“You know Mr. Bond, I’d almost think you’d done this before. That notion to dump the decoy snow was inspired.”

"Shucks Ma’am, twern’t nothin’,” he tipped an imaginary hat. “I just didn’t want one of those thugs finding your ring. Let’s go home and have a cup of tea. I assume I’m freezing.” Greg got the machine uncovered and they drove back to the house.

After unloading and putting away the groceries, they sat down in front of the fire with a mug of tea. Trish had transformed their left hand and was wearing her ring while Greg had put his on the chain around their neck. He smiled,

“Happy beloved?”

“Ecstatic Greg,” she sighed. “This honestly was the best day I’ve ever had. I even had fun when we were playing hide and seek with those soldiers. When all our systems were running, I felt so alive!” she exclaimed.

“Me too, it was incredible. We were all but invisible to them and still had all the information that they did,” he frowned slightly and continued, “but I don’t like the fact that U.S. Special Forces were here and covertly at that. I’m sure the Canadian Forces didn’t know about this and I’m damned sure that The Government wasn’t informed. If a tip about our flying was called in, it means that someone saw us training. We’ll have to train with full systems on from here on in to prevent this from happening again,” he concluded.

“I agree totally, but let’s not think about that right now. We beat them at their own game,” she giggled. “We won this round and if we’re careful, they won’t be back. Relax and just think about the fun we had today,” she said, admiring the play of light in the diamond of her new ring. They sat in silence watching the fire and enjoying each other's company. Every now and again Trish would reach up and stroke Greg’s cheek with her hand, and for tonight anyway, all seemed right with the world.

Around 11:30, Greg stretched and stood up. He closed the doors of the fireplace and walked out of the living room. Trish reached over with her mind and turned out the lights as they passed by, connecting with the housekeeping computer. Once she’d made sure that the house would take care of itself, she smiled. After a shower, Greg went to bed and quickly fell asleep. Trish knew she had to try what she wanted to do tonight. The mood was perfect and she felt reasonably sure she could pull off her plan. Still, it was sometime about 1:30am when she finally sensed Greg going into REM sleep. She waited for his dream state to begin. Trish rapidly located the hotspot of his subconscious activity and directed a stream of data towards it.

She closed her eyes and relaxed and when she reopened them, she saw Greg sitting by the fire in the living room. She stood in the hall and quickly checked her appearance in the mirror. Perfect. She stepped into the room and heard Greg’s startled gasp.

“Trish?! This is wonderful! But I swear that I was somewhere else a second ago… at least I think I was,” he sounded puzzled.

“Hush, its OK Love,” she smiled. “I’m not going to vanish on you, not now or ever again. I’m here and I found a way for us to be together.”

“Is… is this a dream?” he gaped.

“Yes and no. It’s like a lucid dream. I control the dream state and all you have to do is relax, enjoy it and hold me,” she purred. Greg shot from the couch as if propelled. He ran across the room, swept Trish off her feet and spun her around, laughing all the time.

“Oh you sweet devious darling,” he laughed. “I don’t know how this is possible and I don’t want to know right now! I’ve wanted this for so long!” He kissed her with a passion that surprised him and caught her with her lips open. He picked her up and carried her over to the couch and fell into the soft cushions still holding her tightly, as if he was afraid she would vanish if he let go of her for even a moment.

Trish grabbed his face between her palms and returned his kiss with equal passion. This was everything she’d hoped for and more. She’d only ever imagined what the physical expression of love could feel like. Now, it flared within her like a raging inferno as Greg kissed her throat and nibbled her ears. He was gentle and caring but there was also an incredible sense of urgency that rolled off him like waves of heat. Trish clung to him like a drowning swimmer and felt his hands gently stroking her back, roaming down to caress the softness of her firm behind. They stood as she pulled away slightly and unbuttoned his shirt, running her hand down his chest and softly stroking his skin. Greg reached behind her and slowly unzipped her silky dress. They embraced again, kissing passionately and then she stepped back, slipped out of her dress and stood naked before him. Greg smiled in delight as his eyes roamed up and down her exquisite body.

“You’re even more beautiful then I could have imagined,” Greg proclaimed. “I’ve married a goddess!”

He stood, quickly removed the rest of his clothing, walking towards her. She held up her hand, gesturing for him to stop a moment. He stood there as she drank in the sight of him. Trish had seen Greg naked in the mirror but now, aroused as she was and seeing him through her own eyes, she viewed him in a completely different light.

