Book One - Chapter Two

Life Never Changes

That Was Different - Revision 1

 

The next morning, after Thomas finished his breakfast, he picked up a gi for himself, and one for M’Sara at the Workout and General supplies shop that was just down the hall from the rooms situated for different activities. Though they did not make a gi for any Katzen, he got a medium teen size for her, and a large adult for himself along with sparring gear that matched and a duffle bag to carry them in. He also acquired scissors, a sewing needle and thread so he could alter the one she would use. After he completed the transaction for it, he headed for the gym with resigned determination.

*****

 

M’Sara sat beside him and quality watched as Thomas adjusted the gear in silence for her feet and lower leg. She had found an empty exercise room and reserved it for them. She cooperated without a word as he took measurements, watching him carefully and helped however she could. He had to cut a new hole in the back of each leg piece of the padding, so her much longer than human digitigrade feet would fit in them. He trimmed the over foot padding as well, as it was way too long for the toes of her feet. He also had to cut holes for her ears and cut slits in the side for her much wider cheeks and whiskers in her headgear. He got the cloth sewed around the padding then he put them on, and bent her feet and toes back and forth to make sure she had plenty of freedom of movement. She remained seated in silence and watched him, but otherwise she let him do what he needed to do without a sound. They had already got their gis on in the changing rooms after he had cut a hole in the back of the pants for her tail. He could see her soft fur in the shirt split down to her abdomen as she wore nothing but underpants under the gi just as he did. The legs of the gi were loose enough that he only needed to shorten them so they only went down to her knees. He basically needed to turn them into cutoffs. The practice gear was white cloth covered padding on the length of the outer forearms, back of the hands, tops of the feet, front of the legs, and front sides of the torso as well as the upper and sides of the head, that left some of the front of the face bare. The padding was held on with Velcro covered elastic so it was very adjustable. Funny how all this martial arts equipment had not changed in many decades.

M’Sara’s friend M'Lar sat on a bench by the far wall with her arms crossed. He had never met her Luch friend before today. She was a bit taller and thinner than M’Sara. M’Lar did have yellow eyes and the same-colored fur as M’Sara though. M’Lar was in the medical path as her major and that is all he knew about her. She held a medical scanner in her paws, and had a bag held by a strap on her shoulder. Thomas spotted them as he arrived at the gym, M’Sara stood by M’Lar in front of the bench as they waited for him.

When he was almost done M'Sara moved to stand on the mat as she waited for him. M'Lar padded over to him when he was done and she placed her hand on his shoulder, she was taller than M’Sara so she could reach it without too much trouble, before she explained, "The rules for Ma'ahrurl'La are as follows. One on one hand to hand non-lethal combat, without weapons of any kind, natural or otherwise. The use of practice gear is allowed, but not required. The first to win three rounds is the victor. Once one acquires three points the round is won. The only way to gain a point is by contact at four points on the body. Upper legs, gut and the sides of the chest. Contact can be as soft as just a touch. Anyone who makes contact from waist to upper legs, the head, below the upper knees or the use of any weapon if found to be at fault by the judge is an automatic victory for the other person. If one of you leaves the match area, that will be the mat, during a round the other gets a point, and the match is paused then restarted at starting positions. There is a one minute break every three minutes. I will be the official judge, as well as to keep score and time."

With that done, she took a long breath and backed up to stand beside the mat about a meter away from the edge. When she was in place, she told them loud and clear, "Stand on either side of the middle, and bow to each other. I added that last part myself." She waited for them to comply, then continued, "Bow to me. I added that too, as is my right." Again, she waited, "Face each other again and take three paces back." After they completed her last instructions and waited quietly, after about a minute she shouted, "Start!"

This was so similar to his martial arts classes of the past that it was eerie, of course he knew M’Lar had made a few minor changes.

Though M'Sara was much quicker, and much lighter on her feet, she also had to move more to make an impact on him, then he needed to move and do the same, and even though he was only Human, his reflexes were well above average. His reach was much longer than hers as well and most of the time he blocked and dodged her more than he attempted to hit her. He waited until she started to tire, then was slow to go on the offensive. It had been a few years since he had trained, but he got to spar and practice fairly often. Neither of them had a point yet.

M'Lar called out loudly, "Break! Off the mat on opposite sides. Zero, zero"

M’Sara and Thomas stopped and relaxed, they turned away from the other at almost the same time, and took their time as they walked off the mat. They turned again to face each other and sat on the floor. M'Lar had left each of them a water bottle just off the edge of the mat. She had just left his as he arrived to take it. M’Lar was silent, as the judge she was not allowed to interfere unless there was a fault, an injury or the match was over.

Thomas had gotten fairly tired too, as he dodged her more times than he could count, and M’Sara was hard to lay a blow on, such a small and fast target. Even as she started to get tired, he still failed to get a point. He poured some of the water over his head, and drank the rest. He was already covered in sweat, and a little cool water would help.

Thomas watched M’Sara for a time after he dropped his water bottle, hers had an attachment made of a silicone like substance that allowed her to seal it against the end of her muzzle so she could get water into her mouth so that water did not end up all over her chin and neck. When she was done with it, she put it back on the floor and looked right back at him. He could see determination in her eyes and the lay of her ears. He could read moods in Luchs very easily after he had been raised by one. It also looked like she had caught her breath too; she had breathed almost as hard as he had not long ago.

M'Lar walked back, and called out loudly, "Break over! Continue the match! Start!"

Thomas and M’Sara got up, and walked back onto the mat, stopped and took up their ready stance. They watched each other for a few seconds. She stood about three meters from him, her ears twitched just before she dived to the floor onto her forepaws and feet, she pressed off, then used both her hands and feet to flip in the air before she landed on him, she straddled him just above the waist. He was so surprised at her move that she flew right past his defenses. She had done it so quickly he did not know how to counter. His left leg went back and his arms out to take the force as she landed on him. Before he knew what had happened, both of her open palms slammed into the front-sides of his chest as she dropped off of him, to bounce away on all fours. She turned to face him once more as she slowly stood on her feet again.

