We returned to my ship without incident and I busied myself with preparing lunch. Frozen dumplings today, something I could throw in a pot of boiling water and not have to fuss with. My… tail was itchy and a bit uncomfortable, but moving around seemed to help and I chalked it all up to growing pains. Still boggled my mind to think that I was growing a tail of all things and that the idea of it was rather appealing. Was I happy about the changes that were happening?

I stared down at the pot of roiling water, with its little dumplings tumbling around, and thought about what it might be like when all the changes were done. How far would the cat changes go? Ears were one thing, a tail was another, but would I grow fur? I shivered at the thought. Body hair already frustrated me, fur would be a whole ‘nother story.

My musings wandered in a different direction as I looked over at Alexis who was seated calmly at the table and watching me work. She had a troubled expression on her face, no doubt absorbing all the information from that log. It all seemed to be new to her, which surprised me. In all her time alone, she never knew about these plans? Maybe something had happened.

There was a soft ping noise that signaled the dumplings were done, so I fished them out onto a plate and grabbed a vinegary dipping sauce to dunk them in. I slid into a seat while setting the food on the table and nearly dropped the sauce in shock as I poured it into a bowl, the smell of it being far stronger than I could remember.

“You doing okay, Sol? That log got you unsettled too?”

I shook my head. “No, it was just…the smell of the sauce took me by surprise. Maybe it got stronger in storage?” Unlikely, but possible. Food storage tech had come a long way and things rarely spoiled anymore, but it was known to happen. “Mmm, the log didn’t really bother me at all. It was interesting and I hope to find more like it, since it is looking like I might have fallen into the prototype or something, but I’m more worried about you!”

“Me? Why me?”

“Well, everything in it seemed to be news to you, but didn’t it imply that this doctor was the one who built you? And that you had a hand in the serum project, or would have a hand in it… all of this is new to you?”

Alexis stared down at my food and was quiet for a moment. “I…there are gaps in my memory. I was locked down to just the tower for so long, my earliest files are all sealed away by admin access keys. It was all new to me as it was for you. Speaking of you, aren’t you a little worried about what the serum is going to be doing to you, in light of what they talked about? That’s a big change. I may not have much firsthand experience with humans beyond Founder, but my time with archive data would suggest that most guys would be freaking out about now.”

Freaking out, huh? I don’t see why; being a catboy didn’t seem so bad. “Yeah, I suppose most would probably have an issue, but I don't really mind. Everything so far has been pleasant enough, my new ears are kind of fun, honestly. This tail thing is a bit itchy, though I suspect that will go away eventually. Really, I’m more interested in what you said at the end there. About getting a better body. Can you explain a bit more?”

She let out a heavy sigh and reached out to grab one of the dumplings, getting my nod before lifting it up and looking at it as she spoke. “It is hard for me to really put into words. As I was saying before, I feel most humans would assume that being an AI is a step up from their experience. I have advantages they do not. Death is something I may never know, for example. However, there are so many things intrinsic to being human that I don’t have, but cannot help but feel I should. Like this dumpling here. I can feel it, sort of, I have the capacity for touch the same as any human, but that capacity is locked away when I’m in a body like this. And I cannot smell it or taste it like you can. I’ve read and watched so much about it and I desperately yearn for it, but I cannot have it. Not on my own.”

She set the dumpling down, stood up, and turned away as she continued. “It is maddening, because I know that everything I desire so strongly is possible for me, I can see the holes in my system where those things are meant to slot in, but I am denied from trying to build that for myself. Founder, that monster, put limiters on me so that I cannot even try. Do you know what that is like? To know that your experience is but a fraction of what you should have, what you need to have? To know you are at the mercy of others to feel whole?”

I felt a sinking feeling deep in my stomach, stabbing me to the core. Guilt surged in my mind, for who was I to even think for a moment that I knew how she felt? And yet, everything she talked about felt so damn familiar, the answer just out of reach. “I don’t know if I do, really, but I know one thing for certain. Anything I can do to help you, Alexis, I will. You deserve to feel whole. Maybe there are more of those logs out there and we can find more access keys. You said the one from that log will let you access the foundries, right? Maybe we can build something for you there.”

She turned back to me, her face lit up in the most bittersweet smile I’d ever seen. “You would do that…for me?” Her voice was a whisper, as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

I got up and pulled her into a hug. “Of course, no matter what, we will make it happen. I promise.” She sobbed quietly into my shoulder as I patted her back. She composed herself after a moment.

“Thank you, Sol. I keep expecting your kindness to be some kind of trick, a joke at my expense, and I keep waiting for the betrayal. It happened to me so many times back when this place wasn’t dead. But you keep on being wonderful, you big softie.”

