BREEDER WORLD

by Cazna

In the mid 21st century World War Three finally came around, sort of, but not as anyone expected it. The post World War Two Communist versus Capitalist conflict died of bankruptcy. The Arab versus Israeli conflict of the 1950s and 1960s grew in to the Muslim versus Jew conflict of the late 20th century, which then grew in to the Muslim Extremist versus Everyone Else conflict of the 21st century. This unrest was fuelled, literally, by the Middle Eastern oil deposits. The unrest and instability in the region unsettled many countries. This resulted in a major shift to alternative fuels, solar energy, wind generators, but mostly bio-diesel - diesel fuel from excess food crops and crop waste as this was a renewable fuel, while petroleum wasn't. As the use of bio-diesel grew, the value of petroleum dropped, the money for Muslim religious extremism fell, and then that died of bankruptcy too. No funds meant no weapons and the fight for control of the oil died in a whimper.

What happened was a group of nationalistic religious nut cases within the USA Department of Defence Research Establishments joined with like-minded politicians and took over control of the USA by blackmail. The government gives into their demands and quickly folds, but the people don't and a civil war starts. A biological weapon is used, a variant of the Rubella virus. It quickly spreads from continent to continent and from island to island, until the whole world population is infected. It isn't directly very fatal and only 10% of the population die from it. However, its effects cause world-wide social upheaval, eventually civil war breaks out in all countries, which results in a great deal of deaths. As governments break down corporations take control to stabilise the economy. They fight for control of the world economy. The people fight them too.

The bio-weapon was specially designed. It could infect an uninfected person and can move from an infected person to an uninfected person, but couldn't live within an infected person for more than fourteen days as their anti-bodies would eventually kill it. Nor can it live outside the human body for more than a few hours. Once everyone in the world had become infected, the virus died out within a few weeks and ceased to be. However it did leave a residual fingerprint in the plasma of all those it infected and a milder form was passed on to most of the children born by the survivors.

During The Disorders, the name which historians now apply to this thirty year period, 70% of the world population die and many survivors are sterile - 45% of the population are sterile as are 99% of adult males, while 68% of the adult population are female and 65% of pregnancies miscarry - a side effect of the bio-weapon. The figures are different for those born after the virus died out as they weren't infected by the original form and the rate of miscarriage becomes lower and starts to drop. The bulk of the children born are female and the rate of fertile births once again starts to rise. The result is an imbalance that directly threatens the survival of the human race. However some people seem to defy the statistics and have much higher fertility rates than others, the reason for this is the subject of intense research but still unknown.

There are major problems and social adjustments are severe. A new government arises, a world-wide one - The World Council; some members are democratically elected every five years and some are elected for life in the world-wide elections. The new world-wide social structure is a cross between socialism and capitalism. You can  improve your situation by creating and accumulating resources and you can pass them on to others. However, many functions are seen as essential community functions and handled as such. Access to many resources is tightly controlled and each person has a basic allocation of essential resources. You can obtain extras when they are available and you have the resources to pay for them. Basic education is a right, anything above that is earned or bought. Much of the extra education is provided as part of your employment. Most services and goods are now provided at rates set by the World Council, as are wages. 

There's a single world-wide currency - finally; based on an individual's work. An hour of unskilled work at the most basic level is rated as one work credit unit - called a unit. Plastic coins of varying values are made and issued, they're called markers or marks. A one unit coin is called a one mark or mark, a ten unit coin is called ten marks. Most transactions are done electronically, the coins are usually used for tips and bonuses for services rendered. People are credited with a number of units for their work, based on their skills and the returns from that work. Some rates are based on the benefit to the community, some on the returns of selling the product of their work.

Fifteen years after The Disorders the world is preparing to enter the twenty-second  century. World population is still falling but the rate is starting to slow as the birth rate grows and nears the death rate - finally. Of the live births, 75% are fertile females while 23% are sterile males and 2% are fertile males; these rates have now been constant for ten years. Only 10% of pregnancies miscarry now, and that rate is dropping each year.

All people have their DNA checked and registered at birth, and all fertile children are screened for genetic defects as well. One positive side effect of the virus makes any other significant genetic defect result in a miscarriage very early in the pregnancy, thus the gene pool is now a lot cleaner than it was before the release of the virus. There are no new births with genetic issues like Downe Sydnrome, Fragile X, Hemophillia, etc. The genetic make up of the fertile people are so clean that the Breeder Control Office isn't worried about the possibility of close in-breeding causing major issues. Their top genetics experts believe that the passed on form of the virus will stop any malformed fetuses from carrying to term.

