Chapter 43

Isabelle's meeting with A'moth and Cindy wound up lasting the day. I had a friendly lunch with Jim and then we started playing chess in the afternoon. His understanding of physics is light-years ahead of me, but in chess we're about equals. We like to play game-thirty, thirty minutes on the chess clock for each of us, regardless of the number of moves. We have an unspoken rule not to use the clock to win drawn positions.

The women weren't coming out of their meeting, so Jim and I kept half an eye on Earth in the monitoring room and just kept playing. My final score for the afternoon was two wins, one loss, and three draws. The gals broke up their meeting just before dinner time.

We normally reserve the evenings for recreation time, various games or a movie, stuff like that. Isabelle picked one of her favorites that we lifted from the Hopewell archives, Titanic, and dreamed up some popcorn for everybody.

We like to cuddle with each other when we're watching movies, usually Jim with Cindy on one couch and A'moth, Isabelle and I together on another. But tonight, Isabelle drifted over to Jim and had him in the middle of a sandwich with Cindy. I was happy with that. The lights were turned way down low, and A'moth and I cuddled in our throw blanket and got a lot more sexy with each other than we would have if Isabelle were with us. After the movie we all headed off to bed. I asked A'moth once or twice in bed what their big meeting was about, but she just smiled and winked at me.

Ah, patience is a virtue. I fed her and orgasmed before falling to sleep, surrounded by her arms and love.

Later that night...

Earth time: April 27, year 204,860 11:00 PM Antelope Freeway Standard Time

Jim climbed into bed tired and happy, his mind still idly reliving the scenes from the sinking of the Titanic. He was delighted a few moments later when Cindy joined him naked. Her hand was softly stroking his scrotum a few minutes later, as they were lost in a kiss full of promise.

Cindy smiled at Jim playfully. Jim nibbled on her ear and whispered into it, "So, what did Isabelle want to talk about?"

Cindy nibbled back. "Well, we spent the first hour talking about her meeting with you earlier in the morning."

"Oh yeah... She has a complete plan. It's brilliant. In three days, the WFM is about to make a rare and major change in their internet. It's the perfect time for us to start messing with their heads, start the random deletions and error insertions with their personnel files..."

Cindy nodded and laughed quietly. "Isabelle predicts one week before they switch back to their old protocols."

Jim laughed too. "Not that that will help them. Their new protocols aren't the problem. They know nothing of phased-shadow quantum effects. They'll never figure out what's happening."

"Yes! And in a few years, if we show up with fake ID... Well, by that time, they'll distrust their own records so much... Ha! Yes! I agree! Isabelle is brilliant!" Cindy was quiet for a moment. "The next thing we talked about, was Isabelle's conclusion that the Blue Ring could not have created an X-tree snippet to repair all the sick changes the WFM has made to the human Y-chromosome..."

Jim sighed. "Yes. I know. I don't understand what's going on either. Isabelle's reasoning is very persuasive. Maybe in some other time loops, I can imagine how events might be different... But not in our loop... The Blue Ring doesn't have any power outside of these slip bubbles... And the WFM reproductive labs are very well secured..."

Cindy kissed him and murmured, "That's what we were working on this afternoon. What if it wasn't an X-tree snippet? What if it were A'moth? After a few years of messing with the personnel files, we could slip her into the genetics labs..." Cindy's hand drifted down Jim's stomach to his groin. She began stroking his penis.

"Hmm, that's nice... But how could A'moth repair a Y-chromosome?"

Cindy began suckling his nipple, her hand becoming more insistent as he grew to a full erection. "She can remote teleport, even something as small as a sperm... But not repair... replace..."

"Hmm..." Jim suddenly gasped and shouted, "What?!!!"

Cindy kissed him fiercely and whispered, "It was Isabelle's idea. She thought it best if I asked you. A'moth agreed..."

"My gosh Cindy! Do you know what you're asking?!"

"Yes."

"But... but..."

Cindy sighed heavily. "He'll be your son. I know. Kyle will be your son. And you are the light of my life. Kyle will be my son too. Maybe not in genes, but spiritually, where it really matters..."

"But... But he'll be a slave!"

"Oh, it's even worse Jim, I know. His morals will be shaped by the WFM. He'll be a lone reasoning boy on a planet of women who will have no respect for him. And the WFM will teach him, teach him not to respect himself, respect his own goodness... But I also think... I also hope his adult life will be full of love and purpose. In the balance Jim, it will be a good life, one worthy of living..."

"A'moth has agreed to this?"

"Yes. She'll leave us, probably for years, and then risk the Nebraska channel to return. Isabelle is thinking of going too. She might even need her father. A lot of this is still very tentative. We have years of planning to do."

Jim was silent for a long time. Cindy released his penis and cuddled with him, brushing the back of her hand against his thigh. Jim's breath was ragged, his eyes moist with tears. "Is there no other way?"

Cindy shook her head no. "You have the only normal sperm on the planet. The WFM's version is an abomination, and Gary's sperm is more Chungieran than human... Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't have to decide tonight. We have years..."

