by Eric Vall
My extended hand shook as I held the length of pipe aloft, and I gritted my teeth as my fingers fully closed over the handle. I glanced at the fogged glass once more, braced myself, and then ripped the door open.
The hiss of steam reached my ears as a mixture of condensation and smoke billowed out around my ankles. The air in compartment C was boiling hot, and I lifted my forearm to protect my eyes while I squinted, tightened my grip on my weapon, and raised it above my shoulder so I could swing it easier.
“Charles?” A.B. questioned anxiously from behind me, and I attempted to ignore his cloying voice. “Can you see anything? Be careful, okay? I can’t change my own jar without you, again, I have no appendages to speak off! Unless you consider my brain stem an arm but it doesn’t really do anything but float around like the tail of a sperm, but you get the ide--”
“A.B,” I warned. “Please, be quiet!”
“H-Hello?” a tiny voice called from just inside of the smoking compartment C, and I froze with the pipe raised.
The voice was too small, too feminine to be the ‘super-soldier’ that the Duchess wanted, and I knew that the entity inside was female.
“Hello?” I asked as I took a small step toward the compartment’s copper walls.
I saw the creature again. It was the same movement both A.B. and I’d seen weaving through the fog of the door’s window. The female moved and slithered through the air like the lithe body of a great snake, but that wasn’t right… it wasn’t a snake, but instead, a chocolate colored tail. I blinked quickly to clear my eyes and make sure that it wasn’t just my mind playing tricks on me, but the tail clearly weaved through the curling smoke, very much alive.
“Charles?” A.B. whispered in a concerned voice from outside the compartment. “I can’t see you through the smoke. Are you dead? If you’re dead, does that mean I get all of your equipment and the lab to myself? Oh, man…this means I get to have as many cats as I want… no more Charles telling me, ‘no pets allowed, A.B.’”
Glowing blue eyes cut through the smoke and connected with my own. It took my mind a moment to process what I saw in front of me, and when I did, my legs nearly gave out and I gasped at the nude, female form on the floor.
The woman sat on her knees with her legs splayed out beside her wide, smooth hips. Her hair was long, darker brown at the roots but crème colored blond at the length and tips. Her delicate hands cupped her bare, but very full, breasts as she stared up at me in confusion. But her nakedness wasn’t what took me by surprise. No, it was the two fluffy, dark brown cat-ears that stuck out of her luxurious ash-blonde locks. The pointed tip of her left ear twitched once, swiveled, and then righted itself as her clear blue eyes shone in the light.
Her tail, which matched the chocolate color of her feline ears, whipped out behind her excitedly, and my eyes widened even more as an alluring smile spread across her beautiful plump lips.
“Charles?” the strange woman echoed as she tilted her head at me curiously.
“U-Uh…yes?” I croaked out through dry lips.
“Charles!” the feline cried as she threw her hands into the air and exposed her perfect breasts and nipples to me.
My brain went blank as the cat-girl scrambled up from the floor and flung her arms around my frame. Then my mouth opened and closed in shock as I barely registered the sensation of her firm body pressed against mine.
“Charles?” A.B. cried frantically from his jar in the other room. “What’s happening? What is it?”
“C-Cat.” I stammered out frantically.
“Clementine?” the brain questioned back excitedly.
“I-I don’t think it’s Clementine anymore…” I stuttered as I gazed down at the naked blonde feline-woman rubbing against me.
The cat-girl nuzzled into my chest as I gawked down at her, but then she seemed to sense my confusion, grinned up at me, flushed pink, and then traced her fingers over my body inquisitively as if she’d never seen a human before.
“Uhhh, hi?” I asked as she continued to fondle my chest and arms. I didn’t have much muscle on my frame, but she managed to find the biggest ones on my bicep and squeeze them.
“Charles! Charles!” the cat-girl squealed as her arms tightened around my middle, and she rested her head against my chest. “Hiiiiii! I love you!”
Chapter Three
I grabbed the feline by the shoulders, pushed her away from me, and then stared down at her as the rest of the smoke in the compartment cleared.
