Her Destiny is Change

by Beth Cohen

  The Intersex Meet

  Jane Double D goes back to the preparation room where the Judoshii-Juniors are anxiously readying themselves. “Well, Judoshii-Juniors — looks like I won’t be with you for the whole of the readying process, but fear not — you are in good hands. Just remember all that you have learned and no harm will come to you and if it does, well, RUN!!!” says Jane with a wink and a smirk.

  *** Jane Double D changes into her formal whites — which are the same as her informal whites, except whiter and shinier; the white linen of her formals mixed with a very fine silk that reflects the sun’s rays and the moon’s halos. Jane returns to the office of Cowander-in-Chief Gabrielle; her old friend and member of the Upper Stratus, Dally Blyth, is also there. She was to receive the exact coordinates for the intersex meet, but a surprise awaits her.

  Cowander-in-Chief Gabrielle says, “Jane, I know this has been a long time in coming…We, the Upper Stratus of the Women’s Forward Movement, have decided that a change must take place before the intersex meet. Women come forward…” In walk Kay King Junior and two other top WFM officials.

  “Jane Double D, we send you on this mission not only as our ambassador but as a warrior — a defender of the principles of womanhood and all that womanhood embodies. As such, we empower you to negotiate freely and with full authority. We, your comrades, give you this…” A pin is presented and pinned on her upper collar. “You are now Jane, Double D, the Senshii of the Women’s Forward Movement.”

  Ordinarily such a presentation would not be made so ordinarily. Ordinarily there would be a big party with plenty of pomp and circumstance. Today, however, is different. The intersex meet is scheduled to take place; the future of the Woman’s Forward Movement as well as the Men’s League is in the balance. There is no time to think of merriment and frivolity — and definitely no time to celebrate. But this fact does not take away from the jittering of Jane’s excited heart. It was not so long ago that a woman, no matter how experienced and clever, would even be thought of as deserving such an honor.

  Every woman now present in that room came from that time, the not so distant Shestory, before the Split; and every woman knew how special and important such recognition was to each and every woman in the Realm. Jane’s emotional restraint was noted and appreciated and it was indeed one of the reasons that she and only she could be trusted for this mission — and was accordingly awarded the promotion prior to the mission.

  Each woman in the Realm, and especially each in the Upper Stratus, knew how hard Jane has fought before, during and after the Split. She was an ardent master of her body and mind. She refused to let her lack of recognition in the Wideness hold her back. She worked even harder, knowing that while no “real advancement” would be made, it was known by all on the mat that Jane Double D was far superior to all other Judoshiists, men and women alike. Her rank and upward climb in the Women’s Forward Movement was fast, deserving and just. It was moments like these when the women allowed themselves to feel pride and quiet joy. They could, every one of them, reach their full potential, and no one could prevent their progress. Yes, they had arrived at their destination and worked hard to build their Habitat…but the path they walked was covered with pitfalls, stones and fire.

  Jane Double D hadn’t gotten to be Senshii on her outright knowledge and Judoshii abilities alone. That uncanny ability to perform hundreds of different tasks simultaneously — her mind focusing on something else altogether. She could be teaching her Judoshii-Juniors or lecturing to the Upper Stratus and all the while forming a new method, plan or theory that could — and often did — change the way of the world that she and the Women’s Forward Movement had formed. How they all went about their daily duties and what exactly their goal was to be — this was a large part of Jane Double D’s philosophies put into practice. Indeed, Jane’s brilliance was one of the main and most vibrant sources of the force behind the Women’s Forward Movement. And today her brilliance was rewarded not only with the title, but with the responsibility brought with the title. Officially, Senshii Jane Double D was now fully responsible for the decisions involving and affecting the safety of the population of the Realm.

  *** Jane Double D leaves the office of the Cowander-in-Chief. Although she has hidden it well, she is a bit dazed by the pure honor of her promotion — the recognition of her achievements. Although she knew that eventually she would reach this point, she did not expect it at that very moment. Jane quickly recovers and heads straight for the portopad, where her transporter awaits.

