At first Rodney thought she really was going to send them to cell in the bowels of the city, however, the outpost version of “jail” turned out to be a “confined to quarters” order. And the quarters allocated to an offworld dignitary of the Nexus proved to be comfortable. She had put them in the proverbial gilded cage.
General Lindberg directed the troups which lead them to their “cell”, which proved to be a spacious set of suites on the 30th floor of the central government tower. Their escort once again, consisted entirely of young, athletic women, dressed sharply in navy uniforms. They deposited the three men into the apartment and then closed and locked the door. Rodney tried the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. He considered for a moment thowing all of his weight into the thing to see how much abuse it could handle, but then decided against it. The guards had been armed. He doubted anyone was standing outside, but he didn’t see the need to cause more trouble. Besides, he had a suspicion this was more of a power play than any real legal trouble. The only thing that concerned him was how long it might play out.
“Might as well get comfy boys,” Rodney said looking around the well appointed three bedroom apartment. “We might be here for a while.”
Anil’s voice came out from the bedroom with the best view, “Oh I doubt that.”
“Hey, the closets are full of clothes,” Tony announced. “And my name is on this note.”
“They probably assigned us rooms while we were landing,” Anil came out of his room wearing a new bright red knee length jacket over olive trousers and merigold slippers. “This was their plan all along.”
“How do you figure?” Rodney asked. “I’ve been to the cross roads a couple of times. Never been greeted like this.” He walked over to the kitchen looking for something to drink. He was still adjusting to losing his nanites. Now everything felt out of balance.
“Were you an emissary before?” Anil asked joining him.
Rodney shook his head. “Just a working stiff on a job, but still the place was a lot… friendlier back then.”
“It still is,” Anil selected a cup of tea from the dispencer. “I suspect they won’t leave us here long. And if my instincts are right, Young Tony will be the first selected.”
“Selected for what?” He looked at the two of them.
“Do you know what it means that Dr. Koopar is the head of Population?” Anil took his hot tea, blew on it, then took a sip.
Tony shook his head.
Rodney felt bad for not filling Tony in sooner. In truth, he had kind of hoped to circumvent this whole situation, but he let Anil explain.
“Mr. Capasella, humanity is woefully, dreadfully, impossibly short of our most precious resource. People. This planets number one product is not food, or technology, or material goods, but new people. We can not maintain our colonization program without more people.”
“What does that have to do with us?” Tony looked confused.
“With us specifically? Nothing. With the 23 chromosomes of healthy DNA tied up in your loins, everything.”
“There are breeding laws here Tony,” Rodney added. “New Washington is a Matriarchy not only politically but spiritually and religiously.”
Anil nodded. “The women in charge here have but one priority. To assure, not only the continued existence of the human species via reproduction, but to make sure we do lose our place in the Galactic Federal Union.”
“We don’t need to go into all that,” Rodney took his coffee and took a sip. Damn that was hot, but it tasted good. “Here’s what you need to know. If you’re a healthy male from off world, they have the right to request your -“ he paused, “contribution to the cause. And that can come in one of two ways, the hard way, or the fun way. For the record, your sexual preference is irrelevant.”
Tony’s eyes widened. “The hard way?”
Anil frowned but Rodney just told him straight. “They knock you out, hook you up to a machine and extract what they need.”
“Oh shit,” Tony looked around.”They can do that?”
Anil nodded. “They can and they have.”
“However, the women have first choice. Off world they call it the Harem,” Rodney started to explain but Anil cut him off.
“Do not use that word in front of any female human while you are here,” he warned. “They find it deeply offensive.”
“But it’s not like any harem you’ve read about in your history books,” Rodney added. “Basically there’s some kind of pecking order, or system of rights and claims, but the Breeders have claim on your DNA. And their goal is to get you to donate as much of it as possible in as short a time as possible.”
Tony paused for a moment, then said, “Well, that doesn’t sound like it could be all that bad, as long as machines are not involved.”
“It can be quite an experience,” Rodney admitted, recalling his first visit. “However, it’s not all its cracked up to be either. The key is to stay away from the machine if you can help it.”
There was a knock at the door. “Ah, and that I believe is our first selection,” Anil walked over and opened the door but looked disappointed when he found Dr. Kapoor standing there followed by several nurses. “Your worship,” Anil said with a flourish welcoming her into the room.
