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The Monongah hung in space like a giant 10-penny nail. She was an asteroid mining ship for the AsterOre Mining Corporation. At one end was a disk 150 meters in diameter, inside of which was a ring of rooms that spun to simulate gravity. This is where most of the crew cabins and workspaces were located. At the other end of the 800-meter long superstructure was the atomic furnace that acted as the main drive for the ship and supplied heat for the smelting operation that refined the valuable metals from the ores they found in the Asteroid Belt.

The ship was designed to be fully self-contained, and capable of remaining in space indefinitely without needing to return to Earth. In hydroponic greenhouses, they grew all their own food, recovering fertilizing minerals from the waste products of the mining operation. Its stores contained megalitres of water which were recycled in a closed system, and occasionally augmented when rare asteroids or rogue comets were captured that bore ice or water bound up in rocks. And if they were at least minimally successful at mining, there would be enough refined metals to provide material for replacing any parts of the ship that may have become damaged or worn. That’s the way it worked in theory, at least. In practice, when over two hundred men are stuck together in a giant tin can millions of miles from home, they hunger for human contact, particularly female human contact.

Captain Frank Ryan had been deep in slumber, when suddenly someone’s hands were on him and he was being roughly shaken. He could hear a noise that eventually became words. "Frank, wake up. It’s urgent." It was the voice of Pete Matthews, his first officer. Unlike Frank who’d been a rocket jockey for thirty years, Pete had come up through the ranks at AsterOre on the business side of the operation and was better at managing numbers than he was people. Frank blinked a couple times and pulled himself out of sleep the rest of the way before getting the full story. It was bad news; the Clementine had sent out a priority distress call, and they were the closest friendly vessel to her position. Pete gave Frank a few moments to get dressed, then led him to the communications center so he could get the message firsthand. It was encoded with the right protocols that it seemed to be legitimate, so he had no choice. Clementine was one of AsterOre’s scout ships, a single-person craft piloted by Nancy Webster, a prospector. Her job was to measure and sample rocks in the Belt to determine which had the most profitable metals, so the company could then file claims on them. Her message said she’d had a hull breach and was losing life support. Based on her position, it wasn’t likely that Monongah could get to her in time to save her life, but the mineral data on board was more valuable to the company, and they couldn’t afford for it to fall into the hands of a competitor.

From where they were, communication with the central offices would take a half an hour, so it would be a full hour to get a response after Captain Ryan emailed them to let them know the plan. He told the foreman to recall the miners currently off ship, and got on the PA system and notified all personnel to prepare for transit. It would not be a pleasant trip; the men were already overdue for a furlough. They’d been promised a visit to the pleasure girls back on Ganymede Station months ago, but there hadn’t been enough metals processed to qualify for a return to base. There was a general feeling that a mother lode was right around the corner, but they were going to have to stop the current mining operations in order to move the ship. The Clementine was about two weeks away from them, so all 128 disgruntled miners would be sitting idle for that time, with nothing to do but checking their spacesuits for leaks and making sure all their equipment is in working order. He ordered the boys in the IT department to download some more movies for the men to watch, to try to maintain morale. But it still felt like a ticking time bomb. In order to try to defuse the situation, the captain let rumor be leaked that they were going out to rescue Nancy, since everyone was somewhat familiar with her and knowing that they were saving a "damsel in distress" seemed to make the mission nobler and more heroic, so most of the miners’ complaints were mollified.

They located the Clementine parked on a fairly large rock. There wasn’t any major damage visible on her exterior, but her running lights were out, and the radio gave no response; it had even stopped broadcasting the distress message. Matthews brought Antoine Monroe the head of Information Technology, the medical officer Dr. Walter Gunderson, and Jake Ross the Chief Maintenance Engineer with him as a boarding party to investigate. They suited up and rode over on one of the cargo shuttles. The tension was high back on the Monongah as everyone waited to see if the rescue was successful.

The team found a huge gash in the ventral side of the Clementine. It was a fluke – the small asteroid didn’t look large enough to have any significant gravity, but it had just enough that when Clementine landed in exactly the wrong spot, she broke through the surface crust, and the resulting jagged edge sliced into her belly. Nancy was in her spacesuit, but her oxygen had run out six days before they found her. The crash took out her power plant, and when Clementine’s batteries ran out of juice, the air scrubbers wouldn’t function anymore, and she slowly suffocated. Ross surveyed the damage and concluded that it would be easier to tow Clementine out of there than to try to fix enough of the damage to get her flying under her own power. Monroe started dismantling the computer core, so that he could download the data. Matthews helped Doc Gunderson load Nancy into the shuttle and they brought it back and carried her into Sick Bay. The rumor mill ran wild about sighting someone being carried back, but the doc was only bringing her back to put her in a drawer, next to the seven miners that had also been lost since they’d left base. Mining has always been a dangerous occupation, and it didn’t get any safer when it moved to The Belt.

The captain went on the PA system and let the entire crew know that Nancy had died, and that they’d be loading Clementine into a cargo bay, so that valuable materials could be recovered, and also that the company would be rewarding them all with a bonus for saving the survey data that Nancy had collected. He scheduled a brief memorial service, where the men could all share any memories of her they had, sent a report back to headquarters, and recorded a video message for Nancy’s family, letting him know they’d keep her safe until she could get home. He also let the crew know that as soon as they were done analyzing the data, HQ would be telling them where the next mining operation would be happening. In the meantime, some of the mining crews were assigned to assist in moving the Clementine on board, since they were used to transporting huge masses. The cargo bay doors weren’t large enough, so maintenace workers cut a hole in the hull and once the smaller ship was inside they welded it closed again. The whole procedure took five hours.

Eventually, word got around that the captain probably knew Nancy wasn’t going to be alive, and all the company really cared about was the information she’d collected, and keeping it out of the hands of the competition. Many of the men were really tired of working for a corporation that put the bottom line before the people and when the Monongah was relocated to a new mining site, they let the boss know they had had enough. After they’d finished breakfast, the miners on the first shift refused to leave the mess hall, and instead of getting ready to go outside and break rocks they all remained seated at the tables. There had been some kind of unspoken agreement between them all. Not even the foreman could get them to move. They demanded to speak to the captain. Matthews went to talk to them instead. They wouldn’t appoint a spokesman to meet with the first officer one on one; he had to deal with the 43 of them as an entire group.

