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transition was complete and then took Eden to my room and showed him. It was
safe enough; Rome was off playing baseball or possibly soccer, and my parents
respected my growing need for privacy.
Eden was fascinated; he wanted to touch me, and of course it didn't stop at
that. We knew and respected the taboo on real sex, and on his first
M-mode segment Eden couldn't have done much of anything, anyway, but well, we
played around with each other a certain amount and enjoyed it quite a lot! It
felt very strange, having our sexes reversed from what they'd been all our
lives, but oddly enough it seemed to give us both a better grade of confidence
than we'd had before.
Then in another fortnight, when Eden went F again, we met and compared notes.
But didn't play around, any more than we'd done when we were both M. Eden
said, "It's too bad we're so far out of phase. If we were to get married when
we grow up, we couldn't be real mates more than about half the time."
I had to agree. Because, when we were both in the same mode, somehow things
just weren't the same between us.
When my F-mode ended, I was busy and didn't see Eden immediately.
Dr. Gill had talked me into sitting in on her counseling sessions, to prepare
the younger kids for their own changes. Earlier I'd refused, because I felt so
bad myself that I knew I couldn't help. Now, though, I
could.
So it was several days before Eden and I resumed our rather innocent sex play.
But then it was fun for both of us, being back in our familiar roles.
It didn't last, though. One afternoon Eden showed signs of the start of
menstruation. When we noticed them, we stopped our activity, and after we
talked a little longer, she went home.
The next day my M-mode began to end. Nearly two weeks early! When I
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was certain of what was happening, I knew I had to report the change to
Dr. Gill.
And that, of course, gave the doctors most of the answers they'd been looking
for.
Chapter Thirteen
"Pheromones," said Mareth Fallon. "Dollars to doughnuts, it's a pheromonic
trigger."
Kennet Bardeen gestured. "How much is that in English?" He'd heard the term
and had a vague idea what it meant, but somehow this didn't seem the time for
vagueness. Judging by Rog Forrest's expression, the other man wasn't having
much luck, either.
Bardeen was smiling; Fallon grinned back. "Pheromones carry chemical
communication within a species. Through the sense of smell,
ordinarily although the odor may not be noticed consciously. Moths tend to
find their mates that way."
He nodded. "Yes, I see. So that's what brings dogs from blocks around,
when the puppy has her first heat. Which is all well and good, but what does
it have to do with Troy Hagen changing back to female two weeks early?"
"Estrus."
"Some M-Two girl was having her period? I don't see how that would apply. And
besides, I thought we'd convinced those kids to use restraint for a while."
Fallon shrugged. "Would it have done much good to tell you that, at his age?"
It had, in fact, but he didn't say so. Fallon continued. "He said they weren't
copulating, just "playing around." "
"And what do you suppose he meant by that?"
"Nothing sophisticated, I'd imagine; probably the usual groping adolescent
caresses. I didn't ask for details. But with no clothing in the way, the
pheromones could diffuse freely."
Before he could speak, Gill did. "It fits; my own oncoming period must have
been what caused him to change, the first time."
Bardeen nodded. "All right, then. How much do we know, and what more can we
deduce?"
I'll hand them this much: as soon as they had anything figured out, or thought
they did, they told us. Which was a good thing; we all felt insecure enough
already, without having our imaginations running riot for want of available
facts.
Individual cycles, undisturbed, seemed to run steady; the lengths ranged from
fifty-four days to sixty. The two transitions, during which we were
effectively neuter, accounted for approximately five of those days; the rest
were evenly divided between M and F.
It turned out that for any one person the duration of the F-mode phase was
invariant; nothing could change it. But exposure to another person's estrual
pheromones would invariably trigger an M-mode person into the
M-to-F change. Of course the exposure had to be rather intimate.
What this meant was: well, my cycle was fifty-six days; Eden's was
fifty-eight. So later, when we were fully together, I would be in M-mode, with
Eden in F, about a day longer than the other way around.
It wasn't a difference that bothered either of us.
At seventy-four, Thane Cogdill was obviously not ready to retire from his
chairmanship, but the Foundation's bylaws said he had to. With considerable
sympathy for the man who had done so much for his own career, Bardeen in his
new role as Chairman pushed through an unprecedented authorization: Cogdill
went on salary as a special advisor to the Board, privileged to attend
meetings and speak, but not to vote.
Once all the moving was done, Bardeen hosted the older man in Cogdill's former
office. "Bourbon?"
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"Thank you, Kennet. And not only for the drink."
As they lifted glasses, Bardeen smiled. "No thanks needed. I value your
advice; I won't willingly do without it."
"Kind of you to say so." Certainly the man was taking the change gracefully.
Now Cogdill leaned forward. "I've read Fallon's reports."
"Good. Any suggestions?"
"I'm not sure. Kennet, do you see some of the same problems I do?"
"Such as? I mean, the youngsters seem to be handling their difficulties well.
With the help of Fallon and her people."
Cogdill set his glass down hard enough to slosh a few drops onto the desk.
"Now, sure. I'm talking about later. And about questions I haven't seen
raised."
Bardeen spread his hands. "The floor's yours, Thane. What do you see that I
don't?"
Looking through his notes, afterward, Bardeen had to admit that
Cogdill had come up with some queries everyone else had overlooked.
Were the Mark Two kids interfertile or were they "mules"? Of course it was out
of the question to impregnate barely pubertal F-mode children but what about
in vitro fertilization and then, possibly,
implantation within a volunteer surrogate mother?
And would the M-2's breed true? It might pay to find out as soon as possible.
What would, happen if or when an M-2
did get pregnant? Fallon's logical deduction was that since pregnancy stopped
menstruation, which induced the F-to-M transition, the pregnancy would proceed
normally. If
"normal" could be said to apply, at all, with respect to Humanity, Mark
Two.
Could Mark Two males impregnate Mark One females? If so, what kind of
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