Well, finally! Expect to see these released on about a weekly schedule. Ish. I had intended to do six parts in this story arc, and I'm already up to seven and only about two-thirds through... This short part is a sort of memory-refresher, so you don't have to go back and read all the previous parts. Not that I'm stopping you...

The Instructor taking the Shepherds Training Course finds out about an unusual member of her class, and Belle discovers something unpleasant back at the Enclave.

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Disclaimer: The original characters and plot of this story are the property of the author. No infringement of pre-existing copyright is intended. This story is copyright (c) 2010 Penny Lane. All rights reserved.

Citizen Instructor Minette Parkes frowned as she watched her ten charges exercise. They were divided into pairs and were re-acquainting themselves with the unarmed combat skills which had been taught to them years previously during their period of national service. Something was off, and she couldn't put her finger on it.

Each of them should have been able to do the basic moves that they had been taught, but for some reason it didn't seem to be working some of the time. True, army service had been a while ago for some of them, that was the reason for this afternoon's session, to find out what each of them were still capable of. But... something was definitely wrong, and she couldn't understand it. Some of the moves which definitely should have resulted in a throw didn't, and some of the defences which should have prevented an attack shouldn't. What was wrong? She blew her whistle, and the gi-clad class separated and stood.

"Okay, citizens, move round one, and try your moves on someone else. I'm noticing some weight issues here, let's see if another partner makes a difference."

It didn't, of course. It left Citizen Parkes even more puzzled. Eventually she decided that she'd seen enough, and called a halt to the exercise.

"I think we've done enough, citizens, for this afternoon. I've noticed that some of you aren't quite as fit as we would like, and some of you are definitely rusty on the self-defence moves, although I know it's been years in some cases since you've practised. Why don't you all go and get a shower and changed, and I'll meet you all back in the training room first thing tomorrow morning."

The sweating citizens, some of them nursing bruises, walked off to get changed back into their uniforms, and Parkes watched them go. It has to be her, doesn't it? She even walks oddly. She's the one that turned up this morning in a dress.

"Citizen Hillier?" she called. "If I might have a word?"

"Service, Instructor? Is there a problem? I thought I didn't do too badly with my exercises, even though it's been, what, eight years since I've done anything like that."

The woman turned and walked back towards her, her face open, her gait still wrong.

"I can't get over the feeling that there's something different about you. I'm sorry, but it might be something that would be unacceptable in a Shepherd. I can't quite work you out."

Marion smiled. "I quite understand, Instructor. Fortunately, I'm not going to become a Shepherd, I just need to follow the training to have the necessary background for my job here."

The two began to walk towards the exit of the gym.

"That's another thing," Parkes said, "I don't really understand what a Counsellor is. I've never heard of such a position in a Facility before."

"That's because I'm going to be the first. It's an experimental post, but in the five weeks I've been here, I've already made such a difference that the position is likely to be made permanent. I've been keeping to the quieter Decks so far, though, and it's essential for me to understand how the main Decks operate and what I'm likely to face before I get set loose on them."

"Five weeks? I was led to understand that you've been here seven months. Or were you doing a different job before you became a Counsellor?"

Marion gave a wry smile. "You could say that. It's... complicated."

"You seem to walk differently," Parkes continued, "and the martial arts work didn't seem to function correctly. Do you have some kind of disability? Not that that would necessarily disqualify you, of course."

"Well, my hands and feet are too big and my arms are a little long, I suppose. As for my walk..."

Marion paused. Obviously she had to keep her past quiet, but equally obviously there were going to be times when her history needed to be told. A number of people in Female Offender Containment Facility Five already knew, of course, and this Instructor would probably not pass the word around. Probably. It would be better to let Sophia make the final judgement.

"My apologies, Instructor. My situation is quite complicated, and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to tell you much more. I'll need to get in touch with my superior and ask her. If you're not in a hurry to leave the facility, why don't I meet you here after we've changed and I'll tell you then whether I'm allowed to pass certain things on."

"Even if I was planning to leave, you've intrigued me sufficiently that I couldn't possibly pass up such a chance. I'll meet you here, then, when we're changed."

True to her word, Marion reappeared twenty minutes later, refreshed and wearing the dress.

"I've spoken to Sophia, my boss, and she asked me to take you up to her, if you can spare the time."

"Is that your usual uniform for your job?" Parkes asked. "I've never seen anything like it in a Facility. I understood only detainees wore dresses, and staff all wore shirts and trousers."

"As I said," Marion replied as they headed for the lifts, "I'm not supposed to be a Shepherd. If I wore a uniform like a Shepherd's it would create a barrier, and nobody would speak to me. I have to be able to relate to the detainees, so this is a compromise." She smiled at a memory. "When I first started, I had a trusty's dress, with white cuffs. It caused such chaos that we had to abandon it after the first day."

