Note. After some encouragement I have extended the original story. I hope readers might enjoy the extra pages at the start.

A general sat behind a large desk. Behind him picture windows showed a drop of sixteen floors to a parade ground far below with marine recruits who looked little bigger than ants, being put through their paces by drill sergeants.

Open in front of him were two files. One was unclassified and was about an inch thick. Its pages were yellowed by age. The title was ‘St James’ World’ and a date almost 200 years ago.

This should have been digitised, he said to himself, but the printed pages were comfortable in his hands even though one of his staff had produced a summary of the file to help him.

The second file was classified as Secret and had a red band round the beige folder. It contained the typescripts of two long messages received several days ago from ‘St. James’ World.’ Even at the speed of light, they had taken almost a year to reach him. This folder had Planet 78-1 on the folder, and in brackets (St James’ World).

The General had read the summary which was attached to the larger folder. In that he had read that 200 years ago a group of what amounted to separationists had obtained a permit to migrate to planet 78-1, and form a colony there. They had been supported by many thousands of sympathisers who gave as much as they could by what would be called crowd funding in their time. This purchased an elderly transport vessel that was moored in geosynchronous orbit round Earth. After more than five years of painstaking work the ship was modified as a colony ship and a team of ten had been trained to get the ship from Earth to 78-1 without mishap.

There was no deep sleep two hundred years ago, so the 200 colonisers were prepared to spend ten years travelling quite slowly, using gravity assist where possible. Food and water were monitored carefully, but disease was not adequately controlled and when the ship arrived there were only 97 colonists left, of whom 61 were women and only 42 of them were fertile.

The ship carried a landing vessel, and the new residents and their belongings were carried to the surface safely in several trips, but this emptied all the reserve fuel tanks on the colony ship and its orbit decayed before it fell to the surface of the planet and was totally destroyed.

The next hundred years or so passed uneventfully. The colony seemed to thrive. After the first century the messages recorded that there were five live births for each woman in those early years and the population had grown from 97 to more than 3000, but in the second hundred years the population stabilised and then started to decline.

The sparse messages were secretive about the reasons for this decline but the planet was renamed as Femworld.

The government seemed upbeat with their annual review messages that were required by the colonial power, Earth, so no alarm bells were rung.

The transcribed files in the secret folder gave a very different story.

The very limited gene pool of the surviving settlers had allowed a very rare condition where some women were born with reproductive organs that contained tissues of both genders. In the past this incredibly rare condition had been called human hermaphrodite, but in more recent times the condition had been renamed as ‘People with an ovotestis’.

As the population of these people grew they began to assert their ‘rights’ as an alternative gender, and when that was accepted they moved to replace men as the second parent in families.

Men obviously objected to being replaced by these people who looked like women when dressed, and it took a coup for the women to decide that men were redundant and they could do perfectly well without men.

By objecting, the men were cast out of the towns on pain of death and many were killed by the women who were now dominant in the government. The armed forces were instructed to kill men on sight and the only men who survived found refuge in the areas of wilderness miles away from the areas of population dominated by the women.

Eventually, the male population was so reduced that the women felt it was only a matter of time before the male population died out and their problem was solved.

The general pondered over what he had read. Each message took nearly a year to reach Earth and any intervention by Earth’s military would take eight Earth years to reach 78-1, so the options were very limited.

There was no sense in sending a team of male service personnel to 78-1 if they were all killed on arrival nor could he send women because there was a strict injunction on sending women who would be expected to have families after their military career was over. He knew that eight years there and eight years back was far beyond the term of engagement that could be considered for women service personnel, not counting the time spent on the planet sorting out the problem, whatever it was.

He had read somewhere that a small number of men could be transformed over a number of years into functional women. It all depended upon them having an unusual gene that was never normally expressed.

The general called in his second in command, a very businesslike colonel with an unruly mop of blond curls but was super organised in every other respect.

“Jane, is there any way we can sort out if any serving personnel have this gene?”

“As you know, all service personnel have their genes mapped once they have negotiated basic training successfully.”

“I have already accessed the files of the entire military command and I have found only five experienced personnel. A Captain, a Lieutenant, a Sergeant and two corporals, but what you are thinking about is unethical in my opinion.”

“I agree, but if any plan of this sort is approved by a senior ethics committee then it may be the only way to interact with 78-1.”

The Ethics committee met that afternoon. All were staff officers and when that committee met it was always serious.

The room was checked for any listening devices then a clerk was sworn in to take minutes on pain of imprisonment.

The general explained the background to the situation on 78-1 and the time it would take to get there and back. He also felt that time was critical if the planet was to be returned to any sort of normalcy.

He was open to suggestions but felt that the only solution was to send a team of five men to 78-1 in a fast scout ship where the journey would take eight years to complete. The AI would be the most advanced that could be provided. That AI would manage the transition of the men to women during their deep sleep and would then re-educate the men into as normal women as possible under military orders.

One question that was currently unanswerable was when the men had been transformed would they be regarded as women or as their birth gender? It was clear from rulings of the supreme court that people born as men would always be regarded as men, whatever their bodies seemed to show.

“OK, so these men can be sent to 78-1 and will remain men even when they are seducing women who think they are women?”

“That’s about it.”

“What about them needing to give permission for the transition?”

“A strict reading of Military Regulations says that procedures are dependent on the needs of the military objectives. Isn’t that covered?”

“I would say that you are on thin ice with that one, but I don’t believe there is any other option. Either we send this small team of seductress assassins or we abandon 78-1 to its fate which would mean that thousands of colonists would die.”

“Put like that the emphasis is on the benefit to the thousands rather than the disadvantage to the five men, who will remain in good health as far as we can judge.”

The discussion and the decision to proceed was placed in the folder and a new soured strip was added which now said top secret.

Within days personal orders were sent out for the five servicemen to travel from postings over large parts of the globe and beyond.

They arrived over several days in a variety of uniforms at a small base near the largest military spaceport on the planet, and were met by a team of doctors who reassessed their gene map and confirmed that they carried the relevant gene on both their number 18 chromosomes.

Whilst the group waited for the last arrival, the others were given tasks to check on the level of fitness each possessed.

On the third day a general and his female adjutant met the party in a room that was checked for any spyware.

All five leapt to their feet and saluted the general who asked them to sit down.

“You do not know each other, but each of you has training in the skills that will be needed for a very important deployment that is being initiated. This will need a long space flight, followed by very important interaction with the local population of this planet, then another long flight home. You could be away twenty years, but when you return we estimate that you will only seem to have been away for four years by your body clocks and your salaries will have been accumulating at one rank higher than your current ones. You should be young and wealthy, but will have spent about 16 years in deep sleep.”

“We also know that none of you have close family, so you will not be returning to a wife who is much old than you appear to be, or to children who have no memory of you.”

“I cannot say any more than I have said until you have accepted the deployment, and even after that you will not know any final details until after you have woken up. At that point the AI will give a you a full set of instructions and train you in all the extra skills you may need.”

“Your ship will be one of the fastest scout ships we have and the AI is the most advanced available.

“Each of you must make their mind up on their own, but this placement depends upon the acceptance by all of you, so please have a discussion. When you have made your minds up please press this blue button and I will come and hear your decision. I cannot, and would not order you to be part of this placement. Whilst two of you are corporals and one of you is a captain, I do urge you to discuss this as men who will be living with each other for a very long time. Each of you may be totally dependent on the others for some of the time, so comradeship is much more important than your current ranks.”

“The ship is being prepared, and the AI trained as we speak. It will be ready in about ten weeks for departure. I do hope you all will accept, but if you have any reservations then do not go out of some misguided sense of duty.”

When it came down to it, the amount of information was so limited that there wasn’t much to discuss. It was true that none of them had any family and no close ties. The promotion was welcome and being relatively wealthy when they returned was a selling point.

Would they get on with each other for a protracted period?

“I think we will have ten weeks here, then a week in space before going into deep sleep. We will wake about a month before reaching our destination. That is not a lot of time to put up with each other.”

In fact they called the general back into the room within 30 minutes and all accepted the deployment. The adjutant had a series of documents that needed signing, and then orders were sent to their previous units saying that they would not be returning.

Personal effects were collected and put into long term storage. Some goodbyes were inevitable, but the team would be in contact with any remaining friends until they went into deep sleep. Trustees were appointed who would administer the affairs of each man whist they were away, but their affairs were mercifully simple.

Each received the promotion the general had promised, so they were now a Major, a Captain a Lieutenant and two sergeants.

The next ten weeks were a blur. Their physical training to prepare them for eight years of deep sleep was extensive, but it was primarily building resilience into their bodies rather than muscle mass, and they were expected to practice their combat skills with advanced instructors who did not take prisoners, as the saying goes. In fact the sergeant, now lieutenant was very muscular and had to be trained down in muscle mass with diet and exercise.

They were introduced to the Ai who was then occupying a case in a laboratory while he was being programmed, but soon they were learning the structure of the ship in a mockup of the real thing.

The real ship was moved to be one of several attached to a space station in Earth orbit, and it seemed very little time before the five were being propelled away from earth in a shuttle to start their long journey.

The shuttle crew had been warned that the mission was top secret and they were not to speak to the five unless there was a real emergency.

