Joined in Mind and Body - Chapter 1
#1 of Joined in Mind and Body
In the far future, the life of a feline-taur-admiring, human computer tech is turned upside down in one swell foop.
I'll start with an Author's Note, since this is a wholly new story. This story will be about like the rest of mine... It will have sex, but don't expect to see too much sex for the first few chapters. This story as a whole involves humans and big herm felinetaurs (10 feet tall and around 900 lbs work for you?) based in science fiction future Earth and space. There will be sexual activity beween felinetaurs and felinetaurs, and male humans and felinetaurs... In both directions for the latter. This means if you don't like the idea of a male human being mated in the tailhole by a felinetaur, don't get too deep into this story. As always, there is a well-convoluted and fleshed out plot, twists and turns and suspense and fun. Psychic bonds, great love and affection, and lots of overall interesting stuff is planned for this story.
Joined in Mind and Body
Chapter 1
The man peered at the computer's innards. Hundreds of years of computer technology and they were still a mess inside more often than not. Especially here on Terra - or Earth if you asked some of the purists. Cables everywhere, component cards not even fully attached... No wonder this poor thing didn't work right. Carefully reaching into the system, he delinked the power unit and waited for the system to go completely dead. At least he had a good feel for that. Some techs got unpleasant surprises from components that kept an unexpected charge after the delink.
He nodded to himself as he decided the system was fully powered down. Reaching in, he began setting some connections right, swapping cables and interlinks almost instinctively to allow the system to operate properly. Connections were tightened, a few components swapped out for things from his work bag, and soon he pressed the switch to re-engage the power unit. He drew his hand out carefully as a high pitched electronic whine indicated components powering back up. The noise made him frown though. It shouldn't have made that sound.
Concentrating, he went though every possible cause of the sound in his mind. He traced the connections with his eyes, following the possible causes, visualizing the actual system layout. He held his ear close to the case. It seemed to be coming from the data bus module. He shook his head, annoyed. That card was perfectly fine. It should be at least. It was brand new.
Glaring at the card for a moment, he decided to give it a brief while to warm up. Maybe it needed just a little burn in period. Yes, it was a Cronix 6472 module. He could see the layout of the components in his mind. These cards were historically tight when brand new. Just a little bit of warming up, and it should be good to go.
He visualized the way the crystals would rearrange their atomic structure as the power flowed through them and settle into the proper channels, trying to keep from being annoyed at the noise. This kind of exercise had always helped. Keep calm, don't go yanking things as broken immediately, and they'd end up working. It saved him a lot on supply expenses. And sure enough, soon the noise faded away and the system diagnostic lights began blinking in a pattern that indicated everything was good to go.
A smile crossed his face as he closed the case and powered it fully on. He was rewarded with a flicker from the console, followed by the quick formation of the I/O hologram. He reached into the hologram and activated controls to run a thorough diagnostic set, watching as results flickered past.
Everything was in pristine condition. Apparently for the first time in decades on this poor machine. Bah. Leave it to the government to use broken machines for so long. But here on Terra, that seemed to be the norm. If it weren't for that, he wouldn't make such a good living fixing them. He reset the machine to start up its normal processes, repacked his bag, and checked out of the secure area.
He thought he saw a Kathari tail vanishing around a corner as he was heading up the hall to report his success. This was a mixed-species building, so he technically had a chance to see one here. But the Kathari were not that common for anybody to see on Terra unless they had connections. He worked in plenty of high security places, but he honestly didn't have the connections to get to see a Kathari face to face. The tail he thought he had seen was likely just wishful thinking.
Happy bureaucrats who seemed like they may be behind their desks 23 hours a day looked up as he entered the office. Now, notably they were not normally happy. But he had just succeeded in bringing back a critical system that had been down for months, and visited by dozens of repair techs to no avail. He was lavishly praised - a rare thing to get a honest version of from these people - and his fee was paid directly and immediately into his account. They even gave him a bonus for being so quick.
