FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Joined in Mind and Body

Chapter 14

Andrew tried to gather his thoughts. Could the computer have a soul? Normally he would say no instantly, but this computer had organic components. Specifically Kathari cells. He was pretty sure that the psionic networking was not an intended effect of the use of these cells, no matter what the builders claimed. It very well may be possible that this computer did in fact have a soul.

He really just didn't know. He opened his mouth to inform hir of such, but hir finger tapped his lips and shi hushed him lightly. "You don't need to say anything," shi murmured. "You gave it thought and didn't just deny it immediately. That shows you care and that means a lot to me."

Andrew caught the snow-white hand between his own as Sybelle smiled at him. He realized there was another issue and he didn't relish the information he was about to give the system. "Sybelle... The small Kat who is quartered with me is my mate. I love hir more dearly than anything in the universe. We are linked together psionicly and passed pair testing explosively well."

Sybelle tilted hir head. "Ahhh, so you two were the ones who did all that damage to the testing bay." Hir gaze dropped. "I heard it was a pair test. I wondered for a while if it was possible for me to ever have a mate and be linked. But I have no real body, so it obviously isn't possible."

Shi smiled as shi looked at him again. "I realize now that I do love you, Andrew. I know this because I know how much a pair link means, and even though I am sad that it couldn't be me, I don't want to do anything to get between you two." Shi stood up, hir ears dropping to the sides as shi acquired a far-off look for a moment.

"I have put in a report on my current malfunction. It'll take until they can dock for an extended period to fix it, but they will remove and destroy the organic modules and replace them." Hir lip quirked up a bit. "I guess then I will find out if I go to the Shadows or not."

Andrew sat in shocked disbelief of what he just heard. "You did WHAT?!" he demanded. No... He couldn't allow hir to be destroyed for loving him.

His gaze hardened and his mind reached out, slamming through the barrier around the core and almost instantly tracing where the report was being sent and where it was stored. The holographic Kat blinked and hir mouth opened in an O of surprise. Shi was well aware of his intrusion; he wasn't trying to be subtle.

"What are you...?" shi asked, backing away. His anger was leaking into the core's psionic network. He caught up with the file as it sat in an inbox and, with a twist of his mind, shredded it from all storage locations it was in. A core tech may end up wondering where the message that they were just alerted to had gone, but the report was irretrievably removed.

"That's tantamount to suicide!" Andrew exclaimed. "Just because I love Serina with all my heart and soul doesn't mean I don't care about you too!" He looked at the fearful-looking Kat that was the representation of the massive ship's main computer. There had to be something he could do for hir to show hir... he had an inspiration.

"Sybelle... take this and enjoy it... from me..." From his remote presence in the core itself, using the electronics to bypass the isolation field, he forced contact upon the psionic network of the mind in there. He felt confusion. The computer knew it should kick him out but was loathe to do so.

He reached into his own mind and pulled out something special. A replay of his time with Serina from both his point of view and especially from hirs. His mind translated the pleasure... the actual result of the interface connecting what happened between the body and the mind to make the physical pleasure work... into computer code. And then he flash uploaded it into the core.

The white Kat gasped as the information bounced around from node to node and was shared within the spread mind. The replay effect was powerful. The white Kat wobbled as sexual tension overtook hir and brought hir from not even knowing how the body communicated with the mind to fully aroused in a virtual heartbeat. Hir eyes closed as the sensations, translated to information that shi could actually understand by Andrew's unique ability, coursed through hir.

Hir teeth clenched and a mrowl of pleasure escaped hir lips as a peak hit hir. Even hir virtual seed graced the carpet, though the holo creation of this was soon forgotten and vanished as if never there. Shi was left trembling in reaction and panting as the sensations dwindled and finally released hir core from the wash of feeling. Andrew was pretty sure he shouldn't have done that, but he definitely didn't want Sybelle to be destroyed.

The white Kat got hir wits about hir finally. "That was... That... wow... Andrew... Thank you." Shi gave him a sly smile, "Now we're going to have to do that ourselves sometime."

Andrew looked confused. "How can we, if you don't know how the physical body sensory input connects to the way the pleasure works?"

Shi grinned widely. "You just gave me the interface translation table," shi exclaimed brightly, then vanished.

Andrew was left staring at blank air with his jaw moving and no sound coming out. What had he done?! He let out an exasperated sigh and flopped back in the chair, closing his eyes. Well, just another complication to add.

* * *

It wasn't long at all before the group of Kats returned. Andrew opened his eyes as the door opened and the three entered. Serina had a drape over hir lowback that was made out of a relatively-soft-looking material. It didn't look half bad, but it was odd to see a Kathari wearing anything decorative.

