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Nothing I Ever Had Part 3

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:

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In no way does this license affect 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).

---

"Wana do something completely stupid?" A 30 something black woman said sitting on the edge of Jesper's desk.

She was about 1.8 meters tall with a smirk across her full lips. Upon her figure was the uniform of Public Peace, the civilian law enforcement branch in the Amaranth system. She was a commander, an officer. It was regular for law enforcement to work with Veterinary specialists, common because in some respect a Vet was a law enforcement officer.

Jesper leaned back and looked her over, wondering what Public Peace had up its sleeves this time.

"Last time you said that," he began, "you asked me to write you an endorsed search warrant."

Kari was leashed on her knees at the side of the simple desk paying close attention to this conversation. Protecting her master didn't just relate to physical risks or harm, she was committing this conversation to memory incase her master needed to file a complaint against the offer for coercion. He had returned to the hospital he worked at and was wrapping up some charts he didn't get to the day before. 48 hour on call shifts tend to leave you in a suggestible state after it passes.

"Well I was hoping for a bit of a repeat. Jefferson Anderton, what do you know about him?"

The young man leaned back and brought a hand through his greasy unshowed or kempt hair. There were on call rooms but he prefered to pull the cushions off of the small couch, get a few pillows and blankets, then make a bed on the floor. Well, Kari would sleep on the cushions and a folded mat, he would rest atop her. He was actually getting ready to re-make this makeshift bed for a quick nap to get him ready to ride the train back to his apartment. While he could get away with sleeping on the train as a child riding into town from beyond the outskirts of the city... as an adult they might ticket or kick him off.

"Off world-er, citizen of Pharos, here on business. Had a male husky slave. Fracture in fore-arm, bruises and other signs of possible abuse. According to records he has two other slaves with him," Jesper replied.

The officer looked down at the roo slave at his side... kneeling with an almost military precision and focus, she smiled.

"I have learned to respect Vets over the years as you tend to have more leeway with the courts then we do. As long as the courts see you operating in good faith and showing due diligence, they will not challenge any enforcement action taken by someone of your rating. That man, you treated him yesterday?"

Jesper instantly knew this wasn't going well. She looked over towards the door to look at the woman's companion, a slave tiger morph in light armor with a side arm. Law enforcement chimeras only wore armor while their owner was on duty, and while it

would be considered a crime for the woman to have a firearm in a hospital the trained chimera was free to do so. Only the assigned security force at the hospital and vets were allowed to have weapons in medical facilities. It may seem strange to outsiders, but when you have some 220 KG or more patients in shock, many of them combat trained with more than a handful coming from heavy military lines, having the option of putting a stun round into them to disorient them for twenty seconds can be the difference between one of only a handful of on staff Vets being mauled or just with a few minor scratches.

It wasn't ideal, but it was the compromise their world had accepted. The need to keep a military trained reserve chimera force... increased demand for highly trained and intelligent chimera... and a mechanism designed to protect and secure these otherwise disturbingly powerful genetically engineered creations. Still...

Chimera acting in self defense of their owners is almost always allowed and legal consequence free. You just have to prove it was reasonable for the chimera to see the situation as potentially fatal for their owner and that they were properly trained and conditioned to act in such a manner. That means her slave was acting on his duty to assist and protect her... or she was about to do something potentially dangerous and the tiger was just following his instincts to be prepared for the worst.

"You want to drag me on a police raid," he stated with a smile.

"No. That would be illegal. I was just thinking since you fined and reported him for mistreatment of his slave yesterday, and seeing as he has a ticket to leave the planet tonight..."

"You want me to bring you along on a Vet generated search warrant thinking that his other slaves show such... neglect," Jesper finished her thought.

"And what would you bet his other two are equally as mistreated. After all your report clearly said he has shown some disdain for the treatment of one of his slaves. It's your duty to make sure the state acts in their best interest. If he shows such disrespect for our laws here, then you may need some backup because you have reasonable doubt to him honoring a warrant."

No, it was worse than that. These were Pharos manufactured, trained, and conditioned slaves. There was no teaching them of 'don't hurt the nice veterinary person trying to help you' on that world. If their master gave a subdue... or worse a kill order, all that was standing between a confrontation would be the hope they were at least smart enough to consider if the order was legitimate and in their owner's best interest. Pharos never was quite good at instilling that into their chimera... even their 'moderate functioning' ones.

