The Cage of Zeus (13 page)

The light trickling in from the colored tiles shimmered behind Calendula like a heat haze. Calendula, who’d only looked like a woman to Arino at first, was beginning to seem more male with every passing moment.

In the end, it all boiled down to perception. Whether Arino saw em as a man or woman did not change the fact that physically, ey was bigender. Ey was capable of simultaneously inseminating eir partner and being inseminated. Calendula didn’t merely self-identify as bigender, nor had ey been born bigender via a chromosomal fluke. Ey was not an imaginary creation of some mystic or an angel that had conveniently transcended the sexes.

The Round standing before him was a proper biologically bigender being.

“Both,” Arino answered. “Finally, I see you as both.”

“Would you like this body? Would you like to be bigender yourself?”

A shiver running down his spine, Arino imagined his body with female reproductive organs.

A body with the ability to both impregnate and be impregnated at the same time.

What kind of person would he become if his body were to acquire both sexual functions? How would he think? What would his likes and dislikes be? And how would he act? The body creates the psyche, which in turn creates the body. Just what kind of being would he become as a result of both influences?

Arino was secretly shocked by the part of him that was considering the question. He’d been married to his wife for five years and had a three-year-old at home. His wife was a woman, biologically and psychologically, and also heterosexual. Not once had Arino questioned his sexuality until he’d come here.

Had he been deceiving himself all this time? Was one’s sexuality so easily changed? Or was he merely getting carried away by this new encounter?

“Is that even possible?” Arino asked.

“Unfortunately, no. There are people on Earth and Mars who want to be injected with double-I, but switching out the sex chromosomes alone won’t make you a Round.”

Arino let out a sigh of relief.

“Disappointed?”

“Maybe a little.”

Calendula smiled.

“If all the station staff were like you, none of us would have encountered as much difficulty as we have.” Then ey muttered, “If only everyone would become Rounds. Then there would be fewer prejudices in this world.”

8

OVER TWENTY YEARS
had passed since Kline first came to Jupiter-I—about the time it took for Jupiter to make two revolutions around the sun.

When she’d first learned of the existence of the special district, she had been shocked and moved and felt an intense desire to protect it.

A subspecies both male and female. Not the fantasies of body modification fanatics or hermaphrodites with cosmetic genitalia made possible through artificial organ transplantation.

The Rounds were the kind of beings—having functioning genitalia of both genders—envisioned in Plato’s
Symposium
.

No matter how progressive and extraordinary they were, the Rounds were seen as anomalies by Monaural society. In a society comprised entirely of absolute hermaphrodites, however, they would be the norm.

Indeed, the special district was an ideal community. If Kline could protect this haven, in time the Monaurals’ value system would gradually change.

Having anticipated the station would become a target of Monaural terrorists from the start, Kline had been instrumental in pushing through the exorbitant budgetary expenditure required for the installation of Jupiter-I’s omnidirectional warning system. She had also recognized the need to demonstrate that this was no defenseless paradise, but a fortress built to defend a new ideology.

Kline was prepared to crush any group knowingly threatening to breach the walls.

If it were possible, Kline would grab a gun and face the enemy herself. She had no scruples about killing if she could protect the Rounds.

Kline rested on a sofa in the observatory and sipped a glass of bourbon.

A million stars were displayed on the omnidirectional screen and the floor screen at her feet. Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, filled the screen directly in front of her.

Europa resembled an old marble marred by scratches. Or a glass orb striated with intricate cracks. Its color was clear blue from the thick layers of ice covering the surface and brown from the sulfide deposits seeping to the surface from within.

The dark cracks gashing the surface were the dull red of dried blood. The intricate fissures crisscrossing the entire surface reminded Kline of the chapped fingers of an overworked laborer.

Europa was approximately 3,138 kilometers in diameter, about the size of Earth’s moon.

Hidden beneath the thick ice crust covering the globe lay a vast ocean one hundred kilometers deep, rich in sulfuric acid and magnesium sulfate, unlike the oceans of Earth.

