Necessity gives the law and does not itself receive it. – Publilius Syrus, Sententiae (#399)
I could tell right away that he was going to be difficult. To start with, he had put off the appointment four times, and the delays were accompanied by silly questions and “I’ve never done anything like this before” sheepishness. Then he turned up twenty minutes late, but I had anticipated that and had nothing else scheduled until after dinnertime. Finally the door chime rang, and I practically had to drag him in to prevent his standing there, hat in hand, as though he were afraid of me.
“Please, sit down and make yourself comfortable. Would you like something to drink?”
“Yes, ma’am, if it’s not too much trouble.”
“No trouble. Is iced tea OK?”
“Sure, that’ll be great.” Then as I returned and handed him the glass, “You have a nice place here.”
“Thank you, Craig. I’ve tried to make it as comfortable as possible.”
A slight pause, and then, “Do you play?” gesturing at the chessboard.
“Not very well, I’m afraid,” I laughed. “I’m much better at backgammon, but the chessboard makes a nicer display piece and a lot of my gentlemen enjoy playing.”
A slight twitch of his left eye; he was wound so tight I was afraid he’d jump if I touched him, so I didn’t. “We can play if you like.”
“Oh, no, I’m not very good either, though I’m studying a book on technique.”
“Books are fine, but there’s no substitute for experience,” I purred. No good; if he caught the double-entendre he gave no sign. I had my work cut out for me. “The set was a gift from my grandfather; he was a chess master and hoped that a pretty set would interest me in the game.”
“It’s very nice. You said was, has he passed on?”
“Yes, last year.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. He had a rich and full life, and when the end came he faced it bravely and without regrets.”
“How does your family feel about what you do?”
I would like to think my face didn’t register my shock at such an abrupt transition, but I can’t be sure. “Well, you know how it is; one’s parents often have plans of their own, and they can’t help being disappointed when one goes in a different direction.”
“What did they want you to do?”
“My father suggested I go into psychology and my mother agreed, and since the subject intrigued me I complied. But while doing my post-graduate work I become interested in sexology, and my doctoral dissertation was on the role of regular sexual activity in alleviating nervous tension in males with high-stress jobs. After I got my degree I decided to become an applied practitioner rather than a researcher, and here I am. My folks weren’t exactly overjoyed with my choice, but they respect it even if they don’t understand it. How do your parents feel about your career?”
“Oh, my dad’s really proud of me, but my mom, well…”
“Mothers never really like it when their children travel far from home, even if it’s for important reasons.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he admitted. Then, a bit grudgingly I thought, “You’re pretty smart.”
“Does that surprise you?” I countered.
“Oh, no, I didn’t mean that! It’s just, well…”
“You didn’t expect brains in a whore.”
“I didn’t call you a whore!” he exclaimed.
“No, you didn’t,” I said with the most disarming smile I could manage. “Maybe you should.”
“I wasn’t raised like that!”
Aha! Now I understood his reluctance, and knew how to deal with it. “Craig, you’re very young yet, and very idealistic. And while I hope you hold on to as much of that as you can, there are times when one has to be pragmatic. I freely chose this career because I think what I’m doing is important. And if a lot of other people didn’t agree with me, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.”
“I know you’re right, and I’m actually really excited about being with you. You’re very beautiful-“
“Thank you.”
“-and I’ve fantasized about our appointment for the last week,” he admitted. “But at the same time I can’t help feeling guilty.”
“That’s not unusual, honey. Lots of my gentlemen feel guilty, especially at first. But men, especially fit and healthy young officers, have physical needs that must be taken care of if they’re going to perform at peak capacity. And since necessity demands that you be separated from your wife for the next three years, I’m here to fill in for her in the meantime.”
“I know, but I still feel like I’m cheating on her.”
“It’s not cheating if she knew about it and agreed to it,” I said. “I can bring up a scan of her signed disclosure form if you like.”
“You don’t have to do that, I know. It just feels weird is all, like she only agreed because she had to.”
