Wild world
by Sylvia Wechsel
Prologue
As the judge enters the room, I stand up, just as everybody else in
themcourtroom 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 rape and murder of a young woman."
"Do you wish to say something before I give my sentence?"
So, I am doomed, and since I have nothing else to save, but my pride, I
answer, "Yes, your honor, I want to state 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 sentence that will change my life forever,
"In spite of all proofs presented in this case you still refuse to show
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
new body, 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 possible offenders our law system
developed this cruel sentence: to be transformed into a woman and to be
transported to live in a society in which women have no right at all
about their sexuality. I knew that because I, as a senior
anthropologist, studied that particular kind of society in detail.
Mankind admittedly originated in a single planet, named "Earth." That
the most dispersed species in the Galaxy originated in a single planet
is obvious, if you consider the alternative (only religious fanatics
believe that God created man and woman simultaneously in so many
planets). And of course, there was the extensive digital material which
survived all these millenia, proving some place called "earth" existed
(including some of its solar system's weird aspects, like "earth's"
oversized moon and the existence of a gas giant planet with beautiful
rings). The religious fanatics, naturally, dismiss this evidences as
fakes.
Even the name of this primeval planet, however, is doubtful, it seems
to be a legend. In all languages ever created by mankind, the name
"earth" is also used to represent the soil, and, in spite of searching
hard, nobody has ever found this "Earth" or even discovered why its
original population left (and when this happened, this information was
not preserved in the entertaining material, although due to the
abundance of disaster movies contained in the latest items, it is
reasonable to assume that some natural catastrophe was the cause).
Fact is that mankind developed space travel and dispersed among the
stars, nobody really knows how many years ago (estimations range from
3500 to 2500 years before the present). It is believed that many long
travel time colonial expeditions, the half legendary "generation
starships" (because many generations were born during travel time) were
presumably sent to all directions of space. Oral tradition preserved
this knowledge. This admittedly happened long before faster than light
(FTL) engines were invented, 827 years ago. As a consequence all
inhabitable worlds in a large portion of the Galaxy contained human
colonies of varying sizes. Sometime around 2500 to 1800 years ago the
impetus of colonization decreased. The colonists settled in their
destination worlds and started to procreate. This lead to the so called
"space dark ages", in which the different populations grew isolated.
The most successful colonies quickly occupied the new environment and
were able to maintain some connection with the technological society
which reached the stars, but this higher level of technology fatally
lead to wars and so even in those colonies the records of the previous
history were lost. Strangely enough, in the surviving digital material
there were plentiful entertainment files, like books, films and
cartoons. This was a rich archaeological material and I was a fan,
particularly, of those surviving cartoons.
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
and dangerous time, many expeditions were lost. The most famous being
the starship Aghaton, a technological marvel, supposedly
indestructible, which went away to explore a section of the Galaxy and
never returned, probably destroyed somewhere in the space. It was
almost a reenactment of that cheesy film about the unsinkable ship
which sunk in the first voyage (some believe this film was a work of
fiction, but I believe it was a fictional story based on a true
accident, this, of course, was an unending debate in the academic
community). The search for the Aghaton became one of the main subjects
of adventurers and conspiracy theorists, and even today there are books
presenting speculations and "proofs".
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, I
read about it in a book footnote, and regretted not paying more
attention to this world in particular, among the other hundreds of
human reservations in the space of the federation.
Ironically the technology which allowed the application of the
"personality death sentence" originated in an obsession for gender
swapping, which resulted from one of these space oral legends: the
existence of a portal located in a planet lost in space, which allowed
the access to a parallel universe in which the genders were reversed.
Of course, nobody really believes this portal existed, but an industry
developed to allow people to exchange bodies and genders at will. The
use of this technology as criminal sentence itself was 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 much better than death sentencing, which had
been used by our society many times in the past with the same intent.
Most potential sexual offenders felt scared about this possible fate
and nobody knows how many rapes had been prevented because of the fear
of being turned 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, initially, felt sorry, but
then the nightmare begun.
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 to any man. At
least I would be spared of the shame, however, without my memories I
would be "one of the girls" and think of this as a fact of life.
