Wild world
Prologue
As the judge enters the room, I stand up, just as everybody else in the
courtroom does. He sits in his bench, everybody else, but me, sits, and
then he looks straight into my eyes and says, "Having heard all
evidences presented in this case, I concluded that the accused is
guilty of raping and murdering a young woman."
"Do you wish to say something before I give my sentence?"
So, I am doomed, and with nothing else to save, but my pride, I answer,
"Yes, your honor, I want to say again that I am innocent of the charges
and that I have been framed."
The hate transpiring from his eyes shows me that he feels sick about my
words. Then he speaks the words that will change my life forever, "In
spite of all proofs presented in this case you still refuses to show
the smallest sign of remorse, so I have no other choice than sentencing
you to the full extent that is allowed to me."
"You are condemned to personality death."
"Your consciousness will be downloaded into the body of a young female,
stripped from all your memories, and you will be transported to the
Wildlife Reservation world of RTC87a, to live in the local primitive
human society of that planet."
"And by showing no remorse, I condemn you to stay there until your
natural death, your present body shall be destroyed as soon as the
transfer is successful."
I was devastated. Rape murder is considered a terrible crime in our
society. In order to scare other people of doing the same thing our law
system developed this cruel sentence: to be transformed into a woman
and transported to live in a society where women had no right at all
about their sexual lives. I knew that because, as an anthropologist, I
studied that particular kind of society in detail.
Mankind admittedly originated in a single planet, named "Earth", but
this is all it is known from this elusive world. It developed space
travel and dispersed among the stars, nobody really knows how many
years ago. Many long travel time colonial expeditions, the half
legendary "generation starships" (because many generations were born
during travel time) were presumably sent in all directions pf space.
This happened long before faster than light (FTL) engines were
invented, about 400 years ago, such that almost all inhabitable worlds
in a large portion of the Galaxy contained human colonies.
As the FTL became available, the most developed colonies formed what is
known today as the "Seven star federation." Mankind went again to the
stars, but this time, being able to explore them. It was an adventurous
time, many expeditions were lost, as the famous case of the starship
Aghaton, which went away to explore and never returned, probably
destroyed somewhere in the space.
The federation quickly grew as more colonies were rediscovered, but in
some worlds the civilization regressed to stone age levels. The first
attempts to contact these worlds, obviously, resulted in tragedy, so
that it was quickly decided these planets should be left on their own,
maintained as wildlife reservations. RTC87a was one of these planets.
The personality death sentence had always been subject of polemic. Some
people maintained that this was a cruel punishment and should be
abolished. Before all this started I did not agree with this opinion.
At that time I argued that this was better than death sentencing, which
had been used by our society many times in the past with the same
intent. Most sexual offenders felt scared about this possible fate and
nobody knows how much rapes had been prevented because the fear of
being transformed into a girl living in a primitive society. Besides
that, in most cases the offender was reintroduced in the society after
living some time as a woman and, contrary to the first transformation,
the memories of the period as a girl were not erased when the subject
returned, this had a deep pedagogic effect. Of course, when I had these
opinions I never expected to suffer this kind of punishment myself.
All this changed when that young intern, a 21 year old brunette
anthropology major, was found murdered in the Exoanthropology
Institute's parking place, with obvious signs of being a victim of
sexual violence. Everybody was aware that I, the senior researcher for
anthropology studies, had been "friendly" to that girl and that she
refused my advances. When they found her I felt sorry, but then the
nightmare started. Evidence after evidence "proved" that I was the
offender and I had no way to dispute that since I did spend that night
alone in my apartment, with no witness to support that. The fatal blow
came when the DNA analysis showed that the sperm found in her body
belonged to me. I was arrested and everybody tried to make me confess,
saying it would be better if I pleaded guilty. I, as the stubborn
arrogant fool I am, refused that. I am innocent and could not plead
guilty for a crime I did not commit.
In my new perspective this was worse than a death sentence. In my eyes
the judge did condemn me to being raped every day for the rest of my
life. Of course, in the primitive culture of RTC87a, this was not
considered rape, there was no such a concept in that society, simply
because women there have no right to deny having sex with any man. At
least I would be spared of the shame, without my memories I would be
"one of the girls" and think of this as a fact of life.
The judge stands up again, as everybody else in the courtroom does,
and I'm conducted by the armed guards to my cell. They close the door
and leave me alone, to face my future.
***
I passed through all the phases: denial, rage, sadness and depression,
until the day came when my sentence was executed. My depression was so
overwhelming that I didn't fight at all when the two male nurses, both
as large as a wardrobe, came, put me in the hospital bed and inserted
the intravenous injection in my arm. This injection contained the
liquid which would prepare my brain for the reading of my
consciousness. Just for sure, in case I changed my mind in the last
minute and tried to fight back, they set the bed restraints very tight.
The liquid began to make effect almost instantaneously and I was set
into a fuzzy state of mind. The nurses left the room.
I was still awake when I heard the door opening again. I recognized Dr.
Mara, my colleague and political adversary in the Exoanthropology
Institute. She approached my bed and I remember to ask, "What the hell
is she doing here? she never liked me at all!"
As to answer to my silent question, she said, "You are surely asking
why I am here."
"You see, I could not let you go without giving me the satisfaction to
tell that I was the one who framed you."
That would make sense, she, as the senior researcher for biological
studies would have the skills, as well as the contacts, to produce the
overwhelming evidences, including my DNA, that had been presented as
the proof of my guilt. I called all my strength to fight that drug, but
could only say, whispering, "Why?"
"Isn't that obvious? Without you here I will be naturally selected as
Dr. Rhom's successor as director in the Exoanthropology Institute, when
he retires next year."
So that was it? Just a professional dispute and she had murdered a
young girl, faking her rape, and framed me for that?
