It was a drunken and debauched night for Gazza. He was going to get married the next day and was the unfortunate victim of tonight's bux party festivities. He was absolutely off his face, his four best friends having plied him with copious amounts of alcohol.

Eric, Tony, Kyle and Randolf, all in an relatively equal spastic state, were amazed that Gazza was still capable of walking. They decided that the best way to end the night was for all of them to shout Gazza to the ministrations of a prostitute, tonight being the last time that Gazza could partake of such pleasures before he tied the knot. After much serious and alcohol spawned debate, it was decided that they would take the plastered Gazza to one of the brothels at Kinx Alley. This area was reputed to be one of the sleaziest and cheapest brothel districts in the whole of New Haven. It suited their tastes and budget perfectly.

They all piled into a hover-cab and stated their destination to the pilot. Fazeel, the poorly shaven and sweat stained taxi driver, rapidly veered in and out of the midnight traffic. The five passengers joked and baited each other in a drunken camaraderie that was special because it would see the end of one era and the beginning of a new one.

The Cab pulled up to Jinx Alley and everyone climbed drunkenly out.

"You can pay Eric. You're bein' really tight with your cash tonight," Kyle said blearily. They all went into the brothel which the taxi driver had pulled up in front of. Everyone, except Eric.

"You pay now," The driver said

"No, no you stupid fool. We said Kinx alley," Eric said from outside the taxi. He was the only one who was sober enough to notice or care. He wanted to go inside and get on with the whoring, but on principle he refused to pay for a taxi that took him to the wrong place. He was also running short on money.

"But thees ees good brothel. I geeve you half fair eef you go here." The taxi Driver had a thick accent and was acting as though he had misunderstood the instructions given by the party of drunk men.

It was obvious to Eric that Fazeel was getting kickbacks and taking advantage of very drunk customers. Always intelligent and sophisticated, Eric had an idea. "Stuff this, I'm not going to pay. You did this on purpose," Eric said, then proceeded to undo his fly and urinate on the front of the vehicle to illustrate his point.

The angry driver furiously closed his window, starting the engine. Eric sprayed the side of the car to the rear bumper as the taxi flew off. The driver was swearing, and decided that he would overcharge his next fare- after he had spoken to his brother.

Eric wandered slowly up to the entrance of the rather dirty and unsophisticated looking brothel. A flickering neon sign written in curvy and exotic letters announced it as the Erawe Breyub Brothel. Eric had never even heard of this place before. It looked old and decrepit, in major need of a repainting and repairs.

Staggering into the interior, Eric joined his drunken friends. He noted that although the decor was cheap and tacky, the quality of the ladies was top notch. Beautiful women lounged and stood everywhere in states of dress that put steam under the collars of all the members of the drunken group.

"Please to help you sirs," Nalaka, a somewhat ugly man asked as he put down the phone. He had a swarthy complexion with mismatched features. He was also smelly, sweaty and had yellowing teethe, all in all an unsavory character. He looked enough like the taxi driver for Eric to peg him as his brother.

"Yeah. I'd like one of those, two of those and one of those," Randolf slurred drunkenly, pointing at some very attractive women.

"How would sirs like to pay? We accept credits, units or gold."

"Well first we'd like to give our friend here a good time," Eric said. Gazza looked around vacantly, unaware of his surroundings. "We'll pay for him. Give him your finest."

"Yes sirs," Nalaka said, motioning for a pair of women to come over. "Special for two tonights. Second one iz half prize." The two girls were incredible. Large breasts clearly outlined in their skimpy negligee, narrow waists, lovely rounded posteriors and long shapely legs.

The men gaped at the duo for a moment then at one another in amazement. They all pressed their thumbs to the cred box and the funds were immediately transferred. Gazza was taken off by the two exquisitely gorgeous women.

"I hope he doesn't get Fosters' flop," Kyle quipped, watching his drunken friend being esorted away.

Randolf stood and looked around drunkenly. There were so many woman to choose from. He spotted an exceptionally fine brunette. She was wearing a skin tight body stocking that showed her large breasts and lithe, firm body to great advantage. He waved her over and she smiled as she approached him. The other men looked at Randolf in envy, wishing they had gotten first dibs on this fine specimen of womanhood. Randolf pressed his thumb against the cred box and was guided away by the dark beauty he had selected.

Tony and Kyle also made fine selections and wandered off.

Eric looked around despondently. With his meager funds he could barely afford a prostitute. If he did take one tonight it would bankrupt him for the week, a week where he could not spunge off his friend's because they were pushing for cash as well. He waved the ugly man over. "Look I don't have enough credits to pay. How much gold does it cost, and what the hell is a unit."

The man looked Eric over carefully. "Dat ring cover it, sir." Eric's ring was worth five times what a prostitute would cost tonight.

"Yeah, don't kid yourself. What about units?" Eric asked.

"Unit is one peoples through da doors. If sir bring five peoples through da doors, den sir have full nights service," the pimp answered in a harsh accent. "Need security, sirs ring perhaps, and for sir to sign dis form. " He handed Eric a form written in some pidgin English.

"Let me get this straight. If I can get five people to come here then I get a full service?" Eric asked.

"Yes, if dey come for you, den you get bestest service."

A thought occurred in Eric's alcohol obscured mind. "Can that include my four friends?"

"Sadly, too late now. If sir asked dis esteemed servant before, den he would have said yes, but too late now."

Eric looked around. The place was seedy, but the women were very high class. He could get five friends to come here easily. Even if Gazza was not out whoring anymore, he could do it.

Eric signed, then handed over his ring reluctantly. He looked around and picked one of the many stunning women, a shapely and buxom blonde. He led her away, quite happy with the deal he had just made.

* * *

After one of his most memorable sexual interludes, Eric put on his clothes. The girl left as he dressed, a dreamy grin firmly on her face. 'God I love that, service with a smile,' he though as he put the last of his garments on. There was a tentative knock on the door and Nalaka, the ugly pimp came in.

"Did sir enjoy her?" The pimp asked lasciviously.

"Yes sir certainly did."

"Would sir care to describe his woman of choice? Your humble servant may be able to provide her for you."

"I have got to admit I love blondes. They need to have nice sized tits, firm and just a bit more than a handful. They need a slightly large arse, not fat mind you but just not bony and skinny. She'd need a delicate neck, thin waste," he drunkenly described his epitome of womanhood, his Venus. "Blue eyes, the face of an angel. And she'd have to be shorter, a good head shorter than me. Hmmm. Nice, delicate legs, knees ankles and feet. Thin arms and hands. And she has to be loud in bed, just like that last woman." He sighed lost in thought, reminiscing already about the prostitute.

"Yes sir. We'll see what we can do. Follow me sir." Eric realised in his musings that he had lost track of where he was. "Through here sir."

Eric walked into a very small room and the door shut behind him. He heard the hissing of air as the door sealed itself. He turned and tried drunkenly to find a door handle but the wall was sheer. There was a large window that overlooked a messy room. It looked like the set of some B grade mad scientist movie. In the room stood an older and even uglier version of the taxi driver and the pimp. He was wearing a white coat, stained yellow from neglect and covered in dark splotches from spilt food.

Eric surveyed the adjacent room in anxiety as Nalaka walked into it and had a hurried conversation with the old man. Nalaka was making broad expansive hand motions and the old man nodded his head attentively. Eric could not make out a word of what was being said. Nalaka then left the room again and the old man rubbed his hands together in anticipation, a maniacal expression firmly etched on his face as he returned to his machines.

The small room which Eric occupied started to fill with a strange viscous liquid. Eric, in his alcohol numbed haze, realised that he might be in some kind of trouble as the sticky liquid deepened. Slowly the peculiar clear elixir passed his knees, then his waist and chest, and finally his neck. He tried to swim in it but it was too thick. The liquid passed his head, completely filling the room. He held his breath for as long as he could, then breathed in the liquid in a gagging reflex. After a few strangled breaths he realised he could breath the strange fluid.

Next Eric watched in apprehension as electrodes extended from the floor and ceiling, eight in all. He could murkily make out the man in the other room, pushing and prodding buttons on a computer. Strangely he could hear muted elevator music through the liquid.

Eric felt movement on his skin and looked down to see his clothes start to disintegrate and dissolve in the liquid. His clothing rapidly shredded into finer particles until it appeared like cloudy stains in the liquid, like dye. The stains slowly faded in colour until they disappeared without a trace. This is impossible, Eric thought as he floated naked in the solution.

In the other room the ugly, old man hummed the tune to the Herman the Monster show to himself. He sang odd scraps of the words as he puttered with his machines. "Does siir liike da universeel solveent I heeve creeated. Eetz da very esseence of liife." The man was unaware or unconcerned that Eric could not hear him. "Dere, jeest about reeady now."