"Then as soon as I am done with this, I will write up and send the notice of a search, and we can go to my apartment... and get my gun," Jesper smiled.

"Gun?" the tiger asked as Kari smirked. "My dear tiger," the grinning vet replied, "in my medical training we swear to do no

harm to chimera, it says nothing about humans. Don't confuse me with a Doctor." ---

"Wait wait wait," Spoke up a silver vixen. "You mean they actually let YOU run around with a weapon?"

A small crowd had gathered around Jesper and Kari as the two unwound after their meeting. Shore leave was granted for a rotating group of the crew of the Pegasus to the starbase and once he had finished his meeting with the administrators and the others he decided to take Kari for a bite to eat at one of the open air restaurants recently opened on the stations arboretum level.

"Yes Miss Alm," he started to reply, "as I said when you're dealing with some chimera with twice or more your body mass that can deadlift three times your bodyweight, you want something a bit more than a simple shock stick around."

It started with a few crew members deciding to ask for a few stories or expand on something he talked about during one of his discussions then ended up becoming another impromptu discussion. Apparently thanks to this being one of two stations servicing essentially the entire LNAW/Federation border, following his small series of videos on briefings were quite common here.

The owner of the restaurant didn't seem to mind, almost two dozen people spending parts of their pay on this or that was just the start to a new business in a risky outlying starbase they were hoping for.

"Do you really mean it when you said you had no problem shooting another human?" another voice pitched in.

Jesper just sighed and shrugged, "It's just based on something we say where I come from. In medicine there are any number of ways to take a large interstellar population and divide it into specialties and quantify them. Where i come from we focus more on species differences like humans, biped chimera, tauric chimera, etc. Some more isolated Federation members focus their separation of skills on stage of life. Now could someone from one skillset still work successfully in other one? Of course, but generally speaking you want to be efficient in how you use these people's skills... so when you have twenty to thirty percent of your medical staff dedicated to the needs of anywhere from forty to eighty percent of the population you don't send them to deal with the other twenty to sixty percent unless they are overwhelmed and your idle."

"So where does the term Veterinary get applied to Morphs?"

Kari giggled and Jesper shot up from his seat and pointed in the direction the direction the question came from.

"What a good question. Now, who here has done initial colonization, terraformation, or other fun planetary wide things?"

Two or three hands went up in the gathered audience.

"Good," Jesper grinned, "Most worlds out there are not colonizable period. Of those worlds that are, most would require major alterations that would make it prohibitively expensive to transform. This leaves you with a small window of pre-existing planets that have just the right atmospheric mix to only need a slight nudge if any to be well suited for indefinite habitation. That means some kind of microbial life to generate the O2 and a few other compounds need to already be there. Then its just statistical probability from there. Fungi and plant life are pretty common on these worlds but something tends to be hit or miss... and mostly miss."

"Animal life," another voice offered.

"Correct. Now you have a population going to settle in a 'way out there' place... oh and you don't have the resources to bring food animal stock with you because space is at a premium. So now you land on a series of systems, a few clusters of planets meeting your requirements for settlements. However statistically you are lucky if one of them has complex animal life on it.

So to answer your question, Veterinary roughly equating to animal doctor has no meaning if there are no animals around to practically or culturally reinforce the original meaning. However I am sure some Voxxans out there will agree with me that one of the frustrating things about Terrenglo is we terrans loooove to re-use our terms with new meanings all of the time based on just a slight connection to the original meaning.

Ergo, I am a doctor... that works on human terran-animal hybrids... and they have a far more diverse genetic and biological background to make them effectively different species... and we have an old term for people that practice medicine on various Terran non-human species..."

The Roo stands up and whispers into his ear.

"... and crap my shift starts in an hour! Gotta run bye bye everyone," Jesper finishes his point beating a hasty retreat leaving Kari behind with his credit chit to take care of his bill.

"Before everyone asks, no everyone back home is NOT like him," she joked to the now disbanding audience bringing a chuckle from several.

---

Jesper was practically running down the pathway through the arboretum trying to make it back to his quarters to quickly change before his shift started in the Pegasus' sickbay. They may be in a starbase dock, but so long as the Pegasus was considered active and not just in for normal crew and cargo transfers, it as required its sickbay be fully staffed.