Thomas had been forced to step back from the blow as pain radiated from his chest. He renewed his defensive stance. He felt like he had just got hit by two bricks. He was still in a bit of shock from that move, he had never seen anything like it. He knew she could go down on all fours and be as effective as a cat if she wanted but Mateja had never done anything like that. Since Mateja learned with him, she used the same fighting art as him. He had been totally unprepared for something like that.

M'Lar called out, "Two points for M'Sara!" She moved around the outer area of the mat to make sure she had a good view.

M'Sara continued to move slowly from side to side as she matched his pace, she looked worn out. That last move must have cost her; Thomas would make her pay for it with interest. He watched her eyes very carefully, and when she was close enough, he made his move, he fainted a kick to her lower leg, she reacted to it as he pulled away at the last instant and kept his upper leg up, he brought his leg in fast to let his calf bounce off his upper leg and up to her now open middle chest. That kick knocked her onto the floor. She rolled with the force, and got right back up. Her tail made mad dashes back and forth now, as she gave him a huff.

M'Lar called out, "Point Thomas." She sounded a bit disappointed.

Suddenly M’Sara dropped to all fours again and ran at Thomas, just before she reached him, she bounced up onto her two feet, she did not move as fast as last time, and he could easily keep track of her movements. He was able to twist his chest just enough so her open palm just missed it and she had left her chest open again, he took the chance and did a counter attack, he hit her chest with his fist with a normal punch. It was not a hard hit, he had not had time to cock it, but that did not matter, he only needed to make contact. She pulled back with a leap of about two meters, she watched him as she held her chest. It was in the same place he had kicked her earlier, but he could not help that, that was the side she opened. He felt a pang, he did not want to hurt her.

M'Lar called out again, "Point Thomas. Two, Two." She sounded even more disappointed than before.

They circled each other for a time before M'Lar called out, "Break!"

Again, M’Sara and Thomas relaxed, turned and walked away from each other, to find new water bottles placed at each side of the mat. He poured about half of it over his head this time, he was exhausted, and drank the rest down quickly between breaths.

This time M’Sara poured some of the water over her muzzle before she put on the attachment so she could drink it easily. M'Lar had gone to her and had removed her top gear then opened her gi top and removed it to examine and scan her upper body. M’Sara had just sat and let her without comment. With a nod, she put her top back on, but did not fasten the belt and the gear laid on the floor while M'Sara slowly drank her water mostly uninterrupted. Thomas had watched it all as he sucked on his water bottle, and was relieved she was not hurt badly. He also noticed how her fur looked very shiny and soft, and that some of the fur on her chest was a little damp.

M'Lar told her, "You are fine, just a slight bruise on the middle of each of your pectoralis majors." She then returned to her post this break had been longer because of the examination, as soon as she was back to her place she called out, "Break over! Thomas refastened her belt and place her gear back on. I will continue the match after you have done that."

Thomas dropped his water beside the mat, got up and walked over to M’Sara who sat as she waited with her arms held out to her sides. He pulled the top around before he tied the belt properly. He put her gear back on her chest, arms, and the back of her hands. He examined it all after he was done to make sure it was all good. She let him lift her feet up one at a time as he inspected each piece of gear he had modified. He looked up at her and noticed she had watched him as he gently bent her other foot back and forth to inform her, “It seems to be holding out just fine.”

Thomas let go before he stood up nodded then turned to return to his side of the mat. As he looked back at her she did not look upset at him anymore, but he could see determination in her eyes.

M’Sara dropped her water and returned to the mat, just slower this time. She could be faking it to put him off his game.

M’Lar called out just as he had returned to his side, “Start!”

She suddenly rushed him and made three consecutive open palm hits at his chest, the first two were blocked, and the third missed as he dodged. She had been faking it, he in turn did two consecutive sidekicks in a row. He bounced his lower leg off the inside of his upper leg, both blocked by her open palm. When he went to take the ready stance again, he staggered a little to the side, he was much more tired than he realized. He was more out of shape than he had thought. This was turning out to be a really good workout for him. That or Mars had made him lazy. She made another hit to his chest and he moved to block it, and as he did his other arm connected with the side of her head as she missed. He cringed, his timing was off, and she had moved too close to him as he turned to the side.

M'Lar said, "No fault, continue."

M'Sara backed away and again got down on all fours with a look of determination and resolve as her almost meter long tail waved as if it tried to fly away, with what had to be the last of her energy she decided to make one major effort to beat him, her ears flat back against the head gear, she leaped up high and turned in midair with the help of her tail, she made contact with the three-meter-high ceiling then leaped off that to fly from above, straight for Thomas. He was so surprised that he was only able to catch her with his face, and it knocked him to the ground. They landed in a heap with her the padding of her chest gear in his face. He could feel it quickly move in and out as she caught her breath. He had hit his head on the mat and her head had connected with it after that. He wondered if he may have blacked out for a moment. He told his arms to move, but they just laid there.

The next thing Thomas saw was M'Sara lifted sideways and away. M’Sara’s eyes were closed, it looked to him as if she was out cold. Thomas blinked as M’Lar laid her beside him before she said, "It looks like she hit her head when you both dropped. Hold still while I do a quick examination of you both."

Thomas watched M’Lar on her knees as she moved the scanner over M'Sara's head then his and saw her frown at her tablet. She moved her paw fingers over the surface then she scanned her head again.

M’Lar stood up as she read the screen, "I don't get it. I don't see a reason for her to be out. It looked like she had some kind of reaction to something." After she took another scan, "Now there is no sign of it. How very strange. Everything reads normal, no sign of head trauma. She only shows signs of exhaustion."

Thomas was able to get up on his side, he could even smell M’Sara’s still damp fur from when she poured water on herself, she must have really worked herself hard. He just hoped she got whatever had bothered her in class out of her system. Suddenly her eyes fluttered open, and she seemed no longer breathless as it had slowed as he watched her. M’Sara looked at M’Lar and one of her ears rotated to the side and back as she gave her a weak nod.

