Walking In Someone Else's Shoes

[Deleted]

Hawkette was on the other side of the camp from the Captain tending the fire and preparing a special forest stew per Commander TEG’s orders. She was quite at home in the forest unlike most of the others. Rhymer had dropped off 2 containers of water for her to use on the meal.

“Here is the water you asked for,” Rhymer said

“Thank you Commander and could you do one more thing for me?” Hawkette pleaded.

“Well that depends on what you need,” she replied.

“Our meal will need some fish and I must search the forest for a few of the other herbs I will need to prepare it. Could you catch some fish for me? I will give you all the tools you will need,” Hawkette answered.

“Oh, well if there are tools involved then I am sure I could manage it,” Rhymer said with confidence.

Rhymer headed off toward the water with the fishing gear.

Hawkette put one pot of water on the fire and headed off into the forest to gather what food she would need. Along the way she would also have to find those tools that no Falconian female would be without.

The female drives had hit Hawk’s former body very intensely and quickly. If a cure were not found soon she might have a major problem changing back. The chemical imbalances in her body were growing ever larger. Hawkette was adapting to the changes twice as fast as the others it seemed.

When she emerged from the woods 45 minutes later she had painted her face, nails and managed to alter her toga to a more form fitting look. Hawkette dropped off the roots and berries she needed for the stew and decided to invite the Captain to her meal personally.

Hawkette looked herself over using the water as a mirror. She primped, adjusted her makeup and clothes until they were just right. When she was satisfied with her look she flew in search of the Captain.

[Deleted]

Darian didn't know how fast s/he had to get out of sickbay, and for once in hir life s/he ran as fast as s/he could manage and without tripping over hir own feet. Completely out of breath, s/he arrived on the bridge, still clutching the PADD with hir discoveries. "Run a scan," s/he panted, as s/he hurried towards the science station, "run a scan? How?"

S/He'd never in hir life run a full planet scan, other than looking for specific things. And hir previous bio-scan had already given hir the information s/he needed. S/He tapped his combadge in despair. "Ako to Aarons, you said a planet-scan...how do I do that?"

(aarons?)

Darian looked down again, noticing hisr A-cup breasts again and s/he gulped. Inside the pouch, the Ako symbiont squirmed. Being a Trill, Darian could draw on Ako's memories of previous hosts if necessary but since s/he wasn't trained to even end up joined to begin with, Darian still had no clue on how to accomplish that.

S/He knew hir previous host had been female, a good looking one at that, but also a crazy one. S/He feared that if s/he were to draw on Sianna's memories, it would also bring back her craziness. Despaired, Darian shook hir head and slumped in hir seat, tears streaming down hir face and dripping onto the console. "I can't do this," he cried out, "I'm not cut out for this!" S/He clutched the PADD harder, painfully digging in hir nails which had also grown over the last several minutes.

(anyone?)

[kedzie]

Kedzie frowned at the mention of night creatures. He didn't exactly relish the idea of spending her night with a bunch of bugs and animals. He could disdain holodecks all she wanted, but there was a certain advantage to simply being able to say 'end program.'

Kedzie had no clue how to get a toga. Or, more specifically, which toga to get. He had tried using the replicator, but it appeared that there were a very many different types of toga, and while Kedzie doubted the blue with green polka dotted one would be appropriate, he hadn't a clue beyond that. He might ordinarily ask the captain, as he didn't see how she would be expected to know a thing like this, and saw no shame in not knowing, but Captain Cornette had said that using communicators was a risk-so Kedzie thought it might not be best to use them again. Which left him the problem of how to find out what toga to use.

Kedzie tried to do some independent research, but quickly ran into problems. Because the planet was pre-warp, the prime directive applied, so any information pertaining to it was classified level two. Not very high, but just high enough that not just anyone could access it. Unfortunately, Kedzie was just anyone.

He decided to go to the bridge, because even though most of the senior staff was on the ground, Kedzie doubted the bridge was entirely unmanned. And Kedzie didn't want to ruin a culture just because he was too afraid to ask for help.

Kedzie arrived on the bridge just in time to hear someone shout out in frustration. “Can I help?” he asked, coming up to them.

“I thought I heard you mention a planetary scan,” Kedzie said. “I might be able to help with that.” Kedzie wasn't sure that his help would be accepted, but he had trained, for some reason or another, but the main one being the desire to be useful, he had trained as operations officer aboard the Hanson. He didn't remember enough of the training to be an operations officer, but he thought he might be able to help out with a planetary scan.

(Darian)

[lizjaneway]

Liz was getting tired, but he didn't want to sleep. He didn't know what to make of this planet, or its strange effects. She felt her eyes closing against her will. It wasn't long before he was dreaming.

He looked around and saw the world before him. He realized he was in the mountains, and wondered what was going on. He felt a longing to dive of the nearest cliff and feel the wind. He felt it was his right, and that he had to do so, something was calling him to do so. He answered the call and with a running start dove off. He felt himself going down, down, down. Suddenly he felt them open, and the wind moved around them correctly making him level out again. He was flying, and he loved the feeling of the wind beneath his wings.