It worked. The machine worked! Well, it wasn’t exactly the result that I wanted, but for the first time in months, my work was successful!
“Wow.” I smiled as I ran my hands over the cat-woman’s perfect, blemishless skin, and I almost laughed as my eyes drank in all of the blonde woman’s exquisite features.
“Wow,” the woman echoed as she grinned up at me. She was almost as tall as me, but she still had to look up a bit.
I breathed “I can’t believe it…”
“Yes!” the cat-girl nodded along with me excitedly as her round cheeks flushed even pinker. “It worked!”
“Hello?” A.B. called from outside the compartment. “Hello, yes? You’ve left your lovable, brainy, and astutely handsome companion all alone in the lab, and he is wildly curious about what’s happening in that compartment over there! Charles! Come on! …maybe if I rock myself back and forth in my jar, I’ll move a couple of inches at a time, alright, A.B, let’s do it.”
My brows slammed down as my lips pressed into a hard line, and I grabbed the feline-woman by the shoulder.
“A.B,” I warned as I brought the ash-blonde forward toward the welded door of the compartment. “The last time you did that, you tipped over the cart, and I found you on the floor the next morning. You didn’t rehydrate to your normal state for six days.”
“Oh, no,” the cat-girl beside me gasped. “We don’t want your friend to get hurt. We should go out and see him.”
“You can hear him?” I asked.
“Yes!” she giggled. “He sounds nice. But if he is a friend of yours, then he should be. Did I mention that I love you? I really do, Charles. Can we go out now? It’s small inside of this place.”
“Yes, of course.” I took a shaky breath and helped guide her toward the door.
I half expected her bare feet to be fully formed paws with pink pads, but no, they were utterly human and shaped with perfect toes and a high dancer’s arch. Her legs were also incredibly long and shaped with the taper and muscle ratio that only a painter or sculptor could imagine.
“You like looking at me,” she stated as her gaze met mine, and she tilted her head as she clung to my side happily.
“Uhhh, yesss,” I admitted as I helped her out into the open space of the lab, and A.B. gasped loudly in the confines of my consciousness.
“A woman! She has cat ears? And a tail!” The brain cried as he rocked forward in the viscous green liquid. “Wait one goddamn second, Charles… the experiment worked? It really worked?”
“I’m just as surprised as you are, A.B,” I uttered breathlessly as I guided the woman-feline toward the spare medical table I kept at the far side of the room. “Is it alright if I examine you?”
“You can do whatever you want to me, Charles. I belong to you.” The cat-girl giggled, and my eyes nearly bulged out of my skull at her response.
“Uhhhh… I just need some data.” I cleared my throat as I attempted to brush off her sexual comment. “Because, honestly, I’m not exactly sure how you came into existence…”
“Well, I’m here now, why does it matter?” the cat-girl pouted as I helped her up onto the table.
“That’s true,” I snickered as I pulled a small tray of medical equipment closer to the two of us. “But as a scientist and a doctor, I need to know how you got here. What I did for you to be, ‘born’ per se.”
“Why?” the blonde tilted her neck to the side as her right ear twitched twice and then laid flat against her head.
“Well,
I’ve been given a task,” I explained without really telling the woman-feline what Edony wanted from me. “And part of this task is creating… other beings.”
“Soooooooo,” the blonde drew out the single word as she looked pointedly in my eyes. “I’m the first? Yay! I’m the first, I’m the first!”
The cat-girl raised her arms and pumped them excitedly, and I averted my gaze from her jiggling breasts. Then I hastily grabbed her by the wrists and lowered her arms as I glanced around the room for any type of fabric I could use to cover the female-cat-woman. I wasn’t accustomed to seeing the nude female form, not that I was a virgin by any means, but women in our society rarely showed their bodies to lowly creatures such as men. I’d never been a consort, but a few of the aristocratic women chose to lay with me for pleasure. The way that the cat-girl looked at me was unnerving, since I wasn’t used to being gazed upon affectionately in such a way.
“I’m going to need you for this one, A.B,” I breathed as I turned, grabbed the brain’s cart, and wheeled him closer.
