Arcturus and Valin were escorted to the teleportation dais, and in a few moments, they were whisked off home, and he was promptly set upon by his immediate family. There was much exchange of hugging and kissing and tears, as well as questions firing off all over the place. But eventually, Valin got to the question that he really wanted to ask.

“Has anyone told Ariadne yet?”

There were a few questioning looks between his parents and his siblings, before they arrived at the answer, no.

Valin sighed deeply. “Well, I guess I’d better get on that. Can’t put it off.”

It took Roberta a few days to come down from the high of cracking, or at least being a very small part of the team that had solved, or was in the process of solving a string of crimes that spread all over Europe, into the Middle East and even the USA. Art is a worldwide business, and art theft is just the same.

“I’d have liked to see you change, but I guess I should have said so directly, instead of just hinting that I’d like to meet Jennifer.”

 

“Oh. Scott thought it might be easier to get here unchallenged if I were already Jennifer. Maybe next time.”

Allison spent the day making new friends, and experiencing things in a new way, the first time really as herself, traversing the station on her own. This happened while Angie prepared for her new job with the medical professors. When Angie came back to the apartment it was obvious she enjoyed herself as she was a little worse for wear. And worse again once the two demolished most of a bottle of gin she’d been given as a gift.

Now Allison is waiting around, letting Angie sleep off her hangover before they go for breakfast with Adam. But the time spent doing nothing but waiting for Angie has brought her to a realisation, and she needs to tell One something about her intentions.

Chapter 25

When we arrived in Los Angeles, we were swept up in a tidal wave of media hype. As defending champions of the Best Film and other awards, we were a hot topic. We were a few days early, which were filled with interviews and TV appearances. ‘Thirteen Women’ was controversial, seeing that it acknowledged the Devil without a mention of God. The ultra-right was in an uproar, which meant that everybody else supported us, ‘just for the hell of it!’

Looking Back
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I keep think that John could have had any woman that he wanted, but instead he demanded that I should be that woman.

He was a gay man, and I was too. It was just that it did not matter to me, but it did to him. He was a professional sportsman. He is no longer competing, but he still lives off his past, so for that reason I refer to him only as John, but that is not his name. I bear him no ill will, despite everything. I will keep his secret. For me it never was a secret who I was.

Gabycon 2013.

In Pursuit of the Truth.

by Angharad.

(Based on the characters created by Maddy Bell).

“D’you dream about bikes?” asked Maddy.

“Not as far as I know,” replied Drew, who was disguising less effectively, his burgeoning femaleness. It wasn’t quite true, well, he didn’t so much dream of bikes as of cycling; and he’d done so for years. In his dreams he’d won the Tour de France and more disturbingly the elite women’s road race world championship his mother riding to support him. But as time progressed that dream might turn to one of prophesy.

Life Stolen By Mistake