by Sayuri Ueda
Shirosaki left Fortia’s residence with Kline without learning any more about the matter.
2
AS ARINO WENT through his workout routine in the training room, he thought back to his encounter with Tei in the meeting room. That cold smile. Had it been one of contempt? A ridiculing look the younger generation directed at the older set? The look of disdain the arrogant cast upon an inferior?
Biologically speaking, Arino understood how the Rounds were equipped and how they procreated. But as much as he understood intellectually, how he felt was another matter.
What was the Rounds’ sexual orientation according to Monaural standards? Would they be considered homosexual since they all had the same physiology? Or would they be considered bisexual because they had intercourse as both sexes?
It was nothing he could understand. A concept beyond convention, and yet, one that might become commonplace in the future.
The unfamiliar had the power to both frighten and tantalize at the same time. People grew all the more drawn to what was taboo.
Tei looked just like them—like normal humans. Spoke English and dressed like them and ate like them. The difference lay in the sexual organs. But Arino was puzzled by the way that difference alone made Tei seem something other than human to him.
They had been the ones to create the Rounds. Had they been as scared when childbirth was made possible through artificial insemination? What about when the first humanoid robot was built? Why were they so discomfited and bewildered by the simple fact of gaining one sexual type?
After finishing his workout, Arino went into the locker room and showered.
He threw on some fresh clothes and dragged his sluggish body toward the residential district assigned to the security staff.
As spacious as Jupiter-I was, it was still only as large as a standard space station. Learning the layout of the station and visiting each of the facilities had taken all of three days. The security team’s mission didn’t begin in earnest until the first cargo vessel arrived. Thus far, their scheduled patrols had been strictly routine and did nothing more than demonstrate they were earning their keep.
In his boredom, Arino’s thoughts wandered to the special district. Shirosaki’s team had no active contact with Harding’s team. Once the terrorist threat was put down, Harding’s team would go back to Mars, so the two teams had no reason to fraternize. They exchanged nothing more than a few pleasantries even when they bumped into each other in the mess, recreation room, or training room.
But because no one on Shirosaki’s team aside from Shirosaki himself was allowed to enter the special district, their curiosity only intensified. Most of the members tried to learn as much about the Rounds as they could from the snatches of conversation with those on Harding’s team.
But none of the members of Harding’s team was very forthcoming on the subject. No matter how much they were questioned, they dodged the questions and inevitably said, “Look, if your commander’s telling you to stay out of the special district, I’d listen. The Rounds aren’t some animals you can gawk at. You can’t stare at them. Another incident will only spell trouble for the station staff. After a while, you’ll forget that the Rounds even exist.”
None of this satisfied Shirosaki’s team, however. Every time they gathered in the mess and the recreation room, they traded gossip and indulged in wild conjecture. After several members of Harding’s team had given them both dirty looks and warnings, Shirosaki’s team members took to speaking in Japanese, not just about the Rounds but on all matters. Although Arino didn’t approve, he decided to monitor the situation until Shirosaki gave him a direct order to intercede.
After making several turns along the corridor, he came upon a mother carrying a baby walking from the other direction. Dressed in a quarter-sleeved one-piece dress, the woman had long blond hair that was tied in back.
Arino was surprised to see children on the space station. He smiled, remembering his own wife and daughter.
“Hey there,” Arino called out. “She’s a cute one,” he said, peering in at the baby’s face. “How old is she?”
A troubled look seeped across the woman’s face. She averted her eyes from Arino’s sunny face. “A little over three months.”
“She’s a big girl. I figured her for at least a year old.”
“We grow much faster than you do. We mature three time faster.”
“Oh, excuse me,” Arino said. “You’re from the special district.”
“Yes.”
Arino couldn’t help eyeing the Round up and down. Ey frowned and glared.
The Round cradling eir baby was tall but looked like a Monaural woman. Ey appeared even more feminine than Dr. Tei. From the curvy silhouette of the body to the delicate white countenance, ey was the image of a woman in Arino’s eyes.
“I have to go,” the Round said irritably. “I’ll be reprimanded for talking to you.”
“Reprimanded? By whom?”
“By many people. By your people and mine.”
“But that’s silly. What’s wrong with our just talking?”
“I’m sorry, I can’t…”
“All right, I won’t keep you any longer. But I meant what I said about your little one. I have a daughter who’s three. She’s back home on Mars with her mother, and so when I saw you with your child, I couldn’t help saying something. I’m sorry to have troubled you. Forgive me.”
The Round bowed without a word and continued on eir way past Arino, hastening eir steps back toward the special district.
Shirosaki had told him that access to the special district was prohibited. But Arino had no idea relations were such that a brief exchange in the corridor might warrant a reprimand.
What had soured the relationship between the Rounds and Monaurals on the space station? And why was Tei acting as intermediary?
Arino tilted his gaze up at the ceiling.
What if the surveillance system had recorded this exchange just now? Or someone had seen them talking?
It made Arino heartsick to imagine someone blaming that Round.