He ran into a lift, breathing heavily and actually considering to come up with some

excuse to be a few minutes late to fit in a shower. Damn, it must have been an hour and a half long he was there just talking to people. It was one of his weaknesses, get him talking about something he is familiar or interested in and he can go on losing all track of time. Kari was probably holding back to tell him for the last possible moment too... probably to get him back for something.

"Hello Mister Card," a deep but feminine voice comes from behind him.

The human almost jumps from the surprise as he turns around to see the Rakhshani administrator from earlier.

"Commander, sorry I didn't see you there," He offers finishing catching his breath.

"Thats fine Lieutenant," She replied giving that strange Rakhshani smirk... something between amusement and a veiled threat it always seemed to him.

"Um, I am not a..." He began before being stopped.

"In a week or two you will be, might as well start calling you that now especially if I intend to try and keep you here as part of my staff."

It takes a few moments for him to process both pieces of information. First, promotion 6 months ahead of schedule? Second, stay on space station? Wait what now?!

"I... dont think I would be the best fit for this assignment... um... sir," was his careful reply.

"Just think about it... I know your ship is still scheduled here for a few more days, I will be sure to make my best case for your staying. Now, I believe you were on your way to the docking level?"

---

True enough to her word the next day Jesper went out again to the starbase to enjoy the extra space. The Pegasus may be impressive, but after weeks and months on any enclosed tin can you will long for more space and something new.

"I would like to offer you a position," the medical chief of the station bluntly stated.

It was only a few moments after the doors closed and the lift hadn't even started to move yet. What was it with Starfleet people choosing the lift for their confrontations. It isn't like you could simply walk outside to escape being cornered.

"I strongly doubt that. I know you have read my file, and after that long drawn out conversation... I doubt you would enjoy all of the complexities having myself plus my slave on staff would provide."

Her response was a chuckle, "This Starbase is the furthest from the core of the Federation, and thus we are a bit more lax on some things that would cause political complications."

"Your also the newest," Jesper responded. "I can still smell the paint drying on some of your walls. Tell me, when did you go online?"

She smirked, "officially, two weeks. Unofficially, three months from now. This is the fastest, and also one of the smallest, Starbase ever constructed. Between piracy in this sector and the ever growing smuggling rings going into the Federation, we were rushed into service."

"All of those things are linked if you would notice," The human began, "Starfleet is a bit reluctant to go into LNAW territory as are we to go into yours. As our borders grow closer and closer, it has made it easier for them to just skip back and forth across the borders to dissuade most pursuit. They... and I am sure you too have already read my reports on the slave trade, so let me put it this way, both are a product of our governments refusal to communicate. Mine out of fear and paranoia, yours because it would seemingly legitimize us."

The station's CMO just shook her head, "Ah we are a sad group aren't we. One afraid of talking the other to stupid to talk. But seriously, We need someone who has experience with processing, identifying, and healing these slaves as they start coming through here. Even more we need someone who can communicate with NAW worlds and has legitimacy. If you help us take care of both of these problems, we are prepared to give you large amounts of leeway."

"Oh I strongly doubt that."

"Computer, stop... engage privacy mode," the Bear morph CMO paused and looked at the man. "Try me."

"Kari will refuse to remove her collar or any other of her... accessories. She also will refuse to wear clothing except for specific circumstances."

"I already have considered that and the crew will underst..." "I want to be able to leash her, in public." "What?" came the startled reply. "Its the primary method of control. They are trained that way and are easiest to

control when leashed. You view the social connotations so negatively you ignore its practicality. When leashed a conditioned slave is at their most sedate state. Most of the misunderstandings could be avoided if you simply used collars and leashes. I am sure you have experienced some rather strong interactions between select Chimera breeds and Rakhshani for example... if I am to serve on a base with a substantial rotating Rakhshani population I will need that additional reinforcement to fall back on. I am NOT just talking about Kari too."

"Why? I mean I thought it was just a social symbol." He shook his head and laughed, "oh no. A slave that is leashed is like telling a

soldier to be attentive, but stand down. That is, it triggers different reflexes and behaviors than normal. For a slave it is to 'obey and stay at the holder's side.'"

"And the collar?"

"It's their identity. Remember slaves are usually manufactured or sexualy reproduce in lines, species are independent of lines as are looks. So without changes in species or appearance we humans can't tell the difference at first glance. So there are sub-dermal implants and collars. The slaves, ironically, have an edge as even a clone develops a slightly different scent from the vertical or horizontal relations."