He stood on a bench and shouted to the group, "What will it take to get you people back to work?"

A gruff voice across the room called out, "We want to go home."

"We’re not scheduled to return to Earth for another sixteen months. You all signed contracts. Why are you trying to break them now?"

The miner closest to him yelled, "You lied to us!" He paused as a few echoes backed him up around the room, then he added "We were promised regular leaves on Ganymede, and we’re passed due. You broke the contract first!"

"If we could get to Jupiter instead of Earth, would that be good enough for you?"

"We don’t trust you. You’d probably fire us all, and hire a new bunch of miners who’d promise more loyalty, and leave us stranded on Ganymede. It would probably take all our money to hire a ride home, and we’d have gone without our folks back on Earth for nothing." The new speaker was Fred Johnson, one of the younger miners. He had a little more education than the rest, and Matthews guessed he might have been the ringleader of this little demonstration.

"I’ll take your request to the captain. I should warn you that a return flight to Earth might not be feasible at this point. I don’t have the charts on hand, but you need to remember that everything in space is always moving. Earth is moving, Jupiter is moving, and all the rocks in the Belt are moving. We could be on the other side of the system from Earth, and it may be better to wait for Earth to come to us. We may have to find some other kind of solution. I’m guessing that the real problem is that you’ve been stuck here with a couple hundred guys and haven’t seen any women for ten months, and you got your hopes up that one would be coming on board, but we didn’t tell you that she’d likely be dead before she got here. Is that right?" There were a few nods and general mumbles of agreement. "So if we could do something like get one of the Ganymede pleasure girls to come out here to us, would that be good enough?" They shouted their approval. "I don’t know if there’s a procedure for doing that, but I sincerely promise you that I’ll try. When I leave here, I’ll go call a meeting with the captain and the other department heads and see what we can do. You’ve given me some room to work with. Now as a show of good faith, do you think you men could get back to work? I know we’ve squandered all the faith you’ve put in us so far, but I give you my personal guarantee that an acceptable solution will be found by the end of your shift. I will radio you when we’ve made a decision, and if I don’t talk to you by the shift change, you can bring the second shift guys with you and come back to your strike or sit-in or whatever you want to call it." The miners begrudgingly agreed to his proposal and went to get their suits on.

Matthews knew this wasn’t going to be easy. He told the captain what he’d promised the miners, and it didn’t go over well. They called a meeting of the department heads to figure out their options. The navigator Wes Morton went first. A return to Earth would take eight months, and require so much fuel they’d have to cannibalize a third of the cargo. A trip to the base on Ganymede would only take two months. Josh Price from accounting interrupted to point out that the value of their current cargo wouldn’t return enough profit to afford another trip out from Earth, but might be enough to cover fuel costs on Ganymede, although the company wouldn’t credit the value until their scheduled return date, so they’d be buying fuel on credit and might be charged a warehousing fee while their cargo waited for a freighter to show up. He also ran the numbers on Matthews’ idea of having one of the pleasure girls delivered to them. A four-month round trip plus the approximately ten days it would take to service most of the crew, multiplied by their usual hourly rate, would cost more than their projected profits.

"So where does that leave us?" Captain Ryan was irritated. "If we cave in to their demands, we’re broke. If we don’t do what they say, we’re broke. We haven’t recovered enough valuable metals to turn a profit. These miners have our balls in a vise, and they know it. Anyone have any ideas on how we can keep things together?"

Matthews started. "I think the one good piece of news is that when I called what they were doing a ‘strike,’ none of them tried to correct me that it was more of a ‘mutiny.’ That would have been much worse. I don’t think any of us are in immediate danger. All we have to do is find a way for these guys to get some sex and all this would go away. Maybe there’s some kind of advanced virtual reality sex game we could download for them."

Monroe answered. "Sorry, Pete. We’ve already got the state of the art in sexual entertainment on our system. There are some special peripherals we don’t have, but I’m not sure that would satisfy them. If Jake’s guys could put together some kind of sex robot, I’m sure we’d be able to patch together a program to make it run."

Ross spoke up. "We could probably rig up some kind of machine the men could have sex with, that might be some kind of improvement over the inflatable dolls I know a couple of them have, but I doubt I could come close to a real experience. We just haven’t got the right materials to create a realistic feel. I hate to say it, but I think a mechanical solution is the wrong way to go. Maybe one of the guys in the crew could be convinced to act as a gay hooker for the miners, and give them all regular blow jobs or something?"

The captain shook his head. "The company screens the employees. The CEO has a problem with homosexuals, so no one with the gay gene gets stationed offplanet. Even if we could find someone on the ship willing to do it, I don’t think the rest would accept a male sex partner as the solution. Maybe the doc could whip up some kind of drug that could loosen their inhibitions to the point where gay sex would be acceptable, but I’m not sure the company would want to open that can of worms and start messing with the minds of the workers."

Monroe had another idea. "If it’s pussy they need, we actually do have one on board. Doc, I’m not saying we get Nancy stuffed or anything like that, but is there something we could hook her body up to and make a sort of Frankenpussy machine? Maybe you and Jake could work together on this."

Doc Gunderson thought a second, and then had a brainstorm. "You know, if we combine your idea with Jake’s gay prostitute, we might get something. The best ‘machine’ I could put Nancy’s sexual organs into to make them usable would be another human body. So how about we get a volunteer from among the men and I do a transplant and maybe some cosmetic operations and turn him into a woman? Then she’s the one who services all the crew, and everyone wins."

"Can you really do that?" The captain was cautious. "If it actually could work, it would probably satisfy the miners, provided this fake woman didn’t look too hideous. How long would it take before she’d be ready?"