She continued, "I cannot let you go without knowing everything I
prepared for you."
"I bribed the transfer technician who will install your neural implant.
You will keep your memories in the new body, sure it will help you to
live there with all anthropological knowledge you have."
"Of course, we have to install the neural implant, so we have to block
something else: we will block the speech center in your brain. You will
not be able to talk."
Oh, she was so nice! I would also be fully aware of everything I would
live there, without the possibility of defending myself, but she had
something else to add, "I also hired the geneticist who built your
body."
"You will be granted hyperfertility. You will produce many fertile
oocytes at every menstrual cycle, so you will in most cases, perhaps
all, be pregnant of multiples. We calculate up to seven embryos each
time."
"I suggest you to make all efforts to get pregnant as soon as possible,
you know, hyperfertility comes with a collateral effect, the
menstruations are particularly severe, you will feel much pain, loose
large quantity of blood, in essence, get seriously sick, perhaps even
die, if you fail to get pregnant."
"And just to complete, your active fertile life will take over 40 years
to end, isn't that cute?"
I didn't know that the grudge she held against me was so intense. With
the final sign of conscience I had I was still able to think, "What
would she say if she knew that I was not interested in Dr. Rohm's
position at all, and that I was originally planning to leave the
institute the month after that girl died?"
New life
When I woke up I was lying with my back against some kind of grass,
looking directly towards the clear blue sky. I moved my arms, feeling
immediately the discomfort of being in a body which was not mine and
moved them to my line of sight. I have now small hands and thin arms,
clear of the muscles I had when I was a male.
I sat and looked down. I was wearing some kind of leather dress, tied
in the waist by a chord. Inside the dress I could see the two large
breasts I now possess. I moved my legs to a more comfortable position
and felt the weight of my body distributing over my large hips. I had
also some kind of leather moccasin in my feet, but their sizes were
excessively small. I stood up with difficulty and analyzed the
environment I had been inserted into.
The sun was low in the sky. I was not aware of RTC87a in particular,
but I knew it was a temperate planet orbiting the comfort zone of a
single G or K star and that its tilt axis was somewhat inclined with
reference to the orbit, as usual for habitable worlds. I knew also that
the day and year duration was similar to what I was used to, but that
was all I knew abut the planet's astronomy. It was an empirical fact
that mankind, when it first spread around the galaxy, sought worlds
with those characteristics to colonize. Some adepts of obscure theories
suggested that these were the original characteristics of the Earth,
the half mythological planet in which mankind first evolved as a
species, others suggested that these are simply the characteristics
which are needed for human life to develop. I never bothered about
these discussions. My specialty was the people, not the physics, in the
exoanthropology field. I knew, however, that the sun was now situated
clearly to the south of the zenith circle, so I was in one of the two
large continents at the northern hemisphere (that much I knew about
that planet's geography). That was good news, because I saw that my
skin was pale as the people who lived there. It would be much harder if
I also had the "wrong" skin color, in addition to the "wrong" gender.
I saw a small lake located close to where I was. I went there to drink
some water, I, that is my new body, was thirsty. Before leaving I saw
something next to where I was lying. It was a stone knife. I picked it
up and held tightly in the chord belt I had around my waist. It was
difficult to drink with the hands in that lake, but finally I managed
to quench my thirst. When I finished I stayed there to see my
reflection in the lake. I have somewhat large blue eyes, thin nose and
a small mouth, with naturally red and filled lips, all wrapped by long
blond curly hairs. The whole set was harmonic, so, at least I was
pretty. Without thinking straight I said aloud, out of sarcastic
resignation, "At least I will have no trouble finding a mate."
but what came out of my mouth was, "Aahhng aaht... " and some other
senseless noises.
Then I remembered what Mara said about my speech center, it was true, I
was unable to talk. Not that talking would help me now.
I knew from my previous profession that this kind of "relocation" was
made introducing the subject in a radius of about 40Km east of the next
human settlement, to minimize the interference with their societies.
The idea was to put the disoriented subject close enough so that she
would be eventually found by the other humans, but not that they could
be present when the subject was transported with the whole
technological apparatus of a more advanced space society. The "east"
part was based in the simple empirical fact that human beings, when
left alone, tended to drift westwards.
I had no reasons to doubt Mara's words about the hyperferitility issue,
but this doesn't mean that I had to be happy with the perspective of
finding a man to have sex with me, so that I would get pregnant. I had
many days before that necessarily happened. I thought about what I had
to do in the present. My first actions would be directed towards
securing food and water. I knew that the humans in that world were
hunter-gatherers. I had no hunting tools, so I would have to resort to
the gathering part, which, by the way, was a woman's job.
I knew that the women in that part of the planet used to collect small
fruits and some sort of wild root as a food source. I knew also that
the root was actually poisonous and that a complex cooking ritual was
needed to make them edible. So I decided to limit my collection to the
fruits. As for the water, I had to find a way to carry the water with
me, unless I wanted to get stuck close to that lake. I knew also that
there was a sort of fruit with a hard skin which the natives used to
make recipients. I searched the border of the forest near the lake and,
with luck, recognized the fruit. With the help of the stone knife I
opened a small hole in the skin and removed the content with the help
of a wooden stick I found nearby, leaving only the hard skin and then
washed everything, tasting the water until the bitter taste of the
fruit disappeared. I filled the recipient with water and began walking
in the forest, to collect the fruits and start my new life.
