They’d been right- it was quieter in the morning. As Edie padded down the corridors toward the Cafe, she welcomed the solitude. Nobody else was up and about this morning. It gave her time to consider things.
Walter was clearly quite mad, in the nicest of ways. As he’d walked her home the previous night, it had become obvious that he wasn’t shamming, that he really was going to treat her like a kid sister. He’d hugged her goodnight just as he’d said he would, and she had been unable to suppress a shiver feeling those arms wrapped around her, but he did not react in the same way. A large part of the reason she’d shivered was the part of him her lower belly’d pressed against, but that made it even plainer that he did not respond, not in the slightest. It certainly made things easier for her, assuming she wanted him to stay clear.
It occurred to her that such an assumption wasn’t too thrilling when she was not the one in control. Having Walter mooning over her and being frustrated was gratifying in a selfish way. However, having Walter treating her like a sister was vaguely insulting. He simply couldn’t resist her so damned easily, she thought- even if she wished to be resisted, he should at least make some pretense of being tempted. He might not be the sort to sneak off and be with, but it was maddening to not even have the chance.
It was all very confusing.
As she entered the Cafe, she blinked, for it was nearly deserted. At the table in the back was Arthur, Bill, and Walter. Walter grinned happily and waved her over with an expansive gesture. Edie caught her tail twitching to the side again and repressed it with practiced skill, padding over to join them and keeping her gait decent.
“What’s for breakfast?” she inquired.
“What would you like?” asked Arthur. “If it is not unduly exotic I believe you can be accomodated.”
“An omelet, perhaps?” suggested Edie. “Who’s cooking?”
“That’d be me, sis.” grinned Walter.
Bill looked startled. “Sis? Walter, have you flipped out?”
“Nope. Edie’s going to be like my kid sister, Bill. I always wanted one.”
“You have flipped,” grumbled Bill. “Must you be weird so early in the morning?”
“Yup. Back in a moment!” said Walter, and disappeared through a set of doors.
“He’s the cook?” blinked Edie.
“No, breakfast is potluck around here,” explained Bill. “We get staff from topside for dinner sometimes. Don’t miss it if you have the chance, it’s essentially a luxury-liner chef’s command performance. Doesn’t happen often. Speaking of topside, do you have plans?”
Walter returned with a softly rounded small omelet, and Edie blinked at him again. “That was awfully quick.”
“For an omelet? Sis, the only way to make omelets is with no hands. It should only take seconds. This isn’t the sort you make with a spatula, you know.”
Edie prodded the omelet with a fork, and it gave way resiliently and softly. “What’s the glaze on it?” she asked.
“Beurre noir. Or, if you don’t study culinary history, browned butter. Go on, try it. Bill, what were you saying about topside?”
“Oh, I just got a message on my notepad. They have too many bipes up at the zipline lounge, and their staff is tied up, they’re wondering if any of us could come up and help shuttle them back to where they came from.” said Bill.
“Now,” said Walter, “you know they’re not supposed to be asking that. And they’re sure not supposed to be paging…”
“It wasn’t a page,” explained Bill, “it was just a mail. See? Lowest priority, too. Of course, you’re right, but you know the way they operate.”
“Yeah, I do. How many do they want? They’re nuts if they expect more than maybe two, and they’d better not be expecting underside staff to be shuttling bipes all day.”
Edie swallowed some omelet and inquired, “What are you all talking about? Shuttling bipes?”
“It’s like this,” explained Walter. “You’ve probably heard of the Zipline Lounge. Several miles high, with a zipline leading down into a valley- it’s a popular place and you might want to try it someday. The question is, how do people get up to the place? There are stairs, but only lunatics climb them- the common way is flying one of those little biplanes up there. Then the person rides the zipline down, leaving the bipe parked up there, and a staffer takes the staff elevator up and flies the bipe back to where it’s needed.”
“There’s an elevator, but only for staff?” blinked Edie.
“It’s supposed to not be easy to get to.”
