“Do you think he was telling the truth?” purred Edie dreamily, sprawled limply on her belly across her bed. She wriggled a little, then relaxed again.

The fox’s thumbs were just short of cruel, working out the knots in her back, her legs. “Hah! You don’t know Peter very well. Peter has a wife on Earth. Peter sees his wife once every few years, but he’s only happy commanding Aquarius- he’s just that type, as I’m sure you’ll notice. You said he rubbed your shoulders,” remarked the fox, moving to Edie’s shoulders. “Did he rub like… this?”

“Hey!” protested Edie. The fox was massaging her back with one hand, and grasping her scruff tightly with the other, forcing her to go limp. Hearing her tone, he let go, remarking “Obviously not.”

Edie gave him an annoyed look. She’d met Rick in the cafe, and she’d gotten a lot of sympathy and curiosity simply by limping painfully in and getting a cup of tea. He’d been with some friends, but had dropped everything, zipped over and helped her to her seat. In conversation he’d suggested that she was in desperate need of a backrub, and she had to admit technically that was true.

She’d insisted on her own place in hopes she could retain the moral advantage, but it seemed to make little difference to Rick. So she simply focused on keeping her tail held straight rather than held to the side, and kept an eye on him. As his massaging hands moved once more to her feline bottom and began taking a bit too much of an interest in the inside of her thighs, she brought back the conversation again. “He has a wife, then?”

“Sure does,” continued Rick, “a canine morph. I’ve seen a video clip- she’s really cute, like a cocker spaniel morph. I’m sure she doesn’t lack for company while the captain’s away.”

“Maybe she doesn’t look for company.” pointed out Edie.

“Spare me,” smirked Rick. “Though I do have to admit Peter doesn’t look for company either. He can’t, because of his position. The poor guy has to settle for groping beautiful cats in corridors. I feel sorry for him.”

Edie tensed. “If you don’t approve of groping, get your thumbs away from there. Now.”

Rick did so. “Okay, okay. I do approve of groping, though…”

“I don’t.” stated Edie.

“If you really didn’t, you’d be less warm to the touch, kitty. Rick’s well-practiced temperature-sensing thumbs tell no lies. You’re sure, now?”

Edie squirmed away, and sat up. “Thanks- my back does feel much better. Yes, I’m sure. Feel like going back to the cafe now? I’d like another cup of tea.” Her eyes tracked his movements warily.

Rick shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. “Sure. No problem.” He sat up, and Edie’s eyes widened- he’d been letting himself go, and now was visibly preening, showing off his body’s voluntary reaction. People normally didn’t do that- one of the adaptations to totemized bodies had been control of those conspicuous reactions. Except, of course, when one didn’t want them controlled. Edie gulped, looking away.

Rick glanced at her. “Second thoughts, pretty kittycat?”

Edie stood. “I hope,” she purred sweetly, “you don’t mind heading to the cafe in your condition. I feel like having that other cup of tea immediately. Come along now.”

She promptly opened the door and stepped out, to wait in the corridor… and blinked as Rick came out after her, letting her shut the door. She’d been certain he was going to sit there until he was decent. “Don’t you feel… conspicuous?”

Rick grinned. “Half of the people we meet will be reminded of happy memories. The other half won’t even speak to me. Come on.” He headed off cheerfully.

Edie followed, marvelling. If he was not so unconcerned with her rebuff, he would be alarming, but he seemed to have written her off sexually already. This was reassuring, as she’d been responding to his massage and really didn’t want to be driven hard by her instincts. Sometimes it was very hard to be a cat, but Rick didn’t press too hard- he kept on making delicately provocative remarks, but it stayed purely on a verbal level and she could sense that, unless she made an effort to get his attention again, there it would remain. By the time they got to the cafe, he wasn’t conspicuous, and she’d decided she sort of liked him.

As they entered, a few heads turned. The yellow cat-man, David, seemed to be appraising the two of them, and a wolf whose name escaped her looked extremely disapproving. He then noticed Edie looking at him, and looked away bashfully.

