Genetic Influences Part I free porn video

I was inspired to write this story after reading Skin Deep by Mark McDonald. I wish to offer him thanks for writing such a superb tale. I was greatly intrigued by the idea of someone undergoing a radical altering of his genetic code, which transformed him into an entirely different person changing even his gender. I found myself pondering what would and would not change after such a metamorphosis. I even pulled my old textbook on the brain and behavior to assist me in remembering some possible answers to this question. Eventually, I was driven to write this story. I invite your feedback. Genetic Influences If you suddenly became an entirely different person, what would change? By Carleton Vincent Chapter One: A Favor for Drew I never saw no miracle of science That didn't go from a blessing to a curse Sting The realization had first wrapped its cold tentacles around me during my junior year. I tried to ignore it as it rudely muscled its way into my consciousness, but its presence there was undeniable. It hung on me now as I sat at my desk working on my senior project. Its cold embrace crushed my spirit. "I am nothing more than mediocre," I thought. I desperately wanted to be more. I aspired to make great contributions to the field I loved so intensely. I wanted to earn the respect of people like Leah Kannerman or Sam Hughes?professors whom I held in high esteem. I wanted to one day be granted a position among their ranks. Now that dream seemed to be slipping through my fingers. "This senior project sure isn't going to convince anyone that I to be admitted into a graduate program," I thought?gloomy. "It is extremely unimpressive. Why did I put off writing it so long? I might have done a little better with more time." Then I was abruptly jarred out of my bitter musings by the sound of a loud pounding at the door downstairs. The pounding was insistent. Desperate perhaps. I left my small room, stepping over a pile of laundry on the floor to get to the door, and then I descended the creaky stairs to the first floor of the ancient house that I was renting with four of my buddies. I figured it was one of them at the door. Someone had forgotten his key when leaving for class and was now locked out. It was with surprise that I discovered my brother standing there on the front stoop. "Jack," he said breathlessly. His pale blue eyes were clouded over with worry. "I need you to do a favor for me. I'm sorry to drag you into this, but I have no choice. You are the only one I can trust." He spoke rapidly, firing his words like a pitching machine throwing balls in a batting cage. As he spoke, he paced stiffly across the battered wooden floor of the front room. I was unnerved by his demeanor. This was very unlike the Drew I knew. My older brother was a brilliant third year doctoral student in Nanobotics. He was very smart?perhaps he was a genius. Armed with his formidable intellectual prowess and sharp sense of logic, he had always been able to grapple with whatever conundrums life tossed into his path. This had afforded him an ever-present confidence and well-honed bearing of cool and calm. So seeing him shaken up was a bit like having something as reliable as the netstream service crash unexpectedly. "I need you to go to locker A-47 in the Student Fitness Center," he continued. "You'll find a metal box in it. Get it and bring it back here. Keep it safe in your room, and whatever you do, don't mess with what's inside. Can you do that for me?" "Sure, bro," I replied slowly. "I'm goin' there later anyway to play b- ball with some guys." "Good," he said. "It has to be gotten today, because they don't let you keep anything in those lockers overnight. But if you get the sense that you're being followed by someone, then abort. Come back here without the box." "Followed?" "The chances of that happening are extremely remote. They think I've still got it, so they'll be following me." "What are you talking about? You're sounding all paranoid. Did you eat some bad brownies at a party or something, bro?" "I'll lead them away from campus," he continued?not seeming to have processed my reference to hash brownies. "I'll try to shake them and then double back here to get the box from you; but if I don't make it within?say?four days call Professor Javier Del Garza. He'll be back from his conference in Reno by then." "Professor Del Garza? I thought you worked with Professor Krieger." "Yah, I do; but he's in on it. He's as dirty as the rest of them. But Del Garza?he can be trusted. He's a good man." "You're scaring me here, Drew. Like I just said?you're sounding paranoid." "I'm not paranoid. This is real, Jack." I remembered that Drew was working with Dr. Krieger on a project for Nanogen Industries. He hadn't said much about what he was doing, only that there was a much tighter security protocol at the lab nowadays. I wondered if some other company was trying to steal the technology that Drew was developing. "What are you involved in?" I probed cautiously. "Corporate espionage?" "I wish I could tell you more, bud; but I can't risk dragging you into this any more than I already have." "Are you in danger?" "I'll be okay. I'm just being monitored at this point. No one should be watching you though. They won't have even figured out you're my brother yet since we have different last names; and I managed to slip out of my apartment unnoticed, so they won't know I've been here to talk to you. You will just be another student to them, which means you should be able to get to the box without drawing their attention. Just stuff it in your gym bag when you bring it back here, okay? and don't tell any of your friends about it." "What's in the box?" "I can't involve you any more than I have already," he reiterated. "Come on," I complained, "you're involved in some kind of cool corporate espionage scenario, and you're not even going to let me in on it?" "Jack, this is not a game," he said sternly. "There's a lot riding on this. So just do what I ask please, and don't ask questions. And don't mess with what's in the box." "I got it," I said. "And remember, don't tell a soul that you have it." "I understood you the first time." I was getting irritated. "I may not be as smart as you, but I'm not stupid." I admit it. I harbored a lot of old jealousy, towards Drew. He had always been a straight-A student, finishing at the top of every class of which he was a member. And, not only that, he possessed finely chiseled angular features made him look like a movie star. Everyone thought he was real green. All my life, I had been living in his shadow and never able to measure up to the standard he had set. "I know you're not stupid, Jack," he told me seriously; "but you have to admit that you are not the most focused person." "So?" I snapped back. Now he was just getting insulting. I hated it when he brought up my attention problem. So I blanked out sometimes when people were talking to me. That didn't mean I couldn't follow simple instructions. Fuck him! "So," he replied, "I need you to be focused about this. This is very important. Just do exactly what I have asked. With luck, I'll be back here in three or four days. If all goes well, I might even be able to tell you a little bit about this whole situation. Okay?" "Okay," I said stonily. "Here's the key to the locker," he said palming me a small key with A-7 printed on it. I took it and stuffed into the pocket of my shorts. My brother thanked me a couple times me for doing him the favor, then he left my place with the final admonition not to call him because his stream line address was being tapped. Fuck him, I thought again as I closed the door and went up a creaky flight of stairs back to my room. ~ My buddies and I played basketball every week at the Student