Author's Note: Several commenters expressed dissatisfaction with the ze/zir/zim pronouns in Chapter 4, so I've produced this alternate version using they/their/them instead. Is it better/worse/same?
~~~~~
Over the next weeks, as 2015 gave way to 2016, the rate of Nova detections kept rising. Several other nations reported isolating the Nova retrovirus and indicated that it had infected 100% of their populations or was expected to do so. Yet, the U.S. government was remaining tight-lipped, even in the face of several nations claiming that the virus originated in the U.S. and spread from there. A number of Congresspeople and Senators were grumbling about a cover up, but the Presidential primaries were soon to start, so not much happened in Congress to investigate.
Debate began among a number of groups about how to prepare for a generation made up entirely of Nova children. One debate arose among linguists, who knew gender in language would need to be addressed. In English, a big aspect of this was pronouns, where neither "it" or "they" seemed acceptable replacements for he and she.
There had been many alternative pronouns suggested over the years, none of which had become predominant. The debate about pronouns spilled over into social media and arguments flowed back and forth for the first half of January. In the end, the option of using they/them/their etc, as a singular usage, won out over any of the alternative pronouns.
Cathy, Nancy and I decided to adopt this as well. I the shift here in my narrative, except where conversations still used gender-specific pronouns.
Debate continued on replacement words for male/female, boy/girl and man/woman and various compound words based upon them, such as salesman, without as much concensus.
~~~~~
January 19, 2016
We went to Dr. deLong's office for Cathy's 20-week sonogram appointment. We decided against a full revelation to the doctor, instead planning to describe our transformations as beginning a week after Cathy's first ultrasound, rather than immediately after the meteorite impact. We decided to also reveal my transformation and pregnancy. We needed Dr. deLong to respect our medical privacy until we revealed my pregnancy publicly when I entered my 2nd trimester in March.
After the usual vitals check by a nurse's aide, we were escorted into an exam room, where the ultrasound equipment was, then Cathy was instructed to disrobe and put on a gown.
Dr. deLong came into the room fifteen minutes later, saying, "Hi, Dan, Nancy. How are you feeling? I imagine you're nervous, with all of this Nova news lately. It's time to see what we'll see."
Cathy said, "I am certain the baby is Nova, doctor."
"How do you know? Did you already have a sonogram?" she asked.
"It will be simpler to show you how we know," Cathy said, as they began pulling the edge of their gown up and exposed their groin. They lifted their flaccid penis, to show that there were still labia and vagina below it.
"Oh, my lord!" Astrid exclaimed, her eyes locked on Cathy's cock. "The Nova virus did this to you?"
Cathy answered, "Not on its own, we don't think. Otherwise, the virus would be having the same effect on adults world wide. We do have a theory, though. If you check our medical records, you will see that we were both hit by a meteorite during a hike back in September, that somehow left us uninjured, although unconscious. We assumed that something inside the meteor healed the same injuries it had caused. A week after you performed my first ultrasound, we started this transformation and figured it was also because of the meteor. This was before we knew about the altered embryos or the virus. We don't know if the meteor was also the source of the virus or if what healed us manifested the DNA changes that produce Nova embryos in our bodies, but it seems likely they are connected and that we may have been the very first to be infected by the virus. Even if we were not infected, I assume that our baby would have been transformed by the same process that changed us. Whether our theory is right or not, though, we do consider ourselves Nova now and have even started referring to each other as they instead of he or she."
"Hold on, you're both Nova? This affected Dan, too?"
Nancy answered, "Yeah, my genitals now match theirs, although my changes took longer to complete, not counting breast development, which only started recently, since I've become pregnant, too. My second period after changing was six weeks ago and three pregnancy tests have all came back positive. I'm hoping you can verify that I'm pregnant by sonogram today. You should be able to find a heartbeat by now, right?"
We decided to hold back the knowledge that I was carrying twins, since we gained that knowledge from the nanites.
'The CDC —"
"Is not to be told a word, Astrid," Cathy insisted. "Unless you can determine that the adult transformation is actually contagious, we aren't posing a health risk. If becoming Nova could even be termed a health risk. You're legally bound to preserve our medical privacy. At least until we can't avoid revealing Dan's pregnancy any longer, which we figure will be his second trimester. Give us until March before they try to turn us into lab rats."
Astrid rolled her eyes at what she perceived to be paranoia, but nodded. "Okay, let's make a deal, then. I can help you in making some favorable press contacts when you do go public, if you'll let me publish your case in a medical journal. The more data I can collect now while I'm primarily your OB, the fewer tests the CDC would need to perform."
'Sounds fair,' I thought to Cathy.
"Okay, doctor," Cathy said. "So, let's get these sonograms started, before someone on your staff walks in, sees my penis and has to be sworn to secrecy, too."
As expected, Cathy's baby showed all of the hallmarks of a healthy Nova embryo and my sonogram detected two heartbeats and two gestational sacs. Dr. deLong indicated the two sacs did not disprove the possibility of identical twins, although we already knew they weren't. Dr. deLong spent extra time scanning all of our genitals and internal organs to record the effects of our transformations.
"Amazing," she said, when she finished scanning me and let us get dressed. "Except for enlarging the clitoris into a penis divided at the base and testicular tissue moving behind that, you both appear to have all of the sexual organs of both genders, just rearranged slightly so everything fits. Even Dan's pelvis seems to have been changed, to make it closer to the female shape for child birth. Nothing about this seems random. There's no hermaphrodite I've heard of which looks just like this. Plus, Dan's ovaries and Nancy's sperm are clearly fertile, neither of which existed before you transformed, so those zygotes had to be produced, too. So, why do you think you didn't start transforming right after the meteor hit?"
Cathy answered, "Looking back, the change started the same week that all the Nova news says is so important, seven weeks after conception, nine on the gestational calendar. I don't think that's a coincidence. If something in the hormones that start getting expressed that week triggered the transformation in me and somehow spread to Dan sexually, it could explain both of us beginning the transformation at that time. Whether that means the transformation itself can sexually transmitted or just the trigger to affect what the meteor did to both of us, I don't much feel like being a test subject to find out."
'Is she buying our story?' I asked Cathy.
'So far, yes.'
