Note: This is both a sequel to and extension of my earlier story 'Turnabout Intruder - part 2' which, being new here, I think I gave too restrictive a rating, hence one step back for this one. The story has already been completed and chapters will be posted here as updates over the next week or two until it's all up.

2269: Elba II

"I stole your body because I wanted to captain a starship, something Starfleet doesn't allow women to do," said Janice Lester. "It's amazing that we've come so far technologically yet regressed socially. I think the feminists of previous centuries would be very disappointed in us."

"I agree," I said, "but these things tend to go in cycles - two steps forward, then one step back. There are already signs that things are changing again."

"I know, but too late for me. I'm out of Starfleet and I've missed my chance."

In my long career in Starfleet, this was one of the stranger conversations I'd had. We were on the asylum planet of Elba II, the place where the Federation keeps the few remaining citizens too criminally insane to be treated even by our advanced medical technology, and Janice was strapped into an outlawed brainwashing device from the Eugenics Wars which looked like a high-tech version of the barbaric electric chairs they had used to execute people in the twentieth century. It had originally been designed to overwrite the personalities of captured troops so that they could then be turned against their former allies, but it was now being used for a more benign purpose. Janice had created a template for the machine containing a modified version of her own memories and personality, one designed to overwrite her current, destructive personality and create a more feminine, submissive Janice Lester free of the demons that had plagued her and ultimately driven her mad.

"You got to briefly captain the Enterprise when you were me," I said, "and you made a mess of it."

"True," she replied, "but I did so intentionally."

"What are you talking about?"

"When the machine on Camus II switched our minds it created a link between us that I knew would enable me to read your memories and absorb your skills. The catch was that this took time, and I wouldn't have what it took to command the Enterprise until then. I needed the mind switch to establish the link, but I couldn't fully take advantage of it until I'd had time to absorb all your knowledge. It's what used to be known as a classic catch-22. So I deliberately made a mess of things, acting like I'd completely lost control, and allowed you to temporarily switch us back."

"'Temporarily...?'"

"Yes. It was all an act, even my apparent attempt to strangle you after we swapped places. Once the switch has been made by the machine it can only be undone by the machine. We're still connected. We have been since I switched our minds on Camus II. I've now absorbed all the skills, memories and knowledge I need to take your place permanently, enough so that even with a Vulcan mind meld Mr Spock couldn't tell I wasn't you."

There was a brief hissing sound as Janice pressed the trigger on the air syringe that had been rigged to fire a paralysing drug into her veins when she was ready to administer it, then I felt a moment of vertigo as the entire world seemed to momentarily lurch, everything turning white. When my vision cleared I was looking up into my own face, the face of Captain James T. Kirk, unable to move.

"Goodbye, Janice," said Janice Lester, now back in my body, "I hope you'll find happiness as the feminine, submissive woman you're about to become. I'll certainly be happy knowing that's who you are. I think it's going to look really good on you. And that's not all. Though Arthur Coleman was just a means to an end, someone whose help I needed, he does genuinely love me. So it seems only fair he should get the girl, should win the prize he worked so hard for. That's why for the new 'improved' Janice Lester personality I created he's her ideal man, while she's the Janice Lester he's always wanted. You're going to be his reward from me for his loyal service."

Try as I might I could not move a muscle and so had no way of signalling what had happened to those watching, or of expressing my rising panic. She had planned everything meticulously. This had been her endgame since she first placed me in the machine on Camus II. Now she had sprung the trap and there was no way out of it. Seeing the fear in my eyes, Janice smirked and kissed me on the forehead. She then lowered the cowl of the device down over my head.

"Okay, Bones," she said, as she stepped through the cubicle door, "let's get this thing done so I can get back to the Captain's chair on the Enterprise, back to where I belong."

Unaware that anything was wrong, Bones remotely activated the device. Instantly, I felt alien thoughts, memories, and desires flooding into my mind and overwhelming my own, forcing them out.

If I could, I would have screamed.

I think I must have blacked out because the next thing I knew Dr McCoy was at my side, firing an anti-paralytic into my arm while his colleague Mr Scott unstrapped me from the device. They helped me to my feet and held my arms as I stood unsteadily on my five inch heels.

"Do you know who you are?" asked Dr McCoy.

"Of course I do," I said, "I'm Janice Lester."

"And how do you feel?"

"I have a killer headache, though that's fading now."

"Only to be expected in the circumstances. Is there anything you're experiencing anxiety about?"

"There is one thing."

I turned to Mr Scott.

"Could you get me my purse?" I asked him.

"I cannae see it, lass," he said, frowning.

"It's behind the chair."

"Oh aye, I see it now," he said, retrieving it for me.

Reaching into the purse, I pulled out my make-up kit and opened it. When I saw myself in the mirror I let out a sigh of relief.

"I was worried that having my head strapped back like that would have messed up my hair," I said, fluffing it with my other hand, "but I seem to have got away with it."

"You look lovely, Janice," said Jim Kirk, who had followed his subordinates into the chamber and was now grinning down at me. He offered me his arm.

"Shall we?" he said.

I took it and he led me out of the chamber, out of the room it was in, and along the corridor beyond to the designated transporter area.

"Scotty and Dr McCoy will deactivate the device and prepare it for transport to the Enterprise," he explained as we walked, "then it will be taken back to Earth and returned to the secure weapons vault in Nevada we borrowed it from."

"What about me?" I asked.

"You can't be held criminally responsible for your actions while the balance of your mind was disturbed, but Starfleet is still insisting you be confined to Earth. Despite the testimony of you and Dr Coleman that the deaths of the other members of your Camus II expedition were an accident suspicions remain. I'm afraid this trip on the Enterprise will be your final journey into space."

We had reached the transporter area. Jim flipped open his communicator.

"Two to beam up," he said.