“Hi Dad! Hi Mom. It’s me, Shep,” he said.

  “Good enough,” Sherman said, as if there had been no doubt. He was normally a man of few words.

  Zandra didn’t bother to conceal her relief. She caught Shep by the shoulders and kissed him.

  “How did you get along with Brian Peterson?” Shep asked.

  “That boy’s going to make a fine musician,” Sherman said. “If he can persuade his folks.”

  “He can persuade them,” Shep said. “Elen and I prepared the way. We even did recitals.”

  “Elen, the elf girl?” Zandra said. “You will have to tell us all about how you got married.”

  “Obviously he knocked her up, then had to marry her,” Sherman said gruffly.

  Shep laughed. “I did, technically, but it wasn’t like that. We fell in love first. Yes, her name is Elen. She’s some woman.” That reminded him. “You found an exchange host for her?”

  “Actually the host found us,” Sherman said. “She’s the lawyer’s daughter.”

  “The lawyer’s daughter! And he is allowing it?”

  “He recommended it. It’s that she has conflicting ambitions. One is to be a super-high-power attorney like her dad, and it seems she has the drive and talent. The other is to live a rustic country life far from the tensions of civilization and have a normal family. She thought she couldn’t have both, but now maybe she can. Six months here, six months there.”

  “She does know Elen’s five months pregnant, and will give birth during her tenure there?”

  “She knows the essence. It seems that’s another thing: she can’t be a high-power attorney and have a family. Not on Earth. But on the Colony she can have a baby, and time for it, with guaranteed no sudden business calls. She’s ready to give it a try.”

  This sounded good, but Shep was wary. “I need to meet her first.”

  “She’ll be here tomorrow,” Zandra said. “She’s a marvelous young woman.”

  “And quite pretty,” Sherman said.

  “And what is this business about Colony Planet Jones in the Earth news?”

  “The lawyer will fill you in properly,” Sherman said. “But we can tell you that Congress is about to pass a law making that planet a tourist resort, where rich folk can go by exchange and make out with native girls and shoot wild sheep. That sort of thing.”

  Shep stared at them in horror. “That must not be!”

  “It is very likely to be,” Sherman said. “The moneyed interests are behind it.”

  “Dad, those sheep are telepathic and precognitive.”

  Sherman laughed. “Lotsa luck with that one, son.”

  Shep realized that this was going to be a hard sell. He had not believed it himself, until repeated experience had satisfied him. Without actual sheep to prove his case, he was unlikely to get far. But shooting the sheep? He had to stop that.

  Then it came to him: this was why the sheep had chosen him. So he could return to Earth and argue their case. So they would not be slaughtered. They might not be smart enough to make such a plan, but they had known that he was the one they had to cultivate to prevent later disaster. Now all he had to do was prevent the special interests from passing that law.

  He dropped the matter. Maybe Elen, when she arrived here, would be able to help. Maybe they would be able to persuade the lawyer, who would then know what to do. Certainly it was beyond Shep’s immediate competence.

  He settled back into the family routine, acclimatizing. There was plenty to readjust to without arousing open skepticism about his sanity.

  In the morning he dressed well and was ready to meet the lawyer’s daughter. Even so, he was taken back. She was a strikingly beautiful and well fleshed with flaring black hair to her waist.

  “I am Mona Maverick,” she said, smoothly taking up the slack of his silence. “You must be Shep Shepherd.”

  “Yes,” he said. “I was frankly stunned by your appearance. You are not what I expected.”

  “You expected a string-bean horse-faced female with her nose stuck in a legal book?”

  He had to smile. “Something like that. Come in; you need to meet my family too.”

  Shep’s parents were as impressed as he was. Mona was alert and gracious, quite comfortable with the situation. “I’m sure we’ll get along,” she said. “Or at least, my body will.”

  After brief dialogue, Mona faced Shep. “While I realize that the judgment of my suitability as host for your beloved is your decision, I do have a stipulation. I want you to meet my friend Elasa.”

  “Elasa? I don’t recognize the name.”

