Evolution / 11

“I can see it in your eyes,” Susan said, sitting next to Karen on Karen’s bed.   “You’re going to give him another chance.”

Karen nodded.   “I’m so sorry, Susan...   I know what I told you, that we were going to have our... relationship, family...   You’ve got so much to explore, and I feel that I’m taking myself away from you...”

Karen’s eyes filled with tears.   “I love you so much, Susan.   I wish there was another way...”

Susan hugged Karen.   “You’re doing the right thing, Karen.   It’s what you feel inside.   I’ll be here for you.”

“Thank you.   I just hope I know what I’m doing.”

“I do.   You’re going to turn an upset little boy, who’s had a miserable life, into a beautiful little girl, so she can have another chance.   Don’t ask me how you start the process...”

“Somehow I think I know.”

“How?   What do you do to tell your body the decision?”

“I can’t explain it.   I feel control over the process, somehow; inside.   Like a major event that’s coming up somehow.   Jeannette said that I’m supposed to relax, bear down a bit, and think of having a baby...   but I have something I need to do first.”

“What?” Susan asked.

“Daniel.   He’s still a man in his own head.   I have to prepare him for the change he’s about to go through, or the shock will hurt him.”

Susan was surprised at Karen’s growing attachment to Daniel.     She began to feel the pangs of jealousy; Susan was losing her friend–and possibly lover–to a tiny fetus. “That’s funny... The shock didn’t hurt me,” Susan argued.

“It’s different.   You were prepared, whether you knew it or not.   Part of that was my job, remember?   We planted the seeds of femininity into you–socially and emotionally–long before you had a female body.   Daniel’s quite different, though.   He has no sense of what it’s like to be female.   He never cared about the details of the women he was ‘with,’ didn’t want to know about things like periods; he just didn’t care.   So I’ll have to teach him.   He senses that I’m about to start changing him, though, and he’s fighting to hang on to his masculinity.”

Susan thought about her own past.   “I did that too.   It just takes time.   But you know what they say: if he’s scared about losing his masculinity, he’s worried that he never had it in the first place.”

“I don’t have much time.   That’s the problem.   And he’s just concentrating on what it was to be a man.   I think he may need to forget all of that.”   Karen closed her eyes.

Daniel, deep within Karen’s womb, felt Karen probing into his mind.   He knew her intent; she planned on stealing his memories of being male, his pure masculinity from him.   As his thoughts wandered, she followed them, ready to latch onto and gradually erase his remaining hatred for women, as well as specific memories peculiar to men.   He had such thoughts that he didn’t want to let go of; of being “one of the boys,” of having sex with women, of his own pride and, simply, manliness.   He tried to avoid recalling these thoughts, however, for Karen stayed with him.   Avoiding the thoughts was a futile effort; to avoid them he necessarily touched upon them, and Karen was there.   Memories of his own masculinity faded, and he knew it was happening.   The women he had slept with were forgotten; the unhappy events of his childhood were gone; his former girlfriends no longer existed.   Finally he stumbled onto something else that Karen was waiting for; his own self-image.   He remembered looking at himself, touching his penis, imagining it traveling into a woman’s soft body.   He felt sudden terror as Karen grabbed this.   He dreamed of himself, and his own penis, and shock did indeed pass through him as it faded away.   He became anxious, excited, and now tried actively to remember–or store away, out of Karen’s reach–his memories of masculinity and knowledge of how his body used to be.   He looked in his dreams between his legs, and saw female genitals instead.   It was frighteningly unfamiliar at first, but Karen quickly calmed him.   These parts, she told him, are all he ever had.   The breasts he would soon have were natural.   It was all fine.   He began to calm again; and finally began to accept his new fate as if he was destined for it all along.

