Dryland's End

by Felice Picano

  Twilight on Benefica was a languid time, especially at this time of the year when the three suns set slowly one after another; first the huge red one, then the smaller yellow, and finally the large blue one. The skies above the revolving rooftop restaurant presented a magnificent spectacle of slowly changing hues, touching every shade of the spectrum – even briefly an electric green.

  Nothing like the soft pale twilights over Melisande, of course, Councilor Rinne thought, but then what could equal those pale enchantments? Meanwhile her group had passed from aperitifs to appetizers, from entrees to tisanes. They had sound-sealed their partly enclosed area from the stage show – a trio of musicians, Hume father and son, they seemed to be, and a single Arthropod solo-orchestra. Now Rinne’s group was relaxing, opening up as only women of more or less the same professional status could do when they were together like this in semipublic.

  Gemma Guo-Rinne looked around the table at the other four and decided, well, why not ask them?

  “Does everyone miss their interactive Cybers as much as I did at first?”

  “I hardly noticed,” Liqa, a Spatial Engineer, said in her deep voice.

  “My gynos miss theirs!” Ap’ara Norr began a high silvery laugh. “But you know what? Even Cis’po has learned how to program for dinner and cleaning now.”

  “Was that difficult?” Councilor Rinne asked. Norr, a financial securities expert, always seemed to have a half dozen young Hume males hanging about her apartments. Younger and younger it seemed.

  “Not really!” Norr laughed again. “Except for the first few days. Somehow he got stuck on soups and sandwiches, and I thought I’d have to take all of the gynos out for lunch and dinner. They may only be males, but, Eve! how some of them put it away!”

  “Didn’t you tell me that Cis’po misprogrammed and the floor Cybers chased after your cherubim-mice for days, trying to clean them out?”

  Norr went off into another peal. “I got home. And there the poor things were, hiding in as high a spot as they could find, and the floor Cybers were all directly beneath, trying to stack themselves up to reach the mice with a laser broom. And poor Cis’po was running around, taking down the Cybers, which would just try to stack themselves up again, and he was trying to shush the cherubim-mice who were whistling away in terror, and he was screaming into the wall unit to try to find the right combination to shut down the Cybers, or at least to shut off the broom!”

  The four other women burst into laughter. Norr was almost in tears.

  “Of course I gave him a lovely present when he finally did get it all right. A Beryllium signet. Oh, not a large one. But you know, ‘star-bright’ and all.”

  “Oh ‘Para, when are you going to settle down with a few spouses!” Kiska seemed serious. “Darling, you’re close to two-fifty. You don’t have all that much time left.”

  “Leave her alone!” Suro Ton replied. “I settled down at two-fifty, and where has it gotten me? A flat full of spouses and neo.s. It’s like a multi-PVN every minute of the day Sol Rad. This one’s sick, that one’s angry, these two aren’t speaking.”

  “Some of us are lucky,” Kiska replied, looking at Councilor Rinne. “They have their Stelezine and sip it, too!”

  “There’s a dance group coming up,” Liqa announced. “I saw them on Antigone. Anyone want to join me in unsealing our sound?”

  The others had just agreed, when a young woman approached the table, followed by the Hume Maîtresse d’, who was still trying to stop her.

  “Please, Councilor Rinne, I must talk with you,” the young woman pleaded.

  “She’s been lurking here since your party arrived, Councilor. We couldn’t ... We could call Security.”

  “I won’t take long.” The young woman seemed desperate. She looked around at the other women and said, “I’m so sorry to bother you. In fact, I’m quite embarrassed.”

  The other women turned their attention to the dancers. Councilor Rinne gestured for the young woman to join her on the settee and dismissed the relieved restaurant staff.

  “My dear, are you ill?” she asked.

  “No. Just desperate.”

  “A calming tisane perhaps?”

  “Gratitude, no. It’s about one of the new MC programs, the delayed-Motherhood rule.”

  Councilor Rinne had expected something like this.

  “I can understand why it’s needed on a small, crowded planet like Rigel Prime,” the young woman went on. “But Benefica is enormous. With plenty of resources and not nearly enough popula –”

  Councilor Rinne took the young woman’s hand. “Were you listed for Motherhood?”

  “This month to come. And now – !”

