Switched: Brides of the Kindred 17 (7 page)

“
It’s a female
of course,”
Kerov informed her stiffly.
“I have no interest in other males. And we cannot
make an excuse to Xirnah. It would result in an immediate
investigation into my intimate circumstances to verify why I was
unable to service her.”

“
Service
her?
Wow—now
that’s
romantic,” Frankie said sarcastically. “Only
I
would be the one ‘servicing’ her in
this case and I’m not interested in other women any more than you
are in other men.”

“
But you have a male body now—
my
body,”
Kerov
pointed out, trying to control his irritation.
“And if you don’t copulate with
Xirnah she will report me and I will be investigated for non-sexual
compliance. That would result in disaster if it was discovered that
I was guilty of Switching.”

“
Guilty of
Switching? Dios!
But it’s not your fault!” she exclaimed so loudly that Kerov
jumped.

“
Say it louder, why don’t you? I don’t think the people in the
front of the transport heard you,”
he snarled.

“
Sorry,” Frankie said more softly, sounding genuinely
contrite. “I’ll try to keep it down. I wish you could hear my
thoughts so we could communicate without me speaking out
loud.”

“
I
think that’s possible with a Complete or Full Switch,”
Kerov said
doubtfully.
“But I
don’t think it will be possible for us. Try it—think something to
me.”

She was silent for a moment and for a second he almost thought
he heard…
something.
But mostly it was her emotions he felt—the feeling of
concentrating hard on something that was frustrating
her.

At last Frankie
asked, “Did you hear that? What I was thinking?”

“
I’m afraid not,”
Kerov said.
“But I
did
get some
of your emotions. It’s possible that with some practice we could
communicate exclusively on the mental plane without you speaking at
all. But I think it will take some time.”

“
Well, we don’t have any time tonight and hopefully after we
go to sleep we’ll wake up in our own bodies. So we’ll just have to
get along with my whispering to you for now,” Frankie
said.

Overhead, a sexless,
mechanical voice announced, “Next stop Pernoth Station. Ministry of
Agriculture, Ministry of Conduct, Grand Central Marketplace.”

“
That’s my stop,”
Kerov told her.
“And I’m running late because of the delay in the station.
Xirnah will be waiting for me and she will
not
be happy. Will you help me out or not?”

“
Well…”

Kerov could feel her
debating, the uncertainty flowing through the limited link they
seemed to share.

“
Please,”
he
made himself say.
“If I don’t service Xirnah tonight I will be investigated. And
if it comes out that I have Switched—even incompletely—with a
female, my career will be ruined. I may even be sent to prison for
the rest of my life or executed.”

Inside, he felt her
relenting.

“
All right,” she murmured tersely. “I’ll try but I don’t know
how into it I can be. I kissed a girl once at a party in high
school but that was on a dare and I never really, uh, considered
going farther than that.”

“
You don’t have to be very engaged at all,”
Kerov promised her as the transport
came to a halt.
“In fact, it’s better if you’re not. Just usher Xirnah into my
quarters, sit on the sensu-chairs with her until my body is ready
to perform, then take her into the sleeping chamber and copulate
with her. Inseminate her exactly once and then you can
withdraw.”

“
You make it sound so romantic,” Frankie muttered as she rose
and left the transport. “All right, I’ll do my best although I have
no idea how to work your equipment.”

“
It’s not that difficult,”
Kerov told her.
“The senu-chair activates as soon as you sit on
it.”

“
No, not
that
equipment. I meant your, uh…” She gestured between her legs.
“I mean how do I make it, you know,
hard?”

“
That’s what the sensu-chair is for. You’ll see,”
Kerov said.
“Truly, if you just do
exactly what I told you, the whole encounter with Xirnah can be
over in fifteen meems.”

“
Meem? Is that like a minute?”

“
I
don’t know what a minute is. A meem is a very short period of time.
Take the first exit to the left out of the station,”
Kerov directed.
“Then up the circular
ramp and out onto the main walkway.”

“
Got it.”

“
Good. And now I really think we should stop talking because
there are too many people around. I’ll give you directions but
don’t answer me—just do as I say and you’ll be fine.”

“
Fine,” she said tersely. Kerov could feel some resistance
from her but he couldn’t help that—he couldn’t have her mumbling to
herself in a public place. At best it would look like he had lost
his mind—at worst someone might guess that he had Switched. Though
there hadn’t been an instance of Switching in years, he was still
viewed with suspicion because of his obviously Kindred
heritage.

He watched out of
his own eyes, feeling like a helpless passenger, as Frankie
navigated her way out of the pubtrans station. She seemed to be
adapting to his world now. He only hoped that she could pull off
his State-mandated encounter with Xirnah without causing any
suspicion in his partner.

If not, he was going
to be in a universe of trouble.

* *
* * *

Frankie made her way
through the crowded tunnels until she came to the broad ramp which
reminded her of a cross between a circular stairway and a moving
sidewalk. She stepped onto it and found herself going around and
around in circles until she was deposited onto a landing platform
outside the station.

She would have liked
to have a chance to look around—after all, she’d never been off of
Earth before and she’d always been interested in other cultures.
But there were still crowds of people coming up behind her, all of
them seemingly in a hurry. So she got directly onto another moving
walkway—a straight one this time, painted in multicolored
stripes—which Kerov said was headed in the direction of his
quarters.