“Nobody was drafted for this mission; everyone here is a volunteer, including you and me. As in any major undertaking, we all have our parts to play. And for Karen to be able to play her part, she can’t be here for you now.”
He started a little at the mention of his wife’s name, forgetting that I had access to the records of all the men to whom I was assigned. “It doesn’t seem very fair to you, though.”
“I had a choice, just as we all did, and choices carry consequences. Since star travel induces an irreparable degeneration in the ability of a woman’s body to carry a child to term, female colonists need to make the trip in suspended animation so as to slow the decay down to an acceptable level. And that means a few of us need to stay awake to keep you men sane and healthy. Maybe one day they’ll lick the problem and future couples can experience the voyage together, but for now this is the best solution we’ve come up with.”
“But that means you can never have children of your own,” he said with genuine sympathy.
I took his hand. “That’s a consequence I accepted. Besides, if I really want them one day I can always employ a surrogate. Maybe your Karen will volunteer, and then she can help me by temporarily taking my place just as I helped you by temporarily taking hers.”
Ha, you had me going, thinking this was an interlude from your past, until the line, “I can bring up a scan of her signed disclosure form if you like.” Though, a mechanism of that sort WOULD make sense in some settings. Maybe the release form could include, “He likes …” hints, though I’m guessing a woman pretty well knows what a man likes and can fill in any blanks pretty quickly…
Well, I don’t have a doctorate in psychology. 😉 If you liked this one, you can find the other fictional interludes here.
Last picture is fantastic. Know why?
Not specifically.
Hubble deep field image.
One of the pictures that look back in time close to the creation of the universe – to the original 1st-generation galaxies, back when there was little heavy element anywhere, lots of gases, before the first generation of stars generated the heavier elements of which later stars (and we) are composed of.
Galaxies with weird shapes.
The further out in space you look, the older stuff is: It takes time for light to travel, so the further you look, the older it is. The Hubble Deep Field views are some of the most breathtaking views in existence, because of their implications.
It makes my eyes wide with wonder at the universe.
A man has to have some way to pass the long, dark light-years.
Interesting how little attention sex actually gets in space-travel fiction. Of course, most of the great “space-opera” stories were written before the 1970s; consider Doc Smith (a real product of the Mauve Decade, certainly with his Lensman series), or Hugo Gernsback, or even Robert A. Heinlein (most of his early novels were published by Scribner’s for their “juvenile” market, and so had to be nearly as sexless as Frank Baum’s Oz books!)
A completely different look at the future and at space-travel is Cordwainer Smith’s novella “The Lady Who Sailed The Soul”:
http://stefanihid.multiply.com/reviews/item/41
There’s a feminist slant in the beginning that I didn’t recognize when I first read the story … in 1965, when I was too young to recognize the “feminist” difference….
I commend it to your attention…
Smith’s “The Ballad of Lost C’mell” is about a call girl who is a genetically modified cat, and On the Storm Planet has a similarly-modified concubine. And of course Heinlein’s later work has a lot of sex; even Podkayne of Mars talks about it, though subtly. The setup in this story was partly-inspired by the WHORES, a women’s space service mentioned only in Heinlein’s “All You Zombies” but none of his other work (as far as I know).
Did she work in a cat-house? 😉
I’m waiting for Laura to make some joke about this.
Actually, she works for the government, sort of like the “furniture” in Soylent Green. In Smith’s future history animals are genetically modified to look human, but retain some of the characteristics of their root stock. They are used as slaves and their names are always preceded by a letter-apostrophe indicating their source animal (since it’s not always obvious looking at them). Hence slaves made from cats all have names starting with c-apostrophe like “C’mell”, dogs’ names would start with d-apostrophe, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WddNdxcS_c&feature=related
…lol
That’s, um…
I think catios are cooler, but that was pretty nice. C’mell would be thrilled… or not. I found the story in a book on Amazon. I’ll check my local library first, of course.
