Chapter 2

The surface was windy, dark clouds covered the sky. The transporter rematerialized everyone on the surface of the planet, the transporter bream lighting up the area. Several people had been injured in the attacked.

“We have to find shelter from the storm!” Captain Barns said. Surveying the crew, he saw that most had been injured in the attack, and only he, David Spartan, Ensign Soatome and Gordon were not injured. He motioned for the doctor to treat everyone as best as she could, asking Gordon to stay behind to help treat the wounded while the 3 of them would seek out shelter. Acknowledging the order, Dr. LeRoose and Gordon went to work, while they sought of shelter.

The Admiral had plasma burns on his right arm, The doctors injuries were fairy minor, just a few bumps and bruises, Lt. Cmdr. Ikrit Tagomi’s right arm had a plasma burn on it, and he had a nasty cut on the top of his head that was bleeding, William King right’s leg was broken and he had a concussion, he was unconscious. Bob Backburn had burns on his chest and right arm, Jonathan Hermann had a broken right arm, and Ensign Joseph McKinley had a concussion and was also unconscious. Gordon and the doctor worked on the two who were unconscious as their injuries were the most severe. While scanning McKinley with a medical tricorder, Gordon reported that he was detecting an odd reading in his DNA. The doctor told him to treat his wounds first then they would worry about it; then she reported that she was detecting the same thing in William King.

Captain Timothy Barns, David Spartan and Ensign Soatome scanned the area for edible vegetation; the wind was dying down and the storm seemed to be passing. The three of them scanned the area with their tricorders. They located a large body of water, with water that was safe to drink, and was surrounded by trees that had fruit on them that from this distance appeared to be safe to eat.

“We will need to get closer scans to be sure, Spartan, you scan the trees to the left, Soatome you scan the trees to the right and I will scan the body of water”, the Captain ordered.

Spartan and Soatome gave a

“yes sir!” and the three were on their way.

Gordon and LeRosse had finished treating King and McKinley’s injuries and they were recovering. LeRosse had proceeding to treat Backburn’s burns while Gordon treated Cmdr Ikrit Tagomi. Moving his dermal regenerator over the commander’s head, he healed it quickly. Proceeding to treat the burns on his arm, he asked him to take his shirt of, so he could better assess them. The commander’s arm looked pretty bad.

“If it hurts badly, I have several different pain killers I can give you.” Gordon said to him.

“Thank you for offering, but once you heal the burns, the pain should subside and they won’t become necessary. Anyway, once I’m healed I will need to work on the transponder, to try to send a distress signal,” Tagomi responded.

As Gordon waved the dermal regenerator over the commander’s arm, he scanned him with a medial tricorder, and saw the same strange readings in his DNA that had seen in McKinley and King.

“I don’t what could have caused this, but so far we have seen it in everyone.”

“Unfortunately, unless something can be done about it, then logically there is no sense in pre-occupying yourself with it, other then to ‘keep an eye’ on it”.

“Well, call me or LeRoose if you start experiencing any unexplainable symptoms”.

The commander nodded his head in acknowledgment as Gordon finished repairing the burns to his arm, then thanked him and walked over to the emergency transponder in hopes of getting it online. LeRoose had finished treating Backburn, so she moved on to treat Hermann. Backburn assisted Tagomi with the transponder. Seeing that Gordon was starting to work on the Admiral, she proceeding to heal her own injuries. Gordon walked over to the Admiral and began to treat his injuries.

“How you holding up Steve?” he asked.

“It hurts a lot but I think I’ll live”. Scanning the admiral with his medical tricorder, Gordon smiled saying that yes indeed he would be okay. He gave the admiral a painkiller, and proceeded to treat his injuries. Scanning the admiral with a tricorder, he detected the same DNA readings we had detected in everyone else, including himself. He informed the admiral of the problem, saying that he hopped it wasn’t serious. Then he proceeded to run the dermal regenerator over the Admiral’s arm to heal his injuries.

Timothy Barns ran scans of the various samples of water he had collected. The water was reading as safe to drink. His stomach was hurting and he could figure out what was going on. It had started to itch, and he was worried that there was something seriously wrong with him, so he lifted his shirt up to see what was going on. There was something on his torso, something that looked furry. He reached down to touch it. It was soft.

