Chapter 10: Chapter 10: The Square of Torment

With a yawn and a stretch, I awoke to find myself in a pile of blankets and pillows, surrounded by…a square made of tape? The ground around me was outlined in a large box and I was in the ‘living room’ section of my ship. How bizarre. I felt pretty good, though. My memories were a little hazy and the only way I could describe my current thoughts was ‘floaty’. It wasn’t a bad sensation though. I burrowed back into the blankets since they were indeed very cozy and twitched my ears with contentment.

There were surely tasks I needed to get to, things that had to get done, but I was warm and comfortable and they could wait. This was all ruined, of course, when I felt the urge to answer the call of nature. I sprung up and started to make my way to the bathroom only to find that I couldn’t cross the tape line. Every time I tried, I felt this strange compulsion, this feeling that I was inside a box and couldn’t just get out. This was absurd, it was only tape!

Alexis entered the room only a moment later and gave me a sheepish grin that turned to panic as I glared at her. “I don’t know what you did, but release me! I need to use the restroom real bad and I can’t seem to cross this stupid tape!”

She nodded and pulled up one of the strips, allowing me freedom as I zoomed to the restroom, running on all fours in my haste. As I was washing up after, I noticed something odd out of the corner of my eye. There was someone else in the bathroom with me, in the mirror. They were in front of me, I think, because all I could see was a short, soft faced person with blue-green eyes and a multi-colored bob cut hairstyle. Kind of cute, honestly. Their feline ears flicked in response to my thought and the edges of their mouth pulled up in a happy smile.

Oh. That was me. I was the person in the mirror. It took me so long to realize because without my awful beard and with my apparently longer hair I looked totally different. This was what the nanites were up to? Well, I won’t complain. I rather liked the changes. A soft giggle escaped my lips as I ran my hands through my incredibly soft hair and my tail stood straight up with joy.

“Are you alright in there? I’m sorry about the square. Please don’t be mad at me.” Alexis’ beautiful voice reminded me that I had been in there awhile and so I made my way out to the living space to see her nervously sitting on the couch. I was seized by a sudden impulse and bounded over to the couch to sit next to her. I desperately wanted to hug her, but remembered that she wouldn’t truly be able to feel it if I did, so I looked at her earnestly instead.

“I’m not mad, I just…saw something interesting in the mirror that distracted me a bit. If anything, I’m a little confused; what is up with the square?”

She grinned again as she scratched her head in an adorable fashion. “Well, I don’t know how much you remember, but you passed out after the catnip incident. I took you back here, to the ship, and tried to put you in bed while I worked on sorting through your medical data and calculating your food needs. You kept getting up and hugging me and uh…telling me that you ‘are a good kitten who needs headpats.’ It was all very cute, truly, but hard to get anything done. I tried putting you back to bed a few times and you kept getting out, so I finally remembered something about cats being easy to trap with a square of tape so I made you a comfy little nest and put you in there. It worked, you kept pacing at the edge of the square and then going back to sleep in a huff. Cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”

In that moment I truly lived up to my namesake because my face felt as hot as a solar furnace with how intensely I was blushing. Cute?! Me? I’ve never been cute! Then again…I had just seen what I look like now and I had to admit that, with the right angles, I suppose I could be mistaken for cute. A soft rumbling began in my chest and I realized with a start that I was purring. Oh gosh, that was kind of nice!

Alexis chuckled and scratched me behind my ears which only intensified the purring. It was unfair, how did she know how good that felt? Ah! Focus, Sol, focus!

“I have no idea what you are talking about with this ‘catnip incident’, but I suppose I can accept that I could possibly be mistaken for cute, in the right circumstances. So, what’s the situation? I would have thought my changes were done, I haven’t noticed any more furry surprises at least.” There was an odd itching going on with my chest, but I took a quick peek under my shirt and didn’t spot any fur so that couldn’t be it.

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“Well, you’ve spent more and more time sleeping over the past day and a half and you’ve lost more height, putting you at 162cm. There are also some strange things going on with your endocrine system that I’m running further tests on. Food is a concern, you are burning up fat at a high rate to fuel these changes and I don’t think your existing stocks can cover that for the time left before the others arrive. Luckily, I was able to scout some more of the Garden once I had you sealed in The Square of Torment.” Alexis’ face wore the smuggest grin I’d ever seen as she giggled, pleased with her little nickname. “It will take some time to process the various vegetables and herbs to ensure they are safe for consumption, but I did find a whole patch of assorted potatoes that looked ready to eat. I’ll need to borrow another drone or two I think to get those moved to the ship, but that shouldn’t be any trouble.”

She stood and started pacing around the room, her demeanor getting more serious. “I don’t think that will cut it for your immediate needs, however. All of the colony livestock appears to be either dead or escaped out in the wilds of Venus and I doubt I can find them in time. A bit of good news is that the experiments to seed the oceans here with edible life appear to have paid off. I was able to collect some data from the Garden’s fisheries that looked promising. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have any way to catch them. This drone body doesn’t seem to be rated for operations in aquatic environments and I didn’t want to test that on my own.” Alexis fell back onto the couch in a huff, clearly agitated. “I just…I just want to be able to help. You’ve been so kind and considerate to me and I want to return the favor. I have to return the favor.”

I understood all too well. There had to be something…ah, that was it! “Alexis, what if we can use the foundry as well as some of my drones to make you a new body? Something less limited and that you could call your own while also being able to handle the seas? I remember you talking about wanting that and now seems like a good time to see what can be done.”

She stared at me for a moment before pulling me into a hug. “Sol, you’re a genius! I had discounted the idea as something we could only do once the colony is fully operational again due to a lack of the proper materials and also the restrictions on my system wouldn’t allow me to do so, but with your help it might be possible! Hmm, I think I might be able to figure out what all we need without hitting the restrictions, but first I’ll need to check out the foundry to see what we have to work with.” She stood up and bounced in place in excitement. “I can’t believe this is happening! I’ve dreamed about this for so long!”

It was wonderful to see her so happy and I was glad I could help her. I started to get up, but fell back onto the couch when I was hit with a sudden dizziness.

“Looks like the nanites have taken more out of me than I thought. Tell you what, Alexis, you go on ahead and see what we have to work with and also send me as much data as you can about your system and I’ll start plugging away on designing some schematics that will work with the foundry. Might have to cannibalize a few of the resettlement supplies to make it work, but a good chunk of those supplies assumed that the colony would be unusable as it is. Plus, I think I’m due for a check in with Rosa soon, so I can do that while you are exploring.”

Alexis beamed back at me. “Yes, absolutely. I’ll get right on that. You are the best, Sol! I’ll start sending stuff to your ship and set out immediately. The sooner we can make this happen, the better!” True to her word, she zoomed out of the ship with a happy yell as I waved goodbye to her.

Truth be told, I was excited by the prospect of getting to design a new proxy body for her. I hadn’t had a challenge like that in awhile and I was looking forward to starting. Now if only my chest would stop itching. I tried scratching and winced at how sensitive everything felt. What could the nanites be up to now? Ah, well, better to push it from my mind and get to designing. Nothing I could do about it now, anyway.