Shifting

Vira walked into the med bay rested and ready to tackle the day. It was impressive how good food, a fun conversation, and a nights rest could wipe away your previous exhaustion. It was technically the midafternoon according to the ships clocks, but it was her morning since she was on night duty. She stepped in to see the short hunched figure of Alwen working at her work station in the lab, there wasn’t anyone in the recovery room so Vira went straight into the lab.

Alwen looked very focused on some ultrasound images, so focused she didn’t even notice Vira sneaking up on her. Vira had a mischievous idea, and she suddenly draped her arms over the distracted Alwen “Whatch’ya looking at” she said loudly in Torweni so she could put on an overly exaggerated accent.

Alwen yelped in her chair and tried to get away, but was thoroughly trapped under Vira’s arm.

Vira stood up and giggled “The look on your face!”

She scowled, “That’s not funny.”

“Yes it was, your just mad because I spooked you” she said with a big shit eating grin, before remembering the conversation she had last night. The story Alice had told her about the small doctor who had cut open a monster’s skull and emptied a full mag into its brain couldn’t really be the same Alwen they had known. Sure she was more assertive now, and in the tea shop she had seemed very deadly, but that had to have been an act. Vira couldn’t reconcile the slightly flushed and annoyed Alwen with the Bones from Alice’s story. “Anyway what are you working on?”

“A personal project.” She muttered before turning back to her work.

That was the Alwen Vira knew. When it came to studying or working there were few things that could distract her. It was admirable if not a little upsetting with how casually she brushes off any social engagement. It was fine though, Vira was used to getting the cold shoulder from Alwen.

Vira went to her own station and began to review the medical textbook on Terran physiology. She was working to memorize every part of the human immune system, and had her work cut out for her. She thought the Torweni immune system was tough, but the Human one was on a whole different level of complexity. Not only was it complex but it was also borderline psychotic. The Torweni system worked to recognize and neutralize threats appropriately, with as little stress on the body as possible. The Human one went into a frenzied state of total war against any foreign intruders. Sometimes it turned on itself and attacked ligaments and tendons out of spite.

It was one of those little details that really drove home what made a ‘deathworlder’ and ‘deathworlder’. A lot of things needed to go wrong for something like that to exist, and they would have had to have been there for generations. Alwen had told Vira and the rest that if Terran bacteria ever learned to deal with the strange Torweni immune system then they would have an epidemic worse than the era of three plagues. And she could see why. Any immune system that needed to be this psychotic to survive would need to face many great and terrible enemies. It seemed terrifying to her own sensibilities, and she wondered how it would compare to the so called ‘non-deathworlders’ of the galaxy.

Twenty minutes into her studying Alwen finally broke away from her work and looked over to Vira “Hey Vira, you’ve slept with other women before right?”

Vira blinked, “That’s a little out of the blue, but yeah. Why, are you thinking to spice up your nightly escapades with your big alien boyfriend. I saw him entering your room last night.”

Alwen scowled and slight blush colored her cheeks, turning her an adorable shade of purple. “Not what I was getting at.”

“Shame”

“But you’ve gone through the shift before then?”

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Vira nodded “Twice, first was when I was fifteen and I didn’t want my parents to know since they didn’t like her mom, the second time was with Asho, you remember Asho right?”

Her face scrunched up as she searched her thoughts “That southern exchange student?”

“Yeah, her father passed away a month after you left so she went home to take care of things.”

“Did you guys try long distance or-?”

“We broke it off.”

“Oh” she said, then she looked a bit embarrassed as she asked the next part “What did it feel like?”

Vira pursed her lips “I think that’s a bit too personal, are things not going good with Gato?”

Alwen tilted her head to the side like the other Uplifted Terrans did when they were confused before something dawned on her “Not the break up, I meant the shift.”

Oh, that made more sense. Alwen had never been interested in any of Vira’s relationships anyway. “Yeah, that sucked. Like my womb was in a blender. I got one of those hormone birth control implants.” She said as she pointed to her bicep where a thin straight bump could be seen.

“Like powerful indigestion?”

“Maybe, not a word I would use. Scared the shit out of me the first time around, my parents never had the ‘talk’ with me. So I didn’t know what was going on.”

