Acc to her helmet's head-up dispy, the air was very pure, exactly 26% oxygen and 74% nitrogen, almost like bae. And nothing else, it was even purer than on their ship, the carbohydrate traces had dropped when the alien's ship's hatch had opened.

  The mother looked back at her. " we go now?"

  She took off her helmet, sniffed and nodded. All she could smell was herself and the mother. The alien ship was an olfactory void, as featureless as the diffuse white light that shohrough the hatch. She followed the mother.

  As soon as they both were on the alien ship, the iris hatch closed behind them and disappeared. They stood in a brightly lit, featureless room with no visible ers or shadows. The light came evenly from all the walls floor and ceiling, making it impossible to guess the size of the room. It was very disorientating. The only guide was the pull of the tripetal forces, giving them an up and down.

  Then an iris oher side opened and the avatar entered. Her general shape was not so far off from a cat, she had a snout and the same outline, shoulders with two arms, hips with two legs. She was naked, but somehow not. Her whole body was covered in small iridest scales. Which meant that the breasts were not breasts at all, just smooth mounds. She didn't see aals either. And no tail.

  The avatar took ten steps across the room to meet them. The room could not be that rge.

  "Wele, mother Fiyul and Sed Pilot Rerra." This time it was her mouth that created the sound, her lips moving in sync with the words. She spoke a soft Standard, carefully crafted to be soft enough for a mother, yet alien enough for the avatar. "We are the avatar for the Koni." The avatar bowed well for a tail-less alien.

  The mother bowed, and she followed, bowing even deeper.

  "Thank you for your offer. I came as soon as I could."

  "We have all the time in the universe, mother Fiyul. We are gd you have made the long jouro meet the st desdants of our a civilisation. Will there be others joining us?"

  The mother turo her. "Sed Pilot, please call Fanny, the others should join us."

  The iris hat the seamless wall opened again, revealing their hard, utilitarian passenger dog port tunnel. "Please, Sed Pilot Rerra, go ahead. Feel free to adjust the pressure to ease the access." The avatar made an undefined haure, a hand with five fingers.

  She nodded anyway. "Excuse me for a moment, Avatar, mother, I will override our hatch." She stepped into the tunnel, whiow felt dirty and dark. She quickly punched in the override code, which rinted on a vacuum-rated bel tape o the s for emergencies. After a few moments, the hatch opened. She stuck her head through. "Please e over, we are all io the other ship."

  Soon there were seven cats standing with the avatar in the room oher ship. The i lighting with no shadows and no clear ers made it difficult for some of them to keep the bance.

  "Wele, we are the avatar of the Koni." The avatar bowed again.

  They introduced themselves, Fanny first. Thewo doctors, Daria and Yuri. The guards hesitated, but then also introduced themselves as Dad Rocka. She suppressed a smile at their very appropriate names.

  The avatar nodded gracefully. "You have travelled far. repared several enviros for your stay, a light woodnd, a savannah, a cave, and not from your p but the home of the ocelots that lent you your fur pattern, a tropical forest and a mangrove coast with a bead a tropical sea."

  "Dear Avatar, if possible, we would prefer business first," the mother said, "since you have agreed to a demonstration, and we do not wish to take advantage of your hospitality any lohan necessary."

  "mother, rest assured there will be a demonstration in due course. But your panions seem disoriented in this reception room. Young Fanny, do you have a preference?"

  The mother started to speak, but the avatar held up his hand. Fanny looked around forlornly.

  Rerra knew what she would choose. She had only heard stories of endless water. And though there were a few rger kes on the p, she had never been to one. "Please, the sea," she murmured, her voice much louder than she wa in this featureless room.

  "Sed Pilot Rerra, did you suggest the sea?"

  The mave her an angry look. But it was out now. She squirmed, then nodded.

  The avatar turned. "Please follow us. We visit another biotope if this is not to your liking."

  An iris appeared and opened, bright sunlight shining through. Oher side, they emerged from a rod stepped ontht sand runni and right aween straall trees with all their leaves oop and endless water. A little further down the sand e a thick shrub that stretched into the water. The air was hot and very humid and full of strange smells. Animals soared through the air and a thunderous noise came from the water. They all stood stunned.

