But, despite Jack’s problems, he was still Eureka’s sheriff. So he decided to go back to work while Henry tried to figure out how to fix him. And after he and Deputy Andy finished dealing with the latest emergency, Jack changed yet again.

And now, the continuation...

- - - - -

What happened at Mount Von Braun and the EM facility had quickly made the rounds (to be sure, their town was not like any other, but when it came to gossip, Eureka was very much like any American small town: gossip spreads like wildfire in Eureka just like in any rural community).

So most of the people in Global Dynamics knew about Jack by the following morning, and found a reason to pass by Medical, with excuses like headaches or dizziness, or (the most memorable one) a hangnail, and see a doctor. And, “by accident,” they just happened to peek into Jack’s room, and said hi.

Just another day in Eureka.

Dr. Craig had again traced who Jack had turned into – it was Taylor Sweets, daughter of Dr. Fergus Sweets from Section Twenty-Three. Taylor had just started in Cambridge – she was going for a degree in astronomy. Which was just as well – it would have been awkward if Jack were to meet her looking like this.

Dr. Sweets said, though Jack looked remarkably like his daughter, he clearly wasn’t her. Jack’s new face didn’t look exactly like hers, he didn’t sound anything like her, and since Taylor was five-ten, he was at least three inches taller.

“Which is good,” Jack said to Dr. Sweets. “It already feels pretty awkward right now. Imagine if I really was Taylor’s identical twin.”

Dr. Sweets nodded and shook Jack’s hand.

“True,” he said. “Anyway, good luck Jackie... I mean, Sheriff Carter.” He scurried away.

That bothered him – most of the people who passed by called him Sheriff, but those whom he knew personally didn’t call him Jack, but called him Jackie instead.

Henry came in.

“So, no identical cloning,” Jack said to Henry.

“So far,” Henry replied. “But we did discover something new – something that was overlooked.” He held up a card.

“What’s that?” Jack said. “Fingerprints?”

“Your new fingerprints,” Henry answered. “And look at these.” He held up another card.

“Who’s prints are those?” he asked.

“Yours, too, from your employee file.”

“Huh? Why do –“

“Your fingerprints haven’t changed!”

“Oh... So what? I’m still six-one, I have the same fingerprints, and I have the same girly voice I got the first time I changed, but everything else is different. So?”

“Dr. Craig?” Henry called to the scientist standing nearby.

“Sheriff Carter,” Dr. Craig, the current person in charge of Section Nine said, “it seems Dr. Barrows’ device was defective. The device was supposed to create clones of people’s organs, not their entire bodies. But, also, the cloning was supposed to be exact, but it turns out it’s not.

“Given your height is still your old height, and your fingerprints are exactly like your old prints, it seems you are now a mix of your DNA donor and you.”

“I thought we knew that already.”

“It was a theory,” she said, “and it remained unconfirmed until we got your fingerprints.”

“I don’t get it – why don’t you just check my current DNA? Can’t you...”

Dr. Craig sighed. “Well, the thing is, your new DNA has no similarity to your old DNA nor the other thirty donor DNAs – none at all.”

“So...”

“So that means... well... well that means... well, I don't know what that means.” She held up a sheet with colored horizontal lines – it was a printout of Jack’s DNA code.

“Can’t we assume, Dr. Craig,” Henry said, “that this is a mix of the genetic maps of all the DNA donors and Jack’s DNA?”

“The thing is, Dr. Deacon, that’s not an easy thing to confirm. Combining DNA code without a map to begin with, and still produce a viable, live specimen is next to impossible. Jackie should be dead by now, or at least mutated into something totally unrecognizable. But as you see,“ - she gestured to Jack – “Jackie is totally healthy and normal.”

Jack and Henry looked at each other.

“Here’s another thing,” Dr. Craig said, “Jackie’s DNA had not changed despite changing into three different women, and her blood type hasn’t as well.”

“What!” Henry said. “How come you weren’t able to tell that right away?”

“Well, the blood type, perhaps – the blood type is exactly the same as Jack’s old blood type – O-negative. But since there are only four blood types, we weren’t prepared to conclude anything from that, except that it could just be a coincidence.

“As to the DNA – we have been comparing the entire DNA chain from all three of Jackie’s transformations to make sure it’s one hundred percent identical. And that took time.”

Henry nodded resignedly. “You’re right, Dr. Craig. My apologies.”

“So, now what?” Jack said.

“Now, you let others take a look at the data,” Allison said.

“Allison!” Jack said.

Allison came and, after a moment’s hesitation, have him a hug.

“I’m so glad you’re back,” Jack said.

“You should have called me earlier,” she replied. “I’d have come back sooner.”

“I’m sorry, Allison,” he said, “it’s just...”

“I understand. Kevin and the girls are back at the house, but I’m here now.” She turned to Henry. “Hey, Henry.”

“Hey, Allison.” He gave her a hug.

“Has Grace made any progress on this... whatever it is?”

“I’ll call her.”

Soon, Grace had come over, with Zane Donovan in tow.

“What’re you doing here, Donovan?” Allison said.

“I’ve been asked by Dr. Craig to help to try and figure out Dr. Barrows’ device.” He was a bit dirty – obviously, he’d been going through the debris from Section Nine.

“And?”

He shrugged. “Sorry, Allison – I couldn’t get anything out of that pile of junk.”

“That’s too bad,” She said. “Grace?”

“I’ve done my best, Allison, but I have to agree with Dr. Craig’s conclusions.” She handed Allison a pad, and Allison paged through the device.

“How about the scans in Jack’s pituitary gland?” She showed Grace and Henry the page she was looking at, and Henry put it up on a bigger screen.

“Dr. Craig was right again.” Grace zoomed in and pointed at the little structures on the surface of the pituitary glands.

“Since the scans from yesterday and the day before, they haven’t grown. But she did get this.” She put up a chart. “this is a scan of Jackie’s,“ - Jack cleared his throat – “sorry! I mean Jack’s pituitary. They picked up a kind of ionizing mutagenic radiation coming from it.”