He thought for a moment about asking if any Kathari worked in the area, but he decided not to press his luck. They were glad he fixed the computer, and glad to pay him, but quick to shoo him out thereafter. He only dallied a moment to send his company its cut, then caught a hole back to the district his office was in.
He took a moment to marvel at the tiny wormhole technology. Literally dial in the station you needed, present credentials, and get a personal wormhole to your destination. Created in two seconds, secured to your subatomic signature, and "Guaranteed Safe"... which of course meant that there were not TOO many accidents. It made getting around much easier. To think that only a few centuries ago, people still used personal transportation vehicles locally on the planet.
The boss was quick to greet him as he arrived at the office. "I saw the funds! I take it you got the job done! Damn good work, Andrew. Those bastards should have hired us to begin with." Andrew gazed at the large man for a moment. If he wasn't such good friends with this man's son, Chris, he wouldn't keep working here. But they were best buds. Ever since grade school in fact. So it was natural that his best bud was happy to get a job for him with the old man.
"Meh. I'm not surprised nobody bothered to notice the problems with it before. It's not exactly new equipment, and all they ever train greenies on is new stuff these days," Andrew told his boss with a smile.
"Hey, Andy!" Andrew winced. He hated being called that. He turned to look at the offender and was not surprised to see Dan standing there. "Any troubles?" Dan asked.
"Nah. Bunch of old tech to work with, but I took along enough spare parts to rebuild the thing twice over," Andrew told him, putting on a front to avoid being viewed by the boss as antisocial. "Got it working just fine when I saw what the mess was. A couple of conduit loops and some interlaced super-c lines that had to be rerouted. A few dead modules too, but no worries."
"Oh, good!" Dan exclaimed, looking tense himself. "Welp, good job, then! Probably paid well too. Enjoy!" And with that, the annoying man took his leave.
Andrew sighed as he headed to his work room to sort his supplies, log things back in, and get ready to head home. That had been his only job scheduled for today, so he could relax and have a nice day for himself. That would make up for things at least.
"Damnit, I thought you said he would HAVE to use a Cronix 6472 module in that thing," Dan hissed over the com. "I made sure he went out with only one of those, and that it was bad. There should have been no way he could have gotten hat job done!"
"I gave you the information. You owe me payment," came the voice from the other end. "It's not my fault that you couldn't make proper use of the information. You should make sure your bad modules are actually bad next time. If you can't do the simple work to get him fired, I'm not going to do any more of the complex work for you. Pay double right now, and I -MAY- consider giving you more information in the future."
Dan growled under his breath, but stabbed controls to transfer the doubled funds that he had not been expecting. "I want results, or I'll stop using you anyway." He spat, and cut the connection. Dan took a moment to compose himself, then walked out of the closet and headed to his own work room.
Chris, who had been working on the data conduits in the crawl space above, of course found the entire situation quite interesting. He took only the time necessary to finish the work before taking his own com recording to his father.
Andrew dropped his bag off on the couch as he arrived home. A full day for himself almost. Not bad! He flopped at his computer and activated the console holo. Lovely technology there too. A completely faked up output and input that simply watched where he manipulated in midair and worked with that. He wasn't quite rich enough to afford a feedback console, with micro force fields generating actual solid-seeming objects, but that was okay. He worked with his input field shrunken very small. A lot of people had no idea how he even managed to be detailed enough to work with the input field that small, but for him, less movement simply allowed him to go faster. When he put his full attention to it, he could get data into the computer flawlessly and at very high speed, much more so than anybody else he knew.
He pulled up the news first, to catch up on current events. Meh. Wars still on three intergalactic fronts. Some sports teams lost, others won. Elections in two months. Huh... And apparently the flagship Karenthis was in the region and may potentially stop by Terra. Hmm. If he could get any work in the mix zone, he might have a chance to see some Kathari if they got shore leave.
