Pietro looked away from the image of the weeping dogs as Mens began speaking. "We're much more satisfied with the direction this experiment is taking, this and the revised version of the dolly experiment. The EMI readings are fluctuating between minus eight and minus nine. Carlo, another member of my team, had suggested that we had been using shame incorrectly in the earlier experiment. As you must have read by now..." Mens paused and raised an eyebrow.

Pietro responded, "The details of the imprinting of the Duchain sisters? Yes, Sir."

Mens nodded and continued, "We'd used shame to shape behavior -- you know, perform this action or you will feel ashamed for not doing it -- and it was effective as far as achieving the goal, but it left both dollies with positive feelings when they did perform correctly. And as I have mentioned before, sexual activity, which the EMIs told us caused very negative reactions at first, as the sisters had never before had sexual feelings towards each other and were very embarrassed, gradually became a source of comfort, and in the end, during the hunt, after the imprinting had been reduced, the urge towards sexual activity remained and became something very positive. It was Carlo's suggestion that shame be used in a different way. Taking advantage of the natural tendency towards feeling shame following impermissible sex, we conditioned into the subjects a stronger reaction, using hypnotic suggestion to increase the strength of the natural shame reaction approximately five-fold.

"At the same time, we wanted to vary the intervals between episodes of sexual activity. In the new 'dog' experiment, from which you have just seen video recordings, we used a lighter degree of imprinting, still strong but less all-consuming, so that the subjects would last a longer time between uncontrollable sexual urges, very specific ones in this case, in order to give the subjects plenty of time to reflect on the fact of being dogs. In that experiment, their attraction towards each other builds slowly over a period of hours, eventually reaching the point of being irresistible. They have oral sex, in the format you have seen, about twice daily, alternating giving and receiving, and, of course, experience the powerful emotional reaction afterward.

"We left them able to speak this time, so that they would be very conscious of being different from the background girlimals, causing them to feel isolated and threatened. What I would like to see, what I anticipate may occur, is that, under the stress of fighting a losing battle against their mutual sexual needs, and the powerful negative explosion of emotion that always follows giving in to those needs, they will seek refuge in a rejection of their own humanity and identification with the surrounding dogs, who all seem to take their sexual habits casually and cheerfully. I believe the two subjects will, over time, cease speaking to each other, and will communicate only minimally by barking, a sign that they have come to think of themselves as dogs. Yet deep within, they will know they are human, and the conflict between two contradictory self-images will further depress their internal emotional environment. We shall see if that happens."

"And you've said there is a new version of the dolly experiment?"

Mens nodded. "Yes, with the new shift in strategy, the more effective use of shame. Let's look in on that one. This will be a live feed." Mens touched the controls on his console again. The images of a roomful of dogs wavered and faded, replaced with the image of two unmaimed women, the Duchain sisters in dolly form. They were in an intense sexual embrace, each with left arm tightly around the other while the right hand stimulated the other's sex, legs interlocked, hips twitching spastically, lips locked together in a passionate kiss, both of them moaning and gasping continuously.

Mens smiled. "I knew we'd catch them in the act. They usually are. We have left the male interruptions out of the scenario this time -- all of the gods made use of the subjects once each during the initial experiment, and have moved on to other interests. So the subjects have been left entirely on their own. We also allowed them to speak, as in the dog experiment, so there was no need to give them the thumb-gesture memory -- they can establish their identities for each other without it. In this version we have managed to increase the strength of the imprint slightly, and they have sex as many as fifteen times daily -- followed, as in the dog experiment, with an artificially intensified burst of shame..."

The two sisters suddenly spasmed and screamed in orgasm, their bodies vibrating so violently that the bed itself seemed in danger. And immediately following climax, they broke the embrace mutually, rolled to face away from each other, each adopting a fetal curl, and wept inconsolably.

"...as you can see." Mens laughed briefly at the excellent timing. "Before long they will roll towards each other and begin again, not for comfort but because, as much as they hate it, their imprinting is far too strong to control. Unless they fall asleep -- they do that three or four times daily, for hours at a time, out of exhaustion. They do also stop for food several times daily -- that's another imperative we programmed into them, since otherwise they might starve. And we draw the bath for them occasionally. It always looks as though each wants to bathe alone, but shortly after one enters the bath the other joins her, and bathing each other soon turns, not surprisingly, to sex again."

