The Exchange,

Chapter 1
The exchange part 1

Chapter Description: Sandra awakens

She wasn’t a pretty woman, some would probably say mundane, average height average build with dull brown hair framing her pale blue eyes and falling in a simple fashion down past her shoulders. She didn’t wear the latest fashion, she wore clothing that was practical, not flattering not revealing, just plain and simple. Casual shoes, efficient steps, Mundane.

However Sandra Bryce had an outstanding mind, one of the best in the country where genetics were concerned. Often found traveling from country to country giving guest talks on splicing DNA, filling in gaps where diseases were concerned, and writing papers on numerous topics in the field of biosciences. A truly gifted woman in terms of intelligence and it was this feature that led her on a truly extraordinary journey.

Sitting at her desk on a Saturday night, a half eaten Chinese takeaway lay discarded on one edge of the table, the rest of the table was scattered in paper and photographs, it was a quiet night, the rest of the building was empty, not surprising being a Saturday, but this was how she liked it, she tried to avoid people as best she could, they annoyed her, asking her often insignificant questions wasting her time which could be better spent elsewhere. Currently she was researching the possibility of creating human hybrids, finding the right genetic makeup to improve longevity and health of humans on earth, perhaps even using nano-technology to improve upon the human physique so they would be better adapted to working in high altitudes or extreme temperatures. A knock came at the door, a rather loud rapping which startled her from the paper she was reading she looked up, surprised that someone else was in the building this time of night, let alone disturbing her.

"Yes?"

Her voice rang out authoritatively the tone in her voice giving whomever was at the door permission to enter. The handle turned and the door opened. Two men entered, the second coming up behind the first practically filled the whole door frame. Sandra didn’t recognize the men, but the fact that to get into the building required high security passes meant that she felt quite safe even though these men brought with them a heavy oppressing feeling as they entered.

"Can I help you?"

Again her voice carried an air not dissimilar to a head teachers. The smaller of the two men straightened his tie, he was wearing a black pinstriped suit as was the bulkier man, he cleared his throat and looked directly at her. His cold gray eyes fixing hers in a lock.

"Miss Bryce? Miss Sandra Bryce?"

She didn’t like his tone but she nodded.

"yes? Can I help you?"

Annoyed that she was now repeating herself she stood up from behind her desk. The front man produced a strange gun from his shirt, aimed, and before Sandra could react, before she could even acknowledge what was in his hand, before she could hit the emergency call button under her desk, before she could leap out of the way or beg for her life, he shot her. Everything for Sandra went dark.

It was dark, It was uncomfortable, bloody uncomfortable. Her head ached, no no ALL of her ached, she felt like she’d been hit by a bus, slowly she opened her eyes. She tried to pull her hand up to wipe the hair from her face but realized she was strapped down. Panic flared in her but she could hear a mans voice talking behind her, he sounded like he was talking to someone on a phone or over a comms link of some kind.

She could feel movement underneath her and came to the conclusion she was in a vehicle, perhaps an ambulance, looking around seemed to confirm her suspicions, there were shelving units with drugs and latex gloves and she could even see a defibrillator . Her sight was blurry and she felt like she’d been out drinking all night. What had happened? Those men. She had been shot, perhaps a work college had found her in a pool of her own blood. Was she going to die? She lay there, eyes open, trying to figure out what was going on. She wasn’t attached to any drips or anything. She ached but there was no real pain. She suddenly caught her name being mentioned by the man up front.

"....Bryce has been acquired, currently transporting target to rendezvous, arrival in approximately 3 hours 25 minutes"

That didn’t sound good. Was he talking about her? Three hours until they arrived at the hospital. She tried to talk, her mouth moved slowly like as if in slow motion, she had to concentrate to make her mouth produce the right shape to say the word,

"hello?"

The conversation going on at the front of the vehicle ended abruptly and she felt the vehicle pull in sharply to the left. Movement in the front suggested whomever was driving and conversing was now clambering into the back. Sandra could feel her heart hammering in her chest, she waited for the man to come into her line of vision, being strapped down onto the bed didn’t allow her to see everything. She tried speaking again.

"Hello?"

This time her voice rang a little louder, she was feeling drowsy, but a lot better in comparison to a few minutes ago.

"Shit." came the reply.

This did not fill Sandra full of confidence. She saw a man appear over her head and realized with sinking certainty that the man above her was the man who had shot her.

