Covid 19 the aftermath.

©Copyright to Beverly Guinevere Taff.

List of Characters.

Terry Harrington. Fugitive boy marked for compulsory transitioning.

Samantha, (Sam) First transitioned kid Terry meets on the streets.

Theodora (Dora) leader of the transitioned kid gang.

Jessica. (Jessie) The only natal girl in Dora’s gang.

Charlie Member of the transitioned gang.

Jan Another member of the transitioned gang.

Ron Café owner who lost his daughter to egg-
snatchers.

Doctor McTavish. Female paediatrician

Doctor Cummins Consultant Paediatrician

Sarah. Senior Midwife at the maternity unit

Dawn Very young trainee nurse.

Eleanor Jessica’s mother.

Diana Terri’s mother.

Part 7

Doctor McTavish’s face greyed with concern as she tried to count the increase in issues facing the government surrounding Jessica’s observation.

“You’re serious aren’t you.”

“You saw her. How would you describe her.”

“I don’t know her – or him well enough to make critical assessments. I’m not a psychiatrist.”

“And don’t ever mention that word if you ever happen to have the good fortune to encounter her again.”

“I don’t have to ask why, that much I do know. It’s not their fault, they had to fill quotas for transitioning or the Human population would have collapsed before we found a solution.”

“Yeah, but once again the government and the medical profession did not make proper preparations to test every boy. The ‘duck’ mentality prevailed and they just piled in like a herd of buffalo. Terry's assessment for transition was a two minute travesty of justice!”

Dr McTavish frowned wearily. Jessica was still on the defensive not for herself but for her partner Terri or Terry – ‘Which was it?’ She wondered.

“You do realise, if we are to recover from Covid 21, we’ll need gallons of his sperm. He cannot just turn up and present us with a couple of spoons-full.”

“Why not. There are millions of sperm in each ejaculation. Just learn to capture and identify each sperm then impregnate a healthy egg and you’ll soon have millions of babies. You’ve got enough wombs, god forbid; years of bloody ‘boy-butchery’ has ensured that !”

“That would take a huge restructuring of the present system. The cost would be enormous.”

“You’ve spent enough on the current system and at far greater human cost. Boys being mutilated into tormented male womb carriers, natal girls having their eggs ripped out destroying the very essence of their femininity!”

“You’re not being fair Jessica and anyway, if Terry were to co-operate, this whole problem would be sorted in two generations. I just can’t see where Terry has a problem.”

“Can’t you? So far we only know that his daughters seem to be normal. What if Terry’s male children don’t have the same testicular immunity to Covid 21 as he has?

You’ll have to wait until the first generation girls and boys reach puberty just to ascertain that both sexes are fully XY or XX fertile. Then we have to wait another generation to determine if their children are okay. All that time, Terry will have to remain in hiding until the world is certain their offspring are normal. That’s two generations for Terri to be living rough, or at best living in hiding. . All that time he’s at risk of disease and/or kidnap and god-knows what.”

“No, no. It’s quite the opposite. The fertility clinics world-wide can easily adapt to separate individual sperm and readily impregnate individual eggs. We've had years of research and experimentation to perfect that technology. Admittedly, there would be a lot of micro-technology to install everything, but the technology is already there. As to Terri living rough, well, he’s a tough little kid and he’s learnt quickly. Surely that tenacity and durability would reassure him that we're no longer bent on trapping him.”

Frustrated by Jessica’s mistrust Dr McTavish dialled up the fertility block and put it on speaker.

“Hello, it’s doctor McTavish here, I’ve got Jessica with me, can you prepare a demonstration for us with the sperm sample.

“Which one is that?” Came down the phone.

What the Hell d ‘you mean which sperm sample. THE sperm sample! The XY normal sample we brought down yesterday!”

“Oh! That one.

“Yes that one!”

“It’s frozen at the moment, it doesn’t do to keep freezing and re-freezing.”

“Well I should hope it is frozen! But surely you’re testing some.”

There was a pause before the speaker came back.