Fitness center. The games were setup by university student rec. department, and were mostly just for fun. Some of the guys took them pretty seriously though. This week we were matched against a team from Mu Kappa fraternity. Connor had the ball, and Mu Kappa players were swarming him; but he managed a pass to Hayden. Hayden dribbled it down to the court and shot a pass my way. My buddies had asked me to join their team at the beginning of the semester, because they were one guy short. I explained that, even on a good day, I am only a mediocre athlete. This did not seem to matter. "We got Hayden, Connor and Kogo," one of them told me, "they all played in high school; so it shouldn't matter if you're just average." Unfortunately, my playing was really stinking up the court that afternoon. I saw Hayden's pass coming at me too late, and was unable to react fast enough. The ball bounced off my fingertips and thumped across the floor into the hands of one of the guys on the Mu Kappa team. The opposing player then managed to bring it back around the court to score a basket. A round of high fives was shared between he and his teammates. My clumsiness did not escape the notice of my teammates, unfortunately. "Nice goin', fumbles," chided Connor. Connor was one of the guys I rented the house with. He was an average sized guy with straight brown hair and bright glint in his eyes that bespoke of his quick wit. He was the kind of guy who was always cracking jokes. Though usually cheerful and good-natured, I could tell he was a bit irritated with me for my blunder. A couple other guys on the team seemed to share this irritation, throwing me reproving looks. "Sorry guys," I offered apologetically. "Fuck!" I thought. "Why do I have to suck at everything I try? Being a screw up is getting so god damn old." Despite my crappy playing, my buddies and I were able to prevail by a slim margin. This was owed mainly to the fact that the other team wasn't very good. After taking a quick shower and getting back into my street clothes, I went to the desk to return my towel and locker key. Then, as I was heading for the stairs, it struck me that I was forgetting something important. I stopped for a moment wondering what that could be. "Oh yah," I thought after a few moments contemplation; "that thing Drew wanted me to get. Shit! I almost forgot about it. Why do I always forget shit?" I dug into my pocket and fished out the small key. "Drew would have had a freakin' fit if I failed to get his damn box for him?" I wove my way back through the rows of lockers, until I found A7. "Hey Jack, are you comin' or what?" Hayden called out to me. Hayden was another one of the guys renting the house with me. I peered up over the top of the lockers and called back, "Give me a minute." Hayden was wearing that quirky smile that so often appeared on his face. His crown of curling golden-brown hair was damp from the shower, and there was an untamed look in the amber eyes beneath the tangled locks. I had often thought that, in another age, Hayden would have been the kid who was crazy about hotrods. He had the sort of reckless bravado that made it easy to imagine him challenging the guy stopped along side him at an intersection to a drag race. Of course, that age was long gone. The average teenager could only dream of owning his or her own car nowadays. Moreover, the cars that were on the road were electric and not nearly as powerful as the hotrods of that long gone era. Those gas powerhouses now existed only as museum pieces. "What, you need more time to put on your make up?" Hayden demanded. "Very funny," I called back. I found the metal box inside the locker. It was about ten centimeters tall, 30 wide and 30 deep. Property of Nanogen Industries was printed on the top. I couldn't believe I had almost forgotten to retrieve it. "You're taking longer than my sister," Hayden complained. I zipped the box into my bag and then strolled back. "I just wanted to make myself look pretty for you, honey," I said with a smirk. Hayden socked me in the arm. I gave him a return shot in the chest, and we both chortled foolishly. Kogo and Connor were waiting for us at the top of the stairs. "Hey," Kogo said as we made our way out the exit. "You goin' out with that girlfriend of yours tonight?" "Nah," I replied. "At least I got no plans to." "Green," the tall Econ major said. "That means you can go out to Donovan's with us. Or are you gonna go all teckie on us again and say you got to study?" "No way," I said. "Going to Donovan's with you guys would be real green." When we got back to the house, Connor, Kogo and Hayden all disappeared into their rooms to work on assignments. I had some reading to do myself. But I was unable to resist the temptation to look inside the box. I dug it out of my bag and set in down on the marred surface of the coffee table in the front room. Then I flipped both latches and opened the lid. There were three glass tubes and a hypo inside. The tubes were filled with some kind of blue fluid. I picked up one of the tubes and read its label. Caution, it said, contains Nanbobotic Drones. What appeared to be an ID number was printed below: GS347-AS-M-20. The nanos in the tube could, no doubt, be injected into the blood stream with the hypo. I assumed that the microscopic robots were designed to alter DNA in certain cells, since the box was the property of NGI. I wondered what specific function these nanobots were designed to perform. The laws limiting genetic alteration were fairly strict and currently there were only a few approved uses of the technology. Asthma sufferers could be treated with nanos that altered the tiny hairs on their lungs, allowing them to throw away their inhalers. Mental diseases like schizophrenia were being treated with nanos that altered the functioning of dopamine receptors in the brain. There was a handful of other approved uses as well. Certainly, countless other medical applications of gene-altering nanobots were possible, but every time a medical reaearcher tried to get the go ahead to develop one for use outside the lab, voices of caution were raised from international watchdog organizations. Public opinion definitely favored this cautious use of nano-technology. Consensus on the street these days was that any new scientific advance?even when it seemed to offer promises as great as those of nanobotics?was potentially very dangerous. It was easy to see how this belief system had evolved. After all, humans had ultimately reaped disastrous results from tasting the fruits of scientific genius. The waves of deadly anti-biotic resistant staph infections that had taken so many lives during the early decades of the 21st century were one such example. These deadly strains had been produced by overuse of medicines that had once seemed like a tremendous blessing. Then, of course, there was the global warming we had caused with carbon-emitting industry and automobiles. New York and Miami were now half flooded by the rising sea levels that had resulted from glacial melting. Some island nations had almost totally disappeared under the foamy brine. The memories of these disastrous results were quite fresh in the public conscious, and an attitude of wariness of any technological innovation pervaded. This wariness seemed particular acute when it came to genetic engineering. Most viewed this kind of tinkering with Mother Nature's design scheme to be venturing way too far into God's dominion. As a result, people like my brother operated under tight restrictions imposed by international regulatory bodies. Of course, there were stories circulating the netstream, which told of scientists who flouted these restrictions and developed dangerous unapproved technology for sale on the black market. According to some of these postings, wealthy