If it were possible for a Norgessian to frown, Nantha would have frowned at the sight on the control panel. The space ship, in orbit around a planet that was known to its inhabitants as Terra was in serious trouble. "Why did I ever volunteer for long-distance surveying?" Nantha thought while fighting to regain function in the ship's failing systems.
It was no use. Nantha would have no choice but to land the vessel on Terra. That wasn't the problem. Through the use of a space-time continuum inverter, the ship would remain unseen by the Terrans. They could walk right through it without realizing it was there, since it didn't exist in the same space at precisely the same moment.
The problem was that even using the F-T-L radio to send a message home, it would be years before a rescue mission could be sent. Nantha would have to exist on Terra during that period and do so without being detected. "It's funny how that silly television program they have about space exploration has exactly the same Primary Instruction that we Norgessians have. No interference, no contact."
The landing wasn't too bad. The ship, like all Norgessian ships was invisible to all forms of detection available to a primitive society like the Terran culture. Nantha would have no trouble avoiding the populace as the ship landed miles outside of any population center, in a land that was known on Terra as the United States of America.
Nantha would have to live off of the planet's resources. The ship's engines could run from generation cells that harnessed the energy of the nearest star to maintain computer, life support and other electronic systems, but food required both energy and matter to create. So Nantha would have to gather organic matter for subsistence. "I have a few planetary rotation periods to figure out what to do" Nantha thought. "Have to remember to use the Terran terminology from now on. They are called days."
Mark Sullivan ran the sequence again on his computer. He'd been using his new digital video recorder to capture the view through his other new purchase, a much stronger telescope than he'd ever known before. A "shooting star" had come into view and he'd tried to follow it down. Having captured the image helped greatly. After he spent several hours calculating angles of trajectory, he realized that it had quite possibly landed less than 100 miles from his home on the outskirts of the Los Angeles area. He decided to go looking for it right then. After putting all the gear away, he got into his car and drove off.
Nantha went into hibernation period after landing and securing the spacecraft. There was no point in composing and sending the rescue request message immediately. The reply would ask for a detailed report on the conditions and prognosis for extended survival. Nantha decided to conduct an extensive survey over the next two "days" and then send out the rescue request. Before going into the hibernation chamber, Nantha set the space-time continuum inverter to ensure the ship wouldn't be seen.
Mark stopped his car alongside a desert road. He checked his location on the map and then pulled out a portable GPS unit. Mark's fascination with gadgets knew no limits. Using the GPS and his measurements from tracking the shooting star, he figured that it had landed two or three miles off of the road. He pulled his car all the way off of the two-lane road and left a note on the windshield to let anyone who stopped know that he wasn't broken down but was trying to locate a meteor that had fallen that night. Then, hauling the backpack with some of his equipment he headed off into the desert.
An hour passed before Mark's portable GPS told him that he was in the vicinity of the area in which the meteor had landed. A peek at his watch showed that it was almost 2 a.m. and Mark decided he would just camp out right there and search for the space rock in the morning. On a whim, he put up the digital video recorder up on a tripod and set it to scan throughout the night. He figured that he might be able to make a neat time-elapsed movie stream of the night sky.
Nantha's hibernation period ended on schedule. The computer had generated an audio signal that had awakened Nantha. The computer notified Nantha that a Terran had moved close to the ship. Within 100 of the unit of measure the Terrans called "meters". Nantha, thanking Tralfazz, the Norgessian deity of fortune for this stroke of good luck, began to scan the human with the highly sophisticated surveying equipment on board the ship. Nantha had used the hibernation period to learn sixteen of the major languages in use on Terra, including the language this Terran apparently spoke, something called "English". In an effort to more easily assimilate during the survey period, Nantha decided to think and speak in only English until the survey period was complete.
As soon as this decision had been reached, Nantha had a problem. Norgessians do not have gender. Only those Norgessians who visit other worlds to survey had to try to comprehend gender. Every Norgessian has the capacity to bear offspring during the "reproductive" phase of their lifespan. Once past, they could no longer give birth, but still cared for the child. Nantha had left on this last survey mission and had originally been scheduled to return to Norgessa before beginning the reproductive phase of life. Whether or not this would become problematic would depend on how long it took to get rescued.
But the presence of the Terran had solved two problems for Nantha. One was that since the Terran would provide the template for Nantha's first facade, Nantha's first experience with gender would be as a male. This allowed him to think of himself as male, at least for now. The second problem was gathering data for a facade, a difficult process when done at the astronomical distances it was normally done at. Instead of taking hours to gather the data necessary, it took only minutes to collect enough information about the Terran who slept outside of Nantha's ship. "So his name is Mark" Nantha thought as he scanned the computer's record. Once he was done dumping a copy of the facade's datastream into the templater, he went back through the computer record of Mark to see how to most easily conceal it.
The templater was the most amazing development of Norgessian technology and had been the big breakthrough that enabled them to visit other inhabited worlds without disturbing the local residents. It used Nargolian's Fourth Law of Matter/Energy relationships to allow organic matter to be restructured at the subatomic level to allow massive, instant alterations of the matter. While Nantha hadn't yet been on a survey, he had spoken with another surveyor who had journeyed to a small planet in the group of stars that Terrans referred to as "Orion". The local residents of that planet actually called themselves Skowe and were a race of very tall, slender, purple amphibians. Much different than the Norgessians. Nantha looked out again at the sleeping Mark and realized that they were about the same size, and similar in appearance although Nantha's third eye and light coating of fur from head to toe would have definitely set him apart from Terrans.
Nantha worked with the templater for several Terran hours to complete the facade he wanted. Something similar to Mark, but different. He drew from Mark's memories of other Terrans and finally finished. The templater was programmed with all the information that Nantha had created using Mark's memories of himself and other humans. Once Nantha put on and activated the templater, he would be Steve Blake, a thirty-one year old computer programmer who was self-employed and lived in a house at a vacant lot near Mark's own home.
Nantha then went to work on another set of templaters and soon was ready to journey from the ship. He packed up his equipment into a small bag, slipped the templater on and activated it with a thought-command. Instantly he transformed into Steve. Donning clothes that were provided by the matter/energy converter in the ship, he slid the bag over one shoulder and after confirming that Mark was still asleep, used the vessel's relocator beam to leave the ship.
