A Quiet Strength
by Anon Allsop

-Part One-

-One-

The young man stretched out on his bunk, pulled deeper into sleep by the constant hum of the ship's powerful engines. As the welcome sleep began to claim him, a electronic beeping pulled him back into the land of wakefulness. "Shit!" he groaned as he swung his feet outside his bunk. "Hang on, I got to get some clothes on!" He called out to the unseen visitor outside his cabin door. Once he had himself covered up, he called out to the computer. "Enter."

The door quickly slid to the side, making a sound of air escaping as it moved. The man looked into the eyes of his visitor and took a step backward.

"First Officer Stockwell, the High Commander requests your presence immediately." The stoic security officer advised.

"Let me get dressed first." Park replied as he began to search for his uniform pants.

"Now, sir." The Officer stepped inside the room, "I have been ordered to bring you right this minute– just as you are."

"Did he indicate what the reason for this unusual request was about?" Park complained as he tossed the pants on his bunk, "I just finished sixteen hours on the bridge, I really need to get some sleep." He pulled on a thin robe and fastened it closed.

"Sir." He said as he motioned for the young officer to exit ahead of him. As he passed the Security Officer, he noticed him place a hand upon a phaser that hung from his hip.

Throughout the twists and turns within the ship's corridors, they walked toward the commander's office the young mans mind scrambled to try to figure out what he could be in trouble for, yet nothing materialized.

As they rounded the last corner, the reflection in the glass behind him showed the Security Officer with phaser drawn, and pointed toward the small of his back.

A sinking feeling washed over the young man who struggled to discern what he could have done to warrant this much security upon himself. His mind raced for plausible explanations, yet nothing rose to the forefront.

They paused at the door of the Commander's office, the door suddenly slid aside to reveal the scowling face of the seasoned captain. "Enter" His voice stabbed the quiet as my guard pushed me forward into the room.

"What is the meaning of this sir?"

"Silence Stockwell." He walked back around to his desk and leaned forward, his hands splayed upon it's shining surface. "Take a seat." He spat with contempt, indicating the chair that faced the big desk. "Computer, record this conversation."

"Recording." Echoed the mechanical voice.

The young officer sat as suspicion clouded his face, the Commander glanced toward the guard. "Get the witness, see that we are not disturbed." The guard saluted, quickly turned and walked through the doorway.

The Commander waited for the door to glide quickly closed, once it had, he turned his attention back to the young officer. "I'm sure you know full well why you are here."

The youth sat quietly for a few seconds before speaking, "Well sir, you would be wrong." He started to rise to his feet but was pulled back into the chair by an unseen force. "What is the meaning of this, sir? I have done nothing wrong!"

"You can see by now Stockwell, that I have utilized the restraint field on you, and you are currently helpless to do anything more than talk!" The older man smiled smugly as he circled the desk and leaned upon its edge. "Now that we have you secure, incapable of doing any harm to me– we will talk."

"When you had furloughed last at Rylos 4, you met with a known terrorist to the Empire, by the name of Newley." He folded his arms over his chest and waited for the younger man to speak.

"I have no clue who this chap, Newley is? Who said I met with this person?" The robed youth hissed angrily.

The Commander pushed a grid on his desk panel and a image appeared to hover before the young officer. "This is Newley."

"I do recognize him, but he was nothing more than a transport specialist that took me from the hanger to my hotel!" He frowned and shook his head, "I was only in his shuttle for at most, a half hour!"

He straightened up and placed his hands on the desk and leaned back again, "So you do admit knowing him?"

"Not personally. He just piloted the shuttle, I doubt if I spoke ten words to him!" The youth's eyes darted between his Commander to the image of the terrorist." The older officer laughed softly to himself as he again pressed the grid. Instantly the hovering image disappeared. "Sir, I was only with the guy for a half hour!" He shouted, suddenly terrified at his own Commander.

The older man's face contorted with rage, "Long enough time to plan a mutiny!"

"What?" The youth snapped back, "I planned nothing of the sort! I have always been an exemplary officer! What could I possibly gain by conducting a mutiny?"

Suddenly there was an electronic chime overhead, the Commander smiled and straightened, "We will find out soon enough! Enter." He barked as from behind the youth he heard the air pistons quickly open the door. Try as he could, the young officer was unable to turn around and face his accuser.

"Is this the man you met with on Rylos 4?" He again pressed the grid and gazed behind me and waited for the answer, meanwhile the younger officer's image floated in place above the desk.

"It is." The decidedly feminine voice replied.

"I demand to see who it is accusing me of this treason!" He shouted as he struggled against his unseen bonds.

