One night aboard the Enterprise

Author’s note: This is a sequel of sorts of a story called “The Procrustean Petard” published in an anthology called “Star Trek: The new voyages 2”. Which you can buy from Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-The-New-Voyages/dp/055327933...
I’ll try to give enough detail at the start to help those who haven’t read that story ...

“Captain’s personal log, Stardate 42832.5, We are finally leaving the star system home to the race we are calling the Procrusteans, but perhaps we will never be quite the same as we were when we arrived.

For while we were on this planet, many of crew, including myself were transformed into the opposite sex.

I’ve promised Dr. MacCoy that I will record my thoughts and feelings about that experience, but ... not yet.

All I can say for now is it gave me a lot to think about in terms of how women are treated in Starfleet ...

Of course, I am not the only one having to process what happened, but two members of the crew in particular, because they ended up not going back to their original genders. The former Laura Breen is now permanently a man, and the former Brad Collins is now permanently a woman. I cannot help but wonder what will happen to them now ...”

In the quarters of the former Brad Collins ...

The occupant of the room, now a petite blonde woman, was busy taking all her male clothes out of their drawers and putting them into a pile on her bed when a buzzer sounded.

“Come in.” She said, still marvelling in her now high and rather musical voice.

The door opened, and a large man stood outside. Collins smiled, and said, “Well come in, Laura”

“I’m going by Larry, now.” the transformed security officer said, and stepped inside.

For a moment, there was only silence, and then Larry said, “You’re doing the same thing I did, taking out all your old stuff, right?”

“Yes. Tomorrow I’ll take it into Stores and trade them for some stuff that will fit my new measurements.”

“Speaking of new measurements ...”

“Yes?”

Larry sighed. “Look. You ... don’t owe me an explanation. But ...we ... we’ve worked together for two years, and I thought we were friends. Will you tell me why you chose to stay a girl?”

Collins sat down on the bed, and looked down at the floor. “You’re ... gonna hate me.”

“I wont. No matter what.”

“All right. How much have I told you about my growing up?”

“Only that you were raised in some anti-technology religious group.”

“Yeah, I guess you could call them that. But I don’t blame them for the fact I didn’t fit in. I ... don’t think I would have fitted anywhere.”

“Why not?’

“I ... my whole life I didn’t feel right. Like something about me was backwards, upside down. I was a square peg being hammered into a round hole, and it hurt.”

Larry took the new girl’s hand, and said, “Go on.”

“When I went through puberty it was ... aweful. everybody else was so happy to see me become bigger, and stronger, and more masculine - everybody but me. Finally, when I hit eighteen, I was allowed to leave the community as part of an old tradition that young people should spend a year in the outside world before coming home. But I found Starfleet, and signed up instead. And to be honest, one reason why I signed up was in the hope I could at last find a way to be happy as a guy, to man up.”

“You mean you ...”

The girl nodded, and said, “I didn’t really understand it, but I found myself envying girls rather than being attracted to them I kept telling myself I was a guy, I had to be a guy, but something in me just didn’t respond to that. Then we went on that planet and got our genders swapped. The first time I saw myself in a mirror like this, there was shock, but also a sense of ... rightness. Like I was always supposed to be a girl. So ... do you hate me?”

Larry squeezed her hand, and said, “No. Because you sound a lot like me. I hated being a girl, didn’t want to be the least bit feminine. Being able to be a guy is like a dream come true for me.”

“I guess we’re a pair, huh?”

“I guess we are.”

“So what now? I haven’t figured out what I want to do yet. They’ve offered to train me in any area I want, since I don’t think I can do Security anymore.”

“Well, for me, I think I want to go into Command. But there’s one other thing I want as part of my future.”

“What’s that?”

“You. I ... I’ve been attracted to what I see now as the feminine in you for a while, and when you became a girl, I could finally admit how much I wanted to be with you. But I was scared you were struggling with being a girl, and I didn’t want to force you into something you didn’t want. Do you think you could ... love a man?”

“I can now. I’m a girl, and I can love a man.”

The two of them kissed, a long, slow, gentle kiss that then became more passionate until, Larry broke it off, saying “Whew. We better be careful, or we’ll be parents.”

Brian giggled.

“One more thing,” Larry said, “Have you picked a female name yet?”

“No. I didn’t like the feminine version of my male name, but nothing else came to mind.”

“Hmm ... What about Beatrice? It mean’s ‘traveller’. And you’ve sure had to come a long way.”

“Oh ... okay. That’s not bad.”

“Good!” Larry said, and kissed Beatrice once again.

When they came up for air, Beatrice said, “You should probably go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Larry smiled, and got up. “I’ll see you before then. I’ll see you in my dreams.”

Beatrice blushed, and Larry left the room before she could whisper “Me too.”

She pushed her male clothes into a corner,and crawled into bed.

And dreamed sweet dreams of her future ...

End.