Every Man's Fantasy Ch. 26

Eva started to protest, but Joan continued quickly.

"... but so are most of the maniacs, mass-murderers, torturers and psychopaths."

Eva raised her arms in impotent protest, but she recognised a valid argument hidden inside Joan's teasing, which was the apex fallacy. Feminists were prone to say that the reason most physicists or chief executives were men was that 'society' discriminates against women; but they never said that the reason most criminals are men is that 'society' discriminates in favour of women. If there were biological reasons why men were more likely than women to be criminals, then there may be biological reasons why men were also more likely to be physicists and chief executives.

The fact that she could be driven to challenge a fundamental faith of her philosophy by Joan's silly tease had a profound impact on Eva. She silently examined the disturbing thought.

Danielle noticed that Eva had stopped talking. She believed that a woman at girly lunch who did not get her fair share of the conversation was like a guest who did not get her fair share of food. Danielle said to Eva:

"What are you thinking about?"

"You'll laugh if I tell you. You all mock me enough already."

"You can't deny us now. We'll explode from frustrated curiosity. I promise we won't mock you. Out with it."

"It's that I'm not sure how I fit in anymore, now that I've been expelled from the movement."

"You could try being a normal woman," Cassie suggested.

"A normal woman?" Eva asked.

"No offence meant," Cassie said.

"I'm not offended, Cassie, but I don't understand what you mean."

"A traditional woman," Danielle said.

"A genuine woman," Joan said.

"A genuine woman, Joan? Implying that feminists are artificial women?"

"Not artificial: man-made."

"Man-made?"

"Yes. Feminists are made by Karl Marx and he was a man."

"Ridiculous!" Eva laughed.

"Whatever we call ourselves, normal women, traditional women or genuine women," Danielle said, "you should try being one, Eva. You might enjoy it."

"You mean, like a housewife and mother?"

"More like a woman who drinks wine and gossips," Rosa said.

"Nothing dishonourable in being a housewife and mother," Joan said, ignoring Rosa. "The worst part of radical feminism is how contemptuous it is of women who want just to be wives and mothers. They consider them unintelligent and bovine."

"I never have," Eva protested.

"Besides, I think Danielle means the underlying womanly virtues," Cassie said.

"All right. I'll bite," Eva said. "What virtues does a traditional woman have that a man-made woman lacks?"

"Nurturing, building a family, patience, good-humour," Joan said.

"Endurance through adversity," Cassie said.

"Seeing the good side of men," Danielle said.

"Yes, and not resenting men for imagined privileges," Joan said.

Eva was enjoying the discussion and did not want an argument, but she had to know what Joan meant.

"Do you really think that feminists resent men for having abilities that women lack? That's like resenting men for being heavier or taller than women."

"Don't feminists complain that things are easier for men than for women?"

"Aren't they?"

"Sometimes they are. Sometimes they're not. Take Hendrik and Max, for example. Danielle admired their power of abstraction, which is a good thing, but the downside is that they're like overgrown children who need mothering. How can you resent their so-called privilege of being at the top of their professions when they haven't even ordered any food yet?"

Eva glanced over at the men, who sat at a bare table, engrossed in a series of equations projected onto the tablecloth.

She recognised a tiny element of truth in the accusation that she resented men. She admitted that feminists of her type did think that men as a group benefited from some kind of social privilege, of which every woman was a victim. As if rich, happy, successful and powerful middle-class women, like her friends at their girly lunch, were somehow excluded from something due to their biological sex.

Looking at Joan, Cassie, Danielle and Rosa, Eva saw respected members of a chivalrous and playful society in which women were adored, not abused or suppressed. Eva's theories crashed on the rocks of reality. There were no victims here. Rather, the women were equal to men in every way and sometimes superior. Socially, they were beneficiaries of the care and support of the men in their lives, which gave them an advantage that most men their own age lacked.

"Is the fact that two absent-minded men haven't ordered food yet supposed to bring out my nurturing instincts?" Eva asked.

"Yes," Danielle said. "Exactly that."

"Tell me what a nurturing woman would do," Eva said.

"She would go and help them, as if they were lost children."

"All right. I'll do it, but only to shut Danielle up."

