The Morning After

Posted on Sun Sep 20th, 2020 @ 5:03pm by Ka'see 'Cassie' Anderson (*) & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein

Mission: Mission 12 - Railway
Location: Deck 3 - VIP Quarters
Timeline: MD 02 07:00
1630 words - 3.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Cassie awoke with a deep groan. She felt sticky with sweat her mouth tasted like charcoal and vinegar and she could already sense the smashing hangover she would have to deal with throughout the day. Wait that could not be right? She did not drink enough for that to happen and her metabolism normally worked majority off before she woke up. It had been a point of contempt after Johnathen had left that she wanted to drink herself into oblivion yet her body just would not allow it. Had she drunk more than she remembered?

In the bedroom, Burnie drifted awake and was somewhat surprised to feel pretty good. A hazy memory of last night suggested that by all rights he should feel like a shuttle landed on him. Maybe Cassie had given him a detox tab? She was such a good friend. He stretched and dropped a hand on his chest ...or someone's chest. Definitely not his. Had Nollel come back and climbed into bed with him? ...No... it didn't feel like her breast. Also, he'd never felt like the hand was on his own chest when touching her. The only time that had ever happened was when he'd been with Prijaxana (in the brief period before she'd declared his mind 'just too weird'). But there was only one Betazoid woman on the ship and there was no way...

His eyes slid to the side ...and saw no one at all. What the...? He looked down at a hand resting on a very female chest, which nevertheless seemed to be attached to him. Sitting up, he looked directly into the dresser mirror, and simultaneously dropped his hand and let out an unexpectedly high horrified shriek. "Eee!"

Cassie turned and rolled off the sofa hitting the floor at the familiar sounding voice. She staggered to her feet lurching into the bedroom where the shrieking had happened and nearly fell into the room on unsteady feet. How much had she drunk to be this unsteady? "What? What... WHAT?" She demanded looking up at herself sat in her bed wearing pyjamas.

Burnie's eyes went wide at the sight of himself in the doorway. The immediate impression was 'wow, I look like crap' but was instantly followed by the realization that his body was moving without him. He looked back at Cassie's reflection in the mirror, and then over at his. "Um... I..., I mean, you..." He pointed back and forth between them, at a loss for words. "How...?"

Cassie stood there in shock just not sure what the hell was going on. Her scientist's brain was not working thanks to the hangover and sheer shock of the situation. “I just do not know. Maybe this is a shared dream or a hallucination?” She admitted looking at herself wishing she felt how her body looked. Why did he have to drink that much? “You drunk so much.” She moaned in a s small voice staggering to the bed.

The thought of the hangover made Burnie wince in sympathy, and mortification. "Sorry?" He gingerly patted - Cassie? himself? - on the shoulder. "I thought I was the only one who'd suffer for it. I don't suppose you keep any aspirin or painkillers in here?" he asked looking around the unfamiliar bedroom.

"I am... you are Vulcan. It would not work on me... you? So no I do not." She whispered holding her head as she looked at the floor hoping the spinning sensation would stop enough for her to work out what was going on. This was so much more complicated than she could understand and work through. "Maybe in Nath's stuff." She indicated the boxes that were in the corner dusty and still there untouched despite it being months and months since she had packed them.

"Right. Okay." Burnie got up and went into the restroom to and filled a cup. "Water first - that helps," he said handing it to ...himself... God, this was weird... "Coffee will too, but let me look for , something better here..." he started opening boxes, rifling through the contents, and tossing items left and right until he finally came upon a small bottle. "Ha! Painkillers." He tipped one into his ...her?... hand, looked at himself again and made it two. "Here, take these. And again, really, really sorry."

Cassie mumbled a small thank you before she downed the water and painkillers. It would take a miracle for the fog to clear and she let the silence loom over them before she glanced to her left taking herself in. “This is so odd.” She whispered trying to think of anything similar that might have happened before.

