Part 2

Jim used the wall outside of the shower room for support and walked around to the right as one faced it, and over to where he had not yet investigated. Here he found a collection of furniture. A table with two chairs, a free standing counter with a cupboard shelf, a small refrigerator, and beyond all of these between this kitchenette and the outer wall of the room a large mattress and box spring lay on the floor, with some blankets and pillows piled on it. In the built wall he leaned against, there was a door that Jim figured went into the far end of the locker room.

Jim was able to stagger from the wall to the table without incident, then leaning against the table he went around to the counter. It was long enough it had a sink and a two burner cook top on it, enough working space, and a tiled surface across the whole of it. Jim opened all the cupboard doors and found an eclectic assortment of stuff. He guessed, correctly, that whomever had put this together had gone to a thrift store and just grabbed enough to make do for two. Almost nothing matched, but there was a fry pan, a pot, and an assortment of cutlery and larger implements. Jim found two tall cups, and put one to use. First he turned on the faucet in the sink and let it run. Initially it ran brown and smelled, showing that the pipe it was connected to was new or returned to service. He let this run to flush it out.

As Jim let the water run, he felt the train vibration rumble through the structure again, and wondered that it had been an hour already. Jim finished his investigations checking in the fridge to find it empty, save for an empty ice cube tray.

The first few gulps of water that Jim took came back up very quickly, and tasted of the tank fluid, tinted with unused pipes. After rinsing his mouth out and drinking carefully, Jim was able to keep the water down. This helped as he had been feeling dehydrated. Jim filled the ice tray and put it in the freezer portion of the fridge.

Jim then turned to the last thing to investigate here.

The bed was a large two person mattress with appropriate box spring. These did not match, causing Jim to guess their source was the same as the dishes. There were four blankets, two pillows, and no sheets piled on it. As Jim leaned against the counter and appraised the bed, him tail twitched and thumped against the doors in some mild agitation.

“I don’t think she will want to share.” Jim folded his arms and looked for a moment longer. The implications of the arrangement were few and obvious. The real question would be one: willingness of the participants. For his part, Jim felt that he liked Tanya but did not want to go in that direction with a relationship by coercion. Let it happen naturally and properly, as their relationship developed, or not.

Jim looked around the warehouse and decided to go to the other end for a better look at what was there. He found he was up to five unsupported steps before loosing his balance from his wings and tail. Getting to the wall, Jim used it for support at he crossed the length of the room. As the light increased he could see across the room clearly. The ambient exhaust fans began to turn slowly, and the two giant room fans began slowly turning to circulate the air.

This far end of the room had a rubber mat on the floor, made of interlocking squares. The mat covered a square about one half of the width across the room. A rack of dumbbells sat all but against the side wall for most of the length. Two sets of each weight were on the rack, with the heaviest weights looking to be ridiculous to Jim.  Toward the middle of the room at this end of the mat sat an adjustable barbell bench, with two stacks of plates for the barbells. Past the bench was a frame with an assortment of weight lifting stations set up with cables and pulleys to move the stacks of weights.

As Jim looked the weight lifting equipment over, he realized that he could clearly hear across the room and generally hear what Tanya was doing. As well he heard the fans on the computer equipment, the drive motors for the ceiling fans, the exhaust fans spinning on their bearings, and a few other sounds that he could not yet puzzle out. As he listened to each thing, he turned and looked and could clearly see each one well. The wall and the doors to the locker room from what he estimated to be about twenty meters. The labels on the ceiling fan housings were distinguishable. He could read all the numbers of the weights all the way down the dumbbell rack, and on all the stacks on the frame.

Deciding to start easy, and see what he could do to improve his balance; Jim staggered over to the barbell bench. He had realized that he was dragging his tail and wings some, and wanted to practice holding and using them. Straddling the bench, he held on to the barbell, and concentrated on spreading his wings, and then holding them out. In college he had a friend who tried to teach him exercises that Jim remembered were called isometrics, Jim was not sure if he remembered that correctly, but did remember that a few of the exercises were to simply hold weights out at arms length, at given angles and elevations. Jim did remember that the few times he did them it made his shoulders ache.

