Chapter 1

 
“Rumor has it that you got the entire Council at your feet, this morning” Quo said.
 
“They bought the plan. Telara was clumsier than usual” Antara said.
 
“She has never been the brightest member of the Council” Quo said.
 
“No, but she is cunning in her way. I caught her unprepared today, but she is far from done. We don’t have so much margin” Antara said.
 
“The plan will work” Quo said.
 
“It should better work. If it doesn’t, I will fall. And I will not fall alone” Antara said.
 
“How much margin do you think we have?” Quo said.
 
“About 10 human years” Antara said.
 
“That should be enough” Quo replied.
 
“It better be. We only have one chance, though. It we fail the first time, Telara will make sure that the plan is cancelled” Antara said.
 
“It will work. It’s just a matter of finding the right individual” Quo said.
 
Antara looked at the liquid panels all around Quo’s office. She stopped at the image of some kind of giant lizard.
 
“You know, Quo. Your plan makes complete sense, but I never understood your passion about human’s popular culture”
 
“It’s incredibly funny, once you get to understand humans. And it has grown exponentially over the last fifty years. The first couple of centuries were a little more boring. I have to admit that part of the plan was inspired just by my interest for it. But it actually makes a lot of sense to use it for our purposes. The more we rely on things humans themselves had already imagined, the better. And it will fit Scripture better, as well”
 
“I never thought you were such a devote of Scripture” Antara said, sounding mildly sarcastic.
 
“I’m not. But until someone realizes that it’s stalling our progress, I guess I need to look as devote as possible” Quo said.
 
“In the wrong ears, these words would be considered blasphemy” Antara said.
 
“That’s why I chose yours”
 
“If the plan works, I may be able to leverage it to get into a position where I can do something to address your concerns about the future of our species” Antara said.
 
“It will work” Quo said confidently.
 
“I hope you are right. You know I agree on your conclusions, and I actually bet my political future on them”
 
“Don’t worry, Councilor. We have everything we need. Now, we just need to find the right individual”
 
 
 
 
“Not so fast, Laura. I don’t have your long legs!” Stacy protested as Laura made her way to the Widow’s peak at a speed she could not match.
 
“Sorry shorty. Are your boobs too much of a burden?” Laura said with a giggle, but she slowed her pace down anyway.
 
“I don’t understand the rush. We come here every other week” Stacy said.
 
“It’s still the best view of the valley” Laura said as she finally set foot on the peak and looked both ways.
 
Stacy finally caught up.
 
“Why do they call it Widow’s peak?” she asked.
 
“The path from the north is significantly more dangerous than the one we took. You don’t need to worry about it, anyway” Laura said.
 
“You are about to take that path” Stacy protested
“Yep, but since we will never be allowed to marry, you will never be at risk of becoming a widow” Laura said.
 
“It’s not funny” Stacy said.
 
“What? The fact that I might die or the fact that we live in a state that still cannot accept that two women may love each other and might want to spend the rest of their life together?” Laura asked.
 
“I was referring to the first… our politicians might still decide one day that letting us marry will not bring society down” Stacy said.
 
“Highly doubtful” Laura said, shrugging.
 
“I see you don’t put too much trust in the system” Stacy said, knowing the answer perfectly well.
 
Laura pointed to her left. Stacy looked in the direction of Emerald. Their city was covered by a pretty noticeable dark cloud.
 
“See that? Everyone knows what causes it, right? We know that we are killing the planet and that we are killing our health in the process. And are we doing anything about it? We are not, and just because there are too many people that need to sell cars, that need to sell oil and that need to sell plenty of other stuff that is fucking our environment at the speed of lighting. Our system has produced that and our system is protecting that. And our system entertains itself by fostering stupid debates on whether people should have the same rights or not based on their sexual preferences instead of discussing if it’s fair that half of the world is hungry while the other half is throwing food to the dumpster every day” Laura said.
 
“When you put it like that I almost feel like spending my days in a Buddhist temple” Stacy said.
 
“Religion… as if it were the solution” Laura said.
 
