This work is dedicated for Ryouko's birthday, August 23, 1998, to her
and all her sisters, the long suffering Cat-girls of Anime and Fantasy.

	This work is derived from Characters and Situations that are Copyright
and/or Trademark AIC, and Pioneer LDCA, all public or commercial use of
this material would require the very unlikely permission of the original
copyright holders.
The ideas projected in this work are strictly the product of the
imagination of the author, inevitably reflecting his mind, and should in
no way be taken to reflect on the originals from which they are derived.
	I would like to comment briefly about the use of the words "dono" and
"chan". I have carried these salutations over because they are so much a
part of Washu-chan's signature. "Chan" is a familiar diminutive, meaning
'little one", but there is no real English equivalent. The book meaning
of "dono" is Mr. or Mrs., appropriately. "Dono" has in the past
generally been used by clients addressing patrons.
	I have placed a brief note at the end regarding the terms "Felix" and
"Felid", both because the information might be taken as a "spoiler", and
it might be taken as annoyingly trivial. Enjoy.

The Sorrows of Hakubi Washu

	A rather small pre-adolescent girl sat on a cushion in the back of the
ceramics shop. It would have been easy to overlook her, despite the
startling shock of spiky red hair, except for what she was doing. In a
shop newly noted for it's exquisite glazes and colors, this child,
mortar and pestle in hand, was mixing powders. Prince Hador,  Commerce
Secretary for the Felix planetary system, paused in his conversation
with the proprietor.
	"Why isn't that child in school, Master Hashiyama?"
	Beads of sweat popped out on the swarthy proprietor's face.
	"She is a peasant girl, m'lord, a street urchin that I have taken on as
a charity." 
	Prince Hador walked past the counter and over to the corner where the
girl was grinding. He leaned over her, inspecting the content of the
mortar.
	"What are you mixing, my child?"
	"My name is Hakubi Washu, and I am making Master Hashiyama's pots
pretty, Dono"
	"Baka!", Hashiyama's boomed across the shop, "That is the Prince you
are addressing."
	The child hastily set down her mortar in a puff of dust and commenced
bowing to the floor, a flood of humble apologies tumbling from her lips.
Tut-tut-ing, the Prince reached down and lifted her chin gently with his
fingers, staring speculatively into those olive green eyes, which along
with the vertically ovoid pupils, bespoke the mixing of galactics with
the oddly felid native population.
	"You may call me Dono, Washu-chan."
	"Master Hashiyama, I want this child sponsored to the State Academy
exams. Have her tutored and bring her to next month's exams. I have a
feeling about this one. 
	Ah, don't worry, Master Potter, you will be compensated. Take care of
this one, and I will authorize you a new apprentice.
	You will show Master's new apprentice how to make the pots pretty,
won't you, Washu-chan?"
	The young girl nodded assent, and voiced a simple "eeh".

 	At sixteen, Hakubi Washu was the youngest student yet to win a
scholarship to the recently formed Royal Science Academy. She was also
the first from the Felix system to carry a native heritage into the
center of galactic affairs. To say it had been easy would be to ignore
the shortness of Prince Hador's stipend, and to lessen the upright
effort of Master Hashiyama, bachelor, foster father and struggling shop
owner; but insofar as it was a matter of mind, Washu did make it seem
easy.
	"The cartage fee to Todain is two hundred credits per Kilo. I'm sorry,
Washu-chan, but I can't afford even a single kilo of luggage allowance
for you. For that matter, you know I am an old man, and the Prince will
stop paying the moment you are gone. I am afraid the shop will have to
close, and I will retire to the countryside, where it is cheaper."
	"I know, Master, and I have a plan." Washu said slyly, flashing a glint
of dainty felid fang at the corner of her smile.
	The plan went something like this: Washu had noticed that a craze was
sweeping amongst Galactics, the collection of native pre galactic
pottery from the Felix system, derisively dubbed "Meow-Meow". Now,
growing up in a potter's shop, with full access, the onetime glaze maker
had identified a market and intended to fill it.
	It was a joke of almost cosmic proportions that the most coveted pieces
were, unbeknownst to their fanciers, chamber-pots. This was because of
the extraordinary care taken in the glaze by the original makers; a
simple matter of function. Washu simply fashioned a copy of a popular
piece and ran off several hundred copies. Thanks to her expertise, the
copies each had fine and unique glazes that would stay deep, vibrant and
uncracked for many of thousands of years.
	Circulating through the street markets of  her home city of Felix
Majorum, the principle port and oldest city on Felix Prime, Washu found
more than one buyer for her copies.
	"You realize, of course, that these are copies? It would be dishonest
not to disclose this to a buyer." Washu smiled at her latest contact.
	"But of course, little Miss", the black-marketeer blandished, as he
paid her sixty credits for each chamber-pot, three times the value of a
known copy.

	"Here you go, Master. Twelve thousand credits, enough for your
retirement, with a little left over for me. I won't arrive at the
Academy totally broke."
	"Don't forget me, when you're out there among the stars."
	"We both know what everyone says, that no one ever comes back to Felix
system, but I shall never forget what you have done for me." Washu
turned away, rather than see old Master Hashiyama's tears, who had never
so much as cracked a smile in eight years as foster father.
		
