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Captain Rels looked around the bridge of her ship as Fenthik, Marrin, and Gahn took up stations at three of the control consoles. Out of the viewport she could see the distance between the Teshar and the ENS Retribution slowly increase as the two ships drifted apart. From the outside the invasion carrier's lack of lighting and the debris field extending from where the bridge should be were the only indicators of its distress. She did not notice the small explosion that erupted from the side of the port hanger.

<<Captain, everything is in English,>> said Marrin.

The deer's eyes narrowed as she looked at her first officer, who ignored the withering look. It was going to be awhile before she forgave him for letting Roger stay behind but she did need him here. <<What do you mean?>> she asked cooly.

<<The ship's systems look to have been reprogrammed, Captain,>> Gahn answered for his father.

<<My station is also in English,>> Fenthik added.

She went to the nearest console, recognizing it as the long-range communications one and noticed that it had received some repair work but was missing several parts. Still, it was somewhat functional and on the display she saw all of the indicators were in the right places but were in the human's language rather than Rukot.

<<What is this meaning of this?>> she wondered softly. It looked as if the humans had intended to take her ship as their own.

Marrin reported, <<The gravity wave generator is online, Captain. We can leave on your order.>>

<<What about the weapons systems?>>

<<Still offline, Captain,>> Fenthik answered.

<<Captain!>> Gahn practically yelled, <<There's a distress signal, and it's not coming from the human ship!>>

Captain Rels immediately turned to face the younger wolf, <<Where?>>

<<I- I don't know. It's not a strong signal and is coming from about two kilometres away.>>

Marrin got up and walked over to the console his son sat at, taking a look at the screen, <<It's an escape pod, Captain.>> The older wolf pressed some buttons before continuing, <<It has a single passenger.>> He looked up at Captain Rels.

<<Marrin, get back to your station and intercept it,>> She ordered. <<Roger must have found a way to escape!>>

<<Captain... We have no way of knowing who is aboard that escape pod. It could be any of the carrier's remaining crew,>> he gave her a concerned look. Marrin would forever remember and honour the human and five Rukot slaves who'd sacrificed themselves to save their lives from a living nightmare, but he felt Captain Rels had grown far too attached to Roger. She was not acting rationally.

<<He has an uncanny ability for escape, it is him,>> she insisted, <<Intercept that pod. Obey my orders Marrin or I will find a new first officer and leave you on Wrulov when we get there.>>

<<Yes, Captain,>> he went back to his console and after examining it for a moment, pressed several buttons and the ship began to move.

====================================

Half an hour later, in the small secondary hanger on the bottom level of the Teshar, Ginge stood waiting by the escape pod that now filled a third of the otherwise empty room. His fur was more white from age than the pale yellow it had been, but the golden retriever held the firearm he'd been given by the human that had effected their escape with the practiced ease of soldiers who had seen half his years. He made no attempt to open the pod.

Captain Rels and Gahn entered through the hanger's single doorway, both holding their own copies of the rifle, though the Captain's was slung over her shoulder while Gahn held his.

Ginge shifted a bit as he brought himself to attention, standing like a statue as the two passed him and made their way over to the pod.

Without looking in the small window of the tiny vessel's sole hatch Captain Rels immediately moved to open it.

<<Captain,>> the elderly dog said in a warning tone as he joined the two of them, <<We need to scan it first.>>

<<That will not be necessary, Ginge,>> she replied.

<<Officer Marrin said that it coul->>

Captain Rels cut him off with a motion of her hand, <<It is Roger, I know it. That human is a resourceful one and luck seems to favour him greatly.>> She pulled open the hatch while Gahn and Ginge both aimed their rifles at it.

The smell of vomit and plasma burned flesh coming from inside the pod filled the small hanger. Gahn held a paw over his nose and appeared ready to add his own sick to the mix. Captain Rels looked inside and uttered a wordless oath of surprise.

Ginge joined her and peered inside and relaxed his firearm before stating the obvious, <<Captain, that is not the human.>> He looked completely unaffected by the smell or sight of what was in the pod, a byproduct of his time as a soldier.

On the floor of the pod a Rukot that resembled a serval only a few years out of adolescence lay facedown, unconscious admist a disgusting assortment of blobs of burned flesh and retch. It wore pants that had been burned significantly on the left side at the waist but had no obvious injuries. The lack of clothes from the waist up made it obvious that the black-spotted cat was female. She looked emaciated, like she had been starved for some time but her body moved subtly, still breathing.

