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Nothing I Ever Had

Part 2

by

Chakat Deirdre

---

Chakats, The Chakat Universe, Chakat Midnight, M'Lai, Leanna, Baneth, etc are Copyright Bernard Doove.

Admiral Kline and Rosepetal (Rose) Silpurr are the creations of Boyce (aka Boycie aka Admal aka Mewmal) Garald Kline jr and are used with permission. (or at least he knows about it ^.^)

Skunktaurs are Copyright Bob Reijns.

The following book is Copyleft by Chakat Deirdre 2009.

As such you may:

1. Copy, Distribute, and Share this work freely.
2. Remix or Adapt the work

Under the following Conditions:

1. You must attribute the work to the original author and source. You may not remix or adopt the work while making claim it is endorsed or supported by the original author and you must clearly mark what is added and/or modified from the original in a commonly acceptable manner.
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3. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you MUST distribute the resulting work under similar terms/licensee. (i.e. if you draw a picture inspired from this work it is illegal to restrict distribution and/or make profit from it.)

With the Understanding that:

1. Any of the above terms or conditions can be waved by the author.
2. In no way does this license effect or restrict: Fair use rights; apart from the remix rights granted by this license, the author's moral right; Rights other persons may have in arrangement with the author or common legal code(s).

---

Jesper was being lead through his family's home. He was blind folded for a great surprise. It was his fourth birthday and it was time for his last present.

After being precisely positioned the blindfold was removed. Revealed before him was a nude roo girl slave of about his own age. A leather collar around her neck with leash attached. She was cute and looking at the group of humans and a few morph slaves looking over her, not quite understanding exactly what was going on.

The human that was to become her owner walked in front of her and presented his wrist. She sniffed; something in her mind was triggered. Waves of emotions hit her as the conditioning took hold. While it was still at best incomplete, the foundation was there. She was now trained onto his scent. A scent of ownership, love, and need.

"M... Master?" she asked unsure of herself.

He beamed and hugged her, "She is the best present ever!"

A hand shot back and hit Jesper in the back of his head.

"Get up lazy young master," a middle aged tigeress said.

"Hay I am supposed to be your superior, did my parents say you could hit me?" The annoyed Jesper shot back.

"Only if you're late for school or really need it," she countered effortlessly.

"Humph! I am still waiting for Kari so gnah." He shot back with his tongue sticking out.

He looked back at the vid from many years back, he may only be only in fourth grade now but he was already starting to realize these extra dozen minutes every morning was for his benefit.

"She just wants to look good for you, if anything you should get up a little earlier to let her finish brushing her fur in a timely manner."

"You girls are all the same! If she didn't have to brush her fur out and put those bows in I could sleep a bit more," he replied.

The slave glared at her young master, "You're a hypocrite. You enjoy it when we serve you but avoid doing your part. She is making herself presentable for you so you in turn look more presentable in public. Besides I know you have been sneaking into the breeding kennels to watch late at night. Had I known you were going to be such a brat I wouldn't have breast fed you at all when you were a baby!"

Jesper looked down at the floor cheeks burning bright red. This slave that was basically a second mother to him had chewed him out. Had she been any other morph he would have probably slapped her... but... he didn't want to.

The roo girl came bounding down the stairs rapidly. She had on a pink leather collar with silver tags and hardware. Matching pink wrist and ankle cuffs, and a cute bow in her hair.

"Ready master!" she said happily.

Jesper quickly attached a brown leather leash to the pink collar of his pet and left the house without another word. As Kari grabbed the backpack as they passed the entryway she noticed the change in body language between the head slave and her master, they had a fight.

They left the house and walked on a large path. Jesper's family owned a large tract of property. The family ran a slave breeding and early training Kennel, the same one Kari had come from.

There were a few slaves working out in the yard. Sprinting, doing calisthenics, a small group even going over some training regiment of identifying different scents with other Chimera overseers. In all there were four family members plus half a dozen full to part time human workers. The rest were Chimera hand picked by his parents to serve in almost parental roles for the young morphs... training and helping to guide them through these complex first several years of their life before being transferred to owners or more advanced training grounds.

Soon the two reached the local maglev stop at the end of their property. These were the form of transportation of choice their world had gone with all of those years back. Cheap, efficient, can be used to move people and cargo. A combination of high efficiency AG plates, a fixed magnet to the tracks and undercarriage, electromagnet coils.

They only waited perhaps ten minutes before a large car, capable of holding three-dozen people, pulled up. There was only 8 others. 2 children with their morphs on their way to school, 3 slaves off to do wherever they were going, and one lone adult human woman who was probably late to work.

After taking a seat the lev soon activated more track and they were off. They would cruise past stops by housing districts, occasional shopping complexes, and the like. Things in most of the more recent NAW worlds were spread out a lot more. This allowed them to dissipate the damage settlement caused on environments by making the settlements small and spaced out. Patches of undisturbed local plant and animal life with the only disruption being shielded lev track elevated off the ground. Expensive, but ecologically far more sound than the sprawl in early human settlement.

