Dreamspirit left the medical research lab making hir way to the lower Bio-research labs. Once shi got there shi walked to the lead scientist. "Doctor Lee, I need to see you in your office." Lee nodded and followed Dreamspirit to his office in Bio lab 7. Putting hir PADD on the docking station and pulling the data up on the wall screen. "For the next 2 weeks, I want your lab 8 and 6 to work on this. Split it up and work on one section at a time. I don't care how you get it done, just get it done in 2 weeks."

Dr. Lee looked at hir. "Shir, with all due respects, we have a lot of morphs that need treatments an....." he stopped when Dreamspirit cut him off with a raised hand.

"I know, and they will get the treatments when we are done with this man."

Dr. Lee looked at the scans. "He is human. Why are we treating a human?" Lee asked with an annoyed look.

"Take a closer look at the DNA build up," Dream said as shi sat down and crossed hir arms as Lee sighed annoyed and looked. After a moment, he noticed it. "Wait, taur DNA? Why the hell would there be taur DNA in a human? That's just stupid," Lee said with a touch of shock. "I mean even to get it to work there would have to be a lot more strands to keep it from falling apart."

Dream looked at Dr. Lee. "That's what I am afraid is happening again."

Lee looked at Dream. "But why so many labs working on one human?"

"Unlike refugees, he has a cub and family...." Shi paused and looked at the scans, "I have a friend in there someplace, too."

Lee nodded, "I see, alright. But I'll keep some of my people on some of the life-threatening cases with the refugees if you don't mind."

Dream nodded to him in reply and started to walk out. "Lee, if you find out anything contact me; day or night," shi said not looking back to him.

"I will," replied Lee.

Dreamspirit made hir way to OPS to spend the rest of hir day doing hir reports while Max was going through his tests. Trying very hard to put Max out of hir mind as shi worked finding it hard to do either.

>>>

All in all, it was a pleasant evening, Max ate four helpings of everything and still managed to look hungry. The conversation was nice and everyone relaxed after dinner with the hot beverage of their choice and the conversations continued. Max related some of his issues with Sands and shi shared some of hirs' with everyone. As the evening progressed everyone watched in varying degrees of distress as Max went back for more food several times.

Nobody wanted to bring it up but they were all worried and they all kept a wary eye on Max as his caloric intake reached and surpassed 5 digits. Finally, Swytch stood up and looked at Sands. "How long has it been since you've been with anyone?" hy asked bluntly.

Sands looked uncomfortable but muttered, "My last heat cycle."

"And how long ago was that?" Swytch pressed.

"About four Earth months or so," Sands mumbled.

Swytch nodded and walked over to hir taking hir hand. "Much too long. Come on, you and I are going to share the spare bedroom tonight so Max and Jackie can have some alone time for her heat cycle." Hy looked over at Max inquiringly.

Max found that the idea didn't bother him like it might have a few months ago, maybe all of the changes weren't just physical? Max smiled and nodded to Swytch who grinned impishly in return and then drug a flustered Caitian to the spare bedroom. This left Max and Jackie sitting on the couch. Jackie leaned into Max snuggling into his chest fur with a happy sigh.

Max had a slightly troubled look on his face and asked, "So, think you can love a skunk as much as you loved a human?" he said worriedly.

Jackie gave a low throaty chuckle and swung her leg up and around to straddle Max's lap facing him and putting both hands around his neck, pulled him into a deep kiss. A few minutes into the kiss, she started a slow grind in his lap causing him to moan slightly in response. The kiss grew more heated as she continued to grind on him as she received the response she was looking for as the front of his slacks swelled and rubbed against her. With quick movements, she had his slacks undone and pulled open and Max arched his hips slightly as she pulled them down far enough to release the object of her desires. With one soft hand, she gently stroked the length of it as Max gasped. Was it his imagination or was it more sensitive? Hiking her skirt up more she rubbed against its length proving that she had deigned to remain unclad with something as silly as panties. As she moved her hips slowly up the length of it, one hand reached down to take gentle hold of it and position it. With a groan of pleasure she lowered herself slowly down the length of it taking him all in. With a gasp she said, "Does that answer your question, my handsome, sexy, desirable Max?"