“What the hell?” he said to himself.

As he examined it, he saw that there was more then just fur, it almost seemed to be like a fold in his skin. Examining the top of it, he pulled on it slightly.

“A pouch?” he said to himself,

“What the hell is going on!?” In a panic, he tapped his combadge to call for Doctor LeRoose.

Spartan had discovered that the trees he was scanning each had edible fruits on them. He had managed to shoot a few down with his phaser and was trying them out.

“Almost tastes like an apple, a very good kind of apple”, he said to himself as he bit down on the blue fruit.

It didn’t much look like an apple, but according to his scan it was completely edible and had a large array of vitamins in it, something that would be important if they were going to stay on this planet for any length of time. Scanning a bush, he saw that it had several fruits on it that looked like berries. Scanning them, he was pleased to see that they were safe to eat as well. He noticed that his rear end seemed a bit itchy. Feeling a bit too embarrassed to scratch it there, he decided to ignore it. If he had scratched it then maybe he would have noticed that what appeared to be a small tail was growing from his tail bone, it slightly pushed on the top of his pants. It small still very small, but already it was starting to take on a very animal like shape.

Ensign Soatome had climbed a tree to get a closer scan of several fruits that grew on a tree he was examining. The fruits were oddly shaped and were a dark gray color. His scans showed that they were safe to eat, so he picked one and tried it out. It tasted odd, like a combination of a strawberry and a banana, but was still an interesting taste. As he ate the fruit, he felt an odd twitching in his ears. Reaching up the scratch them, he felt something totally unexpected that nearly made him lose his grip. His ears felt different somehow, and he could have sworn he felt fur. He slowly climbed down from the tree, and felt his ears. Scanning his ears with his tricorder, the readings it gave him didn’t make any sense. What the ‘cellular structure is in a state of flux’ supposed to mean?” he said to himself as he read out the tricorders readings. Tapping his combadge, he called the Doctor, hoping she should give him some insight.

LeRoose was getting worried about the strange readings she was getting from the crew’s DNA. The readings were quickly spreading, and she was detected it in everyone, including herself. In several crew members, she was reading a cellular flux, which disturbed her greatly. Her combage chirped.

“Captain Barns to Doctor LeRoose, I need a medic here, something is wrong with me, something is” he hesitates for a few seconds

“growing on me, it’s hard to explain”.

As the doctor as going to respond, her badge chirped again.

“Ensign Soatome to Dr. LeRoose, I need a doctor here, something strange is going on”.

“The readings we’ve been getting, it must be happening to them as well.”

LeRoose responded to their calls,

“I’m sending Gordon over, something strange is happening here as well, stay together, I recommend finding David, if something is happening to you then he very well could be affected as well, stay together”.

“Okay” they responded. Gordon picked up a medkit and a medical tricorder and started walking towards where the three had left for earlier. As he walked, he started feeling the effects of whatever was going on. His face felt strange, he took some readings on himself with the tricorder and detected the same cellular flux that he and the doctor had been reading in the others.

“This isn’t good” he thought to himself as he continued walking.

Commander Tagomi was having success with the transponder. Ensign Hermann, had been working on the transponder as well, he had chosen to concentrate on the ships flight recorder, to try to gain any insight into who attacked them and if somehow something they did was responsible for what was going on.

“Okay, I’m going to try boosting the power to the subspace relays, hopefully that should penetrate the atmosphere”.

As he tweaked the device, his ears first began to feel strange, then started to hurt. As he reached up to feel them and find out what was going on, Ensign Hermann stood up in shock, looking at him.

“Your ears! They’re---getting longer!” he exclaimed, in shock. As he felt his ears, the commander concurred with the ensign.

“This is most puzzling!” he exclaimed. Not only were his ears getting longer. As he looked at the ensign, he noticed that he too appeared to be experiencing strange symptoms.

“Ensign, your face!”. Hermann reached up and felt his face, it appeared to be getting furry. He stood, up looking terrified.

“This is insane!”, he said as he frantically called the doctor.

William King and Joseph McKinley were just awaking. Dr LeRoose stood above them. As they slowly got up, they quickly notice that something about her looked odd.