“Yes, we are running tests as we speak but they’re strictly technically secure observations. Experiments, you understand."

“Of course I understand, that’s not a problem, we’ll only be observing.”

“Okay. The director has agreed.”

Doctor Mc Tavish rolled her eyes with disbelief then sighed with relief as she turned to Jessica.

“They’re actually impregnating some eggs right now, come on. They’ve got the volunteer transitioners lined up right now.”

“Volunteers?” Jessica asked dubiously.

“Well perhaps I was being a bit generous with my words. There are a group of transitioned boys lined up for the first test.”

“Laboratory rats!" Jessica remarked caustically. "Yeah, that sounds more like it. I’ll bring my girls down with me just to show those kids that the clinic isn’t lying. It’s about time those poor kids heard a true word just for once.”

“Suite yourself,” Doctor McTavish shrugged, “but you’d better hurry.”

Jessica needed no encouragement as she loaded the special crib and wheeled it behind Dr McTavish. When they arrived the clinic was crowded with assorted specialists and observers.

“Who the hell are all these people?”

“It’s the cabinet fertility team and some parliamentary observers, they were also coming up to meet you later but now you’re here, well – two birds – one stone.”

“Morning Jessica.”

Jessica recognised Doctor Cummins the consultant and she nodded acknowledgement across the crowded room as he struggled to make his way over.

“Sorry about the crowding but the SAGE members have to legally witness the developments before we can go forward. We’ve already demonstrated the quality of Terri’s sperm sample now we’re impregnating the transitioners with fertile eggs then we were going to come up to see you - but here you are.”

“Sheesh! You don’t hang around do you?”

“Needs must when the devil cracks his whip Jessica, I’m glad you’ve brought your daughters.”

“She’s like an SAS trooper Brendan.” Aggie McTavish observed. “She’s Never out of reach of her weapons and those daughters are her weapons.” The female paediatrician added..

“Well we're all here now; to horse, to horse.” Brendan Cummins replied, as he called the crowd to order while Dr Aggie McTavish manoeuvred Jessica and her daughters to a prominent spot.

An expectant hush fell on the lab’

The consultant’s introduction was brief for all the SAGE members were fully informed scientist and the truth was quickly established. Dr Cummins was really addressing the attending parliamentarians and cabinet members.

“Ladies and gentlemen what I have to say may not please some of you but it will certainly be of concern to all of you. These are the facts as we know them and they do not show the fertility commission or commissioners in a very good light.

Two healthy, female twins have been born to the young girl holding them in her arms. Her pregnancy in itself is technically the consequence of a statutory rape and that circumstance alone is something of an indicator, a barometer almost, of the depths to which our society, indeed the whole of human society has sunk."

He continued as he placed his hands on Jessica's shoulders to demonstrate both protection and display.

"Here is a young natal girl who, for fear of what might befall her, is still not yet prepared to reveal the whereabouts of the father until certain contingencies are met. She revealed that the father was a fourteen-year-old boy no less, who was, and indeed, still is living rough because of his fear of being forcibly transitioned. If those are the circumstances confronting children who have been forced to make themselves homeless to escape the horrors of the fertility commission then this country has sunk to a nadir of immorality and injustice.

When the girls were conceived, the mother was just fifteen and the father was only just turned fourteen. Just think about that for a moment commissioners; think long and hard while I show the girl the technical steps we are taking to try and meet her concerns and ameliorate her very real fears.

Above all else we must remove fear from this whole debacle! I will leave you briefly to find a consensual and humane solution to this whole catastrophe with the proviso that this girls’ pregnancy has given us a blinding beacon of hope. I have to show this girl what science we have to meet her concerns; so until lunch time, adieu”

An immediate clamour of debate ensued but Jessica had already followed Doctors McTavish and Cummins to the labs. Her precious daughters were left in the hands of the two midwifery nurses Sarah and Dawn that she had grown to trust so that Jessica could concentrate on the impregnation activities. Back in the large lecture theatre. the parliamentarians could at least look at her daughters and consider the miracle that had been wrought.