"Silence you traitor, you will see who it is that accuses you soon enough!" The Commander growled and came within a breath of backhanding the youth. "Guard, wait outside, see that no one enters!" After several seconds with his back turned toward the robed man, he walked to the side of the room and retrieved a strange looking object.

"Do you recognize this?" He held a strange looking thing out in front of the youth who was shaking his head in the negative. "Oh come now, Stockwell, surely you recognize the Molecular Transmutation Device that you purchased while on Rylos 4." He rotated it in his grasp, "An illegal MTD for that matter!"

"This is the first time I've ever seen such a thing!" He tried to stand, forgetting that he was tethered to the chair by an unseen force. He knew full well the kind of trouble one of those outlawed MTD's could cause to someone if it were found in their possession. "It's not mine! I swear!" He began to plead.

Movement behind him cause the young man to turn, the unseen female passed him on the left and also moved next to the Commander. The youth instantly recognized the Commander's daughter. "What the hell..." He hissed as his eyes fell upon the young female.

There had been history between the couple- all bad. Beating within her beautiful chest, was a heart of cold stone. Parker had spurned her advances since they began this mission, now he knew the who..but why? Now that was a question for the ages!

The Commander cleared his throat, the sound caused the young man to look up. "Leslie told me what you were planning...I'll bet you never thought I would discover your little scheme before you could implement it!" The commander laughed and handed the Molecular Transmutation Device to his alluring young daughter. "You planned on stealing my form and dropping me off on some godforsaken planet...but the laugh will be on you Stockwell!

"I planned no such thing! I have always been faithful to you and our mission!" He looked from his Commander to the girl, she was smiling evilly at him."I'll do whatever I have to do to clear my name sir!"

"Fine, Stockwell. I'll take you up on that. See son, I can be accommodating. All of this was nothing more than a misunderstanding." He walked over to the young man and gave his back a friendly pat. "Computer, end recording.

"End Recording."

"Thank you sir, you won't regret it." The youth replied as he attempted to stand but was still bound by the unseen force. "Commander, I'm still bound here."

"Stockwell, do you know why this version of MTD is considered illegal?" He folded his arms behind his back and walked to the chair behind his desk. Taking a seat he placed his elbows on the desk and touched his fingertips together.

"Sir, release me...you said it was a misunderstanding...sir?" He pleaded as the girl began to chuckle softly.

"Oh, you will be released Stockwell. Only it will be on our terms!" He leaned back in his chair and nodded to his daughter. "Your little mutiny is about to be squashed, because you are about to be removed entirely from the situation.

"But I did nothing wrong!" He responded, the fear in his voice was real.

"Your plan to use the MTD on me, taking over the ship might have worked. It failed though when you confided in my daughter's friendship...that was your downfall!" He leaned forward in his chair and frowned. "You tried to get at me through her. You're a sick son of a bitch, trying to get into her pants and thinking that she would help!"

"Your daughter is a psychopath!" He glared at the beautiful blonde, "She is a liar!"

"She most likely is, and truth be known, she also likes women..however, that awkwardness is about to change." He looked toward his daughter, "I'm through talking, do what you have to do."

She knelt down in front of the bound man, slowly sliding her fingertips inside his robe. "Park honey, I am about to replace you, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it!" She smiled and pulled a string from her hair, then shook her naturally platinum blonde hair loose, it spilled in copious amounts around her shoulders. She began to unfasten the robe from the increasingly frightened man!

"Get your damn hands off of me you bitch!" He shouted at her as she leaned back on her heels laughing.

"This device," She rotated it around in her hand to show him, "When used on a man, by a man... or on a woman by a woman; is harmless." She smiled wickedly, "However, if a male uses it on a female, the poor male gets the short end of the deal. Unless of course, you're into that sort of thing."

"What are you getting at Leigh? You know I've done nothing wrong, you're just trying to figure a way to screw me over! I won't let it rest until I've cleared my name!"

"Interesting choice of words, honey. You see, I plan on taking you over. And you? Well, that is where your life will become increasingly interesting. You will become me! So, yes I do plan on screwing you over, just not the way you might be thinking!"

"You're mad! Both of you are insane!" He shouted and struggled to get up.

She continued, "With this device, I will easily become you... the male, stepping into your life with nary a thought. You, now that's a different story altogether. When you become me," she reached into his robe and cupped his genitals, and then forcefully let them go, "All of those nasty little sperm in here, won't have anywhere to go. They couldn't be absorbed like the eggs in a female's ovaries can when she becomes a man. That was THE little flaw, one that you are soon to experience!" She flipped nearly white tresses over her shoulder, "And now you know why it has been banned."

"I demand you turn me loose!" He shouted, throwing his head from side to side in an attempt to break free. "I will see you both arrested the minute I am released from here!"

