It was early morning when I woke Ashley in her room in the barracks.

  “Too much energy. Need work out and get tired.”

  “Tired? Weren’t you with Givens last night?”

  “Broke Givens.”

  “What?”

  “I fix. He better now. Even fix sore. Not even mad. He feel like…. you say million bucks?”

  “But?”

  “Too much energy.”

  “I have many questions, but I don’t actually think I want the answers, so I will move on. What do you need?”

  I considered.

  “Since Earth humans so weird about close time, and fitness center not open yet, need run on track. You not keep up or shoot straight if try, so need Marines guard track.”

  We rounded up the four Marines that were roving armed and headed out to a nearby PT test area. I started running as fast as I could, which surprised the Marines. I was as strong as someone with twice my muscle mass and lactic acid didn’t build up in my muscles like it did with those who didn’t have my augmentations. Since my own weight wasn’t a serious impediment to me, I could run for days if I paced myself and I could best any non augmented person I had ever seen in sprints.

  For now I just tried to lose myself in the run. For the most part, I succeeded, and Ashley stopped me when it was time to clean up for breakfast.

  “Mia finishes negotiations with Navy soon. Need find storage for all things in personal space.”

  The box I got from Allegro beeped in my pocket.

  “Space people calling?” I asked as I pulled it out and put it on the table.

  “Good morning, Kos-Api.”

  “You listen all time?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Awkward.”

  “Don’t worry too much about it. We are different enough that we don’t remotely have the same social triggers or cues.”

  “Why talk to me this morning?”

  “We have the compliment of uniforms you asked for ready, and we would be willing to store the items you need packed away.”

  “You want study tools.”

  “I was going to ask permission first, I just hadn’t gotten that far in the conversation yet.”

  “Let us get ourselves organized and we can trade off after lunch.” proposed Ashley.

  I just looked at her.

  “Kos-Api, ALL of your equipment is truly unique. To a collector it would be priceless. We need to keep accountability for it all and anywhere in the country we chose to store it all has risks.”

  I considered a few moments but had to concede the point.

  “I will send Allegro with a squad of drones when you have it all sorted out. She is in Oklahoma right now, but getting her to you is easy enough.”

  “What does Allegro do normally?” asked Ashley.

  “When I haven’t stolen her away from her normal tasks, she works for Princess Arpeggio. I don’t specifically track what she does for the Princess, but I do know that when not on a specific tasking she people-watches for our anthropologists.”

  Ashley pulled out her cell phone and made a call.

  “Good morning Captain. Can we get the team over to the barracks at about noon for security on a lay-out? Yeah. Uh-huh. The aliens are going to store Kos-Api’s gear and we need to inventory it. Yes, security. It’s hundreds of millions in unique and irreplaceable weapons and armor at the very least. Yeah, you see the problem. See you then.”

  “We can make a second trip to pick up any personal items that you can’t take with you as the time to leave approaches.” offered Tempo.

  “So what we do until then?”

  “Get you a watch for one thing.”

  “Need visit Amanda too. She tell me on telephone she have clothes she make fit ready.”

  Amanda looked embarrassed when we arrived.

  “I am afraid I went a little crazy with it.” she explained. “And I told my friends and they all pitched in and now we have a lot more than you asked me for.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  We walked into her work room and there were clothes everywhere.

  “This all much much more than I ask.”

  “Yes. Sorry. We all just got excited and things spiraled.”

  “Pay you now for three pants-clothes I ask for, and if rest fit pay you as I get pay until, um… square?”

  “Considering I expected to get yelled at and to have to eat all this, I’ll take it.”

  “I not make you eat clothes.”

  “She didn’t mean that literally.” explained Ashley.

  “Ah. Try on pants I ask for first.”

  A pair of modified jeans, tan slacks, and yoga pants later Amanda got to start showing me all the other outfits her band of miscreants had been working on. Most of the outfits required explanations and instructions.

  “Givens show me Sailor Moon. Very much no on Sailor Scout dress or maid dress. Like dress you call gothic. Will accept that one. Of other four, will take. You all sometimes remember was asked for regular clothes.”

  “Again, sorry.”

  I relented.

  “Keep those, I think and talk to Givens and maybe get later if need to go to thing Givens call convention.” I looked at Ashley for advice.

  “You can’t really get mad at the costume tailors for making costumes. This is pretty restrained, all things considered.”

  “Yes, aware that these four are like costume, but pretty enough and non-specific enough would wear. Still need think about shoes.”

  “Making shoes from scratch is outside the skill sets of all of my peers. The best we could do is modify the appearance of regular shoes, which doesn’t solve your problem.” explained Amanda.

  Again my pocket beeped.

  “You know shoe person, Tempo?” I asked as I took the communicator out of my coat.

  “We can fabricate anything. Later if you show me what the shoes for your outfits are supposed to look like then I can have some things made.”

  “For a start please make a pair of Mary Jane's, kitten heel, open toe, and trainers in black and we will work out priorities for other types and colors later.” recommended Ashley.

