"Really, I do"
"Like what?" demanded Jeff.
"Well, like this one. I had a great idea for a random change. We-"
Before Mark could continue, he was interrupted by a storm of abuse best summed up by Tony's words toward the end of it. "You just tried a random change and became a fly! An insect! Doesn't that tell you how dangerous a random change can be?"
"But this is different. We-"
A slightly shorter storm of abuse followed.
"Listen guys! Come on, listen! Make fun of me afterward if you want, but at least hear what I have to say!"
Tony, Jack, Jeff and Eric gave him his chance.
"Okay, here it is. We all undergo a random change, wait-wait, we all undergo a random change but the change is a body swap. We let the chronivac randomly pick which of us turns into which other one of us."
Mark looked around hesitantly. He expected more abuse, but the other four all seemed to be mulling it over.
"So . . I might turn into Tony or Jeff or Eric or you?" asked Jack.
"Yeah. I-I guess the chronivac might randomly leave you with the-the 'Jack' body but-"
"No way" said Jeff. "Everybody takes a risk, everybody tries out a new body"
"What kind of time frame were you thinking of for this?" asked Tony
Mark thought hard. He'd had no expectation of their considering it. "Um, a week. Doesn't that seem good? You can see what someone's body and life are like in a week, right?
The four faces arrayed before him seemed to be mulling it again.
"What about memory?" asked Jack. "If I'm stuck in this body, for instance" he said patting Tony's rear, "I need to know all the stuff he knows to get through the day and not fuck things up. I mean, not the nutcake intellectual stuff but who said what to him last week, that sort of thing"
"Chronivac can do that" said Jeff confidently.
"Show me" demanded Tony and Jeff did just that. While everyone watched over his shoulder, Jeff showed how to call up all five of their subject profiles and separate out each mind except for memories and make those destination profiles for each of them to keep his own mind but get the body and memories of another.
Mark wanted to try it right then, but Jeff wasn't able, right away, to set the machine up to make all the random assignments, he apologized but said it'd take him some more time to work it right.
The meeting broke up but Jeff promised to call everyone together no later than Thursday. In the intervening days, They all considered the possibilities. Late Wednesday night, Jeff called everyone on the phone and said he'd figured it out. They'd play body swap roulette the next night.
So it was that, at 10 o'clock Thursday, they were all gathered in Tony's room. Jeff finished typing some last specifications to make the assignment of bodies truly random and suggested that everyone take off their clothes. Having stripped, they were arrayed before the chronivac and emitter in ascending order of size from left to right, Mark, then Jack, then Tony, then Jeff, then Eric, shoulder to shoulder all just five feet from the computer. Jeff reached forward and hit the 'enter' button before jumping back into position. The emitter glowed golden yellow and each of the five boys felt an electric wave pass through him and changes of one sort or another starting.