A loud heavy banging sounded on the door, startling me out of the methodical daze I’d fallen into. I jumped at the noise, and a stabbing pain pierced through my hand.

Mark was about to begin his career as a human species transition expert. Fresh from the Academy, Mark was sent across the galaxy to bring a new human race and planet into an alliance with Earth. Mark was ready for this, but he wasn't ready for the accident that happened during his insertion into the planet.

Now trapped as a female on a distant planet, what will Mark do?

CHAPTER 32
We went into overdrive that morning, most of the team joining with CID and uniform to carry out a fingertip search of the open stretch of grass that contained the circle, but there was absolutely nothing for us. Candice and Lexie took the lead with the young couple, and then, once the search was done, Jon and Ellen, Blake and Rob, in pairs, went to the hospital. Sammy had been very clear I wasn’t to go anywhere near what we were assuming were the shooter plus two. My boss took me to an interview room once everyone was off and running.

“Just need a quiet word, mate. A few things you should be aware of. Bring your tea”

May You Live in Interesting Times

Chapter 8

“Hey, I have something to tell you… I’m sorry I didn’t mention this earlier. I really hope we can still be friends once you know… but if not and if you’re weirded out I can understand...”

“...I think I’m a girl.”

Ian laughed. “God, I thought that you were actually going to say something big there, Allie. You had me going for a little. I was genuinely nervous.”

“...what?”

This was not at all the reaction Allan—Allie to friends—was expecting.

“...uh, maybe you heard me wrong? I, uh, was coming out to you… y’know… as a girl?”

Warning: I haven’t touched this story since...maybe...2006 and there may be some issues with spelling (more so than most) and some scene shifts. I’m just trying to see if the story can be completed. It’s about two love triangles (or perhaps parallelograms?) that may end happily ever for one couple or for opposite members. I’m not too sure yet.

CHAPTER 31
My safety training was kicking in, and I knew in the back of my mind that I was already firing off target acquisition glances, seeking the right place to hit first, who to attack as a priority, but the rational part of me was folding quickly in fear and certainty. I was dead.

I rose from the block I was sitting on. The pub was too far away, and there were no lights in the Norwegian church. The four huge men were too well-spaced to allow me to have any chance of making a run for it, and I had no kit with me. Dead.

I became far more discrete about telling people of the changes I planned to make to my body + the new life I hoped to embark on after I kept hearing stuff like: “No matter how much you mutilate your body or try to pretend, you can't change what you are. It's a simple fact of biology!”

And: “Instead of giving in to this sick fantasy you need to get psychological help, and learn to accept
yourself as the person God made you!”

And also: “How can you be a mermaid when there's NO SUCH THING AS MERMAIDS?!!?”

But a mermaid was who I'd always been in my heart + soul, and life as a human girl felt almost as wrong to me as being a male had. And maybe there was no such thing as mermaids, but if all went according to plan in just 48 more hours there would be: ME!

Madness?! Folly?!! Bizarre Body Modification?!!? Perhaps... But for me and for Greg---my wonderful loving mermaid-obsessed fiancee---turning me into a mermaid was absolutely the right thing to do!!

The plague drew Raben out of his avoidance of public life. As an Ianuarian he could not sit by allowing people to die. For the next several years he traveled from outbreak to outbreak treating the ill. Unfortunately the plague was smallpox, a respiratory virus with an incubation period of twelve days and lasting two weeks. Thirty percent of those contracting the disease died, another fifteen to twenty percent, dehydrated or starved to death. Even with Raben’s skills he couldn’t stop or prevent the disease. The best that could be achieved was seeing the ill were nursed which helped save those who would have died by dehydration or starvation. He did recommend the wearing of a cloth mask to cut down on caregivers catching the disease.