When they emerged at the beach, her new senses still felt strange. They told her that she was standing under an empty sky, too big to get any echo or parallax location. As if she was standing on a strange planet. In an alien body.

After some poking and prodding, the doctors left her alone. She joined Fanny for another dip in the sea before dinner. Splashing in the water, her new body soon moved naturally and added to the fun. The fish were even more colourful and the sand and water took on new hues. The many shades of blue in the ocean were particularly fascinating. There were far fewer ultraviolet hues, mostly reflections in the sand and water.

The fire, to which they were soon called, was another spectacle. It glittered in rich infrared hues.

And unlike Fanny, whose fur still clung to her body despite her attempts to brush and shake the salt water out, the water just ran off her silvery scales, which reflected the heat too. Now she dared to feed a small log to the fire with the fear of burning off her fur.

"Please help us," the avatar invited her. Together they put a big skewer threw the carcass and hoisted it onto two Y-shaped stands on both sides of the fire. She turned it as it roasted.

"Can I eat normally?" she asked, because even in this body she was not sure how this body went to the toilet. If at all.

"Don't worry. Try whatever you want tonight," they assured her.

While the carcass roasted, the simulated sun set. It was a spectacular explosion of colour, albeit a brief one. Soon myriads of stars dotted the sky, and even a nebula. She recognized several constellations, the simulated sky was close to a summer sky near the main settlement on Hopkin's planet, where she had grown up.

Then they ate the freshly roasted meat under the starry sky in the flickering light of the campfire and to the splashing of the waves on the beach. This was so much high-class cliché, as the only beach on Hopkins was the one he had built for his residence, and even then the lake was nothing like this.

She could not eat much, she was soon sated. Once, when the other had satisfied their first hunger, the avatar told them a story of their encounter with the Tulag and how they had gifted them with lungs when there were only a few civilisations around, hundreds of millions of years ago. An unbelievable tale, if the Tulags were not still around, the only one of the first civilisations still active in today's galaxy. According to the avatar, they had chosen to stop their progress early enough to prevent their decline to oblivion. The avatar sounded sad.

"Why have you chosen to hide while the Tulags are around?" she asked the avatar.

"Rerra!" the clanmother scolded, apparently still too much of a diplomat.

"No, the question is valid. As we said, we have perfected modding to the point of immortality. That is what the Tulag understood before us. Once immortality is achieved, decline is inevitable. None of the first civilisations lasted much beyond that point. They did not become autistic hedonists, but the driving force to push forward disappears when there is no pressure. Beyond materialism, the lifetime is the only scarce resource. Take away this last incentive and any civilisation is doomed. Why push today when you can push tomorrow? Most of the post-immortal civilisations slowly died out through accidents and boredom. As a last resort, we rely on the young civilisations to push us from time to time. Like you are doing now. We offer you community service, and you help us by giving us purpose and driving us forward with the challenges that come with it. Unfortunately, there have been very few requests lately, as the fastest advancing humans are going through their purebred phase." The avatar changed their sitting position, even their posture. Perhaps their hosts were taking turns controlling the avatar? She looked around, but none of her fellow cats seemed to notice.

The avatar continued. "It is a great challenge to balance our giveaways without causing negative long-term consequences for which we are most grateful. If we offer too much, the resulting imbalance can lead to wars and genocides, even among species with the best of intentions. Too little, and no one will seek for us. This puts us under great pressure, the key for your and for our survival. A very great pressure, given your short lifespans. At this moment, the humans are the greatest challenge in this equation and you better keep all your modding hidden from them."

The clanmother nodded, "Be assured of this, Avatar of the Kolani."

The avatar stood up abruptly, changing posture again and becoming more animated. "And of course, there is the challenge of being the host, which is not limited to preparing the environment for the meetings which is another beautiful challenge. We think we can give you more than just the modder. We have studied everything about your nascent culture and found surprisingly little about dancing. Since you are objectively more agile than humans, dancing could certainly enrich you. Please humour us this evening." They gave her a hand and lifted her up. The avatar walked next to Fanny and lifted her up, walking around the circle until they were all standing around the fire. Even the clanmother, who stood herself.

"We know of your rhythmic hopping rituals. We will introduce you to derived dances, still simple in comparison, but with more complex music. Please hold each other's paws."

