Out of Phaze by Piers Anthony Page A

human form to play with me,” he said. “I have no trouble with that.”
    “I am most pleased that you do not. Though my form in its natural state does not resemble yours, my protoplasm is similar and my emotions similar too. I wish to be your friend.”
    ‘Thou art my friend, Agape. Thou art helping me greatly.”
    “I am pleased to do so. Do you wish me to program this vehicle for the Blue Demesnes?”
    “Program it?”
    “To give it a directive that will guide it there without further guidance from us,” she explained.
    “But there be no Blue Demesnes here! Just the spot where they be in Phaze.”
    ‘The map shows a location titled ‘Blue,’” she said. “Does this coincide?”
    He looked. “It does! But how could that be? Sure I be that the Blue Demesnes have been there not for three hundred years!”
    “I do not know; I have been only briefly on this planet.”
    “Well, go ahead and send the machine there. This is not much different from magic.”
    She operated the buttons. The vehicle turned, assuming the new course, and accelerated.
    It was full night now, but no stars showed; the gloom masked whatever light might have tried to shine through. The vehicle’s front lamp shone forward, showing nothing but sand rushing past. This seemingly mindless progress made Bane nervous, so he averted his gaze.
    That brought Agape into view. “How long will it take to reach the Blue Demesnes?” he asked.
    She touched another button. “About fifteen minutes. The vehicle is very fast.”
    “Fifteen minutes to accomplish a trip that would require a horse two hours!” he exclaimed.
    “Space travel is much faster.”
    That reminded him of her origin. In the dim light of the interior of the vehicle she looked completely human, and beautiful. Her hair framed her face with the color of a pale sunset, and her eyes seemed preternaturally deep. ‘Thou really art alien?” he asked, finding this hard to believe.
    “Completely,” she agreed. “In physical form.”
    “Thou art the loveliest woman I have seen!”
    ‘That is because I have shaped myself to be what your kind considers attractive. You would not find me so, in my natural state.”
    “Canst thou assume thy natural state now?”
    “I can. But I think I would prefer not to. Your machine self perceived me in that state, and was not repulsed, but you are human, and I want to attract you, not repulse you.”
    “Why dost thou care how I react to you? If thou art as different as thou sayst, I must appear to be a monster to thee.”
    “Oh, no, Bane!” she protested. “You are a fine figure of your species, to me. I would like to be your girlfriend.”
    “Just because mine other self helped thee?”
    “I like him well for that, but now I know you better, and I like you better. You are more alive.”
    “How could an alien creature be a—a girlfriend to me?”
    “I was hoping you would be able to show me that.”
    He shook his head, still having trouble reconciling her words with her appearance. She was infernally beautiful, and he liked her personality; it really did not seem alien. “Methinks I could show a real woman. But an alien might understand not at all.”
    She leaned close to him. “Please, Bane, I want very much to learn! I will do anything you suggest.”
    Still that nagging doubt. “Why dost thou want to learn? The human means of association and—and the rest should not concern a completely different creature.”
    “My species is amoebic,” she said. “Your kind calls our world Moeba. We have had no experience with the pairing of sexes. We pair any with any, as we choose. But we observe that most other species of the galaxy are twin-sexed, and this appears to confer an advantage in evolution, so that they achieved technology and space before we did, and now we are dependent on them for interplanetary trade and travel between the stars. We can learn whatever they teach us, so now we are constructing our own ships of space, but we believe we