Transformation Day.(Kevin Hughes) “Come on Marley, we are going to be late!”

Marley grabbed his Sweater and glasses…he laughed when he put his glasses on.

“After today, I won’t need these suckers anymore.”

His friend Stu laughed too.

“If you don’t hurry, you will spend the rest of your life as a Mech!”

That was all the incentive Marley needed. He hurried to catch up to his friend. Racing down the stairs where both their Parents waited nervously. Nobody…and I do mean nobody…took Transformation Day lightly. And nobody, and I mean nobody, wanted to end up a poor Mech. Part Human, part machine, part computer…but with a human memory.

The Van that would take them both to the Transformation Portal was driven by a Mech. One of the few jobs that their kind could get. Oh sure, they looked and felt just like Marley and Stu…and any other fully human being. But they smelled weird. It wasn’t their fault. Mechs happened before the nanotechnology made its breakthrough. There just wasn’t enough neuroscience (or any Quantum Computers to handle the massively complicated problems that arose from shoving a human mind into a block of silicon) back then to allow for “Flash” to happen.

“Flash” as everyone knows, is why after Transformation Day you can never die, be killed, or have a terminal disease. If your integrated human and synthetic parts found themselves in such a drastic situation that Termination was the only option…you could “Flash”, and your entire Life, Memories, and Experiences were instantly duplicated in another “Shell”. It has to do with some kind of Superposition Quirk allowed by Quantum Mechanics…but no one fully understands it. Well, except for how to exploit it.

Mech’s though…sad. Really sad.

Transformation Day is always the day after your Puberty Scrub. Once you stop growing they take you in for a scan. That scan measures all the biological and physiological markers. Then they scan your brain for signs of maturity. As if often the case, Male bodies mature (on average) by age eighteen. However, their brains don’t mature until around twenty five or so. Transformation Day for most males is a good five or six years after Puberty.

The Females have the opposite problem. By definition, Puberty is reached (along with full height) about the time of their first period. Perhaps because they can have babies after their cycle begins, most females reach Mental Maturity while still in their teens. So most Females would be eligible to Transform at nineteen. But they have to wait for their slower Male counterparts to catch up. That six years is a real danger zone for Females. As it is for Males, but for different reasons. One is hoping nothing happens to render them a Mech…six years of unnecessary waiting.

The Other is merely living until Transformation Day.

It has to do with developmental diseases that can appear while you are waiting to be Transformed. After Transformation Day, your body will never age, get sick, and even if somehow you manage to get it to fail…you just Flash. You new body needs no incubation period or transition time…you Flash, and you are you again. Simple.

Oh, but the poor Mechs. I mean if you get screwed up in an accident (or get a disease) BEFORE Transformation Day…they have no choice. You get the best integrated body available: Metal assisted bone growth, Mesh replacement skin and organs, with primitive nannobots, augmented reality built into eyes, ears, and synapses - but no refined sense of smell, or release of natural pheromones. Nobody has figured out a way around that. Hence, Mechs (Called Stinkers when confronted with either ignorance or Racism) smell completely different than unmodified Humans, or Transformed one.

Mechs, in a word, smell: clean. Always. Like walking hospital corridors. A smell, that while not unpleasant, reminds one of antiseptically clean and sterile rooms. So did this one.

“Good Morning young men! I hope you have a successful Transformation Day.”

Stu forgot his manners (and revealed his hate) with his cutting words:

“What would you know, you are just a lousy Stinker.”

The hand that knocked Stu off his feet and on to his backside, wasn’t from the Mech. The Mech had simply frozen his smile place and continued to open the door to the Van. It was Stu’s Father who had backhanded Stu. Stu wasn’t as hurt as he was surprised. His Dad was livid, so Stu wisely decided to stay put on the ground.

“YOU will get up! You will apologize to Mr. Roberts. If you ever use that word again today, there will be no Transformation Day for you….ever.”

Stu’s Mom, and Marley and his parents gasped. Stu’s Dad couldn’t be serious…could he? I mean technically Stu’s Dad could call for a Review and that would mean that Stu would not only never get Transformed, but he wouldn’t even be eligible for the upgrades provided by being a Mech. No. He would be condemned to live out his short natural life as Nature intended. Naturals only lived eighty or so years…and the last twenty of those years you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.

Stu was scared straight.

The ride to Transformation Day in the Van was quiet, bereft of all the joy and excitement normally present. Stu, no pun intended, had plenty of time after his apology to Mr. Roberts (the Mech) to realize how close he had come to losing his privileges in Life. There had to be a reason. He saw part of it when they parked the Van outside the Transformation Day.

His Father was talking to the Mech while the rest of them waited just out of ear shot. Then the Mech hugged his Father, which made Stu’s eyes bug out of his head. He had never seen that before. Ever. He looked over at his Mom. She had tears in her eyes.

“Mom, why is Dad hugging a Mech?”

She looked back at him. He drew back at the intensity of her stare. She wasn’t condemning him. The look was more of pity than anything else. Stu was confused until she answered him.

“Because that is his brother. His only brother.”

“But…but…but…how?”

She sighed.

“That is your Dad’s story to tell. His brother didn’t make it to Transformation Day…and your Dad thinks it was his fault.”

Stu looked back at his Dad and the Mech. Then he looked over at Marley his friend. What if Marley had become a Mech….it made Stu Shudder. He vowed right there and then.

“Mom, I will never use the word “stinker” again.”

She nodded watching his eyes carefully.

After a moment, he straightened up.

“Nor will I ever call anyone a Mech.”

With that, Stu went over to his Father and his Father’s Brother and put out his hand.

“Uncle Robert…my name is Stu. Forgive me for being an idiot.”

And so it was, that Marley took the now famous picture of a Transformed Human, a Mech, and a Puberty Scanned Natural…

Hugging.

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