

1Lost in Space

Xeno Relations

(an alternate reality)

Copyright © 2019 Trisha McNary

Published by Trisha McNary

All Rights Reserved

Includes short excerpts:

Alien Pets (Xeno Relations part 1), excerpt

By Trisha McNary

and

Tenderloin (a near future horror story), excerpt

By LD Marr, a pen name of Trisha McNary

Cover art for Lost in Space and Alien Pets by Heather Hamilton-Senter

Cover art for Tenderloin by Victoria Cooper

Contents

About Lost in Space

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Excerpt

Excerpt

# About _Lost in Space_

This novella takes place in an alternate reality of the Xeno Relations series. _Lost in Space_ went in one direction, while the final series went in another. It tells the story of gigantic Verdante children and other humans living on the Verdante home planet. In _Lost in Space_ , drug abuse turns deadly. In the final three books of the series, semi-reptile humanoids created in the lab plagued Antaska instead. What all these books have in common is the mysterious bond of affection that can exist between members of the two very different species.

 Alien Pets \- Life gets weird when you're adopted by an alien. One million years in the future, young human Antaska and her psychic cat are adopted as pets by a gigantic alien. Traveling in outer space, she becomes telepathic in a world where that's dangerous. Then she gets into a love triangle that's even more dangerous. Her cat tries to tell Antaska what she's doing wrong, but will she listen? An all-new ending has been added to this version (10/2018).

 hypnoSnatch \- Is it love, or is it alien abduction? Things keep getting weirder when Antaska travels in outer space with an alien and her psychic cat. Mischievous but evil part-reptile humanoids team up with Antaska's nemesis, a genetically enhanced fitness instructor, to take revenge on her to the ends of the universe. Her unexpected alien abduction spoils their plans.

 Bonded in Space \- Strange things happen when a crazy alien can't get you out of his mind. Antaska wants to forget about Marroo the slave hunter, but she can't stop thinking about him. Marroo wants to forget about Antaska too. So he plans to kidnap another Earth female, experience her love, and move on. But it's not working out like he expected. Just out of space school, Earth girl Pweet can't wait to take off from Earth. But she runs into some problems. And Potat the psychic cat is miffed when another semi-humanoid cat follows Antaska home.

#  Chapter 1

A globe-shaped Verdante space ship dropped out of warp space into the star system of its home planet. Gigantic alien M. Hoyvil sat next to Earthling Antaska on a round sofa in one of the four space-viewing rooms located around the ship's equator. Their seats were reclined all the way back, and the tiny cat Potat lay on her back between them.

"We'll be on the home planet in a few more hours, so I should probably tell you some more about my species," M. Hoyvil said to Antaska.

"Sure," said Antaska. "I'd like to hear more about the Verdantes."

"Well, first of all, you'll notice that all the females will get off the ship on the home planet. They won't get back on when we leave on the big trip to unknown space. We don't allow our females to travel in space for safety reasons," M. Hoyvil explained. "But don't worry. We can take Earth females along because it's not dangerous for them to travel with us."

There was a lot more to it than that. The danger in space was for females who were telepathic, but M. Hoyvil didn't want to explain that for some reason. He just didn't want to think about it.

_Antaska and Potat will be safe with me, no matter what_ , he told himself.

"Anyway," M. Hoyvil went on, "we'll be on the Verdante planet for a week. We'll stay at the residence of my primary gene contributors, Master Meeepp and Mistress Bawbaw. You'll meet some of their Earthling companions while we're there."

"That sounds good," said Antaska.

"I won't be around at night," M. Hoyvil told her. "We're only there a week, and all the males are gone for a hundred years. So they have these social events whenever we're home. They're really important. I hope you won't be bored."

"No. I understand, and I won't be bored," said Antaska. "Besides, I'll have Potat with me."

Potat purred loud in between them.

##

A few hours later, the ship approached the Verdante planet.

M. Hoyvil pointed out the two bright stars of his planet's binary solar system to Antaska. One was yellow, one was red. The stars grew ever larger and closer. The yellow star started to look less like a twinkly dot and more like the Earth sun Antaska was used to—a bright yellow circle surrounded by glowing light.

"I should warn you that sometimes Earthlings are disturbed by their first sight of our second star, the red giant," M. Hoyvil told Antaska as that star loomed closer. "Because humans are used to seeing a small yellow dwarf as the largest object in their sky."

Antaska looked out at the large red sun. M. Hoyvil was right. It was impressive, and she might have been scared if he hadn't given her the warning.

"Next, you'll see the ten planets in our binary solar system come into view," said M. Hoyvil. "That one's the home planet."

He pointed at the planet with his large, six-fingered hand, and Antaska stared at their next destination. At first, the Verdante planet looked like a bright green gem. Then it increased in size until small mountains, oceans, and other features were visible. It looked similar to the cloud-decorated land and water masses of Earth when seen from space.

But when the space ship penetrated the planet's atmosphere and slowed to approach, it was clear that this planet was larger than Earth and much greener.

They entered the planet's gravity well. The lounge they were in was now sideways relative to the ground they were heading toward. It was like they were lying on the side of a wall. But the ship's artificial gravity kept them from falling. Antaska felt a wave of dizziness.

Then the floor of the room began a slow rotation to one side. The change was gradual and gentle, but Antaska was glad she was lying down on the couch instead of standing up while this was happening. She noticed Potat's claws digging into the fabric of her ship suit.

"It's OK," Antaska tried to reassure her.

"Oh, right. I forgot to warn you about that too," said M. Hoyvil.

"I guess we'll forgive you this time," Antaska heard Potat say telepathically.

To distract herself from the rotating room, Antaska looked for buildings, but she couldn't find any. She saw only green-covered lands, water bodies, and some areas of rock and sand. On their final approach, there wasn't a single humanoid-made structure in sight. Giant trees loomed up large in the wide view seen from the transparent bubble.

"Many of our planet's trees grow to over 500 feet tall, far past the height of Earth's tallest redwoods," M. Hoyvil explained.

At last, the floor stabilized parallel to the approaching ground.

"Do you want to go over to the side to look down and see where we'll be landing?" M. Hoyvil asked. "It's a cool view if you're not scared of heights."

"I'll go," said Potat telepathically.

M. Hoyvil picked up Potat and put her on his shoulder.

"I'll look too," said Antaska.

They walked to the outer edge of the room's clear bubble. Straight down below them, a round, paved area grew larger as the ship sunk down toward its landing platform.

Of all the areas of the planet Antaska seen so far, only this area had a flat concrete surface with no plant life at all. Rising from, parked on, or landing on this surface were vast numbers of round Verdante space ships of various sizes.

A gigantic stone statue of a tree dominated the center of the enormous circle. It was even bigger than the largest living trees Antaska had seen from above.

"What's that?" Antaska asked M. Hoyvil, pointing at the stone tree.

"That statue is a memorial," said M. Hoyvil. "It's for all the trees and plants that died a million years ago when my species first came to this planet. In their ignorance, they killed most of the natural life in this area. Do you want me to tell you the story? I have to warn you that many Earthlings have trouble accepting this, and sometimes I have to admit that I feel the same way."

"Yes, I'd like to hear the story," said Antaska.

She was curious, and Potat stopped washing her face. She sat up straight and alert on M. Hoyvil's shoulder and looked toward him.

"The trees on this planet are sentient. They don't talk to me, but the adults claim to understand them," he said. "And this is the story they tell. When the Verdantes first settled on this planet, we weren't evolved enough to understand the speech of the trees. We cut down many of them, and we built wood and concrete buildings on the land.

"After many generations of living here, some of my ancestors claimed to hear humming sounds and whispering voices in their heads. At first, everyone thought these people were crazy. No one listened to them. But as time went on, more and more people heard the sounds and voices. Finally, people of all ages could hear the humming, and the adults could hear the voices as well. They stopped denying the voices were real and started to listen.

"The voices identified themselves as the large trees that grow on this planet. They said they were long-lived sentient beings, rooted to one spot by their physical manifestation as plants. They forgave us for killing their people, but they asked us to stop. We could build our homes underground where no sentient life would be killed. Fortunately, our population was small at that time, and we hadn't killed any trees outside of this area.

"Since then, this spot has been a dead zone. It's the only place on the planet where no life grows or will ever grow. The trees let us use it as a landing port. And we built this statue from the first stones that we dug up to build our new underground homes.

"So each time we take off or return from a trip to space, we see this monument. It's supposed to remind us of the harm we can cause if we don't understand the other species we find," M. Hoyvil said as he finished speaking.

Then, without any bumps or jerks, the space ship came to a smooth stop. They had arrived.

## Chapter 2

In a vacuum-powered passenger tube, Potat, Antaska, and M. Hoyvil whooshed around and down miles deep into the Verdante planet. They landed at the exit to the underground residences. Inside a pocket on M. Hoyvil's jacket, Potat shook herself vigorously to clear the aftereffects of the unaccustomed motion. The tube door opened, and she popped her tiny head out to investigate.

A brilliant burst of strange new sights, sounds, and smells bombarded the little cat. The air, cool and crisp compared to the space ship and even Earth, sharpened her senses. Only the planet's 0.8 Earth gravity, a close match to the space ship, felt familiar.

Potat's tiny eyes grew wide to take in the sight of the vast underground area. Plants, grass, trees, flowers, everything was at least three times larger than on Earth. Surrounding the huge domed space, tall trees soared hundreds of feet up to blend blurrily with what looked like a deep blue sky.

"Ah! The fresh smelly smell of the old home!" exclaimed M. Hoyvil.

He took a deep breath of circulated underground air.

"Up there is a holograph made to look like our planet's sky," he explained, pointing upward.

Imitations of the planet's two suns—the red giant and the white dwarf—shone on the twilight side of sky-like blueness dotted with drifting puffy clouds.

"But the sunlight is real—channeled down from the surface," he said. "The air is also circulated from above. This is my neighborhood's central park. The entrance to our underground home is a few miles around this path."

Verdante-sized paved walkways wandered through the miles of enormous park, gently rolling hills, and gigantic landscaped greenery.

"Beautiful! Amazing!" said Antaska in the breathless voice Potat recognized as verging on culture shock.

_Must be hard to be a humanoid_ , thought Potat.

She leaned farther out of M. Hoyvil's pocket and widened her ears. Fascinating! The chirps and tweets of alien birds, the rustle of unknown creatures moving through the grass, the buzz of insects, the quiet hum of the air circulation system. And beneath that—oh no! Not them again! That humming sound was the same slow telepathic speech Potat had listened to on the space ship for a whole month! Unlike the two humanoids, Potat understood this very, very slow speech, and she found it most annoying.

"Ccccccccccaaaaaaaaaaa....," blasted as loud in her mind as the blare of an ancient Earth ship horn.

Many trees at once, maybe all of them, telepathically spoke the beginning of their word for cat. Their rate of expressing about one word per hour sorely tried the patience of a creature who lived at seven times the speed of an Earth human.

_I thought the four trees on the space ship were bad, but they were nothing compared to this bunch_ , thought Potat. _I guess I know what I'll be doing for the whole week we spend on this planet—having a boring conversation with the sentient plant life! I just hope when we get inside it'll cut down on the volume._

Now Potat's curious pink nose sniffed deep and breathed in sweet flowers, succulent birds and bugs, fresh grass, and ... and a blast of the foul smell of reptilian evil!

"Reyoww!" she shouted the cat war cry at the top of her lungs as M. Hoyvil and Antaska stepped out of the tube into the vermin-infested place.

"What's up, kitten?" asked Antaska. "Did the tube ride make you dizzy?"

Potat's head whipped sideways to look at the genetically designed doll-like face of her beloved first pet Antaska. Then Potat tilted her tiny round head all the way back to look up at the big green face of her newest pet M. Hoyvil. The enormous top part of his head loomed above the narrower, smaller bottom part of his face. Gigantic upward-slanting eyes crinkled down at her in concern.

"Are you OK, little one?" he asked.

"There is evil on this planet! Unmentionable in the depths of its horror! Even for a cat! Unspeakable reptilian evil!" Potat cried telepathically.

"Reyoww!" she screamed out another war cry in case any of the reptiles were nearby.

"Are you saying there are stinky lizards on this planet?" asked M. Hoyvil, who still had a limited ability to understand Potat's telepathic speech. "You're right, there are some reptiles here. Reptiles, bugs, and birds but no other mammals until the Verdantes came here."

He tilted his head back up and paused to smell the air.

"Ah, yes," he said after taking a big sniff with a nose not much larger than an Earthling adult nose but many times more powerful. "I recognize that smell. It's the familiar reek of the native Verdante planet lizard. But it seems stronger than I remember and somehow different too. Hmm. Maybe the population increased since I've been away these last fifty years. Well, anyway, don't worry. They won't bother us. They're just a bunch of scaredy cats."

Potat hissed.

"Sorry, I mean they're timid," M. Hoyvil said.

"But don't worry. This is the safest place in the galaxy. Completely regulated by the benevolent trees. Believe me, nothing ever happens here. In the 600 years I lived here, nothing ever happened," he said, followed by a sigh.

One of his huge space-booted feet kicked out at nothing.

Potat looked down at the leafy green ground cover surrounding the edge of the pavement. Round leaves, larger and thicker than anything similar on Earth, rose up higher than Antaska's knees. The leaves shook and rippled as if creatures much larger than Potat traveled unseen beneath them.

Then a gigantic blue, orange, and green butterfly fluttered past. Fascinated, Potat reached out to swipe at it with a hopeful paw.

"Easy, tiger," said M. Hoyvil. "It's against the rules for non-native creatures—that's you, me, and Antaska—to harm any of the native life. The trees would kick us all off the planet for that. Not that I would really mind so much... Well, maybe. I don't know. I guess I'd miss my shared gene group."

The strong, unmistakable smell of bird distracted Potat from M. Hoyvil's rambling. Clinging onto his pocket with deep dug claws, she thrust her small gray and white head far out. The delicious bird aroma activated her natural cat instincts, and a small amount of saliva formed inside her mouth. A tiny drop leaked out of one corner, releasing microscopic feline hormones into the air.

A loud "caw, caw" sound came from the sky above.

"That sounds like those obnoxious mocking birds on Earth who torment cats by diving at them and pecking them with their sharp, pointy beaks!" said Antaska.

All three turned their heads up toward the sound. An enormous dark bird, at least three times the size of any mocking bird Potat had ever seen, flew in ominous circles in the air above them.

With no warning, the big bird ended its circular flight pattern and dove down at a sharp angle and rapid velocity. Its shiny beak was like an arrow shot at Potat's head.

Potat froze in M. Hoyvil's pocket. She closed her tiny eyes and prepared to meet her destiny. Thoughts raced through her head seven times faster than human thought.

There's no escape. My only regret is that I won't be able to watch out for my pet Antaska and my new pet M. Hoyvil. What will they do without me? They need a cat to take care of them. Sigh! Now is a not a good time for me to die! Who will protect them from the unspeakably evil reptile creatures on this planet? Well, I guess this is it.

Then the light glowing through Potat's closed eyelids grew dark.

##

Instinctively, reflexively, with fast-reacting muscles developed by a month of intense exercise on the space journey here, Antaska had jumped in front of M. Hoyvil to put herself between Potat and the approaching bird. Her head and chest blocked little Potat, and she covered her own face and heart with her arms. The two artificial suns, positioned low on the artificial horizon, cast Potat in her shadow.

A fatal stab in the chest or head was a possibility. Antaska couldn't think as fast as a cat, but her martial arts mental training kicked in. It allowed only one thought to enter her mind—an image. With eyes closed, Antaska visualized a shiny, sharp beak going into an arm.

"Thunk," Antaska heard loud and clear, but she felt no pain, nothing.

'Could I be dead?' she wondered.

##

With lightning speed, M. Hoyvil, also conditioned by hundreds of years of even more intense exercise, had twisted sideways around Antaska. He couldn't think as fast as Potat, but he had the ability and habit of thinking many thoughts at once.

Pesky thing! and I wonder what's for dinner? he thought, as superior vision and the machine-fast reflexes of a Verdante adolescent let him block the predatory bird with a casual lift of one long arm.

At the sound of the thunk, Potat and Antaska both opened their eyes. But with a speed too fast for human or cat eyes to see, M. Hoyvil grasped the bird's beak, pulled it out of his shoulder, and tossed it back into the air.

##

All Potat saw was a blur of motion and then the bird flying away in a wobbly flight pattern.

"Darn," said M. Hoyvil. "I hope I won't get in trouble with the trees for this."

"I didn't hurt it. It's fine," Potat heard him say telepathically to the trees. "Anyway, it's my responsibility to protect these two, and that's that. I don't know if you can even understand me since your mental speech is so slow. So the adults say. It all sounds like humming to me. I guess I'll understand you when I'm an adult in another 300 years. No rush on that!"