Levels of FSH–Follicle Stimulating Hormone–were already rising in Karen’s bloodstream, and surged as she finally left his thoughts and concentrated on her own reproductive process.   She bore down, and focused on the thought.   The follicles in both ovaries began initially to respond to the hormone, but finally one egg in her right ovary began to emit a countermanding hormone.   The activity of all the other follicles stopped, and this one follicle, now well past the point of no return, continued to swell and expand.   One wall of Karen’s right ovary began to stretch and distend, the ovarian wall becoming thinner and thinner until, in what seemed to be a great explosion, Karen ovulated.   In less than two days, the resulting egg found its target–Daniel.   It latched on to the remaining bit of matter left to his body, and soon pulled him inside, absorbing him.   He felt a wave of change come over him, and lost consciousness, what was left of it, as the egg merged with him.

Meanwhile, Susan searched inside herself, trying to find the “trigger” that Karen had found; and, for only the second time, seriously thought of what it would be like to have a baby.   She felt jealous again.

Only days later Karen’s urinalysis showed her to be pregnant.   Interestingly, the regular pregnancy test failed to detect that Karen had been “reversing” someone (as the popular culture was beginning to call it), as the pregnancy hormones weren’t needed for a woman to perform this task.   Karen and Susan spent much of their time together during these days, but Karen slept much more than Susan, her body working primarily to build her child’s body.   In only days Jeannette came up with an initial estimate of 5-6 months to Karen’s “due date”–shorter than a normal pregnancy thanks to the stored nutrients that Karen still retained from Daniel’s absorption.

So, Susan again found herself in her room, alone, and bored.   She watched the news, finding the number of stories about the recent evolutionary announcements to be dwindling.   Karen’s “reversing” of Daniel and current pregnancy were certainly newsworthy, but Jeannette had decided to stall this story a bit for Karen’s sake.   She would easily be the first woman to change someone’s sex in this way.   The first baby conceived without a man’s help, however, was already well on its way, having been conceived only about a month after its parents were urinated upon by someone in the third tier of Marcy’s network.   The pregnant woman was being kept under some security since the story broke; there was still much male resentment of this, and some men felt great fear that they were now becoming “unnecessary.”

Susan thought back to those first few days.   The first news conference with Lisa had gone well, the male anchor being very calm and reserved, while still reporting the “major implications” that this story meant.   It seemed that, at first, the impact wasn’t understood by more than a few.

Those “few” had been sure to attend one of the early public press conferences on this, where the group’s scientists finally began to detail the changes to the female body.   As they had covered only the clinical facts–women’s ability to defend themselves with a stream of urine, ability to fertilize each other, voluntary ovulation, and the ability to “absorb” (or now, “reverse”) another person, men in the audience became enraged.   They accused the women of “taking over,” of “killing” their gender, and, the one accusation that the women accepted, of doing it behind everyone’s backs.

It took Lisa to prevent the situation at these press conferences, despite the tight security, become riotous.   She addressed the outspoken men individually and firmly, listened to their concerns, and when the debate finally resolved to a jealous feeling, on the men’s part, of being “left behind” and “enslaved” by the soon-to-be-growing female “majority,” she made the offer she had been waiting to make to all men everywhere.

“Then join us.   That’s what this is all about.”

The man who had been arguing collapsed into his seat, and the conference degenerated into more technical topics.   Lisa announced that a series of seminars had been arranged for people who needed to know more–which was just about everybody–and a phone number to call for information on the seminars.   The group back at Industrial Street was working feverishly now to prepare the materials for these seminars.

The seminars were open to all people, for the most part.   There were three different kinds of group sessions.   The first was an overview of what was happening–and meant very much to calm the worst fears of the public, especially the men.   The second seminar, called “Your new body,” was designed for women, who were interested in learning how these “new” abilities worked, and the primarily female audience could arrange “contacts” to have the abilities spread to them if they desired.   The third seminar was intended for men who desired to become female, describing the benefits and realities of the transformation.   The fourth seminar, which started many weeks after the first three, was intended for women who were planning to “absorb” a man.   This last one was the most intense, each small group meeting for 10 sessions over five weeks.   It was very much like a LaMaze class; attendance required paired couples–one woman, and her “target”; the first 4 sessions covered the implications of the decision, responsibilities, and legal requirements (which were changing rapidly, as laws were changed to make such changes of identity and legal status much easier).   The next 4 covered preparation and physical details of the engulfing and “absorption” process, and the final 2 were primarily just group discussion sessions.   Karen’s absorption of Daniel was the only real background data that they had; and a somewhat-edited version of this event was used as a training film.

