Marik should go to the enforcers after the ina and corruption seen on Fallerian VII. But his hatchparent came first and he wao get rid of the crates. Now he was standing at the door of Lnaplo?, his home for fifteen years until the day he got his Css C lid his first job. Despite the hot and humid Fallerian air, he felt a chill as he entered his password and it still worked. He smiled.

  Lnaplo? scurried to the entrance before the door had fully slid aside. "Oh, back already? e in."

  "I won't invade," was the standard greeting. Now Lalleli came too, stopping at the exit of the , the main room.

  "Hello, Lalleli."

  "Hello, Marik," she almost whispered, her upper body bent forward in the low doorframe, her lower body nearly hidden. She was wearing only a bra but was still drenched i, her hair pstered to her head. The small, shiny Lnaplo? and the big, sweaty Lalleli made a strange trast.

  He entered and the door closed behind him.

  "What's in the crates?" Lnaplo? asked with his slow ara careful articution of Standard.

  "Spices. I will leave them here. Let's go into the and I'll tell you all about it."

  Ihe , Lalleli sat down across the low table, using a makeshift fan to cool herself a little. Naturally, Lnaplo? quickly prepared a snack, a huge bowl in fact. Roasted Yaletzl rvae with a sweet dip, how he had missed them. And a cold drink for Lalleli.

  As he munched on the roasted rvae, he told his story of the corrupt officer on Fallerian VII and the me punishment for the traffickers, if there had been any at all. And that the spices had been decred his property by the corrupt officer.

  Lnaplo? wao see them, so the two went back to the entrand looked in the crates. Lnaplhe spices at once, he had used them occasionally, and they were indeed rare and expensive. Probably even more expehan the officer had said. And of course, Lnaplo? knew a ta Fallerian VII from whom he had imported the spices and who might know more about Lalleli's traffickers and send him a message. Lnaplo? also called the enforcers and spun quite a tale about Fallerian VII hiding tractual profits, using the crates as evidence. An auditor with an enforcer left immediately after his call; Fallerian took damage to its image as a fair business partner very seriously.

  But his was less about further profits and the corrupt officer; he hoped they would get names so they could escate this to the humans. Modding humans was a serious crime in most human systems, even with sent, as Jerka had said. And no one should be modded like Lalleli without sent.

  When Lnaplo? had finished his calls and messages, they sat ba the . With the business out of the way, he turo the memorable journey back. A half-restored manual jump ship with xenon thrusters, tiny with only two seats, piloted by a young crazy cat.

  "You were not in the mood for a temporary mating tract?" asked Lnaplo?, "I heard that humans travel far to get them."

  "Er, not that cat, I don't think she wao do that except from the time we docked," he shuddered, "but then she chased me away. I couldn't even pay her. I feel so bad for not letting me fulfil my part of the tract."

  "She didn't take any money?" Lnaplo? thought for a long time. "That does indeed sound crazy."

  "I left her a message through flight trol. No reply yet."

  "Times are never as crazy as now," Lnaplo? sighed but then rightened his antenna. "Your return calls for a feast. It is a fortunate ce that I am well-stocked for tomorrow. I will be i, ry, please!"

  "I'm looking forward to dinner," he said in Standard so that Lalleli could uand, "I've always fondly remembered your cooking when I had to warm up an instant soup."

  The old bug tried to hide his emotions, but he saw hoy he was. And he was sure they were in for a treat.

  "What did the cat look like?" asked Lalleli.

  "Short white fur, some stripes on the arm, with a cat's head and a bushy tail. Much bushier than yours," he blushed.

  At the mention of the cat's tail, Lalleli curled her tail towards him. Which was not much, only a short skinny part and long hair growing from it.

  "I like yours too, and it has even longer hair," he tried to give lip service, "and she had a cat's head, which was eerie because at first gnce she looked like a human woman with fur. She was wearing a long t-shirt and knee-length bck shorts. Even though it was chilly in her ship, I think you would like that temperature. But when she smiled," he rambled on, "she bared her fangs, eerie. She spoke Fallerian without much of an at but with terrible grammar. Very fusing. You are more human." That was ho.

  Lalleli smiled the human way.

  His pad vibrated. "Oh, a message from the cat via flight trol."

  "Please read!"