On the other hand, Jim still did similar things to relax and stretch from time to time. Now he first practiced unfurling and folding his wings, holding them out spread, and stretching them. Jim found that he was slowly bringing these limbs under control, but it took a lot of effort. He figured it was going to be like an infant learning how to do things. And like an infant, having the body lie down and establish the proper nerves to control these limbs.

His wings were impressive in size, but Jim though they probably had too much resistance for his muscle mass to flap, and would instead prove to be better for gliding and soaring than buzzing about. The main arms were almost as long from shoulder to wrist as measured against his trunk from shoulder to ankle. The finger spars were long enough that the shortest one was as long as the arm, and the rest proportionally longer to form a crescent wing. The innermost sail panel started at his side, where his pelvis was at its highest. Tip to tip, Jim figured that his wingspan was a bit over five times his height.

As Jim stretched out his primaries, he found that the secondary’s at his hips spread out. These seemed to have two positions at this point, furled and folded. Jim determined that the muscles for these were anchored to his pelvis, but the wings themselves did not have any bone in them. Cartilage and other tissues made four spars that ran the length forming a rounded triangle with the long side against his thigh and the hypotenuse as a front edge.

A set of fins was folded at the end of his tail, near two thirds the size of the ones at his hips. Like the wings, it took a lot of concentration to actively move his tail, and spread the tail fins.

Jim practiced until his sides and back hurt from leveraging his wings. After some time the water turned off, and quickly after he heard several lockers open. As Tanya shuffled about in the lockers, Jim again felt the train rumble through the structure.

Story 1

This is the first part of a story that has been doing rounds in my hard drive for a few years. Lately I felt to pick through it, fill in holes and try to get it to a finished state, where I could confidently submit for publication. I have rewritten it from third-person POV to first-person, but am still not confident I have it right. It does not yet have a title.

The room was abuzz with activity. It all centered around two stasis tubes. Normally these were used to contain a person for what came to be called long sleep. Spacers used them to cross long distances when it was not economically feasible to use FTL. Some emergency organizations had been able to use them to save critically injured people who would have otherwise perished. These two were being used as artificial wombs to transform two adults into hybrids. Instead of being filled with fluids for maintaining a body in cryogenic stasis, these were filled with super viscous fluids similar to amniotic fluid. Tapped into the IV reservoirs of each tube were tanks for storage of nanites. Along side the usual array of remote sensors to monitor the vital signs of the occupant were the remote transmitters for controlling and directing the nanites.

In the center of this activity resided a petite woman whose graying hair and steady gaze belied an active mind. Dr. Kari DuBois wore her age and wrinkles with a dignity that baffled those of her friends who were consumed with staying young. She oversaw the others in the room with a professional concern that was almost motherly. Counter to Dr. DuBois’ concern for and attention to the concerns of her staff was Carl Becker. He was of average size, and unremarkable features, but the attitude in these features left one feeling there was something dangerous going on behind them. If the room swirled around Dr. DuBois, Carl was a shark swimming against the current, which all the rest of the room avoided.

 “What is their current status? Are they done?” Carl did not need to define who they were.

Carl had wished the lids on these tubes had been transparent, and had said so. He looked over the various computer screens and almost answered the question himself, but had to go through channels. He was only the second in charge of this project, even if he was the direct contact to the people upstairs.

As her personal assistant scurried out of Carl’s space Dr. DuBios continued to work on her tablet. She looked up at him with practiced neutrality, then back to her check list.

“‘They’ are stable, and in the final stages of the process. Turn off the sedatives and ‘they’ will wake up within several hours. All indications are that the nanites have finished their work on the cellular levels, the tissues are stabilizing, and their organs are at full health.”

