The Feminine Future: Early Science Fiction by Women Writers (Dover Thrift Editions) Page 15

  Suddenly, as three tiny bulbs in front of the cabin lit up, the vehicle swerved sharply to the right and I found myself traveling at a right angle to my previous direction. I was alarmed. I had made no change in the controls, yet of its own volition the car turned and traveled in the new direction at terrific speed.

  In the distance I made out a tiny speck which gradually, as my car hurled itself forward, became larger and larger until it assumed mountainous proportions. I was headed straight for it and none of my feverish manipulations of the levers or dials would swerve my car one inch!

  Suddenly the speed of my car slackened and at an easy pace it glided to a gentle landing on top of what I took to be a flat-topped mountain. With hardly a perceptible jar, the car halted and the tiny globes turned off.

  For a few moments I was too astonished to think; then the explanation flashed on me. Remote control! I had been guided here by an unseen force. Did they, whoever controlled the latter part of my trip, know I was coming and in that manner help me along; or had I accidentally come into the field of a control station? If so, then there ought to be some sign of human habitation. But look around as I might all I could see through my window was the flat top of this mountain or plateau.

  Mavia

  Just as I was wondering what I should do, I felt a sinking sensation and looking out I saw that I was being gently lowered into this mountain! What next, I thought fearfully? But immediately the plane came to a halt and to my amazement I saw that it was in a line with many similar planes.

  I opened the door and stepped out into what must have been a huge hangar. Then I heard a low hum and looking up in the direction of the sound I saw the roof open and another flying car gently descending. My own and the other cars moved soundlessly down the line making room for the descending machine, which settled into the place previously occupied by my own plane.

  The door opened and out stepped what looked like the counterpart of the dead woman in the scarlet forest! She looked startled at the sight of me for a moment, then gravely held her hand up palm outward in what I took to be a greeting. Just as gravely I returned the salute and the woman smiled and spoke in a strange tongue.

  I answered in English. Though neither understood the other we simultaneously laughed, and she companionably linked arms with me and led me to a wall. A row of buttons studded its side, one of which she pressed. After a slight click an opening appeared. Though I expected to step into some kind of elevator there was nothing in front of us but a lighted space. Unhesitatingly, the woman started to step through but I fearfully held back.

  We were at a deadlock for a few minutes until another woman came around a corner and the two talked together a moment in their strange language. Then the second woman laughed and without hesitation stepped into the void. I expected to see her crash to the bottom, but instead, she floated gently down.

  With grave misgivings, I let my companion lead me through and we too gently sank down through the void. Then our descent became slower and ceased altogether before another door, through which we stepped. We were now, I reasoned, on the second floor from the top.

  A long vista of hallways from the great arched doors greeted us. Hurrying past many of them we at last entered one. At that moment, I do not know exactly what I expected, some kind of oriental splendor, I suppose, but what I saw was only a very business- like office of some sort, where many women were busy operating peculiar looking machines. They reminded me of the electro-typists at home.

  Passing through this room we reached a private room and my companion motioned me to be seated. She then pushed a button on her desk and another woman from the outer office entered, carrying what looked like a football head-gear with wire attachments.

  Following my companion’s example, I put the thing on my head, then looked at her. Smiling she spoke, and to my astonishment I understood every word she said.

  “Welcome, Visitor, to City 43 of the Second Evolutionary plane. May I introduce myself ? I am Mavia, chief factor of this city and in the name of my comrades-in-rule, I welcome you and put ourselves and our city at your service.”

  It was quite an elaborate speech and as I wasn’t exactly sure of what she was talking about I answered hesitatingly.

  “Thank you. I feel very strange. I am Lucile and I came here from the third dimension, looking for my father.”

  “Oh, you are from the third dimension? Really? I had no idea that the beings of the third dimension had evolved to the point of inter-dimensional travel. Very interesting. You said something about another of your world being here?”

  “Yes, my father. He was receiving light-wave messages from this world and by using an invention of his he came through. I was worried about him so I followed him through. Have you seen him?”

  “No. I am sorry to say I have not. Nor have any of the other Second Evolutionary cities or I would have had a report on it.”

  My heart sank. Poor Dad. Where was he? Mavia went on speaking.

  “You say he was receiving light-wave messages? I think I can explain that. But first let me tell you about ourselves, then you will be able to follow my explanations more easily.”

  CHAPTER IV

  The Three Evolutions

  “This world in which you now find yourself is the fourth dimension. In it are the beings of the First, Second, and Third Evolutionary planes. The first plane consists of savages of a very low order—just now they are emerging from the beast stage into the human.”

  “Yes,” I interrupted eagerly. “I have seen them. I was captured and held prisoner by them. They have killed one of your women and I escaped in her airplane.”

  Mavia seemed unmoved by the accident to her comrade.

  “That was Doona, my second in command. Against my advice, she ventured alone in the scarlet forest. I recognized her plane in the hangar and wondered how you came to be using it. So she is dead? Well, we must all die sometime.” She shrugged her shoulders.

