Rodriguez had insisted on protecting the date months ago, back when the boundary-thinning event was still a faint anomaly and Nakamura's proposal to Jin-ho had been the most significant development anyone anticipated needing to accommodate. Now, with four civilizations' worth of institutional urgency pressing against Coalition's every waking hour, he insisted again — more firmly this time, precisely because the pressure had grown so much heavier.
"We're not moving it," he told Rama during the final planning session, three days before the ceremony. "I don't care what Sohrn reports about accelerating containment strain. I don't care what Kharn's council decides about the framework's ratification timeline. Nakamura has given this institution seven years of extraordinary service. He gets his wedding on schedule."