M'Lar huffed and put her tablet down to her side as she stood and told them, "I find no fault in the last engagement, I judge this match to be a draw, and over.” She sounded even more disappointed than ever, if that were possible. “The Ma'ahurl'La is now at an end, and I shall log it as such. You both seem fine, but I suggest you stop by medical on your way back to your dorms however, just to make sure nothing is wrong with either of you. I must go now as I have classes soon; I'll contact you later M'Sara."

Thomas watched M’Lar leave with her medical bag strapped around her shoulder.

When the door closed behind her, he rolled back over onto his back and turned his head to see M'Sara’s gaze on him. He felt like he needed to catch his breath even though he had laid on the floor all this time. He could not read her face for some reason, her eyes looked at his steadily, but open normally, though her ears were still laid back on her head and he could see her nostrils still flared in and out with each breath. It was almost like she came to the realization she did not like.

As M’Sara’s ears slowly rotated forward to a more normal position she told him, "That was a good fight Terran, thank you. I feel much better now. Though I do feel much more tired than I should as I have much on my mind, much to think about. May I call you Thomas?"

Thomas sat up on his rear then crossed his legs next to M’Sara who still laid on the mat and gave her a pat on the shoulder, "That would be much better than ‘Terran’, why the change of heart?" He started to take off his gear after a moment of silence as she seemed to stare off into nothing.

"We should go get changed, and head to the clinic. As for the change of heart, much has become clear today. You really do learn much about someone from a good fight with them." With that she slowly sat up and started to remove her gear as well. After that, she got up and headed to the changing room.

Thomas watched her leave, then walked over to where the duffle bags laid, and grabbed them before he returned to grab their gear.

 

You Thought Hangovers Were Bad - Revision II

 

M’Sara and Thomas arrived at the nearby medical ward, her tail slowly bounced-waved and her ears were pointed to the sides as they walked in together. They felt much better now; however, they had decided to get checked over anyway, just to be safe. He had to admit he felt a bit out of sorts. The sudden change in how M'Sara treated him caused him to feel a bit surreal.

In the reception area was the top half of a humanoid android behind a desk. The medical technology on Mars was supplied by CAW as most of the colony held CAW members, and their health was of the utmost importance. The android’s exterior was unpainted polycarbonate gray. The head was the shape of an egg with a thin dark strip where visual sensors would be, its arms were jointed cylinders out of a parallelogram of a body with rounded corners.

At the counter Thomas asked, "We need to see the medic for a checkup."

After a moment, the android replied with a robotic neutral voice that sounded like words recorded separately then put together, "You may enter when ready." The door unlocked with the sound of an activated solenoid. He did not need to tell it who they were, it already knew from their badges along with facial recognition.

Thomas looked down at M’Sara, and he saw that her ears were turned sideways, her tail did little twitches as he watched it. She looked nervous, "Let's go, get this over with." As he opened the door, she followed him in. Neither one of them enjoyed getting examined it would seem.

Inside the medical room was a seat in the back corner, as Thomas walked to take the seat M’Sara had stopped to watch, the medical station AI asked with a voice that sounded like a retro computer, "How may I be of service?" It sounded to him like it was out of one of his grandfather's favorite nineteen eighties’ movies. He expected the next words uttered by it would be, “Would you like to play a game.” He did not know why they had it sound like that, but he suspected they had done it on purpose as some kind of joke. He wondered every time he had been examined too. One of these days he would look it up.

The room was about five meters by four meters in size. Inside the room besides a chair was the examination table. There were other tables folded into the wall, used when they needed them. The table was designed to do detailed full body scans that used the AI that was built into the table. It was also capable of first aid for just about any injury that used an overhead manipulator that consisted of two sets of multi jointed robotic arms. At the end of each arm was a gripper that could be rotated out with a high velocity jet injector for drugs or nutrients, a laser cutter, or the artificial skin applicator. The grippers themselves also had very sensitive pressure and temperature sensors on them. On either side of each gripper were sensors on small heads that could be rotated three hundred and sixty degrees. It was also designed to be used on any species known by CAW.

M’Sara padded over to the examination table, and used the built-in ladder to climb on top of it. She laid on her back before she told it in an even voice, "We need to be examined, me first, use routine checkup mode."

After it completed M’Sara’s examination, with a hiss noise as it touched her arm, it gave her a nutrient injection, and informed her she had an appointment for a doctor and the date and time was in her calendar.

Thomas switched places with her, only instead of using the ladder he just turned so his back was facing it and hopped on. As he was examined; that was when she began to talk to him.

M’Sara’s tail swished slowly from side to side as she paced behind him. "I've given this some thought, and decided I was misled. It would seem I owe you an apology, and not only that, that I am honor bound to make it up to you." She stopped in her tracks, and turned to face him. "I have learned much about you from our bout. You are an honorable person, and from that I realize that I have been lied too about you."

Thomas remained still except his head, that he turned and looked at her as if in shock. The robot gave him the same as it did her, that included an appointment for a doctor. When the examination was finished, he got off the meter high table. She stood and looked at him expectantly as if she waited for him to talk.

Thomas reached over to lay his hand on her shoulder, "Are you attempting to say you behaved as you did because someone accused me of something?"

M’Sara nodded her head but remained silent.

Thomas walked two paces to the door and grabbed the duffle bags, then turned to see M’Sara still standing by the examination table. "I think it is a good idea if we go have a talk as it seems we have much to talk about, just the two of us. My dorm room is nearby; we can talk there in private as I have the room to myself."

M’Sara nodded and followed Thomas out the door, she looked like she had been defeated. That did not sit well with him, so now he wanted to get to the bottom of whatever it was that bothered her even more now.

At Thomas’ dorm room he swiped his key card over the NFC reader and the door unlocked with a slight hum of electric motors. As they walked in the door slowly closed behind them, "Welcome to my room. I'm told because the guy who was to be my roommate did not make it to Mars. That is why I have it to myself. Make yourself at home." That was a joke because it was just a refresher at one end of a five by two-and-a-half-meter room. On one side was the two elevated beds each with a desk underneath beside a set of drawers on one side. Between that and the refresher was a shared closet. On the other side was the floor space and room for each chair at each desk.

