"....so how stacked is she then?" asked Fred Hollis, making my skin crawl with his lascivious tone. "See for your youself," replied Bella, indicating to me to sit down next to her, " here she is" Gift Of The Red Planet - Part 3 by Alys

I looked at the faces of my crew mates and then back at the screen of CPA, on Yuki's wrist, to re-read the title of the secret document.

Post Mars Mission Extraterrestial Infections - Euthanasia and Sterilisation Protocols.

"Euthanasia? Since we didn't take any animals with us am I reading the right meaning into the word?" I asked my two companions, shocked at the implications.

"Yup, you got it right" responded Bella," it's us they're referring to"

"There's even a consideration of the best methods of bumping us off," added Yuki.

I opened my mouth to question Yuki, my curiosity overcoming my disgust.

"Before you ask," interjected Bella, before I could formulate the words, " it's gas while we're sleeping"

I sat back on my bed and put my head in my hands. Suddenly I felt totally overwhelmed. It was less than an hour since I had woken from my near death illness but I was now having to deal with the loss of my manhood and the prospect of possibly losing my life.

Suddenly a wave of despair hit me and I began to cry.

"Are you OK?" asked Bella.

"What do you think, Bella?," I asked, looking up at her, as the tears rolled down my cheeks, " I'm beginning to wish you'd never managed to save me, it would have been better for everyone"

Yuki sat down next to me and put her arm around my shoulders. She took a little pink rimmed handkerchief out of her pocket and dried my cheeks. I felt comforted by the touch.

"It's OK Alexa, sweetie, we'll think of a way out," she said.

"I hope so, Yuki," I responded, " what's with the sweetie by the way?"

"Oh yes, there was something else we forgot to tell you about your change," said Bella.

I looked at her raising my eyes in a query. She explained that one of the other effects of the change, however it happened, was to have given me a female body in prime physical condition, she estimated that I had a chronological age of about eighteen, almost young enough to be a daughter of my companions, both in their early thirties.

Somehow this latest revelation, although the least important one, was a little too much to bear and I lay down and asked Yuki and Bella to leave me to rest for a while. I soon fell into a sleep full of dreams about Mars, mice and gas chambers.

The re-entry to Earth was much bumpier than I expected, my whole body was moving violently as our spaceship slammed into the atmosphere. I felt a hand on my shoulder reassuring me but also shaking me.

"Wake up Alexa," came a familiar voice.

I opened my eyes and realised that the space entry had just been a dream. I looked up at Yuki, who seemed very agitated by something.

"Whassup Yuki?" I slurred as I slowly regained awareness.

"Sorry, I had to wake you," she replied," you looked so peaceful there, but Mars Command are insisting on seeing you. We couldn't stall anymore"

"Why?" I asked, " what happened?"

"They worked out that you had been awake from their own monitoring of your vitals," Yuki explained.

"What did you tell them about, you know, my changes?" I asked.

"As little as we could, but they know that you've had a gender change and that your body seems fit and healthy," she replied," but I didn't tell them about the effects on the mice, or that we had discovered the infectious agent. We need to keep that from them as long as possible"

"OK, " I replied as I rose and followed Yuki to the meeting. I wondered how long we could keep them from finding out the deadly nature of the strange organism that had somehow hitched a ride from Mars on our spaceship.

A minute or so later we entered the medium sized room that was the main work and living area in our module. Bella was already sitting on a small sofa at one end of the room. In front of her a camjector showed the disembodied 3D heads of Fred Hollis, Mars Corps CEO, Andrew Bacill, Chief Mission Scientist and a young woman who I didn't recognise. They were in the middle of a conversation.

"....so how stacked is she then?" asked Fred Hollis, making my skin crawl with his lascivious tone.

"See for your youself," replied Bella, indicating to me to sit down next to her " here she is"

I sat down and Yuki joined me on the sofa. I felt strangely protected sitting in between the two of them.

"Hello Fred, hello Andrew," I said in a surprisingly breathy tone, " sorry Miss I don't know your name"

The two men stared at me and I thought that their eye would pop out as their eyes wandered over the full body 3D image that their more powerful equipment was capable of rendering.

"Hello, Alexa, is that right?" asked the strange woman.

I nodded to affirm my new name.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, " she continued, smiling " I'm Doctor Williams, I'm a psychiatrist, dealing mainly with individuals suffering from Gender Dysphoria"

"What's Gender Dosphoria?" I asked, not completely sure how to completely pronounce the word.

Before Doctor Williams could reply the obnoxious pig, otherwise known as the Mars Corps CEO, recovered his senses and interrupted, " no time for 'her' therapy at the moment, Jean," he said, strangely emphasising the 'her', " there are more pressing matters in hand"

"What's that," asked the obviously irritated doctor.

"Don't you see it?" he asked, "I'm sure that you'll agree with me Andrew"

"What about Fred?" responded the scientist.

