THE NEW EVE

By Moussa Ould Ebnou

“In the mood for a slightly creepy, often tender Sci-Fi tale? The new Eve by Moussa Ould Ebnou tells the story of Adam and Maneki, star-crossed lovers in a dystopian future, where the world has split into two societies, male and female, and gender segregation is brutally enforced. Two criteria distinguish good science fiction from mediocre: (a) it must aspire to the same high literary standards as any other genre of fiction, and (b) the science / technology vehicle that propels the plot and its characters, must fall within the realm of plausibility, its futuristic and imaginative elements notwithstanding. This novel easily meets those requirements. The action moves back and forth between Adam and Maneki’s separate worlds, as they pine for one another’s presence. You will find extended dialog, masterful description, a fair share of thrills and suspense, profound sorrow, and ultimately, redemption. Don’t read The new Eve if you chafe at thorny moral issues such as abortion, homosexuality, and recreational copulation. Stay away if scenes of drug abuse and torture turn your stomach. If, however, you crave a read that deeply explores the meaning of such intrinsic human impulses as love, passion, desire, and courage, then open the pages of this novel… it won’t disappoint you.” Paul Roochnik, PhD, professor at Princeton University.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diwan
• Release date: Aug 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9791097142957

Book preview

THE NEW EVE

Other published books

Barzakh, a novel, Nouakchott, DIWAN, 2008;

L’Amour Impossible, a novel, Nouakchott, DIWAN, 2009;

Madinetou al-riah, a novel, Nouakchott, DIWAN, 2010;

Science Fiction and Heritage, a study, Nouakchott, DIWAN, 2011;

Hajj al-Vijar, a novel, Nouakchott, DIWAN, 2012;

La Mecque païenne, a novel, Nouakchott, DIWAN, 2014;

Patrimoine oral mauritanien, recueil, Nouakchott, DIWAN, 2015 :

- T.1. Contes d’animaux ;

- T.2. Contes merveilleux ;

- T.3. Maximes et proverbes.

Fragments de futures, recueil de nouvelles, Nouakchott, DIWAN, 2017;

My story, an autobiography, Nouakchott, DIWAN, 2018;

Paganist Mecca, a novel, Nouakchott, DIWAN, 2019;

Hajj 2053, a novel, Nouakchott, DIWAN, 2020;

THE NEW EVE

A Novel

Moussa Ould Ebnou

Copyright © 2021 by Moussa Ould Ebnou

ISBN: 9791097142957

1

The myth of the Mother

H

e had been waiting two hours; an almost imperceptible moment in the eternity of endless time, but it was a long wait in the life of a father impatiently awaiting the birth of his son. All the means brought to bear by the Reproduction Center to calm parents’ heartburn and eagerness for the children, did nothing to calm his raging nerves. This, despite being designed on the basis of a precise knowledge of the parental psyche, representing a form of childbirth with neither labor nor pain for the benefit of parents.

He sat on a revolving armchair moving around from corner to corner in the waiting room, so that he would not be tired of turning and spinning. Evidently, the compassion of the affectionate father hurls him into turmoil and upheaval until the newborn sees the light. At the beginning of the wait, a host Android provided him with a cigarette made specifically for this type of occasion, which generated from its own ashes, like the Phoenix. Whenever it ignited, the proportion of tar and nicotine would diminish, without lessening the flavor of tobacco, enabling the father to satisfy his desire without damage from smoking residues.

He sat smoking his undying cigarette, revolving, coming and going on his moving armchair, as videos cascaded on the screens of his glasses, explaining how to deal with newborns... What came to his mind was the Android smile that had accompanied him since his arrival: «The smile is familiarity, compassion and tenderness. It is the body’s other way to accept and seduce… But his smile increases his strangeness and returns the passion and desire of the other body to their metaphysical origin. No sooner does it begin with the relaxation of the lips than it takes in the entire face, revealing a clear, sculpted gap, emitting from the depths of its throat a breath and a wonderful resonance, like the holy shouting by the men of Arkadia in their beauty contests… » His attention drew back to the scenes flowing through his spectacle screens and returned to his reality as a father impatiently awaiting his son. He remembered the circumstances of a birth in the old time, as told by the myth of the Mother: «On her second day of labor pains, with every thrust, the mother made sure relief was at hand and that the newborn would finally accept coming into this world and out of her bloated womb. She felt him moving, so she imagined he was playing. She was sure that the time for his delivery had come, but she did not understand why he delayed his arrival every time. Every woman explains this according to her own experience and point of view. Your baby does not want to come because you craved something and did not get it, reveal your desire to us! The mother did not answer their questions. The only response she issued was the screams of labor. Searching for the cause of the delay in childbirth, one of them found the puzzle and said, I know what she wants! One day, a pilgrim came to us and described a wonderful sunset he had beheld from atop Mount Sinai. Throughout her pregnancy she yearned to lay eyes on this remarkable sight! When he heard the news, the baby who would be born from time to time, decided to delay his delivery until he inspected the scene from inside his mother's womb, atop Mount Sinai. Indeed, admitted the mother, I vividly recall that pilgrim’s story. And I still long to see that amazing scene! The women shouted: God help us! Egypt is so far away! If the mother does not give birth in six hours, the baby will surely die! Word was sent urgently to the Egyptian People's Bureau requesting the visa... it was quickly obtained thanks to the help of the consul whose mother was a midwife. The hardest part, nonetheless, remained: to arrange such a long trip in such a short time. They consulted the travel agent; whose answer came quickly and definitively: Al-Egypt Airlines alone can arrange such a journey. Al-Egypt is the airline born of the merger of Egypt Air and El Al after their purchase by the American billionaire Sam Turner. This is how an Al-Egypt aircraft was chartered and took off at four twenty-five.

