You awaken in a groggy state. Your head inexplicably hurts, your body is unbelievably sore, and you become aware of being bound hand and foot while seated in a metal chair. You are fully clothed and in a small, spartan sanitized room with two locked doors on either side of it. The walls are painted in a lush pink, and there is a faint buzzing sound coming from the flourescent lights. The environment is a sterile one. There are no windows and no reference points that might reveal your location or the time of day.
Five women are in the room with you. All of them are beautiful, all are immaculately dressed in business like attire. You feel out of place in your torn dungarees and coffee stained tank top. They are examining paperwork on a clipboard and discussing something on a laptop when you awaken, which immediately draws their attention. One of them, a tall, scandinavian looking blonde, smiles as you tug against your bindings, then approaches you. She strokes your hair a bit as you jerk away from her, looking up at her through bleary eyes.
"Huh? What? Where am I? What is this? Who are you people?" All the other girls immediately turn around and look at you, their faces expressionless. The blonde merely smiles down, grabbing a handful of your hair. She pulls a piece of paper out of a manila folder as she begins to speak.
"Shhhh.. settle down. You've had a tough couple of days and you've been out for a while now. My name is Kendra, I am a procurement specialist for the Venus continuum." She speaks flawless English with just a hint of an accent, which you don't recognize.
"What in the hell... " You begin to struggle against the bindings a bit, which seem to tighten as you do. "Where am I? Why am I here? Let me out of here! I have a life and a family to go home to!" Kendra pulls a chair from a corner desk next to you, sitting down while showing you the piece of paper. Your eyes widen as you see your own obituary.
"Now I know this is hard, but that part of your life is over. As far as your family and friends are concerned, you died a few days ago in a tragic traffic accident. We needed a cover story to bring you here." She smiles. One of the other women, a lovely petite asian girl in her twenties, smiles at you and speaks as well.
"My name is Mariko. I know that this situation is confusing for you right now," she said. "You have been taken to participate in a top secret experiment." You look around at all of them, suddenly becoming very animated in the chair. one of the other women begins preparing a syringe, just in case.
"WHAT??? What are you talking about?!?! I never consented to being in any experiment!! What kind of experiment? Let me out of here NOW!" Kendra slaps you hard across the face, startling you and immediately getting your attention.
"Shut up. You shut up and listen. You do not speak unless spoken to." She grabs you by the chin, forcing your gaze into her. "We are the Venus continuum, a coalition of women from around the world, secretly supported by our various governments, and we are involved in the greatest social engineering experiment of all time." Another of the women approaches. She is a buxom hispanic beauty with a toothy smile. She squats down between your legs, hands on your thighs, looking up at you as she speaks. Her English is perfect, but heavily accented.
"I am Lupe. Here's the deal." She pushes her hair from her face. "The world is a mess right now. There are wars, corruption, graft, exploitation everywhere. These are very perilous times, and our organization feels that humanity itself may well be threatened if things go on the way they're going now." She smiles and stands up, Mariko continues.
"We have come to the conclusion that patriarchy is at the root of our problems as a species," she said. "Our aim is to dismantle the entrenched global patriarchal system and replace it with a system where women are in control." I blinked several times, looking at her. You take a deep breath, looking at Kendra. She smiles and nods her head, as though giving you permission to speak.
"Huh? What? This is crazy! Women controlling things? Why, that goes against nature itself! Who is paying for this? It's just a waste of tax dollars!" The women all laugh, and Kendra speaks again.
"Our aim is to create a closed, controlled society based on a matriarchy," she said. "The women will be completely in charge. The experiment will last for 100 years, and we will all die before knowing the results. Our descendants will complete the model, with the aim being to see whether it is possible to raise a generation of female leaders and male followers. If we are successful, the plan will be implemented on a global scale, and women will lead the way to a peaceful and prosperous future." You just shake your head. "This is a vast complex comprising many thousand square miles. It is in a remote section of the planet. I am not at liberty to say where. You will have a great deal of space in which to live out the remainder of your natural life with no interference from the outside world."
"I-I'm sorry. I don't want anything to do with this. You people are nuts. Now just let me out of here! Let me go home!" Lupe leans over, looking you in the eye before speaking again.
"You cannot go home. You are dead to your family and friends. You will spend the rest of your life here either learning to accept female rule or rebelling against it, the choice is yours." You look around at them as she continues to speak. "We are importing males here from all over the planet. We fully expect some of them to be compliant and some to rebel. Rebellion will help us learn to anticipate and defeat rebellious behavior when the Venus model is implemented globally." You calm down, looking at them. Kendra begins to untie you. Mariko smiles, speaking once again.
"Now, you have a decision to make," she says. "You can either choose compliance or choose rebellion, it is up to you. Either choice will assist us in furthering our goals. The only thing you may not do is try to escape. If you ever pass one of the clearly marked boundaries on our land, you will be immediately killed. Is that clear?" You nod your head. Kendra loosens the ropes, and Lupe helps you up. You are groggy. There is a loud buzz as the locks on the two doors in the room are disengaged. Mariko continues to speak.
"If you wish to be trained as a subservient male, occupying much the same status in society as a woman does in the outside world, go through the door on your left." She smiles, then gestures the other way. "If your choice is to rebel, to seek out other rogue males and try to rebuild the patriarchy, you may go through the door on your right. Whatever your choice, nobody in this room will move to stop you" The women all watch you, arms folded.
What do you choose? |