Kate London checked herself in the mirror – for the final time – and decided that all was well. The first day of a new job – especially one as well-paid as this one – was important, and she should look the part. “Well dressed, but not formal” was the instruction she’d received. So the crutch-less clown’s suit was out – shame!
Kate waked to the subway station – it would be quicker than the car, what with the city’s daily gridlock. Then the short walk to 12 Featherstone Way and a new life. The feeling of nervousness and expectation was slightly defused when she found that the front entrance was closed ‘for repaving.’ There were workmen all around the doorway digging up the whole area in front of the main entrance. A sign pointed: ‘Entrance this way’down some steps to a sunken doorway, which had been propped open by a brick. Kate went in, and found she was in the basement. A basic table and chair had been set up facing the door, with a fed-up secretary/doorman keeping his eye on the comings and goings. She gave him her letter of introduction.
“Ah yes, madam. Please take the elevator to the fifteenth floor. You will be sorted out there.”
A strange choice of words, but the vacant expression on the man’s face suggested he had switched off and was staring into the open doorway. Probably no more information would be forthcoming, so she crossed to the elevator and pressed the Up button. Immediately the door opened and she got in. Must be one of those old systems that rest the elevator car at the bottom of the shaft when not in use – surely it would be more efficient to have it waiting half way up the shaft – on average a shorter response time. She’d watched a documentary about the history of the elevator on TV a couple of nights ago and it had fascinated her.
The doors shut, and the elevator started to move. Slowly. Very slowly. A snail with a limp rushing up the inside wall would have overtaken her in moving upwards. Then a soft red light emerged from the back of the car and filled the whole confined space in a fan-like beam. Immediately she thought the word ‘preparation’ and looked down at where the beam was coming from. There was nothing to indicate a light source, but then she noticed it. There was a small semi-transparent part of the wall – painted the same shade of pale blue – and the beam came through this. The beam came from the back of the elevator shaft, and there were many of them. As the car moved upwards each beam shone in for a few seconds as the hole passed it, and now Kate had worked it out she could see the beam moving downwards as the car moved upwards. As the beam reached the bottom of the hole another one appeared at the top, but so perfectly timed that there was only one beam shining in at a time. But why?
Turning away she caught the beam out of the corner of her eye and it flickered, just like a dying fluorescent tube. This made her feel a bit queasy, which was odd. She was one of those people who wasn’t normally bothered by flickering monitor screens or street lights. She sat, with a wobbly motion, on the floor and watched the number panel for signs of progress to the fifteenth floor.
The red beam went off just before the elevator car passed the level for the lobby, and a blue beam came on a few seconds later. Looking at this for a short time, Kate keeled over and then passed out. The beam bathed her in a soft blue light from a slightly downwards pointing beam.
Kate awoke, in what only seemed like a few minutes later. She was now bathed in a greenish beam, and the floor indicator was between seven and eight. She felt top heavy, and tried to stand. There seemed to be a rucksack on her chest, and she looked down. Her front bulged strangely, more through feel than appearance, so she put her hand up her blouse and felt. She had four breasts. It was as simple as that. The extra pair felt quite natural, but threw Kate completely. She’d once worn an extra bra for a spoof science fiction play her university had put on one Christmas, but this was the real thing. Luckily she wasn’t a big girl, so she could hide the new additions with suitable loosing of her blouse and worry about it later.
Hold it… hold it. She felt the new breasts again. There had been a tingling… yes, there it was. The touching of her new nipples was turning her on. In this slow-moving elevator it wouldn’t matter if she explored this more effectively. She did, and it took her only a couple of minutes to have her brains freshly fried. Tears of orgasm were running down her cheeks, running the mascara she’d so carefully applied at home – in what now seemed a lifetime away. She got up from where she’d ended up sprawled on her back with her legs kicking – that had been some orgasm!
