PeterWatts_Blindsight

Peter Watts 72 Blindsight
And thus did Sperm and Egg go into the world.
And Sperm said, "I am cheap and plentiful, and if
sowed abundantly I will surely fulfill God's plan. I
shall forever seek out new mates and then abandon
them when they are with child, for there are many
wombs and little time."
But Egg said, "Lo, the burden of procreation
weighs heavily upon me. I must carry flesh that is
but half mine, gestate and feed it even when it
leaves my chamber" (for by now many of Egg's
bodies were warm of blood, and furry besides). "I
can have but few children, and must devote myself
to those, and protect them at every turn. And I will
make Sperm help me, for he got me into this. And
though he doth struggle at my side, I shall not let
him stray, nor lie with my competitors."
And Sperm liked this not.
And God smiled, for Its commandment had put
Sperm and Egg at war with each other, even unto
the day they made themselves obsolete.
I brought her flowers one dusky Tuesday evening when the light
was perfect. I pointed out the irony of that romantic old tradition
— the severed genitalia of another species, offered as a
precopulatory bribe—and then I recited my story just as we were
about to fuck.
To this day, I still don't know what went wrong.
"The glass ceiling is in you. The glass ceiling is conscience."
—Jacob Holtzbrinck, The Keys to the Planet
There were stories, before we left Earth, of a fourth wave: a