Ugha
I wandered the forest for three days, trying to get the protection I
could for the nights in holes I found in the ground or in the trees. Of
course I always probed them to see if they weren't already occupied by
some nasty animal or insect, before entering into them. At the midday
of the third day I finally climbed a hill and from there I had a
panoramic view of kilometers of forest. I searched and finally found
what I was looking for: smoke. As everybody knows, where there is
smoke, there is also fire (and most probably a human being too). I
calculated the position and the distance of that fire and went to
search for it. I walked many hours in the wood and lost orientation,
but at some point I began smelling the smoke. Guided by the nose I went
there and found a clearance spot in the woods. At its center there was
a fireplace, clearly artificial.
Sitting nearby there was a man. He had beard, mustache and long hair
which seemed to have seen water only in the last rain, many many days
before. He was tall, I guessed about 20 cm taller than my new body. He
was wearing something that seemed a leather shirt and leather hose. He
was roasting a sort of animal leg he hunted, looked like a bird. It was
improbable that he was still having his lunch so late in that day. It
was more likely that he, somehow, found out about my presence in the
forest and lit that fire to attract me.
I looked towards him and he looked back and said something in a
language I wasn't aware of. I used some gestures and my weird noises to
tell him that I could not speak and he did a gesture that was
universal, he took the piece of meat from the roasting animal and
offered to me. After three days eating only fruits I was starving and
went almost running towards that piece of meat. It was delicious, and,
I noticed, salty. So the native had knowledge about using salt to cook.
When I finished eating he called me with gestures to follow him. He
said something pointing to himself and said something that sounded like
"Ugha." I understood that this was his name, but not even this I could
speak. I stood up and, respectfully followed him one step behind with
my head down. I knew that was required from women in that society. We
walked about three kilometers towards the mountains and finally we
reached his cave. I entered the cave and he pointed to a kind of fur
carpet lying on the floor. He said something, but I already knew what
he wanted from me. It was useless to resist. He would take me by force
if I did that. So I did the only sensate thing to do at that moment. I
untied the rope, took out my dress and the moccasins and, naked, leaned
down to the carpet, opening my legs and offered my pussy to him.
He took his clothes off too and came over me. When he penetrated me for
the first time I sensed that I still had an intact hymen, so he had
deflowered me. He also noticed that and was pleased. This was probably
the first time he had sex with a virgin. As for me, he was full of
filth and was smelling bad. His penis did hurt me at first, when he
broke my hymen, but after that I began feeling pleasure. The full
extent of the pleasure, however, was denied to me because he reached
orgasm very fast. So that's the way I met my first husband.
In the next day I woke up alone. He left early at the morning for his
hunting expeditions. There was nothing to block the entrance of the
cave. Probably he was not afraid I would flee (and he was right, what
else would I do in that planet). With nothing else to do the entire day
I first explored the environment around the cave. There was a small
brook flowing nearby and a clearance spot (artificial) at the entrance,
where I found a burning fireplace with some meat roasting and a sort of
vase containing that kind of root. I understood that was the food for
the whole day, so I spared, eating only a portion of the root (which
tasted good, by the way). After that I started doing the only useful
thing I could think of and began cleaning everything.
The soil around the brook consisted of sand. I dug a hole in the sand
so it could be filled with water. Then I took my clothes, his spare
clothes I found in the cave, and began washing everything with my bare
hands using a flat medium sized rock I found nearby as basis. The water
was brown when I finished washing his clothes. These probably never saw
water except when it rained. I had to substitute the water in the hole
for new one to finish washing. The drying part was not that difficult.
The cave consisted of the free space produced when three big rocks had
rolled down the hill sometime, millions of years, in the past. I placed
the clothes in the rock to receive the direct sun. I also washed myself
using the water of the brook. At the end of the day, when he came back,
I received him with clean clothes and showed him his clothes. He didn't
look that pleased, perhaps he thought that washing things was loss of
time.
Next day he woke me up before leaving for the hunting expedition. He
concluded (and was right about that) that I had cleaned everything out
of boredom, so he decided to give me some task, a more useful one, to
accomplish. I followed him to a place about 20 meters away from the
cave. There was a large wooden table close to a cliff, with a lot of
dead animals over it. He was expecting I started doing something. When
he noticed that I had no clue about what he wanted, he took one of the
animals, some sort of rabbit, and using his stone knife he skinned the
dead animal. He reserved the fur at the side and opened the animal's
belly, taking all the inner parts and throwing them off to the cliff's
bottom, about 100 meters below (and vulture like birds circled that
area). Then he took some leaves and put in the fire, producing lots of
smoke. He dipped the skinned and cleansed animal in a vase containing
water (which I concluded, contained also dissolved salt) and hanged the
animal direct over the smoke. So, that culture dominated meat
preservation by smoking and salting. He looked at me and said "ugha"
(which by then, I already knew, meant something like "come", or "let's
go" and had nothing to do with his name).
I approached the bench, he gave me a smaller animal and I started
repeating what I had seen him doing. Off course I knew all the
theoretical background about that kind of activity, but I had never
done that myself. It was not that easy and I ended up damaging the fur,
so that he threw it to the cliff, obviously not that pleased to loose
that valuable item. I finally finished cleaning the animal, twice the
time he had used and my animal was half the size of his, and placed the
animal in the smoking accessory. Then he showed me what to do with the
fur. He spread some dark liquid from another vase (which I concluded,
contained tannin) and extended against a rock, with the lower part
directed against the sun. I was touched by his confidence that I would
not damage every fur in the pile of animal. Then he left, taking his
speer and leaving me with the job to do.
I took most of the day in that task. I did damage only one more of the
furs, then I learned how to skin the animals the right way. The pile
contained also some birds, and I concluded I should take of the
feathers, instead of skin them. Long after the midday I finished,
leaving the animals roasting in the smoke, which I knew, took very long
to be finished. I was tired, so I decided to rest. I ate the roots and
the roasting animal at the fireplace in the cave and went to explore
further the environment. I decided to follow the brook downstream,
which, I discovered, ended up in a small river. I followed the river
and discovered a natural pool, formed by some rapids down the river. I
was pleased with that. I took off my dress and swam in that pool.