Suddenly he opened his eyes feeling pain between his shoulder blades. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew he didn't like it. He gritted his teeth against the pain, and wondered what those people did to him. He reached toward the fallen part of the tree that pinned him down and cursed it as he couldn't move it by himself. He longed for the mountains, and did his best not to cry out at the pain in his back.



Trishta worked hard, and found herself interrupted several times. She gave the bad news to Aarons, and hoped the best for him. She wasn't sure what more she could do. The cure felt like it was eludding her, and she hated it. She sat down at her desk with something to eat and drink. She was weary from her hunt, and ate very little before she fell asleep.

[Deleted]

Darian whirled around, squeeling in fright upon hearing a not-quite masculine voice behind her. There stood a Bajoran, though she couldn't quite figure out whether it was a male or female. Since coming on the bridge Darian had started to feel more feminine with each second that passed, but her symbiont didn't seem too thrilled with the notion, and Darian herself (no, no! his mind cried at the very thought of being female) wasn't too pleased either.

"Y-yes I would appreciate the help," she squeeked, motioning the Bajoran (male? she thought) forward. "I'm medically trained but was told to help in the science department."

Then she remembered the PADD she was still clutching, and blushing up to her ears, he thrust it at Kedzie. "This might be useful," she whispered shyly, feeling hormones kick in as though she was going through the female variant of puberty and having her first crush.

Eyes widening, Darian just stared at Kedzie at this realization and the utter horror of it made her drop in her chair in a dead faint.

(kedzie)

[Kaylana Cornette]

After finishing the shelter, Kay grew antsy. Kedzie had not arrived and he feared Hawkette was on the hunt… and this time not for firewood or herbs for dinner.

He walked the short distance toward the second tent housing the ‘new’ female crew. Beyond was a cluster of trees and tied to one was Royto. He/she looked to be asleep but how he/she had accomplished it standing up was more than Kay could understand.

He reached the other tent and, without thinking, he threw aside the door flap and stuck in his head. A simultaneous shriek went up from those inside. The crew, all fully clothed, acted as if he were a wild creature entering to rip their bodies to shreds.

“Gentle… ladies… it’s only me,” Kay shouted over the din. Soon, they quieted enough for him to ask, “I was hoping to find T’Rok… is he… er, uh, she here?”

A low growl came from the corner of the tent. “What is it you want, Captain?”

“Even though I’d like to torture our prisoner for what he did to me personally, I still think it’s cruel and unusual punishment to tie someone to a tree and force them to stand all night. Please find him a spot in here and secure him… manacle him, if you have to. Without knowing the animal population of this planet, he could be food for some critter during the night and we’d be stuck without knowing what he knows about a cure.” Kay was getting confused about referring to former males and females. This craziness better end soon if only so he could go back to knowing how to address everyone.

T’Rok grumbled something under her breath and roughly pushed Kay aside as she trudged out into the night to do as ordered.

Kay gazed at the remaining crew and the thoughts entering his head were without precedent and without warning. He flushed bright red as he realized what was happening and quickly withdrew from the doorway. Up until this moment, he had enjoyed being male. Now, it was becoming obvious to him, he didn’t have the restraint - or was it that he lacked the experience in restraint techniques - required to be one.

Disturbed, embarrassed and flummoxed, he made a beeline for his tent. Finding that Kedzie was still detained, he knew he was too unsettled to try and sleep. Instead, he opted for a walk along the shoreline.

The repetitive sound of the waves calmed him and just as he was about to feel better, he saw the outline of a person walking toward him. Panic set in as he first thought it was Hawk. On closer observation, it turned out to be TEG. TEG, still in mid-gender change, turned an about face and, without saying a word, walked alongside Kay. They ambled on slowly for several minutes, each reveling separately and silently in the sounds and smells of the ocean and the feel of the wet sand under their boots.

“I need your advice, Number One,” Kay finally said. “You’ve been a man all your life… just how do you men do it?”
“Do what, Captain?”

“Be around women and… and not…”

TEG lifted a knowing eyebrow but in the darkness, the gesture didn’t transmit to Kay.

“I can’t make myself say it!” Kay said, suddenly angry with himself. “Here I am, an adult, well past my pubescent years and I am having difficulty talking about this!” He shook his head and continued walking, TEG dutifully following at his side.

(Off: TEG, you wanna tackle this delicate subject matter with Kay? Heheheheheh!)

[kedzie]

Kedzie watched Darian drop in the chair. Kedzie hadn't a clue what to do now. He wasn't medically trained, and suddenly got worried that this fainting might be also a side effect of whatever was affecting the crew. Changing gender was all well and good, or, rather, almost completely bad, but fainting seemed more serious. “Uh, are you okay?” Kedzie asked, realizing he didn't know the Trill's name.

