Part the Four - Where in the Captain gets a shock while the Commander cops a feel!
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Automatically alerted by Voyager's computer the EMH was prepared, ready and waiting as his usually most reluctant and vocal patient quietly materialised, swiftly taking charge of the glowing form.
"Commander, if you would be so kind as to assist, could you please lift Mr Paris, we need to get him onto a bio-bed quickly."
Reaching under the limp pilot's arms Chakotay bent to get a grip on the unconscious Lieutenant's chest, nearly dropping him in surprise when his hands instead of closing over firm muscle as he had been expecting encountered something considerably softer and warm beneath his palm.
"Commander! Please be more careful, I doubt Mr Paris would appreciate concussion from being dropped on his head on top of his other injuries."
Intent on the doctor treating her injured crewmember the Captain failed to notice her second in command's uneasiness.
"Doctor, we understand that something has been done to Tom, I'd like you to run a full medical check to determine exactly what, if anything apart from the obvious glowing, may have taken place. I'd like a full run down of any injuries including those sustained during the earthquake.
Unwilling to leave yet the Captain and Commander waited while the EMH ran the requested scans, busily cataloguing numerous injuries, which he quickly worked to repair even as the computer analysed the results. Several anomalous readings caused the doctor to become confused; harrumphing at the possible errors he checked his instruments and changing his medical tricorder ran the series of scans again, this time getting a different and equally puzzling series of results.
Standing besides the body stretched out, still and radiant, on the bio-bed something was nagging at Chakotay's conscious. The glowing skin created a cocoon of light partially obscuring the figure within, he was not sure if it was the odd light but the tall pilot's features seemed different somehow, softening, becoming less angular even as he watched. His eyes travelling from the altering face, down to the soft chest, if he hadn't known better he could of swore the younger man had … but no, that was just not possible!
"Oh Spirits Tom, what have you done?"
The softly spoken words caught the attention of Janeway and the Doctor, both turning towards the Commander, the Captain's breath halting in her throat, rendered speechless by the sight before her. Even the usually verbose Doctor was lost for words, urgently running the tricorder once again over the former Mr Paris, scanner beeping softly over the significantly altered form as he worked in silence.
Slowly the internally lit skin seemed to dim, bit by bit losing the glow which had surrounded the young man from the moment of his release upon the planet's surface, revealing at last that which it had hidden from sight.
Once lightly tanned skin was paler, apparent even through a light residual glow were the faint traces of pale blue spots, trailing across the broad forehead, behind Tom's ears, to disappear below the neckline of 'his' uniform. The hard lines and angles of the aristocratic face had softened, brow ridge smoothed flat, lips and cheeks both softer and fuller, hard jaw now rounded, neck smooth too smooth in fact, the last of the formally prominent Adam's apple disappearing even as they watched. Limbs still strong and muscular now sporting a subtle layer of fat, trim waist even smaller than before now flaring to broad, wider hips.
The many little changes in form added up, each a small piece of the puzzle but no one thing as significant as the broad chest, gone were the hard muscular lines, flat pectorals now hidden beneath a well formed bust. Even without the Doctor's medical tests it was startlingly obvious that this handsome young man was now an equally striking young woman!
The Capitan, as usual was the first to recover the use of her voice, harshly she turned it on the EMH.
"Doctor I want you to first confirm that 'this' is in fact 'Mr' Paris," her eyebrows rising as if to emphasise the gender specific term, "then I want you to find out exactly what has been done to 'him' and how to fix it." Eyebrows lifting again her lack of any other expression would have put a Vulcan to shame.
"I'm placing sickbay under a security lockdown, unless there is an emergency only the Commander and myself will have access until you complete your analysis. I want the Away Team recalled and everyone checked to be safe, despite the circumstances I do not want to jump to conclusions only to find out the hard way that Tom is not the only one affected. I'll be posting a security detail outside the doors until further notice."
None too happy to be restricted to Sickbay the EMH put aside his annoyance, his responsibility sub-matrix quickly organising a contingency plan.
