Chapter 18: Technology and Fallacies

“That is what I am saying,” Cassandra said to the others in the chart room. “The males are infertile. I have checked all the male Yuki ... they have no sperm count. It doesn’t stop them from being able to have sex, but they can’t produce offspring.”

“Would it matter, though?” Vinayaki asked. “Even if they did, would the sperm be compatible with human women in turn?”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “The fact is that until there is some way to encourage sperm production for the males, they can’t have children. We have been doing what we can here but ... so far nothing.”

“Hmmm...” Taweret said as she put her fingers to her long jaw and chin. “I have encountered this quite a lot during my life. I had cured men’s problems when it came to this. Babi and some of the other fertility gods can even fix this as well.”

“You think that you might be able to help them?” Cassandra asked with some excitement.

“Yes! Of course,” the hippo goddess responded by putting her hands to her hips.”Wonderful!” Cassandra said as she clapped her hands. “That will go a long way in helping the Yuki family as a whole. It will help change and benefit male Yuki.”

Vinayaki nodded her head. “I think we should go to the next room so we can move this along. What else do you have?”

“Oh... , “ she replied. She put everything down in the chart room. “Follow me.”

They did just that. They walked behind her as they left the chart room. They then proceeded past the doors as they headed to the center room that had the money tree and to the room next to it. Cassandra opened up the door for them to enter.

Inside the room was a series of various tools and equipment. It consisted of gadgets and technical equipment. Computers, hardware, machinery, the place had it all. It wasn’t a big room, but some tables dotted near the walls where there were testing stations and tools for repairing construction equipment.

“This is essentially our gadget room,” Cassandra explained. “Here, we test and repair hardware. It is also a research area for creating new gadgets as well.”

Gary walked over and saw what looked like a gun on the table. He put his hands on the handle. The firearm itself had some triangular looking emitter and a long handle to it. The back of the gun had what looked like some sort of energy source that shined. He turned the gun to look at all the sides carefully.

“What is this?” he asked.

Cassandra waved for him to put the gun down in which he did. “That ... is a drilling tool. It is one of my favorite inventions that I discovered all by myself. I ended up discovering a special substance that can power handheld and large emitter arrays. I learned that the Yuki were immune to the radioactive particles released from the nuclear generator. We have one that is powering the den here. In case the system goes bad or has a meltdown, the reactor can be dropped down a long vast tunnel into the Earth itself. I have learned that silicon quartz that is mixed with silver can be placed into the proximity of a nuclear reaction. What would normally kill a human does nothing to us in turn. The quartz essentially becomes a crystal that generates power and energy that can be used in these emitters. The back section of the gun is the power source...”

“A gun?” Vinayaki asked.

“It wasn’t designed to be a tool of violence. At first, I had thought that I developed a laser pistol or an energy weapon of incredible power. We used this for the first time in mining out the vast network of tunnels here to accommodate our needs. Thankfully I learned the hard way that it doesn’t hurt us...” she paused as she put her hand and frowned. “I accidentally shot myself with it. I don’t want to try it out on human mortals...”

“It’s basically a drill then,” Gary commented.

“Yes, exactly. For now, this thing is perfect, but I am interested in seeing if I can make this into a weapon. It will be useful to protect us, and we can arm even the weakest of mythics with these. The Coalition of Deities would be able to benefit from these devices someday.”

“These crystals come from a nuclear reaction. I am not in any threat of getting radiated from this, am I?”

“No. Obviously, we don’t have any humans from going into the reactor when we make these things. We don’t want you humans glowing in the dark.”

Fumi turned her eyes to a small white and orange box. It had two pads that were plugged into it. The pads had a cross button on the left, two black buttons in the center, and two circular red buttons on the right of it. If anything, they looked like the joysticks that she and Gary played with on their Atari.

“What is this?” Fumi asked as she played with the pad in her hand.

“This is a game console that was imported from Japan. It came from one of the families that moved from Japan into this den. It is called the Famicom from Nintendo.”

