Evolution / 5

 

 

 

Susan’s mouth dropped open.   The inner door swung out, and behind could be seen a huge, brightly-lit, tile-floored roomful of cheering women, in different outfits, some holding clipboards, some in lab coats–standing in place and applauding, cheering.

 

Karen quietly turned to Susan.   “You really earned this, Susan.   I’m so

proud of you!”   Susan smiled.

 

“Oops,” Karen added, realizing that Susan was still mostly naked.   Thinking quickly, she pulled a paper smock from a drawer in the examining table and swooped it over her.

 

Susan was whisked away by Karen, Marcy, and Dara,   through the huge office/lab-full of applauding women, eager to get a good glimpse of her.   She was led down a sloping hallway, and through several doors to a plush carpeted room that looked much like a hotel room.   A woman that Karen obviously recognized waved hello.   “Call Andrea at George’s old workplace,” Karen shouted.   “Tell her the good news!”

 

“We don’t have long,” Karen told Marcy and Dara.   “You three can’t keep your public waiting.”   She pulled open the closet door, revealing a reasonable selection of women’s clothes, and quickly selected a modest skirt and blouse.   A drawer held panties and other underwear that Susan couldn’t quite see.   This was all happening much too fast for Susan.   They took several minutes to clean Susan up and to dress her, in these feminine clothes, and just as they were combing her hair, there was a knock on the door.   A woman in a business suit opened the door.   “I think we have everything together.   Ready?”

 

“Yes”, answered Karen, Marcy, and Dara in unison.   They left and headed down the hallway, and down a flight of stairs.   Karen left them and went through another doorway.   Marcy and Dara led George through the door in front of them, into a large room, which Susan instantly recognized as a... stage.   A woman on stage held a microphone, and several people stood nearby.

 

“We’ve waited a long time for this,” the emcee told the audience, then turned to the three women.   “Marcy, Dara, will you please come out here and introduce us to...”

 

Susan found herself being escorted to center stage.   Halfway there, she looked at last into the audience.   There were several hundred women there, in an auditorium one never would have suspected to find two stories underneath a mixed-use building on Industrial Avenue.   This place was obviously a great secret intentionally, yet there were thousands of people in on it.   Of course–they were all female.   Not a single man in the world knew about this place, Susan quickly realized.   That’s why she wasn’t permitted to learn of it–all the secrecy–until now.   This place must have been built years ago.   The stage was used for all sorts of group presentations, the room for huge meetings involving hundreds of different women all involved in this huge project.   Yet she had no reason to suspect any kind of government involvement, covert planning–the place was organized, but not bureaucratic.

 

She suddenly had more questions than answers.   The applause grew to a roar as the audience got it’s first complete view of Susan’s new body; various people were throwing confetti in the air, staring with their mouths open, or hugging the woman next to them.   Susan felt the familiar feeling of shock return just as the emcee finally quieted the audience.

 

The emcee was the nicely-dressed woman who had knocked at the door, obviously a leader of some sort.   She turned first to Marcy and Dara.

 

“Marcy, Dara, please take a step up here.   This project has been underway, as you well know, for over eleven years now.   You two have given us our future; you have given us that which we have worked so hard for all this time.   You two had among the riskiest job here; the responsibility of knowing that our entire future was in your hands–the risk of exposure, and the risk of the unknown.”

 

“Before we delay further, we have a formality that is much more than just a formality.   We acknowledge here the beginning of a new life; for us, for all women, and for our entire species.   For that, this person has sacrificed much–in the dark of misunderstanding, lack of information, and the loss of her previous gender.   Dr. Carlson, could you please step up here?”

 

Dr. Jeanette Carlson was the woman who first examined George’s new body.   Looking at Susan, she read from the papers in her hand.   “Marcy, Dara, thank you for bringing this to us.   Thanks to all of you, the women who have put in many long hours and years of our life, without whom we would not have this moment.”

 

The emcee turned to Susan.   “And, as we can’t very well go calling the

seedling of our future ‘George’, we have...”

 

The audience chuckled.

 

The doctor turned the page.   “I have examined our subject with the accepted techniques and found her to be possess the abilities and faculties held solely by a female of our species.   She is the first of our new race; the next step in human evolution; the answer to many of our present and future problems.   These present you with your new official credentials I speak for my friends and coworkers, and I’m sure all other women, when I say that we welcome you to our world with open arms.   By now I’m sure you can feel that we’re all your friends; we will be so for all time.   Thank you for giving us yourself, Susan.”

 

The doctor handed her a set of documentation–driver’s license, birth certificate, and several other items.   It looked real;   “Susan” it was.   The picture was hers.   The birth certificate carried two shocks–although the month and date was correct, the year of her birth was five years too late; possibly just a transcription error.   Susan’s eyes flashed open wide when she looked at the right column on the certificate;   “Sex:   Female”.

