Odd Man Out

Note: this is a science fiction story about sex and love, not just erotic descriptions.

CHAPTER 1

I was sorry for the boy. To be so deformed and to be unable to have children. Still, he must be clever, or he would never have been sent to our school, where we, the elite, would be trained as priests for the most vital jobs in society.

It must have been so horrible for him in our class when we were told how babies were made, knowing that he could never be a father.

We made notes on our pads as the teacher explained with due reverence the technical details. Lucy sniggered, but I don't know why. It is one of the most wonderful things in the world. How pleased I would be to participate! Lucy-FR was the class bully: the biggest boy. It was his delight to taunt Eve about his deformity. But Lucy was quite clever, so the teachers did not see his cruelty and admired him. I had hit him once after he taunted me. He then beat me badly, but said I had started it, so he was admonished but I was punished.

The teacher intoned the holy words about X and Y chromosomes which were carried on the sperm from the penis, and how two chromosomes were needed. Tom-AS raised his hand, and asked what a chromosome was. The teacher was embarrassed and furious, of course. It is one of those words that are used by priests but no-one understands, not even the priests. Somehow the womb takes an X chromosome from one man's sperm and a Y chromosome from another, and produces a baby. It is a matter of faith.

Looking after the womb is the job of a midwife. The womb is a very complex machine and very, very old. It is perhaps only second in importance to the machines which produce the air inside the domes. To be a midwife to bring in the next generation was one of the highest duties of the priesthood. Being a nurse or a midwife was the ambition of many of the boys in the class.

It was when he said that the Y chromosome produced the penis, which was essential for life that Eve burst into tears and left the room. Of course, Eve had no penis, which is why his groin was always covered and he knew he would never have children.

"Adam-MR," said the teacher quickly, "go and see if he's all right."

Eve was sobbing, and I put my arms around him.

"Lucy was mocking me again!" he sobbed.

"There, there. Don't take any notice of Lucy. He's a gurl!" I was slightly shocked by my own bad language, and it made things worse.

Eve began crying harder. "No, no! I'm a gurl. A useless deformed freak! My parents wouldn't even give me their initials, so I'm just Eve. All the other boys named Eve have initials so that you can tell them apart, but I'm just apart from everyone. I should have been recycled at birth!"

There are only 50 names, of course. Two for each letter of the alphabet except X, and assigned by the wombs. I am Adam-MR because my fathers are Mary and Ralf. Eve's fathers had refused to take the baby, so he had no initials. The school register could not accept this, so he was officially Eve-XX. The teachers were kind enough to call him Eve, so as not to remind him of this, but not Lucy-FR, of course.

I tried to comfort him, but he continued, bitterly intoning the holy words.

"The penis is the mark of a man. Given for pleasure, to join two together, and the source of new life in the womb."

The full ritual included a further bit which no-one understood, not even the priests, though they pretended they did. Something else was the mark of a woman, whatever that was.

I acted as his protector against Lucy and his fellow bullies, so we both got hurt, physically and mentally.

Tom-AS was always a source of trouble. Not a bully, just someone who asked questions, who wanted to know why we did the things we did, how things worked. He was clever, but never satisfied with the standard answers or being told that faith was more important than understanding.

So one day he asked the teachers what would happen if the womb made a baby with two Y or two X chromosomes. The teacher replied in his usual exasperated way that it was impossible, both were needed to make a man.

But Lucy was clever and quick.

"You'd get a baby with two cocks!" he said. "Or a baby with none! A woman, like Eve!"

This time he was actually punished for bad language and blasphemy, but I was punished more for hitting him. But it was worth it! I had him down on the ground and was punching him as hard as I could. It was worth it when I was punished by the school. It was worth it, every time Lucy's friends hit me on the sly. I would do it again.

He and his friends now hissed "woman" when close to Eve. He sometimes hissed "gurl" back, and got a punch.

It was not long after this that Eve asked me to go with him to the doctor. He was bleeding from under his deformed genitals. He said it had happened once before, and he had put pads there until it healed up, but the bleeding had started again.

