FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

As I made my way back to my room, I was met by five roboticized workers carrying my meager amount of things away. When I asked where my new room would be, the closest one - in a nondescript canid shell - grabbed my arm and stabbed my wrist with some kind of needle. There were only a few drops of blood. _Then_he spoke, in the monotone default voice they seemed to use if nothing else was selected. "That is your key. Your new lodgings are located on deck one, room thirteen."

"How do I get to deck thirteen?" I asked in an angry squeak, holding my wrist. Even though whatever the worker had injected was microscopic - probably - it hurt, leaving pain radiating throughout my whole lower arm.

"The elevators. Consider upgrading your body for automatic navigation," he replied. The fucker. And then he walked away, carrying the box of things I'd brought with me from earth. Someone else rushed up to me almost immediately, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind.

"Oh thank god, you're alive. I thought for sure you'd been in an accident or something when they started emptying your room," Kevin babbled, nearly hysterical, while squeezing me so hard it hurt.

"No, I ran into... Two," I replied, extricating myself from his clutching arms so I could face him. He looked even more worried, and promptly grabbed my waist again, pulling me into another hug, this time with his head on my shoulder. It was intimate, but a bit of warmth and affection was just what I needed after my encounter with Two. Something about his warlike new body unnerved me, and it wasn't just the weaponry. It was the fact that he had no expressions, no body language but what he specifically had his body play out. Impossible to get a grip on, and it was intentional; I'd seen frames with almost natural facial expressions, but Two had opted for a non-expressive one.

"Two? The second founder? What did he want?" he asked.

"I've been promoted to Thirteen. His personal assistant. So I'm to live on deck one now," I replied. "I'm not sure how I feel about it."

Now Kevin's expression brightened. "Oh? That's fantastic. I hear those rooms have_pools_," he told me. "Can I still come visit you?"

"Of course," I answered. "Just... I'm not sure about the guards. Tell them that I've requested your presence?"

"Ooh, isn't that fancy. I'll be sure to use that line even when you don't want me there, and I'm going to steal all your good food. Man, I'm so stick of those protein bars..." the fox complained playfully. His magnificently fluffy tail was still wagging wildly, to the extent it was making his hips sway from side to side. "Do you have a pool?"

"I haven't even been up there yet, they just started moving my things immediately," I replied. I could feel his hardness pressing against my crotch, but didn't mention it. I didn't mind. In fact, I found myself enjoying the fact that I had such an effect on him by simply being there. "I... didn't have a lot of choice," I explained.

"Well, let's hope you have a pool. I could watch you swim," he smirked. "I'd swim too but... well, there isn't a lot of water left on earth, you know."

I was lucky enough to have at least learned to swim, even if it was in shallow waters. Then again, pools weren't particularly deep. Kevin's delighted attitude was infectious, though. I wondered if my new residence actually had one. For someone as high up as thirteen in the Company hierarchy, it wasn't impossible. Then again, I didn't know what position the old Thirteen had held.

"We could go have a look together, if you want," I told Kevin, and he smiled.

"I'd love that," was the reply.

I didn't know exactly how many floors the station had. The elevators only went to specific floors, with the highest ones being restricted. They called my deck "one" but it wasn't; there were many more above us. Perhaps it was the highest residential deck? I knew that the station was huge already, but I hadn't realized just how expansive it was before we set off on that veritable _journey._Most of the corridors looked the same and seemed to stretch on for eternity, and the first few elevators we came across were locked, declining my wrist-chip. Had to be for the management, or perhaps whatever crew made sure the station didn't crash into the earth. If that was even possible. I wasn't an expert.

Eventually, we found it. From the outside, it was nondescript; the same kind of corridor that Kevin's room was in. I touched my wrist - still aching from the chip implant - to the reader in front of the door that simply read "13", and the door slid open. The room, or rather apartment, was overwhelmingly large. The living room stood before us, with a wooden floor, walls with actual wallpaper, and windows into space. I'd seen windows before, but a luxury like a wooden floor? I'd only seen them rotted and abandoned on earth in the buildings we scavenged, and it felt almost pleasant beneath my feet. It was smooth and warm, completely unlike the rough stone floors most earth-homes had, or the corrugated metal of my previous lodgings. It was the same with the wallpapers, and Kevin and I both touched the walls with a strange fascination. Another thing we'd only seen in ruins. Here, it was smooth, with a simple pattern of vertical stripes that became wider towards the floor, and it all looked new.

