Chapter 10

John was still sitting with his hand holding back Randy’s… or should I say Brandy’s? I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized that it was still his hand. He seemed rather pleased as well. I turned back to Randy, or rather Brandy. “Well?”

“Apparently, there is still the same effects as there has always been,” she said.

Kari knelt down. “What about fear? Everyone I’ve talked to who has been transformed has reported that their fear has completely reversed. Instead of being scared of women, they were now scared of men.”

Randy nodded. “I’ve talked to men who had been women as well. They reported a mirror effect. As far as me, I had no fear anymore.” She turned her attention to me. “I am so sorry. My attitude this morning was not based on fear, but rather the memory of it. I expected to be afraid, so I built a wall to protect myself.”

“I understand,” I said as I rose to my feet. I turned to John, who had also stood.

“There is one more thing I’ve noticed with those who have been transformed. They always exhibit no desire to return to their former sex or gender.”

Randy seemed to think about it for awhile. “I see no reason to return to being a male. I suppose, I should get used to being called Brandy now.”

“What did you feel like before the transformation, as far as gender identity is concerned?” Kari asked.

“I wanted to be a male. I really didn’t want to transform, but I was willing to because we needed to know.”

“Don’t you think you should transform back? You said before that you would if there was a transformation,” I told her gently. “This is not who you are. Being forced to be something you are not is not right.”

I could feel John’s eyes on me as I said this. I wondered how he was going to take what I was saying. I’m sure he was not liking what he was hearing. I wasn’t liking saying it either, but I didn’t like Randy being brainwashed into being Brandy.

“I understand,” the medic said. “I know what you are saying, but it is as if I have always been a woman now. I can’t even imagine going back. I know what I used to be, but I am comfortable in this skin. The desire to return is simply not there.”

“We can’t force a return on you,” John told her. “If you want to stay as you are, I will respect that.” I knew he was saying that for other reasons as well. The fact was, I didn’t want to return either. I was very happy as I now was, so I wasn’t about to argue the point. I could see Marc wanting to say something, but Kari got his attention and shook her head. I think he almost said something anyway, but he seemed to think better of it. He nodded to her. Instead, he told us, “This is all very interesting, but I would like to know who killed Perl.”

Brandy arranged for Perl’s body to be transferred to the hospital, such as it was. Since the nanites handled most things, it was actually more of a research clinic. Brandy had started out as an agricultural researcher. I guess that was not considered to be detrimental to Caesar’s plans because she, or rather he at the time, was allowed to remain alive.

I was a little apprehensive as to how the men that worked with Randy would respond to this new female version. She warned them that she was now female and would be making her appearance. From what she told me later, it had not gone well. The fear was still there.

“So what freed us from the fear?” I asked when she and I met a few days later.

“Is the fear still gone?” she countered?

“Were you afraid of the men in your clinic?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Not the way you’re thinking. I was afraid because they were afraid of me, however. I wasn’t sure how they would react when I walked in.

“What about Perl’s nanites?”

“They would have to be airborne,” she explained. "That doesn’t seem to be the case. They don’t….” She hesitated, then shook her head. “Of course! I have no idea how he programmed this, but remember, to transform someone, there had to be the conscience, or unconscious act of ‘touching. When I put her blood and mine on the same slide, there was no reaction, but who touched who?”

“I would say whoever’s blood went on the second time,” I responded.

“But there was no physical contact between bodies. Perhaps the ‘strong feelings’ between you and John are part of the ‘Total Fun’ as well.”

“Where’d that thought come from?” I asked.

She laughed. "Just thinking out loud.”

“Okay. In that case, why would Kari and Marc not be subject to that?”

“You’ve told me that you and John have been very good friends for a long time. Didn’t your mother once joke that you were such close friends, if one of you were female, you’d get married?”

“Yes, she did, but that negates your argument.”

“Kari and Marc, are an item. You’ve been so enamored with John you haven’t noticed. Besides, it took a bit longer, I’m guessing because they didn’t have an established relationship like you two do.”

I know my face went red with her use of the term ‘enamored.’ “You’re quite an observer.”

“Just part of a researcher’s job.”

I decided to change the subject. “Perl’s blood?”

“If the nanites were ‘aware’ of her death, they might have a trigger to change their function.”

I thought about that one. “That’s a possibility, but if they were dying, how will we test that?”

“The only way I can see is with another dead body.”