***
I went through all the classical 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 will 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 eight 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 still 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?"
Chapter 1 - 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 and the temperature was pleasant. I was not
aware of particular details about RTC87a, but I knew it was a temperate
planet orbiting well inside 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 inhabited 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", others
suggested that these are simply the conditions which are needed for
human life to thrive. 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, due to that footnote). 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 (this was the reason I was reading that footnote, anyway, the
book was a discussion about "race" segregation and prejudice in
primitive societies).
I saw a small lake located nearby. 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."
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 anyway.
I knew, from my previous studies, that this kind of "relocation" was
made introducing the subject in a radius of about 40 km 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 eventually be 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 hyperfertility 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 considered what I should
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.
Chapter 2 - Ugha
I wandered the forest towards west for three days, trying to get the
protection I could for the nights in holes I found in the ground or in
the trees. The temperature during the day was pleasant, but at night it
decreased to chilling levels, and I had only that dress to protect my
body against the cold. The first night I tried to produced fire using
wooden sticks, but failed miserably, so I resorted to the holes, at
least to protect myself from the wind. Of course I always probed the
holes to see if they weren't already occupied by some nasty animal or
insect, before entering into them. At the early morning of the third
day I finally had enough. I climbed a tall isolated hill in the middle
of the forest. On its top there was a natural grassy field and from
there I had, as I imagined, 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, it was located northwest
from that hill, and the distance (I estimated five kilometers) 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 garments that seemed a leather shirt and leather hose. He
was roasting a sort of animal leg he hunted, looked like a bird. It was
quite 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 left the woods and looked at him and he looked back, saying 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 responded with 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 natives 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 the word sounded like "Ugha." I
understood that this was his name, but not even this I could speak (I
tried, and what came out was "aaah"). I stood up and, respectfully
followed him one step behind with my head down. I knew that was
probably required from women in that society. We walked about three
kilometers towards the mountains in the north and finally we reached
his cave, located in the lower slope of the mountain range bordering
the forest. I entered the cave and he pointed to a kind of fur carpet
lying on the floor. He said something I didn't understand, 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 off my dress and the
moccasins and, naked, leaned down on the carpet facing him. I opened my
legs, and offered my pussy to him.
He took off his clothes too and came over me. When he penetrated me for
the first time I sensed that I still had an intact hymen, so he
deflowered me. He also noticed this, 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, but this was not the worse. At that time I
was still acted defiant against my situation, and the fact that I
offered myself to him made me feel ashamed. His penis did hurt me at
first, when he broke my hymen, but after that I began feeling pleasure,
although I didn't admit. 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 morning I woke up alone. He left early at the morning for
his
hunting expeditions, and left me alone, sleeping. 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
(clearly artificial, since I could see scattered tree stumps in the
ground) 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 with my hands
in the sand so it could be filled with water. Then I took of my
clothes, and 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 before the present. 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, some
30 minutes before dawn. 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
150 meters away from the cave, uphill. 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 skilfully 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, using my own stone knife. Off
course I knew all the theoretical background about that kind of
activity, but I had never performed 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. I placed the animal in the smoking accessory.
Then he showed me what to do with the fur he had removed. 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 single 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 off 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 with me 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 assumed first 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.
Chapter 3 - The market
One day when we woke up (I was already waking up together with him) he
signaled me to put my dress (I decided to sleep naked then, protecting
me from cold of the night using a fur blanket and his body, I got used
to the smell). He put all the animals we had smoked in two baskets,
gave me one (the smaller) and said "ugha."
I followed him, one step behind and with my head down as required, and
we walked a trail of about 10 km along the mountain range border,
towards what seemed to be a low pass. The forest was not that closed
anymore and finally disappeared at all. Sometime later, after we
overcame the pass, 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 bartering. 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 steep mountain valley, with a small river flowing
in the middle. The valley slowly descended towards distant lowlands,
where the magnificent view a big river, probably 20 to 30 km, away
could be seen. My anthropological training allowed to conclude that the
lowlands were the hunting and gathering territory of the villagers,
which used the village as a support basis, from where the expeditions
where launched. This is why this society was already sessile, and was
not wandering anymore. This society was on the verge of the
agricultural revolution, and that village would soon (in
anthropological time) become a true city. 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, this was
all textbook.
