Medical Sci-Fi Short Stories by Charles Kaluza
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He stoically received the results of his appeal decision, which upheld the conviction. The next morning he was escorted to the prison operating room and an IV was started in his arm. The medication produced a slight burning in his arm as the injection worked its way through his system, forcing him to relax. When he awoke he felt no different until he rolled over and felt the dressing on his groin. He carefully reached below the covers and felt the dressing. The area was tender, but mostly there was nothing.
For the next several weeks, life continued in a fog, with his only periods of really clear thinking following his abstinence from a meal. Before his parole hearing, his thinking remained clear despite eating. The old-timer, who had befriended him, had said they would stop his medication for the hearing. It seemed an odd choice that he had to make now. He could serve the rest of his twenty-year sentence, stupefied by the very food he was eating, or he could accept the alternative. The old-timer was straightforward and told him to take the alternative and get out while he was young. It was going to shrink up and not be usable anyway, he explained. James wasn’t sure that he could make the transition.
The parole board was more humane than the primary sentencing judge. They had a doctor present who explained in general terms how James would be transformed if he chose the alternative. His attorney explained the legal ramifications, but he was not really listening. They were offering him freedom as a woman or imprisonment as a castrated sex offender. There were too few women in the world anymore, and men needed companions and mates; society didn’t need criminals.
James spent the next week arguing with himself. He had already noted some swelling of his breast and tenderness of his nipples, which the old-timer told him was because of the marijuana. He didn’t like the change in his self-image and tried to imagine what he would look like with real breasts. When it was time to announce his decision at the second parole hearing, he was almost surprised when he heard himself say, "I will accept the sex transformation."
From that point forward his life changed. He was moved to in an apartment within the prison. A small support group of similar individuals met daily to discuss the transformations they were undergoing. The group was led by women who had already undergone the gender transformation. They gently nurtured the group, to help them accept their new status. This sexual re-education was designed to help them mold their identities into a new role and self image. The hormonal therapy accelerated the changes in James; his beard became softer and his breasts continued to swell. His clothing was now sexually neutral and his hair was allowed to grow.
His first transformation surgery was so minor, he didn’t even realize he had taken the first big step. The doctors had cultured special nerve cells from his blood stem cells and treated them with special female hormones. The existing cells in the small vomeronasal organs in the front of his nose were destroyed and the new cells injected. He did not notice any change in his sense of smell, but the doctors kept testing him with different vials. The vials contained vague smells and he noted their level of pleasantness. Apparently something was changing because his score improved significantly over several weeks. The physicians had explained that the vomeronasal organ detected sexual pheromones. His change in perception of the pheromones was controlled by the most primitive part of his brain and he was not conscious of any change. He now just enjoyed sensing different pheromones; his brain was now more receptive to things female.
The cultural adaptation classes were designed to help them adapt to society’s view of them as women. They practiced simple things like crossing their legs to learn a new muscle memory. Women were expected to be more refined socially and they practiced continually on the small differences. They were not forced to wear feminine clothing but encouraged to forgo their masculine preferences.
After his face recovered from the laser hair-removal treatment, James realized that not shaving wasn’t so bad after all. He dreaded the next step, which was a minor surgery to insert the temporary breast augmentation prosthesis. The surgery was minor, but the change in his self-image was significant. He tried to hide his new anatomical prominence, but with the help of his support group he became less self-conscious. The breast implants were gradually expanded, stretching his natural tissue, which made it necessary to wear feminine clothing just for comfort sake. The next step was construction of the permanent breast using vascular tissue grafts from his abdomen. The surgery was much more complex and painful. As the swelling finally subsided and his new image became reality he prepared himself for the next step. His name was changed from James to Jamie. It was only a couple of letters but it signified his new status. Accepting this name was a major concession to his new reality.
Despite the many lectures on how they accomplished the next stage, it remained incomprehensible to Jamie. His last remnant of masculinity was to be surgically transformed into anatomically correct female genitalia. The surgery took several hours and when Jamie awoke, he was a she. The next several months consisted of ongoing training and several minor surgeries. Her Adams Apple was shaved and her voice raised by an operation on her larynx. Plastic surgery to refine her facial features completed the physical transformation.
The next stage of her transformation was learning to appreciate her new sexuality. The surgeons had carefully preserved the nerves during her reconstruction. Learning to appreciate and enjoy sexual stimulation to the point of fulfillment required not only physical retraining, but also a major mental transformation. She was not sure if she would ever fully adapt to her new status, but the counselors kept assuring her that not only would she adapt, but she would learn to thoroughly enjoy her new status
For Jamie, the final step seemed even more stressful than the surgery itself. One of the counselors took her on a shopping trip to the mall. She was so self-conscious that the stress was almost overwhelming. When she complained about the way men looked at her, the counselor smiled and reminded her that she was now a very pretty woman on a world of men. Women were special.