  “The delayed maternity rules are only temporary. I’m certain you’ll be on the very first new list to come out as soon as the restraint is lifted.”

  “But I don’t understand why it’s there to begin with!” The young woman was almost whispering, evidently repressing her emotion. “It’s my first! I’ve never –”

  “I understand,” Councilor Rinne sympathized.

  “You’re Sector Health Councilor,” the young woman said. “Surely you could –”

  “The rule comes from Her Matriarchy Herself. All I can do is ensure that you are on that first list when the rule is lifted.”

  “It’s just so unfair!”

  “Let’s make sure it’s a little fairer. Give me your ident.” She lifted the girl’s wrist and imprinted it against her own forearm. “There! I won’t forget you now ... Ewa Petra Benn.”

  For the first time, the glimmer of a smile appeared on the young woman’s face. “You’re a Wonderful Woman, Councilor Rinne,” she gave the highest verbal honor, added a bow to the Councilor’s throat, then apologized once again to the others and left.

  “Are you still envying me, Kiska?” the Councilor asked. She turned to the dancing.

  The group broke up soon afterward and Councilor Rinne said her goodbyes, then took an enclosed conveyance-walk off the rooftop and down to her official suite in the nearby accommodation center. She wasn’t in her rooms a half hour when the holo-comm. informed her that she had a secured Inter. Gal. Comm. from within MC Headquarters on Reg. Prime.

  To Councilor Rinne’s surprise, the two preliminary MC Security guards preceded – Her Matriarchy Herself!

  “Ma’am.” Rinne bowed to the holo.

  Wicca Eighth brushed it aside. “How are the new programs going over in your sector, Councilor Rinne?”

  “For the most part, fairly well. Everyone’s been informed through the networks, and they’re being patriotic and understanding. Going without the little luxuries. But there’s less comprehension and therefore more resistance to the maternity delay than to shutting off the intelligent Cybers.”

  “Then they are all shut off in your sector?”

  “None more intelligent than a hairdresser is left, Ma’am.”

  “But centuries of propaganda about Motherhood is less easy to handle.”

  “I’m afraid so, Ma’am. Peer pressure. Customs. Mores.”

  “No one merely accepts that it’s for the galactic census? No,” Wicca Eighth answered Herself. “We did hope they would. But that’s not what I wanted to comm. you about. First, I must confirm a piece of knowledge. What do you think of when I say ‘Relfi’?”

  Without thinking, Councilor Rinne answered, “Lydia Mann Relfi, the Biological Engineer.”

  “You studied Relfi’s work with Ferrex Baldwin Sanqq’ at the Arcturus Mammalogical Institute, didn’t you?”

  “In my youth, Ma’am. Some two hundred years ago.”

  “Exactly what did you study?”

  “Relfi’s extant tapes and discs, of course. Many were destroyed by the First Matriarchy, you know. But several were saved. Relfi was no longer proscribed. Merely ... unknown, in my youth.”

  “Except by Sanqq’?”

  “To be exact, Ma’am, I worked not with him, but under him. He was an extremely intelligent male. Much more perceptive a
nd compassionate than most female mammalog –”

  “You needn’t convince me of the equal intelligence of males, Councilor Rinne,” Wicca Eighth said. “Were your studies analytical or ... more practical.”

  “Analytical, Ma’am. Our only laboratory was a series of advanced Cybers. We speculated upon the incomplete set of Relfi’s theories and postulates we had in hand.”

  “And concluded what? They concerned abnormal conception – is that right?”

  Councilor Rinne almost laughed. It was all beginning to come back to her. The years at the Arcturus MI. How much she’d admired Ferrex Sanqq’. How much they all had. How he had forced them to speculate far beyond what they ever had before into areas that could be considered heretical.

  “We referred to them as alternative, not abnormal. And some are in use today on a limited basis. The Delphinid-Hume Ambassadorial class, for example, which has been a stunning success.”

  “Do you have access to those recordings?”

  “No. Dr. Ferrex Sanqq’ retained them, Ma’am. I do still have extensive recordings of our speculative sessions and of my own postulates. Holo-notebooks, you might call them.”

  “Where are those?”

  “At my apartments in Melisande.”

  “Good! You’ll come here by Fast tomorrow. I’ll temporarily relieve you of your post there so you may join a special team reporting directly to the Council.”

