When he woke up again, Amraani was shaking him up and talking about coming back to Ivory ahead of schedule. Shinji half-listened to Amraani talking about the report the security team gave him. It would take a lot more time to look into their nightly visitor’s background, which seemed to be more protected the team originally supposed. But the Massons knew it was to be expected if she truly was Amraani’s mother. All Shinji really thought about though, was his splitting headache and back pain.

I thought those biophone clones didn’t feel lasting pain. Amraani was rough yesterday night. This pain won’t help with my full-day ahead.

That thought woke Shinji up with a shock.

“Mocks! What time is it?”

“Seven thirty”, was Amraani’s slightly puzzled reply.

“Mocks three times! I’m late!” Shinji jumped out of the bed, glaring at his husband. “Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?!”

“I tried to…” Shinji cut him off.

“I told you last night that I wanted to hang up because I had an early day today and you insisted you would wake me up early.”

“I did.” Was the loud, short, tight-toned reply that came from Amraani.

“I did, but you sat up in bed, looked at me with a dreamy smile, kissed me I-love-you, and slept right back.” In a snap of his right elbow, his index finger pointed at the spot in bed Shinji just left.

Shinji, heading already for its receptacle to end the call, stopped short in his tracks.

Mocks, I’m killing myself here. I probably did that. Uhh! I hate him! Shinji breathed in and out a few seconds, then turning back towards Amraani, he smiled.

“I’m sorry for shouting at you. I just have a longer and harder day than usual coming up and I can’t afford to be anything but on top of my game. For me, for a woman in my position, it’s hard to gain respect regardless of the competency I show at this level.”

He paused for a beat, completely turned to face Amraani.

“And I need your help getting there. It’s something I need to make happen or else our marriage, our participation in the Eternal Glory program might be in jeopardy. And I’ll risk losing you.”

Shinji was pleading with his voice and eyes.

“Every day, I risk losing us. I need your help to make sure we stay happy.”

Amraani replied, his voice unenthusiastic, “I know I’m not doing good as your husband, but I will turn it around.”

“I’m serious here. Please help me, Amraani. I really need you with me.” Somehow, Shinji got close to Amraani.

“I told you I want to and I will do better.” By now, Amraani was answering Shinji with a flat tone.

The non-committing tone got to Shinji.

I should have known better than to ask this jerk for his help when he is the one planning to exploit me.

“Okay. I understand your frustration. So, what can I do to help you today?”

A surprised Shinji cited, “I have numerous appointments at work. So, me getting home early enough to cook so we can eat healthy will be hard. If I can’t do that, I will have to order food and usually it gets me low on energy for the remainder of the week. So, I would appreciate you making us something to eat. One can never fully trust those nutritionists-delivered-food. We both have clothes down at the cleaner. If you could get them on your way back home, I would be grateful. I don’t have anything to wear tomorrow for the conference on organ transplant methods and I won’t have time to go shopping. ”

Shinji trailed off, a disappointed look on his face.

“Tell me what is going on.”

Amraani replied, sporting an apologetic smile that managed to be seductive.

“I can’t do that today. In fact, I have to ask YOU for help.”

“Mocks, Amraani! You just promised to help me.”

“I know and that’s why I really am sorry to have to do that.” After a brief pause, he continued.

“I double-booked meetings on both the East and the West Coast and I need someone capable of reviewing research proposals that come with demonstrations in specific sub-fields of subatomic chemistry, two hours from now in New Angeles.”

Shinji just blanked out for a second, then shaking his head in refusal, he said.

“Amraani….. Oh no, you don’t!”

“I really have no choice. All the other directors are so far out of their depth in this discipline that I have no other choice than sending you. They have knowledge, but they lack imagination. They would dump innovative projects just because it doesn’t fit their boring, traditional view of things.”

Amraani while speaking, had already reached out, seized Shinji’s hands in his, and holding them to his mouth, was kissing them.

“Please Shinji, just this time! I promise I will do everything you want tomorrow and all the other days.”

Shinji stayed silent. Eerily silent and motionless. Eyes closed.

WHY? Why is Amraani behaving like this? In a flash, Shinji remembered part of Amraani’s conversation with their Glorian marriage counselor.

Is he starting to exploit me as he planned at the beginning of the program? If that's so, do your worst Amraani!

“Okay, I’ll go.” He opened his eyes to look at Amraani tenderly.

“Which means you must let me go right now.” His hands were released really fast.

“I have to hang up and remake my schedule. I’ll call you later.” And Shinji left the room.

