Lions tigers and kittens....

Posted on Fri 26th Aug, 2022 @ 2:38am by Lieutenant Kidan Mallaya DVM

721 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: The Hunted
Location: Lighthouse Vet Clinic
Timeline: MD 3: 1145

The lights flashed in the back of the clinic where Kidan was doing some routine lab work on one of the security police dogs. He saw the light was on beside the door alarm. He closed his lab bay door, and walked out into the waiting area. "May I help you?"

"I hear babies in the wall beside my store."

His eyes flickered over the words displaying in his glasses. Eyes landing on the shop owner he took up a small kit, a warming basket and a tricorder. "Do you know what kind of babies?"

"They mew, so some sort of feline. I fear for them, they sound frantic."

It took Kidan a moment to read the words and he bowed his head slightly. "Show me."

The shopkeeper scurried out of the veterinary clinic, not waiting for the Doctor to attend him. Kidan followed, flicking his fingers at the shop to show a message that he was briefly away from the clinic. Anyone that needed care for their animals would be instructed to wait in his waiting room. He adjusted his glasses, and set them to not display the background conversations happening around him.

It wasn't a long walk, and soon they were in front of a vent. The meeting was audible to his computer in his glasses which was relayed to him on the lenses.

"Frantic indeed. Thank you friend for coming to me."

"I will not have the deaths of babies upon my concience. It goes against the Way."

Reaching out with his mind he searched for the mother cat and got echoes of nothing. That indicated no maternal bond or that mother had been removed. If that was the case it made it criminal in his eyes, and the anger in him smouldered as he focused on the wall. There were 6 echos of hunger, cold, need in the wall just beyond the vent.

That was supremely disappointing, and didn't bode well for this litter. He would however, need to get them out of the place they were stuck.

Kneeling on the floor he laid out his basket and took out a small tool. That tool easily popped the vent cover off with a loud clang that didn't even phase Kidan as he stuck his head in the vent.

Flicking a light on he looked down the vent and saw them. A pile of wriggling fur on the gap between bulkhead pylons.

"I see them, they are alive."

"Praise the Makers.".

Kidan smiled from inside the vent, and called to the kittens mentally. He sent a feeling of warmth, of full bellies and of the comfort of mother's fur to them. They needed to only come to him.

The moment they were within reach he plucked them up and pulled his body out to deposit them into the basket. The furry warmth of the warming pad soothed them immediately, but their hunger cries continued. He ignored that for the moment as he crawled back in. He muttered only a brief expletive when he barked his elbow on the narrow opening. It was a contortion to her in, and his knees were killing him.

5 normal sized kittens and one much smaller kitten- a runt made their way into the basket one by one. Their coloration was spectacular and he wondered how they got here when their lineage clearly held champions. "They're probably a litter that was an accident, but I'll bet good money one parent is a champion. They're gorgeous."

They were beautiful, filthy but beautiful. The runt was a female, a tortoiseshell. A short-haired Cream colored male. A shorthaired white and orange patched male. A long-haired kitten with a smoke coloration, a female. A long haired deep red female. Lastly a male, who was shorthaired, white and looked like he might be pointed. They were all thin, and it was clear that they hadn't been fed in a while from their frantic cries.

"Do you wish to keep any of them?"

"No, I have no need for a feline at this time."

"I will take them, and find them homes. I will check their lineage's against the database as well, to see where the mother went to."

"They're freely yours Doctor Mallaya. Thank you."

He gave a slight bow to the shopkeeper and took the kittens to his office.

 

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