Dr. DuBois did not like being part of this project, but did not have a choice in the matter. Not without risking her job, or more so the lives and livelihoods of all her staff and the two test subjects. She especially did not like Carl.

“Good. Pack them up for transport, tonight.” Carl watched as Dr. DuBois contained her reaction to the news. Try as he had, he just could not get a rise out of the old hag.

Dr. DuBois glanced at him, then back to her list on her tablet, finished it and opened the file of the next set of procedures she had scheduled. She read the first paragraphs and then stopped.

“If there nothing else, Mr. Becker, you may go report to your masters.”

“The transport team will be here as scheduled. Everybody remember, you all signed NDA’s.” Carl said this last to the room in general, loud enough for all to hear. Not having any other reason to stay, Carl lingered a bit longer, than finally left.

Dr. DuBois stood up. “I’m sure you all heard him. Let’s get them ready to move.”

The first thing that got Jim’s attention as he woke up was the sour smell: wet fur and vomit. He woke slowly, as he had expected, but the situation was wrong. He was not in the lab, with Tanya, Carl, or Leslie, or any of their respective teams nearby. Fresh air made its way over his face as he began to register his body and surroundings. He was in a tube of some kind, the lid over top of him opened easily, swinging to his left. The room beyond was very dark, with a minimum of ambient light. His body rested at an angle, feet low and braced against the bottom. Looking down as his eyes cleared, he realized that it was his own fur and vomit he smelled.

As his mind began to make sense of what his body was telling him, Jim tried to remember what was supposed to happen. Jim had set up the computer telling the nanites in the control tank to close up any wounds in his hand, then return to the tank via the IV lines. Tanya and Leslie had set up the IV’s in his arm. He had cut the palm of his hand with a razor. Then nothing. Now he was here. Jim looked himself over. Instead of just two IV lines in his right arm, he had three. Three more were in his left arm, and in each knee.

Looking at his hands, Jim saw that more than just healing a slice in his palm had been done. The true color of the fur was hard to guess with almost no light, as it was wet and dark. It covered almost his entire body. His palms were clear of fur. The cut had been healed without any scar tissue. Jim curled his fingers and found he had talons at his finger tips instead of nails.

Jim pushed himself up from reclined to a sitting position. As he did he felt an extra set of limbs at his shoulders articulate. Feeling over his shoulders, he found that he had a full extra limb on each side, with the commensurate muscle mass overlapping with his arm and shoulder muscles on his chest side and back. The specifics were obscured some by the fur, but he knew enough anatomy to feel and reason things out. The new arm set behind and above his original, and was longer. The new elbow sat near his hip, and the forearm still lay in the tube, with very long fingers at the hand. A folded membrane was attached between each finger, and up the arm to the side of his body. Sitting as he was he began to feel some discomfort at his lower back, and feeling around, he found a mass of muscle starting on his lower back and going under him between his legs.

Jim was still adjusting to the low light, and so had not recognized what he had seen as he had looked himself over. He had a tail running between his legs to and then coiled at the bottom of the tube. His feet were changed in shape. They were longer, and wider at the ball, with a spur on his heel, and claws on each toe, echoing his hands. Jim flexed them, they were his.

After a moment of panic and fear flashing through him, Jim’s practical mind took over. He had seen stasis tubes used in the past and guessed that this was what he was sitting in. After removing all the IV’s he could feel, Jim took the sides and shifted his weight back and forth, but the tube was solid. So he took hold of the side of the tube and rolled over the edge, letting his wings and tail take care of themselves. He hoped he was not too high from the ground. This was a valid hope, as he was no higher than an ordinary examination bed. High enough that he banged his knees some as he found the concrete floor with them. His ankles resisted some of the flexing he had reflexively expected, so he just put then behind him and Jim settled for going about on his knees for the moment.

One immediate result of his movement was stirring up some fluid within him. Jim could feel his stomach and his lungs were still full of something heavier thin air. For several moments, he wretched as his stomach and diaphragm worked to push out the fluid. It was the source of the sour vomit smell that covered Jim. When Jim finished he was on his knees in a spreading puddle of fluid.