“Significant levels?”

“Not at all. It’s at 0.15 microseiverts per hour. Not even enough to cause mild sunburn. Plus it’s going down.”

“Conclusion?”

“I think Jackie... Sorry! I mean Jack – I think Jack was zapped with enough static electricity yesterday to trigger another morph. Without it, Jack will need to accumulate enough energy on his own before another morph can happen.”

“And then his DNA was changed again.”

“Well, no. Jack’s DNA doesn’t change. I think his DNA has all thirty of the DNA donors in it, and all that his pituitary does is to cause him to... externalize certain physical features according to the DNA that he has absorbed – one DNA map for each morph.”

“So you mean Jack’s not turning into different people? That these are all just parts of Jack’s new physical self?”

“I think so.”

“Wow,” Donovan commented. “Carter has a superpower! He can morph into a hottie at will.”

Jack impatiently waved him away. “So, what are you saying, Grace,” Jack asked.

“What I’m saying, Jack, is that your changes aren’t changes in your present genetics or DNA. These are all just part of the same new DNA.”

“Can the changes be controlled, at least?”

“I guess so,” Grace said, “but it’ll require a lot of practice.”

“Practice?”

“Yes.”

“God. I have to go through more of these morphs just to get a handle on it?” Jack looked depressed at the idea.

“How about reversing it?” Allison asked Henry.

“Sorry, Allison, no one knows if that’s possible, yet.”

Allison sighed and reached for Jack’s hand.

“I’m sorry, Jack. But maybe you can morph back into your old self, too.” She looked at Grace. “That’s possible, too, right?”

“I guess so. Jack’s original DNA is definitely in there.”

“Hear that, Jack?”

“Yeah...”

Allison gave him a hug. “It’ll be all right. I’ll fix it. I promise.”

He hugged her back hard. “Thanks...”

- - - - -

He accidentally met up with Pilar again. And again, Pilar wasn’t happy. Again, Jack gave her his new measurements, and she took a deep breath and just nodded and agreed to get him another set of clothes.

“You know, of course,” she said, “that the stuff I’m getting you are specifically for your new look. They’re optimized for that one specific look. It’s not as if you can mix and match them and still match you!”

“’Looks,’ huh?”

“You know what I mean! But... the new you is looking good, by the way,” Pilar said looking at his attire, “but... who picked that combination?”

“I just picked the stuff from the box you gave me that fit.” Jack looked down at himself. “I hope it’s not too bad.” He was wearing a pair of casual blue canvas shoes with brown laces, kelly-green leggings, and a beige, long-sleeved, slim-fit cable knit sweater, and just kept his now strawberry blonde, shoulder-length hair loose.

“Not bad at all,” Pilar grinned. Jackie looks pretty chic, actually, she thought. Looks like she doesn’t need much help. “So,” Pilar said, “What do I do with this?” She held out the new box of clothes in her arms.

“Pilar, I think you’re exaggerating. I’ve found lots of stuff in the previous box that fit me.”

“You’re the same height, and still slim, so, unless you turn grossly overweight, you’ll probably find something in the stuff I got you that would fit, more or less. And you’ve been a blonde all three times, so that helps.”

“What’s being blonde got to do with clothes sizes?”

“Nothing! It’s just that what I picked would go well with your look, ‘coz I picked them for a blonde.”

“You really know clothes,” he observed.

“Well, duh! I am trying to get a degree in fashion after all!” She proffered the new box of clothes. “So... more clothes?”

“Gimme that! And... on the off-chance of me needing more clothes, can you get me another set?”

“Jackie, if you’re trying to build up a wardrobe, the stuff I’ve been getting you is pretty casual. Nothing fancy or office-y. They’re good for everyday, for weekends, for around the house, or just jogging or going to the gym, or for going to the market...”

“Got it! Can you still get me some more?”

“Jackie, you keep on changing –“

“It’s Jack, okay? And how about this – go to Section Nine, look for Dr. Craig and tell her that she should give you the details of my DNA donors. Explain to her that you’re trying to get me new clothes that fit, and that you need pictures and measurements.” Jack then explained Pilar his situation.

“That’s pretty cool, Jackie! Pretty soon, you can pick and choose who you turn into?”

“It’s Jack! Yeah, I guess it’s pretty cool, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to control it. Anyway, can you get clothes that’ll fit most of my... ‘looks’ as you call them?”

“Well, what would you call them?”

“Dr. Craig and Grace call my changing a ‘morphing,’ so –“

“So you want to be the Power Rangers.” Pilar giggled.

“No. But maybe we can call my changes my ‘morphs.’”

She grinned. “Cool. So, here you go.” She handed the box to Jack, gave him a hug and skipped on to Section Nine. “I’ll get you more clothes.”

“That kid is too cheerful,” Jack chuckled and proceeded to his jeep with the new box, and resolved to try to get back to work.

He started driving to his office, and when he was near, he saw Mary’s Uniforms and Fashions. He decided to pass by there first.

He pulled over in front of the store. Pinning his badge on his white sweater and putting on his gun belt, he stepped out and went into the shop.

The door chime tinkled and Mary came out.

“Yes, miss, may I help you?” she said, and then saw his gun belt and badge. “Oh, no! Sheriff Carter! You changed again!”

Jack nodded sadly. “I’m afraid so.”

“Oh, darn. And we just finished your new uniforms, too.”

“Would they fit me?”

She looked him up and down and noted the even slimmer build. “Probably not, I’m afraid.” She asked one of her staff to bring a portable biometric scanner and did another measurement scan.

“I remember when people used to use a tape measure...” Jack grinned, which faded when he saw Mary’s look.

“All right,” Mary said and looked his new measurements over. “I’m sorry, Sheriff, your measurements don’t match at all.” She showed him the screen. He dutifully looked at the numbers. They didn’t really mean anything to him but he nodded nevertheless as if they did.