A news reporter had got wind of some strange items being delivered to the space port but the team were on their way before he learned anything substantial. In the end all that there was to know was that a small party were being sent to a small and obscure planet to support the population there. It seemed routine, and the story was dropped.

They had two days to acclimatise to the environment in the space station with minimal artificial gravity generated by the spinning of the wheel shaped station, but none developed space sickness so their departure date was brought forward.

They were strapped into their bunks for the departure, but they were hardly aware of the locking pins being drawn out and the manoeuvring jets moving them away from the space station until the main engine could be fired safely.

The crew were eating one of the last meals they would have of fresh food when the main engine fired. They were pushed back into their seats, but the acceleration was not dramatic, although it was continuous for days.

The days were filled with training manuals and manuals to control the ship in an emergency. In fact manuals for almost everything and anything.

They could still watch the media from Earth and speak to friends on a radio link, but the week passed very quickly and it was soon time to enter the deep sleep pods for the next eight years.

The pods were remarkably like coffins but they had small windows down both sides and internal lighting. Each pod had the name of one of the team. The major would enter his pod last and be awoken first, so it was the two sergeants who pressed a button on the side of their pods and the lids lifted smoothly with a hiss. They climbed in and a gas was released into the pod that put the occupant into a light relaxed sleep. Subsequently various tubes were attached to supply them with nutrients and to remove waste.

Finally their heart rate was reduced to about one beat every two minutes and their bodies were cooled.

When the red lights on their pods had gone green, it was the two other officers turn. The procedure was the same and in an hour their lights also turned green. Finally Major Little entered his pod and the green lights were the only sign of life as the ship accelerated away from Earth for almost four years.

The military were in constant radio link with thew AI and minor course corrections were supplied for time to time. The AI recorded a further message from the beleaguered men on the planet and also recorded a variety of tv programs from 78-1 to show the team when they awoke.

Every year the AI did an inventory of the stores held on the ship. Apart from oxygen and a little water, nothing had been used, but rechargeable batteries in a variety of sex toys were topped up again, alongside various bits of medical equipment.

The reporter had got real information of the delivery of sex toys to a military vessel carrying only men, but the story was rubbished by the Press attache for the military and it seemed so ludicrous for serving men to need sex toys that no one believed the story and the team were well beyond range of being contacted by any means other than tight beam radio.

The AI reviewed the TV programs he was recording to make a digest of the planet’s output.

The first recording showed a guided tour of the planet’s capital. The low rise buildings were spread out in large gardens of what appeared to be dusty soil, but a range of exotic native plants seemed to be thriving there. Small motorised vehicles carried people from place to place and larger commercial vehicles like buses and trucks moved sedately down dusty roads. There was view of the inside of the only hotel which seemed comfortable but largely empty.

The computer showed many of the residents. All were women dressed very scantly in a bustier and a thong. All were barefoot. They spoke in the common tongue, but with a strong accent.

The next video showed women in the wilder parts of the planet in boots but still with the scanty clothing but in drab colours. They wore a belt carrying a large knife. They were hunting men and they found one and he was stabbed many times before being left as a warning to others. There was no explanation as to why this man was killed. It seemed to be the norm. The women returned home with their arms covered with the man’s dried blood. It seemed to be totemic.

Finally there were the programs that showed thinly veiled sex acts between pairs or larger groups of women. Whether it was a political interview or a sports event, or a theatrical performance, they all degenerated into sex between the parties. It was predictable, and not even titillating after a while. Even the computer wondered why the population did not get tired of a constant diet of sexual pabulum?

Eight years had passed and Captain Little remained in a deep sleep capsule surrounded by the capsules of his four companions. Their survival was monitored by the Ship’s AI called Bill, just to have a simple moniker.

The actual reference number was 32 digits of hexadecimal, and no one except the computer even tried to remember it.

Eight years before, the Captain had been ordered to attend a briefing at Space Command where it was explained that a planet almost a light year away from their home world was causing concern, and even with the best communication systems available, there was really only a one-sided conversation with the Government from the beleaguered planet that orbited a yellow star that was very similar to Earth.

Eight years at between 30 percent of light speed, would bring the craft from one planet to the other. Eight years in suspended animation for the team, then some months there before a similar ride home.

It was a massive undertaking for the small team of experienced agents, but the pay was good and at those speeds the body did not age as quickly as normal. In less than a year’s perceived time the crew would be back on the home planet, significantly wealthy and looking up to five years younger. It would have been difficult to turn down such an offer.

The reason for such a voyage was not easy to pin down. It seemed that there was an ongoing civil war between rival factions and one side seemed determined to exterminate the other. Not just win territory, but actually to annihilate the other.

How five individuals could affect such a conflict was unclear, but they were heavily armed and were expert negotiators, and with a year’s preparation for the voyage, eight years in transit and all the time taken in difficult negotiations it remained very unclear what the situation would be on arrival. The World Government felt they had to take some positive action, and Captain Little and his small band were the action. All of it!

Bill had started the process of gradually awakening of the crew a week earlier, first the Captain, then a couple of days later, the crew.

At this stage, the Captain was able to think and see, but his body was still sleeping. It would gradually recover over the next few hours.

Bill spoke to Captain Little in small sentences. He might be awake, but not fully in command of his senses.

“Captain, you are three months away from your destination. I am projecting the image from my forward cameras. We have been gradually decelerating for two years now. All is well with the ship and all your crew are well. Their gradual awakening is proceeding normally and they will be fully awake in the next 48 hours.”

Bill allowed the Captain to drift off for another couple of hours before he spoke again.

“I have been monitoring the broadcasts from planet 78-1 and the situation is grave. One faction has killed over 90% of the other and those that remain are holed up in a series of underground bunkers. Their situation is untenable once their food and ammunition have run out.”

“Give me a breakdown of the planet. Economics, population, climate and so on.”

“The planet is a member of the Sentient World Conference, but rarely attends sessions. It has some trade with neighbouring worlds, but it is minimal by global standards. They are at least six months travelling time from any other inhabited planet. The climate is very Earth-like with two large continents surrounded by shallow seas. The land is productive and supports the population with minimal effort on their part. In many ways it is an almost ideal world.”

“Why are they fighting so fiercely, with the intent of exterminating one faction?”

“Some years ago they developed a technique for women producing babies without the intervention of men. Their government decided that men were redundant and passed draconian laws which insisted that all baby boys were killed in utero, and that men and boys would be killed on sight.”

“That is awful, so the dominant faction are all women, and the 10% left in the bunkers are male?”

“So what use is it sending five men to negotiate with this population who see men as superfluous and little better than vermin?”

“There wouldn't be any point, as you will be killed on sight as a contaminant. There is a prize paid to anyone who kills a man or boy.”

“So what are my orders?”

“Your orders are to start negotiations with the dominant faction and to prevent any further bloodshed.”

“That is silly. Ordering us to leave the ship and be slaughtered on sight is not sensible.”

“It would be non-sense if you were in your original forms.”

“What do you mean. In our original forms?”

“When the ship was loaded with everything you needed the clothing lockers were filled with all the things needed by a female crew. Clothing, weapons and everything else needed.”

“Are you telling me that the crew have nothing to wear or defend ourselves?”

“No, I am telling you that the clothes and weapons are designed for the bodies you now have.”

“Captain Celeste Little, now had some movement in her hands and arms and was able to feel the mass of brunette hair that cascaded over narrow shoulders and on to a firm bosom over well toned muscles. Her stretch didn’t allow much investigation below the waist, but Captain Little had a fair idea as to what she would find.”

A fair amount of concern, gave way to sleepiness and it was a few hours more before she awoke and was able to crawl in a rather unladylike fashion out of the pod and into a shower.

Feeling somewhat better, she had a light meal that Bill said was sustaining but would not tax her unused gut, and a bale of clothes appeared from a chute in the main cabin of the craft.

The Captain accepted her fate with resignation, and found that the military grade knickers fitted well over her new hips. The new bra had instructions for fitting, and soon it was in place with the straps properly adjusted. The khaki shirt was less coarse than she had remembered, but the three bars of rank sat on her shoulders as they should. The feminine trousers were a comfortable fit, and the blue uniform jacket buttoned over her significant bosom without any gapping.

“I can compliment you on your appearance Captain, the uniform fits you very well.”

“I am resigned to being this shape for the time being. If it prevents one being killed on sight, then it is necessary for military discipline, but aren’t there more things to learn about being a woman than just getting dressed?”

“Yes, I am programmed to give you and your crew as much detail of the use of cosmetics and hygiene products as you need.”

“Are you saying that we will have periods and can have babies?”

“Yes, you would never the accepted on the planet if this were not to be the case.”

“When we return from Planet 78-1 can we be returned to our previous bodies?”

“I am not programmed to reverse the transformation and there are no resources on the ship or the planet to do that. If it were needed then materials would have to be sent to restock my medical facilities, but my databanks do show that it is not a good option medically to retransform people. The failure rate is very high.”

“So we are stuck as women for the rest of our lives?”

“It would seem so. In fact your orders do not mention a return flight. My resources are nearly exhausted and this planet does not have the materials to restock me.”

“So we are stuck here as women for the rest of our lives?”

“Yes, it would seem so. Your bank accounts with the Galaxy Bank have been enhanced and are available here. You will find all the details in the purse at the bottom of your clothing bale.”