A medium loud snap and a hum got his attention in the surrounding near silence. Jim turned his head to his right. Beyond the foot of the tube, and saw light spilling through the windows of a set of swinging double doors a dozen or so meters away.

Jim looked around the room. It sounded large, and empty. His tube machinery hummed right in front of and beside him. Beyond that he could head some other fans. Similar noises sounded behind him. He turned and saw a second stasis tube like the one he had just climbed out of. It inclined in the same direction as his did. A tall computer rack sat beyond its head, and support equipment for the tube was clustered under and around its support frame. In the low light from only the double doors he could not see into the rest of the room.

Jim knelt there for a bit, leaning against the tube to catch his breath and clear his mind. Jim found he could control his new wings and tail, sort of. He manually draped the wings over his shoulders, and let his tail drag behind. As he did, he found a second set of wings at his hips. Rather than articulate as the limbs at his shoulders did, these seemed to anchor from tendons or similar at his pelvis, and hinge and fan out from his thighs. On later examination and thought, the similarity to a birds tail would suggest itself in the design.

First Jim crawled around to his left. The computer rack for his tube was on the far side. He crawled over the cables for the second tank, and around the computer rack. Here he found the controls for the tank were next to the computer stack. The only thing showing any kind of activity was a count down clock, showing just under an hour to zero.

“Well, no sense trying to fumble about in the dark, and risk something.” Jim turned and crawled toward the light, and the double doors.

Jim was about halfway to the doors when a rumble moved through the floor beneath him.

“Humm. Can’t be too far away, if we can feel a train moving near by.”

The double doors were the type that swing back and forth easily, without any latches. First thing Jim found through the double doors was a tiled floor layed over the concrete he had been crawling on. This floor stretched away ahead of him into what looked like was a locker room, and maybe a bathroom beyond. To his immediate right was a room that appealed to him. A tiled shower room about three meters to a side, and three shower heads to each side for nine in total. The lights came from fixtures almost two stories above for this whole enclosed area.

Jim pulled his wings and tail through and crawled to the wall and braced against it to stand up. His feet were tender, and Jim realized that he could not use the full length from ball to ankle to stand on, but like the hind legs of a four legged animal or a bird, he could only stand on the ball and toes. Bracing on the trough that ran around the sides of this area, he carefully stood enough to reach the control of the first shower head, turned it on, and pointed the head as best he could to the center of the room. He then made his way clockwise around to the others. Each of the three walls had three heads. The middle head of each was a hand wand on a hose.

Sitting in the middle, he let the warm water rinse over him. Jim found a way to sit comfortably by concentrating and moving his tail behind him, not under him. Also with concentration, he could spread his wings. However he could not hold their weight. Spreading them out to rinse them was a different matter. At full open he figured he had a more surface area than a parachute, and maybe a personal sport glider/kite. At the end of his tail was a set of fins folded against the sides. Concentrating he found he could open these up, as well as the ones at his thighs. One last set of flaps he discovered sat at his groin, with an inner flap of skin and an outer one covered with fur. Properly arranged they worked as the fly of a set of briefs. He put these in place after drying off.

The steam from the water began to interact with the remnants of the fluid in his lungs, and Jim was soon burping and coughing more fluid out. Jim tried to stand up in the middle of the shower, only to sit down hard finding he had no balance. So, like a newborn, he would have to crawl for a bit longer, or use the furniture and walls for support.

Around the side from the shower Jim had seen several banks of lockers. After turning off the water, and using the wall to lean against, Jim carefully shuffled into the first set of two. Standard industrial lockers lined both sides, with a bench down the middle. Jim opened several lockers in succession. Each had three folded towels.

Jim sat on the bench and dried off piling the sodden towels at the end of the bench. His mind was working over how he had gotten into this situation, but could not find a pleasing answer. On his forth towel he figured he had his fur as dry as it would get. As for his wings, they shed water easily.