That wasn't even the only room. When Kevin realized this he bounded forth, bouncing into my new luxury home. There was a kitchen - I didn't know how to cook anything more advanced than campfire stew - a study with endless books (I knew, at least, what those were, but I'd never seen this many of them intact and in one place), and something that made Kevin yip with excitement when he saw it. I followed behind him with quick steps.

"It's a pool!" he laughed.

Well, it was more of a bathtub built into the floor in the bathroom, big enough for a few people, and although it was empty right now, when Kevin turned the knob, fresh and clear water flowed from the faucet. Sure, it was fresh and clear everywhere here, but it still had some novelty for me. The water of my home usually looked and tasted dirty, and had to be boiled.

"Let's try it!" the excitable fox begged. "Come on, it looks way more comfy than the communal showers!"

I looked around. There were clean, luxurious towels hung up right next to it on the marbled wall. That, I hadn't seen before. I remember thinking it looked like a king's palace, like the entirety of the bathroom was hewn out of solid rock, despite us being in space. There was nothing to cover ourselves with, though. No swimming trunks, although I hadn't really been expecting that, and no kind of divider to separate one bather from the next. I was still feeling rather shy about all of that, seeing the fox naked, and him_seeing _me naked, although I also felt like I wouldn't _mind_it happening.

"There's no..." I started.

"There's water!" he fox exclaimed. "It's warm too," he continued, and was already taking off his rather stained work uniform, revealing a chest just as pure white as his chin was, and then a flat belly with the slightest hint of muscle definition, and- I looked away, probably blushing.

Kevin seemed confused. "What- oh," he paused. "You don't have to look if you don't want to. I won't- well, you won't see me look- err..." he stammered, talking in circles. My embarrassment seemed to be as infectious as his happy moods.

I took a moment to think. Maybe I was just overthinking everything. It'd happened a lot since I was relocated to the station. All the time in the world to think, no need to worry about survival. I couldn't remember naked males bothering me, but suddenly I was far more self-aware. On earth, nudity was sometimes a necessity because of the heat. Here, it was a luxury, and one perceived as erotic on top of that. Constantly wearing clothes made what laid beneath all the more alluring, almost perverse. Rather than something utilitarian for feeding children, breasts became something forbidden that you'd want to bare and touch, and cocks, while more inherently sexual, became like something delicious waiting to be teased and unwrapped.

And the fact that I even had that second thought told me more than I really wanted to know. I'd definitely get hard if I looked at Kevin's naked, lithe body. But then again, he wasn't embarrassed about growing hard when embracing me. It was only natural, and it wouldn't be terribly long before we could never enjoy something natural again. While I was lost in thought, the fox had been poking at the "pool" as he called it, and found some buttons that made it bubble. That seemed to excite him. "It's a bubblepool! They had these on earth, they're called uh..." he paused. "Well, it's a bubblepool. Come on, get in with me," he encouraged me.

I began to take my clothes off, swallowing hard. I wasn't hard yet, at least. Seeing me do that encouraged the the fox in turn and he quickly shed his uniform, only leaving a lasciviously bulging pair of underwear. I could see the outline of his sheath and even a little wet spot at the top where his bare cock would be peeking out. I found myself swept along with his actions, and took the rest of my clothes off, and then quickly sidestepped into the pool so I'd at least have the water covering my crotch. Kevin peeled off his underwear too, finally baring his entire "package", and of course, I couldn't resist having a quick peek. His sheath was just as white as the rest of his front, and a bright red cock was just barely pushing out of it, although the bulkiness of the sheath itself told me he was more aroused than he was showing. Probably trying to not make me feel uncomfortable, which I did appreciate. I was feeling a tingling kind of sensation in my loins as well, as well as strangely in the back of my head, like some instincts forced into dormancy were awakening. Or perhaps the beginnings of a crush.

