and then, to J.D.'s surprise, jackknifed and dove beneath them both. Victoria's back touched J.D.'s knees, her feet. She surfaced, sputtering water. J.D. faced her, astonished, delighted, and Victoria flicked drops of water from her fingertips into J.D.'s face. Zev circled them both, reaching out with quick touches of his long-fingered hand, his sharp-clawed toes.
J.D.'s body produced energy, heat, adrenaline. She dove, swam between Victoria's feet, and kicked toward the surface. She slid up behind Victoria, stroking her from her heel up her leg, along her buttocks and her spine. Victoria turned to catch her. Their bodies pressed together.
They sank beneath the surface. Bubbles escaped from J.D.'s mouth and nose, tickling Victoria's face.
Victoria broke away and kicked toward the surface. J.D. and Zev rose beside her.
'It's okay,' J.D. said. 'We're right here.'
'I know,' Victoria said. She was apprehensive, but not panicked. 'It's too deep for me. Let's go closer to shore.'
'I wish we had swimming lungs,' J.D. said. But even artificial lungs were not the same as swimming free, like a diver.
Victoria set out toward a calm, sandy cove, a small sheltered beach, making good speed despite her thrashing swimming stroke. Zev glided up beside her and J.D. swam on her other side, helping draw her along.
'Swim smooth,' Zev said. He showed her a good surface stroke. 'You won't get tired so fast, and you won't attract sharks.'
'Sharks!' She took in a mouthful of water and sputtered it at him. 'There aren't any sharks! The biggest predator is tuna fish.'
'Maybe you'll attract tuna fish,' he said.
J.D. deliberately put some splash into her swimming stroke. 'I love tuna fish,' she said. 'Is this all I have to do to get one?'
Exasperated, Zev dove. J.D. felt him swimming below her. Soon she noticed that Victoria was swimming more smoothly.
The bottom shoaled up beneath them. The water was blue and clear and warm, the bottom bright with coral and fish.
'It's so beautiful here,' J.D. said.
Victoria turned to float face down, her eyes open, gazing into the bright water. J.D. dove beneath her and swam face to face. She reached up. Tentatively, they touched hands. J.D. let herself rise. She kissed Victoria, quick and soft. Zev joined them, brushing his hand up Victoria's back and down across her small breast, her dark nipple. He dove between them, stroking them both with his body and his hands.
J.D. spun out and surfaced to breathe. The sea bottom shoaled up again. The coral gave way to soft bright sand.
They reached a spot where Victoria could stand. The water reached to her shoulders. J.D. came up behind
her. The sea buoyed J.D.'s heavy breasts. She put her arms around Victoria. Victoria turned and drew her down to kiss her, deep and long.
'Is this how divers play?' Victoria whispered, holding her, pressing her body close to JDA.
'Yes.,,
'Serious play.' She smiled.
Zev surfaced behind J.D. He slid his hand over J.D.'s shoulder and around to trace the lines of her collarbone. He nibbled the nape of her neck. Victoria placed one hand over his, and slipped her other hand down J.D.'s side, from her waist to her hip and between her thighs. J.D.'s nipples hardened and her heart pounded. The rhythm reached her center, and flowered like a whirlpool, opening.
At her garden gate, Victoria kissed Zev and J.D. Zev's lips were very warm, J.D.'s cool and soft. Victoria held J.D., letting herself relax for a moment within J.D.'s embrace.
'See you later, okay?'
'Soon.'
She smiled and watched them walk together, hand in hand, along the path to J.D.'s house. Arachne's holographic image of Nerno's chamber appeared nearby, and paced them.
Victoria asked the computer web to show her the alien scene. It had remained static since Nerno's chrysalis hardened.
Victoria turned through the opening in the rounded earth wall that bracketed her yard. Carnations covered the slopes, blooming wildly, pink and white and red, filling the air with their spicy fragrance. Crocuses and irises covered the lawn. This was Victoria's first experience with planting flowers. She felt a surprising sharp shock of pleasure every time she saw them.
She stepped up on the porch, beneath the roof of shaggy grass that drooped to make the house look like it had eyebrows.
Victoria felt exhilarated, hungry, and scratchy with dried salt water.
It was still very early. She entered her quiet house through the open French doors of her room. Satoshi snored softly in her bed. He had not moved since she left to go swimming. She glanced into Stephen Thomas's room; it was empty.
Now she was worried about him. It was not unusual for him to spend all night working in his lab, but no one from the genetics department had seen him since yesterday. Nor was it unusual for him to spend the night with someone else. But it was unusual for him to disappear without a word about where he had gone or who he was with.
Besides, Feral was the only person Victoria knew of who had attracted his attention recently. Feral's death had affected him deeply. But he had pulled himself together quickly after Merry's death. He surely would not fall to pieces now.
He managed better than I did, when Merry died, she thought. Better than Satoshi did. I don't know how he did it, but I'm grateful that he could. As she headed for the shower, she decided that if he had not come home or left a message by midday, she would ask Arachne where he was. She seldom resorted to having the web chase someone down.
She walked into the bathroom, slipped in a puddle, and nearly fell. Even as she thought, At least I know Stephen Thomas has been home, she saw the damp towels he had left in a tangle and the muddy clothes he had left in a heap.
She kicked the dirty laundry aside, annoyed, and glared at the tracks her younger partner had left on the floor.
Dammit! she thought. I know you're upset and distracted and excited and everything else. But that's no excuse-!
A line of clayey mud ringed the tub. Now she was mad. She was particularly irritated to have anything spoil this morning.
And why do I have to scrub the bathroom down
twice, she thought, because Stephen Thomas can't bother to do it once?
She sprayed out the bottom of the tub so at least she had a clean place to stand.
She washed her hair and rinsed the salt from her skin. The tub was luxuriously large, with a rim wide enough to sit on, and a heater that would turn the enclosure into a sauna. Victoria wondered if Starfarer would ever have enough cedar trees to allow a few to be used as lumber.
Or maybe Crimson's driftwood technique could grow some cedar boards. A sauna that did not smell like cedar was no sauna at all.
She had to use the last clean towel; damned if she would try to dry herself off with the cold clammy dirty ones Stephen Thomas had left on the floor. Grumbling, she gathered up all the dirty laundry she could find. Her house had no laundry facilities; the AS housekeeper was supposed to take care of that.
Satoshi was up now, sitting in the main room with a cup of coffee. He always took a while to get going in the morning. Victoria dumped the laundry by the front door, then turned on the kettle to make a pot of tea. Today the coffee smelled almost good enough to drink. Feral had made good coffee, and he had showed Stephen Thomas and Satoshi how to make it, too.
'Don't take a shower,' she said to Satoshi.
