Kevin wasn’t a tall boy, by any means. Nobody really picked on him because he was fast, agile, and the rumor had it he was a ninja. Of course ignoring the fact that his mother was Chinese and not Japanese aside, like the true Ninja of old he did nothing to dissuade those rumors. He had no idea that that was about to get him into more trouble though.

He actually studied Taiji, or Tai Chi, which could be just as deadly in the right circumstances, but he preferred not to find out. He also belonged to a survivalist club, or at least, his alter ego did.

Hailey was big on camping, and survival skills. She could identify over two dozen kinds of mushrooms, and exactly what they would do to a person who mistakenly ingested them. She even had her own YouTube channel, ‘The Survivor Girl”, with over 500,000 subscribers the last time she had checked.

Kevin had a decent allowance which afforded him both hobbies actually: Hailey, and Survival training. Hailey wasn’t really a hobby so much as how he felt about himself though. He knew that no matter how much puberty hated him, he’d always have that Hailey look to him, which made him happy.

He wasn’t only Hailey when out with the survivalist club, but it was his best chance to be himself - or rather herself - to spend time sitting around a hand-built campfire, eating whatever they could forage, or in a pinch, a packet of MREs, and talk about things going on in their lives without the distractions of cell phones or social media.

About the only awkward conversations were when the other girls would mention something about Girl Scouts, and she’d have to come up with a reason why she hadn’t joined, mostly due to money issues, and time constraints of her family, etc.

She did enter a lot of martial arts tournaments, showing off Tai Chi as a combat form, though she rarely entered actual ranked competitions. Wendy had been to his house a few times when his parents were gone, to help film episodes of Survivor Girl, but for the most part, they tended to hang out at her house, or at the mall.

Hailey laced up her pink camouflage hiking boots, tied an old sweatshirt around her waist in case it got cold, grabbed her survival bag, and her neon teal sun visor as she headed for the door. Both her parents were gone, but they knew where she was going, they had wished him good luck before they took off and she had started taking off Kevin and becoming Hailey.

Hailey wore makeup like any typical teenage girl, except when she was going on a survival meet like this. There just wasn’t any point. She did however have an emergency makeup kit in her bug out kit: you just never knew when it could come in handy. David, their bug out leader, said that lipstick made a good marker in a pinch, and a compact’s mirror was a perfect signaling mirror.

Plus there was always the chance of going over to Wendy’s or another friend’s house after returning from a camping trip. She might go into the woods without her makeup, but she wouldn’t set foot into civilization without it.

“Hailey!” A young blonde haired girl her age called out. She was shorter than Hailey by about an inch and a half, and had a Fluttershy yellow hoodie tied around her shoulders and neck, hanging off loosely under her bug out bag. “Did you go get firearms tested yet?”

Hailey waved, nodding. “My small arms instructor had this super cute breast cancer awareness 9mm, so I rushed out and got one too.” she laughed. “I also reapplied for my hunting license.”

“Oh good. I just got mine done too. I'm glad I’m not the only one that waited so long.” She laughed. Britney, the girl’s name was, at first glance you would think Barbie, those plastic girls from school. But she wasn’t. She was pretty down to earth despite having wealthy parents.

Someone wolf whistled from nearby, and another blonde haired girl, with a fishing rod slung over her shoulder, cat called as she approached. “Oh I love those boots,” she giggled, and hugged Hailey.

“Hey Wendigo,” Hailey teased her. “What’s with the fishing tackle? I thought it was whatever you could fit in a pack?”

Wendy laughed, and then grinned impishly. “Oh, it is. It’s carbon fiber, and it breaks down like a pool cue,” she said, demonstrating, as she had the whole thing down to its own little carbon fiber carrying case in a few seconds, hanging off one of her backpack straps.

“Show-off,” Britney teased, giggling now too.

“Did you guys hear about Scott?” Wendy asked. “He’s in the hospital.”

“Jeez, what happened?” Hailey asked as they started walking.

“Stepped on a snake while out chasing Pokemon,” Wendy answered. “He’ll be okay, but his leg looks like one of Popeye’s arms.”

“That is so why I don’t play Pokemon go.” Hailey sighed. “So I mapped out our route, and I checked ahead with the forest service. They said to watch out for bears, but otherwise to have fun, and they’ll send someone to check on us if we don’t check in again by Sunday.”

“Since it’s just us girls,” Wendy said, digging out her cat ear headphones, “Anyone mind a little music while we hike?” She giggled.

“Sure. We’ll be meeting the rest of the group at the destination right?” Britney asked.

They were going to be a two day hike before they met up with the boys. That was the plan. Scott was going to come with them, before the snake incident, anyway.

“So how’s life on the homefront?” Wendy asked as they trudged down the narrow hiking trail. She had her special telescoping walking stick that she used to occasionally poke a rock, to make sure there wasn’t something hiding underneath it.

“Same ol Same ol, but did you hear my Uncle Rob got hired by a private company?” Hailey asked. “Apparently NASA’s been quietly privatised for like six months now.”

“Oh shit, are you serious?” Wendy asked, looking up. “How is that even possible?”

“There was a big scare about budget cuts and stuff, so NASA outsourced from the government.” Hailey shrugged. “It’s not who you think it is either. Elon Musk is still doing his own kind of batshit crazy,” she giggled.

“So who then?” Britney asked.

“Some big private company called Galactic Trek. Someone’s obviously a Shatner fan,” Hailey giggled again. “My uncle says they’ve been quietly developing a new kind of fusion powered engine for like ten years now, and the next step is asteroid mining, a space station on the moon, and then Mars by the end of the year.”

“No way, Fusions like 20 years off.” Britney shook her head.

“Gotta go with Brit on this one,” Wendy nodded. “I mean they have the capability, yes, but they can’t maintain it more than a split second at a time.”

“Well my Uncle Rob says different.” Hailey shrugged. “Then again...” she trailed off. “Eh, nevermind. I shouldn’t talk shit about him. He’s really bad-ass.”

“What?” Britney asked. “We won’t repeat anything. You know that.”

Hailey blushed a little. Wendy put a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s rest here for a sec,” she said as they came upon a natural rest area, with a couple of large boulders by the hiking trail. After Wendy dutifully checked for snakes, scorpions, and other poisonous fiends, they sat down to catch their breath and drink some water.

“So,” Britney said expectantly.

“Okay, I’ll tell you, but this does not leave us,” Hailey sighed. “I overheard Rob talking to my dad recently about the new experimental plane. He um... He says he saw something while he was up there... Something that shouldn’t have been there.”

The girls began walking again, apparently content not to press the matter any further. It was halfway through the first day when Hailey stopped, “Hey guys, want to watch for me? I have to use the ladies tree.”

“Oh yeah sure.” Britney nodded. “And per my job in the bug out group, I did remember to bring the hand sanitizer and the wipes.”

“This time,” Wendy teased her. “Watch out for snakes,” she giggled out.

“Ugh, snakes.” Hailey groaned as she walked down a side path that was more concealed with bush. Before she even knew what was happening, a white light engulfed her, and that was the last thing thing she remembered.

Hailey woke with a start, a pair of soft, warm lips pressed against hers, forcing oxygen into her lungs. “Oh, it worked!” the girl, who had a decidedly blue tinge to her skin, despite her rather normal looking brown hair, announced relieved. The other thing Hailey noticed, there was water lapping over her legs she was laying in beach sand. She coughed and choked, spitting up some clear water from her lungs, as the blue girl helped her roll onto her side.

Hailey blushed. That was about the closest she had ever been to being kissed. The blue girl didn’t seem to notice though, sitting back and laughing a little. “I’ve never swam that hard in my life.”

“It looks like her possessions survived intact,” another girl said. She looked mostly normal, platinum blonde hair and a cute pink skirt - and a long, white cat like tail.

“Good. help her up,” a woman in her mid to late 20s called from nearby. “Let's get her on the ship before the sun sets and we lose the current.”

“My glasses...” Hailey mumbled. Everything was a blur without them, but she could definitely make out some things, like her rescuers not quite being human, or the fact the sky was a lovely shade of cotton candy pink.

“Oh,” the blonde haired girl said, producing a pair of red framed glasses. “You mean these?” she asked, carefully placing them on Hailey. She smiled sweetly at her. Hailey blinked. She could now see that the blonde girl had bright violet eyes, as well - at least in the few seconds before the other girl lifted her up like she weighed nothing at all, and carried her onto the boat.

It was a strange design like nothing Hailey had ever seen before. It had a shallow draft like the old Viking longboats, but it was large and wide. The owners, it seemed, used ladders or a gangplank to climb on board. It was also crafted from some kind of wood that Hailey couldn’t quite place despite her extensive wilderness knowledge.

“I’m glad we stopped here,” the lone human in the group said. “Good eye, Ella.”

“Well, ear, actually,” the blue girl, Ella, giggled. “I heard the splash, knew it was too big to be a fish.”

“That and this is the first time we’ve ever seen these types of trees before.” the blonde haired girl, Brie nodded. “I was able to collect some samples. If they self-replicate separate from the host organism and if we can control the process the possibilities are endless, but at the very least if the density and molecular structure is similar to the ironwood trees then we have a new limitless source of wood.”

“Damn, we could commission another ship for the guild, and hire another set of members.” Rebecca, the aforementioned lone human said with an excited grin.

“Easy,” Ella said as she gently brought a skin of what sounded, by how it sloshed around, like water up to Hailey’s lips. “Drink this. It’ll help with the headache.”

“Thanks,” Hailey groaned, trying to make sense of her surroundings.

“I’m sorry,” Rebecca, the aforementioned lone human, said to Hailey. “We’re just really excited. I know you have a lot of questions.”

“Where am I?” Hailey asked “Where are Wendy and Britney?”

“They’re probably safe, just wondering the same about you,” Ella said helplessly. “We’re not exactly sure where ‘here’ is, though. We were brought here against our will, too.”

“I was right in the middle of proving Grklok’s third law of psychodynamics when there was a bright light. I thought my experiment had exploded,” Brie laughed. “Woke up on a beach here with nothing but my omni scanner.” She paused. “Oh, I’m Brie. Ella is the one who saved you, and Rebecca is our fearless leader.”

“Thank you again,” Hailey said. “Are... I mean is everyone here female?” If so, Hailey thought, then whoever abducted her was in for a surprise.

“Oh no there are males here too.” Rebecca shook her head.

“It’s just that,” Brie said, “The scientists tend more to be female - not as a hard rule, but as a general expectation. Like I said, I was working on a school science project when they brought me here. It suggests a female-driven matriarchal society on their part, that perhaps they view males as a work force? Hard to say without more data.”

Ella leaned over to Hailey. “You get used to that. Brie’s race is hyper-intelligent - emphasis on ‘hyper’. Frankly I don’t know why they brought me here. I’m not that smart, and like Brie, I’m just an adolescent by my people’s standards.”

“Also very strong, like all your people,” Rebecca added. “Ella’s people, the Ionians, are galactic peacekeepers and mediators, and from what I’ve seen, she’s one of the best.”

“Yes,” Brie giggled. “My people have a word for Ella’s which, in Galactic Standard Trade - or English as you know it, roughly translates to ‘Do not piss off the Statue’.”

“That’s all one word?” Hailey asked. Ella and Rebecca laughed. Brie stuck out her tongue and giggled.

“You don’t know how hard it is to retrain yourself to speak GT when on a, Xggdrkglxtk,” she said a strange word that sounded like a series of guttural throat noises. “The mind works faster than the mouth, but verbalizing it is the only way to get it out.” She paused to giggle again. “That’s why they call me Brie, by the way.”

“Because none of us has the necessary organs to pronounce her name properly,” Ella nodded.

“My species, the... Well I’ll use the GT name, the Sartori-”

“Thanks,” Hailey giggled.

“We evolved an extra set of what you’d call vocal chords,” Brie nodded. “The best artisans can even sing in harmony with themselves. I, personally, sound like a sick gylarc caught in a waste disposal unit.”

“Almost home!” Rebecca called out.

“Already?” Ella said as she sat up.

“We caught a lucky current I think,” Rebecca nodded. Hailey sat up now. She could see from her vantage point on the medium sized ship, a large island. The beach seemed to stretch for miles, with a massive dock and a number of other ships, some smaller, a few much larger, either moored or coming and going. They were mostly sailing ships, but with a few with no visible means of power.

“How long have you guys been here?” Hailey looked shocked at how built-up the apparent island nation looked. Just from the docks, it looked like some kind of tropical paradise with all the modern amenities, including electricity.

“Our oldest member, Tricia, was the first that we know of to arrive here,” Ella said. “Approximately 60 galactic standard years ago.”

As soon as they were close to the dock, Ella leapt over the railing and landed on the reinforced dock, which shook slightly. Rebecca threw down a mooring line and Ella, with just one hand, pulled the ship the rest of the way into dock and tied it off there.

“Wow,” Hailey said, shocked. “No wonder you call her people ‘Don’t piss off the statue’.”

Rebecca laughed as she and Brie lowered the gangplank to the dock. “They’re very even tempered and gentle, but ridiculously strong, and their skin is like iron.”

“Kinda like Rhinos back home.” Hailey smiled as she nodded her head. It only just dawned on her, at that, that she still had her neon teal sun visor jutting out from her forehead like a large sign that read’ TOURIST!’. She quickly pulled it off and stuffed it into her bag, and then dug out her emergency makeup kit.

“Much denser muscle tissue, but the same basic idea yeah,” Rebecca nodded and offered her hand to help Hailey step down off the ship, after she finished applying a light coat of face covering, anyway.

Ella knelt down and leapt, landing on the ship again, where she disappeared into the cargo hold as a young woman with shoulder length, wavy blonde hair and green eyes approached them.

Her hairstyle looked like something right out of the 1940s, but her clothing style was most similar to Ella’s - some kind of material resembling silk in muted, light colors, and she spoke in a distinctly British accent. “Hello ladies,” she said warmly. “How was your trip? Oh, I see you found another lost as well!”

“She’s the first one ever dropped in the water that we know of,” Brie said. “If Ella hadn’t heard the splash she could well have drowned.”

“Or the waters could’ve given her gills,” the woman laughed softly. “For all their other healing powers we’ve seen. Welcome to Heart Island,” she said as she offered Hailey her hand. “I’m Tricia Small.”

“Hayley Dawson,” Hailey answered. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to stare,” she said sheepishly. “It’s just they told me you had been here 60 years.”

“Oh I have,” Trica laughed. “Like I said, the waters have strange healing powers. I used to be a clark at the London Museum, restoring artifacts, cataloguing and organizing. Running a society, turns out, wasn’t much different,” she teased. “Oh my,” she said as she watched Ella walk down the gangplank. It bowed under the weight of the girl and the two large tree trunks she had slung over her shoulders.

“You aren’t going to believe this,” Brie said, and then launched into a hyper tangent about how the trees self-replicated rapidly, but only in very specific soil conditions as if they were programmed not to completely overtake the island, and the possible uses for a self-replicating tree. Only Trica seemed to fully follow, nodding along. Ella and Rebecca just went about unloading other samples from the journey until she had finished.

“Fascinating,” she said, as Brie stopped to take a breath. “Simply marvelous. With this new ready access to wood we can expand our exploration efforts vastly. I’m thinking at least three more full rigged ships and crews.”

“The winds are still favorable for efficient travel, but the currents always seem to bring us back too,” Rebecca laughed.

Hailey still had a lot of questions, and it seemed to show. Tricia took her aside. “I realize this must all seem very bewildering to you,” she said. “And I won’t lie to you. Many of us have accepted that we will never leave here, but many more still hold onto hope that there’s a way back. If you need anything at all, we are more than a community, here.”

“That’s right,” Ella spoke up now. “We’re like a big family, or clan. We take care of each other here.”

“I think I might have picked up some new data on the teleportation methods the Overseers use,” Brie spoke up hesitantly. She never spoke hesitantly, and so had everyone’s undivided attention. “I was doing a cursory scan of the beach when Hailey was brought here. There’s a spike in local ionized radiation levels coinciding with her falling in the water. I need to go and analyze this data.”

“Use the main lab,” Tricia answered. Brie nodded and shot off quickly. Trica turned back to Hailey. “Come, I’ll give you a personal tour of the city.”

“So everyone here does something huh?”

Hailey looked around at her new hut. At least, they called it a hut. It was really more like a cabin with solid walls and a strong roof. It was small, granted, but they advised her that with the new ready source of wood, she could expect a full upgrade very soon.

“Everyone has some special talent they can lend to the community yes,” Tricia replied. “Ella is part of the exploration corps for example, because of her natural talent for mediation. That she can lift an entire distressed ship by herself is a nice bonus,” she teased, chuckling.

“I could join them? I have survival skills,” Hailey said thoughtfully. “And I would love to know more about this place.”

“Oh, Rebecca will be thrilled to hear that,” Tricia nodded. “I suppose I should get back to business. I have a whole new logging expedition to plan,” she said with a grin. “But if you have any questions do feel free to ask. Of course, you’re welcome to go where you please. There are no restrictions or anything like that here. We have learned, if nothing else, that the Overseers, the aliens who brought us here, do seem to be... mindful in whom they choose.”

Hailey smiled and nodded. “Thank you.” She watched Tricia leave, and then she left her hut as well to find Rebecca. She quickly found her inside a large stone wood-and-stone tavern sitting at the bar and chatting with a tall man. He had dark blue skin, and distinctive gills on the sides of his neck.

The man pulled a blown glass cup out from under the bar and began mixing a drink. He added two different liquids, gave it a shot of seltzer, and stirred lightly until it turned pink, and then placed it on the bar for her. “Welcome to the Fish and the Sea.”

“Wow,” she said after taking a drink. It fizzed on her tongue for a moment afterwards. “Tastes just like Cherry Cola.”

“Lo-Lo-Lo-Lo-Lola,” Rebecca giggled. “Sorry. That song’s been stuck in my head for a week.”

“OH shi.. I think my iPhone and my solar charger are in my backpack.” Hailey laughed and pulled her backpack off and began to look for it, actually finding it in the pouch she left it in.

She had turned it off and put it in a waterproof bag along with a solar charger for safekeeping. “Yup, here we go!” She turned it on and waited for it to boot up, “20,000 songs at my disposal, but no cell phone signal.”

“Wait,” Rebecca leapt off her bar stool. “You have a working cell phone?” she ran the short distance between them, nearly tripping over a bar stool to look.

“Yeah, we’re supposed to put them in a waterproof bag and shut them off it’s part of our bugout thing, I carry it around for emergencies, and stuff.” Hailey nodded and pushed play on The Kinks “Lola”.

“Hailey, I could kiss you,” Rebecca laughed as she gave Hailey a hug. “We’ve been waiting for someone to arrive with a working communications device for awhile now. Sounds crazy I know, but water and electronics tend not to mix - even space age alien technology.” She winked.

“David, the guy who's in charge of our bug out group is Ex Military.” Hailey giggled. “He said that having it even if it doesn’t work is a good idea.”

“David Shell? Lt. Commander?”

“David Shell.” Hailey nodded. “He was a Lt. Commander yes.”

“Our dads served together,” Rebecca laughed. “Small universe!” she said, as she busted a few moves to the music.

“David is awesome. Even though our bug out group has mostly boys, he really encourages the girls to learn too.”

Hailey continued to dig through her bag, finding a slightly waterlogged breast cancer awareness pink 9mm pistol. “No ammo,” she sighed. “I was going to show it to David.”

“Ouch,” Rebecca frowned. “Well, the science guild here is pretty smart. If you leave it with them they can probably improvise something. The wildlife isn’t exactly tame on some of the islands.”

The aquatic bartender leaned on the bar, watching with amusement as Brie burst through the door carrying what looked to Hailey to be some kind of holographic keypad on her hand and arm. She looked around quickly. Crazy train by Ozzy Osbourne picked up right at that moment as well.

“All aboard!” and an evil laugh came from Hailey’s cell phone speakers. Brie walked right up to Hailey, her eyes wide with excitement.

“A portable telecommunications radio,” she gasped, “With a touch screen! I thought you humans were supposed to be primitive, but this is amazing!”

“It’s got a ton of apps and music.” Hailey laughed, “Rebecca told me you haven’t had anyone with a waterproof radio or comm, but If someone else has one, I can actually walkie talkie with them.” She loaded the walkie talkie app, the music continued to play, she clicked for it to scan frequencies.

“Now that you’re here, we can repair the ones we have,” Rebecca laughed. Mine fritzed out over a year ago, before Brie arrived with her scanner thing. Thank the stars she was working on that project of hers at the time she was taken. She can do a full scan and blueprint repro.”

“I have a high end solar charger that can charge up to 8 phones at once and it only takes the sun 2 days to recharge the battery.” Hailey grinned showing them the charger. “If anyone had one that got wet, and if we could find some rice, there's a trick you can use to fix them with that too.”

“Tried that,” Brie nodded. “Unfortunately the damage was too extensive, a possible side effect of long term exposure, as it can take days to weeks to find survivors - and in some cases, months.”

“Anyone out there?” came a young woman’s voice over the app. Hailey quickly shut off the music app.

“Yes, we’re here,” Hailey answered quickly.

“Oh thank the stars.” The voice replied. “I’m on some weird island.” There was almost a purr in her voice.

“Ask her to describe what the island looks like,” Rebecca said. “If we can pinpoint her location we can go look for her and bring her back here.”

“It looks like a big penis.” the girl laughed. “Well, I mean, the trees do.”

“I TOLD YOU,” Ella laughed as she came out of the pub’s back kitchen, carrying a pan of biscuit-like bread. “Didn’t I say? That whole island looks like a bunch of phallic trees.” She nudged Hailey playfully. “The roots even look like Xyloran testicles.”

“Ok this is strange. There are crabs on the beach the size of gorens.” The girl replied back.

“Goren,” Ella said with a laugh. “Oh I know where she’s from. C’mon, the island’s not far.”

“She’s from Furra Prime,” Brie said matter-of-factly. “A goren is a large predatory feline from which, it’s believed, the Furran people evolved, or at least from a common ancestor.”

“Upright humanoids covered in fur. They’re incredibly friendly if you don’t cross them, but they have fierce claws,” Ella explained.

There was a woman at the bar who laughed, “And sometimes they’re incredibly playful.”

Hailey couldn’t help laughing. “Sounds like my cat back home.”

She shrugged, “My people used to enslave them back before we banned slavery. I could probably do medical on her all day long before I could any other species here, besides humans.”

Rebecca turned up her drink, and then set the empty glass down. “I’ll meet you all at the docks. I’m going to let Tricia know we’re going on a quick rescue mission.”

“Hey guys, what is a 7.. 11, besides numbers?” The girl came over the radio.

“Where do you see 7-11?” Hailey asked.

“There's a sign laying on the ground that says 7, and the word 11 spelled out across it.” The girl replied, “And it’s in front of a building.”

Hailey and Rebecca exchanged glances. They both looked pale. Brie looked between the two of them.

“What? What’s with the thousand meter stare?” Brie asked.

“7-11 is a convenience store on Earth,” Hailey answered. “But I thought you said they only took people?”

“They do - or... did,” Rebecca answered. “Okay, I’m going to go talk to Tricia. This is the first time the Overseers’ behavior has changed this drastically since they started bringing people here.”

“You have to admit,” Hailey said as Rebecca left, “It’s kind of weird that they threw me right in the ocean near you guys, right when Brie was running her scan.”

“That’s how it almost always happens.” Brie spoke as she began to walk with Ella and Hailey to the docks. “This is the first time anything else has ever shown up.”

Hailey radioed back, “Have you went inside?”

“I’m standing inside right now yes. I don’t see anyone yet. Just many food packets, shelves, and some ghastly music playing from somewhere.” It sounded like she held her phone up to a speaker. An elevator music version of Crazy Train was playing.

“There’s power?” Hailey looked surprised, “That must mean the fridges are working, Doctor Pepper here we come!”

Ella and Brie exchanged glances. “Who is Doctor Pepper?” Brie asked.

Hailey giggled, “It’s a soft drink - carbonated soda, and it’s my favorite kind, right next to cherry cola.”

“Lo-lo-lo-lo-Lola,” Rebecca giggled as she approached. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist. Tricia’s coming with us this time,” she added. “She’ll meet us at the ship.”

“Hey.” The girl came back over the radio, “There’s a dead hairless girl on the ground behind this counter thing. She’s got markings too and lots and lots of piercings.” She let out a startled yelp. “She twitched!”

Another voice screamed, “What the fuck are you?!” over the radio app.

“She’s a Furran,” Hailey answered. “And she’s friendly, I promise. Try not to panic. We’re on our way to rescue you both.”

“Hey let go of my tail!” was the last thing they heard for a few moments, “Sorry, I had to knock her out.”

Ella veered off from the group, at that. Hailey looked after her. “Where’s she going?”

“Probably to get her stun gauntlet,” Brie answered, completely deadpan.

Ella called back, “I hope I don’t have to use it.”

“It’s preferable to being body slammed by a rhinoceros,” Rebecca giggled under her breath.

“Wow!” the girl said. “There are packages here the same color as my fur! They smell sweet.”

“It’s candy, or possibly gum. Try some. By the way, what color is your fur?” Hailey asked.

“Hey, that’s my name too!” The girl laughed. “And to answer your second question, it’s pink.”

“Wait,” Hailey said, “How is she even able to speak English?”

“The language we call English.” Rebecca laughed, “Seems to be a really common language in the rest of the galaxy.”

Brie nodded, “With slight variations depending on how deep in the universe they come from, it’s known widely as Galactic Standard Trade Language.”

Ella rejoined the group just as they reached the docks, now dressed in imposing full body armor, with a large gauntlet on her left hand that had several black raised points. She flexed her hand slightly, and the points lit up with energy.

Brie nodded, “We all share the common building block DNA strands, like whatever species is bringing us here, also created us, or at least had a hand in spreading us out across the universe.”

“It’s funny,” Hailey said. “We share a common language, common DNA, and yet back on Earth, humans couldn’t be more different - different languages, different cultures, different taste in music, and that’s just in my own damn hometown.”

Ella laughed, “We all have our own languages, it’s just that what we call a Trade language, seems to be the most common.” She held out her gauntlet to Hailey with a grin. “Want a jolt?” she teased.

“No thanks,” Hailey answered. Ella giggled.

“I’m teasing. You have to be highly trained to even receive one. The slightest wrong twitch could knock the target through a wall.”

“It is excellent for jump starting a dead battery though,” Rebecca teased, as they climbed aboard the familiar expedition vessel, and she began to set the sails herself.

“Oh!” the girl said excitedly. “The frozen blue liquid is delicious! So sweet and mmm!” she smacked her lips. “Eugh. But the hot black liquid is disgusting!”

“That’s coffee!” Rebecca said excitedly. “I'm going to die for a cup, don't drink it all!”

“More importantly,” Hailey giggled, “We now have a catgirl who’s had both a slurpee and coffee to contend with.”

“No no, we don’t get hyper.” Candy giggled over the radio. “My people have naturally efficient metabolism so it’s even difficult to become intoxicated. Don’t make me hit you again please,” Candy said, apparently to the girl in the store.

“What the hell is going on?” the girl answered. “Where are we?” She sounded more calm now, at least.

“I don’t know, but my nice new friends on the telecom wide band frequency said they’re coming to rescue us both. I’m honestly just as lost as you are.”

Candy’s “telecom wideband’ communications device didn’t seem to have a push-to-talk function because they could hear every word as they set sail.

“Okay,” the girl said cautiously. “Am I crazy, or is that a dick forest outside? Christ, it’s like my worst nightmares.”

“Yes, those are penis trees,” Candy giggled. “If you walk down the path I cut, you’ll find that we’re surrounded by islands, and crabs the size of gorens.”

“What the actual fuck... If this is punishment for snatching that day old hotdog I swear I’ll never do it again.”

“I don't think this is a hallucination,” Candy answered. “Those crab things seemed very real, and mean. That’s why I came further in on the island.”

“I hope that gauntlet thing works on them,” Hailey said as they set out onto a lake-sized waterway between several small sandbars.

“We stayed clear of the island when we charted it,” Ella said, “But it works on my people, so it should work on them as well.”

“I bet they taste really yummy. I love seafood,” Candy said.

“I’m partial to clams,” the other girl said, almost sounding too distracted to even make a dirty joke. “The sky is fucking pink. Where’s the unicorns shitting Skittles?”

“No unicorns. Sorry,” Rebecca spoke up, “And if you have a bag of Skittles can you save me one, along with a big cup of coffee - two squirts of vanilla creamer and a boat load of sugar?”

“Did you want the Skittles in the coffee too?” the girl asked half-jokingly.

“Oh no, no, I’ve not had a bag of Skittles in two years. i’ll take them normal please.” Rebecca laughed. “Name’s Rebecca, the others with me are Tricia, Ella, Brie and Hailey. We know who the cat is, but what’s your name?”

“Vanessa,” the girl answered. “I just started last week. Man they warned me this was a rough neighborhood, but I don’t think being dropped in a dick forest was on their short list of dangers.”

“It’s about to get real rough.” Ella laughed, “We’re going to raid you for all your belongings.” she teased.

“I got a sawed off shotgun behind the counter,” Vanessa laughed. “But uh, given the circumstances I don’t think I can legally charge you anything. Pretty sure we’re not in Kansas anymore. Or America. Or the planet Earth.”

“No you’re not,” Tricia spoke up, having been content, until now, to let the experts handle first contact.

“Damn, that accent is hot,” Vanessa said.

Rebecca laughed, “She’s from London, 1954.”

There was a moment of silence before Vanessa spoke up again, with Candy giggling in the background. “You don’t sound a day over 30.”

“Thank you.” Tricia laughed. “I don't look much older than 20 either, that was about when I was dropped off in pink hell.”

Vanessa laughed. “Oh thank the Goddess, I’m not the only one.”

“Oh don’t get me wrong, I like pink, but when I first got here, I was like this is damn right bloody ridiculous.”

“There’s only one shade of pink i like,” Vanessa laughed. “But I shouldn’t be flirting with our would-be rescuers until after the giant mutant crabs have been dealt with.”

“I’ve barred the door,” Candy said. “We may need to get up on the roof, but I only count two so far. They seem less aggressive now as well.”

“They’re probably just curious,” Brie giggled. “... Probably.”

“I don’t want to find out. Last thing I need after waking up here is to become food for seafood.” Vanessa laughed.

“Okay, here’s the fun part,” Rebecca said. “Everyone grab onto something. We’re going to swing past the Eye and slingshot ourselves up-river.”

“What’s the Eye-ey-eye!” Hailey squealed as she grabbed onto the railing just as they skimmed past a massive swirling vortex, hitting just close enough to the edge that the ship rocketed into a river flowing between two islands. Vanessa laughed.

“Sounds like we’re missing all the fun. I guess there’s no helicopters here?” Vanessa asked.

“Nope, we have someone working on a peddle copter though.” Rebecca spoke. “Unfortunately we haven’t been able to find a suitable source of fuel . What we really need is a damn rocket surgeon.”

Candy giggled under her breath.

“Takes too much energy for solar power,” Brie spoke up. “We have a makeshift science lab that runs on solar, solar powered ships, but to keep an air vehicle aloft would require something more substantial. Thus far explorations of the many islands have resulted in no combustible material compatible to our needs.”

“... What?” Candy asked.

“No boom juice,” Vanessa answered.

“Oh, I thought that’s what she meant,” Candy said. “Assuming antimatter is out of the question, and I imagine fossil fuels are scarce as well. What about biofuel?” she asked. She wasn’t even half as dumb as she originally seemed to let on.

“Yes,” Brie said, “Among other power sources, carbon-based fuels would be an exceptional boon for transportation if they weren’t, as you say, extremely rare. The oxygen inert gas ratio on the planet seems off. It’s certainly breathable, but makes creating a fuel mixture difficult, given we don’t exactly have any experts in the field.”

“Our entire city has power though, “Tricia said, “With each cabin equipped with a makeshift fridge, stove, and one light. We’re working to expand both the power grid’s capacity, and the housing standard, however.”

“So there’s no reliable combustion,” Vanessa said. “Sounds like someone doesn’t want us getting off the planet - at least not easily. Then again I’m kind of into mysteries. Maybe I’m reading too much into having me, and an entire store, sucked up and plopped down on an alien world.”

“None that we’ve found yet.” Tricia spoke. “We’re still looking. We’ve found some that are close, but we don’t have the proper resources to refine them enough.”

“Um... Holy shit,” Vanessa said. “You guys aren’t going to believe this. All this talk of fuel made me go check the reservoir monitor. The gas reservoir must’ve been picked up with the building because I’m showing full tanks.”

“Ok we are definitely coming back for the gas.” Rebecca laughed, “I’m glad we decided to take the Nina instead of the Victory. We can load up on everything else.”

“Once we’re back I’ll send the Nine Tailed Fox back for the petrol reservoirs,” Tricia nodded.

