CHAPTER 1


	Jack started to wake up. Feeling as if hung over. At least no pain  though something was not quite right. He was not on a bed of any sort, just a cloth or towel of some sort. The consciousness was slowly returning. He could smell a fairly strong smell of oil and gasoline. His vision was slowly coming back also though the room was quite dark. Jack could hear the heavy rain outside with occational thunder and lightning. The one small window allowed the flashes from the lightning into the room.
	He tried to get up but his body was not cooperating.  "Dammit" he muttered "I gotta piss" He went to rub his eyes and his hand looked strange.  His head felt funny shaped and extra fuzzy.
	All of the sudden Jack was wide eyed.  "What the eff!"  he mumbled as he finally saw the rest of his body.
	He had breasts, not particularly large but bigger than most guys would prefer.  They were covered with some sort of fur along with most of the rest of his body.  Not sure of the color bit too dark to make out the coloring.  He hesitantly  looked at the rest of his body, not sure he wanted to know.  The body was not put together like any typical woodland creature.  His body was taur like in shape with a cat shaped lower body and a humanish upper body.  Wasn't sure what his face looked like yet though he guessed catlike.  "Need a damn mirror" he thought. 
	"Am I dreaming?" he thought.  Possibly he had eaten too much junk food before bed.  If it was a dream it was a doozy.
	Jack grabbed the for the tail.  He could feel his hands holding the tail.  "It is my tail" he thought "pretty luxurious and soft".  He dropped the tail down and noticed it twitching a little.  He didn't know how to control it very much.
	He had to know, though, what the 'parts' looked like.
	He took a peek at the 'um' undercarriage. There was no nipples on the lower body.  "Guess the top ones were big enough" he thought.  There was a dog like penis sheath on the lower belly area though no marble sack. Not catlike at all.  "Whoh thats um interesting" he thought.
	"Yikes"  he looked further down and saw what appeared to be um female parts.  "Was not expecting that" he thought.  "What the hell am I?" he grumbled.  The last part was just the usual butthole.
	Jack made another attempt to to get up using his hands to try to position his other four feet into some sort of usable position. Finally he was able to kindof stand up. "how am I supposed to walk, how do you move those damn middle feet?"
	Finally after several minutes of clumsy attemps and stumbles he was able to walk a little bit. He grabbed on to anything he could for support.  
	Jack carefully walked around the room exploring and assesing where he was.  It was some sort of workshop or garage.  It had a small window on one side about one and a half foot square.  The thunder was now gone and the rain had weakened considerably.  The outside light was starting to get notacebly brighter through the window.  
	There was a wooden workbench against the back wall covered in dusty metal junk. There were small engine parts, random screwdrivers, and rusty old sockets.  Shelves under the bench contained old coffee cans full of nuts, bolts, screws, and nails along with miscellanious other small hardware. An old flourescent light fixture hung from the celing with only one of the tubes still in it.  A large wire bin held sporting equipment such as old dry rotted footballs and basketballs.  Tennis raquets and a wooden croquet mallot.
	He grabbed a screwdriver for a makeshift weapon.  He saw the croquet mallot and grabbed that also. "time to take your medicine you little shit" he giggled. 
	"Alright time to blow this popsicle stand" The door to the building was a double door.  He pushed against the doors and they flexed but did not open. He looked at the small window and briefly entertained the thought of smashing it and crawling through.  He figured he was too large and clumsy to get through that. Also didn't want to risk tetanus from broken glass. He decided to use a little force in persuading the doors to open. He smashed his shoulder into them and heard a crack from outside. "getting somewhere now" One more smash and the doors flew open.
	Jack stumbled out of the building and looked at the outside of the doors.  They had been nailed shut with a rather thin board.  He hurried to the  side of the building and carefully peeked around.  The doors to the building faced a field and the rear of the building  faced a forest.  On the other end of the field stood an old decrepid looking house.  