Eva walked over to Hendrik and Max, straightening the mid-length skirt of her grey suit as she walked, her high heels clicking over the tiled floor.

Despite being expelled from the order, Eva still wore the feminist uniform of a business suit in conservative colours, plain blouse, high heels and long hair, preferably in a ponytail. She knew the tight dress and well-cut blouse suited her slim figure. The high heels bunched her calf-muscles, giving shape to her good legs. It also made her bottom stick out and raised her shoulders, pushing out her chest. She pretended she wore the uniform to feel 'empowered' (whatever that meant).

The small reality demon in the back of her mind, which she had hitherto suppressed as a reflex of internalised misogyny, now ran wild, calling out her delusions and cover-ups, telling her the truth: that the kind of power she really wanted was power over men, to attract them and make them admire her.

Because that thought amused rather than offended the new Eva, she greeted the men with a winsome smile.

"Hello, Hendrik," she said.

The men looked up and, with a small wheeze from the corpulent mathematician, politely stood.

"Hello, Eva," Hendrik said. "Max, this is Doctor Eva Welwyn. Eva, this is Professor Max Martlebury."

"How do you do, Professor? I'm a big fan of your work," she said.

"That's very kind of you to say so, Doctor Welwyn, but you probably mean my wife, Dorothy. She's the success story of our family."

"I already know Dot. She spoke at a conference I organised ten years ago. I meant your statistical reversion theory. I use it in my work."

"You're a social scientist? I'm glad to hear that my work on number puzzles has been useful to you."

"It has indeed. So may I be useful to you and recommend the sardines? They're particularly good today."

"Thank you, Eva," Hendrik said. "We've been so occupied with an abstruse cosmological problem that we forgot to order."

"Good Lord!" Max said. "That explains why I'm so hungry. Thank you for the recommendation, Doctor Welwyn. I'll order right away."

Her good deed done, Eva returned to the women at the girly lunch, though she was still in earshot when Max said to Hendrik:

"What a pleasant young woman! Has she been long at the Institute?"

"A month, though she visited us before."

"She's remarkably attractive, don't you think? I'm allowed to say that, you know, because I'm a grandfather."

"Is she? I hadn't noticed. Are we both having sardines?"

Eva had been what Joan called a 'genuine' woman for only five minutes and already two privileged men had offended her in two different ways. One man noticed her looks, thereby treating her as a sex-object (the worst possible outrage for a feminist). The other man, far from treating her as a sex-object, had not even noticed that she was 'remarkably attractive' (an instance of flattery that Eva was happy to bank and keep for later self-amusement). This was so much more offensive that it made her smile to herself again.

"What are you so happy about?" Danielle asked when she returned.

"Max thinks I'm 'remarkably attractive' but Hendrik didn't even notice."

Danielle laughed.

"So who's winning:" she asked. "The feminist outraged by Max or the genuine woman affronted by Hendrik?"

"I'll tell you when I've decided," Eva said, wisely.

******

Andrew Claydon returned to the Cloner City much impressed by all he had seen and done. Then followed a week of public meetings with Madam Gloria and the Advisory Council, always in public, allowing questions from an eager and pressing audience.

On the final afternoon, after another day of intense questioning and argument, Gloria invited Andrew to her room for a quiet supper, served by two of the Juniors, who left them alone to talk.

They sat on the balcony and were comfortable.

"Thank you for this," Andrew said. "Though I was willing to keep answering questions, I'm grateful for the chance to relax."

"You've been patient enough. You've earned a break from us on your last evening. Besides, those of us who don't want settlers to come here ..."

"Madam Lawspeaker, Madam Recorder and Madam Mirselene, for example?"

"Yes. They'll never be satisfied with your answers, however well you put them."

"I understand. Do you agree with them?"

"I'm very sympathetic to their concerns, even if our protest is useless. ... However, I didn't invite you here to go over the arguments again. I invited you here to get some peace."

"Thank you," Andrew said.

He relaxed in his chair and they were silent a few minutes, enjoying the view over the flat muddy delta, with its wide silver river rolling lazily out to the sea and the yellow sun setting on the horizon.