"I’m pretty sure we can do enough changes that she’ll look at least as good as Nancy. I’ll have to research some things first, but it should be doable. I wouldn’t expect the procedures to take more than a couple of weeks. The first thing I’d have to do is check the medical files and see which of the men have the closest tissue type for a viable transplant. But I should be able to get a list of likely candidates for you in a couple hours. The trick would be in convincing one of them to volunteer, but that would be your task."

"If no one else has a better option, let’s see about giving this a shot. Pete, radio the miners and tell them we’re working on getting them a woman. Doc, let me know when you’ve got that list. Finding a willing volunteer should be doable; the kind of guy who risks his life to go into space usually has some degree of desperation to him, so all we have to do is figure out which button to press. I don’t want to tell headquarters what we’re doing until it’s too late, so keep a lid on the details." At that, the meeting broke up.

Doc presented Captain Ryan with a list of nine crew members that would be the closest match for the transplant, and the captain pulled one off the list because his job was more critical than the others, who had more people doing the same job and could pick up the slack if they were reassigned. Then the remaining eight were called one at a time to a meeting room, and presented with an offer. The first three candidates refused to take the deal; there was nothing that could be offered to them to convince them. They were kept sequestered in a conference room after their interviews to keep rumors from spreading.

The fourth candidate, Benny Rodriguez, was only five foot four and had a broad, muscular body that made him resemble a bulldog. At a mere twenty-three years of age, this was his first trip into space. He was a cook’s assistant and dishwasher on the third shift of the galley staff. He was a bit confused to be called to a meeting with the captain, the first officer and the doctor. The captain offered him a seat and began, "We’re having a problem with the attitude of some of the men. The solution we’ve come up with is to assign someone to the position of Morale Officer to deal with the matter full-time. Would you be interested in a promotion?"

"What would I have to do?"

The captain evaded the question. "As an officer, not only would it come with a 32% raise over what you’re currently making, but also a 2% share of the profits at the end of the mission. You’d also get moved to your own cabin, with a private bathroom you wouldn’t have to share with anyone."

"Sounds great so far, but what are the duties? Is it something I’d be able to do?"

"It says here in your file that your paychecks are being deposited into the account of a Maria Rodriguez. Is that your wife? She’d appreciate the extra money, right?"

"No, I don’t have a wife. My girlfriend left me a month before I signed up with AsterOre. That’s my mother. I’m all she’s got. My father had a lousy pension. One of my sisters has a husband with a crappy job and can’t help out, and the other one’s husband died and his insurance goes to feed her kids. So, yeah. I really could use the extra money. But you still haven’t told me what the job is, so I’m thinking there’s a catch."

"Ok, you’re right. There’s a big catch. The men’s morale problem is mainly due to not being with any women in far too long, so the job would require you to become a woman for them."

"You want me to dress up like a girl? I ain’t no queer! My sisters used to do that to me, and I hated it!"

The doctor spoke up. "No, you don’t understand. We don’t want you to pretend to be a woman; we want you to actually become one. I’ll do a transplant on you from the late Miss Webster, and surgically transform you into a complete female, inside and out. There are some risks, I’ll admit. But your tissue type matches closely enough that success is very likely. When we return to earth in a year and a half or so, you should be able to find an even better surgeon than I to repeat the process and get you back to as you are now. So the question is whether you are willing to temporarily become a woman in order to get this promotion?"

"You’re serious about this? Why does this job need me to become a girl?"

The others tried to look nonchalant until Matthews finally answered, "Well, the heart of the morale problem is that the men want sex, so the main duty of the Morale Officer will be to serve to perform sexual favors for the crew."

"The job is really just a fancy way of saying ‘whore’?"

"Um, yes. But we promise that the men will have to treat you with all the respect due an officer of the ship if they want your services."

"You’re sure it’s reversible, doc?"

"Certainly. There’s nothing I plan to do that would prevent a future transplant."

"I’ll probably regret this later, but I’ll do it. I just have three conditions. First, I want the title, the raise, that profit sharing, and the stuff about the private cabin in writing. Second, I want it in there that the company will pay for the operation to change me back after the end of the mission. And finally, I want the new pay grade to come right away before any surgery. Just in case something goes wrong and I don’t make it, I want my mom to get my share of the profit."

Neither of his conditions was a dealbreaker, so the captain agreed. The next day, he was to tell the rest of the rest of the kitchen staff he was being reassigned to a special project without giving any detail, and then report to sick bay. When he showed up, Doc Gunderson had him strip off his clothes and told him to stand on the scanning platform, and the medibot initiated a full scan. A multiphase sensor pod mounted on a hydraulic arm spiraled down around Benny from head to toe, and produced a three-dimensional solid map of the densities of all his tissues. Doc then had the computer filter the map so it only showed the skeletal system, and pulled up a similar scan he had previously done on Nancy’s body, and took notes on where the greatest differences were. Then he had the filter add the internal organs to the image, and he looked to see how much would have to be rearranged inside Benny, and took more notes. Finally, he shifted the filter to only showing the outer surface, and had the computer mark the location of all of Benny’s hair follicles. He used a light pen and drew on his screen to exclude the hair on his scalp, eyebrows and eyelashes, using Nancy’s image as an example of where the hair in front of his ears was actually sideburns. He also excluded a rectangular strip of pubic hair, copying the shape from a pornographic magazine he had handy. Then he told the medibot to use its laser to target all the remaining follicles. As Benny stood there, he felt a warm tingling sensation as each unwanted hair was vaporized, lifting his arms when he was told to do so. Then the doctor adjusted the frequency of the laser and used it to erase the fairly masculine tattoos Benny had on each arm. After the procedure was complete, Doc helped him step down from the platform.

"You should have warned me what you were going to do. I feel like I got a sunburn all over," he complained.

Doc had to struggle to keep from laughing at the girlishly hairless naked person tried to act all tough, but he kept it professional. "You’ll be spending about a week to a week and a half in the tank during this process, so I can pipe in some hypnotic music for you if you think you’ll be having some anxiety."

"A week and a half in the tank? Isn’t that a lot? Has anybody ever been in that long before?"

"Well, it won’t be continuous. I’ll be performing a number of procedures on you, and after each one, you’ll go into the tank until you’ve healed. The total time will probably be about a week and a half, but it’s likely you’ll be seeing me every day. Do you have any claustrophobia or other problem being in the tank? Your psych profile from when you were hired didn’t have any red flags."