  This was sudden. “But, Ma’am, that was all centuries ago!”

  “You knew that Ferrex Sanqq’ vanished? No? Well, he did. And you’re all We have left of him, Councilor Rinne. We need those notes and recordings. We need to know in what direction his work was going when he vanished. You can help Us.”

  “Yes, of course, Ma’am. But –”

  “Why all of sudden? Look at this recording of an encounter I had recently.” The holo of Wicca was replaced by one of an attractive young Hume male talking to Her Matriarchy. While it played, Councilor Rinne had the oddest feeling of familiarity.

  “That’s Dr. Sanqq”s son. Ay’r Kerry Sanqq’!” Wicca Eighth said over the holo.

  Of course it was! He was much younger. Far more lithe. A bit less smooth. But Sanqq’!

  “Did you know his mother, Councilor?”

  “I’m afraid not, Ma’am.”

  “Nor does anyone else. Although Ay’r Kerry was enrolled in the birth charts on Arcturus Mu toward the end of the decade you studied with Dr. Sanqq’!”

  “Why would he keep it secret?”

  “Why is it We can’t find a mother? Despite all of Our most intensive efforts. Oh, We found a blind, of course. A shadow-mother. Supposedly dead in childbirth. And she bore some shallow resemblance to the son, except of course that we still retained a clonable-DNA cell of her and she had no resemblance on a deep molecular basis.”

  Now that she continued watching the recorded holo, Councilor Rinne thought she saw in the youth’s features someone else she had once known. But whom? Which woman could it be? But even as she wondered, another thought came to her.

  “Note, Councilor Rinne, that young Sanqq’ carries his father’s last name and not a matronymic.”

  “Accepting the final matronymic is not universal, even among MC Humes. Ma’am, what are you suggesting about young Sanqq’?”

  “I’m not sure, Councilor. Still, you’ve looked at Ay’r, heard him, registered his good looks, his intelligence. Take Our word for his charm and poise and discretion. His quick adaptability. His willingness to take on large tasks. He’s as exceptional for his age as he is for his gender. If he were a woman, I’d keep him at Our side and entrust much to him.”

  Councilor Rinne kept watching the youth. Who was the woman on Arcturus Mu who walked like that? Who had that dark seriousness around her lighter than usually colored eyes? It was right there, hanging by a synapse.

  “Will you help Us find out the truth about this young male?” Her Matriarchy had reappeared in the holo.

  “Yes, of course.”

  “If you do, Councilor, I warn you, you will be among a handful of women who are working for the very salvation of the Matriarchy.”

  The smiles they exchanged before the holo snapped off were sad ones.

  Outside, on Benefica, darkness had descended fully. Councilor Rinne walked out onto her balcony and listened to the sounds of the night creatures.

  “Are you still foolishly envying me, Kiska?” she asked the moonless, unresponding, star-flooded sky.

  “Women – and guests. Please be seated! The fight is about to begin.”

  Captain Lill pushed out of the group of warriors gathered at the doorway and they fell in behind her, down the ramps to their seats.

  “For your sporting entertainment,” the announcer continued, enunciating each syllable in what Lill had been told was a holdover from ancient ring events, “we have tonight two double-tag teams!”

  Having found their seats, Captain Lill took the curved stool closest to the aisle, and waited for her warriors to get into place. Around them, Percodyne fumes rose, casting a sense of glimmer over the small bowl-shaped auditorium. Lill straddled the stool so it fit between her hefty thighs, pulled up its front so it fit against her crotch, drew the belts attached to each end around her waist, cinched it tight, then adjusted the front of the stool for a low vibration. She liked to come to oxy/hydro fights, even if they were frowned upon by the MC, and in bureau circles looked upon as low entertainment.

  “From Scutum’s Harp System, we present the infamous Teqq and Rarey,” the announcer blared. Two huge Hume females clad only in aerial netting dropped from the ceiling to within inches of the surface of the water. They hung there as though born to the air, spun around, bowed to the crowds, loudly insulting those who booed them.

  “With them, from Scutum Kappa Six, P’andolfo the Wonder Delph.!”

  The sleek Delph. shot up from the water tank, spraying the incurved transparent walls of the ring right to the top. P’andolfo was as big as the two fighters, with something glittering woven into his mane.

