Chronicles of Suran, by Catherine N.X. (holokittynx@fastmail.fm)

Author's website: http://www.asstr.org/~holokittynx
Chapter codes: Fg, rom, inc, ped, cons, mast, toys, ScFi.

Third person - childlove, lesbian, mother/daughter, semi-utopian.  Synopsis:  A fictional island democracy with no child-sex taboo, as seen through romantic and political vignettes focusing on the people who live there.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE:  This story may be freely distributed provided it retains all story codes and credits, including the author's email and website.

Rachel, chapter six.

Saturday, 15th December, 2074.

	Perfect, Sonja thought to herself as the garage door closed in front of them and Rachel's stomach let out its first (and likely last) growl of the evening. The lasagna would be a big hit, not to mention the raspberry cheesecake in the fridge. She released the steering wheel and cracked her knuckles, then stretched her arms to loosen them up after having driven all day. She couldn't quite explain why, but she hated using autodrive for anything but parallel parking. For that she loved it.

	To Rachel, her mother's arms had always seemed like the the strongest and most reliable things on Earth. They were liable to swoop down a dozen times a day to miraculously lift her entire massive six-year-old weight - according to Takeshi at least a ton and a half, however much that was. She caught a glimpse of the firm backside as her mother stepped away from the driver's side door, and thought herself lucky. Before she knew it her door was open. Then her harness. And those arms were under hers, and yet again she found herself aloft and snuggled.

	The door between the garage and laundry room unlocked and silently slid open as they approached it Rachel realized that her mom wasn't in the habit of carrying her from the trike to the door, but was quickly distracted by the sight before her. The laundry room lights had stayed off even after the opening of the garage entrance; the room now formed little more than a black frame around the second portal leading into the den. The den was the real spectacle - warm orange light wobbled and warped around everything like Jell-O, and the few surfaces and objects Rachel could see were jiggling just like the light. Watching this mysterious realm breathe and shift before her as the outer door shut behind them, Rachel whispered secretively into her mother's cheek. "Mommy...our house is haunted."

	Sonja choked on a belly laugh. "You're silly. It's not haunted. It's candlelight - see?" She demurely stepped forward into the den, and Rachel suddenly found herself surrounded by a room that was clearly her den but bore little resemblance in the light of the candles dotting the glass shelves that ran around the walls. Every flame cast its own rays and shadows, all splashing rebelliously across the walls as they turned and bounced through shelves or crystal art. As the curved glass outer walls were still frosted, little if any light went to waste. Rachel's lips parted, and when she remembered that she had control of them she could barely think of anything to say. "Whoa." Sonja smiled and stole a kiss from her baby's cheek. This brought Rachel back to reality, and she remembered that her mom had been with her all day. She turned her face back toward her mother's and asked, "How'd you do it?"

	"Um...mommy magic?"

	Rachel laughed; "I bet Takeshi did it." Sonja nodded, unable to completely tear her own eyes away from the effect of the candlelight. When she finally did so she turned them back to her daughter. "He made dinner too. I don't know if you'll like it." Rachel frowned. "What is it?" Sonja pretended to rack her brain; "Um...oh, right. Something called...lasagna?" This got a bigger laugh, Rachel knowing that she had made clear her love of lasagna on several thousand occasions.

	After they kicked their shoes off Sonja escorted her little girl to the big table in the dining room, whereupon shone half a dozen long champagne-colored candles in a pair of gracefully carved stone holders that had belonged to her grandmother. Takeshi had even thought to place extra cushions on one chair, so that the munchkin met the table at a reasonable height when Sonja set her on it. The candles were spaced several feet apart, so that neither flame nor wax nor glare would obstruct their views of each other. Presented only with the sight of the candlelit dining room and den as her mother went to get dinner, the first thing that came to her mind was the simple fact that her mom loved her. And on top of that knew how to romance her. Her expression of surprise at each second of the lightshow gradually gave way to a self-assured grin.

	To sustain the mood, Sonja moved about the kitchen without turning on the lights. The light from the candles was plenty, since the kitchen and dining room both overlooked the den. Takeshi had set the spatula and oven gloves on the counter and apple juice in the front of the fridge, so Sonja only had to be out of the dining room for a few moments. When she walked in carrying the glass casserole dish with the lasagna, she made a show of holding it up and taking a good long whiff. Rachel got the joke, and moaned lustfully even though she couldn't smell the lasagna from across the room. Takeshi had recommended not bothering with side dishes, since Rachel would tear into her favorite until she had grown an extra stomach.

	Sonja set the dish off to the side and took Rachel's plate, lifting a big slab of the lasagna onto it. Corned beef hash was expensive enough - this time Sonja had spent 45# on steak, which was now diced into little chunks and piled into the middle layer of the lasagna. Every bite would satisfy like Snickers, and Rachel wasted no time demonstrating that she knew it. As soon as the lasagna was on her plate she poised with fork in one hand and knife in the other, ready to pounce. Sonja got the hint, and plopped into her seat with a smile. She slowly and teasingly lay a napkin across her lap, then picked up her fork and bumped fists triumphantly with her little girl.