Rather than take a chance on waking Mark, Nantha walked quickly towards the highway where Mark's truck was parked. He'd taken care to beam out of the ship to a point that was out of the range of Mark's digital recorder, so as to not risk detection. Once on the highway and certain no one else was around, he activated another templater. It turned itself into a Terran vehicle known as a Ford Explorer, and Nantha, now Steve got in and drove away.
Mark awoke when his watch's beeper went off at eight in the morning. After spending a few minutes getting organized, he closed up the digital camera and began to look for the meteor he'd seen fall the night before.
The Ford driven by Steve pulled up to the vacant lot. He set down a templater when he was sure no one was watching. It became a mail box with the name "Steve Burke" written on it. Steve then got back into the Ford and drove away.
Mark's search for the meteor had gone on for several hours and he'd had no luck. The GPS showed he was in the right place, but there was no sign of anything resembling a rock from outer space. Discouraged, he decided to head for home.
Steve drove to a nearby hotel room. He walked into the lobby and up to a waiting desk clerk. In his bag was a surveying scanner that would template everyone he came in contact with, for later templating and data analysis. He noticed the clerk's nametag. "Good morning, Nicole." "Good morning, Sir. May I help you?" "I hope so. I was looking for a room for a few days." "Certainly Sir. If you could just fill out this registration form." Steve filled out the form, using his recently acquired knowledge of the language to answer the idiotically simple questions. "Very good sir, and now I'll just need a credit card." Steve pulled out the credit card he'd prepared using the information he'd gathered. It worked, thanks to the incredible sophistication of the Norgessian computer array on board the survey vessel. As on other worlds, it had identified the methods by which commerce was conducted and make arrangements for the survey team to purchase whatever was needed during the survey. "Here is your key Mister Burke. Do you need assistance with your bag?" "No thanks, Nicole. If you could just point me in the right direction..." "Certainly. Around the corner are the elevators. Room fifteen-thirty-two is on the fifteenth floor. Enjoy your stay, Mister Burke." "Thanks, Nicole" Steve said as he lifted his bag and headed towards the elevator bank.
After a long night of camping out and the fruitless search for the meteor, Mark was ready for a quiet day at home. He showered and cleaned his gear. Then he decided to watch the digital recording of the night sky. He fast-forwarded the recording through the night, enjoying the change in the color as dawn approached. As the sun rose on the screen, he slowed the image to normal speed and watched in amazement as an occasional gleam of a reflection popped in and out of the picture. It puzzled Mark. There was nothing to be seen that should have reflected light that way. But it kept going as the sun continued to rise. He tried fast forwarding the recording, but that didn't help him interpret the reflections any better than normal speed.
The last templater in Steve's bag became a high-powered laptop computer that he connected to the second phone line in the business suite he'd rented. He would use Terra's own limited computer systems to gather information for his survey, while conducting a personal survey of the area. He left the room, after ensuring no one entering would see anything out of the ordinary.
Mark was puzzled as he tried running the recording at faster and faster rates of speed, without success. Finally, he ran it at a slower pace and was rewarded. The slower the speed, the longer period that the glare could be seen. He slowed the playback more and more until the glare was at its largest size. Slower speeds didn't enhance the image. While he couldn't be sure, he knew something was there and he resolved to see if he could locate it. He packed up more equipment and planned to head back out as soon as it was dark.
It was a tired but happy Nantha who removed his personal templater back inside the survey vessel that evening. He'd spent the day surveying various places, gathering data for other templating. His computer in the hotel room was gathering data from Terran computers around the planet and downloading it to the main computer on board the ship. He decided to work on one last project before beginning that night's hibernation period. He set the ship's computer to auto-create templates as well as store information on real Terrans, to be used by other personal templaters. His goal was to finish at least one hundred, so that a proper detailed survey could be done at some point in the near future. "I'll do twenty a night until I'm done. By then, maybe they'll have rescued me, or figured out another way for me to fly home" he thought before beginning hibernation.
Nantha was well into his hibernation period when Mark arrived at the vessel's landing sight. The ship was still cloaked by the time-continuum device and Mark was able to see nothing. But this time not only did he set up the digital recorder, he also set up a brilliant strobe light, in an attempt to create other glare. He set up other lights. Once, he walked right through the ship's location, but because his body didn't exist in the same space at the same instant in time as the surveying vessel did, he didn't have a clue that he'd just walked through its walls.
When Nantha's hibernation period ended and he awoke, he was shocked to see the bright lights outside of the ship, through the window. He immediately ran to the control room and started scanning the outside. "Ah, Mark has returned and he thinks he can locate the ship." Nantha's amusement turned to fear when he realized that as primitive as Mark's equipment was, he might be able to capture enough of an image that scientists might be able to enhance the image enough to make it possible to detect the craft. This could not be permitted. Nantha thought for a moment and then hit upon a course of action. He pulled on his personal templater, now stocked with literally hundreds of templates in its memory and the ability to create more almost instantly at the thought-command of its wearer. He assumed the facade as Steve again and went outside to deal with Mark.
"Pardon me, stranger, what's with all the light?" "Who the hell are you?" "My name is Steve. I was just out looking for a meteor I saw fall out here last night." "Really? Then I wasn't the only one who saw it?" "Guess not. I couldn't drive out last night, so I waited until tonight." "How did you track it?" "Oh, I plotted the trajectory, you know, the usual. Lucky guess I guess." The two shared a laugh. "So what is with all the light?" "Oh, I was camped out here last night and my digital camera recorded some intermittent glare and I thought it might be something weird, so I came back to look for it. But so far, nothing."
Mark didn't know that only sunlight would produce enough glare to reflect off of the survey vessel's composite windows during phase-shifts. So he was wasting his time and Steve surmised this immediately. Still, there was a risk.
"Well, I think I'll make camp myself just down a stretch, wouldn't be able to sleep with all these lights." Mark smiled at Steve. "Actually, would you mind if I came with you. I just wanna move down around two hundred yards or so, to get far enough away for my own sleep." "Great."
During the night, once Mark was asleep, Steve went and erased the digital recordings of the glare from the prior night and then moved his survey vessel two miles further from the road. "If he finds it again, I'll have to make a larger move, but this should work for now."
