Centaurs (Parallel Worlds) Page 13

  "How many of them are already in use?"

  "Not too many as yet because the process of converting them into the new breed, which Nick will explain in a minute, is very slow. But as they'd started with the oldest amongst them they now have no need to rush since they made sure to take care of the surgeons and scientists first."

  "Sons of bitches. Did you see any of them moving around?"

  "Yes, and I was startled when I saw the first real one because they look monstrous, with huge upper bodies that makes them look awkward. And the females all look even worse because their naked breasts are almost as huge as our udders, which they expose proudly even though they're quite flabby. But the worst were the few children I saw, who aren't just ugly but possess clear nasty expressions on their faces."

  "In other words, they display their parents' meanness openly on their faces?"

  "I'd guess so. They're being doted on by everyone and are spoiled rotten."

  "Yuck." Nick said with a shudder. "They look truly hideous, but so do all the Gogians even before their surgery. Didn't you know that they did?"

  "The ones who recruited us were of the lesser breed," Jenny explained. "Who were about our own size so we thought them just ugly. We never saw any of their females so we didn't know how they looked, and since our arrival here all we saw were the doctors, who we always thought were the ugliest creatures in the world. That was why we called them Gogians, you know."

  "I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as the saying goes. I need to correct you about something, and that is that we don't rate being treated by physicians and our doctors are actually veterinarians."

  "Another indignity, but I guess that's the least one of them."

  "In any case, I spent a long while in the medical center and was able to watch one of the surgeries, which was quite gruesome so I won't relate any of it to you. In my wanderings through the hospital I found that there are now fifty conversions staying there at all times, who leave after a month of testing and recuperation. I'd also checked on the number of embryos they have in storage which, for a reason that I hadn't found out, is located in an underground facility quite far from the hospital, and found that they number about fifty-thousand by now, which they defrost and install in artificial wombs at the rate of fifty a day currently."

  "I would've thought that they have a lot more than that by now after so many years of removing them from us."

  "They did, but during the civil war all stocks were destroyed during the fighting and they had to start from scratch once the survivors arrived here."

  "Then why are they continuing the embryo removals if they have so many of them again by now?"

  "Because, and I'm sorry to tell you that the embryo survival rate of defrosting is less than fifty percent."

  "God almighty, those murdering savages really deserve to die. But what will we do with so many of the remaining ones once we take over, Nick?"

  "We should use them as a basis for our future population, Jenny, and defrost and raise them to birth after we find the means to do that more efficiently, which I promise you that I'll be able to develop the necessary safe technique."

  "I believe you will, Nikki, being the genius that you are."

  Nick chuckled. "Never mind that, Jenny. The fact is that in my day scientists and researchers came up with such expertise and have been experimenting successfully on animals since they're prohibited from doing it with humans."

  "Very sensible and humane approach. Why are they doing it, though?"

  "It started out as providing the means for couples who can't have children to have them outside the woman's womb. I considered it quite gruesome but others accept the procedure out of their desperate need to have children. In any case, I'd already copied the procedure for our own use, which we'll start on once we get to the point that we feel that it's safe."

  "How long a gestation period do they go through?"

  "Same as your natural born children, twelve months. Which means that we'll have to limit pregnancies for a while so that we don't get overwhelmed by babies around here."

  "Not to worry about that because we'll control it tightly. How many yearlings do they have that are ready to be operated on?"

  "About a thousand, with five-thousand younger ones of various ages from three months to a year, and about three-hundred from newly born to toddlers who are being cared for by a group of older ones who, lucky for them, suffer from some defect that rendered them inoperable."

  "How do they keep and feed so many of them in one place?"

  "Food-wise they have no problem with since we produce more than enough, but the housing is a bit tight and uncomfortable for everyone."

  "So we need to move quickly to improve their living conditions and before too many of our kids become hybrids."

  "I agree, and I'm sure everyone does." Marty said. "But we must wait until our latest batch of embryos are removed."

  "Why wait?" Arvin wanted to know.

  " That'll be a disaster, Arvin, because we mustn't incapacitate all our women with pregnancies at this crucial time."

  "Oh, I get your point. Okay, so we'll have to wait five more days before we get to kill the bastards."

  "Which is also good for the women because that's when we're supposed to start taking our medications again, which we won't. And that'll also stop our lactating process so that our breasts and udders will dry out to become normal."

  "And we'll all start behaving like human beings? Sounds great to me."

  "Then let's discuss the procedures we'll use to eliminate the Gogians. What kind of milk do they get, how much of it, and when is it delivered to them, Dave?"

  "Their preferred kind is fresh mare's milk, which we put in twenty fifty liter cans that are picked up nightly by a truck driver for drinking the next morning."

  "The mares produce that much milk every day?"

  "Yes, because they're attached to the milking machines twenty-four hours a day, with enough left over to produce a variety of cheeses."