After being shown the fertilisation and egg transplant procedures while sympathising with the transitioned boys who had been chosen for the first pregnancy tests, Jessica agreed to answer questions.

This plan however got waylaid when there was a commotion in the lecture theatre as Jessica and the doctors were returning from the labs.

Ron had arrived with Jessica’s parents and two other adults that Jessica did not know but she assumed they MIGHT be Terri’s parents.

Her assumption was right.

ooo000ooo

Without thinking, Jessica ran to Ron first as he was reaching into the crib.

It was not an intentional snub to her parents but an instinctive reaction to her hopes that Ron might have more news about Terri. The kindly and ever sensitive Ron however gave Jessica a knowing glance then nodded pointedly towards Jessica’s parents. As she leaned into the crib to receive Ron’s hoped-for news he whispered his advice.

“The girls are safe here with me and your two nurses, best I think, you talk to your mum and dad. They’ve been at their wits end worrying about you and when this broke well – need I say more. Go on, speak to them.”

“Any news?”

“Later Jessie,” he whispered very softly, “speak to your parents first. I've only told them I'd found their daughter but I have not told them why I've brought them here. They don't know! ”

Having now realised how it must have looked she stepped quickly forward and wrapped a hug around her mum. Eventually she unwrapped her arms and looked tearfully into her mother’s wounded eyes and simply said.

“So sorry mum, I couldn’t face the egg snatchers., I had to hide.”

“But surely you could have called, or written, or phoned or left some sort of message. It’s been nearly two years.”

“They don’t let up mum. Once I learned the truth from the street kids, I realised 'the street' was the only place I stood a chance.”

“So where have you been and what have you been up to?”

For an answer she tugged her mother’s arm towards her babies and took the first one that Ron had picked from the crib then passed her on to her mother’s outstretched arms.

“This is what I’ve been up to!”

Her mother’s jaw sagged as she almost shrieked.

“This is yours!?”

Heads all around the room span at the cry.

“Not this mummy, she is not an object, she – or I should say they; - they are MINE mummy; both of them are MINE. You are grandmother to twin girls.

“Girls!”

“Where’ve you been mummy. D ‘you not listen to the news?”

“Well yes. We’ve all heard about the baby girls; but YOURS?”

“Yes. MINE!”

Jessica’s mother turned first to Ron then the other couple who’d been invited to see their grandchildren. Ron had been equally reticent when he told them he had found their equally wayward, run-away thirteen-year-old son, who had become a father at fourteen, he had not told them either, that the babies were girls.”

“Why didn’t you tell us in the car?” Terri’s dad demanded.

“Security Mr Harrington,” Doctor Cummins interrupted. “You might have tried to phone relatives or something while Ron was driving. Your son’s identity is not known outside this hospital and all the people gathered here are bound to the official secrets act.

Until we locate your child -and child he is,-, the boy is not safe.. Everybody here realises the danger to your son, now you do.”

“Danger?” Mr Harrington queried.

“Yes. If foreign agencies discover that your son is loose on the streets, they’re bound to try and kidnap him for ransom purposes. To the best of our knowledge, there is no other male producing X and Y sperm. -Anywhere – on – the – planet!”

“So even if you find him, he’s still hostage to his --- you know.”

“Exactly. No matter what we try and do for him, IF we find him, he’s still in danger and will require protection for years to come, two generations at least, possibly three. There are some bad regimes out there, political, racial, and religious. There’s no knowing where the danger might come from.”

Mr Harrington fell silent as the reality struck all the parents, Terri’s mum then asked.

“Are the twins safe, is Jessica safe?”

“She’s safer here, as are the girls.” Doctor Cummins continued. “They are not the ones with the holy grail, the X & Y spermatozoa.”

“But - they could be kidnapped for blackmail purposes to force my boy to give himself up.”

“Precisely Mr Harrington. We have to protect the girls as well but at least they are here, now! Did you not notice the armed guards around the hospital?”

“Well yes, but we did not realise it was our children.”