	Half an hour later, Sonja was wavering between satisfaction at being full and intense annoyance at not having room for cheesecake. She decided not to mention its existence to Rachel, since it would still be fresh the next day. She closed her eyes lazily and took a deep breath before opening them to examine her baby's equally satisfied expression. Rachel's grin put Satanically cute dimples on her cheeks, and Sonja had trouble imagining that such a face harbored no mischief. Thankfully she was right; Rachel slunk out of her chair and crawled under the table, inviting herself into her mother's lap to snack on her lips and cheeks. The icy apple juice they'd had with dinner had sweetened their lips, and the mints Takeshi had left in a bowl on the table hadn't hurt either.

	For a moment they held each other's gazes, a few seconds virtually becoming a wordless conversation. Sonja kept her eyes on her baby's face and leaned off to one side, then the other, only turning her head when she was close enough to blow out the dinner candles. Rachel turned and looked down into the den, where most of the candles were still glowing. Sonja carried her down the stairs nibbling her cheek all the way, and when she set Rachel down at the far end they each took a side to blow out. The last few candles were near the skylit dining room, so that blowing them out left the two with moonlight by which to find their way upstairs.

	They climbed the handful of steps slowly, hand-in-hand. The stairs to the second floor were on the same end of the dining room, reminding Rachel to run over to her dining-room chair and grab the bag containing her new toy. Sonja raised an eyebrow as her baby returned to her side, and Rachel's smile pursed. "I really wanna try it." Sonja picked her up again. "I can tell." Sonja locked her eyes onto the top of the stairs, and started climbing with her little girl's breath warm and curious against her neck. By now she was looking forward to Rachel's pleasure as well - she had a couple of her own toys, but nothing quite like the Smoothie. Then it hit her.

	"Wait a minute. You still need a bath." Rachel lit up and answered coyly, "Ohhhh, yeah. I do, huh?" She smelled her mom. "You too." Sonja squinted wickedly, and turned to enter the bathroom. She set Rachel on the dressing bench, and seductively held up her index finger. Turning away she pressed the only tub-control hotkey that had actually been set, and poured bubble bath into the water as soon as the tub started filling. Its multiple fill nozzles created a gentle sloshing, and this brewed sweet sparkly bubbles in no time.

	Sonja was dressed for easy access, and stripped herself bare for Rachel in a matter of seconds. She knelt before her daughter like a worshipper making an offering of her exposed body. Rachel lifted her own outer shirt off, and her mom helped her with the inner one. Sonja pulled off the little electric-green socks, and watched her baby's toes wiggle up and down as she reached up to undo the button on Rachel's skirt. Two seconds later they were both completely naked, and when Rachel slid forward for a kiss she got a mouthful. As if the full lower lip wasn't enough, she patiently sought out her mother's tongue to suck. Both felt the same pleasure, albeit from opposite directions. It was warm, soft but insistent, precise and careful, and inexplicably satisfying. Sonja had kissed and had her tongue sucked before, but this like everything Rachel did added a new dimension solely by its gentleness. More pressure would have drowned out all of the finer nuances - the sliding of her tastebuds across Rachel's, the polished roundness of little-girl teeth, the lingering sweetness of juice-marinated lips, the steady breath mixing symbiotically with her own.

	Rachel moved to Sonja's lower lip, and found it soft as a peeled grape. As her own lips parted and their tongues melted together, she slowly curled her arms around her mother's neck. Sonja slid her hands under her little girl's bottom to pull her closer. Almost involuntarily Rachel wrapped her legs around her mother's waist, and found her privates cushioned against Sonja's skin. She still wasn't used to expressing sexual arousal, but when she nuzzled her mother's neck and moaned Sonja knew what her baby was feeling. Sonja braced her hands against the dressing bench and rose slowly to her feet, certain that mere gravity would fail to loosen Rachel's grip. As soon as she was upright and stable she returned her hands to Rachel's bottom. The munchkin's excitement had cooled off some, and for a moment they held onto each other until Sonja heard the hissing static of the bubbles. She and Rachel both giggled as they looked down at the tub and realized they'd forgotten about it.

	Rachel looked back to her mother's face and said, "Mommy, we're never gonna get clean." Sonja pressed her forehead to her little girl's and grinned. "Oh, don't worry. You're gonna sparkle when we're done." They indulged in another long kiss, and Rachel unwrapped her legs from her mother's sides. Sonja gently set her on the rug and sat down in the tub before helping Rachel in after her. As her baby settled into her lap, Sonja picked up the body wash and loofah. Holding her arms out on either side in front of Rachel, she squeezed a palm-sized dollop into the loofah and set the bottle back in the holder.

	Rachel snuggled backward against her mommy, and squirmed in pleasure as the sponge caressed her tummy and sides. Sonja moved slowly over her legs, buffing them from toes to waist before letting the loofah float to the surface. Once more she picked up the body wash. Rachel watched with serene curiosity as her mother rubbed the bath gel between her hands. Sonja's arms were still under Rachel's, and she curled them up to massage her baby's shoulders from the front. This turned Rachel's neck to jelly, and she leaned her head back to rest on her mother's shoulder.

