Max is standing by the window, hands clasped behind his back, his head still very round. He turns and smiles, "Hello Cadeyna." His smile fades when he sees the expression on her face. "Is everything ok? Are you..." he notices the pen squeezed tight in her hand and frowns. Cadeyna feels like a child caught holding the teacher's most treasured piece of chalk.

           The feeling is quickly dismissed. She's no child damnit! No, she's no child and... and Max is going to get a piece of her mind! "Everything is /not/ ok! Everything is... is..." swooping hand movements are the best she can do, concepts half-born of thin air. Break something is what she should do. Crack, crack, crack, disapearing glasses shattering all over the place.

           Max pats at the air with the flats of his hands -- if she's carving air then he's beating unheard rythms on a pair of airborn bongos. "Calm down Cadeyna, calm down."

           He looks perturbed, for once. The equilateral sides of his face bunching with tension. He takes a step toward her but no more than that, "I'm here now. See? I'm here. Come.. come and sit down with me. It will be alright. Nothing can hurt you here. Please trust me." He ushers her toward the sofa...

           She refuses to go, sidestepping in the opposite direction. "What does /that/ have to do with anything?" A pause while she frowns at him. And then - he's so comicaly panicked, so utterly clumsy in his attempt - a tiny, tiny smile creases her lips. "Scared animals can smell your fear, you know." But her heart is still beating so fast...

           He too smiles, frozen in place. Then his shoulders round slightly, he sighs, "No no, that's just my scented deoderiser." He chuckles. "Well, I'm sitting down. If you want to come and sit down too you're more than welcome." He starts to sit down. "Not that I have any right to invite you to your own sofa. In fact.." he stands up abruptly and dips his chin toward her like a ceremonial servant greeting his lady, snicks the heels of his feet together, "would you mind, dearest Cadeyna, scarey animal, if I took a seat?"

           Fragile, tremulous insanity; something to hold the pieces together... Does she want the pieces held? "We... we have a meeting."

           Max seems taken aback. "Well, yes. That is.. Cadeyna, you are troubled. I can see that. The meeting can wait. I would prefer if you would come and sit with me. Just to talk for a few minutes." He raises his eyebrows as if to request assurance that he does have permission to sit down, despite the fact that he's obviously going to sit down with or without her permission. "Just talk. That's all. Maybe a drink too. How does that sound?"

           That's - it! "Why do you always have to be so contrary?" Her voice has gotten strident but she hardly notices. "I /want/ to run away, can't you see that?" Let me run!

           Max looks stunned. His eyes search the room for a moment as though the response he's looking for might be born in on the back of a bee-thing then dropped in his lap. His eyes end their journey on hers and he says, "Where would you go?"

           Quick steps take her to the mouth door, "Does it matter?" A look back shows that somehow, to him, it does. "Park, beach, shopping mall." Why is he just standing there?

           An obscene gash slips open in the strange semi-solid fabric of the wall. Beyond she sees a small chamber the same size as the shower cubicle, but this one lit by a pinkish hue, just like the inside of a mouth. The walls within are lined with what she might disturbingly describe as a vascular system, veins and arteries. The walls themselves appear membrane thin, even more organic than anything she has thus far seen.

           An... elevator?

           "An exercise area?" Max asks innocently. "If you want to run, there are athletic facilities here in rejoove. Oh, there's a {unknown/competitive ball game} arena too, not directly associated with Rejoove but within the Rejoove security roof. But I don't know. You have only just cleansed yourself."

           Just /cleansed/ herself! "No, no, no." What could he be thinking..? She examines the pink room with some trepidation, suddenly glad she hasn't eaten anything solid today. "Unless there are people there?"

           "People?" Max looks surprised. "Well... no. Not there. Is that what you would like.. Cadeyna? -To be around people?"

           Something in his voice pulls her head sharply 'round. A new expression is forming on Max's unusual face. He looks... hurt? Disappointed? Both? She doesn't need this.... Not now. But she's already walking, thin soles light on the alien floor; she's already by his side, hands on his arm.

           "Come on." Cadeyna gives his arm a little pull, bravely smiling up at him. "Come. You can show me around. Crouds can do a lot of good. Come."

           The voice of Luziana intrudes, "Cadeyna, I have been monitoring your health status. Your heart rate and blood pressure are a little high. And there seems to be evidence of major neural reconstitution in the cerebral sectors of your brain. I would advise strongly against using the telepad until I have investigated the matter further. There may be a health risk which I cannot protect you against without full startup compatibility."