Gahn then appeared beside them and looked inside curiously.

<<Those are Roger's pants!>> the young wolf exclaimed while staring at the half-naked form.

Captain Rels nearly gave herself whiplash when she turned to face him, <<What?>>

<<I spent a week in a cell with him, Captain. I would recognize those, jeans, as he called them, anywhere.>>

<<Why would she be wearing his pants?>> the deer returned her gaze to the unconscious Rukot and realized that Gahn was correct. The cat wore the same strange pants that Roger had appeared in over a week ago.

<<I don't know,>> Gahn shrugged. <<I just know that they're his.>>

Gyth entered the small hanger at that moment and the three turned their attention to her when she said, <<It smells like death in here.>> The lioness quickly joined them. Ginge stepped back to let the doctor look inside the pod.

A groan emanated from the inside the escape pod and caused Captain Rels and Gahn to look back in as the serval began to move, trying to lift herself up but she seemed too weak to do so.

<<What have the humans done to her?>> Gyth asked aloud as she entered the small ship to assist. When she looked around inside she noticed an injector laying on one of the pod's four seats as if had fallen there when the pod came under the influence of the Teshar's artificial gravity. She stared at the small device until recognition lit her face, it was the same one that she and Nak had used to save Roger's life in the lab back on the carrier. The lioness ignored the groans made by the serval on the floor and picked it up. She studied it for a long moment before dropping it and looking at the Captain in shock.

<<What is it?>> Captain Rels demanded.

<<Captain, she's...>> Gyth looked like she was having a hard time figuring out what to say and her mouth opened and closed several times with no sound coming out.

<<Get your wits about you. She is what, Gyth?>>

The lioness bent down and picked the injector back up before handing it out of the pod to Captain Rels, <<Read,>> came her one word answer. She indicated the empty vial still loaded into it with a claw.

The deer looked at it closely and saw the words, handwritten with a precise script, "Felidae - Felinae - Leptailurus serval serval." Beside them was an o-shape on top of a cross, the universal symbol for her gender, origin lost to time.

Gahn leaned over and looked at the injector and upon reading the words himself, looked at the Gyth in surprise. <<You mean, she's- she's...?>>

Gyth nodded slowly, <<Yes, this is one of the vials from the lab.>>

<<I thought they were all for healing! How are humans able to do this?>>

<<Only a few were for healing, most bore marks similar to this one. Some also bore human names.>>

<<What are you two talking about? Answer me,>> Captain Rels interrupted them.

<<Captain, remember how Roger's wounds were healed by a strange medicine on the human ship?>> Gahn indicated the Rukot on the floor of the escape pod, <<That's Roger, he has apparently injected himself with a vial meant for a different purpose than healing. Possibly by accident.>>

The serval stopped moving as it became unconscious again. Her thick tail and large ears both twitched a few times and went still.

<<Have you gone mad, Gahn? I see a Rukot, not an old Earth human,>> Captain Rels looked at him with concern, perhaps the past week had been too much for the young wolf. She too wished for Roger to return to them, which is why she insisted they pick up the pod, but accepted that he'd elected to stay behind. To claim the human, who was likely already dead at the hands of their former captors, was this cat seemed ludicrious.

<<Gahn is right, Captain,>> Gyth said softly. <<I'm certain this is our friend. He took several of the vials when we left the lab and in the excitement over his rapid recovery and our haste I forgot not all of them were the same.>>

Captain Rels felt like she was going to faint, but somehow managed to stay standing, <<This is not possible. Why would humans have such a thing?>>

Ginge spoke up, <<Captain, Gyth is a good doctor. If she says this cat is the human, then it must be so. It is hard to believe though, but even during the war I heard rumours of human spies disguised as Rukot. This could be confirmation of those rumours.>>

She looked at him and nodded slowly, she had heard the same rumours during the war. She'd dismissed them as flights of fancy cooked up by soldiers who couldn't comprehend having one of their own turned against them. It still did not seem possible for the pod's occupant to be Roger. She then remembered Fynor's cry of "RACE TRAITOR!" before the lynx had attacked him.

<<Captain, we should take her to the medical room. She does not look well and we can try to confirm who she is,>> Gyth suggested.

<<Do it. Gahn, stay and help Gyth. Ginge, you may return to your other duties after you eject the pod once they have finished,>> Captain Rels ordered. <<I must go and think on this, it is a lot to take in.>> The deer abruptly turned and exited the hanger, leaving the three others.