His tail was covered with fur most of the length, which became finer as it got closer to the end. He figured the full length of the tail was about twice what his legs were, from hip to toe. Running it along the bench, the bench was slightly longer as he sat at one end. With some concentration he could twitch it.

The steam had helped to clear his lungs, as had a fit of coughing and spitting. As it was, Jim kept a towel around his neck to wipe his mouth as his body expelled the last.

As Jim looked around idly, deciding what to do next, he noticed that cameras were mounted high up on the walls, able to see everything. These were hardwired into the walls. Jim dismissed what he could not do anything about right now, and decided to see what all he could do. Taking a handful of towels, and pushing the least sodden ones with his feet, he managed to cross the hall that ran the length of this room. He would check the rest later, as he wanted to get back to the computers first. Using that wall for support he went back to the double doors and out. As he crawled back to the tubes, he used the wet towels to wipe up the trail he had made coming the other direction.

Crawling around to the computer rack for his tube he found a rolling stool set beside it. Jim managed to get onto the stool, and then wrap his tail around the foot bar and curl his wings where they would not catch anything. He found the keyboard for this computer and pulled it out and woke the system up. A screen folded out above the keyboard. With this Jim would be able to start investigating the programs that were here. He looked at the bundle of cables that ran from the rack to the tube equipment, and from both of these and the other tube to the wall behind him as he sat. There they appeared to enter a standard set of plug-ins and disappear into the wall.

As Jim waited for the system to fully come on he looked around. Three skylights lit the room he was in, with no other lights in the main room. It looked to him like a standard small warehouse. The skylights demarked thirds, of the room. Two very large ceiling fans mounted between the middle and outer skylights circulated the air. Roof vents and a heater hung at one end completed the observable equipment installed. Jim spotted what were likely more cameras in the rafters. He also realized that it was getting lighter, signaling dawn. The double doors and the locker room beyond looked to take half of the structure they were in. Jim estimated that the built up area covered about a half of the floor space of that end third of the room, and was two stories tall with the overall room being closer to three and a half.

With his system finally up and responsive, Jim began to see what programs were in it, and what they did. The first to come up were a handful of medical recorders for the sensors on his tube. These had cycled down as he had opened the tube. Next were the tube maintenance programs, also cycled down. Two more programs occupied the system, both considerably larger than the rest combined. Jim was slightly startled at the first, but not the second. Both programs were dormant. The first was a nanite transformation instruction program. It was the largest program in this computer. The second was instruction for the nanites after completing the transformation instructions.

Jim found that whomever had done this had left the code editing program on this computer, so using it he opened the first program. He did not take long to get into the meat of it, as he wanted to check the other rack and see what it would say.

Jim scooted around the foot end of the tubes on the stool, and opened the second rack’s computer. He did not have to wait for it to power up, as it was still active. The medical programs were all active, and as near as Jim could tell the person they were monitoring was simply still asleep, and in good health.

Jim opened the second nanite program and started scanning it. Jim quickly realized and dismissed that the people whom had done this had used the coding and protocols that his team had developed to program, manage and monitor the nanites. As such he was able to read the code and understand what it was saying. The gist was that the last commands for the nanites were to process out the anesthetic, then to cannibalize three fourths of the remainder into raw materials and flush through the excretory systems the waste, and process the rest into the tissues of the host. The last forth to find the endocrine and immune systems, mark themselves as harmless, and go dormant.

As Jim read the code and figured out what it meant, he heard the systems for the second tube change in tone. It was cycling to shut down.

Jim scooted around to where he had set the towels down on the end of this tube and put them over his shoulder. He watched as the timer ran to zero, and listened as the fluid in the tube stopped circulating and began draining into the holding tank below it. The medical scanners showed respiration becoming a bit labored, and the heart rate rose from resting. Jim expected whomever this was would be as wet as he had been, as well as having whatever the fluid was still in his/her lungs, and belly. Jim remembered something about draining a drowning person’s lungs by holding their head below the lungs until the fluid stopped draining, and wondered it that would really work here.