As they drew nearer the island, what looked to Hailey like many small hills or ridges came into view on the horizon. As they sailed closer, she could feel her cheeks burn just a little bit. It really did look like an island covered in phallic shaped trees, with little round roots at the base of each, and large, blue-shelled and red-shelled crabs skittering along the beach here and there.

“Those things look like they're the size of lynxes back home.” Hailey exclaimed, “Huge... Why didn’t you say they were that big?”

“I told you,” Candy laughed. “They’re as big as gorens! Just one of those things could feed a family for a week or more.”

To their surprise, the giant crabs seemed to largely ignore the ship as Ella leapt off the dock and onto the beach to pull it ashore. One of them approached her, but then skittered right on past.

Hailey knocked on the store's door, “Anyone awake in there?” she teased. “7-11 is supposed to always be open you know.”

“Sorry, we don’t serve crabs,” Vanessa said from the other side of the locked door. Ella gave a small twitch of her arm, causing her gauntlet to spark. To her surprise, the crab spread one pincer and gave a little spark right back at her. Then started to wander back to the beach with its friend.

“... O-kay,” Ella said. “I’m not the only one that found that weird, right?”

“That must be how they stun their prey,” Brie said. “Bioelectrical generation. I should bring a specimen back for further study.”

“Right,” Vanessa said as she unlocked the door. Like Candy had said, she was covered in tattoos and piercings, with long black hair, and wearing a black tank top with thin lace for straps. “Just keep it away from me, or it’ll be gumbo.”

“We should bring a few back,” Tricia nodded.

A girl wearing a white top that could best be described as a sports bra, and a silver skirt that could be called a mini mini skirt, came around the corner sipping a red slurpee from a large cup. She didn’t seem to have much need for modesty though because her entire body was covered in neon pink fur, as well as a long tuft of pink hair on her head, pulled into a ponytail.

“We wear clothes as a sign of courtesy to other races.” Candy said, taking note that Hailey was staring.

“Sorry,” Hailey said sheepishly. “Didn’t mean to stare. It’s just... Wow.”

Candy giggled. “I get that a lot, and don’t take this wrong, but for a hairless girl you are cute, yourself.”

“Ah, young love,” Tricia said as Rebecca made a beeline for the tall cup of steaming coffee sitting on the counter, waiting for her.

“I’m in heaven. Hell it could have been cowboy coffee and I’d have kissed you.” Rebecca laughed.

“Promises, promises,” Vanessa teased back. “We just got a new shipment in too. The back room’s got enough coffee to keep Los Angeles awake for a week.”

Ella grinned, “Good thing I lifted the cart off the ship and dragged it up here.”

Hailey walked over to the fridge and grabbed a cold Doctor Pepper, and opened it. She handed it to Brie to taste. “Try that, and tell me it’s not the best thing you ever drank.”

Brie sniffed it, tilted the bottle up for a sip, and then shook her head quickly, blinking, before taking a big gulp. “It’s like... I don’t even know how to describe it.”

“I know right? I’m stocking up a bunch of these for my fridge in my hut.” Hailey laughed.

Ella gave them a surprised glance. “Wait, you mean Brie is speechless? Is that even physically possible?”

Tricia looked behind the counter, “Hey shopkeep, can I get a 20 finger of Old Gold?”

Vanessa stared at Tricia for a moment. “Uh... A what now?”

“A Box of old gold.” Tricia shook her head.

“Oh!” Vanessa laughed. “Sorry. Sure hang on,” she said as she raced back behind the counter and grabbed a box for Tricia.

Tricia reached into her pocket and placed a 1954 british five pound note on the counter. ”That atta cover it?” she grinned.

“Sorry, we only take American currency,” Vanessa teased her as she took the note carefully and held it up to inspect it.

“Then yer up shit creak without paddles, dear.” Tricia laughed. “I’ve been holding onto that since I got here.” she grabbed a lighter from the rack and lit up the smoke, “And i’ve been dying for one of these since I got here too.”

“Wow. I can’t believe it’s in such great shape,” Vanessa said as she handed it back to Tricia.

“These will definitely be worth a lot for trade.” Tricia said as she leaned on the counter and sighed happily.

Candy hopped up on the counter, plopping down and opening one of the dessert cases. “Can I?” she asked. Vanessa nodded.

“Go for it.” Vanessa laughed, “Don’t think my boss is going to care.”

“Sorry for hitting you asleep earlier,” Candy giggled.

“Sorry for pulling your tail,” Vanessa laughed. “It was the only thing convenient, and I was kind of panicking.”

Candy giggled. “It’s okay. I kind of liked it,” she teased as she bit into a jelly filled donut.

“You know I love Catgirl anime.” Hailey laughed. “My friends in my bugout group tease me because I have a pair of cat ear headphones back home too. I even convinced my friend Wendy to buy a pair.”

Candy looked at Hailey, “Anime? What does that mean?”

“Cartoon, or Animation.” Hailey answered. “It’s a popular art style in Japan, an island nation in the east.”

Brie spoke up, “Do you mind if I looked at your comm device?”

“Oh!” Candy said. “Sure!” She reached up and pulled a small earpiece from somewhere within her well-groomed, if thick hair, and offered it to Brie. “Here you go. It’s a universal fit.”

“Hey,” Tricia said, glancing at Hailey now. “This planet does weird things to people. Were you thinking about these Catgirls when you landed in the water?”

“Kind of,” Hailey laughed. “See, my friend Wendy had her headphones with her, and when I was pulled from Earth I was thinking about mine, thinking I should’ve brought them with me.”

“We’ll keep an eye on you.” Tricia nodded. “Sometimes changes in people take a week, sometimes it can take a month.”

“... Changes?” Hailey asked.

Rebecca nodded, “I was a guy when I got here,” she said bluntly. “Almost two months for my change.”

Hailey let out an excited squeal that got everyone’s attention. She blushed. “Sorry,” she said sheepishly. The second she had the chance to check herself out, she was taking it, but right now they had a mission to finish.

Brie nodded, “I had a shorter tail and it was green. White and long tails are signs of power on my planet.”

“Don’t look at me,” Ella laughed. “I’m the same Ella I’ve always been.”

“Actually.” Tricia laughed, “I think you may have gotten a bit stronger.”

“I have been working out,” Ella teased.

“Kris isn't even near as strong as you, and he’s Ilonian too,” Tricia reminded Ella.

“So uh,” Vanessa said, “These aliens like strong women huh? I think I’m going to like it here.”

“We’re thinking they’re a female dominated species yes.” Brie spoke up, “The ones that brought us here that is, but they also value male strength and intelligence, so there’s no real emergent pattern that we’ve found yet.”

“They do seem to tend to prefer people who are naturally curious in their preferred field - doctors who push the boundaries of medicine, artists who seek to push themselves, explorers like Rebecca.”

“Ah, that’s why I was chose then.” Candy nodded. “Back home, I’m a psychiatrist and physician. I created a new method of helping people with anxiety.”

“By knocking them out?” Vanessa teased her.

“Combat yes.” Candy winked, “No. I have a small device that I use that emits a soothing audio frequency, triggering a neural response that releases low...” She paused. Vanessa stared. “It makes people relax.” She giggled.

“This comm unit is incredible, speaking of small devices,” Brie said as she offered it back to Candy. “My scanner can barely penetrate the inner shell.”

“It’s borrowed technology from the Traxians,” Candy said. “The Traxians were once our overlords, but now they serve us, in a manner of speaking. As a world, they pay us restitution for their past crimes.”

“Ah, like the woman from the bar,” Hailey nodded.

“There’s a Traxian here?” Candy asked. “I’ve only met a few. The Traxian war was so long ago, I don’t feel that they don’t owe us anything anymore, though. We’re trying to help them get into the Galactic Trade Confederate.”

“Who knew that an entire race of beings with naturally high agility and built-in razor sharp weapons could be such capable fighters,” Ella said half-sarcastically.

“There’s a plant that grows on their homeworld that makes us docile.” Candy sighed. “Even today some abuse it as a recreational drug, even though it’s highly illegal.”

“Is it called Catnip?” Hailey giggled. “My cat Esper, when she gets on that stuff, goes all crazy for like 15 minutes and then passes out for hours.”

Candy laughed. “Okay, so we do get intoxicated from that stuff, but that’s one of the few exceptions.”

“When we get back to the base camp do you mind if I take a blood sample?” Brie asked Candy.

Candy nodded. “Not at all. Just don’t take too much,” she teased. “I need some for later.”

“Your species is new to the planet, and we’re trying to keep record of all of the species that come here, to catalogue how the planet affects them.”

“You said you were here sixty years?” Candy asked. “Assuming that’s approximately similar to a galactic standard year... It sounds like we’re all stuck here.” She paused to laugh a little. “But I can think of worse places to be stuck than among friendly people.”

“Yeah, there’s no way off.” Tricia laughed. “Most of us share the same attitude; it grows on you.”

“As long as there’s sunblock,” Vanessa said. “Goth skin and beaches don’t go well together.”

“Just the stuff on the shelves.” Rebecca sighed. “I burned so bad my first summer here. You're lucky we’re just about to hit the springtime. You’ll have some time to adjust.” They were loading what they could into what Ella called a cart, but the thing was huge.

Brie sighed, “Looks like the sun's about to go down, which means we might have to take the long way back.”

“What’s the long way back?” Hailey asked, still adjusting to life on this planet, herself.

“Oh it takes us by the Ocean Lip.” Rebecca said. “There's a 50 foot drop to another layer of ocean and more islands. It’s kind of weird. No one’s explored it fully yet due to Tricia’s rules.”

“Specifically,” Tricia said, “That until now we had no long range communications, so we couldn’t let ships stay out very long. Something in the atmosphere interfered with our attempts at radio communication, but it seems we’ve found a way around it now.”

“Jesus Christ,” Vanessa said. “This place really is my nightmares. I swear to God if there’s a giant spider within a hundred yards of where you guys call home I’m noping the fuck out, locking the doors, and hiding in the break room.”

“Nope, no giant spiders as far as we know.” Rebecca laughed. “Just regular sized ones.”

Candy reached up, pretending to be carefully reaching for something on Vanessa’s shoulder. Vanessa let out a terrified scream and ducked, looking around. Candy giggled. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist.”

Hailey laughed. “Oh, I hate snakes myself. One of my buddies from my survival group stepped on a copperhead while playing an augmented reality game on his phone last week.”

Candy pouted cutely. “Well, if we’re being honest, I’m terrified of sorrals.”

Ella laughed, “Really? Those things are so harmless.”

“But they’re soo icky,” Candy whined. “And they’re fearless. They won’t think twice about scampering over your feet, with their little icky paws and,” she shuddered. Hailey was beginning to get the picture.

“Rats.. that's what we call them.” Hailey laughed. “Rats and Mice are cute actually. My friend Wendy has a pet Rat named Oscar.”

Candy stuck out her tongue. “They’re devious. Nothing with beady little eyes like that can’t not be up to something.”

“Your people are still superstitious about some things,” Brie nodded.

“Outsiders call it superstitious,” Candy said. “We call it good sense.” She giggled, showing there were no hard feelings for the comment.

“You might know my species as Ionian.” Ella spoke, “Peace keepers by others.”

“Oh sure,” Candy nodded. “We’ve been in the GTC awhile, remember. We’re actually sponsoring the Traxians’ admission, with your people’s help as mediators to sort out the restitution nonsense.”

“Yeah, when I was taken, we were in talks about the situation with both sides.” Ella nodded.

“It’s just a shame they couldn’t have brought your whole ship like they did with Vanessa’s shop,” Candy said, paused, then giggled. “Ship... Shop... Ship shop...”

That caused Hailey to giggle as if she got the joke . “That was a good one.”

It took Brie a moment to catch on. They could almost see the gears turning in her head. “Oh, wordplay,” she said finally. “That’s clever.”

“Ut oh.” Ella laughed. “You got the brain to start working. In a second she’s going to start rambling about 600 words a second.”

“And wait.. Did you pick up on that faster than everyone else?” Brie looked right at Hailey. “Furran humor is very um... unique and sometimes a little subtle. Most people just groan and roll their eyes when they finally catch it.”

“A lot of times really dirty as well.” Candy nodded. “I’ve been trying really, really hard to behave because standing in a literal penis forest was joke enough.”

Hailey giggled, “A pussy in a penis forest.”

Candy grinned broadly. “THANK you!” She started giggling.

“Ugh.” Vanessa groaned. “I got that.”

Hailey laughed so hard she had to stop what she was doing and wipe the tears from her eyes, just so she could see where she was going. “Did I really just blurt that out?” she asked. “Back home, I’d have died if I said that out loud.”

“Don’t worry, on Furra Prime, those kind of jokes are mild.” Candy laughed. “There’s even the more subtle joke at poor Vanessa’s expense that I caught onto after she calmed down. A pussy in a penis forest is bad enough, but she’s a clam diver in a sausage forest.” She winked at Hailey.

That was it, Hailey fell down giggling and rolling around on the floor, she even let out a meowish laugh. “Oh my God! That’s so funny.”

“Like I said,” Vanessa giggled out after a moment, “My own personal hell.”

Brie spoke up again, “Did Hailey just meow?”

“Yes,” Candy giggled. “It would appear you’re about to have two of us to contend with,” she teased. She wasn’t nearly as dumb as she seemed on the radio before, picking up early on what Tricia and Rebecca meant by ‘changes’. Then again, she was a doctor.

Her species was pretty intelligent. They even had intergalactic space travel without borrowing technology. Just because they were playful didn’t mean they were dumb.

“Well that will make things more interesting.” Tricia laughed.

“Maybe I’m contagious,” Hailey giggled as she got to her feet. “One of us! One of us!”

“On of us!” Candy chanted too.

“Oh Goddess no,” Vanessa laughed. “I will shave every strand of hair off my body before I turn into a pink catgirl.”

“Oh we’re not all pink.” Candy giggled. “We come in variety of colors. We used to go to war with other colored species of our kind, and we even wiped out the stardust blue colored species.” she sighed at that. “Those were dark times, and how we were subdued by the Traxians. In a way... We owe them our survival as a species.” She giggled a bit. “But don’t tell them I said that.”

“In comparing your original DNA sample with both the new sample and with Candy’s,” Brie said as she sat down at the tavern with Hailey and Candy, “I can say with 100% certainty that your body is being rewritten at the genetic level. You’re becoming Furran, who also share that common DNA with the rest of us.”

“Could have told you that, Traxians have been mating with Furrans for awhile now.” The woman from before spoke up. She looked to Hailey to be almost human but for some subtle differences that she didn’t notice before.

Her features, especially her face, seemed slightly sharper, not gaunt or unattractive, but more defined, as if a sculpture from one of the Masters was turned to flesh and given life.

Candy put her tail in Hailey’s lap, “Don’t worry, we gave up the whole open sexual thing a very long time ago.” she winked.

“What she means is they don’t fuck anything that moves anymore.” The woman laughed slightly.

Candy motioned to the empty chair. “Please join us,” she said warmly. “Hailey just learned the planet’s turning her into one of us, and she could use a second opinion.” She giggled.

“Sure.” The woman said and got up and sat down. “I literally have nothing against Furrans. I just wish you guys would be less polite when dealing with other species and just be yourselves. My sister in law is Half Furran, so I know how charming you can be.”

Candy laughed. “We’re taught as children that other races find our ways off-putting and to restrain ourselves. I kid you not,” she said, “I was dropped in the middle of a forest island full of trees shaped like penises. I had to fight tooth and claw not to say something.”

“A pussy in a penis forest.” Hailey giggled slightly as she repeated the joke. What was going to be hard was she was becoming a Furran, but a furran that wasn’t taught to control her furran emotions.

The woman laughed. “Proof that the Overseers, whoever they are, have a sense of humor.” She grinned at the pair. “I’m Doctor Elyria Volsh by the way, since I haven’t properly introduced myself yet.”

“I’ve heard of you. I’m Doctor Candy Sharpclaw,” Candy said as she shook Elyria’s hand.

“Ah, the behavioral scientist!” Elyria said brightly. “Naya, my aforementioned sister-in-law talked about you for three straight cycles after attending your lecture on the use of modulated energy to induce calm in anxiety patients.”

“It works every time, too, so far. I’ve successfully treated several patients with it.” Candy said. She wasn't much older than Hailey at all, and yet she had two doctorate degrees.

“You know you reminded me so much of Brie just now,” Hailey giggled. “Like sisters from another mister.”

Candy giggled, “We’re cosmic cousins.” she nodded, “I’ve tried a few of them for hyper anxiety.”

Brie giggled. “An unfortunately common disease though we rarely discuss it with outsiders. I’m glad to hear that some of my people found their way to you though. As intelligent as we may be, we could never find a treatment that didn’t have um... adverse reactions.”

Candy nodded, “Your hearing receptors are almost on par with ours, so I didn’t have to make too many adjustments to my device for them. In a lot of ways we’re two sides of the same coin - with us being playful most of the time.”

“And us being the dour scientists who have to analyze every joke to determine its humorous worth,” Brie nodded, cracking a small grin. “For what it’s worth when I did get them, I did find them extremely funny.”

“Just so we’re clear, though,” Hailey said, “When you talk about modulated... electro... whatsits. You’re not just talking about sending a jolt of electricity into someone’s brain, right?”

“No no, it makes a sound that when tuned to a species hearing, allows them to calm down.” Candy said.

“The former sounds more like it belongs on the ‘adverse reactions’ list,” Elyria chuckled. Brie nodded.

“Yes. Yes it does. It has the desired effect, but also tends to result in other problems ranging from loss of appetite to, in one instance, full blown psychosis. Using aural stimuli never occurred to anyone that I’m aware of. That is quite literally genius.”

“It occurred to me as I was listening to a Sartorian opera actually,” Candy giggled. “I thought, if music can affect one’s mood, there must be a way to harness that power.”

“Speaking of music, this place is too quiet.” Hailey giggled and pulled out her cell phone setting it on the counter and opened her playlist.

Tricia came in, “Not to sound speciest, but we’ve dedicated the new neighborhood that Hailey moved into, Furran. We tend to all live, unless we marry into another species, together. It avoids problems like cross-species allergies.” Candy looked at Hailey for a moment. They both started giggling, and Tricia grinned. “I knew you two would get that.”

“Whenever you want to make a visit to Doctor Brosch for your monitoring of your changes feel free, she’ll be in the lab in the morning.” Tricia said. “Oh, and on a personal note, thanks for bringing some music in here. It’s just not a tavern without it.”

“Do you think we have enough parts to make something like that for the bar?” The Blue skinned fish man, Chuck, asked Tricia. “I’d hate to ask Hailey for her device since it belongs to her.”

“I have detailed scans of it, and less-than-detailed scans of Candy’s earpiece,” Brie said. “That I’ve handed over to the science department. I believe we have a mineral similar enough to silicon that if we could construct a fabiricator, it could replicate it.”

Tricia laughed, “We may have to make a few by hand first. Ladia said it might be years before we get a fabrication machine. But they’re already adapting the technology from our solar panels.”

“I should be able to rig up a speaker system very easily,” Brie replied with a thoughtful smile.

“Oh,” Hailey said as she opened her bag. She took out her old transistor hand crank weather radio and placed it on the table in front of Brie. “You might find this useful too. It’s a crank powered transistor radio, less delicate than silicon.”

Candy giggled at the mention of Crank powered, “You canked my yank.”

“You mean when I yanked your crank?” Hailey answered without even a second thought, and giggled too.

“Things in the Exploration guild are about to get really good.” Rebecca laughed.

“Actually I was wondering about that.” Candy said, “I’m not 100% sure where my skills would come into use for you?”

“They might come in more handy than you think. Some people are extremely frightened when they wake up.” Rebecca stated.

“I was lucky,” Hailey nodded. “I woke up to a beautiful woman pounding on my chest and yelling at me to live,” she giggled.

“Oh! You're like me then? A Rolly?” Candy grinned.

“A Rolly?” Hailey asked.

“A Furran who likes females.” Elyria said. “Though it used to be a slur. It was adapted as a point of pride a couple of generations ago.”

“And now it’s completely normal,” Candy laughed. “It’s amazing how fast people get over things when they become normalized to it.”

“Oh,” Hailey giggled. “The Rolliest.”

“Same here. I think males are attractive in their own way, but I’m not into sharing a bed with them.” Candy nodded.

“Right,” Vanessa said as she walked past with a tall glass of some kind of alcoholic beverage. “So far on my nightmare scale it’s been waking up on a pink planet with a pink catgirl hovering over me, in a penis forest, and she also likes girls, too. If I ever meet these overseers, I’m going to have some strong words for them.” She grinned as she sat down at a nearby table and took a drink.

“Cosmic sense of humor.” Hailey grinned.

“You know, I don’t even mind really,” Candy said. “It’s warm but not too hot, everyone here is wonderful. But I would genuinely love to know why all the same.”

“60 years and I have yet to get an answer.” Tricia laughed. “40 of which I’ve had scientists here to help figure things out. Brie’s data from when Hailey arrived might give us some insight into how, but even that will leave us grasping at straws for decades to come.”

“Great, isn’t it?” Brie giggled. “The eternal pursuit of answers you may never find. Long is the journey that has no clear destination, but fruitful and rewarding if you’ve a mind for it.”

“If that’s not a song lyric yet, it should be,” Candy said.

“I have a limerick,” Hailey said with a giggle. “This little kitty, running so free, lost in the woods, really has to pee.”

Chuck laughed, “Ladies room is right over there.” he pointed to the door.

“Thanks. I’ve been on the move non-stop since I got here, and haven’t had time to go.”

Candy burst out laughing again as Hailey got up. “Can I watch?” she teased.

“Only if you wash,” Hailey shot back, giggling as she ran for the bathroom. A few seconds later there was a really loud Screech from the bathroom. Ella knocked the door, frame and all, right out of the wall and across the room.

“What? What’s wrong?!”

“I have.. A v... and um.. I have fur?” Hailey giggled. “Ouch.” She winced as she pulled some fur off where it was growing on her belly, and slid the stardust blue colored fur under the door of the stall.

“Uh... Exactly where did you pull that from?” Ella asked cautiously.

“Around my lower belly.” Hailey giggled. “But from my V.. to almost my bellybutton I have fur..”

“Okay, just checking,” Ella laughed as she carefully picked up the tuft of fur. She turned around and gave a small yelp. “Sanus’ socks! Brie, don’t sneak up on me,” she laughed. “Here, more data,” she said as she offered the fur tuft to Brie.

“Didn’t Candy say this color of her species was extinct?” Brie asked.

Hailey started laughing again as she came out of the stall. “Because of course they are.”

“What?” Candy asked as she peeked around the shattered door.

“Extinct,” Hailey said, raising her shirt. Candy immediately started to cackle.

“Yup!” she finally managed to giggle out, holding her sides.

“Ohh I get it,” Brie said, starting to laugh now. “She’s the last of her kind, and she doesn’t breed.”

Ella shook her head, “Non breeders - there's very little of us here.”

“You, Hailey, Candy, um...” Brie said, trying to recall.

“Vanessa, and obviously Tricia is, she hits on women all the time.” Ella commented.

Both Candy and Hailey started to laugh again as they made their way back out. Ella gave the bartender a sheepish smile. “I’ll help fix the door.”

“Thanks.” He laughed. “It’s not the first time that doors been busted in however.”

“Maybe a swinging door,” Hailey said while looking at Candy. Candy giggled.

“I knew I liked you the moment I smelled you.” Candy was fighting to keep a straight face, “We’re so going to have to get you outfitted though. Our species has a built in hate for that much clothing.” She pointed out that Hailey was wearing Jeans and a long sleeve shirt.

“I always knew I was a cat person,” Hailey giggled.

A slightly older human walked over, “Actually I was getting ready to head back to my shop. We’re open 24/7 like most things around here.” he said, “All the shops are here in town center, you can’t miss it, big needle and thread sign.”

“Oh,” Brie said, “You’re going to love the local fashion. They have this material that feels like silk, but looks like metal. It’s incredible.” She was letting out her inner fashionista, which hitherto Hailey hadn’t realized even existed.

“Oh did they design your skirt?” Candy asked Brie. “Because it’s wonderful, if a little long for Furran tastes.”

Brie laughed and struck a pose. “That’s what we were going for. Something late summery that would make a Furran flinch, but still feel good in a cool sea breeze,” she teased.

”I bet that was interesting to explain to a furless, what a Furran was.” Candy giggled.

“Imagine a goren - oh, you’ve never heard of a goren,” Ella giggled. “Well imagine a creature about my height covered in fur and adorable ears peeking up above her hair.”

“Nah, the girl that works there spent time on Furra, studying under the masters,” Brie answered. “Lucky for me.”

Hailey giggled. She had an idea of what a Goren looked like, and opened an image of a lynx she had taken on their last bug out camping trip - from the safety of a ranger’s truck. “They look like that right?”

“Hey, just like that!” Candy nodded. “Some have stripes, but the body shape is identical.”

“We call them Lynx on earth, they’re wild cats, and can be very mean.” Hailey said.

“Just like a Furran.” Candy giggled.

“Only if you rub them the wrong way,” Hailey teased. “So um, anyone up for a shopping spree? I kind of want to show off the new assets.”

Candy nearly doubled over laughing. “New assets... I think I love you,” she giggled out. “You’re lucky you weren't born 600 years ago though. We used to have 6 breasts.” she giggled. “We have a lot to thank the Traxians for, according to my sisters.”

“Well they don’t call them sextuple for nothing,” Hailey said with an impish grin as they started out.

“I’ll catch up,” Ella giggled. I want to get this door situation nailed down before the next rain. Oh hell. Now they’ve got me doing it.”

As the human mentioned, the entire shopping district of the colony was lit like they were open. Some people were nocturnal, there was a race of people here that could only be active at night. So they decided when people started coming in, to keep shops open 24/7. There was even a race of people here that didn’t need but an hour of sleep.

Sitting at the counter in one clothing shop was a young woman who, aside from not having any tattoos, could be Vanessa’s sister - pale, wearing a purple tank top and matching short skirt made from the same metallic material, with her very long black hair in twin braids behind her. She parted her black lips, baring her fangs, just long enough to bite into an apple and suck the juice, before taking a full bite into her mouth.

Brie waved as they entered. “Hey Jenna.” She turned to Candy and Hailey, “Jenna’s people are night people, and need very little if no sleep. She hardly gets out in the day time.”

“Good day - or is it night yet?” Jenna laughed softly as she waved. “Oh, new customers, and a Furran! Welcome!”

“Almost night.” Hailey said.

“Ah yes, they're from my cousin race, their Furran.” Brie said. “Well one is becoming Furran anyway.”

“Oh I know Furrans.” Jenna laughed.

“Wow,” Hailey said. “For a second there I was going to ask you what happened to your tattoos.”

“I have wings tattooed on my back.” Jenna laughed.

“Oh,” Hailey giggled. “No disrespect meant. It’s just from a distance you looked just like another new friend who arrived with Candy.”

“Oh really?” Jenna said, “Another Verian here?”

“Well, human...ish,” Hailey giggled. “We call them goths on Earth. She’s really pretty though.”

“We’re all human..ish, sister.” Jenna teased.

Brie giggled. “I knew you’d like each other.”

“So you guys after the latest Furran styles then?” Jenna asked. She was only a year behind the current styles, but so were some Furran anyway.

“Oh,” Candy said as she spotted a very short, metallic pink belt of a skirt. “Would that not look amazing against stardust blue fur? Once it fully comes in, anyway.”

“Stardust blue?” Jenna looked confused, “According to the history books they were killed during your wars centuries ago?”

Candy grinned and nodded, and Hailey lifted her shirt. “These Overseer people had other ideas,” she giggled.

“They tend to.” Jenna nodded. “And I agree that would look good on her.”

“So like,” Hailey asked as she held the skirt against a fur patch, admiring the contrasting colors, “How does the economy work here anyway?”

“You got a job right?” Jenna asked.

“Explorer’s guild,” Hailey nodded.

“Oh wow.” Jenna said, “So what we do, you bring the items to me, I write down what you take, and that’s it.”

“The guild reimburses her in materials, food, luxuries,” Brie explained.

“It would be the same if Chuck came in here.” Jenna said, “From the bar, he provides a service. There is no money.”

“And now I’m going to be picturing him in metallic pink all night,” Candy started giggling. “Quite a nice mental image though.” she paused and looked at Hailey, “What? I said I think males are attractive - just not in my bed.”

Hailey giggled. “I didn’t say a word.”

“Didn’t have to, I think our chemicals are a match because you had that jealous look on your face.” Candy giggled.

“Oh, but don’t worry,” Hailey giggled. “I believe in taking things slow.”

“Me too,” Candy shot back. “I figure we’ll give it two, three days tops before we’re sharing a room.” She grinned.

“2-3 days?” Hailey asked.

Candy laughed as she leaned over and gave Hailey a kiss on her cheek. It felt strange, but not unpleasant, and thankfully nothing like being kissed by a cat. If it did, it might have been the changes that made it not feel like it “I was teasing you. Furrans pick a mate for life. I like you a lot, but we have to be sure, you know?”

“I specialize if you haven't noticed in what the Islanders here call Beachwear. But I like to think of it as Furran-conservative because that is definitely what this style is.” she pointed to a cute really skimpy bikini on the wall.

“I bet you get all kinds of funny looks too,” Candy laughed. “The Verian who never goes to a beach. But I have to say you do amazing work!”

“Actually you’d be surprised.” Jenna laughed. “Thanks. I lived on Furra Prime for 6 years. I studied Furran Fashion under the master Ris’sha.”

“This is why I love coming here,” Brie giggled. “Fashion and music are the only things ‘artistic’ that I’ve ever had any interest in, and to learn from Jenna is practically learning from Master Ris’sha.”

“You know you can get some good shoes over at Ben’s right?” Jenna added.

Candy looked down at her sandals. They literally looked like she had trudged through a penis forest twice. They looked worn and rough. She giggled. “Good because we’re both going to need them.”

Vanessa walked into the shop, at that. She looked wide-eyed for a moment. “Holy shit did I walk into Victoria’s Secret?”

“Nah,” Jenna shot back, “This is conservative Furran. For the skimpy stuff you’ll have to visit the shops on Furra Prime,” she teased.

“Good lord..” she said after gathering her wits again. “Ok girls, I’ll stay, but you won’t get me to wear any of this, even if you paid me a billion American dollars.”

“My goodness,” Jenna said as she walked slowly around Vanessa. She licked her black lips thoughtfully. “You do look a Verran. And that top is to die for. I might have to start making both Verran and Furran fashion, though that would put me in competition with my good friend up the way,” she said with a laugh.

Vanessa was caught completely off guard. She wasn’t at all, in the slightest, used to receiving genuine compliments like that. “Uh... Thanks? It’s just something I picked up off the rack at Hot Topic.”

“Is your skin naturally that pale?” Jenna asked, “That’s even more pale than me, Gods, lucky bitch,” she said in a half-joking, half-flirting tone that made Vanessa’s head spin.

“Yeah,” Vanessa laughed a little. “I guess it’s a little derrogatory, but people call me albino back home - pigmented hair and eyes, but pale as fuck. If I go out in the sun for more than a minute or two without sunblock I turn into a big red lobster.”

“If I go out in the sun for too long I die.” Jenna winked. “It literally evaporates the water in my body quicker than anything.”

“Holy shit,” Vanessa said. “Wait... Please tell me you’re not a blood-sucking vampire. Because the way this day has gone that would just about top the shit sandwich.”

“Blood? Ewww that is just nasty.” Jenna made a sour face. She was still holding her apple, which, to punctuate the point, she took another big bite.

“Her people are mostly vegan,” Brie giggled out, trying to be respectful.

“Oh thank you merciful Gods and or Goddesses,” Vanessa laughed. “That’s the problem with finding a girlfriend back home. You only meet the crazy vampire wannabe weirdos, or the guys who think they can turn the hot lesbian goth chick straight.” She shivered.

“Ah.” Jenna grinned and nodded, “I’ve had males try that. Did you know Furran men think they are the universe's gift to women?”

“Wow,” Vanessa laughed. “And I thought surfer dudes were conceited. Well, not all of them. Just most.”

“They will try their hardest to mate with anyone that will mate with them.” Candy confirmed, “It’s kind of what turned me off to the male species. We females prefer to mate with someone who has compatible chemicals - and being able to appreciate foreplay or just a nice walk on the beach as opposed to ‘Let’s fuck” doesn’t hurt either,” she laughed. “Of course it rarely works on furran women anyway. To tell the truth, we actually take relationships very seriously. It’s mostly just horseplay,” she teased. “But it still grew weary on me.”

“Pawplay you mean.” Hailey giggled.

“Remind me to show you my pawn play,” Candy teased her.

Hailey giggled, “You never know I might enjoy it. I love a rousing game of chess..”

“Get a room you two.” Brie grinned.

“Wow, I thought that was a human saying.” Vanessa laughed.

“Some things are universal,” Jenna laughed. “Speaking of, I take off for a few hours after sundown, if you want to go and get a drink. Chuck makes a delightful fruit smoothie.”