“Neat!” she replied. “It looks so much more advanced than the old Atari 2600 that I have. These have so many buttons than the other one did.”

“It is. The graphics and music that it makes are way better too. I had it in here because there was a part that was broken inside it. I was going to take it apart to learn more about it and then fix it for the kids to play with it again. I learned that Nintendo is planning on marketing this to North America soon.”

“Good luck with that,” Gary replied. “The video game industry hasn’t been the same since the market for it crashed.”

Fumi’s attention went to what looked like some sort of blueprints that were on the table. The paper’s material looked like it was heavy material similar to card stock. It was white and tan colored. The drawing that was depicted was an unusual, almost cylindrical object. It even looked like a pill with a sphere attached to the center of the object. It showed what looked like a series of thruster engines on the back and front of it. It had what looked like a giant cannon or gun that was on a swivel mount in the front section of the entire object.

“What is this?” Fumi asked as her fingers probed the blueprints.

“Oh...” Cassandra thought. “Heh ... it is a first to have someone really look at it. I had these ideas in place. I thought to myself if humanity had space shuttles and rockets, it would be a matter of time before they would have functional space ships. I thought that I would take a shot at it. These are the blueprints of a powerful spaceship or battleship that could utilize a larger version of that energy drill gun that you were looking at on the table. We don’t have the resources to ever construct such equipment ... at least for now, even with the money tree, but technology always expands and improves. I believe in time such a ship like this could be built. I even have other blueprints of vessels we could try to build that could carry massive amounts of people in one ship. We could one day use a vessel of this design to mine planets or defend our home planet from assault.”

“I can only imagine myself commanding a ship one day,” Fumi replied. “This thing looks so cool. The other blueprint even has a large tail array on the back of it.”

“The only catch is that it might be too much at this time even to suggest such an idea. I still need to figure out how I could improve the gun on the table to make it fully work, let alone sticking that on a space ship. Maybe with the help of the Coalition, we can really design some powerful equipment and vessels like these.”

“Such vessels that project powerful energy could be used against another Cataclysm,” Vinayaki noted. “If you manage to keep up with this, we would develop entire spaceships with creation magic. We could definitely use these blueprints in the future if you wish.”

“That would be amazing!” Cassandra happily remarked. “I will keep working with these and improving the equipment of this den.”

There were other various gadgets and equipment that they were checking out in the room. It was getting later when they decided to go ahead and leave the place to go to the next room. What they found in the last room surprised some of them as Cassandra opened up the door for them to enter.

In the last room was a series of tables and chairs. There was a structured schematic or map of the den. The room was small but enough that Vinayaki began to take note of the charts. Inside the room was a person that was busy studying a schematic and a piece of equipment similar to the energy drill gun from the adjacent room.

This person was not like the other humans and Yuki in the den but of a different species altogether. The skin color it had was pink. It was an anthro pig but looked female from the protruding breasts. She wore pants and a shirt that flowed along with her blond hair. She had a pig’s snout, ears, feet, and toes. Since they saw her from behind, they could see a curly pigtail that protruded from the back of her pants. She seemed a little chubby, but it was only because she was a pig. Her height was the same as the other Yuki being about four feet tall. She was utterly oblivious to the group that walked in as she was focused on the drawing she had.

“Wha!” Taweret remarked as she looked upon the pig woman. This caught the immediate attention of the pig as she turned her head to look at the visitors.

“Well, that is a surprise,” Vinayaki said as her eyes befell the pig woman.

“Taweret, Bloody hell!” the pig exclaimed in a British accent as she stood up. She practically ran and hugged the hippo goddess even though she was only half her height. Taweret replied the same as she bent her knee down to hug the woman in return. Fumi and Gary smiled as they watched the scene unfurl.

“Bella Blakey! I never thought we would find you here,” Taweret said. “We lost you seventy years ago. Your father was worried sick about you!”

“I had to ... I wanted to get away, dear friend. I admit I never thought I would see you in a long time.”

