"She is too excitable for her own good, and no doubt is a victim of fantasies. On the other hand, if the only men she sees are beasts like Muds and Funo, I can appreciate her yearnings."
"Funo, so it happens, is a woman."
"What! Are you serious?"
"Of course."
"Ha! I wonder that poor Lilo is as sane as she is."
"Do you consider Lilo sexually stimulating?"
Giawen frowned off across the room. The situation was becoming ever more rife with delicate possibilities. Time was the important factor! Surely by now Plock must be in receipt of his message, and surely would not delay at undertaking his rescue.
Meanwhile, Zaa seemed relaxed and might well be inclined to provide more information. If he exercised his gallantry to the fullest, she might become more relaxed than ever. Giawen winced. Zaa undeniably seemed less grotesque and more nearly human than before but there was still about her the unnerving suggestion of a white reptile:
a walking lizard, or a white-skinned newt with red hair.
Giawen winced again. He must expunge these ideas from his mind; if Zaa suspected their presence she might become not only cold but spiteful.
So much passed through Glawen's mind in no more than two seconds. What had she asked? Did he find Lilo sexually stimulating?
Glawen said: "I will be absolutely candid. Men are stimulated in a different manner from women, as you must know."
"I have never troubled to explore the subject."
"Well, it is true. In the case of Lilo, the gray gown simply swallows her figure, which needs all the help it can get.
Her hairless scalp is far from appealing, and I've seen corpses with a healthier skin color. On the positive side, she has good features and beautiful eyes. She is graceful and there is a certain wistful charm to her manner. As I think back, I can't believe that I alarmed her; she seemed to come to life under the attention."
"These feelings perhaps disturbed her, causing both guilt and confusion, which she attributed to you and, as I see now, perhaps exaggerated. It seems, then, that you find her gauche?"
"Gauche, prim, resolute: whatever. If she were to grow hair, dress nicely and get some color in her skin, she would seem passably attractive."
"Interesting! As of now: you find her unappealing?"
Glawen wondered how best to phrase his remarks.
"Spacemen encounter all kinds of women. I have heard them say that at night all cats are gray."
Zaa nodded thoughtfully.
"Lilo of course is totally innocent. Her life to date has been formally Monomantic and unified, and for certain reasons we are interested in her instinctive response to the proximity of a personable young man such as yourself."
"So this is why Lilo became my instructor."
"In part."
"Surely I am not the first man of her acquaintance?"
Zaa gave a sad laugh.
"I see that I must explain. The Monomantics espouse Unity as their goal. The Polymantics accepted Duality, but they were dominated by masculines. The Monomantic rebellion was led by heroic females, who insisted upon sexual equality, and thought to create a race in which sexuality was not a coercive "force. In the biological workshops at Strock, many roads were tried, but the efforts always fell short. The Zubenites of Lutwiler Country were at first considered a glorious success, because they proved at least partially infra-fertile. To this degree Duality has been conquered; we have perfected Monomantics in many phases. The doctrine asserts that 'man' and 'woman' are archaic and essentially incidental words. Mutis is a man;
Funo is a woman. They may not even be aware of their differences, which are not functional. Mutis is impotent;
Funo produces no eggs. So it is among the Zubenites. Their survival as a people is barely tentative."
Glawen kept a closed mouth upon his opinions.
"Still, our efforts have been at least theoretically successful. Duality has been discredited and sent reeling;
it can no longer be considered an inspirational philosophy.
Do you agree to this?"
"I have never taken a position, one way or the other."
"Unity is now the rule. Men and women are equal in all respects. Women have been freed from the ancient curse of childbearing. In their turn, men no longer suffer the glandular pressures which distracted their energies and sometimes prompted them to illogical gallantries. What do you say to that?"
"It's an interesting point of view." Glawen cautiously went on to say: "I have no difficulties with my glands, and I certainly would not care to attempt Unity."
Zaa smiled.
"I may inform you that a new theory has won strong supporters, among them myself. The Zubenites are not altogether satisfactory; they will not copulate, for one reason or another, and the population will not sustain itself. Younglings are brought in from Strock or the folk would not survive."
"Lilo does not seem the typical Zubenite woman--nor, for that matter, do you."
"Lilo has an interesting history. To facilitate our work at Strock, we brought in a brilliant young geneticist from Alphanor, not altogether by his own volition. Out of boredom he began to perform secret experiments. It seems that in the case of Lilo he used a sample egg of high quality and his own sperm. He bred her in a special culture dish, the zygote was nurtured in a tub to itself, without sequestrators or hormone suppressants, and fed special nutrients. In his regular work, because of his resentment and general cheerlessness, he defaulted upon his duty and produced a thousand one-eyed creatures with one leg, blue spots and enormous genital organs, which he conceived to be a ludicrous joke. In another vat he wasted three dozen prime eggs by impregnating them with the sperm of a raccoon which chanced to be on hand. The joke escaped detection until the infants began to grow tails, and then of course the truth was made known and the geneticist was discharged with prejudice."