It wasn't long before it slowed at a platform when the car detected there were people waiting to board. A young girl and her male husky slave walked on, a classmate of his. She took a seat and the lev waited a moment as another one whizzed past them on a second rail.

Soon it would get busy. He lived over 240 km outside of town, but the levs would often travel at 290 km/hr when they weren't approaching a stop someone needed to get off or on at.

Sure there was a town with a school that was closer, only 100 km from, but his parents refused to send him to the high class rich school. There was little difference in the quality of education, and a huge difference in the rich brat quantity his mother always said.

Jesper lay down across another seat and placed his head in Kari's lap, deciding to rest his eyes for a bit. Kari in turn watched over him and looked as people came on and occasionally got off.

On their world classes went from age 5 to 12. Then age 12 to 16 was secondary training, similar to community and public collage in parts of the federation; a heavy focus on Liberal Arts education and 'learning how to learn' among another half-dozen slogans. 16 on was specialty training, usually to wrap up a long or in depth career training that couldn't be completed in 4 years.

Jesper was on track to be like the rest of his family and a vet. Doctors on their world graduated about age 20, vets normally 22. However he had so much direct experience and was raised living the first few years of the specialty from his family's business he would skip most of the lecture and theory classes and try and dive right into the practical. This would cut his graduation age to about 16 skipping two years of cramming and drawn out foundational classes. Then he could get a vet of the first-degree certification around 18 that will transfer favorably to any world in the NAW, making him the elite of the elite in the medical community.

How were they able to do this? A program started about thirty years ago that gave children their own slave. A complex tax code allowed even less well off families to afford one for their children. These slaves were all medium to high end, not the junk some worlds mass-produce. The Slave's memories were top notch and they memorized fact and figure using a wide variety of tricks and strategies humans had developed over thousands of years and then read a large breadth of sources to aid their owners with the minutia.

With the help of these life bound slaves being a walking reference guide, tailored to aid the child, the human children would be freed up to use their minds for more abstract and creative processes. The testing was brutal, creative essays were mandated at an early age, and every trick they could think of to combine the slave's knowledge and the human owner's less concrete skills were used.

In this their skills and knowledge would cross, resulting a slave and owner that were closer and knew each other better than most married couples. Their constant studying and working together caused the vital knowledge and skills of the others to cross into the other.

Jesper was still worked up over the argument. Neiri, the tigeress, had raised him to be better than this. He felt he had disappointed her and just couldn't help but feel guilty. Already he was starting to see the Chimera slaves differently, especially Kari. She was the best friend and slave anyone could ask for. Smart, loyal, brave, and even... attractive?

It was true he had been watching some of the slaves in the breeding kennels mate, eventually Kari would go into heat and it would be his job to... take care of it. Sometimes he wished he were still just the little baby drinking that warm soothing tigeress milk. But now he had Kari to take care of... and Kari had to take care of him too.

He was starting to have feelings for her, more than the old playmate and best buddy feelings. They would now wake up in each other's arms, holding each other close. She would groom herself regularly throughout the day to make herself more presentable for him.

Jesper knew exactly what was going on, and it just made him feel worse. Was he somehow forcing her to do this? And if not, was it any better? Is it right for him to care about his slave this way? Sure it was expected, but did she actually care for him back genuinely? And how could he tell?

It was impossible to know how she really felt for him and he knew it. Was it all conditioning? Was it genuine from being close and caring for so long? Was it both? And if so did that make anything better?

Secretly he cursed his own species. He hated humans. Much better to spend the rest of his life with the Chimera slaves and be done with it. Slaves don't have to think about these kinds of things...

Kari touched his left ear gently causing him to yawn and get up. He stood up holding Kari's leash as all of the children filed out of the lev car and into the station. From there it was a short walk to the school yard. Several buildings, a large commons area of trees, benches, and alien flowers. To another side was an athletics building and that was about all. 460 students, an equal number of morphs, and several dozen staff were what the school was designed to hold even though only about half of the school's capacity was currently being used.

Jesper went up to his locker as Kari took a few PADDs out of it and stuffed the fabric bag inside. He then lead her to their homeroom class of 8 humans and their slaves were settling into their seats.

As he took his seat Kari placed the PADDs onto his desk before kneeling submissively next to him. He took the leash and tied it to a spot on the desk designed to hold the human's end of the leash.

Soon a chime sounded and the last of the students sat down. It was still to early for the kids to put up any conversations or do their usual childish antics. Instead the humans just tried to stay awake as the young slaves waited.

A few moments later an adult human walked in and looked over the sedated group.

"What, you don't have a comment about me being late?"

The adult waits a few moments before waving his hand in front of one girl's eyes.

"To early yet huh? Come on its only 8 AM," His comment resulted in a chorus of groans from all of the pupils.

The instructor placed his bag next to the desk and terminal at the side of the front of the class. His desk was slanted towards him at a slight angle, it was one giant display and terminal that ran the video board that took up the entire front of the room like a large digital whiteboard. With it he would "write" on the board, show videos and images, and anything else he wanted to by simply writing with a marker like stylus, finger movements, or gestures.