  "Ok, she wrote, 'My behaviour was very unprofessional and inexcusable. I am very sorry for putting my species to shame. You have helped me enough by getting me cheap fuel, no further obligations. Sain.' No name, no sender address."

  "That doesn't sound so crazy."

  He sighed. "She wasn't really crazy. But she had, er, serious trol issues at the end. I mean, the departure from Fallerian VII impressed me. She worked the ships hard, just because she could. Without AI, she had to trol all the systems all the time from departing to dog. Only after we docked, she almost threw herself at me and," he trailed off.

  "Her message doesn’t sound like a love letter," Lalleli ented.

  He also grinned. "No, it doesn't. I don't uand that cat. And it was really rude not totiate or let me pay the agreed price. I will leave the tract open."

  * * *

  After the best and biggest Krantagratin ever, so big that not even Lalleli could eat it all, there was one more thing to do before the day was over: Lalleli's check-up.

  He had wiped her lower body dry from sweat and had bed her hair. She had washed her human torso in the , not fitting into Lnaplo?' bathroom. Now, she wore the rgest towels triangurly over her chest, the ers barely reag her navel and exposing a lot of skin. But there were not many humans oation, and even fewer would be out this te.

  She ducked out through the entrao the corridor and again the first sweat began to form on her sides. He went after Lnaplo? and in front of Lalleli to divide the little traffic to their sides. Not only Lalleli was sweating, even at a leisurely pace; his body had alsotten how hot and humid Fallerian was.

  Finally, they reached the alien ic of Fallerian III. He had been here a few times, mostly when he had caught a bug from some of the human visitors in Lnaplo?' restaurant. Sihere were so few perma human residents on Fallerian III, the tipede doctnised him even after two years of absehey (their pronouns in Standard, because of their two brains at either end) wao do a full checkup on him too, but he deed, tonight it was Lalleli's turn.

  The rge ser barely fitted her. The circles whirled around a few times as the sequencer ran through her DNA. The doctor had climbed onto aing table to be closer to Lalleli's height and was w on their pad while they waited. Finally, they looked up, although it was hard to tell to an outsider as both end segments looked like a bck shiny ball. "Miss Lalleli, we do not have a record of your plete DNA. But we say for sure that you have been heavily modified, about 12% of the human DNA has been exged and you even got six extra osomes."

  " that be undone?"

  "DNA be undone. Do you have any idea how mods work?"

  Lalleli shook her head and then added, "No, no idea."

  "Mods easily add or e have very limited ability to shrink or remove. When they modded you, they probably cut you at the hip and regrew your lower body acc to your modded DNA. This mod added a lot more insuting fat to your upper human-like torso and enrged your cerebellum. You even have a sedary cerebellum in your mid-shoulders."

  "Sorry, you say that any easier?" Lalleli interrupted.

  "Miss Lalleli, we are sorry. You now have three brains, the normal higher brain for reasoning, whis a rge part of your personality, and a rger than normal lower brain for breathing and moving in your head, and a new sed lower brain in your middle shoulder, perhaps also for heartbeat, movement and digestion. The es between these lower brains in your human spine are much dehan in a normal human, and your spine has also been expanded, so we are not sure if these lower brains do not also tribute to your personality".

  "I see," she said although it was obvious to him that she did not catch all of it, "So it be undone?"

  "Maybe, we could cut you again just below the lungs, so you could regrow a new heart and lower human limbs. But that would leave you with a top-heavy spine, an oversized lower brain, and half a missing lower brain. There is a high ce that your personality will be damaged. You might not even be able to walk and would have to be retrained, as we have no idea whether the funs of the lower brain be transferred back. If the top half of your lower brain no longer feels responsible for your breathing or heartbeat, we could give you a pacer and breather mod. But modifying the brain is beyond what we could do, such mods are very difficult and expensive."

  "You mean, I am stuck like this?"

  "We could perform surgery as an immediate relief to make you a biped, albeit an unwieldy one."

  Lalleli thought for a moment. "No, then I'd rather stay like this. There is a whole p of me."

  "We respect your choice. There is some good news. The mod was very mature. Yer and slower beati indicates a much longer life span than normal humans, perhaps close to 180 years. And we have analysed your human ins. Based on your human DNA fragments and our database, your parents were from the Cartus system or the Jotan system.

  "I once heard of a trader from the Jotan system, so I guess I am from Cartus. But we never called my world that."