“Bella ... why, are you working with the Yuki?” the elephant goddess asked.

Bella, the pig, backed up as she looked at the others. “Right ... do you remember why I left in the first place?”

“I remember all too well. Your father was against you in your desires to expand into the job of an architect.”

The pig nodded. “Precisely. Just because he was the bricklayer pig from the fairy tales, didn’t make him the master of me. He knew how to make wonderful houses, but his strict views on how women should operate put made him put the fist down upon me. He wouldn’t allow me to learn how to make my own homes ... to design homes ... I would have surpassed him. I would have built the many homes that everyone needed. I just loved building things. I loved designing them,” Bella looked around her. “I had to find my own destiny Taweret. I ran away ... I had to.”

“And you managed to make it all the way here?”

She looked at Cassandra and Fumi. “The Yuki promised me so much more. As far back as 1910, I was designing my first homes when one of their own found me. This agent was good, she knew everything that I was capable of, and they offered me the dream job of a lifetime. They had some of their children that were designing the future of the Yuki family. All around the world, they had the beginning phases of dens ... places to build and be away from humans. Not only could I be myself but be the designer of the dens. I found my dream job!” Bella said with excitement.

“So, you became the headmaster architect and builder of this den?” Vinayaki asked.

“Not only this one but the other ones or at least the underground ones. I talk and work with the other Yuki with their own dens,” she said as she looked at the room. “Can I cook up a place or what?”

“I would say,” Taweret smiled. “This place is incredible.”

“Yeah,” Bella smiled. “Enough to make my father shit bricks,” she said that made them both laugh.

“So, you managed to make this whole den?” Vinayaki asked. “This place is huge.”

“Well, it didn’t spring up overnight if that is what you are asking. Most of the so-called ‘dens’ are above ground. This den was a project that was started as far back as 1915, with me slowly carving out the area for usage. It wasn’t really until the introduction of the gold making tree and nuclear energy that construction sped up drastically. More Yuki being born only made progress even faster. My goal was to make sure that there is plenty of room for expansion down here. So far we are doing good but ... I know the rats. They are catching up pretty fast in population production. Again what you see here is mostly still uncompleted rooms and areas, so don’t get too hyped up about it.”

“Any fear of a cave in?”

“Bloody hell ... no far from it...”

“So, what do they give you in return for all of this?”

“With the obvious reward of having a job that I always wanted, I still get some things in return as well. For one, I wanted to have a mate. Only fair that if the Yuki were grabbing mortal men that I get to have one for myself. About ten years ago, I finally had my own man. James has been my husband ever since, and he even helps me out in the construction and designing of this den.”

“It is clearly obvious,” Cassandra added. “That everyone knows Bella lives in the apartment near the edge of the residential quarter. All you have to do is hear the complaints of the neighbors every time the two have sex.”

“Hey! It isn’t my fault that I enjoy a good romp. He is really good at it, and he is quite endowed for a man of his height. Besides, if they don’t like me squealing at night, I can tell them to shove it up their bum!”

Cassandra and Fumi both giggled a little bit as the other even seemed to smile at the pig’s spirit. Bella took her pencil as she tossed it to the table. Her face stopped smiling as she looked at the others.

“Did you tell them?” Bella asked Cassandra.

“About what?”

“The tree...”

Cassandra looked down for a little bit as the others looked at her. All eyes were on her as she had to let them know what was happening.

“The money tree lives about thirty years. The tree near the Tokyo den is dying. We estimate that it will live for a couple more years until it will stop bearing gold for them. This tree will face the same problem, and we are waiting for the developing seed to sprout.”

The mood shifted as Gary heard the words. Even he was surprised at the news. Fumi seemed to be just as surprised.

“You mean? ... The infinite resources are threatening to become undone?” Fumi asked.

“I am sorry, I am the one that shouldn’t be telling you all this,” Bella explained. “I think that you should talk to the others to confirm it. I knew you guys would come, though. I know you guys got some harvest deities out there that could keep the tree alive indefinitely.”

