NEVER BEEN TO VIX BEFORE?    If you haven't been to this world light-years away, I'm warning you now. A few real surprises await you. Some of them are shocking. They will change the way you look at the world. They will change the way you look at male-female relations. What is Vix? Vix is a place. A planet far, far away. A planet pretty far in the future, but with human beings who are -- in many ways, at least -- quite similar to us. But in some ways, the people of Vix are very, very different from us. Vix is the place where these fascinating stories take place. A futuristic planet with dazzling technology, more than 4000 years into our future. Here's how Vix developed. . . . About 3000 years before the start of this story, Earth was locked in war, devastated by global warming and disease, and slowly dying. A group of very talented scientists organized a space program, in which robot-controlled "sleeper ships" were sent out to colonize a newly-discovered, inhabitable world, 88 light years away, in the Gamma Lyrae IX Solar System. Hundreds of thousands of human beings were "frozen" in cryogenic pods and loaded onto these ships, for a voyage that would take 2700 years. When the robotic piloting system awakened the cryogenically-frozen humans on board, the awakened passengers called the new world "Clairvis", meaning "Clear View", for the gorgeous blue skies and clear air, the open, flat terrain, and the wide expanses of ocean. Gradually, the humans developed a thriving colony, and signaled to other sleeper-ships from earth to come to the new world. In all, 31 ships landed on Vix, with human colonists from the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Serbia, Italy, Brazil, Venezuela, Turkey, Lebanon, Vietnam, Angola, and Tahiti. The colonists who were "white" -- Caucasians -- settled mainly on the northern continents of Vista and Anavista, and developed a number of thriving colonies, which became countries: Sasteria, Centercoast, Severeeton, Anglia, Nordo, Cylthia, Franconia, Olympia. The colonists who were darker-skinned settled mainly on the continent of Mesovista and developed several countries, the biggest called Maluvia. After the last colonists landed, a group of female supremacist geneticists in the colony of Sasteria, under the veil of a secretive state-run corporation called GENEX, took over the government, and the planet was renamed Vix. These feminist geneticists, aided by a few men, believed that the male sex had destroyed Old Earth. And they didn't want that scenario to be repeated on this new, beautiful world. They had a plan to change humanity forever. Their goal was a humanity where the female sex would lead, and males would follow. A humanity where female superiority and male inferiority would be so ingrained, it would be burned into people's genetic makeup and hardwired into their brains - guaranteeing a female-run society. Now, Old Earth is ancient history -- its civilization destroyed by war, pestilence and strife -- but the genetically-engineered descendants of humans live on, here on the planet Vix. Within eight generations, GENEX sliced and diced the human genome, cutting and pasting genes according to a master plan to transform the human race forever. And they succeeded in genetically engineering the planet's people into a new race. A female-dominated race: Neosapiens Vixensis. Neosapiens Vixensis -- the new race of humans that exists on Vix, and its surrounding planets -- is a race in which the two sexes are designed differently from those of Old Earth. The women are the taller, physically stronger sex -- and the men are smaller and physically weaker. Vixan women are built like what we would call Amazons -- they're tall, strong, and athletic. They range in height from 5'11" to about 6'6", with the average height of an adult woman being about 6'2" (or 188 cm) tall. Their brains are hardwired to be more logical and stronger at mathematics and spatial and analytical reasoning than the brains of Vixan males. Vixan women have broad shoulders, long legs, and generally have nicely toned muscles. The "secondary sex characteristic" of breasts has been preserved, but their breasts do not give milk and their nipples are not "erogenous zones" for sexual pleasure. Furthermore, Vixan females have been forever freed of pregnancy and childbirth because the uterus has been deleted from the female genome. While Vixan men and women have normal, vaginal sexual relations, fertilization to perpetuate the Vixan race takes place in vitro (meaning in a "test tube" -- actually something called a "fertilization module"). Gestation, or the development of the embryo and the fetus, takes place in public