The water was warm and comfortable, incredibly soothing on my body and mind both after the kind of day I'd had, and I let out a little groan as I melted into it, leaning back against the edge and simply_existing_ for a while, letting the warm water soak my fur thoroughly. Kevin did the same, but only for a short moment, before scooting over to me, so he was sitting right next to me, his thigh pressed against mine. I knew where this would lead if I didn't protest, but for once, I realized that I should just submit to my instincts, to let this play out without resisting. Maybe it was just what I needed to soothe this gnawing anxiety I'd been feeling ever since I was separated from my family.

He placed a hand on my thigh just under the water's surface. I took a deep breath and leaned into him, letting him continue. Soon enough he was stroking my belly and then my chest with obvious affection. I didn't really know how to respond beyond twitching as his fingers ran over my nipple, lingering for just the briefest moment on that sensitive spot as it stiffened under his touch. Much like a certain other part of me was stiffening, readily responding to his attentions. I'm sure he was seeing all of it, but I closed my eyes and simply sat back, imagining myself invisible. Kevin, at least, took his time, tracing little spirals through my bellyfur, occasionally pressing his nose into my neck - it was cold and wet - and gradually working his way closer to my crotch. He couldn't possibly be a virgin with how gentle, and good, he was at making me relax and feel comfortable. It's weird how on edge I was, because I'd been in plenty of dangerous situations on earth. Confrontations with other scavengers, some of them armed, hanging off beams after a rotten floor collapsed under me, all of that had been _easy,_because I'd grown up with it. Life under the red sun was like that. But I'd never experienced this kind of affection before, and so, despite it being harmless - even beneficial, probably - it terrified me on some primal level. Like the fox was going to eat me. I suppose that, in a way, he would.

Then he cupped my balls after what felt like an eternity of teasing and I let out an embarrassing, startled squeak. He wasn't rough or anything, but I wasn't expecting it. With him having touched every other inch of my body, my skin was outright tinging, and any kind of further touching felt good. He very gently fondled my sack, just barely rolling my orbs within between his fingers, and I realized I had to be getting hard fast, the gradual inflammation of my desires producing exactly the expected result. I had to force my eyes to remain closed when he finally took my shaft in his warm paw and finally being touched there sent electric shivers up and down my spine. It felt so much better than when I simply pawed at myself, and I couldn't help but allow my hips to twitch the slightest bit against his paws.

Encouraged by that positive response, and probably too worked up to keep being patient he was quickly all over me, grabbing a greedy handful of my buttcheeks and licking my neck, which almost made me melt there on the stop, my head falling back and a groan escaping my lips. Something about letting his sharp fangs that close to my throat was strangely erotic, and him lapping at the thin fur and the skin beneath didn't help matters. There was a tingle of nervousity, though. I didn't know what he wanted to do. Did he want me to take the female role?

Or I suppose it wasn't really a female role. No women involved. But_receptive._ I parted my eyelids just enough to get a glimpse of him, and watched as he idly played with a rather sizeable red, tapered, typically vulpine cock. It was long, but not so thick that it couldn't fit inside me with some coaxing. Though I was yearning to sink myself into something as well. Maybe we could take turns? I didn't know how it all worked, but I was aching to try it out.

He pulled at my hips and I let him guide me, first having me stand up in front of him and then sit in this lap. I kept my eyes screwed tightly shut, terrified of seeing what I was actually doing. My head came to rest on his shoulder as I embraced the fox, his warm and wet body feeling wonderful against mine, his long fur meshing with mine. And I felt his turgid maleness, much hotter than the water bubbling against us, nestling itself between my cheeks, the tip pressing right at the base of my tail. I squeaked quietly.

"Just tell me if it's too much," the fox whispered hoarsely, his voice dripping with barely controlled arousal. I'd never seen this side of him. "Or if you're not into..." he trailed off. "Cocks. But I hope you are."

"I'm into you," I replied, probably blushing, my ears pinning themselves to my skull. "I'll try."

