"Excellent!" the doctor said. "If all goes well, you two will be the start of a brand-new species!"
The other young man looked sidelong at Baxter, who shrugged his shoulders. The pay was good, why question things? Besides, there wasn't much time to ponder the words, as things began to happen.
Baxter's skin began to itch wildly, and he soon saw why: orange tabby fur was covering his body. Before long, his entire body was covered. Looking over at the other fellow, Baxter saw that he was undergoing the same thing, though his fur was dark grey, with white on his neck and presumably down his belly. Scarcely had the fur finished than other changes set in. Baxter's ears became triangular, thin, and pointed, and he felt something burst of the end of his spine, ripping its way through his underwear and snaking down his pants leg. His head reshaped itself into a short muzzle, with a damp pink nose and sharp, pointed teeth. "What's hflafppenig?" he yelped, the second word distorted as his tongue became slightly longer and thinner than what he was used to forming sounds with.
The scientist smiles and rolled his eyes slightly. "I already told you," he said, "you're going to be the first of a brand-new species. You're helping me test a new method for enacting any desired changes in the body without harm to the subject. Think of it as the ultimate in cosmetic surgery, if you like, but it's even more than that; in your case, you won't just be altered to look like an anthropomorphic cat (in case you hadn't figured that out yet,) you'll have the reflexes and abilities of one as well. This has even more enormous potential, if you think about it."
"Take transsexuals, for example. Today, a man who wants to become a woman has to go through a series of expensive surgeries, each with a recovery period before the next can be attempted, and the result is still not the same thing: they can't get pregnant, for one thing. With our new method, all it takes is one simple injection, and there will be literally no difference than if the subject had been born a woman. Or, if someone is dissatisfied with only one aspect of their appearance, we can change only that aspect without altering anything else about them. The gigantic market for this ought to be obvious, and the technology involved is complex enough to where we can be sure none of our competitors will figure it out before the patent expires. We at this company will get to make the wildest dreams of millions come true, and we'll get obscenely wealthy in the process, simply by charging a reasonable rate and taking into account the sheer number of customers. The only thing we need to do is get official approval for this."
"That's where you two, and all our other test subjects, come in. We've done in-house testing previously, and we've got the whole thing to the point where we're quite certain there's no harmful side-effects. But of course we have to be sure, so we're bringing in large numbers of testers and enacting varying degrees of change on them. You two, for example, are undergoing an almost complete full-body alteration, the only remaining aspect of your original form being your humanoid proportions, erect posture, and the basic design of your hands." Baxter looked down at his hands. They had changed; pads had formed on the palms and the bottoms of the fingers, and the fingernails had disappeared, replaced with retractable claws. The scientist continued. "You'll be released into an appropriate habitat for your new form, where you'll stay for a year, after which you can either return to your original form or, if you've grown accustomed to your new form, remain that way. (We'll handle the paperwork if you decide not to become human again.) Ideally, we want you to catch your own food (don't worry, none of the prey animals in the habitat are anything more than animals,) find your own shelter, and generally take care of yourselves. It's like a stress-test for your new form. However, we will be monitoring your condition continuously (we have to anyway, for purposes of the test,) and we'll be ready to step in if you're in any serious danger."
"A YEAR?" the other subject yelped. The scientist nodded. "I can't stay a YEAR! I've got stuff to do! A job, loan repayment-" The scientist shushed him.
"We've taken care of all that," he said. "We provide house-sitters for each of our long-term testers. Anyone who inquires as to your whereabouts, such as your employer, will be told that you're participating in long-term medical testing, and arrangements will be made for you to continue employment after your year is up. Any payments that fall due during the year will be paid for you; consider it a bonus on top of your pay. Your family, if you desire, will be apprised of the situation, though we won't be able to reveal the full details. Please stand up."
