Joined in Mind and Body - Chapter 9
#9 of Joined in Mind and Body
Maybe it's not as bad as it seems. However, the Author is an unapolgetic and evil tease.
Joined in Mind and Body
Chapter 9
"What did we do?" Serina cried, clinging to Andrew desperately. "Did we do this? What happened?!" She was close to being hysterical.
Andrew looked around in the dim, pulsing red light. Kats were strewn everywhere, and he hoped that they were all still alive. Whatever had happened was definitely not-good. "Um, check to see if they're alive," he said, jumping up and running towards the closest feline. "Let's hope they are," he muttered.
Even as he ran over, several of the Kathari began to stir, much to his relief. He dropped to his knees beside the one he had run to and held his hand in front of hir nose. He felt air, and saw her paw twitch. "Andrew, I'll try scanning them all," Serina said. "I have enough energy for that." She was silent for a moment, then announced, "They're all alive."
Andrew let out a huge sigh of relief. The Kat beside him moaned and he rubbed hir cheek comfortingly. Amber eyes flicked open, though nictitating membranes stayed half over them in pain. They focused on the human. "Everybody's alive," he told the Kat. "I have no idea what happened though." The Kat nodded and closed hir eyes, taking a deep breath.
In a fit of feeling stupid, he keyed up his wrist com to call for help, and found his channel selection severely limited. Having no idea what channel to call on, he scanned the few channels available manually until he found some panicked discussion that was apparently about the event he was in the middle of.
"We still can't gain access. The door is secured for testing, and the inner isolation field is shot, but still up enough to keep us from contacting anybody. All of the psionic scanners for the testing room are blown out, so we have no idea what's going on in there."
"We're inside!" Andrew broke in. "We have a lot of hurt Kats in here, I don't know what happened, but it was like an explosion or something. How can I help you get in?"
"That sounds like a human!" came a response from the other side.
Another voice replied, "What the darkness is a human doing in there? It can't be a human."
Andrew opened his mouth to retort, but suddenly realized that the voices were speaking Katharin. He had talked in English, but he had no idea how he could understand them. He shook his head and keyed in again. "Yes, this IS a human, and I need you guys to help me let you in. I don't want anybody dying in here."
"If it's a human, how can he understand us? The only humans who know Katharin are the Captain and security officer. This is really..."
"Cut the chatter! I don't know who's in there, but if you are a human, there's nothing you can do. The outer door is secured by a psionic lock. It takes an authorized Kathari to open it. All of them are supposed to be in that room."
"Sir, should we blast the door down?"
"Not with that isolation field active!" the responder snapped.
Andrew tuned out their arguments and looked over at Serina, who was trying to detangle some Kats. "I'm going to go try to open the door for them!"
"I don't think you can, Andrew! All the Kats who can send the right psionic codes to the locking device are in here and unconscious," she shouted, but he didn't listen. He ran through the flickering isolation field around the room, and down the short hallway. He could see the shimmer of another isolation field just inside the door itself at the end. That must be why they couldn't get through.
He wasn't interested in the door itself though. The access panel beside it was a display only, showing a red glow. This was hopefully the locking device. He paused to examine it. It was flush with the wall, and he could see no access from this side. How the hell was he supposed to get into this thing?
Wait... He could make a psibeam, couldn't he? He focused on what they had done with his mind before, and tried to repeat the process. A flicker of light, and a psibeam nexus formed in front of him. He gaped. Okay, now he had to fire it CAREFULLY at the wall beside the panel. And... *ZZZZOT!*
He winced and shielded himself from a wash of energy, killing the psibeam. He looked at the result. Well, carefully had obviously been beyond his skill. A three foot diameter section of wall had been disintegrated, including the doorframe and the panel itself. Half of the components behind it were protected on the other side of the isolation field, but complex wiring strips terminated at melted ends at the edge of the field. CRAP!
He reached in and claimed what had obviously been the main communication cable between the panel itself and the door's locking mechanism, which was well-protected within the thickness of the field. He was able to urge about an inch of it past the field, but he had no idea what he could possibly connect it to to send the proper codes. Trying to connect it to his wrist com was out of the question. No interface and no time to rig one up.
Your skill with computers is more than just book learning. It's your own psionics.
He tilted his head as he looked at the wire. He had always been great with computers. Maybe a bit too great. He had always thought he just learned well and had a knack... but what if it was actually his psionic abilities? Thinking back more, to all the jobs he had done, he realized that he was sure of it.
