A Wish the Heart Makes: Fornever in Blue Genes

by Tigger

Chapter 4: The Legal and Not-So-Legal Niceties.

"And that," Bob said with a touch of finality, "was that. 
Adam wanted to argue some more, but there really wasn't all
that much time.  We had to make a decision and go with it.  We
decided to follow what we *thought* were your stated wishes.

"My stated wishes??" Matt spluttered.  "My god, Bob, that
makes so little sense as to be ludicrous.  Lord above, all I
wanted was what any middle-aged overweight male wants - to be
young, thin and handsome."

"Matthew . . . " Robert started only to be ignored completely.

"How could you have done this to me?" he asked dazedly,
reaching his hand up to touch his flawless cheek. 

"But you said you wanted a new face - more times than I can
remember counting," Adam interjected. 

"Sure, my old mug was ugly.  That doesn't mean I wanted to be
a woman." 

"You said, quite specifically in our short talk before you
left the moon," Bob retorted, "that you wanted to have a new
face, be shorter, have lots of hair, and a small waist.  And
more things besides, you said.  Fine, with that as a starting
point, *THEN* we find this wish-file that has all that, and
more besides.  What were we supposed to think, Matthew? 
Especially since you're such a fanatic on security, yet you
told us to trust that file completely." 

Stalled by the uncomfortable logic of Bob's argument, Matt
retreated for a moment.  "What did Cat have to say about all
of this?" 

"Nothing," Adam said firmly.  "After she did her part to open
the file, anyway.  She was heavily involved in making sure
that all the security was setup for your transfer to here. 
She knew we had to change you, but until Bob had decoded the
wish file, even we didn't know that the fake wish form was
female.  Besides, the first instruction we read after we got
into your sealed file was that, if it was possible, we were to
keep her out of the details of your transition.  You wanted to
surprise her." 

"Guess everyone was surprised - especially me.  Not that Cat
was ever very involved in the lab end of things, but please
tell me why in hell did you even think that I would say that? 
That alone should have given it away.  Why would such a
'fanatic on security' want his personally handpicked Chief of
Security kept out of anything to do with THE Project? 
Particularly when it affects *ME*?" 

Both men looked down, and then steadfastly avoided Matthew's
eyes.  Finally, Adam coughed and said hesitantly, "Um, well,
you told us why in the file.  You said," Adam's voice cracked
like a teenaged boy going through puberty.  

Matthew gave his friend a 'c'mon' gesture with his hands. 
Adam coughed again and then spoke more quickly.  "I mean, the
file said, that you were so desperately in love with Cat that
if you ever had a legitimate reason to take the risk of a new
body form, you wanted to become her ideal woman."

"I WHAAAAAT?!?!?" Matthew screeched in tones that would have
done justice to a heroine from an old Grade B horror movie.

"The file said that you knew she would never accept you as a
man, so you would get her to accept you as a woman.  But that
if she ever knew you'd done it for her, her response wouldn't
be genuine, it would be guilt, or gratitude, or something
other than the true love you wanted from her.  Anyway, she was
not to know anything about the specifics of the new body." 

"Right, like that would have stopped her." 

"Well, that was a very busy time around here, Matt, all of us
going in a dozen directions at once.  She never even asked
what you'd look like after the transition.  I honestly don't
think she cared about anything other than having her friend
alive and healthy when we were done.  All she ever wanted to
know, and she wanted to know it about every ten minutes, was
if you were still doing alive."

"Just how the hell could you two just accept that pile of
manure?  How could you have worked with me for ten years in
one case and over twenty five years in the other and believe
that garbage?"

Robert's guilt had his emotions already on edge and his famous
temper finally blew. "Oh, come off it, Matthew.  Lie to
yourself all you want to, but give us some credit for knowing
you.  You've been more than halfway in love with that woman
since she walked into your office to interview for the job. 
Cripes, the first time you saw her in her combat jumpsuit you
almost gave yourself whiplash.  The only two people here who
know both of you who *don't* know how you feel about her are
the two of you."

Matthew wanted to dispute it, but both of his friends wore
looks of such supreme surety that he knew it would do no good. 
Sure, he was really fond of Cat, but love?  It had never
crossed his mind he assured himself smugly.  Cat didn't LIKE
guys . . . at least, not in THAT way.

*But maybe I would have a chance with her, now,* a faint voice
in the back of his now feminine head whispered temptingly.

Grimly, he forced that unworthy thought back into the depths
of his mind.  "Well, you're both wrong.  So if that is your
justification, we can put that in the trash where it belongs
and get to the more important question before us."

"And that is?" Adam asked silkily, his own patience starting
to slip.

"Okay, I guess I understand how I got this way.  Now, how soon
can we change me back?" 

"I thought you knew that, Matthew," Adam blurted out before
Robert could respond.  "We can't. The change isn't reversible. 
100% failure rate in the clonal tests." 

"What?" Matt shouted, lurching to his feet, his beautiful face
white with shock. 

"Nurse," Dr. West called quickly.  The manacles snapped
together and Matthew found himself falling helplessly forward,
to be caught in the arms of her doctor.  A hypospray whispered
behind his ear, and then the world once again melted away. 

Interlude: The Leader Speaks:

A single chair had been placed in the otherwise empty and
pitch-black room.  As if a switch had been thrown, the room
suddenly filled with an eerie half light.  Into that dim
greyness, localized shimmering light coalesced in the chair,
and then in various positions in front of the chair.  Slowly,
the blots of light shifted into the form of transparent,
female human bodies that exhibited neither faces nor any other
distinguishing features.

The body seated in the lone chair spoke first.  "Have all the
traces back to us been destroyed?" 

"Yes," responded another body, its voice lightly feminine yet
oddly separate from its physical location. "Per our
contingency planning, the electronic files self-erased, and
our special polymer sheets, the ones that mimicked the
supposedly indestructible ones, vaporized as planned when they
were not recoated in the stabilization compound." 

"Very well, Admin.  So, there should be no long term
repercussions to the Organization?"

"Other than failure, of course," another feminine voice cut in
snidely.

"I could do nothing about that, Freuda," the voice that had
answered to the name 'Admin' retorted.  "As quickly as the
plan was laid on, it is amazing that we got as far with it as
we did."

"Yes," said the first voice.  "It was a shame that we did not
anticipate that Sorenson might be called in to consult on the
Moon Base test of our bionic virus.  We might have had more
time to adequately plan our attempted takeover of
BioCybernetics."

"At least that test was successful, Leader," the voice
answering to 'Freuda' said.

"Not so.  My sources tell me that even now several major
organizations, including the Laboratory for Applied
Biotechnology at MIT have found a way to do what Sorenson
accomplished without exposing anyone to our viral bioelectric
synaptic counterattack.  The bionic virus is no longer of any
value to the cause."

There was a quiet general murmur of dismay in the room that
did not seem to be associated with any specific light body. 
The seated figure raised a hand for silence.  There was a
short delay of perhaps two or three seconds before all
conversation ceased.  "It occurs to me, Admin, that you have
not yet answered my first question.  Can we expect any
repercussions to the Organization?"

"I was forced to flee rather precipitously, Leader, when
Jacobs arrived with irrefutable evidence that would deflect
our thrust, but I did do everything I was told to do in the
contingency plan."

"Insufficient answer, Admin.  We will adjourn for twenty four
hours while Admin reviews her actions so that she can make a
more . . . complete report.  You are all dismissed."

Instantly, the light bodies winked out of sight, and then the
room was once again black and empty.