He was sitting on a bench across the reception desk and a big 'servi' info s, with Patty sleepio him. Not sure if the kitten was really tired or because of embarrassment after pying paws with him. She had been careful not to use her cws, but as the game had gone faster and faster, her eagero have the upper paw had her fotten about her cws. A healing gel was now stuck to his hand, and Yna, the reception cat, was more than happy to have an excuse to leave her post and treat the three deep cuts. But otherwise, the reception cat deliberately looked away.

  He gazed into the corridor. But it was still night oation. Only twice did he see cats in the corridor. All wearing something more fitting the Fallerian jungle while he was eveing cold ihick borrowed clothes and sat closer to Patty.

  In any case, it wasn't a long wait. He rose when Rerra and Kora returned, after 0172, acc to the info s. "The main bus was arced away," she answered their unspokeion, "but I got the valve open. It was cold, no core running at all in that se."

  "Thank you," Yna said, clearly having no idea what that meant.

  "Dirty work," he ented and immediately scolded himself. Though he wasn't wrong: her arms were bck with soot up to her shoulders and she reeked of burnt insution.

  Having opehe subject, Yna agreed. "You'd better take a quick shower, the others will be here at 0200," she told Rerra, leading her further inside.

  So he was left uhe watch of Kora, another amazon cat. They checked each other out. The cats here in the ic looked very simir, uhe variation he had seen ira dehey were all tall, even taller than Eli from Petra. All with brown spots with dark rims and stripes on their sides and white bellies, their fur lohan Rerra's but much shorter than Eli's. And all of them, he swallowed, well endowed and stly clothed, despite the cold. They all looked pretty, he had to admit, but Kora, his guard, had the air of being the young adult she looked like.

  She spoke first. "You didn't e to Hopkins to meet cats?" Her intonatio no doubt that she was hoping for an affirmative answer. And that meeti cuddling.

  "I just wao leave Fallerian. I am a pilot without a ship. She owns her ship, so a 16-day partner tract."

  It was uhat she knew something about Fallerian tracts. But the message was received, her tail drooped. But she still talked on. "How did you meet?"

  "I helped her with repairs when she was on Fallerian III."

  "Fallerian III?"

  "The station above the Fallerian homeworld!" He could hear her mental gears creaking. Pretty but stupid, she should at least know about her gactieighbours! "Where the kranta es from. I am a pilot, but without a ship, I needed a tract. So I asked her for a 64-day tract, but she shorte to 16 days".

  Kora looked down. "Sorry, of course, I shouldn't, just." She sighed and took out an inhaler. Ah, she robably under his influence like Rerra had beehey first met. She sighed again. "Somehow I don't think this works for me. Too many mods in the family tree."

  "You're ok?"

  "Will be ok-ish soon. Don't worry, you're safe from me. Just please," she sighed again. "Anyway, your partner Rerra could kill me. Never seen such a strong cat." She sat down on the chair behind the reception desk, as far away from him as possible.

  He doubted her assessment of Rerra. Although they all looked like fierce hunters, the cats who he had met so far were quiet and timid at least in front of him. But then, there must be also the one who had been responsible for the two dead bodies.

  They stood in silence, Patty still sleeping on the bench. He sat dowo her.

  After a while, the amazon rexed. Si took long for Rerra to get back, he started again: "Do you work at the hospital?"

  Kora looked at him. "No, I mean not normally. I am of Ulta."

  Now he looked stupid. "Sorry, I know little."

  "Lowest rank of Ketcher, outsiders would never know of us." It came so quickly, she had given this expnation many times before. "My aors went for the free modding trials when they were introduced. Helps with modelling. And after so many geions, yes, we are all o the eyes. So lots of escort jobs when you want a Ketcher but are short on cash. When my sector went dark, we came here, all seven of us. I was recruited for reception duty." Her arms went down. "As were my sisters, well, apart from Kira who is a doctor." She leaned back, rexed. "Huh, recruited sounds like a bad thing. No, best thing for me, I wouldn't have a ce here in normal times."

  "You're not afraid of the fighting?"

  She shook her head. "That was all between high-T's. No, as long as we id low, the lower ranks were safe. And we were about the st Ketcher to e. All the fighting was long over, the Th are ba their stations, maybe dying if the rumours were true. All quiet. Now the occasional injured cat shows up, finally daring to e out of hiding." She stood up. "But you are the first human I ever." She stopped again.

  He had gotten only half of it. But he uood enough to feel sorry for her.

  "e closer," he invited her to the bench where he was sitting. "My snapping won't do anything." Damn, another Fallerian phrase that made no sense. Even less, given her impressive teeth ...

  She approached with small steps, stopping at arm's length. "May I touch you? Just touch, I have never."

  "Yes, no worries." He stood up too.