"Seeing as you are all half dead... well at-least the humans are... get up, stretch, yawn, wiggle your fingers, and take this time to get your blood flowing. We are a bit behind and we have an hour together. I know we are supposed to use the first quarter hour for you to get organized, but I'll abuse my powers as your first hour and homeroom teacher. So lets go."

The humans all groaned but all got up and stretched trying to wake up the rest of the way as their slaves tried not to smirk at their owners. The teacher wrote a few things down on his terminal and smirked at the class as they settled down.

"All set are we? Here are five basic A squared plus B squared equals C squared problems. Solve for the missing information, and show your work. Table calculations are off so use your own brains and your slaves."

Jesper sat back and quickly scribbled a few things next to each question setting them up for solving. Next he did his best to answer each one, getting almost all the way through until he comes to a few complex large number powers he can't solve in his head and looks at Kari. She in turn leans over and whispers the answer into his ear and he continues.

Once done he sighs softly and feels Kari's tail rub against his ankle, causing him to slightly blush. He looks down at the girl at his side, kneeling, legs spread, the back of her hands against her legs with wrists up.

---

Kari awoke from a deep sleep, under a bundle of covers and a warm form pressed against her form. The antho Kangaroo held still, eyes slowly opening as shi takes a breath through her nose. A familiar scent hit her receptors and any tension or concern quickly evaporated. 'obedience' flashed across her mind, a rush of endorphins hit her brain, and she spent a few moments savoring this long lost sensation.

It had been years since she had awoken like this, she was a slave and was responding exactly how she was created and raised to respond to her owner. Mind going back to yesterday's drama from Cain having unveiled the true relationship between hirself and the one sleeping against her side she felt contentment. The admiral and the rest of the staff seemed to accept them being together now, or at least were professional enough to not add any strange looks their way. Cain was clearly a threat to him, and thus to herself... something had to be done to...

A deep breath again through her nostrils as his scent brought another hit of hormones and a series of carefully planned biological responses. Soft sigh escaped her lips before she placed a soft loving nuzzle against his cheek. It was time to serve again and it only seemed so natural.

Carefully extracting herself from the covers, her master's embrace, then finally the bed itself without disturbing the human was a skill she had developed over almost two decades of practice. Kari was happy she could once again fall into a routine; disposing of yesterday's dirty clothing, selecting and preparing his outfit for today, and ...

The anthro red kangaroo walked into the quarter's attached bathroom and paused. She looked at what Starfleet considered a single use shower and felt disappointment. Small space efficient, automatic temperature set that is pre-heated before you step in, and designed for quick turn around for next use. "Starfleet really takes all of the fun out of a Slave's life," she mumbles. Her hand moved up to tap on the shower as she stayed outside of it. "Ooo, real water, perhaps its not all bad after all," she joked to herself

A sudden urge to change her stance crossed her mind and she quickly followed through. Something was different... her eyes traveled down her own form and she sighed looking between her legs. She was completely soaked from taking too many hits of his scent to quickly. After several years of him away had left her overly sensitive to his presence now. Spending the entire night with him must have left her head swimming in hormones making her look almost like she was lost in heat.

Kari had lived with this for all her mature life, even though Jesper had removed her implants after she went fully through puberty but still her conditioning and responses remained. In the NAW there were no taboos or social awkward moments when something like this would happen... but on a Federation starship it would be an issue. She sighed knowing for the next few days she won't be able to spend every waking moment with her master.

Her ears perked, picking up on the sound of rustling from the bedroom proper she turned around and saw Jesper starting to awaken. Somewhere in the back of her mind Kari was aware of her almost floating back to him, settling on her knees at the bedside, and keeping her senses focused on him as he started to open his eyes.

"Mmph, ugh." came from the human male before their eyes met. He smiled, her expression remained the same a mixture of soft warmth with an analytical look in her eyes. "You know," he continued "there isn't much of a point to waking up early, Starfleet automates almost everything on their ship, its almost sad really."

His rooess remained still, kneeling and looking expectantly getting a sigh from the man. He stretched and worked his way up, first sitting on the bed before getting up. Jesper didn't bother putting on clothing standing next to the nude slave. Tapping the top of her head he gave the command, "continue" before moving over to the clothing and collecting what she had laid out earlier.

As he disappeared behind behind the sliding door she started a timer in her head, it was disappointing she couldn't take care of him properly and join in the shower. She shook her head raising back to her long digitigrade kanga legs before she resumed her morning duties.

"Computer, time," she looked back at the replicator... another time saver leaving her with way too much time, she will have to adjust her wake up time tomorrow.

"The current shipboard time is zero six thirty hours," came the reply. Earlier than she expected for Jesper to wake up, he was always a later riser and quick with everything else before running out the door unless...

"Computer, recognize Kari Roo, access attending surgeon Jesper Card's schedule. State next five entries chronologically in time to start." She paused a moment walking out of the bedroom to the replicator in the small multi-function room as she considered her next action.

"Attending on call shift begins one hour, thirty minutes," came the computer response... she made a mental note. "First appointment two hours thirty minutes, G.P. Physical, information redacted from general query."

