Life slowly went on in the Seventh City Wife Factory. Megan and Eliza went to their classes, and then had another meet-up with Michael, and slowly adjusted to a life that included boys, but in a completely different way than expected. That afternoon Eliza was looking at some new black market acquisitions when Megan came in.

‘Look, a book about the Magnificent Revolution.’

She held up an old book that looked like it had had its best time centuries ago already, even though the revolution wasn’t more than 150 years ago.

‘Interesting how you always manage to find things like that, Eliza.’

Megan smiled suspiciously.

‘Okay, I just traded it for some other black market things and Annabelle brought it earlier today. But that isn’t the point. This is a more critical book than the usual propaganda about our Great Manly Nation.’

‘And what does it say? Society was in chaos, men were oppressed, and then the Real Men took charge to bring order and put everything in its right place, that kind of nonsense?’

‘More details than that, but that seems to be the basic story. Ever heard of the Neo-Masculist Movement?’

‘No, the name is new to me. The first Real Men?’

‘Something like that. They were behind the revolution. They were frustrated about women being in power, and felt oppressed, and overthrew their oppressors, according to their own words. But if you read between the lines then the war between the sexes had gotten out of hand. Loverboy might be right about friendship as the best way to start a revolution.’

‘Don’t call him that!’

‘Sorry, It just works as a nickname for him. Anyway, the Neo-Masculists seemed to have taken up literal arms against the so-called Inclusive Coalition who fought for women’s rights and what they called minorities, and won because they were united in their cause, where the Inclusive Coalition were rather divided, with schisms and shunning of everyone who wasn’t pure enough in their views. But what is more interesting is that the technological crisis was such an important part of the story. Usually the history books are silent about that.’

‘The solar storms that meant the end of the connected world and the Great Blackout, you mean?’

‘Yes, the third and worst solar storm, that took out all satellites and most of the internet and radio and disrupted all electronics. It was worse than the first two times, and the resources of the planet were completely depleted by then, so it couldn’t be rebuilt so easily. Plus we had lost physical connections to the other countries by our own civil wars.’

‘I never realised that, but before the fall of the internet people had contact with everybody in the world, including people in the outside countries, didn't they?’

‘Well, not entirely, there were a lot of different languages, but virtual translators were also quite good for all the major languages. Although not perfect. So the whole world was pretty connected indeed I’d say’ ‘And then the solar storm caused the Great Blackout and propelled us back to an unconnected world, disconnected us from the rest of the planet, and in that chaos the Neo-Masculists saw their chance and took over?’

‘It seems that the IC had been too reliant on the virtual world that was gone from one day to another, and couldn’t be rebuilt anymore. They were no match for actual weapons. And then from the ashes The Nation rose as a bastion of unadulterated Manliness. Their very subtle online mob techniques failed completely in the nonvirtual world.’

‘What I’m wondering now is why we never reconnected with the outside countries.’ Megan pondered.

‘It’s because we always found ourselves better. Plus we had hardly any physical connections anymore after the sea-level rise when fuel became too expensive. And after the polar melts and tsunami waves we had completely become an island. Our only contact with other countries was virtual for the century after that. Ships were rare because there was not enough fuel or material to build big ships left. At least that’s the official version.’

‘Do you think the other countries still exist in our world?’

‘I see no reason why not. They existed until the day of the last solar storm. If the Great Blackout didn’t kill us, it probably didn’t send the rest of humanity to extinction either…’

‘So why haven’t they contacted us?’

‘Maybe they tried, and then saw that our Great Manly leaders wanted to be left alone? There’s so much we don’t know. And there was not much technology left, remember. The post-fuel era on a depleted planet and such…’

‘Do you think there’s still radio and internet elsewhere in the world, and a new system of wireless communication? New ways of travelling the oceans?’

‘Who will say? I certainly hope so.’ Eliza had a dangerous smile on her face, which her friend ignored for now.

‘So what does the book say about the Central computer?’