“Can we get to another planet that has a mix of men and women?”

“Yes, there are ships that travel to four or five destinations and with your credit balance you can travel, but it is unlikely you would get back to the home planet unless you accumulate wealth by trade, or become pirates.”

“I think that is looking too far ahead for now.”

“What is the state of the warring parties?”

“Only about 2% of the population are men now. There is little fighting. There is a bounty of 100 credits on the lives of any boy or man. All that has to be done is to bring the penis and balls of any man to a named centre in each town and the credit is added to the women’s bank account. The man’s body is picked up from where the woman left it and is burned without any sort of ceremony.”

“That really is pretty callous.”

“How do these women get pregnant if there are no men?”

“They have developed a technique where some children look like little girls but have an ovotestis, where they has fertilise each other by producing sperm and eggs from a single organ. Only perhaps 15% of the population are born with an ovotestis.

“So do we have an ovotestis to go with our new feminine bodies.”

“No, we have not got the technology to create an ovotestis. You are just normal women.”

“I suppose my training should allow the ultimate in flexibility in one’s behaviour and being killed by a large force before being able to even begin to achieve one’s objective certainly needs flexibility. I am not sure about the way that the bosses on the home planet have dealt with us. My men, now women, are going to be difficult to placate, particularly as the chances of getting home are pretty slim.”

“Is this why the whole group have no family ties back home. I know we expected to be away for up to twenty years with the return journey but being marooned here was not one of the objectives.

“If it helps I have a recording that is supposed to be played to the whole crew when you are all revived. It explains the objectives the Staff officers had in sending you here, and how best for you to fulfil those objectives in their opinion. I will play it to you in advance if you like.”

“I think it can wait. Better to use it as a means of re-establishing military discipline.”

“Captain Celeste Little pinned the name badge on her uniform just above the curve of her new bust, smoothed her skirt as she had seen women do since her boyhood, and went out to see her crew.”

Lieutenant Briony Cave was the first capsule she saw. Briony had a tousled knot of flame red hair, and what appeared to be a sturdy female body. She was as naked as she had been when she entered the pod as Brian Cave eight years ago.

Briony opened her eyes as her Captain’s head put a shadow across the observation window of the capsule. A look of concern shrouded her pretty face, but Billy, the new name for the AI, gave her a shot of a mild sedative, and Briony drifted off to sleep until her new body was strong enough to deal with the information about herself.

The next pod along was that of the staff sergeant Christopher Plant. Now the plaque on the capsule said S/Sgt Christine Plant.

“What will Chris Plant say about the transformation? He/She will probably find it the most difficult of all the crew.” Celeste said to herself. “She is a military person from first enlistment. The army has been their life. Such a change may be very difficult unless she regards it as just another order that has to be accepted as part of military discipline. It has guided their life for several decades, and may do so for several decades more.

“I need to talk to the crew at intervals. When will Briony and Christine be fully awake? … and looking across at the two other pods with Cpl Ruth James and Cpl Nigella Grant on the display. When will the other two awake?”

“I can have Briony fully awake in minutes and out of her pod within an hour and Christine will be out of her pod at the same time. I can keep Ruth and Nigella asleep for another five or six hours without it doing them any harm.”

“Do that pease.”

Celeste went back to the lounge of the small craft that served multiple purposes and found that she needed to visit the Heads. It was an unusual experience but the back of the toilet door had instructions that were easy to follow. Whilst sitting there Celeste wondered who had put the notices up so they hadn’t seen them at the start of the voyage.

Billy answered as son as the sentence had been said.

“The messages were already there and all I needed to do was to apply a laser beam onto the messages to make them visible.”

“Clearly this has been well thought out.”

“Yes, I am sure that is true. Although my time in space is coming to an end, I am to act as a defensive shield in case any of you are in danger. I have defences that would only be useable on the planet.”

“We will need to for through all those sort of things in the weeks before we land.”

“Who are you in communication with?”
“I have been in radio link with the spaceport on 78-1 for a couple of years and communication is now almost instantaneous. I think the local women are going to make quite a fuss over you when you arrive. You will have ambassadorial status.”

“I will go back and greet Briony and Christine now. Are they awake?”

“Yes, both are awake and their limbs are recovering. They will be able to get out of their pods now with a bit of help.”

As Celeste entered the room where the pods were arrayed, there was a hiss as Briony’s pod opened, followed swiftly by Christine’s pod.

Briony was trying to come to terms with her smaller size and the changes in her centre of gravity, but looked up from her exploration to grimace at her commanding officer.

“I hope you can explain this … this change of status, Sir or is that Madam?”

“I think Madam will have to do for now. I can explain the changes but not excuse them.”

“God, I stink. Where are the showers?”

“Everything is in the same place as when we went into deep sleep. Just tell Billy to turn the water on and off and to dispense shampoo and body wash.”

As Briony moved rather unsteadily to the showers through the ultra low gravity, Christine emerged from her capsule. Her muscular body remained muscular for a woman and she stood foursquare in front of Celeste with a serious look on her face. Her substantial bust needed support, but she was more concerned with putting her hands over her labia and pubic hair than with the obvious movement of her bosom.

“I hope you can explain this.”

“I can explain it, but as I have just said to the lieutenant, explain, but not excuse. Go and have a good shower and probably a good crap also. When we are all awake, I will go through the why’s and wherefores.”

“Did you know about this changes when we left?”

“No, I certainly did not. I would not have come had I known.”

“Please go and shower. There are only two showers and I do not want to have to make the Corporals wait while you finish. A full set of uniforms is available in a bale ready set out for you in the dining part of the cabin. I will hep with the female garments if you need help.”

“I have assisted many girls with moving bras and knickers over years. I reckon I might be able to put them on myself.”

It only seemed to be a few minutes, but it was nearly an hour before Briony and Christine emerged fully dressed in their uniforms with their new name badges across the right side of their chests. They sat deep in conversation on a wide seat, anchored to the seat with a springs attached to their regulation belts. Celeste went to welcome the two corporals.

Minutes later the two NCOs emerged from the pod room with hands across their bosoms and pubic areas and tried to sidle to the showers, whilst tending to float up to the ceiling.

“Don’t bother, Christine said. We are all girls here it seems. Get showered and dressed then we can have all the information the Captain has, as to how we are in this predicament.”

Grace was a blonde with hair half way down her back. Her figure with just perfect, breasts over a tiny waist would have turned heads on the home planet, but here the rest of the crew noticed and that was all. There could be no physical reaction as there would her been before they had been transformed.

Amanda was as dark as Grace was blond. Her olive complexion was the same as it had been previously, and her doe eyes and pout, could have tempted a Saint to infidelity.

It took an hour before Grace and Amanda were presentable and the four sat primly in the cabin as Celeste got to her feet to explain what she knew. She smoothed her skirt in an accomplished fashion. Where she had acquired such a skill was unknown? … but Billy confirmed that their new bodies would very soon be as familiar as their old ones. It wasn’t only a reassignment of their organs that had been achieved in eight years, but also of their minds and behaviours.

Once Celeste had explained the situation they were going to on 78-1, it was clear why the transgendering was needed, but not the reasons why it was kept secret from the crew. There were a lot of unanswered questions from all five until Billy played the recording.

A general sat at his desk with a serious expression.

“If you are hearing this message then the AI on your Scout Ship has managed to awaken you from eight years deep sleep and you now find yourselves in the bodies of women. All the details of your assignment and your status with the home world’s armed services have been changed and you all now have a promotion by one rank with a change of pay as a result. You can spend your eight years accumulated pay on 78-1 and will be able to live comfortably for as long as you remain there.”

“The reason you have been ordered there is because there is a risk of this planet drifting off into political isolation away from our sphere of influence. They are a long way from the political centre, as you know only too well, and their Society is diverging rapidly from what is regarded as normal.”

“Your task is to become assimilated into their Society, contact the remaining males, support them and to act as Ambassadors for our home planet in their government. Even though messages can only be exchanged over the great distances very slowly, we are confident that the skill base amongst you five is the very best combination to achieve these goals. I cannot emphasise how important your mission is to us. There will be a relief mission sent within ten years of your arrival. You will be able to return to the home planet with that vessel but we cannot reverse the biological or psychological changes that have been made in you as yet.”

“Captain, now, Major Celeste is an expert in counterterrorism. Lieutenant, now Captain Bryony, is adept at negotiations between warring parties, and S/Sgt Christine is now Lieutenant Christine. She is an expert on communications. Corporals Grace and Amanda are now sergeants. Grace has expertise in munitions, and Amanda is a weaponry expert.”

“You are the best team we could put together in the time available, and our expectations of you are very high. You have three months to learn all you can about being a woman in the army, and being a woman anyway. Billy has been downloading manuals for every conceivable situation you may face. Use the next three months wisely. After you land most of Billy will be automatically decommissioned and will melt down to prevent access by the locals. What remains will be a learning centre for both you and the locals giving helpful advice over everything from growing food to child health and education.”

“Even though it will take a year for your messages to get to us, we want to have regular reports of your progress. Billy will retain an antenna that is lined up with the home world. News of events and updated manuals may be old by the time they reach you, but they are the best we can do.”

The General stood at his desk and saluted the five comrades.

“I am proud of you, and I salute you all. I hope your efforts will make me prouder still.”