The Trill sat up slightly, and his/her eyes started to refocus. “What happened?” Kedzie asked. “Are you okay now?”

(Darian)

Kedzie only now glanced at the PADD that had been given to him. What am I supposed to do with this? he wondered. It seemed to contain information on the planet. He looked back to the scan, that was now nearly over, and wondered what good it was doing either. He then noticed that the scans seemed to be focused on people; Darian's on the Captain and company, and the scan being currently done focused on non-natives.

The scans on the Captain's group seemed to be accurate, so Kedzie wasn't sure why Darian had downloaded them to a PADD. Since Darian seemed to not be in danger of fainting anymore, he asked her/him, since it was possible there was something Kedzie was missing.

(Darian)

[Michael Aarons]

Aarons was not in a good mood; that's not exactly news considering the situation. It entered the bridge and found the woman that had been flipping out near sickbay and some stranger hovering around the science station.
Aarons: "Ok, what have you got for me?" A PADD was thrust in hir face. "What's this?"
Darian: "It's the scan you asked me to make."
Aarons: "So where's the doctor?"
Darian & Kedzie:
Aarons: "You were supposed to be finding the doctor."
Darian: "You didn't tell me to do that."
Aarons: "So if I told you to jump out an airlock, you would?"
Darian: "No, that's just stupid." Aarons walked away from them lest something/one got broken.
Aarons: "Put it on screen." The image on the screen was replaced with a bird's-eye of the surface focusing on the beam in site. "Overlay bio-signs and adjust for movement." Bio-readouts littered the area around the beach and to the North in both a wooded area and in the city Aarons had visited. "Switch to heat signatures." The image changed to bright colorful swirls like nebulas in space. "Increase gamma and enhance." The blobs became more crisper and at the same time many of the sources became more readily identifiable. "Filter out the known whereabouts of the away teams and any such wildlife signatures then have the computer extrapolate based on known characteristics of the doctor." Various heat glows disappeared as well as small blips obviously belonging to small creatures.
What was left was the small group to the north; apparently the computer had eliminated the city as a possible location. There was one very still, inactive signature not far from the native group which caught the commander's attention.
Aarons: "Focus on that!" The screen zoom on the motionless heat source. "Scan it accounting for Vulcan and Klingon signs."
Kedzie: "It reads positive probability."
Aarons: "Confirm it."
Darian: "Confirmed."
Aarons: "Contact the transporter room and feed the coordinates to them and energize." =^=Aarons to Captain: We've found the doctor!=^=
OFF: Liz, no more excuses. Create a cure/solution so that I can post MY conversion back to normal. I don't care about everyone else's, I just have something planned for mine. P.S. can we avoid the transporter cliche?

[lizjaneway]

Liz found a funny feeling engulf him, and he realized it was the transporter. Once he was in the transporter room, he had the chief send him straight to sickbay, where he was met by Trishta.

"Good to see you too, I have a few injuries, and if you will heal me quickly, then we can get to work on this thing." He said getting down to business. He quickly healed Liz, and went to work again with Liz by his side.

"Show me what research you have done so far, and maybe, just maybe we can get rid of this thing once and for all." He said not minding the effects so far. Trish showed Liz the data so far, and neither liked the look of this.

"I think we need to reverse this in the equation you have, then maybe it might work, but we won't know unless we try it on someone. You want to be the guinea pig, or should I? Maybe we should call in Aarons for this." He said, and Trish chuckled.

"I don't want to be the test subject, but you can if you want to. I don't suggest testing it on anyone else right now though." Trish said and smiled. ~Oh well, too bad. Might have been fun.~ Liz thought, and sat down on the biobed to let herself be injected, then she thought of something.

"Wait, Trish, I want something to remain, and I was hoping to keep the wings, I think they are cool. Maybe if we..." He said and got up to look over the equation again. She noticed something about it, and realized that the wings were not part of the original thing.

"Ok, I have looked over a few things, even did a couple of scans, and the wings aren't from the same thing, so don't go ahead and lets check this thing out." Liz said, and sat back down on the biobed. Trish prepared a hypospray, and pressed it to Liz's neck, then stepped back hoping for a reaction. Liz chuckled.

"I would think it is going to take some time for this to work, if it is going to. The other changes took some time to take place. Now we wait to see what this will do exactly." He said, and noticed Trish was looking at the wings.

"How..." He started.

"I have no idea." Liz answered and started to look over a few of the scans he did on his wings. He wanted to know what they were made of, and how he ended up with them. He remembered the dream, but he wasn't sure that was what would have done it. He was positive it wasn't that.

[Deleted]

Hawkette was still lurking in woods and watching the Captain's every move with great interest. He was on the beach with Commander TEG so she would have to wait it out and be patient. She had gathered down and other soft fibers to line her nest as the ancient drives were strong within her, calling to her from far away Falconia. The female Falconian does not have as much control of their emotions as do the male of their species. The male’s strength and emotional control is what normally keeps the females in check.