‘Nothing new. You know the story. People didn’t believe in democracy anymore after all the virtual misinformation and brainwashing that had cost the country so much when incompetent people rose to power time after time. They also had seen too many violent revolutions where new leaders took over, so they decided to give the final decisions not to a chosen human that could change the course that they had decided on, but to a preprogrammed Computer that could keep their teachings alive forever. John Manfred stayed a life-long representative, but after him it became impossible to be a representative more than once, so every seven years new representatives of the Central Computer are chosen. But the system is extremely conservative: the law is unchangeable and they cannot make up something new, only react to crises. Everything that can happen in The Nation is new interpretations of the old laws. The new communication network that they built also almost depleted the country in that the anti solar storm systems which were installed together with the new wire system that connected all hundred cities were quite expensive, as was the solar storm-proof building around the central computer.’

‘And so we ended up a poor country, isolated from the rest of the world, but with very content Real Men as leaders who could now do what they want without female interference?’

‘Basically, yes…’

‘Oh what a Magnificent Revolution indeed. Excuse my sarcasm…’

‘But, Eliza, I was wondering. If no-one will ever contradict the Central Computer. What would they do if it starts giving other commandments? The representatives are chosen to always do what the computer says.’

Eliza’s eyes lit up. ‘Hacking the Central Computer? Yes, that should be the plan eventually, not?’

‘That’s impossible, not?’ ‘Everything that has a beginning has an end. Even the Central Computer. And sometimes fate needs to have some help!’

‘Yes, but the men who are in power might get even more dangerous if they notice that the computer is being manipulated. And start making things up themselves.’

‘Yes, and this dumb country is led by Alpha-1 personalities who are not really the smartest, nor the most tactful. Maybe they just need a little push to self-destruct. We can only hope. And then we can try democracy again or something like that. Give women voting rights as well as men.’

‘Bad plan, Eliza. Democracy depends on the majority, and the majority of this country are a bunch of mindless brainwashed zombies. Plus who would ever give women a vote in this stronghold of Masculinity?’

‘Let a girl dream, Megan, let a girl dream. Loverboy might have given you hope for one marriage in the history of our Nation that isn’t hell and slavery, but he also has opened up other things for me. And maybe we can open up the world a bit further, and then even more. We need to change a lot before we can do this. It’s true that this country isn’t prepared.’

‘You’re crazy, Eliza, and probably dangerous, but I’m glad to be your friend.’

Eliza saw two other girls appear in the door.

‘Oh wait.’

She hopped from her chair and took some books from under her mattress.

‘I have the new black market arrivals. Here, Christina. Some boy school books about finances and an old Atlas that has the geography of the world outside of The Nation before the revolution. I’m rather jealous of that one.’

She handed 2 boring-looking schoolbooks and an enormous book in ancient multicolour-print to a pretty dark-skinned girl with glasses.

‘Oooohhhh.’ The four girls said simultaneously.

‘The world outside of the Nation. It used to exist.’

‘It probably still exists. There’s no reason to believe that the rest of the planet sank under the sea or that all people died out outside The Nation. We didn’t have any great Tsunamis after the great melt of the ice caps. We just stopped having contact after the Magnificent Revolution.’

‘I was just talking about it to Megan, I think other countries have given up on us because we’re such a stubborn toxic culture.’ Eliza said. ‘They might even have rebuilt their wireless communication in some kind of way.’

Christina looked at her, incredulous. ‘Do you think that any country has ever rebooted that whole internet thing? Or radios? And that we’re just missing it because the Men on Top have never tried to ever tune in.’

‘And because the Central Computer has forbidden it. John Manfred didn’t like it. But how do I know? It’s not like we have a receiver for any of these things here.’

‘You are Eliza, you can get anything. You know the best people.’ Christina said in awe, and it took all of Megan's self-control to not start laughing.

‘You have a point, I’ve never thought about trying that. But it will take time and funds to find out. But it is an interesting project indeed.’

It was Shirley who finally broke the silence. ‘Finally I’m learning something here in this school.’

*

Later that same afternoon Michael walked to the paper store for school supplies. It had been a week since his most recent meet-up with Megan and Eliza, and he had found that he’d been thinking about both girls regularly ever since. Nothing special or spectacular, or even remotely romantic, but he still wondered whether his thoughts were indecent from time to time. Everything was so confusing, in endlessly different ways it seemed even. He didn’t even know whether he liked Megan, who was supposed to be his future wife and who was friendly, open, and beautiful more than Eliza who was just crazy and fun and dangerously intelligent too, and technically had no actual connection to him officially. She had just been the chaperone. But he liked both of them in some kind of way, that was not to be denied.