parents were paying staggering sums to have their children turned into specimens of near genetic perfection. Other postings told more far-fetched tales of mad scientists playing with genetic code to create monsters. I'd read one posting about a human with gills and scales who was being kept in tank located in a secret lab in New Mexico. I found that one particularly disturbing. None of these stories had ever been verified to my knowledge, and they seemed to be little more than urban legends. Yet, for a brief moment, I entertained the thought that the nanos in these glass tubes might be designed enhance genetics and could turn me into a new and improved version of myself. It would be supremely green, I thought, to awaken into a world, in which I was suddenly smarter than 99% of my classmates and could outplay even Hayden on the basketball court. If this, in fact, were some kind of illegal technology, it would certainly explain my brother's caginess. He would be worried about being caught. Perhaps the people following him were agents of the Inter-Governmental Council who had discovered what he and Dr. Krieger had been doing. Logic told me that this was highly unlikely, however. Drew was too smart to get involved in something like that. He wouldn't risk the bright future that lay ahead of him for the lure of easy money. Nor would he ever involve me in such a matter. My brother had probably only helped to create something as mundane as a cure for a bee sting allergy. That was definitely the most likely possibility. The people following him were not government agents trying to prevent sale of illegal technology. Instead, they were only corporate spies trying to steal the product of Drew's hard work and innovation. Yes?this seemed like the most logical explanation to me given everything I knew about my bother and the world at large. However, it was not exactly the correct explanation. I replaced the glass tube into its place in the box and closed and latched the lid. Then I carried it up to my room to stow it under my bed. Just as I was stepping over the pile of laundry by the door, my netstream phone sounded. I stopped and dug it out of my pocket. Then I flipped it on and the image of my girlfriend's face was projected into the air before me like a bas-relief sculpture made of light. "Hi Jeannie," I said. I met Jeannie my freshman year. I was utterly dumbfounded, when she showed an interest in me. I couldn't believe that such an attractive and intelligent girl could want to be with me. But, somehow, with a lot of prodding from Hayden, I managed to get up the courage to ask her out. We'd been together for two years. Two great years. Lately, though, things hadn't been quite the same. She had been getting a bit moody. When I asked her what was wrong, she would always say nothing. Why the hell do girls do that, I would wonder in frustration, "Jack," she said. "We need to talk." "Crap," I thought, suddenly feeling as though a boa constrictor was pulling itself tight around my chest. "Another talk." This was really turning into a shitty day. ~ Jeannie sat across the small table from me with her finger hooked in the handle of her coffee mug. She was wearing a short denim skirt. I liked that skirt a lot. "I thought that fight we had last weekend was settled," I said. We were in a coffee shop, which had always been one of our favorite places to go and study together. There was a nice view of campus out the window, and it was particularly beautiful this time of year with desert flowers in full bloom. "You apologized for being overly emotional," I continued, "and we made up after that." "Well," she said faintly, "I'm still upset about it." Her voice was as beautiful to me as the sound of a silver flute. I had always thought that it would be great hearing that voice say good morning to me at the start of everyday. "What do you mean?" I asked, perplexed. "What's there to be upset about? It's over now." She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, looking down at her coffee. "It's just that I'm still feeling... oh... I'm not sure what I'm feeling." "Well if you don't know what the problem is, how can I help you?" I demanded, feeling my face grow warm. I was getting really frustrated with her lately. Then I felt my frustration turn into desperation when I heard her say the words... "I really like you, Jack, and it's been great being with you, but..." "But..." I echoed. "Things just aren't working out." "What do you mean they aren't working out? Things have been great." "It's me, Jack," she said in the tone that girls use when they are trying to let a guy down easy. "I just can't be in a serious relationship right now. I need some time alone to figure out who I am." "You're breaking up with me?" I said, feeling myself turn cold. "I'm sorry, Jack." She was weeping. "But what about all the good times we've had together?" I demanded. "You want to just throw all that away?" "Don't make this any harder, Jack," she pleaded through her tears. I was aware of an uncomfortable weight on my chest. Outside, a foolish bird was singing. ~ I upended the shot glass, feeling the pleasantly fiery contents fill my mouth. Then I set it back down on the bar and looked over at Hayden through a hazy curtain of alcohol intoxication. "I'm never going to get another girl as good as her," I moaned. "She was so hot?tall?gorgeous figure?a beautiful ass. And she was smart too." "She'll come to her senses," Hayden said. "Trust me, in a month's time max she'll decide she wants to get back together again." "No, she won't," I replied hopelessly. Even with the analgesic effects of the whiskey, I felt a sharp pain shoot through me. "She was right to break up with me. I'm a loser, and I'll never amount to much. It's like Drew always says, I don't focus very well. That's always getting in my way. It's why I always stumble through everything I try. That's the real reason Jeannie left me. She doesn't think a screw-up like me will be able to provide for her." "Jeez?he's really taking this awful hard," I heard Kogo say with his musical sounding Ugandan accent.. "Yah," agreed Connor, "the guy doesn't do the whole ?poor me' thing halfway." Sometime after I downed my sixth or seventh shot, I heard the voice of Connor's sister Deirdre, say: "Hey guys. I finished my assignments and thought I'd come join you." I hadn't thought she would be able to make it. I looked up blearily at her and slurred out, "Hey, Dee," It was a Deirdre's freshman year, and she was living at the girls' dormitory way on the south end of campus. She was at our place quite a bit, though, and I had come to think of her as a younger sister. I think she appreciated having us to look out for her. "What's up with Jack?" she asked?concerned. "Jeannie broke up with him," Hayden told her. "Oh lord," she said gravely. "That's definitely not good." Then she saw the row of shot glasses in front of me. "Hey, did he drink all those?" Deirdre was a sprite-like figure, standing at just five foot one with a delicate frame and elfin features. But the spark of anger that appeared in her blue eyes when she saw the shot glasses intimidated even Hayden. "Is that a problem?" he asked. "What did you let him have all that whiskey for? Why didn't you cut him off?" Hayden shrugged. "Thought it would help," he said with that quirky smile of his. Deirdre exhaled disgustedly. "Men," she grumbled. "Think the way to deal with feelings is to get themselves blotto." I felt her small slender hands tug at my arm, "Come on, Jack," she said. "You don't look too good, so I better get you home." I slid off my seat and allowed Deirdre to guide me, stumbling, towards the door. "What are you doing," said Hayden. "Jack, needs his buddies right now." "What he needs is someone to nurse the monster hangover he's going to