The Treasure of Lei Fong Wu

Chapter Sixty-Nine

ROMANTIC INTERLUDE –23:30

Inara and Nyan Nyan rolled away from each other gasping, heads hitting the ample pillows simultaneously. “You,” Nyan Nyan said, her breathing as heavy as if she had run five miles, “whatever it is you charge, it . . . you need to double it!” “Me?” Inara panted, face flushed and eyes wide. “Me? If you ever go into business, I won’t have a ruttin’ client left from Core to Rim!” The two women stared at each other for a moment, their eyes having the conversation while their mouths rested – and then both broke out in hysterical giggles. It took a concerted effort and a big sigh for Inara to compose herself. Basic hospitality also helped. “Would you like a drink?” “I’d commit any number of illegal acts for one!” Nyan Nyan said with relief. “I find myself dehydrated. Exertions . . . ” “Water? Saki? Bourbon? Beer? Wine? Dehydrated reconstituted fruit juice concentrate? Coffee? Nectar? Or I can make some more tea,” she offered. “Water, first, and then maybe some more tea, please,” Nyan Nyan said politely. “Water. Water it is, and close at hand,” Inara said, rolling over and pouring two small cups of it from the ewer on her nightstand. “And it’s the good stuff, too – I managed to secure a case of spring water from Salisbury before we left – in a hurry and in a hail of gunfire, as usual. I hate the way the recycled stuff tastes,” she added, wrinkling up her nose as she handed Nyan Nyan a cup. “Namaste,” the young/old courtesan said, bowing from her neck. “Cheers,” Inara agreed, sipping her water slowly. She didn’t take her eyes from the other woman, and watched with interest as she sipped the beverage with her eyes shut, a blissful expression on her face. She couldn’t help herself. She reached out and touched a stray strand of jet-black, silken hair. “You are, indeed, a beautiful creature.” “Oh, enough!” Nyan Nyan said, rolling her eyes. “I admit that I have a certain cute-ness, I suppose, and a good body – they made us train religiously at the House. Not that I really needed to, my implants make my metabolism run about thirty percent above normal. But I’m nothing special – you, on the other hand, could audition for a goddess and get the part.” “You are perpetually aroused . . . stunningly gorgeous . . . and you don’t need to work out,” Inara said, nodding off each point. “And did I mention that you’re stunningly gorgeous? That’s it: I officially hate you.” “As if you can talk! Look at you! The epitome of the feminine form!” Nyan Nyan accused. “Let’s just say we’re the two most beautiful women in the room and have done with the complements then, shall we?” “Agreed,” Nyan Nyan said, nodding and grinning. “Otherwise we’d speak of nothing else.” “What was it like? In the House, I mean. No one has seen a Bound House for . . . decades. What was it like?” Nyan Nyan shrugged prettily, sending a cascade of jet black hair spilling playfully over her naked breasts. “I don’t know, it was . . . well, I don’t have much to compare it too. I’ve stayed at a couple of Free Houses, the one on Ariel and one on Merovingia, and I guess they’re a lot alike. Oh, we don’t call them ‘clients’, though, they’re referred to as ‘assignments’.” Inara wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Barbaric,” she whispered. “And we don’t have the luxury to say ‘no’, of course. I mean, if an assignment was particularly abusive, you could complain about it to the House Mother afterwards, but nothing ever came of it. Oh, and there was a lot more . . . government oversight . . . than at a Free House.” Inara sat upright. “What?” she asked, suspicious. Outside of the regular health inspector for annual certifications, government in the Core had an unwritten policy of complete non-interference with House affairs. In return, the girls of the House were honor bound not to gossip. “The Imperial authorities . . . particularly Imperial Intelligence, they were among the biggest clients of the House as a whole. They’d get us to pump subjects for useful intelligence. Occasionally, they’d use us as a . . . a training exercise. Very rarely they would recruit a girl as a special agent.” Inara was aghast. “I can’t believe that! That must have been horrible!” “Not as bad as being sent to some wrinkly old Admiral or General as a reward. Some of those had . . . unusual tastes. Those assignments were particularly dreaded.” “That’s . . . that’s . . .” “That’s what life is like for a Bound Companion, Inara,” Nyan Nyan finished. “You get all the rocky parts of the job with none of the benefits.” “I’m so glad they’re outlawed, now!” Inara said emphatically. “They treated you like common whores!” “No, they treated us like very well trained, very valuable tools,” Nyan Nyan finished. “In some ways I was lucky – Shan Yu had plans for me, so I was spared the worst assignments. Still, it would have been nice to get away more often. We all dreamed about how glamorous it must be to be a Free