The doctor scanned and measured the blood and used some words we didn't understand, and conclude that Eve was a normal healthy female. We asked the nurse what a female was, and he said he did not know. He had never heard it before, but guessed it might be a holy word for the deformed genitals. However, the main thing was that Eve should be pleased that he was healthy. He tried adjusting the controls on the doctor, and got a display with words and diagrams which baffled us all. Eventually, all he could say was that the doctor recommended using pads or some other word he did not understand to control the bleeding, which would come about every month until the onset of some other word he did not know. This was apparently a side-effect of the deformed genitals, and he was sorry there was nothing he could do.

A year or so later, something happened to turn the tables. Eve had grown tougher, and was standing up to the bullies when one of them did the most disgraceful and hideous thing, and hit Eve in the groin. This was the worst thing you could do to a man. Eve did not blink, but hit him back and he collapsed.

"I'm a woman," said Eve. "No cock, no balls!"

The punches stopped, and Lucy was obviously afraid of Eve, but that didn't prevent him making snide remarks and taunts when he could.

Eve's chest started to get a bit sore and the area around his nipples began to swell. We went to the doctor. This time the nurse was pleased to say he knew what was wrong. There had been a similar case in another dome a long time ago, and nurses had been instructed. The doctor had detected an imbalance in hormones (don't ask what they are, please, the nurse said) and had given some injections which cured it.

Again the doctor said that Eve was a normal healthy female, so the nurse said it must be a side-effect of having no testicles, and he was sorry. He asked the doctor if surgery was possible, but the doctor said it was inappropriate except in cases of more words we did not understand, but an annual scan should be carried out.

The school permitted Eve to wear a top at all times and to shower separately in the staff facilities, so that the boys would not see his new deformity. He already kept his groin covered, of course. Tom-AS had once rudely asked if any scientists had examined Eve's deformity. I was angry and told him to mind his own business, but Eve said no, no-one wanted to see it. The nurse would always look away. His fathers had refused him, which was why he was plain Eve with no initials. He had been looked after by nursemaids, like all young children, but no-one had come to love him each day. The nursemaids were good machines, and the midwives had been kind, but not the same as fathers.

CHAPTER 2

Finally we were eighteen, and ready for mating and our final education. Some boys had not made the grade as priests, but we had been successful. Eve had top marks, and was allowed his choice of training as a midwife. Tom-AS was second in the class, and had applied to be a scientist. However, his questioning attitude had ruled him out, so he was sent to be a nurse. Lucy was going to be an administrator, like his parents and was grinning exultantly, unlike his two bully friends who were going to care for the atmosphere machines. (A vital job, of course.) I had just enough marks to get into the midwife class.

The next three months were called a prom, and were intended to help us find partners for reproduction. Some of the boys had already paired off, but now we were meeting boys from other domes and were encouraged to fuck them. The priests explained that mutual fucking was the whole basis of marriage, and marriage was essential to being a father. Only when we had demonstrated our commitment to each other over several years would we be allowed to deposit our sperms in a womb to produce a baby. It was not compulsory to find a partner at this time. Some did later and some never married at all. Many of the senior priests were unmarried, but fucked each other. The children they did not have allowed some lucky couples to have a third baby. Married couples, of course, only fucked each other.

Eve had been excused the classes in fucking, but had asked to attend. We had learned about correct techniques for hygiene and pleasing each other. Again and again, the importance of affection was stressed. It was not merely for pleasure but to build up love for each other and for the children which were to come. Thus, while we should try to fuck with as many young men as possible, there should always be respect, and we should move on if there was not sufficient affection, but look for the special one.

The prom meant a whole series of dances and social events, in which they were careful never to have more than one third of us together at one time. For the same reason there were three wombs and nurseries. As we had been told, hundreds of years ago a meteorite had struck the main dome during a celebration, and very few men had survived. Our ancestors had some knowledge that we have lost, and the wombs and doctors dated from then, but it had been difficult to get back to the present where all domes had a good number of people.