She nodded and closed hir eyes, trying to picture what it would be like, "So if we take a slave's collar off its like stealing their individuality or identity."

"But if you ask them to take it off and give them the collar it's their choice. On Pharos the owner would remove the collar from a newly acquired slave instead of ask, another way many LNAW planets view you both as barbaric.

Before coming onto this station for the first time with Kari I asked her to take off her collar and cuffs, she declined. So I gave up and simply convinced her to wear a simple wrap that covered them. When you spend as much time with slaves as an owner does, you can't help but to some degree relate to them.

Just like there are those in the Federation that beat and abuse children, so there are those that beat and abuse slaves in the NAW. You don't call for the abolition of child rearing."

The bear thought for a few more moments, "Computer, resume. Privacy mode off. But its not the same. We are adults and I am not a child."

"Your not?" Jesper asked.

That startled her and she stared blankly at the young man, not sure if she should be insulted or more inquisitive on this unexpected challenge, while he continued.

"I am not trying to offend you, I am just trying to show you another way to look at it... our way of looking at it. Chimera were made by humans, a combination of human and animal... yet neither. You can't grow and develop like we can. In the beginning your made to order. Despite your ability to reproduce and have your minds operate often superiorly to us, you still can't do one thing we all other sentient life in history has been able to."

"Evolve," she completed his thought.

"Quite right, all of the idiot proofing we did in your DNA has made genetic mutation difficult. In the case of Chakats its almost impossible. We removed the junk DNA where many mutations find room for experimentation through minor copy errors. Worse yet, we added extra verification routines in your code to decrease the odds of defect or cancer. These same genetic features make it harder for natural evolution to

occur." "But they do! Look at Skunktaurs or how foxes libidos were brought in line." "Both through direct or indirect human intervention. Even when a Skunktaur and

Chakat breed and the result is a new genetic species, it was done through human genetic work, something directly or indirectly intended through the original engineering. The only way you can evolve at a rate seen in nature is through additional unnatural intervention. In reality, it is perhaps the one advantage Humans will still have in the end. We can adapt over time through these proven processes without deliberate action."

Jesper smiled, heading back to the docking bay whose "umbilical" was connected to the Pegasus. Interesting naming they chose, he thought letting his mind drift off unpleasantness, but quite descriptive.

---

Several hours had passed as the human man waits in his quarters watching a vid from back home. The series was called, "Pa-ta-ta-ta" and to say it was unique was an understatement of galactic proportions.

It was a show from his childhood that he enjoyed watching a lot even today. The story followed four 10 year old girls in their daily lives. The leader was a girl who put minimal effort into school, instead spending most of her time playing video games and reading comics. Of course her three companions were the standard: perfectionist, shy, and popular stereotypes;? respectively.

One moment they could be pondering the existential nature of the potato chip, or the proper way to eat a sundae. The next it would switch to an animation style and you would be teleported into one of the characters imaginations and see how they see themselves. A simple fight between girls would turn into an epic anime style battle stage with massive amounts of blood and dismemberment... only to cut back to reality and reveal the only activity that took place was a few insults plus a slap. Though personally his favorite was an episode where the three went on a practical joke spree around their school and it switched to something called a "loony toons" style.

The door opened and in walked Kari, already having removed her kemono, exposing the leather cuffs around her wrists and ankles.

"You're watching THAT again?"

Jesper rolled his eyes, "Well its good to see you survived their little inquisition, and I missed you too."

She tossed the clothing into a corner of the room giving the impression the article of clothing somehow had given her a mortal insult of some unfathomable proportion.

"You keep watching that garbage your mind is going to rot."

"It's culture. I only have so many videos a month from back home to watch so I intend to watch almost every one of them. They literally have NOTHING like this in the Federation anywhere... I checked. Besides I thought you liked this show."

Kari walked to the attached bedroom and picked up a pink leash before returning back to the common room.

Luckily he had been requisitioned a three room quarters and they no longer had to squeeze into his one and a half room 'haze the junior newbie officer' quarters. A good sized common area with a desk, couch, table, and a few chairs;? his bedroom with bed, closet, etc;? and a full bathroom.

"You always kept on saying how you always thought the slaves of the girls were the only ones with a brain cell," The human pointed out.

A loop of leather ended in one of his hands, the handle of the leash. The kangaroo girl attached the hook end to her matching collar before settling down on the couch next to her master.