Breathing deeply, Andrew said:

"You know what I like best about Samothea?"

"Tell me."

"The noise."

"You like the noise?"

"Because it's mostly natural, not mechanical. ... Everywhere you go on an inhabited world, there's the sound of machinery. Maglev trains, hoverbuses, ground cars, jetcars. Atmospheric jets, stratoliners, spaceships. Boats, elevators, AC units. ... It's not always oppressive or loud, but it's persistent and ubiquitous. There's always a hum, a low-pitch rumble or a background hiss."

"Don't you cease to notice a persistent noise?"

"You do, like the tick of a clock. But the opposite also happens. When you get away from mechanical noises for long enough and hear only natural sounds - animals, insects, birds, the wind in the trees, the splash of a river - your senses are heightened not dulled. Because they're random noises, you don't adjust to them, you don't ever stop noticing them."

"Is that good?"

"It's healthy. It gives one a kind of balance to get away from the city and forget the background noises of man. The heaving of the waves or the rush of a waterfall may be louder than any human noise but there's a special peacefulness to them."

"I understand."

"I knew you would."

The shadows lengthened and the sun turned red. The wind picked up and a chill embraced them. Andrew breathed deeply again.

"I've been thinking about a compromise to propose to my company that might be more acceptable to the women of Samothea. However, there's no guarantee my company will accept it. My job was to find the best way to implement our settlement plan, not to change it. But if they accept my compromise, I would like to know that you approve it too."

"I'm happy to give you my opinion. I'll keep this conversation between us, until you permit me to share it with my sisters."

"Thank you. My idea is to make the inhabited part of Samothea a National Park: a reserve where the women of Samothea can make their own rules and new settlers can only visit but cannot live permanently without permission."

"I see."

"I know some of the Woodlanders' forest was already intended to be protected, where only temporary wooden buildings could be constructed and no concrete structures built."

"That's right. The same was true for the beach, up to 100 feet from the high-tide mark."

"So I propose simply to extend the protected area. The Park will embrace the whole forest, the plain and the Mariners' shore, all the way from the White Mountains, where the Farmers live, to the Southern Mountains, where the Herders graze their sheep. The northern boundary will be the river. Within that region, you'll be able to live your traditional lives and have full say over who comes to live in the Park."

"I'll be grateful to protect some of what we have."

"I think it will be better than merely protecting your society. Economists say that living conditions improve with population density, up to a point. When a city or country becomes too crowded, then the quality of life reduces again. My calculation is that a million settlers will be just the right number to make your planet richer and your lifespans longer by bringing you modern medicine and some technological comforts."

"I believe you but I cannot see us agreeing to unvetted settlers in such numbers or ever considering colonisation as anything other than a disaster. Though I know it won't change anything whether we accept or reject your compromise, if your company accepts it, I will do what I can to persuade my sisters to approve it too."

6 Paul Kessler

When Andrew came back to Celetaris, he sent his report to Outworld Ventures, saying what he saw and learned on Samothea. He also sent a long video message to his bosses, making the case for a National Park on the currently-inhabited parts of Samothea as a compromise.

His answer arrived within a week. Outworld Ventures rejected his compromise on two grounds. The company had a legal commitment to the descendents of the pioneer settlers and their 1,500 relatives who wanted to take up their ancestral stakes on the planet. Many of their portions of land would be within the National Park.

The other reason was the cost of maintaining the national park as undeveloped land, although it would cost the same to raise the living standards of the women there are those outside the park, where some industrial development was be possible.

It was a disappointment to Andrew. It meant that the original plan was to be pursued unchanged.

Danielle learned about the attempted compromise from Gloria. She thought it had been a good compromise, so she added it to the options for the planet's future if her team were able to buy Samothea.

The fact that Outworld Ventures was pressing ahead with colonisation meant it was time for the Project to make its bid. Assured that her part of the new technology was worth at least a few million Galactic Pounds, and with loan guarantees from the Women's Business Initiative, Danielle was ready to proceed. She began by discussing the proposal with the Project's lawyer, Paul Kessler.

Eva, Roger and Ezra met Danielle in Paul's office, where she began by telling Paul the history of their separate and anonymous approaches to Outworld Ventures and the positive responses they received. Now they needed to know what legal difficulties there might be in buying the planet.