Eric swam in the liquid, rapidly sobering, as he tried to find an exit, to get his fingers into the thin cracks where the air lock had sealed. Failing that, he started to kick the plexi-glass, to no avail.

Fazeel the taxi driver made his way into the room. He walked up to the window and tapped on the plexi-glass with his knuckle. He waved to Eric, then gave him a thumbs up sign, a broad, eager grin on his swarthy, pitted face. Fazeel was so similar to the old man that he could only have been his son.

Fazeel strolled back to his father, Ghazis, then turned to watch Eric struggle. This is what happens to peoples who don't pay their fargin' fares, he thought, a wicked smile inching over his incongruous features. He leaned back against a grotty wall, his arms crossed, enjoying the show.

"Poppa, Nalaka sais he likess blondes."

"Yiis." The older mans accent was even worse. "Eetz startink." Ghazis turned to watch Eric, pride on his face.

Electricity suddenly leaped from the electrodes, creating a writhing cage of azure fairy fire around Eric. The blue light made Eric's naked skin appear slightly pale and pasty as cobalt shadows danced and played over it. He could feel the electricity as a slight tingle all through him, his hairs standing on end.

Eric suddenly felt an intensification of the tingling. It felt like a soft tickle all over his skin. He watched in surprise as the hairs on his body slowly blurred and floated into the liquid. He touched his scalp and felt smooth skin. 'I'm Bald!' He thought. 'Completely hairless!' The drifting hairs dissolved into nothingness.

Not only had he lost all his hair but his freckled, pale complexion was changing. It was becoming a uniform though slightly darker colour. Even under the unnatural light he could tell he was becoming browner. The change was comparable to a light tan, but he knew that the alteration in pigmentation was not caused by UV or a fake tanning agent but by the bizarre liquid he was in. Small blemishes and scars on his body slowly faded and vanished. He watched in confusion as his foreskin actually grew back. 'Wow, thats what it's like,' he thought as he pulled on the alien flap of skin.

Next he noticed that there was a reddish brown liquid oozing from the pores of his skin. It felt like the solution was massaging him all over his body. The red colouring dissipated and vanished into the solution, just like his clothing and hairs had. He watched in worry, as slowly his arms started to waste away under the ministrations of this strange liquid. The same thing seemed to be happening in his legs and his chest. The liquid seemed to be focusing on his muscles, reducing them to a liquid and extracting this liquid as a crimson fluid through his pores.

His muscles all gradually shrunk, and the loss left him feeling quite fatigued. Eric perceived that he was much thinner now. He was almost completely lacking in muscle tone, positively scrawny and emaciated.

His whole skin felt as though it were drawn tight over his skeleton when the opposite should have been true. He looked like photos he had seen of starving people on TV. His skin should have been baggy and loose after he had lost so much mass, but it appeared to have been reduced in size also. 'Wasn't skin meant to be the largest bodily organ?' he wondered obtusely.

Eric observed in horror as the bones in his hand started to shrink and reform. His hand started to resemble a girls, the digits thin and smooth, the palm much smaller and softer. So did his other hand, appearing slender and delicate. He analysed the sensations he was feeling and noted that he could actually feel the bones shortening and thinning throughout his entire body. It was a strange and eerie sensation. Eric's legs, arms and chest were most notably affected, reducing in size dramatically. His skin no longer felt quite so stretched, and he realised that he was shorter and a lot smaller. Almost a complete head shorter than he had previously been. As his pelvis bones started to expand and shift uncomfortably, he realised that he was being transformed into the woman he had described to the pimp

Fazeel watched, playing with a cruel idea. "Poppa do hees peenis last."

"Yiis. Okey Dokaey." The old man trundled over to his computer and quickly typed some commands.

"Leetz see you piss on me taxii weetout a deeck." Fazeel muttered.

Eric's hips started to widen in a most fantastic way, fat accumulating where it had never gathered before. Imperceptibly at first, then more rapidly brown liquid appeared around his hips and was drawn inwards. It was like the liquid was alive, sculpting his body, adding here, subtracting there. His hips filled out, becoming plumper. Gradually his legs and buttocks became curvaceous and exquisitely feminine in shape. He observed very light muscle tone developing in his legs. He could also feel his changed muscles ripening and toning in his arse.

He touched his leg and it felt decidedly soft and yielding, most dissimilar to the hard muscle that he was accustomed to. Smooth skin was not something that he could ever recall having and the dainty curve of his hips and narrowness of his waist was so strange. Eric noted that his calves, thighs and buttocks appeared quite attractive and, upon feeling them, knew that they were exceptional, highly desirable attributes for a woman. Unfortunately this did nothing for his ego.

Eric looked down at his hairless manhood. Fortunately it had not changed yet. It looked completely wrong to him, quite a large male organ nestled at the top of what were obviously woman's legs. A penis did not look natural sitting as it was between effeminate hips.

Eric experienced a tickle on his chest and forgot all about the female legs which he now possessed. 'Not Breasts!' he thought as he reached down to where he knew his bust would start, a little frantic at this stage. The first thing he noticed was that his nipples were growing. He removed his hands in fascination, surprised that his nipples seemed to be more sensitive. His nipples radius increased rapidly to more than double their previous diameter as his areolas expanded and his teats jutted further out than ever before.

Eric watched in disbelief as fatty tissues developed and he felt internal changes occurring as his torso started to grow fully functional breasts. His bosoms were mere buds at first, but they grew at an incredible rate, until they were exactly as he had described them. They were a lot more than a handful to him now, but he realised that his hands had shrunk and he was in no position to judge his breast size accurately. They bobbed in the liquid, moving buoyantly in a most unaccustomed, but interesting way.

Eric grasped one of his breasts in his hand and it seemed to be just a dead weight. He wondered what all the fuss about breasts was, now that he had them. He stroked his nipple experimentally and it slowly dawned on him what the big deal was. This female tit was much more responsive than his redundant male nipple had ever been. As he played with his nipple he decided that the areolas were particularly interesting to stroke and caress.

Looking down he was quite dismayed now that he had a decidedly female body with male genitalia. He was still male at the moment, but if things continue like this he would soon be completely female! He could cope if he still had his manhood, no matter what his body looked like. Actually it was quite interesting having breasts and a female body, but his curiousity ended at female genitalia.

Unfortuantely he was going to find out exactly what it would be like to be a woman.

He felt his neck warp and redefine itself, and the sensation then continued up to his face. He could discern his features start to shift. Cheeks, lips, nose and mouth all moved under his probing fingers. His face felt smaller, less angular, softer. Even his skull started to shift. It was quite an interesting sensation.

Without the benefit of a mirror he would not know that his face had been changed dramatically; full, pouting, sensuous lips; a small, narrow nose; high, defined cheekbones; large soulful blue eyes framed by long lashes; a petite, elfish chin; and small, rounded ears. He now had the face of an angel.

Hair slowly formed in the solution and it attached itself to his head. It was very long, blonde hair, just as he had described it. The thick lustrous locks of hair floated in the solution and his scalp felt strangely itchy. Pubic hairs also formed in a blur, a neatly trimmed feminine triangle above his manhood. That just looks plain wrong, Eric thought in shock, focusing his anger on the remaining part of his original anatomy.

His worries were forgotten and he smiled dreamily as new hormones pumped into his brain. The part of his mind that had watched the whole situation with growing horror was pushed back a little as these new chemicals produced a euphoric feeling. His pituitary gland had just been altered and was producing estrogen at a much higher rate than was normal. More importantly the endorphin producing centres in his brain were being tweaked and altered to modify his behaviour.

The last part of Eric's body to be transformed was his penis. He felt a detached disappointment as his penis and testicles slowly shrank, until they looked like they belonged on a prepubescent boy. Unfortunately they kept dwindling. The testicles gradually diminished and ascended up to where ovaries belong in a woman. Eric felt a twinge of great loss as his penis flattened, the head changing into the bud of his developing clitoris. The remainder of his penis and empty scrotum split as a vagina incrementally formed. His scrotal sack shrunk and stretched into a ridge-like swelling on either side of his rapidly growing vagina. His scrotum had become a labia. Eric was familiar with the soft folds of flesh on either side of the groove which lead from a woman's clitoris to her vagina. He had just never expected to see it from this angle.

"Bye, bye manhood," Fazeel said. His father had done this numerous times and he knew it was almost over. Fazeel always felt a bit ill when he saw this but decided that the bad feeling was worth the rewards.

Eric could not believe it. His penis had been changed into a clitoris and vulva. His scrotum was now the delicate trim of a labia. He could feel himself being turned inside out as the female reproductive organs continued to form inside him.

