Rachel had to admit to the beauty of skating on a seemingly infinite floor of black ice, in the stabbing cold, hearing the rushing sounds of skate blades in an enormous echo chamber of icy rock. When speed-skating at 0.17 gravs, icicles formed on facial hair, despite the skin-heat creams. Injuries abounded, and Rachel had nearly smashed into a wall in a long skid. The ice was smooth and clear, though peering into it she sensed lurking luminous lines, as if of ancient fractures. A perpetual solid lake, sailed by humans and Ythri alike on long-bladed skates…

She had aches, twitches, and maybe a sprain in her left ankle, but felt glorious.

With a Prefect’s permission, she’d slipped away from the party when they reached the upper residence levels, exaggerating her limp to get the nod. The Prefects frowned a bit at Rachel’s close connection to Fraq and others of the flock. They themselves wanted more access, but Fraq simply frowned and turned away from them, an unsubtle rebuke. Prefects had courted her, even sending flowers—this week, a fuchsia orchid with musky moss in the pot, like a business gift, precious on Luna. Fraq disliked Noughts, too, finding them too far from the natural order. That made Rachel the accidental diplomat. She surprised herself by not minding.

Lost in her thoughts, Rachel was taken by surprise when Ruby suddenly hugged her, coming in from her right side.

“Honey! Been missin’ you somethin’ awful.”

Rachel had forgotten that Ruby tried to do a southern accent, mangling it badly. “Uh, hi, I—”

“Ever’body wonderin’ how you doin’, with those birds. We’d love to have you come down to smooch a bit—” And with that Ruby kissed her neck. There was some other twinge, too.

Rachel wrestled out of Ruby’s octopus arms and said, “I just can’t do social right now, got to—”

“Just a hug, honey, just—”

—and a man slammed into them both.

He twisted Ruby’s arm away from Rachel’s neck. “This is a citizen lockdown,” he spat out. “Apprehended in the act!”

With that, he tumbled Ruby to the floor. Rachel stepped back, crouching as she had been taught. Was this a street robbery? A rumble?—But the man and a woman now coming in beside him were not focused on Rachel. They had Ruby facedown in seconds, hands in froze-lock. Ruby was thrashing, hitting, shouting but incoherent.

The woman turned to Rachel, calm and sure. “She was planting an engram on you.”

“Ah, what is—?”

“Memory bug. Makes a permanent change in the short-term brain accounting. Harvests a memory trace. Dissolves in a few hours after it transmits and gets flushed out in limbic glands.”

“But—how—?”

“Confidential tech. Earthsiders use it.”

“To get my memories? Of what?”

“We knew Earthside investment unions were picking up Message tech data. They needed clues and tapped you. Big profits. Got Ythri info, too.”

Ruby was swearing a stream, twisting around on the floor. She glared up at Rachel, mouth ugly. She spat out, “You were an easy mark. Damn dumb, too.” She kicked out a foot, trying to hook it around Rachel’s leg. “Fancy bitch, you—”