The eighth floor passed, and now she was being scanned by a bright white beam. She tingled where the beam passed, and felt new memories, new instructions, being fed to her, as if she was being re-programmed in some way. As the ninth floor passed– didn’t anyone else in this building use elevators? She had to lean forward against the side wall, and a burst of ‘here it comes’ hit her seconds before her spine started growing downwards as a tail. Feeling with a hand she felt it widen to the width of her hips and grow downwards as a flat duck bill shaped tail. Watching as best she could over her shoulder, then through her legs, she saw it nearly touch the ground before growing little legs. These pushed the end up again as they grew until the ‘back?’ was level with her hips again and the legs were exact duplicates of her own – even down to the mole on her left knee. With tears in her eyes – of shock and wonder and effort, rather than fear – Kate ran her hands over her latest addition. It felt like her – she could feel her hands touching her flanks and back and tail – tail? It was a fine mare’s tail, and from what she could see it was the same as her hair. About two feet long, wispy yet powerful.
The eleventh floor passed, and a new beam started. This one calmed Kate, and she didn’t worry about her new shape. It also made her turn around and face the beam, and the car stopped at the twelfth floor. Some clothing, exactly the same as what she was currently wearing, was placed in the car, the doors closed and the journey upwards continued at its leisurely pace. The beam had now vanished, so she turned around to see her new clothes. Unfolding them they were obviously for her new form, so she fiddled and swore and eventually got them on. The strangest thing was the new skirt. It went all around her four legs and new torso like a hovercraft skirt, and wasn’t what she’d expected – two skirts with a form-fitting bit for her new back. Then she realised it would have been a real struggle to get that middle part on. She’d discovered that her genitals and backside had moved to below her tail, giving her a smooth front between her front legs. The thirteenth floor passed and she was walking around in very small circles, getting the hang of walking with four legs. It seemed too easy, as if she’d been prepared for this and was just putting it into practice. Looking again at her tail, sticking out through a specially lined-up hole in her new skirt, she felt a bit like a long-haired shaggy dog, and smiled to herself. The skirt came down to just below her knees, and her legs – looking different and more shapely, she was sure – ending in pretty hooves. WHAT? Yes, she had hooves; four of them, with hair growing halfway up her calves.
“But,” she said out loud. “There hasn’t been any beams.”
There hadn’t. It had just been her body finishing off what it had been programmed with on the journey up.
Ding. Fifteenth floor. The doors opened, and Kate looked out. No one. Across the lobby there was a toilet. She ran for it, her hooves making little noise on the plush carpeting.
“Ah, miss London. So glad you could join us.”
Kate looked round. There was a man – with ‘boss’ written all over him. The same man who’d led the interview back in that hotel, a couple of weeks ago. He’d had two legs then, and had seemed normal. He flicked his tail and trotted over. His hooves quietly padding the carpet. His fitted suit fitted his whole body perfectly. He didn’t have extra breasts. He had two pairs of arms instead.
“Glad you’ve been accepted. We would have been disappointed if you’d been rejected.”
“Rejected? By what?”
“I’ll just say that you wouldn’t be standing here if you’d been rejected. Still, all in good time. One thing that will put you at ease, and is the first proper piece of information we give to all new members of the team, is that you will be changed back – quickly – to normal on the way down this evening, and changed back to your current form – again, quickly – on the way up here tomorrow. The elevator only goes slow when we have a newbie, as a lot of preparation and transformations have to be sorted out. It’ll all take a few seconds in future. Oh, and all newbies are directed in via the basement– to catch the instigation beam. You won’t go via Igor again.”
“Igor?”
“Our mechanical receptionist. He’s a bit of a boor but does the job. In fact his boorishness puts people strangely at ease, more pliable for the change.”
Then the question that had been nagging Kate came to her lips. “Why the change?”
“Well, that’s a long story. Come and have a coffee and I’ll explain the whole thing.” They walked into the reception area, past some other centaurs. Kate felt bizarrely at home. She would like it here.
Back to John Malcolm Story Page