Out of nowhere music played unlike anything she had ever heard. It was indeed a simple rhythm, and its notes surprisingly imperfect, her heightened senses told her. She had heard of acoustic instruments. But very few of the man-made acoustic instruments suited their paws, apart from drums. So the drums dominated from the dawn of the cat civilisation until synthesizer sounds gave the drums an accompanying melody. This music here was dominated by melody and just a single small drum. It still had a driving rhythm.

The avatar explained the steps. The dancing was fun. Exhausting fun, but her new body had larger reserves than her companions who had normal bodies. Much too early they all retired, bedding themselves on the still warm sand. Not yet tired, she walked to the shore and let the waves run around her ankles, looking out at the dark waves and listening to the truly random noise they made.

* * *

"Second Pilot Rerra," the avatar whispered, somehow bypassing her ears.

She opened her eyes but it was very dark. The faint outline of the avatar stood a little away, lighting up when they reflected the sounds of the breaking waves. "Please follow us. It is time."

Silently, she followed the avatar's outline. They did not go to the rock, but into the trees, where a ramp opened in the sand.

The space at the bottom of the ramp was five metres high but stretched out on all sides beyond the range of her new echolocation. A faint brownish light emanated from the floor and ceiling. Round boxes in diverse colours were scattered about with tubes pointing upwards through the room. It looked like the machinery space for the beach above. It was silent, though, except for the faint gurgling of water.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The avatar walked over to another box, a brown one with no pipes. "This is another modder. We thank you for honouring", there was a tiny pause, "our spleen to interact with another avatar. Please enter, we will meet you inside."

She looked at the avatar and took a step forward. Her hand touched the box and stuck to the surface like mud.

The avatar nodded. "Rest assured, there is nothing to fear."

She gulped, took a deep breath and pushed herself into the 'mud'.

And indeed, she found herself in a similar chamber to the last time, moving freely without a trace of the 'mud'. The avatar was waiting for her.

"We are afraid you must return to your cat body. But we want to reward you for volunteering, we can give you many extras. Please, you may be audacious in your wishes. Though we may deny some, given the long-term implications and the limitations of living matter."

"Oh." She was most disappointed to have to give up the avatar body. "Can I keep the colour vision? The blue is so beautiful."

"Since your race is of human descent, every hundredth cat already can see blue. The infrared will be more limited, given the inner temperature of your brain. This wish is not disruptive and this mod will be passed on to your children. Now take a look at your body before the skin mod with your new eyes".

She looked down at her. Yes, this was her body as it had been before she went to the Ketcher clinic, short fur with a strong bushy tail. Except now her white fur had a slight blue tint to it. However, the room was so flat again and it had lost some of its colour. She blinked a lot more. Should she really return to white? “Can I get black stripes like Petra?”

“Like this?”

She looked down on her. Black and white stripe pattern like Petra. It looked very elegant, but after wearing the Ketcher mod and the silver body of the avatar, she felt like she was imposing too long. “Please go back to my original colour.”

She stood there in her blueish white. The stripes looked more elegant, and she wanted to be Petra. “Can I have it so my children would be striped?”

"Yes, of course. We know of the significance of the fur patterns and we think the Petra pattern did suit you well. We have some suggestions too, but your wishes first. Please, anything, you sure have more wishes."

She still thought about the fur. “Can I have the stripes on my back and lower arms, legs and tail?”

She looked down on her white belly, with stripes on her lower arms and legs. And the tail. Yes, that was she and Petra. She relaxed. Now for the other thing that bothered her. "Can I have real paws instead of feet and stand taller?"

"Yes, we suggest opposable toes too. Lift up your paws, please."

She looked down. She was standing on real paws, her legs almost a third longer. They were a little wobblier than her old human feet. And her new paws were impressive, strong and broad with black, thick, retractable claws. She extended them and they clicked on the ground. Wow. She lifted one leg. She could balance on the other, no problem.

"Try to move your paw's toes!"

She looked at the avatar, clueless. They nodded and it felt as if they were gently pressing the muscles inside her raised paw. The two outermost toes turned inwards as if she had two thumbs on her paw. Now two toes were facing the other two, like a bird's claw, and more muscles were pushed by them and the paw clenched.

The avatar had a wooden stick in her hand and placed it over her paw. She concentrated and was able to open the paw, hold the stick, put it down and pick it up again. She grinned like a child. This would be so useful in the workshop.

"Can I have a little longer fur?"

The avatar looked down at her and she followed his gaze. Yes, now she had more than her old stubble, still not more than a third of her little finger. It was shorter than the ocelot fur they had modded on her, but it was enough to make her feel less naked. She smiled even more.

