Prolog
The young woman did not look very happy. Furious, she stormed through the room in the small apartment, pulled a few things from her huge closet and threw them into a bag.
Again and again she reached for her smartphone, dialed the same number and sighed when once again no one answered the call.
Why did everything go wrong, why was she still stuck in this hole? Her friend had long since gotten the coveted spot on the cover of 'Swimsuit International' that was actually hers.
Her friend had left the apartment to be on the safe side. When angry, she could become dangerous, and then a tiny argument quickly escalated into a violent fight.
Her long brown hair fell in her face. They were her trademark, as was her figure and her full breasts, for which she still had to pay the installments of the sur gery.
One day, hopefully, their investment would have paid off. She was willing to do anything for her career, even if she had to sleep with the old man from Amsterdam one more time to finally reach her goal.
She tossed one of her bathing suits into the bag and zipped it up. But now let's get away before she com pletely freaked out!
A few days at the beach would do her good. She would call her agent later and discuss the details of the shoot with him.
She slammed the door behind her as she stormed out of the house and hurried to the telepad that would take her away from here.
She hastily selected her destination, pressed the button and waited for the transmission.
Nothing happened.
Miserable crap! Everything went wrong today!
System error something, she read on the colorful display.
She repeated her selection impatiently to try again.
Then, finally, she felt the vibrations and tingles as the teleporter scanned her body, transmitting the data to her journey's destination, and materializing there again.
System error
"Would you like to spend a few days at the beach and in the sun?" Miriam asked me, "I'm really tired of the rainy weather in the big city. Look how light my skin has gotten!"
Miriam was right. After the oppressive heat, it has been raining almost non-stop for two weeks.
"Also, we haven't had much time for each other in the past few weeks", she continued, "we've had so much work and stress with the new campaign."
"That's a good idea", I replied, "how long has it been since we were in Kiribati at our beach?"
"Much too long!"
We quickly packed a few things. We wouldn't need much anyway. A few bathing suits, toiletries, some thing to read and things like that.
Miriam was the first to teleport. "See you soon", she said as the teleporter scanned her and she disappeared before my eyes.
I grabbed my bag and stood on the telepad. The desti nation was already set and I pressed the 'Teleport' button.
Nothing happened. Just a message: System Error 4436 - Your transmission could not be started. Please try again in a few minutes.
I waited a moment. That could always happen when the network was under load again or one of the routers just didn't want to.
Then I tried again, felt the slight tingling as the trans mission started and landed on the telepad on Kiribati.
"Here I am", I said, a little surprised that my voice sounded oddly high.
Miriam was standing not far from the telepad and hol ding a guy in her arms, who broke her embrace and snapped at her venomously:
"What is that, bitch! Please leave me in peace!"
As I took a closer look, I realized it was me. Anyway, the guy looked just like me and he was wearing my clothes.
He left without another word and teleported some where.
"Miriam, what was that about?" I asked her indig nantly.
"And who are you?" she said to me annoyed, "do we know each other?"
"Miriam, it's me", I replied.
"Martin??! What the heck..."
Only now did I realize what was wrong with this situ ation: I was in someone else's body! Something had gone terribly wrong.
Someone had teleported into my body - and I into theirs.
Oh shit, it was a female body. Noticing the breasts I had on my new torso, I instinctively reached between my legs and almost panicked at how profoundly the strange incident had changed me.
What stupid crap!
"Miriam, listen. I don't know how this happened", I told her, "but we have a problem. I ended up in this body while teleporting. I have no idea how that hap pened."
She nodded and looked me up and down.
"That would explain why the young woman in your body freaked out when I put my arms around her."
"What a mess", I sighed, "I really could have used a few stress-free days."
Miriam searched the pockets of my belongings and pulled out a purse. Inside was an ID card.
"Your name is Vanessa Vogelstein", she explained to me, "you're 19 years old, single and a supermodel."
"Wow", I marveled, "a makeover. Is there an address or a phone number?"
"A business card", Miriam replied, "she lives in Göt tingen. I'll try the phone number."
She took her smartphone, dialed the number and waited. Nobody answered.
"Well then, let's try again later", suggested Miriam, "let's go into the water. I can lend you a bathing suit."
That was creepy. I would have to think of something to get this sorted out. I had to find the 'right' Vanessa and solve the problem. Somehow we had to get back into our proper bodies.
There's no harm in hanging out at the beach for a bit. Luckily only Miriam knew who was in the pretty body.
* * *
The water was a blessing and took my mind off things. I swam out a good distance and then let the current carry me.
As always, Miriam knew exactly what was good for me. She knew me better than anyone else, my strengths and weaknesses, and we complemented each other perfectly in many areas of our lives.
