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"I used to know all of them." Simon's voice was ruefully amused. "I read half a dozen star charts as part of the arsenal of information Negri installed in me when I got the chip. All the names, the numbers, the classifications... I remember I hoped it would impress girls."
Alys laughed. Actually, she giggled, probably as a result of that fourth cocktail. Simon wasn't sure why she had insisted on having fruit on little sticks in them all, but he'd been willing to humour her. "And did it?"
"No. Quite the contrary. Scared the wits out of them."
"Fools," Alys remarked cheerfully. They stretched out on the blanket and gazed at the peaceful blackness, listening to the quiet splash of the waves breaking on the waterline. Somewhere, of course, there would be an ImpSec squad, hopefully very bored, theoretically protecting them from large waves and marauding seagulls.
"I never learned any real astronomy," Alys said, "but I do know those are the Lovers." Her pointing finger sketched two parallel lines in the sky, a loose connection of stars.
"Really? I don't think I ever knew the constellations. Not scientific enough, I suppose." Simon gazed at the shapes the stars made, trying to see a pair of lovers stretched out in the sky. "Funny. Since the chip was taken out, it's been a lot easier to pick out what's important from what's not. I used to be drowning in a flood of detail, but now I can see the outlines instead."
His hand traced the outline of the woman beside him, and the lovers on the shore mirrored the lovers in the sky, and neither pair paid any attention to the ImpSec observers.