Chapter 7

Next day, it was like being back in old times. Well, close to them. No morning ass-fuck, anyway, but a lot more caresses than I'd been used to. Sue left for work early, needing to make a start on her e-mail replies before her real day's work began. We agreed to meet at lunchtime to decide whether she would come to the laboratory for the three o'clock deadline, or whether I would go to the campus. It depended on whose work was the most urgent.

I arrived at work fairly early myself, did a round of the machinery, then started on the paperwork.

Hilary sauntered in shortly after nine.

"Good morning, lover," she warbled.

I looked around the empty room, pasting a 'guilty' expression on my face. "Shh. Not so loud - they'll all want some!"

"They certainly will! At least, after I tell them what my test showed this morning?"

"Back to pink?"

"Sure thing! I think I'm cured, praise god!"

"And Mike?"

"He was delighted to be spared last night's and this morning's workouts. He'll stay around, for Jackie and as extra insurance for me, but the pressure's off him now."

"You mean he's glad not to be fucking you? That kid's weird clear through!"

"He'll still be fucking me. Just not so often."

"I'm not sure I understand you. How will you know you're cured, if he's still going to fuck you?"

"He won't climax. Well, not in me, anyway."

"Oh. I see. The switchover to Jackie."

"That's right. Needs must, and all that. I'm still on duty as long as Jackie needs me."

"Sorry, Hilary. I should have thought. It's none of my business."

"It is, I'm afraid. If your magic sperm really does mean a cure, I want Jackie to be next up for it. I know she was unpleasant to you yesterday, but she really has been under a terrible strain lately. We had a good thing going; she was finally starting to relax. Then this happens, and she finds she has to put up with a man in our lives, in our bed, fucking both of us. So, can you bring yourself to do it? Knowing what she is, and how she feels about sex with men in general, and you in particular? We can do it the same way, so you'd only be inside her for a few moments."

"I'd like to say yes, for your sake. But I'm not sure when I'd be able to. Remember, I'm on call for Sue from this afternoon onwards. And it's a pretty permanent 'onwards'. Just because she hasn't felt any pain after forty hours, doesn't mean that she won't after fifty. Or sixty. So, suppose she suddenly starts hurting when I've just shot my load into Jackie? Or anyone else for that matter?"

"Um. Right. I see your point. Let me think about that one for a while." She walked away slowly, head down.

The morning flew by. My head was still filled with sexual revolution, and the Sisterhood, and all the other things Sue had told me. We met as arranged for lunch, and I told her I'd decided to spend the afternoon on campus with her. She was delighted that I'd agreed. Apparently, her teaching load, and that of her three colleagues, had been moved completely on to other shoulders, while they concentrated full-time on dealing with all the new phenomena she'd reported. The whole world was watching, and wanted quick answers. And since she'd been first with the news, they wanted them from her.

"I thought I'd have a real fight with you over this, Jack."

"Well, you might have had, but I figured it this way. As long as I get to the lab every five or six hours, that'll do. The rest of the time, I'm writing notes. And I can do that anywhere. Plus, it gets me out of Hilary's way."

"I thought you liked the girl."

"I do. But yesterday's little experiment - you know the one I mean - looks like a success. She thinks I've cured her."

"And you're not sure?"

"Probably. Maybe ninety percent. But that not certainty, is it? Anyway, she wants me to do the same for Jackie."

"Would that be so bad?"

"I told you what she was like. I don't think I could. And she's such an unpleasant person that I'm not sure I want to. If anyone deserves red-hot ants crawling around inside them and biting, it's her."

"Just first aid, remember?", said Sue.

"I can't bring myself to even think about doing anything nice for that bitch," I said. "You don't know her. Anyway, it's not just that."

"Oh? What's the other problem?"

"You. How can I fuck her when I'm on standby for you? Suppose I've just fucked her - literally, I've just finished shooting my entire load into her - when you start with the ants. What do we do then?"

"Hmm. Let me think," said Sue, absently. "It's a tricky one, isn't it."

