The same old argument raved again.

“Look, how can you not understand that I have always needed to be a woman?”

“You stupid fuckin faggit, all I ever wanted was a man with a dick! I told you 20 fuckin years ago that if you wanted that, you need to go be a whore or find yourself a rich man to do that for you! You sure as hell don’t fill my needs! All you are is a goddamned fag that couldn’t accept the fact that he was gay so he thought he had to be a female!”

Sean walked into the store, nervous about her bicycle. There wasn’t anyplace outside the store to tie it to, so she was left with nervously watching her bike through the window while she stood in a line at least 20 people long. She fretted while the line proceeded slowly toward the counter. Just as she was about 5 people from the front of the line, a guy just walked into the line in front of her. She was completely dumbfounded and had no idea what to say to him, but after about five minutes of nervously eyeing her bike through the window, she decided she had to say something.

“Like it or not, you are our only hope. I just thank my lucky stars you aren’t as homely as Obi-Wan Kenobi.” If they hadn’t both been so exhausted, that would have triggered another round of sex. As it was, they snuggled into each other’s embrace and fell fast asleep, not without some giggling.

Vasily was plainly nervous, fidgeting in the back seat as they approached the glass and steel edifice that was CareGiver’s Orlando facility. The heat as they stepped out into the sun was an oppressive blast in the face even though it was still early in the day and He found himself adding to his nervous perspiration with genuine sweat as the foursome entered the building and strolled across the lobby to find Anne at her usual post.

“I know what you’re thinking of doing!” She hissed the words into Sean’s ear. “I just want you to know that every single one of us backs you. Just make sure you hit the right target!” Sean broke their embrace and looked into Anne’s eyes, searching for something, some sense of the other woman that would tell her how to respond. In the end, there was only one thing she could say.

Today was the first day of the rest of my life and I hated it. I bade goodbye to my husband the night before. He looked into my eyes and told me he loved me before he died. I can take comfort in that, at least. Now I am left with this yawning emptiness in my soul, a hole in my heart that can never be filled.

I suppose I can take some solace in the fact that I am now free to transition, to become the woman I have always wanted to be and he could never stand, but the truth is, I’d rather be tied to my ugly male self and have him to hold me at night.

“Two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead.” Her father’s voice echoed down the long years and she silently thanked him for that stupid little piece of wisdom while she cursed herself. It was true that she hated him and the things he had put both her and her sister through but it was equally true that she felt grateful to him, grateful that he had taught her the things she needed to know in on order to exact vengeance upon those who had wronged both her and her sister so horribly.

This is the true story of how I met a very rich man and how he helped me decide to live.

I don't know if I should tell you to enjoy it, it's not exactly the sort of story you enjoy.

Pan Am 1088 Black Boxes Found on Wake Island!

Pan Am technicians, operating in concert with a FASA disaster team, uncovered the two flight data recorders from Pan Am Flight 1088 which crashed in May. Preliminary data indicates that the craft suffered a catastrophic loss of the fuel pump in its starboard engine, primary and auxiliary hydraulics and the Master Avionics Computer at more or less the same time.

Officials from Pan Am and the manufacturer of the aircraft had no further comment, simply saying that they were investigating how such an unlikely series of failures could occur.

One shift, I found myself in the aeroponics section along with Simon, the slight young man we had both noticed keeping himself apart from the rest in the mess hall the first time we had eaten aboard ship. I had noticed that he cast longing glances at both of us when we ate, but not in the same way as the others, and he had never tried to approach either of us as the others had. There had been no time for anything but the business of running the ship since we first broke orbit, but as we shuffled around each other, checking pumps and sprayers, pruning plants to ensure maximal growth patterns and yields, I noticed him glancing at me sideways when he thought I wasn’t looking.

Still, there was the fact that if given the same choice, confronted with the same circumstances, she would still have done the same thing. It was a burden none should have to bear and it was something she was stuck with. All that was left to her was to find some way to redeem herself in her own eyes, some way to counter the debt she owed to humanity.

Their usual lack of chatter drew the loneliness of the vacuum about them as they soared through the deep, far off sunlight turning them half golden with glinting, unbearable brightness, obscuring the other half of each of them in blackest night. It was a sight to bewitch lesser souls, that dichotomy of light and absolute dark they each portrayed. An observer might even have said that it was a true vision of their being, but there was no one there to see it.

What was she going to do? The captain who had brought an effective end to the largest war humanity had ever fought by inflicting the greatest slaughter ever committed posed this question to herself as she sat finishing her red beans and rice, grimacing at the taste. This youngster they had just rescued could be one of the more promising engineering geniuses of the past century, but she had no idea how to even approach the child.

Just a moment later they were passing the backboard back out, a pale waiflike form strapped to it. “Don’t wait for us to get out, get that kid to sickbay ASAP!” The medic was less than halfway back through the hole when the gurney the backboard had been placed on vanished through the hatch. Jeff would have loved to follow it, but he had to take care of his ship first, and that was that.

He had cobbled together enough fuel cells to hold for almost a year, and careful rationing would give enough food and water for nine months. After that, he would starve, freeze, or suffocate. It didn’t really matter, any way he cut it, he was dead if he didn’t make some kind of movement.

Someone was trying to escape the remains of the shipyard, someone her dedicated and very thorough crew had not found, maybe a pirate, maybe a survivor, but definitely someone who could build something space worthy out the wreckage, for all she saw was what looked like attitude jets, not the flare of boosters, just the puff of ice crystals from thrusters.