had certainly been fooled around with.

I opposed this (the invasion of Earth)," it (the alien) continued, "having doubts about the validity or usefulness of this continued aggression. In opposing it I was, of course, opposing the Pattern, and for a Triskan to do this was what you would call blasphemy."
"Don't feel bad," I interjected. "Most everyone on this planet is ready to kill and destroy for their local god."
"Yes," the 3V agreed, "and almost without exception, the other races and civilization we have encountered have been quite ready to do violence of all kinds to their fellow sharers of life, so long as they could claim to be doing the will of a higher power, be it a god or a government.

The deadline was two months earlier, but like myself Mike considered deadlines in financial rather than chronological terms.