	The massage was thorough; Sonja's smooth wet fingers lightly caressed and kneaded her soft muscles from the sides of her neck to her shoulders. As her hands made their way outward, she smoothed her little girl's hair back and bent to kiss her sweet spot. Rachel let out a quiet gasp, and turned her head to the left until their cheeks met. That silly neck-kissing thing had turned out to be a complete joy, as she indicated by reaching up with her left hand to keep her mother's lips exactly where they belonged. Sonja knew her place, and wrapped her right arm around her baby's chest as she continued. To keep Rachel's neck comfortable she slid her left hand over to the munchkin's opposite cheek, cupping the little cherub face against hers.

	Rachel was finally home, that being the place she and her mommy created together. She felt only warmth, and in top form - the sweet bathwater soaking into her skin, her mother's arm across her nipples, the soft breasts against her back. The hot water and kisses on her neck were sensitizing her entire body, and the next several minutes became a trance. The two of them barely moved but for Sonja's lips, and Rachel found her mind well-occupied with the interplay of subtle pleasures from every direction. She wasn't quite sure what she felt in her little flat nipples as her mother's skin tickled them - but her attention kept drifting between them, her neck and the warm tension between her thighs. Looking up at the skylight she saw the faint reflection of lightning, and knew what she wanted.

	Rachel slowly ambled onto her knees and turned to face her mother, straddling her lap. At the last moment she fell forward slightly, and this pressed the smoothness of her chest against the nurturing softness of her mother's. Sonja caught her by the waist, and Rachel wrapped her little arms around her mommy's neck for the best hug in either's memory. This was a good start, and Rachel pulled back for a passionate kiss that told Sonja just what she was dealing with. Rachel ended the kiss with its Eskimo version and climbed out of the tub. The whole time she kept her eyes locked on her mother's, and for the first time since they'd gotten home it was Sonja who looked surprised. Rachel's expression was...direct.

	Sonja followed her out of the tub, and snatched up the biggest towel. She knelt before her little girl and dried her off quickly, though she decided to leave Rachel's privates and inner thighs soaking wet. The munchkin didn't seem to notice, since she had once again glued her lips to her mother's. Sonja haphazardly tried to towel herself off with her mouth full of Rachel's tongue, and finally she was dry enough for bed. She looked over Rachel's shoulder at the dressing bench, and saw the bag from the sex boutique. Fortunately the Smoothie came pre-charged. Sonja picked up the bag, and Rachel's eyes opened wide at the sound of rumpled paper. Her lips and Sonja's spread into a single smile, and as they separated Sonja rose to her feet. She turned slowly, and kept her eyes seductively fixed on Rachel's as she stepped sideways out of the bathroom.

	Rachel stood motionless for a moment, her torso rocking with the rise and fall of her breath. Her kitty tingled vaguely as the water on it evaporated. Something told her to wait, and as she peered into the hallway she just glimpsed her bag being carried into her bedroom. She heard it being opened, and two hollow thumps like something being set down. She continued into the room, and found her mommy sitting in a half-lotus on the bed. The Smoothie's box was open on the nightstand, and there were towels next to it.

	She laughed out loud and ran to the foot of the bed, jumping as high as she could. As she left the ground she tucked her feet back and stuck her arms straight out like wings. The image of her little girl flying naked would stick in Sonja's mind forever. When the munchkin was firmly planted on the mattress, Sonja pulled back the covers and sat upright against the padded headboard. As she picked up the Smoothie's instruction booklet, Rachel climbed between the sheets and curled up in her lap. After Rachel got comfortable, Sonja handed her the booklet and hugged her tummy. She rested her chin on her baby's shoulder as Rachel started reading.

	"We at Hopeful Romantics hope you enjoy your new Smoothie heated gel vibrator. Like all of our designs for children, this toy has been approved by the Department of Medicine's Committee on Pediatric Sexual Safety. To review the committee's findings, blah blah blah...um...controls. Page...3." Rachel pressed the 'forward' arrow at the top of the glossy electronic cardstock, and in a blink the introduction page was replaced by a photo of the Smoothie's remote. A dozen buttons with lit icons were split into two columns on the remote's right side. Each of these represented a vibration style - constant ones, pulses at various intervals, and several settings that would gradually raise and lower in intensity according to their wavy icons. The left side had one up-down indicator for vibration, and another for heat. Rachel flipped ahead until a page appeared titled 'Starting Out.' For Sonja the only thing more interesting than the toy was listening to her daughter chew through the written word. She read everything as if she had written it herself.

	"Whether you have used a vibrator before or this is your first time, we suggest starting with the vibration at its lowest setting. One good way to try out each setting is to rub one end of the Smoothie against a less sensitive area like your pubic mound or outer labia. If you're unsure about where these are, they're labeled in the pictures below. For more information about each area of the female genitals, tap on the tag that points to it." As Rachel tapped on 'pubic mound,' she felt her mother's hand slide down to stroke her own. Turning her head and giggling she nuzzled her mommy's ample cheek, and Sonja returned the amusement when she realized what she'd been doing.

