The Problems With Prototypes

Kitakyuushuu, the Regis Royal Hotel...

\"We can\'t begin to express our gratitude to you for wanting to help us do this, Miss Moroboshi.\"

\"Please, call me Tariko. And it\'s my pleasure,\" Tariko grips the hands of the latestple ple to seek out \"consultations\" with her. \"It\'s rather surprised me that you\'d be willing to come down to Japan to see me instead of my flying to Vladivostok to see you.\"

\"You\'ve already done enough travelling around the world for those such as we, Tariko...? Um, your mother\'s name?\" the willowy Russian with the brown eyes and wavy brown hair asks, she slipping the gabardine off her shoulders to reveal a stylish skirt and blouse.

\"Kinshou. I\'m Tariko Kinshovna, Tania Ivanova,\" Tariko smiles, addressing Tania Ivanova Bisyarina by the \"given name and patronymic\" format used by Russian women who had reached sexual maturity before the Virus\' coming, then she quickly senses a burst of subtle arousal from the third woman in their group. \"What?\" she gazes on Tania\'s wife, a curvy, blonde American with brown-grey eyes.

\"Oh, it\'s nothing!\" the former Beatrice Allanna Taussig shakes her head, waving the younger woman down.

\"Bea!\" Tania gives Beatrice a scolding look, then indicates her clothes. \"Back when I was a young and foolish Foreign Directorate agent supervisor working in America, I always had to visit this clothing store whenever I picked up my agent\'s dead-drops,\" her eyes briefly glance on her companion. That look told Tariko quite a bit about how this couple originally came together. \"I always had to shell out over two hundred dollars worth of clothes EVERY DAMN TIME just to pick up whatever microfilm my agent stashed in the change room.\"

\"You were KGB?\" Tariko gapes, taking her guests\' gabardines and hanging them up as they sit down at the round dinner table. She had been given Tania\'s rank when her Moscow agent, Elena Semyonovna Filitova, passed on the request for consulation, but not her exact service.

\"Still am. Though these days, my service is called a different name,\" Tania looks around the room. \"This is very nice.\"

\"That it is,\" Tariko moves to join them. The room they stand in is one of the Regis Royal\'s penthouse suites, a room with two queen sized beds, a dinner table, a work desk, full entertainment suite, bathroom with jacuzzi, bar and a small, glassed-in padio overlooking the busy streets of Kitakyuushuu and the Kanmon Strait dividing Kyuushuu from Honshuu. \"Every time business makes me come to this city, I always use this room. I\'ve got a special arrangement with the management, which cuts down on costs for both myself and my customers.\"

\"You do that everywhere?\" Beatrice wonders.

\"In Japan, Korea and some of my more frequent overseas destinations,\" Tariko opens her laptop computer, then flicks it on. \"Okay...\" she calls up the special accounting/records program for Love Destiny Enterprises, which helped her keep track of all her previous customers. Drawing up a blank couple\'s data page, she then loads in scanned picture files of Tania and Beatrice sent to her by Elena some weeks ago, then she starts loading in the necessary information. \"Alright, then. Bisyarina, Tania Ivanova and Bisyarina (nee Taussig), Beatrice Allanna. Both currently resident in Metro Moscow, Russia. Tania, what exact work do you do now for the RVS, anyway?\"

\"I\'m a staff officer at RVS headquarters. I\'m part of the group that administers Directorate \'S,\'\" Tania replies.

\"That\'s their scientific research and investigations team,\" Beatrice adds. \"I\'m a special science advisor to that group.\"

\"Alright, then,\" Tariko makes her notes. \"How long have you been married?\"

\"Six years, seven months,\" Tania answers. \"We\'ve been together since about a year before the Virus\' first arrival, though.\"

\"Okay, then. And how long, if you can remember this, has it been since you first talked about having children?\"

\"Since shortly after we left the States,\" Beatrice replies, taking a deep breath as her hand squeeze\'s her wife\'s. Tariko quickly senses a swell of intense pain bubbling up from the depths of the expat American\'s soul. \"Though we didn\'t really take any sort of discussion about children seriously until shortly after our marriage, when the first conception clinics were organized in Russia.\"

\"It\'s a promise Bea made to herself because of a friend she lost as a result of the Virus\' coming,\" Tania explains.

