Being Male
by Tom Greenwood
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Swearwords: None.
Description: There are some places where being the male of the species isn't such a good thing...
________________________________________________________________________
As soon as he could, he was aware that he was male. Males had no name, received no education, they had no need and they existed for one reason only. If he was lucky, he would service a queen.
Being male wasn’t all bad, there were several members of the servant-caste whose only function was to provide him with all of his needs. Though these needs were few, mostly food. Food he needed to reach sexual maturity and to produce sperm.
He knew there were other males, presumably his rivals, but he never got to meet them. He asked the servants about them but they mostly refused to answer. One did say that long ago, males would occasionally fight over the right to fertilise the queen, but now the hive decided which males would breed and which would not. He had no interest in fighting his rivals. He wondered if they felt the same way.
Occasionally he would be visited by members of the warrior-caste, they would invariably sniff him to ensure he was a member of the hive, or by members of the intelligent-caste, he knew they had all the answers but they just stared at him. After all he was just a male.
Then strangely, a member of the intelligent-caste started to answer his questions.
“How long before I meet the queen?” he asked, like on so many other occasions.
“We will decide if you meet the queen.”
“And if you decide no?”
“Then you will remain here.”
“And then what?”
“Then at some point you will die.”
“When?”
“That will be determined.”
“How will you decide if I meet the queen?”
“If you best fulfil the criteria the queen has given us.”
“What are those criteria?”
“I am afraid I cannot say.”
“How many hives are there?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because I would like to know.”
“Officially, 12,567, though there have been some recent attempts to colonise desert areas and the polar regions.”
He pondered the reply for a moment. “What is a desert?”
After that brief conversation he was given access to some basic learning materials, materials usually reserved for the intelligent-caste. He learnt all about the world he lived on, the sister planet, the hives, the social structure and the many castes. He decided he wanted to see outside. For all of his brief life, he had only seen a small area of the hive.
“It will be dangerous,” he was told after asking.
“But can I not see?”
“You may see if you are chosen and have to travel to the other hive.”
“Another hive?”
“Of course, you cannot mate with our queen, you will be traded for a male of another hive.”
Then a few days later, and the word ‘day’ made so much more sense now he understood basic astronomy, he was asked the question, “Do you think it right?” by one of the servants.
“Do I think what right?” he replied.
“The system. We are all slaves to the queen. Should we not be allowed to move hives or even change castes? Why should you, a male not be allowed to do something other than mate?”
What a strange idea. And the more he thought about it the more it made sense. Why should he, a male not be allowed to become a member of say the intelligent-caste? Then when he saw the same servant again he answered the question.
“No it is not fair.”
“You will be contacted again and if you are chosen you will be given a specific job that will free us from the tyranny.”
Tyranny was a new word, but he sort of understood it. He waited to see the servant again, but she never reappeared.
Several days later, several members of the intelligent-caste appeared in his room.
“You are one of the males that have been chosen to travel to the neighbouring hive. You will come with us.”
He meekly followed the members of the intelligent-caste out of the rooms that had been his home for his entire life. They and their warrior-escort unerringly led him through the warren of the hive to a cart.
“Get in,” he was ordered, by an intelligent, who followed him in.
“Sit here,” she said pointing to a seat. She shouted to the warrior-caste, “We will need an escort that can travel with us to Quan hive. You are hive-guards, please leave and organise it.”
The warriors dutifully departed as soon as they were alone. The intelligent-caste member handed him a small vial. “You are to offer this to the queen, she will accept it and if she does, we will be free.”
He did not understand, but he accepted it. “I will do as you ask, will I then be allowed…”
“Shhh speak no more of this.”
Some new warriors appeared, sniffed the occupants of the cart and as they both had the correct smell they sat inside.
“What happens now?” he asked.
“We travel to the Quan hive,” she replied.
Then as if triggered by the answer the cart began to move off. He could see the outside approaching through the large and heavily guarded hive entrance. The cart propelled via some unknown mechanism over the smooth road, slowly accelerating, past fields of members of the farming-caste tending crops.