The rest of the news was uninteresting, so he pulled up a program that he was working on. Code flew from his fingertips into the computer for a few hours before he grew bored of that as well.
Maybe a full day to himself wasn't the greatest thing. He was in a slump. Life was pretty much the same old same old all the time. Go to work, fix computers, go home, code, eat, browse, sleep... Day in day out, fixing computers, getting paid huge chunks of money... and never really having much to do with it. His skills at computer repair were so in-demand that he couldn't even take vacations.
With a sigh, he started browsing the public networks. Smiling, he began to pull up some Kathari information. Pictures, language, history, data... Their spoken language was supposedly very difficult for human mouths, but he had been trying anyway.
The Kathari had intrigued him most of his 24 years of life. Giant four-legged cats with humanoid torsos atop that... Similar to centaurs in a way, but with cat features all the way. Fur covering their whole body, and plenty of gender confusion for humans because the Kathari were both genders at once. Most humans were uncomfortable considering the Kathari to be hermaphrodites, so called them "He" or "She" based on which gender was forward at the time. The Kathari themselves put either gender forward both in slight swelling of their human-like breasts, and in their mental attitude, but would happily swap apparent genders in a few days, and never lost the use of any of their anatomy either way.
Kathari had been found around 86 years ago, in 2362. Humans were shocked to find a race that didn't shoot first and ask questions later. But humans were also too conceited to question how the heck these huge cat-like creatures were speaking fluent Terran only a few minutes after contact. It finally was discovered that the Kathari were also the first and only psionic race to be found by humans, and had simply learned the language telepathically from the first contact team.
Tensions had run high upon this discovery. Here was a race of cats that stood around six feet tall at their lower set of shoulders. Add the humanoid-like torso atop that and they easily topped ten feet at the tips of their ears. Massive creatures with claws and teeth that could tear through some of the best armor out there without chipping a fang or breaking a nail. And they could read minds to boot.
And to top it all off, they discovered, thankfully without bloodshed between humans and Kathari, that the Kathari had very powerful psionic shielding and weaponry capabilities as actual individuals. A small invasion by a band of pirates on the home planet made it very clear that no energy weapons or projectiles were a bother to the Kathari, and that the psibeam the Kats could create was devastating. Humans who thought to be bravado and fight off the pirates found themselves upstaged by the planet's own Kathari militia who removed the threat very quickly and efficiently. Their home planet, which they called Katarus in Terran, was pretty well protected from any landing force of ill intent.
The humans of course were interested in working with these creatures, and though the weaponry of the Kats was undeniably perfect, their shipbuilding skills were lacking. They had managed to get stations in orbit, and had personnel manning them to repel orbital threats, but moving beyond that had been troublesome. The good news was that if there was anything the Humans were good at, it was building ships. Fast ships, small ships, big ships, complicated ships of all sorts.
It turned out that at least two other races were interested in the destruction of the Kathari as well. So with a rare genuine offer of assistance and camaraderie, humans made a pact with the Kats to create ships manned by both humans and Kats to take on both race's enemies. Human ship technology and Kathari shielding and weaponry made the new alliance a serious force to be reckoned with. Slowly wars were being won and various impolite races shown some manners per force, and most of the local galactic cluster was becoming a much safer place for numerous races.
Over the decades, Kats had been able to expand to several new worlds and the vast fleets of Kathterran (The eventual name of the mix of work between the two races, derived from Kathari and Terran smushed into one) ships have shown that Kathari and humans work very well as a team together. The Karenthis was the most technologically advanced and by far the largest ship in the fleet. The shielding and firepower of its thousands of Kat pairs was sufficient to protect or destroy full star systems, and its compliment of fighters made it a movable war front on its own.
The mention of Kat pairs of course makes it necessary to explain that as well. Psionic energy didn't come from nowhere of course. Kathari actually created psionic energy from personal experience and emotion. The downside to creating energy from emotion is that the type of emotion used to generate energy affects the usability of the energy. Thus the Kats, long ago, took to invariably creating their energy from anything pleasurable. Grooming sessions, sports and friendly competition, massages, and mating... all excellent sources of high quality energy.
