Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to actual people or situations is coincidental. This story does contain Transgender themes and if this would offend you don't continue! I the author retains the right for where and when this work is posted. As always many thanks to the proof readers Hope, Janet Nolan, and others who took my rough raw work and fashioned it into something readable! Any mistakes of course are mine!

They Might be Men!
By grover

John was becoming very stressed out. Although he was just a minor functionary with the State Department, it had fallen to him to introduce the Teral cultural representatives to New York's night life.

In other words, some of the Alien ship's crew wanted to go on shore-leave and, if anything were to go wrong, he was going to be caught holding the 'sticky' end of the stick.

***

Just a few months ago their ship had suddenly appeared in orbit around Earth. Of course everyone panicked and frenzied radio messages were sent, hoping and praying the visitors were peaceful.

Unlike all the Science-Fiction movies, they sent back a reply. They were called the Teralians and were interested in opening relations with Earth, but there were some conditions.

They would remain in orbit for one month and, if we could go to them in person with a delegation that could legally represent the planet as a whole, they would talk about trade and other matters. If not, they would leave at the end of that month and further, if they were attacked, that would be taken as an answer as well and depart.

That month was one of the most chaotic in the history. No one may ever know everything that happened, but the commando raids to stop missile attacks on the Alien ship and NASA's breakneck work to have a shuttle ready were among the highlights.

Back rooms of the world's powers were filled with politicking and power brokering. Some wanted the power that going to the Aliens would bring, while others feared being the victim of a rushed shuttle launch, not to mention the old terror of the unknown.

Right to the last minute, the bickering continued until an agreement was hammered out in the UN and though everyone might not have agreed with it, at least they weren't against it.

The shuttle’s successful launch let everyone release a long held breath of relief amid prayers and crossed fingers. Religious leaders condemned and applauded, contradicting each other, as it seemed no one could agree on how to treat this event.

Mostly, everyone cheered when the shuttle docked with the much larger alien ship. Meanwhile, the shuttle-crew were really, really hoping peaceful aliens really were peaceful. The entire world was glued to the TV broadcast, as the Teralians, when they greeted Earths envoys, were revealed as rather handsome humanoids.

It seemed the Teralians were on their way somewhere else when some hundred light years out they ran across some of our radio and TV signals. Delighted and amazed to find beings who appeared so like them, after meeting many other different species, they couldn't resist coming right to us.

That was when the troubles began. The problem was we were just too similar and different at the same time. The Teralians had contact with many other planets, but none that reassembled their own so closely.

Despite how human they looked, they weren't even close. They had four sexes and usually mated in some combination of three, as compared to humans only two.

Two of their sexes were more or less like our male and female, but the others punched our 'Oh Shit' buttons. S'hims looked to us as voluptuous women, but had male organs. They had the role of nurturers in the Teralian culture and were often managers for their ability to work with others.

The h'herm were just the opposite having very masculine appearance, but female organs. Their role as the protectors and defenders had them working in their military as well as law enforcement.

Everyone in our envoy to the Teralians was male, which appeared closest to their h'herms, who were the most aggressive of their sexes. Their negotiators were s'hims, who were very uncomfortable with the envoy’s members, who to them were the same as sending an all military delegation to a peace conference.

Our envoys, of course, were taken aback by the group of very female looking ambassadors who made them even more uncomfortable when they found out they had what appeared to be male genitalia.

Miracle of miracles, the envoys included some scientists, who were able to explain and understand the differences. Surprisingly, somehow competent people got into the delegation. An interim trade agreement and cultural exchange was signed.

In exchange for material supplies we received knowledge and data from the stars. Included in that knowledge were cures for most earthly diseases, as well as information on how to increase crop yields in unfavorable climates.

For the right to visit and record our museums and art galleries, the world's scientists got a few simple observations that had the physicists slapping themselves as the secrets to cold fusion and anti-gravity became understandable.

All of which brought up the big problem; who was going to watch these Teralians as they were running all over the planet playing tourist, taking pictures of everyone and everything.

That was how poor John found himself escorting the trio of Teralians. The powers that be gave all the would-be guides classes on how to deal effectively with the aliens, but the nearly hysterical professor teaching the course couldn't get it though their heads that the word “-like” wasn't to be used for the Teralians.

“You can't say human-like. They are not human! You have more in common with rats, at least those are mammals!” the professor ranted. “Genetic information was passed to each of the four sexes more like a virus than anything we have here on earth.”

