Pets

by Mr. David R. Dorrycott

Casey waited outside the quarters Kena had taken over several days ago. She'd been called, it was time. Hesitantly she remembered the white furred mouses last words to her. "Pet then Casey gets a." Pet... Slave? No, Kena had been a slave. She well knew what the difference was. "Why me" she asked herself, one foot shoving an imaginary stone along the corridor. It wasn't like they didn't already have enough problems. Still in null-space chasing Naomi who was in her form. She wanted to walk away, leave Kena with her problem. But it wasn't her problem, not really. It'd been Casey herself who'd asked her not to put the mindless pantheress to sleep. Leaving her only the other option.

But what kind of pet?

The door opened and Kena stepped out. "Inside please will you come?" she asked. Casey nodded, swallowing hard. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen... Now. The door closed behind her, Kena still outside. The lights were dim, as they sensed her body heat they brightened. Sitting on the floor, playing with a ball sat the pantheress. She looked up, and smiled. "Meow?" she asked, an innocent smile on her face upon seeing Casey. There was no sign of intelligence behind those eyes. None at all.

That kind of pet.

Casey turned to leave, just as the door opened. Kena stood there. Not an ounce of humor in her face. "Temporary" she stated. "Housebroken. Mind copy need I a." She looked at the woman playing with her ball. "Could do best this is" the mouseling admitted. "Mind until find a I can copy... Move or. Stop Naomi save I had too. Time no more care child have I. Casey do. Problem current over mind Casey find. Finish I. Pet always she will be. Do no matter what I. Unless mind I move into her." Then she turned and walked away, leaving Casey alone with a huge housecat. A Housecat that had once been a deadly mercenary, and now had less of a mind than a one year old.

Casey kneeled, holding out one hand carefully. The pantheress smiled and crawled over. She sniffed Casey's hand, then licked it. Soon she was rubbing against the human, purring. Finding someone who'd let Kena into their mind long enough to copy them, or someone willing to change bodies... That would prove difficult.