LIGHTNOVELONLINE 79. Messages
"Hello Sabia," Sarah said as she looked into the little camera.
The two of us were still sitting at the little table in our room, but we'd both got dressed before we got started. I was in a pair of dark leggings and a tunic-style top, while Sarah was in shorts and a tight sleeveless top that didn't do much to conceal her assets.
Rebecca was sitting on the sofa off to the side watching quietly, while I held my datapad and recorded the cute blonde's message.
She remained focused on the camera as she continued, "My name is Sarah Holloway, and I hope you don't mind that I'm contacting you directly. Nyssa didn't forward your communication codes to Amanda or myself, don't worry about that. I'm sure she was expecting to relay a text message from me through Amanda and herself back to you, but I already knew how to contact you."
Sarah paused a moment then nodded, "It's true Sabia. I am... Or I was your grandfather. Obviously I'm not that man anymore, but don't worry about that. It took a few days for me to get used to this, but I promise I'm happy. I've got good friends and girlfriends. I'm doing what I love, serving as engineer on a merchant ship. It's fun and rewarding work, even though it has its challenges."
"So I suppose I'd better get on with your questions," she continued after another little pause. "You wanted me to prove my identity, so here we go."
She took a deep breath then ran down the list, "You were born on the eighty-second day of year four-seventy-two of the fifth cycle, your mom was born on day three-thirteen of year four-fifty-one. Last I heard your favourite colour was the deep blue the sky gets during sunrise on a clear morning. You and I have never met in person, we've only communicated through text and vid messages. The last message you sent me was for my birthday not long ago, you told me you'd decided to follow your mom's footsteps, you wanted to study ship design and construction. And I wrote back that I was happy for you, and I was sure your mom would be proud and happy too."
Sarah stopped there and I paused the recording while she figured out what to cover next.
She looked at me and grimaced, "This isn't as easy as I thought it'd be. I'm trying not to let it show but I'm kind of anxious about sending this to her."
"Then maybe you shouldn't? If you're having second thoughts, maybe there's a reason for that?" Rebecca asked.
I added, "You can always finish the recording then decide whether or not to send it later. Or we can stop for now, and decide whether or not to finish it later."
Sarah frowned, then shook her head "I want to finish it now. But I'll probably be second-guessing whether or not to send it till we're at the FTL place. Then I guess we'll see what happens."
She took a deep breath then added, "Ok I'm ready to continue."
"All right Sarah," I held up the tablet again then unpaused the recording so she could continue her message.
"The other questions are going to be more difficult to answer Sabia," Sarah stated at the camera. "Some of them I can't answer at all unfortunately. First and formost, the hows and whys. I was badly injured, in fact my injuries were all but fatal. My life was saved thanks to some very advanced technology. I can't go into any more details, but the bottom line is my original body was beyond repair so the solution was to give me a brand-new body."
She continued, "I'm not trans, not exactly anyways? If I have to pick a label then we'll go with either 'gender-neutral' or 'gender-casual'. In my original body I was content to be a man, but circumstances forced me into this body and now I'm happy being a girl."
With a grin she twisted some of her long blonde hair around her fingers and stated, "You never told me how much fun long hair can be! And there's other advantages, like being young and healthy again. And slim, I was never this small before. Or this cute..."
Her grin faded again and she stopped playing with her hair as she got back to some serious questions. "At the moment there's no way for me to become a man again, no way to return to who I was before. And to be honest Sabia, even if there was a way to do that I wouldn't take it. That life is over now. It was a good one, I was proud to be a father and grandfather. And I was proud to be a Navy officer and chief engineer. But I'm Sarah now. This life is a fresh start and a second chance, and I'm happy. I love my girlfriends and my new friends, I love the ship I'm working on."
"I'm sorry I didn't reach out to you or your mother," Sarah continued. "I thought about it, a lot. But I worried that it'd confuse you and Katia, to hear from a strange girl young enough to be your sister but claiming to be your mom's father. As for why I didn't try contacting the Navy, same thing. They wouldn't believe me. And if they did, they'd want to examine me and find out how this happened. So I have to ask you to keep all of this to yourself Sabia. I'm sorry, but it's for my safety and the safety of my friends here. Your granddad was a good man, he was proud of you and your mom, but he's gone now."
She sighed, "I'm Sarah, this is the new me. If you want to stay in touch I'd be happy to keep corresponding with you. I know Amanda and Nyssa are still writing each other. If you do want to stay in touch, please think of me as Sarah. I could be your friend or a distant cousin perhaps. But I'm not Lieutenant Holloway anymore."
"That's about all I can think of, and I might even be over-budget on time," Sarah grimaced slightly. "Take care of yourself Sabia, and take care of your mom. I love you both, I'm proud of you both. And don't worry about me, I'm happy and I'm enjoying my new life. Bye for now, from Sarah."
When she finished I tapped the button on my datapad and saved the recording, then moved to sit next to her so she could play it back and review it.
