'Okay. She took another drink to calm her shudders. It was momentous, sort of like accepting two proposals at once.

The young Celtic one squeezed her arm. 'You all right? he asked, all full of sympathy.

'I guess so. She knew she was smiling like an idiot. But this does feel right.

Two of hims came hurrying out of the house. One of them who seemed about seventeen went down on his knee beside her. A slim athletic build, she saw, with a wild stock of blond hair. He proffered a small box which opened to show her an antique diamond engagement ring.

1 bought it just in case, he told her.

Araminta slipped it onto her finger, then dashed away the tears.

'Oh come here, the youngster exclaimed.

His arms went round her, hugging tight; and she was laughing through the tears. 'I haven't seen you before.

'I'm a slavedriver to me.

She put her palms on his cheeks and kissed him thoroughly. 'I would like you to be one of tonight's.

'My considerable pleasure.

'I believe you said I still have several of yous to get to know.

'Oh trust me, you'll know all of mes before our wedding day.

'And I don't mind, and won't complain about other women until I have enough bodies to cope. Just… I don't want to meet them.

'I'll try and keep it to a minimum, I promise.

'Thanks, she whispered gratefully.

'Now what sort of bodies are you going to go for?

'Gosh, I hadn't thought about that, she admitted. 'What do you like?

'Got to be a tall blonde Amazon type. Always popular.

'Oh, and very black as well. Let's cover all the old ethnicities, I have — almost.

'And one of you has to have huge breasts.

'More than one!

She slapped at him, feigning shocked dismay. 'You're appalling. I'm not doing anything like that.

'That's not what you usually say in bed.

Araminta laughed. She really had missed this. I made the right decision.

Araminta lay on the big bed, listening to three of hims sleeping. Two on the bed with her, and one on the couch, curled up in a quilt, all breathing softly, not quite in synch. Tonight she'd refused any aerosols, wanting to try out Likan's program, to make sure it worked with other people, that he hadn't loaded in a hidden expiry key.

It worked.

And how.

Mr Bovey had been surprised, then very appreciative, at how much more responsive her body had become. As she'd suspected, a night in bed with hims had been a lot better than it had with Likan and the harem. Always nice to have confirmation.

Now she couldn't sleep. Not that she wasn't tired, she grinned to herself, but she couldn't stop thinking about the engagement, and embracing a multiple lifestyle. It was such an upheaval.

Everything was going to change for her. So much so, she was more than a little apprehensive. Her mind was churning over the same questions again and again. Unable to find answers, because she didn't actually know about being multiple. The only way to truly find out was to become one.

She turned her head to look at the young red-haired him who was nestled up cosily beside her. He'd help her through the transition, she knew. Mr Bovey loved her. That was enough to take her through the next few months. They hadn't set a date. He'd said he'd like at least two hers to register the marriage with him. Which was fair enough. She really needed to finish the apartments. Today had made that even more urgent.

Araminta settled back on to the soft mattress and closed her eyes. She used the program to still her whirling thoughts, emptying her mind. Her body started to calm as she found and slowed its natural rhythms, cycling down. Instead of sleep, the emptiness opening within made her aware of the images which lurked just below conscious thought. Not just one, but a whole range, all tasting and feeling very different. They twisted out of the infinite distance, a connection she now finally understood belonged to herself. Instinctively, she knew how to focus on whichever she wanted. Some were Mr Bovey's dreams, she was familiar enough with him to recognize his mental scent. She sighed fondly as she experienced his presence; part of his mind was so wound up, the poor man, while she also felt his happiness — her own face slithered in and out of his thoughts. One of the connections was completely alien, yet comfortably warm in that way a parent was with a child. Her lips lifted in a serene smile. The Silfen Mother-holme. So Cressida had been telling the truth. In which case that oh-so-busy chorus of multicoloured shadows must be the gaiafield.

Araminta embraced the quiet one; the most tenuous connection of all. And found herself gliding through space far from any star. The Void's nebulas glimmered lush and glorious behind her as she rose to the darkness of the outer regions.

'Hello, she said.

And the Skylord answered.

Justine had expected to feel a lot of excitement as her starship, the Silverbird, descended towards Centurion Station. Five hundred hours alone in a small cabin with no Unisphere connection had left her unexpectedly strung out. Intellectually, she knew it was a nonsense, a quirk of her primitive body's biochemistry and neurological weakness. But it was still real.

Now here she was, at her destination, and all she could think about was the identical, boring trip back. I must have been crazy to do this.

The Silverbird touched down on the lava field which acted as a spaceport for the human section of the Centurion Station. Five other starships were sitting there, all of them bigger than hers. The smartcore reported several discreet sensor scans probing at the ship. The tall Ethox tower was the worst offender, using quite aggressive quantum signature detectors. More subtle scans came from the dour domes of the Forleene. There was even one quick burst of investigative activity from the observatory facilities in the human section. She smiled at that as her thin spacesuit squeezed up against her body, expelling all the air pockets to form an outer protective skin. She locked the helmet on.

It was a short walk over the sandy lava to the main airlock. Justine needed it for the sense of space and normality it gave her. She couldn't believe how much she felt reassured by the sight of a planetary horizon, even one as drab as this. When she stopped to look up, angry ion storms fluoresced the sky for lightyears in every direction. Pale mockeries of the nebulas inside the Void.

Director Lehr Trachtenberg was waiting for her in the reception hall beyond the airlock. A formidably sized man who reminded her of Ramon, one of her old husbands. Standing in front of him, shaking his hand in greeting, and tipping her head back just to see his face was another reminder of how negligible her physical body was. Of course, that Ramon connection did shunt her mind back to the possibility of sex.

'This is a considerable honour, Lehr Trachtenberg was saying. 'ANA has never sent a representative here before.

'Given the political circumstances back in the Commonwealth, it was deemed appropriate to examine the data from the Void first hand.

The director licked his lips slowly. 'Distance makes no difference to data, Justine. We do send the entire range of our findings directly back to the Navy's exploration division, and the Raiel.

'Nonetheless, I'd like the opportunity to review your operation.

'I wasn't about to refuse you anything. Especially not after the trip you've just made. To my knowledge no one has ever travelled so far by themselves. How did you stand the isolation?

She suspected that he suspected the Silverbird had an ultrad-rive, but chose to gloss over the actual journey time. 'With difficulty and a lot of sensory dramas.

'I can imagine. He gestured at the five-seater cab which was waiting at the end of the reception hall. 'I've assigned you a suite in the Mexico accommodation block.