Page 43 of Tyton: The Spider and the Dragonfly (Tyton #1)

S

o, this can be done?” Sesi asked.

A thin, overstimulated scientist with long brown hair in a simple ponytail who had introduced herself as Jenni nodded.

“Kind of,” Jenni corrected herself.

“Do I tell her?” Callie whispered to Talia.

“Tell her what?”

“That we almost killed her that day we stole that tech thingy.” Callie bit her fingernail.

“I wouldn’t”

Callie nodded.

“What do you mean, kind of ?” Sesi asked.

“It’s theoretically possible,” Jenni bobbed her head, “I mean, we have done it before.”

“Then do it again.” Sesi couldn’t see what the problem was.

“In mice.” Jenni added, lowering her head.

“How similar are mice to humans?” Sesi asked Callie.

Callie looked around. She wasn’t the scientist here. “Uh, we’re both mammals?”

“The problem is,” Jenni continued, ignoring the side conversation, “there’s a methylation in the chromosomes beyond just X or Y, that marks the haploid as male or female.”

“And that’s a problem because?”

“Half of dad’s chromosomes will look female otherwise.”

“Again, not seeing the problem.” Sesi ran her fingers through her hair. Talia and Callie exchanged glances.

Jenni took a deep breath. “Women release multiple eggs all the time. If they couldn’t recognise each other as eggs and not just another haploid cell , they could get together and you’d have parthenogenesis.”

Callie mouthed virgin birth . Sesi nodded.

“It would be a lot easier with a sperm cell,” Jenni concluded.

“That’s not going to happen,” Sesi explained.

“Every male we’ve found, including among the ghosts, has been infected with the original airborne retrovirus.

We caught this at the last possible moment.

We can wait and keep testing, but if we don’t do it this generation, we might never find one and we’ll never get another chance. ”

“But there are other women, right?” Talia asked.

“Yeah,” Sesi agreed. “That’s their choice to make.”

“What if you never find one?” Jenni asked.

“We keep sciencing our way forward, evolve parthenon-whatever or re-evolve males.” Sesi ran her hand through her hair.

“Or we go extinct,” Callie offered.

“Also, a possibility. A very likely one.”

“Okie dokie. We’ll need some very immature eggs from you then. Stem-cell sized. I should have the DocPod calibrated for that by tomorrow.”

“Why are you doing this?” Talia accepted the Hexcel cup of tea Cat handed her. She left to busy herself in the back, but Callie knew she was listening. “As far as I know, you never wanted kids. And there’s a good chance they won’t have any sort of life.”

Sesi breathed a laugh. “Any sort of life you recognise. And they’ll have us.”

“Just please tell me you aren’t doing this to save the world, Ses.” Talia reached across the table to take Sesi’s hand. Callie smiled at the pet name. These two were so painfully in love, it must have been torture to have broken up.

Sesi squeezed. “No, that’s not it.” She put her other hand on Callie’s thigh.

“But it’s also not not it either.” Callie put her hand on Sesi’s.

“I don’t feel an obligation to the human race.

We probably deserve to die out. But it also feels like that decision was taken away from us by one rich fuck.

One that’s still humming away in a machine, just itching to fuck us over some more. ”

“So, you want a baby as an act of rebellion?” Talia cocked her eyebrow.

“Spite,” Sesi corrected.

“I’ve heard of worse reasons to have a baby,” Cat called from the back.

“Mom!” Callie yelled.

“What?” Cat returned with a hooded jumper. “I can’t help it if you’re talking loudly.” She held it up to Talia’s chest. Talia jerked back, confused, but Cat took no notice. “This one is definitely your colour. I’ll wrap it up for you.”

“What just happened?” Talia whispered.

“That’s just how she shows affection.” Callie gave a half-shrug.

“It’s weird ,” Talia hissed. “I mean, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to call your mom weird.” Talia waved her hands apologetically.

“You’ll get used to it. At least she’s not talking to Sparx about my sex life.” Callie muttered.

“Wait, what?” Sesi perked up. “I need to hear about this!” Talia nodded enthusiastically.

Callie groaned and sprawled out against the table.

Cat returned with an entire pot of tea and Talia’s jumper, all wrapped up. “Callie already told me the important parts and I said I would help.”

Talia took the package, unsure of what to do with it. “Thanks. ‘Cause I don’t know shit about kids.”

“Well first, we don’t say shit around kids.” Sesi squeezed Talia’s hand.

“I don’t know!” she protested. “I thought it was a weird cult thing we were taught. Georg swore all the time.”

“And I’ll help look after the grandbabies too,” Cat continued.

“Daughters,” Sesi corrected. Until we can find uninfected males, they’re all going to be daughters.

“That’s awfully presumptuous.” Callie turned toward Sparx’s voice. She hadn’t heard him come in.

“Sparx!” Cat stood up to give him a hug. “You look amazing! Sit down, I’ll get you a cup.”

“Thanks Mrs Theron.” Sparx grinned and gave her a hug.

“When did you get here?” Callie asked.