  “The Second Evolutionary plane consists of ourselves. We have seventy-nine cities. Each city is like the one you are now in. They were originally mountains and our cities are built inside the mountains as a means of defense against the first and third planes, who are continually waging wars of extermination against us.

  “Our plane consists almost entirely of women. We keep just enough men to maintain the race. These few masculine creatures that we allow to live are kept in luxury and idleness. They are well taken care of and have no complaint. A very long time ago, many centuries in fact, the men were the ruling sex of this plane, but gradually the women demanded equal rights and once we gained a footing, it wasn’t long before we were ruling the men. Those were bitter and bloody days. We call them in history ‘The Sex War Epoch.’

  “Eventually the women won, and we destroyed millions of the despised masculine sex. For untold centuries they had kept women subjugated and we finally got our revenge.”

  “Oh!” I said. “In our world the women are getting equal rights with the men. For a long time we, too, were held back but now we stand shoulder to shoulder with the men. I hope we won’t have any sex war. That would be horrible.”

  “Time will tell,” Mavia answered. “Now, Lucile, are there any questions you are eager to ask, because I know you are hungry and we will continue our conversation after you have eaten and rested.”

  “First, tell me how it is that we understand each other when we both speak different languages?”

  Mavia laughed. “It is very simple. By means of sensitized plates within these caps your spoken thoughts vibrate along those short wires and are received and translated by the wires on my cap and come to me as if spoken in my own language. The same thing happens to my spoken thoughts. In other words, these caps are tiny thought-wave sending and receiving sets. We have had them from the time the men were the ruling sex. At that time each of our cities was a separate nation speaking its own language and making its own laws and warring upon each other. When the women took control of things we internationalized th
e languages and laws and now each city is a part of one great whole. The Second Evolutionists are not equal to the Thirds in every way. Before, we were beset by outside foes and our strength was being continually used up in civil wars. Now that we are organized we are able to strengthen our forces and in time we expect to be the only evolutionary plane in this dimension.”

  “How was it,” I asked, “that we did not crash when we stepped into that void between floors?”

  “Because the minute we stepped off the floor our bodies lost almost all weight with the lessened force of gravity from above the shaft. The fact that we did not stay stationary in the air but floated down was due to a gentle but persistent counter-pull exerted on our bodies, gradually giving them weight until we reached bottom. Now, Lucile, I am going to take you to my apartment where you will rest and eat, for I have much more to tell you and tomorrow is to be a busy day. Come with me.”

  We left the office and floated down another shaft to the floor below. Mavia explaining, as we went, the general layout of the floors we were traversing. The top floor was devoted entirely to the airplanes. The second floor—that is, the next to the top—was the office floor, and the third to the tenth were devoted to the living quarters of these remarkable women. I was extremely worried about Dad, but felt confident that Mavia would help me to find him.

  When we stepped onto the third floor I was startled to see an immense insect crawling towards me and I drew back in alarm. Mavia said:

  “Don’t be afraid. That is one of our servants. It is of the ant family and by careful breeding we have developed them to this size. They make highly efficient servants, each one trained to its own task. They are perfectly harmless. Countless centuries of selective breeding have eradicated all vicious tendencies.”

  “Perhaps it has,” I quavered, “but they don’t look it. Please don’t let any of them wait on me.”

  “Just as you say,” Mavia replied, courteously, “but I assure you they are very gentle.”

  What Happened to Males

  I noticed in the center of this hallway, or street as Mavia called it, a wide section in the floor, bisected and moving along in opposite directions while at either side an equally wide strip remained stationary. We now stepped onto the moving roadway and we were carried at a swift pace to our destination.

  Mavia’s apartment was strictly utilitarian, bare almost to emptiness. Only the most necessary furniture stood about. I expressed a desire for a bath and she ushered me into a room and instructed me to strip except for the thought transferring apparatus and stand under what I took to be a shower. She then turned a wheel and a bright light filtered down on me.

  “Where is the soap and water?” I asked.

  Mavia said: “This is our method of cleansing and rejuvenating the body. Those radio-active rays cleanse the skin and penetrate the pores, revivifying the body with new life and strength.”

  It was true. The dust and grime I had collected disappeared and although I had been feeling fatigued I now felt as if I had been resting. Mavia presented me with one of her tunics to wear instead of my cumbersome flying suit.

  The tunic on her barely reached below her hips, but I was so much smaller that it came modestly to my knees and after strapping on my automatic I felt quite dressed up.

  We went next into the dining room and Mavia, dismissing three giant insect servants, waited on me herself. First she went to the wall and operated a machine that resembled a portable typewriter. Then she opened a section of a wall and pulled out a table with dishes and service on it. By the time she had arranged it, a slight buzzing over the typewriter affair was heard and Mavia removed from a section in the wall a little tray. Strange but delicious foods were placed before me and I ate heartily.

