"Howlett, Whitlock, Merryweather," he lists. "Nobody else knows about alternate worlds."

[No idea,] Howlett says dryly.

[Welcome back. Your boyfriend stole your Hegemony.]

[He took very good care of it while I was indisposed,] corrects Aegis loftily, [and will give it over as soon as we know how not to traumatize the poor fuzzy dear.]

[Sure.]

[How've you been?]

[Just dandy, you?]

[I was only gone for a few days but I was in this insane world where causality doesn't work, it was not fun.]

[Doesn't sound it.]

[Yeah. There was a Bell in it and the place kinda stunted her growth.]

He snorts.

[I mean like psychologically. She's shorter than me, but they all are except the boy one on account of zero gee and good old Battle School Science Diet. Do you wanna come to the next Bellparty?]

[I've heard about those,] he says. [Not sure if I like what I heard, but maybe you have a different take.]

[Lotta Bells, lotta people Bells know, Glass says being a template is contagious so maybe you run into a surprise.]

[Uh-huh.]

[It'll be in the Belltower, I think; after twice no matter how safe we think Jane is there is no way we're putting that many people in one world at the same time again without a Jane-independent way to get home. Or maybe Sunshine will host, there's a Jarvis there and they can do Milliways doors.]

[Yeah, I've heard about Milliways, too.]

[I will be a while catching up on how in the know everybody is, I guess.]

[Guess so.]

[Yes?]

She decides to just go for it. [Turns out Pattern is dating your rockstar alt!]

[I didn't meet him, the reassembling peal left him in Rêverie before they found me and the rest of the welcoming committee, but apparently his name is Ripper and he is a rock star and Glass says he's a you.]

[Is that so,] he sighs.

[It is so! And most of the peal has now seen him naked, which has to have been weird. Shell Bell's doors are not as good a mechanism for getting places as Jane is when Jane is available.]

[...Noted.]

[Yeah, they walked in on Alice too. Anyway. How have you been in your not-a-rock-star-ness?]

[Continuing not to be a rock star, thank goodness.]

[Lucky you. I hope it was not a terrible disruption that I did not wind up installing a Jarvis station before I left.]

[I managed. But if you do still plan on installing such a station, I'd be happy to move there.]

[I will once it's clear how to fold it into eventual Hegemony transfer, public relations, et cetera, I don't want to screw things up. Glass has a Jarvis now too.]

[Best talk to the admiral about that. I'm sure you can work it out between you.]

[Sue being the admiral? I hope they haven't retroactively stripped my rank.]

[There are plenty of admirals. I've just taken to calling him that.]

[Okay. Yeah, we have a lot of figuring to do.]

[Best of luck.]