Ugha started trading the smoked meat and the furs for other articles,
as that root and salt, for example. I observed that the salt was sold
in the form of plaques, clearly it was sea salt, and since no ocean
could be seen, this implied some sort of long range trade. One item he
"bought", however surprised me. He took a large piece of meat, and 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 lining and gave to 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.
Maybe this was the point in which I got in peace with the fact that I
would be a woman until my death. 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 after we returned to our
cave. He went hunting and I stayed "home" smoking the meat and cleaning
the "house" (he finally stopped complaining about my cleaning). 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 other days 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 thigh, 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 reach any major artery, otherwise he would already be dead.
My concern was the filth, which would infect the wound. He had placed
himself, as a sort of prophylaxis, some macerated leaves over it. I
concluded, these contained some bactericide active natural principle.
He tied the leaves in place with a piece of rope he had with him. This
was cutting his blood circulation, so I decide to take action.
After he came to his senses again, I helped him to walk to my "private
pool" and washed him from head to toe, using my stone knife to scratch
the dirt crusts in his skin. He was too weak to resist. Then I walked
to the shore, and with my
knife, I cut a band from the lower part of my dress. I searched similar
leaves around in the wood and asked, using gestures, if they were the
right ones, he confirmed. I macerated the leaves by chewing them, as he
had priorly done. I tied the leaves softly in the place using the
leather band. This allowed for a better blood circulation and better
contact between the leaves and the wound.
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 by
himself.
I concluded he enjoyed our regular baths, since he followed me to the
pool again, without been forced. I noticed that and, when we arrived at
the pool, instead of giving him the bath as in the previous days, 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 years 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, and some of the scar were clearly not caused by
animal action. I never noticed those scars before, because all the time
I was concentrated in not looking at him or at his body when we made
love.
In the sixth day he was still too weak to hunt, so he worked out a
branch of a three he cut off into a new Speer. Next day would be Sunday
and we had to go to the market. By then I had already finished the cat,
and the "house" was clean, so I sat silently at his side and admired
his technique. During that entire week I had been in charge for
cooking, and I felt proud of my accomplishments. That day I finally
convinced myself that I would spend my days with him at that planet,
and this made me feel happy. I could not deny anymore, I was getting in
love.
Next day in the morning 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
then used the Speer to walk the aching leg for the rest of the way. The
quantity of products we brought to the market consisted only of the
cat's meat and skin, which I carried alone. 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 his friends. I still could not understand most of the
language (try to learn a new language without being able to practice,
by talking!), but I noticed that part of his tale referred to me. As to
confirm this he picked me up from behind of 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.
Chapter 4 - Bugha
The next crisis began the following Tuesday. I was feeling 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 seemed like
someone 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 alone 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, since that
day we first met we had constant sex every night (and sometimes during
the day too). This was already 20 days, which obviously covered my
entire fertile cycle. 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
"sickness." I could not survive a second of that monstrous
menstruation, just by thinking of that I got desperate. 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 had no clue how to do
this, but 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 thing I
saw, the two men had the knives in their hands and were circling each
other. I did underestimate 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 positively the
outcome I
desired.
He would soon be dead, he looked towards me, not understanind why I did
that. I became more desperate, I wanted so badly to say "I am sorry!",
but was not able. 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,
not only because I didn't understand the language, but also because I
was in shock. He had no patience, he ripped my dress off, damaging
them, threw me with violence to the ground and violated me. After the
rape he left me alone. I recovered the senses, and was sore, but at
least this made me feel punished by my behavior. 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 compared with Ugha and also took more time
before
ejaculating. He was, however, more brute and sometimes did hurt me
during sex. I had to be ready for him any time he wanted and, 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. He was
also cleaner than Ugha. In spite of this, having sex with him was never
the same as I had with Ugha.
Bugha's household consisted also of two other women: an elderly lady
and a young girl. I guessed from the beginning they were respectively
his mother and his 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 history was the following: about
6 years before my arrival (this was Dabba's age, as I estimated when I
fist met her), Bugha's father, for some reason, died. I estimated Bugha
was at the time he met me 18 years, 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.