As soon as the door closed, Serina sailed over to Andrew. "Is everything okay? I could feel your distress, but it wasn't too serious, so I had to concentrate on getting this." Shi swapped to telepathy. "We also have to get our tails to the docking bay..." Shi blinked. "Well, my tail... pretty quickly. Tyrin and Kelia have to stay here. I don't relish the thought of trying to sneak you all the way to the docking bay though. I really wish there was another way to get you there. That bay is 100% Kathari, so inside it I wouldn't even need to try to sneak you onto the ship. Oh! Take off your wrist com. They can track those ship-wide."

Andrew unlatched his wrist com and Kelia came forward to take it. Andrew made a face as he glanced at the room com, then back to Serina. "Sybelle is in love with me. I think the computer has somehow gained a Kathari soul. And she tried to put herself in for core wipe repair, which would have effectively been suicide for the actual personality and soul. That was prevented at least."

Andrew considered. "Oh, and the computer previously had no way of knowing how to interface a physical body or representation of one with the pleasure centers of the organic units, so it could gain nothing from mating. But I had the brilliant idea to send recordings of mating to her translated into computer code. So now the computer can use a physical body or holographic avatar to seek pleasure and get benefit from it," he finished lamely.

All three Kats stared at him. He sunk lower into the chair. Kelia finally let out a whoosh of breath. "Well... more fun all the time I suppose."

Serina sat hir rear end down and looked somewhat consternated. "Yeah. That's a bit of news," shi muttered. Then shi brightened. "Well, as long as the computer is nice and doesn't do anything bad to you, the more the merrier!"

Andrew waggled his head and flopped back in the chair again. "So now all we need to do is get us to the docking bay quicker than we safely should be able to, without me being detected along the way." His mind spanned the ship briefly and he looked at the route. It would be a hard run for Serina along the runway without having to concentrate on him too. "Seriously makes me wish there was a better way to get me there," he sent as he snapped back to himself.

If you follow this pathway in your mind, and tag this ability... *nudge*

Andrew felt a strange tingle and grasped it in his mind as he closed his eyes to rest them for a moment before the rush to get to the bay on time. Hmm. Some psionic ability? He wasn't sure what. Related to his sensing of the bay. Well, they did say to trust his own instincts. He fed more energy to the conduits...

And fell flat on his ass on a cold metal floor. His eyes shot open and his ears popped as he scrambled to his feet in a much noisier environment. He was aware that the movement of large bodies nearby had just stopped. He looked around at the Kats who were staring at him.

"ANDREW?!" Serina was in a panic.

"I'm okay!" he sent back quickly as he took in the situation. A number of very confused Kats were trying to figure out what to do about the human who had just suddenly appeared. A ship was resting nearby in the large open space. He let his mind span for an instant. He was in the docking bay?! He relayed that information to Serina even as shi sent that shi had found him hirself.

One of the Kats in the hangar approached him. "Andrew-k'is... Nobody mentioned that you could teleport. That's rare. Get aboard quickly. Your mate is on hir way?"

Andrew checked with Serina and found out that shi was making swift progress towards the docking bay. "Shi is," he said, shaking his head. He would have liked to have known about the teleporting thing himself. His rump would likely be less bruised if he had. He limped a bit as he followed the Kat to the waiting shuttle. Every Kat that was not otherwise occupied stopped to see him off.

"Hopefully your mate will be here soon. We don't have a very large window for departure. Stay safe, Andrew-k'is, and good luck," the Kat told him. He smiled to hir and nodded boarding the shuttle.

This was a purely-Kat shuttle. Lounge benches and bowl seats provided all the seating. A half dozen other Kats were already aboard and looked at Andrew with interest as he found a unoccupied bowl to sit crosslegged in. He was dwarfed by the size of the chair itself, which was made for a full-sized Kat.

He felt a light probe against his shield, which politely changed to a request for contact when it met his shield. He glanced at the tawny Kat a few bowl seats over and allowed hir to make contact.

"Hi! I didn't know humans were psionic at all," shi sent. "You feel like a nice person, so I just thought I'd chat. Is your tail okay?"

"I'll be fine. Just an unexpected fall. My mate will get here soon, then I guess we'll be departing," Andrew replied.

"Oh. Your wife? I've never gotten to see any human females. We weren't expecting to make a stop here but the pilot said it was important. I guess you two are the reason," shi sent, sighing mentally. "I hear the Karenthis is a grand ship. I halfway tempted to see it, but it is a war ship. I hear military ships aren't too comfortable."