  “Certainly.”

  Ashley looked at her watch.

  “We need to get back to the base. It is almost time to meet up with the protection detail and get all your things laid out.”

  I quickly moved all the things I was taking into storage and we waved goodbye to Amanda on the way out.

  “Cheese burger on the way back?” I asked.

  “No, you make a mess every time you try to eat one of those without the bun, and you are not doing that in my car.” complained Ashley.

  “Nuggets?” I compromised.

  “OK.”

  When we got back to the barracks the Captain had the full squad waiting for us. I quickly started arranging the gear from my storage out on the quad. Six sets of armor, all the weapons, rain shelter, bedding, cooking equipment, traps, magical tools, mundane tools, tomes, grimoires and my codex, odds and ends and even some beast parts all laid out neatly. I only kept my clothes until later.

  About halfway through a bus came down from the sky and Allegro got out with two other humans and some metal people. The metal people brought out hard boxes from the bus to put things in but waited until I was finished.

  Then the metal men carefully sorted through all of my things, looking closely at everything before putting it all in the boxes. While they were doing that, Allegro brought several fabric bags out from the bus and put them to the side. The other two humans just looked around like they were confused.

  Once everything I had laid out was packed away on the bus, the metal men got on again and it flew away. Allegro waited for us over by the bags.

  “Hello Allegro.” I waved as we joined her.

  “Sorry to pull you away from your other responsibilities.” Ashley apologized.

  “I was spending time with the family unit, and to be honest they kind of needed to see what my life is all about anyway.” she indicated the two older humans.

  “Robert and Denise Anderson. Mom, Dad, this is Special Agent Ashley Robins of the Secret Service and Kos-Api of a planet best known in English as Other.”

  “It’s still all so hard to believe that our Stacy is an extra-terrestrial.” Denise exclaimed.

  “It’s taking some getting used to.” added Robert. “Most parents who get a surprise from their kids end up with “Dad, I’m gay.” or Dad, I’m a boy.” We got “Mom, Dad, I’m not actually human.”

  Allegro picked up one of the bags again.

  “We still have tickets to a movie this afternoon, so let’s wrap this up.”

  “Thank you guys, please carry on.” Ashley thanked the team of Marines.

  I grabbed the rest of the bags and we took them inside. Moving upstairs to my room, we dumped them out on the bed and floor.

  “This is two complete sets of what you would get for your initial issue.” Allegro explained. “If a normal recruit damaged something during training they could get it replaced at Great Lakes. This wouldn’t be possible for you though, so you all can figure out how to store the extras.”

  I picked up one of the boots. Wide at the toe, narrow at the heel, longer at the toe for the claws. Perfect. Allegro put on one of the hats.

  “Extra panels on the hats to fit your ears. Holes in the pants and shorts for your tail. We have complete body scans, so we know it will all fit. We even made the gloves and socks with kevlar tips and toes and holes for your claws so you don’t tear through them.”

  Ashley stuck her hand in one of the shoes.

  “Will the shoes survive the claws?”

  “Composite toe caps inside. They’ll be fine.”

  “Thank Space people for me please.”

  “No thanks required.” said Tempo from my communicator. “I look forward to seeing where this goes.”

  “If our bus is here, we are going to get back to the movie night.” prompted Allegro.

  “It’s waiting outside.”

  “Take care you two. Let’s go, fam.”

  Ashley and I looked at each other a moment and then I grabbed up an armful of uniforms and rushed for the connecting bathroom. Ashley tossed in socks and boots behind me. Getting everything put on according to the manual I had read didn’t take long. As was usual for human style shoes, getting my wide toes past the narrow heels of the boot was the hardest part.

  “Someone send up Michaels!” Ashley called out into the hallway.

  “What? I’m working.” said Michaels as he walked in a few minutes later.

  “I never served in uniform, so you tell Kos-Api if she is wearing it right.” Ashley said, pointing at me.

  “Oh, sweet.”

  Michaels looked me over.

  “May I put my hands on you?”

  “Yes.”

  He flipped up the tail of my blouse to check my belt and tugged on the cuffs of my pants.

  “Ok, for the belt you want to get the tip to the right length from the buckle and then leave it there. Put the belt on and take it off by removing the back end instead. Cut it to the correct length and melt the end so it doesn’t fray.”

  He continued to examine the fit.

  “Practice shining those boots. I don’t really have any other recommendations that would be useful in a training environment.”

  “Thank you Doc Michaels.” I said and he saw himself out.

  “Givens show me tonight how shine boots.”

  “Yeah, can’t help you with that one.”

  That evening when I was practicing with Givens, Mia called me.

  “I’m going to send you documents to sign and then you are in. Ashley sent me a copy of the recording from yesterday, and when I showed it to them they folded. A little pushing and I got everything you wanted. Waivers for everything and you start as E-3.”

  “I call you back Mia.”

  “Nyee-hee-hee-hee-hee!”I exclaimed as I danced around the room with Givens.