Europa was a frozen moon with a daytime surface temperature of minus 130 degrees Celsius.

Scientists drilled the ice crust in search of microorganisms trapped inside. They also continued to probe for whether oceanic life-forms like those on Earth existed on Europa.

Jupiter-I served, in part, to support those activities. In time, scientists discovered a hot geyser along with organisms that relied on the sulfuric oxides contained within the geyser water to exist. What they had unearthed was a biotic community that had developed in much the same way as the biotic community discovered in the depths of Earth’s oceans. Biologists also confirmed the existence of organisms living in a similar oceanic atmosphere on Ganymede. And now they were exploring Callisto’s ocean, hoping to discover a third ecosystem in the Jovian system there.

Reports of life on the Jovian moons served to remind not only scientists but the public just how immeasurably profound and mysterious the universe was. The news inspired awe in the fierce resilience of life.

These life-forms on Europa and Ganymede lived regardless of human expectation and died quietly once they’d expended the life given them. They neither resisted nor surrendered to the environment they found themselves in, but simply used it to survive.

Kline could not help but feel awestruck and envious of the single-minded tenacity of life.

She heard a knock, snapping her out of her musings. Dan Preda walked into the observatory.

“Well, this is a rare sighting,” said Kline as she set her glass down on the table.

“I like to have a drink or two under the stars from time to time.” Preda sat down diagonally across from Kline, holding a glass of his own. “I daresay we have a real situation on our hands. To think, an actual terrorist threat.”

“We don’t know anything for certain yet. Even if the threat is real, the two security teams should have little problem defeating the terrorists.”

“But with Harding commanding one of the teams…”

“Commander Shirosaki is a man we can trust. I’m sure he’ll keep Commander Harding in check. Miles will be there too.”

“Yes, I suppose we can only hope for the best.” Preda sipped from his watered-down drink enriched with vitamin C.

The door opened again, and another visitor entered the observatory. “Oh, there you are.”

Microbiologist Von Chaillot approached holding a bottle of Martian beer in one hand.

Von kissed Preda and Kline on the cheek and joined them. “Is it true we have a terrorist threat?”

“Well, it seems the whole station is abuzz about it,” said Preda. “I hear some of the station staff have a little bet going.”

“A bet? About what?” Kline asked.

“The time the security staff will need to neutralize the terrorist threat. They’re trying to predict it down to the minute.”

“What was the shortest time?”

“One minute. I think the longest was fifteen.”

Smiling, Von held out a memory plate in Kline’s direction. “I promised you this. Care to see it now?”

“Thank you. I think I will.”

Kline inserted the plate in her wearable. After sending the commands remotely to the observatory’s control system from her wearable, the stars on the omnidirectional display disappeared and the images contained in the memory plate came up on screen.

A constellation of a different kind filled the black screen. Moving their tiny flagella, the luminescent bodies spun around busily like windmills.

“What do we have here?” Preda asked. “Your latest discovery?”

“Bioluminescent microorganisms found inhabiting the ocean beneath Europa’s ice shell. We haven’t determined why they emit light like they do. We think they might naturally give it off during metabolic activity, rather than for any particular purpose.”

“Something like ‘Europa sea fireflies.’”

“If that’s what you’d like to call them. They haven’t been given a scientific name yet.”

“How about naming one of your discoveries after me?” Preda said. “All told, you’ve found thousands of marine microorganisms on Europa and Ganymede, haven’t you?”

“I’ll put in the request myself if you can send some funding our way.”

“So even names can be bought for a price,” Preda said.

“Anything to continue our research.”

Kline tapped a button, and a larger spherical organism appeared onscreen.

“Now here’s an odd one,” said Von cheerfully. “This is a microbe colony, comprised of a single type of microbe that moves about in clusters like this one. The rate at which the microbes die and new ones are born in their place differs depending on where they exist in the colony. The outer microbes die faster than those on the inside.”

“Why is that?”

