Journey into Space by Toby Litt

Author:Toby Litt [Litt, Toby]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780141039718
Published: 2013-11-12T05:00:00+00:00

III

Orphan’s firstborn, One, was not the first of his children to be conceived. Penelope went into labour a month before her due date, and three days before Boo. There was some suspicion that Penelope had been trying to encourage contractions; she sought sex with Orphan more eagerly than either Boo or Minnow; she was observed bouncing up and down in a hot bath.

Over the course of the next three weeks, Orphan became a father three times over: a daughter by Penelope, a daughter by Boo and yet another daughter by Minnow.

When they asked him what he wanted to call his first daughter, he said: ‘One’ – and though Penelope pleaded with him to give an alternative, he merely giggled until he became angry. ‘She is one,’ he said, ‘so she is One.’ Eventually, Orphan’s wish was accepted; after all, his own name had been unusual to begin with.

The young mothers, despite their pre-birth pact, found themselves each focused upon their own baby. And so, instead of sharing, they lived amicably enough in three immediately adjacent apartments. They felt proud to be as close to Orphan as they were; each of them said they saw a very different man in private, in their bedchambers: mature, powerful, confident.

Over the following year, polygamy spread, as a positive value, throughout the crew. And, following Orphan’s personal example, all these babies were conceived and carried without genetic manipulation.

A second and then a third incestuous couple were formed, brother and sister, brother and brother. The brothers then reversed the trend by using genetic splicing to have a baby, carried by their mother.

All combinations were permitted. Fathers and daughters were allowed to explore their family romances openly. Children sat upon less comfortable laps.

Some called it degeneration, insisting that the previous moral codes should be reinstated and adhered to. Why? was the answer they received – an adolescent challenge of a question. From the ‘immoral’ union of August and Celeste had come Orphan, and from Orphan had come the new moral authority to force the turn. If Orphan’s existence wasn’t wrong then nothing could be wrong about the way in which he had come to exist. August and Celeste were therefore no longer seen as transgressors, but as sexual dissidents and ethical innovators. Some went so far as to call them moral geniuses. Among the younger generation, there was no comprehension whatsoever that August and Celeste’s actions had been seen on Earth as disgusting, let alone utterly abhorrent.

‘Anybody should be free to love, and make love to, anybody they choose – just so long as that other person wants, at that moment, to be made love to. It’s obvious, isn’t it?’

A young woman of this school approached Celeste, with the intention of persuading her – at age thirty-three – to resume sexual relations with August; failing that, simply to resume sexual relations with anyone, herself included.

‘Thank you,’ said Celeste. ‘But that would be an extremely bad idea.’

An even younger generation was coming into existence, of whom Orphan had been the avant garde – a generation who had no conscious memory of an extant Earth.

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