"No, it should be okay. I’m just a little nervous about the whole thing. Can I get dressed now?"

"Sorry, but you won’t be getting dressed again until we’re finished. For the record, do you consent to the procedures I’m about to perform to transform you into a fully functional female? This is your last chance to back out."

Benny took a deep breath, nodded and then signed the consent form. Doc led him into the surgical area and had him lie on the table. He attached some monitoring electrodes, inserted driplines into a vein in each of his arms and legs, and placed a breathing mask over his face. When the monitors showed that the anesthesia had taken effect and Benny was sedated, Doc inflated restraints that would immobilize his legs and upper torso, leaving his hips exposed. He didn’t want to do the transplant until there was enough room, so he had to reshape the hipbones first. He activated the surgical medibot and inserted a catheter with a microprobe at the end into the waist. Using the data from Benny’s scan, he had it ultrasonically pulverize his pelvic bones and remove the debris. Then he swapped in the data from Nancy’s scan, and had it rebuild the pelvis in the shape of hers, adjusting his legs so they wouldn’t be dislocated. Fortunately for this project, broken bones were the most common ailment among asteroid miners, (they tended to forget that large boulders still have mass and momentum even when everything’s weightless) so he was equipped with the state of the art in bone reconstruction. One microprobe would lay down a polymer matrix in the appropriate shape, while another would attach stem cells programmed to become bone cells to the matrix.

When the bone seeds had been planted, Doc attached the rest of the electrodes and the waste suction hoses, then flipped a switch to convert the table into the metabolic accelerator "tank." The sides of the tank slid up around the outside of the table, and then the lid came down from the ceiling. When the tank had sealed, it filled with suspension fluid. The device was the most advanced piece of medical technology at his disposal. The company couldn’t afford to have injured miners sitting idle while they were healing, so the metabolic accelerator was devised as a means to decrease the downtime. Through the use of electrochemical catalyzers, the biological process of a patient in the tank would occur at a faster rate than normal. Doc had it turned all the way up, so roughly a day was passing for Benny every hour, while his brain was kept in a dreamstate. He also adjusted the feedlines to start altering the hormone levels in Benny’s bloodstream.

While Benny was in the tank, Doc worked on Nancy’s body. He’d decided to take her complete reproductive system instead of merely giving the new woman a vagina, for two reasons: first, he had trouble ethically rationalizing leaving a patient sterile when he could work a little harder and make her fertile; secondly, he thought that it would be better if the patient was making her own natural hormones than if he had to supply her with synthetics. He made an incision, then worked to remove Nancy’s organs. He cut around the vulva, and then severed the ligaments that held her ovaries and uterus in place, taking note of where he’d need to attach them in Benny. Because Clementine’s accident caused it to lose heat as Nancy was dying, she was fairly well preserved, but there was still some necrotic tissue that had to be excised before the transplant could take place. Doc had the medibot repair the damage with appropriately tagged stem cells, then placed the donor organs in a preservative nutrient medium.

Hours later, the monitor showed that Benny’s bones had healed and it was time for him to come out. Doc flipped the switch that drained the fluid and converted the tank back into a table, then detached the electrodes and hoses from the patient. As the sedatives were purged from his system, Benny gently became awake. One at a time the needles were taken out and then Doc helped Benny sit up on the table. The medibot dried him off with a soft spray of warm air while the doctor used a clipper to trim the toenails that had grown while he was in the tank. Benny’s short hair was also starting to get a little shaggy, but it would take some more growth before it would start looking remotely feminine. Because the data was now out of date, Doc had him stand on the scanning platform again. Embarrassed to be naked, Benny stood with his back to the doctor, but that only had the effect of giving the doc a view of his posterior, which the new bone structure and the course of hormone treatment had given a newly feminine shape. It gave him some very unprofessional thoughts towards his patient. He shook himself out of it and turned his attention to the monitor, although he couldn’t resist checking the scan to see if Benny’s breasts were starting to bud. They were, but only slightly.

Doc let Benny borrow a workstation and check his email from home, before it was time for him to be sedated again. The transplant operation took three and a half hours, as every little nerve and blood vessel had to be connected with stems at the interface, and new ligaments had to be created. The medibot did some of the work autonomously, but it wasn’t programmed for this sort of procedure, so Doc had to operate it remotely for the really tricky parts, as some of Benny’s organs had to be rearranged to accommodate the new ones. Benny’s skin tone was significantly darker than Nancy’s, so Doc had to carefully trim along the vulva so that there would be no visible seam. Once everything was in place and every suture had been stitched, it was just a matter of making sure the new parts weren’t rejected. Doc attached everything except the urethra catheter and tanked the patient again, cranking up the immunosuppressors, and stepping up the hormone levels again until her ovaries could take over the job full time. Doc couldn’t take his eyes off the monitors as he watched the progress. When the last stitch had dissolved and there was still no sign of rejection, it meant she made it past the critical point, so he called the captain on the intercom and let him know the good news. There was now a live female on board.

The announcement went out, and the rest of the crew was clued in as to what was going on. There were some who thought it was just another trick from Management, but when Doc put a live camera in the tank on the shipwide web, they could see her for themselves. There was no arguing with seeing her genitals and gently budding breasts with their own eyes. Virtually every department was assigned a task related to welcoming the new Morale Officer. Some of the miners who had been living three in a cabin due to casualties instead of the usual four were rearranged so to make room for her, and maintenance crews set to work refitting a cabin for her use. The boys in the greenhouse were working on distilling some flower essences to make perfume for her, chemists were looking up recipes for cosmetics, and the quartermaster was downloading patterns for making female uniforms, although he’d have to wait for Doc to finish before he’d get her final measurements. So that no one would feel left out of the project, IT created a website where everyone in the crew could make suggestions a vote on what Benny’s new name would be now that she was female.

