Alsatia - "A Place Where Law Cannot Reach"

[Bazza]

The underground facility known to only a select few as "Alsatia" lay dormant, its occupancy vacant on a business trip to Liberty. Only the most basic of life support systems - the air recirculator - remained operational. Not a single human soul existed both inside the base and throughout its' surroundings.

That is not to say, however, that there was no life present.

A solitary, jet-black cat awoke from its' lazy slumber atop her supposed master's bed, her favourite sleeping position marked by a noticeable impression of cat hair on the quilted covers. Another day had dawned on the isolated moon, another day whence this particular little creature had the entirety of Alsatia to herself.

Perhaps utilising mannerisms learnt from her owner, the cat tactlessly stretched and flexed her muscles and rose from her laying position, rubbing her paws across her face in true catty style.

Her shiny, regal coat reflected the morning sun, giving the cat a gorgeous shine. Unlike her human compatriot, this particular creature took great pride in its' appearance, often spending hours of any given day preening its soft, downy coat.

She casually bounded off the bed and landed silently on the floor, furtively slinking away to the place where she knew her breakfast would be waiting. The object she recognised as the place where her breakfast came from had dispensed the aforementioned at some point prior, presenting it in a bowl in the front of itself.

With the narcissistic grace of a typical female cat, she gorged on dried biscuits and the water beside her. Having filled the first of her many needs she located the lavatory facilities and immediately set about destroying it.

Whatever grace the animal may have had was ruined by the rapid expedition of the supplied kitty litter from the confines of the tray to the surrounding territory. Fortunately for the animal's life this misdeed was located in an area of the facility dedicated to such biological needs and had been constructed for ease of cleaning should such a thing ever occur.

After she had left the present for her owner to locate upon return; she set about her daily patrol of the installation's many underground passage ways. Each day she would prowl the cold, concrete corridors on the hunt for anything which might keep her entertained for a brief period. The occasional insect, for example, often gave hours of enjoyment up until its' eventual, but definite, demise - whereupon it would likely become the lunchtime snack.

Although she enjoyed the laid back nature of her current existence, the cat had not forgotten what life used to be like - for she had at one point in her life been labelled the pet of Felicia Drum. What had at one point been a loving and caring relationship gradually turned sour as her original owner sank further and further into the pits of insanity. What was once simple neglect turned into abuse, torture, injury and insult. The cat feared for its life many times and were it not for Felicia's complete collapse allowing escape, she may very well have been dead by now.

The things that her old master had done to her were simply unforgivable and were things the little cat simply did not want to reminisce about - forcing the memories out.

These thoughts occasionally invaded her mind, however, for the most part, she made the best of the new life she had been blessed with - a loving, doting owner and large, happy family who were eternally willing to lend a pat or sneak a morsel of food whenever she enquired.

Since being relocated to the base, she had once again been able to enjoy moving about gracefully - something which she had for a time been unable to do. There was a period in her life not far into history during which she was subjected to zero-gravity. A simple housecat born and raised planetside should not ever have to adapt to a weightless environment and this was something she would never forgive her current owner for no matter how many pats, hugs or kisses or how much free food she received. What at first was hopeless flailing, much to the deprived amusement of her at-the-time new master, eventually evolved into a crude ability to manoeuvre in space.

Being a highly intelligent example of a species which, admittedly, has a great... "variation" between examples, she figured out that being weightless was no different to falling. Jump in the direction you want to go and turn yourself around. Then hold on for dear life when you hit whatever it is you aimed at - hopefully it's made of a material you can get your claws into.

Either that or find a human to latch on to. The cat had developed a penchant for grabbing people and holding onto them - claws, teeth and all. Whilst they found this trait such things as "cute", "adorable" and "cuddly", it was little more than a self-preservation technique in her own mind.

Using this method the creature was able to survive on the original Alsatia - the obsolete yet hardy transport her owner called home.

Comparing that to now, of course, was a no brainer. As she sat proudly on the window sill of her masters' room preening herself as she so often did, she wondered how long it would be until she'd be greeted by a shower of affection by her new family.

She yearned for the chance to deftly patter through the cold, unloving walls of the place she called home, tail standing proud. She wanted to rub herself around her masters' legs, purring strongly and receiving a generous scrub down her back from the top of her head to the crux of her tail. She waited, patiently, staring out over the bright, glazed backdrop of the ice-laden moon as the sun rose ever higher into the sky.

Her sharp gaze noticed something in the empty sky beyond the tiny planetoids' meagre atmosphere - the unmistakable glow and aura of the transport In Silico. She of course had absolutely no understanding of what this object was was - after all there are very few cats with an understanding of economics and commerce, metallurgy, construction, fusion and internal combustion. To her it meant nothing more than her owner was coming home.

She, as anticipated, hopped off the window sill and sat beside the front door, waiting for the moment her master returned.

Meeeooow~

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