“Oh sure, I promised these three I would check out the shops with them, but afterwards I’m totally free.” Vanessa grinned.

“Fang-tastic,” Jenna teased. “Meantime, I’m going to start on anew design. I feel positively inspired. Verran meets Furran. Oh this will be so fun!”

Before they left Jenna wrote down the item numbers of everything the two girls were taking and bid them farewell for now. Then wandered across the street to a shoe shop, “This Ben’s shoe shop?” Hailey asked.

“Looks like Jerry’s working the front counter,” Brie said, sending both Hailey and Vanessa into a giggle fit.

“Ben and Jerry’s.” Hailey giggled out, “We have some that we brought back from 7-11 in cold storage now.”

“I’m shocked it made the trip,” Vanessa laughed. “Tricia wasn’t kidding about that ship being well insulated.”

“It;s amazing, and I get to sail on it.” Hailey giggled out, still stuck on the Ben and Jerry’s giggle train.

“Same.” Candy grinned. “I’ve always liked ocean travel: hate water, but love to travel.”

An attractive young woman who looked almost human, except for her long, pointed ears appeared in the shop window, placing a cute pair of heeled ankle boots in the display. She, herself, was wearing a red sleeveless dress and patent leather belt, sandals, and had her near platinum blonde hair up in a tight bun. She said and waved at the window shoppers through the window.

“Excuse me.” Candy said, “Do you have those boots in something more of an Open style and that can fit feet like these?” she showed the girl her cat like feet.

“Oh, we sure do,” she replied brightly. “My uncle Ben’s a cobbler of many talents and many fashions. He would be remiss not to make a few Furran pieces though to be honest, we never thought we’d see one here. Jenna told us we would someday though,” she giggled. “Right this way.”

“I think we might be seeing more, too.” Candy nodded as she and Hailey followed, leaving Vanessa to drool over a nice pair of knee high black boots with spikes.

“We’re still getting used to this place,” Hailey said. “Would it be rude of me to ask about your family?”

“Not at all,” the woman laughed softly. “Curiosity is a common bond we all share. My uncle Ben and I were brought here at the same time though, at the time, I was still a kid.”

She giggled as she turned a corner, and the girls entered an entire, veritable shrine of Furran footwear fashion; casual, dressy, sexy, all made to either accommodate, or enhance a paw-foot. She added, “We’re of an ancient race called the Tchu. According to my uncle’s stories, our race is one of the few that encountered humans before this planet.”

“Wow.” Hailey said, paused, and squealed. ”Oh my God.” She pointed to a pair of pink metallic colored open styled strappy boots. “Totes matches that skirt.”

“Yes!” Candy squeaked. “I just love that material, too. It looks like they’ll be comfortable to wear now and after you’ve changed.”

“Silven,” The girl giggled. “We use it in clothing and bed linens because it’s just so luxurious, but it quite literally grows everywhere. We have other materials too obviously, but Silven is a delight to work with and to wear.”

Hailey took the boots and a few other pairs. “Oh I do need a pair of hard leatherish hiking boots too, but if my feet are going to look like hers, in that foot style?”

“Something like what you’re wearing now, but in Furran?” she asked, admiring Hailey’s camouflage pink hiking boots.

“Yeah.” Hailey nodded. “These but Furran.” she grinned.

“Like this?” an older man said with a laugh as he emerged from a back room, holding a pair of rugged leather hiking boots with a semi-open toe design, which was to say they had a toe cap, but a generous one with small holes at the ends.

They looked like a Furran could squeeze their toes right into them comfortably, and still have free access to their claws. Best of all, they were camoflauge pink. “I saw you disembark this morning, and I was inspired.”

“Awww.” Candy said as they got their fill of shoes, “It was nice meeting you,” as the girl filled out the paperwork with the items id numbers on them.

“Likewise!” she answered. “Stop by anytime!”

“Oh we will now that I know you guys have an Army of Furran shoes!” Candy grinned.

The girl nudged Vanessa. “Those boots would look amazing on you.”

“I couldn’t,” Vanessa said. “I don’t even have a job here yet.”

“They’re on me.” Hailey said, and grabbed them, putting her name on the paper, and the girl filled in the rest. “But you have to wear them on your date with Jenna.” She giggled.

“Does that mean we’re going on a double date then?” Candy grinned. “If we are you have to wear Furran fashion when we go out.”

“Ah, hell,” Vanessa said, “I need to find something to wear now that you mention it.”

“I did see a dress in another shop window the other day that I think would be more your style though,” Brie spoke up as she was checking out several pairs of flat shoes. “It’s this adorable laced-back sleeveless thing, a little longer than my skirt, and it’s dark orchid.”

“Don’t kid a kidder,” Vanessa said dryly.

“No it’s true,” Brie said. “About five stores down.”

They left the store and walked down the road a little passing a shop called Ericks Earth American Pizza. “No shit?” Hailey grinned, “Pizza exists here?”

“I don’t want to think about what they use to make the cheese,” Vanessa said. “I really don’t want to even think about it. As long as it looks and tastes like pizza.”

“I almost don’t care. Pizza is amazing.” Hailey grinned and sniffed the air, “And it smells delicious.”

“Well I know where we’re going for our double date,” Candy giggled. By now they had parted ways with Brie, who had an armload of shoes to take home, but wished them luck on their shopping spree.

“Not sure Jenna will like the pizza, but I can smell they serve other types of food.” Hailey nodded as they continued passed it two shops to the shop Brie told them about. It was a total goth shop, nothing but macabre type clothing, and dark gothy stuff.

Vanessa stared. Not only was the dress Brie described sitting right there in the shop window, but it had a dark scarlet red twin, too.

“Oh my goddess, I want them both.” Vanessa grinned. “But I can’t be owing you guys a ton.”

“The sign says help wanted?” Candy said with a helpful grin.

“Well, my other job seems to be canceled permanently.” Vanessa laughed.

Inside, a human girl wearing an Alice Cooper concert tee shirt, ratty black jean shorts, and black and white striped stockings that disappeared into mid-calf high industrial style leather boots sat behind the counter idly thumbing through a book. Her spiderweb earrings dangled garishly under her honey blonde hair.

“Holly shit on a stick, I walked into the best shop in the entire universe.” Vanessa grinned.

“Verran?” The girl said at Vanessa. “We are hiring.”

“Human...ish,” Vanessa giggled. “I have experience both as a store clerk in the shitty side of LA, and as a bouncer in the shittier side of LA.”

“Wait a minute,” the girl said as she hopped down off her stool. “Vanessa? Is that you?”

“Fran? Like Hottopic Fran?” Vanessa laughed, “My goddess.” she hugged the girl.

“Holy shit!” Fran said as she hugged Vanessa back. “The Vamp sisters together again!” she laughed. “Only no nightclubs to totally trash here,” she teased.

“Just The Fish and the Sea.” Vanessa laughed, “But it’s too nice of a place.”

“Yeah, Chucklefish is a great guy,” Fran laughed. “But hey, like you said, totes experience. If you want to take a few shifts working the counter I could get more designs on the floor.”

“Oh hell yeah, you’ll have to teach me your accounting system, because it seems each store is different, Ben’s shoes asks you to write your name with it.” Vanessa said.

“Oh I have an item number on each item, on the tag, that’s all you have to write down.” Fran said. “They give me so much material to work with that I usually end up sharing a warehouse with Jenna over at Furadise.”

“I scored a date with Jenna my first day here.” Vanessa laughed.

“God damn you work fast,” Fran laughed. “We became really close after I got dropped here, but I’m definitely not her type,” she teased. “You, though,” she took Vanessa’s hand and said in a mock fortune teller voice as she looked at her palm, “I foresee many joyous night howling at the moon together.”

“Fran you’ve always been the light goth.” Vanessa laughed.

“Oh, I have the perfect dress for you to wear too,” she said excitedly.

“I was thinking the dark orchid or the red one in the window.” Vanessa grinned.

“You know I was legit thinking of you when I designed those two,” Fran laughed. “I couldn’t decide on a color though, so I said “What would Nessie do? - make both!”.” she giggled, “Oh since you work here, you can go ahead and write them down. Unless you put on weight in the last six months, they should fit like a glove.”

“Hell no, I think I might have lost some.” Vanessa laughed. “You don’t have a spare set of those laying around do you?” she asked, pointing to a pair of wire frame sunglasses with small, blue colored lenses.

“Yup, I have like 30 of them under the counter.” Fran laughed and pulled out two pair, “Thats our display. Pink getting to you?” she teased as she handed them to Vanessa. “You know Pink is a goth color now.”

“I die a little inside every time someone says that,” Vanessa teased her. “Nah, I know, it’s just giving me a headache. Whenever I’m inside I’m fine though.”

“You’re allergic to it,” Fran laughed. “The sky at night turns this amazing shade of purple, though. About another half hour and the sun goes down. You can use my back room to get ready.” She winked.

Candy giggled. “We’re going to head back to our huts and change, but we’ll meet you at Erick's first then we’ll go to Chuck's right?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Vanessa said, and then she did something that even surprised Fran, pulling the girls into a hug. “Thanks guys. This has been one seriously fucked up year for me, but with you two around I feel like it’s finally starting to turn around - pink and all,” she teased.

“We’re family now,” Hailey said. “I don't have any family here, and neither does Candy, so you’re it.”

Fran watched Vanessa disappear into the back room with the red dress, and then laughed. “Wish I had a camera. I didn’t think I’d ever see that girl smile again.” Hailey snuck in the back, before Vanessa had a chance to strip more than her boots, and snapped a picture.

“Just ask anytime you want to see it,” she giggled.

“Righteous,” Fran laughed. “I might borrow that some time so I can paint from reference. Anytime you guys need anything just say the word. Have a great night!”

“Anytime.” Hailey said and waved. She and Candy walked down the street, till they hit the new neighborhood the streets were not extremely busy, but there was a few people all over. Once they got to their neighborhood however, it was empty save the new huts.

“Sure is quiet out here,” Candy said. “On Furra Prime you can’t see the stars at all for all the city lights.”

“I like the light system here, it’s not noise.” Hailey nodded. “It was well designed, but I really hope more Furrans show up, this place is scary without people.”

“I’ll protect you,” Candy giggled as she put an arm around Hailey.

“Don’t worry I can protect myself.” Hailey laughed and pulled out a long knife from her boot. “I come prepared she snuggled into Candy.

“That’s not a knife,” Candy giggled. “That’s a sword.”

Hailey laughed. “I thought you were about to say ‘This is a knife’ and pull a bigger one out of someplace uncomfortable.”

“If I was a male i’d probably pull out a penis and say something like that, but I don't have one.” Candy giggled. “I don't want one either.”

“I wonder,” Hailey giggled.

“What?” Candy asked.

“Oh, I was just thinking about the molecular density of the cellulose in that forest.” She grinned impishly.

Candy giggled, “About 100 metric tons?”

“That is some very hard wood,” Hailey nodded, trying to keep a straight face.

“Very.” Candy agreed but couldn’t keep the straight face. “This is my hut, yours is next door right?”

“For now?” Hailey giggled.

“Well if I wake up with you in my bed tomorrow we’ll know how Furran you really are.” Candy teased her back and giggled. She leaned over to kiss her cheek, just as Hailey was turning to do the same, and their lips met.

“Mmmm that was nice.” Hailey said, “Felt better than El’s mouth-to-mouth, and that was soft too.”

“The quiet ones are always the best kissers,” Candy giggled. “Even if it’s just the kiss of life.”

“Ok, so um, I don't have to worry about my V showing right?” Hailery asked.

“Covered in fur isn't it?” Candy asked.

“I think the fact that my legs are itching from hip to ankle is probably a yes,” Hailey laughed. “I’ve had to fight the last thirty minutes not to just strip right in the street.”

“Take a bath before we go out and here.” Candy reached into her top and pulled out a comb, “Use that. Fur is a lot of maintenance, but if you treat it well, it’s an absolute joy, too.”

“Oh you just want me to make a wet pussy joke.” Hailey giggled.

Candy feigned innocence. She tried to feign innocence. In reality, she had the impish grin of a 12 year old who just discovered the word ‘boob’ was in the dictionary. She giggled and waved, walking backwards up to her hut, and kept her eyes on Hailey right up until she closed the door.

Hailey and Candy were the first to arrive at Erick’s Pizza. It wasn’t long before Jenna met up with them, though Vanessa was running a little behind, and had no way of telling them. “Hey.” Hailey giggled. She was wearing her new Furran outfit, she wasn’t totally fur covered yet, but it worked.

“Wow,” Jenna said as she looked Hailey over. “You look gorgeous. Love the fur.”

“Do have to fight you for my woman?” Candy teased.

Jenna laughed. “I have my eye on another human...ish girl, actually,” she teased back.

“I think she should be here shortly. Want to go in and get a table?” Hailey asked.

Jenna nodded. “I don’t know how you knew, unless you were asking around,” she teased. “I love this place. The garden special is absolutely sublime.”

“Hailey is getting the sense of smell, and was drooling on it all the way to Vanessa’s new job.” Candy giggled.

“Oh? She found a new job already?” Jenna asked.

“Yup, with Fran.” Hailey nodded.

Jenna laughed. “I should have seen that coming. In fact I should have suggested it myself, but I was a little ah... preoccupied.” She giggled again.

“Checkin out the Human ish vampires assets?” Candy laughed as they heard distinct, sharp footfalls approaching.

Vanessa and Fran had really gone all out on her look, adding skull motif jewelry with dangling spider earrings and she even had her hair up in a style reminiscent of another Vampire Queen, the lady Elvira herself, to say nothing of her makeup. “Sorry it took me so long, but I lost two teeth in the bathroom, just fell right out.” she opened her mouth to show the two empty spots. “Didn’t hurt at all though.”

“You smell different,” Hailey just blurted right out, and Candy started to giggle.

“Does that hurt?” Jenna asked, concerned.

“No it felt weird when they fell out.” Vanessa shrugged, “Hopefully they grow back.”

“Your fangs are coming in,” Candy said with a nod.

“Oh?” Jenna grinned. “The water does change people even only slightly. You only have to touch it.”

“I’ve been drinking it,” Vanessa laughed.

“Same here,” Hailey nodded.

“Oh you guys should talk to the doctor in the morning.” Jenna frowned. “The effects of drinking too much unfiltered water aren’t fully understood yet.”

“Wait, so you don’t normally just crave the sweet ocean water?” Hailey asked as they walked inside.

“No that’s very unusual.” Jenna looked concerned, “Erick, is your Aunt in?”

“Hey Jenna,” the man behind the counter nodded. “She’s upstairs. Want me to go get her?”

“I hate to ask, but I think we have an emergency.” Jenna sighed, she turned to Candy, “Have you been drinking that much as well?”

Candy nodded her head, “Yeah, but I haven't noticed any changes.”

“I have. You’re definitely not acting like a normal Furran - no offense.” Jenna spoke. “You’re more free about things.”

Candy frowned, nodding after a moment. “Yeah, I... kept telling myself it was because nobody here - well, almost nobody here - really knew what we were like, and being around Hailey is frankly a little intoxicating,” she giggled, and then cleared her throat. “But surely the water wouldn’t affect a taught habit... would it?”

Hailey smiled innocently, “What? I’m not drugging her. I don't have any drugs to drug her with.”

“Unless you smuggled some catnip in an uncomfortable place,” Candy giggled out.

“Nope.” Hailey giggled too. “If you put a quarter in there, it would implode it’s soo tight.”

A woman in her late 20s or so came out of the backroom, carrying a well used doctor’s bag in one hand. “Jenna, what seems to be the emergency?” she asked.

“Sorry to disturb you Lynn, but these three just told me they’ve been drinking the ocean water - craving it.”

“Oh dear.” Lynn looked concerned. “Nobody has ever drank much of the water at once.”

“Hailey is becoming Furran - stardust blue,” Jenna said, “My poor Vanessa’s canines just fell out in the sink, and even Candy seems much less inhibited than the typical Furran I’ve worked with.”

We’ve never had to deal with Furran before.. According to the logs, Furrens have a built in mechanism nowadays that helps them regulate their inhibitions?”

If Candy’s skin could be seen, it would have turned pale. “Oh no... No no no no no. Are you saying I’m losing my inhibitions? I can’t. I won’t be like the stories. I won’t go feral!” she started to panic. As much as they liked to tell people it was taught, it seemed, in her panic, Candy let out one of Furra Prime’s little-known secrets.

“Oh I don't think you have to worry too much, but I will need to get a blood sample.” she pulled out some surprisingly high tech stuff from the old bag.

“Fuck,” Vanessa groaned.

“No needles dear.” Lynn said. She knew exactly what Vanessa was afraid of.

“Okay, but if I see one drop of blood I’m not cleaning up the results.”

“Oh that’s easy to fix too.” Lynn nodded and pulled out some black tubes putting them on the table and loading one into a device that wasn’t much larger than the vials themselves, with no visible means of drawing anything, let alone blood. “Who’s first?”

“I guess I’ll go first, so Vanessa can see the whole process,” Hailey said, smiling at her new friend.

“This won't hurt at all, and normally when they say that, they're full of shit.” Lynn grinned, and placed the device against Hailey’s arm. She didn’t feel anything, and they couldn't see the vile fill with blood. “You would be surprised to know how many people in the universes that have trypanophobia.”

“I remember Brie saying something about needles being barbaric,” Hailey laughed. “Honestly when I gave her my last two blood samples though, I was considerably distracted both times. This is the first I’ve actually seen the process and paid attention.”

“Didn’t hurt did it?” Lynn half-teased.

Hailey shook her head. “I didn’t even feel anything. Not even pressure really.”

“Nothing punctures the skin is why.” Lynn grinned, and Vanessa volunteered next, and then Candy had hers drawn last. “I'm going to run some tests right here. As for the water thing, we can only hope it goes away when you finish changing, but if not, we’re going to have to detox all three of you.”

Jenna squeezed Vanessa’s hand. “Don’t worry. I’ll be by your side even if I have to wear a blanket out.”

Vanessa laughed, “I’ve been to Rehab before. it’s not bad, especially if you want to be there. Oh don’t worry,” she quickly added, “Nothing too extreme. I was a depressed teenager, addicted to painkillers. I’ve been clean for six years.” She smiled proudly, exposing two vacant fang holes. Jenna giggled.

“In theory, an ocean water detox will be quite like just taking a few days’ rest. I say in theory because it’s never been done before,” Lynn explained.

“We’re rewriting the rules as we go,” Vanessa said. “There’s an entire convenience store, on an island full of um...”

“Hardwood,” Candy giggled.

“Yeah... Hardwood trees, about half a day from here now,” Vanessa laughed.

Hailey fell off her chair giggling, “A Metric fuckton of hardwood.”

While they waited, Erick came back out, both to check on them, and to get their orders. Vanessa and Jenna both ordered the garden special.

“I’ll take a Taco pizza.” Hailey snickered, after he had left. “Get it Candy, Taco?”

“Water... you tacoin’ about?” Candy giggled.

Hailey giggled even more, “Can you make the taco meat a little pink.”

Vanessa groaned. “6th grade humor there Hailey.”

“I’m sorry,” Hailey giggled. “I can’t help myself. But yeah,um the taco pizza really does smell delicious, oh and an order of garlic bread.”

“Make that two orders of garlic bread,” Candy giggled. “If I’m going to kiss garlic, I’m going to enjoy it.”

“Three.” Jenna laughed. “I totally forgot the Garlic bread.”

Erick tried to keep a straight face, even though Lynn was stifling laughter through the whole conversation. “We’ve heard about Furrans before by the way, we’ve been preparing for your kind to join us, but wow that was a lot more than we expected.”

“We’re usually much more polite,” Candy giggled out. “There’s something wrong with us.”

“Amen to that,” Vanessa teased her.

Jenna shrugged, “I kinda like it. I’ve met some furran who’ve let go of their streak and let it all hang out, they seem to be less stuck up.” She leaned closer and whispered, “Remind me to tell you the one about the author and the octopus.” She watched the two furran for a moment, waiting for their reactions.

Candy’s turn to fall off her chair laughing, Hailey was giggling but not as bad as Candy.

Jenna grinned. “That came straight from Master Risha.” She winked. “I’m more worried about the effects of overdosing on ocean water than anything.”

“Ok from these readings, you’re regressing, but not back to your farel state.. There seems to have been a time in your people's lives when you were settling from being Farel, that your sexual inhibitions didn’t exist.” Lynn stated.

“That’s just as bad,” Candy groaned. “How did you even know though? There are no Furran here,and that’s a deeply guarded secret.”

“We have access to Traxian medical files,” Lynn answered simply. Candy’s lips curled into a perfect ‘o’ for a moment, though she didn’t sound it out. She nodded.

“I don't see any data here showing that the wall is going to completely crumble down either.” Lynn spoke.

“As long as I’m not compelled to hit on everything that moves, and a few things that don’t,” Candy said almost seriously. “There was literally a time in our people's lives, we would fuck anything and everything. Most furren call it ‘being a male’ today,” she giggled out, joking.

“If it does come to that, I believe there’s still help available,” Lynn said.

“Extensive treatment.” Candy sighed.

A knowing grin crossed Lynn’s face. “A natural method. According to Brie’s meticulous record keeping, the answer is dressed in blue beside you.”

Hailey giggled. “The blue pussy saves the day.”

Lynn tried her best not to laugh. “According to Brie, you’re well versed in an Earth martial art called Tai Chi. It’s similar to the meditative practices of several races, including Furran monks.”

“Yeah, I’m almost to an assistant teaching level.” Hailey nodded. “We should totally practice it anyway even if we don’t need it for that.”

“Sounds good to me,” Candy giggled.

“We can even practice when we’re on missions.” Hailey added.

“I’ll stick with shotgun fu,” Vanessa teased them.

“As for you, you’re reading fine across the board for a youngling Verran.” Lynn spoke to Vanessa.

“See,” Jenna said, “I told you we’re all human-ish.” She giggled. Vanessa laughed.

“Not like I’m much of a day person anyway.” she paused, “I better tell Fran that I’ll have to take the shifts that keep me out of the sun.”

“Oh,” Jenna said, “That reminds me - two things. First, you can go out when it's overcast, but it’s a little dangerous if you don’t know if the sun might come out. Two, in Fran’s back room the carpet isn’t tacked down,” she paused to let Candy and Hailey giggle that one out. “There’s a tunnel running between our shops, with the garment warehouse she shares with me in-between. Wouldn’t take much to dig a tunnel to your hut.”

“Or you could get a room,” Candy giggled.

Vanessa groaned, “That one didn’t fit.”

“Sorry,” Candy laughed.

Hailey giggled, “That’s what she said.”

“Nice save,” Jenna laughed.

“Now I know how Daria felt, “Vanessa giggled - genuinely giggled.

“Beavis and Butthead were way worse.” Hailey giggled as Erick brought out their drinks - two glasses of Doctor Pepper for the furrens, a glass of vanilla coke for Vanessa. And a glass of some blue fruity smelling liquid for Jenna, along with their garlic bread.

“Ok further testing on the water information, it seems to be accelerating your changes.” Lynn said as she started to put away her equipment. “We’ll play it by ear, but I believe that when your changes are done, the cravings for the water will go away with it. Just to be safe I’d avoid drinking more for now if you can, but if you start to feel withdrawal symptoms, have a glass and see if that helps. Any other symptoms, come straight back here or to the clinic.” she paused, “There are two genetic researches so we take shifts.”

Hailey got a little more serious, “You know if more Furrans show up, it’s going to suck if we’ve somewhat regressed to a pervert stage, and they haven’t.”

“We’ll make sure they drink the water too,” Candy teased.

“Drink the Kool Aid, become one of us.” Hailey giggled as she took a drink of her soda. it was nice and cold, even having some ice floating in it.

“I’m thinking the overseers have a plan about that, they wouldn’t make you two like that and then bring in prudes.” Lynn shrugged.

“I’m telling you,” Vanessa said, “We’re rewriting the rules as we go.”

“They also seem to really like Earth for some reason.” Lynn laughed, “There are more normal humans here than anything else.”

“They need to drink the water too,” Hailey giggled.

“There has to be a method to their madness even if they switched it up.” Lynn shrugged. “There’s always a pattern.”

Hailey nodded. “In my case, I literally almost drowned in the ocean water, but Vanessa was inside the 7-11. She never touched the ocean water before we got back.”

“I was in a tree and fell out.” Candy nodded, “And yes, we land on all fours every time.”

“So you were-” Hailey started to say.

“Don’t say it,” Vanessa groaned.

“A-”

“Tsht!” Vanessa interrupted her.

“Pussy on a penis?” Jenna finished for her. Vanessa groaned. “Sorry I picked up a ton of their humor when I lived on Furra Prime.”

Vanessa laughed. “It’s fine. They just remind me of my two nieces.”

“You hang out with these two long enough, it’ll rub off on you too.” Jenna laughed.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Vanessa laughed.

“Rub one off.” Hailey giggled which earned a giggling from Candy and a slap on the arm.

They had a wonderful meal, and many more perverted jokes that would make an Earth Sailor blush, after which they said their goodbyes and thanks to Erik for the wonderful food, and headed towards the tavern. Even Vanessa had to admit the more subtle jokes, like the author and the octopus, were clever and funny, though. It only took her halfway through the meal to finally fully process it, too.

The more blunt ones were funny in a 6th grade humor sort of way too. The way the girls just bounced them off each other was what made them funny really. By the time they reached the Tavern, Vanessa had noticed something growing out of the base of Hailey’s tailbone so did Jenna because they were both walking behind Hailey and Candy.

“Admiring the view?” Hailey looked over her shoulder and wiggled her butt. “Full moon tonight.”

Jenna laughed, “Actually Hailey, you're starting to grow your tail.”

“Oh, is that what that is?” Candy said, looking over appraisingly. “I thought she was smuggling something for the after party.”

“I told you, it’s so tight it would implode a quarter.” Hailey winked.

“Then you work your way up to a quarter from an eighth,” Candy shot back, having no idea that a quarter, to Hailey, was a coin.

Hailey giggled and smacked Candy’s arm, “That won't get you in bed.” she teased.

“Okay,” Vanessa said. “I think I’m starting to get the basics. So if I say something just completely random like, I don’t know, blue stars, the goal isn’t to try and make it funny, but to see how long it takes the other person to make it funny?”

Jenna nodded. “Exactly.”

“Otherwise we’d go completely insane,” Candy giggled, now walking backwards. “Good one, by the way. Hailey’s going to have a blue star in a few days,” she giggled.

“You’ll have a black and blue star.” Hailey giggled.

Vanessa leaned over to Jenna and whispered something just before they reached the tavern. Jenna’s eyes widened. She started laughing and nodded. She ran ahead inside, and Vanessa moved to put one arm around each of the girls’ necks. She said in a whisper, “chicken pot pie,” and then dashed inside. Hailey started giggling.

As they two entered Candy giggled and blurted out the most nastiest thing she could think of.

The tavern fell silent, save for the snickering and laughing from Vanessa and Jenna from one corner. Ella was sitting at one of the tables with a human girl with slightly olive hued skin and chestnut brown, nearly black hair. The girl asked Ella something, and Ella just grinned and nodded. She said something back to her, and the girl giggled softly, blushing. Ella grinned and waved them over.

Hailey smiled and shrugged as she came over and sat down, neither girl were embarrassed at all by the sudden outburst and silence. Candy followed.

“She’s only been Furran less than a day too,” Ella giggled out.

“We’re losing some of our inhibitions, including our embarrassment factor.” Candy shrugged.

“Must be nice,” the new girl laughed quietly. She was most definitely human.

“As long as we don’t go feral or to that other stage Candy talked to Doctor Lynn about.” Hailey spoke, “I’ll be fine, I can handle this banter stuff.”

“So we saw Vanessa and Jenna sneak in earlier. She’s looking paler than before, and you’re looking a lot more blue,” she giggled. “Oh, this is Karen. She’s with the other explorer group, so we hardly ever get to see each other.”

“Yeah Candy and I were talking we were going to give them space here.” Hailey smiled ignoring the statement about their changes. “Nice to meet you Karen.”

“You as well, Ella’s team is 3 people short of a full team, now they’re one.” Karen said, “Thanks for joining them.”

“I’ve been slowly wearing her down on the idea of joining us,” Ella laughed.

“I couldn't leave my sisters team unless we can find a good enough replacement.” Karen said. “Identical twins. But I do miss seeing Ellie too.” She squeezed Ella’s hand under the table.

“Weird.” Hailey spoke. “For like the last 4 hours, Candy and I have been bouncing perverted off each other, but right just now, I had something, but I didn’t feel like blurting it out.”

“Oh... Oh man, I’m so stupid,” Candy laughed. “We’ve been purging. I can’t believe I didn’t realize it. I’ve been, like, the last two weeks among outsiders, traveling abroad and lecturing about the new anxiety treatment I developed. I was on my way home when that weird light grabbed me.”

“But here even though they’re not Furren, we feel like they are?” Hailey asked.

Candy nodded. “Yeah, that must be it. We feel at home enough among these people to say things we would never in a million lightyears say among polite company.” She giggled. “And you're acting like a school kit, learning how to control it.”

“I’m almost sorry I missed the show,” Karen giggled. “Ella was regaling me about your journey home from the 7-11. I laughed so hard my sides hurt.”

“All these dirty jokes floating around in my head, I could write a Dirty Furren Joke 101 book.” Hailey giggled. “Oh, what was the one Jenna told us was from Master Risa?”

“The Author and the Octopus.” Candy giggled causing Hailey to giggle too. “That one never gets old.”

“Oh, we have another one to add to the island story chain,” Hailey giggled. “I found out that Candy actually landed in a tree.”

“A Pussy in a Dick tree.” Candy giggled. Ella and Karen did too.

“That’s terrible,” Karen said, laughing. “I love it.”

“You can blame Hailey for the pussy thing, she started calling Furren’s pussy’s.” Candy giggled.

“Oh no no no,” Hailey laughed. “That blame rests squarely on you and your pussy in a dick forrest comment.”

“My favorite was clam diver in a sausage forest,” Karen giggled out.

Hailey leaned over to nudge Ella. “This one’s a keeper!” she whispered.

Ella blushed and giggled. “Let’s hope her father agrees.”

“Pfft,” Karen said. “I’m old enough to join the explorers. And you’re a what’s-it. Regulator.”

“Both Karen and Tera are Native born.” Ella explained to Hailey and Candy, “They were actually born here.”

“Oh wait, there’s something I always wanted to ask one of your people Ella,” Candy said. Karen waited with baited breath. “Do you call your standing army the Regulator Regulars?”

Karen giggled, and Ella groaned and shook her head, laughing. “I’ve barely known you two a day, and I already feel like we’ve known each other a lifetime.”

Karen nodded. “It makes me feel better knowing Ellie is surrounded by people who can make her laugh. I know Brie and Rebecca are wonderful people, too.”

“We told Vanessa this earlier, but I’ll repeat the same to Ella, Rebecca or even Brie, they’re like family to me, I’m purrrrty sure Candy does too.” she purred out the word Purty.

“I feel purrfectly content here,” Candy nodded. “I don’t purrge with just anyone. You have to be purretty close to comfortable with them first. You all should be purrfect strangers, but here we are,” she giggled.

“We’ve been purrging with half the town before we finally calmed down.” Hailey nodded. “Doctor Lynn thinks drinking too much ocean water accelerated the changes. But we were literally craving the stuff.”

Both Ella and Karen frowned at that. “I’m glad you talked to Lynn at least,” Ella said. “Swallowing too much of that stuff... Well, we don’t actually know what would happen.”

“We’re the purrfect guinea pigs,” they said in unison, causing them both to giggle.

“Oh!” Karen said, pointing to the makeshift stage near the bar as a girl who looked identical to her was setting up with a 12 string guitar. “She convinced Brie to sing tonight.”

Ella laughed, “It’s going to be really interesting to hear. Brie’s convinced she has the vocal talents of a sick mynok in a garbage processor, but Karen’s sister says she sounds amazing.”

“It’s always the ones that lie about it, that have the best voices.” Hailey giggled as Brie nervously entered the main room.

Tricia stepped up on stage and took the mic, “Ladies and Gentlefolk, I have some very good news.” she paused and smiled, “Q’laan and Lisa had their first child, which makes their baby second generation - 10 pounds, 3 ounces, a very healthy baby boy.” The bar actually erupted in Cheering, it definitely wasn’t like that on earth where a baby is born every second.

“We also have for your listening pleasure tonight a blending of cultures, something uniquely ours. Miss Tera and Miss Brie have put together a little something that I believe you’ll all enjoy. As you may know, Brie’s people have one of the most unique vocal talents in the known galaxy, but I think I’ll stop talking and let her voice speak for itself.” She grinned as she stepped away from the mic and Brie approached it.

“I’m really nervous,” she said with a nervous laugh.

Hailey smiled and called out, “Don’t be, you have such a wonderful normal voice.”

“Now I’m even more nervous,” Brie laughed, waited for the patrons to give each other puzzled looks and then grinned. “Cat calls,” she teased, giggling.
“Meow.” Candy called out.

