Of Cats and Men

[Miaou]

I was smuggled out in a milk box. The man ushered me in it so I could go without being seen. I was hesitant at first but agreed once I smelt the truth on him. I could also smell the stench of fear and worry. The box itself was barely large enough to fit me, though it was lined with a white towel around the sides and bottom. I wasn’t sure it it was more for my benefit or to keep my knocking around to keep the trip a tad more silent. I allowed him to lift me up and place me inside.

He carried me by both arms. I couldn’t see outside the box, and everything was quiet. I had the feeling it was well past the day cycle of wherever I was. I heard multiple doors opening and closing, air vents whining and the laughter of some people. The man paused and held his breath when he hear the other voices, but they quickly faded. He began to mumble about how ‘they’ shouldn’t be allowed to continue and the sort. I didn’t know who ‘they’ were, and I didn’t dare bring it up.

That’s when it hit me. I wasn’t acting normally. I was thinking differently than before. I could actually think. I could understand and react, read situations and respond. This puzzlement of mine led me to forget most of the traveling. I was too busy enjoying the ability to think.

Once we entered some larger chamber, the man stopped. Footsteps approached and I could hear voices. The box muffed the conversation too much for me to understand, though it seems this other person wanted to know what was going on. The man that was carrying me explain something about working on his project, and was let past. After about a minute of walking, he gave a loud sigh and whispered into the box, “That was close. We will be to where we need to go soon, I’ll explain more then.”

He never had the chance to.

The man opened the box from the top and allowed me to look. We were in a large hangar. Cranes and lifts were dangling from the ceiling along with chains and pipes. There was a catwalk on one side and the gates to the other. There were four ships in the hangar. I now understand their designs. A Caracal, A Lynx, and two Eagles. They were suited up with highly advance modules, but I never got a closer look. We walked by them all one by one till we reached the far end and entered an elevator that took us down. The doors whined open to reveal a hallway leading to a larger ship, A Perilous. The hallway was lined in viewports giving a glimpse of the ship itself. Heavy life support modules were added along with some long range scanning systems. The man began to calm down once he saw the ship and started his walk down the hallway.

About halfway down, he turns. The elevator was being called up to the hangar we were just in. His eyes were glazed in fear, and he began to run towards the ship. As we approach the boarding line to the ship, the elevator opens. Sirens can be heard through the elevator shaft now that the doors were open, and a team of security guards were moving quickly towards us. The man holding me placed the box down on the floor and begins typing into a module next to a door. Given I was on the ground, I attempted to hop out of the box only to trip on the edge. I was heavier that I should of been, causing me to not have any sense of balance. I aligned myself to stand up and shuffed out of the box. I found my legs stiff and barely responsive. By the time I was out, the door was opened and I was ushered in. Down the hall, the men rushing towards us were getting close enough to see us. They were armed.

My fellow man pointed towards the control deck and started the launch process from the side entrance where we entered. As the doors began to close, the armed men outside shouted for us to stop our actions and submit to their control. I paused for a second, but the man yelled and pointed for me to get to the bridge. The men outside weren’t going to let us get away easy. The scopes were lifted up to find the range and shots rained through the gap in the closing door. I was about to round the corner when a shot ricocheted off the back wall inside the ship and hit the poor man before he was able to move out of the doorway. The guards corrected their aim and fired again, hitting two or three more times. Scared for my life, I paused for a dreadfully long moment. I couldn’t tell if I was to help him or if I even could. I stepped towards him as he laid on the floor and he shouted for me to go to the bridge. He lifted himself up as the door finally closed. I was running to the bridge and didn’t stop to see his actual condition.

Once I wandered onto the bridge, I noticed it looked a bit odd. A single chair was surrounded by more consoles than he could count, wires worming outwards to connect to other stations normally stationed by other crew members. Large power cables flowed to the sides of the chair into large energy storage units, the other end of the cables connected to some extremely high powered generators somewhere else in the ship. I took in the sight when the ship suddenly lurched sideways. Still unsure of my feet, I fell sideways onto the cold metal deck. After gathering myself, I noticed one of the consoles was flashing. I didn’t know how to read, but it looked like something awry was going on. I stepped up towards the chair and jumped up to grab the sides, hoisting myself up. Right as I was doing so, the man who helped me escape stumbles into the deck, holding his shoulder. Blood trails backwards and...

Merlin pauses and shakes his head sadly.

He limps towards me and places his hand on my head slowly, petting me. He drops to his knees to be level with me and grabs a small wire hanging off the chair. He holds me tight with the hand he is petting me with and swiftly burrows the wire under my fur. I hear a click and begin to panic and try to move away, but he holds me in the spot. Once I calm down, I begin to understand what he just did.

The cable is a uplink to the database on the ship, stored in one of the cargo bays. Using some technology that I still do not understand, it allowed the information to flow into my head, as if I was uploading it. It was a update of sorts, and I almost instantly understood what was happening. The place I was being held was some top notch research station hidden deep within Gallic space. The man who helped me escape was doing just that. It seems I was a key to something, something dangerous though I can’t tell what.

I look towards the displays again and notice I can read them. Amazed, I look at one to the next. Our ship was disengaged from the mooring ports on the station and drifting away. The man reaches for a input pad and hits a few buttons. The ship lurches again, and the displays read that we entered cruise. The autopilot begins to plot points and kicks on. The destination was a mystery to me, but I now know it to be Liberty.

The man... Passed. He risked everything for me, and I did not even know his name. Why he decided to help me I will never know. I sent his body towards a sun we passed on the way a few days after his death.

I was alone. I did not know what to do, but the databanks kicked in after we were safely away from the station. The databanks taught me much, such as how to read and write, at least in thought. It informed me and taught me as if I was growing up as if I was growing up as a human offspring, teaching me some history and mechanical skills. I looked into the system that was designed, at it was made specifically for me it seemed. It was literally dumping information into my mind, though it was limited as to how much it could send to me at a time.

Two standard days after my escape from the research station, I began to feel weak. I looked through the database feeding me information as to what to do, and it instructed me to connected the power links from the two storage units on the sides of the chair. After doing so, I noticed I started to feel better. I was, and am, a living battery.

I would like to state at this point I don’t understand the technology that made this happen. I hardly believe what happened. The ship continued to move towards it’s preset destination. Everything was preset. What I was to be informed of at what time, the location of where I was going, the systems keeping me alive.

By the time I entered Liberty space, I was as you see me now. I believe I have about the same intelligence of an average human, though maybe more in some areas. I have the ability to fly the Perilous from that chair using the data feed cable. And well... That’s when I bumped into you.

Merlin looks at Polsatri in the eyes.

"And well, that’s the story. A bit anti-climatic and sad, but that’s my life. Sorry if my thoughts were a little confusing. It’s hard to bring back all that happened before."

He lowers his ears.

"And now, I have a request of you. Don’t sell me out please. Don’t turn me over to whatever science team Liberty has. I don’t think I could go through it again."

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Characters & Stories