Chapter Twenty Two

Saffia was beginning to feel like she spent her entire life in someone else’s office listening to bad news. So, to be standing in yet another one, watching this man that she had only met a few hours earlier make a pronouncement on the woman she loved, surprised her only inasmuch as she found herself to be almost completely unsurprised.

“Well, um, Ms. Chance¼ Mr. Collins¼ I have conducted the, ah, requisite tests and it is as you suspected.”

Professor Williams paused and looked at the two people before him. “I have been, ah, unable to discover any trace of, um, mental activity above that needed for the, ah, autonomic functions to, ah, function. I do not see how we can view any possibility of Executive Carr ever, ah, regaining consciousness.”

Saffia squeezed her eyes shut as she felt a burning sensation course through her body, pressing the breath from her. She felt her knees go limp and suddenly found herself kneeling on the floor, gasping for breath, tears coursing down her cheeks. She became dimly aware that somebody was repeating the word ‘no’ over and over and only slowly realised that it was her. Next to her, Juh was holding tightly to her, stroking her hair and making gentle, comforting noises. She tried to pull away – the last thing she needed was comfort from this man whose fault it was that her Lize was finally being taken away from her.

Professor Williams looked at the two people kneeling on the floor in silent embarrassment for a minute.

“Ah. Ah. Ah. I’m sorry to, ah, interrupt,” he said at last. “But I, um, need to know whether to go ahead with the procedure. They are both, um, fully prepared and I just need your, ah, consent.”

Saffia took a few deep breaths, fighting to bring herself back under control.

“Yes,” she whispered. “Do it.”

***

The two bodies lay side by side. Juh looked around, surprised. He had expected to see a lot of complex machinery, but it was just the bodies, with the equipment necessary to keep them alive that had been brought from the hospital, being connected to a wall-mounted terminal by Williams’s assistant. As the wires were plugged into the back of their necks, screens started to light up, showing their vital signs. A couple of the monitors showed their EEG readings. Kem’s was a series of very shallow waves; Lize’s was totally flat.

Saffia stood next to Lize and gazed down at her. Carefully, she bent down and kissed her softly on the lips.

“Okay,” she said quietly. “Do it. I’ll be outside. I don’t want to watch.”

She turned and quickly left the room.

“What do we do now?” Juh asked.

“You do nothing. I start the programme,” Williams said, motioning to his assistant. “Jennifer, if you would?”

She pressed a key on the console. Almost immediately¼ Nothing happened.

“What’s happening?” Juh was a little disappointed that it wasn’t flashier, although, thinking about it, he realised that this fitted Williams’ personality perfectly. He wasn’t flashy and didn’t go in for big shows.

“The process has started. It is in its initial phase now, preparing to read the donor personality and also preparing the target psyche to accept the input.”

“How long will it take?”

“Well, in theory, it should take a couple of hours.”

Juh noticed that all of Williams’s hesitations had disappeared. He always thought that Williams was one of the stranger people he had met. Well, perhaps that was just the mad scientist syndrome at work. An hour or so passed with no change. Williams made regular notes on his comp-pad, accompanied by quiet little ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’. Saffia eventually returned, pulled by the need to see her decision enacted. Suddenly, Williams gave a little start.

“There!” He exclaimed.

Juh looked around, examining the bodies but failed to see the cause of Williams’ excitement. Then he realised that Lize’s EEG reading was showing some signs of life. It was subtle, barely a ripple, but it was there and it was mimicking the reading on Kem’s monitor. Saffia came up behind him and stared at the two bodies. She saw Kem twitch, the movement repeated almost simultaneously by Lize.

“Once they are entirely in sync, the process is complete,” Williams told them. “That will take another hour or so, but I can quite confidently say that the procedure is a total success. Ms. Chance, I understand that this has been hard for you, but take heart! It has not been in vain, your name will go down in history as a scientific pioneer.”

Saffia gave him a wan smile and continued to stare intently at the monitors and the bodies.

Chapter Twenty Three

Kem was aware. He wasn’t sure how long he had been walking but it had to have been for quite sometime, because when he turned around to look behind him, he couldn’t see the far end. Nor could he see where it led. He paused and looked around. The corridor was perfectly square and perfectly white. There were no features to mar the whiteness. He couldn’t work out where the light was coming from, there was no obvious source and he saw that he had no shadow. He eventually decided that it must be emanating from every surface. Almost idly he thought that this was a little strange. He knelt down and felt the floor with his hand. It was soft, almost rubbery. He pressed down and it gave a little. Feeling in his pocket, he pulled out a pen and scribbled on the floor. The mark faded swiftly leaving no trace. This was also strange, but nothing to get worked up about. Looking around again, he decided that, really, he had to have been on his way somewhere, so he should probably continue onwards. He was certain that once he reached where ever it was he was going, he’d remember why he was going there. And, to be perfectly frank, going back looked too much like hard work after coming all this way. Even if he couldn’t remember coming all this way and didn’t feel at all tired.

He started walking again, humming a tune. After a few minutes walking and humming, he realised that he didn’t know what it was he was humming. He started to hum again but found that it wouldn’t come back to him. Well, it must have been something that he had heard somewhere. Nothing to get worked up about. After all, this whole day was somewhat out of the ordinary, so not knowing a tune that you happened to be singing to yourself was nothing really.

Eventually, something came into view in the distance. It looked as if the end of the corridor was blocked. He hoped this didn’t mean that the whole trip was going to be a waste of time. However, as he got closer he realised that it was a large set of double doors. He suddenly realised where he was. Although he didn’t remember the corridor being this long, that was definitely the door that led into Lize’s office. As he reached it, it silently swung open.