Eric tried to remember what it would look like inside. The inside plumbing of a woman was a lot more complicated than a mans, he knew that much. The vagina lead to a cervix, then further up was a uterus and, beyond that, ovaries. He strove not to think about his poor testicles slowly becoming ovaries. Up until now he had been a man and had only ever worried about the window dressing around a woman's reproductive organs. Now he had to worry about all of it, the whole box and dice.

He reached down and felt the feminine flesh around his clitoris. The tingling of the transformation faded to be replaced by a whole new quivering sensation. His new ovaries pumped out massive amounts of hormones, and his brain tried to cope with the sudden rush it received. Before it had dealt with an overload, now it dealt with an overdose. Eric's brains chemistry was thrown completely off balance.

The physical effects of this imbalance were quite obvious to the two people watching Eric. His nipples stood at attention, erect and sensitive with hormonally produced excitement. They could not see what the reaction was in Eric's genital area because his hands obscured their view.

"I'm off, Poppa," Fazeel said as he left.

Eric, however, was completely oblivious to his surroundings. His small fingers frantically continued to discover the sensations which his new equipment could produce. Even in the solution, Eric could feel his vagina providing copious amounts of lubrication as his digits rhythmically probed its depths. His labia felt puffy and was almost painfully sensitive to his exploring finger, completely engorged and pumped with blood, almost like a penis. The sensations it provided were distinctly different.

Eric was now to all outward appearances a woman and a very excited one at that. He did not mind it in the least at this particular moment having given up trying to cope with the new chemicals which had overrun his mind and body, lost completely in the moment.

The liquid started to drain slowly from the room, and with the sudden change in pressure Eric felt light headed, his knees buckling as he lost consciousness.

Eric's brain shut down all but essential functions as it tried to cope with the new set of instructions it was receiving, The hormones and endorphins were dramatically redefining Eric's mental patterns and sexual preferences from a masculine dominant behaviour towards a more submissive feminine demeanor.

The old man hummed to himself as he surveyed the permanently changed levels of hormones measured on his screen. He had set Eric's glands to perpetually produce the right levels of hormones to make his mind essentially female. This would forever change Eric's basic orientation from the primal or animalistic 'mounting' pattern, found in the male of most mammals, to the equally primordial 'mounted' pattern, found in the female of the species. Unfortunately this alteration would do little to assist in Eric's psychological transition from male to female.

* * *

Gazza, Kyle, Tony and Randolf climbed drunkenly into the taxi, sexually satisfied and plied with more alcohol then when they had arrived. They had waited for Eric while they drank at the free bar but he had not turned up so they decided to go on without him. They rocked with the motion of the taxi as it sped off to another bar. It was the same taxi driver that they had arrived here with.

"Free ride to any club. Marriage geeft," Fazeel said generously.

"You beauty," Kyle slurred. The others were almost insensible. "Take us to the Black Bird."

* * *

Nalaka erased all the credit entries of Eric's friends for the night. There was now no account that they had arrived, been here, or left. The party even thought they had gone to Kinx Street , completely unaware that they had been somewhere else entirely.

The slimy proprietor smiled at the neatness of it all.

* * *

The next morning the party-goers woke with the mother of all hangovers. They could all vaguely recall the first part of the night, then going to a brothel somewhere in Kinx Street, except Gazza, who could not remember a thing.

The name of the brothel they had visited alluded them and they decided to not mention it lest Gazza's bride get wind of the event. They could however recall the quality of the women and Tony, Kyle and Randolf decided that they would have to find the place again. They figured that Eric might remember its name and resolved to ask him about it at the wedding.

Eric did not turn up to the wedding, but judging by the state of the groom and all his friends, no one was too surprised.

* * *

"How are we dismorning Madame?" Nalaka asked.

"What the hell have you done to me?" Eric asked in a shrill voice as she sat bolt upright in the bed. She looked down at the new growths on her chest, naked to the world. The breasts were real, a quick check under the covers confirmed that so was the rest of her. Last night had not been a dream. She was fairly close in appearance to the women of her dreams that she had described, but this did not thrill her in the least.

She remembered the way she had reacted to her new body at the end of the transformation and decided that she had been completely irrational at the time. Under any other circumstances she would have reacted in horror and disgust, exactly as she felt now.

"You sign de agreement. Five customers you must bring in here." Eric realised that the pimp meant that she had to prostitute herself to five men if she wanted to get out of here. "You stupid. No read contract before sign."

"I'll pay. I have enough money," Eric wailed. She didn't want to be like this. She had a friends wedding to go to, a job, family and a life that could not be put on hold.

"Sorry, thumb different. You can leave, but we keep deposit and you stay like dis forever. No deal anymore."

She looked at her thumb and realised that the whirls were different. Now cred boxes were useless to her. She had no money and no identity. If the police caught her she would be deported off planet as an illegal alien, before she could convince them of her insane story. Then she would never get her body back.

"Five people?" she asked in weary disgust.

"Yes, Madame. Now would Madame please dress?" Nalaka held up some negligee.

"What?" Too many things were happening at once.

"Please would miss put on di clothes provided," Nalaka requested.

"But they're not clothes. I might as well go naked," Eric screeched in a high voice.

"Naked not good. Better to tempt customer and allow dem to use dere imagination. Dat what negligee for. Work clothes are to help fulfill contract," Nalaka explained patiently, laying the skimpy and quite revealing apparel on the bed. "I be back soon. You change, yes?" There was a subtly threatening undertone to his words which haunted Eric after he left.

She looked down at the patently ridiculous clothes, fortifying her mind with images of being returned to her real body. "You can do this," she said to herself, picking up the outfit and climbing out of bed.

It took her a moment to adjust to her new body. Her centre of gravity was a little different, lower now that she was shorter and distorted a little by her new mammaries. She bounced from one foot to the other, watching her rounded breasts jiggle as she moved, gaining confidence. The lack of anything between her legs was perplexing, her legs rubbing smoothly and unnaturally just below her crotch. Her widened hips made her feel bow legged and her narrow waist took some getting used to. Eric spent a confused moment trying to come to terms with her loss, reliving the transformation which she had been through in her mind.

Looking around her, Eric was confronted with her reflection in a mirror which had previously escaped her notice. The reflections mouth opened in shocked surprise and Eric realised exactly how beautiful she had become. The pristine features captivated her with their complete innocence. She ran a hand over her expressive lips which twitched into a facile smile, then moved on to her slender nose and her angular cheekbones, so different from what she remembered possessing as a man.

Gazing deeply into her large poignant eyes, a great sadness welled up within her. She realised that her eyes were no longer hers. It is said that the eyes are the doorway to the soul and searching these new orbs, Eric could not help but feel as though she had been violated at a level which transcended the physical, as though part of her spirit had been stolen. It was an angelic visage which greeted her but she knew that it was intrinsically flawed, born as it was from a profane act.

She shivered at the insight, turning from her reflection and putting on the clothes. The shear material clung tightly to her, complimenting and accentuating her breasts and the mound of her altered sex, making her already divine body look positively heavenly. Somehow her skin had been made much more receptive to touch, delicate contact becoming a sensorial feast. Sublimating her instincts, she ignored the sensitive nature of her skin which seemed to goose bump pleasurably wherever the material pressed against it.

"All the better for business. Happy workers make happy clients," she muttered caustically to herself.

* * *

"Any new ones, Nal old pal?" an expensively dressed gentleman asked, pushing his Stetson back and straightening his tie while examining his reflection in a silver column. He brought a finger up to one of his teeth and polished it.

"Yees sir. Da blonde over dere. Brand spankin new. She came in last night," Nalaka said pointing over at Eric. "Her name ees Erica. Beautiful, yes?" Nalaka gave a conspiratal wink.

Eric looked at the stranger as he pondered her. He was in his thirties and, judging by the cut of his suit, was a fit and active fellow. Uncertain as to what to do she smiled and waved self consciously at him.

"Yes, she does look unsullied doesn't she? Did you recruit her personally?" The man asked.

"Oh yes, she exactly what di customer want."

Eric listened to the by-play and concluded that this particular gentleman knew exactly how Erawe Breyub worked. There were probably regulars who enjoyed the notion of deflowering 'virginal' woman and paid heavily for the honor. Or maybe these people got there kicks by sleeping with woman who where not woman by choice. It didn't matter to Eric. She just needed to get her five customers and then she was Elvis (history that is).

After a quick exchange over a cred box the man approached Eric and introduced himself. "Hello, my name is Alexi Hilton the third," he said by way of introduction. Then, taking Eric's hand, the stranger lead her away to one of the establishments many rooms. Eric searched her memory. Alexi's name was familiar to her, of that she was certain.

