Sex Culture in the 23rd Century Ch. 03

"So much the better," said Maoina. "We need her to be a little confused right now. More importantly, we need her to accept nudity around other women if she has to walk the path we have prepared for her."

"I will do my best," said Janet.

"For the Community. Remember, Community is you and me, us and we." said Maoina, giving her a knowing look, before breaking contact.

Over the next five days, Janet continued to show them the wonders of the modern world. One evening, after a full day of activities, she took them to a holographic laser show at the Worker Built and Worker Inspired Equality Planetarium. She had them lay down on the couches in the dim light, as other visitors were doing. Each couch had a mask.

"What is this?" said Fredrik, pointing to the mask.

This was a crucial testing point. Janet tried to be as casual as possible. "It's your Weed mask."

"Weed mask?"

"To see the laser show."

"Why do we need a mask to see the laser show?" Fredrik was questioning. Too questioning. Knowledge was a burden for others. This should have been handled by last night's SleepTalk.

"So you can breathe in the Weed," said Janet.

"Weed. That's a word I've heard before," said Manu. "What is it?"

"Originally, Weed was a plant that people used to relax, for recreation," said Janet. "Over the centuries we've improved upon it, producing synthetic Weed."

"Synthetic Weed?"

"In many different forms: pills, liquid, chewables, suppositories, ear inserts-"

"Ear inserts?"

"Oh, it gives you quite a buzz in the ear," said Janet. "What you see here are the mask dispensers for the gas form. It helps you appreciate experiences like this one."

The room darkened measurably. "They're about to start," said Janet, sitting back on her own couch. "Put your mask over your face. It's for your own good!"

The laser show began, with yellow lasers darting out over the ceilings of the planetarium. Janet saw Manu put the mask over his face tentatively. He breathed in, and his expression changed. He slumped back on the couch, watching the lasers contently.

One.

Rowenka, seeing Manu do it, put the mask on her own face and gave it a tentative inhale. A dazed smile broke out over her face, and she lay back with it as well.

Two.

Laura, seeing the other two do it, looked at Fredrik, who hadn't yet done it, and seemed to struggle for a moment. She looked at the outlines of the mask. Try it, it will feel good, she heard something inside herself tell her. She seemed to remember a dream (or was it several dreams?) where she tried it and it did feel good. Laura tentatively put the mask on. She breathed in. Suddenly, she didn't have a care in the world. She lay back and watch the lasers.

Three.

Fredrik, seeing what Laura had done, put the mask over his own face. He took a breath and then relaxed.

Four!

But then Fredrik reached up, weakly, it seemed, and took the mask off.

Janet got up and went over to him. "Fredrik, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," said Fredrik. "I just want to enjoy the show without the mask."

"But the mask makes things better."

"I don't want to use the mask," said Fredrik.

"All right," said Janet. "After all, the choice is always yours." The key phrase caused Fredrik to relax.

Janet retreated to her couch.

The laser show was spectacular, with lasers in yellow, orange, green, red, purple, blue, and every other color imaginable sparkling in three dimensions. Laura, Manu, and Rowenka enjoyed it immensely, as they began to get hooked on their first dose of Weed.

Fredrik, though, could be a problem.

********

Rowenka was having a great time. But she also started to feel like something was nagging at her, and she couldn't put her finger on what it was. One night she and Manu made love, and it felt good, like it always did, but something was... missing. It was as if Rowenka had discovered that there was a new emptiness within her, something that needed to be filled. She didn't know what it was, not exactly, but she sensed Manu was not capable of filling it.

Manu felt the same way. He always was passionate when making love to Rowenka. But while he felt the same physical sensations, he also felt that it could be something... more. It was as if their lovemaking, between the two of them, was the ingredients in a stew, and they needed something else to spice it up, but weren't quite sure what what missing.

Still, Manu smiled at Rowenka, and Rowenka smiled at Manu, as he mounted her and stared into her eyes as he made love to her, in tender, sweet New Caledonia style.

When they had finished, and they lay sweaty against each other, Rowenka spoke, in a small voice. "What about birth control?"

"What about it?" said Manu.

"What if I get pregnant?" she said.

Manu looked at her. "Honey, this would be the most wonderful place to have a baby."