“Ugh ... Cassandra,” Fumi put her hand to her head. “Why didn’t you tell us about this?”

“I sort of did,” she replied as she put her fingers together. “I didn’t want to start a panic. I know we have gotten used to having it around. I can try to prolong its life, but in the end, it will die.”

“Is that why they sent us to go and negotiate with the Coalition of Deities?” Gary asked. “They weren’t doing it just for the fact of the goodwill of it but because the family was worried it was going to lose its tree? I guess in the end, it all makes sense...”

The elephant goddess turned to look at Gary. He had his hands up in the air.

“Even we benefitted from the tree,” Gary continued as he started to look angry. “We live a life of rich and plenty. I haven’t even reached the age of eighteen, and I have more money then I know what to do with. We have a huge house that we want to expand to have more children. All thanks to that tree that is popping out gold. I just wanted to represent the family’s best interests... , and the purpose was money. That wasn’t what I was trying to do here,” he looked at Fumi, and he shook his head. “I feel used ... I guess I am like the other human beings in this den. I am nothing but breeding stock. That is all that I meant for...”

Gary shook his head as he walked out of the room. Fumi lifted his hand towards him to make him stop, but he insisted on leaving. Cassandra’s ears lowered as she put her hand to her mouth. Even she seemed troubled.

“I am sorry,” Bella said. “I should have let you explain it to them instead of me. I just ... well ... bloody hell...”

“We can provide assistance with the tree,” Vinayaki remarked. “If you excuse me, I will go and talk to Gary and Fumi...”

Taweret nodded her head as the elephant goddess left the room.

Cassandra nodded her head to them. “I will go and continue with my work. I understand your frustrations, though. I hope to see us become a part of something better.”

“It will happen,” the hippo goddess replied. “You guys have something wonderful here, and I hope to see it expand further.”

Cassandra left the room, leaving Taweret and Bella in the room alone.

“Well, I fucked that up,” Bella commented. “The fact is that it had to be said. If I didn’t, then who would?”

“I know it isn’t easy,” the hippo goddess said. “You have been the only non-human mortal to be a different species to be living among the rats.”

“I didn’t have an issue with it. I had more trouble with human mortals, even in my human form. They just viewed me as weak and pathetic. My father would have never allowed me to get into architecture and construction. The Yuki gave me the second chance that I deserve.”

“We would have given you that chance...”

Bella sighed. “I know ... but it was personal. I didn’t want any help or pity. I had to do this myself. Now that I have, it feels like a victory. My only tragedy...” she put her hand to her stomach. “I can’t ... I can’t have piglets.”

“I remember that your father had a hard time conceiving when he married a human mortal.”

“Yeah ... then a fertility goddess came in to fix all that. Parvati, I have her to thank. Without her, I wouldn’t exist.”

Taweret went and crossed her arms. “Bella ... sweet Blakey Bell, are you trying to give me a hint about something?”

“Maybe?” The pig said, smiling to her.

“Hmmm...” The hippo goddess replied as she put her hands to her hips. “Bella ... you are giving me that look again.”

“That look?”

“The look that you gave me before you disappeared. It was a look of something that you demand but don’t want to ask.”

Bella turned around as she never removed her hand from her stomach. She looked away and back to the goddess before her. “I want to be pregnant, Taweret ... my husband and I have been trying for ten years. He is good to me ... but I want more. I want to have piglets.”

“Ask, and you shall receive my friend.”

“Taweret,” she asked as she opened up her arms. “I want to be pregnant. I need those fertility powers of yours.”

“I don’t know ... I didn’t see any groveling there,” Taweret said.

Bella gave off a dejected look. “What? Oh, come on!”

The hippo goddess simply laughed and waved her hand. “I was just playing with you. I just wanted to see that face of yours. It has been good to see you again.”

“You still have those parties of yours?”

“Never stopped with them. Been postponed a little bit to go and check you guys out.”

