After a tense start, Luke makes some useful contributions at the Institute while he waits for his transition to happen.

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This story is copyright (c) 2009 Penny Lane. All rights reserved. The original characters and plot of this story are the property of the author. No infringement of pre-existing copyright is intended.

*****

"I can't believe you went and did that, Luke!" Daniel hissed. "After all that we went through to drum basic security into you! Don't you understand, all our lives could be threatened!"

"It's all right, Dad!" replied Luke quietly. They were standing in the darkened kitchen of the flat, darkened because it made it more difficult for any eavesdropper to lip-read them through the window. "I told you, I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't had a hole in my chest. I made very sure that I only got into contact with the right people."

"How can you be absolutely sure that they are the 'right people', as you put it, and not a group set up to suck in people like us? This whole 'People' thing could just be an elaborate charade designed to get unwary travellers to spill the beans about their own groups."

Luke could tell that his father was furious, but Daniel still kept his voice down so that he did not disturb their guest, sleeping in the smaller bedroom. Luke tried again. He had anticipated the problems that might happen when he introduced Stefan to his father.

"I know that, but I didn't have much choice at the time. It works the other way, you know, they were fanatically paranoid about me when I appeared. I really didn't like having a loaded machine pistol, with a silencer I might add, pointed at my head while I was cross-examined."

"That could have all been theatre to lull you into a false sense of security."

"And the fact that they taught me their secret language, and that while I was there I was permitted to father three children by women of the tribe?"

"You did what? Still could be a put-up job."

"For a year? And they let me go at the end of it?"

"With a watchdog in tow. They were going to make sure that they could follow you back to base. I feel sick inside when I think of what you've done to us."

"And the fact that I watched three transitions while I was there? Two of the women had boys, and changed back before my eyes. One of the older men had started to change when Stefan and I left. He had visible breasts and his voice raised in pitch. You can't fake things like that."

Daniel grunted. "You didn't tell me that before either. It still doesn't quite prove the whole thing was a set-up. Why are you calling him Stefan, anyway? That's not what was on his passport."

"Come on, Dad! Daniel Renshaw wasn't the name on your birth certificate either. Now. Do you think I haven't thought about all this? I've had a year to figure out what would happen when I got back, and so far my guesses have been accurate. So, I'm going to ask you to one single thing, and that should prove it one way or another."

"How can I possibly do that? Any way we try to prove his story, it could be backed up as far as the eye can see."

"Except for one important fact. Look. You're going to go out tomorrow sometime, find a call box, if there are still any around, and make a phone call. Sometime after that, an un-named person will arrive, give you a pass-word, and take a blood sample from Stefan. The sample gets taken to a certain laboratory we know about, not necessarily directly, and gets tested. If he's got the Z chromosome, we're okay. If he hasn't, you can arrange for someone to shoot both of us. Fair enough?"

Daniel stared at his son, and then shook his head in bemusement. "I still can't believe this is happening." He let out a sigh. "You're right, about the only way to make sure, anyway. Let me think about it overnight. Will you promise me to keep Stefan here all day tomorrow, if I agree to this mad scheme of yours? It may take me some time to arrange, and I don't want to be trailed around. In fact, since you arrived here you may have been followed, so I may already have to shake off trackers. We'll discuss it in the morning, okay? I'm not a person who can be easily shocked, but you certainly managed it today, didn't you? I don't know how much sleep I'll get after this evening's bombshell."

"Sorry, Dad, I knew it wouldn't be easy. It wasn't easy doing it the other way either."

"All right, time we were both in bed. Good night."

As the two moved towards the kitchen door, smells and sounds wafted up from below.

"Dad?"

"Yes, what is it now?"

"Why did you have to get a flat over a fish and chip shop?"

*****

"Have a seat, Luke," Frances Canning said. "You'll be pleased to know that your medical results were just as we expected, that is, there's absolutely nothing wrong with you."

"Thank you, Mrs Canning," Luke responded. "I did wonder whether there was anything left to find of the old war wound, so to speak."

