Steve parked his car as close as he could to the main entrance of the building, which proved extremely easy. He had assumed that everyone had received a similar call and while he didn’t expect crowds, he thought that at least a few people might answer it. Of course, he was one of the precious few stupid enough to come in on a day like this. Traffic was great though, he couldn’t deny that. Everybody was evacuating the city and only himself and a few other fools dared venture in. No, he reassured himself. He wasn’t a fool. He had come in out of a sense of duty to his clients. Not strictly speaking of course, but they would reap the benefits of his selfish good deed anyway. He thought back to the phone call he had received, just as he was about to get in his car and drive the as far as he could in the opposite direction. Nobody knew exactly when the earthquake was going to hit, but they knew it was going to be soon That’s why he was so surprised to see work calling when everyone else was preparing for the worst. It was his boss, Pete. ‘Evacuation crew cancelled Steve! They said it’s too dangerous, not worth risking people’s lives. Can you come in and help us load up the clients for transport? Please Steve! We need every man we can get. Even the boss is here! The boss boss.’ Wow, he thought. Peter Richards was there? He hardly ever saw him around. He was the CEO after all and Steve was pretty far down the corporate ladder, working in maintenance. He didn’t even know if that was technically on the ladder, come to think of it. He had to think fast. Maybe if he came in and impressed Mr. Richards with his dedication then he’d be rewarded with a promotion whenever they reopened. He really didn’t want to go, but on the off chance of securing a bit more money, he figured it was worth the risk. If Mr. Richards was there, then how dangerous could it possibly be anyway? Steve just hoped he could get in and out in good time.

He got out of the car and walked briskly to the main door. He looked up at the giant ‘CRYOCORP’ adorning the front of the building in sleek blue lettering, wondering if it would still be standing this time tomorrow. He thought so. It was extremely well built after all, looking more like a fortress than a lab. It had been open just 10 years, having received most of its substantial funding from one of the richest men in the world, Alfred Stockton. He was one of those eccentric multi-billionaires who couldn’t stand the thought of dying. He –  like any old man with a God complex – wanted to live forever, so when the investment opportunity arrived, he pounced on it. Sure enough, just three years after opening he got diagnosed with a terminal illness and had himself frozen in the hopes that one day in the future they might have found a cure. Another old eccentric with an impossible dream. The strange thing was, though, that every test they had run had been successful. From 30 minutes as far as 5 years in the ‘chamber’ as they called it, every test subject had been instantly frozen, then thawed out after a predetermined time with no adverse effects. The only drawback was that once the process had been initiated, there was no way of way of shutting it down until he pre-set time had been completed. Despite this, it truly was an amazing feat they had accomplished and Steve was proud of his small but important role in the company.

Walking into reception, he saw someone he never thought would have come here. Probably the most arrogant person he had ever met and definitely the least dedicated worker. Yet here she was, sitting down with her bare feet propped up on the desk, tapping away at her phone.  Amanda Richards. She was Mr. Richards’ daughter and despite knowing nothing about cryogenics or even having a passing interest in the topic, she had somehow ‘earned’ a place on the research and development team. And all by the age of 20, 2 years younger than Steve. She spent most of her days wandering around the building, talking to her friends on the phone and generally making everyone’s life more difficult, especially Steve’s. He had had many run-ins with her in the past. She had come from money and he hadn’t. To her, that seemed enough of a justification to treat him and any of the other ‘plebs’ like they were just there for her amusement. He wouldn’t have called her a sociopath per se, as that seemed like a bit of a stretch, but she was definitely sadistic. She delighted in making his life more miserable. He remembered a few occasions where he would be bent over, working on the machines. She would spot him and sneak up behind him, then sit on his back just below the base of his neck, not putting so much weight on him that he would collapse, but just enough to pin him in position. She would then remove her shoes and socks and shove her feet in his face, forcing him to smell them until he begged to be let up. Other times, she would call the maintenance team and specifically request for him to come to the R&D lab and fix some problem at her work station. Once there, he lay on the floor to have a look and she would sit down on top of him –  sometimes even on his head – and just stay there for a while, tapping away on her phone until she got bored of him. Of course there was nothing Steve could do about it. She was above the law here, no one was going to fire the CEO’s daughter. Even if he reported her to HR, he could be guaranteed that she’d just claim that he was lying, force out some crocodile tears and shift the blame onto him. Her natural beauty and charm helped her to manipulate upper management and bend them to her will. Steve cautiously approached the desk. She looked up to see who had just walked through and her eyes immediately lit up.