“Well, my place is your place. This has been a success for me ... but I have to ask again. Can I...”

The hippo goddess took a knee as she was at eye level with Bella. “Are you sure you want to have a child?”

“More than anything.”

“When was the last time he released in you?”

“Sex with my husband? Last night.”

“Did he put a lot in you?”

The pig smirked at her. “Now you are just doing that on purpose, hippo gal. I already know that you are the best of the best at this sort of magic. If some human mortal was porken a regular horse, you could use your magic to make sure the horse was knocked up. No one could beat your abilities.”

This made Taweret smile. “Come here,” she waved to her.

Bella stepped up to be next to her. Taweret lifted her hand to be next to her stomach. “I will need you to lift up your shirt.”

The pig woman followed her instructions. She used both her hands to lift her shirt up to expose her stomach. Her paunchy belly was there, but she wasn’t fat. She felt the large hands touch her. She observed as the hippo goddess closed her eyes. A radiating light began to fill from her hands.

“I want you to picture the baby that will grow inside you,” Taweret told her. “Picture the baby as it gets bigger and bigger. Imagine you giving birth to it.”

Bella followed her instructions as she took a deep breath. She imagined everything as she had just said. Her body felt a little bit funny as she felt the activity in her stomach and womb. She felt a wave of energy that hit her. The hippo goddess’s hand stopped emitting energy as the light faded quickly. She pulled her hand away and smiled at her.

“Congratulations!”

Bella held her arms together as she made a squealing sound of excitement. “I get to become a mother, finally! I can’t wait to tell James. He will faint.”

The pig practically leaped and hugged the giant hippo. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she kept saying over and over again. “You never cease to amaze me and that power of yours.”

“That is what I am here for. I am always happy to help a friend in need.”

Gary walked out as he stood by a wall. He had a look of discouragement in his face. He was saddened and dejected as Fumi came rushing up to him.

“Husband! Please,... , please don’t run away,” she begged him. “I don’t want to see you hurt.”

He simply looked away from her as he balled his hands into fists to relax them again. He was fidgeting and looking at the wall ignoring her.

“Husband ... what is wrong?” she asked him.

“What do you think?” he asked, frustrated.

“I don’t know ... tell me what is wrong.”

“You knew all this, didn’t you?”

“Knew what?”

“Was all of it arranged?” he asked her as he turned to look at his wife.

“What was arranged?”

“Us? Our history together? I feel that I am nothing but some breeding stock. That is how the Yuki look at me. I didn’t want to be remembered like that.”

“It isn’t true, husband,” she protested. “It was true that I moved into the neighborhood. It was true that I never came from Japan. I told you that a year ago. I had to make sure that no one knew about this.”

“Yet they adopt children to raise and turn into breeding machines.”

She resumed her stance as before. She put her hand to her distended stomach. “Gary ... I can’t speak for all of us. I can’t speak for the numerous sisters and cousins that may feel differently, but I do know about us. It was never arranged between us.”

He shook his head. “I just feel like I am missing something. All I am doing is helping a cycle of people that will do whatever they want to achieve it. This money tree was more important to you and the family than any of the hopes of joining the Coalition to begin with.”

“It is true,” she stated. “I held that back from you, and I am sorry. It does not mean that we are in it solely for that, though.”

“I know a little bit of the history of the family, though. I hear the story of how the male Yuki are treated, and it only confirms it. The males are looked at as a waste of space. They are treated like dirt, aren’t they? You have been here off and on more than I ever was.”

She looked down and frowned. “Yes ... but I told you before that I don’t feel that way.”

“How can I help a family as a whole that promotes such things?”

“Because in the end, we can change it. I look at my stomach now, and I wonder if it will be a son. How will he be able to cope with living in this den? He will have an adopted human wife that is looked lowly by the community here. I want none of that. I want him to be raised on the surface where he can find somebody like you. I want somebody that will be nice and wonderful to him. I look at Taweret, and I feel some hope towards him. The hippo goddess may be the turning point for our entire family. She would not only fix the problem that males have, but they themselves would have the ability to share in having children. I know that we might have a son ... I want him to have that.”