Most boys ended their education at 16 and started routine work in the domes or outside. Only the most academic were given a further two years before going to specialist training in their priestly roles. We were highly desirable marriage partners, and boys from all the domes would be eager to meet us. There was a tendency for trainee priests to marry other trainee priests, but mixing was encouraged. Often a boy would go back to someone from his home dome.

I fucked and sucked and was fucked and sucked a lot, and really enjoyed it. I felt real affection for some young men, and I could tell they were attracted to me, but I could not commit. Eve often encouraged me to go further with certain ones, saying he was handsome and affectionate and would make a good father. But all the time I knew there would only be Eve.

Eventually Eve spoke to me.

"Why don't you fuck me?" he said. "I have a perfectly normal anus. I'm sure you would enjoy it. I can suck you as well, any time."

"How could I?" I said despondently, "When you can't fuck me back, and I can't suck you? An equal relationship is the essence of marriage, we all know that."

"I know," he said, with tears in his eyes. "We can't be married, but I know I love you, and I wish you would fuck me at least once!"

"If we can't have a whole marriage, perhaps half a loaf is better than none," he added, sobbing. What a loaf was, no-one knew, but the saying was in one of the holy texts.

He was right, of course. His anus was just as enjoyable as any other man's, yet it seemed so special when I put my sperms in. We were both crying the first time, but I knew there could be no other. He genuinely seemed to appreciate sucking me and swallowing my sperms, but I was so sorry I could not do the same for him.

We went to see a marriage priest who said there was no requirement for both partners to have a penis, but we should understand that we would be forgoing the possibility of having children. There had been couples where one had had an injury which the doctors could not fix and was unable to produce sperm, but still loved each other and stayed together.

My parents were furious. Mary shouted at me. He is a big man, and quite intimidating, though he has never hit any of us.

"Equal ejaculations is the basis of marriage!" he shouted. "We fuck and are fucked. We suck and are sucked. We are equal fathers with our children. Anything else is blasphemy!"

He was both angry and tearful.

"Your brother Gillian is in a good marriage and has already had the first of his two children. How can you give up the joy of fatherhood?"

Ralf was more persuading.

"Look," he said. "We understand that Eve is your good friend, and there's no reason to stop that. But couldn't you find a nice young man, and perhaps Eve could be a friend to him as well?"

He lowered his voice. "Look, we don't talk about it, but there are married couples who fuck other men sometimes. So long as your partner knows, maybe you can fuck Eve sometimes, or maybe you both can, if Eve wants it. And somehow Eve can enjoy your children."

I guess things got a bit heated, because it ended up with Mary shouting again.

"That's it! You're no son of ours! You're no longer Adam-MR, just plain Adam like your freaky friend!"

They did not attend the marriage, though Gillian did, for which I was glad.

CHAPTER 3

It was good that we were doing the same classes. Midwifery was even more challenging than I had expected, but Eve seemed to have a talent for it. The midwife has a lot of technical work servicing and adjusting the womb. It is said to be the most complex machine on the planet. The womb itself helps by telling us what it wants, of course, but there are a lot of technical terms to learn, and some things which nobody understands. Very few people know about the cell tanks and their nutrients which go towards making the baby from the sperms. No wonder they need the best students to train, and I felt privileged to be in such an important position. Even if we would not have children of our own, we would be helping with the production of many more and the happiness of so many parents. Eve said it would be very satisfying. He had found an old word somewhere, which was associated with the word 'woman'. It was 'mother' and he thought it was like 'father'. Perhaps he could be a 'mother', a sort of father without a penis for the many children we would birth.

I had trouble holding the tears back as I agreed it was a lovely idea.

The midwife showed us many things. He got me to deposit sperm in the womb several times to demonstrate. The extraction system was extremely pleasant as well as the excitement that it was half the way to a baby. Eve said maybe I could get sperms from another man without being married to him and we could still be fathers. The midwife said that was not allowed. It was known that men fucked without being married, but sperm joining could only be done for married couples.

