“One more Christmas out of the way, eh Katie?”
Katie… it wasn’t the most original name for a cat- but then Justin wasn’t really the best at naming things and had called her kitty for a while. Katie just sort of stuck. He was sitting with her in the living room with the passing of the holiday evident in the Spartan decorations. Dressed in simple jeans and a T-shirt he was now putting away his dinner while setting some aside for Katie, scraping some of the more valuable meats to her plate.
Justin had some grey hairs on him now brought on by a bit of stress from work.
Time marched on incessantly. Holidays came to a close and it would be time to get back to work. Not that Justin got much of a break. He was approaching his late thirties now and lived with a cat alone in a rather large house. For a brief moment his house was littered with gifts under a very small tree. None of these gifts were for himself but for the many members of his family. They had each taken one and now things were pretty much back to normal.
He was considered a reasonable success in the fast-food business managing a store. He had first started as a waiter and went up the chain to an assistant manager. He had hoped to become a manager eventually one day but for now he was fairly content with his life.
Katie, the cat purred gently against his leg as he walked back to the living room. The cat had been around the house from before he moved in about five years ago. Justin wasn’t sure about this black and white cat at times. She was a useful alarm clock though jumping and pawing at him. She had been a stray kitten when he found her in the garden. He felt a pang of sorrow and took her to the vet. A simple diet and the kitten had grown into the most adorable cat.
“Meow...” the cat suddenly became alert. It did something Justin had never seen before… a hissing sound as if feeling something threatening. It had always known it was safe with Justin… what was going on?
Justin frowned. “What’s wrong Katie?” He asked. Not that the cat could reply. It was making an odd sound now as it padded and pawed at the door. Justin sighed… the cat had it’s own cat-flap. It could easily get out of the house if it wanted to… maybe it just wanted to walk around the block again? Sometimes the two did walk together- or she followed him out.
“Meow!” The cat seemed to act more distressed and started to nip at Justin’s leg as if to pull him.
“Wow- Katie what’s wrong baby?” He asked again feeling the slight prick of her bite. It wasn’t intended to hurt him though the cat was a really big pain when she got playful. He decided to let her out the door as she seemed to want to go. Clearly something had upset her but it was late and he didn’t feel like taking a walk now.
The cat stood at the door. “Meow!”
Justin looked blankly. “I’m not going out for a walk Katie, I don’t even have my shoes. You can come back inside when you want to- what the...”
Justin stared upwards. Right above his house, there was a strange ball of light. It was an odd sphere that seemed to be like a collage of shimmering colours. Some solid black, other’s of pure white. There was a line drawn along the equater of the sphere that looked almost like blades of wings made of pure light. A single red spot at the bottom glowed eerily. It was hard to tell just how big it was given how high up in the sky.
“Hm.. a flying saucer? Must be hoax,” Justin thought not really believing in aliens or anything like that. He once saw one of those lanterns people let off and knew it could look a lot like that. Though it moved and hovered like a child drawing on a paper. Strange swirls of circles sometimes appearing and disappearing. Justin observed as it flew through a cloud and dispersed a hole far larger then the physical appearance of the object.
“Meow!” Katie cried again as she seemed to be running away.
Justin felt a strange primal fear as he saw a single light beam seem to lock onto him. It was a strange blue colour. He ran back inside his house but the blue light seemed to pierce the very walls. “What’s going on-”
Justin was no longer in his house. He seemed to be in some strange place made of.. crystals? A strange crystal lattice surrounded him. He glanced around trying to make sense of what just happened. He felt oddly disorientated.. it was like his head was still catching up to reality.
“Hello?” He asked as he took a few steps- and right into an invisible wall. “Ow-” The area in front of him shimmered with a strange blue light. He touched it feeling a trickle of energy through it.
“Meow?”
Justin gasped. “Katie!” He bent down to look to her. The cat seemed as confused as he was, but the sight of something familiar made the cat purr. She was on the other side of the shimmering field. The cat was moving around in circles just as trapped as he was. “It’s.. okay Katie...” he tried to assure. What was going on?
Lights came on again and he realised that there were other things here. Plants inside their own shimmering field, a bee-hive, and a few house hold objects he could see a screwdriver as if it was on display in a museum. Is.. is this what this place was? Some kind of museum?
A door suddenly slid open.
“This is such a curious planet,” thought Ik’n’ika” with a wave of it’s ten tentacles. Alien… couldn’t even begin to describe it’s appearance to a human. For one thing, they didn’t have human eyes to even see themselves with. They saw the universe in strange patterns that were a mix of thought, vibrations and sound. A species of hollow blobs with feelers on their heads and torsos.