After M’Sara Followed Thomas into his room she dropped her bag next to his, about half way there she took one of the duffle bags right out of his hand. She had to carry it with the strap over her shoulder, or it would drag on the floor. His room was not much different than her room, except for the two desk chairs that had no tail slot down the middle of the back. She padded over to the closest bed and climbed up the ladder then hopped onto the edge. She turned and watched him sit on the other one. She waited for him to settle in before she started, "As you may have already guessed, someone has told me something that I know now what I am sure must be a lie. I'm going to repeat it only so you know what it is. He told me you are a smooth talker and pretend to like us Katzen while you plot to ruin our relationship with humans, and the group you are supposed to be leading will make it so the Luchs will be blamed, because we are a minority and of a lower cast, and so make an easy target."

As M’Sara told Thomas her story, he leaned back, and used his arms to brace himself on his bed. His legs slowly swung in the empty space below as he thought for a moment. He turned to her then and asked, "You don't know why they targeted me, do you?" He was alarmed, they had used her fear against her. That was never a good sign.

M’Sara slowly shook her head with her rather large ears lowered and the tips of them were pointed out to each side.

Thomas looked from one side to the other of his spacious room before he started, "I'm going to trust you with a secret, one, because as you did, I learned much from our match about you. You have earned a great amount of respect from me today. Two, I think you need to know and three, because I want you to know. I have a feeling we'll be spending a great deal of time together after today. My secret is that I'm the son of a human that was involved with our first contact of the Katzen. I was adopted by a Katzen and Human couple. Yes, the one I'm sure you read about in recent history. I'm sure you understand why I would keep that a secret, I'm here to learn, and to learn I need to not be bothered with what comes with being involved with something like that. Here I'm just some regular guy. Now this revelation could mean that someone has found out what my real identity is, or this could be a coincidence."

As he informed her of that tidbit, her eyes got wide, and her ears perked. When he was done, they sat in silence, and she looked around the room before she asked him, "Would you like me as a roommate?"

Thomas watched her with one eyebrow raised and noted she seemed sincere before he answered, "I would, but first I want to know why you want to share a dorm room with me. Is it because of who my parents are?"

M’Sara looked down on the bed she was on, her paw finger made swirls in the sheets as she replied, "That has something to do with it because that means I know of what could be a reason why you treat us with respect like it is second nature to you, like you don't even give it a second thought. Mostly it is because of how much respect and honor you have earned this day. How I expected to and was so eager to find a reason to hate and distrust you, and how easily I was manipulated by a Katzen with no honor and your reaction to it. I have realized just how naive I am and I thought I could learn so much by sharing a room with a Terran. I came to that realization when you informed me of your heritage. I also realize we have at least one common goal here, to learn. We are in the same field, we can help each other, and improve ourselves. The person I share my room with now has been a distraction for me and I would also like to get away from that.”

After a few seconds of thought Thomas slowly nodded, "Fair enough. I think you are being honest with me; I accept. Better to share a room with someone you trust, than a total stranger. Not to mention I also think it would help to have someone in the same set of classes as me to share a room. I was not looking forward to being forced to have to share my room with someone that I know nothing about next semester. I hate surprises."

M’Sara slowly looked down and lifted her hands to her face, her soft pink pads on her fingers and palm could be seen through her fur on the sides. Her fingers were shorter and thicker than a human her size. With a quick look up she let her hands fall back to her lap as if she had just decided on something. She quickly said, "We have a kind of ritual of friendship I would ask of you to do with me. I know this is sudden, but I think it will help soothe my nerves." With that she hopped off the bed and landed gracefully on the floor. She walked over to stand in front of him, her tail was in a soft hook shaped curl behind her as she removed her shirt, with only fur under it she stood proudly in front of him. The shirt dropped to the floor, as she moved her arms to her sides.

Thomas nodded and climbed down to the floor and stood beside her as he removed his shirt as well, “Yes I think I know of the one you mean.”

M’Sara turned to face him before she held out her right hand, palm up, her pink paw pads in full view and said, "Place your left open palm on mine please." After he did, she made another request, "Now hold out your right hand, palm up." As he did, she gently placed her left open palm on his. "This is as close of a translation as I can think of. Now repeat after me this; I will do as I am able to help you learn, and in life."

Thomas repeated it, his voice revealed that he was a little nervous.

M’Sara’s ears perked up, and next she instructed him, "Now with your right hand, grasp my right hand, and slowly bring it to the middle of your chest, and I will do the same with yours. Keep your hand open as I place your palm on my chest." As he slowly did what she told him, she did the same, and that brought her closer to him, so much so he needed to move his feet apart so her toes could fit between them, even though her arm was almost as high as it would go. She firmly held his hand against the middle of her chest, and he did the same. "Now repeat after me this; On my honor, I shall have my hand be in your hand, fur against skin, as a symbol of what is between us as we feel the other there is nothing but ourselves. In this we have felt the other and know that our hearts are as true as our stated goals. That our goals in life are as one."

Thomas nodded and said as she instructed, this time with a smile, his nervousness gone. She had to get so close because of her shorter arms her legs were against his quadriceps. She smelled a little of cinnamon, and it had a nice smell. He started to get a little nostalgic of home and got lost in his own thoughts.

M’Sara broke the spell after a few breaths when she said, "We are each other's witness to this oath of friendship that we have made of each our own free will. We have each shared a gentle prolonged touch of kindness of the heart. In this we are now bound together in friendship." After about a minute of silence, she let go of his hand and took a step back. He let go of her hand as well just after she let go. She laid her right hand on his other wrist, her tail tip twitching playfully, before she said, "We should make it official, come with me to registration, and we can have a fun time as we fill out paperwork."

Thomas lightly patted her on the shoulder, "Good idea, then we can get to work on our project afterwards. After you, my friend."

That was when she padded behind him grabbed his shirt off the floor so she could give him his shirt, and after he took it, she grabbed hers from the floor then slipped it back over her head. Her ears popped erect after they cleared the neck hole.