The tube’s latching mechanism snapped to the unlocked position, and the pressure seal gave off a sucking sound as ventilation fans on the top of the tube began to push air into the tube. Jim first braced against the tube and raised the stool to maximum height so that the tube was at comparative table top height, then found the external latch and pulled it to release the lid, and pushed it open on its hinges. A soggy body lay within. Jim guessed the identity of the person almost immediately, on seeing that this was a female.

Shortly she began to cough and vomit up fluid. Jim put a towel around her neck and upper chest to catch as much of this as he could. Then he began to towel off her feet as the residual fluid drained around her tail. As he went, he saw that she had essentially the same changes to her body as he had to his. Jim had one foot and leg up to her knee done when she moaned, and started to move on her own.

He moved to her side. “Give it time. There is still fluid in your lungs; you will be coughing it out for awhile. Let me help you.”

Jim wiped off her face with a towel, and gathered her medium length hair out from under and around her and put it above her head. She tried to sit up, and he put his hand under her back and helped her to do so.

“Alright, here we go. A bunch is going to come up and out right now.”

As she spit up and soaked the towels at her neck and chest, Jim simply held his hand at the center of her back, and the other on her shoulder. Finally she could breathe easily, and support herself. He noticed that like his wings, hers were a darker pigment than the rest of her skin, with the fine fur on the limbs themselves. She looked herself over, and began to panic from incoherence and unfamiliarity of her situation. He scooted down some on the stool and took her face in his hands, getting her to look at him. She put her hands around his wrists, looking a bit wild eyed.

“Start with your name,” Jim ordered.

After sputtering and coughing a bit she finally found her voice. “Tanya. I’m Tanya Sutton.”

As she spoke he saw that her teeth had been changed, slightly realigned, her canines more prominent, and all showed the look of being perfectly clean and properly formed. This confirmed for Jim what he had been feeling with his tongue, but not yet taken time to find a mirror to examine in depth. He looked back at her eyes as she blinked nictitating membranes as well as her eyelids to clear her eyes of excess fluid.

“Tanya, I’m Dr. Tiller. I’m Jim.”

She focused on his eyes, and then began to relax as she looked the rest of his face over, and touched it briefly. He felt the prick of her talons through the fur on his cheeks. Letting go of her face, Jim took the towel at Tanya’s neck to wipe her mouth and chin, then put it aside.

Tanya looked around as he began to work on her arm with a fresh towel.

“What happened? Last I remember was setting the program running to heal the cut in your hand.” Tanya touched the back of her neck, where someone might have stuck her with a hypo-gun to knock her out.

“I don’t know, but do have guesses. We can’t walk freely yet. I have managed like a toddler, trying to find my balance and learn how to make these unfamiliar legs work.”

Tanya leaned over, to look at his legs, and vomited more fluid all over his legs and the floor. He waited for her to finish and handed her one of the last clean towels.

“That tastes foul,” she wiped her mouth and began working on drying herself off.

“It does. I woke about an hour ago, and am still coughing up vapor as it clears my lungs.”

Jim took one of the towels and placed it across her torso for modesty and propriety, and to catch any more that she might spit up. He had earlier recognized that she had flaps for her groin and for her breasts, and not touched them out of respect for her personal space.

She toweled her arm that Jim could not discretely reach, as he used some sodden towels to wipe up the mess on the floor, and his legs. Fortunately she had generally missed the stool. As she came to them, she extracted the IV lines in her elbows. Jim turned to the ones in her knees, noticing that she adjusted herself under and replaced the towel he had set on her for her modesty.

Tanya stopped and sniffed the fur on her arm. “This smells awful. Is there somewhere to clean up?”

“Are your eyes clear enough to see the doors?” He pointed toward the double doors. “There is a shower and locker room with a large shower, and more towels. You can crawl, or I can push you over on the stool I am sitting on.”