Kari sighed, entering in a food selection for Jesper and watching as a large plate of eggs, toast, sausage, and hashbrowns appears in front of her. It was far more than Jesper would eat, but most of it wasn't for him. The roo quickly picked it up and then got some utensils before laying them out atop the small circular table in this... den. A thought crosses her mind to look into larger quarters. Technecly Jesper was an officer and thus didn't have to share a living space with anyone, partially a sign of privilege but more the practicality of some staff members needing a small personal work space for confidential and restricted materials... like medical records. Space on a ship like this wasn't nearly the premium as others she had seen so unless you were in training on your first assignment or a cadet requests for separate quarters were almost always honored.

Her ears twitched again, Jesper was finishing up, even through the moderate sound proofing she could track his progress. Setting the one seat meal was easy, just add juice for him, and she downed a half glass of a mixture of orange and mango juice herself.

Can't follow Jesper to his shift, medical regulations prevent her from filling in those former duties. Need a shower... should memorize his schedule... consult ship's computer about getting an officers room for two... see what would be required to get a MA or Nursing license... a little over an hour unless she wants to speed read the entire list of regulations and a few of the medical exams.

Ear twitch, he was coming out dressed, fifteen minute shower... he has changed. Kari knelt next to the seat in proper form, legs spread, wrists on legs, palms up and open. She kept her eyes level facing forward, Jesper never liked it when she lowered her gaze... something about always running into things. Still, the roo wasn't going to break the proper pose and instead tracked his approach with her ears.

The chair next to her creaked a little against the floor as he sat down. The human started eating... taking sips of the juice shi provided... and was reading something as he took his time. Strange new behavior, more to adapt to, this would take a few days to re-learn his patterns until she can anticipate all of his needs ahead of time.

Occasionally a piece of the food would be offered for her to eat, which shi accepted eagerly. For the two this used to be how they started every day, Jesper didn't even think about it, almost reflexively feeding his slave from his plate. Little moments like this filled a LNAW Chimera's life when attached directly to close service to a human owner. It was a symbol of obedience, a method of training, and something given cultural significance back home.

Half an hour latter Jesper left the utensils on the plate, all of the food gone... most of it to Kari. "hmm, I guess I shouldn't take you... address anything you feel like doing here, then you are free until my shift ends. I talked with the security chief, you are cleared for general civilian access now un-attended... within reason of course." Jesper rattled off before looking down from the PADD he had started reading earlier. His eyes moved down the form of the kangaroo girl before continuing, "try not to go to much against the grain here... it will be amusing to see how much they can live up to their claims of an open and accepting culture though. Anyways also occasionally keep an eye on the others, I know you told me something is wrong about them... and I am starting to agree."

Standing up as the chair slides back he lightly taps the top of her head, the conditioned signal from before for her to continue. Kari just waits holding the pose for a few moments as he collects a few more PADDs and heads out for his shift.

She shifted a bit before getting up in one quick fluid motion, taking a napkin from the table and dabbing at the sides of her mouth. "Yes master," she almost whispered to herself. She looked over the dishes left from the meal, "atleast this will be easy."

Picking up the dishes she noticed the PADD Jesper was looking at earlier... a familiar face. She paused looking at it before saying, "Computer, play message."

A woman with light brown skin and short hair appeared on the screen.

"Hope this gets to you Jesper. Anyways attached are all of the files you asked. Took a while to convince to government to let you transfer so many of your files outside the protected network. I assured them it wasn't anything to damning. Anyways that should be enough shove down those elitist federation medical idiots that you haven't just been practicing on synths all these years.

Also got the DNA sequence you sent last week, we got a hit. I attached that too but didn't tell the others about it.

We all miss you in the hospital, we don't have anyone riding the stretchers doing chest compressions anymore."

The image of the woman shook her head and chuckled before continuing.

"They better be treating you right. Your family is fine and your younger sister got her veterinary first degree last month everyone is proud.

Anyways I need to go, really big trauma coming in 10 here we all miss ya..."

There the message cut off. Amazing after all this time they still remember his fourth month. He was at the landing pad for the med-e-vac shuttles when they carted a large chimera out. Just as the stretcher left the shuttle the chimera flat lined. After a quick look over the injuries Jesper jumped on the stretcher and started doing chest compressions to keep the slave's heart going. After a few moments of disbelief the techs wheeled them into the trauma center where he made an incision and began direct electrical stimulation to get the heart beating again.

When questioned later about it by his attending he pointed out that the chimera was to large and he wasn't strong enough to do them without getting better leverage. He almost instantly became famous at the hospital among the various departments for that.

---

Jesper settled back down into his chair in the small office he was assigned to. The Pegasus had medical facilities closely resembling that of a starbase more than a starship. Several rotating staffs of general surgeons with a small cadre of specialists spread across three or four shifts. This ship was the definition of multi-mission military craft, responding to attacks with command and control capabilities... major engineering project support and oversight... medical relief missions... and a section dedicated to diplomatic and state functions made this one of the more interesting places to be stationed.

"Welcome Dr. Card, received message ready for playback," the computer notified him once the sliding door closed.