Rick left Edie’s side immediately and collared David. “Come along, David. I need you to soothe my hurt feelings.”

“Hurt feelings?” grumbled David. “You barely have feelings at all, hon, you expect me to believe that?”

“Well then,” continued Rick, “you can soothe other things. Please? I am rejected, scorned, I stand before you, a fox who doesn’t appeal to cats.”

David gave him a look. “You know that’s nonsense.”

“Oh? Well, then, come help prove it’s nonsense.”

“Rick!” hissed the cat-man. “What’s the matter with you? You drag this new girl off, get frustrated, and now you have to drag me off right this instant? You might have thought of that before you walked out on me, just now. What gives you the right?”

Edie winced, noting that many of the people present were watching this exchange. They seemed to take it for granted, though the wolf looked particularly disapproving again. Rick drew himself up haughtily for a moment, looked about to speak, then drooped, patted David’s bottom, turned, and left.

Edie found herself exchanging an embarrassed glance with the wolf-man, and as she was left standing in the middle of the room, she padded over to join him. “Is this seat taken?”

“No, no, by all means sit down,” he stammered. “Pleased to meet you.”

“What was all that about?”

The wolf glowered. “David deserves better than that guy. That’s all you need to know, er..”

“Edie.”

The wolf nodded. “I’m Walter. Anyway, that Rick is trouble, stay away from him.”

“Really?” blinked Edie. “I didn’t think he was dangerous. I had him in my room and he still took a no. You’re telling me that Peter will let dangerous people work for him? Or is he a passenger?”

“He’s no pilgrim. He’s a pilot. That’s not what I meant,” explained Walter, looking frustrated. “Maybe you’re that kind, in which case never mind, pretend I didn’t say anything…”

Edie blinked again. “Whoa, hold it. Pilgrim? Pilot? What kind? You’re not making sense.”

The wolf sighed. “Sorry. Which do you want explained first?”

“I’m what kind?”

“Okay, maybe you’re not, in which case good. At least, that’s the way I feel about it. You saw what he did to David? David is his lover, or at least ought to be for sheer loyalty… look, see that?”

Edie followed the gesture to see David’s tail disappearing out the door.

“One guess where he’s going. And it’s such a waste, Rick will drag off anybody and doesn’t care. He explained it to me once as backups, like the backup systems in his sub. David deserves better than to be somebody’s spare part…”

Edie thought she’d figured it out. “Are you sweet on him, hon? You can tell me. It’s okay.”

Walter spluttered a bit, then regained his composure. “Absolutely not… well, I’m a good friend of his. He’s turned to me sometimes. Not for that! I don’t swing that way, actually I don’t swing at all, but David really needs a friend…”

Edie nodded. “And so Rick treating David that way upsets you. I’m sorry I was part of it, Walter, I honestly didn’t know. I can imagine how it must have looked.”

The wolf grinned, just a bit. “Looked like Maggie all over again.” He looked about furtively, but evidently didn’t spot Maggie, and he continued in an undertone, “For the first month she dragged off a different person every night, sometimes a couple times a night. Naturally it was Rick a lot, they’re the same type. I guess you’re not that way, hm?”

Edie shook her head. “I’m no prude…”

“Never met a cat who was,” grinned Walter. “I am, but that’s just me.”

“But,” continued Edie, “I have no desire to drag somebody off to bed the first night I’m here just for the sake of it. I’m not attached, and Peter did say that he thought some people here would be interested in me, but there’s no hurry about meeting any of them.”

A slender vixen, passing by, paused with a wicked smile. “Don’t know who you are, but you obviously have, kitty.”

“Alice!” protested Walter. “Cut it out!”

Edie blinked. “You? Sorry, but I’m boring like Walter, not interested in girls. Even foxy ones. Pun intended.”

“Oh, this is going to be good,” continued the vixen. “Can I speak with you a little, kitty? Er, your name is?”

“Edie, and say what you want right here. I’m not going off anywhere.” said Edie, flustered.