“You’re a very beautiful man,” She growled low in her throat as she walked to him and stepped into his waiting arms.

They kissed again and delighted in the feel of each other’s naked flesh. They slowly sank to the carpet by the fireplace and explored each other hungrily. Although the strongly felt urgency was still there, they both understood there was no need to hurry.

After a time they made love.

Greg experience with lovers in the past gave him the finesse to create and intoxicating and memorable time for her. Trish, on the other hand, had access to information that he’d never heard of and managed to surprise him once or twice with some unusual techniques. They delighted in each other, loving and learning for hours. Sometime around 5:00am, they fell asleep in each other’s arms.

Greg woke up at 9:30am, very thirsty and needing to pee urgently. He finished in the washroom and drank two glasses of water. Returning to the bed, he heard a noise he had never heard before. A soft snore was echoing in his ears. Trish was asleep! He’d only encountered her asleep once before and that had been because she was emotionally exhausted. What did this mean? Could it have something to do with that amazingly intense dream? His train of thought suddenly pulled into the station. It had been real somehow… Trish had manifested in his dreams and made it real. He let her sleep and went into the kitchen to prepare breakfast for her. This was the least he could do for the woman who had actually made his dreams come true. It was just past 10:30 when he felt her awaken.

“Good morning Sleepyhead, breakfast is ready and this time, you get to do the eating,” he greeted her.

“Mmrrrmmrr…” He felt her stretch and the muscles in his back relaxed, but there was still a pleasant ache in his lower back. One he hadn’t felt for several years.

“Good morning Lover,” she replied sleepily. “Wow, I guess I can finally call you that Greg. Did you have sweet dreams? I know I did.”

“Love,” Greg smiled happily, “that was the best dream I’ve ever had. I still don’t know how you did it, but there’s no way I’m gonna complain. You’re everything I ever imagined you could be and more. I’ve never seen such a beautiful woman in all of my life, waking or otherwise,” he affirmed playfully.

“Oh you,” Trish snorted, “flattery will get you nowhere, food on the other hand...”

She walked to the table where Greg had laid out a breakfast of Belgian waffles with whipped cream and strawberries, a steaming cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice. She cocked one of their eyebrows.

“You’re letting me take over this morning? Why?”

“Because I like to make breakfast for the women in my life and you are the woman in my life.” He pulled out the chair and sat. “Eat up, I made it for you. Enjoy.”

She nervously took control of their body and started to eat slowly and carefully, then with increasing confidence. She savoured every bite but was surprised to find that she enjoyed her coffee differently then he took his, using cream and much less sugar than Greg. Sated, she pushed herself away from the table, stood and carried her coffee into the living room. She paused on the threshold and looked at the room, smiled and walked over to the couch.

“Thank you, Beloved.”

“Hey, nothing’s too good for my girl,” he maintained. She looked at the fireplace and smiled dreamily. Greg spoke again,

“Trish? You’ve taught me so much in the last few months and though I know I still have a lot to learn, I was thinking that you should have a day every now and again to get used to being a physical person. Like with breakfast. You know there will be times when you’ll have to drive and now’s as good a time to get used to the flesh as any.”

“Oh?” she remarked casually, “and just what were you planning to do all day, Lazybones?”

“I’m gonna play passenger today, answer any questions you may have and think for a while,” Greg responded. “I have some ideas that I want to work out that may come in handy in the future.”

Trish thought this over for a moment,

“So, I’m in charge today? All the way in control?” she prodded.

“Uh-huh, I won’t interfere unless you ask for help,” Greg confirmed.

“OK then,” Trish continued, “there’s something I’ve wanted to try for some time. It’s an automatic program stored in our net that I’ve been dying to use.”

She closed her eyes and triggered the file marked ‘Alter Ego’. The warm feeling of the transformation flowed over them completely from head to toe and she stood still until the feeling passed. Keeping her eyes closed, she felt her way along the wall of the hallway to the bedroom. She knew precisely where the full-length mirror was and stood directly in front of it. Opening her eyes, she looked… directly at herself. The reflection was no longer Greg’s, but her own. Standing there in his boxers and t-shirt, she gazed critically at the image before her.

“Not bad,” she said, “if I do say so myself. We can’t do this one by ourselves yet, but the pre-program is strictly automatic.”

Greg was at a loss for words, everything he was feeling was alien to someone who had been born male.

“Nice to know I can leave you speechless,” she commented archly.

“I… I… wow… uh, hi there… is this… um… complete?” he stammered.