‘Hello, Stevie! What are you doing here?’

‘I got a call. To do some actual work. What are you doing?’

Amanda faked an exaggerated yawn. ‘Boring! I’m just here waiting for dad. We’re taking the helicopter out of here to beat the traffic but he wanted to stop by first and make sure everything was okay.’

‘Well that’s very good of him. Where are they?’

‘Down in the vault.’

‘Don’t you want to lend a hand?’

‘Not really my thing, Stevie!’

‘Whatever.’ He turned down the hall.

‘Wait, Stevie!’

He stopped and turned around, sighing deeply. ‘What?’

She wiggled her toes on top of the table, ‘Don’t you wanna give these a little sniff? For old times’ sake?’ She burst out laughing.

Steve didn’t say anything. He just turned back and went down the hall, his face beet red. He could still hear her laughter as he rounded the corner and was glad when it eventually died down.

He cursed himself for stopping to talk to her. Of course everybody who turned up would be downstairs in the vault, why even stop to ask? There was only one job to job and that was to load the chambers onto the cargo plane on the runway out back, which would then carry them to safety. Trying to take his mind off of Amanda, he thought about the task at hand. He understood why this was top priority, but having worked at the company for 4 years, he was pretty sure that those chambers were strong enough to withstand an atomic blast, let alone an earthquake. The investors had spared no expense when it came to safety precautions, with Mr. Stockton proudly announcing that in the name of scientific discovery, nothing was too expensive. Steve had always found that ironic. A man dogged almost all of his adult life by rumours of extensive sexual harassment (never proven of course, never was when you had that kind of money) had suddenly taken up the mantle of scientific pioneer, working for the greater good of humanity and not for his own self-preservation. Steve wondered how history would treat Mr. Stockton. Which version of him would future generations learn about? He had elected to be the first person to choose the maximum limit of 500 years in the chamber, so Steve guessed that Mr. Stockton would one day find that out for himself.

He walked down the long hall through a series of extremely heavy doors on his way to the vault. He passed the pictures lining the walls of all the rich men who had invested in the company. Sure, Alfred Stockton had contributed the most, but there were plenty of other wannabe immortals among the business elite. Almost all of them old, almost all of them men. There was only one exception, and she was the only other investor who had actually gone through with the procedure. Lucia Benz. Steve almost stopped in his tracks as he caught a glance at her picture. She was mesmerising, even in a photograph. He had only seen her once in real life, along with the other investors as they came to check on repairs one day. He found himself struggling to take his eyes off her and focus on his work. Tall, slender, with slightly curly brown hair that framed her beautiful face, she truly was a sight to behold. There was something more to her, though, beyond the physical. While the old men in the photos had their greed and their arrogance plastered to their faces at all times, Ms. Benz had an almost ethereal quality to her. A look of wisdom that only she possessed. It was like she knew something that nobody else did. That unknowable wisdom might have been why she elected to be the second person to be frozen for 500 years, just a few weeks after Mr. Stockton. She was the picture of health and was only 40, if that, so no one knew why she would want to do such a thing. Nobody dared question her, though.

He finally reached the last, most heavily armoured door and held his eye up to the retinal scanner. A light flashed green and he heard one loud beep, then the doors parted automatically. He walked in to see Pete, Mr. Richards and 3 other men trying to lift one of the chambers onto the forks of a forklift. He rushed over to help them out. ‘Steve! Thanks for coming in man! We’re almost done but we need every guy we can get, grab a side and push!’

He took a deep breath and heaved with them as hard as he could. The chambers were each almost 10 feet tall and fitted with their own power sources in case of emergency. That way, they could temporarily maintain the clients’ temperature if disconnected from the main power source. That was another one of Mr. Stockton’s ideas. To his credit, he had been very thorough. It made them almost impossible to move, though. They could have done with some extra space underneath to allow easy access to a forklift, so maybe the design wasn’t completely perfect. After about 5 minutes of constant pushing, they finally moved it far enough so that the forklift could take it to the cargo plane, which was parked and ready to take off. They started into the next one immediately, having no time to waste. At least there were only 2 left. The benefits of living an hour and half’s drive away, Steve thought. There weren’t very many occupied chambers to begin with. It was an extraordinarily expensive procedure and apart from 4 volunteers currently taking part in longer-term tests, so far the only serious clients were Mr. Stockton, Ms. Benz and a terminally ill old man named Kevin who only wanted to be frozen for 2 years so he could witness his granddaughter getting married. He was a sweet man. It was a shame he sneezed just as the chamber activated. The freezing was instantaneous, so unfortunately for him his face would remain a contorted mess for the next year and a half. Steve felt bad for the old man, but couldn’t help but laugh every time he walked past him. Ms. Benz, on the other hand, had looked as regal as ever when she froze. She wore the same enigmatic expression on her face as she had in her photo hanging on the wall. It was a shame she was one of the first loaded onto the plane, Steve would have liked to see her face again.

