Aneka Jansen 5: The Greatest Heights of Honour by Niall Teasdale

over that.’
    Aneka frowned. It was not like Ella to leave her worrying until later. ‘What’s happening tonight?’
    ‘Tonight we’re going to Shin You?’
    That was surprising. ‘I figured you’d want me all to yourself tonight.’
    ‘Well, yeah, I do. But we have all weekend and I was told we were to go as soon as you got back, so tonight it’s Shin You.’
    ‘You were told, huh? Okay, I guess we can go if you were told…’
    Ella giggled. ‘It’s not going to be an entirely normal evening there anyway.’
    Aneka laughed. ‘Sure, we’re not going to get humped by dozens of men until quite late.’
    ~~~
    Shin You was exactly the sort of place that could not have existed in the world Aneka had come from, and which she would not have gone anywhere near if it had. The throbbing music was reminiscent of a dance club and there was dancing going on, but only as a prelude to other forms of rhythmic movement. Shin You was the only club in Yorkbridge devoted to sex pure and simple.
    As far as Aneka was concerned, that said two things. The one which most Jenlay pointed out was that Shin You demonstrated just how liberal Jenlay society was, and how safe. This was a club where people went to have sex with total strangers. A lot of total strangers in fairly rapid succession usually, in total safety and without any form of social censure. And that was true as far as it went, but what Aneka noticed was that Shin You was the only club of its type on New Earth. The Jenlay liked the place to show their tolerant attitude to all tastes, but the majority of them were not prepared to actually go there.
    Aneka only enjoyed herself there because Ella did. Sure, Jenlay were generally pretty good at making sex an enjoyable experience, and the patrons of Shin You got more practice than most. Sure, the atmosphere was kind of fun. She actually figured the more conservative Jenlay would enjoy the atmosphere, which was carefree and fun-loving, as well as sexually charged. Not erotic. Not to Aneka’s mind anyway. Eroticism needed something Shin You lacked: a sense of mystery.
    There were couples, threesomes, foursomes, and some piles of bodies and limbs on all sides as Aneka and Ella walked through from the entrance toward the dance floor. A few were naked; most were dressed in some form of clothing which did not limit access to the body beneath unduly. Aneka and Ella were appropriately dressed in micro-skirts and cropped tops, giving unrestricted access to groping hands, though to be fair Aneka had had worse experiences in Japanese nightclubs. No one bothered you in Shin You until you wanted to be bothered, and they were not looking like they wanted to be bothered just yet.
    ‘Do you see her?’ Ella asked, though her lips did not move. The voice came over an interlink between Ella’s computer implant and Aneka’s brain. It let them talk without talking, and it certainly saved overstressing the vocal cords.
    ‘Not yet,’ Aneka replied. ‘She’ll be in the back somewhere, past the dance floor.’
    ‘You mean, in the back where the heaviest stuff goes on?’
    ‘Yeah, but it’s a little darker and the people back there have taken more drugs. None of them are going to be paying anyone much attention aside from themselves and the person they’re fucking.’
    ‘True.’
    The drugs were not illegal, and they did not make you high, but they did tend to increase your focus, the sensitivity of your nerves, and your libido, while decreasing your inhibitions. Aneka was unsure why any of the patrons needed the last two. Maybe some people came to the club because they felt they wanted to but did not quite have the nerve for it once they got there.
    Something about the throb of the music made you horny anyway. It had some effect on Aneka, but not much. It always seemed to work exceptionally well on Jenlay, especially the women. Ella had said something about resonance effects on the clitoral tissues, but whatever it was, it tended to result in