You looked prettyconvincing as a girl."I grimaced. The previous year I had lost a bet to my new college dorm-mates and been forced to dress up as a Fr...nch maid on Halloween. A friendhad lent me her costume, wig, and had done my makeup, and everyone hadbeen shocked when I turned out to be decently passable, and maybe evencute in the right lighting.What nobody knew was that I had been secretly crossdressing for as longas I could remember, and I had thought that I could've looked even betterhad I. I've known Ray since we were both around 5, we've been friends for so long that we think of each other as brothers, though there's no way anyone would ever think it considering Ray's Hispanic and I'm white. But like brothers, sometimes we fight. Even though my life changed a lot when I left my home and went to university I always tried to keep that closeness with Ray. He'd been spending more time at my Moms house, helping with the cooking and cleaning and accompanying her to church in my. Do you think she's just going to say thank you and give you a kiss on the cheek before going her merry way, sans arthritis and age? She obviously has arthritis, Jeff, and just as obviously has the crippling kind. She's going to be beside herself with joy when she wakes up in the morning, gets out of bed and is able to stand without pain, and that's before she looks in the mirror and finds out that she looks thirty. You're the one who rescued her..." But Art was there doing his part..." Jeff. .'*****In another part of the Delta Quadrant, the Borg Collective felt its usual degree of emotionless superiority. They had traced Voyager's path and soon would capture the humans within. They would finally be assimilated. After five tries to conquer Voyager and it's crew, the Borg message of assimilation would not be an empty boast -- resistance would be proven ultimately futile to humanity, and with Voyager and its crew under their control the Borg collective would possess the perfect method.