Half an hour of incessant pushing and shoving later, they were finally finished. The 6 men congratulated each other and Steve even earned a word of appreciation from Mr. Richards, ‘When we open up shop again kid, come and see me. Someone with your kind of work ethic deserves to be paid a little bit more, don’t you think?’ Steve was delighted. As long as he could get out of town and away from this earthquake, he knew he had made the right decision. ‘Okay guys, I’ve got a helicopter to catch. The pilot wants to go and collect his family, so he’s leaving in 10 minutes, with or without us. I’d better find Amanda.’ He started to leave, but turned around just before going and addressed Steve. ‘Oh, shit. Steve, was it?’ He nodded. ‘I almost forgot, could you go down and switch off the main power supply before you go? I don’t want to take any chances of a surge.’

Steve wanted to leave as soon as possible, but didn’t want to disappoint the CEO. ‘No problem, Sir. I’ll do it now.’

‘Thanks.’ He gave a thumbs up and was off. Everyone else exchanged goodbyes and left as well, leaving Steve alone in the vault. He jumped down into the area where the chambers were kept and went to start the process of shutting everything down. There were still 13 empty ones and each had to be manually disconnected from the mains before switching off power. As he approached the first one and went inside, he felt a force push him in the back, slamming his face against the inner wall, where the client would normally lie down. He turned and looked up to see Amanda grinning down at him.

‘Hey Stevie! All alone?’

‘For God’s sake Amanda, just let me do my job! I want to get out of here as soon as possible!’

‘Relax Stevie! I’m about to go too, got a helicopter waiting for me. I just wanted to do one more thing!’ She started to programme to the keypad next to the chamber. Steve knew what that meant. He tried to stand up and get out, but put one foot on his chest, preventing his escape. ‘Aaaaand there! 500 years! Have a nice sleep Stevie!’ She started to close the door to the chamber.

‘Amanda! NOOOO!’

She giggled, stopping short of fully sealing him in, then opening it again. Then closing it, then opening it. She repeated this process a few times, pretending each time to condemn Steve to 500 years in the chamber.

‘AMANDA!! LET ME OUT OF HERE NOW!!!’

‘Ugh, whatever Stevie, you’re no fun! Fine, come on out.’ She opened the door fully and held out her hand, which Steve grabbed on to. Just then, a loud quake shook the vault and knocked Amanda into the chamber with him, closing the door behind them. They heard beeping, slow at first and increasing in speed until it gradually became one continuous high-pitched sound. The chamber started to shift into a standing position, meaning only one thing. It was too late.

‘Oh shit. Oh shit! Oh shit!! What have you done Amanda?! You’ve sealed us in here!’

Amanda started to panic too. ‘It’s not my fault! I was only joking! Oh God, what’s going to happen to us?!’ She started to cry uncontrollably.

Steve was furious. He turned to Amanda, finger outstretched and poked her in the face. He shouted, ‘YOU STUPID BITCH! WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING!?!? YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN AN ASSHOLE TO ME AND NOW LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE!! YOU’VE SEALED US IN HERE FOR-‘

The process began and they both froze, Steve caught mid-scream with his finger in he face of a distraught looking Amanda. And so they would stay for the next half a millennium. How would history look upon this image? Steve and Amanda would soon find out for themselves.

Kyra was sitting at her desk responding to emails. Her assistant was out sick and she regretted not bringing in an intern to help lighten the workload. She was a busy woman and quite frankly didn’t have the time to respond to every enquiry, though she did her best. She understood it to be part of the job and she wasn’t unappreciative of the fact that if this was her biggest annoyance, then she must have had it pretty good. She had just finished replying to an intern who was requesting some time off next week when Melissa burst excitedly through the door.

