Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from Troy Rising by John Ringo, I'm only borrowing them for awhile. Also don't sue me, I'm broke anyway. This is set sometime in the later two books, and is sorta spoileriffic.

Troy Rising: What, LESBIANS?

Tyler Vernon was a busy man. He was juggling corporate responsibilities, military issues, and the construction of several battle stations meant to defend the solar system. At this point, he didn't get surprised easily, but it occassionally happened.

'Did that ad just promote lesbianism to teenagers?' Tyler murmured to himself, blinking.

It was a public service ad. Ran during the news.

(YES, Tyler still watched the news, even though he had implants. He could probably get the news piped right into his brain. But his long and largely negative association with the news media had resulted in him wanting to keep a close eye on them.)

There were a group of girls shown talking, flirting with guys at the mall. Not TOO aggressive, but clearly showing signs of the 'heat' cycle.

(The Johannsen's Syndrome was a side effect of a biological attack on humanity by the Horvath. For about a week it put any women with the blonde hair genetic trait into heat, basically, and it made normal contraception nearly useless. Oh and it lead to multiple baby births.)

But instead of grabbing a guy and having their way with him (which WAS known to happen) the girls left the mall together. Cut to a bedroom where two girls were talking. They switched to a scene in nighties, climbed into bed together. Darkness, giggles, then what sounded like moans.

'Protect Yourself. Take care of each other.' was the final tag line.

And to Tyler's annoyance, his company was listed as one of the sponsors of the ad. So he started to make some calls.

Dr. Laura Tobias had been with them since the Monkey Paw days. She was their chief medical officer, sort of, and was promoted in the company as they grew. When LFD had gotten involved with the charity work on Earth, he had assumed she would handle it as efficiently as she had everything else.

"You saw the ad I take it?" Laura asked mildly.

"Been taking bets?" Tyler smiled wryly.

"Yes, actually. There was a office pool on how fast you'd call once you saw it," Laura shrugged, "I'm up $100 bucks."

"Well, that's one good thing," Tyler sighed.

"Not happy I take it?" Laura asked as she sat down. "There are good reasons we took that approach," she told him.

"Uh huh," Tyler looked skeptical.

Laura calmly met his eye, "You are, of course, aware of how the teenage pregnancy rate has skyrocketed. Part of why LFD got involved in the first place was due to how many kids are dropping out of school to deal with pregnancy issues."

"Pure pragmatism," Tyler shrugged, "we need trained women for space."

Laura looked amused, but didn't contradict him. "Traditional chemical birth control doesn't work, so we had less alternatives. One, we could promote abstinance."

"Which is a hard sell for guys, so I doubt it would work with women who have similar... drives," Tyler conceded.

"Precisely. We're also pushing hard with condom distrubution, but there are parts of the US, not to mention other parts of the world, who are resisting," Laura said dryly.

Tyler looked just a bit sheepish. He considered himself conservative, and many conservative states were resisting condom distribution. Despite all the medical evidence, they clearly did not want to consider their kids were HAVING SEX. It was a problem, and not one easily solved.

Tyler rallied a bit, "But why this?"

"First of all, we are not implying lesbian sex," Laura said. She smirked, "Masturbation, yes. But not overt gay sex."

"Okay, I have a dirty mind," Tyler said, "because that's what it looks like."

Laura sighed. "Tyler, the ads WORK. We test ran them in smaller markets, and they had a effect. Unlike the pro-church 'don't do the naughty' ads, which don't. I concede it's not to your taste, but as you often say..." she trailed off.

"If it's crazy, and it works, it's not crazy," Tyler sighed. "All right, keep running them," he sighed, "just... warn me, next time?"

"Sure thing," Laura lied, knowing it was easier to ask for forgiveness than get permission.

From the look Tyler gave her, he knew what she was thinking too. "Good work, anyway," he added as he considered his next job.

"Thanks," Laura smiled as she got up and headed out of the office. As she headed down the hall she wondered if she should tell Tyler the idea for the ad originated with the agency his daughter Christy worked at. Nah, she decided, not her problem...

To be continued?

Notes: Yes, another short based on John Ringo's books. I really can't decide if he tossed in 'Blonds in Heat' as a distasteful joke, or if he actually meant to build on it somehow. Either way it's introduced in the first book, it's sort of vaguely alluded to later, and that's about it. Couple a baby boom, serious damage to the country and the risk of infant mortality, and you have a serious subject that should been touched on more.

Admittedly, Troy Rising is military SF based on a webcomic. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't at least TRY to deal with the actual SF issues you raise.