           "So I won't use any 'telepads'," she distractedly assures the little pen. "Shhhh." Now is hardly the time for one of Luziana's push for startupdom.

           "Cadeyna" Max pulls back on his trapped arm, "that," he points at the open door orifice, the pink fleshed closet space beyond, "is a telepad. I think you should listen to your Simpad. Even if you haven't instigated full startup the Simpad has realtime access to Tropolian generic nodes who in turn have access to your health monitors. If the Simpad thinks you should wait before using the telepad then you really should wait. I know it's not what you want to hear," he goes on, "but I'm sure you don't want to damage yourself. It's all out there for you to see, believe me, but you won't see a thing if you don't take it easy."

           "You're being contrary again," she warns, brows creased in thought. "Luziana? Open the mouth to the emergency stairs, please."

           Predictably, she doesn't get what she wants: "I'm sorry Cadeyna. I don't understand the meaning of emergency stairs. Could you embellish?" says Luziana.

           Max raises his eyebrows, "Um.. there are no emergency stairs. No stairs at all actually. Listen, if you want to use the telepad then we can do so. You're not a prisoner. I was just pointing out the potential health dangers. So was your Simpad. So was.. Lucy Anna? And at the risk of sounding contrary," he smiles apologetically, "we both know what we're talking about."

           No stairs? What if there's a fire... or an earthquake?

           "However," he holds up a concessionary hand and walks over to the orifice/door. He steps inside the gaping mouth and waits for her to join him, grinning broadly "let us throw precautions at the wind."

           Maybe sliding chutes, like in plane crashes. "What happens if the... telepad doesn't work? How would I get out?" Her escape is all tangled up anyway, might as well - A waver in Max's grin brings the now sharply in focus. He's doing her a favor, and she's... not responding as she should.

           Well there's still a plucked string vibrating deep within her. Channel /that/, turn it into an eager walk, a determined grin. Cadeyna hops into the 'telepad', feeling the imagined wind of the lips shooshing behind her.

           They haven't moved, of course. "Shall... shall we go?"

           His rotund face suffused by the queer omni-present light within the chamber, Max suddenly looks confounded. "Hmm... Where were we going again?"

           "You were going to show me the city," she states with confidence, looping her arms through his arm, her side to his side (no warmth, just the cool, soft sensation she felt when she touched his face).

           "I don't remember that being..." He makes a self-mocking face, "I remember now. The games room. You wanted to exercise." He nods resolutely, "T-pad, exercise area, Rejoove, sub-region minus.. ehr... I think it's forty three."

           No, she wanted to run away. She wanted... something else.

           The mouth closes, trapping them inside the unbeating heart of the telepad.

           "Exercise area," an all-new voice, very similar to Help but somehow more business-like, responds in that multi-directional way. As usual there are no signs of speakers, or the mechanical talker herself. "Rejoove, sub-region minus forty four."

           The lips open and Cadeyna finds herself looking out at an altogether different view. Her room is gone. Somehow, for she didn't feel the tell-tale stomach lurch of an elevator, she has been transported to another place in a heartbeat.

           They step out, Max without thinking, Cadeyna in an automatic fashion, spining clear of the tiny chamber with all the relief of a rescued claustrophobe. Once outside she realises the chamber resides within a hump of ground which rises from the floor.

           The only such hump for a long way in all directions.

           Ordinarely she'd be full of excited questions... blissfully accepting maybe? Shrewdly investigative? She doesn't know... The roof of the place is a long way above and made from a series of wide cream-coloured sails, these tethered to and stretched taut between uniformly positioned masts, each of these as thick as an impressive tree trunk.

           Wind billows through the sails filling the air with a constant but pleasant ruffling sound. A coolling breeze wafts down from the heights and she wonders if the sails serve some air-conditioning purpose or are simply an architectural whim.

           Banks of what must be exercise machines (though she doesn't recognise any of them) line the far perimeter to the fore and rear of their position. There is no wall beyond these machines. The cityscape rises beyond them, as distant and vast as seen from Cadeyna's room, but now the sky is a muddy orange colour. Through the gaps between sails she can see sunset streaks of ochre tinging high altitude clouds, all very suggestive of sunset and yet only a moment ago it was broad afternoon daylight.

