A Holocene Affair

Silence.

"You've all been asking yourselves this since day one. Hell, at least the media asked it out loud. But all of you, you scientists, academics and scholars, you've been silent. So you can say your above such tawdry business. Obviously my actions were the right ones in retrospect, were they not? But that's not the point. The point is that I did it first. Without knowing. How could I? It took several days for Dem to speak enough English to bridge any kind of communication gap at all. So why? Why would a post-grad submit to interspecies intercourse within hours of meeting the first live Mok in twenty-thousand years?"

The room was still silent. Even Dr. Harrison was riveted.

"The answer is simple, yet uncomfortable, because within it lies your right to judge me. To value me according to your privilege and perception. Just as Dr. Harrison has so blithely done before he even arrived and just as my fellow countrymen have done since this god-damned story broke ten years ago."

Harrison regained his voice. "Don't presume to put words in my mouth-"

"Shut up, Dr. Harrison. You have nothing of value to add to this conversation. Your only function now is to exist as exhibit A. The privileged patriarch, sitting in judgment. You, and everyone like you, have tormented me for the last decade over this question. So here it is. Here's the answer you've all been waiting for."

Everyone stared, almost swaying on my words. Even Jenna. Even David. Only Miriam seemed unfazed.

"Yes. Yes, I am. I am a whore. By society's standards, I'm exactly what they said I was. The first time Dem indicated his needs to me, I was fearful of my safety, but once he fed from me the first time, I was hooked. Despite his species. Despite everything.

"I did some of what I did to save his species. Because it was, and remains, the right thing to do. That should be obvious, even if not scientific. We have more of a duty to our world than merely to understand it. More than to stand idly by while we watch it and its people, die and catalog the cause.

"So yes. I fucked a Mok. Loved it and would do it again. In addition to saving his people, I enjoyed every moment with Dem. I'm sure you've all seen the studies and test subjects. It's a no-brainer that the Mok existed and evolved in tandem with humanity. Their inclusion and intertwining with our reproductive cycle, as well as ours with theirs, makes sense of a great many mysteries of the human body that confounded us for years. Especially the female sexual response. Dem makes a mockery of the notion that sexual pleasure is some kind of evolutionary accident. And as a side-note, I heartily recommend spending time feeding a Mok. It beats any device you've ever used, hands down. To say nothing of any man."

This time there was a distinctly feminine chortle that echoed through the room.

"That being said, the real question was not whether I was a whore, but if I am right or wrong to be such. Is it moral for a woman to copulate with a difference species, however intelligent? That's a great question, however, it is one that a woman has to answer for herself. So for all the men out there looking to pass judgment, you can sit down. The days of the compliant nice girl are over.

"The Mok are the harbingers of the doom of the patriarchy. Once they are released from the prison of study and isolation at Cambridge, they will spread throughout the world, reproducing and cohabiting with willing women. Those women will begin to understand the power of the symbiosis with the Mok. No longer will they fear rape, complications of pregnancy, lack of birth control, or even fundamentally, the inequality of the sexual experience.

"I do not believe the ability to make a woman cum is the Mok's primary gift to the world. But we would be foolish to ignore it. It was Dem's ticket into me and will be the Mok's ticket into a resurgence in the world.

"At long last, humanities long dark of isolation will end. We will not be alone in the universe. We aren't even alone on earth. With that in mind, Mok rights will come to the forefront. Mok themselves will become scientists and they will share with us the long task of unlocking the mysteries of the universe.

"For that to happen, though, we are going to have to get past whether I, or any woman, enjoy the presence of a tentacle within our vaginas. The Mok are not animals. They can consent. And so can we."

My composure began to break at last. "If anyone is recording this, please..." I took a deep breath. "Tell Dem I miss him. If he is ever given his freedom, I'd love to see him again."

To the room at large;

"I reject my shame. I will not apologize. Damn those who judge without knowing and damn the Paulsons of the world. I've had enough of this place and unasked questions. I'm going home with my wife. When the world is ready to offer equality to women and the Mok themselves, they can come to me. Until then, I'm done."

I turned my back on the crowd and left the overturned podium. Before I even made it back to the curtain, the applause was deafening.

The End