There was a special device which made things look larger and it was amazing to look through it and see that the sperms were not just a liquid, but actual individual things, obviously alive. The midwife said that each sperm had a mark on it like an X or Y and asked if we could see them. We tried, but could not.

"I have never been able to, either," he said. "But the midwife who trained me said he could, and the womb certainly can, which is why we get babies!"

Eve noticed that some sperms seemed vigorous, but others were still. He explained that the womb sorted out the best ones. However, in rare cases two men were not compatible for what it called genetic anomalies. No-one knew what this meant, except that they would not be able to have a baby together. They usually divorced and tried again with new partners.

Unlike the nurse, he had come across the word female, though he did not understand it.

"It is a category of name," he said. "Half the names are male, and half are female. There is one of each for each letter of the alphabet. Adam is male and Amy is female. Eve is female and Eric is male. The womb assigns each couple one male and one female name, for their babies, starting with a female. By the way, with each female name, a red light comes on here, and there is a message 'gender error, continue?' so you have to press Y on the keyboard."

"Something else to note," he added as an afterthought. "Every few months we get a message 'sub-optimal male/female ratio, restore gender balance?' Nobody knows what it means. It is just something holy. Press N, and it goes off. Whatever you do, don't press Y."

CHAPTER 4

The trouble with doctors is that if you ask for an explanation, they just give you more complicated answers with words which no-one understands. The swellings on Eve's chest had developed into quite embarrassing mounds, and his nipples seemed larger. He said they were quite sensitive in a strange way. The doctor said there was "excellent mammary development" with diagrams that the nurse had never seen before, and more words he had not heard. Despite exercising the same as me, Eve had some fat around his hips, but quite a narrow waist, giving an odd shape, which he tried to disguise with a big smock. Each time the doctor said that Eve was in perfect health and no medical action was required. He had been a little taller than me when he joined the class, but had not grown so much, so was quite short, but the doctor thought his height was fine.

Eve tried to hide the swellings from me, but I insisted I loved him just the same, and finally persuaded him to let us be naked together. Eventually I was permitted to feel his chest growths. He did not believe me when I said they were strangely nice, and I liked touching and feeling them. They were not quite like anything else I regularly touched, just nice handfuls with a bit of weight, soft and warm. So inviting to stroke or fondle. He admitted he liked me doing it. Partly it was because we were in love, so touching each other's bodies was comforting.

The more I felt them, the more wonderful they seemed. This was not a deformity it was an enhancement! Somehow it pleased Eve and it also gave me an erection, though we didn't know why. They were like nothing else, I thought. But I was wrong.

As part of our training we went to the nursery and were shown how the babies were fed with a special mixture, called milk. Obviously, babies are very small and easily hurt, and don't have teeth, so they are fed from soft thing that they can suck on. The technical name for this, we were told, was a tit. As I held it to check the temperature and nipple flow, I realised something. Eve was doing the same routine, and must have thought as I did. We looked at each other.

"Why have I got a pair of tits on my chest?" he whispered.

"I have no idea," I whispered back. "But I like them."

As soon as we were home it was obvious that I should try sucking the tits. I liked it and Eve liked it even more. We both enjoyed them most days, and it usually ended up with fucking.

CHAPTER 5

It was a mistake, a slip. Not intentional. The thing is that fucking Eve face to face was quite different to fucking a normal man. There was no penis and testicles to get in the way, of course, whereas the tits were very welcome to get in the way.

I was being perhaps too enthusiastic when my cock (yes, we agreed when it was erect it was a cock) missed. Instead of entering his anus, my cock pressed into the little hole where he bleeds each month.

"Sorry!" I said.

"No," he said, "don't be sorry. Do it again!"

I pressed and felt as if I was going in a bit.

"Harder!" he said "push harder!"

I did and he grunted. I was sure I had torn something, but he grabbed my hips and held me to stop me moving away.