"Odd doesn't even begin to cover it," Burnie agreed, speaking softly since the painkillers would take a bit to kick in - though soft felt like a default setting with her vocal cords. "I remember something about Kirk's Enterprise and a consciousness swap device once... could something like that be in the Collector's horde and maybe got flipped on somehow?"

Cassie sat up straight and narrowed her eyes. That was such a good idea. The collector collected all sorts of random things and it would not be the first time something had been activated in there and caused chaos. "Let's go look." She announced quickly before wincing at the sensation

"Yeah... " Burnie put a hand on her ...his... arm. "...um, maybe take it a little slower right now. And stop by the mess hall for some black coffee on the way."

"Sure. You need to get dressed and we need to go and look at things." She told him looking at him determined. They needed to sort this out before anything else happened or anyone else got affected.

"Dressed..." Burnie looked down at Cassie's body, still in pyjamas. It wasn't that he had no idea what she wore, or didn't have some knowledge of female undergarments (though more with respect to helping to remove them, than put them on), but the idea of dressing Cassie's body while she watched was profoundly awkward and uncomfortable. "I may, um, need some help with that..."

Cassie gave him a look that in her body would have been Vulcan and suited her but on Michael’s face, it just looked wrong. “Err… Sure.” She mused not having considered he might have been embarrassed about seeing her naked. She moved to her wardrobe and pulled out a tee-shirt and leggings chucking them in his direction before adding simple underwear. “Simple clothing.” She shrugged before grinning. "I am sure you can put a bra on right?" She teased just a little now that the pain killers were kicking in.

"On someone else? Sure." Burnie laughed helplessly as he picked up the bra. "Can't say I've ever put one on myself."

Cassie rolled her eyes and tutted at him. "Arms in and reach back. It is pretty simple." She mused trying to explain it to someone else. "All depends on how embarrassed you are." She teased still. Painkillers were wonderful things.

"Very?" He replied with a laugh as he tried to fit the bra around breasts without actually touching them, which he was discovering was harder than women made it look. "Okay, just please don't be offended if I have to touch..." he waved hands vaguely around her body's front, "...parts I would not normally presume to touch."

"Well not on me anyway." She teased trying to make light of it all. It was impossible to put a bra on in any shape or form without touching parts of a woman's anatomy. "You have never offended me. Would it help to say I trust you with my body?" It needed to be said in her opinion, he needed to know that she trusted him and hoped despite the weirdness that she felt being in his body.

Burnie paused, the unsettled feeling he'd had draining away. "Thanks. It would help. It does." He gave her a crooked smile, and gingerly but less awkwardly positioned the bra. Doing the fasteners behind his back was still not exactly easy, but he was a lot less flustered in the effort. "For the record, I trust you with my body too."

"It is all very awkward putting bras on right?" She mused with a nod as she looked at her dressed stated. She smelt like a brewery but it would do for a bit as they tried to figure it all out.

"I have new respect - and sympathy - for women," Burnie replied as he finally got the thing adjusted and shrugged a top over it. He sat down to pull her boots on. "And I truly appreciate that you aren't into high heels."

Cassie laughed a little and sat down on her bed. “Hard to wear in the highlands of Scotland or the deserts of Vulcan.” She shrugged thinking of the stark differences between where she was born and where she grew up. How such different places created her she did not know sometimes.

"I'd think they'd be hard to wear anywhere, honestly," Burnie said, getting up and taking a couple of experimental steps. "Strange enough trying to walk in a different body without having to do it on tiptoes."

Cassie just nodded and moved to where she had woken up and sat chucking on Burnie's boot before standing up. It was a bit different walking in his body but she could adapt. "It is not so hard in yours. Just need to remember the height difference." She mused. "Let's get that coffee and hope we do not run into anyone." She really did not know if she could pass for Burnie.

Burnie nodded. "I don't talk much before coffee, so at least no one should bother you."