	Landing pass and visa in hand, Washu made her way through customs.
Since the entirety of Planet Todain was given over to the Royal Science
Academy, it was not difficult for her to find her way to registration.
None the less it took an entire exhausting day to check into the dorm,
get registered for classes, and buy books and uniforms. A few eyebrows
were raised at her dual major, Industrial Design and Theoretical
Physics; they went even higher when the registrar checked her entrance
scores. This was one student quite capable of carrying a dual major at
the most elite institution in the galaxy.
	Decked out in her new attire, complete with departmental markings for
both Engineering and Physics, the exhausted girl made her way to the
Student Union. In front of that building, a fountain played in the warm
afternoon light. Finding an open space on the coping, she sat down, near
some bearded upperclassmen, Jurian by their looks. Unexpectedly, she was
shoved to the ground, barely able to land on hands and feet.
	"Hey, we don't allow no Cat-slave sluts on our fountain".
	A tall figure reached down with right hand to help her up, and with
left hand swept the miscreant into the fountain.
	As the Jurian sputtered and flailed in the water, his buddies whipped
out their (supposedly) ceremonial swords. Jurai energy crackled in the
air as the interloper stared down the rowdies. Sullenly bowing to
superior force, swords were sheathed, and the rowdies began to back off.
	"We are all students of Truth here. Equal before the gods. Think on
that before you risk dishonoring your ancestors by joining them while in
a condition of spiritual darkness."
	Washu looked up at the soft featured, blonde galactic offering her his
hand. She would ever after remember the almost liquid waves of his hair,
and the depth of his bright blue eyes. He stood nearly two meters to her
one and a half.
	"Do not trouble yourself about the likes of those, they are barbarians.
Arrogant, loud, they may be the new power in our Galaxy, but they are
little more than pirates."
	"Hakubi Washu, dono." Washu bowed, without releasing the warm firm
hand, or looking away from his tall, thin aspect.
	"T'ao Jaro."
	"That was the legendary Jurai power." Washu stated that as an
affirmation, though she had never before encountered the phenomenon,
only heard tales. "You are Juraian?"
	"Hardly. The Juraians think they have a patent on the power. It is the
life force of the living DNA biosphere. I am a galactic of the Kentaur
clan. Here, if those", he paused significantly," bother you again, call
me". He handed her a card, and was gone.
	Washu blinked, after the fact. She would have thought him a product of
her imagination, but for the small plastic tab in her left hand. The
centimeter wide, six centimeter long strip read "T'ao Jaro" in elegant
galactic script, and carried the device of the Kentaur combine, the most
powerful commercial combine in the newly formed GP Union. She knew that
if she inserted the card in her communicator, it would instantly connect
her with that elegant galactic. She hastily attached the strip to her
key fob, hoping fervently never to have to use it.
	In the following weeks and months Washu found that she did not need to
call upon T'ao Jaro. Indeed, every Juraian in the school seemed to
scrupulously avoid conflict with her, never even arguing rudely and
shouting her down, the way they did others in seminar classes. She even
tried an experiment, sitting on the coping of the student fountain, just
as she had that first day; the Juraian upper-classmen quietly edged out
of arms reach, exchanging glances of repressed annoyance.
	Time itself seemed to evaporate, as Hakubi Washu emersed herself in her
studies, quickly finding herself moved from lower to upper class
courses, and invited to graduate seminars. By the end of her second
year, Washu was moved peremptorily to senior status, given a graduate
stipend, and required to attend the summer commencement.
	Commencement was held in an open circular arena, hewn from the living
rock of the planet, and as one would expect on a climate-controlled
planet, the weather was perfect. Though the entire Academy only had a
few hundred students at any given time, they were distilled from tens of
thousands of inhabited planets. Thus, each of the graduating students
had a delegation of dignitaries. As Washu took her assigned seat, she
was stunned to find herself sitting to the left of Prince Hador. The
Prince looked hardly any older than she had remembered.
	"You are everything I had hoped for, Washu-chan."
	Washu inclined her head in acknowledgement, and blushed.
	"The days of prejudice against felid heritage are coming to an end."
	Washu suddenly felt very small: 'Is that why I was chosen?', she
wondered.
	"Prejudice has no truck with reality, my Prince." Washu glanced up to
find T'ao Jaro sitting on her left. "Felids are perfectly human, as
Professor Fuan has demonstrated time and again."
	Washu reflected quickly, Professor Fuan was the renowned Psycho-biology
proponent who now occupied the post of Biophysics Dean at the Academy.
She remembered seeing T'ao Jaro listed as a Psycho-biology major, and
suddenly realized that he was wearing graduation colors.
	"Congratulations, T'ao Jaro, dono. Do you intend to go on to graduate
school here?"
	"Thank you, and most certainly. I did not come here just to commence a
career in galactic affairs, but to explore the mysteries of life in the
cosmos. Besides, I want to be here for the winter commencement. Wouldn't
miss it for the world: the youngest honors graduate in the history of
the Academy, a woman, and a felid, no less. It should make a
discomfiture for the Jurai lords."
	With a flush of confusion, shame, and anger, Washu realized that he was
letting her in on a plan for her own life, unknown to herself.
	"I am not a felid, I am a half! My father was a galactic. I don't want
any such honors." In the first days of galactic exploration the Jurai
had found and enslaved the Felid race, maintaining that they were
neither human nor sentient.  Only the combined outrage of the other
Galactics had put an end to that shameful episode, and brought about the
Felix Protectorate. She felt a stinging anger at the blonde giant
sitting next to her.
	"Oh, I am sorry", he looked across at the Prince, "I had no idea that
the Prince had not discussed these matters with you."
	"I have not seen the Prince but once in my life, and that was ten years
ago on Felix Prime, he said nothing of felids then."
	"Again, I am sorry. I did not mean to discomfit you, my lady. Allow me
to, make amends: If you please, I will pick you up at eight tonight for
dinner at the Auraoral?"
	"I am no lady, dono, but do as you please."