‘5 minutes, Kyra.’

That was all she needed, work could wait. She smiled and closed her laptop then followed Melissa out the door and down the hall. They walked quickly towards the vault, down the unnecessarily long passageway. They had been waiting a long time for this moment and didn’t want to miss it. Apparently, there had once been a series of large doors down here, blocking entrance to everyone except authorised personnel. At that time, cryo technology had been the very pinnacle of scientific discovery, so security was clearly a necessity. Nowadays, it was a relatively common and inexpensive procedure, with hardly anyone even bothering to take part. Why would they need to spend the money on security measures? Crime was virtually non-existent now anyway.

The vault was rarely visited anymore as very few people elected to have the procedure. Apart from the occasional tour group, very few people spent time in there. Management at IntelliGen had long recognised cryo as a dying practice and had thus expanded far beyond the primitive novelty of freezing oneself. They were now at the forefront of medical research and prided themselves on having some of the world’s greatest scientific minds on payroll. However, they were most widely known to the public for their pioneering efforts in genetics, having helped to facilitate the Great Change in 2376.

They entered the brightly lit vault and made their way over to the last occupied chamber. There were maybe 40 other women crowding around it, both staff and journalists, chatting excitedly amongst each other. Kyra and Melissa made their way to the front of the crowd and joined the others in looking at the clients’ frozen expressions one last time. It was an image that had become famous the world over, the only real remnant of a bygone era and was etched forever in the minds of every woman, presumably every man too. Children learned about it in school. Scholars studied them, their faces and body language becoming the subject of many an academic paper. They were even used in the campaign to promote the once radical ‘Male Assignment Act’ more than 150 years ago, showing a close-up image of the terrified woman being screamed at by the irate man while shoving his finger in her face, with the caption ‘Never Again’ written underneath. It was a shame that they had undergone the procedure without any of the required paperwork because it meant that they knew nothing about the subjects or why they had been frozen together, but this lack of context gave way to several theories and speculations as to why they might have been there. Most believed that he had forced her in there with him and when she protested, he hadn’t hesitated to make his feelings known. Typical man. Well, whatever the case, it would all be settled in a few seconds.

Melissa turned to the crowd, ‘Okay girls, almost there! Ready? 10….9…..8…’

Everyone started counting down together. The atmosphere was electric and the journalists were trying to capture it as best they could before the chamber opened up, because once it did, all focus would shift to welcome modern society’s most anticipated new member. Frankly, Kyra wasn’t much interested in that right now. She would have plenty of time to get to know the mystery woman in due course and hear all about the dark days of the old world from someone who had actually lived in it. No, she was more concerned with the man. As the head of medicine and therefore the cryogenic department, she had long ago designated herself as the one to reveal to him exactly how much the world had changed since his day. His reaction would be priceless and she wanted to see it up close.

‘5…4…3…2…1!’

The chamber released a cloud of vapour into the crowd, completely removing it from view, signalling that decompression had started. Once it dissipated, all eyes turned to the couple inside. There was an audible chuckle from some of the women as others in the crowd gasped. The man continued to shout at the woman as she reached up and tried to push away his finger, seeming to be pleading with him to stop. ‘Poor girl’, said someone towards the back. Everybody else just watched in silence, waiting for the door to open. Suddenly the girl stopped pleading and turned her head slightly to look outside at the faces staring in at her. She appeared to be in complete shock as it began to register with her what just happened. The man was still shouting at her but she didn’t seem to care anymore. She said something which couldn’t be heard from the outside but otherwise just stood still, looking out. This must have drawn the man’s attention, because a few seconds later he looked out too, also mouthing something inaudible. There was a hiss as the door finally started to open up, revealing them to the waiting crowd. The room fell silent as both the crowd and the couple waited for what would happen next. Kyra gave Melissa a nod, who broke the tension by approaching the awestruck girl.

‘Welcome, my dear.’ She took the poor girl’s hand. ‘How do you feel? Can you walk? Here, come with me. You’re safe now, no need to worry’.

……………………………………………..

500 years before

‘YOU STUPID BITCH! WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING!?!? YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN AN ASSHOLE TO ME AND NOW LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE!! YOU’VE SEALED US IN HERE FOR THE NEXT 500 YEARS!!’

‘Stop it Stevie, I’m sorry okay? Just take your finger out of my face!’ Amanda put her hand up to try and remove Steve’s finger but he was too strong and far too angry.

