Though it wasn’t uncommon for the average Ctarl Ctarl to own a slave, and since most of the crew were high ranking members of the military, most everyone’s family owned one. But being on a ship only a few privileged Ctarl Ctarl officers (with larger than standard rooms) were allowed to keep them, and those select few were currently slaveless. During the food shortage sacrifices had to be made….. if you could really call them that. A Terran’s life was hardly a sacrifice to most. Jim was an exception, so was Molly. Trisha, being an orphan, someone who had to work her ass off for everything she owned fighting tooth and nail, and not having that big a wallet, had never owned a slave in the past nor did she care to. In a way she felt like a slave herself, doing manual labor on the home world for minimum wage. It was difficult, doing a fully grown Ctarl Ctarl’s work load when she was only a kid, but she needed funds to pay her way through the academy. The military had been hell too. The hierarchy of the Ctarl Ctarl military was like its own food chain and pfc’s were pretty much the bottom rung. So the concept of slavery had never appealed to her.

Still, just for the fun of it, she’d enslaved one of the pirates from earlier. She’d been a bit full the day she’d been issued him so she decided to save him for later. Her meal had been postponed because ordering him around was a lot of fun. She DID like to play with her food occasionally and she had never been too fond of pirates (never having much she couldn’t appreciate someone who stole from others). He was one of the scrawnier looking pirates so he was easier to boss around. Unfortunately Aisha didn’t seem too interested in her proposal. Not surprising, the commander was a complete bitch in Trisha’s eyes. She was being offered a good deal. A replacement slave, several months of wages, and she had a new lineup of ‘fresh meat’ to pick from. Trisha had a sneaking suspicion Aisha wasn’t selling Jim just to piss her off.

“Come on, Jim’s an asset to the ship and Paige will be a good master for him. Why don’t you just sell?” She butted in, interrupting Paige’s haggling.

“Excuse me? How does this matter even concern you private?” Aisha all but spat the last word, Trisha was furious.

“Look, Paige is a friend of mine and Jim’s a good kid. So why don’t you just sell? I don’t see why you’ve got your panties all up in a bunch.”

Aisha’s dark skin got a little darker. She was really getting irritated now. All she wanted to do was meet up with her Jimmy but instead she’d been ambushed and flanked by two of her subordinates. Paige had some cajones to try and barter for Jim. Aisha wasn’t selling but she still respected the young girl’s devotion and compassion towards her human friend. Paige was usually quite docile and shy and Aisha had a bad reputation (she’d purposely been haughty and strict after resuming her position, you really had to be to survive in their Ctarl eat Ctarl society). So she could at least respect what Paige was trying to do. But who the hell did Trisha think she was?! Aisha hadn’t clawed and climbed her way to the top only to have a pitiful private insult her to her face! They had a bit of a history. She’d been a private when Aisha had run the Orta Hone Hone in the past. It wasn’t surprising she hadn’t moved up in rank due to that mouth of hers. Panties?! How dare she?! If Aisha had even looked at at Lumia Nightclaw oddly (her former captain and mentor) she would have had an eye gouged out. In the past she’d made Trisha do some pretty humiliating stuff do to her bad attitude and snippy comments, such as scrubbing the unisex bathrooms with a tootbrush, but now Trisha was braving new territory. There was no way in hell that kind of talk could be permitted.

The catgirl commander turned to face Trisha, “Excuse me? What did you just say?!” Aisha, hands on hips, bounced her belly off of Trisha forcing her to take a step back. The boy inside gave a yelp. His skin was chafed and raw from his fight to escape the acid bath.

“You heard me, I said get of your high horse…………. Bitch.”

Jim paled, that wasn’t the thing to say to Aisha. He was probably one of the few that could call Aisha a name like that to her face and not have to worry about being a gimp for the rest of his life (not that he’d try). He was a bit disappointed with Aisha for eating a young Terran but that anger had quickly turned to fear about what was about to transpire. He loved Aisha like a sister, he had a bigger crush on Paige than he ever had on Hanmyo, and was starting to become friends with Trisha. He didn’t want to see three women he cared about tear each other apart over him!