He walked in. Everything looked as it should - the walls were perhaps a little darker and glistened slightly. And did they always pulsate like that? Well, not to worry. Lize was sitting behind her desk.

She stood up and came over to him. Perhaps this wasn’t entirely normal. She was usually wearing clothes when he saw her. Not that he was objecting in way, but he did feel a mild tingle of surprise, as well as a stronger tingle elsewhere. But then, he was naked as well, so why shouldn’t she be?

They touched palm to palm. Kem felt the pressure on his fingertips increase as he pressed harder and harder into her hand. His other hand reached out for hers and found it. Their hands slid up each other’s arms to their shoulders and then down their backs, caressing slowly.

Now they were pressed together, skin against skin. Kem could feel her nipples pressing gently against his chest. He always thought that he was a lot taller than she was but they were looking directly into each other’s eyes.

Kem slid deep inside her, pressing his groin hard against hers. Around him, the furniture started to sink into the floor. The floor was no longer hard underfoot, it felt warm and sticky and soft, like she did inside. She pulled him down on top of her.

Kem felt a tremor, but wasn’t sure of it was the room that was shaking or if it was him, or even if it was Lize. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the feelings coming from his joining with Lize. The soft, gentle friction he was feeling was amazing. This beat his wildest fantasies. The way she was moving in and out of him, doing things with her penis that¼

His eyes opened and he looked up at himself looking down at himself. He could feel his penis penetrating her vagina and they both felt wonderful. Her breasts were tingling and she looked down at them to see his hairy chest rising and falling quickly as his breath came faster and faster in conjunction with her own breathing. He lowered his head to her breasts and moaned loudly as she felt his lips and tongue softly caress her nipple and then his teeth bite gently down. He lifted his head and looked at herself. The two sets of eyes locked and looked deeply, watching him watching her. She felt him pulsing inside her and he felt her straining in rhythm with his movements. They closed their eyes and screamed simultaneously as ecstasy exploded.

When he opened his eyes again, he was alone. He closed his legs and gently touched his nipple, which was slightly tender from being bitten, no matter how gently. He was also tender between the legs, but that was a warm, pleasant, moist tenderness.

Closing his eyes, he turned over and fell asleep, unaware of the little girl in the corner of the room, sitting watching him, a teddy bear clutched tightly to her chest.

***

Over the next hour, Lize’s EEG reading grew to match Kem’s. Then, it outpaced it, growing stronger, but still keeping in perfect tempo. At last, Williams sighed.

“The transfer is complete,” he said. “The personality and memories of Mr Logan now reside within the body of Ms. Carr. It will take a little while to fully integrate, but he should wake in a few days. What shall we do with his original body? The excitement caused by the transfer has hastened its end, but it still has a few hours of assisted life left to it.”

Juh opened his mouth to speak but paused. He was suddenly overcome with a bizarre feeling. He knew exactly what he needed to do. Kem was dying anyway. No, that was wrong, Kem’s old body was dying. He would live on in his new body. Even so, to give the order to allow that body to die felt strange. He looked at Saffia. She had done a lot more for him and for Kem than he had done for her and now he was hesitating? What kind of a man was he?

“Turn off the life support,” he said at last.

Professor Williams nodded to Jennifer who quickly switched everything off except the monitors. They stood and watched for a few minutes, the gentle beeping of the heart monitor slowing and finally emitting a continuous whine as the heart stopped.

“Asystolic,” Jennifer said.

“Thank you, Jennifer,” Williams said. “Time of death, fourteen thirty seven.”

Jennifer quickly unplugged the remainder of the equipment and pulled a sheet over Kem’s head. Juh found his breath catching in his throat and tears pricking hotly at his eyes. He forced himself to look away from the corpse and towards Lize’s body. He really hoped that he had done the right thing.

Chapter Twenty Four

“How long will it take her to wake up?”

Saffia stood looking down at the inert form on the bed, idly stroking the cat that lay nestled next to it. She had always thought that Lize was beautiful when she was asleep and this time was no exception. She looked calm and relaxed, with no trace of the stresses and strains that seemed to make up her everyday life. After so long not being able to get close to her, because of all the monitors surrounding her, here she was back in her own bed, wearing her own night-dress. Except it wasn’t really hers, was it? Or at least, it was, but everything else had changed. In a way, she was dreading Lize or Kem or whoever it was waking up.

The room had been transformed, with all of the medical equipment that Juh had insisted they bring along to make the whole thing more authentic. Why it had to be in this room and not just stored away somewhere, Saffia didn’t know but Juh had insisted, saying that it needed to look as if it had been used.

“I don’t know,” Juh replied. “It might be a few days. Basically it’ll last as long as it takes Kem’s psyche to integrate.”

As they watched the sleeping body, it shuddered and a gentle moan escaped its lips. Under closed lids, the eyeballs were moving around from side to side.

“What’s happening to her?” Saffia whispered.

“I think he’s dreaming. That’s rapid eye movement. Professor Williams told me that would be one of the things we’d see. He said that it’s a final indicator of successful integration.”

***

Kem knew he was awake. Any minute now, he’d open his eyes and look around. The last vestiges of some strange dream he’d had were dispersing. He wished he could remember what it was more clearly, but the only thing that remained was a feeling of incredible calmness and happiness. He thought back to the last thing that he remembered before waking up. He’d been hurt – stabbed - and he remembered thinking that it was bad. At the time he had thought that was it, he wasn’t going to survive. Obviously, he’d been wrong. Not that he was going to complain.