Meanwhile on the beach, the Captain’s question to TEG has put him/her in an awkward and delicate position. Commander TEG thought long and hard pacing back and forth in front of KC but it seemed he/she had no answer for him.

“Commander?” the Captain inquired for an answer.

“Well. Sir, it’s like this…” TEG began his/her nervous response.

Just as he/she started to speak a crew member ran up the beach yelling for Commander TEG.

“Excuse me, Captain, but the Commander is urgently needed back at the crew quarters tent,” the crewman requested.

Before the Captain could say a word TEG quickly agreed to help and excused him/herself from the Captain’s presence. TEG reassured the Captain he/she would return with an answer to his question.

The two headed off toward the camp when Cornette realized he was again alone on the beach and had no idea where Hawkette was. Part of him was excited at the thought and another part of him was terrified. Part of him wanted to run off back to the camp site and another part of him kept his legs from moving.

KC could hear the gentle rhythm of the water beating against the shoreline and for a moment in time it seemed to calm his emotional conflict.

Seeing the Captain alone at last, Hawkette swooped down on his position from the cover of the lush forest. He turned from the water and their eyes locked in a stare and he could see the fire in Hawkette’s eyes. Without speaking a word she took his hand in hers and led him off into the forest. It seemed the Captain had found his sea legs.

The next morning the Captain awoke in his tent with a smile on his face and feeling quite refreshed. He had witnessed an amazing event that no human had ever been part of or would ever be part of again possibly.

Hawkette awoke nestled warmly in her down-filled nest, caressing her newly laid egg.

[lizjaneway]

Royto woke up and found her body was different. She didn't like what was going on, and realized she was never going to be able to escape her captors, especially now. She decided it was time to try though. She started to get the ropes from her arms and legs, and found that since she was smaller now the ropes came off easily.

She took note of where everyone was, and when they were all not around to keep an eye on her, she took of as quick as her little legs would carry her. She decided to hide in the mountains, and started to make her way through the woods.




Up on the ship.......

Liz was waiting for the change to take place, but remembered that it might take awhile.

"Wow, this is...." He started to say, and found his voice had been returned back to her original voice.

"I'd say this is working, even if it is just the voice for now. We need a way to speed this up though, it can't be good for the crew to be opposite sexes," he said glad the voice had returned to normal. "Do you have any ideas on how we can speed this up a bit? A hypospray works full of this, but maybe not fast enough," he said trying to get an idea.

"Well, what if we put it in something we have to eat? Food travels to all parts of the body, and it would only take as long as it takes to digest," Trish said wondering if this would work better.

"I don't know, it is worth a try, but we should do it in the holodeck. That way we can see how it works without worrying about time passing out here. Hopefully it works, and we don't have to worry about this cure taking forever to reverse us to our natural states," Liz said, and they headed to the holodeck.

[Deleted]

Darian looked around the bridge. Commander Aarons had vanished, presumably to go down to sickbay, and Darian was of half a mind to join her, so she could finally stop being different. But the doctor was in the sickbay, which made Darian stay on the bridge, looking for something to do, until someone, hopefully not actually the chief medical officer, had the cure ready to give to her.

Darian glanced at Kedzie, noticed that the Bajoran male seemed just as confused, then quickly down again at the bridge floor. "Are you okay?" the counselor asked, still seeming to be worried about Darian having fainted.

"Yes," Darian replied, still avoiding eye contact.

"Are you sure, do you need to go down to sickbay?" Kedzie asked.

Darian frowned and shook her head, not sure why Kedzie was trying to pressure her into doing this. Kedzie didn't say anything further, which made Darian rather grateful. Darian turned back to the science console, and started to tap a few buttons, hoping to find something useful, but mostly trying to stay busy so she didn't have to talk anymore to Kedzie, or to anyone else, hopefully. Now that her information had been delivered it would be okay to be invisible, at least until she had her body back to how it should be.

(Kedzie)

[Deleted]

TEG arrived to find several of the former female crew members turned to male in a matter of minutes.

"What have you all done?" Asked TEG.

They all replied about washing up, and eating the stew.

"Well, I washed, but haven't eaten. Scan the stew. I think one of the ingredients may have a concentration of whatever is causing this change. In the meantime, no one is to eat the stew. K-Rations for everyone!"

Those at camp gave TEG a weird look, grumbling about K-Rations.

By the time TEG had broken out the rations for everyone, most had fallen asleep. TEG decided to follow suit.

The next morning, TEG awoke to the sound of Kay whistling 'Whistle while you work'. When TEG crawled out of his sleeping bag, he saw Kay gathering up some fire wood with a huge grin on his face.

[kedzie]

Kedzie was still slightly worried about Darian, but he decided not to say anything further, so as to avoid annoying the Trill. There didn't seem to be anything else he could help with, and his initial reason to coming to the bridge seemed to be rather useless, as Kedzie suspected there was no longer much point to getting a toga and joining the rest of the crew at the surface, if the doctor would be able to find a cure without the help of additional research.