“But it’s not that far off?” he asked hopefully.

“Are you kidding?” Mary said. “You'll need a belt not just to hold your gun and handcuffs, but to hold up your new pants as well!”

“Okay. How about the first set you made? No?” He sighed. “Guess you have to make up another set, then.” He accepted the new ones.

“I have to tell you, though,” Mary said, “we’re running out of material.”

“Is it that difficult to get khaki?”

Mary gave him a look. “Well it wouldn’t be, if... ‘khaki’ weren’t made from high-tech polymers that make it fire resistant as well as bullet resistant!”

“Ahhh... sorry.”

She patted him on the shoulder. “We’ll figure something out. But, Sheriff, we can’t keep on doing this. How many more of these changes will you be going through?”

“Well... the doctors say twenty-seven more?” Jack shrugged.

Twenty-seven more!” her staff echoed him.

“Hold on, hold on!” Mary said to her people. “Don’t worry, Sheriff, we know you’re not doing this deliberately. Like I said, we’ll figure something else. But...”

She looked at Jack. “Twenty-seven? Really?”

Jack sighed.

- - - - -

Jack got to the office and found Andy doing some paperwork. He dropped a plastic bag full of the clothes he’d been wearing. The blue sweater from yesterday was particularly dirty.

“Hey, Andy,” Jack said. He noted Andy’s look. “Sorry – laundry. I was hoping to drop them off at Callie’s”

“Hello, Boss,” Andy replied. “You’ve changed again. Are you okay?”

“I guess. Sorry about being late, by the way. Allison just arrived and insisted on doing some tests. We found out some new things, though...”

“Such as?”

Jack told him all about it.

In Andy’s electronic brain, he noted down everything that his “boss” said, filing away the information, cross-referencing them with notations and other footnotes, like this information came from Dr. Craig, or this information came from Doctor Deacon while this came from Dr. Blake, that Zane Donovan said Dr. Barrows’ device was totally useless, and that Pilar Reed said she will get the sheriff more clothes, and so on and so forth.

His AI brain and data subsystems were second to none, and he suspected that defective “Ross” robot that got the sheriff in this predicament in the first place doesn’t even come close. Cyberneticists would probably have said that his mimicry of the human emotion of pride was excellent, but the truth was closer to it being genuine instead of an imitation, as was all of his other “emotions.”

Like his sense of friendship and loyalty for his boss, and his unshakeable trust in the man, or the sense of “love” he had for the AI, Sarah, the operating system of Sheriff Carter’s smarthouse.

In fact, this sense of friendship and belonging extended to many people in Eureka which he had labeled his “friends,” and he knew, with a one hundred percent probability that they thought of him in the same way.

Roboticists and cyberneticists will probably say that this was just his AI functioning as designed, as a way for his system to interpret information that best serves his mission: “to be an effective deputy to the town’s sheriff and, by doing so, insure the safety of Eureka’s residents and assets.”

In any case, whatever the electronic programming or logical rationalizations as to why he “felt” this way, the fact was that he did. And he will do his best, as always, to follow his programming.

“That’s amazing, Boss,” Andy said as Jack finished his story.

“Yeah. Scary, too,” Jack said.

“Don’t worry, Boss I’ll be here for you, no matter what.”

“I know you will, Andy. I appreciate it. Thanks.” And Jack realized that he really did mean that. Andy was his friend, artificial or otherwise. Of course, Jack meant it.

“Lemme finish up some reports and we can go on patrol.” He sat down and Andy put the few days’ paperwork that had accumulated in front of him.

Andy had done everything already and all that was left was the stuff that Jack had to sign for. Mostly requisitions and other similar things.

“While you do that, let me get this to Ms. Curie,” Andy said.

“What?”

“Your dirty clothes – I’m going to bring it by Callie Curie at the dry cleaners’?”

“Ah, okay. Thanks, Andy. Oh, wait!” He hurriedly went to the plastic bag and grabbed his used underwear. “Okay,” he said, hiding the panties behind his back. “I’m good, now. Go ahead.”

Andy looked at him quizzically, but picked up the bag without any further comment.

Andy also took Jack’s leather jacket from the coat rack and promised he’d wait for the jacket before coming back. All it needed was a quick sponge.

After a minute, Jack sighed and was finally left alone in the office.

He wondered if he should have gotten the bras as well - he didn’t know if girls classed bras with underpants (he wondered if he should he say “underpants”), but it was too late now.

He sighed again and started on the paperwork.

As he worked, Jack thought about his current situation. Allison was here now, and it had changed things to something more hopeful. He had faith now that things will be back to normal, simply because Allison was back. When that will be, no one knew, but it’ll happen sooner or later. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

He missed the kids, and it’ll be nice to see them after work. But then he wondered how they would react. He hoped they’d be okay with the new Jack, or at least give him a chance.

Unlike last night, he found he was hardly hungry this morning, but yesterday, it was like he couldn’t stop himself. Grace said it was his body replenishing his energy and his mass, which were undoubtedly used up when he morphed. But after the big meal, he was stable again. Actually, he hasn’t had to go to the bathroom, except to pee, and he found that he only peed a little every time now.

Grace said that seemed logical, and that he should expect more of that while he kept on morphing. Jack crossed his fingers that, if he can’t get back to normal, at least he hoped he could control when he morphed.

When he was almost done with the paperwork, his desk phone rang.

“Sheriff’s office,” he said after he picked it up.

“Can I talk to Sheriff Carter,” the person on the other end said.

“Yes, this is Sheriff Carter,” he replied.

“You can’t be Sheriff Carter,” the man said, “you’re – oooh!”

Jack sighed. “I guess you heard.”

“Yes, indeed,” he said and chuckled.

“So what can I do for you?”

“I’m Dr. Moore here at the greenhouse near Euclid Avenue. You know – the one just before you get to Lake Archimedes.”