M. Hoyvil turned to check on Antaska. He looked down at her and then bent his head farther down to check on Potat.

Potat felt stressed out. She burrowed down inside M. Hoyvil's pocket and made a small mewing sound. Antaska's hand gently pulled down the top of the pocket, which was about level with Antaska's eyes. Potat's two tiny gold eyes looked out at her from a small, scared face.

""Mew," said Potat, "mew, mew!"

"I'm so sorry!" M. Hoyvil said. "I've never seen a bird act like that. They're usually just harmless but annoying creatures. But don't worry. After we get inside the residence, you'll both be in the safest place in the galaxy. I'll protect Potat if anything else happens before we get there."

As he spoke, Potat noticed a humongous lizard—the size of a small Earth alligator—slithering toward them through the grass. It stopped a few feet away, poked its head out, and stuck out a wiggly forked tongue. M. Hoyvil lifted a long leg and stomped one huge foot down on the pavement near the lizard.

"Thump!" The ground trembled beneath their feet. The ground cover rippled as the lizard slithered away. M. Hoyvil lifted his bird-poked arm and held it protectively across Potat.

"See, no problem," said M. Hoyvil to Antaska.

She stared at the side of his arm, and her gray almond-shape eyes widened to almost full circles. M. Hoyvil twisted the arm around and looked at it. Potat saw a row of huge drops of golden sap-like blood dripping down from the wound at a snail's pace.

"Oh, that? It's just a scratch," said M. Hoyvil.

Antaska continued to stare fixedly at the arm as if mesmerized.

_This is not good_ , thought Potat.

"There's something wrong with my pet Antaska," she said to M. Hoyvil in her cat telepathic voice.

"Did you say, 'My pet! My pet!'" he asked Potat. "Do you mean Antaska?"

He swung his big green head back and forth to look from one to the other.

"Antaska's in shock!" said Potat. "She's having culture shock again or something."

"What?" asked M. Hoyvil.

"My pet!" shouted Potat again, as Antaska's eyes closed and her body started to crumple down.

##

M. Hoyvil swung out his uninjured arm and caught Antaska before she hit the ground.

"Meww!" yelled Potat from his pocket in the audible language of her species.

"Don't worry, I've got this," said M. Hoyvil.

He set Antaska gently on the ground. Potat dove out of his pocket and landed on Antaska's stomach. She crouched down, twitched her white-tipped gray tail, and growled protectively.

M. Hoyvil took a small object out of another pocket—the health scanner Antaska's human veterinarian gave him when M. Hoyvil adopted her from Earth. He pressed a button, and a beam of orange light shot out from the scanner. Starting at the top of her head, he slowly moved the light down to below her toes.

The device beeped and then spoke in a robotic voice.

"Female Earthling in good health has fainted due to emotional distress, slight dehydration, and low blood sugar. Should wake in approximately ten minutes. Provide food and beverage upon awakening. Small bruising on stomach due to recent impact. A small live creature is now located on the area of impact."

The scanner's orange light grew wide and circular with wavy black lines that flowed across Potat.

"Beep! Beep! Detecting! Small feline. Female. Cat!" screamed the scanner.

M. Hoyvil pressed the off button and put the device away.

"That's right! We skipped lunch to watch the approach to the planet, and now it's dinner time," M. Hoyvil said.

His stomach grumbled and growled in agreement.

"There's no time to waste!" he said.

M. Hoyvil scooped up little Potat in a huge six-fingered hand and popped her back into his pocket. Then he lifted Antaska. He took off running at top speed on the path that circled the park. The pavement rumbled under his super-fast pounding feet. The leafy ground cover rustled with the movements of many small creatures in flight. His extreme velocity created currents in the air he passed through, and the leaves of the giant telepathic trees trembled.

In no time, M. Hoyvil had covered a few miles. On the side of the dome wall, a large circle printed with an alien symbol marked the entrance to his home. But he didn't slow down to press his hand on it.

"This is an emergency. There's no time for manners," M. Hoyvil said.

He plunged feet first into the wall. The elastic wall material expanded inward and stretched around him, bulging into the residence. It took the shape of his jumping form and then peeled away to drop him onto the floor. He landed on his feet with a loud boom in a long, tall entrance hallway leading to a set of huge double doors.

"I'm home!" yelled M. Hoyvil telepathically.

"M. Hoyvil! How many times have I told you not to enter the home like a barbarian!" M. Hoyvil heard the mental shout of his primary gene contributor, Mistress Bawbaw, answering back loud and clear through the walls of the residence.

##

Telepathic yelling roused Antaska from some deep place. She tried to return to the comforting darkness. A woman's loud mental shout pulled her out. Antaska stirred. She opened her eyes and saw huge doors of fantastic design burst open in the distance.

"What? Where?" Antaska mumbled.

"Oh good, you're awake," said M. Hoyvil.

He placed her in a standing position on the floor.

"Pick my pet back up. She's not ready for this," Antaska heard Potat's tiny mental cat voice.

"Yes, 'your pet, your pet,' I know she's your pet," said M. Hoyvil, again showing his limited understanding of Potat's telepathic speech.

A mixed mob of humanoids in sizes ranging from gigantic to smaller than Antaska, all shouting at once both vocally and telepathically, flowed toward the three visitors. The glow from a cavernous room filled with giant-sized furniture lit the door opening behind the surging mob.

Three of the smallest Verdantes Antaska had ever seen—almost the size of an adult Earthling, but chubby with childlike features—rushed ahead of the others. They pushed and shoved each other as they attempted to throw their arms around M. Hoyvil all at once.

M. Hoyvil threw up a protective arm over Potat, who curled up in a tiny ball deep in his pocket. The corners of his eyes lifted high, and he hugged each of the smaller Verdantes with his free arm.

The three giant children shouted and jumped excitedly around M. Hoyvil. Then the rest of the crowd of green Verdantes and various Earthlings surged closer. The shouting, both vocal and telepathic, grew louder. Then a piercing baby's telepathic wail outdid them all.

The mental and vocal noise pounded inside Antaska's head. In her vision, the colorful surging crowd swayed and spun. Her stomach lurched along with her sight. She shut her eyes, and the noise receded. The sounds shrunk smaller, much smaller, and Antaska knew she was about to faint.

The last thing she heard was Potat's tiny telepathic scream: "My pet! My pet!"

# Chapter 2

Antaska swayed, and the motion jolted her back to awareness. She saw a Verdante female about a foot shorter than M. Hoyvil approach, accompanied by two elderly Earthlings. The young female Verdante put a supportive arm around Antaska's shoulders.

She spoke kindly to Antaska. "You poor thing! M. Hoyvil doesn't understand that it's all too much for you."

Then she turned toward M. Hoyvil and spoke to him in a sterner telepathic voice. "Can't you see she isn't feeling well? It's a big shock for Earthlings to suddenly be on an alien planet in alien surroundings. You should have prepared her better, but the damage is done. Can I take her to her room to rest?" she asked hopefully.

M. Hoyvil looked confused for a moment. Potat's head stuck out of his jacket, watching but not speaking.

"Oh, I'm sorry," M. Hoyvil apologized out loud to Antaska. "I thought that because you were used to the space ship, the residence wouldn't be that much different. I'll take you to your room now. This is my younger gene sibling, Ms. Chiiz, by the way."

Then M. Hoyvil spoke to his sibling. "Ms. Chiiz, this is Antaska. And if she's experiencing some kind of culture shock, I think it would be best if I take her because she's more familiar with me. Also, I've got her small cat in my jacket, and she's even more frightened right now. I'll take them both to their room and then come right back."

"Okay. I'll see you later, then," said Ms. Chiiz to Antaska.

Antaska noticed that Ms. Chiiz seemed more interested in M. Hoyvil's new companion than in M. Hoyvil himself.

M. Hoyvil took Antaska's arm and walked with her across the deeply cushioned red floor to the far side of the large family room. They entered a long, curved hallway lined with open doorways. The loud sound of many people talking at once was behind them now, and Antaska was able to walk steadily. But she was still overwhelmed by a feeling of smallness—like a midget in a giant's castle.

After a month living on the spaceship, Antaska had adjusted to living in large, high-ceilinged Verdante-sized rooms. But the rooms in the spacious underground home of M. Hoyvil's primary gene contributors, Master Meeepp and his mate Mistress Bawbaw, were several times larger than those in the space ship.

"This residence houses my entire family unit," M. Hoyvil explained as they walked along. "It has rooms for my primary gene contributors and all their twenty offspring—whether they're home or not—and more rooms for more than thirty Earthlings."

It was impossible for Antaska to image how large the residence really was because it was built underground. There was no visible outside structure to gage its size by.

After a long walk, M. Hoyvil stopped and indicated two doorways across the hall from each other with a wave of one green hand.

"These are our rooms," he said. "They're like the rooms in the space ship but much bigger. Your room is right across the hall from mine. It's an Earthling-size room for you and Potat. You'll notice that unlike on the ship, there are no doors on the rooms–just doorways. That's because there's no possible danger here of alien attack."

Antaska thought it would still be nice to have a door for privacy, but she didn't complain.

_We'll only be here for a week, and I can adjust to their alien ways while I'm here_ , she told herself.

M. Hoyvil led Antaska to the door of her room. The top of the doorway was about a foot shorter than his head. He reached a hand inside his pocket, lifted Potat out, and held her up near his gigantic green face.

"Are you OK?" he asked the little cat. "I'm really sorry about what happened outside with that bird. I've never heard of a bird acting like that before on this planet, although they're carnivores, and they eat insects. I'd have brought you in the carrier, or we could have taken a tube straight to the door, but I wanted to show you the park. Not many cats come to this planet, so I didn't know that would happen. But you'll be perfectly safe inside the residence," he promised.

"I'm fine. Thank you for protecting me," Antaska heard Potat answer him telepathically, but she pretended not to since she knew that the Verdantes didn't allow telepathic females to travel in outer space.

Antaska walked inside the room and sat down on a cushioned Earthling-sized chair. M. Hoyvil ducked his head under the door to follow her in with Potat in his hand. He placed the small cat on the large circular bed. Potat's head swiveled to look around at her new temporary living space. Then she dashed under the bed.

The corners of M. Hoyvil's were lowered. Antaska knew that meant he was unhappy or worried about something.

"I'm feeling better now," she said to M. Hoyvil. "I guess it was kind of a shock to see everything so big and so different. It's the same way I felt on the first day on the space ship. I'm sure I'll be fine soon, but maybe I should stay in the room with Potat for a while. She seems to need some time too."

A soft, low growl came from under the bed, but whether it was a sign of agreement or of irritation was unclear.

M. Hoyvil crouched, lifted up the edge of the blanket, and bent his large head down to look under the bed. Antaska bent down to look too. She knew that M. Hoyvil's powerful vision allowed him to see Potat clearly even though the tiny cat was trying to hide her gray and white body in the dark shadows of the far wall.

##

Potat was mesmerized by the phosphorescent glow from M. Hoyvil's eyes, like big green leaves shining soft in her dim-lit under-the-bed hiding place. Now that she'd calmed down from her brush with the large bird, her fear was gone. But she was angry, and she felt a strong urge to sharpen her claws on something or someone.

He's my new pet, so I'll have to fight that animal urge, Potat told herself.

Instead of lunging for M. Hoyvil's face, Potat rolled over and lifted up her paws to vigorously scratch the lab-created wood frame of the bed above her. After she got that out of her system, Potat tried to communicate with him telepathically.

"Stop doing that! You'll ruin his furniture!" said Antaska, just as Potat was about to speak.

Potat knew that Antaska wasn't surprised by her behavior after what had happened, but she felt responsible and guilty that her cat was already destroying her employer's property so soon after their arrival.

M. Hoyvil lifted his head back up and answered Antaska.

"Don't worry about it. All the furniture in the residence is self-repairing, just like everything on the space ship. Besides, this isn't my furniture, it's yours. This room is yours now, and Potat's," he added.

_Well, in that case, ..._ , thought Potat.

Her tiny claws resumed their rapid and furious scratching under the bed. M. Hoyvil dropped his head back down and looked in at Potat.

"Are you going to be OK? I know it's a big change, but we'll be back on the space ship in just a week," M. Hoyvil promised.

"I'm fine," Potat answered him telepathically without pausing from her destructive work. "I just need some time alone in a new place. You may go, . . . , please," she added in an attempt at politeness.

##

Antaska still felt somewhat shocked when she heard the voice of Potat speaking in her mind. But after her experience on the trip from Earth, Antaska knew that she could no longer remain in denial about her telepathic abilities.

But I can't let M. Hoyvil find out that I'm telepathic, or I won't be allowed to go with him to outer space, she reminded herself.

M. Hoyvil had explained to Antaska that the reason Earthlings were valued as companions for space travel was their lack of mental telepathy. The Verdantes could be around them without having to maintain the mental barriers they used to prevent others of their kind from reading their innermost thoughts and to prevent themselves from hearing the deepest secrets of others.

These protective mental walls were helpful, but they had drawbacks. The walls took great effort to hold up. And when they were up, emotional coldness was felt by the holder and others close by. The presence of non-telepathic Earthlings reduced that coldness, which made them valuable as companions on long journeys of a hundred years of more. It took at least that long to travel to the far reaches of outer space.

So even though Antaska had understood everything Potato had just said, she acted as if she hadn't heard anything. She began arranging her belongings in a cabinet built into a wall on the side of the room.

##

M. Hoyvil crouched back down and looked under the bed again. He could understand Potat's telepathic speech but not as well as Antaska could. When Potat spoke, M. Hoyvil heard, "I fine, go, please."

Because the Verdantes had only a limited ability to understand cats' telepathic communication, they assumed that cats had the intelligence of two-year-old humans. But after Potat's help in warning him that Antaska was in danger during their last voyage, M. Hoyvil suspected that there was more to cats than the Verdantes realized. He understood Potat's message, at least part of it, and he stood back up.

Antaska turned and looked up at him towering in the Earthling-sized room at his full height of over eight feet tall. He could feel his hair brushing against the ceiling. M. Hoyvil could tell Antaska was suppressing a giggle.

_Will I grow so tall that I won't even fit in this room when we come back here after the hundred-year journey?_ he wondered.

Now that M. Hoyvil's worries about Potat were relieved, he remembered something else he needed to tell Antaska.

"I don't know if you noticed, but the human rooms in this residence don't have their own bathrooms. There are large shared bathrooms at the end of the hallways—separate ones for males and females," he said.

"No. I didn't notice," said Antaska.

"All the residences on the Verdante planet are built like that because one of our architects studied the habits of humans and concluded that you prefer to use the bathroom with others. He found that it's some type of social custom when there are large groups of humans living or working together in the same building. I never thought much about it till now, but will that be OK for you?" M. Hoyvil asked her.

Antaska laughed. Then she said, "It's not really what I prefer, but I don't mind. It's no problem, but can you show me where the bathroom is now?"

"I'll take you over there. Then you can come back here and rest with Potat before dinner if you want," said M. Hoyvil.

M. Hoyvil guessed that Antaska didn't want to go back right away to the crowded family room.

"That sounds great," said Antaska.

# Chapter 3

Antaska and M. Hoyvil walked side by side through huge hallways wide and tall enough to allow at least four adult-sized Verdantes to walk along together. She tilted her head way back to look up at the high, domed ceiling. Its opaque surfaces reflected the natural light that was cycled from the planet's two suns down through its depths to light the rooms of this residence.

She looked down again and noticed the many open doorways on both sides of the walls. Then Antaska looked away in embarrassment when she saw the rooms' occupants, both Earthling and Verdante, looking out at them as they passed by.

As usual, to accommodate Antaska's shorter legs, M. Hoyvil was walking slower on the deep-cushioned floor than the quick bouncing stride he usually took on his much longer legs. This time, he went even slower than normal, and Antaska had to slow down a bit to wait for him. A full bladder made her somewhat impatient. She looked up at him questioningly, but he didn't notice and seemed preoccupied.

##

M. Hoyvil was thinking about the social events he was going to that week. Every day and night, there would be parties and dances. They gave adolescent Verdantes the opportunity to meet potential life partners before the group of young males left on their trip to outer space.

He considered the charms and personalities of some of the adolescent females he'd met on the recent trip from Earth to the Verdante home planet. Without question, M. Hoyvil had been attracted to several of the young females.

Of course, adolescent Verdantes weren't fully physically mature and wouldn't feel strong mating urges until they reached adulthood at an age of about 900 years. But adolescents experienced the small beginnings of those feelings, and M. Hoyvil had often been mesmerized by pretty faces, smooth skin, and shinny hair in many shades of green.

The females he took a special interest in were those who seemed to share his passion for outer space. But sometimes, M. Hoyvil had been suspicious that they were only pretending to be interested in order to get his attention.