We ate in silence for a while.

"Ok. Solution #1," she announced. "Not a very good one, but it shows my grey cells are still working."

"Come on - it's a problem in my field, not yours. I've been trying to find an answer all morning, and come up with nothing. You get it just like that? Get away!"

"I don't think you were really looking for an answer, because it would mean you'd have to fuck Jackie. And you don't want to, do you? You'd rather just say flat out that it can't be done."

"I still don't think it can," I replied stubbornly.

"Ok. Try this for size: I have to stay celibate to see if my plague's been cured. The problem is, maybe it hasn't. So you have to stay ready. In theory, any man would do. And in an emergency, that's what I'd have to do. But I'm not that liberated yet. I should be - I've been documenting the new morality for the whole world to see. But inside, I haven't changed that much. I don't fancy the idea. I need my husband on standby. So it looks like you're off limits to everyone else. Correct statement of problem?"

"Yes. That seems to cover it. I don't see an answer there, whatever you say."

"Bear with me. Hilary's now staying celibate to see if she's cured as well. Right? So, does it need to be both of us? Assume, for the sake of argument, that I get through to tomorrow lunchtime without needing you. That's way past both deadlines. By then, Hilary will be past her deadlines as well. And I don't think she's as stupid as I am about demanding that just one guy being held in reserve especially for her. So, let her take over the experiment."

"I think I get it."

"Precisely. You get it. In fact, tomorrow lunchtime, we both get it. In whichever orifice takes your fancy. Then as soon as you're up to it, which I hope for the sake of insurance will only be a few minutes later, you do the other as well. Your balls will have been filling up for nearly two days, so you should have plenty to spare. And that's it. You're free to fuck whoever you want for the next, say, twenty hours. That gives you twenty hours to recover before I might need you again."

"You're a genius, love!"

"I am. So the IQ tests said, anyway. But then, so are you. Now, use your IQ-170 brain to tell me what's wrong with the solution I've given."

I thought. And thought. Then it hit me.

"I've seen it. And yes, it's a nasty one. Blows the whole thing out of the water. The problem is that it doesn't stop with Jackie!"

"That's right, it doesn't. You've maybe cured two of us. With Jackie, it'll make three. But it can only ever be a maybe, unless you find the biology behind it. So, there's three of us who don't need a regular fucking. And two other people who know it."

"Two?"

"You, obviously. And Mike. I don't know Mike very well, and I don't know Jackie at all, but I do know that five is too many to hold in a secret like that. It'll get out."

"Couldn't we swear them to silence? We're ok; I trust Hilary; Jackie doesn't seem to talk to anyone; and I think Mike would be all right as well."

"And none of them have some female, friend or relative, who they desperately want to see cured? You're under pressure from Hilary now, over Jackie. Would Mike start pushing for the same treatment for his sister? Or his mother?"

"I don't know... I suppose he might."

"And what about me? I'd want Jill treated, of course. That brings Frank into the story. He has two sisters and four nieces. Maybe they're all hurting. How big does the snowball grow before the news gets out?"

"And twenty million women try to beat a path to my door."

"You've forgotten the rest of the planet, love."

"Twenty million, two hundred million, two thousand million. What's the difference? There's no way I can deal with them all, or even a reasonable percentage. Look at the timetable. I fuck you, both ways. I then have to wait for my balls to fill up again. Say, five or six hours, minimum. That gives me about fifteen hours. Maybe I can get really heroic, and do two. Then I'm back on the wagon for twenty hours to make sure I'm ready for you. So I'd be able to average a little better than one a day. Unless I put you at risk. And they wouldn't let me go on the wagon, would they?"

"There'd be riots. It's not going to work." For some reason, Sue was smiling as she said it.

"It's not. I have to get back to the lab and find a cure, goddamn it. Sorry, Sue. Our deal's off. I can't come with you this afternoon."

"You can, and you will. This problem doesn't need lab work. Not yet, it doesn't. What it needs is thought. New ideas. And while you're tinkering with your machines, you're not doing that. Sitting in my office, away from the pressure, you might just think your way through the problem."

