CHAPTER 2

Hoshi went to hop on a biobed and almost overshot, grabbing the edge of the bed at the last moment to keep from flipping over the other side. She'd forgotten about Jon's longer legs.

She looked at Jon who, in her guise, was grunting as he took a seat on the next bed. He had to push himself up with his arms behind him to make his rear reach the mattress. He seemed perplexed as he gazed down at the small feet dangling several centimeters from the deck.

Aware of her own distress at being in his body, Hoshi didn't want to stare at him while he was so confused about being in hers. Yet there was a compulsion to look at her body from this different perspective.

Was she really that petite? Man, did she ever need to do something with her hair. Of course, she'd just gotten out of bed and it was mussed but...

Jon caught her staring and she hastily looked away.

"I don't know what happened," he said, "but we're in this together, Hoshi. We'll get it straightened out and...fixed...back to the way we're supposed to be."

"Aye, sir," she mumbled.

Doctor Phlox, med scanner in hand, bustled back over to them.

"First I'll check your vital signs, then each one of you will have to go into the imaging chamber," he said as he held the scanner first over the person who looked like the captain, then the one who looked like Hoshi.

He made a few noncommittal murmurs as he scanned them.

At last he clicked off the scanner and said, "Nothing out of the ordinary, although both of you are experiencing elevated blood pressure, heart rate and respiration. That could be from some type of emotional stress."

He motioned for Hoshi-in-the-captain's-body to move over to the bed for the imaging chamber. This time she remembered just to hitch up one leg instead of hop up to seat herself. She settled carefully on the bed and Phlox pushed the button to move it into the chamber.

"God, I hate this thing!" she said as it slid into the confined space.

She didn't see Phlox arch an eyebrow at her comment or the speculative look on his face as he glanced over at Jon in her body seated on the other bed.

"Make it fast, Doctor!" she called just before the door of the chamber slid shut. "I've got to go to the bathroom."

The door clunked into place and she was by herself. She waited for the process to begin and worried why it was taking so long to start. The high-pitched hum she'd heard when she'd been in the chamber on other occasions was missing.

She was startled when the door opened and the bed slid back out.

"What's wrong with the machine?" she asked worriedly. "Why didn't you do the scan?"

"There's nothing wrong," Phlox reassured her. "It worked perfectly."

"But I didn't hear..." Her words trailed off as her gaze went to the captain in her body. "You can't hear the higher range of sound that I can!" she exclaimed.

Jon winced. "You don't have to yell, Hoshi. I can hear you fine."

"Switch places, please," the doctor ordered.

"I wish!" Hoshi muttered as she got off the imaging chamber bed so that her body possessed by Jon could be scanned.

Hoshi stood to the side as Jon slid into the chamber on the bed. Phlox entered commands into the console and readouts flashed across the monitor. Shortly thereafter, the scan was finished and the bed slid back out.

Jon sat up and demanded, "Well?"

Perusing the scans of the two officers, Phlox shrugged. "Everything appears to be normal. There's nothing out of the ordinary in the preliminary readings. Let me compare them to what's in your medical files."

As Phlox moved to another work station, Jon got up and came to stand by Hoshi.

"This is so strange," he said, looking up at her with a crooked grin. "I'm used to being one of the taller people on board."

"No offense, sir," she said, looking down at him, "but I really hope I don't have time to get used to it. I mean, being tall is...different. Nice, I suppose. But I want my body back." She shifted from foot to foot. "And I still have to go to the bathroom."

Pausing, she averted her gaze. "And I don't want to!"

Jon must have come to an unpleasant revelation, judging by the look on his -- her, darn it! -- face. "Oh my God!" he said. "I hadn't even thought of that."

"Captain?" Phlox said, interrupting their conversation.

They both turned toward Phlox where he stood next to a computer screen.

"You looked at me when you said, 'Captain'," Jon said. "You've found something."

"Yes, I have," the doctor said. "Your brainwaves, as recorded by the scans, are normal."

Hoshi let out a frustrated breath, only to suck in another huge lungful of air when he added, "Unfortunately, the brainwaves are in the wrong bodies."

As Phlox readied a battery of tests, Hoshi couldn't wait any longer. She excused herself and headed for the sickbay bathroom.

After a series of starts and stops, she managed to do what she needed to do, but it wasn't until she finished that she realized she should have put the seat up. Never having done this before, her aim had been off. She cleaned off the seat and then washed her hands thoroughly. Ugh!

At least I know to put the seat back down, she thought in disgust as she left the bathroom.

She demurely returned to the main area of sickbay and sat down on a biobed next to the captain, who smiled at her.

"Feel better?" he asked softly.

Blood rushed to her cheeks as she nodded. Next to her, Jon chuckled.

"Damn. Didn't know I could blush. It looks good on me," he said. At her incredulous stare, he added, "Brings out the green in my eyes."

"Sir," she said, still staring at him. There was a twinkle in his -- her! -- eyes. So this is what she looked like when she teased someone. Refusing to be distracted, she continued, "I really don't think this is a time to be joking."

Jon immediately sobered. "I know. But you have to admit this is unusual."

"One might even say extraordinary," Phlox cut in as he returned with hyposyringes to draw blood. "For all intents and purposes, you are the same people, except that your consciousnesses have been put into each other's bodies. I can't begin to fathom how that was accomplished."

"It had to be on that planet," Jon said. "Our visit down there was the only change in our routine for some time."

"But what about Malcolm and Trip and T'Pol?" Hoshi asked. "They were down there with us. Have they been affected?"

Jon got up and went to the comm panel. Pressing the button, he said, "Sub-commander T'Pol, please report to sickbay."

He was turning away from the panel when T'Pol's voice came from the speaker. "Is there a problem, Ensign Sato?"

Jon shook his head, not having anticipated that T'Pol would hear Hoshi's voice when he spoke. He turned back to the comm panel. "The captain needs to see you in sickbay."

"Acknowledged."

As the comm clicked off, Hoshi chuckled. "Quick thinking, Captain." Then she frowned. "I hope she believes us."

"She has no choice but to believe you," Phlox said. "The evidence is irrefutable."

Jon and Hoshi were seated side by side on a biobed when T'Pol entered sickbay and walked over to stand in front of Hoshi.

"You needed to see me, sir?" she asked.

Hoshi cleared her throat and inclined her head toward Jon, who said, "I'm the captain, T'Pol."

As T'Pol fixed Jon with a steady stare and a raised eyebrow, Hoshi spoke up. "I'm actually Hoshi."

T'Pol looked back at her, gave her the once over, and looked at Jon again and repeated the procedure. Then she turned to the doctor and said, "I am assuming since the captain and Ensign Sato are in sickbay, they are being treated for some sort of mental delusion."

"This is going to be tougher than I thought," Jon said with a sigh. "You explain it, Doctor."

As Phlox showed T'Pol the scans and detailed what he had found, Hoshi started worrying about something else.

"T'Pol seems OK," she said softly to Jon, "but what about Malcolm and Trip? Do you think they were switched?"

"I don't know," Jon answered. "We'll find out in a little bit. I didn't want all of them showing up at the same time. I don't think I could have handled that."

"Me, either. ... What?"

"Even if Trip and Malcolm are OK, I was wondering..." Jon's voice faded away.

"You know Trip's going to think this is funny," Hoshi said, "but Malcolm? At the very least, he's going to be upset."

"You two have been together -- about six months now?"

Hoshi nodded. "I have no idea how he's going to react when he finds out the woman he's in love with is now a man."

(A/N: So, anybody out there reading this have any comments so far? Huh?)