Doc let her stay in the tank until after her first menstrual cycle had completed. Not only was it a good sign that everything was working, but he also didn’t want her to go through PMS on her first day as a woman. When the patient returned to consciousness, Benny at first didn’t feel any different, but then looked down past the slight mounds on her chest to the smoothness where Benny’s best friend used to live and knew that she was now a girl! Almost involuntarily, she had to reach down and touch herself to make sure this wasn’t some kind of bad dream. When the tip of her finger actually went inside her, the intensity of the sensation came as a real surprise. Doc walked over and grabbed her hand, warning that she didn’t want to do that before trimming her nails. He gave her a manicure and then left her alone to explore herself, while making sure her actions were secretly captured on camera for the web. Then he turned off the camera and gave her an examination himself, softly squeezing her small breasts to make sure the tissues were developing properly, then he had her lean back and spread her legs so he could check her genitals visually. Everything looked fine, and she had no pains anywhere. He prodded around inside her with a probe, and she told him that she could feel it everywhere he checked, and she could even tell when he pretended to touch her but didn’t. Everything was flying colors. Even though she was still fairly masculine in shape, he was having those inappropriate thoughts again when she stood on the scanner and he saw how the hormones had her buttocks looking even shapelier.

He couldn’t put it off any longer, so he gave her the horrible news. The vote was in and the miners had decided that the best name for "Benny" as a girl was "Bunny." She laughed and accepted it as par for the course. Doc gave her a robe to wear, and let her watch some television before the next procedure. Since she was going to have to learn to relate to the men as a woman, he had her watch a romantic movie and try to pay attention to the ways the female lead acted toward the male. After that it was back onto the table for more skeletal adjustments. Doc compared Bunny’s scan to Nancy’s again, and decided that the greatest difference was her upper body structure, so he replaced the bones in her shoulders, arms, and hands with more feminine ones, and left her in the tank long enough for the hormones to help the muscles on her arms atrophy somewhat. While she was in there, he piped in subliminally an audiobook he’d downloaded of a course for helping shy girls assert themselves. When she came out of the vat, she felt weak and scrawny. Her breasts had grown some more and felt even larger to her new smaller, more slender hands. When being blow-dried by the medibot, she ran her fingers through her hair to help it dry in a very girlish gesture, and sat with her knees tightly together. Doc gave her the clippers to trim her own fingers and toenails as a way of practicing using her new hands. The scan showed her hips and perfectly heart-shaped bottom had gotten rounder. She put on her robe again and went to the computer to see if her new fingers were any good at typing, sending an email to her mother to tell her about her new daughter, but hedging a little at the reason. Doc had another romantic movie for her to watch, but this one got a little more intense in its love scenes. His camera caught her enjoying the film a little too much, and her astonishment at discovering herself becoming moist was sure to be a hit on the web.

Then it was time for her next adjustment, and the doctor chose the bones in her legs and feet to be resized. For this session in the tank, her audio lesson was a book of advice for women on how to flirt. When she woke up, she smiled at Doc and he thought that might have been cute if she didn’t still have Benny’s face, but he tried to smile back to encourage her. She wobbled around on her new legs at first, but was soon running around the infirmary, enjoying being taller even though her feet were smaller. It made her feel cute and dainty. Her hair had grown out some more and it was almost to the point where her bangs were in her eyes. Since her feet were in their finished size now, Doc had her press them into putty to make castings of them at the request of the fabricating shop, who were working on making shoes for her. She tried to invite the doctor to join her for watching her usual romantic movie, but he declined. Even though she tried to sound demure, it was still Benny’s rough voice. Doc didn’t trust himself enough, so he kept her unappealing as long as possible. She had to watch her movie, which was actually a soft-core porn flick, by herself. The hidden camera got some more good footage which all the men would enjoy. The doc had been masking out her face, but they all thought it just added an aura of mystery.

The next set of skeletal alterations were to her ribcage, part of her spine, and neck. The audio lesson in the tank this time was dating tips for girls. With a long and narrow torso instead of a short and wide one, Bunny felt more graceful. Her hair was almost long enough to tuck behind her ears now. Clipping her nails everyday had become second nature, and she skipped happily over to the scanning platform, and noticed the slight bounce of her breasts, which seemed even bigger due to the smaller ribcage. She was nearly a full A cup, and the last dose of hormones had also enlarged her nipples. To get her used to being penetrated, Doc gave her a blue plastic dildo to play with while she watched her porn. It was actually a casting he’d made of himself using the materials he had for making dental impressions, so it turned him on to no end to see his own penis entering her on camera for the entire ship to watch.

The last bone session rearranged her face and teeth and changed the shape of her larynx and vocal cords. Benny’s face on Nancy’s bone structure still wasn’t attractive enough to him, so Doc used the carving laser on the medibot to resculpt her nose, ears, lips and eyes into something he’d consider feminine. It took him back to when he did a cosmetic rotation back when he was a mere surgical resident. The audiobook she got to listen to this time had more explicit instructions on how to please a man. When Bunny came out of the tank this time, she could tell by the length of her nails that this session had been longer than the rest. Sitting up, she could feel that her breasts now had significant weight to them. When the medibot dried her hair, it fell into her face since it had not only grown an inch instead of the usual half but the facial surgery had also moved her hairline. It was long enough now that there was a nice natural wave to it. Doc handed her an elastic band, and she easily pulled her hair back into a ponytail as though she’d been doing it all her life. He took her hand and led her to the scanning platform. It wasn’t until he saw her face on his monitor that he realized how truly beautiful she had become. There was one distraction that needed to be taken care of – she still had Benny’s bushy eyebrows. He targeted her follicles again and used the laser to reshape her brows into more delicately shaped arches. She was a vision!