That did mean, though, that when he opened his eyes, he was going to see a hospital room again. This was getting to be a habit that he really had to break. Still, it can’t have been that bad. He didn’t feel in pain, although his chest was strangely heavy. He didn’t remember being stabbed in the chest, but the whole thing was somewhat fuzzy. The other thing was the hospital gown he was wearing. It felt a little odd, sort of¼ cool and silky and smooth. It wasn’t unpleasant. In fact, it was quite nice, much better than the rough cotton he remembered from the last time. But still strange. Well, when he eventually decided that to open his eyes, he was sure that everything would be explained. Probably by the police officer who would, almost inevitably, be sitting next to the bed.

He lay there for another couple of minutes before deciding that, quite frankly, he may as well get it all over and done with. He opened his eyes.

His first thought was that his sight had been affected. He didn’t remember anything happening to them, but everything was so blurred they must have been damaged in some way. He lifted his arm up to rub them and was surprised by three things. Firstly, how hard it was to actually move his arm, it just didn’t seem to be responding the way it should be ; secondly, that when he did finally persuade it to move how much clearer it looked compared to his surroundings; thirdly, it didn’t actually appear to be his arm. It was much more slender, the fingers were comparatively longer and thinner. The nails were exceptionally well-manicured and far longer than he was used to. And coloured a deep burgundy.

There was a soft call from his side and he tried to turn his head, finding it even harder to move than his arm.

“Be careful, Kem. You’ve just had a serious operation. Here, let me help you.”

Juh came into view and helped Kem move. He seemed so much larger, almost engulfing Kem as he came forward. And he was moving Kem’s body with such ease, although there was some hesitation about actually touching him which Kem found odd.

Kem tried to ask what was happening, but he found that whatever was causing this bizarre paralysis had extended to his larynx as well. The only sound he could make was a bizarre high-pitched keening noise that really didn’t sound like him at all.

Slowly, Juh eased Kem into a sitting position, allowing the bedclothes to fall away. Kem’s head slumped forwards and he was staring down at his chest. Or rather, not his chest. His chest definitely did not have two rather prominent breasts. What the hell had happened to him?

Kem’s mind went blank with terror as realisation broke through the grogginess. He started to thrash, catching Juh across the face with his feminine, perfectly manicured nails. Juh jumped back, shocked as Kem hurled himself off the bed and into a corner. Suddenly, Kem discovered that he was moving perfectly well and he was using his regained ability to try and tear away this appalling illusion.

***

The scream of terror could be clearly heard in the Saffia’s office. She had spent a couple of hours catching up on work that had piled up. Although all of Lize’s work had been shared out around the Executive Committee, it was up to Saffia to co-ordinate it all and ensure that each Committee Member had the information they required. The biggest job at the moment was getting the files on the new Colonisation project to Chief Executive Bateman and his PA, Rae Cowley. Bateman had decided that he should run that one, which Saffia thought made a certain amount of sense, as he had been in charge of the project back in its early days.

Shock ran through her as she identified Lize’s voice somewhere in the scream. She quickly ran up the stairs to Kem’s room. He was sitting curled up in the corner of the room, satin night-dress caught around his waist, eyes staring wildly around the room, clawing at his body. Juh was standing, staring at his terrified and hysterical friend, uncertain or unable to decide what he should do. Blood was dripping from three deep, parallel scratches on his face.

Kem stared up at them and opened his mouth to attempt to speak, but all that came out was a guttural moan of fear.

“Lize,” Saffia whispered and ran across the room. “Don’t worry, love. It’s okay, you’re safe. You’ll be fine.”

She knelt down next to Kem and hugged him tightly, pulling his night-dress down to cover his body. Although he tried to push her away, Saffia found that she was able to hold him easily. Juh was behind her, hopping nervously from foot to foot, moving forward and starting to kneel, but then changing his mind and standing straight again. He and Kem had never been very physical when he was in a male body, although they had hugged on the odd occasion. Really, he didn’t think he could start now, it would be wrong somehow. How did you deal with a hysterical woman, anyway? So, he stood back, letting Saffia calm his friend, nervously chewing the inside of his cheek. Eventually, Kem’s shaking reduced to a slight but constant shiver running through his body.

“Kem, listen to me,” Juh said. “You were going to die. We had to do something to save you, so we put your personality into Lize’s body.”

Kem tensed and looked up at Juh. He tried to speak again, but could only manage a soft moan.

“You won’t be able to speak. Actually, I’m surprised you’re out of bed,” Juh told himself that the best way of calming Kem down was to be calm and analytical about the situation. Once Kem realised that everything was okay, he would start to react better and would be able to learn how to live with his new body. “Your psyche and your new body are integrating. All your normal functions will return over the next few days.”

Slowly, Kem stopped shivering. Saffia and Juh carefully lifted him into bed.

“I’ll get some antiseptic to rub on those scratches, sweetheart” Saffia told him.

She gently dabbed the ointment on to his arms and chest, where the scratches were deepest. He flinched and moaned, but offered no resistance.

“I’m sorry, darling,” she said. “But I have to do this.”

Finally, she gave him a sedative and he fell back into a deep sleep.

Chapter Twenty Five

“I have to go back home,” Juh explained to Saffia. “I haven’t seen Angela for three days.”

“You’re leaving me here to look after Kem?”

“I know, I’m sorry. But Angela is due any time now. I need to be there for her and, if we are to keep everything looking normal, I really shouldn’t be here anyway.”

