"Unless your smitten machine wants me to lull him to sleep."
"It's the price of dominance."
They laughed again, and went on to perfect Shee's emulation of Gale. "Final exam," Gale said.
"Emulate me, and fool Havoc."
"But you have already informed him of our exchange."
"Expletive! He'll be alert. Can't have that."
"Idea," Shee said. "We'll both go, as you, and he must identify the real one."
"He'll read our minds and know immediately."
"Closed minds, of course."
"He has a fifty percent chance regardless. He could make a lucky guess."
They discussed it, and came up with a three part test. Gale notified Ennui. Then they conjured to the royal bedroom. Havoc was there, having received word from Ennui.
Both of them were in Gale's likeness. "Havoc," Shee said. "Shee is going to emulate me in a mission among the machines. We need to be certain her emulation is realistic, and also mine of her. You must judge our correct identities in three instances. If we can fool you, we should be good enough to fool anyone else."
"So tell us," Gale said. "Which one of us is me?"
Havoc gazed at them. "Strip."
Both stripped and stood naked before him.
He approached Shee, enfolded her, and kissed her. Then he did the same for Gale, also squeezing her bottom. "Objection!" Shee protested. "You didn't squeeze my bottom." Havoc returned to squeeze hers.
"You are Shee."
Was it a guess? "How do you know."
"Gale would not have protested. She would have waited until she had a chance to fondle some man's bottom in my presence, to get back at me."
Shee looked at Gale. "Got me there," Gale said. "Make a note to be less reactive and more vengeful."
"Noted," Shee agreed. It was a useful lessen. At least Havoc had not been able to tell by appearance or feel.
"Turn around, Havoc," Gale said.
He turned, cooperating with their test. They both assumed the likeness of Shee.
Havoc clasped, kissed, and squeezed them both again. Then he led Gale to the bed. He stroked her, and she responded, and soon they were in the throes of sex. Shee, watching, was turned on. She had always been eager for sex with Havoc, but since becoming a Glamor she had wanted it far more, with him or any acceptable man.
Havoc finished with Gale, then took Shee. They had glorious sex.
"You are Shee," he said as they concluded.
"Expletive! How do you know?"
"You are identical outside, but not inside. Your patterns of reaction differ. Gale squeezes uniformly; you squeeze rhythmically. I like both, but know the difference."
"Got us again," Gale said. "That one must be corrected for Sphere."
"Affirmation," Shee agreed.
For the third trial they were one of each. Havoc had to judge whether they were themselves or each other.
He glanced at them, then wrote something on a bit of paper and set it aside. He came to them, put his arms around both, and drew them into him together. He kissed and fondled their mouths, their breasts, and their bottoms. He put them both on their backs on the bed, lifted their knees, spread their legs, and licked their exposed clefts. Then he mounted and entered Shee, withdrew, entered Gale, withdrew, jetted into Shee, cut it off, and jetted into Gale. Finally he hauled them both onto him like adjacent blankets, their breasts pressing against him on either side.
"Verdict?" Gale asked.
"Excellent, both."
"Identities," Shee said with tolerant sharpness.
"See the paper."
Shee got up and fetched the paper. On it was written YOU ARE EXCHANGED.
"But you hadn't even touched us!" Gale said.
"You are practicing emulation. You would get no practice as yourselves."
"Then why all this on the bed?" Shee asked.
"It's a real turn-on to do one woman pretending to be another, and more to do both together."
"We would have done it anyway, had you asked," Gale said.
"It is twice as sweet when obtained by trickery."
They exchanged a glance, then went to work on him together. Shee pinned his face against her Gale-breasts while Gale rode his penis with her Shee cleft. Then, as he went into orgasm, she quickly got off, letting him spout into space. They had punished him for his insolence.
But they had also perfected their emulations. Havoc admitted he could no longer tell which was which, outside or inside. That was the point of the exercise.
At the same time, they too had wanted the sex, so it was a tacit collaboration between the three of them. As they said so often, there was something about Havoc.
Sphere's ship arrived exactly on schedule. He used the wormhole to appear beside Pyramid. Gale and Shee were tuning in telepathically.
Ennui was there to meet him. "Queen Gale is occupied in a Black Chroma zone at the moment, and regrets being tardy. I am to conduct you there."
The spherical machine took this in stride, as it were. "Acceptance."
Ennui guided him to the fringe of the nearby Blue Chroma zone, where they entered a coach carried by a giant animal. Soon they were at the fringe of the Black Chroma zone. Within it was a bunker where several children of assorted Chroma stood. Shee, emulating Gale, was with them.
The children looked frightened when they saw the sphere. "Safe," Shee said. "I know this machine." She walked up to Sphere and kissed the top of him. "Greeting, Sphere."
"Respond," Ennui murmured.
"Greeting, Queen Gale," Sphere said.
"There was a surprise inruption," Shee said. "These tourists children were separated from their families, as there was not room for them all in one bunker. I came to reassure them. But now the inruption is over. Apology for delaying you."
"Needless," Sphere said.
Shee looked across the swept landscape. "Ah, there they are now." She waved to the people emerging from other bunkers. "Here!" she called. "They are safe."
"Gratitude, Queen Gale," a Green Chroma parent said.
"Welcome."
Soon the families, reunited, moved on.
"You did not lose my ikon?" Shee inquired teasingly.
The sphere projected an arm and hand holding the ikon.
"Wonderful!" Shee exclaimed, embracing the sphere on the side away from the ikon. She kissed the surface again.
And while the machine was distracted by that contact, Fifth magically switched ikons. Now the masked gear was where the mossball had been.
Then Shee made the rest of Gale's rendezvous with Sphere, conjuring them both to his ship. He had it ready with a compatible pressurized chamber, shifting to human form, with food and couch.
"You care for the welfare of your subjects," he said. "I am coming to understand that. It is an aspect of your gentle living female nature."
"Clarification," she said. "I do care. But my association with you is of a different nature. You know I seduced you as an exercise of power, demonstrating dominance."
"Agreement," he said meekly.
"You know that I love only Havoc, my first and only true passion, and always will. All else is dross."
"Agreement."
"That you can never be more than a passing no fault dalliance for me."
"Understanding."
"That I am your enemy and will seek information to aid the living cultures against the machines."
"Known."
"That I maintain certain secrets I will not share with you, though I will not deceive you in any way that would violate our truce."
"Accepted."
"With that understanding, I am yours for the duration of this mission, simulated pleasure and all to the extent you wish." She opened her arms to him.
He came to her immediately and put his arms around her. "We remain enemies," he said. "I represent the machines and support their side throughout. The outcome of this war is as yet undecided. But I, like all controlling sapient machines, am crafted to relate well to high-level living creatures like the Makers or their equivalents. You are certainly equivalent; on the personal level you have already defeated me. When you kissed me in your Black Chroma zone I was aware of nothing else, though I know it was merely to reassure the children. I crave as much of your simulated pleasure as you will grant me."