The Sex Gates

by Darrell Bain;Jeanine Berry

  Messler took it in stride. “There aren't many people with enough money to outbid me. And remember this: I've lived more than a century now. You would be amazed at the number of friends and agents and contacts a man makes or can plug into key positions over that stretch of time, especially a wealthy man. Trust me. I can control public opinion for a good long while, in this country anyway, and perhaps in others."

  Rita reflected. “A good long while. How long is that."

  “Long enough, I hope, but again, that's no permanent solution, as Lee says. That's where you two come in."

  He paused for a moment, looking us over. “You two beat stupendous odds. You came through the gates twice, alone and as paired partners. I don't think that's happened to anyone else. You are unique."

  I was willing to take Messler's word for it, though I had no idea of what the significance of our achievement was yet, if any. In a vast and seemingly random universe, and against tremendous odds, Rita and I had managed to stay together. It made me grateful, and if there turned out to be a god, I would willingly thank him. I only wished Donna and Russell had shared our good fortune.

  “We're glad,” I said, squeezing Rita's hand. She leaned against me, nodding agreement.

  “You've also developed a sensitivity to the thoughts of other people.” He said that as an obvious statement, something we already knew.

  “Is that normal for Seconders?” I asked.

  Messler smiled, giving us a hint of his old personality. “You must know that it is, but there's more. What else have you noticed?"

  I tried but couldn't think of anything else of real significance. Rita could, though, even if she hadn't mentioned it to me. “We're smarter than we were. I've noticed it more and more lately. I'm seeing correlations and finding errors I wouldn't have picked up before.

  Suddenly I knew she was right. I thought of how easily I had been delving the nuances of the newscasts lately where before it had taken some brainpower. “What does it mean? Will we keep on getting smarter and more sensitive to each other?"

  Messler smiled, looking almost like his old self again. “You will if you keep going through the gates like I have."

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  * * *

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Flies might have made a home in my mouth before I got it closed, but Rita took it in stride.

  “How many times have you gone through?” she asked, speaking as nonchalantly as if we were discussing a routine shopping trip.

  “Several times.” Messler glanced away, and I knew we weren't going to get a solid number out of him.

  “But why?” I asked. “Did you get hurt or sick? Or did you want to try changing your sex again?” I knew, of course, that the NSC had forced poor Renfrow to go through the gates several times, and quite a few Seconders had gone through a third time after suffering radiation poisoning in the attack on San Antonio—as we had. But no one that I knew went through the gates for the hell of it—they were still too much of an unknown—too alien.

  Messler regarded us with a solemn expression for a moment before explaining. “I think the first time I went through again after becoming a Seconder was a combination of curiosity and a simple hunch that I might make it through for the third time. Remember, I've made fortunes playing hunches, and this was one I really felt impelled to try, especially since I was smart enough by then to suspect I might find out something important about the gates if I kept going through them."

  All I could do was take my hat off to his hunches—and his courage. In the silence after his startling revelation I began to realize that Messler was one of the more brilliant minds of our age, even before he went through the gates numerous times; he possessed one of those intellects that only come around once a generation or even once a century.

  Rita finally broke the silence. “And you did find something."

  Messler nodded. “Yes. After the third time through, my intellect went up another notch, and while the sex change was as instantaneous as before, I found that by an effort of will I could delay my reappearance for a number of seconds. I might mention that was something I intended to try doing beforehand. I didn't learn much that time, but I waited until several days later, knowing what happened to Renfrow, then tried again. Again. That time I was able to hold on for a considerable time—several minutes in fact."

  “What was it like?” I leaned forward, full of curiosity. If you've ever been through a gate, you know how frustrating it is—you fall toward the green mist, and then—nothing! You're on the other side.

  Messler shrugged. “As you might expect, it's like being enveloped in a thick green mist so far as normal senses go. But mentally, I found I could sense other phenomena occurring around me. I felt forces as work, engaging in the operation of the gates, and I was sure I also sensed the entities responsible for them. And it became easier with every passage."

  He stopped at that point, got up out of his lounger and strode over to the window where he grasped his hands behind his back and stared out over the city. It was almost as if he were acting—and probably he was. “Several times” he had said. By now his intellect must be far beyond ours. Something in his manner made me wonder if he were still completely human. The thought sent a brief shiver over my skin. I glanced over at Rita and saw my fear mirrored in her eyes too.

  Still, I was forced to admire his courage in experimenting with the gates in a way no one else had dared. Renfrow had been forced to do what he did by the government. And rumor that it that after several quick, forced passages he became an idiot. No, Messler was unique.

  I spoke to his back. “Who are they? Where do they come from? How do the gates work? Why did...” I ran out of breath, even though I was still bursting with questions.

  Messler turned and came back to where Rita and I were sitting. He stood looking down at us, his eyes troubled, as if searching for words simple enough to convey the truth to minds that must seem childlike in comparison with his own.