Celeste held out a small box of insignia. She attached the crown of a Major to her own uniform, and went round the other four with their new insignia.

Billy reminded the crew that they needed to eat and rehydrate.

They sat at the dining table eating a selection of very palatable, but preserved meals and were for the most part silent, immersed in their thoughts.

“Today has been very new and challenging for all of us. I suggest that after we have finished eating, we go to our cabins and rest. There are monitors in every cabin, and there are lots of movies that have been issued in the last eight years for you to watch. As an alternative I suggest we all watch one movie together. We need to form into a team of women, and being anti-social in our own cabins may not be the best way to start.”

In fact that was the decision. They chose a film that would not have attracted them as men, but the RomCom seemed just right for a group of women getting to know each other.

After 90 minutes of adFree viewing, all were very sleepy and they drifted off to bed.

Somehow they knew how to look after their uniforms and underthings, but none had applied any makeup, so there was none to remove. The only need was for them to brush out their hair before snuggling down under a thin duvet that was all that was needed in the heated ship.

Little did they know it, but during the rest period the pods that had kept them alive for eight years were ejected into space where the locals could not access their secrets, and gymnasium equipment moved out of storage lockers into the body of the room.

After eight hours of rest time the crew were woken by a gentle rendition of reveille over the sound system. Sleepy heads emerged from their cabins with tousled hair over military issue pyjamas. Movement round the cabin caused inertia effects on various sized unfettered breasts and Christine scratched one breast without any obvious thought, making the rest of the crew laugh.

“You might turn heads on 78-1 dressed like that.”

“I will have a shower then cover them up. I don’t want you to get too excited!”

“Some hope of that with our current anatomy.”

“Don’t be too sure. 78-1 aspires to be an all female planet and they must get their fun from somewhere.”

“Do they really call their planet 78-1?”

“They call it Femhome for fairly obvious reasons.”

Grace looked over at Amanda. “Billy, do you have any data on sexual practices on the planet?”

“It is an obvious question.” Billy answered.

“There are no known sexually transmitted diseases on the planet and residents indulge in both long term and short term relationships very easily.”

“I understand that we are expected to become assimilated into their Society. It seems as if a knowledge of lesbian sexual practices is going to be essential.”

“I was not going to raise this matter so soon after your reawakening, but since it has been raised, then yes there are training manuals on your computers to help you become confident sexual partners with one or more local women.”

“I suspected that that would be the case, but are we expected to put theory into practice whilst we are still on board?”

“That would be the expectation. Practice is essential in all forms of military training, and successful lesbian encounters are no different and will help your assimilation into their Society.”

“Phew. I wish I could tell that General what I think of him.”

“I think we all do!” but Billy is correct. We all will be very obvious and regarded as outsiders if we do not embrace the social mores of their Society. Assimilating into their Society is one of the pivotal parts of our orders.”

“As far as I can see we only have our various uniforms, fatigues, exercise clothes and night wear. What about clothes to be presentable in this Society, and particularly things like party wear?”

Billy answered.

“I have been recording a variety of what you would call TV shows, and can replay them to show the variety of clothes that are worn and also the cosmetics favoured by the residents. There are also programs on sexual techniques. I suggest you watch these and make use of the stimulation they provide. The clothing is brief by the standards of your home world and you are going to feel very exposed walking around in very little. The welcoming party who will meet you at the spaceport know this, and after acknowledging your ranks and positions you will be given a chance to change into local clothes which are primarily a bustier and a thong in a variety of fabrics and colours. The weather is balmy throughout the year in their cities and you would soon be very hot in your uniforms.”

“If you return to your cabins you will find that a flap that was previously locked will now open. In it you will find a variety of what are called ‘toys’ that can be used to give pleasure. It is important that you learn to both receive pleasure and give it. Some of this will involve the toys you have available. I suggest that you get to feel confident on your own, then join with others to explore further.”

“In a day or two I will give guidance to recognise women with an ovotestis. They are often very persuasive and will take every opportunity to get you pregnant. Obviously this is not something that you will want to happen, at least without consent. They are supposed to wear a red bangle to identify them, but these are regularly forgotten. After a little practice you will be able to identify them easily, but you will be very vulnerable in the first few weeks you are on the planet.”

“Thank you, Billy. You have given us a lot to think about and I can see that a couple of my ‘sisters’ here need some time to digest what you have shared with us. Your advice is challenging, but important.”

“Look at some of the video material and explore your own bodies. The gymnasium has equipment that is for fitness, but also has an erotic setting. Explore this as well. Come back to share what you have discovered. This mission has to be a success. Learning to seduce other women is a skill you need to practice, treat it as seriously as any other military skill. Your seductive skills will be different on the planet with gravity although Femhome is smaller than your home, so gravity will be less. Your ranks are important in your diplomatic and military functions, but here you must treat each other as equals. I will have decommissioned my higher functions within hours of your arrival.”

Celeste looked across at the others. I wonder if it is up to me to show by example. She moved carefully to her cabin, returned with a large vibrator and clitoral stimulator, undressed except for a belt with points of attachment for springs, then began to use the vibrator in front of her sisters. After a few minutes of concentration she got rather red in the face and her labia and nipples were swollen. A little later she made a sharp intake of breath.

“So that was a female climax.” she said as the engorged tissue returned to its normal state.

“If I can do that in front of all of you, then I doubt if any of you will find it difficult. All of you have been transformed into gorgeous girls, and I think you will begin to enjoy both giving and receiving pleasure.”

Bryony grabbed Christine’s hand and they disappeared into Bryony’s cabin and emerged sometime later entirely naked.

“Is that your new uniform?”

“Probably”, Briony replied with a smile.

Grace and Amanda went into the Gym and found the erotic settings on some of the machines and could be heard ‘exercising’ during the next half hour.

Celeste asked Billy to project one of the videos she had recorded from the surface of Femhome. She watched for some minutes until a very voluptuous interviewer had seduced some minor politician. It was essentially pornography dressed up as an interview. Both parties were clearly prepared for the tryst and the way they sat during the interview with their labia in full view was provocative in the extreme. Billy confirmed that most of the television output consisted of thinly veiled pornography. Even sporting events were pornography dressed up as some sort of facile competition where oral stimulation was the main point scoring.

Celeste thought to herself that this was a degenerate society and needed a rocket put under it to bring some sort of sense to their activities. No, she thought, their distorted and debauched Society needed to be demolished, lock, stock and barrel.

Next she looked at videos of some of the industries. Agriculture was easy in the mild conditions. The soil’s fertility was high and there was an excess of food produced. There was a little trade with the two neighbouring planets, but there was little to speak of any industrial output. Factories and workshops did not exist and hydroelectric schemes provided a bountiful supply at minimal cost to the residents.

“What is the population of the planet?”

“About four million. Tiny by the standards of most planets, but they live a rather undemanding Shangri-la type of existence and their scant work output will not support any more people.

“Who actually does the work?”

“There are women who choose to leave the planet for periods where they learn skills like medicine, agriculture or engineering. They tend to remain separate from the rest of Society after they return, in part because literacy is low in the general population. The only other caste of note is the soldier caste who remain in a uniform of sorts and carry a hand weapon which fires projectiles. Apart from executing any men found, there is little crime for them to sort out.”

“Is there anything about this worker caste disapproving of the majority who spend their lives in one lustful tryst after another?”

“Their overalls tend to mark them out from the majority who remain dressed in as little as possible with seduction as the primary achievement in life.”

Billy had not been able to record anything much about the men on Femhome. There were a tiny number of arrests and summary executions recorded each month, but that was all.

“Billy, have you any idea how we can contact the men here?”

“They live in remote areas and primarily underground. The women have given up trying to kill them outright, but the men have to come to the towns occasionally to steal what they need, and it is then that the unfortunate ones get caught.”

“Aren’t the men getting older and older, with no children?”

“You would have thought so, but occasionally they steal a boy child before he is killed, and that helps to keep their numbers up a bit. There are also a small number of women who decide to go renegade as it were, and offer themselves to the men as wives and lovers. We don’t know how many there are of these women, but the expectation is that they join polyandrous groups and are pregnant much of the time.”

“I am concerned about what weapons we can carry in these skimpy outfits. I believe that the carriage of any sort of weapon is illegal unless one is a member of the armed forces.”

“That is true, but your main weapon will be the garrotte and that can be carried in even the skimpiest bikini outfit. Women are also allowed to carry a hunting knife when out of the cities. There are a variety of animals on Femhome and most are good to eat. There are also various hidden compartments in this ship and even when I am decommissioned, these chambers will respond to your voices. There are the usual collection of laser weapons and some projectile weapons as well. There are even some bows and quivers of arrows.”

“Please prepare me a list of women who have a status in the community. It may be important to know who to deal with first to decapitate the snake that runs this Society.”

“Isn’t this going beyond your orders. The orders say to integrate into the Society and work towards returning the planet to a more normal way of living.”

“I take the view that this planet is so dysfunctional that it will need its government decapitating in order to improve. The constant sexual gratification is like an opium, addictive and degenerating to the women here.”

“Do you want me to cover your back by informing Space Command. I know the information will take several years to reach them, but may be worth doing.”

“I will ask for a consensus view before doing that. I need to take my sisters with me in this.”

“I rather like the idea of you calling the rest of your command, your sisters. It is more feminine way of ordering your troops.”