\"A man?\" Tariko asks.

Beatrice\'s eyes flash briefly. \"No, not a man!\" she evenly intones, then quickly catches herself before relaxing. \"I\'m sorry, Tariko. I came to accept my sexual preference long before the Virus forced my type of lifestyle on every woman on the planet. Believe me, I have never ONCE been attracted to a man in THAT fashion. Yes, I do accept that there are those on this planet who would rejoice if men did come back. I\'m not one of those nuts in the Hydra who\'s determined to make all women see their point of view, though.\"

Tariko nods. \"Alright, then. Please, Bea, I really don\'t desire to offend either you or your wife here, but I have to know this before I can help you. So...\" she takes a deep breath. \"I assume that this friend of yours Tania just mentioned was a woman who did take what was happening back then very badly.\" Gazing on the American, who stiffly nods, tears brimming in her eyes, the young woman senses the ache deep in Beatrice\'s soul increasing exponentially. \"May I ask her name, Bea? Do you intend to name your daughter after her?\"

Beatrice nods. \"Candi. Her name was Candice Long. We...\" she bites her lip. \"We were university classmates, then ended up working for the government on some adjunct to the whole \'Star Wars\' thing Reagan was promoting back then. I...\" she sighs. \"I disagreed with the whole concept on moral grounds. Weapons of THAT nature, despite the hype at the time that the whole SDI thing was \'defensive,\' would have just escalated the Cold War a few more notches, perhaps even lead us all into World War Three hadn\'t the Virus come along. I didn\'t speak out loudly against it at the time. If I did, it would\'ve cost me my career. But when Tania here came along looking for information...\"

\"You agreed to become her agent-in-place,\" Tariko finishes.

\"Yes.\"

\"Was that the only reason you decided to do that?\"

Beatrice closes her eyes. \"No,\" she breathes out. \"Part of it was personal, too.\"

\"You were attracted to Candi?\" Tariko lowers her voice.

\"Very,\" the American slowly nods. \"I...! Well, at the time, there was this guy. Major named...\" she pauses, then sighs. \"Oh, hell, I forgot his name! Anyhow, he and Candi met about two years before the Virus came. I\'d known her for quite some time before it happened. But...\" she grimances. \"Damn! I was such a fucking coward back then!! I just...! I just COULDN\'T bring myself to try to express how I felt about Candi! And...! This little prick comes along -- and he just sweeps her off her feet!! And...!\" she stops, takes a deep breath, then she relaxes as Tania\'s hand squeezes her shoulder in support. \"And the crazy thing about the whole damned mess was that he was one real sharp cookie when it came to Star Wars. Because of that, he was the one I had to keep an eye on when Tania recruited me. Everything he did was of big -- I mean REAL big! -- interest to Tania\'s bosses in Moscow. So I had to keep close to him AND Candi to do my job and...\"

\"It tore you apart every time they expressed any sort of intimacy in front of you, right?\" Tariko slowly nods.

Beatrice blinks, then sighs. \"Yeah. And when the Virus came, he...! Well, he died almost right away. And it tore Candi to pieces! I...\" she lowers her head. \"I wanted to comfort her! To help her get over it. To show her how much I cared for her. But if I moved too fast right after he just upped and DIED, it...! It would\'ve been wrong! Hell, even if I was stealing his secrets to give to Tania, even if I resented how much he\'d twisted Candi around his finger, it...!\" her voice fades, then she buries her face in her hands and begins to cry.