Mark woke to find the stranger who had called himself Steve was gone. He went to check his night's recordings and found to his dismay that he'd not only forgotten to turn on the recorder, but had also somehow erased the prior night's recordings. Angry at himself, he reached down to grab a rock to throw. Hurling rocks was one of Mark's ways of letting off steam. As he bent over, he noticed something shiny next to the table the digital recorder was standing on. He picked up the shiny object. It was a grey-metal ring. A plain ordinary circlet. He slipped it onto a finger and it felt warm on his hand. "Wish I'd found my missing class ring instead of that worthless hunk of junk." To his surprise, the ring changed form and was now an identical duplicate of the class ring Mark had lost in the desert some years before. "I gotta be dreaming" he thought as he tried to take the ring off. But it held fast to his finger. He shrugged, packed up his gear and left for home.
Nantha was relieved at having avoided discovery. So relieved that he neglected to inventory the templaters he'd used in fooling Mark. Instead he packed several into his pack and headed for his hotel room to check and see how the computer research was going. He was pleasantly surprised to learn that the survey vessel's data storage banks were now loaded with 23% of the entire contents of Terra's "world-wide-web". He scanned the data and found some of it intriguing. He started reading about Terran sexual practices, which were particularly fascinating since Norgessa had no parallel.
"Amazing. How much of this world's productivity is lost due to the mindless obsession with looking at and talking about the act of reproduction." Steve started making notes for his survey report. He scanned some of the sites that were full of images of women that men found arousing. As he examined the pages, he found himself growing aroused. "Wow, this feeling is pretty darn good" he thought. "Perhaps a closer examination of how this works specifically is in order."
Steve reverted back to his normal state as Nantha and then reprogrammed his templater. This time it would make him into an identical replica of Mark Sullivan. Once he was again a Terran, he sat back down at the computer and started "surfing the web" as Terrans called it.
He found that Mark's and now his responses differed depending on the items being viewed or read. Stories about what were known as homosexual liaisons, or images of men alone or men having sex with other men were revolting to him. Stories about heterosexual liaisons or images of men having sex with women were arousing, and when they included images or descriptions of Mark's fantasy woman, a famous actress named Bridget, the arousal approached the maximum achievable level.
Next he scanned stories and images involving what Terrans called fetishes. These were so detailed and yet broad-ranging, that Nantha/Mark worked straight through until it was time for his hibernation period. He contacted the survey ship through the computer and found all was in order, with no Terrans within 2,000 meters of the vessel. Secure in the knowledge that his situation was secure, Nantha/Mark decided to just sleep as a Terran would, as soon as he did a little more exploration of the amazing Terran obsession with fetishes.
The moment that he hit the first web-site that dealt with men dressing like women, he knew he'd hit on something big within Mark's sexual arousal index. His templated genitals grew large within moments as he read a story about a man being changed into a woman as a penalty for infidelity. Infidelity was another concept foreign to Nantha. On Norgessa, once bound to another, the two were bound for their lifetime. But as he read more stories and looked at pictures of these "transgendered" men, Nantha/Mark found himself experiencing his first orgasm as a human male. Added to the length of the day he'd experienced, it was all Nantha/Mark could do to clean up the mess he'd just made before falling into a deep sleep beneath the crisp clean sheets of the hotel room's comfortable bed.
Mark had spent some time trying to remove the ring on his finger without success and had finally given up. He then called his current romantic interest to see if he could entice her into an evening out within the next week. "Susan, it's Mark." "Well, Mister Mark Sullivan. How nice to hear your voice. It's been so long, I was wondering if you had forgotten I was alive." "It's only been a few weeks." "Yes, a few weeks, after you promised to call me a day or two after our last date to see about going somewhere really nice for a change. Well, don't bother calling again, Mark. I want a boyfriend who remembers I'm alive more often than every few weeks." She slammed the phone down before Mark could utter another word.
The depression Mark had felt so often returned full force. He knew he should have called her sooner, but he'd been so busy with his new gadgets that he'd lost track of the days. Sighing heavily, he did what he always did to combat these dark feelings. He booted up his p.c. and headed for his favorite kind of spot on the Internet. He loaded a transformation story and began to read.
This story was about how a husband and wife had been arguing about how life was more difficult for a woman than a man and to prove his theory it wasn't, the husband had been changed into a woman. Mark began to imagine he'd been the one transformed. When he was excited enough, he left the p.c. and went to his bed. Laying there, fondling himself, he continued to picture the woman in the story as his new form. At the moment of his orgasm, Mark felt as though he was actually slipping fingers inside of a slit, rather than massaging a cock. As he exploded with pleasure, his consciousness faded.
Nantha awoke in the hotel room and immediately realized that things had changed during the night. The templater on his finger had given him a new form. He got up and went to check out his form in the mirror. He gasped at what he saw. What she saw. For the templater had changed Nantha into the woman he'd been reading about on the internet the night before. After a moment's thought, Nantha realized this wasn't necessarily a bad thing, since it would further the survey. So she went to work at the computer, to create a new false identity for this template.
Sarah Edwards walked out of Steve's hotel room. She was wearing a black dress and high heels. Nantha giggled as she recalled all the stories he'd read that had discussed how the transformed men had suffered greatly in adapting to walking in heels. Sarah walked as though she'd been a woman all her life. Sarah's destination was a beauty salon, in an effort to listen in on women's conversations and attempt to get a better understanding of the difference between the genders.
The sensation of having his hair pulled woke Mark from his dream. In it, he was sleeping next to a famous lesbian actress, in the body of a famous fashion model. The actress had her head between Mark's thighs and was thrusting her tongue deep inside of his cunt. "Damn, why is it only the good dreams that get blown up right in the middle" he thought, as he untangled his long blonde hair from the pillow. "Long blonde hair?" he thought. He sat upright in bed, feeling the breasts dangling from his chest and he wanted to scream.
Instead Mark ran to the bathroom. There in the full length mirror that hand on the back of the bathroom door, he saw his new reflection. Susan's reflection. He'd been transformed into an identical duplicate of Susan. Now he screamed. Again and again, until he collapsed into a sobbing mass on the bathroom floor.
Nantha/Sarah had spent the day shopping and ended up returning to the survey vessel with her purchases. She was very near the point in her survey where she could send in her rescue message. She had decided to compose it that night, spend one more day surveying and then transmit the rescue request. She arrived at the vessel and after cloaking her car with the time-continuum device, re-entered the ship.
The alarm signal from the console immediately got Nantha/Sarah's attention. She raced to see what had triggered the alarm. The computer had detected unauthorized usage of a templater. "I've misplaced a templater? Oh no!" Nantha/Sarah knew she would have to search for the templater.