	He could tell now he had the coloring of a cheetah though he could not obviously see his own head. 
	He made his way to the back of the building.  "Hmm how do I pee?" he thought. He looked at the underside again and pulled back the sheath a bit and
finally was able to tap a kidney.  
	Now that that was done he could think properly again.  Well at least as normally as could be considering the very odd circumstances.  He sat down on his backside and tried to figure out what to do.  He was quite hungry and thirsty and had a craving for about a gallon of Mello Yello.  He didn't want to be seen in his present state as someone would probably shoot his ass.  
	Jack decided to head toward the house.  He kept close to the trees and walked along the edge of the forest arond the field.  He didn't dare run across the field.  At one point there was an opening on the left side which  presumably was a driveway from long ago.  On the other side of the opening was an old road that had been partially overtaken by nature.  
	He finally got to the old house.  It was just a fairly small house, nothing special.  A quick look around the house he noticed there were no power 
lines or power poles near the house.  "That is odd" he thought.  He looked at the front door and breifly considered knocking but thought better of it.  If 
someone or something was in this old scuzzy house it couldn't be anything good.  Maybe I should check out the back of the house he figured.  He carefully made his way around to the back of the house trying to stay low to the ground out of view from the windows.  He found the back door to the house and stuck his fuzzy ear up to it to see if he could hear anything inside.  He couldn't really tell if there were any sounds from inside as it was fairly windy outside.  He slowly and quietly turned the doorknob.  The doorknob turned but the door was stuck.  He didn't want to reef on the door though so he stuck the screwdriver in the edge and pried the door open.
	He looked inside the house.  He went inside the entry way of the house and carefully closed the door trying not to make any noise.  The house smelled of mustyness and mouse piss.  "Whew that's nasty" On the back of door was an old calendar.  It had a picture of a cute little white kitten.  The month was January of 2261.  "Wait what!?"he thought "I am pretty sure I was not unconscious for 240 years".  He felt a little panicky.  If this was the future he should be long since room temperature.  
	He carefully walked to the other rooms of the house.  The house was mostly empty and gutted.  He opened a door to what must have been a bedroom.  Smelled kinda ripe in there.  There was an old grungy mattress with something on it.  It was a creature of some sort.  It was pretty huge and curled up like a sleeping cat.  It had very dark grey fur.  Almost black but not quite.  It only had a very short stub tail.  After closer inspection he could tell the animal was alive and breathing and was catlike and built similar to himself, um at least whatever he was.
	"Do I try to wake this kitty up?,  will it try to eat me?"  raced through his mind.  He strangely didn't feel as much fear as he maybe should but he was pretty big too.  Just gotta be ready to make a fast escape.  He poked the cat with a finger keeping as much distance as possible.  The cat didn't even twitch.  "Is this cat sick or something?, hope if so it's not catchy" he wondered.  He took a closer look at the cat's head.  Was really quite cute but how many ugly cats do you see anyway.  The cat's head also had some humanish hair also the same dark grey coloring.  The cat had boobs too.  Woah he was having a reaction downstairs.  "got to think unsexy things".  Got to keep that under control.  
	"What now?".  Jack looked under the bed and saw lots of dust bunnies and cobwebs.  Also a box of some sort.  He weaseled his arm under the bed and slid the box out.  He opened the flaps of the box and saw what looked to be a gun.  He lifted up the device and could tell it was very lightweight plastic and was not an actual gun.  It had the word "injetor" and an arrow pointing to the tip of the device.  It was some sort of drug injection device.  Also in the box was a small vial of some drug and a folded piece of paper.  The vial had a drug chemical name but he did not recognize it.  He grabbed the folded paper and opened it up.  It was a bunch of medical info for the drug.  He could make out the drug was an anidote to some powerful tranquilizer.  "Am I supposed to give this to the cat?" he thought.  It really couldn't hurt too much.  The paper said 200 pound to 500 pound weight range.  He stuck the bottle into the bottom of the device until it clicked.  He pulled the charge knob back.  The device was ready.  "So where do you inject this?"  He looked at the paper again.  Ok the arm it is.  He stuck the device against the cat and pulled the trigger.  