           The walls to their right and left consist of two enormous floor-to-roof height mirrors reflecting the entire chamber. This creates an effect of infinite space, as though Cadeyna and Max stood in the dead centre of a corridor lined with endless masts and populated by an eternally dwindling array of Cadeynas and Maxes. This isn't the case, of course, but the fact doesn't detract from the actual size of the place, which is pretty big. A couple of shopping malls laid end to end at least... empty shopping malls. No crouds, no animals, no insects; not even plants.

           Only Max and Cadeyna, infinitly alone with each other.

           The floor is criss-crossed by a network of equillaterally positioned pathways leading from one mast to another. Between the paths the floor seems to be made of light, or at least glass covering light. A toe poke shows that neither is in fact the case: The entire floor has the consistent texture of asphalt...

           She can feel it building. The string in her strums to the winds of the place, resonates. Soon she'll burst. But he sees nothing; she does her best to insure he sees nothing, (insanely angry) and pleased that it seems to work. Straining to maintain her hold on appearances (for Max's sake? for her own?), she jogs to the nearest tree mast, keeping her thread painfully casual.

           Up close the mast is a broad column pocked with lots of dimples and set with an array of oddly placed rungs. Of course, these rungs are angled in such a way that using them to ascend would be impossible. Maybe a seasoned climber could do it, but Cadeyna hardly feels that stable on her feet to start with.

           "How do I climb this thing?" Frustration is leaking through despite her hold.

           "Maximillion," Max speaks to his silver pen, "activate the exercise area on my mark." To Cadeyna, "Any preferences? Ah.. that is.. do you have any... would you like.." he seems at a loss "I'll just take a chance and invoke one of my own favourites." Back to the pen again, "go for preset exercise file four. Not too much bouyancy though. Okay... mark."

           Something happens beneath Cadeyna's fingers, a fluffy presence making itself known. She snatches her hand back from the column, reminded of another sensation: touching the screen of a recently switched on television. At the same time air surges upward from the ground and her pony tail surges along with it, bannering itself with altogether too much enthusiasm. Far above her unruly hair the cream sails billow violently in the sudden winds, bulge outward and upward, the snap of the material echoing across the chamber like the staccatto firing of a machine gun.

           "What-" Cadeyna feels the static charge extending around her, nuzzling against her skin like an encompassing cloud of invisible fuzz. And then she's up, feet leaving the floor, hands instinctively groping for the rungs on the column.

           The clingy field feels like an invisible cushion of swarming flies against her fingertips.

           Max drifts up on a current all his own, almost swimming. He crosses his ankles and holds out his arms, allowing the air to carry him.

           Beyond him the mirrors are gone, replaced by a vast empty darkness spangled with stars. The cityscape is gone too, also replaced by stars. The ground and its ambiguous light source is vanished. In its place is the vast curvature of a world. An ochre coloured spectacle so grand that for an instance Cadeyna can hardly breathe for awe, stunned by the sight.

           She can see continents, swirling weather patterns, the flickering of storms on the far horizon of the incredible ball. Over there a scattering of light, a city maybe. On the daylight side hurricanes revolving slowly, the angry red tinted streaks of volcanic eruptions dispersing across the stratosphere, immeasurable sandy coloured seas and endless vistas of wasteland. The trunk to which she clings descends toward the curving face of the planet, arcing as a thin thread of glinting white before vanishing with distance. Above it extends into space and disappears just a few hundred feet above her head.

           "Let go." Max drifts into view, a ragdoll suspended on invisible wires, the blue brilliance of the milky way like a river at his back. From her topsy turvy point of view he looks like he's flying forward but sideways. "There's no danger. You can't fall and you can't float away. It's all an illusion" Max spreads his fingers and smiles. "Do you want my hand or would you like to go for it freestyle? There's no sensation quite like it you know. Once you get the hang of it, we can go running."

           "Running." Her teeth a chattering, ever so slightly. She's drowning; swirling; and he thinks- Ignoring his hand, she twists and kicks herself off the column.

           Better this way.

           "That's it!" Max enthuses, a wide grin on his sideways tilting face. "You've got it."

           Cadeyna's stomach reaches up to her throat, grabs her brain and squeezes... hard. Inner turmnoil simply rips away, utterly outcompeated. She's yelling, eyes widening, chin lowering to her chest, as the vastness of empty nothing sweeps away on all sides. Up, down, left, right, nothing nothing nothing.

           And she's flying. The column falls away from her rather than the other way around. Max spins overhead like an insensitive moon and another column twists around from the right.