laboratories called "gestatoria". Newborn infants are born, then sent to "childorms" -- children's dormitories -- to be reared by male nannies called "chatties". Since young Vixan males mature a little faster than young Vixan females, Vixan boys are under the care of chatties until about age 12 or 13, while girls remain under the care of chatties until 18 years old or older. Vixan male adults are shorter and physically weaker than their females. Full-grown Vixan males reach a height from about 5'0" to 5'8", with their average adult male height being about 5'5" or 5'6". Vixan males are the same as Earth males in that they have a penis, can grow a moustache (though generally not a beard), and have a bit more body hair than their women (Vixan women have smooth bodies while Vixan men might have a little hair on their legs and sometimes on their midriffs.) Vixan males are also like Earth males in that they have no breasts -- in other words, their chests are normal flat male chests -- albeit smaller than those of the typical Earth male. The Vixan male body does not get more muscular with weight-training, and -- more like Earth women -- Vixan men have a padding of subcutaneous fat tissue which contributes to their softer physiques. There are other ways Vixan males differ physically from Earth males, too. The males of Vix are Neosapiens Vixensis -- they have been designed and built especially for this female-dominated planet of the future. You see, GENEX designed the Vixan male to assure that he would feel softer and physically weaker than his female. GENEX wanted Vixan males to feel their physical "inferiority", to experience it organically, intuitively, and intimately. GENEX wanted Vixan men to feel soft and dainty compared to their women. This would contribute to Vixan men accepting their more subordinate, subservient roles. The scientists of GENEX had an idea. They reasoned that the best way to cement these gender roles firmly into place, and guarantee that nothing resembling the old society could ever return, was to redesign the male outlook so that Vixan men not only had softer, weaker bodies than their women, they derived sexual arousal from that very fact. They programmed the Vixan male not just to feel soft, dainty and delicate, but to enjoy that feeling! And they programmed Vixan men to be attracted to taller, stronger females. But there was more. . . . In this new species, Neosapiens Vixensis, the males were genetically engineered to have narrow, pert shoulders and broad, curvaceous hips! Broader hips and bigger buttocks than their females. The Vixan male's body is designed to be voluptuous, curvaceous, and hourglass-shaped. Apart from the fact that Vixan males don't have breasts, and have a penis and testicles instead of a vagina, their bodies are otherwise shaped like the most curvaceous women of Old Earth. And Vixan males are programmed, genetically, to be slaves to their sexual desires. They are hardwired, deep within their subconscious, to love their status as "The Weaker Sex" -- to love their bodies. And they are hardwired to be attracted to their tall, athletic Amazon-like females. The females of Vix are the explorers -- curious and daring. They are the warriors, the inventors, the scientists, the politicians. They design the spaceships, fight the wars, build the buildings, colonize new worlds. They control the government and the technology. They are clever and inventive, and have achieved a dazzling level of technology, which they have spread throughout the Gamma Lyrae IX solar system. Not every Vixan female is a genius or a brilliant scientist, of course. There are "blue collar workers" on Vix -- women who are construction workers doing the hard manual labor of erecting cities, on the ground or in space. There are women of every conceivable occupation, and not every occupation is glamorous. There are enlisted soldiers, factory mechanics, skycab drivers, and women who fly the skytrucks that pick up the garbage! And the men of Vix? They play the roles that we would think of as "softer" -- they are maids, secretaries, househusbands. They may be waiters or flight attendants on interplanetary spaceplanes. More emotional and intuitive than the female, the Vixan male stands by his woman's side. He benefits from her physical protection and strength, and also from her inventiveness and intelligence. In return, he takes care of her, he nurtures her, he hungers for her body. He is passionate. He is brazen. Bold and assertive sexually, he is not interested in competing with females in the world of careers, but gladly inhabits the softer role of nurturer. Come join the New Humans of Vix, then. Come join