explained, sitting back in the main chair next to Sarah's. I sighed deeply with the experience and prepared for the journey home and the debriefing.
"Let's stay here awhile and get some sleep before heading back," I said, yawning. I suddenly felt extremely tired. Sarah agreed and set the ship's computer to rouse us in a few hours.
Even though I was dog-tired, sleep was difficult. Not only did it hurt like hell, but I could feel odd changes throughout my body. At least that's what it felt like. Maybe it was just the effects of being in space for the first time.
A few hours later, I felt the engines roar to life as they strained to attain faster-than-light speed. I felt the movement from under my bed, waking me up from my much-needed nap.
Sarah softly rapped on the door. "You all right? You've been moaning for a while. I set the coordinates; we should be there shortly."
"Yeah," I said, stretching and yawning. "I feel fine. You?" I stumbled out into the cockpit, blinking to adjust to the bright lights - which oddly seemed to be much brighter and more vibrant. New colors - and names for those colors - popped into my head. No longer were things just brown or red, but mauve and rose. That was odd, but again I just shrugged it off. I'd heard the effects of space-travel could be many and varied.
Without looking at me, concentrating to keep the ship on course, she answered, "Yes thank you, I'm good. But you may want to check yourself for any signs of infection in your wound." I headed off to the bathroom so I could throw some water on my face to wake me up from the nap.
I never saw this facility before, it was quite nice to look at, but awfully lonely. I just wished Sarah was here with me taking selfies, as girls usually do together. What the hell was I saying?
I gazed at the foggy mirror for five minutes, trying to get a clear view of myself, but something was wrong. The silhouette I could see beyond the mirror fog was thinner, and my hair appeared longer than it really was. I rubbed my eyes, trying to clear the sand crabs from them. Geez, maybe I wasn't cut out for this type of shit.
Eventually the mirror cleared up, but the vision remained. What was I looking at here? It wasn't a mirror, there was a girl looking back at me. Maybe this was new state-of-the-art computer tech. But in the bathroom?
I was just about to forget all about it and grab some Aspirin, when I noticed the girl making the exact same movements as me.
I dropped to the floor when I started to contemplate what had happened. I immediately stood right up and ran out of the bathroom and back into the cockpit.
"Sarah! I'm freaking out," I said panting, literally sounding like a whiny teenage girl and stamping my foot against the floor.
"I'm sorry, what's wrong?" she replied before turning back to me, only for her own face to go pale and her eyes wide.
"Who the hell are you?" She asked, backing up.
"It's me! Jack! You've got to help me. What's going on?" I was frantic. Not only didn't I feel like myself, I didn't look or talk like myself.
"Jack?" She took a tentative step forward. "What happened?"
"I don't know. I was in the bathroom thinking about how much I wanted you to join me, and then I went to look in the mirror and I looked like this. And, I just don't-- I'm scared." I began to sob as I placed head in my hands.
Sarah put her arms around me. "Hey, it's okay. I don't know what's just happened, but its okay, I told you I'd be here for you and here I am."
I didn't notice when I came in but Sarah had grown much taller than me, or is that I shrunk? Either way this was comforting and my feelings were only getting stronger as she looked at me lovingly.
Looking into her beautiful round eyes, I started, "Sarah, remember what we talked about before if I turned into a woman?" to which her only response was to stroke my cheek and lower her head down to kiss me tenderly on the lips, pulling me in closely.
"I've been looking forward to this all day," I
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