"Begin playback."

Three logos appeared on the screen; Stellar Federation Interplanetary Message Service, Starfleet Secure Network, and then Chakona's communications network.

"The following message is flagged legal correspondence between an active duty service member and a Stellar Federation registered legal service. Unauthorized use, interception, or dissemination of contained information is a violation of law and violation of Starfleet code..."

"SKIP!" he almost shouted at the computer in irritation.

"Hello Mister Card. I wanted to just get back to you that I have confirmed the first deposit to your account from Starfleet payroll. I am still working out the liquidation of your family assets on Chakona with the government. They no longer want to seize them, but you will most likely have a high tax rate and windfall profits penalties. Honestly we are all surprised how much foreign investment we are finding here. Sorry you got caught up in this political scandal.

At the end of your tour aboard whatever federation starship you're on now I have a meeting you need to attend where we can work out the final terms of your citizenship and if your will be allowed to carry duel citizenship. By that time all of the money should be in your account..."

Jesper smiled, this was good news so far. Chakona seemed somewhat receptive to accepting his application for citizenship now that they knew some money was involved. During the world's founding they were quite desperate for money just like any mass colonization movement. Sure there were businesses and individuals wanting to move there, but the idea of a morph centered world was still a new idea and carried unknown risk. To deal with this a large block of bonds were issued to almost anyone interested in paying the money. Even quite a few wealthy interests from the LNAW invested in Chakona at the time tying up a pretty good chunk of money in return for abnormally high profits for something backed by the United Federation Colonization Fund.

The result was a double digit percentile of Chakona's entire colonization budget used in its founding from relatively unknown sources. All they needed to do was have a bank account somewhere in the Federation and a legal representative to act as holder of the bonds. Once Chakona started to take off they began giving prefered rates of their treasuries to Chakona citizens for stimulation of savings after many families spending so much of what they own moving and establishing they actively began to support getting their new citizen's to save. Part of that was to recruit the third wave of settlers and to do that Chakona expanded those prefered government secured rates to people willing to roll over their soon to no longer be gaining interest founding bonds.

It was just shortly before he started preparing to leave for the Federation that Chakona News Network broke the story of Slaver's money being used to help support the founding of Chakona. Their government went to damage control mode and did everything legally possible under law to make sure people back in the LNAW could no longer get to their now intergenerational savings. To them it was annoying, but was always a high risk situation. However now Jesper, as a soon to be citizen of the Federation, would be able to step in and personally claim large chunks of that money. The last of his property and assets being liquidated in the LNAW to his family and into an almost crashed trading market for these notes that had been dropping in value back home and gaining in value on this side of the border.

Even with all of the penalties, special taxes suddenly appearing on the books, and fees he was set to dramatically increase his wealth on this side of the border.

"... So far the math seems to be about 60% net worth loss in stated value with how Chakona seems to be intending to allow this to go through. Its rather risky on their part... I should let you know I did secure a financial manager like you requested and she is strongly recommending you chose another world to apply for where the overhead will be closer to 40%. I hear Earth or the Voxxans may be interested even more."

He rubbed his temples, how many times does he have to say 'not Earth, never going there, don't want to go there.' Its still interesting that he may be the first person to pull this off from the league and now that the rumors are getting out the SF governments are taking interest. Starfleet has always desperately wanted someone from the LNAW with detailed Chimera knowledge, he cant help but feel like everything is finally starting to work out for him.

---

A human leaned against a door opening in one of the historical districts of Kt'trr'nass dressed in a soft tan hooded cloak with white and red ornate fringes. He sips from a glass carafe of water and is eating some kind of a wrap from one of the street vendors.

He cant help but find it a bit amusing how the Caitians are acting around him. Jesper Smirks and pulls back the hood looking around at the "aliens" as they pass by and seem to almost intentionally avoid eye contact with him. Its interesting, you think they wouldn't have seen a human relaxing at the side of a busy street eating dressed in a traditional Caitian cloak.

Socialization and normative behaviors had always intrigued him. Human, Chimera, Alien, it was all fascinating. Perhaps it was because he had always been felt strange in Human society and was just trying to fit in.... could also have been the need to understand social behaviors and responses in his veterinary training... or it could also just be the fact he had always found Caitians the most interesting of the different species of known space.

A young female caitian cub walked up to him, "Miser hyooman, what arre you doing?"

Jesper looked down. Probably part of the school class on a trip to see the capital from one of the outer regional towns. Pronunciation was off for her age, mostly spoke and encountered Ratarsk. Her clothing was simple outdoors attire but well made enough that she couldn't see the seams, threads, or any indications of common mass produced clothing. Well to do family.

"Eating, staying hydrated, enjoying the view," Jesper replied.

She looked a little confused and looked around... it was just a common street in a historical part of her world's capital. He smiled a little and reached under his cloak showing the black fancy almost shiny pants underneath made out of something she didn't recognize. He took another glass bottle of water and offered it to her, "Thirsty?"

Nodding she took it and helped herself. Its kind of ironic humans and Caitians were original adopted to similar climates yet she gave a relatively dainty few sips before offering it back. He paused a moment and spotted the group she was supposed to be with with an adult female walking this way without trying to look flustered or paniced at temporarily losing one of her charges.