have tomorrow," Deirdre shot back. I stepped out into the night air with Deirdre. Nighttime temperatures dropped quite a bit in the desert this time of year. It had been a pleasant twenty-two degrees Celsius that afternoon when I was at the coffee shop with Jeannie, and now it was only around five. Fortunately, Deirdre had grabbed my clone leather jacket for me. She handed to me, and I shrugged it on. Then we began our trek north towards my place. "I never saw it coming, Dee," I slurred. "I know bud," she replied gently, patting me on the arm. "Thanks for looking out for me," I said. "No prob." We walked on in the dessert night, with me stumbling along the sidewalk. The tall palm trees that had been planted everywhere around campus swayed, palms rustling, in the chill evening breeze. I found myself thinking about the NGI box under my bed. "If those nanos could turn me into a specimen of near genetic perfection," I thought, "then perhaps I could get Jeannie back. She would want me if she knew I could garner a bright future for us?if she knew I possessed the talents needed to land a high-paying career." Then the feeling that the contents of my stomach were churning upwards in a determined effort to make an escape interrupted my ruminations. I ran over to a flowering cactus plant and wretched a couple times. "You okay?" Deirdre asked me. "Yah," I managed to answer, wiping off my mouth with my sleeve. After assuring Deirdre that I was fine a couple more times, we continued walking. When we got back to my place, Deirdre helped me up to my room. Then, sweet thing that she was, she told me that she was going to stay over and sleep on the big couch downstairs. "If you need anything just call down for me," she said. Then she left me in my room, closing the door after her. My mind was still quite hazy as I stood there on the sagging floor, and I don't really remember everything that happened next. I recall pulling the box out from under my bed and thinking that there would be no harm in injecting one of the tubes of nanos into me. If the nanos were simply designed to do something like cure a bee sting allergy, then there would be no effect on me. If they were like the nanos talked about on the netstream postings, however, they would make me a genetically perfect specimen. Then I would be able to get Jeannie back. It seemed to my alcohol soaked brain like there were no risks involved, only potential benefits. The next thing I remember was pulling one of the tubes out of it's indentation in the foam rubber. My vision blurred by the alcohol, I could barely make out the serial number printed on the label. It was GS117-CA-F-19. I fumbled with the tube, almost dropping it onto the floor and shattering it, as I tried to insert it into the hypo. After that, my memory gets hazy again. When I woke up the next morning, I had a splitting headache and my mouth felt like it was full of cotton. I got up out of bed, groaning, and I stepped on the hypo. "What's that doing here?" I wondered. I picked it up and studied it, seeing the empty tube. Then the shards of memory came back to my aching conscious. "I injected myself with the nanos," I realized. I wondered what the hell I had been thinking. Even blind drunk, I should have known better than that. Putting those nanos into me had been the absolute height of stupidity. I had had no idea what they would do. I could have woken up a scaly fish man thrashing desperately with gills pumping?unable to breathe in air. That would have been a rather unpleasant way to go. I looked at myself in the mirror on my closet door. I wasn't a fish man, at least. In fact, there was no discernable difference in my appearance at all. The nanos had not turned me into a specimen of genetic perfection. "Drew's going to kill me," I realized as I glanced down at the hypo in my hand. He had given me fairly specific instruction not to mess with what was in the box. Instructions, I had failed to follow in a big way. My muscles tensed in anticipation of what my brother was going to say to me. I could here this sharp tone lancing through me. I put the hypo on my nightstand and pulled on a pair of jeans and a t- shirt. Then I went downstairs to the kitchen where I found, Deirdre whipping up some pancake batter. "How you feeling?" she asked. "I've been better," I reported. "Well, you'll feel a little better after you get something into your stomach. I'm making pancakes for you." She liked me, I realized at that moment. I mean?she liked me as more than just a friend. I could tell by the way she looked at me... by her smile... and by the way she was trying to take care of me. I hadn't seen how she felt before. Probably because I had been so wrapped up in Jeannie. "You're too good to me," I said. "I know," she replied. She was a pretty girl, no doubt, and she was real green, too. She was green as pine, but I wasn't ready to think about entering into a relationship with anyone else right now. I still just wanted Jeannie back. "I did something really stupid," I told her, as she poured batter into the skillet. "It's understandable that you drank too much, Jack. You were upset about Jeannie. Those big jerks should have had enough sense to stop you." "That's not what I was referring to," I said. I told her all about my brother's visit the day before and about the glass tubes filled with nanobots suspended in blue liquid he had instructed me to retrieve from the Student Fitness Center. Then I told her about how in my drunken state, I had foolishly injected myself with them before passing out on my bed. I'm not sure why I told her about my lapse in judgment. I guess I just wanted to confide in someone and thought she would understand. A look of concern flashed across her eyes as I told my story. "That was a really a bad idea, Jack," she said. "Yah, I know," I replied. "But it doesn't seem as though I've suffered any ill effects." "Are you sure?" "I feel fine. That's all I can go by at this point. When my brother shows up again, I can find out for sure what the nanos were programmed to do and whether or not I have anything to worry about. Then, after I find out I'm fine, my brother will probably kill me." "Maybe you should go see a doctor or something. I mean?to make sure that the nanos haven't harmed you." That did not seem like a good idea. I didn't know who those people were who were monitoring my brother. If they were corporate spies, they would know how to get a hold of my medical records and perhaps get a clue as to what my brother was working on. Then he'd really be miffed at me. And worse, I would feel like an even bigger fuck up than I did already. "I'll be fine," I tried to assure her. As she grumbled something in response about how men were too afraid to admit weakness to see a doctor, Hayden and Conner appeared. Kogo and my fifth housemate Lisle followed shortly after. Everyone seemed pleased that Deirdre had seen fit to make breakfast. "Make sure Jack gets some out of this first batch," Deirdre told everyone as she brought a plate piled with pancakes to the table. "He needs something to settle his stomach after you jerks let him drink so much." "I wasn't even there," complained Lisle. "I was out on a hot date with Lelia." The pancakes did help me feel a little better. After finishing the last sweet buttery morsel of my first stack, I got up and went to the fridge to get some tomato juice. That was always good medicine for a hangover. I brought a glass of the juice back to my seat and snagged a few more pancakes from the plate in the center of the table. Then I noticed Kogo staring at my hand. "What's that stuff," he queried, pointing. I looked down and saw a slick pinkish substance on the back of my hand. "It's spreading," noted Conner uneasily. "Oh jeez," I said, springing up from my chair and causing it