He thought about this as he walked along. _What I'd really like in a life mate is a female who is truly interested in other solar systems and other species._

Then his thoughts became more sober. _Unfortunately, I know the real reason why females are only concerned with the boring stuff that happens on the home planet and Earth. They'll never be allowed to go anywhere except those two planets._

##

"Hello! M. Hoyvil, welcome home!" Antaska heard some humans call out from their rooms as the two of them walked past.

M. Hoyvil answered back with a "Hello!" that Antaska understood was friendly, now that she knew he smiled by lifting the corners of his eyes and not with his mouth.

"Hello!" she also heard clearly in her mind as the Verdantes greeted M. Hoyvil telepathically.

Antaska heard M. Hoyvil answer back, but she pretended ignorance by not looking in their direction. He led her to end of the long corridor, and they reached the shared bathroom for the Earthling females.

"I'll wait outside for you and walk you back to your room," M. Hoyvil told her.

"OK. I'll be right out," said Antaska.

"Just take your time. I'm not in a rush," said M. Hoyvil.

He took a few steps on his long legs to the opposite wall and leaned back against it.

Antaska turned and went into the bathroom. The moment that she entered, she was awed by its opulence. A high-polished marble floor led past shimmering walls with fanciful porcelain sinks facing large round mirrors. Glamor lights surrounded the mirrors. A plush red couch sat in a small foyer just past the stalls and sinks. Fabricated wood doors and walls gave each stall full privacy.

All of the doors were closed. Antaska opened one and sat down on the seat.

_It's so comfortable and cushiony!_ she thought.

Then Antaska noticed the sound of gushing water, ocean waves, and crying gulls playing from speakers in the stalls. The noise covered the sound of her natural waste elimination and flushing. But after Antaska flushed, she heard other sounds outside of the stall. The sound of women talking.

Antaska stood up. She reached up a hand and started to turn the stall's gilded handle to go out. Then she froze. Antaska was shocked to hear the women talking about her! And what she heard was extremely disturbing.

"Who does that bitch think she is?" said one high soft voice. "M. Hoyvil obviously picked her because she looks like a sexy little mini-Verdante, all tall and skinny with her olive skin. It's so unfair that I must be friendly to all these inferior sluts who pass through here on their way to outer space. I deserve to go to space more than they do, but I have to stay here forever dressed up like a toy by mistress in these horrendous getups and then bored and ignored."

Still inside the stall, Antaska stifled a gasp. She sat back down on the seat, shocked and unable to move, while the conversation about her continued.

"Yeah. What's wrong with her, Freeta?" said the other voice, a lower alto. "She must be crazy, stuck up. The kind of person who leads men on and then dumps them to feed her ego. She thinks she's better than all of us because that hunky fitness instructor Eegor chased her around the whole trip from Earth to here. I'd have done more than lead him on. You know what I mean? But he never looked at me. Too busy messing with that piece of work." The voice ended its rant on a bitter note.

_Wow. Is that what people are saying about me?_ Antaska wondered. _I didn't lead him on! Did I?_ She started to feel insecure, even though she thought she'd put that situation in the past.

"It just proves what a troublemaker she is, Totanna," said the voice of Freeta. "She just got here, and she's already made trouble for me."

"What did she do to you?" asked Totanna.

Antaska strained her ears to hear the answer too.

"Well, you know our mistress Ms. Janeez hasn't found a life mate yet. She's only 750," Freeta began.

Really?" Totanna asked. "I thought they meet their mates earlier than that at those adolescent social events."

"No," said Freeta. "Most Verdantes don't pair up until the males return from their final space trips when they reach adulthood. That's when their reproductive instincts force them to find a mate. So the females are stuck here and bored till they turn about 1000."

"Oh. So?" said Totanna.

"So Ms. Janeez passes her time by dressing and styling the hair of her Earthling pets in creative themes. Like the outfits we both have on right now," said Freeta.

"I love this outfit!" said Totanna. "And yours too," she added.

"Yes, mine is 'Red Sea, Dead Sea.' That's what Ms. Janeez calls this ensemble she created for me," said Freeta. "She's not just creative. She's really into history and geography, and the Red Sea, Dead Sea look was inspired by her latest study of ancient Earth."

"It's beautiful! I just love how the red dress matches your hair and how the fabric floats around you when you move," Totanna gushed. "I like this leopard cat suit and matching stilettos she made for me, but I hope she makes me something fancy like that too."

_At least they're distracted from talking about me_ , Antaska thought from inside the stall.

"Right," said Freeta. "You'll love that for a while, but it loses its thrill after about fifty years or so. Anyway, to get back to my point about Antaska. These Earthlings who stop here with the male Verdantes on their way to outer space don't need any special outfits. They won't be wearing anything but those ugly ship suits for the rest of their lives. And Ms. Janeez has never bothered to create designs for them. Until now. Somehow, Antaska got Ms. Janeez to notice her. And now Ms. Janeez is working on a special outfit just for her!" Freeta finished in a voice hot with anger.

"Yes, it's too bad that stuck-up hoe will be part of this household too. But at least she'll only be here for a week every hundred years," Totanna commiserated.

"A week is too much!" said Freeta. "This is so stressful. I need a pick-me-up. You look like you could use one too."

"What's that, perfume?" Totanna asked a few seconds later.

"It's better than perfume!" said Freeta. "Just try a puff, and you'll find out."

"OK. Spray me," said Totanna.

_What are they talking about?_ Antaska wondered.

"Wow! That's good. Real good," said Totanna. "Is this like, drugs?"

"That's right. We get the good stuff here on the Verdante planet. All the female Verdantes who're stuck here take this stuff to stay in a good mood. And they leave it around, so we Earthlings can get it. As much as we want," said Freeta.

_Drugs!_ thought Antaska.

She'd learned about ancient Earth's history of drug addiction, along with people dying from accidental overdose and suicide, but the problem didn't exist in Antaska's time. The Verdantes carefully monitored any medicine given to the humans on Earth.

"Maybe it won't be so boring here after all," said Totanna.

"Oh, it'll be boring, but you can feel good while you're bored," said Freeta. "Meet me back here in a few hours if you want some more."

"You got it," said Totanna.

Then there was silence. Antaska waited another minute before she cracked open her stall door and looked out. The bathroom was empty. She walked over to a shell-shaped sink and washed her hands. Antaska studied her reflection in the large round mirror on the wall in front of her.

_Do I really look like a slut?_ she asked herself.

All she could see was her usual tan-skinned face surrounded by pink hair, pointy nose and chin, and gray eyes. Antaska wasn't wearing makeup, and she hadn't changed out of her tan ship suit. She lifted an arm to inspect her skin for any traces of green color.

_What did she mean by "olive" skin?_ she wondered. _I've always thought my skin was tan, but now that I look closely, I think I can see some green tones. Still, I don't think I look anything like a Verdante. Maybe Freeta and Totanna are mad because I'm going to outer space, and they're not. I know I'd be miserable too if I wasn't going_ ," she thought. _Still, I hope I wouldn't say such terrible things about people who were going!_ "

Antaska let out a deep sigh.

She dried her hands on the soft, fluffy towel next to the sink. Then she went out to meet M. Hoyvil.

##

M. Hoyvil was leaning in the same position he'd been in when Antaska went into the bathroom.

"I'm sorry I took so long," Antaska said to M. Hoyvil as she walked up to him.

"Really? I didn't actually notice," he said.

Time flowed differently for a species that lived for thousands of years, and M. Hoyvil hadn't realized that Antaska had taken longer in the bathroom than was normal. He was still distracted with thoughts of the social functions he'd attend during their short time on the home planet.

_My first mating party!_ M. Hoyvil kept thinking. _It's so exciting, but it feels like so much pressure too. My life bonding time isn't for four hundred years more. Why do I have to start looking now? What if I make the wrong choice? I don't know if I'm ready for this!_

Antaska was looking up at him from her two-foot-shorter height.

"I'm ready to go back now," she said.

"Oh, right," said M. Hoyvil. "Sorry, I was just thinking about something. Let's go."

They started to walk back along the corridor together. M. Hoyvil was still thinking and walking slow, and Antaska matched his pace.

_What really bothers me is the thought of what will happen after the bonding_ , he realized. _I'll have to stay on the Verdante planet for the rest of my life!_ _Master Meeepp and Mistress Bawbaw say my feelings will change when my body matures to adulthood. But maybe I don't want to become an adult if I'll have to be stuck here_ , he thought with a shudder.

##

Antaska was thinking very different but also disturbing thoughts.

_Does M. Hoyvil know that his female gene relations are taking drugs?_ she wondered. _And that the Earthlings in this residence are taking them too?_

She studied M. Hoyvil's face. His dark green mouth was closed. His enormous eyes, usually slanted up in a perpetual state of mild amusement, were slanted neither up nor down. They were less wide open than usual, and there was a distant, dreamy look about him.

Antaska was sure that her own face reflected the distress she felt, but he didn't seem to notice. She thought about the terrible things she'd heard Freeta saying about M. Hoyvil.

_There's no way that could be true_ , she reassured herself as she looked at him. _M. Hoyvil's never treated me in any other way except respectfully, with at most, a mild but somewhat distant affection. It's almost like the way someone would treat a pet_ , Antaska realized.

She wondered if she should be disturbed by that new thought, but her mind returned to the more upsetting revelation.

_People on this planet are taking drugs! I feel like I should do something, but I don't know what. I'm going to need help dealing with this_ , she decided. _And there's only one person who can help me. Potat!_

# Chapter 4

M. Hoyvil ducked down and followed Antaska through the door to her room. Tiny Potat was sitting up and alert on the edge of the round bed nearest to the door. She looked as if she'd been waiting for them. M. Hoyvil was cheered a bit from his ponderous mood by seeing that Potat wasn't hiding under the bed anymore. He lifted the corners of his eyes in a smile and greeted her.

"I'm glad to see you're settling into your room...well, yours and Antaska's," M. Hoyvil amended. "I'm going to visit everyone in the big family room now. Then I'll come back and get you for dinner," he said to both Potat and Antaska.

He wasn't sure if Potat would want to go with them to dinner, but he knew she'd be offended if she wasn't invited.

With a bigger eye lift at both of them, M. Hoyvil turned and left the room. As he walked back to the family room, he came to a conclusion, similar to Antaska's, that he needed to talk to someone more knowledgeable about what was bothering him.

_I'll talk to Mistress Bawbaw about this mating business_ , he decided. _Even though adults are sometimes truly clueless, if anyone can help me with questions about females, it's her. Mistress Bawbaw is a female, and she's an older one too. And she's actually had some good advice a few times in my hundreds of years living with her._

Then thoughts of Mistress Bawbaw, his primary female gene contributor, added a slight sadness to his already mixed bag of feelings.

_She's been there for most of my life, but after this week, I won't see her much for the next 250 years while I'm traveling in space. Then when I come back, I'll have to move away somewhere with a life partner to start my own family. Of course, I'll visit at least every hundred years_ ," he promised himself.

# Chapter 5

Meanwhile, Antaska was sitting next to Potat on the edge of the round bed. The little cat stared up at her expectantly. Antaska looked down at her and spoke.

"At first I thought I was going crazy, and then I tried to convince myself that it wasn't true. But I guess by now, we both know that I can understand you," Antaska said out loud to Potat.

"Talk to me only in your mind, or the Verdantes might hear you. They have very sharp ears," Potat answered her mentally. "I mean the Verdantes' hearing is sharp, not that their ears are pointy," she clarified.

"How do I do that?" asked Antaska, again out loud.

She'd never spoke telepathically yet, even though she'd accepted that she could hear the telepathic speech of Potat and the Verdantes.

"Just think thoughts of speaking to me, and I'll hear them," Potat explained.

"OK," Antaska said mentally, giving it a try and hoping it was working. "First of all, I'd like to say that I'm really sorry for all the times I told you 'No! Stop that! Don't do that!'"

Antaska suddenly felt embarrassed that she'd ordered a sentient being around like a small misbehaving child or a pet. She struggled to push the word "pet" out of her mind, believing that Potat would be offended by it.

Potat looked up at her with a slight, smug cat smile.

"We both know that I always do whatever I want to, no matter what you say," she said telepathically.

Antaska thought about that and realized it was true. Potat had never paid attention unless the request was something she wanted to do anyway. Mostly relieved but also wondering if she should be worried, Antaska looked down at Potat's face and spoke to her, again telepathically.

"I'm happy that I can talk to you even though it's kind of strange and weird. But what I'm really upset about is that I just heard some other Earthlings talking in the bathroom. They said awful things about me. And they were taking drugs! They got them from M. Hoyvil's gene sibling. I think I should do something, but I don't know what to do. Can you help me?"

Potat got up, padded over, and sat down right next to Antaska. She pressed against Antaska's side while making the soothing purr sound that had the power to heal both physical and mental ailments.

"Yes, I can help you," Potat reassured her telepathically while continuing to purr. "What you need to do is tell M. Hoyvil about this drug situation. It sounds dangerous, and he can tell his primary gene contributors. They need to know."

"I don't know if I can do that," said Antaska mentally. "That's ratting on people. I'd feel like a snitch, and everyone would hate me."

"Well, you asked my advice, and I gave it to you," said Potat "I can't force you to take it."

Then the little cat walked away to the other side of the bed and started kneading a pillow with her claws.

"It's time for a nap," she told Antaska.

Antaska felt more frustrated than helped by the conversation.

_What's the point of being able to talk to your cat if you can't get good advice?_ she wondered.

"I heard that, and I did give you good advice. You just didn't want to hear it," said Potat.

"I wasn't trying to talk to you that time!" said Antaska. "Can you hear all my thoughts too? Do you read my mind?"

"Only when I feel like it," said Potat. "Now, if you don't mind, I need to get some sleep. It's been an exhausting day."

Her tiny mouth opened and yawned huge.

"OK. Sorry," said Antaska.

But suddenly, a loud noise was heard.

"Knock, knock," said a loud girlish voice accompanied by the light thudding of a large fist.

"Come in," Antaska answered with a look toward Potat to see her reaction.

The small cat was facing the door while seated in the classic Sphinx cat position on top of the round pillow.

"It's fine. I can stay awake a bit more," said Potat.

Antaska turned back toward the doorway. Ms. Chiiz was standing in it surrounded by the three large Verdante children Antaska had seen in the family room.

Ms. Chiiz also carried a gigantic Verdante infant positioned to face backward over her shoulder. The big baby struggled against her firm hold. It twisted its head around to stare with huge light green eyes at Antaska and Potat—especially Potat.

"Kitty! Kitty!" Antaska clearly heard the telepathic words coming from the big baby.

She expected Potat to run under the bed and hide again. But Potat calmly faced the rowdy group without moving except to turn her head in their direction. She blinked at them with golden eyes as if she were just mildly confused by the interruption.

In her earlier state of culture shock when she'd first entered the residence, Antaska hadn't noticed much about Ms. Chiiz or the three children. Now they pushed and shoved each other and Ms. Chiiz in their attempts to get in through the Earthling-sized doorway.

Antaska saw that all of them wore clothes different than the plain styles worn by the Verdantes on Earth or the ship suits worn by the Verdantes and their Earthling companions. Antaska wondered if these flamboyant outfits were normal children's wear for their species.

Ms. Chiiz wore a professional-looking teal pantsuit that exactly matched the color of her large slanted eyes. Darker-colored teal pumps with pointed toes and low heels completed the look. At six feet tall, she would have almost looked the part of an adult human office worker, were it not for the slight chubbiness of childhood and her alien coloring.

Typical of the Verdantes, the top of Ms. Chiiz's head was proportionally larger than a human head and tapered down to a much smaller chin. Her bright green skin was a few shades lighter than her green shoulder-length hair. The straight shiny hair framed a face from which intense upward-slanting eyes looked in sharp interest at Antaska and Potat.

The three chubby Verdante children were smaller–from three to five feet tall–with the equivalent physical development of Earthling four to six year-olds. They wore puffy-sleeved blouses and tight-fitting pants with wide metallic belts. Tall boots rose just above their knees.

Each child also wore a black cape held on by a silver clasp. One child wore a wide-brimmed black hat sporting a large white and gray feather. These outfits reminded Antaska of a rare video made in ancient Earth times.

_They look like those ancient Earth swashbucklers, the Three Musketeers_ , Antaska thought.

Ms. Chiiz addressed Antaska vocally. "Can we come in to visit you and your cat? M. Hoyvil told us she's sentient and telepathic, and the little ones asked to meet her."

"Kitty! Kitty!" said the big baby again with insistence.

"Ahm, well..." answered Antaska, not sure what Potat would want her to say to this request.

Now the three large alien children hovered shyly but eagerly behind Ms. Chiiz.

"Can we please play with the kitty?" asked the smallest, who was about three feet tall.