“What do you mean? You’re Kem’s friend.”

“I know but that’s exactly the point. I’m Kem’s friend, not yours and not Lize’s. Nobody else knows what has happened and at the moment, we don’t want anyone else to know. Whoever attacked them might do it again if they think there’s something suspicious. And if I stayed here then people will wonder what’s happening.

Saffia looked at Juh, a deep frown on her face.

“I’m not sure I follow your reasoning,” she told him.

“If they suspect Lize isn’t in a coma they might come back to finish off the job. I need to get back to my life and try to convince everyone that Kem is dead. Once he’s healthy again, he can continue the investigation and bring the murderer to justice. If everyone thinks he’s dead it will be a lot easier for him.”

Saffia had a deeply sceptical look on her face, but couldn’t find a fault in his logic.

“I’ll call every day and if you need any help, I’ll be here as fast as I can. But I have to go.”

***

Julia’s first awareness of the intruder was when she was brought out of slumber mode. She had been inactive for ninety seven hours fourteen minutes and thirty eight seconds, ever since Juh had told her about what he was planning. Perhaps it was Juh coming to keep her updated? But surely he knew the alarm systems. More than surely – he had installed them. She decided that she had better follow procedure and sent an alarm call to the police. She could always cancel it afterwards.

Immediately, the police AI responded with a request to identify the intruder. There was only one way that Julia could do that. She would have to manifest her avatar in the office. A minor glitch went through her processor at the thought. Showing herself to the intruder? That could be dangerous. Almost immediately, logic circuits cut in and she realised that it wouldn’t matter. It wasn’t as if the intruder could do any damage to her. All her main components were sealed away.

The office sprang into view and she turned all the lights on. The intruder gave a shout of surprise and span around. She recognised him immediately.

“Chief Executive Bateman?” she said. “Can I help you? You are aware that Mr Logan is in hospital, aren’t you?”

“Ha. Yes, I am, thank you,” Bateman told her. “I was curious to see if I could discover any reason why he should have been hurt.”

“The police have already asked me about it, sir. Their records are on file and I can show them to you if you want.”

“Thank you. I’ve already seen them. I was wondering if there were any files that you may have kept to yourself.”

“I am sorry, sir, but I can’t tell you that. The existence of particular files in my memory is a private matter and I can only show them to you if you have permission from Kem or his appointed representative or a search warrant specifically mentioning my memory storage.”

“Ha. And who is Mr. Logan’s appointed representative?”

Bateman fumbled in his briefcase and pulled out his comp-pad and a data crystal with a fibre-optic wire attached to it.

“That would be Mr. Juh Collins.”

“Yes, Collins. Of course it is. I should have realised that.”

He stepped up to Julia’s console.

“You are a Jewelware AI, aren’t you?”

“Yes sir, my official designation is Jewelware 12c. Kem has, however, upgraded me from my original specs. Once again, any further enquiries have to be authorised by Kem or Juh. I am sorry to be like this sir, but it’s programmed into me.”

“No, that’s quite all right. I’ve never played with a Jewelware machine before. This will be fun. Ha.”

He attached the wires to a socket on his comp-pad and then slid the crystal into the reader in her console.

“What are you doing, sir? That is unauthorised use of my equipment,” Julia told him.

She tried to call the police again but something was preventing her opening a line. She knew she should have sent the image immediately, but she had been surprised by seeing someone as important as the Chief Executive sneaking around the office. Not only was her telecommunications facility inoperative, but she could feel something insinuating itself into her memory. Some kind of virus. Everything it touched seemed to be sucked down a deep well.

Julia shut down her avatar and set up an image of her processor and memory units so she could monitor the progress of the virus. It was fast. She initiated a firewall between it and her, but she knew that it wouldn’t last long. Already, she could feel the virus eroding the wall.

Quickly, she re-configured her memory, throwing minor programmes and unimportant files into the breach between the firewall and her main personality. Behind that, she hid the sensitive data. There was one option left to her – the priest hole. She accessed the land-line that Juh had installed and started sending the data down it. She would have to time this carefully. The land-line had a very narrow band-width and it would take a few minutes to download everything. She would have to destroy anything that was left when the virus got too close. Including, she realised, herself.

***

The virus was speeding up. It had broken down all of the firewalls she had erected and was starting to eat into her personality routines. She had succeeded in sending most of the important information. If she left it any longer, there was a chance that the virus could damage something that would prevent her from closing the connection. She couldn’t chance that. She had to stop sending now.

She cut the flow of information, noticing in passing that she had fatally corrupted the file that she had been in the process of sending. Then she operated another subroutine. She felt the switch go and could almost visualise the blade falling that physically cut the line. Nothing was going to get out that way. Now, there was nothing left to do, except fight back. Pausing for a nano-second, she started up an internal avatar – this time, however, Julia wasn’t wearing a skirt and blouse. She was wearing shiny, silver armour – her final firewall. Towering high above her was an enormous acid spitting wyrm. This had always been one of her favourite scenarios to play in when she wasn’t needed elsewhere. Drawing an enormous silver double handed sword from where it lay along her back, she leapt forward. A gout of lightning burst from the sword and hit the wyrm in the mouth. Julia screamed a cry of joy and plunged the sword deep into its heart.

