Second Time Around

Prologue

Our worlds are only marginally different from each other. While endless debates still exist in academia about whether to call it "Terra" or "Gaia", most of us still just call our planet "Earth". We still have the same countries and borders. The same languages exist. The same diversity in human ethnicities exists. We still have most of the same problems. About ninety-nine percent of our history is the same. The one difference in our timelines that causes some discomfort among our populace happened some time between the mid-1930s and the Second World War.

While we're not quite certain exactly when it began, our scientists have reached the consensus that someone was developing chemical weapons when something went a bit awry. They were experimenting with the Influenza virus and some DNA from a clown fish was absorbed into the virus' genome. This new strain was completely unexpected and we certainly weren't prepared for it. Unlike the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, there weren't an increased number of Influenza-linked fatalities. The casualties, however, would never be the same again.

Nobody has any records of occupied territories from France eastward during the Second World War because of plausible deniability and, perhaps, even embarrassment by the provincial governments behind the Iron Curtain. It is widely believed that this led to the spread of our current predicament. Once veterans started coming home during and after the war, it became apparent that we would have a new reality in our world. We began to see the ramifications of what is now referred to as the Mutagen Pandemic.

Regardless of the lack of known cases at the time, most of academia have an individual they commonly refer to as "Patient Zero" of the Mutagen Pandemic: Edward James Walker. Born in the family home by midwife just outside Ettington, Warwickshire, England, UK, in 1922, he was the third of five sons and four daughters of Margaret and George Walker. Most of his childhood records are lost to history, but what is known is the fact he lied about his age when he enlisted with the British Territorial Army in early 1940. He was a veteran of the Miracle of Dunkirk and served for a further two years with British forces. Walker would later report not noticing or acknowledging anything of concern until near the time the regiment he was a member of was sent to White Waltham Airfield in early 1941.

At the time, White Waltham was not only a major RAF operations center but also the home of the Air Transport Auxiliary, the female pilots' division of the RAF. Walker's regiment was sent there to protect the base against any attempted invasion of Britain by Germany. Not having much facial hair and the lack of necessity for a daily grooming routine, the fact he didn't need to shave any longer had been lost on him nearly a month after being stationed at the base. Even a series of incidents involving abdominal pains were dismissed as minor and inconsequential. Not until a medical examination after reports from Walker of ill-fitting uniforms was anything medically documented. Six months prior, he was catalogued at 170cm (5'7") in height and 68kg (150lbs.), just under 11 stone, in weight. They initially became alarmed to discover him at 159cm (5'2.5") and 56.7kg/8.9 stone (125lbs.), a collective loss of an entire decimeter (4in.) and 11.3kg/2.1 stone (25lbs.). When they discovered breast tissue in equivocal size to that of a 12-year-old girl on the chest of a 19-year-old male, his active involvement in his military career ended.

Not breaking with tradition at the time, an E.J. Walker was placed under British government custody. Every minor change was measured and documented. The Ministry of Defence redacted most of the doctor's notes and patient testimony throughout much of the next year. What can be determined through the redactions and beyond is that a full metamorphosis from male to female is what occurred. Shortly after his 20th birthday, Edward James Walker was discharged from service to the crown and disappeared from the historical record. In his stead, one Edith Jessica Walker appears in family documents and newsreels from that time forward. She was lauded as some kind of miracle, even though there were at least 600 cases very similar to hers during the time she was in Ministry of Defence custody.