Rowenka felt love in her heart for Manu.

He stared into her eyes and ground his lips passionately against hers, stifling all further debate on the matter.

********

Fredrik and his friends saw more sights over the next few days. Each day, as the dosages in their food was increased, and there was more and more opportunity for SleepTalk, they started to fit in better and better.

"Time for lunch, anyone?" Janet said.

By the end of the sixth day, they were exhausted, and awestruck. They had seen more amazing things in a week than they had in their entire lives.

That night Laura was lying in bed with Fredrik. It was good. It was always good. But something nagged at her.

"Did yew tell Nana... before you left?" she asked.

Fredrik shook his head. "I left her a note."

"I did the same with Ma and Pa. I never got a chance to say goodbye to my sistars, neither." Laura had two younger sisters.

"What are yew thinking?" Fredrik asked.

"I'd lyke to write them a lettar, or something. Just to let them knauw I'm okay," said Laura. "No, more than that, to let them knauw how wonderful it is hear. Maybe they'll want to come. Wouldn't that be nyce?"

"Nana would nevar come," said Fredrik, fondling the outlines of Laura's small, Southeast Asian breasts with his hands absentmindedly. They weren't huge, but he liked them, because they were a part of Laura.

Fredrik remembered how Nana had violently warned him off coming here. He couldn't understand why. OrgyFree and the United States of the Americas was a paradise. He could never go back to living a primitive life in New Cal after spending a week here.

Laura looked up at him, mindful of his hand on her breasts. "But wouldn't it be nice to let her know that you're ok, that we all are?"

"Yes, it would," said Fredrik. "But I don't see how we can get a message out."

"Janet tells me tomorrow after we're done touring, that we're going to see Maoina," said Laura. "She's important. She'll find a way, if we ask her." She looked more intently at him. "Promise me you'll ask."

Fredrik looked down, and kissed her.

"Promise me?"

He kissed her again. "I promise."

********

The next day, their seventh in OrgyFree, they had their last day of exhaustive touring, visiting the Giant Trees of Diversity in the United We Stand Forum, and then had a relaxing afternoon at the Exemplary Workers' Pleasure Palace. That evening, Janet Taco Bell brought them back to see Maoina Bin Laden.

"Why hello, how are you? I'm fine," said Maoina. She smiled broadly. "It's so good to see you again, my young friends. So now that you've been here a week, how have you all been fairing?"

"It's been great!" said Fredrik.

"Extraordinary!" said Laura

"Simply wonderful!" said Rowenka.

"The advenchar of a lifetime!" said Manu.

"Not an entire lifetime, I hope, Mr. Enterami," Maoina smiled. "This week has been an adjustment period for you, but next week will be different." She paused to let that sink in. Their SleepTalk had already started preparing them, but she wanted to see their reactions.

"We're going to start our jobs," said Fredrik.

"Yes. I'm sure you must be apprehensive. Don't be," said Maoina. "And calling them jobs is not precisely accurate. We don't subscribe to the outdated capitalist system of worker and employer. Here everyone has a purpose, a purpose which serve the Community. We feel satisfaction not by making money, but by serving the Community."

"So... we don't get paid?" Fredrik asked.

Maoina laughed. "Oh, of course you do, Mr. Diem. Even in a Marxist paradise, one could not do without currency. You will earn quite handsome salaries, by the way. Madison?"

Maoina's assistant, a young blonde woman named Madison Alibaba, read from a datapad. "200,000 Malcolm X Dollars, and 40 Lenin cents, on an annual basis."

"Two hundred thousand dollars?" said Fredrik. "Which of us gets that?"

"Each of you will," said Maoina.

"We oll perform different... roles, and we oll make the same money?"

"Of course," said Maoina. "Society values you all equally. Inequality isn't fair until we're all equal. In our time, salaries have been largely equalized. Oh, there are some minor pay grade increases and some truly minor additional benefits for a few, like someone in my position as First Deputy Controller for the Northern District of California, for example. But, by and large, most people make nearly the same sum of money."

"How can you afford to pay so much?" said Fredrik.

Maoina put an arm around Fredrik and laughed. "Oh, Mr. Diem. May I call you Fredrik?"

"Yes," said Fredrik.