"Maybe so. But I can't think. You've got me all mixed up."

"Scared of being raped by a million women simultaneously, Jack?"

"You bet I am!"

"Ok. I'm obviously thinking better than you are today. Here's a couple more points for you to ponder."

"Go on," I said warily, realising how she'd sucker-punched me with the first one.

"Ok. Idea #2. You need to find out what makes your sperm unique, yes?"

"God, yes! If we can do that, we're at least halfway to a cure."

"But are you unique? Or just very rare? Or maybe not rare at all?"

"What do you mean?"

"If you hadn't taken those cells from me that night, we'd still be fucking twice a day along with everybody else. We wouldn't know any different, would we? Maybe there's a lot of you out there. Get a lot of women examined. If you find any more with pink cells, you've found another guy with magic sperm."

"Yes! Of course!"

"Ok. That's taken some of the load off your shoulders. There'll be others to help. Maybe a lot more. Count on it. Nobody's that different."

"Thanks, love. I feel better already."

"Good. Now for idea #3. You may not like this one quite so much. It eliminates that double-fuck, and the twenty-hour wait, and leaves you free to cure as many women as you physically can."

"You're assuming you're cured, are you? You're saying you don't need me on standby."

"Not quite. I'm not assuming anything. I'll still need my husband on standby, for as long as it takes to find a full cure."

"Then I really don't know what you mean."

"I mean my other husband. He'll do."

My face must have been a picture. "Other husband?"

"Frank. Look, love. I'm Jill, and she's me. So, in a funny sort of way, you're her husband, and Frank's mine. Can you follow that?"

I thought about it. "I wouldn't mind who you did it with. I saw how you were hurting the first time, and anything that takes that away is fine by me. It was you who said you wouldn't want to do it with anyone but me."

"No I didn't. I said I didn't think I wanted to do it with anyone but my husband. Like I say, Jack, I've got a choice of two. You both feel like my husband."

I started to see what she was getting at.

"You'd have to cure Jill first, of course," said Sue, serenely. "There's no way that Frank could carry on keeping her ants at bay and still be on call for me. No way at all. He can barely manage to keep up now. As I told you."

"Let me get this right. You're asking me to fuck your sister..."

"Which, as you've already admitted, you've done before. Knowingly."

"Not quite. At the time, I didn't know which one of you was which. I just knew that there'd been two different women in my bed. Ok. So then what?"

"And then I move in with Frank and Jill, or they move in with us. Frank goes off duty, which will be a tremendous relief to the poor lamb. All he has to do is keep himself ready in case either of us need him in a hurry. While you go about the world on your mission of mercy." Suddenly, she laughed.

"What's funny, love?"

"That first night. You vowed to find a cure. And all the time..." She stopped to catch her breath. "All the time, it was right there between your legs!" Suddenly she let go, hooting with laughter. I cracked up as well, and we laughed until our sides ached, raising a few disapproving stares from the other customers in the bar. Finally, we sobered up.

"Right then," Sue said, briskly. "It's settled. Yes?"

"I suppose so. But I think you've just written a whole chapter of your New Morality thesis."

"Nonsense! For all you know, Jill and I have been swapping around week in, week out, for the last ten years."

"No, you haven't. I can tell the difference, and I've been able to for twelve years, not ten. The two of you had me fooled for about three months, that's all."

"Come on! Even Dad can't tell us apart."

"Your dad loves both of you. I only love you. That's the big difference, and I can always see it."

"Maybe. We'll have to test you on that one."

I wondered, all the way to the university, just what she meant by that.

The afternoon was interesting. I was never further than a door away from Sue, while she got on with her interviews, discussions, and the general bickering that goes with all academic research. It's bad enough in science, and at least we're all arguing from the same facts. Here, they were trying to make it work when everyone had their own opinion, no two alike. I wouldn't have been able to stand it for five minutes, yet Sue had quite happily pledged a lifetime to it.