	None the less, at eight o'clock that evening, Washu was waiting in full
academic dress, freshly laundered since the morning's commencement. She
was not to be disappointed.
	T'ao Jaro, similarly dressed, escorted her without comment. It should
have been no surprise that a scion of the Kentaur combine could guest
and dine privately at the Auroral; that facility was for the use of
faculty and visiting Galactic dignitaries. Ensconced in pressurized
comfort, in the highest of the mountain peaks surrounding the campus,
well over five thousand meters above the school, the insulated windows
gave diners  at night a spectacular close-up view of the planet's very
active aurora. They were deep in the joys of Kentauran Wazkit flambeau
when Washu's composure finally cracked.
	"Is that what it's all about? All I am to you Galactics is a trained
kitty? The trained pussy cat that solves partial differential equations?
	Nothing, nothing was said to me. All these years, I thought it was my
abilities. I thought that I was earning every step, and now I
find,....and now I find...." Tears were streaming down her cheeks, "I
don't want any part of it."
	"It is not like that at all, my lady".
	"I am not your lady, I am little Washu, the trained kitty from Felix
Prime."
	"O.K., Washu-chan; but you have scrupulously earned each and every
academic credit along the way. The Jurai authorities would not have
allowed otherwise.
	I am amazed that you could go along this far and not have a clue what
is going on. Everything here, my kitten, is about politics. Every
student, and every project, at the Royal Science Academy is funneled
through Jurai's defense research establishment. That is why the entire
resources and population of a planet are devoted to supporting a few
hundred students and faculty. The best of everything kept for Jurai, the
leavings go to the new Galaxy Police force. Everything here is bought
and owned by the Jurai crown, including yourself and I. The people in
charge don't care whether you are human, or even a DNA based life-form.
All they care about is results."
	"So nothing has changed in two hundred years since the abolition of the
Cat-slave trade?"
	"On the other hand, the Crown cares a whole lot about rooting out old
Juraian prejudices, but they have a long ways to go.
	Anyway, let us enjoy our dinner."
	The Galactic and the half-felid resumed dining, not uttering another
word not concerned with food, until the candied grakkles were gone, and
there was nothing more to consume. All appetite sated, the couple turned
their full attention to the spectacle around them. The private dining
room consisted entirely of a seamless, floor to ceiling bay window and
skylight. With the lights out, the auroral veils swept over them with an
intensity not imagined from the vantage point of the campus thirty
kilometers away. The watching was almost hypnotic, and it took a while
for Washu to realize that she was alone in a dark and private room with
this powerful Galactic lordling.
	As awareness of her situation grew, Washu didn't know whether she
should be afraid that T'ao Jaro would try something, and wishing that
she could curl up against him; and that made her flush ashamed in the
darkness. "Cat-slave" was a by-word of the galactic sex trade. Her
feelings seemed like a betrayal of her mother's kind.
	"Are you aware of the controversy about biomorphic fields, evolution,
and the anthropic principle?" T'ao Jaro's voice soothed out of the
darkness.
	"I am too much of a specialist. Of course I've heard of the anthropic
principle. Anyway, what does that have to do with Wazkit flambeau and
candied grakkles?"
	T'ao Jaro chuckled in the dark, "Everything. O.K., if you acknowledge
the anthropic principle. We wouldn't be here to enjoy Wazkit and
grakkles if the properties of our universe didn't accommodate the rise
of sentient life. We necessarily look out on a universe with narrowly
defined physical properties that make us, the observers, possible. Most
of the observers are DNA lifeforms, and more peculiarly, most are human.
How did this come about?
	Well, it appears that some form of cosmic seed theory applies. Somehow,
entire Galaxies were seeded with the beginnings of DNA life, and the
life on each world evolved in parallel. What we have found is that the
parallelism of evolution is dictated by the existence of biomorphic
fields. These fields are what has allowed various sentient groups,
tribes, cults, etc., to mould the form of beings and organisms under
their influence. Hence the improbable mythic monsters and exotic forms
that have arisen on many worlds. We don't really understand what the
Biomorphic fields are, but it is difficult to conceive of how evolution
could proceed in a universe without these powerful shaping fields.
	Now the peculiar thing is, when we analyze the DNA of different
species, particularly humans and the other organisms that travel with
them, we find that all humans are related, as are all cats, all dogs,
all cetaceans. Apparently, humanity spread after we were evolved. We
don't know how they were spread prior to our Galactic civilization. 
There is parallel evolution of very human like humanoids on some worlds,
but if you analyze the DNA, it is easy to show that they are not human;
nor, to no one's surprise, can they interbreed with humans. 
	When it comes to Felids, the first clue that they are human is that we
can interbreed. You are living proof of that. Even more so, Dr. Fuan's
studies of human and felid genomes have shown that the entire felid gene
set lies absolutely and unequivocally within the natural range of human
variation.
	It would seem that the entire native human population of Felix Prime is
descended from a single tribe that went through an intense period of cat
worship; to the extent that they set up powerful Biomorphic fields, to
the shaping of their own descendants."
	"I still don't like it, being chosen."
	"Oh, that! Who could have known?" T'ao Jaro laughed.
	"The bright felid half that Prince Hador found mixing glazes in a Felix
Majorum pottery turned out to be the brightest human mind yet discovered
on a hundred million worlds."
	Washu was beginning to feel the effects of a long day, a full meal, and
the accompanying ethanol. By the time T'ao Jaro said "cat worship", she
found herself snuggling under his arm. In the haze of oncoming sleep,
the phrase "brightest human mind" seemed strange; could he possibly mean
me? The last thing she remembered was gnawing with her fangs on a
trailing length of gold braid from T'ao Jaro's gaudy graduation uniform.
	She awoke in her own bed, still discreetly dressed in her formal suit.

 	The half year between summer and winter commencements seemed like
hardly any time at all to Hakubi Washu. There were more dinners,
theater, and excursions to nearby lakes to enjoy the Todain variety of
personal watercraft. Since this did not lessen Washu's predilection for
around the clock immersive  study, she seldom paused to reflect, except
for the five minutes or so before drifting off into the one to two hour
catnaps that seemed to be all the recharge she required. 
      Despite the increasing warmth and passion of their closeness, T'ao
Jaro and Washu maintained their physical relationship one step short of
ultimate intimacy. The customs of the time and place would have allowed
otherwise, but Washu steadfastly refused to surrender to the
passion-frenzy that made felids a byword for sexuality.
      There were a few humorous incidents in this student romance. The
most notable being their first excursion to a lake. Now, as far as
public pools and baths were concerned, the presence of the highly
repressed and prudish Juraians presented little problem. The Juraians
simply were either screened off, or wore heavily concealing bathing
costumes: But an outdoors lake was another matter. Arriving at the lake,
Washu discarded her outer clothing, and proceeded in the full modesty of
a felician bathing costume, which modestly concealed the shoulders and
arms, and nothing more. It took almost a minute for it to sink into
Washu's awareness why T'ao Jaro was stifling laughter, as Juraian males
up and down the beach were staring and stumbling.
     It was one week before Washu's graduation that T'ao Jaro proposed
to her. As was appropriate to the custom of that place and time, they
agreed to a civil ceremony, immediately following the commencement. On
commencement morning, Washu sat with T'ao Jaro, her communicator in
hand, reading over a holographic projection of the marriage license,
which included a detailed DNA compatibility analysis.
     "Eeh? We're related?"
     "But of course, my kitten", came T'ao Jaro's amused reply, "Why do
you think I noticed you in the first place? Your arrival on Todain set
off all sorts of alarms in Kentaur clan circles, as soon as your DNA
analysis was posted to GP security. Papa Hakubi was a fourth cousin to
the Kentaur main family. His marriage to a felid caused quite a scandal,
and they tried to get it annulled, but he died before action could be
taken over interstellar distances."
     "Are you sure your family is O.K. with our marriage?"
     "Of course it is. That was what, eighteen years ago? My family has
matured a lot in that period."
     During the commencement ceremony, Prince Hador was once again
present. Washu decided at this point that she really must learn more
about politics. Two trips to Todain in a single year must have cost a
fortune, not to mention several months out of the Prince's busy
schedule. When her name was called, she was further astonished to find
Prince Hador rising at her side, to escort her up to the podium.
     Afterward, the civil marriage was little more than a matter of
going to the registrar's office and signing before two witnesses. The
moment the clerk recorded the signing, T'ao Jaro's communicator chimed.
He looked at the message projected for his perusal, and a brief
bafflement came and went.
     "I've been disowned.
     Oh, well. No more excursions to the Auroral, but what with two
graduate stipends, and student housing, we'll hardly suffer."
     A tear glittered, unreleased, in Hakubi-Kentaur Washu's eye.
That evening, after a light dinner, the couple went home to their one
room and a bath apartment and shed the baroque finery of pomp and
circumstance, to bathe together. As they were drying off, Washu prayed
to her mother's cat-goddess for the first time since leaving the
streets, and then abandoned herself to the felid passion rising in her.
Two hours later, T'ao Jaro was pleading for mercy in the embrace of a
passion-fevered felid, her Galactic ancestry scarcely discernable 
     Little more than nine months later, Hakubi-Kentaur Ito was born.