“What did you do then?” Alwen asked curiously.

“I looked up my symptoms and learned that some women got cramps from shifting. It only happens in about ten percent of women, and only homosexual women experience it, so it really sucks to be a part of that small percentage. After that I just dealt with the pain.”

“You weren’t worried about getting pregnant?” Alwen asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Not at the time, you know how it is, to busy being high on life to actually worry about the consequences.”

“Hmm. Mind taking a look at something for me?” she asked.

“Why not.” Vira stood and walked over. She frowned at what she saw, one was a positive Meridoc test, a simple test to check for sexual shifts in a patient. But then she saw the ultrasound and was confused. “That’s not right.” She said out loud.

“I know, its like the body wants to shift but doesn’t know how, so it’s just twisting itself up.” Alwen agreed. “And look at this” she said pointing to a Petry dish under a Terran style digital microscope. “I have a sample a female Torweni Oocytes, watch what happens when I add a sample of semen.” She said as she pulled up a dropper.

Vira felt herself entering the realm of detached medical observation that allowed all medical professions to approach the more indecent parts of their craft professionally. She watched the sample dish as Alwen added one drop to the dish. Normally nothing should have happened, not in a Petry dish. And for a while nothing did. But then something did.

“Did it just-?”

“Yeah it did” Alwen answered.

“That’s not possible” Vira spluttered.

“Your right, and that wasn’t Torweni semen either. It was Felinoid.” Alwen said gravely.

Vira looked at Alwen in stunned horror “You’re, you’re shifting for your boyfriend.”

She pursed her lips and pulled up some notes “Not quite, somehow the egg is being fertilized, and the fertilized egg is sending out the hormone signal for my body to try and accommodate it. But my body doesn’t recognize the signal being sent and is doing a half shift. All the pain, but no chance at children.”

“That should not be possible.” Vira said again. “He’s an alien, not Torweni. Chromosomal shifting is amazing, but it can’t bridge the species gap. Remember Dr. Mendala’s experiments.”

Alwen grimaced “Don’t remind me. Mad scientist creep.”

“Right, but he gave us conclusive evidence that we’re not compatible with animals just because our bodies can change. That should also apply to aliens.”

“It should” Alwen muttered as she rolled her chair across the room to a computer monitor. In a few quick clicks she brought up a photo album and selected one of her mentor Bachir. Vira had liked the gruff furry doctor, and couldn’t deny that he really knew his stuff. “This is Bachir from twenty years ago, that was his wife, and those are his two kids. Both biological.” She said gesturing to the human female and young bear cub of indeterminate gender.

“How?”

Alwen got a dark look in her eyes “When the Union uplifted the Mammaloids they included a lot of other adaptations. Human-like breasts, smaller male genitals, and cross species compatibility. For some reason the Union wanted them to be compatible with humans, something about boosting workforce numbers. Bachir lost his job for looking into the specifics.”

“That’s… disgusting.” Vira gaped.

“I’m going to take that you find the alteration and engineering of non-sapient species as disgusting and not the idea of cross-species unions.” Alwen said flatly.

“The first part obviously. I’m not attracted to the Uplifted, but I can see how the second would be problematic.”

Alwen nodded “Right. I think something about the cross compatibility is interacting with the Torweni reproductive system in strange and unexpected ways. I won’t know without a larger sample size. I’m just surprised it hasn’t come up before.”

Vira gave her an incredulous look. “I think you’re the only Torweni with an alien boyfriend.”

She shook her head “The Asmodeus is a joint crew ship, Terran and Torweni, and there have been several relationships aboard. Hell, for a time Astarte and Kalwen were meeting on the sly.”

Vira nodded; she had forgotten about the Asmodeus. “Okay, but were there any Torweni women on that ship?”

Alwen frowned “I, I don’t think so. I think you, Menda, and I are the only female Torweni in the Hellworlder fleet.”

“So maybe it only works with women, and maybe only a select few. We’d need a larger sample size than you and your Marine to know for sure.”

Alwen quirked her head to the side “I might know where we can get a ready supply of Terran subjects.”