“And Grandchildren,” Jessica’s mum added for good measure..”

“It’s a mess!” Jessica’s dad declared prosaically.

Jessica rolled her eyes; her dad had always been a man of few words.

By then, both grandmothers were besotted with their granddaughters and Terri’s mum asked eagerly.

“What are their names?

Jessica grinned.

“We were going to name the boys after their grand-dads but when these little beauties exploded into our world we had only one option. You’re each holding your namesakes, - I think; as you can see they're identical.”

Tears immediately filled both grandmothers eyes as their relief and emotions overwhelmed both women before they simultaneously repeated the girl’s names,

“Eleanor and Diana, our grand-daughters!”

“Well it’s Eleanor Lucy and Diana Renee Harrington actually." Jessica explained.

“Lucy? Eleanor wondered as Diana asked exactly the same thing about Renee.

Jessica elaborated.

“Lucy was Ron’s daughter, that’s a private matter between Terri, Ron and me. Renee is a female alternative for Ron; that’s the same private matter.”

All four grandparents turned to look at Ron who was actually tearing up as he swallowed emotionally.

“Thanks Jesse.”

“No! Thank you Ron; you were there for us when it mattered. When we daren’t have gone back to our parents.”

“But we would have helped, somehow or another, if you’d asked.” Eleanor protested as Diana nodded vigorous agreement.

“No mummy, it was far too dangerous, you haven’t been there. Ron had nothing to lose after his beloved daughter Lucy died thanks to the egg snatchers. This way we remember Lucy even though we never met her and we also thank Ron for the dangers he has faced in helping us.”

“Where will you be living then, once you leave this clinic.”

“The obvious place,” Jessica opined, “will be the government safe house if I’m to be protected.”

“Will we be able to visit?” Both grandmothers asked – again simultaneously.

Jessica giggled as she prepared to answer questions from the SAGE.

“You two sound stereophonic. Of course you'll be able to visit - at any time you like! You're their grandmothers! I’ve got to face the questions now; can you stay around until after.”

Both grandmothers nodded vigorously as they each nursed a precious grand-daughter so Jessica gave a nod to Doctor Cummins and Doctor McTavish.

As she stepped towards the lecture chair a score of video cameras plus two fixed cameras started to record the events. Jessica had been concerned about recording the session for it was a double edged sword.
None of the government agencies could lie about any agreements made concerning her or Terri’s or her daughter’s safety but alternatively, Jessica’s face would inevitably be splashed around the world.

Firstly, Doctor Brendan Cummins opened the meeting then Doctor McTavish described the circumstances of the birth and confirmed the good health of both daughters, finally Jessica received questions.

Fortunately, this was a sober, scientific inquisition, not a press riot, but simultaneously, just about every questioner emphasised the importance of locating and protecting Terri. These thoughts were echoed by every parliamentary attendee who sat on the fertility and impregnation cabinet committee. Jessica simply batted them aside by emphasising the hurt and psychological damage that young people like Terri and she had suffered at the insensitivity and cruelty of the egg snatchers and transition teams.

Eventually, just about every foreseeable circumstance had been explored and addressed as best anybody could when the main issue and main individual had not even attended. Jessica finally stood up, stretched, and turned to Doctor Cummins.

“That’s as much as I can take for today, I’m going to feed my babies and indulge some much missed family time with my parents and ‘in-laws’.”

“You do that girl,” Doctor McTavish encouraged. “Tomorrow, we’d like to show you the house we’ve selected for your protection, and, if and when he’s happy, your partner Terri’s. So thanks for agreeing at least to that issue.”

“I had little choice really, I’ve already walked the walk as a hunted outlaw. See you tomorrow morning.”

They separated as Jessica re-joined her family and Ron.

Having established the ground rules for Jessica’s security, they met with their escort and slipped away to enjoy a late afternoon stroll followed by a quiet evening meal at a restaurant in the picturesque Quantock Hills. When they returned to the hospital Jessica slumped contentedly on her bed.