‘NO! SHUT UP! YOU DON’T GET TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO ANYMORE! I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU AND YOUR SHIT! ALL YOU DO IS TREAT PEOPLE LIKE THEY’RE YOUR PERSONAL PLAYTHINGS!‘

‘I’m sorry! It was only meant to be a joke! I swear I didn’t mean to! I didn’t think –‘

‘YEAH YOU DIDN’T THINK! YOU NEVER THINK AMANDA! ALL YOU SEEM TO DO IS GO ABOUT YOUR DAY MAKING EVERYBODY MISERABLE!’

 ‘Oh my God’, Amanda said weakly. She had stopped looking at Steve and seemed to have lost complete interest in his tirade. She was looking outside the chamber.

‘What are you looking at? I’m not finished! What are you –‘ Steve turned around too and fell silent. Had that been it? He’d barely felt anything. He cast his eyes on the crowd staring back at them. Maybe 30, 40 people. Some even had cameras and microphones.

Wait, were they all women?

With a hissing sound, the door opened and exposed them both to the outside world. They just stood there, dumbfounded. A few seconds passed and a tall blonde woman in a pantsuit and heels came forward. She extended her hand to Amanda, not even acknowledging that Steve was there too.

‘Welcome, my dear. How do you feel? Can you walk? Here, come with me. You’re safe now, no need to worry.’

Amanda followed her lead and walked out of the chamber to rapturous applause. She seemed as shocked as he was but managed to raise the hand not holding on to the blonde and gave a slight wave to the cheering women. Steve stood there for a second, waiting for someone to welcome him. He looked out and found that everyone’s focus was on Amanda. Everyone except one woman. She was stood at the front, looking straight in his eyes with a slight smirk on her face. She appeared to be quite tall and was dressed in business attire as well, wearing a mid-length black skirt, a white blouse and knee-high black leather boots. Her dark red hair was tied up, leaving 2 strands, one on each side of her face. She adjusted her glasses and raised her eyebrows at him, folding her arms in mock impatience. He stepped out nervously and the crowd once again fell silent. Steve looked around and saw the eyes of every woman looking at him scornfully. The blonde who was holding Amanda’s hand looked him up and down with a face full of contempt then turned to address the crowd.

‘Ladies, may I present to you our newest and most eagerly awaited citizen of our glorious country!’ She held Amanda’s hand in the air and the crowd broke out into uproarious applause. She silenced them with her other outstretched arm. ‘Now, this must be a big adjustment for our young heroine. She must have many questions and we will need to show her the ways of our world.’ She turned to Amanda. ‘Could you come with me sweetie? We have lots to discuss.’ Amanda nodded and accompanied the blonde as they exited the vault, the crowd cheering all the way.

Once they had left, the applause stopped and again everyone turned to face Steve. He could feel each and every eye upon him. The red-haired woman approached and said a few words to the awaiting women. ‘I’ll be taking this one here. Like my colleague, I’ll have a lot to explain to him about the…tiny…changes in society’. Whatever she meant by that, it got a huge laugh. She looked at Steve and smiled at him, though it offered him little, if any reassurance. It seemed more of a predatory grin than one meant to put him at ease. She nodded her head in the direction of the exit. ‘Come. Let me show you around.’ He followed her out, accompanied by 2 imposing female guards on either side of him. Amanda didn’t have any guards, why did he? He felt something in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t know what was happening, but he didn’t have a good feeling about this.

Steve walked up the corridor behind the red-haired woman, flanked on either side by the 2 guards. They each wore a utility belt, but they only contained one thing. It was a strange looking thing that looked like a cross between a gun and a stapler. It didn’t look very threatening, but Steve didn’t want to take his chances. He knew from looking at them that he wouldn’t be able to defend himself against them anyway. They were both well over 6 feet tall and looked like they could break his neck with their bare hands. Perhaps he could outrun them, he thought, but he wasn’t about to try. Aside from the fact that he had nowhere to go now that everything and everyone he knew had been gone for centuries, the scowls on the guards’ faces every time they so much as glanced at him gave him the impression that they were just looking for an excuse to beat him to a bloody pulp. He thought it best to just avoid eye contact altogether. He turned his attention to the portraits hanging on the wall. They were different now, though. Gone were the smug faces of the entitled old men he had grown so accustomed to over the 4 years he had worked with the company. Instead, he saw only women lining the walls. Women of all ages and races, marking a stark contrast with the relative uniformity of their predecessors. No one group seemed to be more represented than the other, giving Steve the impression that maybe things like prejudice and bigotry were a thing of the past. The prospect that he was entering into a newer, more enlightened world that so many had dreamed of yet written off as an impossibility would have been encouraging for Steve if it weren’t for one thing. Where were all the men?

