by Werewomaniac

Hello everybody,
The following is a story loosely based upon the theme present in the feature film Zerophilia. It contains none of the same characters, but a similar plot. I caught the film on Showtime the other night, and chances are if you're on this site as a reader/writer you'd love this movie. This story is intended to be a chapter one for a serial story, and I welcome participation from any author on this site. If you have ideas for the plot, write them out and post them as a follow-up chapter with my blessing.

With no further ado here is the story...

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For most inhabitants of the milky-way galaxy, today was an ordinary day. It was slightly more ordinary than yesterday, but not quite as ordinary as tomorrow will be. One planet called 'Earth' is inhabited by belligerent hairless apes known as humans. For nearly all of them, today was hum drum and routine. It was quite similar in most respects to the collection of other days which made up their individual lives. Farmers farmed, chefs cooked, athletes competed and politicians lied. Nothing changed for many. But on the western coast of the western continent, in a city known as Los Angeles, one so called human can pinpoint the exact moment his tiny existence changed forever.

(6:15 pm today in Los Angeles California)

Rrrringgggg ... Rrrringgggg ... Rrrringgggg ... Rrrringgggg

“Hello?...Speaking...Of course doctor, I have a moment go ahead...Well that sounds good...Wait you found what?...You're sure?...Oh that's not good, is there anything I can do?...OK I have a pen...Alright I'll check it out, thank you for calling...Yes I'll be OK, I guess...Sure, Monday afternoon sounds good for a follow up appointment...Alright, thanks...Bye.”

Colin Pope placed the cordless phone on it's charging station and hung his head in a visibly downtrodden manner. If anyone had been observing him at this moment, they would have certainly picked up on the negative vibe. No doubt about it, anyone watching would have been compelled to ask him what the doctor just said during that call. But aside from himself, Colin's small apartment was empty.

The topic of the conversation between the nameless doctor and Colin happened to be the results from a recent physical exam. The physical had gone astonishingly well, at age 21 Colin was as healthy as a horse. But he also had some blood drawn as part of the routine check-up. Blood which was sent to a lab for testing. The results of these tests was troubling indeed for Colin.

He sat on the couch trying to process the information known only to he himself and his health care provider. Colin searched his memory for any offhand knowledge about what he had just been told.

“Z people, what have I heard about Z people?” he asked himself aloud.

Colin wasn't exactly Mr. Current Events, but Z people had begun revealing themselves to the general public a few decades ago. He'd heard a thing or two about them. Unlike so called X people (women), or Y people (men), Z people were neither. Z's shifted genders back and forth, sometimes willingly and other times involuntarily. Z's appeared in the media once in a while, fighting for equal rights, against discrimination and persecution, but Colin had never done any serious research on the topic.

It seemed like that would change shortly. During his phone conversation, Colin jotted down a web address recommended by his physician. Entering the link into his address bar, the screen lit up with information about Z people.

We-R-Z.com was a Z people support website that had some articles, posts and rants. The content was produced by Z people, other Z people were the intended audience. They'd gather here to share stories and support one another. Scared witless to be in their ranks, Colin read on to see what was in store for him.

According to the information on the site, being a Z was a genetic condition, and approximately 5% of people world-wide were potential Z's. However for reasons unknown, only a small percentage of potential Z's actually triggered the condition out of dormancy. The rest lived on never knowing about their genetic difference.

Colin sighed in relief. Apparently nothing his doctor had said to him indicated that his gene was active. Though the conversation was sort of a blur, Colin was almost certain he had heard the word 'recessive' as he spoke to his doctor.

Colin swallowed hard as he clicked on the list of symptoms that a recessive Z was going active. According to the opening paragraph, once the chromosome was identified in a patient, additional tests could determine when and if it started to go active. Once this occurred, an incubation period of about one year in length was common among Z people. During that year, the soon to be active Z person will exhibit several of the following symptoms:

1.Persistent fantasies featuring gender transformation, some sexual in nature and others innocent day-dreams were common in the study population. These day-dreams and fantasies appeared during early incubation and terminated with the first transformation.
2.An increasing fondness for and interest in the clothes of the opposite gender was prevalent amongst those observed. This phenomenon occurred during the early and middle phases of incubation and persisted until transformation.
3.Vivid, realistic and recurring dreams where the patient is in the body of the opposite gender were reported in virtually all study candidates. Reports of such lucid dreams were frequently reported by participants only during the late phases of incubation.

And all of these symptoms were followed by a sudden, dramatic transformation where men became women and women became men. This event was only the first of many changes an owner of an active Z chromosome is fated to experience in their lifetime.

Colin was relieved because although the Z chromosome had been found in him, he exhibited none of the symptoms described above. As far as he knew, he was in the clear and not in danger of going active. He searched for ways in which the condition was triggered, which seemed to be a contentious issue.

Some posters insisted they had 'willed' their Z chromosome into activity after finding out they were potentials, others claimed that was impossible. Dissenting posters claimed that the Z chromosome switching on is a random occurrence. When it comes, who is affected and who isn't does not seem to follow any pattern. Furthermore, to these posters, a dormant Z cannot influence their activation or continued dormancy.

A Z who identified her (him?) self as being from Hong Kong indicated that she and her twin brother had both tested positive as potential Z's during childhood. Her brother grew up hoping that he'd get the chance to experience life as a woman, she grew up dreading the prospect of spending even a second of her life as a man. Yet it was her Z chromosome that kicked into gear while her jealous brother's remained recessive. She changed, he never did. Based on this and similar examples, Colin accepted the idea that he couldn't will this away.

