It started as a joke.
"You know who SHE is, don't you?"
Sarah looked up from her textbook. Lily sat there, grinning, eyes motioning over Sarah's head. She didn't need this interruption. She was behind in Quantum Math to begin with, between the treatments and therapy. Her family told her not to worry, not to put more stress on her body, but... to not ace the next test meant repeating the year, falling behind her friends. The very friends who were trying to distract her with...
What the hell. Sarah turned.
She saw her. Red. Red fur. Nobody had red fur. At least, no one that she had ever seen, in her life or on the screen. Was it dyed? Couldn't be! From her bearing, and the simple blue dress, the woman had to be a teacher, or researcher. Not a student, certainly not someone young like her that might play with colors on a whim.
"Who is she?"
Lily grinned across the library table, brown furred face smug. Lily was always smug. Annoyingly so. Reaching a clawed finger up, she scratched her long face.
"You don't know?"
Sarah groaned.
"No, I don't. I'm busy here. If I had any idea who by the Acorn of Knowledge that was I'd be ignoring you and doing some actual studying. Now, who is it?"
Smug grin even worse, Lily leaned back in her chair, hands folded in her lap.
"She's a follower of the Insane One."
****
The rumors were too outlandish not to be true.
The 'Insane One', some called her. The 'Mad Scientist'. The 'Furred Freak'.
She Who Saw.
Whenever Sarah heard the whispered tales, she felt sorry for the woman. Empathetic, even. After all, SOMETHING had happened. Something... strange.
She had been, was, a scientist. A researcher. Brilliant. Everyone agreed on that. Incredibly observant, intuitive, Not one to stay put, though. Always looking for the next problem to be solved, the next unknown her mind could dive into, she had cut a path through the world of the most cutting edge scientific endeavors. As one project started to bore her, or more often as the truth began to become apparent to her and her colleagues, she moved on. Always staying one step beyond the Known.
Her last major project, last government funded experiment, had involved one of the most massive instruments known. Planetary in scale, it was constructed as a series of hollow spheres, one inside the other. At the center, at the core... the attempt to peer beyond the universe.
She had been behind the fundamental ideas, the foundations of Multi-Reality Theory. While not an engineer, she had helped design the key sensors and test beds. Her fame, although never officially used as such, was a recruiting tool, bringing the brightest minds in M'ntsn space to her. Women, for all the hard sciences were the domain of the female sex, flocked to be with the one changing history. Other species tried to join, offering funding, expertise.
But, no. This was for the furry tailed M'ntsn.
What happened next... well, that was the thing. If the Insane One was to be believed, then she was not insane. Thus, what DID happen? Something, certainly. Into the central chamber went the most decorated intellectual in her species history. Out came... a zealot.
What is known is that the P'aqt research facility literally imploded as she fled through the station. The work of years, resources that would take the planets decades to recover... gone. So too, all data. All hope of understanding. The pride of their culture now preached insanity, of knowing the unknown. She did not, however, preach to the masses. Did not rail against the government now demonizing her. She allowed herself to become a pariah.
She did not, though, vanish.
Slowly, rumors spread of a small band of young women, students, researchers. Responding to some siren call. She Who Saw gathered them, taught them...
****
"See? You aced it. Why were you worried?"
"I aced it because I WAS worried. Studying your tail off does help, you know."
Sarah shook her head. They'd never understand. Lily, the others. They never... applied themselves. Not beyond what was needed for the now. Dedication. That's what was needed, to get anywhere. Not that she knew where she was going...
"Besides," she sighed, stopping as they exited the exam building to rub her leg, "what did I get by passing? A chance to go through five more years of this? Ten?"
"Whine, whine, bitch, bitch." Lily's face was unsympathetic. Once again, the question of why they were, in fact, friends crossed Sarah's mind. Rooming with someone shouldn't automatically grant that status. Lily suddenly perked up, reaching into her bag. "Oh! Almost forgot! I know what can take your mind off of things!"
"Roasted nuts?"
"This!"
Sarah took the small piece of paper. It was an ad, torn off of some wall or tree where it had been nailed. She frowned, reading it.
"See. Listen. Learn." There was an address, too, a small pub in a quiet part of town. She looked at Lily. "OK, what is it?"
"I THINK, based on what I've heard, and you would too if you'd actually listen to the gossip, that it's a meeting run by that red furred doctor. About, you know... HER."
Her.