Alice smirked. “Forgive me. I’m being horrible. It’s not me, I have similar tastes to yours. It’s this hulking wolf you’re talking to, the biggest wallflower on board…”

“Which is none of your business!” snapped Walter, becoming more and more embarrassed.

“Who also has a, how did he put it?” continued Alice. “Dreadful?”

Walter got up and made for the door, startling Edie, who cried “Stop! Don’t go!”

“Don’t mind him, he’s all right.” continued Alice. “Dreadful weakness for little cats. Now, he’s what, six two? And you look to be about five feet…”

“Four eleven. Why did you do that?” protested Edie. “I was talking to him! Now he’s all upset, and all I wanted to do was be friends.”

“Edie, Edie,” chided Alice. “I’m one of his closest friends. Largely because I’m also a pilot, and I have a mate, so I’m not a threat to him. He’s not that upset. He’d be more upset if he talked to you for six hours straight as I’m sure he would have done. You had no way of knowing that you were his secret fantasy come to life.”

Edie felt extremely exasperated. “Are all you people sex-crazed weasels?”

Alice giggled. “Of course not. You also didn’t know that the Cafe is the sex-crazed weasel zone…”

“Hey, I resemble that remark!” came a voice from the back of the room. Edie looked. Sure enough, a weasel. Or perhaps a ferret-person.

“You hush, Bill,” called Alice, “you aren’t crazed enough.”

“Aw, shucks.” answered Bill with a grin, and returned to his conversation.

“He’s not?” blinked Edie.

“Nope, that one’s my mate. Plenty of us just come here because it is the most colorful place to hang out. But this is the center for the swingers, you know, and you have to take that into account.”

“I’d rather not,” remarked Edie, still unsettled. “Alice, why were you trying to fix me up with this Walter? You hardly know me. Do you expect me to be publically wanton?”

“Hm?” said Alice. “More and more I’m thinking you’ll make a good friend to Walter. Please try to remember, hon, that I love Walter dearly and know what’s best for him…”

“Forgive me for not caring,” said Edie. “In fact, forgive me for leaving and going back to my room… alone! It’s like I’ve fallen into a soap opera in outer space…”

“The correct term,” said the weasel, who’d noticed her mood and come over to join them, “is Peyton Place in Outer Space.”

“Peyton what?”

“Bill, chill.” chided Alice. “Please don’t go, dear. Look, come back over to our table and join us? Bill and I and Sandy and Arthur have a regular table, and we’re not going to put moves on you. We’re really quite stolid ordinary people and if you go back to your room now you’ll lock the door, which you shouldn’t feel like you have to do.”

“I guess she’s not Rick’s type, eh?” remarked Bill casually.

Alice grimaced. “Obviously not. Just as well, one Maggie’s enough. Don’t tell her I said that. She is certainly Walter’s type, though, isn’t she? It’s incredible.”

Edie allowed herself to be cajoled into joining the little group at their regular table, which turned out to be tucked cozily away in a sort of alcove, a little oasis from the quiet hubbub of the Cafe. Besides Alice, the vixen, and Bill, the weasel, there was a mouse-person, barely four feet tall, who smiled cheerfully at Edie and said, “Arthur. I trust you are not troubled by predatory urges?”

Alice grinned. “Knock it off, Arthur, you’ve been making that joke for years now.”

“And rightly so!” continued Arthur. “After all, this one’s even bigger than the last one was! If she is going to pounce upon me, I demand fair warning!”

“That was years ago too,” grinned Alice, “and that was Maggie as we all know perfectly well.”

“But lest ye forget, she did pounce upon me.”

“You outweighed her by about ten pounds. Hardly an alarming prospect.”

“Ah, but she wanted to eat me!”

Alice hrumphed. “And did, too- that was before you met Sandy, of course. Let’s not talk about Maggie, okay? Edie here is not cut from the same cloth, thankfully, and she’s already dealt with Rick and been narrowly rescued from Walter…”

Arthur peered at Edie, ostentatiously examining her. “Poor Walter.”