  Jane Double D, Senshii of the Women’s Forward Movement, in addition to being the highestranking Judoshiist in the WFM, is also an Ace of Grace pilot, having clocked many hours as a rogue driver in the days before the Women’s Forward Movement initiated transformation and advantation for women of the planet, before women could be Full Belted Fighters.

  As Senshii Jane Double D gets into her new dome-shaped transporter, her mind begins to wander. She sees herself so many years before, maybe 20 years back, to her first transporter — if you could call it that. It wasn’t even dome-shaped — more of an uneasy lump — bright red in color. It was an eyesore — it stuck out like a bright red pimple on an otherwise clean and clear white telepad. But it was hers, and it was her first. Jane had found it

  abandoned on the outer reaches of the Realm. The transporter had obviously been abandoned by some men right after the Great Split. They must have been trying to get a closer look at the Realm and had trouble keeping her airborne. When Jane found her, she would barely rise, let alone fly. It took Jane weeks of nights of work. She took apart just about every cylinder, nut and bolt — cleaned and oiled all the moving parts, recalibrated the pressures and the physics until it would finally float above the ground. By the time Jane had painted the interior a dark red, she had also found enough parts around the periphery to make her a sturdy flight — with relatively little risk. Jane remembers, with fondness, its loud and smoky takeoffs and near-crash landings. She remembers it with the same fondness that she remembers all of her first loves — Her first Virlican sea crab, her first Irish truffle, her first man, her first woman.

  Jane shakes off the urge to reminisce and focuses on the task at hand. Her mind wanders. Commander-in-Chief Dward, oh, he was a handsome man, but his tender looks were deceiving, as was everything else about him…and nobody new this better than Jane Double D, who had experienced Dward full on from every direction.

  For Jane Double D, the new Senshii, the ability to compartmentalize and redirect her focus at any given moment, was one of the gifts that made her who she was and helped her to gain the recognition she deserved. Although it may be argued that this recognition came about only after the Great Split, the fact is that even before the advent and coming into power of the Women’s Forward Movement, Jane Double D’s abilities and her innate talent for focusing and analyzing any given situation was indeed recognized fairly early on. The only problem was that before the Women’s Forward Movement, all the praise Jane received got her exactly nowhere. She was not able to move up the ranks in the world of Judoshii defense and selfdefense. Most of her ideas and their practicalities where implemented by her male counterparts, without so much as a thank you — at best they whispered a kind of silent acknowledgement that ‘this’ could only have been done with Jane Double D’s amazing brain.

  And here she is, some 25 years later, fully respected and openly acknowledged as being one of the leading political and analytical diplomatic figures of all time, in both the Women’s Forward Movement and the Men’s League. It had been far from easy, jousting with the men, but it was well worth it. Jane gained knowledge and experience in her hand-tohand combat with the men that had proved a saving insight all through the Great Split and beyond. It was a hard climb — and if the Great Split hadn’t occurred, if the Women’s Forward Movement hadn’t brought the women to the Realm, Jane would have most certainly remained a shadow, a stepping stone for the greatness of others, all men.

  *** Jane Dou
ble D’s mind is fully active and alert. She suspected that this meeting was a ruse for some hidden agenda. Surely the Commander and Chief of the Men’s League had some strategy. It was highly uncharacteristic of him to request a meeting when tension between the sides was at such a high point. He must have had something planned.

  Jane Double D, still lost in thought, had already gotten into her transporter, checked the controls, spoke through her panmitter to base, and programmed the coordinates of the clandestine meeting into the transporter’s guiding system.

  “Ready, Jane Double D,” her transporter responds, upon receiving the hand that was so familiar these past few years, mission after mission. In a matter of minutes, Senshii Jane Double D has reached her destination — a cave hidden deep in the recesses of moon plane II.

