“Kim?” Sarah could hear the uncertainty in her own voice. “What’s going on? What…what are you wearing?”
Dr. Kim was standing in the bathroom door, staring at her desperately confused colleague. She appeared to be wearing a simple white nightgown, but underneath that was what seemed to be some sort of skin-tight brown bodysuit.
“Sarah!” Kim’s stare broke into a huge smile, like someone seeing an old friend for the first time in years. “I can’t believe I’ve finally found you!” Before Sarah could even react, Kim ran forward and embraced her.
“Um…OK,” Sarah was able to blurt out. “You seem like you know what’s going on here. Which makes one of us.” As her friend hugged her she couldn’t help but notice how odd her …weird bodysuit felt. It was just like skin.
Kim’s demeanor turned serious. “What’s the last thing you remember before you woke up here?”
“The device! I came back to get some papers on my way to the party, and it was already on! When I went to go shut it down, it went off, and then… then I woke up here.”
Kim looked thoughtful. “I see. Some people on the team thought you had activated it yourself, but I knew you wouldn’t do anything stupid like that. Well, let me tell you what we know.”
Kim continued. “You’ve probably already guessed, but the machine works. You’ve successfully shifted into an alternate reality. For you this only happened last night, but on our end it’s been months. I went after you as soon as we were sure it was safe, but it took a while to hunt you down.”
Sarah nodded. It hadn’t actually occurred to her initially that the device had actually worked, but she was glad to learn that she hadn’t been kidnapped.
“It seems that the process of dimensional translocation doesn’t work exactly as we had expected, though,” said Kim.
“How do you mean?” asked Sarah. Waking up in a strange bed in her underwear had already tipped her off to that fact, but she was hoping Kim could enlighten her further.
“Well, our expectation was that the entire body would make the shift. Apparently that was not the case.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
Kim looked surprised. “You mean you haven’t noticed?”
Sarah was becoming agitated again. “Noticed what?”
By way of explanation, Kim gestured at her own body. Sarah stared blankly for a second before she noticed the pores and minute hairs on what she had previously assumed was a bodysuit.
“Oh my God, that’s your skin! What happened??”
“That’s the issue – it seems that, rather than being transported as predicted, you are somehow inserted into someone else’s body and life. The body I’m currently occupying is not my own, as you can see. You might not have noticed because your current host body looks a lot like your original one, but you’re in the same situation.”
“So you mean – but – what? But your face still looks the same! It’s not even the same color as the rest of your body!
“Yes”, Kim sighed. “We’re not sure why or even how, but apparently your head doesn’t change with the body. Though other people don’t seem to notice.” She saw Sarah’s quizzical stare. “Yes, I’ve done this more than once. Looking for you. And trust me,” she added, smiling, “you don’t know how lucky you were to get a body like that on your first try.”
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