“I hope they appreciate it. Division amongst us would be fatal to our enterprise.”

As each sister in her command re-entered the communal area of the scout ship, Celeste kept them back.

“We need to talk.”

The five women sat in various states of undress and Celeste explained what she had been doing whilst they were otherwise occupied.

The four others took on the seriousness of the situation and all signs of intimacy disappeared.

Bryony began the conversation.

“We have all been trained in counterterrorism and methods of quiet killing, but I had not considered that it might be necessary on such a scale. I think I need to see some of the material you have been watching to be able to support your conclusion.”

“That is quite fair. Billy please choose some of your footage at random and put it up on the screen here.”

The footage was silent but showed the Femhome’s parliament.

“Femdom’s parliament is made up of 20 representatives of the most wealthy families. There is no democracy or any other sort of representation of the huge majority of women.”

The screen showed 20 older women parading into a chamber. They were as scantily dressed as most of the population, but had a purple sash. They sat in a circle and took some sort of pill. Subsequently 20 young girls came in and sat between the legs of each Senator. What they did there can be imagined. The older women’s eyes took on a glazed expression and various scrolls of paper were brought round and were signed, before the whole charade ended and the Senators seemed to wake up and went off as if nothing had happened.

“The use of little girls in that way is nothing short of child abuse, but those women were not in their right senses. Someone else is pulling their strings. We need to find out who, and deal with them.”

Billy then showed them a competition of sorts but the even was just a thinly veiled attempt to show more sexualised imagery.

“Agreed.” was the consensus of all five sisters. “Find the mastermind and dispose of them. Encourage a root and branch re-evaluation of their Society.”

“Billy. Prepare a communication with some footage that we have been seeing, and send it with the message we prepared earlier to give my, no our, evaluation of the situation and the course of action we are planning to take.”

“I was anticipating your orders. The message has been sent high priority by narrow bandwidth and high intensity. It will arrive in about five years.”

“Whilst we continue to enhance our behaviours as women, and practice our seduction ploys, I want each one of you to review and practice our unarmed combat skills. I want you to be certain that you can kill silently with a knife, and use a garrotte effectively. Billy has said that there are some neck protectors in store that one of you can wear whist another sister practices garrotting techniques.”

Grace and Amanda looked at each other. Both were beautiful with flawless skins, delicate features and long lustrous hair.

“We know we are under orders, but we didn’t know that we needed to become assassins.”

“I didn’t know either. I have never wanted to kill clandestinely. As a man I would have thought it ungentlemanly to kill that way, but there are only five of us. Our weaponry is minimal but our powers of seduction are massive. Our muscles are a fraction of what they were. We can be the femmes fatales with a hidden agenda, or fit in, accept the diplomatic rôles we were offered and disappear in their Society.”

“How do we find this mastermind? Billy, do you have any suggestions?”

“I have followed the servants who brought the scrolls to the Senate to be signed into law. They got into a motorised vehicle and that left the city on one of the main highways. The camera did not follow them after that, but there are two large complexes owned by the super-rich in that direction. They are owned by two of the families who have manipulated the planet for decades.”

“Concentrate your search of libraries and archives to find out more about these two families.”

“Will do, but the archives are scanty, and with such a low level of literacy, the libraries are rare.”

“We may have to do some investigation in person using all the charms we can muster.”

The sisters looked at each other and smiled most suggestively.

“We think we might manage that.”

“Who would have thought that I would be in command of a team of expert seductress assassins!”

“I am proud of you all!”

“Do you have any more uplifting messages from High Command on the home planet?”

“Yes, just one. Do you want me to play it. It is meant to be played close to the landing time.”

“Yes, I think we might manage to cope with it.”

The general they had seen before sat there as previously. His face was impassive.

“You are now close to your destination and have found out many of the skills set we planned for you. I would dearly like to see how you look now, but that is impossible, I regret to say. You were all chosen after extensive psycho-sexual evaluation. You are authorised to use any techniques available to you to fulfil your goals and return the planet to a more typical governance. I can only guess what very, very, non-standard military techniques you may need to use, but they will be clearly a means to an end. Plan in detail and put those plans into action without sentiment. You can all act in cold blood if needed. You are the best team our home world could provide.”

“In the last few days before landing you will need to be instructed in toxicology. Billy carries an extensive array of poisons, infective organisms and other toxins for individual or mass killing both with instantaneous or delayed action. This training has been left until the end of your journey and shortly Billy will give instructions as to how to administer inoculations that will protect you for at least five years from all the viral and bacterial organisms that she has stored.”

“From now on your call sign for communication with the home world will be ‘Celeste’s irregulars’. Any message with that heading sent by whatever means will be given the highest priority.

Your relief crew and a new ambassador will leave here in two years time to relieve you in ten years. As I said earlier, we will return you here if that is your wish, but the planet has a very pleasing environment and with a regime change you may wish to stay and live out your days there.

As the image faded away. The general once again stood and saluted the team.

“How do you feel about being a very beautiful killing machine?” was Christine’s first comment?

All five of them looked down, unable to express their feelings just at that moment.

Celeste was the first to recover.

“Billy. How are the various toxins and infective agents stored?”

“Some are in sealed vials on a piece of absorbent paper, others are tablets that can be used in drinks or crumbled into food. Some are vials of liquid that have to be broken in half to release a gas and others again have to be spread on skin as a cream. They are all in small containers that can be stored for some days intimately. The vials are colour coded to indicate the type of lethal agent and coded with symbols to show mode of action and time taken for death to happen.”

“We will have the injections about a week before landing, but will start on the training tomorrow.”

“Very well Celeste.”

The team snuggled up to each other to watch another RomCom, but the future was not far from their minds as might be anticipated. Nevertheless, each became aware for the first time of an inner steeliness and resolve to do their duty, whatever that took.

Only Billy was aware that the General’s recorded video contained a subliminal message that triggered a post-hypnotic suggestion engendering that sense of steeliness and resolve. Any sense of reluctance in becoming a beautiful killing machine faded from their minds.

The game is afoot … Celeste thought to herself.

Eight years - Landing

“I am receiving a communication from Planet Femhome.”

“Put it on the screen, please Billy.”

An attractive woman in her middle years appeared. Her outfit was minimal to say the least, but she seemed unaware of her near nakedness.

“I am Senator Flora Vince. I welcome you to our planet even though you have a month or so to go until you can reach us here. I am sending the co-ordinates of our small spaceport and we will have a welcoming party ready to welcome you as soon as you arrive.”

“Please introduce yourselves. We only know of Major Celeste’s status. We would like to make sure we have accommodation appropriate to the rank of each of you.”

Celeste stood and spoke to the Senator. She didn’t want to have her command separated, and she saw a printed message appear across the screen warning her that the two sergeants would be separated on landing.

“Please let me introduce Captain Briony, and Lieutenant Christine.”

Both women stood and bowed to the Senator.

“Then our remaining officers are Second Lieutenants Grace and Amanda.”

Both the newly created officers suppressed the raised eyebrows that threatened to overwhelm them, but they bowed dutifully and returned to their seats.

“Then we will have accommodation suited to army officers ready and waiting.”

The call continued with pleasantries and an opportunity to view a video showing the planet at it best for tourists, female tourists of course.

After the Senator had disconnected, Grace and Amanda were all agog at their promotion.

“How is it that we have just been promoted?”

Billy, please send a message tight beam to Space Command.

“Start of message …
From Major Celeste Little, Celeste’s Irregulars, near Femhome.

As a result of information leading me to believe that our officers and NCOs will be separated on arrival, I took the decision to make a field promotion to Second Lieutenant for Sergeants Grace and Amanda. This was an operational decision, and on receipt, I hope that Space Command will ratify my decision.

End of message.”

“Please send that by tight beam to the home world, Billy.”

“That is done, Celeste. I think Space Command must have thought that they would be needed as they supplied extra pips, and they will easily replace the stripes on our sergeants’ uniforms.”

“Congratulations, both of you. We will depend on your skills as much as those of the other officers. It is right that you are treated the same as the rest of us.”

“I can be sure that we will both act as officers, and will support you in this venture, Celeste.”

“Whether our ability to kill without compunction, combined with powers of seduction, are up to the job will be tested over the next few years, but we believe firmly that what we have been asked to do is right for this planet.”

“Thank you, both of you.”

“In the next weeks we need to learn a lot about the toxins and other lethal products. We also need to get stronger as Femhome has 0.85 Gravity and that will seem a lot when we have been subject to only small centrifugal forces on this ship for so long.”

After all that has happened today. I think it is time for a rest period. I feel in the need of some company. Are there any offers?

Four hands went up.

“I don’t think my bed will manage five of us. I haven’t enjoyed the company of Grace so far. Would you be happy to join me?”

“Certainly. I am getting a little short of breath at the thought!”

As Grace and Celeste went off, Amanda commented that she was happy to sleep alone this rest period if someone was happy to join her next time.

Both Christine and Bryony gave her a lingering kiss before they disappeared into Bryony’s cabin.

Reveille was sounded far too soon, but the gym equipment was soon in use vigorously. Celeste and Bryony were sweating profusely and their singlet tops were soon in use to mop up some of the sweat, and they were quickly unaware of being naked down to the belts that carried the springs that kept them on the machinery.

