by Darrell Bain
When the fact that dogmatic religionists never became Seconders became general knowledge, two trends quickly became evident: a falling off in firmly held religious beliefs and attribution of the gates to the work of the devil among those still adhering to their doctrines.
Wars became somewhat fewer, but as in the past, never ceased entirely. There was always fighting going on somewhere, most of them caused now by contention over control of the gates or the supposed origin and purpose of them. I commented about it one day while Rez and I were researching a story.
"I guess the gates are just about a normal part of the world now," I said, "even though people are still fighting over them. There aren't nearly as many wars though. At least they've done that much for us."
"Indirectly," Rez said.
"How so?"
"You're still a man inside, but try to guess anyway."
I tilted a hip toward him, from where we were drawing glasses from the iced tea dispenser. "Not so much as I was at first," I said.
"True. You're improving. Never mind about guessing; I'll tell you. The female psyche never has been as strong for politics as the male. The territorial thing. Then, with so many females changing to male, taken with our cultural bias toward letting men do the leading, either by election or selection, we have more of a female leadership now, and consequently, less squabbling over territory. Simple, huh?" He tilted my chin up for a kiss.
"It sounds logical," I said. I put my arms around him and leaned against his chest. "Why not go further, though? Males who change to females might be losing some of their territorial imperative, or the genetic expression of it anyway."
"Do you think you have?"
"I'm not a proper judge." I felt the beginnings of an erection against my belly. "Had enough research for awhile?"
Rez chuckled. "You haven't lost much. Always making the first move." His erection grew wondrously. "Come on and bring your tea."
I guess I proved him right, not that I hadn't already many times previously. As a female, I was as sexually aggressive as I had always been (after getting used to a particular woman). The talk had stimulated me and I rode him to exhaustion.
This might be a good time to mention that sexually aggressive or not, especially with Donna, I found watching our amateur recordings of myself making love with any of my partners stimulated me like nothing else. I still had the male voyeuristic tendencies, and even looking at myself in the mirror, let alone on a recording, was always an experience. The woman in the recordings didn't even seem like me; rather, she appeared to be an extremely attractive, almost-redheaded exhibitionist, with firm, pink-nippled breasts any man would go crazy over. I always marveled and admired her antics, especially with Donna or in a three or four-way combination, and that night was no exception.
***
Again, I have to say that nothing else had been learned directly of the gates, though I did one article speculating that perhaps the controlling entities might be preparing the human race for some as yet unknown future status. Membership in a galactic society? A world without privation or war? Preparation to replace some other race as rulers of the universe? Partnership with the originators of the gates? I let myself go wild with speculation, knowing nothing could be proved one way or another. Or so I thought. About the time it was getting a good play on the web, our first interstellar ship came home.
The report was somewhat disconcerting. The spaceship had visited a number of stars with marginally inhabitable planets and a couple which had real possibilities for colonization, but no extra-solar intelligence turned up. No intelligence at all, as a matter of fact. If the gate entities were out there, they were sure as hell keeping out of sight.
We all gathered in the den to watch the documentary of the exploration. Russell and I were both as excited as boy scouts on their first camping trip, with Rez and Donna almost as eager to see what had been discovered.
The marginal planets didn't sport much in the way of higher life, and what there was seemed to be rather antagonistic toward humans. Several lives were lost. The unfamiliar vistas and exotic flora and fauna were disconcerting, like watching a science fiction webadventure, yet knowing the settings were taken from real life; no graphics here.
Two promising planets did have higher life forms, some of them quite similar to mammals and yet wildly different, and unpredictable. One in particular got to me. There was no precautionary warning; kids saw much worse violence in graphics almost indistinguishable from reality every day. The animal thing had an elephantlike head, complete with trunk, set atop a squatty body with crablike appendages it used to get around on and grasp with. It moved slowly, almost as if it didn't care about its surroundings. Two men advanced cautiously. The creature stopped and waved a few of its limbs. It made no sound. Both men came close, keeping out of reach of the three-clawed pinchers. Eventually, when there appeared to be no danger from it, they began examining its body parts. It remained still, letting them run their hands over it like a an aloof cat permitting a bit of petting. This continued for many moments until I wondered when they were going to show something else.
The men grew careless. One was standing near its apparent front, doing the recording while the other was clipping off bits of a shaggy mane that resembled a cross between feathers and pork bristles. Abruptly, the trunk swung around in a vicious swipe, knocking away the man clipping its mane, then shot straight out and attached itself to the other man's chest. He yelled, then screamed, trying to drag himself away. Within seconds, the trunk bulged with blood and tissue being sucked from his body. He gurgled, then collapsed and the trunk followed him to the ground, still attached to his chest. The other man got up, fumbling for his handgun. It took many shots before the alien life form slowly sank down with its legs tucked beneath it, like a huge dead spider. The gunman's partner was beyond help by that time.