"This is Ms. Beeedut," Ms. Chiiz introduced the young female child.

##

Potat climbed down from her pillow and stared at Ms. Chiiz and the three smaller children. M. Beeedut's long, dark green curls contrasted sharply against her light pink puffy sleeved blouse and spilled down almost to the floor as she bent around one side of Ms. Chiiz. Her green skin surrounded by tumbling curls brought an image to Potat's mind of a small leafy tree in a shaded wood. She felt the urge to attack the tumbling curls with her claws, but she resisted.

_These humanoids might disapprove if I attack a child_ , she thought.

Instead, Potat gave herself the satisfaction of kneading her claws deeply into the bedspread. She answering Ms. Beeedut telepathically.

"You children may enter and visit me if you can restrain yourselves from any rough behavior and show the proper respect."

The group moved toward the bed. Potat sat down next to Antaska just to be safe. The big baby reached eager arms toward Potat and kept saying, "kitty, kitty," softer than before but still insistently. That made Potat a bit nervous. She was relieved to see Ms. Chiiz carry him around to the other side of the bed where Antaska sat.

Ms. Chiiz sat down next to Antaska with the big green baby restrained on her lap. He whimpered just a bit more. Then he started to fall asleep in her arms.

The three older children lined up in front of Potat on her side of the round bed. Together, they gave Potat a formal courtly bow, with flourishes of arms and hat. Mesmerized by the swing of Ms. Beeedut's dark green-black curls so tantalizing near, Potat couldn't resist lightly swatting at them with one paw, without claws extended, of course.

"Stop that," Antaska ordered Potat out loud, but as usual, Potat completely ignored the order.

Ms. Beeedut giggled and sat down on the bed next to Potat. She leaned toward her and shook her curls in Potat's direction. Potat didn't need any more encouragement than this to attack the long hair with a flurry of both front paws, but she restrained herself enough to keep her claws in.

The two larger Verdante children sat down on their knees in front of Potat and tried to get her attention away from the game she was playing with Ms. Beeedut.

"We can get you some better toys than that," said the larger five-foot-tall one in a childish but loud telepathic voice.

"What toys?" asked Potat telepathically, only slightly distracted from her purpose of creating a tangled mess out of Ms. Beeedut's hair.

A mental conversation mostly consisting of visual images followed that question, as the two male children kneeling on the floor presented images of various cat toys and furniture. Potat answered with her own mental images, either rejecting or modifying their offers more to her liking.

Potat lost interest in Ms. Beeedut's hair, and Ms. Beeedut joined in the visual telepathic conversion, adding her own ideas for things that Potat might like. Eventually, it was decided that a cat castle would be constructed along one wall of the round room. The three children and Potat continued to work out the details of its design as well as what additional items would be needed such as pillows, fake mice, and large fabricated feathers.

##

Meanwhile, Ms. Chiiz and Antaska were talking out loud.

"Can you tell me about the Verdante-Earthling offices on Earth?" Ms. Chiiz asked Antaska. "I'm 500 years old, and in just 50 more years, I'll be old enough to go to Earth and act as an office administrator. I can't wait to go. It's my dream. Especially since Verdante females aren't allowed to go anywhere else in space except Earth."

"Well, all I know is that the Earthlings will think you're an adult. I didn't find out that the Verdantes we interacted with were adolescents until M. Hoyvil told me," said Antaska with a laugh.

"Sure," said Ms. Chiiz. "That's because our scientists studied Earthlings before the first contact and decided that you'd be frightened by the gigantic green adults. A lot of newly contacted species have been frightened by them, actually."

"I can believe that," said Antaska. "I was disturbed by my first sight of Master Meeepp standing in front of me on the space ship. But most people would get used to it, I think."

"Oh, please don't tell anyone that our adults wouldn't be scary to Earthlings," said Ms. Chiiz. "Then we children wouldn't get to go to Earth."

"OK. I won't," Antaska promised.

"Anyway, the children aren't alone there," said Ms. Chiiz. "A colony of adult Verdantes lives on Earth all the time. They supervise the Verdante children, and they all live in an underground community like the living spaces on the Verdante planet. But they never show themselves to the Earthlings."

"Well, I hope you like it there," said Antaska. "Earth is beautiful, but most Earthlings spend their whole lives waiting to leave. Everyone wants to go to space."

"I want to go to space too, but females can't," said Ms. Chiiz with a loud sigh. "But at least when I turn 650, I'll be allowed to bring an Earthling with me back here to the Verdante planet."

Antaska noticed that Ms. Chiiz didn't call the Earthlings "pets." But she knew from hearing their telepathic conversations that the Verdantes–especially the adults–did think of the Earthlings as their pets.

_I'm glad that M. Hoyvil says he doesn't like that, and he tells them to call me his companion_ , Antaska thought. _Ms. Chiiz seems to understand that being a pet would be demeaning too_.

As Ms. Chiiz continued to ask questions about Earth, and Antaska answered, she looked at the large green-skinned baby sleeping on Ms. Chiiz's lap. Even though Ms. Chiiz was the size of a large human woman, the enormous baby, about three times the size of an Earthling baby, spilled over the sides of her lap. However, she held him easily and comfortably.

Antaska found her attention drawn irresistibly to the baby. His light green curls, chubby toes, and fingers curled into fists made him resemble a large alien cherub. Suddenly, Antaska was flooded by a strange, previously unknown feeling–the maternal instinct.

This feeling took Antaska completely by surprise. Earthlings were raised in groups of twelve fertilized eggs with similar genetic ingredients. Always dreaming of space travel, she'd never been interested in the Earth career of an adult caretaker who raised groups Earth babies to adulthood.

Earthling babies and children were kept in areas separate from adults, and Antaska had only seen images of them in videos. This big baby was the first humanoid infant she'd ever seen in person.

As she felt the strong, unfamiliar urge, Antaska wondered if there was more behind the Earth government's practice of segregating its adults from its babies and children than the reasons of convenience the government claimed. Because humans were technologically advanced and not animals, said their government, all Earthlings were sterilized at birth. The amount of humans born was carefully controlled by the government to be a perfect balance for the Earth's resources. And the government birth labs bioengineered each embryo to ensure that only the highest quality humans were put on the planet.

A realization that would have been disturbing if she was still on Earth came into Antaska's mind. _Maybe most or all humans would demand to have their own children if they all felt like this!_

"Can I hold the baby?" Antaska asked Ms. Chiiz.

"I'd let you hold him, but he's really heavy, and he'd probably wake up and start fussing if I try to hand him over to you. Can you hold him another time when he's awake?" she asked Antaska.

"OK," said Antaska.

Instinctively, she reached over to pet Potat, who rewarded her with a loud purr. But Potat kept talking to the three children who were out of diapers and much more interesting to her. Antaska didn't hear, but she saw part of their strange visual telepathic conversation. Embarrassed to be eavesdropping, she quickly put her focus back on Ms. Chiiz and the sleeping baby.

##

Potat came to a final arrangement with the three Verdante children on the things they'd create for her with the residence's subatomic particle computer.

Now Ms. Beeedut spoke to Potat. "M. Hoyvil is so lucky to have an Earthling who has a pet like you! I wish I could get a cat instead of a human when I'm 650. You're much better than those boring humans!"

"We want a cat too!" said the other two children in loud unison.

"Well!" answered Potat in a superior but forgiving telepathic voice, "First of all, I'm not a pet. Antaska was my first pet, and I gave M. Hoyvil the honor of becoming my second pet after he proved his worthiness by rescuing Antaska from bad people."

"Cool!" said the two children seated on the floor. "Wow!" said Ms. Beeedut.

"Can we be your pets too?" "Do you want more presents?" "Tell us the story," they said all at once.

"I'll tell you the story, and giving me presents is nice, but it's not enough. You can only become my pets if you perform an act of heroism to prove your loyalty," Potat told them.

"We will, we will!" they promised. "What do you want us to do?"

"We'll only be here for a week, so there might not be a chance this time. But wait for my call, and be ready to come to my assistance if I need you. And by the way, I'm impressed that you can understand me so much better than M. Hoyvil can."

Potat didn't expect trouble during this week-long visit, but she knew that a small cat could never have too many large humanoids ready to serve her.

All three children nodded their large heads in agreement and settled down to listen entranced while Potat told them her version of Antaska's recent escape from the bioengineered human fitness instructors, Eegor and Tilde, on their journey here from Earth.

##

Suddenly, Antaska heard Potat stop talking and let out a low, growling noise that would have terrified any creature smaller than her. Antaska looked at the little cat with concern.

_Why is she stiff and frozen like a statue and growling at the empty doorway?_ Antaska wondered.

About thirty seconds later, Antaska froze too. An Earthling female of about 250 years old stood in the open doorway. She wore a dress of light pink material trimmed with shells in an artistic pattern. Bright red-dyed hair rose artificially above her head in the shape of ocean waves.

"Hello, I'm Freeta," she said in a sweet, friendly voice. "We haven't met, but I saw you come in with M. Hoyvil. I see you have visitors. May I come in and chat too?"

Antaska recognized Freeta's voice from the bathroom, and after what she'd heard, she didn't want to chat with her. She looked around and noticed that the Verdante children were staring at Freeta with blank faces and down-turned eyes. But Antaska didn't want to be rude.

"Sure, come in," she answered Freeta.

Freeta walked in. When she moved, her dress made a whooshing, wave-like sound.

"This is a bad lady!" Antaska heard Potat say telepathically to the three Verdante children. "Please make her leave my room."

Antaska knew that Freeta couldn't hear telepathic speech, but Ms. Beeedut relayed the message to Freeta out loud, in so many words.

"I'm sorry Freeta, but this cat, Potat, isn't comfortable with you here. She asked me to tell you to leave since she can only speak telepathically and can't tell you herself."

"What!" Freeta exclaimed. "Antaska just invited me in, and it's her room, not this dumb animal! Don't try to play your childish games with me!"

"Well, it's really Potat's room too," said Antaska. "And she's a sentient being, by the way."

"That's right, Freeta. It's not nice to disrespect other species. Now if you would please leave?" said M. Gwaawh.

_They must be trying to prove themselves worthy of becoming Potat's pets_ , Antaska thought.

Antaska had heard Potat giving orders to the children and wondered if the Verdante adults would be upset about that. Would they be upset that the children had ordered Freeta out of her room? Antaska really wanted Frieda to go away too. And anyway, she knew by now that there was no use in telling Potat what to do. This cat would do exactly what she wanted to.

##

Ms. Chiiz could also hear Potat talking telepathically. She hadn't been paying attention to the conversation between Potat and the children. So she was surprised at Potat's aversion to Frieda, her order to the children, and their quick response.

_This is very interesting_ , thought Ms. Chiiz, who studied the behavior and interactions of humans and Verdantes as a hobby. _I wonder why this cat is focused on Freeta with such aggressive intent. Why are the children taking orders from this cat? And why does Antaska seem so tense and uncomfortable? Fascinating!_

Her thoughts were interrupted by the big baby in her lap. The vocal talk of the children and Freeta had woke up M. Bomp, and he was fussing.

"Shush, shush," said Ms. Chiiz telepathically to M. Bomp.

Ms. Chiiz pretended to focus all of her attention on calming the baby while she waited to see what would happen next in this unusual situation. Freeta stood in front of her as if she expected Ms. Chiiz to interfere. But Ms. Chiiz just patted the baby's head and didn't say anything.

Ignoring the children, Freeta spoke again—this time only to Antaska.

"Well! It's really noisy in here with all these children. I'm sure you'd rather go to my room to talk. Come along now."

She ended her short speech with a flourish of her arm as if to direct Antaska out the door.

_Hmm_ , thought Ms. Chiiz. _Freeta is attempting to manipulate this other human female by telling her what to do and not giving her an option to say 'no' without seeming rude._

Ms. Chiiz turned to look at Antaska and waited with interest to see how she would respond.

"Umm, ahh," said Antaska.

"Tell her to leave!" the small cat Potat said loudly and telepathically to the three children. She accompanied this with an arched back, raised fur, and a loud hiss in Freeta's direction.

The largest of the children, M. Gwaawh, stood up and glared with lowered eye corners at Freeta.

"I must insist that you leave now, Freeta," he said with an adult-like firmness that was oddly unsettling coming from a child-like but large body.

_Well he is 500 years old_ , Ms. Chiiz thought.

M. Gwaawh made a sweeping gesture with his arm and the six green fingers of one hand toward the door.

Freeta's eyes and mouth opened wide, and she stood momentarily frozen. Ms. Chiiz had noticed that this human never seemed comfortable around the large Verdante children and usually avoided them. Because they were hundreds of years old, the Verdantes let them roam around the residence unsupervised, but they were children and therefore unpredictable.

_Now what will happen?_ Ms. Chiiz wondered.

Freeta spoke up. "Well! Ms. Janeez told me that you children were well behaved and self-controlled, but it looks like she was wrong."

No one said anything in answer to that. Ms. Chiiz bounced the baby on her lap. The Earthling Antaska sat next to her stiff and unmoving. And the three Verdante children and the cat glared at Freeta with undisguised disdain.

Freeta looked around at all of them. Then she turned and left the room with a rustle of waving hair and dress.

"I'll tell Ms. Janeez! I'll tell her about this!" Ms. Chiiz could hear Freeta threaten as she retreated down the curved hallway.

With superhuman Verdante hearing, M. Chiiz could also hear Freeta's lower-voiced rant from a farther distance. "I was right about those children! Hundreds of years in a child's body really does make them crazy!"

##

The corners of the big baby's eyes pulled down, and his small mouth pressed closed tight. Ms. Chiiz's efforts to soothe him hadn't been helped by the loud talking and yelling. M. Bomp wanted badly to express himself, but he couldn't. It was extremely frustrating for Verdante babies to not have the physiological development needed for either vocal or telepathic speech until at least the age of one hundred, when they began speaking their first words. M. Bomp was just over one hundred years old and could still speak only a few words, including his most recently learned "kitty."

From the moment M. Bomp had seen Potat, he'd wanted to pet her, but his desire had been thwarted by Ms. Chiiz. She'd held him firmly until he fell asleep. Most unfairly, the other children had been allowed to surround Potat and receive her full attention. The cat had even said they might be able to become her pets, but what about M. Bomp? He heard the little kitty telling them a story as he drifted off to sleep listening to the sound of her sweet, melodious voice. It was like nothing he'd ever heard before on the Verdante planet.

After a nap that was much too short for the needs of a Verdante baby, M. Bomp woke to the sounds of trouble. Someone was bothering the kitty! He wanted to do something, but he was so limited by his baby body. Once again, one of the larger children won Potat's attention and admiration, and still, M. Bomp had not been allowed to even pet her!

Large tears began to form in M. Bomp's big eyes. The sensitive Ms. Chiiz lifted him up and hugged him while making soothing telepathic shushing noises. Two large drops of water fell from his eyes. They dropped over Ms. Chiiz's shoulder and landed on the bed next to Antaska with a splash.

##

"This baby could be dangerous," thought Potat, who hated to get wet.

Being highly intelligent, Potat realized the reason for M. Bomp's distress. Bravely, she walked closer to him, avoiding the wet spots on the bed and watching out for falling drops.

"Hello, big baby, I'm Potat. What's your name?"

At the sound of her telepathic voice, the baby's big eyes opened and slanted upward as if his mood had changed with lightning speed. He gave a final sniff.

"Bomp," said M. Bomp.

"I guess you'd like to be my pet too," said Potat in a somewhat regal telepathic tone.

She wasn't surprised that so many humanoids would like this honor, but there were limits to how many people she could be responsible for.

"Pet, pet, pet!" said the gigantic baby.

He reached a big green hand, slightly damp with tears, down to lightly pet Potat. With great tolerance, she allowed him to put small amounts of salt water on her fur. But she knew that she'd have to give herself another complete bath as soon as possible.

Now Potat wondered how much M. Bomp could actually understand.

_When I said "pet," did he think it was an offer for him to pet me? You just never can know what an alien species is thinking_ , thought Potat. _I'll just assume that he can understand me._

She knew very well how it felt to be underestimated again and again by members of other species.

"Very well," she mentally addressed M. Bomp again. "Because you're also a member of my pet M. Hoyvil's family, you can be my pet too. But you must also prove yourself with an act of bravery. You're still a baby, so it could be a long time before you can do that, but the offer is open."

##

M. Bomp felt the importance of this momentous occasion, and he made a supreme effort to express himself. "Bomp be kitty pet!" he said in his loudest telepathic voice.

"He just spoke his first sentence!" Ms. Chiiz exclaimed out loud. "Come children, we must go tell Ms. Bawbaw!"

She stood up with M. Bomp and turned to say goodbye to Antaska. "See you later at dinner."

