The kids looked at the cat, then looked at themselves, except for Rai who was very bored of this entire thing, then looked back at the cat. There was an understanding between all of them, unspoken but still understood, that the cat in front of them was Xi’gorth. And, yes, it was Xi’gorth.

Xi’gorths training manual did not actually finish after a decade and a half of teaching. It was written, In a small chapter, on the last page, that he should make sure that his batch was loyal to the empire. Otherwise, the greater beings would rule a planet only to be overthrown once the population got big enough to outnumber the rulers. That would not do at all.

As a result, every planet's “training class” must be thoroughly tested for any signs of disloyalty after training was finished. At the first signs of disloyalty to the empire, the kids would have their throats slashed and compacted into meat mush for one of the many regiments on the planet; a new class would then shortly begin.

None of the kids knew about this, but they knew that Xi’gorth was actually Gorth’xi and that was enough for them to disagree.

“I would never betray the greater beings!” Mia slapped her hands against the desk. “That would be heresy!”

“Yea count me out.” Rai said as she looked at the trees outside.

“Gorth’xi? Isn’t that very similar to Xi’gorth?” said Arty

Silence rained in the class like a hot shower. The cat calmly responded in his human voice. “Xi’gorth? My name is Gorth’xi. Stop these nonsense questions young human, they lead to nowhere. It seemed like you, Mia, were excited about this, what happened? Is Arty not a disgusting and vile human mate? Would you not come with me to overthrow the vile greater beings?”

“Never! I…actually express my love in that way. It is a common human mannerism.” Mia went up to Arty and kissed him on the cheek. “See? I would love nothing more than to have his babies…”

“You lewd girl.” Rai whispered in shock.

The cat squinted its eyes. “Yes, I have heard of this before…maybe it is so. But still! The world is surely too small for you, and too overbearing, all of you will be our slaves, stuck to this piece of land until you die! Your future generations will all be slaves to the greater beings for the rest of their human lives. Arty, Does that not sound horrible and vile?”

“Meh.” Responded Arty. “I’m fine as long as I have you Gorth’xi, you’re pretty cute and everything.”

“And what do you have to say, Rai? Are you not willing to relieve your boredom with adventure and ever-changing men? Each a different taste than the last?”

“No.”

Gorth’xi was impressed. This had been his millionth class in over thousands of planets, and it had been the first one where all animals of the first class had been so subservient. Maybe he could even write of his experience here and improve the greater beings' knowledge of subjugation. It had been a hundred thousand years before any being had improved the collective knowledge of the greater beings, if he was the one able to do it, Xi’gorth thought, he could finally quit this silly animal farming job and get an entry position in a respectable field!

The cat tried to look sad, but hints of happiness broke through in its cat's face. “That is a shame…I, as a free and democracy-loving participant of the lesser beings, will have to respect your decision and not pursue any recourse. It is with a heavy heart that I must say goodbye.”

“Nooooo” Arty lounged as the cat swung the door open with a powerful jump swipe combination. “You can’t leave me Gorth’xi!” Arty gripped the cat hard against his chest.

“Let-let go of me, young human! I am not your cat!”

“But-“

“The cat will return to normal after I proceed to extract myself from its brain. Now please, release me from your grip.”

“But where will I find him?”

“He will probably be where his nature leads him, young human.”

“Of course…” arty released the cat down to the floor and it landed gently against the wooden floor only to run as fast as it could out of the schoolhouse.

The cat, formerly known as Gorth’xi, also known as Xi’gorth, was planning to escape earth and take a decade to write everything he remembered in a long sabbatical. It returned to the shack where he found out that, for some reason, he could not return to his form. No matter, the cat thought, let's transport out, even if I did not have my form my transporter should have my id.

There was nothing on his chest. He pawed twice, he pawed three times, he put himself in front of a small mirror he used to observe his former form's breasts and pawed a fourth time. He considered doing it a fifth time, but before he could do that he ran out of his shack and back to the schoolhouse where he encountered a half-naked Rai being restrained by Mia and a happily surprised Arty.

“Fluffy?!” Arty said at the sight of the cat.

“Enough of your nonsense pupil #3. Show me your chest!”

“See! The cat wants to look at it too!” yelled Rai

“Okay?” responded Arty

The cat jumped up to Arty’s chest and found the transporter mashed and destroyed against his school uniform. For a second he did not know how to respond but with fury. “Pupil #3 give me one hundred pushups right now.”

“Huh?”

“One. Hundred. Pushups.”

“But fluffy…why would I do that.”

“Enough. I am Xi’gorth. I am sorry for deceiving you all before, but now we have a serious problem. Pupil # 3, give me one hundred pushups.”

“Okay.”

Arty got on the floor and began his usual punishment. Xi’gorth sat on top of him and looked at the other two who were still on top of each other. “I am sorry for lying to you all. It was the only way to be sure of your loyalties to the empire…now that the test has been passed. We will all return to a local ship and you will receive your honorary slave badges for which you will be recognized as a proper chattel of the greater beings. Congratulations!”

“So?” asked Arty, sweat began to drip from his face.

“So we must get out of this planet. Unfortunately, someone, arty, has ruined my transporter so we must travel to the nearest jump gate and jump to one of the nearby ships. I also believe that I… this will be me until we arrive at the alien ship.”

Mia looked down at Rai, and Rai looked at Arty, and Arty looked ahead but was mentally looking back at Mia. Mia spoke “I am sorry but our mission was to stay and repopulate this land. We can not go outside.”