Companion. All that attention, your pick of the men, the power, the money . . .” she trailed off dreamily, sipping her water. “Hey,” Inara defended, “it’s still hard work! Especially on the Rim. No House to depend on for support. There might only be one or two prospects on any given moon, and they’re usually pretty dreadful. They call you a goddess one minute, and bitch about the time and money the next. Most of them want to be entertained for the status and prestige a Companion brings, with absolutely no appreciation of the subtle nuances of the art. “Once you do get to civilized parts, well, most decent Core planets have plenty of competition. You can sometimes snake a client from someone more established, based on your ‘exotic’ nature – not many Companions out on the Rim, after all, and they all want to hear stories about your mythical adventures with rough-and-tumble miners, or pirates or outlaws, or . . .” “. . . smuggler captains with a great ass in really tight pants . . .” The pillow flew quickly, and with enough force to count officially as a clobber. “Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean to hit a sore spot!” Nyan Nyan said, laughing hysterically. “Oh! I can’t believe you!” Inara said, nostrils flaring while rolling her eyes emphatically. “Truce! I couldn’t resist. Tell me about your clients!” “After that? You’re lucky you’re still alive. I know some pretty disreputable people, you know.” “I’m sure you’d rain scandal and shame down on my long-dead family. I can feel my ancestors preparing to weep even now . . .” “Oh! You’re impossible!” she said, clearly enjoying the flirtation. “Go on! Tell me about some of your most recent clients.” Inara got quiet, then. “My clients? You want to know about my clients?” “Yes, tell me about those with enough money and class to attract the attention of la Belle d’Astra!” “ ‘The Beauty of the Stars’?” she scoffed. “Oh, God, I really would be out of business if you were active! Such flattery! And in French, no less!” Nyan Nyan rolled her eyes. “Your clients?” Inara laughed. “All right, all right. Ordinarily, I don’t kiss and tell, but since you’re a Companion too I suppose this counts as a professional consultation and not abject gossip. My last client . . . my last client was a woman, actually the first woman I ever entertained professionally, back on Sihnon. A retired professor. She emigrated to Athens, to a small artist colony there, a pure Dianic community. But . . .” she stopped, troubled. “What?” Nyan Nyan asked, concerned. “Well . . . some bounty hunters who were after us – after River and Simon, if you want to be precise – they tracked my shuttle and ended up raiding the colony. My client was wounded nearly unto death, and . . . well, I had to shoot someone. Killed them.” “Oh, Mei Mei! How awful for you! To go on a date and end up in a gunfight, that’s got to be disappointing.” “Well,” Inara said, avoiding her eye, “actually, I didn’t use a gun. I used a bow and arrow.” Nyan Nyan was open-mouthed, stunned. “Great Diana be praised! The Huntress lives! Then you are as impressive as you are lovely!” “I’m not that proud of it. I shot him from behind. I’m no amazon, I suppose – that’s Zoë’s balliwick . Actually several people died in the attack, and I feel pretty guilty about it.” “It will pass,” Nyan Nyan said, comfortingly. “It’s not like it’s your fault. What about the client before that?” “That . . . that was Heflan, and his wife, I believe. Big-time corporate financier. More money than God’s Banker. Married a cute young thing who he wanted . . . instructed in the finer points. I charged him extra. Not the greatest client in the world, but . . .” “. . . I know the type. Of course, there is that certain confidence that comes with being filthy ruttin’ rich.” “Exactly. And before that . . . oh, that was sweet Mason, on Epiphany. Beautiful world. Handsome man, a decent lover and a first-rate gentleman. That’s where Johnny – Chin Yi – comes from. Mason was the chief executive officer and managing partner of the local Company, poor thing.” “ ‘Poor thing?’ Sounds like a plum job, to me,” Nyan Nyan said, raising her eyebrows. “One might think. But he has troubles aplenty. He spent half his life building this perfect little world, only ten years from Certification,” Inara explained, “and all the clients he’d thought would be lining up at the door started getting lazy with their investments. Oh, they’ll buy eventually, I don’t doubt, but for now he’s fighting off creditors and praying that nothing bad comes up in Certification. I think some of them honestly want to see him in receivership, so that they can pick up the real estate for a fraction.” “Nice to see things haven’t changed too much while I was asleep,” Nyan Nyan said, sarcastically. “Not all that much has changed, really,” Inara admitted. “There’s the Alliance, I suppose, and that was supposed to fix all the problems – runaway corporations, petty dictatorships, unrestricted warfare, law and