"How long before you terminate the experiment to take stock and make adjustments for the next one?"

Mens looked at the image of the crying women thoughtfully. "EMI readings have been almost ideal, hovering around minus nine, and have remained quite steady. We could hardly picture them being unhappier than they are currently. I'd like to keep this going as long as that persists. In fact, we are thinking of expanding the experiment."

"How so, Sir?"

"To accommodate the other six Aurora crew members, in pairs. We're drafting the protocols now. In each case, as in the current Duchain experiment, compulsive sex would be followed by a temporarily crippling, artificially enhanced burst of negative emotion, all the more upsetting because the subjects will remain unable to control their sexual urges despite knowing the next episode will affect them the same way. We actually have one pairing ready to go. We found, during hypnotic debriefing of the crew, that two of them, Sabrina Marion and Polina Grishova, are purely heterosexual in orientation, with no erotic attraction to women at all. Not surprising we would find two such in a crew of seven, as that comes close to the proportion of the general female population. They will be imprinted on each other, to the same degree as you just saw with the Duchain sisters. In the case of Marion and Grishova, they will be conditioned to feel intensified distaste and disgust after each sexual episode.

"For the others, in the absence of natural antipathy to sexual contact, we're working on implanting false memories. Heather Lopez and Gretel Schweiz will recall an argument over a prized possession of one of them accidentally damaged by the other, which led to an argument that escalated to a physical altercation, after which they only spoke to each other when their duties required." Mens smiled. "Each will recall herself as the injured party, the one whose favorite treasure was broken by the other. After each round of sex, each will be conditioned to feel an intensified burst of anger, and self-loathing for being unable to control her unexplained sexual cravings.

"In the case of Tanisha Ologwu and Aoife O'Lonigan, each will be given an intense distaste for the other. O'Lonigan will be given a dislike of Africans in general, and in particular will recall that throughout the mission she felt Ologwu was unqualified, a poor leader, and that Ologwu treated her unfairly. Ologwu will be given a dislike of redheads, of whom O'Lonigan is the only one, and a memory of O'Lonigan being obnoxious, uncooperative, and occasionally a discipline problem. Also, her consciousness of O'Lonigan being the crew member farthest below her in rank will be enhanced, and paired with contempt for their class difference. Each will be completely unable to understand why she is sexually attracted to the other, nor why she is unable to prevent herself from acting on it. And each time they have sex, each will feel intense hate for the other afterward. They will, however, each be inhibited from physically injuring the other. As will Schweiz and Lopez, of course."

Pietro grinned. "I'd love to hear some of the conversations between them. In any of the pairs."

Mens shook his head. "Not possible, at least not in this round of experiments. For each pair we will be establishing a communication block, similar to that used in the first Duchain experiment. We came to feel that communication was needed for the Duchains, because Megan's presence is so inexplicable to Janica that there is a danger of her discounting the reality of it -- as you just saw in the dog experiment, where Janica assumed, at first, it was a dream, but now appears to have been convinced otherwise, with the help of Megan's explanations. Megan's ability to tell Janica how she came to be there is crucial. In the first experiment, the belief on Janica's part that what she was seeing couldn't possibly really be happening probably muted the natural negative emotion that would otherwise have accompanied her inability to prevent her erotic coupling with her sister. That may very well be why that experiment failed: Janica would experience natural shame in even dreaming about sex with her sister, but would eventually adapt it with the rationalization that we have little control over our dreams. Add to that the fact that Megan was aware of the existence of clones, and of dollies in particular, and may not have been able to entirely rid her mind of the suspicion that Janica might not really be who she seems, and we see all the disadvantages of the two sisters being unable to communicate.

"But in the case of the other pairs, none of those problems arise. Unlike the case of Megan Duchain, who wandered around the settlement and became familiar with clones before being caught, all of the Aurora crew's minds were downloaded at a time before our clones even existed, so none of them would ever imagine the crewmate she is seeing is anyone other than whom she appears to be. And no member of any of those pairs is surprised in any way by the other's presence. Their memories, in every case, run up to a point at which all seven were together on the ship, so there is nothing inexplicable about waking up in the presence of one of the others. And of course, there are positive advantages to the communication block. It is always possible one member of a pair might say to the other something that brings the situation into a new light, perhaps a memory that doesn't fit with the established story created by implanted memories, particularly in the case of the Lopez/Schweiz experiment, in which the subjects' implanted memories contradict each other. But without the ability to communicate, that can't happen."

