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Kita
Apr 3, 2010 0:19:28 GMT -5
Post by Floyd Looney on Apr 3, 2010 0:19:28 GMT -5
The boulder next to the stream was her favorite place to lie down and get some sun. It was quiet except for the moving water and the slight rustling of leaves on the tree. Nothing could ruin the moment. She heard a faint laugh and some splashing growing louder. Nothing could ruin the moment except perhaps younger siblings.
She opened her eyes to see them standing next to each other eying each other conspiratorially, they have been up to something. Kita sat up, her nap ruined. “What are you two doing anyway, Tersh?” she addressed her younger sister.
“Just playing” was the oh-so innocent sounding reply. Right, as she was going to believe them this time after they had gotten into a neighbors’ Thrush bunny pen last month.
“What were you doing?” Putj asked. He was her younger brother.
She rolled her eyes and reminded herself that Putj was too young to understand his place on Katara. “I was sunning myself” she explained “I think it feels really good”.
“One might think you were dead” he answered.
Kita looked at him sharply “Do I smell dead?”
Tersh laughed, “Of course not, Putj just doesn’t have the nose we do”
“Besides, nobody is going to sneak up on me, I could hear you two clear to the Pershing Farm”
Their eyes widened. How did she know we were there, they wondered?
Kita smoothed out her fur and scratched one of her ears with a claw. “Besides, we have to go home and check in with mother. I thought I smelled Keshi baking too!”
They all took off in a run, racing to see who would reach the homestead first. Putj could run very fast, even if his nose meant he wouldn’t be much of a hunter. Not that he would ever need to be a hunter, of course. He was a male and all they were good for was breeding stock when they reached maturity and field hands if they reached seniority.
Kita was almost an adult herself and she would have to choose between several paths that lay before her. She could choose to reside on a small farm, like her mother, and raise kids or she could go on to “specialized education” or possibly join the space service. The stories of the explorations their ships brought back had always gotten her attention.
Kita was almost certain she would choose the space service, even over the study of the ancient texts that had always fascinated her. Everyone had heard that a new and large space vessel was nearing completion, it would go farther and faster than ever. The Celesium might even discover the route to the fabled world of Earth.
All three of them burst into the kitchen to find their mother reading a letter while Latas, their mothers Beta was fanning a flat pan full of hot Keshi.
“Calm down you three. There’s enough to go around. Kita, I received a letter about you from the Queen’s Institute. I guess it’s about time for you to travel to the City and declare your path” her mother spoke quietly, everyone else had fallen silent. “I am so proud of you, whatever path you have chosen my kitten”.
Kita took the parchment in one paw and munched on Keshi with the other. “Mother I want to try for the space service”.
Putj nearly dropped his snack. “Scratch’n!”
Tersh rolled her eyes, “Putj, that is annoying. No wonder they lock up all you males”.
“That is great Kita. I think you will find it a great challenge, I heard the required courses are quite brutal, but you are definitely smart enough to get a job aboard a spaceship” her mother said giving her a hug.
“Thank you mother”
Her mothers’ fur was mostly brown, Latas had a mix of different colors including orange, Tersh was brown on her legs and torso while orange elsewhere. Putj was gray and black. Kita had never seen anyone else with a solid fur color, not that she knew many people, but her fur was all white. Her mother had always doted on her fur coat for being so “extraordinarily beautiful” and even Latas had agreed, purring happily even when she gave Kita baths in her younger years.
Kita shook off the thoughts of the past, this was a time to think about the future. She probably had time to study and get a spot on the Celesium when it was launched. She might be the lowest ranked member of the crew but even that would be a dream come true.
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Kita
Apr 4, 2010 12:55:57 GMT -5
Post by Floyd Looney on Apr 4, 2010 12:55:57 GMT -5
Just waiting for a comment is all
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Kita
Apr 4, 2010 16:29:03 GMT -5
Post by Attero Dominatus on Apr 4, 2010 16:29:03 GMT -5
I think this has potential. It would be interesting to see why Earth is so fabled to these beings.
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Kita
Apr 4, 2010 17:35:22 GMT -5
Post by Floyd Looney on Apr 4, 2010 17:35:22 GMT -5
The backstory should unfold throughout a story, I guess. Kataran, cat-like people (no tails though) were created by a group of rogue human scientists from the far future. They had used a proto-type time traveling ship and crashed on a planet more or less like Earth. Before the last few scientists died they concluded what they had done was wrong but it was done and they tried to hide the evidence of their existence.