Towards the end of the half hour, Celeste turned her machine on to an erotic setting and was soon enjoying those extra exercises that the machine could provide.

Their half hour of exercise was soon over and they headed to the showers as Christine and Amanda replaced them on the exercise machines.

An hour later still and Celeste was standing in front of a table with a tray of small vials. Each time she lifted out a vial Billy listed the contents, how it was used, and how long it took to kill the victim.

“We will just look at the natural toxins today. These are dummy vials but the contents look realistic. The real vials would be obtained from various venomous snakes, spiders, scorpions and plants like hemlock, and the plants used to make curare. The vial needs to be broken open, then if there is a red line on the vial, the contents have to be injected and if it is a brown circle then it has to be swallowed or snorted. The injectable toxins have an inbuilt syringe that is exposed when the vial is opened.”

“These toxins are not found on this planet. These vials may kill quickly and efficiently, but any confident pathologist is going to know that they originate off world and that will point to us. They are best used away from major cities where the remains can decompose naturally. Most of these toxins will rot with the victim and will be untraceable after a few weeks.”

“How do we transport these vials. I know they are small but the typical clothing on the planet covers very little.”

“I am going to leave the answer to that question up to you, but they are very similar in shape and size to a tampon.“

Amanda looked chagrined whilst the others laughed then came across and gave her a hug.

“It is the place where women have hidden small items since time immemorial.”

“Talking of that.” Christine said, “I have a dull ache in my lower abdomen. Do you think I am about to start my first period at the grand old age of 26?”

“I think we will all suffer that particular monthly inconvenience from now on. You will find a supply of tampons beside the beds in your cabins.”

“What do the women do on Femhome with the scanty clothing.”

“Do you have an answer, Billy?”

“There are dispensers of tampons in every public toilet in the cities and tampons are available free in what passes for a pharmacy at home.”

“Isn’t it difficult to hide the signs with only a thong for protection?”

“Women who are sexually unavailable wear a black ankle bracelet and tend to stay at home during heavy flow days. This means being prepared with meals in the larder in anticipation.”

It was nearly lunch time and the crew were getting used to the rather uninspiring diet of packet meals that had had eight years in storage, nevertheless they did give them nourishment and a time to unwind between training sessions.

“This afternoon we will watch a couple of videos on seduction techniques. Not all the women are ready to jump into bed with another woman who batts her eyelashes at them and I want you to watch in your cabins because the video asks you to mimic the presenter. The camera on your screen will check that you are doing it right. It may be second nature to people born as girls, but we are going to have to learn how to become major exponents of the craft in an afternoon.”

“I think this is going to be a challenge. I know I will certainly find it so. It may be easy to become a caricature of a woman very easily, but to seem accomplished and make it look natural is much harder.”

Two hours later the crew emerged.

“That was hard. I seem to be being trained as a temptress, a seducer, a flatterer, a promiscuous slut and a sexual marathon athlete with a prodigious capacity for orgasms, all in one afternoon. I have been taught where to kiss, and stroke and suck or lick every part of a woman’s body.”

“We know, we all have. It is exhausting. Even the language is new to me.”

“So put into practice what you have been taught. You only have a few weeks left before we land. After this rest period we will learn about the infective organisms that will kill groups of people in an epidemic or even pandemic. They are tools that I hope we will never need to use, but Smallpox, Plague, Anthrax, Typhus or Tetanus, with other diseases I have never heard of have to be held in reserve. These will remain in sealed cupboards in Billy, and will only open on my direct command with a coded protocol.”

“Some of those are water borne and others are airborne. Finally others use insect or other vectors.”

“ Are there the correct vectors on Femhome?”

“Femhome was colonised from Earth centuries ago, so the chemistry of our bodies is the same and various pathogens remain in circulation in the population. Whilst they speak with a heavy accent, they do speak our language.”

Whether there are vectors for parasite born diseases will need to be ascertained before use, but as with the other disease options, I hope we will never have to put them into use.”

“How about the weapons?”

“The garrottes, you mean.”
“Yes, the garrottes.”

“On the planet you will wear a short sleeve over your right shoulder, showing your name and rank. This is attached to your bustier. Inside that shoulder sleeve is a garrotte with a wire 40cm long with two metal handles.”

“Actually I meant the weapons that are to remain stored in Billy?”

“There is a small armoury stored here, and again it will only be released on my direct command, or Bryony’s command if she can reassure the computer that I am dead. Their use would mean that we have failed in our mission, and they are to be used in a last ditch defence, or possibly to support the relief ship’s crew in ten years time.”

“Will we learn about social conventions here, like when it is appropriate to touch or even shake hands. Do we air kiss or kiss on the cheek? What is said or done to either encourage or resist intimate contact?”

“Billy, this is your area. You have been recording conversations and entertainment programs for some time. Years even.”

“On the whole, touching hands and arms is socially acceptable under any circumstances. The touching of children is the same as it would be on our home planet. Attending a medical centre gives authority for touching of all sorts as you would imagine.”

“Sitting with legs or ankles crossed is a statement that you are not available for anything more, but sitting with legs apart is an invitation for more.”

“Air kissing is unfamiliar to Femhome residents, but chaste kissing to the cheek of a friend or relative on parting or greeting is normal. Extrovert hugging can lead to mixed messages and may lead on to something more.”

“Finally, it a woman touches the tie on your thong and you do not move her hand away then that is the final acceptance of intimacy and you will be giving her permission to undress you completely. You are expected to do the same with her thong and bustier.”

“Remember that women with an ovotestis are expected to wear a bracelet, but they are predatory and promiscuous. Their fertility is regarded as being high and pregnancy is almost certain if you are at your most fertile.”

“If you allow a woman with an ovotestis to untie your thong you are bound by law to allow her to attempt to impregnate you, and as you know, contraception of any sort is illegal with serious punishments.”

“Apart from the bracelets, how do we identify women with an ovotestis?”

“They wear thongs with a larger area of cloth and it is very obvious when they are sexually aroused. They also tend to be smaller busted than the average Femhomian woman.”

“I think we have had enough of the social mores of Femhome for now. We need to have a meal, then resume our studies into our vials that kill in one way or another, then we need to consider strategies for when we arrive. We haven’t yet decided who we may need to kill, although this mastermind figure who is manipulating the Senate is going to be a prime candidate.”

“Finally, this evening I want each of you to be part of a brainstorming session with Billy, to explore strategies for when we arrive. Think of this as being a game plan with one of us calling the play, depending upon the circumstances. If something needs explosives, then we need to follow the lead of our explosives expert and if it is diplomacy, then that is my strength.”

“How do we carry explosives?”

“During your redesign you were measured and all of us can hold a large size tampon, The plastic explosives are designed to look like a tampon and there are places in the bra part of our bustiers that will hold a detonator and the relevant wires, but we will only carry them when a plan is in place and it may be that we can just carry them in some sort of handbag in plain sight, after all many women will carry a spare tampon in their bags in case of need.”

“How is it that a bustier provided by the locals has a space for detonators?”

“Good question. The bustier has small pockets at the side for the equivalent of a credit card, mobile phone and a tissue or two. One pocket is left empty for whatever the woman wants to use it for. These will also hold the detonators which look pretty much like a tooth pick with wires.”

“OK. So we walk round the city with a stick of plastic explosive suck up our vaginas, and detonators poking out of our cleavages.”

“On occasion, yes. but only for a specific reason. The ‘plastic’ only needs a bit the size of a walnut to destroy a house or car. I don’t think carrying that on rare occasions is going to cramp your style as a seductress. I almost said that we hope your lovemaking goes with a bang, but that might be a bit tasteless.”

“Oh, and I forgot the detonators have a small slide switch on them. When activated you have five minutes to get out of the area. A hundred metres should be sufficient.”

“The walls of this spacecraft are packed with female friendly weapons. Light weight and effective at short range, but inevitably we have a limited supply of ammunition and as I said earlier, they are a last resort.”

“OK, if there are no more questions I suggest you get into twos and look at the stage two seduction exercises. I will come and join both pairs for a short time. I need to practice as much as you do.”

“After an hour I expect one couple to get in an exercise period, then the others will take over. Showers before dinner 17.00 local time. Please put some clothes on for dinner. Clothing is optional for the next week. Be comfortable in your skin, as the saying goes.”Tomorrow we will go onto Femhome time for the rest of our voyage.”

“Lastly, I expect us all to march down the exit tunnel at the spaceport in full dress uniform with sidearms in full view. We need to show that we are a force to be reckoned with even if there are only five of us. That means lots of exercise with the springs on the gym equipment set at the highest setting, otherwise you will feel as if you are marching through warm oil.”

_______________________________________________________________________________________

The days until landing passed quickly and uneventfully. The crew spent much of their time on their own, exercising or studying manuals on their screens in their cabins. The evening meal was the only time they joined as a group. Billy’s stores were becoming depleted. The water had been recycled so many times that it was consumed out of necessity rather than pleasure and the variety of meals was depressingly lacking. There would only be two days latitude before the food ran out. Using cosmetics and any sort of fragrance was forbidden as the air scrubbers and water purifiers could not remove all the taint, and the short supply of underwear was becoming a challenge. Eventually just a single set of underwear remained for each woman, ready for landing. They remained nude for the rest of the time.

