“Oh, I…” Was she feeling sick? Rachel looked back at the laughing, talking, drinking gang. They seemed unfazed—but then, they were used to Luna’s oddities.

Somehow without feeling her legs at all she was moving away, tugged by her roomie, who said, “I’ve had my fill of spleen-venting, spittle-spattering mirth, so let’s get outta—”

Ruby the boisterous moved up and shot out a hand again, not for a shake. Instead, she wrapped a muscular arm around Rachel’s waist. Her face loomed up and planted a big smacking kiss. “Yum!” Ruby said, and slid a hand around to squeeze her ass.

Embarrassment thickened in her throat like phlegm. “Look, no, I—”

Catkejen pulled Ruby away. “No groping the roomie, Ruby. I know you like fresh meat, but—”

Ruby barked out a laugh, not friendly. “She’ll come around, you’ll see.”

The next minutes got jostled together somehow. Rachel realized that her earlier expertise at Loonie walking was a passing matter. She tried skipping, and Catkejen caught her just as she tipped too far forward. She walked, but that seemed tricky as well. By the time they got to their apartment Rachel was seriously considering crawling. Why had humans given that up, anyway? Much safer, it was. But then she was sitting on her bed somehow and peering at the walls, which showed a bunch of snowy mountains and rich forest and she recalled that, oh yes, she had already thrown up. Somewhere along the way. So no need to worry about that. At least not right away.

Catkejen gave her some pills and she gulped them down. “Ruby—”

“She’s trouble looking for somebody to happen to.”

“I tried that stuff, girls are good kissers and all, but they, well, lack…” Rachel groped for the right word.

Catkejen laughed, a dry cackle. “Right. Energy. Musk. Magic. Something else that nobody’s invented the word for yet. Yeah, men. The eternal problem. Me too.” A sigh.

“Yes…” Not the best time to call up the dictionary for the precise term. Or thesaurus. Not tonight, even for a Trainee Librarian…

“You gotta get sleep, kid. Need anything more?”

A memory. “The Louisana State Minimum Security Facility used to kiss me good night. I was in there for couple weeks. Got suspended for being in wrong place, wrong time. Then back home to family and my cycle. That kisser gal kept telling me about how World War Eleven had started in 1939, biggest war ever, and she had a gun from it.”

“Really? You were a trouble kid?”

Rachel sat up straight, threw back her shoulders. “Just once. Don’t tell anybody.”

“Honey, after tonight, I’ll have trouble remembering your name.” She barked a laugh.

The room fell away and Rachel barely felt her head hit the delicious pillow.

PART 2 THE HYDROGEN WALL

Do not all charms fly

At the mere touch of cold philosophy?

—JOHN KEATS, “LAMIA”

1.

Catkejen got her up early by shaking her foot. “Eggs Benedict or eggs Benedictine?”