As a door began to appear in the side of the ship, Tom flexed his new muscles. He wondered whether he would have time to try out this new body on his girlfriend. Perhaps his new physique might make her more receptive. He realised that he had the mental power now to force her, and put the thought of his head, disgusted. He was not a rapist.
Besides, he didn't even fancy her. And she was a bitch. He fancied.
'What the fuck have you done? Why have you made me gay?'
The voice in his head was puzzled. <What's wrong with being gay? Are you not happy?> and he found himself pushed out of the door into the lake. His first thought was survival - must swim upwards - until he found that he was the lake, that his body moved with the ebbs and flows of the water. His consciousness was the water, and he became aware of the man walking along the edge of the lake, searching for something.
He allowed his body to reform on the bank near his clothes. He pulled his clothes back on and put on his rucksack. If the others were coming, he thought, then this must be one of them. He allowed himself to dissolve once more, and emerged, fully clothed, on the bank just out of the man's eyeline. He didn't have to wait long. He felt the man coming round the corner first - one of the guys from school.
'Hi Dan,' he said, grinning.
Dan looked sufficiently surprised that Tom knew that his mind-reading thing worked.
'How did you know I was coming? It was supposed to be a surprise. Did Jamie tell you?' I saw you from the hills in the wildlife sanctuary.' He was practically radiating how much he loved climbing, walking, being in the midst of the wildlife. 'I only just saw you, but I thought you must be drowning and I came to try to help.'
He was a sweet guy. He was genuinely concerned, and he was, Tom realised, hot as hell.
'It's a long story, Dan. Is Jamie here too? You look like you need a drink,' and he gestured towards the lake.
'Yeah, sure, I do.' Dan went to the lake to drink. As he was doing so, Tom's phone blipped. A text from Jamie.
Hey man, surprise, I've come down to Looserville to come see you. Surf's up. Where are you?
Typical Jamie, Tom thought. Nowhere to stay, but he's backing himself that he'll talk my hosts into putting him up as well. No planning, just random, uncontrolled impetuousness. 'That's why I love ya,' he said to himself as he turned on the locator app that he and Jamie used to find each other (Jamie's idea: he had all the latest gadgets) and texted back:
come up to the lake NE of town. bring food. Dan's here. WTF?? tx
This was easy. The ship hadn't been kidding.
'Love who?' asked Dan, who'd overheard Tom muttering to himself.
'Jamie.'
'Yeah, he heard you were bored and wanted to come down and surprise you. And Sam wanted to come, and I'd had enough of Vicky and how we -' he imitated his girlfriend's high-pitched voice, 'Had to make a decision whether we were going to break up or not, it's very hard to be at different schools and maintain a relationship.'
Tom picked up something else. With a broad grin he said to Dan, 'Yeah, right. You're here to talk to me about how our girlfriends are bitches. You're Sam's wingman to give him some time with Jamie.'
Dan turned red. 'How the fuck did you know that? We were so stoned when Sam told me that. I'm the only one who knows.'
'Musta read your mind. Anyways,' sizing him up, 'Jamie looks kinda like you. Physically I mean.'
Dan looked stricken again. 'Sam knows nothing could ever happen between us. I'm cool with it.' Then, rallying, 'And Sam's like a slightly slimmer dark-haired version of you.' Tom's face betrayed him. 'I knew it!'
'Yes, well, Jamie's out to everyone.'
'And you turned him down. '
Tom stuck out his tongue at this, although at the back of his mind was a feeling of regret. He wouldn't turn Jamie down now.
And Dan looked pretty good as well.
Dan got out his phone. 'Whoever finds you first is supposed to text the others and get you to turn on your locator on your phone. And I want to know: how did you stand up in the middle of the lake? And how did you know about Sam?'
'Quite a story.'
'Try me.'
Tom thought to himself. He could, he knew, force Dan to do whatever he wanted, and get him into the ship. But he liked the guy, and although the ship had, no doubt, somehow persuaded him to look in the right direction at the right time, he had run flat out for four or five miles to see if he was ok. And, given that Tom knew that Jamie would definitely agree to going out with Sam, their best mates were about to become an item. And if that energy works its magic maybe so could we. So instead he concentrated on sending out waves of thought: trust me.
Dan's eyes glazed over like a puppy expecting food. Too much, thought Tom, and toned it down.
'There's something in the lake,' he said.
'You been toking? There's nothing there.'
'Look,' Tom said, pointing towards the ship.