“Sure is, right down to the genes. This is our alternate default form. When we have to go undercover as a female we start here, just as we would start from your default form for male missions,” she smiled.

“Wow, well you sure are pretty… golly gee,” Greg crowed.

“Yeah, we sure are.” She raised an eyebrow, smiled, walked to the dresser and put on her ring. It fit perfectly. She slipped the necklace with his ring over her head and felt it nestle between her breasts. It was cold and made her shiver slightly. Satisfied, she dug through his clothing for a tracksuit they could wear and walked to the bathroom for a shower.

Stripping off the shorts and t-shirt, Trish surveyed herself in the mirror with an admiring eye. She had been both surprised and pleased that the Alter Ego programming had taken the mental composite image that she and Greg had built up and used it as a template for the transformative sequence. Now, looking more critically at herself, she noted that although very pretty, she wasn’t what would be considered stunning by society. She might turn a few heads, but would not draw undue attention, and that was just what they wanted. Trish now stood 170 centimetres tall and appeared to weigh 59 kilograms, fairly average height and weight she supposed. Her shoulder length ash blond hair was slightly curled and tickled their neck. Moving her eyes downward she noted her breasts were about a C cup and firm. Trish also marked the slender waist and the gentle swell of her hips. The well-toned legs of a serious jogger completed the overall package. Looking back to her face, she observed fine features that could be subtly enhanced with the careful application of cosmetics.

Smiling slightly, she stepped into the shower enclosure. After standing under the warm stream for a few minutes, she started scrubbing the way Greg always had. This produced a series of reactions that ranged from painful to merely uncomfortable.

“Maybe you shouldn’t scrub so hard Trish. A woman has more sensitive skin than a man,” Greg advised. Trish began to wash herself in a more gentle fashion. Greg was right and the experience immediately became more pleasurable. She rinsed off and exited the shower. Grabbing a towel, she dried herself more gently and actually began to enjoy the entire experience. Finally, wrapping a robe around herself, she vigorously towelled her hair until it was only slightly damp. Trish picked up the brush and started working it through her hair.

“OK, we get conditioner on our next shopping trip,” she griped, “OW!”

Greg grinned. He’d never dreamt they would’ve needed conditioner when they were shopping the day before.

“Speaking of shopping,” she continued, “I’m going to have to get a few items if I’m going to be a physical person, clothing, cosmetics, underwear…” she cupped a breast in one hand and squeezed gently for emphasis, “…definitely underwear.”

“I get the point,” he chuckled lasciviously.

“And,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken, “I’ll have to use the information I garnered from the bank network yesterday to set up some shopping money of my own,” Trish finished.

“You’ll need more than that, you’re going to need a full set of ID to function day to day. We can probably arrange most of that through the network interface that we have here,” Greg offered. “You go ahead and do it and I’ll look out for security traps, OK?”

Trish nodded as she finished brushing her hair and put on the tracksuit. The top was like a tent and the pants immediately fell to her ankles. She pulled them back up and tied them off tightly around her waist. Greg rolled his eyes.

“OK, and then definitely shopping,” she laughed.

They retired to Greg’s lab with another cup of coffee and sat down at the master workstation. Trish brushed it lightly and the entire network came back to life. Greg examined the data.

“OK, first hurdle, the greenies left a few network taps and monitoring programs. I’ve sent false data to them,” he added.

She nodded as they’d been expecting this. Trish got to work quickly, first accessing provincial records and creating a birth certificate showing a date of June 24th, 1979. She chose Timmins as her birthplace because she liked the name of the town. Then tapping into federal systems, she created a social insurance record for herself that listed several jobs from age eighteen on. A baptismal certificate from the Anglican Church of Canada was followed by a valid driver’s licence. Thus, armed with the basics, she ported into the Canadian Bank of Trade, invented a checking account with a balance of five thousand dollars, and backdated it 7 years. She continued by fabricating a credit history, which, while not spotless was clean and healthy. She then cracked two major credit card companies and created accounts in her name.

Greg watched for a few minutes until it became obvious Trish didn’t need him looking over her shoulder, so-to-speak. He went to work in different areas of the net and started his research on memory fabrics, durability factors, camouflage, and holography. He was still trying to collate his results when Trish announced that she’d completed her tasks.

“I placed a high priority on the documents and set up a post box in Parry Sound as the address,” she said. “They should arrive in a few days, that is, those that aren’t already being printed at town hall right now. What were you up to?” she wondered.

“Ah, just a little project I hope will make our life easier but could eventually also generate some income for us as well. I’ll keep you posted on my progress,” he replied.

