Lyra’s last conscious thought was being trapped under debris in a dam collapse. When her consciousness woke up, things were... different.
She was in her sixth decade, but her body was slight and curvy, and she had a lot of blue hair in lieu of her normal mud brown. That was different.
She meets the medical team, and they are aliens with pointy ears. Fair enough. She now has pointy ears as well.
A briefing lets her know she is an omega. She is the only omega on the entire planet and the first of her kind to wake. What follows is a dizzying culture shock, a lot of firsts, and being the target of a mate-drive run that will see her with partners by the end of it. The first Omega Run since the natural omegas died. What could go wrong?
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Pulling air into her lungs was the hardest thing she had ever done, but Lyra managed it. The heavy wheeze of her breath was the only sound in her room, but as she rolled to her side, she heard a shrill beeping.
This was wrong. Everything was wrong.
She was wearing a white gown of soft fabric and knew she didn’t own anything like it. She favoured T-shirts or nothing.
A woman in a version of a medical tunic and skirt came into the room via a silvery door. She stared for a moment, and Lyra stared back. The woman concisely said, “Oh!” and backed out of the room, closing the door.
Lyra pushed to a sitting position and rubbed her hand, blinking at the texture. Her skin felt weird, like super soft, and the scars that she was used to weren’t there. The nails were neatly trimmed and not like her bitten fingertips.
She pulled her hair around and stared at the navy blue. Oh shit. This isn’t me. Who the hell am I?
The door opened again, and a man in medical clothing was with the woman. “By the stars, it worked.”
Lyra looked at them and swung her legs off the bed. She slowly stood and stared at the two beings who where decidedly larger than she.
She swayed, and her feet felt the cold radiating from the floor. She licked her lips. “Who are you, and why am I in this body? I don’t belong here.”
The woman folded her hands together. “Where do you think you belong?”
“I was drowning. Dying. I couldn’t breathe. The floodwater had me, and I was tangled in debris. The world got dark, and then I woke up here. The problem is, this isn’t my body.” The words tumbled as she had in the floodwaters.
The medical team looked at each other. The woman said, “What do you mean?”
“I mean, this isn’t my body. How tall are you?”
The woman frowned. “Average height.”
“What species are you?” She looked at the other two, and they were vaguely human but had silvery skin, dark lines around their eyes, and ears that were pointed and nearly elfin.
They looked at each other, and the female went to a cupboard and brought a mirror out. “We are the same species that you are, miss. Now, what is your name?”
She stared into a mirror where her blue hair, violet eyes, and pearlescent skin were not what she remembered having. Her ears were pointed, and her lips were blushing pink. She was pretty. Damn. “This isn’t my face.”
Lyra didn’t know what they were supposed to do or say, but it wasn’t her face. It wasn’t her body. She had been a grey person. Unremarkable in every way—brown hair, brown eyes and skin that spoke to her muddled genetics. Her body had been straight, and this new one had curves everywhere she looked, but she needed to know what to do when the original owner came back.
“Who do you think I am?” she challenged.
The male smiled slightly. “Omega Yten.”
She frowned. Omega had an identifying sense to it, and Yten was a number. Three.
“That isn’t a name.”
The woman inclined her head. “We are depending on you to provide your name.”
“Lyra. What do the other identifiers mean?”
“You are an omega and the third attempt to renew your designation in our population.”
“Designation?”
The male smiled. “Let us do health checks and scan your brain output.”
“Will it hurt?”
He shook his head. “No. You are a precious output of the project. Injury is the last thing we want.”
The female said, “We have an informative film for you to watch.”
“Oh, goody.” She took a few steps on the floor. “So, let’s get this party started.”
“You aren’t going go object or fight?”
Lyra shrugged. “I was dead. I know I was dead. I don’t know who was supposed to be in this body, but if they come back, I will leave... somehow.”
The woman took her hand and led her out of the silvery door into a hallway. There was a clatter of an instrument tray when Lyra entered an exam chamber. Medical staff were staring at her.
“Excuse me, miss. Why are they staring at me?”
The woman smiled. “When you see the video, you will understand.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“You have strange speech patterns.”
“Well, based on the pointy ears, my soul is in the wrong body.”
The medical staff were listening keenly; their silvery skin was very definitely not human.
They led her to a bed, and the female lifted her dress over her head before helping her hop up and settling her in place. She placed a halo with a clear gem on the forehead on Lyra’s head and ordered to relax.
She pursed her lips. There was nothing like being ordered to relax to make sure that it never happened.
Her temples tingled where the halo pressed against her skin, and a crimson light filled the room.
All of the physicians were silent until the tingle stopped and the light winked out.
Lyra asked, “What was that?”
The male who had been in her room said, “It was a species identifier. It denoted your origin.”
“Oh. Great.”
The female snickered.
The rest of the scans went along without any discomfort, and then the female murmured, “Breathe deep. This is the final exam.”
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