     Those were the happy days. Her restless thirst for knowledge seemed
redoubled by the joys of motherhood, and the constant companionship of
her husband, partner, fellow student. Since Washu slept little, was able
to do three or four things at once, and never seemed to tire of doting
on little Ito, the child had, if anything, inhanced her mental powers.
By the time Ito was six months old, Washu had been advanced to the
doctoral program in Theoretical Physics, and she had patented her first
invention, a quantum tunneling resonator that would allow what had
previously seemed utterly unobtainable, superluminal communication.
Previous to this invention, the only way to communicate between the
stars had been by courier.
     T'ao Jaro had also meanwhile advanced to doctoral studies under the
brilliant but unpopular Dr. Fuan. Washu now knew enough of politics to
understand why the Psycho-biology team under Dr. Fuan was so unpopular.
Many of the powers in the Galaxy felt threatened by studies that
undermined the theories or prerogatives of their power. One factor in
particular made the positions of T'ao Jaro and Dr. Fuan precarious; the
progress they were making in the theory of biological energy fields. The
foundational patron of the Academy was Jurai, and they considered
biological energy to be their exclusive prerogative, calling it "Jurai
Energy".
     When Washu was invited by her doctoral advisor on a field trip to
study a nearby black-hole, the only worry seemed to be what T'ao Jaro
would do if the Psycho-biology program were to be cancelled. Their
private situation didn't seem too serious, since Washu's contributions
had by then solidified her value to the Jurai establishment. They made
their partings in the sure confidence of their equal partnership to care
for little Ito, though if the truth were to be told, T'ao Jaro knew full
well that he was the consort of intellectual royalty. Washu's last
memory of the two was of T'ao Jaro holding little Ito and waving goodbye
as she was levitated up to a Jurai ship for the field trip.
     It was a happy Washu, flush with new ideas for describing naked
singularities, that tried to call T'ao Jaro, as her ship descended
toward the Todain transit terminal. Her call to his personal
communicator resulted in the reply "Not registered on Todain public
net". Her next call, to the apartment, was shunted to voice mail, "Hi,
Hakubi Washu here. I'm not home right now, if you wish to leave a
message...": Well, that certainly wasn't right. The apartment answerer
had always messaged as "Kentaur T'ao Jaro". So it was with considerable
worry and haste that Washu hurried through customs and onward to her
apartment. When she got there, it was deserted.
     Stuck to the refrigerator were two message chips. She inserted the
first in her communicator and a holographic projection of T'ao Jaro
appeared, he was very stoic in demeanor.
     "Dearest Washu, there has been an incursion into Kentaur space by a
power calling itself "Tokimi". My reserve commission in the Kentaur
forces has been activated, and I have been ordered to the Lesser
Magellanic Cloud to confront the enemy. May the gods protect you both
till my return." During the whole performance, his eyes were blinking
oddly.
     It only took Washu moments to figure out, T'ao Jaro was blinking
alternate eyes in the galactic equivalent of ASCII. Replaying the
message, she easily deciphered "Suicide mission, oooxxx". Breathing very
hard, Washu inserted the second message chip, it showed a text screen.
     "Jurai Authority, Child Protective Services case number 37584312,
In the matter of Hakubi-Kentaur Ito. Whereas there is no responsible
adult present to care for said minor child; in accordance with treaties
regarding custody of dependents related to so named Galactic Clans,
shall be transferred to representatives of Kentaur Clan.
End."
     According to Jurai Authority records, Washu's scream was heard
three buildings away at the Academy police substation. In any case, by
the time she reached the building lobby, she was met by two police
officers, armed with the staves that have from time immemorial been the
sole weapon of non-nobles, other than assault troops, of course, under
Jurai authority. The officers intercepted her at the door, and jammed
her between them.
     "Where's my baby?", the distraught mother shrilled.
     "Citizen, you are disturbing the peace. Come with us now. The
actions of Jurai Authority may not be questioned in this public manner." 
Twisting around between the two beefy officers, the frantic Washu
managed to get a leg free. Her knee went up between one officer's legs,
and despite a padded groin protector the officer slumped to the ground.
Grabbing the fallen officer's unfamiliar weapon, she managed to shatter
the second officer's jaw. She got about fifty meters across the commons
before she was intercepted by six reinforcements. Discarding their
staves, the lead officers tackled her and ground her into the lawn.
Later, she would remember sinking her fangs into a gloved hand, and
feeling meaty arms pressing against her carotid artery. Even as her
consciousness faded, she heard them arguing. 
     "Careful, this is one of their precious brains. The higher ups
don't want it damaged."
     "Damage my ass! She bit through a hundred credit pair of cut-proof
gloves. My hand's gonna have to be grafted."
     "Don't worry, worker's comp will cover it."
The next thing she remembered was being carried down a hallway, arms and
legs lashed firmly together.
     "I don't care if she is Crown property. They say these cat-sluts
are the hottest thing in the galaxy."
     "Fool, take it from the voice of experience. Felids are no fun when
they're angry. I heard she bit clear through Jon's hand, bone, glove,
everything."
     "Heh, the good old boys back home knew how to deal with a bitch
like that."
     "Forget it, Yousf. This one's out of our league."
     They dumped her in a padded cell, still tied, wet and stinking. Her
joints creaked and dislocated as she strained to reach the bindings with
her teeth. She began gnawing away at plastic, flesh, bone, whatever she
could reach. The door opened and a jail matron stepped in. She grabbed
Washu be the hair on her neck and pulled her from her bleeding wrists.
Head locked in arm, she held Washu's nose and poured a vial of something
in her mouth. Washu vainly tried to spit it out, but was forced to
swallow.
     As the liquid began to do it's work, Washu's eyes came to focus,
and she saw that the matron was an aging felid. Overly large golden eyes
with vertical slit pupils glowed from a wizened face, framed in graying
cyan. There was a dense fuzz on her cheeks, betraying a slight striping
pattern in white and gray.
     "There, my princess, that's better."
     "Why are you working for them?"
     "Working for them? They tolerate me to save felid lives for the
masters. I'll save you for the sake of our goddess, not for their
emperor. "
     "I don't want it. What have you given me? That was no Galactic
drug. I am no felid, surely you have poisoned me. Thank you."
     "The magic is passed through the female line, you are every bit as
much a felid as I, Princess Washu. As to whether you live or die, that
is up to her majesty. You are going to go see the Queen."
     "Magic? There is only science, and surely they are watching and
listening."
     "We shall see, my pretty. Haven't you noticed, we have not spoken a
single word. The masters only see what they want to see, and they hear
nothing. They know nothing."
     Washu dreamed in the darkness. There was a great arched hall,
surrounded by vaulted cloisters where hooded acolytes padded on furred,
sharp clawed feet. Somehow she found herself at the focus of the great
hall. Above her on a stepped dais a furred female humanoid reclined, a
nightmare of felinized humanity.
     "Haven't heard from you in a long time, have we, Princess Washu?"
     "How could I know you cared, majesty?"
     "Listen to your heart, little one. Do you think you are the only
felid that has suffered? Be that as it may, I do have something for you
now."
     "I want nothing but my son and husband."
     "Some things, make that many things, are beyond the power of a
goddess. Your man is in the hands of our new enemy, and your son has no
part in this magic. I claim the life that you are so ready to forfeit,
but will return it on forbearance. Henceforth your life is not yours,
but belongs to the one to whom I owe obeisance. You will have your
chance to fight not only the old enemy, the Jurai, but the new one to
whom your man has been handed."
     "Vengeance seems a poor beginning, but I will grasp any thread of
hope."
     "Oh, that is good", a new voice entered, "There is life in this
child yet, will you bear to assimilate with a goddess unknown?"
     "If the goddess of my mother promises me any hope, I will bear any
thing."
     "Then bear this!", the cat goddess shouted as she bounded from the
dais and severed the throat of Washu's spirit. The hot blood poured on
her breast as darkness overtook her.
     The goddess unknown came to her in the darkness and they were
joined. Neither death nor possession, it was a blending that was truly
Washu, now a goddess, who had always been a goddess, beyond the bounds
of time and space.
Returning to the great hall, Washu now found herself on the dais next to
the Queen, who now bore the appearance of an ordinary felid woman, with
blue hair and emerald eyes. All the details of predation and blood
sacrifice were gone.
     The felid goddess bowed to her.
     "You have surpassed me, my daughter." Washu realized that this
goddess was the mother that had died, leaving an eight year old half to
fend for herself on the streets of Felix Majorum.
     Washu looked in her right hand and knew that the three gems now
held were the tokens by which she would know the truth of this magic
when she returned to the world. Tokens by which she would be empowered
to create an avatar to express her power in this continuum.
     Washu slept.
     When she awoke, it was as if from a bad dream. She was still in the
padded cell, lying unbound, but still in her school uniform. The felid
matron slept cross legged, slumped against the wall. Washu sat up,
surprised to find that she was clean. Holding up her hands, she also
found that there was no mark on her wrists. Had she imagined the horror
of it all?
     "Hey you!", she looked strait at the spy camera peering down from
the high ceiling, "It's over, you can let me out now. I promise not to
hurt anyone."
     The matron sat up. "They won't let you out for three days, and you
will never be allowed offworld. You have cost the Jurai lords a lot of
trouble."
     "Never is a very long time."
     The reply, "Yes, divine princess", was heard only in Washu's mind.
     "I am Meow Lin."
     Three days later, two cops and a doctor unlocked the cell door. The
doctor examined Washu closely, asking her to strip. He shook his head in
bafflement, looking up at the old matron. 
     "This woman should be very near death, and in need of
reconstructive surgery. I don't know how you do it, Meow, but this is
the capstone. 
Very well, Miss Hakubi Washu, you may leave."
     She looked at the matron, thinking "Just like that?"
     In her mind, she heard the reply, "They expect you to pretend that
nothing ever happened. Everything gone without a trace." And so it was.
     As Washu walked out of that place, she reflexively clinched her
right fist. When she opened it, three one centimeter balls of blood red
glowing light lay in the palm of her hand. Closing her hand, she
returned the balls to where they had been, (that is about the only way
to put it). Washu stepped out into a world in which nothing had
transpired.
     She still had a private apartment, but it was documented for a
single graduate assistant. There were no momentous, no records of any
other person in her life. All traces had vanished. There was no Dr.
Fuan, a Doctor Hazit occupied the chair of Bio-Physics, had for the last
two years. The Psycho-biology lab was gone. Where it had been, there
wasn't even a door. Even the room numbers had vanished from the
numbering system. Vanished without a trace.
     Within six months, Washu had received her doctorate in Theoretical
Physics, and was making a swath in the Galactic patent office. She
dabbled in a few biology classes, but never made the mistake of trying
to sign up for Bio-Physics. About a year later, she applied for medical
classes. Officials grudgingly allowed her one class, and when it seemed
to have no detrimental effect on her prodigious output, further classes
were authorized.
     Two years later, returning from the commencement where she received
her MD, Washu found a strange wooden device attached to her kitchen
faucet. There was a message chip lying next to it.
     "Congratulations, Dr. Hakubi Washu, MD, PhD.. In recognition of
your value to the Jurai Crown, you have been granted the water of life.
Any time you draw water with the intention of consuming or cooking with
it, it will be the water of life. We wish you long life in the service
of our Emperor."
     Washu was initially awestruck, and not a little disgusted, certain
that the longevity dispensed to her could not possibly be being rationed
with justice. With the water of life, Washu could reasonably expect to
live upward of ten thousand years, near enough to immortality to explain
the monstrously egotistic conservatism of the Jurai nobility. On the
other hand, her goddess component came to the fore, laughing roundly.
     "They think to give us the gift of the gods? Have I ever mentioned,
dearest self, that we are immortal? No, I am not drawing on the right
concept; not immortality, we are outside time. This "gift" of theirs is,
unknown to them, meaningless."
     Washu smiled.

