Jim paced back and forth across the covered porch in front of Terran Barrack 3247-R. The hollow sound of his footsteps echoed in his ears. It was a precise cadence. Each step was identical to the one before it. Each footfall was the same distance from the last and in the same exact spot from his last crossing of the porch. Step, step, step, step, step, step, turn. Step, step, step, step, step, step, turn.
He made certain not to make eye contact with Simon Banks or Henri Brown. He knew he would lose the tiny control he had on his emotions if he did. He knew they would understand. They felt the same way. They shared the same fears, the same nightmares.
Instead, he concentrated on the other Terran Barracks situated along the wide strip of land dedicated to providing shelter to the slaves that worked the two massive farms to either side. Each Terran Barrack was essentially the same. A main gathering-dinning hall with a smaller kitchen area behind it. To one side of the dinning hall there was a bathing and laundry facility and on the other side of the dinning hall there was a recreation facility. On the second floor there was a series of small sleeping chambers. Two men per room, six rooms per Barrack. Only now, half of the men were missing.
Jim tried not to think about where the missing men were and he tried not to think about what was being done to them. No one knew why they were taken and all worried about it. Some worried about what had happened to their friends and family, others worried that they would be the next to disappear. Jim tried not to think too hard on what sort of agony the missing men might be forced to endure. He tried not to think about it even as he endlessly worried for Daryl Banks, Brian Rafe and most of all, his Guide, Blair Sandburg.
Daryl, Rafe and Blair had been gone for two months now. Two long and lonely months filled with heart crushing terror for his best friend, his Guide, his lover.
Suddenly, Mike Pender, former E.M.T. for Cascade General called from inside the Barrack that supper was ready. Jim stopped his pacing and stared out into the evening sky. The foreign stars were starting to feel familiar to him and for some strange reason that bothered him. With a deep sigh, the former Major Crimes Detective turned and walked into Terran Barrack 3247- R. Simon Banks and Henri Brown followed him with quiet sighs of their own.
~~~
Blair Sandburg lay in his bunk worrying. Not even the soft snores of Brian Rafe on the bunk directly above him helped to ease his overactive mind. Out of the seventy-five billion men to survive the capture of Earth, a little over half of them were scheduled for reproductive surgery. The men from Farming Planet J2X83, of which Blair, Rafe and Daryl were a part, was the third batch to undergo the procedure.
It had only taken two months or so. After a thorough interview and screening process on the planet surface, half of them had been taken to a deep-space station in a slave transport. There, they had undergone intensive medical scans and tests. Out of all of the men there, only six were removed from the project. Then, came the surgery.
Even with the superior technology and vast resources available, it was a difficult process requiring intense supervision and a lengthy recovery period. It was also very painful. Medications, hormone supplements and rigorous physical therapy were all given without fail to everyone involved.
After the healing process was over, they were kept for observation to make certain that all of the hard work wasn't for nothing. Each one of them had been physically altered into hermaphrodites. Both male and female. Capable of not only siring a child, but also of becoming pregnant and carrying a child to full term. The Prantellians wanted the Terran race to continue and with almost all of the females killed in the invasion, this was their solution,... a third gender. One physically capable of both male and female reproductive responses.
They were kept long enough to go through one full menstrual cycle in order to prove that they were fertile. Many of the men were emotionally upset by this turn of events, but the Prantellians assured them that the new hormonal balance would make even those men who had been completely straight feel physical desire towards men now. This did little to reassure the Terrans, to the complete bafflement of the Prantellians.
Blair had other worries however. He did have a male lover and one that he loved with all his heart. He was worried that Jim wouldn't want him anymore. That this alteration to his body would repulse his Sentinel and drive a wedge between them.
Shifting around to get into a more comfortable position, Blair listened to the soft sounds of the sleeping hermaphrodites around him as he slipped into a familiar dream of his beloved Jim.
~~~
A familiar sound stirred at the back of his mind and slowly caught his attention. Memory tugged at him for a second or two and then he realized what it was he was listening to. A deep space transport! Pushing the blankets away from himself and jumping out of bed, he quickly threw on his clothes. Finally dressed, Jim ran out of his room yelling at the top of his lungs.
"Simon! Henri! Mike! A transports coming! Get Warren and Doc! Hurry!"
Dashing out into the night, Jim's eyes were dazzled by the bright lights on the atmospheric shuttle craft that slowly descended from the stars. With a deafening hiss of hydraulics and a metallic clang that echoed off of the nearby mountain range, large landing gear dropped from the belly of the ship right before it touched down on the concrete-like landing pad just beyond the last building.
