"Captain," said Spock, "I fail to understand why you have destroyed a site that Empire archaeologists were scheduled to investigate shortly."
"I made a command decision, Mr Spock," said Janice. "Miss Lester unearthed something I judged to be a threat to the Empire, and I have now neutralised that threat."
"And what was the nature of the threat?"
"Ancient biological weapons, unstable and too dangerous to be moved. The details will be in my report."
I barely heard this exchange, so horrified was I by what I had just witnessed. The machine was gone, and with it what might well be my only hope of getting my real body back.
"Right," said Janice, getting to her feet, "it's time Miss Lester was placed in the brig. With me, Mr Williams. Spock, you have the chair."
The three of us travelled down in the turbolift together in silence. In fact no one said a word until Janice and I were alone in my cell, with Williams standing guard outside. Then she couldn't help gloating.
"Now do you understand, Janice? By destroying the machine on Camus II I've ensured that our switch is permanent. Never again will you be tall, muscular, and commanding. What you are now - a small, soft, vulnerable woman - is what you will be for the rest of your days. Every time you see your pretty face in a mirror I want you to remember that by letting your guard down, by being too trusting, you earned that face. You're female because you deserve to be, because you allowed yourself to be fooled, to be bested, by a woman. Your manhood is now my manhood. You lost it to me, and I'm keeping it. Men used to follow you into battle. Now no self-respecting man would follow you anywhere but into bed."
When she left me I fell into the deepest funk of my life. I had always known who to bribe, threaten, or kill to get what I wanted, but I could see no way out of this predicament. None of the clout I'd had as Jim Kirk was available to me, and even if it had been I had no idea where or how to apply it in this situation in a way that would do me any good. I spent an unhealthy amount of time staring at my reflection in the small mirror over the wash basin, trying to get my head around moving through the world from now on as a woman with that face and that body. Janice had sneered that no self-respecting man would follow me anywhere but into bed. What if she was right? Would I now have to start using my body to get what I wanted? No, the very idea was repugnant to me. At least, it was right now. Would it stay that repugnant to me? I could imagine situations where I could be so desperate that such considerations would go out the window. I shuddered at the thought.
When I woke the next morning I had those few moments of disorientation you always do, but reality came rushing in when I turned and so felt the weight of my breasts on my chest. No, it had not been just a dream; I really was a woman now. Once I was over the momentary shock, I smiled. A good night's sleep had given me new perspective, and I was annoyed at my despair of the previous day. Stupidly, I'd allowed Janice to get inside my head, to use my attitudes about women against me. I believed women used their bodies to get men to do what they wanted, so it was easy to get me to think I'd have to do the same. But I didn't. This body was small and weak, and while I couldn't do much about the former, I could certainly do something about the latter. And so I began exercising within the limited confines of my cell. This mostly meant push-ups, sit-ups, and running on the spot, and at first it was hard, but no gain without pain - a sentiment I know Nurse Chapel would agree with. I had no idea what use I might put any increased strength and stamina to, but you should always be as prepared as you can be to take advantage of any opportunities that might come your way.
Over the next several days, I learned Janice had not actually told anyone else why I had been arrested. So far as they were concerned, I was there under her personal authority. Which meant she was saving my file on her illegal activities as a grave robber until she delivered me to the authorities. Interesting. I also used that time to concentrate on my problem from all angles and, eventually, I had a eureka moment. Finally, I could see a possible, albeit very difficult way out of this predicament.
My cell had a small viewer that connected to the ship's library but, as I discovered when I used it, I was locked out of anything useful. Janice had limited what I could access to torrid romance novels, women's fashion journals, hairstyling and make-up tutorials, literature about the joys of motherhood that exhorted women to do their duty and have lots of babies for the Empire, and more books on how to please a man in bed than I would have guessed existed. Since they would provide at least some mental stimulation, I read the novels, and ignored the rest. Uhura visited me a couple of times. Judging by how well her own hair and make-up were done she clearly hadn't ignored the tutorials.
"The captain ordered me to practice until I got them right," she explained. "He insisted that as his personal yeoman I needed to look my best at all times and to set an example for the other female crewmembers."
"And you went along with it? Shouldn't you at least try to be your own...woman...rather than letting...him...dictate that?"
Even when it was just the two of us, I couldn't allude out loud to Uhura having been a man, and I had to use male pronouns when referring to Janice.
"What can I do? He's the captain."
"This is probably an alien concept, but you could show a little backbone," I suggested. "I'd think more highly of you if you did."
"You would?" she said, looking at me hopefully.
For some reason my opinion mattered to Uhura, though whether that was because as the only other man Janice had turned into a woman she felt we shared a unique connection, or because I now wore the face of the woman she had loved, I didn't know. What was important was that it did, and I could use that.
At the end of my first week in the brig, Janice visited me flanked by my - now her - security team. Leaving them outside she joined me in the cell where we could speak without being overheard. In the week since I'd last seen her something had changed.
"Why are you growing a beard?"
"I wanted to make my own mark on this body, and I like Spock's beard, so I thought 'why not?'. Do you like it?"
I shrugged non-committally. I'd never thought I looked good with facial hair, but for now that was Janice's face and I couldn't stop her from doing whatever she wanted with it.
"Why the visit?" I asked.
"Because I'm disappointed in you, Janice."
"Really? What could I possibly have done locked away alone here in my cell to disappoint you?"
"With the mind-swapping device destroyed it should be impossible for you to reverse the switch, and I like the idea of there still being a Janice Lester out there - I was her for a long time, after all, and I'm rather fond of her. So I decided to test you, to see if you were ready to accept your womanhood. If you were, I was prepared to reconsider handing you over to the Empire's legal system. That's why I limited your library access to things that would help you onto that path, but you've ignored them."
"That version of womanhood holds no appeal for me."
"Then what version does?"
"Fighting to change the system, and becoming captain of a starship again."
Janice laughed incredulously.
"It can't be done. You can't fight the system and win."
"People have been telling me what I can't do all my life, and all my life I've been proving them wrong."
"You're right," sighed Janice, studying my face thoughtfully, "and that's why I daren't let you go. The device on Camus II may have been destroyed, but if anyone could find another way to undo the mind transfer it would be you. I'm sorry it's come to this."
"Me, too," I said.
Following her visit, I hoped Janice might extend my library access, but she didn't. So, just to confuse her, I started watching all the hairstyling and make-up tutorials. It was always good strategy to wrong foot an opponent, and this was the only means of doing so I had at my disposal. Also, if I was going to be a woman for any length of time - and I was pretty sure I was - I might find myself in a situation where those skills would come in useful. There's no such thing as useless knowledge, after all.
The day after Janice called by I had another visitor: Mr Spock. He did not come alone.
"Spock knows who you really are," said Uhura, stepping out from behind him. "I've told him everything."