"No, there wasn't. Would you like something to drink? No? As I was saying, your gunshot wound has almost vanished without trace. I say almost, because there is a tiny nick on one of your ribs at the back where the bullet touched it on the way out. Presumably there was a matching bone fragment which your body has since absorbed. I want to thank you for agreeing to spend some time in the scanner for us, it's not often that we get that kind of injury to examine. Of course, being so long after the incident, there's not much left to examine, but I think the exercise was worthwhile anyway, since it's meant we can prove that your body is functioning the way it's supposed to."

"Glad to be of some assistance, Mrs Canning."

"I'm glad you survived to render it, Luke. Now, that's brought me to the real reason for this conversation. When your parent informed us you'd told a group of persons unknown to us all about our organisation, you started a severe panic here. We were about ready to close down the Institute, burn down the buildings and flee."

"I'm truly sorry, Mrs Canning, I really am, but the way events panned out, it was almost fated that I was going to end up being looked after by the People. It was that, or bleed to death halfway between two small villages."

"I can't argue with that. You did what was necessary to survive, as we all have done from time to time." Frances paused, as memories from her past life surfaced. "You were just lucky that you found the right people."

"Oh, yes, I'm really aware of that. I knew I was taking a risk, but I did what I could to minimise the possible problems, and the Roma group who found us at the roadside were also very cautious. Then when I got to the People, they were just as suspicious of me as I was of them. It took a while and a few tense moments before they accepted me. Actually, the gunshot wound helped. The speed at which that healed up made it certain I was the same sort of human as they were."

"Then you went and brought one of them back here! There were nearly several heart attacks here when we found that out."

"It seemed a good idea at the time, as they say. I did realise what the reaction might be, though, and I worked out the only way to prove his good intentions."

"Yes, and I must thank you for doing that." Luke looked with puzzlement at the Institute's Director. "The chance to examine someone who's demonstrably not related to anyone in our own group is invaluable. I'm pleased that Mr Anistonis -"

"Just call him Stefan, Mrs Canning. Everyone else does. Costas Anistonis is just the name on the passport we bought for him."

"Very well, I'm pleased that Stefan is willing to spend some time with us being examined, and also exchanging information about our two groups. In a way, looking at the bigger picture, you've done us a valuable service."

"How's that?"

"We were so paranoid about ourselves, although you readily understand why. It makes contact with any other Z-people very difficult, unless we discover them ourselves. It's made us realise that we don't even have any protocols for interacting with any other groups, we were so inward-looking. Now you've effectively made a linkage to one group, and through them to several other groups travelling around central Europe. We can exchange information of many kinds without compromising our security very much at all."

"That's what I'd more or less hoped when I suggested that he came back with me."

"Of course, because they are nomads they can live their lives in a wholly different way to us and get away with it. Against that, because they are moving around all the time they can't set up places like this." She waved her hand to indicate the building they were in. "There's a great deal we can learn from each other. Tell me, why do they call themselves the People? I thought that they were called the Daughters of Time?"

"You've answered your own question. They call themselves the People. It's other Roma groups that call them the Daughters of Time, although the distinction from this distance is a fine one. To the People, we are the People as well, just a different tribe."

"Tribe?"

"My translation for a word which describes a group of People who travel together. It's probably not exact."

"I see. You presumably mentioned all this when you were debriefed?"

"Yes, Mrs Canning. There were some other things I'd like to discuss with you, that I didn't mention in the debriefing, if you have the time?"

"Other things? You mean, not connected to the People?"

"Yes. I've been travelling around most of western Europe, with a few diversions further east, as you probably know. It occurred to me that the Institute, or rather the local group of Z-people who use the Institute, might be missing a trick. Do you have much to do with the transgender scene here?"

"Transgender? What do you mean? Gays and transvestites? No, we try and avoid them."

"I thought so. When I was in Berlin, one of the guys I was with took us to a club for gays and persons of mixed gender. He had a friend who was transgendered. I learned a lot there. I was wondering if we could use transgender clubs as useful meeting places. Also, since such things have now become mainstream -"

"They have?"