"Well its true," she countered, "If it wasn't for us you humans would be horribly lost. Sometimes I think all the humans on this ship need slaves to keep them in place."

Chuckling erupted from Jesper whom pulled the slave against him, holding her close.

"Well I think the Admiral might enjoy that... then again he already has a growing little army of chimera and aliens to keep him in place."

The roo sighed and closed her eyes, considering the several hours long meeting she just had. It was... testing her. She had no intention of ever leaving the human she was assigned to and owned by. Even if the Federation doesn't recognize it, she is still his property. As her master had pointed out, the admiral seemed a bit intrigued by the concept of a courtesan slave... but no one can get over the stigma of slavery.

The Stellar Federation offered her a new world where she would only depend upon herself and make decisions for herself. It was tempting at some level, good on paper. But the more she thought of it, the less she found it appealing. Though there are times she may resent her master and disapprove of his choices, she always found far more enjoyment and contentment following him than any other life she could potentially have.

What of the free chimera of the Federation? Were they better off than her? Here she is more vulnerable as just another person, not special like on Amaranth. There are no laws that give chimera special protection, and morph on human and human on morph violence is rampant in some parts of the federation. Why would someone chose to hurt a

creator unless if protecting another? Why would a human ever hurt one of their creations... she just couldn't understand it.

"They still haven't decided if I can serve under you yet in your medical duties. I am enjoying these new quarters though, no need for you to practically lay on me in bed."

Jesper looked a little sad, "But you're so warm and your breasts make great pillows. Besides if you are complaining I could always have replicated you an extra pillow and some blankets to sleep on the floor."

She grinned and knelt on the couch straddling his lap, "Aww, master would turn away his bed warmer?"

They shared a kiss before he smiled, "Good point."

Sometimes she wondered what this would look like to one of their crew mates. A teasing lover's quarrel, something that would otherwise be normal if not for the master/slave relationship? Truth was, she loved this and no matter what anyone else thought or said, this was all she needed.

---

"So there are two options for this," Jesper began to explain to one of his last patients of the day. "you're right that you fractured something again, the radius... extra-articular this time . Lucky for you its a clean break and there was minimal movement before you stabilized it. Its set but as for the options we can do it conventional or try something new."

His patient, a man dressed in workout clothing, sighed looking at the appendage Jesper was still examining, "and those are?"

"Conventional is to use an open cast, provides good support but it only immobilizes the portions needing to remain immobile. That means you need to still be careful. No need to change the cast, just remove, clean, and reapply every two to three weeks. I would say about four to five weeks and the cast can be removed... and another month or two and you can return to full duty.

A look of disgust crossed his face, "You know this isnt going to fly with my chief."

Jesper shook his head, "I don't care, you should think of this next time you decide its a good idea for someone in your department to practice a throw you haven't mastered yet on someone almost twice your mass."

"I know, just what is the other option?"

"Ok, I can perform microsurgery to DIRECTLY apply an accelerant and fuse the break. However that will require me to displace the injury, will cause you more discomfort, and will have all of the normal caveats with cutting someone open."

"But when can I get back to full duty?" came the obvious question.

The vet just sighed, he hated these quick fixes but it was his job to disclose them. "IF you behave it will half the heal time, it won't result the same reinforcement of the break if its treated normally though. Your body won't have as much time or capability to flood the break with mineral and create a denser structure."

"So then... it would be fast but not good?"

He raised the PADD showing the images of the breaks to cover his face so his patient can't see the disgusted look on his face. Though he has come to respect most of the members of ship security some of them just... ugh.

"Listen, your record shows you end up in medical for this kind of stuff once or twice a year. I have been around enough to know this is viewed as somewhat common for security personnel to get hurt during training or practicing. Just next time ask medical when your trying something new like this and its not urgent. We would be happy to have recommended a brace for the throw that would have stopped this from happening if you don't get the weight distribution juuuust right."

"Ok doc... I guess I will go with the cast," came his patient's defeat.

Jesper just sighed, got up and gave him a pat on his other shoulder before giving the order to one of the nurses. Passing a panel he noticed the time and sighed. Forty minutes late to get to his quarters for dinner with Kari. Normally he tried not to be so patronizing with even the accident prone members of the security detail, but M'Lai wanted to take care of something and thus he wasn't relieved of being shift supervisor until after the fracture walked in... thus delaying him further.

With a sigh matched only by his mental one he walked into his little office and began logging himself as off-duty into the medbay system. He skimmed over a few messages before he would head home...