Tariko gazes on Tania. The Russian is already movto cto comfort her wife, allowing Beatrice to bury her face in the curve of Tania\'s neck as she weeps for her lost friend. Watching this scene, Tariko slowly nods. No doubt after watching her boyfriend wither and die before her eyes, Candi Long decided she herself had nothing left to live for. Using the case of Tariko\'s own mother as an example, Candi probably killed herself before the Virus\' positive effects would\'ve made such an attempt almost impossible. It was just too easy for the president of Love Destiny Enterprises to draw up the right conclusions. Since that horrible day -- using just her empathic abilities, Tariko can guess what it must have been like when Beatrice discovered Candi\'s body -- the expat American scientist constantly blamed herself for not reacting fast enough, for not overcoming her shyness when it came to the woman she had borne such a long crush on, before it was too late.

Finally, Beatrice takes several deep breaths to compose herself, then she wipes her eyes. Tania keeps an arm wrapped around her wife\'s shoulder. \"You vowed that if the chance came and you could have a daughter, you\'d name her after Candi,\" Tariko concludes, then seeing the American nods, turns to the Russian. \"How do you feel about all this, Tania? About your wife and what she went through?\"

\"Well...\" Tania sighs. \"My primary mission at the time was to gather enough information on the American SDI program so that we could advance our own anti-missile defence program forward. We were making pretty good progress at the time the Virus came, when it all...\" she rolls her eyes. \"Well, all my work was flushed down the toilet when everyone back home came to understand how deadly the Virus was and what sort of real impact it would\'ve had on the Rodina, not to mention everywhere else on the planet. So those people like myself who did have agents in the American scientific community that could help us were told to bring them to the Rodina. Bea...\" she gazes fondly on the American, who gives her wife an arm-squeeze in return, \"...was more than happy to come. After Candi died, she felt she had nothing left in America to sustain her, so we fled south to Mexico, then across to Cuba, then back to Moscow. We\'ve been there ever since. As things started to settle down finally and the Virus\'...\" Tania then flushes as memories of all the wild sex she experienced in those heady years comes back to her, \"...well, shall we say, more *insane* side-effects got to us all, it...!\" she starts to giggle.

\"Mass orgies in the banyas, especially when you had these old babushkas being virtually reborn as twentysomething nymphomaniacs ready to fuck everything in sight! No matter how young or well-hung, if you catch my drift!\" Beae sne snickers, gazing at the ceiling. \"Then, some of the workers at the female Gulag camps start dreaming up all these NEW ways of \'questioning\' their prisoners...\"

\"There was that one camp where the prisoners and the guards actually SWITCHED PLACES for a week!\" Tania holds up a finger.

\"Oh, damn! I remember that one!\" Beatrice groans. \"And before you know it, everyone at the womens\' camps, guards and prisoners alike, decided they were going to raid all the men\'s camps just to get their rocks off! Gaia, what a crazy time it was!!\"

\"Back before the Virus, any sort of gay or lesbian behaviour detected by State Security was automatically declared \'anti-social,\'\" Tania explains to Tariko. \"For a first-time offence, you got five years in what was then called a \'camp of mild regime.\'\"

\"Which would\'ve been pretty damn rough by Western standards,\" the younger woman notes.

\"Da,\" the Russian nods. \"Of course, it all changed when the men died out and we had no choice but to resort to each other to see our needs and desires tended to. And...\" she gazes fondly on her wife, \"...no matter what happened, Trisha, you always were there for me.\"

\"You were there for me, Nisha, even when you found it hard to accept that I was a lesbian,\" Beatrice reminds her.

\"How do you feel about Candi, Tania?\" Tariko asks.

The Russian takes a deep breath. \"These days, I grieve at what the Virus did to her, Tariko. Her death was a terrible loss. She was such an intelligent woman. If...\" she bites her lip. \"Well, if we had saved her, I would\'ve done my best to persuade her to come with Bea and myself back to Moscow. We needed many smart women in those days to help us get through those times. And...\" she blinks before staring at her wife. \"Candi\'s death hurt my wife so much. Even when it seemed that any sort of lasting relationship would NEVER develop between Bea and I, there were nights when I\'d look in on her when she was asleep and hear her cry over what happened to Candi. I guess that eventually helped solidify things between us as...\" she shrugs, \"...well, the *novelty* of having sex with every woman who crossed my patartearted to wear off. I guess because Bea is a lesbian by birth, her sense of emotional stability helped me develop my own sense of stability.\"

\"I\'ve heard that many times about other lesbian-normal couples,\" Tariko nods. \"What name would you give your own child, Tania?\"

\"Livia.\"

\"\'Livia?\'\"

\"My KGB code-name,\" Beatrice smirks.