And he also had realised that he liked being around girls, just in general. It felt like he had regained something that had been stolen from him all of his life, just by hanging out with the two of them now. Humans were not meant to live in two separate societies as two sexes. But alas, his parents and brother wouldn’t be the only people who completely disagreed with that.

He had almost reached Square Plaza when he was stopped by the sound of people yelling. A group of women with signs, most of which said just ‘Women are Human!’ was standing on the corner, yelling slogans about equal rights for women. Some of them were handing out pamphlets too. Michael had seen the ‘Women are Human’ protesters before, but never given them much thought before. They were just one of these things people knew existed and then mostly ignored, especially men. But things were different now, and the rights of women were something important to him too now that he should not ignore at all. They were yelling about his two new girl friends too.

He looked at the protesters. Most of them were poor non-Wife women with short hair wearing shabby clothes or factory uniforms, with only a few low-rated Wives among them, and like always there certainly were no men. Like usually most of them just yelled that women were human, and that they needed to be treated better, but some of them had some really aggressive anti-male slogans too. ‘Destroy the Patriarchy!’ and ‘More rights for women!’ he could understand, but ‘Crush all men!’ was a bit over the top, and ‘destroy manhood!’ was not very inviting either.

Luckily no-one showed any inclination to crush or destroy him or his manhood, they kept a safe distance from him as a Gamma-1 man, which was probably quite an impressive rate to an ungraded non-Wife. He’d always kept his distance from Women are Human protesters, being a man and all, but somewhere deep inside he had known that they were mostly right. He realised now that even the anti-male sentiments were understandable, coming from the perspective of a non-Wife with no status and almost no rights in a culture where men have all the power and women just have to obey them. The small comments of his two new female friends had made clear that the situation was even worse than he’d ever realised. Maybe it was time to get some more education. He approached the group to investigate the matter further.

A few weeks ago he would have stayed away from them, and certainly not have tried to talk to them. All his life he had heard that it’s indecent to talk to a woman that wasn’t his wife or so. But a lot of things had happened lately, and he had changed too, even if his parents hated it. After his first little chat with Megan and Eliza on that disastrous night of partner choice he had crossed a line that couldn’t be uncrossed again. He had realised that there was nothing wrong with talking to women, and now there was nothing that would stop him anymore. He looked at the closest protester, a girl that couldn’t be much older than him was handing out pamphlets. She had very blue eyes, freckles and very short hair in an undefined colour. Her plain grey clothing with no badge in sight made clear that she was a young non-wife, probably a woman with no man in her family to keep her in Wife School, and no chance to get a husband. Her life should be radically different even from that of Megan and Eliza then, living all alone and probably doing a low-wage job.

She almost froze up when he approached her. Was this going to be another Natasha situation?

‘Don’t be afraid. I won’t bite, please give me one of your pamphlets, and tell me more about what you’re doing here.’ He said, as relaxed as possible and keeping some distance for her safety. She really reacted strongly to a strange man that was talking to her, but he didn’t want to follow the rules of the war between the sexes anymore.

‘Please, don’t be afraid.’ He repeated in a soothing voice. ‘And tell me about what you are doing here. I’m willing to listen. Really, you have to believe me!’

For a few seconds she stared at him, and then at the Gamma-1 badge, and he took a step backwards to make her less uncomfortable.

‘Just give me the pamphlet then.’ He said again.

‘Sure, sir.’ She said, trembling lightly.

‘Do I look like a sir to you? Just call me Michael.’

She handed him the pamphlet, and he started reading it out loud.

‘It is time to end the injustices that are done against the female half of the Nation. Aren’t we all human too, just as men are? Don’t we deserve rights, freedom, and human dignity too?’ He read, and looked at her.

‘So far I agree. Let’s see what else you have to say. Hmm… “Time for a revolution to reclaim the rightful place that belongs to women as half of humanity…” My fiancee and her friend already said something like that. “Smash the patriarchy and bring the proud men to their knees.” I’m curious about how that would look, but if it means ending the ridiculous Alpha-to-Epsilon rating system, bring it on! No-one needs that nonsense.’

