Goldie yawned as she opened the bedroom door.
There was a difference, some of her friends could have told her, between a morning person and someone who just tends to wake up early. Between enjoying the start of a new day, and having biology just starting the day too damned early. Goldie, definitely, was in the latter camp. She hated waking up. The whole transition from being comfortable on a nice soft bed, and having to get muscles and brain ready for actual activity. But... once her eyes opened, there was no going back. Her internal alarm did not so much ring, as rip the covers off and push her off the mattress.
Just another way biology was screwing her.
Standing on all four limbs, she stretched. She could hear the cracking, especially as she rotated her neck. Once, when she was half asleep, she had heard this horribly loud crack and thought she had broken something. Worried the heck out of her. Wrinkling her nose, she also realized she could smell herself. Her fur stunk. The humans, full humans, wouldn't notice for another day or two most likely, but her brother would.
She looked down at her furry arms.
Maybe if she shaved it all off...
Another yawn spawned, surprising her. OK, enough self reflection. She needed a shower to get rid of the stink, and wake up. Time to move.
She padded out into the hallway. Turning, Goldie reached up her clawed hand and grabbed the door knob, pulling the door shut. Anthony had offered to make the door more four legged friendly, but she had squashed that. Goldie didn't want special treatment. She wanted to be like them. Be ONE of them.
So, no doggy doors.
With another yawn, she ambled down the hall.
The ship, especially this store, was the most bestest place she had ever lived. Bar none. Now, true, before she had been a slave, living in some sort of cage (even if a nice one, compared to most cages). That alone could account for most of how she felt, her experience in the area of accommodations being rather limited. Still... carpeted floors, nice beds, clean bathrooms... What more could you want?
There was a sound behind her. Someone else was up. Stopping, she sat on her hind quarters and turned her head.
From Hannah and Anthony's room, a sleepy Mary stumbled.
Her eyes were half closed, brown hair a frizzy mess. Her skinny body was clad in an orange oversized t-shirt which fell almost to her knees. The faded image of a mean cowboy's upper torso holding a Lacrosse stick covered most of it, along with the words Buffalo Bandits. One hand held a stuffed pink creature with lots of eyes.
Goldie froze. If she turned and ran quickly, maybe she'd be away before the girl noticed her surroundings. But, then again... this was Hannah's daughter. Hannah had been like a second mother to her, and Anthony the only REAL father she had ever had. Over the past year, Goldie had come to realize that the story her mother had told, especially the part about "Real Daddy" (as opposed to "Fake Daddy", the one who got Mom pregnant), had been mostly fantasy. Embellishing truth for the little girl. Real Daddy... had just been a boy she liked, before all this happened. Anthony was real, and wonderful.
Goldie silently sighed. She had to try and make friends with the newcomer.
"Good morning!"
Mary looked up, eyes opening. They then opened wider. Her hand finished closing the bedroom door, but even as the latch clicked Goldie could see the girl hesitate, consider opening it and going back inside. To her surprise, instead of being hurt, as she had been last night at the screams of terror aimed at her, she was emboldened. Neither girl was happy at what was to come.
Goldie could be stronger than her.
"Did you sleep well, Mary?" She turned her body to fully face the girl, but otherwise stayed seated. She could see the war on Mary's face. Her smile stayed simple, sincere. She hoped. It was what Goldie was feeling, but she never really knew what she looked like to others. Especially the full humans.
"Umm, yeah. Thanks." Letting go of the door, Mary reached up with her hand and rubbed her eyes. Blinking, she seemed to regard Goldie with... wary acceptance.
Maybe.
"Mom... told me about you. And your brother. I'm sorry. About yesterday... Goldie, right?"
"Right!" Well, this was going well so far! "Don't worry about yesterday. You'll get used to things."
"Right..." Mary shook her head. "Um, bathroom?"
"Oh! Down here! I'm going there too, to take a shower!" Not waiting for a reply, she stood and turned, heading down the hall.
****
"Um... can I go first?"
Goldie turned to look at Mary, puzzled, hand already on the bathroom doorknob. She could see the teen's legs together, her body tense. Ah, that was it!
"Oh! Don't worry, it's big! Come on!" Opening the door, she paddled forward onto the tile.
The gasp behind her was, for some reason, very satisfying. Continuing a few feet into the room, she waited until she was out of the way before facing Mary. The poor girl's eyes were practically bugging out of her face, stuffed creature barely held onto. Goldie nodded, happily.
"Alicia said, when women design a bathroom, they design a bathroom!"