"The photo shot! Can't you see the magazine features now, think of the rave publicity for Mars Corps!" Hollis almost shouted in reply, " Hassam will be throwing appropriations at us for a chance to use this gorgeous creature on his campaign trail"

"But Fred, we couldn't possibly allow that... we have no idea about what caused the gender change, we need time for a proper investigation, what about the safety implications if whatever caused this is infectious...." protested Andrew Bacill.

"Andrew, we don't have time for this now," interrupted Hollis," the appropriations committee meets next week and are after huge cuts and my head on a platter for not finding life on Mars. When they see the pictures of our glamorous Mars babe those crusty old codgers will be creaming their pants"

"But Mr Hollis you can't subject poor Alexa to such stress, who knows what state of mind she is in after such changes, you could cause permanent, irreparable damage to her mental health," objected Doctor Williams, "I will need time to assess her properly"

"Hey son, what do you think about doing a centrefold?" asked Hollis, looking at me, oblivious to the objections of his chief scientist and the psychiatrist, " Playboy would pay hundreds of millions, I'm sure we could work out a good deal, say 95-5? We'd have to take the lion's share of course because this change happened while you were employed by Mars Corps"

"Um, um, I don't know," I responded completely bewildered by the unexpected turn of events.

"OK, that's settled then," he continued, " I'll look forward to seeing your lovely rack in the next issue, I'll leave you now with these two to sort out the details of the photoshoots"

The scientist and the psychiatrist looked at each other in complete bemusement at the outburst of the Mars Corps CEO.

The head of Hollis disappeared as he moved out of range of the camera but his voice was clear and distinct as he stated, forgetting that we could hear every word," I want that photo-shoot tomorrow, Fred, and pictures of the thing's tits on my desk the day after, understood?"

There was an abrupt silence as Hollis obviously left the room in the command centre and everyone else remaining sat looking stunned by the nature of the 'discussion'.

"No way!," shouted Bella, finding her voice at last, " we're not animals to be put on display and then to be callously disposed of when we are of no further use"

I squeezed her hand and when she turned towards me I looked at her intently for a brief moment, raising my eyebrows to remind her that we were in exactly the situation that she had just described.

"How are we going to do this?" I asked Andrew and Jean, after turning to face their disembodied heads.

"Are you sure?" asked Jean.

"We could delay everything, you know," said Andrew, "I have the ultimate decision over science issues on the programme, despite what Fred thinks, since he has no scientific training"

"Yes, I appreciate that," I responded, "but I feel that if we can go along with whatever he needs at the moment to save the programme then I'm prepared to help, however much a misanthrope he is"

The conversation continued for a while as we worked out the details of how a photo shoot team could come into our complex and the need for them to be wearing pressure suits. After agreeing a sensible time for the visit we terminated the discussion.

We all looked at each other in astonishment when the meeting was over. Yuki stood and indicated for us to follow her.

A few minutes later we were crowded into her cubicle. Safely out of monitoring range.

"Why did you agree to the bastard's idea?" she asked, looking at me.

"To be honest, I'm not sure what was going on there and I really don't know why he was so keen to have photos taken of me, but it seemed a good idea to gain time," I replied.

Yuki and Bella exchanged strange glances.

"Alexa have you looked in a mirror yet?" Bella eventually asked.

"Why?" I responded, puzzled.

"You've no idea have you?" she asked.

Yuki peeled back the cover on the mirror on her wall. I stood and faced it and almost fell back in shock.

The person looking back at me was probably the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. As well as perfectly proportioned features there was also something unearthly about the face, very hard to define, exotic and unbelievably attractive.

"Oh my god, I don't believe it, " I gasped and watched as the person in the mirror, well me of course, put her hand to her mouth in surprise.

"Sorry, Alexa," said Bella, " we've got so used to your face over the last few days, after it finally stopped changing, that we forgot how much a huge shock it might be to you"

I stood there for a few minutes, tracing the shape of my new face with my hand and watching my reflection to the same. Yuki and Bella watched me evaluating myself. Suddenly with a supreme effort I put the cover back over the mirror.

"Sorry, guys, now is not the time for self appreciation," I said," I think we need to be clear in our position at the moment"

"Well this is my viewpoint" commented Yuki, " we all know that the only thing we can do at the moment is to stall for time in the hope we can find a way of either neutralising the infectious agent or find a treatment to stop it"

"Yes as long as they don't find out about the mice and the containment is still effective we should have a few weeks," added Bella.

I nodded agreement and then something moving outside caught my eye. I turned to look through the window. Yuki and Bella followed my gaze.

At the edge of the camp perimeter there was a mixed pack of about 6 coyote, three pregnant females and three males foraging for snakes. Suddenly two of the males fell to the ground, the others startled by this event backed off briefly before the third male also dropped. The three females started howling as they looked at their motionless mates.

"Guys, " I said quietly, " we may not have too much time"