Doc had some gifts for her from other departments. The quartermaster had provided a new robe for her. This one was pink and made of a satiny synthetic fabric, with ruffles on the edges. It was cute and short and showed off her legs magnificently. She loved it! Another present was a pair of shoes from the fabrication shop, who’d put the casts of her feet to good use. Nancy’s old company-issued workboots had been modified with new pointed toes and four-inch spiked heels. She put them on, over the thinnest socks they could provide, and started learning how to walk all over again. Doc could hardly take his eyes off her shapely legs and enticingly swaying hips as she gingerly stepped around the room. He directed her toward where her third present stood. The metal shop had crafted a freestanding full-length mirror for her. When Bunny got a look at her reflection for the first time, she didn’t believe it! The back of her mind still had a self-image of Benny the pug-ugly little runt, which didn’t jibe with the image of a statuesque beauty before her. She twisted and turned to get a look at every part of her new body, and it still felt like a dream. She grew dizzy for a moment, and Doc had to rush over to keep her from falling. As he caught her, she threw her arms around him and gave him a deep kiss on the mouth. "Thank you," she purred, "for everything." Hearing the dulcet tones of her smoky new voice thrilled her even more. She kissed him again and he had to struggle to push her away. He wanted to keep things professional between them. But she was feeling so emotionally overwhelmed that she collapsed into a chair and burst into tears. She was confused and frustrated and frightened.

Doc sat down beside her, put an arm around her, and pulled her close and held her while she just let it all out. "You just have a good cry; you deserve it. You’ve gone through many changes in a very short time, and that’s a lot for you to process. And it probably doesn’t help that your system currently has about three times the hormone levels of an average healthy woman. I might have pushed you a little too far, and I’m sorry. The captain’s just been pushing for results, so I tried to rush the development of your figure. I’ll see if I can cut back a little so your next round isn’t as harsh."

She sniffled, "Next round? In the mirror it looked like everything was done."

"Well, all your skeletal adjustments are finished, but the hormones need a little more time to do their thing. You’re effectively still in the middle of puberty. Your breasts haven’t reached their final size yet, and you’ll probably get a little softer and rounder everywhere before they’re done."

She grabbed her chest. "These things are going to get even bigger? How do you know? Did you set your machine to make them ridiculously huge or something?"

"Well, first, they’re not that big. I’d say they’re a B cup right now, around the size Nancy’s were. But many women are larger than that without being ridiculous. It’s not my machine that determines your size; it’s genetics. Your breasts will be around the size of the other women in your family, but a little smaller since you started growing yours later in life. Are your mother and sisters particularly well-endowed? I can tell yours aren’t finished growing from their shape." He reached over and opened her robe. "See how your areola is a separate cone-shaped mound on top of the breast? That’s what they call the fourth stage in development. In the fifth stage, the whole breast will fill out to a generally rounded shape, and that little mound will be smooth across with only the nipple projecting. Some women do stop at Stage Four, but the hormones really haven’t been in your system that long." Doc’s libido suddenly realized that he was touching a beautiful woman’s naked breast, and he blushed and pulled his hand away.

She stopped thinking about how Benny always used to laugh at his sisters when they complained about back pains when she noticed his reaction and shot a glance at the bulge in his lap. It gave her strange thoughts, but she decided to just go with the feeling. She felt grateful toward him and wanted to show her appreciation. Placing her hand on his chest, she licked her lips and said, "You’re helping me learn how to walk and talk, but there are other things I’m going to need to learn how to do in order to do my job properly. Do you think you could help me?" She turned her face toward him and kissed him again, sliding her hand down to his belt.

He tried to stop her, "Bunny, I’m your doctor; you’re my patient. This isn’t right."

She wouldn’t be stopped. She was feeling aroused and knew what she wanted, but it was different than when Benny used to get horny. As she unzipped his fly, she pouted her lips and looked him in the eye. "Well correct me if I’m wrong, Walter, but I’m also your Morale Officer and it’s my duty to tend to the sexual needs of all the members of the crew, and right now your member is telling me it has needs." She reached her hand into his shorts and touched him. It was much warmer than she was expecting. She stroked him lightly and added, "Since I need to learn how to serve the crew, and you’re one of the crew who seems to need my services, it doesn’t seem like any conflict of interest to me."

He moaned softly and accepted defeat. "You make a very," he had to pause as she pulled his erection out of his pants, "compelling argument."

She got out of her chair and kneeled in front of him. "Let me know if I make any mistakes or if something doesn’t work for you. I think I know what I’m doing but I’m not real sure why." She kissed the tip of his penis and licked along its shaft. The fingers of one hand started massaging his testicles as the other peeled back his foreskin so she could take his engorged purple head into her mouth and caress it gently with her lips and tongue. Then she slowly sucked and bobbed her head up and down upon him, taking him deeper into her at every stroke, and managing to avoid her gag reflex. He involuntarily bucked his hips but it didn’t faze her in the slightest. She expertly moved her tongue along every inch of him, and when she could tell that he was ready to erupt, she gave his testicles a playful squeeze and happily swallowed every drop. After she licked him clean, she let him fall out of her mouth and then looked up at him with a nervous look on her face. "Did I do okay?"

"Okay?" He put his hands under her arms and pulled her upright. When her face met his, he kissed her fully, opening his mouth to explore hers with his tongue, even if she did taste of semen. "Sweetheart, you were incredible."

"You think of me as a ‘Sweetheart?’ I like the way that sounds." She straddled his waist and sat on his lap facing him, letting her robe hang open. "Tell me more nice things," she teased.

"I think a part of me fell for you the first time you came out of the tank. It will be really difficult when I have to share you with the rest of the crew." His right hand started almost absently stroking her left nipple.

She giggled, "I think I know which part of you that was." She reached down to feel how he was doing. "And when he wakes up, there’s a part of me that would very much like to meet him." She touched herself briefly, since her hand was already in the general neighborhood, and then licked the juices off her finger.

Internally, she was still trying to quiet Benny’s voice that had been shouting, "You sucked some guy’s dick and liked it – you’re a no good fucking faggot! You have no right to be proud of what you did, and you should feel ashamed. You agreed to let them turn you into a whore, but whores only do it for the money, not because they want it. But you’re acting like some kind of slut who’s begging to be fucked by this guy! To think you used to call yourself a man! You’re a useless fucking queer."