  "We got that name from a human database. But we would get the same result if both your parents emigrated from Cartus or Jotan to the p where you were born. Log the birthpce by DNA is not a sce."

  "Hmm, my mother told me that my father oravelled on a spaceship. And the y was not that old."

  "Miss Lalleli, there is a more immediate problem. Your body temperature has been reduced to 305 K, almost 5 K below the average room temperature on Fallerian III. How do you feel in this heat?"

  "Well, it is very hot and humid. I drink a lot. And you see how much I sweat." She held up the wet towel.

  "We are impressed that you have been able to e here without getti stroke. When we saw this, we lowered the room temperature by 2 K and prescribed a cooler for you." They took a sort of backpae leg segment from a door which apparently tained a fabber, and quickly passed it to the end fag Lalleli. "Here, please put this on your back."

  Lalleli carefully took the rucksack for the doctor's short appendix and put it on.

  "We're going to walk on your baow," the doctor announced, climbing onto Lalleli. The doctor used their froo pull two fps out from uhe rucksad pced them on Lalleli's back.

  "Please turn it on by toug your left side and turn it off by toug yht side. We advise you to keep it on at all times."

  She touched her left side and immediately a cool breeze began to blow around her ned down her lower body through the slightly infted fps. "This is great," she smiled, "even the wind helps so much."

  "Lndradro?, now it is your turn. Into the ser!" Lnaplo? antenna vibrated, amused that he hat strong order. Marik sighed and stood in the ser, waiting for the verdict.

  "Done. A small wound to the ear, but no serious iion. And we o boost your immune system. And you have increased your body fat at the expense of your muscles. You must exercise more."

  "Yes," he said, stig his haantly into the rge device. The immune system upgrade always made him sick, and he had just had such a nice dinner.

  "Done. you give us your lice to add it there too."

  Wordlessly he held out his pad. And the human sicker went from angry e to solid blue-green again.

  "You wipe out whole civilisations, you o keep your prote up to date."

  "What about Lalleli's protes?" he asked in Standard.

  The tipede turo her. "Miss Lalleli, we are terribly sorry that we fot to mention that your protes are state of the art, including some that I could not even give to Lndradro?."

  * * *

  Marik still wasn't used to shoes. In the harsh climate, at least harsh for Fallerians, he literally got cold feet. Also in other aspects he could not warm up to life on a p. Rain falling from the sky would never be his thing.

  pared to Cauve, the p of the taurs or preons, this enviro was still mild, almost 10 K warmer thahey had nded. So Lalleli usually went out in a sleeveless halter top. But he needed full human clothing, including a jacket and other bulky garments which was at least better than a space suit. And those dreaded shoes.

  The mothballed research base had been very cheap, as no sane Fallerian wao stay here lohan necessary. Lalleli had been able to buy it with the mohat Fallerian III had fiscated from that pany and the bribes they had secured from the corrupt dog officers on Fallerian VII. It had even enough left for renovations.

  The buildings were in good dition, only the heating needed an upgrade to handle colder and warmer rooms simultaneously. The rest of the renovation sisted of verting a rge area for Lalleli and adding some fortable rooms for up to three hired staff, currently a human cook and a human traveller to help with transtions. No Fallerian would work here. And, most importantly, the five guest rooms with extra stroing and humidified air. Lalleili wao turn this former research station into a guesthouse fuided horseback rides (on herself) to see real snow. There was a gcier about four kilometres from the house on a nearby ridge. Lalleli could easily run this distance five times a day. And the few invited Fallerian influencers from yesterday loved to g to her warm body as they rode out into the snow. The 20 days were already fully booked.

  He still wondered if Lalleli would not have beeer off flying back to Cauve and rebuilding her life there. The search for her home system had been fruitless so far, her memory too vague, the DNA information too general, the names and facts she remembered too generid although the Fallerian authorities had seized the addresses of the trading partners ahe evideo the host systems (all in human systems), there hadn't been an answer yet. Sihe messages travelled with the data dumps on ships, they may not have reached their destinatio.

  Today, the first paying guests would arrive. If all went well, he would leave with their flight. He was sad to leave Lalleli, but more than happy to get bato space. As much as Lalleli did not fit on a ship or a Fallerian station, he did not fit on a p, especially not in this cion.