But could he do something with bare wires? Concentrating, he tried what he had always done: Visualizing the system. He gasped as his recently-opened energy pipe allowed him much more energy, and his awareness reached through the wires, past the isolation field, and into the circuitry beyond. Wow...
He searched for the code for a moment, then realized suddenly that the code was just a way to activate the basic lock. He shot past all the checks and re-checks and found the relay. *Click* The door slid opened and the external isolation field faded away automatically, revealing a group of seven startled-looking Kats on the other side.
"Quick, come in, we need help!" he said turning and running back up the hallway. He stopped when he got to the room and turned around, seeing most of the Kats examining the blasted wall. "COME ON!!" he shouted, pushing them into action. They tore themselves away from their wonderment and followed him.
Serina had arranged most of the Kats comfortably at least and she ran over to him and hugged him wildly when he came back into the room. Then she jumped back as the other Kathari came sailing through. "You got the door opened!" she exclaimed to them.
"No, somebody opened it from the inside," one of the Kats paused to tell her. "The panel is completely destroyed. I have no idea how it could have been opened at all."
"These Kats are energy burned!" shouted one of the rescue crew. "Get a medical crew in here pronto or we might lose some of them!"
"Already on it!" replied another.
"The Captain wants to know what's going on," another said. "All the Kats on the ship are still in a fit over that energy burst. All panicking about Kats being attacked."
"I don't know a thing more than anybody else. Tell him we have had a minor emergency but everything is under control now. And for dark's sake, send out a general broadcast telling everyone to calm down!" snapped one. "See if the small one will let you scan her, and scan that damned human to find out who he is and why the dark he's here."
Andrew frowned. They were still talking in Katharin, but he understood it perfectly. He reeled as his mind was suddenly seized forcefully and painfully. What the fuck? Hell no! His mind reacted and broke down the capture like it was nothing. Much different than the brick wall he was beating against earlier.
He heard one of the rescue Kats across the room cry out and saw hir shake hir head. He stared angrily at hir. Shi was the one that had just done that. Shi held her head for a moment and stared back at him, hir jaw hanging open in shock. "I think we have an issue with the human," shi said.
"What KIND of issue with the human?" demanded the other.
"He... he just broke out of my attempt to scan... I think..." shi faltered.
"Spit it out!"
"I think he's psionic..."
Andrew snorted in annoyance. "Brilliant observation," he growled. "Look, I'm not your enemy. You should know me decently. Just get help for these Kats, and ASK before you screw with my mind."
"And he understands Katharin..." the sore-headed Kat finished belatedly.
A rush of a good two dozen new Kats suddenly flooded the room and the original rescue team moved quickly to get out of their way as they began evaluating casualties, getting to work quickly on the worse-off ones. The whole rescue team had not missed the just-revealed fact, and they slowly made their way to encircle the human and the smaller Kat.
"I've just scanned Serina with hir permission," one of the Kats said. "You're not going to believe this. This is the throw-off from a pair test."
"A pair test? Who?"
"Them," the Kat said, pointing at Andrew and Serina. "This is Andrew-k'is. THE Andrew Foster human."
The attitudes of the Kats changed quickly from disgruntled questioning to awed amazement. "So... he's new to the ship, really friendly to Kathari, fixed the problem in a few hours... and he's psionic," one of the Kats murmured. "And together they threw off the testers powerfully enough to cause this." Shi looked at another Kat in the group.
That Kat fidgeted. "I bet we could have done this if we had more energy when we were tested," shi said lamely.
"Don't feel bad, trus," the first Kat replied with a smile. "There has never been a pair throw off that even got out of the first shield on this ship. I don't think there has been one that I can remember this strong. I know you love me, and I love you, even if we didn't cause a mess like this."
"What are they talking about?" Andrew asked Serina quietly.
Serina wriggled her whiskers in thought, and then her eyes widened. "Andrew... The pair test... nobody who hasn't taken it and passed is allowed to know what it's about. Well, they try to force us to kill each other, and see if our love for each other is strong enough to give us the energy to break out of a force beyond our means. They wouldn't have let us hurt each other if we failed... They would have shielded us from the beams... but... we didn't know that."
She turned to gaze at him. "It's for Kats to see if they have found their lifetime partner... you humans would call it your true love, or soul mate. Some Kats are just made for each other from the beginning, and they will usually eventually find each other somehow. Drawn from a distance even. It's like love and psionics mixed into one. So I was made... I was made for you. And me being small is a good thing for us!" She sounded amazed.
"My soul mate is just the right size for me!" she exclaimed and grabbed him in an almost crushing hug. She flopped to the ground and rolled onto her back, clinging to him tightly. "Oh this is so wonderful!! Andrew... Andrew-t'rus." She said that and gazed at him timidly, waiting.
