Section 1: The Chakat Who Folded Hirself (First Draft)
#2 of Works in Progress
This is my first draft for section 1 of the new version of The Chakat Who Folded Hirself. This section is PG, maybe even G, but the whole story is planned to have a max rating of PG13. There will be sexiness, innuendo, and discussion of a sexual/adult nature, but no depiction of sexual acts.
"So you're the Artifact Hunter?" shi said, sitting upon the mat at the end of the old wooden table.
The man on the other end leaned forward, his wide brimmed hat blocking the overhead light from illuminating his face. Despite his attire there wasn't even a hint of a southern drawl, "It would seem the same could be said of you."
Even as soft as shi made them GhosTail silently cringed at the sound of hir claws scraping through the silicon matrix of the circuit board. Once the terminal was clear shi attached hir sister's hacking module and uploaded the password parameters. Shi had only just handed the miniature computer to hir fore-paws, sitting before the door, when it notified hir of its success.
Ghost wasn't typically prone to such antics, but hir curiosity had been scratching at hir mind since their family had moved into bunker. Shi often dreamt of the treasures that must lay beyond the massive reinforced doors. To have them unlock so quickly to hir attempts was unnerving to say the least.
Despite the long standing warning from hir father that 'curiosity killed the kat,' shi pressed on, hir iridescent grey fur waving in the slight breeze emanating from the vault. Within shi found no less than shi dreamt, racks of strange devices and trinkets, all catalogued and tracked. Each was attached to a small display that was presumably run by the computer banks that lined the walls behind each set of shelves.
Off in the distance, down rows and rows of the strange objects, shi saw an inviting light. Following it hir excellent hearing picked up faint voices getting louder above the hum of the computers.
"Ok, the matrix is stable on this end again." A woman's voice spoke, the subtle shifts and cracks told Ghost she must have been speaking over a subspace relay. "Why can't we just teleport it to you?"
A heavy sigh emanated from the direction of the light. "Because, the energy in that brush is unstable. When Simons teleported with it his pattern was unrecoverable, but now that it is fully charged it would detonate your entire planet. Now please, just follow my instructions and everything will be ok."
Hir dreams, they'd been right afterall. GhosTail didn't understand much of what was said as shi pressed forward, but it sounded like the task had been successful. As shi approached the monstrous creature bathing in the light of the computer terminals it turned to face another figure on the screens.
"Mission success, expect the package to arrive at the gateway in 3, 2, 1. You know, their species can be quite precise when properly motivated."
"Thorn, no, please tell me you didn't threaten to blow up their planet again? Wait, your security has been breached." Ghost tensed up and held hir breath.
"Oh?" Six hands flew across the digital interface looking for any sign of the intruder, "I see, the bunker door. Heh, care to take bets on which one opened it? I'm betting GhosTail, shi's the only one who could sneak in without me detecting it. Do you have hir on your sensors? Maybe I can send a portal drone to stop hir before shi see's anything shi shouldn't."
"Well, I do know where shi is, but... shi's right behind you. I'll leave you to it." A long white and black ringed tail whipped around and grabbed Ghost about the midsection of hir lower body, pulling hir into the monster's lair. Standing it flicked hir between it's legs before lowering its massive weight upon hir.
"Hi papa," shi said, holding out hir arms from between its front legs.
"Honey, what are you doing here? It's not safe for you in my lab." The lavender-white chakat continued to type with hir four arms as shi pinned hir daughter below hir.
"I wanted to see what you do in here all day. It's boring in the bunker." Realizing shi wasn't going to be getting out of the hold shi moved hir fingers to the strange flap of skin and fur at Thorn's join. "Why do you type when you can just plug into the computer?"
"I can only focus on so many things at once, mental interface takes more concentration per keystroke than typing. It's one of the reasons I got extra arms. Now take your fingers out of my port pouch. You're avoiding the question, how did you get in here?"
Shi gave hir father's interface plate one last tap as shi pulled hir fingers out. "Not avoiding, you didn't ask that question. I hacked the door with Floor's help. And you really do need a more secure password, Donny&MarrieS3 was my 7th guess, I didn't even need to touch the encryption algorithms."
ThornBrier lifted hir lower body with a soft sigh allowing the young chakat to wiggle out from under hir. "Well my little Ghost, I always knew you would find your way in here, I just wasn't expecting it to be this soon. Someday this will all be yours, if you want it. Oh, I'm sure you will repurpose most of it, your interests lie in a different direction than my own, but it should be a good start for you."
Ghost looked up around at the computers, the strange trinkets, and especially at the tubes of extra limbs hir father had grown for hirself. "Why give it to me? FloorByFour is the eldest, and shi's your own daughter."
Thorn chuckled, "So are you my dear, just because I didn't carry you for 10 months doesn't make you any less my cub. And Floor would hate it in here, shi'd be too cooped up. Shi needs open space, constant action, adventure, shi needs to feel the people around hir. I'm sure shi's even more annoyed at living in the bunker than you are."
"I'm not so sure, shi's the biggest reason I hate it here. Shi keeps pulling my tail, or pouncing me. Just when I thought I could get the drop on hir shi picked me up with hir mind and threw me into the wall. Shi forgot shi was holding onto the ceiling with hir mind though and shi fell to the floor."
"Hmm, and what did hir father do about it?"
Ghost lay hir ears back against hir skull in annoyance and insecurity, hir voice clearly carrying hir frustration. "Shi scolded us for rough housing indoors, not like we can go outside, and shi had us apologize and, and it was so stupid. Shi kept harping on me for how I was feeling."
"And how were you feeling?" Thorn said calmly.
"I was mad, real mad. Floor said it was just a joke and shi didn't know, but how was I supposed to know that? They can all feel each other's emotions, and me... Why can't they feel me? Why can't I feel them? Sometimes I wonder if I'm just a hologram, or an android, and I don't know it. Dad, did you build me in here?"
With one arm Thorn pulled Ghost against hir fore-legs and stroked hir red hair as the small arms wrapped around hir leg, "No honey, you're just fine. The doctors just said your Gyrus Complex is strangely formed and very active. Psionics aren't very well understood as it is. We still don't know quite how mine works, I'm sure you will learn what your's does in time."
Ghost's ears slowly came back up as shi nuzzled hir fathers front legs. "I miss aunt Aurora. With you locked in here all the time shi was the only one who understood not feeling others."
"Well, don't you worry. It won't be too much longer. Once I'm finished with my latest invention you will all be safe to return to the surface. No one will be able to hurt you for my work ever again. Now go, your sisters are poking at the door you forgot to shut. Tell them I gave you a harsh scolding, I don't want them coming in here until my project is ready."