“Yes, I know the place. What seems to be the problem?”

“Well, there have been several explosions here since this morning. It’s bothering our plants.”

“What?”

- - - - -

Jack and Andy arrived at the greenhouse fairly quickly. They went in separate cars just in case they’d need both vehicles.

Since Jack knew he’d be tramping around in the forest, he decided to change the blue canvas shoes he was wearing for the boots from yesterday. They were loose this time, so he put on a couple of thick tube socks from the spare stuff he kept in the office.

Though they weren’t exactly combat boots, they were close enough. He wiggled his toes in the loose front part of the boots, but the socks seemed to keep them comfortably tight.

He stepped out of his jeep.

“Hello!” Someone called and came over.

Jack looked down at his still-pristine beige cable knit sweater. Aside from being a touch too formfitting, he didn’t want it dirtied almost immediately. He reached into the jeep and got his leather jacket.

“Dr. Moore, I presume?” he said as he slipped on his jacket.

“You presume correctly. And I presume you are the new Sheriff Carter.” He looked to the other person there. “And Deputy Andy, of course.”

“Good morning, Dr. Moore,” Andy said.

“I wouldn’t know about ‘new,’ Dr. Moore,” Jack said. “I’m still the same old Jack Carter, although, ummm, I’m in new and sexy togs.”

“Sexy. I’ll say,” Dr. Moore winked.

Jack sighed. “Dr. Moore, you know, of course that there are harassment laws...”

Dr. Moore laughed. “Sorry! Just a joke. You and Deputy Andy better come with me. We’ll be safer inside.”

“In your greenhouse? What about glass and...”

“Well, not exactly glass. More like transparent aluminum.”

“Transparent what?”

“Just come inside and we can talk about it.”

Jack and Andy followed him into the greenhouse.

“Now, Doctor,” Jack said, “what can we help you with?”

“Starting early this morning, we’ve been getting explosions and we’re starting to get worried.”

“Where?”

Dr. Moore pointed to the field just outside. “It’s a little troubling,” he said. “We just finished planting our new crop last week, and just as we were about to start harvesting today, this had to happen.”

“What kind of plants are they?”

“It’s a new species of plant artificially crossbred from linum usitatissimum, glycine max, brassica napus and pisum sativum. We call them Super Peas.”

“Okay...?”

“They’re bred to produce high concentrations of starch, protein and vegetable oil, making them ideal for the production of biofuels, oxygen, hydrogen and food, all in one plant.”

He took what looked like a pea pod from his lab coat pocket and handed it to Jack. To Jack, it looked exactly like an unsplit pea pod except it was about the size of a gourd.

“With it,” Dr. Moore explained, “we can clean the air, make more earth-friendly fuels, and feed the hungry.”

“What’s the catch?”

“No catch. Like I said, from super peas, we can produce biofuels, vegetable oil, vegetable protein, sugars, starches, and lots and lots of oxygen and clean-burning hydrogen. Super peas will save the world!”

“That’s amazing Doctor.”

“Yes. But how can we save the world when that,” he pointed out to the field, “keeps on happening?”

And just then, another explosion threw a big gout of fire and dirt into the air.

“Andy? What do you think?”

“Maybe Dr. Moore’s people disturbed some war-era landmines. Remember that incident with Ms Claudia Donovan and Dr. Fargo?”

“I don’t recall any minefields in this area. Do you?”

There was another explosion, this one quite near, and the greenhouse was showered with dirt.

“My records show that this area was never used as a minefield, whether in World War 2, pre-Eureka or post-Eureka.”

“Maybe there just weren’t any records kept.”

Another explosion.

“Perhaps.”

“What we need is to get a look at one of those mines, and find out what they are. Do we have metal detectors?”

“Sorry, Boss,” Andy said, “my metal detectors and scanners aren’t installed. I have purely optical sensors at the moment.”

“We have metal detectors,” Dr. Moore said. He went to the back of the greenhouse and came back with devices that looked like very large garbage can lids stuck on the end of metal poles the length of broom handles.

“Those are ginormous metal detectors,” Jack commented.

“Yes,” Dr. Moore smiled.

“Andy?”

Andy got one of them and handed the other to Jack.

Jack took it, and then took a big breath. “Let’s go.”

“But, Sheriff,” Dr. Moore said, stopping him, “why not just let the mines go off until they’re all gone?”

“That’s more like Plan B, Dr. Moore,” Jack said. “What we need to do is to find out what they are and stop them from going off because they’re dangerous, and also, that will show us how to handle them in case we find more of them in the future. And besides, what about your super peas?”

“But Sheriff, the explosions - they’re dangerous!”

Jack shrugged. “It’s what we do, Dr. Moore. Let’s go, Andy.”

“Good luck! And be careful!”

Jack found that a little unusual. Aside from Allison and his friends, the townspeople rarely wished him good luck or told him to be careful. Was it because he was a girl now?

“We have to stay five meters apart, Boss,” Andy said, “in case one of us steps on something.”

“Good tip. And remember where you stepped before, so that you know where to go if we have to run back.”

“Right, Boss.”

They started going out from the greenhouse, making steady circular circuits around it. After a couple of hours, they were able to do four circuits, and were now about fifty meters from the greenhouse. Thankfully, they hadn’t discovered anything, and there were no new explosions.

Jack stopped and straightened up.

“This is hard work,” he commented to no one in particular, and then waved to his deputy several meters away.

“Hey, Andy!” he called (they had decided on not using their radios, on the off-chance that might trigger the mines).

“Yes, Boss?” he called back.

“This isn’t working. We’ve been doing this for hours now, and we haven’t found anything yet.”

“Wait, something’s happening... Boss, run!”

Jack didn’t ask any questions and just started running back to the greenhouse. He saw from the corner of his eye Andy doing likewise.

