Keywords: Transformation, Scifi Species: Avian For The Grandkids Feathers, talons and a beak. Must be a birdy tail of some description... ------------------------------------------- For The Grandkids By Wolphin. I had always wanted to be in on some history making. I loved the idea of sitting back in my chair and saying to my grandkids, "I was there." So when the professor asked if I could help with their latest experiment I leapt at the chance. If I had realised it would mean four months of crawling around claustrophobic spaces running and checking cables I probably would have said no. I looked around the large cavern. It had taken them six years to get this far. Four years of fighting for a budget, eighteen months of digging and six months to put it all together. I had it explained to me exactly what would happen. It was apparently a simple idea. You get an atom, stop it moving by freezing it to absolute zero then bombard it with various things and take lots of readings. Of course, all of this took miles of cables, acres of computers and a huge number of very small crawl spaces which was why I looked pretty terrible in a very dirty pair of overalls. "Testing commencing in T minus 30 seconds" announced a voice from a hidden speaker. I looked up at the control booth, I have been assured it was safe down here. I was about as close to ground zero as you could get. The actual chamber was about thirty metres behind me at the end of a long steel tube they were going to use to suck the heat out with. One of the men in the white coats looked down and gave me thumbs up. I grinned back. I had asked to be this close on purpose, but I still had a feeling I was being a guinea pig. "In ten... nine..." the count began with a monotonous voice. I braced myself to it. Here it comes.. "Two... one... zero" I braced myself, there was a change in pitch of the ever present background hum, the air temperature seemed to drop a few degrees, but nothing else happened. I turned to look at the control tower, that was when I heard it. An ominous grinding noise. Slowly I pivoted around on my heel. The metal sheeting in front of me seemed to buckle and writhe before my eyes. Then there was a sudden flash which blinded me for an instant. As I blinked to clear the spots the smooth metal began to look rough, almost textured. I found myself stepping closer as a split appeared in the end of the tube. Then, in a matter of milliseconds the steel tube seemed to push out towards me. For a moment I thought it was going to blow itself apart, but it was a deliberate shape, rounded, but with two symmetrical bumps near the top and another pair in the middle. Realisation dawned as I found myself looking at the head of a huge snakes head. What had been the end of the pipe split into two halves, a pair of wicked looking fangs materialising at it glared down at me. There was a loud hiss and the mechanical thing began to close in on me. I gave a tortured moan and shrunk to the floor, arms across my face, expecting the worst. After what seemed like an eternity I opened my eyes slowly and looked through my arms. I could see two slivers of light. Next I heard running feet, followed by muffled voices. A few seconds later a very human pair of hands were pulling me out. I peered around curiously, my mind trying to take in what had happened. Before me, from where I had just been pulled an ornately made steel snake curved down across the room. Looking around I noticed a few other small changes. Tree roots and vines now ran across some of the cabling racks. A turtle crawled out from the hard hat storage racks and one computer seemed to be made up of chocolate. "Wha...?" I managed to murmur before my brain decided it had seen enough and I tumbled off to oblivion. I am not sure how long it was until I woke. My eyes flickered open and I stared at a white ceiling. I recognised it, it was mine. I sat up suddenly and looked around. "Ahhh, you're awake," said a familiar voice. I turned to face the grey haired man. "Did I just..." I managed to get out before he nodded. "See a pipe turn into a snake, computers turn into trees and god knows what other things?" he asked. "Yes, you did." "Wha...?" I murmured standing up, stretching some aching muscles. "What happened?" pre-empted the professor. "Well, we're not sure to begin with, but we've got some ideas." "Go on," I nodded, moving over to the kitchen. I was starving. "Well," he began. "We think it has to do with the physical laws of the universe. One of them is that matter can not occupy the same space and time. Normally this isn't a problem. Even when something looks still, its has atoms which are moving all over the place. Then they have protons, neutrons and electrons which are moving around all by themselves. This means that at any instance the mass of an object is never in the same place as any other instance." I just nodded as I empties the remainder of the orange juice. "Well," he continued. "Our project involved freezing an atom, that would stop its movement hence it would occupy the same space as it did previously. To be honest, we never thought about it, but something didn't like it. We think that the flash you saw was a tiny rip in the fabric of the universe spreading out. Strangely this rip did not progress past any solid objects and did not affect everything, but some things were affected." I looked up. "Affected?" I questioned. "Changed would probably be a better word," explained the professor. "It would seem as if anything exposed to the flash had an opportunity to change its shape. Hence the tree roots and vines. Even the conversion of the pipe into the snake." I shuddered at the