And the ETR, while reduced to nothing more than a tattered second-rate client state, was still extremely dangerous. Not from any military standpoint certainly, but through a far more insidious and destructive avenue. Their ideas.
Maya’s recent adoption of Bochatón music came immediately to the forefront of Sarah’s thoughts. First their music, and then what? Male equality? Heterosexuality? Ancient Rome had fallen prey to the ‘ideas’ of Christianity, and the Sisterhood was no less mighty, nor any less vulnerable.
“I think that we have become weak,” Angelique offerred. “Or to be fair, I think that we have always had a flaw within us that we have consistently been unwilling to address. Now that very same weakness may prove to be our undoing. We have allowed ourselves to become too tolerant of these neomen, and if we allow it, their rot will set in and destroy our very society. Someone has to stop that.”
Sarah couldn’t disagree, and she asked herself for the ten thousandth time why Chairwoman after Chairwoman had continued to maintain a strict policy against total genocide. Had the Hriss been eliminated in the first place, to the very last of them, millions of human lives would have been spared. The requirements of the Galactic Collective notwithstanding, such a doctrine was madness.
There was also no disputing Angelique’s feelings about the reintroduction of men into their carefully ordered world. History had proven that their sex was a cancer that needed to be cut out before it could spread and destroy everything that was good about the Sisterhood.
But even though she shared Angelique’s feelings on these matters, Sarah continued to wonder where this conversation was leading. She had never known Bel Thana to do anything without a motive, and she doubted that the woman had brought her out into the night air just to bewail the foolish policies of their government, or to point out the dangers of sexual reintegration. There had to be more to it, she concluded.
“What we need is guidance,” Angelique said. “The average woman cannot understand the threats that are facing us. And our politicians need a firm hand to show them the right direction to take our nation in. The only people who can do this are those who have been born to rule, and those, like yourself, who have shown by their merits that they are part of the elite.”
Again, Sarah rewarded her with a careful nod, and waited. She was starting to realize what her superior was driving at.
“You and I have always seen alike,” Bel Thana observed. “I hope that we are still so similar.”
Sarah cocked her eyebrow inquisitively. “Go on,” she said, keeping her tone carefully neutral.
“There are certain women—women in the Agency who are in positions of great power—women who feel just as we do, and who also think that the time has come to provide the leadership that the Sisterhood so desperately needs. They—no--let me be completely frank--I—need you to join us. Not as a lover, of course. I know that I can’t have that—“
She paused for a moment, her voice beginning to betray her, and looked away. When she was finally ready, she faced Sarah again and continued. “Right now, it’s nothing more than just a conversation between patriots, but with every passing second, our situation becomes all the more dire.”
“Exactly how would I participate in this ‘conversation’?” Sarah asked. Now she understood why she and Maya had been invited to the party. The entire evening had been contrived just to facilitate this very discussion.
Instinctively, her eyes flicked towards the windows behind them, and the party that was still going on inside. Every woman there, she reminded herself, were agents just like she was, and just as deadly. Her life, and Maya’s, utterly depended on how this dialogue unfolded.
“I can’t tell you that,” Angelique replied. “Not until I know your answer.” Her eyes had followed the direction that Sarah’s had taken.
“And don’t be concerned, Sarah. If you feel that you must say ‘no’ to me, then you and your little protégé are perfectly free to leave. This time. We are still friends, after all.”
Then her expression hardened. “Now, will you join the Conversâzi? Will you help us save the Sisterhood?”
***
Sarah didn’t share the details with Maya about her private meeting with Angelique. And when they returned to the Otrera, she announced that she was going out again and would not return until the following day. Knowing that she was most likely seeking solace in the arms of Trina, Maya suppressed her revulsion and didn’t challenge her.
When Sarah left, she decided to take advantage of the fact that she was now wholly unsupervised. Her research into Jeena taur K’aut’sha had left her feeling unsated, and if anything, she was more curious than ever about neomen. It wasn’t just a matter of defying Sarah’s will however; she really wanted to know the facts, whatever they turned out to be.
Up to this point, human males had simply been irrelevant to her. Ashkele had exposed her to much stranger things, and neomen had never figured in her life in any meaningful way. Even her experience in the ETR had failed to impress her about the importance of males. Despite their presence there, the fact that the Republic was two centuries behind the Sisterhood, and had lost the war because of this, had only served to reinforce her basic belief that men were nothing worth consideration. Now, thanks to Jeena, and Sarah’s intense discomfort with his presence, all this had changed.
Ordering up a cup of kaafra for herself, she accessed Rebá by psiever.
Hello, Rebá.
Hello, Maya! It’s so wonderful to hear from you again! I’d love to go out riding with you!
I promise you that we’ll go out riding again very soon, Maya assured it. Right now, I need you to access the omni for me, University of Thermadon database, closed channel, marked private, my eyes only.
I’m ready, the intelligence answered. What do you wish to know about? The UT database was one of the most widely consulted sources of public information anywhere, and the definitive word on any subject outside of military and police applications.
Man, Maya replied. Definition.
