by Elin Peer
CHAPTER 16
Just Tell him
Kya
“Kya, do you have a second?” Boulder asked with a worried expression.
When I nodded, he pulled me to the side and lowered his voice. “Did Christina say anything to you?
From a position in the kitchen, my eyes flew to Christina who already sat in the dining room, calmly talking with Pearl, Khan, and Archer.
“About what?” I asked.
“Something’s wrong and I don’t know what it is. She’s grumpy and she’s become really distant lately.” A ghost of pain flashed over his face. “I thought maybe you would know if something was bothering her.”
“She hasn’t mentioned anything,” I assured him.
Boulder shot a longing glance in his wife’s direction. “I think she’s getting tired of me.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing for you to worry about.” I deflected the subject and signaled that we’d better get back to the board meeting that was about to start.
“Magni is joining us from the East Coast,” Khan said and made a small nod to the hologram of his brother.
“Oh, hey.” I waved my hand at Magni and he raised his chin in reply.
“How are you doing, Kya? Is Finn taking his job seriously?”
“I’m safe and sound,” I told him with a smile. “How about you, are you doing a lot of talking?”
Magni gave an open-mouthed yawn. “It’s going to take a while to calm these fuckers down. Some of our countrymen believe we should have forced Pearl to follow our traditions. They feel cheated that they didn’t get a chance to win her in a tournament.”
“And now you’re giving them a chance to fight you instead?” I asked. “And how is that helping? Maybe what they need is for someone to educate them and make them understand that–”
Khan cut me off. “Why don’t we focus on the school business for tonight? I don’t remember asking you for advice on how to run my country.”
“Maybe you should,” Pearl said softly and gave her husband a smile.
“I want to know what the situation is with William,” Khan said, ignoring his wife’s provocation. “Will he be scarred from his burn wound?”
“There will be some scarring, but he has healed really well and even gained popularity because of all the sympathy from the kids and also because the fish skin on his hand made him look like a mutant,” Archer said.
“That’s good, and what about the division? Is it still boys against girls? Any more pranks?”
“We got it under control,” Archer declared.
“The thing that worries us the most,” I said, “is that the Nboys still look down on the children from the Motherlands. It’s like they lack fundamental respect, and I don’t know how to explain it except that they seem to think that male is better than female.”
Quiet glances were exchanged between the men in the room, and if I had been braver I would’ve called them out on it. Luckily, I didn’t have to; Pearl did it for me.
“That’s because boys here are raised to believe they are superior to women, isn’t that right?” she said in a calm voice. “Women don’t work, they don’t own property or have money, they aren’t asked for their opinions, and they certainly don’t hold any positions of power in this country.”
“I don’t need to ask you for your opinion,” Khan told her. “You give it to me freely all the time.” Even from my side of the table I could feel the playful energy between them.
“Anyway, as you all know by now, Christina and I thought it would be a good idea to bring all the children on a field trip to the Motherlands,” I said. “That way the boys can see how advanced we Motlanders are and hopefully gain some new perspective and respect.
“The Council has approved our plans and all we need to do now is come up with the exact dates and agree on the details.”
“This is fucking fantastic,” Magni exclaimed. “Maybe I can find Laura then.”
“Unfortunately, the Council’s invitation doesn’t include you,” Pearl said and bit her lip. “They still haven’t forgotten that you kidnapped Athena.”
“And even if they had, you still have to stay here and focus on the rebels. The situation is too volatile for you to leave now,” Khan added.
“I’m surprised the Council will allow this,” Boulder pondered out loud.
Pearl leaned forward, placing her elbows on the table. “It helps that my mother is the chairwoman and has been here to see the school and meet you men for herself, not to mention that Councilwoman Sheana Rene recognized an opportunity to see her daughters Rochelle and Shelly again.”
Boulder lifted a bottle of beer to his mouth, but just when he was about to drink, he stalled. “The more I think about it, the more surprised I am that she would volunteer her daughters for the experiment.”
“Actually, I spoke to Shelly about it,” I said. “And it turns out that it wasn’t Sheana’s idea. It was Shelly’s.”
“What do you mean?”
“Shelly heard her mother talking about it and she was intrigued by the possibility to become part of the project herself, but of course she was too old to be a student, so she convinced Rochelle that they should go together.”
“Why?” Archer asked. “What had her so intrigued? She’s fifteen, she should have been terrified.”
“Well, in case you haven’t noticed, Shelly isn’t exactly the typical fifteen-year-old.”
“I’ve noticed,” he said. “I mean I knew she was wicked smart, but apparently, she’s brave too, I guess.”
“When you, Finn, and Marco go to the Motherlands…” Pearl tapped her fingers on the table, looking straight at Archer. “You need to keep the boys calm and be good role models.”
Archer crossed his arms, and leaned back in his chair. “Define good role models.”
“You will limit your swearing and avoid all shouting and fighting in public.” Her tone was earnest. “There can be no outcries and no pointing fingers; you will act polite at all times.”
