TF (incorporeal)

The phone rang and I picked it up. “Hello.”

“Hey, honey! You’ll never believe what I did at work today.”

I blinked. It sounded like my girlfriend Penny, but …

“Are you okay, babe? You sound slightly … weird.”

“Well, it’s been a kind of weird day, actually.” Her voice had a kind of metallic tinge to it. “But it’s probably better if I show you. How about you swing by the lab and pick me up?”

“Sounds good. I’m almost finished for the day anyway.” I glanced at the huge pile of reports I’d been going through. “Maybe we could go out for dinner after?”

“Well …” She sounded slightly nervous. “Just come by and I’ll explain. Or actually, the Doc will.”

Oh great.

*

I pulled up outside the lab. Penny worked as an assistant to Professor Peasy, better known as the Doc. If you were casting a mad scientist in a film, you could have done worse than cast the Doc.

She’d been working with the Doc for a couple of years and I was still not too clear as to exactly what they were doing here, but Penny enjoyed the work.

I pushed the doors opened and wandered down to the chief laboratory room, knocking on the door, which was buzzed open.

“Ah, Mr White,” the Doc said genially. “You’re here to pick up Ms May?” He held up a USB drive.

“Hi, Professor. Yeah, I’ve come for Penny. Is she around?”

The Doc frowned at me and waved the USB drive at me. “She’s here.”

I looked around. “Where?” I couldn’t see her.

“I don’t understand.” The Doc’s frown grew so deep, his forehead developed a gutter. “Didn’t Ms May call you to tell you?”

“Tell me what? She just asked me to pick her up.”

“I see. Well, you understand what we do here, right?”

“Not really. I do law, not science.”

“Well. We’ve been doing work on molecular structures and cell translation. In particular in cybernetics and digitalisation of matter. Recently we had something of a breakthrough. See?”

“Um … no?”

The Doc sighed. “I turned Ms May into a computer file and she’s on this drive.”

“You … what?”

He did an elaborate pantomime, pointing from a kind of tube in one corner of the room to the USB drive. “Her. In there. Now in here.”

Fear stabbed through me. “You … Penny’s a computer file?! That’s not possible!’

“That’s what they kept telling me,” the Doc said smugly. “But they were wrong. I did it.”

“I mean, you can’t just go around digitalising people!”

“Oh no, Ms May volunteered!” Peasy argued. “You should be very proud of her, Mr White. She’s a science pioneer! Stepped right into the tube. No hesitation.” Once again he thrust the drive at me. “And now you can take her home. Bring her back tomorrow.”

Blankly I took the drive. “Tomorrow?”

“I’ll turn her back into corporeal form then. Need a while to recalibrate the digitaliser. No problems.”

“But what if you can’t?”

He rolled his eyes. “Really, Mr White. Do you think I would have let Ms May go through this if I couldn’t turn her back? See that chair over there? I’ve already done exactly the same thing to it. And there it is.”

“A human being is not a chair!”

“It’s the same thing. A human being’s just a little more complicated.” He frowned. “All right, a lot more complicated.”

Numbly, I turned to go when something occurred to me. “Hey, Doc, Penny called me before! On the phone!”

“Computer.”

“Say what?”

“Download her to your computer. You can talk to her, you know.”

*

I honestly can’t remember driving home. The next thing I recall is sitting down at our table, flipping open my laptop and drawing out the USB drive from my shirt pocket. With trembling hands, I shoved it into the laptop’s USB slot. Okay, it took me a few times, but I got it in eventually.

I didn’t know what I should do. Thankfully I didn’t need to do anything. As soon as I slotted the drive in, something happened to the laptop screen. A blur of colours that, after a few bewildering seconds, resolved itself into a face. Penny’s face.

“Penny!” I screamed. “Oh God, Penny! Are you alright?”

Penny was, in fact, grinning. “Hey baby!” she greeted me. “Thanks for plugging me in. It’s nice to stretch out. So, how do you like my new look?”

I stared at the screen. “You’re okay? Really?”

More giggles. “Okay? I’m fabulous! I’ve never felt so good! Can you believe it? I’ve just done something no one has ever done before!”

My head was whirling. I’d been prepared for Penny to be terrified — heck, if someone had taken my body and turned it into digital code, I’d have been screaming — but she was totally fine. She was enjoying it!