\"Ah! Alright, then,\" Tariko takes a deep breath, then turns to her laptop to add more information to the Bisyarinas\' personal file. Finally, she gazes at them. \"Okay. From what you two just told me, you are the right sort of couple my particularly *unique*...\" she grins, making her customers giggle, \"...form of reproduction can benefit. I don\'t know exactly what Elena Semyonovna told you when she first mentioned my services to you, so for your benefit, I\'ll run through it all. What I give to those who seek out my services is LIFE-ALTERING. When you step down the path I provide to you, there\'s no going back. I want you both to understand that before you say \'yea\' or \'nay.\'\"

\"Elena told us that by getting your help, we\'d never have to worry about visiting a conception clinic for the rest of our lives,\" Beatrice notes. \"As far as I\'m concerned, that type of free choice is wonderful.\"

\"Yes, it is,\" Tariko nods. \"On average, worldwide, a single visit to a conception clinic often costs a couple five hundred American dollars for the procedure itself. Then you have to add \'incidental\' costs such as consultation fees, medication and the like. Give it another four hundred to add onto the original five hundred you pay to have the babies. Given that we are all expected to live for quite a long time, the idea of forking over nine hundred bucks EACH time you get the urge to have a baby seems a little unfair in the long term.

\"Now, I charge a flat one-time rate of five thousand dollars and I only ask for extra costs when it comes to hotel rooms and travel expenses. Compare gaining that sort of ability, which gives you a practically ENDLESS amount of chances to have children, to paying roughly one-fifth that for just ONE pair of babies. Does it strike you as a better deal in the long run?\" she asks, then on seeing the Bisyarinas nod, sighs. \"Okay. There\'s one disadvantage to my form of reproduction, though,\" Tariko raises a finger, then indicates Tania. \"And since Tania here could be seen as a \'normal\' girl, I have to mention this. When you two gain my form of reproduction, you can NEVER, EVER have children using male sperm, even with artificial insemination. Now, Bea, I\'m sure you\'d never want to do something like that...\"

\"Hell, no! Of course not!!\" Beatrice shakes her head.

\"Okay, then. Tania, how do you feel about this?\"

Tania blinks, then stares at her wife. \"I made a committment to this woman, Tariko. I won\'t go back on it.\" She turns back to their host. \"And is it really such a sacrifice in the long term? I want to be a mother, Tariko. I want it NOW! So I say \'yes.\'\"

Tariko gazes at them, her internal senses confirming that Tania and Beatrice are both for this, then she breathes out. \"Okay, then. Let\'s take care of the payment, then we\'ll get started. In just a little over twenty-four hours from now, you\'ll be on your way.\"

Tania nods, reaching for her purse...

* * *

With the payment immediately secured through Tania\'s MasterCard, drawn from an account administered by the Bank of Zurich, the three women quickly undress, then head into the bathroom. The jacuzzi is already running. Tariko guides her customers into the warm water, then kneeling behind Tania, start giv give her a backrub. \"You know how to do this, don\'t you, Tariko?\" Beatrice chuckles.

\"I\'ve helped over twenty thousand couples worldwide do this, Bea,\" Tariko smiles. \"To make this work as painlessly as possible, we need you two to be as relaxed as we can get you to be, with just a touch of arousal to make it more enjoyable.\"

\"In your file with the RVS, it\'s said that just before you founded your company, you spent some time at the Jade Dragon Lodge in Hong Kong learning how to do things like this from Madame Lao Shin-mai and her girls,\" Tania notes.

\"The Jade Dragon?!!\" Beatrice exclaims.