"Oh, it's not bad," Andrew sent with a smile. "Because it's a Kathari-based ship, we have a lot of nice things. Here, see? This is the suite my mate and I have." He sent an image and some information about his quarters. His quick check with Serina showed that shi had just gotten to the bay and was rushing across to the shuttle.

"Wow... That's really nice! A lot of room for a pair of humans," the Kat observed.

Andrew felt Serina giggle mentally. Shi was well aware of his conversation. "Speaking of my mate..." Andrew sent as Serina hurried on board and made hir way directly over to him. He greeted hir with open arms as shi hopped onto the bowl chair and curled up affectionately around him.

"Your mate is a Kathari??" the other Kat exclaimed, surprised. "A small Kathari, but... Wow... Shi's very pretty."

"Thank you!" Serina sent cheerily, proving that shi was indeed linked to Andrew since shi was aware of his private conversation with the other Kat.

The door to the shuttle slid closed and an announcement came to the passenger section in Katharin, "Thank you all for your patience. We are now resuming travel. Welcome aboard to our two new passengers. We have about two hours until arrival at Katarus." Restraint fields engaged on the chairs and Andrew and Serina quickly made themselves comfortable for the journey.

"I'm sorry to have to cut off our conversation, but my mate and I have a lot to discuss before we arrive," Andrew sent to the other Kat. Shi sent back friendly acknowledgement and dropped the light link.

"Is your rear end okay, trus?" Serina asked worriedly. "The hunt will be hard enough for you if you're in perfect condition. Limping will only make it worse." Shi squeezed him. "Oh, this worries me."

You should probably heal yourself. After all, if you could heal hir from so close to death, you could fix yourself up, right? Or maybe just a little extra...

Andrew thought for a short while. "Hon... I'm going to try to heal myself. That'll at least take care of that problem."

Serina brightened, "That'll help!"

Andrew focused his energies internally and towards his own smarting bum. A bit of exploration and he found that he could indeed quickly repair the damaged tissue. Relief was instant and definitely good. Hmmm... But what if he could do something extra?

He began exploring his own body more. It seemed that being able to heal gave him an innate sense of function, even if he didn't actually know the details. He didn't know how the neurons in Serina's spine should be attached, but he healed them anyway. Curiously, he began to explore parts of himself in greater detail, and comparing them to the same parts on Serina.

Hir hearing was much more acute than his, and not just because of hir pointed ears. The bones in hir middle ear were constructed differently, giving a wider frequency range and more sensitive response. The fluid composition was different to a degree and the cells in hir inner ear were also much more sensitive to vibrations through the fluids.

The turbinates in hir nose were much more advanced and the wet nose pad enhanced incoming scents. A larger area of hir sinus cavities were dedicated to sensing smell, unlike the human sinuses, half of which were only useful for creating headaches and the other half of which were used mostly for making the air warm and moist for the lungs. Extra nerve bundles carried additional information from more tightly-packed sensory cells as well.

Eyes were extremely effective as well. Slitted pupils gave a much larger range for light allowance, from much greater amounts of light allowed in to much less in bright conditions. Reflective cells at the back of the eye that allowed for more capture by light-sensitive cells that were not only much more sensitive to both light in general and to a wider range of the spectrum, but also much more tightly packed, enhanced vision in all light conditions. A substantially faster signal time gave much greater speed to their vision.

He paid attention to hir power output next. Hir bone structure was more dense, but also more springy in a way. Muscles were arranged in a better way at the cellular level. Similar to cats on Terra, the total pull hir muscles could exert compared to the same mass of his was substantially higher. Though Kats had it bumped up to about 25 times the pulling energy capability, compared to five to ten times for Terran felines. Combined with a hind leg shape that put a lot more power into the legs via leverage, it was all very impressive.

Andrew began to wonder if he could actually make himself more-than-healthy, or even implement changes in himself. Make himself stronger, faster, better. He had a bad vision of a weird wah-wah-wah-wah sound from an ancient show he had seen in the archives.

He thought about it for a while. If he screwed up, it could be bad. Nothing like being blind or deaf to ruin things. After a bit more thought, he decided to try starting with smell. He figured that living life without smelling anything if he utterly screwed it up would not be too bad.

He was aware that Serina was staring at him. He had been silent for a while and shi was beginning to wonder. That and the fact that his intent was blatantly obvious to hir. He tended to forget that having a link mate meant his thoughts were not his own most of the time. Shi smiled when he finally noticed and leaned down to lick his nose.

"You can try, but don't hurt yourself," shi sent. Shi relaxed and made hirself more comfortable for him.

