THEY — Chapter 17 — Rooms
This is chapter 17 of my book “THEY”. If you are finding it for the first time, please begin with Chapter 1 (or check the INDEX )! When you’re done, check out more of my stories on my MEDIUM profile: Caralynn Scott — Medium
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CHAPTER 17 — Rooms
“That was incredible!” Jennic leaned in and wrapped her arms around Laybo, congratulating him on his success. “The way you spun around, dodged that defender, kicked yourself from the wall, flipped, released the ball and scored that goal! It was… Amazing!” Jennic still had little interest in playing the sport herself but watching Laybo drew her into the nuances of the game and piqued her analytical mind.
Laybo blushed slightly, his eyes meeting Jennic’s and wordlessly expressing the appreciation he felt for her support. Over the past several weeks, Jennic had been learning more about Laybo: How he had played Hockrosse and shown talent from an early age, even considering a career as a player, and how his interest in biology and zoology had always been more important to him and taken priority. The game always took second place to his love of animals and his interest in healing.
When Laybo was just four orbits old, his parents obtained a dog for him. No small task, as most provinces’ prohibited animals and they could only be obtained with a special permit requiring an ocean of government red tape. Many said the permits were harder to obtain than the one to have a child, and they gave up on the idea before they were able to complete the process.
One of Laybo’s three parents was a zoologist. They helped him to find the pet and knowing where to acquire such a creature and how to care for it properly certainly helped with the application. Another of his parents practiced law and was able to take care of the permits and regulatory work. His third parent largely managed the household and, spending many days with Laybo and the canine, they practically raised both of them together.
Laybo’s relationship with his dog was close, and when the little terrier died at twelve orbits, it had been devastating to him. By then, however, he had been working with his zoologist parent for nearly three years and had grown accustomed to the brutality of the natural world and of wild animals. He was no stranger to the cycle of birth and death and had come to expect the inevitability that Sharlan would one day be gone. Still, knowing this and experiencing it proved to be completely different. Laybo cried for a full week. He felt an emptiness he had not expected, and that emptiness had never been completely filled, nor had it ever really left. Sharlan played an important and happy role in many of Laybo’s stories, which he often shared with the group of friends.
On this particular evening, after the game, they all shared a tray of snacks, some drinks, and more stories. They were loud and laughed a great deal. “And then Sharlan jumped for the Hockrosse ball and probably would have caught it too if it weren’t a holographic projection. It was so funny to see them running, jumping, and snapping at the ball, and all they could get in their jaw was energized air!” Laybo told the story with excitement and enthusiasm.
Most of the crowd of guests had left the common room long before the happy band began drifting off toward their personal spaces, one after the other. Jennic and Laybo found themselves the last two waiting for a transport cube. The room loomed large, empty, and felt still, cathedral like. When a cube returned for Laybo, he looked at Jennic with a sly grin and playfully whispered, “Come with me…”
“Where to?” Jennic asked, thinking Laybo meant a corner of the common room, but that was not where he was motioning. Instead, he indicated the cube.
“To my residence.”
“Is that allowed?”
“Well, it’s discouraged, but I don’t think it’s prohibited. I want to show you something.”
Jennic looked all around for a white coat, expecting one to suddenly pop out of the walls or from behind a couch and prevent them from getting on the cube together, but no one appeared. “OK.” She said, feeling suspicious of Laybo’s intentions. But honestly, she was also curious to see his apartment. She nervously and tentatively stepped into the cube beside him.
Jennic had grown accustomed to the motions of the cube each time she travelled to her own apartment, so when the cube began to descend instead of rise, it startled her. Why had It not occurred to her there could be apartments below the main level as well? She had simply assumed they were all above. After what seemed like a lengthy drop, the cube slowed and went left. After a short while, it took the familiar final short step forward and stopped.
Anticipating what she would see, Jennic’s heart began beating faster. This would be a chance to look a little deeper into who Laybo was and Jennic wanted desperately to like what she found. Without fanfare, the doors slid apart, and then the smell hit her. A musky, pungent odour like one might expect to find deep in a rainforest.
Looking round, Jennic was surprised by the clutter. Articles of clothing lay casually tossed over chairs, on the floor and even the bed, which was left unmade, the covers crumpled in a pile. This had to be intentional, as the Arti’s would normally remake the bed whenever a room was left empty for long enough. Jennic could not even tell if the sheets were dirty or clean.