     If an individual had unlimited time, imagine what they could do.
Actually, most sentient beings would suffer terminal ennui within a
thousand years. This constituted a serious morale problem for the
Galactic aristocracy. Far too many of the "nobility" entered their
second millenium either raging psychotics, or bored to uselessness. Not
so Hakubi Washu; so her boundless enthusiasm for knowledge pleased the
Jurai no end, but they never forgot what they had done to her.
     In even five thousand years, the Jurai had not forgotten. A mere
request to travel off-planet in her five thousandth year was vehemently
rebuffed, and she found she had drawn the unwanted attentions of the
secret police. By the ten thousandth year, the Science Academy was an
institution of hoary antiquity even to the Galactic and the Jurai. No
living Jurai noble remembered the origins of the little cat-woman who
had so shaped their knowledge of the universe, but eons of practice had,
so they thought, insured the integrity of their records, and their
computers. With the Jurai Authority's AI network, it seemed that even
eternity would not free Hakubi Washu from her captors.
     At some point, every successful philosophical or mathematical
culture discovers that it is impossible to create a system of logic that
is both closed and consistent. What is a computer but a great logic
engine? Given enough time, even without the presence of the goddess
within, Washu would have found a way around the programmers of the Jurai
net. Certain files were misplaced, certain priorities re-routed. With
her skills in biology and physics, a second identity formed in the AI's
awareness. A second Hakubi Washu appeared, with a different DNA scan,
and a birth date ten millennia later, one that was free to travel, free
to engage in politics, but also free to use the credentials and vast
accumulated wealth of the original.
     During one of her off-world trips, searching for the long fade
traces of husband and child, in Kentaur space, Washu purchased an
automated shipyard that had fallen into disuse with a long term decline
in Kentaur power. This shipyard was a planetoid with an artificial
atmosphere, and a moderate natural gravitation, about one tenth
"normal". After a few trail runs, she constructed a ship of radical new
design, far more powerful than any previous fabricated ship, and
rivaling the most powerful of the living tree-ships that sustained
Jurai's mastery of the Galaxy. She christened this ship "Soja", the twin
serpents, in reference to both it's design, and her aspirations.
     Soja was constructed in two mirrored dimensional aspects. One half
extruded into the normal universe, and was the component that moved
through sub-space to defeat the limitation of the speed of light. The
other half existed in dimensions that a crazed mathematician might write
as imaginary space. One could only reach that "other" half by a
reflection process that necessarily could only be manipulated from a
higher dimension. No force in this continuum could affect Soja's hidden
half, and yet the "real" half was undergirded by it. Only a higher
dimensional weapon, wielded by a higher dimensional being could possibly
destroy Soja, and the "gods" were not generally inclined to fight their
own battles.
     It is perhaps ironic that the first use Washu, the Kentaur widow,
made of this ship, produced by a Kentauran shipyard, was as a lever
against Kentaur Authority. For over a thousand years, the gradually
recovering population and culture of the Felix system had been
struggling for independence, under the thumb of the "Felix
Protectorate", unable to overcome the manipulative power accorded by the
near immortality of the Kentaur nobility.
     One fine day, Soja appeared in the Felix system and made the
following announcement:
     "The Felix Protectorate will henceforth live up to it's name.
Kentauran forces will withdraw from the system and provide whatever
native authority arises with the external military and trade protection
called for in the original treaty of the Protectorate. I make no demands
beyond the law of the treaty, and will use no force: however, I will
henceforth obstruct any attempt to enforce Kentaur authority within the
system."
     The most powerful surviving Kentaur vessel in the sector moved
against Soja. Positioning herself mere kilometers from the mysterious
ship, the second hand police cruiser "Pride of Felix Prime" fired
without effect. Soja moved until it's force field was pressing against
the "Pride", and pushed her all the way back to the stratosphere of
Felix Prime.
     Within weeks, Kentaur Authority extended recognition to the felid
matriarchy, and reorganized the Protectorate along the lines of the
original treaty. The matriarchy installed an elected "Queen", and
renamed Felix Prime as "Felix Regina"