He looked out of the window at the large crescent in the sky.
“Our sister planet,” the intelligent said.
“Who lives there?” he asked.
“Nobody at the moment, the air is poisonous.”
“Why?”
“It is the way things are.”
“Has anyone been there?”
“You ask too many questions. You need only follow orders you are only a male.”
“Why only a male?”
“You are only a carrier for genetic material. That is your role in life.”
“And what is your role?”
“We are the intelligents, we are second only to the queen. We carry out her orders and act for the good of the hive.”
“So why can males not be intelligents? After all you are talking with me.”
“True, but you are haploid, only half a female. You only carry one set of genetic material, you are inferior. It is the way things are.”
He did not understand that last answer, but the females, those of every caste, looked down on males he knew that.
“But perhaps one day a male might be more than they are,” she said. He felt she was passing on a message.
After several hours of travel they stopped.
“We have reached the border of our hive, now we must apply the pheromones of the Quan hive.”
“Why?”
“Or else their warriors will kill us for being foreign.” She turned to their accompanying warriors. “Leave us,” she said. She turned back to face him, “we cannot let them meet the other warriors, they may start a fight and once warriors start to fight, it quickly escalates.”
The intelligent waited until the warriors had left, took out two vials, opened one and started smearing the contents over herself. She handed the other to him. “Do the same, or else the Quan warriors will dismember and eat you.”
He took the contents of the vial and copied the intelligent.
Once they were suitably covered the cart started to move again. It soon stopped and another intelligent followed by several warriors boarded. The two intelligents touched antennae. They were having a private conversation. He knew not to ask. Presumably it was about him.
The new warriors sniffed him, they appeared concerned but eventually relaxed, well relaxed as much as a warrior ever could.
Then the cart started again, and they travelled through another series of fields almost identical to those of his home hive and eventually into the foreign hive.
He was shown into a set of rooms similar to the ones he had left in his birth-hive. The new intelligent accompanied him. Once they were alone, she asked. “You know what to do?”
“Yes, but not why?”
“All you have to know is that it will result in a freer, fairer society, where there is not the constant threat of invasion from other hives.”
“Am I doing wrong?”
“You are doing what is required for the greater good.”
“And what will happen to me?”
“You need not worry about that?”
“Will I be dismembered by warriors?”
“If you follow our orders and you are chosen then that will not happen, I guarantee it.”
“Then I agree.”
“The queen has requested to mate with you,” the intelligent said. “You have been chosen from all of her suitors.”
He was taken out of his rooms; he could see several sets of warriors rushing through the passageways of the hive.
“What are they doing?”
“You were not the only candidate, they are going to deal with the unsuccessful applicants. Do you have the vial?”
“I do.”
“And you know what to do?”
“To offer it to the queen.”
He was taken to a large chamber.
“Wait here, the queen will see you.”
He waited nervously and soon the doors at the other end of the room opened. Then he was met with some new smells, ones that unleashed a whole new set of emotions. For the first time ever, he felt sexual desire.
“Come in my male,” a voice boomed from the chamber. “We will be alone.”
He walked through and there was the queen. She was fifty times the size of the largest warrior he had ever met and most of that was abdomen.
“So you are my new husband?” she said turning and looking at him.
“I am,” he replied, “and I have something for you.”
“What is that?”
He took out the vial and walked slowly towards her. “I am to give you this.”
“Good I am pleased but it is irrelevant now.”
“I am supposed to give it to you. It is very important.”
“Oh my little lover, how little you know. I gave the instructions for the vial. You believe it is supposed to lead to a new set of freedoms for all and so it shall.”
“I don’t understand,” he replied.
“For too long the hives have been fighting, trying to destroy each other. For the last hundred years there has been an uneasy peace as any hive knows if they start a conflict then they would soon be too weakened to defend itself. So how could we expand? There is one way, to our sister planet. Our world is one half of a double planet. Our sister is barren and lifeless though.”
