Tess had never had any trouble discussing the clinical details of prash or other designer sexes, back when she was more active on the designer forums and chat rooms. Fat/muscle ratios, areas and densities of hair growth, facial and body structures, design and placement of of sex organs, qualia of arousal and orgasm... all were technical minutiae she and the other designers could geek out over.
But now, having to tell a girl she liked about the sex she’d designed back in her teens — a girl who had immediately decided to try out being prash within minutes of learning that there were options beyond male and female, just because Tess had designed it — she found herself tongue-tied. She started out by saying, “Well, it’s a sex with a higher proportion of body fat in most areas than a typical female body, except that, ah, it only has one breast, centered a little lower than most female’s breasts, and that one’s typically a lot broader and a little shallower than what the same person would have if they were female. And the hair patterns...”
But when she came describing to the sex organs, which she’d placed in the armpits, the other erogenous zones (the belly, elbows and knees), the qualia of arousal (like smelling popcorn from several rooms away, getting tantalizingly closer) or orgasm (like hot peppers modulo milk raised to the power of a crashing cymbal), she couldn’t make herself speak plainly.
“Oh,” she added, after floudering for a bit, “and all prash are tetrachromats. But these days pretty much all female bodies are tetrachromat, too, and a lot of males. I don’t know what your color vision is like... we haven’t really explored what Uryuom vision is like yet. Do you see different colors than your grandfather or your Uryuom parents or half-siblings?”
That proved a fruitful and much less embarassing digression that kept them occupied until they reached the medbay and the nanite tanks. Dr. Raven was off duty; Susan was checking the readings on one of the tanks as they arrived.
“Hi!” Grace said. “I want to be prash, please.”
“And she also needs to be tested for those mineral deficiencies Dr. Raven found in her grandfather,” Tess added, “and have them fixed if necessary.”
“Right,” Susan said, “I’ve got his notes on that here. We don’t get much call for prash; I’ll have to look up the parameters —”
“I have them ready for you,” Circe’s voice said.
“Thanks, Circe,” Susan said. “All right, we have a free nanite tank over this way.” She started setting up a privacy screen around it, and asking Grace questions about her preferences.
“See you in a few hours,” Grace said, and hugged Tess again.
“Y-yeah,” Tess said, feeling hot. “See you then.”
Tess went back to work, but couldn’t concentrate; she kept obsessively checking the time. Grace’s transformation should take about twenty-one hours, since she’d chosen to stay the same mass. Two of those hours had passed by the time she finally managed to focus on the genetic sequence of one of the more interesting plants Circe’s drones had sampled. She worked steadily for several hours, consulting with Circe and her colleagues from time to time, then went to the dining hall for supper, and worked for a while afterward before going to bed.
By the time she got up, Dr. Sciuridae had emerged from the nanite tank, young and healthy again. He was in the dining hall, eating with Captain Dunkel, Dr. Raven, and Chief Engineer Tensaided when Tess arrived for breakfast. Levolg and Decokfymo were at the table too, but not eating, and Circe’s hologram was “sitting” there as well, floating cross-legged just above the table; she was speaking when Tess approached the table with her plate.
“My drones have been tracking the courier Levolg sent to the capital, and they’re still safe and making good time. At this rate they’ll get there in three more local days.”
Captain Dunkel nodded. “And after they have time to give their message to the royal polycule, we’ll land a shuttle outside the capital. Levolg and Decokfymo, I hope you’ll go along with the envoys to meet with the royals. If you prefer not to, we can return you to your village —”
“I’ll go to the capital,” Levolg said. “We discussed that earlier.” But Decokfymo lowered her antennae in negation.
“I need to get back to my work in the village. David, what will you do?”
“My long-term plans partly depend on what Grace decides,” Dr. Sciuridae replied, “but for now, I’m going to the capital with the envoys. They’ll need someone who understands their culture as well as yours. Although none of us are experts in court etiquette, my daughter and I were presented at court many years ago, before Grace was hatched, and I remember most of the protocol coaching we received beforehand.”
“Tess,” Captain Dunkel said, “let’s meet after breakfast and go over your plans for your next trip down. I figure we’ll send Nanase with the envoys to the capital, while you, Sarah and Susan can go back to the village with Decokfymo and continue the survey in that area.”
“Of course,” Tess said, wondering whether Grace would want to go to the capital with her grandfather or return to her village.
