Considering that this was a completely different world with a dominant species very different than my own, I was surprised how much alike we were.
The kitchen was pretty much as any kitchen would be. The furnishings seemed primitive, but a few minutes of rummaging about and I knew that this was not exactly true.
Looking through the cupboards I discovered that many of them were temperature controlled. This explained the lack of something like a refrigerator. In one, I found a pack of eggs, a deep indigo in colour and almost perfectly round. I presumed they were eggs because they were hard and leathery. Next to the eggs were strips of a fatty meat which had a rancid smell. My host's mouth started watering, so I presumed that he'd like them.
What the hell.
The cupboards under the counter contained some pots and pans and I drew one out. Now, all I had to do was find the stove. I was leaning on a section of the counter covered in a sheet of dark glass when I felt the palm of my hand grow warm. Ok, I'd found the stove. Placing the pan on the glass, I laid the strips of meat on the pan and watched as it sizzled. The pan gained heat very quickly... too quickly for normal heating.
The meat started to blacken and crisp emitting a horrid stench. I grabbed the handle and yelped as the heat soaked into my hand. Christ, I thought, this isn't going to work. A panel in the wall seemed to empty into a chute so I scraped the burnt food into the hatch and explored the range. There were a set of small strips placed in the surface and a touch changed the range temperature. Why didn't they put any indicators on this thing? These people didn't seem to be very safety conscious.
This time I placed the pan on the glass and slowly slid my finger along the first strip until the pan started to warm. Several pieces of meat later and I managed to get this working. The grease left behind from the meat worked well to cook the contents of the eggs which were filled with a uniform rust coloured fluid. It did cook into something like scrambled eggs so it must have been right.
My host's lady friend entered the room just as I was dishing things up and setting the plates on the table. The only cutlery was a long skewer and a very sharp, thin bladed knife. I could see how to eat the "bacon", but the eggs? She solved that one for me by going to a cupboard and bringing out a bag of thin pancake-like breads with a nutty scent.
I watched as she sliced the food then put it onto a pancake, folded it up and began to eat. I followed suit and we finished the meal in silence.
I got the distinct impression that she felt that something was wrong but that she wasn't going to pry. Thank heaven for small mercies.
After finishing, she waited as I cleaned up, but I couldn't find anything like a sink. her eyes were on me as I moved about trying to figure out what to do and then suddenly she rose up and took the plates from my hand and put them, dirty, into a cupboard off to the side and pressed a small wood grain patch on the door. A second later she opened the door and removed two clean plates. "What is the matter with you this morning?" she asked and ran her hand over my head. "Did you bang yourself up?"
She touched my nose and had me breathe into her face. "You smell all right, and no fever." She looked at a decoration on the wall, told me that I should get going then handed me a sheet of hard plastic and glass. An expression which got translated as a concerned smile but looked more like a wolf baring its teeth crossed her face and she patted my behind again and told me to get going. I headed for the front door but she grabbed my shoulder and pointed to a door which looked like a closet.
I opened it and walked down a flight of stairs into what looked like a small train station. A pad on the wall looked familiar so I touched it.
A gentle chime sounded and about three minutes later a small car pulled up with no driver. I got in and looked around for keys or a even a steering wheel. Nothing.
Just then, a voice came from nowhere asking for a destination. I mumbled "university" and suddenly we were off. The car travelled mostly underground only going above ground to cross over a river. There were other cars on the line and soon I arrived at another station. This one had writing on the wall which was angular and pointed. It reminded me of written Hebrew.
A voice came from nowhere and asked for a precise location in the University and I tried to suggest "the usual place", but the system wasn't buying it. I tried for a restaurant or something and finally it agreed to a library. The vehicle stopped and I got out, clutching the slate-like object I had been given.
The university did seem much like any I'd seen - people (or whatever)
walking around, some in animated conversation, others just heading to someplace or another with determined expressions. The grounds were clean and well planted with trees. In the center there was a larger building made of a glassy material but with many open courtyards. The architecture was as if someone who had no idea of public safety has tried to design a building for maximal hazard. The courtyards all were overhanging the grounds and none of them had any walls or railings.