Andrew gazed at her. By saying that, she was telling him and all who heard her that she was his. Her mind, body, and soul were his, and she would die for him or worse. Could he deal with something like this? Could he handle being forever one with this... this beautiful creature... this little Kat who had caught his attention from the very start... this... "Just the right size, Serina-t'rus," he agreed giving in to overflowing emotion and desire.
Tears of happiness filled her eyes and she glomphed onto him, holding his head against her chest. He felt her mind reaching for his, and he met her half way. He opened his being to her entirely, to show her that he really did mean that she was his trus. She was the one he gave heart, body, mind, and soul to. And she opened her mind to him the same.
He gasped for air as he experienced vertigo again. His mind and hers reeling as they seemed caught in a vortex with each other. Counterspinning, whirling faster and faster, closer and closer. The world seemed to turn on end and he squinched his eyes shut, clinging to her both in body and mind. There was a burst of energy and the whirling stopped, leaving him... warm and cozy.
He opened his eyes quickly and saw the group of Kats that had been watching them slowly dropping their arms. They had shielded their eyes from what had apparently been relatively bright. They blinked down at the new couple as Andrew and Serina tried to figure out what had just happened.
Then there was a cry of surprise from the room, and a lot of commotion starting up. The dazzled Kats in the group around the two lovebirds spun to see what was going on, and Andrew tried his best to see between legs. All of the stricken Kats were stirring, and getting up on their own. The medical teams were trying to encourage some of them to lie back down, but none of the injured would have any of it.
Andrew saw the testing lead stand up and have a brief discussion with one of the medical Kats. Then the lead looked straight at him. "Amazing..." the lead sent to him alone.
Then the lead broadcast mentally, "We are all fine. Our newest bond pair just saw to that. The human, Andrew-k'is, has healing talent. And if he was able to take care of all of us just with the flash leakage of bonding with Serina, imagine what he can do if he puts his mind to it. Learn these two well. Help them always. They may be up for doing amazing things."
All of the Kats in the room turned to look as the response team parted to reveal the human and the small Kat still embraced on the ground. Andrew considered possibly being embarrassed, lying here with Serina and being the center of so much attention, but the Kats started to applaud. Then they started Kathari applauding. Claws extended against the hard ground and they began to lift feet in sequence, dancing around a bit.
Hundreds of combined Kathari claws tapping against the floor along with the dull thumps of feet landing mingled with the striking hands that they had taken up in deference to the human custom. The hand clapping died down as they reverted to pure Kathari applause, and finally a growing growling in the room. The sound gathered in volume, ending in a thunderous combined roar from all of the Kats present, drowning out the claws. And then all the feet and all the voices stopped at once, leaving an echoing silence.
Andrew gazed in amazement at the assembled Kats, his jaw hanging open once more. The Kathari obviously approved. Serina suddenly began to giggle beneath him. She pulled his head close to hers and licked his ear. "The humans are going to be wondering now. The whole ship just cheered for us. 20,000 Kathari cheering in unison ship-wide usually makes everybody wonder what the big event was," she sent.
He could feel her affection for him all the time now. "For you, I would be an event any day," he said, kissing her. The kiss startled her. She seemed unsure of what it was about at first... well, no, she WAS unsure... he knew it... but she quickly got the hang of it and reciprocated happily.
He was finding something odd. He was... knowing... things about Serina. As if her mind was part of his now, and all the memories were coming out of a fog. He was aware of her impression of his small body against her. She had always been cuddled as a smaller one to other Kats. She was ecstatic to have someone smaller than her that she could cuddle now. And he was happy to have such a big fluffy kitty that loved him so much.
The kiss broke, and she blinked at him a few times. "That was a kiss... human kiss..." she said. "Kathari don't kiss. But... That was really nice." All the other Kats in the room were indeed watching them with interest.
Serina wrapped her hand across the back of his head and pulled him down for another kiss. The outside of her lips were softly fuzzy, and they weren't full like human lips. He muzzle was also much larger than his mouth. But then her mouth opened enough for her tongue to lap against his lips. He realized she had seen this from his own mind.
He let his own lips part, and her tongue snuck between them to tag his. Then curl completely around it. Wow! Humans could French kiss, but human tongues had NOTHING on Kathari tongues. He was even fully aware of her point of view as her tongue explored his within his mouth, curling around it and caressing it. Her sharp teeth nipped at his lips softly, and she obviously liked the whole thing, kissing him with much greater ferocity.