He didn’t have time to think about it as his eyes fell on the final portrait in the hall. It was only for a second as he didn’t dare stop lest he anger the guards any more than he seemingly had already, but that was all he needed. He’s recognize that face anywhere. Ms. Benz. Of course, she had been frozen a few years before him. She still wore a stoic expression with those eyes seeming to stare into his own. However, that enigmatic look that he had grown so accustomed to had been replaced by something else, though he didn’t know what exactly. She still looked as regal as ever – perhaps even more so –and appeared wise beyond her years, but there was something else, something more. She looked almost…triumphant. He didn’t know why that word had occurred to him for he had only caught a glance at her, but that brief moment of looking into her eyes made sure of it. She was looking right at him, her right hand in the frame reaching up to touch a locket on her necklace. He became distracted by thoughts of Ms. Benz, so he was quite surprised when they arrived in a large office and the woman turned to address the guards. ‘Thank you, girls.’ They nodded and without so much as a glance at Steve, turned and took their positions at either side of the office door. She took a seat behind a large desk facing the guards and gestured to the chair opposite. Steve approached cautiously and sat down, dragged back to reality and the uncertainty of his situation. He looked at her desk to find it neatly laid out, very minimal. She had a laptop in front of her with an empty coffee cup to the side. The only other thing present on the desk was a small light blue container with the IntelliGen logo written on the side.

‘So, let me introduce myself. My name is Kyra Myers and I’m the head of medicine at IntelliGen. Going by our records you may remember it as CryoCorp, but we have long since rebranded. Cryogenics is now only one of many aspects of our fine company and far from the most significant. Now first of all, to avoid any confusion, I need to inform you that you are no longer living in the year 2031’.

‘Yeah, I kinda already figu –‘

The woman raised a hand and looked at him sternly, silencing him. She continued. ‘The year is now 2531 and it is my duty – and if I may say, my pleasure – to inform you of how society has developed during your time in the chamber. A lot of this may be hard for you to hear and possibly even harder to comprehend, but I urge you to listen very closely to what I am about to tell you. It will help you to adjust much quicker to modern society.’ She opened her laptop and started typing something. ‘You had these in your time, didn’t you? Laptop computers?’ Steve nodded. ‘See, some things haven’t changed all that much. We don’t have flying cars, nor do we have teleportation or colonies on Mars. I think you’ll find that much of society is quite similar to the one you came from. Our greatest triumphs are in the fields of medicine, genetics and social policy. The advances in these fields are what constitute the greatest differences between your time and now.’ That piqued Steve’s interest. Medicine, genetics and social policy. He wondered how much difference they could make.

‘Now, I can tell what you’re thinking. You’re wondering, where are all the men?’

‘Well, yeah actually. I didn’t see any –‘

She cut him off. ‘Let me ask you something. A little pop quiz, if you will. In the 3 and half thousand years between when records began and the year you entered the chamber, how many of those years were without war?’

Steve hadn’t a clue. He was never a great student. He decided to take a guess. ‘Uhh, one thousand…three hundred?’

‘Wrong. Two hundred and eighty-six. In 3500 years, just over 8% of that entire time was considered peaceful.’

Steve had to admit that that was pretty shocking. He knew that the number would be high but that was just crazy.

‘Now, another question. In the last 500 years, can you guess how many have been without war?’ He shook his head no. ‘448. That’s almost twice as many years of peace in the last 500 years than in the preceding 3500. Only 52 years of war. 48 of those directly after you entered the chamber, then 4 more between the years 2372 and 2376. Since then, we have had 155 years of uninterrupted peace.’

Steve was impressed. ‘Wow, that’s –‘

The woman raised a hand again. ‘And that’s not all. Poverty, too, has become a thing of the past. Every citizen of this of this great world has enough at their disposal to live very comfortably. Virtually no crime, no jealously, no resentment. None of the factors which had previously led people to destroy each other and use one another for their own selfish gains have any place in this world. We want for nothing and as such, we live in harmony.’