Finally I could clean myself properly. From that day on (except in the
rainy days) I reserved part of the day to visit that pool.
When he returned at early night, bringing more dead animals, I received
him at the entrance of the cave. We went to the work bench and when he
saw that I did everything right, he smiled and gave me a kiss in the
cheek. He was not that brute ignorant as I had first thought and had
feelings as a normal human being. Suddenly making love with him every
night was not that disgusting anymore. This routine repeated itself for
many days and the smoked animals were stored in a place inside the
cave, protected from the rain and from the animals.
The market
One day when we woke up (I was already waking up together with him) he
signaled me to put my dress. He put all the animals we had smoked in
two baskets, gave one (the smaller) to me and said "ugha."
I followed him, one step behind and with my head down as required, and
we walked a trail of about 10Km along the hill. The forest was not that
closed anymore and finally disappeared at all. Sometime later I
realized we were entering a village and that other people, male, female
and children, were observing us.
We walked to the center of the village were a vivid activity took
place. I realized it was a market for exchange of products. As an
anthropologist I was excited by that discovery. I had always suspected
that this kind of commerce preceded the farming revolution and I had
the proof in my front, of course, this was useless, I would never again
report this finding in the anthropological society meetings.
The village consisted of a series of natural caves, carved in the hills
at both sides of a mountain valley, with a small river flowing in the
middle. The valley slowly descended towards distant lowlands, where a
big river, probably 20 to 30Km away could be seen. The lowlands were
the hunting and gathering territory of the villagers, which used the
village as a support basis, from where the expeditions started. This is
why this society was already sessile, and was not wandering anymore.
This society was on the verge of the agricultural revolution. Maybe one
or two generations in the future and the people would learn how to
cultivate the root or domesticate animals for production. The
occupation of the river shores would occur naturally, resulting in a
big river civilization.
Ugha started trading the smoked meat and the furs by other articles, as
that root and salt, for example. One item, however surprised me. He
took a big peace of meat, went to an elderly lady which, as I
concluded, "sold" clothes. He bargained with the lady and, when they
reached an agreement, he took a kind of leather jacket with fur inside
and gave me. The lady also gave me some accessories, like a bracelet
and a comb, with which she helped me holding my hair in a sort of pony
tail. He was "buying" me gifts! And I couldn't even say thank you, so
I looked at him and smiled. He smiled back. Contrary to what I first
thought, he was treating me with respect, as his partner, and not as a
second class, sub-human animal. I concluded that my prejudices against
that society were wrong, or, at least, that Ugha was really different
from the other men.
The routine in the next days repeated itself. We returned to our cave,
he went hunting and I stayed behind smoking the meat and cleaning the
"house." When it was market time (they had a seven day period for that,
so I decided to call the market day "Sunday" and name the others
accordingly) we transported the animals, furs, feathers and skins to
trade for useful things. We repeated this twice, but then the accident
happened. One "Monday" Ugha returned injured in the left leg, carrying
a broken Speer, which he used as a crutch, and a big cat-like animal,
dead with a destroyed throat. He was really in a bad shape and fell to
the ground at the entrance of the cave.
I examined the wound. It was a deep cut at the side, probably caused by
the cat's claw during the fight. It was still bleeding, but thanks God,
it didn't reached any major artery, otherwise he would be already dead.
My concern was the filth, which would infect the wound. He placed some
leaves over it, which I concluded, contained some bactericide active
principle, and held them in place with a piece of rope he had with him.
This was cutting his blood circulation, so I decide to take action. I
helped him to walk to "my private pool" and washed him from head to the
toe. He was too weak to resist. Then I walked to the shore, with my
knife I cut a band from the lower part of my dress, searched similar
leaves around in the wood and tied them softly in the place using the
leather band. This allowed for a better blood circulation.
I repeated that procedure the next five days and, while he was asleep,
I worked out carefully the cat (skinning and smoking). That week the
hunting would consist only of that meat, probably, and nothing should
be wasted. At the fifth day the wound healed enough to stop bleeding.
He still felt pain in the leg, but it seemed that he could walk.
I concluded he enjoyed the regular baths, because he followed me to the
pool again. I noticed that and, when we arrived at the pool, instead of
giving him the bath I took out my dress and entered in the pool,
diving. I signaled him to join me. He came and I started spraying water
over him with my hand. First he was apparently angry, but then he
decided to play along and started spraying water in me too. We were
laughing and I realized it was long ago since the last time he had some
real fun (actually this was also true in my case). He finally came to
my direction and gave me a passionate kiss in the mouth. We made love
right in that place, inside the water, and, for the first time, I
experienced the female orgasm. After that we sat together at the shore
and I used the opportunity to cut bits of his beard, mustache and hair
with my stone knife. He was, at the end, presentable. Before the
cleaning he looked like a 60 year old man, after that, his apparent age
reduced to what he probably really had, about 28 years old. I was also
impressed with the set of scars that his body presented. This man had
suffered the hell in the past, some of the scar clearly were not caused
by animal action.
In the sixth day he was still too weak to hunt, so he worked out the
arm of a three he cut off into a new Speer. Next day would be Sunday
and we had to go to the market. I helped him to walk until the forest
finished. Then he gave me a sign and I understood I had to return to
the female position, one step behind him and with my head facing the
ground. He used then the Speer to walk the aching leg. The quantity of
products we brought to the market consisted only of the cat's meat and
skin. I was worried, whether we could secure the food we needed for the
next week only with that, but fortunately both the meat and the skin of
that cat were appreciated by the people, especially the skin.