"Indeed they have. What I'm getting at is that it's now acceptable for a man - or a woman, although that's less common - to legally change to the other gender. This means that they can keep their history and all their assets, which means they don't have to do a runner like we do. We could hide our transitions in amongst those of the general population. This wouldn't have been possible thirty years or more ago."

"You're sure about this? Perhaps we ought to do some research. That's one of our problems now, we're of an older generation, while you're younger and more in touch with the most modern developments."

"I was going to suggest that I do the research for you, and present the Institute with the current state of affairs plus some suggested lines of action. I also discovered that Gender Realignment Surgery takes place in many countries. One of the options I'd already thought of was, why don't we open such a clinic? While we process the normals who want to do the swap, we slide some of our own through as well. Of course, for a Z-person, we don't actually have to do anything but wait. No-one will know, but coming out the end we have a fully-documented gender-change case to satisfy the authorities."

"I'll give you this, you have a suitably devious mind. Very well, you'll write us a report. But."

"Mrs Canning?"

"You'll do it as an employee. You might as well get paid properly for what you do, and I know you're bright enough to be able to produce a decent report. Agreed?"

"Well, yes, thank you, Mrs Canning. I'll try and do my best. Are you sure about this?"

"I am sure. Besides, I offered you the chance of a position the first time you came here, remember? If this works out, you'll be our resident expert on the, what did you call it? Transgender scene."

"Thank you again, Mrs Canning."

*****

"Have you packed everything you want to take, Stefan? I don't want to have to try and post anything to you when I find it later, you might never get it."

"Thank you Daniel, I have made sure that I have packed everything. If you find anything that I missed, you are free to dispose of it as you wish."

"Are you going to manage these bags all right? That laptop bag is quite heavy."

"Da, I will be all right. I have had to carry much more than this in the past."

"But probably not when climbing on and off a plane."

"No, that is true."

"Of course, the new security measures don't help. If you pack some in the hold, the baggage handlers might steal it, and if you take it in the cabin some nosy security inspector will want to make sure it's not going to be used as a weapon."

"Bacon sandwiches okay, Dad, Stefan?"

"Yes, thank you Luke. I'll get the coffee started."

"It seems strange to me to call you Luke. To me, you will always be Luka. And in a few years, even Luka will be history."

"That will be strange. Our names, and even our faces, will keep changing. How do you remember who and what you are? Dad, Stefan, do either of our groups have problems psychologically in that respect, do you know?"

"It's been talked about in the Institute, I know, Luke. The current theory is that we're already predisposed to accommodate the changes that happen. I can't say that I've noticed much problem myself when I've transitioned."

"I haven't had a problem, Luke, except the first time that it happened. It was all so strange, I thought I was going mad. Only the monks saved me."

"How's that then? Monks?" asked Daniel.

"Oh, I think you were somewhere being poked and prodded when Stefan told Mrs Canning about his past, Dad. Stefan, we've got time over breakfast, why don't you tell Dad what happened to you?"

"Thank you, Luke. If there is one thing I will miss when I return, it will be bacon sandwiches. Yes, I will tell you, Daniel, although I don't think there's time for everything."

"That's fine. I'll be interested to hear about your past. If my own is anything to go by, it'll be quite an adventure."

"Yes, but I was in central Europe, remember. I think I should use the word 'ordeal' rather than 'adventure'. Well. To start with, I was born in the year that the Great War started, and I came into the world on the same day that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, and in the same place, Sarajevo. Of course, I knew nothing of the Great War, being so small. My mother was a normal woman, so she remained my mother for all of my childhood. My father was not so lucky, because he went off to war and never came back."

Stefan paused to take a bite of his sandwich and dispose of it.

"Hmm. I always assumed, for a long time, that he had been killed in the war. Of course, he may have been, or he may have been captured, or displaced, or forced to flee somewhere else, I don't know. Now that I know what happens, I wonder if he, or she, is still alive somewhere.