Aisha let out a deafening howl, her body shook with rage and her belly rippled as a small tremor went through it. Jim had only witnessed Aisha get this pissed off a few times before, and he knew what was about to happen. The boy inside Aisha pulled his legs into his chest. He wasn’t sure what was happening but his whole world had started shaking. The stomach acids were sloshing around now, popping up into the air and licking his arms. Suddenly the stomach acids seemed to get a lot more potent. Before they’d burned and, though it was to dark to see, he new it was eating away at the upper layers of his skin. Now though the acid was completely merciless. He no longer felt pain but cold numbness and it suddenly hurt to breathe in the acidric air.

“Helllllllllllllllllllp!” A voice completely muffed by a nice layer of muscle, fat, and skin cried out. The belly started vibrating and……. Changing shape. It was no longer a round almost spherical chamber. It was shrinking, causing him to have to bend forward face first into the acids, as it evolved into a more oval shaped prison. The belly was suddenly less elastic. There was a reason behind it but the boy didn’t have time to contemplate it. Without exiting out Commander Clan Clan’s mouth, or out the back end, he’d been transferred from a perky catgirl’s tummy into that of a giant beast that looked like a cross between a dire wolf and a tiger.

Aisha howled causing the whole corridor to vibrate, the newly transformed Trisha did the same. Jim stared at them for a few seconds, awed by his sister and friends more bestial forms. They were going to tear into each other until one of them dropped dead. He knew most Ctarl Ctarl couldn’t control themselves after transforming, that they’d sometimes lash out at friend and foe alike, but he had to risk it. He couldn’t let Aisha, Paige, or Trisha be hurt for his sake. Both titanic monstrosities growled at each other noisily getting ready to do battle.

“Trisha no!!!!!..... Jim, run!!!!!” A frightened Paige called out.

The Trisha wolf tiger turned and growled angrily at her, Paige eeped but it was too late, the massive beast raised it’s paw for the killing blow and Paige quickly fainted.

“No, don’t!” Jim cried, he didn’t need to. The vicious looking wolf tiger had turned back to its original opponent without harming the small shy girl. Trisha, liked most Ctarl Ctarl who were angered enough to morph into their berserker animal form, was almost in an uncontrollable rage. But not so much that she couldn’t recognize her young friend. She stared at her commander eyeing her throat. Aisha was salivating herself, ready to sink her teeth into her disobedient private and chew off her face.

Jim knew what he had to do. He sprinted out inbetween the two hulking predators, arms raised, “Please don’t do this.” Both growled in protest but Jim stood steadfast. Aisha quickly darted for him teeth barred and, even as brave as he was, Jim fell back landing on his butt. A part of him was nervous but believed in his big sister, even now. She approached her prey, drooling ravenously. Jim just stared suddenly unafraid. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect but he was practically her brother, and even a furious flesh consuming beastie could recognize family. Instead of feeling fangs piercing his cheek he felt Aisha’s hot raspy tongue slide up and down. It was her way of kissing him on the cheek and reassuring him. Jim tried not to laugh at the sensation. He took her elongated snout into his hands and kissed her on the nose. He could have sworn the wolf tiger smiled at him, but all too soon its primal range had taken over once more. Aisha looked past him, too her opponent, and attempted to step over him.

“Aisha, please stop!” She didn’t, she just carefully stepped over him getting ready to pounce. Trisha was there, ready and waiting. Jim did the first thing that came to his head he wrapped his hands and legs around the transformed catgirl. He was now hanging from the underside of her now only slightly plump belly. Aisha whined softly, not wanted to fight with Jim clinging on to her. Eventually she stopped tensing her muscles and slowly laid down on her side. Trisha had stopped growling as well. While petting the hulking yet peaceful beast Jim gave a sigh of relief. Aisha’s form seemed to glow softly and soon she was transforming back into her self. Trisha too. The two of them were both somewhat exhausted and their memories were foggy, none too sure of what had just transpired. Aisha’s belly was now back to its normal tight and fit self. She had required an enormous amount of calories while in beast form and the boy had been digested almost instantly. He was now probably laboriously making his way through her intestines.