"So I didn't know you came here. Going to see the old temple also?"

Jesper just smiled and dismissed the offering of the bottle back letting the young one keep the formerly unopened water. "No, I just came to see the old buildings and your kind. I have a hobby of liking to watch and see other cultures. And hello to you too..."

The adult Caitian finally reached them and reached for the younger ones hand. He looked over her... more of a professional dress less ideal for the mid-day sun outdoors. A few bands denoting a few societal details about her. Mid rank, mated... sixth wife... but that conflicts. There must have been a loss in the females then... or lost the male. Her body language... protective not just to her lost charge but as if threatened. Him threatening.

"I am sorry if she bothered you sir." She said. A little quick for normal Catian speaking pace even with a second or third language.

He grinned a bit, suddenly everything making sense. He was eating what Caitians consider poor food... more because its considered less nutritious then proper Caitian dietary requirements supplemented mostly with items they can't digest properly as filler. However for humans or even Voxxans that need more of the plant matter filling then Caitians normally consume it is actually very good food with a unique Catian take on seasoning and blending. Next his clothing was a bit more native Catian style then humans wore... even those that lived in the capital. It was also a bit old and the light tan had faded from its original color loosing the at-a-glance significance it had culturally. Third, he was in a part of town humans don't normally go and avoided eating where it was considered normal. With everything looking like he was... a homeless human? refugee? strange?

Ok, so the last one may be valid.

"Its no problem," Jesper replied with a smile being sure to precisely control his tone and body language to be as unthreatening as possible.

The young girl seemed to be a bit reluctant to go back wanting to talk to this strange alien in Caitian dress a bit more, "Where did you get that?" The adult asked noticing the water then looked at the matching one half consumed in the human's hand. "What do I owe you for the water?"

"Nothing, had an extra one anyways," he paused looking back at the group now taking notice of him and the two caitians. "Now head on back with your group little one, plenty of interesting and strange things to see elsewhere too," he told the young girl with an expression doing his best to mimic a cross between a human and Caitian smile without making it look bizarre to a caitian.

The adult smiled, seeming to relax as the child began to stop resisting and they moved back to the larger group. Those passing by seemed to stop taking notice to him again resuming the seemingly common cross-species societal norm of averting eye contact from those deemed undesirable. He spotted a Cait peace officer patrol vehicle move into view and stop. a dozen meters away.

Taking one last bite out of his meal he grumbled and mumbled to himself, "great, I am going to get arrested now."

---

Kari left her master's quarters a few hours latter. Cleaning up was simple on a starship, their replicators just disintegrated the material and stored the resulting energy for later use, an interesting alternative to the NAW's developed mass injection system. It seemed wasteful to her though, mass to energy seemed so in efficient to her sensibilities.

On the positive side it took her hardly any time to get something replicated that she could get away with claiming she at least tried to cover herself more to Federation standards. A button up casual shirt, simple and with some concealing capabilities... at least until she loaded in her measurements and decided to undercut the chest area so it was no longer be practical to button up the front.

She felt like she needed a little revenge against the Federation and this was her little victory having her cleavage only partially obstructed and turning a few heads on her way down the corridors. There may be some gratitude for letting her return to her master's side, even if just provisionally, but it still felt deeply insulting how she had been treated these last several weeks.

Around another corridor and she entered an empty lift. With a sigh she closed her eyes, pictured the entire interior of the ship in her mind and selected a destination. "Market," she told the ship's computer that responded with an affirmative tone.

The Pegasus was truly a strange ship, as one of the larger flag vessels of Starfleet it was technically not a warship with a wide range of duties. Now she was headed to a section of the ship for families and the civilians that filled out the specialties and helped augment the professional regular military staff.

Her master seemed clear she wanted her to practice interacting with the general crew, she didn't find this offensive but she did question the wisdom. People are people no matter where they were from and they tended to strongly dislike things that counteracted their beliefs and views of reality. To a coalition of societies that always talk almost constantly about ideals of sentients she stands as a huge contradiction, a fundamental question about where Humanity has been and where it is going. Being one of the core races for the Federation terrans and the derivative races from Earth are often a sore spot just because they end up getting so much attention and seem to so easily fit into various niches that keep coming up in this large alliance. To the enlightened and 'civilized' Terran the NAW was a large sense of shame and an uncomfortable reminder of what they thought they left behind. This offended Kari, and unlike Jesper, she had no qualms about letting it be known outside of academic or civil controlled thought experiments.

Still... she could have some fun with this...

Half an hour had passed. The occasional glance in her direction that lingered a bit longer than normal, sometimes even someone soaking in half covered curve of her breast. To her it was empowering.

Her eyes caught a gray vixen passing by, not Voxxan completely wrong ear structure. Even though she was in in casual clothing she could tell the vix was on duty security. She had passed by four times and came out of the lift shortly after when she arrived.