A few posts on this topic were outright ridiculous, one poster claimed that, quote, 'it was something I ate.' that caused his Z chromosome to activate. Another thought it was his upbringing, a single mother raising an only son, that caused him to slip out of recessive mode and transform. Some even claimed a severe allergic reactions set off their metamorphosis. These posts seemed less credible, and sort of silly.

Colin found his favorite theory next. An intelligent sounding poster pointed out that 90% of active Z's experienced their first transformation between the age of 15 and 20, with a few being younger and a few being older. This gave Colin hope, at 21 he was essentially in the clear if this poster was accurate. According to his theory, the rush of hormones that occurs in late adolescence will either activate a dormant Z chromosome, or it won't and nothing else will. The poster's basic conclusion added up to the old cliche' 'it's either meant to be or it isn't.' If it is meant to be, chances are it'll show up between age 15 and 20.

There was one topic that almost all the posters agreed upon. Once a transformation did occur, it was important to find a balance between male time and female time. Balance is important to a Z's well-being, and to prevent undo strain a Z must listen to what their body is telling them. Forcing a transformation, or straining to prevent one, could have horrible effects on a Z.

Some Z's discover after the transformation they really enjoy life as a member of the opposite sex. They will force their body to transform into their preferred gender more often, and resist the pull to revert for longer periods of time. Say for example a male-born Z person constantly forces himself to change into a female, and spends excessive amounts of time in that form. After a certain point he will be unable to change back to male mode again. So for a Z, forcing a transformation could be quite risky.

In other cases, a Z will suppress the urge to change genders in an attempt to live a normal life as their birth sex. Some Z's, choosing to ignore their true nature, are successful at preventing a transformation for months or even years after their first changes. But eventually, the Z chromosome becomes strained and the individual is forced to change gender. When Z's change under these circumstances, the transformation lasts for quite some time. Once the other gender forces its way out, it is loathe to go back in. According to the site, the longer a Z goes without changing, the less it takes to trigger a transformation. A modest amount of stress, a pleasing sexual encounter, or even a lapse in concentration could lead to transformations occurring at less than ideal times.

Such Z's that continually resisted the change to the point where it forced itself out ran larger risks. There were details about a few reported cases of a Z fighting the transformation so hard, they actually froze between genders. In each of these cases, the Z person had repeatedly battled their condition by refusing to give into their body's desire to transform. In the end they resembled the character Bob from the movie Fight Club.

Still there was hope, even though the middle path seemed to be quite a balancing act in the literal sense. Once the first transformation occurs, the Z person quickly becomes aware distinct feeling that precedes a transformation. Some of the more credible threads advised surrendering to that feeling at the first opportunity and shifting phase for a while. By letting out their other gender on these occasions instead of forcing it out or resisting the change, a Z person would settle into a comfort zone of sorts.

Colin marveled at how these comfort zones varied widely between Z people. Even within their small community, there was a wide variance between the frequency and duration of their transformations. Some Z's only felt the call to shift for a few hours each week, still others felt the need to change much more frequently and for longer. One poster claimed that from Monday through Friday, he was an average guy with a decent job. Then on the weekend when the urge to change arrived, he would go with it and spend 'his' weekends as a 'her.' After falling asleep Sunday evening, at some point during the night, he would revert back to male mode for work on Monday morning.

Colin was fascinated by the possibilities despite himself, and began to wonder what it might be like to live that way. He pondered for a second before focusing on the clock on the bottom right corner of his monitor. 1:10 am. Colin had spent nearly 6 hours in front of his computer without realizing it, so he closed his browser and shut down the machine. His alarm was set for 6am tomorrow morning, it was definitely passed Colin's bed-time.

As he lay under the covers of his bed, Colin's thoughts drifted back to the site and the stories he'd read on it. The way some of them sounded, being a Z was a curse from God. Then there were others who praised it as a blessing. One enthusiastic Z's story really stood out in Colin's mind. The post was written by a born male Z person who insisted that going active was the best thing that ever happened to him. Colin couldn't help but become aroused as he recalled the post. The author described examining his female reflection in the mirror immediately after his first change into a woman. All the poster's fears and concerns about being an active Z melted away as he beheld his new self.

Colin blushed in embarrassment, he remembered getting a little hot reading the post earlier. Despite himself, Colin began to envision a female version of himself. He conjured up a mental image of a girl, average in height, thinly built and with the same shade of light brown hair only longer atop her head. His vision was adorned with delicate female facial features, and all the amazing curves you'd expect to find on a healthy 21 year old woman. As his mind wandered to where it never had before, his body responded to the beautiful visage of the fantasy girl.

Colin was rock hard at the thought of himself as a girl. Even though he had never entertained the notion before, something about possessing the body of a woman excited him greatly. The fantasy he'd concocted gave him goose-bumps. Masturbation followed, not really by choice but out of a deep seeded need for relief. Even though his physiological reaction to these thoughts was pleasant, in the seconds before release something he had read earlier gave him pause...

...Persistent fantasies featuring gender transformation, some sexual in nature and others innocent day-dreams, were common in the study population. These day-dreams and fantasies appeared during early incubation and terminated with the first transformation...

But it was too late to stop his orgasm, after which his fantasy came to an abrupt end. Colin was suddenly filled with shame and anxiety. The thought of being a girl got such a strong response from his body it was unbelievable and undeniable. Colin began to wonder about the implications of having such a fantasy. Could it reveal anything about the state of his Z chromosome?

As sleep claimed Colin Pope that night, he secretly wondered if anyone else in the galaxy had a day as strange as his.