“You okay Ai - …… Um…. Commander.”

“Yeah….. I should have you Court marshaled.” Aisha growled, turning back to her mutinous private.

“All I wanted was the boy.” Trisha huffed, “You’ll just eat him. Paige’ll make good use of him. He’s a hard worker. Why couldn’t you just work with us and take a deal? I know you and I have never gotten along but why are you always so…” Trisha’s voice trailed away, she was already in deep shit, no reason to dig her grave any more than she already had. Her recollection was so muddled she wasn’t certain what had transpired. It almost seemed as if Jim had…….. No, she didn’t know what happened, only that the two hadn’t fought. Best not to dwell on it. The here and now was much more important. She’d insulted, morphered, and nearly attacked a commanding officer. She’d probably be dismissed if not executed for treason.

“I said he wasn’t for sale, are you deaf? Maybe if I cut off one of your ears you’ll hear better.” Aisha growled.

Trisha almost retorted but held her tongue, “What do you want for him?”

Aisha gaped at her, “I really think you should be more worried about your future.”

Trisha looked over at her unconscious meek friend splayed out on the cold hard metallic floor. She’d probably be abandoned at their next destination or thrown in a holding cell for later. She couldn’t turn back the clock, the best she could do is save Jim’s life for Paige,“……. What do you want?” She repeated.

“Nothing YOU have.” Aisha sneered.

“You think you’re better than me don’t you? Just because you father’s some bigwig in the military and mine’s a drunk miserable bastard I’ve only met twice…….. Fine, prove it. I’ll compete with you for him.”

Aisha laughed her trademark high pitched scratchy laugh, “Of that’s rich! You couldn’t beat me in anything except maybe in a competition for biggest failure!” It wasn’t a very good joke but Aisha still laughed out loud.

“Then prove it……… ‘Commander’ Aisha!”

“I will you little punk!!!!!!” Aisha bellowed.

“Uh….” Jim didn’t want to intervene. Right now he wanted nothing more than to have a moment alone with Aisha and talk some sense to her. Convince her not to get rid of Trisha and just get her to cool down. But he couldn’t have a heart to heart with Aisha in front of the other crewmates. He’d promised her not to leak out the truth of their relationship. In stead he bit his tongue and watched, amazed, as Aisha agreed to gamble his ownership in a moment of rage.

“In the training room, 5 minutes, the one with the most targets destroyed wins! If you win I'll make your punishment something merciful, maybe just solitary confinement for a month, and Jim will be Paiges, at least for a little while. If I win you’re a sex toy for the terran refugees. I don’t care what any of the dirty old grandpa’s want to do to ya, you’re in those holding chambers till we’re back in the capital AFTER negotiations are over.”

“You’re on!”

“Unbelievable.” Jim muttered.

Trisha roused Paige and Aisha took Jim’s hand into her firm yet gentle grip, “Don’t worry Jimmy, I won’t lose.”

“Aisha, why are you even doing this?” Jim whispered.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I know you aren’t really my slave and I would never do anything to endanger you! There’s no way in hell I’d lose to the likes of her. Just….. don’t worry worry about it, I set the record for most targets broken.”

She had mentioned the training room to him once before. It was a seemingly empty room with a viewing glass that allowed people from the outside to look in. Many types of moving life size virtual enemies were replicated within. A single killing slash would cause the hologram to dissipate. The holograms couldn’t cause any real damage to their opponents but they were designed for speed and maneuverability (even more capable than their real life counterparts).

“Come on, we’re going there now.” Aisha called to Trisha, “…….. alright, lets do this.”

Aisha started marching off down the hall with Trisha some distance behind. Paige was leaning against her, still a little rattled from the nearly deadly encounter only a few minutes earlier, “Aisha please, Trisha is actually really nice.” Jim tried to explain, “I don’t see why we can’t just all be friends. I -”

“Sometimes Jimmy a Ctarl Ctarl has to do what a Ctarl Ctarl has to do! This is personal, she’s been a pain in the ass for quite some time!”

“B- but Aisha.”

“Jimmy please……. Just let me do this.”

With that all four of them made their way to the training room.