Postsingular

"I know I'm horrible," messaged Nektar. "And you're wonderful and noble and brave. Forgive me. You mean so much more to me than Craigor ever could." Craigor, now sitting right across the table from Nektar, didn't even know that Jil and Nektar were cha

"Hands off him from now on?" messaged Jil, sliding a glance over toward Nektar. "Maybe I could still love Craigor a little bit. For the kids' sake, anyway. And maybe I need this marriage. Do you promise not to reel him back in the next time your ratings are low?"

"Don't worry about the ratings. I'm pla

"You're terrible, Nektar. What an idea."

"Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander," messaged Nektar. "You deserve that boy. Look how cute he is. He can't take his eyes off you." CHAPTER 7

The Grill in the Wall

Would you like some juice?" said Jil, turning toward Jayjay with a pitcher in her hand. "It's mango."

In person, Jil's face had more nuances and complexities than the orphidnet meshes revealed. One orphid per square millimeter of skin wasn't nearly enough to capture the lively high-res play of a woman's eyes and mouth. Particularly Jil's.

"Wonderful," said Jayjay, taking the plastic pitcher from her, or meaning to, but somehow he and Jil bobbled the handoff, and the pitcher fell, bouncing out a floppy yellow-orange tongue that puddled sticky on the floor.

"Oops!" called Craigor from the kitchen table. Kittie, Thuy, and Sonic had already sat down as well, Thuy holding a cantaloupe and Sonic bearing cups and Nektar's big pot of tea.

"The shoons will mop that," Jil reassured Jayjay. Her dark eyebrows were arch-formed, always giving her an optimistic, playful appearance despite any i

Usually Jayjay was tentative with women, but, faced with the alluring Jil, he found the courage to go for it. "When I first saw you on the orphidnet and heard your name, I thought you were this beautiful girl Jilena who was a year ahead of me in high school," he said softly. "I worshipped Jilena from afar."

"I was done with high school a looong time before you," said Jil, looking Jayjay up and down. "Flatterer." Jayjay felt the orphids on his body registering major hitcounts-he was live on Founders. And maybe Jil was checking out his physique too. He tingled at the thought.

"I'd love to talk to you about the Hibrane," said Jayjay, his pulse pounding in his ears. "I hear you've been there. I'm a budding physicist. We should get together alone sometime." He glanced over at the others, wondering if they were noticing him flirting with Jil. It would be good for Thuy to realize that Jayjay had other options.

But Thuy was busy cutting up the cantaloupe and offering Kittie a slice, and Kittie was enthralled with Nektar, and Nektar was chattering at Craigor as if to keep him from looking at Jil. For his part, Sonic was drinking tea as fast as he could. The guy could never get enough caffeine.

"You're a homeless kiqqie," exclaimed Jil, sounding a little disappointed. Dammit, she'd already done an instant check via the orphidnet. "And you're addicted to the Big Pig?"

"The Pig helps me get ideas," said Jayjay. "I wouldn't say that I have a problem. Anyway, I'm cutting down really soon."

"Oh, I know all about that, " said Jil.

"I watch you on Founders, " said Jayjay. "You've gotten a bad deal lately. I really admire that you've hung onto your sobriety. You could show me the way. Mold me, Jil, train me to be like you. Clear-eyed. Hi-res. A coiled spring. I want to please you."

He could hardly believe he was saying these things. His mouth

was way ahead of his brain.

"Boing," said Jil. "That's enough for now."

"Hey," said Craigor, jumping to his feet. Jayjay was expecting to get bawled out for hitting on the guy's wife, but, no, Craigor was into his own ego trip.

"Check this out," said Craigor, producing four short metal rods with wads of piezoplastic on their ends. He turned his chair over and stuck his rods to the ends of the chair legs-so that now the chair had piezoplastic knees and feet. When Craigor turned the chair upright, it waltzed around the kitchen, faster and faster, culminating with a tap dance and a bow. Craigor made as if to sit down and, with comical eagerness, the tall chair scuttled into position to catch him.

"That's a walking-chair," said Jayjay, hoping to steal Craigor's thunder. "You sold a double-jointed version to the manager at the Natural Mind recovery center in the Armory."

"How'd you happen to notice that?" asked Craigor, seeming genuinely curious about the specific chain of logic Jayjay had followed. Everything was visible on the orphidnet, and many people had their beezie agents mining for things that were specifically relevant to their lives, the notion of "relevant" being fairly inclusive, due to people's beezie-assisted abilities think a few steps further than before.

"Jayjay's beezies were looking for the origins of Nektar's beetle infection," said Thuy. "They came from the Natural Mind building, and you caught them when you delivered the chair, Craigor, and then Nektar caught the beetles from you, that time when you squirted too quick. Lose-lose."

"Mouthy brat," said Craigor, not especially embarrassed. He waggled his eyebrows at Thuy. "You need a spanking." He stuck his teaspoon to the side of his walking-chair with a spare bit of piezoplastic, and sent the chair trotting around the table to whack-whack-whack Thuy's thigh with the spoon.

"Craigor, you should load up on Jayjay's antibeetle flea-grenades," said Nektar. "For all we know, the beetles are eating your brain right now."

Craigor responded in mime, fluttering his hands by his mouth like munching mandibles.

"Don't worry, Nektar," said Jil with a sigh. "We got the antibeetle fleas off the Founders show on our way over. And, yeah, the beetles really were lying dormant in us. That's weird they used Craigor for a disease vector."

Craigor's walking-chair flexed its knees, rhythmically hunching against Thuy, who laughed at the urgent bumping. Kittie reached down to rip off one of the walking-chair's shins. Miming great pain, the chair limped three-legged back to Craigor, leaning against him with a decrescendo shudder.

"You're fu

"I run the character animations though a beezie," said Craigor. "But the beezie draws on a library of body-language routines that I stored. I act things out; that's how all the great animators do it. My body knows more than my head. I'm a cuttle-fisherman, too."