They made love there on the couch several times, there was no urgency in their love making, they took slow and tender time with each other, bringing each other to the heights of sensation several times before allowing release to take them... They managed to find their way to bed much later and both drifted off cuddled against one another in happy slumber.

A gnawing pain in his guts woke him early, an intense stabbing that made him wake with a gasp of discomfort. He quickly rolled out of bed stumbling and falling to the floor extremely weak. He slowly made his way to his feet with effort and staggered to the kitchen replicating a breakfast that would make a chakat blanch and quickly made his way through it and still hungry, replicated another one and finished that as well.

Finally, slightly satiated but with no more room to put the food Max staggered to the bathroom. He cut on the lights and looked in the mirror and winced a bit. He had changed again. The fur on his body and face was much fuller and thicker. His natural hair color had seeped through and now he had white furry eyebrows that blended with his black facial fur as well as a white patch on his chin that was slightly longer like a goatee. He could clearly see his ribs even through his thick fur as they made ripples in the white and black fur covering him. As he reached up to touch his face, he saw his hands. The thick, darker pads that had been growing on the palms were now black and leathery.

He stared at them for a minute and then at his reflection before he noticed that his nose was also black now and shiny? Reaching up he touched it and noticed that it was wet. Something brushed the back of his thighs and turning to look, he saw that his new appendage was at least three times the length it had been yesterday, he estimated it was at least 32 centimeters now and the fur on it was extremely long in comparison to the rest of the fur on his body. Experimentally he tried to move it and it responded with a few jerks and twitches. Curious, Max lifted a foot and sure enough the pads on the bottom were also black, leathery, and quite thick. Well, no more shoes needed now. Max's body trembled taking in all of the changes and then he noticed that his hair was sticking out a bit on the sides. Pulling the hair back he saw that his ears had gotten bigger and rounder and twitched a bit at his facial expressions. They were also covered in a light, thinner coating of black fur. Max sighed looking at another new version of himself and wondered when it would all end and if there would even be a Max left. He noticed that instead of the natural luster his fur should have, it was quite dull and listless in look. Max was going to die a wasted husk somewhere between morph and human if Dream didn't find a cure quickly.

Max walked into the clinic, or maybe it should be noted it was more like he slouched into the clinic. He had some kind of power-bar in his white furred hand which he was quickly devouring. His hood was pulled up on another hoodie, this one jade green, and it looked a good bit bigger on his frame. His sweat pants were pulled down in the back allowing 32 centimeters of tail to hang out, it twitched listlessly, the longer, thicker fur on it kind of dull in luster and hanging limply off it. He slouched his way back to bio-bed 4 and tried to arrange a too short tail to keep from sitting on it as he sat on the bio-bed about the same time he finished the protein bar.

Dream was across the room with the team leads from other labs discussing a few things with them. Shi saw Max walk in, but kept hir attention on the leads discussing Max's case with them making simple gestures with hir hand as shi spoke. In hir right hand, shi had a PADD shi held very tightly. After a few comments, shi nodded to them and the meeting broke up with the other team leads making their way out of the lab. Dream walked over to Max's bed and frowned. "How are you holding up, Max?" shi asked when shi was closer to him.

Max reached up to lower his hood, the darker pads were there on his hands now, black against the white fur. He grabbed the hood and lowered it onto his shoulders. The first thing that was noticeable was that his nose was now as black as the pads on his hands and moist looking. He now had eyebrows again as well as his old goatee but they were both white adding some color to his black furred face. His ears were a bit bigger and more rounded and noticeable now that he had his limp hair in a ponytail and out of his face. He looked... hungrier and leaner... His face had already been fairly chiseled looking, like unfinished stone; but now his cheeks looked sunken and that was with the thicker fur filling in most of the deeper spaces, his green eyes looked tired. "Got anything to eat?" he half joked.

