"We seem to have established that the problem is not a disease," Sphere said. "And that the Makers are not defunct. This planet seems to be another world left behind by the active Makers. The few remaining intelligent ones are waiting for their contact."
"This may be the case," Gale agreed.
"We need to find those missing Makers."
Gale sighed. "I am not ready to commit to that."
"I value your assistance. What would persuade you to continue?"
Gale was not eager to continue, but neither did she want to stop. There might indeed be active advanced Makers at another site, and it would be folly to let the machines search for them alone. She didn't need to check with Voila or Idyll to know that this quest remained a vital nexus. The mission was not complete.
Then she got an idea. "I can not promise complete candor. There are secrets I must keep."
"Ditto." This startled her; Sphere had used a human colloquialism.
"Let me check back at Charm. I have a young daughter, and a husband, and things I must see to. You surely have similar duties. Let's separate, and meet in one day. Apart from our necessary secrets, bearing in mind we remain enemies, we can then rejoin and resume the search for modern Makers."
"Agreement."
"Do you wish to—"
"Affirmation."
So they indulged in one more episode of sex. Then she conjured them back to the ship for the return journey.
Chapter 27 Citadel
Shee. It was Gale's thought.
Gale, she answered.
Do not respond overtly. I have a mission for you that you may not like.
She remained as she was, outdoors practicing diffusion. She was learning all the Glamor abilities, though this particular one was a struggle. Question?
Background: I have been with a controlling machine, searching for the active Makers. I have an idea where they may be hiding. You are better equipped to continue the search, working with the machine. But you will need to masquerade as me.
Distress!
I suspect the Makers, if they exist, are hiding among the machines.
Then Shee saw the logic. She was a machine. As a Glamor and a machine, she could best search among the machines. But not openly; the machines would never accept that.
Question: can you trust a machine on such a mission?
I trust a Glamor on such a mission.
Answer enough. But there were problems. We must meet privately and work things out.
I will tell Havoc. He will cover for us.
Shee laughed mentally. He would rather uncover us.
He can survive with Monochrome and the bath girls for a few hours. It meant they could be free to do their own business without causing him distress. For a few hours; that time limit was not a joke.
Before long the two of them were in an isolated cabin in a desert outpost that hadn't been visited in years. Just to be sure, they spread a dissuasion net around it. No one would bother them.
"Situation," Gale said. "I have been with a controlling machine named Sphere who is in charge of the project for finding the remnant Makers, as they are called. The ones who fled their origin planet fifty thousand years ago, and for whom the machines have been searching ever since. The machines say they want only to serve all the Makers, and that may be true, but we can't afford to gamble that destruction is not the real objective. So we need to be there when the advanced Makers are found. I doubt that they exist, but there are Maker Dreamers on the remnant planet who seem to be awaiting their contact, so I can't say they don't exist. The machines need to know, and so do we."
"Agreement," Shee said.
"Sphere has a crush on me. He studied all the Glamors, and found me most appealing, so elected to work with me. As you know, the higher level machines have gender and can practice sex."
"I did have a suspicion," Shee said, smiling. She herself was a prime example.
"I flirted with Sphere, and seduced him, as a matter of demonstration and dominance, and he wants to continue with me. But I think you can better accomplish what we need."
"Seducing a machine?" Shee never forgot her nature, but now identified completely with the living Glamors.
"You seem to have proved yourself competent."
"Locating the site of the machines' Prime Directive. We need that."
"How could I locate it more effectively than you could?"
"It is surely a machine itself. That is, matter. You should be able to tune in on it, as part of your clientele."
"So I am to fool a machine into believing I am you, while nominally searching for Makers but actually searching for the site of the Prime Directive," Shee said.
"Agreement. You will have to have reasonably steady sex with him. He expects it, and it will keep him amenable.
Just like any male." That, too, was no joke. Women governed men by constantly seducing them, whether by minor exposures of their bodies or full scale eroticism. The men knew it, but were so eager for sex that they willingly cooperated.
"Problem," Shee said. "He carries your ikon."
Gale clapped her hand to her head, chagrined. "Oversight! I did not recover it."
"We must arrange to exchange it for mine."
"Concurrence. How? We can't just ask him for it. That would give away the exchange."
"Idea: have him pick you—me—up in a Chroma zone. A mortal can use local magic to exchange the ikons."
"Feasible," Gale agreed. "We'll have to camouflage yours to resemble mine. Fill in the gear teeth to make it into the mossball."
"Who?"
"What about Fifth? He's a good man who will do anything for me, especially if I flirt with him a bit. Not much; I don't want to annoy Flame."
"Fifth," Shee agreed. "So it must be a Black Chroma zone."
"I'll let Ennui know now," Gale said, concentrating momentarily. "Done." Anything any Glamor needed done properly in due course was assigned to Ennui, the most trusted mortal on the planet.
"Idea," Shee said, returning to the main business. "If the Makers are hiding among the machines, where better to hide than at the site of the Prime Directive? My background indicates that only Makers are admitted to its presence, apart from routine servitors who protect and maintain it. I suspect no Maker from the original planet has bothered in recent millennia, but that would not change the directive. They could go there without being challenged."
"But then wouldn't their presence be known to the machines?"
"Not if they issued a directive to conceal it. The machines would obey Makers implicitly. I would. Or would have, before I turned Glamor. Had the knowledge of them been in my data bank."
Gale nodded. "This is better yet. All you need to do is verify it. Failure to find Makers there won't invalidate your discovery of the site."
"However, if I am to emulate you, there are challenges. I will need to learn to play your hammer dulcimer. If you emulate me, you will need to play my shells."
Gale produced her dulcimer and put on the finger hammers. "Thus." Her fingers rippled across the strings, evoking a lovely melody.
"Thus," Shee agreed, bringing out her shells and squeezing them to make a similar melody.
"Now we exchange," Gale said.
They exchanged instruments and tried again. But now Shee produced a discordant noise, while Gale made sounds like indigestion on the toilet. Both burst out laughing.
They worked at it, singing and playing songs until they were each able to do at least a moderately melodic background accompaniment that should pass with uncritical audiences. "You probably won't have to perform anyway" Gale said.