The scene switched to a camp dissecting table, with a portion of the spaceship showing in the background atop a small rise in the ground where spikelike vegetation was growing. The trunk was sliced open, starting at the tip. The orifice showed a black-colored tearing and grinding apparatus concealed just beneath the glabrous covering, leading to a muscled tube for sucking out juices from its prey. I turned away, not wanting to see the rest of what the creature was made of. I felt sick, as though I had eaten a meal of boiled caterpillars.
Rez faced me, looking as bad as I felt. "Still want to go colonizing?" he asked. Both horror and concern were evident in the question.
"Not there, and not right away," I said immediately. "God's chips, that was horrible."
He gripped my hand tight enough to hurt. "Good. I don't want to even think about it. Not now." We turned back to the screen. (Big screens were still in use for group viewing or when one needed or wanted views larger than the bodycomps could provide as yet).
The rest of the program was more interesting and not nearly so horrible, but that one episode had made a believer out of me. If ever I did go into space to another planet, I wanted it to be a little more thoroughly explored first. I had horrible dreams that night.
***
The year after our narrow escape from the Gater death squad, I had bought up the land surrounding the house and placed sensors in various spots and tied them into our home security. I also paid to have the place fortified so that even though the security system might be broached, it would still take some doing to get inside. I made certain we kept weapons, ammunition and a good store of supplies on hand. I didn't ever want to have to run from our home again. In fact, I thought of just about everything except a nuclear war.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Russell had finally decided to take a short vacation and all four of us drove over to the Creative Anachronism Festival, an annual affair in East Texas, just to relax and enjoy ourselves. We reserved a double luxury suite in the castle, one with all the modern conveniences rather than realistic anachronistic accommodations, featuring cornshuck mattresses, chamber pots and the like. The festival is lot
s of fun, but when I get ready to turn in for the night, I want all the modern conveniences money can buy, except wenches in bed; I had my own wench, and a couple of men besides.
For three days, we had a rousing good time, watching the jousting, sword fighting, bow and arrow tournaments, eating the old-time food and drinking loads of dark English ale. The participants in the various feats and exhibitions were well rehearsed and put on good shows. They were all real practitioners of the medieval arts and crafts in their spare time; there were no hired actors. I admired their dedication, though I had no desire to emulate them. Give me an automatic handgun with diamond coated cutter loads any time instead of a longbow. I carried my gun every day, and kept plenty of ammo and extra clips in the car and on my person, and made sure Rez and Donna carried their weapons as well.
A couple of times I had trouble concealing my gun, what with the way I dressed. It was warm and over the years since the change, I had become comfortable in scanty clothing-in fact, I have to admit that sometimes I wore less than was even comfortable-I had learned to enjoy showing off my body. I got plenty of admiring glances and some outright leers, but other than Rez and Russell, I still hadn't developed a desire to try out other men. Women were something else. I saw a few who reciprocated my admiration and who I wouldn't have minded a tumble with. I figured most of them were changers like I was. As it turned out, I never formed a liaison there, and didn't really miss getting a little on the side. We had so much fun and stayed so revved up during the day, that we were all eager to get back to the suites and luxuriate in the big hot tub before piling into the huge beds in either one of the suites. My only complaint is the castle didn't provide us with quite enough hand towels, but both bathrooms had bidets, which sort of compensated.
The last evening, we got rousing drunk at the huge outdoor dinner celebration. It drizzled a bit, but the area where the rough-hewn wooden benches and tables were set up was covered with attached canopies, open at the sides to allow the breeze to come through, so it didn't matter. I took on a load of ale and passed out enough credit to get us a bevy of our own personal wenches to serve the big joints of beef and pork and mutton seared over an open-wood fire. They hurried to keep us supplied with tankard after tankard of dark warm ale while the show was taking place on a raised wooden stage, and the wenches sat in our laps and fooled around as if they were just dying to take us off to bed. They may have been for all I know, but none of us were interested, other than enjoying their company. They topped off the evening by dancing on our oaken table, shedding most of their clothes as they did so.
After we finally decided to call it a night, there was a double dose of Nohang each and we were ready for fun and games in the hot tubs and beds, and that went on for several hours. All in all, it was one of the most entertaining, plain old good times I think I have ever had.
***
I couldn't have been asleep more than a couple of hours. I came groggily awake and felt the castle shaking and swaying while a rumble sounding like an avalanche coming down a mountain penetrated the walls. I was confused, wondering whether I was dreaming, when the crash of something shattering in the bathroom brought me partway to my senses. From beside me, Rez sat up and held onto me to keep from being shaken off the bed.
"Li, what is it! What's happening!" The nightlight showed the fright in his face. Damned if I knew. I told the lights to come on while I tried to get my thoughts together. Earthquake? Texas had never had many, but rising sea waters were upsetting isostatic pressures almost everywhere on the globe. It was possible. Atomic bomb? God's chips, I hoped not.