“Er, okay…” said Edie, but Walter wasn’t finished.
“The thing is, the fools have gotten tied up in some stupid logjam somewhere, they’re all frosting cakes or giving pedicures, and they’re asking us to come and fix their little problem. If Peter knew about this they would be very unhappy, I’ll tell you. However…”
Bill continued, “…the Zipline Lounge is a really beautiful place, and we could do a lot worse as a way to kill an afternoon. And the bipes are great fun. Can you fly, Edie?”
Edie smirked. “I bet they are fun. Sure I can fly. Is that what we’re going to do today?”
“Not I,” said Arthur firmly. “I have coding to do.”
“Well, I don’t,” said Bill. “And Edie’s probably never seen the Zipline Lounge. What I’m proposing is this- we go up there, take a few bipes, fly around for a while, then have lunch. How does that sound?”
“Sounds lovely,” purred Edie. “Walter? Are you going to come along?”
“I prob’ly shouldn’t… but yeah, all right. You talked me into it.”
“When do we leave?” asked Edie.
Walter grinned. “You just finish your omelet. If they weren’t frantic and in a dreadful hurry they wouldn’t have mailed Bill like they did- but they had no business doing it in the first place, it’s against their regulations.”
“Is it against ours?” asked Edie, addressing the omelet again.
“Our regulations regarding topside privileges can be summed up in two words,” noted Arthur. “Carte blanche.”
“You mean sashe noir,” corrected Bill.
“Yes, that’s right. Edie,” asked Arthur, “do you have the black sash?”
Edie finished off the omelet, licking her feline lips, as it had been marvellous. “What black sash?”
“There should have been a black sash, a silk one, included with your things.” said Bill. “You wear it when topside as a sort of badge. The topside staff have all different colors, but anyone from underside wears the black one. You don’t want to skip it, it shows you outrank them.”
“Oh, that,” said Edie. “I did notice it. It came in a very nice box, and I’d seen topside people wearing sashes before, but I didn’t understand about the black ones. Do I have to wear the uniform it goes with?” Edie shuddered- wearing clothes over fur tended to be uncomfortable and left her looking disheveled. and fur was really perfectly decent.
“Did a uniform come in the box?” asked Walter, grinning.
“No, it was just the sash.”
“Well, there you go. Tell you what, why don’t we go get our sashes and I’ll meet you back here in five minutes. How’s that?”
It was easy to find the sash- Edie had packed it neatly away in the closet. However, it really didn’t look right without the uniform- the sash went over a shoulder and was tied at the hip, and Edie had to move carefully to keep it from slipping off.
As she returned to the Cafe, the first thing she saw was Walter, the long black sash tied around his head like an absurdly long bandanna. It looked quite rakish. Bill also wore his in the same way, though on him it looked vaguely bohemian.
“You’re not going to wear it like that, are you?” chuckled Walter. “We don’t have to follow dress codes.”
Edie blinked. “Well… in that case…” she purred, and swept off the sash with a flourish, twining it around her waist and tying it, then seating the trailing ends over to one side and settling into a decadent pose, hips canted elegantly to show off the decoration, tail flicking about absently.
Arthur, witnessing this performance, blinked, but said nothing. Walter gaped for a moment before remembering she was his ‘kid sister’, and Bill just said “Wow!”
“Pretty special, huh?” purred Edie.
“Well, actually, a lot of people wear it that way,” said Bill, “…but it was the way you put it on! Very nice, Edie.”
Edie realized how provocative her pose was and straightened up hastily, glancing at Walter. “Well, I try.” she purred, a little defensively. “How do we get there?”
“The obvious way.” said Bill. “We fly to the underside location of the lounge, then take the elevator.”
Walter hesitated. “You did say you flew, didn’t you? Are you comfortable handling the subs in air? We’ll figure out something if you’re not, like fly-by-wire…”
Edie smirked. “Quite comfortable, thank you. Just lead the way.”