"Oh? I don't see why that would be."

"In the staff canteen? In the Shepherds' locker room? Trust me, it wasn't a good idea."

"Ah. I see your point."

The two made their way to Sophia's office and her assistant showed them into the meeting room.

"Joanne, if Belle should turn up looking for me, can you ask her to wait? I shouldn't be too long."

Sophia appeared after a few seconds and shook hands with Parkes.

"I understand you've started training my Counsellor and you've noticed some of her physical differences," she said.

"I wouldn't exactly call it that, Director, she just looked odd doing the self defence evaluation," Parkes replied. "I asked her afterwards and she suggested that there was something I should be informed about, assuming you cleared it for her."

Sophia nodded.

"What I am about to tell you is strictly privileged information. You must not speak of it to anyone else, even if they tell you that they know what you are talking about. The sole exception might be Marion's partner Belle Marchand, who works here as a Deck Shepherd. Other people in the facility, quite a few of them in fact, also know the truth but I know they will all keep the secret. Do I have your word?"

"Why, yes, Director, of course."

"Marion was sent here seven months ago as the result of an unfortunate set of circumstances, combined with some poor decisions by a local Justiciar, followed by some malicious action by my predecessor which regrettably I was not able to prevent in time," she explained. "I'd rather not go into specific details, most of them are sealed in any case."

"You mean, she was a detainee? How is it possible that she is employed here now, then?"

"She was exonerated fully when, through her own efforts combined with those of the Shepherds on her Deck and some detainee friends, the truth became known. Unfortunately, by that time the malicious action my predecessor took had gone too far, and Marion was left much as you see her now."

"Forgive me, Director, I'm missing something here. Malicious action? Has Counsellor Hillier been injured in any way?"

"Yes and no. When the Counsellor originally arrived here, he was a Machine Operator First Class called Marlon Hillier. A man."

"A man?" Parkes looked sceptically at Marion, who returned her gaze. "That's not possible, the State does not make mistakes like that."

"Oh yes," Marion said, "It's possible all right. It's a long story involving a Proctor who got shot on the wrong day, a Justiciar who thought I was a woman masquerading as a man, and a Medical Director who hated men. Suffice it to say that I didn't look anything like this when I came in."

"I still find it difficult... apart from the walk, there's absolutely nothing that would give... are you completely female now?"

"No, not quite. Things get complicated here. I'm genetically male, physically I have breasts, testicles and a penis, I'm socially female, and legally male. Mentally I'm not sure what I am. Bit of a mess, I'm afraid."

"I'm having some trouble understanding this. You were a man, and yet you were sent to a female facility? Actually, I'm having trouble envisaging you as a man, if you'll excuse me. I don't see how that's possible, you don't look as if you can possibly have been anything other than a woman."

Marion and Sophia looked at each other. Marion shrugged. Sophia turned to the terminal on the meeting room table and activated it.

"This is Marion's file I'm pulling up," she explained. "I'll show you the ID shot they took when they inducted him here." The him sounded so wrong when Sophia said it.

Parkes took a good look at the displayed picture, looked at Marion and then sat down abruptly in the nearest chair.

"Oh, my."

Marion gave a wry smile as she took another chair. "I heard that expression quite a lot when I first came here. Sophia, I think she needs to know the full story, or at least as much detail as we can legally tell her."

Parkes listened in silence as the two recounted yet again the events which had led Marlon Hillier to be sent to a female facility and to be changed against his will into a part-woman. She only interrupted once.

"Six months? It took that long for the mistake to be rectified?"

"It was six months before anybody realised that a mistake had been made at all," corrected Sophia. "Only the fact that a court official had been detained on the same Deck as Marion who was able to provide professional advice, made it possible to work out finally what was going on. And even then, we had problems with my predecessor."

At the conclusion of the story Parkes put her head in her hands.

"What a mess!" She raised her head to look at Marion. "And yet you seem so composed, so capable. What a dreadful thing to have happen to you, and yet you seem to have adapted like a duck to water."

"In the facility, yes," Marion replied. "Outside things are not so straightforward. I have had five weeks to learn thirty years of womanhood. Fortunately, I have made a large number of good friends while I've been here, both sides of the fence, and they are all willing to help me through the difficult process, to adapt to something that's just second nature to everyone else in here."

"Well, if you need anything from me, Counsellor, I'll be happy to oblige." Parkes thought for a moment. "Thinking professionally for a moment, it occurs to me that there are a couple of things which are relevant to our current circumstances. Firstly, you have those down there, are they still sensitive?"

"Yes, Instructor, although possibly not as much as a full male's would be. I don't really know."

