The Cage of Zeus (6 page)

“Human males are hardly the same as fish,” Shirosaki said.

“I’m merely illustrating a point. That is to say, once this technology became a reality, the woman-equals-childbearing sex paradigm was completely destroyed.”

“But a normal man wouldn’t think of such a thing, much less desire it.”

“What is
normal
, Commander Shirosaki? One person is biologically female but identifies as a male. And if that person accepts that contradiction rather than regard it as a gender disorder, is that person male or female?”

Shirosaki grimaced. “By your explanation, I suppose that’s entirely up to the individual.”

“Exactly. Sexual diversity means to no longer think of the disparity between one’s sex and gender as a disorder. So if someone expresses a desire to bear children, we must acknowledge it regardless of sex or gender. We’ve already acquired the technology. The issue isn’t with the number of surgeries already performed. Neither is it a matter of how many people support it. It’s about somebody having an idea and all of humanity waiting for the technology to make that possible. That alone can give rise to an entirely new sex.

“Surprisingly, it wasn’t the minority that fought for bigenderism. In fact, a good portion of the minority disdained the notion more fiercely than the majority.”

“Then who wanted it?”

“People who belong to the gray zone.”

“The gray zone?”

“A broad group that positions itself between the minority and majority,” Kline said. “They live as part of the majority without ever revealing their allegiance to the minority. Well, not that they’re part of the minority anyway. Straddling the line between both groups, the people of the gray zone empathize with the positions of both and yet do not openly declare where they stand. They’re fascinated by the marginalized culture, even as they continue to live and have families in dominant society. They’re usually the ones that, with a little push from behind, come upon a novel idea. And so it was the people of the gray zone that came at the idea of sexual diversity from a different perspective and made it real and commonplace.”

“I don’t think I quite understand.”

“That’s all right. You don’t have to. In any case, the words
minority
and
majority
were soon deemed discriminatory, and such semantic distinctions ceased to exist. At last, people came to realize that such reductionist thinking was meaningless. That there was no exact delineation between the majority and minority. That the majority can always become a minority. That possibility was the essence of what it means to be human.

“And so intersexuality isn’t so much a peculiar goal of people with peculiar ideas as it is a challenge we must face in order for human culture to mature. Although whether governments recognize the lifestyle is a different matter.”

The world’s progressives began to fight for the right for people to have both sexes. The conservative majority protested. To the conservatives, bioengineering hermaphrodites was nothing more than a vulgar hobby of freaks.

Although there was a storm of debate, in the end, society simply couldn’t accept the idea of intersexuality. The media chased after the story for a while but soon stopped once the controversy died down.

But the progressives had not completely given up.

At the time, space medicine research was already being conducted on Jupiter-I—research that had continued since humanity established its first city on the Moon.

The path to the Jovian system was fraught with bigger obstacles than the paths to the Moon or Mars: the cosmic radiation, far greater than on the way to Mars, plus the gas giant’s intense magnetic field. Humanity was faced with the challenge of increasing its ability to adapt to the space environment. Medication to restore the cell structure and DNA damaged by the radiation, a new model of molecular machine, overcoming the circulatory disturbance resulting from the zero-gravity environment, etc.

At some point, the data gathered from animal testing eventually had to be tested on humans.

That was what the progressives had put their finger on. They asked scientists to create a special community on Jupiter-I in exchange for offering up their bodies for experiments.

They requested approval for the creation of an exclusive dwelling for the bigender—the special district.

“The notion of body modification, which arose from the sexuality issue, presented us with the new challenge of figuring out how the sexual functions of both sexes could coexist in the same body. The only answer was to manipulate the sex chromosomes, but no one dared take on the risk on Earth. The strong opposition of the conservative majority was one reason. The issue of ethics was another. Once we recognize anyone having chromosomes other than X or Y as human, we begin to entertain the possibility of modifying the entire body. For example, improving the functionality of our arms and legs, improving our audio-visual faculties, being able to subsist on water, minerals, and light like plants. If we make radical alterations to the body in this way, how far can we go and still call ourselves human? Where do we stop in order to remain human? It was obvious that no one would be able to draw that line, which is why even researchers hesitated,” Kline said. “Nevertheless, the people seeking to become bigender tried to overcome those hurdles. Humanity has to change—no, humanity must actively seek out change, they said. Through the issue of sexual diversity, they came to the conclusion that the human body must be and should be reinvented. If people’s ways of thinking change along with the times, then it’s only natural that the body do the same, they said. These people were an appealing opportunity to scientists. They had offered their bodies for experimentation just when scientists were in need of subjects.”

“But on the condition that they would be made intersexuals and promised refuge in the special district,” Shirosaki concluded.

“The International Space Probe Agency based on Earth, the Planetary Bioethics Association, and scientists on Jupiter-I came together to negotiate the terms of the experiments. And establish boundaries for what types of body alterations were allowed and not allowed to avoid any reckless behavior.”

“How so?”

“First, the special district was officially designated as a sovereign state. The people of the special district are residents of a new country who acquired a family register upon moving to or being born in the special district. In other words, they were not to be treated like lab animals we can have our way with. The Rounds have the individual right to refuse to take part in any experiment. The medical experiments can only proceed with the consent of the Rounds and the station staff; we can’t force them to take part in any experiment they don’t agree to.”

“But you
can
try to convince them.”

“Of course,” Kline said. “The operating cost of the special district comes out of the International Space Probe Agency’s budget. The grant element is set at zero percent, but since the agency profits from the data collected from the experiments, the Rounds aren’t in the position to refuse every experiment. The district will stand to lose its operating budget. Rounds who simply can’t participate in the experiments have no choice but to leave the district and live among Monaurals.”