"I suggest the crew be treated in their own quarters, any minor injuries can be dealt with by Ensign Wildman, likewise I think it best if Mr Kim report to her for his check up before returning to duty tomorrow."
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The AI was puzzled; the correction program was designed to create a straightforward male to female transmutation, at a genetic level to alter the more aggressive male to the tri-sexed species into a member to the female gestator. A similar program existed for the third sex, the Uber and primary genetic contributor, in fact medical science had at the time of the program's inception reached the level where almost any amount of genetic manipulation was possible.
Never before used against on a member of an alien race the program had encountered more than a few problems, Tom's genetics had thrown an unexpected variable, that of a bi-sexed racing; having only male and female members, the lack of the Uber creating difficulties with the conversion.
However the program was nothing if not adaptable, almost ranking as an AI in its' own right, and it worked through the problems one by one. The resulting mishmash of genetics resulted in something that was neither wholly bi, tri or even single sexed, a male/female/Uber alien/human hybrid, Tom's new form was primarily female but also contained an element of uniqueness, completely unlike any that had come before. Despite the apparent success of the conversion the AI had studied the changes and had come the unfortunate conclusion that Tom would be unlikely able to reproduce, the mismatch between bi and tri sexes had rendered the young pilot sterile for period of his transformation.
It was this that puzzled and ultimately intrigued the AI program; after untold hundreds of years alone, sleeping guardian of the Hall of Women for a dead race the AI had awaken called on to fulfil its' duties once more and the thought of returning to sleep possibly never to awaken again weighed heavy on its' mind.
Tom, This One had accepted reparation and been returned to its' clan, but the AI worried after the young pilot, his mind had been scanned as part of the Law before the correction program had been initiated, a failsafe to ensure that the accused spoke the truth, had accepted their actions as erroneous and were not faking a positive response as a means to avoid termination.
The scan showed a mind capable of hiding much, a past deception still regretted and like mental pain showed a capacity to lie but the morality to tell the truth despite the consequences.
The young man was a complex series of contradictions, both loving and friendly, but standoffish and aloof at the same time, a history of hiding behind masks to shield all emotions behind a façade of superiority; often mistake for smugness, the Fly-Boy attitude, another mask which had played such a large role with his interactions with the Voyager crew through the early years of their voyage.
The Playboy, the mask of a lonely man starved for human contact, yearning for the warmth of another's touch beyond the bedroom, but forced to settle for sexual contact when a simple hug would have sufficed. His early reputation as a player unfairly earned, contrived to hold people at bay, preventing them getting too close and allowing them see the wounded man-child within.
Over time This One had slowly relaxed around the other members of the Voyager crew, accepting his place within the Voyager family and bit by bit the masks had dropped, the deliberate baiting of the First Officer had been reduced to more playful banter, more in line with the games he played with Katherine, who he respected above all others, a fellow Star Fleet brat and pseudo-sister, closer in fact than the sisters of his own blood.
Tom had finally found the family of his heart on Voyager and the AI was loathed to leave him now. Although an artificial construct the AI felt the need to perpetuate the species, the biological imperative that drives all life. Knowing This One from his own mind, she felt the stirrings of maternal feelings towards the old Tom and considered the young woman as the daughter she could never have.
A daughter she was worried about, whose own uniqueness could prove to be a problem for Tom's time as a female. The AI was not entirely convinced the alterations the correction program had made to circumvent the problems amalgamating Tom's existing genetic code were reversible.
The punishment was only supposed to last for a finite period, defined by one day for each cycle, month, the subject had lived from the age of puberty to date. Tom's sentence was expected to last somewhere in the region of eight to nine months; the AI was not able to calculate an exact period as its' native calendar was incompatible with the Star date system used by Tom's people.
Reaching a decision the AI sent a time-delayed message to her new daughter on Voyager before disabling the security protocols protecting the Hall of Women, setting in place the necessary sequence of events to forever collapse the structure and bury it beneath the planet's surface. The AI's last act for a dead race before transferring its' Guardianship to one very much alive; AI transferred itself into Voyager's databanks and awaited that which was to come with anticipation.
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