"Hm. Nevertheless, you have a potential weakness which none of the other staff have, so I will try and make sure you don't get hurt during the rest of the training. Rest assured," she added seeing the look on their faces, "I do not intend to say anything that would indicate that you are physically different to anyone else here. Secondly, I would guess that you aren't the only transgender person in the facility."

Marion looked startled, but Sophia just nodded.

"Yes, we have two such detainees in here. One never made it to puberty before changing, and the other did it in her late teens. Both voluntary cases, of course, not like Marion here."

"None on the staff, then?"

"No. The position is quite awkward, bearing in mind the restriction on only females working here. And before you ask, Marion has a Certificate of Exemption as she is still legally male. If she stays here, it may encourage the powers-that-be to have a look at the rules, but I'm not holding my breath."

"Yes, of course. I must find out more about transgender citizens, my education seems to be woefully lacking in that area, but it could be that they might need different treatment to other detainees in a female facility. Or, indeed, we may one day have transgender staff I will come in contact with, other than the Counsellor here.

"My final point is that I know nothing about the duties of a Counsellor, and that this may have a bearing on what I tell the others in this training group. For example, I've never seen a facility staff member wearing a dress, and Marion's presence and attire is distracting some of the others. If I - or Marion, for that matter - was able to explain what she did it would probably settle everyone else down."

"That's fine with me, Instructor," Marion replied. "I can give you a brief idea of what I've been up to now, and then if you give me five minutes tomorrow morning I should be able to satisfy everyone's curiosity."

Sophia added, "For the transgender business, of necessity we two have had to become at least partial experts, so I suggest an hour or so later on in the week will bring you up to speed. Will that suffice?"

"I would think so. So, what does a Counsellor do, then?"

"Essentially, I just go and talk to people," Marion explained. "Because I don't look like a Shepherd, I find that they are more likely to open up to me. I can find out if they are being treated properly, or if there's some difficulty with their family outside, or, well, anything at all they might want to tell me. There are certain things I can fix, or that I can tell to people who can do the fixing. Sometimes they just want to talk in an unpressurised way. A lot of them don't trust other detainees, so they retreat into a shell. Sometimes it's just a friendly chat."

"Oh, I see. What an interesting idea, when did you have that?"

"I didn't. While I was detained in here on E Deck, I just started doing it naturally. In fact, I was doing it even before the other detainees ever found out I was actually a man. Once the whole truth became known, I wondered what I was going to do with my life, because I realised I couldn't go back to my old factory job. My senior Deck Shepherd suggested that I try this full time when I was released, and the Controller agreed. It made a lot of sense, since I had no knowledge of life outside as a woman at that stage, and it would allow me to adapt gradually while doing something useful in an environment which I knew and understood."

"Do you think that your idea works as well as you expected?"

"Oh, yes!" put in Sophia. "She's only been doing it for five weeks and she's made quite a difference in the parts of the facility which she's been permitted to go in. I would also add that she's available to talk to staff as well. After all the mess that got her into this situation, this job is one thing that's worked out extremely well."

When they finally left the meeting room, Belle was waiting in the front office with Joanne and another woman. She hopped to her feet.

"Citizen Instructor, this is Belle Marchand, my partner." Marion still got a kick out of saying that. "She's a Shepherd on the Deck where I was detained. Belle, this is Instructor Parkes, who's taking the Shepherd Training course."

"Service, Instructor."

"Service, Shepherd."

"This is your first day back on the Deck, isn't it, Belle?" Sophia asked in passing. "How's the hand?"

Belle held up her left hand to show the red weal filling the palm and running up the index finger.

"It's healing very well, thank you. I don't have a problem with QuickHeal like some. I've been careful today, and I will be all this week, but by next week it should be as good as new."

Sophia nodded. "Good. I'm sorry, I haven't introduced some of you to our latest member of staff. Marion, Minette, this is Doctor Karen de Jong, who's essentially filling the hole made when I got pushed up to take the Director's place. She'll work alongside Alison. Karen, this is Instructor Minette Parkes, who's here taking the current Shepherd training course, and Counsellor Marion Hillier, who we discussed this morning."

"Service to you both," the doctor replied. "I'm sure we'll come across one another soon enough."

"Service, Doctor." Parkes said. Marion nodded and leaned forward to shake Karen's hand.

"Well, I guess it's time for all of us to go home," Sophia concluded. "See you all in the morning."

On the tram home, Belle asked, "What were you doing in the meeting room? Telling your Instructor what happened?"

"Yes, we had to, the exercises in the gym didn't work out the way she thought they would, because of my different skeletal structure. And she wanted to find out what a Counsellor was, and why I was wearing a dress."

"Oh. Did you satisfy her?"

"Only by telling her practically everything. If my position becomes permanent, she'll have to deal with more Counsellors in other facilities, so it made sense. She hasn't any knowledge of transgender matters either, so Sophia and I are going to spend a hour or so going over what we've learned."