	With both of them watching the booklet in her hands, Rachel tapped on 'outer labia.' Instantly Sonja's fingers followed suit, and the munchkin giggled again. Gradually the pressure turned inward until Rachel's outer lips were hugging her inner ones. For a moment she was distracted, intrigued by the sweet warmth creeping up into her pelvis. The sensation was subtle but definite, and so was Rachel's response. With a long sigh her head drooped forward to watch her kitty, and her hips flexed open. She closed her eyes, and didn't notice as her mother's other hand left her tummy and reached for the pump on the lube. Feeling the lube's consistency in her fingers Sonja smiled and whispered in her little girl's ear, "Honey?" Rachel asked, "Hmm?"

	"Watch my fingers..." Rachel's eyes flew open, and she saw the clear syrup on her mother's fingertips. Sonja switched hands and coated her little girl's outer labia, drawing her fingers upward over the smooth pink skin. Rachel dropped the booklet, and it slid over the side of the bed as she reached between her legs. Lube wet the tips of her fingers as they meshed with her mother's. She slid her index finger inward until it reached her inner lips. The lube made her fingertip slide readily against them, and she gasped as a jolt of pleasure warmed her body. She tickled herself a few more times with her mommy patiently caressing her outer lips up and down. Each time she did the jolt came, and even though she was getting used to the lube she found herself breathing a lot faster. She couldn't believe how warm her kitty felt.

	Sonja set her chin on top of Rachel's head, glancing over at the Smoothie's remote as her little girl's hair tickled her breasts. The heat indicator was lit green, showing that it had reached the level she had set when she'd gotten into the room. She reached out with one hand, and the gel instantly hugged her fingers when she touched the Smoothie's skin. The heat was perfect, and even seemed to have softened the gel. This time Rachel noticed the absence of her mother's right hand, and looked over at the nightstand. As she reached for the Smoothie, neither she nor her mother realized that they were wearing the same smile. Sonja guessed that Rachel's little fingers would be too short and slippery to get the vibe out of the box, so she wrapped her hand around it and lifted it out. The sign at the store had said the Smoothie was piezoelectric rather than motorized, so she wasn't surprised by its lightness. Rachel took it with both hands and rolled it around, the gel constantly making impressions of her fingers.

	As Rachel examined her new toy, Sonja pressed a wavy icon on the remote. A low undulating hum issued from the Smoothie, and the munchkin giggled loudly. Damn, Sonja thought. It even sounds smooth. Rachel leaned back to relax, her eyes locked on the vibe. Looking closer she realized it was starting to glow purple. Suddenly the glow flashed brighter, and settled into the same pulsing rhythm as the vibration. Thinking of the effects such a well-crafted toy might have on an exposed vulva, both females were a little awed. "Mommy, this is so cool." Sonja nodded against her baby's cheek, soft purple light reflecting in her eyes. Though the boutique had been her own idea, she'd gotten a little miffed at the size of the place when they'd actually arrived. Rachel's quick choice had saved a lot of time. Sonja whispered, "Nice catch, kid. This thing's gonna be a blast." Rachel inhaled deeply and approached her privates with the fat glowing egg, ready to give herself a little tickle. At once thunder boomed outside, and her fingers slipped.

	Squish.

	Rachel gasped loudly as the gel melted against her vulva. It took a moment for her to feel the vibration - the gel muted it into a soft fleshy throb. The Smoothie didn't vibrate against her skin but into it. She sat still with her mother softly kissing her neck, and felt her body respond. The vibration spread through her like a drop of ink through water, and she was sure she could feel it in her teeth. Even without pressure the gel had stared molding to her as soon as it had made contact, and slowly but surely it was finding her inner lips. Her kitty started to squeeze faithfully - it knew what she wanted. A firm spasm trembled upward, and her clitoris started to harden. It felt bold, curious, and challenged her to test its abilities. She gripped the Smoothie with both hands, and tilted it upward against her tiny erection.

	She froze. Almost instantly the squeezing between her legs synchronized with the glow and hum, and she felt as if this pleasure could last forever. More so than the heat and tickling pulses, what she felt most in her hard spot was the flesh itself. This was the same tenderness from which she had flinched barely a week and a half before. Now it tempted her. She looked down, and this time her clitoris was easy to find. The Smoothie's light brought it out in clear relief, and she was sure it was bigger than before. From the inside it felt huge. Letting the toy rest against her lips she guided two wet fingers down onto her hard spot, and carefully pressed into it.

	Sonja's hand spread wide across Rachel's chest to catch her, or rather to keep her from bouncing out of the bed. The sudden upward thrust of Rachel's pelvis was accompanied by a muffled grunt, and as her fingers slipped from her hard spot she relaxed again. Sonja caught the Smoothie as it tumbled towards her baby's ankles, and planted it in Rachel's lap a few inches from her pubis. Rachel was catching her breath and cupping herself protectively. With the combination of slick lube and freshly vibrated nerves her instincts were serving her well; her fingers were too direct, and she would exhaust herself without finding release. That was the point of the Smoothie - to provide the sort of diffuse pleasure that would let Rachel's body find orgasm its own way.