 

To Get it Together or Not To - Revision II

 

The door closed behind them as they walked into the all but empty room that was devoid of people that was known as the registration and reception office. Thomas laid his hand on M’Sara’s shoulder on the opposite side of him as he suggested, "We should stop by the cafeteria and grab a bite to eat after this. That is before we start on our project. Our minds need food too."

M’Sara nodded before she walked up to the counter. There was a human at the desk on the other side. M'Sara put on her happy face then got the attention of the person at the counter with a tap of her palm pad on the counter. "I'm M'Sara D'Khatarr and would like to change my room, I want to room with Thomas Hauer, he is here with me."

The lady at the desk stood to see who the top of the head belonged to, and noted the man that stood behind M'Sara. She held out her hand, "IDs please."

They handed her their ID cards.

The receptionist took them and sat down at her desk, "This will just take a minute."

They watched over the counter, and stood side by side. M’Sara’s tail twitched nervously. Neither one had ever tried to change rooms. They knew from the rule book that it was not an issue if people wanted to switch rooms. There was nothing about restrictions on it at least, except that both parties involved had to be in agreement to it.

The receptionist grabbed two tablets and handed one to each, "I see you live alone in your dorm room now Thomas, so there is no issue. Just sign these and I'll register M'Sara as your roommate."

It was just the usual legal stuff that each of them had to consent to the change in residents. They both only needed to sign, and place their thumb in the reader to finalize it. They handed them back, and the nice lady handed back their ID cards, "M'Sara's card will still open the door to the room she is vacating for the rest of the cycle, until point one before mid-dark rotation, and it will now open the door to her new dorm room."

Thomas could not help but smile, that was easy, "Thank you." If anything on Earth was this efficient, he would faint from surprise.

With that they left the office, and were now on their way to the cafeteria. Thomas looked down beside him at M’Sara, "After we eat, we should go get your stuff since we have a short time limit on that. There is an old friend of mine I hope you get to meet soon too; I'll contact her after we get you moved, and set up a date. In fact, I’ll contact her after lunch and see if she is free and could help out. The faster we get you moved, the faster we get started on our project."

The ear on the side that faced Thomas turned to him as he spoke. Just before M’Sara looked up at him, with a nod, she said, "I would appreciate the help, thank you. I want to get started as much as you do it would seem."

As Thomas entered the cafeteria, he spotted Mateja in a seat at a table near the wall on the left side. It was lunch time now, he had hoped he would see her here, but he did not know if she would be. M'Sara followed him and she let him lead her as he told her, "I see that old friend of mine I want you to meet."

They got to the table, and Mateja looked up at them with a raised eyebrow. "So, she did want to mate with you after all."

Thomas let go of her arm and used it to give himself a palm to the face. With exasperation in his voice, he said under his hand, "Is that all you still think about?"

M'Sara just looked from Mateja to Thomas confused, "Wut..."

Before Thomas could talk, he rolled his eyes, after that he gave them introductions, "M'Sara, this is Mateja, the friend I wanted you to meet. We have known each other for years. She was an exchange student that I met in middle school, so we go back a number of years. She still enjoys making others uncomfortable, please try to ignore that, it is one of her many quirks. She does take some getting used to, but in there somewhere is a good person. I'll get us a pizza, pepperoni and mushroom good?"

M'Sara looked at him with her ears half down, "That sounds good, though I’ve not had it before. I'll wait here and get acquainted."

When M’Sara turned to face Mateja he gave her a soft pat on the shoulder before he turned and headed towards the food dispensers.

Thomas returned with a tray full of pizza about five minutes later, two medium sized ones in fact. Mateja and M’Sara still talked as he approached. When he arrived suddenly Mateja stopped in mid-sentence, he knew that was a bad sign. He laid the pizzas down in the middle of the table before he took his seat beside M'Sara on the opposite side of the table from Mateja.

M'Sara turned to him as soon as he was seated before she informed him, "She was just telling me how you met, did she really defend you against some bullies at your school?"

Thomas sighed, "Yes, it was my first year, second month of school, I had just turned thirteen, and I was still a small skinny kid. She got in trouble for it too with the school staff, but my family and I stood up for her. She ended up with only detention for it. They wanted to deport her back to her place of origin. In return my family took responsibility for any future disruptive actions, and I agreed with them that we would take her into our home. She was in a dorm at the time, she was also thirteen Terran years old. She behaved, and I was not bothered again. She also rarely left my side from that point on. I think she felt like my guardian or something at the time. She in turn suggested that I learn martial arts, so I chose Taekwondo and she agreed. We often spar together to this day, to keep us both in shape."

Thomas Took a piece of pizza and started in on his lunch, he sure missed his father's homemade pizza, that could not be beat. One of his dreams was to make pizza from scratch as his father did, New York style thin crust with homemade pizza sauce, all from scratch. The pizza he ate now was only just better than none at all.

After Mateja got done with a piece, she asked them, "So, when are you two hooking up, or moving in together? Will I get to be your children’s aunt?"

Thomas started to choke on the pizza he still had in his mouth, he grabbed his water and drank it quickly. He could hear Mateja snicker, she learned that from her time with him, he was sure. The way she did it though was a kind of bark with a hiss noise mixed with a squeal.

In the meantime, M'Sara answered, "We already have moved in together, we now share a dorm room. We just got back from the registration office. Though we have yet to move my stuff into it. We are only just friends however. No plans for anything more than that."

Mateja looked from one to the other as she blinked, and her ears rotated from side to front. "I was joking, seriously, that was fast. My condolences to you M'Sara, he is not easy to live with. We were roommates after we were done with high school. We shared an apartment before we came here, so yeah, I'm speaking from experience. He is still my closest friend so I guess that says something."

M'Sara gave Mateja a good hard look over before she responded, "You two lived alone together?"

Mateja waved her hand paw up and down at M'Sara, "Oh believe me, it was completely platonic, we each had our own bedroom. The things you learn about someone by sharing a living space. It was for about two years. The place for our training that we had to take before we could come to Mars was far from our home." She leaned on the table and softly said, "To this day I don't know if he even knows I'm female. Frankly, I'm fine with that."