	He decided not to stick around in case the cat went nuts.  He closed the door and stayed near to listen.  After a minute or so he could hear some movement.  He could hear some mumbling and could make out a couple cuss words.  "So this creature can talk" he figured.  He decided to talk to the cat through the minimal safety of the flimsy bedroom door.
	"Hello" he called out.
	"Who are you?" the cat said in a rather irritated voice.
	"My name is Jack"  he replied "I am some sort of cat like creature similar to you".  There was a little pause and then the cat spoke again though in a possibly confused but interested manner.  
	"Okay, what are you doing here?"  the cat replied.
	"I haven't a clue, I just woke up a bit ago in an old tool shed close to this house and I have been changed into a large cat like creature" he nervously replied "just please don't kill me".  
	"I am not that mean"  The cat said "I am going to open this door now okay?"  Jack took a few steps back.  The doorknob turned and the door opened.  The cat looked at him with large blue eyes and seemed to smile and relax a little. "Hello my name is Graphite" Graphite looked at Jack "with those wide eyes you look like a kitten on crack, I promise I won't hurt you".
	Jack felt that he could probably trust Graphite.  "Um ok" he said weakly.  He looked at Graphite closer and saw that she had a little stub tail like a bobcat or something.  It was actually pretty cute.  "What is going on?" he asked.
	"I am not sure either" she said "I was captured by some asshole people and they kept me unconscious most of the time".  "I don't know why though or what happened to you, I am assuming you were human before?".
	"I was most definitely a human before today, but I have to know what kind of cat are you and what the hell am I?". Jack asked. 
	"I am a chakat of course and I assume you are also one, haven't you ever met a chakat before?".  Graphite said incredulously.
	"I have never heard of a chakat before" Jack said.  "Oh and I got to know what year is".
	"well it is the year 2282 silly" Graphite giggled.
	"Fuuuck" Jack cursed, "That makes me like 302 years old."
	"There is no way you are that old, unless you could time travel" Graphite said.
	"Well I am dumbfounded about that,  I don't recall walking into any time machines or Deloirians lately, um so what is a chakat?" Jack asked quizzically .
	"Well this explaination could be awkward,  since you seem to be one now yourself but was a human before. so here goes".  Graphite started to give all the species details and Jack's eyes got bigger and bigger.  "You are doing the kitten on crack thing again" Graphite said. "It not that bad is it?" 
	"Ok that was an awful lot of information to digest" Jack replied "so what happens now?"  
	"We leave this miserable dump of a planet and go to my house until we can figure out something"  Graphite replied "If you want"
	"You mean like in a spaceship or something, those things that sometimes like to blow up?"  Jack asked.
	"My spaceship is perfectly safe" Graphite countered, "plus the forcefield sheild make everything safer, plus I even stuck a brand new air freshener in there last month to clean up the antimatter stank".
	"Ok, I have got to see this spaceship" Jack replied "I don't know if I want to ride in it though,  I mean can I still watch the Green Bay Packers?  I have never been in even a jet, only a little Cessna type airplane".
	"Well if you can handle one of those twentieth century deathtraps you can handle a modern spaceship" Graphite laughed. 
	Both of them left the house.  "So where is the spaceship" Jack asked?
	"Down the road a couple miles and hidden in the woods" Graphite said.  They walked to the driveway and then down the road.  Jack was considerably slower though.  "Are you okay" Graphite asked.
	"Yeah, just not used to this body, bit wobbly." he said.  They continued down the road and before too long Graphite stepped into the woods to the right.  Jack followed along hoping not to get any ticks or step on anything nasty.  
