. on and on till Sunday afternoon. And gradually our relationship slipped into what it had been before the night when she told me. And I had realised,...that all the time I had known her, she must have had her monthly bouts, but they had only made a difference to me after I knew about them. So what happened was this: On the night of our graduation we both had a celebration with our families and friends, and we had agreed that when our parties were over we'd meet and have one of our own. It was on. She started shaking to the beat without looking for a partner. When the record ended, a guy came over and raised an eyebrow at her. She nodded, and they danced together, or at least in front of each other, when the DJ put the next record on. Her third dance partner offered her a drink.“Phil Young,” he said when they were sitting at a table. She recognized him now. He’d done fairly well in beginning group theory a year ago. Not a math guy, but not an idiot, either. Grad student in physics, she. ? Their war-like mannerisms did nothing toalleviate this impression. Despitetheir love of warfare, the Vegans were neutral in this war.? There was no love between the Vegans and theempire.? The majority of the Vegansprobably favored the rebels.? TheVegan sector was too close to the empire to really be an independent power.? Any attempt by the Vegans to oppose theempire would be put down in short order.?After several failed attempts to show their independence from theempire, the Vegans had. ’ Well, I didn’t have any on me! ‘What?’ he said after a very long blink. Apparently no one had ever said this to him before, and he didn’t know quite how to handle it. ‘NOOOOOO!’ I said a bit louder and more drawn out and shook my head slowly, as one might do to someone who spoke no English. I tend to be a smart-ass at the worst times. Officer Steele’s face went as cold as Neapolitan ice cream, ‘You’ll have to come with me, sir,’ he said through clenched teeth. ‘On what charge?’ I asked.