The bedchamber was actually quite expensively appointed compared to the one Eric had used. "You must excuse my impertinence, but I really must know. Do you enjoy your current circumstances? I mean is it a shock to suddenly find yourself female?" He ran a hand slowly up her neck to her chin.

Eric surprised herself and did not withdraw from his hand, enjoying the sensations which the caress produced. "I'm not like this by choice, that's for certain. And yes, it's a shock and I'm not thrilled with the idea of being female."

Alexi moved his hand to her shoulder and deftly slipped the strap of her chemise down onto her arm, then ran a hand along the side of her breast. "Tell me if you want me to stop. I wouldn't want to force you to do anything you didn't want to."

"Stop then," Eric breathed, knowing intuitively that the sensual nature of her body could override her reason.

"Are you sure?" Alexi asked, circling her erect nipple with his hand, knowing from experience that the woman's resolve would evaporate under his subtle coaxing.

"Yes," she said and with a surge of willpower pulled away from him, covering herself quickly. Eric did not look up at Alexi, not trusting her resolve to end their encounter.

"Impressive. From my experience most of those that undergo Nalaka's treatment can't resist their bodies impulses. You're going to provide a bit more amusement than usual," Alexi said as he stood and placed his hat on the hat-rack, then removed his tie and jacket, also hanging them. He then untied his shoes and put them at the base of the bed.

"But you said..." Eric muttered, watching him undress.

"I lied," Alexi said, moving towards her and slipping both straps from her shoulders, exposing and massaging her pert breasts. She couldn't offer any resistance so he continued to fondle her, the pleasure was too intense. As he played with her nipples Eric closed her eyes in bliss, her breathing slightly erratic. "I must say that you chose exceptionally well. Your breasts are beautiful," Alexi whispered in appreciation as he ran a hand over her chest to her navel and continued down between her legs. "As is the rest of you." He pressed hard on her lips through the thin fabric of her panties, rubbing slowly.

All of her defenses destroyed, Eric frantically struggled from her briefs. With the assistance of Alexi, Eric had her restrictive underwear off and reclined onto her back, her puckered vagina thrusting desperately towards his hand. As he slowly fingered her, Alexi murmured in her ear, "do you still want me to stop?"

"Yes," Eric said passionately, "I mean no!" she growled, "keep going. Don't tease me," she pleaded. The whole experience became a blur of carnal gratification. Eric was distantly aware that what was occurring was wrong but she could not stop herself as she willingly embraced the libidinous nature of her body.

Eric looked up in glazed concern as he stopped playing with her clit, worried that he was going to stop. She watched with growing awareness as he pulled his pants down, his erect member bouncing free, then positioned himself at the entrance of her sensitive nether regions.

In that moment of pause Eric managed to gather her self restraint. "No," she cried just as Alexi entered her, her negation disappearing into a deep moan of pleasure as her moist cunt engulfed him. The rhythmic grinding of their bodies was exquisitely pleasurable disintegrating all her control. In that moment Eric forgot the past, consumed by the present, rocking eagerly with in time with his body. Her vaginal muscles clenched in hot, wet contractions and something which felt like an epileptic fit rushed over her entire body.

She yelled and struggled to make Alexi stop for a moment as the experience became too much for her, waves of pleasure engulfing her to the point where she felt like she was drowning. In her next breath she indecipherably begged him to go deeper. Her body was tearing her mind apart with levels of pleasure that she had only ever dreamed about.

Just when it seemed she could not bear it any longer, Eric felt Alexi stiffen above her and gasp as he ejaculated deep inside her. She looked up at the man's triumphant grin in a daze, both of them totally drained by the experience.

Alexi collapsed on her while and gathered his breath, slowly playing with her nipples and bulbous, silky breasts. Satisfied he rolled off her, grabbed part of the bed spread and wiped himself down. "So, how did you enjoy that?"

Still flushed, Eric looked at the man and felt angry at having been used. Alexi did not care about her. He was more interested in using her body and degrading her male ego. Eric forced a grin and, feeling like a hypocrite, she said, "it was wonderful. Better than I thought possible." She couldn't voice her emotions as this may have been some elaborate test of Nalaka's.

"So what's it like to make the change?" Alexi asked.

Eric realised that she was little more than a curiosity to this rich, self centred man and that she would be better off not responding. Searching for an escape, she looked down at her swollen clit and wet thighs, swearing, "shit I'm dribbling! I need to go to the bath room." She sprinted to the ensuite and closed the door.

Wadding up some toilet paper she wiped herself down, amazed at how much she had leaked, then flushed the damp material down the loo. Unhappy with this, she ran the tap and splashed some water on her crotch then dried herself with a towel. While she was there she took the time to reevaluate her body. Her breasts were slick with perspiration, her entire body flushed from the exertion. Under other circumstances she could probably enjoy this, but not when her volition was so undermined.

When she returned she saw that Alexi was getting dressed. He grinned and tipped his hat to her, throwing two strips of gold on the bed. "Consider it a tip. I'll be seeing you Erica." Alexi Hilton, the third, left.

* * *

It wasn't until two days after the wedding that people started to worry about Eric. The police were called in. They did full financial record checks, asked all the probing questions they could of Gazza, Tony, Kyle and Randolf but their memory of the brothel was either too distorted by alcohol or they could not recall it at all. The authorities even tried to find the brothel in Kinx Street but to no avail.

The police filed Eric's case away in an ever expanding missing person file.

* * *

Eric avoided talking to any of the other prostitutes, determined to get out of the brothel as soon as possible. After three days she had completed her fifth business liaison and she approached Nalaka immediately afterwards. "O.K. I'm done. Give me back what you took away."

Eric was mildly disgusted with herself. By the second day she had started to crave sex as a woman, but being on the receiving end was something which she found contrary to her personality, completely at odds with the mental image which she held of herself. In reflective moments she had been worried as she was detecting cracks in that self image.

What amazed her was that she had found the fourth man attractive and afterwards had wondered why he should have to pay. Hell, she would have done him for free or even paid him! Not only was she enjoying the work but the tips were excellent. In the last three days she had made almost a months wages. In general though Eric was still much too uncomfortable with her body, in particular the working clothes which had been foisted upon her.

Eric reluctantly conceded that it would be too easy to loose herself in this bodies intensely wild abandon and become the woman her body required. Even if it did feel good, she did not want to lose her sense of identity and she knew without a doubt that what she was doing was destroying her ego. Overall, she concluded that this had been an interesting experiment but she was very glad that it was coming to an end.

She was also embarrassed and prayed that nobody ever found out about her female experiences. She was glad that the whole situation was so improbable that no one would ever believe it.

Nalaka smiled, "come with me, Madame." He took her to a small room, went inside and returned with the ring Eric had given as a deposit.

"Here all done. Good do business with you."

Eric looked at the ring in confusion. "Hey, what about my body?"

"Oh, contract not require me to return your old body." Nalaka riffled through a pile of papers. "Dis contract for that." He held up another a piece of paper written in gibberish.

Eric looked at Nalaka, dread eating at her. "How many people through the door?"

"Oh, one hundred."

Her spirits sunk. Can I do it? she wondered. Will I want to go back after a hundred men?

She read the contract. It was all in backwards English. At the top of the contract was the name of Nalaka's business. Erawe Breyub. Buyer Beware. She signed the form resignedly, after reading it very carefully twice.

Part 2

"It's a catch twenty two situation isn't it?" a very heavily muscled Negro woman said from the doorway, entering and sitting down beside Eric on her bed, "you want to get back to the way you were before so you have to sleep with men. But the more men you sleep with, the more of your previous self you lose. Your mind adapts to the new body, becoming more attuned to it, reducing your desire to return to being male. It's like Nietzsche said... the mind is nothing but a plaything of the body...," she paused, expecting Eric to respond.

"I've been talking to the other women here. Only about twenty percent of the men transformed have gone the whole distance and elected to return to being male. Of those that do change back, about half return here, addicted to the bodies which they've had. It's perverse, and a little sick but... that's how it is. Me, I've never been a gambling man and that isn't about to change just because I'm not a man anymore," the ebony woman was trying to bring Eric out of her shell. So far the attractive blonde woman had not even acknowledged the other woman's presence.

"Sorry, my names Nick. Eric right?" She extended her hand towards Eric and they shook firmly, the distinctly male greeting succeeding where talk had failed. "I saw you come in ten days ago. I got caught pretty much the same way as you and haven't been here much longer than you. You had a thing for blondes right?"

Eric nodded, looking across at the tall dark woman. She had quite attractive features and was extremely graceful in her own unique way, but brawny woman had never done very much for her.

"Me I had a thing for muscle bound black woman. It's funny, but now I'm not that thrilled with the idea of them any more," Nick said ruefully.

Eric nodded and said, "I can relate to that. So you think there is only a ten percent chance of getting out of this?"

