"Why would cats have evolved into such an incredibly humanoid form? And where did a breeding population of - actually, hang on. Hold it. Wait."

He swallows. "Is she... Snowy's descendant?"

"Yeah. ...Snowy was the only living thing left onboard, she'd got into the cargo bay and it had separate shielding. So... I locked the doors, and. She only had the one litter, but I enlisted the scrubbers to herd the kits into the medipods whenever a new one came about, touched up the genome and introduced variation. Eventually I stopped needing to, so I started doing something else."

He's stopped listening by "Yeah". He approaches the girl, looking happy for the first time since he started moving again.

She notices him and jumps back in alarm, her tail straightening and her scalp tensing into an impressive mohawk sort of hairstyle. "I- I'm big! My body is big and I'm scary!" she hisses.

"You don't need to be scared, I'm... I'm a friend."

"...I don't know you. All my friends are dead."

He... should really feel more upset about that, but he finds himself laughing, sort of helplessly.

"Well, there's a coincidence for you. So're mine."