“I was just joking!” Stacy protested cheerfully. “There do not seem to be many solutions around” Stacy said. “Well, not at least until you manage to make yourself a thousand feet tall” she added in a joking tone.
 
Laura tensed. Stacy noticed.
 
“I wouldn’t mind it, you know?” Stacy said.
 
Laura looked at her questioningly.
 
“I’d much rather be ruled by a giant you than by the bunch of incompetents we have now”
 
“I wasn’t sure if I had freaked you out” Laura said. “I had been wanting to tell you for a while”
 
“Look Laura, it’s the first time I go out with someone with plans for world domination but you know what? They suit you well” Stacy said.
 
Laura looked at her once more. Stacy smiled and replied to the implicit question:
 
“You are a natural leader. You have the attitude. And you have the right ideas. The world would be better under your rule. I’d miss you, of course, but I should not get in the way of a brighter future for the world, should I?” Stacy asked.
 
“I would not mind having you with me” Laura offered.
 
Stacy waved her hand.
 
“Oh, no. Giant size would not suit me too well, I’m afraid” she said cheerfully. “I’m naturally clumsy; my feet would end up crushing someone sooner rather than later and I would not be able to stop whining about it from then onwards. I guess that being a giant is as much of an attitude as it is of a size. I don’t have it. You do” Stacy completed her sentence.
 
“So, that did not freak you out either” Laura said, serious.
 
“Let’s just say that if anyone needs to get gigantic, I’d want that someone to have your attitude. No one would want a thousand-foot-tall candy-ass, which is what I would be, but neither would I want a loon or a psycho. Stuff would get crushed. The world would need someone that could live with it without crushing any more stuff than needed” Stacy said.
 
“The argument, of course, would be about how much stuff really needed crushing” Laura said.
 
“I’d trust your judgment there over everyone else’s” Stacy said.
 
“Any particular reason?” Laura asked.
 
“Well, to start with, you’ve put more thought on this than anyone else. And you are a reasonable person. And I guess that’s it” Stacy finished, smiling.
 
“I might let myself get carried away” Laura said.
 
“I would slap you in your cute butt if you did” Stacy replied.
 
“You’d be barely the size of my pinkie’s fingernail. I doubt I’d notice” Laura replied in a joking voice.
 
“Oh, no matter how much bigger than me you were, you would not dare ignore me, Laura Anderson”
 
 
 
 
Antara’s tridimensional projection filled the chair in front of Quo. She was not surprised that she looked so real despite the fact that she was dozens of light years away. FTL communications had been considered a given by their species for centuries.
 
“We are still looking for the candidate” Quo said.
 
“You have been there eight years already” Antara said in a displeased tone.
 
“Are you getting pressure from the Council?” Quo asked.
 
“Not yet. But Telara won’t wait too long to make her move” Antara said.
 
“Everything is ready, councilor. We just need to find the right individual” Quo said.
 
“There are six billion humans. It cannot be so hard!” Antara protested.
 
“We have found more than a thousand subjects with good profiles” Quo said.
 
“Then, what are you waiting for?”  Antara asked, surprised.
 
“We still have some margin. I’m waiting for the perfect match” Quo said.
 
“A thousand good candidates, you say? For the sake of Scripture! You are the scientist here. You know there is not such a thing as the perfect match!” Antara said.
 
“I’m sure we can find a better profile, that’s all. Let me know when the pressure is too high and I’ll execute” Quo said, sounding very neutral.
 
“You know, Quo, making my life easy should be part of your objectives, if you want to make the most out of this assignment” Antara said.
 
“I understand, Councilor” Quo said before the projection faded out.
 
The call ended and she turned back to his main console. Making a gesture with her hand, the movie resumed. She really enjoyed human popular culture. Humans were, by far, the most interesting sentient species she had had the chance to study in her long career.
 
