Time Thieves

the things she loved.
        
        So many of them…
        
        He nestled in her love and spent long minutes there, being cleansed and made pure.
        
        Sinless, he arose and ascended into her consciousness.
        
        What did the stars matter? What did alien creatures mean to him? What care had he for spaceships and robots, computer surgeons-or half a hundred other phantasmagorical gadgets and staggering concepts? They were as chaff to grain compared to what he and Della meant together. There was more wonder, more staggering concepts in their telepathic love-to-come than in all the stars together.
        
        At least, that would be the case for a hundred years or so, as the politin had warned. Maybe then, they would think about the stars. Meanwhile, they had inner space.
        
        “I love you,” he thought.
        
        She still slept; she did not respond.
        
        And so he woke her to begin.
     

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    [Released as “Ace double” with Susan K. Putney - Against Arcturus]
    [Scanned by BuddyDk - August 6 2003]
    [Original typos hasn’t been corrected]