At first, a sound not at all pleasant, and more like a frog with its tongue stuck to a frozen light post croaked out. Brie cleared her throat. “Sorry about that,” she said, taking a glass of water from off the bar. She drank the entire thing, put the glass down, and then something amazing happened.

A soft, sweet soprano voice began to sing in a language Hailey didn’t recognize, tot he soft strains of 12-string guitar. And then a second voice joined in harmony with the first - both of them coming from Brie.

“Woah, she’s singing in Ilonian,” Karen said.

By the time Brie had come back around to the third verse, it was something everyone could understand - the universal trade language.

“It’s not about the end, no matter where you go, it’s all about the journey, and finding your own road. Doesn’t matter where you’re going, only where you’ve been, and the people you can look back on, and say they were true friends.”

She had to wipe away a tear when she finished, stepping back from the microphone. Again the entire tavern erupted in cheers and applause as she took Tera’s hand, and they took a deep bow together. Karen got up to hug her sister after they left the stage, and Ella hugged Brie.

“I only wrote one song, sorry guys.” Brie spoke hugging Ella back. “But um if you ask Hailey really nice, she has a music box that we can use.”

Hailey laughed and took her iPhone out from her new silven metallic pink purse and placed it where she thought the acoustics might be best, setting it to party mix shuffle.

“Fashion is my only real art, my tail fur,” Candy giggled. “That was amazing.”

Brie blushed, “Thank you. My parents wanted me to be a scientist. They felt that singing was a waste of our true talents, rather than ‘abusing a biological abnormality’.”

“Well you’re parents aren't here now are they?” Hailey grinned. “You’re amongst family and friends.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Brie said as Ella and Karen pulled up two extra chairs for Tera and Brie, “I love being an explorer, and I love science. I would never give up the Explorers’ guild for anything, but... I felt more free tonight than I have in years.”

“Good music is supposed to set your soul free.” Hailey nodded. As if on cue, “Fly Like an Eagle” came up on the iPhone. “See? Even the Overseers agree,” she teased.

“Some of the people have actually taken to calling them Gods, we all know there more than one, so they’ve taken to calling them all gods.” Brie said.

“Eh?” Candy said. “Is that superstitious talk I hear?” She grinned playfully.

“If you can be superstitious, so can everyone else.” Brie teased back. “Besides, we know they exist. There’s nothing superstitious about knowing something. That’s just good sense.” She giggled, turning Candy’s own words against her.

Candy laughed. “Now you’re getting it,” she said as Chuck brought a fresh round of drinks around to their table.

“I don’t think I’d go as far as calling them gods and worshipping them.” Hailey spoke, “But I have to say whoever they are, they are very powerful beings, and while I’m going to miss my friends and family, I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be. To whatever tomorrow holds for all of us,” she said, raising her glass.

“To Tomorrow.” Karen raised hers as well.

“And to your father not skinning me alive,” Ella teased, giggling as she raised hers.

“I think my father is more scared of you, miss you can lift a boat out of the ocean and carry it to shore.” Karen giggled. “If you want to talk to him, tomorrow morning would be the best time, before you have to leave again.”

“Oh no,” Rebecca said, leaning over their table. “Doctors’ orders. We’re to stay docked until further notice.” She grinned. “So enjoy it. These two and that one over there are under observation till their changes are done, and we won’t leave without them.”

Karen giggled excitedly and hugged Ella. “So I guess there is a second date tomorrow,” she said with a grin.

Candy grinned, “Same for us.”

The girls had walked home that night from the tavern; they had had a lot of fun. Hailey was changing. She wasn’t forgetting her friends, but was making new ones, since she knew there was nothing she could do about her situation. Besides, the call to explore was strong. She had already learned in her short time here, that in 60 years, they had only really thoroughly explored a dozen or so islands.

Some islands they’d make note of for later study, and others they could spend years meticulously documenting. As Brie said, the pursuit of knowledge was relentless and endless. They never knew what they’d find that could help their survival, and so they couldn’t afford to rush things.

The Island the colony was on was massive as well, Tricia figured it was at least half the size of Australia, except it wasn’t all desert Most of it was forested. The Oceans currents were really strong as well, but the water seemed really calm and even safe in places to swim in provided the swimmer didn’t drink too much of the stuff.

Hailey was beginning to feel the withdrawal symptoms Lynn warned her about, and by the time she went to bed, she resolved to have one more glass just to help her sleep - and it did. She felt immediately relieved, and drifted right off. When she awoke the next morning, she felt different, but at the same time it felt right.

She also wasn't craving the water anymore. Doctor Lynn had been right on her theory, even if she hadn't totally explained it.

“Blue is beautiful,” Hailey giggled as she climbed out of bed, realizing she was now covered in stardust blue fur. She stretched out her hand. They looked like something of a cross between hands and paws now, fully opposable, but thicker and stronger, with retractable claws. She wriggled her toes, her toe claws tapping on the hardwood floor. “I totally wish Wendy could see me now.”

Her tail swished idly as she picked up the comb Candy had loaned her and began to meticulously comb out her fur. She was amazed at her new flexibility, and ability to reach hard-to-reach places, too. She was always flexible because of her martial arts practice, but this was a whole new level.

She went back to her room after grooming herself, and almost forgot to get dressed. If it wasn’t for that tiny nag in the back of her head that was almost ignorable, she wouldn't have gotten dressed. Furren clothes covered things, as much as they needed to be but that was about it, they had fur and that should be good enough, especially for her people on this planet.

She didn’t even think twice even though wearing this stuff would have embarrassed the hell out of Hailey back on earth. She stepped out into her front yard and began to stretch to start her morning Tai Chi.

Her ears, now relocated to the top of her head, twitched slightly. She could hear... something. Someone? She caught a familiar scent just in time to grab Candy, who was trying to sneak up on her, and spun her around in front of her, giving her a hug. “Nice try,” she giggled.

“I moved too fast didn’t I?” Candy laughed and kissed her square on the nose. “I didn’t want to get hit when you started your martial arts stuff though.”

“Oh you’re fine; I smelled you almost right away, why don’t you join me, I can teach you some basic stances.” Hailey smiled.

“Sure! My sister - well one of my sisters anyway, is a Furren monk, but I never took the time to learn even the basics. Teach me, O almost-assistant-teacher,” she giggled.

Hailey giggled softly and then began instructing Candy how to move where to put her legs and then she smiled, “What I just showed you in pieces will look like this when you put them all together.” she showed Candy how it flowed together.

“Wow,” Candy said. “What looks like spastic flailing separately actually flows into a beautiful dance,” she said, and then tried to mimic it. She was certainly agile and graceful. Hailey wondered if all of their people - her own people now - were that graceful. She had seen some pretty clumsy cat videos on YouTube in her time after all.

Hailey smiled as she corrected Candy’s leg spacing and hand placements a few times, but all in all Candy had gotten the basic first stance down already, “That one is a very good stretching stance, it not only works your legs, it works your arm and neck as well.”

“Yes, I can really feel the sponges flexing,” she giggled, working her tail into the stretch.

Hailey watched, “I need to figure out how to add our tails to it. That looks ok, but it’s not refined enough.” she smiled.

Candy nodded as she stood again. “Furren monks work their tails into their practice like a fifth limb. Sneaking up on one can be just as dangerous as attacking them from the front,” she giggled out.

“I noticed my tail is pretty agile and strong this morning.” Hailey nodded. “On earth Cat’s tails are for balance.”

“Same with ours, but they can do much more too. Some people use them to hold mugs and stuff or to do other things.” Candy nodded. “Of course, furren come in all flavors, including clumsy oafs,” she giggled. “Especially the bobtails.”

“Bobtails.” Hailey smiled thoughtfully, “I remember seeing a Bobtail at the Zoo.”

“It’s a genetic abnormality on Furra Prime. Some get a prosthetic tail when they’re older, others see it as a mark of pride,” Candy explained, as Hailey showed her another basic stance and movement. This time Hailey had taken a moment to work their tail into the stance and movement.

“Oooh that feels good,” Candy said.

“That’s what she said,” Ella spoke up from the edge of the yard, not wanting to disrespect sovereign Hailey territory.

Both Candy and Hailey giggled and Hailey waved, “Is that coffee you’re carrying? Smells wonderful.”

Ella grinned as she approached. “New shop sprang up overnight after that 7-11 haul,” she said, nodding. “It’s an acquired taste for sure, but I like it so far. How are you two feeling?”

“Wonderful actually.” Hailey said. “Mind if I take a sip of that?”

“Oh sure,” Ella laughed and handed the mug to Hailey.

“Oooo that’s delicious.” Hailey smiled after taking her sip.

“I’m still waiting to see what’s really changed about me,” Candy laughed. “I’ve decided last night was just a purge phase.”

“Candy was telling me that all Furren do it, it helps keep our sanity.” Hailey nodded, “But we’re really picky about who we purge with, even amongst other furren.”

“Maybe that’s what changed,” Ella said thoughtfully. “You evolved beyond the Traxian impulses ingrained in your DNA? At least when it comes to how you interact with other species, anyway.”

“Maybe. That would be interesting.” Candy smiled. She sniffed the coffee and then shook her head. “Nope. Still don’t want anymore of that stuff.” Hailey giggled, taking one more quick sip before handing it back to Ella.

“They also are using some herbs we can find on the island to make tea as well at the shop so it’s not just coffee.” Ella smiled.

“Oh I think I found my first stop every morning before the docks then.” Hailey laughed.

“Most definitely,” Candy nodded. “Tea I can deal with. That coffee stuff tastes like sweaty gym socks, though.”

Hailey giggled again, “How do you know have you ever eaten sweaty gym socks?”

Candy gave her a look, and then giggled. “I have 14 brothers and sisters. I’ve been the subject of pranks that would turn your fur white,” she teased.

Ella whistled, “That's a pretty big family.”

Candy shook her head, “Actually it’s rather small, most furren families can get much bigger than that and usually do.”

“So Furrens always have sextuplets huh?” Hailey said with an innocent giggle.

“2 to 6 children at a time yes.” Candy nodded, paused, then giggled. “Oh you’re terrible,” she laughed.

Ella smiled, “Furren kit’s are born smaller than most races and grow faster as well. We had noticed that furren race had a lifespan of 25 to 35 years on average.”

Candy nodded. “We call it the blue sun lifecycle - live fast and hot, and burn out with a bang. Furrens rarely live to a natural death of old age,” she giggled. “If we’re going to die young, we might as well enjoy life while we can, you know?”

“Wow so we aren’t going to live that long then?” Hailey looked a little shocked.

“Actually.” Candy answered, “Some furren especially the blue variety are rumored to be able to live 40-60 years.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Ella said. “We didn’t tell you about Tricia did we? I mean... why she’s as old as she is, and still looks like she’s 20?”

Hailey shook her head, “No why is that? I kinda figured it was part of her change.”

“More cosmic humor,” Ella said, grinning. “Every non-breeder - that is, everyone who’s attracted to a member of the same sex pretty much doesn’t age. Not just Tricia, but every other person like us that’s come here. Tricia’s just the most extreme example.”

Candy looked up, “Really? I mean that’s just crazy, but I can sort of see why they would do that.”

“Oh,” Hailey said, “Because those who are able to reproduce can pass on their genetic material to a new generation, but people like me who - frankly just find men repulsive in that way - will never willingly reproduce?”

“Exactly.” Ella nodded. “Tricia thinks that we can’t reproduce anyway, that was taken when we were given the longer life.”

“Furrens can remain in labor for weeks at a time,” Candy said bluntly. “That’s one hell of a good trade if you ask me. I’ve had a lot of friends who’ve had kits and it’s kinda what changed my preference on gender as much as anything.”

“I always giggle a little when you say things like that,” Hailey said. “For humans it’s not a choice, but hard-wired in our- in their brain.”

“It might be in ours too, but I like to think that it’s my personal choice, that anything I do is my choice.” Candy nodded.

Ella watched them for awhile, and then more intently watched Hailey’s full demonstration of the advanced forms. A thoughtful grin crossed her face, and Hailey stopped to look at her. “... What?”

Ella giggled. “I was just thinking that sped up, you could probably kick my ass in a fight.”

“Would you like to see what that one looks like in a combat situation?” Hailey asked.

“Ohhh, I think she just threw down the gauntlet,” Candy giggled.

“Why not.” Ella laughed. “I promise to take it easy on you.” She winked.

“And I promise not to break anything... vital,” Hailey teased her back. She had yet to see Ella in action, but she looked like she could be agile despite her dense muscle structure. She was right.

Ella easily darted around, constantly moving, almost floating. Hailey didn’t make a move though, instead keeping her defensive stance up and watching, waiting for Ella to make the first move. As soon as she did, a swift striking motion, Hailey knocked her hand away, redirecting the blow harmlessly, which knocked Ella off guard and balance.

“Patience.” Hailey grinned, “You cannot hit a grain of sand without patients.”

“You can hit a grain of sand with a big enough hammer,” Ella answered, grinning as she adjusted her stance. Hailey recognized it as horse stance, a powerful stance to strike from without sacrificing stability.

“Even the grain of sand can deflect a large blow.” Hailey grinned, and switched to snake. Candy watched from a safe distance, wishing in the back of her mind that she had a salty snack to enjoy the spectacle with. Then she remember that Hailey had snagged a bunch of what she called instant popcorn from the store.

“Be right back guys - don’t kill each other yet!” she giggled as she dashed inside. Ella laughed and Lunged at Hailey, who dodged again watching for the right time to make a move. She swished her tail to the side, and Ella glanced over just long enough for Hailey to strike.

It was a light tap, harmless really. Even if she had tried to hurt Ella, it wouldn’t have done much to her, but she was intentionally pulling punches as it were. Even so, it had the desired effect of throwing Ella off her guard again.

“Becoming Furren has given you a lot of agility. I wonder if you could have done this as a normal human.” Ella grinned.

“I could defend myself okay,” Hailey laughed as she ducked under Ella’s next strike and sprang to her side, making two quick strikes at her side, “But I never entered a competition to me this was a way to help with my other activities, I can also run parkour.”

Ella changed her stance again. She raised her hands out in front of her and shifted her balance to the balls of her feet. She pretended to stagger and swing wildly, finally catching Hailey off guard for a moment, and then caught her gently in the side - again just a light tap in return. But Hailey already had three on her.

“Drunken master.” Hailey grinned as she finally catching on and was able to form a defense. “Am I crazy, or have I gotten faster mentally too?” she said genuinely curious.

“Furren are like Sartorans. They are naturally intelligent and curious.” Ella spoke, “However unlike Sartori, Furren don’t tend to be excessively hyper intelligent.”

“Just hyper,” Candy teased as she came back out, the scent of artery clogging buttery popcorn filling the air, amid the distinct crunching sounds. “We are hyper intelligent, just not as much so.”

“The sexually playful thing is a ruse.” Ella laughed. “My people think it’s a defense mechanism.”

“When your enemy thinks you’re harmless prey,” Hailey giggled, “Then they become the prey,” she said as she made a swift leg sweep. Ella leapt over it, but she wasn’t counting on Hailey being able to use her tail very well yet, which knocked her off balance enough for Hailey to make another strike, pushing her on her backside.

“Ok Ok, I think I’ve got it, Tai Chi is pretty powerful.” Ella laughed, “I give up.”

Hailey laughed and grabbed Ella’s hand to pull her up again. Ella grinned. “I had the chance to spar with one of their monks. It ended about the same way, but I always take lessons from my defeats. That was very enjoyable.”

“Well, I’m already teaching Candy, if you’re interested in learning. I know for a fact you can teach me a lot, too,” she winked.

Hailey and Candy were waiting at the big stone building that was called the Labs, in the clinic section for a checkup. Lynn wanted to make sure they were done before sending them out on any exploration missions. Hailey was itching to get out and explore the planet and Candy just wanted to spend time with Hailey and her new friends.

They were mostly alone in the waiting area save for the human receptionist who, herself seemed to be doing double duty as both a receptionist and scientist, and a girl with long, pointed ears who, every so often, covered her mouth and hiccupped. She groaned slightly after each one.

“I’ve been doing this for a week,” she said with a sigh and then a hiccup. “It’s embarrassing.”

“Did you try holding your breath?” Candy asked. The girl nodded.

“Drinking water, standing on my head, my partner even says he hears me doing it in my sleep,” the girl laughed.

“Awww, hmm.” Hailey said, “Try having someone scare you?”

“... Haven’t tried that,” she said and shook her head as Lynn came out.

“Hiccups suck. They hurt too.” Hailey sighed.

Lynn approached the girl and sat down beside her. She looked serious. “I’m sorry, Keradin. I’m so sorry.”

“What? What is it?” Keradin asked.

“It’s serious,” Lynn said. Keradin’s breath caught in her throat. She also stopped hiccupping. Lynn smiled sheepishly.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, trying not to giggle. “But I wanted to try scaring you first before considering more drastic measures.”

“I had a case of the hiccups once when I was 9, that they had to put me on oxygen.” Hailey sighed.

Lynn nodded. “Most people don’t believe they’re that serious, but they can lead to loss of sleep if the diaphragm refuses to stop twitching, which can lead to serious medical problems, and even internal damage.”

Keradin sighed, “My people never had these hiccups before, so it’s new to us. Thank you so much, Doctor.”

“You are very welcome.” Lynn smiled, “Tell Erick, that I have a late shift tonight would you?”

Keradin giggled slightly. “I will,” she said as she hugged Lynn and then stood to leave.

“You look really different this morning Hailey.” Lynn smiled and took them both to a room in the back.

“I feel different,” Hailey giggled. “But your theory about the water seems correct. The cravings stopped after I woke up this morning, although I had a bad withdrawal headache last night. I had one more glass just so I could sleep.”

“Me too,” Candy nodded. “I tried to resist it, but my head felt like a Delanian drum machine was going off in my ears. But I felt fine this morning.”

“Any other strange cravings?” Lynn asked.

“No.. well I almost didn’t get dressed this morning, and I wasn’t even the slightest bit embarrassed by the fact.” Hailey stated.

Lynn laughed. “That’s normal, especially in a temperate zone like this, not just for Furrens, but many races with natural fur, armor plating, or the like.”

“You’ll notice there’s a large section of the beach down by the docks where nobody wears clothes.” A younger girl said as she came in, “I got the results from that complete blood test you had me run.”

“I guess we could shave off our fur and really go natural,” Candy said jokingly.

“On Earth we have hairless cats.” Hailey smiled, resisting the urge to make a joke.

Candy tilted her head just slightly. It was imperceptible to the other two, but Hailey caught it. Candy was thinking the exact same thing she was.

“Ah, excellent,” Lynn said, oblivious to the subtle body language communication between the two as she looked at the report. “I think if Rebecca and the others want to take off this afternoon for a mission you two are perfectly capable of going.”

“The weather’s going to be purrfect for it,” Candy said. “My fur isn’t standing on end so there are no storms coming,” she laughed.

“I want to do one more check up on you both in about a week if that’s ok?” Lynn smiled.

Hailey nodded. “Sounds great. I doubt we’ll be gone that long, but we’ll let Rebecca know just the same.”

“If Rebecca had her way you guys would be gone months at a time.” Lynn laughed. “Tricia says smaller teams can only be gone for 24 hours. Tera’s boat can be out for 4 days since she has a full team.”

“Wow,” Hailey said. “How do they get anything done with such a short time window?” she giggled.

“The currents: Rebecca has figured out how to use them to her advantage.” Lynn laughed.

When they left they ran into Brie walking down the road, “Hey Brie.” Hailey waved her tail. Brie looked up from her computer. Hailey had seen Brie expertly avoid obstacles with her nose buried in the tablet-like device, but this time, the poor girl walked right into a light post. She stumbled backwards, fell on her backside, and stared at Hailey.

“Wow... I... Wow.” She laughed as Hailey and Candy rushed to help her up. “I’m okay. But... Wow. I didn’t expect the changes to be that fast. You look incredible.”

“It was all the water we drank.” Hailey nodded. “Lynn thinks the overseers wanted to show everyone that they could get the changes over faster if we drank the water like that.”

“I’m curious what happens if someone keeps drinking after,” Brie said thoughtfully. “May have to set up an experiment with myself as the test subject when we return.”

Rebecca laughed, “You’ll have to get the Science guild to agree to that.” she was studying her map, “Tricia was just telling me, since we’re only one person shy, the Explorers guild has given us the go to go out on longer expeditions.”

“Fantastic,” Hailey laughed. “We just need to be back in a week or so for a checkup.”

“Wait,” Ella said, “Shouldn’t that be two short?”

Rebecca grinned at Ella, “We have a new crewmember.”

“That’s good,” Ella said, looking distracted. She was watching the road.

“I’m sure you’d like to welcome her aboard personally Ella.” Rebecca grinned.

“Should I be jealous?” Karen spoke up, causing Ella to jump, spin around, and hug her.

“Nope I Was just telling them about our newest crew member, “ Rebecca grinned, “Everyone welcome Karen to our crew.”

“But I.. How?” Ella laughed, hugging her again.

“Tera yelled at me, and then went and replaced me this morning.” Karen laughed, resting her head on Ella’s shoulder briefly. “Now we don’t have to say goodbye every time one of us goes out.”

Rebecca laughed, “Brie and I are the only two single crew members.” she winked.

“No cosmic jokes there, either,” Brie giggled.

“Sure there are,” Ella laughed. “You both prefer the opposite sex, on a ship full of females, all of whom have dates.”

Rebecca almost cackled. “She’s got us there. But to be fair... I haven’t felt attracted to anyone since I got here so I don’t actually know where I stand there. All I have is the assumption that I still dig guys because I used to be gay.” She winked.

“Furren humor is contagious,” Ella laughed as she hoisted a crate of supplies in one hand and some kind of analyzer device in the other. The gangplank creaked, and the ship visibly dipped a bit lower into the water as she walked on deck.

“I want to bring up a vote actually.” Rebecca called out to her crew, “I want to sail the lip, and see if there’s anyway to get down it safely.”

“Safely having the meaning of ‘get back up again’,” Brie added helpfully.

Rebecca nodded, “Exactly. If there’s a way down there, then I’d like to have it documented, especially if we can get back up the same way.”

“Every problem has a solution,” Ella said. “I may not understand half of what happens on this planet,” she chuckled, “But I know for every problem, there’s an answer, and nothing on this planet doesn’t happen for no reason- that’s just good sense,” she teased. “I vote yes.”

“We can sail the entire lip in two days easily,” Brie said, “With Rebecca’s intuition for finding the currents. I vote yes.”

“I’ve always wanted to know what’s beyond the lip,” Karen said. “I absolutely vote yes.”

“I’m new to any of this, but I like the sense of adventure, so I vote yes.” Hailey smiled.

“Who knows what - or who - lies beyond the ocean’s lip? There could be another whole society like us that has no idea we exist,” Candy giggled. “I vote fuck yeah.”

“Ok that’s settled, we’ve done most of our exploration on the lip north, I say we go south this time.” Rebecca pointed to the map around the lip on the south end of the map there wasn't much there at all.

Once the ship was unpacked and supplies put away, they pulled out, there were people on the beach waving, Hailey didn’t notice it last time, but every time an exploration ship went out, people always came to watch and wave. Hailey giggled under her breath at something.

“What?” Rebecca asked, glancing at her with a chuckle.

“It’s silly,” she said and shook her head. “One of the first computer games I ever played was on my grandma’s PC, called Uncharted Waters. The main character was doing what we’re doing now basically,” she said, and then giggled again. “Anyway, every time the ship would leave port, if it was a port friendly to you, then the entire town of three non player characters would show up to see you off, like what I just saw on the beach.”

Rebecca laughed, “The people on the beach here that wave us off, are fans, mostly that like to hear the tales we bring home, some of them are shop owners wishing us luck.”

“That is deep, though,” Brie giggled. “More than once I’ve found myself questioning if this is just a simulation. If it is,” she added, “I don’t think I want it to end.”

“I have reason to believe it’s not a simulation.” Rebecca grinned. “And it the answer to that I think is on the other side of the lip.”

As Hailey looked out over the water, she spotted something in the distance that at first looked like a small, black island, and then the ‘island’ vanished beneath the water. A moment later it appeared again, a bit closer, and breached the water vertically. It disappeared beneath the waves again as a tail the size of one of their rowboats appeared above the water and slammed down with a tremendous splash.

“A Whale!” Hailey called out.

“I don’t believe it,” Rebecca said as she turned to look. “I mean we knew theoretically there could be sea creatures, but no one’s ever actually seen one!”

“How much do you want to be if we follow it, it could lead us to the pathway down the lip?” Hailey smiled.

“What have we got to lose?” Rebecca laughed. “Whales are incredibly intelligent creatures, only outpaced by the octopus.”

“Watch that one, you might send the two cats into a giggle fit.” Karen laughed.

“Only if there’s writing involved though,” Ella said, grinning innocently.

Candy smiled as she came up the stairs, “What was that about writing?”

“Oh,” Hailey giggled out, “Rebecca was talking about how the octopus is one of the only sea creatures smarter than a whale, but she left out Dolphins.” She pulled out her phone and watched the waters to see if the whale breached again, hoping to get a picture of it. Almost on cue, the whale rose up out of the water just off to the side of the ship, flipped onto its side, and disappeared again, making for a spectacular photo.

Rebecca and crew followed the Whale for hours down the lip, it actually was swimming rather close to it. As if it knew they were following it and why.

Candy’s ears twitched. “Great bargains at low low prices!” she announced, sitting up.

“Do what?” Rebecca asked.

“My earpiece just picked up some static, and then a man saying that,” Candy said excitedly.

“Sounds like an old Earth commercial,” Hailey laughed.

“Hailey think you can find the frequency with your app?” Rebecca asked.

“Sure, I can try anyway,” Hailey said as she took out her phone again. She had the battery charging during the lull, and so it had a full charge now, ready for action. She scanned through the frequencies until she hit on static intermittently mixed with Styx’ ‘Come Sail Away’.

Hailey pressed the transmit button, “Hello can anyone hear me?”

The music stopped, and a young woman answered. “Yes, hello! You’re on the air with Circle Sea radio,” the girl giggled. “Are you a lost survivor? We can send a rescue party.”

“Negative.” Hailey called back, “We’re an exploration ship, following a whale to find a way down the lip.”

There was a noticeable pause, and then she answered, “I’m sorry, did you say you’re following the lip?”

“Yes, we’re up on top, we’re looking for a way down.” Hailey called back.

“I don’t believe this,” she radioed back excitedly. “Just a second! Admiral Flaxi, if you’re listening please-Oh!” she squeaked. “There you are.”

“Did you say Exploration ship?” A Man spoke up. Hailey handed the phone over to Rebecca.

“This is Captain Rebecca of the exploration vessel Victory,” Rebecca answered.

“There’s other people out there exploring.” she heard the girl screech in the background.

“I’m Admiral Flaxi Darr of the intergalactic trade confederate,” he radioed back. “It is good to hear there are others out there beyond the rim!”

Ella spoke up, “Admiral Flaxi’s ship disappeared over 80 years ago, all but two crew members made it off the ship, Admiral Flaxi and a crew member name Jaxxana.”

“We’ve been probing the rim for years,” the girl said, “But we’ve never found a way past it. Just our small islands here where lost survivors occasionally turn up.”

“There has to be a way down and back up.” Rebecca spoke, “There is a whale up here leading us, as if it knows a way down.”

“I don’t believe it,” the admiral said with a laugh. “That big beast actually did it.”

Ella spoke up, “Admiral?”

“Yes?” he answered.

“Did Jaxxana live, if she’s alive tell her that the daughter of Chia is coming to see her.” Ella spoke.

“Alive and well,” he laughed. “It seems the water here by our best guess, extended our already long lifespan even longer. She doesn’t look a day over sixty.”

“Wow,” Ella laughed. “My people live to be about 150. Sixty is just hitting middle aged for us. Our Crew consists of 2 human’s, 1 , 1 , and 2 Furren.” she radioed the last part to the Admiral.

“Sounds like the same random assortment we’ve come to expect,” Flaxi laughed. “We’re mostly humans here, with a handful of other known races, and one we had never heard of before she and her ship appeared here. Unfortunately the engines were irreparable.”

The girl giggled again. “I had a large collection of catalogued radio signals I’ve collected in my travels, so I’ve been broadcasting music of various cultures since. My People don’t have a home in space, we travel the stars and try to blend in with the cosmic background noise, so to speak.”

“Admiral, how far has your colony come on Medical Sciences?” Rebecca asked.

“We’ve had some advances thanks to the work of the odd scientist that’s appeared, but nowhere near where we would like to be I’m afraid. Nano medicine is just too far out of reach for our resources, even with Liara’s ship’s fabrication modules.”

“Have your Scientists found the common marker yet?” Rebecca asked.

“The link between our species? Oh yes,” he said. “We had suspected as much for some time prior, but it’s all right there in our genetic code. We all share a common ancestor.”

“How close are you guys to the lip?” Rebecca asked.

“We set up our colony on the largest island, right at the heart of the crater.”

“We also took the same route, but I don't think you're in a crater at all.” Rebecca called back.

The admiral laughed. “Neither do we, being honest. We can’t explain it. You see the water poruring over the edge I’m sure? We see it coming down whenever we try to find a way out, but yet, the islands are never flooded out. In fact, I swear new ones pop up every so often.”

“I’ve had the same theory, this planet is massive, I think it’s 4x maybe even larger than the one I come from.” Rebecca responded. “My Theory is, this is just a drop in the ocean, there’s a flat area somewhere near our location has to be, that leads down to you.”

“If the large sea creature found you,” the girl said, “Then that means she found a way - a way that doesn’t involve building a submersible, at any rate,” she added.

“Speak of Submersibles, we have fuel, and we’re actually building one as we speak.” Rebecca laughed. “Well not my crew but the colony we live in is.”

“There!” Brie announced suddenly. “There’s an almost imperceptible dip in sea level there. The ‘whale’ is heading straight for it.”

“Jeez, you saw that?” Hailey laughed. “Remind me to never play darts with you.”

“You should be able to see it too take off those confounded glasses.” Candy giggled.

“But I can’t see a thing without-” Hailey started to say, but Candy reached over and snatched them away. Hailey blinked. “Woooow. I can see!”

Candy giggled, “I was wondering why you were having issues bumping into things then I remembered your glasses.”

Hailey giggled. “I’m so used to not seeing very well. I guess I was just used to wearing them. But to my credit I did see the whale,” she teased.

“Yeah but it was almost right in your face.” Rebecca laughed.

Candy’s nose twitched slightly. “I smell... Mmm, beer basted shrimp rolls dipped in honey.” She looked around for the source. “It must be wafting up from one of the islands.”

“Are you guys having a cookout?” Rebecca asked over the radio on Hailey’s phone.

“It’s a human tradition they call a ‘luau’,” the girl radioed back with a giggle. “How did you know? Oh, the Admiral stepped out to look for Jaxxana and should be back momentarily.”

“Our Furren’s smell it, and um guys, we’re going to see you shortly, the currents down here are the same up above, I can be at your island in less than an hour sailing them.” Rebecca radioed.

The girl laughed. “You just made a lot of people happy,” she said. “Expect a feast when you arrive.”

True to her word, it didn’t take the crew very long to get there at all, Rebecca had a knack for the world's current, she had no idea why, but she could just feel the ocean’s current when she was sailing.

There were quite a few people on the beach, with a huge, roaring bonfire, and distinctly primitive-sounding music playing - mostly drum beats. There were humans, Sartoran, Ilonans, and a few races Hailey had never seen before, each in small numbers, and even a handful of Furren - one calico, one as black as night, and two more light neon green with darker stripes.

“Oh my God, Furren!” Candy called out and waved at them with her tail.

They looked up from their meal and their jaws collectively dropped as they saw Hailey standing next to Candy. “Did I eat some bad shrimp?” the solid black Furren woman asked, and rubbed her eyes.

“If you did, I did too,” the calico Furren answered as they approached the pair.

The other two furren nodded, “Same here, woah, a stardust blue furren?”

“Wait,” the calico Furren laughed, “I know you! You’re that doctor who was working with sound wave therapy right?”

“In the fur.” Candy said, grinning. “Call me Candy.”

“I don’t mean to praw-n,” he said, “But your study on the behavioral effects of sound on the Furren mind were absolutely groundbreaking.”

“Yes you do.” Candy giggled. “But that’s fine, It translates for all races, the same sound just at a different frequency, Before I was brought here I actually got approved to test it on Sartorans, and we’ve had much success.”

“Hey party people,” the girl from the radio’s voice spoke up, coming from a couple of hand-made speakers, but the woman herself was standing right before them. She wasn’t too tall or too short, and looked for all intents and purposes to be human, at least on the outside. The only exceptional thing about her was that she had a very high tech earpiece.

Brie smiled, “We need to figure out how to boost your signal, soo we can reach it at our colony.”

Hailey grinned, “I can also let you download my extensive music library too.”