'At what? There's nothing there. Just water.'
Tom looked through Dan's eyes, wondering briefly how it was that he knew how to do it. And indeed, where Tom saw a ship, his friend saw clear blue water. How had Tom ever found it? Ah yes...
'You have to want to see the ship.'
Amused, Dan said, 'OK. I want to see the ship.'
'No,' said Tom, 'You have to think it. And mean it.'
I want to see the ship that Tom can see, Dan thought.
'That's right,' said Tom, 'That'll do it.'
Dan looked at Tom aghast. 'How did you know what I was thinking. And what the fuck is that?' He gestured towards the ship, which he now saw clearly in the lake.
'Like I said,' replied Tom. 'Long story. Look, you need to make a decision. But this is going to freak you out a bit. Stick around, right.' He walked to the water's edge, and allowed himself to melt into the lake. Once again he felt more alive than he ever had, before emerging standing on top of the ship. 'Dan!' he shouted, 'Dan! Over here.'
Dan, still standing on the shore, looked like he was going to be sick. Tom jumped from the top of the ship, diving into the lake, and emerged almost immediately, fully clothed, on the shore next to him. He could feel Dan's panic - but also his curiosity.
'It's lonely,' he said. 'It changed me. Improved me. And told me that it had also called others, but I had to persuade them to come in. It wants you too.'
'But how do I get to it? I mean I can't do, do. whatever you did.'
'Same thing I did the first time. Swim. I'll swim with you. It's only about fifty metres. Besides,' Tom said, in what he hoped was a flirtatious tone of voice, 'If I swim I'll have to take my clothes off so you'll get to see me naked.' That broke the tension and Dan laughed.
'That work on all the boys?'
'Dunno. Never tried it on a boy before.' Pause. 'Dan?'
'Yeah?'
'It changed something else about me too.'
'What's that?'
'It made me gay.'
Another pause. 'Ok. Will it do the same to me?'
'I think so.'
'What does it feel like being gay?'
'Same. Except I fancy boys now.'
'You fancy me?'
'Yeah.'
'You ok with that?'
'I'll take my chances. Solves the problem with Vicky I guess.' Dan was now standing knee deep in the lake, clothes discarded one by one on the route he had taken into the water, while Tom was still folding his clothes into a neat pile by his rucksack.
'Slob,' he said, folding Dan's clothes too.
'Sorry, Mom,' shouted Dan, setting out across the lake with a powerful front crawl. Tom caught him up and then hung behind, checking Dan out with his newly homosexual eyes and inclinations. Dan didn't have a bad body - bit of muscle, bit of a beer belly, marring an otherwise perfect V shape, brown hair on his head and under his armpits and a little bit snaking down from his belly towards his pubes.
'Ready?' Tom asked.
'Yes. What now?'
'Just think about it. Think about entering,' Tom replied.
Dan thought about getting in, and a door appeared just below the water line. 'It's safe,' Tom said, and Dan shrugged, angled himself downwards, and glided through the door. Tom followed and they landed in a heap on the soft floor.
The display read, 'Tom 1:59:20'. <Hello, Tom>, the ship thought. <I'm scanning you to see what I can improve for Dan here.>
The lights came on. 'Hey, cool,' said Dan. 'What is this place? What kind of ship looks like this? Is it a spaceship?'
The word YES appeared on the display.
'Are we going into space?'
NOT RIGHT NOW
'So what are you doing now?'
SCANNING YOU BOTH FOR THE TRANSFORMATION MATRIX
Tom looked amused. 'I think it likes you. It didn't answer any of my questions.'
<You didn't ask me any.>
'I was very brave though.'
'What?'
'Sorry. Talking to the ship. It's answering in my head.'
'Obviously.'
The lights snapped off and the display changed
SCAN COMPLETE.WELCOME, DAN
A countdown appeared: 0:04:00
'Dan?'
'Yeah?'
'Don't be scared. This is cool.' Tom guided him to the centre of the floor, and walked towards the corner of the room. Halfway there, he turned to face his friend. 'This is where we've got to stand. Ship just told me.'
Dan watched as the floor around Tom became blue and his body, although retaining its shape, appeared to turn into water. Tom, for his part, felt the restructuring device pDaning him for things which hadn't worked as well as they might, or which should be improved. A dome of blue energy formed around him.
The display switched its message: IT'S GOING TO BE OK
'Tom? You ok?'
'Yeah, amazing. It's like this is what I really am. Fluent and free.'
'Will I be like that too?'
