They walked down a back corridor, a smaller ohan the white main corridors and dimly lit. The walls were not white like the corridors either, mrey and worn, with some equipment installed here and there. There were empty shelves or tubes protruding from the walls where other equipment was missing. And it was almost warm iogether with the smell of warm eleics with the flowery st of Kora, despite the look, the p that station for him after the Petra den.

  Kora opehe door which had a rge ‘3-26’ in bleached out fluorest paint and looked ihrough the cra the door, the bright white world of the ic shohrough along with a coht ing from the room.

  Another head appeared in the crack. "Kora, what."

  "This is Marik, the human," she silehe other cat.

  The cat stared at him, then shook her head as if she had been drenched. "Ok, e in."

  He blinked several times in the sudden brightness, only now realising how dark the corridor had been. The cat who had led them in was the first he had seen in the ic, who was not as tall as Kora; she was closer to Rerra's size. Her fur still had the same pattern, but the colours of the spots were paler and the fur iween was not white, but greyish.

  "This is my oldest sister, Kira, the clever one."

  She did not look that much older. But then, his reference was the Petra mother.

  "Kora!"

  "Well, you made it to a doctor. Not like us."

  "You could have."

  "Sorry for the sudden disruption." Trahis polite Fallerian phrase souerrible. "Marik, o meet you." He bowed, hoping to stop the brewing sibling rivalry.

  But Kora was in for the surprise. " you give him a tail?"

  "What!" he and Kira excimed in unison.

  After a moment he grinned. "Yes, could you give me a tail?"

  "No, I mean." She looked at him, now sing him from to bottom. "A tail." Her own tail was going slowly left and right. "The skin modders are out of supplies. Hmm." She looked at him very medically.

  "Rerra said something about an alien modder."

  "Even humans know of this!" Kira shouted, "And I am not." She stopped, her ear ft. "Sorry, that modder is off-limits and not w anyway. If it did, they would be running the high T's through it again."

  "High T's?"

  Kora delivered background for him. "Higher tiers of Ketcher. Sister, he's Fallerian."

  "Like I said, if that special modder worked, they would reverse the monster mod instead of watg them wither away in those oversized monster bodies. So this modder could give you a tail in seds, even a whole new body. But even the skin modders are out. So the simple options are out."

  "It's ok, just dreaming."

  He was sure, Kira showed amusement. "A human with a tail, huh." She thought for a moment. "Seriously, before we had modders, there was a way to reprogram the cells trow a limb. I'm not sure if it works on humans. I sequence your DNA?"

  He shrugged. "Why not?"

  She beamed at him. "And a full blood t too."

  "Yes, okay, but I have to keep my limbs."

  Her smile became as wide as a Laperian hunting.

  "Hey, I had all my shots just retly."

  The doctor shook her head auro a more professional face, "Nanites?"

  "Not that I know of."

  Then she picked up a devid stopped. "Huh."

  "What?"

  "I've never pricked a human before. No fur."

  "And I've never been pricked by a cat. Ouch." While he spoke, the doctor had pced a small devi his thumb, which stung.

  "Very funny, and it wasn't supposed to hurt."

  "Well, it did. Maybe my little fingers are more sensitive."

  He had won, the doctor looked away, embarrassed again. He had learnt a lot about the subtleties of the cat-expressions today.

  She ied the devito a reader, worked on some equipment and typed on a s. "Dohis will take about 2300 or so. How about an early lunch?"

  "We just ate." Well, Kora had.

  "Actually, I lie down for a bit?" He was still tired, and the sleep in the den had been short.

  Kira opened a curtain with a bed built into the wall. "Here. But one has to be g to miss you."

  "g?"

  "Smell blind?" Kira said. "Smell-deaf?"

  "Ok, ok, got it. Do you have a b?"

  "There's climate trols. And I am warm."

  Kora chuckled. "Sister, his partner is, er, never seen such a strong cat. Here." She tossed her her inhaler. Kira threw it back. "I'm fine. Not the first male I've had today."

  While the sisters bantered with each other, he climbed into the bed in the wall, closed the curtain and turhe temperature up to the maximum of 290K. It was so nice, he fell asleep in no time.

  * * *

  Acc to his pad, he had slept almost 3000. The mattress had been just right, it had been warm, and even the air carried no hints of having been recycled many times which it certainly had. In other words, he was well-rested.