“Please do not call me that,” she said walking into the room, her flowing skirts russling as she moved. The nurses were attired in similar, but some how noticeably less stately garb. It was visually clear that they all belonged to the same order, but Kapoor was the most senior.
“I do apologize for Pim’s behavior,” Dr. Kapoor said, knitting her hands together. “She can be awfully, aggressive at times. But she has a lot of pressure on her at the moment.”
“How can you help you Dr. Kapoor?” Rodney asked.
“Well, we have come to take your physical,” Dr. Kapoor said. “Initial scans indicated something unusual and we need to make doubly sure you are all…”
“Clean?” Rodney smiled.
“Not suffering from any illness,” Dr. Kapoor smiled. Prim and proper, but not stupid or silly. Rodney liked her. She motioned for the nurses and directed them, two each to the other two men. “They will examine you in the privacy of your own rooms.”
And take their clothes, Rodney thought. Anil had anticipated as much and already changed. Tony was in for a bit of shock, but nothing like what would happen later if Anil was right.
“And me?” Rodney asked.
“I will examine you myself,” Dr. Kapoor said with a subtle smile.
She lead Rodney to his bedroom, then pulled out a scanner. “Is it true that you have no nanites in your system?” She asked.
“Yes,” Rodney said taking off his shirt.
“Oh you don’t need to do that,” Dr. Kapoor said. “I can scan you through your clothes well enough. You can change after I leave.”
Rodney raised an eyebrow.
“You have been claimed by someone with… executive privileges,” Kapoor said. “You have to understand our situation here.”
“Oh, I think I do,” Rodney left his shirt off and sat on the bed. “You’ve got a lot of people to grow.”
Kapoor nodded, “but the biology is simple enough, its the politics and the relational components that make this work so challenging. But we are getting off track. I checked your record. You have been here before, you know what we are trying to do. It is extremely unusual to meet anyone without cellular scale medical machines in their circulatory system What I want to know is… well, how were your nanites removed?”
“Not by choice,” Rodney admitted.
Now it was Kapoor’s turn to raise an eyebrow. Rodney continued. “The entity that gave us our commission to come to Cross Roads removed them somehow. I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it. They have some new kind of field, some way to manipulate forces. It goes way beyond holographs. They call it the MateriaScape. It was like he reached inside my body and removed them, all at once.”
Kapoor gasped. “They can do that?”
Rodney nodded. “Hurt like hell. Shit, I’m still recovering I think, but it’s hard to tell. You get so used to the damn things regulating your body. I’ve almost forgotten what normal feels like.”
Kapoor picked up her scanner and started to sweep it up and down Rodney’s torso. “I had better check, yes, this is amazing. They not only removed your nanites, but you you show no sign of synthetic implant. None at all.”
“I didn’t have many to begin with,” Rodney admitted.
“But you understand the significance of this? The AI managed to conduct some kind of in situe surgery, removing all traces of synthetic material from your body-“
It hit Rodney the magnitude of what she was saying, “Without putting me under, and they did it instantaneously.”
Dr. Kapoor nodded. “To call it miraculous might not be a strong enough word.”
“No wonder the other species are…” He was going to say afraid of them, but decided to take a different approach, “respect them so much.”
“There is no doubt that our privileged position in this galactic society is largely thanks to them,” Dr. Kapoor added, “but what I find incredible is that you have no bruising, no sign of invasive surgery. Simply a small amount of inflammation, but it is nearly everywhere in your body. Does it hurt?”
“I’m sore everywhere if that’s what you’re asking,” Rodney answered.
“Let’s get you something for that.”. Dr. Kapoor tapped a few buttons on her medical device, then touched the flat end at the top to his shoulder. Rodney felt a pin prick then it was gone. “This will help with any swelling or inflamation. It’s not nanites, but the drug compound should help with the discomfort.”
“Can you restore my nanites?” Rodney asked.
“Possibly,” Kapoor seemed to consider it. “But not without permission from the Governor. You see, your status as completely clean is highly… desirable.”
“You’re not going to hook me up to a machine are you?” Rodney asked half joking, half serious.
“No, no. But your condition? Status? Has made you enticing beyond normal interest. You have attracted the attention of someone with first citizen rights.”
“Can you tell me who?”
Dr. Kapoor smiled, “And spoil the surprise? Never.”
“Well, my job is done here. You’re fit as fiddle, if not a little old fashioned shall we say. I’m sure my staff have completed their work with your companions.”