"This will all be passed on to your children. Do you want similar paws for your hands?"

She looked at her former hands. They had become heavier paws with double toes and big claws. She picked up the stick. But it felt very different, she had definitely lost the fine touch.

"No, this is too crude."

And she picked up the stick again with her hands.

"How about a little stronger bone structure to support your muscles?"

The change was subtle, but she felt more solid. "Yes, great," she grinned.

"We have another suggestion for you. You are a pilot."

She nodded slowly, her brain struggling to process all that.

"We can modify your eyes and ears to block out the light and sound of a 4D shock cone. Along with a sense of transition between dimensions, you would no longer need patches. Similar, although cruder mods were popular with humans many years ago, but went out of fashion with the purebred movement."

"You can do that!" They still managed to surprise her. She nodded vigorously, "Yes, yes, please. Of course."

"You will not pass this on to your children. How is it?"

She blinked, which felt strange, involving a lot more muscles, and rotating more lids around her eyeballs. Her ears were even stranger because muscles were even moving inside her ears. While in the avatar's body, closing her eyes only dimmed her vision, now she was completely deprived of all light and sound, only touch and smell remained. Otherwise, a black, dark silence. Jumping without patches would be extremely useful.

"Any last wishes?", their voice came through her closed ears.

She opened eyes and ears again. She was completely overwhelmed. Still gripping her other leg and tail with the new paw and the stick in her hands, her eyes blinking, she hesitated for a moment. "No, well, maybe never get sick?"

"Sorry, this is impossible. We can give you the immune system of a very healthy cat, but not beyond that."

"That's fine, sorry for being greedy."

"Rest assured, you are a humble client. Close your eyes and ears and you will soon wake up."

* * *

The strong smell of the sea filled her nostrils, along with the scent of a nearby animal. She opened her eyes and ears, yes the latter too, and the cries of the early birds in the dawn assaulted her ears. She turned her head: The male ocelot had decided to snuggle up next to her. It had a strong musky scent. When she stirred, it rose quickly and fled into the forest with long, elegant strides.

She sat up, sand falling from her pelt. She had slept between the trees, away from the others. Maybe that's why the ocelot had dared to approach her?

She got up, went behind a tree and then sat down at the shore, just above the reach of the waves. She watched the last of the stars fade and a spectacular sunrise over the ocean. It was so real, such an intense immersion, that she could not believe she was on a ship. And there was a world with a place like this, somewhere where the real ocelots roamed. She wanted to go there.

"Rerra, is that you?"

Fanny came over.

"Good morning, Fanny. Yes, I went for a slight Petra pattern with some extras. See my paws."

She stood up and looked Fanny straight in the eye.

"You look even better with the shorter fur. And a nice tail."

"The original one too, well with stripes. How about a morning bath?"

Fanny took off her loincloth and chest cover and then they rushed into the water. It was cool in the morning, but soon the sun brought the heat back.

* * *

Only 1000 ago she had played with Fanny on the beach. Now they were standing in the reception chamber where their ship was docked, with two modder boxes beside them. The avatar demonstrated how to change the settings (by lying on it and talking to it) and showed them the connections for electricity, water and the tank for organic pre-solutions. Then the modders sealed themselves in a super-insulating, tamper-proof plastic.

To transport them, the avatar reduced the gravity to 0.1g. She still wondered how they could spin down such a large ship so quickly and without destroying the ocelot biotope with a historic tsunami when an ocean suddenly wanted to move on.

The rest of them were unimpressed and uncomfortable with the sudden loss of weight. Now the two guards and the two doctors were able to carry one of the modders to their ship, still heavy but manageable. For the second modder, she relieved the two doctors. The weight of the modder was borderline, but she certainly made an impression on the two guards.

Then the avatar bade them farewell with a chorus of voices and the iris closed. She sealed their hatch, double-checked for leaks, closed and sealed the inner hatch as well, and evacuated the access tunnel. She secured the modders to the side of the passenger hatch and finally opened the bulkhead that separated them from the rest of the ship.

She crossed the ship naked, the thinsuit was no longer fitting her longer legs and larger paws. Not caring, she put on another of the stupid cavecat uniforms in her cabin (which only had a single size anyway) and went up to Chatee.

"Oh, so you got a mod!" was her first reaction.

"And not just the fur. Lots of stories to tell later," she smiled broadly, "so what's the status?"

"The Kolani have filled our tanks. We are ready to go. They are just waiting for us."

"The clanmother wants to go. But we should still ask."

Chatee sighed.