Well, those who remembered the humans ended up passing along the stories and a mythology arose. Some text from the humans survived and were studied by the Katarans, to them Earth became a legend and a goal.
But the Katarans soon found that after several generations a genetic flaw came to the forefront. Males were becoming alarmingly rare, the percentage of males to females dropped and soon to the single digits. Healthy males were soon confined to breeding centers although well taken care of by the Queen's government.
Females paired off by necessity and a sort of a caste system arose, Alpha females and Beta females. The beta females were forbidden to have children and later made barren on purpose, only the Alpha's could visit the breeding centers.
Kita doesn't do well enough in the Academy to get a job aboard the Celesium, barely missing the roster cut. Instead her scores on understanding humans caught the attention of the Queen and a new study course was embarked on. When the Celesium reported that they believed they had finally located Earth, the Queen ordered Kita to land on Earth as the first Kataran Ambassadre.
Since it was unknown how Earth would react to this the plan was for Kita to drop to Earth in an escape pod and to be on her own for several months. It becomes very apparent that the humans who created Katarans had not yet left Earth and might not have been born. Kita wondered if her arrival would stop that from ever happening now.
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Kita
Apr 5, 2010 17:47:36 GMT -5
Post by Attero Dominatus on Apr 5, 2010 17:47:36 GMT -5
That is a great concept!
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Kita
Apr 5, 2010 22:14:59 GMT -5
Post by Floyd Looney on Apr 5, 2010 22:14:59 GMT -5
This all comes from a dream about naked, furry cat-women. lol.
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Kita
Apr 6, 2010 16:18:45 GMT -5
Post by Attero Dominatus on Apr 6, 2010 16:18:45 GMT -5
Dreams can be a good source of inspiration.
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Kita
Apr 6, 2010 19:32:40 GMT -5
Post by Floyd Looney on Apr 6, 2010 19:32:40 GMT -5
I don't know what CELESIUM means but it was the name of the ship.
It was an enjoyable dream. I think in the dream she earned currency by doing a stage show tour. I am sure it would be hilarious. heh
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Kita
Apr 8, 2010 16:13:35 GMT -5
Post by Floyd Looney on Apr 8, 2010 16:13:35 GMT -5
Sooner than she thought the time for her to leave the den had arrived. Latas had prepared spice meat and sweet drinks to celebrate. Tersh and Putj were quieter than normal during this subdued “celebration” and her mother seemed on the verge of tears.
“When they come and take Putj away I’m going to be very lonely” Tersh told her with a hug, Kita nuzzled her little sisters cheek with her own.
“It’ll be okay, Tersh. You’ll have many friends and it won’t be long before you are grown too”
Then she nipped her sister on the cheek and pushed her away playfully. Tersh laughed and pushed back. Kita knew that Tersh would find a way not to be too bored.
“Okay, I guess I’m off” Kita said. They were all outside and the dirt road nearby loomed ahead of her. The City seemed so far away when you hadn’t even started yet. “It was that way, right?”
They all laughed. Her mother laughed and cried at the same time. ‘Oh Mom’, she said to herself, ‘I’ll be just fine’.
After she was out of sight of her home Kita tied the travel kit to her waste and adjusted the weight to be behind her. Then she could run for stretches at a time since this didn’t tire Kataran youths nearly as much as it did the elders. The sweet drinks certainly hadn’t helped any as Kita had to duck in the tall grass a couple of times to relieve herself.
Finally, the next morning, she stood on a rise and down below stretched the Queen’s City filling up space between the hills on one side and the mountains on the other, then to the north and south were open flat areas. Further south you could almost see the seaside township of Portia.
Kita would have to ask where the Queens Academy for Space was located: the answer was to the north on the very edge of the city right near the Space Port. That probably should not have been hard to figure out, she kicked herself mentally.
She arrived to find a large number of young Kataran females milling outside, as she got closer to the front she found several tables where people were signing books and being given documents.