Real, live plants grew on a shelf along one wall. Two walls were covered with windows from waist high to ceiling. Although they were just as false as the ones in Jennic’s room, the view of “Outside” appeared to be a lush forest of trees so thick, it was impossible to see beyond them. Against the wall on the left was a desk holding a workstation with the holo-screen left on deliberately, projecting images of various animals in a never-ending slideshow. Every few seconds a new animal would appear, never the same one twice. There were also several three-dimensional printed models of skeletal remains from smaller creatures mounted on wooden bases sitting on the desk — at least Jennic hoped they were 3D Models and not the real thing.
The smell was thick and intoxicating. It was earthy and fresh with a hint of ozone, pine, and mint. Jennic recalled smelling this same combination on Laybo, though not quite as potent. Suddenly, Jennic realized her chin was dangling below the gaping hole of her mouth. She took a deep breath and closed her jaw, hoping Laybo had not noticed; if he did, he did not say anything. “Does your Arti not clean your place for you?” she asked as politely as she could.
“Why? A tidy room is a sign of an insane mind!” Laybo said playfully winking at his friend. “I think one of your heroes Mark Twain said that…” Jennic knew without a doubt that Mark Twain had said nothing of the kind, though he was certainly known for having a particularly untidy desk. She thought about her own tidy space and wondered if this was a poke at her fastidiousness but loved that he had tried to reference one of her favourite authors. “I prefer to ‘embrace the chaos’.” He added, “It makes me feel more free.”
“It makes me feel like I have nowhere to sit!” Jennic jabbed back as she pushed a pair of pants from the nearest chair and sat beside Laybo who had taken a place on the bed. “What was it you wanted to show me?”
“Well,” Laybo began, “Inlar, that’s my parent who is a zoologist, they do research on many species of animals and particular their procreative activities…”
“Their what?” Jennic interrupted. The lectures had made it pretty clear what Laybo meant, but Jennic had tried to tune it out as much as possible, and hearing Laybo use these words made her shiver a little.
“… Their reproduction — propagation… Copulation. They record the act for study purposes and document the process of natural development of a creature’s embryo. It’s fascinating, really. Distinct species reproduce in diverse ways, but most of them do so in pairs. I wanted to show you one of their recordings.”
Jennic was not sure what to make of this, but Laybo explained how, on the zoological preserves of the planet, for purposes of management and conservation, animals continued to reproduce biologically — that is to say, they continued to have sexual characteristics and bred as they always had. Zoologists managed the population of any given species, keeping their number both safely above the minimum to guarantee sustainability, and below a level that would cascade out of control. They encouraged the natural carnal natures of beasts to support their population. To control overpopulation, zoologists allowed the brutal interactions of one beast killing another, so long as it was for sustenance, and within strict limits. Such was the natural order of things to be preserved. When a population grew too small, technology would occasionally be used, adding more units through cloning, but this was considered an emergency intervention only as it had a negative effect on the genetic integrity of the population of the species. Artificial wombs were kept largely for human reproduction, but in a pinch, they were also used for the purposes of increasing a species population. The truth, however, was that there was too little room on the planet for large populations of any remaining creatures, and so a tight control was necessary to keep the reserves in a delicate balance.
Jennic was beginning to wonder where all of this information was going. She had completed her round of studies in Zoology and had even taken one class since coming to the Facility, but the recordings she had seen and the ones the white coats had shown them were crude and never provided much detail. There was always an assumption that the act of reproduction was a carnal activity reserved for these lower lifeforms and that humanity had evolved beyond its need for such base activities. The implication was that nobody should really be all that interested, and nobody seemed to be complaining. Still, she had to admit to herself that the more Laybo talked, the more curious she was.
Laybo spoke to the console on his desk. “Replay file Inlar-10438.” The projection changed from the rotating slideshow to a head and shoulders image of an older individual wearing a short-sleeved tunic. “That’s Inlar.” Laybo said with obvious pride.
“We had a rare opportunity today.” The figure was saying, “We witnessed the silverback male we call ‘Frank’ as he was approached by the diminutive female we call ‘Gracie’ who offered herself to him as we had hoped.” The image shifted to show a large silver backed ape standing with its knuckles pressed into the ground, one on either side of a smaller ape who was facing in the same direction. The smaller one did not seem to mind the other’s massive frame surrounding it.
“Apes are close evolutionary ancestors of humans.” Laybo whispered to Jennic knowingly.
What odd names, Jennic thought, though they somehow sounded familiar.
It appeared to her as if the smaller ape was quite content huddled in under the silverback, wrapped in its girth, “Are they hugging?” she asked innocently, thinking of the times the friends had hugged after learning of the behaviour, and how good it had felt.
“Well… sort of.” Laybo answered, “Keep watching.”
