"I think it's time we tried out the new uterus."
"I think you're right."
"If that thing out there is a male, we'll do it." Equinox had in her complex of capabilities the knack of producing a nodule within her body that could take a cloned cell and nurture it until it grew into a complete organ; any organ she wished. She had done that with one of Parameter's cells. She removed it, cloned it, and let it grow into a new uterus. Parameter's old one had run out of eggs long ago and was useless for procreation, but the new one was brimming with life.
She had operated on her mate, taking out the old one and putting in the new. It had been painless and quick; Parameter had not even felt it.
Now they were ready to have a seed planted in it. "Male," came the voice of the other figure. Before, Parameter would have answered by saying, "Solitude," and he would have gone on his way.
Now she said, "Female."
"Wilderness," he introduced himself.
"Parameter."
The mating ritual over, they fell silent as they drifted closer. She had computed it well, if a little fast. They hit and clung together with all their limbs. Slowly the Symbs melted into each other.
A sensation of pleasure came over Parameter. "What is it?"
"What do you think? It's heaven. Did you think that because we're sexless, we wouldn't get any pleasure out of conjugation?"
"I guess I hadn't thought about it. It's... different. Not bad at all. But nothing like an orgasm."
"Stick around. We're just getting started." There was a moment of insecurity as Equinox withdrew her connections, leaving only the one into her brain. She shuddered as an unfamiliar feeling passed over her, then realized she was holding her breath. She had to start respirating again. Her chest crackled as she brought long-unused muscles into play, but once the reflex was started she was able to forget about it and let her hindbrain handle the chore.
The inner surface started to phosphoresce, and she made out a shadowy figure floating in front of her. The light got brighter until it reached the level of bright moonlight. She could see him now.
"Hello," she said. He seemed surprised she wanted to talk, but grinned at her.
"Hello. You must be new."
"How did you know?"
"It shows. You want to talk. You probably expect me to go through an elaborate ritual." And with that he reached for her and pulled her toward him.
"Hold on there," she said. "I'd like to know you a little better first."
He sighed, but let her go. "I'm sorry. You don't know yet. All right, what would you like to know about me?"
She looked him over. He was small, slightly smaller than her. He was completely hairless, as was she. There didn't seem to be any way to guess his age; all the proper clues were missing. Growing out of the top of his head was a snaky umbilicus.
She discovered there was really little to ask him, but having made a point of it, she threw in a token question.
"How old are you?"
"Old enough. Fourteen."
"All right, let's do it your way." She touched him and shifted in space to accommodate his entry.
To her pleasant surprise, it lasted longer than the thirty seconds she had expected. He was an accomplished lover; he seemed to know all the right moves. She was warming deliciously when she heard him in her head.
"Now you know," he said, and her head was filled with his laughter.
Everything before that, good as it was, had been just a warm-up.
Parameter and the baby Symb howled with pain.
"I didn't want you," she cried, hurling waves of rejection at the child and at herself. "All I want is Equinox."
That went on for an endless time. The stars burnt out around them. The galaxy turned like a whirligig. The universe contracted; exploded; contracted again. Exploded. Contracted and gave it up as a waste of time. Time ended as all events came to an end. The two of them floated, howling at each other.
Wilderness drifted away against the swirling background of stars. He didn't look back, and neither did Parameter. They knew each other too well to need good-byes. They might never meet again, but that didn't matter either, because each carried all they needed of the other.
"In a life full of cheap thrills, I never had anything like that."
Equinox seemed absorbed. She quietly acknowledged that it had, indeed, been superduper, but there was something else. There was a new knowledge.
"I'd like to try something," she said.
"Shoot."
Parameter's body was suddenly caressed by a thousand tiny, wet tongues. They searched out every cranny, all at the same time. They were hot, at least a thousand billion degrees, but they didn't burn; they soothed.
"Where were you keeping that?" Parameter quavered when it stopped. "And why did you stop?"
"I just learned it. I was watching while I was experiencing. I picked up a few tricks."
"You've got more?"
"Sure. I didn't want to start out with the intense ones until I saw how you liked that one. I thought it was very nice. You shuddered beautifully; the delta waves were fascinating."
Parameter broke up with laughter. "Don't give me that clinical stuff. You liked it so much you scared yourself."
"That comes as close as you can come to describing my reaction. But I was serious about having things I think we'll like even better. I can combine sensations in a novel way. Did you appreciate the subtle way the 'heat' blended into the sensation of feathers with an electric current through them?"
"It sounds hideous when you say it in words. But that was what it was, all right. Electric feathers. But pain had nothing to do with it."
Equinox considered it. "I'm not sure about that. I was deep into the pain-sensation center of you. But I was tickling it in a new way, the same way Wilderness tickled you. There is something I'm discovering. It has to do with the reality of pain. All you experience is more a function of your brain than of your nerve endings. Pain is no exception. What I do is connect the two centers—pain and pleasure—and route them through other sensorium pathways, resulting in..."
"Equinox."
?????
"Make love to me."
She was in the center of the sun, every atom of her body fusing in heat so hot it was icy. She swam to the surface, taking her time through the plastic waves of ionized gas, where she grew until she could hold the whole sputtering ball in her hand and rub it around her body. It flicked and fumed and smoked, gigantic prominences responding to her will, wreathing her in fire and smoke that bit and tickled. Flares snaked into her, reaming nerves with needle-sharp pins of gas that were soft as a kiss. She was swallowed whole by something pink that had no name, and slid down the slippery innards to splash in a pool of sweet-smelling sulfur.