====================================

Roger felt weak, nothing like the first time he'd been healed by the mystery contents of one of the vials. After he'd been thrown against the door of the escape pod from the initial acceleration he'd fought to stay conscious through the agony that roared through his left side when he started to float in the small space. It'd taken everything he could muster to pull out the injector in his right pocket and within moments of slamming the tip into his belly and pushing the button a wave of nausea and pain that was even worse than the burn from the plasma bolt caused him to vomit and pass out.

There was no pain now though, just weakness, he felt like he wouldn't be able to move even if he wanted to. He idly wondered if he was still in the pod when he noticed the gravity and that he was laying on something soft that still somehow chafed a little, like rough felt but without the scratchy feeling. The room he was in practically reeked of cleaners and various chemicals he couldn't place. There were other smells too, faint earthy tones.

Roger opened his eyes with a groan that sounded more like a growl and found Gyth hovering over him. Thank god, he was back on the Teshar. It took a moment to notice that he saw every little detail of the lioness' face as if he looked at her though a magnifying glass, but it was his entire field of view that was like this. It was like his vision was a tv that had gone from standard to ultra-high definition with a change in aspect ratio. He slowly blinked a few times as if expecting his sight to return to normal but it wouldn't.

Gyth slowly waved her paw over his face and asked, "How do you feel?" It was then that he noticed he could hear everything, from tiny electrical hums to footsteps and unintelligible chatter that sounded far off. His ears twitched at the cacophony of sound. Wait. Twitched? He tried to reach up to feel them but could barely move his arms and gave up.

"I... fffeel wuheakh," he replied, or at least tried to. His words were soft, sounded wrong, and his mouth felt funny but he couldn't tell why. From the confused look on Gyth's face, he wasn't sure she'd understood him.

He studied the lioness, watching each strand of fur along her muzzle subtly shift position as she said, "Roger?" in a questioning tone.

Roger stared at the doctor for a moment, unable to understand why she'd just asked his name as if she wasn't sure who he was. Still, he slowly nodded the affirmative.

She held an injector with a spent vial in front of him, "Did you inject yourself with this?"

For the first time he noticed a label on the vial, but it was turned away from him. He nodded again.

"Why?"

"Shh-sshot, puh-la-sssma," he tried to indicate where but his limbs refused to cooperate. "Ssssomethhing ruh-rong, n-n-not l-like fffirrssst." He lay his head back against what he thought was a pillow, but it pressed against the back of his ears oddly. It was too difficult to speak so he ignored the feeling rather than tell Gyth. Exhaustion just from the small amount of effort he'd expended filled him and it became a struggle just to keep his eyes opened.

Gyth said in a gentle voice, "You need rest now," and as sleep took him he thought she sounded heartbroken.

====================================

Kouhm entered the medical room with a wearied sigh. The past four days had been more trying than the week that lead to them and he felt exhausted beyond his 268 years. Gyth had been charged with staying here with the ship's sole patient while he and Nak made rounds to check on the "fogged ones" as Jack, the mouse, called the former slaves. It was not like previous attempts to liberate enslaved Rukot, this group was different. Their minds had been altered drastically by something called a remapping machine as opposed to the obedience collars that had existed since the early days of the empire. Before, all that was needed to free the mind of a Rukot was removal of their collar, now the humans erased their identities and ability to think beyond a limited capacity instead. Every time Kouhm looked over one, he felt renewed anger at the atrocity and hoped the doctors on Wrulov could help restore them.

Teshar was carrying so many that it'd been decided the spare crew quarters, that were normally used for storage, would be emptied into the ship's holds to house their guests in threes. The overcrowding was a constant concern for the doctors, such conditions fostered disease but to their surprise the old freighter had likely not been cleaner since it was first built at the Gliese Civilian Shipyards around the same time the old tabby was taking his first steps over two and a half centuries ago. Jack was the only one of the freed Rukot that had any idea of how to communicate with the fogged ones and had set them to work cleaning and performing basic tasks in shifts after convincing Captain Rels that it would help them remain calm by not distrupting their routines. The poor mouse funnelled his grief over the loss of the few friends he had into caring for his near-mindless charges and all three doctors felt that Jack was the one who truly kept the ship from bursting at the seams during the week and a half it would take them to get to Wrulov.