“Duck and cover!” Andy cried, and they both dived to the ground. At that moment, there were several explosions, and the two of them stayed crouched as they crossed the last few meters to the greenhouse. Dr. Moore stayed by the door waving them in, and as soon as they stumbled in, Dr. Moore closed the door, and then a whole string of explosions threw up lots of earth and rock, and a decent sized one, like a small boulder, hit the roof. The glass didn’t crack... probably because it wasn’t glass.

“Jesus!” Jack said.

Dr. Moore looked towards the explosions. “It must have been us,” he said. “You’re probably right - our planting might have disturbed some mines.”

“Why do you think that,” Jack said.

Dr. Moore pointed to the still-exploding field. “That’s one of the areas where we planted our super peas,” he said.

“What did you see, Andy?” Jack asked his deputy.

“I basically didn’t see anything, boss, except a slight disturbance in the soil, and then a slight whistling sound.”

“What?”

“Like something was peeking out of the ground. And then I detected a strong hydrogen line in my spectrometer.”

“Hydrogen...” Jack thought a bit and turned to Dr. Moore.

“I think I know what’s been happening out there,” he said.

“You do?” Dr. Moore asked.

“Yes. It’s your super peas.”

“What!”

“I think the pea pods split when they get too full of gas, and at that point, they release hydrogen and oxygen, and stray static or whatever just make them explode.”

“Ohmigod! How did we allow that to get past us?”

At that moment, another string of explosions rocked the greenhouse.

“You’re saying, Boss, that the thing peeking out was a pea pod?” Andy said.

“Yes, like a bean sprout. So, Doctor, now that we know what we’re up against, what can we do about it?”

Dr. Moore shrugged. “I don’t know what we can do. It’s not as if we can dig up the pods before they split. And if they’re about to split because of the gas, it’ll be downright dangerous to be near them.”

Jack thought it over. He knew he had a knack for thinking out of the box that the big brains can’t really do as well as he could. Henry, Allison and everyone else have actually learned to rely on him for that. In fact, he now had a reputation for it.

“Let me get this straight,” he said, doing his best to “do a Jack Carter,” as Henry calls his out-of-the-box moments, “it’s the high levels of hydrogen that make things dangerous, right?”

“Right.”

“Is there any way to thin it out?”

“But the pea pods were meant to make lots of hydrogen and oxygen!”

“I know, but what if you had lots of air flowing over the plants to disperse the hydrogen?”

“Sheriff, more oxygen will just make things more dangerous.”

“What if it’s something else? What if it’s not even plain air? Is there some gas that doesn’t burn that we can pump over the plants?”

Dr. Moore was looking at Jack with wide, amazed eyes. “That’s genius!” he commented.

If Andy were more predisposed to it, he would have laughed and commented that Dr. Moore has never seen the sheriff do a Jack Carter. As it is, Andy rated it as deserving a big grin. He triggered his facial actuators to make him smile big.

“So,” Jack said, “is there something like that?”

“Nitrogen would be best,” Dr. Moore said. “We have some, but I don’t think we have enough.”

“Let’s use whatever you have.”

“Sheriff...”

“Just let it out slowly, enough that there’d be a thin layer on the ground – just enough to stop an explosion.”

Dr. Moore looked at Jack with the same look. “I think we can do something like that.”

He smiled at Jack. “Whoever heard of a brainy, sexy sheriff,” he said. He then went away to arrange things.

Jack looked at the scientist bemusedly. I don’t even know what to think about, he thought to himself.

So with the help of Dr. Moore and his people, Jack and Andy helped them to stretch pieces of tarp and plastic sheets over the field, with hoses pumping nitrogen underneath the sheets.

They paid particular attention to areas where the scientists seeded their super peas. And, with Andy’s optical sensors, he would be able to see if there were any spikes in hydrogen levels and he’d wave people away if there was.

Jack or Andy would then rush over with a hose blowing nitrogen and wave it at the spike, blowing the hydrogen away from them and dispersing it. If ever the hydrogen were lit, there would be a quick flash and no explosion. (They were lucky - there were neither flashes nor explosions so far except once.)

After the hose, the other person would lay a plastic sheet over the area. They would then lay enough of the sheets to link it with the rest of the covered ground. And with the hoses stuck under the first sheets pumping nitrogen, the hydrogen was blown away to the outer edges, away from the greenhouse, or it leaked out of the edge of each sheet layer in a dispersed way, preventing any more explosions.

By around three in the afternoon, they were mostly done and had most of the field covered, and, so far, no further explosions.

The constant inflow of nitrogen gas helped clear the pure hydrogen and pure oxygen. But thank god for the oxygen, though, otherwise most of them would have passed out.

Eventually, they ran out of nitrogen and Dr. Moore switched them to carbon dioxide.

Andy asked, wouldn’t the super peas generate more oxygen and hydrogen from the CO2, but Dr. Moore said it’d take them time to do that. In the meantime, that gave them a bit of leeway.

Jack called Henry and asked him to send over more nitrogen, and pretty soon, large gas-tanker trucks arrived. Soon, the plants were all covered, and that gave Dr. Moore’s people time to dig up the unsplit pea plants – carefully, of course – and transplant them into isolation troughs in the greenhouse where the pure hydrogen and oxygen was siphoned off as fast as they were produced. The split pea plants were ignored for the moment because the accumulated hydrogen and oxygen had been released already, and the amounts they continued to produce were low enough not to worry about for now.

By four, they were done, and this allowed everyone to have a break. Everyone washed up at an artesian well at the back of the greenhouse. Most of the men just took off their shirts and used them to wash up and wipe down.

Jack instinctively wanted to do the same but caught himself at the last moment. Looking around, he took his cue from the women and just washed his hands, arms, neck and face.

But afterwards, he still felt very dirty. In the end, he waited until everyone was done and had gone away to start preparing a late picnic lunch (or maybe it was dinner already).

