Dr. J.Eckels and Mrs. Whore Ch. 05

Jennifer had woken up in bed, nude, which seemed a bit strange. Had they messed around the night before? Her recollection was very fuzzy. The covers were tangled, shoved towards the foot of the bed. Edward was not beside her, apparently having gotten up earlier. She put on a robe and went downstairs.

"What's wrong, honey?" Edward sitting at the table, ashen faced, looked up with a shell shocked expression.

"You... you're back to normal," he said, staring at her with startled disbelief.

"What... what do you mean?" Jennifer asked, perplexed.

"You don't remember?"

"Remember what, Edward?"

"The... you..." Edward stopped and then started again. "You woke up... you woke me up... then you transformed... and you were up there for the past 40 minutes... by yourself..."

Jennifer held a hand up. "Can you please, honey, just slow down and start over?"

Edward took a few breaths and began again, this time more calmly and coherently, and Jennifer felt her face flushing in embarrassment as he described in some uncomfortable detail what had occurred.

She couldn't possibly do anything but take him at his word, unquestioningly accepting his story in entirety. This time, he hadn't been asleep, or anything close to it. And then everything about her husband's demeanor, his expression, the elaboration, everything put together, no matter how insane it sounded, resonated with the truth, so earnest and complete was his account.

The scientist in her was also at work in parallel, processing this information in a detached, emotionless way as she absorbed the details and began to suspect how this could possibly be true. She sat quietly for a few moments, turning things over in her head.

"It sounds... it sounds a lot like I-New," she said abruptly.

"What?" Edward asked with a blank look.

"Inhibition neutralization. They call it I-New."

"Who does?"

"Some closed group product development team at Gen-U-Tech, "Jennifer muttered distractedly, more to herself than to her husband. "But there's no way... it's still in very early preclinical stages... and I just referred it to the ethics committee anyway, something like that would never get past..."

But then Jennifer began to wonder just how accidental her accident was.

"Edward, I'm going to need your help."

***

Jennifer studied the molecular compounds on the computer monitor, holding a wad of gauze up to her arm where Edward had drawn her blood. Their home office was equipped with everything she needed to do this type of analysis, as she would sometimes do on the evenings or over weekends without having to go into the lab.

"It's one hell of a coincidence, if it is one," she said grimly, looking up at Edward, who was standing by, feeling rather useless. "It's worse than I thought."

"What is it?"

"It certainly has all the characteristics of what a compound like I-New would do. Along with something else..."

"I don't understand," Edward said. "What's the point of a... inhabiting.. Uh..."

"Inhibition neutralizer."

"OK, yea... that."

"Gen-U-Tech has made billions off its pharmaceutical alternatives to cosmetic surgery, you know that," Jennifer answered. "The demand for more "natural" biologically derived physical enhancements, lower cost, without any invasive surgeries..."

"So, how does that have anything to do with messing with people's minds?" he asked.

"Well, it doesn't. At least not directly. But, imagine, " Jennifer explained. "You've never been happy with your physical appearance, and as a result you've had poor self esteem your entire life. You take Enhancin, or whatever the latest physiological morphing cocktail Gen-U-Tech is pushing.

"Now you look like you've always wanted to, I guess if that's so important to you, but you can't reconcile your new appearance with your existing identity. If you could just let go of those hang ups somehow...

"That's where inhibition neutralization comes into play. The idea that you can transform your mental outlook as well as your physical. Not radically, but just a touch - quelling insecurities, bolstering confidence, that kind of thing."

Edward was silent for a few moments, pondering this. "OK, so I understand what you're saying, kind of, but what does that have to do with you? With what's happening to you?"

"I can't say this for a certainty, but I think I have an idea, based on what I'm seeing..." Jennifer answered slowly. "Only conjecture at this point, I can see how those twisted executives at Gen-U-Tech would think. It's the next logical iteration..."

She was silent for a few moments as she studied the screen in front of her, the gears in her mind turning.

"What if... what if there wasn't a two step process? What if you could change your mind and your body at the same time? That's what these compound combinations look like," Jennifer said, pointing to the screen. "Look.

"This compound structure is clearly some beta formula for I-New. You can see from these binding receptors that it's activated through estrogen, progesterone, testosterone... and this structure, it's some kind of derivative compound of the Enhancin formula, only the binding receptors have been modified. It's activated by the I-New compound."

"What does any of that mean," Edward asked, totally lost, the images on the screen as meaningless to him as Jennifer's explanations.

"It's a chain reaction. Arousal triggers the I-New compound, reducing mental inhibition. The I-New compound triggers the Enhancin formula, resulting in physiological changes."

Jennifer looked at Edward, trying to maintain a neutral expression despite the ramifications of what she was saying.

"It means if I get turned on, I'll probably change back into unrestrained, blonde haired, blue eyed Jenna again."