Sarah looked at the paper again. Suddenly, her leg didn't ache so much...
****
"If they're recruiting, it's a failure so far."
Sarah ignored Lily, taking in the pub's small back room. Food had been set up, although not much, just some of the more common (and less expensive) nuts. They had been late getting there, the Blain monorail not running due to a track problem. Others may have had similar problems, but... yeah, the room was sparse. Maybe fifteen young women, university age, most in pairs like she was. There was one single there, though. Light brown fur, with a tail mostly white with a brown stripe down the middle...
She knew her!
"I'm going to try and find the litter boxes, then something to drink," Lily told her. One glance told Sarah the drink was going to be more important than keeping her company here. She made a motion with her hand.
"Go. I'll be fine."
"Later."
Just like that. Drag her here, then abandon her. She needed a new roommate.
Sarah's eyes went back to the familiar face. Hedva. She had not seen her former tree mate since... since before university. What a small universe...
"Sarah!"
"Hedva!"
They grabbed each other's hands, grinning like the idiots they were. Sarah's eyes immediately went to the side of the woman's face. The scar earned as a child, a lesson to pay attention while jumping branches, was gone, just a slight discoloration of the fur. She saw Hedva glance down at her left leg. She resisted the impulse to take a step back.
"Your leg! How is it? I heard!"
"Oh... it's..." she blushed a bit. Talking about herself was never one of her strong suits. "It's fine. The treatments went well. The growth, they think, is gone this time. Why are you here? Didn't you go off to...?"
"My exams finished, so I came back. As for why I'm here... same as you, I think. I want to know."
Sarah scoffed.
"Don't we all..."
The room went quiet around them. Entering the room, from a door that she would have guessed led to either the kitchen or the bathrooms (speaking of which, where was...), the red furred woman moved through the gathering. She was regal, or at least self assured. Her eyes seemed to meet everyone's as she passed. Sarah blushed a bit at the contact, which was rewarded with a knowing smile. She was younger than Sarah would have guessed, maybe not long out of university. Her outfit was no longer the blue of her profession, but a simple white, baring her arms with moderate cleavage. The dress fell just past the knees. Coming to the front of the room, she turned, facing them. With a motion, she bade them come closer.
"We are few, so there is no reason to be shy." Her voice... was unremarkable. Sarah blinked as she complied, Hedva staying with her. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting. Why shouldn't someone with red fur speak normally?
"There, much better. This will be short, a disappointment perhaps given the distances some of you have traveled, but there are reasons. We have a Way." You could hear the capitalization as she said the word. Sarah put her hands together in front of her, ready. Now would come the unbelievable sales pitch...
"We are not interested in having you join us." Sarah's eyes widened a bit, a murmur going through the room. "Neither are we going to tell you anything you need to know about us."
"...the fuck?" The whisper came from somewhere behind Sarah. The woman nodded in acknowledgement.
"More true than you know. My name is Miriam. I... I am a servant, a servant of the She's who will not be named here. You have gathered here, some of you, because you know. Because you know you wish to know what is known, what can be known. You wish to experience, to help bring about..." She paused, as if contemplating the right word. "...the sensualness of what can be."
That made no fucking sense.
"If you are one of us, you will know, and knowing, will know knowledge. Thank you." Miriam bowed her head.
Wait... that was it? Sarah looked around. The others were equally confused. She looked around for Lily, still not seeing her. Well, naturally not. If she thought she'd need a few drinks before listening to this nonsense, there's no way she'd be done yet. People were leaving. Angry, amused people. Reactions ran the gamut. Shaking her head, she looked at Hedva... she was moving towards the front of the room, as were two or three others. Not sure why, other than the excuse of staying with a friend, Sarah followed.
****
"Sorry for abandoning you."
"No problem..."
"I mean, as I was squatting down in the box, I had the sudden thought, 'what if this is some brainwashing thing?' My old G'al'k warned me about that. One of the few things I remember from Temple, actually..."
"It's OK. You wouldn't have liked it."
The monorail continued its journey. Looking out the window at the passing night, Sarah fingered the small slip of paper in her pocket.
****
The second meeting was two towns away, in a hotel not quite cheap enough to be affordable by the students gathered there but close to that bad. Sarah came alone this time. Her roommate thought she was... well, at this point she didn't think Lily thought much. Hedva was here, though, smiling at her as Sarah entered the room. Two others she recognized from the first meeting. The other ten... strangers, but like them young students. They smiled shyly at her, apart from the one black and brown furred girl with a strip shaved between her ears. She scowled.