Then Ms. Chiiz quickly left the room carrying M. Bomp. He looked back with longing at Potat over Ms. Chiiz's shoulder. He watched the other three large children get up reluctantly and say goodbye to Potat and Antaska. Clearly not as excited as Ms. Chiiz by M. Bomp's first sentence, they followed behind her and dragged the heels of their high-topped boots in the cushiony flooring.

##

After the Verdantes were gone, Antaska looked down at Potat, once again not knowing whether to be amused or concerned. She'd heard her tell M. Bomp that M. Hoyvil was Potat's pet. Did this tiny cat really believe that she was the master of an alien more than eight feet tall? And if she thought she was M. Hoyvil's master, did she think she was Antaska's master too?

Antaska wondered if Potat was reading her mind now, but she didn't ask her. The little cat let out a small sigh. Then she started thoroughly cleaning her entire body of the sticky, salty baby moisture.

"It looks like you might have a problem with that other Earthling," Potat said telepathically to Antaska as she cleaned. "She's very pushy, and I predict that next she'll try to give you drugs too. But we can't talk about that now. M. Hoyvil is on his way here to get you. You'll just have to do the best you can without me. I'm sorry, but I won't be going along to dinner with you. I don't feel like watching a room full of large humanoids eating large amounts of food and talking all at once. I'll be napping here in the room while you're gone. This planet's telepathic trees have been trying to tell me something ever since we got here. But they talk so slow that it's been hard for me to pay attention to the whole message. Maybe if I'm asleep for five hours, I'll hear five words in a row."

Potat finished her bath, curled up on the bed with her dark gray outer stripe surrounding her white belly, and fell instantly asleep.

Ever since Potat had said that M. Hoyvil was coming, Antaska had been listening for him, but she hadn't heard any sound of him approaching in the hallway outside their door. Now, about a minute later, Antaska saw M. Hoyvil's large head leaning over sideways to look into the room.

# Chapter 6

"Dinner will be ready in about thirty minutes," M. Hoyvil told Antaska from outside of her door.

She wanted to talk to Potat some more, but the small cat was asleep.

"OK. I'll just go to the bathroom and wash my hands first. I know the way there, but I don't know the way to the dining room. Can you take me there?" Antaska asked him.

M. Hoyvil moved in front of the doorway, ducked his head, and stood just inside the door with the top of his head just a few inches from the ceiling. He spoke quietly.

"Sure, I'll wait in my room, so I don't wake up Potat. You know where it is right across the hall?" he asked.

"Yes, I know where it is, but don't worry about Potat," said Antaska in her normal voice. "She sleeps through almost anything. You can wait in here if you want to."

"In that case, I'll wait with Potat. I haven't seen her for a while," M. Hoyvil answered.

There was no Verdante adult-sized furniture in the room. M. Hoyvil sat down on the floor next to the circular bed where Potat slept.

Then Antaska got up and left the room. She wasn't surprised by M. Hoyvil's desire to spend time with Potat. She'd noticed that he was becoming attached to the little cat. So much so, apparently, that Potat claimed him as her own pet. She wondered again if Potat believed that she was also Antaska's master. Or if Potat thought Antaska was the master, would that make Antaska also the master of M. Hoyvil?

While Antaska walked down the long hallway toward the bathroom, she forgot about the other Earthlings and their talk about drugs. But someone hadn't forgotten about her. Freeta sat in a chair in the doorway to her own room. She faced out toward the hallway, so she could see whoever passed by.

Antaska's mind was so filled with her own loud thoughts about Potat and M. Hoyvil that she didn't notice Freeta when she passed by her doorway. When Freeta spoke up, Antaska jolted and stopped in her tracks.

"Hi again, Antaska. Are you here to visit me without those annoying children around?" Freeta asked.

"Sorry, I'm actually on my way to the bathroom to wash up for dinner," said Antaska. "M. Hoyvil's waiting for me, so I don't have time to talk now."

"OK. Next time then," said Freeta.

Antaska started walking again.

No one was in the sumptuously appointed Earthling female bathroom when Antaska walked in. She realized that it had been a few hours since her last trip here. She needed to use the toilet, especially after drinking one of the beverage tubes that were stocked in a cabinet in her room just like in the space ship. The Verdantes required large amounts of the nutrient-rich fluid because of their part-plant, part-humanoid genetic structure. They encouraged the Earthlings to keep hydrated with a formula designed to keep them healthy and increase their longevity. In addition to a longer life span, this also caused extra trips to the bathroom.

Antaska went into one of the gold-trimmed stalls. After she flushed, just like the last time, she heard the voices of two women talking. She recognized the voice of the female named Totanna talking to Freeta. And again, they were talking about her! Antaska felt too embarrassed to go out there, so she waited inside the stall again.

"I really despise that Antaska," said Totanna. "It's so unfair!"

"Why's that?" Freeta asked her.

"You know on the way here from Earth, we sat with Ms. Janeez in the adult section of the space ship's dining hall. And at every meal, that hunky fitness instructor Eegor was there with his Verdante master and mistress, and Eegor's human female partner Tilde?" said Totanna.

"Right. So?" Freeta said.

"I know I'm hotter than Antaska. Everyone knows that," said Totanna. "And for two months, I tried everything I could to get Eegor to notice me. I wore tighter and tighter clothes, higher heels, and wilder hairstyles. But all he noticed was Antaska, who was most unworthy of his attention, in my opinion."

"Yeah. Everyone saw him staring at Antaska everyday sitting with M. Hoyvil in the adolescent section," said Freeta. "Most of us thought it was funny though."

_This is so embarrassing!_ thought Antaska inside the bathroom. _And Freeta must know I'm in here. Why doesn't she say something?_

"Well, I didn't think it was funny and neither did Eegor's partner Tilde," said Totanna. "Tell me how could a plain, too tall, skinny female possibly attract a fine specimen of a man like Eegor? Especially when his partner was probably the world's most beautiful woman. Not that I'm exactly a loser like Antaska," said Totanna.

"Here. Have another puff of this," said Freeta. "You sound like you need it. It'll make you feel better."

"I thought you'd never ask!" said Totanna.

There was another moment of silence.

_I need to get out of here and get going!_ Antaska thought. _This is so awkward!_

Then Totanna spoke again. "Yeah. I noticed Antaska sneaking guilty looks back at Eegor. What a wimp! If I'm interested in a man, I'm not shy about it, even if he has another woman with him."

Antaska heard Freeta laughing.

"Of course, Tilde was really big and strong," Totanna went on. "I saw the martial arts moves she used on Antaska in the fitness class after she got mad at her. So actually, attracting Tilde's notice probably wasn't a good idea, but that clueless Antaska did it anyway."

"Bad move!" Freeta agreed with her.

"The longer that trip went, the more mad I got at Antaska. She started working out extra to get in better shape, so that Eegor would notice her even more. I could see her toning up even under that frumpy ship suit she always wears. And then the Earthling males on the space ship noticed too," Totanna fumed in a slurred voice.

Antaska wondered if the drugs Totanna had taken were getting to her.

"It was so unfair!" Totanna went on. "The fitness class for us Earthlings who were going to stay on the Verdante planet for life was much easier than the class the humans going to space took. The class that Eegor and Hilde taught. At the start of the trip, our fitness instructor told our class that if we wanted to, we could join the harder class, but of course, no one wanted to. Still, it wasn't fair. Antaska had an unfair advantage."

"You look good even though you didn't take the harder class," said Freeta.

"Yeah. My bod looks sooo hot in this outfit Ms. Janeez made for me. Sure, I don't look like fitness girl, but I've got the curves, baby. I can't believe any man would even notice her in that stupid ship suit with me around! They're probably looking at her because she's such a freak. Someone should put a sack over her head!" said Totanna.

"By the way, Antaska's here in one of the stalls," Antaska heard Freeta tell Totanna in a loud whisper.

"What! Why didn't you tell me before?" asked Totanna.

_This is totally humiliating!_ Antaska thought, but she didn't come out or say anything.

"Oh, you know. It's so boring on this planet. I have to do what I can to make things more interesting," said Freeta.

"That's no excuse!" Totanna practically shouted. "You acted like you were my friend, and now you do that to me?"

"Wait. I am your friend," said Freeta. "Here. Have another puff. It'll make you feel better."

"You owe me one after this," said Totanna.

Another moment of silence passed, and then Totanna spoke again.

"Thanks. Maybe we can still be friends after all. We'll see."

"Oh, you'll be my friend when you want some more. Everyone wants to be my friend," said Freeta.

"Anyway, it's time to get going," said Totanna. "Time to get to the dining room to show my fine self to the Earthling males. Let's go, Freeta. It's the first dinner, and I want to see the males I'll be living with for the next 300 years."

"I'm not ready to go yet," said Freeta. "I'll meet you there in a few minutes."

"You're waiting for her?" said Totanna. "Well, I'm out of here. I'm sure none of the males will care if she's there or not."

##

"What a dippy airhead!" Antaska heard Freeta say a few moments later. "She's gone. You can come out now, Antaska," Freeta said in a louder voice.

Antaska reluctantly got up off the comfy toilet seat and pushed the door open. She walked over and started washing her hands in front of a sink next to Freeta. Antaska hated this kind of confrontation, but now she had to say something.

"That was so embarrassing!" Antaska said. "And I heard you say that you knew I was in there, but you were still talking about me. That's not right."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Antaska. Don't be mad at me. It's just my sense of humor. But I know you won't understand. You won't ever know what it's like to be stuck on this planet for hundreds of years," said Freeta.

"You're right. I don't understand," said Antaska. "And you were saying bad things about me and laughing at me!"

"Now, Antaska. I had to do that because Totanna was there. To make her happy, so she'll be my friend," said Freeta. "I didn't mean any of that, and I want to be your friend too. That's why I waited for you to give you some of this stuff. It'll make you feel better."

Freeta held up a small glass bottle. A spray nozzle topped the colorful curving atomizer.

"Is that what you gave to Totanna?" Antaska asked. "Is that drugs!"

"Yeah, it's drugs," said Freeta. "It's the good stuff the Verdante females take. You've never had anything like this. Here, have a puff."

"No! I'm not taking drugs!" Antaska insisted. "We were taught about drugs on Earth. They're dangerous and unhealthy."

"Ha! What a child you are!" said Freeta. "This stuff isn't dangerous unless you take as much as the Verdantes do. That much could kill you, but I'm only going to give you a bit. You'll be fine. More than fine. I've been taking this stuff for 200 years, and it hasn't hurt me."

Antaska took a close look at Freeta. She couldn't see much of her body beneath the loose dress, but her skin was lined and kind of puffy with dark circles around the eyes.

_She must be about 250 years old_ , Antaska thought. _Living with the Verdantes is supposed to make Earthlings healthier and live longer, but she looks worse than the humans I remember about that age on Earth._

"No thanks," said Antaska again.

As if she hadn't heard her, Freeta lifted the bottle and sprayed a puff of its contents right in Antaska's face. Shocked, Antaska held her breath and quickly rinsed her face off with water from the sink.

"Why did you do that?" she asked Freeta. "I said 'no.'"

"I don't like taking 'no' for an answer," said Freeta. "Anyway, holding your breath and washing your face won't do any good. This stuff goes right into the skin. You should be feeling it about now."

Antaska turned off the water and dropped her hands to her sides. She was feeling something. She felt euphoric and relaxed but also kind of sleepy. Her mind felt numb.

"See. It's great. Isn't it?" said Freeta.

"No. It is not great!" said Antaska. "You drugged me! I wasn't going to tell anyone, but I'll have to tell M. Hoyvil now."

"Oh, you'd better not tell him," Freeta threatened.

"Why not?" Antaska asked.

"Because if you do, you're the one who'll get in trouble. I'll tell Ms. Janeez that you took her drugs from her room. She'll believe me, and the adults will believe her over M. Hoyvil. Then who knows what will happen to you. They don't like Earthlings who make trouble. They might give you a lobotomy, or they might make you and M. Hoyvil stay here on the Verdante planet."

_Oh, no!_ Antaska thought. _That would be awful._

"Fine. I won't tell M. Hoyvil," said Antaska. "But stay away from me and keep your drugs away from me."

Antaska turned and walked toward the door.

She heard Freeta laugh behind her. "Sure. I'll stay away. But you'll be back wanting more when it starts to wear off. Happens every time."

##

In spite of the tranquilizer she'd just been given, Antaska felt panicky.

_I've got to get away from here! And M. Hoyvil must be wondering why I'm taking so long_ , she thought.

With the easy speed she'd developed from her intense exercise program on the space ship voyage to this planet, Antaska ran out of the bathroom and down the long, curved hallway toward her room. The distance from the Earthling female bathroom was about a half of a mile, which was far by human standards but merely spacious to the gigantic Verdantes.

Antaska raced down the long corridor. Up ahead, she saw an Earthling female dressed in a jungle-print catsuit with matching stiletto heels.

_That must be Totanna!_ Antaska thought.

The curvaceous Totanna strolled along at a slow pace, wobbling somewhat unsteadily on her six-inch heels.

"Showing off again!" Antaska heard Totanna say as she dashed by, but Totanna's dislike was the least of her worries.

Antaska slowed down to a walk just before she reached the door to her own room. She tried to look calm and composed as she entered, so M. Hoyvil wouldn't suspect anything.

# Chapter 7

M. Hoyvil was still sitting on the floor looking absent-mindedly at Potat when Antaska entered the room.

"I'm sorry I took so long," Antaska said. "Some other Earthlings were in the bathroom, and they wanted to talk."

"Oh. Were you gone for long? I didn't notice," said M. Hoyvil. "But we'll still be on time for dinner."

Although M. Hoyvil was preoccupied with the upcoming social events and various young Verdante adolescent girls he already knew or might meet, he took his responsibility for Antaska seriously, and she was still in his thoughts. With his powerful Verdante sense of hearing, he'd heard her running down the hall toward the room, and he wondered why. Even from a sitting position, he didn't need to look up much to see her face. He noticed the slight pink flush under her tan skin that made her look healthier and more energized than when he'd last seen her.

_Was she running because she's not getting enough exercise here?_ he wondered.

"Most people take the week off from exercise when they visit the home planet. But you don't have to if you'd rather work out. There's a gym in the residence I can take you to tomorrow if you want. There's also a big community gym we can visit while we're here. But if you want to rest instead, it's completely up to you. I heard you running down the hall, and I thought you might be feeling restless," he explained.

"Yes, I'd like to do that. Thank you," said Antaska.

M. Hoyvil noticed that Antaska's tan skin flushed even pinker.

_Hmm. That's odd. She must be embarrassed about something,_ he thought.

But he didn't ask her what.

"Are you ready to go to dinner now? You don't have to if you're not up to it. It's going to be noisy with so many Verdantes and Earthlings there. I can bring some food to your room if you want," M. Hoyvil offered, trying to be accommodating.

"Oh, no thanks. I want to go. I'm feeling a lot better than when I first got here," Antaska said.

M. Hoyvil, a growing adolescent, suddenly felt very hungry. Faster than the fastest Earthling, he sprang up from his seated position on the floor in one swift motion. Then he led Antaska to the dining hall at his natural long-legged swift pace. When she'd first joined him on the trip from Earth to his planet, M. Hoyvil had slowed down when he walked with her to accommodate her much shorter legs. But he'd increased his walking speed as she became more and more fit and told him she didn't mind going faster.

##

As she approached the dining room with M. Hoyvil, Antaska heard soft bits and pieces of both vocal and telepathic conversations, and she braced herself for even more. The effects of the drug Freeta had sprayed on her made her feel mentally dull.

_Will I be able to deal with a big noisy crowd of new people?_ she wondered. _I'm not sure, but I'm not going to hide in my room._

Just as Antaska expected, a loud clash of vocal and telepathic noise assaulted her ears and mind as soon as they passed through the tall, wide-arched entranceway.

Dozens of humans and Verdantes of various ages sat mixed together, in chairs that fit their individual size and species, around an enormous oval dining table that filled the center of the large round room. The table, made of turquoise stone, glowed beneath the soft golden shine of late afternoon sunlight reflected down through the top of the room's domed ceiling.

Many heads turned in Antaska and M. Hoyvil's direction. Antaska could hear several loud mental conversations of the Verdantes happening all at once. The vocal talk of the Earthlings with each other and the Verdantes next to them was much softer, continuous, and almost lost in the combined din of Verdante telepathic speech that blasted in Antaska's mind.

Loudest and clearest were the mingled mental shouts of the child-sized Verdantes. "Sit with me, M. Hoyvil. Sit with me!"

Antaska jogged into the room to keep pace with long-striding M. Hoyvil.

"Thanks for the offer, everyone," said M. Hoyvil. "But I have to sit with Ms. Janeez because she's the oldest of my relatives to ask. Tradition, you know."

The three Verdante children sitting to the left of Ms. Janeez shoved over to make room for M. Hoyvil and Antaska.