“I saw it on my journey.”
“Then I envy you, I have never seen it. I have spent all my life in this hive, but now I am nearing the end of my life and I will produce new queens. Queens that will not establish hives here, but will hopefully establish hives on our sister and you are to father them.”
“Why me?”
“There will be new challenges ahead for our daughters, they will not need physical strength but intelligence and cunning. We devised a simple test to get the best candidate and that candidate was you my husband. Most males could not even understand simple commands, but you, you showed the ability to conspire, you wanted to learn. Now mate with me, I need intelligent daughters.”
The queen waved her abdomen in his direction and wafted pheromones at him. He felt a new wave of lust overtake him.
“Yes that is it my lover, give me your genes, so we can make daughters that can travel to the stars.”
He walked over to the queen, as he did his sexual organ unsheathed itself. The pheromones were taking control of his body.
“And then what will happen to me?” he asked, regaining some measure of self-control.
“You need not worry about that?”
“Will the warriors kill me?”
“Most certainly not. Now do your duty, do you destiny.”
A new wave of pheromones hit him and he had no control left. He crawled over to the opening abdomen and inserted his sex organ. The queen’s abdomen clasped onto it and he immediately felt the most intense combination of pain and pleasure. Then he looked down and saw his genitals had detached themselves and were still attached to the queen. He was bleeding profusely.
“What happened?”
“Ah my husband, males get to reproduce once and they die in the process. It is the way of the world. You have fulfilled your duty and our daughters will journey to found new hives on new worlds. You will not die by a warrior’s mandibles, you die like a male, in sexual congress. Die peacefully with that knowledge.”
He keeled over and felt his life drain away from him. His last feelings were mixed. Content he had fulfilled what all males were destined for and had not been warrior-food but nevertheless he still felt a severe sense of betrayal.
Swearwords: None.
Description: There are some places where being the male of the species isn't such a good thing...
________________________________________________________________________
As soon as he could, he was aware that he was male. Males had no name, received no education, they had no need and they existed for one reason only. If he was lucky, he would service a queen.
Being male wasn’t all bad, there were several members of the servant-caste whose only function was to provide him with all of his needs. Though these needs were few, mostly food. Food he needed to reach sexual maturity and to produce sperm.
He knew there were other males, presumably his rivals, but he never got to meet them. He asked the servants about them but they mostly refused to answer. One did say that long ago, males would occasionally fight over the right to fertilise the queen, but now the hive decided which males would breed and which would not. He had no interest in fighting his rivals. He wondered if they felt the same way.
Occasionally he would be visited by members of the warrior-caste, they would invariably sniff him to ensure he was a member of the hive, or by members of the intelligent-caste, he knew they had all the answers but they just stared at him. After all he was just a male.
Then strangely, a member of the intelligent-caste started to answer his questions.
“How long before I meet the queen?” he asked, like on so many other occasions.
“We will decide if you meet the queen.”
“And if you decide no?”
“Then you will remain here.”
“And then what?”
“Then at some point you will die.”
“When?”
“That will be determined.”
“How will you decide if I meet the queen?”
“If you best fulfil the criteria the queen has given us.”
“What are those criteria?”
“I am afraid I cannot say.”
“How many hives are there?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because I would like to know.”
“Officially, 12,567, though there have been some recent attempts to colonise desert areas and the polar regions.”
He pondered the reply for a moment. “What is a desert?”
After that brief conversation he was given access to some basic learning materials, materials usually reserved for the intelligent-caste. He learnt all about the world he lived on, the sister planet, the hives, the social structure and the many castes. He decided he wanted to see outside. For all of his brief life, he had only seen a small area of the hive.
“It will be dangerous,” he was told after asking.
“But can I not see?”
“You may see if you are chosen and have to travel to the other hive.”
“Another hive?”
“Of course, you cannot mate with our queen, you will be traded for a male of another hive.”