           Safety/structure.

           Illusion. She curls down towards the planet, air something you have to tunnel through. Her eyes squint against it as she dives. Like a gannet fishing in sea shoals she darts downward, air rushing past her face, everything rushing by, even the stars.

           Exhilerating! The wind tracks moisture past her ears - tears? - as the world zooms up to meet her, ochre landscapes widening to become vistas of savvannah and desert, clouds skimming upward, tendrils of smoke and fog. Ten meters above, the small X of Max drops at the same rate, feet first...

The star spangled sky fades to featureless black, then deepest blue and then blue tinged with yellow. She's sky diving! She can see canyons cutting great gouges through the land, mountainscapes and, in the far distance - like turbulent boils on the horizon of this world - volcanoes spewing mushrooming miasmas of orange smoke high into the atmosphere, oceans of swirling red gas, the edges of these vast seas frothing into a frizzy spume of angry mush within which angry sparks of lightning nip to and fro.

           She slowly pulls up, tentatively spreads out her limbs - like she's seen skydivers do. The rate of descent seems to slow, even as the wind surges up and engulfs her.

           "You're a... natural" cries Max as he shears down from above and swoops by like a graceful gull. "Quite wonderful."

           Cadeyna's smile is wide, her face flushed with excitment. Her senses are nuzzling against a yielding but comfortable boundary. The drop is terrifying, yet she feels in complete(?) control. The rush of wind, the vastness of the spectacle, all of it in its stunning magnitude and intensity... it's just a rollercoaster. And with that realisation the ground bursts up to meet her with one breathtaking surge... and she's on her feet.

           "That was-" But the ride isn't over, the scenery is still moving and she along with it. First she's stumbling, then running across a flat sierra of deepest brown earth. Max is flying above, flapping his arms like wings and laughing, very pleased with himself.

           Cadeyna shakes her head with mock sadness. "You crazy man!" At some point she really must explain the terrible dangers of taking her too litteraly... That and the importance of little words like "away".

           But for now he's flying. And she's running. Like the wind. No... faster. The wind's playing catch up. It's like a dream. She can run and run and never grow tired. No shortness of breath, no aching of muscles. And the land just flies beneath her feet, fast or slow depending on her preference. She skips over a jutting bluff of ground, takes to the air then lands softly (though she could have easily not landed at all).

           The hazy outline of mountains rise over the horizon ahead. Too far to contemplate and yet she somehow knows she could reach them in the blink of an eye. To her right she can see hills and trees that look like sponges on sticks. To the left the ground sweeps away to nothing, a wilderness of flat featureless brown. The air smells like burning chestnut. And there, in the ochre sky, hanging above her like a faded mural painted on the hemispheric dome of the largest cathedral ceiling in the universe, is her tree. The one Max showed her. The one she created with her mind...her tree... Nicely symbolic.

           She jumps, woman on the moon, lands with both feet together for a terrific bounce towards the heavens. She streaks by Max who zooms after her. She slips through the metallic fronds of the tree, no longer a hazy image in the sky but a solid, three dimensional extravaganza, a Cadeyna theme park through which she can zip and whirl at will.

           This... isn't right somehow. Amidst the ironwork creation she flies, struts like the criss-cross bones of a skyscraper in mid-build, the moving parts and machinery vast as the mechanical madness of a motor engine must be to a fly trapped in the works. Some of the struts have the familiar appearance of smooth tree trunks marked by handy rungs. Above she thinks she catches a glimpse of distended sails. But she finds, with hardly any effort at all, she can make these things fade away leaving only the eye popping enormity of the tree. She closes her eyes, concentrates on feeling the wind, the electricity.

           Max is behind her but strangely distant despite no change in his proximity. She could almost say he's fading, not quite there, as though she sees him through fogged glass.

           He grins at her and waves, shouts over the wind rushing through her ears, and presumably his, though she realises she should take nothing for granted, "You've taken over. Fantastic progress. Whatever you want," he nods enthusiastically, "go for it. Try your hand. There are no limits. Big or small. I started with this," he shakes his head and points down, "or rather that, because you wanted to run. I like to run there. Up here... well, this is more flying really. But it's your tree isn't it.." He stretches out his hands and laughs.