The rapid deployment of groups all over to teach these four courses had been a tremendous success.   The initial outrage after Lisa’s second press conference was as expected;   Men were threatened and upset.   Some groups of women went entirely overboard, declaring “victory over men at last,” chanting some extremely sexist slogans, and generally doing their best to irritate the men around them.   Just before this was about to explode, however, Lisa made, at the third press conference, a speech that captured the hearts of men and women alike.

“My fellow women here...”   (She extended her hand towards the women who had been chanting and carrying signs, who cheered) “... do us all a great disservice.”   (The cheering women became suddenly silent.)   “This is not about victory and defeat, not about issues won or lost.   This is not about women or men.   This step in our history is about victory.   It is about winning.   And it is about humans.   All of us.   We’ve been divided for all time by an impenetrable barrier that has made us different from each other.   Not better, not worse, though sometimes each of us can feel either way, but simply different.   You cheer at our victory over men.   I see no such victory.   I see victory for the men, instead, whom we may now finally invite to join us, if they wish.   I see victory for all humans, who may now take one step closer to living in harmony.   In our struggle for equality, it seems at times that we’ve done everything possible to destroy it.   Now it’s time to do something positive.   Men, we do this to give you a chance–a chance to be one with us, a chance for a new life, a chance to live with us, and stride forward into a world that cares not about individual groups and special interests, but instead that which is best for humanity, and the planet.”

Public reaction had been somewhat different than expected.   After this speech, particularly, more men than expected had shown an interest in becoming female.   One group that the statistics had entirely forgotten was the group of transsexuals–the number of people who were, psychologically, women but had been born with male bodies.   While having undergone surgery to look female, these people could not bear children, and still had Y chromosomes, and the struggle to remain (and look) female still took away from their other efforts.

The few men who were so outraged as to take out their anger upon women ironically aided the women’s efforts.   As certain cases where men became violently rebellious became known, it merely encouraged more women to desire the additional protection that their new bodies would give them, especially as that protection proved useful.   Some acts of aggression, unfortunately, ended dreadfully.   Many, however, ended up with the man jailed–and sometimes with him soaking wet.

It seemed that in the weeks following the initial announcement, nearly every man felt it necessary to make their decision right away, and the numbers closed in on 40%, which was close to the estimate.   Fathers generally were the least likely to desire the conversion, as they felt that this would confuse or otherwise emotionally damage their children.   Some mothers with young boys felt it best to convert these young boys into baby girls, as it would save them years of living as a boy only to become a girl eventually anyway.   Fathers often disagreed with this.   Many parents of handicapped children inquired if the process could give their child a new, better body; in most cases, the answer was yes.

Some pregnant women made this choice on their own without the father’s help.   It was impossible for a woman who had been granted the new abilities to give birth to a baby boy unless that boy was more than seven months along; but if a pregnant woman before this point was exposed to the urine of a woman with these new abilities, it could change the baby’s sex while still in the womb.   The stories of fathers who had seen sonograms of their unborn male offspring, only to have the child born female, made for a good subject on the “Tabloid TV” programs.   It distressed them that not only did they have a daughter instead of a son, but that this daughter would only be able to have girls, and so on; as if the father in question had become the “end of the line.”

Another topic was one plight of men that women hadn’t predicted; it was, essentially, impossible for a man to distinguish a woman at this “new” evolutionary state to an “ordinary” female.   The number of women who could bear male children was dropping rapidly, and some of the more old-fashioned men felt that they had to marry only those women who gave them a chance, at least, of having male children.   A woman could hide the truth, however.