“I enjoyed that mummy. It was like our old family picnics. Can’t wait for the twins to grow up.”

Everybody agreed and it was a reluctant but contented family that finally broke up after agreeing to meet up the following day.

ooo000ooo

The next morning Jessica was contentedly suckling the twins with Dawn her young care nurse. They were sharing a joke when Ron and the grandparents arrived.

“Well somebody seems much happier,” Diana observed as they entered.

Jessica looked up and grinned as Dawn slipped a soft cashmere shawl around Jessie and her twins.

“I’d have thought you’d be suckling them one at a time,” Eleanor smiled.

“This way’s faster and they seem to prefer doing it together. I suppose they did everything together in my womb. And of course, Dawn helps me to set them up one in each arm with the pillows around me”.

“You lucky thing,” Ron laughed, “lying there like some queen in her bower.”

“I wish the king was here.” Jessica replied.

Ron’s grin faded as he reached into his warm, inside pocket to produce another familiar phyle.

“Well he is in a way, fresh this morning.”

The four grandparents gasped as they realised that sometime before he had picked them up at the hotel, Ron must have met Terri to collect the sample. He passed the phyle to Dawn with instructions to deliver it straight to the fertility lab. Tasked such an important duty, Dawn wasted no time and Ron took the chance to discuss events. Jessica spoke first.

“What does he feel about their offer of a safe house?”

“He’s after finding some way of living a normal life.” Ron replied.

“Ha! No hope.” Jessica opined.

“I dunno,” Ron countered, “he’s making a fist of it at the moment. I stood in the multi-story garage chatting with him this morning and nobody noticed a thing.”

“Yeah but when foreign agencies start searching for him they’ll trace him through you. The whole of the gender reassignment committee know you. Somebody’s bound to leak your picture for a fee.” Jessica observed.

“Yeah. I suppose you’re right,” Ron conceded, “they’re politicians after all. Anything for a buck.”

“Just never reveal where you’re living Ron.” Jessica whispered so low even her parents didn’t hear.

“Secrets still Jessie? Even from us?” Eleanor scolded her slightly.

“Yes Mummy. Until we sort this safety thing out.”

“I suppose she’s right Elle,” Diana added, “the last thing we want is Terri to disappear.”

“Have you got any strategy worked out?” Eleanor pressed Ron.

“We’re working on it,” Ron replied, “one of Jessie’s trusted street friends is in on it. Bit like the French resistance during the war or the underground railroad during the Yank’s civil war.”

“It all sounds very ‘spymaster’ and James Bondish,” Jessica’s dad observed.

“That’s as may be,” Ron finalised bluntly, “but I hold my freedom to come and go to be dear. We can’t afford stupid blunders!”

As he said this, there was a knock on the door. Eleanor re-secured the shawl around Jessica’s shoulders and Jessica shouted, “Enter.”

The two doctors McTavish and Cummins came in with Dawn behind them. Doctor Cummins asked.

“He’s been in touch again we see.”

“Yes,” Ron confirmed, “was the sample okay?”

“Seemingly so. We’ve arranged for half of it to be flown to Manchester immediately, now it's been frozen. That’s the chopper you can hear in the grounds.”

Ron smiled and shook his head slightly. Doctor Cummins caught the reaction and raised an eyebrow questioningly. This caused Ron to explain his behaviour.

“Seems a hell of a lot of expense for a tiny phyle of liquid. A whole bloody helicopter all the way up’t north.”

“Better distribution,” replied the doctor, “the semen is frozen here then despatched all over. It’d be better if Terri deposited his sperm here immediately instead of traipsing it around Bristol. Even a couple of hours of the wrong exposure can reduce the quality and motility.”

“That would compromise his anonymity,” Jessica interrupted. “He’ll take a long time to trust you.”

“If we could just talk though, explain to him about freezing the sperm ASAP.” Doctor Cummins almost pleaded as Aggie McTavish nodded agreement.

“When next we meet, I’ll ask him.” Ron reassured the doctors.

ooo000ooo