She was still looking at him, confused, while he read on, but he could feel her fear slowly changing into curiosity.

‘Hmm “equality for the sexes” sounds good, but if I were you I’d aim higher than trying to become like men in this country. Most men just suck, and I say that as a man. You wouldn’t want to be equal to that…’ She slowly started to relax while he went through the pamphlet with his comments. ‘But if I’m to end sexism I shouldn’t be so anti-male either I suppose, or is it only sexism if it’s against women that matters?’ He said, and she shrugged nervously when he looked in her eyes after that question. She clearly wasn’t prepared to answer that kind of question to a man that was, for her at least, rather high up in the male hierarchy.

‘So how are you thinking to do all these things?’ He asked.

‘Well, you can read the pamphlet, can’t you? Sir Michael.’

‘Oh, I can read, sure, but I only see vague calls to revolution and no real action plan. All general stuff, no specifics. It’s not going to work that way. Especially if you’re all going to react like this when an actual man is interested in sharing you goals.’ She nodded.

‘Sorry, I’m not very used to men.’ He nodded back.

‘And I’m not used to women yet myself, so we all have to learn. And I was wondering if I could just talk to you a bit more. I want to hear more of your story.’

She looked shyly at her own hands without answering.

‘So, what’s your name?’

‘Eh, I am Angela.’

‘Hi Angela, I am Michael, I already said that I think. I can be awkward when talking to girls, like you have with boys it seems. Is this okay, or do you want me to leave you alone now? You’re still not completely comfortable. Am I being too socially aggressive for you?’

‘I’m not sure, but it would be hypocritical to stand here with this pamphlet about equality, and then run away when a man tries to talk to me, not?’ She said matter-of-factly.

‘Okay, I’ll just keep some distance. You might still regard me as dangerous and stuff like that.’

‘Eh, nothing personal, but we don’t really trust men. We usually don’t have any reason to.’

He sighed. ‘You’re right even. But I promise that I’m not dangerous. And I’m still a bit awkward myself too. Recently I realised that I’ve been deprived of contact with women all of my life, and now that my family is pushing me to marry I know I need to get used to being around girls in a natural way. So I hope you can forgive me that I want to practise a bit with you now. It’s for the good purpose of equality between the sexes somehow in the end even.’

The look in her eyes changed to astonishment.

‘You’re what?’

‘I’m just trying to get used to being around women. And that means also that I have to get beyond that whole segregation of the sexes thing somehow, which is much worse than I thought. So forgive me if I’m naive and don’t understand where you’re coming from. I know we live in different worlds and I mean that I want to get to know yours. And please have some patience with me if I do something wrong. I’m just an ignorant boy after all.’

She smiled lightly. ‘You’re the first man who isn’t my boss or so who ever talked to me since my father kicked me out when I was fourteen. And definitely the first one who’s friendly and asking questions like that instead of demanding things from me. Or am I the one who’s naive now? What do you really want? They say that men who act friendly are dangerous, but I haven’t even met any of those before, so I don’t know what to do with you.’

‘If I’m dangerous it’s not to you, but to the system it seems. I’ve told you what I want already. You don’t have to do anything. Just be yourself and I’m content. And please tell me about the Women and Human program. The points seem interesting but they’re also rather radical ideas that don’t really fit into the world we’re living in today. How do you people plan to materialise them? I still don’t see it.’

‘I’m new to it too. And I’m afraid we mostly hand out these papers, and talk about it to anyone who is willing to listen. Which is usually other non-Wives, every now and then maybe a Wife, usually low-rated. Never ever a man. And most people who don’t completely ignore us just politely listen without much enthusiasm. So whatever you are and whatever you want, you’re something completely different.’

‘If you want to have equality of the sexes and the end of the patriarchy as your paper says, I think talking is the least thing we could do, not? No equality without contact.’

‘I guess you’re right. But it’s all so strange that you’re talking to me like this, and I get the idea that you believe in it more than we do.’

‘I believe it. I believe we need a revolution, and I want you to be part of it! You need it even more than me as a woman!’