“Look,” said Edie, settling in among her odd new friends, “what is all this about Walter? He seems nice but I don’t find this obviousness appealing. And what is it with this place, that everybody’s constantly saturated by lust?”

Bill spoke. “Walter is very dear to all of us here, Edie. He really is a prince- and he’s in a bit of a tough space now since he’s staying away from the singles scene and the singles scene is chasing him very hard.”

“That I can believe,” replied Edie, “as the singles scene here looks like it’d chase a lamppost or a trouser leg. I think I’ll follow his lead. Why would they chase him, if this Rick will drag off anybody on a random whim?”

“Diameter.” smiled Arthur.

“Arthur!” chided Alice. “Edie did not ask for that information, do you think you could make allowances for a newcomer? Pretend it’s really Walter sitting here, she’s just as prudish as he is.”

“I am not!” protested Edie, suppressing a wriggle. “Maybe I’d better try and get used to the way things work here, you shouldn’t be censoring yourselves on my account. I mean, I am a cat, after all! But I just find this blatant dragging-people-off distasteful.”

“Of course,” soothed Bill. “Most people here don’t go in for that sort of thing.”

“Do I get the impression,” blinked Arthur, “that somebody has been trying to sell you on Walter? I saw you talking to him, and his tail wagging over it, but then when Alice joined you he became upset and left. What did she say?”

Edie sighed. “Basically that I was his fantasy come true. Which is particularly disconcerting after that business with Rick.”

“You went off with Rick?” blinked Arthur bemusedly.

“And came straight back again,” said Alice, “and she says Rick didn’t do anything. Which makes sense, Rick never pursues if it takes a serious effort.”

“Well, believe me, he was ready to do things.” said Edie. “I thought he would be embarrassed to go out into the hallways in that condition, but no, he didn’t seem to mind.”

“Pointy or blunt?” asked Arthur, with a mischevious grin.

Edie blinked, stammered, and said “Pointy.”

“Then you are telling the truth,” smiled Arthur, “and Bill owes me a glass of ginger ale.”

“Damn, that’s right!” said Bill. “Be right back.” He zipped off to fetch it.

“What??” gaped Edie.

“We made a small wager, Bill and I, upon seeing you leave the Cafe with Rick, that within an hour you’d see his silly weenus.” smiled Arthur. “My compliments to you on turning it down. As I understand it from the rumors floating around, Walter’s is far better in all respects.”

Edie just stared at him. “How would you know? And why would you know about Rick’s… Excuse me, I am just a bit overwhelmed, okay?”

“My apologies.” said Arthur kindly. “One develops a certain nonchalance about these issues from hanging around in the Cafe for years. As for Rick’s weenus, he is exhibitionistic as you learned, and everybody has seen it, whether they relished the sight or not. As for Walter’s, once he was carnally active, and it became known that his girth was majestic and imposing, and ever since he has been sought by exactly the type he shuns, poor fellow.”

Edie winced, and ostentatiously remarked, “Remind me to be careful never to let anything develop. I have no intention of getting myself injured.”

“Look over there.” suggested Alice.

Edie looked, to see a tiny cat girl with Siamese markings blatantly prowling into the room. She was possibly a little taller than Arthur, but Arthur had a bit of a potbelly and this kitten was slender as Siamese often were. She very nearly made Edie feel inadequate by the sheer felinity of her movements, by the sensuous grace of her silent prowl, the lively flicks of her tail. She walked like she was in heat.

“Maggie.” said Alice.

“Since Maggie was the last person to carnally know Walter, years ago, and the source of the rumors thereafter,” added Arthur, “I think your concerns of injury are unfounded. In fact, she enthused over how slow and careful he was. Which surprised none of us who know him.”

Edie tried to keep from staring at her. “She walks like she’s in heat.” she said very quietly.

Alice looked faintly disgusted. “She probably is. She does go into it, you know. It wouldn’t be that difficult to treat it, adjust it. Take me, for example- I don’t go into heat, got it fixed, the drive is spread out and dissipated…”

“Not too dissipated,” grinned Bill.