“Dr.! What is going on?”

“You two were knocked unconscious. We had to beam down to this planet.”

“I see but, what I mean was; what’s wrong with your face?”

The Doctor’s face did indeed look strange, much of her face was covered in what appeared to be scales.

“We don’t know what’s going on, something on this planet is causing it to happen, it’s happening to everyone.”

The two slowly got up. They started to look themselves over.

“Everyone?” King asked.

“I’m afraid so,” McKinley responded as he pointed to King’s chest.

King looked down and saw that fur was poking out from his shirt.

“What exactly is going on?” he asked as he felt the fur, it was warm to the touch, it felt strange to touch it.

“Our cellular structure appears to be in a state of cellular flux”, the doctor responded.

“What does that mean?” he asked.

“It would appear that our bodies are being changed. Each of us in a different way,” she responded.

McKinley has been examining himself, trying to see how this was affecting him. He noticed something odd growing on his chest.

“What the hell?” he said, as he felt it.

The appearance and texture was difficult to tell at first, but it quickly became apparent what it was.

“feathers? I have feathers now?” he asked.

“I’m afraid so” the doctor responded.

After having their injuries healed, Admiral Steven and Bob Backburn had left the area to search out shelter. They had located a cave and were exploring it. The admiral had been feeling a bit strange, but he couldn’t put his finger on exactly why. Bob was feeling achy, and asked the admiral if they could take a short break. As he sat down, he felt a sharp pain, as if he had sat on something. "Ouch!” he exclaimed.

“What’s wrong?” the admiral asked.

“I don’t know, it’s like I sat on something, yet there is nothing there.”

As Bob turned around, the Admiral saw what he had sat on. Bob now had a long light brown tail!

“Um, Commander. I think I see what you sat on”.

Standing up, the admiral touched Bob’s tail, which startled Bob.

“What the hell?” Bob exclaimed, turning around.

The Admiral pointed towards Bob’s rear end, Bob turned his head and saw the tail that he now had protruding from him. Grabbing the tail, he touched it, in awe of it but also in fear of it.

“Someone I don’t think that’s a normal Ocampin thing to have happen”.

“Not exactly Sir”, Bob responded he scanned himself with his tricorder. The cave was dark, so neither of them was able to notice that the admirals ears had changed, they were smaller, round and covered in brown fur.

Captain Barns and Ensign Soatome had met up and were walking towards David Spartan’s last known location. Their changes had spread.

“I hope the doctor finds a way to reverse this, or we are going to be in serious trouble”, Soatome said, as felt his ears, which were now at the top of his head, covered in black fur and shaped very much like a cats.

His hands looked slightly different, his fingers were shorter and pudgier, and his finger nails had grown and were now much longer and sharper, almost like claws. As he looked at his hands, he saw that there appeared to be pads growing on the bottom of them and black fur growing on his fingers and on top of his hands.

“Much more of this and the words ‘paws’ will be a more appropriate description” he thought to himself.

Barns wasn’t faring much better, the growth of fur had spread beyond his pouch, and up his chest. The fur was a deep red color. His boots had been feeling very uncomfortable and he had since had to take them off. His feet were growing longer, and had grown to nearly twice their normal length. His toes seemed to merging into a 2 toed configuration.

“You won’t get any argument from me” he said as he held his pouch open and felt the inside of it, which felt warm and disturbingly snug.

They were able to locate David, who was standing and looking at his hands with a look of disbelief. His hands were smaller, and there were only 4 fingers on each one, if you could call them that. They were much shorter then human fingers and had claws at the end of them. A covering of black fur spread half way up to lower half of his arms. The bottom of his hands had pads on them.

“I see we are not the only ones” Barns commented as he saw David’s hands.

Soatome showed Spartan his hands,

“I see I’m not the only one who hands have been changed”.

“I’m not sure hands would be the right term” Spartan responded.

“That’s not the only thing” he said as he turned around. Barns and Soatome gasped as they saw that Spartan had a long and busy tail growing from his tailbone.

It was covered in soft red fur, with a white tip on the end.

“It looks like a fox tail”, the Captain commented.

“I know, this isn’t exactly a standard situation”, Spartan responded.