"Tell me honestly. Is it all that bad being on the receiving end?" Nick reached forward and ruffled Eric's hair.

Eric frowned and shrugged noncommittally, unwilling to admit it was quite enjoyable. Nick moved her hands down to Eric's neck and the blonde sighed, relaxing as the black woman massaged her neck.

Nick nodded knowingly, "well it keeps getting better, so I've been told. Me, I'm not in high demand, most men's tastes don't run this exotically, so the change in orientation isn't that quick for me and I can fight it a little better. You on the other hand are a stereotypical blonde bombshell, very desirable for most customers. I'd give you about a month before you become a sex crazed nymphomaniac. Look around, there are quite a lot of them here."

"So what do you propose to do about it? If we run we're nobodies, we'll be deported and never get our bodies back," Eric argued, enjoying Nicks attention. "I welcome being a prostitute as much as the next man but I don't see any other options."

"That's because you aren't looking. All we need to do is get at that machine and change ourselves back. The old man never comes out of his locked fort, but that still leaves Nalaka and Fazeel. I say we kidnap one of them and force our captive to make us men again. "

"But what if we fail?" Eric protested.

"What if? I'm not saying this is without risks. There have been attempts before which failed, the women were never seen again. Think about it though, the clock's ticking honey."

"How come the other women don't seem to care? We should have a regular rebellion brewing here."

"Well, to tell you the truth, only the guys which piss off the establishment get selected for transformation, and they are few and far between. Most of the prostitutes here were women to begin with, they've just had their bodies improved voluntarily. They think it's poetic justice for pricks like us, so they won't help."

"Oh," Eric said.

"We have to act soon, we might not care in a month. It's like they say, victory is in the mind, if you don't seize opportunity you've lost already. Do you really relish the thought of spreading your legs for every man that comes your way for the rest of your life?" Nick said, trying to impart the urgency of the situation.

"Hell no!"

"Good. Then you're in?" Nick slipped a hand under the woman's top and leant forward, kissing her on the mouth. Where before Eric had been aloof, she now accepted Nick's approaches a thrill running up her spine. Eric reciprocated the black woman's advances, running a hand desperately over Nick's firm sable skin, reaching behind the dark lady's back and unlatching her bra. Two firm ash coloured breasts sprang free, the nipples erect and incongruously pink.

Nick shuddered in delight as Eric bent her head down and engulfed one rose fleshed nipple with her mouth, flicking it with her tongue, then biting it playfully. Nick reached down and inserted a finger into Eric's vagina, playing with her lips, feeling the heat emanating from the pale woman's crotch as it became damp. Eric squirmed in pleasure as Nick spread her receptive lips and massaged the inner wall of her vagina, then playfully traced Eric's juices around her lightly tanned inner thigh.

Moving languidly, Eric lay down as Nick positioned Eric's clit in front of her dark hued face. Craning her long delicate neck, Eric pulled apart Nick's lips and hood, exposing the small dark node of pleasure sensitive flesh which the blonde girl slowly teased with her tongue.

Meanwhile Nick lowered her head between Eric's thighs and alternated between lapping at the light woman with her tongue and finger fucking her. Eric shivered in response to Nicks rhythmic pampering.

This continued for some time, the two woman increasing their pace as their sexual ecstasy grew. Nick's juices now flowed over Eric's dark chiseled face and down her chin. Unperturbed Eric continued as her own clitoris began to burn with arousal, waves of sensual pleasure throbbing through her body.

* * *

Chancellor Petros Hilton sat in his office overlooking the vast and multilayered expanse of New Haven, the pre-eminent city of Mars. He grinned, looking down on high at the scurrying ants below him.

Petros' great grandfather had been a founder of the Martian Oligarchy which had long surpassed Earth as the leading industrial and economic centre of the solar system. After global warfare had reduced Earth to a pre-industrial state, the Martian Oligarchy had gracefully subsumed it and gradually assisted in the rebuilding of its industry and infrastructure.

What leant Mars it's power was it's control of interstellar mining and zero gravity robotics manufacture, the two most vital industries required to supply the solar systems energy resources and rare isotope metal requirements.

"I tell you dad, he can do it! Just think, an interstellar mining colony which isn't automated! No break downs, a hundred percent return rather than the normal fifteen you get from automated facilities. Not only that but an interstellar colony under your control!" Alexi said enthusiastically.

"Look we all know that the one thing which prevents humans from interstellar travel is that they cannot survive the acceleration required to enter hyperspace. That and the exponential increase in energy consumption of inertial dampening fields make it impossible to send more than 1000 cubic centimetres of organic matter in one warp pod. This gets around those problems. We use his machines to reduce the colonists to nothing more than brains, which we can protect in inertial dampening fields. Then we send them through hyperspace and reconstruct their bodies when they arrive."

"We've already found about four planets which can support life and have the resources we want. The automated mining expeditions have avoided these because of the losses caused by the biosphere on the machinery, but we both know that the these places are rich in certain elements... "

Petros considered. The idea had its merits and, if it was successful, would see the beginning of a new age for mankind. The rewards of this new age would be reaped by himself and his offspring, hopefully for many generations. He smiled at the thought.

"I want to meet this man, but keep it quiet. If the other oligarchs get wind of this then we'll lose control of it."

"Hey pop, you didn't raise a fool!" Alexi complained adjusting his Stetson and greatcoat as he left.

* * *

"Amazing. So she was once this man?" Petros said pointing at a holographic projection. The image was of a Caucasian man of medium build with a wiry frame and light coloured hair. The busty and curvaceous Indian woman who stood nervously beside the projection was taller and much lighter but quite obviously female.

"Yes. Dis is true sir," Nalaka said modestly.

"So your father can produce people to order?" Petros prompted.

"Yes, of course sir. My pop is brilliant."

Petros was skeptical. He rubbed his chin as he considered, glancing at his son who nodded in confirmation. If what Nalaka said were true then he had to get control of this technology. If it wasn't, then Nalaka and his pop would disappear for trying to dupe him. "I would like to see this process if I may."

"Whatever sir wants," Nalaka said leading Petros and Alexi to his fathers lab while Fazeel escorted the woman to the transformation chamber.

"Let me get this right. This takes all my customers from my tally?"

"Yees. Steip in pleeze," Fazeel asked.

The woman entered the glass capsule with some trepidation, remembering her last visit. The liquid slowly filled up the tank and she avoided the impulse to panic. Slowly her brief work clothes dissolved, laying bare her magnificent female physique.

The woman looked down at her female body, hopefully for the last time. Her breasts were large and pendulous, her waist incredibly narrow and hips large and firm, all a deep chocolate colour which she had greatly admired as a man. She would be very happy to escape this form and return to manhood. She was also quite repentant for giving her escort a difficult time and, having seen life from a female perspective, had decided to change her chauvinistic ways for good.

On the other side of the plexi-glass, Petros was introduced by Nalaka to the reclusive Ghazis. Petros then turned to watch the woman in amazement as Nalaka's old man started the process.

The curvaceous woman had mentally prepared herself for what was to happen but was still surprised to see her alabaster skin dissolve, leaving muscles and internal organs exposed to the naked eye. There was no pain, only slight discomfort as she moved her skinless, almost skeletal hand in front of her face.

To those watching it was a grotesque and macabre sight as the woman's body disintegrated gradually, lumps of flesh floating into the liquid in a hazy crimson cloud. The blotches disappeared leaving nothing but a skeleton with tendrils of muscle and sinew still attached. The bones fragmented into smaller and smaller part, a fine mist which faded.

In the end all that was left was a brain which pulsed and bobbed in the liquid. Attached at the base of the skull was a scraggly mass of nerve endings and the base of the spinal column. Two disembodied, unblinking eyes stared out comically at the observers.

"Incredible! I wouldn't have believed it unless I'd witnessed it myself," Petros whispered in awe.

"Yees, eet is increedible," the old scientist said, a touch of pride in his voice. "You neeed to take braeen, yees?"

Petros took a moment to decipher what the old man said. "Yes, I need to make some tests on it. Can you arrange some sort of portable life support system?"

"Yeees!" The old man said merrily, a grin splitting across his pitted face.

"How long will the brain survive in that solution by the way?"

"Oh, indeefinatly."

* * *

"Do you know who that man is?" Eric asked pointing at Petros Hilton.

"No," Nick replied, leaning casually on Eric's shoulder. "But I know him," she pointed at Alexi who followed his father closely. Alexi delicately held a large case.

"He's one of the Oligarchs! Petros Hilton. I knew I'd heard Alexi's name before, he's the heir to the Hilton line. I wonder what they're doing here?" Eric cast a speculative glance over the two men. Alexi caught her eye and winked suggestively causing Eric to look down.�

Nick thought about this for a moment. "Whatever it is, it can't be good. Those Oligarchs don't think or act like normal people. They're too busy with their plots and power struggles to consider the implications of their actions on the little people."