C’mell? The name is familiar – as the genetic heritage – from another Cordwainer Smith story I’ve read, “Alpha Ralpha Boulevard. (“I’m C’mell, and I live at Earthport.”)
Cordwainer Smith was not writing Scribner’s “juveniles”. Neither was Heinlein, by the time he wrote The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress … and I’m sure Friday and I Will Fear No Evil would have cause Scribner’s juveniles editor to blow her main gasket and pee in her pants.
Most of early SF either ignores sex altogether or postulates a free-wheeling free love society. There seems to be little in between these two polar opposites.
Brave New World takes the second option, and John seems to be shocked by what a tiny bit of paying attention to his own mother would have taught him long ago. John Savage: what an ass.
One of the things that annoys me about a lot of modern science fiction is that it either ignores sex and gender completely (characters are essentially interchangeable by sex and even species) or presents a sterile, clinical presentation of it. That’s one reason I preferred Enterprise to The Next Generation; it presented a recognizable view of sex, and male and female characters didn’t have interchangeable personalities as they so often did on TNG. One of these days I’ll have to get around to watching Serenity, which actually has a courtesan character.
There are only fourteen episodes of Firefly, plus the movie Serenity. I have thirteen of the eps, and should get the final one Sunday. Based on this, I’ll decide whether or not I want the movie.
I gave the series to Grace for her birthday last year, so it’s not like I don’t have access to it; the problem is just time! 🙂
Firefox and Serenity were absolutely up your alley. Download the series and then watch the movie.
Sexless/androgynous futures are stapled in science fiction: it was seen as “progressive” and very PC.
Masculinity and femininity were drummed out of PC SciFi for two decades.
Heinlein once wrote an essay in which he pointed out that the idea of an androgynous future are based in a simplistic notion of unidirectional social “progress”, and that judging by history it’s very unlikely that most future societies will be that way because most past societies haven’t been. Gender cooperation works; gender warfare tends to create backward cultures.
Who even took female clients…
Firefly is interesting for its female characters. Each of them is strong in their own way.
My favorite was Kaylee… she was came from, essentially, a small town and space brought her out of her shell.
Free love! YES!
Above comment was to Sailor B for mentioning free love is in a lot of early SF.
I hadn’t read it for many many years. The website version added a few lines of final chapter that wasn’t in the original version I’d read … of Helen America, the “perfect child” of a rabid neofeminist the likes of those we’re seeing nowadays, and Mr. Gray-No-More, who sailed from New Earth into Helen’s life and into Cordwainer Smith’s future history.
Pardon me while I clear the tears from my eyes.
The short-lived TV show “Defying Gravity” had sex as a topic pretty often.
The astronauts were given patches to suppress their sexual desires but some of the astronauts defied their orders to wear them.
DG was all over the map on a number of things. The lead defies orders and even punches his boss in the mouth, and gets away with it, but they also play Milbrook games and wear anti-sex patches just because they’re told to. So are they obsessively obedient or aren’t they?
ST:TOS had sex, though it couldn’t be as out there as today. Kirk has even inspired a cute little phrase for one particular way of dealing with alien contact: Boldly Coming.
(Ha, you had me going, thinking this was an interlude from your past, until the line, “I can bring up a scan of her signed disclosure form if you like.” )
Same with me, Maggie.
Short stories are not easy to write but you certainly have the knack. I wonder if you’ve ever thought of submitting them to a publisher.
Thank you! I have a big problem with submission to a publisher; as the name indicates, one who does that approaches from a position of weakness and the negotiations then proceed from that point of disadvantage for the author. If a publisher’s agent sees my stories and decides they might like to publish them, I’m easy to contact. But otherwise, I’ll probably end up self-publishing a collection before much longer. 🙂
Amazon offers a system for to self publish for Kindle.
Lulu.com is a great self-publishing website. I have a writer friend at work who used them and she was very happy with it all.
Kindle has restrictions on erotic content, though I notice established authors can ignore it. I doubt that they made Steven King take the preteen gang bang out of the Kindle edition of It.