****
The humans had started their interstellar travel with the Bells Supermarket's usual bathroom arrangement: a men's room and a ladies room, both with four toilet stalls and two sinks, in the back by the break room. The first problem with this setup had been noticed almost as soon as they realized they weren't on Earth, namely that there was no water connection anymore. That was bad. Once things had moved to the next level of silliness, with the store now on a spaceship in zero gravity, the bathrooms became useless. Piss and shit floating back at you is not a desired thing, apart from some of the more unusual fetishes not shared by those on the ship. Thus, that aspect of human activity was done in the Orang designed bathrooms placed among the ship's crew quarters.
With gravity restored to the dome, and the store, designing proper bathrooms fit for fussy women became a high priority (the original store ones, naturally, having been declared icky). Tammy had decided that, instead of recreating an updated men's room/ladies room setup, with added baths and showers, they should do one big multi person bathroom. After all, they were used to being around each other, and not all that shy. Four toilets from the ladies room were moved up to the second floor, placed in new, extra roomy stalls made from a nice wood painted white. A bank of four custom made sinks sat opposite them, set into a black and grey swirly marble counter. Copper faucets sat before a long mirror.
In the back, both corners of the room held showers, curved curtain rods providing some privacy. Two large baths, half submerged into the floor, completed the necessaries. From the ceiling, copper lights hung down around the edge of a large skylight.
A small R2 robot under one of the sinks, waiting for something to clean, completed the picture.
"Toilets are there," Goldie said, although she immediately regretted it because, well, it was obvious where the toilets were. "The one at the end is kind of special built for me, so try the other ones. I'm going to take a shower."
She turned, not waiting for a reply. The girl made her nervous. She, obviously, made Mary nervous.
She needed that shower.
The sound of a stall door closing came to her as she pulled aside the shower curtain. It was covered with blue flowers, matching the blue tiles of the shower. She liked blue. Her mom had told her it was the color of the sports teams in her home city of Buffalo (one team even used blue and GOLD!). Mom... she didn't think of her mom as often as she used to. Surprisingly, when they came, the thoughts were now happy, of the good times. Maybe because SHE was happy now, having good times...
Cold water came from the shower, drawing a quick yelp from the girl. She turned the hot water nob a bit. Finding a comfortable temperature, Goldie steadied herself... and rose onto two feet.
Closing her eyes, she let the water wet her down. She could feel her hair become one with her body. Fell it stick to her like... like clothing. Starting at the top of her head, her hands began running down her body. Only when she was soaking, like this, could she truly feel her body. Could she feel... human. Her hands came to her breasts, cupping them. They were firm, not changing shape when she stood like a person, filling her hands. Her stomach was flat, her hips swelling.
She wanted the hair gone. Wanted to look human. Human women had no hair below the neck, or at least shaved most that was there. Why was it that SHE got stuck with all this fur? Danny had NOTHING down there, so far as she could see, yet human men had tons of hair! Chuck had short curly hair on his chest, arms and legs!
Eyes still closed, water hitting her face, she reached for the shampoo.
****
Mary couldn't help staring.
She could see the outline of Goldie behind the flowered shower curtain. Goldie was...
Human.
Actually human.
Oh, there was an oddness to her legs, the angle of her hips, that spoke of something not being quite right. She occasionally staggered a bit, losing her balance staying upright for that long. But, beyond that there was no doubt about it. Even the two ears on top of her head looked like nothing so much as waterproof cosplay costume stuff. What her Mom had said was true. Goldie was...
"Oh, tell me what you want, what you really really want! I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want!"
Goldie was singing a bad oldies pop song.
Smiling, shaking her head, Mary looked around. There were two comfy chairs near the shower. More proof this was designed by women. Taking a seat, carefully setting Mr. Eyeball on the armrest, she waited for Goldie to finish.
****
Nona woke to mild, jabbing pain.
Her hand made its way up to the problem area. Her forehead, it seems, was pressing against the corner of something on the wall. This was fixable. All she had to do was shove her body away from the wall.
Her eyes opened.
Why was she floating in the dark?
Moving her head away from the attacking point, she put one hand on the wall as her brain slowly came online. She had been sleeping. In zero g. This, most likely, meant she was in her old cabin. Why had she come here...
Oh.
She closed her eyes.
"Oh, God...," she muttered, rotating her neck as she worked the kinks out of her aching body. "I didn't take that well, did I?" Nona had always hated being embarrassed, or the focus of attention. Her actions hadn't helped in that regard. Now they'd be treating her like some sorry kid, when all she wanted was to deal with it on her own. She didn't need...
Oh.
Her hand finally realized the object on the wall was, in fact, a light switch. She turned it on.
She was in her cabin, nude.
Floating across the room, sleeping in her sexy black dress from the wedding, was Tammy.
Luckily, for both of them, it wasn't possible to stay together while floating un-tethered. If Nona had woken with the blonde girl cupping one of her breasts or something...