“They seem to have far less ‘junk’ in what passes for DNA in them. We think that’s because they use the additional sexes as a filtering process.” He stated, waving his hands wildly in the air, “Don't think they are at a disadvantage because they have four sexes, because they don't need to have all four to procreate. Even the two that have what appear to be male genitalia, can exchange genetic information, and we suspect that the ones with female genitalia can as well.”

At the green look from some of the more homophobic students, he chuckled, “You fools, they aren't HUMAN! Do you think that this material on their heads is hair?” pointing at a photo of a Teralian h'herm. Kind of looks like dreadlocks doesn't it?” he said smiling.

Slamming his hands down! “NO! There is no LIKE here!”

“These are closer to jellyfish tentacles and are filled with millions of bio-chemical stingers. A jellyfish can't, however, tailor which sort of chemical is released, but they can! It is a part of their reproductive system, which is how the two with female genitals can exchange genetic materials. The Teral apparently also use the tentacles for defensive purposes and God know what else.”

The wild haired professor took a deep breath, “If it helps any, remember that to them we are the strange ones. Imagine going to a city with all women or all men... that is somewhat how they see us. You have to watch out for not only yourself making erroneous assumptions, but for them as well.”

Placing both hands on his desk he shook his head in resignation, “Someone, somewhere is going to screw up, just don't let it be you. They are not human, but we are not Teralian, trust me mistakes are going to be made.”

Holding up two fingers with a small gap, “Please keep them small ones. Godspeed to you all.”

***

John's trio was fairly typical with a male, a h'herm and a s'him, and was for the most part easy to get along with. There had been a few problems, but John had been able to smoothly work things out.

Du'nis, the male, was around 6'2” and 220 lbs with the smooth reddish tan and blueish shimmering dreadlocks. His eyes had the doubled lid that gave humans the impression that the Teralians were blind with their solid brass metallic color.

Ae'non the h'herm was huge by comparison, at 6'8” and over 300 lbs of hard muscle. The h'herm was built like a professional wrestler or pro-football player. It was disconcerting how feminine the h'herm's, deep green, dreadlock framed face seemed on such a giant.

The s'him of the group Be'fal had the Dolly Parton figure all s'him seemed to have. The much longer purple shimmering dreadlocks gave s'him a very erotic look that made knowing what was hidden under the over-long tunics, the Teralians seem to favor, all the more disturbing to him.

Tonight, they wanted to experience the night-life and after a few non-eventful weeks, it was deemed safe. Some religious fractions were still troublesome, but mostly, the gifts the Teralians brought satisfied the bulk of the population. The curing of Cancer and AIDS was progressing as quickly as the vaccine could be produced, and the fast growing crops modified, as suggested by the Aliens, were already beginning their first harvest.

The powers that be glossed over the fact that as far as the Teralians were concerned, they also owned the Galactic copy and distribution rights to the all the art works and artifacts they recorded. That little tidbit hadn't leaked out yet, but having the cure to most diseases and cheap, clean power was worth it to the world's powers, except maybe to the holders of those copyrights.

That, however, was someone else's problem. Everything had started off well, but over the course of the evening it became clear, the Triad wasn't completely happy with where they had visited. John, being more at ease with Du'nis asked, “Is anything wrong?”

Even though John knew he should really be directing his inquiries to Be'fal, because for Teral it was the s'hims who handled most of the talking.

Du'nis, uncomfortable about being asked, hesitated while he looked to the others of his Triad, “No, this was what we requested.”

John, being quick on the uptake, said, “But, there is somewhere else you would like to go?”

Du'nis glanced over at his two mates, while they gave gestures that John was picking up on meaning assent.

“Ask, and I'll check with Abbott and Costello and see if it is doable,” John glibly added.

John knew that the two beat cops assigned to them were the real guides, but whoever assigned them to work together as partners had a real sense of humor. There was also a squad of Military Police nearby, just in case someone started something, but he was mostly on his own.

Be'fal, tired of being ignored, spoke up, “We have heard of 'clubs' where those of your kind which most closely reassemble s'hims go. We are curious and would like to see one these places.”

The other two of Shim's Triad gestured acceptance while John rubbed the bridge of his nose.

The whole business of guys acting and dressing like women made John very uncomfortable, but, since moving to the big city, he had forced himself into, if not tolerance, a kind of blindness concerning them.

In truth this was why he had done so well this far with the Teralians. He had just put their differences out of his mind and got on with business.