to fall backwards. "You're right." The substance now covered my whole forearm, and another patch had appeared on my other hand." "The nanos, Jack," Deirdre gasped. "It must just take a while for them to begin to work." "Nanos?" asked Lisle. "What are you talking about?" "He injected himself with nanos his brother designed," Deirdre told him. There was fear in her voice. She was afraid for me. "What the hell are they doing to me?" I cried. I was now completely covered in the slimy pink goo. My housemates (accept for Lisle) had gotten up from the table and backed away from me?looks of horror on their faces. Lisle actually took a step closer and leaned over to examine me. "It appears to be the first stage of a transformation," Lisle said. "But I can't be sure, this isn't like any technology I've ever read about." "What am I going to turn into?" I asked in a voice that had become gurgling. "A fish man?" With that, I felt the strength leave my legs, and I fell to the floor under the table. I tried to call out, but all I could produce now was a gurgling sound. I felt my awareness begin to fade, as my body re-molded itself into some new shape. I was aware of talking, but could not make out what was being said. Then, after a march of mad moments that seemed like eternity, I did understand some of the sounds. It was Lisle's voice. "His skin is returning to normal;" I heard him say. I looked down at my hands and arms, seeing that the pinkish substance was in fact taking on the look of flesh again?human flesh. I ran a hand over my face. There was a nose, lips and a mouth. It felt like a human face. Feeling strength return to my limbs, I reached up and grabbed the lip of the table to steady myself as I pulled myself up into a kneeling position. "What's happening now?" I heard Deirdre ask?voice trembling. "It seems to be finished," Lisle replied?astonished by what he'd just seen. "And Jack is a... he's a girl. He's changed into a girl." At first, his words did not register. I was still half-dazed by the trauma of the experience. "What are you talking about?" I croaked out. My voice sounded odd to me. Then, as I pulled my self up off the floor, I noticed that there was weight on my chest that was shifting about as I moved. I looked down and saw that two globes of flesh now resided under my t-shirt. I could feel them, stretching the cottony fabric. "What the fuck?" I said. Then I reached down and grabbed at the denim material between my legs. I could find nothing underneath it. "Shit!" I cried out in voice that I realized was a couple octaves higher than it should be. Lisle was right! I was a girl! "Shit!" I cried again. Chapter Two: Stranger in the Mirror "This was not what was supposed to happen!" I cried rather foolishly. "I was supposed to be changed into a new and improved version of myself. I was not supposed to change into a girl!" I had no right to complain about consequences. Nor did I have the right to expect things to turn out, as I would have wished. No right at all. I had made another truly Gilliganesque blunder, after all. I had screwed up with dramatic flair and now had to accept the results. I should be glad, in fact, that I had not suffered an even more horrific fate. Of course, at that particular moment in time, I was not in a state of mind to look at my situation with that kind of detached objectively. I was too much in shock from what had happened to me. Switching gender unexpectedly is quite a traumatic experience, after all. Kogo and Deirdre had only just managed to get me to stop hyperventilating. Now they were letting me pace up and down the front room's battered hardwood floor, hoping that this would help me to calm down further. I felt unsteady and off balance as I moved in this body, I noted?probably because my center of gravity and skeletal structure had been altered. I was also in real danger of tripping on my jeans as I paced, because they were now a good two inches too long for me; so I paused long enough to crouch down and roll them up a couple times. When I was finished, a pair of bare feet that were much smaller and more delicate looking than I was used to seeing were fully revealed. I stood back up, once again aware of the shifting weight under a t-shirt that was now much too big in the shoulders for me. "This is not what was supposed to happen at all," I repeated hopelessly. "Like I said before, I'm pretty sure it can be reversed," Lisle said. As a Pre-med student, he had had an intro class into uses of nanobots. His statement, therefore, reflected more than just speculation. "If you'd calm down for a minute, I could tell you more about it." "Okay," I said. "Okay, I'm calm enough now. Tell me, please. How can this be undone?" Lisle, who was seated on the worn leather couch we had bought at a garage sale that August, paused to take a breath before launching into an explanation. "Well," he began, "if the nanobots are still in your body and activated, then it should be possible to instruct them to alter your genetic code back to its original sequence. The nanobots would hold a record of that original sequence, you see, to use as a comparison while they were making the change. "If the nanbots were programmed to deactivate themselves, however, then there would be no way to restore your original code. After performing their function, the nanos would have moved to your bladder, turn themselves off and wait to be peed out of your body the next time you used the toilet. As soon as they turned themselves off, the record of your genetic sequence held in their memories would be lost. "It stands to reason though, that these nanobots are not programmed to deactivate?at least not right away. These nanos have imposed a completely new genetic code, essentially changing you into a whole new person. I would think that someone creating nanos to do something like this would probably make sure that there was a way to reverse the change. That way if a person decided that they didn't like the change, they could go back to their old self." I stood there in my bare feet looking at him with my arms crossed under my new breasts, trying to absorb everything he was saying. The morning chill had made the room drafty, and I could see the nipples protruding under the thin fabric of my t-shirt. "How can we find out for sure if there is a way to change me back?" I asked when the plump pre-med student had finally finished speaking. "They could scan you at the medical center and find out." "We can't go there," I said. I was beginning to calm down enough to think straight, at this point. The prospect of being able to return to normal was helping. Provided Lisle was correct, I would be able to just go back to being my old self and could forget about this whole mess. That's all I wanted at this point. "When my brother stopped by yesterday," I continued, "he mentioned that he was being monitored. It seems pretty likely now that he was being monitored by inter-government agents, who suspected that he was involved in the development of illegal technology. If I go to the medical center, then they will know for certain that he was involved in something pretty damn shady. I will be signing his arrest warrant." "Why you so worried about protecting Drew," Connor demanded, "after he dragged you into this situation without even warning you..." "Because Drew is his brother," Hayden interrupted, "and you don't rat out your brother to the IGC. And who's to say that Jack here wouldn't get arrested along with Drew and charged with being an accomplice. You know the way IGC men work in cases like this. They like to throw everyone in jail and then take a few years figuring out who really belongs there." "Then the only option, Jack, is to wait for your brother to return," Lisle said. "He will know if this is reversible." "Drew didn't