Candy sat down with the other furren, “Have any of you noticed anything different, like you're able to vent in front of other races now and such?”

One of the radiation-green furren giggled at that. “Just recently. Normally we have to go off to another island completely, just to avoid accidentally being heard, but lately we’ve begun to just let it all hang out, much to the amusement of the others.”

“Yeah, I’ve been here for 24 hours, and I feel comfortable around other species here to just go full out.” Candy nodded.

The Calico spoke up, “Tell us about your blue friend, has she.. Noticed anything, like can she.. You know?”

Hailey and Candy both giggled, and Candy added, “The gods of this planet have a cosmic sense of humor. She’s the first of her kind since the great wars, and she’s a rolly like me.”

“Really?” The black cat mused, “Have you tried to change forms yet?” he asked Hailey. “Also have you tried to use your pheromones on anyone else yet?”

Hailey gave Candy a confused look. “You’ve been holding out on me,” she teased her. Candy laughed.

“Actually I wasn’t sure if you were a true stardust blue furren. And I didn’t want to frighten you since you’ve only been Furren for a couple of days now. You should be able to turn into a large beast like creature.. And um, as a defense, you can make other people horny.. So they’ll leave you alone.”

“Shouldn’t that second one have the opposite effect?” Hailey giggled. The idea of being able to turn into a large beast cat didn’t seem to phase her in the slightest.

The black Furren laughed, “It makes them soo horney they stop doing whatever they were doing and paw themselves.”

“That is one hell of a superpower,” Hailey giggled out.

“It’s why they were hunted down and killed off during the great wars.” The Calico cat sighed. “I’m sorry, did she say you’ve only been Furren for a couple of days?” His tail swished slowly and thoughtfully.

Hailey nodded, “24 hours to be exact.”

“Incredible... We theorized that genetic mutation could occur beyond just the rudimentary enhancements we all experience living here, based on the base DNA code being 98% and, in my cases even 99% identical, but on such a complete and rapid scale is just mind-blowing.”

“Down tiger,” the black Furren teased and giggled. “You should join us. The beer-basted honey shrimp is simply divine.”

“Don’t mind if we do, we would love to open trade with you guys, using this as a port when we go out.” Rebecca smiled as she sat down as well.

“Just knowing there are other Furren out there is so exciting,” the other radiation-green Furren giggled.

“I’m glad we’re not the only ones either, our colony has begun preparing for more incase more show up too.”

“Now that we know there’s a way out,” the black furren purred, “We can start exploring again, too.”

“There has to be other ways out as well.” Rebecca stated.

“We searched for years,” a middle aged woman with light blue skin, and shoulder length, very dark blue hair chuckled as she approached. “It may well be that those who brought us here didn’t want us to leave until now. According to Aria, that aquatic friend of hers has been searching for ages.”

“We’ve only been looking for the last 2 years.” Rebecca nodded. “Also our scientists don’t think there’s a way to use conventional fuel to propel a ship off this planet, what do yours think?”

“The physics-oops,” Aria said over the loudspeakers, paused to adjust her earpiece, and giggled. “Sorry about that. The physics on this planet are... strange. Fuel seems to burn less violently, possibly due to the lower oxygen level in relation to other inert gasses. We don’t notice it because of the difference in gravity, relation to sea level, and the like.”

“Our scientists posited that,” Brie said thoughtfully, “Except that we’ve found wood that burn really well, but carbon-based propulsion fuels just simply won’t work, from what I’ve been told by my friends in the Science guild anyway.”

“Strange,” Aria said. “So even conventional solid rocket fuel doesn’t have enough power to propel a vehicle?”

Jaxxana smiled, “So you are guild based in your colony, we would love to join your guild systems.”

Brie nodded, and the pair began to bounce off each other scientifically almost identically to how Candy and Hailey bounce off each other with subtle, lewd humor.

“I agree,” Admiral Flaxi nodded. “We’ve always been such a small group that we found it easier for everyone to just do what needed to be done, but knowing there are much more out there, we would be honored to join with your colony.”

Rebecca smiled, “Our colony is rather large actually, we have around 10,000 people, some were born here as well, we’re not asking you to leave this island at all, but we’ll come and help set you up and bring you into our guilds.”

Ella smiled, “Seems you have very limited power here too, we can also fix that.”

Jaxxana nodded. “You will find yourselves always most welcome here,” she said. “Our power is based on Aria’s ship’s solar auxiliary generators, which were damaged with her engines so we are unfortunately limited.”

“Actually I think I loaded some things into the cargo of our ship I can bring out for you as a sign of friendship.” Ella smiled and took off for the ship, it didn’t take her long to return either, she was carrying several large array of solar panels, and heavy cables and other equipment in the large trailer she dragged around.

Jaxanna looked surprised. But then, the Admiral did as well. She leaned over to him to whisper something. He laughed and nodded, replying, “Must be the water.”

Ella laughed and dropped her carry on the trailer and smiled, “There should be enough panels here and wiring to power your entire village, there’s even a couple small fridges in there to keep food cold.”

“I’ll come back and help with the setup shortly,” Brie said with an excited giggle. “Aria’s going to show me her ship.”

“This will be great, our main square here is the only place with lights, thanks to Aria.” the Admiral smiled.

“So have you figured it out yet?” the black furren giggled.

“Figured what out?” Candy asked.

“Aria. She looks human to you too, doesn’t she?”

“Traxian, actually,” Candy said. The black furren looked surprised, and laughed.

“She’s a psychic chameleon - her appearance changes based on the race you feel the most comfortable seeing her as. For most races, it’s their own, but for us it seems to usually be human because we’d suspect something if she looked furren, I think.”

“We could smell her.” Candy nodded.

“Now that is a surprise,” one of the tiger green twins said. “She even smells human to us.”

“Weird, she doesn’t smell human to me.” Candy shook her head. “Or Traxian for that matter. It’s difficult to describe.”

“Kind of sweet, but not really,” Hailey nodded. “Like... a very subtle rose mixed with...”

“Some kind of fruit, but I can’t place which,” Candy nodded as they began to eat.

“Do you guys think she might be part of the race that brought us here?” Hailey asked.

“If she is, she’s not in on the joke,” the Calico nodded. “When she first arrived here she was as lost as anyone, according to the Admiral. She thought she crash-landed here. It is strange though that hers is the only vessel to ever be brought here. There are a few buildings on the other islands though.”

“We found our first one as well yesterday.” Hailey nodded, “Do they have power, ours seemed to.”

“No discernable source for it, but yes,” Jaxanna nodded her head. “It’s another in a long list of mysteries.”

“We even found an entire island of nothing but cattina plants,” one of the green Furren giggled. “We promptly left and never looked back of course.”

“I wonder if we should outlaw that here as well..” Candy sighed.

“Candy’s first discovery here was an island covered in trees shaped like penises,” Hailey said, trying to keep a straight face.

The Black Furren laughed, “Did you land in the trees?”

“I did!” Candy started laughing now.

“Puss in a penis..” The calico laughed.

“And a rolly in a sausage forest,” one of the green ones giggled out.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a Rolly.” The other green one frowned at her friend.

“I never said there was,” the first said. “She said it first anyway.”

“I did,” Candy giggled. “It’s no longer an insult on Furra Prime, but a mark of pride, like being a Bobtail.”

“Wow,” the second green Furren said. “We really have been away a long time.”

“I think so.” The Black Furren nodded. “Only Jacque is a recent arrival among our lot,” she said, motioning to the Calico.

Hailey stifled a giggle at ‘Calico Jacque’, but kept it to herself, figuring the others wouldn’t get that one.

Jacque nodded, “Been here 2 weeks 3 days.”

“Seems your colony leader has been here longer than ours however.” Rebecca smiled, “Ours is going on 60 years.”

Flaxi laughed. “Don’t think I’m looking for a new job, though,” he said jokingly. “I’ve been giving serious thought to retiring. Now that we know there’s a way out, I may build myself a seaworthy ship and set sail.”

Jaxxana smiled, “Space or ocean.. Can’t ever keep a man or woman of a ship on ground for long.”

Flaxi laughed. “Well, it’s been ten years since I last led an expedition. And with the help of our new friends we might even be able to maintain long range communication.”

As he said that Hailey’s app came to life, “Expedition Team 2 this is Heart Island, do you read?”

Startled, Hailey fumbled for her phone. “This is Hailey, Heart, we read you loud and clear!”

Hailey could hear the woman who called her yell “It works!”, “Sorry about that, Expedition team 2, we’re testing out a new device based on your phone, We set up a Transmitter on top of the Hill. What is your location, so we know how far it reaches?”

“We’re at the bottom of the lip.” Hailey replied.

“What?! Do you require assistance?” the woman said frantically.

“Negative.” Hailey replied, “We found a way down, We’ve marked it with a boey so we can start sending trade ships in. There are others here - including Furren.”

“About 2,000 or so people actually.” Flaxi spoke.

“Copy that!” the woman said excitedly. “We sent someone to get Tricia.”

“That was incredible,” Brie said as they returned. Her hair was a bit of a mess, and she had some kind of engine lubricant on her face. Of course the furren’s first thought was that Ariad took her for more than just a tour of the ship.

“I bet it was,” Ella teased her, causing Karen to giggle.

“What?” Brie laughed. “Her engines. Even though they don’t work anymore, they’re like nothing I’ve ever seen. That ship could jump across the galaxy in seconds.”

“It works by scanning for nearby wormholes and then expanding them,” Aria explained, sending the furren into a collective giggle fit.

“Someone call for me?” Hailey heard Tricia’s voice over the radio.

“Hi Tricia,” Hailey said, still giggling. “Guess where we are?”

“The bottom of the ocean?” Tricia laughed.

“Nope we’re on the other side of the lip.” Hailey giggled. “We made it safely thanks to a whale guiding us.”

“I believe you,” Tricia said, completely serious. “Elizabeth says you found others as well?”

“We’ve setup guide buoy’s so other ships can come in and out, Rebecca said the water wasn’t extremely deep there, soo they’re anchored to the ocean floor.”

“That’s fantastic. Ask them if there’s anything that they need. Rebecca should be familiar enough with what stock we have on-hand that we can send.”

“I think they need an electrician out here, and more fridge devices, but other than that I can ask them.” Hailey spoke.

Aria removed her earpiece, offering it to the old Admiral. “Thank you my friend,” he said as he slid the earpiece into place. “This is Admiral Flaxi,” he said, “If you are able to spare an axe or a saw, it would save us a great deal of trial and error with Aria’s confounded fabricators,” he laughed. “But beyond that, the young lady is quite right. We may have some things we can trade as well.”

“You have a working fabricator?” Tricia asked.

“Working is a relative term,” he laughed. “But yes, it’s capable of rearranging molecular structures to create some objects more faithfully than others.”

“We can send you basic supplies, clothes and some food, I'll send Ray our Electrical engineer, and a representative for our island colony for yours.” Tricia spoke.

“Excellent. We’ve already discussed it amongst a few of us, but I believe the others will agree - we would very much like to join under your banner, so to speak. This old spacer is looking to get back to exploration again,” he laughed.

Tricia giggled under her breath. “Just like my father, God rest him. I look forward to personally seeing you off on that voyage.”

“I’m sure we can get enough people and you can have your own expedition group in the explorers guild.” another woman spoke up, if Rebecca was there, she would have known who it was, she was the leader of the Explorers guild. “I could use a qualified Admiral on our team.”

Jaxanna laughed as she leaned over. “He’s more than qualified, whether he wants to admit it or not.”

“We’ll then I can’t wait to meet you, I’m coming in on the ship to oversee the construction of a Dock.” The woman replied. “We’ll have you a proper Harbor setup in no time.”

Karen sighed dreamily as she sat quietly during the whole proceedings, watching. Finally she leaned over to Ella and whispered, “This is so exciting. This is why I joined the Exploration guild. I feel like a hero in one of Mother’s books, like we’re getting to see history being made here.”

Ella nodded, “And we get to make our own history. I know I don’t look it, but my knees are jelly right now,” she giggled. “Admiral Flaxi is a hero among my people, one of the greatest negotiators of our age, and I’m eating ... whatever this is, at the same table as him.”

Karen put her hand on Ella and smiled, “You're a hero amongst our people.”

“I’m just one woman,” Ella said, “Part of a team, but I couldn’t ask for a better team.”

Hailey and Candy had finished eating and were walking around on the beach holding tails, and Hailey grinned, “This area right here would make good for a Harbor, seems clear and open.”

“Clear and open huh?” Candy giggled. “You’re right. You could plow right up to the beach with one of the shallow drafts,” she said, and what she said was innocent enough, but the way she said it had Hailey giggling.

Candy giggled too, “Silly.” she leaned over and kissed Hailey.

“So how do I turn into a raging beast?” Hailey giggled.

“Well I could start by finding all the places you’re ticklish,” Candy grinned impishly.

“Only got one, and you’ll never find it.” Hailey laughed.

“That sounds like a challenge,” Candy giggled as she put her head on Hailey’s shoulder.

Hailey laughed, “I never said I challenge you to find it.” she smiled, “So you have no idea about how i’m supposed to go about doing what my color does?”

“You didn’t have to say it. I read between the lines,” she teased, but nodded. “No one’s seen a Stardust furren in over 400 years. I mean we’ve seen drawings, paintings. One of them is a furren goddess,” she said, “But we know nothing of how they actually did it. If not for historical records from outside sources, we’d scarcely believe it was true.”

“It seems a lot of people believe it’s true.” Hailey smiled, “All the furren here seem to think so too.”

“Different generation,” Candy nodded. “There’s a movement on Furra Prime among the new kits to turn their backs on the gods and embrace science. I do both,” she shrugged, but smiled. “Oh, I know! Let’s ask the science guild when we get back? The Traxian historical records are more complete than ours. Maybe the island’s are too.”

Hailey nodded, looking up as a shooting star rocketed across the sky. “Make a wish,” she laughed.

“I wish...” she grinned, looking at Hailey. “Yeah. That’s a good wish,” she giggled to herself.

“You just want what's under my skirt huh?” Hailey giggled.

“Oh, I don’t have to wish for that,” Candy grinned impishly. “But if I told you what I did wish for, then it might not come true. But it makes me wonder... Do you think the... overseers, gods, whatever you call them, are watching us?”

“Probably not.” Hailey shrugged, “But who knows, I bet they do monitor us from time to time.”

“Then I’ll just have to find a way,” Candy giggled. Hailey could see the gears turning in her head. She had seen that same exact look right before Brie launched into a scientific 600-word-a-minute lecture, but Candy was playing it close to the vest, and instead picked up a pretty rainbow colored shell that had washed ashore.

“I made a wish too actually.” Hailey smiled. “But I doubt anyone other than myself heard it.”

“What did you wish for?” Candy giggled.

“Like you said, if I tell you then it won't come true.” Hailey grinned.

They walked further down the beach when Hailey spotted a blonde haired girl who wasn't too much older than she was laying in the sand, looking dead, the ocean was lapping against her legs.

“We’ve got another survivor on the beach,” Hailey said into her phone. “It looks like she needs medical attention.”

“Copy that.” Aria spoke back. “I’ll have one of our medstaff down there asap.”

“She’s breathing, but just barely,” Candy said as she approached the girl. “Human, I think... Human hearts are in the center right?”

“Yes.” Hailey nodded, “Well slightly off but close.”

Candy got down on her knees and leaned close to the girl’s chest to listen. “I hear a heartbeat.”

Hailey suddenly recognized the girl, “Wendy!”

Wendy suddenly flinched, causing Candy to jump back. She sat bolt upright and coughed a few times, spitting out some water in the process. She gasped, and slowly lay back down again. She hadn’t noticed the pair yet, utterly oblivious. “Unnh...”

Hailey approached and kneeled next to her, “Wendy are you ok?” her voice was still her voice that didn’t change.

“Yeah, I just... Wait, Hailey?!” she opened her eyes and looked right at Hailey.

Hailey nodded her head, “What happened?”

Wendy’s lips parted, then closed, then opened again. “Did... Did I miss a costume party?”

“It’s really me, no costume party, did you make it to the group ok before you were brought here?” Hailey asked.

“Oh my God, Hailey i thought I’d never see you again!” Wendy said as she threw her arms around her. “Yes, we made it fine. We ran the entire way after radioing the forest service that you had disappeared.”

“How long have I been missing for then?” Hailey asked, “It’s only been a day here.”

“Yeah, same,” Wendy nodded. “We’ve been scouring the woods looking all over for you. I was exploring a cave near where you vanished, and then I felt myself falling, but I never hit the ground. There was a bright light, and... then I was here.”

Candy smiled, “So this is your Catgirl friend?”

Wendy slowly turned to see Candy, and giggled. “Oh my God, you’re the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen! Well you both are,” she laughed.

Hailey giggled. “Yeah, Wendy’s like my best friend, and the only other person brave enough to wear cat ear headphones in public besides me.”

“We both dressed up as Cat girls for Halloween last year too.” Wendy grinned, “If my bag is with me, my headphones are in there.”

By now, Rebecca, Brie, and Aria were fast approaching along with another human woman.

“She’s fine!” Hailey called out, “Swallowed a lot of Ocean water though..”

“Uh oh,” Rebecca laughed as she approached. “Better brace yourself dear. The ocean water here has special powers.”

“Seriously?” Wendy asked.

“I’m going to take a blood sample if that’s alright?” Brie asked. “Won't hurt I promise.”

“It really won’t,” Hailey added.

Candy looked at Rebecca, “That’s one of Hailey’s friends from her bug out group.. The one she talks about a lot.”

“So you’re the famous Wendy.” Rebecca grinned.

“I’m famous already? Jeez girl, what horrible slanders have you spread about me here?” she teased, laughing as Hailey helped her to her feet, and Brie took a small blood sample with a similar device to what Lynn had used.

“Oh I just painted you as a Goddess.” Hailey winked.

“Yup, seems you have the same markers, and you have a Furren marker as well, We’re looking at Race markers now when we test new comers, to see if they’ll change into another race.”

“I wonder,” Aria said. “Do you suppose it’s because Furren were her first contact?”

“Probably not.” Brie shook her head, “I have a theory if you change race, it’s not common but it does happen more often, it’s based on your thought patterns.”

“That’s true,” Hailey said. “I literally was thinking about my cat ear headphones when I was brought here, and Wendy and I have a huge catgirl anime collection between us,” she giggled.

“Same here I was like I really hope they don’t break in this fall.” Wendy laughed.

“Fascinating,” Aria said, nodding. “Genetic reconfiguration based on thought patterns best suiting the race.”

Brie smiled, “Not sure if you’ve experienced it in this Colony, but we’ve also had gender swapping as well.”

“Not yet, but your Colony is much larger than ours.” Aria nodded. “Much bigger sample size.”

Rebecca laughed. “More of that cosmic humor these two are so fond of. I used to be a gay man. I still prefer men, but I’ve come to love this new body.”

“I bet you have,” Candy giggled out, and Hailey gave her a playful nudge.

Wendy just giggled. “Oh dear God, there’s someone else in the universe as warped as me.”

“Hailey is worse than I am.” Candy winked.

Several hours had passed and the Transport ship from the heart shaped island affectionately called “Heart” by its denizens, arrived, it was much much larger than the Exploration ship, so it could hold a lot more cargo and People, they were off loading wood and other building materials to build a massive dock. Tricia even came down in-between wood deliveries.

“That’s... a lot of wood,” Flaxi said as he watched the workers unloading supplies.

“Yes well one of our Explorers found an endless supply for us.” Tricia grinned. “This is Monica she’ll be acting as the Colony lead when you step down, then the colony can vote for a governor and she’ll act as a liaison between the islands.” she introduced a short pointy eared girl with long honey blonde hair.

“And I come bearing gifts,” Monica said, turned, and whistled. Two workers came over, carrying a sawhorse slung over each of their shoulders, and a huge chest between them. “I know you implied you wanted to build your ship, yourself, but the least we can do is give you the proper tools.”

Flaxi laughed deeply. “You’re a woman after my own heart, madame. Thank you.”

A Tall Redheaded woman with light blue skin like Ella’s approached, “I’m Ria the head of the Exploration Guild.” she reached her hand out to shake his hand, “It’s always a pleasure to meet a famous Admiral.”

Ella looked over from where she was single-handedly lifting a big tree right out by its roots for one of the workers. “Jaxanna’s here too.”

“Oh you're shitting me?” Ria laughed. “Ella and my family have written her off as dead..”

The admiral laughed. “We thought so too. When the ship exploded, we thought this was some kind of afterlife at first. Whoever, or whatever brought us here, saved our lives.”

“Not sure what their end goal is.” Ria shook her head, “But at least they care, they reunited me with my cousins.” she winked, “And it seems they care about the Furren too, Hailey has her friend now.”

“Oh,” Hailey said as she turned to Candy. “You asked me last night if I thought they were listening... I’m going to go ahead and say yes.”

Candy giggled. “Good. Just the same, I sent them a message in my own way, thanking them for making my life complete..’

Wendy ended up becoming a Stardust blue Furren as well. The changes happened just as fast as they did with Hailey because of the ocean water. And unlike Hailey, it was a well documented fact that Wendy was absolutely, completely, and 100% boy crazy.

The funny thing about that though, is she found herself attracted to Brie, big time.

Candy giggled, “Brie turned your friend Rolly.” she watched as Wendy was staring at Brie.

“Got to say,” Hailey laughed, “I honestly never saw that one coming. She’s had more boyfriends than I can count, and more crushes than that.”

“Brie is attractive for a Sartori, but definitely not my type.” Candy giggled.

“I could swear Brie didn’t swing her door that way,” Ella giggled as she joined them.

“I don't think she knows it yet either, but look how Wendy stares at her.” Hailey laughed.

“Poor Brie,” Karen giggled softly.

“Poor Wendy when Brie breaks her heart.” Hailey sighed.

Brie glanced up from her computer, and Wendy pretended she hadn’t just been staring the entire time. Brie remained oblivious, returning her attention to the computer.

Hailey wandered over to Wendy and whispered to her, “You should just come out and ask her, the worst thing she can say is no.”

“The worst two letters in the English language,” Wendy said, sticking out her tongue. “At least let me have the fantasy for a while,” she giggled.

“If you don’t ask her Wendy, I will ask her for you.” Hailey giggled, “Like that time you made me ask Derrek out for you.”

“You do and I’ll tell your girlfriend where you’re ticklish,” Wendy said sternly.

“Too late, she found out last night.” Hailey giggled. Wendy pouted cutely, trying to give Hailey the puppy pout.

“Seriously though, I totally thought you only dug boys?” Hailey sighed.

“I do! Or.... Fuck me,” Wendy sighed. “That’s what I wanted everyone to think. I can deal with being that weird girl who likes survival stuff because I’m a girl scout too, but if people found out I liked girls on top of it, I’d be labeled a man-bashing feminazi dyke for the rest of high school, and I couldn’t deal with that.”

“Well you’re Furren now, and being Rolly is accepted.” Hailey grinned, “Seriously though talk to her at least, make friends with her, you're good at that.”

“You’re right,” Wendy sighed, then slowly got up, like a condemned woman marching to her execution, and sat down next to Brie.

“Hey.” Brie smiled and waved.

“So um... That looks like an inverse formula?”

“You know about Quantum science?” Brie asked surprised.

“A little,” Wendy giggled. “Quantum mechanics is still just a theory where I’m from, but I absolutely love science. I’ve been watching documentaries on quantum theory since I was like ten.”

“That’s cool.” Brie said, “I have a degree in Quantum Science and Electro Engineering. I was studying for a degree in Bioengineering as well.”

“God,” Wendy said under her breath, glaring back at Hailey for making her come over. Talking to Brie was only making her feel more intrigued.

Hailey grinned and brought over two 16 oz bottles of Doctor Pepper, “Here you two go, you both looked really thirsty and Brie just found out she loves Doctor Pepper the other day.”

Brie nodded. “I gave a sample to Chuck, the mixologist back at the main colony, to try and replicate something similar for when our stocks inevitably run out. It’s like drinking liquid pleasure,” she said sheepishly as she opened her bottle.

“You know, I’ve always been keen to Doctor Pepper, but I like Baja Blast Mountain Dew as well.” Wendy said.

“I haven’t sampled that yet, but I believe we found several cases in the 7-11 storage area,” Brie nodded. She was still completely oblivious.

Hailey nodded, “I have them in my personal storage back home actually. But I can share some.”

“I’d say ‘I’ll love you forever’,” Wendy giggled, “But A, I already do, and B, Candy would have a stardust blue rug,” she teased.
“Have you ever had a Furren walking massage?” Brie asked.

Wendy shook her head. “Until last night I didn’t even know there were other species out there. I always hoped though.”

“We’ve found out that we all share a common ancestor.” Brie nodded. “It’s good to know others who share the same DNA exist.”

“Never know when you might need a kidney,” Wendy giggled, paused, and put her hand to her forehead. “Can’t believe I just said that out loud.”

“You’re furren.” Hailey said as she turned to leave, “We say all kinds of things before we can catch it.”

Brie giggled. “It comes as natural as breathing, but don’t worry. I’ve heard far, far worse, and far less funny in the last 48 hours,” she teased.

“Tell her about the Author and the you know what Brie.” Hailey grinned as she left.

Brie snorted, snickered, fought it down, but eventually just had to give in and laugh.“What's so funny?” Wendy asked.

“Watch,” Hailey said. “You’re about to see a Sartori approach to Furran humor in action,” she whispered to the others. Sure enough, Brie started explaining the joke, but before she was even halfway through, Wendy broke down and started giggling too.

“See.” Brie grinned, “Furren’s have some of the weirdest and cutest jokes.”

“If I said something like that back home, they would just stare at me like I was crazy, shake their heads, and walk away. Hailey can testify,” she laughed.

“We’ve heard, but you see, most of us come from a part of the galaxy where our species actually know of each other.” Brie said. “If my theory on isolationism and creation is correct, I believe human beings were a ‘base template’ from which other species were developed.”

“No, that makes total sense,” Wendy said. “If I was doing an experiment then I’d go out of my way to keep my control as pristine as possible.”

“So what I’m not thinking.” Brie smiled at Wendy, “Because of what you just said, is that the species that brought us all here, wasn’t part of the original experiment.”

Wendy nodded her agreement. “It wouldn’t make sense to just change the experiment halfway through. That would taint the results. And even just ‘borrowing’ people from the control group ruins the experiment because they take people who’d be missed.’

“Not to sound like a mad scientist who would ever do such a thing,” Brie said, cracking a smile, “But if it was my experiment, I would proceed precisely as you say, by only finding subjects who wouldn’t be noticed missing. It would seem a new experiment was enacted by a different organization, species, or beings.”

“The problem is, Hailey and I would be missed..” Wendy spoke up. “Hailey’s parents are control freaks, well at least her mom is. And my Dad worries about me hardcore.”

“Moreover, it sounded like you were part of an organized search party with local authorities,” Brie nodded. “Nothing raises a red flag faster than taking someone under official protection. And this only began approximately eighty galactic standard years ago.”

“So I’m thinking they might be after people who are going to become famous or are on their way to becoming famous for one thing or another.” Brie spoke up, “Candy was on her way to winning a Galactic Peace prize. I haven’t shared that theory with anyone else yet, however.”

“Really? Why not?” Wendy asked. “It makes total sense to me.”

“Two reasons,” Brie answered. “The first being that I wasn’t on my way to being famous. I was on my way to a crappy lab job at my mother’s conglomerate. Two, your subjects being aware of being subjects alters the test, and I don’t want to bring any problems down on my friends or the other colonists.”

“Maybe it’s not an experiment, maybe they are trying to free us?” Wendy shrugged. “When something bad is coming a mother bear will protect her cubs.”

“But why would they restrict our movement if we’re not, technically, prisoners?” Brie asked.

“I don’t think they are, I’m betting dinner and a date, that you and I can create a fuel source that is native to this planet.” Wendy grinned.

“Better, smarter scientists than me have been trying for fifty years,” Brie laughed.

“Yeah but they didn’t have me, the Geek of Almand High, I was president of the rocket club, and I invented a new type of Biodiesel for our club.”

“Hmm,” Brie said. “Very well. One dinner date against...” She grinned, leaned closer so that the others, whom she now realized had been watching them for awhile couldn’t hear, cupped her hand so they couldn’t read her lips, and whispered, “Against one dinner date.”

“Sounds like a deal.” Wendy grinned. “Do you have a lab that I can tests on different things?” and they shook hands.

“Oh, they have a small lab setup here, and an entire facility back on Heart,” Brie nodded.

“I think a bigger lab might be better more equipment right?” Wendy asked.

“It shouldn’t take us long to get you up to speed on the equipment,” Brie nodded. “Everything uses a universal interface based on international trade language, like this,” she said, showing Wendy her tablet device.

“Holy shit,” Wendy said, “It’s like Apple and Google got together with a bottle of cheap wine and made a glorious baby.” she paused, “I need to talk to Hailey, she said she was in the exploration guild, so while they’re out exploring I need them to be on the watch for specific things.”

“We’re on the same expedition team,” Brie giggled. “You can join too, if you want, but I suspect you’d be happier in the Science lab.”

“Oh wow!” Wendy said and pulled out her iPhone, it was pink just like Hailey’s, and pulled up some pictures, “These something similar to them, they’re called Wheat, and this one's called Maize or Corn.”

“Hmmm,” Brie said as she brought up a search window on her tablet and leaned close to Wendy. Their faces practically touched as she overlaid her tablet over top of Wendy’s phone for a moment, as she scanned the image.

“If you could have a lab on that boat, I’d totally join you.” Wendy giggled.

Brie’s face lit up, and she grinned. “Come with me?” she said as she offered Wendy her hand. “I’ll show you my work space. I do a lot of element and material analysis on-ship.”

Wendy smiled and got up to follow Brie taking her hand. She winked at Hailey as they passed the girls. “Cool, I just need a hotplate, a broiler, some barrels to store the stuff in, and a chemical testing kit.”

“My science instructors would have loved you,” Brie nodded. “They were big believers that if you could take some rocks, some pond scum, and a stick, and create a complex chemical compound, then you could make miracles with proper scientific equipment.”

“Oh and if we can approximate it, I need copper or Plastic tubing, lots of it.” Wendy grinned. “Copper works the best, and it’s the most common mineral..”

“You need something that can conduct electricity effectively?” Brie asked.

“Disperse heat actually.” Wendy said.

“Heat dispersal, resistant to overheating itself,” Brie said thoughtfully and began rapidly searching through her tablet’s database even as they walked toward the ship. “Ah, super polymer Zed-716, extremely easy to make from materials found all over the islands, can be made rigid with application of comprehensive force. Should work nicely until we find a ready source of copper tubing.”

“Flexible to some degree, I’m probably going to have to bend it.” Wendy nodded.

“Extremely,” Brie nodded. “In its natural uncompressed state it has properties similar to rubber, however it doesn’t require application of heat or introduction of carbon molecules to add strength.”

“Nice.” Wendy said, “We might be able to just use that.” she got led into a pretty big and mostly empty area of the ship, there was some machines in there.

“First Aria, now you,” Brie giggled. “This island is fast becoming my favorite yet.”

“Speaking of Aria, we need to figure out how to trade with her for her engines.” Wendy said.

Brie grinned. “Oh, that’s easy. She told me that if we ever found a way to repair them, that we were welcome to them. It seems she’s decided to settle down here, and call this planet home - even if she does get her ship repaired.”

“If this works, we might not have space flight, but I’m betting we can have faster world travel.” Wendy grinned. “Think like Airplanes, Hailey showed you pictures of earth Airplanes right?”

Brie nodded. “Among other things,” she said with a grin. “Pink is most definitely your color,” she teased Wendy.

“Well if she’s showing embarrassing pictures then you have to see this one.” Wendy grinned and pulled up some pictures of Hailey at a party the bug out group held.

“What... is that thing on her head?” Brie laughed. “It looks like a lamp shade...”

“It is.” Wendy grinned. “These are one of the few times we’re allowed to drink, because our group leader is responsible.” she showed Brie another one with Hailey passed out and Wendy drawing a penis on her face.

Brie giggled, “Ok, that one I get because of Candy’s Pussy in a Penis joke. But why did you draw it on her face?”

“We had one wine cooler too many,” Wendy giggled. “Seemed like a good idea at the time. I saved all the pictures to blackmail her if I ever had to. But it’s a power I only use for good.”

Brie nodded she understood what Blackmail was, they used the same practice on her homeworld, and other species used it as well. “So I think we can set you up in here with my equipment since I don’t take much space.”

“Yeah, I’ll say,” Wendy nodded. “I could even set up a cot in the corner so I can catnap,” she giggled.

“Actually there’s bedrooms on the ship too.” Brie laughed. “I’m thinking that we can place the Engines over there for you to work on. I already know why it won’t function, and it’s a relatively easy fix. I suspect she didn’t want to fix it because that would mean leaving.”