“Are you doing anything I can help with?” Kedzie asked, but Darian wasn't. Kedzie noticed that no cure was forthcoming from sickbay, and it seemed like it would be a while until Liz had it. It was night on the planet, and time aboard the ship actually seemed to correspond-at least so far as Kedzie was concerned, her shift was over. While Kedzie would have definitely been willing to work later had she been needed, he didn't see any point to staying on duty just to be useless, he could do that perfectly well off-duty.

“Goodbye,” Kedzie said, thinking it polite to inform Darian that he was leaving. Kedzie wasn't sure if he should check in with anyone else, but he did check by his office, just to be sure that there was no one waiting there. He had rigged the computer to send a slight signal to his commbadge if the door opened, but he didn't fully trust it to work. There was no one in his counselor's office though, so Kedzie returned to his quarters.

In the morning, Kedzie, rather unfortunately, had no problems recalling what had happened yesterday. He would have enjoyed a few moments of confusion, but he guessed he would just have to deal with it. Kedzie wondered how much progress Liz would have made, but then remembered that the doctor would probably have had to sleep as well.

[lizjaneway]

Liz had been at it all night with the hope of a cure. She woke up suddenly, and looked to see what might have come of the holoexperiement. Nothing had happened, and then she noticed why, she hadn't told the computer to start the experiment. She groaned, and stood up shakily. She stretched and yawned moving to make the preparations for the next try. The first one wouldn't register now, and she was disappointed.

She passed by a shinny object and caught a glimpse of herself. She nearly fell and cried out in horror when she saw her reflection. She was once again a female, but with wings. She had what she wanted, the cure. ~It isn't ready for the crew though. It will take too long, and might have worse effects on them. I am not even sure it hasn't had bad effects on myself. I wonder what Trish and Kedzie will say when they see me this way.~ She thought, and did her best to keep her mind on the prize instead of her eyes on her reflection.

She hadn't noticed anything wrong with the way she looked, so that was good. ~What about my systems? I should run a full check on myself while waiting for the results of the test.~ She thought happy to be female again. She told the computer to run the test, and then she took out her tricorder to run a test on herself.

She noticed nothing wrong with her systems, but then again she hadn't rushed the cure when she injected herself with it. She did her best with it, but the test results came back flawed. She wanted to help the crew, but it seemed that digesting it would take away some of the necessary components of the medicine.

She knew time was running out for some of the crew, and she didn't like to rush this. If it was rushed too much then the crew would remained changed in various ways, and she was sure they wanted to be themselves again. She rubbed her eyes, realizing she had only a couple of hours of sleep at the most, and didn't want to put off finding this cure any longer. She realized she would be able to sleep later, then realized what the human saying meant, but she pushed those thoughts away. She collected the data, and thought about something. She lined the cure with a little more iron, hoping that the body wouldn't pull away most of it. She rank the test.

After about ten tries, she was about to give up, and then thought of something. She lined the cure with iron and calcium at the same time, and ran the test for the last time. She didn't like to give up, but nothing was working. Finally the computer had the results. She looked at them, and couldn't believe her eyes. It had worked, and she had what they needed to change back to their normal selves. She rushed to sickbay to make the necessary changes to the cure.

"Trishta, come here, and take this. It will work, but it takes a couple of minutes. My transformation took all night," she said noticing his look. Trish took the cure, and found he felt a little funny. He fell to the ground, and felt like throwing up. His stomach churned, and he didn't know what was going on. He groaned, and then suddely he felt lighter. Trish rose from the floor.

Liz smiled as she saw Trish in her natural form. She realized that this was the answer, and that all would be well again. "I don't understand though, doctor, why keep the wings?" Trish asked not sure why anyone would want something like them.

"I can't explain it, and I don't think now is the time to try. Maybe sometime soon though after all this is over," Liz replied, and realized that a good portion of the crew was down on the planet.

=^=Liz to the bridge crew. Come to sickbay to find your old selves, I have found the cure.=^= She announced over the commlink. She didn't know why the captain and crew went down, or back down, to the planet. Nothing was there for them to help them get back what they had lost. She tapped her commbadge again.

=^= Dr. Janeway to the Captain, please return to the ship immediately. I have what you seek.=^= She proclaimed quickly, and knew there was one more thing she had to do. "Computer send this to every commbadge on the planet," she said, and the computer beeped confirmation.

=^=This is Dr. Janeway, and shore leave has been cancelled, return to the ship immediately. Leave nothing behind, and don't eat anything or touch the plants.=^= She said, and then closed the channel. She knew this was just the beginning of what was coming to sickbay as some of the crew started to trickle in.

"Computer, activate the EMH," she commanded, knowing she needed all the hands she could get for this.

"State the nature of the medical emergency," she heard him say, and filled him in on what was going on.