Kevin replied with a grumbling purr, squeezing on my thick tail and rocking his hips ever so slightly, even though he wasn't even close to positioned for penetration. But his desire to do so was obvious, with his slick firmness grinding horizontally against my body. Feeling it brush across my tailhole made me quiver. It didn't feel bad, not even close, but it was strange, soft yet firm, and bulging with desire to aim upwards and plunge under my tail. It made me feel oddly feminine, desired even. A strange feeling.

Ah, screw it. I raised my hips a little, letting his member spring up into its natural position rather than being squeezed down beneath me. I could feel his pointed tip naturally point right against my hole. "Will it hurt?" I asked, finally opening my eyes to look at the fox and being almost overwhelmed by the contact between us.

"Not if you go slowly," the fox responded. "Or it might, a little..." he admitted. "But then it'll start feeling good. But you don't have to. I mean, I'd like you to, but..."

I did appreciate the honesty. He was still caressing every inch of my fur, and it made my legs tremble, particularly in this awkward position, so I had to decide on what to do. The choice of course, was obviously; I let nature guide me, and relaxed my muscles just enough for him to push against my opening a little harder, the tapered tip easily catching in the middle of my pucker. How'd I get into this position? Shouldn't I be on top?

Then I let myself drop a little more. There was a twinge of pain, an intense spreading sensation, and then he slipped inside me. He gasped, and I think I gasped too. He wasn't massive but the way it felt he might as well have had a baseball bat between his legs. But I was taking it, inch by slick inch, like my body was moulding itself around him. Yes, it did hurt, the ache as I was spread open making me grit my teeth, but it also felt oddly exhilarating, like cold water splashed on your face. I was taking a_cock_ inside me. And I was enjoying it. He twitched, and grunted, the length throbbing inside me and a soothing warm sensation following it. Precum, I had to imagine.

"Oh god, Alex, you're so tight, I can't..." Kevin grunted, clenching his jaws so hard I could see the muscles working in his neck. "It's been- uh, forever..."

Forever? Then how'd he learn the whole seduction thing? I pondered if "forever", to a fox, meant "since I left earth".

He groaned into my neck and throbbed inside me, despite only being half inside, clutching onto me tightly as his hips rocked, forcing himself deeper under my tail, and that part of him was thicker, amplifying the burning pain down there, but then he throbbed again, and a soothing wet warmth erupted into me. Didn't take a genius to figure that out, he was seeding me, but it felt wonderful, and I suppressed a moan, instead producing a slight whimper, a heated huff, the pain taking a back seat. My own erection had been waning until then, my blood rushing to my rear instead, but now it was back in full force as I imagined the fox twitching inside me, surely erupting in thick, sticky spurts of his virility.

Yeah, I guess I did like cocks.

He began to soften and shrink inside me and the pain quickly abated. I sat down on his lap, not really getting him any deeper, and not even close to relief myself, but just feeling my length rub against his flat, soft belly was pleasant enough.

But going by the ache in my groin I knew what I'd be doing that night.

The fox looked guilty, his ears folding as his climax ebbed and the afterglow settled. He avoided looking into my eyes, which I didn't mind, not with how intense it felt when he did. "Sorry..." he mumbled, though he also looked very satisfied, with that foxy grin on his muzzle that he couldn't quite force away.

"It's okay," I replied, shifting my rump a bit, and he flopped out of me. At least we were already in a tub, so I'd be fairly clean afterwards. I sat down next to him, trying to will my erection away. Kevin seemed to be out of it, leaning on the tub's wall with his eyes closed and tongue hanging out to the side, probably asleep or just very dazed still. It was getting rather late. I figured I'd leave him to enjoy the water and leave whenever he wanted to, not really knowing what else I could've done. I stepped out, grabbed a towel - white, fluffy, and luxurious, and dried myself as much as I could, very gingerly around my sore behind.

