"I said we are incomplete without our twins. This is literal."
"You are emotionally lost on your own? You seem physically complete."
"Explanation." Now she took his hand and passed it down inside her skirt. Pso did the same with Marionette.
Warp felt her rounded belly and slightly parted thighs. His fingers felt her cleft—and lost their way.
Something was missing.
He glanced across at Marionette, and saw similar surprise on her face. How he wished that they could share experiences telepathically! But now more than ever they had to guard their minds. The Twins were stranger than they had suspected, and there might be further surprises in store.
"May we look?" he asked.
Vra smoothly removed her clothing, and Pso did the same. The two stood nude before them. Both were glorious in figure in every detail. Except that Vra had only half a cleft, and Pso only half a penis. Her crotch was uneven, as though surgery had cut out a portion and left only an open channel. His penis was similarly open, like a hose cut in half lengthwise.
They were right: they were unable to perform sex. They had only half the equipment.
The two dressed, and the concealment of the clothing made them look completely human again.
Marionette was the first to formulate a question. "How do you reproduce?"
"We need our twins for that," Vra replied. "They have the other halves."
"But don't you need both halves in one person?" Marionette asked.
"Not necessarily. There are combinations."
"Confusion."
"When one sibling dies, the other can recover his or her half genital and become whole. Then he or she is capable of breeding."
"Distaste," Warp said. "You have to kill each other?"
"No, we do not do that. But sometimes there are accidents, disease, or combat."
"But your twin is dead."
"Yes. We do not like that way."
Warp shook his head. "You mentioned combinations. I do not understand."
"Were my sister to come to me, we would not only be able to breed, we would be eager to do so. It is the Glamor nature, and our species nature. That is why we live apart."
Warp still did not have it clear. "If your sister came here, exactly how would you do it?"
"We would find a suitable man or men, and overlap. There are four viable combinations: one male, one female; two males two females, one male two females, two males one female. Normally it is two and two, because deaths of twins are rare."
"Two and two," Warp said. "I am not visualizing this."
"We overlap in the genital region," Vra said. "It is a thing we are equipped to do. When we breed, in due course we produce a pair of males or a pair of females. When they come of age, they must separate, lest they constantly try to overlap and seduce others. Only when there is a suitable breeding prospect do we get together."
"This is not our way," Marionette said. "But evidently it works for you."
"It does," Vra agreed.
"This is fascinating, and certainly establishes that we can't have sex," Warp said. "But does it relate to our mission?"
"It does," Vra repeated. "In two ways. Our space fleet is valuable, and we would not part with any ships without being sure we can trust those to whom we send them. We truly trust only those with whom we can mate."
"But you can't mate with aliens!" Warp protested.
"We can go through the motions," Vra said. "That will suffice."
"But we aren't twins," Marionette said. "We don't have the—the halves."
"You are equivalent to wholed people," Vra said. "As such, extremely sexually tempting. We would love to join with our twins and indulge in the motions of mating with you."
"One human, two twins," Warp said, seeing it. "Two of your four combinations."
"Four of them," Vra said. "You could mate with wholed individual twins."
"And if we do, this will establish trust? So we can negotiate for space ships?."
"Yes, in essence."
"You mentioned two ways," Marionette said. "What is the other?"
"My sister Arv is co-commander of our space fleet. She is the Glamor of Water. Pso's brother Osp is the other co-commander. He is the Glamor of Earth." Warp laughed. "Suddenly the relevance penetrates!"
"But presumably it won't be as simple as joining them and having sex," Marionette said.
"Not at all as simple," Vra agreed. "You must go to talk with them, while we remain apart. Only if they agree to the relationship will sex occur, facilitating an agreement on the fleet."
And there it was. The twins had laid out the blueprint for one weird interstellar cultural deal.
"Then let's talk," Warp said. Because, apart from his mission, he found Vra excruciatingly sexy and wanted to make it with her. He was also intensely curious how she and her sister would merge to make sex possible.
"One other thing," Vra said. "We need to give you a tour of our realm, so that you can better understand us."
"Agreement," he said, disappointed by the delay.
They conjured to a path in a jungle. "Twinned trees," Marionette said, impressed.
There were squirrel-like animals in the trees. "But single squirrels," Warp said.
"No, all animals are twinned," Vra said. "They merely forage apart, so as not to be constantly breeding."
The path led to a village. The houses were like large ancient-Earth wigwams, conic—and twinned.
But the inhabitants were fleshy, hairy bipeds who might resemble Earth apes with an effort of imagination.
"But where are the people?" Marionette asked.
"These are they," Vra said.
"Confusion."
"This is our natural form. We advised you that we are close but not identical to your form, so we can readily emulate it. But perhaps not as close as you supposed. We do not wish to deceive you."
Warp made an effort of adjustment. "You did so advise us. We did suppose the parallel was closer. But of course the chance of identical forms in completely different cultures is remote."
"True."
"You are beautiful because you shape your forms," Marionette said.
"True," Vra said. "We regret it if this disappoints you."
"But you can maintain your present forms as long as you choose?" Warp asked.
"We can, and will. We want to please you."
Warp looked at Marionette. "Question?"
"Reasonable," she said. "They are not misleading us, merely assuming a compatible form. We have only to appreciate their art."
"Agreement," he said.
The tour continued, but that was the key aspect. They now knew that these twins were crafted works of art, but their minds and intentions were clearly worthwhile.
"You are now aware of our natural forms," Vra said as the tour concluded. "Do you remain interested in sexual expression?"
"Affirmation."
"Because you wish to obtain our space fleet?"
"That, too."
Vra and Pso laughed. Pso spoke for only the second time. "They are accepting our emulation of their forms."
"Affirmation," Marionette said. "We like your nature."
"Now we can join with our twins," Vra said.
Soon they were at the command space ship. Co-commanders Arv and Osp were there to greet them. They greeted and embraced, then retired to a private cabin to talk.
"May we speak candidly?" Warp asked.
"We desire this," Arv said. Apparently the females were the talkers here.
"Deciding on whether to participate in a joint stellar cultural space fleet that well may be destroyed by the common enemy, the machines, should be accomplished by careful consideration of the situation, rather than by sex between fundamentally different creatures."
"If we were perfectly rational, we would be machines," Arv said.
Marionette laughed. "Touché! We are answered."