	Sonja held her daughter close and stroked her hair, both to help her calm down and to remind her she wasn't alone. She picked up the remote and took Rachel's right hand, looping the strap over the narrow wrist. "Wanna try something?" Rachel looked into her mother's eyes and nodded enthusiastically. She knew this would be a learning experience, but more than that it would feel good. More than good - every time she had played with her kitty the whole world had brightened. She felt her mother's hands sliding down her tummy, and sighed happily. Her tummy and sides were annoyingly ticklish, but her mommy never tickled. She rubbed - and it was slow, and just firm enough, and to Rachel her own skin felt vast and uncharted.

	She felt the vibe lifted from her lap, and she didn't need to look down. She smiled knowingly and opened her thighs again, and the two gazed sideways into each other as her privates began to melt. She started to squirm as the heat and ache built, but her mother's wrists across her hips kept the Smoothie reliably planted. She started to thrust softly, and held her mother's hands.

	Sonja thought to herself, Two down, five to go. First lust, now...pride? Yes, baby. I'm so proud of you. One wish...that you'll always be as free of shame as you are right now. Such a cute clitoris. I guess gluttony'll be number three. When she's ready. She rubbed her nose against her little girl's. In this moment Rachel consisted mainly of heat and softness, and Sonja was glad to see her immersed in them too. She smelled her baby's hair as the head tilted forward to watch the Smoothie. Rachel pressed her kitty upward for a good tickle, and wondered what would happen if she...

	Her fingers found the intensity buttons on the remote, and she pressed the top one. The vibration strengthened subtly over a few seconds, increasing as an average of the waveform setting. A crest in the wave thrummed into her clitoris from below, and she guided her mommy's hands to rub against it. With the combination of lube and shape-shifting gel, there was no such thing as holding the Smoothie still. Gradually it molded to sandwich her clitoris, and she found out just how hard she was. It was right there, all hers, and wanted her to play with it. She fumbled for the remote, found the button, and demanded more. There it was. The gel slid and caressed everything except her hard spot, which it milked.

	With every throb from the outside came another from within, and she spread as wide as she could. More. More. "More... mmmh... kitty...aagh!" She gulped all the air in the room as she felt her mommy's hands move the vibe up and down, still rubbing her hard spot and everything else. She heard the wetness and that hum, and thrust again. Heat. Tightness. Something that made her think of sugar. Again. She babbled, and every whole word was "Mommy." She started to squeeze harder, faster. Again. This could not be real. What's happening? Her mommy's wrists gently pinned her thighs open, and through fluttering eyelids she glimpsed the pulsing light between her legs. It pulsed louder behind her eyes as she leaned her head back. Sonja watched her daughter carefully, and felt tears welling as Rachel's face switched off. Her eyes were open, but there was nothing to see on the ceiling - Rachel's world was the inferno being stoked inside her body.

* * *

	Her fertile young mind experiences this climax as a force of nature, an inescapable shockwave wiping the universe clean of all but joy. Its relentless white-hot purity becomes her own and all thought is burned away, replaced with the sheer rising thunder of sensation - of her own power to be happy. Her body stretches everywhere at once - every cell wants to demonstrate itself and DO something, and this feels good too. Her body is brand new, full of promise, and so is her life. But neither her body nor her mind can do everything at once, and it's so much better this way. Just as her kitty threatens to consume all of creation it releases her and she is a mere human being again. Suddenly she is exhausted. She needs her mommy, and is already surrounded by her.

Sunday, 16th December, 2074.

	Rachel's eyes opened and the first thing she felt was her kitty - warm, relaxed, satisfied. She stretched like the other kind of kitty, and rolled over with a smile. Her mommy was propped up on one elbow watching her, and rolled onto her back as Rachel climbed on top of her to snuggle. "Mommy, that was fun." Sonja let out a bemused sigh; "Wasn't it?" The munchkin giggled, and Sonja played with her hair lazily. With strands of black silk running over her fingers she continued, "Honey, I'm proud of you. You knew what you needed, what you wanted...and you went for it." Rachel frowned slightly and asked, "Why are you proud of that?"

	"Some people don't know how to do it." Rachel had a good laugh, and asked how they couldn't know. Sonja smiled too and answered, "People used to think sex was a bad thing." The little forehead resting on her breastbone wrinkled again. "Maybe they were doing it wrong."

	"Oh, they didn't even want to know how to do it right. Honey, there's so much stuff you haven't tried yet. The Smoothie is awesome..." Rachel lifted her head and nodded seriously, and rested again after a kiss on the forehead. "...but you haven't seen anything yet. The other stuff just takes some getting used to. You'll get around to it. But...heh. People used to think there was only one way to do it, and that nobody was supposed to have any fun." Rachel's frown got some more practice.

	The ghost of bullshit past gave Sonja a little shiver, and it was that much more satisfying to think of Rachel's blessed situation. She thought of the war, of all the fear and seeing friends and neighbors killed. She didn't know how to weigh the sacrifices against the freedom, only that she would make the most of the latter. She was sure those who had lost their lives would at least approve of that.

	"Mommy?"

	Sonja pulled the covers up to keep Rachel warm; "Hmm?"

	"What do you like to do with your kitty?"