     Shortly after the inception of Felix Regina, Washu encountered a
new form in her dreams.
     "Lady Washu, why are you interfering?"
     "Who are you?"
     "I am Tsunami, the ship of the beginning. Tsunami, your sister.
Again I ask you, why are you interfering with the Jurai?"
     "I have suffered at the hands of the Jurai for a very long time,
but I am not aware that I was interfering."
     "Are you not mistress of the Soja? Have you not spawned a
revolution in the Felix system?"
     "So, how does that affect the Jurai?"
     "An independent Felix Protectorate will triple it's trade with the
Kentaur within the year. The renewed prosperity will allow the Kentaur
to recover. It has long been Jurai's policy to reduce the Kentaur."
     "It has long been the Felid people that have suffered at the hands
and from the minds of the Jurai."
     "And why should my sister concern herself with the suffering of a
few cat-women?"
     "I am a Felid.
Tell me, sister, in what form have you incarnated in this continuum?"
     An image formed in Washu's mind, of a moderate sized female tree,
of the DNA life form variety called "Angiosperm". Ah, I see, her goddess
self ruminated; our sister is trapped in the dreams of a life form that
can not imagine the vicissitudes of humanity. 
     "If your client persists in harming the Felid people, then we shall
fight."
     "We must not, sister. We must unite our forces to prevent Tokimi
from dominating this continuum. I think we both agree that her ways are
incompatible with the aims of freedom and happiness for the inhabitants
of this continuum "
     "Then you must strive to understand, Lady Tsunami, and learn what
is wrong about the behavior of your client, amongst human kind.
The goddess within me reminds me that it is time we sought to bring
forth in this continuum native expressions of our power, humans who will
express our power with integrity and compassion."
     Though struggling with the concepts, Lady Tsunami acquiesced.