           So of course she banishes the wind, washes the sky clean with a sudden, thunderous downpour. And drifts down to a light landing on the not-asphalt of the floor. The columns, large and unassuming, are back. To her left an infinite Cadeynas stretch to infinity, accompanied by an infinite army of Max. The same awaits her on the other side of the room. Above the tenting sails slacken, bowling inward at the middle then drooping to their original position. Promises of trips to come.

           Static still fuzzes around her, tingling her skin, but nowhere near as intense as before. This is more like a vague tickle, like the light drifting touch of a feather duster. She has the urge to scratch an itch on bare arms and face.

           "Thank you, Max. I feel much better." And she does... in a way. Drugs have never really attracted her. But the fall - The fall was fantastic! "Can I eat? Or is it too soon?"

           "Well," Max looks disappointed, "no, it's not too soon. That is, if you feel hungry you should eat. Shall we return to your quarters? Or would you like to eat here?"

           A wavelet of annoyance. Why does he always have to expect, expect, EXPECT! "Picnic?"

           "Sounds great," Max nods enthusiastically, "a twenty first century picnic!" She almost /expects/ him to clasp his hands together beneath his chin and twirl on one foot. "And.." he quirks an eyebrow, "the appropriate settings? I confess to being an ignoramus on picnics but I believe a nice sunny day, green field and possibly an ocean view would be right? How about food? What sort of food..." he suddenly seems swept away by his own enthusiasm, "This is a fantastic proposal. How about I invite the other rejoove subjects here to join us. All three of them. I've been meaning to bring you all together.. so you can talk. Just so you can talk and meet really. I never considered the {Sky room} once. Silly of me really."

           Yes, thinks Cadeyna, 'silly'..... Ah well. "Fresh breeze and tablecloth, that's the essentials," she nods at the ceiling with a resigned twinkle, "Since you already have the pavillion."

           "Well, the air's quite cool in here. Not exactly a breeze, but I'm sure I can rustle up a tablecloth." Max murmurs something to the silver pen which Cadeyna notices is now attached to a small clip on his wrist.

           Her own eyes go wide, but she quickly finds Luziana: tucked into her hair, where she left her. Even so, she's not sure how the little simpad managed to hold on during her fantasy flight... so she asks.

           "I'm afraid I don't understand Cadeyna" Luziana replies, sounding dazed, "I didn't filter any gravitational changes using my external senses and from what I currently know of your biological makeup flight should be impossible. Your bones are too dense."

           If she didn't know better she'd swear that last was an insult. The tone, the subtle inflections in the word 'dense'.

           Meanwhile, a food dispenser branch has 'grown' from a nearby column, budding from an initial bulge before unravelling like a tentacle. "Any specifics on the food Cadeyna? I don't suppose the others will be coming straight away. I know at least one person wanted to use the shower." He gives Cadeyna a cheeky wink. "Perhaps cold food is better than hot. Are eggs important? I seem to remember eggs go with picnics." Light is already fizzling together at the end of the branch, forming the folded mass of a green and greeny white checked picnic cloth.

           Base gel strikes again!

           "Anything you can eat with your fingers!" Luziana's snippy tone nothwithstanding, she's slowly getting behind the idea. Yes, there's something subtly right about a tablecloth picnic on this not-asphalt, under a flapping roof, amid an abscent forest of column-trees. "Or put on bread!"

           "Right" Max puffs out his chest and stands to attention before the branch, "leave it to me. I know just the thing."

           He's... really charming when he tries too hard... "There was wind - you did feel the wind?" She swivels around, warm eyes drinking in the surroundings. The dark machines are not so bad. The mirrors though...

           "No Cadeyna. I did not sense wind. There were electro-thermal alterations within the air surrounding my immediate location and detectable fluctuations in the {no match, quanti-transient ischaemic plurarterial} {thirtieth} dimension plus a forced {no match, quantim toxoplasmosiquosis} of the {thirty first} and {thirty second} dimensions at level four thousand six hundred and fifty point one through five thousand six hundred and fifty point one. I also detected a {no match, sub field} surge in the {no match, duo teutonic amytrophic} bio system of the chamber in which I am located and a {possibly hallucinogen/refining, biguanide} induction in your own bio-system. If I had better access to your bio pattens Cadeyna I could confirm, but I can only currently speculate that you were encountering a {sleep walking/somnambulism} episode induced by {biguanide} and subtle inflections within the surrounding inner-space designed to prompt your body and mind to visualise and feel dependant on feed back mind patterns."

           "Why put rings on the columns then?" The mirrors are just too lonely. "Can we change the walls? Blur the corners?" It would really look like a pavillion then. Not a beach pavillion though, something more... exotic.