  “In the first place, you can't properly call them a ‘they.’ An ‘it’ would be more accurate,” he said at last. But that really doesn't describe them either—and I'm saying ‘them’ on purpose. It's easier on the mind. The Gate Master—or Masters if you like, appears to be part of a race—or a shared group of minds—or a single mind—that was once a planetary species much like us. But they are incredibly more advanced and infinitely older. I know I am being a bit confusing here, but our minds can barely grasp the level of reality inhabited by this mind or minds I'm talking about."

  I swallowed hard. Aliens it was, then, but aliens so far beyond the usual BEM as to be incomprehensible to mere humans.

  Messler was still speaking. “Also I believe that the entity I will call the Gate Master, for lack of a better term, is only a very small segment of the overall entity—and that our Gate Master is interested in what is happening with humans, but from its own viewpoint, and what interests it is not what interests us. What I mean is, I believe it isn't even aware of what's happening with Seconders, and doesn't know we are experiencing this telepathy and increased mind power. Perhaps the overall entity might catch on, but this portion of it—our Gate Master—isn't aware. That's one reason I think I can sense it without being swatted: I'm using a portion of my mind it doesn't understand, a portion that wasn't even active until I became a Seconder."

  “Are you telling us that you can control the gates now?” Rita was squeezing my hand so tightly that it hurt. I knew that she was thinking the same thing I was thinking: if he could control the gates, he could bring back Russ and Donna!

  “Oh no, or not yet anyway. I'll have to pass through the gates many more times before that's possible—if indeed it is possible—and even so, I'll need a lot of help to manage it."

  Rita was ahead of me again. “That's why you agreed to see us."

  Messler nodded, a sad, faraway look in his eyes. “Yes, you two are strongly linked together already. Once you start to go through the gates again, the sky may
be the limit for you both. You see, I've found that as Seconders go through the gates again and again, they become more and more able to merge their minds—and the merging is even more intense when lovers enter the equation, somewhat like a synergistic effect."

  My nose for news made me sense that there was more here than he was telling us yet. I asked my main question rhetorically. “Okay, so let's say that Seconders go through the gates numerous times. We get real smart and one day we take control of them. Won't the Gate Master who put them here have something to say about us taking his toys away from him?"

  Messler smiled, but there was nothing human in his smile. It was icy cold. “Toys. Now there's a word. Can you remember when you were a boy and tried pushing a toy truck or car off a table to see if it would break? And you, Rita, did you ever try dressing a pet kitten or puppy up in doll clothes to see what they would look like?"

  I was speechless at what Messler was implying. Rita was aghast. “Do you mean that some—some intergalactic juvenile delinquent is playing with us? God, I don't believe it!"

  A memory flashed through my mind of once suggesting something like that myself, way back before my first change. Of course, I was joking at the time. My God!

  “Now, hold on,” Messler admonished. “I didn't say it was some alien child getting his jollies by dressing up Muffin or playing with toy trucks. That's just an analogy, and maybe it's a poor one. However, I did get the impression that the entity responsible for the gates is a much younger segment of the overall intelligence of which it is a part—and that it has been doing a bit of experimenting on the human race, using the sex gates as an instrument, so to speak. It could be the Gate Master is more like an intern studying under a great physician, or an apprentice to a great wizard. I really can't say."

  I shuddered at the thought. Bad enough to be the subject of alien manipulation, but to think that much more might be yet to come—from an even more powerful alien mind—was enough to give anyone the shakes.

  Messler frowned. “What I do believe is that once enough Seconders pass through the gates enough times, and enough of us merge our minds, we can take control of the gates—and send the entity packing."

  “Flash Gordon to the rescue,” I muttered.

  Messler's eyes flashed. “This is serious business, Lee. We are now different from most of the people on this planet, and we are nothing like the Gate Masters. But if we can convince the normal humans that we've saved the gates and kept them for the human race, it will go a long way toward eliminating that resentment against Seconders we talked about earlier."

  “But how sure are you that the—uh, the kiddo—won't be doing anything about us in the meantime? Seems to me that if I were dressing Muffin and she scratched me I'd swat her. Hard."

  “Good point. I can't promise any of this will be easy. But remember there are always unexpected consequences to about anything a person—or entity—does. And in this case, the Gate Master never considered that the Seconders’ might develop some unexpected mind power, or that they would continue to increase that power with subsequent passages."

  “By what factor does intelligence increase?” I wondered.

  His eyes looked away again. Obviously, there was still a lot he didn't want to tell us. “So far as I can glean, the part of the intelligence we're dealing with doesn't have a clue yet that this is happening,” he added, ignoring my question.

  Rita caught his evasion. “There's a catch,” she said with her usual directness.

  Messler laced his fingers together and sighed, then gazed at each of us in turn. Finally he spoke. “Yes, there's a catch. You're sitting here listening to me talk and still thinking of me as human. I'm not anymore. I've become something more—and perhaps less—than human. It is very hard to put into mere words. Suffice to say that much of what you believe to be the essential you—your soul if you want to think of it that way—will be irrevocably changed. You won't think the same way. You won't relate to each other the same way."