the men and women of this bold new future species of people -- Neosapiens Vixensis! Come join the women of Vix as they explore new worlds, make fascinating discoveries, have exciting space adventures, fight their battles and reach for the stars! And come join the men of Vix, as they take care of their females, tend to their homes, cook and clean, nurture and serve, have wild and passionate sex with their tall, gorgeous Amazons -- and thoroughly enjoy being men in this brave new world! "Nightclub Pickup" - Part I In the nightclub, Adona walks up to the tall brunette and takes her hand. The girl is fresh-faced and her lush, silky hair is in a pony-tail. She's wearing long, narrow-cut jeans and a white, collared short-sleeve shirt. "I've had my eyes on you!" Adona says, as he pulls her to the dance floor. He looks up into her twinkling blue eyes, smiling. "I need to dance with you!" he shouts above the loud dance music. On Vix, it is a nightclub tradition: when a man asks a single girl to dance, she accepts. The girl looks down at him, allowing herself to be pulled. Adona has pulled her to the middle of the dance floor. Now he let's go. "I'm Adona. Adona Walsh," he shouts with a smile. "I'm Megan Brandwell," the girl says, smiling back. They're already dancing. The club's sound system is playing a familiar, jangling powerpop anthem. "I love the Sockets," says Adona. "Those girls are, like, my favorite band!" The soaring, delightfully catchy guitar riffs of Kimberly Cathcart and Allison Vaughan's keyboards seem to shake the room. "They're good, I know!" shouts Megan. "So, Megan, tell me. Like, what kind of work do you do?" Adona shouts. "Aerospace Engineering," she shouts back. "For STA." Megan is referring, of course, to the Systemwide Transportation Authority, the main Vixan agency in charge of space flight and the design and construction of orbital cities. "Oooh, that's a cool career for a girl like you," says Adona. "With a body like that I'd have thought you were an athlete!" "Well, I did play volleyball in high school, and at the university," Megan answers. "Oh really? What university did you go to?" "Bethel Park." "When did you graduate?" "Last year." "So, you're like 23?" "22." "Cool! I'm 27," Adona shouts, smiling. "So you played for the Bombers?" "Yah... Middle Blocker." Adona scans Megan ostentatiously, looking her up and down and up again â^À" as if he were visually undressing her. "Sweet!" he says. "You've got that Middle Blocker's body. You're, like, all legs!" Adona is grinning broadly. "Yeah, people always tell me that ... Since high school." Megan is blushing. "I was always lanky. I guess that's why I became a Middle Blocker!" "I love it when a girl is all legs... But then, you know how it is. Every man dies for that!" "Is that so?" Megan asks, playing along. "Yah! That's so," Adona shouts above the music. He slows his dancing and puts his hands on his broad hips, which continue to gyrate a bit. "And is that such a crime?" "A crime?" asks Megan. "I don't know -- I guess I'll have to check with my friend Jennifer on that one, she's a lawyer." "Oh, a lawyer, huh? And, like, is Jennifer as tall and as pretty as you?" Adona shouts, looking up at Megan. His eyes are open wide, his face expressive. "Well, she's a blonde," Megan says. "Sweet!" "That's her, over there," shouts Megan, motioning with her hand. "Ohhh, she's cute, too! I totally love cute blondes!" he shouts. "Adorable glasses. And a sharp dresser â^À" that's a darling vest she's got on." "You want to be introduced, then?" Megan asks. "Not just yet, honey." Adona says. "I want to talk to you first!" "Okay. We'll save the introductions for later." Adona takes another glance at Jennifer. "But your friend Jennifer is nice and tall and leggy, too. She's about your height, right, Megan? What are you, 188 centimeters?" "190." Adona grins. "I came close!" he shouts, with a jovial grimace. "Missed it by two cents!" He uses the Vixan slang for "centimeters". "Don't feel bad!" Megan shouts. "Sweetie, I won't feel bad if you can guess my height!" he shouts up at her. Megan looks down at him. She thinks a bit. "Well, let me see your heels!" she shouts. Adona lifts a foot and pulls up the wide, billowing leg of his dresspants, to reveal a stiletto-heeled black sandal. The heel is sleek and narrow as a straight-edged dagger â^À" and high. "Oh, those heels are what -- 10 cents?" shouts Megan. "10 cents? Guess again, girl. Ten centimeter heels were like, so twenty years ago!" he shouts. "Okay, 12 cents?" "Dead on, big girl!" Adona shouts. Megan looks Adona up and down carefully. "I'd say you're 165 cm." He laughs. "Ha! You came in closer than me! You