"So, I grew up in this new thing called Yugoslavia and watched the world turn to madness around us. In," he laboriously translated the date, "1938, was the time of my first change. Of course, I did not know what was happening, but fortunately the priest who watched over the village where I lived then with my mother knew that the signs were important, and I was taken to a remote monastery in order to be examined. There were both monks and nuns in this place, and I became first one and then the other. It seems that this place was a haven for lost People like ourselves, where the change could be hidden within the walls."

"So, there were helping hands out there even then," commented Daniel as Stefan munched some more of his breakfast.

"Da, they were good people. They did not understand what was happening to us, of course, but they knew that it did happen, and they knew that we would be hunted down as witches if outsiders found out, so they sheltered us. We did not have to stay in the monastery once we had changed, but it gave us a period of grace while we learned to become the new persons that we were."

He took a sip of his coffee and his eyes glittered.

"And then the Germans came. We were all forced out of the monastery and it was used by the Fascists as some kind of command building."

"A headquarters?" asked Luke.

"Da. Later, it was destroyed by bombing. By that time I had joined the Partisans and we were fighting the Fascists wherever we could. The end of the war came and I discovered that I had become a Communist. I served with the Yugoslav army for a time and then returned to normal life. It was not until just after the Sputnik went into the sky that I married a man from the factory where I worked, and we had a daughter and then a son. It was a very difficult time. It was not easy for me to hide in such a suspicious country when I suddenly became a man again. I moved out to one of the rural regions and became a farm worker."

"Ow," said Daniel. "We thought we had it hard over here, I guess it must have been bad for you."

"Not so hard as if I had ended up in the Soviet Union or the east of Germany, fortunately. My problem was, I had now switched twice, and I had no idea when the next change would come. I kept quiet and began to prepare for the next time, should it arrive. When the signs came in," more laborious calculation, "1986, I recognised what was happening and I was ready to disappear. I had money and new documents waiting when it happened. I managed to move into Romania at that time to try and hide my traces. Since I had realised that giving birth seemed to be the thing that set off the change back to a man, I prepared for what might happen again. I found a job helping in a bakery in a small town there and married the baker. I had nine good years with him before the curse struck again."

Daniel had been counting up the years in his head. "So, you've still got a good few years to run this time, then."

"Da. I have been this time eleven years a man. One of the maternity nurses at the hospital where I gave birth recognised some kind of sign, and managed to get me out of the hospital and passed me to the Roma tribe where Luka found me. You can imagine the relief I felt, at not having to run again, and the wonder that I had found more like myself. And you can imagine how excited I was when Luka appeared in our camp."

"So you're not a native Roma, then? I always assumed you were."

"No, like Luke here, I am an outsider. I have been fully adopted by the tribe, though. My future will always be with them, I think."

"I should think so! Sometimes I wish we had a set-up like that."

"It has good points and bad, like your own way of life. We can move around and avoid the many questions authorities like to ask, but because we are always on the move it becomes difficult to do many things. For example, we cannot do any research like you can. We are relatively isolated, unlike yourselves. The new modern computers and portable telephones may change that."

"Against that, you get to keep your friends and family. I think that's the hardest part of being a Z-person in this country, having to cut all ties when you change. I hope the new ideas the Institute is having will put an end to that."

"I have made many friends here, I would not like to lose them."

"More coffee, Stefan?" Luke asked.

"Thank you, but I think I will not drink any more until I get to the airport."

"I hope you'll send us some pictures of my son and daughter," Luke said. "And the new baby when it arrives. I just wish I could have been there in person to see them arrive."

"Don't worry, the new digital camera I am taking back will be very well used, Luke. It may take some time before your pictures arrive in the post, though, you know what it's like out there."

"The taxi's here, Dad. Stefan, I'll carry one of these down, if you like."

"Thank you, Luke."

"So, see you in two year's time, then."

"About then. I'm not sure where we'll be, or where you'll be either, but I'll let you know as soon as I can when I'll be coming back over here."

"I'm sure we'll have lots more to discuss by then."