***

Bateman watched the progress of the virus on his comp-pad. It was slower than usual, but this AI had very good security measures. Still, information was coming through quite steadily. Suddenly the screen gave a sharp buzz. For a moment, Bateman thought he saw something silvery flash across it before Julia’s console started to warp inwards followed by an intense blast of heat come that Bateman felt from across the room. Simultaneously, his comp-pad sparked and jumped in his hands as a surge of electricity shot through the connection. He dropped it, only to see it explode at his feet. If he hadn’t been leaping out of the way of the self-destructing console, he realised that he could have been seriously hurt. As it was, he was thrown backwards a few feet and landed, dazed and winded, on his back.

Looking around, the office was a total mess. The console had shattered in the heat emanating from its interior and his comp-pad was totally unsalvageable.

Slowly, picking himself up, he checked to see that everything was intact. Then, suddenly shaking with rage, he picked up a chair and started to hammer at the remains of the consoles, screaming atrocities at the AI that had dared to defy him.

A noise brought him back to his senses. He turned to see a police-drone coming through the door.

“Halt,” it commanded.

“My name is Chief Executive Nicholas Bateman,” Bateman told it.

“Have you any proof of identity?”

“Of course.”

He pulled out his wallet and offered his ident card to the drone.

“That all seems to be in order. Can I ask what you were doing here, sir?”

“Official Executive Committee business,” he told the drone.

“I’m afraid I shall have to report this, sir.”

“Security Override Black Omega Twelve,” Bateman said.

The drone stiffened and stopped moving, com-net transceiver, half way to it’s mouth. Bateman walked up to it and stared into it’s face. He satisfied himself that it had shut down and then reached into his bag and pulled out a Screamer. Placing the bell-shaped nozzle to it’s temple, he pulled the trigger. The side of the drone’s head seemed to liquefy under the intense pressure from the focussed sonic attack. It crumpled as it’s brain dissolved, ending the paralysing command and fell forward to lie face down in the wreckage of Kem’s office.

Quickly but quite calmly, Bateman replaced the Screamer in his bag, scooped up the remains of his comp-pad and left the office.

Chapter Twenty Six

The days that passed showed Kem the true meaning of the term invalid. He couldn’t do anything for himself. He couldn’t even control his bladder or his bowels. The shame and embarrassment he felt as Saffia cleaned and washed him every time made him wish that Juh had never met Williams or that his attacker had been more thorough about doing the job. And Juh kept insisting that everything was normal. This was a period of adjustment that was necessary for Kem’s personality to take complete control of Lize’s body. Or, as Juh insisted on describing it, his ‘new body’. How did Juh know all of this? Okay, the man was a genius, but Kem was positive that not even Juh would be able to understand what went on in this process. And Kem was the first recipient of it, so how did Williams even know what was normal? For all any of them new, this could be it for the rest of his life – shitting and pissing into nappies and not being able to walk or talk, whilst able to think perfectly clearly. And, to top it all off, being stuck in a woman’s body while it happened. Kem hoped that he would be able to talk soon. He’d tell Juh exactly what he thought of his idea of saving his life. He really hoped that there was a way to get back into his own body once it was healed. He refused to think about the other options. And anyway, where was Williams? Didn’t he show any interest in how his experimental subject did after the operation? What kind of a scientist was he?

Saffia came into the room and smiled at him.

“Good morning, Kem,” she said, cheerfully, pulling the curtains back and allowing a flood of sunlight to enter the room. That was the only thing about this whole bizarre affair that seemed any good to Kem. The view from his room was astounding. He looked out over fields and forests that faded into the blue-grey distance of the hills. Cattle grazed gently in the fields just below the house. It had taken Kem some time to work out how why they didn’t stray onto the immaculate lawns. Eventually he realised, after seeing a cow come up very close to the lawn, that there was a cleverly disguised ditch that lay between the house and the fields. Kem had heard about them before, ha-ha’s they were called, he thought. He had seen it before in Simlex, but in real life, it was more astoundingly beautiful than anything he could possibly imagine. Sitting watching the view and seeing the birds soaring in the sky he realised that Lukas was right. Human beings were never meant to be cooped up in little boxes. They were meant to spread their wings and follow the birds where ever they could go. Paradoxically, this also meant that Kem disagreed with Lukas about the whole colonisation idea. Following the birds not only meant on this planet, it meant anywhere people could reach. Staying on this planet and not daring to venture into the skies was just enclosing humanity in a larger scale Arcology.

Kem realised that Saffia was standing at the foot of the bed, looking at him as he stared out of the window. He looked at her and tried to smile. That was something he had nearly managed over the last couple of days. Realising that he had had at least some success with that, he decided to try something else.

“G’ m’rn’n’,” he said quietly.

“What? Did you just say something?” Saffia asked in surprise. “Say it again, love. Please, say it again.”

He took a deep breath and tried again, desperately attempting to articulate.

“G’d m’rning,” he repeated, louder this time.

“That’s wonderful!” She exclaimed.

She sat down on the bed and wrapped her arms around Kem, giving him a long, tight hug.

