Any sufficiently advanced HRT delivery mechanism is indistinguishable from magic.

– Chloe Haverman, Head of the Steven’s Folly planetary co-operative

CWs:

We would be docking soon, and the orbit station filled the viewscreen in our quarters now. The station was a hive of activity with worker drones constantly welding and ships travelling between the surface and the station. Already docked with the station I saw two old federation navy gunships. One looked fully operational and the other was covered in worker drones. The flashes of their welders illuminating the ship.

I was not having a good day today. I was feeling nervous. Today would be the first time I would be around anyone outside the ship’s crew as myself and I was not feeling good.

“I look hideous, my boobs are tiny, and I hate how my face looks,” I shouted at Alice.

“It’s only been six months and these things take time,” Alice replied. Hugging me.

“I know, I just feel that everyone’s going to be looking at me and thinking I look like a man.”

“Of all the places in the galaxy. They won’t be doing that here. A large proportion of the population is trans. Everyone either knows exactly what you're going through or knows someone who understands.”

“I know. It’s just hard.” I said leaning into Alice’s hug.

“I know,” said Alice as she kissed me on my forehead.

 I eventually managed to get dressed and we put a movie on the viewscreen in the quarters while we waited for the ship to dock. Once the ship docked, we walked down the docking tube to the arrivals hall of the orbit station. As we walked into the station’s arrival hall, I heard a shout.

“NATALIE!!!!!” shouted the woman.

“LISA!!!!!” shouted the captain running to Natalie. They embraced each other and started kissing.

The station was huge and busy, and it took us a while to find the departure gate for our shuttle to the surface. When we boarded the shuttle, we met up again with Lisa and Natalie, the captain of the freighter we had been on.

“This is Lisa, my partner. Lisa this is Alice and Sophie. Alice and Sophie were passengers on my ship.” Natalie said.

“Hi,” me and Alice said.

“Hi. Is this your first time on Steven’s Folly?” asked Lisa.

“For me yes. I never even knew this place existed six months ago.” I replied.

“You're from one of the planet’s we trade in secret with?”

“Yep, she’s quite the heroin there. She helped bring down the homophobic and transphobic government.” Alice replied. I started blushing.

“Oh wow!” Lisa said looking amazed. We told the story about how me and Alice met and our adventures to Lisa as the ship headed to the surface.

We stepped out of the shuttle to the warm sun and clear skies. The landing pad was high off the ground giving an amazing view of the city below. The city was so different to what I had been used to before, unlike the cities of my home planet, this one was lush and green with buildings surrounded by alien vegetation.  My thoughts were soon interrupted though by a notification from my datapad:

Bracelet: * ATTENTION * Recalibrating hormonal regulation programs due to local environmental conditions.

“What does this message mean?” I asked Alice.

“The reason this planet wasn’t originally settled was that something in the local environment generates an Estrogenic compound. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s their equivalent of vitamin D or something.” Alice said shrugging. “The poor man Steven and his team who discovered it ended up having a very bad time before they realised.” continued Alice.

Thinking about the original survey team made me feel uncomfortable. I’d lived with the horror of gender dysphoria all the way from puberty through most of my 20s and I wouldn’t wish what I’d gone through to my worst enemies.

“For us, though you’d think that’s great, wouldn’t you?”  asked Lisa, I nodded in response.

“Well, you can have too much of a good thing, so your bracelet has to compensate and stop producing Estrogen. It will also create anti-estrogens if your levels get too high.” Lisa continued.

“Ah ok, I think I understand,” I said slightly confused. Biology had never been my strong point.

We took the lift down from the landing pad to the spaceport’s arrivals hall. It wasn’t what I was used to unlike the spaceport on my home planet which was huge and deserted this one was small but busy and there was a lot of building work going on. We made our way through the spaceport and outside where we could find a transit pod to our new apartment.

Once outside we found a transit pod to hire, loaded our luggage into the cargo compartment and Alice programmed the destination for our new apartment. I spent the entire journey looking out the window, even though the city was in a half-finished state it was beautiful with parks and greenery everywhere. When we finally arrived at the apartment complex I was amazed. Like most buildings on the planet, it had been 3D-printed out of a composite rock-based substance. Rather than being the bare rock an ivy-like plant with purple flowers was growing up the walls, it looked beautiful.

Our apartment was fitted out with some basic amenities already. A basic sofa, some armchairs and a bed as well as the usual kitchen equipment. We spent the next few days decorating it and fitting it out to make it a home.

---
Today was my first day of training and I was dreading it. I’d always hated physical education at school and had lots of bad memories of being bullied in school PE class.

“Do I have to do physical training?” I asked Alice dreading it.

“Sadly yes. Having physical fitness might be the difference between being captured and escaping from an enemy so it’s important. I hate it too, but it’s got me out of a situation more than once.”

At least the place is quiet though I thought to myself as I found a changing cubicle. I wanted to cover my body as much as possible, so I’d packed a long top to go over my sports bra and leggings. After getting changed I put my belongings in a locker and made my way to the running track to meet Alice. To my relief, the running track was empty apart from us. “Don’t worry we will take it easy,” Alice reassured me. We set an easy jogging pace around the running track taking regular breaks. I was exhausted by the end of it but it was a lot better than I feared.

