A Princess of the Aerie by John Barnes Page A

light apertures any one of which could send or receive light
     from any other, and controlled opacity on a total area of smart glass as big as North America. It also needed half of humanity’s
     total computing capacity to make millisecond decisions in controlling all the engines, networking all the apertures, and changing
     opacity on every square centimeter of smart glass.
    Jak specked that he had never really known what the word “awesome” meant, before.
    “Anybody hungry? I could really use something to eat,” Dujuv said.
    After they had found a booth in the snack bar’s centrifuge, Myxenna and Jak talked it all over while Dujuv shoveled noodles
     and beefrat chunks into his mouth and listened. Mostly they tried to convince themselves that Sesh hadn’t meant to be so unpleasant.
    Dujuv sighed, pausing between gulps. “Still … old toves, masen? I mean I dak, toktru, that she has another life and better
     things to deal with, but we are her old toktru toves, and we’re the people that busted her out when she was being held in
     Fermi, masen? Seems like having been toves once ought to count for more than it does.”
    “Sometime,” Myxenna said, sourly, “you toktru ought to discuss the djeste of that with your ex-demmy. That being old toves
     ought to count for something and that maybe people ought to behave accordingly, if maybe you speck what I mean?”
    To Jak’s surprise, Dujuv said, “You know, you’re right. Let’s talk pretty soon about it.”
    “I’d like that.”
    After the silence had become thoroughly awkward, Jak tried changing the subject. “Far as I know, I’m the only one with an
     enemy outside the Hive,” Jak said. “So one real possibility is that this was some way for Bex Riveroma to lure me out of the
     Hive, to get that sliver from me. But the Hive’s pretty wide open. He could have knocked me on the head anytime there. Then
     taken me in for ten minutes with a surgeon, grab that sliver, and everybody’s happy except me and the heets from Maintefice
     that find my body.”
    Myxenna held up a finger. “Maybe he wants to talk to you personally for some reason or another?”
    “It’s at least one hypothesis.”
    Myxenna nodded, her dark hair bobbing around her face. “All right, now, next question—is Jak right, Dujuv? Do you and I have
     no enemies off the Hive?”
    Dujuv shrugged. “There are maniacs who want to kill all the breeds and go back to ‘pure human stock,’ and some of them are
     violent. But why import a panth to assault? There’re plenty here. How about you?”
    “No political connections, I’m a lukewarm follower of the Wager the way that most of the solar system is, no deep personal
     hatreds, nobody in my family ever killed anybody except maybe my big brother in the Army. And except for my brother and me,
     my family is all mids—middle class, middle aged, middle management, and they live midlevel on the Hive. The most ordinary,
     conventional people you could ever meet. Toktru no.”
    “Maybe something to do with Circle Four,” Jak said. “I’m never sure what might be stirring out in my uncle’s web of connections,
     but I don’t think he’d have shopped me without telling me. Or if Circle Four did, why would they also shop both of you?”
    “Maybe it’s a reunion,” Myxenna said, smiling slightly. “Now Phrysaba and Piaro are about to come walking in here, along with
     Shadow on the Frost. …”
    Dujuv chuckled. “Well, if they do, I’m going to jump out of my skin. Glad as I’d be to see any of them again.”
    “Just so Mreek Sinda isn’t following them,” Jak said. “I still can’t believe the bizarre djeste she made out of what really
     happened.”
    “No one else believed it, either,” Dujuv pointed out, “and it did get you laid regular, by someone great-looking. What have
     you heard from Fnina, anyway?”
    “In the first few days, she sent me five long messages full of undying passion, at about twelve hour intervals,