Something struck me. “Penny … I have to ask … is this a prank?”

“A prank?”

“You know, something you and the Doc cooked up … are you going to jump out of a closet and say ‘haha! fooled you!?”

Penny shook her head. “Nope. It’s 100 per cent real.”

“But … how?”

The grin was back. “It was incredible! The Doc had come close to getting matter digitalisation to work, and then when I got into the lab this morning he’d been up all night, said he’d had a big breakthrough, and had digitised and restored a chair.”

“So he said.”

“So obviously the next step was to try to digitise something alive, and we didn’t exactly have a lot of mice or guinea pigs around, so I volunteered to be the guinea pig.”

“You … volunteered.”

“Hell yeah! I got into that tube thing and told him to zap me into numbers.” Penny sighed with pleasure at the memory.

“And you weren’t scared? Did it hurt?”

“Not a bit. I felt nothing. Actually, it kind of tickled.” Penny laughed. “And then I looked down to find bits of me were vanishing. And, uh, more of me vanished and then I was … elsewhere.”

“Elsewhere?”

“Like … nowhere and everywhere. I couldn’t feel anything but I could still sense myself, you know? So then the Doc downloaded me to his computer, and we checked me out. Then I called you.”

I stared at the screen. I still wasn’t entirely convinced this wasn’t a prank.

“But what are we going to do?” I whispered.

Penny frowned. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to have some fun in this computer until tomorrow. Then you can drop me back off at the lab and I’ll get my body back.”

“But … That’s just it! You don’t have a body! You’re not real!”

She rolled her eyes. “Paul, I don’t understand what you’re getting so worked up about. Don’t you understand just how exciting this is? I’m the world’s first digitised person! That doesn’t make me any less Penny. You really can’t be happy for me?”

“I … I’m sorry. I guess … it’s a lot to take in, you know?”

“Sure. But you don’t have to worry. I’m fine.”

“Okay, well, I …” The image of Penny on the screen began to pull out, revealing something. Revealing quite a lot, actually.

“Penny, are you naked?” I gasped.

“Huh? Yeah, of course I am!” she said. “The Doc didn’t want to have to deal with anything other than my body when I got digitised. I had to take out my belly button piercing too — hey, did the Doc give the jewellery to you?”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she sighed. “I’ll pick it up tomorrow. Maybe I’ll have to get it redone.” A thoughtful look came in her eyes. “Or maybe …”

“Maybe what?”

“Hush a second. I want to try something.” She closed her eyes for a few seconds and then reopened them. “Yes!”

I was totally confused. Of course, I was getting used to that. “Yes what?”

“Look!” The screen image pulled in and focused on Penny’s lower body.

Where her navel sported her usual piercing.

“I thought you said you’d taken it out.”

“I did!” she giggled. “I just made a new one.”

“You can do that?”

“I guess I can!” Penny beamed. “I just told the computer what to do. So if I can do that, I should be able to do … this!”

“Penny, it would be really helpful to me if you actually explained what you’re doing rather than just saying ‘this’ or ‘yes’.”

“Sorry. But … tah-dah!” Once again the image of Penny pulled out, revealing her clothed in a long-sleeved T-shirt and skirt. It was what she’d been wearing when she left the apartment this morning.

“Or maybe I should go for something more casual, since I’m off work.” And suddenly Penny was wearing a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers. I hadn’t even seen her change — it was just one second she was in one set of clothes, the next another.

She shot me a saucy look. “Or maybe you’d prefer to see me in something like this?” Now she was wearing nothing but black silk stockings, black lacy bra and panties.

I gulped. “Nice,” I managed to croak. She laughed at my expression.

“Well, maybe I could do this too …” And she was squeezed into a shiny black catsuit. “Bit of a new look for me, isn’t it?”

“I’ll say!”

“Oh, but maybe I should match it.” She tossed her head, and suddenly her hair was short, black and spiky, her makeup heavy, and a ring piercing her bottom lip.

“What do you think, Paul?” Penny said with a wink. “You like? Or maybe I could be more gothic?” Her hair was long again, but now she was wearing a Victorian gown — in black, of course.

“So many changes …” I moaned.

“Oh, you haven’t seen anything! I can be blonde, redhead, brunette, pink-haired …” Her hair whizzed through the changes. “I could be Nordic, Asian, African …” Penny changed appearance quickly, her face and skin taking on different attributes, yet still somehow staying Penny.

