The noise of the street barely penetrated the heavy drapes, the thick carpets, and the furniture that seemed to have been created to fit in a much lar...er space. In any event they were starving, and the cold supper Jonathan had prepared from foodstuffs left by his cook disappeared forthwith. By the end of the meal, and after more than one or two glasses of wine, the four were mellow and well-disposed to hear Jonathan tell them about the society they found themselves in. When exhaustion set in. “Mmm…,” she sighed, slowly rousing, lips curling back in a small smile, “you’re home.” She started to roll onto her back in welcome, but his hand on her hip held her still. “Don’t move,” he whispered, pushing his body hotly against hers, the palm of his right hand still firmly on her hip, his middle finger pressing meaningfully against the edge of her mound. With an obedient nod that brushed her hair sensually against his lips, she let out another small sigh and waited, her breath coming. 999999% the speed of light, the limits of the accuracy for their spectral camera. So she assumed it was AT the speed of light. BUT, only for a few hundred kilometers, in well under a millisecond, slowing down, and was apparently a geometric point source, no larger than an electron, yet radiated the photonic energy of a hypernova! Again her mom asked if they were just atoms or not. ‘Do you feel ok?’ was the message from her mom. Atarah frowned. She did not feel ok.The Blue Ion folks gave them. "This is embarrassing." As I woke up it really was becomingincreasingly annoying to me."Here, maybe this will help," she said and put a pacifier in my mouth.I would have loved to have claimed it wasn't helping, but the truth wasthat it did. Mom was very quick and efficient with changing me into adry diaper and then asked. "So what do you want to wear today?"I shrugged and said around the pacifier. "What are my options?" It sortof sounded like that enough for Mom to interpret.She picked me up.