Shi sighed. "Max, I am afraid I have only bad news," shi said as shi walked over to the replicator getting hir a tea and looking at Max to make his request.

Max winced at the words and shrugged, "Anything with a high calorie count. Or high protein. I could eat all day and still be hungry." As if to emphasize the point Max's stomach rumbled in protest.

Shi looked at the replicator and said, "Steak dinner, with mashed potatoes and brown gravy and green beans. With coconut milk." The replicator roared to life making everything on a tray. Shi put hir tea on the tray as she brought it over to Max. "Eat up," shi said as shi laid it on the bed behind him and picked up hir tea as shi watched him.

Max's eyes lit up as he tucked into the meal with gusto. He managed to get a few words in between bites though, "I've had nothing but bad news Dream. So far every time I wake up it's more bad news. So, go ahead and tell me. I've kinda given up on good news by now." And with those words he went back to shoveling food in his mouth.

"Not news like this," shi sighed. "If we can't get this under control soon, you'll die," shi said hir voice devoid of humor or life. "Your body is undergoing a change that was supposed to be done in a lab with trained professionals who know what to do. We don't change people here, we fix problems short of changing entire species. We don't have that type of training. Sure, if this was the LNAW, they wouldn't have a problem changing you from human to morph. But here.... It's highly controlled and even then, sometimes people who apply to have it done are denied because not everyone can have it done," shi stated. "AND we found out whose DNA was used on you."

"But that's just it, I don't WANT to be a morph! I was happy as a human. I didn't choose to have this done to me," he said putting down the fork on the empty plate. "If it's something that can actually be done, then why does it feel like it's not going correctly? I feel like a shadow almost, a very freaking, hungry shadow," he said in frustration.

"Max, does the name Zytell ring a bell at all?" shi asked eying him. Still trying to keep hir mind from touching his. Still very afraid of what shi would find out from it. That other time felt.. Strange. And it frightened hir more. So shi just watched him. Watched his face, his expressions.

Max blinked thinking, "Never heard of it, why do you ask?"

"We found out hy has been missing," shi started off. "No one has seen or heard from hym in a long time. In fact, the case had nothing but dead ends; till you came along that is."

Max looked confused, "What does that have to do with me?"

Shi looked sad and took a deep breath and handed Max the PADD shi was holding during the meeting. "Hy was 39, had a family, had a great job on earth working for a shipping company, till one day, hy just didn't show up for work. When hys family realized that hy never came home after a workday, they worried, but didn't want to do anything till later. It wasn't till hys work place called the police that got the case going. But that ended with dead ends. Until you showed up and we started doing deep scans, we've been working on every possible solution, even by tracking down the person who donated the DNA." Shi looked at Max. "You have Zytell's DNA."

Max just sat there for several minutes processing this. "So that makes everything complete, doesn't it? I really don't exist, do I? I'm just a fecking jigsaw puzzle of used parts and pieces and it looks like if this keeps going I won't even be Max, will I? I'll just be a two-legged copy of a missing skunktaur from Earth." He snorted and slouched even lower on the bed and murmured very lowly, "No JC, no Jayce, no Max..."

Dreamspirit looked at him hard. "First off no, you wouldn't be copy, too much DNA mixed together. You more closely resemble a possible offspring. Secondly, how do you know about JC?" shi asked sharply playing off as if shi didn't really know. Shi still cared about him, but just how could shi deal with all of this? He'd changed too much to be the Jayce shi left on that ship.

Max gave Dream a blank stare. "So I'm the bastard offspring of a skunktaur and some stupid human who died doing something stupid? How is that any better? Feck, maybe I should just let the treatment take its course and rid the universe of another genetic freak," he muttered slumping.

