Deanna smiled innocently at James as he eventually re-entered the room.
"Everything is under control, only a few minutes to go to Subject N's transformation" she patted the space on the desk next to her "why don't you hang out here with me for a while?"
As James then took time to properly acquaint himself with his newly acquired assistant and, it seemed, lover he couldn't help but be drawn to her. Deanna was beautiful, smart, engaging and funny. Of course, he wasn't even sure she was a real person. But it hardly seemed to matter what was real and what wasn't at the moment.
After a few minutes of enjoyable conversation the dreaded computer voice interrupted with another of it's announcements.
"Transformation ready to complete"
James realised guiltily that he had temporarily forgotten about Nicola and her plight, but he was about to receive a grim reminder.
A small, bright light was starting to form into a new shape at the bottom of the compartment, but rather than growing back into Nicola the light slowly faded to reveal a somewhat pathetic looking slug.
"That's Nicola?" James gulped in horror.
"Uh-huh" Deanna seemed to smirk barely perceptibly as she carefully scooped the slimy creature up, placed it into a jar and deposited it down some kind of chute, that could have lead anywhere, along with a neatly written note.
"She's fine" the lab assistant gave James a reassuring smile "One week from now she'll be back to her usual pretty self and ready for another transformation"
"I guess" James sighed, not daring to think how Nicola would handle being a slug for a week.
"Hey, so how about you and I have a little fun?" Deanna wanted to forget about Nicola and lighten the mood, it seemed "I set the machine to auto transform, no tedious half hour checking process"
"Um, meaning?" James asked, puzzled.
"Meaning we can spend the rest of the day transforming each other, silly!" Deanna giggled seductively "doesn't that sound like an exciting, intimate experience to you?"
James wasn't sure it did. How could he be sure he wasn't being tricked?
"Ok, I'll go first!" Deanna began undressing excitedly.
James figured she must trust him an awful lot to be doing this. Besides, before long he was too distracted by her flawless naked body to even attempt to protest.
"Ok, I'm all yours, my fate is in your hands!" The gorgeous young woman smiled as she shut her nude self into the container that had just transformed Nicola "but go easy on me, you're next!"
James looked at the computer panel. It seemed incredibly easy to understand. He should be able to do this without embarassing himself.
"Hey, hurry up and transform me already!" Deanna banged playfully on the glass and mock glared at James.
"Just about to" James assured her as he began typing in his command.