Quo had managed to be assigned to lead the mission. Antara had seen to that. This would grant her first-hand feedback on the results she was so eager to see. And it had also given her a few years to take a very close look at humanity from a cloaked ship in geostationary orbit. This had allowed her to progress enormously in her analysis of the human species and when she was back she would very likely publish work that could grant her a permanent membership of the Board of Xenology. She had delayed the selection of the candidate for as long as she had been able to have more time for her research. She was quite done, by now, so it would not be too much of a problem to get to action with any of the suitable candidates already on her list.
 
She took her note pad and thought to it:
 
“A close examination of human societies proves all the hypothesis pointing to clear male domination right. The female role in society has grown in importance, but males have managed to keep the balance of power through less obvious but equally effective means. This represents a real unique case among the sentient species identified so far, where the predominant role of females was obvious, both in hive-minded species, where females were the only sentient beings, and in individualistic species like ours, where the secondary role of males and their main use for reproduction is clear.
 
In the human species, males have managed to stay in power throughout history by means of slightly superior physical strength, and as their societies have become more complex, they have found ways to keep in power through social convention. The case of mainstream religions is especially clear, in this sense”
 
The access lid to her chambers chimed. She waved it open.
 
“We found another match, director” the aide said.
 
“Send the profile to my console” Quo replied.
 
The aide waved the information in the direction of her screen. Quo gave it a quick look and said:
 
“98 per cent. Not bad. Discard it as ‘no match’”
 
Her aide did not look surprised. It was not the first time they had this conversation. That was the reason she had gone to her chambers before updating the central system.
 
“The best profiles we’ve found are males” the aide just said. She had a good enough relationship with the director to be able to speak her mind.
 
“Social and historical conditioning” Quo stated.
 
“We shouldn’t care, should we?” the aide said. “A male could serve our purpose well enough” she added.
 
“A male would be fine for our primary mission, Laya, sure. But I’m trying to get a bit more accomplished, here”
 
“I might be able to serve you better if I had full access to your plans, director” Laya said politely.
 
It was the first time she had been so direct. Quo was expecting it. Laya was loyal and efficient, but she had been trained to be a scientist, and this meant that she could not prevent having questions when things were not clear.
 
“Do you have time?” Quo asked.
 
Laya seemed not to believe her director’s answer. When her two left arms pointed to the chair that materialized in the pit she was sitting in, she knew she was serious. She sat, obviously eager to listen to her director’s plans. Quo was fond of Laya; she would enjoy sharing her plans too.
 
 
 
 
“Are you sure you are going to find your way back?” Laura asked
 
“Sure, the trek was easy enough so far. Are you sure you want to go on yourself?” Stacy asked.
 
“I need to. I’ve not been in the lake for too long. I miss it” Laura said.
 
“You really are a tree-hugger. And you are even willing to take a path that has been given 5 danger stars in all hiking guides just to get a “nice view”. Just for the record: that scares me more than your dreams of world-domination”
 
“Bitch” Laura said, smirking.
 
“Anyway, be careful where you sleep. I’d like to have a full girlfriend when you’re back” Stacy said.
 
“I’ll see you home tomorrow”
 
 
 
 
“It’s… surprising” Laya said.
 
“She’s perfect” Quo replied.
 
“Well, she’s a female” Laya said.
 
“She’s much more than that. She is the ideal candidate. I don’t care what the computer says, she’s a 100% match”
 
“Out of curiosity, what makes her better than the females that wanted to become as strong as that ‘Superman’? There were a few of those” Laya asked.
 
“Superpowers are not enough guarantee. They give the person the ability to do as she pleases, but also the ability to keep anonymous. To the naked eye, a superwoman would not be different from a regular woman. She could lead a normal life, using her powers only to get her objectives accomplished when she needed them, no matter if she is good or evil. As a matter of fact, if a woman were inclined to make her powers known to the rest of the world right away, it would probably imply that her attitude towards them would be destructive enough to pose a threat to the planet” Quo said.
 
“I don’t think the council would complain about that” Laya said, smiling.
 
“The council is short sighted. Humans are the first sentient species without a hive mind we find. They may be a threat, true, but they are also a great opportunity. Why destroy them when we can simply neutralize them, study them and use them, whenever someone decides to change those ridiculous precepts in Scripture?” Quo said.
 