"There are a few problems," Paul said. "You'll be responsible for policing all contacts between Samothea and the rest of the galaxy. It will be up to you to prevent the claim-jumpers, chancers, rogues and illegal miners from just turning up on Samothea and taking what they liked. Access to the planet is now relatively cheap and easy, thanks to Danielle's wonderful hyperdrive technology."

"Won't legitimate mining companies have to apply for a licence to excavate on Samothea?" Roger asked.

"Yes, but there are thousands of known planets and millions of moons and asteroids much nearer to Earth and not near a black hole emitting destructive x-rays. I can't see any of the big mining companies wanting to work on Samothea. It's the small-scale illegitimate miners who will rob your mountains of their minerals in secret. You'll never be able to stop them."

"On the other hand," Paul continued, "their depredations will be mere pinpricks. Samothea has four continents and two polar regions: millions of square miles of mineral-rich territory. The inhabited continent is really only a big island. The pollution caused by wanton industrial methods on the other continents won't be noticed."

"I understand that," Danielle said. "What matters to me is what happens to the women in the inhabited region of Samothea. How can I protect them?"

"If you want to raise the living standards of the women of Samothea and police the planet and trade-routes, but you won't sell a million stakes on the habitable continent, then you have to find another source of income or use up your capital."

"We need to make a success of owning the planet," Ezra said. "If we go broke and have to sell it to anyone who will buy it, then the women of Samothea will be even worse off."

"We know the costs of making life on Samothea viable," Danielle said, projecting a table of figures. "These are Andrew Claydon's calculations for the cost of importing plants and animals to make a long-term sustainable ecology; for rejuvenation therapies; nanobots for build the DNA protection from the x-rays; roads, houses and ports - all of them using heavier osmium shielding or built with mechanical devices, not electronic."

"The Women's Business Initiative will not cover the cost of every treatment," Paul said. "The economic costs of building an advanced infrastructure would be paid for by settlers if Outworld Ventures were the owner. For you, they are capital costs."

"For those settlers we want," Paul added, "there's the cost vetting. If Outworld Ventures do the vetting, they will check only medical and criminal records. But we want to judge potential colonists for their moral characters. Are they citizens in good standing, ambitious, hard-working, law-abiding, honest, reliable and decent? It will cost a lot of money and time to interview every applicant personally and to check their references."

"There's also political interference from Earth. Anglosphere authorities are pressing Outworld Ventures to take a strict line with Samothea in the hope of exercising control over the colony, forcing the settler company to accept mass settlement from poor countries on Earth. Outworld Ventures is rich enough to resist Earthside interventions for now. If you were the owners, I'm not sure you could resist the interference."

"Why?" Eva asked. "What leverage would they have over us?"

"The planet Samothea may be in breach of the anti-polygamy law. If so, then Samothea can be refused membership of the Anglosphere. This means no automatic free trade deal with Earth and the Homeworld colonies. The Outworld League, including Celetaris and New Exeter, might be happy to trade with Samothea, but it would cause tension with Earth. Who knows what the Sino-Russian sector may decide? They are notorious for stealing patents and copyrights, or slapping odd tariffs on imports at a moment's notice (and then complaining loudly if anyone retaliates)."

"Because the main industrial use of the planet at first will be mining, and mining ventures need to trade with the Anglosphere, polygamy may be the biggest problem of them all."

"Polygamy is illegal on Samothea," Roger said.

"True, but Ezra's multiple bedmates may be taken to represent de facto polygamy. At any rate, Earth politicians will press us on the issue, even more so if the ownership of the planet passes out of the hands of an Earth-based company into private hands on an Outworld colony."

"What's your conclusion, Paul?"

"It depends whether you have enough money to buy the planet outright. If not, then it would be very bad to load up with dept. Maybe some kind of compromise is possible if you could lease the planet from Outworld Ventures. They would be mad to turn you down if you take over some of their capital costs and employ them for fifty years to provide security and all the other services the planet needs. Everything for them will be profit. Our problem would be to afford the ongoing costs without selling a million stakes to settlers."