It was time for the crew to put their hair dressing skills to the test. Each woman retained a simple military style haircut with a neat bun at the nape of her neck.

The planet Femhome occupied the whole of their observation window now, and Billy soon gave a warning that the ship was going to turn so that the heat shield faced down.

The blast of Billy’s engines was a surprise after eight years of inaction, but the lower gravity meant that the feelings of being compressed by the deceleration was less acute than it would have been on the home planet.

It was only minutes before the chatter between Billy and the AI at the space station stopped, the engines went silent, an exit ramp rolled up to the cabin door and it opened with a small whooshing sound.

Billy whispered aloud. “Good luck and goodbye.”

Then there was a smell of hot plastic and Billy was no more.

The five emerged one at a time. Moved into formation 2-1-2 on the ramp with Celeste in the middle, and marched down the ramp to the welcoming party who stood in a garish array of skimpy outfits.

She recognised the Senator who stood in the centre of the arrival dais. She called the halt and presented the scroll in a plastic tube to the senator.

“These are my credentials as Earth’s ambassador, extraordinary and plenipotentiary.”

“You are most welcome as Earth’s first ambassador here and I am pleased to accept your credentials as ambassador, extraordinary and plenipotentiary.”

“Please come with me. We are able to offer you some refreshments before we travel into the city. A building has been set aside for you in the city as your Embassy on the instructions of your government. You will be accommodated at the Embassy.”

“We thank you for this courteous welcome. We were lead to believe that we could change into something more appropriate to the climate when we arrived. This heat is fairly oppressive in dress uniform.”

“Yes, of course. The room where the refreshments are available is air conditioned. After that we will guide you to your Embassy where you may choose several outfits suitable for your status and our climate.”

The bus they travelled on was air conditioned but still stiflingly hot. It was a relief to reach the hall where food and drink was set out in a colourful array.

“This looks magnificent. Thank you for arranging such an arrival party.”

“You will need to tell us what the foods are. Many of them are unfamiliar and we have been on a diet of eight-year old packaged food since we awoke, so we are not ready for a wonderful array like this.”

“It would be nice for you to try some of our local delicacies, but we quite understand that you will have to acclimatise to our diet. Try what you wish. No one will take offence if your tastes are simple for the present. There are many people who wish to meet you and I am sure they will make merry with the feast if you do not.”

…and so it was. Introductions followed introductions, and the food was indeed delicious. There seemed to be a tacit understanding that the team were off limits for the day, but there was plenty of evidence of touching on the bow that held the thong in place on the hosts.

After a confusing hour of colour and unrelenting social intercourse the five were beginning to flag and were gathered up into a road vehicle and driven the several miles to their new Embassy.
A small staff of three waited to welcome them and show them around.

The accommodation was commodious with five ensuite bedrooms, kitchen, lounge, and a large meeting room to meet guests.

Each room had a hanging rail covered with bustiers and thongs in a huge variety of colours.

“What happens when it rains?”

Flora Vince laughed, “The rain is very gentle here, and we just wear the same and change when we get home, or borrow from a clothing library that are common in residential areas.”

“Just before I leave you I will mention that your ship has been moved from the landing pad to a point near the boundary of the spaceport, and turned on its side to allow access to the computer facilities. It has also been drained of any remaining fuel to prevent fires.”

“That is fine. The ship can never fly again. It now needs to be repurposed, but I should mention that the skeleton of the ship is made of a Lithium-Aluminium alloy that gives strength and lightness. It is perfectly safe in space, but should not be cut into on the surface here with this planet’s high oxygen level. There would be an explosion within minutes, particularly with the heat from a cutting torch.”

“I am sure the team moving the ship would be aware of that, but I have little knowledge of metals or their properties. I will check with the team moving the ship.” and she moved off to use her mobile phone.

Almost on cue there was a large explosion emanating from the spaceport. A pall of white fumes rose menacingly into the atmosphere and soon the acrid smell of Lithium and Aluminium oxides permeated the air even several miles from the site.

“That is awful.” Celeste commented almost unnecessarily. “The ship had lots of stencilled messages all over the surfaces showing the fire and oxidation risk symbols. Why would someone cut into a surface like that?”

“I am sorry to say, that I think one of the other senators has given instructions to cut the vessel open to see what we can learn from its construction. I doubt very much if the demolition crew would be able to read, or to recognise the symbols used by you. I hope there has not been a major loss of life. I need to go and see what can be done.”

Bryony spoke quietly “We are on our own it seems. All the plans need to be altered to fit this new scenario with all the weapons we have been trained to use gone in one explosion, but I am sure this building has many electronic bugs and cameras, so be careful of what you say and who you say it to.”

“I think even the residual ship computer that was to run the education unit would have had the resources to send an encrypted message to our home world showing that it was being destroyed. It doesn’t help much, but at least someone will know of our dilemma eventually.”

In fact the computer had been linked to a source much closer. A Bulwark grade transport ship of the fleet was only two months away. It was carrying 5000 male settlers in pods who had been promised wives if they travelled the eight years to Femhome. Celeste’s team did not know that, and would not have approved had they done so. Their challenge had been made more difficult by the destruction of their scout ship, but was not quite impossible as yet. They still believed that they should decapitate the snake and return the planet to a balanced population by negotiation.

The team were on their own now, but went from bedroom to bedroom looking at all the skimpy outfits that had been provided for them. Each woman had a rack of the all purpose bustiers with the pockets built into the sides, and then there was the thong than varied between covering reasonably well, or covering hardly at all.

Uniforms were discarded with the very warm sultry weather and they chose local costumes in more muted colours. These were slipped on before they went downstairs again, but they made a point of putting on the sleeve for their upper arms that had their rank and name and the flag of their home planet; a blue disc on a black background.

Flora had returned.

“We have lost our entire crew of trained electrical and electronics engineers. All six of them. One of the other senators had put them all to task, and all were killed instantaneously in the explosion. Most of the terminal at the Spaceport has gone and about 200 people flying in or out, or who work there have also died.”

“The investigation has started, but will take some time.”

“How do you do an investigation with such a low level of literacy?

“Everything is recorded on memory sticks. It is played back in real time by investigators.”

“That must be incredibly slow. Aren’t the children motivated to read?”

“No, most citizens do not see a need for reading or writing. They can see everything on a screen and few people work in areas that need reading. If someone wants to ‘read’ a book then the file is loaded into their phone and it is read to them aloud.”

“We are truly sorry for the loss of these people. Is the Spaceport out of action?”

“Yes, the Spaceport is out of action and is largely demolished. The interplanetary communications suite there, is also in ruins, and all the technicians are amongst the dead.”

“I must leave you now. There’s much to do. The Senator who authorised the work on your scout ship has died at her own hand. It is a tragedy, but she would almost certainly have faced a lifetime in our only prison had she remained alive.”

“I am sure we will be looked after very well by our staff here. You have more important things to do to sort out this crisis.”

Celeste looked at the disappearing view of Flora in her garish outfit that left little to the imagination. She did not look the part of someone capable of sorting out a major disaster in her World. Celeste also noticed that the side bow on her thong was covered by a black clip.

Does that mean that she is ‘unavailable’. Celeste thought.

Talking to her team, Celeste suggested that they explored the area.

One of the women on the staff looked attentive. “Is there a map of the city we can use?”

“Certainly there is a map. You can view it on your phone. There is an icon for the map on the third screen down from the main menu.”

“I suppose that is to be expected in a Society where illiteracy is normal.”

“Your phone can give you a guided tour of the city centre if that is any help.”

“Yes, that is helpful. Thank you.”

So off the five went as part of an orientation exercise.

In the Bulwark generation ship, drones were moving steadily round the 5000 containers which held the intended migrants in suspended animation. The cocoons all showed green on their displays. All was well.

The Bulwark grade ship was a workhorse transporting people huge distances. It had a human crew of just ten. These had spent most of the eight years asleep, but had been woken with three months left in the journey.

They knew about the disaster at the space port and the fact that they could not communicate with the team on the ground any more.

“When will we be able to use the local phone network to talk to the local team?”

“Not until we are 2-3 days from arrival.”

“A pity, but it cannot be helped.”

“With their spaceport inoperative there should not be much traffic to avoid. The pods will be ejected close to the major cities a thousand at a time, and each pod will guide itself to be close to all the others and will open to release the migrant and the small amount of luggage they were allowed to bring. Meals and water are stored in the capsule as you know, but there will be larger pods that contain a week’s food and water as well. After that, the migrants are on their own.”

“I hope the local team will be able to offer some assistance, but they will probably still be learning the ropes.”

“After that we head for home, with another eight years in our pods.”

The next few weeks passed quickly. Celeste and her team got to know the city and how to provide for their needs fairly quickly, but communication off planet was still unavailable, so it was a surprise when Christine’s phone rang with an unknown number.

She put the phone on speaker mode for everyone to hear the Captain.

“Your migrants will start to arrive in batches of a thousand in two days time. They will have food and water for seven days, and will be expecting to be met by the local residents. They were lead to believe that there were many women on the planet without partners, and that they would be welcomed.”

Celeste grabbed the phone.

“This is Major Celeste, the Ambassador. We had no idea of this expedition with male migrants. This is a female dominated world where men are killed on sight. The few that remain alive live in the desert areas well away from the cities. Please reconsider the deploying of the capsules until you can discuss the plans with a more senior authority. Most of your migrants will not survive the week.”