I disengaged Rez from my body as the rumbling stopped. It was difficult to pry him loose. He had snapped back into the female mode of wanting to be held when imminent danger threatened. "I don't know what's happening," I said, "but get up and get dressed." While I was throwing on my clothes, I tried to pull in some webnews. All I got was the eerie sonic wail of an emergency broadcast signal, like a jet plane descending too fast. As I was pulling on my feminine little boots, the wailing stopped and a trembling male voice replaced it, not at all like the usual confident warnings of impending inclement weather.
"Emergency warning! Emergency warning! This is not a test! Some explosions, probably nuclear in origin, have been detected over several American cities. Emergency warning! Take shelter immediately. Take shelter immediately, wherever you are. Stay tuned to this website for emergency news and information. Repeat, this is not a test. Nuclear explosions have been detected in the United States. The country is under attack. Take shelter immediately."
The wailing began again. If I hadn't felt the castle shaking and heard the rumble of the shock wave passing, I wouldn't have believed it. I still wasn't sure I did until I heard shouts and screams from beyond our doorway, then it finally began to sink in.
I lowered the volume on my bodycomp while I strapped on my gun, leaving it in plain sight now. Russell burst into the room.
"Li, Rez, did you hear? We're being-oh!" His voice cut off abruptly as he saw we were already dressed.
"Get Donna up and dressed if she isn't already," I ordered. "Grab any luggage you can't spare and let's get out of here. That must have been Austin or Houston that was hit. We may be in the fallout pattern." Those were my first thoughts: get away, get back home to our securely fortified house, like an escaped pet fleeing back to its owners after it found that the outside world held terrors never dreamed of. I had to repeat myself to be heard over Russell's wailing comphone that wasn't recognizing his excited voice as he tried to turn it down.
Donna came in, dressed and wearing her weapon as openly as I was. A voice on the emergency website began shouting senseless precautions about drinking water and fresh vegetables and milk, as if they would have had time to be contaminated already.
"Ready?" I asked a moment later. They nodded. I cracked the door and peered cautiously out into the hall, bag in one hand and my pistol in the other. I looked in both directions. The two or three persons I could see were hurrying about on errands of their own and didn't appear to be armed. While I watched, one gave up on the elevator and ran for the stairs.
I took it as a signal that the elevator wasn't working. We were on the fourth floor of the castle, not much of a strain to descend. "Come on," I said. "Be cautious. Watch everyone." I was remembering all the disaster novels I had read as a kid. The theme most of them had emphasized was the "slipping away of the veneer of civilization" and "the law of the jungle". I didn't know whether that would hold true or not, but I wasn't taking chances.
I led the way down the four flights of stairs, wary and alert as we heard footsteps descending above and below us.
The lobby was a madhouse, with tangled knots of frightened people running senselessly around in circles. Fortunately, the stairs we had taken came out near one of the side entrances. We followed others who were breaking away from the throng in the lobby and running to the outside of the castle.
A horrendous red glow lit the sky to our southwest, huge roiling clouds coursing and twisting a darker red within the glow. It was Austin, all right; it could be nothing else. I looked back to the southeast. Nothing there. So far, Houston had been spared.
We ran through the parking lot for the car, threading our way past and among others with the same thought: get away. Get home. I saw several drawn guns, but no one threatened us. We gained the security of my new van, bought just a few weeks previously when we decided to attend the festival. I put Russell in the driver's spot since he wasn't armed. I took the shotgun position, with Rez and Donna in back.
The exiting traffic was horrendous. While Russell tried to get us untangled from the jam and I kept a wary eye on nearby vehicles and pedestrians, I asked Donna to watch the emergency webnews to see what else she could find out. I didn't want either Russell or I to be distracted.
"Only three cities have been hit so far," Donna said presently. "In this country, anyway. They're saying there are reports from other places, though."
"Keep
listening," I said. Russell gained a few yards, then another few, and finally, had a clear path out of the parking lot jam. Just as we were pulling away from the castle, a tremendous thump shook the van. Donna screamed. I turned around to see dust sifting down through a hole in my new van.
"Where did that come from?" Rez asked shakily.
"Don't know," I said, "but so long as it didn't hurt us, let's not worry. Keep going, Russell." I pulled up a map from my bodycomp files and took a chance on a quick glance at it. I directed Russell toward a route which would take us home by side roads. It was a snap decision. I thought the side roads might be marginally safer than the main routes. Traffic was certain to be thick on them with refugees everywhere fleeing potential target cities, and with a good chance of accidents tying us up in knots. The side roads left more opportunity for banditry, if that was going to be a factor, but we were well-armed and I'd had the van equipped with long-range infrared gear. I had never forgotten our narrow escape from the Gater assault.