     Though it would seem to a mere mortal that five thousand years
effort was a trifle long for a response to "It is time", to Washu and
Tsunami that seemed a positively hasty effort. First, Tsunami began
tampering with the bloodline of her clients. It was easy for her to do,
as there was a certain limited level of biological assimilation involved
in the bond between the Jurai nobles and their beloved trees. Tsunami
was actually somewhat amused to discover during this effort that her
clients imagined themselves the masters. 
     Washu began discreetly acquiring the vast facilities needed for her
somewhat more ambitious ideas. Scattered around the Galaxy were other
facilities similar to the abandoned shipyard, large automated labs
occupying entire small planetoids, which had once served the
military-industrial complexes of the Galactic Clans. Despite the fact
that the owners had walked away from many secrets and capabilities in
these labs, they were not concerned, since no conceivable team would be
able to recover what was locked and encrypted within.
     Not having full faith in Tsunami's control over the Jurai, and
maybe not full faith in Tsunami herself, Washu found an interesting
backdoor in the ability she had developed; to manipulate subspaces
almost limitlessly. She dropped each of the planetoids she collected
into a subspace, and linked them by subspace portals. Further, she
linked a portal in her apartment on Todain to one, and the "reversed"
half of Soja to another of her subspaces. It was now possible for her to
enter her subspace domains from her apartment, and emerge on Soja,
entirely outside the awareness of Tsunami, or any other power associated
with this continuum.
     Meanwhile, the two goddesses worked on their respective approaches
to the problem of bringing forth a suitable agent. Tsunami's approach
relied on manipulating the biology from within, using her power over
biomorphic fields and biological energy. Washu stayed with the strictly
laboratory approach. At first the goddess within urged Washu to simply
clone herself and be done with it, but Washu nixed that as overbearingly
egoist. Instead, the eternally bereaved Felid within her longed for a
child, and it was with this in mind that Washu noticed an unlikely
convergence.
     The unusual heritage the Washu had received in the female line from
the Felid goddess, which she now understood had made her what she was,
meshed perfectly with the male line that Tsunami was breeding among the
Jurai royals. Now she understood why the fate of Felid and Juraian
seemed so horribly intertwined.
     In the fifteenth millenium of Washu's incarnation, Prince Azusa was
born to the Jurai royal family. This prince was the first fruit of
Tsunami's breeding program. Flush with "Jurai Power", and overflowing
with the vigor of biological energy, the young prince cut a wide swath
through Juraian society, arriving at the Science Academy at the tender
age of seventeen. There were two disturbing traits in Azusa's character;
first, that he was a philanderer of monumental proportions, and second,
that he had some edgy social tendencies. He brought with himself, as a
hanger-on, a troubled and troubling fellow by the name of Kagato.
     Kagato came with some liabilities. As a child, he had been in
serious trouble with the Jurai Authority, and had been found delinquent.
On examination, he had been found to have sociopathic traits, and was
denied initiation into the mysteries of the Jurai Power. Though he
expressed occasional resentment of this exclusion, he seemed to have
gotten over it, and made fast friends among the Jurai elite. Azusa
particularly liked him as an able hacker, and a partner in crime who
seemed indifferent to Azusa's rampant sexual depredations. Despite his
obvious flaws, Kagato's undeniable brilliance in computer science had
won him a place at the Science Academy.
     Soon, Azusa had noticed the apparent two Washus, one a middle aged
professor, the other an adolescent prodigy. He put Kagato on the trail,
who soon ferreted out the outermost layer of Washu's secrets.
Insinuating himself into Professor Washu's physics lab, Kagato made
himself so useful that Washu turned a blind eye to the warning signs. It
was this nefarious fellow that started hinting a liaison between the
younger Washu and the young prince.
     Washu should have seen it coming, what with the prince's
reputation. The thread of oppression against Felids had faded to where a
half such as Washu was scarcely perceived as felid at all. As for the
Prince himself, if the truth were known, he preferred girls that many
would consider under aged because of certain, shall we say,
insecurities.
     Washu pilfered Azusa's DNA scans, and waxed enthusiastic over the
possibilities of a combination with her own genes. In her younger form,
old yearnings stirred.
     Young Washu made her way to a certain dorm party. Later that
evening, a slightly tipsy Washu made her way home with a perfectly sober
Azusa in tow; who was eagerly anticipating this seemingly young and
virginal maid. She excused herself to the bath to freshen up, and
watched secretly as her lover prepared for action. Abandoning her entire
self to the cat goddess, she leapt from the bath. Pouncing on the bed,
she arrived in full felid passion.
     Azusa withered.  
     Confrontation with a voraciously sexual maiden was the prince's
secret nightmare, and worst of all, she had somehow transformed into
that legendary epitome of female appetites, a Felid in passion frenzy.
Azusa preferred his females passive, helpless, and naive. Holding a
pillow between himself and the nightmare apparition, he edged along the
headboard, off the bed, and out the door, where Washu could hear the
prince quavering.
     "Oh, m-m-my g-g-gods, a-a-a k-k-kat slave in heat..."
     Fortunately, Washu was spared any more of the prince's blubbering,
as the apartment door was self closing. Kneeling on the bed, she
clutched the bedding, clinching and unclinching her fists as nails and
hands transformed into razored claws. Tatters and fluff from shredded
bedding flurried through the air for at least fifteen minutes before
Washu slumped, muttering "The hell with Jurai".
     For Washu, it was going to be a very long night.
     The next morning Washu came as near to confronting the goddess as
it is possible to confront one's self. "We are going to do it my way,"
she averred, "I am going to make a child that is mine, only mine. No one
will be able to take her away, no one will be able to hurt her. Her
immortality and beauty will not depend on your precious gems. She will
not have to suffer the same way I did."
     The goddess within, possessing foresight, could only sigh. 
     In the meantime it was clear to Washu that she would have to plan
for the future, if she wanted the Science Academy to continue as an
institution. The first thing Azusa did in the morning was to put in a
transfer to another school. If that prince ever acceded to the throne,
he would surely attempt to disband the Academy.
    The then current head of the Science Academy was a rather unpleasant
Cephelan by the name of Clay. He was a clever enough fellow, but sneaky
and manipulative. He also wore his hair and beard in curled tails around
his neck; more than enough, along with his personality, and the name of
his home world, to earn him the nickname, "Octapus". It was easy enough
for Washu to unseat the unpopular Dr Clay, and begin her program of
enhancing the bureaucracy to withstand the royal displeasure that was
likely coming.