"Fredrik, I like that," said Maoina, and for a moment Fredrik felt like it was Nana putting an arm around him. "Fredrik, society has advanced so far technologically that very few of us are required to work to produce the means of production. We are all materially quite wealthy. With material needs completely removed from the equation, we are free to expend whatever resources we want on the real challenge of life, building a more virtuous and socially evolved Community."

"It seems like you've done that," said Fredrik.

"And we have," said Maoina. "But our work is never done. We want our Community to achieve higher and higher levels of social consciousness and group self-awareness through Oneness and the Global Flesh. We want social justice to reach new levels, to break new barriers in the field of group achievement, so the Community may achieve levels of aggregate self-actualization not even conceived of."

"You speak of the Community like it's alive, a thinking living organism," said Rowenka.

"That's very astute, Ms. Javanka," said Maoina, purposefully using her maiden name. "That is exactly how we think of the Community. We are in the process of further subprioritizing our individuality to achieve greater Community consciousness. Eventually, when we get close to a state of perfection, there will only be the Community."

"But what of the individual?" Fredrik asked.

Maoina laughed, rubbing his shoulders playfully as Janet watched, biting her lip, and as Laura also watched, frowning slightly. "Fredrik, the individual will have a remarkably rich life, by subsuming his consciousness within the Community. You strike me as a rugged individual, Fredrik. Tell me, did you feel the loss of any of your individualism when you lived with your parents? Or your Nana?"

Fredrik flinched involuntarily at the mention of Nana. "Noah."

"It is precisely the same here. Nothing is lost. Everything is gained, by submerging your individual desires and wants and choices into the desires and wants and choices of the whole," said Maoina.

"On the subject of family, we were wondering if we myght be able to get a message to our families," said Laura. "I have a Mom and Dad and two sistars. I'd just lyke to write them to let them know Ay'm ok."

"I'd lyke to write my Nana too," said Fredrik, remembering too late that he had promised Laura to raise the subject first.

"Me too," said Rowenka. "I'd lyke to let my Ma and Pa know how I'm doing."

"How quaint! You actually feel a strong connection to your biological parents!" said Maoina.

"Don't children love their parents hear?" Laura asked.

"Well of course they do," said Maoina. "What do you think we are, monsters? Did you think we take children away from their parents?"

Evasive gazes gave Maoina all the answers she needed. She gave a hearty laugh. "Of course children love their parents here. And parents love their children too. But here, the Community takes a broader role in raising and shaping the experiences of children. Children raised narrowly by one pair of random individuals could turn out to be very poorly adjusted for the needs of the Community."

"Do children live with their parents?"

"Of course they do, up until the age of 16, when they begin to Connect on the adult level," said Maoina. "Then they move out on their own. They can still talk to or even see their biological parents any time they want to. But they seldom feel the need. The bonds between the child and the Community are much stronger than those between the child and the parents. The child feels affection for the parents, of course, but it's more akin to the affection that a child might feel in passing for... a teacher in school, or a sports coach."

Laura and Fredrik exchanged looks. "We'd still lyke to taulk to our parents, if we could."

"Of course," said Maoina. "The choice is always yours." There was that phrase again. "Simply record a message, and direct that it be sent to your parents."

"How will they get the message?" Fredrik asked.

"We will send a beacon to Voh," said Maoina, smiling to show them that she remembered where they came from.

"Will they be able to send us messages back?"

"Of course," said Maoina. "All they will need to do is tap the beacon thrice, and it will record and transmit whatever they say. You will be instantly notified when they respond."

"That's... that's really great," said Laura nervously. "Thank yew... Thank yew so much."

"You're quite welcome," said Maoina. "Oh, and one more thing before you go. It's so minor that I hesitate to even mention it. But for the past week your profile jackets have been on training mode. That means there have been certain... relaxations in the rules. This week things will change. The system will gradually integrate you and require you to conform completely." She looked at their faces. "Oh, don't worry. If I hadn't said anything, you probably wouldn't have even noticed."

"What are these rules?" Manu asked.

"Almost nothing at all to worry about," Maoina assured them. "Leave it to your Manipulators. They'll handle all the heavy work. You won't even notice what's happening in the background. As we like to say, there are no rules, except the rules."