“You convinced me already on this, director” Laya said.
 
“Whoever we choose must have a very fine balance between the will for power and domination and the will to preserve the species and its societies. This subject does. She has the potential to seize power, to refocus human efforts to purposes other than expansion and to keep the status quo for many generations to come” Quo said.
 
“But her particular choice of power… becoming hundreds of times larger than a regular human… it’s weird, director” Laya said.
 
“It’s not so unnatural when you analyze human evolution. No matter how complex their societies might have got, humanity has traditionally based its politics on strength, and for a very long time, physical size was the best representation of physical strength. It’s natural for someone who craves for power to desire becoming much bigger as a means to achieve it” Quo stated.
 
“There was a large number of subjects that simply wished to become stronger. Super-strong” Laya said.
 
“I see you really liked that particular possibility” Quo said with a smile. “The size increase is much more convenient for our needs. Once we turn her as big as she wishes she will be forced to act and the rest of the world will be forced to acknowledge her presence. Results will be immediate. A super-powered human does not offer these guarantees”
 
“One could argue that the risks will also be higher, since the consequences of her presence are more obvious” Laya said.
 
“This particular individual had put a lot of thought on this possibility. This would help containing the risks. In any case, we should expect a somewhat painful adaptation period. No matter how much the scenario has been considered, the human mind will never be completely ready to find itself hundreds of times larger than the rest of inhabitants in the planet”
 
Quo looked again at the profile and let more data to flow into her mind. She smiled.
 
“Yes, she is perfect” she reaffirmed himself
 
“So, should we proceed?” Laya said
 
“Yes, get everything ready. Tonight, Laura Anderson is going to get all her wishes turned true” Quo said.
 
Laya started thinking commands into the console that had materialized in front of her. Quo stood up and headed for the lid. While it opened, she added:
 
“And when we get Scripture updated and direct contact is allowed, we’ll come back to Earth and I’ll let the ruler of the planet know that she owes all her power to me”
 
And with that, she left the room and headed for her quarters.
 
 
 
 
Nights were always a little cooler in the valley, but the summer was being hot enough, so she did not need much more than her sleeping bag half open to protect herself. She chose one of her favorite spots, in a clearing that was close enough to the lake. Stacy would have been scared, but Laura knew it was perfectly safe.
 
She fell asleep looking at the stars. Away from Emerald’s pollution, they shone much brighter. She had strained herself to get to the clearing by sunset. She was tired. Her eyelids felt heavy. Soon she was asleep.
 
The dream came to her quite naturally. It was not the first time she pictured herself in the middle of a city, standing taller than the skyscrapers. This time it felt more realistic than ever, though. It was very descriptive, as well. She had never done so much stuff in a single dream. The moment she faced the army had been especially lively. She always enjoyed the army scenario, since it allowed her to give in more than usual to a dark streak in the back of her head. After the army, she dreamed about herself doing some more stuff. In perspective, the collection of images that had gone through her mind looked more like a tutorial than a proper dream. Then, a voice in the back of her head told her to be ready to experience it for real.
 
Her eyes opened right then, when the first rays of light met them. Unknown to her, her life had changed forever. And so had the life of the other 6 billion people in the planet.
 
 
 
 
Abe had insisted that they should reach the Widow’s peak by sunrise. The view was beautiful. His son Rudolph had reluctantly accepted. Young men were much lazier than they used to be, back when Abe had been young.
 
“Enjoy this view” Abe had told his son. “There are not that many like this in the world”
 
Then, they started hearing the noises, coming from down in the valley. They were noticeable, but they could not associate them to anything known. Rudolph was the first one to notice the wavering of the trees.
 
“What’s going on?” Abe said.
 
A few trees started toppling, much to the surprise of father and son, who remained speechless for a couple of seconds. Then, Rudolph saw something between them.
 
“What’s that mass?” he asked, pointing.
 
They did not have time to answer as the pinkish mass expanded and brought a few more trees down.
 