seem too sure when or even if he'd return," I said. "I can't wait around for an indefinite period of time, wondering if I'm going to be able to get my life back." "Well what about the professor supervising the project?" Lisle asked. "No, my brother said that Krieger couldn't be trusted. He did say, though, that I could go to Dr. Del Garza. But he's at a conference at Reno right now. I think he's supposed to be there at least a couple more days." "Then we'll just wait for him to get back," Lisle said. "But Lisle," I said, suddenly seeing a problem with this plan. "If the nanos are active, we don't really know how long they will remain active, do we? They could be programmed to shut down in just 24-hours or something." "That's true," admitted Lisle. "So we should get to Del Garza ASAP," I said. "We could catch a train to Reno and find him at the conference," Hayden offered. "Yah," I said. "That's where I was headed too. But you need an updated ID file to get on a train. Do you think that guy you know from high school?Yang?could burn me one?" "I don't see why not," Hayden said. "He got us all fake ID's so we could get into the bars freshman year." "That's good," I said. "I just wish there was a way I didn't have to remain female?even if it's just until we get back from Reno. It's just too fucking weird. No offense Dee." "None taken," she replied. "What if I injected myself with another one of those tubes, Lisle? There's at least a fifty percent chance it would make me male." "That could be dangerous," he cautioned. "You don't know how they might affect the nanos already in your body. They could cause them to shut down for example. Then your original genetic pattern would be lost." I sighed. "I was afraid you'd say something like that. I guess I have no choice, then, but to deal with this." "Sorry, Jack, I just don't see any other options." "Jeezus," I swore, "this is starting out to be the mother of all bad days." "Don't worry, bud," Hayden said. "Things are going to work out. By this time tomorrow, you'll be your old stupid self again. Then all we'll have to worry about is keeping you from doing something this damn jug-headed again." "Thanks, Hayden," I said?smiling in spite of myself. "And don't worry. If I get myself out of this mess, I'll never ever fool around with the mysterious boxes my brother asks me to pick up again." ~ "Here they are," I said, when I found a stack of neatly folded girls' clothing sitting on a shelf in my closet. There was a skirt, a couple tops and some under things. I pulled them out and showed them to Deirdre. "Jeannie left these here," I told her. "I guess I can wear them if I have to." "You're tall like she is and about the same body type, so most of that stuff should fit you well enough," she said as she looked me over. "But you are a bit?uh?better endowed than Jeannie in the chest area, so I don't think you'll be able to wear the bra." I felt my face redden. "Wait here," she said making her way to my door and stepping over the pile of laundry, "I'll be back in a sec. I think I know where to find a bra that will fit you." This was just too surreal. Less than an hour ago, this girl was looking at me with a spark of romantic interest. Now she was talking to me about my bust size. I could tell she was uncomfortable about the situation by the stiff way she held herself. How fucking humiliating this was! I set Jeannie's clothes down on my bed and then plopped down beside them. "I can't believe I'm actually doing this," I thought gloomily as I looked through the stack. "I'm actually going to dress up in my ex- girlfriend's clothes." There was really no other choice, of course. I couldn't traipse around in the things I was wearing. For one thing, they no longer fit me. The jeans were tight in the hips, too big in the waist and too long in the legs. The shirt hung on my frame loosely, coming down to my thighs. It looked like a nightshirt. Not only would it be uncomfortable moving around in this ill-fitting garb, but I would also draw a lot of attention to myself. That was something I definitely did not want. Right now, drawing attention to myself could be very dangerous." A few minutes later, Deirdre returned carrying a beige bra in her hands. "I guessed that Lisle and Lelia had reached the stage in their relationship where she would start leaving clothes at his place, and I was right." I took the undergarment from her rather gingerly. "Umm?thanks." "The cup size is a C, which should be about right," Deirdre said. "You'll probably have to adjust the straps and make them a bit longer though, because Lelia's short." "Uhh?Dee," I said after standing there silently with for a few moments with the bra in my hands. "Yes?" "Could you step out while I get dressed?" The sprite-like girl gave me a nervous half-grin. "Sure, Jack." I pulled off my shirt, deciding to get the bra on first. I'd seen Jeannie put one on lots of times. For her it was a task performed quickly and without thought, but I found myself fumbling awkwardly with the straps. Finally, I decided to fasten it in the front and then spin it around my body and pull it up into place. That worked okay, but then it took me several more moments of fumbling to get the straps adjusted and in place. With that task completed, I shed my jeans and picked up a pair of Jeannie's panties. They were satin with pretty lace, and I was acutely uncomfortable at the thought of putting them on. There wasn't really any choice though, as my own underwear didn't fit me anymore. They were too big in the waist and kept sliding down. These panties were what were designed for the body I now inhabited. I stepped reluctantly into them and pulled them up into place, trying not to look too much at myself as I did so. Seeing the female body I inhabited triggered a very uncomfortable feeling. The panties fit well enough?but felt alien to me. The satin material clung to me all over. It was cool and smooth against the softer female skin I now possessed. The strangest feeling, though, was having no package resting between my legs. There was nothing down there to be jostled as I moved. As I turned back to the bed, I caught a fleeting glimpse of a girl with a tall and slender curving figure in the mirror on my closet door. Her skin was a couple shades darker than mine was, and she possessed long dark-brown hair. "That girl in the mirror was me," I thought with a bolt of panic. I did not dare to turn back for a longer look at her. "She was actually me! This is just too fucking unreal!" I picked out a white ribbed top and a lightweight khaki skirt from the stack of Jeannie's things. After pulling on the top and zipping on the skirt, I rolled on a pair of Jeannie's thigh-high hose. Lastly, I pulled a pair of clone leather boots out of the closet. They were the only footwear that Jeannie had over here currently. Fortunately, the heels were not very high. When I left my room, I found Deirdre waiting for me. "You?uh?look good, Jack," she said incredulous. "You look like a model out of a fashion magazine, in fact." I dropped my eyes, embarrassed. "Sorry," she apologized. "It's just that took me by surprised. Those other clothes really hid your figure." "It's okay," I said with my eyes still down cast. As I walked back down the stairs behind Deidre, I could feel the movement of my chest being constrained by the cups of the bra. The t- shirt had felt rough against my now much more sensitive nipples, but the satin material of the bra was comfortable. I tried not to dwell too much on these strange sensations, as they only served to remind me of my lost masculinity. Yet the more I tried to ignore them, the more they seemed to dominate my awareness. "Wow," said Connor when he saw me descend the stairs in Jeannie's clothes. He was unable to keep his eyes from popping out of