“That’s cool Hon, I’m just going to get a couple of items through some online shopping and we can pick them up tomorrow, ‘K?”

Trish quickly lost herself in the simple excitement of all of the available choices while Greg returned his attention to ordering the materials he needed for his project. By that time Trish had finished and she stood up and stretched. It felt good and loosened up her slightly cramped back muscles. Greg unobstructed the spy tools in the system and logged everything off. Any unseen monitors would be informed that he had worked for several hours on a new high-energy windmill design. Trish looked over at the clock and was shocked to see they’d been working for nearly five hours.

“What happened? We can’t have been working that long!” she sounded alarmed.

“Whoa Trish, calm down! We mere humans tend to perceive time very differently then computers do, so when we get involved in something, time can fly. Conversely, time can seem to move very slowly when we are anticipating something, like the arrival of a loved one or an important piece of mail,” he cajoled. “It’s just another little lesson in humanity, 50-something in a series of zillions. Human senses can be confused easily, because humans tend to rely more heavily on their sense of sight rather than any of the others. That however, will be an advantage for us to exploit in the field. When people see something that they can’t believe, they will tend to ignore it. Douglas Adams called this the SEP effect or ‘Somebody Else’s Problem’.”

“Well, it’s comforting to know that we can fall back on the sensors then. Just one more advantage we have, and will probably need,” she said smugly. They walked to the kitchen and their stomach let out a growl. Trish nearly doubled over in shock, hugging her midsection.

“What the hell was that? Are we ill?”

“No, just hungry,” he chuckled, “We physical beings are slaves to our stomachs, even when we have efficient nanomech systems. Lesson number 51. Let’s grab a sandwich and another cup of coffee.”

“No arguments here,” she replied, still somewhat shaken.

After a light lunch, they stepped outside onto the porch and stood for a moment scanning the area. There were no cameras or active tracking devices evident so she powered up all defensive and camouflage systems, then rocketed into the sky. As Trish flew, she marvelled at the multitude of physical reactions generated by their body and finally understood why Greg had so thoroughly enjoyed their flight training. After this, any other form of flight would pale in comparison. She looped and headed north-northwest toward Sudbury to see the evidence of her siblings’ activities firsthand. Greg’s friend Don had reminded her of the incident in December. She flew in high over the great nickel slag heaps that were a weird and alien reminder of the industrial base of the city. NICO and Hawkspan had been in near continuous operation for nearly 100 years. That is, until last December when The SIX had challenged the companies to reduce pollutants from their operations. The corporations had just laughed and dismissed The SIX. Now Trish and Greg looked down on the ruins of two of the largest smokestacks in Canada. It looked like The SIX hadn’t taken no for an answer.

Trish could not believe what she saw. This was much too rash; this was wanton destruction, insanity. At least there’d been no causalities, The SIX had seen to evacuation before they began the carnage and destruction. Even after three months, she almost felt that she could detect the unique energy signatures of her brothers and sisters and somehow even their anguished emotional states. She hoped that by now the bonding with their hosts would be complete. The AIs should have led The SIX to be less aggressive, but the evidence that she now saw laid out before her, caused her to believe otherwise.

“Goddess, this is…” Greg was at a loss.

“Yes Greg, this is what the unrestrained power of an enhanced human is capable of. These corporations may not be damaging the environment anymore, but the damage to the local society is still being felt. These plants have not employed or paid anyone for months now,” she trailed off.

“Are you all right Dearheart?” he solicited.

“I-I can feel them Greg! I can almost feel my siblings’ anguish. The SIX acted so quickly that the AIs couldn’t have had any chance to intervene before the damage was done. There was no way you or I could have helped them, and we’d not even bonded when this occurred. Oh God! I’m so worried about them, but we have to keep out of sight. The army’s visit proved that to me,” she railed miserably.

“I hate to say this Trish, but this is the reason the army visited us.” He brought up a point he’d been reluctant to mention before, “Uh, Trish, from what you know about the first generation bonding process, the mental melding, would you even be able to recognize your siblings once their personalities merge with their hosts?” he posited.

Trish’s eyes widened in horror, then she sobbed violently and rocketed straight upwards. She didn’t stop climbing until the air started to get thin and the tears froze to her cheeks. She screamed out at the top of her lungs,

“Oh Daddy! Greg! I’m so afraid! I… don’t know what to do.” She hiccupped, sobbed and then passed out. Greg took over before they began free falling and gently guided his frightened love homeward.

To Be Continued