“You’re not alone” the captain said, not in an annoyed, but rather in a sympathetic tone as he pulled his shirt up to reveal the pouch and fur on his chest, and directed Spartans attention to his now much longer feet.

“A pouch? Long feet, almost sounds like a Kangaroo, but I thought only female kangaroo’s had pouches” Spartan asked.

“I know. I think of it as all the more incentive to find a way to reverse this as soon as possible. The doctor said that the others are experiencing similar symptoms, so she sent Gordon to take a look at us. He should be here soon.” The three sat down and awaited his arrival.

The transponder was transmitting its signal. The readout said it was transmitting.

“If anyone receives the signal, we should expect a response with a few days”, Commander Tagomi noted.

“I’m not sure we all have that long, Commander. I have found no way to stop this, or even to slow it down”, the Doctor exclaimed.

She was not looking good, much of her skin was now covered in green colored scales, and she had the beginnings of a tail. Commander Tagomi wasn’t doing so well himself, ears were incredibly long now, and were covered in soft white fur. It had spread beyond his ears and onto his face. His face has started to change shape. His teeth were feeling loose and a few of them had fallen out, to be replaced with larger teeth that were more suited for eating plants the anything. Ensign Hermann was not faring any better. His face had started to grow out, becoming more pointed and was growing into a muzzle. But that wasn’t the most embarrassing of the changes, he had since sprouted a long rat like tail, a tail he said reminded him of a vole’s tail, a large rat like animal that was regarded as vermin on his planet. His teeth had since all fallen out, new teeth were growing in, short and sharp ones, much like the teeth that voles have.

“Of all things to be turned into, why did it have to be a vole!” he asked himself, rather upset and embarrassed over his situation.

“We must remain calm ensign, there must be a way to reverse this. Did your studies of the flight recorder reveal anything?” Commander Tagomi asked.

Pressing several buttons on the console, he explained what he had found.

“I examined the logs, and shortly after we left the starbase, an odd reading was detected.”, he pressed several buttons, bringing up a display of what appeared to be a beam hitting the runabout, it’s source is unknown.”.

“Why didn’t we detect it?” she asked.

Pressing some more buttons, he explained.

“Whatever was in the beam, it disabled the sensors for the split second that it was in contact with the ship for. I have been able to locate the area of the ship that the beam hit”.

He again pressed several buttons, which displayed a 3d schematic of the ship, showing where the beam had hit.

“The food replicator!”, Doctor LeRoose exclaimed.

“They must have sabotaged it somehow. We all ate from it, and the spread of the DNA readings are consistent with ingestion, but no natural virus would ever spread so quickly and would ever escape attack buy our immune systems.”

She scanned herself as well as Hermann and Tagomi, now knowing what to look for.

“The only explanation, is a genetically engineered virus.”

“That’s not all”, the Ensign said as he pressed several more buttons, showing logs of the attack.

“They could have destroyed us in one, or two shots at most had they wanted to. They wanted us to beam down to this planet, the only explanation is that something on the planet, the air for example, triggered the virus, which has caused this to happen to us.”

“I concur with Mr. Hermann, it is the only logical explanation” Tagomi, added.

“And so far I have no way of stopping it” the doctor said, the despair in her voice quite clear.

William King was getting furrier, the fur growth had spread across much of his torso. All that fur made him very warm, and he had since removed his shirt. Dark brown fur covered his chest. He couldn’t see the fur on his back, but he was told that it was also dark brown with light beige striped on each side of his back. He seemed be getting plumper, but had also lost some height in the process. His face had started to push its way out into what he guessed was a muzzle.

Joseph McKinley’s body was now covered from head to toe in white feathers, his legs were getting shorter and appeared to be being absorbed into his body. He could tell his was becoming am aquatic bird of some kind, but as of yet he could tell what type. His clothes felt loose and he could tell he was getting shorter, his body seemed plumper. They both had walked off, trying to find something that could stop or at least slow down what was going on. The doctor had asked them to look for herbs, it was a long shot, but there was the possibility that it could. As he scanned with his tricorder, William’s arms started to itch, the dark brown fur was starting to spread to them. While the progress wasn’t fast, it was fast enough that he could see individual fur strands sprouting from his skin.