  “Elasa Thompkins. She is my closest friend. I want her to be my guardian during my absence, to see that my body is properly maintained.”

  “I would never abuse—”

  “Of course not,” she agreed. “But you and my body will be lovers. Elasa knows something about absent minds, we are very close, and I trust her judgment. You will like her.”

  Was she trying to palm him off on her friend? He would not go for that. “Whether I like her is irrelevant.”

  “No. She will be seeing my body often, and therefore you as well. There is another aspect we’ll clarify soon. The two of you must get along, if this is to work out.”

  Better to play along and find out what it entailed. “Yes, I should meet her.”

  Mona took him in her car to another address. It was a simple home, and Elasa turned out to be a moderately pretty woman with brown hair, gray eyes, a well filled bosom, and a baby boy. She had been expecting them, and invited them in immediately. “My husband’s at work,” she said. “I do have available time. This is my son Bela.” She looked Shep in the eye. “As I understand it, your Colony wife will occupy Mona’s body and be your lover here on Earth.”

  “Yes.” It seemed that he needed to persuade Elasa that her friend would not be abused. “That is at least the beginning of it.”

  “Not the whole of it?”

  “It gets complicated.”

  “Please,” Elasa said. “We want to know.”

  The baby, Bela, stirred. Elasa unselfconsciously opened her shirt and put his face to her left breast. No wonder she was full there; she was nursing!

  But Shep had material to cover. He let them have it. “My wife Elen is an elf on Colony Jones. That is, of human stock, but small in stature. She taught me many things, and I now have beliefs that I never had before.”

  “Beliefs?”

  “There are wild sheep there, not like those of Earth. They protect themselves with knife-like bones that project from their bodies when they are attacked, so are considered dangerous, except that they don’t attack people. All they want is to be left alone. So people try to ignore them; that’s best. But I learned that they have other abilities, such as telepathy.”

  He waited for their looks of disbelief, but they didn’t come. “Telepathy is one of those things that seem possible, but have not yet been persuasively demonstrated,” Elasa said. “How do you know this about them?”

  “I was with a small flock of ewes for a month. They not only persuaded me and Elen to join them, they recruited a vulture and a python no assist. None of these animals were intelligent in the human sense, but were enabled to cooperate in the journey by the minds of the sheep. For example, when I made a rope bridge to span a chasm, the vulture carried the lead rope across. There’s no way an untrained wild bird would have done what without having the notion projected to its limited mind. The sheep evidently got it from my mind and sent it to the vulture’s mind. There were similar incidents with the python. Telepathy made these wild creatures compatible.”

  Mona was intensely interested. “Sheep like that need to be closely studied.”

  “Yes. But there is more. The sheep are precognitive.” He waited again for their open disbelief, but again it did not come. “You are accepting this?”

  Elasa moved the baby to her right breast. “Similarly strange things happen.”

  “Not on Earth,” Shep said.

  “On Earth too,” Elasa said firmly.

  “My father did some research, and found indications,” Mona said. “He is interested in unusual things that might have legal complications. That is why he suggested that I become your wife’s host.”

  “So you could investigate for yourself!” Shep exclaimed.

  “That, too. Such a discovery would be a phenomenal breakthrough. What is your evidence for precognition?”

  Shep, relieved to have an accepting audience, told them in detail. “But if they start shooting sheep,” he concluded, “there will be no breakthrough. Somehow we have to get this stopped.”

  “And we can’t wait for my investigation,” Mona agreed. “But we need more substantial evidence than your word. I mean no offense.”

  “Elen will endorse everything I have said.”

  “I’m sure she will. But would this cause members of Congress, who owe their offices to special interests like those that are pushing for this legislation, to change their minds?”

  “I doubt it,” Shep said. “Frankly, I don’t know what to do.”

  “Father will know,” Mona said.

  “That’s why we asked for a lawyer. We knew we would need someone competent to handle our interplanetary marriage. Now it seems that need has magnified.”

  “Yes. You will meet my father this afternoon,” Mona said. “Now we must get our personal business aligned.”