Rebá came back with her information right away. Man, male. From the New Sisterhood Dictionary; a noun. The term for an extinct branch of humanity on par with the Neanderthals of Old Gaia. Men were eliminated by the MARS Plague (see MARS, The Plague) in 2445 BSE. The term also applies to anything considered to be obsolete, or inferior.
And yet, the Agency was willing to create them and use them as agents, Maya reflected. Was this bad judgment, or did someone know something about Neos that they were keeping to themselves? It was an interesting possibility.
Details on physical differences please, she asked next.
Certainly, Maya. According to the UT Medical Dictionary, 14th Edition, the primary differences are as follows: males were the sex which produced spermatozoa used in the primitive fertilization process of the ova. They possessed an XY chromosomal structure in their DNA as opposed to the female XX pattern.
Outwardly, human males also exhibited the growth of facial hair at maturity and greater upper arm strength, coupled with a lower order of brain development and intelligence. Due to their genetic inferiority, human males were prone to the effects of the Plague.
What about neomen? Maya asked. What’s their specific difference?
Rebá searched for the answer for a moment, then replied. According to these same sources, there are no functional or structural differences. The only exception that seems to exist is exhibited by the latest generation of neomen who have been genetically altered to mimic many of the features of human females.
These include the lack of facial hair, a much lower level of testosterone than the original generations possessed, smaller bone and muscle structure, as well as the deliberate development of breasts. Such glands were once resident in all human males, but not functional, nor as pronounced. There is also a classified Agency listing on this particular subject. Are you interested in that as well?
Maya certainly was, but not enough to risk her access being detected, and reported to Sara
h. No thank you. Can you elaborate on male reproductive functions? Are the A-16’s also the same as neomen?
Rebá complied, furnishing her with a rather elaborate discourse on male sexuality and the function of the male sex organ, finishing with the data on the present generation.
While previous generations of neomen are known to have the ability to sire offspring, the effort to feminize the A-16’s has had the side effect of rendering them sterile. There is another classified file pertaining to this subject. Would you like to hear it?
Again, Maya refused the offer, and for the same reasons.
I also have several files that I can transfer to your holoviewer which provide graphic documentation of the process of fertilization that was employed by human males, Rebá offered. Although I must advise you that they have been tagged as being rather offensive in nature.
Sure, Rebá, Maya replied. Why not? Let’s just see what’s so ‘offensive’ about them.
Very well, Maya.
The images appeared a second later. They were just as explicit as the AI had warned. The first two were quite familiar to Maya. They were clips taken from early Sisterhood media productions.
One was the infamous beating and rape scene from “Street of Shadows”, which had become a fundamental part of the general Motherthought secondary curriculum. The other was no less brutal, and just as unappealing. Maya shut them down. They were not what she had been searching for.
Rebá? she thought Can you find me something that predates Motherthought? Maybe from the Gaian Star Federation days? I want to see how the ancients saw reproduction, not this stuff.
Maya, the AI replied, the clips that I just furnished you with are listed as completely accurate representations, and there are specific notes that state that older productions are tainted by pro-male propaganda and cannot be relied upon for the same level of accuracy.
In addition, the older material also bears a warning that its contents are disturbing in nature and the tag, ‘pornography’, making it restricted access. We will have to use your security clearance to view it.
Maya stroked her chin, considering this development. To go any further, she would have to risk discovery, and Sarah’s potential wrath. As it was, she had already faced an interrogation by her on their way back from the RSE building, and she had barely managed to avoid being forbidden from ever visiting the JUDI again. It hadn’t been pretty.
She was not about to let herself be stymied though. Fek it, she decided. What good was having a security clearance if it couldn’t be used to do a little digging around? And if she did get caught, she could always pretend horror, and tell Sarah just how right she had been all along. If she was discovered, of course.
Go ahead and apply my clearance, Rebá. Let me know if we set off any flags.
Yes, Maya, Rebá replied. I have already found one mid-level flag, which was waved by your clearance and there is no indication of any notification being relayed to a third party. It seems that at the moment, your trail is not being followed. I also have the clip. Here it is.
A moment later, a rather poor vid appeared. It was nowhere near the quality of the holos that she’d just watched, and had clearly begun life as a primitive 2-d production. It featured a man and a woman, and although both of them had long since turned to dust, the fidelity of their naked performance had been faithfully preserved. Watching their sex-play, Maya finally came away with a clear idea of how the ancients had viewed the act, and with very little doubt about the function of the male sex organ.
Or about the attitude of the female receiving its attention. The woman had not been in any type of discomfort at all. Rather, quite the opposite had been the case. Maya was positive of this; she knew the signs of pleasure well enough, and thanks to Felecia’s love of ‘toys’ in the bedroom, which included the strapaadi, she had a pretty fair idea of what kind of sensations the young woman in the ‘vid had experienced. And it didn’t bother her in the least.
Instead, she found herself giggling aloud like a little girl. She couldn’t help it. Rather than being even remotely ‘disturbing’, the clip actually came off as a little clumsy, somewhat messy, and painfully quaint.
