“To say hi hello, some same friends, some drinks together at parties. Mostly she’s just known. Does security but freelance, not as sticky uppy as some who serve. Tells you true. Stabs from the front.”

“Ha. Right. She said maybe I should go to Ganymede.”

“Jovian Imperative, gateway to the galaxy. Not so quiet there, not like way out here on the edge. This is the place to go to get away, but that’s the place to be close in. You can go and be anywhere there. Maybe you stay here a little while, where it’s quiet, while you get used to it being so loud. You can come here any time. I like to talk when it’s not too busy to talk.”

“I will come back.” If I survive. Elena finished her drink. “Thanks for this.”

“Nassa prob. Say. You fancy a tumbling tumble? I’m off soon and you’re sweet to speak to and you have a shine.”

Elena blinked. “Oh. Do you mean… do I want to have sex?”

“If you want. Been five hundred years, eh? You’re cute as all, is all. No worries if no.”

“I… not right now, but I appreciate you asking, and so nicely.” She started to slide off the stool, then paused. “May I ask? Why is your tongue blue?”

“Nano-thing. Supertaster.” She waggled out her tongue, but not lewdly. “Good for making better drinkies.”

“Right. That makes sense. I’ll see you around, Jana.”

“Until and until. This is your great big beautiful tomorrow today, eh?”

Elena left the lounge. “That went well,” Shall said in her ear. “Excellent human interactions.”

“Excellent patronizing voice. Tell me, is it usual here for people to proposition others for sex that directly?” Thinking: I could just proposition Callie, if that’s how things are done. She felt a twinge of guilt at the thought, because not so long ago (in subjective time, at least) she’d fantasized about Sebastien that way, and now he was lost. She wasn’t wired to be particularly monogamous, and one kiss didn’t make Sebastien her boyfriend anyway, but she felt guilty thinking about sex at all, with anyone, when he was in danger.

Shall said, “Direct propositions are generally acceptable in that sort of bar, and at parties – if they aren’t business parties, but that line gets blurry at times – and in many social clubs, and in appropriate regions of the Tangle. Basically, you can ask someone if they’d like to have sex if it’s a place where you might reasonably expect to be asked that. Otherwise, no – we rely on the same flirtations and insinuations and speculations and sizing-up that were common in your time, based on my recent survey of your film and literature.”