This time the roo leaned back in the chair of the pseudo open air style cafe and used one of her legs to push the chair opposite of her to meet halfway to where the vixen would cross. Taking a moment to enjoy the hot chocolate she had ordered earlier she took a little sip and then grinned as the fox passed.

"You dont have to keep pretending your not interested in what I am doing," Kari offered softly.

The fox's ear twitched and she looked over at the half undressed furr sitting across from her and grinning looking quite amused. She was about to continue on her way before Kari added in a second observation.

"You stepped out of the exact same door one minute after I did. Taking into account I left my friend's quarters seven minutes and rode for two minutes that makes ten minutes. Judging from the distance of security, your computer's response time, and having met your security chief before... I would say that leaves just enough time for hir to receive a notice one of the slaves were moving, notice its me, ask one of her staff to quickly change out of their uniform and keep tabs on me, then ride the lift to get here shortly after I emerged."

Their eyes met again, grinning amused roo and now a surprised vix. The gray furred vix looked around a bit before accepting the offered chair.

"Thats amazing, why would you know the time it took to get here from Security?" The now revealed security officer asked.

"I didn't," Kari revealed, "I just adjusted for the travel time from where I entered and left the lift system then extrapolated to where your main security facility is. Honestly it was more the fact you passed by half a dozen times coupled with your convenient time getting off the lift. I just had to think of something that would be enough to make you not deny it for the last ten minutes."

"Ensign Alm," offered Kari's new found acquaintance.

"Kari, just Kari," came the counter offer.

"Guess I should just give up and join you for a drink then Miss Kari."

The rooess chuckled and signaled for one of the wait staff to come over and take a new order.

---

Several weeks were passing aboard the Pegasus with everyone seeming to settle into a new normal. There were fewer surprises from Cain then normal, with her taking less of a condescending tone to Mr. Card. Partially this was from Kari always being around and more members of the crew feeling at liberty to interact with the new pair. Part was also from the fact whenever Cain followed them into the lift Jesper and Kari would show a little more affection for one another... just enough to make the red fox uncomfortable and quickly lose the idea of keeping tabs on them.

This behavior also seemed to confuse some of the crew though. While it was made clear Kari was a free person and equal, she continued to serve him with their public interactions seeming almost like they were married. She would go through all of the motions, show all of the subtle signs of servitude, even took to wearing a collar all the time, and genuinely seemed happy. This was all made the stranger at how relaxed the two made it look with the roo often making little jokes and teasing her now technically un-official master.

Then of course there was the rather unusual weekly lecture and training sessions set up about the LNAW for anyone interested. Mostly it was being recorded for getting more information to any Fleet personnel or staff that patrolled the borders and were interested. Several members of ship staff and even a few civilians were regulars. The questions seemed almost endless, many of them now directed at Kari and not at Jesper. Questions of why she refused to have 'normal' clothing, explaining the why of all her subtle behaviors, and why she still wore her collar. The last one was hard to explain to the acceptance of the gathered group despite all attempts she had trying to liken it to caitian mating bands or some terran culture rings.

It wasn't long before security stopped regularly following her around to make sure there weren't any incidents. They even granted her full replicator access allowing her to make things other than food or drink when Jesper was on duty. One day Jesper returned and she had replaced the rather bland traveling collar with a similar collar and cuffs arrangement as she had back home. Pink leather, with gold hardware. She even had replicated a leash and tags... but neither told anyone else about this.

Her explanation was simple; it was her choice. Commander Silpurr didn't seem to pleased with that explanation. Then again the ship's XO seemed a bit disturbed one day when walking in to seeing Kari using the ship's exercises facilities. It wasn't so much the fact she was using the gym, it was the fact she was bench-pressing twice her weight in the nude that took her aback. The most surprising, however, was when Kari started jogging to the apparent appreciation of a few crewmembers.

Finally after almost a month reunited the Pegasus finally reached its next mission. A recent colony world had fully gone online. The space station had just gone fully active, and as such had a full Starfleet administration wing.

It was there that Jesper and Kari waited. Out of some miracle Kari had accepted Jesper's decision that she should wear at least some clothing while on station without a direct order to do so. She had on an intricate Kemono that covered her ankle and wrist cuffs in addition to her breasts. However she refused to hide the collar, Jesper didn't even try to make her. To Kari it would be an insult and repudiation by her master of his affection and pride in her. No matter how much Jesper wanted to blend the cultures, the one they came from and the one they were now settling into, there are just some lines you dont cross.

"Lieutenant Junior Grade Card and Miss Kari Roo," A large female Rakshani stated. Kari was tense, to her the Rakshani were the greatest threat to her home. The terrans in the federation may have come to an agreement and had stable borders and relationships with the warrior like alien race, but the LNAW was never a part of that.

Say what you want about the Anti-slavery talk from neighbors like Chakona... but the Rakshani wanted territory for expansion and their own security. The Earth based terrans almost went to war with the Rakshani the Caitians helped bring a peace between them with defined borders but left one thing out... they seeded much of what is now the LNAW to the Rakshani. Though these early colonies were still terran they refused to acknowledge the early alliances and were fiercely independent. Still to this day many in the LNAW believe that it was a twisted act of Earth to try and wipe them out without having to lift a finger.