“Get in line, pretty one” Another of the enlistees told her. Kita smiled and got in one of the lines, hoping it wasn’t the wrong one. She had never known how really rare a solid color coat was until now, despite her mothers’ praise. Now that she was in the city and could see a lot of others, she began to appreciate it. This probably also accounted for why the others in the lines kept glancing back. Kita felt warm, she didn’t like too much attention, especially for something she had no control over.
The calico who had called her “pretty one” had reached the front of the line, she heard someone ask if she had any special skills or special interests that might apply to the space services. Kita didn’t have any of those things. She definitely didn’t have any mechanical aptitude, not knowing much about machines. Her mom just had to pinch the budget and buy a new one after the garden pincher broke down. None of them could fix that simple machine, and it was pretty much the only machine they had.
The interviewer told the calico that she would take a test to determine any aptitude or potential that might help them know what classes to send her to. The calico took her documents and walked to the plaza behind them. She looked right at Kita with a smile. Kita smiled back, it was a big day for everyone here, she thought to herself.
Kita was thinking about that one brown and one green eye when she was brought back to attention by a sharp yell. “You! It is your turn, step up” the interviewer said as Kita looked around to see if anyone had seen her forget where she was for a moment.
The interviewer took the letter and nodded “Yes that is in proper order.”
Then she looked up at Kita with a severe look in her eyes “Now, do you have any skills or knowledge that would suit any particular job in the space service?”
“No, not particularly, but I have always gotten top grades in all my classes” she told the woman who was a gray and white tabby.
“Yes, all of the invitee’s have top marks, otherwise we probably wouldn’t want them. Do you have any interest in any particular position on a starship, for instance?”
“I have always thought I’d want to be the navigator but I have never been able to figure out the four dimensional interactive holographic maps. Of course, I only got to see one of those at a Career Show at my school once” The older woman did not look interested “Probably wouldn’t count”.
“We’ll have a test for you, a series of them actually, to determine whether you have any aptitude or potential that would get you assigned to certain classes” she said while handing some papers to Kita who took them happily.
“You are all registered and everything, so don’t worry about that. The regular classes will start in two days, your aptitude testing will be next week. You will stay in barracks number seven” and that was apparently all. Kita breathed a sigh of relief and turned and went to find the plaza.
“Hi” Kita said to the calico as she sat down on the bench a few paces away with her back to the fountain at the center of the plaza.
“My name is Ponchi” the calico volunteered after a moment.
“I’m Kita. I came from the West Hills, I haven’t been to the City since I was little”
“I’m from the City, and it’s just too crowded all the time” Ponchi told her. “Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of good points too but sometimes I like to have peace and quiet”.
“Ah. My favorite place was a big flat rock next to Fishers Creek. That is total peace and quiet, you could fall asleep while sunning yourself.”
“That sounds scratchin!” Ponchi said then she quiet and her shoulders fell a little. “Most our age think sunning is for kids and stupid people. I guess they don’t get the same feeling we do, although a roof in the City probably can’t compare to your rock”.
“You are from here, so you probably have a lot of friends. Are any of them signing up for the Academy?”
Ponchi looked at Kita sadly “I never made any real friends or anything. None of the people I know were even interested in the space service. They all wanted to do other things”.
“Oh. Standing in line I got the feeling that this might be a bit beyond me. I really want to do this, so I have to give it a go, even if I end up doing something else”
“That is about my story too” Ponchi said “Some of those signing up have skills and stuff. That orange tabby, uh, Nika, she grew up on a commercial ship and she told me she was a whiz with a lot of mechanical stuff and navigating on the ocean”.
“Wow”
“Remember there are only seventy-two spots to fill from this class in the space services. I counted at least two hundred applicants”
Kita was worried about being able to catch up if she were behind. How many like Nika were out there anyway? Couldn’t be that many, she tried to cheer herself up.
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Kita
Apr 8, 2010 16:14:17 GMT -5
Post by Floyd Looney on Apr 8, 2010 16:14:17 GMT -5
I know I get past and present tense messed up and I can't keep who the narrator is but its like a first draft.
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Kita
Apr 10, 2010 19:31:32 GMT -5
Post by Floyd Looney on Apr 10, 2010 19:31:32 GMT -5
She has made it to the City... Kitty in the City, heh.
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Kita
Apr 13, 2010 21:30:12 GMT -5
Post by Floyd Looney on Apr 13, 2010 21:30:12 GMT -5
Nobody wants to make a comment?