Some other men, which I concluded, were Ugha's acquaintances in the
village, came to admire the animal. I suppose hunting that kind of cat
was considered difficult, and surviving, even more. He told the whole
adventure to the friends. I still could not understand most of the
language (try to learn a new language without being able to practice,
talking!) , but I noticed that part of his tale referred to me. As to
confirm that he picked me up from behind him, put his arm around my
shoulder and hugged me in front of his friends, pointing to the wound
with the other hand. He was recognizing my role in the whole affair and
his friends were impressed. I was even more impressed. He was raising
my status in front of all society. I guess he was really very much
different from the others. We returned to the cave with enough food for
the week plus a pair of golden earrings he bought me. It hurt the hell
when the lady pierced my earlobes using the earring as a needle, but I
felt good thinking that he bought me another gift, even in that
difficult situation.
Bugha
The next crisis began the following Tuesday. I felt sick all day long
and not even my daily bath made me feel better. That night, in the
middle of the sleep, I felt a terrible pain in my guts. It looked like
someone had pierced me with a sword and was slowly cutting my bows. The
pain was so strong that I could not remain silent and Ugha woke up too.
I went to my improvised bathroom in the brook and I began bleeding
heavily out of my vagina. The blood sometimes came out in jets. From
that time on, during three days, I felt that terrible pain and had that
heavy hemorrhage. During the peak I had even fever.
First Ugha wanted to stay with me, but I signaled him he should hunt.
One more week with no hunting production would be terrible to us. He
did this and since I was unable to help him, he did the smoking part on
Wednesday and Friday too. I understood this was his routine before my
arrival. During the entire menstruation period I felt weak. I also felt
dirty the whole time and had suicidal thoughts. From Thursday on Ugha
fed me with, what I believe, was the liver of some animal he did hunt.
He also made me eat some vegetable with dark-green color. Of course,
without vinegar, oil or other sauce this could hardly be named a salad,
but I was impressed with the extent of his intuitive knowledge on
natural medicine. Both the liver and the vegetable were probably good
sources of iron, which I needed due to the heavy bleeding. The
vegetable would also, probably, be a source of K vitamin, which is also
essential in these cases.
After the menstruation ended, and I became able to think again, I asked
myself why I was not pregnant. I surely didn't doubt Mara's words about
the hyperfertility. I should get pregnant very easy, and, to that day
we first met we had constant sex every night (and sometimes during the
day too) already for 20 days. The hell I suffered in the menstruation
also seemed to corroborate Mara's words. The only possible conclusion
was that Ugha was sterile. This would also explain why he lived as an
outcast far from the village. The other men, after noticing his
condition, probably expelled him, fearing the "contamination" with his
"illness." I could not survive a second of that monstrous menstruation.
I devised a plan, it was risky, but it was my only hope.
Next Sunday, when we were at the market, I probed the surroundings
using the edge of my eyes. I found out what I was looking for. A young
man, not followed by a woman, and looking like a good candidate as an
alpha male. I decided to name him "Bugha." I raised my head towards
him, looked straight into his eyes, smiled and blinked with the left
eye. His reaction was immediate. He came furious to our direction and
began arguing with Ugha. Next I saw, the two men had the knives in
their hands and were circling each other. I did underestimated the
man's reaction. My naive idea was to convince him to follow us to the
cave, so I could meet him secretly in the woods for sex. The fight
started and ended very quickly, with Ugha in the floor bleeding
arterial blood from a terrible wound at his throat. I was crying and
screaming. I could not even say "Stop!." This wasn't the outcome I
desired.
He would soon be dead, he looked towards me and I became more
desperate. That man helped me, treated me well, and because of my
actions he was dying. Bugha, however, had no intention to wait for his
inevitable death. He took a big rock from the ground and smashed Ugha's
head. I cried and screamed even more hysterical. Bugha then came
towards me, took my arm with violence and I had no other choice than
follow him to his cave in the lower section of the village.
When we arrived there he told me something, which I didn't understand.
He had no patience, ripped my dress off, threw me to the ground and
violated me. After the rape he left me alone and I went, crying and
wearing the remainders of the dress, to the entrance of the cave. From
the distance I saw smoke coming out of, what I supposed it was, Ugha's
funeral pyre.
Bugha had a larger penis than Ugha and also took more time before
ejaculating. He was, however, more brute and sometimes did hurt me
during sex. With the time I learned to perform some masturbation before
he came for sex, allowing me to get more lubricated. After I learned
that I started to enjoy sex with him, since it was easier to reach the
orgasm with him. He was also cleaner than Ugha.
Bugha's household consisted also of two other women: an elderly lady
and a young girl. I guessed they were respectively his mother and
sister. I decided to name them "Yabba" and "Dabba." The only fun I had
was in this kind of sarcastic joke. Yabba was the perfect mother-in-
law. She didn't approve me from the first time she laid her eyes on me
and when she learned I couldn't even talk she was furious with her son,
for choosing me. Soon I learned that she was the real boss in that
family. As far as I could understand, Bugha's story was the following:
about 6 years before my arrival (this was Dabba's age, as I estimated),
Bugha's father, for some reason, died. I estimated Bugha was then 18
years old in those days, so he was forced to assume the leading male
role in the family probably at age 12! Bugha was not brute by nature,
he had been hardened by life.
I was right about Bugha being an alpha male. He was leader of a hunting
party. Due to his role, his family, that is, us, had some privileges
and we were allowed to work in the cloth and pottery production and not
in the gathering activities. So we didn't participate in the
expeditions and remained the whole year in the village. Yabba taught me
how to sew leather using a kind of natural fiber and I started helping
her and Dabba in that job. Dabba was a sweet girl and we made
friendship very quickly. When Yabba wasn't looking we jointly made
funny faces to her.
