Chapter 1: The Experiment
Beth was eager to get started on the day's experiments. At 24, she was already working on her second PhD β this one in bio-chemistry. She had previously gotten a degree in physics, which led to her research into Theta Radiation. Beth believed that theta radiation had healing properties and could lead to a medical breakthrough. Unfortunately, Theta radiation could only be created by an extremely rare element called futanarium, which was only found in meteorite fragments.
Beth's intelligence made up for her small stature. At 5' 2", she barely weighed 90 lbs. Her flat chest and superior intellect didn't attract much attention from the boys, but that was fine with her.
It was a Friday, and Beth felt rushed because her research assistant would be coming in this afternoon. Kristen was a trust-fund kid who only got to work with Beth because her father was a major donor to the school. It was through him that Beth was able to get her hands on the futanarium. Kristen was an idiot overall, but her father hoped that working with the university's brightest would help her mature. 'Oh well' thought Beth 'at least it got my research funded.'
Since Kristen just slowed things down, Beth tried to get as much done as possible before she showed up. Beth had already run two experiments today. In each, she put a lab rat into a radiation chamber the size of a closet and filled the chamber with small amounts of theta radiation. The first test showed no effect on a male rat.
However, when Beth ran a second trial with a female rat, the radiation worked! The rat was completely healed. On a closer inspection, Beth found another surprise: the female had grown a tiny set of male genitalia!
Beth double checked her notes β making sure she had put a female rat in the chamber. Sure enough, this was the same rat! Beth didn't know what to make of this. She took a sip of her coffee and sat back thinking about what might have caused this. Absentmindedly, she set her coffee down on the control panel, not noticing that it was now pressing a couple of buttons.
'Well, guess I'll have to run the experiment again to verify' she thought. It was possible this was some random mutation, but Beth had to be sure. She went into the chamber to inspect it for the next experiment. Once inside, she heard the door to the chamber slam behind her. Beth turned around to open it, but found it locked.
Beth started to panic: if the door was locked, that meant the experiment was running! Any second now the chamber could be filled with radiation. Beth started banging on the door so hard her hand started to bleed. Soon, the equipment started to hum, and she knew she wasn't going anywhere. The best she could hope for was that the small amount of radiation the rats were getting wasn't enough to affect people. What Beth didn't know was that her coffee cup had sat on the button setting the amount of radiation being sent into the chamber. It was now 100 times higher than it had been during the first experiments!
All of a sudden, the chamber flooded with radiation. Beth doubled over in pain. It felt like her entire body was on fire. She felt every muscle tense up. In between her legs, she felt pressure building β it was if her insides were being rearraigned. All over, Beth felt like there were thousands of needles digging into her tissue. She tried to breathe, but she felt her clothes tightening and constricting her. Soon, it became too much and Beth passed out.
20 minutes later, Beth woke up on the chamber floor. The experiment must be over, because the door was no longer locked. Standing up, she was surprised that she wasn't feeling any pain. Even her hand, which had been cut as she banged on the door, was already starting to heal. She got out of the chamber and went to sit at the control panel to find out what went wrong.