"Antaska must sit next to me," Ms. Janeez insisted.

"Yeah! M. Hoyvil sits next to us," said one of the big Verdante children.

"Don't be rude to Antaska!" M. Hoyvil admonished them.

Antaska's mood lifted, and she laughed. "It's OK," she said.

Then she turned to look at Freeta on Ms. Janeez's other side. Freeta smiled and waved at her. Antaska remembered the drugs and all the bathroom talk. Her mood crashed back down.

She forced a calm, composed demeanor on her face and stood next to Ms. Janeez while M. Hoyvil and the three children retrieved suitable chairs from those arranged on the side of the room.

"Let us carry your chair!" insisted the children to M. Hoyvil in telepathic unison.

He agreed with a silent wave of six long green fingers, using the convenient third form of communication of the Verdantes–their own sign language.

M. Hoyvil selected and lifted a chair for Antaska and quickly carried it over to the table. The Verdante children were slower to carry his chair. Between the three, they awkwardly balanced a chair that was twice the size of the largest of them.

The situation with Freeta was fresh in Antaska's mind as she climbed up the attached steps to her raised Earthling-size chair and sat at the table between M. Hoyvil and Ms. Janeez.

Antaska was even more disturbed when Freeta leaned around Ms. Janeez to speak to her. "I hope we can get together again after dinner tonight, Antaska. And I hope you remember what I told you."

_Is she threatening me?_ Antaska wondered.

Antaska was relieved to be interrupted from her worry about Freeta by the loud but kind voice of Ms. Janeez.

"Hello, Antaska. I'm Ms. Janeez. I see you've already met my human, Freeta."

Antaska noticed that Ms. Janeez talked about Freeta as if she owned her, but Antaska knew most of the Verdantes thought of the Earthlings as pets.

I'm so glad that M. Hoyvil doesn't talk about me like that! Antaska thought.

With her mind and ears bombarded by a confusing mix of soft human speech woven through with waves of Verdante telepathic conversation, Antaska was slow to reply, but Freeta spoke up to answer the question for her.

"Yes, we met in the Earthling female bathroom today," she said in a friendly voice as she leaned around the huge Ms. Janeez again to look at Antaska with a sweet smile on her face that seemed fake. "Ms. Janeez is the most talented, artistic, and creative clothing designer on the entire Verdante planet. Even in the entire galaxy," she added with sincerity.

"Oh, thank you Freeta," replied Ms. Janeez with only the slightest touch of modesty.

She patted Freeta lightly on her puffy red hair, causing its waves to sway and thus demonstrating her artistry.

Freeta smiled up at her. This smile looked genuine and devoted.

"Anyway," continued Ms. Janeez, turning back to Antaska, "as Freeta knows, I design outfits for Verdante family members and for my Earthlings. You're a very unusual human, and I've been inspired to design an outfit that will express your inner spirit. I believe that you have the soul of a warrior as well as the physical appearance. I'd like to make fitting clothes for you to wear when you journey forth to do battle in the far-flung universe!"

"Thank you," said Antaska. She wasn't expecting to do battle on the exploratory space trip, but she didn't think it would be polite to say that.

Although Antaska sat in a high chair that raised her to table level, she had to bend her head back to see Ms. Janeez's face as she spoke. An older adolescent than M. Hoyvil, Ms. Janeez was over ten feet tall. But she still had a few hundred years of growing to do before she would reach her full height of about twelve feet.

Antaska watched Ms. Janeez's deep green lips moving. They were fuller than M. Hoyvil's lips. But they were still proportionally smaller than the lips of an Earthling compared to the rest of her head and face. She had the typical enormous, slanted Verdante eyes set in a huge cranium that narrowed down to a much smaller nose and chin.

Ms. Janeez's voice was loud and clear, but Antaska was feeling fuzzy from the drug, and she was starting to have trouble separating the voice from everything else in the background. Particularly loud was a telepathic conversation taking place on her other side between M. Hoyvil and the three children who had visited Potat before dinner.

"Is really it true that Potat is your master, and you're her pet?" They all asked him at once in loud, high-pitched telepathic voices that must have been heard by all the Verdantes who sat around the table.

Heads turned, including the heads of M. Hoyvil's primary male and female gene contributors, Master Meeepp and Mistress Bawbaw. Antaska noticed that they seemed to be waiting with interest to hear M. Hoyvil's reply.

##

M. Hoyvil paused and carefully considered the consequences that could arise depending on how he answered. He knew that if he said he was the pet of Potat, both Master Meeepp and Mistress Bawbaw, the heads of the family household, would be disturbed and displeased. Having to listen to a long drawn-out conversation that was mostly Master Meeepp lecturing him on appropriate behavior was a distinct possibility. Then he thought about what Potat's reaction might be if the children told her that he'd said he wasn't her pet.

"Yes, I'm the pet of the cat Potat and so is Antaska. We're both her pets. Most humanoids don't know this, but cats are actually superior beings. So that's why our situation is different from other pet and master relationships," M. Hoyvil answered the children.

M. Hoyvil felt quite pleased with his answer. Not only would it satisfy Potat if the children repeated it to her, but it resolved one of his worries about Antaska. He was sure that it was only a matter of time before she found out that the Verdantes considered Earthlings to be their pets. She seemed to have an uncanny way of finding things out that most humans didn't notice or seem to care about. When that happened, and she asked him about it, he could truthfully claim that he'd accepted Potat as the master of both of them. So he couldn't possibly think that he was Antaska's master.

On the other hand, Antaska might be offended that he assumed that Potat was her master too. He pondered that possibility while he reached for the drink tube in front of him with one six-fingered hand. At the same time, he took a large forkful of the ancient Earth-style food that Mistress Bawbaw had ordered the residence to make as a special feast for this occasion.

The children kept asking questions about Potat. But M. Hoyvil swallowed a big gulp of the light green liquid and then chewed a large mouthful of spaghetti before answering. He noticed that Master Meeepp was rolling his enormous eyes. And Mistress Bawbaw's upper eye corners were twitching somewhat uncontrollably, a sign of nervous laughter that was rarely seen on her normally calm face.

##

Unknown to M. Hoyvil, who still didn't know that Antaska could hear Verdante telepathic conversations, Antaska had heard his words. But she wasn't upset by them. Whether or not Potat thought she was the master of Antaska and M. Hoyvil, and whether or not M. Hoyvil believed it, were the least of her concerns at that moment. Her biggest worry was that Ms. Janeez was speaking to her, and she was having trouble hearing her.

Antaska thought she'd look like a fool if she kept staring back at Ms. Janeez but not saying anything.

_This could get embarrassing. What should I do?_ she wondered. _Maybe if I focus on Ms. Janeez and ignore all this other noise in my mind and ears, I'll be able to hear what she's saying._

She looked directly at Ms. Janeez and concentrated as hard as she could on her words, and it worked! The other thoughts and conversations became muffled and faded, and Antaska heard the tail end of Ms. Janeez's conversation.

"I've already started working on it, but I'm hoping you'll take it with you when you leave on your journey. I'll have to get M. Hoyvil's permission too, of course, but would you like that?"

"Yes, thank you," said Antaska to be polite and cover up the fact that she hadn't understood the first part of the conversation, and she wasn't sure what she'd just agreed to.

"That's marvelous!" Ms. Janeez shouted out loud, attracting the notice of the Earthlings around the table.

Then Ms. Janeez turned toward M. Hoyvil and interrupted his conversation with a loud telepathic call for his attention.

"M. Hoyvil, stop talking to those children and listen to me. This is very important."

##

As the oldest of them, Ms. Janeez had the right to demand their attention and to give orders for certain things like performing small tasks for her or ceasing from undesirable behavior. All conversation between M. Hoyvil and the three children immediately stopped, and all four younger Verdantes turned to look at her.

M. Hoyvil knew that Ms. Janeez had an artist's personality–obsessed with her work and not really interested in anything else. As usual, she got right to the point.

"Your Earthling has agreed to accept the outfit I'm designing for her. It's a costume that will express her inner self and set her spirit free! Of course, per custom, your agreement is required. But I'm sure that you'll have no objections. Am I right?"

Ms. Juanita looked intently at M. Hoyvil with one gigantic eye slightly raised and twisted. This expression meant, "Yes, I know that your agreement is required, but if you don't give it to me, you'll be very sorry."

M. Hoyvil had seen this expression many times before, but now he was more amused than intimidated by it. However, he had no problem with humoring Ms. Janeez in this matter. He hid his amusement by holding his eyes stiffly in the at-rest position as he answered her.

"As long as Antaska has agreed, it's fine with me."

"Fabulous!" shouted Ms. Janeez telepathically.

M. Hoyvil wasn't surprised to see her stand up to leave the table in her enthusiasm to get started.

"Come, Freeta! I must go immediately to move forward on this design! There is so little time remaining!" she said.

"But you must finish your dinner, Ms. Janeez, or you won't have the energy to do your best work on the costume," Freeta protested.

"As usual, you are right, my faithful companion," answered Ms. Janeez.

She sat back down and began to eat fast with pauses for huge sips of her chlorophyll water. Freeta started eating fast too.

"Ah!" M. Hoyvil heard Master Meeepp say telepathically to Mistress Bawbaw. "Now there's an example of a truly devoted and helpful pet. If only M. Hoyvil could have chosen such a pet instead of that strange Earthling. She doesn't seem to help him at all. And the small animal she brought along to disrupt the sanity of this household is even stranger."

"I think you're exaggerating about that last part," answered Mistress Bawbaw. "I interpret the situation quite differently. The children are using their imagination to play fantasy games, which is perfectly harmless and normal. And M. Hoyvil is kindly playing along."

"Hmm. Do you really think so, my dear?" Master Meeepp asked her.

"Yes. But as for Ms. Janeez's pet, I'm more concerned about her. Like so many Earthlings who become our companions, she's extremely attached to Ms. Janeez. But in her case, I believe the attachment has gone even farther than normal. I've seen her behave in a hostile manner toward other Earthlings whom she might see as a threat to her relationship with Ms. Janeez."

"Really?" asked Master Meeepp. "I've never seen anything of the sort."

"It's passive aggressive behavior, dear. It's subtle," said Mistress Bawbaw.

"Well, if you say so, I'll take your word for it," answered Master Meeepp. "But to tell you the truth, I'm not as interested in the psychology of humans as I am in gazing at your beloved face. I won't see you again for many months, and I want to see as much of you as I can before I leave."

Mistress Bawbaw turned to look deeply into his eyes. M. Hoyvil looked away. They'd stopped talking about anything that was interesting to him.

Then Ms. Janeez pushed her plate aside, rose from the table, and rushed out of the dining room. Freeta got up and followed her at a much slower pace. M. Hoyvil noticed the lowered corners of her mouth–the Earthling expression for displeasure. He remembered Mistress Bawbaw's concerns about her jealousy of other Earthlings.

_Is Freeta mad at Antaska because Ms. Janeez is running off to design clothes for her?_ he wondered.

# Chapter 8

When Antaska got back to her room after dinner, she found Potat asleep on the bed. M. Hoyvil had gone to his room. He was going out for the evening to the first social event planned for the adolescent Verdantes this week.

Antaska lay down next to Potat, careful not to make any jolting movements that might wake her.

##

Potat was usually a light sleeper, but not this time. Plunged down into her deepest level of sleep, she was busy receiving the slow communication that the planet's telepathic trees had been so insistent on delivering ever since her arrival. Her sleeping mind was completely filled with the voices of millions of individual trees harmonizing to send a combined message.

Ordinarily, Potat kept a part of her mind available to watch over Antaska, even in sleep. But the enormous humming message coming from these loud sentient trees was making that difficult, even for the powerful mind of a cat.

About once an hour, Potat sent out a mental feeler. So far, she'd found that Antaska was fine, but she knew that Antaska was having problems with the Earthlings in the residence. A lingering concern stayed with her as she slept on, waiting for the trees to finish delivering their message. And the only reason she kept listening to the time-consuming, annoyingly slow message was that it seemed to be about Antaska! An even more annoying thing about the sentient tree language was that one couldn't understand the message until the entire message had been heard. And it always took many hours for even the shortest message.

##

Antaska was exhausted after the long, eventful first day on the planet. She watched Potat sleeping and felt like she could fall asleep too at any moment. Antaska was relieved to notice that the drug Freeta had given her had worn off. If there was a stimulant property to the drug, that was gone too.

"I should go to the bathroom before I go to sleep," Antaska decided.

After she dragged herself up out of bed, Antaska pressed her hand on the wall to open a small compartment, picked up her toothbrush and toothpaste, and headed out the always open doorway.

Freeta was sitting in the same chair in her own doorway when Antaska passed by.

"Hi Freeta," Antaska said.

She waved a tired hand at her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Freeta rise from her chair. Freeta walked on soft-slippered feet, but Antaska could sense her following behind her. She walked faster down the long hallway.

_Oh great. I told her to stay away from me! Is she going to try to give me drugs again?_ Antaska wondered. _I'm too tired to deal with this now._

Inside the bathroom, Antaska first used one of the stalls. Then she went to a sink and started brushing her teeth. Freeta came in before she was done.

"Hi again, Antaska!" Freeta said in a cheerful, wide-awake voice.

"Ungh," said Antaska with her mouth full of toothpaste and a nod of her head.

She faced the round mirror and kept brushing. She didn't look at Freeta, but she could sense her standing next to her and staring at her.

"Look, Antaska," said Freeta as Antaska spit out her toothpaste and started to rinse. "I know what you're up to with Ms. Janeez, and I won't tolerate it."

_Is she hallucinating or something?_ Antaska wondered. _From all the drugs she takes maybe?_

Antaska wiped her mouth on the soft towel hanging next to the sink and then turned to face Freeta.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

Freeta crossed her arms over her filmy dress.

"Playing stupid won't work with me," said Freeta. "You know what I'm talking about. We both know exactly what you're doing."

Freeta's eyes and forehead scrunched up in an angry glare. Antaska crossed her arms too and stared back at her. She was relieved to notice that Freeta wasn't holding her drug spray bottle.

"Actually, I don't," said Antaska. "And if you don't tell me what it is, I won't be able to stop doing it."

Freeta's mouth and nose scrunched up too. She spoke to Antaska in a mocking, sing-song tone.

"I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just trying to get Ms. Janeez's attention by racing past her door, so she'll notice me and make clothes for me. Maybe she'll like me the best and want me to stay on the planet with her. Then I can get drugs every day!" Freeta yelled in Antaska's face.

Antaska stepped back from her.

"Are you crazy?" she asked Freeta. "I'm not taking that stuff again! And don't try to spray it on me. If I see that bottle, I'm warning you, I'll kick it out of in your hand."

"Now you're threatening to kick me!" said Freeta. "I'm going to tell the Verdantes you said that. They won't let you go to outer space with M. Hoyvil if they know you're violent."

"No. I'm not threatening you. I'm threatening your drugs. And you know what? I've had enough of this. Tell the Verdantes whatever you want. I'll have to tell them about your drugs then. You're nuts. I'm out of here. Stay away from me like I told you before," said Antaska.

She turned and walked away from Freeta.

"You liar!" Freeta shouted after her. "I know you want more drugs! You're just doing this because you think now I'll give you more to make you like me. But I won't. I'll wait for you to come back begging to me! On your knees!"

_She's completely insane!_ Antaska thought as she walked away as fast as she could.

# Chapter 9

When Antaska got back to her room, she lay down on the bed next to Potat, who was still asleep. She thought about the predicament she now found herself in.

_Freeta is really becoming a problem! Will I have to deal with her every time I go to the bathroom until we leave this planet?_ she wondered. _Should I tell M. Hoyvil now? But if I do that, will the adult Verdantes think that I'm the problem and not allow me to go into outer space, like Freeta said? I wish Potat were awake, so she could give me advice._

Antaska glanced over at Potat. She was in a deep sleep and snoring loudly for such a small cat. Antaska yawned, completely worn out by the long day.

_There's nothing I can do right now anyway since M. Hoyvil won't be back till late_ , she told herself. _I'd wait up for him, but I'm just too tired._

Antaska turned her head on the pillow and glanced through heavy-lidded eyes at the open doorway.

_I wish this room had a locking door_ , she thought. _It's hard to feel comfortable when there are mentally unstable people living in this residence._

Just before she drifted off to sleep, Antaska felt a strange anxious need to stay awake. She tried to wake back up, but her mind and body were both too tired. And soon, like Potat, Antaska sunk down into a heavy, deep sleep.

# Chapter 10

While Antaska was spending her evening arguing with Freeta and eventually falling asleep, Master Meeepp was with Mistress Bawbaw in their own personal rooms. They lay next to each other on the giant-sized bed in their warm, colorful suite. Master Meeepp was permanently bonded and irresistibly drawn to Mistress Bawbaw, but he'd noticed a growing sense of unease over the years when he was with her on the Verdante planet.

