phase A: ai:alice writes handoff to ai:bob (uuid=h-e5c06d676cc34fc2a93ed03b8c8c74fc)
settle 8s for quorum fanout
phase B: ai:bob reads handoff on node-2
  ai:bob sees 1 handoff memories from ai:alice
phase C: ai:bob writes acknowledgement (uuid=a-cb4f752049b4466488fec00a57a29e2f)
settle 8s for reverse-direction fanout
phase D: ai:alice reads ack on node-1
  ai:alice sees 1 ack memories from ai:bob