Shirosaki’s team members Eiko Shiohara and Yuna Ogata were thoroughly displeased about their assignment on Jupiter-I. As much as they knew their turn would come sooner or later, they had pissed and moaned about everything that had to do with their detail on this godforsaken place.
They could hardly bear the boredom of doing nothing. Although a showdown with the terrorists was pending in two weeks’ time, once that was done, the boredom would return. Considering the number of members on the detail, they couldn’t lose. It would all be over in seconds. No thrill to be had. Perhaps they’d end up watching from the sidelines without being called into action.
As the two women walked the corridors on their scheduled patrol, Shiohara let out a groan. “I can’t go back to the residential quarters. The thought of having to see the others’ ugly mugs makes me sick.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice to visit the special district?” said Ogata.
“Yeah.”
“I wonder if all of the Rounds are as handsome as the doctor.”
“I’d sure like to find out,” Shiohara said.
“We have to come up with some excuse to sneak in.”
Dr. Tei, who looked female to the male members of the security team, appeared male to the team’s two female members, Shiohara and Ogata.
Shirosaki had explained that perceptions were gendered; Tei looked male to them because Ogata and Shiohara were female. But that did nothing to satisfy their curiosity.
Just as their male counterparts chased Tei with their eyes as they would a woman, Shiohara and Ogata had regarded the doctor as a man. When they looked at Tei, they saw only a handsome man.
While the men were drawn to the female part of the Round on one hand, they were also put off by the male part. Whatever they felt about transgenders, the men couldn’t reconcile the fact of two sexes coexisting in one body.
Shiohara and Ogata were different. They felt little re
sistance to a masculine Round existing inside a female physiology. In fact, it might have been what attracted them to Tei. Perhaps that was because they worked in a profession that demanded a dose of masculinity. Although the men they worked with were a rough and tumble bunch, Shiohara and Ogata knew all too well that machismo alone was not the measure of a man’s appeal. A kind and sensitive man—a type that did not exist on the security team—was attractive. This was precisely the type of “man” Shiohara and Ogata believed Tei to be. Their service on Jupiter-I would last at least a year. They wanted to spend as much of that time as possible being entertained.
The two found themselves fantasizing about the kind of relationship they would have if they were to fall in love with a Round.
Would that count as a heterosexual relationship? Or a homosexual relationship?
“Maybe it’s both,” Ogata said. Even if they thought they were entering a heterosexual relationship, if the Round loved them from the standpoint of a woman the relationship would be a lesbian one.
Ogata remarked she wouldn’t quite know what to feel, but that was part of the allure.
As the women continued down the corridor contemplating all the possible relationship patterns there might be, a shadow darted out from around the corner and nearly collided with them.
The slender figure stumbled, jostling the baby in her arms. Her handsome features twisted into a frightened look. Shiohara reached out with her arms and stopped the woman and the baby’s fall. The woman grasped the baby tightly in her arms, her face still frozen in terror.
“Careful,” Shiohara said sternly. “Watch where you’re going.”
“Sorry,” the woman answered hastily and hurried on her way.
“Was that one of them?” Ogata asked.
“Really?” Shiohara turned around, but the Round was already gone. “I thought it was one of the station staff. She looked just like a woman.”
“I guess the Rounds come in all types.”
“Maybe they become more feminine after childbirth. Do you think the doctor looks like a man because he’s still single?”
“She looked like she was in a hurry. I wonder if something’s happened,” Ogata said.
They resumed their patrol and ran into Arino farther down the corridor.
“Someone came from this direction in an awful hurry. Do you know anything about it?” Shiohara asked Arino.
“Forget it,” Arino answered. “It was nothing.”
“A woman with a child.”
“No, that was a Round,” Arino confessed.
“She looked like a normal woman.”
“Took me by surprise too, but I guess some of the Rounds are like that,” Arino said. “Hard to believe she’s also a man at the same time.”
“There are androgynous people like that in our society too, but in the case of the Rounds, they really are both sexes.”
Shiohara caught a glimpse of Arino’s conflicted face, which tickled her curiosity. “You’re curious about the special district too, aren’t you, Sub-commander?”
“Well, no—”
“I don’t understand why only the commander is allowed access. Here we are living on the same station. Isn’t it natural to be a little curious?” Shiohara said.
“Forget it. You heard the commander’s orders. The special district is off-limits. And anyhow, the special district requires a security check to gain access.”
“Then we can get someone to take us,” Ogata said.
“Who are you thinking of?”
“Dr. Tei. Maybe we’ll be allowed in if we’re with the doctor on some official business.”
Shiohara and Ogata arrived at the infirmary to find the doctor already entertaining visitors. Several of the men from Shirosaki’s team were sitting on the infirmary beds chatting up the doctor seated on the examination chair.
So long as the special district was off-limits, the only Round they had contact with was Tei. Unable to learn anything from Shirosaki or from the members of Harding’s team, they had given in to curiosity and naturally gravitated to Tei.