That would be difficult. One of the original reasons for development of the templater had been for the Norgessians to be able to disguise themselves as their enemies, to infiltrate enemy armies. As such, the templaters were originally designed to escape detection and as the technology had improved, so had the anti-detection capabilities. Nantha/Sarah conducted an immediate inventory of templaters to ensure that only one was missing.
The inventory made Nantha/Sarah's concerns worse. There were actually four templaters unaccounted for. One question had already been answered. Could they be used by the Terrans was something that wouldn't have been known until a test had been run. Nantha/Sarah's carelessness had completed that test, albeit unintentionally. Knowing what a serious breach the loss of the templaters was, Nantha immediately resumed his natural state and sent off an emergency message to Survey Headquarters on Norgessa.
Mark's sobbing fit passed and she started taking stock of the situation. She was naked, except for the ring she'd found the night before and that she'd been unable to remove. As she looked down at it, she thought how incongruous a man's class ring looked on her finger. She watched in awe, as it changed shape to become a ladies ring.
Mark had read stories on the net about magical devices that allowed people to change their gender and shape. Could she have run across one out in the desert? How did it work? Could she change her form back to normal? She decided to start there and went back into the bedroom. Once in the bedroom, she laid back on the bed and began concentrating.
A pacing Norgessian is not a pretty sight. Nantha had learned about pacing from his exposure to being a Terran for an extended period and he found himself pacing up and down the corridors of the survey vessel. It would be hours if not days by Terran standards before his message would be answered by Survey Headquarters. Rather than enter hibernation for an extended period, he decided to go back to surfing the Terran computer network. "I might as well enjoy the experience" he thought, so he used a templater to revert to being Steve Blake, and he began reading the transformation sites that had given him so much pleasure the night before.
Mark found himself back to normal after an intense period of concentration and better yet, he was able to remove the ring, which transformed itself back to the simple grey circlet he'd first found in the desert. Now that he knew it would work, he decided to spend a little time enjoying its capabilities. But first he'd need to do a little shopping. Making sure to grab his ATM card, Mark headed out to finally purchase the kind of clothes he'd always wanted to wear, but had never had the body for.
Nantha/Steve awoke to find himself sitting in front of the computer. Not being able to remember entering hibernation, he recalled the computer log of what happened before he fell asleep. His eyes were glued to the monitor as he watched his Terran body masturbate itself to orgasm after orgasm, while reading stories on the internet about men becoming women. His Terran body spent, he'd fallen asleep straightaway. Quickly, he erased that portion of the log, so no one else could see his self-abuse.
Then after resuming the Steve template, he went off to re-trace his steps while he'd been carrying the missing templaters. Nantha/Steve knew that if he let the Norgessian technology fall into the hands of Terrans, he would not only be banned from future survey missions, but would also be imprisoned for a very long time.
Mark walked into the mall just after the majority of stores had opened. The temptation to enter all of them was almost overpowering. He decided he'd start in the forbidden zone and work his way outward on his new alter-ego's appearance. He headed for the larger of the mall's two Victoria's Secret stores. Kathy Silver, the manager had just opened the steel grating that served as the store's door when she noticed the man heading for the store. Tall, slender and dressed in her favorite black suit with sheer black stockings and a nasty garter beneath the short skirt, Kathy was exactly the kind of woman that one imagined when browsing through the store and its catalogs. Mark was captured by the lovely woman who looked at him quizzically as he walked into her store.
"Can I help you with something, sir?" "Yes, please. I'm shopping for a friend." What he didn't know was Kathy had been through a really rough morning. Her boyfriend had moved out a few weeks earlier and had called her screaming over her refusal to lend him some more money. His final words repeated themselves in her head. "Look bitch. I'm sorry it didn't work out, but that ain't no reason to be doing me that way." As if he wasn't way out of line by calling and asking to borrow money because he couldn't come up with his share of the first and last for the apartment his new girlfriend wanted to move into. So Kathy wasn't as patient as she might have normally been when her first customer of the day turned out to probably be a crossdresser. While she normally tolerated them, knowing the large purchases they made boosted her quarterly bonuses, she was simply in "man-hate mode" that morning. "Of course you're shopping for a friend. You men are always coming in here shopping for a friend. I'll bet she's about your size though and you'd love it if you could try some things on. Does that about size it up, sir?"
The hurt look on Mark's face seemed to confirm her suspicions for a moment. Then he smiled at her in a sad, knowing way. "Is that how you think of all men, or just me? The friend I'm shopping for wears a size seven dress. So I think you'll agree with me that I'm not shopping for me, won't you?" Kathy looked at the man again. There was no way this guy would ever squeeze his body into a size seven dress. She'd made a mistake. "I'm so sorry, sir. Please accept my apology." "Only if you'll call me Mark and stop apologizing. Now how about showing me a few things."
Kathy led Mark inside the store. "So is this your girlfriend?" "No. We're just cousins. Her birthday is coming up and I want to give her something she wouldn't normally have suspected for once." "How sweet! She's lucky to have you for a cousin. Maybe a nice peignoir or a set of baby-dolls?" "That sounds like a good place to start." "I am really sorry I went off like that." "Do crossdressers bother you that much?" "Oh no, not at all. I'm used to them. In fact, it's kind of interesting talking to them. But I broke up with my boyfriend a few weeks ago and we had a big argument on the phone this morning, so I was cocked and loaded, ready to go off on the first male I saw." "I'm glad it was me and not one of your regular male customers. I'd have hated to see you lose the business." "Yeah, especially since I get paid partly commission and those guys are some of my best customers. Here, how is this?"
Kathy held up a set of pajamas that were a silvery satin. A pair of baby-doll panties and matching nightie. Mark loved them. "I'll take them." "Terrific. Anything else?" Mark was torn for a moment. He wanted to buy a whole bunch of stuff, but Kathy might be a woman he'd be interested in. "No, that's all for now." As Kathy rang up Mark's purchases, she looked at him again and thought to herself, "He isn't a hunk, but he's not a bad looking sort either. I have to stop picking losers like Ted. Maybe it's time for me to take a positive step myself." To Mark she said "hey Mark, would you let me buy you dinner some night to apologize for going off on you like that?" Mark was surprised, pleasantly so. "You don't need to do that." "I know, but I want to." "Well, alright, but we'll go Dutch and just enjoy a nice dinner." "Maybe we'll arm-wrestle for the check at the table." "My number is on the credit card slip, so just give me a call and we'll go." Kathy vowed she would call him that very afternoon and make a date, maybe even for that night if he was willing. It was time to take some chances that might turn out for the better.