Yes, that made sense. “Problem with that,” I said.

“Yeah. I know.”

“You’re the only one who has volunteered their body for science, probably because you are no longer subject to the fear.”

The other three walked into the lounge while we were mulling things over.

We apprised them of what we had been discussing. I mentioned the problem with the fact that we needed another dead body to make more observations. “You’re not thinking of…” John asked, going white.

I smiled and shook my head. “While I have lived a relatively long time,” I said, “I have no real desire to end it now.”

He seemed relieved.

“I think we all agree that we aren’t going to make another body.” Kari seemed very adamant about it, and I couldn’t say I blamed her.

“So what do we do?” Marc asked no one in particular.

---

Later that day, we each asked for 2 volunteers from each gender to meet together. We explained that we thought the fear might be abating, but we were unsure. It took awhile to find people with enough courage, but we finally did. Except for intersex. We only had one one board. She was very lonely, afraid of everyone else on board.

It didn’t take long to find out that these people did NOT share our lack of fear now, which left us wondering if Perl’s nanites had changed with her death? It seemed that was a logical conclusion, but how could we be sure? Again, it seemed that making a new body was the only way to know for certain, but how could we do that? And what about the need to have a relationship? Also, what was keeping Brandy from having one?

It was hard to figure. Obviously, this was something that Caesar had decided on for a new twist, but why? What would happen if we had sex in this. We were soon to find out.

---

The next morning, in the command center, Marc and Kari showed up, hand in gloved hand, but obviously, it HADN’T been that way the entire night. Somewhere, they had switched places.

In retrospect, that made no sense, unless…

The short, partially Scottish lass told us they had been unable to resist the pull of their ‘urges’ and had engaged in intercourse three times last night, changing sex each time.

“Well, that answers two questions,” I commented. “We know what happens when you copulate, and we also know that you can switch back and forth.”

“It answers another question as well,” Kari told us. “Somehow, things are based on intent, at least some of the time. Nothing happened until we were…” He paused as if searching for the right words. “In the midst of things.”

“So you’re telling me that… uh…” John didn’t seem to be able to finish his sentence.

“It was a unique experience,” Marc told us.

“So are you going to….” I really didn’t want to pry, and I felt the blood rushing to my face, but for the sake of observation, I needed to know. Perhaps under the circumstances, observation wasn’t the right word.

“Do it again?” Kari asked. “I think that’s a fair bet.”

A few minutes later, Brandi entered the command center. She was somewhat excited. There had been another murder. This time, it was our intersexed woman. The man who had found her seemed to have no fear any more.

We rushed to the ‘J’ walkway where Carla’s body was. She was killed in exactly the same way Perl was. A big man was there. I recognized him as one of my movers. His name was Ralf, and as he was explaining how he had found the body, I saw that his eyes kept straying to Brandy -- even when he was answering a question from one of the rest of us. I also noticed that Brandy could not seem to take her eyes off of him.

John put what I was thinking into words. “I believe another twist has been verified.”

“What’s that?” Brandy asked in a rather dreamy voice.

“You haven’t been able to take your eyes off of Ralf since we got here. Not to mention he is looking at you in the same way.”

Both of them looked away, blushing, but it wasn’t long before they were back to gazing.

“One thing you should know,” said Marc. “We both hate the way we are right now. Another part of the twist is that once you give into the urges, it seems you have to continue as much as possible, however, when you are in the opposite body, you cannot wait until you are switched back.”

Kari continued. “The length of time between the switches seems to lengthen each time. Right now, we could go back to our room and have sex, but we wouldn’t change.”

“What if I were to touch you?” Brandy asked her.

“That’s an idea,” Kari told her. “We could try it.”

Brandy and Kari both removed their gloves, and Brandy reached out to touch Kari. While it was plain to see, Kari did not move her hand toward the other woman, it was not her that changed. Instead, Brandy changed back into her old self.

As soon as the change had completed, both Brandy and Ralf started to convulse, as if they were in pain. Quickly, I reached out to touch Brandy’s hand. Once more, she started to reform. She became a woman very quickly. Once it was done, however, she seemed extremely weak. I suppose I would be as well, had I changed twice like that. I watched as she took one last breath, and that was it. She died.

We had no time for grief, however, because there was obviously a bond between Brandy and Ralf. His convulsions started in earnest. He let out a scream, whether of grief or pain, I wasn’t sure, then he collapsed. He too was dead.