“Is that… a woman?” Rudolph asked, as the shape of the expanding mass that had been bulldozing its way around the trees started to be recognizable.
 
As shocked as he was about the entire situation, Abe was about to reprimand his son when the mass went through a pretty quick expansion, downing a few more trees in the process. By the time it went back to its normal expansion rate, it was undeniable that its shape was that of a woman. Of a naked young woman, to be precise.
 
“Oh my God!” Abe said.
 
The first obvious thing about the woman was that she had to be massive. She was covering an area that had been previously taken by a large section of forest. Abe knew that those were no small trees, too. Sure, they were not the majestic redwood trees on the other side of Widow’s peak, but they were old and tall pine trees. The second thing that an observer could easily see was that she seemed to be unconscious. And the third was that whatever had turned her that size was still working on her: her body kept on expanding.
 
Father and son observed as what they now knew were her feet kept on advancing, toes poking now over the cups of some of the pines they were bringing down as the expansion of her legs pushed them through. Far away to the north, her head was having an even worse effect to the section of the forest close to it. Hands, shoulders and hips were also contributing to the deforestation.
 
“What the hell is that, dad?” Rudolph asked.
 
“I’ll be damned if I know” Abe said, awestruck.
 
It was then when Rudolph realized about something else that they had not seen before. The woman’s chest… it was rhythmically moving up and down.
 
“She’s breathing, dad”
 
All the answer he got was a “Fuck”.
 
The entire process had been very quick, once looked in perspective. One moment there was the lake and the forest and the next a large section of the forest had been replaced by the lying naked body of a woman that rivaled in size with the lake itself.
 
The noises came less than a minute after the body’s expansion had finished. They reminded Rudolph of someone transitioning from sleep to wakefulness. They reminded him of that because that was precisely what they were. Only they were much louder.
 
With a speed that was unnatural for such a large mass, the woman’s arms moved to the sides, downing dozens of trees each in the process. Then, they moved upwards and stretched as a louder sound came from deep in the valley.
 
With her eyes still closed, the giant woman began stretching. She rubbed them, and then looked around. Rudolph and Abe were practically immobilized. The show in front of them was too incredible to be true. The woman frowned, rubbed her eyes again and looked at her surroundings once more. Then her words filled the ear. To father and son they sounded as if a loudspeaker had just turned on next to them.
 
“What the hell is going on?” the thundering voice said.
 
It was the voice of a young woman. Only thousands of times more powerful, as expected from a creature of such colossal proportions.
 
Scooting, the woman reached out and pinched a tree. She only needed two fingers to do that and to easily rip it from the ground. She brought it in front of her eyes and examined it with curiosity. Then, she looked to her side again and kept her sight on the lake for a few seconds. Turning her eyes back to the tree, she then looked in Rudolph’s direction. He felt as if he had been caught red handed and felt a chill running down his spine. Luckily, her eyes did not remain trained on him for too long and just kept on looking around. He realized that she had not seen him. He was too inconsequential for that. She was just having a look at the landscape.
 
He was beginning to feel a little calmer when her laughter boomed and echoed all across the valley.
 
“It happened” the young woman’s voice said.
 
Then, her laughter boomed even louder.
 
“It really happened!” she said in a very excited tone.
 
Dropping the tree and pushing on the ground with her massive hands, the woman began standing. It was an unbelievable show. Her fit slender body rose into the air with a grace and agility that were hard to associate to its size. By the time she was on her feet, Rudolph could see that the large pines barely reached over her ankles.
 
The woman looked down, a wide smile in her lips. Rudolph could not prevent that she looked very beautiful.
 
“I’m giant” she said, and she let another laughter out.
 
Running her hands along her body as if she still could not believe that it belonged to her, she added: “I am a fucking goddess”
 
The woman remained motionless for a few seconds. There was still a smile on her face, but Rudolph could see that she was pondering. Then, she moved a foot up and took a first step to the front.
 
“We need to go son” Abe said.
 
“Where?” Rudolph asked.
 
“As far away from her as possible!” his father replied, as if there had been no other logical answer.