“Anything you need, Mr. Rayburn, whatever you need,” A.B. chuckled into my head. “As long as I’m close to the pretty lady.”
“Just take notes for me.” I nodded.
“Take notes?” A.B cried. “I don’t have hands, Charles!”
“In your head,” I sighed as I tapped my pointer finger against my temple. “Like you’ve done for me hundreds of times before.”
“Fine,” A.B. grumbled.
I turned back toward the cat-girl and nearly toppled from my chair as I came nose to nose with the blonde.
“Am I pretty?” the cat-girl whispered as she wriggled closer.
“Yes.” I muttered as my cheeks flushed with heat.
The blonde giggled softly, sat back on her haunches, lifted both arms over her head and stretched so her bare breasts were in full view. If she kept doing things like this, I was going to have a goddamn heart attack.
The women in my society didn’t look at men the way that the cat-girl did, and those that did look at us affectionately only wanted us as consorts. No woman in this world married a man, let alone loved them, but the way the feline brightened each time I looked in her direction... shit, it was nice.
“Alright, let’s get started,” I shook off my nervousness and smiled gently. “A.B., ready?”
“Yup,” the brain echoed cheerfully. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
“Now, if you will open your mouth for me,” I instructed her as I gently placed my hand under her chin and lifted it higher. “I’m going to examine your mouth and throat.”
“Of course, Charles,” the cat-girl giggled as she nuzzled into my touch. “Anything you need.”
I gulped, reached for the small side table, grabbed a small flashlight I’d constructed, and flipped it on.
“Patient One’s weight seems to be average for her height though a bit plump at the hips and breasts. Height is roughly estimated at five foot seven,” I spouted off to A.B. as I lifted the flashlight higher and gazed into the cat-girl’s mouth. “Teeth are similar to a human’s, except for the two front canines which are more pointed and sharper in nature.”
Without glancing behind me, I grabbed a small wooden tongue depressor from the side table and inserted it into her mouth. I shined the light deeper, moved my eyes over the hanging uvula, nodded once, and then pulled the depressor back.
The blonde’s tongue snaked out and lapped at my pointer finger with a low purr. The sensation rocketed up my hand, and the flashlight slipped from in between my fingers in slow motion. I awkwardly juggled it in the air before it could clatter to the floor and then held it close to my chest.
“Don’t do that.” I gasped.
“Why not?” the cat-girl snickered as she pushed her hands forward and slid across the tabletop in one swift movement. “Did you not like it?”
“W-Well,” I stammered as my hand tightened around the flashlight. “It’s… it’s a bit…”
“Improper?” A.B. answered.
“Yes, it’s improper,” I nodded in agreement.
“It’s not improper.” The cat-girl shook her head with a wide smile. “I love you, I’m just showing you my affection.”
“W-well, please refrain from showing your affection while I’m examining you.” I instructed her as I stepped closer to the table. “It’s very distracting and I’m trying to concentrate.”
“Fine, Charles.” The blonde sighed as her ears lowered.
I gently held the cat-girl’s chin as I admired the soft texture of her skin, lifted the light, and first shined it at an angle into her right eye.
I brought the light closer to her eye, watched the pupil constrict to a pinpoint, and then I quickly switched off the light. I watched awestruck as the pupil swelled and took up almost all of the circumference of the cat-girl’s eye as it made up for the lost light.
“Patient One’s eyes dilation expanded to one-hundred and fifty-fold.” I gasped as I leaned even closer and took in the massive expanse of black within her pupils.
“Is that a lot?” A.B. pondered.
“Absolutely,” I confirmed as I peeked at him over my shoulder. “In comparison, human dilation, at most, is fifteen-fold. Therefore, I believe that Patient One possesses the ability to see in the dark, just as most feline’s do.”
“Yay for me!” the cat-girl giggled. “Now I can watch you when you are sleeping. Sooooo much fun!”
“Alright,” I coughed. “Second part of the eye test. We’re going to see how far you can see since cats have pretty good vision.”
