Ken woke itching all over. The luggage like straps effectively restricted his movement. He could see tiny white quills like stubble covering his exposed bare skin. His throat felt odd. He tried to call out for help, but the only sound he could make was like a bird's screech.
"Ah, bro, sounds like you're up," Tommy said entering with a jaunty gait and a big smile.
"SQUAWK!" screeched Ken.
"Easy, boy - or maybe I should say girl now," Tommy said lifting the sheet that covered his brother's lower half and whistling. "Whew, and I thought it was tiny before. A few more hours and it'll be history."
"SQUAWK! SQUAWK! SQUAWK!"
"Calm down, Ken, you know you were just so eager to make a few bucks, I guess I didn't really make it clear what the experiment entailed. You see you were a 180 lb 6'2" male human, and when your transformation is complete, you'll be a 180 lb female turkey. Do you realize how cheap turkey would be if turkeys were as big as ostriches? I know what you're thinking, why did we just take ostrich DNA and insert it into the turkeys. Well, we did, and it was awful. Then we hit on the fact that the best gene mapped organism of comparable size is the human. So we figured out how to turn a human into a turkey and breed it with domesticated turkeys. Collect the eggs, cross breed them, and soon we have true-breeding giant turkeys."
"Squawk?"
"Well, human sex chromosomes are called X and Y, and XY in humans makes the male, and XX makes the female. In birds and snakes, the sex chromosomes are called W and Z to distinguish them from X and Y, since the roles are reversed. WW is male in birds and WZ is female. Now we thought about turning females into males and letting them mate with female turkeys, but we realized the eggs would be too small. All the growth would have to happen after hatching, but if we turned a human male into a giant female turkey then we would have giant eggs to start with. Now humans and ostriches have a longer gestation period than turkeys, so we're not exactly sure how long it will take. You just relax and try to describe the changes you're fe-" Tommy said setting a tape recorder on the table next to the bed, "Wait, you can't describe anything, you can only squawk. Well, I'll get the video camera set up, and we'll check on you hourly to adjust your straps as you change. Look you already are growing a wattle."
Tommy tugged at the flap of skin growing beneath Ken's chin. He made some notes on his clipboard, and paused looking thoughtfully at Ken.
"After a few hundred hatchlings, we'll change you back. At least we should be able to change you back in theory. If it doesn't work though, you'd make one hell of a Thanksgiving feast."
"Squawk! Squawk! Squawk!"
"Whoa, bro, don't get your feathers in a bunch. I was just kidding. Relax and enjoy the changes. Those subjects who could still speak described the experience of transformation as really erotic and enjoyable...so enjoy the trip, and remember when it's over you'll have beaucoup bucks."