(Tag crew)

[Michael Aarons]

OFF: Yes, I forgive you. Now grab your voodoo rattles and beads and cure me already.
ON: Aarons strolled into sickbay, Liz had been taking far too long to solve the adjective problem the commander had been facing and was getting put out.
Aarons: "Doctor what have you got?"
Liz: "We've found the answer!"
Aarons: "No I mean that. You have a transporter accident with Hawk or something?"
Liz: Anyway they're wings and I like them; besides, haven't you been hounding me for a cure since my rescue?"
Aarons: "Well where is it?"
Trish: "Right here." She presented the vile it was in. "You might want to step in there." She directed it toward a small room. Aarons entered and the doors shut behind.
After about 2 minutes the doors opened with the sound of a flush and out stepped Michael Aarons with boots in hand, an empty vile in the other, and a smile on HIS face. ;D
Aarons: "Ah sweet release! You have no idea how much is suffered holding it in like that." "Although I am going to miss the boobs a little." "Tell me Doctor, why didn't you circumvent that nasty taste by using caffeine? It would make a more pleasant dosage and would have definitely sped up the process." With that he barefooted out of there to correct his footwear.
Liz:

[Deleted]

Darian heard the doctor's command, and smiled slightly. She proceeded quickly to sickbay, her desire to get over the gender confusion surpassing her desire to avoid the Klingon doctor. She arrived in sickbay fast enough so there were still only a few people around. Darian chose to go up to the EMH, and get the cure from him.

Darian glanced at the cure in her hand, it didn't look like anything special, but as long as it worked she would be happy. She took the cure, and felt rather unpleasant for a while. After that though, he was a good deal relieved to find that he was a he again. He also felt rather hungry, as if the transformation had taken a lot of energy out of him, which was understandable.

He figured he should ask if there would be any unfortunate side effects like...he glanced around sickbay, his eyes noticing something for the first time. Anything like the wings of the doctor. He guessed that the EMH wouldn't know, so Darian went up instead to the medical assistant. "Is there anything I should know about the cure?" he asked. "Or anything else I have to do?"

(Trishta)

[Kaylana Cornette]

The morning dawned with good news and bad. The Doctor had been located and beamed aboard. The bad news was Royto had escaped. Kay decided to forgo the lecture to T’Rok about letting the prisoner escape. The stress of gender changing seemed to weigh heavily on the Lieutenant and Kay seemed to be acclimating to the extra testosterone levels for instead of boiling over and yelling, he merely ordered an immediate search party be assembled. Since Royto was the reason for returning to the planet to find a cure, the urgency to find her was great.

All but Hawkette left for the search. She was too concerned with guarding her nest to leave it and Kay was too stunned at the sight of an egg cradled amongst the downy feathers to come up with a reason why she should. He left her there and tried not to obsess about it… but the implications of this were frightening.

Fanning out amidst the thick underbrush, Kay and her crew had to proceed cautiously. Keeping their technology out of view in case prying native eyes were upon them, they clandestinely scanned the area.

It was nearly planet-noon when the message came from the good doctor. Good news it was for she had found the cure. Kay gladly gave the order for everyone to beam aboard. However, he and Hawkette lingered on the planet surface to do one final search for Royto… and to discuss the ‘egg’.

OOC: Oh, Li-i-i-z… Royto was the reason for going to the planet’s surface, remember? He/she was supposed to lead us to the proper ingredients for the cure. Since it appears you’ve forgotten him, I’ll leave it up to you whether to continue the character by finding him or simply leaving him here as ‘punishment’. You did say, at one time, he was behind the terrible crimes in the first part of this story. Up to you, however.

[lizjaneway]

"No, there is nothing more to the cure, or at least nothing more that needs to be known," Trishta said, and moved on to the next patient. Curing the whole crew was taking a lot of time, but she knew it was necessary, whether they changed or not. She sighed, and the good doctor heard.

"Trish, if you need a break just let me know. I am used to going on for hours with my work, but no one said you had to. We do have a couple of nurses who are cured and are handing out a few cures now too, and the EMH is still active. With all these extra hands, you can go get something to eat, or relax in my office, or something. Go ahead, I am sure you need a break. Don't make me make it an order," she said and chuckled. Trish smiled and nodded. Handing the next patience cure over to Liz, Trish headed for the office for a few minutes of relaxation. She was happy that she didn't have to say anything, but she hadn't been sleeping well lately. She knew why too, and wondered if she should mention it to Ked. She decided she would talk about it, but not now. She layed down on the couch the doc had in her office, and closed her eyes to get a few minutes of relaxation.



Down on the planet.......

Royto had made it after all. She was happy to finally be rid of all those people, but unfortunately that meant she would have to remain female. ~I can do this, I can be female. This will be no problem. What was that?~ She thought, and her mind started to play tricks on her. She thought she heard something, and continued toward the mountains. She reached the base by noon, and started to climb up.

OOC: I have a different fate for Royto. Yes Royto was the one behind the attacks and murder, and her fate has been decided. I will reveal it in my next post, if there is still time.

[Kaylana Cornette]

joint post of Hawk and Kay....