their sockets. "You are one hot girl, Jack." I felt my face redden. This was utterly humiliating. "You're making her uncomfortable," Deirdre snapped at her brother. She had referred to me as a "her" without even seeming to realize it. Kogo, Lisle and Hayden all gathered around me as I stepped onto the floor of the front room. I could feel them gaze at me. There eyes were like probing laser scanners moving along the gracefully curving contours of that body I inhabited. The lower centers of their brains were sending their bodies signals. Signals that were hard to ignore. Signals that told them that their eyes were looking at a female. A female that possessed the physical characteristics of a highly valuable mate. This all was hard to reconcile with what their minds told them. That I was just their buddy Jack under some kind of genetic guise. As I stood there, the air grew heavy; and I was having a difficult time breathing. I was aware of feeling intensely uncomfortable. I desperately wanted them to stop looking at me like that. I wanted them to treat me as they always had. I wanted to just be their buddy Jack. "Well," said Deirdre stepping in to interpose herself between my four housemates and me. "I'm going with Jack to Reno. He's going to need my help coping with this?uh?change." "Yah," agreed Kogo. "That makes sense. Who else should go, do you think?" Connor insisted that if his sister was going, then he was going too. That led to a fight. Deirdre snapped at her brother, telling him that she was a big girl and didn't need him to look after her. Ever the mediator, Kogo broke in and interrupted the argument. "Come on guys," he said. "There's no time for this." "Yah," agreed Hayden. "Dee you're in. I'm going too; and Kogo, why don't you also come? We need someone with a cool head." Kogo nodded. "But..." Connor objected. "But nothing," Hayden said. "It's settled. We'll look after your little sister, don't worry." Hayden was the alpha dog in the kennel and his hackles were raised at this point. Connor reluctantly backed down from further confrontation. How much like animals we are, I thought. "I was hoping to go, so I could check out the conference," complained Lisle. "Nanobotics is such a fascinating field." "This ?aint a pleasure cruise, bud," Hayden said with a tone of rebuke. The four of us were getting ready to head out, when we heard a knock at the door. "It's a couple guys in suits," Kogo said after peering out the window. "IGC men," Hayden concluded. "Fuck!" I exclaimed. I sounded silly hearing myself swearing like a sailor in with a silky-sounding voice, but the word fit. "The hypo!" I hissed. "Lisle, stash it under a couch cushion. Quick!" I felt numb with fear as Kogo opened the door. My heart was slamming against my chest. "May we speak with Mr. Jack Finch?" one of the stone-faced men asked, flashing IGC identification at Kogo. I suddenly felt light-headed, like I was going to pass out. It was the IGC. It really was the fucking IGC. "He ain't home right now," Hayden said, stepping in between Kogo and the IGC agent. "Went to the Student Union to study, I guess." The agent's gaze settled on Hayden. "Our scanners indicate that his ID file is in this building." "Must have forgotten it," Hayden said with a shrug. "It's against the law to be out without valid identification," the agent said. "You'll have to write him a ticket when he gets back then," Hayden said, keeping a straight face. "When do you expect him back?" the agent probed coolly. "Can't say." The man stared at Hayden for several moments with a piercing gaze. He was a human lie detector, I felt; and he was trying to get a reading on any sign that the man before him was not being honest. Ultimately, it seemed as though the readings he got were inconclusive, and he had no choice but to accept Hayden's statements. "Okay," the agent said. "But when he returns, give him this." The agent handed a card over to Hayden. "Tell Jack that the best way to help his brother Drew is to call me at my netstream address." "Sure thing," Hayden said. With that the agents left our stoop. I watched them through the window, as they headed to a flying car that was parked down the street. A few minutes later, they drove off in hover mode. "Fuck!" I exclaimed again. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" "Relax," Hayden admonished. "They got no way of knowing you're Jack. You're in the perfect disguise." "This is the damn IGC, Hayden," I replied shrilly. "They've got just a few more resources than Sergeant Jones from Campus Security. And, now that they know Jack Finch is Drew Vance's brother, they will be monitoring this place by satellite. They'll track anyone who leaves here, and if they see us heading to Reno where there just happens to be a big nanobotic conference..." "Maybe we should just cooperate with them," Deirdre said. "It sounds like they're trying to help Drew." "They always make it sound like that," Hayden shot back. "They'll say anything to get you to spill what you know, and if that doesn't work?they use torture." "Oh come on," Deirdre said angrily. "I'm tired of hearing you regurgitate all that crap the current administration puts out about the IGC?" "Not the time to argue politics," Kogo said. "No it isn't," I agreed. "Dee, I don't agree with all Hayden's political views myself. But I also think we should be cautious about trusting anyone at this point. We just don't know enough about what Drew was involved in. What he's dragged me into. All I want to do is get to Del Garza, hand over the nanos to him and get him to change me back. When that's done, I'll be extricated from this entire sticky mess." "Amen," said Kogo. "But how are we going to get to Reno without the IGC knowing what we're up to?" "I've got a plan," Hayden said. ~ I sat on a bench near the quad, scanning the throngs of students that passed by me with book bags slung over their shoulders. They were all either heading to or coming from class. I noticed many of the male students checking me out, as they passed by. I was starting to get used to it, and it wasn't bothering me so much. As long as they were appropriately subtle. They were of course attracted to the body I now wore. But this body was not me, I reasoned. It was just a high tech disguise. I did feel uncomfortable when I caught one creepy guy looking at me like I was a side of beef. It made me feel?well vulnerable. This body was so much softer, than Jack Finch's, with muscles that felt like marshmallows. What if I ran into a jerk like him when I was alone? I doubted I would be able to fight him off. Girls probably had to deal with this feeling of vulnerability all the time, I guessed. "Where the hell is Hayden," I wondered after more time went by. "He was supposed to be here ten minutes ago." I had run out of the house with a he NGI box and some other things stuffed in a bag. Keeping under trees and eaves so that the invisible eye in the sky that hunted for me wouldn't be able to get a lock, I darted through neighbors' yards. Then, when I was a couple blocks away, I headed for the most crowded part of campus. That provided an additional measure of safety, as the crowds could confuse a satellite lock too. Anyone who tried to follow me on foot would also have a hard time tracking me through the throngs of students hurrying along the sidewalks. Hayden was supposed to leave fifteen minutes after me, remaining under trees and eaves as I had done. He was then supposed to make his way to this spot to get me and take me to Yang's place. Finally, he showed up on an electric scooter. "I?uh?borrowed this," he said with his signature quirky grin. "You wired a scooter," I said incredulously. "Great way to take unnecessary risks, when we need to keep a low profile." "We need this faster mode of transport if we're going