  The tiny sound from opening the curtain was enough to wake Kora with a jerk. The cat had been sleeping on a simple chair. Seeing him, she bared her teeth in that for him forever uny toothy smile.

  "Well rested human?"

  "Well rested cat?" with all the sarcasm he could muster.

  That wiped the smile from her fad her tail drooped. "Sorry, Marik, I know. It is just - sorry."

  "Thank you for remembering my name. But that pstic chair does not look very fortable."

  "I am not as thinly padded as your partner," then stretched as only cats could do. Including the straightening out of her tail.

  Kira entered. Luckily Kora had finished her stretg; he was sure there would have been another round of sisterly bickering otherwise. So was Kira in full doode. "e," and waved him over to a s. "These lines are a highly zoomed out view of your DNA codes, the yellow parts are exclusive to humans, the e parts you share with us, and the blood-red parts are the regions needed for a tail. Only about 0.2% differehere."

  He could not agree to the colours but then, the doctor was color-blind too. heless, he saw the differences. "So what does that mean?"

  "I think I give you a tail and it will not be rejected even without major alteration to your DNA."

  "I mean how?"

  "Well, sub iion into your lower spio vert the cells there into slightly out-differentiated stem cells with modified DNA. They will settle there and vert into final tail cells aend onwards from that, despite having a slightly different DNA inside from the cells of the rest of your body."

  "You will i me something and I will grow a tail?"

  "Yes, I said that already. You specify dimension, fur density and approximate pattern."

  "His partner is Petra."

  "Oh, then bd white. How long?"

  "Maybe to the floor? And strong please."

  The doctor shook her head. "Strength is up to your tail exercises." She gnced sidewards at Kora, "which most of us ignore anyway," and then ba. "But all the tails I give you a not prehe would be a tail like mine. So I do not reend hanging your full weight on it."

  "Then make it as strong and long as you . And fluffy."

  She sighed again while Kora made faces. The doctor repeated. "Fur length 3-5 cm, five extra caudal vertebrae are possible. It will trail on the floor if you are not careful. And it will be heavy, at least four to ten kilo, depending on muscles" She typed on the s and another mae started w. A semitransparent tail appeared on the s, through the striped fur pattern he could see the muscles, blood vessels and bones. "Here, the extra yer of sinew, and rger blood vessels. With the good insution from the fur, almost ra effort to keep it warm. Five extra vertebrae to a grand total of 23. This long fluffy tail could be yours." Her presentation reminded him of a used-spaceship salesman on Fallerian.

  "And how much?"

  "Are you kidding? Of course, this is so exg. I had never seen a real human before, and now I even have your DNA." She sounded a bit over-enthusiastic, like 'I've got a hair from my favourite celebrity'. In a drama, a mad doctor would now crackle.

  The mae o the s stopped whirring and a small der stood on a perforated steel pte. Kora was the first to take it and looked closely as if she could see a baby tail inside. "So this is the magic tail essence."

  She ha to him carefully. It was a whitish, milky liquid. He gave it to the doctor.

  "Nothing magic, just sce," corrected Kira, with a tohat implied 'you stupid sibling'. Then she loaded the der in something not unlike his gun auro him. "Yes or no?"

  He thought again how cool it would be to have all hands a free and also how much fun it could be otherwise. "Yes!"

  "Turn around!"

  She put the iun through the tail hole of his borrowed trousers. The iion did not hurt much, it was more as if someone kicked him itom.

  "Eat lots of meat and protein. If you ot hunt, er, fet it. A Falleria is fioo. Make sure to eat also the skin of the is. And e again in 50 to 100 days for a check."

  "50 to 100 days?"

  Kira shrugged in a very human way. "I have never used that method, it is very old-school when you have a modder. A modder could have dohis in days. But I am not sure how fast it works with humans. Maybe ore often."

  "You never used it? Why"

  His pad chimed, Rerra wao see him. Urgently.

  He was still full of questions. But it was done. He rubbed his tailbone, shook his head. "I will not die soon?"

  The dhed and even Kora joined in with her sister.

  "Ok, sorry, I am needed." He held up the pad.

  "You are wele here anytime," Kira almost purred while Kora looked at the destination on his pad.