“A creation gate?” Barry was astonished. Veronica lowered her skirt again and pulled him out into the field, towards the sleeping figure. “I hope you have the proper licenses for it?”

She just scowled sideways at him and didn’t respond.

Barry’s head was spinning. He didn’t want to have to tell her he’d never used one before, never even seen one before. He had only made an educated guess based on the glare of the plastic packaging which surrounded the modular attachment. But of course, she must know that sex organs had been deprecated well before he’d been born. How could she expect him to work it? The most he’d ever gotten into was a bit of multi-sex scrambling when he was younger and the occasional packet-swapping now and again. But even that had been a while at this point. He’d just been too busy as mayor for these types of leisure activities.

Just then, Veronica leaned in close and kissed him. “Don’t worry,” she said. “Isn’t this why you really came over here today anyway?”

Barry’s entire body blushed, or it felt that way anyway. “Why, I – no, I…” he stammered.

She put a finger to his lips, and pulled him down to lay in the grass with her next to the sleeping figure. She pulled his arms around her. “Remember: don’t let go of me, whatever happens.”

Out of nowhere Barry could discern, she then produced a directional port device and strapped it around Barry’s waist. It was little more than a thin black cord with a tiny size, rate and frequency permutation node on the front, hanging like a single bead on a necklace. Which was good because like most inhabitants, Barry himself was equipped with only an indistinct sex organ package. The area below his waist terminated in a flesh-colored blur.

“I’ve never done this before,” Barry admitted shyly.

“It’s just like packet-swapping, only a lot more intense. You’ve done that, right?”

“Oh yeah, hundreds of times.” Barry was exaggerating significantly.

“Okay, well press yourself against me like this.” She hugged him close. The dark mystery of Veronica’s body overwhelmed him immediately.

The node on Barry’s belt began to oscillate, trying to sync up with the signal from the creation gate affixed beneath Veronica’s dress. Barry squeezed her in his arms and kissed her.

The guarded interchange on the gate fluttered and opened.

Packets began to burst in the field of Barry’s awareness, first slowly, one at a time and then with gathering speed. Recorded images from his life and from Veronica’s exploded in a shower of sensation. Barry’s mind worked to assimilate them, and began to feel very close to Veronica as he did so. So much more about her life and about her as a person suddenly made sense to him. Puzzle pieces fell into place. Tumblers lifted and fell in the lock of the connection between them.

Barry was in the middle of uttering an “I love-” when suddenly packet transmission rate and frequency increased exponentially and he felt as though an electric shock were traversing his body. Waves of crackling purple sparks threatened to drown him. He screamed and pushed Veronica away from him forcefully.

“Barry, no!” she yelled, but Barry kicked himself up to a standing position. And suddenly everything went blue in his field of vision.