Accept no substitutes

A man secretly obtains an illegal sexual surrogate and loads it aboard his private space yacht despite the prohibitions of the Sexual Morality Act. A surprise visit from a customs inspector who is also an old acquaintance raises the possibility of a wider government investigation into recovered surrogates, but the inspector departs without enforcing a search. The man then travels far from Earth and prepares to activate the crate in isolation. Interwoven with his mounting anxiety is background on how engineered surrogates were developed to serve all-male frontier outposts, how they were later outlawed, and how forbidden desire and social regulation drive the risky choice to revive the device.