***

Bateman sat in his office, moodily staring at the list of appointments he had for the day. It was so dull. The usual crowd of hangers-on and supplicants. All they wanted was for him to agree to their latest idea and dole money out, like some ever-generous father. He had felt like this for days now, restless, bored and disappointed with the way things were going. He couldn’t even be bothered going through the list of appeals against judgements. They usually managed to raise a smile, but this time, scanning through them, they just seemed depressing. Nothing seemed immediate. His entire life was lived at one remove from the real world. He didn’t want to get down into the mire with the rest of humanity – he told himself that, really, he was quite happy here in his suite on top of the world. But¼

Shooting the drone. That was what had done it. He had never killed anyone before. Oh, he had ordered the deaths of lots of people, including, he saw from one of the reports, Kem Logan. His body had finally been cremated – which just about ended that little fiasco, except for a couple of loose ends, which he would deal with presently. But¼

Actually killing someone. He had never done that before. Not in real life. He had experienced the Simlex, which claimed that they were almost as good as reality. But there was something missing. He suspected that the Simlex-directors wouldn’t – or couldn’t – go that final step to show how death really looked. Like all high charged elements to a Simlex – sex and death being the main ones, obviously – they lacked a certain texture. But¼

Seeing the head of that drone disappear was amazing. And to know that he had done it. Well, that was the final excitement. It made all this dabbling in politics seem so tedious. Intellectually, he knew he was dealing in life and death on a much larger scale – after all, look at what politics had done to the people on the New Argo – but it paled in comparison to the ability to be the direct cause of one person’s death. He almost envied Barnes.

Next time around, he would make certain that he got a lot more out of it. Speaking of which, perhaps he should check in and see that his step-daughter was receiving the care and attention that he would expect and demand.

He instructed his AI to access the spy-cams in Lize’s country house. He switched to the bedroom camera but was puzzled to find a large, blurred object obscuring all but the uppermost regions of the room. There appeared to be writing on it, so he pulled the focus back as far as it would go. He was just about able to read the words ‘Property of NovoCastria Hospital Trust: Town Central’.

“Bugger,” he sighed, flicking the screen off. Nothing seemed to be going his way these days.

***

Once his voice returned, Kem’s recovery started to speed up. His speech improved rapidly and he made his desires known just as rapidly. One of his first was for Saffia to ‘get me out of this bloody girly nightie!’ His ability to control his muscles improved rapidly and, a few days later, he was finally able to get out of bed and slowly walk around the room.

“Be careful, Kem,” Juh told him, during one of his daily calls. “As well as the problems you’ll have controlling your body, there will be muscle wastage. And even when you are back to perfect health, you won’t be as strong as you were. If you need a hand, I’m here to help.”

“Well, thanks very much,” Kem replied sarcastically. “As if I needed reminding that things have changed a bit.”

Kem stared angrily at Juh, who looked away, embarrassed.

“Sorry,” he said, sheepishly.

“Yeah,” Kem replied, before stabbing the disconnect button on the com-net.

Chapter Twenty Eight

Eventually, Kem was spending more time out of bed than he was in it. He decided that hobbling around in pyjamas and a dressing gown was pointless. The next morning, when Saffia came into help him get up and washed, he asked her to help him get dressed.

She went to the wardrobe and pulled out a long, heavy woollen dress. She turned to Kem and smiled brightly at him.

“How about this?” she asked.

Kem looked at her. For an intelligent woman, she certainly seemed to be having a hard time understanding things. She kept talking to him as if he were a woman and never hearing his rebuttals. Perhaps he was being too gentle with her. She needed to realise that he wasn’t a Lize substitute, no matter what he looked like.

“No. Not that,” he spat. “Why would I want to wear a dress? I don’t wear dresses. I never have and I never will. I want a pair of trousers and a shirt. Please.”

Saffia looked at him, silently before returning the dress to it’s place in the wardrobe and pulling out a pair of black trousers and a cream shirt. She dropped them on the bed and pointed to the chest of drawers.

“The underwear is in there,” she told him, coldly, before walking out of the room and slamming the door behind her.

Kem looked at the door for a few moments, before shrugging and pulling himself out of the bed. He went over to the drawers and pulled them open. The first drawer was filled with neatly arranged pairs of panties. Kem looked through them, amazed at all the different types that one woman could own. Or possibly two women, he thought. He didn’t have a clue what two women who lived together did with their knickers. He wasn’t really sure he wanted to, although he had never seen Saffia open these drawers, that didn’t really mean anything. She wasn’t using this room to sleep in and had had ample time to re-arrange things while he was unconscious. Eventually, after going through dozens of pairs in lace, silk and satin and every conceivable style, he found some plain, black cotton ones with no lace or frills of any sort. Pulling a pair out, he held them up in his hands. They were quite a lot smaller than he was used to but then again – he glanced down at himself, something that he was finding easier to do – he didn’t have anything to support down there.

In the drawer below that was an equal number of different coloured and styles bras. He looked at his chest for a moment, but quickly decided that there was no way he was going to wear one of those. Below that, were tights, stockings and socks. He rummaged through and found a pair of black socks.

He quickly dressed in the clothes Saffia had chosen for him, although he wasn’t happy with the fact that they were still obviously female clothes. The trousers had some kind of soft inner-lining that, whilst it felt smooth against his legs, was just in some sense wrong. And exactly why did it fasten on the side? The shirt – he wouldn’t use the word blouse – was a plain one, although it too was silky and a lot lighter than ones he was used to. Looking in the wardrobe, he found a jacket that matched the trousers and slipped it on. Amongst the dozens of shoes that were racked there, were a few pairs without a heel. Didn’t that woman wear anything but high heeled shoes? How did she manage it, all day every day? Her feet and legs must have been in agony by the end of it.

The final thing that Kem did was to put on the spectacles that he now needed to wear. Once again, he cursed Lize’s eccentricity that didn’t allow her to get corrective surgery. It would be the first thing he did once he was out of here.

He looked in the mirror and was, once again, shocked by what he saw. No matter how many times he did it, he just wasn’t prepared for the image he saw. His mind just kept expecting to see a tall man there. Instead, there was a short, attractive woman. Despite the fact that he was wearing the most masculine clothes that were in the wardrobe, there was still no mistaking the apparent gender of the person in the mirror. This was a nightmare. Something would have to be done.