Jennic continued to watch, but nothing much appeared to happen. The large male moved in a kind of rhythmic motion and the female simply leaned on her elbows looking rather content. Several other smaller apes — presumably also females — sat close by, watching intently. Occasionally the female, held between the silverback’s arms, would look up and stroke its massive forearms gently. After a few minutes, the motion stopped, and the female pulled herself out from under the bulk of the male. Then they lay back on the ground and the image returned to that of Inlar.
“We are hoping in 8 months there will be a new ape joining the shrewdness. This will be good to see, as the population has been decreasing of late due to a bad case of Ebola we recently had to eradicate. We are all terribly excited and hopeful.” Laybo waved a hand, and the replay froze.
“Why is he concerned about the apes becoming wiser?” Jennic asked.
“What? Oh, you mean the ‘shrewdness’.” Laybo laughed aloud, “That has nothing to do with their intelligence, though apes are really quite smart, that’s just what you call a group of apes.”
“I see…” Jennic thought for a moment. “I’m not sure what all the fuss is about. Why did you want me to see this recording? It was just a few apes hanging out together.”
“Jennic… they weren’t just hanging out together. They were procreating.” Laybo stated hesitantly, not knowing exactly how to broach the subject with her, “Why do you think humans gave up this kind of behaviour?”
“It’s messy, crude, unhealthy, unsanitary, and unnecessary for reproduction…” Jennic began, regurgitating the lines she had been taught from a young age.
“I know what we are taught in school.” Laybo chimed in. “But really… why?”
Jennic paused to give it more thought. It was not like her to simply believe what she was told without having a good reason to support it in her own mind. Why had this fact stuck so solidly in her thinking? She knew what people had said the answer was and it all seemed tidy and logical, but it only explained the reasons they felt it was possible to stop, not the reasons they actually did. “I suppose I don’t really know… Of course, it’s been so long since anyone … has … that I don’t know if it is even possible anymore.”
“For most people, you are right Jennic. Humans were once … equipped … In that way. Embryos grown in the natal centres once had to be bathed in hormones that neutralized them as they were created and grew in the natal centres, but this has been done for so many generations, our genetic coding has been rewritten and it is mostly impossible now. At this point, most children do not require treatment. But occasionally the genetics revert, and one slips through.”
Jennic suddenly realized Laybo was referring to the two of them, and possibly others at the facility, those they called “Gendered” or the term she had more recently learned, the “Sexually intact.”
“You mean us?” Jennic asked.
“Yes.” said Laybo. “And now they want to take this…” Laybo motioned towards the paused replay, “… Away from us for whom it is still possible because they think it is unnatural. But it’s perfectly natural. It’s the way our species procreated for hundreds of thousands of years. It’s a part of who we are!”
Being more of a mathematician than a biologist, Jennic had never contemplated this issue. Even her sojourns into history had not really plumbed the depth of relationships other than the surface interaction of individuals which was foreign enough to her as to seem exotic without delving into their sexual behaviours. She also knew it was considered heretical to think about humans procreating this way, but somehow this was drawing her in. It was making sense and ringing true in her mind.
“This is stuff they will never teach us in the lectures. They don’t want people to know.”
“Know what exactly?” Jennic asked, but she thought she already understood.
“That it is OK. That it does no harm. That it’s pleasurable even… And perfectly natural. They want to steer us away from it completely. They want to control us and our population just like we do the animals, only they won’t even let us procreate naturally because they don’t trust us!” Laybo could see he was starting to overwhelm Jennic and decided he had given her enough to think about for tonight. It was time to change the subject before it got intensely depressing. “Anyway. Thank about it. I just wanted to show you the holo because I thought you would understand.”
Jennic was more than thinking about it. It was all starting to come together for her. It was starting to make sense in an intimate way she had never understood anything else before. It was more than head knowledge to her, it was deeply personal. She was beginning to be consumed by the thought of how the utopian society she thought she belonged to was held together with arbitrary rules that did not always make sense, but which controlled the populace and kept them all in line, with the side effect that no one was ever truly free. The confusion was becoming evident on her face. Laybo placed a comforting hand on Jennic’s knee and with the other pushed aside some clothes on a small table by the bed. “Want to play Racha?” He asked, pulling out a small box of tiles.
“Now there’s a game I know I can beat you in!” Jennic said smiling, thankful for the distracting change of subject.
The two played several rounds before they were both feeling tired, and it was time for Jennic to go back to her own apartment for the night. After hugging goodbye, Jennic got into the cube and commanded it to take her home, which the little transport dutifully obeyed. As the cube changed direction several times, her stomach felt odd. Was it just the motion of the cube, or was something else stirring inside her? Somehow, she could not shake the image of those apes faces from her mind. They seemed so peaceful, so content, and she wondered; had she ever felt that much at peace?
