woman completely give up her free will. They allowed, thank God, the women of the program to pick their own mates from the database. Every unmarried man between 18 and 50 was listed (barring the politicians and military commanders), and Sam got the chance to pick and choose from any of the 18,000 eligible candidates.
What's more, they'd even added a search program to the database that could be used to select for any number of attributes. Eye color, height, body type and even pre- and post-war job could be searched, which was a mixed blessing for the men of the complex. Even now, in a time when former CEO’s processed human waste and former garbage men ran whole wings of the complex, it was the formerly rich guys who still got the most tail. For some reason the girls in the program seemed to still want to breed with actors, singers and businessmen, despite the fact that their talents and skills counted for squat in a post-war world.
But not Sam. She only truly cared about one thing, apart from the requirement that she was physically attracted to the man she chose to breed with. She needed to know that he was into her.
As a member of the breeding program she had the power to call any man she chose to her room, and he was compelled by law to sleep with her until she conceived or released him. Most of the women used this to their advantage, picking guys who were - physically, at least - well out of their league. She'd seen her share of men standing outside breeding rooms with pale, drawn faces, bracing themselves for an hour of unfulfilling sex with women to whom they weren't in the slightest bit attracted. Sam, though, just couldn't imagine sleeping with some guy who was there under duress. He needed to enjoy it. To enjoy her. That was how she got off.
And that was why she'd spent so much of her down time in the lower levels. While her trips down there had been fascinating, they'd also been educational. Over the course of three months she'd been auditioning future partners, feeling them out and getting an idea of who was into her. Now, with her fresh password for the database, she went to hunt them down.
There were four names on her mental list. Two worked in food processing, one in waste management and the last in a kindergarten. She'd spent several hours with each under the guise of working for the newspaper, researching a story on the new industries of the complex. All four had been intelligent and charming, and while one hadn't been conventionally attractive he made up for it with a good sense of humor. Now, though, with his jokes two months old, she scrubbed him from the list. The remarks that had seemed so funny down in waste management didn't seem to count for so much now. Not if she was planning to sleep with him.
That left three candidates. She typed out the email she'd been composing in her head for days, that all important message that came out with the truth and boiled down to I want to breed with you. Interested? She hesitated for a moment, her finger hovering over the mouse, and then clicked 'send'.
Now she just had to wait - and hope - for replies.
Chapter Three
The day passed slowly, packed full of medical tests that dragged on and on as she longed to get back to her computer. By 5PM she was pronounced healthy enough to breed again (though she should cut down on salty foods), and she was released from the clinic to return to her room.
Her inbox blinked with three new messages, just as she'd hoped. Within a minute of reading them all she realized that she should have sent them one by one in order of preference, so as not to disappoint the two men she couldn't pick, but it was too late to change things now. She had her man: Paulo, the kindergarten teacher.
Paulo had been her favorite from the moment she'd met him. He'd been eating in the cafeteria on the children's level, and it was by chance that she bumped into him. There were few adults on that level,
What's more, they'd even added a search program to the database that could be used to select for any number of attributes. Eye color, height, body type and even pre- and post-war job could be searched, which was a mixed blessing for the men of the complex. Even now, in a time when former CEO’s processed human waste and former garbage men ran whole wings of the complex, it was the formerly rich guys who still got the most tail. For some reason the girls in the program seemed to still want to breed with actors, singers and businessmen, despite the fact that their talents and skills counted for squat in a post-war world.
But not Sam. She only truly cared about one thing, apart from the requirement that she was physically attracted to the man she chose to breed with. She needed to know that he was into her.
As a member of the breeding program she had the power to call any man she chose to her room, and he was compelled by law to sleep with her until she conceived or released him. Most of the women used this to their advantage, picking guys who were - physically, at least - well out of their league. She'd seen her share of men standing outside breeding rooms with pale, drawn faces, bracing themselves for an hour of unfulfilling sex with women to whom they weren't in the slightest bit attracted. Sam, though, just couldn't imagine sleeping with some guy who was there under duress. He needed to enjoy it. To enjoy her. That was how she got off.
And that was why she'd spent so much of her down time in the lower levels. While her trips down there had been fascinating, they'd also been educational. Over the course of three months she'd been auditioning future partners, feeling them out and getting an idea of who was into her. Now, with her fresh password for the database, she went to hunt them down.
There were four names on her mental list. Two worked in food processing, one in waste management and the last in a kindergarten. She'd spent several hours with each under the guise of working for the newspaper, researching a story on the new industries of the complex. All four had been intelligent and charming, and while one hadn't been conventionally attractive he made up for it with a good sense of humor. Now, though, with his jokes two months old, she scrubbed him from the list. The remarks that had seemed so funny down in waste management didn't seem to count for so much now. Not if she was planning to sleep with him.
That left three candidates. She typed out the email she'd been composing in her head for days, that all important message that came out with the truth and boiled down to I want to breed with you. Interested? She hesitated for a moment, her finger hovering over the mouse, and then clicked 'send'.
Now she just had to wait - and hope - for replies.
Chapter Three
The day passed slowly, packed full of medical tests that dragged on and on as she longed to get back to her computer. By 5PM she was pronounced healthy enough to breed again (though she should cut down on salty foods), and she was released from the clinic to return to her room.
Her inbox blinked with three new messages, just as she'd hoped. Within a minute of reading them all she realized that she should have sent them one by one in order of preference, so as not to disappoint the two men she couldn't pick, but it was too late to change things now. She had her man: Paulo, the kindergarten teacher.
Paulo had been her favorite from the moment she'd met him. He'd been eating in the cafeteria on the children's level, and it was by chance that she bumped into him. There were few adults on that level,
Similar Books