     The beginnings of Washu's plan for her perfect child were simple
enough, given the level of sophistication in biotechnology. She
extracted two of her own ova and used the DNA from one to fertilize the
other. The resulting child, thanks to the molecular details of meiosis
and fertilization, would have Washu as both father and mother, but she
would not by any means be a clone. By the nature of the process, the
child would owe much more of her heritage to Washu's mother than to her
father. The child would be obvious and pure Felid. Conceived under the
will of the goddess, the embryonic child was created linked to the gems
of the goddess.
     The next problem was how to make the child independently immortal,
immune to the ravages and wounds of time; as Washu had boasted to her
inner goddess. In her wide ranging studies, she had discovered a unique
organism called the Masu. This amorphous creature might be called a
parasite, or a symbiont, depending on your prejudices. It's habit was to
inhabit DNA based life forms, and to serve and preserve the central
nervous system of it's host. Since the Masu derived it's energy from
matter-antimatter interactions, and was able to both levitate it's host,
generate and move through a local subspace, and manipulate energy
fields, the Masu afforded it's host the benefit of formidable defenses. 
     The problem with this Masu organism was that it tended obey and
migrate to any central nervous system that it perceived as more highly
organized. Felid telepathy might make the child vulnerable to telepathic
control, but as far as Washu knew, she would be the only Felid around
able to wield that kind of power. It would be kind of neat to have a
child you could control. The migration problem could be solved by a
process of bonding differing organisms, using the powerful biomorphic
fields that this continuum provides; a process she dubbed assimilation.
This process was rather similar to the way Tsunami's trees bonded with
their human hosts. Just one logistical problem remained, she was worried
that the Masu would react badly to the stresses of puberty.
     After fifteen thousand years of learning, Washu was confidant that
she could overcome the difficulties involved, and proceeded to grow her
daughter in a tank, past puberty. All the missed imprintings and
learning cues were made up with chemicals, or biological energy fields
manipulated by computers. Meanwhile, Washu spent the times of missed
motherhood planning the details for her daughter's life.
     Her daughter would have, all at once, a life companion, and a
spaceship of her very own. She assimilated another Masu with a sentient
mineral life form, and took measures to key it's obedience instincts so
that it would be loyal to and protect the girl as it's own. This
multi-part organism, bonded by telepathy, would maintain and grow a
fused mineral fiber spaceship hull, and store the vessel in a subspace
similar to the mirror nature of Soja. (Yet unknown to Washu, this was
the same process that Tsunami's trees used maintain their own ship
forms). Whenever the child called, the companion would assemble herself
and be ready to serve.
     In a moment of cleverness, Washu named her child Ryouko, for her
ability to summon her companion by mind, and she named the companion
Ryo-ohki, because the mind of the companion would rule over the various
living components of the spaceship.
     Washu was nothing if not doting in her attention to detail. The
developing ship was provided with subspaces storing templates and
materials for all sorts of habitats and facilities that she had dreamed
up, everything from kitchens to onsens. She spent countless hours
dreaming up wardrobes for her perfect daughter. Discovering that her
daughter would have the nerve circuits to control a very catlike tail,
some of the dresses would have cybernetic cat tails, that would respond
to the impulses of those nerves. Washu could not help but revel in the
cuteness of it all.
     On a day much like any other day, Washu woke up in her mature form
and let herself through the subspace portals into her private labs,
unaware of a shadowy figure not far behind. On a raised dais, force
fields held a cylinder of water. In that water floated the naked figure
of an adolescent Felid girl. At a gesture from Washu, the water drained
away, leaving the girl kneeling, vacant and unmoving.
     Washu transformed into her own younger form, and pulled the body
from the dais. With a kiss on those unmoving lips, she commanded the
Masu to wake up her daughter and draw her first breath. Though in theory
the Masu assimilated child would not need to breathe, she must breathe
in order to learn speech. The child stood up, and Washu led her to a
portal, which would deposit her within Ryou-ohki's spaceship form. As
they passed through the portal, Washu was startled to feel a force
pulling her away from her daughter.
     Washu found herself frozen in a matrix of higher dimensional
crystal, on the reversed bridge of Soja, her daughter nowhere to be
seen. Through her goddess eyes, Washu could see the cloaked figure of
Kagato standing just outside the crystalline matrix. He addressed her
telepathically.
     "Professor Washu, you disappoint me. First, you leave your back
wide open, then you weave all your greatest powers into the form of a
girl, a mere female.
     Oh, well, it will have to serve. Yes, yes, it will have to serve me
for as long as I will it. Everything that was yours is mine."
     Immobilized, within her mind Washu screamed for a very long time.

     Postlogue:

     Tsunami's presence hovered before the crystalline matrix.
     Kagato ground his teeth.
     "Tsunami! How long will I be denied? See, I have attained the
higher dimensions, by virtue of making this very ship a part of my
being."
     "Akuma!", meaning 'devil', "You have merely traded your humanity
for a form of damnation. Spare my beloved kin and I will spare you. Harm
either Washu or the child, and I shall cleave your spirit from it's
ground."
     Turning her mind to the hapless Washu, Tsunami promised, "Sister,
if it takes ten thousand years I will rescue yourself and your
daughter."

     After Word: Concerning "Felix" and "Felid"

     The Latin word "Felix" means 'happy', and has a time honored
literary interplay with the Latin word "Felis", 'cat'. Felix Majorum 
may be read as 'our big happiness'. Felix Regina may be thought of as
meaning 'the happy Queen', or by a slip of the tongue 'the cat Queen'.
Another word with two "ells" is Italian pseudolatin, and has nothing to
do with this, B-|.
     The Latin terms "Feline" and "Felid" are, at least in modern
academic Latin, perfectly interchangeable. I have chosen to use the term
"Felid" simply because I felt that if I used "Feline", it would be
easier for someone to forget that in this work I mean "Felid" to be a
stilted colonial usage for a human racial grouping. 

Text Copyright 1997, Gregory W. Matteson. <matteson@jps.net>
Characters are Copyright and/or Trademark AIC and Pioneer LDCA