There were still things Jesper didn't cover... wouldnt talk about but both he and Kari knew... and those slaves still in the Pegesus' cargo hold knew. In case of invasion the LNAW would use part of their slave population as reservists with some of their masters acting as reserve officers. Kari wasn't just made to be a companion, she wasn't even just designed to be a slave that can bring pleasure, deep down under all of those layers of different breeds and modifications to her genetic code she was designed to kill Rakshani. Quickly, efficiently, with no remorse, and to not stop when she did.

Jesper grabbed Kari's hand tight, trying to reinforce his control over her as the Rakshani before them guided them into this large starbase and down its many corridors. Kari even knew why this starbase was built, this was the direct response of the Federation and Starfleet to the slave trade slipping into their space. It was mostly a join terran and Rakshani base... if an invasion did come to their home it would go through here... commanded from here.

They were lead to a conference room with several others already waiting, including the Pegasus' XO. There was a quick round of introductions for everyone he didn't know. A representative of Starfleet Medical, quartermasters, civilian fleet services, and the Rakshani was the local administrator and commander for the starbase.

"Since this is now your 6th month on active fleet service we have convened this panel for a small review and to deal with some unique issues of your situation. You may be seated," The administer began.

Jesper sat, but Kari stayed standing at his right side.

"You may sit miss roo."

Kari looked at the chair at Jesper's side and blushed, "Where I come from it would be considered improper for me to do so, I must respectfully decline."

The human squeezed Kari's hand again trying to re-iterate the little 'stand down' signals he has been trying to give her on and off those whole time. Kari knew what Jesper wanted and was doing her best to comply... but something was so wrong about this. The others she could deal with but... a Rakshani, why did it have to be a Rakshani?

"Lieutenant JG Card, your performance to date has been more than satisfactory to exemplary. Only a few negative spots have been in your reports, but most of those seem to deal with a Commander Cain or trivial matters," The administrator said in a rather emotionless tone.

It was the representative from Starfleet Medical, a male bear morph, that spoke next, "We have received and gone through all of the documentation you have sent us about your surgical and training history. I must admit it's quite an impressive list for one so young. As such we are instating a surgeon rating on you Fleet wide. Since you seem to have an abundance of nuro procedures completed we are giving you a neuro-surgical specialty on your record."

It was Silpurr that continued, "Everyone on the Pegasus has built up a consensus that you are an asset, despite a few personality quirks. Medical loves you, security doesn't have a problem with you, and all the other departments are just happy to have another skilled surgeon on staff."

Jesper decided to interrupt, "If I may ask, I am surprised more command staff from the Pegasus are not here."

Until this point the member from Civilian Fleet Services, the wing that represented and acted as liaisons for the large number of civilian specialists and civilian members that are on Starfleet facilities now-a-days, replied. "You're not a crew member of the Pegasus. Technically you are a civilian consultant and specialist attached to Starfleet Medical who happens to right now be on the Pegasus. As such some procedures are different for you... along with your unique situations. Commander Silpurr asked to be here."

The two looked a little surprised at the Caitian who just nodded in confirmation, "The only concern we have is the relationship between you and Miss Roo,"

"Why?" Kari asked. "I have been told I am free to make my own choices, if I chose to continue to serve then it is still my choice."

The CFS rep countered, "But how do we know its your choice? According to what I read in Mister Card's quite detailed submission to Medical its common practice on your world to put an implant that uses hormones and chemicals to alter your mind into following orders from your masters. That is hardly free will."

Jesper closed his eyes for a moment. Kari was only tense when the station commander spoke and relaxed when someone else pitched in. Good, that means everyone else she consider safe...

"Her implant was removed when see was a teen," Jesper corrected.

"Besides it shouldn't make a difference. Yes I have been a slave that was conditioned all my life. Of course it is going to make many people in your federation uneasy. If you claim to be as enlightened about the individual then I should have the right to make a choice to stay a slave and stay happy. So what if some of what I feel may be to some degree what you would call artificial? I know most of you don't see it this way but I am by definition artificial myself, so I don't see it like one of your Federation chimera do. I embrace what I am, how I came into being, and all that comes with it both pleasant and unpleasant. I want it and for far more reasons than any artificial joy I may receive from some conditioning."

The room was quiet as everyone considered what Kari had said. Jesper was just trying to hide his anger at everyone for what felt like a veiled attack at who and what Kari was. The idea that slaves were as simple and blindly obedient as these people seemed to think were seated in deep delusion. It was as if the people of the Federation, in trying to defend slaves, were simplifying them into a perverse child like ideal thats just another kind of abuse.

"We all have strong emotions about this," he admitted as he refocused on keeping Kari calm, "but consider this. I am here in large part to give a perspective that you lack. You have seen one extreme, here is front of you is another. Instead of condemning us perhaps it would be better to watch and try and understand."

Rosepetal warmly responded, "We are not condemning you we are just..."

"Confused," Kari finished the caitian's sentence. "None of you understand me... and no matter how much you try I don't think you ever truly could. Its just... too far out of any of your experiences."