That gave Steve pause. He had been a relatively cynical guy. While he dreamed of a world in which everybody got along and embraced their differences instead of using them as excuses to form opposing tribes, he had written this off as an impossibility. He had worried for the future, if he was being honest. The USA and Russia were in the middle of another face off and it only looked to be getting worse. Political upheaval had destabilised many a foreign government and it looked to him like the future seemed doomed to descend into a Hobbesian nightmare of every man for himself. He was very impressed, but still felt a little uneasy. ‘That’s…wow…I mean, that’s amazing. I never would have thought –‘

‘That it were possible? Yes, of course you didn’t. You’re from another era. One which was doomed to failure. There was no way that this dream could have been achieved without a serious re-structuring.’ She laid her arms on the desk and leaned into him with a smile. ‘Would you like to know what happened?’

Steve didn’t like that look, but he nodded anyway.

‘See, as you probably remember, international relations between the US and Russia were at an all-time low. Threats of nuclear war became an almost daily occurrence. Terrorist attacks would pop up in the news every few days, being quickly discussed before being forgotten about again as they moved on to the next one, and the next one, and the next one. Does this sound familiar?’ He nodded. ‘Well, after you entered the chamber in 2031, things only deteriorated further. Preparations were made for the seemingly inevitable war approaching. Bomb shelters, evacuation plans, rationing. People were literally fearing for their lives.’ She leaned closer and closer towards him, enjoying the tension that she was creating, before leaning back into her chair. ‘That all changed though, in November of 2052. That was when the first female was elected president of the United States, Valerie Johnson.’ Steve nodded. He was completely invested in this story. It seemed like only this morning he was back in his own time. Yet here he was, listening to what was once his future relayed to him like ancient history. ‘She changed things. Sure, there had been females on he world stage before her, but in a country as powerful as America, the world finally got see what a woman could do when she held he reigns. She broke he mould. Where once people had used threats of violence to maintain power, she used compassion to disarm tension. Where men constantly flexed their military muscles as shows of strength, she used her words. You might think that weak, but I can assure you that there was no one at that time who was as strong as she was. She wielded her power in a different manner, that was all. She had a strength that didn’t need the approval of others. She wanted what was best, not just for her country, but for the world.’

She paused, letting that sink in. Steve only wanted to hear more. How could one woman have changed so much?

‘Soon after, the US and Russia drafted an agreement to disarm nuclear weaponry the world over. Nobody had thought it possible but they had done it. She had done it. Soon after, women found their place on the global stage. As leaders. Over the next 20 years, women began to replace men as heads of government and the entire globe reaped the benefits. International relations were at an all time high. Countries helped one another for no reason other than a genuine desire for their mutual success. ‘Third-world countries’ as you may have known them, used this reciprocal assistance to gradually pull themselves out of poverty and weren’t saddled with innumerable debt so typical in years gone by. By 2071, the concept of a country’s GDP was completely redundant. Prosperity was now measured on a global scale, which meant that if one country was lagging behind, the world suffered as a result. This filtered down into industry-level, too. Women took over as CEOs, managing directors, almost all leadership positions were now female-dominated. There was just one problem.’

Steve instinctively knew what she was about to tell him but didn’t want to admit it. She opened her mouth but didn’t speak, egging him on to say it himself.

‘Men?’

‘Correct. The male ego is a funny thing. So primitive. Despite all of the advances made in society, they weren’t happy unless they were the ones in control. No matter that the world was about to destroy itself, they wanted their own way. Not a care for the greater good. They just wanted power, like selfish little children. They rose up, demanding to be allowed to steer the world back into chaos. By April 2072, the global utopian society created by womankind was under attack by those greedy little creatures who would retake control and destroy everything.’

Steve really didn’t like how she spat those words. She had such an air of confidence about her but spoke of men with such contempt that it struck deathly fear into him. ‘So…w…what happened?’

She leaned in close again, this time he could almost feel her breath on his face. ‘We fought back. It was a hard fought war, though. I mean sure, women controlled the military but it wasn’t nearly as well-funded or powerful as it had been. Even then, men still made up the majority of foot soldiers. They wouldn’t fight for us. But we rose to the occasion.’

He could feel his stomach starting to churn. ‘How?’