“Why don’t you have her focus on the anatomy charts on the wall?” the brain offered.
“Good idea, A.B.,” I nodded and then pointed. “Here, see those two pieces of paper on the far wall? Can you tell me if they’re blurry or clear to you?”
“Alright, Charles.” She tilted her head at it, squinted her eyes, stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth. “One part is a bit hard to see.”
“If they’re too far away, it’s okay,” I assured. “You may not have received all of your traits from the cat. Which part is hard to see?”
“The… ‘de facto imbilis regency’ part,” The feline-woman squinted.
“Huh?” I asked as I glanced at the chart. “It is the anatomy of the female body, I just need you to see if the parts are clear or blurry. So which--”
“The only kinda blurry part is that ‘de facto imbilis regency’ part,” the cat-girl sighed.
“But that’s not on the chart,” I sighed.
“It is!” the beautiful woman whined as she pointed. “I would never lie to you, Charles. I love you so much. It’s in the bottom right corner. It’s a bit blurry, but I can still read it.”
“Hmmm,” I mumbled as I walked across the laboratory toward the chart. It was about fifty feet away, and I had to admit that the “Anatomy of the Female Body” title was a bit blurry to me.
“I’m not seeing where you…” I started to say, but then my voice trailed off as I leaned closer to the chart. There, in the bottom right corner of the paper, was the tiny inscription of what I guessed was either the print house or the institution that printed the chart: de facto imbilis regency.
“By the science,” I gasped. “These letters are small. I have to push my nose to the paper to read them, but you saw them all the way from over there?”
“Well,” she chuckled, “I’ll never lie to you, Charles my love, it was a bit blurry.”
“It’s incredible,” I said. “A.B., take note of her remarkable vison.
“Very cat-like,” the brain stated. “Of course. Also, how is she reading?”
“Of course I can read!” the cat-girl wriggled excitedly on the examination table. “It was a little difficult at first, but after I concentrated real hard, I remembered how to do it! Aren’t you proud of me, Charles?”
“You remembered?” I stammered.
“If she can remember how to read…” A.B. trailed off. “What else can she re
member?”
“Lots of stuff!” the feline-woman purred as her tail whipped out behind her.
“Shit,” I breathed. “What… what else can you remember?”
I tentatively stepped closer, placed my hands on her shoulders, and looked deeply into her eyes.
I had so many questions, but I was afraid to speak them aloud and hear the answers. If she remembered how to read, what else could she remember? Was this like muscle memory, like learning how to ride a bike for the first time, or were these real memories? All of these questions brought forward the most terrifying ones of all, would the cat-girl remember the bias and hatred of men? Would she remember what I’d done to the prisoner moments before her death?
I didn’t want to find out, but… I had to.
“Weeeell, it’s kind of blurry, but I’ll concentrate hard again.” the feline-woman scrunched up her nose. “Ohhh! I remember one! One time, I was lounging on some nice and warm brick pavers, and this really nice lady came over. She scratched me behind the ears, rubbed my tummy, and didn’t pull my tail or nothing! That happened a few times before, I think, but those were just mean children who didn’t know any better. It was so niiiiice to be petted like that, Charles, you should pet me on the tummy, I’d love that.”
I blinked rapidly, glanced over at A.B., but the brain’s surface simply wrinkled in confusion. What did that mean? It didn’t sound like a memory from the female prisoner, it seemed like something a street-cat may have experienced. Had the cat-girl received memories from her past life as a cat?
“Anything else?” I pressed on.
“Hmmmm,” the cat-girl hummed as she tapped her lips with her finger. “Well, one time, I caught a delicious bird, and I ate it up on the roof of this tall building. The view was beautiful, and my meal was tasty, so I settled down and took a nice nap in the hot sun.”
“Is she… is she reliving memories as a cat?” A.B. breathed.
“I-I think so,” I chuckled and then shook my head. “Wow… you don’t remember anything else? Like life as a human or anything like that?”
“Nope!” the feline-woman giggled. “I do remember having a name, though. I think it was something like… Clem… Clin…”