           "I don't understand your first question, Cadeyna, and I don't have the right parameters for the walls," replies Luziana. "This chamber isn't linked to my user sub-cortex. My user isn't linked to my user sub-cortex so it isn't surprising. Maybe Max can do it for you?"

           "You can link all you want," declares Cadeyna peevishly "you just can't read my memories." You'd think simpads had a little more... flexibility, a little spirit of adventure!

           "My linking abilities are restricted while full start up remains pending," the little pen says curtly.

           "A government worker in gray suit," replies Cadeyna with catty sadism before turning her attention back to Max.

           "I'm sorry Cadeyna, I didn't understand the nature of your comment. Are you making a request for something?"

           She smiles but doesn't otherwise answer. Let her figure it out. Max has spread the picnic cloth on the ground and is currently filling a base-gel tray with assorted dishes of sandwich filler, some of which look decidedly exotic and not altogether Earthly. A tray of what looks like french bread is already on the cloth along with a dish of sausages on sticks and pineapple chunks in juice...

           "Can I help? Luziana says she can't change the walls."

           He looks up from his business. "Lucy Anna?.. I don't... oh, your Simpad. Giving you problems is it? Quite predictable at this point. I assume you've refused start up? Quite wise. You don't want to go throwing yourself into the 36th century until you absolutely must," he winks at her and chuckles in a jolly fashion. "This area is what we call user specific. You can change what you want with only a thought. Nobody else will see what you see, mind. Not unless you activate the chamber in full. But if you don't like the walls, just think them to your preference," he grins like a child showing an adult a fetching catapult he just made.

           Cadeyna smiles back, mirror like. So that's what's been bothering her. "The room can read my thoughts?" she asks, voice carefully light.

           An open hand, a raised brow, waiting for the filled sandwich tray.

           He passes it to her with a smile. "No. No, not read your thoughts. Not as such. More like... you read your own thoughts. The room," he flips a casual thumb over his shoulder which seems oddly flippant given the vastness of the chamber, "just takes very careful notice of you."

           "Ah, of course, that explains it." Gentle mockery, fragile plaster on the cracks between just-because and quansitoxomitoquascis dimensions.

           To her everlasting annoyance, Max is, as usual, completely oblivious, "If you'll excuse me then I'll go and fetch the others. The food will keep indefinitely and none of this," he indicates the spread, "will be affected if you want to experiment with the exercise area while I'm gone. Ask.. Lucy Anna to activate the chamber then just try to think your own exercise area. Anything you like. It takes a bit of getting used to, like most things. But if you can handle the shower then this is hardly a task." He's grinning again. "Once you have what you like, just address the room's help and ask it to make what you've invented a 'preset'. Give your preset a number and you can come back to it at any time."

           With a start she looks up from her increasingly artistic array of trays, "Shouldn't I come with you?"

           He catches himself in mid-step, twists round to face her. "Now, tell me I'm reading you wrong. I thought you wanted some space around you, some running wasn't it? Are you sure you want to come with me? Not that I mind. Not in the least." He gives her a sincere smile.

           "Well that's good -- because I am coming." She can hardly do less now.

           "Right, then let's go." And he's off, feet padding across the polished

           ultra-smooth floor of the 'dubious hallucination chamber', forcing her to catch up.

           That and suddenly smoothe floors....

           "Running /away/," she says when she pulls even, not looking at him. "I wanted to run /away/. To crowds, if you remember."

           "You can do that here," he says as though stating the obvious. "A universe of crowds and you right in the middle, if that's what you want. A billion people bustling and busying about." He must have seen her expression because he went on, "But you want human contact, right? That's the nub of your request. Crowds to relate to and you want to run because your need for empathy with the mass of warm blooded sentience is urgent, the need to escape entrapment even more so."

           "I suppose." Though she certainly wouldn't have put it that way... And she didn't feel trapped, no, she felt... threatened.

           The mound rises from the floor and the lipdoor peels open. They step into the teleporter, the thin, pulsing walls something she'd happily forgotten, and Max lays a hand on Cadeyna's shoulder, distracting her, "There are no crowds like that. Not here. Not anymore. The world has changed but you have not. Not yet." He addresses the teleporter "Arthur Aaron Anderson. Rejoove."

           "That sounds ominous." She has visions of plagues, plagues and wars. A lot can happen in... She refuses to think about it. "How many humans are left?"