\"The best whorehouse in the Orient when it was still catering to men,\" Tariko chuckles, step-dancing her fingers along the sides of Tania\'s spine ridge. \"Nowadays, the world\'s best intimacy school. Of course, being the ward of one of Japan\'s richest people made it much easier for me to get in there for some lessons before I started going professional.\" She pauses for a second. \"I even got my money back.\"

\"Oh?\" Tania gazes at her. \"How so?\"

\"Two years ago, Lao-sensei hired me for consultations for herself and a good number of her girls.\"

Laughter fills the bathroom. \"I think you probably even couped a profit out of that trip!\" Beatrice snickers.

\"That I did, but don\'t mention it to anyone else, PLEASE!\" Tariko makes a shushing motion with her finger.

\"Mum\'s the word,\" the American vows.

More laughter. \"So what does happen when we drink your breast milk, Tarisha?\" Tania asks.

The Japanese teen blushes on hearing the Russian give her a \"pet\" nickname in her own native language. \"Well, Nisha, the stem cells that get absorbed by my breast glands from my bones are, once you drink it, absorbed through the liver right into your blood stream. From there, they\'re spread out throughout your body through your heart and start shifting certain elements of your DNA right on the spot. You need to drink at least two hundred millilitres of the stuff to make the transformation work as quickly as possible. It\'ll take about twenty-four hours even at that. And I\'ll keep you both as comfortable as I can while this is happening to you. To better help it along, I\'ll give you both a sleeping pill so you can rest through most of it. It goes a lot faster for you both and it allows me to get some sleep, too.\"

\"Restless nights when you first started out, Tariko?\" Beatrice wonders.

\"Oh, you wouldn\'t believe it at times!\" Tariko shakes her head ruefully, then starts to gently massage the area between Tania\'s short ribs and the upper arch of her pelvic bones. \"Okay, Nisha, sit on the edge of the tub, please?\"

\"Da!\" the Russian shifts herself.

\"Trisha, give her a blow job, please. Nice and gentle, just your tongue. No fingers. I want a soft orgasm from Nisha, alright?\"

\"Okay!\" the American slides over, then allowing her wife\'s legs to rest on her shoulders, leans in.

A moan escapes Tania as Beatrice\'s tongue begins to fleck and lap away at her wife\'s clit. Like most long-term couples -- in this day and age, that normally people who had lived together, remaining effectively monogamous sexually, for more than two years -- it is quite easy for the American scientist to use just her tongue to bring her beloved wife to an orgasmic peak. Tariko continues to work on kneading and rubbing Tania\'s muscles, using her empathic powers along the way to radiate as much positive feelings about this as she could.

This procedure served two basic, interconnected purposes.

First, it would allow Tania and Beatrice to look upon this time in their lives with as much fondness as possible. They would gain emotional strength from this experience, allowing them to withstand any possible verbal assault from those who would look upon this \"diploid monogender\" form of reproduction as perverted -- or worse, evil. Those type of people were out there, Tariko knew. Not anywhere close to the size of any of the main elements of the Hydra, of course -- but they were out there and it was best to guard against them now. After all, if men are brought back into mainstream society sometime over the next few centuries, those radical androphiles could easily find themselves in a position where they could dictate things to those like Tania and Beatrice, much less their children.

The second reason is much more practical. Tania and Beatrice would, after this session was done, think positively of Tariko and her giving them the chance to have children outside a conception clinic. Thus, they would be in a position to pass on a positive review of Tariko to other prospective mothers. \"Happy customers, in the end, means MORE customers,\" Madame Lao once taught the young Tariko in Hong Kong years before. As a businesswoman determined to succeed, Tariko went all out to make her customers as happy as possible.

Tania cries out aatriatrice pushes her over the edge, her back arching as waves of sheer delight rock her from head to toe. Tariko warmly embraces the Russian from behind, becoming a rock by which Tania could cling to as she moves to recover. Within a moment, the intelligence officer is relaxing in the jacuzzi, allowing the warm water to relax her even more as Tariko gets to work on Beatrice...

* * *