"Oh no," he whispered to himself spotting a private message to him with the title 'Chakona rejected application' as the subject.

"Mister Card you might want to stop by bay three on your way out, chemist is back," he heard the soft almost purring tone of an amused M'Lai over the comms. A grin crossed the human's face as he stepped out, instantly forgetting the

disappointing message he saw just moments ago. Pegasus had a wonderful science departments, one was organic chemistry housed in life sciences with a brilliant woman heading it. Unfortunately from some accident when she was a child she lost the ability to feel pain in her dominant hand.

The scent of burnt flesh and chemicals hit his nose as he approached the latest trauma to come in. He quickly checked on his prior patient and discharged him before heading one more bed down seeing M'Lai and two nurses at work.

"Oh, hello Doctor Card. I thought you had already left for the day," the smiling woman that was the source of both the chemical and burning flesh scent offered.

"For you my dear, I will stay a bit longer," he smiled back, the sight of a chemically

burned hole in her gloved hand trying to pull his attention from her face. Now THIS is why one goes into medicine.

---

The last day the Pegasus was docked seemed like a kind of organized chaos. Final cargo checks had revealed a few shipping crates of material were unaccounted for, hardly a surprise considering how new the station was and the enormous volume of material from Pegasus' cargo holds being moved to the just operational starbase.

Kari was dressed in her wrap, going through the shops and market on the station looking for any items she couldn't just grab on either the shipboard market or replicate. Despite what some back home assumed the Federation replicator was in some ways just as limited as state of the art mass injection systems back home. A replicator was precision tuned tool acting off of a standard pattern resulting in a sometimes creepy consistencies between items of the same pattern. This often showed in cooking she noticed. Having one meal one week and the same meal the next resulted in more of a sense of deja vu then a warm familiar recollection like normal cooking. In her limited experience back on LNAW ships their auto kitchen couldn't precisely recreate all of the flavors and textures the replicator could... but there was just enough variety within the system you could barely taste the difference between meatloaf one week and meatloaf the next.

The Federation seemed to get around this by just programing as large of a menu into their replicators as possible and making it relatively easy to mix and match. You could of course manually tweak the recipes but you risked making something unpalatable or even breaking the system forcing a rest as it tries to do something physics says it can't.

She decided to get a few "real" snacks and a few knick knacks that caught her eye. The first she was going to store until once again they ran out of interesting things in the replicator they felt like eating and just make a night of real grown and processed food stuff. As for the latter, she just had some money to spend from Jesper and decided to act like a "normal" person and buy a few things.

Kari let out a sigh, a bit relaxed holding her two bags of acquired goods and as the doors closed she sighed and instructed the computer to go back to the docking level.

"Ah good Miss Roo I hoped to see you before you leaved."

Resisting the urge to drop her bags she turned around and saw a male human in Starfleet Uniform. She didn't recognize from the Pegasus crew.

"I am sorry you have me at a disadvantage..." was her chosen response.

"Ah sorry, I am the quartermaster for this station, the commander thought it might be beneficial if I showed you what kind of accommodations you and your... master

would receive if you decided to come back and stay." Dear god, Jesper was right, Starfleet personnel do have all of their confrontations

and interventions in lifts. This was their last day to directly try and win them over... and apparently this time it was the 'and this is your new home!' segment.

"Fine, but you're carrying my bags," She gave an evil full toothed grin to the human. Not as threatening if she were based on a carnivore species, but just enough to make him uncomfortable.

After he re-routed the lift to the proper deck the quartermaster guided her down a corridor with names and impressive ranks stenciled onto the doors. Judging from the spacing of the doors this was where they stuck most of the command staff.

"Higher ranking critical staff is closer to the central spine for quick access to the lift system and quick access to critical decks like operations, strategic command, medical, and more. As assistant chief medical officer Your quarters will be here among the first on the second loop."

Her human guide opened the doors to access a vacant quarters, and she smiled handing him her bags as she walked inside. It was a bit surprising how much larger the accommodations were compared to even the new quarters they had been assigned to.

Despite the size and focus on comfort the Pegasus has the shear additional space on the space station allowed for almost apartment like Suites for for then just the commanding officer. Small entry way, a small living room, side office, two bedrooms, kitchenette, six person dining area, and of course a large bathroom. It had to be two to three times as large as the new quarters they moved into. Granted there were still a few as large or larger living arrangements back on the ship, but those were limited to large communal families or groups.