<<How is she?>> Kouhm asked when he noticed that Gyth still sat beside the bed that, for all they could tell, contained the serval who only days before been the human that had helped them escape. When she looked up he saw that the fur on his fellow doctor's muzzle was wet, like she'd been crying again. He wondered if she'd moved in the hours since he and Nak had left to make their rounds and doubted that she had.

<<She awakens more frequently, though still only for minutes at a time,>> Gyth said with a voice full of shame as he pulled a chair over and heavily sat down next to her. She looked at him, <<You need to rest, Kouhm.>>

<<I am resting. You need to eat, and do something other than sit here. She is not going to die,>> he replied softly.

<<I did do something. I ran an analysis of one of the other vials. It is filled with sythorganic machines the size of red blood cells and a very aggressive retrovirus in a solution of stabilization gel,>> Gyth returned to watching their patient. <<It won't help Roger though, the retrovirus was tailored to infect only humans and the machines exist solely to aid and effect its genetic alterations.>>

<<Could we modify the virus somehow to reverse the process? If we could compare her DNA to the original we could find->>

<<No, we lack a sample of Roger's original genetic material. We also don't have the equipment necessary to alter the virus,>> she cut him off, having already had that idea hours ago. They wouldn't be able to get samples items and places on the ship, like the cell Roger had been held in, the land vehicle, or the blood-stained and scortched pants, the need for perfect sample fidelity to ensure a complete restoration demanded it.

<<Even in the burnt flesh you took from the pod?>> Kouhm remembered that the samples turned out to be mostly the remnants of organ tissue that had been cooked by the plasma. The sythorganic machines must have simply excised the destroyed flesh, being incapable of changing or using it. The loss of so much flesh explained both the weakness and emaciation of their fellow cat lying on the bed. Roger must have been in an unholy amount of pain before and after he injected himself. The elderly doctor was amazed the human stayed conscious long enough to not only get into the pod and eject it, but also save his own life. On one hand the man was unnaturally lucky, on the other, he suffered greatly for it.

<<Too damaged from the plasma, if only I'd insisted on taking all of it we might have found some useful material. I've failed him, or her, now,>> the lioness blinked back tears, <<I failed to keep my oath.>> Roger would never be human again, at least not the human she had been.

<<Roger would be dead now if you hadn't told him about the vials. We cannot blame ourselves for what our patients self-medicate with, Gyth. She lives and appears to be gaining weight, that is because you are a good doctor,>> he took one of her paws in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

<<You should rest, Kouhm,>> Gyth repeated her statement from earlier, changing the subject.

<<You should eat, Gyth. It would do none of us any good right now for you to end up on one of these beds because you want to punish yourself for something beyond your control. Go, I'll be entering the long sleep soon enough and can stay awake awhile longer.>>

She got up and stretched, which told the old tabby that she'd been sitting for quite some time. He watched as the lioness left the room and then returned his attention to their patient.

====================================

It was another two days before Roger found out.

Gahn was walking along the corridor on his way to the medical room to ask the three doctors if they had all they needed. Since Fynor's betrayal and death the duties of quartermaster had fallen upon him. Captain Rels had suggested she appoint an older and more experienced member of the crew to the job, but he'd insisted he could do it, now he wished he hadn't but would never admit it. It was not a particularily hard job under normal circumstances, but with the sheer number of Rukot now aboard the Teshar the young wolf felt overwhelmed. He found himself cursing the lynx, or human, or whatever Fynor really was not just for nearly having them all enslaved, but also because of all the work that he now had to do. The only time he had to himself was sleep, and even then he could be woken several times for all manner of seemingly inconsequential things.

Nightly Gahn had done a complete accounting of their foodstocks, keeping track of everything and ensuring each member of the crew and the former slaves were fed. The Teshar had about three days of real food left, mostly in the form of fruit and poultry from the farms under one of Wrulov's several large habitation domes. Originally it had been bound for Valkter along with the mining equipment they'd left behind on the invasion carrier, but now most of it had been consumed by the crew and the freed Rukot. At least they'd only have to resort to eating those disgusting ration cubes for the final few days of their journey and there were more than enough of the things to go around. Roger was currently the only one aboard who was consuming the wretched, gelatinous blocks, at a high rate as demanded by the ships' doctors who were trying to get his dangerously low weight up.