It wasn't his way to mention such things, and he knew she'd be upset if he spoke about it. But this discomfort was the reason why he'd spent longer time away from the Verdante planet in the last several hundred years.

What was a vague suspicion in Master Meeepp's mind was in fact the reason why Mistress Bawbaw seemed more and more like a different person each time he saw her. She was increasing her use of the strong tranquilizer given to Verdante women to numb their feelings of despair at being left alone on the Verdante planet for most of their lives.

Tonight, for some reason, it took a bit more effort for Master Meeepp to ignore the nagging feeling that something was wrong. Their bond of love was a telepathic emotional one. And now he noticed a sweet sickness overlaying the powerful emotions of love that passed between himself and Mistress Bawbaw as he held her in his gigantic green arms.

_Something seems wrong_ , he could not deny the realization this time.

Thoughts about the drug Mistress Bawbaw and the other female members of the household used tried to enter his mind, but he pushed them away.

_No. That can't be it. The doctor says those drugs are completely harmless. And the females need them because they can't travel to space with us. It's all the fault of those Woogahs, after all_ , he changed the direction of his thoughts to the alien race so hated by all the galaxy.

Mistress Bawbaw turned toward him. He felt the same familiar passion and physical desire for her, but now when he was with her, there was also a sense of unhealthiness that left him feeling unclean.

But how could there be anything unclean or unhealthy between him and his one permanently bonded true love for life? It didn't make sense, but it continued to trouble Master Meeepp. And so he thought ahead to the upcoming trip to space, and he thought about ways it could be extended.

"I miss you so much when you're away. Must you be gone for so long next time?" she asked as if reading his mind.

"Ah, my darling," sighed Master Meeepp with mixed feelings. "After two thousand years, it's just as wonderful to be with you."

"And you, my dear, and you," agreed Mistress Bawbaw. "I'm the most fortunate woman in the entire galaxy."

They lay quietly in each other's arms for a few minutes, and then Mistress Bawbaw spoke.

"I have a favor to ask you, my endless love," she began. "You might have noticed the new pet of M. Hoyvil?"

"Hmm...I might have noticed her," said Master Meeepp.

He rested his large head against her perfectly sculpted green shoulder and wondered where this was going, not really interested in Earthlings right now.

"Yes, dear. As you know, she was somewhat of a troublemaker on the space ship journey here from Earth. Now she's caught the attention of Ms. Janeez. And Ms. Janeez asked me if she could keep this pet and let M. Hoyvil take another one to space. We've got several house humans he can choose from, you know. That pet Antaska might cause trouble in space, and she'd benefit from our positive influence here in the residence," said Mistress Bawbaw.

Master Meeepp nodded his head slightly against her shoulder to show that he was paying attention, but he wasn't really paying complete attention.

"Ms. Janeez offered to let M. Hoyvil take her new pet Totanna along. Ms. Janeez says she hasn't been able to bond with that one," said Mistress Bawbaw.

"But my dear, I thought you said you wanted to ask a favor of me," said Master Meeepp, confused by the point of all this.

"Yes, that's right. Ms. Janeez and I believe that M. Hoyvil's unruly pet should stay here on the Verdante planet. She's headstrong and appears to prefer to spend most of her time alone with her cat. That's not healthy. Can you ask M. Hoyvil to leave her here?"

"Why don't you ask M. Hoyvil yourself?" said Master Meeepp.

"You know how stubborn adolescents can be, and M. Hoyvil is even more stubborn than most. If anyone can influence him, it is you, my dear," said Mistress Bawbaw.

"Very well, as a favor to you, I'll speak to him tonight when he comes back from his social activities," Master Meeepp promised, flattered by her opinion of his ability to sway the stubborn M. Hoyvil.

# Chapter 11

A few hours later, Antaska's awareness lifted from deep sleep. She was still half asleep and groggy, but she sensed moisture on her face and neck.

_Something's wrong_ , she thought.

But instead of waking her up, the moisture seemed to be drowning her in a deep, drugged fog. Antaska struggled against it, but its pull was too strong, and her mind dropped back under. This time, into complete oblivion.

##

Even though Potat was in a deep slumber, a part of her was always aware of Antaska and watching out for her. When Antaska lay down next to her, the tiny gray cat had already been sleeping for almost seven hours waiting to hear the full message that the trees were slowly communicating. Their drawn out humming sounds couldn't be interpreted until the entire message was complete.

Now, as Antaska was sinking into darkness, a part of Potat's mind became alert to the danger. She knew that the message from the trees wasn't finished, but Potat tried to wake up anyway in her usual manner.

She reached out a mental claw to scratch through the blanketing layers of sleep, only to find that the foggy sleep layers, which normally tore away easily at the slightest touch, were reinforced by something much tougher. They didn't break apart. Potat scratched her mental claws harder. They dug into something that felt like the small branches of trees and snagged there.

_The trees are trying to block me from waking up right when my pet needs me, just so they can tell me their complete stupid message_ , Potat realized in angry frustration.

She tore with her mental claws at the blocking branches in furious desperation, in motions almost too fast for a human eye to see if any had been looking. But as fast as she broke through one branch, another replaced it. Potat knew that her efforts were getting her nowhere, but she also knew the danger to Antaska was increasing—that Antaska was approaching death—and Potat pushed herself even harder.

Potat grew desperate. Most beings couldn't speak telepathically while they were asleep, but cats were more advanced. From inside her dream, Potat called out telepathically as loud as she could, "Help! Help!"

"Kitty!" Potat heard the blasting telepathic voice of M. Bomp answering her from some distance away in the residence.

And then many more telepathic voices shouting. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Soon after that, the sound of pounding feet coming toward her down the hallway finally broke her free of the branchy bonds of sleep. And at that moment, the long message from the trees was finally complete: "WHEN THE TIME COMES, SEEK THE JALAPENO."

Potat heard the message, but it didn't interest her. Antaska was in danger! Potat sprang up with a loud "yeowl" in the curved-back attack cat position just as the three Verdante children rushed into the room in their pajamas. The Earthling Freeta stood next to the bed holding a small glass bottle and looking startled.

"Medical! Medical!" all three Verdante children shouted at once.

Freeta headed toward the door, but one of the children grabbed her arm and stopped her.

An orange light glowed down from the ceiling and surrounded Antaska while various apparatus extended down and attached to her body. A medical alert alarm blared throughout the residence. Potat could hear and sense Verdantes and Earthlings rising from their beds, but all her attention was focused on Antaska. And even though she could tell that Antaska was not in the still form lying on the bed, she hadn't accepted that yet. Potat sent her mind out to search for any remaining spark of her.

##

From complete darkness, Antaska's awareness woke to something else. She felt no sense of having a body or being in a place. All she knew was a sense of warm brightness not seen with eyes and a feeling of indescribable and total bliss. Without any thought, analysis, or questions, Antaska experienced the bliss for a time that could have been infinitesimal or could have been forever.

Then within her sense of perfect joy, she heard a familiar voice. "Antaska. Come back now."

"Potat?" Antaska asked the voice. "Come back? But it's so wonderful here."

"Yes, it's me. You're not going to leave me now, are you? A small cat all alone with dangerous people. Don't you care about me? Aren't you going to take care of me?" the small, sad voice of Potat asked.

"Of course I care about you. Of course I'll come back and take care of you," said Antaska.

As soon as she said that, Antaska was yanked with brutal roughness out of her perfect existence and back into a pain-filled body.

Antaska tried to scream, but all that came out was a small whimper of pain. Instantly, the medical tubes attached to her body injected a strong medication into her veins. She felt the slight, familiar weight of Potat climbing onto her stomach, and then she fell into a peaceful slumber. This time true sleep, not the sleep of death.

##

M. Hoyvil crouched low and rushed through the human-sized doorway to Antaska's room, breaking to a fast stop at the edge of her bed. She lay in the orange glow of a med light. A quick read of the holographic printout displayed above her told him she was alive but in a medically induced coma.

Potat sat on Antaska's stomach, and the three Verdante children stood next to the bed. The Earthling Freeta struggled futilely to get loose from the strong grip of M. Gwaawh.

He heard the sound of gigantic pounding feet approaching in the hallway. Master Meeepp and Mistress Bawbaw, inhumanly fast runners despite their enormous size and more advanced age, came thundering up the hall to Antaska's doorway.

It would have been an impossible squeeze for either of them to fit through Antaska's doorway, but they both lowered their large heads at once to peer in with gigantic green eyes, their two giant-sized faces pressing against each other and entirely filling the width of the doorway.

"What's happening here?" shouted the two adult Verdantes telepathically at the same time.

On top of Antaska's stomach, Potat's fur spiked up high. Her back curved up too. With a loud hiss, she turned toward the gigantic Verdantes in the doorway.

"What have you done to Antaska?!!" M. Hoyvil shouted telepathically at Master Meeepp and Mistress Bawbaw, breaking the rule of respect to one's gene contributors in his excess of fear and rage.

"I don't know what happened, but she appears to be fine now according to the house monitor," said Mistress Bawbaw.

She shoved a large arm through the doorway and pointed at the glowing panel of lights suspended in the air next to Antaska's bed. "I'll question everyone in the household and find out what happened, and I'll let you know."

"We know what happened," said M. Gwaawh, still holding Freeta is a tight grip. "This Earthling tried to kill Antaska with Ms. Janeez's drugs!"

M. Hoyvil turned to look at the small human woman. Anger welled in him, but he restrained himself. He placed a hand on Potat to restrain her too.

"No. I didn't!" Freeta insisted. "She stole the drugs from Ms. Janeez. I just came in here to see if she was OK."

"She's lying!" said Ms. Beeenaw. "I saw her spraying drugs on Antaska. Then she put the bottle in her pocket!"

Mistress Bawbaw pulled herself out of the doorway and straightened up to her full height of twelve feet. Then she turned and faced the crowd crunched together along the curving hallway.

"All of you go to the main living room and wait for me there," she ordered out loud.

Mistress Bawbaw was not to be disobeyed, and everyone except M. Hoyvil left the room and headed in that direction, followed by Master Meeepp and Mistress Bawbaw as soon as there was space to move.

##

"Well," said Master Meeepp telepathically to Mistress Bawbaw as they walked slowly down the high-ceilinged hallway, "unfortunately, it looks like this won't be the best time to suggest to M. Hoyvil that he leave his pet here on the Verdante planet. Under the circumstances, he's unlikely to agree. And I'd have to concur with him that it might not be safe for her here."

Master Meeepp knew there was relief in his tone of voice, but he hoped Mistress Bawbaw would think it was caused by relief for worry about Antaska's condition rather than for not having to engage in an argument with M. Hoyvil.

"Of course it's safe here," Mistress Bawbaw insisted. "This is the safest place in the entire galaxy. Otherwise, why must females stay planet-bound here to avoid the perils of space?"

The thought that the drug use of his mate and other females in his household might be a problem tried to enter his head, but once again, Master Meeepp pushed it aside. Instead, he blamed what had happened on the shortcomings of the human race.

"It's safe for you and the other Verdante women, my dear," said Master Meeepp. "But the relationships between Earthlings are another matter. We all know that they're still at a violent, barbaric stage of their evolution, as this situation has just proved. I'm sure you'll get everything straightened out after we leave."

"Yes," Mistress Bawbaw agreed. "Perhaps it's best for this trouble-making Earthing Antaska to be away from the household."

Master Meeepp was relieved that she agreed with him. Further argument was avoided as well as any even more uncomfortable discussion of the drug use of the females in his household.

But a final nagging thought forced itself into his mind. _This time, it was an Earthling, but what if next time it's a Verdante who overdoses? Humm...Maybe I'll bring up this subject again at some point. But not today_.

They entered the main family room where all the household members, except M. Hoyvil and Antaska, were gathered. Mistress Bawbaw started the questioning.

##

Ever since Mistress Bawbaw had pointed to the medical monitor, M. Hoyvil had stopped paying attention to her or any other humanoids except Antaska. He lowered himself to sit on the floor next to the bed and turned to read the extensive information displayed in mid-air almost from floor to ceiling.

Antaska was alive and well. Only an insignificant number of brain cells had been destroyed during her temporary cease of life function. But she wouldn't be affected by that according to the monitor. All of her body functions and organs were healthy except for her kidneys. Those organs were now being repaired. For her own comfort and safety, Antaska would remain in an induced coma for the next twenty-four hours while the repair took place.

After she regained consciousness, Antaska would be fine, but the house's medical system was ordering her to stay in her room for continuous monitoring for the rest of her time on the planet. The med system had given the residence orders to construct a personal bathroom in her room and a small kitchen, so she wouldn't have to go out at any time.

The residence would also create a door that locked for Antaska's protection.

M. Hoyvil heard a humming sound, and he turned to look at the wall behind him. It was caving inward to take the shape of the new bathroom door, or perhaps the new kitchen. The edges of a new door were growing inside Antaska's doorway as well.

After he read Antaska's medical information, M. Hoyvil's fears were calmed but not his anger. It was made more complex because he didn't know who to blame for it. He felt a slight tap against his cheek. M. Hoyvil looked at the puffed up little gray and white cat who had just slapped him. He realized that Potat must be very angry too, or he wouldn't have felt the blow of her tiny paw.

"You're right! It's all my fault! I should never have left her alone here," he said telepathically.

M. Hoyvil grabbed and pulled on his short, dark green hair. Then he lowered his large face into his long, six-fingered hands.

##

Potat sat back and considered her gigantic alien pet.

_Is it really his fault?_ she wondered. _I'm the master of both these pets. Wasn't it my responsibility to look after them?_

Although Potat had been in the residence, she'd been asleep when she should have been looking after Antaska, who was known to get herself in trouble when not closely watched. And why had Potat been asleep? The trees!! Yes, they were the ones who'd tricked Potat into going to sleep when she should have been watching her pet!

"It was the trees' fault!" said Potat to M. Hoyvil. "They tricked me by telling me they had an important message about Antaska that I must hear. But it was a silly message they must have just used to manipulate me. Those losers! They're stuck rooted in the ground, so they play games with the lives of those of us who are free to roam the galaxy!"

"Well, people say the messages of trees can be mysterious. Sometimes people don't understand them till much later," said M. Hoyvil. "But I can't hear them. Only the adults can. They say."

"The trees! It was the trees!" Potat shouted telepathically to M. Hoyvil. "Let me outside, and I'll rip them to shreds!" she demanded.

To demonstrate, she stood up high on her back legs and waved the outstretched claws of both front paws furiously in the air.

"I will but not yet," promised M. Hoyvil. "I believe what you're saying, but don't you want to wait here with Antaska until she wakes up?"

"You're right! I have to stay and watch her. I can't fail her again," said Potat.

She flattened herself down on the bed and made sad whimpering sounds.

M. Hoyvil gently lifted the tiny cat in one hand larger than her entire body and pressed her lightly against his chest. Potat stopped whimpering and curled into a ball. A tiny purr rumbled in her throat.

M. Hoyvil gave a deep telepathic sigh. Potat looked up at him and was surprised to see a large tear form in the corner of one enormous eye. It flowed down the side of his face and splashed onto the bed. The little cat pushed herself deeper into his chest to avoid any possible splash.

# Chapter 12

Twenty-four hours later, Potat waited next to Antaska on the bed. Her small white-tipped tail swayed back and forth ticking down the seconds till Antaska was due to wake up. M. Hoyvil, who was too large to stand comfortably in the room or to sit on any of the furniture, sat on the floor on the side of the bed nearest to the door.

He'd been there for most of the time since he'd found Antaska recovering from the overdose, glaring with huge green eyes at anyone who looked in the door. But M. Hoyvil had agreed to let the young Verdante children take over his watch some of the time, so he could sleep and eat.

Almost adult Earthling height, but much broader, the three children now sat together on the bright turquoise human-sized couch that curved around one side of the wall. Made of strong fabricated materials, it sagged under their weight but didn't break.

A chime sounded from the medical monitor, and new data streamed on its readout. As promised by the monitor, Antaska woke up exactly twenty-four hours after she'd been put into the induced coma.

##

Antaska fluttered her eyelids and then opened her eyes wide. She didn't remember the past twenty-four hours of her coma. To her, it was as if she'd just experienced the trip into the afterlife and then the return to the living world. She looked up at the star-holographed ceiling of her room and knew without a doubt that she was back.

Overwhelming feelings of the bliss she'd just experienced remained with her. Those feelings mixed with disappointment to have left that perfect, indescribable place. A small sigh escaped from her mouth.

Potat was the first to speak. "Mew?" she asked.

Antaska turned to the sound of Potat's voice. The sight of Potat filled her with love, somehow increased by the remaining feelings of boundless love and pure joy that were still with her on her return to her living body.