win, sweetie! I'm 166!" "What's the prize?" "Another dance with me!" Adona shouts up at her. He thinks about it just as a new Sockets song is starting, then says: "The prize is you have to copy my dance moves!" "Oh, that's my prize? I have to copy you?" Megan shouts. "Sure!" Adona grinds his broad hips in time to the music. His hips undulate this way and that. A silver navel ring glints in his swatch of bare midriff. "I'd hate to think about what I'd have to do if I lost!" Megan shouts, playfully. Adona brushes back some long, curly brown locks, to reveal the soft, bronze tan of his bare right shoulder. The asymmetric black one-shoulder top he's wearing is cut at an angle, crossing over the left shoulder with a delicate spaghetti strap. The top's clingy fabric hugs his torso and is cropped below, to reveal the swatch of bare midriff which shows off his navel. Like all Vixan males, Adona has narrow, pert shoulders and likes to show them off. All of his right shoulder, and most of his left shoulder, are suggestively bare tonight. Catching her eyes, he looks up at Megan with a playfully defiant expression. "I don't know, sweetie," he says, shrugging his bare right shoulder suggestively. "The night is still young, isn't it? Maybe we'll play some more games tonight!" Megan looks down at him, watching as Adona bumps and grinds his wide, voluptuous hips. The black nylex fabric of Adona's dresspants cling like a second skin around the curves of his hips, upper thighs, and generous ass, while the ultra-wide pantlegs flow and billow breezily around his legs â^À" as if they were made from some magical, shimmery black gossamer. "Maybe. What kind of games did you have in mind?" Megan shouts. "Hmmm ... Maybe some good old-fashioned male-female competition!" he retorts. "Battle of the Sexes!" His big, delicate silvery hoop earrings reflect the club's lights and glint, setting off his dark, exotic features. The bare skin of his body â^À" his shoulders, arms, midriff â^À" sports an even, soft tan. His waist is narrow and taut, setting off the outward curves of broad, powerful-looking hips. Megan looks down at him as he bumps and grinds away. "Battle of the Sexes, huh? Like a girl on boy fight?" she asks, grinning. "That's man on girl, honey!" Adona exclaims, putting his hands on his big hips again. "Man on girl!" "All right ... Whatever you say. Man on girl!" "That's right." He pokes her arm with one finger, sticking a sharp, manicured nail into her deltoid muscle. "Man on girl." She raises an arched eyebrow. "Do I look like a boy to you, Megan?" he asks. His upper body is still, while hips are still gyrating, slowly and suggestively. "Not really," she says, looking at Adona's gyrating hips. "Oh, you girls think you can always beat us because you're taller and stronger than us men!" Adona shouts. "Maybe you females are taller and stronger, but men today have gained confidence. We're not little wimps anymore! That was long ago!" "Oh, really?" she shouts. "Yah, really! In today's world, a man takes what he wants!" says Adona. "And how does a man do that?" Megan asks. "It's all about the Battle of the Sexes. Let's see which sex will prevail!" he shouts. "Prevail?" she shouts. "I didn't know we were in a competition here!" "Come on, Megan! Grind your hips! Can you do this?" He takes her hand and tries to show her, slowing the rhythms of his hips. The firm muscles of his midriff, around his glinting navel ring, tighten and flex as his big hips rock, sheathed in the skintight fabric of the dresspants. The ultra-wide legs of the dresspants billow and float delicately around his own legs. His bare toes, sheathed in those black stiletto-heeled sandals, poke out from below. "Can you copy my moves?" he shouts. "Not like that!" Megan shouts back, laughing a bit. Her blue eyes are open wide, staring at Adona's gyrations. But her voice cracks nervously. "I can't do that!" Adona looks up at her. "You seem a little nervous, big girl! Come on, bump and grind!" The rhythm of the music quickens, and Adona's hips keep up the pace. Megan tries to emulate him, but makes no progress. "Come on, honey!" shouts Adona. "Can't you wiggle your hips? Even just a little bit?" "I don't know!" Megan shouts, with an air of innocent concern. "I don't know if I can do that! You're going too fast for me!" "Oh? Am I going too fast, or is it that you can't do it?" Adona shouts. "What's the matter, big girl? Can't keep up with a little man?" "What do you think? Women can't do that!" she shouts. "You know that!" "Oh!" Adona shouts. He covers his mouth with a dainty hand in mock regret, and looks up at Megan's eyes. "I forgot!" he shouts. "You're just a female! Females