Her, he reminded himself a short sad laugh. Roger had well and truly lost everything in the small amount of time since he first arrived on the Teshar. Her time, her planet and, now her humanity and manhood too. Gahn wasn't so sure he'd be able to cope with the last, losing oneself and being in a body that wasn't your own sounded like as bad a living nightmare as their passengers endured. Sure Roger still had her mind, for now at least anyways, but the fogged ones had the bodies they were born with. The young wolf couldn't decide which was worse, losing your mind or losing your body, neither were a pleasant prospect.

He finally reached the door to the medical room and paused for a moment, mentally making a list of things he thought the doctors might ask for when a yell and the sound of a scuffle came from within. Gahn burst through the door into the room, ready to assist the doctors when he saw Nak and Gyth each firmly holding one of Roger's arms as the serval struggled against them. The three momentarily forgot their struggle and looked at him while he stared, mouth hanging open, at Roger. She, despite her presently frail appearance, was one of the most beautiful Rukot he'd ever lain eyes upon. Her fur pattern gave her an exotic look, black strips and spots on golden brown with white replacing the background colour from below her neck over a pair of small breasts and down past the part of her still hidden by the blanket on the bed. Some of the black spots and stripes were symmetrical, others were not.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." Roger's words were slightly slurred and lispy. Despite the undertone of shocked anger, it sounded almost comedic given the pitch and over-emphasis on the wrong syllables. Gahn noticed that the backs of her ears were solid black with a horizontal white band as they turned and laid back. She roughly pulled her arms free of the startled doctors' grasps and crossed them over her chest in unconscious modesty and he looked away.

<<Nak, I was just stopping by to see if you nee->> he began but was cut off.

"What the hell happened to me? Why the fuck am I covered in fur and spots? Change me back!" the clearly-upset serval demanded.

"You injected yourself with one of the vials from the lab and it changed you into a Rukot. We can't change you back," Gyth replied with guilt in her voice.

"What? How? I thought they were all for healing, like that first one."

"Only a few were for healing, the rest were apparently meant for turning humans into Rukot. We think Fynor wa-"

"To hell with him! What do you mean the rest were meant to do this?"

"The vials contain microscopic sythorganic machines and an extremely aggressive retrovirus. We think the healing ones contain just the machines."

"Impossible! Microscopic machines are too small for that kind of program complexity."

"Not when there's thousands that work together to complete a distributed program, Roger," Gahn spoke up.

"So reprogram them to undo what they've done to me!" Roger's speech was beginning to improve by this point, with each word she got a little more used to the way her new mouth worked.

"It's not that simple, Roger, there's a retrovirus component that carries the genetic material that alters the host," Nak replied.

"Can you alter the virus?"

"Yes, but not here on Teshar. It would have to wait for us to reach Wrulov, but we don't have a perfect copy of your genetic material to work with so the point is moot."

"My pants are covered in my blood!"

"It is well over a week old and has been exposed a variety of different temperatures and conditions. For most purposes it would still be usable, but not this one," Gyth said.

"We simply don't have a pure enough sample, Roger. I suspect that when the humans make their spies they probably produce the virus that changes them back before ever turning them into Rukot," Nak added.

"So, I'm stuck like this? Forever?"

The two doctors nodded, and Gyth looked ready to break out into tears. "It's my fault, Roger," she said softly, "In our rush out of the lab I should have warned you about the vials."

The serval looked the lioness in the eyes, "Did you do this to me? Because I'm pretty sure I did this to me. I should've never grabbed the damned things, or at least read the labels." Roger sighed and rubbed her forehead with the thumb and index finger of her left paw. Her ears stood back up as she began to calm down, taking the situation in, "So, just what the hell am I, anyways?"

Nak walked over to a desk, picked up an empty vial, returned, and handed it to her while saying, "All the vials were different species of felid Rukot."

Her eyes scanned over the words, "So, I'm a serval. Explains the voice, my mom had a pet one when-" She stopped speaking abruptly when it dawned on her that the little symbol beside the latin was Venus. She felt the blood drain from her face as she quitely continued, "Please tell me that Venus doesn't mean what I think it still means."

Gahn cocked his head, "The second planet of Sol?" he asked confused.

"No, as the saying goes, men are from Mars, women are from Venus."

None of the three other Rukot present had any idea of what she was talking about and stared at her with confused looks.