He called Andy and asked him to get him a fresh shirt or undershirt or whatever he could find in the boxes in his jeep. In a minute, Andy was back with a short-sleeved crew-neck t-shirt and a little hand towel.

Jack liked the shirt as it was like something he would usually wear, except this one was in bright red.

Oh, well.

He sent Andy back to the car so his robotic deputy could top up his battery, and, after a quick look around, Jack stripped his sweater and bra, used the bar of soap on the window sill nearest the well, washed up very quickly, including his hair.

Soon, he was done washing himself from the waist up, and pulled the red t-shirt over his head. He tried to dry his hair with the tiny towel, but it was a mistake. He did his best, but he wasn’t able to get his hair completely dried.

He put on his jacket, which kept his half-dry hair from his red t-shirt. As he put on the jacket, he suddenly realized he forgot to ask Andy to get a bra as well. Oh, well. Too late now.

His braless condition wasn’t too obvious with his jacket on, but he couldn’t help but notice how his breasts shifted so loosely under his t-shirt.

He went to the benches out in front of the greenhouse. It was almost like a picnic spot, especially when some of the others came back to lay out plates of sandwiches as well as paper cups and plates, and large pitchers of juice and pots of coffee.

He took a seat at one of the tables, and dug in. They had been working steadily since nine in the morning, and now it was almost sunset, and they hadn’t had a break since.

It was hard work but at least they averted a possible disaster. Dr. Moore came over and said that the hydrogen that was released was dangerous to the ozone, since hydrogen acted on the ozone layer like Freon and similar aerosols – that was the one drawback for any “hydrogen economy” that replaced petroleum-based fuels with hydrogen. But if they can prevent further outgassing, the hydrogen they would be producing would be a great fuel and energy resource, as well as cheap, too. Fuel-cell cars wouldn’t be far off.

Jack tried to listen politely, but he was only half-listening. After all, he was too hungry and tired to pay attention, and he wasn’t really into the science-y talk.

Besides, he hurt in places that didn’t usually hurt. His back, for example. Someone offered a back rub, but Jack declined, feeling somewhat creeped out by the guy.

Some of the other men were unusually quiet and subdued, and just listened in on Dr. Moore’s and Jack’s conversation. Unbeknownst to Jack, these people had seen him as he washed up without a top on, and was now quite infatuated with the beautiful, newly-female sheriff. Obliviously, Jack just continued to eat, and gave these funny men staring at him a friendly though slightly suspicious grin.

After a while, though, Jack felt the pain in his back, arms and legs disappear suddenly. He was still extremely tired but he wasn’t hurting anymore. Maybe he just needed to sit down and take a break.

After a bit, though, he noticed it wasn’t just those funny guys that were staring: by the time he finished his fourth sandwich, he noted that everyone was now staring at him.

“What!” he said.

“Sheriff!” one of the girls seated nearby pointed at him.

“Don’t tell me!” Jack said, almost resignedly. “I changed again, right?”

- - - - -

Having changed again took the shine out of a good day’s work. But whatever happens to him apparently does help to renew things or whatever, because, although he still felt tired, all his aches and pains disappeared.

When Dr. Moore and his people said they could handle things now, he and Andy took their leave. Andy made a couple of circuits of their usual patrol routes first before knocking off for the night – the emergency had waylaid them and they hadn’t been able to do their patrols for the day, so a quick check around town was in order. As for Jack, he begged off and decided to go home.

He, of course, called Allison, who was still at GD, and told her about what happened to him, and she said she’d meet him there. She said she’d be a little late but she’ll be there in an hour.

So Jack arrived at an empty house.

His house was unique in Eureka in that it was actually an automated smarthouse made from a converted bomb shelter, and all that could be seen of his house aboveground was a decrepit concrete bunker and a heavy, steel door. But over the years, that had stopped bothering him.

He opened the steel door and walked down into the house itself.

“Sarah, door,” he said automatically. Sarah was the quirky but efficient AI that ran his house. Sarah actually stood for “Self Actuated Residential Automated Habitat.”

“Sheriff Carter, I presume?” Sarah said over the doorbell-speaker.

“Yes, it’s me.”

Sarah opened the door. “It’s a good thing that Dr. Blake sent a photo of you otherwise I would not have made the connection,” she said over the house’s PA.

“Yeah. I guess Andy’s been updating you.”

“Indeed. What’s happening to you is quite fascinating.”

“That’s one word for it.”

“Did Dr. Blake, Dr. Deacon or Dr. Monroe find a solution for it already?”

“They’re still working on it. Listen, Sarah, I’m pretty tired...”

“I can understand. Andy has told me what’s been happening at the Greenery.”

“I just want a hot shower and to lie down for a while.”

“I understand.”

The door to the bathroom slid open. Jack sighed and dropped his belt on the table by the door, took off the badge and dropped it there as well.

He asked Sarah to order a pepperoni and cheese pizza, and she countered with something else that she could prepare. Jack said he was in the mood for something simple tonight, and, after a bit of complaining, Sarah made the call.

He then stripped off his boots and clothes, left them on the floor by the bathroom and stepped inside.

The hot water felt so good, it was almost orgasmic. But Jack just showered in his usual quick fashion, still uncomfortable with his new situation.

After a quick soap, he was about to pick up his usual bottle of shampoo but stopped and got Allison’s instead.

As he washed his hair, he noticed that it wasn’t lathering up enough. He got the bottle again, squirted some more into his hand and rubbed it into his hair.

After using up maybe five times as much shampoo as he usually did, he soon had his hair bubbling, and started rinsing.

- - - - -

After his shower, he looked into the mirror. The new girl there was cute. Something he expected by now. This one looked a bit older than his previous morph so it probably wasn’t a daughter or relative of one of the GD people. He wracked his brain and finally came up with a face – it was Brooklyn Detrick, the nurse that was helping to take care of him this morning!

He looked at the face closer, and, like before, he noted that his new face wasn’t exactly a match, plus, as usual, he was six-one again, and Nurse Detrick was probably five-four at best.