The time passed and the dreadful 28th day approached and went by, then
29th , 30th , 31st. After that it was clear to me that I was
successfully pregnant. I told this to Bugha that evening using signs
(by designing a large arch with my hand in front of me, representing a
giant belly) and he was happy. Yabba looked suspiciously, not believing
in me, but some days later, by witnessing my assaults to the "kitchen",
she became convinced. By the way, the first sign of all my pregnancies
is always this giant hunger.
The months went by and my belly grew very fast. At the sixth month I
had a belly of the size of a normal full term pregnancy. After my
babies started kicking, Yabba did some probing with the hands and came
out with her first divination: three children. At the 9th month I was
exploding. When I entered into labor her prediction was confirmed. I
had "Number one" (a boy), "Number two" and "Number three" (two girls)
in sequence in about 12 hours. Due to the lack of space the children
didn't grew too much inside me and this made the labor go easier than
for a normal woman, but even so it did hurt a lot.
First I feared I would have trouble breast feeding three children at
the same time, but it seemed that the hyperfertility came with a bonus.
My tits almost doubled in volume (and they were already big in nature)
and I had enough milk for all the three. The only trouble I had was
when the three decided to cry for food at the same time. My hunger
continued and, receiving my milk, the children grew very fast, so that
in less than a month later they had normal sizes and "Number one" was
even a bit larger than a normal one month baby.
Speaking of the first month after the birth, I was sure my body was
forever deformed due to that multiple pregnancy, especially my belly.
It happens, however, that this body has astounding elastic properties.
I returned to my normal shape, except for the hips and my tits, which
became larger, probably due to the opening of the pubic bones for the
birth in the first case and due to the milk for the second case. By the
way, from the first day on I never more stopped breast feeding some
large number of children.
I guessed that the return to shape was a sign that I was fertile again,
so I sought Bugha, who, surprisingly, had given me a break after the
birth. He was surprised by my daring approach, but finally he made love
with me. As I correctly guessed, less than a month later I started
giving signs of a new pregnancy. Yabba was also surprised, especially
after her second divination came with the result: two. She concluded I
was a good producer, so she spared me from most of the sewing job. My
"job", from then on, would be primarily give her grandsons and
granddaughters.
The twin pregnancy was also the easiest and smallest I had to the
present date. The birth went easier than in the first case and "Number
Four" (a girl) and "Number Five" (a boy) came to the world in less than
six hours. Fearing that I wouldn't be able to breast feed five children
at the same time, Yabba started to change the feeding habits of "Number
One to Three" two months before the birth of the new children. This
caused some stress in the food reserves of the cave and, for that,
Dabba and Bugha had to work twice as hard. I was sorry for them. Just
one word about the naming of my children. I decided, from the first day
I realized I was going to have many children in my life, that I
wouldn't even bother giving them names. The others, of course, gave,
but I couldn't speak them, so, for me, it was easier to think about
them as numbers.
As in the first case I returned to normal shape about one month after
the birth, and about one month later I started giving signs of a new
pregnancy. This one would be special, I realized, when I first ate
about two kilograms of that root, plus one entire leg of a pig-like
animal for lunch. My belly grew faster than on the other time and, in
the fifth month, I reached the size of a normal full term pregnancy. At
the sixth month I reached the size I had in the twin pregnancy and 15
days later, I reached the size of my first pregnancy (three children)
and the belly continued growing. Not even Yabba could guess (or perhaps
she didn't believed her result) how many children were growing inside
me that time. After the seventh month I became unable to walk due to my
weight. After the eighth month I had to remain seated all time
(including when asleep), fearing being suffocated due to the weight of
the babies.
Other people in the village began paying me visits. I felt like a freak
show attraction: the woman with the giant belly. Finally labor began
and I started counting: "Number six" (girl), "Number seven" (girl),
"Number eight" (boy) and so on. The counting finished 72 hours later at
"Number twelve" (girl). I had a seven-fold pregnancy (four girls and
three boys).
The children were considerably smaller than the previous ones, but the
smallest was "Number twelve", she was smaller than my extended hand
(and my hand wasn't that big). Unfortunately she was too weak to
survive and passed away that same evening. This was the first time I
really cursed Mara. My transformation, all that I suffered, even the
murder of the young intern, made me despise her or even feel sorry for
her. This time she had been responsible for the death of another
innocent child and that I couldn't forgive her. I didn't use "Number
twelve" for any other of my children (the next count would start in
13).
It was clear to everybody that I could not handle six babies at the
same time. We prepared a rotation scheme and used the help of three
other women which were also breast feeding their children, each one
received one of my children for a week, while I handled the other
three. The next week we would change back and so forth. First we
worried about the food, but soon it was clear that I became a village
project (no wonder, I was responsible for half of the births in the
whole village in the same period, I was a children-production machine).
By that time I was already understanding their language. I discovered
that my name in the village, translated to our own, meant something
like "Dumby."
After the birth of the sevenfold pregnancy I felt like an emptied
balloon, but, as in the other cases, about one month and a week later I
had my body restored to the previous shape, as if nothing happened, so
it could all start all over again. The second crisis began shortly
after I felt the first signs of my fourth pregnancy.
As a consequence of the larger population surplus, the hunting and the
gathering activities needed to get more productive. The hunting
parties, in particular, became more daring and specialized in hunting
bigger animals. Bugha, being such a powerful man (as usual the large
number of children I had was attributed to his virility, and not to my
fertility, of course) lead the most important party. Once they tracked
a big elephant-like animal and prepared a trap. The animal realized he
was being attacked before the trap could really snap and desperately
fought the hunters. The outcome of this was that the dying animal threw
Bugha 10 meters high in air. Bugha was brought to our cave, but there
was nothing to do. He was in coma, had many broken bones and was
bleeding from the skull. He died two days later.