Then a few days later, and the word ‘day’ made so much more sense now he understood basic astronomy, he was asked the question, “Do you think it right?” by one of the servants.
“Do I think what right?” he replied.
“The system. We are all slaves to the queen. Should we not be allowed to move hives or even change castes? Why should you, a male not be allowed to do something other than mate?”
What a strange idea. And the more he thought about it the more it made sense. Why should he, a male not be allowed to become a member of say the intelligent-caste? Then when he saw the same servant again he answered the question.
“No it is not fair.”
“You will be contacted again and if you are chosen you will be given a specific job that will free us from the tyranny.”
Tyranny was a new word, but he sort of understood it. He waited to see the servant again, but she never reappeared.
Several days later, several members of the intelligent-caste appeared in his room.
“You are one of the males that have been chosen to travel to the neighbouring hive. You will come with us.”
He meekly followed the members of the intelligent-caste out of the rooms that had been his home for his entire life. They and their warrior-escort unerringly led him through the warren of the hive to a cart.
“Get in,” he was ordered, by an intelligent, who followed him in.
“Sit here,” she said pointing to a seat. She shouted to the warrior-caste, “We will need an escort that can travel with us to Quan hive. You are hive-guards, please leave and organise it.”
The warriors dutifully departed as soon as they were alone. The intelligent-caste member handed him a small vial. “You are to offer this to the queen, she will accept it and if she does, we will be free.”
He did not understand, but he accepted it. “I will do as you ask, will I then be allowed…”
“Shhh speak no more of this.”
Some new warriors appeared, sniffed the occupants of the cart and as they both had the correct smell they sat inside.
“What happens now?” he asked.
“We travel to the Quan hive,” she replied.
Then as if triggered by the answer the cart began to move off. He could see the outside approaching through the large and heavily guarded hive entrance. The cart propelled via some unknown mechanism over the smooth road, slowly accelerating, past fields of members of the farming-caste tending crops.
He looked out of the window at the large crescent in the sky.
“Our sister planet,” the intelligent said.
“Who lives there?” he asked.
“Nobody at the moment, the air is poisonous.”
“Why?”
“It is the way things are.”
“Has anyone been there?”
“You ask too many questions. You need only follow orders you are only a male.”
“Why only a male?”
“You are only a carrier for genetic material. That is your role in life.”
“And what is your role?”
“We are the intelligents, we are second only to the queen. We carry out her orders and act for the good of the hive.”
“So why can males not be intelligents? After all you are talking with me.”
“True, but you are haploid, only half a female. You only carry one set of genetic material, you are inferior. It is the way things are.”
He did not understand that last answer, but the females, those of every caste, looked down on males he knew that.
“But perhaps one day a male might be more than they are,” she said. He felt she was passing on a message.
After several hours of travel they stopped.
“We have reached the border of our hive, now we must apply the pheromones of the Quan hive.”
“Why?”
“Or else their warriors will kill us for being foreign.” She turned to their accompanying warriors. “Leave us,” she said. She turned back to face him, “we cannot let them meet the other warriors, they may start a fight and once warriors start to fight, it quickly escalates.”
The intelligent waited until the warriors had left, took out two vials, opened one and started smearing the contents over herself. She handed the other to him. “Do the same, or else the Quan warriors will dismember and eat you.”
He took the contents of the vial and copied the intelligent.
Once they were suitably covered the cart started to move again. It soon stopped and another intelligent followed by several warriors boarded. The two intelligents touched antennae. They were having a private conversation. He knew not to ask. Presumably it was about him.
The new warriors sniffed him, they appeared concerned but eventually relaxed, well relaxed as much as a warrior ever could.
Then the cart started again, and they travelled through another series of fields almost identical to those of his home hive and eventually into the foreign hive.
He was shown into a set of rooms similar to the ones he had left in his birth-hive. The new intelligent accompanied him. Once they were alone, she asked. “You know what to do?”
“Yes, but not why?”
“All you have to know is that it will result in a freer, fairer society, where there is not the constant threat of invasion from other hives.”