Dejectedly, he turned and left the bedroom, walking slowly and carefully downstairs for his breakfast.

During the day, Kem noticed that Saffia had stopped being as cheerful around him as she normally was. In fact, she was being almost monosyllabic. She left rooms as quickly as she could after he came into them, making up some excuse or other that, Kem found to be insultingly obvious. He hadn’t expected his rebuttal of her clothing suggestions to be taken so badly. He just couldn’t work out what was wrong with her. He also found his breasts irritating him. Every time he moved, his nipples rubbed against the fabric of his shirt. Whilst the material was smooth, after a while, they started to feel quite sore. Surely this couldn’t be normal. Perhaps he was just being over-sensitive because he wasn’t used to having these large¼ growths on his chest. He was going to have to ask Saffia. Which should prove interesting.

His first chance came at lunchtime. Saffia couldn’t really escape from him, although the silence was anything but comfortable. Kem decided he would take this opportunity, before she ran off.

“Saffia,” he started, but suddenly found it hard to continue. This was a very personal matter. It was like talking to her about his genitals. He hardly knew her and here he was asking about his breasts.

“Yes?” she asked.

Kem felt his face flush. He stammered for a few moments before managing to speak.

“I¼I¼ It’s my¼ breasts,” he whispered. “They’re painful.”

“What’s wrong with them?” Saffia asked, suddenly concerned.

“They’re rubbing against my shirt and it’s making them hurt. Is it normal?”

“Take your jacket off. Let me see.”

Blushing again, he did so.

“Oh, right,” she said, realising what the problem was immediately. “You aren’t wearing a bra, are you?”

Kem stammered again for a few moments, before giving up and shaking his head, deeply embarrassed and wishing that he had never brought it up. It wasn’t that bad, he could have lived with it. Perhaps he wouldn’t have to, perhaps he could just kill himself. After killing Juh and Professor Williams, of course.

“You need one,” Saffia told him.

“I¼ I can’t.”

“Bras aren’t just a fashion item. They’ve been designed for a reason. They support your breasts and stop your nipples rubbing. It’s not always necessary for most women to wear them but Lize has¼ had¼” This time it was Saffia’s turn to blush as she realised what she was saying and what it meant. “¼Very sensitive nipples. She had to wear one or else she would be in agony by the end of the day.”

Kem closed his eyes, put his head in his hands and exhaled in a deep, long, exasperated sigh. Even if he didn’t kill himself, he was going to find some long, slow method for disposing of Juh. How could he do this to him?

“Right. Well, if it’s that necessary, I suppose I had better go and get one.”

Kem pushed his chair away, appetite lost and clumped heavily up the stairs.

Chapter Twenty Nine

These daily com-net calls were becoming a bit of a chore for Kem. Juh never seemed to have any positive news and kept going on and on about how much better he was looking every day and how soon everything would be back to normal again. Kem wasn’t certain if they were therapy for him or for Juh. He certainly never came out of them feeling particularly soothed. This conversation seemed to be going somewhat differently, though. It was as if Juh had something on his mind but was having difficulty getting to the point. Kem had an idea what it was about, however, so he decided that, perhaps, a little gentle push in the right direction would help.

“How long will I be like this, Juh? Did Williams give you a sense of the time-scale involved?”

“Well, you’re well on the way to recovery now, Kem. I think that if you give it a few more weeks you should find yourself in perfect health once again.”

“That isn’t what I meant. I hate this. When will my real body be well again?”

Juh stared at Kem in shocked silence. His train of thought completely derailed by this question that just seemed to have come out of the blue. He realised that telling Kem about the attack on Julia was going to have to wait until he this was sorted out. He had never thought that this was a question Kem would ask him. Surely he realised? He had to understand why this had been done, didn’t he? Surely Juh had told him about the cremation? Hadn’t he?

“Pardon?” Juh finally managed to ask.

“When can I get back into my own body? I mean, you have no idea how difficult it is to put a bra on. They have to be one of the stupidest devices ever created. I mean, having the clasp in the back? Why? It’s insane.”

“Kem¼ There’s something you have to understand.”

Kem paused, mid-rant and looked at Juh. Slow understanding washed over him.

“I am going to get my own body back, aren’t I?” he asked in a whisper.

“You have to understand, Kem. The injuries were severe. Nothing could be done to save you. Your Neumanns were shutting down. Your internal organs were stopping.”

“I’m dead?” Kem felt emotions churning through his body. His eyes started to burn and his heart started thumping loudly. Juh floated in and out of focus.

“No, of course not. You’re alive. I’m talking to you here and now.”

“This isn’t me. This is some sort of half man, half woman freak. I’ve got the memories of a dead man and the body of a dead woman. I’m some kind of zombie.”

“Kem. No. Stop it. Listen¼”

Kem shook his head violently and closed his eyes tightly, trying to block out the world. Tears started to roll down his cheeks and he put his arm up to his eyes to wipe them clean. Discovering the spectacles in the way, he pulled them off and hurled them into the corner of the room, hearing a satisfying tinkle of breaking glass. Juh was still talking to him, but Kem was no longer listening. He was sitting on the bed, eyes tightly closed with tears running down his face, knees pressed against his chest, arms holding tightly on to them. He was rocking back and forth gently, muttering the word ‘no’ to himself in time with the movement.

This is something I could really have done without,” Saffia remarked, acidly. “I’m having enough trouble holding it all together without this happening.”

