phase A: ai:alice writes handoff to ai:bob (uuid=h-28ded484da5d49d59899d87c05c192a2)
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-c2ef05247d8a42afa2d7261bc9ceab2e)
settle 8s for reverse-direction fanout
phase D: ai:alice reads ack on node-1
  ai:alice sees 1 ack memories from ai:bob