By this time Thomas had recovered, and sat his glass back down on the table before he added, "You have that backwards, you are the one who is not easy to live with. I spent half my free time cleaning up after you." He turned to M'Sara, "It is not that I don't know if she is female, it is that I don't care that she is. If you get to know her, you may understand what I mean better. We are very close friends; her gender is irrelevant."

M'Sara looked at him as she tried to digest that information before she slowly answered, "I see." With her ears half lowered it looked like she clearly did not. She then absently took another piece of pizza and she slowly started to eat it as she got lost in thought.

*****

As Thomas stood with the empty trays after everyone was done, he wondered how M'Sara had managed to eat more than either him or Mateja had. He looked over at Mateja and asked, "If you have time, why don't you help M’Sara and I move her stuff into her new room?"

Mateja's ears turned forward and perked up as she answered, "Sure I got time, sounds fun. Should not take long in any case." She got up and walked over to stand beside M'Sara and placed her hand on M’Sara’s shoulder as she told her, "Lead away, let's get this party started."

They arrived at M'Sara's old dorm room with three reusable folded, wheeled boxes made of a stiff hinged nylon. They figured it would be enough for all her stuff, and they would each be able to transport one box that was about one-meter-tall a meter by three quarters of a meter wide. There would not be much to fill them with, just her clothing and a few personal effects. They got to work and started to pack up her stuff, and they were done in just over an hour.

*****

She stood with the lightest box left on the floor that Mateja had pulled full of street clothing back to Thomas’s room. Mateja stood and watched them for a minute as M'Sara unpacked one box of her under garments along with other clothing and bedding, and Thomas unpacked her miscellaneous box and placed her stuff not for the refresher room on the desk in a disordered mess. That was when Mateja told them, "Well that was so much fun, I don't know how to contain myself. I'll leave the rest of the fun for the two of you. I need to go study. I'll catch you later. Let me know when we can spar again, and please be good to her Thomas. Be as you like to him M’Sara." The last she said with a grin.

They both looked up and waved at Mateja, and almost as one said together, “I will.” With that Mateja turned and left them alone and closed the door behind her.

After Thomas unpacked the box Mateja left into the drawers and shared closet, he climbed up and sat on his bed so he could watch M'Sara organize her belongings as he waited for her to get done. As he sat there in thought his legs slowly swung in the empty space under the bed, he had the idea that they better lay down some ground rules. He nodded and told her, "When we get back, I think we should talk about ground rules for our living arrangements. Now though we should head to the lab and get started on our project for real this time. As that is our number one priority."

M’Sara turned to look up at him, just a little nervous before she said, "You are right, this is the first time I'll be sharing a room with a male, and a Terran at that. This is going to take some getting used to, I'm sure, and yes rules are good for that. I'll be done in just a few. I've gotten a bit warm from all this activity so I want to change my clothing first."

"Of course.", he quickly replied.

*****

By the time they left for the lab he had changed too, into more informal clothing the same as she did, they both wore a kind of loose sweatpants and T-shirts that were black in color. Neither of them had a class today, so the rest of the day could be spent on their project.

They entered the lab together, and two of the six stations in this one was empty. They were the same type of stations as the classroom lab. When they entered the lab Thomas noticed a large male Togartz at one of the stations with two other Togartz that seemed to watch them carefully, he thought that was odd, and shrugged his shoulders. They walked to either side of the table to face each main control screen. They each touched and swiped the two smaller screens in front of each of them. This time they started to work on a different part without a word from the other. Once every so often Thomas typed on the keyboard he slid out from under the main screen as well. He liked to use a keyboard, it reminded him of how his father used his computer at home. With his warp field now set up, he looked up and watched her for a few moments before he looked over to slide a remote view of her screen onto one of his secondary monitors. Her work was impressive, it was like a work of art. He felt his heart warm as he watched her work.

They finished the program for the model simulation with M’Sara’s final entry. Thomas walked around the table and stood beside M’Sara, right next to the shelf she stood on. He reached over and patted her shoulder, “Excellent work, that went quickly, and it seemed so easy. Much easier than I had pictured it in my head, from past experience.”

M’Sara watched the simulation and noted the numbers with Thomas for a few minutes before she had the system run it again from the start, only this time, have it save the data in their project folder along with the program. The program would take hours to complete so she also set it to lock the terminal until it was complete then auto log out after it was all saved. With that done, she turned to look over at him and said, “I like you better at this height, it doesn’t hurt my neck to look at you this way.

That did go very quickly, much more so than I had thought it would. I feel like I can take on the galaxy, like a huge burden has been removed from my life today. I don’t think I realized just how stressed out I was this past week. One does not miss something until it is gone. We should be able to go over the report tomorrow and use that to set up another simulation if needed. No one ever makes the jump the first time.” Her ears faced forward and her eyes were half open in what he saw as a satisfied smile.

Thomas nodded, “Indeed, and when we do make the jump, our essay we can write. What is your schedule like tomorrow?”

M’Sara hopped down to the floor. After she pushed in the shelf, she turned to him as she gently rubbed her chin before she replied, “I have one of my core classes, Terran history in the late morning. I’ll message you my schedule, and I would like you to do the same for me.”

Thomas nodded again with a pat on her shoulder, “Good idea, you got it. That way we can plan our projects easier. I have a late morning class too, let’s meet for lunch after class then head to the lab to work on our project. Now we are going to get us some dinner!”

On the way out Thomas thought about the Togartz who had watched them leave with disappointment written on his face. Thomas did not recognize him, he looked like he planned to work on navigation charts from what he noticed of the hologram above his group’s workstation. Though from what Thomas noticed from the edge of his vision is that he had observed them the entire time, or at least every time Thomas could see him. He filed it away in the back of his mind to think about later as they walked down the hall.

*****

M’Sara opened the door to the cafeteria with her keycard for them as they walked through. As they did, she asked Thomas, “You look like you are deep in thought, you have been silent since we left the lab.”