Eric nodded in agreement.

* * *

The test was a complete success, the brain surviving its interstellar trip without the slightest hitch. The cost however had been exorbitant, the energy combustion from the inertial dampening field having cost almost a tenth of Petros' liquid assets for the return voyage. At that rate, he could only afford to send nine miners on a return journey. Alternatively, he thought, it was more attractive to send eighteen miners on a permanent, one way trip.

The brain itself had been a very expensive investment. It currently sat on the mantle of his office. Petros gazed at the floating organ with fondness and decided that he should keep the cerebral matter for posterity. He could show this lump of flesh to his grandchildren with pride and explain how this insignificant mass was the impetuous for the huge empire which they would one day inherit.

The discarnate eyes bobbed in the solution disturbing Petros, casting a shadow over his grandiose musings. He noted that the eyes would have to be removed, since he could not have someone perpetually observing him in his seat of power.

Alexi entered his fathers office and started talking, "father, I've been thinking. We've already recruited the most experienced ore miners in the system, right?" Petros nodded. "Well it occurred to me that we aren't thinking of long term development. Let me sound some ideas off of you."

* * *

Nick shook Eric awake. "I think I know what to do," she said. "It isn't an inspired plan or anything, but I think it will work. Nalaka usually does a run to the toilet at about eight in the morning, when most of the working girls are asleep. I reckon' we jump him then, when he's most vulnerable, and force him to take us to the lab. They made me pretty strong," Nick flexed her muscles which rippled impressively, "these muscles aren't just for show. I think I can hold the little runt. Once we're in the lab, we force him to transform me while you hold him hostage. When I'm a man again, I hold him captive and you become man again."

Eric thought about the plan and decided that it was stupid. Nalaka must have ways of dealing with someone that would try this. Eric also had reservations about letting Nick go first, realising that she didn't really know Nick. She did know that Nick was unpredictable enough to get in Nalaka's bad books. Then again, it might be safer to let Nick go first, to test the waters as it were.

With no better alternative, Eric was forced to agree, "O.K. I'm in. When do we do it?"

"There's no time like the present. I think we should do it tomorrow morning!"

* * *

"My father has agreed Nalaka. I'm going to go along and supervise the colony!" Alexi rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Lord are those miners in for a shock when their bodies are rebuilt!"

"Yes, eetz going to be funny. I wish I could be dere to see it sir," Nalaka said, a pure sycophant.

"You have completed the specifications of my harem?"

"Yees, pop did dem last night. Sixteen succulent females."

"It is after all only logical, Nal. The prohibitive costs of the inertial dampening fields make it sensible to send a colony geared towards growth, and the best way to guarantee expansion of the population is by making the majority of the colony female..."

Nalaka nodded in agreement, knowing that Alexi's 'reasoning' was not prompted by economic concerns, but by the young mans slightly twisted libido. Nalaka was not about to point this out though, knowing how precarious his situation was in dealing with the Hilton dynasty.

Alexi plucked some lint from his jacket. "Anyway, the miners are arriving tonight Nal. We haven't decided on which ones are going yet, we have more minors than we need at the moment. Treat all of them well though and give them the full service with no expense spared. Charge it all to my personal tab as well. After all tonight's going to be the last time that most of them will enjoy that sort of activity," Alexi said and could not help but smile. The merriment was contagious, Nalaka's face splitting into an equally amused expression.

* * *

"Come on luv, give Fred a kiss," the man was a disgusting slobbering pig, the worst kind of client in Eric's books. Spending most of his time in zero gravity with no exercise had caused the man to become unnaturally obese, one of the many problems which ore minors experienced. The other was a total lack of social grace and a rampantly indiscriminate sexual appetite which, unfortunately, this gentleman possessed the funds to indulge. The last thing that Eric wanted to do was sleep with this large gelatinous mound, and even the licentious nature of her body could not overcome her repugnance.

Her revulsion must have shown on her face, making the man angry. "You fuckin' slut. I've paid good bloody money to get my end wet and I'll be fucked if I don't get it," he lashed out with one of his meaty fists, pummeling Eric squarely in the face.

Eric was knocked back and cowered from the corpulent animal that towered above her.

A knock on the door interrupted the Miner before he could deliver another blow. "Fred, can I come in," a young man asked as he entered the room.

"Fuck no! I'm in the middle of a root here. Piss of ya little shit," Fred retorted, moving threateningly to his feet, a lumbering hulk of a man. He wiped a chubby paw across his face and scratched his red cauliflower nose.

"Yeah that's what I thought. Listen there's this really cute girl out here with your number written all over her. She hasn't stopped talking about you since you arrived," the thin man drawled casually.

"I'm fucking happy with this piece of arse," Fred moved towards the slight man, making to grab him and throw him from the room. The young man sidestepped the clumsy attack and then dropped down into a spinning kick which took the obese man's feet from beneath him. The human lump of fat dropped to the ground like a pile of roiling lard. A quick blow to the head from the intruder left the gross caricature of a man unconscious.

"Sorry for the disturbance, Miss. I hope it won't cause you any problems. Well I've gotta be off, I'm not planning on sticking round here. It just doesn't smell right."

"Wait!" Eric shouted as the man turned to leave. He paused and turned around. "Thank you. What's your name?"

"Todd Garret, Miss," he tipped his hat in greeting.

"My names is Eric," she said.

Todd looked down at the prone lump by the door. "Damn, ugly bugger ain't he." He closed the door and leant against the wall with his arms crossed, sizing Eric up. "Do you mind me asking - and this isn't a come-on - what's a nice girl like you doing in this shit hole."

Eric nodded her head as she thought of an answer. There was something about this man which told her he was decent, so she decided to lower some of her defenses, "You know the name of this place?"

"Yeah, Erawe Breyub, what about it."

"Put the letters backwards."

Todd thought for a moment and shrugged. It meant nothing to him.

"Backwards it reads buyer beware. This place isn't what it appears to be. The decor is about the only real thing here. Everyone here is fake, even me."

"You seem pretty sincere to me. Hey you ought to get some ice for that bruise," Todd said, going to the small bar fridge and pulling out an ice-tray. He made an ice pack with a bar towel as they talked.

"This is my Karma. I ended up here as a result of my stupidity and I'm here trying to fix that mistake, to get back something I lost."

Todd nodded as though he understood, "sounds deep."

"Look I have to stay but you should leave. I mean it."

He passed Eric the ice pack. "Why should I leave? Things are starting to get interesting."

Eric sighed in defeat. "So what do you do?"

"Me I'm a mineral extraction officer. A miner, just like Fred and the rest of the party."

"I thought you guys worked alone and were always freelance operators, hardly worth the interest of the big interstellar oligarchs. They're stuffs all automated isn't it?"

"Yep. We usually operate for ourselves, but Hilton Extraction's Corporation has offered about twenty-five of us first option on a special project. It's all very hush hush. Petros Hilton interviewed us all personally and his son, Alexi, is supervising the whole operation. Not only that, but if we elect to work for them, we'll be paid almost five times what we can expect from our random prospecting," Todd explained to her, but he didn't sound enthusiastic.

The light man poured himself a glass of water and drank it in measured swallows. "The others have signed already, but I have reservations about working for an Oligarch, especially the Hiltons. Their reputation is just that little bit more mercenary than most of the other Oligarchs. Besides I love my Rig, and being my own boss."

Eric thought about what Todd had told her. There was an ominous pattern emerging in what he said but she couldn't interpret it. Coupled with what she knew of this place and the Hilton's interest in it, Eric knew that there was something wrong.

"Don't sign. Get away. I don't know what it is they have planned but it can't be good. Contracts around this place always have sinister loopholes."

"I think you're right," Todd said. "Well I think I'd better be of then."

"Stay. Please?" Eric asked, unsure what had come over her. It was in Todd's best interests to go, but Eric felt comfortable with him. She had not felt comfortable since the whole crazy gender switch began. Patting the bed beside her, Eric eyed Todd hopefully.

"If you really want me too," Todd said warmly, an open smile on his face.

"I do," Eric said. Todd sat down next to her. She reached over and held his hand, turning her large eyes towards him. They sat there for a while in silence, then Eric lowered her head to his shoulder, and breathed out, sorting through her emotions.

Todd slowly patted her hair, repeatedly brushing it away from her face and over her ear. He put an arm around her shoulder and provided quiet support to her. He hated this, when people were rife with problems which they kept bottled up inside. It always felt so damn messy, when simply spilling all the problems out to a caring ear would often cure it all.