A second similar creature came into the room. It was a bit smaller then the others. “There is resonance here,” it thought back with it’s strange telepathy. “It’s strange really. It’s almost as if this planet is trying to tell us life exists on it. Perhaps it is not so lifeless.”
The creatures started to move towards Katie. “I have not seen a resonance as this one.”
Katie hissed at the aliens. It scratched slightly at their feelers on being approached.
Ik’n’ika shifted the hue of her blob-like nature to an orange colour, though the bristles of it’s interior sent out a message of pain. “It seems to be gaseous. An unknown gas of carbon, slightly corrosive on the edges. Yet solid enough to act as a liquid.”
“What of this material?” the smaller one asked looking to the wrench.
“I have a suspicion there is a consciousness within the exterior. Note what happened when touched.”
The feeling of the tool being manipulated.. and suddenly acting- it send an impulse back upon their feelers. “A limited intelligence? Actual life? Or perhaps just a coincidence…”
“We have some more of these strange gases similar to the smaller one. This one is larger,” It gestured to Justin. “We should conduct experiments to properly examine their properties.”
Justin’s eyes bulged at what he saw. He wanted to scream. He felt a sickly feeling as the sheer terror of what these beings looked like seered into his brain. If they were any more alien he surly would have gone mad. His mind seemed to be working on overdrive to somehow self-censor what he saw. Their forms made no sense to him, nothing at all of this world could. “Look- what ever you want please let me go!”
The aliens didn’t seem to hear him. They were focused on Katie. The cat suddenly cried out as they began to wrap a tenticle around her.
His cat… they were taking Katie. “LET HER GO!” Justin suddenly launched himself against the shimmering field.
The aliens seemed to pause in surprise.
“Was that a resonance reaction in subject 32?”
“Replaying… yes. There seems to be some kind of reaction between subject 32 and subject 36. They were sampled in close proximity to the other.”
“Perhaps they are a hive mind?”
“Perhaps one organism?”
“Let’s run a test.”
Justin felt a lot of pain in his arm. He was helpless. They were going to do something to his cat and he couldn’t do anything! Katie was looking at him again and it was like she knew- she just KNEW her owner could do nothing. That now they were both as pets to these creatures. Suddenly Justin felt a bright light…
He saw his house. He looked elated and surprised. Was this a way out? Tentatively he stretched his hand outward as if it were a portal. Yes! He could.. he could leave. Though something else was going on in his cell with the strange flickering lights.
“Meow..” Katie cried out again. Though something strange happened with the words in the animal. The aliens were doing something to Katie as a strange gas filled the air. It was like Katie was being changed. “D-Dad?” She said. “H-Help..”
Justin paused. What… what was going on? “Katie?” He asked glancing back.
“The larger carbon thing is not moving back to it’s environment. I detect resonance between the smaller gas-like creature and this one. It is confirmed there is clearly something holding it here.”
“Perhaps we should increase the resonance?”
“Expanding and extrapolating.. program complete.”
Katie started to change. The body of the cat slowly turning more and more human-like. The arms getting longer as was the bulk of it’s torso. Though as it did so, Justin seemed to get smaller. Justin stared out in surprise as the traits between his cat and himself seemed to be merging… or switching, in some places dupicating.
The field separating the two of them suddenly fell away and Katie’s human like form clung onto Justin. She looked like a young girl with black and white hair now. She had cute cat-ears on her head though naked. Justin stared in surprise as he realised he was also changing. His body seemed to get smaller, turning younger as it did. A sudden push of cat-ears above his head.
There was a wince of pain as more changes followed. His hips expanded subtly and he quickly realised his groin was.. different. It had adopted a female configuration. She glanced in surprise as her hair turned black and white too, similar to Katie’s.
“What’s going on!” The new cat-woman cried out. “Oh god- something’s coming out of my-” Soon a new tail pushed itself through the small of her back. “EEEK!”
Katie held onto Justin. “I’m… I’m scared...”
“It’s… it’s going to be … okay,” Justin tried to say. He didn’t know why Katie was able to talk now- or why she looked like this. However the instinct to protect her was as strong as ever if not more so. “I’ll get us home.”
“You look different.. you’re now mom?” She asked happily.
The aliens made their observations. “A strange reaction… resonance is confirmed.”
“Return and continue observations.”
Justin felt the light suddenly fall on her.. and again she was back at her house.
She stared at herself… “No.. no way… No way!” She- she was a cat. A real cat-woman! She had boobs- actual boobs. Everything felt wrong!
She then felt something tug at her. “Can… can I have some clothes?” Katie asked.