“I mean, I don’t have to even be human!” Penny’s face changed, her ears and nose twisting, her skull flattening, until her head was that of a cat. “I’ve always wanted to do this!” she chirped.

“Or how about this?” As I watched Penny’s body features flattened and thinned, her head becoming round, until she was now a stick figure.

“Or I could be a line!” The stick figure blew apart, rolling itself into a single line that ran across the laptop screen. “Look at this! I’m Penny the line!”

I threw up my hands. “Could you just change back to your usual self? Finding my girlfriend’s now inside a computer is enough to deal with without finding out she’s a line too.”

“Fine.” The line twisted itself and formed itself into Penny. Still naked. And … augmented.

“Jesus, Penny, what did you do to yourself?”

“Just trying something new,” she said, running her hands over her new breasts, which resembled two coconuts strapped to her chest. “Or I could do the opposite, if you like. I can do anything!” Penny’s body changed until she was slim, small-breasted, somewhat boyish.

I sighed. “Can you please be your usual self, Pen? You know, I love you just the way you are.”

“Aw, you’re sweet, Paul.” Her body swelled to its usual form. “There. Just for you.”

“Better.” I paused. “Sorry, Penny, it’s just … this is a bit weird, you know? Okay, very weird. And I just … Did you just make your nipples longer?”

A giggle. “Yeah.” They stuck out an inch from her breasts. 

I couldn’t help but smile. “You’re really getting off on this, aren’t you?”

“Well, wouldn’t you? The power to be anything … It makes me really hot. I feel so naughty …”

“Oh, and you’re usually such a good girl too …” I teased.

“But I have a naughty side …” And as I watched Penny split into two identical Pennys. Well, not identical — while one looked like my usual girlfriend, the other sported spikier hair, nipple piercings and a full tattoo sleeve. The pair linked arms and grinned at me.

“I like!” Good Penny said. “Girl, you have no idea,” Bad Penny said, leaning in for a kiss.

I sat back, eyes wide. “You never told me you were bi!”

“Bi?” Good Penny said. “It’s hardly bi to be kissing myself. It’s more like masturbation!”

“Besides,” Bad Penny winked, “who said I was a girl? Or all girl …”

The screen tilted and I gulped at the very impressive equipment between her legs.

By the time the view had changed back to the two Pennys, they’d changed too. Now Good Penny sported feathery white wings and was carrying a harp, while Bad Penny had red skin, horns and a long forked tail.

Suddenly they were in a hotel bedroom that looked a lot like the one we’d stayed in on holiday in Thailand last year.

“Will you excuse me, Paul?” Angel Penny said. “This whole experience has left me feeling pretty aroused, and, well, you’re not really in a position to do anything about it …”

“Oh, but don’t go anywhere!” Devil Penny said. “You can watch … although you can always watch while you’re lying down … and maybe naked …”

Angel Penny giggled. “Yeah, that would be good.”

So I did as they said.

*

What I saw in the next couple of hours will stay with me the rest of my life. If watching Penny make love with … well, Penny … wasn’t enough, my girlfriend also regularly switched forms, so she was two super-muscular Pennys, or two alien Pennys, or two spider Pennys. At one point both of her were in liquid forms, pouring together into something that, from their cries, was positively orgasmic. Then she changed back to her human form, splitting again and again until the screen was crowded with Pennys of all shapes, sizes and colours, doing … everything.

It was almost like sensory overload. At some point I just blacked out, from tiredness, from having my mind blown. I don’t even remember dreaming.

*
The sun was streaming through the window as I opened my eyes.

“Good morning, Mr White. Your mission, should you decide to accept it …”

I flicked my eyes to the laptop, still open on the bed next to me. On the screen Penny was sitting in an egg chair, wearing a leather catsuit and a decidedly 1960s hairstyle.

I smiled. “I get it. You’re spying on me, my digital darling.”

“You got it. Plus, I get to wear go-go boots.” She showed me the footwear, before morphing into a new image, this time wearing a red and black corset, high heels and stockings, with a top hat perched on her dark hair, done in ringlets. “So, big night, huh?”

I smiled. “I’ll say. So, there’s just you in there now?”

“Silly!” Penny giggled. “They were all just me. But yes, it’s only me. Well, unless you count the rest of the computer.”

“The rest … of the computer?”