Nantha/Steve searched the hotel room again. He had brought several templaters into the hotel room, but none were to be found. After wishing for the forty-third time that he had something that could detect the presence of some part of the templater, he decided to go back and retrace the routes he'd used to go between the vehicle and the room on his visits to the hotel in the past. Then he realized that he'd better get that rescue mission off to Norgessa. He went down to the car and started driving back to the survey vessel.
"Thank you so much sir." "Thanks for all your help, Susie." Mark said as he gathered his purchases. "Not at all. I hope she enjoys it." "Oh, I'm sure she will." Mark had driven across town to another mall, so that Kathy wouldn't hear about or see him buying a bunch of women's things. After hiding his crossdressing from her, he felt it wouldn't be a good idea for her to find out about it accidentally.
Mark walked to the car with one last load of purchases. He hadn't totalled up how much he'd spent on the mystery woman he would hopefully recreate with the magical ring he'd found, but she would certainly be well-dressed. As he looked at the bags in the back of the car while backing out of the parking slot in the mall's garage, he took mental inventory of what was in all those bags.
In the bags from the two shoe stores he'd visited were pumps and flats, sandals and a pair of stiletto heels in black patent that would go perfectly with the expensive evening gown he'd purchased. Black, off the shoulder, he'd arranged for the woman to bring it in to be fitted. "When she shows up, that'll answer their doubts they might have had that those clothes were for me" he thought. He'd gone to another Victoria's Secret and loaded up on panties and bras, slips and teddies. Several stores had been the site of purchases of dresses, skirts, blouses and sweaters. All in all, he'd bought what might have been a full wardrobe, although it would be a limited one. Now the only thing to do was go home, unpack his new clothes and switch back to that beautiful body so he could be she and try on her new stuff.
Nantha took off the Steve template to compose and send the rescue request to Norgessa. The computer estimated the transit time for the message as 9 Terran hours. That meant assuming some time for his message to be received and discussed before a response would come, it would be approximately one more Terran day before he'd hear an answer. Barring a miracle, Nantha's days as a surveyor were over. He decided to take an extended hibernation while waiting for a response.
Mark spent the better part of two hours unpacking all his purchases in one of the spare bedrooms of his house. He had decided on the way home that the best way to handle this find of his was to keep "her" life separate from his as much as possible. He changed the sheets on the bed in the spare bedroom, put fresh towels in the bathroom and then realized he had little in the way of feminine toiletries, something he'd forgotten. "Well, she can just go out and get her own". Mark pulled the ring from his wallet where he had stored it for safe-keeping and put it on. He laid down on the bed and began concentrating on the ideal woman he wanted to be. The woman for whom he had shopped that day. As the image came into his mind, his flesh again transformed, changing shape and texture. Soon she sat up, her long blonde hair falling back into her face. She pulled the hair back and smiled, her angelic reflection in the mirror across the way sending a delicious chill up and down her spine, radiating right down to her brand new clitoris.
This wasn't Susan. It wasn't Kathy either, although there were elements of both to be seen in Mark's new form. As she decided upon Erica as a name, she didn't notice the internal workings of the templater saving this new template with the label Erica. All she knew was that she needed to make one more quick trip out to pick up a few feminine articles before she would start the process of making herself gorgeous for going out, for the first time. She went to the now fully-stocked dresser and pulled out a pair of panties and a pair of tights. She pulled the wispy piece of fabric up her legs and marveled at how it gave her the same feeling of "coverage" that her old jockey shorts had given her when she had more "bulge" to protect. She slid the tights up her legs and then slipped her feet into a pair of chunky heeled pumps.
Standing and walking easily on her heels, Erica took a skirt from the closet and stepped into it, pulling a blouse over her head and tucking the top into the skirt at the same time, showing off her very flat tummy. "Oooh, my first time out and I'm going braless." That wouldn't be a problem for the new woman, her newly formed breasts were firm and hadn't yet fought the ravages of gravity. She brushed her hair back and used a butterfly clip to secure it into place. Then, grabbing her purse and wallet, she headed out of the front door.
She drove quickly to the nearest drug store and bought feminine deodorant, razors and other various sundry items that are found in any self-respecting woman's bathroom. "That will be thirty-six seventy-eight with tax, Miss." Rather than worrying about yet another expense, Erica smiled. "Sure thing." She reached into her purse, pulled out two twenties and dropped them on the counter. She took the change and the bags and headed for home.
Back at her home, the new woman began to enjoy some mundane things that many women take for granted. She drew a bath and laid in it for an hour, enjoying the feeling as she shaved her legs and underarms. Her skin seemed to drink in the moisturizers in the bath salts she used and when she finally emerged from the tub, she seemed energized. She was sitting in the guest room, using a compact to apply makeup when the phone rang. Without conscious thought, she answered the phone.
"Hello". Even her new voice oozed out the feminine qualities of her new form. "Is this five-five-five, one-two-eight-three?" "Oh no, she thought. It was Kathy." "Yes, it is. Are you calling for Mark?" "Yes. How did you know?" "Well, I'm his cousin Erin and since I snuck in to crash in his guest bedroom for a few days and no one in the world knows I'm here, anyone calling would have to be calling for Mark."
"That's a relief" Kathy thought as she sat at her desk in the store's office. "Is he there?" "No. He went out to run a few errands. Could I take a message?" "Yes, please. Tell him Kathy called. I wanted to see if I could buy him that dinner we discussed tonight after work." "I will have him call you as soon as he gets back." "Thanks, Erin. Bye."
Erin leaned back in the chair and smiled. "This is so great. She likes me. She wants to meet me. Well, him." She ran to the bathroom, scrubbed the makeup off of her face and then went back into Mark's room, to change herself back. It took noticeably more concentration this time, but Mark attributed that to the extended time he'd spent in the female form this go-round. He decided to wait a bit before calling Kathy and spent the time tidying up the "Erin" bedroom.
The phone rang at Victoria's Secret and since Kathy was in the middle of a sale, Jenny picked it up. "Thanks for calling Victoria's Secret. This is Jenny, can I help you?" "I was calling for Kathy." "She's in the middle of a sale, would you like to hold?" "Please." "Can I tell her who is calling?" "Tell her it's Mark." "Okay. Hang on." Jenny walked over to the register where Kathy was finishing a big sale to an elderly couple who looked like they were planning some serious fun when they got their new purchases home. "Kathy, someone named Mark is on the phone." "Tell him I'll be two minutes."