“This has to be about the most disturbing thing that’s ever happened to me” he said.

His feet were starting to feel very tight in his boots, so he removed them. His feet were getting large, but instead of longer they appeared to be growing rounder and wider. Fur was beginning to grow up his legs from his feet.

“I have a feeling we’d better hurry” he said.

Looking at Joe, he saw that his changes had spread as well. His torso shrunk a fair bit more, and was getting much plumper, his fingers were starting merge into a single digit, and he had what appeared to be wings starting to spread out from his arms.

“You won’t get any argument from me!” he said.

Bob Backburn and Admiral Steven were making their way to the front of the cave, something in the cave prevented them from communicating with anyone else, and they needed to inform the doctor of their changes. Bob’s changes had spread, his eyes looked different, the Admiral had told him that they looked very much like a cats. Bob noted that he could now see much better in the dark. Light brown fur had covered much of his face, and had grown down his neck and arms. His ears had drastically changed shape, become large furry and round, and had moved to the top of his head. Much of his hair had fallen out, when the fur covered his face. Whenever he heard a sound in the cave, his ears would instinctively move in that direction. As he looked at his arms, he saw the fur growing down them.

“It’s getting worse”, he said.

The admiral was not yet aware of his own changes, brown fur now covered his face, and his face had grown out into a muzzle, with whiskers at the side of the muzzle. His fingers felt strange, it was dark, so it was hard for him to see how they had changed. He lifted his flashlight up to his left hand and saw that is was webbed.

“What the?”

It was then that he realized how strange his face had been feeling. He reached up to it and felt it. He felt the fur, which felt soft and very thick. He could feel that his face had grown into a muzzle, his nose was now much smaller and cold. He felt his whiskers. He remembered feeling a strange feeling about his rear end about 10 minutes ago, so he felt around the area.

“I have a tail!” he exclaimed as he felt the long, streamlined and furry tail. As he felt his ears, and fully examined the tail. He guessed that he was turning into an otter, as the features were very similar to those of an otter.

“What am I turning into?” Blackburn asked.

“You look almost like a cougar, a large carnivore that’s a member of the cat family on earth.”

“Sounds interesting, but I don’t think I’m ready for this yet, we need to get help” he said.

“You won’t get any argument from me” The admiral said, as they neared the exit from the cave.

The admiral’s changes started to spread and he seemed to lose some height as he started to feel his fur grown spread down from his head, and onto his torso. Bob looked a his hands, his fingers were started to get shorter and more stubby, and his short finger nails were starting to grow longer, looking much like claws.

“I’m getting the feeling we are running out of time.” He said as they exited the cave.

Gordon ran as quickly as he could towards Timothy Barns, David Spartan, and Trunks Soatome’s location. He had ignored the changes to his own body out of urgency at getting to them. Finally finding them, he saw just how extensive their changes had progressed. Tim’s entire body was covered in red fur, he had since removed his shirt, as the fur kept him warm. He had a definite pouch on his stomach. His feet were now huge, extremely long. His toes had changed and he only had 3 short toes, each with a long black claw on each foot. His legs were much longer now, he had to sit down, as their changes were painful. Gordon picked out the medical tricorder from the medkit and scanned him.

“The muscular structure in your legs is substantially stronger now, very much what’d you’d expect from a species acclimated to hopping.”

As he scanned his thighs, he saw that they too were about to increase in size dramatically. Tim turned onto his stomach to show Gordon the tail that was growing out from him, It was already quite heavy and strong. His arms were slightly shorter and his thumbs had been absorbed into his hands, whose fingers now each had a claw at the tip. He had been afraid to take his pants off, having seen that he had a pouch, knowing that male kangaroos don’t have pouches, he didn’t want to know if he really was becoming female. Finally, he asked Gordon

“It’s true isn’t it?”

“I’m afraid so.” Gordon responded as he scanned Tim’s mid section.

“We haven’t seen a change in gender in anyone else. Did you drink or eat anything?” he asked.

All 3 responded that they had.

“That explains what I’m reading, it seems the enzymes in the plants and minerals in the water have caused it to happen.”

“How much longer do I have become there isn’t any human left in me?” Barns asked, the despair in his voice clear.