NOT QUITE
YOU ARE GREEN
'What does it mean, I'm green?'
'I'm blue. You're green. One of the others is going to be red. We're pretty colourful.'
At 0:02:00 a familiar (to Tom) electrical discharge filled the air. Dan looked scared for the first time. 'It feels like a storm. Climber's worst nightmare.'
'It'll be fine. You like climbing, huh?'
'Yeah. Love it. Anything outdoors, with nature.'
'I like swimming, and look what happened to me.'
'You think I'm going to turn into a mountain?'
'It could be worse. You could like stamp collecting. Then you'd turn into a letter.'
'Actually it sounds kind of cool.'
'You're pretty fearless aren't you?'
'I trust you, and you told me it would be all right.'
Tom turned off his power, making sure he wasn't influencing Dan at all.
'You still ok?'
'Yeah, why, what changed?'
At 00:01:15, green sparks began to move down the walls. They grew in intensity and began to arc. Dan watched all this wide-eyed. The energy which hit Tom's blue shield came back turquoise, hitting the walls again. , Tom heard in his mind, and he understood that the ship's transformation matrix was constructing a virus filter for Dan.
Apart from Tom's little corner the whole chamber was now glowing green. 'That's a countdown, right?' asked Dan?
'Yep.'
'Thirty seconds to go then.' The thrumming started again, but instead of moving in waves this time it seemed to grow slowly, steadily, relentlessly. Dan, a look of panic in his eyes, moved to cover his cock, which had just sprung into life. Tom raised an eyebrow at this. Dan just stuck his tongue out and moved his hands back to his sides.
With five seconds to go, the room went dark except for the area where Tom was still glowing blue. Dan gulped, finally nervous.
The noise of the energy stopped. The countdown disappeared.
Tom's shield disappeared and his body became solid flesh and blood again. He couldn't move his feet. Nor could Dan.
'Is that it?'
'No. This is the best bit.'
In each point of the cube green light appeared, moving slowly and steadily towards the centre of each face. On the floor, the energy moved around Tom, leaving him untouched, and converged on Dan.
'Dan?'
'Yeah?'
'This is it.'
Tom watched, transfixed, as Dan was hit in the chest, and in his hands, and in the back and in his neck by bolts of green lightning emerging from the centre of the walls. His body was enveloped slowly by a green glow, moving relentlessly across him. He looked at his hands, and down his legs. The energy completely enveloped him around his cock, and, just as Tom had, he began to come.< I needed a DNA sample,> the ship told him.
Tom watched as Dan's beer belly dropped away, and his muscles began to inflate. He went further than Tom had, though. Dan felt his arms swell, until he had 18" guns with the veins lightly showing. Next his pecs developed, leaving a nice groove in the middle of them. One by one, his abs popped out, eight in total, moving down to a 30" waist. His thighs strengthened, but also lengthened. He had been quite short, but he could see that he was now the same height as Tom - who, obviously, was liking what he saw. He could feel, too, that he wasn't all empty muscle. He felt stronger and more agile than he ever had before. He felt his climax building, and the green energy stopped flowing into him. He came, more than he ever had before, and relaxed as the glow around him faded. He felt better than he ever had before.
'Dude,' said Tom: he stopped, as if listening to something. 'You've got a perfect body. And you're like a sprinter and a marathon runner and a gymnast and a weightlifter all rolled into one.'
'How do you know all that?'
'Computer told me. It's my thing. This,' he gestured at Dan's body, 'Is yours.'
A new countdown had appeared, underneath Tom's, for Dan. 'What do they mean?'
'They mean that we have an hour and a half to bring in Sam and Jamie. We gotta go get them before those timers run out. Not much time to waste.'
Dan walked up to Tom and kissed him, hard and deep, surprising himself with his new strength and Tom with how much better it was to be held against a firm chest that against soft breasts. 'That wasn't a waste. Let's go. Where's the door?' The last sentence was shouted towards the wall, and the ship obligingly provided a door in the ceiling.
'I think it has a sense of humour. How are we going to get up there?'
'Easy.' Dan picked Tom up and threw him through the opening, then jumped up the 25 feet or so, through the layer of water and onto the top of the cylindrical ship. Tom, who had merged into the lake and out again on the other side, had put his shorts back on and retrieved his phone. Dan dived in and covered the distance back to the shore in a little over thirty seconds. When he got back there was another teen standing there with Tom, short and stocky with messy off-blond hair, watching him with his blue eyes on stalks.