She laughed and forcefully held his unshaven chin, "The funny thing is, your new body will still be producing eggs when you become female, and all those little swimmers that had nowhere to go, suddenly do, just as nature intended for them! It is over 88% positive in ALL cases it has been used!" She laughed in his face, "Your offspring would be as though you and I had done the nasty, and produced a baby!" then with a sneer she hissed through an evil giggle. "Hope you like mommy-hood...asshole!"

He tried to kick at her but his legs were still bound, each time he pushed from the unseen force, it brightened with a light in the area he struggled from. "You know what is even more fun?" She continued without waiting, "Just like you were intending to do with my father, we are going to transport you through a wormhole, and where you end, your deity only knows!"

"You can't do this to me! I am an officer of the Empire! My parents will see that you..."

"Oh shut up!" She slapped the young officer interrupting him, "You obviously have not been listening to what I've been saying!" She smiled evilly at him, "Your parents won't know a difference, in fact..I may or may not keep your girlfriend, it just depends on how good she is in bed.. or if I like her or not!"

His eyes grew wide as he began to struggle to get out of the chair. "Get away from me, you can't do this!"

"Watch me!" Her finger hovered over the trigger on the MTD, "I hope you enjoy your new life, bitch!"

"Nooooooooo!" He screamed as his voice began to climb the octave from male to female. He watched in horror as the beautiful girl before him began to alter in shape, becoming more masculine as time passed. Even before it was over, his voice mirrored that which was once hers.

As the changes continued he felt a strong hand upon his chin, raising his increasingly beautiful face upward. "You make too much noise, bitch...I've heard enough!" A liquid was poured down his rapidly transforming throat, his voice suddenly left him. All the sounds he could make was guttural. The former man struggled against her, now his increasing strength! "Oh relax you little cunt, it'll wear off after awhile." She laughed at his pathetic plight, "Perhaps in a year or so..."

He tried to scream, he tried to cry out, whatever she had poured down his throat had paralyzed his vocal cords. He couldn't vocalize anything other than bitter moans or whimpers. He looked down at his hands, once powerful hands, now petite and feminine. His legs were long, thin and very smooth, his breasts were now those generous pale orbs that once adorned Leigh's chest. As the feminine emotions took hold on the officer, he..no she began to cry. Her whimpering caused the bigger man to laugh.

His old voice laughing, brought his attention once again to the wicked woman who had transformed into him. "I would love to see what little beastie gets to feast upon your hot little body, I'm sure you won't last a week before you are consumed! For me though, I'm going to take complete advantage of this body and what it offers for the rest of my life! It's too bad I couldn't give you one last little ride before I have to give you up...but I agreed to it and a deal is a deal."

He tried to curse at her, but all that came to anyone's ears was a grunting sound. No longer did he have control of a voice. Tears streamed down the fair skinned, beautiful young girl as the man before her pressed a grid on the Commander's desk.

"Enjoy what's left of your short life bitch!" Hearing the familiar voice laugh as the robe was forcibly jerked from around her shoulders. In a quick motion her boxers were removed and he was stepping into them, leaving her exposed as the day she was born. Tears welled in the transformed girl's eyes, while she could hear her former voice laughing... everything before her began to fade into a great nothingness and envelope her.

-Two-

The young woman lay upon a carpet of soft grasses, her lifeless and naked form was beautiful and quite exotic. She appeared to be at best eighteen, but in a strange world, beauty and age could be as much a determent as it could be an asset. She felt as though she was emerging from a cloud, her mind evidently fogged with the confusion of the transformation and travel.

A tickle upon her breast caused her to stir, she opened her beautiful blue eyes and looked down at a very pale butterfly walked across the tip of her nipple. She gracefully swept her hand over it and it fluttered to another place upon her body. Raising her head, she realized that she was covered with hundreds of the butterfly's, even more were resting in the sun upon her warm, smooth skin.

She rose to her elbows, thousands of the little winged creatures suddenly flit and fluttered about her like petals of flowers in a windstorm. In shock, she scrambled to her feet and stood, watching them suddenly winging away like a soft white tornado of beauty.

As she stood in her nakedness and watched the white maelstrom flutter away, her beautiful blue eyes followed them. There within the flitting cloud, a young man stood. The expression upon his youthful face as the butterfly's cascaded into his view, and around him, was one of both surprise, shock..and yes, awe. In the blink of an eye, the young female quickly ducked and ran like a frightened deer, darting among the leaves of the forest until it swallowed her passing up whole. By the time the man got his wit's about himself, she was gone.