The guide just smirked, "Its brand new construction so its actually been fitted for the widest species use as possible. Now that taurs are making a larger portion of Federation staff than ever before, and we have the space, it's now normal to size the non-basic rooms to meet their needs too, just need to swap out the furniture and a few fixtures. Since we don't have an assistant CMO we have it striped down so once we do get an idea of who will be taking these quarters we can start customizing it to whomever takes the position."

Kari couldn't think of anything to say, it was a lot like their condo back on Amaranth, granted their kitchen was a bit larger and there was an additional room... this was actually designed first and foremost to be a home.

"I will... talk to him about it... but why the hard sell?"

He chuckled and handed her back both bags, "I think its fairly obvious. Even though we are technecly operational the station is only half inhabitable, some sections are still open to space even. A combination of politics and increased hostilities across

the borders has forced us into opening shop early. Our most senior staff are filled and we have a skeleton crew, but we are 6 months behind where we should be staff wise so command is letting us recruit from all over the fleet.

Most starbases act as logistics support and fleet control for major systems. Now we are being tasked with processing most of the contraband, captured raiders, and slaves that we capture coming over the border. Add that to being the only major support facility in this part of the sector we have a pretty big target painted on us."

"Sooo... then why aren't the other chimera slaves being transferred over?"

A sigh of relief came from him, "Actually got lucky there. Pegasus was scheduled to drop off some of the last of our construction supplies before we got our orders to go operational early. Simply put, it wasnt on the transfer list... this time.

Anyways," he continued and gestured around, "Just a little thought. You two would be the best candidates for processing the slaves after all."

---

After the quick presentation of where she could be living the Quartermaster had to excuse himself to deal with some finding of his staff. Apparently they discovered the missing cargo wasn't actually on station... or pegasus, it just got moved to the ancillary construction platform before being scanned in. She found it funny hearing him lightly curse the EVA construction teams grabbing something before getting the final go-ahead to try and catch up with their new schedule.

Kari walked across the umbilical connecting the station to one of the ship's large airlocks. It was quite strange to walk across the floor seeing a view of the station and ship through the Federation's seeming desire to use transparent panels wherever possible. She took one last good view of the station before walking back inside the Pegasus. Strange now that she finds herself missing the half built station. Since Jesper left all those years ago she missed him most of all, but also the sense of stability and almost a sense of control over her future. Of course her master would always lead the way and she would follow, but being able to know what was coming still gave comfort and assurance. Now she was onboard a ship again, one that they will have to leave again and perhaps never see again just like this starbase.

Another quick trans-lift ride and she back back at her quarters. A simple tap to the panel and the door opened and she deposited her bags by the entrance. No sign of her master.

Her eyes closed and she calmed her breathing while dropping her heart rate. Some soft tapping of two small metal items... coming from the second bedroom. Opening her eyes she went to the closed door and opened it.

Jesper was standing amid a sea of half opened boxes trying to get into some kind

of strange clothing... almost caitian in appearance. "What is that?" Kari blurted out seeing the human in such strange dress. He spun around and looked at Kari, smiling at the sight of his slave. "Ah good

help me with this. Its something I got when I went through the Catian sector. Remember that poor girl back on Amaranth we tried treating?"

The roo girl instinctively moved over, fingers quickly and carefully helping adjust the aged piece of clothing. She knew quite well whom Jesper was speaking of. Back home they had encountered a Catian admitted to their hospital, xeno-biology was considered a subset of the Veterinary skillset, and thus Jesper was brought it for consultation for a medical mystery she offered. She had a rare highly recessive degenerative nervous system disorder that had poor treatment options and still to this day doesn't have a cure. Her family had gone to great risks to send her into the LNAW in hopes she would end up in Amaranth or Aslan space and see if their sciences could do any better for the slowly degenerating daughter.

Eventually they came to a hybrid approach of gene therapy and repurposing the implants used in slave control to fend off the continued degradation. Though she eventually died a year after Jesper left, they had taken away her pain and gave her full function and control of her faculties until that last week when she finally passed. The sad thing was, the family may never be able to get back the body of their lost child...

"Yes it was quite sad that she didn't make it... I think she kind of liked you, master."