  "How about the human milk from our breasts and udders?"

  "It's only served to the kids in the medical compound." Nick answered.

  "I never understood why we deliver most of it daily because Gogians have a strong dislike for it, particularly our breast milk. But now that Nick told us about it I understand their need for it--udder milk for the grown ones and breast milk for the newly born."

  "How about people with lactose sensitive stomachs who can't drink regular milk?"

  David showed surprise. "You know about such things? Well, I guess you do. We produce soy milk for them and ship ten gallons of it daily. From your question I gather that you're concerned about some Gogians escaping our wrath on the day of reckoning arrives."

  "Not exactly because I'm quite sure that if there are escapees, any of the slow dying survivors who sees one who isn't will kill him in anger, most likely thinking that he was responsible for everyone's deaths. What I'm concerned about is that someone like that might blame our people for killing his people and might start shooting or throwing a bomb into the children compound."

  "That's a frightening idea. How do we prevent that from happening?"

  "By setting up a squad of people, some who'll sneak into the compound during the night, and the others will take up strategic positions all over town from where they can observe anyone with malicious intents. I'll guide them to the compound armed with the weapons that I'll steal in the next few days and give everyone a lesson in firing them."

  "You'll need some of us oldies who had handled firearms in the past." Sue said. "Like me, for instance, who was a pretty good shot in my day."

  "I guess you're right about that, so please assemble a group of as many people who'd served in the army or navy but don't tell them anything until we go. I'll have a map ready that I'll print off the computer for us, pinpointing everyone's positions."

  "Yes, sir, General. Consider it done."

  "Good. There's another issue we need to discuss before
we end the meeting, which is the disposal of dead Gogians. We have a couple of options in this regard--let them lie where they fall and rot until there's nothing left but skeletons. The other is to clean the city of all the bodies by dropping them into a quarry that I saw a few miles up the coast, for which there's plenty of vehicles for us to use to carry them over."

  "How about using a combination of both?" Paula suggested. "We'll have plenty of manpower to drag the dead from their homes or offices out to the street and dump them in piles, then burn them right there."

  "I think your idea is a great one, Paula, because this way we'll only have the stench of the burnings for a week, after which the air in Heraklion will return to normal. And there are lots of bulldozers to push the ashes and bone remnants into the bay at a spot where the sea is quite deep. So, everyone, let's decide how to do it."

  "Marvelous problem we got, deciding how to dispose of the monsters." David said with a chuckle. "I agree with Paula's option because this way we'll be able to settle in a ready-made city with all the living conveniences that we'd like to have available to us. I'll be able to provide you with at least one-hundred able bodied people as a cleanup crew who, I'm sure, will be delighted to remove the filth from their new home town."

  When everyone nodded their agreement, Marty added. "We'll be able to increase the size of your crew with quite a few kids from the compound who are over one year old, who I'm sure will be happy to help as well."

  "No doubt. And we'll bring the youngest ones over here to care for in vehicles from Heraklion and the horse-drawn carts that we'll use to bring the cleaning crew over."

  "Excellent idea."

  "And speaking about horses," Sue said. "What are we going to do with them, and all the other farm animals that we have and will no longer need for feeding thousands of Gogians?"

  "Let's talk about the horses a bit later. For now, though, we have to decide what to do with our domesticated food animals. Got any ideas, Dave and Sue?"

  David spoke first. "Slaughter most and can them for future use as our numbers grow, but most importantly we need to prevent the remaining herds and flocks from continuing to regenerate. The result of Which'll mean that we can cut cultivated fields and orchards to bare minimum for a while, and that'll reduce our workforce needs substantially."

  "That'll be great because once we're on our own they'll need to be retrained in other occupations. What do you think of Dave's ideas, Sue?"

  "I fully agree with him but we need to plan the reduction carefully, phase by phase."

  "Agreed. Now about the horses, which we must stop killing and castrating right now."

  "We'd already started on it last night."

  "Good. Then how many horses do we have in all categories?"

  "One-hundred gelded males, three-hundred stallions, two-hundred breeding mares, one-thousand milk mares, and five-hundred of both genders under a year of age."

  "Why so many young ones?"

  "As a pool to replace deceased ones in all categories, and as food source of tender meat for the Gogian nobility."

  "What's the mortality rate among the milking mares?"

  "We lose an average of five a day, which we slaughter at a first sign of weakness."

  "What will you do with the enfeebled ones now that you no longer send them to the slaughterhouse?"

  "We hadn't had time to consider it yet, so we put yesterday's group in a small corral far from the main group and to our surprise, none died by this morning and seemed to have gained some strength and energy. The problem is, though, that after five years of being attached to a milking machine twenty-four hours a day and setting their system to produce milk ceaselessly, their udders had swelled enormously. So much so, that it literally leaks out of their teats in continuous rivulets. It must hurt them terribly, but we didn't dare milk them because we're afraid that it won't solve the problem, and hope that a few days without being milked might start them on drying out."

