Jeff had programed Jezebel with human intelligence, but over the course of the following days she found herself making less and less use of it. Every day was pretty much like the rest, eating, hunting, sleeping and being petted. The one exception to the cyclical nature of Jezebel's reality was the new life growing within her. Jezebel marveled at the capacity of her body to produce and nuture young. By comparison, the male body seemed sterile, a mere machine. On the rare occasions when Jezebel thought about returning to humanity, she always pictured herself as female.
Mike had initially been depressed at the thought of being stuck as a cat, but quickly adjusted. Whatever else the life of a tomcat was, it was male. Fighting, mating, hunting--Mike's new existence gave full vent to Jenn's old longing to be male. In fact, an animal could fully express masculinity in a way that a human, hemmed in by society, never could. By the end of two weeks, Mike had had his ear chewed off, acquired a bounteous collection of scars, and had fathered three litters in addition to Jezebel's. He was also happier than he had ever been before.
Beth had gotten even dykier. All her old dresses and high heels were thrown out, replaced by Doc Martens, jeans and sweatshirts. She had dumped her old friends (or been dumped by them) and was moving with a far different crowd. Beth was aware that queer-bashing was a problem at her high school, so she took the precaution of using the Chronivac to give herself twice the speed and strength of an ordinary human. After she beat the crap out of the right tackle of the football team, people learned to leave her alone. She continued seeing Alice, but was thinking of breaking up with her to play the field more widely.
Jack was already playing the field, exploring his new gender and sexuality. He had gotten a job as a bartender at a singles bar downtown, and managed to hook up most nights. He had a sideline satisfying some of the local desperate housewives in their neighborhood, where his previous female knowledge (he had erased his female self from the neighborhood's memory) of the state of neighborhood marriages came in handy. Such were the sexual demands of Jack's new lifestyle that he used the Chronivac to enhance his sex drive to five times the male norm.
Beth and Jack only used the Chronivac to make these minor modifications, and to password their files to make sure no one else could change them without their permission. Jezebel and Mike, of course, couldn't use the Chronivac at all. So the Chronivac received little use, until . . .