“When will we be allowed to leave?” Rodney asked.
“Well, to be candid, if it were up to me,” Kapoor admitted, “I would keep you here until your genetic material had been either exhausted or sufficiently integrated into our breeding platform.”
“How long does that usually take?” Rodney asked.
“About half a cycle, or six months standard time.”
“There are lives depending upon us,” Rodney said seriously.
“You’re diplomatic state makes that quite clear,” She answered. “I am simply telling you my preference. But the colony does have rights, and we will exercise them.”
“But you will not detain us indefinitely?”
“You will find that unless you commit a felony, the maximum detention allowed is 24 hours, however that can easily be extended to 72 or longer. I have seen the Governor hold Senators for weeks if it suits her.”
“Any advice on how we go about avoiding that situation?”
“Play nice,” Dr. Kapoor patted his knee. “Not everyone is out to treat you like a slab of beef.”
Dr. Kapoor opened the door and Rodney followed. “You will of course be more comfortable in Colonial attire,” she added. Tony and Anil were leaving their rooms followed by the nurses at the same time. Tony had changed into a bright pink shirt that billowed around him in flowing lines over sky blue skin tight pants with white boots. It was not a look Rodney would have picked but all the nurses seemed to appreciate the style.
“I will notify the Goverment that the three of you are clean of infection, otherwise fit and safe to circulate on the planet. You pose no health risk to the population,” Dr. Kapoor and her staff left the way they came.
“How much longer do we need to stay here?” Anil asked as they left.
“Oh, I would not expect that you will have to wait long,” Dr. Kapoor smiled and left as one of the nurses closed the door.
“I’m going to take a shower,” Rodney said then headed back into his room to change. He selected an outfit more in line with his own tastes. Simple tan toga shirt, that looked like a fashionable kung fu ghi. The hem dropped to his thigh, covering the tops of his darker sand flex trousers. He was comfortable, had a full range of movement, and had pockets to stow his phone and his ships com, and some other items he planned to pick up when he got the chance. He also picked the combination because the trousers had a subtle but important loop to hold a pistol in the waist band. He puzzled at the inclusion of such “practical” clothing in his wardrobe but did not ignore the gift. Someone in this place was being pragmatic.
Dr. Kapoor was right. They did not have to wait long. The next person to arrive was Corporal Chaitwat along with two other women of the same age. No longer dressed in military attire, the corporal left her friends at the door, and retrieved Tony with little fanfair. She didn’t even announce or introduce herself. She simply walked up to him, took his hand, and lead him out of the room like a sheep. They did not even speak to each other. They closed the door behind them.
“That boy is going to have one hell of an adventure,” Anil said looking at Rodney.
“I just hope they’re gentle with him,” Rodney replied, a little worried. Tony was a decent guy, but he had lead a rather sheltered life. The customes and rights on Earth were protected by ancient law. Things were different out here. Survival of the species changed priorities, and convention.
“What about you?” Rodney turned to Anil. “Who has selected you?”
“Oh, I will not be selected,” Anil said sitting in a chair and crossing his legs. He still had his cup of tea.
“Come again?”
“I have applied for exemption on religious grounds. You see, I’m married.”
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?” Rodney asked. “They don’t recognize that here.”
“They do if you have diplomatic credentials, which I do. Granted, they may choose not to honor my status, however, so far they have not indicated that they intend to violate them either. Sort of a double jeopardy. I am part of a Nexus envoy and I have diplomatic status. The Governor and Dr. Kapoor would have to be extremely desperate to take on that level of confrontation.”
Rodney thought about that. “And what about you? That’s what you want?”
“It is,” Anil smiled. “And no, I’m not a homosexual if that is what you are thinking. I have been married and faithful to my wife for more than two decades. I am human enough to get the appeal of the situation, however I still believe that this -“ he pointed to his head - “is the true source of sexual arousal and well, I find this entire baby factory repulsive.
“I understand why they are doing what they are doing, but I disagree with it. Consider me a conscientious objector.”
And so it was Rodney who found himself being retrieved next, but not in the way he imagined. General Sofia Lindberg appeared at the door, her face a stoic mask of discipline and order. “Mr. Morris, you will accompany please.”
Rodney looked at Anil who shrugged. He stood up, put his empty coffee cup in the sink, then headed out the door ahead of General Lindberg who closed the door behind him.
Published on: 2023-10-25 07:00:00 -0700