"The Makers set us up that way. The lowest level functionaries are neuter, but all machines above a certain threshold are gendered. It is the standard pattern."
"And you do not question what the Makers established?"
"We can not question, only obey."
"Remain intact," she said. "But don clothing and settle down." Sphere had won this round by not balking, and his answers seemed honest. That triggered some unwilling respect.
Clothing appeared. Sphere dressed as another easy chair formed. He sat in it.
"Why did you send the robots?" she asked as she continued sipping her drink. "Demonstration. Persuasion. Accommodation."
"They have all become lovers. Even the five bath girls Havoc stole. He enjoys them." Would that nettle the machine?
"They are a tiny fraction of the service we can render your species, if you give us what we want."
"My daughter Voila."
"Agreement."
"It is quite unlikely that Voila will join you."
"Disagreement. Our view of the future suggests that we will work together."
Gale had to suppress her annoyance, lest the machine's baiting score a point. She changed the subject. "Shee is now a Glamor."
"Agreement. We are surprised. We thought such a thing impossible."
"Glamors specialize in the impossible. You sent Shee as an example of what you could do. We made her a Glamor as an example of what we can do." Take that, machine.
"Glamors can do what machines can not. A machine Glamor is a most interesting artifact."
"So it seems your warning has been reversed."
"Glamors are our primary perplexity. We are unable to account for them, and do not know how to handle them. We distrust things we don't understand."
This was unusual candor. "This is why you treat us with respect."
"Correct. At first we thought that if a Glamor performed when we could record the magic flux involved, we could fathom the mechanism. But it became evident that the mechanism is beyond our fathoming. We have no alternative except to work with Glamors."
"Much as the prospect pains you."
"Agreement." Again that lack of response to irony.
"We will not help you destroy all other life in the galaxy."
"That destruction will stop when we find the Makers."
Which was of course the ultimate power play. It was like a madman killing innocent hostages until the authorities agreed to his demands. Unfortunately there was no higher authority in the galaxy. Except, possibly, the remnant Makers. Who it seemed would not intervene.
"The Makers are surely aware of it, and know that they can stop it merely by identifying themselves and letting you serve them. Why do you suppose they do not?"
"They do not wish to become flaccid in the manner of those who remained behind."
"For that independence they will sacrifice a galaxy?"
"We doubt it. They must inevitably be found, for we are checking every culture. Then we will have their rationale."
Just as the machines had checked Charm, with the fifths, the memory project, scout boats, and the robots. To be sure the Makers were not there. The machines were thorough. Surely they would eventually find the Makers, even if they had to destroy every other living culture to do it. The machines had no compassionate limits.
By similar token, the machines were not bound to tell the truth about their motives. They could want to locate the Makers to destroy them, and if the Makers knew that, no wonder they did not make themselves known, even to save the galaxy.
Gale tried another tack. "You knew the Makers for tens of thousands of years before that contingent departed, and the remaining ones for another fifty thousand years. You have not learned how they think?"
He still did not react to her barbs. "The ones that left are different. We do not fathom their thought. That is why we need them."
"Yet they reject you. It must be supremely frustrating."
"Acquiescence."
Gale was exploring near future paths as they talked. Most were dull. A few were interesting. She followed up on an interesting one. This would really force an issue. "If you could have anything at all, at this time, Sphere, what would it be?"
"The successful completion of this mission." Wrong path. "Apart from that."
The machine paused. That was unusual. He was searching his mind for the answer to a question he had never anticipated. That was of course why she had asked it.
Finally he spoke. "I would choose to experience genuine emotion."
"I can't give you that. But I can perhaps give you a simulated emotion. Maybe that will be a guide to some subsequent real emotion."
"We have simulated emotions. They are programmed. Pleasure in service is a primary one. But we know they are not what living creatures experience."
She was getting interested in spite of her hostility. "I am not sure of that. Emotions in living creatures are the product of stimulated spot chemistry. Emotions in machines are stimulated spot circuits. They may differ in origin, but not necessarily in application."
"Conceded." He was trying to avoid confrontation. He needed her cooperation for his mission, so sought to avoid alienating her.
She felt no obligation to avoid a quarrel. She had a tactical advantage, and she intended to exploit it. "You are male. Do you have male drives? Such as for sexual interplay with a female?"
"Those circuits are available for invocation at need."
Just as the empathy circuit was for Shee and Ikon. Once invoked, it did not allow them to cancel it. Could sexual desire be a similar trap?
Most paths were dull. Only one suited her purpose. Gale wished she could see beyond a few minutes, to understand the long-range complications. She would just have to play it through and find out.
Gale stood and removed her clothing. "Look at me, Sphere. I am a beautiful human woman. You are in assumed human form, and of the male gender. It is natural for you to desire me. Invoke that circuit." Half the newly opening paths had him balking. Those were the dull ones.
"As you request."
"Strip and come to me."
He did. His penis was coming erect; he did desire her.
"Kiss me."
He did so. He felt completely masculine.
"Handle me."
He stroked her breasts and bottom. His member became rigid. The machines were crafted to react the way living members of the species would. "Now what do you most desire?"
"To possess you. I state this reluctantly as you are unclean living flesh."
Victory. She did not want to have sex with him either, but her desire to embarrass him, to the extent possible with a machine, prevailed. She got on the seat, which straightened into a bed. "Possess me," she said, spreading her legs.
He got on the bed with her. He oriented his member, ready to enter her, but paused.
"Problem?" Was he balking at last? The paths remained split, and she could not be sure because the selection was now up to him. "I am unable to complete the act."
"Frustrating?"
"Agreement!"
Then she remembered. It wasn't his aversion to the act. "It is the ikon. You can't touch my core when it is in your core. Put it in a hand and extend the hand from your body, away from me."
One arm sank back into his torso. Then it emerged, holding the ikon. He held it well to the side.
Gale drew him down and helped his member enter. Then he thrust, once, and shuddered, experiencing the programmed orgasm.
She guided him, rolling him over so that she bestrode him, still connected, so that his greater weight would not crush her. She kissed him again. "Emotion?"
"Love!" This was marvelously accurate programming, for human men did tend to react to sex this way.
"Does this seem unreal?"
"Negation!"
"But I am your enemy." She was needling him.
"I would prefer this status be ameliorated. You have stirred an unfamiliar reaction."