Chapter 2

Like many parts of the military, the biological weapons division was designed with the hope it would never have to be used. The goal was deterrence of any enemies who might think it a good idea to unleash -- or threaten to unleash -- a biological weapon. While a scientist could understand this, at another level it meant their life’s work was most likely going to be useless. Now, everything had changed. There was a biological weapon at loose in the world, and it was now their job to cure the disorder it caused.

Their division’s work was now beyond relevant, it was central to the fixing of human sexuality. The short-term danger was everyone breaking taboos in every culture to keep from going crazy. Among the long-term dangers was that reproduction was now impossible.

Jim Shaw and his wife Louise were infected, just like everyone else, so it was a problem he experienced firsthand. In recent years, they had fallen into a pattern of sex a few times a year, or sometimes once a month when they were more in the mood. Now, in line with the virus’s demands, they did it every other day. But instead of ending with the satisfaction of orgasm, it just ended. They felt their urgent hunger for sex satisfied, but they missed the usual completion of orgasm. It was not fun. People without a regular partner had it much worse -- they had the major complication of having to find someone to have sex with every few days.

Louise of course had no idea that he was working on the problem. All she or their children knew about his job was that it was with a secret government organization and they must never ask about it.

Jim had been visited by no end of intelligence officials, by eminent biologists, by higher-ups in the administration who he had previously only seen on the news, and by a few Senators and Representatives from the relevant committees.

He made the case to his superiors that the only solution was to release another virus to undo the effects of the first one. Surely they had consulted with independent experts, and apparently enough agreed with him that the project was given the green light. What’s more, he, Dr. James Shaw, was to lead the effort. He was the world expert -- no one else was in his class. His normal staff of 30 people swelled to 50, and they farmed out specific tasks to dozens of other labs across the country.

The universal STI vaccine had just recently reached most of the US population, though there were plenty of anti-vaxers who had refused it. They had a viral version of that vaccine too, and now they released it so it would complete coverage in the US and quickly spread it to every corner of the rest of the world too.

The goal for this virus they were creating was to return things to normal, of course. But it wasn’t clear they could do that. Some of what Kevin and Megan had done with their respective viruses was hard to undo. Sometimes it would be a matter of not returning to the old ways but to other new ways that were at least better than the horror that Kevin and Megan had unleashed.

In Jim’s secret toolkit were several options for various aspects of how the new sexuality could work. He could of course reveal them all so that UN committees could choose what was best. But time was of the essence, and Jim smiled as he considered another possibility. He could present the options he wanted along with some that were obviously much worse. He could choose. No one else had the expertise to understand that there were options he was leaving off the table. He had the opportunity to create a new world of sexuality according to what he thought was best.

He had sometimes dreamed of trying to improve people’s sex lives. There was precedent in other areas of medicine for surgery making people better than they were originally. One example was cataract surgery. During the procedure, the surgeons could implant an artificial lens that not just removed the cataract but corrected the person’s vision. Those who had been dependent for decades on thick lenses for myopia or astigmatism could now do without glasses entirely. Could he do the same sort of thing with the new virus? In the past, all Jim’s ideas had been just musing. Releasing any viruses from their lab would be unethical and illegal. But now everything had changed. He, Jim, might be able to single-handedly improve human sexuality in line with his own values.

He had a great deal to do. Previously his had been a nine to five job. Now he worked seven days a week, twelve to fifteen hours a day. Coming up with the right virus and refining it would take time. Meanwhile, the world had to live with the effects of Kevin and Megan’s botched viral creation.

It was just a couple days after Kevin and Megan’s virus had been discovered. On the phone was his wife. “Hi honey, it’s about Kara -- she’s really, really upset. Can you come home by 8 tonight? I could really use your help.”

“What’s she upset about?”

“Sex ... She’s really interested in having sex. But she’s way too young! And she’s not the only one. It’s all over the news too -- unless it’s a hoax.”

“Shit ... OK, I’ll try to be home on time.”

Jim had been staying until midnight the last few days, but that night he got home at 8:20.

“Oh, Daddy!” said Kara, running to hug him. “Would you have sex with me, please? I need it so much.”

“You can’t have sex with your father!” said Louise. “That’s out of the question.”

Kara was 18, the oldest of his three girls. He’d noticed all of them going through puberty, but hadn’t felt any real desire -- they were his daughters. But to have his big girl hugging him and asking for sex ... it had an effect.

“Why don’t you get some boy your own age to have sex with you instead?”

Kara bit her lip and looked down. “I did.”

This was evidently news to his wife, who looked astonished.

“And did it solve the problem?”

Kara hesitated. “Mom, could you go away and leave this to me and daddy.”

Jim was aware that his girls were more comfortable asking him about sexual things than their mother. When Louise looked at him, he nodded.

“OK,” she said and hurried off to the other end of the house.

“So, daddy, first I asked Luke. He’s a guy I kind of like. Asked him if he’d have sex with me. And he said no! It was so embarrassing.”

“Oh, honey...” said Jim softly.

“But I really wanted it, so I asked Dave ... he’s one of the jocks. And he said ‘Sure’ with a shrug. The only place we could think of to do it right then was a stall in the boys’ room. And so he did me up against the wall. That’s how I lost my virginity.”

Jim groaned sympathetically.

“It kind of hurt, and he probably lasted all of ten seconds before it was over. He grinned and asked if that was what I wanted. I said yes, because that strong desire to just do it was satisfied -- but I hated it.”