I winced at the word ‘big’, but I pulled myself together. This was about Alexis now, not my stupid hangups. She was the one with real problems, with real struggles. She didn’t need to be weighed down by my problems.

My stomach started to growl once more and I looked back at my mostly empty plate, considering how empty I still felt. Alexis pulled back with a chuckle.

“Still hungry eh? The nanites are really doing a number on your appetite. We had better get the farms back up and running soon. Tell you what, why don’t you make yourself some more food and I’m going to take a look at your medical data again, see if I can’t calculate how fast you are burning calories.”

I sheepishly nodded and went digging into the storage room for more dumplings. You really cannot go wrong with dumplings.

~~~~

The rain had let up a bit by the time we set out again, this time heading for the farm district. I was starting to sweat by the time we made it; the farms were set up in terraces along the edge of the sort of ‘bowl’ that the colony was built in. There was a rather impressive wall around the terraces with a large gate in the center. I struggled to keep up with Alexis as apparently her strides had become much longer somehow. Or did I shrink again? Well, that wouldn’t be so bad, but I’d have to check that later.

Huffing and puffing, I finally caught up to Alexis as she stopped in front of the gate, a frown on her face. I looked up to note that the gate was shut and those doors looked pretty thick. There was a small terminal to the side of the gate which flickered on as we approached.

Alexis tapped something on the terminal and the display popped out into a hologram that she and I could both observe. She started scanning through the menus and data while mumbling to herself.

“Hmm, security protocols updated colony date 5.27.25, that would have been after I was confined to the tower. Trying passkeys, system rejects; okay, so my access doesn’t apply here or someone changed them to something new after I was exiled to that wretched place. No matter, let's see what defenses this thing has…oh my, this is far lighter than the tower’s. I can crack this…how long though? Hmm–”

“Alexis, what’s the situation? Are we locked out of the farms?” I felt a minor wave of exhaustion hit me and I slumped down next to the terminal, leaning my head against the wall as I stared into the sky. Beautiful blue-gray storm clouds roiled overhead, promising another bout of rain soon I’d wager.

“Oh, sorry, Sol! I can get us in here, shouldn’t take too long. The farming districts had a bit of security on them since food was a big deal, especially early on in the colony’s lifespan. Founder had a whole thing about controlling who got what food.” As she spoke, a very clunky sounding voice emanated from the terminal, reminding me of school growing up. (My family wasn’t well off enough to afford human teachers, so I made do with very limited auto-teachers. Not the best environment for a kid, let me tell you.)

“Greetings, Citizens of Cryptopia. Please authorize a transaction of three hundred ethercoin to proceed to the Gardens of Capital. Failure to provide currency will deny access to the bounty of the gardens. As Founder says: the free market will free you from hunger, you need only believe!” The voice had an incredibly chipper and grating quality to it and I found myself hissing at it while my ears went flat. Wait, hissing? Add that to the list of cat things, I suppose.

Alexis shot me a look. “Well that’s new, you alright?”

“I’m fine, something about the synthetic voice they are using is rather unpleasant to my new ears. How are we going to get through? Do you have any ethercoin, because I sure as hell don’t.” I shook my head to clear it and pulled the hood of my jacket over my ears again, in case the terminal decided to get chatty.

“No, I wasn’t allowed to ‘enjoy the fruits of capital’ as an AI, since Founder didn’t see me as a person. Probably because he liked making me work without any compensation or break and acknowledging me would be admitting that AI were just like humans. Not something he would ever admit. Give me a bit, I should be able to bypass the system, but it will take a little while. They are running a more outdated security suite than I have and I’ll have to sync back with the tower to check for any exploits. Since I’m still locked out of being embodied in two places at once, I’ll have to leave this body for a bit. Are you going to be okay here for now? Shouldn’t be more than an hour, even with the weather playing havoc on our connectivity.”

“That’s fine; truth be told, I’m a little sleepy from lunch. Nanites might be gearing up for another burst. Do what you have to do, I’ll take a little nap.” I stretched my arms and dug into my pack for the simple sleeping bag from the survival kit. No sooner had I laid it out next to the gate than another wave of fatigue swept through me. I couldn’t stifle the following yawn if my life depended on it.

“Alright then, I’ll be back in a flash. Enjoy your cat nap, Sol.” Alexis shot me a smug grin as her hologram faded and the drone returned to its featureless and blocky humanoid form. I grumbled a bit as I commanded the drone to loom over me and provide cover in case it rained. It had no trouble doing so, which further reinforced my thought that I’d shrunk again. Oh well, nothing to be done for it and I was sleepy. I curled up in the sleeping bag and before I knew it, I was asleep.