 

The audience rose to its feet and commenced a standing ovation; for those on stage and for themselves.   After many minutes, she was led to a chair near the side of the stage, and other groups of women were brought up on stage to be recognized for their efforts.   Many of them shook Susan’s hand, offering her thanks and congratulations.

 

Later that evening, Susan was sitting on the sofa in the room she had been in before; she learned that this was just one of the many residential rooms in the underground complex.   In fact, most of the women here lived in such a room,.   This particular room, was to become Susan’s for the time being.   Dr. Carlson, Karen, Dara, and Marcy, as well as the group leader and a few other women, had joined her for an informal debriefing and question-answering session.

 

“Okay, I think everyone’s here.   I should tell you right up front that Marcy and Dara will have to be leaving tomorrow morning; so any questions for them should probably come first.   You’ll be staying with the rest of us for a while after that during your training.   Have you already figured out why everything here was kept from you?”

 

“Oh yes, of course,” Susan answered.   “You can’t have any males discover this occurrence quite yet.   If threatened, they’d try to destroy it.”

 

“Very good.   You’ve caught on quickly to the nuances,” Lisa noted.

 

Susan responded.   “I’ve always been observant, but... I seem to understand what’s going on here better now that I don’t feel threatened any longer.   When I was outside of here watching to see how my test would come out, I suddenly felt myself wishing that the ‘project’ would succeed,   even if it meant becoming a girl.   All of a sudden I heard myself wishing that I was a girl.   That’s when I really became female... I finally relinquished everything else.   It was like a great burden being dropped from my shoulders.”

 

“Interesting,” Lisa nodded.   “You have one thing that, at times, I wish we all could have–the perspective of being on both sides.   It just isn’t worth the cost, that’s all.   Anyway, do you have any idea what this project really IS yet?”

 

“No.   At first I figured the goal was to turn me into a female.   But then I realized that there’s no way this many people would work so long just for that–just to give ME the opportunity to be female.”

 

“Although, of course, if we could have you live for a while as a woman, and somehow go back, and relate your experiences to men somehow, it would all be worth it...”

 

“I don’t think I’d want to go back.   You must have some idea what it’s

like.”

 

“Well,” Lisa answered, “not from your perspective.   But you give us the opportunity to ask a question that nobody has ever really been able to answer–what was it like?   What do you miss?   How do you feel now?”

 

Susan thought for a moment before answering.   “Unfortunately, it’s hard to explain.   My entire body–my sexual identity, my clothes, my appearance, even my voice... is different.   When I first looked in the mirror and saw a female body developing around me, I didn’t believe it.   I kept telling myself that my ‘normal’ self would be back.   Then the person I saw in the mirror was a stranger; someone who just couldn’t be me, no matter how much I told myself otherwise.”

 

“But what did it feel like?   What changes...” Dara asked.

 

“I’ll get to that.   This is the only way I can think of to explain it.   As time went on, and I realized that the person in the mirror was, in fact, me, I also realized that very little changed.   Inside, I’m still myself.   My life has changed... but I know I’ll adapt.”

 

Lisa asked, “But what about... the physical changes?   How does it feel to be female?   To have female parts...   between your legs, compared to before?”

 

“Unless I actually think about it, it feels only slightly different.   I don’t feel the weight between my legs anymore.   But it’s easy not to pay attention to.   You don’t ‘feel’ your own vagina right now, until I mention it, do you?”

 

Most of the other women looked up, muttering various incarnations of

“No...”

 

“That was true as a man, as well.   The feeling of the changes I’ve been going through... is one of the most exciting things... but then, of course, that’s because it’s the most significant thing that’s ever happened to me.   Now it’s like there’s new opportunities, new capabilities, so much to explore.   But the things that I always wondered about as a man–like what it would feel like to have breasts, or what a woman felt when making love–are still just as mysterious.”

 

The group was quiet for a moment.   Finally, Dr. Carlson spoke up.   “Oh, Susan... I think you’ll have so much fun exploring them.   There’s many things we’ll have to teach you about your body, even before your first period.   And, although you’ll have the figure of an adult in less than six months, you shouldn’t become pregnant in the first 18 months.”

 

Susan had forgotten this.   “Pregnant?”

 

“Your bones, you see.   Your soft tissue and cell structure could be converted quickly.   Bones take longer to assume their new form.   Your pelvic outlet–the opening in your pelvis that your birth canal goes through–isn’t quite woman-sized yet.   You couldn’t pass a baby though that and would get yourself into trouble.   No problem, though.   It’s easy to take care of for now and there will be plenty of time for childbearing later.”

 

Susan’s thoughts distracted her.   “Wow... I’d almost forgotten about

that.” She looked down at herself.   “I’ll be able to bear children?”

 

Lisa took over again.   “Of course.   That’s a part of being a woman, and is one of the most intense experiences.   With you, however, there will be a few differences.”

