My head spun as I tried to pull myself into full consciousness. I felt different. I mean really different. As they set the gurney I was on down onto the transport’s deck, Blake removed my helmet. It had been stuffed with my hair as I had suddenly grown quite a bit of hair. I finally managed to sit up. The weight shift on my chest was very noticeable. I gritted my teeth as beneath the blanket that covered me, I felt my hair fall to the middle of my back. I slid my fingers to my crotch. Oh my God!

Blake, who hadn’t left my side for a moment quickly knelt next to me. “Are you okay?”

As I sat up, the blanket covering me slipped down exposing firm, round, perky breasts. I leaned in close to Blake and whispered in his ear. “I’m a woman!” I wasn’t freaked out. I wasn’t upset. I didn’t feel panic. It just seemed natural now for me to be a girl in every way.

Blake smiled as he brushed some of my hair from my face. “Yes. You are a woman. You haven’t noticed becoming more of a girl over the past few weeks? Your encounter with the princess must have pushed you the rest of the way.” He looked at me a moment and smiled. “You’re beautiful, Tyler. Truly beautiful.”

I felt my arms. The skin was soft. What muscle I had was gone. My fingers were long and slender and my nails were long and shaped. I discovered my vagina. I grinned. I’ll have to explore that more in private.

I sighed. “I guess things can’t go back the way they were.”

Blake bent down and kissed me. “I’m glad.”

A wave of nausea came over me as I felt the transport lift off from the planet.

I had the blanket wrapped around me as we stepped off the transport. The 1MC barked, “Lieutenant Anderson and Ensign McAdams report to the bridge immediately.”

As we approached the bridge elevator, Blake looked over at me. “You know, I’m having a hard time remembering you as a boy. When I sift through my memories, I only see you as a girl. Isn’t that weird?”

I frowned. “I was a boy when I woke up this morning.”

The elevator door opened and we stepped out into the bridge. All the crew currently on the bridge turned to face us. They all saluted and then all of them, including Admiral Yamato, knelt down on one knee and bowed their heads.

“Hey guys,” I said, confused by their actions.

Without looking up, the admiral said, “Princess. We humbly thank you for bringing this war to an end and saving our precious planet Earth.”

Looking confused, I said, “I’m not the princess, sir.”

Blake glanced over at me. “You look like her.”

I frowned. “No. She looked like me.”

Admiral Yamato looked up at me. “You embody the princess. You saved the Earth and its people. We can never repay you for what you have done.”

I nudged Blake. “Does ‘princess’ out rank ‘ensign’?”

He nodded. “I think so.”

I smirked, “I think I got a promotion!”

Blake laughed. He whispered to me, “You never earned that rank anyway. You’re a stowaway.”

I grinned at Blake. “I prefer to think of myself as an honored guest.” I looked at everyone kneeling to me. “Admiral, sir and everyone. Please stand. This is embarrassing.”

Smiling, the admiral stood up along with everyone else and shook his head. He reached out and shook my hand. “Excellent work, ensign. Outstanding!”

I turned to Blake. “What just happened here?”

Blake shrugged. “I guess there’s a tiny bit of the princess still in you.”

I frowned. “I wish I could harness the power of the crystals like she could.”

I looked at Blake and discovered something else had changed. I had to stand on my tip-toes to kiss him. The blanket slipped from my grasp to the floor and I stood naked before everyone as Blake bent his head down and kissed me.

We were celebrating. It was a global holiday. It was really hard to believe five years have already passed since our triumphant return from the Gahjn home world. Last year, Blake and I served one more year before being allowed to retire from military service.

I watched Blake play catch with a few other former crew members while steaks sizzled on the grill. In the distance I saw some clouds building into a storm cell. We need the rain, but I hoped it would hold off until our lunch was over. The sky was a dark blue and the grass of our back yard thick and green. The man who lost his leg rescuing me was here and had his new prosthetic leg. You couldn’t tell he wasn’t born with it. Some day I’ll remember his name.

“Mommy. Can I have another water?”

I smiled at little Jimmy, my three year old. “Sure thing, big guy.” I reached into the ice chest and retrieved a cold bottle of water. I looked over at our daughter in her bouncy chair. I laughed watching my oldest son trying to play catch with his father and friends. The wives and girlfriends of the men at our party were either relaxing, tending the grills or swimming in our pool. I smiled to myself. After the Earth becoming almost waterless, I couldn’t believe we had a swimming pool in our yard.

The princess said she left me with a gift. When she entered my body, her presence was so strong, that when she left, not only was the wound from where I was shot healed, but I was left completely female.

I smiled when I remembered Blake proposing to me on the bridge during our journey back to earth. We had to pretend he had a ring. Just before re-entering our solar system, Admiral Yamato officiated our wedding. Before we reached earth, the admiral had officiated twenty more weddings.

I also reflected at the cost of our journey. Eleven hundred crewmembers began the trip. Only eight hundred and seventy-five returned. Five men died protecting me in the Crystal Hall. The first few months that we were back, I was haunted by their ghosts. But, over time and with Blake’s love, I finally came to peace with myself.

Later today, though we had all seen it before, we were going to watch the movie they had made of our adventure. They picked a stunningly beautiful actress to play me and a ruggedly handsome actor to play Blake. There was no mention that I was once a boy. At first I was going to say something about that during the interviews, but as I was six months pregnant at the time, I didn’t think anyone would believe me.

Fortunately, fame is fleeting. I rarely get pointed at and proclaimed “that girl that saved all of humanity!” For a while it made me mad, and I’d yell back, “I have a name, dammit!” Blake suggested I stop making a federal case out of it, so I finally just accepted it.

The earth is beautiful again, with the lakes, rivers and oceans filling back in. The forests are coming back along with wildlife. The crystal technology is just amazing.

I closed my eyes. Where ever you are, princess, thank you for your gift. To me and to the earth. I looked at my family, playing on a restored planet. Finally, I was truly happy.