“I know, I know young humans. Buts it's me…Xi’gorth your teacher and master saying that it would be fine for us to travel across the barren wasteland, out of this utopia, and to the nearest warp gate.”

“Not doing it.” Responded Rai.

Arty dropped down to the floor in a puddle of sweat. “Yea, we really shouldn't be doing anything that goes against our contracts, right? Wasn’t that something you kept repeating in class?”

“I know, precious students, that you value the empire. It is in my heart and mind. But if you do not carry me to the nearest transport I will eat your faces and brains and hearts out of your bodies as you writhe in pain.”

“Nope.” Replied Rai.

The cat jumped off Arty’s back and walked to the door. “So be it pupils, but know, when I return, I will bring a regiment upon you with tortures so foul that your spirits and minds will be broken before an inch of your bodies are harmed.”

Xi’gorth did not know how dangerous it would be to walk to the nearest transport, but it was better than waiting here to convince them to leave. They were only going to be used as bait anyway. In case Xi’gorth could not pass an obstacle he would sacrifice as many of them as possible until he reached his destination. But he could also do it alone.

Back in the classroom the students, all fully clothed, now sat in their seats and looked at each other in silence. They were waiting for Xi’gorth to come back. After an hour they all decided that maybe he finally left after being convinced of their loyalty.

“Now..what do we do?” asked Arty

“We find a way to escape….” Mia said, her fingers on her chin.

“We repopulate.” Rai whispered.

“I liked my cat better when he didn’t talk…” Arty sighed.

They all sat in silence one more time. Until Rai stood up from her chair and took off her clothes. Mia was too deep in thought this time to restrain her. When she was in her pink underwear Rai broke the silence. “Okay, Arty, let's do this. Let's make the future of humanity happen!”

“Wha?” Mia responded with a disgusted look on her face.

“Don’t look at me like that Mia, you prude, this is what we have to do, this is our purpose. There is nothing wrong with doing it to perpetuate the entirety of humanity.”

“But is that all you see in yourself?” Mia asked. “Is that all you see yourself good for? We should be out there traveling through the empire like our forefathers. Finding strange planets, irresistible men, and discovering ancient societies long lost to time, but all you want is this idiot.”

“Hey” Arty was frankly done with all the insults thrown at him. “I’m not that bad.”

“Yea,” Rai said. “Don’t overthink it Mia, go with the flow.” Rai began to dance strangely, waving her hands to the left and then to the right as her feet moved in the opposite direction. “You have to feel it!”

“Its…not that your bad Arty. You are the best man within 100 miles, but that's the problem! We have a lack of men. Why not bring a dozen different men so that I can get the type that works best with me? It's…your not my type Arty.”

“That's fine and all, but we’ve spent the last 18 years together, so I demand a little respect.”

“Yea!” Rai continued her dance as she slowly approached Arty. “You have to respect him!”

“What are you doing?” Mia asked Rai.

“This? This is one of the many mating dances that Xi’gorth taught us. Is it working?”

“No…” responded Arty.

“Ah” She stopped dancing and felt her legs shake. Rai was not the type to physically exert herself. The amount of time she could do this dance was 2 minutes, but, feeling a strange tension between her and Arty, she continued doing it for 3! “I guess…we should repopulate tomorrow…”

“Let's stop being ridiculous, we need to find a way out of here. Do you want to live this way forever?!”

“Yea,” Arty replied. “I have you, I have Rai, we can be happy here. We can all grow old playing games and having fun, occasionally one of you will have a kid and then we will have another person to have fun with.” Arty leaned back on his chair. “It doesn’t sound bad…”

“But that's no way to live! What about the world, space, art, we shouldn’t settle for all this we can find something better something bigger than this plot of land in the middle of nowhere earth.”

“We can be happy here.”

“We can be happy anywhere, but can we ever be the best here?”

“I don’t want to be the best.”

Silence rained once more on the students until Mia walked out of the room, unsatisfied. Arty liked this place as it was now, no matter how much he tried to put himself in her head, he could never understand why she thought that everything would be better away from here. This was heaven. They had enough food to last them the rest of their lives, they had people they enjoyed talking to, and they had a life together. Was it all really worth risking for some strange unknowable thing?

“What do you think Rai?”

“Hm?” rai asked as she spread herself on the wooden floor, her body no longer able to hold her weight.

“We should stay here right?”

“I don’t really care. I’m me anywhere. I doubt that it's any less boring outside.”

“So it's decided, you want to stay too! That's 2 against 1. Fair and democratic and all that stuff.”

With that decided, Arty picked up Rai and put her on his back. Rai thanked Arty and Arty told her it was cool. When they walked out of the schoolhouse they saw that Mia, who they had thought was in their home, relaxing, was actually being held at knife-point by a dirty, tattered-cloth wearing woman. The woman held her knife against Mia’s throat while holding her hand behind her back.

When she saw Arty and Rai her eyes widened. “Give me your food and water!” she blurted out.

Arty didn’t understand why Mia was letting herself be held hostage like that. “No.” He replied.

“I’ll kill her!”

“I doubt you could, especially not with that form.”

“Huh?” with a nudge, a swipe, and an expertly executed throw the formerly knife-wielding woman was now a non-knife-having woman who was restrained on the floor.

“What a strange day…” Rai concluded as she watched the entire thing unfold on Arty's back.