	It was a bit of a walk through the forest and then they got to a clearing with an aircraft of some sort propped up on feet rather than wheels.  It was about the length of two buses and about 50% wider than a bus.  It had fairly small wings with no apparent engines attached to them.  The end of the aircraft had a jet like opening.  The front of the aircraft had only tiny windows.  The whole thing kind of looked like a strange private jet.  Graphite got to the front of the spaceship and pushed a little button on the underside.  Jack heard a barely audible click but nothing else happened.  
	"Worthless piece of crap!"  Graphite punched the side of the spaceship and then the door opened up.
	"That doesn't give me much confidence in this thing"  Jack said concerned.
	"It just a wonky door lock, nothing critical, at least I didn't have to use a coat hanger" shi said.  Graphite crawled into the door and helped Jack into the spaceship.  The front of the spaceship had had the usual cockpit type controls and large screens for information and a visual for the outside.  There was a door at the back of cockpit that led to a living/kitchen area. Behind that was storage closet, a bathroom ,and a hallway that led to the back where Jack assumed the engine room was.  Most of the floor had fairly plush carpeting except for a few areas with access panels.  The ceiling had lights all around the perimeter.  The interior smelled of catnip.
	Jack had to check the mirror in the bathroom.  He looked at his face.  It was kinda like a cheetah head as he had suspected. He had large green eyes. It actually had some humanish brown hair too.  He opened his mouth to see inside.  Lots of teeth and some pretty big fangs.  "Bet the dentist is hell" he mumbled.  He than noticed his boobs again.  "Those awkward things" he thought. 
	He called out to Graphite "do you got any clothes I could borrow"?
	"I don't think I have any with me,  I avoid clothes unless forced to wear them, besides we are cute enough to get away with it"  shi said.
	Graphite closed the door and it automatically latched.  "Are you still nervous about space travel?" shi asked.
	"I'd be pissing my pants right now if I wore any" Jack replied.  
	Jack looked at the cockpit again.  Hanging from a knob was a little green cardboard cat head shaped air freshener from which the catnip smell obviously eminated from.  "Ha ha, pretty comical" Jack thought.  
	"Well I am going to fire this thing up now" Graphite said, "It will still take a few minutes though, need to boot up the system computers and charge the main sheild system".  "Also need to run a quick diagnostic scan".
	"You got enough gas in this thing?"  Jack asked.
	"Got plenty of hydrogen left, both engines use nothing but hydrogen, regular engine is hydrogen fusion and the warp engine does annihilation of the hydrogen."  Graphite replied smarty.
	"That sounds fucking terrifying, like crossing the streams." Jack said wide eyed.
	"Dont worry, the computer takes care of the complex stuff, I just say fire the nukes and make us go that way" Graphite laughed while pointing in a random direction.  "We are almost ready for blast off time,  just waiting for the sheild to get to at least 50% power, even flying into a goose can do some damage without the sheild".  "I will try to keep the g forces to a minimum".
	"I think I will survive" Jack said.  "By the way you look like Toonces the driving cat".
	"Who is Toonces?"  Graphite asked quizzically.
	"Look it up sometime, it's hilarious."  Jack replied.
	"Well it is time to go" Graphite said.  
	Jack lied down on the floor,  not sure what to expect.  The spaceship started to hover into the air.  Once above the top of the trees it started to move forward.  It was fairly quickly building up speed.  It really wasn't that bad and Jack slowly got back up and peeked at the monitors.  One showed the ground that was underneath.  They were gaining altitude pretty fast now.  The ground was getting smaller.  "Oh boy". Jack mumbled.
	"Ok pretty soon the artificial gravity will kick in, but it is only about half of normal though."  Graphite announced.  "We have to get some distance from Earth before we can fire up the warp engine, I always like to charge the auxiliary sheild before warp too".  Shi flipped another switch to fire up the backup sheild.  "170,000 miles a second now, almost there now,  I will fire up the warp engine as soon as we hit 180,000 miles per second, aaaand we are gone".