This would be both harder and easier than he had thought.


    Easier as the cat-girl- in-training seemed to be attempting to get closer to him on her own. Whether it was simple curiosity or she just really liked his magic tricks was irrelevant to him, as long as she got close enough to interact with. His main concern was keeping everyone alive, so while he wasn’t focused on making friends, interested people made everything easier. If he could get her to come to him on her own if something was going wrong, it would make his job so much easier in the long run.


    Unfortunately, miss cat girl seemed to be the very skittish type and any attempts to get close to her failed miserably, sometimes even making her drop some of what she was carrying. She very much reminded him of an abused animal that wanted a friend but couldn’t trust anybody. It would be a long time of coaxing and ‘retraining’, seeing as how therapy wasn’t really an option, before she would trust him to that extent.


    Fine in a rescue home, not so fine in a seemingly dire survival scenario.


    Assuming that was the problem at least. It could be an insane number of other things, but he wouldn’t be able to figure out exactly what until she talked to him about it. If she even could. Her lack of sound wasn’t just a comment on her sneaking ability, she literally made no sound at all outside what physics demanded. No squeaks when surprised, no grunts or groans he had been able to hear.


    Nothing.


    Even her breathing was quiet. It painted a grim picture on the communication front. At least there didn’t seem to be any immediate problems to address. His ‘examination’, if it could even be called that, when she stayed for his magic show revealed a fairly healthy, if underfed, young….


    woman?


    Age guessing not being his strong suit, he was really thrown off here. She could not even be a human as he knew it and he wouldn’t be any the wiser. Visually she seemed to be a woman in her early to mid-20’s, physically fully grown without any of the childish features he would expect in a pre-teen or the gangly ones he expected in teens and nothing indicating middle age or later.


    Her height put that to a major test though. If, and it was a big if, he was still six foot, she would likely be in the very low four foot range. If she had had any signs of dwarfism he wouldn’t have batted an eye and her age would be more obvious.


    But she didn’t.


    She looked as if someone had taken a normal woman and shrunk her down or grabbed a child sized body and made an adult woman out of it. Hence his difficulty not only with age but even species. He wasn’t entirely convinced humans could even be that size without some kind of physical indicator.


    If aliens were on the table, everything he knew went out the window as well. His lack of training in xenobiology put a quick stop to following those ideas though, seeing as how the subject hadn’t even really existed when he got frozen.


    If treating her like a human failed, he literally had no idea what to try next. He had EMT training from the cryo program, but it mainly consisted of how to use a bandage correctly and what drugs to use from a trauma kit. Basic stuff to keep him from dying until someone with more training could take over.


    In fact, other than what he knew of computers and engineering from his degree, all of his training in the cryo program had been like that, basic knowledge with the assumption that there would be someone else with more knowledge coming to help soonish.


    He would be really pissed if he had to work out all of human knowledge from first principles again. That would not be a fun time. Putting his ambitions of immortality aside, he returned to the problem at hand.


    The kitty-cat and her muteness. With her reluctance to get near him and running at the slightest sound, he may have to resort to pictures and charades.


    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    This…. This was going to be one long slog of a project; he could feel it in his bones. He just hoped they didn’t run out of food before she even figured out how to say hi.


    <hr>


    His best chance to get her to trust him was doing nothing. He wasn’t just saying that because he was lazy either.


    He couldn’t get close without scaring her or her hiding, which defeated the purpose of getting close, and she couldn’t understand him to begin with so no talking from a distance. Especially if she was quiet for a good reason.


    Being openly ‘around’ and not paying any attention to her seemed the fastest method to gain her trust. He had always thought that attracting female attention by ignoring them was moronic, who knew he would be trying it himself.


    Couldn’t argue with results though. Not long after plan ‘ignore the possible alien’ went into effect, said possible alien came reluctantly padding into the mess hall while he was cooking some disappointment jacks. She even came a lot closer than she had ever gotten voluntarily before, which was a bonus.


    Feigning disinterest and only watching her out of the corner of his eye was incredibly difficult when she started fiddling with something in her hand. Pretty much impossible when she slid a choco-stick across a table near the kitchen. Both her and the stick were well outside arms reach, so she either wanted another magic show, which he hoped not as he had run out of tricks, or something else was going on.


    A trade maybe?


    Trying his luck, he plated up the trade jacks and walked slowly out of the kitchen to the other side of the table the girl had been at. She eyed him from her spot and stayed well out of reach, but she seemed to be waiting for something, so he put the plate down on the table, grabbed the stick and slowly walked out the back of the kitchen.


    He waited around the corner to listen to what was happening but heard little more than her nails scraping the plate. He waited some more, but with nothing other than silence coming to him, he peeked around the corner again. There was a distinct lack of both kitty cats and food.


    She left the plate though.


    Well, nations cemented relationships through trade right? Guess he was starting there. She may be more willing to trade things she doesn’t understand for food, which would both make sure she had enough to eat and let her bring him more information he may not be able to find on his own. A win-win as more information may let them find a way out of this place and she was actively working towards her own survival rather than being dead weight.


    Welp, time to scrap the original plan, plan ‘trade time’ was officially a go. How he was going to get her to trade with him remained a mystery, but the best plans had wiggle room. He would feel better if the entire plan wasn’t made out of wiggle room, but needs must and all that. For now, he would just have to carry around a choco-stick and he just so happened to have one right here.


    <hr>


    Keeping said trade item for multiple days was completely unreasonable of course. Turns out food doesn’t like being exposed to open air. Who could have guessed. Since they were not designed for long-term handling, he had to resort to getting a new wrapped one every morning. Or at least a new one to him, he didn’t just throw them away if they weren’t opened.


    It took the girl only two days to approach him again though. He still had to leave some food out so she could eat as she hadn’t yet come back to the kitchen, but she seemed more inclined to come close when he was trying to decipher the walls.


    If he tried, he could probably come up with reasons as to why that was, but the fact she did was all that mattered at the moment. When she approached him, he kept still and mostly ignored her, keeping his eyes on the wall and watching from the corner of his eye again. It had worked last time, no reason to fix what ain’t broke.


    He also failed miserably again when she squeaked at him. It was clearly speech of some kind, as the squeaks had structure to them rather than just some random noises, but he didn’t understand a word of it.


    Still, it drew his attention real fast. If she had it in her to squeak at him, she had the ability to learn to talk in a way he could understand. Considering the circumstances, going the other way wasn’t going to happen and it certainly wasn’t happening any time before they starved to death.


    He slowly lifted his arm and pointed at her stuffed toy, trying not to scare her off again, and tried for something small she could easily copy.


    “Kitty.”


    He nearly ruined all his previous work when she managed a rough approximation of the word.


    It would have been unrecognizable without the context, but it was a great start and it took all his willpower to stay seated. He slid the choco-stick over to the girl as a reward in an attempt to get her interested in saying more words. When she looked down to grab the stick he stretched out his hand, rather than pointing at her, he figured that an open hand she could investigate on her own was a better option.


    He was about to try another word when the wrapper on the choco-stick crinkled and she startled. He sighed as she took off down the hall away from him. Lowering his hand, he had to console himself with the fact that it was early days yet. She needed time to not get frightened by everything.


    On the bright side, she was at least capable of speech, even if she seemed allergic to noise.


    “Note to self. Unwrap the treat before you give it to her.”