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Kita
Apr 13, 2010 21:58:07 GMT -5
Post by Floyd Looney on Apr 13, 2010 21:58:07 GMT -5
I am writing right now. I have several more paragraphs already and will add on tomorrow. Maybe. If I have comments! I want some constructive comments people.
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Kita
Apr 13, 2010 22:29:00 GMT -5
Post by Floyd Looney on Apr 13, 2010 22:29:00 GMT -5
okay, enough begging! -------------------------------------------------------------------
“The leap climb consists of wooden columns, each higher than the last separated by distances of a meter up to a few meters. The object of the leap climb is to leap from the lowest point to the highest point without falling. Grabbing the wooden column and climbing to the top is sufficient for ninety percent credit, leaping to the top is a full credit” Ponchi read aloud from the book.
“That might be fun. I hadn’t considered there would be physical activity classes” Kita responded without opening her eyes. The pair was laying atop a metal roof of a shop two stories high somewhere in the Queens’ City. “This would be more fun if there wasn’t smog blocking out the sun and it wasn’t so loud!”
“Didn’t I already tell you that?” Ponchi said with a grin.
“It’s definitely not like the creek” Kita said sitting up and patting down her fur, “and I think the smog is turning my white fur gray”
“Are you hungry?” Ponchi asked “I know where the best spice meat is made in this whole city”
Kita smiled and started to stand up “That sounds like a better plan than… whatever it was we were doing”
“What you were doing. I gave up long ago trying to get good sun in this city” Ponchi said standing and putting the book back into her netted bag. Then she slung it over a shoulder and the girls started leaping from one shop roof to another, eventually reaching the surface.
“This way” Ponchi said and took off running. Kita had the speed, but the crowd and traffic kept causing her to fall behind. Ponchi laughed at the sport when she slowed down for Kita to catch up.
Kita didn’t see any signs in the path in the neighborhood where Ponchi had led her. “We’re almost there”.
“There aren’t any shops out here Ponchi”
“I know where I’m going Kita” Ponchi said, taking a hold of Kita’s hand and leading her. Soon afterwards Ponchi opened a non-descript door and boldly entered. “Mother, Crish I brought a friend home for meal”.
Kita shook her head. Ponchi had taken her home.
The main room was smaller than the one back on the farm, Kita noticed. She had always heard that city dwellers had less space but this could not be comfortable. She wondered if Ponchi was an only kitten?
“Ponchi!” said one of the calico’s wrapping her arms around
Ponchi and playfully nibbling an ear that soon flattened. “Mom!”
Two older women came in the back room accompanied by the wonderful aroma of spice meats, Kita wondered if they were vendors.
“This is Kita, my friend. We’re going to be students together. We’re hungry”
“Hello Kita, I hope my daughter isn’t a bad influence. We have plenty to eat, always do around here. Crish, will you bring out two trays?”
The other woman nodded and returned to the back room as Ponchi steered Kita to the middle of the room where pillows were piled up. Soon they were seated and Ponchi’s mother sat across an empty spot in the floor from them. “How does it feel to be adults?”
“Not so different, so far” Kita answered, Ponchi pushed her onto her back playfully and said “We still got some kitten left”.
Soon the food was delivered and Crish joined them, sitting close to Ponchi’s mother as a loving Beta female properly should. The array of spice meats was different out in the country you usually ate one kind at a time. The city did have some advantages after all. The jug of Rhellowine washed it all down and soon all four of them were splayed out on the pillows.
“Mom is the best meat spicer in the whole Queendom!” Ponchi said, stretching out a little more to give Kita’s cheek a little scratch. Kita could believe that, it had been an excellent meal.
“So today is our last free day before classes. And tests. Argh” Kita said.
“Don’t remind me”
Ponchi’s mother laughed “You’ll both do fine. I have a good feeling”.
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Kita
Apr 13, 2010 22:40:44 GMT -5
Post by Attero Dominatus on Apr 13, 2010 22:40:44 GMT -5
Sorry I could not read it earlier.
The dialogue between Kita and Ponchi reminds me of early Heinlein for some reason (except for the term 'scratchin!'). Not that it is a bad thing.
Constructive comments? There is nothing I can really give for this. The academy is a prime place for characterization but I would not make the chapters on their training longer than necessary.
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