In sheer terror she ran, trying to put as much distance between her and the man as she could. Darting in and out of the thick forest, until she came to a river's edge. With not one single moment of hesitation, she dove into the water and began to swim earnestly with the current, trying to stay under it's surface for as long as possible.

She surfaced only for a breath, took that desperate gulp and again went under into that cool water. With each stroke, she began to fear the creatures that must inhabit this alien water, yet she swam on harnessing the fear she possessed as her motivation. On and on she swam, her nearly white hair spilling about her as she swam.

-Three-

The bronzed warrior stood stupefied at actually seeing a spirit-nymph born from within the cloud of the sky dancers. Never had he seen such a beautiful and exotic creature as this pale spirit appear and then seemingly disappear as if carried on the wind. Slowly he gathered his senses and started off after the spirit creature, hesitating at first as he knew not what she would do to him should he find her.

Repositioning his bow and quiver he picked up the wrap of meat that he had been carrying and stepped forward hesitantly, watching for any sign of where the heavenly creature had gone. Only once in a young man's life can he be lucky enough to see a forest spirit..perhaps this was his time. He smiled, the whiteness of his teeth gleamed against the bronze of his face.

He slowly moved forward to where she emerged from the sky dancer cloud, he visually measured where he had been standing, to where he last saw her. Swallowing hard he lowered himself down to examine her tiny footprint in the soft earth. He held his large hand to the print, this spirit was no larger than the female's from his own tribe.

Again he moved past a tree and found another print, she was running, like a deer she had disappeared into the forest. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he knelt in the grass and studied how they were bent, each indicated that she was running directly toward the river.

He stood up and softly trotted, following her tiny spirit print all the way to the water's edge. There on the bank of the great river he lost her trail. Frowning the bronzed warrior scanned the river in both directions as far as his eyes could see. For only a moment he contemplated entering the current, but fear of the spirit he had been following kept him on shore.

The ancient ones tell stories of water dwelling spirits which call young warriors into its current, once they are there, they are pulled under to their deaths. No, he would not enter her domain. He would be thankful to go back to his tribe and tell them the story of the spirit nymph being born in a cloud of sky dancers.

He backed away from the water and crouched upon his haunches, there he studied that perfect foot, the last one before she disappeared into the water. Ever watchful, he kept his eye pealed for her emerging from her watery home and wresting him from the shore. He gently touched the outline of her foot, and smiled at the fleeting memory of her naked form.

***

Pulling herself from the water on the opposite shore as she thought her pursuer would be, she made her way up a incline to a small stand of trees. There, leaning against the rough trunk of a tree she caught her breath, water dripping from her soaked body and hair. She attempted to push the water from her smooth skin, even the feeling of that effort, felt as alien as anything she had ever felt before. Unwillingly, the young beauty took uncomfortable stock in her newly acquired form, unbelieving that the changes she was witnessing had actually happened.

She softly coughed, trying to clear her throat of the object which kept her from uttering any sound... but whatever Leigh had forced her to swallow had done it's deed. Just from that simple clearing of her throat, left her no doubt that the feminine cough she just heard came from within. She tried to speak, say a word- anything. She sighed as only unintelligible utterances left her beautiful mouth.

She realized that she could not stay in one spot for long, she must find shelter and try to come up with something to cover her nakedness. Looking past the trunks of the trees she had hidden in, she openly shivered from a cool breeze that raced across the grassy meadow that was in front of her.

She began to scan the high ground for place to hide, somewhere she could devise protection, as well as create something suitable to wear. She knew that there would be no help coming to her aid, she had been dropped off in a strange land with no hope of rescue.

She moved upward along a ridge-line, keeping within the shadows for protection. As the beauty picked her way carefully, her mind fought with the actuality of her predicament. She realized that she could no longer call herself Park as she once had been, and the name Leigh, even though it fit this form, was completely out of the question.

No, if she was to be stuck with a name for the remainder of her days, it would be of her own choosing! But what name? Would there be any use for a name, who would use it? It was true that she couldn't refer to herself in the third person, that would be a cue for insanity and she didn't want to go there!

Frowning as her young unfettered breasts swung with each step she groaned and held her arm to prevent their swaying. She hated that she couldn't even feel sorry for her predicament because of the potential threat of being pursued. No, it was a horrible hand to be dealt and like it or not, she was stuck with it.

In mid stride, she faltered and stopped. Her mind suddenly washed with the realization of what Leigh had said the fault of the MTD was. She looked down past her breasts toward the thin, tapered waist she, for the time being possessed. She shook her head, the movement sent her pale tresses flying. It couldn't be possible, surely Leigh had been lying! She reassured herself that Leigh most likely lying was the case, she had lied to Park before... why not now? That HAD to be it, to think of any other scenario would be impossible, wouldn't it?