His head was spinning pleasantly by the time she let him go again. He panted and gazed down at her. Then he heard an odd sound. A low rumble permeating the room. He glanced up and his eyes widened as he noted that all the Kats in the room had found their partner, or at least some partner, and were all trying out this new "kissing" thing. And they were all purring almost as much as the little Kat beneath him was.
"It looks like we started something," he murmured. Then he glanced down as she let out a strangled sound. He realized she was trying hard not to laugh out loud.
"Almost all the Kats on the ship are kissing now," she sent, laughing like mad in her mental tone even as she kept control of her physical laughter. "Ooooo, the humans are all sooooo confused!"
Andrew made a face as he imagined the confusion shipwide. That WOULD be funny. He glanced up as all the Kats broke off their new attempts at the kissing thing. Some had been more successful than others, but all of them looked pleased with the newfound fun. "I like it!" one commented, and murmurs of agreement came from all of them.
He felt a mischievous thought from Serina and glanced at her. She grinned at him. "If the Kats like the kissing thing so well, and the humans were so confused about it, wait until I tell everybody about your 'blow job' thing," she teased.
"Oh lord! Bad idea! They wouldn't do that all in public... would they?" Andrew asked, flabbergasted. A lot of Kats looked distinctly curious at her mention, and he heard as they began querying her mentally.
She finally burst out laughing, "I'll tell everybody at the end of the shift. And it involves sex, so we wouldn't do it in public unless duty called for it."
Andrew blinked as two huge legs came closer. The testing lead looked down at them. "You two are really something. I admit, we were not at all prepared for such a throw off on the pair test," the lead said, dropping to his lowbelly. "I think we should count ourselves lucky that your burst didn't kill every one of us. We've been reviewing the burst in our mind. You threw our control off, and lashed out, but pulled back at the last moment out of respect for all of us. That is what saved us, and that is something that a Kat pair as powerful as you would not have done. Kat pairs who pass the test go feral for a while in anger after the test and would kill the testers in a heartbeat for threatening them. You were completely apologetic and helped us."
The test lead smiled. "Serina, you need to raise your energy levels of course. Andrew, you have a lot of skills that we could not decipher. So honestly, we know some of what you can do, but most of it will be a surprise to all of us. Trust your instincts, and do what you can when it needs to be done. I want both of you to go charge up. We'll be scheduling operations tests for you as soon as you are ready. Serina... teach your pairmate everything you can. He knows almost nothing about his own mind."
The test lead stood up, and Serina released Andrew, carefully pushing him to his feet before rolling over and getting to her own feet. The test lead gestured around. "This testing chamber is a wreck. We'll have to get it repaired at next dock. You two have fun. Stay safe, we're almost to a battle engagement. But be sure to take him to an observation deck to see, Serina, since this might be part of his life now. And..." shi leaned down to whisper to them, "... let us know about this 'blow job' thing soon. Just from your reactions, it sounds fun."
Andrew blushed furiously. Serina elbowed him in the side. "Put your mental shields up, tres. You're leaking horribly."
Andrew blinked. Right... Psionic Andrew... no more PPDU... had to shield himself now. He worked his mind around the concept with a bit of an odd feeling, and soon Serina mentally sent her approval and praise for doing such a good job.
"Your pairmate is a quick study, Serina," the lead observed. "That's a good thing. He hasn't grown up with training like Kathari do, and he'll have to learn quickly." Shi smiled. "Serina, I'll update your status back from discharge and have you both moved into Kat quarters."
"Andrew's already in Kat quarters, in the 17 block, third level" Serina exclaimed cheerily. "Just keep him there and move me in with him. It's my old hall even."
"Okay, we'll update you to there," the lead said, nodding. "You two go off and work on your energy levels then. Contact us when you're ready."
"Er, one thing before you go," called one of the rescue team members. Shi walked up to Andrew, "How did you get that door open? I need to put it in our report."
"Er... I dunno. I think some of my psionic abilities are being able to work with computers," Andrew said.
"I'd have to agree with that," the lead stated. "Based on his intake scan, it's apparently been the main ability that he's used all his life. He can psionicly control electronics and modify matter at a sub-molecular level. Helped him repair a lot of broken things. It gets more fun though. He can exert psionic presence through an electric carrier. So he can get past any kind of isolation field or shielding via anything conductive. I may not have been in good shape, but I was monitoring him as best I could when he opened the outer door."
"Well, that's a new one," the response team Kat murmured. "Sorry, you two go ahead."