	Sonja swallowed hard.  Oh, shit. "Um...well..." What am I scared of? Tell her the truth. "I've got some toys. Well, two. Although the Smoothie looks like more fun than either of them." Rachel replied plainly, "We could share it." Sonja's heart jumped. What have I gotten myself into? "Thanks, baby." She stroked her little girls hair again, wondering how to change the subject. Before she could think of anything Rachel asked, "What about when you're with someone?"

	Sonja thought this was actually a rather straightforward question; "There are different things. Me, I need to be in a certain mood before I even want my kitty touched. I need to be warm. I need to be...held, and kissed. I need time to get my kitty...heated up. So I'm ready to be touched. "And..." Sonja's mind had skirted this issue, but only at her little girl's request did she think to articulate it. "...I need to know that it's okay. I need to know" - she looked down into Rachel's eyes, and it was as if she were rephrasing something her daughter had just told her - "We have a right to ask for what we need. And there's always someone who understands - someone who wants to give it to us. We just have to ask first. I think most people like to give pleasure. It's...it's a kindness. When someone trusts you that much - offers you their body, their private parts, and you take the time and give them what they need. And you treat them like they deserve it.

	"I like it when my breasts are squeezed. Softly. I need my nipples sucked a lot - I swear, it goes straight to my privates." She sat up slowly, and held her little girl around the waist. Rachel tucked her legs up on either side to straddle her mommy. This put them eye-to-eye, two girls ready to share secrets. "Mommy, does that happen when you make milk for me?" Sonja held her close and whispered in her ear, "Every time."

	Rachel giggled against her mother's neck. "So that's why you make milk." Sonja rubbed her back absently and replied, "I think it's the other way around. I think nipples are sensitive so mommies will enjoy making milk. Or...something." The munchkin sighed and leaned back, trying to ignore the sleepiness that always came from her mommy's back rubs; "I'm glad it feels good, Mommy." Sonja smiled and gave her a smooch on the lips in gratitude.

	"You wanna know what else you can do with your kitty?" Rachel nodded rapidly, and Sonja went on. "Well, when you're older and your vagina starts to open up, it can feel nice to press inside it. There probably will be that skin I told you about. You can push it open yourself, but when I broke mine it hurt pretty bad. If a doctor does it they can make it numb first and you won't feel a thing. But really, most of the fun is on the outside anyway."

	Sonja allowed herself a mischievous smile. Purely for the sake of seeing Rachel's reaction, she hoped the munchkin had never imagined what she was about to find out. She leaned closer, trying to find the right words, but thought the better of it. Experience far surpassed explanation, and Rachel's first time should come with the luxury of surprise. Sonja kissed her cheeks and forehead, and lay back down. Rachel followed suit, too sleepy to wonder what else Mommy had up her sleeve. Sunday mornings were for snoring anyway.

Monday, 17th December, 2074.

	"The 42-year-old offfice manager from Adanji Falls delivered at the University of Suran Tashkana City Medical Center this morning, becoming the first transgender woman on record to give birth to twins. According to the Department of Medicine nearly forty thousand natal and transgender women have given birth using reproductive systems print-cloned from their own DNA.

	"In space news, Virgin Galactic has won the UN contract to transport construction materials for..." Karen picked up the remote and switched from the news to her latest music playlist. She scrolled through the titles, and considered her folly in trying to set a romantic mood with songs she hardly ever listened to. She realized that the only reasons she had any jazz at all were that she considered it educational and figured guests would like it.

	"Forget you, Marsalis." She hit 'stop.' "Cindy, play The Essential Philip Glass, starting with The Grid." The computer obliged, and as the horns patiently invited her attention she walked to the apartment's only exterior window. In her estimation it only needed the one, and she was sure Sonja would agree. The irony of The Grid (or anything from Koyaanisqatsi) reverberating off of these walls was never lost on her, and heightened her enjoyment of the view.

	At times she wished she were more the creative sort, but she had her calling and that was athletics. She loved working with people, helping them make the most of the machines they'd been born into. And it was far more than exercise these days - she consulted with clients' physicians, formulated meal plans for many of them, and was an expert in metabolic and glycemic management. Even those in perfect shape could do with customized plans and an encouraging voice.

	The computer piped up, simultaneously lowering the music so the total volume was unchanged. "Karen, Sonja Lindstrom is requesting entry." Spinning from the window Karen lost all composure, at least internally. She braced herself and strode over to the door. Putting on her most relaxed smile to hide the stupid butterflies in her stomach, she opened the door.

	"Hi."

	"Hi." Realizing they were equally nervous, they shared a laugh. Karen stepped aside to invite Sonja in, trying not to stare at her amazing neck. Taking her date's coat off, however, gave her an excuse to do just that while Sonja's jaw dropped at the view outside. She hung the silly trench coat and turned to find Sonja smiling and asking, "Why am I still living in a house?" Karen shrugged; "Why do you pose as an architect when you're obviously a supermodel?"

	Sonja snorted, "You're full of it. This view is just...absurd." She walked to the picture window that spanned the apartment's thirty-meter length, having rarely seen downtown Tashkana from this height. She could see clear across the top level of Leolua Street, to a colossal glass pyramid identical to the one in which Karen's apartment was located. Dozens of suspended highways with maglev tracks linked the two structures over a distance of what looked like three kilometers. These were necessities considering that each housed nearly two percent of Suran's entire population.

