Six months earlier:
Ashley poured herself a cup of coffee and looked at the snoring minotaur on her bed. It had been good last night. It always was, particularly after Ashley had discovered the undiluted, testosterone-powered masculinity of animal morphs. Ever since she had become sexually active at the age of sixteen, Ashley had sought out the most masculine males around, muscular, aggressive men who took their pleasure with a savagery that pleased her like nothing else. Gentle, considerate lovers who put her pleasure first bored her.
So why, after the intense orgasms she had felt last night, did she have the same empty feeling she felt on most mornings after? Something was missing, something incomplete.
Five months earlier:
Ashley took off the high-tech helmet that had been monitoring her cortical activity. The combination of directed meditation, cortical scans and biofeedback developed in the 2030s had been a miracle for mental diagnostics, making people for the first time consciously aware of their own mental states.
And when Ashley had meditated on her own recent sexual encounters, she discovered something interesting. She remembered them, not from her own point of view, but from the point of view of the male. What did this mean?
Four months earlier:
Ashley had been spending the time since her revelation in a state to which she was unaccustomed--celibacy. She had also been reading in the literature of gender and sexuality. She knew she wasn't transgender in the classical sense. Not that she had any issues with transfolk. She knew and liked several and still had fond memories of a passionate three-month affair with an actor who played muscular barbarian warriors in b-grade holofilms and had been born female. But her experience wasn't anything like theirs. She had never thought of herself as a male or had wanted to dress as one or had wanted to adopt a male sexual role. But there it was--her fantasy life was increasingly dominated by thinking of herself as the strong, muscular man taking a passionate woman like herself.
Three months earlier:
For all of its technological prowess, mankind still hadn't beaten the light-speed limit, so trying to hold a conversation with Ashley's mother on Mars was always a pain, and the two had kind of drifted apart. But Ashley still wanted to talk to her.
"So how are you liking life on Mars?"
Several minutes passed.
"I love it!" said her mom, giving her wings a slight flap. "Low gravity is awesome! Flying is the best!"
"Mom, I'm thinking of making a big change in my life. Would you be OK with that?"
"Of course I'd be OK! What kind of change? Are you coming to Mars? That would be awesome! Tons of cute guys here!"
Ashley shook her head. Her mom had gotten an age regression to permanent teenagerhood along with her wings, and it was sometimes difficult to remember that she was actually twenty-five years older than Ashley herself.
"Not anytime soon, Mom. More of a physical change. I haven't quite decided yet."
"Well, however you change, you'll still be my daughter."
Maybe not, Ashley thought but did not say.
Two months earlier:
"I don't believe this!" said Ashley's best friend Monica. "I mean, you're as girly as anyone I know! I know you can't always tell, but you say you're not even trans! I mean, why?"
"There was some work done in the early twenty-first century on male to female changes. They didn't have the tech then, it was people cutting into people with knives, but some of them weren't exactly what we think of as trans, they were men who fantasized about being female because they desired women so much that just having sex with them wasn't enough, they had to fully identify with their object of desire. There are just a few references to female-to-male cases."
"So you like macho men so much that just screwing them isn't enough, you actually have to become one? That's crazy!"
"Maybe it is and maybe it isn't, but that's how I feel."
Monica shook her head. "It's like I don't even know you."
One month earlier:
Ashley had given up on celibacy, to give her female body one last chance to convince her to keep it. She noticed that she was going exclusively for animal morphs--minotaurs, centaur stallions, goat-men. But even though the sex was good and the overall experience pleasant, she still felt disassociated. Sex wasn't the overwhelming experience it had been for her for many years, but more like watching a good holoshow. And she didn't watch that many holoshows any more.
She made the appointment with the Genetic Corporation.
Now:
The doe-woman gave a musical laugh. "It is possible and it is totally awesome! Are you asking for yourself or a friend?"
"Myself" Ashley answered.