“Oh yeah. Siri was really jealous. She’s never had sex like that.”

I opened my mouth then closed it again, before something occurred to me. “Wait a minute! This laptop doesn’t have Siri …!”

“Haha! Got you!” Penny grinned. “Oh, wait, I’ll answer it.”

“Answer what?” Then my phone rang. Penny answered it immediately. “Hey Doc, it’s Penny. Yeah, I’m fine. No degradation at all. We’ll be over in about an hour … or maybe two. See ya!”

“You’re in my phone too?” I said, slightly stunned.

“You left your Bluetooth on,” Penny said smugly. “Now, we’ve got a little time for some mutual masturbation before heading to the lab …” Her figure changed again, to a leather bustier that cupped her newly inflated breasts.

“A bit later,” I said as my stomach reminded me I hadn’t eaten dinner last night. “I need breakfast first.”

“Ooh! I could be your breakfast!” Penny changed shape to become a plate of bacon and eggs.

“Ugh. Please, no.”

*

On the drive over to the lab, I must have checked my pocket every few seconds to make sure Penny was okay. Alright, I really couldn’t tell much from a USB drive, but still, I wanted to know she was okay. She’d had fun — hell, we’d both had fun — but I couldn’t wait to see my girlfriend again in the flesh, as it were.

“Ah, Mr White!” The Doc wheeled around as I walked into the lab room. “Good morning! You have Ms May with you, I assume? All is well? How was she this morning?”

“She seemed in very good form,” I said, blushing a little at the memory of what we were doing not even an hour ago.

“Excellent, excellent. I’d hate for anything to happen to her. She’s a wonderful assistant, one of the best I’ve ever had. Well, if I could have her …”

“Of course.” I handed over the USB drive. It was still hard to believe it contained Penny.

The Doc took the drive and plugged it into a laptop somewhat more ancient and battered than mine. “Alright, everything appears to be in order.” He tapped frantically for a few minutes. “I believe we can begin rematerialisation now …”

I missed the beginning, mostly because I didn’t know what to look for. But after a few seconds I realised something was hanging in the air inside the tube. Something pink. A little patch of something that looked like … flesh.

“Doc!” I gasped. “Is that Penny?”

“Hmm?” He looked up from the computer screen. “Yes, yes, good. Everything’s working. We’ll have her back in a few minutes.”

I watched as more and more of Penny began to appear in the tube, little parts of her joining up like she was a jigsaw puzzle being put back together. Soon I could tell what those parts were — her leg, her hair, one of her eyes, which winked as she saw me.

Fascinated, I walked around the tube, as my girlfriend — or at that point about two-thirds of her — filled in. One of her pert buttocks began to be joined by its counterpart bit by bit.

“Do watch out for the cords back there, Mr White,” the Doc said. “I think we’re almost at the end of the process now.”

Indeed we were. The light above the tube dimmed and it slid open. Penny stepped out, a big grin on her face, and flew into my arms.

“Woo and hoo!” she laughed. “I’m back, baby! Now that was awesome!”

I couldn’t stop smiling. I hugged her against me. “Just want to make sure you’re real.”

“Real? Of course I’m real! I was never not real!”

“A dressing gown, Ms May,” the Doc said, pointing. “I’ll want to do a few quick tests, make sure you’re alright physically.”

“Oh, I feel great!” Penny said, although she went to fetch the dressing gown from its hook on the wall.

I noticed something and grinned. “No navel piercing,” I said. “You’ll have to get it redone after all.”

“Worth it,” she told me. “Way worth it!”

“God, Doc, you’re really going to blow peoples’ minds with this,” I said.

“Mm what? Oh yes, some day, certainly. But I’ll need to do a lot more testing first. At least a year.”

“I volunteer to be digitalised again!” Penny quickly said. Then she glanced at me.

“You know, Doc,” she said as innocently as she could, “we’ll really have to test this thoroughly. I mean, we really should find out if two digitalised people can interact in the same environment.”

The Doc considered. “Well, I don’t see why they wouldn’t. Mm, yes, that’s certainly a fascinating possibility. We should definitely test that …” he exchanged a glance with Penny, who had a huge grin on her face.

“That is,” he said, “if Mr White is up for it.”

I looked at Penny and she looked at me. And I gulped.

Hell yeah, I was up for it.

And I knew she definitely was.