"Any ideas?"
Hedva shook her head, filling her plate with food. The selection was a bit better this time, and the water was quite fresh.
"No. We've entered the unknown."
"At least we know that."
****
A half hour later, Miriam entered the room. She wore a two piece white dress, just the back and the front, tied at the side and around her neck. Her entire side was exposed. Sarah blushed. It was... sexy. She could never wear something like that.
"Your attention. Ladies. Thank you for coming. Thank you for... coming alone. From now on, what we do is for ourselves alone. Let the universe go on its way. We will go on ours."
Well. That was... a message Sarah didn't think she could live with. Was there to be another weeding out phase?
"I would ask you now to sit in the chairs provided." Miriam motioned to the rather comfortable stuffed chairs scattered around the room. Just enough for everyone, Sarah noted. She took one, sitting on the edge, her bushy tail falling over her right shoulder. If she got bored, she could always groom it.
Seeing they were ready, Miriam went to the hallway door. A moment later...
The woman that entered was, perhaps, middle aged. Her gown was identical to Miriam's, but blood red, contrasting with her pure white fur. She, too, had a regal bearing, but now Miriam was bowing to her like the lowest servant. This couldn't be HER. But, then, who?
She stopped in the center of the room. Turning, she looked at them. Her face... was calm. a calm Sarah had never seen. This one... this one Knew.
"I... am She Who Fucked."
There was a gasp of surprise. Not at the admission, as Sarah had no idea who that was, but at the name. It was... vulgar, and yet erotic. A second gasp was ripped from them as She Who Fucked pulled two strings on her dress and let it slide to the ground. She stood there, nude, proud. Her body was slim, lacking the padding that all of their race tended to have. The fur on her breasts, and between her legs, was shaved short. They could see her nipples clearly, hard, pink. Stepping forward and slowly turning to them all as a bowing Miriam rushed in to remove the dress, she spoke.
"It was almost twenty years ago. I was young. As young as you. Young, proud, foolish. But, yearning. As you may yearn. I was one of the first to answer She Who Saw's call. I left school, family, friends, and went to serve my Lady.
"She told us. Told us what she saw. Showed us the books she had written, the drawings and paintings. Oh! Oh, girls, the things that she drew! Such beauty! Such truth! I sat at her feet, and soaked up Knowledge.
"But, with She Who Saw, it is not about what is known. Only what is not. We worked. Hard. We built machines, incredible machines. Machines that put any you have read about in any science journal to shame. For, this knowledge we seek is that of science... yet, also, the mind."
She paused, modesty entering her posture.
"I, myself, was never good at that. At electrons and subatomic this and transdimentional that. I was, though, one who enjoyed language. Ritual. Controlling emotions, the mind. I, yes, I, suggested we try this, in addition to that. And, she said yes." She paused, as if this was a major thing. Getting caught up in the story, Sarah was half way to believing it was.
"The experiment was one of a number, but the first with the new machines up above. The new boson accelerators and quark entanglers. I was down below. In a cave, carved from solid rock under the labs. It was... our ritual place. I was alone. Nude." Reaching a hand up, her thin clawed fingers cupped her right breast. "As they worked above, I set up the wards. The marks. I sang the songs. I prostrated myself on solid stone, and chanted to the world She had Seen."
She did another slow turn, pinching her nipple while her other hand began to rub at her hip. Sarah saw, between her legs, white fur getting darker.
She Who Fucked was getting wet.
"I did not see it happen. There was no sound, no light. I just suddenly, in the midst of my chanting, heard... the sacred language!" Her eyes doubled in size as she spun, hand on her hip shooting out to point at all the women assembled. "Can you imagine that? Can you? She Who Saw had come back from the Seeing with a language. A language she said came from beyond the universe, from those so above us. And, here, someone spoke it! It was TRUE! Yes, belief, but KNOWING! To KNOW!
"My head shot up. There. There in the circle, in the pentagram, on the dais... a daemon. A god. One of... them. Human."
Sarah leaned forward, half aware the others were as well. She was not aware one hand was straying towards a cloth covered breast.