  *** The landing just outside the cave is barren. Either Dward hasn’t arrived yet or has come early enough to maneuver his transporter to shelter. Jane Double D suspects the latter. It is unlike Dward, Commander-in-Chief, to be late for anything, especially a meeting that he himself has requested. Jane walks up to the entrance of the cave, waiting a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness before entering. From the entrance, she can see Dward kneeling by the altar. For a very short moment, Jane sees not Dward the Commander-in-Chief of the Men’s League, but Dward, long-time Judoshii companion and favorite foe on the mat. No one could challenge her moves — no man had the nerve or the substance to challenge her the way he had.

  Most of the men, upon seeing Jane Double D on the mat, resplendent in her Judoshii Whites, fell weak in the knees at the very sight of her goddesslike body, flowing and strong. Jane was indeed the owner of a magnificent-looking body — men, upon seeing her, would then proceed to severely underestimate the strength of ‘that woman.’

  Not Dward. He may have let his hormones, his affections and prejudices get the best of him off the mat — but on the mat he knew that Jane Double D was one of the best, the quickest and the most knowledgeable Judoshiis to practice in this century, if not the greatest!

  “Dward”

  “Double D”

  They exchanged the embraces of old friends, and Jane is relieved not to have to engage in immediate contra-contra tactics; maybe they can avoid a confrontation of the forces after all.

  Dward, who was the host and initiator of this meet, offers wine. But Jane Double D wastes no time. “So what’s this about, Dward? Wine, secret

  meeting…Why the call to arms? You can’t possibly think we passed the Bad Air?”

  “Double D, slow down. First friends, then foes…I see you wear the pin of the Senshii.

  Congratulations. I understand this puts our meeting at a different level. But Double D, how can we just skip the part where our histories and attractions offer us respite from the possibility of conflict between our two sides?”

  “Dward, ever the man and the manipulator of womankind… How can we talk of affections when the possibility of air strikes and even all-out war stand in the balance?”

  “But Jane, that's just my point. We must, for the sake of averting war, make love.” The reference to the past is not lost on Jane. She has been remembering the days before the Great Split that separated the men and women. For a few moments, Jane lets herself fall back into her reveries of the times when she and Dward fought on the same team, and seemingly shared the same goals and dreams.

  Dward and Jane Double D both fall into a pensive silence, both lost in a barrage of memories as they sit side by side on the stone bench that lines the dimly lit cave.

  Dward turns to Jane Double D, lifts a tentative hand and fingers her pin. Jane, prepared for such a move and prepared for any uninvited bodily contact, executes a flip, chop and hold. Dward, gasping and laughing, falls to his face, knees on the floor — Jane’s knees in the soft of his neck, his arm painfully contorted in the air.

  “Relax, Jane — I was just looking at the pin. But would it be so bad if we fell into our old habit just this once?”

  “Old habit your arse! You wanted to see how I’d respond to your male advance — see if the woman in this Cowander pin would succumb to your touch — and maybe compromise the safety of my world, my women, our whole half of the split! Well, guess again!” And with that, Jane Double D flips Dward up onto his legs with his back to her chest — in one, two swift moves.

  She can feel him trying to lean away from her as she holds him fast to her chest. She knew the effect her double D’s would have on him. Since the Split, the men had not found a way to truly enjoy themselves with each other and to release themselves sexually. Most of the men feared their own sexual attraction to each other. They lived alongside their outdated and false truths, clinging to the idea that homosexuality is a weakness; that strong men should penetrate only the weaker, the women. Those in the Wideness still feared showing their own true desires. In truth, their fear made them weak. In the Realm, the women realized that this fear was weakness; the basic trust that was lacking at the core of the maledominated Wideness. And this lack of trust was the true weakness of the men, especially those who ruled. The men were left with a practice that worked through extreme concentrative control techniques, but these techniques only worked without the presence of physical stimuli… Stimuli that Jane Double D now held to Dward’s back as she held him close.