memory. "Then why did the pipe revert back to steel?" I asked. "Well, it probably never changed from steel in the first place," he said. "The momentary burst of energy was probably enough to charge it, change it, but not enough to maintain it. After all, steel in this universe is rigid and inanimate, but maybe in some other universe its the basis of life, hence the movement. It would seem an object that changed to something similar in shape, hence the cables into trees and vines and the pipe into the snake. We're not why things changed into what they did or why they didn't, but we're looking into it." I finished making a sandwich and moved back into the lounge. "The what about me?" probed, almost dreading the response. "Well, from what we can tell, you're normal," he said with a smile. "We took some blood and ran some tests while you were out and you're perfectly healthy. Fully normal. It would seem the beam didn't affect you, like it didn't affect everything in the room." I sighed a sigh of relief and munched on my sandwich. "Anyway," said the professor. "I must be going, we've got a huge amount of data to go over. I just wanted to check you were ok and wanted to answer any questions. And please, don't say anything to this. The military have stepped in and everything is now classified. Take some time off, I'll see you when you decide to come in again." I nodded absent mindedly as he left. It sounded like a close call, but it would appear I was unaffected. Even though he had told me that I had to check. I finished my sandwich and moved to the bedroom, stripping down naked as I looked in the mirror. I posed a few times, looking over my body. No, everything seemed to be ok, but suddenly I seemed tired. I looked over at the bed and a few seconds later I was back in oblivion. I awoke a few hours later, rolling over as I climbed out, noticing the sun was low on the horizon. I went to turn towards the door, but gave a strangled cry and fell onto the bed as my knee sent a slice of pain through my body. Puzzled I flipped myself over and looked down at my feet before giving a gasp of surprise. My normal human feet had gone. In their place were these strange scaled things, even as I looked they grew longer, what little remained of my nails stretching into talons. I watched as the scales began moving up my calf. I was turning into a snake just like the pipe! Then, the scales seemed to stop moving. My feet continued to tingle for a few moments then they were still. Tentatively I reached down to stroke one, it was warm and smooth, but more off putting was I could feel my hand moving along it. I ran my hand across my sole and almost instinctively my clawed foot grasped at it. This was not right, snakes did not have feet... Experimentally I stood, taking a few steps. Each foot seemed natural enough, walking was no problem. Then I looked up in the mirror and gave a gasp of surprise, my entire head had somehow split itself. My eyes had moved. Instead of being above my nose they were wider apart and my nose was somehow larger. I found myself closing one eye, then the other. My field of vision had definitely improved, in fact my over all vision had improved as well, but these changes somehow seemed natural. I moved into the mirror to study my face. As I did no I noticed my teeth bulging out strangely. Even as I opened my mouth to inspect them they pushed out further, quickly emerging into the open as my nose grew as well. I tapped lightly at the new protuberance, it was hard and clicked slightly. but it wasn't until I opened it a few times that I recognised it as a beak. Realisation began to dawn slowly. Scaled feet, beak, changed eyes... I began to feel pin pricks all over my body and guessed what was happening. It is not a feeling I care to remember. Imagine pulling a hair out of your arm, then imagine doing that to every hair on your body except that the hair goes on and on, gets thicker and gradually turns into a feather. Luckily it did not last long and after a matter of minutes my trembling body gradually stilled again. Once I had got control of my senses I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I was not recognisable. I stood on two scaly legs, covered in quite elegant mottled brown plumage with light breast feathers and on orange neck, while a sharpened beak clicked approvingly at the image it saw, my newly formed crest raising automatically. My arms and hands remained, although longer feathers cascaded off my shoulders and short talons emerged from scaly palms, however I had a feeling something was missing, it just was not right. Somehow I found myself leaning forward as my spine lengthened slowly, my legs shortening to compensate as long tail feathers slid out one by one, that was when an almost complete a pair of wings burst forth from my shoulders with no warning. They grew and strengthened as I bent into my new stance, spreading their tawny feathers for balance. Somehow this room seemed to small and cramped now so I moved out to the balcony to stretch my wings. Stepping off the edge seemed like a natural progression. Since then I have not looked back. As the world's only morphic eagle I am in demand by a lot of people. The government wants me in a zoo, various research organisations want me in lots of little jars but best of all a whole pile of companies want me to work for them. The ease I have at working in difficult locations. As long as its high then I have no problem with it. Currently I am checking the power transmission lines across the country. Just me and miles a sky. Its a tough job, but someone has to do it. Plus now I've got something to tell the grandkids...