“Yeah, yeah, I think he got it,” Khan interjected and shot Archer a frown. “Basically, all Pearl is asking is for you, Finn, and Marco to whisper and be docile hermaphrodites.”
“Could you?” Pearl’s sugar-sweet smile went from Archer to Khan and then it spread into a grin.
After the meeting, we all walked outside and when the men got caught up in a conversation about the rebels on the east coast, I pulled Christina to the side. “You still haven’t told Boulder that you’re pregnant, have you?”
Her shoulders drew up and she tucked her elbows in with a downward dip of her lips. “I want to, but I told you I just want it to be perfect.”
“Okay, so what’s your plan?” I asked in a hushed voice and leaned my head closer to her.
“Well, I thought about having the children put up this big banner, but I dismissed that idea.” She spoke quickly with a strong sense of secrecy. “Then I thought about writing him a song, but I spent four hours trying and it turns out I’m horrible at rhyming. Then I thought maybe I could bake this elaborate cake with a baby doll hidden inside, like a hidden message, you know? But I haven’t been able to find any dolls here, so I had to order one from back home and it’ll take a few days before it gets here.”
My neck was burning and I turned to see Boulder looking in our direction with what looked like a mono-brow from all his frowning.
“Seriously, Ina, I can’t let you leave Boulder miserable for days, only to have you traumatize him by hiding a baby doll inside a cake.”
“I just want it to be perfect,” Christina repeated.
“Then let me help you.” I resolutely turned and waved Boulder over.
“Is everything all right?” he asked with a stiff posture that was so unlike him.
“Christina has something to tell you,” I announced and ignored her protests.
His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “What is it, honey?” Boulder reached for her hand.
Christina narrowed her eyes at m
e and tightened her mouth, silently saying that she would never forgive me for screwing up her big plans of “perfection.”.
I widened my eyes at her, encouraging her to just get it out.
“You know how I have been a little short with you lately?” Christina started.
“Yeah, I noticed,” he said and held his breath.
“Well,” she drawled it out and slowly kicked at some gravel. “There’s something I’ve been trying to tell you for weeks.”
Boulder was going paler by the second.
“I’ve been trying to find the right time to tell you. And the right way,” she added.
“You’re fucking scaring me, babe.”
Christina pulled her hand back, and from the white marks on her fingers it was obvious that Boulder had been squeezing way too hard.
Finally, Christina lifted her gaze and locked eyes with him. “Since Kya already ruined the surprise I had planned for you, I’m just gonna come right out and say it.” She took a deep inhalation of air and breathed out the words: “I’m pregnant.”
“What?”
“I’m pregnant,” she repeated but unlike what I had expected, Boulder didn’t break into a happy grin.
“How long have you known?”
“A little over two weeks.”
“But you don’t want the child here, with me?” Boulder was starting to look a little crazed with the way his eyes were burning.
Christina tilted her head. “What are you talking about?”
“All the secrecy and your moodiness.” He went on in a long rant. “Why would you keep it a secret from me when you know my biggest wish is to have children with you? You’re leaving me, aren’t you?”
“No, I just wanted it to be perfect when I told you, and I’m not moody.” She lowered her eyebrows. “It’s just hormones.”
“Are you sure about this?”
“About staying with you or about being pregnant?” A smile grew on her face, and it was like Boulder blew out fifty pounds of worries when he exhaled deeply.
“How could you think I would leave you?” She chuckled and grinned when he picked her up in his arms, making her feet dangle above the ground.
“I’m really going to be a father?” His voice was full of awe and then he swung her around with a loud howl of joy.
I quickly stepped back to avoid being knocked down by her feet, swinging through the air.
“What’s happening?” Boulder’s euphoria was attracting the others and soon Pearl, Archer, and Khan had joined us.
“We’re going to have a baby,” Boulder boomed and rained kisses on Christina, who was laughing with her mouth open and eyes all moist.
When her eyes fell on me, I grinned back at my best friend. “Told you it would be perfect, didn’t I?”
CHAPTER 17
Going to the Motherlands
Archer
It had been almost three weeks since I made love to Kya for the first time. Finn had given me a hard time about the situation he walked in on, but at least he had promised not to tell others about it.
If it was up to me, we would have been making love morning, day, and night, but unfortunately Kya had a say in the matter and she was adamant that our sexual relationship stay a secret. That complicated things and limited our time together. So far, we had only managed to sneak in sex five times, and every time had left me longing for more. Her scent, her softness, her sweet moans, and the way she willingly spread her legs and invited me to enter her had me feeling like a possessed man.
Never would a sex-bot be able to satisfy me again. I wanted the real thing and I wanted it with Kya.
I was hopeful that our trip to the Motherlands would give me more time with her, or at least distract me enough to not obsess about wanting her constantly.
The excitement in our group was palpable.
The children from the Motherlands were excited to go back, and talked about their favorite foods and possibly seeing some of their loved ones.
