Yet this was a private matter between us, and frankly, we hadn’t made any long term plans at the time. Beyond that, I have no excuses for what I did... to Adrian, though he never suspected anything.”Mike released Melissa’s hand. She glanced back for an instant and stepped to the microphone, giving a brief smile before speaking.“This has been an incredibly troubling period for me. For both of us, though nowhere near as difficult as for Martha and Adrian. But, I can tell you with a clear conscience. E.B.O.T.S., whatever that was.She rummaged around in it for a while and pulled out a small vial of liquid, a syringe and a needle in a sterile packet. My eyes widened in fear and she looked at me and said, "I suppose you're wondering why you've been singled out to be turned into a woman?"I tried to scream. I hadn't been wondering that at all. I had been wondering why she had imprisoned me here but that hadn't occurred to me. I couldn't scream because of the gag."No? Not wondering? I'll tell you. Tiff had been finishing her makeup in her bathroom when everything went south, so she had fled the suite with nothing more than a couple of towels wrapped around her head and body, neither of which she had been able to retain sprinting through the ship’s corridors. She was completely naked, the first time I had ever seen her so, and in my dazed state I drank her in. A contrast to Mom’s tan, Tiff had been engineered to have skin as white as milk, not even the veins and arteries beneath showing. Tina had visited me a lot in recent memory. And with her coming to me first, to announce the existence of a boyfriend, made me feel good. Zoe on the other hand hardly made contact with me at all which made me feel bad. I had for some time accepted the truth that she had written me off. Grant Hardy coming to me to try and moderate my view of things was more than strong evidence that he was seeing the over the top neglect by Zoe as much as was I.I’d let him know how I saw things. He’d let me know.