Mark listened to the hold music for awhile and then Kathy's voice came on. "Mark?" "Hi Kathy. I'm so glad you called." "When I dialed the number and a woman answered, I was a bit worried for a second." "No worries, my cousin dropped in unexpectedly. She does that every once in awhile, when she gets tired of Los Angeles." "It sure is nice of you to let her do that." "Oh, I've got this spare bedroom that I never use, so she practically keeps it for herself." "Anyway, I wanted to know if I could take you to dinner tonight. I don't feel like cooking and I still feel awful about how I went off on you this morning." "As if I could ever wear a size seven skirt" Mark said, having just removed one only a few minutes earlier. "Well, if you lost a bit of weight...." "Hey. I'm not fat." "No, no. You're just right. So, about dinner..." "Sounds fine. Where are we going?" "I thought we'd go to Vinnie's. Ever been?" "Sure. Best Italian in town. What time?" "I'll meet you there at eight."
Mark wore his best dress shirt, with a tie and sportcoat. He'd debated what to wear for almost an hour after taking a shower. "Damn, you're starting to think like a girl even when you're a guy." But in the end he knew he'd made the right choice. Vinnie's was upscale, and Kathy was waiting in the suit she'd worn to work that morning. As he walked up to her, she smiled. "May I help you sir?" "Yes, I was looking for some lingerie." "And is this a gift, or for yourself?" "Oh, I don't know. What would you recommend?" "I'd recommend we go inside and get our table." They laughed and Mark felt an electric shock go through his body as Kathy slid her arm through his.
They sat talking after dinner until the waiter started to glare at them a bit. "Oh goodness. I'm sure that they want this table for another couple." Mark looked at his watch and shook his head. "I imagine they are getting ready to close up." Kathy looked at her own watch and gasped. "Goodness, I had no idea it was so late. I better be going." "Let me walk you to your car."
Kathy and Mark stood next to her car in the nearly deserted parking lot. He smiled shyly as she waited for him to say something. "Kathy, I know you just broke up with someone recently, but I like you and was wondering if I could call you for another date sometime." "I'd like that Mark." She reached into her purse and pulled out a business card. Using her own gold Cross pen, she wrote her home phone number on the back of the card. "The store number on the front, home number on the back. Call me at either. Just call me. Soon. Okay?" "I will." Then, he chastely kissed her on the cheek and after she was safely inside her car, he walked away.
His heartbeat was pounding as he walked back into the house. Now he was alone, and could spend the rest of the night as Erin. Earlier, he hadn't had time to really enjoy the experience of cumming as a female and he intended to do some serious exploring of that sensation as soon as he could transform himself back into Erin. He smiled at the thought of his latest purchase, made on the way home. The large vibrator was safely nestled inside of a grocery bag.
Mark was Erin again as soon as he could undress and lie down in her bedroom. Soon she was laying on top of the bed, completely naked and inserting the pulsating vibrator inside of her cunt. She gasped involuntarily as it entered the first time, and then nearly screamed as she pushed it in more deeply, having never before experienced the other side of such a thrust. The feeling was so incredible that she came only two minutes later. But unlike prior sessions of self-pleasure, this time she was ready to go again in moments, rather than the much longer periods of time it takes before a male can achieve erection a second time.
Erin lost count of her orgasms at nine as she used the vibrator and her own fingers to pleasure her flesh over and over. Finally, she shut the vibrator off, went and pulled on her babydolls and fell into a deep sleep in the bed. This night, all her dreams featured her as a woman.
The next morning, she changed herself back to Mark reluctantly, to go and see a man Mark knew. It took him two hours to get all the information together, but Mark took comfort in the knowledge that within 48 hours, Erin would have her own identification so she could wander around in the world outside of her bedroom. "Then again, given how good it can feel to be her at night, I might never leave that room again if I buy enough food and batteries."
Once home, Mark picked up the phone and called Kathy. He wasn't going to repeat his mistakes of the past. She answered the phone at the store herself. "Hi, Kathy. It's Mark." "Well, this is a pleasant surprise." "I wanted to call and tell you how much fun I had last night and see if you wanted to go to dinner and a movie tonight." "I'd love it." "Listen, how about if I pick you up after work and we run by my place together so I can change and we can drop off my car." "That's fine." Mark gave her directions and then after they had agreed on six as the time for her to pick him up, they said good-bye.
Erin reappeared only a few moments later. She took a long, hot shower and then went into her bedroom to get dressed. A grey skirt, sheer black nylons, plain black pumps and a white blouse, with a bra and panties this time and soon she was sitting behind the wheel of Mark's car. She went first to get the requisite pictures Mark's friend would need to arrange some identification for her. Then it was off to the mall for yet more shopping.
While walking down the mall, Erin suddenly realized that without meaning to, she'd walked directly from her car to the Victoria's Secret store where Kathy worked. Did she dare walk in and shop there? Would Kathy suspect anything? She window-shopped outside and saw Kathy working, but decided not to go in. "I like this girl, I don't want to risk anything." Instead she walked past the store and went into a little dress shop to try on a blue dress she had found attractive the day before.
After the dress shop, Erin found herself in an accessory store and the clerk was so eager to help. "Miss, I just noticed your ears aren't pierced. We're having a special today where you get free studs and a pair of hoops at half-off if you get your ears pierced today." Erin thought for a moment. "Why not?" She sat down in the chair at the clerk's direction. "Now I'm going to mark the spot where you want the stud to go. When I have the pen in the right place, say when." A moment later, Erin said "when". Before she knew it, there was a pinch and she could feel the weight of her new earring. The process was repeated on the other ear and she looked in the mirror at her newly pierced ears happily. "Oh, I love them." "You'll be so happy you did. Now, let me get you some cleaner and the instructions." After the ear piercing, Erin headed back into the mall for more shopping.