By the time Tess was finished with her meeting with Captain Dunkel, and checked with Circe again, she found that Grace’s transformation had 8.9 hours to go. She sighed and got back to work, going over plans for the next trip planetside with Sarah and Susan. What further questions did they have after studying the data collected so far?
Finally, as she’d requested, Circe told her that Grace had emerged from the nanite tank and was cleaning up and getting dressed. Tess made her way to the medbay and arrived just as Grace came out from behind the privacy partition.
“Hi, Tess! What do you think?”
After Tess took in the stunning sight of prash Grace, and picked up her jaw off the floor, she managed to get a few words out. “You look great,” she said, then realized that might sound like bragging, as she’d designed the sex Grace was wearing. “I mean, you make my work look good. Better than it looks on me, or most of the other people I’ve seen photos of.”
Grace smiled broadly, her more-rounded face with its fine curly sideburns a shade lighter than her scalp hair framing the smile adorably. “Thanks! So what all’s been happening while I was in the tank? Anything interesting?”
“We’ve been getting ready to go back down to Gollu,” Tess explained. “Once the courier gets to the capital —”
“Excuse us,” Dr. Raven said. “I need to speak with Grace for a few minutes.”
“Oh, of course. Grace, when you’re done, you can ask Circe to guide you to me, okay? Or to your mom or grandfather, if you want to see them first.”
“See you soon!” Grace waved and turned to talk to Dr. Raven, and Tess left the medbay.
She had barely had time to start trying to work again when Circe told her Grace was there. “Come in,” she said, and the door opened to admit Grace.
“So what are the plans?”
“Well, after the courier gets to the capital and tells the authorities we’re coming, some of us will be going to see the royal polycule and talk about the same sort of things we discussed with Levolg and Daryuu. How long we’re welcome to stay, what we’re going to do during the rest of our stay, how soon we or other ships from human planets can come back, possible things we might trade. The shuttle is going to stop at your village before going to the capital, and it’ll drop off your mom, Sarah, Susan, and me there, then take your grandfather, Levolg, Captain Dunkel, and some others to the capital. You can go with either group, whichever you prefer.”
“I’d like to see the capital and meet the royals,” Grace said. “But... you said you’ll be going back to the village with my mom?”
“Yes,” Tess said. “Since the people in your area are more used to humans, we figure it will be best to spend more time there, getting used to the way Uryuoms do things, before we go out and explore the rest of the planet and meet Uryuoms who’ve never seen or heard of humans.”
Grace nodded. “That makes sense. But you said we wouldn’t be going down until the courier gets to the capita?”
“Right. Circe estimated they’d get there in three more days — well, more like two now, that was this morning.” When Grace didn’t say anything more right away, curling her hair-like antennae in thought, Tess spoke up again to fill the silence: “You don’t have to decide right away — any time up until an hour before we board the shuttle should be fine. And — I guess I’d advise you to go to the capital with your grandfather. You shouldn’t pass up the opportunity.”
“Yeah,” Grace said. “I guess so. But I wanted to ask you more about this body, now that I’m actually wearing it.”
“Sure,” Tess said cautiously. “Um, remind me what I told you already... and what Dr. Raven told you, if he said anything...?”
“He said I didn’t have the same amount of missing minerals in my body as Grandpa did, but I did have a little, so he’s having some artificial nuts made for us to eat. I’m supposed to eat one every five days and Grandpa is supposed to eat two a day.” Tess wasn’t sure what she meant until she realized that Uryuomoco had no word for “pill,” and Dr. Raven or Circe had settled on the equivalent of “artificial nut” to describe the mineral supplements they were synthesizing.
“Oh, that’s good,” Tess said distractedly. “He didn’t say anything about your new body otherwise?”
“No. Here, let me show you which parts I’m curious about.” And without pausing for Tess to reply, she took off her robe. She wasn’t wearing anything under it; a prash cloaca didn’t have the leakage that a baseline female body’s vagina sometimes did, and a typical prash breast didn’t need support like baseline female breasts. And with the way her arms were raised above her head, exposing her armpits... Tess blushed and averted her eyes.
“Why are you looking away? How can I point out which parts I don’t understand if you’re not looking at me?”
“S-sorry,” Tess said. “You just startled me, that’s all. Okay, which parts do you want to know more about?”
“...You're still not looking at me.”