He looked closer. Hmmm. Gray eyes this time. And brown hair, as well. At least he wasn’t blonde again.

He put on the dressing gown Sarah had conveniently left out for him and padded into the living room. Anticipating him, Sarah had a beer ready in the dispenser and he sipped with a sigh.

He stayed near the gas fireplace and got warm, relaxing as best he could, but found out he couldn’t. This was his fourth morph, and, if the predictions were correct, he can expect twenty-six more. Or even more than that. He prayed that there was a twenty-seventh – one with his old face and et cetera. But that wasn’t a certainty. He’ll just have to see.

The doorbell rang, and he let the pizza delivery guy in.

“Pepperoni, mushrooms and cheese?” he said as he looked Jack up and down in lecherous appreciation.

“With extra cheese?”

“That’s the one,” he grinned and offered the pizza box.

“Gimme!” Jack said.

“Jack!” Allison called. Henry and some others then followed her in.

She gave him a hug and giggled. “Brunette suits you,” she said.

“Oh, I don’t know. I was getting used to being a blonde.”

Allison got the people that came with her to set up the equipment she brought, and Jack gave the pizza guy his money and sent him away. The guy sighed with disappointment.

When the techs were done, they also left, leaving Allison, Grace and Henry alone with Jack.

“Sit here,” Allison said, patting what looked like a high tech chair from a dental office.

“Root canal?” Jack asked.

“Well, no,” Henry said, and gave him a look that said that was a really bad joke. “We have enough data from your three morphs now, but we still need to check you after every morph. This diagnostic chair will do that. Allison designed it to be easy to use. All you have to do is sit down in it.”

“How long do I have to sit?” he said and sat down.

“First, you press this button,” Allison said and demoed, “and remain seated until you hear the buzzer.” In about ten seconds, the buzzer went off.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it,” she said. “We set up the same thing in my office in Medical back in GD, another one in your office and another one in the other house.”

He and Allison split their days living in either his smarthouse or over at Allison’s. Between the two of them, they actually preferred Allison’s house better, but Sarah wouldn’t take it well if she thought that she was being abandoned, so they didn’t tell Sarah anything and just switched houses every three or four days.

Sarah had slowly been given some “house duties” at Allison’s place via a remote link, like picking up after them, maintaining security, answering the phone or answering the door. (Kevin had started calling Allison’s place their “house in town” and Sarah’s as their smarthouse, while Jenna, in typical nine-year-old fashion just called them their “townhouse” and their “smarthouse.”)

Like with Andy, they felt very close to Sarah and never entertained the thought of abandoning her. So this was a good compromise. Of course, there was one thing Jack insisted on, and Sarah’s designer, Douglas Fargo, finally agreed to – just before he left, Fargo replaced Sarah’s voice with a normal girl’s voice. In fact, he was able to get the well-known voice actress Karen Jacobsen to do it. That made Sarah suddenly sound Australian.

- - - - -

After his ten-second whatever-it-was, Allison, Grace and Henry pored over the results. To avoid being underfoot, he left his favorite eggheads to their work and went upstairs carrying his two boxes from Pilar, as well as the new box that Allison brought home, also from Pilar, and started hanging the clothes up in their bedroom closet.

But their closet was already fairly full with his and Allison’s stuff, so he put his new female stuff in the guestroom closet. As he hung stuff, he saw a few things already hanging in there.

“Sarah,” he asked, “what are these?” He indicated the pants and shirts there, as well as a couple of SWAT-type tactical uniforms.

“Those are Jo’s,” Sarah replied. “She forgot them when you allowed her to stay here while her house was being renovated. She was still your deputy, then, before they assigned Andy to you. As you know, when Andy took over as deputy, she became GD’s head of security.”

“Ahhh. I remember.”

“Should I put them away, or have Jo pick them up?”

Oh, no,” he said. “It’s fine. Leave them here. They’re just a few pieces anyway, and it’ll give Jo a change of clothes if she should stay over.”

“All right.”

He picked some of his new clothes – a t-shirt, women’s underwear that seemed to fit, stretchy jeans and sneakers, and got dressed. He used Allison’s brush and smoothened out his new brown hair.

He then took all of his dirty clothes and read their tags so he could check which couldn’t go into their washing machine. Good thing everything was machine washable except for the cable knit sweater, so he put that one aside so he could bring it to Callie’s tomorrow.

Jack then put the rest into a laundry basket. There were only a few pieces, leaving the basket largely empty. So he got his other dirty clothes and went downstairs.

After loading the machine and turning it on, he went to the others and listened while he sipped his long-neglected beer.

The three talked over their findings as they enjoyed Jack’s pizza. Jack didn’t mind. He wasn’t that hungry anymore.

Allison said that, apparently, Grace and Dr. Craig was correct – Jack’s new DNA never changed from morph to morph. His morphing was, in fact, just a part of his new-normal now.

The question that they wanted an answer to now was how the change happens. Their current data showed that Jack’s changes were mostly changes resulting from what is called epigenetics and not changes to the DNA, and the changes were triggered by the particular EM waveform when his modified pituitary gland fired.

Allison said that the levels at which his pituitary fires totally had no effect on anyone else except him - his DNA was modified to be receptive to that energy, and when his body had the necessary energy levels needed for him to change, Jack’s pituitary would spontaneously fire, and what he changes into was dictated by the particular EM waveform it released.

Henry said that they could duplicate the EM waveform, allowing them to pick which person he morphs into, but Grace only partially agreed, saying that the change only happens if Jack had enough energy available to fuel the morph, so it was a combination.

Jack still wondered what the so-called “energy” was about, and Allison said since the change was initiated and controlled by his brain, it was electrical energy, but what powered his brain was mostly glucose. So it was his blood glucose levels that mattered.

“The thing is,” she said, “we suspect that the morph is also triggered when the body senses that there’s enough surplus energy to make it happen. If that’s true, that means you wouldn’t really have voluntary control over it.”