have smaller hips! Isn't that too bad?" He giggles, covering his mouth again. "A female can't rock it like a male can!" He snaps and bumps his hips aggressively, this way and that, as if to emphasize each word. "Yeah, I'll let you do the bumping and grinding!" Megan shouts, giggling. "That's okay, sweetie!" he exclaims. "Males wouldn't be attracted to females who could bump and grind their hips anyway! Like, why would I want to kiss a girl who's built like a man? Why would I want to fuck a girl with big ol' male hips? With a big fat male ass? That would be no fun!" Megan gulps. She laughs, but mostly to herself. The music is ending and the couples on the dance descend from their adrenaline rush, sweating, blood pumping. "I don't know ... " Megan says, her voice more hushed since the music had stopped, and taking on a more innocent, girlish tone. "I didn't know we're talking about who's boinking who. I thought we were just dancing, tonight!" "Just dancing? Men have daydreams, Megan," says Adona. Now his voice is more hushed, ethereal. He looks up at her, fixes on her eyes. "You know, we have long, long daydreams where we fantasize about the perfect girl! And it's something just a man would understand. A girl wouldn't understand." "Why not?" Megan asks. "Because you men are just soooo much smarter than us mere females, right?" "Ha ha! No, because you're females and not males. You can't understand. Men fantasize. We daydream. We pull out our mepis when we're alone," he said, referring to the male erotic pleasure inducer, the mepi â^À" the small, wandlike electronic device used by Vixan males to heighten the pleasure of masturbation. "We pull out our mepis and turn on the volleyball game on the hive!" The hive, the holographic interactive video environment, is the all-Vixan 3-dimentional "network of networks" that connects the entire Gamma Lyrae IX solar system with over 10,000 channels and communications platforms. "And we lie there watching the cute girls in the volleyball game or the basketball game, the cute sports girls â^À" we watch them run and jump around in their sexy little sports outfits!" Adona's eyes seem to be getting misty as he speaks. "In their cute little short-shorts that you girls wear that show all those legs!" he said. "And we men are, like, so happy that the volleyball uniforms are getting skimpier because we want to see more of those big, tall girls and their long legs and pretty muscles! Running and jumping around and playing, like all girls love to do!" "Okay," Megan said, smiling but with skepticism in her voice. "Now it seems you've gone off the deep end. Where is this leading?" "It makes a man feel soooo delicious! It makes us feel manly â^À" all that toned female flesh on display, those tall athletes! All those legs! All those big strong athletes! It makes us feel like men should feel. Like every man deserves to feel! Soft and delicate. Like slaves to our passions!" "Then what do you do?" she asks. "Let's go have drinks," he says, wiping the sweat from his forehead. He takes her hand and leads her off the dancefloor, to the bar area. They sit down at adjoining bar stools and type their drink orders into the digilink on the shiny black surface of the bar. Adona swivels around on his barstool to face Megan, and crosses his legs. The stretchy black nylex of his dresspants accentuate the generous curves of his hips and thighs. "What do we do then, honey?" he said, leaning in to Megan and hushing his voice a little bit. "We play ourselves with the mepi â^À" you know, a man's cock will get hard when he's looking at a tall, hot girl with a sexy athletic body. And it feels so good! Because the mepi is, like, designed to feel just like the female tongue on the male organ. It feels just like the man is getting a tongue job from a woman, with the woman's erostatin, that chemical in the female saliva that tickles a man's nerve endings makes us feel so good!" "Well thanks for the Sex Education lesson!" Megan says. "I feel much better now that I understand that!" "Oh, spare me the sarcasm, girl!" says Adona. The bartender puts their drinks in front of them â^À" a vodka tonic in a plain frosted glass for Megan and a sweet cherry-bomb for Adona. Adona's drink features a big flower and cherries and bits of fruit around the rim. He spears one of the tasty cherries with his swizzle stick, then stirs the drink idly. "Oh, thanks for the sarcasm, girl! That's what every man wants. A girl who understands male needs!" "So that's how a single man spends a typical evening?" Megan asks, trying to sound sympathetic. "Or a morning, or an afternoon ... I'm a waiter so sometimes I work some weird