Doc leaned down and started kissing the nipple he wasn’t playing with, and she very nearly climaxed. She wanted him to hurry up and get hard again so she could feel him inside her! Her internal monologue became a dialogue as she shouted back, "I’m not a faggot; I’m a girl! I’m not some queer who wants a guy to fuck me in the asshole; I’m a woman who wants to know the thrill of my man’s cock inside my pussy - there is nothing more beautiful or natural than that! It isn’t wrong or shameful or dirty! And he is my man not just some guy; all he has to do is look at me that way and I melt. It pleases me to bring him pleasure, and I know it will be tough when I have to open myself to the rest of the men, but it won’t be impossible. I know I’m a whore, but that doesn’t mean I have to hate sex – when it’s done right it can be fun for everyone. Yes, parts of me used to be a man, but I’m not anymore. I’m Bunny now. You’re just scared because I may be better as a woman than you ever were as a man, and if I don’t hate myself like you did I may not want to bring you back when this is over. So just shut up or go away! I think I feel my boyfriend’s erection coming back, and I don’t want you chiming in while we’re making love."

She raised herself up and guided his growing penis between her labia. Just so that Doc wouldn’t feel like a complete jerk he asked, "Are you sure you want to do this?" In response, she only gasped as she slid down onto him. As much as she’d been anticipating it, the sensation was completely unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. He moved his hands around behind to support her and started thrusting in and out. Gradually, she figured out how to rock her hips toward him to increase the depth of penetration. She let out a sharp scream when he hit her G spot, and was amazed at how incredible sex could feel as a woman, and when he eventually brought her to her first orgasm it was amazing! At her fourth, his willpower finally gave out and he let himself climax with her. He cuddled with her for a while before breaking the silence. "Don’t even think about asking if you did okay at that, too. You were perfect. There was something we did wrong, though." She looked frightened. "We didn’t use any birth control. Now I know from your med scan that none of your eggs are in any danger of being fertilized today, but it’s a good idea for you to get in the practice of using protection anyway. The crew are all free of communicable diseases, so you don’t need to worry about catching anything. But you are a complete woman now, and pregnancy is a very real possibility."

She pouted at him. "Your pillow talk is a real buzzkill, Walter. Do you have to be a doctor all the time?"

"Sorry, Gorgeous, but that’s the way I am. I guess we can have this discussion later. Go let the medibot give you a shower and then you can get on the computer for a little while, but it looks like there won’t be time to give you a movie today." He gave her a kiss on the nose and a playful pat on the rear end. Reluctantly, she got off of him and the reality of her new life sank in as she felt their combined fluids run down her thigh. She stood on the platform while the medibot gave her a very thorough cleaning. It made her start to wonder if it had any other attachments it could put on the end of that arm. She put her robe back on, but left her shoes off, and went to the workstation to email thank you notes to all the departments that had given her things. Then it was time to go back into the tank. She felt as though he was being extra gentle with the needles, but it might have been just her imagination. He was feeling a little too sentimental, so he chose a romantic novel as her subliminal audiobook this time.

Doc waffled about leaving her in the tank even longer. All that was left was letting the hormones work on her body, so he could just leave her there continuously until they had completed the job. But he rationalized breaking it up into several shorter sessions by saying that she could still use some physical therapy, i.e. practicing walking and talking, etc. His real reason was that he selfishly enjoyed having her all to himself, and when she was finally ready he’d have to let her go. But fortunately things that other teams were working on gave him convenient excuses. He pulled her out of the tank when the quartermaster called for her latest measurements, the metallurgists had delivered a pair of platinum hoop earrings and asked Doc to pierce her ears, and there were some cosmetics from the chem lab for her to learn how to use. When she woke up he showed her where he’d set up a mirror next to the workstation so she could browse some hypertext pages on makeup technique and try them out, and after a half hour of trying she’d made herself even more beautiful. It took his breath away. In lieu of a movie, he had a video of dancing lessons for her to learn, thinking that it would add some grace and a little more sex appeal to her movements in general. She made him serve as her dance partner, and he loved every minute of it, even though it meant that he didn’t get anything sexual this time. Holding her close and dancing felt even more intimate than sex, but he tried not to let it show since he was filming for her website. After she washed up and got ready to go back under, he put her earrings in as painlessly as he could, and then kissed her good night.

When she next came out of the tank, her hair was long and full and starting to become a problem. The quartermaster had supplied some clothes for her to try on. The simple white cotton bikini panties fit fine; her hips had only grown slightly since her last measurement, although she worried that her butt was getting too big. Doc told her that her perfect round ass was delicious and kissed her left cheek. Her breasts hadn’t yet reached their final size so they couldn’t fit her for a bra, but there was a matching white cotton camisole tank with a shelf band that provided some needed support. They’d somehow found a way to knit her a pair of black nylon pantyhose which fit surprisingly well once she figured out how to put them on. But the most artistic piece was how they’d recycled a standard uniform jumpsuit into a sleeveless minidress that had been bleached and dyed into a sweet shade of faded pink. It belted tightly around her waist and also had zippers at the top and bottom which let her control how much cleavage or leg she wanted to reveal. Her whole ensemble made for a very sexy variation on the company dress code. She put more time into doing her makeup, and then did another round of dancing practice with the doctor, but then presented a reasonable request for more practice performing her job’s primary duties. He didn’t need to be asked twice, but he used the rationale of needing to show her how to put in her diaphragm. Somehow, her needing to undress made the whole thing even sexier. She wanted to try sex in a horizontal position, so she had him take her on the examination table. She wasn’t getting the same kind of stimulation, but feeling him on top of her and being completely at his mercy was even more of a thrill, and she had fun grabbing his tight little buns while he slid in and out of her. He wasn’t in the best of shape, but he did last long enough to give her a couple orgasms before losing his stamina. He helped her clean up and put her back into the tank.