"Oh, and nothing like the Duchain sisters' hand gesture is needed for these pairs either."

"Exactly. That was introduced due to our anticipation that Megan would surely think she was simply seeing another clone, which, again, doesn't apply to any of the others."

Pietro nodded. "Are there other experiments being considered?"

"In early planning stages, yes. We have, for example, Mikael's suggestion that we give one of a pair of crew members the same supercharged lactation that our cows have, and then make it impossible for the other to obtain food except from the other's breasts. We have the Duchain sisters in mind for that one, but may expand it to the others, again in pairs. It's an intriguing idea."

"It certainly is. May I work on that project, Sir?"

Mens nodded. "By all means." Mens stood, ending the audience, and extended his hand. "Tomorrow, you'll meet the rest of the team. I look forward to your contributions to our efforts."

"I'm eager to get started, Sir."

Pietro shrugged off his tunic and hung it in the closet, then went to the kitchen to punch up a cocktail on the drink panel. His quarters, on the uppermost floor of Olympus among the suites reserved for demigods, were beginning to feel like home already. Each god had his own estate in the province surrounding Olympus, and that, Pietro thought, must be very nice. He was happy with his suite, though.

In the corner, his dolly, one of the new models cloned, he now knew, from Megan Duchain, quivered with excitement, looking at him with desperate longing and a whimper of need. It was still holding the cube with Pietro's image that kept it company in his absence, but in a negligent way, something it didn't need now that Pietro himself was present.

While he started his drink, he ordered up a dinner from the food panel. In the few seconds before it appeared, he looked again at the dolly. What seemed to be an important thought bubbled just millimeters below the surface of his mind, but he couldn't quite bring it up to consciousness.

His dinner finished, he thumbed the release button in the wall for the dolly. With a squeal of ecstasy, it hurled itself at him, wrapping itself around him and planting rapid-fire kisses all around his face. Gradually sinking lower along his body, with its hand caressing his crotch, it finally unbuttoned and pulled down his pants, and his underwear, and took his erection into her mouth, sucking with her eyes closed, making contented noises, while he gasped at the intense sensation. He enjoyed all of the many modes of sexual contact the dolly knew, but it had already learned that he liked oral sex best.

An hour later, lying on the floor naked with the dolly curled around him, apparently asleep, the elusive thought finally burst through to the surface, startling him enough to stir the dolly, though not bringing it all the way out of sleep -- it only wriggled slightly against him, nuzzled his chin with her cheek, and subsided.

Why, he thought, couldn't we do that? Is there some impossibility I'm overlooking?

It was already clear that a loaded mind, in a clone, could accept an imprint. In that first experiment with the Duchain sisters, each had been rendered unable to control her sexual urges, with each other and with any man who came by. Yet, aside from those unstoppable compulsions, each still maintained some degree of unity with her body, a control she could exercise at times when the compulsion was not in effect, and even, to some extent, when it was operating. Each could decide to lift her arm, wiggle her fingers, could decide to use the toilet when needed, and could even, when the compulsion made her unable to prevent herself from engaging in sex, make a decision about what kind of sex it should be, and felt herself issuing the commands to her body to make the movements that the compulsion required.

Why couldn't we make the mind of Janica Duchain, or of Sabrina Marion, or any of the others, mere passengers, mere observers, in their own bodies? Why couldn't the body of my dolly, here, carry with it all of the lifetime of memories of Megan Duchain, and a sense that it is Megan Duchain, yet have no sense of connection with what the body of the dolly is doing? Be able only to watch, to take the input of the senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, to be aware of what is happening, but utterly unable to affect it? To have no sense that when the dolly moves, that she, Megan, is making her body do that?

And why just dollies? Why not make every clone, in dog form, horse, cow, pig, contain the conscious mind of the crew member on whom the body is based? And not just in the lab, but in every clone in every farmer's field or kitchen? And all of them only able to experience the senses of the body, but not affect it, as though every movement was performed by someone else inside the body over whom they had no control?

And we're so close to that! That first Duchain experiment showed we can make a clone, who thinks it is a crew member, do things the crew member desperately wishes she could stop doing. Why not make the body's disconnection from the mind's will complete?

Pietro disentangled himself from the dolly, led it back to the kitchen and confined it there, then rushed to his office to begin tapping notes into his slab.