Her arms once again full of packages, Erin walked into Mark's house to see the answering machine light was blinking. Dropping the bags in her bedroom first, Erin hit the "listen" button to hear who had called. "Hi, Mark, it's Susan. Call me." There was a beep and then another message. "Mark, it's Susan. I need to talk to you. Call me as soon as you get this." There were two more messages from Susan, each more urgent than the one before. As the tape was erasing the messages, the phone rang again. Erin answered. "Hello." "Who the hell are you?" "I'm Erin. Who are you?" "I'm Susan, Mark's girlfriend. Now just who the hell are you to Mark, you bitch." "Ease up. I'm Mark's cousin. But he told me that you dumped him the other day." "Well, I .....wait a minute. I'm not telling you a damn thing. You have that asshole call me as soon as he gets home."
Erin laughed and took her time unpacking her new clothes before transforming herself back into Mark and returning Susan's call. He chuckled to himself as he dialed her number. "Hello?" came Susan's voice. "It's Mark. I got a message that you called." "I left four messages. What took you so long to get back to me and who the hell is that bitch who answered your phone?" "What's it to you? You dumped me, remember?" "Yeah, well, that was before I heard you were wining some bimbo at Vinnie's." "Look Susan. I'm sorry that I took so long calling you back that last time, but it was your choice to call things off. I wasn't out with a bimbo, but a very nice girl. She has made me see that I deserve someone who is nice and treats me as well as I will treat her. So, even if you were calling to take back your dumping of me, I'm not going to go out with you again. So, please just leave me alone." Mark hung up the phone and sat down on the couch, feeling very pleased with himself.
Kathy called just as Mark was about to shave and shower for their date. "Hello?" "Hi Mark." "Hi, Kathy. What's up?" "I was just calling to confirm." "Kathy, I'm not that last guy. When we make a date, I will be there unless I call and say otherwise. Don't worry so much." "I'll see you at six. Will I get a chance to meet your cousin?" "I don't think so. She said something about going out early tonight." "Ok, see you soon."
Pulling on a robe as he stepped from the shower, Mark went to shave. As he glanced at himself in the mirror he noticed that even though he'd taken the earrings out as soon as he'd gotten home, before transforming back from Erin to Mark, his ears were still clearly pierced. "Maybe Kathy won't notice" he thought to himself as he shaved.
As Mark opened the door for Kathy, he was surprised to find her in his arms for a hug. As they disengaged from the embrace, she kissed him chastely on one cheek. "It's so good to see you" she said, noticing his ears were pierced." "It's good to see you too, Kathy." "Mark, I didn't notice before that your ears were pierced." "Oh, something I did when I was young and foolish." "And you're not foolish anymore?" "Naw, still foolish. Just not young." They laughed. "Would you like the nickel tour before we go out?" "Sure."
"We'll start here in the living room. The house was my folks, they left it to me and I moved back home about five years ago." "And you work out of your home as well?" "Yeah, but I don't work all that much anymore. I got lucky a few years ago." "Oh?" "Yeah. It's a combination of two things. Software and music. I wrote a hit song that still brings in a ton of royalties every year. It was a fluke." "What song?" "You promise not to laugh?" "Yes. Well, it was 'Foolish and Girlish'." "No way. The song by Andrea Dayton?" "Yeah. Andrea and I were friends and one night we were fooling around on the piano and I came up with this song." "It was so sad when she died." "Yeah. Anyway, the other thing I did was write some software and between the song royalties and the software royalties, and the occasional software consulting gig, I'm pretty well set. So I spend most of my time..." "I know. Watching the stars and walking in the desert." "Now back here is my office/laboratory. And down the other hall are the bedrooms." "What's in the lab?" "Just electronics and computers and telescope stuff. I have another telescope in the backyard." "How many bedrooms?" "Three. One is the master, that's mine, then there's Erin's and the spare room." "Erin went out early?" "Yeah. She said to say she'd love to meet you though." "Tell her to come by the store sometime." "I will."
The date went well and Mark found himself kissing Kathy goodnight outside of her place. "I want to go slowly, Mark. Otherwise, I'd invite you in." "I understand. When can I see you again?" "I'm busy tomorrow night, dinner with my folks. Maybe in a couple of days?" "I'll call you day after tomorrow." "Great."
As Mark drove home he realized how turned on he'd been by the closeness of Kathy's body against his, her lips on his. He knew that even if he hadn't found the magic ring on his finger, he'd have been doing something that night to ease the tension in his loins. He was transforming back into Erin within moments of getting home.
As Erin lay on her bed, masturbating to her fifth orgasm, Nantha's hibernation period was interrupted by the ship's computer. The message from Norgessa had been received. Nantha went to the main control console and brought the message up on the monitor. It read (translated into English):
"To: Nantha Aboard Survey Vessel 9157DYX
From: Survey High Command
Subj: Rescue and Loss of Templaters
1. Rescue mission is enroute. Estimated time of repair vessel's arrival is approximately 26 Terran days.
2. Loss of additional templater devices cannot be risked in an effort to locate the missing items. You will remain on-board your ship until the rescue mission arrives. Rescue mission commander will deal with the missing templaters.
3. A complete review will be undertaken to determine your future suitability for survey missions.
Signed:
Nascho
Chief of Surveys
Nantha was stunned. He went and reset his hibernation cycle to 25 Terran days and reentered hibernation.
At about the same moment, Erin had her seventh orgasm of the evening, and exhausted, rolled her eyes back, and fell into a deep sleep.
Erin was awakened by the sound of the ringing phone. She answered it. "Hello?" "Erin, it's Kathy. I need to talk to Mark." "He's sleeping." "Please wake him. It's important." "Ok. Give me a minute." Erin put down the phone and went into Mark's bedroom. She laid down on his bed and began concentrating. For a moment, she feared the task of transforming was too much for her. But a moment later, the shift occurred and Mark was laying there, clad in a babydoll nightie that didn't come close to fitting his form. "Kathy, what's wrong?" he asked as he picked up the phone.
"I'm sorry to bother you. Can you come over?" "Sure. Be right there." Mark took a quick shower and within 40 minutes was knocking on Kathy's door. Inside a shaken Kathy sat sipping coffee. "Thanks for coming." "What's wrong?" "My ex. He showed up here this morning, banging on the door. Said that he'd heard I'd found a new boyfriend and he wasn't happy about it. So I said what about his new girlfriend and he told me he was tired of her and wanted me back. I said no. He got ugly and I got scared. Finally, he left."
Mark didn't hesitate. Kathy was the one for him. He had known that inside of his heart from the moment she'd first smiled at him. "Pack some things. You're going to come stay with me."