“Well Primative fuel won't get us space travel with them, But I’m thinking we can make Jet engines out of them.” Wendy nodded. “I’ve kinda noticed that most of the people here don’t really want to leave anyway. Even Hailey.”

“This place... It gets inside of you,” Brie nodded. “For example, I told you before how I had nothing to look forward to back home. But here, I’m appreciated for my talents as a songwriter too, and not just as a cog in a machine.”

“You’ll have to sing me a song sometime.” Wendy said.

Brie giggled. “My species possess two sets of vocal chords which in effect, allows me to sing in harmony with myself.”

“That’s got to be damn useful.” Wendy said, “I have a tail now, but so do you, why don’t your species have fur?”

“Divergent evolutionary paths,” Brie nodded, adding, “But we are actually extremely close - both highly intelligent, but where Furran are playful, Sartori are...” She chuckled. “We over-analyze everything until all the fun in a room is nothing but a shriveled, quivering mass in the corner.”

“You suck the fun out of Parties?” Wendy shrugged, “You seem pretty normal to me.”

Brie nodded. “I get that a lot. They also tease me occasionally for going off on a tangent, but not cruelly.” She laughed a bit. “It’s just a part of my species that we externalize our thoughts - sometimes very quickly, in order to posit a solution.”

“I’d scratch their eyes out of they were mean to you.” Wendy stated.

“It’s sort of like how I tease Candy and Hailey about Furren humor by intentionally explaining their jokes out loud, even if I got it immediately.” She grinned. “But don’t tell them I said that.”

“Oh I won't, I’ve noticed I get the urges to tell dirty jokes more now too, but I told them even as myself, so It’s not like it’s any different.”

“You’ll fit right in,” Brie laughed. “But I do have one question.”

“Ask me anything.” Wendy said, swishing her tail.

“Why did you want to wager our success, for a date with me?” she asked.

Wendy blushed Brie couldn’t see it through the fur, “I’ll tell you after I win.” she winked.

Brie laughed. “Fair enough. It’s just... Even among my people I was never considered attractive. As it goes, I’m average at best in intelligence and appearance.” She shrugged. “I’m not used to the attention.”

Wendy shrugged, “Their loss our gain.” and nodded, “Attention can take some getting used to - good or bad. I went from a lanky, kind of homely 12 year old to having my body catch up to itself over one summer, and suddenly everyone wanted to go out with me. Add to that, I had a crush on the girl who would become my other best friend, and you’ve got a recipe for one awkward as fuck school year,” she giggled.

“Well, all the same,” Brie said as she turned and kissed Wendy’s cheek, “Thank you. I hope that you win, even if losing is the same result for us,” she teased.

“Yes but me winning has an added bonus of me telling you why a date.” Wendy winked.

“And less awkward than saying that I won a date with you in a wager,” Brie giggled as they walked out into the hallway again. Ella was on her way through carrying a bedroll under one arm, and waved lazily.

“Don’t mind me. Karen and I are going to explore the island since Rebecca wants to stay on another day and head back tomorrow.” she paused, “Hailey and Candy are out looking around as well.”

“Out looking for a love nest,” Wendy giggled.

“Probably not, Hailey said she thought she spotted something interesting.” Ella spoke.

“Either way,” Brie said, “Looks like it’s just you and me tonight.”

“And Rebecca,” Ella laughed. “But she’s swapping war stories with the Admiral and Tricia over drinks.”

“So come on,” Candy giggled. “How was Wendy your best friend, but you never knew she was so smart?”

“We didn’t hang out at school.” Hailey said as they climbed the large rocks. “It’s complicated. Um... Do you have transgender people on Furra Prime?”

“Oh, sure,” Candy answered. “There’s a simple fix for it though. They take a brain scan to verify, and if you’re approved, you get a gene swap and recode”

“That’s why Transgender people are so accepted here, because out there you guys have a fix for it.” Hailey sighed. “Well back home, there’s no sure fire way to correct a person's gender, And people hate people who are different.”

“That’s one thing our culture shares with yours. My people hated their own kind for being a different color,” she sighed as she reached down to give Hailey a boost up to the next ledge ahead of her. Hailey turned around and held out her hands to pull Candy up next.

“We had those, too. Like your Traxian thing, we enslaved other humans, over 150 or so years ago there was a civil war to end slavery for good, but even a century and a half later, people still hate.”

“I guess stupid is a universal concept,” Candy said as she hugged Hailey. “I’m sorry you had to experience that kind of hate. I really did think you were attractive even without fur, though.”

“Thank you.” Hailey said. “I think it’s just over those rocks over there.” she pointed. “But yeah. I had to pretend to be a boy at school, and Wendy only knew me as Hailey. I had no idea she was like the head of the rocket science club and stuff.” she said, smiling, “But I think it’s pretty damn cool.”

Candy giggled. “I do too. Rocket science is rocket science. It’s literally the thing that every species I know of holds up as the gold standard for complexity.” She paused. “Well, that and Quantum physics, but you heard her hitting it off with Brie over exactly that.”

As they climbed their way past the last few boulders, they came upon a large pool of beautiful pink water.

“I wish Vanessa could see this,” Candy giggled.

“Wow, you can see the bottom of it.” Hailey said, “I wonder if it’s a hot spring.”

“I thought I saw steam earlier,” Candy said, “But it doesn’t look steamy now. No lava floes running along the bottom either.” She leaned down and touched her finger to it. “Ooh, it’s hot, but not burning hot. Just the right temperature!”

“Oh nice, someone definitely could build a hot springs resort out here.” Hailey said as she took off what little clothing she had on.

The water gurgled slightly, a few bubbles rising from a small fissure at the bottom, and a puff of steam followed. Candy giggled. “How dare you break wind before me.”

“It was the fissure,” Hailey laughed. “Besides, it was my turn.”

Hailey climbed into the water, “Oh my god this feels wonderful. There’s a even a natural ledge to sit on over here.”

“Purrfect,” Candy purred, taking off her clothes. She backed up a few feet, sprinted, and did a belly flop into the water, splashing Hailey.

Hailey giggled and splashed water back at Candy, “This is just purrfect, I could really see this as a relaxing spot.”

“For when you need a vacation from your tropical island paradise home and your dream job of exploring a strange, new world,” Candy giggled out.

“You never know, there are people here that have stressful jobs and need a place to relax.” Hailey said.

“I’m teasing,” Candy laughed. “I’m a psychiatrist, remember? I think it’s a purrfectly wonderful idea! I can tell you the entire medical staff needs a vacation badly just by looking at them.”

“Exactly!” Hailey said, “When we get back I’ll tell them about it and what good uses it can have, I think there’s like 12 of these pools around.”

There was a sudden, bright flash of light overhead, and something small plopped into the water, falling slowly to the bottom. Candy dove down after it, coming up a moment later. She had a rainbow shell in her hand, and a very, very amused look on her face.

“It’s just like the one I carved a message onto,” Candy laughed.

“Does it have a response carved into it?” Hailey asked, genuinely curious.

“It says Watch the Sky.” Candy said.

“What the heck did you tell them?” Hailey giggled.

“Thanks,” Candy laughed. “I told them thanks.” She settled back down next to Hailey and snuggled into her contentedly, as she stared at the shell. “All the achievements in the universe are meaningless, if you have no one to share them with.”

Hailey laughed, “Exactly.” She snuggled into Candy, and the sky lit up with Falling stars.

“Oh my God,” the woman from base radioed out. “Expedition team, are you watching the skies right now?”

“It’s like an earth meteor shower, mixed with Aurora Borealis,” Tricia’s voice came back.

“We’re watching it right now.” Hailey reached up and grabbed her phone to talk. “They sent us a message to watch the Sky, Candy sent them a message, saying Thank you, and this was their response.”

“This was my wish,” Candy giggled. “I wished that they could know how happy they’ve made me, by introducing me to you.”

“All I know is if we ever get space travel, I love this place and I could never go home anyway.” Hailey said, “And besides I wouldn't ever want to leave you.”

“I’d check on my apartment back on Furra Prime,” Candy giggled. “But I agree. This crazy, mixed up planet is home now.” Her ears twitched as she sat up. “Do you hear something?”

“Yeah what is it?” Hailey’s ears twitched too.

It grew steadily louder, and had a distinct high pitch. It was someone screaming, and it was coming from above them. They looked up in time to see a red haired girl rocketing towards them.

“SOOOOOOMEBOOOODOY CAAAAATCH MEEEEEEEE!” she squealed.

Hailey stood up in time, completely naked and soaked and grabbed the girl's feet catching her pulling her down, “What the heck is that?”

“Jesus Christ,” the girl gasped. “Thank you. One second I was sitting in my room, and the next I was falling through a pink sky. I thought I was dreaming.”

“Where are you from?” Hailey asked.

“Earth,” the girl said as she pushed her long red hair out of her face. “Whoa! I think I still am dreaming,” she said as she slowly reached out to touch Hailey’s fur.

Hailey laughed, “No dream, where at on earth and what day is it there?”

“Uh, Friday the 10th, and I’m from upstate Wisconsin. I was packing to go to space camp, and then... Fwoosh.”

“Um, Friday the 10th, what month and year?” Hailey asked, “I’m from Michigan myself.”

“June and 2016?” the girl said, confused.

“3 days.. I’ve been gone 3 days, and it’s only been 3 days here..” Hailey spoke to Candy.

“I thought this place was larger than your home planet though,” Candy said. “That’s strange...”

“That’s what I thought.” Hailey nodded, “But the time is the same here.” she paused, “Oh Sorry, I’m Hailey, this is Candy, we’re Furren, well I was human once.”

“Know what,” the girl said, “I’m not even going to question it. I’m Amber,” she laughed. “I just fell out of a pink and purple sky under a meteor shower and Aurora Borealis, and was saved by two cat people. I’m just going to roll with it.”

“It’s best not to.” Hailey laughed as she started gather her clothes but not get dressed, “We’ll take you to some of our people.”

“Just point me in the right direction,” Amber said. “I don’t want to interrupt your uh... thing.”

“Na, we’ll take you.” Candy said. “We need to tell them out this place anyway.”

“So like,” Amber said, as she reached up to touch one of Candy’s ears. “I’m not going to grow fur am I?”

“Not if you don’t want to.” Hailey laughed as Candy’s ear twitched.

“Looks good on you guys, but I already hate shaving my legs,” Amber giggled.

“You don’t want to think about razors to shave these.” Hailey laughed.

“It grows back within a day or two anyway,” Candy giggled. “My cousin Leena shaved her fur on a bet, once. It started growing back in patches so that by the end of the day she looked like she lost a fight with a hedge trimmer.”

Hailey giggled, “That sounds awful.”

“Ugh,” Amber said as she leaned over the edge. “I don’t have my climbing gear.” She didn’t seem at all bothered by the height.

“Here’s another point of data for Brie’s graph, though,” Candy said as she ambled down the cliff face. “Use my shoulders as a foothold. Hailey will catch you if you slip, and I’ll get you if you fall past me.”

“Just don’t grab my tail.” Hailey laughed.

“Thanks,” Amber laughed. “I’ll try not to.”

“How old are you, Amber?” Candy asked. “I’m 15.”

“14,” Amber answered, more focused on finding a good hand hold than anything.

“I’m 16, just turned like 2 months ago.” Hailey laughed.

“And I bet you anything that Vanessa’s no older than 19 or 20,” Candy said. “And Wendy’s our age too. It might be nothing, but it just seems like a lot of the new arrivals are adolescent or young adult.”

“Awfully coincidental too, that Amber was getting ready to go to space camp,” Hailey added. “Right as Wendy and Brie are working on some organic fuel-got you,” she said as she quickly grabbed Amber’s hand, helping her find another hand hold.

“And that is why I would never willingly do this without safety gear,” Amber laughed. “Me and my friends go to the gym all the time to climb the rock wall there, but we’ve been climbing in the real mountains a few times too.”

“Furren have natural reflexes, we don’t use climbing gear, we can also jump twice our body length.” Candy spoke as they got down to the first flat layer.

“We are definitely going to have to build a staircase,” Hailey laughed. “Or an elevator,” she teased.

“We want to get some overworked friends of ours up there,” Candy laughed. “But there’s no way they’d make the trip the way we went up. By the way Amber,” Candy said, “For what it’s worth, I’m a counselor and psychiatrist, so if you do have any questions please let me know. I just don’t want you to have a panic attack halfway down the next rock face.” She winked.

Amber laughed and shook her head. “No, really, I’m okay,” she said as she sat down. On the cliff’s ledge, catching her breath. “Like I said, I just saw some crazy shit, and I know this is going to sound even crazier, but you guys don’t know how happy I am to be anywhere but home.”

“I smell a backstory,” Hailey said as she sat down beside Amber, with Candy sitting on the other side.

“Drunk dad and all that BS.” Amber sighed. “I got this space camp thing from a contest at school. The way I see it,” she glanced between them. “A, I’m dead, and this is heaven, B, I’m asleep, and this is the most freaking awesome dream ever, or C, this is real, I’m here, and I don’t care whose ass I have to kiss to repay them, just as long as I never have to leave.”

“D, its real, and you don’t owe anyone anything.” Hailey said.

“You’ll be safe here,” Candy said reassuringly. “We have a friend named Ella, who can bench press an entire ship with one hand. If anyone ever lays a hand on you, Ella will literally rip them apart.” She winked.

“So it’s E, then,” Amber said with a kind of smart ass grin. “This is heaven, but I’m not dead.” She laughed.

“You ready to go down again?” Candy asked. Amber nodded, waiting for Hailey to descend first, and then ambling down alongside Candy.

“I mean don’t get me wrong, I’ll miss a couple of people, but the trade off is worth it all the way down.”

“I agree, but I did end up getting one of my friends.” Hailey said.

They walked down the path towards the colony. It was a well worn path however. “There’s no real continents , there’s islands here, some are pretty darn large though.” Hailey said.

“I joined the girl scouts and a rock climbing club, just so I’d have excuses not to go home,” Amber laughed, adding, “I’m even a cheerleader. Or was.”

“Cheerleaders are snots.” Hailey grinned.

“Yeah, I got kicked off the squad for refusing to get rid of my naval piercing. Not my fault they wanted me to wear an outfit that showed it off.” She laughed and made a diamond shape with her hands. “Like literally, the skin was shown like this around the bellybutton, and I’m the one at fault.”

“Did it embarrass you?” Candy asked, “That sounds a little too clothed for my tastes..”

“Nah,” Amber laughed. “I wear midriff bare shirts all the time. I was even willing to put up with being an aerial and flashing my undies every time I dropped down off a pyramid.”

Candy giggled, “My Race doesn’t wear underwear, we know what it is. Sounds like they were just arrogant though. There’s nothing wrong with body piercings. I think they’re beautiful, like all body art.”

“Right?” Amber said, nodding her agreement. “It’s not even like it was tacky or ugly. I had it long before they ordered those stupid new uniforms. I think they just wanted me off the squad.”

“I thought about getting my belly button done.” Hailey said. “But I hate needles. Did it hurt?”

“Only when I rolled over in bed the first night. They gave me some mild anaesthetic for the actual piercing. My cousin’s girlfriend Maria, though, she got her tongue pierced with a barbell. She said it hurt like a mother.”

Candy slowly stuck out her tongue and stared at it, wiggling it around briefly, as if trying to imagine what it would be like to have a piercing there. She shivered. “Let me amend that to, I find body art pretty as long as it’s not me.” She giggled.

“You have piercings in your ears.” Hailey giggled.

“That’s different. Ear cartilage has practically no nerve endings. The tongue has billions, especially a Furran tongue.”

“And there’s all that muscle to get through, too,” Amber said, grinning as Candy shuddered.

“We have to introduce this girl to Vanessa and Fran,” Hailey laughed. “Vanessa’s the total classic goth girl, and Fran is more the old school punk goth type. They’re both awesome.”

“Sounds like,” Amber laughed. “I went through a bubblegum goth phase. Tons of pink. I’m over it now, but I still appreciate the whole subculture.”

“Hey there!” Ella called from a high tree branch, waving down at them as they passed. “New arrival?”

“Hey Ella.” Hailey called back, “Yup, we’re taking her to the colony.”

“Oh, wow, another human,” Amber giggled a bit as Karen came around the base of the large tree. Ella casually dropped down off the branch, landing on her feet with a loud thud, and a very small crater.

“Yep,” Ella laughed. “They’re everywhere. I’m Ella, and that’s my girlfriend Karen.”

“Amber.” the new girl smiled. “Nice to meet you both.”

“The aliens formerly known as Overseers dropped her right into our laps - almost literally,” Candy giggled softly, and held up the rainbow shell for Ella and Karen to see. “Look, they even warned us this time.”

Karen leaned closer. “Watch... the... sky,” she read slowly. Her Furran wasn’t exceptional, but it shared root characteristics with Ella’s native language, which she was fluent in. “Wow, Candy that’s amazing! Nobody’s ever communicated with them before!”

“Yeah, it was really cool they replied in my language.” Candy said.

“But um,” Ella said, “Why a shell? That just seems so random.”

Candy giggled. “Oh, that’s easy. I wrote my message on a shell just like this one, and tossed it out to the ocean.”

Ella stared blankly for a moment, and then laughed. “Only a Furran would find such a simple, elegant, and damned brilliant way to get their attention. I love it. We’re on our way back as well. We collected a couple of samples for Brie and Wendy to look at, but that weird star thing made us kind of bug out.”

Hailey giggled, “It was very pretty. We found some hot springs: 12 of them to be exact.” she was still holding her clothing.

“Well, that explains them dropping Amber on a mountain top,” Karen laughed. “They only drop you in water. It’s like a weird rule of theirs. Usually it’s the ocean, though.”

Candy laughed, “It was kind of amazing, she was headed for another pool so if we didn’t catch her, she would have been safe.”

“I um...” Amber said sheepishly, “I can’t swim.”

“We were there.” Hailey shrugged.

“I think she means you saved her,” Ella giggled softly as they started walking together. “I guess it depends how deep the pools are, though.”

“Not too deep.” Candy said. “There’s one that has a natural ledge you can sit on that’s purrfect.”

“Oh, Hailey,” Ella said. “You’re from earth. Settle a bet.” She took out a plant sample that, on the outside, looked like an ear of corn, but then Ella peeled it back, revealing dark purple kernels. “Is this corn?”

“It looks like Maize.” Hailey nodded, “Hand it here.”

Hailey pulled one of the kernels out and ate it to give it a taste, “Sweet Corn!”

“Damn,” Ella laughed. “I was sure it wasn’t because it’s so... berry-looking.”

“Corn changes color, in the sun.” Hailey spoke. “If it’s dried to a kernel, it can even be popped into Candy’s favorite Snack.”

“Oh!” Candy squeaked excitedly. “I love popped corn! Especially with butter, or a little caramel sauce and mmmm...”

Hailey giggled, “Sweet Corn is a little different than regular corn, but it’s pretty much the same stuff. I’m not sure if you can make popcorn from it.”

“I just happened to remember Wendy asking for corn or maize when she was talking to Brie this morning,” Ella nodded. “Karen said she was sure this was some variety of what she was looking for.”

“And now that I think about it,” Karen said, “ I swear I’ve seen it growing on one of the islands. I’ll ask Tera when we get back, if she remembers where.”

“She’ll probably need large quantities of it.” Hailey nodded.

“Well,” Good news, “Ella laughed. “This stuff grows like tangleweed, one small circle of it, but as soon as we picked one, a new one grew.”

“Wait,” Amber said, “So it was a circle... of crops... put there by an alien?”

Hailey nearly doubled over laughing. “Oh God,” she managed to squeak out between giggles.

Ella and Candy looked confused. Amber giggled. “Back on Earth there’s this phenomenon, a hoax really, called crop circles. People go out into fields and make big circle designs in crops, and other people see them and immediately assume aliens have nothing better to do than to make these things - even after the hoaxers admitted they did it.”

Hailey nodded, “But it’s good that they grow like that, We can ask Wendy how much she needs.”

Candy smacked Hailey on the butt, “You should atleast get dressed a little. Not that I mind.”

“Nobody else is complaining either,” Hailey giggled as she pulled on her skirt and top finally.

“I wasn’t complaining, I’m just not sure how the colony will react.” Candy giggled.

Hailey laughed. “I’m kidding. The truth is I was just so distracted with helping Amber that I forgot to get dressed.”

“Yeah,” Amber laughed, “Amber not dying to a loose rock is a good thing.”

“We haven't lost anyone yet, no plans on ever losing someone.” Ella nodded.

“Well,” Karen said, “Eventually the straight folks will probably pass of old age at least.”

“Well that’s fine. Natural death is fine.” Ella laughed. “When we die we return to the universe to be reborn; that’s a scientific fact and a religious belief shared by many cultures. But to have one’s life cut short unnaturally is still cruel.”

“At least until we crack the nano enigma,” Candy giggled. “But as far as I know, even Sartori haven’t figured that one out.”

“Oh,” Amber said, “You mean eternal life? Yeah some guy from Google says we’ll have that figured out by 2027. Something about using molecular nanomachines to repair DNA and keep it from breaking down in the first place” She shrugged. “Sounds like science fiction to me.”

“Unfortunately,” Candy nodded. “Nanomachines can do amazing things, but they can’t replicate fast enough to keep up with cellular decay in the advanced stages. They can prolong life, though.”

“We’re still not sure how the aliens that brought us here, made those of us who don’t reproduce, able to live forever,” Ella laughed.

“Really I won't die of old age?” Amber looked stunned.

Karen giggled. “Wow, another one? You know we’re supposed to be rare,” she teased.

“What being lesbian is not rare.” Amber laughed.

“It is here,” Ella laughed. “It’s not looked down upon or anything. It’s just unusual for the aliens to choose non-b over b, in my understanding. But yes. The oldest member of the larger colony has been here sixty years, and she looks 20 still.”

“In the last four days,” Hailey giggled, “We’ve had four lesbians and one convert that we thought for certain wasn’t, all of whom joined or were already a part of our expedition team.”

“In Brie’s defense though,” Ella nodded, “She never really talked about herself in that sense. That one was on me for just assuming because she seemed more anxious around males. I misinterpreted it as interest instead of disinterest. Normally I can tell just by cruising surface thoughts, but Brie is like trying to read a blank slate, covered in prickly spines.”

“Her species.” Candy nodded. “We’re easier to read than hers.”

“Not by much,” Ella laughed. “You share similar defenses, but Furrans make psychic races just plain not want to read any deeper,” she teased. “Not that I ever go below the surface, either. I’m a Praelian Guard. We’re taught to respect others’ privacy, and only read their emotions to help mediate peace.”

“Soo you’re a Jedi,” Amber giggled. “Awesome.”

“Clear the path!” someone yelled, “We have an injured newcomer! I think she’s pregnant too!”

“ She’s Furren,” Ella said quickly as they ducked off the path.

“I’m going with them then,” Candy said. “I helped deliver 6 of my sisters’ litters and two of my sisters-in-law’s.”

“WE have no clue how many she’s having the one medic spoke, I heard your kind can have 2-6 even more.”

Candy nodded. “Furran labor can last for weeks on end. We may need to prep the Victory to take her back to the big colony.”

“Jesus Christ,” the human medic said. “I agree. We’ll do what we can for her here, but by all accounts your colony’s better equipped to handle this than we are.”

“What are her injuries?” Hailey asked.

“Looks like she was beaten really bad.” one of the other medics stated

“Fell...” the woman groaned quietly. “Fell do... down... stairs try...”

“Shh,” Candy cooed softly. “You’re going to be okay. Does anyone have some water from the ocean? The medicinal properties may ease her pain.”

“Got some here.” A young 10 year old girl handed Candy a wine skin. Candy uncorked the top and poured just a tiny amount in the woman’s mouth, letting her drink it, before giving her a tiny bit more.

“I los... lost consciousness on th.. the stairs,” the woman said weakly. “Woke up here.”

“How many Kits are you having?” Candy asked.

“Seven,” the woman said with a wry laugh. “Oooh, hurts to laugh.”

“What’s your family name?” Candy asked the woman.

“Atross,” she answered. “I’m Mileena Atross.”

Candy smiled and kissed Mileena’s forehead, “My name is Candy. We are family.”

“You’re-” she paused to flinch, “You’re the galactic peace prize nominee. Congratulations,” she said, still smiling despite her pain.

Candy laughed, “No congradulations to you for becoming a mother.” she said, “You will be ok.”

Mileena laughed, “I’ve had kits before.. A liter of 10, but they were all taken..”

“Taken,” Hailey said, looking at Candy. “What does she mean?”

“Taken,” Candy repeated with a certain strength behind it. Hailey frowned.

“Oh... I’m so sorry.”

Mileena nodded. “And now I may... May lose these too.”

“You won’t we’ll make sure of it.” Candy said reassuringly.

Ella slowed back a bit and pulled Hailey aside. “She’s lying about her injuries,” she said quietly, knowing Furran hearing, even under duress, was keener than most.

“What do you mean she was lying?” Hailey asked.

“I mean,” Ella exhaled slowly, “She didn’t just fall down some stairs. I believe someone didn’t want those kits to be born.”

“Why wouldn't they?” Hailey sighed, “Makes no sense.”

Ella shook her head. “Who can say, but her injuries are not consistent with a simple fall, and she said her last batch were taken as well. I just wanted you and Candy to be aware. This is technically, an internal Furran matter, since I can’t do anything about it from this planet.”

“Well whatever was going on, it doesn’t matter anymore, they will be born here.” Hailey said. Ella nodded and gave Hailey a hug, before letting her catch up with Candy again.

Hailey waited around outside the clinic, she wasn’t very useful, but she stuck around for Candy. They had taken the ship back to the main island to induce birth, so they could treat the mother.

“Heard anything?” Wendy asked as she approached Hailey. Her breath reeked of sour apple bubblegum.

“You know that stuff’s going to be a nightmare to get out of your fur,” Hailey laughed.

“Old habits die hard,” Wendy giggled.

“Furran labor can last for weeks,” Hailey said. “They’re trying to balance helping her through, with treating her injuries, so they’re trying a new birthing technique. It sounds crazy to me, but I’m no doctor, so...”

“Whatever works, I guess,” Wendy nodded.

“I hope she survives and I pray to the overseers that she does.” Hailey said.

“If I ever get my claws on who did this to her,” Wendy growled, “They’ll wish for death. But knowing the Overseers’ sense of humor, I like to think that they dropped that person into some kind of specially tailored personal hell.”

“If they even know who did it.” Hailey shrugged.

At that, a single flower petal drifted down seemingly out of nowhere. It landed right on the tip of Hailey’s nose, and the pigmentation pattern seemed to have a message written right into the petal’s surface. A semicolon, followed by a dash, and then a closed parenthesis thusly:

;-)

Hailey sneezed, causing the petal to fall to dust before her as Karen poked her head out of the clinic. “Guys, it’s working!” she announced excitedly. “The aquatic birth tank is helping ease her pain and it’s making the birth process easier - three born so far, and all healthy.”

“So the kits are safe?” Hailey said.

“Yes and one has taken to your girlfriend.” Karen said.

“Uh oh,” Wendy giggled. “Someone’s going to be a godmother.”

Hailey giggled and stuck out her tongue, “Someone's Jelly.”

Wendy laughed and shook her head. “If maternal instinct was a mouse, then I am the 750 pound lion who accidentally steps on it prowling through the jungle.”

“I’m so not good with kids either.” Hailey laughed, “Remember when Greg brought his little niece to the bug out meeting?”

“Oh, God,” Wendy laughed. “I remember you said you had to wash that shirt three times to get the pee smell out.”

“Yeah.” Hailey sighed, “It was my favorite shirt too, I can’t believe I swore at her for that too.”

“So,” Wendy giggled, “You and Brie neglected to tell me we had regular gasoline here,” she teased Hailey, and then giggled. “But Brie did explain how it’s not as combustible either. I understand why the scientists have struggled with the problem. We need a higher octane fuel, as it were.”

“Sorry about that, will it be helpful for you in that pursuit?” Hailey blushed.

Wendy giggled. “It’s Brie’s fault for not telling me. But I can’t blame her. We’ve both been... preoccupied,” she teased Hailey. “But yes, actually, being able to study the molecular structure on the fly, comparing the new biofuel to gasoline will be extremely useful. And the regular gasoline isn’t useless, either. Just not strong enough to power a jet engine as we’re planning.”

“Ella found a ton of Sweet Corn like stuff, I hope that will help too.” Hailey said

Wendy nodded. “We managed to collect some samples before we left, and we’re having Expeditionary 1 collect even more for us, as much as an experiment to see how much it will replenish itself,” she giggled out.

“Hope they don’t kill it off, but we do have enough we can plant more if needed.” Hailey giggled.

Wendy nodded. “They’re using one plant as the control, and monitoring it closely. If they see any signs of wilting or nutrient drain, they’ll stop immediately, per Tricia’s direct orders. We’re scientists, after all, not monsters.” She giggled again. “God it is so great to be able to talk to you about this sort of thing though.”

Rebecca had pulled Candy out of the lab area and gathered her team, “I know you’re all worried about the new Furren, but we have a mission to get back to, if you think you’re ready?”

“The new shipboard lab is ready, with more than enough samples to keep me busy for a month at least,” Wendy nodded. She was excited, like a kid in a candy store. Even the school’s state-of-the-art lab had nothing on what the Science guild had given her and Brie to work with “As a bonus I can help Brie with her analyses as well.”

“Wendy, I don’t want you to solely rely on that sweet corn stuff as your test base. We should try to find other sources to make fuel from as well.” Rebecca nodded.

“Agreed. Even if it appears to be limitless now, it would be dangerous to assume it will always be.” Wendy answered. “The Science guild is testing soil samples to maximize growth potential and plant new fields as well.”

“As far as Expedition Team 1 has been able to gather it seems that it mostly self replenishing as long as you replant it and leave the old growth alone for awhile.” Rebecca nodded, “But that isn’t 100% conclusive either.”

“Sort of like,” Hailey said, “How in World of Warcraft, if no one hits a node for a while, sometimes it becomes a rich node, but then it goes back to being normal again.” She laughed, adding, “Oh, and we’ve already had the “is this a simulation” discussion - conclusively, it isn’t.”

“It may feel like it because we can sail to distant points really quickly, but the ocean has what I call living currents.” Rebecca said. “There have been people who tried to sail on their own, before the Explorers’ guild was founded, who were lost for months, only to discover they were barely a week out if they had followed the currents instead of fighting them.”

Wendy nodded. “Given the evidence I’ve seen so far, I’d lean more toward a theory involving the planet as a living being than a simulation - but that’s pure speculation too.”

“We’re unsure how big it is either, but so far it seems much much larger than Earth.” Rebecca nodded, “If we could get like a GPS satellite into space we could really know.”

“Hmmm,” Wendy said thoughtfully. “A rocket powerful enough to even just lift a single person to the upper atmosphere may be out of the question for now, but if we can create the right mixture in a massive enough quantity, we could theoretically put a small object in orbit.”

“That’s assuming we don’t cross the weight threshold,” Brie nodded her agreement. “Once we’re there it would just fall right back down again, but it’s a sound theory for certain. I’ll provide you what data I can regarding atmospheric composition and gravitational information.”

“Good keep working on the fuel and a theory on how to do that.” Rebecca said with a small laugh. She had no trouble keeping up with the conversation, even if it was lost on Hailey. “The guild has rebranded our ship class. We’re now a Scientific Exploration Ship which grants us longer exposition times.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Rebecca,” Wendy said sheepishly.

“Why?” Rebecca grinned, “I’ve wanted more off Dock time.”

Brie giggled, whispering, although Hailey and Candy had no trouble hearing her, “Rebecca’s a scientist too.”

“I heard that,” Rebecca laughed. “I studied marine biology in college, but I was also a soldier in the US Army. I guess traveling abroad has always been in my blood. Either way, I’m excited.”

Ella nodded, “So before we got a full team we were only allotted 1 day out, but when we got our full team we got 4. Now that we’re a science vessel how long can we be out for now?”

“Now that we have a way to stay in contact with the main island, one month within radio contact. If we have to stray beyond that, it’s 8 days before they send a team to look for us.”

“The radio has the added benefit,” Candy said, “That we can immediately contact the colony for a rescue ship if either we get into trouble, or if we find another survivor. We won’t have to turn around and go home to take them back right then and there.”

“Survivor contact is common. it happens like babies are born on earth damn near.” Rebecca laughed.

“Speaking of babies,” Candy grinned as she took out Hailey’s phone. “Hailey let me borrow this to take some baby pictures.”

“Cute, but I definitely have the maternal instincts of a piss ant.” Hailey laughed, “I was talking with Wendy about the time we had to watch a 6 year old girl, and I made her cry.”

“She peed on Hailey,” Wendy blurted right out.

“She fell and hurt herself, I figured what the hell I can carry her, she had an accident, and ruined my favorite shirt, I swore at her hardcore.” Hailey shrugged.

“Riiight,” Candy said, “Okay, I’ll be handling any babysitting requests,” she teased and giggled, giving Hailey a kiss on her cheek. “Just kidding. They grow fast, and Furren kits are hard as hell to hurt.”