For example we were allowed to work in the cloth and pottery production
and not in the gathering activities, it was a sort of nobility. 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 needles made of bones, 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 satisfied. Yabba looked at me suspiciously,
not believing, 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 natura)
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 this was a consequence of the opening of the
pubic bones for the birth and due to the milk. 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 eight
month of pregnancy. 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
children. She concluded I was a good producer, so she spared me from
most of the sewing job. My "job," from this day 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 my belly continued growing. Not even Yabba could guess (or perhaps
she didn't believe 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 isn't that big). Unfortunately she was also too weak to
survive and passed away that same evening in which she was born. This
was the first time I really cursed Mara. My transformation, all that I
suffered, even the murder of that young intern, made me despise her or
even feel sorry for her. This time, however, she had been responsible
for the death of another innocent child, my daughter, 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 in the village 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, however, 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 more to do. He was in coma, had many broken bones and was
bleeding from the skull. He died two days later.
Chapter 5 - Doo
Yabba began 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 my anular finger into his anus, and started massaging his
prostate. I did this very slow, not to scare him and it worked. His
erection returned and he penetrated 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, it was goddess Lyria in their mythology. 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.
My "marriage" with Doo was also one of the last fights I had with
Yabba. Some time latter she got sick. Her long live of suffering and
privations led to an agonizing death due to some debilitating illness.
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, I 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 my sight, with time to start and time 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.
While all that I kept having my pregnancies. 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 really counted)
with which I use to communicate with my children. I can call them,
isolated or in groups, and communicate simple messages, like
"attention," "don't do this," "get your hands out of there," among
others.
Chapter 6 - 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, and
some place, to be alone once a day. I was walking there when I felt
something hitting with a sharp pain, my left butt. I looked what it was
and, surprised, saw that it was a tranquilizing 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 without caring too much, I said aloud (forgetting that I
couldn't speak), "What the hell?"
Only this time, however, the right words came 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 when I was asleep and I had four embryos
inside my womb, she said the sedative was safe and that the embryos
were healthy. I wanted more information, in particular, why did they
abduct me, specially so close to the village, 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, on his own. 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 embezzled 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
(after people started to assume I could be innocent, it was easy to
find out that all genetic evidence had been manufactured in a
laboratory). The new judicial process was installed and lead to Dr.
Mara's conviction. 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. I considered 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 some freak circus
attraction. After some time I said, "No, thanks, I will return to the
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 am, alone,
responsible for an increase of about 25% in the fertility rate of that
village," I told him.
"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 don't inherit the
hyperfertility gene) these reserves will disappear in two or three
generations, unless they learn to cultivate."
"My plan is to lead them to this path, so that this society can evolve
further and faster."
The captain had no other choice than to accept my decision. He didn't
need to communicate this to the mother world, he will 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 by the
information that her sentence involved neither hyperfertility nor
keeping her memory intact. Her
memory had been erased. The captain told I was allowed to decide what
to do about her (killing her, of course, was excluded).
***
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 in the belly of the bird and a beautiful lady, dressed in a
marvelous white dress, walked out. The villagers took some time, but
then they recognized it was Dumby, who had disappeared in the previous
day. The lady was followed by a young girl with dark skin, which looked
disoriented. The villagers, however, got more surprised as Dumby opened
her mouth and really said, with a terrible accent, "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 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, Dumby's (or better, 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 will be, and soon they will fall in love and
form their own family. I find a good payback to see the once proud
woman 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, faster than normal. 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 decided
also to return to the Cave in the forest, to build a shrine in honor of
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 then decide whether I will return to our mother planet
or whether I will remain here. As far as I know my fellow
anthropologists, I'm pretty sure they will be dying out of curiosity of
checking the outcome of my little social experiment.
Epilogue
Ten thousand years later the landscape didn't change too much. The
distant river, of course, 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 trade.
It was hard to believe that this region, long in the past, was home of
the first major ancient empire, the Lyrian empire, named after the
descendants of some 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, and higher
probability of twin pregnancies 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