"JC was a good man Max, you should honor his memory," shi said in a sharply chastising tone. "Don't you ever speak ill of the dead and stop calling yourself a genetic freak. If we are able to keep your body from self-destructing, you may need to consider the possibility of never being able to be human again. At this point, two DNA patterns are fighting for control and the taur DNA is winning. There is nothing we can do to stop it at this point. Maybe if we'd gotten to you sooner it would have been easier to reverse it; but now it's just too late for a quick fix. We can't do anything without damaging you further. Last I checked, you have family that loves you Max. Keep them in mind before you start talking about how much of a freak you are. As of right now, you might as well start thinking as yourself as one of us because you can't say you're human anymore. Welcome to being one of us freaks. I do believe that is what your friends in H1 calls us. Now please, clothes off, and lay down for today's scans," shi said a little hurt by his words.

"No, JC was a dumb kid who was so naive that when someone showed the least bit of interest in him, he ended up as an H1 stooge. And wait, MY friends in H1?? I don't have any friends in H1," he said with a snort as he started to pull off his hoodie. "Didn't your Commander Shylin tell you? I'm just a poor resident of Chakona who was in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said with a touch of self-mocking in his voice. Once the hoodie was gone, shi could just make out the outline of ribs through fur that was thicker than the day before, the white fur making it show more than the black did. "Of course, I guess I could have learned from JC's mistakes," he growled as he started to shuck his sweat-pants being careful of his still tender new extra appendage. He finished kicking them off and then took the time to fold them neatly and place them on a chair off to the side before settling back on the bio-bed again being careful of the extra appendage. "What's my DNA going to do to my son huh? How will hy end up? Heck, what happens if I get Jackie pregnant? What kind of child would she have? Sometimes I think their lives would have been better if I had been a bit faster that day so long ago..." this he said in a much quieter tone.

"Well, there is only one way to find out, because I am not able to scan your child. I am putting in a rush request to have hym tested immediately for any genetic faults," shi stated with a flat look on hir face. "Max?" Shi asked looked around making sure no one else was in earshot range, "Look me in the eyes, tell me you are not JC."

Max almost fell off the bed when shi made hir statement. Panting, he drug himself up to look over the edge of the bed at Dream, a strange look on his face as he avoided hir eyes, "You're being silly, we both know JC died in that explosion. And even if he had not, he'd be buried 30 floors underground in some Fleet prison."

"Let me guess, you forgot that you can't lie to chakats," shi stated. "Hell, I didn't even need to touch your mind. You're too damn drunk to remember. I felt it the other day. But your head is still the same JAYCE!" shi said with hint of anger.

Max winced and climbed back up on the bio-bed and avoided Dream's eyes. He laid back and just looked up at the ceiling. "I wasn't lying, Jayce was a naive idiot. Max has a family and a child, he couldn't afford to be Jayce anymore, if Jayce was still alive then Max didn't exist and Jayce would have been buried in a prison cell somewhere and never found again for being naive. Commander Shylin gave me a choice. If Max lives, then Jayce dies. They couldn't both survive."

"Why didn't you call me when you needed help?" shi asked in a remarkably calm and caring voice while starting the scans for the day. "I do have some pull you know, and you may not have had to deal with that creep Shylin," shi stated as the scans started to pull up information on the wall screen. "I could have done something for you sooner."

"Oh yeah, how would that letter have gone??? Dear Dream, how are things? Things here are not so good. After you left, I joined H1! You'd be so proud of me. I blew up a Star Corps recruiting office and killed a skunk morph. I guess I screwed up again, huh? All my love, Jayce. Yes, that would have been a great letter. What were you going to do, leave Starfleet, come running to my rescue?" he snorted.

"I would have gotten you better protection. A large number of H1 leaders in cell groups can hardly be found. You knew one. You pressed the flesh with him. Any Commander would bend over backwards for that kind of information. But that Commander Shylin has something up hys sleeve and I don't like it. I didn't like hym on MY station either. And maybe you're right that JC is gone. You do feel more confident when it comes to being around people. That's a big change from JC. I just wish you had trusted me more when you got here. Instead of me finding out and chewing out Shylin."

"So, if I had walked up to you and been all like, Oh Hi, Dream! I'm back. Oh and by the way I'm Jayce, what exactly would you have done? Huh?" he snorted again. "And fecking wet noses are FECKING WEIRD! ARGH!"