A Wish the Heart Makes : Fornever in Blue Genes

by: Tigger

 

Chapter 17: Plans, Problems and Solutions

Interlude:

Teri Richards watched as her relief made a quick scan of the instrument readouts and then began to read the day log. Not that there was much to review. Teri’s professional opinion was that Mandy had little need for the round the clock supervision, and soon, even the very cautious Doctor West would recognize that fact.

The Leader and Freuda would not be pleased to lose Teri’s window into the new woman’s world. Sighing, she began to gather her things in preparation for going home.

"Hey, Teri . . . "

Teri turned and found Morag MacPherson walking over toward the station. "Hey, yourself. What’s up?"

"I’ve got tickets to a concert, tonight. Want to go?"

One of the things they had discovered was they shared a taste for the same kind of music, so Teri was tempted. *Perhaps I should try to convince Freuda and the Leader that it would be a good idea to cultivate this relationship so that when they do end the monitor watch on Mandy, I will still have contact with Morag. After the grief Freuda has been giving me for not seducing Mandy, this is at least sounds plausible. I don’t want to lose her!*

"Sure? Where do you want to meet?"

"I’ll pick you up about seven at your place, okay? We’ll stop tae get a bite after the show."

"Great. Now, I have to run. I need to pick up some stuff at the market."

She was just out the door when Bob West burst past her. "Mandy! Cat! I’ve got it! We need to . . . " The solid security door went shut, blocking off any further sound from inside. *Damn,* Teri thought furiously. For a moment, she considered going back inside, pretending she had forgotten something, but then she rejected that plan. Her return could only be momentary, and would likely distract even Robert West.

*Well, at least I will have something to tell them tonight. Mandy thinks West has a good idea what has been preventing the reverse transition for former males, so his excitement can only mean that he has figured out a possible solution to that.*

~-------------------~

"So, you see I need test samples," Bob was saying, still flying on the high of discovery. "I mean, I know it *should* work, but what if I have missed something again? I mean, I can test just Mandy, but that won’t be conclusive."

*Good old Bob,* Mandy thought indulgently. *He really is sure that he has the solution, but he’s been wrong once, so he will follow the philosophy that anything worth doing is worth overdoing.* "So, what do you want to do, Bob?"

"I want to get samples from a group of folks, make up the intervention treatment for them, and make sure that everything goes as predicted by the computer this time. So far, the treatment has worked for your tissue, but it hasn’t been optimized yet, and I’d like to be a little more confident that I understand what is going on this time. I mean, it isn’t a crisis this time. We can take a few days or weeks to make sure we really have this thing nailed down."

For just a moment, Mandy considered being male again, and was surprised at how noncommittal she felt about it. Dr. Thompson’s parting question and her own inadvertent eavesdropping had been much on her mind of late. Her eyes went over to where Cat was seated, and saw the tension in the other woman’s bearing.

*Other woman,* she thought with a touch of amazement. *Since when have I thought of myself as a woman? And why doesn’t THAT realization bother me?*

"Robert? If you’re going to be that careful?" she said quietly.

"Yes, Matt . . . I mean, Mandy?"

"If you are going to do this testing, make sure you are testing what you’d really be using. Only optimized treatments. We already know we don’t know the human genome as well as we thought we did. Let’s not waste effort on something that wouldn’t be what we’d really be using."

Robert considered that for a few moments. "That will add time to the process, Mandy. Even on your newest, speediest QuantCha machines, optimization takes about an hour or so per subject."

"As you said, old friend, we’ve got the time in hand." Another thought hit Mandy. "Bob? Are you testing born women as well as tissue that is now female but that started out as male?" Robert shook his head. "Test tissue from born women, too, just for the hell of it. Let’s find out if there are gotchas there as well. Same rules."

"I’ll have to chart their genome patterns first," Robert pointed out.

"So, start with women you have already charted. Cat, Teri, Morag. Get tissue samples from them and test them when you test mine while you collect patterns from other women on staff."

Bob shrugged. "Okay. Actually, I don’t think have Nurse Richards’ pattern, but that won’t take very long once I have her in the lab. I’ll get the stuff for Morag and Cat ready to go tonight and get their tissue samples tomorrow. It won’t take long, but I will need them over in my shop to do it.

~----------------~

Interlude:

The "council" of holos was again meeting in Teri’s apartment.

"Our own facility for the regendering of those men who have displaced females from positions of political and economic power is now complete, thanks to the plans and technical data provided to us by Admin," the Leader said. "If what Florence infers is correct, Robert West has found a solution to the sex-linked failures. Our ultimate objectives will definitely be advanced if our adversaries survive as women so that those who remain male can eventually know our power and fear us."

"We need the technical data from West’s new process, Leader," Freuda put in.

"True," the Leader agreed. "We also need to be sure that Florence’s supposition, based on admittedly sketchy evidence, is correct. An open attack on BioCybernetics will only succeed one time. We must be sure that we will get what we need to make our facility and our grand cause successful."

"Florence could signal us when West reports success, Leader," another wraith offered.

"We must strike as soon as we are certain they have solved the sex-linked survivability problem. Freuda, station our strike team and have them ready to go. Florence? As soon as you are sure they have the solution in hand, use your signaling device and be prepared to disappear. Understood?"

‘Everyone’ murmured their understanding. The Leader’s avatar stood. "Very well. Our glorious destiny is at hand. The hated ERRPA will shortly be rendered impotent as so-called "men-of-power" disappear without a trace from the public eye. We will gather at our hidden facility after we have successfully obtained the new data.

 

*********************************************
© 1996 by Tigger. All Rights Reserved. These documents (including, without limitation, all articles, text, images, logos, compilation design) may printed for personal use only. No portion of these documents may be stored electronically, distributed electronically, or otherwise made available without express written consent of the copyright holder.