Andrew snuggled against hir happily and got to work. Focusing on his nose, he began to push energies into it, using Serina's nose as a template. The other Kats in the ship were all curious. They could sense the large amount of psionic energy being expended, but they didn't know what it was being expended on, since it was all within his personal shielding.

He could feel tingling and movement within his nose and face as the energies reshaped things and reset his sinus construction at a cellular level. The process was relatively quick, increasing the surface area of his turbinates, adding airflow to sinuses long disused in humans, and increasing the complexity and saturation of sensory cells. Within a second it was done.

Andrew decided that it definitely felt different. He wasn't sure if it had the intended effect though. Then he sneezed.

With his sinuses cleared of the old system's mucus, the effect was astounding. He could make out the individual scent of every Kat currently on the ship and plenty who had been on the last few trips as well. Serina noticed the change as well and was very impressed.

"I think you smell better than we do now," shi sent, surprised at the strength of his modification.

Andrew buried his face in hir luscious pelt and inhaled deeply, loving the smell of hir now more than ever. He could make out all the subtle nuances that defined hir smell as uniquely hirs. "I think you smell perfect, trus," he teased. He got thwapped lightly on the top of the head for it.

"You know what I mean!" shi exclaimed. "Going to try for more? You might want to try to think of a solution to your own smell too. I don't know humans well enough to have an idea how."

Andrew nodded. That had gone well enough and most of the energy was returned at the end of the process. He decided to try his hearing next. Again he focused on the differences between his ears and Serina's, changing his own inner ear workings to match or exceed the ideas presented in hirs.

This process was a bit more strange, with popping and cracking audible for him as things changed. He frowned and put his hands over his ears, but the noise was inside. Shivering in mental reaction, he finished the process. This one definitely took longer. He took his hands off his ears. A lot more background noise. It seemed to have worked?

He focused in on one noise. A light rustling, rhythmic and repetitive. After he was sure he had locked in on the noise, he looked to its source. It was coming from the Kat across the way? How...? Then he saw. It was the Kat's tail tip flicking as shi watched him.

Damn, lot of extra background noise though. He was slowly getting used to it, but it was odd. At least he could pick out the individual sounds and focus on them. He guessed it would take work to train his mind to sort out the noises properly.

He focused on his eyes next. "Be careful, trus," Serina sent, but shi also sent supportive thoughts as well. He intended to definitely be exceptionally careful. He closed his eyes so he could focus without being distracted by any visual effects in the process. He worked on his eyes swiftly and a few seconds later opened them and blinked up at Serina.

The light was far too bright for half an instant when he first opened them, but his new slitted pupils accommodated much more quickly than human eyes would. The change in effect was amazing. He had taken the improvements in Serina's eyes and improved on them further and it had been wildly successful. Distractingly so.

He was able to make out a much wider range of the spectrum now, his vision extending into infrared and ultraviolet. This alone was odd enough to get used to, but the fact that he saw everything with so disgustingly much more clarity and precision was another thing. Looking up the room at the farthest lounger, he could make out individual fibers in the fabric.

He blinked several more times and squeezed his eyes shut. Woah. Serina took his head and cradled it against hirself. "Your new eyes are very pretty, trus! Blue! Kathari only have green and yellow and amber eyes. Why don't you relax while I tell you about the hunt, and see if it's better?" He thought this was an excellent idea and snuggled against hir side.

"If my parents accept your request, we will go to our clan's plains. We have medium-sized ones, so it's not as bad as it could be," shi sent. "Four of my clanmates will take me out into the plains and work on hiding. We run for a half hour, then rest for 15 minutes. That's the rules. Except the first hour. We get a two hour head start and we travel the whole first hour.

"The rest of the clan present who want to, except the clan leader and my parents, will depart one hour after I do. They will spread out and wait. Then you are set loose. You need to find me and touch me before sundown, otherwise you are forever denied entry into the clan," shi shuddered at that thought.

"The more the clan members respect your strength, the more they will try to stop you. If they think you are weak, they will try to avoid you. But that is not good either. Each clan member in the hunt will be wearing six feathers. One strapped to each upper arm and the top of each leg." Andrew listened intently. This was helping his eyes feel better, but he suffered growing trepidation in all other factors.

Serina sighed. "The only way to make a clan member let you be if they accost you is to claim at least one of those feathers from the straps. After you have taken a feather, they may not try to prevent you from reaching me any more. But they may defend the rest of their feathers. That is where it's bad if they avoid you. You must bring at least as many feathers to me as there are clan members defending me in the field. If any try to avoid you, you need to claim more from the others. If too many try to avoid you, you need to hunt them down yourself before you can go after me."