	Sonja nodded approvingly and said, "So I guess arcology livin' is the place to be, huh?" Moving toward the kitchen Karen called back, "Nothing like it if you ask me. Would you like some boba?" Sonja joined her on the other side of the counter, facing away from the glass-and-stone panorama outside. "I'd love some, thank you."

	As Karen poured her a glass, Sonja tilted her head and tried to identify the music subtly filling the room. "I like this." Karen grinned and set the glass on a coaster in front of her, explaining, "It's really just starting - this is from Koyaanisqatsi." Sonja's eyebrows arched and Karen repeated, "Ko. Yaa. Niss. Kotsee. It's this movie from the 1970s - really abstract." She dropped a straw into Sonja's drink and continued, looking aside a little to collect her description. "It's all footage of different locations, contrasting nature with human civilization. Mainly cities. The name is Hopi Indian for 'life out of balance' - the guy who made it was trying to show that technological civilization is inherently destructive."

	Sonja breathed a silent sigh of relief at her date's sarcastic delivery of the last two words, and let out a chuckle. "So I take it he smashed his cameras when he was done?" Karen's grin returned; "Actually he made two more. Haven't seen 'em. But the movie...completely fails to get its point across, and especially with this music it seems to say the opposite. The time-lapse stuff showing New York City...it's like that's a tapestry of what people can create, and this" - she pointed at the speakers with her palm facing upward - "is the symphony."

	Sonja just barely avoided hitting her glass as she leaned forward to plant a kiss on Karen's lips.

* * *

	They lay on the floor together, clothes rumpling as they considered techniques. Try as they might it could never be done neatly at first - one simply had to experiment with a part and see what happened. They were no amateurs, so the fit was never an issue.

	Geoff laughed out loud. "I can't believe this is still so much fun. Let's see...I need...a red plate, ten by two." Rachel and Takeshi kept their Lego boxes well-organized, and he found what he was looking for instantly. He snapped it into place and held up his creation to be judged. Rachel and Takeshi clapped as well as they could lying on their stomachs. Geoff got up from the carpet with a smile, curtsying before he placed his crude model biplane on the shelf.

	Rachel's playroom had a big round table, but for her and her dad building on the floor was a sacred tradition - some Zen malarkey about starting from nothing. More likely they just hated chasing parts that fell from the table, was Geoff's guess. What always got a real laugh from him and Sonja were the duo's matching elbow pads, specifically for Lego-ing on the floor.

	"Well, I'm going to check on dinner. What's this going to be again?" He nodded at the half-meter-long gray cylinder that ended in jagged bricks just in front of his husband. Snapping something onto its side Rachel answered, "Cargo spaceship. To supply the station." She pointed clumsily at the far wall, at the long art table almost completely covered by what she and Takeshi considered their masterpiece. Complete with a short monorail system, the space station consisted of a clear-walled tower on one end, a landing bay in the middle, and a defense tower at the other end. Weird a hobby as it was, Geoff was impressed at the time and planning involved.

	"And when the ship's finished the airlocks are gonna line up and everything?" In instant unison the Lego geeks answered, "Only when the landing struts are down." Realizing how they sounded, Rachel and Takeshi looked up and gave Geoff demented grins. He rolled his eyes and stepped out of the room, then popped his head back in; "But...will a loaded cargo ship be faster than an unladen swallow?"

	Without missing a beat Rachel retorted, "Warp drive." Geoff conceded, "Ah, yes," and excused himself. He had gardening and poetry and kites, they had spaceships and robots. And cars, and houses, and whatever else struck their imaginations. Takeshi worked out proportions and technical matters like structural support and electronics, while Rachel did facades and interiors. Geoff had to admit, they had it down to a science.

	Rachel rolled onto her back for a better look at the ship's underside, so she could pick out the right parts to cover the exposed support beams. She settled on rows of slanted bricks rather than plates, and rolled back over to start counting them out from one of the boxes. "Thanks for the dinner on Saturday." Takeshi turned his head to address her, welcoming a break from the tedium of running air hoses. "I hope all those candles didn't take too long to blow out." Rachel shook her head; "Nah. We both did some."

	A frank smile crossed her face and she continued, "It was really romantic. She got me a toy for my kitty. It was like..." Her eyes drifted as her voice trailed off, and her dad offered, "Kind of hard to explain, like there aren't any words for it?" Rachel nodded; "It was like...everything disappeared. Even Mommy. Then I felt like jello. And she snuggled me 'til I fell asleep." Takeshi nodded matter-of-factly; he wasn't sure what to say, but he wasn't going to show any discomfort. Rachel's ability to talk about this was amazing, and surely a thing to be encouraged. "I'm glad you had fun, honey." One day she would know just how unlucky generations before her had been, but for now she would just have fun learning what really mattered. That she was decent, and clean, and innocent - and so was her need to get off.