Men poured out of the surrounding Barracks and were closely watched by their Stragillon guards. Jim could clearly hear the release of the locking mechanism and the whoosh of air as the air-lock doors in the cargo bay were opened. A gently sloping ramp created from an energy field sizzled into place, flashed statically once, then solidified. After a brief pause, the missing men began to walk, and a few ran, out of the transport and back onto the farming planet which was their home.
Jim's senses all strained to pick out the one person he most wanted to see. It was difficult. There was much excitement and everyone was loud and rowdy. Jim felt the edges of a zone-out threaten him as he desperately tried to filter it all out. Suddenly he heard the heart-beat of his Guide. Relief poured through him in a tidal wave.
Running and pushing through the crowd, Jim fought through until finally, finally, he saw Blair. With a low cry of happiness, Jim dashed up to his lover and grabbed on tightly. Enfolding him in a big hug, he buried his face in those auburn curls he adored and cried. His body shaking with the release of repressed fear and anger, he whispered the same words into the bejeweled ear over and over...
"I love you, I love you, I love you..."
~~~
The celebrations had been fast and furious once they realized that everyone who had been taken away was now being returned. The tone of the reunion changed quickly enough once it became known that the Prantellians had permanently altered those missing friends and family members. The reactions to how they were altered was varied. Some didn't care, some were upset but grateful to get them back, some were furiously angered.
Simon, for one, was glad that Daryl was alive, but was beyond rage that anyone dared to perform unethical medical experiments on unwilling patients. That they had done so to his son fueled his anger into a white hot hatred.
Misunderstanding his fathers anger, Daryl had assumed that it was him that his father hated. Feeling lost and rejected, Daryl had run out into the fields, tears streaming from his haunted eyes. In a panic, Simon dashed out after him, desperate to explain, to repair the damage to Daryl's fragile ego. Even now, Jim could hear them talking, well, yelling to each other.
~~~
Brian Rafe, once charming and outgoing, was oddly shy and quiet. The physical changes in him were easily noticed and he was aware of the strange looks he was getting. He seemed to be nervous in a way that he had never been before as he often cast sideways glances to the people around him. Usually one to push into the forefront, he had latched onto Henri as soon as he found him and then tried to hide behind his large, physically intimidating best friend and partner.
Henri had noticed this right away and quickly carved a path back to Terran Barracks 3247-R and led his slightly trembling friend to the room they had shared. Clutching Henri's shirt tightly, Rafe had blushed and stumbled the entire way home. Once inside and away from all of the confusion, Henri had bundled Rafe into a thick blanket and gently demanded to know what was going on. Jim could hear Rafe's quiet confession of fear of being physically assaulted by the unchanged men on Farming Planet J2X83.
~~~
Not once letting his beloved go, Jim quickly ushered them to Terran Barrack 3247-R and then upstairs to the bedroom they shared. Once the door was shut and they were alone, Jim pulled Blair to him and kissed him. Their lips met gently at first, but then fear and hunger and loneliness surged forward once more and they deepened the kiss, feeding on each others lips and tongues in a sort of desperation.
Finally, they pulled apart slightly to gasp for air. Jim ran his fingers through the thick curls that hung loosely around his beloved Guides face.
"Gods Blair. I missed you. I thought... I... I thought that they had ki..." Jim swallowed and shuddered at the images in his head. "I... I'm so glad that you're back Chief.
"Jim, I... They, uh,... They did stuff to us, to me. They, ummm..."
"I know Chief. I've been hearing snatches of conversations since you all left the transport."
Blair swallowed and his heart-rate spiked. A look of fear settled onto his face and his blue eyes opened wide. He shifted slightly in Jim's embrace and with that tiny movement, Jim's senses became aware of the differences in his Guide.
While no means the large breasts of a female, or even the obvious ones that Brian Rafe now sported, Blairs chest had the definite softness of small pert breasts. His hips seemed just slightly wider and his face had softer edges. Even his scent seemed a tad different, earthier.
Determined not to upset Blair the way that had sent Daryl fleeing into the cornstalks, Jim tried to catalog and accept the physical changes in his Guide. He told himself that they didn't change who Blair was on the inside. Blair was still his best friend, his Guide, and his lover. No matter what the Prantellians did to him, he would always love Blair.
Jim reached up and ran a gentle finger along Blair's cheek and slowly tipped his face up. Leaning down slowly, he kissed him softly, tentatively, letting his sense of taste open up to note the minute differences. As tender as he could, Jim opened Blairs mouth with his and let their tongues mate. He poured all of his love into that kiss and hoped that Blair would know that this didn't change them.
"Will you let me see what they did? Can I look at you?"
Blair swallowed hard and gathered his courage. This was the man he loved above all others. He feared loosing him, yet they had to do this.
"Yes..."
[Reviews - 1] [Kudos - 115]
Download story PDF format or ePUB format or MOBI format
Table of Contents
Download story PDF format or ePUB format or MOBI format
Table of Contents