He still looked dejected, but he did nod his head.

“I love you, Gary,” she told him. “You have been my closest companion and mate that nobody could have. It is up to us to make the difference and help push the future of the family. Let us continue this journey together, us, Akari, the child inside me, and the future pups that you may bring forth. I can’t wait to meet them all and raise them. I dream of the day that they will be in their true forms as they graduate from high school and college with the degrees in hand as the humans applaud them. If there are people that are like you, then there are plenty more that would accept us.”

“Unfortunately, that will be a long time,” said a familiar voice that came from behind them. They turned to see the elephant goddess approach and overhear their conversation. “I am sorry for interrupting your conversation.”

“It is alright,” Fumi said. Even Gary nodded as well.

“I am afraid that even if your family joins the Coalition that your people will not be able to show their true forms until we deem it necessary. I am not against what you are doing down here or at least what I have seen so far. I can see great efforts by your people to disguise and hide yourselves. You seem to have promoted your own form of self-efficiency despite the problems that your bodies suffer from. The Coalition is about promoting balance and allowing humanity to make their own decisions in life. If they see us, then it will change their concepts and religions. They are not ready to meet us yet. You and the Yuki can’t reveal themselves to the public if you join us.”

“I just ... wish it didn’t have to be that way,” Fumi said.

The elephant goddess seemed to tilt her head down before she looked at the rat woman again. “Me too,” she said.

“You feel the same way?” Gary asked.

“Of course I do. I want to one day walk through the streets of India in my true form and be treated like a human being. Ganesh, much like myself, are so highly looked at that we would be put the top of the crowds to be heralded and cheered from. I would enjoy that aspect very much ... but there is one problem ... immortality. I would live forever as the people would pamper and treat me like the goddess that I am. They would all ask me what they should and should not do. My whole life would be treated like that. I would have to give a list of commandments that I don’t want to do. I want to live in a home with some human that pampers me. I want to have my own children and not have them be looked at as some king or queen by the crowds. The people of India and the nations around it seem to be operating just well without me. They don’t need me to come in and muddle it all up.”

“In other words, you wish to be looked at as some rich woman and not a goddess?” Fumi asked.

“Yes.”

“Do you have any children?”

She seemed hesitant in answering. “Yes, I have a daughter given to me by a human mortal two hundred years ago. She is a frequent traveler and has learned much about the world. The gift of fertility magic is being able to pass along the wisdom and experiences to the next generation.”

“Of course,” Fumi replied with a smile.

“We all have the right to have a family Fumi and Gary,” Vinayaki explained. “I will say though that there is one thing that your family will have to be careful of, though.”

“What is that?” Gary asked.

“I see it happening around the world. You, humans, are very good at reproducing even with such mortal lives. If you were immortal, you would have used up all the resources of the planet by now. Even places like India and China are experiencing the beginning phases of high population ... at least from what I am seeing. As mythics, we have to have extra responsibility in controlling our population growth. I can understand Ryujin and what he feels about the idea as well when we see the Yuki and their desires to produce children. The catch is though that you will continue to produce until you outnumber the humans far in the future. You will outnumber the amount of humans needed to keep producing children, and many of the women will be bachelors.”

“I haven’t ... really thought of that,” Fumi said.

“It is natural for young ones to think that way. It’s alright, but it is something that you will need to keep a mind on. We are essentially immortal, but days and years are a flicker of a lifespan for us. I have been alive for thousands of years, and it felt like,” she snapped her fingers from all four of her arms. “Like a spec of sand to me. Next year will be upon you before you know it and the following year after and so on.”

“I wish I could live forever...” Gary commented.

“Hmmm ... I admit I miss my husband, but I am happy for what he gave me, and my daughter is a tribute to that. It is the gift you mortals have. Immortality is a gift and a curse.”

“How can it be a curse?”