I was tired, too. It hadn't been obvious in the middle of the action, but my eyelids felt like lead. And I'd have an early, stressful morning ahead. I wrote a quick note for the fox whenever he recovered, politely thanking him for last night. It was ridiculous, but I didn't really know the appropriate thing to do either, so I had to wing it. Then, I found my bed and collapsed on top of it, sheets and all. It was soft and silky, like a cloud of steam. Seducing me with the idea of sleep like the fox had done sexually earlier. I didn't resist it.

The next morning, I woke up actually feeling rested, though I was also confused as to where I was, before remembering that I'd been reassigned. The previous day had been so_eventful_ that I laid in bed for a good thirty minutes going through what'd happened. I'd met Two, promptly gotten promoted, had all my belongings packed into neat little boxes and transported here, and then... Kevin. I could still smell his scent in the air despite him having left for work much earlier. Well, I wasn't a virgin anymore, and my first time had been with another male. I found myself dwelling on the memory of him inside me, the comfortable and utterly arousing fullness, dreaming of the next time we'd get to do it. He'd added a little heart to my note to him and a left a wet towel next to the pool, which I briefly picked up so I could hang it up to dry, though not before taking a deep sniff of it, enjoying Kevin's vulpine scent. It was funny how he went from playful and hyperactive to rather masculine and dominant when it came to sex. Though he was still rather excitable.

I also felt more than a little awkward, and that feeling was accentuated by the dull ache in my backside. The underside of my tail felt wet and sticky. Thinking about how the fox had left his mark_inside_ me excited me tremendously, but I didn't really have enough time to attend to my quickly-swelling arousal at that point. No, I had to attend some_one_ else, and I didn't want to imagine what'd happen if I was late. Luckily, there was a shower as well as the bathtub, so cleaning myself didn't take long. I wondered just how much water the station had. Then, I realized that I still had, ahem, morning wood, groaning as the water hit it. Oh yeah, I hadn't actually gotten any relief last night.

I hesitated a little, but I'd have to take care of that somehow or I was afraid my balls would actually explode. Couldn't really show up to work in this state either, I reasoned.

So I wrapped a paw around my length, felt my eager maleness twitch in response, and began to stroke. It felt fucking amazing, and soon I was thrusting my hips into my paw, imagining it as Kevin's ass squeezing down on me, at the same time as I was imagining him behind me, rutting into my needy body. In fantasy, I could get however lewd I wanted, with great confidence, not even slightly embarrassed about giving into my bestial instincts and mating the fox like a vixen, driving myself into his needy body with endless vigor, I could almost feel him pushed against me, with me yanking the dainty fox's tail up as I dominated his body.

It was a little ironic when I'd been so easily manoeuvred into his lap, but that was all beside the point. A finger slipped to play with my clean, still slightly gaping tailhole. I imagined him back there too, frantically thrusting into me, intent on enjoying these last years of our biological bodies before the future was upon us. We'd mate wildly, pumping each other full again and again, and I was so lost in the fantasy that I was surprised when sweet release finally hit me, and I moaned Kevin's name out loud as I spilled my seed, sending my thick, hot seed splattering all over the glass walls of the shower, panting and grumbling even as the spurts slowed to a trickling of cum onto the floor. Then, I felt a little awkward, although the sheer satisfaction of finally reaching my peak after all of yesterday's teasing helped. I felt sated, actually relaxed, if even for a short while, every muscle feeling youthful and supple in the afterglow. Everything was good. Of course, there was still work to do.

"Uni?" I called out to the AI, unsure if it could hear me.

"Now responding to inquiry by Thirteen," the AI answered. I couldn't even see the speakers, but it seemed like they had them in every area of the station.

"Where am I assigned to work today?" I asked. I didn't actually know where Two's office was. It wasn't in the robotics department, that much I knew, but he'd neglected to tell me. Then again, given that I could just ask Uni, it didn't matter much.

"Two has requested your presence in his office," Uni responded. "The office is located on deck one, room number one, end specification."

I suppose that meant that One, whoever that was, was dead, though I wondered why Two hadn't taken over his designation as well, like I had been given that of Thirteen. All the numbers were starting to confuse me.

