Shoshone Station: The Galactic Consortium season 2

Episode Two: To Be or Not To Be #6

Sophia woke the next morning with her head on Ray's bare chest. Whether due to age, recovery or some noble impulse on Ray's part, they hadn't gone past cuddling. It was a strange experience for Sophia. She was not used to men treating her with any sort of deference. In her experience the kind of men, if not all men, that wanted to be with a transwoman mostly had one thing in mind.

But I won't be a transwoman for long, she thought as she rose and made for the bathroom. The device strapped around her waist looked somewhere between a thong and a man's jock strap. It allowed her to use the bathroom, but kept her male parts squished flat inside. Within was a thick paste filled with chemicals, RNA strands and what not, telling her body to start cannibalizing and "un-growing" her male members. Every other day or so she had to go the healer and lay in a tank for a half hour or so, while they sent other chemicals deep into her body. Those chemicals would identify the microscopic pieces of tissues that remained from the time in utero when her body hadn't yet decided to be male or female. They would tell that tiny residual female tissue to grow, to start becoming what it was supposed to have been.

When it was done, what would Sophia be? A woman. Indistinguishable from any other. The thought filled her with relief and paradoxically, a sense of loss. Being transgender was hard. But with the hardness came pride. Not a happy go lucky sort of pride, Sophia had never achieved that. But a fierce, I-am-unique and I-will-be-what-I am, god damn you all, sort of pride.

She snorted and pushed the sorrow down. Let Tamela or Kerry talk about that shit, their pride in being trans. Sophia was going to achieve the one thing she wanted for as long as she could remember, to be female. That was a reason to be happy.

She finished her morning toilet and climbed into the shower. It was a smaller version of the spa's waterfall shower.

When she was done, she turned to find Ray watching her. He was naked, his body thin and ropy but not unattractive. His member was flaccid between his legs and his eyes innocent.

"You'll make a beautiful woman," he said as she climbed out of the shower. He gave a big dramatic sigh and added, "unfortunately."

She hit him in the shoulder and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you," she laughed.

She found a towel and started drying off while he went into the shower. "So that's the device, making your... you know, go away?"

"Yeah," she said.

"And then?"

"They are doing other stuff, inside," she said. Sooner or later they'll have to hook up the internal changes to the external and, well I'm not sure. They referred to it as an 'awkward phase' but promised they'd monitor me carefully and it shouldn't be painful, just a little uncomfortable at times."

Out in the main room, Animika, Sherry and the other man were spread out on couches and mats on the floor, asleep. Tamela and the girl, Shavinda were by the kitchenette area. Tamela had the remains of their personal breakfast in her hands and was asking "recycling?"

"Trash is there," Shavinda said.

"Yeah, but this is cardboard. It should be recycled," Tamela insisted.

"Recycled?" Shavinda asked, blank.

"Like turned into something new, not wasted," Tamela said.

"Yeah, trash is right there."

Tamela spared them a pained look. Ray laughed.

"Don't bother," he told Tamela. "I went through this the first day. It's the same thing up here."

"The same thing?" Tamela's tone was skeptical.

"They don't waste anything. Just put it in the trash. They have a processing facility that separates everything, remakes it, composts it, whatever. They don't understand waste."

The others were starting to rise. Within a half hour everyone was up and showered. Shavinda dismissed herself for temple service. Everyone else headed for breakfast. Sophia offered to let the others come with her to the healers, to learn more about what treatment options there were for people like them. They made arrangements to meet up with the others later for a spa day. Sophia felt a little guilty about how much she'd spent already, but neither Animika or Tapanga seemed concerned, and they had less than she did. Besides you only had your first day in space once, she reasoned and they'd all be earning money the day after.