We boys and men from the Northlands were ecstatic that we would actually get to see the mysterious Motherlands with our own eyes. It was a historic event that Khan proudly shared with the press.
I understood his need to show progress and spread hope around our country that someday, we would all be welcome in the Motherlands. At the same time, I was concerned about the safety of the girls and wanted to make sure that he didn’t compromise the secrecy surrounding our experiment. He didn’t! He completely left out anything relating to the girls, and focused on the fact that the Council had invited a group of boys and three caretakers to visit with them for ten days – something that Khan attributed to his marriage to Pearl. He also promised that our delegation would be documenting our experiences and that highlights would be broadcast for everyone to see. “This,” he had boasted, “is a promising sign of the Motlanders’ curiosity when it comes to us Nmen. May the day come when we are all welcome to cross the border whenever we wish to.” Not surprisingly, Khan’s popularity spiked after that speech.
Christina and Boulder had wanted to come with us, but just like Magni, Boulder had been banned from entering the Motherlands; in the end, he and Christina stayed back while Finn, Marco, and I went with Kya and Shelly.
With another volley of Pearl’s warnings about keeping the boys on a short leash, we left the school at four AM on Saturday morning to avoid anyone seeing the girls.
Khan had arranged for a military drone to pick us up and take us to the border. It was designed to transport battalions of soldiers and easily fit all twenty-five of us.
Our first overnight stop was in a city called Old Angeles. The place was enormous, with more than three hundred thousand people living there. That made it slightly bigger than our capital, Freeman, which I rarely visited because I found it too crowded for my taste. We Nmen preferred space and nature around us.
Yet, Old Angeles was very different from Freeman and I was surprised at how green everything was. Not only did they have lots of trees and parks, they also grew gardens on the house façades.
“We call it urban gardening,” Kya explained. “It improves the air quality while supplying us with vegetables, fruits, and herbs.”
“I like it,” I told her and was especially impressed with the way some of the colors of the gardens created beautiful patterns.
“How do they water them?” I asked and leaned my head back to see the plants at the top of the building.
“They’re all set up with irrigation systems.”
“Okay, but then how do they get to them when they want to collect the fruit and vegetables?”
Kya showed me the clever system that made it possible to rotate the beds. “It’s always two rows connected, and when one side goes down the other goes up. With most buildings, it’s easy, as all you have to do is push a button.”
Khan wasn’t the only one who had spread the news with the press. The council in the Motherlands had done the same and the moment we arrived, members of the press corps were ready to document our visit.
Curious glances met us everywhere we went, but only a few people dared approach us. It wasn’t uncommon to see people move to the other side of the street and watch us nervously.
Two guides joined our group. Cindy and Varna were our trained mediators, which I suppose was the closest thing the Motherlands had to law enforcement. They seemed friendly and excited about the task.
Before we left the Northlands, Kya had suggested that Finn, Marco, and I should all shave, but we weren’t trying to hide who we were and this wasn’t an undercover operation, so we didn’t.
The only thing we did agree to was to leave any clothing made out of leather back in the Northlands. Killing animals was considered a crime in the Motherlands and there was no reason to provoke them.
It soon became clear that the women had arranged for a busy schedule for our group. On our first night, we went out to a restaurant called The Happy Cow.
“This is one of the few places that serves real meat,” Kya exp
lained as the servants showed us to two large tables.
“What do you mean they serve real meat? I thought you were all vegan?”
“That’s true, but when you live in the Motherlands you don’t have a choice. You are either a vegetarian or you’re a criminal. At least that’s how it was until a few years ago.” Kya got distracted when she saw that the boys and the girls separated themselves at two tables. “No, I want you to mix a little,” she instructed and followed up with a direct message to Nero. “It won’t kill you to sit next to a girl for a change.”
“You were talking about something that happened a few years ago,” I reminded her.
“Yes, there’s always been a group advocating for the consumption of meat, and you know how a lot of technology and science from before the Toxic War has been lost?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, they found a technique from the twenty-first century where you don’t have to kill the animals to get their meat, and now we have a small industry that we call cellular agriculture.”
“How do you not have to kill the animal if you want to eat meat?” I asked and smiled at the young waiters who were bringing bowls to the table with shaky hands.
“We call it cultured meat and it’s a little too technical for me to explain, but it’s something about the farmers taking tissue from the animal’s muscles and then using the stem cells to grow the meat.”
“What is this?” Marco picked up a small sphere from the bowl.
“It’s water,” Shelly told him. “Just peel it and put it in your mouth.”
With a small tilt of his head, Marco did as she told him and his eyes expanded before he swallowed. “That is so cool.” As he used his finger to prod at the little bubbles in the bowl, his excitement rose. “How come they don’t break?”
“The outer layer is made of an algae extract, and not only does it keep the water clean but it also keeps the bubble from bursting. That’s why you want to peel it before putting it into your mouth. You know, in case someone touched it.”