The next thing that humans didn't completely deal well with was the fact that the amounts of energy needed for extended combat in space and war situations pretty much required frequent recreational mating to maintain. Given that the Kathari already shunned clothing (it chafes fur), and were hermaphrodites, adding frequent sex to the plate gave many purists a conniption. But it was a necessity. So Kats continued their history of forming psionic bonds between partners and being working pairs, and only an excellent control of their own biological functions prevented their population from exploding. Especially since paired Kathari had such a strong psionic bond that their bodies did not age as long as they maintained sufficient energy levels. Thus, short of being killed, they were effectively immortal.
Overall, things had gone decently. The alliance was strong, and both races appreciated each other. Kathari had taken the habit of using mutable Terran-style names to help avoid human confusion. A Kat's name would change by adding an "a" to the end, or replacing the last letter with an "a", to indicate that they were in female phase. Some confusion ensued when things occurred such as "Karen" being a Kat's name as a male, thus "Karena" being the same Kat's female phase. But overall, the idea worked well.
Andrew continued to review what he knew of the Kathari in his mind as he perused more information and pictures, still in awe over the majestic creatures. He did hope some day to meet one. An indicator on the side of his display alerted him to somebody at his door, and a quick check revealed it to be Chris. A twitch of a finger allowed his friend access.
"Hey, whatchya up to? Looking at Kathari porn again?" Chris asked as he moseyed back to the com.
"Get your mind out of the gutter. Not everything naked is porn you ditz," Andrew replied. "Kathari don't wear clothing anytime at all anyway. The most they ever wear is their own personal shielding."
"Yeah, but the way you act when you're looking at them, I still swear it's porn to you," Chris jibed.
"Fuck off," Andrew snapped, but he couldn't really be mad at the guy.
"Yeah, yeah. I came with some news anyway," Chris drawled. "Dan got fired and arrested today. He was trying to screw around with your parts when you went to that big job. Tried to plant a bad data bus module in your bag. He got caught on a recording talking to somebody else about it, and the suits at the job site were not amused. Both he and his friend are out of it for a long time now."
Andrew blinked and tore his gaze away from the display. "Well, I did have a little trouble with the data bus module at first, but it was fine when it warmed up. He must have gotten caught in the normal trap with those things, thinking a new one was bad because of the noise. Just let them burn in, and they're fine."
"Says you!" Chris snorted. "You have the best damn luck with those things. I still tell you every time that the rest of us guys know it's gonna die when we get that high pitched whine. And we've tried waiting. Never works, just blows out the crystal matrix. So you have damn good luck with them." Chris pointed at the input holo, "And how the fuck do you use that so small?"
Andrew grinned, "You ask me every time you see my console config. Get over it."
Chris grinned back, "Yeah, yeah, I just can't access your consoles at all. So you've got to go to the main news for me."
"Main news?" Andrew asked, pulling up the network location. He blinked at the view of the ship Karenthis docked with a local military station. "Shit, it's here already?! Wow. I heard it was in the area, but there was still question as to whether it would stop by Terra."
"It's making a damn fast stop to pick up one person," Chris explained. "Kind of crazy situation. The guy is being 'offered' employment. But in reality, he's being drafted. No saying no to this. All top secret, hush hush. They really did their research. They're even sending a Kat pair down with the folks to collect the guy. They figure it'll make it harder for him to say no. Hell, the guy they came to get doesn't even know it yet. They've like only told his work that he's being hired away from them and won't be in tomorrow. They plan to come and nab him, and be gone within the hour."
"Bullshit!" Andrew exclaimed. "Like you'd know anything like that if it's true. Especially if it's so hush hush top secret mumbo jumbo crap. You can get me to believe some stuff, Chris, but that's just bullshit. And just how the heck would you know it if it was actually true?"