Feeling the water and the sun helped me calm down and relax a bit. Out here, everyday life with all its chal lenges and difficulties was far away.
Eventually I returned to the beach and lay in the sun to let the warmth dry me.
I closed my eyes. I should get some sleep and hope to wake up from this nightmare.
That would be nice. Unfortunately, most problems didn't usually go away on their own. I would probably have to endure this this for a while.
What can we do?
We met in Cologne in our workroom to consider what we could do about my current condition.
"Just stay the way you are", Oliver suggested, grinning, "your new body is hot. At least you didn't end up in an ugly old woman with warts on her face."
I glared at him venomously and Miriam replied before I could come up with a suitable answer:
"No way", she protested, "I want my boyfriend back. I'm not really into women!"
"Thanks", I replied, "at least one that sticks by me."
"I didn't mean it that way", Oliver relented, "of course we want you back completely with all the trimmings!"
"Look at it this way", added Karin, "not everyone can have such an experience. It will broaden your horizons and you can tell an incredible story when we have you back."
"If we can manage that", I answered doubtfully.
"Of course we can do it", Oliver promised opti misti cally, "if it goes in one direction, then it will somehow go back. Whatever exactly went wrong, we'll find out and get you back."
"First we have to find the 'right' Vanessa", remarked Miriam, "I'm sure she's just as desperate as Martin and wants to get back to her normal life."
"We have an address and a phone number in Göt tingen", I reported, "but we haven't reached anyone there yet."
"We'll definitely keep trying", Miriam said, taking my hand. Your support did me good and dispelled my pessimism.
I got a coffee from the machine and grabbed two sugars.
"Could it be that your head got hit too?" asked Oliver worried, "you always drank the coffee black and un sweetened!"
"I'm worried about having boobs more than all of a sudden", I sighed, "part of me is completely Vanessa. Even though my memories are entirely my own, there are parts of my head that just don't fit."
"As long as you don't start shopping like a maniac and it takes an hour in the bathroom before you can show yourself to the world, we don't have to worry too much", Oliver grinned.
"Hey, watch what you say!" Karin laughed, "or I'll go shopping with Vanessa and buy her half a ton of new outfits!"
"I'm primarily responsible for that", Miriam contra dicted and grinned. She knew only too well that shop ping for clothes had always been an ordeal for me and I didn't like to sit around bored while she enthusi asti cally tried on a hundred thousand outfits.
"Good idea", I replied, "my own shoes are way too big for me, and I can't walk around in Vanessa's flip-flops all the time. I'm not sure I can walk in heels, though."
"Don't worry, we'll start with flat heels first", Miriam promised me, "and later we'll practice walking in high heels together, just like I trained with Ilonka. After all, you can't go on the catwalk in slippers or sneakers."
Oliver giggled and I rolled my eyes. The idea was beginning to make me uneasy.
* * *
"What now?" Miriam asked me after our meeting.
"I want to look at the program in the teleporters again later", I replied, "maybe we missed something."
"Do you think that's likely?" asked Miriam.
"I have no idea. There are only two possibilities", I considered, "either there is still a bug in the teleporter's control program or someone hacked the software and intentionally changed something to manipulate the teleporter."
"Why would anyone bother?" Miriam wondered, "after all, the incident is of no use to anyone."
"And yet it happened", I replied thoughtfully, "and that worries me a lot. Vanessa may have enemies or envious competitors who wanted to neutralize her."
I wasn't a fan of wild conspiracy theories, but some times my belief in the good in people was something that got us all into tremendous trouble.
* * *
"What now?" Miriam asked me after our meeting.
"I want to look at the program in the teleporters again later", I replied, "maybe we missed something."
"Do you think that's likely?" asked Miriam.
"I have no idea. There are only two possibilities", I considered, "either there is still a bug in the teleporter's control program or someone hacked the software and intentionally changed something to manipulate the teleporter."
"Why would anyone bother?" Miriam wondered, "after all, the incident is of no use to anyone."
"And yet it happened", I replied thoughtfully, "and that worries me a lot. Vanessa may have enemies or envious competitors who wanted to neutralize her."
I wasn't a fan of wild conspiracy theories, but some times my belief in the good in people was something that got us all into tremendous trouble.
* * *
Once again I looked at the things in Vanessa's bag. I didn't have a large selection. Miriam was absolutely right again: I urgently needed more to get dressed. After all, I couldn't loot Miriam's closet all the time.
We teleported to a well-stocked department store
Impressum
Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG
Bildmaterialien: Jenni Eales
Cover: Jenni Eales
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 08.08.2023
ISBN: 978-3-7554-4913-3
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