Doo
Yabba bega a mourning ritual consisting of lots of crying, spreading
ashes over her body, this lasted for the whole time of my fourth
pregnancy, which, by the way, brought me children "Number 13" to
"Number 16" (three boys and one girl). I wasn't that fond of Bugha, but
decided it would be a good political move if I mimicked her behavior.
I was going to get fertile again and I needed a new husband. My large
number of children, or perhaps, the fact that I was the widow of Bugha,
scared all possible candidates. I knew a family living close to our
cave which had a special configuration. It was not natural that the
alpha male of a given family kept at his side one of his brothers.
Brothers were, usually, expelled from the family when the reached
puberty, but this didn't occur with that family and the younger brother
still lived with them.
I went to that cave, took the hand of the younger brother, and made
signs he should follow me to my cave. He came without having a clue.
When we arrived there I took off my dress and made him get naked too,
trying to tease him. He kept inactive, probably trapped between the
sexual arousal he was supposed to feel and the flagrant violation of
the social rules which my actions consisted. He began an erection, but
soon his penis softened again. I remember to think "Is it possible that
I chose the only impotent male in the whole village?", but then I
remembered a trick.
I began caressing his scrotum with my hand and each time I moved my
hand closer to the base of the shaft. When I was ready I carefully
inserted the anular finger into his anus. I did this very slow, not to
scare him and it worked. His erection returned and he made love with
me. So Doo (this was the name I decided to give to him) entered into
our lives as my third husband. From the first day on he had no more
problems to have sex with me. The only problem is that he became
addicted to that finger.
So life went by, I became pregnant again and the routine was safe and
sound. The fifth pregnancy brought me five children ("Numbers 17 to
21", three boys and two girls) and so it was clear to all village that
the responsible for that large number of children was me and not my
husband. About that time, "Number One", who was then six years old,
gave me a gift. He carved a stone into a female form with large tits
and belly. I thought "Great, now I became some sort of fertility
goddess!."
My daring approach towards Doo and, principally, the fact that he
complied, brought imperceptible changes in that society. One day, in
the middle of one of my pregnancies, when I was still able to walk
around, I witnessed a scene in the market which showed me that these
changes were happening: a young hunter approached a girl which I knew
was still single and tried to carry her with violence to his cave. She
fought back, she didn't want that, business as usual. Up to that point,
everything was normal, but then the girl's brother intervened to defend
her from the violence. The hunter gave up, returning empty handed to
his cave. It seemed that the patriarchal days from the past were slowly
changing and the only reason for that was my presence in that village.
Some time latter Yabba got sick. Her long live of suffering and
privations led to an agonizing death due to some debilitating illness
and the strong woman I first met was rapidly reduced to an old lady who
could not even do her toilette alone. The caring for her was assumed by
Dabba, since I had to care for my own children. Fortunately her
suffering had a quick ending and less than three weeks after she got
ill she died. Dabba and my children felt this loss deeply. As far as it
concerned me, I never liked her at all, I understood that she was
instrumental in turning Bugha into the kind of brute he had become, but
I felt pity for her suffering. After her death I assumed the leading
role in the cave.
The negotiation of Dabba's marriage was another example of the changes
in the society. Instead of the usual violence game, we discovered that
she was in love with a young man about her age. Under my supervision
(Yabba would never accept that) she started dating him (at our cave,
under our sight, with time to start and to end) and when I concluded
they were ready and that the feeling was mutual I gave my consent and
she moved to his cave.
You may ask me how I handled such a large number of children without
the ability to talk. I couldn't talk, but I can whistle. I developed a
large number of whistling styles (I guess over three hundred, never
counted) with which I use to communicate with my children. I can call
them, each one or in groups, and communicate simple messages, like
"attention", "don't do this", "get your hands out of there", among
others.
Lyria
One day, 12 years (13 pregnancies and 53 children) after my arrival I
was walking alone in an isolate place. If you have to handle 53 sons
and daughters you surely agree with me that I needed some time for my
own once a day. I was walking there when I felt something hitting my
left butt. I looked what it was and surprised saw that it was a dart.
Before I could do anything the sedative had its effect and I fainted.
When I woke up again I was in a nursery of a typical starship. As I
always did, I said aloud (forgetting that I couldn't speak), "What the
hell?"
This time, however, the right words came indeed out of my mouth. I was
able to speak again. Soon the medical officer, a woman, came to me and
explained that they had disabled the neural implant and unblocked the
speech center in my brain. I said they were crazy using a sedative in
me since I was pregnant. She said she was aware of it, they had
performed ultrasound testing in my while I was asleep and I had four
embryos in me, she said the sedative was safe and that the embryos were
healthy. I wanted more information, in particular, why they did abduct
me, but the medical officer told me I should wait for the captain, who
would debrief me about what happened in the last 12 years in our home
planet.
I will shorten the story, since you surely have access to the full
records. Disappointed with my condemnation, my defense attorney
continued to investigate my case. He finally found out that the
geneticist responsible for building my new body had been hired by Dr.
Mara to work at the Exoanthropology Institute. He suspected there was
more than a coincidence in this and finally convinced a judge to allow
for a secret investigation of the Institute's finances. They found out
that money had been deviated from the institute and, following that
lead, they found out that the technician responsible for my brain
transfer had been blackmailing Dr. Mara. The full investigation took
long time, but finally the truth was discovered, including Mara's
responsibility for the death of the young intern I had been framed of.
The new judicial process was installed and lead to Dr. Mara's
conviction and finally they sent this spaceship for my rescue.