order – but instead the corporations took over the Parliament, and now the Alliance is a figurehead for oligarchy – thus shattering my girlhood dreams of benign hegemony.” She sighed, a look of disappointment laced with guilt appearing on her face. “The corporations use the Alliance as muscle now, under the mantle of democracy. Which is why the Independents rose – and the other factions – and we had a bloody war that killed millions and . . . settled nothing.” “At least you’re not bitter,” Nyan Nyan said sarcastically. “I wasn’t a year ago. The things I’ve seen out on the Rim almost makes me ashamed that I supported Unification. Not that the Independents would be running things any better – they mostly specialized in not running things. How they every cobbled together a military, I’ll never know.” “Still, if what you say is true it’s unlikely a tyrant like Shan Yu could ever come to power again,” Nyan Nyan pointed out. “Like Shan Yu? No, I don’t think so. He was a colorful, horrible character that was a product of his time – your time, I guess, too. That was a very romantic, expansionistic, hopeful period, despite all the petty little wars. People were still trying to re-create the cultures of Earth-That-Was back then, rebuild what we lost. You can tell by the patterns of colonization. The worlds terraformed at that time had grandiose names from Earth’s past, names that meant something: Osiris, Isis, Rhinemark, Amateratsu, Londinium, Bellaraphon, Ariel. Now? You get crappy little worlds where everyone is sick because of poor investment in Terraformation, and names that sound like the product of a jumble sale: Higgens, St. Albans, Choy, Greenleaf. They’ve quit trying to recreate the glories of the past because they’re focusing on staying alive and un-indentured long enough to have enough kids so they won’t starve when they’re ninety. They’re at the mercy of all-powerful Company managers and petty magistrates who are squeezing every penny they can out of you. “Shan Yu couldn’t rise today because it isn’t an army he’d have to defeat, it’s a bureaucracy. And no one can defeat a bureaucracy. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t people like him. On the Rim, they’re Company aristocrats and corrupt magistrates – and crime lords, can’t forget those. In the Core they’re major corporate executives and Secretaries and Ministers and lawyers, lawyers, lawyers. The type of raw power Shan Yu used to take the throne is obsolete – but I suppose the whole concept of the Empire is obsolete, too. Only corporations and Official Alliance Governmental Agencies have any power, now.” “Why do the corporations linger, while Empires and Kingdoms and Republics wax and wane?” Nyan Nyan wondered. “I mean, the big ones can trace themselves back to the Exodus, and some to before – Sony has been around for five hundred years, for pity’s sake!” “Six hundred,” reminded Inara. “Sorry, still getting used to the time change. But do you understand what I’m saying? Corporations seem to endure in a way that no government does.” “It’s because governments are, essentially, a service. They don’t exist to propagate themselves. They exist to provide services and oversee the peaceful allocation of scare resources. They work well until the level of corruption signals time for a change. Corporations run quarter to quarter, always seeking to advance their stockholders’ interests.” “But the Empire, it existed in one form or another for thousands of years,” Nyan Nyan pointed out. Inara rolled back onto her side, facing the young Chinese girl. “What Empire?” she asked, carefully. “What do you mean, what Empire?” “I mean, where is the Empire? Yuan is there, so is Wuhan and T’ien . . . but where is the Empire? It’s gone. The people don’t need it anymore. They did once, to remind them of Earth-That-Was. But they’ve grown out of the need. Oh, I don’t think that there was anything wrong with the Empire, per se. Lots of planets have constitutional monarchies or aristocracies. It just didn’t adapt quickly enough to how the people and the culture changed, and that kind of situation lets idiots like Napoleon or Hitler or Shan Yu come to power. No offense to your esteemed ancestors. They ruled well, but there comes a time when a wise monarch knows when to step away, and they missed their opportunity.” “No offense taken – I barely remember my parents. The only captures I have are in the history files on the cortex. I understand, we lost the Mandate of Heaven. It happens. I do wonder what Yuan is like, now,” Nyan Nyan confessed. “I mean, the Thousand Families gone, no Imperial government, the Alliance running the place – I doubt I’d recognize it!” “I haven’t been there myself,” Inara said, “but from what I’ve seen and heard on the cortex, it isn’t that different. The Premier lives at the Imperial Palace, the Amber Phoenix Throne is on display at the Museum of Antiquities, and the Alliance takes care of most governmental functions. Yuan is one of the