I thought of something else. "Uni, where on the station is..." I began, and stopped. I realized I couldn't remember what Kevin's full designation was. I remembered 31, but it'd be longer than that. I didn't even know his last name, despite us having mated yesterday, which made me feel tremendously dirty. Not as much about the act itself but simply for realizing that I didn't know him that well. "Who has been in my lodgings since yesterday?" I asked instead. Presumably the AI kept track of such things.

"Clearance not registered. Information withheld," the AI replied.

"But it's my lodgings," I pointed out.

"Clearance not registered. Information withheld," it repeated. That unnerved me, but realistically, they'd simply forgotten to allow me to access that information. What did alarm we was the sudden and irrational idea that I might never see Kevin again. If he didn't come to see me I wouldn't actually be able to find him, except maybe by aimlessly wandering around the lower decks. It didn't make any sense to worry about, but I suppose it showed that I had some kind of crush on the fox.

Granted, I didn't have much time to think about him. I finished cleaning myself, got dressed, and left for my fateful new job. Finding Two's office was easy enough; the first deck seemed less like a residential area and more like one of those buildings we'd scavenged on earth, with a fancy lobby with clearly marked doors. Who I presumed Two's secretary noticed me coming, giving me a quick wave from behind a luxurious mahogany desk adorned with several screens and countless buttons. What they were for, I had no idea.

"You're the new Thirteen?" the elderly goat asked, clearly not really expecting an answer. "Shame about the old one, he was a good man."

I nodded, not really knowing what to say. I was wearing my new uniform, which made it obvious enough that I belonged on the upper decks now. I couldn't tell you what it was made out of, but it felt silky and luxurious, mostly black with golden stripes across my chest. A considerable upgrade from the rough synthetic fabrics the workers wore.

"Well, Two has requested you, so... well, let's go in. Just between us, he's changed a bit since his 'upgrade', so try not to annoy him," she advised. I could see the faintest trace of actual worry on her time-worn face, as if she wasn't entirely sure of what to expect. She pressed a button on her desk and we walked inside.

Two stood unmovingin front of his own desk, facing away from the door. I wasn't sure if I should approach or not, thinking he was in sleep mode or something. I realized there were two stripes of diodes on his back that occasionally shifted in color. Currently, they were green, which was at least somewhat encouraging, but I didn't actually know. When I hesitated, his secretary stepped forwardand announced my presence. "Mr. Two, this is the new Thirteen, your assist-"

"I know," he spoke. "Get out."

The secretary looked at me expectantly. "Well, you'd better-" she spoke, before being interrupted.

Two turned around. "You. Not him. Get out," he commanded, little twitches indicating anger. I wondered if it was some kind of programming error or if he was intentionally conveying annoyance.

But when the secretary left, looking mortified, he was immediately back to normal. "Welcome, Thirteen," he greeted me, gesturing towards his desk invitingly. His office was immaculate, decorated with a ridiculous excess of what I thought was fine art and sculptures, all resting on a rich, polished-to-perfection mahogany floor.A golden chandelier, albeit with electric lights, hung from the ceiling. One of the walls was a giantaquarium full of exotic fish. I'm sure they were meant for decoration, but I felt kind of hungry looking at them swimming around, fat and carefree.

"This frame is lacking," he said. "Nothing we cannot fix. Routine programming that wasn't implemented. We will go heuristic. You act and I copy."

He instructed me to wag my tail. I did, and then he repeated the movement, his metallic tail swinging from side to side to the quiet whirring of his internal motors.

"Good. The hardware for the articulation is there, but the programming isn't. I am instructing the frame to imitate your movements," he observed. "Demonstrate, now, a swipe with your claws."

I had to question that. "Isn't that a weaponized frame? Surely it should have the programming?"

"Observant," he replied. "Yes, it does. However, the default functionality for such things is locked away unless in a dangerous situation already. A safeguard that the scientists forgot to disable for me. Useless, of course, given that they left the imitation-learning intact. Do it."

I mimicked a swipe, slashing at the air as if I was attacking someone or something. Two repeated the action, freezing for a split second at the end of it, as if committing something complex to memory.

"Good. Tell me about yourself, Thirteen," he said.