"how can you be awake?" He continued "I shot you with enough SD25 to wipe out several people for several days"

He rummaged around the shelving unit until he produced a needle and a small vial of liquid.

"please....don’t"

was all Sandra could manage as he filled the syringe full of the liquid and stuck it in her arm. Sandra felt instantly drowsy and the last image she saw was of the gray eyed man looking confused above her.

Her blue eyes fluttered open she was propped up on a seat, her left wrist handcuffed to the side of the chair. A table lay out in front of her, several folders and boxes lay sprawled out on the table. A glaring light illuminated the small room. There was a large window on one of the walls that even in Sandras drugged state, it was obvious it was a two way mirror. She looked around. The chair was secured to the floor, she was trapped. What in hells name was going on. The only door to the room opened and a woman entered holding a clipboard. The woman was dressed in a white lab coat, had thin framed glasses and her hair neat in a bun. She looked rather familiar to what Sandra would look like whilst working in one of the medical laboratories dotted around the country. Sandra simply looked on, trying to clear her muddled head. Her eyes weren’t focusing properly, she could barely think.

"Ahh good afternoon Miss Bryce. I guess you have a lot of questions right now, all will be answered in due course, but not by me. I’m simply here to test you. "

the woman spoke as she walked up to Sandra and using a small key unlocked the handcuffs restraining her, immediately Sandra brought her now free hand up and massaged her wrist with her right hand. She thought hard about what she wanted to say.

"Whats going on?"

She managed slowly but clearly. The lab coated woman smiled and quickly jotted something down on the clipboard then looking up, spoke clearly and matter of factly.

"you’ve been brought to a government building to undergo a series of tests, how you do in the test will determine where you are placed in a scheme called ’the exchange’ I’m afraid I cannot tell you much more than that, other than you will be required to travel, and will be required to leave your home and friends for quite a few years."

Sandra listened to all of this as if in a dream, she shook her head, stopping almost as soon as she had started due to the explosion of light around her caused by her sudden head movements. She had been drugged with some heavy stuff and was still feeling the effects. When Sandra spoke, again, it was with purposeful determination.

"Wait, I ....didn’t ask to be in some scheme. Theres been a mistake"

The scientist shook her head this time and chuckled.

"you don’t chose to go on this project, you are selected by government officials to take part. Its top secret, your mere selection means you have a place in the scheme, we only take people of extraordinary talent, be they musicians, artists, mathematicians or doctors like your good self, I’m just here to determine where in the scheme you will be placed."

The woman opened one of the boxes on the table and shook out the pieces of wooden jigsaw puzzle as she continued to talk.

"We’ve already established that you have a naturally high resistance to a drug we have created called SD25. Which, I must say, is a first for our lab, discovering someone who can recover to the point of coherency in a matter of moments rather than days. That in itself is quite astounding, and thus we want to see what other capabilities you have. Can you please do this puzzle. I would suggest you co-operate, no-one knows you are here and failure to do as we ask may result in numerous unpleasantries"

The woman spoke to Sandra as if she was discussing the weather, it gave Sandra chills. She looked at the puzzle and realized with disgust, or was it disbelief? That it was a childs wooden jigsaw, perhaps a dozen or so pieces at best, of a man digging his garden. Sandra felt drugged, slow and dopey but even in such a bad state she could manage the puzzle.

She reached out for the first piece and started to place the chunks of painted wood in the right order. The lady scientist had started a stopwatch and watched with growing interest as Sandra completed the puzzle. Her movements were methodical but slow more deliberate than they would have normally been, but with the puzzle completed Sandra sat back in her seat.

"There. Can I go now"

The scientist stared almost in amazement between the completed puzzle and the stop watch.

"under a minute to do the puzzle, extraordinary truly remarkable"

She scribbled some more notes hurriedly down on her clipboard. Sandra didn’t understand what all the fuss was about

"I don’t understand what was so hard about that. Its a kids jigsaw, I stopped doing those when I was about 3. its not exactly taxing even with whatever crap you’ve shot me full of"

The scientist shook her head and chuckled.

"Theres not much point explaining to you what you’ve just done, you wouldn’t understand. Not yet at least. Now..."

The scientist produced a page of largely printed words and a blank piece of paper.

"....Can you copy these words onto the blank bit of paper"

Sandra laughed this had to be a wind up.

"You must be joking me....ahhh this is one of those spoof television programs isn’t it, get the public to do stupid things, see how far you can push them until they snap. Its gotta be right? I mean this is ridiculous..."