“I will try the stool.” Tanya patted instinctively for her glasses, and then stopped to really look herself over. “I’m not just furry now, am I?”

She had claws on her toes that looked to Jim to be robust enough to use for climbing. Also like a canine, feline, and him, she had pads on the balls of her feet and toes, with fine fur between them. Her tail and wings were folded up under her and coiled at the bottom of the tank, respectively. As she looked at this, Jim realized that this possibly meant that the tubes had probably been upright for much of the transformation process. Whether through grogginess or low light, or whatever, Tanya finally began to understand some of what had happened. She lifted each leg to see her wings underneath, and her tail. Tanya patted herself down to see what was really attached, and where. She bent her knees to get a closer look at her feet, and wiggled her toes. After some moments she looked over at Jim as he sat on the stool. He smiled, showed her his teeth, and ruffled his wings. She ran her hands through her hair and then took a towel to it for a bit to get most of the fluid out of it.

Tanya then turned, put her hands to either side of the tube, and lifted herself up to the edge. Jim scooted the stool up to where he figured she would land, and then braced himself against the tube and stood up, carefully. He had to manually move his tail behind him.

Jim braced Tanya as she carefully turned and brought one leg over. “I just rolled out, and crawled around, until I found the stool. I wouldn’t try to land on your feet, just control your fall.”

Tanya brought her wings up manually, and almost lost her balance, though Jim was able to hold her upright. She took the side of the tube and twisted around bringing her other leg out, and landed on her knees. For a moment she paused, and then spit more up into the tube. She finished by kneeling there and catching her breath.

“How much more is there?” Tanya relaxed there as she finished.

Jim held the stool still as she got up on and settled onto it. “We were both completely submerged in the stuff. No way to know for sure how much, but I think I have most of it out of my lungs.” To emphasize this, Jim coughed for a bit and spit it into the tube.

“Give it a few hours. Maybe overnight.” Jim tried to smile. But the bad taste curdled in his mouth.

Tanya adjusted herself on the stool, folding her wings under her, and wrapping her tail around the foot bars. Jim carefully put his hands to her shoulders to push, trying not to put too much of his own weight on her. Carefully he started to push her across the room.

“Sorry if we crash, I still don’t have my full balance.” Jim shuffled faster as he went.

They each remembered one of the activities that had happened in their lab to break tension was sliding around on rolling stools like this one. Crashes were not uncommon, fortunately most ended with only bruised egos. Jim had successfully pushed most of the way to the doors when they crossed the seam in the concrete floor. The wheels on the stool caught and over they went. Tanya had actually started to laugh, but as she lay on the floor beside where Jim had sprawled, the laughter turned to her hacking up more fluid.

For his part, Jim had been able to land with out too much incident. It took him a brief moment to account for his hands, one of which was across Tanya. She had rolled over to expel the fluid as she laughed, so he figured that whatever awkwardness was past for his landing partly on her. For her part, Tanya learned and kept to herself how sensitive her skin was through her fur, feeling his hand and arm brush against her breast and side. They got to their hands and knees, and crawled the last meters to the door. Jim obligingly held the door as she went through.

Tanya watched as Jim used the wall for support and turned on one of the banks of shower heads, and rinsed his legs off with the hand unit. Then he shuffled out and around the corner to where he had said the lockers were and she heard him get another towel out of one. As she rinsed off in the middle of the nine streams of water she saw him shuffle out the double doors with another towel. As he went he dropped a bottle of soap he had just found, it slid down his leg, and he then gave it a push with his foot to slide over to her.

As Tanya repeated what Jim had done most of an hour earlier in rinsing off and rediscovering her body and the changes to it, Jim took the towel and went to her puddle where the stool had stopped and wiped it up. Then using the stool for support he went back and got the sodden ones by the tubes, and gathering the pile he rolled back to the doors. Jim’s propriety and manors kept him from entering while the water ran. He left the towels in a pile by the door and the stool in reach as well.