Other new stories were cropping up; some expected, some unpredictable.   Women who had not been converted were sometimes able to scare away would-be attackers with threats of a “weapon” they didn’t have.   The sexual assault rate dropped drastically; the number of “successful” attacks upon women dropped even further, to about 10% of its former value.

None of this was news any longer to Susan, who, still flipping channels on the TV, saw nothing of interest at the moment.   The group had decided to keep her out of the public view for now, for her own protection–after all, she was the one who “started it all,” and thus might be a target for senseless hostilities.   Her name and picture were kept from the public for now.   Eventually, it wouldn’t really matter.

Susan finally couldn’t stand it anymore.   She went to see Lisa, who was here only temporarily before yet another of her trips across the country.   She told Lisa her situation–that she felt that she was merely “vegetating” here, doing little good to anybody now that her historic feats were over with; maybe it was time to be getting back to “normal.” Part of this feeling was out of jealousy and resentment towards Karen; everyone, especially Karen who was at this very moment working on fashioning a new life for the growing female inside her, seemed to be doing something very important.   Inside, she wanted to be away from this constant reminder of what she had lost.

Lisa listened distractedly for a moment and suddenly snapped into understanding.   She apologized for the lack of attention that Susan had been getting, but pleaded with her to stay; if she would, Lisa wanted her to start teaching one of the seminars; after all, she might be able to relate to men much more easily about what it was like to be a woman.   Susan appreciated this, but still didn’t think she’d be helpful, at which point Lisa apologized again and pleaded for some patience on Susan’s part.

“I’m sorry things have been so rough,” Lisa told her.   “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this; we all underestimated the number of things that would be going on.   That’s why we need your help.”

“I still don’t feel helpful.   Not like the rest of you...”

Finally, Lisa sat Susan down.   “Susan, I know this is difficult.   The most difficult thing right now, for you, has to be that you’re still a girl.   A beautiful girl, but still quite young.   We’ll help you with that, I promise.   You just need to be patient.   I’d be most happy to set up a new job for you, but I’ve been so busy...”

“What about my old job?” Susan asked.

“Oh, Susan, that’s way underneath you now--   for someone who’s changed the world as we know it.   We have more important things for you to do; you have experience that nobody else has, so far.   Besides, if we sent you back to your “old” job, people might figure out who you are.   It’s a long shot, but we don’t want you to become a target.   Susan looked at her feet, solemnly.   “What happened to George, then?   Where did he go?   How did Andrea explain my absence?”

“You had to take care of a critically ill patient,” Lisa said.   She swallowed hard.   “But officially, as far as the government is concerned, George no longer exists.”

“Gone?   Erased?   Or did you file a... death certificate?”

“No,” Lisa admitted.   “We just had people in the right places change certain records.   If someone looked hard enough, the most they might determine is that you disappeared under some kind of witness protection program.   The same kind of approach is how we give you your new identity... you even have a birth certificate that shows you are female.”

“Oh.”

“Eventually, of course, there will be a streamlined procedure for this kind of thing.   The bills we’ve proposing will, essentially, introduce a way to establish a new identity for people who get “reversed,” whether they’re given a new life or not.   You have to sign a consent form with your target and two witnesses, and that gets filed.”

“I can’t believe the government is going along with it.   After the hard time that they’ve historically given homosexuals, transsexuals, and all sorts of ‘unsanctioned’ social transactions–to imagine that they’d actually streamline a process for this...”

“And there’s not even a fee for filing it.   I can’t say they had much choice; either make the paperwork easy or risk losing track of half the population.   I don’t think we’ll file it retroactively for you, though.   As far as anyone, even myself, is concerned, you’ve been female all your life.”

“Sometimes I feel that way.”

“Just be patient, Susan, please.   That’s all I ask.   You have great things in store for you.   Perhaps later we can go out and get you some new clothes.   Right now I have another trip to prepare for.”

Susan nodded, and moments later was back in her room, feeling both bored and tired again.