Well, he thought, if that was what they wanted, walking over to where the two cops were loitering. The two seemed to regard this as easy duty and seemed to treat the Teralians as just another group of out-of-towners.

“Guys, they want to see a transvestite bar or somewhere cross-dressers hang out. Is that doable?” John asked trying not to show his ignorance about such things.

Abbot pushed up his service cap and looked over at his partner, “Jazzies?”

Costello dumping his cold coffee in a waste bin, replied, “Yeah, that should work.”

With the two beat cops leading the way, John checked-in with the Lieutenant of the MP's and let him know where they were going. The Lt. acknowledged the change of location, besides it wasn't far so they were going to walk.

That was where the warm fecal matter fell at high speed into the rotary oscillator. Right in front of them they saw a young woman being beaten by a gang of guys!

Abbott and Costello started cussing as they ran towards the fight, if you could call it that. The young woman was bleeding on the wet littered sidewalk while she was being kicked.

The assailants hearing the cops scattered while the cops chased them. Abbott yelled, “Check her out and call an ambulance!” as he pounded around the corner.

The Triad ran up to the fallen girl and John saw that it wasn't a girl at all, but a young man dressed in women’s clothing. John couldn't help himself but he froze. He wanted to help, but a part of himself was revolted by the idea of touching him.

The Triad gave each other a long hard look over John's inaction and moved to help the young person. Du'nis and Be'fal knelt to begin aiding him while Ae'non kept watch.

John was fighting to free himself from his paralysis, but one looked at Ae'non's wildly sparkling dreadlocks took him aback.

They were upset with him over this? He managed to get his phone out and called the Lt. and the MP's thankful they had a medic with them.

Trying to regain control over the situation he said, “We shouldn't move him. Help is coming.” Reaching for Be'fal's shoulder, since she was tending the guy, but Ae'non angrily stopped him. Be'fal whipped her head around and her normally golden lidded eyes showed an electric blue as her whipping dreadlocks struck him in the face.

John screamed as liquid fire covered his face! Unable to breath with the horrible pain, darkness claimed him.

***

John's eyes fluttered open to the drearily painted ceiling. A few moments passed as he recognized that he was in a hospital room. His thoughts were so heavy that he suspected that he was heavily sedated.

Looking dazedly about, he saw an IV and the usual medical stuff about the room. Peering at the other bed in the room he saw it was a woman. Why would they put him in a room with a woman his drugged brains wondered?

Noticing he was awake, she looked at him in merry amusement, “So ya' feeling better now hon?”

Floating, a thousand miles away due to the meds, John head just sort of wobbled when he tried to nod.

“You don't recognize me do ya' dear?” she ginned.

Pushing his mushy mind, he tried to remember her. She was kind of nice looking and definitely deserving of a second look, when he suddenly realized that this was the same person they had found beaten. John knew something was wrong. Her face was softer and she now had breasts that she hadn't had before!

Seeing the recognition in his eyes, she ran her hands down her very feminine torso, “Your buddies do great work, doll!”

John felt himself start to 'grow' aroused and blushed. Glancing down at his own groin to try and see how badly he was embarrassing himself by 'tenting', he saw not just the 'tent' but a pair of mounds as well. In shock, he grasped 'them' and 'felt' how real they were. With his mouth gaping like a fish he turned to his roommate.

“Welcome to the wild-side, hon,” she smiled looking right at his 'extras'.

At the sound of the screams coming from the room, nurses scrambled to get past the NYPD that guarded room.

Robert Napier pushed up his glasses after reading the report of the 'Incident.' According to the professor, John's freezing up and not immediately helping that transvestite was, to the Teralians, the same as not helping an injured child.

Despite themselves, they saw the t-girl as one of their own cherished s'him's and that a triggered a protective response from the Triad.

No one had a clue on how this Be'fal had changed the t-girl and John, but change them the s'him did. They were still human but they now had female secondary sexual characteristics as well as being fully functional as males.

They had known the jellyfish like hair had a part in their reproductive cycle, but how this happened was a mystery to the Teralians as well.

The Aliens had apologized, but had made no response when asked to 'cure' John. Since they had most everything they wanted, they had chosen to depart earlier than first scheduled. Most of Earth's governments were glad to see them gone.

Picking up another report, Robert Napier read about another Alien group asking for contact. Humanity had had no confirmed alien contact in all recorded history and now two first contacts with Aliens in one year. Well, he was going to retire next year anyway. Maybe they would have more luck with this Galactic Organization for Trade and this Celestial Help Association.

The End?