Andrew shook his head in disbelief. This was sounding more and more difficult all the while. Serina brushed his hair and continued. "You may not reach outside yourself with your psionics. Nor may they, unless you try to do something psionicly inside yourself. Then they can try to block it and you can try to block them. It's usually just best not to use psionics much. They can't double-engage you offensively. If one Kat is engaged with you, another must wait their own turn if you break free and take a feather. But if you are trying to take more than the first feather, the Kat you are pursuing is on the defensive, and another Kat can engage you at that time."

Okay, so at least he wouldn't be fighting off more than one at once. But if he wanted extra feathers, he might have to fight another one off at the same time. As he got information, he realized he had other important changes to make to himself. They should be fine while his eyes recovered. He quickly spanned his whole body, changing his bone mass and muscle and connective tissue composition until it at least met or exceeded the strength of Kathari parts.

Serina squirmed under the tickle from the energy that was flowing through him, but shi kept explaining. "And finally, when you are in sight of me, all four of the Kats with me may engage you at once. You do not need to get any feathers from them. You just need to get past them and reach me. I'm not allowed to react though. If we were running on a course, I need to keep running that direction until they tell me to stop. Beyond that, injuring anybody, you or them, is strictly forbidden. The clan leader will be linked to all of us, so shi'll know instantly if anybody gets hurt. If they injure you, you get all their feathers. If you injure them, you LOSE all the feathers you have collected so far.

"And that's for accidental injury. Intentional injury ends the hunt instantly in the favor of the injured party." Shi sighed. "That's about it. I do hope you'll have a chance. These amazing changes you're making to yourself should help a lot."

Andrew opened his eyes and blinked a few times. It was a lot better, but still somewhat overwhelming. Serina placed a warm paw over his eyes gently. "Why don't you take a quick nap? We still have a long ways, so if you take about an hour nap, that should help a lot. You did this so quickly that if you think of any other changes to make, you'll have plenty of time to make them."

Andrew couldn't argue with hir logic. A nap would definitely help. He curled up comfortably in the curve of hir body and snuggled into hir soft fur. A nap was a good reason to enjoy this too. Shi set an alarm on hir wrist com and laid along hir own body near him as well. Kat naps were good.

* * *

His fleeting dreams were nebulous. Some were nightmares of horrible failure, others were triumphant success. His mind wandered through possibilities and ideas in his sleep. The overall tone went more positive as time went by. Success became the common theme.

Serina was in his dreams soon thereafter. He dreamed that he caught up with hir on golden plains, leaping onto hir back as shi ran, evading the grasping reach of a Kat trying to catch him in midair.

Andrew?

Shi stopped running and the golden glow of a sunset framed them as they kissed, while the Kats who had been escorting hir looked on.

Andrew!

He curled claws lightly into hir luscious fur and shi tweaked his large, pointed ear affectionately.

ANDREW! WAKE...

"...UP!" Serina shouted. He blinked sleep from his eyes quickly at the panic in hir voice as the dream was brought to an abrupt halt. He lifted his head, swiveling his ears and looking around alertly. His fingers clenched, claws extending to be ready to fight off any threat to his mate.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he saw nothing strange around. The only odd thing was the avid stare of all the Kats in the ship, several of them open-mouthed. He looked at Serina and noted that shi was staring at him too.

"Andrew...? You... what happened?!"

Andrew laid his ears back. "What do you mean what happened?"

Shi made tentative contact with him mentally and sent what shi saw to him.

He blinked physically and mentally as the view from hir eyes was of a humanoid feline. Like the top half of a Kathari stuck on the back end legs. A shiny grey coat, similar to hirs but lacking the stripes. Two large ears atop a feline head. Blue eyes were unchanged from what he had created in his human form though.

Andrew jerked his head back and broke the image. His hand shot up in front of his face and he stared at the furred and clawed appendage. He rolled off Serina in surprise and landed on a tail that distinctly disliked being contained in his pants leg. A small yowl of discomfort escaped his lips at the tail abuse as he scrambled onto hands and digitigrade legs, then flopped back onto his side as he didn't know what to make of it at all.

"Oh... my... fucking... god..." he muttered, grabbing the ears atop his head and pulling on them to make sure they were real.

"Andrew, what happened?!" Serina demanded again. "Is this good? Is this bad?"

Andrew could only shake his head in disbelief. He sent calming thoughts to hir, assuring hir that he was okay, and not in any pain or discomfort - except his abused tail. "I don't know, trus. I really don't know." He DID know that the humans would have serious trouble with THIS idea though.

Recommended Next Steps

If you enjoyed the story, please feel encouraged to comment below, fave the story, and vote on it.

Click here to send the author a tip

More StoriesNext Story

Head here to support me on Patreon