«During the flight, just before safety belts were unbuckled and cruising altitude was reached, a bushy-bearded, mighty-looking man emerged from the rear of the plane. He was short of stature but haughty, carrying a book in which he claimed to be pointing a pistol, as they do in the spaghetti western films. Where did this man come from? Perhaps he had stowed away in the cargo hold before the aircraft took off? No matter, he was here now, as was his book and the pistol inside his book! Alright listen up! barked the haughty, mighty, bearded one, This is a kidnapping! Nobody moves! here is my request: I wish to replace the midwife! If you refuse, I’ll blow up the aircraft! For an hour the passengers quarreled back and forth, raising a din, then the haughty, mighty, bearded one brought them back to their senses, threatening them with the pistol concealed in his book: Quiet! Decide fast before my patience runs out! An hour later they decided to obey the haughty, mighty, bearded one. Thanks to the time difference the plane landed on Mount Sinai a quarter of an hour before sunset. The child and his mother beheld the most amazing sunset in the world, and the baby was born with the help of the haughty, mighty, bearded one, right after sunset in the desert sands.»

This was during the time when men were born from their mother's womb, like animals, before humans mastered the technique of determining the sex of the embryo. In fact, human sexual reproduction was turned over to modern technology and has changed radically with the amazing transformations that have turned human reproductive methods and means upside down. With the discoveries that enabled humans to determine the sex of the embryo, along with the methods of in vitro fertilization and cloning, it became possible for each person to select the gender of his child. People resorted to in-vitro fertilization to choose the gender of children, and since most husbands preferred males, an imbalance appeared between males and females. Women protested against this situation, which had come to threaten their gender. They demanded a fair division between the sexes of the embryos prepared for implantation.

Thus, the women's liberation movement turned into a movement to defend female fertilization. The fee to join organizations for the defense of female fertilization was to go to an IVF center and have a female fetus implanted, which made all the members pregnant. After a few years of mobilization in favor of femininity, the old equilibrium flipped, and the male component became threatened. In turn, men organized their response: They decided to hire the wombs of mothers. During this period, it was easy to find traitors to the feminist cause prepared to accept the male fetus until its birth. Thus, men were able to form a network of tenants for their wombs. Women formed intelligence units to expose all those who betrayed the cause. When they discovered treachery, they would abort the traitor and sterilize her. And whenever they did this, the men would counter-abort and sterilize.

This is how the gender conflict turned into a devastating civil war. After a long time, in order to end this deadly war, androgynes seized power, reorganized the relations between sexes and set new rules for procreation. Gender balance was restored, the rights of men and women were declared, and the family was abolished. The social mixing was prohibited, and new regulations were established to define the ways men and women would coexist in two separate societies, with all their rights and duties. The men would be entrusted with the birth of males, while the women were placed in charge of the birth of females, with each gender having their annual share of births, while androgynes supervise the reproductive centers.

A framework for a Mixed Service was created to maintain the cohesion of the two communities and ensure peace. Upon reaching puberty, every man or woman was required to enroll in mixed groups of recruits for that service. Mixed Service rested upon participation in the sexual life, entertainment, and working with conscripts of the opposite sex. Those who rejected this mixed sexual life were brought before the courts and sentenced to severe penalties. Women began to return to the estrus cycle as a result of their segregation from men. Their daily life changed, and their estrous cycle coincided with their time of Mixed Service. Reverting to the estrus cycle first manifested as the discontinuation of ovulation for some women, then this phenomenon spread to include all women; ovulation no longer resumed except during the period of Mixed Service, when there was contact with men.

They tried to rectify this situation by opening ovulation houses. Candidates for ovulation had to register for these houses a month in advance. Ovulation training began with a careful hormonal and psychological preparation which involved only women preparing for pregnancy, entailing self-fertilization of the egg, circumventing the need for the male’s sperm. This was female self-fertilization, which enabled a woman to bear a child who was her own clone. Ovulation training began on the first night of the lunar cycle. Women were subjected to treatment with hermaphroditic hormones throughout the training period that accompanied the lunar cycle. The trainers came every evening to attend dances witnessed by an audience of pregnant women and supervised by members of the ovulation houses, disguised as men. These dances were based on simulating the position of the bodies of men and women in the state of sexual contact, in a way that the trainees could recognize. Pregnant women – who circled the dancers without actually participating in the dance – would produce screams that mimic the stages of copulation. When the dancing finished, they would break up into couples to spend the whole night together. Before lying down, every female trainee would tell her husband – a woman disguised as a man– I want to be the man’s woman! The man would then take her just as a man would take his woman. Before morning, the trainees would get up and see their companions having removed their disguises, donning once again their female attire. They would return to the Center to confirm the start of ovulation, then fertilization would ensue.

The production of semen in men did not change; nor did their hormonal secretion. The segregation of the sexes did not lead to any change in their sexual and reproductive nature. The main obstacle that men who wanted to have children had to overcome was finding a vacant artificial womb. Although men and women had equal birth rates, women faced the inequity of being able to conceive. The pregnancy of men was not guaranteed, which forced them to rent prosthetic wombs. These were available, however, in limited quantities, as their manufacture was subject to the annual