It was utterly hard to speak to someone with no expressions and no feedback. I told him about my home back on earth and how I'd been chosen. He stood still as a statue, with no indications of him registering anything I was saying. Nonetheless, I kept talking, because I'd seen what happened if he got frustrated. Then again, he seemed more tolerant with me. Finally, as I finished my story, he responded again.

"Fascinating. You deserve much better than being a trash collector," he spoke. "I could speed up your upgrade process, should you want it. In fact, we could transplant you in-"

"Not yet, please. I need to get used to just living here first," I replied. I also didn't want to end up like the minotaur.

"Perhaps a singular limb?" he replied. "An arm would be ideal. The bodies do have sensations," he spoke in what couldn't have been intended to be a disinterested monotone, but came across as just that. He reached to touch my shoulder, and I stood perfectly still. "Admittedly, not perfect. Not yet. Yet, we have already performed miracles. A consciousness, transferred into a metal shell..."

There was one particular question that was at the forefront of my mind, and I couldn't help but ask. Perhaps it'd distract him; I was in no hurry to replace any part of myself. Not yet, especially not after last night's... adventures. "How do you know that you're... you know, not a copy?"

"According to what I remember, I am the same continuous consciousness that I was before. But of course, I would think that. I will humour the possibility that I am not, for the sake of argument. Is it not, however, better that our minds continue in some fashion? After all, my organic body was dying at the time we transplanted my mind into this one," he observed. "Perhaps the original consciousness was extinguished along with its primitive container, but if so, I am a perfect copy. Mankind still benefits from my knowledge. I lead The Company as I always have. Surely that is a better option that simple death."

He was right, I knew that much. Nonetheless, the fact that I might be conversing with a computer that was convinced that it was the original was eerie, and the other complication was that we were encouraged to go through with the modifications as soon as possible, long before the end of our natural lifespans.

"Does it feel any different?" I asked.

"Yes," Two replied. "The ability to devote my full attention to several subjects at once is very satisfying. The organic mind is, ultimately, a one-track mind. Although I will admit that there is less granularity to my thoughts. Everything is either on or off... but perhaps we can discuss this more in the future. I need you to perform some more movements for me."

We continued what we were doing, with him stating what he wanted me to do and me doing a slightly exaggerated version of that movement. Mainly, he requested me to move my tail. Maybe there were no otters in the robotics department. I'd mostly seen canids, who of course wouldn't be intimately familiar with how our tails worked. Almost every other muscle would be easy enough for them to understand, but a fox tail, for one, would be nowhere near as articulated as that of an otter.

Every now and then he'd twitch unnervingly. Did it mean anything? I'd assumed it meant anger, but he had no reason to be angry. Could it be a glitch of some sort? The minotaur had twitched too, when I thought about it, but Two was fully digital, so there couldn't be any kind of problems with a neural interface. I wished I knew more about programming and robotics in particular. I couldn't _ask_him, and I wasn't sure he'd know the answer even if I did. Maybe if I asked that guy who had sent me the modification credits? He was the only relatively higher-up that I'd had any contact with.

"Bite something. A fish, from the aquarium. Dive into it," Two suddenly commanded, barely pausing between sentences. I wasn't sure if I heard him right.

"The aquarium? How?" I asked, steeling myself in case he lashed out at me for not immediately complying. He didn't show any signs of annoyance, instead focusing on the aquarium for a second. He took a step closer. "Strange. Closed system. Automatic cleaning and feeding. Cannot be entered," he stated, his diodes flashing yellow now, speaking in a mechanic monotone as if reading from a list, which he probably was. It looked as if he was scanning the great aquarium. "Why was this installed?" he commented, and then punched the glass, sending a small tidal wave of shattered glass and water pouring into his office. I recoiled, thankfully avoiding any of the shards, and although adrenaline was surging through my body I immediately picked up one of the fish - the tastiest-looking one, orange and white - and sunk my teeth into it.

"Good, Thirteen. Next..." he began, and then we were interrupted again as the office door slammed open and multiple guards poured into the room.

They looked at me, and then at Two. The diodes in his back flashed red.