              Back in Ivory, Shinji extracted his mind from the connection.

Bless my luck I went for the unlimited pack last week. The astronomical bill wouldn’t have helped with my mood today.

It didn’t take long for Shinji to reschedule his meetings, labs’ accreditation surveys, and other miscellaneous things that would have originally consumed his day. Then, he spent the next minutes booking himself on a private super-glider to New Angeles that would allow him to touch down at the same time and place Amraani was assumed to land. The home computer did a fine job of synchronizing their IAS. He only hoped the jerk would have the dignity to call ahead and apologize for the change in representatives.

Then, Shinji went for the bathroom to indulge in a short, hot bath. Before he reached the room, his IAS showed itself, bringing news that Amraani sent him the detailed schedule of his New Angeles’ trip.

“IAS, please access my schedule.”

When the hovering device was done reading it out loud, Shinji was floored.

“This amount of work is ... It’s as bad as my own cancelled day!”

Not only did Shinji have to attend to the lab tests that would be done, he also had to critique the whole chemical process implemented as the core of the methodlogy. It meant discussing the fours phases of the sub-atomic chemistry classic research protocols. The extraction phase, the exotic particle dispersion, and the collective reappropriation of the sample studied, and this regardless of the innovation that might be introduced by those; each step requiring confirmation tests and error rate analysis and standard deviation from expected results.

Shinji sighed deeply. This might be truly become a nightmare if I lose concentration for a second out there.

With efficiency, Shinji got ready and left the apartment. Heading to the electroport, he wore a soft lavender, elegant, feminine business suit. The flowing, flower-dusted skirt contrasted with the strict cut of the vest. As he crossed the lobby of their apartment building, he felt concupiscent eyes following him down the hall. It was already bad when he was a teen and his short stature added to his delicate features and often forgotten-by-the-hairdresser, frequently made older boys mistake him for a girl and holler wolf sounds when he walked by.

Now that he deliberately wore female attire, he noticed that he attracted attention from all genders, resulting in men from all walks of life making passes at him whenever they could and women’s eyes shooting daggers at him. He forgot about them to concentrate of the route he would have to travel if he truly wanted to make it to the magneport in time.

Shinji regretted again nobody designed a teleportation device yet. It would have provided him with much needed time to browse through the massive amount of data Amraani forwarded to him. Instead, Shinji’s driver would have only 10 min on the service flyway to reach the magneport before Shinji embarked on an hour and half magneflight to New Angeles. The electromagnetic superspeed glider would then shoot him between artificially created magnetic poles in both cities. The poles were calibrated on a specific frequency so that their electroplane would be the only thing attracted at sub-lightspeed between the cities.

That left him very little time to acquaint himself with the researchers’ profiles and to design an interaction plan for each of them. After all, the most important part of his job in New Angeles wasn’t selecting innovative projects or ensuring that labs were built according to code. Any competent scientist in subatomics could do that. No, what awaited Shinji was a grueling work of trimming down ideas and research programs without hurting the feelings of those involved. Some of these researchers were his teachers in the past or world-class authorities in the discipline.

If Shinji failed his task, those angry researchers could very well show too much interest in the governmental sponsoring agency that serves as a front for the Eternal Glory program. And the fact that he was showing up there as a he-female, a young, inexperienced, woman in their male eyes wouldn’t help at all.

It already happened on my first day at the institute. That was a very nice day, indeed. Th young Glorian couple had been given a week after the end of the Symposium to settle into their new life and prepare to start service. They had to schedule which public events they need to attend for their return-to-civil-life preparation to go smoothly. They set dates with the various support teams to properly create the trails their original personnes would supposedly follow until they came back to it in five years if they so decided.

Details on how the first meeting in the institute went with Amraani and Shinji being presented. Innuendos and more or less direct insults from the jealous stating that Shinji would only be riding Amrraani’s coattails and Amraani fighting back on Shinji’s behalf. The whole thing having some serious effect on Shinji, almost making him doubt the true intentions of his husband.

As soon as he started working, on multiple occasions, his male coworkers had words, innuendos, and other sexist, degrading acts towards him. Things that never happened to him when he was Shinji-Patrick. His first days as Fiji-Mary, he was shocked by how women and men alike were putting him down in covert words. Classy office and obsequious collaborators didn’t hide the ill-mannered way all including his own secretary treated him. As if she loathed receiving orders from another woman when she should have been happy something looking like a woman was given such a high authority in public government.

If only she knew.