Out of Left Field

Excitedly, I jumped in immediately, "Are you from Earth, or are you from another planet? Are you from another dimension? Do you have spaceships, or do you teleport? Is magic a real thing where you come from? Do you do magic? Can you shapeshift? How close to humans are you biologically? If I don't agree to whatever you want, are you going to wipe my memories of all this? Do you ... "

Laughing, Katrina raised a hand, slowing my rush of questions. "You have to give me a chance to answer the questions. I'm not going to remember them all if you keep going. Let's start with that last one shall we? Yes, we can alter memories, so if you don't agree to non-disclosure after this, we will of course need to remove the knowledge of our differences, in order to keep our presence a secret here, for our safety. Yes, we are very similar to humans biologically, though obviously we have what you would probably think of as feline genetics mixed in. No, we don't exactly shapeshift, though our bodies tend to be more flexible in form than humans. You could say that we can do magic, yes, in some ways, though we think of it as advanced science. We have spaceships, yes, but technically so do humans, ours are just more advanced. The question about dimensions is complicated, and would take a decent amount of time to explain, so I'll leave it at an answer of 'sort of' for now so we don't get hung up on it."

As I opened my mouth to ask further questions, she quickly continued. "Now, for the question that most ask, which is why are we here." She smiled, "This may sound cliche, but we have far fewer men than women in our society at the moment. It is due to a bioweapon that was unleashed by enemies about 20 of your Earth years ago. That bioweapon wiped out a huge percentage of our population before we could come up with countermeasures. They also attacked our centers that handled reproductive specimen storage in a further attempt to wipe out our population. In the end, their own weapon mutated and attacked them as well. We pushed them out of our territories and won the war, but as with most wars, there were terrible prices paid and many sacrifices made."

She looked distant for a moment, clearly pained by the recall of memories, before she shook it off and continued. "We aren't out to reproduce via other species though. We have already examined the genetic code of humans and know that our genetics are too different to interbreed successfully without significant genetic alterations to one side or the other. While we have the means, it wouldn't be an efficient use of the time, effort, and resources it would require. What we can do though, far more simply, is recruit other species to work in various positions, so that our males can be pulled in from those jobs to concentrate on rebalancing and rebuilding our population instead." Her eyes danced with laughter as she added, "Yes, I mean they get to have lots of sex. Also, yes, our two species can have sex with each other with very few physical compatability issues, in case you were wondering if we were just all tease and no reward."

I opened my mouth to protest the implication, but paused, and blushed, "Ok, sex wasn't exactly the furthest thing from my mind, but it wasn't my very next question either, or even my fifth. I mean, this is the first proof that there are other forms of life in my own life. I always assumed there were, but this is the first physical solid proof I've had first hand! This is so exciting! It opens up so many possibilities in so many areas! I'm assuming you haven't come forward to our general public for fear of the crazies? Do any secret government agencies know about you? Was the Roswell thing you guys?"

ZaZa had walked around behind me while I was wrapped up in the conversation with Katrina, and chose that moment to whisper in my ear, "Can I hug you? Pretty please?" Since she asked nicely, I nodded yes. Zaza wrapped her arms around my ribs from behind and murmured something quietly in a pleased tone.

I relaxed into the touch, rested my hands on hers gently, and continued the conversation with Katrina. "Sooo I'm not huge on fighting, but I'm assuming you weren't just talking about soldiers, since you approached me. Speaking of, why approach me at all? I don't consider myself super special, though everyone of course wants to be special in some way. I've always managed to avoid real fights through common sense and preparation. I can defend myself against your average drunks, thanks to my monthly martial arts classes, but I'm not going to win any fights against someone well trained."

Katrina glanced down at where my hands were on ZaZa's, a mildly surprised look on her face, "A variety of reasons. One of the simplest is biological compatibility with our species. Basically, you don't have allergies to felines. Those who do have them can have fatal reactions to the enzymes our bodies produce and even just to the natural oils on our skins, as they are much stronger and more complex than those that are produced in the felines on this planet. Also of importance are your level of intelligence and problem solving skills. We don't need unskilled laborers, as we have robots for that. We ran a background check of course, and you don't have a criminal history, and you don't appear to be tied down by family obligations. There are various other criteria we search by, but those are the ones that will make the most immediate sense to you. We also prefer to approach people that have references from others on their work ethics and personal morals. Your past clients have spoken well of you. The final test here was to get a first person feel to how you handled unusual situations, unexpected surprises, and more importantly, how open minded you were. You have passed those behavioral and brain wave tests within our requirements, so we were authorized to discuss all this with you."

I pondered all the things she said for a moment before responding, "So was it actually accidental that a golf ball hit me? I'm guessing Janet isn't quite as uncoordinated at sports as you made her out to be?"