"Do the test please or I will have to resort to other measures"

Sandra did an over the top sigh and picking up the pencil wrote out the words. LOG, LOCK, SURER, LOW, LYING, ROO, STU. She dropped the pencil back on the table with a look of satisfaction. Folding her arms eying the scientist coolly

"Again not difficult, can you perhaps give me something taxing or do you now want me to pat my head and rub my stomach at the same time?"

Sandra was enjoying herself now that she had this place figured out, nothing this ridiculous could be real, even if they had gone a little over the top with drugging her. But the scientist simply smiled and scribbled even more notes down looking really quite elated.

"It seems your mind has somehow fused or adapted to the drug we’ve been giving you. Its sped up a process that would normally take months and in some individuals years to achieve. The words you’ve written are not the words I asked you to write. See"

The scientist points to the words and said each one out loud

"Flog flock surfer flow flying roof stuff....every single word, you’ve missed out the letter F."

Sandra stared in disbelief, feeling her mouth go dry as she inspected the list of words and sure enough once the scientist had pointed them out there were indeed letter F’s in each word.

"But how can I ...I mean?...."

She fell into silence, visibly shaken, her confidence knocked down a peg or two. Writing was part of her daily life, such simple words. How she had messed that up was difficult to explain. The scientist stood.

"You’ll be waking up in someplace entirely different from here. I wish you luck, you’re certainly an extraordinary case I will be following it with much interest, but I think we have all the information we should need now so I shall move you on to the next stage."

The scientist had moved around the table and casually took her pen out from behind her ear, giving Sandra a reassuring smile one swift movement of her hand and Sandra realized that the pen was actually a hidden needle which the scientist had just stabbed her with, the syringe of liquid quickly pumped into Sandra and once again she was plunged into unconsciousness

She felt warm, content, safe. In fact as Sandra came round, before she opened her eyes as she drifted between awake and asleep she thought to herself that this was the most relaxed and comfortable she had ever felt, and then she opened her eyes.

Bars surrounded her, pink bars, the room was very bright and she closed her eyes again briefly and opened them slower. she was covered with a patchwork knitted blanket the colours very pale whites pinks and yellows very soft and even through her confused state she instantly liked the blanket. She sat up, everything seemed strange..like she was still in a dream she felt very light headed, none of this was sinking in. She looked around the bars and touched one lightly with her finger. It was solid looking enough looked like it had once been plain oak but stained a pale pink colour. She looked around the rest of the room. It was very babyish, a few strange looking animal plushies sitting in one corner of the room a rocking chair sort of thing, books on shelves, a changing table. She was in a nursery.

For being a doctor she came to the conclusion rather slowly, the drugs in her system clearly affecting her ability to think straight. She felt the panic engulf her, she was in a babys cot. The bars stretched up very high. This was an adult sized cot, everything here was over sized She pushed the blanket off of her and made to move forward but stopped when she saw what she was wearing.

"Nappies?"

She said the word with a mixture of disbelief and horror. She had on pink fluffy booties and ....well all she could see was pink ruffled plastic pants but she could tell just by looking what lay underneath. Now that she could see, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t felt the bulk between her legs when she had pushed herself up into a sitting position.

She could hear crying and it was getting louder, it was only when she felt tears fall onto her exposed arms that she realized the crying was coming from her. She felt so out of control like she wasn’t herself, like she was watching everything unfold from someone elses eyes. Surely this had to be a dream. Wake up wake up wake up....

The door to the room opened and a woman walked in, she was tall, no not tall she was a giant and immediately Sandra grabbed the blanket and tried to cover herself up, she wanted to hide under the blanket and hope this nightmare would go away, another part of her was glad to see the woman and wanted to be picked up and hugged. In the end Sandra managed to grab the blanket but just sat there holding it staring up, as the woman approached The woman looked almost Asian she had really sparklingly beautiful eyes slightly turned up at the corner, her hair was long and brown wavey similar to Sandras, that was until Sandra realized with even more alarm that her hair was now about an inch shorter than shoulder length and a much fairer shade of brown, almost bordering on mousy blond. Her fingers grabbed a few strands and tugged as if not believing it was her own hair. It was firmly attached

The woman bent over the bars of the cot, easily plucked Sandra up by the armpits as she was still tugging at her hair and propped Sandra over her shoulder, one hand supporting her by her very well padded bottom.