Serina slipped her arm around Andrew's waist. "Come on. Don't give them another chance to delay us with more questions."
They made their way out of the Kat-only area, getting a few glances from the pair of human guards who supported the two Kathari guards at the entrance to the area. The Kathari guards just smiled and waved. Andrew blinked as he glanced at one of the humans.
"What was he doing in there? *Jealousy* The Kats never let ANY humans in there, even in emergencies. What's so special about him?*Resentment* Is something weird going on? *Worry* All the Kats on the ship cheered at the same time. Something has to be going on. *Curiosity*"
Wow... Open book was more than accurate. That was almost disturbing in a way. Was he going to end up getting this information off every human on the ship eventually?
"Only if you chose to, trus," Serina told him. He jumped. She had read his mind? Wait... Of course she had. She was linked to him. She found this very amusing.
Serina laughed merrily. "They say we'll get used to it eventually, and we'll be able to ignore each other when we need to." She glanced around as they entered a more open area. "Hmm. We should take the runway. It'll be fastest."
"Can you carry me?" Andrew asked, surprised. Then he was even more surprised when she scooped him up into her arms. He shouldn't have been. Kats were darn strong, regardless of their size. She laughed happily again and set him back on his feet.
"Hop on my back," she said. "Your feet'll be near the ground, but I'm tall enough for you to ride." She twisted her upper body around to give him a hand as he threw a leg over her back and slid himself up. Sure enough, with his legs spread to straddle her, his feet were closer to the ground than on a normal sized Kat, but still a good eight inches or so away. He tucked his legs up at the knees and leaned against her back, wrapping his arms around her waist.
"Ooo, I like this," she murmured happily, patting his arms. "I can carry a human, but I haven't had a reason to before now. Now I have my very own personal, wonderful, absolutely perfect human to carry!" She began to trot at a decent pace down the hallway, taking a right turn. Andrew recognized the V split at the end of this hall that signified the connection to the runway. There were not too many Kats out right now, and they passed none in the hall.
Even on the runway itself, there were only a few Kathari in sight. Serina took off like a dart and quickly proved that small Kathari were in no way slower than big Kathari. In fact, she went zinging past quite a few at substantial speed.
Andrew leaned with her as she ran, easily feeling how he could move his hips to not interfere with the motion of her body. "You know, running motion is a lot like sex," she sent to him, including a picture of a view of them from the side. Her body curving feet together, then springing outwards to propel her forwards, and his hips riding on her shoulders, rocking with the rhythm of her movements.
Then she moved him back in the picture, sliding him back until he was behind her and still rocking his hips. The image of her was no longer running, her body only stretched out before him as her view of them went through throes of passion. Andrew felt her thrill at the idea, and he could help but feel the same way about it.
Even this run was energizing in itself. Feeling her muscles play between his legs, the lush coat of fur that he held within his grasp. It was pleasant activity, so they got energy from it. But she made it even more interesting by running through his mind all sorts of different Kat foreplay and cuddling, always replacing the second Kat with him in the middle.
Then she began to get into images of the act, in all sorts of positions, some of which she had to sigh at because he lacked the body size to replace the Kat in them. But there were still plenty of them. He closed his eyes, enjoying the visions as well as he trusted her to get them home safely.
Only one small incident occurred on the way home. She experimentally sent a picture of her mounting another Kat her size, then replaced that Kat with his human form. Andrew blinked, and withdrew a bit mentally. He wasn't quite sure if he could deal with that right now. He felt her soothing thoughts as she took the image away. "Don't worry, I'll do without. I don't want you to be uncomfortable," she sent.
She continued to flood him with erotic imagery for the rest of the trip. He was glad his front was against her back, because his tented pants would be way too obvious otherwise. He opened his eyes as he heard a door slide open. "Oh, good, they already have me set living here!" Serina purred happily.
He looked around at the quarters with a new appreciation for the space now that he had somebody to share it with. "Andrew," Serina purred as she padded in and crossed over to the bed. "I hope you paid attention to all those nice things I showed you." He slid off her back as she paused at the edge of the bowl bed, looking at her questioningly.
She walked back and forth past him. "Soooooo many nice things..." She suddenly spun to face him, her ears laying back and her tail twitching like a hunting cat. He blinked and took a step back, tripping over the edge of the bed and falling backwards. His fall was precipitated by her sudden pounce as both her arms and her forelegs wrapped around him and she bore him powerfully back onto the bed.
He landed with an exhalation of air as she landed partially atop him, purring loudly with a hungry look in her eyes. "... And we're going to try every single one of them," she growled happily.
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