Jim tried to reply, but words failed him for the moment. He lay there panting, wiping his eyes and caressed by Cindy's love. "No... I think I want to decide now..." He was silent for a moment. "And I choose life... Life for Kyle... life for us... and life for a future beyond the loop..."

Cindy began weeping with him. She turned and laid her body upon him, both of them clutching each other fiercely. Cindy felt Jim's erection return and press into her pubic. She was surprised to feel herself washed by a wave in intense sexual heat. "Here..." she whispered, as she guided his erection into her moist folds. "Make love with me! Not just sex! Impregnate me! Pretend you're breeding me! I'll pretend too! Tonight, our son is conceived!"

Jim slipped inside her, his mind rolling in emotions and his body flush with a burning need to orgasm and create. He and Cindy thrusted against each other for timeless moments, and when his orgasm finally came, it was explosive, in his mind filling Cindy's womb with their hopes and dreams for the future.

Fourteen years later...

Time: April 18, year 204,874 9:23 PM Peruvian Local Time

The old deputy director of the genetics labs scowled at the new recruit. "This is the SEVENTH time this year! Sink!" Then she looked a little embarrassed for using a curse word with a new recruit.

The young woman tilted her head to the left, the common gesture for a subordinate to signify agreement with a superior. The old woman gave her a brief grin and went back to looking at her monitor. After a while she said, "So Lisa, you studied and were assigned from Hong Kong?"

"Yes mistress."

"And what do the network e-techs in Hong Kong think about all these file errors?"

"You mean the J-5 versus J-6 protocols, mistress? I guess they're evenly divided, just as they are everywhere else. Half say it couldn't possibly be the cause, the other half say the coincidence is too large to ignore..."

"Yeah..." After a moment, the deputy sighed and spent the next several minutes typing. "There! Our lab director has delegated Ruling-Four authority to me. I've cleared all the inconsistencies. Lisa! You are now officially assigned to Alpha Peru Procreation Labs as Advanced Genetic Journeywoman."

A'moth smiled and gave the expected response. "Thank you mistress! I promise that my service will be diligent and true."

"Lisa, we run a tight lab here. Friendships among workers are tolerated, and what you do four days out of five is your own business, but your first slip-up on duty here will be your last!"

"I stand by my words mistress. You will find my work acceptable."

"Hmm... We'll see." She looked at the clock. "Are you ready for an immediate solo shift? This sinking system routed our two best AGJ's to Hawaii this morning! They were both due to work tonight's shift!"

"I'm fully qualified mistress. Solo will be no problem."

"We'll be monitoring your every move of course."

A'moth sighed, her mind flashing to the micro-packets of lightly-anesthetized sperm and ovum embedded in her uniform. Gary had walked south from the polar home carrying it less than two hours ago. Isabelle's calculations were that maximum vitality would occur in another five hours. After all the years of planning, everything was falling into place perfectly... A'moth glanced at the collar and three-star e-tech rank of the woman before her. "My work will be diligent and true mistress. You have my word."

"Very well..." The deputy smiled and finally lightened up. "It's a relief to have you here. It's not our fault, but our director will catch the sink if Alpha Peru misses its quota."

A'moth nodded sympathetically.

"You familiar with the area?"

A'moth couldn't help but smile inwardly. She was born less than two hundred kilometers north of her current location, in 3000 B.C. at what became the ancient city of Caral, almost 208,000 years ago. "I've been here before. It was a long time ago."

"Fine..." There was a long pause. "We're breeding males tonight..."

"Ah..." A'moth nodded. "Standard eightfold rotations?"

"That's right. A full deck too, one-hundred fifty rotations... Males..." The old woman gave a sideways shrug in a vague expression of scorn...

"Oh, I don't mind mistress. I will remain alert and do excellent service, even with males."

"That's the right attitude Lisa! Welcome aboard!"

By 2 AM, A'moth was half-way through her six-hour shift. The system control console flashed a recommendation for her to take another five-minute break. A'moth keyed in the accept code and relaxed, closing her eyes and stretching out in her ultra-comfortable command chair. She thought about her new job.

"We were right," A'moth thought silently. "But it's still something to experience, even after all the schooling. It's all busy work. This society is so incredibly automated! Except for Child Control, 99% of the work is busy work..."

The city in practice was running itself, but layers of extraneous human control and decision making had been layered into the automation in order to satisfy the human need for accomplishment. A'moth's job for the night was to "control" the fertilization of 1200 ova and oversee the delivery of 1200 male zygotes into waiting incubators. Alpha Peru would normally have three such runs a month. Their monthly target was to produce 3,000 male live-births after attrition. Additional culling of the males would occur afterwards.

Eight ova would be fertilized simultaneously, in a four-stage process. In front of A'moth were four primary buttons controlling the system, with a green light above each button. At the start of each rotation, her job was to push the first button, and then wait for the green light before pushing the next button. After getting the fourth green light, she was expected to assign a common "name" to each batch, and then push the reset button when she was ready for the next rotation.