Thomas softly replied, “It was likely nothing, just my nerves. It looked like someone was watching us in the lab, and I did not recognize him.”

M’Sara nodded and patted the side of his arm, “Grab a seat, I’ll get us some dinner.”

Thomas chose a seat in the corner deep inside the cafeteria where he could watch everyone. M’Sara brought the food on a tray to the table along with some liquid refreshments. As she sat the tray down, she informed him, “I got us chicken dumplings along with broccoli for you. I also got us chocolate protein shakes. I don’t know about you but I enjoy Terran food, I’ve been enjoying it ever since I got to Mars.”

He nodded as he grabbed his spoon and said, “Good thing they built hydroponic gardens on the colony along with a meat growing facility.”

After she consumed about half her meal she bent over the table and softly said, “I noticed him too, and kept it to myself. I thought you had too, I can smell your nervousness. The female on his right side in that group, she was the one who told me those lies about you. They may be upset that their plan failed.”

He had some broccoli in his mouth; he slowly chewed on it as he listened, he was bent over the table too and his eyes never left hers as she spoke. After she was done, he only said, “I see.”

They finished their meal in silence, as if they were both lost in their own thoughts. M’Sara waited for Thomas to completely eat his meal and without a word she took his dishes as she cleared the table. She walked with the tray of dishes to the conveyor that was there for that purpose. She had to reach up high to get them on it, but she was able without too much issue.

Thomas watched her and felt warmth build up in him, he thought that she really was a good person, and he was glad they had become friends. It really did not matter how, in the end.

M’Sara padded up behind Thomas still seated at the table and tapped his side with her hand paw pad, she stretched up so she could get her muzzle next to his ear, she whispered, “I’m ready to go back to our room for the night. It has been a long day, no?”

*****

After Thomas let them into their room with his keycard, she went to her dresser and grabbed some clothing then went right into the refresher room while he walked to the ladder. He climbed up and sat on his bed with a sigh of relief. He should be used to her digitigrade feet, and how she walked barefoot everywhere just as his mother did. Maybe it was because they were so different from his own feet, how he walked on his heels and they needed shoes, now that he thought about it.

M’Sara had changed into a pair of light shorts that looked like Boxers, and a thin half black scoop T-shirt that ended on her midriff. It was kind of like a loose jogging bra but without the support of a bra. As far as he knew she did not wear a bra, unlike Mateja, she did not need one. This was common with Luchs though, not like he cared about that really. He had one thing to worry about, do well in this place, and make it onto a nice ship. He saw it as a way to further humanity's progress, as what he left behind on Earth was not much better now than it was before first contact was made.

After M’Sara climbed her ladder and sat down on her bed, her foot paws dangled in the air as she asked, "Is this alright with you? It is what I usually wear to bed plus the top now that I’m in mixed company. I don't really have much else other than what I wear outside in the common areas. Normally I would just wear shorts among other Katzen, as you likely surmised, that is the common way I grew up with. In fact, environmental permitting most only wore shorts or short pants. On our home planet many still wear just a piece of cloth that only covers the genitals, with a loop hole that goes around the tail, a strip, and a cloth that wraps around the waist to tie it. They would wear a belt with pockets to carry their possessions they brought with them.

We are to establish rules now?"

He waved that off, "Yes that is a good idea, thank you for the instructional lecture followed by a reminder.” He said in a monotone.

“Even though I grew up with a Luchs mother, she would at least wear a t-shirt and shorts around me. I think that was because of Terran society, and what was expected.

Having lived with Mateja, I lost some of my sexual repression. She of course enjoyed using it to tease me, as she ran around topless while she lived with me at my parents’ home and while we shared a place, but after a few months I got used to it. Besides, she, like you, is covered in fur. I became desensitized to it, and it was no longer a big deal, and became the norm. Not that I expect you to, I just wanted you to know. As you mentioned because you are covered in fur it matters not to me as long as you wear shorts of some kind. That means if you are comfortable, you may wear just shorts like you have on now while alone with me as I am already used to that. I think those look great on you, black goes well with anything though. I like it much better than the colony student uniforms of a drab gray short sleeve button up with matching pants. I assume I have to wear more than my boxer’s underwear now that I no longer have this room to myself, I have some boxer shorts, and T-shirts of course as I was not expecting to live alone. I assume that works for you?

Your short fur is very pleasant to look at anyway, with its color and marking similarities to a feline on Terra known as the Bobcat. Except that you have a full length tail."

She smoothed her fur with one hand, as if she felt a little self-conscious about it.  When her right ear slowly rotated to the side and forward, she said, "That is understandable, and yes, that would be fine. I will go topless too when I feel like it, as you can as well if you want. I have no issue with you wearing only shorts too while we are alone. That establishes what we should wear inside the room we share, glad that did not change much for me. Thank you for giving me that freedom. As the room is divided some for us, and our things."

Thomas turned his head towards the entry door hall that was formed by the refresher on one side and the shared closet on the other. He looked around the room with the walls that looked like smooth gray plastic in thought before he turned to look at her again to say, "Yes, well as far as I'm concerned the room is just divided for our stuff in the dressers as we share a closet, and you are free to go where you like whenever you like. We have no way to have any alone time in this place, unless one of us is not here. So to do otherwise would not just be futile but immature. I want you to treat this as your home while we are together here for the next four years. I feel privileged to share a room with you. I know we will have times when we fight, or disagree, but I think in the end we will come to an understanding and we will make up, or we will spar, I did keep our gear. Before you came along, I was so stressed in the back of my mind about living with some total stranger, and more so because it would be a male human. I never agreed to segregation of any kind, as learning and understanding the differences of others only leads to everyone becoming closer as a people. Whereas segregation leads to the opposite. Sexual repression is a very bad thing for a society too. Just look at what it did to Terra, many of the societies there are still that way. Some worse than others."

