A playful mental slap came down the line as she began to figure out how things functioned. "It's open, that's what the difference is. Your ShadowNet is open to outside connections and influences - even shielded, those human minds bring something to the network."

He took time to consider it. "Yes, I think you're right."

"But that also means," she pointed out, "this network can't retain information with the same efficiency as the PsyNet. Or can you still find data in this chaos?"

"Not without searching a whole heck of a lot. Easier to use computers." He laughed at her expression on the physical plane. "It can be useful in that way sometimes, but mostly, the ShadowNet is about feeding our psychic need for connection, for family."

"What about the biofeedback?" she asked, worry a jagged thread in her emotional signature. "I'm taking so much. If your network leaks energy - "

"It doesn't matter. Look around. We're overloading with it."

"You are, aren't you?" she murmured. "It's because you feed things back to each other, somehow increasing the output. Love goes out, love comes back, and the energy grows with each exchange . . ." Another pause. "Dev, the psychic pathways are different. It's as if my mind is slightly out of sync."

He knew that, had hoped she'd be able to navigate them. "Can you move along them?"

"Not easily or instinctively, but yes." Almost a minute of silence. "Actually, I think I'll enjoy the intellectual challenge. There's so much to explore."

In spite of her intrigued comments, he could feel her beginning to overload with the intensity of the emotions in the ShadowNet. Making a command decision, he bullied her back down to the physical plane.

"I wasn't finished," she almost growled at him.

He held her close. "You're exhausted."

"It was just so much input." She snuggled into him, tugging up his shirt to touch skin that tightened at the first brush of her fingertips. "The PsyNet is full of pure data - there are uncountable pieces flowing past every split second."

The Shine director in Dev could see the appeal. "You'd be able to know what was happening every minute of every day." That, he had to admit, would be highly useful.

"Yes. But it's cold. Data is always cold - it just exists. But the ShadowNet - each thread tells a story and each carries a different emotional flavor. I want to touch every one, know every one!"

"That, my beautiful Psy rebel," he said, speaking against the lush fullness of her lips, "will take at least a million years."

Husky feminine laughter, playful fingers dancing along the waistband of his jeans. "I guess I'll have to take it one kiss at a time."

PETROKOV FAMILY ARCHIVES

Letter dated May 5, 1995

Dearest Matthew,

Today, as I watched you promise to honor and cherish the woman you love, I saw the beginning of a dawn so bright, nothing will dare stand in its way. Our hope, our courage, our very heart carries on in your willingness to love, to be vulnerable, to hurt.

Those in the Net call us weak, but they're wrong. It's easy to ignore emotion, to bar the pathways of the soul. If I hadn't loved your father, his death wouldn't have forever broken a part of me. But if I hadn't loved your father, I'd never have known what it is to be human.

As the years pass, I hope you'll remember that, that your children's children will remember that. And when the shadows return, as they eventually will, remember this, too - we survived once. And we'll keep on surviving.

Nothing is stronger than the will of the human heart.

With all my love,

Mom