“Maybe it’s a defense mechanism against the elements contained in Europa’s ocean, or perhaps it’s due to the cold temperature or oxygen concentration. The outer microbes act like a kind of wall to protect the microbes on the inside and adapt to their environment through the repeated process of reproducing and dying off. They may be in the process of becoming multicellular organisms. In a couple hundred years, this colony may evolve into a single life-form.”

Operating the screen from her own wearable device, Von brought up another image. “Not exactly my area of expertise, but here’s a recently discovered species of crustacean. It even made the news on Earth and Mars.”

“Looks like a crab,” Preda said.

“Exactly right. It’s called the
Europa crab
.”

“I wonder how they taste boiled.”

“I suppose that depends on their composition. If they contain high levels of ammonia, they won’t be good for eating.”

Von tapped a button, and a video of shimmering creatures came up onscreen. They resembled jellyfish on Earth, contracting and expanding their bell-shaped bodies as they drifted in the void.

“They really are soothing to look at,” said Kline.

“You should come to Europa and see them with your own eyes.”

“I think I will—just as soon as this is all over.”

Von worked in the lab on Europa. Her job entailed exploring Europa’s ocean in a research submarine to gather data on the water composition, current patterns, and marine life.

She and her assistant Ted visited Jupiter-I periodically to analyze specimens with equipment not available on Europa and to send reports back to Earth.

She and Kline had been friends for ten years.

Von had been twenty-seven when she first met Kline; she was thirty-seven now. Kline knew that Von had gone to college after having spent much of her youth working to earn tuition money, but she looked much younger than her actual age. People who did what they loved always seemed so youthful. Von’s features reflected mixed Asian heritage. She did not have the cool, well-proportioned features of an actress or model, but a kind of beauty that seemed both familiar and nostalgic.

“Will you be checking what we bring from our labs in the docking bay too?” Von asked. “I’m not crazy about anyone going through our cargo. We’ll be transporting organisms that need to be kept at controlled temperatures.”

“It’s a simple inspection, but I’ll let the security teams know to take extra care with your specimens.”

“I just don’t want anything to happen to our precious samples. Besides, we don’t have any suspicious types working in our labs. There’s no way the terrorists will come here by way of Europa.”

“Yes, but the cargo vessel coming from Europa is unmanned. It’s possible they might commandeer it en route.”

“En route? But that ship isn’t equipped to accommodate passengers.”

“We just don’t know how the terrorists plan to infiltrate the station,” said Kline. “Better to be safe than sorry.”

Von asked to have the run of one of the labs, as she usually did, once the cargo vessel arrived, to which Kline readily agreed. “You can reserve a lab through the system. I’m sure no one will bother you.”

“Thanks. I’ll be holed up for a while, but I’ll come up for air eventually.”

“Just make sure you eat. I remember that one time you forgot to eat for three days.”

“I lose all track of time when I’m working.”

“Now listen. I’ll arrange to have meals sent to the lab. You make sure Ted eats too. A man of his size won’t survive, even if you can do without a meal or two.”

“What about you?” Von asked Kline. “You look pale. Has something happened again?”

“Nothing new,” Preda cut in before Kline could answer. “Some of the Rounds are complaining about intrastation relations.”

“Tell me about it,” Von said.

Kline recounted the goings on inside the space station to Von, embellishing some details to humorous effect as she usually did. About how members of Shirosaki’s security team initiated friendly contact with the Rounds. And how that resulted in a quarrel.

“I see,” Von said, with a single nod. “You remember what happened to Veritas.”

“Well, yes.”

“Then you can’t allow this contact to continue. You’re only asking for trouble if you do.”

“I know. Fortia has repeatedly instructed the younger generation, so I assumed the Rounds understood. But some of them just can’t seem to suppress their curiosity,” Kline said. “And it’s no help that the Monaurals, who are just as curious, are the ones that inevitably instigate trouble.”

Von tried to stifle a laugh. “Maybe someone needs to do a better job of teaching the Rounds just how cruel and vicious the people outside the special district are.”