Kay circled, still scanning for Royto, but had no luck. Frustrated, he doubled back to the nest to wait for she-Hawk. When he got there, he was infuriated to find Hawk hovering over the egg. “I needed your help searching for Royto. Instead, I find you playing house.”

To his surprise, Hawk ignored him. More surprising was the new look of the egg. Bright blues and hues of red and purple were artistically painted on its shell. Tiny flowers were affixed in geometric patterns. Kay thought it looked like a larger version of the Easter eggs her family decorated when she was a child. Hawk began to slowly circle her egg and chant in an unknown language. Oblivious to Kay’s pleas, her strange, ritualistic behavior continued for several minutes. She then stopped, convulsed slightly, her eyes rolling back before sinking to the ground in a faint. Kay rushed to her, cradled her head in his arms. She revived slightly, enough to weakly request that her egg not be left behind when they left.

Forgetting about Royto for the moment, Kay signaled the ship to beam them aboard. He picked up Hawk easily and marveled at how svelte she was… and how strong he had become.


Two figures shimmered into focus on the transporter pad. Kay ordered the transporter attendant to scan for the egg at the beam-out point and bring it aboard. Once here, it was to be brought to sickbay. He then quickly carried Hawk to sickbay.

Sickbay was teeming with people. Frantically, Janeway was rushing about administering the cure for the gender transforming effects. She looked up briefly upon seeing the Captain cradling a limp, lifeless Hawk in his arms.

“What happened?” she asked hurriedly, reluctantly leaving her task mid-process.

“She fainted, I think. She opened her eyes for a moment but has been unresponsive since,” Kay answered, gingerly depositing the Commander on a biobed.

An over-stressed doctor quickly scanned Hawk shaking her head slightly as she did so. “I can’t find anything that would cause unconsciousness.”

The doors opened and an ensign carried in the painted egg. “Where do you want this?” he asked the doctor.

“Do I look like I have time for an omelet?” she snipped.

“I told him to bring it here. It’s Hawk’s and she was very adamant about not leaving it on the planet,” Kay explained.

Liz scanned it swiftly. “Well, she’s going to be disappointed if she was set on starting a family. It reads as unfertilized.”

Hawk’s eyes fluttered open as the doctor pressed a hypo to her neck. She looked at Kay and a small tear rolled down her cheek. “My egg… is it all right?”

Kay reached for her hand. “Yes, it’s here. But, …” Kay paused and checked Janeway’s expression. He didn’t want to tell her about it being infertile if the Doctor thought it unwise. Janeway nodded her approval and moved off to continue her duties. “The egg isn’t going to hatch according to what the Doctor tells me. I’m sorry, Hawk.”

“It is customary for the female of our species to perform the rite of 'skeetchplumara' whenever she comes into fertility,” Hawk explained stoically as if she didn’t hear the unfortunate news. “I didn’t expect the drives to be so strong within me.”

“Did you hear me, Hawk?” Kay questioned gently, “The egg will not hatch. The Doc says it’s unfertilized.”

“Yes, I heard. Of course it isn’t.” She paused and looked knowingly at Kay. The two shared their planet-side memories without having to say a word. “Thank you for not leaving it behind. As is our custom, I will preserve it as a symbol of my pending fertility.”

Janeway rushed in, interrupting Hawk by quickly scanning her again. She then gave her a hypo-full of gender cure. “You’ll be back to normal before you know it,” she said hastily. Whirling around, she caught Kay on the jugular as well with her hypo of cure. “You too, Captain.” Without anything further, she jaunted away, busy with her sickbay full of patients.

Startled, Kay staggered back on his heels. He found he was angered with Liz for curing him without so much as asking if he wanted to be cured. He didn’t feel ready to give up this manly form. Inwardly, he worried if he was behaving normally for having such thoughts. Perhaps it would take a long while, and a lot of sessions with Kedzie, before he felt herself again.

[Deleted]

Darian stood to the side in sickbay, having been pressed into service and help administer cures. He felt more confident now, even though he wasn't too pleased that the Klingon doctor remained so close, almost hovering over him from time to time as though she was aware of his fear.

Quietly he pressed the hypospray against the arms of passing crewmembers, each time checking whether there was enough dosage in the vial for the next person. There was a slight commotion when a a couple was beamed in. The male had an air of authority around him, while the female was wearing feathers in her hair and seemed to be unconscious.

The Trill medic was relieved to find nurses as well as the CMO rushing to their side, and he caught something about something being unfertilized. Darian shook his head, wondering whether he even wanted to know what had transpired down planet. He was very much relieved to be male again, though he knew he'd never forget being female for a while, and the horrors he had experienced while being female.

Knowledge from previous hosts did help somewhat, even though he was still trying to filter out any help from them. He wasn't trained to be joined, and still had no clue on how to deal with it. *I should go see the counselor when this is over* he thought, then shook his head. He disliked counselors nearly as much as he feared Klingons. Yet, Kedzie had been very kind to him, and he felt he could trust her. *I'll go see her* he thought, thinking the matter resolved now.