Baxter and the other young man did so. Balance was difficult at first, as their feet had become digitigrade cat-paws. The other young man had become a fine, strapping young cat-man, not visibly muscular, but sleek, powerful, and well-built. Baxter turned a little to the side, where there was a full-length mirror. He was a little disappointed; though he had turned out equally sleek, he was shorter, and didn't appear to be quite as probably strong as the other guy. The orange-tabby fur was pretty neat, though, with the softer white fur running down his belly. "I need you to remove your clothing," the scientist said. Baxter complied, as did the other subject.
As Baxter returned his gaze to his reflection, he felt a tingling wash over his body. As he watched in the mirror, another wave of changes began. Long hair, the same white as the stripes in his fur, cascaded down his shoulders, ending midway down his back. His figure altered; his hips widening, his waist narrowing, his shoulders becoming less broad, his whole body becoming softly curved. As he watched in terror, his chest expanded into two furred but undeniably female breasts, not terribly large, but still of a reasonable size, with white fur on the inner half, and orange-tabby fur on the outer half. And though he could guess what was coming next, he couldn't help but be paralyzed in shock as his penis shrank, until it withdrew into his body, becoming a vagina. Baxter could feel things rearrange in her abdomen as a uterus formed, her former testicles becoming ovaries. The scientist hadn't been making idle chatter when he was talking about transsexuals after all; Baxter most emphatically did not want to confirm it, but she was sure that she was able to bear children now.
Whirling around, she confronted the scientist. "What's going on?" she yelped, her voice higher and softer than it had been before. "Why am I a girl!?"
The scientist smiled. "We wanted to test both sexes of this form," he said, "but we had two male test subjects. Moreover, this will give us more data on our transsexual process. As to why you are a girl, the choice was made based on the personality tests you filled out. We determined that, after the initial shock, you would be happier as girl than would our other subject. You're frisky and playful, but ultimately sensible and cautious when you need to be, and you enjoy helping others, even in simple things like taking care of themselves. You're organize and efficient, and you're also sensitive to the feelings and needs of others. Clearly, you're the better suited to be a potential mother."
"Mother!?" Baxter sputtered. She couldn't believe what she was hearing; that she was supposedly well-suited to being a girl, apparently so much so that this scientist expected her to become a mother.
"Please don't take offense," the scientist said. "I don't mean to suggest that this is expected of you. It's illegal to require sexual activity as part of employment, and it'd be highly unethical and probably also illegal to include behavioral modifications in the experiment to make such things happen, which is why you have a human woman's menstrual cycle rather than the heat cycle of a real cat. We don't expect any sexual activity from you, though it would provide us with valuable data if you were to bear children. Whether you engage in such activities is entirely up to you."
"No!" Baxter yelled. "Change me back! I won't do this!"
The scientist sighed. "You agreed to any changes we chose to enact when you signed the contract, and you also agreed to remain for the full one-year period unless problems arose that forced us to reengineer the project. Moreover, we just expended a quantity of very valuable serum when we changed you, and we'd have to use more changing you back. And even if we did that, we'd have to sue you for breach of contract and waste of valuable materials. I don't want to sound thuggish, but that wouldn't be at all pleasant for you. I'd quite seriously suggest that you stick it out for the contractual year, and if you still feel that way at the end of it, you can change back."
Baxter's ears drooped. She didn't want to accept this as her new form, but the scientist was right; it would be much less costly to simply see this through. And wouldn't she be helping everybody whose happiness depended on the services that this organization could provide? Surely that made it worth it, right?
She didn't have much time to think about it. The scientist led them down a hallway and to a small subway system. He led them in, punched a button on the wall of the car, and they swished off down a long tunnel. Arriving at another station, they got off. They were led down another hall, which ended at a large double door. The scientist opened it, and ushered them out into a dense forest.
"We'll be monitoring you," he said. "If you're in serious trouble, we'll ajust things to make sure you get through safely, though you may not notice how we did so. You'll come through just fine. See you in a year!"
With that, the door slammed shut and a heavy latch clicked into place, and the two were alone in the forest.