When the monitors showed that she had stopped growing, Doc let her go through the end of a menstrual cycle, then took her out of the tank for her last time. Unlike previous sessions, he now had a whole manicure set for her to use to trim her nails, and she shaped them to a sexy length instead of the usual full trim and painted them with some red enamel that maintenance had supplied. Her toenails also got painted and trimmed. She dressed and put on her makeup, adding a spritz of perfume from a bottle the botanists had given her, and a necklace, bracelet, and a pair of rings that had been made to match her earrings. She looked through some hypertext pages about hairstyles before settling on one that Doc helped her with, using scissors to clean up her bangs and trim some of the sides before tying the rest back with a ribbon. He took a picture for her official company ID, and she emailed copies home to her family. She was very nervous about what was coming next. The captain and first officer arrived at Sick Bay in their dress uniforms, and escorted her to the mess hall, where the entire ship’s complement had assembled for her debut. Doc stayed behind, telling her that he needed to catch up on some routine reports that had slipped his schedule while working on her project, but the real reason was that he didn’t want to have to see his angel being shared with the crew like a cheap toy.

When the announcement came over the PA, "Presenting: the Monongah’s new Morale Officer, Bunny Rodriguez!" and the senior officers opened the double doors to reveal her to the room, the crowd went wild! 213 men cheered, whistled, stood on chairs, and applauded. It was a little overwhelming for her. Almost everyone on board was there, except for a skeleton crew on the bridge and in the reactor room composed of men who drew the short straw or owed too many people favors. The captain led her to a microphone stand that had been set up by the kitchen. She saw her former co-workers peeking through the doorway. For a moment, she considered running away and hiding, but she knew it was impossible.

She stepped up to the mic and nervously cleared her throat. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and got into character. She coyly asked, "Are all you fellas here just for little old me? Do you go through this much trouble for all the girls around here? Wait a minute – I am all the girls around here!" and the audience howled. "Looking around the room, I see so many yummy guys – I’m like a kid in a candy shop! Now which one of you bonbons will I get to sample first? It’s such a tough decision." She waved her index finger around toward the men, as though trying to make a selection, then bit her finger and looked pensive. "It’s too hard! Can you help me out, Mr. Matthews?" She turned to the first officer and posed with pouty lips and big puppy-dog eyes.

Pete pulled a tarp off of a large machine that had been waiting by the door and wheeled it over to her. He leaned over and spoke into the microphone, "We had the maintenace crew fabricate this machine to help you answer that question. As you can see through this window, inside are a bunch of hollow plastic balls, similar to ping-pong balls. There is a ball for each of the crewmen assembled here, printed with his employee number. They will being scrambled by a fan, just like they do for lotto numbers." He pushed a button and it started making a whirring noise, and everyone could see the balls jumping around. "When Ms. Rodriguez pulls this lever, one of the balls will pop out here, and the lucky one of you who matches will get the privilege of her first appointment. We wanted a system that would be fair to everyone."

"Thanks, Mr. First Officer, sir." She saluted and then kissed him on the cheek, causing him to turn beet red. She’d gone off script and he wasn’t expecting it. "So I just pull this here, and one of the bouncing balls will pop out? It’s so exciting! I just love pulling levers and making balls bounce!" She winked at the crowd, and some of them got the joke and gave wolf whistles. "Well, here goes nothing! Let’s find out which one of you boys is going to get lucky." She reached down and pulled the lever and a ball popped out. She turned it around and looked at it. "Would Employee Number 56281RNM please step forward?" Nick Raymond, a junior mechanics in a greasy coverall walked up.

"Congratulations!" She took his hand and gave him a full kiss on the mouth, and the rest of the audience howled.

But then a shout came out from the back of the room, "Hey! He’s in the department that built the machine – it’s rigged! He’s a cheat!" The shout was joined by more booing.

One of the miners grumbled, "We never should have trusted them. It’s just more lies from the company," and threw a punch at the nearest crewman, in frustration. That one act was all that it took for the rest of the miners to join in. Immediately, as though they’d prearranged it, they all started throwing punches at the rest of the crew, and since the miners tended to be more muscular the regular crew didn’t stand a chance. The captain took the microphone and tried to defuse the situation, but someone threw a wrench at his head. Matthews took Bunny out and told her to wait in the hallway until the men cooled down, locking the doors behind her.

She didn’t feel comfortable with that plan though, and instead ran and carefully made her way back to sickbay to hide with Doc, the one place she felt safe. He was pleasantly surprised to see her, and welcomed her with a comforting embrace when he saw the forlorn expression on her face. She leaned against him and cried. "It was horrible! I picked a date with this dirty little scruffy guy and then someone thought it was a trick and then they all just started fighting and throwing things and Mr. Matthews snuck me out of there and I didn’t know where to go, so I just went on instinct and came back to you! I’m not scared here. Could you just hold me for a while?" He stroked her hair and whispered soothing words and gave her time to let it all out.

But their moment was interrupted as the ship lurched suddenly. The radar had detected a rogue asteroid approaching at an unusually high velocity, and the substitute helmsman over-corrected the Monongah’s course to avoid a collision. When he tried to straighten out again, he erred in the opposite direction and sent the ship careening into a spin, where it bounced off a large rock and suffered a hull breach in the cargo section. The automatic emergency system took over and triggered an alert condition, sealing all the bulkheads. Unfortunately, most of the operations personnel were still busy with the riot and now were locked in the mess hall.

Doc didn’t know how long the alert was going to last. He held Bunny tightly and kissed her. "I think I can get us through this, but just in case we don’t make it I need you to know something. I’m not sure when it started, but the more I got to know you the more I realized how deeply I have fallen in love with you. "

She looked into his eyes and smiled. "We’ll survive. I believe in you." She kissed him deeply and completely and curled his toes. "Oh, and in case you can’t tell, I love you too. You’re the best thing that’s happened to me in all this craziness."

He told her that he could put her back in the tank, but make it run in reverse so that it would slow down her metabolism as a sort of suspended animation, which should be able to keep her alive as long as possible. And he’d set up a second tank for himself, programming the medibot to get him out when the alert was over. Bunny accepted his plan, but when she had undressed to get ready to go under again, she realized that there was one more thing she wanted to do in order to have a pleasant memory to hang onto while dreaming in the box, so she took his clothes off as well and made love to him right there on the floor, and cuddled for a moment before getting strapped in. He kissed her one last time before closing the box, telling her again that he loved her. He climbed into his own tank and tried to look over toward her through the window, as the drugs took effect. He hoped that they wouldn’t need to be under for too long.

Maybe some day they’ll be found.