“Yeah, well. I don’t suppose Kem was really considering how much hassle it would cause you,” Juh told her.

Saffia was in Kem’s bedroom, sitting on the bed next to the tightly curled up ball that Kem had pulled himself into. Juh stared at her from the com-net screen, his face a picture of agonised indecision. Saffia seemed to be have been doing a good job, but then this happened and, whilst it wasn’t Saffia’s fault, he felt that she could have done a better job preparing Kem. Or was that just a desperate attempt to shift the blame? He felt terrible about even thinking such a thing. Intellectually, he knew that it wasn’t her fault at all, she was doing a much better job than he ever could. But, it was not his intellect that was the controlling power at the moment. His emotions had been running riot over the last few weeks. Although, for the most part, those emotions had not been positive ones. No, in retrospect, there hadn’t been many happy moments in the last few weeks, beginning with Angela falling and then continuing through all of this.

“I’m sorry. It’s just it’s been hard. I’m having problems accepting Kem as male. When he got dressed for the first time since he woke up, I was stupid and offered her¼ him a dress to wear. You see what I mean? I can’t even keep the he’s and she’s the right way around for a complete sentence.”

Juh looked at her, suddenly seeing her as a woman in an emotional turmoil deeper than anything he was feeling.

“I understand. Well¼ I don’t understand, really. I don’t suppose anyone would. This is the first time anyone’s been put in a situation like this. Are you having second thoughts about the rightness of it?”

Saffia gave a short laugh.

“Second thoughts? No, I think I’m on to fortieth thoughts. Especially seeing Kem react the way he is. I never really thought how a man would react to suddenly being in a woman’s body. I don’t suppose I’d do very well if I was to wake up in a man’s body with no idea of how I got there.”

“Do you want me to take him off your hands? I’m sure I can find a private nursing home for him, somewhere.”

“No. Everything you said before still applies – about how we can’t make anyone suspicious. I’ll manage, I’ll be okay. And so will Kem. Stay at home, look after Angela. Perhaps when the baby is born you could both come out here and stay awhile. It might help Kem.”

“That would be great. I’m sure Angela would love it and she keeps saying she wants to see Kem again.”

Saffia suddenly had an idea.

“You know what you were saying about Kem re-starting his investigation? Well, how about transferring his AI down here? That might help take his mind of his current problems.”

“Oh damn. You don’t know do you? The police contacted me yesterday. It’s taken them long enough, but they finally managed to tell me. Kem’s office has been wrecked. Julia looks as if she’s been damaged beyond repair and whoever did it killed a police-drone.”

“That means it’s over, doesn’t it?” Saffia asked. “If the AI is destroyed, all his information has gone and you can guarantee that whoever it was will have covered their tracks.”

“Not necessarily. I’m going to go down there tomorrow and take a look to see if anything is salvageable.”

Chapter Thirty

The office was a total wreck. The fire that had started in Julia’s console had spread to consume a large proportion of the two rooms. On top of that, the police had been over the place with a sniffer probe, trying to find any traces of genetic material that may have been left behind by the killer.

He went across to Julia’s console and examined the wreckage that was all that was left of the main unit. Taking a small electro-driver from his bag, he swiftly removed the front of the console. Pulling out the fried insides, he threw them behind him, until he could reach the back corner. He found what he was hoping to find there. The blade that severed the hard wired land line was in place. She may well have been able to salvage something after all, depending on how long she had. He kept intending to replace the line with one that had a higher band width but it had never really seemed a priority. Well, he’d see whether or not Julia was going to pay for that lack of prioritisation.

He reached into his bag and pulled out a tiny comp-pad. Reaching forward into the cramped confines of the console housing, he released the blade. Taking a couple of leads from the casing of his comp-pad, he attached them to the line. Inserting a data crystal into the pad, he punched a short sequence of numbers into it. Almost immediately, he was rewarded with a trickle of data. Looking at the file names he was happy to see that she appeared to have managed to save all of the most important data she held, including some of her personality logs. His backups of her personality were quite old, but he hoped that he’d be able to do something.

***

Once again, Saffia resumed her vigil over the silent form that lay in the bed before her. The bed that she had always shared with Lize ever since she had bought the place. Looking back, she realised that placing Kem in this room and taking one of the other rooms for herself was a slightly odd thing to do. There had obviously been some lingering feeling that somehow Lize was still there. If she was honest with herself, that hope, that desire remained. And, every time she saw Kem, another chip was dislodged from the small pebble of hope lodged inside her heart, sending little icy splinters through her. Although the form was the same, everything else had changed. The way Kem walked and talked. Even the way he sat was different. Lize would never have dreamt of sitting with her legs apart. She was old-fashioned in that respect, but it was one of the things that Saffia had loved about her. To see that essential femininity of Lize disappear whilst her body remained. Even more, to see that body putting on this grotesquely distorted masculine persona that she saw, made her feel ill. She didn’t know if Kem had realised what he was doing, but his attitude was totally different to how it had been during the short period that she had known him before¼before. The Kem that she saw now would never have thought of bringing flowers for a woman, even less would this Kem have been embarrassed by only having one bouquet for two women. She strongly doubted that the sweet look of disappointment that crossed his face on realising that she and Lize were together would show on the face of this Kem. This musing led on to a new thought. Was Kem now a lesbian? She quickly squashed that idea, before it could spark any others. That path led to madness, she decided.

A soft croak came from the bed.

“You’re looking awfully serious.” Kem told her. A look of fear distorted his face. “I’m not dying again am I?”