In the near future a young man gets a rare chance to go on a tour of battlefield sites in another country. The only catch is that he has to do it in a woman’s body in Trip of a Lifetime, available on Smashwords, Amazon or BodySwapStories.
Jamie has always been interested in war history and signed up to go on a tour of battle sites in the recently completed war between Russia and Ukraine. As air travel is dangerous and polluting, the tour operator uses the recently developed long range body swapping technology to get people into the country. Tourists are usually matched with host bodies that are similar to their own. But when Jamie’s host cancels at the last minute he’s given the option to swap with a backup: a beautiful young woman. Either that or wait at least two years for another vacancy.
Jamie agrees to the swap and finds himself immersed in an unfamiliar country, an unfamiliar body, and an unfamiliar sex. It’s going to be an unforgettable experience exploring the country by day and his sexy new body by night. Even more intriguing, there’s another person on the tour who’s swapped into a gorgeous young woman and she just might want to bring Jamie along for some mind-blowing fun.
Jamie finished typing up his notes in the patient record database and clicked the file closed. It was near the end of a long and busy day at the hospital and he was looking forward to his time off tomorrow. His friend and fellow hospital nurse, Will, leaned his long arms on the counter and drummed his fingers on the plastic laminate.
“Excited about the battlefield tour?” Will asked.
“Hell yeah,” Jamie said. “Just wish it was more than two nights. We can really only hit a few of the sites.”
After the end of the war between Russia and Ukraine in 2024, the borders had been redrawn and Ukraine had slowly rebuilt itself. Meanwhile, Russia slipped into turmoil after Putin’s inner circle turned on him. As part of the opening up of their tourist economy, Ukraine began promoting tours of battlefield sites. The tour groups were kept small and Jamie had been one of the lucky few to win the draw to go on one. It would be a whirlwind trip around Kyiv and then up to Chernobyl. Exhausting but well worth it to chase a piece of recent history.
“Don’t step on any landmines while you’re there,” Will grinned, beating out a rhythm on the countertop.
The office chair creaked under Jamie’s weight as he leaned back and clasped his hands behind his head. He was a burly man with a big beard and a bigger smile that endeared him to his patients. He had bronze skin, a swarthy complexion and a strong Scouse accent.
“Pssh. They cleared all those out years ago.”
“Maybe you find the one they missed and…boom!”
“Nah. The leftover radiation from Chernobyl is more likely to hurt me. Well, not me, but, you know.”
“That’s the weird part, too.” Will shook his head. “How can you—”
Dr. Stanford interrupted them and asked Will to help with a blood draw for one of the patients. They disappeared down the corridor, leaving Jamie and the Floor Nurse, Kristine, at the desk. Jamie cast his eyes across the monitors of all the patient rooms. Everything was green. It was well after dinner when most patients had settled into sleep. Hopefully it would stay quiet so Jamie could catch up on his trip briefing.
Jamie slid his phone out of his pocket and flipped back through his emails, opening the one that contained a brief bio of his host. A heavyset, light-skinned man stared moodily out from the photo in the email. He was clean-shaven, with dark rings around his eyes and close-cropped hair.
Jamie stared at the image for a few seconds. So this was the man he would become for the trip. The guy looked a little beefier than Jamie. They’d tried to match Jamie’s body type so he would adjust a little easier but there were only a limited number of people who volunteered for a long range body swap.
Climate change and the ever-present threat of a few rogue Russian separatists with anti-aircraft missiles meant that flights to Ukraine were limited and difficult. Fortunately, long range body swapping technology had come along at just the right time. At first it had been a luxury reserved for the rich and powerful and, undoubtedly, more than a few spies. But as the technology grew more stable and slightly cheaper it came to be used by more organizations.
Jamie didn’t exactly relish the idea of being someone else for two days but it would definitely be a unique experience. Besides, it meant that any radiation damage wouldn’t be happening to his body, but the person who had volunteered.
Jamie was about to put his phone away when another email appeared. It was from the tour guide. He tapped it open and began reading:
Dear Mr. Martin,
We regret to inform you that your swap host has pulled out due to a family emergency. We will do our best to find you another host but cannot guarantee we will be successful due to the time limitations. Therefore, we can offer you a full refund or offer you a slot in the next available trip. However, there are no available trips within the next two years. Please let us know how you wish to proceed.
Well, fuck. He’d been looking forward to this trip and had already bragged about it in the online message boards he frequented. Now he would have to wait two years?
Jamie grunted in annoyance but had to shove it down when the head nurse asked him to check on Mrs. Baker in 315, who’d tapped the call button. He pushed himself out of the chair and slumped down the hallway, pausing at the door of 315 to plaster on a big smile. Mrs. Baker just wanted some pain killers and after sorting her out Jamie returned to the desk. Will had taken the seat in front of the monitors so it was Jamie’s turn to slump across the counter. He told Will the news about his trip.