At last she thought
she would get a chance to relax a minute and look around. There
were rows and rows of high, gray buildings on all sides, lit by
round blue street lights that seemed to hover in midair with no
poles to support them. It was dark and overhead rose three
moons—one large and golden and two smaller. One had a slight bluish
cast and the other was pink. Alien stars twinkled down from above,
making Frankie feel very far from home indeed.

But no sooner had
she begun to examine her surroundings, than Kerov started speaking
in her head again, giving her instructions.

“
No, not on this stripe—the blue stripe is the slow lane. Work
your way to the left to the red stripe. Hurry! I’m already
late.”

For a guy who wanted
a favor from her—and a big one too—he was being awfully bossy, in
Frankie’s opinion. But she could feel his anxiety about the
upcoming date and decided he was probably just worried about being
late to meet his government-appointed girlfriend.

It
seemed extremely weird that the government played matchmaker
between the people here but Frankie guessed she could see the
point—at least a little.
They probably have them do all kinds of personality
tests and then match them with their ideal person—the one who’s
just perfect for them,
she reasoned to herself. She felt curious to see who Kerov’s
ideal woman was—what was his idea of perfection?

But she couldn’t spare much time to picture her host’s perfect
girl—she needed all her focus to get across the moving walkway. The
blue stripe where she had started was at the far right. Beside it
was the slightly faster green stripe and beside
it
was the
much
faster
orange. Finally, on the far left was the red stripe, which was
whizzing along so fast Frankie almost had to run as she hopped onto
it.

It
seemed like a very unsafe way to travel, even if it
was
kind of fun, but the people here
seemed completely used to it. Frankie saw men and women hopping
deftly between the different stripes, speeding up and slowing down
as though it was no big deal. Each stripe was big enough for two
people walking side-by-side so there was a standing lane and a
passing lane. Franking was in the standing part of the red stripe
and she looked around, watching as the tall gray rows of buildings
rushed past her. It felt like she was moving in fast
forward.

“
Good,”
Kerov
said inside her head.
“Now get to the far left of the red stripe and walk as fast as
you can.”

“
All right,” Frankie muttered, forgetting she wasn’t supposed
to answer. “But I must be going twenty or thirty miles an hour
here. How do I stop when we get to your house?”

“
There’s an off ramp about a quarter click ahead. When I tell
you, put your hand to the blue railing and plant your feet. You’ll
be carried around the curve almost to my front step. Now stop
talking!”

“
Like anybody could hear me at this speed,” Frankie muttered
resentfully. How was she supposed to learn anything if she wasn’t
allowed to ask questions? And she was sure the people traveling
around her weren’t paying attention to her—they were all too busy
getting where they were going. But she shut up and resolved not to
ask Kerov another thing. She was just going to have to manage on
her own until they could get someplace private to talk
again.

Soon enough she heard him say,
“Here. Put your hand down now!”

Automatically she
grabbed for the blue railing at her left. It lit up around her hand
and she saw a curving ramp which shot off from the main walkway up
ahead. Keeping her hand clutched tightly to the railing, she
planted her feet and was shuttled off the main walkway and onto the
ramp.

The ramp was much slower than the red stripe of the walkway
had been and soon Frankie found herself stepping off of it onto a
plain non-moving concrete street. At least, the street
seemed
to be made of concrete,
or the equivalent of it. It was a faded red that looked purplish in
the glow from the hovering streetlights overhead.

She was standing in
front of a row of gray houses that were built together like
brownstones back on Earth. The sidewalks here were stationary and
Frankie had been whizzing along for so long it almost felt strange
to walk in the normal fashion again. She wondered which house in
the long row was Kerov’s and was about to ask him, even though she
had promised herself not to ask any more questions, when she heard
him make a noise of dismay in her head.

“
I
was afraid of this—Xirnah is already there and waiting for
me.”

Frankie looked along
the row of houses and saw a tall woman with perfectly coifed
white-blonde hair standing in front of one of them, tapping her toe
impatiently. She was wearing some kind of white overcoat-type
garment with black buttons and a sour expression on her lovely
face.

Wow, she looks
pissed-off,
Frankie thought but very carefully did
not
say aloud. Apparently Kerov thought the same
thing because he said,

“
She must have been waiting for some time. She looks very
upset.”

Frankie took a deep breath. It looked like she had her work
cut out for her—she had to calm down this angry woman and then
somehow have sex with her.
Oh God, how was she going to manage that?

It’s okay,
she thought, giving herself a little pep-talk as she walked
(confidently, she hoped) towards Kerov’s girlfriend.
I can do this. I have
male equipment now and really how hard can it be?

Well, not hard at
all if she did exactly what Kerov had described. But somehow she
couldn’t imagine the angry looking woman—who had spotted her now
and was glaring daggers in her direction—being up for a
wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am encounter. No, Frankie was going to have
to charm her panties off first.

Okay. That’s okay,
she told herself nervously.
I can be charming… I think.

And as for the other stuff—the part where she actually had
to
use
the new male body parts
she had suddenly acquired when she Switched into Kerov’s body,
well, she would deal with that when the time came.

Speaking of those
body parts, Frankie was suddenly very aware of them as she walked
down the street to meet the woman—to meet Xirnah, she reminded
herself. She had been too busy figuring out what the hell was
happening to her and navigating both the subway train and the
moving walkway to think about it much before but now she realized
how strange she felt. Her chest was broad and flat and muscular
with no breasts to bob or sway in front of her as she walked. And
she could feel the heavy weight of testicles and a penis, kind of
like a large, fleshy noodle dangling between her legs.