“One month?” Jason and I asked together.
The Doctor held his hands wide. “Our processes here are almost entirely automated. We wouldn't have discovered the theft if one of the twin female scribes hadn't, in its agitation, kicked away a nutrient tube. Anyway, that one month of disrupted development was enough to prevent their ever being imprinted. They imprinted upon each other so thoroughly that further imprinting was impossible.
“We're still studying the effects. They're inseparable, to start with. Attempts to separate them nearly resulted in their losing the tenuous sanity they still possess. They're able to follow simple instructions, but have a verbal interaction process that makes more complex instructions impossible to give. They're toddlers, constantly checking reality with each o