“Oh no. What are you gonna do?” Will asked.
Jamie shrugged. “Think I’m gonna need a drink after our shift.”
2
One drink had become two, then three before the pub finally kicked them out late at night. Jamie stumbled home to his cramped flat and face-planted onto his bed. Drink and disappointment sapped his will to even undress. He just pulled the covers over himself and passed out.
The sun was barely peeping through the windows when he was awoken by a jaunty tune. His head was still swimming and he groped around blindly on his bedside table for the source of the noise until he found his phone. Picking it up, he held it inches from his nose and peered at the screen with bleary eyes. The caller ID showed it was from Ukraine.
“Hello?” He croaked.
“Good morning, sorry to bother you so early,” a thick Ukrainian-accented man said..
“’s fine,” Jamie mumbled.
“My name is Kuzma, I am battlefield tour guide from Ukraine. We have found replacement host for your trip if you have interest.”
That woke him up. Jamie pushed himself into a sitting position, closing his eyes as the world spun slightly. “Yes. Absolutely!”
“One of our part time volunteers will be host. Only…well…I will send you her details. You will need to tell us yes or no in. If you say yes arrangements will be made for appointment at long range body swap facility.”
“Awesome! Yes. Thank you! Thank you!”
It was only after Jamie hung up that his fuzzy brain picked up on Kuzma’s pronoun. Her?
It was an anxious wait for the email and when it appeared Jamie flicked it open. Instead of the dour, serious face of his original host, Jamie was faced with a photograph of a young woman.
Her copper-colored hair was tucked up in a messy bun. Long, wavy bangs fell down either side of her cute face. She had soft features and a cute, upturned nose. A light grey hoody clung to a slender, athletic body. Her name was Larysa.
Jamie paused, staring at her for a minute, his thumb hovering above the ‘no’ button. They were going to put him in a woman’s body? His first thought was absolutely not. He didn’t have anything against women. Loved them in fact. Just ask his previous girlfriends. But being one? Well, that was different.
But refusing meant he wouldn’t go on the tour for another two years and that nob on the message boards, Jackal519, would be bragging about his trip long before Jamie. Plus, Jamie hadn’t actually had a girlfriend in about a year, ever since Aimee dumped him for that Irish bartender. And, if he was honest, a part of him actually was curious about what it would be like to be a woman.
He scratched his beard and hummed, finally clicking ‘accept’ before he could have second thoughts. The text message with his appointment at the swap facility came a few minutes later as he was brushing his teeth. He only had a couple hours. He looked around his cramped, messy flat, his head still swimming. He definitely needed to clean up before he had a visitor in his flat. And he really needed to kill this headache before he had a visitor in his body.
He downed a couple of paracetamol and surveyed the chaos that was his flat. There wasn’t any time to do laundry so he just dumped his old clothes into a hamper and tucked it back into his closet. Then he tidied the place as best he could within the limited time, picking up the accumulated detritus and quickly wiping down the tiny kitchen. By the time it was clean enough, Jamie’s headache had dulled somewhat. He took a quick shower then pulled on some clean clothes.
It was weird going on a trip and not packing anything. Presumably Larysa had packed him some of her things on the other side. In the end, he left his flat with just the clothes on his back.
As Jamie sat on the train, crammed between a woman who kept poking him in the side with her purse and an old man who smelled like cheese, he thought how great it would be to get away from it all. He couldn’t help that his bulk took up all of his seat, but the woman seemed to be going out of her way to poke him each time the train changed speed.
He was glad to finally get off and wind his way through the Manchester streets to the long range body swap facility. It was an impressive building made of glass and concrete. The steely blue windows were completely reflective, obscuring what lay inside.
Jamie hauled himself up the wide concrete steps and into the warm heated interior of the building. A receptionist welcomed him and pointed him to a cluster of seats in the corner where some other people sat, presumably other swappers waiting to go somewhere. The handful of others were dressed in fancy tailored clothes and expensive outfits. Jamie felt very out of place in his plain tee shirt and jeans. A gorgeous brunette glanced up at him and sniffed disdainfully as he approached. These were definitely not his class of people. The only way he could afford this was because the battlefield tour operators provided a generous subsidy to get people to visit Ukraine.
When his name was called, a middle aged man in blue nurse’s scrubs accompanied him to the elevators, down a short hallway, and then into a small room. A cot was inset into one wall. Various clamps, sensors and even a helmet were attached to wires that terminated beneath a large monitor above the cot. The whole room was crisp white and smelled faintly of bleach.
“Lie down there and get comfortable and I’ll set you up,” the nurse said.
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