Chris looked at Andrew with a mask of complete innocence and a touch of sadness. "Andrew... I'm going to miss you, that's for sure. Think about it... They told the guy's work. Whose dad do you think is that guy's boss?"
Andrew blinked, looking confused, and then it dawned on him. "Wait, you mean... ME?! You'd better not be bullshitting me, Chris. That's just fucked..." he was interrupted by an alert of somebody approaching his door at the corner of his screen, and then even his door ringer being activated.
With growing trepidation, Andrew reached into the control holo and pulled up his porch video camera. His breath caught as he saw two very important-looking men standing there, with several armed troops behind them facing out. And the fact that his camera view also showed the thickly-furred lowchest and topbelly downwards of two Kathari standing beyond his overhanging porch roof did not bypass him.
"You'd better go answer that," Chris observed.
Feeling shaky, Andrew headed to the door to open it. His mind wouldn't stay on any one thing, as if he were distracted by another conversation at the back of his consciousness, but he managed to activate the door controls and watched as the door slid aside.
The official-looking man on the right smiled slightly... If anybody could call it a smile... "Good evening, Mr Foster. Can we call you Andrew? Good. Andrew, your friend has given you at least a little bit of information. But officially, in summary, you are being drafted into a civilian position aboard the Karenthis. This means that you maintain a lot of rights that military positions do not, and you get paid a lot better. If you have anything you want to bring with you besides your com unit, indicate it to my partner here and it will be brought. Be aware that unless you have anything irreplaceable, most anything else can be acquired for you shipboard. You have five minutes to get ready to go." Now a bit more of a smile crossed the man's face. "Welcome aboard, Mr Foster."
Andrew was barely listening to him. His gaze was fixed on the two massive bodies standing beyond his porch roof. Kathari! Real, live Kathari, here, at his house, specifically because of him. At the break in comment from the official leading the group, both Kathari ducked their upper bodies to the sides to look beneath the porch roof at the curious human. Andrew was shocked. They definitely were much bigger in person than in pictures.
Andrew muttered that he just needed his com and his books, and he'd be fine. He looked amazed at the two Kathari gazing at him. Huge amber eyes with immense depth to them gazed back, and again he found it hard to collect his thoughts with everything going through his head at once.
"Okay, sorry to break your mood here, Mr Foster, but quick introductions are in order. I am Captain Sirelly, Captain of the Karenthis." He took in Andrew's look of shock. "Yes, THE Captain. That is my chief security officer, Snider," He indicated the man who was tagging the com and books for transport with the assistance of one of the soldiers.
"The soldiers are here for escort primarily. And these are Tyrin and Kelia, one of our Kat pairs aboard the ship. They came along for their diplomatic skills and because they have not seen any of Terra landside yet," Capt. Sirelly explained. "That and we felt you'd be more likely to come with us if they came."
"You can take me anywhere with Kathari," Andrew mumbled. He spun around suddenly as he heard an odd sound behind him, and witnessed his com and books being loaded directly through a hole to a shuttle. Forming a hole on the fly was no small task, so this was a pretty major show of tech on their part.
A similar sound caught his attention outside after the inside hole closed, and he turned around to see a much larger hole opened just outside his porch. He stepped out as the Captain motioned him, and fought an incredible urge to reach out and stroke the Kats standing in front of him. The thought was mildly amusing to him somehow, but he still couldn't keep his thoughts completely straight. His mind cleared somewhat as the Kats led the way through the new hole, and he shook his head briefly to clear it.
"After you, Mr Foster," The Captain said.
Andrew took one look back at his home, and Chris waved. "Don't worry, Andrew. I'll make sure everything stays here. Knowing how fast you work, you'll probably have whatever job they want done completed by tomorrow morning."
Andrew chuckled. Then with a sigh, he stepped through the hole directly into the passenger section of the flagship's shuttle.
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