Meanwhile Rebecca commented, "That all sounded pretty good I think? Are you still on the fence about sending it?"
"Yeah," Sarah sighed. "I want to, but I suppose I'm a little scared. I'm worried how she'll react, if she'll hate me or something for not wanting to go back... Either to the Imperium, or back to being a man. Or both."
I put an arm around her and pulled her into a side-hug as I said, "I get it Sarah. Like you told me though, whatever you decide to do I'll be there to back you up. You've got my support, whatever you end up doing."
"Thanks Amanda," she smiled as she leaned against me.
Her message turned out to be about thirty seconds too long, so she spent a few more minutes editing it to get it down to the two-minute length. A few bits and pieces were removed, but for the most part she kept everything in place by condensing it.
When she was finished she saved it, then handed the datapad back to me.
I opened up a new file and got started composing my message to Nyssa, while Sarah went to sit with Rebecca on the sofa.
"I'm surprised you don't have your own tablet," the boss commented. "Seems like the sort of thing you'd have."
"I did," Sarah replied with a shrug. "It didn't survive the shipwreck though. I guess I could buy one while we're here."
Rebecca suggested, "After we're done at Vesfar Urox we could go do some shopping?"
"Sounds good to me," Sarah smiled as she wrapped an arm around the redhead and pulled her into a cuddle.
"Me too," I agreed. "Just give me a few minutes here, then I'll be ready to go."
After that I focused on the message I was writing, and the points I wanted to make.
I started out by gently admonishing Nyssa for reaching out to Sabia, then I tried to make it clear that we needed to be a lot more discreet about this stuff. I asked her not to tell anyone else, not to contact anyone else about me or Sarah.
Then I relented and wrote that she could talk with mom about me, if she thought mom would be able to handle it and could keep the details secret. I asked if she thought mom believed me after all, considering Nyssa caught her re-watching my original vid message after they got that final notice from the Navy.
I apologized for that again, and for upsetting mom and dad and the rest of the family. And I told Nyssa not to waste the money she received on something foolish like trying to travel out here. I told her the frontier was dangerous, and asked her to promise she'd use that money for something meaningful. I told her I agreed with mom's suggestion, that she should use it to get herself an education. I wrote that she should do something special with her life.
I also mentioned that I passed Sabia's message on to Sarah, but she was still trying to decide what to do about it. Either way I told Nyssa not to worry about it, that if she did decide to reply Sarah would respond directly to Sabia rather than relay it through me and her.
After that I wrapped up the message telling her me and Sarah were very happy together, and that we'd recently got another girlfriend and all three of us had a wonderful day-date together yesterday. I didn't mention Rebecca's name or anything, but I said she was a friend we'd made out here and both me and Sarah were happy that she'd joined us in a relationship.
Finally I attached a few pictures from our outing yesterday, of the gorge and the waterfall, and a couple cute selfies of me and Sarah surrounded by the woods and with the waterfall in the background.
When I was satisfied that was all done, the three of us finished getting ready then headed out. Before going out to the grav-sled we paused down in the hotel lobby so Rebecca could speak with the staff there. She handed back her room key-card and went through the check-out process, then she went through the process of 'checking-in' again as an additional guest for our room.
The woman gave all three of us a knowing look as she handed Rebecca a key-card to our room, but I was the only one who was blushing. All three of us were smiling though, as the boss accepted the card. Then we continued on our way out the doors.
It was only about five minutes in the grav-sled to get to the FTL company, and all three of us went inside and got in line together.
Sarah still hadn't decided yet what she wanted to do, so I went first.
When we got to the counter I gave the clerk my card and let her know I wanted to send a data package to Imperium space. By that point I'd done it enough that I knew the routine. I used my money token to pay the fee, then transfered the file from my datapad. I confirmed the recipient information, and that was it. I got a confirmation code that my message was in the transmission queue, and the three of us moved off out of the way.
"What do you think love?" I asked Sarah. The three of us were near the door but we hadn't exited yet. "We can always come back again later, we'll be on this world for another nine or ten days right? So there's no rush."
She frowned as she thought it over, then after a half minute or so she nodded. "I think I'll send it. If I don't she'll probably start hassling your sister for more information. And anyways, I made the vid. May as well put it to use."
We all got back in the line again, and when we got to the counter we ended up with a different clerk. The process was a lot slower this time than when I'd sent my message a few minutes earlier. First Sarah had to set up an account for herself, then she set up Sabia as a recipient.
Finally she paid the thousand eck fee, and we transfered her vid from my datapad. The clerk verified the file and Sabia's information, then at long last Sarah's message was put into the queue and she got a confirmation number. She also got an account card.
When all that was done the three of us headed back out to the grav-sled. As we all climbed back in Rebecca asked, "Where to now?"
"Shopping?" Sarah suggested.
"All right," the boss agreed. "Shopping it is."