           "How many?" Max suddenly looks very distracted, "how many?" his eyes wander over the interior of the elevator, then Cadeyna's face. "Oh {curse}. End destination. All stop. Await further instructions. {curse}."

           "What is it?" Her heart speeds. Is it that bad?

           Max rubs his chin, "It's just that I remembered... Arthur is indisposed. A shower actually. Wouldn't want to walk in on him in the... that is..." If Max could blush Cadeyna feels sure he would right now. He doesn't. More importantly, her solemn question remains unanswered.

           What, is that all? It couldn't be. She doesn't quite.... and then she does. "Luziana? Could you give me thoses /curses/ phonetically? With a definition, please."

           "Curse one was: ZIN EE YA. Searching restricted link-up sources for definition. Found. The term defines the --"

           Max juts in, "You can have the translator present all unknown terms phonetically if you like," he frowns, "oh, wait, no you can't. Not without... startup." He throws a point in Luziana's direction.

           She's missed the cues. Nudity is embarrasing but not - she tunes into Luziana's recitation - "an act of illegal copulation performed between bioforms of opposing bubble {two universes} resulting in the clashing of duoform kharma". Don't they have to be naked to do that?

           "Thank you." A bit distracted. Crowds, they were talking about crowds. "And the population?" She'll have to discuss the rest with Luziana when they're alone.

           "I'm sorry Gianina." Max sighs, chuckles at himself. "Really I am. You may not see it in my face, but this day has been very tiring. Who says a synth never forgets? How many you asked. Maximillion," he holds up his Simpad, "you could answer that one better than I."

           The voice of Maximillion responds, a voice very much like Max himself, though a little more arresting, a little more confident. "An accurate account is impossible. Recent estimations tally between twenty and twenty one trillion."

           Max presents a lopsided smile, "So nothing to worry about." his cheer slips a little, "but times *have* changed. The *world* has changed. Of course it has," he waves a hand at the claustrophobic interior of the elevator...

           Cadeyna leans to pen hight, "Hello, Maximillion. Max tells me we're no longer herd animals. And could you take us to one of the other subjects?" She flashes a smile upward. "Somebody not presently showering, of course."

           "Hello Gianina Maria Donata Caprice Cadeyna Rovelli. If Max had said such a thing he would be inaccurate. However I have no recollection of him saying such a thing. Humanity is not an animal. Animals are non-sentient bioforms belonging to a mass quanto-emotive base unit. Humans are unique sentient bioforms with individual quanto-emotive base units. Also humanity can still be considered a herd bioform; the definition of herd being creatures who instinctively live together for purposes of improved survival rates, empathic bonding, cultural formation and social comfort. With minimal exception humans instinctively seek the company of other humans rendering the entirety of your comment, excluding your greeting, inaccurate and irrelevant."

           Ir- irrelevant?

           "Maximillion, Cadeyna was being good humoured," Max makes a face, "try not to be so pro-ph't'ha." (Pro-?) "Access my humanist files before you address any of the Rejoove subjects that way." He gifts Cadeyna with a pained apologetic shrug. "Actually it's not a bad practical example of what I was saying. Maximillion is quite near human. Modern human, that is. I've altered him. He's grown into himself too. Of course. But the original template was based on a human I once knew and admired. He's more man than synth."

           "Really?" She shoots the pen a dirty look, "Is he always this lazy?"

           Max grins and guffaws, wrinkling his nose, "You see Maximillion? That's twenty first century good humour. Now, I believe Morgan would be my next choice to approach. She definitely isn't in the middle of a shower." Max addresses the elevator and states the relevant destination before turning back to Cadeyna with an eager look, "Here's one. Forgive me if you've heard it before or if I don't recite it correctly," he clears his throat, "A person runs into a medical operative's office and exclaims 'Medic I believe I am shrinking'. The medical operative replies, 'hold on, you'll just have to be a small patient'."

           Cadeyna giggles politely, letting her face warm the rest of her. She can almost see the shape of her 'joke'. Something about lazy humans (bio/synth)?... or it could be she's simply being brushed off. "Did I imagine or did you change languages there?"

           Max frowns, "You imagined. I only know one language, {Generic}." Approximate translations? What happened to her phonetic mode?

           The lip doors open with their usual unbecoming squelch. They have arrived at their destination and, as before, she didn't feel a thing... Very nice!

           "I've been trying to learn..." she begins and then trails off.