cornerstone worlds of the Core, after all. After Sihnon and Amateratsu, one of the most important Sinic worlds. Moreso even than Xiao.” “I suppose you’re right,” Nyan Nyan said with a sigh. “I guess I’ll be able to see for myself, eventually. You know, if we all don’t perish in the next twenty odd hours.” “Cheerful, aren’t you? Which begs the question: what are you going to do, Princess Nyan Nyan, assuming we make it out of here alive?” “Me?” Nyan Nyan asked. “I’ve been awake less than two days – subjectively, last week I was still a Bound Companion, albeit one at liberty, thanks to Fong Wu. Truthfully I was half-expecting to be executed when I awoke. Now . . . well, I don’t know.” She sighed heavily. “I’m just getting used to the idea of being alive, being free has barely registered.” “You could always go into practice,” offered Inara. “My shuttle is small, I know, but until you get on your feet you could tag along with me. I could vouch for you, get your records unearthed and have you instated with privileges at my Mother House. We could make quite a splash, you and I!” “Out among the hayseeds and thugs of the Rim? Oh, we’d be phenomenal! The biggest draw at the Penta Colony Provincial Fair and Agricultural exposition!” “Six months with me, you’d be able to go back to Yuan and write your own rates,” Inara pointed out. “And have every two-bit magistrate pay royally for the privilege of nailing a hundred and forty one year old Imperial Princess? Oh, that sounds appealing. I’d be a freak. I’d be in high demand, it’s true, but I hardly think I’d be popular for my crappy koto playing and knowledge of fine wines,” she said, sourly. “There’s always factory work. Or farm labor . . .” Inara pointed out helpfully. “You are too kind. Maybe I could be a teacher . . .” “Better be a girls’ school. You might be able to handle that. You’d definitely be an impediment to education at a boys’ school.” “Can’t have that! I suppose then I will continue to cast my fortunes with the House of Lei. Which I guess means marrying Chin Yi.” “You sure you want to do that? I mean, it’s not that I don’t approve – he’s a wonderful man. But you’re so young, and you have all the freedom in the ‘verse, now.” Nyan Nyan sighed. “I do. I mean it, when I was laying on that bed, puking and wondering if I was about to be killed, he came in, looked at me, and every world in the ‘verse stopped spinning for a moment.” She sighed again. “I knew, then, that he was the one I wanted. Don’t ask me how.” “Love at first sight?” Inara asked, wrinkling up her nose. “Isn’t that kind of a tired cliché?” “No more than a naked pillowfight at a Companions’ slumber party!” the princess said viciously, and proceeded to beat Inara playfully with nearby down pillow. “Peace! Truce! I take it back!” Inara protested, laughing. “Obviously your hackneyed and clichéd emotional experience is something deeply and spiritually meaningful and not at all like a million pathetic romance novels!” When the pillow barrage abated, both women laid back once again and turned to face each other. “Do you think he’d marry me?” she asked, breathless, not bothering to cover herself after the heat of her exertions. “Johnny? I’d beat him senseless if he didn’t. You, my sweet, are the tastiest piece of femininity in about ten cubic light years, and I speak from personal experience. Not to mention that you are smart, funny, wise . . . under the circumstances, I’d even advise him to overlook your extreme age.” “You are dangerously close to another pillow in the face!” “Sorry! I mean it, though. He’s smitten. You’re smitten. It’s a good match,” she said, approvingly. “Marrying Chin Yi sounds nice. And I guess that also means settling down somewhere and having lots of babies,” Nyan Nyan said – though Inara caught on that she was not completely elated about that last prospect. “You don’t sound all that excited by that,” she pointed out. “Oh, I am – just . . . I never thought I would have kids. It’s easy enough to reverse my sterility, of course, but I always expected that Shan Yu would use me up in some sordid political maneuver and discard me out of hand. Now that I’m safe from that, I’m thrilled that I’m free to have children. Only . . . well, now that I’m free to have children, I find that I don’t want to, not just yet. I’m only 19! I want to see some of the ‘verse. I want to travel the Rim, and see the shiny Core, and meet new people and eat new foods . . . I want to have adventures! Not too dangerous, of course, but I’d like to see what this new ‘verse looks like before I’m tied down with offspring and obligation.” “A reasonable goal,” agreed Inara. “Then what?” “I’d . . . I suppose I want to help my people. Oh, not the people of Yuan, necessarily – it sounds like they live a pretty good life, now that the War is over. But the Thousand Families in exile, they I would like to help. It sounds strange, but I feel a debt owed to them. They supported my family for centuries, and rallied to Lei