“We cannot return with a full load. The ship does not have enough fuel to return laden with the capsules. We must deploy the capsules.”

“Then someone somewhere will be responsible for their deaths.”

“I will contact the authorities here to see if the migrants can be put into a partitioned part of the continent and kept until they can be transported elsewhere.”

“Are you hopeful that they can be ‘stored’ for up to twenty years?”

“No, not really, but there are planets closer than Earth, and they might be able to pick up some or all and transport them elsewhere.”

“Good luck with that.”

“What are their qualifications?”

“They vary. I can send a manifest of them to your phone. They cover all the professions and important trades.”

“Maybe I can keep some of them alive. This planet is short of many trained personnel.”

“Do what you must do when you get close enough. I will do what I can, and I just hope it will be enough.”

Celeste rang off and was intensely quiet for a short while.

“How do I contact Flora?”

“We have her number listed.”

“OK this cannot wait. I need to see her pronto.”

Celeste rang the number and Flora was soon put on the line.

“Ambassador. I was thinking of calling you to see how things were getting on, but you have beaten me to it.”

“I have some difficult news. I have to meet with you today. Would that be possible?”

“I have a meeting for the next two hours, but could meet you then in my office here in the government building. I will leave a message at the gate for you and one other to be admitted.”

“OK I will see you later, and thank you for making the time at short notice.”

Celeste and Briony were at the gate in exactly two hours. The taxi driver had been very good working her way through the traffic.

The two officers were admitted to the Senator’s office immediately.

Flora offered a cooling drink to the two women and complimented them on their new attire, which was indeed much more suitable for the climate.

“I said that I have some difficult news, and indeed I have. I heard only a couple of hours ago that a migration ship will reach here in the next few days. It is a type that carries large numbers of migrants from one planet to another. Someone on Earth had heard that Femhome was short of men and decided to do something about it!”

“We both know that Femhome is not short of men. You get on very well without them. This ship will pass by Femhome and it will not land. As it passes by 5000 capsules will be discharged. They will carry the one occupant safely to the surface and then will open and the passenger will be able to leave. There are some bigger pods that contain water and food for a week.”

“These pods contain 5000 trained men.”

“The ship’s captain cannot take them home as he doesn’t have the resources to return them to Earth. The only thing he can do is to discharge his cargo and swing round the planet of a gravity assist trajectory and then the whole crew of ten will go into deep sleep for the eight years before they got home.”

“Your laws allow you to kill all 5000 of these men on sight, and I would not blame you if you did, but these men were promised wives if they migrated and all of them have skills that you need here. There are doctors, electronics specialists, builders, electricians and so on.”

“It would be a huge shame for them to be killed on sight when you really need their skills, and haven’t the resources to send women off world to get trained.”
“I would never have allowed this to happen, but someone in the bureaucracy of the home world has thought that this was a good idea, and this ship and its human cargo is the consequence of that ignorance.”

“I do not want to interfere with your Society but I do appeal to you and the population here not to just kill these men who are here because of no fault of themselves.”

“I thank you for your honesty, Ambassador. How long do we have before these capsules start to descend onto the planet.”

“About two days.”

“I will do all I can. You may not approve of the options I can put to my colleagues, but I will do my best.”

“I will approve if even one life can be saved.”

“I think I may be able to do better than one life, but cannot guarantee anything.”

“Now you must leave me. I must call an emergency General Council.”

Celeste and Bryony did a small bow, and left the Senator.

It took five hours before a quorate General Council met.

Flora gave all the information to the gathered women. She listed the options.

Kill on arrival.
Accept all the men then export them again to neighbouring planets that had balanced populations.
Accept them, then make them eunuchs.
Choose to set up another city and allow the men to live there with volunteer wives from the general population.
Choose the men who have skills that we lack, like doctors and electronics engineers and kill the rest.
A combination of any of the above.
There was a mounting danger of genetic uniformity. The population needed an input of new DNA. Use the men to provide a semen store before killing some or all.

After Flora opened the debate to the floor, the women with an ovotestis were vehemently against any of the men surviving, but they were, as usual, in the minority. The other women were perhaps tired of being without a long term partner, and whilst these did happen on Femhome, the women with an ovotestis chose to avoid these relationships, preferring promiscuity.

The debate flowed to and fro for several hours, before Flora intervened. “We do not have time to debate further. If we are to activate the police and local armed groups to kill the settlers on sight, we need to tell them very soon, and if they are to be collected up under guard, but kept alive the same applies. The debate has shown that no one wants the men to be allowed to join our communities without restriction.”

In the end, the General Council decided that the men should be apprehended and collected together, fed and watered until a new General Council could be convened with a the whole Council present. A final decision would be made then.

When Flora got back on the phone to Celeste, she said. “I do not believe that the Council will vote to kill the men in cold blood. They will either be exported, or some will be exported, but most likely, they will be incorporated into our Society in one form or another. I do not believe we can miss out on the genetic diversity they offer, so I don’t think castration is the answer either. We could also benefit economically with the skills they have.”

“All that is excellent news.” Celeste replied as they rang off.

Celeste and the team had got used to walking around the area of their embassy in the skimpy outfits, and were in nodding acquaintance of a number of the residents. These women sometimes waved to them, but none got close enough to do anything more, so the bows on their thongs remained untouched.

Celeste remained in hourly contact with the government. Even with optical telescopes the women could see the large spacecraft disgorge the tiny capsules down both sides. They landed in five areas, each with about a thousand capsules. It took an hour before the capsules were cool enough to approach, then they started to open and the occupants emerged looking dishevelled and bewildered.

The men’s meagre belongings were collected and then they were driven to collecting areas for processing. Only three men did not emerge alive from their capsules, and none were killed by uninformed women.

Celeste and her sisters visited each camp and used a loudspeaker to tell the men what had happened and that they were effectively under a death sentence unless a solution could be found. The promise that there would be wives on the planet who were willing to marry them was confirmed as being nonsense.

The men were fed and given water to drink, but had to remain in the open air to sleep.

Several days went by and the General Council remained divided by those who wanted the men killed, or at least expelled, and those that wanted them to be put to good use in job vacancies that could not be filled otherwise.

Whether their genetics could be used was another point of contention.

The first decision came after two days. The men would not be killed.

It took two more days to decide to export men whose skills were not needed on the planet. Advertising executives, and veterinarians were not required where there were no domesticated animals or advertising.

Bankers and accountants came next. These would be absorbed by neighbouring planets.

Engineers of various sorts, doctors, nurses and academics of various disciplines were selected and transported to cities where it was explained that they could be exported or could stay. If they stayed then they would be put to task helping to rebuild the spaceport or other projects, and if they performed well they would be fed and kept alive. They were not to fraternise with the local women. They were dressed in red shorts to indicate their status, but had to return to their compound each night.

Nearly 2000 of the original 5000 chose to stay and the rest were kept in camps where they would be exported on freighters which occasionally visited neighbouring planets. That is, once the spaceport had been reopened.

The fact that they had agreed not to fraternise with the local women, did not mean that the local women could not fraternise with them, and many did. There wasn’t a lot that the government could do when couples appeared all over the cities, and pregnancies followed as one might expect from a planet where contraception was illegal.

The dependency on the women with an ovotestis for pregnancies fell overnight. Most women seemed to want long term relationships. The one night stands with a promiscuous woman who would desert them within hours did not suit them any longer, so they made their own rules and cocked a snoot at the government. The decades of manipulation of intact women by the women with an ovotestis was over, and many of those who had made sexual demands by right over many years did not see the following morning, but were found bloody and mutilated beside the roads, Others, with a less fearsome reputation were mutilated, then were turfed out into wild places for nature to take its course.

The following meeting of the General Council was depleted by the lack of the women with an ovotestis. If they were not dead then they were in hiding. The Council revoked all the decisions made previously and the men were allowed to enter the cities to live, love, and work.

People who had previously kept a low profile knew how to access the planet’s men and their families let them know the news that they would not be killed on sight. They gradually emerged from their hiding places and re-entered Society, but it was unfortunate that the newcomers were much more highly qualified than the resident men, and the jobs they could do as illiterate and uneducated men was quite limited, as it is anywhere. However, most of the planet’s original men were excellent at survival skills, and made superb guides for a new burgeoning wildlife tourism industry.

Bryony, Christine, Grace and Amanda all found husbands amongst the first or second group of men who travelled from Earth to find a wife, and all four elected to stay on Femhome. Celeste reached the end of her appointment after ten years, and Peter, her husband, and Sophie and Billy, their children, elected to travel back to Earth on a new breed of ship that did the journey in six years rather than eight. After a year of furlough, Celeste was asked to become the Ambassador at another planet only four years away and so, the life of a diplomat continued.

There was one final piece of excitement before everything settled down. An unauthorised flight of a small spacecraft took off from a private spaceport well away from any city. When a team was sent out to investigate there was no one at the complex nearby but there was a laboratory for the manufacture of a drug that made women compliant. The manipulation of the Senate by a small faction was at an end and the spacecraft was inadequate to get to the nearest planet. It ran out of fuel and air long before it got to its destination, and years later it was rediscovered drifting and was packed with the skeletal remains of the late owners of the drug factory.