  Even standing, Kora towered over him. Her horizontally extended paw barely touched the top of his head. Her cws bed very carefully through his hair. His eyes were level with her chest, so he looked down. So close even he could smell her, like the berries from the buffet ira den, a slightly sour note, but mostly flowery and pleasant. Well, her race had been engio please humans.

  He examined her other paw, which was hanging down. Her paws were very different from Rerra's hands, much closer to a Fallerian Goot-cw with its three stubby fingers and a short thumb, all ending in long cws. They were much bigger than the ones he had seen ora. "You have very strong cws," he had said aloud.

  She looked at her paws, then at his hands.

  He held out his hand, all fingers outstretched. She tried to spread her fihat wide, but to no avail, his hand covered a much rger area despite having a much smaller palm. Now he also discovered her pinkie, just a short stub a little back from the rest.

  "You are very different," she said, strain in her voice.

  "Yes, we are. But pared to Fallerians"

  Kora took a step bad turned around once. "Do you like what you see?"

  He swallowed. Certainly not her predataze. "You're pretty," he ceded to her smiling es, "but I think your tail is the prettiest."

  Her wide eyes made it clear that she had expected a different response. She turned her head to look at her tail. But it did not turn far to the side. "My tail?"

  She curled it up in front of her and took its tip in her paws. Theurned her ba. "Take it, look closer."

  Hesitantly he took the tip. It was thicker and softer than Rerras's, and so much warmer than the room. The tip was bd then dark spots with a lighter tre ihe rgest. She started to purr and shiver and he was breathing heavily too.

  "Hey, he is mine," hissed Patty, who had woken.

  Kora blinked areated to the other side. "Sorry," she panted and looked down.

  Patty stood up, chest out.

  He sat again to be closer to her height.

  Patty jumped on his thighs and stood on all fours, tail high. She turned her head to him, being so much more nimble than Kora. "Now it is my turn."

  He carefully petted Patty, from the top of her back to the start of her tail and then slowly to the tip.

  "Nice, your paws are much better for petting."

  That i remark let him blush and Kora, who with her ears had heard it too, looked down.

  "Tails are oo."

  From the er of his eye, he saw how Kora's ears perked up and she took her tip again into her paws, iing it.

  "And now the belly!" anded Patty, throwing herself on the back.

  The small warm kitten on his p felt nice. Patty purred again silently, closing her eyes.

  When her ears swivelled, he followed their dire. Rerra and Yna were returning, meeting at a corridor interseg with five other cats. What set these cats apart were their pink b coats with hearts on their shoulders. They looked a little like uniform insignia, the hearts slightly different. They were purple with owo or three green DNA spirals in the middle. The cats, of course, had the same spots and stripes as all the other cats in the ic. He wondered again how they could tell themselves apart.

  "Regan of Th, Head of Geic Surgery." They spoke normally, but they were a little down the corridor. He wished he had cat ears, he could barely make out the words.

  "Rerra of Codeson from Petra. Your coup left the station dying."

  "Tell me something new. Why is a Petra ing to my ic?"

  "I want the station to survive. Without it, we are finished. Samul has run it into the ground, and yours was the st thing we needed after turies of ."

  "I will not be insulted."

  "I have repaired the cooling loop of your core."

  Their leader looked surprised. "You did what?"

  "Fully restored cooling power to your emergency fusion core. If it still works. With almost all the other cores down, the water is cold enough so you may be even able to overload it slightly."

  Another cat had taken out her pad. "She's right, we have full flow again. But it may be not enough."

  "For the alien modder?"

  He had sees' surprise, but this was a step up. Their fur uffed out and their tails were straight and puffed too.

  "I transported two of them. But I don't know how much they e. Do you have a w system sole?"

  "Yes, but"

  "Take me there!"

  Their leader with the three DNA strands on her heart insignia looked at her four colleagues. But it was clear that they would not go against her. So she nodded. "You e."

  He stood up too. "No, this is cat business," the leader hissed in his dire before he even finished a step.

  "Sorry, Marik, it is better that you stay here. I'll call you wheart w."

  The looks of the other cats suggested that this might be the day that hell froze over.

  "Later then."

  She nodded and waved and followed the other cats.

  Only Yna, if it was the same reception cat, came towards them.

  "My shift is over," Kora came towards her. "I take the kitten and the human to the guest den."

  "I have a name, and the kitten is Patty," he said, tired of being the human.

  "Yes, of course, Marik of Lnnadarosso," she remembered at least and tried.

  "Marik is fine."

  The reception odded. "Ok, I see Kara ing. Sht to the guest wing and no"

  Kora had the inhator out and Yna nodded.

  "Please follow me."

  Patty jumped into his arms and climbed on his shoulder, careful with her cws. So he carried her following Kora, his eye on the ground at her paws and iably the tail.