"Oh its no wonder your crying, someones got a soggy bum"

Sandra tried to squirm out of the ladys grasp but the strange woman was strong and after a few feeble attempts Sandra relaxed against the woman realizing struggling was futile, it was then that Sandra noticed the faint smell of something familiar the woman smelled of childhood or was it home cooking? It smelt familiar and alluring and...safe. Sandra suddenly didn’t mind so much being up high held firmly by this woman. Sandra felt vulnerable yet relaxed. And at the same time deeply ashamed and embarrassed because even being drugged up it was obvious what was about to happen next. She was about to have her nappy changed. But instead of heading to the changing table the woman headed over to the rocking chair and sat down She sat Sandra down on her lap and held both of Sandra hands in her own large hands and looked directly at Sandra her face deadly serious.

Sandra felt butterflies in her stomach the woman looked concerned and it made Sandra want to cry for some reason. She wished the woman would look happy.

"Sandy, I’m Anya, I’m your carer, some people come here and don’t understand whats happening, I’m taught to let you figure things out on your own but I don’t like seeing my charges scared and confused so I tell them all I can without being reprimanded myself. Can you understand me?"

Sandra had stopped crying once she had been picked up and she had listened to Anya, anyas voice had an almost Russian lilt to it...or was it Swedish? It sounded like she was unsure of some of the words she was using as if she was still learning English Sandra nodded to anyas question. Anya smiled a warm genuinely happy smile.

"Oh I am glad, sometimes the process really wrecks an individuals mind, still you’re already a special case. I’m certainly glad I managed to win the position of looking after you. You’re soo adorable. I’m sure we’re going to get along great. But you don’t have to be shy sweetie, you can talk if you want to"

Sandra felt foolish sitting here on this womans lap wearing a rather cold uncomfortably heavy nappy and a pair of thick pink booties, she didn’t feel like herself and every so often would find herself being distracted by really simple things like the toys in the corner of the room, or her own foot, she should be feeling more scared than she was but Anya smelled safe this room felt familiar and the whole scenario still felt so much like a dream that she couldn’t shake the mixed feelings of contentment and embarrassment. She opened her mouth not sure what to say, closed her mouth again, she felt stupid.

"whats going on?"

Anya clapped her hands excitedly at sandras sentence.

"Oh good you can communicate, thats excellent. I’m so relieved. You’re such a clever girl arnt you, yes you are, yes you are"

Anya scooped Sandra up and hugged her tightly. Sandra squirmed feeling a mix of uncomfortableness and yet pride in herself. She was used to people praising her in an academic way but for some reason this giant womans patronizing congratulations at being able to say a simple sentence made her feel prouder of herself than she had done in years even if it was embarrassing

As she was being hugged Sandra felt Anya prodding her nappy repeatedly.

"You really are soggy little one. I will explain as I change you okay"

Sandra blushed.

"I...I don’t need nappies. Really. I’m 28, was potty trained a long long time ago"

Sandra laughed nervously.

"Little one, if you didn’t need nappies the one you are wearing wouldn’t be as soggy as it is now would it. Theres no need to be embarrassed, little children need to wear them. You’ll grow out of them soon enough"

"But im Not a child."

Saying that sentence seemed ridiculous considering her settings and apparel and Anya laughed in a light hearted manner stood up still holding Sandra and jiggled her up and down in much the same way a mother would try and rock a crying baby.

"shh now, it’ll be over in a matter of moments, then we can get you dressed and get ready to go"

"Go where?"

Anya appeared not to have heard the question as she crossed over the room to the changing table and placed Sandra down on it gently. Sandra shivered at the sudden coldness of the plastic but it quickly warmed up underneath her. Anya quickly got to work stripping the ruffled plastic pants off and unpinning the drooping nappy. As she worked she talked.

"you are currently on board the ship Alexander its a light speed cruiser, not that you would know what that was, but we’re heading back to the home world of Ixion. Its a star system quite a distance away, your people have yet to produce equipment that can sense the planet let alone travel to it. We have been in communication with your world and governments for about fifty years now and are working on a project which will benefit both our society’s My people are dying from a carbon based disease that we have not managed to adapt to, yet your people although vastly inferior in terms of intelligence and longevity seem to have conquered this disease millenia ago."

Anya paused as she undid the last pin on the nappy and tugged the terry toweling away from Sandra exposing her completely on the table.