Nona flushed a bit, resisting the silly urge to cup her breast to see what it would have felt like to have woken like that. Quickly looking around, Nona saw one of her spare outfits hanging against the wall. A shove had her over there, dressing. She was... happy that Tammy had come last night. Surprised, to be honest, that they hadn't just let her be. That's what she would have done, if one of the others had gone off to grieve. Grief should be private. That it had been TAMMY that had come... well, she did like her. Despite, well, you know. She was kind, smart, always listened. Always, well, tried to understand. Nona liked that. Sometimes she felt nobody here really understood her.
Not that she understood herself most of the time.
Adjusting her blue half shirt and white shorts, she turned. Tammy was awake. Tammy was also... not looking at her. Her eyes were averted. Nona blushed again. She wasn't sure why.
"Tammy."
The woman turned to her, face uncertain. Nona smiled.
"Thank you, Tammy. For last night. It... well, helped."
"Anytime..." Nona saw Tammy bit her lip, blushing a bit. Why, she had no idea. But, then, she had just woken. Her eyes caught the clock.
"I'm not gonna bother with a shower. Need food."
"I probably should go make breakfast then," Tammy replied, grinning. Nona grinned back.
"I'll help."
****
Anthony and Daium floated next to Alicia's sensor station up at the top of the bridge. Anthony's long arms grabbed a nearby branch, holding himself steady, while Daium free floated next to her wife. All eight eyes were on the fluctuating signals displayed on the curved wall before them.
"You see," Alicia said, pointing. "Here. The same thing. And if we go back... there. We've seen the same signal much weaker at least five times, including the same day you said you thought you saw Ghosts outside the store."
Anthony nodded.
"Always remember the day, because it was when we left Te after finally finishing the bedrooms. Hannah and I walked by you three, um, 'testing' your new bed."
"You WHAT?!?" Alicia whirled, face undecided if it should be amused or furious. Daium's black face gained a reddish tinge.
"Not our fault you three couldn't be bothered to close the door. Hannah was mortified."
"You probably liked it. Pervert." Alicia's tone showed she had decided to split the difference. Anthony just nodded, agreeing.
"It was hot, yeah." That got him a whack on the chest by both women. Well worth it, though.
"So," Daium said, trying to change the subject as she adjusted her glasses, "the sensors actually detected Mary coming through."
"It detected something, something that at least one other time was there when there was a link between us and home." Alicia frowned. "It's a weird energy signature, that's for sure. Very... unstable? Probably the wrong word, but it's not radiating outward. Literally, if we weren't right on top of it the damned signal would dissipate and vanish within minutes. Like it originates and ends here. There's no way we can do searches using this. At best, I can set it up so we're alerted the next time it's on our ship."
"Good enough," Anthony told her. "If you can rig a portable sensor we can take with us, do that as well. I want to know everything we can about this. Is it just on the ship? Or does it follow US?"
"Chuck and Daium build, I just fiddle with the dials, but OK. We'll see what we can do." She looked at Daium. "We leaving this system?"
The Orang nodded.
"I haven't picked a new planet yet. After breakfast."
****
"So, there we were, floating on the bridge!" Melinda held up her fork and knife, both covered with sticky pancake syrup, making floating motions. Mary, sitting across the table from her, looked on with wonder. Freshly showered, she wore one of the three outfits she had packed for just such an emergency as this. Outfits chosen on the, admit-ably unlikely, chance she found herself whisked off to be with her mother. This one was a year old pink and white top with a dark pink skirt. A little small on her, truth be told. As her only shoes were her snow boots, she went barefoot, as the others did on the ship as well.
"Where was Mom?"
"Shush! I'm getting to that!" Melinda used the handle of the knife to push the nose of her glasses up. The others around the table chuckled, eating the random bits of unfinished breakfast.
"So, like I said, we're floating. Alicia and Justin are up in the treetop with the strange monkey girl, looking down on us like they are oh so much better than us peons."
"What's a peon?" Goldie asked. She sat on the ground next to Mary, chin just clearing the table top. Chuck looked over and gave a wicked grin.
"It's someone below you who gets peed on."
"Eww!" Alicia reached over and smacked his shoulder. He responded by flicking a pancake crumb... or at least attempting to. It stuck to his finger, so after three tries he just licked it off.
"So I'm just floating here, easily getting the hang of it, being the wonderful athlete that I am. Chuck there is just trying to keep near the ground, and Nona is glaring at us for having WAY too much fun."
"Someone has to!"
"True! So," Melinda went on, grinning, "about that time we're wondering if Anthony and Hannah have survived our little surprise liftoff from the planet. You know, that's not the kind of thing you like to surprise people with. Just then, the door from the dome with the store opens, and in walks Anthony and Hannah. And, we're all like, 'yes, you're alive!' And they're like, 'what the fuck happened?'"