  She could feel him tightening, trying to control his manhood, but as she reached down and touched his body, she felt his failed efforts. Dward, almost bursting with desire.

  “Is this what you were hoping for, Dward? Is this why you wanted to meet me and only me? Or was it your intent to actually negotiate? Answer truthfully! What happens next depends on your ability to convince me of your motives.”

  Dward’s desire could not be hidden and they both knew this to be a fact, but what is required of Dward is total self-control. This kind of self-control was something that the men had found to be illusive, inhibitive and almost completely unnecessary before the Great Split. During the time when men and women lived together in the Wideness, the men took and shoved as their desires were allowed and even encouraged to rule their behavior. True, it was forbidden for a man to take and shove another man’s woman…but the women remained at the mercy and ‘kindnesses’ of the men. That was before. Now there is the Realm of the Womeness.

  While the men had mostly not found an alternative to the sex that they had enjoyed with the women, many of the men had learned to practice an extreme amount of self-control. Dward having his old lover’s body so close and touching his is a true test of this control. He managed to control his impulses, but he could not hide his obviously large and painful physiological response.

  “You should know by now — we, the Women’s Forward Movement, have come this far because of our pure intellectual superiority, as well as the ingenious methods we have developed and practiced to tame and channel the very power that propels your male drive. We the women of the Realm have also learned to find pleasure within the world we’ve created. You and yours no longer tempt me…so let’s get on with this and solve the problems at hand before they get out of control and become something that we all regret.

  "Now, what is this about the Bad Air…?”

  One-Eyed Ike

  Meanwhile, back at the Women’s Forward

  Movement, one of the only males who had decided and chosen the women’s side — and lived in the refuge of the Womeness — was the Reverend OneEyed Ike, the High Priestness of the Women’s Domain. One–Eyed Ike had not always been a reverend, nor had he always been one –eyed.

  Before the war, much like his father and his father before him, One–Eyed Ike was a man’s man. He was a true man of the Wideness. His need of women was just that — need. Someone to do the housework, make some children and have some fun in bed. It wasn’t until much later, after having fathered three girls and losing his wife, that Ike reached his true calling. True, the war — the Great Split — brought out another side to him. While many of his friends willingly and quite quickly chose the side of the
men over their own women, Ike knew he could never abandon his daughters, even if they were already grown and independent. He had adored his wife and had promised that he would always be there for their girls. Ike began to preach equality for women. He could see no reason for the Split. To him it was clear that men and women needed each other and should stay aligned. Ike believed that changes needed to take place within the Wildness, that women needed to be given more respect, even, in certain cases, a certain amount of equality if not autonomy in their workplace as well as in their daily lives.

  The overwhelming majority of men would have no part in what they considered Ike’s

  blasphemous portrayal of the all importunateness of men. In the time before the Split, many of Ike’s friends and colleagues began to shun him. Their close-mindedness made them blind, first to the strength of the women’s disappointment and unrest. Then, their blindness dulled their vision and the men could only see the weakness of the women and, in their blindness, they could not hear any of the words of warning, including those spoken by Ike. They soon banned Ike from spending time with the men on their side of the planet.

  The women, on the other hand, while they didn’t agree with much of his preaching, understood that girls all had fathers, and that it would be much healthier for them to know that there are some softer and rational men in the world who believe in respecting women rather than downgrading them. So Ike stayed and lived with his daughters in the Realm, freely and mainly respected, for he had shown the women respect. He had even fought for and with the women. As the day of the Great Split approached, the violence grew and became more and more common. The women were not used to having to defend themselves physically. They had been raised since babyhood that the men in their lives were there to protect and provide and that it was their duty, their role to do as the men specified. The women had a hard time believing that there could ever be a need to defend themselves from their men. In fact, according to law, the men who married, fathered, were the son or brother of, were the only ones allowed to defend their women. The men came to feel threatened by the women’s demands. They were equally threatened by any man who stood and spoke for the women’s defense. Ike was such a man.