Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Fuzzy Feelings

Sol lay in between Selene and Alexis, content and cozy. They pulled him into a gentle embrace and chuckled as he wiggled with flustered joy. In the waking world, he would be too self conscious, too wrapped up in his own head to enjoy this. But in dreams, in dreams Sol could be happy. It felt nice to feel small, in between two people he loved. Loved? The dream started to fray and Sol could feel himself stirring from his sleep.

Selene leaned in real close and whispered into his ear.

“Time to wake up, Sol.”

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Blinking the sleep from my eyes, I carefully sat up in bed and stretched. Looking around, I panicked. Where was Alexis? I struggled to piece together my memory and shake the cobwebs from my mind.

“Aleeeexiiiiissssss, where are youuuu?” Something was a bit off in my tone, but I wasn’t awake enough to determine what it was.

Alexis appeared at the doorway with a smile on her face. “Jeez, I can’t leave you alone for five minutes. You sound like a cat crying for breakfast--” Her smile fell away as she looked at me in shock, but I ignored that to get up and give her a hug. She reached up and scratched me on the top of my head, between my ears. Something about that felt unusual.

“Sol, are you, uh, feeling alright? Anything feeling strange or different this morning?”

I shook my head. “No, I feel fine. I just missed you.” One of my ears wiggled and batted Alexis’ hand playfully. Hang on a second.

I opened my eyes wide and let go of Alexis, backing away. Fully awake now, I reached up a hand to my ears, which were not in their usual position and were a lot fuzzier than I remember. I dashed past her and into the bathroom to stare into the mirror.

My human ears were gone. In their place, a pair of tufted, triangular ears sat atop my head, covered in black, white, and orange fur. I tilted my head back and forth, taking in the ears from different angles and watching, feeling, as they moved subconsciously with me. Focusing for a moment, I was able to move each one independently. These were...my ears??

Alexis approached behind me. “I guess I was right about the cat thing, ah ha ha…” She chuckled nervously. I was too absorbed in touching my new ears and marveling at how soft and fluffy they were, while also trying not to freak out over such a huge change. What in the world could have caused this? I started hyperventilating, but Alexis put her hand on my head again and started scratching behind my ears.

“Oooooohhh, don’t stop, whatever you do don’t stop~” I shivered and then pulled away quickly in embarrassment. Where had that come from?

Alexis backed away and held up her hands. “Sorry! You were freaking out and I wasn’t sure how to calm you down!” We stared at each other for a moment. The awkward looks were interrupted by my stomach letting out the loudest rumble I had ever heard and I was hit by a wave of fatigue. I stumbled back over to the bed and sat down.

“Listen, just sit tight there for now. I’ll scrounge up some food and we can talk about it over breakfast, okay? You are going to be alright, Sol. Whatever this is, we can fix it.” Never has a construction drone moved so quickly and delicately as Alexis piloted this one to the kitchen, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

Okay, Sol. Deep breaths. So you are turning into a cat person, apparently. That isn’t so bad! Some of your best friends growing up were cats. I shook my head. What an absurd thought. There was no way of telling what was causing this or how far it would go. Would it stop with ears or would it continue on until I was an actual cat? That wouldn’t be good, I needed thumbs to do things! And how would I tell Selene?

I curled up in a little ball and tried to calm down. Wrapping myself in a blanket, I reminded myself that at least I wasn’t alone. Alexis was here, she would know how to handle this. I was really happy to be around her. What an incredible lady, to survive so long in isolation and still be able to smile like that. Such a beautiful smile… I was broken from my reverie by the smell of something delicious coming from the kitchen.

The blanket joined me as I walked over to the kitchen and sat down to watch Alexis cook. She mixed up some canned tuna into a salad and pulled out some bread and cheese. A pan sat on the stove, warming up, as she applied mayo to the bread and put one slice of bread on it, mayo side down. The resulting sizzle sounded wonderful, my new ears delighting in the sensation. I let out a small sigh and Alexis flashed me a grin before putting on the cheese and salad mixture. The next slice of bread went on top and she let it sit for a bit before flipping it over, not even bothering with a spatula.