  “The Delph.’s wearing glass!” Lill shouted to her closest companion.

  “Childless!” Corporal Jare expostulated and hit Lill’s elbow. “Get a look at those gynos who just came in! I think they’re going to sit in front of us.”

  “Lemme arrange their seats for them!” Lill barked.

  In the ring, the two women and the Delph. were cavorting around. It seemed to know its way around the nets.

  “Hi, boys!” Corporal Jare reached out with roving hands as the gynos checked their seat numbers. Lill knew one of them, a piece of flit named Roy’o, fashionable trash, common at oxy/hydros and at the dives she wasted her time at when the rest of virtuous Melisande was closed down for the night.

  He pretended not to recognize her until she reached out and pushed her boot point into his crack, at which he turned around and smiled, and gave her a pointed-tongue greeting.

  The other warriors laughed. The other gyno turned around and proved to be an innocent-looking thing, all eyes and lips and jet hair.

  Lill thought maybe she’d have some fun tonight, after all. This childless extended R&R on Wicca World was giving her serious cunt cramps.

  “And from Denebola XVIII, we’re pleased to present, Barb, We’ra, and Lartes.”

  The announcer’s words came as three other Humes dropped into the ring on netting – two big, broad Hume females and some sort of mutant, a giant male. They all looked alike, which was rough. All three were bald and had tattooed skulls. The male’s buttocks were also tattooed.

  “Sibs! Tripos!” Jare yelled, passing a Stelezine inhaler to Lill, who took a snort. “I watched ’em fight before. They’ll turn that Delph. into vulva fodder.”

  The gynos were daintily fending off offers from women all around them, but Roy’o accepted Lill’s Benzo-Ritalin inhaler and gave it to his companion. When he returned it, he winked twice. Meaning the duo was good, if she wanted it. Lill turned up her vibrator and leaned into it, checking out
the fighter named Lartes. Took a lot of guts for a male to fight in an oxy/hydro. Even one as big and slab-muscled as this Lartes.

  “Childless! Imagine if all gynos were that big!” Jare shouted, rocking forward onto her stool attachment. “I might even single-spouse!”

  “Sure and hatch your own brood of ugly tripos!” Major Pratt guffawed.

  Lill knew what she meant. This waiting around while other warriors were out fighting Cybers was beyond childless.

  Before the announcer could say any more, the Scutist named Teqq had aimed a mailed fist and swung directly into Lartes’s crotch. She struck a Plastro codpiece and he drop-punched her left breast. Rarey jumped onto his shoulders, but his bald head shook her, and by then We’ra or Barb was beginning to rabbit-vag her. The crowd roared. The fight was on.

  Just as the sibs seemed to have the two Scutists twisted and pummeled and cut, the Delph. shot up and split into the mess with a sharp thwack. Everyone yelled as Hume blood splattered against the ring’s walls and was immediately hosed down. Nothing serious – just scratches.

  Despite all the ring action, the two gynos were having a hard time with women pushing into them. They finally got out of their seats, and Lill gestured them up to where she was. She sat one on either knee, wrapped an arm around each one, and let them play with her breasts and feed her Percodyne while she shouted and cheered on, now the tripos, now the Delph., getting higher every second.

  Down in the ring, the Delph. had pulled one of the sib females into the tank where they were wrestling around. With the sibs split up, one sister took one, the other Scutist, the male. Legs, mailed fists, even elbow and knee blades joined the action.

  Roy’o had left Lill’s knee for Jare’s. Lill shoved her hand deep into the black-haired gyno’s pants, pulled out something tubular, and began stroking it. He kept looking over his shoulder, but she wouldn’t let go. Lill got her moan-and-little-splash from the gyno about the same time that down in the ring the Delph. miscalculated and leapt into a tripo net-knot. Trapped, it squirmed and squeaked, and the sibs found each other and seriously took on the two Scutists. One of them ended up underwater. The other one was held and worked over for a while, until the female sib doing the work nodded, and the male took over. The jeers and boos from the audience reached a fever pitch, until the male sib finally pulled off her crotch protection and actually worked his hand inside her vag. Lill thought his infamous act would bring the auditorium down around their ears. A score of women had unbelted themselves from their seats and were climbing the ring shield, trying to get at him.