  Now his green eyes were glowing with emerald flame. But his blazing intensity frightened me. “You will become as far removed from the essence of what you are now as a pupa does when it becomes a butterfly. But you will also become able to fly."

  We will?

  The thought belonged to me and to Rita, at the same time. Messler was talking as if we had both agreed to jump through the gates again. I hadn't agreed to anything, and I wasn't about to yet. Questions raced through my mind. Would I still love Rita if we did what Messler wanted us to? Would I still like to write? Would I want to read and re-read my favorite books? The more I thought, the more I realized what a plethora of pleasant things there were to being human.

  Rita shared my thoughts, of course. She shook her head at Messler. “Couldn't we stop part way through the process and still be able to help—and yet still be human—be ourselves?"

  Messler thought, then shrugged. “It's possible I suppose, but not likely. What you experience within the gate, once you are able to stay there for even a few moments, will change you forever. By the time you've gone through the gate a few more times, you'll almost certainly begin wanting to keep the kid from shoving the truck off the table—or perhaps deciding to hit it with a hammer to see if it will break. That's how I felt and how the others I'm in contact with felt. The ones who made it, that is."

  Uh oh. Another glitch.

  Messler saw our expressions and nodded. “Yes, some Seconders, or Thirder or Fourthers don't come back. That's what happened to a couple of Seconders the NSC experimented with after they were done with Renfrow, and why they eventually stopped. I personally think the process must be taken in slow steps, like I've done. Also, there are two areas where I have little or no data. One is from some foreign countries where I suspect Seconders are being experimented on. And I have no data at all on lovers who have become Seconders together like you. For all I know you might go in an entirely new direction."

  “What makes a Seconder, anyway?” Rita wanted to know. “Have you discovered that, at least?"

  For the first time Messler smiled as if something were really funny. “Yes,” he said, and waited.

  “Well?” I demanded.

  He grinned. “It is so obvious it took me several passages through the gates to figure it out. Seconders become Seconders because they have an inherent propensity for telepathy."

  The shocked looks on our faces must have amused him even more because he chuckled. “I see I've given you enough to think about for one day. Why don't you two go home and ponder what I've told you. In the meantime, I'll be working on another opportunity for us to get together without arousing suspicion."

  Rita and I stood up and shook his hand in farewell. Both of us were suddenly anxious to go. Messler sensed how uncomfortable we felt and did nothing to prevent us leaving. As we got to the door I turned, a final question suddenly popping into my mind.

  “Suppose becoming Seconders and going on from there is still a bit of experimenting? Suppose the entity is aware of what is happening but is making you think it isn't for the sake of the experiment. What then?"

  The green eyes looked over my head, at some point in infinity. “Then we are lost, Lee. But I believe the entity doesn't know, and we can win."

  The last I saw of him that day was his sad smile as he shut the door.

  I took a deep breath. Don't ask a question if you don't want to hear the answer. We would have to be satisfied with that. For now, anyway.

  Shaking off my dismay, I turned and pulled Rita into my arms, suddenly wanting more than anything to be locked in a safe and warm embrace that drove away the fears Messler's words had brought.

  After a few minutes, we felt strong enough to break apart and make our way out of the bank building. But it was a somber trip home. We rode in virtual silence, our thoughts tumbling together as we shot our troubling questions back and forth at each other

  Should we go through the gates again?

  Does Messler really need us to learn how to control the gat
es?

  If we go through too many times, will we lose our humanity? Do you think we should wait? Then if Messler finds Russell and Donna, we can help them, and perhaps teach them to meld their minds with ours.

  But what if we are the only ones who are able to find Russell and Donna? Or who care too?

  At what price? Do we really want change into something no longer human?

  It was an awesome decision. As Grandpa's old homestead came into view, I had the feeling I was about to leave my past forever behind.

  * * * *

  That was two months ago. Rita and I spent the next few days and nights in a constant debate. Not that we were arguing—we were too close for that. It was more like one person, carrying on a constant inner conversation, searching for the right decision. Finally, we decided that we could not abandon Russell and Donna if there was any chance, no matter how remote, that our going through the gates and learning to control the passage would eventually save them. Our lives—our humanity—were not too much to risk for the missing members of our family.

  The next night after we reached that decision we drove over to the Ruston gate. Not wanting to call attention to our undergoing yet another sex change, we went long after midnight, when no one was around. We stood for a long few minutes in front of the portal, looking into those luminous green depths. I was holding Rita's hand, painfully aware that neither one of us had ever gone through a gate of our own free will. The first time Rita's attacker had forced us through, and the second time it was the gate or death. Now a force even stronger than death—our love for Russell and Donna—drove us on.

  I turned to her. “Ready?"

  She nodded, and as one we stepped into the gate for the third time.

  As always before, the transition was instantaneous. We popped out on the other side, and I was once again Li and she was Rez. I took a step and felt the bounce of my breasts once again. Rez looked down at the penis between his legs and sent me a wicked grin.

  But for once my thoughts were elsewhere. Feel any smarter? Messler had assured us that after the third time we would really start to notice the difference.