“Don’t give up hope, we were able to get a distress signal through, hopefully help will arrive in time to reverse this.” Barns acknowledged the comments but insisted on learning how long he head.

“Given the rate of cellular flux in your body, maybe an hour, two at most.”

“I see. And long do you have?” he asked for Gordon, who, until now had not really noticed his changes.

He was getting younger, and his clothes were practically falling off of him. Tim reached out to touch the tail that Gordon had.

“Looks like I won’t be the only ‘roo here”, he said.

Gorgon’s changes had only recently started, but they seemed to be proceeding at faster rate then everyone else’s. He scanned himself and gave his answer.

“It looks like I don’t have any longer then you do.”, he said as his face started pushing itself out.

Walking over to David Spartan, he scanned him. David’s changes were much further along as well. He had lost a lot of height, and his clothes were incredibly loose on him. Red fur, which turned white on his undersides, covered his body. The fur was thick and very soft to the touch. The shape and coloration of the fur on his tail gave away the species he was becoming. His face was very different; it was the face of a fox. He was still able to speak but it was becoming difficult. His legs still looked mostly human, except for the fur. His hands looked like paws, but his arms were still human looking. As Gordon scanned him, he told him that he too was becoming female.

“As for how much time you have left, become this becomes” he pause for a few seconds then continued;

“complete, I don’t think it will be any longer then it is for myself and Mr. Barns.”.

“What are we supposed to do if this is permanent?” he asked.

“I don’t know, but hopefully it wont come to that”, Gordon responded as he walked over to Ensign Soatome.

The ensigns body, like the others was covered in fur, black fur. His eyes looked like cats eyes, and his face resembled those of a large cat. His legs and were shorter and his feet looked like a cats feet. He was a bit shorter.

“I can tell I’m becoming a member of the cat family, but which one?”, he asked Gordon. Gordon scanned him with his tricorder and told him the news

“Looks like a panther, a Black Panther at that”, He said as a tail started grow from the ensigns tailbone.

“I’d say you have about as much time as the rest of us, but don’t give up hope yet”.

“I always liked cats, but that doesn’t mean I want to become one!” he said. Gordon scanned him once more, and as he reached his midsection, the tricorder bleep loudly, Gordons expression became one of a person who had seen something very disturbing. The Ensign became very worried and asked him what was wrong.

“I’m afraid that you're becoming female as well” he said. Trunks did not respond well to this news, immediately taking his pants off, hoping that the tricorder was mistaken. He almost cried when what he saw ‘down there’ didn’t look male at all anymore, and looked female. As he put his pants back on, Tim comforted him, saying

“at least your not the only one”, showing him his pouch in the process.

“Being turned into a female cat! How am I supposed to live as a female cat?” he asked.

“Hopefully it won’t come to that. Lets go, I think we should try to get back to base, can you guys walk?” Gordon asked of the group. Tim responded that his legs hurt but he could manage. Slowly, the 4 of them started to make their way back to the beam down point, even as they could feel their changes continuing.

Commander Tagomi was starting to have difficulty using the transponder. His entire body was covered in a pelt of white fur, and his hands had changed, looking much more like paws. It was nearly impossible for him to manipulate anything. His head had completely changed, it looked like a large version of a rabbits head. His eyes now were on the sides of his head, which made looking forward very difficult. He had lost a considerable amount of mass and was now only ½ his normal size. He was still able to speak, but it was becoming more difficult with each passing minute. His feet looked much bigger, more suited to hopping. He was doing his best to look at the display on the transponder, as rescue seemed everyone’s only hope.

Ensign Hermann was barley holding it together. He was much smaller now, only about twice the size of a Cardassian vole. He looked somewhat like a gigantic version of one. It was a struggle, but he could still talk. He had all but given up hope of being rescued.

“There no hope for any of us!” he said.

“Get a grip ensign!” , he turned to see the doctor, who looked very different now. Her legs were much shorter, as were her arms, and she was having trouble walking on 2 feet. Her face seemed to be pushing itself out into a snout shape. Her skin had totally converted into scales. She has since removed her clothes as the changes had eliminated any need for modesty.

