Our team was one of many sent out into space to investigate other life in our galaxy. Our bodies would be put into stasis until the time we reached our destination, as the environment within our vessels weren't suitable for living in for any longer than a few years, whether for physical or mental reasons.

    To interact with any intelligent life that we may find, we had a system that could scan the DNA of targets outside of our vessels and write the information into our own bodies while we were placed in a special incubation tank. It was necessary in part because the familiar bodies were more likely to open up a form of acceptable communication, but more importantly it allowed us to have an adaption to the environment so we didn't have to resort to wearing our environmental gear (which could be seen as scary to other races).

    On our mission I had been chosen as the emissary representing our planet. In a way I was lucky since that would give me something to do, whereas the others would have to sit idly by and twiddle their thumbs. However, all of the pressure and much of the danger was riding on my shoulders, so I certainly couldn't slack off and have fun.

    The world we had come to explore had more water than our own planet, but some vague evidence suggested that it may not have always been that way. Either way it was obvious that any life that could be found would likely be beneath the waves rather than the limited amount of land that we had managed to spot.

    And so we used our instruments to search into the depths of the vast waters until our scanners found something and recorded the information. While our instruments couldn't paint a picture of what we had recorded, they could still tell us if the organism could support human intelligence. Both pleased and excited to see the positive results, we endeavored to go into the next phase.

    When I was released from the incubation tank, I had been transported directly into the outside of the vessel since we couldn't risk exposing my new body to the now-alien environment in said vessel. We were all surprised that I had a humanoid form, although I was more surprised that there was so much similarity that I had immediately realized that I had become a girl.

    However, regardless of my new sex, I had a mission to carry out. So, while my fellow crewmen no doubt found themselves amused by my body, I had to get used to said body and how it moved and breathed in the water. Once I became confident enough in my abilities to operate my new body, I decided to explore the depths from which the information for the body had come.

    To make a long story short, I had found a whole civilization and my work as an emissary had gone well. I spent about a month learning about them, although what I could learn had been limited mostly to personal experience since I couldn't understand their language. However, it was due to those experiences that made me comfortable enough to decide to stay behind so I could learn the language and share more information about our worlds.

    The crew back in the vessel understood my intentions, so they left a communicator with me so I could send reports back to their vessel and/or Earth. I felt a bit of guilty pleasure for what had been the most significant deciding factor for staying, but I wasn't about to admit to them that I, as a fellow guy, had enjoyed my female body as much as I had. Although that was due in part because the natives of this world had known had to make me feel welcome... quite welcome, indeed. And I'm only human, after all.