“To summarize”, he began, as he continued his examination, “due to the war, there were just over one hundred and fifty thousand females who could reproduce. There were, however, over fifteen million men. It was a horrific ratio, to say the least; one that frequently led to fighting and violence amongst males.”

“A variety of solutions, and partial solutions, were proposed. The ban on gay relationships among men, which had been instituted by many oppressive governments, was lifted. Transexualism and transvestitism were encouraged. Polygamy was allowed — women could take multiple husbands.”

“Still, these ideas only went so far to alleviate the problem. We needed more women; not just to provide companionship for men, but to procreate. Their daughters would eventually become wives for the younger males.”

Motioning me to stand up, he moved what appeared to be a hand held metal detector a few inches from my body, from head to toe. He repeated the process for my back and sides.

“Checking for weapons, doc?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“No, smart alec” He replied with a small smile. “It’s a highly sensitive scanner — it checks the health of your skin.”

“To continue: Women were given fertility drugs, to induce twin and triplet births. Our science was sufficiently advanced to provide some rejuvenation for these mothers. They could bear children for up to fifty years.”

I raised my eyebrows at that. “That’s a whole lot of kids, doc. How would they manage to look after a brood that size without burning out, or ending up as a nervous wrecks?”

“Yes, it is somewhat of an issue”, he responded. “Certainly, some of our men were trained in child care, so that these mothers would have more time to look after the younger offspring. But men can only do so much, and young girls need women as role models while they are growing up.”

I felt my insides tighten up upon hearing that. I had a funny feeling that I knew where this was going.

“I can see by the expression on your face that you have figured out what our intentions are,” he stated. “I knew you would catch on fast, judging by your intelligence scores.”

I took a deep breath, and hazarded a guess “You want men to become women, to look after your kids in the future?” I paused a moment, and then asked “But why men from the past? You certainly have an abundance of males in your era. Why did you need to go back in time for personnel?”

“Excellent questions, Aleena. At first, we did recruit males from my time. Psych tests identified the most suited to the task. Still, not that many stepped forward, despite offers of paid housing and a generous salary. Despite the circumstances, the vast majority of males considered their machismo above all else. Volunteering to essentially become a woman was not something they would be willing to do.”

“The next obvious step was to institute a draft. The rioting and violence that resulted to such draconian measures quickly made such a plan unwise. It also went against the spirit of new world wide constitution that had recently been signed by the majority of the governments. To quote the most applicable line: ‘All citizens of the Federation of Nations have the right to be left in peace. Their lives are not to be unnecessarily interfered with by their government.’ ”

“Besides that, the majority of the few thousand that were drafted and,” he paused for a moment, “…converted, did not adapt all that terribly well. The resentment they felt made them unsuitable to the task of looking after children.”

“You didn’t brainwash them to make them more ‘maternal’?”, I asked.

“No, mental conditioning was not allowed, under any circumstances”, he replied.

“All right. So you can’t use unwilling volunteers from your time. How did you end up choosing me, and other lucky contestants? I am correct in assuming there are others, aren’t I?”

“Oh, yes,” he answered. There will be many thousands in a similar situation, world wide.”

“Impressive,” I stated quietly, thinking of the intense amount of planning and coordination such an undertaking would require. “But again, why us?”

“Well, some lawyers and bureaucrats got together and tried to figure out a way out of the corner that the new constitution had painted them into. What they finally decided was that a citizen of the Federation of Nations had to be born after a certain year to qualify as such. The year before the birthdate of the oldest living citizen on Earth was chosen. Anyone born before then basically has no rights, until they attain citizenship.”

Seeing the look on my face, he shrugged and said, “I don’t make the rules, I…”

“…just follow them,” I finished for him. “Yeah, nice reasoning. Justify it however you like — it still doesn’t make it right. Anyways, why me? What makes me such a great candidate? I’m just an average, everyday hetero male. Wouldn’t I just end up like one of your draftees?”

“Do you remember that I stated earlier that it was fortunate that no nuclear weapons were used during the global conflicts?” he answered.

“Sure, I recall that. What bearing does that have on this?”

“Well, not only were we spared any radiation poisoning, but we were spared any EMP’s. With no electromagnetic pulses, information that was stored in our databases was mostly intact, all the way back to the early twenty first century. Certainly, most of that data is useless, except maybe to a few historians.”

“When we looked at the draftees who were successful and happy in their new jobs, we tried to find out what they had in common. This search included what they read and viewed on the internet. Most had viewed transsexual and transvestite web sites, but had never openly admitted it to anyone. They lived their lives like all other hetero males.”

I must have had another one of those looks on my face, because the good doctor was quick to comment on it.

“Yes, Aleena, we know that you viewed many different TV and TS sites. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Furthermore, your viewing habits fit the profile of a successful maternal surrogate in our time. As such, you were a prime candidate for our program. The date of your death was recorded in our historical records, so we took advantage of that information, and basically saved you from that fate.”

I was a bit overcome by all of this. It obviously showed — I must have been as pale as a ghost. The doctor had me lay down on the bed ‘before you fall down’, he had said. I complied — with my brain reeling from what was happening, and what was likely going to happen, I was in no condition to resist. I felt a coolness against my upper arm, then heard a slight hiss. Moments later, I was out like a light.