  During the course of the meal I asked her where the food came from and she said that on the thirty-first floor were the kitchens where food for the whole city was prepared and on the floors thirty-two to fifty agriculture was successfully carried on by means of artificial sunlight and irrigation.

  “Mavia, tell me,” I asked finally, “do you think you could help me find my father?”

  “If he is where I think he is, perhaps I can.”

  “Thank you,” I replied. “Please go on with your descriptions of the three evolutions of your world. You left off at the sex war of the second evolution.”

  Mavia complied. “After the war there was complete chaos for a while. Women were not used to their power and it went to their heads. They wanted to kill every male creature in the second evolutionary plane, for they were tired of child-bearing and child-rearing. A few of us who were able to withstand the headiness of our triumph took hold of things and prevented the complete extermination of the males, until we could see whether or not they were necessary to the future of our race.”

  “I should think,” I interrupted, “that with your advanced knowledge of science you would have been able to produce young without the actual help of the male. In our world we have certain low forms of life that do that very thing.”

  Mavia laughed heartily. “We did try it and you should have seen the results. Perfect monstrosities. We did not want our race to deteriorate, so we went back to the age-old method.

  “The males who had escaped extermination were put through rigid physical and mental tests. Those of a high average are all housed on the twelfth floor, as you call it, and these men are called the reproducing males.

  “Every woman is required by law to give to the city two children which, by improved scientific methods, she does with a minimum of pain and time.

  “The males whose intelligence average was below our mental standard but who had physical beauty were made sterile by a special process and housed on the thirteenth tier.”

  “But you don’t need these sterile men,” I said. “Why do you keep them?”

  Mavia smiled grimly. “We changed a lot of things but we were unable, without danger to the future of our race, to change the fundamentals of natural instincts. When we women have borne two children to the race we are not allowed to reproduce a third time. Nevertheless the old biological urge returns and then we find use for the sterile male.”

  “But that is downright immoral,” I objected.

  Planning the Raid

  Mavia frowned. “What is morality? Isn’t it living in such a manner that you are able to give the best of yourself to the race to which you belong? What we consider proper would probably be condemned as immoral in your sphere. Yet were I to visit you, no doubt I should be shocked by many of your customs that you people either put up with or ignore. Am I not right?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered. “It still doesn’t seem right to me.”

  “Well, to you with your present standard of morals it isn’t right, but to us it is a highly efficient manner of settling our difficulties. But let’s get back to our explanations of the three evolutionary planes. We, you understand, are of the second evolution, and there is yet another plane, called the third, whose inhabitants are our deadly enemies.

  “They are horrible grotesque creatures with abnormal mental developments. They have tiny weak bodies and enormous heads. Clever machines carry them around to do the physical acts that their little wizened bodies are incapable of performing.”

  “Why are they your enemies?” I asked, curiously.

  “They fear us,” Mavia replied. “They are afraid that we will evolve to the point where we shall take their place. But, although they don’t know it, we are quite content to remain on our present evolutionary plane with which we are very well satisfied. Nevertheless, we shall probably have to exterminate them for the safety of our own race. Now about those light-wave messages—”

  Just then a knock sounded and about fifteen women entered, all wearing the thought-wave caps. They were prepared to meet and converse with me.

  Mavia introduced them. They were all fine, intelligent, well-developed, good-looking women and they gazed at me with disguised curiosity. I could easily stand under the arm of a
ny of them. For a time they kept me busy explaining the customs and accomplishments of our dimension until finally Mavia rapped for order.

  “Comrades-in-rule,” she said, “just as you came in I was explaining something to our visitor which I think will be of interest to you as well. A man whom she calls ‘Father” had been receiving light-wave messages from this world. By means of a disintegrating ray this ‘Father’ has traveled through from the third dimension to this one. Lucile was captured by the First Evolutionists and ‘Father’ was not with them. We know that he is not with us, therefore he must be with the Thirds.

  “As you know, the Thirds are planning a raid upon us and, no doubt, the light-wave messages that ‘Father’ has been intercepting were calls for reinforcements from those horrible beings of the second dimension.”

  A murmur of horror came from the women. It amused me to hear Mavia call Dad ‘Father’, as if that were his given name.

  Mavia went on. “My suggestion is this: The Thirds do not know we have this knowledge of their proposed raid, so why not take them unaware by a midnight attack and with our newly-perfected rays, wipe them out of existence?”

  A cheer went up and it was quite a few minutes before I could make myself heard. “My Father!” I wailed. “If he is with these Third Evolutionists and you wipe them out—what will happen to him?”

  “I’m afraid it is unavoidable, but if he is with them he will have to go too.”

  Hysterically, I began to cry and beg them to save my father from destruction. They gazed at me in amazement. I suppose such an exhibition of emotion was totally unfamiliar to them. Finally Mavia awkwardly patted my back and said:

  “I am sorry if we wounded your sensibilities, but we, of this world, are accustomed to considering the good of the race before individual preferences. Yet, you are our guest and we will make an exception in your favor.”