Fong Wu after the Interregnum, and from what you’ve said they rose up in arms twice after the Empire was officially ended. In a lot of ways, the Thousand Families are the Empire. They are defined by it, and they define it.” “And most of them are stuck on a space station so far from a star that their children will never see the disk of a sun. Those who aren’t indentured on Epiphany, that is.” “Exactly. I need to find some way, some small way, to make their lives easier, better. They risked everything for the Empire, and I have a duty to return the favor.” “Well, until the Alliance lifts its exile,” Inara pointed out, “which is unlikely with General Lei skulking around in pirate ships, running his own criminal empire, you can look forward to at least a decade of the deep Black and recycled air and water.” “Maybe,” Nyan Nyan said, slowly. Inara studied her. “I know we are only of short acquaintance, despite our intimate encounter, but somehow I get the suspicion that you have designs.” “And plots and plans – don’t forget those,” the young girl said wickedly. “Political machinations are not only my legacy, but were part of my education as well. Somehow I don’t think I’ll be spending much time on a deep space station.” “Hmmm,” Inara said, slyly. “Care to enlighten me?” “Well, for a start, if my brave prince actually does save this ship, there is the matter of the fantastic wealth on board. While I won’t pretend to lay claim to any of it – apart from, maybe, some of the heirlooms of my House – I like to credit myself with the ability to influence just how that wealth is disposed of.” “Sweetheart,” Inara said with a sigh, “I know this ship is loaded with military equipment – I can see a sizeable fortune in fighter-craft from the shuttle window. But the resale value in the present market is going to be low. After the War the Alliance doesn’t allow serious arms in private hands. Oh, maybe a few security firms that contract out to the Alliance would buy, and there’s always a market for small arms on the Rim, but . . .” “Inara, the wealth I speak of isn’t in military hardware,” Nyan Nyan said carefully. “I mean, you saw the artifacts in Shan Yu’s apartments, didn’t you? Where I was found?” “Pretty impressive,” Inara admitted. “I’d screw a dozen hairy, ugly old men for that Constable alone.” “And you’d be getting a bargain. That was Shan Yu’s personal collection,” Nyan Nyan explained. “It doesn’t begin to encompass the wealth on board. There are compartments simply stuffed with rare and precious objects. The legacies of hundreds of aristocratic families put to death by the Tyrant, their wealth confiscated. Loot from Xiao and its colonies – and Xiao is not a poor world! I believe one reason Fong Wu sank this ship into the gassy depths of the planet was to remove the excess wealth from flooding the local market. Had he allowed it all to be spent, it would have watered down the currency and crashed the Yuanese economy, like the Spanish did in the 1500s when they brought back so much gold from the Americas.” “Historically informed and pretty breasts,” Inara said, giggling. “How sexy is that?” “This ship is loaded with portable wealth. There are rooms filled with gold and silver and platinum, precious stones, rare minerals, you name it. Add that to the priceless artifacts and its probably the single greatest concentration of wealth in the ‘verse, bar none.” “And you want to do what with it?” “It occurs to me that if I wanted to repay the Thousand Families, I could more than do it out of that,” Nyan Nyan explained. “Yes, you could,” Inara admitted. “Although it might be difficult to spend it out there in the middle of nowhere.” “That’s just it: with those kinds of resources at our disposal, finding and terraforming a moon – nothing huge, maybe a little over a 1000 miles – that would give the Thousand Families a permanent home, keep them from meddling in Yuanese politics, which would hopefully mollify the Alliance, and everyone would end up a winner!” “I think you are dramatically underestimating the hold on power the Alliance has,” Inara said, skeptically. “Don’t misunderstand me, I agree with your altruism – I’ve been to that miserable station, remember? It’s a floating, leaking refugee camp. The people there have no real hope. The children . . .” She shook her head. “The Alliance isn’t about to allow a group of unrepentant former rebels to have their own planet. Especially not a group as militant as the Thousand Families are. And definitely not with access to the weaponry on this ship!” “There are ways around that,” countered Nyan Nyan. “Officials can be bribed – they still bribe these days, don’t they?” “Human nature hasn’t changed that much in a century,” agreed Inara with a chuckle. “But the Parliament and the Administration are only part of the equation. The major corporations wouldn’t go for it. You’d have to get the terraforming equipment from somewhere, not to mention a planet or moon suitable for use, and once