By Her

“I'd take a unit for it, you know.”

“You know I havent fucking signed up for units yet, and I wouldnt have a unit to give if I had. Especially not to you.”

She shrugged.

“Or 3627 credits… Either way.”

“It's broken, it's not worth 2315.”

“It's rusted and I've come down from 3683.”

“It's nearly rusted the whole god damn way through and I don't consider anything lowered to below the ⅓ levy to be an actual discount.”

“We have a difference of opinion in many things.”

“It is my opinion that you are a cock-sucking whore.”

The curse made Beebee lift the mask. The stench ‘cock’ made in the back of her throat smelled like a mix of old cum and a turned seaweed wrap she had once had. She didn’t place the bioresponse as that particular smell, it's just what it smelled like. She thought about hacking while the mask was up to be rude to Aidenienem. It lingered and passed with the smell.

“How did that one taste, Beatrice?”

Beebee, Beatrice, lowered the mask and instead of the aerosols of coughed sputum hanging between them, there was tension. And the hinge. She took a deep breath, little whiffs of bioresponse slipping back into her sinuses: cum, the turned wrap, ammonia, burned hair. All gentle reminders to be polite and kind to her sisterhood.

“How tall are you again, Aidenienem?

“71 inches.”

“I hate it.”

“Easy on the vitriol, the madame says what we give to others we give to ourselves.”

The table had automatically raised to be exactly the average to their two heights, coming out to 66.5 inches. Always perfectly equal, although it left Beebee standing precariously on junk to actually reach the table. Aidenienem stared, and waited.

“I wanted to make a stones and bones trade. No credits and no fucking units.”

Skunk wafted up from the pores in the film of bioresponse nanos floating in her belly.

“By madames eyes, If I wanted to make a stones and bones trade, it would be with something better than the carcass of a coral and some beer posters that got put away when your grandfather was marched off to get his letters.”

“What were your letters again, Aidenienem?”

“3627 credits.”

Beebee kept going. For the hinge. And because it felt good to be petty.

“I'm sure the porn on the outside isn't as good.”

“We are all equal by madames lips and in madames eyes, the porn is the same in or out.”

“You can see their nipples.”

“I am a woman, I can see my own nipples whenever I please.”

“It's not the same, come on. These nipples were born to this body.”

“They are aluminum posters that would bring me undue attention. By our good madame put the goddamn things away.”

There was a bit of a Pre-E growl on the end of the demand. And another bit of a passing thought that wouldn't be acted on: Yes, I’d just like to report- Oh no, nothing like that I assure you Officer- Oh it's only that- Well Estrogen can be finicky and its possible- But it just sounded- Well you heard about that one just last year who only took it until he could… Aidenienem would be gone in less time than it took for BeeBee to squish the desire.

“Do you have anything valuable or not?”

“No.”

“Is that why you've lost the spirit of sisterhood today?”

Maybe the desire to report Aidenienem was not all the way squished. It bothered Beebee that for Aidenienem’s control it meant no nanos were overworked in Aidenienem’s belly, and no excess nano waste was being carted to Aidenienem’s liver and etching in its cirrhosis. “What we do to our segregated we do to ourselves, we are separate and equal.” It bothered Beebee that when Aidenienem had been “89m”, she must have learned that control, and Beebee didnt feel like wasting her fucking time to do the same.

“You're losing out on credits wasting my time, it's almost the same as spending them.

“I put in for a few random credit rebate days when The Office restructured the vacation policy, use it or lose it.

“Putting it toward maternity leave isn't losing it.”

“My other day is for a hysterectomy.”

Tension and the hinge again. Beebee climbed down from the sanitizing light box so she didn't have to see it anymore. The glass of the UV bulb crunched as she stepped off. The hinge was as good as gone. “Our sisterhood is full of opportunities to fulfill each other's needs. There will be nothing lost ever again.”

“You've only had one.”

“By our good madame, I think being a carrier for a new strain of bird flu could put me at least two.”

“What reason are they allowing you to give?”

“‘Perceived genetic inclination to defect’ It’s new and broad enough to cover ‘my family only has boys’ as long as I don't outright say that”

“Did they revise the abortion policy similarly?”

“I thought you were a woman? You aren't keeping up on womens policy?”

“Women who are able might just start having elective abortions again for ugly babies.”

“If our wise and generous Madame thinks her segregate labor force might be diminished, she'll change the law again.”

“By her sight we all have a place in the sisterhood.”

“And by her paperwork anyone who needed to would still be able to use the reasoning for years as long as they were willing to undertake the task.”

Aidenienem put away the hinge, the table rolled all the way up to the ceiling on its track. There was a vape pen on her personal counter and Aidenienem brought it to her lips against the outterside of the mask, inhaling. So effortless, maybe she had something in the vape to help her with control.

“By her workarounds, huh? You are a model woman who wouldn't dream of exposing a sister in order to partake in personal vice.”

“Beatrice... the price will not change, one unit or 3627 credits.”

“What if I told you it was for a good cause?”

“We are living The Good Cause everyday, there's no discount for that.”

“He started puberty at 11, there are 10 months left. I wasted two months when I thought I had two years.. I promised”

“You shouldn't make promises. One unit, or 3627 credits. Or let it all alone, he won't be able to take it with him when he goes anyway.”

“Fuck you.”

Tha mask didnt need to come off for ‘Fuck’. And the door would open and close as soon as she approached and went through. And Aidenienem didn't need a goodbye.

“ I learned today that the mouth and the anus are all a part of the same tube, you know. That it goes all through your body.”

“You know I've never heard such a crazy thing. But if you say it I believe it.”

“So when us boys get muzzled for school, the teachers are putting two caps on each end of our body tube.”

“It sounds like you did some extra listening, the muzzles must be working.”

“Beebee?”

“TooToo?”

“Did you get it?”

“No bub.”

“I'm going to go take my pill now.”

“Thank you bub, remember to tell the pill box your full name.”

Beatrice shouldn't have made the promise. As her son held up the box to inevitably recite 223kjn instead of 223knj, Beebee slipped to the tablet and began to close tabs: 4 letter words that start with T, sounds extinct birds make, are girl and boy mouths the same, what is a locket, can you weld at home, how to print film at home. Ten months had not been accurate as of yesterday, it was 9 months and 27 days. She opened up the front page of “The Madame’s Office” webpage, navigating to ‘Units: beta version now available for sign up.”

“Beebee”

“Tootoo”

“How come the girls don't wear muzzles?”

“Just the way it is, bub.”

She clicked. There was probably some sort of subsidy to get a unit, if she could undertake the paperwork.