I was informed that I was allowed to return to our mother planet. It
would be necessary to wait for the full term of the pregnancy, but
after that I would be allowed to be transferred to a new normal body,
male or female, at my choice. The thought was tempting, being freed
from the constant, painful pregnancies, but soon after I considered
that possibility I felt an emptiness in my heart. I realized then that
I could not abandon my children, first I thought of bringing them with
me, but then I realized the impact this would have in that society.
Also, my children were part of that society, how would they adapt in a
new life inside a space society? They would surely become freak circus
attraction. After some time I said, "No, thanks, but I will return to
my village, I only want to keep my voice intact."
The captain was not happy with my decision and argued that I would
disturb the normal development of that society. I answered that the
equilibrium in that society was already disturbed, "I, alone, am
responsible for an increase of about 25% in the fertility rate of that
village."
"The food reserves in the plains are still enough to feed all the
people in this generation, but with the increase in the population
(which will be large, even if my children didn't inherit the
hyperfertility gene) they will disappear in two or three generations,
unless they learn farming."
"My plan is to lead them to this path, so that this society can evolve
further."
The captain had no other choice than to accept my decision. He didn't
need to communicate this to the mother world, he could simply tell them
they were unable to find me. I just asked for two things, one favor and
that a ship would be sent in about 29 years to check out our progress.
Finally I asked about Mara, the captain said, "You know, technically
she was responsible for a serial rape, your rape, so she received the
same sentence as you."
He lead me to another room in the sickbay where a young black girl was
sleeping, it was Mara. I must confess I was disappointed as I was
informed that her sentence involved no hyperfertility and that her
memory had been erased, but the captain told I was allowed to decide
what to do about her (except killing, of course).
***
Next morning the Village woke up with a terrible noise. A giant silvery
bird had landed just at the lower entrance of the village. A door
opened and a beautiful lady, dressed in a marvelous white dress, walked
out the bird. The villagers took some time, but then they recognized it
was Dumby, which had disappeared in the previous day. The lady was
followed by a young girl with dark skin, which looked disoriented. The
villagers got more surprised as Dumby opened the mouth and really said,
"I am Lyria, the fertility goddess!."
"Long time ago I was wrongfully accused of a crime by my fellow gods
and forced to live among you without being able to talk."
"Now the truth was now revealed."
"I have many things to teach you."
Then she took the young girl's hand and lead her to a young 12 year old
boy, Lyria's firstborn son, Garth, and said, "Numb... I mean, Garth,
this is Mara, take good care of her, she doesn't understand our
language, teach her, she will live with us."
***
I decided to give Mara to Number One, since he is almost reaching
puberty, as well as she, and soon they will fall in love and form their
own family. I find a good payback to see her raising my grandchildren.
I will teach the villagers how to cultivate the root and how to
domesticate a local animal for use as milk producer and food reserve.
This will be enough to trigger the agriculture revolution and soon a
river valley civilization will develop. It would be nice to return here
in 1000 years to see what happened out of this.
As for myself, I will keep having my babies. I will just diversify, to
decrease the possibility of inbreeding when my children's children
inevitably start marrying together. I am sure Doo will understand that
I will need to make love with other men in the village too. I want also
to return to the Cave in the forest, to build a shrine to Ugha. I
think I owe him this much.
The captain leaves tomorrow. I will give him this report, so the story
can be revealed 29 years in the future. Maybe this will trigger public
interest to justify sending another starship for my rescue, if this
happens I will decide whether to return to our mother planet. As far as
I know my fellow anthropologists, I'm sure they will be dying out of
curiosity of seeing the outcome of my little social experiment.
Epilogue
Ten thousand years later, the landscape didn't change too much. The
river still existed and a small city in its shores could be seen from
the position on the caves where the market once took place. Of course,
no one knew that the market once took place there, since the modern
archeology school assumed that culture was characteristic of the stone
age, hence, unable to develop commerce.
It was hard to believe that the region, long in the past, was home of
one of the major ancient empires, the Lyrian empire, named after the
descendants of some cultural mythic hero, called Lyria. The interest in
that empire was high in the archeology, not only because it was the
first empire in the whole world, but also because this Lyria was a
woman, some kind of fertility goddess. Legend told that she was a
superwoman, presumably mother of more than 100 children and that she
taught the principles of agriculture to that stone age culture. Of
course, as in all of these legends, she was supposed to have ascended
to heaven, in the belly of a giant silvery bird, promising to return in
the future. This legend was the first classic of ancient literature.
Few years back the archaeological consensus was that this Lyria didn't
exist at all, but was a construction based on many historical
characters used by the primitive people to justify the rapid
developments that took place during the agricultural revolution. Even
the genetic surveys of the local population, which showed that their
ascendants could be traced back to a single woman who lived about 10000
years before present and the high fertility ratios in that population
didn't bother the scientific community.
All this changed with the discovery of a sensational archaeological
site. It was a cave formed by three large stones which sometime
(millions of years) in the past rolled down the hill. This cave was
located in a forest about 10 Km away from the stone age site and
evidence showed that it was used as a kind of religious peregrination
site in the early years of the agrarian culture. Carbon 14 dating of
residues found in different layers of that site and some artifacts
found there showed that these peregrinations happened up to 9000 years
before present, meaning that it was a still active religious site even
in the early days of the Lyrian empire (first and second dynasties).
The most sensational finding, however, was a strange writing carved in
a stone tablet found buried in the cave. It was strange because the
alphabet was too modern and too different from everything else known in
the world and because dating of the lining which surrounded the tablet
showed it was about 10000 years old. No other alphabet in the world
resembled those symbols and the writing could only be translated by
luck, since the person who wrote that used an early form of Lyrian. The
most sensational finding, however, was the content of that writing, "To
my dear UGHA, who gave me support and love,
Lyria"
THE END