They can follow and pass along commands that originate from the sentient network in Jim or in any other people like him, using facial muscle twitch signaling. It doesn’t want premature births or high-risk pregnancies, with all the extra medical attention that would entail. They have the genetic quirks that will allow the virus to take on its full form, but the virus waits to do this until they are mature. The virus is capable of some pretty evil shit. For example, the command to eradicate all other infectious diseases so that no competitor to the virus can evolve (sent out four months before Jim’s Shanghai trip), the command to grow a pod in every uterus to be ready to maximize fertility (sent out a month before his trip), or lessons learned from breeding Jim in Shanghai that could be used for the few other similar men elsewhere in the world. Then the virus has time to make sure they’re in a loving marriage and trying to get pregnant with their husbands before allowing the pod to implant the egg already fertilized with Jim’s sperm. The beginning is a lot of fun, when everything is new to the main character. The virus is capable of some pretty evil shit. Normally it would already be too late anywhere within 4 days of a
