Worldbuilding Prompt #504 - Death is a Lifechanging Experience

After the last episode I wrote, I promised myself I wouldn't leave it so long before I wrote the next part of the space opera. It's kind of grown from it's early start as a single post response to a writing prompt. I have no idea if people are still following the story (tell me if you are !), but I'm certainly enjopying writing it.

This episode is inspired by a writing prompt in the Worldbuilding community - Worldbuilding Prompt #504 - Significant Changes

His eyes flickered open. Another white ceiling above him, and yet again medical machines on the periphery of his vision. Confusion swept over him. He was almost getting used to this now. Waking up in a hospital or torture chamber (the two seemed pretty interchangeable now) and trying to work out what had been done to him this time.

He felt very different this time. Smaller, lighter. A weight on his chest. He looked down, expecting to see some surgical device sitting on him. No. Breasts. He had tits... what the.... how ? Why ? He moved his hands up to feel them. Not his hands. Too small, graceful. Missing the Neanderthal hair his hands had gained after the last transformation he'd undergone. But these were... female hands. Not his at all.

Image created by AI in Wombo.art

Then a voice from beside him. It was that damnable GreyASP officer Holmen again. Some things just seemed to consistently haunt the nightmare that his life had become.

"I expect you are feeling a bit confused, Fedric, yes ?"

Fedric looked at the grey-clad officer angrily. He hated the superior tone the man always had. "What the f..." he stopped. It wasn't his voice ! Damn, they had turned him into a woman. Without even asking first !

"Allow me to explain," Holmen went on calmly. "You won't remember it, but you were killed by an Einheriar Assassin-bug. Injected a neuro-toxin and then fried your nervous system. You can just make out the scorch marks on the wall to your left, where bits of your burning brain were ejected under high pressure out of your ears to splatter the scenery."

Sure enough, there was a faint speckling on the wall. Fedric felt sick.

And he was dead. He didn't remember it, and wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Well, being dead was definitely a bad thing.

"Well anyway, if you recall back to when we first rescued you from Debris, we used a memory imager to get certain information. Luckily, we still had the recording, so we have been able to download your consciousness into a willing recipient."

The way Holmen put a slight emphasis on the word "willing" suggested that the recipient may have been anything but happy with the idea, but Fedric wasn't going to complain.

"You are now temporarily occupying the body of Junior Sub-TaxAdministrator (3rd grade) Malacadra Valla, who just happens to have been your replacement after you so hurriedly left Tharwell subsequent to the incident with the tax box. This is a for a good reason which will become clear in due course."

Holmen swung an arm-mounted mirror into position over Fedric's head. The face he saw in it wasn't his, either his original one or the one the Einheriar doctor had given him after his regression to Neanderthal status.

He saw instead the face of a young woman, maybe in her mid twenties. She was pretty rather than 3V model-like, with clear slightly olive skin, shoulder length dark hair and large brown eyes. She also had an expression of utter confusion on her face, until Fedric realised that was the expression he was wearing.

"The bad news is that this download is only temporary. For the next couple of weeks you will share the space inside Malacadra's head. She will have the ability to suppress you when she is not working, to avoid any prying into her private life. But eventually, she will want her body back. We will find a way for you to conclude your affairs with dignity with any friends and family you may have in the time that remains to you. But that will be after you and she jointly retrieve the tax box for us."

With a small bow, and an even smaller smile, Holmen left the operating theatre to allow Fedric to absorb what had happened. He didn't mention the other bed in the room, where a securely fastened plastic sheet covered the remnants of Fedric's original body, apart from it's missing and exploded head.

To be continued.......

There are also a few related posts from this setting which introduce some of the characters;

Captain Holmen was introduced in Worldbuilding Prompt #471 - A Question of Jurisdiction
Imperial Infomancer Dranton turned up in Worldbuilding Prompt #467 - The Imperial Halls of Information
Greville and the Tarnished Phoenix first appeared in Worldbuilding Prompt #432 - Debris