hours. But that's how it is when a man is, like, feeling hot and he doesn't have a girl around to please him. To give him a nice tongue job. It's mepi time!" "Mepi time, huh?" she says. "Mepi time," he responds. "I love mepis. Next best thing to a girl's tongue. I want to kiss the girl who invented the mepi!" "Oh? A girl invented the mepi?" Megan asks. "Sounds like it was something that was invented by a man!" "Invented by a man? Honey, I don't think so. Men don't invent shit, honey. We don't invent shit. You know that! What have men ever invented? The mepi is technology. Males don't do technology. Females do technology. Females invent stuff. Males just go along for the ride. Or we ask a nice female to invent something for us. Or we beg females to invent something for us. I think in the case of the mepi, we begged. We said, hey, girls! Why don't you use those amazing female brains of yours to invent us men a toy! Invent us a sex toy, something that'll tease a man's cock just like a girl's tongue does. Something that will make masturbation more pleasurable for men. A toy we can use when we can't find a girl! So some scientist girls put their amazing female brains together and they built us a little something called the mepi!" "Okay, so then what happened?" "Well, honey, as I said, a man has his fantasies. A man wants a tall, athletic girl. You know, tall and toned. Like some people around here!" He smiles ironically, moving his eyes left and right with exaggeration. "I won't say who!" Megan blushes. "With pretty muscles!" he says, rocking the leg that's crossed over the other one. He pushes back a few strands of his curly, deep brown hair, to show his bare right shoulder. With his right hand, Adona takes the dripping swizzle stick from his drink, and runs its tip lightly over his exposed shoulder, tracing a wet line on his bronzed skin. "And nice broad shoulders!" he says. He shrugs his dainty bronzed shoulder, dripping with drink, and giggles. "And sexy little girl-hips. Small hips and a small ass like a female is supposed to have!" Megan blinks and takes a sip of her drink. "You know you have such darling blue eyes," says Adona. "Such beautiful clear, baby blue eyes. They really set off your features well. You're a very pretty girl." "Thank you," Megan says, her voice suddenly squeaking like a little girl's. His legs still crossed, Adona lifts the top leg in Megan's direction. The ultra-wide leg of his dresspants flutters delicately around his leg, sliding like airy black silk â^À" and his toes, bare in their black stiletto sandal, poke out from beneath the hem. With his big toe, Adona touches Megan's right leg. He runs his toe along the denim, from just above her ankle, upward along her lanky calf, and then down again towards her white tennis shoe. "And a man wants a girl with â^À" with long, sexy legs!" he says. He shrugs his bare, still-wet right shoulder, emphasizing its daintiness. "I bet you have nice legs, Megan," he says, voice subdued. He continues to run his toes up and down along her jeans, playfully. "I can see you've got long legs," he says. "Wish you wore shorts tonight, though. I wish you wore your volleyball uniform. You know, the skimpy little ones the girls are wearing these days. The tight t-shirts and those darling little short shorts that show, like, every centimeter of the thigh! I wish you had worn one of those little outfits tonight!" He pokes his big toe under the hem of her jeans, at her ankle, and rubs it against her white sock. "I want to see some leg!" he says. "Is that such a crime?" "No â^À" but maybe we should ask Jennifer-- " "Oh, fuck Jennifer!" he says harshly. "I mean, she is an attractive chick, but you're just as cute. Maybe even cuter." "Thank you," she says, sweetly. "But I think I really need to get home tonight. It's been a great night dancing, though!" "Is that all you're good for?" he says. "A couple of dances?" "Well, I've got to get up early and work out tomorrow!" Adona is about to say something angry, but then he pictures Megan working out, in her gym clothes. "Oooh, you work out?" he says. "Can I join you?" "You work out, too?" she asks. "Well, not like a girl," he says. "But men work out. More and more men are working out these days. Of course we don't lift weights or anything like you girls do. But haven't you seen men in the gym exercising on the hipflex machine?" "Oh, you mean that machine you guys use for --" "Yah, the one we use to build up our hips. The hipflex. You know, men may be the weaker sex, but our hips are just as strong as a woman's. In fact, the research shows that because males have bigger hips than females, a man's hips are actually