“As you can see, the changes have accelerated in all of us. From what Gordon has told us, as well as what I’ve seen I don’t think we have any more then a couple of hours. I have told everyone to meet here so when rescue does arrive they will at least have an idea of what has happened”.

“A logical course of action” Tagomi pointed out.

“We must remember that there is nothing we can do at this point, panicking will not serve anything. By staying calm and all in the same area, we stand the best chance of the rescue party figuring out who we really are and finding a way to reverse this”. The Ensign agreed, asking

“are there any Vulcan relaxation techniques we could try?”. Tagomi told them that there were a few different ones they could try , but in their current forms it may be difficult, but at this point they were getting desperate.

“Yes Doctor, we’ll head back right away”, William King said as he closed the channel. He had been finding it difficult to walk on two feet. Both his legs and his arms had decreased in length and were about the same length. His hands had taken on the same shape of his feet, large, wide and furry. He found it strange having an animal like body with a human head. His fur had grown so thick that he had since removed his clothing, he didn’t seem to be bothered by modesty anymore, and something he assumed was related to the changes. The structure of his body reminded him of a bear, but something about the coloration patterns seemed familiar. All these changes disturbed him greatly, and it was taking a lot of self control on his part to keep from freaking out. He could feel new instincts, not acting on them was difficult to say the least. A part of him liked what was happening and wanted to run away somewhere and to let it finish. But he knew that he had a duty, not only to himself, but to his friends and fellow officers. He decided that he had to resist the instincts and had to hold himself together.

“How are you holding up Ensign?” he asked of Joseph McKinley.

“Not good sir, not good at all”. Joseph was much smaller now, His torso didn’t look human at all. His ‘original’ legs had since been absorbed into his body, only to be replaced by new legs, which looked more like an aquatic birds then a humans, his neck still looked human, as did his head, which looked odd against his body. His arms had reshaped, looking more like wings. His clothes didn’t fit at all anymore, and he had since removed them. He found himself wanting to test out his new wings, he knew that his body was meant for swimming. He wanted to test it out in the water, he felt that there was no going back at this point, and was about to take off when heard the sound of Williams voice. He was thankful that he was still able to talk.

“I just hope the rescue team can figure out how to reverse this, I am not sure how much longer I can hold out. I find that it’s becoming harder and harder to resist these new instincts I’m feeling. More then anything, I want to just fly away. But I know what I have a duty, and I must hold it together” he responded.

“It’s alright ensign, I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t having trouble controlling my instincts, but we must hold it together. Lives could depend on it” King responded.

“Yes sir” McKinley responded. The two of them starting back towards the beam down point. Since it was now much easier for him to walk on all fours, William did so.

Admiral Steve and Bob Blackburn had also received the messages to return to the beam down site. Their changes had progressed in a similar manor that the rest of the crew's had. The admiral’s entire body was covered in a thick pelt, and he had lost a substantial amount of height. His fur kept him warm, and since his clothes no longer fit him, he had since removed them, carrying only his combage. His legs were still human looking, but his feet were webbed, furry and wide, like an otters feet. His arms were shorter now, and his hands fully webbed, with much shorter clawed fingers. He looked like a large otter. He too was starting to feel instincts pulling him, wanting to forget his life as a human and to embrace his form. On more then one occasion he had to use every fiber of his being to resist them.

Bob Blackburn was rather upset but his situation, but was in control. His entire face was that of a cougar, he had lost some height. His body had since covered itself in a pelt of light brown fur. His legs had shrunk somewhat and his feet had changed into cougar feet. He was still able to walk on two feet, which was a relief to him. He had an itch on his back, and had asked Steve to scratch it, he was slightly embarrassed when he had started to purr quite loudly while the admiral scratched it. He had never been terribly fond of meat, but was finding that he suddenly craved it, and this disturbed him. Likewise, the admiral had never been a sea food fan, but suddenly craved it. Both of their stomachs were growling, and Blackburn was starting to lose control.

“It’s hard to explain, but a part of me wants to just run out there and to forget going back!”, he said to the admiral.

“I know the feeling, but we have to hold it together! We can’t lose hope!” The Admiral responded. The two of them continued to walk, doing everything in their power to control their emerging instincts.