  “Whether you really want to exchange to a woman who is five months pregnant, and birth her baby,” Shep said. “I will understand if you don’t.”

  “Oh, but I do. My closeness with Elasa has impressed on me the joys of motherhood. This is a way for me to experience them without permanent commitment.” She glanced at Elasa, still nursing. “I am jealous. I want to bear and nurse my baby. But I can’t if I am to pursue my career. This is a unique compromise that allows me to have the best of both worlds.”

  Shep shook his head. “I am not a woman. I don’t face that particular choice.”

  “There is more,” Mona said. “Just as Elasa will watch over my body while I am away, we want your wife to watch over Elasa’s body, since I will be unable to do it.”

  Perplexed, Shep looked at Elasa. “You have a medical condition? I’m sure Elen will help in any way she can. But she will not be familiar with Earth, and she will be taking math courses. She may not have much time.”

  “Not exactly,” Elasa said. She handed the baby to Mona, leaving her breasts exposed. “But I am not the way I appear.”

  “You appear to me to be a complete woman.”

  Mona kissed Bela, who evidently liked her company. “Oh, she is, she is.”

  “Observe, please.” Elasa put her fingers to her cleavage, pulling against the inner slops of her breasts. Then the breasts swung outward as though hinged, showing a metallic chamber where her lungs should be.

  Shep stared. “You had reconstructive surgery? But your chest is hollow!”

  “More than that,” Elasa said. She put her right hand on her left hand, and twisted. The left hand came off, leaving a bloodless stump for a wrist.

  “I don’t understand,” Shep said. “Were you in a terrible accident, and have prosthetics?”

  “Worse,” Mona said. She was holding Bela to face his mother, and he was not at all disturbed. He must have seen this before.

  “Worse?” he asked blankly.

  Elasa put her left hand back in place and twisted it on. It functioned; she spread her fingers and made a little fist. Then she raised both hands to her head. She took hold of her ears, twisted, and lifted. Her head came off.

  Bela laughed. He must have seen this show before too.

  Shep thought he was going to faint. Then at last he caught on. “You’re a robot!”

  Elasa made the head nod. Then she set it back on her neck and twisted it into place. She took a breath, as she had been unable to speak with her head off. “I am,” she agreed. “A conscious female humanoid robot, or femdroid. My details are subject to change without notice, which can amuse my husband.”

  Shep could imagine why. “But—but how could you nurse?”

  “My breasts are separate functioning units.” She put her hands on them and closed her chest. Once again she looked like a living and quite sexy woman. She closed up her shirt.

  “On rare occasion her awareness vacates,” Mona said. “Then she is no longer a legal person, and her baby and husband reject her. It is a crisis.”

  “A crisis,” Shep agreed, awed.

  “If it happens while I am away, Elen will have to help. To cover for her, hold her baby, and get her safely isolated. With luck it won’t happen, or if it does, won’t last long. As with a computer glitch; resetting can often fix it.”

  “The reset switch is under my chin,” Elasa said. “But this is a private matter best attended to by a friend.”

  Shep was bemused. “Are you sure you want to be away?” he asked Mona.

  “Oh, yes. The risk to Elasa is small, and I must take this opportunity. But we felt it was necessary for you to know, and for your wife to know, just in case.”

  “Just in case,” Shep agreed weakly. He had thought the sheep were strange?

  “Now on to another detail,” Mona said. “As you see, Bela accepts me. I am his godmother; indeed, I am his genetic mother. But when I go he will know, and be concerned. Elen will have to make his acquaintance directly. He is shy around strangers, but friendly enough once he knows them.”

  Shep worked it out. “So that if Elasa should, well, glitch, and Bela rejects her, Elen will be able to take him without a problem. Because he will know her, apart from the body she is in.”

  “Yes,” Elasa said. “It is a small safety net.”

  “Meanwhile I will be having the experience of birthing, nursing, and nurturing my body’s baby,” Mona said. “Just as Elen will have the experience of sharing her body’s baby. Parallel experiences, essential to both of us, and to the babies.”