“Artificial hands have their advantages. Whatever temperatures this drone is rated for, it has to be higher than what this stove can output.” She smirked as I chuckled and watched her at work, enjoying the moment.

Satisfied with the sandwich, she pulled it off the heat and set it on a plate, along with some apple slices I hadn’t even noticed.

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“Breakfast is served!”

I tore into the meal, ravenous with hunger. The melty cheese, the toasty bread, the soft bite of onion and sweetness of pickles mingling with the taste of the tuna. Just what I needed.

It was only after I had consumed the tuna melt and the apple that I realized something.

“Wait a goddamn minute...did you make me a fish sandwich because of the cat ears???” I glared up at her, indignantly.

“Ahahahahahaha, oh jeez, I didn’t even think of that! Pffffft, do you know how absolutely cute you look, pouting like that with those ears now? Adoraaaable!”

My face grew hot as I tried to maintain my grumpy composure. “Listen, you can’t just...that isn’t the point...aaaaaaa!” I stood up and tried to stomp my foot in a huff, but slipped and started to fall on my back. Before I knew it, my body twisted in a bizarre fashion and I landed on my hands and knees. Well, that was new.

“Careful, kitten. Head over to the med bay and we can do a scan to see what is going on, I’ll just clean up here and join you in a moment.” Alexis hummed happily to herself as she started stacking dishes in the washer.

I was still blushing as I walked away, dragging the end of my blanket behind me. Had I gotten shorter again? It didn’t drag this much before. I reached the med bay and hopped up on the scanner. Definitely shorter, I used to just slide on to it without the hop.

Alexis joined me in no time at all and I sat on the scanner, ears flicking with impatience, as the system did its work.

“Hmmm, it looks like the recalibrations I made have done their job. It’s exactly as I suspected.” Alexis pulled the data over to a display in front of me. A model of my body was showing a bunch of tiny particles slowly moving about inside. “That tank you fell into in the lab? Nanomachines. A swarm of tiny little bots are moving around in your system, following some mysterious directive. On the upside, I compared your previous records to your current vitals and you are healthier than ever. The machines have repaired quite a few things in the process of doing...whatever it is they are doing. And they aren’t done, not by a long shot.”

I sat quietly, taking in the news. It was true, I felt better than I ever had. Much better. And some of the changes were welcome, really. I’d always felt too tall, like I took up too much space. And the ears weren’t so bad, kind of cute really. I could handle being a catboy, I think. Selene and the others might even like it. But would it stop there? It had to, what would be the point of turning a person into a cat? I grunted in bitter amusement. The man who built this place, he would do something absurd like that just to show he could.

“So...what do we do? Surely there has to be records or something to tell us what this stuff is doing to me.”

Alexis nodded. “My systems access is incredibly limited for now, so I can’t dig too deep and I’m locked out of any systems outside of the Founder’s office and now your ship network. The way I see it, we have two main priorities right now. Finding a way to increase my access will let me hunt down the data faster and we also need to get access to more food for you.”

“For me? What do you mean, I should have a month or two of a buffer before Selene and the others arrive. We did the math over and over to make sure.”

“Well, that was before you took in a bunch of very busy machines that are hell-bent on modifying your physiology. That takes energy and that means more calories. I think you’ll be okay for now, but the margins are getting slimmer the more the bots get to work and I would rather we find a way to get the colony’s automated food production systems back online. My records give me a few clues as to how we can restore some of my access. The Founder held most of the keys, but there were a few trusted individuals he gave codes to that can give me specific authorization.”

Alexis sighed. “I kept the scout drones working while you slept and I think getting the power grid back up should be pretty simple. The plant should have been set to hibernation mode and the controls to bring it back on-line are manual, so no fancy access needed. Unfortunately, the locks on my core mean I can’t go turn those back on myself, even with a body to use. I can guide you there, but you’ll have to pull the levers and hit the buttons. With the power back online, we can hunt down the access codes and get the farms running again.”

I took everything in. It felt good to have a plan, something to do. Made me feel less helpless. Having Alexis here also helped so much. If it weren’t for her, I’d probably still be hyperventilating.

I smiled at her. “Alright then, let’s get to work.”