you start making inquiries that’s going to raise red flags all over the cortex.” “We have plenty of labor – ten thousand willing hands, give or take a few thousand. Worlds have been started with less,” Nyan Nyan pointed out. “Yes they have . . . a long time ago. With everyone under Alliance control, though, it’s a lot more difficult for that kind of program to go ahead. The bureaucracy alone for starting a new world is immense,” she said, sadly. “I’m Chinese, remember?” reminded the younger woman. “We invented bureaucracy!” “I mean that the moment you start to develop a new world, the Alliance has put into place such an array of inspections and regulations that you couldn’t do it without raising hackles from here to Londinium. And there are a lot of people left in the Core who still hold a grudge against the Imperials, from the War. More than the Independents, even. The Browncoats had the good grace to do most of their shenanigans out on the Rim – the Imps caused a lot of problems in the Core. General Lei’s attack on Merovingia, for instance. Or the riots. Or the terrorists. Or the commerce raiders that made inter-Core shipping so difficult. No, all it would take would be for a few Members of Parliament, a few Administrators, a few major Corps to cry foul and the Alliance would shut you down. It wouldn’t matter how many bribes you gave.” “You’re no fun!” Nyan Nyan said in frustration. “I’m not out to destroy your girlhood fantasies,” laughed Inara. “I admire them! But you’re smart enough to know that what you propose is fraught with obstacles.” “Hard to argue with someone who uses the term ‘fraught’,” admitted the princess. “Now, if you could somehow take control of one of the big companies, say Sony or Universal Products or Blue Sun Corp, maybe you’d have a chance. As it is . . .” she shrugged, “you’d be better off buying everyone a ticket to Greenleaf.” “Where the hell is Greenleaf?” “Oh! Pretty little world. Or it will be. Lots of prairies, so far, and a pretty good start on some forests – the name ‘greenleaf’ is more of a hope than a description, I’m afraid. They started terraformation about . . . twenty years after you got yourself frozen? It’s one of the hot worlds for emigration, along with Beaumonde, New Hall, Paquin, Ishtar, Sophia, Trinity, a few others. Wide open spaces, fairly cheap land, lots of promise and none of that pesky life-saving, life-enhancing technology that clutters up the Core.” “I’ve heard of Beaumonde . . . the others are new to me,” admitted Nyan Nyan. “So many worlds . . . how many, now?” “Getting close to a hundred,” Inara said. “There were less than fifty when I went to sleep,” Nyan Nyan said. “Amazing . . . how many will there be in the next century, I wonder? It almost makes me want to crawl back into the capsule and find out!” “And miss out on all this high-quality professional-level sex?” Inara said with mock astonishment, trailing a finger down her neck and across her breast to her nipple. “I said ‘almost’,” Nyan Nyan laughed, shivering involuntarily from the older woman’s touch. “I remember that last week the big premium worlds were Shadow, Persephone, Boros . . .” “All Indy worlds,” agreed Inara, “and all worlds where there was heavy corporate investment. I often wonder if that’s why the Alliance has put such a stranglehold on trade on the Rim. They aren’t just afraid of eroding their markets: they don’t want any world to come up too quickly, lest it rebel from its authority.” “That makes sense. Still, ten thousand tickets, and a clandestine underground to get them there . . . that sounds too complicated. There has to be an easier way.” “No doubt there is,” Inara said, yawning. “But we won’t figure it out tonight. Today. Whatever. You up for a little nap? And then a long, slow, luxurious sponge bath with lavender and honeymilk and a good salt scrub?” “You want me to nap? And miss out on all this high-quality professional-level sex?” Nyan Nyan asked, wryly. “What? You’re ready to go again already?” “The energy of youth . . . let me know if you can’t handle it, and I’ll let you go to sleep,” she said with mock deference. “Wouldn’t want you to tire yourself. Or break a hip . . .” “The hell I can’t handle it!” Inara said, rolling over on top of the lithe girl and kissing her passionately. “I may not have your enhancements, but there’s nothing wrong with my desire . . . or my stamina!” “Ooh, the old lady likes to dominate!” “For a slightly higher fee,” Inara laughed. “If I have to get out the toy chest, the price goes up.” “And if I want a costume?” “That depends . . . geisha, nurse, or slutty security officer, it goes up by fifty percent. If I have to get elaborate, the sky’s the limit.” “You intrigue me, old woman,” Nyan Nyan admitted in between long kisses. “And when we are done – if there is anything left of you – I will hold you to that offer of a bath. Le Belle d’Astra . . .” “Princess Kitten,” breathed Inara. “That’s the best nickname . . . ever!” “Purrrrrrrrr!”