“They’re very flexible,” Ella giggled. “Watching two play, you’d think they hated each other, but then they’ll get up, dust each other off, and run off to get food.”

“Issa said she was going to live near us anyway.” Candy said with a big smile. “And the Jaquie is moving here as well. So there will be other Furren here to help her.”

“Nyla, the midnight black furren mentioned coming temporarily to help raise the kits too,” Brie nodded. “I believe she said something about being a former schoolteacher.”

“Hey!” Amber called as she ran to catch up to them, carrying a basket on her back.

“Hey Amber.” Hailey waved.

“I’m glad I caught you before you left,” she said as she slid the basket off. “Garlic bread from Erick’s, and some new samples the Science guild wants you to test, while they’re having me test similar samples here, so we can compare notes when you guys get back.”

“Are... you feeling okay?” Candy asked.

“Just a little itchy,” Amber nodded. “I must have gotten into something I’m allergic to. I’m using the ocean water as the base for a balm like Doctor Lynn told me to, though.”

“It might be that or something else.” Hailey nodded. “Thank you for the Garlic Bread, that stuff is amazing.”

Amber grinned, giving Hailey and Candy a hug. “Thanks for saving me. I’ll be by the radio at the requested times for our first session. I left myself notes to remind me.”

“Good,” Candy said, grinning. “I don’t know what therapy is like for humans, but I promise you’ll enjoy my sessions.” She winked, waited for Amber to leave, and then laughed. “I just hope nobody else is listening in, or they’ll get an ear full of blue.”

Brie laughed, “Actually they’d have to have Hailey and Wendy’s Walkie Talkie app to listen in. Or an earpiece like yours I believe? I’m not familiar enough with Traxian technology to posit with certainty, only base my assumptions on previous experiences.”

“Oh,” Candy laughed as they boarded the ship. “I had it set to broadcast on all possible wide band frequencies, no encryption. I was practically screaming my location to anyone with a tracker or with a receiver turned on.”

“Ah, Well anyway, we’re running ship to ship and ship to colony transmissions encrypted with 6,800 bit encryption.” Brie replied.

“God,” Wendy giggled excitedly as she looked out across the water. “I feel like I’m in an episode of Star Trek. You know, one of the ones where they’re dreaming about the age of sail on the holodeck,” she giggled.

“You know what I wish I had.” Hailey laughed, “My damn iPad and laptop. it was my social life pretty much.”

“And now Hailey’s going to get hit in the head with one,” Candy giggled. “Wendy told me about the note from the... You know what, I’m just going to call them gods,” she laughed. “Custodians sounds mean, and they’re hardly overseers. Besides, that word has a negative connotation in Furran society. Gods can be good or bad, but these seem to care.”

“Yeah, I agree.” Hailey nodded, “I think I will start calling them gods as well. But she has a point. If you see a large, flat rectangle come flying out of the sky warn me so I can duck,” she laughed.

“So, Captain,” Wendy said, trying hard not to giggle, “Are we charting a course south again?”

“East this time actually, Expedition Team 1 found a second exit from the lip.” Rebecca grinned.

“Now I know the uh, gods,” Ella said, testing out the word for herself, “Are actively involved in terraforming the world because the other colony searched for years for an exit, and now there are two.”

“I think this planet changes to fit our needs too.” Brie spoke up. “Except the areas we’ve all explored.” she paused, “It seems those self replicating trees, are new, like they didn't exist till we found that island.”

“And that corn crop came up in an area where the other colony had previously written off as nothing but empty beach,” Karen nodded.

“I’m rethinking my theory on them trying to keep us here.” Brie nodded. “If the gods wanted us to stay they wouldn’t have put us on a world that tries to accommodate us so easily. It’s more likely they’re trying to help us, and are learning as they go, the same as we are.”

Candy giggled. “Well, Furren gods are far from perfect, so that seems logical.”

“I think these beings are new, they have no idea yet how things work.” Brie nodded. “Wendy and I were talking about this earlier, about how we think that they got their hands in the ancients experiments without knowing anything.”

“We somewhat suspect that this planet might have been the original test area. I wouldn’t be surprised if we eventually find some signs that intelligent life existed here once.”

“So in essence you're saying this is the Garden of Eden?” Hailey asked.

Wendy nodded. “Exactly. That of course opens up a whole new realm of questions, and we may be completely wrong.”

“That doesn’t make sense though, the bible says the Garden had no evil or killing, I’ve seen birds of prey kill fish.” Hailey laughed.

Wendy nodded. “Like I said, it opens up a whole new realm of questions. I’m not comfortable with the idea that humans only exist because of some ancient “creator” yet, either. I used to be an Atheist,” she laughed.

Brie nodded, “I don't think our common ancestor was created by a being, I think it mutated from something else that existed here and whatever beings decided to take us from here and experiment with us..”

Candy nodded. “Okay, since I know nothing about humans, I have to ask, do you have um... primal cousins that still exist, that aren’t as intelligent as humans, but that share a common ancestor?”

“Gorillas, monkeys, there’s hundreds of other primate species on Earth,” Rebecca nodded.

“Goren is what we’re supposedly evolved from.” Brie nodded, “Both Furren and my species. Or, at least a common ancestor. We share 98% similar DNA with them despite their intelligence being... primal at best. We have some primate sub-species on both our planets as well, much like Hailey mentioned having Goren - or lynx - on Earth. Probably other predatory cats, too.”

Ella laughed a bit. “Supposedly my people are related to direhorns, which I can see. They have a hide almost as tough as steel, just like us.”

“Well,” Wendy giggled, “Here’s hoping we find some evidence! I’m still not convinced Aria isn’t part of the same race, but at the same time, I agree that she’s not in on the joke. What did you think of her, Ella?”

“Honestly,” Ella laughed, “I thought she was a human until you guys clued me in. Her surface thoughts were... excitable, like she was always in a great mood, but other than that she seemed like an upbeat human.”

“I talked with her at length,” Brie said. “She told me how, despite the Admiral’s comments, she really did crash land here, but it appeared as if she was brought down by the gods because of the way her warp engines work. She quite literally fell out of a wormhole.”

Ella nodded, “Her Ship's technology is beyond anything we have in the Galactic Trade, and I didn’t recognize the language on her ship's computers either.”

“Luckily,” Wendy said helpfully, “Her sublight engines could be converted to act as conventional propulsion engines. Brie already repaired them. Man oh man though, I could spend months talking to that woman.”

“I know, right?” Brie laughed. “She’s so friendly and open about everything - even the things she doesn’t know.”

“You know though, all these races, all your races, make me happy though. Back on Earth.. We think we’re alone in the universe.”

“Hey, yeah,” Wendy said, “With all these races that we’re related to, sharing common DNA markers and all, how is it that none of you has ever visited Earth?”

“Not sure. You guys might be at a different end of things then we are?” Brie shrugged. “Do you have any star charts of everything near your system?”

“I had an entire map of the known galaxy on my hard drive,” Wendy frowned. “But that’s probably a bajillion miles away now.”

“Me too.” Hailey nodded. “I think I have Endless Galaxies on my iPad as well.”

“It’s also possible that the GTC bans interference since Earth is a sublight culture. They try to avoid meddling in the affairs of non-space faring peoples,” Candy said thoughtfully. “We’ve only been part of the GTC for a few hundred years ourselves, and even then, we were indirectly introduced through the Traxians.”

“Oh!” Wendy nodded. “Yes that would make sense, especially if this GTC has a lot of power.”

Ella grinned. “Brie’s people don’t call mine ‘The statue that you should not piss off’ for nothing.”

“There are many, many species members, but Ella’s people are natural leaders, mediators, and they’re next to impossible to kill with conventional weapons.”

Ella laughed, “That and we’re next to impossible to bribe, my species was the first to develop intergalactic travel as far as we can tell. We made first contact with a few sub-light races that were just beginning to explore outside their solar system, and the GTC was born from that.”

Brie nodded, “Regarding the non interference laws, though, it’s best to leave a species to learn. Artificial acceleration is dangerous.”

“A lesson we learned the hard way with the Xyk’tali,” Ella sighed. “We, as in our ancestors of course,” she quickly added. “This is all ancient history, for us.”

“Reptilian race of people, they killed themselves off because of GTC interference.” Brie nodded.

“Oh, I remember this from my intergalactic studies class,” Candy nodded. “Their culture was so deeply steeped in the fervent, religious really, belief that they were the supreme beings in the universe. When their leaders learned that there were others, they chose annihilation over accepting that they weren’t alone.”

“Sounds like humans to me,” Wendy sighed.

Hailey laughed, “Yeah, I think it’s a good thing you guys are waiting to visit us. We’re so xenophobic with our own species it’s not funny.”

Rebecca nodded. “If Hailey showed up on earth looking like she does now, people would either assume she’s wearing a costume or, if anyone did ever figure out she was an alien, she’d be on a dissection table faster than anything.”

“Exactly.” Hailey sighed. “But this isn't the reason I don’t want to go home, and this planet isn't either, exactly. I’m excited actually, to be an explorer of something new.”

“Agreed,” Wendy giggled as she leaned on the rail, watching their whale friend jump out of the water nearby. “Even if we do find a way off, this will always be home. We’ll just explore space next, instead of just the islands.”

“I think it’s safe to say we’re a new species anyway, even if we’re still the same.” Hailey laughed. “At least we are united under a single ideal on this planet. We even have a singular Scientific Religion.”

“Hey, Hailey,” Wendy giggled. “It’s safe to say we’re ... East... of Eden.”

Hailey groaned, laughing. “Not bad, but needs more smut.”

Wendy started singing an old Simpsons parody of Ina Gadda Da Vida, “In the Garden of Eden honey, don’choo know that I lo-hove you-hoo.”

“Much better,” Hailey almost cackled, and queued up the song on her iPhone so the others knew what they were talking about, at least somewhat.

As they cruised along, barely an hour into their journey, they heard a loud splash, and then another, and another. Someone, or something - or several someones or somethings - were swimming alongside the boat, splashing in and out of the water.

Hailey looked overboard, “Holy crap, we’ve got Mermaids!”

Sure enough, there in the water were three beautiful females - at least their top halves were humanoid females. They had different colored scales around parts of their arms in patches, as well as their necks, and slender, sleek fish tails.

The blonde haired girl had a vibrant purple tail and scales, the redhead had silver-white, and the black haired girl had red. The black haired girl dove underwater and then leapt up until she could grab onto the side of the ship and hoist herself up.

“You speak our language?” she said, sounding surprised. Unlike the other two, she wore an ornate necklace made from rainbow shells like the one Candy used to communicate previously with the gods.

It went without saying that these three girls were otherwise completely naked, although their scales seemed to behave like clothing, growing over the girl’s exposed breasts like a tank top even as she held onto the side of the ship to speak to them.

Ella nodded, “We call it the Universal Trade language, but some people call it English.”

“How long have you been here?” Brie asked, “Oh and do you mind if I take a blood sample?”

The girl looked back down at the other two. “It’s alright. They’re friendly.” At that, the other two leapt up out of the water and held onto the side. “We’ve been exploring these waters for about 20 days, hoping to find a familiar landmark, but you’re the first intelligent beings we’ve met.”

“We’re a half a day into our expedition, if you girls want to come with us. When we return you can join our colony.” Hailey said.

“Is this wise Princess?” the redhead asked quietly. The black haired girl nodded.

“I have no reason to believe they would deceive us,” she answered. “You may also take your blood sample if you wish.” She pulled herself over the ship’s rail and offered her arm.

The other two pulled themselves up over the side. By the time they had landed, they no longer had a long, slender tail flipper, but two very human looking legs, with their more sensitive areas covered by their scales.

“This won’t hurt - it really won’t,” Candy said, as Brie approached to take the samples from each of the girls, it also didn’t take long for her to find the markers.

“You,” the black haired girl said, nodding to Rebecca, “And you,” she nodded to Karen, “are finless, but I do not recognize the other races here.”

Brie spoke up, “I’m Sartoran, and it seems you also share the common DNA marker which makes you a related species to us all.”

“I’m human,” Rebecca giggled. “Karen is actually a half-human and a Natural born here, first generation. We were all brought here, though we’ve yet to determine exactly why or how.”

“Ah,” the black haired girl nodded. “For what it’s worth, finless is just the word we use to describe the land-based people of our planet. They look much like you do.”

“Ah, so there are two sets of people on your planet?” Hailey smiled. “Do your species get along?”

“Sometimes,” the blonde haired girl nodded. “We must be cautious when dealing with strangers because our scales are prized by some as trophies. Most however, are more civilized than that.”

“Well your people's contributions are more prized here than anything,” Candy offered. “It seems our new homeworld wishes to please us instead of the other way around.”

“We had thought it strange,” the redhead said, “Now that you mention it, that all along the way here, we’ve found plenty of star fruit to keep us sustained. I think there’s a patch of it close by, if you’d like some.”

“We’d love a sample.” Hailey said, then started to sniff the air. “Do you guys smell fire?” she asked.

“I do,” Wendy nodded, looking around for signs of smoke as the redhead backed up slightly and then did a backflip dive off the ship and into the water.

“Over there, 4 islands over.” Brie called out. “Seems to be signal fire?”

“Either that, or someone’s hut is burning,” Rebecca said. “That fire’s way too big just to be a cooking fire.” She steered the vessel gently onto a new current, catching the wind and speeding them along even faster.

“Don’t worry about Kindall. She can catch us.” The black haired girl said. “We’ve studied the currents here as well. You may be finless, but you follow them like a Finnari.”

“I’ve always loved the water. Back on Earth, when I got out of the army I bought a small sailing yacht.” Rebecca grinned. “I spent days at a time fishing in the open ocean. Being here is a lot like that, but with more islands,” she added with a laugh.

“I’ve always had a fascination for the finless ships,” the black haired girl laughed. “My people think it strange that I’d be interested in how they travel above the water, rather than under it, but I already know what’s under it.”

“We have ships back home that travel underwater.” Hailey said. “But they can’t go too deep or they’ll be crushed.” As they approached they could see a massive pile of trees burning on a beach - as Brie suggested, a signal fire.

To their amazement, running about on the beach was an entire group of Furren of varying coloration. Some were fanning the fire, while others were running back and forth to find fronds or leaves to throw on and create more smoke. Also to Wendy’s surprise she kind of recognized the uniform they were wearing. It was definitely of a beachwear style, but there were certain similarities too, including a sash with patches on it.

“I don’t believe it,” Wendy laughed. “I think they’re furren girl scouts!”

“Ah, Rescue Girls.” Candy nodded. “Kits of the ages between 5 and 16. I was a Rescue girl. Boys have a similar group called Scout Kats.”

Candy cupped both hands around her mouth and let out a sound not unlike a very loud meow. It sounded almost like Hailey’s cat when she wanted to be let out.

One of the girls stopped what she was doing and returned the call, then they all stopped and started to put the fire out, since it had done it’s job. The Finnari just stood by and watched with some mild amusement and interest.

“Ahoy!” Rebecca called out as they came in close to the island. The ship was designed to beach and un-beach easily and could roll right up on the shore with ease so long as it wasn’t too rocky.

“Thank the gods,” one of the girls, a bright pink furren like Candy, said as they came running over to greet their rescuers. “We went to sleep last night on a wilderness retreat on Furra II, and when we woke up we were here,” she explained, as Kindall waded ashore with a large vine slung over her back.

The vine itself was green with slightly purple leaves, and all along it were huge pieces of yellow fruit, practically engorged with juice. Each fruit had a telltale white star-like mark at the stem, extending outward.

“You girls were doing the reserve camp?” Candy asked. “Getting your Avian badges I suspect? All of you are about 9 to 13 in cycles?”

“Yes ma’am,” the pink girl nodded. “Right on all accounts ma’am.”

“I’m a former Rescue Girl myself.” Candy said. “Is everyone accounted for?”

“Yes ma’am,” the pink girl replied proudly. “All present and accounted for.”

A Furren girl with solid white fur, who had been staring at Wendy and Hailey in amazement, spoke up, though she was still staring. “We heard your war cry,” she giggled. “At first we thought you were a troop leader.”

“I was leader of my Niece’s troop a few years ago.” Candy nodded. “Also girls, we have stardust blue Furren here. It’s not polite to stare at them.”

“Sorry,” the white furred girl said sheepishly. “It’s just so incredible to meet one in person. We were just learning about you in Furran Civilization class last week.”

Hailey smiled and gave the girl a hug. “I’m not a natural born Furran actually.”

“Me either,” Wendy giggled. “This planet has strange mutagenic properties.” She pointed to Rebecca. “We used to be the same species as her and Karen.”

“Ohh.” The white furran said thoughtfully. “So many new species here... I only recognize two of you.”

Rebecca chuckled as she picked up the radio, “This is Expedition team 2 to Heart Island base do you read?”

“We read, Expedition Team, what’s your status Rebecca?”

“We’re good. We have some survivors here, furren kits, differing ages, and we also picked up a new species.” Rebecca called back. “They call themselves Finnari, probably sub-light, underwater dwellers but highly intelligent - and friendly.”

The black haired girl giggled under her breath at that last one. “We try,” she whispered.

One of the furren girls approached the black haired girl. “Your scales are soo pretty.”

“Thank you young one.” the black haired girl replied. “I am Princess Kala. You may just call me Kala though,” she quickly added. “I love your fur patterns, too.”

The girl giggled. “Thank you. It’s an honor to meet you. I’m Leia, and the orange one is my sister Sari.”

“Rebecca can we get your coordinates? We’ll send a boat out for the furren and the others if they wish to return with us.” a woman called back over the radio.

“Brie?” Rebecca asked.

Brie took out an old sextant and, after a moment, rattled off some numbers, seemingly doing whatever calculations were necessary right on the spot. Rebecca repeated them.

“My God,” the woman laughed. “It never ceases to amaze me just how far you can travel in a damned day. Alright, we’ll send a rescue vessel ASAP.”

“I should really teach the other teams how to navigate the currents.” Rebecca laughed, “Either that or Tom can. He’s pretty good at it too.”

“Yeah, I’m sending Tom out with a transport.” The woman replied.

“We will remain here with the young ones,” Kala said. “We can help them find food if the rescue vessel is delayed.”

“No need.” The white furred Furran said brightly. “We’re well versed in survival. It’s part of Rescue Girl training. But you’re more then welcome to stay anyway. We’d love to learn more about your people, your majesty.”

“As would we actually.” Brie laughed.

“The feeling is mutual,” Kala said with an almost bubbly giggle, beginning to let down her guard.

“I can travel with you, if you’d like,” the blonde haired girl offered. “We are the Princess’ personal guard, but if she trusts you, then we do as well.”

Rebecca nodded. “Thank you. Girls when you get back to the colony, there will be a doctor there. She’ll take blood samples from each of you. It’s procedure, but I promise it won't hurt at all.”

“No problem,” the pink furren replied cheerfully. “Thank you for the rescue.”

“It was smart of you girls to light the fire.” Candy said. “We saw it four islands away.

“We didn’t expect anyone to come so quickly,” the orange furren, Sari, giggled. “But we knew it’s best to stay in one place and wait for rescue.”

Kala turned to the blonde haired girl and gave her a hug. “May you swim deep, Zarra. I’ll see you when you return to their colony.”

“It’s yours now as well.” Hailey said. “We are all family. I’m sure our builders will help construct living quarters that will suit your needs.”

Kala looked a little surprised at Hailey’s offer, but she smiled and nodded, as Kindall gave Brie a few pieces of the star fruit - vine and all, for her to study.

“Thank you.” Brie said. “We’re always interested in the plant life of this planet.”

“It’s a staple of our diet where we’re from,” Zarra explained as they boarded the ship, even as Ella was disembarking again to give the girls some fresh supplies - blankets, flint and steel, and even a lantern with a solar charged battery. “The finless consider it a delicacy as well, so it shouldn’t be toxic to you.”

“May I ask,” Hailey asked, “Do you live completely underwater, or do you have some kind of air pocket structures as well? There’s another species of water breathing people in our colony that lived completely submerged, so I’m just curious how your people do things.”

“Our cities are built half above water and half below water.” Zarra answered. “On our homeworld we have a large landmass that we protect - separate from the Finless’ homelands, however we live and even intermarry with them on our landmass as well.”

“Fascinating.” Brie said as she listened. “When you have children with the finless from your land, are your children born with fins?”

Zarra nodded. “It seems to be a dominant trait. Some scholars theorized that we evolved from a common ancestor, and that the responsible trait is a dominant defensive process, from a time when our world was covered almost completely in water.” She flexed slightly, and suddenly, her entire body was covered in purple scales. She relaxed, and they seemed to absorb back into her skin, for the most part.

“Pretty,” Candy said. “Our people, the Furren people used to be feral at one point. We still have the sharp claws of our ancestors.”

“Most impressive,” Zarra nodded. “We have only our wits, scales, and the ability to affect others’ mood with our song, usually to put them to sleep so we can get away,” she laughed.

“Sound familiar?” Hailey asked, glancing at Candy.

“Sound,” Candy repeated, and the three Furren started to giggle.

“Don’t mind them,” Ella laughed. “Furren humor is subtle, and often very crass. In this case though I believe they’re talking about Candy’s signature work.”

“Indeed,” Candy said, still giggling. “I developed a method of treating patients with certain mental disorders through the use of sound to affect their mood.”

Zarra laughed, nodding. “That sounds precisely like what we do, yes. That is incredible.”

“You should hear Brie sing,” Karen said as she came back on deck. “Her people have two sets of vocal chords.”

“Amazing.” Zarra said. “I’m beginning to understand why Kala trusts you. Please... forgive me for my distrust in the beginning. But this is a strange, new world, and we had no way of knowing who our allies are.”

“Oh no, it’s fine, but can I ask you a question?” Brie asked.

“Oh yes, of course,” Zarra nodded.

“Would you mind joining our exploration team as a representative of your people?” Brie giggled.

“Damit, Brie,” Rebecca laughed. “Get out of my head. I was just thinking the same thing. We have no way of exploring the depths, or even knowing how deep the waters go. Your insights would be worth this ship’s weight in gold if we lived on a monetary standard.”

Zarra’s scale color shifted just slightly to a lighter purple, as she blushed. “Oh my... I... I would be deeply honored. Thank you. Any time you wish to know about an area of water I will be more than happy to go and look. I’ll try to be observant when I hunt starfruit as well.”

The sun set as the girls sailed between several uncharted islands, mostly small spits of land. The area was dotted with lots of tiny islands where they were, nothing massive. Zarra had been gone awhile exploring the depths, but Brie had given her a waterproof satchel to carry starfruit, and anything else of interest she might have found so it was likely she was just doing her thing.

Hailey yawned. She had lookout shift while everyone else rested, but so far all she saw was the faint haze of twilight. She thought she saw something - or rather someone - out of the corner of her eye, a silhouette on a small island shore. Zarra splashed out of the water and up onto the ship, and when Hailey looked back, whatever she thought she had seen was gone.

“Sorry I was gone for so long,” Zarra said. “I was searching for more black glass and metal boxes.”

“Oh that’s fi- wait, metal boxes?” Hailey asked.

“Yes,” Zarra said as she reached into her satchel. “I found one, and thought there might be more. It definitely isn’t natural,” she said, as she pulled out a waterlogged iPad and offered it to Hailey. “Black glass on the front, with a metal back,” she said.

“Oh holy cow!” Hailey laughed, “This is an iPad.”

She ran down below deck, grabbing a small bucket and a bag of rice, with Zarra following curiously behind. She filled the bucket halfway, placed the iPad inside, and then covered it.

“Oh, I see,” Zarra said. “You’re dehydrating it?”

Hailey nodded. “Salt or sand would get inside of it, but rice kernels are too big. With any luck, it should still function. It’s a computer device, like Brie’s portable scanner,” she added. Zarra nodded.

She didn’t understand how Brie’s portable scanner worked, but she understood that it was high technology at least, and respected that high technology as a human respects a brown bear, which was to say she kept a respectable distance at all times, and kept track of her digits in the process.

“Our technology is mechanical,” Zarra replied. “Steam, clockwork, or combustion. I’ve never seen devices like what you and Brie use.”

“We can teach you.” Hailey answered. “It’ll probably be more common place soon on this world, so it might be good to learn.” She looked up at Zarra. “By the way you said you were here almost three weeks. Have you or the others noticed anything different about yourselves?”

Zarra shook her head, “Not really.”

“The ocean water here has strange properties,” Hailey said. “Healing and mutagenic. Like we said to those Furren girls this morning, Wendy and I used to be finless. The water changed us - not that we’re complaining. For others, the changes are more subtle. Ella’s gotten much stronger for example.”

“We’ve been more worried about finding others and food to really notice anything.” Zarra shrugged. “We did notice the water was sweet. There’s no salt in it at all, and it makes the starfruit even sweeter.”

That seemed to remind her that she had a fresh crop of it now, and she took one out of the satchel. She poked one fingernail just below the surface, dragged it along vertically, and the melon-like fruit split right in half. She offered half to Hailey as she bit into the other half, sucking up the juices.

Hailey smiled and took a bite. As the juice dribbled down her chin, she moved her hand to catch it, and in raising her head, spotted a slightly larger island they were approaching. “Rebecca! Land Ho!” She slurped down some more juice and bit into the soft fruity flesh. “Oh this is delicious.”

Zarra giggled. “It’s packed with nutrients, but it’s normally hard to cultivate.”

Rebecca came up the stairs with a solar lantern, her hair a mess, “Thanks for waking me,” she laughed. “No offense, but I don’t trust anyone else with landings.”

“None taken,” Hailey laughed too. “There’s two other things,” she said, pointing to the rice bucket. “Zarra found an iPad in the depths, for one.”

“Are you shitting me?” Rebecca asked.

“Nope. It looks like mine too.” Hailey laughed.

“I found it on a small outcropping, right next to a lone starfruit vine,” Zarra nodded.

“That’s fantastic,” Rebecca said. “So what was the other thing?”

“The other thing was probably nothing, but you told me to report anything unusual. Just before Zarra came back, I swear I thought I saw someone out of the corner of my eye on one of the tiny islands, but when I looked back, there was literally nothing there. Just sand and ocean, and nowhere they could’ve gone, so I didn’t wake you for it.”

Rebecca nodded as she took the wheel, “Thanks. I'll put that in my notes.” she said as she beached the boat, “All hands on deck!” she called out. There was a large bell by the wheel. Inside the bell the clapper had a little hook to rest on, so that it wasn’t ringing relentlessly every time the ship moved. She unhooked it and grabbed the rope that dangled down, ringing it loudly.

“Agh!” Brie could be heard groaning somewhere below deck, followed by a loud thump. A few seconds later she stumbled onto the deck, yawning. “Thank you, Rebecca. I was having a horrible nightmare and couldn’t wake up,” she said honestly.

Ella, Wendy and Karen soon followed. Rebecca grinned. “Glad to be of service. Sorry for waking you guys, but we’ve got a large landmass here. Wendy and Hailey are our resident Survival Experts, so I’m going to send you both in first. Do not go too far in, but I want you to do some preliminary scouting.”

“Roger roger,” Wendy said with a slight giggle as Hailey took out her phone.

“Don’t call me Roger.” Rebecca grinned.

“Testing, testing, 1 2 3,” Hailey said.

“I hear you,” Candy laughed as she came on deck now.

“Ok, once you two do your base scouting report back to the beach, We’ll wait for you here.” Rebecca smiled.

“Rebecca Rebecca,” Hailey said with a giggle, jumping off the ship before Rebecca could swat her.

“Uh,” Wendy said as she jumped off after Hailey. “What’s with the bucket of rice? You drop your phone in the water again?”

“Nope, Zarra found an iPad.” Hailey laughed. “I'll go right you go left?”

“OHMYGOD sweet!” Wendy squealed excitedly, cleared her throat, and then nodded. “Be careful.”

“You too.” Hailey nodded as she took off to the right and into the woods without a lantern because Furren had naturally keen night vision. The trees were dense, and there seemed to be a trail to follow. Some short distance in, Hailey was meet with a large Warehouse, that had the radioshack logo on it.

“Oh my God guys,” she quickly radioed back. “You’re not going to freaking believe what I just found out here.”

“What? What is it?” Candy asked. “Animal, mineral or vegetable?”

“Mineral.” Hailey laughed, “I found the motherlode of finds.”

Wendy called back, “Holy crap I found a car factory.”

“Okay,” Hailey laughed, “I found the SECOND most motherlode of a find. I found a freaking Radio Shack warehouse, out in the ass crack middle of nowhere.”

“What’s a Radio Shack?” Candy asked. Hailey could hear Rebecca laugh as she explained.

“Ohh, neat!” Candy said.

“Hold on, I thought I saw someone,” Hailey said. “Going to run up to the roof and check.” She secured her phone and then, sizing up a nearby tree, ran up and grabbed it, and began to claw her way up. Once she reached the top, she ran out along a sturdy branch and leapt, rolling onto the roof. She looked around.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are... Haley’s gonna find you,” she sang, to the tune of “Pop goes the weasel” as she looked around. There was no one there, and nowhere for them to hide. Unless they jumped off; her mind had to be playing tricks on her again.

“Did you find another survivor?” Wendy radioed back.

“I thought I saw someone, but there’s no scent.” Hailey sighed, “Ok guys I’m going to go in.”

Rebecca called back, “Negative, both of you return to the beach.”

“On my way,” Wendy called back. “I snapped a few pictures.”

“Yeah, I’m on my way. Hey, Candy, how far can we fall and not get hurt?”

“I’m not setting your bones,” Candy teased her. “I’d say about two stories on soft ground. More if you’ve got a softer target. It’s all in the way your body flexes as you land and distributes the force throughout, but even we have our limits,” she giggled.

Hailey called back a second later, “Ok, cats do always land on all four of their feet.”

“Yes, well we also run faster on all fours too, but we don’t like to.” Candy giggled.

“Really?” Wendy called back. “Oh I have GOT to try that!”

“You should try climbing too,” Hailey called back. “Okay, going silent for a second while I figure out how the hell I’m getting back down.”

Hailey put away her phone again. She started to take a running position, thought about what Candy said, and took off in a dead sprint on all fours, using the extra momentum to carry her further off the roof. It was a good thing too because otherwise, she’d have narrowly missed latching onto the tree branch.

What she didn’t expect, was that her ability as a stardust blue furren kicked in, and she shifted forms to a large wild cat. It startled her enough that she lost her grip on the branch and fell, right onto the next branch. The branch creaked and groaned with the sudden application of force, but she managed to amble around into a better grip, scampering for the tree trunk.

“What the...” she said, in a voice somewhat her own, but with a guttural, primal growl underpinning it. “I... I did it!” she came barrelling out of the forest in her large cat form. Wendy looked up, let out a startled shriek, and sprinted for the deck of the ship by way of clawing her way right up the side.

Candy examined Hailey, “It’s Hailey! I recognize the markings anywhere, and her scent.”

“I did it!” Hailey giggled in her new voice as she danced around playfully on the beach, rolling over onto her back and wiggling the sand into her fur. “I don’t know how, but I did it!”

“Can you turn back?” Wendy asked looking over the edge of the boat now.

“Let’s see,” Hailey said as she got back on her feet again, shaking the sand off. She first tried to rear back on two legs. That did little more than make her look like a blue circus tiger - which admittedly, made Rebecca giggle. She sat down on her hind legs with her paws in front, and thought about it for a moment. As she was trying to think of something else she could try, her form began to shift again, until she was right back to her old self.

Luckily silvan cloth was a very stretchy material because Hailey’s clothes, albeit in need of just a bit of adjustment, were back where they belonged again. Wendy had by now cautiously climbed back out of the boat.

Hailey shook her head vigorously as she stood. “I wonder what else is on this island besides the two things we found.”

“No idea, but we need to vote on which one to go to first.” Rebecca said. “Then we’ll call it in.”

“Both have their merits,” Wendy nodded. “I saw some four-wheelers on the lot that we can use to explore the island faster, however I won’t lie, the thought of getting my paws on a laptop again has me squirming inside.”

“There’s also the fact that Hailey thought she saw someone at the warehouse,” Brie added. Hailey shook her head.

“No, that turned out to be nothing. There were no signs, no scent, and if they had jumped off, which had to be at least four stories by the way, I would’ve heard them hit the ground. I’m going to check myself into the clinic when we get back because that’s twice.”

“I wouldn’t stress over it. This planet takes some getting used to. The first year I was here, I kept hearing things too,” Rebecca said, giving little more explanation than that.

Ella nodded. “I still see ghost ships from time to time when I’m on watch alone. My vote is for the factory. Faster transportation will allow us to get to the warehouse more quickly, as well as any other interesting locations on the island.”

The others cast their votes, mostly favoring Ella’s logic, or in Zarra’s case remained undecided and neutral.

“Zarra?” Rebecca asked.

“Yes ma’am?” Zarra answered.

“You get a say too,” she said. Zarra looked at her like she was speaking another language.