Roger uncrossed her arms and quickly lifted the blanket, "Yep, that isn't a frank and beans." The loss didn't hit her as hard as she thought it would, instead she looked at the gentle rise of her clearly feline mons with a passive detachment. In fact, it didn't even feel or look wrong like it should, she'd had friends that were trans and the way they described being the wrong gender felt nothing like this. A wave of modesty hit her and she pulled the blanket up over her chest when she realized that two of the four people in the room were male.

She started laughing at the insanity of it all which caused Gahn and the two doctors to jump back a bit, "I thought I had nothing to lose anymore, but holy shit was I wrong."

Gyth looked worried and reached out a paw to touch her's, "Roger..." she said trailing off.

"There are, treatments. There are doctors on Wrulov that can make you male again," Nak suggested.

The serval just kept laughing, "No, I think I'll stay just like this. With the way my luck has been lately, I'd probably end up with a dick growing from my forehead. I am quite done with having my body messed with, thank you."

Gahn had to stifle his own laugh at that, Gyth and Nak just stared at her like she'd gone insane.

She swung her legs around off the side of the bed, "I'm going to go sit in my truck for awhile, smoke a joint, and pretend the world hasn't gone mad." She went to stand up and would've lost her balance if Gyth hadn't rushed forward to keep her from falling flat on her face.

"You need to continue resting, Roger," the lioness said while helping the serval back into a sitting position on the bed, "You are still very weak."

"I've spent almost all of my time here in the future resting, Gyth, and look at where it's gotten me. I want some clothes, and to go to the only place I'll feel even remotely normal again."

Nak got up and walked to the drawers along one of the walls and pulled out what looked a lot like a hospital gown and came back over. <<She looks ready to have a mental break, letting her do this might help calm her down,>> he said and handed the garment to Roger who quickly pulled it on.

<<She should rest!>> Gyth insisted.

<<She has lost almost everything, Gyth, it will do her more good to be around what little she has left than to stay here.>>

====================================

The two doctors had argued in Rukot for nearly 30 minutes before Gyth reluctantly agreed with Nak's decision to allow Roger's request. The two doctors ordered that Gahn help her to the main hanger with the understanding that if she became exhausted he was to bring her immediately back to the medical room.

"Walking like this is so weird," Roger said to the young wolf as they entered the large space that was now very packed with an assortment of goods and spare equipment from the emptied spare crew quarters.

"How so?" he asked as she leaned against him for balance.

"It's like constantly walking around on tip-toes, I keep wanting to use my heels like normal," she answered.

"That is not normal for most Rukot, Roger. You're doing well, just keep walking on your paws and the rest will come naturally."

"Natural for me is to put my heels on the ground first," the serval answered as she stumbled.

"We're almost there, do you want me to stay with you?" Gahn asked as the truck came into sight.

When she saw the truck, Roger didn't answer and nearly broke away from him as she tried to speed up but the wolf kept pace to keep her from falling over. As they reached the vehicle he remembered the last time the two of them had sat in it, Roger had used the pretense of showing him how to drive to grab a weapon and he shifted uncomfortably as she opened the driver's side door.

"There's no more weapons in there, right?" he tried to ask jokingly, but it didn't come out right.

She gave him a sad look and shook her head, "No, just the one. I'm sorry about that by the way. If it's any consolation, karma seems to have paid me back for the deed. You don't need to stay if you don't want to, I'm not going to drive it around, just sit." She finished getting in and closed the door.

Gahn sighed walked around to the other side, and got in.

Roger turned the key and various indicator lights turned on.

"I thought you said you weren't going to drive it," he looked at her questioningly.

"I'm not," she replied as she pressed a few buttons on a box set into the dash and turned a knob on it back and forth as the sound of static filled the small cab. "Damn, I guess it was asking too much to expect some music over the radio." She looked at Gahn and pointed at a grey panel with a small black knob on front of him. "Open that and pull out the small white box that says 'Captain Chron's' will you?"

As he did what she asked he saw her pull the key out of the lock below the control wheel and noticed the indicators in the cab stayed on, as did the sound of static. "This box?" It was closed but smelled strongly herbal, he couldn't place the odour though.

"Yep, inside are some small paper tubes, joints, take one out and put the pack back in the glovebox," as she said this she fliped the key in her paw, revealing a second, much smaller key along with several others of varying shapes and sizes on a ring. Gahn wondered why he hadn't noticed them before as she put it into a lock on a black box that went across the front of the cab under the windshield and turned it.

He pulled one of the small white tubes out of the little box and nearly coughed at the now much stronger smell before closing the box and placing it back inside the compartment and handed the tube to her.