An hour later, Kathy and Mark were unpacking her things in the spare bedroom. "Where's Erin?" "I don't know. Maybe she left while I was gone." Mark looked in Erin's room. "She must have been in a hurry. I'll just make her bed real quick." "Wow, you're incredible. You'll make her bed too?" "I'll make yours too if you forget in the morning. Now do you need anything else? That bedroom has a private bathroom too." "No, I'll just get ready for work." "I'll make some breakfast."
After breakfast, Kathy had to leave for work. She was in a much better mood before she left though. She smiled at Mark. "Sweetie, thanks." "For what?" "For caring enough about me to open your home." "It's not a big deal. Besides, since you're staying here for a little while, it'll be easier to get a date."
After Kathy had gone, Mark decided it would be fun for Erin to have lunch with Kathy. So after spending the morning as Erin, she changed clothes for a trip to the mall. A black mini, black hose, black heels and a soft white blouse, with a black cardigan sweater was the outfit she chose. She loved the way her heels clicked as she walked down the center of the mall.
Walking into the Victoria's Secret store, she saw Kathy waiting on a customer and smiled at her. After the sale was completed, she walked up to Kathy. "You must be Kathy. I'm Erin." "Mark's cousin?" "Yes. I came by to take you up on that lunch invitation." "That's terrific. Let me get my purse."
It was at lunch that Erin made the fatal slip. The two had been chatting like old girlfriends after a few minutes. Then Kathy said something about Erin's social life and she smiled without thinking and said "oh, it's gotten better since you and I started dating." As soon as she realized what she'd said, Erin stopped and turned a pale white. Kathy looked at her strangely. "What do you mean?" "I meant since you and Mark started dating." "No, I don't think that's what you meant." "Oh God, please don't let me blow this with you. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me." "Mark?" "Yes." "That's impossible." "No, it's very possible. But come home after work and I'll explain. Alright?" "Okay."
Mark was sitting in a pair of bike shorts and a big oversized t-shirt when Kathy came in. "Now Mark, care to explain what happened at lunch today?" "Come with me into Erin's room and I'll show you." Kathy followed Mark into Erin's room and watched as he laid down upon the bed.
Mark focused and as the transformation completed, Erin heard a scream. "Kathy, don't panic." "You're some kind of monster." "No. I found this in the desert." She pulled off the ring and handed it to Kathy. Somehow, it lets me change my shape. The funny thing is now I can only take it off when I'm Erin." "This is so strange. How do you change shape?" "I just focus on the shape I want to be." "Change back to Mark."
Erin put the ring back on and a moment later, Mark was laying on the bed. "Now, shift into someone else." "Who do you want me to be?" "Anyone but Erin." Mark smiled and focused. A moment later, Kathy was looking at a duplicate of herself laying on the bed. "Mark?" "Still me inside." "Go back to being you."
Mark did and Kathy led him back into the living room. "So, level with me. You were shopping for yourself that morning, for your alter-ego?" "Yeah. I'd just found the ring and Erin didn't have any clothes in her size, so I had to shop for her." "But you were a cross-dresser before you found the ring?" "Yes." "Since you've found it, has Mark dressed up at all?" "No way. Why would I do that? Dress up like a woman, when I can be a beautiful woman in the blink of an eye?" "Well, Mark. I'm a bit surprised and overwhelmed by this and I wish you'd been honest with me, but I can see where you were frightened I wouldn't understand. So I'll forgive you. But tonight, I won't go out with you." "No?" "No. I'm going out with Erin on a girl's night out."
Erin and Kathy walked into the bar and half the heads in the room turned. The male half. Kathy was wearing a little black dress and a pair of heels and little else. Erin was in a formfitting red dress, matching pumps and the dress was cut low enough that it appeared her cleavage was in danger of falling out of her dress. As Erin perched herself up on a barstool, Kathy commented to her "it's strange, you move like you've been a girl all your life." "I know. I just do things naturally after I've been Erin for a few minutes."
The two moved to a table when one became available and at Kathy's insistence, Erin danced with many men who asked. So did Kathy. But at the end of the evening, they were back at Mark's house, in Mark's bedroom, and Mark and Kathy made love for the first time. Kathy was amazed at Mark's staying power, but didn't question it. She just enjoyed.
The next morning at breakfast, Kathy turned to Mark, a sudden idea having popped into her head. "Does Erin have a complete set of identification?" "No. I could get her one though?" "How long would it take?" "A day or two." "Get it. I have an idea." Kathy's idea was that Erin would work in the Victoria's Secret store. An idea that Erin loved.
After a few days, their lives settled into a routine. Mark was Mark all the time, except when working with Kathy. Or when Kathy would insist on a girl's night out. Their future was bright. Until the rescue mission arrived.
Nantha was waiting when the rescue vessel landed. A repair crew began working on his ship while he reported in to the commander. "So Nantha, you've had problems on this survey." "Yes. I know I've made a mistake." "Fear not, Nantha. We've brought a device that will assist us in ensuring the templaters are not mis-used. Do you continue to detect the usage of the first one you discovered missing?" "Yes." "Excellent. When we get the next transformation message, we will use a new experimental device, that will hopefully render it non-functional." "But how? We can't home on the signal of usage?" "I don't understand the technology either, and it is experimental. We will set it up and wait."
Mark was running behind that morning. Kathy had opened the store, but Erin was working a later, shorter shift. So Mark had slept in. He shifted into Erin and went in to take a shower. As she showered, she felt a strange tingling in her ring. Worried, she shifted back to Mark. While it took a bit more effort, it worked. Relaxing, he shifted back into Erin and finished her shower.
The message confirming the continued use of the templater was a disappointment to Nantha and the rescue mission commander. It meant they would not be able to recover the four missing templaters, nor render them harmless. "Nantha, you will remain in orbit around Terra once your vessel is fixed and monitor the planet. If you see great evil, you will review it closely to make sure someone isn't misusing a templater. If you detect such use, contact Norgessa immediately. Otherwise, I suspect that four Terrans are going to have a lot of enjoyment from the unintentional gift you've given them.
Epilog: Mark and Kathy were married a few months later. The staff at the hotel in Las Vegas were amazed at the happy couple who had brought along the groom's cousin on their honeymoon.
Nantha waits in orbit around Terra, waiting to see if anyone will find the other three templaters. If you see a strange, grey ring in your travels and find yourself transformed. Be careful. Your ending might not be as happy as Mark's and Erin's were.