“Excuse me?” Zarra asked, confused.

“On my ship, we’re a democracy,” Rebecca laughed. “Everyone’s voice matters.”

Zarra blinked a few times, quietly nodding. “I see. I’m afraid I have no input to offer.”

“You have a lot to learn, but we'll count that as a neutral vote.”

“I’m sorry,” Zarra said. “My people are an absolute monarchy. As bodyguards we advise the Princess on matters of her personal security, but even then, she has the final word on all decisions.”

“That’s not how our society works here. We have a governing body, and we all vote, and all peoples vote matters.” Rebecca said. “We value everyone's opinions.”

“That will... take much getting used to. But the Princess will love it,” she added with a slight giggle. “For what it is worth then, I believe Ella’s plan seems sound. Ordinarily I would be concerned with noise attracting unwanted attention, but I have seen how you seek out others, and imagine that there is no unwanted attention, in this case.”

Karen couldn’t help giggling a little. “Ella, I think we just found you a new best friend”

Ella laughed. “I’m a guard too, of sorts, among my people,” she explained. “We’re peacekeepers and mediators.”

“Base, this is the Victory,” Rebecca radioed back.

“Go ahead Rebecca. What is your status?”

“Condition green,” Rebecca called back. “We’ve landed on a large island. We can’t see where the beach ends from here. We’ve located two structures that we’re going to investigate - an automobile factory, and an Earth electronics warehouse.”

“Did you say an automobile factory AND an electronic warehouse?” the woman radioed back.

“Yes ma’am.” Rebecca answered.

“That just got the science lab buzzing.” The woman laughed.

As the group began to travel towards the car factory, Zarra suddenly stopped, and scales rippled up her body. There was a faint sound like rustling bushes, and it was coming closer. The furrens’ ears twitched. They heard it too.

Rebecca whispered “Stand ready”. Hailey, Wendy and Candy had their claws out and ready for anything.

A pale woman with black hair and fangs emerged onto the path directly in front of them, chewing a piece of fruit the native island’s fruit. She stopped, slowly turning to look at the group ready for battle, dropped the fruit, and put up her hands.

Hailey started to giggle, “A Fruit bat. We all got freaked out by a friendly.” She retracted her claws. “Sorry about that.”

“You scared me half to death,” the girl laughed as she realized they were relaxing. “I haven’t seen anyone since I got here so I thought I was alone.”

“Oh, goodness no. There’s about 40 more of your species back at our colony.” Brie replied.

“To make a very long story short,” Rebecca laughed, adding, “And I’m very sorry for scaring you by the way. We’re part of an exploration guild. We were all brought to this planet by a mysterious force; some of us as much as eighty galactic standard years ago.”

“My goodness,” the girl said. “It has only been a few days for me. I hide out during the day at the strange building near here, and go out at night to look for food.”

“Wait, your species has no scent.. You must have been what I saw.” Hailey blushed. “You were at the warehouse earlier weren’t you?”

She shook her head, “Nope.. I was near the temple further in getting some fruit.” She opened her bag to show them the assortment of bananas, apples, even a papaya. “I avoid the warehouse. For some reason, it unsettles me.”

“Weird.” Hailey sighed. “I swear something was there.”

“When I go near there the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stands on end,” the girl said. “It sounds silly, superstitious, but when you are alone in these woods, your mind can really mess with you. I am so glad to find other people.”

“You mentioned a temple?” Rebecca asked.

“Yes. It appears to be ancient.” The girl smiled as she pointed toward the small, almost indiscernible path she had been following - at least, indiscernible in this light, to the humans and to Ella. Brie and the furren could just make it out.

“Oh,” she said after a moment. “ i'm Sasha, by the way. On my planet I’m a surveyor. Come, we can get small vehicles from the automotive factory that we can take to the temple more quickly.”

“Just like old times!” Hailey called over to Wendy as they took their respective passengers for a wilder ride than either expected. Candy doubled up with Hailey, while Brie rode with Wendy. By the time they reached the temple, Candy climbed down off the back of the ATV and shook her head.

“Old times indeed. That brought back memories of my mandatory zero gravity training from the survival girls.”

“That was fun,” Brie giggled.

“The temple is just past this tree line,” Sasha said as she climbed off her ATV to show them the path.

The temple was massive, but the architecture was more advanced than ancient, However the ruins that were written there were definitely in a language that wasn’t Human or written in any language that was documented by the GTC. Hailey and Wendy both took pictures of all the writings to show Aria later.

“I don’t think this structure was brought here like the others,” Sasha said. “With the others, there are clearly defined... Ah, how to explain it in laymen’s terms. The layout feels random, with the other two. But the temple structure, it lines up perfectly with what my compass tells me is magnetic north for this planet.”

“Yeah, it also looks like it’s been here awhile, you can see the plant life growing on and around it.” Hailey nodded. “It’s like the jungle’s been trying to take it over for a really long time, but there’s something stopping it.”

“Wonder how we get inside?” Karen asked. “I don’t see any visible doors.”

“Ask?” a soft-spoken female voice answered.

Hailey jumped about a foot off the ground and spun around. “Holy cow, you snuck up on 3 cats.” she giggled.

The voice, which giggled, belonged to a vaguely humanoid form dressed in black from head to toe. She walked past the group, and passed right through a section of the temple wall. A second or two later, the wall dissolved. A soft light in the floor flickered to life, and the figure beckoned with her hand for them to follow her.

“I found this place a long, long time ago,” she chuckled. “My ship crash-landed here, and I thought for certain that this planet would be my final resting place, but somehow, I just kept on living.”

“Another space traveler?” Candy asked causing Hailey and Wendy to snicker at the unintentional reference. “How long have you been here?”

“I stopped keeping track honestly,” the woman - or girl - it was hard to tell with her features obscured, but her voice sounded somewhere in the late teen to young adult area - answered. “It’s been long enough my ship rusted and is long gone. Do the Makari still rule?”

“The Makari are long gone.” Ella spoke. “They have long since bred into other species.”

“Then I truly am alone,” she chuckled. “Ah, well. I suppose that’s just time’s way. I tried to get out a distress call, but I could never cut through the sun’s radiation. There were terrible solar storms back then.”

“The Makari are what?” Hailey asked.

“They’re an old race, that was around when my species first started traveling the known galaxies.” Ella spoke, “They were not evil people, but some had very big ambitions. When we discovered them, they welcomed us and then as time went on, they welcomed other races, and slowly just melded in.”

“We found we shared enough common DNA that we were compatible,” the woman nodded.

“You said your people are from this galaxy right?” Hailey spoke.

“Yes. I found this planet, which wasn’t on any of our star charts, and when I came close to investigate, my ship was brought down by the same solar storms that prevented me calling for help.”

“So you have no idea about its origins then?” Hailey sighed.

The woman shook her head. “I’m afraid not. I’ve spent my years here, trying to decipher the alien language. I’ve made some headway, but much of it is still illegible, or encrypted,” she explained, as she brought them into a large, central chamber that looked, to Wendy at least, like something right out of Star Trek - a mix of stone and metal, like the Bajoran ancient temples in Deep Space 9, to her mind.

Karen leaned against a stone, and suddenly the temple lights came on. Everyone half expected torches, but they were actual lights.

The woman laughed. “That surprised me the first time, too. I couldn’t understand why anyone would build a structure like this out of stone, if they clearly had understanding of electrical engineering.”

“It’s not all stone. It seems there’s metal here too.” Brie spoke up.

“And forcefield technology,” The woman nodded. “That little trick with the door outside was a weakened holographic forcefield.”

Hailey spoke up again, “Where you at the big warehouse earlier?”

The woman nodded, and then pulled back her hood. They expected some hideous hag or some monstrosity, for her to have hidden her face, but she was in fact, quite beautiful - extremely beautiful, with dark purple hair and pale skin. “Sorry if I scared you earlier. I was shadowing you because I was curious. It’s been so long, I thought you might be a mirage.”

“It’s fine. At least I know i'm not insane.” Hailey laughed.

“Feeling’s mutual. In truth I’ve been following your ship since yesterday at dusk.”

She unfolded two large sets of wings from her back, causing the robes to fall away, which in the process, revealed an hourglass figure clad in a leather outfit that would have Vanessa drooling with envy. “These are relatively new actually. Not “new” new, but I got them about a month after I had been here.”

“Yeah we noticed that the planet changes people.” Rebecca laughed.

Brie blushed, “I forgot to ask, do you mind if I take a DNA sample?”

“By all means,” the woman said as she offered Brie her arm without hesitation. “I’m as curious as you are,” she laughed.

Brie took the sample and watched her machine work, “Well you're definitely Makari, “ she paused, “At least, as far as I can tell. This thing only has base reference DNA based on ancient computer records. And I’m seeing shared markers with the rest of us that were brought here.”

“Interesting... So my DNA stayed the same, but some dormant genes were just turned on?”

“Yes, Hailey and Wendy were human like Rebecca and Karen, but they turned into a Species known as Furren. Their DNA still comes up as Human in our systems.” Brie nodded. “They have Furren Markers now, but it still comes up as Human.”

“That does explain the wings,” Ella nodded. “It is said that a very long time ago my people had the ability to fly. We always thought it was just a metaphor though,” she chuckled. “I bet your skin is as hard as dolarite armor, too.”

“Yes, but we are not strong like you are.” the woman chuckled. “It was one of the major reasons my species adapted to yours so easily though - shared psionic and physical traits.”

“They’re cousins, like my people and the Furren,” Brie giggled, as she looked around, taking scans of every little thing. “Remarkable. Like us we are from different systems, but we share a common ancestor. The funny thing is though all of share an even more common ancestor somewhere.”

“That’s what perplexed me, and kept me sane all these years,” the woman laughed. “Some of the runes in this temple I was able to translate based on their similarity to other languages. There’s no Galactic Standard language here, but I’ve found hints at Makari, Gellfax, even Ryl.”

“What we need is a xenolinguist, “ Hailey laughed.

“A Cunning linguist you say?” Candy giggled.

“A master of tongues,” Wendy giggled now.

Brie looked at the woman, “Furren humor.” She did that pretend to try to analyze the joke thing she does and then laughed a little.

“If you did have a xenolinguist, I could share my notes with them.” The woman laughed. “I was no scholar in my previous life. I only made this temple the focus of my energies because it kept me sane, with no one but the stones to talk to.”

Rebecca spoke this time, “If you don't mind me prying, what did you do before you crashed here?” she was busy looking at different things when she asked.

The woman looked sheepish. “Ah, well...” she chuckled wryly. “I was a finder of rare treasures of which the previous owner had no real use.”

“A tomb raider,” Hailey giggled. The woman, still looking sheepish, nodded.

“And a smuggler on occasion. That’s why I was so curious about this planet. Anything that was this far off the beaten path, with no known location on any star chart I’ve ever seen, had to be hiding something valuable. I’ve had many, many, many years to rethink my life choices,” she laughed. “Oh, I’m Erynn, by the way.”

“Hailey, Candy, Ella, Rebecca, Karen, Sasha, Wendy, Zarra,“ Brie pointed them out, “And I’m Brie.”

“I know it’s a long shot, but you could always join one of the guilds? Most likely the export/import guild.” Rebecca offered.

“... Guild?” Erynn asked. “You mean there’s more of you?” she sounded hopeful.

“Yes.” Brie nodded, “Our main colony is 10,000 or so strong, there’s a smaller colony of about 2,000.”

“This might sound crazy,” Hailey began.

“No crazier than the fact that I am older than some stars,” the woman laughed.

Hailey giggled. “Well, we were all brought here to this planet, by some unseen force. We have no idea by whom, how, or why. We have no way off-planet, but we banded together to make a new life for ourselves here.”

Erynn nodded. “That explains the sub light vessel,” she chuckled. “Actually that explains a lot of things, like those two new buildings on the island. For whatever it’s worth, my days of shady deals are far behind me, but I still have a head for business. I would love to join you, especially if it means being surrounded by people again.”

“Well then welcome.” Hailey smiled and reached out her hand to shake Erynn’s then pulled out her phone, “Expedition 2 to Heart.” she radioed.

“Go ahead Expedition 2. What’s your status?” a different voice answered than last time.

“Green, we’re inside the temple.” Hailey spoke, “Do you guys have a way to receive images yet?”

“It’s highly experimental, but we believe we have the correct protocol set up for slow image transmission Ex 2. If you’d like to help us test it we can proceed to phase 2 now. We’ve been able to replicate the dropbox app you had on your phone as a peer to peer protocol.”

“Great.” Hailey said and loaded the app. It actually seemed to have a connection now. “Sending Images now to the shared folder, called Ex2 Trip images #1.”

“Connection is stable. We’re watching it now,” the man said, amid some mild cheering in the background.

“We’re losing the signal, but I’m boosting relay 2 to compensate,” a woman said. “That... should do it.”

“We’re going to setup a relay on the Rubber Tree Island.” another woman spoke. “Since it had a larger mountain than our hill.”

“Strange runes,” the man said. “Can we get Sierra over here? She needs to see this.”

“I think she’s at Chuck’s,” another man said. “I’ll go find her.”

Erynn meanwhile, leaned against a stone pedestal, looking all too excited at all the chatter going on. It was more excitement than she had seen in a span of time that would blow most mortals’ minds, after all, not counting that time a pair of snails decided to have a race just outside the temple door.

Rebecca laughed, “We’re getting some civilization back. I see you're excited as I am.”

“I’ll be honest,” Erynn laughed. “When I first saw your ship, I thought I had finally gone completely mad, and half wondered why it hadn’t happened sooner.”

Ella laughed, “Because our races don’t go mad like other races do. We have a much longer lifespan than most species, so we’re used to long periods of dormancy.”

“This is very true,” Erynn nodded. “Somehow the planet extended mine even further.”

“Not to embarrass you.” Candy stated, “But are you Rolly?”

Erynn gave her a confused look. “She means do you like other women.” Hailey asked to clarify.

Erynn did blush slightly, but giggled. “Well, it’s been a very, very... very long time. In my wild youth, I rarely trusted anyone to get that close - never knew who just wanted a piece of my score,” she teased, “But on the odd occasion I shared my bed with anyone - yes.”

“Then that is why.” Rebecca spoke, “I hate using the term, but non-breeders get damn near immortality in exchange for sterility, and regular breeding folk get extended life like another 20-30% on top of whatever their normal lifespans were, nearly as we can tell.”

“Ahhh,” Erynn said, nodded, and then blinked. “But why? It’s almost like...” She blinked again. Realization dawned on her. “Just a second,” she said as she pushed a seemingly random stone panel - or random in that it looked the same as any of the other dozen or so surrounding it. It slid open to reveal a metal compartment packed full of notes, written on some kind of handmade paper. She pulled them out and began to dig through them.

“I remember a partial translation here somewhere... It referenced a ‘testing area’ and ‘control’, but then there was the rune for ‘planet’, which made no sense at the time. I was sure I just mistranslated it.”

“Happens when it’s not your field of study.” Brie said. “Even I get things wrong.”

“Ah here it is,” she said as she held up a sheet of paper with the original rune rubbing traced onto it, and a Galactic Standard translation written underneath. Hailey moved in close with her phone, taking a clear image of it and uploaded it to her dropbox.

Almost on cue, a woman spoke up. “This photo is remarkable. But without a keystone, it could take ages just to decipher the first letter.”

“Hence Hailey’s dirty joke earlier about needing a Xenolinguist.” Rebecca laughed, “I think there’s some latin runic in here too.” she motioned for Hailey to take a picture of a stone at the base of the fountain she was looking at.

“Sierra just came through the door now,” the woman said.

Sierra, a woman with a Spanish accent so thick one could almost spread it on toast, which was ironic for someone well versed in languages, chuckled as she picked up a radio. “Someone call for a linguist? My God,” her breath caught in her throat. “We’ve seen these before on Earth.”

Rebecca spoke, “Really?”

“Yes. There’s a chamber under the Vatican city, that some scientists have access to, where there are scrolls with these runes in them.” Sierra answered. “We thought they might be a lost dialect. They were taken during the Crusades, but that’s all we know of them.”

“Well,” Hailey said, “The other lady said you’d need a keystone to decipher them. We have a living keystone right here. The second image, whenever it loads, is a sample of her work. And I just started uploading an image of something Rebecca said looked like Latin to her.”

Sierra gave an excited squeal. “Really? If there’s Latin mixed in with this language then this could be our Rosetta stone! Quickly, bring up the image file,” she said, apparently to someone next to her.

The other woman in the background laughed, “It’s not fully uploaded yet.”

“Gahhh, this is like my college wifi all over again,” Sierra laughed.

“We have a team working on trying to boost the speeds.” The other woman laughed. “This is a work in progress, but atleast it works. Now we can get this app to the other expedition team as well.”

Wendy spoke up, “If we can get a satellite into low orbit we won't need to worry much about relays or data speed.”

“I wish I could help with that,” Erynn chuckled, “But everything you see here is all I have. My possessions from when I landed have long turned to dust.”

“That makes you our oldest Resident.” The other woman spoke. “But I wonder why your things deteriorated, when Aria’s didn’t... Oh here you go Sierra, the second image is uploaded we’re waiting for the last one now.”

“The experiment... positive... Control group... Diverse paths...” Sierra read aloud the few bits that Erynn was able to translate on the image. “This is definitely a reference to the planet as a test bed of some sort.”

“Ok the last image is in.” The woman in the background.

“That is most definitely an old form of Latin. It reads “Science”, I think that means “Station” and the numbers are pretty easy to read, 4.” Sierra laughed. “Oh, I love it. Latin was chosen as the universal language of science back on Earth because we speak so many diverse languages, and now, here it is millions of lightyears away and in a temple that’s as old as time, and it’s on a science console.”

“Millions or even billions,” Rebecca stated, “Aria wasn’t able to figure out where in the universe our galaxy fit.”

“You know,” Erynn said, “When I first found my way in here, there was a star map, right there,” she pointed to the center. “A holo projection, but the second I entered, it shut off. I must have triggered an alarm. I’ve never been able to get it back.”

“Well then.” Brie said, “I’ll see what I can do.” she headed back towards the entrance.

Karen leaned over to Zarra, who had been dead silent the whole time. “Don’t worry,” she said, “I’m just as lost as you are.”

“We have scientists back home, but none of them are this smart.” Zarra laughed. Sasha was wandering around the main area of the facility. When she triggered something and a door opened. She let out a startled yelp.

“Um...” she called. “A um.. A door just opened.” as stale air was released, as if it was vacuum sealed. She coughed. “And it smells like my grandmother’s root cellar.”

Inside the other area was a massive lab, there was ancient equipment well preserved, and Hailey took another picture of more Latin, and started uploading it. Sierra spoke up, “Damn it, make this go faster! I could probably swim there. I almost made the olympics.”

“I just got word from the team, they said the relay should be up any moment; just relax.” The other woman laughed. “Here have a cup of coffee.”

“I’m afraid to,” Sierra laughed. “If I do I’ll have to pee, and I’ve already had three Stardust Blues at Chuck’s.”

“He named a drink after us?” Wendy asked.

“Oh, you didn’t know?” Sierra said. “It’s blue like you guys, but it tastes like Doctor Pepper.”

“Well damn,” Hailey laughed, “That’s awesome.”

“¡Sí, finalmente!” Sierra cheered. Apparently the image loaded on her end. “Okay I’m going to try to talk you through each button and switch.”

“Sure.” Hailey stated.

It had been four days since finding the apparent research station. The translations provided some insight into the planet, but the temple seemed to be on some kind of "lockdown", and wouldn't respond to any attempts to access any systems, so Rebecca's team left the place in the capable hands of Sierra's research team.

A young girl with bat like wings who couldn’t have been more than 12, stepped out of the bushes. She was holding an intricate metal spear, and had several large fish on hooks. She was dressed in decent looking buck like skin clothes too, well and carefully tanned and dyed. It could almost have been mistaken for suede.

“Aja.” the girl said slowly setting down the fish and holding her spear out in defense looking right at Hailey who was talking on her cell phone to Heart Island.

“I’ll... get back to you base,” Hailey said as she carefully put away her phone and held up her hands to show she didn’t have a weapon.

There was rustling in the bush near the girl for a second and another girl came out of the bushes. She looked almost like the first girl, but she had purple eyes instead of pink. She looked at her friend holding the spear, “I think you have her plenty scared cousin.”

“Wait, you speak Galactic Trade?” Hailey laughed as she lowered her hands again.

“No we speak Edeian.” the girl who was holding the spear stated. “Same language your speaking right now.” She lowered her spear. “Sorry for scaring you, but you scared the life out of me too. I thought you were some kind of new monster.” She blushed.

“There’s some really big fish in the waters nowadays.” the girl with the purple eyes stated. “Lots of strangers around as well.”

“We’re still trying to figure that last one out, ourselves,” Hailey admitted. “This world’s... gods, for lack of a better word, have been bringing us here from across the universe for some time now.”

“Eden, and the gods are crazy. Yes they elder storiess say the gods drank the water here and went off the bend.” The pink eyed girl nodded as she picked up her bundle of fish. “Aja and I are scouts.”

“Me as well,” Hailey said, “First generation,” she added with a small giggle. “My group are scientist-explorers operating from an island we call Heart. I’m Hailey, of a race called Furren. I used to be human, before the gods changed me,” she grinned. The pair looked at each other.

“Strange days,” Aja said. “I know these words, Furren and Hew-man, from the old stories.”

“The spreading is just a silly bedtime story though,” the unnamed girl with a spear shook her head.

“And yet a real live furren stands before us,” Aja laughed. “We should bring her back to the village. She seems friendly, and she knows about the strangers.”

“Mother might get mad.” The girl with the spear sighed.

Aja took the other girl’s hand for a moment, and they closed their eyes. Aja opened her eyes again and smiled warmly. “The Queen says she looks forward to meeting you.”

“So you’re telepaths like Ella’s people,” Hailey said thoughtfully. “Can you read others’ thoughts, or just communicate?”

“We can read others’ thoughts among our own,” Aja said. “Though we’ve never tried it with an outsider.”

“Lika says that mind speak is bad with strangers because they don’t understand.” the girl with the spear stated.

“There you are,” Ella said as she approached, and then stopped in her tracks. “Oh, wow.”

The girl with the spear raised it again. “Oh more strangers. Just great.” she sighed.

Hailey laughed. “No stranger. That’s Ella. She’s not only a good friend, she’s also a member of my expeditionary group, and a telepath like you.”

Aja giggled, “We call all those who come to Eden’s Islands Strangers. It’s our word for you. No disrespect intended.”

Ella grinned. “None taken. I sense your peaceful intentions. You have nothing to fear from us.”

The girl with the spear smiled broadly and put her spear on her back. “You have powerful psychic defenses. It’s an honor to meet you Ella.” She took Ella’s hand, and they locked gazes for a moment, almost like they were sharing some unspoken, secret ritual from across time and space.

“How many more of you are there anyway?” Aja asked.

“Loads.” Hailey explained, “We haven’t done a census yet. Only a few of us in the expedition group though. Our ship is moored not far from here, if you want us to get the others?”

“Please do,” Aja nodded. “As I said, the Queen wishes to meet all of you.”

“I’ll go get them,” Ella said after a moment, and the girl let go of her hand. Ella turned to walk back toward the ship.

“That was remarkable,” she said. “Can you swim with all that fur?” she asked, looking Hailey over now.

“You know,” Hailey laughed, “I didn’t think I’d be able to, but I think I’m an even better swimmer now than when I was a furless human. Can you guys fly with those wings, or are they largely vestigial?”

Aja giggled and spread her large wings out and lifted off the ground, “I can hover. We can also do this.” she blinked out and appeared behind Hailey, “Hello.” she tapped her shoulder.

Hailey spun around and laughed as the other girl giggled. “If we teleport to a high place, we can ride the air currents. It’s strange, but the more time we spend talking, the more I feel as if I know you - not personally, but in general.”

“I feel you as family as well.” Aja nodded. “Maybe there is something to the old stories,” she added, as Rebecca and crew joined them.

Rebecca bowed slightly upon approaching. “We brought some good faith gifts for your people,” she said, and motioned to the large hand-woven basket Ella was carrying. “Actually, we always carry spare supplies in case we encounter another colony.”

“We’re good. These islands are our home since the beginning of the dark waters.” Aja pointed to space. She knelt down and drew a crude map in the dirt. She pointed to the largest drawn island. “This is where you landed. Our main village is inland from here. These outer islands are where we gather fish and other things the ocean brings.” She stood up again.

“My mother awaits,” the young pink-eyed girl said.

~oOo~

There was a whole village of them, mostly females, oddly. They were slender and slight compared to the other races, but they were definitely humanoid. The two new friends led the group to a large hut in the middle of the village, as everyone around them stared and whispered.

Inside the large hut - ideal for the tropical climate, really - were several females working, doing odd cleaning, and painting, but what set everything off from a normal hut was there were two large chairs in the middle of it, and on the larger of the two sat a woman, and next to her a man.

The man shared some strong feminine features with the woman, like a complete lack of facial or body hair. He glanced at Ella, and then leaned over to speak softly to the woman. “That one is the psion, but she lowers her guard for us.”

The woman nodded, and smiled at the group, “Welcome to our home. The gods must smile upon you to be blessed with a Psion.” She looked them over, and then laughed. “Please relax. You are our honored guests. My name is Adana. My advisor Bli,” she motioned to the man.

Bli nodded his head, “I am the villages war chief.” he laughed when he saw the look in the girls’ faces, “Eden is not always a safe place. We Edeians have tribal wars, and there are beasts on some islands, and new ones every day.”

“Yes,” Adana said, “To answer your next question, we have always been here. This is our people's home, but we also know about the strangers - Star people as well.” At that, she stood. “Please come, dine with us. You must have many questions.”

“Uh... Thank you,” Rebecca said, still a little dumbfounded. “At ease crew,” she said to the others and winked, letting them know they could join or mingle, or whatever they wanted.

~oOo~

Hailey had met up with Aja outside the hut along with Candy. “So, you two are hunters?” she asked.

“Soldiers.” Aja stated.

“Soldiers in training,” the other girl said, “But we’re allowed to go out on our own because of our scout training.”

“The confusion is understandable though,” Aja said. “We live with the land, hence the spears. We fight using our minds.”

“Interesting.” Hailey said. “So these creatures the Queen spoke of, how come we haven't seen any?”

“I’d guess that you haven’t left the core islands yet.” Aja stated.

“Good grief, there’s more?” Candy asked.

“The elder stories say there are more islands than grains of sand on the beach,” Aja nodded.

“Thats a hell of a lot of Islands.”

Aja’s as yet unnamed friend giggled and nodded. “If you’d like, we can show you our sea charts. They’re unreliable of course as the islands change, but would give you an idea the scope of Eden.”

“Oh, Rebecca would die to see those,” Hailey giggled. “If you’re sure it’s alright, I’d be honored.”

Aja grinned and nodded. “Tari’s mother has said to treat you as family.”

Tari nodded. “Ohana, in our dialect,” she said. “The charts are stored in the temple. We’ll show you the way, and you can bring the others later if you like.”

“Did you say temple?” Candy asked, and then looked at Hailey.

“Does your temple have its own power source?” Hailey asked, as they followed Aja and Tari.

Aja nodded. “Of course. They all do. The ones we know of, the gods’ memories are locked, but they still function well enough as reliquaries and libraries, protected from the elements.

~oOo~

“We’re very interested in learning more about these gods,” Hailey said as they drew near the temple. Unlike the one they had found previously, the native Edeians had clearly taken care to keep this building clear of vegetation. A garden of what vaguely resembled roses had been neatly manicured around the front and sides, with a clear, well worn stone pathway winding around.

Other members of the race came and went, paying little mind to the outsiders, except to give them a warm smile or a respectful nod in passing. Most were dressed in Sylvan cloth, generally short trousers or tunic dresses, rather appropriate for the weather. A few wore ringed metal armor and carried spears on their backs similar to Aja’s but even they reacted similarly to the furren.

“You’ll find a wealth of knowledge here, then,” Tari laughed softly.

“Yes we know lots about our gods, but there is much we don’t know as well.” Aja smiled. “Most of it comes down from legends and myths.”

“But we know there’s truth behind the legends,” Tari added as they walked inside. The temple was well lit, with a different layout than the one they had found previously. It was much larger. In the large, main hall, Brie stood next to a pedestal where a long, somewhat cylindrical device sat behind a glass case. She was talking to an Edian with long, blonde hair in a braid.

“Fancy meeting you in a place like this.” Hailey laughed and waved to Brie.

“Oh hi guys!” Brie said as she waved them over. “I was just talking to Rigala here about some of their artifacts. They haven’t functioned in anyone’s living memory, but I think this one was some kind of a portable scanner. ... Or a holovision remote control,” she giggled.

“Leave it to Brie to find the divine... vibe...” Candy giggled, causing Hailey to start laughing too.

“I’m picking up good vibrations,” she sang under her breath.

Brie laughed. “Well, that’s just a cursory examination. Out of respect for the Edeians I haven’t tried to scan it. Honestly, given the level of technology we’re dealing with, I’d be afraid of setting off a security measure and blowing up the entire temple.”

Hailey looked at Candy. “I don’t know what’s scarier, that she’s right, or that I can’t tell if she’s serious.”

Brie snickered quietly, and Rigala nodded. “Caution is understandable. Our people do not appear primitive for nothing,” he chuckled. “We were once ambitious in our evolution. The gods had grown silent, we attempted to become like them.”

“What happened?” Hailey asked.

“The story goes, that our researchers made great progress in deciphering their language, but they pushed too hard, and fire sun lashed out at us. A third of the population, gone in an instant. We resolved instead, to develop our mental abilities, and to keep out of the areas designated as ‘hyper testing’.”

“If my hypothesis is correct,” Brie said, “The sun is no ordinary star. Somehow the err, ‘gods’ have control over it, using it as a kind of weapon to protect this planet. The upside is that the Edeians have developed their telepathy to a level not seen elsewhere in the known universe. They can actually bend space using only their thoughts.”

“I just hope our gifts don’t offend you,” Candy said now, her psychological training kicking in. “I mean, we share our technologies with everyone we encounter.”

“As long as it’s not wired to explode,” Rigata laughed. “We chose our path, but by that same token, your arrival shows us that the gods are once more active. They wouldn’t have let you find us, if they didn’t want us to cooperate. I only wish that we had more to give you.”

“Just the knowledge that there is bad things out there.. That’s a gift enough, it allows us to prepare.”

“Speaking of.” Rebecca smiled at Hailey, “You should go radio that bit of info in, and then get yourselves something to eat.”

Zarra giggled. “The things they can do with starfruit. I didn’t know it was possible to make them taste even better.”

Hailey laughed and gave Rebecca a playful salute. “Yes ma’am.”

Hailey and Candy walked back to the ship, it took a bit and they were mostly alone, there were more Edian’s on the island than they had realised most were either coming or going from the village. Some even lived outside along the path to the beach.

As they neared the ship, one of the Edeians appeared in front of them. “You must shelter, quickly!” she said. Before either of them could ask, a horrible shriek rang out across the island, like some kind of giant reptile or bird.

The Edeian woman grabbed their paws, and in an instant, they were aboard their ship, under the deck. The woman let out a deep breath and leaned against the wall of the cabin, exhausted, as the screech sounded out again, this time practically on top of them.

“Are you alright?” Candy asked. The woman nodded.

“Yes. Teleporting others just takes a lot out of us,” she said. “It’s to be done only in emergencies like that one,” she added, as the screech repeated, sounding agitated now. Hailey hazarded a peek above deck just in time to see a large feathered creature seemingly being driven off by the two young warriors, Aja and , right out on the beach where they were standing moments before.

“That is a belfar. If one touches you it lays its eggs under your skin,” The woman stated. “The only way to remove them is by fire. They don’t usually stray this close to the mainland.”

After the two had finished fighting off the strange, large quasi-reptilian monster, Aja teleported onto the ship’s deck and peeked inside. “That’s the third Belfar this week. Thank you for getting our new friends to safety.”

The woman nodded. “It was all I could do to get to them before the belfar. I’m grateful you came so quickly.”

Hailey let out a giggle. “For a second there, I thought your people were psychic too.”

The woman laughed and shook her head. “Oh heavens no. I was on my way to do some fishing when I saw it heading straight for you. I hope I didn’t startle you.”

“Nah, not at all,” Candy lied, but giggled. “Thanks for saving us.”

The woman nodded, only now beginning to look around. They had landed smack in the middle of the open space where Wendy and Brie stored some of their lab equipment when not in use. “By the gods,” she whispered.

“Mother has agreed to let them share their knowledge with us,” Tari giggled. “She believes with their help, we can avoid repeating the mistakes of our ancestors. Plus, Brie assures us that their technology is less prone to exploding.”

“Oh the gods have smiled on us then, our scientists will be pleased.” The woman nodded.

“Relay’s connected,” Candy called over to Hailey.

Hailey picked up the transceiver. “Hailey to Heart, condition is green. You’re not going to believe what we’ve found...”