Challenge #05029-M280: Pest Control System Volunteer Maintenance
The young humans, carrying fur-brushes, began hunting all of the skitties in the small station. Their mission? Give them all a full brush-out. Needless to say, the skitties enjoyed the attention. -- BKF
There's a very Human saying - the devil finds work for idle hands. Translated from their ancient superstitions, it boils down to: "Don't let your Humans get bored." Humans have a knack for finding trouble before it gets lost.
Especially the younger Humans.
This particular band were allegedly part of the Order of Hitchhikers. They did have a towel, and wore the pin. And in the station named Backwater, they also had pet grooming brushes and a self-made mission: Give every Skitty in Backwater Station the love and attention that every kitty deserves.
They did not hunt the cats, nor do anything to scare them. They offered treats and, once the Skitties were close enough, pets, scritches, and a good brushing. They were gengineered to appreciate interaction from cogniscent species, as well as hunting down biological contamination on board.
It wasn't long before there was a swarm of Skitties smudging for attention.
Rubbing up against the Human teens, purring up a storm, making biscuits in anything soft and pliable, and occasionally meowing like the most pathetic starving kitten in the universe. Despite being "fat chonkers" with a lot of grey in their orange coats.
They were made to be smart cats, and they knew how to appeal to the people who came by. They were also cats, who began with the ability to appeal to Humans despite being little vicious monsters. It was the secret to their species' success in a deathworld filled with bigger, badder deathworlders.
It was a very good trick - appeal to the most adaptable deathworlders on the deathworld, and depend on their kindness for continued survival.
It certainly helped that the average cat was the size of a Human baby, soft to touch, and capable of pleasing noises. It definitely helped that they were literal death on pest species.
The claws, biting, and knocking things off of surfaces was just cat hobbies. Burning off their emotions after all that effort of fawning to the can-openers. And, in this case, itch-scratchers.
At the end of it all, when the Skitties had had enough, the teens had a tally of fifteen very happy Skitties. They also had three cubic sidu's[1] of shed orange cat hair.
Approximately half of which was adhered to their clothing.
They would be making it into felt blankets for the Skitty cubbies over the next week.
It's amazing what Hitchhikers will do to kill time whilst waiting for a ride.
[1] Sidu - short form of Standard Distance Unit. Which is roughly equivalent of a meter.
[Photo by Reanimated Man X on Unsplash]
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