Dave’s Tiny Rouge Adventure

Author’s note: Any similarity between this story and a certain British sci-fi comedy show is totally on purpose, but dont tell anybody, maybe they wont notice.

“They’re all dead, Dave.”

That was the just about the first thing I heard coming out of temporal stasis.

The whole crew, except me.

All dead.

For a couple of weeks after I wandered around the ship shuffling like a zombie, I had no place to go, nothing to do, and all the rest of my life to do it, but I would be doing it alone.

Then one day things changed.

I was going through the shopping center (I know, why does a mining ship even HAVE a shopping center? I guess when the crew was expected to be away from home for five or more years at a time, it makes sense to bring as many of the comforts of home with you as you can.), when I found myself fingering the material of a pretty dress.

And the idea came into my head to put it on.

For a while, I felt like two people arguing over this, with one saying “Are you nuts? You want to wear girl’s clothes? And you’ll look ridiculous!” and the other side saying “What’s the harm. Its not like anybody will see us, or know about it.”

Finally, I went to a change room, got out of my clothes, and put on the dress. Realizing I needed some approximation of a woman’s shape, I stepped back out, and got a bra and panty set, and stuffed the bra before putting the dress back on.

“Well, now what?” I thought.

I went and found a pair of woman’s flat shoes, and decided I would pretend like I was a female member of the crew on a day off, and do what I would think she would do. I went and watched a movie in the movie theater, and then had lunch in the food court, and finally, went back to my quarters to think about my day.

I struggled for a bit, and finally admitted to myself that I had enjoyed my day, that in fact I couldn’t remember the last time I had been so relaxed without needing crippling levels of alcohol.

Then I took a look at my life up to that point, and realized that for all the time I had spent being a man, I had in fact been playing the part of a man, rather than being one. I had taken “manliness” to an extreme - living on lauger and spicy Indian food, going out of my way to be as rowdy and messy as I could manage, all as if it was a role I felt I had to succeed at, or something horrible would happen to me.

But now, with no one to judge me, I could let that persona go, and see who I was when I wasn’t trying to fake it.

So I went back to the mall, and stocked up on feminine items, moved into a spare cabin next door to my old one, and lived as a girl.

After a week of this, the ship’s computer had a surprise for me.

A hologram of one of the crew, my old girlfriend Krissy.

Needless to say, she was rather shocked at my current appearance.

But she promised to withhold judgement for a while, and just watch me go through my new routine. And after a week, she said, “All right. Its clear you are a much better person as a woman . I’ll help you anyway I can. But first, you need a female name.”

I was stumped, so we finally asked the computer to randomly generate a female name for me.

“Keira Anne?” I said, reading the result.

“It will do.” Krissy said.

I shrugged, and said, “I guess.”

“So let me give you your official christening. Welcome to the world, Keira Anne.”

And that was the start of my adventure.