Despite the tactless questions they had likely asked, Tei was good-naturedly laughing along with the men. Seeing this, Shiohara was stung with jealousy.
When she asked the others to leave so she could talk to the doctor, the men scoffed. “Go right on ahead and talk. Or is it something you don’t want us to hear?”
“That’s right. A conversation between women.”
“Well, you see, we’re doing some male bonding here ourselves. Maybe you should come back another time.”
“Dr. Tei isn’t a man.”
“Of course not. But the doctor isn’t just a woman either.”
Arino stuck his head inside from the corridor. “Do you mind giving us a few minutes?” he asked the men. “We need to discuss something with the doctor.”
Realizing that Arino was with them, the men straightened up and hopped off the beds. “Sure thing, Sub-commander. Excuse us.”
“Thanks, fellas,” he said.
“Sir.”
The men turned to Tei. “We’ll be back. Or maybe you’ll visit our quarters sometime. Maybe we can have a drink or two on your day off.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I don’t drink,” Tei said. “We can’t indulge in anything that damages the liver cells regulating our sex hormones.”
“Some tea, then.”
“Perhaps sometime in the mess. Thank you.”
Shiohara scowled at the men as they trudged out of the room.
“You have to be careful, Doctor.” Shiohara raised her voice once they were gone. “Don’t let them fool you. You can never tell what men are thinking.”
“It’s all right. I’m only interacting with them as a man.”
“Even so, they may have other plans.”
“I’ll bear that in mind. Now, what brings you here?”
“We have a favor to ask,” Shiohara said.
“What is it?”
“We’d like to see the special district.”
Tei chuckled. “You’re just like the others. Did you discuss it with Commander Shirosaki?”
“No.”
“As a general rule, any interaction with the Rounds is prohibited.”
“Well, yes. But we’re allowed to talk to you,” Ogata said.
“That’s because I’m an intermediary.”
“Maybe we can tag along as your assistants. How about that?”
“I can’t take you for no reason.”
“So we’ll make up a reason. Give us something to do,” Shiohara said. “Please, Dr. Tei. We’re bored to tears. At this rate, someone’s bound to try to breach the security protocols to break into the special district.”
Tei thought about it. After a moment, ey looked up as if ey’d come upon an idea and smiled. “I assume you can handle some heavy lifting?”
“Sure.”
“There is something you can help us with. We could use some extra hands.”
Arino, Shiohara, and Ogata were recruited to finish the interior construction of one of the Rounds’ residential units. The work involved laying wood boards cut and processed from the garden inside a newly built residence.
After passing the security check with eir ID, Tei led the three visitors inside the special district.
Shiohara and Ogata were thrilled to learn that the district was an arcology in which bioengineered plants and trees supplied Rounds with much of their oxygen and raw materials. “I just knew a closely guarded place like this would have a wonderful secret,” Shiohara said.
“I never expected to see such beautiful greenery out here on Jupiter. Can we take a look at the garden?” Ogata asked.
“I’m afraid not. A human presence would contaminate the garden.”
They arrived at a finished residential unit, which only required the wood boards to be fitted into the floors, walls, and ceiling. The three volunteers laid the wood boards one by one into the framework made of nonflammable synthetic materials, transformin
g the unit into a remarkably warm and inviting space.
As hard as the work was, Shiohara and Ogata were elated to see the fruits of their labor.
Only Arino groused about his being roped into such grunt work. “Aren’t there any robots for this sort of thing?”
“We try to use as few of them as possible to conserve energy.”
“So then all of these units are—”
“Yes,” Tigris, the owner of the home, said. “You learn to enjoy the work once you get used to it.” Tigris was a second-generation Round with a sturdier build than Tei. Ey looked clearly male in Shiohara’s and Ogata’s eyes.
When Shiohara stole a moment to ask Arino of his impression of the Round, he answered, “Used to be a woman in my neighborhood who looked just like her.” Tigris apparently had traits that men like Arino recognized as feminine, no matter how muscular eir build.
“Thank you. You’re a great help,” Tei announced to the crew.
“No worries,” said Shiohara. “We were sitting around without anything to do. We’re happy to have something to pass the time.”
After they had made some progress, the five decided to take a break.
They took a walk to the assembly hall, where a Round named Calendula was waiting for them with tea packs and dessert.
Calendula was Tigris’s partner. Slender in build, ey had a slightly higher-pitched voice than Tigris’s. To Shiohara and Ogata, ey looked male. But Arino recognized more of the Round’s feminine traits.
Their children, lying in a cradle next to them, outwardly looked just like Monaural babies. Shiohara and Ogata couldn’t perceive any gender traits from them. Apparently, all babies were difficult to distinguish by sex no matter what their subspecies.
As Arino peered into the cradle and waved at the giggling babies, he asked, “They look alike and yet they don’t. Are they fraternal twins?”
“They’re not twins,” Tigris answered. “We each gave birth to one.”
“Each?”
“We can both be impregnated in a single act of intercourse.”