"Well, it's good-bye, then, Luka. Good-bye, Daniel. Thank you for letting me stay in your home."

"Any time. I'm sorry about the suspicion when you first came, but you know why that was. I don't know where, who or what we'll be when you next come, but we'll be waiting. Good-bye, Stefan."

*****

"Dad? A question I've been meaning to ask for some time, why are we living in this grotty old flat? I still don't understand how you managed to get those investments so badly wrong. It's not nice living around here, it smells outside and there are dodgy people around after dark."

"Actually, Luke, all this is carefully planned."

"Come again?"

"This is deliberate, Luke. Three times now I've had to skip out and leave a family behind, running away with almost nothing but what I was wearing. This time, though, it's possible to take it with us, or at least most of it. With the help of the Institute, all our savings were moved over time into several dummy investment companies which then deliberately made losses. Of course, the money wasn't really lost, it just got passed on into other dummies where it's being held in trust for two young women who will appear in a few years time. In this way I've been gradually liquidating all our assets, including the big house and my cars. If you like, what we're doing is a form of money-laundering."

"Is that what this is about? I wondered why we kept moving into smaller and smaller properties. I know you don't have a lot of cash left, it never occurred to me that it was all planned."

"The moving around is good, too. It will make it harder for anyone to follow our tracks once we're gone and it will just look like we've slid off the bottom of the ladder. I should have explained earlier what I was up to, but I had to put it all in motion when you were in Europe and of course it all has to be kept secret."

"What about my stuff? Should I be getting rid of all that? There are some things I'd like to hang on to, if it's possible. And what about my position at the Institute? They pay me good money for what I do."

"That one's quite tricky. You'll have to speak to someone there about your pay. If I remember correctly, there's a scheme whereby they give you a bona-fide payslip and a percentage of the cash, but hold the rest in trust for afterwards. As for your bits and pieces, I believe that they have a scheme for those as well. Most Z-people in the past haven't had the luxury of carrying over goods from one persona to the next, so most of us aren't too bothered. Your new life may be so different to what you know now that you won't want very much of your stuff anyway. It's certainly not worth bothering about clothing, although you shouldn't dispose of too much of that too soon. You'll still be a male for a couple of years yet, and you've still got to look tidy for your job at the Institute."

*****

"You wanted to see me, Frances?"

"Yes, sit down, Luke. An indicator in your latest blood test has turned positive. Your change has begun."

"Really? That's a bit early, isn't it? I'm only just twenty-four."

"No, this is about what we expect from that particular protein level. Although the change itself only takes four to six months, your body starts preparing for it some time beforehand, so you've got about a year to go. For you, it's not going to be a huge drain on your body resources, but for someone who's going through their second or third male-to-female change, it can put quite a significant stress on the body. Don't worry," she added on seeing Luke's expression, "you won't die, you'll just eat and sleep a great deal."

"I'm a young man," grinned Luke, "I can do that."

"For you," Frances Canning continued, "it's more your mental health we'll be concerned about. Although, since you are fully aware of what's about to happen, I think your transition will happen quite smoothly. Unlike most of us older folk who got caught by surprise the first time, you have the benefit both of our hindsight and of modern attitudes to transgender people in general."

"I'm glad of that! I'm also glad of the research I did for the Institute."

"Yes, that's played a major part in changing how we handle the process. Now, for the time being, continue as you are, but we'll be testing you again in two months, and then every month from then on. In about nine or ten months time, you'll have to formally quit your post here at the Institute, and I would think that's about the right time for you to move out of your father's flat. We don't have a date for your father's change, but I would guess from past experience that he will be about six months behind you."

"That's going to be weird. First he's my mother, then he's my father. I've only ever known him as my father. Then he's going to turn back into a woman, but, not a woman who could be my mother, but one who is going to be more like a sister or a cousin. And worse, his body is going to be younger than mine. That's going to be a big change in our relationship."