“Well,” Maya said when it concluded. “That was interesting.”
Do you wish me to access any other footage similar to what you just viewed? Rebá asked innocently.
No, that’s fine, Maya returned. I get the basic idea. I think that will be all for tonight.
Good night, Maya.
She went to bed considering everything that she had learned. It was obvious that there was a lot more myth, and assumption, surrounding men, and neomen, than anyone really suspected. Even she had fallen prey to this, she realized. What else she would discover about Taur K’aut’sha, and his kind, she could only speculate about.
***
While Maya was drifted off to sleep, Sarah was still wide awake. Her wrists were secured above her head, and linked to a sturdy ring set in the ceiling. Trina stood before her, smiling cruelly as she placed a realie headset over her temples. She wore its twin on her own head.
“I have a gift for you, darling,” she told her. “It’s another realie, but a very special one. I had it custom made.”
Trina closed her eyes and the room changed. Instead of smooth white walls, Sarah found herself encircled by a dark stone chamber, its rough chiseled surfaces sweating in the dank air. Her wrist ties had been transformed as well; now they were made from half-rusted iron and they clinked whenever she shifted her weight.
Trina had also altered her appearance. Now, she was dressed in an elegant silk gown with long trailing sleeves and her hair was tied back behind her head and kept in place by a broad, ornate clasp. Beside her, was a metal brazier filled with glowing coals. A single, straight piece of iron with a crude handle, rested among them.
“This is an authentic recreation of the Thieves Tower,” Trina explained, gesturing expansively around them, “from a charming little village called Riquewihr. It was in the Alsace region of ancient France. Isn’t it just wonderful? I was assured that it’s perfect down to the very last detail.”
Her eyes alight with predatory anticipation, she picked up the iron from the brazier, walking with it towards Sarah. Its tip was white-hot.
“Please,” Sarah gasped, recoiling from the heat.
“Please? Please don’t? Or ‘please, mistress, I want it?’” Trina asked. “Really, I have to know. Which is it?”
“Please—“Sarah repeated.
Trina shook her head and sighed. “Oh well, I guess that I’m in charge as always. I suppose that I’ll have to be the one to make the choice then.”
She touched the iron to Sarah’s exposed breast. Hot metal met unprotected flesh and the sound of skin sizzling combined with the woman’s agonized shriek, filling the room.
None of it was real, or doing any lasting damage, but Sarah’s brain didn’t know the difference. For her, it was everything that it seemed to be. The miracle of realie technology had made this and everything else that Trina went on to do to her, not only possible, but entirely believable and just as unavoidable as the real experience would have been.
When it was finally over, Sarah hung limply, suspended from the floor by nothing more than her restraints. Her body was covered with sweat and she sobbed with a ragged, tearless misery. Her eyes had gone dry somewhere in the midst of the ordeal, and her throat was too raw from screaming to manage anything better than a pathetic, strangled croak.
Trina leaned in close to her and brushed away a strand of lank, tangled hair to caress her cheek. “Shh,” she said tenderly, “There, there. It’s all over.”
Sarah nodded weakly, and Trina whispered into her ear. “Do you see now? Do you see now how much I really love you? No one else will ever love you as much as I do. No one.”
She kissed her on her forehead. “Happy birthday, darling.”
Overcome by her ordeal, and a final command sent through the realie program, Sarah passed out.
Trin
a left Sarah’s headset on her head, confident that the realie would keep her unconscious, and went out into the garage. Aria was parked there, linked to a diagnostic terminal.
“Good evening Aria,” Trina said. “It’s time for your check-up. I wanted to make sure that your software is up to date and running properly.”
“Yes, Trina,” the AI responded. “I am currently running version 515.33A. According to the last system check I performed this morning, there is no data fragmentation, and no processing errors have been detected.”
“Very good,” Trina replied. “I’d still like to run a more extensive check though. Verify access code ‘Dana, Ellyn, Sharra, Anna, Dana, Ellyn 143027-60’.”
The AI obeyed. “Verified.”
Sarah didn’t know it, but she was much more than just another submissive to Trina. She was also a valuable source of information, and by extension, power.
In the Agency, knowledge was everything. It was the key to gaining influence, or to buy favors from those who possessed that influence. What Sarah n’Jan knew, or even merely suspected, had been a commodity that Trina had traded in and benefited from, for years.
Accessing Aria’s database, she browsed through the file trees until she located Sarah’s private case files. They were encrypted of course, but this posed no real obstacle. She had used realies with Sarah before, and one benefit of this immersive form of entertainment media, notwithstanding the fun it always provided, was the ability to ferret out Sarah’s security passwords, and then erase any trace of her mental intrusion.
Supplying the latest code to Aria, the files opened and she browsed them at her leisure. She was not disappointed by what she found.
The file concerning glass sales in the Esteral Terrana Rapabla had recently been added to, and she briefly scanned the contents, routing a copy of it to her own private data vault. Lady d’Ershala paid quite well for anything that kept her one step ahead of her so-called allies.
Sisterhood of Suns: Daughters of Eve Page 35