As the three got into their subs and prepared to leave, Edie was grateful for her earlier misadventure- it meant that she wouldn’t have to make mistakes in front of Walter. That would be intolerable, because it would make him even more protective and condescending, treating her like a kid, or possibly a pet kitten. Edie wriggled in her seat, and realized that her thoughts were drifting again. It must be the seat, she decided- normal chairs were all very well, but when a seat was so carefully sculpted that it grasped one’s body as if to fondle it, there was a certain reaction that could slip in without her planning it. Rick had been right- he had gotten the trim, angular curves of her feline bottom to within a few microns, and she could feel the accuracy in the way it grasped her. Of course, it had to be that way for safety reasons, so she’d have to deal with the side effects. One could quite like the side effects if it wasn’t for having nothing to do to remedy them… Edie noticed that the other subs were heading out the opened door, and hastily got her sub pointed in the right direction, yanking on the throttle with conviction and focussing her wandering mind on flying.
Falling into line with the other subs, Edie wondered how long it would be before they arrived, and, glancing over the controls, found the radio. “So how far is it?”
“Not all that far,” came Walter’s voice over the speakers. “Do you mind if me and Bill fool around a little? We won’t actually be dogfighting, that’s inadvisable. But we like playing tag. Will that bother you?”
Edie smirked… and reached for the throttle.
With one sudden yank, her sub went scat and flashed out ahead of the other two, and she giggled into the radio as she twisted and dodged her pursuers. It was clear that they were not pushing things too hard- they avoided getting overly close to each other, and didn’t try and approach her too closely either, though Walter tried a few pranks like flying upside down when the altitude was safest. As he did so, he told her sternly to do as he said, not as he did, and she giggled and did a snap roll to tease him, and dived down to skim the water, and as she did suddenly Bill was saying ‘Hey. Hey! Get up! Now! Both of you!’
“What is it?” asked Edie, reasonably.
“Oh, shit…” said Walter, over the speakers. “Edie! Up!” She glanced at where the sound was localized and noticed that he was heading for the roof. She glanced at her instruments and saw a large blob on a radar-like instrument she hadn’t been taught how to use yet. As she drew back the stick and started to ascend, the landless sea bulged impossibly as a continent broke the water just in front of her.
Edie kept her head, though her heart had decided the situation was surely fatal and pounded violently. She yanked back hard on the stick, rocketing up, and just at the moment that both Bill and Walter panicked and began screaming at her, she countered by pushing forward just as hard. The ceiling rushed towards her and leveled out, becoming a dizzying streak of marker lines racing by. Carefully, she let her sub drop until the racing lines seemed less close, and looked around, to see Bill and Walter falling into formation beside her. She looked back. It wasn’t really a continent. It was more like an area code, or perhaps a small city. It was also gray and featureless.
“Sorry…” said Walter, after a little pause. “I didn’t know you were ready to correct that climb. You’re good.”
“Hell,” said Bill, “she’s as good as you are. Well, better than me, that’s for sure. I’d have hit the thing if it was me.”
“So what is it?” managed Edie. She felt thankful she’d managed to keep the trembling of her body out of her voice.
Bill bought it, and began, “Well, this is a smaller version of…” but Walter saw right through her and interrupted him. “Save it. Edie, you okay? Rise up a little, it helps. These things don’t breach much more than this. I’m scanning deep and there isn’t anything else for miles…”
“I’m all right,” insisted Edie. “Nothing else for miles?” She instantly felt stupid, giving away her mood like that.
“It takes a little getting used to,” said Walter reassuringly.
They flew on in silence for a minute, until Edie, frustrated at the silence, grabbed her throttle again and shot off at full speed in what seemed like the right direction. “Tell me when we’re getting close,” she purred over the radio.
“We’re getting close.” came Bill’s voice.
Fortunately, she had plenty of time to slow to just over a stall and aim for the landing area. Edie thanked heaven that she knew how to use the flaps, for without them the very act of landing in a long bay in the ceiling would have been far more difficult.
By the time she found a parking space she was over her fright.