"Women tend to bond easier than men, so it won't be quite as strange as you might think, but, yes, it will be odd to start with. I wasn't with my first son when I changed, but I was for the second and third, so I had some idea what to expect by then. It was... interesting."

"You say I'll have to leave the flat. Where do I go then? Do I come to the Institute?"

"No. We don't want anyone who's transitioning anywhere near here if we can help it. No, we own a small number of guest houses around the country, and you'll become a long-stay resident of one of those. Somewhere along the way, Mister Luke Renshaw checks out and vanishes, and the room is taken by Miss... have you begun to think of a name, yet, for who you want to be afterwards?"

"I've had a few thoughts, but I wanted to see if there were any rules before I made a short-list."

"Quite right. There's not a great many rules, fortunately. We do say, all your initials should be completely different. Don't make your first name the female version of your current name, that's asking for trouble."

"So, not Lucy or Lucille, then?"

"Exactly. If anyone's trying to make links, to try and trace us, that sort of thing is a red flag. Surname, we tend to use the traditional pin in a phone directory, but obviously we have to take ethnicity into account as well. It's unlikely given that you're obviously of western european origin, that your surname would be Patel or Ojukwu or Hashimoto for example, although not impossible. Anything that's out of the ordinary will make an investigator pause, so we try to be as ordinary as possible. Depending on where you want to live afterwards, that could make a difference as well. There are surnames which are more appropriate to particular regions of the country."

"Gotcha. Is it all right to talk this over with Dad?"

"By all means. Since you will probably look similar in appearance, you might want to become cousins afterwards, so we've no objection if you wanted to co-ordinate your new identities. You need to tell us what you've decided by the time you leave here, so that we can start getting the paperwork organised and begin to give the new you a good, solid background."

"What about my belongings? Do I have to lose all of those?"

"You won't be wanting your old male clothes, I can assure you. Because in the past we've tended just to abandon everything, the older Z-people don't have as strong an attachment to physical things as most normal people do. We do have a way now, actually. When you leave your father's flat, your personal possessions can get sold on to one of our agents, who will put them in store for the new you to 'buy' back second-hand once you've got established again. What are you so concerned about?"

"I've actually built up quite a decent CD collection, I'd be sorry to see that disappear."

"Oh, I see. Yes, that should be possible, but I do warn you, your musical tastes are likely to change when you do. As will your literary tastes."

"Ugh. You mean I'm suddenly going to start reading trashy romances?"

"What's wrong with trashy romances? I bet you've never even opened the cover of one. You should try a few and see what you think, you might be pleasantly surprised. We have different tastes to normal people, after all."

"If you say so. What happens next, then? I mean, when will I get to know where I'm going, and so on."

"We don't like to make plans for changers too far ahead, because too much can happen before the change actually begins. For example, we might have to move you to a different safe house, or some law will get enacted which means that we'll have to alter the way we handle your paperwork. Don't worry about it, we'll tell you all that you need to know nearer the time."

"Thanks, Frances. I'm looking forward to my new adventure."

*****

"If I'm reading this correctly, Doctor Alice, it means that we would have some limited control over when and how the transitions take place. That would be a tremendous boon, especially for the female-to-male transition."

"I agree, Luke, it does look promising. At the moment, we effectively play Russian Roulette every time we become pregnant. If you have found a way to control that, you'd make a lot of Z-people very happy. How would you suggest we do that?"

"I hadn't thought through the low-level details, but it occurred to me that controlled doses of hormones administered through patches would be the answer. I got the idea after reading an article in a medical journal about Hormone Replacement Therapy for post-menopausal women, and started idly speculating about what happens when we transition. The best part is, people these days wear patches for all kinds of reasons, so no-one's going to question it, especially if our doctors prescribe them for a 'hormonal imbalance', which after all is nothing more or less than the truth." Luke mimed the quoting with his fingers.

"It's a very good idea, and I'll organise one of the teams to produce some detailed studies, and come up with a test plan," Alice agreed. She frowned. "Of course, like most of our experiments, there's no way we can test them except on volunteer Z-people. In this case, whether the test succeeds or fails, it might produce an outcome we don't want, so volunteers would have to be prepared for an unexpected transition. We have so few Z-people here as it is, it might not be so easy to arrange."