  “I appreciate that,” Shep said.

  “You need to get to know Bela too,” Mona said. “Take him.” She held the baby out.

  “But I know nothing about—” He broke off. Obviously he would have to learn, both here on Earth and on the Colony planet when he returned there with Elen. He took the baby.

  Bela wriggled uncomfortably. “You’re holding him wrong,” Mona said quickly. “Don’t let him dangle. Put a hand under his bottom.” She guided his hand.

  Now that he was comfortable, Bela was satisfied to remain. He must have been passed to a number of other people on occasion; many folk liked to hold a baby.

  But in a moment Bela became restless. Elasa reached out and took him back. “That’s all right; he doesn’t know you yet, but he didn’t reject you.”

  “You and Elen will really enjoy changing diapers,” Mona said mischievously.

  Elasa looked surprised. “I just received a message: there was a cancellation, and they are moving up your transfer, Mona. The tech will be here within the hour.”

  Shep realized that because Elasa was a machine, she had integral communication circuits. She could answer the phone without moving or talking.

  “But I haven’t yet introduced Shep to my father,” Mona protested.

  Elasa smiled. “So are you going to tell them no, you changed your mind?”

  “No way! But you’ll have to introduce Shep to my father.”

  “I will do that,” Elasa agreed. “Do you want to hold Bela when you exchange?”

  “So he can tune in on it? Maybe that’s best.”

  The tech arrived with the equipment. Mona took her seat, holding the baby. Shep watched somewhat nervously. Would Mona really transform into Elen?

  “Ten, nine,” the tech counted. “...three, two, one, time.”

  Bela’s expression changed. Startled he looked at Mona’s face.

  “Oh, a baby!” she exclaimed, and kissed him.

  “He didn’t fuss,” Elasa murmured. “That’s a good sign.”

  “Elen?” Shep asked. “I’m Shep.”

  “Shep!” she said, looking up. Then down at the baby. “But who—?”

  “Mine,” Elasa said, taking Bela. “I am Elasa, Mona’s friend. Mona is your host; she is now in your body on Colony Jones.”

  “Yes, of course,” Elen said, standing. “Is this really Earth?”

  “It really is,” Shep said, taking her in his arms.

  “Oh, I’m so relieved! I know it’s routine, but I feared—never mind.” She put her face to his and kissed him ardently. It was Elen, all right.

  They led her to a mirror so she could see her new body. She gazed at it, amazed. “I’m so big, all around! At least I kept my hair.”

  “We have a whole lot of explaining to do,” Shep said.

  “Right now? I had hoped...” She trailed off, looking at him.

  “Use my bedroom,” Elasa said. “The rest can wait that long.”

  “Oh, to freshen up?” Shep said. “I’ll wait.”

  “Get in there, idiot,” Elasa said, shoving him after Elen.

  Oh. In moments they were naked on the bed, making wild love. Her vagina gripped his member, grasping it in the way Elen’s had. If he had had any lingering doubt about her identity, that erased it. She was doing the holddown on him.

  Then they lay beside each other, holding hands. “I missed you so much,” Elen said.

  “And I missed you,” he said, realizing that it was true. He had been too busy to think about it, and it had been only a day, but his enormous relief at being back with her, in whatever body, confirmed it.

  Then they cleaned up, dressed, and rejoined Elasa.

  “Congratulations on your bonding,” Elasa said. “Now you both know it’s real.”

  “I hardly know you, but I like you already,” Elen said. “You understand.”

  “Elasa is a most unusual woman,” Shep said. Then they set about telling her. And showing her.

  “Earth has its wonders,” Elen agreed, impressed.

  Chapter 9:

  Prophecy

  Elasa took them to the hotel where the lawyer, Moncho Maverick, was staying. He was an impressive man in his 40s with a penetrating gaze and assured manner. Elasa kissed him at the outset. He was the one who had won her suit for legal personhood, and it seemed they remained close. “Shep Shepherd, and Elen Elf,” she said. “Or Mr. and Mrs. Shepherd.”