“Thank you,” continued Alice. “As you can see, it’s not really an impediment, it just means I don’t get sick with it like that one does. She wouldn’t last a minute like that as a pilot, I can tell you that right now. But as a programmer, she can get away with it.”

“I’m amazed she’s so open about it,” said Edie quietly. “Where I come from you can’t display it like that.”

“Where do you come from?” asked Arthur.

“Oh, Vermont. That’s Earth, you know. Right back where it all started. Where does she come from that’s so different?”

“She comes from oppies,” remarked Bill wryly. “Rich ones, at that, even for oppies. I think the planet was Verdant, I’m not sure. In any case, her background is certainly different from yours.”

“Programmer?” winced Edie. “I’m going to be working with her?”

“Don’t fret,” reassured Bill. “She’s okay, even if she is a bit hard to take sometimes. She’s one hell of a programmer, anyway, and she’s not that hard to get along with. I think some of the other female cats said she tends to get more-feline-than-thou, but that’s not a major problem. Or is it?”

Edie pondered that for a while, and a smirk stole over her face. “I think not.”

“Oh, Edie,” grinned Alice. “What does that smirk say?”

“I’m sorry,” smirked Edie. “I may not be a public spectacle, but I assure you that nobody out-cats me. On any grounds. Not even that kitten.”

“Well, then,” smiled Bill, “sounds like you’ll be fine…”

Arthur had been studying Edie’s expression, and cheerfully interrupted. “Pardon me, but might I venture a guess? Are we to take it that when you become sick with heat yourself, you might turn to our dear Walter and simultaneously relieve his longings and transport yourself to heights of yowling ecstacy?”

Edie stared at him aghast. “I beg your pardon!”

Arthur blinked. “No offense, I hope?”

Edie dropped her eyes and could not face any of the others. A normal human would have gone chalk white and then bright red- as she was totemized and wore fur, the first part wasn’t visible, but the second part translated to her bristling dreadfully.

With over ten years of covering her shameful but natural condition, ten years of taking great pains to hide it so she could avoid the hospital and going on permanent medication, she’d been unmasked here in ten minutes. Probably Rick knew too. They called it EI, it stood for estrus-intensive, and it was not okay. It was treated as a sickness. You had to be able to cover it up. So much for that.

“Good god.” said Alice, taking in the situation. “Arthur, I think you stuffed your paw in it up to the elbow.”

“I better leave,” stammered Edie, trying to rise, but Alice caught her hand.

“Please sit, Edie. I apologize for Arthur- you are beginning to learn about him. This is a safe place and you are welcome here. It’s true, then? I also apologize for my own thoughtless remarks- please don’t go away shamed!”

Edie gave up trying to rise and sank back into her seat, her head in her hands. Nobody spoke, not even Arthur, though he gazed at her with great curiosity.

Finally, she spoke. “It looks like I’m out of the closet. For God’s sake, don’t tell that Rick. Or Walter! Let me have a little self-respect.”

“We respect you, Edie.” said Alice quietly.

Edie gave her a look. “You’ll forgive me for not believing that right off. Where I come from it’s not acceptable. And you don’t have a lot of respect for that little kitty prowling around over there. She’s being conspicuous- it’s not good enough.”

“You’re not the same as her,” said Bill, “and we joke about her but she’s an all right person underneath. What I’m wondering is how you’ve made it this far if your environment was that disapproving?”

Edie sighed gently. “Being estrus-intensive is not the same as being provocative. Where I come from one doesn’t really talk about those things. I know how to repress it.”

“But…” said Alice.

“And, I might add, I know how to groom myself three times a day if necessary so I don’t look bedraggled and ravaged…”

“But…” said Alice.

“And know which deodorants are effective against it.” finished Edie.