"So, who's on your intake, then? Anyone of interest?"

"Only me," Marion joked. "We've got four Deck Shepherds, two Site Security, a medical orderly, someone who's going to Stores, a Chef Instructor for the kitchen and me. A couple of the Deck Shepherds are big bruisers, one's over two metres tall. Most of the rest seem to be unexceptional."

"There has to be something, otherwise they wouldn't have got this far in the induction process. Two metres, hey? I bet you never managed to throw her."

"No, but she couldn't throw me either. It seems my weight is distributed differently, and people take a stance based on what they see. They see a woman, and it doesn't quite work. I think Parkes is going to have a look at that tomorrow afternoon. After all, there are apparently two detainees in the facility who have similar skeletons to mine," she gave a meaningful glance at Belle, "so the Shepherds need to be able to cope with them as well."

They got off the tram in Old Town and made their way back into the Enclave, waving as usual at the gate guard. On their way into Block Four Belle called into the concierge's office.

"I'm sorry, Citizen, your application to have your friend live with you hasn't been accepted, but it hasn't been rejected either. It's been put into some kind of pending status I've never seen before. I don't know why, there's no reason given."

"Thank you, Arthur. I can access the whole file from my terminal upstairs, can't I?"

"Yes, although you can't amend anything from there."

"I wasn't intending to. I just wanted to find out if there are any names on the file I could call to find out what's going on. This whole thing has begun to annoy me somewhat, it's been delay after delay."

"Yes," the man said, but the look in his eyes indicated that he had expected things not to go smoothly. "I'll make sure you can access the file, citizen, and I'll notify you directly if there's any change."

"Thank you, Arthur," Belle said again. "Come on, Marion."

"Service, citizens," the man said as they walked out of the office.

"Now, Belle, keep calm," Marion soothed as they walked to the lifts. "You know just how perverse bureaucracy can be in the State."

"I know," Belle replied, "but it always seems to be me, doesn't it?"

"Not really, I bet everyone says the same. And you didn't get mistaken for a woman and locked away for six months, did you?"

Belle turned to Marion and sighed. "You're right, of course. Still, I'm going to get you here if it's the last thing I do."

"Hah. Wouldn't be much point then, would there?"

Once inside Belle's grace-and-favour apartment the two changed into more comfortable clothes and then made themselves an evening meal. While it was cooking, and with Marion minding the stove, Belle went into the office and attempted to find out what was going on with Marion's residency application. She came back with a sour look on her face.

"What?"

"It's not you," came the grumpy reply, "it's me. It seems that because I'm not one of the several categories of citizen who qualify for residency in the Enclave, the question of your joining me here has caught them by surprise. Almost as much surprise as finding out that you are legally male, by the way. The situation is, they are stalling until there's a full meeting of the Tenancy Committee, which could be months away, and I'm told they'll probably say no at that time."

"What do you mean, you don't qualify? Oh, of course, it's because of your father, isn't it? In effect, you're here only because of him. And you told me a while back they didn't want you to move out as they would deem it an insult."

"Yes. So what it amounts to is, they won't let you in, and they won't let me out."

"I'm sure a good lawyer could have a field day with that. I know! Why don't we ask Talya? I won't be able to get up to the Deck tomorrow, but I'm sure Elena wouldn't mind you tapping her for advice. Oh. Does Talya know who you are?"

"Not officially, no. At least, I don't think so, but knowing what I now do about her I wouldn't be surprised to learn that she'd found out somehow. She can make more sense of the facility network than anyone I know."

Marion smiled. "You are forgetting Trish." Trish was one of the ancillary staff who made sure that the facility systems, both hardware and software, continued to function properly. "Although, I'm not sure Trish knows much about the legal side. Have a word with Talya, let me know tomorrow evening what she finds out."

The two ate a quiet meal and then spent a subdued evening before turning in. The news had definitely affected Belle adversely, and Marion hoped that their usual bedroom activities would take her mind off the problem. Belle was first in the shower, and Marion joined her after a few moments.

"Ow!"

"What? I barely touched you. Let me look. Ooh, you've got a significant bruise there."

"Where?"

"Turn around. There, on your right thigh. You've another one up there, on your left arm. What on earth were you doing? Practising riot prevention? Or just rioting?"

"Just basic holds and throws. You know, the standard stuff you get taught in national service. Not that most of it worked, for me." Marion cautiously tested the discoloured areas with her hand.

"Ah. The skeleton business you mentioned? I wouldn't have thought that would make that much of a difference, myself. There's another bruise, back of your right shoulder."

"Apparently it's a matter of perception. What have you done with the soap?"

There were no extra activities that evening. Belle had decided that Marion's bruising would make their usual play too uncomfortable, if not actually painful, and so they just cuddled gently until they faded away into sleep.