Jack nodded. At least he was able to follow that. “So, the reason I changed this afternoon was because I ate too much, and the time before that was because I was zapped with static electricity?”

“Yes. But, Jack, that means we have a handle on how and when a morph happens. We don’t know the specific mechanisms of the change itself, but we can make it happen, or stop making it happen.”

“So we can trigger it but we can also stop it from being triggered.”

“Yes, we do, actually. We just have to keep track of your blood sugar.”

“In other words...”

“In other words,” Grace said, “you have to stay on a diet.”

“Okay... Do I have to take medication, like a diabetic? Insulin, or whatever diabetics take?”

Allison giggled. “No! It’s not diabetes – it’s just that you have to stay on a diet. Otherwise, you morph.”

Jack sighed and nodded. There goes pizza night and taco night, he thought. “Okay. Now how about getting me back to me again... I mean, you can change me back to me again, right?”

“Yes, we can,” Allison said. “We just need to know the specific EM waveform for your old Jack Carter body. We can then artificially create that field, and when you morph, you will morph into Jack Carter again.”

He felt like cheering. “Okay. Let’s do that.”

Grace shrugged. “The thing is, Jackie,” she said, “we don’t know what that waveform is yet.”

“How can we know?”

Allison took his hand. “We have to wait for you to go through the change that morphs you back to Jack Carter, and then take some readings.”

“But we don’t know who I’ll change into next...” Jack said.

“Yes.”

“So, that means?”

“That means, we have to wait for you to naturally change back into Jack Carter. Which means, we have to wait for you to go through all your morphs, and catch it when you do change back to Jack, and then record the waveform.”

“Ah, damn...”

“I’m sorry, Jack.” Allison gave him a hug.

“That’s okay. At least we know there’s a way out, now.”

“There’s one other thing, Jackie,” Grace said. “Allison and I are finishing that EM waveform emitter – the device that will allow us to pick what you change into. We should have it ready by tomorrow. Are you game to try it out?”

“What’s involved?”

“Well, basically we make you morph into one of the forms you’ve already changed into - we figured out the waveforms of your old morphs, and we were able to record your new one just now.

“If we can deliberately select your morph, then that means our theory is correct.”

“All right. We do that tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

The night finished on that upbeat note, and Grace and Henry left them alone.

Now that they were alone, Jack and Allison felt awkward. After all, Jack was a girl at the moment. Allison didn’t know how to behave, but Jack did his best to normalize it, and didn’t insist on anything beyond just hugging, or holding each other more like they were best friends.

That relieved Allison, and soon, they were treating each other normally, other than in a romantic way, unfortunately. In an hour or so, Kevin arrived, with Jenna and little Kimmy in tow, and there was a bit of a reunion.

Kevin was looking at Jack with his mouth hanging open.

“Ohmigod, Jack!” Kevin said, “you’re hot!”

“Kev...”

“Incredibly hot!”

“Cool it, Kev,” Jack said, “don’t let your mom hear you.”

“Too late!” Allison said. “You should have seen him this morning, Kevin.”

“What?”

Allison sat on the couch with Jenna’s arms around her. She pulled out a tablet and showed it to Kevin.

“Ohmigod!” he said. It was a picture of Jack when he was in Medical.

“Swipe it for Jack’s previous morphs.”

Kev swiped and saw his other looks.

“Ohmigod-ohmigod-ohmigod!”

“Just imagine how I feel,” Jack said. He was holding Kim on his lap while she looked at him with big eyes. Kim found his female look fascinating, and was squishing his nose and lightly squeezing with his boobies playfully.

It wasn’t too painful so Jack allowed his four–year-old girl to keep on playing. He thought this might take out any weirdness she might feel when her father changes to a girl.

Originally, they worried that the kids wouldn’t understand, but Jenna just shrugged and said, “it’s just Eureka.”

Kim copied her sister. “It’s Eureka,” she echoed.

An hour later, the girls tired of playing with Jack, and Allison brought both of them upstairs to sleep.

As for Kevin, he stayed up late and chatted Jack up, asking things like what’s been happening, and how did it feel like to be a girl.

Jack answered as truthfully as he could. He chuckled to himself a bit because it seemed to him that Kevin was trying to make a move on him. He needed to talk to Allison about that.

Eventually, Jack said goodnight to Kevin and Sarah, and went upstairs.

He stopped by Jenna’s and Kim’s room, gave each girl his customary good night kiss, and Kim gave him a sleepy hug around the neck.

Allison watched him as he said good night to the girls and marveled how much he was still Jack despite his being a girl. Allison wasn’t attracted to him physically, of course, but what she found amazing was that it didn’t seem to matter: it was Jack-the-person that she found attractive. She had to wonder why.

In any case, they both went to bed. Clearly, there wasn’t going to be any sex tonight, but they didn’t mind that. They eventually fell asleep in each other’s arms.

- - - - -

Hours later, Jack’s smartphone rang, waking both of them up.

Jack checked the bedside clock and noted that it was about seven AM. At least it was time to get up.

“This is Jack Carter,” he said sleepily into his phone.

“Jack! It’s Henry! There’s an emergency in GD. You better get over here now!”

“Dammit!” he said sleepily. “Okay, Henry, I’ll be there right away.”

“Thanks, Jack. It’s Dr. Connery’s robot again. So you better be prepared. I got Jo’s people on standby waiting for you.”

He hung up. “Oh, no...”

“Jack?” Allison said sleepily.

“Sorry, Allison,” he said, and leaned back to give Allison a kiss on the cheek. “Go back to sleep.”

“That’s okay,” she said as she tried to stop herself from yawning, “but you better take a look in the mirror.”

Jack had that sinking feeling.

“I changed again? Dammit!”

to be continued in Episode 4: “Special Weapons And Tacos” Jan. 11, Friday 8PM Eastern On the BTTV Network