  "Just as we will, I hope. But I was under the impression that they live longer than that."

  "You got it from Angie? We don't tell the young ones too much of the truth for fear of unhinging their minds. Anyway, five years is very long and hard on even the strongest body, and some don't last even that long. But if we don't replace them how will we get even the small amount of milk that we'll need?"

  "Since we'll barely have any requirement for it for quite a while, all that we get from the current mares should be pasteurized and stored until it's needed."

  "What does that mean?"

  "Oh, sorry. It's a process that eliminates all harmful bacteria from it."

  "We have such a process, which also can keep it fresh for years."

  "I'm glad. In the meantime, don't replace any mare on the milking line, and only draw their milk once a day so their strain will lessen. No estrus enhancing drugs to any of them, of course. Now tell me why we need so many geldings."

  "Because we tend to all the farm work needs with them--plowing and transportation needs."

  "Are you saying that nothing here is mechanized?"

  "Correct, with the exception of the pumping equipment."

  "Okay, for the time being add the stallions to the labor contingent, and tell them that if they have a problem with working we'll castrate them as well. They'll understand you perfectly so I doubt any will object, but keep them well away from the mares. All the rest should be released out to the wilds where they'll have to learn to fend for themselves."

  "Isn't that cruel? There are a lot of predators out there, who'll have a feast on them."

  "Like I said, they'll have to learn to take care of themselves. In my old days we had thousands of hardy wild horses who roamed freely in an area we called the Southwest. I guess our predators here will cull the weak ones and the remaining horses, smarter than any other breed in the world, will adapt quickly or be eaten."

  Jenny burst into laughter. "By God, Marty, it's unbelievable how you got the right answer to everything. And the way that you'd literally taken over as though it's a right to command given you by some deity. Please don't misunderstand me and think that we resent it, but it's really fascinating to watch you in action."

  "Sorry, everyone, but command is a natural trait with me, which I'd developed in fifty years of active service in the military. So if I ever get out of line I would appreciate it if you slap me down."

  "Nonsense." Arvin said. "Not only are you a natural commander but your mental abilities are by far superior to anyone I'd ever met. In fact, I'd like us all to take a vote to make you our chairman."

  When everyone nodded their agreement, Marty smiled. "Thanks for your kindness and the honor you do me, but you can't do that."

  "Why?" Jenney demanded.

  "Because you want to turn this unusual colony into a democracy, where the top executive is voted in by the population. And as is customary in such systems, the president appoints a cabinet to help her govern. So, as president of the Board you can appoint me a general and your military commander and member of your cabinet, which I'll accept with great humility."

  Jenny looked around the room, and smiled when everyone raised their hands. "So voted, General." She declared and pounded the gavel.

  "Thank you all. I'll do all I can to justify your trust."

  "As the undeclared assistant to our Commander in Chief," Nick said and everyone burst into laughter. "I'd like to bring up a few issues that must be discussed before we go further. The first is that once the use of the sexually enhancing drugs is withdrawn, people will tend to become monogamous and pair up permanently."

  "What makes you say that?" Sue asked.

  "A lifelong study of what we called social science, Sue. And the reason for my statement is that once such pairing results in the birth of a child such a bond will mostly becomes permanent."

  Sue's face lighted up. "Are you suggesting that our people will want to get married like we used to do in the old country?"

  "Pretty much so. Not necessarily religiously,
but at least in a civil ceremony."

  "Then count us as the first in line to get married." David said with a chuckle after looking at Sue, who nodded. "But who will administer the official marriage office and register?"

  "I suggest Paula be in charge, but since I intend to throw more tasks at her she'll need to choose someone as registrar to do the actual job."

  "Thank you, Nick. I'd love to do that."

  "We'll discuss it in more detail after I download a proper operating manual from my old home town."

  Paula looked shocked. "You can access your old world on our computer?"

  "Yes, after our computer genius general had fiddled with the system."

  "Then you can glean from it a lot more information that us oldsters aren't familiar with?" Jenny asked.

  "Absolutely. Like how to govern and such. Actually, I'd like Marty to do the same thing to both yours and Paula's computers, and after she does that I'll teach you how to search for any subject matter you'll need to study."

  "I was overly presumptuous to offer to teach you both how to operate a computer, wasn't I?"

  "That was a great kindness you did us, Paula." Marty said. "Sure, Nikki, I'll get on it right after we get back from lunch. But ladies, it'll have to be absolutely secure with a complicated password that no one will be able to unravel."

  "Of course."

  "One more subject before we go to lunch." Nick said. "If we're going to become a proper democracy we need to adopt an economic system to fit it, with its first tenet being a just monetary system."