"You know..." said Megan, blushing slightly. "I've always had this fantasy..."
"What?" said Will. Now that he had seen the Chronivac, he felt prepared to believe just about anything.
"I've always wanted to be a dog," she blurted quickly. "They seem so happy, so uncaring. I've wondered what it would be like."
Will nodded, understanding. "And you want to use the Chronivac to find out?"
Megan lowered her head, biting her lip.
"I guess I can't reasonably object," said Will. "How about this: we both make ourselves dogs."
"Okay," said Megan, reaching over to the Chronivac interface. "Let's see how we work this thing."
She clicked on a few buttons. "Aha. Here we go. I scan myself with this thing - " she pointed the Chronivac at herself - "then... wow. There are way too many options here. Look!" She motioned Will. "There are options here for everything! Changing the colour of your nails, how many eyes you have, the length of - oh, wow - every individual hair on your back. If this thing is for real, well..."
"Stick to the plan," said Will.
Megan smiled. That was just like Will, unwilling to be distracted. "Okay, then. Am I supposed to tweak everything - hey, what about this?" She clicked on a button labeled 'PRESETS'. Another large list appeared, but with much more familiar words. "Okay... I want 'dogs'," she said, clicking on a button. She selected a dog breed and then clicked on 'Next'. "Transformation... I want us to notice the changes; and auto-revert... two hours."
She turned her attention to Will, scanning him. "Right. Presets; Animals; Dogs... what kind of dog do you want to be?"
Will shrugged. "I don't mind."
Megan smiled and made a selection. "Okay... I assume you want to stay male... blah blah.. auto-revert... okay. Now, supposedly, I just press this button and it transforms us."
Will and Megan exchanged glances, then she pressed the button.
It felt like a short zap, and suddenly they were racing towards the ground, their arms and legs shifting in size. Almost instantly, fur appeared and their skulls warped. It was barely five seconds before their feet grew to the right length and their hands balled up, leaving them, to all appearances, as dogs.
Surprised and excited by this change, Will tried standing up in his new form. He worked out that he could balance his weight on his toes and hands, and from there he immediately started to walk fairly steadily. Looking around, he realised how big everything looked at his size. He couldn't see Megan anywhere in the room, but out of the corner of his eye he saw movement out at the back door. He moved around and outside to find Megan.
The moment he saw her, he stood rooted to the spot, shocked. She was - she had to be twice his size! What had happened? Looking at Megan's smug reaction, he realised that she had deliberately set him to transform into one of the tinier breeds of dog, he had no idea which. He tried to protest, but found that the only vocalisations he could make were high-pitched barks.
Realising that he was going to be like this for two hours, that he had nothing better to do, and that Megan was almost inviting him, Will gave a playful yip and pounced.