"Oh, ladies... the drawings of our Lady did not do them justice! It was a male. No... a MALE. Tall. Twice my height. No fur, apart from his head and between his legs. Brown. His body... smooth, yet hard. Color... color like sand in the evening light. And, between his legs... Oh, ladies. His maleness. He was huge! Long. Hard. Easily as big as my arm!" She squeezed her breast, other hand going to the opening between her legs. She spread her lips, easy to see with the short fur. Sarah gasped, imagining an ARM entering there!
"I thought, in my hubris, I had made a cage. That any who came to us, for that, my sisters, was what we were trying to do, would be held, at least for awhile. But, no. Of course not. These are Gods. He walked off the dais as if only air stood between him and me. He strode, tall, proud. His eyes... they burned with desire. Desire... for me..." Two fingers went inside her. Sarah's hand squeezed her own breast, the other slowly sliding down between her legs. "He spoke. 'Who are you', he asked. The voice was so full of power, the power of a true male. Not like OUR males!" There, Sarah had to agree with the disgust in her voice. No male interested her...
"I told him my name. Shia. Told him I served She Who Saw. His face was blank. He knew this. Of course he knew this! It was a test! Then... oh, sisters, I was bold. It was the boldness of youth. I... I said, 'Lord, Fuck me. I am yours.'"
The room gasped. Sarah's fingers found their way into her panties.
"Sisters! There was no hesitation! He grabbed me! Lifted me up like I was a child! And I was, we all are, compared to them! He touched me, between my legs! Saw I was wet, ready!" She lifted the fingers from between her legs, licked them, then returned them to their duty. "He saw the altar. The altar She Who Saw had built. And, he knew it! He knew it! Again, she was right! SHE WAS RIGHT! He took me, and THREW me on the altar! He grabbed my legs, pulled them so far apart it hurt, and FUCKED ME!"
Her entire hand entered her, minus the thumb. She held it still for a moment, then began thrusting to the rhythm of her voice. Her legs were spread, knees slightly bent. Eyes closed in memory.
"It hurt. Oh, Lord, it hurt! But it didn't! He filled me in ways I did not even know was possible! He rammed it in, and out, over and over! My ass slapped against the altar! God, the pleasure! The pleasure! No male, no furred male, could match this! I was ruined! Gloriously ruined! I was his! His mate! I wanted his seed! I would birth the litter of a God! We all would! All of us, all the sisters, we would birth A RACE!"
She gave a squeal, an orgasmic scream. Half the room did as well. Sarah's fingers were dripping, her breasts beginning to get bruised from self abuse.
There was silence. She Who Fucked stood in rigid pleasure, then dropped her head in despair. She removed her hand, voice soft, despondent.
"Then... I felt him fade. Felt my Lord... leave. He had not finished the act! His seed was still inside him! I could see it in his face. He did not want to go. Did not want to leave me! His lover! He thrust one more time...
"And was gone."
Her voice was raw. Miriam ran over with a bowl, holding it so she could drink. Waving it aside, she again looked around at them.
"We failed. All of us. I could not keep him. Or his seed. Worse, up above... Machines failed. Exploded. Many sisters died that day. She Who Saw was injured." The room gasped. "BUT! Oh, but! We knew it could be done. We had done it! And, someday, we will do it again.
"Will you join us, sisters?"
****
Three years later.
Sarah found herself in a dingy room in an abandoned building, reading texts that are on the verge of making sense. Her faith is strong.
The door opens.
In walks Miriam... and Gods.
Faith... but Knowledge!
These beings, these humans, these... people. They are not what are expected. Despite Lady Miriam's insistence. They are less... yet more. So much more.
****
Sarah sat on the grassy patch the Humans had given them for the night. She was once again nude, a state she had found she preferred. It was so freeing, made her one with the universe. The moon and stars above only re-enforced that feeling in her. Her eyes, though, were not on the heavens, thought they wished to be. She watched Miriam discarding the outfit carefully made under the direction of She Who Saw. The outfit they were to deliver to the new Temple being built, a doubling of their resources. The Temple Miriam was to lead.
What did it mean, to have met these creatures NOW?
"What brought them here, Lady?"
She spoke in a quiet, meek voice, as they all did when talking to one above them. A glance from her Lady silenced her, and she bowed her head. It was not her place, the place of a neophyte, to talk. Lady Miriam looked at the brick outline of the Bells store.
"We must take them to the Temple. The She's will know what to do. I am not enough."
Sarah wanted to ask, "And if they won't go?", but remained silent. It was not her place.
She lay down, eyes on the stars. She knew. She KNEW. And knowing... what would she come to know tomorrow…