stronger. When it's, like, a one-on-one comparison. Or contest." Megan smiles, showing her perfect, even white teeth. "Is that what you were trying to show me on the dancefloor?" "Maybe," Adona says. "But I wouldn't want to compete with a female, of course. No man can ever compete with a female. Men are the Weaker Sex. Right?" He smiles wickedly. Megan lifts an eyebrow and smiles back. "I'm not sayin' nothin'!" "I'm so glad we are, too, though. Because, how else," Adona continues, "how else would you females be able to protect us men, if you females were built like males?" His voice grows hushed. "How would you girls be able to run the world for us men?" "I don't know," she says. "I don't know if running the world has anything to do with how a person is built." "Of course it is, sweetie! Or at least, a lot of it is. Some of it is just that females are smarter at math and science, though. What is it -- analytical thinking? Logic? You girls have all that. We don't. The only advantage we men have, up here" -- he taps his head -- "The only advantage we have up here is our male intuition! And you can't build a spaceplane or an orbital city with intuition. Can you?" He smiles wryly, even a bit triumphantly, looking to see if the compliment registers on her face. "But if you females had, like, little shoulders like us males have, if you had big hips and curves like men, and, like, short legs like we have?" he says. "Then us guys, we couldn't, like, look up to you girls and feel that you've got things under control for us! Could we?" Megan looks like she wants to change the subject. "Okay, maybe it's time for us to walk over to --" "Wait a minute, Megan! I want you to understand how a man thinks!" He stands up and stamps one high heel down on the floor. With Adona standing and Megan still sitting, their eye levels meet exactly. He puts his hands on his hips and his voice takes on a lecturing tone. "You're 22 years old. You seem like a little girl in some ways, even though you're such a big, tall, sexy, good-looking, and probably incredibly-smart Astrospace-Physics whatever-you-are!" "Aerospace Engineer." "Whatever. That's girl-talk anyway. You can't expect a man to figure out any of that, our brains aren't built that way." Adona's hands were still on his hips. Now he cocks his hips to one side, emphasizing their wideness, their strength. "Remember who won the Battle of the Sexes tonight. I did." He twists his hips again. "But that was just tonight's battle," he says. "Maybe if we see each other more, there'll be other battles. Some battles, the female will win. Females are better than males at math, right? You females, you design satellites and space cities and skycars, right? You females control all the technology, all the computers and the machines and everything that runs the world, and all the planets that have people! And us men, we just go along for the ride because we don't understand jack shit about math or technology, because we can't understand any of that technology and science and numbers stuff that you girls dream up. That's why females are the politicians and the pilots and the engineers, that's why females make all the technological stuff and we men are the maids and secretaries and househusbands. That's why we men will always be maids and secretaries and househusbands. The male of the species will always wear an apron. And you know what, Megan? We love it! We want to wear the apron because we enjoy our place. A man deserves to feel like a man, and no one can take that away from him!" "Do you always give long speeches like this after dancing?" she asks, teasingly. "Megan! Everything is a joke to you girls! Sometimes it seems like even sex is a joke to girls." "Okay, I won't joke. What is it you're trying to say?" "You females, the female sex â^À" just because you're taller and stronger than us, just because you run the world â^À" it doesn't mean that men don't have some power! Just watch out, honey! Just because we wear the apron, doesn't mean men are weak! It doesn't mean we're pushovers. There will be some battles that males are destined to win! Like I said, we're not the wimpy unassertive men of the past. The future is coming, honey! Modern men take what they want. We have our passion, our lust inside us ... Yah, we are slaves to our passions! But that's part of being a man! We have our fantasies. But our fantasies today are about taking what we want. Men are liberated now. Sexual politics is different. Our generation, Megan â^À" we're the future! We're young! You're a modern girl! I'm a modern man! And guess what, sweetie?" "What?" she asks. "A modern man will take what he wants!" To be continued...