John Brosnan - The Sky Lords

“You also have a phenomenal immune system,” Milo continued. “You are immune to all conventional infections and to the diseases, such as cancer, that plagued humanity for so long. Admittedly you are vulnerable to most of the more insidious designer viruses unleashed during the latter stages of the Gene Wars, and to some of the mutated species of fungi that are spreading at the moment, but those are handicaps you share with all the Prime Standards and overall you’re very fortunate. You have incredible powers of recovery—your bones knit very quickly when broken and your central nervous system has the power to regenerate. Injuries that could paralyse a pre-Prime Standard type for life you are capable of shrugging off in a matter of weeks. And on top of that you don’t menstruate, except at twenty-year intervals, if you don’t become pregnant during your period of fertility.”

Jan’s mind was reeling. “I don’t—what?”

“Menstruate,” said Milo, smiling at her confusion. “In pre-Prime Standard times women menstruated every month from puberty to the menopause.” When he saw she wasn’t understanding what he said he paused. “What did they teach you back in Minerva? About your body, I mean?”

“I was taught to harmonize with my body,” she told him. “By meditating and letting the spirit of the Mother God flow. …”

“No, no,” he said quickly, interrupting her. “I mean were you taught about how your body works? ”

“Yes. Of course I was.”

“You know about your reproductive system, then? That when you’re born you’re carrying eggs inside you?”

Jan nodded that she did.

“Do you know how many eggs.”

“A hundred or so, I think.”

“Correct. But in pre-Prime Standard days a female child was born carrying half a million eggs in her ovaries.”

“Oh, really …” she said, disbelievingly.

“It’s true. And when a pre-Prime Standard girl reached puberty, which in those days meant the age when her reproductive system had become functional—an egg was then released every month into her uterus to be fertilized. If the egg wasn’t fertilized within two weeks it was ejected from the uterus along with the lining. This was called menstruation, and though it affected women differently most found it an unpleasant experience. Apart from the bleeding involved it could also be painful, as well as emotionally upsetting. Hormones were the culprit, as usual. When the egg was in the uterus hormonal changes caused an alteration in the surface of the uterus in preparation for the fertilization of the egg. These drastic hormonal changes were the cause of all the discomfort that women suffered.”

“I can’t believe any of this. The Mother God wouldn’t have let women suffer so much.”

“Your Mother God wasn’t around in those days,” Milo said drily. “God the Father was running the show and he evidently had it in for women.”

“The Mother God has always existed, and always will,” Jan told him firmly.

“Whatever you say. Anyway, when the genengineers around the middle of the twenty-first century finally solved the problem of how to switch off the molecular timer that caused the cellular self-destruction known as the ageing process it meant immortality was within reach at last. But, of course, if all humanity became immortal the Earth’s resources would have been rapidly depleted so it was decided to impose a limit on just how long anyone could be genetically re-programmed to live. The debate went on a long time before the United Nations finally imposed the two hundred year plus law. In those days the United Nations still had weight, because it was backed by the Soviet-American Alliance.”

“What was the United Nations?” she asked.

He waved an impatient hand. “Another time. The point was that if people were going to be allowed to live a two hundred year plus life-span they couldn’t be allowed to breed as freely as before because, once again, the world’s resources would be endangered. So it was also decreed by the United Nations that women could only become fertile for one year in every twenty.”

Jan frowned at him. “Are you saying that before that time women were fertile continuously ?” she asked in amazement.

“That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to tell you. And these two decrees by the United Nations not only changed women’s reproductive systems but the world itself.”

“How come?”

“Because of all the opposition to the decrees. Much of it came from religious fundamentalists … The Islamic nations were dead set against the whole idea of genetic meddling with the human body. It was, they said, against the law of Allah. …”

“Allah?” asked Jan.

“Another very masculine God. You wouldn’t have liked Him. Anyway, it wasn’t just the Islamic nations, there was fierce opposition from the Western religious fundamentalists as well, Catholic and Protestant—and don’t ask me what they were; it would take too long to explain. Just take my word for it that the whole argument got pretty bloody.

“You see, when the United Nations made the two hundred year plus decree they decreed at the same time that every individual in the world, provided they weren’t too old to be genetically modified, was entitled by international law to have their life-span thus expanded. So you can imagine the result—people living in a country that had vetoed the longevity treatment for religious reasons were understandably tempted to move to a country where it was allowed. Well, all hell broke loose, and when the dust finally settled all the maps of the world had to be redrawn. Most of the bigger nations, including the Soviet Union and America, had fragmented into a number of new, autonomous states, such as your Minerva.”

“You make it all sound so convincing,” said Jan wonderingly.

“It’s convincing because it’s true,” he told her. “Minerva owes its existence to genetic engineering despite whatever myths about its origin you’ve been fed. And Minerva’s inhabitants weren’t just satisfied with the Prime Standard model—they added all the modifications that they could under the then still-existing international laws. The early feminists, for reasons of dogma, were loath to acknowledge that most of the psychological differences between men and women were genetically inspired. The idea smacked too much of ‘biological determinism’, a very politically unpopular concept at the time.

“However, by the end of the twentieth century research into the working of the human brain had proved that biological determinism was a much stronger force in human affairs than anyone had previously wanted to accept. And, of course, the feminists took full advantage of these discoveries when they came to set up Minerva decades later. …”

Jan shook her head. “I’m sorry. You’ve lost me completely now. I can’t even understand half the words you’re using. What, for example, were these feminists you keep mentioning?”

To her annoyance this question amused him greatly. He threw back his head and laughed so loudly he provoked angry muttering from the surrounding cubicles.

Finally he said, “Very well, we’ll leave it for the time being. I shall continue your belated education in the history of our unfortunate planet at a later date. Now let’s talk about something else—the price for my on-going protection and support.”

“Price?” she asked, puzzled.

“Yes, price , my little amazon. I told you before we would make a deal. In return for my help you will help me. By giving me something I need.”

“But I don’t have anything to give you.”

“On the contrary. You have yourself,” Milo said and smiled at her in the same way that he’d smiled at Buncher.