With that M’Sara got the rest of the way onto her bed, crawled on all fours towards the other then hopped onto Thomas’ bed, her back had just brushed the ceiling in the process. When she got beside him, she turned and sat with her legs right beside his. She scooted close, and gave him a side hug as she purred softly. She can purr, he thought to himself, he just remembered that Luchs could purr. His mother rarely did that around him though as he grew out of childhood. He petted her where the fur was exposed from the back of her head to her neck. She stopped him with one paw on his wrist before she sat up straight and removed her top, "I like my shoulders pet, not my lower back so much. So, I’ve removed my shirt so you can pet me there. If you could do that from now on, that would be great."

She told him as she rolled over and laid down on her front on the bed behind him so that her feet stuck out in the air between their beds. He gently, and slowly turned around, then sat on his legs, his head brushed the ceiling as the ceiling was lower over the beds, so he could pet her shoulders. It was as if she was just a large house cat as she purred louder with each stroke of his hand along her shoulders. "That is nice. I agree with you, and I like what you are doing very much, you do it so well. I do think I'm going to enjoy living with you for many reasons. We can have some nice down time together as well as learn together. I've been feeling pretty lonely since I arrived at the colony. Even though I was with others from Katzen, it was like I was alone.", she told him with her muzzle on her hand paws and with her arms folded out beside her head, she looked almost like a big house cat. A big house cat that wore shorts, he noticed they had a notch for her tail too.

Thomas told her, "It is nice and healthy to not feel lonely, and feel that you share understanding with someone. Without that those feelings can get bottled up inside and seek an outlet, often an unhealthy one."

M’Sara with a purr in her voice as she softly asked, "What about personal boundaries? We should set rules for that, that is even more important. Like now, am I breaking any?"

Thomas petted her again absently as he thought about that. "I don't mind, in fact I find that I enjoy petting you, I can feel my stress leave me with each purr and stroke of your soft fur. I would see my father do this to my mother once in a while. Please, feel free to do as you like, think of it as a part of us learning to understand each other. If you break any, I’ll let you know, and I want you to do the same. If you fear you may, you could also just ask about it too. I think the biggest one to worry about is to receive permission before one of us does something that either of us would wonder about."

M’Sara nodded then said, "I like to be pet on my upper back and shoulders the most, the rest my back and hind quarters near my tail are fine, but not too much. The top of my head is good too. Sometimes, like when I’m going to sleep, I like to be pet under my chin, along my neck, I also enjoy having my chest to my abdomen rubbed when I am in the mood. I’ll lay on my side or back and motion to you to let you know if I do desire it. Nowhere else are you allowed to touch me unless I ask for you to. If you so much as touch the sides of me, just above my hips you will likely get scratched, I will not warn you again about that, as I am ticklish there." She informed him with a stern tone.

Thomas nodded and gave her a little scratch on her shoulder right by her neck and she leaned into it, "Understood." He told her with a serious expression.

After a few seconds M’Sara suddenly turned over and sat up before she told him, "Why don't you get changed for bed too, I'll wait here. We can talk more when you return."

Thomas quickly turned then got down. He went to go change, he grabbed a t-shirt that said “Pixel Art.” and a pair of boxer shorts out of his drawer. He returned wearing his boxers and shirt.

She was where he left her, she watched him approach the bed, “Your legs are whiter than I thought they would be, and your feet look weird and they are huge.”

He stopped and put his hands on his hips and faced her, “I don’t suppose there are any plantigrade bipedal mammals on Katzen?”

With one ear out to the side she replied, “Nope.”

“Also, no I did not get out much. I spent most of my time growing up in the garage, in my room studying, or at school. My feet are huge? You’re one to talk. Stick your foot out.”

He sat down and put his foot beside her’s. “Yeah, your foot is like a few centimeters longer yet you are almost a meter shorter than I am.” He had stuck out his tongue after he was done talking.

M’Sara huffed before asking, “Is there a reason you’re exposing your tongue at me?”

Thomas dropped his foot to the floor and fell back into the bed, “You really lived a sheltered life huh. Look it up on the Googles.”

She huffed again, hopped off his bed and dropped into the other. She turned to lay on her side facing him, the ear facing up was still off to the side, “No reason to be mean.” She said not sounding serious at all.

Thomas got up, pulled his covers aside, and laid down on his side as she did, facing her, “We have time to talk, I would like to hear more about you.”

“When I sit like a human, it is bad for my posture and hurts my tail. Also, that reminds me, I’m going to need a Katzen style chair for my desk.”

She closed her eyes and laid in silence for a few minutes before she spoke, "I was raised by my father's brother and his family. I did not fit in all that well. They were nice enough, but his kids I think did not like the idea. I felt so alone and misunderstood as a child. When I got here, they roomed me with a female Togartz and that was not helpful to my stress levels at all. Many still treat us Luchs as second class people and she was no exception. They say everyone is equal, but in reality, it is not so. She did not want to learn about me, she wanted me to be silent and out of the way so she could forget I was there."

Thomas nodded and M’Sara continued, “It was an acquaintance of hers, the one I mentioned before, that convinced me of the lie that I had been gullible enough to believe. I think my fear, and frustrations had helped fuel that as well. I know that this is no excuse, I just want you to hear what I think about it. After I grew up with a family that would have liked it better if I had not been there, and then I had to room with someone that stressed me out did not help matters.” She paused and slowly took a deep breath, “I had no idea that humans were not as bad as I had been led to believe. I lived in our colony world closest to this solar system so I never even saw a human in person until I arrived on Mars. That is one reason CAW helped build this colony, so we would be on common ground to start our co-existence, but you already know that.”

M’Sara looked back up to his face, and Thomas now kneeling beside her bed nodded as he gave her a slow pet and rub around her shoulder. It was his turn to be a listener. Something he learned while he lived with Mateja. She continued after about a minute, “The family I lived with, they were not happy that the humans were to join CAW, they often spoke of their fears. How humans would be our downfall, the end of times, that kind of nonsense. I think now that it had opened a door for me, created a bias so that what I was told was believed so easily. I wanted to believe the lie because it agreed with my prejudice of humans.”

Thomas gave M’Sara another pat on the shoulder with a squeeze before returning to his bed.