Todd Consoled himself that though the girl suffered in silence, she did not suffer alone.

"You know," he paused for a moment as though considering something and then impulsively he said, "you should come with me. Get away from this place, join me in my mining ventures. I could use the company."

Eric did a double-take and moved away form his shoulder, put off balance by his sudden forwardness. It seemed so odd. She realised that working for months on end in isolation, millions of miles from the nearest person, could cause people to act differently.

"It's tempting and you seem like a really nice guy, but I need to get back what I lost. If I went with you I'd loose any chance of ever getting it back." The offer was whimsically attractive. Eric could imagine herself happily settling down with a partner away from this horrid and soul destroying place, but deep down she knew that if she took the soft option she would always have regrets.

A spasm of hurt rippled across Todd's face at the rejection. "Oh. Okay then." He looked down at his empty glass, deep in thought. "It's just that you seem so unhappy here. I always find that if you get away from desolate places, you can find contentment again."

Eric sighed, "that's a bit simplistic. In life you sometimes have to make hard decisions and sit out the rough times. You can't just run from your problems you have to face them," she said.

Todd nodded. "Well I guess I'm a rat deserting a sinking ship, because I'm leaving. Take care Erica." The young miner left.

Eric sat for a moment, deep in thought, tempted to chase after him. She then looked at her comatose customer, relieved that this one had not been part of her tally. She decided that it would be a good idea to tell Nalaka what had happened and let him deal with it.

* * *

That night sixteen of the twenty-three miners that had signed their contracts were led to the chamber and reduced to the bare minimum of flesh. The others were allowed to go on their way. Without fail those transformed had been rather upset about loosing their bodies, but now lacked the ability to communicate this. Ghazis looked at the floating brains with eyes attached, all neatly identified, lined up on the floor, ready for collection by Petros Hilton in the morning.

Alexi stepped nervously into the chamber, quite aware of the transformations which could occur in this unassuming cubicle. The liquid slowly filled up the compartment. Ghazis gave an encouraging thumbs up as he hummed tunelessly to himself, going about the process of eliminating Alexi's body.

After he had finished he placed Alexi's brain in a separate area and carefully marked it. In some ways he envied Alexi. Living like some ancient sheik with his own personal harem on a lush, unspoiled paradise. Humanity had destroyed their Eden, Earth having been ravaged by nuclear war and genetically engineered plagues. After the war mankind had fled to Mars, a desolate planet with a deadly atmosphere, the inhabitants living in sterile and lifeless domes.

Yes, it would be an idyllic existence. Ghazis was almost tempted to go himself. After carrying out a systems check, the elderly scientist left, returning to his small barricaded bedroom.

* * *

"Wake up Eric. We have to go," Nick shook Eric lightly, conscious of the noise she was making. "Nalaka will be up soon."

"Huh, Oh, right," Eric said. She had been having the most pleasant dream about herself and the miner she had met last night. It was most unlike her normal fitful dreams of endless sex with faceless automatons or the nightmares where she ran as a man through the brothel searching for an exit, trapped in the twisting, seedy corridors which inevitably led to the transformation chamber.

After quickly throwing on an almost transparent slip of clothing, Eric followed Nick to the place where they would ambush Nalaka. Nick reached into her small bag and produced a pair of handcuffs which she had stolen from one of the more adventurously decorated suites. Eric nodded and grinned, enjoying the clandestine nature of their activities, hefting a candle stick she had appropriated.

Right on time Nalaka came from his locked room. As he blithely walked past them, Eric leaped out and clubbed him over the head from behind. He staggered under the blow, leaning heavily against the wall as he shook his head. Nick leaped onto his back and bore him face down to the ground, twisting his arms behind his back and handcuffing him.

The woman looked down at their handiwork with pride, then nervously checked up and down the corridor to see if they had been heard. They struggled to heft Nalaka to his feet and drag him to his fathers lab. Nick produced a sharp pair off scissors and held them to threaten their hostage if he became coherent. He was a lot heavier than they had thought, or maybe they were not as strong as they remembered being as men.

As they dragged Nalaka along, a figure followed them at a safe distance, unnoticed by the two abductors.

Once at the door they knocked and a little metal peep hole opened. "Who ees dis?" Ghazis inquired from the other side.

"We've got your son hostage, let us in or he gets it," Nick menaced, holding the scissors to Nalaka's throat.

"Okey Dokey," Ghazis said. Eric was getting worried. This was all going too smoothly.

The door opened and they stepped into the lab, leaving the entrance open behind them allowing their shadow to slip into the room and assume a position where he could watch the proceedings.

Eric looked up and down at the floating brains in horror. "Who are they? What have you done to them?"

"Dem, dere da mieners. Dere to bee sheeped to anudder soleer seesteem," Ghazis explained. "Dere small eenuff do bee sheeped een eenerrtieel dampeenieeng fieelds."

It took Eric a moment to sort out what he had said. "Oh of course, they're small enough to be transported in inertial dampening fields for interstellar travel!"

"Dat's white I seed. Don't yoeu undeestand Eeengleesh?" Ghazis said in irritation.

Eric looked carefully at the bobbing brains, noticing the one which was separate marked as Alexi Hilton. "All of those miners are going to become female aren't they?"

"Yees," Ghazis responded. By this time Nalaka had become coherent enough to be following the conversation.

Nick passed Eric the scissors and approached Ghazis, saying, "you're going to return me to my male body or else Eric will kill Nalaka, won't you Eric?" Eric nodded with as much resolve as she could. Nick considered her instructions to Ghazis, "by the way, make sure that my fingerprints are the same. While you're at it I'd like to be twenty years younger, so make me physically twenty five, and give me really good muscle tone with minimal fat. Oh, and redo my face a little. Male model looks if it isn't to much trouble."

Eric listened to Rick's orders and wondered what she had looked like before her transformation. Probably unattractive at a guess.

"Okey Dokey," Ghazis said.

"No funny stuff or else your son gets it," Rick threatened. She turned to her accomplice, "can you handle things while I go to the chamber?"

"Yes, but hurry."

"Not a problem honey."

Nick made her way to the plexi-glass chamber and was sealed inside. The chamber slowly filled with the strange liquid under the control of Ghazis computer. Eric watched Ghazis hum merrily to himself as he casually started the transformation process.

Watching Nick change form a woman back to a man was nearly as strange for Eric her transformation. The black woman's hair fell out first, leaving her standing there like a wooden mannequin. Then her skin tone lightened from its deep ebony colour to a much paler colour. Clearly Nick had been a Caucasian before.

Then the woman's flesh started to shrink and compact around her hips and chest, as her flesh expelled a scarlet fluid which was absorbed into the bizarre solution. Nick became flat chested, her hips becoming straight as a bean pole, a dramatic change from her previously curvaceous shape.

Next the woman's muscle tone was slowly reduced throughout her body and small changes in bone structure occurred. It was strange to see the process of Nick's body wasting down to nothing and then subtly readjust itself, preparing to assume the mantle of a man.

The liquid focused on the woman's genitals. Eric watched as the woman gradually became a man, the genitals evolving slowly outwards from the crotch, the female lips joining and thrusting outwards into a penis. The mans testicles dropped down, first one then the other.

The mans face slowly became broader, as muscle tissue and bone rearranged and accumulated into clearly masculine lines. Meanwhile the mans muscle tone increased again, becoming harder and leaner. He became broad chested, all of his muscles very well defined.

"You'd better change the hormone levels back to male ones pop, or your son gets it."

"Ov course," Ghazis grinned, as though he had always intended on doing just that...

The process was almost complete as a body hair appeared on the mans body. Stubble formed in the liquid and attached itself to his chin, eye brows, pubis hair and so on. Last of all a thick head of dark hair was produced by the liquid and affixed to his scalp.

Nick now looked exactly as he had requested. Exceptionally fit, handsome and undeniably male. Ghazis tweaked the hormone levels in Nicks brain back to how they had been before, then drained the liquid from the tank.

Smiling, the new man wiped himself down and left the chamber. He returned to the lab, very happy with the way things had worked out.

"Excellent," Nick said, a strange light in his eyes. His voice was much deeper he noted with satisfaction as he looked down at his muscled torso with wonder. He went to the bag and pulled out two more sets of handcuffs.

"Put these on Ghazis," he ordered the old man. The old man looked at his son who nodded assent, so the scientist put them on. Nick moved over to Eric and took the scissors from her. He then returned to Ghazis. "Now tell me how the machine works."

"What about me?" Eric asked, slightly concerned at his actions. She should have been getting her body back right about now.

"Be quiet girl," Nick said, "I'll deal with you in a minute."

At those words, Eric knew she had misjudged Nick. He only wanted to free himself, she was certain. She said as much, "you had no intention of transforming me, did you?"