"That's the ticket, thanks Gahn," she smiled at him as she quickly placed an end of the tube in her mouth and pressed a large black button near the radio. She resumed what she had been doing and pulled a small object with a glass face from the compartment she'd unlocked, along with a wire.

"What is it?" the wolf asked Roger.

"Music, since the radio doesn't work." She plugged one end of the wire into a port on the radio and the other into the small device. It's screen came on almost immediately with a beep and said the word "Charging." She re-locked the box, removed the small key, and put the largest key back into the lock under the steering wheel.

"And the tube, you called it a joint?"

"Weed."

"Weed?"

"Mary Jane, ganja, four-twenty..." she rattled off several names and he just looked at her, understanding none of them. The button she'd pressed on the dash popped out and she pulled on it, taking it right out of some kind of port. The end glowed red and she pressed it against the tip of the tube while inhaling, it started to burn and emitted a very acrid smoke. Once it was lit she replaced the button in its port.

"It smells foul!" he exclaimed.

"You don't have to stay in here. I just want to relax, Gahn, and this will help," she started coughing. "Fuck, I have the lungs of a newbie again."

He looked at her with extreme concern, Gyth would skin him if Roger ended up sick from this outing. "Newbie?"

"Listen, Gahn, either stay here and smoke this with me, or get out. Whichever you choose, I am done with answering questions for awhile, okay?" She fiddled with the device for a few moments while inhaling from the burning tube again and pressed a button the radio. Within moments music unlike that which he'd ever heard before started to fill the small cab like the smoke from the joint.

Roger leaned back against the seat as a human voice began singing about something called purple haze being in their brain. "Ow!" she exclaimed and reached behind her with her right paw, pulling her golden brown and black striped tail out to the side, "Gonna have to get used to having that, I guess," she said as she curled it in the space between them, laying it against his.

Gahn looked down at their tails, then back up at her and realized that she had no idea that normally such a thing was a gesture of affection. Roger removed the tube from her mouth and held it out to him, burning end standing up vertically. "So, Gahn, I'm basically hotboxing you, might as well give it a try unless you are gonna leave."

"What does it do?" he asked, wary of the little thing, but Roger seemed a lot less on edge now.

"A lot of things, but don't inhale a lot, or you'll cough up a lung since it's your first time and you'll get high enough just from being in here."

He gingerly picked the tube out of her paw and studied it for a moment. "High?"

"Well?" she asked instead of answering. "Don't let it burn down on it's own, either hit it or give it back."

Gahn put the unlit end in his mouth and inhaled. He began coughing almost immediately and quickly pulled the tube out of his mouth. She grabbed the tube and stuck it back in her own mouth while looking at him, "Are you okay? I said don't inhale a lot."

By the time he'd stopped coughing the song on the radio faded out and after a few moments of silent the sound of several voices asking if this was real life or just fantasy. "I barely inhaled anything, that hurt, Roger," he gave her an unhappy look.

"I'm sorry, I imagine it's been a very long time since anyone has smoked marijuana. Shame that little box probably contains the last of it in existence."

That name sounded familiar to him and he remembered something from one of the many stops the Teshar had made over the years. "I'm not so sure, hemp, the more common name, is grown on several worlds, but on one they do grow a subspecies meant for medicine and call it marijuana."

Her eyes widened for a moment and he noticed that they seemed a fair bit redder as she replied, "Well, maybe this future isn't so bad after all." There was about half of the tube left and she pulled open a small door on the dash, revealing it to be a metal cup. "Don't want to overdo it," she said with a smile in answer to the question he had been about to ask as she lightly pressed the burning end against a plate in the cup until it stopped emitting smoke, dropped it in, and closed the little door.

The voice on the radio was singing about being a poor boy that nobody loved and he listened as Roger hummed along to the tune, clearly it was one she enjoyed. He felt a pressure build behind his eyes but felt no pain, and his eyelids became heavy as his mind became what he could only describe as fuzzy.

From that point the two just sat quietly in the cab, relaxing and listening to Roger's strange music from the forgotten past. He wasn't sure when, time seemed to have slowed significantly for Gahn, but eventually he heard a soft purring come from the serval and when he looked over she was asleep against the door. The sight made him feel very tired and he reached over, turning the key to shut the vehicle off as the thought of remembering the battery being drained compelled him to do so. Within moments of the cab going dark, he fell asleep too.