“Is that even possible?”

“It’s rare, but some Rounds who are unable to adapt to the district’s policies do leave. Since the Rounds aren’t allowed to travel outside the Jovian system, however, they have no way of earning a living other than to become part of the station staff.”

“I mean, are the Rounds capable of living in the space station among Monaurals outside of the special district?” Shirosaki asked.

“It requires considerable physical and psychological effort on their part, but it’s not entirely impossible.”

Kline went on to explain that the medical experiments adhered to specific guidelines. “The biggest rule is that the Rounds’ appearance cannot deviate from the way Monaurals look. Their familiar appearance will reduce the psychological resistance others might feel toward the genetically different.”

“On the other hand, prejudicial feelings may arise because they do look like us.”

“But people may also find it easier to empathize with the Rounds. We can also avoid giving the false impression that we’re conducting unnatural experiments. In addition, we clearly defined two purposes for creating bigenders,” Kline said. “Officially, the Rounds are staff working on the frontier of space exploration. Only a small staff is dispatched to the frontier at first, limiting the choices of sexual partners. Under those circumstances, it simply isn’t efficient to halve the gene pool by restricting the partnerships to between a man and a woman. The best method is to expand the choices by making everyone a possible sexual partner.”

“The expectation to bear children seems to be an anachronism, wouldn’t you say?”

“For the record, of course—it’s a pretext to create bigenders.”

“What if you take frozen eggs and sperm to the frontier? With a diverse supply, the staff can have as many children as they like from outside their gene pool,” Shirosaki said.

“Of course, we’re pursuing that avenue as we speak. Unfortunately, the success rate has been disappointing. Some technologies that prove effective on Earth oftentimes fail in the Jovian system. As the research continues, I do believe that method will eventually take root. But the human ability to propagate the species can’t be undervalued. Our ability to bear and raise children in places without the aid of an artificial womb or incubation system is a tremendous advantage.”

“And the second purpose?”

“To resolve the issues raised by gender differences. Our society has not been able to overcome gender discrimination with our laws and ethics alone. We’re incapable of eliminating the conflicts stemming from the differences in sexes. And that’s only natural. Our physiology is different. So are our hormonal cycles. There’s no way to understand the other completely. That’s fine, I suppose. You might say that such issues are what make humanity so fascinating and profound. But now as we’ve left the tiny confines of the solar system and are attempting to embark on a journey into the dark expanse, we can’t afford to quibble over such trifling matters. Which is why we should dispense with the problems that can be resolved by reinventing the body. A society where we are equals, where only individual differences exist. That was the ideal scientists proposed, and it was largely because of these two goals that the creation of the Rounds was approved. And so strictly speaking, the term
Round
isn’t the name of a new race but a word to describe a certain condition.”

“How was that name derived?”

“It stands for
roundtrip gender
—a being constantly moving between masculinity and femininity. It was a word coined here on Jupiter-I.”

“While we may be able to overcome gender differences, as long as individual differences continue to exist, I doubt we can eliminate interpersonal conflicts altogether,” Shirosaki said.

“We certainly don’t believe we can resolve all conflicts by ridding society of sexual distinctions alone,” Kline responded. “But at the very least, eliminating physiological differences will free us from the
because he’s a man
or
because she’s a woman
mode of thinking. Are you familiar with the myth of the hermaphrodite from Plato’s
Symposium
?”

“I’m afraid I’m not.”

“According to Aristophanes, humans were once hermaphrodites with four arms and four legs. Wary of humanity’s hubris and might, the gods tore the humans in two. This was the origin of men and women, each sex searching and desiring the other half ever since. I can’t say that I believe in the myth, but the story has resonance, wouldn’t you say?”

“And were the progressives satisfied by the creation of the Rounds?”

“Hardly. They mounted quite a protest. In a way, maybe the progressives had a better understanding of the implications of these experiments. The emergence of a society where one person has two sexes becomes commonplace. They realized that alone could jolt our values from their foundation. Perhaps the progressives intuited that changing just one aspect of our social universe could change our universe entirely.”

“So how do they contain such a threat?”

“None of the data from the experiments can leave the Jovian system,” Kline said. “The Rounds can only be created on the Jovian system. Rounds cannot travel to Earth or Mars. In short, they’re absolutely forbidden to enter our society. Those were the terms of the agreement. Not a problem since the people who’d volunteered to be subjects had abandoned their homes on Earth and Mars. Thus, the special district was established. The first generation, called the pre-generation, acquired their bigender surgically. Though pre-gens weren’t absolute hermaphrodites and thus couldn’t procreate, a bigender society was born in the special district. Every one of its residents is both male and female. And every one of them is psychologically male and female. Their feelings develop not for the opposite sex but for the individual. During the experiments, they also began bearing children through artificial insemination. The fertilized eggs were injected with a synthetic gene called double-I instead of the sex chromosomes Monaurals possess. Those children were born as absolute hermaphrodites from the start. They represent the first generation of Rounds. Since then, a second and third generation have been born through traditional procreation methods.”

“What became of the pre-generation?”

“They work and live among the station staff outside the special district. The pre-generation and first generation have completely different ways of thinking. As different as their physiology is, they might as well be different species. All the scientists did was eliminate sexual distinctions. But that change alone can transform human society—our lifestyles, value systems, our sense of humanity. What do you think?” Kline asked. “About our creating a race of bigenders?”

“I haven’t had occasion to give it much thought.”

“You’re not the least bit interested?”