ZaZa laughed into my shoulder blade where she still had her head snuggled in, "Oh no, she really is that bad, and I don't think you were supposed to end up in the infirmary. This was supposed to play out in a less abrupt fashion after you installed those computers for us. Liz was still supposed to test your reactions though, so that part went as planned. It was just lucky for me that I saw them bringing you inside and got to volunteer to be part of the welcoming committee! Mmmm you are nice and warm! Can we sit down? I'm tired of standing."

Laughing, I patted her hands gently, "Well I'm glad you were in the right place at the right time, as it has been a delight making your acquaintance!" I pulled gently away from her hands and we moved over to a small arrangement of comfortably plush chairs around a table in the corner of the infirmary. I invited her into my lap when I sat down and she curled up immediately in my lap, snuggling into my chest.

Elizabeth pipped up from beside the chair indignantly, "What about me?! You are happy to have met me too, right? I gave you your first hug, and your first boner! How come ZaZa gets pets while I got pushed away? It isn't fair, I want pets more than her! Make her move!" She tugged on ZaZa's arm, trying to pull her up.

I turned my head to Elizabeth with a warning on my face and put a hand on where she was gripping ZaZa's arm, "That wasn't my first hug or my first boner, thank you very much! I'll have you know I have gotten lots of hugs and lots of boners in my life! Zaza is being much more polite though and isn't making me feel like a toy being played with, so she gets the pets for now. Maybe if you are a little more gentle, you can get some pets later too, but not if you keep up that attitude. I am not a huge fan of pushy people. I realize part of the push earlier was a test, but you don't seem to have backed down much since then on the pushiness."

Shaking her head at Elizabeth, Katrina took a seat in the chair across from me. Katrina coughed, "He has a point Liz, you are being too pushy. Bringing us back to the life-altering topic at hand, however ..." She paused for a long moment, clearly trying to be dramatic, "Help us Obi Wan Kenobi, you're our only hope!"

I burst out laughing, "Oh now how can I resist someone quoting classic movie lines to me to get me to sign on to help their species? I still have a lot of questions, but let's say I'm open to the general idea. As you mentioned, I'm not tied down by family, as I don't have any I'm in regular contact with. I'm assuming we would come up with some sort of story about me going overseas to explain my absence? We would have to go over compensation, care of my health, living provisions, etc., but ..."

As Elizabeth and I began discussing the in's and out's of how to go about turning my life upside down, I expected to feel a sense of some sort of loss of my old life, or fear of such a drastic change, but I found myself simply excited at the prospects of learning about a whole new race of beings. I caught myself getting sidetracked mentally on possible cultural differences and what sort of dangers might come with the new territory, and had to keep re-centering myself on the moment so that I didn't waste Katrina's time. A few times, it felt like ZaZa was shifting around in my lap more than needed to just get comfortable, with the normal male body result mildly embarrassing me, but she kept her head snuggled into me the whole time, purring lightly. I was enjoying idly tracing patterns on her back with my fingers when a sudden thought had me pause my hand.

"Umm, I'm not trespassing or overreaching by touching ZaZa am I? I mean, you said earlier that you were life mates of Miss Morgan. Touching life mates isn't something frowned on is it? I'm assuming you would have said something if it was, since you are trying to recruit me and all. My apologies if I overstepped, I should have asked earlier."

Katrina smiled at me, "No, no, I assure you, you are not going to get in trouble because of this. Our people don't have any taboos about physical touch, as long as it is consensual. As you may have guessed, since the bioweapon cost us so much of our male population, most of our family groups are now comprised of two or more females, with or without a male. As you can probably imagine, those with a male are kept close to home, since they can contribute to the repopulation of our species through natural means. As we rebuild from the war, we are getting the reproductive centers rebuilt, but it takes time to re-catalog a sufficiently varied supply of genetic sources to ensure viable and healthy results. There will be less pressure to keep males at home once we can implant embryos into surrogates to help bring our male population numbers back up to par, but again, that takes time."

She hesitated for a moment, and in a slightly defensive tone, continued, "We are doing the best we can with the situation. Nobody likes to be alone though, so we all take comfort where we can, and as we can."

I nodded in understanding, "Makes sense to me. I'm sure you've had committees and focus groups and whatever other research methods you have available to discuss all the details, so I am certainly not going to question your prioritizations and the plans your people have put in motion. It would be silly of me to think that I could somehow come up with better plans for your species on the fly in an afternoon. My ego isn't that big."

ZaZa giggled from my lap, rolling her hips sensually, "Something else has been getting big again though!"

I tugged her ear gently, "Hey now, you're cheating, I've managed to keep my mind on the topic at hand for the most part. I can't completely ignore my biology, and some responses don't go away just because I'm trying to behave. Don't think I haven't noticed the little ways you've been moving in my lap. I love a bit of flirting, but I also don't know the rules in your society around it. I don't want to cause offense on my first day to the people I want to come live with."

ZaZa lifted her head and her face split in a huge smile, "So you do want to live with me? Oh good, I was beginning to think I was going to be ignored!"