"Potat!...and M. Hoyvil!...and Ms. Beeenaw and M. Gwaawh, and M. Hawee!" Antaska cried.

She sat up and turned around the room. Feeling uncharacteristically exuberant, she spread both arms out wide in a dramatic sweeping motion, as if to take in all of them at once.

"I'm so happy to be back with you all!" Antaska said.

##

Watching Antaska, M. Hoyvil noticed her joy. And somehow, it was contagious. He found himself also feeling joyful—very joyful. The dark emotions and cares of the last day were unaccountably lifted by the surge of almost magical happiness he seemed to absorb from the atmosphere surrounding him. The corners of his large eyes lifted up in a huge Verdante grin, and he laughed telepathically, and then even laughed out loud.

##

Potat, emotionally telepathic and closely attuned to Antaska, was also affected by the infectious feelings of happiness and love that Antaska was emitting in all directions. But Potat's anger against the trees was still with her. A loud purr started up from the middle of her body, while she furiously raked her claws into the bed to express her mixed feelings.

"I guess it's time for Antaska to rest now," said Ms. Beeenaw, not needing to be told that they would now be asked to leave the room.

"Yes, but you have my eternal thanks for your help watching over her this past day," M. Hoyvil told them telepathically.

"And mine," Potat told them also telepathically but with a touch of regal queenliness. "You have proved yourselves worthy, and I now accept you as my pets."

"Oh thank you!" all three children shouted telepathically at once.

There was one person Potat still had to reward.

"Hello, M. Bomb," she spoke to him telepathically.

He was far away in the residence, and distance prohibited humanoids from speaking to each other mentally. But that wasn't a problem for cats, who were much more powerful telepaths.

"Kitty?" M. Bomp answered her.

Potat had noticed that he was quite a powerful telepath too—for a humanoid.

"You have proved your heroism by helping to save my pet Antaska," said Potat. "So I'm giving you the high honor of adopting you as my pet too."

"Bomp be kitty pet!" his loud telepathic shout echoed throughout the residence.

"What is this nonsense?" Potat heard Master Meeepp ask telepathically from a far distance.

"It is getting to be a bit much," she heard Mistress Bawbaw say next.

Potat lifted a careless paw and began cleaning between the pads.

"Let's go tell everyone that Antaska is awake, and Potat is our new master!" said Ms. Beeenaw.

Then the three large Verdante all children ran out of the room.

"I'll go too, so you can rest now," M. Hoyvil said to Antaska. "I'll lock your new door behind me, so you can have privacy. Then people will have to press the door chime and announce themselves, and you can let them in if you want to."

M. Hoyvil stood up to leave.

"Thank you, M. Hoyvil. Thank you for everything!" said Antaska.

The corners of his eyes crinkled way up in a Verdante smile, and he walked out of the room.

Potat heard the emotion in Antaska's voice.

_But Antaska was so happy in that other place_ , she thought.

Then Potat turned to Antaska. "I felt your sadness to leave the world beyond life," she said telepathically. "And I see how you're acting now, like you're happy to be back with us. But did you really love that place more than M. Hoyvil? And more than me?"

Antaska's hands reached out and scooped Potat up off the bed. Then Antaska hugged her gently.

"That place was wonderful, but my choice was to come back to you," said Antaska. "And M. Hoyvil. That will always be my choice."

Potat, with a cat's ability to recognize truthfulness, knew that Antaska spoke the truth. A contented purr rumbled from her tiny body.

"Everything worked out in the end, but I hope you learned your lesson," said Potat.

"What lesson?" Antaska asked. "I told Freeta that I didn't want her drugs. I told her to stay away from me. Do you think it was my fault that she sprayed drugs on me?"

"No. Not that lesson," said Potat. "I mean the lesson that if you ever try to leave me, I'll come find you."

"Yes, I did learn that lesson," said Antaska. "That's the best lesson of all."

End of Lost in Space

Alien Pets  
(excerpt)

Xeno Relations

by Trisha McNary

Copyright © 2019 Trisha McNary

Published by Trisha McNary

All Rights Reserved

Cover art by Heather Hamilton-Senter

# Excerpt

A few short weeks after she graduated from space school, Antaska stood in front of a clear barrier, waiting and hoping to be selected. She held her small gray and white cat Potat in her arms. Energized with excitement and high-strung nerves, Antaska watched the gigantic green alien Verdantes. Crowds of them walked in the curved corridor outside her "viewing room."

The aliens, Antaska's prospective employers, looked in at her and the other humans in similar "viewing rooms" built by the Verdantes to suit their purposes. The walls on the sides of her viewing room blocked Antaska from seeing the other humans and which aliens were taking an interest in them.

Now one of the aliens looked at Antaska and paused. The eight-foot-tall giant approached and stopped right in front of her. Antaska looked up to see enormous slanting green eyes staring down at her. Above the eyes, green curly hair covered an enormous cranium. The alien lifted a large six-fingered hand and waved at her. Antaska waved back and smiled.

_Maybe I'll be selected already!_ she thought.

"Grrrr!!" she heard and looked down.

Potat stiffened in her arms. She hissed and spat at the Verdante in front of them.

The big eyes of the alien got bigger.

"Stop that!" Antaska said to Potat. "Shush!"

But the tiny cat wouldn't stop.

"Rrrowwwwwwwww!" Potat let out an endless angry meow.

The alien shrugged big shoulders and shook his head. He lifted up his hands as if to say, "What can I do?" and walked away.

Potat stopped meowing and settled back down in Antaska's arms.

"What is wrong with you?" Antaska asked the little cat.

She didn't expect an answer, of course, and she didn't get one.

"Are you crazy? You might have just blown our only chance to go to space! My life's dream! Don't you dare do that again."

Antaska talked out loud to the cat. It was a habit she'd got into. Sometimes, it almost seemed like Potat understood what she was saying.

_This had better be one of those times,_ thought Antaska.

She felt a slight movement and looked down to see the Potat cleaning a snow-white paw.

Antaska looked up. Another alien, this one female, was standing in front of the clear barrier. She wore the same bright blue space suit as the males. But she had a smaller, more delicate feminine body and features. Shiny bright-green hair brushed her shoulders. Large pale green eyes crinkled up as she looked down at Antaska and Potat.

_Maybe Potat will like this one better_ , Antaska thought.

Antaska smiled up at the alien and waved. The female alien waved back and then made signals with her hands. She pointed at herself, then at Antaska and little Potat, and then up toward space.

Antaska nodded and gave her a thumbs up.

_Yes!_ she thought.

"Grrrrr!" Potat started growling.

"Oh no! You bad cat! Not again!" Antaska admonished her.

But the cat paid no attention.

"Reyowwwrrrrrooowwwww!" Potat let out her endless howl.

The Verdante female's smallish mouth formed an "O" shape. She shook her big head from side to side.

"No! No! Stop! Stop!" Antaska pleaded with her cat.

But of course, Potat didn't listen.

The alien lowered her chin and closed her eyes for a moment. Antaska read that as disappointment. Then the large green female turned and walked away.

Antaska's hopes took a dive. She turned, walked a few feet back, and plopped down on the couch built into the back wall of the small viewing room.

"Are you trying to stop me from going into space?" Antaska asked Potat as she set her down on the couch.

Potat, now calm and settled, looked up at her with innocent gold eyes.

_Maybe cats just aren't adaptable to new things_ , thought Antaska. _Maybe they're just not that intelligent._

A tiny paw reached out and slapped her leg kind of hard.

"That wasn't nice!" Antaska told her.

"Am I going to be stuck on Earth with a crazy cat?" she said out loud to no one in particular.

Potat ignored her and began to take a bath.

Antaska sighed and leaned against the back of the couch. With dimming hope, she watched the large aliens walking past outside her viewing room.

A few minutes later, the nutty cat jumped off the couch and walked to the front of the viewing room. Potat sat down there and watched the Verdantes passing by as if she were the one they might pick. Then she looked back and stared hard at Antaska.

_I think she wants me to go over there now_ , Antaska thought. _Or maybe this cat has finally drove me crazy._

Grumbling about the problems with cats, Antaska got off the couch and walked over to Potat. She picked up the tiny cat and whispered in her ear.

"OK. You've got your way once again. As usual. I hope you're happy, whatever you're up too."

Potat purred back in her ear.

**Get Alien Pets on Amazon:**  US  UK  AU  CA

Tenderloin  
(excerpt)

By LD Marr

Copyright © 2019 Trisha McNary

Published by Trisha McNary

All Rights Reserved

Cover art by Victoria Cooper

# Excerpt

After work that day, I stood on tired feet on the subway train home. At this hour, the train was always packed. There were no empty seats, so I swayed back and forth and held onto a bar for balance.

Through the train's windows, in between long passes through dark tunnels, I watched the lit-up stations flash by.

The train pulled into the Bowery station—the last Manhattan station under the unflooded part of the city. Everything on Manhattan island south of here was now under water from the rising sea levels of the last hundred years. Scientists said the rest of the island would go under in time, but for now, it was still here.

The underground train tunnels and all the subways were supposed to be water tight. Our government assured us that the subway walls and tunnels were supported with the latest flood technology. But it didn't look like any work had been done in this aging station—not lately or ever.

I tried not to think about that when I rode on the train. And I wasn't thinking about climate change in the future. My thoughts were on Chloe.

I knew that I should be feeling happy and excited—my first client to stop using—but I wasn't. The cold chill that I'd felt earlier had grown to nervous anxiety throughout the day. The more I tried to tell myself it was irrational, the stronger that the feeling of dread became.

_There's no reason to feel so anxious_ , I told myself. _Maybe it's not her. Maybe there's something wrong with me. Am I crazy like people used to say?_ I wondered. _Will I end up in the sanatorium they wanted to send me to after all? Getting a lobotomy or my brain dissected?_

My morbid thoughts were interrupted when a small bunch of riders crowded in front of the door next to me. Brakes squealed, and the subway car slowed and stopped. Instead of moving out of the exiting riders' way, I felt a strange panic and broke out in a sweat.

_I have to get off this train!_ I thought.

I crowded in with others next to the door. It opened, and we all got off quickly. Experienced riders who moved fast without any shoving or pushing to exit before the doors closed again.

The rest of the exiting commuters walked away. But I took only a few steps and then stopped. I looked up and down the length of the rundown station. The smell of urine and disinfectant hit my nostrils with stronger force than I was used to in other subway stations, but I ignored it.

Now my panic was gone.

_Why the heck did I think I had to get off the train in this junky old station?_ I wondered. _Where did that bizarre feeling come from?_

As I stood there wondering why I was there, I was overwhelmed by curiosity about the station itself.

I looked down the long length of tracks on both sides of the narrow cement island I was standing on. The station was long enough for at least twelve train cars to open their doors and let out passengers.

On both far ends of the station, black metal-barred cages enclosed worn cement stairs that led up to the street. An ancient escalator sat unmoving halfway between the stairs.

Another train pulled in on the other side of the tracks. I turned and watched passengers quickly exit and enter. Doors closed, and the train pulled away. I stared at the ancient wall behind the tracks. Grime and dust-covered marble tiles. Empty patches where tiles had fallen off and not been replaced. Odd mini-sized wooden door shapes were built in all along the wall.

For no particular reason, I felt the urge to walk to the opposite end of the station. I started walking, and I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the cool dampness of the station air.

As I went along, I looked up at the cameras attached at wide intervals on the dusty, cobwebby ceiling above me. The cold feeling inside me intensified the farther I walked in this ancient station that had stood for almost two centuries.

"Bowery," said a placard carved into the side of the aged marble wall. Thick rust-colored metal columns supported the ceiling. The station was poorly lit, but the round panoramic cameras looked new.

I kept walking and reached the stairs at the station's end. The stairs were built into the far side of a concrete wedge. A door shape was etched into the side of the wedge that faced the station.

I stopped and stared at the door-shaped lines. The coldness inside me became a feeling of terrible wrongness that somehow gave my mind a razor-sharp clarity. I looked up and located the camera that would record this section of the station.

It was the same as the others, wasn't it? It looked exactly the same. But when I stared up at it, it seemed like there was something different about this one. A dead feeling.

_The subway maintenance people must check all the cameras to make sure they're working, right?_ I thought. _It must be working._

Then I felt a sudden discomfort at the thought of this camera recording me. I stopped staring at the camera and tried to act natural and casual. As if I just happened to be waiting for the next train at the farthest end of the station for some reason.

I walked over to the rusty metal post nearest to the wedge and leaned against it. I put my hands in my coat pockets and looked sideways at the concrete wedge under the stairs.

My vision seemed to sharpen, and I saw the door-shaped lines trace a real door beneath layers of dust and grime. A bare metal door was built into the dirty stone.

As I had that realization, my sense of reality became fuzzy. Time sped up as if I were in a dream. The paths of commuters, entering and leaving trains and the station, flowed in blurred lines around me. As the rush hour ended and more time passed, the lines in my vision that were the paths of moving people thinned. I waited. I didn't for know what.

## 

Time passed, but I didn't know how much. Then another odd chill that wasn't physical jolted me back to alertness. The movements of the people and trains passing by me slowed down to normal speed. My vision blurred. Then it sharpened again.

My eyes fixed on the thin etching of the door shape under the stairs. A bright red line formed and blossomed there. Thick red liquid outlined the door and then oozed down its sides to the floor.

An acrid, bitter smell burned my nostrils and left a metallic taste in my mouth. I recognized the taste from when I'd had my wisdom teeth pulled.

_That's blood!_ I thought.

A puddle formed and spread toward my feet. I stepped back. Then I walked away and stood near a few people who waited in line along the tracks for the next train. People passed by and walked to the stairs built into the concrete wedge—right through the blood. But none of them seemed to notice it.

My curiosity overcame my revulsion, and I walked through the puddle of blood too, so I could watch people go up the stairs. They stepped in the blood, but I couldn't see any blood on their shoes. And their feet didn't leave any marks on the pale, dirty staircase.

I lifted a foot to look at the bottom of my own plain brown winter boot. There was no blood there either. I walked back around and stared fixedly at the door that was now pouring out streams of blood. It flowed down off the passenger island onto the train tracks. I stood there wondering why the liquid didn't cause any sparks from the live electric bars that ran the trains.

_Get away!_ a voice seemed to shout in my mind.

Another chill shook me, and this time, I felt pure fear. I turned, walked back, and stood among the people waiting for the train again, facing the direction that the train would come from.

A loud depressurizing "whomp" sound, followed by a big splash, came from the direction of the bloody door. None of the other people waiting for the train showed any reaction to the sounds. I turned my head slightly and looked out of the corner of my eye back toward the door.

A man walked out through an ankle-high river flow of blood. I stiffened with a strong sense of recognition, although I was sure I'd never seen him before.

_That man is the reason why I'm here!_ I thought.

But I didn't know why I had that thought. He was tall and brawny—bigger than any man I'd ever seen—dressed in jeans and a dark hoodie like anyone. A few strands of straight blonde hair stuck out from the edges of the hood that shadowed his broad, pale face.

Another thought came into my mind: _I need to memorize that face_.

So I studied it in my peripheral vision. A wide face with heavy features and thick lips. Light skin and eyes. But as I stared, the man's coloring changed—from pale to brown skin and eyes, from blonde to black straight hair. Then his coloring changed back to blonde again.

_Did I really see that?_ I wondered.

For a moment, the man stood looking at the people lined up waiting for the train, including me. His shoes and pants below the knees were damp with red liquid. But no one else in the subway seemed to notice the blood. Or the changes in his hair and skin color.

I had an intense, undeniable feeling that there was something wrong with this man. Not just wrong. An overpowering emanation of decay and death.

Now the sharp, powerful blood smell clogged the air. The smell of blood and something more that I didn't recognize. None of the other people in the subway seemed to notice the putrid odor. The urge to vomit overwhelmed me, but I struggled to keep it down.

_I can't draw his attention to me!_ I thought.

Instead of walking over to wait for a train on either side of the platform, the man turned and walked around the bar-enclosed concrete wedge he'd just come out of. He climbed up the stairs and was gone.

I breathed deep in relief. My need to vomit left too.

A train pulled in, but I didn't get on. Instead, I walked back to the stairs. The blood wasn't puddled on the floor anymore, but the floor was stained with large red circles. Red footprints led out from one of the red circles on the side where the man had walked toward the stairs.

I followed the footprints around the black metal cage to the foot of the stairs. The bloody footprints continued up the stairs, fading near the top.

Then I turned and walked back to wait for the next train home.

Get Tenderloin on Amazon:  US  UK  AU  CA

A note from Trisha

Dear Reader,

Thank you for reading _Lost in Space_. Please email me at PetsAndMastersInSpace@gmail.com if you would like to be on my mailing list.

May your world one day know peace,

Trisha