"The benefits would be huge, though," said Luke, "if we can get this to work. Being able to have more than one Z-son without changing would mean a lot to a number of the Z-women I know here, and not having to wait twenty-five years before going back would certainly interest a number of Z-men, including my father. I know he'd much rather remain a woman most of the time. I also know that doing it your way is so uncomfortable he wouldn't consider it."

"I must admit, something jumped inside me when you first described this idea. I think that both Frances and I, plus a number of others I could mention, would breathe a sigh of relief if this can be made to work. Let's draw up a plan of action, then."

*****

"Frances! Got a minute?"

"Come in, Luke, give me a second to sort this out... done. What is it?"

"I've just had an email from Stefan."

"Oh, great! So he's figured out how to use the double anonymising proxies we've got set up, then? I'm glad to hear it. I must admit, I quite like to hear news of what's happening in the other group."

"Actually, it seems that it's one of the younger men in the tribe who worked out the details. Yes, I'm getting quite addicted to seeing pictures of my children, and those of the others as well. I'll forward the email to you, I just wanted to tell you something strange he found out."

"Go on."

"He got wind of a new tribe of People, a group who live in an area that doesn't overlap that of any of the local groups he knows about. Apparently one of the men in another tribe came across them by accident. This other person said he had a job convincing them he was real, we know all about that, of course. Anyway, it seems they bring all their children up as girls to the age of six and then test them, sounds like they do the cross test on their arms like they did to me. Anyone who ends up with a scar is normal, either male or female. Normal males get to wear boys' clothing from that point on. Everyone else stays in female clothes. It seems they consider them all to be female, except that Z-people go through puberty much later than normals do. Even when they've given birth to their son and changed back, they still are considered to be female, even though they are allowed to father children. What do you think of that?"

"That sounds so odd... but it also sounds practical. If those Z-persons always present as female, it must make dealing with officialdom a lot easier than having to keep faking up new sets of documents."

"Yeah, but what happens when those Z-males start growing facial hair? I know we don't have much, but it's not something you can pass off as female lip fuzz."

"True. Is the detail all in the email? I'll give it a good read through. You might want to pass it on to Research as well. The more information we can gather about customs and practices amongst other groups the better, both for us and for them."

"I have passed it on. There's not a lot more detail, and it's me reporting what Stefan heard from another person who got it from someone else, so don't discount Chinese Whispers. At this rate, we'll be opening an anthropology department next."

"That's a good idea, actually, and one I'll have to think about. While you're here, I understand that you've handed in your notice. Time to move on, then?"

"Yes. Doctor Alice says I have two months before things start to become noticeable, so I gave in my notice at the beginning of the week. I have a place in a guest house all lined up, and I've packed the few belongings I need, and Dad will be handling the rest for me before his time comes."

"I'll talk to you again before you leave. The way we can do things now is much, much better than we could ever have imagined in my day. I'm so glad Z-people won't be subjected to all the pain and heartache we had to go through."

"It's not a total solution though, is it? Z-men after twenty-five years who have a family and any Z-woman who's pregnant still run some risks. I hope the new patches will solve some of the remaining problems."

"Indeed. Do you want to continue working on that when you come back?"

"You'd have me back? Isn't that dangerous?"

"Not especially. A young man leaves a job, and after some searching for a suitable replacement, a young woman becomes his replacement. It happens all the time in industry. No, I don't imagine there will be a problem. Why? Had you thought to do something different?"

"It's habitual thinking, I suppose. Up till recently, all Z-people have had to make radical changes in lifestyle when they transitioned, so I assumed I would have to. Of course, that's no longer strictly necessary. Yes, I'd like to return, if there's a place for me here and work I can do."

"Good, I thought you would. I'll assume that's what you want to do and advise Human Resources accordingly."

"Thank you, Mrs Canning. I'd better get back to work now."

*****