“Am I doing wrong?”
“You are doing what is required for the greater good.”
“And what will happen to me?”
“You need not worry about that?”
“Will I be dismembered by warriors?”
“If you follow our orders and you are chosen then that will not happen, I guarantee it.”
“Then I agree.”
“The queen has requested to mate with you,” the intelligent said. “You have been chosen from all of her suitors.”
He was taken out of his rooms; he could see several sets of warriors rushing through the passageways of the hive.
“What are they doing?”
“You were not the only candidate, they are going to deal with the unsuccessful applicants. Do you have the vial?”
“I do.”
“And you know what to do?”
“To offer it to the queen.”
He was taken to a large chamber.
“Wait here, the queen will see you.”
He waited nervously and soon the doors at the other end of the room opened. Then he was met with some new smells, ones that unleashed a whole new set of emotions. For the first time ever, he felt sexual desire.
“Come in my male,” a voice boomed from the chamber. “We will be alone.”
He walked through and there was the queen. She was fifty times the size of the largest warrior he had ever met and most of that was abdomen.
“So you are my new husband?” she said turning and looking at him.
“I am,” he replied, “and I have something for you.”
“What is that?”
He took out the vial and walked slowly towards her. “I am to give you this.”
“Good I am pleased but it is irrelevant now.”
“I am supposed to give it to you. It is very important.”
“Oh my little lover, how little you know. I gave the instructions for the vial. You believe it is supposed to lead to a new set of freedoms for all and so it shall.”
“I don’t understand,” he replied.
“For too long the hives have been fighting, trying to destroy each other. For the last hundred years there has been an uneasy peace as any hive knows if they start a conflict then they would soon be too weakened to defend itself. So how could we expand? There is one way, to our sister planet. Our world is one half of a double planet. Our sister is barren and lifeless though.”
“I saw it on my journey.”
“Then I envy you, I have never seen it. I have spent all my life in this hive, but now I am nearing the end of my life and I will produce new queens. Queens that will not establish hives here, but will hopefully establish hives on our sister and you are to father them.”
“Why me?”
“There will be new challenges ahead for our daughters, they will not need physical strength but intelligence and cunning. We devised a simple test to get the best candidate and that candidate was you my husband. Most males could not even understand simple commands, but you, you showed the ability to conspire, you wanted to learn. Now mate with me, I need intelligent daughters.”
The queen waved her abdomen in his direction and wafted pheromones at him. He felt a new wave of lust overtake him.
“Yes that is it my lover, give me your genes, so we can make daughters that can travel to the stars.”
He walked over to the queen, as he did his sexual organ unsheathed itself. The pheromones were taking control of his body.
“And then what will happen to me?” he asked, regaining some measure of self-control.
“You need not worry about that?”
“Will the warriors kill me?”
“Most certainly not. Now do your duty, do you destiny.”
A new wave of pheromones hit him and he had no control left. He crawled over to the opening abdomen and inserted his sex organ. The queen’s abdomen clasped onto it and he immediately felt the most intense combination of pain and pleasure. Then he looked down and saw his genitals had detached themselves and were still attached to the queen. He was bleeding profusely.
“What happened?”
“Ah my husband, males get to reproduce once and they die in the process. It is the way of the world. You have fulfilled your duty and our daughters will journey to found new hives on new worlds. You will not die by a warrior’s mandibles, you die like a male, in sexual congress. Die peacefully with that knowledge.”
He keeled over and felt his life drain away from him. His last feelings were mixed. Content he had fulfilled what all males were destined for and had not been warrior-food but nevertheless he still felt a severe sense of betrayal.
About the Author
Tom Greenwood was born in Bishopbriggs and now lives in Edinburgh with his wife, two daughters and a rabbit. He has a zoology degree, which might be obvious from the above story.
If you liked Being Male, you might want to read his novel, which can be found by clicking on the image below.
If you liked Being Male, you might want to read his novel, which can be found by clicking on the image below.
The Light That Never Went Out