Nick pursed his lips, "no." He pushed the old man into a seat and advanced on Eric, the last set of handcuffs in his hand.

Eric looked at Nalaka who leered wickedly back at her. She pushed the hostage at Nick as she ran for the door. Nick dodged past Nalaka and grappled Eric, throwing her hard to the ground.

"Oh come on Eric, you know you won't care after a while. I promise that you'll enjoy it, I'll make sure of it," Nick stated evilly.

"Not very smart," Nalaka said. Nick turned his head to tell the man to shut up when he received a large surprise. Nalaka bunched his thin arms which seemed to expand and bulge like a body builders. With his suddenly powerful arms, the former prisoner easily broke the chain on the handcuffs and brought his hands in front of himself. Nick watched as Nalaka advanced on him, realising that somehow the pimp had been modified to possess superhuman strength.

Nalaka let out a chuckle as he punched Nick firmly in the stomach, knocking the man backwards, where he lay gasping and choking beside Eric.

"You both broke contract. You are now fertiliser," Nalaka promised, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I beg to differ." Eric looked behind her in surprise, which gave way to relief when she saw Todd standing behind her. This emotion was quickly transformed into concern for Todd when she realised that Nalaka was much too powerful for him to handle.

"Will you get away. You can't beat this guy. He isn't human."

Nalaka nodded, "yes, leave dis place now and you live."

"You aren't so tough," Todd challenged, assuming a fighting stance.

Nalaka rushed forward, intending to finish his weak opponent quickly. He threw an extremely quick and powerful punch at Todd, who dodged it easily, slapping Nalaka in the face as he spun away from the Indian man. "You see Eric, Nalaka here is quick and strong but he lacks skill. He transmits his moves long before he makes them."

Angered at being slapped in the face, Nalaka charged the man again, trying to catch him off guard with a feint followed by a powerful uppercut. Once again Todd wasn't there, dropping to the ground and felling the man with a sharp blow to the knee, shattering Nalaka's knee cap. Todd bounced back to his feet, all sinew and agility, and delivered two quick precise blows to Nalaka's face.

Nalaka's eyes glazed over and he dropped to the ground. "You see, it pays to study your opponent, and your allies," Todd said to Eric, indicating Nick.

"What are you doing here? I thought you left," Eric asked as she handcuffed Nick with the manacles intended for her.

"Well you made sense with your talk about not running from problems," Todd said, contemplating Nalaka, "you know we should do something with this guy. He's dangerous."

"You wouldn't think that by the way you were talking to him during your fight," Eric said.

"Well, I'm more dangerous," Todd said flippantly, "I'll get him into the chamber, you watch pops."

Eric picked up the scissors and stood guard. Nalaka was dumped unceremoniously in the capsule, the doors sealed.

"Look pop. You have two choices. Either you turn him into one of those bobbing skulls, or I kill him, then you."

Now that Ghazis' escape had been thwarted, he became very cooperative. He nodded assent as Todd returned to the lab.

"While your at it, I'd like to know how this machine works."

* * *

Later that morning Fazeel returned from his taxi shift. As he and his brother were walking to their fathers lab something hit him on the back of the head, knocking him unconscious.

* * *

At about noon Petros Hilton exited his deluxe hover limo and entered a seedy brothel. Half an hour later he returned, obviously pleased with himself, an unusual excitement in his gate.

He made a number of calls to his shipping company, changing some of the core computer terminals in the seventeen pods which were scheduled for launch that night.

* * *

The last thing which Petros Hilton could remember was leaving his limo and entering the brothel to talk to Nalaka when something had hit him on the back of the head. He groaned groggily and opened his eyes, looking up at the ceiling. It was a prefabricated, industrial unit, judging by the modular nature of the panels. Odd, he thought.

As Petros sat up he received the single most horrific shock of his entire life. He looked down at his body and realised that it was no longer his. What was particularly astonishing was that it was female. She had breasts! They were large, too large to be practical or natural. In a panic she stood and looked down at her naked flesh, running a hand quickly over her crotch. The shape was wrong, no doubt about it, on anything other than a woman.

Her body was so heavily voluptuous that it bordered upon being a caricature. She possessed exaggerated breasts with large pointed nipples, a narrow waist which would have been comical if it hadn't belonged to her, a finely shaped posterior and long trim legs.

This brief inspection of her body also yielded something which she would rather not know. Her body was extremely sensitive to her caressing and probing. Too sensitive for her liking, but her body made her like it.

Anger boiled up within her. She was going to get Nalaka and his family if it was the last thing she ever did. Unmindful of her nakedness, determined to know where she was, she sprinted out of her room into the corridor and into a large recreation room. Sitting in the room were six other women, in varying states of dress.

One glanced up at her as she entered. "Hi dad," the blonde who was the spitting image of 'Erica' said. She had medium sized breasts, the same angelic face and the same flowing blonde hair.

"Alexi? Son?" Petros said in horror.

"Yes," she nodded, "we got done."

"I'll say. If I ever get my hands on Nalaka and his family I'll..."

"Eeetz not our fault," a short willowy red head said. "I'm Fazeel. Dis is my pop and dis is my bruder," she said pointing at a very attractive Asian girl and a similarly attractive brunette. The Asian girl was quite tall and graceful, if a little flat chested, but possessed an extraordinarily beautiful face. The brunette was of medium height with large firm breasts and the most lovely pair of legs which Petros could have imagined.

Petros looked questionably at the remaining two women.

"Names Nick," said a very attractive black woman, very different from the muscle bound woman she had been. Now she was quite short, intensely delicate and very busty, a black twin of Alexi.

"Fred," volunteered the last girl, she was also attractive but in a Rubenesque way, slightly chunky, possessing smooth alabaster skin and a very pleasing cherubic face.

"Dad, we're on the mining planet, in another solar system. There's us and ten miners, but they're out working at the moment. They know who we are but they also know what we intended for them, so they don't really feel sorry for us."

"I don't think they like us much," said Nick.

"Speek for yirselves," Nalaka said, "dey seemed to like me just fine da udder night."

"They've been reviving about one of us a week. You're the last one," Alexi explained. "The equipment to modify us is in orbit and... I don't think anyone on the planet can reach it."

"Why are you wearing those clothes?" Petros asked in concern.

"Dad, these are the only clothes that we have. The miners won't let us near theirs. They're trying to condition us, and I think its working," Alexi explained.

"Eet iss," Ghazis said.

"Great. So who's responsible for this?"

"Her," said Nalaka, pointing at Nick, "and a miner and one of my former prostitutes. Dere gonna pay."

"Damn right they are, but how?" Petros asked in frustration, looking down at her new body.

* * *

"How are they taking it Dodge?" Eric asked, his face creasing into a questioning expression.

"Oh, you know. Not that happy at first, but they're starting to warm to us," Dodge replied. "Look boss, I can't thank you enough for saving us from their fate. If there is anything I can do?"

"Just keep working hard. Todd says hello, by the way. I'll send through a shipment of supplies tomorrow with all the stuff you ordered. So have you heard about Alexi yet?"

"Oh yeah, she's pregnant all right. Kicked up a hell of a fuss when the others realised that they would probably become pregnant too."

"Do us a favour, will you. Tell her that I asked what it's like."

"Sure, not a problem. Catch you in seven days," Dodge said.

The screen went blank. Eric scratched his chin, viewing his new reflection in the glass of the darkened screen. It just didn't sit well with him. Alexi was just not his type of guy.

"Hello, son," a voice said jokingly.

"Hugh, how are you," Eric asked.

"Well, I can't say I like the choice in bodies, but it beats living in a petridish watching Petros Hilton or being stuck in a woman's body. The wealth is good too."

"This is just temporary until we can get the funds up for some more interstellar colonies. Most of our mining is aimed at getting fuel for inertial dampeners. Using the boys at R & D I've manage to cut costs dramatically on that score, increasing efficiency in refinement. Soon we'll be able to send out much larger numbers of people for colonising purposes with a more healthy cross section of society than our first venture.

"Once those colonies are self sufficient, we'll have broken the stranglehold the Oligarchs have on the system. That will inject some humanity back into society. Hell, we may even be able to create a democracy. After that, we go back to normal lives, with a little bit more money than when we started at that bloody brothel."

Hugh nodded, it sounded like a good course of action to him. They were both going to be rich.

"About the brothel..," Hugh prompted.

"Still running, although all the girls that wanted to be guys now are. Really obnoxious guys still get their comeuppance though, five clients being the fine for terminal irritation of the ladies," Eric responded.

"Sounds fair enough. Well I'll be off then," Hugh said as he left.

Eric sat thinking about Todd, doing what he wanted to do, living life on his own terms. The offer to join him was still open. It would just require a quick dip.