"Next session is tomorrow. Leave," he snarled at me, before focusing his attention on the guards, who, given their anxious expressions, had realized their mistake. Their faces paled as Two's claws extended from between his knuckles. I had to do something or it might be the actual end of the station. I stepped in front of Two, swallowing down my fear. It wasn't any worse than what I'd been through on earth, I could do it, I told myself.

"Two, they made a mistake," I stammered. Well, at least I stammered confidently. "They're leaving now."

I desperately tried to gesticulate at the guards to get the hell out of the office without turning away from the metallic otter. He didn't respond, which worried me more than any actual response could have.

"Right? They heard a noise and didn't mean to interrupt, and they're all sorry," I continued.

"Yes, apologies, Mr. Two," one canine spoke. "We didn't mean to interrupt."

The others - four of them, that I'd counted - sounded as if they left the office, claws and shoes tapping on the hardwood floor. At least I hoped that they were smart enough to do that.

"We'll leave you be," the canine continued, and he quickly exited the room, closing the door behind him as quietly as he could. I could hear them mumbled speech outside, and while I couldn't tell what they were saying, the worry in their voices was clear as day.

Two finally spoke. "Leave," was the only word he said, and I obeyed rather eagerly, stepping around broken glass and then finally, I was out of the office, presumably with another eventful day ahead of me tomorrow. I doubled over with my hands on my stomach, feeling suddenly nauseous. The secretary, watching me, offered a sympathetic look but didn't say anything. Probably for the better. I walked down the corridor, and then ducked into the nearest restroom, steadying myself on a chlorine-scented sink. What had I gotten myself into? Something had gone horribly wrong with Two. I'd never met him when he was still organic, but his instant mood swings and vicious aggression had to be errors. They had to be, and they'd get fixed. Hopefully before he strung me from the chandelier by my own guts. I was shaking with adrenaline and the nausea made me dry heave, with nothing thankfully coming out. How close had I even been to a messy death?

I wanted to go back to just working, not this. But that life was in the past, just like my life on earth.

I forced my thoughts to another place, trying to calm myself down, given that I was nearly hyperventilating. The restroom was absolutely clinically clean. It was probably automatically cleaned, by robotic workers simply engaging autopilot, so it made sense, but even that bothered me somehow. With no traces of anything living using it, it made the entire room - and station, in general - feel more like some form of virtual reality than a real place that people lived in. The lodgings were the only exception, and sometimes the robotics department; everything else was nearly perfect, with no personality.

Merely a shell, a perfect-yet-not copy of what we used to have. I found myself longing for Kevin's imperfect self, his slightly musky scent, his occasionally tangled fur and... I'd never seen his lodgings, but I imagined they'd match his personality.

Then there was the other thing. I'd been planning on waiting with any upgrades, but Two seemed insistent that I at least have a limb replaced. Maybe that wouldn't be so bad. I didn't particularly_want_ a mechanical arm, but if it was stronger and faster than my own, and had at least relatively good sensations, it wouldn't be awful. And it might give me a chance to get away if Two snapped entirely. No organic body was a match for him or others, and only guards were allowed to bear weapons, but a strong mechanical arm could help.

When I finally got home to my excessively luxurious lodgings, I decided to sit down and browse the station brochures on modifications. Luckily, there was a widescreen monitor connected to some unseen mainframe in my new apartment, with the Company logotype floating around on the screen while it idled, never actually turning off. I'd never used a computer before, but it didn't take long to figure out where my hands went, and typing was self-evident. There was a... rather wide selection, but it wasn't well organized. Everything had either a catchy name or a serial number, and there was no clear distinction. Some parts were clearly meant for combat - again with that, what exactly would we be fighting? - and others, to simply be general improvements on the natural limbs. I looked at one simply named "sensual", that offered improved strength, and was covered by a customized faux-fur coat. Another had a series of apparently random letters and numbers as its name, with a list of technical specifications in terms of servo speed, force it could apply, and what I figured were compatibilities with other parts. This would take a long time. At least the arms could be easily replaced once the initial modification had been performed.

It was still a decision for me to agonize over for several hours, though.