 

One of the researchers in the room spoke up.   “You see, Susan, that’s part of our project.   The evolution of our species effectively stopped once we were able to bear children successfully most of the time.   It’s the ‘Peter Principle’ of evolution–once we were successful in reproduction, and defeated the mechanisms for ‘survival of of the fittest’, there was no need for further evolutionary changes.   Now we’ve changed that.   Your childbearing will be much better than our mothers had it.   So will ours.”

 

Susan looked up with great questions on her face.

 

Lisa’s turn.   “That’s just part of this project, Susan.   The reason you’re so important is that you’re the key.   Your body carries the results of our efforts.   New abilities.   New powers.   Your children will have them, and their children, and so on.   And, maybe we were entirely selfish here, but you can give them to us.”

 

“Why don’t you start from the beginning,” Marcy suggested.

 

“Good idea.   Very well.   We do have a library that has the entire history of the project, and you should read that like we all have; but I’ll give you the summary.   Fourteen years ago, a single woman–the one whose picture is in our auditorium–decided that she had had enough.   She had worked as a counselor for raped, abused, or abandoned women all of her life, and suffered some pretty unbearable things herself–much of what she counseled people about.   Things seemed to go for bad to worse; she could pride herself on being able to rehabilitate those who had suffered, but felt powerless to stop any of it before it happened.   One day, a woman who was undergoing counseling, and had become a good friend, literally ran into the office.   She had narrowly escaped an assailant right on that very street, and was positive that she had narrowly avoided being raped–again.   The police, of course, were of no help.   But something else was wrong... and finally the patient told her counsellor a horrifying, classified secret.   The government was experimenting with some very nasty kinds of biological weapons-the intent, Mary found...”

 

Susan interrupted “The genetic warfare scandal, of course.   The intent was to wipe out entire races.   I was just a tyke when that was going on.   Someone had this insane idea that it would be a good idea if you could simply make all of your enemies sterile; and their populations would die off. I remember being very scared.”

 

“Of course, probably because your parents were.   It was the closest yet that we had come to World War III and, essentially, the end of human life.   At least, at that time.   The two of them knew something had to be done; Mary knew that any real weapon was still years away, but the leaked the story to the press.   The people panicked, as you know; the project was exposed and then cancelled, and the feds had Mary ‘silenced’; but they never found her notes–that, eventually, ended up in our hands–a group that she herself had assembled, and has grown ever since.

 

We knew that our entire species was headed for disaster.   Overpopulation, poverty, more money spent on destruction than on education–and everywhere we looked, men were behind it.   Of course, not all men–not even most–are ‘bad’, but   it became obvious that men were unwilling to be our partners; they fought at every turn; they were defensive of their fellow men, not of the species or society as a whole...   I’ll let you read the literature on your own.   Years of quiet research and philosophical discussion followed.   I’ll get back to that in a moment.   Anyway, two splinter groups formed.   One was very vocal, and was filled with activists who denounced what happened and demanded immediate action.   Politicians and community leaders were mostly men, and didn’t help.   The vocal group got quashed, silenced, sometimes members were threatened, some were even murdered.

 

“This group here is all a result of the other women.   Rather than raise our voices now, and demand the impossible, we decided to create the future rather than be trapped by it.”

 

The first researcher spoke up again.   “The philosophers, sociologists, and historians presented the results of their work, and startled everyone when those results were in agreement.   The conclusion was equally surprising:     Most of our problems were being caused, in one way or another, not by men, but simply by the sexual distinction present in our species.”

 

“Exactly,” Lisa said.   “We are too knowledgeable–too advanced–too intelligent to have this great split between the genders.   It was tearing us apart.   The men were always competitive, dominating, self-centered.   Women reacted to that and became demanding, aggressive, but, ultimately, still fearful.   Men created wars, wrote history the way they wanted it, even portrayed their own voice as the word of God, ignoring us when it suited them.   It was threatening us all–not just us, but the men themselves, ultimately.”

 

“So, after much debate, discussion, and thought, the goal became

obvious.   It was time to reunite our species.”

 

“Even biology supports,” the researcher said, “that successful species tend to become single-sexed after a period of time.   Unfortunately, medical science has essentially halted natural evolution of our species.   So, we did it ourselves.”

 

Dara, long quiet, finally jumped in.   The unity between these women was amazing, Susan thought.   So impressive.   “We realized, finally, that we’ve had the power between our own legs all along.   Every human that forms in this world does so thanks to a woman’s womb; most babies first reach the world through the vagina that we all carry–including you, Susan, now.   If we could only establish firm control over our own reproductive system, the very control that men have been trying to deny us, we could shape our own future.   So women formed a small enough group to escape detection for all these years while we worked out the technology and the answers.   We could make our own future.   The real blessing came when we found that we would be able to affect not just the successive generations, but our very own.”