With a sigh the human paused, looked at his reflection in a mirror a bit saddened. "She was the one that suggested I come here actually... and go through Kt'trr'nass. This was actually something I got from her family... apparently they were even more important than I thought. Got me through customs and helped me get to Chakona. I told them what happened and... they brought me into their home, gave me some money, and made sure I was taken care of. When I left they gave me a few things... this was one of them. Its based on a design of what a healer would weare back when still had matriarchs and a less republic based government. It was adopted down over the generations to a mark of their early doctors and disappeared about a hundred years before first contact."

She just sighed, "that doesn't explain WHY you have it on though."

"ah," Jesper thought deciding to keep it simple, "Well our Chief Medical Officer invited me last minute to be her plus one for the admiral's command staff dinner... apparently its something the admiral arranges sometimes after leaving stations or spacedock."

Kari rubbed her temple, "and."

"Oh apparently she is punishing me for something I did a few days ago, now I am going to try and wow the other Caitians... plus I plan on timing it so I am in the lift when Cain goes for her twice a week excursion to the gym. Did you know she was a

pre-federation history of the member worlds minor?" The roo picked up a small cloth from the mess in the bed and threw it at him. "Ugh," she exclaimed, "even for you this is strange!" He chuckled a bit watching Kari walk away and most likely into their bedroom.

Yep, a little too far with that last one. Truth was if he didn't tell her she would know he was hiding something, they have lived too long together and she is just to smart to now know that. The full truth is almost always the best policy when it comes to his experience, especially the highly intelligent chimera.

Making sure everything was on and in place he walked outside and glanced over to their bedroom. Kari had her back to him and was taking off her clothing, a good view of her rear and thick tail. It was hard to tell if she was putting on a little show to tease him back for the earlier transgression... or if she just, as a slave, didn't even consider closing the door since it was just them.

"Kari," he began saying softly before moving more into the commons area of their quarters. "I left a hypo out on the table, two cc for yourself. I am sorry about dinner. Have whatever you want for yourself and... go ahead and check on the others in the cargo bay."

By the time she walked back into the combination living & dinning room she saw Jesper had left, sighing and wishing there was time for them to talk.

---

Jesper stood in the trans-lift aboard the ship. Things felt different aboard the ship already. The Pegasus had undocked and was no doubt on course for its next assignment. Yet he felt completely lost. Truth was he was still hiding from Kari the fact their request for refugee status for her was denied by Chakona.

"Computer, pause transit," he told the ship calmly.

There was one person who he knew could have caused this. Something that would make the chimera politicians in the Federation on that damned world retract their offer without warning or explanation.

"Three, two, one, computer clear destination and resume operation," He told half to himself as the lift hesitated for a moment before resuming.

The doors opened revealing a vixen, first content, then quite upset at seeing him. He watched her closely, she hesitated for a moment, he took note of a few small changes in her breathing, eyes, and other subtleties as she finally got on and announced her destination.

Jesper cleared his throat, "Going to the recreation decks... gymnasium?"

She didn't even bother reacting to him, just instructed the computer where set the lift's destination... which happened to be where Jesper suggested.

"You know," he began, "I got an interesting message two days ago. Chakona declined my application... but they didn't do it directly. They denied Kari's refugee status which would mean we couldn't be together and forcing her elsewhere... she could apply for expedited citizenship on a relief basis, but that would make her a ward of the state or a regular person. There would be no way to assign her a custodian or power-of-attorney at time of processing... I think we both know this is highly unusual of even your government."

Silence, no response, no reaction. He let a another second pass.

"Now the only reason I can think this would happen is if someone was saying things about me personally or providing restricted information without context about duties I had back home. I have no criminal record anywhere, and no history of abusing Chimera or anything else that would raise flags.

I know you are part of Fleet Intelligence services and thus have access to many intercepts and probably all of the records you could get your hands on from back home. You're the only one that would go this far out of their way."

"YOU," Cain turned around and glared at him, "don't know what your talking about DOCTOR Card."

"Sister," the human said through his teeth as the doors opened.

She stormed off dressed in her athletic wear. Normally he appreciated the look of a femm fur from behind, no matter how upset they were, but this was different entirely. For once, Jesper found a chimera he honestly disliked.

"You could just ask you know!" he yelled through the closing door.

He fumed for a few moments in the trans lift all alone until the computer lost patience with him and asked for a destination.

"Oh right... the dinner... Take me to seniors officers quarters... opposite end of the deck from Admiral Kline's quarters, I need a small walk to work this disappointment off."