to head to Yang's and then get to the depot on time," he said, unfazed by my rebuke. "So hurry up and hop on back." "Hello, idiot," I replied, glaring at him. "I'm wearing a skirt." "So ride side saddle." "This is going to be real comfortable," I complained, as slung the bag with the NGI box in it over my shoulder and maneuvered myself onto the back of the scooter. Then I wrapped my arms loosely around him. "Better hold on tight," he told me. Then he took off at full speed. I tightened my hold on his torso just on time to keep from falling off. "You're going to get us both killed you maniac," I said as he whipped around a corner without bothering to brake. "Slow down, please." "Don't be such a girl," he teased. "You're speeding," I said, feeling heat rise to my face, "We don't need the campus patrol pulling us over while we're on a wired scooter." "Like I said, don't be such a girl." I didn't like him making light of my concerns like I was?well?like I was a girl worrying needlessly over petty concerns. "Come on Hayden," I said, "the wind is blowing right up this skirt and it's making me cold." "Alright," he conceded, finally easing up on the throttle. Yang's small studio apartment was cluttered with various pieces of electronics equipment and computer components that I could not identify. They were strewn just about everywhere in fact, and I had to be careful not to step on anything. The kitchen tabletop was completely covered. There was a pile of old pizza boxes stacked on the kitchen counter and a strong smell of stale pizza had permeated the entire apartment. I was unable to keep myself from wrinkling my nose in disgust, as it assaulted my poor nostrils. Hayden noticed this and chuckled. "This is, Jaclyn," Hayden told Yang. "The girl I told you about." The skinny young man with a mop of dark hair gave me a smile and shook my hand. "Need ID, huh?" he said. Somehow the resourceful, if not too ethical, Yang had procured a large stack of Federal ID blanks. Probably, he had bribed someone at the local bureau office. He took one and inserted into a computer, which looked like it had been put together with spare parts. He then took a picture of me with a holocam and scanned my retina. By the time he was finished burning the ID, I was desperate to get out of there. The stale pizza smell was making me nauseous. As we filed out of the apartment and then descended the stairs to the first floor of the building, Hayden looked over his shoulder at me. "What are you mad about?" he queried causally. "I'm not mad," I responded. He chuckled at me. "You've been completely girlified, haven't you." "I have not," I said, as we stepped out through the front door of the building. "Yes you have," he countered. "You're obviously mad about something, and you won't say what. You acting just like a girl." I was mad at him?that was true. And I could not tell him why, because the reason seemed so silly. I was mad because he had made light of my concerns earlier, and would not slow down the scooter until I begged him. Why was I still upset over that? Why had I not just let it go? This was the kind of thing that Jeannie would have held onto and fumed over. Hayden was right. I was acting like a girl. Was it hormones doing this to me? ~ We met up with Deirdre and Kogo at the train depot in downtown Sierra Vista. They'd gotten there by electric bus, a safer and no doubt more comfortable mode of transport than the scooter. Hayden had kept the speed a bit slower this time, but still a little too fast for my taste. Especially, since I had to ride clinging onto him for dear life the whole way. I tried to make him let me drive, but had lost that fight. Hayden was not the kind of guy to give over control of the reigns to anyone. Before we stepped into the depot, Deidre presented me with a purse she had bought at a second hand store near campus. "I figured you could use this," she said. "You can put your new ID and your netstream phone in here. That way you won't have to dig through that larger bag when you need them." "Thanks," I said, taking the bag and flipping it open. "This will make up a little for not having pockets." When the woman at the ticket counter scanned my new ID, I saw the rotating three-dimensional image of my new head and shoulders appear. Beside the head, appeared my new name: Jaclyn Fox. "Where will you be traveling today Miss. Fox," the woman asked. "Miss," I thought. "I am a Miss, not a Mister." I told the woman my destination and then tried to pay for my ticket with my bankcard. It didn't work. A message flashed on the screen saying: NOT AUTHORIZED TO ACCESS ACCOUNT. "Shit!" I thought. The card was wired with tine biometric sensors, so it would only operate for Jack Finch. I was not Jack Finch any longer, and I had a completely different biometric signature. That meant I could not access any of my money. Realizing what was going on, Hayden stepped forward and swiped his card for me. The message on the screen changed to: PAYMENT ACCEPTED. I looked over at him and gave him a smile of thanks. He had solved my immediate problem, but what would I do without access to my accounts? I didn't like the idea of mooching off of my friends for everything. I would have to put off worrying about this for a while, because I had a more urgent matter to attend to. I hadn't relieved myself since that morning, and my bladder was beginning to feel uncomfortably full. I needed to take a pee and soon. I scouted around for the sign that said restrooms and then, when Deirdre was coming back from the ticket window, I stepped up to her. In a soft tone that Kogo and Hayden couldn't overhear, I told her that I was heading to the women's room. "I gotta go too," she said, and we headed off together. Kogo and Hayden waited for us. When I was finished, I pulled the panties back up, pulled the skirt back down and left the cramped stainless steel stall. "That was certainly a lot of hassle to go through just to take a pee," I thought. As I headed towards the sinks, I saw a girl with dark brown hair in the mirror. I still felt unsettled seeing this stranger reflected back at me. She was beautiful, however. No one could deny that. She had high cheekbones, elegantly shaped eyes, a delicate and perfectly formed nose and full lips. I wrinkled my nose at her and saw her mirror my action. I frowned at her. She frowned back. Smiled. She smiled back. "Incredible," I thought. "That is me. That is really me." "Admiring that new face?" Deirdre teased. "Huh?" I responded?startled. I hadn't heard her coming up behind me. "Oh?no. Not admiring it?more like trying to get used to the idea that it belongs to me." She gave me a friendly smile. "This is all pretty overwhelming to you, huh?" "Yah," I agreed. "I think I've gotten along this far by trying to deny reality, and pretend that this is just some sort of elaborate disguise. But this isn't just a costume I'm wearing. It's real. I'm really a different person. I'm really a...a girl." "A big change, eh?" "For sure. I don't even feel like myself, and I've been acting different. I've been acting?well?emotional. It's strange that I've changed so much in such a short time; but I guess my brain has been all re-wired, and I also have estrogen to contend with. That would change my personality." "You are under quite a bit of stress, too. Don't forget that." "Yah," I acknowledged. "I suppose some of my reactions could be due to stress. It's hard to tease it all apart." "Well c'mon. We better get going." "That took long enough," Hayden chided when we returned. "The train is boarding now. Come on and let's get moving, before it leaves without us." The train zoomed along hovering centimeters over a track that wound through dessert scenery at speeds just above 400 KPH. Even at that speed the trip to Reno would take a few hours.