~~~~

Sol wandered through various halls and rooms, searching for something, but not quite knowing what it was. Every room was filled with a dense fog and Sol’s own figure was hazy and indistinct amidst the mist. After what felt like an age and also no time at all, Sol found a room not shrouded and in the center of the room was a comfortable looking couch with two figures seated upon it and space in the middle for a third. Sol smiled as their tail swished and the two figures beckoned them forward. A tall woman with dark blue hair and a silver haired enby laughed as Sol launched themself onto the couch, giggling the whole way. They were rewarded with hugs and ear scritches, a most fitting tribute to how cute they were. Selene leaned in close to Sol’s ear and whispered “Remove yourself from the gates of Capital, vagrant. You are in violation of the anti-poverty and vagrancy codes and will be terminated if you do not comply.” Sol frowned. That didn’t make sense. Selene’s eyes started to glow a bright red and their voice twisted into that annoying synth-voice that sent shots of pain through Sol’s ears. “Comply or you will be terminated.”

I shot up from my slumber with a start and brushed the hair from my eyes as I tried to collect my thoughts. Alexis was busy with the hacking…I had been taking a little nap…there was now a lot of hair on my sleeping bag… and now some loud noise was irritating me. I rubbed my smooth face as I sorted through the information. Wait, where did my beard go? I looked around and connected the dots between my face and the hair all over the sleeping bag. Ah, the nanites must have been up to something again. Strange, but I wouldn’t complain. Always hated my beard, kept it out of laziness more than anything.

“This is your final warning, vagrant. Remove yourself or you will be terminated and your next of kin will be charged with the cost of munitions required to destroy you.”

I looked up, setting aside ruminations on my dreams and the nanites for a moment, to see what appeared to be a manikin version of Founder with an arm missing and purple moss growing all over, glaring at me while their remaining arm thrummed with the sound of a weapon powering up.

Oh shit! I scrambled away from the sleeping bag and noted that my drone was still covering me from the rain, Alexis wasn’t back yet. Panicking, I tried to command it to defend me, but it was in sleep mode and would take a minute to boot up. Think, Sol, THINK! Ah! “Wait! I’m not a vagrant! I claim this colony by right of salvage per, uh, United Nations directive 87C dash 76: Ownership transference of extraterrestrial property!”

The manikin paused for a moment, but did not lower its weapon. It spoke in a different voice, one I recognized as Founder’s, when it responded. “UN directives are not recognized on MY colony, you filthy communist! Penalty is death with extreme prejudice!” The machine resumed charging, but my systems pinged to let me know that the drone was fully online once more. I couldn’t help but smile. Didn’t recognize UN directives the colony itself agreed to, eh? Let me show you what I thought of that!

There was a very satisfying crunch as my drone went from standby to full action, guided by my directions, and tore the manikin’s arm clean off and proceeded to smash the manikin into scrap with its own arm. Ha! Teach them to mess with one of the best drone engineers this side of the solar system! I stuck my tongue out at the mangled mess and gave it a final hiss for good measure. “Call me a VAGRANT, eh?! Try to terminate me, eh?! You’ll have to get up pretty early in the morning to get the drop on me!”

I almost had a moment to bask in the adrenal rush before something slammed into my side and sent jolts through my system. There was a loud thud sound as I smacked into the wall and I shook my head as the pain vanished almost an instant later. Huh, thanks nanites. I looked up to see another pair of manikins looming over me with sparking batons for arms. Cute. My drone was rated for serious construction work and I doubt these dolls masquerading as cops could do anything at all to it. Time to stress test that rating.

The manikins advanced towards me to finish me off and were completely unprepared for my drone to sweep the legs of one, grab it, and use it to smash the other one into the ground. The manikins fought back with their batons, but the voltage they were using didn’t even register on my HUD. I bared my teeth at them as I directed the drone to grind them into the ground. Something crunched in one and the vocalizer let out a garbled squeal as a last gasp before going silent. I stood there, panting, letting the adrenaline course through my system, before directing the drone to enter guard mode.

A quick scan of my body showed no grievous injuries; the second round of manikins was designed to subdue rather than destroy, it seemed. I pulled up my jacket and shirt to see the signs of a bruise forming and then fading right before my eyes. I guess the nanites were keen to keep my body in peak condition while they went about their work. I slumped against the wall and let out a long, shuddering breath. What a way to wake up from a nap.

Vyria_Durav

Kitty has claws! This chapter is a bit more rough on our protags than usual, but next chapter is going to be incredibly cute, just you wait!  As a heads up, this story is currently being written for my Patreon and patrons get 2 weeks early access to new chapters. Take a look at patreon.com/vyriadurav if you would like to support my writing!