“Just in time to stop you from making transphobic comments, apparently.” He rolled his eyes and plopped himself down uncomfortably close to Talia. Talia shoved him away. “Siku told me you were here. I ran into him on his date with that scientist.”

“Jenni?” Sesi blew on her tea. It was still too hot.

Sparx nodded.

“Wait, date ?” I thought Siku was ace?

“Ace, not aro.” Sesi corrected.

“Oh.” Callie looked at Sparx. “Does Jenni know? Is she ace too?”

“What? Do you think I just have a list of everyone’s gender and sexuality stored on a file somewhere?” Sparx threw up his hands. Callie cocked an eyebrow. “Yeah, she is,” he muttered. “But it’s still rude to assume.”

“Wait, you do have a list?” Callie said, a little too loudly. Now everyone’s attention was on Sparx.

“Not a list list. More of a HashMap. With links.” Sparx sunk into the booth.

“How are you not the head of a criminal organisation?” Sesi sipped her tea.

“I don’t enjoy stabbing people. At least not that way.” Sparx flashed a salacious grin.

“Ew, Sparx.” Callie threw her empty cup at him.

“That’s all the talk I can handle about your dick, thanks.” Talia shoved Sparx out of the booth and stood.

“Where are you going?” Callie looked up at Talia, afraid she’d been offended.

“Home.” She held up the package. “To try on this… jumpy thing.” Talia leaned over to kiss Callie before leaving.

“She’s never been shopping before,” Sesi reminded Callie.

Sparx picked himself up off the floor and slid back into the booth. “No more penis jokes.” Callie pointed her finger.

“I’m not the one eliminating them from the planet.” Sparx held up his hands defensively.

“Neither are we,” Sesi insisted. “We just haven’t found any males that don’t carry the retrovirus.” Sesi pointed her cup at Sparx. “We just started looking. Maybe use that list of yours to help us.”

“HashMap.” Sparx corrected.

“Whatever,” Sesi grunted.

“Nobody is trying to kill all men, Sparx,” Callie tried to console him.

“I dunno. Talia might be.” Sesi finished her tea.

“Okay, nobody but Talia is trying to kill all men.”

“To be fair, they kinda deserve it.” Sesi added.

“You’re not helping!” Callie bumped her shoulder against Sesi’s. Sesi grinned.

“It’s just not the priority right now. We can’t just stall until we find an uninfected male.” Callie offered Sparx her most sympathetic look.

“And why are you doing this again?” Sparx asked. “Last I heard, we were fucking over Model 21 before we shut off the lights and went home.”

“Spite?” Callie shrugged with a tentative smile.

“Spite.” Sesi confirmed. “We’re still screwing with Model 21’s plans, but we need to keep him running so other gangs don’t figure out that the big companies are so understaffed that anyone can walk in and take over.”

“I thought you wanted them to collapse.” Sparx tilted his head.

“Oh, we do.” Sesi nodded. “But I’m pretty sure everyone would prefer a controlled descent rather than a crash landing. So, you need to keep your mouth shut.”

Sparx drew his fingers across his lips.

“Also, we might need you to hike South to get a better shot at those geostationary satellites. There’s a lot of data to upload.

I’d rather not have it get corrupted on the way.

” Sesi twirled her cup. “We’re still planning on powering down Model 21, but I’d feel better if we took out the plant-adapted organelles in case something goes sideways. ”

“Can I take Tornit?”

“I…guess?” Sesi exchanged a glance with Callie.

“Good. He was born out there too, wasn’t he? He should know the area better than I do.”

“That makes sense,” Sesi agreed.

“And if you give me the retrovirus specs, I can bring a testing kit. Maybe find you someone.” Sparx winked.

“I have all the someones I need.” Sesi frowned.

“Fine. Find some other uncorrupted woman their someone .”

“It’s their choice, Sparx. I’m not going to make it for them.”

“Not even to save men?” Sparx pouted.

“No.” Callie said firmly, restraining Sesi. “Don’t kill him, he’s just an idiot,” she whispered. “Also, this is my mom’s shop and we don’t want to make her clean up blood.”

Sesi glowered. “A woman saving your arse again,” she muttered. Callie rubbed calming circles on her back. “Maybe go home to Talia. I’ll finish up here with Sparx.” Sesi nodded and left.

Callie threw Sesi’s cup at Sparx. “I know you have fun pressing my buttons, but maybe think before pressing the buttons of people who murder for a living?”

“Sorry!” Sparx cringed.

“So, this is really happening then, huh?” Sparx finally said, after a few minutes of heavy silence.

“Turns out I didn’t need your help finding someone after all,” Callie shrugged.

“No kidding! Two girlfriends and a kid on the way?”

“There’s still a lot of science that needs to happen. She’s not getting pregnant tomorrow.”

“Still.” Sparx ran his hands through his hair.

“Think of it more like discussing whether we want to have kids sometime in the future.”

Sparx nodded, pondering. “You still fuckin U-Hauled, though.”

Callie laughed. “We still U-Hauled.”

Sparx shook his head. “Lesbians.”