After running practice, we made our way to the training centre’s cafeteria for lunch, and I ordered some sandwiches and juice.

“How are you holding up?” Alice asked me.

“Tired, but I think I’m ok,” I replied.

“It will get easier,” Alice reassured me.

“What are we doing this afternoon?” I asked.

“Fun, weapon’s practice on the firing range,” Alice said grinning.

I felt nervous at the idea of firing a weapon, I’d never used a gun before and had always been scared and intimidated. After food, we walked into the firing range to the site of a muscly woman in a marine uniform firing a pulse rifle in the firing range. As she finished up, she turned around and shouted. “ALICE!! It’s been so long. I haven’t seen you in years. How are you doing?”

“I’m doing good thanks Tina. It’s been far too long. Sophie this is Tina. Tina this is Sophie.” She replied.

“Hey, Sophie! I hope Alice is looking after you.”

“She is, she’s the reason I’m on this planet now. She kind of saved me.” I said smiling warmly at Alice.

“You saved yourself. Did you know this girl of mine took down her planet’s hard-right government?” Alice said making me feel embarrassed.

“It was nothing.”

“Alice did most of the work.”

“That’s still impressive. You should feel super proud of yourself.” Tina replied.

“So, what brings you two to the firing range?” Tina asked changing the subject.

“Sophie going to become an operative like me. So, I’m teaching her the ropes.”

“Ever fired a gun before?” asked Sophie.

“No never, I actually feel really intimidated by firearms,” I replied.

“Well, that’s actually good. You should always treat weapons with respect. If you don’t and are careless that’s when accidents occur. Anyway, want to try the pulse rifle?”

“Hmm, I guess so,” I said nervously.

“You will be fine. Tina’s a really good teacher and she will keep you safe.” Said Alice.

“OK then.”

Tina first showed me how to stand and get my body into position to hold the rifle. Then she gave me the rifle and taught me how to hold it and aim it.

“So, keep your eye on the target and just gently squeeze the trigger,” she said as I aimed. I squeezed the trigger, and a blinding ball of energy flew to the target, taking a small chunk of the side of it. “Not bad for your first attempt.” Said, Tina.

“Btw what are you girls doing tonight? Lisa and the old gang are having a get-together at the Pink Dragon to celebrate being back from a patrol mission.”

“Sounds fun, what do you think Sophie?” Alice asked.

“Sure, why not,” I replied.

“Cool, see you there then.”

After speaking with Tina Alice showed me some more typical weapons that I’d be using. She started by going over how to check and load a phase pistol before letting me get the feel for firing it at some targets. By the end of the session, I was feeling a lot less intimidated with weapons than I started.

After my weapons training, I got changed, had a shower and we headed back to our apartment.

That evening we made our way to the Pink Dragon. The bar was comprised of a combination of an outdoor seating area with seats overlooking a park and an indoor area seating area with wood-panelled walls. It was a warm evening, so most people were sitting in the outdoor seating area. Looking around we quickly saw Tina, Lisa and Natalie, the captain of the freighter we had travelled to the planet on.

“Heya, you made it. Have you met Lisa and Natalie?” asked Tina.

“Natalie was the captain of the freighter we travelled on, and we spoke to Lisa briefly on the shuttle down to the surface,” Alice replied.

“It’s a small world isn’t it,” said Tina. “Lisa has just been talking about her last assignment.”

“Yep, we just came back from bringing an old federation gunship from Haven. It’s a bit of a state but with work, we should be able to get it running again.”

“What, where is haven?” I asked.

“It’s the world the original settlers from this planet came from.” Replied Lisa.

“How’s it doing nowadays? I haven’t heard much news while I was on my last assignment.” Asked Alice.

“It’s doing well actually. Since they repealed the trans act ten years ago things have been improving a lot.” Replied Lisa

“Cool that’s good to know.”

I tried to keep up with their conversation but there was a whole federation of worlds out I knew nothing about.

Tina smiled at me. “Looks like you need to start galactic politics lessons straight away for poor Sophie here.”

“Yes, there’s so much I don’t know. I feel overwhelmed since I left my home world.”

“That’s a common reaction” replied Tina. “It took Alice ages to get up to speed.”

Alice looked embarrassed.

We spent the rest of the evening chatting over drinks, and it was midnight before we both staggered home from the bar.

The next days and weeks were spent in training. As much as I hated exercise, I was slowly getting fitter, and my skills were improving. One evening we came home, and Alice pulled up her datapad as it was flashing. “Sorry, sweetie I have to take this,” Alice said and disappeared to the bedroom for a while.

“What was it?” I asked when she came back.

“A mission. Chloe wants me to go to Pebble.”

“Pebble?”

“It’s the first planet we started trading openly with.”

Lots of thoughts were going through my head at the thought of Alice going on another mission. Who would finish my training? What would I do on my own on this new planet? This was why I was surprised when she turned around and asked the one thing I wasn’t expecting, “Are you coming with me?” she asked.

“Of course!” I said. I was buzzing. This would be my first proper official mission.