* * *

	"I don't really want the hassle of my own car, anyway. This way, I use one of their cars as much or as little as I want, and repairs are just part of the company's overhead. Actually, our last date was the first time I'd driven in...about two weeks." Sonja nodded - this car-sharing service did seem like a great deal for someone in the city, where there were plenty of rental stations. Finishing a bite of her salad she asked, "How much per month?" Karen thought for a moment; "There's the flat rate of seventy-five pounds, plus mileage...it usually works out to about a hundred, hundred ten pounds a month for me. I just use my bike most of the time anyway.

	"This place" - she waved at the air, indicating the arcology - "is actually designed for a lot of bike traffic, around the core parks and to and from the train stations. I ride over to the incline lift and take it down the edge of the pyramid. Get to the level where the station is, ride over, hop on the train, and I'm in Adanji Falls in twenty minutes. I've only driven to work once, to set up my office." Sonja's expression was a little distracted, and Karen chuckled, "I'm sorry - I didn't mean to go on like that." Sonja smiled and shook her head; "No, you weren't. I just..." She glanced sideways, out at the darkening sky and glittering lights. She continued, "Sometimes I feel like I just narrowly survived a car crash or something. We got out from under the Empire's thumb just in time. We're free to do all this, while the rest of the world starves, or freezes over, or floods, or burns. Or fights."

	Karen knew the feeling - of riding home at 250 kph to an apartment overlooking paradise, then turning on the news and watching the majority of the human race fail. Climate change and exhausted economies that had tried to ignore it were leading to huge die-offs, whole regions and countries being gradually destroyed by starvation and natural disasters. Not to mention epidemics - millions died every year from things that would only elicit bad coughs from a Surani or Japanese or even an American.

	For the first time in decades Earth's population had sunk below six billion. The sick part was that it would have to dwindle by at least another two or three billion before the balance could be restored, and that tragedy was well underway. Karen spoke as if she had just realized it; "I'm not sorry. Maybe I should be...but, honestly..." Sonja picked up where Karen left off; "And if you were sorry? Then what? Everyone can't have what we have." The hard clarity of this statement cut Karen worse than the horrors that played out on the news. She recoiled as from the taste of aspirin, and her eyes sank toward the table. She replayed the image, of such ruthless words coming from such a sweet young mother.  She asked in a tone more timid than most would ever hear from her, "How is that right?"

	She looked back up at Sonja. Set into the young mother's kind face the blue eyes were sharp and cold as she answered, "It's not right. Just true. Most people couldn't live like this if you tried to hand it to them. Of course, you can't. Nobody ever gets it for free. Even my little girl hasn't. She'll have to learn what freedom means. She have to practice it - to watch out for...collectivism. For people who use 'freedom' as a slogan and lie about what it is. People who're Surani first and themselves second. Who want the magazines or the movies or the Corporate to think for them and everyone else."

	Sonja thought of what she had said to Rachel the morning before, and continued. "Why are people such liars? You can't say the Earth revolves around the Sun. You can't question the state. Kids are asexual, even when they're masturbating." She squeezed her eyes shut and chanted it like an exorcist; "Bullshit." Karen smiled, showing neat rows of small white teeth. "You noticed that too, huh?" Sonja nodded sagely and picked a strawberry from her plate. Karen took a long sip of wine and said, "I don't know what it is. Some people are terrified of reality and obsessed with...their own suppositions. Other people" - she held her hands up like scales - "wanna see things the way they are. What's the 'x' factor? What's the difference between someone who accepts reality and someone who rejects it?"

	Sonja shrugged; "Nature? Nurture? Both? My best friend's husband is Morroccan. It seems like an even split - half his family is Islambots and half think any religion is a neurosis. And I do mean 'split' - half of them are in Morrocco smacking their heads against the ground. The rest are in Italy. Geoff realized his parents were full of shit, went to Rome for school, moved in with cousins, and that was it. He keeps in touch with his parents, but there's not much to talk about. They don't even know about Takeshi. But Geoff's okay. He doesn't judge himself by his parents' standards. He can't."

	All the same Karen found it hard to imagine such an estrangement. It was really outside her frame of reference - her family was close-knit even across religious and political differences. Not that those were very large to start with. She said, "I wonder what that's like. How...overbearing do your parents have to be before you just say...'enough?' Were they abusive?" Sonja shook her head and swallowed a bite - the salad was robust, and serving nicely as the entree. "Not that I know of. But they're the sort that wanna tell you who to be, and what to think, and who to marry. And some people actually want someone to do that to them. You want my opinion on that one, check me out twenty-three years ago." She sobered a bit, and her jaw set. Karen puzzled for a moment, and suddenly saw someone else in Sonja's eyes. Someone younger and angrier. Someone without...remorse.

	Karen's lips parted, and she smiled faintly as she realized what Sonja was saying. She tugged on the cord just inside her collar until she found a pendant. Even after two decades her Shield didn't have a scratch. Suspended inside the flat crystal gleamed the curving mark of the Surani pound-radiant, the clearest symbol of self-determination one could ask for. She held it up and smiled at Sonja. "You too, huh?" Sonja nodded; "It was worth it. And if someone wants what we have they'll probably have to do what we did. I thought I'd get through it without having to kill any of the Americans. Now...I'm glad I got to."