"Her quotes are so accurate," Anthony marveled.
"Memory like a paper bear trap," Hannah agreed.
"Quiet you two! Were you there? No! It's my story! So, anyways, Anthony looks around at us, and goes, 'who here was supposed to secure the bathrooms?' And, like, I raise my hand, because well I was supposed to. Hannah, your mother, looks at me, and says, 'well, guess what's now floating all over the store!'"
Mary's hands went to her mouth, eyes wide as the others broke into laughter.
"No!"
"Yes!" Melinda cried, picking up a small half eaten sausage and waving it in front of her. "Day old wet poop floating all over the bathrooms! Along with drops of piss!"
"Oh God! What did you do?!?"
"Well, me, I couldn't help laughing! I mean, floating space poop! They never had that in Star Trek!"
"There was Voyager, though," Justin mused. Melinda nodded, popping the sausage into her mouth.
"Very true! The geek knows his TV poop!"
Alicia leaned over across the table to Rinda, who was looking at her mate with amusement. She tapped the blue Orang on her furry shoulder.
"Has she been drinking by any chance, or should we blame this on hormones?"
Chuck just shook his head.
"I haven't seen any change, to be honest."
****
They walked though the garden, towards the bridge. Mary... was still overwhelmed by it all. Slowly, as it hadn't even been twelve hours yet, her preconceived fantasies of these people were being replaced by the real them. It would take work, she knew. Like when you saw the movie version of some book you've read a hundred times, and someone looks and sounds nothing like what was in your head. She had no option of ignoring the new version this time, though. The movie was her new reality.
Goldie walked next to her. She was getting used to the girl amazingly fast. Mary had always, really, been the type to make friends quickly. As a little girl her father had been amused when, a half hour into playing at the park, Mary would come over with a strange kid and ask if her new friend could come spend the night. Years later, when Mary finally talked Dad into entering the dating game again, he confided to her that his one regret now was that he hadn't taken advantage of all the cute single mothers that Mary's actions brought over to talk to him. A number had definitely sent signals.
Her eyes flicked over to Danny, walking on the other side of Goldie. She saw his eyes quickly look away. Oh, God... was he sending signals? Was SHE sending signals?!? Signals that he was a freak, hopefully! And he was still shirtless! God! He had to cover that! She didn't want to look at that hairless, muscled...
Mary ripped her eyes away.
Freak.
They came to the door Nona had run through the previous night. Mary glanced over at the Malay. She... seemed OK. Nobody, that Mary had heard, had commented on it. Mary wanted to know if she was OK, to say she was sorry, but... well, how to you say that to a stranger? At least she did seem to be smiling. Tammy seemed to be keeping near her, so maybe they were friends.
Reaching out, Daium hit a switch. The door before them opened.
"Here's the bridge, Mary."
Mary stepped forward, stopping at the doorframe. She just... stared.
"There... there is a tree."
Rinda barked out a laugh. Holding out her black hand to Daium, she grinned.
"I win! Pay up!"
Daium shook her head, disgusted.
"It's not a bet if we both agree that's the first thing she'll say!" She turned back to Mary, expression apologetic. "Ignore them. That's one of the Holy Trees from our home world. Legend has it that we first were created in the trees of that forest, so we honor the trees."
Mary nodded, looking at it anew. Extending maybe two stories above and below the central platform running around the edge of the bridge, it was topped with green leaves on its many branches. The bridge itself was a sphere, top just barely missing the top of the tree. The walls were wood, sort of cherry colored. Or, at least looked wood. She couldn't believe a ship would actually be made of wood...
Right, because that would be silly.
Her mother was beside her.
"OK, Mary, this is the tricky part. I want you to sort of grab the door frame, and push yourself into the bridge. Be ready to grab the railing over there."
"Grab railing. Gotcha." There were butterflies in her stomach. She was going to float. She was with her mother, and was going to float in space.
She was still dreaming, obviously.
"OK," the voice of Anthony said from behind her. "on the count of three. One, two... three!"
Mary pushed herself forward.
Her feet weren't touching the ground. There WAS ground, wasn't there?! Her head jerked down. Yes. A metal grating. Good. Her head jerked up again. She was floating. Floating! The railing was coming up fast. Shooting her hands out, she grabbed it, her body continuing forward. Her ankles hit something down there, stopping the forward momentum of her legs.
"Good job!
She could sense the others coming in behind her, but Mary's eyes were darting all around the bridge. The tree, the controls, the walls... suddenly, the walls vanished. Mary let out a gasp.
Space.
She was surrounded by space.
The tree, the walkway, the control stations... all floating in space. As was she.
Soft firm hands gripped her shoulders. Her mother pressed against her back.
"Welcome to our world, Honey."