At the moment, fertile males are a prime resource and there's a glut of young fertile females. There's a major need to increase the population so arrangements are made to encourage wide scale breeding by the fertile adult males. The males are given fertility drugs that increase stamina and frequency of performance. Both genders are cleared for sex when the medical board decide the lifestyle and parenting won't cause any mental health issues and they're physically able to perform their duties. No artificial barriers like age or social standing are allowed. The majority of children are raised in government owned creches run by highly trained and qualified specialists skilled in raising children, and most men don't know their children unless they've paid to have the mother permanently assigned to them prior to the child's birth. Because of these arrangements very few men need parenting skills as most aren't involved with raising their children.

The World Council builds breeding establishments which fertile males visit for as long as they wish, engaging in sexual activity with as many fertile females as they wish to. Many of the sterile people dislike having these establishments nearby as they don't have any sexual urges at all and they resent the intimacy others enjoy which they can't. To avoid civil unrest the World Council ensures these operations are very discreet, especially in the cities; many are farms in remote areas or just beyond the city boundaries, and the most used are cruise ships. Over the years society develops terms to refer to these people - the males are called Inseminators or Breeders and the females are called Sailors, when ship based, and Sluts when land based. Many men combine holidays with these duties. The ship based operations aren't as noticeable as the land based ones because they're only a small fraction of the total number of cruise ships in use; cruise ships are a very common form of holiday breaks for both breeders and sterile workers.

Nearly all the children are raised in government run creches and schools. However some very rich people are able to arrange for private tutors to teach their children at home from the same training schedules and syllabus. This is usually only reserved for fertile boy children and not all rich families do this as they see joining in with the general training as being better for the children, especially in socialisation skills and getting on with people. The schools for fertile children are different to those of sterile children.

From when they're eight years old, all fertile children are trained in the skills needed to be a breeder. A girl's hymen is broken by a doctor when she's ten years of age. Artificial devices like dildos are used during the training, to familiarise the children with sexual activity. All their training is in single gender schools. The girls are sent to their first employment as virgins and have never met a male as all school staff are females.

The Breeder men are assigned a number of units for doing their public duty. The men and women get paid a bonus for each pregnancy and another bonus for a live birth - based on the child's gender and fertility status. The females earn units for each genital sexual encounter. These payments, for both the men and women, are commonly referred to as Breeding Marks. The females can assign up to 25% of their units to assist their families, if they know them, or friends. They may spend 25% per annum for extras during the year. The rest is invested for them to live off after they can no longer breed. Working as a breeder gives them little opportunity to do serious studies or undertake other work and they have half a life time to live after they can no longer breed. Moving into the general workforce after their breeding time is difficult - to say the least. Many stay working at the establishments in other roles - trainers, servants, ship crew, etc. Some buy small subsistence farms to live on. Many join together to run larger farms. Some, the very lucky ones, are offered permanent assignment to men who want them as companions or wives. They must continue to breed while they're able, but now only by their husband and his close friends. Favoritism isn't allowed to interfere with the breeding program.

The majority of the Breeder Establishments are privately run holiday resort affairs or cruise ships with accommodation and services based on the holiday industry grades of A (ultra luxury class) to F (tourist class). Most of the males pay to stay there and treat it as a holiday, while the females are there as casual employees who are paid for their sexual liaisons and the children they have. The World Council does run a few basic service establishments in areas where they're needed but no one is interested in establishing a decent facility, usually due to lack of business or a shortage of suitable entertainment opportunities. All such facilities are closely monitored by the Breeding Control Office (BCO), and they usually have a supervisor assigned to each facility.

Usually, females go with a man for a single sexual activity, part day, evening, or night. Some men pay bonuses for a female to spend extra time with them for companionship on an evening out, etc. The rates for bonuses are set by the BCO, they're automatically charged against the men and paid to the females - in full. Some men also give their partners marks as tips; this is not a common practice as the girls are paid and many men give most of their tips to the other service staff for good service. Over the years it becomes usual practice for men to spend their Breeding Marks on their breeding visits. Often by paying for more luxurious quarters and services, tips to staff, and entertainment activities, regardless of the service being offered to them alone or with their breeders. Some expend much of their disposable units in this way too.

There are no longer any laws about sex apart from rape, which is almost impossible as all the fertile females are trained to respond positively to all advances from fertile men and the sterile people have no sexual inclinations at all. The laws are now very heavily biased towards protecting fertile males at the expense of the rest of the population because they're needed for the race to survive. An unwanted side effect of this is a tendency by some to see the breeder girls as being disposable servants or slaves. Manners and good behaviour are fast becoming nothing but very dim memories in the old books.