He yelped when a crewmember punched his arm harder than was intended to get his attention. Absentmindedly, the young Trill continued to work, now pondering over the fact that he still didn't know who exactly was in command of this fine ship.

[lizjaneway]

OOC: This is for the Royto character only!

IC:

Royto had finally managed to scale the mountain. It had taken almost all day, but she was proud of herself for doing so. She looked around the top finding a couple of altars. She was a bit frightened at what she saw. There was a statue, a man with wings, and it had pointed ears. She wasn't sure what this meant, but she didn't like it.

She walked up to the statue to see if she could make the face out any better, then she noticed it didn't have a face. ~Who would create such an awful display? Why does it have no face? What is this place? Why am I here, why was I drawn to such a place?~ She thought, and noticed something else to the statue. She saw down at the hands was a creature with a shackle like collar and leash around its neck. She gasped seeing it was her!

She started back, and tripped over a rock, then she saw him. A creature with wings and pointed ears. She knew who he was, and she didn't like it. In two quick strides he was next to where she had fallen, and he bent down taking her by the neck.

"Hello, my pet, you are really going to like it here, I will make sure of that," He said, and then laughed evilly. She screamed before he choked her. He carried her off to his cave, with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face. She knew the look, the smile, the eyes, and was horrified beyond belief.

~Is this what it was like for the women? Is this what is to become of me? I am to be like those I tortured!~ She thought about it, and found it ironic. She tried to resist him, but knew it was futile. He was stronger, and there were many of his followers around here. He placed the chain around her neck, and pulled her into a hold hanging by her neck. It wasn't pleasant being choked, and then the shackles came around her wrists. Her arms were pulled above her head, and the chain from her neck relaxed. She drank in as much air as possible.

"Now the fun begins...."

[Michael Aarons]

OFF: Hey Liz, I don't think I like where this is going. If anything could we please dance around the issue and not actually use the words we are thinking that rhyme with grape, mole test, and (in the original Chekov) wiolate. Thank you.

[lizjaneway]

OOC: Well, actually when Royto was a male he didn't do any of that, and that is not what I am implying. Royto tortured women, that was why Trishta needed the doctor, and why she was so afraid he would return. He felt more powerful and more in control when he had hurt women. He beat women. Now its his turn to be hurt, to be beaten.

I may be able to play evil well, but I would never go into that category, that is not in me in any way, shape, or form.

Thanks.

[Kaylana Cornette]

Kay suddenly felt flush. Most likely from the potion Janeway forced into her veins. Already, changes were manifesting in her extremities. She’d been unconscious for the first alteration so she watched her hands and feet shrink before her eyes with great amazement. Before long her clothes hung limply around her much smaller frame and she had to remove her boots in order to walk. Barefooted and uniform trousers dragging, she slunk out of sickbay and to her quarters.

The journey there was a pensive one. Kay couldn’t help but bemoan the loss of her immense strength of body. Interestingly, she had perceived her command presence as stronger while male. The archaic implications of that thought bothered her. Surely, in a time where equality among the sexes was reality, she didn’t see herself as ‘the weaker vessel’. If she didn’t, then why was being male so liberating? Although she had commanded the Majesty for quite some time now, it wasn’t until this very moment that she realized she had yet to shake off the demons of her demure nature. That same nature which had kept her from pursuing command training earlier in her career was still vexing her.

She reached her quarters and slowly peeled away the garb of masculinity and solemnly took up the feminine mantle given her at birth. As she dressed, her thoughts unexpectedly turned to Kruse. He had been gone so long now. Many officers up the line had pressured her to officially take captaincy but Kay repeatedly refused. She knew if there were a way for Bill Kruse to come back, he’d eventually find it. In fact, she, who was never the gambling type, would bet on its certainty. But, all this introspective pondering made her wonder. Could it be that his specter loomed so predominantly over this ship… his ship… that she would never feel sufficient to command her? Was she avoiding it because, deep down, she felt inadequate to command simply because she was female? “What century are you from, Kay,” she sarcastically asked her reflection as she brushed her blond locks. She mopped a hand across her face and the beard stubble, which she’d almost grown accustomed to feeling there, wiped away leaving residue in her palm. “Much easier than shaving”, she thought.

The console in her quarters whistled for her attention. =^= Captain, this is Aarons, please respond. =^=

The voice was much deeper than she last remembered and Kay smiled, remembering his earlier troubles struggling with womanhood. =^= Yes, Mr. Aarons. Good to hear your normal voice. What can I do for you? =^=

=^= Informing you that all personnel are accounted for and Commander Greenwood has completed his final sensor sweep. We can leave at the Captain’s discretion. =^=

=^= Set a course back to Federation space, low warp. I’ll let Admiral Clark know we’re available and see what he has in store for us next. =^=

=^= Aye, Captain. Aarons out. =^=