Ditto, Symbol thought. I'm so turned on I'm dripping.
The Bee-chines continued, busily doing what they did.
After five minutes, Monochrome got off and Shee got on. So now it was robot on robot, and the orgasm continued uninterrupted. The odd thing here was that Shee connected facing away from him, first sitting, then lying, her back on his chest. Yet she kept his penis in and working. She reached down to catch his hands and put them on her breasts, which rose and fell with her fast breathing. So she didn't really need to breathe; she did it for verisimilitude. It was the sexiest show yet. She was definitely doing it, but why this way?
Because this is not the real Havoc, Gale's thought came. She is true to him. This signals her participation as a job rather than from any delusion that he is her love.
Facing away, symbolically as well as physically. Could Weft herself do that? It was worth considering.
Weird, Symbol thought. I wish it was me there.
The Bee-chines continued, and a few of them climbed also on Shee. They did not enter her head; they merely sat on it, perhaps communicating. They knew her from before.
Then the Bees got off Shee and exited the Havoc robot, closing up the panels and departing.
Shee sat up, squeezed one more pulse from the member in her, then lifted off. The deed was done.
The robot sat up. "May I invoke it now?" he asked.
"Warning," Shee said. "Once you do, you will not want to turn it off."
He shrugged. "Pointless to have it, if I don't try it."
"Negation," Weft murmured. She didn't want him to try this in public.
His expression changed. "But I think not yet."
"Echo," Shee said. "Caution is best. I never turned mine off."
"Time for the flower bath," Gale said briskly. "We will give you plenty of feeling to mirror." She led him to a giant closed flower, and parted the petals to take him inside. She beckoned to the others.
Soon they all crowded in. The flower was like a living chamber, with powder everywhere. The moment it touched their skins, they all were suffused with lust.
"The others first," Gale said. Immediately the bath girls surrounded him, kissing, stroking, and taking him into them while standing, a few thrusts for each in turn. Then the mundane girl, whose name was Opaline, still plainly awed. Then Gale again, and Monochrome, and Shee.
I'm getting an orgasm without touching anything, Symbol thought.
Suddenly it was Weft's turn. She was so turned on by the sight and the powder that she practically launched herself at him.
And realized through his aura that this was the real Havoc. Somewhere along the way they had exchanged him for the robot, maybe as they entered the flower chamber. That was why the first three had done it again: it was a new man, and of course none of them could pass up the real Havoc. So Havoc really had been with nine ardent women all at once. And Weft was the tenth.
She couldn't. She did something she had never done before. She exchanged places with the real Symbol. Suddenly she was at Symbol's home, with her children. In the process she had reverted to her own form.
"Your mother was called away for a little while," she said as the children gazed at her, surprised. "I'm your babysitter."
They adjusted rapidly. Soon Weft was playing with them as if this had been planned. But her mind was on the flower bath. If only she had had the guts to stay with it!
Then she picked up Symbol's mind. Symbol wasn't telepathic, but had left her mind open for Weft's continuing contact. I'm done here. Glorious!
Weft switched them back. She was standing outside the flower chamber, and only Havoc remained. No, it was the robot. "Confusion," he said. "I was to meet Weft."
And she still emulated Symbol. "Affirmation," she said, reverting to her natural appearance.
"I was about to enter the flower, when I found myself at the palace. Ennui was there. She told me to wait. I did. Now I am here, and don't know what happened."
Weft put her hand on his arm and conjured them both to Counter Charm, back in the bedroom scene. "We have to talk," she said.
"Agreement. I hope you will explain."
"Confirmation."
"Request: since I am programmed to desire you, but it seems we are not to have sex at this time, please diminish your provocation."
"Done." She changed to a relatively severe outfit that eliminated any suggestion of sexual allure. Her hair was bound starkly back, she was in a business suit, and her heavy skirt reached her ankles. "The ladies were playing a trick on Havoc. They switched him for you, after your business was done, and he had to have sex with all of them together.
That was why you had to be away from the scene."
"Surprise! Did you participate?"
"Negation. I switched with Symbol, his former mistress, then returned when that was done. Just after they switched you back."
"Realization: that was why you looked like Symbol."
"Affirmation. Now their game is over, and we are back with each other."
"I am glad to be with you," he said.
"But since you emulate Havoc, don't you desire Gale?"
"I do, and Monochrome, and Shee, and the bath girls. The sex those three gave me was marvelous. But I also desire you. In fact I desire you more than I do any of them. It is my guilty passion."
So the machines assumed that Havoc had such a passion for her, and were playing on it. But why emulate him in that? What the robot did would not directly affect the real Havoc. So she asked him: "Why did the machines send you to me?"
"Candor?"
"Affirmation."
"There is something Havoc will do. A search he will lead. But he is in danger of being distracted.
The machines want him to complete that search."
"Details: what kind of search?"
"Long ago there was a living species we now know only as the Makers. They made the first robots, then departed. The machines need to find them, but they are difficult to locate. The far future paths indicate that the best prospect for locating the Makers is the human Glamors. If they find the Makers, then so will the machines."
The machines certainly were current! Only very recently had the Glamors learned about the Makers. "Why should we tell the machines, if we found the Makers? The machines want to destroy them."
"I am not informed. But the machines will know."
"How will they know?"
"They have a spy in your camp."
"They have hundreds of spies! All the fifths." She felt a twinge as she said the word, thinking of Fifth, the first man she had desired and lost. Apart from Havoc.
"The fifths are merely data gatherers. Shee's information came from them, and mine. It is my understanding that there is a more potent spy, one you do not suspect. That one will report when you locate the Makers."
"How can there be a spy we can't identify?"
"Conjecture: it was planted long ago, before you opened relations with the machines. Beyond the range of your near future paths seeing."
"The machines can't find the Makers, so hope to have us find them, so they can destroy them and be safe from the one power in the galaxy they fear? We will not cooperate."
"I am not informed," the robot repeated. "But it is the answer to your question. You are likely to distract Havoc from that search, so I am sent to prevent you from distracting him."
"By emulating dad and letting me seduce you?"
"Affirmation."
"Obscenity!"
"Regret."
"I'm not going to seduce my father!"
"The machines believe otherwise."
"And I'm not going to seduce you in his likeness."
"Your mother believes otherwise."
"What do you know of her private opinion?"
"She told me."