‘It’s not that bad.’ She didn’t answer. Maybe she saw through my bullshit, or maybe she was just sad about the idea of spending Christmas alon.... I was too. I’d been facing her for so long that it caught me by surprise when the clerk asked to see my ID for the beer. He was already halfway through scanning my items. I’d be done in a few moments, but something about the woman made me want to keep talking to her. So, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. ‘So do you color inside the. .uh, Sir,” I added.“That’s better. So how does your master command you? Does he call you on the phone?”“No, Sir, he e-mails me, Sir.”By this time the boy had slouched onto the couch and put his feet up on my coffee table.“E-mails you? What a cheap cocksucker of a whole slave you are! You let some guy off in cyber-land order you around? How low is that? Boy…get these boots off!”i scrambled to my knees and started unbuckling the heavy black leather boots, trying to smell his feet without being. ‘How about you, Denise?’ she asked. Denise looked at her, unable to fathom her meaning. ‘I mean, will you be able to cut back to normal hours, now?’ ‘Oh, I wondered what you were thinking about. I expect so, but there’ll always be the last minute calls, and the teleconferences. I’m surprised Ken didn’t ask me to stay behind tonight, actually, in case something went wrong.’ ‘I think Sid took one look at the two of us and sent us home. If I look as bad as you, we’re a pair of extras from a. There are still some things that I never got to go over with Bill and Kathy, at least in real-time. But ... we’re still training through Ship’s Academy. It is, of course, basically the same, but no matter the realism – afterward – we always know it wasn’t real. There’s a feeling when you return from the asteroid belt that just isn’t there when it’s through Ship.“My body seems to know the difference – however slight. Bottom line, we’re still doing Ship’s virtual training and trying to learn new.