‘Well as I said, in the years since women had taken power, we had made significant advances. Much of the money we saved on fighting wars had instead been invested into scientific research. We were able to develop a secret weapon. One which finally put an end to all the madness.’ She reached over and moved the little blue container into the centre then rested her arms, one hand on top of the other, on her desk, her hands touching the bottom of her breasts as she leaned in again. ‘Women taking power had revealed many truths to us. Chief among which was something that many had already suspected but couldn’t conclusively prove. You see, the reason that men held so much power for so long was down to one reason and one alone. Physical strength. Brute force. That has no place in a progressive society. We should work to elevate, support each other, raise up one another to achieve our highest heights. In order to do that, however, we had to reduce those who would stand in the way.’ She lifted her right hand and placed it on the lid of the container. It was only a small, square box, maybe 4 inches in height and width. It had the type of design where the edges of the lid extended to the base, like a jewellery box. He didn’t know why, but he feared what was inside and could feel his heart beating faster and faster each second. Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw though. She grasped the lid with her fingertips, displaying her neatly manicured red fingernails. His eyes were so transfixed on the sight before him that he didn’t notice the guards approaching him, standing just behind him on either side. The woman lifted the lid and he nearly fainted. It couldn’t be what he thought it was. Surely, his mind must have been playing tricks on him. He leaned closer and examined he figure that stood before him, trembling slightly on the desk and looking up at the grinning face of the red-haired woman. It was a man. Barely 3 inches tall, naked and shivering under the gaze of a woman who could kill him in an instant. She laid her right hand out on the desk, palm up, and the little man nervously made his way on. She lifted him up and raised her left hand as well, touching both middle fingers together at the tips. He made his way across the makeshift bridge she had created for him, coming to rest in he centre of her palm. She slowly turned her hand over to face her palm downwards and he struggled to grab on to the space between her thumb and index finger as it shifted position. He pulled himself up and came to rest just below her knuckles before returning to a standing position, eyes fixed on the woman’s face. She returned her attention to Steve. She gazed intently at him, savouring his reaction. She was really enjoying this. Steve, on the other hand, was not. He was nervous before, but now he was absolutely terrified. He was paralysed with fear, but knew that he had to do something. He had to make a move, he had to get away somehow. He didn’t have the chance, though, as the woman looked just behind him and nodded her head. He felt and enormous arm wrap around his head and neck, dragging him backwards. His chair fell to the ground as he was hauled to a standing position by one of the guards. She stood on his right side, still holding his head firmly while the second grabbed both of his arms and held them behind his back.

‘No! Please! What are you going to do to me? I didn’t do anything, I swear!’

The guard holding his head pulled it to the left, exposing his neck to her. She drew that strange gun-stapler thing and brought it towards him. The red-haired woman lowered her hand to a few inches above the desk and brushed the little man off without even looking at him, leaving him to return to the spot she plucked him from before she replaced the lid on top of him. She got up and approached Steve, swaying her hips as she walked.

‘Oh, but you did. You helped things along, actually. You are part of the reason we have this wonderful new world. You see, the size reduction was only meant to be temporary, just to show the men what we could do to them. Remind them that we would always be in control, no matter what. Once they surrendered, the women’s side would graciously give them back their height and they could return to their lives, this time assured of their place in the world.’ She came right up to Steve, her face inches from his. He was wide-eyed and panting, unable to do anything to escape. ‘Then we remembered you. In that chamber with that poor girl, she raised a finger and pointed it right in his face, making a jabbing motion as she spoke. ‘Using your physical strength and aggression to intimidate her. Making her feel small. That image of you 2 stayed with us for 500 years, a constant reminder of man’s subjugation of woman. We couldn’t have that. You reminded us that we should never have to stand for that again, that the true place of mankind was a the feet of their superiors. The Male Reassignment Act passed 155 years ago, thanks in part to you. So you see, we cut out the parts of the society that would see it ruined and made them into something useful.’ She pulled back from him and walked towards her desk. ‘You might have noticed that I didn’t ask your name.’ Steve thought for a second. That’s right, she hadn’t. ‘That’s because there’s no need. The girl will become an icon. A woman who escaped the age of man and came to join us in our utopian vision. She will be famous. Revered, even. You, on the other hand, will be forgotten. Relegated to the position of plaything as a punishment for your crimes against humanity.’

Steve was almost pissing himself. ‘No! You don’t understand! It was her! She was so cruel! She was the one –‘

‘Blaming the victim now? My God, you men are typical.’ She nodded to the guard who held the strange gun to his neck.

‘No! Please! My name is –‘

With a bang, he felt something shoot into his neck.

He passed out.