  Fanny picked up a handful of sand, s and threw the sand in the air. Then she went to a tree, took out her cws and dug deep cw marks into the bark. She climbed up a little, supported only by her cws.

  The avatar spoke again. "This is all real, right down to the grown flora and bred fauna. We even added two ocelots. But they hunt iwilight, so we will meet them ter. Please explore a little while we prepare for the demonstration. We will be back soon." And then the iris in the rock opened and swallowed the avatar.

  On their own, they went in different dires, testing this reality.

  And it was real. Even the gravity felt stronger. And it was really hot, the artificial sun was burning. She wao feel the sand too. She took off her thinsuit, ign that she was naked underh. The sand was hot. So she ran to the border between the sand and the water. She was fasated by the water ing in and running back to the sea. It was so great. Who cared that it was an alien ship! This was more exclusive than a p (if they were a thing at all). She spshed through the water.

  After the first rush, she turned around. The two guards were chasing each other on the beach. The doctors looked at the pnts. Only the mother stood with her usual poker fa the shade of a tree he rock they had entered, apparently waiting for the avatar to reappear. Her loss.

  She waded deeper into the warm water. There were fish, very colourful, and other sea creatures. They escaped her attempts to catch them and hid among the red and brown pnts. Fanny joined her, curious to see what she was doing ier.

  They didn't pay attention and were both buried by a big wave. The water was salty and stung their eyes. They still giggled with joy and shook it out of their fur. Theook Fanny and threw her pyfully into the water. Fanny squealed with glee and came out blowing water from her nostrils. And asking for more until it felt like a workout, even though the skinny Fanny was half her weight.

  Theried to swim in the hip-deep water. But she had no idea how to swim and her instincts were telling her nothing. her did Fanny.

  * * *

  She wasn't sure how much time had passed. But after a while, there was a shrill noise. She blihe water from her eyes and followed Fanny's pointing cw. The avatar had returned and had brought with them a rge carcass. (She had chosen the plural because the avatar always spoke of themselves as we.) They were also building something out of wood. The others approached them and thus, they left the water ao the stone circle too.

  Fanny's fur g to her body. She really was a slim, fragile cat, probably the slimmest of them all which strongly trasted her small strong build. The guards who watched their return from the beach whispered to each other. She did not mind, let them talk.

  She smelled the smoke before she saw the small fire the avatar had built ione circle. On the p, fire had been something special. She had seen the few well-guarded and pampered trees in the tral gardens of the main Samul resideherwise, the climate on the p was too dry and cold, and thus low shrubs were the only source of wood. Burning real wood was rare and only done on special occasions. Heheir preference for raw and dried meat. But there were more trees on this beach than on their p.

  They all huddled around the stone circle and watched as the avatar fed the fmes.

  The avatar looked up. "Thank you for ing. repared a giraffe carcass for dinner. But first, it is time for the demonstration. Who is the volunteer?"

  A giraffe carcass? A real giraffe? The so-called giraffe meat from the p was likely engineered as there were firaffes on the p. Ahey had a real giraffe, grown just for them?

  "Rerra will do," the mother decided, ripping her from her thoughts.

  "Sed Pilot Rerra, will you help us? We promise you a free pass afterwards."

  "Ok," she said to the avatar, not sure what that meant, and stood up.

  "Please take our hand," the avatar said.

  She touched it. The silver skin was warmer than hers. From the look of their skin, she had expected a colder temperature, like the fish.

  "Iing mutation," the avatar said, "your children will also have hands a, whether the father is cat or human."

  She looked at them startled. "No normal kittens?"

  The avatar tinued, "We ge that. Whoever designed your aors went to great lengths to make the cat genes dominant. Your mutation has ied these human appeo them. By the way, your father was a human with more than 99% certainty."

  "But my birth certificate," she trailed off. Perhaps that was why there had not been so much surprise that she had been like that. Why they had not really cared, had not sidered aion when she had been an infant. It suddenly all made sense. She was shocked. "Those literal bastards!" she spoke much too loudly, "Sorry." Samul had lied to her all her life!

  The avatar pced their other hand on her shoulder. "We are very sorry for having brought this up."

  "No, I am grateful for the truth." She still stood tense aail whipped out, spitting drops of water and grains of sand.

  "Would you still e with us?"