Sandra immediately brought her hands down to try and protect what was left of her modesty feeling her face flush a deep crimson red

Anya dropped the used nappy into a cheerful looking nappy pail and pulled a thick white replacement from the shelf, She didn’t seem to notice sandras embarrassment as she folded the nappy and then continued the conversation as she cleaned Sandra up with baby wipes and liberally dusted her with talc.

"We have been taking humans of outstanding performance and adding a few of our genes to their genetic makeup. The genes fuse and create a hybrid. Sandy, You will help our people vanquish the disease that is ravaging our world, in return you have easily doubled your life span, have opened up new areas of your brain humans have not begun to utilize and will learn all about our world our people and our ways of life by living there for a large part of your new life. The more intelligent the person the younger in our life we start them off. We can pick what time line to start developing an individual. The younger they are the more experience they will earn. I’m sure that doesn’t make sense to you but to become properly accustomed to our ways really takes a long time. My race does not reach adult hood until they are at least 70 years old in your time scale."

Sandra didn’t really understand what she was being told, concentrating on a conversation was difficult when you were naked in front of a strange, although Sandra felt like she had always known Anya, like they were best friends or soul mates Anya continued talking.

"As your carer I have also been modified, I can understand you but others on the ship wont and you wont be able to understand them. I have been looking after you for four days already, in truth I didn’t expect you to be aware yet for another couple of weeks, it usually takes humans a lot longer to adapt to our procedures."

Anya lifted Sandra and placed the thick white toweling under her, Sandra didn’t struggle she’d come to the conclusion it was pointless. Anya fell silent for a moment as she concentrated on pinning the nappy on. Once the pins were in Anya continued.

"I know I’m not explaining myself very well, but its going to take a couple of months to get to my home planet, whilst on the journey you’ll meet some more of the new girls and boys here, although none of them are as young as you we have a couple of preschoolers and a few slightly older children, a couple of them are already awake for we’ve had them on board for quite a while. I’m sure you’ll make friends"

Sandra shook her head. "I don’t want people seeing me like this. I look ridiculous"

Anya chuckled as she pulled a pair of clear plastic pants over the bulk of the nappy and lifted Sandra up off the table.

"Sweetie, you look like a baby, you don’t look ridiculous, theres nothing odd looking about you. If anything your perhaps the cutest little girl ive ever seen"

Sandra blushed as Anya held her out at arms length and inspected her. Sandra could feel tears welling up.

"But I don’t want to be a baby, is there not some appeal or someone I can talk to about this"

Anya shook her head sadly looking almost regretful.

"I’m sorry kiddo but your stuck like this, but I promise i’ll make your journey as fun as it can possibly be okay. You’ll be alright so long as you stick near me. I wont let anything bad happen to you. I promise"

Sandra didn’t know why but she felt dread well up inside her, like Anya was saying something really important, had something bad happened to other people in this predicament. Suddenly Sandra wanted hugged. Being a scientist and tutor for many years Sandra had built up a stand-offish personality which kept everyone at arms length even her family, yet sandra really really needed to be held, felt an overwhelming urge to smell that smell Anya seemed to exude Sandra lifted her arms up and waved them at Anya in a very obvious ’I want a hug’ sort of way. Anya paused for a moment and looked at Sandra, Sandra could see tears welling up in anyas pretty eyes, Sandra didn’t want Anya to cry and so Sandra started to feel upset too. Anya hugged Sandra tightly, gently placing Sandra so that Sandra could snuggle into anyas neck, the dark oblivion of anyas neck made Sandra feel very safe indeed like nothing in the world could hurt her. She was safe and without realizing Sandra had grabbed a handful of anyas jumper holding on tight so that they would never be parted.

Anya returned to the rocking chair and simply held Sandra using one hand to stroke the back of sandras head rhythmically and methodically, rocking back and forth on the rocker, until she could feel the little child fall limp in her gentle hold. Anya rocked there for what seemed like a blissful eternity. She was needed again, someone needed her, and that felt good it made Anya feel wanted and Anya could already feel the hormones they had given her kick in, her motherly instincts to protect this child were already in full force. She would go to the ends of the earth for Sandra, would protect her with her very last breath. Sandra looked so much like her real child, the one that had been taken away from her, who had died from the terrible disease. Anya looked down at the sleeping baby, the grip on her jumper loosened as Sandra fell deeper into sleep.

Anya spoke, a soft hushed whisper frightened of waking her new baby up.

"I’ll protect you forever kiddo, I wont loose another child."