The building itself was shaped like a large plant with a spiral walkway winding its way around the "stalk" and each courtyard a "leaf" following the time honoured Fibbonacci sequence around the central pillar. As I approached, I could see that the central stalk was actually an elevator system as well as being the central support. The overhangs were not obviously supported by anything other than the thin stems which attached them to the stalk - it was as if a plant had grown to impossible size and someone had built a building within it.
Looking around, I noticed several people sitting and staring into slates much like the one I carried. Moving around to get a better view, I could see images and designs appear then disappear over the surface of the slate. The person would speak to it - touch it and it would react to these commands. I spotted a shady and isolated area of the commons and sat down.
Now that I was starting to relax, I noticed that even with this large tail, I didn't have trouble sitting. The appendage tucked itself under me and moved as I did to keep itself out of trouble. Reflexes were a very handy thing to have when you didn't know the body.
Running my fingers (claws... hmmm) over the surface of the slate, I noticed a small roughened spot which seemed much used... the area around it was smoother than the rest of the material. I fingered it and was rewarded to a scene of some neutral image - a logo of some sort with more of that Hebrew-like writing. A voice whispered in my ear asking what service I required?
I asked if it had a list of my appointments for today and a screen of text appeared. I couldn't read any of it. This was fast becoming tedious.
Was the original inhabitant of this body a total moron? Surely he must have been able to read. I asked the slate to read me the first appointment and to show me a map from where I was to where I had to be. The voice agreed and the image changed. I could see the large plant-building on the map and a smaller, more normal building to my right. I followed the map as best I could and asked the slate to tell me more about myself.
That request seemed to puzzle the slate for a minute or so. I interrupted its musings and asked it to tell me my name and where I was.
It replied with a collection of sounds which got translated into "Alan" - my own name. That made sense. I was then informed that I was in the central commons of the University... the slate said it with a capital letter as if there were only one university in the universe. "Fine," I said... "where is the university?" "In City," it replied. "And the City?" I continued, my exasperation growing by the second. "On the West Continent on Earth." it finished.
Earth? I asked for a map of Earth and that's what came up... it was Earth all right. Most of the lines we'd found in this area weren't much like our own - most either never formed planets or had them destroyed early in development. It seemed too much a coincidence for so isolated a line to have managed that close a parallel.
Based on the computer's map, I was right where I should be - in the middle of Saskatchewan near where Saskatoon would be. The site was selected because of the very low population and near perfect geology - flat and hard -
no earthquakes. I was beginning to have more than a small nervousness about this... too many coincidences made me nervous.
I recalled the guide to my first appointment and asked the slate to review the meeting for me verbally as I made my way to the place shown on the map. According to my crystalline guide, I was supposed to meet my superiour there for a debriefing on the previous night's contacts if any and to work out some new tests for contact detection. Oh ho... this sounded very familiar.
I asked the slate just what it was that "I" did. Apparently, I was a research scientist involved in something fairly secret. The slate didn't have much in the way of details of the work other than the fact that it involved some sort of new telecommunications technology and it required my sleeping over at the University many nights a week. Even more familiar.
It seemed that this little out of the way universe had an Earth something like my own and here I was - trapped in the body of a scientist-werewolf... Lon Chaney, eat your heart out.
My destination loomed up, a smallish office built more like a building I was used to, only at a rather odd angle, or several odd angles... Looking at it too long made the fur on the back of my neck start to rise. That must have been more me than my host. I entered the building and with a bit of help from my plastic pal, I found the office I was to report to and entered.
"Alan... I hope you're feeling better." The voice was older but warm with friendship and belonged to a male who was a bit larger than I. His fur was greyer than mine and there were flecks of grey throughout the blacker fur of the top of his head and muzzle. "Uhm, yes... I'm feeling better. Just a little dazed." I replied. He walked over and licked my muzzle and slid his paw under my robe to stroke my sheath and balls. The sensation was pleasurable but the forwardness was startling and I tensed up.
He must have sensed this and withdrew his paw, looking concerned./pre