  They all walked to the stohey had ehrough. The iris appeared before the avatar ahem into another white room. This room had a brownish, elongated box on the floor, its regur appearance trasting sharply with the smooth tours of the room.

  "Is this it?"

  "Yes, mother Fiyul, this is a modding chamber, or modder as you call it. For the first mod, we will operate it ourselves. But rest assured, we will expierface ter." They poi her. "Now Sed Pilot Rerra, please lie down on the modder."

  The top of the box was softer thahought. It was a bit sticky, though. But that could be because her fur was still damp.

  She heard the cats gasp and then the lights went out.

  She was standing with the avatar in another white room, even though she had just id down on the box.

  "Sed Pilot Rerra, we are ihe modder. This is where you try out the new bodies before the actual mod begins. For tonight we would like to ask you to join us in a body simir to ours. We will undo this ter, and you will be free to choose aure you like, within reasonable limits."

  "Sorry, I am a bit fused."

  "This is an advanced modder. It transform your body into any carbon-based lifeform in this gaxy, far beyond the crude things you have so far. mother Fiyul asked us to help her advanodding teology, and we agreed to provide her with two modders. For a demonstration of the modder's capabilities, we would like you to be a sed avatar tonight."

  "You are the only one on this ship?"

  "Sed Pilot Rerra, we are one of the first civilisations and we are tired. This modder is able to give eternal life by regur modding into a younger body. But life needs a purpose. That is why most of us have faded away."

  "I am sorry."

  The avatar sounded amused, though their face did not move. "So you will honour our request?"

  "Yes. I trust you."

  "Thank you."

  The room faded into darkness and moments ter everyone was gasping, though it sounded very different. Still lying on the modder box, she sat up. Then she saw her skin - or rather her tiny silver scales. She io speak, "Oh, by Hopkin!"

  It was her void yet not, it had overtones and other timbres. And it was her body, though it did not look like it. A solid out-of-body experience.

  The other cats looked at her, frightened and fused.

  "Sed Pilot Rerra, thank you for joining us as an avatar this evening."

  "That was less than a tenth!" Yuri excimed, ing over to her, "Rerra, this is really you?"

  She nodded. "Yes, but I feel strange."

  "You examier," the avatar interjected, "though your equipment may prove ie as her body is now based entirely on 8 base pair DNA, down to every single protein. We created the avatar tempte long ago to i with other races after most of us had given up our physical bodies. We have tweaked it quite a bit and, of course, added some etics depending on the rare guests we eain."

  "But that's impossible," Daria, the other doctor, shook her head, "not even a etic modification would be that fast. And you rebuilt every cell?"

  "Do you know how your modder works iail?" they asked.

  "No, not iail, sorry," Daria admitted, "I am just operating it. But in principle, yes, I know. It could never ge something so fual as the proteins inside each cell."

  "This one is more advanced. It actually rebuilds each cell. We think your visit to us will be well rewarded, as we will provide you with two of our modders."

  This even brought a hint of a smile to the mother's face.

  The avatar turo her. "Sed Pilot Rerra, you stand?" The avatar reached out and pulled her up. They were surprisingly strong.

  She stood a little wobbly, now banced ooes of paws. And she stood taller, at eye level with the avatar.

  "We'll let go of your hand now. Are you all right?"

  She stood and then took a step. "Yes, but not having a tail is strange and, well, everything is so different, the smell and the colours and even the room. How I see the walls and the irises when there is nothing to see?"

  "As we said, these bodies are highly optimised. Let's take the eyes. Cats have only two ophores in their eyes, red and green. Humans have three, and you now have five, from infrared to ultraviolet." The light ged colour five times before returning to white to make their point. "We have increased the olfactory receptors and enhanced all your other seo avatar level, some of which you did not have before, such as acoustic depth perception. That would be the ohat tells you the size of the room and its exits. Try it, close your eyes and follow us."

  She obeyed and closed her eyes. More muscles went into a to close the eyes pletely and it went dark. But not really dark, a more diffuse 'view' of the room remained, with lesser detail. The people in the room also ged. Fanny had a bright, flickeribeat, a strangely coloured breathing sound and a very distinct outlihe mother's heart was firm and steady, but her breathing was shallow and her outline more diffuse. The avatar was just a faint acoustic outliing very little sound. "This is incredible." She still 'saw' the avatar turning and heading for one of the exits.