Alice heaved a deep sigh. “It sounds like you have all the bases covered. Can you tell me if you’re dealing with this now? In which case a lot of our conversation has been very cruel. When I was going natural my rating wasn’t that high but I still remember times when mere conversation made me a little frantic. Are you being hurt by our careless talk?”

“No, I’m not.” said Edie. “And yes, if I was then it would be cruel. But it looks like I’ll have to adapt to it somehow.”

“It must be hell.” said Bill. “Why do you deal with it?”

“Well, for starters, I don’t like playing with my own chemistry,” said Edie. “No offense, I hope, Alice? I can see that you need to in order to do your job.”

“No offense at all, Edie. I wouldn’t get very far imposing my values on everybody around me.”

“Well,” said Edie, “here’s hoping you don’t end up making me the butt of jokes like this Maggie.”

Alice blinked. “I guess I deserved that. Edie, part of it is that Maggie puts tremendous effort into being the most sexual thing on Aquarius, which is sort of childish, really. After all, we have Rick for that.” She smirked.

“Might I ask what the rating is?” inquired Arthur politely.

“You may not.” replied Edie.

Bill blinked. “That bad? You’re kidding.”

“It’s no concern of yours. I can handle it. You’ll never know.”

“Peter does know?” asked Alice. “Because you’ll catch hell for it if you hid something like that. You’d be out so fast it’d make your…”

“Alice, hon,” chided Bill, “of course he knows. You’re seriously thinking he couldn’t find something like that out? Besides- she’s a programmer. So is Maggie a programmer. Peter knows what he’s doing.”

“He knows,” nodded Edie. “He even played on it a bit when I panicked coming down here, and put up really clear boundaries around it, too. He’s very pragmatic, isn’t he?”

“You’d be surprised,” noted Bill. “Did you know that there is a correlation between intuitive problem solving and EI? It’s not an accident that he hired Maggie- she is phenomenal. Fantastic spurts of concerted work, like lightning flashes…”

Edie nodded. “That’s me, too. I guess they can deal with me, huh?”

“Is that why you prefer not to treat your condition?” asked Arthur.

“It’s not a condition!” snapped Edie defensively. “It’s the natural way my body wants to operate!”

“Edie,” chided Alice, “that doesn’t mean people always enjoy it. I’ve heard even Maggie complain at times. Tension, obsession, a degree of intensity that is virtually intolerable…”

“Stop it.” hissed the catgirl.

“Sorry.” said Alice. “But as you can see, we’re fascinated. Is it really just respect for the natural order of things, is it really something to endure for the sake of the brilliance that can sometimes accompany it? Is that all there is?”

Edie looked angry for a moment, untrusting and hostile. Gradually it faded, and the cat-girl looked back and forth, between the very professional vixen, the friendly weasel and the curious and unworldly mouse, and slowly a delicate smirk stole over her kittenish face.

“Guess.” she purred.

“Well, then,” grinned Alice, “never mind. You’ll do.”

Edie’s smirk faded. “Oh? I hope you’re not going to start talking about Walter again. I should think you understand now that such talk isn’t fair to me. I want to be friends, f…” She flushed.

“F?” grinned Bill.

“Forget anything else,” purred Edie sweetly. “If he’s so wonderful to know he’ll make a terrific friend. As for the EI, there’s inanimate objects, grooming and deodorant.”

Alice sighed, then unexpectedly giggled. “Poor Walter. It’s no use, you’re as stubborn as a cat. Promise me one thing, Edie?”

“What?”

“Use the deodorant. Don’t torture our friend. He’s a wolf and he has the sensitive nose. And he has his little quirk. Please don’t make his life a living hell, okay?”

Edie paused, embarrassed to hear somebody else saying such things. “Okay.”

Arthur stirred. “And I’ll suggest to him that he do likewise- in case you develop a matching quirk. One can’t be too careful. I believe I can phrase it in such a way that he won’t suspect.”

Alice grinned. “If she develops a matching quirk, they’ll both be too careful.”

Bill grinned as well… and whispered to Alice, “If she develops a matching quirk, it doesn’t matter a damn how careful they are anyways.”